My life at the movies.
Directed by John Ford. Starring Will Rogers, Marian Nixon, Vera Allen, and Howard Lally.
The first of three collaborations between star Will Rogers and director John Ford. Rogers plays a country doctor battling small-town prejudice while romancing a wealthy widow. Continue reading...
Directed by John Ford. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Barry Fitzgerald, and Denis O'Dea.
I thought Hitchcock’s adaptation of Seán O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock was bad, but it proves masterful compared to John Ford’s take on O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars. Continue reading...
Directed by John Ford. Starring Will Rogers, Anne Shirley, Irvin S. Cobb, and Eugene Pallette.
Will Rogers plays a medicine man turned steamboat operator racing to New Orleans to save his nephew from the gallows. Continue reading...
Directed by John Ford. Starring Henrietta Crosman, Heather Angel, Norman Foster, and Lucille La Verne.
Henrietta Crosman plays a rural woman who, rather than see her only son leave home and marry his local sweetheart, signs him up for World War I, where he perishes. After the war, she travels with a group of other mothers to visit her son’s grave. Continue reading...
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Starring Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, and Charles Vanel.
Simone Signoret plays Nicole, a boarding school teacher carrying on an affair with the abusive principal, Michel. After their latest fight leaves her with a black eye, Nicole recruits Michel’s long-suffering wife, Christina, in a plot to kill him. Major spoilers follow. Continue reading...
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick. Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner.
Tony Curtis plays Sidney Falco, a hungry Manhattan press agent desperate to curry favor with influential columnist J.J. Hunsecker, played by Burt Lancaster. Continue reading...
Directed by William Dieterle. Starring William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson, and Hardie Albright.
Jewel Robbery proves memorable thanks to William Powell’s introduction. He plays a gentleman thief who robs a jewelry store frequented by a restless baroness, played by Kay Francis. After robbing the store and clientele of their valuables, Powell gives the staff, Francis, and her entourage marijuana cigarettes to stone them into supplication. When the cops arrive, everyone is giggle happy and Powell and his crew have disappeared. Ah, pre-code Hollywood. Continue reading...
Directed by Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Mack V. Wright. Starring John Wayne, Duke, Sheila Terry, and Harry Woods.
I like John Wayne, but I struggled with Haunted Gold. Continue reading...
Directed by Fred Allen. Starring John Wayne, Duke, Ruth Hall, Henry B. Walthall, and Otis Harlan.
Early in Ride Him, Cowboy, a town tries a horse for attempted murder. It gets sillier from there. Continue reading...
Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, and Henry Beckman.
A father traces a series of murders by dwarfish creatures to an unconventional psychotherapy hospital treating his ex-wife. Continue reading...
