Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
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You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 9: Dark Magic
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 10, 2017
Dark Magic fully introduces Marion Burns’s psychic character. She showed up at the end of last chapter, but she really didn’t get much to do outside her act. The act, which has everyone panicked this chapter, involves her accusing bad guy Jack Ingram of murder. Then all the lights go out and she, read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 8: Killer at Large
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 9, 2017
Yes, there’s a Killer at Large, but there are lots of them. The entire gang out bad guys is loose. Brenda Starr’s has all bad ideas when it comes to titling. And, you know, scenes. There’s a scene between lowlifes Ernie Adams and Wheeler Oakman and the conversation repeats itself. Adams might read more
Tampopo (1985, Itami Jûzô)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 8, 2017
Tampopo is a cinematic appreciation of Japanese food culture. Writer and director Itami also has some love of cinema things, but it’s all about the food. Even when it’s played for humor. Or for nurturing. Or for sex. Sexy foodstuffs abound in Tampopo. But Tampopo is also this traditional narrative. read more
The Explosive Generation (1961, Buzz Kulik)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 8, 2017
The Explosive Generation has expert plotting. Joseph Landon’s script; it’s expertly plotted. Even when it high tails it away from the “hook,” it’s still expertly plotted. The film goes from being about teenagers trying to frankly and openly discuss sex in teacher Willi read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 7: Hideout of Terror
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 8, 2017
There’s a hideout in Hideout of Terror, but there’s no actual terror in that hideout. Most of the chapter is kidnapped Joan Woodbury being traded between kidnappers. First it’s Jack Ingram, then he gets nabbed by Wheeler Oakman. Ingram gets most of the chapter’s action–he’s got to leave read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 6: Man Hunt
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 7, 2017
Man Hunt is exasperating. All of it. Copper Kane Richmond, who didn’t have the most fantastic part of the previous chapter’s cliffhanger, gets all the resolution. When the story gets back to Joan Woodbury, her initial shock has worn off and she’s just trying to get Wheeler Oakman to leave her read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 5: The Big Boss Speaks
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 6, 2017
The Big Boss Speaks does not feature a scene where the Big Boss speaking over the two-way radio setup sets off the cliffhanger. Actually, the part of the chapter where the Big Boss does speak has absolutely nothing important to do with the plot. Except in how wrong the Big Boss is about predicting read more
A Long Time Till Dawn (1953, Richard Dunlap)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 6, 2017
A Long Time Till Dawn is usually able to keep disbelief completely suspended. It’s a television play and Rod Serling’s teleplay is more ambitious than the budget or the constraints of the medium. Most of the sets are interiors and fine–a diner, a living room, a bedroom. They can e read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 4: A Ghost Walks
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 5, 2017
Unfortunately, most of A Ghost Walks is missing. What remains–some audio, a couple stills–isn’t really enough to sustain the narrative. After the cliffhanger resolution (not too noisy and apparently not injurious to Joan Woodbury), there’s some treading water while cops Kane Richmond and Joe read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 3: Taken for a Ride
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 4, 2017
Taken for a Ride’s opening cliffhanger resolution isn’t particularly exciting–in fact, giving so much information about what’s going on outside the situation to resolve the cliffhanger makes it all procedural, instead of suspenseful–but it still almost leads to a good shootout. Joan Woodbury read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 2: The Blazing Trap
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 3, 2017
The Blazing Trap opens with a lengthy lead-in to the cliffhanger resolve. Even though the resolve is pretty easy, it’s kind of cool how much context Brenda Starr gives its resolution. It doesn’t feel like a quick wrap up, it feels like a part of the story. After it’s over, though, the chapter read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 1: Hot News!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 2, 2017
Brenda Starr, Reporter is all action. Sure, there’s some scenes of lead Joan Woodbury sitting at her desk, but she’s just waiting to hear about more action. The chapter starts with a building on fire. Woodbury and her photographer, Syd Saylor, drive out from the newspaper office, racing to get ther read more
The Defender (1957, Robert Mulligan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2017
The Defender is exquisite. It’s a two-part courtroom drama from “Studio One,” so Reginald Rose’s teleplay has some major constraints. There’s budget, there’s content, there’s plotting, there’s pacing. Not to mention it’s two separate broadcasts. No matter how well the two parts of read more
The Beguiled (1971, Don Siegel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2017
While The Beguiled is a thriller, the film keeps the thrills exceptionally grounded. The film’s set during the Civil War, with wounded Yankee sniper Clint Eastwood taking refuge at a girls school in Confederate territory. The school is quite literally set aside from the war. The war is outside the read more
Doin’ Time in Times Square (1991, Charlie Ahearn)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 29, 2017
Doin’ Time in Times Square is forty minutes of footage Ahearn shot out of his Times Square apartment building’s window. Shot over three years, Ahearn cuts the street scenes with home movie footage. Life inside the apartment. Ahearn’s adorable family growing, holidays, parties, sitcoms. Meanwhile, read more
Actor | Eleanor Parker, Part 1: The Dream Factory
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 27, 2017
In June 1941, right before turning nineteen years old, Eleanor Parker signed on as a contract player at Warner Bros. She had just finished a year at the Pasadena Playhouse. Parker started acting in high school and had been dodging studio screen tests since she was fifteen; she wanted to continue de read more
Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941, William Witney and John English)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 26, 2017
About seventy percent of Adventures of Captain Marvel is narratively useless. Nothing occurring in chapters two through ten has an effect on how the story actually turns out. The serial has a great first chapter involving a tomb robbing archeological expedition in Thailand. Radio journalist Frank C read more
The Streetfighter’s Last Revenge (1974, Ozawa Shigehiro)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 25, 2017
The title, The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge, doesn’t really refer to anything in the film itself. The Street Fighter is Sonny Chiba. He’s gone for psychotic killer karate man (from the first film, Last Revenge is the third) to sauve, romantic ladies man. Complete with a secret room to put on read more
Sister Street Fighter (1974, Yamaguchi Kazuhiko)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 25, 2017
Sister Street Fighter should be campy. With the constant horns in Kikuchi Shunsuke’s score, lead Shiomi Etsuko’s colorful outfit, villain Amatsu Bin doing an Elvis impersonation, the countless and intentionally weird martial arts villains… it ought to be campy. But it’s not, because somehow read more
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017, Jon Watts)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 24, 2017
If Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t the best film with six credited screenwriters, it’s got to be near the top. Additionally, the film’s got director (and one the Sinister Six–wokka wokka–screenwriters) Watts, who kind of manually binds the film together scene by scene. There’s so much different read more