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.
The Maltese Falcon (or, The Big Oops)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 17, 2013
The Maltese Falcon is one of the best-known films from the noir era, and it’s rife with such familiar characters as the Fat Man and Sam Spade, and memorable quotes like this favorite: “The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.” It’s also rife with more goofs than you can shake a stick at. read more
Johnny Eager: Characters Welcome
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 16, 2013
Johnny Eager tells the story of a slick ex-con who works as a taxicab driver to mask his criminal activities. Standing in the way of Eager’s project is his longtime nemesis, the local district attorney, who just happens to be the stepfather of a young sociology student who falls for Johnny in a big read more
My Favorite Pre-Codes (Or Something Like That)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 15, 2013
Just a casual chat between gal pals. Don’t you just love pre-Code? Lately, I’ve been struggling with (well, not really struggling – maybe just thinking about? Mulling over?) my definition of “favorite” movie. For instance, I’ve long considered my “favorite” to be Gone With the Wind. read more
Bon Appetit: My Favorite Noir Dinner Guests
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 14, 2013
Just one pie recipe. That’s not too much to ask, is it? What noir characters would you like to have for dinner? This was a question posed to Dark Pages readers several years ago by one of our longtime subscribers, Weda Mosellie. Miss Weda passed on earlier this year, so in her memory, it’ read more
Love that Lizabeth!
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 13, 2013
A tawny-haired beauty with a smoldering gaze and a distinctively throaty voice, Lizabeth Scott is my film noir guilty pleasure. She’s no Sarah Bernhardt, it’s true – but she’s one of the quintessential bad girls of the noir era, and she’s just plain fun to watch! And on November 15th, TCM read more
Must-See Movie: My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 12, 2013
Nina Foch gives a first-rate performance in the title role. My Name is Julia Ross came THISCLOSE to being my TCM film noir pick of the month – it was edged out by a hair by that ever-so-awesome Burt Lancaster starrer, The Sweet Smell of Success. But while you’re making your movie-watching choices read more
Behind the Scenes: Shelley Winters in A Double Life
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 11, 2013
To today’s audiences, Shelley Winters may be the grandmother on the Roseanne Barr comedy show, or the zaftig swimming champion who valiantly perished in The Poseidon Adventure. But back in the day, she was a gorgeous blonde whose curvaceous figure was complemented by her considerable acting chops. read more
Russell Johnson: More Than The Professor
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 10, 2013
If you only know Russell Johnson as the Professor from Gilligan’s Island, you may be surprised to know that the actor started his career on the dark side of the big screen, with a featured role in a George Raft noir, Loan Shark (1952). In this feature, Johnson played a hard-boiled character who was read more
The “What a Character” Blogathon: Jeff Corey
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 9, 2013
There was nothing conventional about Jeff Corey. Not his distinctively craggy looks, nor his exceptional talent, and certainly not his experience in Hollywood. Blacklisted in the 1950s due to accusations of Communist leanings, Corey saw his promising film career diminish virtually overnight, but the read more
November 11th on TCM: Chock-full of Robert Ryan Noir!
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 8, 2013
One of the icons of the film noir era, Ryan had a take-no prisoners approach and an aura of barely suppressed ferocity. Although he displayed his talent and versatility in a wide variety of roles during his 40-year career, it is the cold-hearted hoods, psychotic spouses, and iniquitous gangsters fo read more
Pre-Code Ephemera
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 7, 2013
I’ve mentioned on this blog once before, I have a number of collections – dolls, ashtrays, shot glasses, old radios, refrigerator magnets. But one of my favorites is my collection of old movie magazines. I started collecting them years (decades?) ago, way before there was an internet – or, at read more
NaBloPoMo: Hubba wha?
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 6, 2013
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might wonder what has been going on around here so far this month, what with the daily posting and whatnot. Well, wonder no more. It’s National Blog Posting Month (also known as NaBloPoMo) and I have signed up for the challenge of posting something every read more
William Beedle and Edythe Marrener in Young and Willing (1943)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 6, 2013
Nope, it’s not pre-Code. Too late. And it’s not noir. Too zany. But Young and Willing, a Paramount production that no one seems ever to have heard of except me, is two things: it’s one of my favorite guilty pleasures and it’s a showcase for two future veterans of the film noir era: William Holden read more
Quotes in Noir: The Dark Corner (1946)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 5, 2013
Ah, Clifton Webb. He could imbue a phrase with more flair, sophistication, and downright venom than anybody I can think of. Webb was perhaps at his most memorable in Laura (1944), in which he played the ever-acerbic Waldo Lydecker, but he was just as good in the lesser-known noir The Dark Corner. In read more
And Now For Something Completely Different: John’s Classic Film Survey
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 4, 2013
In March 2012, a fella by the name of John stopped by Shadows and Satin, dropped this survey on me, and asked me to give it a try. Never one to shrink from a challenge (even one that’s more than a year old!), I decided to don my cinematic thinking cap and have a little fun coming up with some answer read more
TCM Pick of the Month: Pre-Code (2)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 3, 2013
Possessed (1931) is one of my favorite Joan Crawford films – and for someone who loves Joanie as much as I do, that’s saying something! This was the first Crawford pre-Code that I ever saw, and I’m delighted to select it as my TCM pre-Code pick of the month. It’s got so much to recommend it, read more
TCM Pick of the Month: Film Noir (2)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 2, 2013
TCM has gone nuts for noir in November! I could barely flip through this month’s TCM Now Playing Guide without landing on a page with a first-rate noir offering. My choice was a tough one – My Name is Julia Ross (1945) was a worthy contendah! – but my final pick is Sweet Smell of Success (1957), read more
The Language of Noir (or, What’d he say?)
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Nov 1, 2013
“You’d sell out your own mother for a piece of fudge.” Snappy sayings, crackling comebacks, piercing putdowns, and devastating diatribes – film noir is lousy with ‘em. Among my many favorite aspects of these features are the unforgettable words and phrases that punctuate the shadow read more
A 7×7 Award! Who, me?
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Oct 19, 2013
Time for another award post! This time, I am offering my thanks to the awesome Paula Guthat, renowned TCM Party co-host and author of Paula’s Cinema Club, who bestowed on me the 7 x 7 Link Award! (Truth be told, she bestowed it on me quite a while ago, in August 2012, but I have more than a passing read more
October is Awards Month!
Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on Oct 13, 2013
I am taking a brief break from movie reviews and performer profiles to celebrate some awards I’ve received lately. In other words, I am being totally self-indulgent and talking about me, me, me! Come on along! For today’s entry, I want to give sincere thanks to Gwen over at Movies, Silently, read more