Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
Hear, Hear… James Agee on Film
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Sep 8, 2011
I would like to use this column about moving pictures as to honor and discriminate the subject through interesting and serving you who are reading it. Whether I am qualified to do this is an open question to which I can give none of the answers. (…) As an amateur, then, I must as well as I ca read more
Five Star Final (1)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Sep 7, 2011
It’s tough to pass up a movie made in 1931 starring Edward G. Robinson as a fast talking newsman. Five Star Final, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, does not disappoint, but it does surprise. This pre-code gem takes an unflinching look at the yellow tabloid journalism rampant in its own day and the w read more
Buster Keaton Laughs
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Sep 6, 2011
Buster Keaton is famous for the deadest of dead pans and we all love him for it. But in Fatty Arbuckle’s 1917 “Coney Island” the script calls for Buster to deliver a big slapstick laugh and he does. He gets a bonk on the head for his trouble, perhaps explaining why he laughs so ra read more
Film Friday | Weekly Roundup (28)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Sep 2, 2011
Another week down, y’all! Pretty Clever Film Gal is gearing up for a long weekend and plotting her TIFF strategies. Whether you’re celebrating Labor Day or Labour Day, I hope you have a few great movies queued up for weekend viewing. Before you hit the multiplex, the arthouse, or the co read more
Book Charlie Chaplin for Your Next Party
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Sep 1, 2011
So apparently, if you’re a kid growing up in Kolkata, West Bengal, you won’t have a clown and balloon animals at your next birthday bash – you’ll have Charlie Chaplin! Chaplin is like the Elvis of West Bengal, with many many impersonators spawning a cottage industry. Persona read more
Today on TCM: Rancho Notorious (1952)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 31, 2011
Western wear, Fritz Lang direction, (campy?) Dietrich, and George Reeves, later to play TV’s Superman and die in an enduring and intriguing Hollywood scandal – really, what more could you ask for in movie? TCM is airing Fritz Lang’s 1952 Technicolor western Rancho Notorious today read more
School Field Named After Buster Keaton
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 30, 2011
Buster with a dog. Why? Just cause I can. Perhaps I would have enjoyed elementary school dodge ball more if I had been playing on Buster Keaton Field. It was very slap-sticky anyway. Muskegon’s Bluffton Elementary is all set to christen the ball field Buster Keaton Field. ball fieldbuster kea read more
Rock Opera Metropolis Set to Hit 20 Cities
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 30, 2011
Hmm… I tend to get pretty persnickety about overtly modern soundtracks for silent movies. However, there’s no reason not to see Metropolis 1 billion times, so bring it! Girogio Moroder’s 1984 rock opera soundtrack isn’t my favorite Metropolis score, but it’s not the w read more
Film Friday | Weekly Roundup (29)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 26, 2011
Pretty Clever Film Gal has been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs! But not so busy that she didn’t scour the interwebs for you! Before you read on, I need to send up an SOS. Do any of you dear readers use TIVO desktop to transfer and convert recordings? I’m read more
Film Friday | Weekly Roundup (30)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 19, 2011
It’s been a busy week at Pretty Clever Films Headquarters thanks to TCM’s Summer Under the Stars. First we’re treated with Lon Chaney day and then Humphrey Bogart day. At night, I hear TIVO softly crying to himself in the other room. Even though I have roughly a gagillion movies t read more
Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Locations (and more)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 17, 2011
John Bengtson is the author of three books about the triumverate of silent comedians, Silent Echoes, Silent Traces, and Silent Visions. These books track the real world settings used as background in the films of Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd and document them in a then and now fashion. For lovers of read more
16 Lon Chaney Movies on TCM
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 15, 2011
Thanks to TCM’s August series “Summer Under the Stars” we’re being treated to 16 Lon Chaney movies today. Sixteen! If you’re not familiar with Lon Chaney, “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” this schedule is beyond an excellent primer. If you are familiar, then read more
Lon Chaney, “The Man of a Thousand Faces” (1)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 15, 2011
To celebrate the amazing Lon Chaney and TCM’s airing of 16 Chaney classics, I’ve put together a slideshow of a few of his most famous characters. Consider these images a teaser, because still images do not do justice to Lon Chaney’s tranformative performances. For example, in Mr. read more
Film Friday | Weekly Roundup (31)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 12, 2011
You know guys… I can’t think of anything witty or pithy to say today. It’s been a long week and I really just want to go and boot around on my sweet new ride. Any suggestions on sweet biking spots in Toronto? Before I tear out, ringing my bell all the way, I put together some rec read more
Talk About Dancing For Your Dinner…
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 11, 2011
[Chaplin's] determination to make a serio-comic feature was challenged by First National who preferred two reel films, which were more quickly produced and released. Chaplin wisely gained his distributors’ approval by inviting them to the studio, where he trotted out the delightful Coogan to read more
Jackie Coogan in The Rag Man (1925)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 10, 2011
If charm and a certain preternatural precociousness are the currency of a great child actor, then Jackie Coogan was a very rich little boy in the 1920′s. Best known as Charlie Chaplin’s sidekick in The Kid. Coogan was a meteoric success in the silent era. As with Shirley Temple a few ye read more
36 Hitchcock Deaths in Unison
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 8, 2011
Okay, I was going to save this for the Friday Round-Up, but Friday is so far away and this is just so great. After being delighted, I spent a few minutes wondering, “Am I a very morbid person?” Then I thought… “Meh, whatever” and watched it again. It’s even bette read more
Film Friday | Weekly Roundup (32)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 5, 2011
Summer makes me nostalgic for the drive-in movie theater. Fortunately for me, Toronto’s got one. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have a Pretty Clever Car. If you’re lucky enough to have both a set of wheels and enough hipsters in your area to qualify for a retro-fun drive-in, then g read more
Today on TCM: Modern Times (1936) & The Great Dictator (1940)
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 2, 2011
Despite A Mythical Monkey’s disturbing front line report that many people (albeit with legitimate reasons) have failed to see The Chaplin Mutuals, I’m positive that all my savvy, silent comedy loving readers have seen Chaplin’s classic features Modern Times and The Great Dictators read more
Watch Chalie Chaplin’s “The Rink” Online
Pretty Clever Films Posted by Pretty Clever Film Gal on Aug 1, 2011
Need an afternoon pick me up? Why not spare twenty minutes and what Charlie Chaplin’s delightful short “The Rink” (1916). Chaplin’s earliest short films have a certain insouciance, a carefree playfulness, that gets lost in his later feature work when he’s loaded down read more