By Movie StarAlfred HitchcockAudrey HepburnAva GardnerBarbara StanwyckBasil RathboneBette DavisBilly WilderBob HopeBoris KarloffBurt LancasterBuster KeatonCarole LombardCary GrantCharlie ChaplinClara BowClark GableClaudette ColbertDana AndrewsDeanna DurbinDebbie ReynoldsDoris DayEleanor ParkerElizabeth TaylorErnst LubitschErrol FlynnEsther WilliamsFranchot ToneFred AstaireFred MacMurrayGary CooperGene KellyGinger RogersGloria SwansonGrace KellyGreer GarsonGregory PeckGreta GarboHarold LloydHedy LamarrHenry FondaHoward HawksHumphrey BogartIda LupinoIngrid BergmanIrene DunneJack BennyJack LemmonJames CagneyJames StewartJane RussellJean ArthurJean HarlowJeanette MacDonaldJeanne CrainJoan CrawfordJoan FontaineJohn FordJohn WayneJudy GarlandKatharine HepburnKay FrancisKirk DouglasLana TurnerLauren BacallLillian GishLon ChaneyLoretta YoungLouise BrooksLucille BallMae WestMarilyn MonroeMarion DaviesMarlene DietrichMary AstorMary PickfordMickey RooneyMiriam HopkinsMyrna LoyNatalie WoodNorma ShearerOlivia de HavillandOrson WellesPaul NewmanPreston SturgesRichard WidmarkRita HayworthRobert MitchumRudolph ValentinoShirley TempleSidney PoitierSpencer TracySteve McQueenTeresa WrightTyrone PowerVincent PriceVivien LeighWilliam HoldenWilliam PowellWilliam WylerWoody Allen By HolidayNew Year's DayPresident's DayValentine's DayEasterMother's DayFather's DayMemorial DayJuly 4thLabor DayColumbus DayHalloweenThanksgivingChristmasBlack History MonthWomen's History Month All Blogs4 Star Films (3474)50 Most Influential Disney Animators (58)A Person in the Dark (365)All Good Things (815)Backlots (412)Caf? Muscato (572)Caftan Woman (904)Carole & Co. (3081)Cary Grant Won't Eat You (487)Christy Putnam (78)Cinema Crossroads (42)Cinematic Catharsis (896)Cinematically Insane (268)CineMaven's Essays from the Couch (152)Classic Cinema Gold (319)Classic Film & TV Cafe (1263)Classic Film Freak (367)Classic Film Review (14)Classic Horror Campaign (257)Classic Movie Hub Blog (1899)Classic Movie Man (928)Classic Movies (3247)Classic Reel Girl (95)Comet Over Hollywood (1291)Creme de la Creme (31)Criterion Blues (770)Critica Retro (1434)Curtains (58)Durnmoose Movie Musings (1105)Film Reviews and Anything Else I Get Inspired by (5)Finding Franchot: Exploring the Life and Career of Franchot Tone (161)Flickers in Time (2221)GlamAmor (587)Hitchcock Master (131)Hollywood Revue (532)Hometowns to Hollywood (798)How Sweet It Was (86)In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood (154)Journeys in Classic Film (1765)Lady Eve's Reel Life (733)Le Mot du Cinephiliaque (945)Love Letters to Old Hollywood (150)MacGuffin Movies (362)Margaret Perry (165)Mildred's Fatburgers (201)Movie Classics (287)Movies Silently (1029)Noir and Chick Flicks (1998)Noirish (1273)Old Hollywood Films (651)Once Upon a Screen (420)Out of the Past - A Classic Film Blog (2149)Outspoken and Freckled (140)Phantom Empires (60)Please Go Away: A Katharine Hepburn Blog (456)Pop Culture ImagineMDD (103)Pretty Clever Films (1413)Reel Distracted (20)ScribeHard on Film (162)Serendipitous Anachronisms (82)Shadows and Satin (929)Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers (1867)Smitten Kitten Vintage (48)Smum County (115)Stardust and Shadows (120)Studies in Cinema (118)Sunset Blvd (39)The Baz (159)The Best Picture Project (905)The Blonde At The Film (319)The Bogie Film Blog (147)The Cinema Dilettante (110)The Giddy Blog (152)The Great Katharine Hepburn (240)The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog (1675)The Jeanette MacDonald Blog (94)The Man on the Flying Trapeze (643)The Motion Pictures (791)The Movie Rat (746)The Old Hollywood Garden (446)The Stop Button (3203)The Timothy Carey Experience (1181)The Vintage Cameo (134)The Wonderful World of Cinema (590)Timeless Hollywood (73)True Classics (573)Virtual Virago (1625)Where Danger Lives (136)Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest (638)

During the period of time I lived in Japan, I became acquainted with the works of Isao Takahata, and by that I mean I watched both Grave of The Fireflies (1988) and Only Yesterday (1991). This was all that was required because these two films on their own left a profound impact on me. While Hayao Mi read more

A version of this review was first published in Film Inquiry.  If Floating Clouds is a film about making peace with the war years, then When a Woman Who Ascends The Stairs is a far more forward-thinking endeavor. In fact, I would say it’s a near-prescient portrait of where Japan has ventured read more

As someone of Japanese-American heritage, it’s become a personal preoccupation of mine to search out films that in some way represent the lives of my grandparents and their generation. This means the rich Issei and Nisei communities of Los Angeles, the subsequent internment camps, and even the read more

Winchester 73 has the initially dubious reputation of being a portmanteau western. Whether or not this is a one-of-a-kind distinction, any number of popular culture vehicles have employed the device in often gimmicky fashion. It makes for a La Ronde-esque sitcom episode in a pinch. However, this Ja read more

One could choose any number of labels to attempt categorizing Departures. It’s a film indebted to the rapturous compositions of the past. It shares elements akin to any police procedural ever made or for that matter, the veterinary antics from a British gem like All Creatures Great and Small. read more

Whisper of The Heart is wholeheartedly a Japanese anime and yet learning John Denver’s “Country Roads” holds a relatively substantial place in the plotline might catch some off guard. After all, as the metropolitan imagery establishes our setting, we hear a version of the song play read more

What A Foreign Affair offers is a curious mix of Billy Wilder’s brand of gleeful satire with docudrama. In this regard, it stands alongside the likes of The Search (1948) as one of the earliest American films to explore the world of post-war Europe with so much rebuilding to do both physicall read more

It might be a futile exercise but at least for a brief moment, I will attempt to get back into the headspace from when I first came upon Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend. I was younger then. Bright-eyed and a budding cinephile. It is the film that defined Ray Milland’s entire filmography read more

Billy Wilder obviously got his start in screenwriting but much like Preston Sturges before him, he desperately wanted creative control to sculpt the vision of the meticulous scripts he helped forge with writing partner (and producer) Charles Brackett. He got his breakout chance with The Major and T read more

“After you’re married… That’s a funny thing to hear your wife say!” – Joel McCrea as Tom Jeffers All the timeless Preston Sturges pictures have the pace of a freight train barreling down the tracks in loop de loops and figure eights. The Prologue of The Palm Beach Story sets read more

“If it wasn’t for graft, you’d get a very low type of people in politics!” – William Demarest The Great McGinty feels like a film of many notable firsts. The two most prominent ones being Preston Sturges’s first time in the director’s chair, famously agreei read more

Since I watched more contemporary films than I usually do for award season, I put together some capsule reviews. There’s not too much rhyme or reason to these, but I thought I would include them here. Let me know what you thought of these movies. Thank you! Palm Springs In some serendipitous read more

“You don’t have to die to keep the John Doe ideal alive. Someone already died for that once. The first John Doe. And he’s kept that ideal alive for nearly 2,000 years.” – Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell In their final collaboration, Capra and Riskin draw on the same c read more

The entire premise is set around National Bank in New York City during The Depression. If it’s not enough explanation already, at least we have some hint of where we might be headed. American Madness is an obvious relic of the saucier years of Capra and Riskin before the production codes set read more

These are some of the films that I enjoyed from 2020. Because I watched more new releases than is typical in the last few years, I went ahead and wrote capsule length reviews to keep it more manageable. Enjoy! Minari  Minari plays as another perspective on the American Dream. It’s an immigrant stor read more

I must admit to committing an unforgivable fallacy. Maybe I’m the only perpetrator, but there might be others too. In my own mental computations, I often attribute Jane Wyman as the first wife of Ronald Reagan more than I equate her with her acting career. And though Nancy Davis hardly built read more

“When I was a child I spake like a child…” ~ 1 Corinthians 13 Like the previous year’s Valley of Decision, The Yearling opens with an establishing shot paired with Gregory Peck’s voice, this time in a folksier register. Aside from being unoriginal, one can hardly conde read more

Gregory Peck’s pleasantly resonant voice brings us into the moment. The scene is unimaginative yet unmistakable with its obviously scaled-down establishing shot. Pittsburgh. Smokestacks and steel. These are the days of Andrew Carnegie and the transcontinental railroad wrapping its way east to read more

Physics and Mathematics are the two primary focuses of Marie Curie’s life. In the early days, when she was one of the few solitary women in a Parisian sphere of academia, dominated by dismissive men, she still went by her maiden name and took on the rigors of study with ardent relish. Thus, w read more

When you grow up with a sister, I imagine most people are aware of books like Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Anne of Greene Gables, and Little House on The Prairie. However, especially when you’re young, you rarely appreciate them fully or comprehend how notable they are as cultural artif read more