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I am so excited I could spit! The Toronto Silent Film Festival launches on March 29. Check out my news piece at Toronto Film Scene. Film festivals are generally all about the new and the next, presenting specific challenges to the critics charged with previewing them. Not so with The Toronto Silen read more

While you wait for my latest installment of the Films of Jean Harlow check out my latest CC2K article about the sexy men of classic film. Any I forgot to mention? The Lusty Men of Classic Film. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com accoun read more

(Departure|Arrival Films) This selection is courtesy of Edmund Davis-Quinn who caught this in a post by Roger Ebert when I had missed it. The description and the film say it all. A great little doc. The Vimeo description says: “On an unseasonably warm November night in Manhattan on our way to read more

It’s been a little quiet here at PCF headquarters this week, mostly because Pretty Clever Film Gal has been as busy as Buster in The General. But things are about to heat up for silent film fans in Toronto. Ladles and Gentlespoons, we’re only a bit more than a week and some change from read more

He’s a sheik. She wears chic clothes. He lives in a tent. She lives in a manor. He fights enemy tribes. She fights hat hair. Getting a date with her is out of the question. Backup plan: Abduction. Obviously. Bonus: I will also be reviewing the 1933 film, The Barbarian, an attempt to revive th read more

On August 18, 2011, on a now-defunct personal blog, I published this FR (S) review of Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend.  I thought I’d slowly migrate some previous work to this new site, so here is the latest.  Thanks for reading (or re-reading). – Michael 1945 Starring Ray Milland, Jane read more

The view is pretty good from where I sit.  Over the course of each week, I consider the goings-on in the film industry, formulate my opinions (sometimes with great consideration, other times with visceral reaction), and lay out those opinions here.  But it occurred to me recently that what I do ea read more

In my humble opinion, Richard Widmark was one of the greatest actors of his era. He was outstanding in his film debut, Kiss of Death (1947), as the manically giggling, woman-in-a-wheelchair-shoving hood Tommy Udo, and he was just as memorable in No Way Out (1950), Road House (1948), Don’t Bother to read more

Humphrey Bogart was born at the tail-end of 1899, a “last-century man,” as he always called himself, and joined the Navy in 1918 when he was kicked out of prep school. 1918 saw the end of the fighting in Europe, and Bogie missed WWI. He was shipped to Europe and ran troop transport ships back and read more

Let’s see, this week I hung out with animators, tried to burnish the image of death-by-suicide Joseph McDermott, whoever he may be, and I told the world how terrible John Carter is. Perhaps I should change my name to Pretty Busy Gal. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “With read more

Despite the fact that I am suffering from a post-awards season affliction that is less hangover and more burnout, I do have an awards-related trivia question (for which your correct answer will win you nothing but my respect; hopefully that’s worth something). What do the following names have in c read more

Rather than another marathon I will give you one example of the work of Jirí Barta. If you enjoy it an entire collection of his shorts is available on YouTube (at the moment). Below is the description found on Vimeo. Enjoy! ”Laid-off old mannequins spend their cracked and broken lives in an read more

Back today with another batch of French posters for classic American crime and film noir movies. Again, most of these are in the French Grande size, 47" x 63", a truly spectacular format! If you enjoy the posters, please consider following the blog. To view the first batch, click here.  Downlo read more

What a very exciting week it has been for silent movies and the people who blog about them. Suddenly, everyone wants to know more. It’s seems that an Best Picture Oscar win for the The Artist has confirmed this whole silent movie thing isn’t just a flash in the pan for the public. Every read more

What a very exciting week it has been for silent movies and the people who blog about them. Suddenly, everyone wants to know more. It’s seems that an Best Picture Oscar win for the The Artist has confirmed this whole silent movie thing isn’t just a flash in the pan for the public. Every read more

As another awards season comes to a close with tonight’s Oscar® ceremony, I can’t help but think two things: The first is that Hollywood hands out too many awards.  From the barrel-bottomed People’s Choice and MTVs to the top-shelfed BAFTAs® and Spirits and Oscars®, and from one guild to the read more

PTSD is associated in most Americans’ minds with soldiers returning from war, but the anxiety symptoms soldiers of early American wars experienced were not classified as PTSD until recently. WWI veterans were “shell-shocked,” a term which was even applied to returning WWII vets. PTSD, or post-traum read more

  On September 19, 2011, on a now-defunct personal blog, I published this FR (S) review of Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes .  Given its recent airing on TCM as part of that network’s 31 Days of Oscar celebration, I thought I’d repost it here.  Thanks for reading (or re-read read more

The Joys of Silent Film According to The Telegraph, silent film rentals are up 40% since The Artist swept the board at the Oscars. I think we can safely say that this modern cinematic triumph has become the "gateway drug" of silent films. And about read more

2.) Try watching the shorter films first. Back in the day, a twenty-minute Chaplin film might precede the feature presentation at the movie house. There are a lot of Chaplin and Buster Keaton short films on YouTube. They are a lot easier to sit through than a two-hour epic. If you saw Hugo, you will read more