The Ox-Bow Incident (1943, William A. Wellman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 2, 2008
The seventy-five minutes of The Ox-Bow Incident are some of the finest in cinema. The film is eventually a solemn examination of the human condition, quiet in its observations, with spare lines of dialogue of profound importance. But before this period in the film, which roughly lasts from twenty m read more
I Love You Again (1940, W.S. Van Dyke)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 1, 2008
I Love You Again is such a confident success–the whole thing rests on William Powell and everything he does in the entire picture is fantastic–it’s hard to think of anything wrong with it. It moves beautifully, its ninety-nine minutes sailing by, the supporting cast is all excelle read more
Wings in the Dark (1935, James Flood)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 30, 2008
Wings in the Dark is three-quarters overwrought melodrama with the remainder squandered potential. The film opens with Myrna Loy as the protagonist, an aviatrix (never thought I’d get to type that word) whose flying abilities can’t compensate–in terms of professional opportunities read more
Design for Living (1933, Ernst Lubitsch)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 26, 2008
From the first third of Design for Living, it’s impossible to think it might not be absolutely fantastic throughout. Eventually it does hit a dry period and it’s impossible to think it’s going to pull out of it. Then it does and it’s impossible to think… well, you get read more
Thunder Birds (1942, William A. Wellman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 25, 2008
Thunder Birds runs just under eighty minutes and if one were to subtract the propaganda, both narrated and in lengthy monologues–not to mention the flashback to the stoic Brits–he or she would have a fifty-five minute love triangle set at an Army flight training base. The whole reason o read more
Below the Sea (1933, Albert S. Rogell)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 24, 2008
Below the Sea really should be good. It’s got a great–somewhat startling when viewed today–opening, it’s got excellent special effects and Albert S. Rogell has some fantastic composition. But it all goes wrong. The opening is set in 1917 on a German U-boat. It’s carryi read more
Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 23, 2008
I’m trying to imagine how Frankenstein looks on the big screen–maybe on one the size of Radio City Music Hall; James Whale fills the screen upward. He directs the viewer’s attention always up, starting with the first scenes in the tower laboratory. The frames are obviously filled read more
Navy Secrets (1939, Howard Bretherton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 19, 2008
Low budget filmmaking–both today and in the past–has always been the most successful when the narrative takes the budget into account. Navy Secrets takes place over one day, with most of the locations being in cars, apartments or restaurants. In other words, easy sets. There’s one read more
Canyon Passage (1946, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 18, 2008
Canyon Passage starts out strange. Dana Andrews shows up in 1850s Portland (Oregon) and, after some character establishing, fends off someone breaking into his room. It got me thinking later if the unseen event leading up to the intruder is actually the film’s dramatic vehicle, the event sett read more
The Son of Kong (1933, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 17, 2008
King Kong opened in April 1933, The Son of Kong opened for Christmas 1933. The rush shows. The special effects really suffer–for whatever reason, when Robert Armstrong and Helen Mack are added to the little Kong’s shots, it’s fine, but when little Kong is added to Armstrong and Ma read more
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932, W.S. Van Dyke)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 16, 2008
It’s hard to believe a movie called Tarzan the Ape Man is going to be boring, but this one drags on and on. After a solid opening twenty minutes, the movie stumbles and never regains its footing. The problem is with Tarzan. Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan obviously doesn’t speak Engli read more
Beau Geste (1939, William A. Wellman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 12, 2008
Beau Geste is a colonial adventure, European soldiers under siege in the Arabian desert. There’s some imagination to the telling, but not at all enough. The strangest thing about the film is the title–Gary Cooper plays Beau Geste, who in some ways is the least of the film’s charac read more
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944, Frank Capra)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 11, 2008
Arsenic and Old Lace has to be one of the finest–if not the finest–film adaptations of a stage production. Nothing about the film, save the knowledge it’s from a play, suggests its theatrical origins… not the one night present action, not the one set. It’s an ideal mot read more
Silver Blaze (1937, Thomas Bentley)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 10, 2008
Given Sherlock Holmes is an English creation, I thought Silver Blaze would be a solid, thoughtful portrayal of the Empire’s most famous son. He’s still the most famous, right? But it isn’t. Silver Blaze actually follows the Marx Brothers rule of giving the romantic leads more to d read more
King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 5, 2008
King Kong is a perfect film. I don’t think I’d realized before. It’s always hard to talk about films like Kong, influential standards of American cinema. I want to talk about how its structure still sets the tone for modern films–the gradual lead-in (it’s forty-some mi read more
Son of Dracula (1943, Robert Siodmak)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 4, 2008
Son of Dracula doesn’t open well. The first scene’s all right, but once Louise Allbritton shows up–in the second scene–things start to go downhill. Allbritton’s one of the film’s constant problems. She’s a terrible actress and, in a film in desperate need o read more
One Sunday Afternoon (1933, Stephen Roberts)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 3, 2008
One Sunday Afternoon suffers from some of the standard play-to-film problems. The scenes go on too long, especially in the first half, which only contains three real scenes. The opening, which is a lengthy, seemingly direct adaptation from the play, features Gary Cooper and Roscoe Karns talking to read more
Youth Runs Wild (1944, Mark Robson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 2, 2008
It’s hard to know how Youth Runs Wild was supposed to turn out. RKO took it away from producer Val Lewton–the State Department was concerned the film would be detrimental to morale–but they were over his shoulder the entire time. The question is whether Youth Runs Wild was ever an read more
M (1931, Fritz Lang)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 1, 2008
I don’t think I’d ever realized M‘s technical importance. Lang creates quite a few filmmaking standards here, still in use today. Non-specific to genre, M features some brilliant off-screen dialogue work. It’s the earliest example (I’ve ever seen) of hearing a scene read more
Evelyn Prentice (1934, William K. Howard)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 29, 2008
Evelyn Prentice only runs eighty minutes, but it goes on forever. At seventeen minutes alone, it’s getting tiring. The big problem is the lack of thoughtful approach. It’s constantly revealing big twists, twists to shock the audience, but they just end up detracting from the film’ read more