Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
10111213141516171819

The Barefoot Contessa (1954): A Cinderella Story

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 1, 2021

While it shares elements with the earlier Pandora and The Flying Dutchman in both its techniques and the mystique projected around Ava Gardner, The Barefoot Contessa ultimately evolves and settles into the narrative rhythms one might expect from its creative partners. Jack Cardiff returns to give A read more

Pandora and The Flying Dutchman (1951): Love Across Time and Space

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 30, 2021

Albert Lewin’s romantic fable opens in Esperanza on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. If the director is a generally unknown name, then Jack Cardiff might just as easily draw your attention with his distinct, intoxicating color tones. It’s true the picture opens with a wonderful shot pe read more

The Night of The Iguana (1964) and The God-Shaped Hole

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 26, 2021

It’s a Sunday morning in St. James Episcopal Church. The minister pulls his sermon from Proverbs 25:28: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” But there is an elephant in the room, an unspoken force coming between the shepherd and his sheep read more

Seven Days in May (1964): A Twilight Zone America Strikes Close to Home

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 24, 2021

The opening images of Seven Days in May could have easily been pulled out of the headlines. A silent protest continues outside the White House gates with hosts of signs decrying the incumbent president or at the very least the state of his America.  We don’t quite know his egregious act althou read more

Our Man in Havana (1959) and Vacuums in The Atomic Age

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 20, 2021

Because of the renewed partnership of Grahame Greene and director Carol Reed, it’s difficult not to feel an inclination to compare Our Man in Havana with The Third Man from a decade prior. If you wanted to go out on a limb, you could make the case the earlier film beget this film, at least in read more

The Long Gray Line (1955) and Martin Maher

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 18, 2021

There’s no other way to put it. The West Point imagery of The Long Gray Line is smart from the outset, and if nothing else, it instills this sense of admiration in the military sharpness of this storied institution. However, although this is a hagiography from John Ford, it feels more full-bo read more

Mogambo (1953): John Ford Updates Red Dust

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 16, 2021

Whether it’s apocryphal or not the term “Mogambo” is purported to be the Swahili word for “passion,” although it’s difficult to know if this was only hearsay propagated by westerners (now including myself). Regardless, it boasts an intriguing if altogether curiou read more

Classic Movie Beginner’s Guide: Ava Gardner

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 14, 2021

We wanted to continue our ongoing series by highlighting a few of the best films of an actress we’ll be writing about in the next weeks. Ava Gardner was renowned throughout her career as one of the most alluring leading ladies in Hollywood. And although she was linked romantically with everyon read more

Ikiru (1952): Loving and Living

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 8, 2021

“This man bears a cross called cancer. He’s Christ.” Ikiru is instantly a tale of dramatic irony as we see x-ray footage and an omniscient narrator tells us matter-of-factly the signs of cancer are already obvious. Our protagonist’s work life hits hard as he’s a public read more

The Uninvited (1944) and Stella by Starlight

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 6, 2021

To place my cards on the table, next to the ouija boards and ghost catchers, I’m not always fond of haunted house movies because how many truly original iterations can you have out of one premise? Granted, there are lots of houses in the world, but how do you make each one stand out among the read more

Arise, My Love (1940): Milland and Colbert

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 4, 2021

“Arise, my fair love and come away” – Song of Solomon 2:13 The screenplays of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder are often literal master classes in hooking the audience. They understand intuitively the construction necessary to bring us into a story so we’re invested. Take t read more

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935): An All-American Gentleman’s Gentleman

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 29, 2021

It’s Paris in the spring of 1908. The mumble-mouthed, rather sheepish Roland Young admits to his manservant Ruggles (Charles Laughton) he’s gone and lost him in a poker game. He was terribly good at the art of bluffing. A little too good as it were. The kicker is the folks he’s ha read more

Les Miserables (1935) and Candlesticks

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 27, 2021

There’s a biblical verse that warns against storing up treasures in heaven where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in a steal. Jean Valjean keeps two silver candlesticks with him always — they’re probably the nicest things he owns — but their true value signifies read more

Mutiny on The Bounty (1935) with Gable, Laughton, and Tone

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 22, 2021

More recently I’ve found myself straying away from period pieces and epics and not necessarily because there is something fundamentally off-putting about them. Nor do I think it can solely be blamed on my admittedly short attention span in this increasingly inane and vapid social media-fueled read more

It Happened One Night (1934): Carrots and The Walls of Jericho

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 20, 2021

When I was growing up we had a VHS of Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoons and like any lad my age, he was an immediate sensation. Casual, mischievous, and yet generally good-natured and out-and-out hilarious. I had no concept of cartoon logic and what made him so memorable as a cartoon character; you read more

Rain (1932): Joan Crawford and Walter Huston

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 17, 2021

Rain finds its origins in a short story by W. Somerset Maugham, and it was also preceded by a picture starring Gloria Swanson titled Sadie Thompson. She is indeed the central character of this adaptation as well, although the title of this version focuses in on the dreary poeticism. It’s true read more

Letty Lynton (1932): A Hidden Classic

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 15, 2021

Letty Lynton is one of those hidden movies cinephiles look to unearth from the sands of time. In this case, it’s namely because it’s notoriously difficult to view after a court case in 1936 deemed it was too close in plot to the play Unfaithful Woman, which, coincidentally was made into read more

Together Again (1944): Boyer and Dunne

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 10, 2021

The film’s title couldn’t be more true as Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer pooled their talents for a third go-around, and what a pleasant experience it is. If it wasn’t evidenced by the soaring romance and light comedy of Love Affair and Beyond Tomorrow, they share that thing that i read more

When Tomorrow Comes (1939) and Romantic Shelter From The Storm

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 8, 2021

Waitresses bustle about on their beats passing along the news like busy bees: eight o’clock tonight unity hall! It caused quite a stir in the ranks and the girls are currently walking on eggshells afraid to get canned. A few of the gals are especially jumpy including poor Lulu who drops a who read more

Cluny Brown (1946): Nuts to The Squirrels

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 6, 2021

The title card introduces our time and place. It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in England. The year: 1938. Nothing particularly important is going on except a cocktail party and that’s only important to the host, one Mr. Hilary Ames (Reginald Gardiner). You wouldn’t call this much of read more
10111213141516171819