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 Last of Sheila (1973): A Mystery Missing Its Columbo
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 14, 2020
“That’s the thing about secrets. We all know stuff about each other; we just don’t know the same stuff.” The Last of Sheila is an intricate murder mystery with origins in real-life parlor games put on by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim for some of their socialite friends read more
Dog Day Afternoon (1975): The Fury of Al Pacino in a Great Heist Film
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 12, 2020
We usually think of filmmakers like Woody Allen or even Noah Baumbach for their portrayals of New York. There’s no doubt they have left their imprint on the city, so it’s difficult not to envision it without their influences. However, in his own right, Sidney Lumet also deserves to be v read more
Mean Streets (1973): Martin Scorsese’s Intimate Crime Film
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 10, 2020
Martin Scorsese will always be synonymous with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, but if we want to truly chart his ascension as a singular creative mind, Mean Streets must be our genesis. Because it essentially lays the groundwork for his entire career. In truth, it’s the strangest ga read more
Classic Movie Beginner’s Guide: Kirk Douglas
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 8, 2020
With this ongoing series, our goal is to help people who are new to classic movies, get a foothold. To make it easy, we give you 4 representative choices and then some supplementary options. Sadly, with the passing of Kirk Douglas earlier this week at 103 years of age, it seemed apropos to tackle hi read more
Parasite (2019): Bong Joon-ho’s Household Thriller
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 7, 2020
I heard in an interview director Bong Joon-ho had the idea for Parasite percolating in his mind for a long time, and it was born out of the most curious forms of inspiration. In college, he used to tutor English for the child of a rich family. From that point of disembarkation, he started asking read more
In Memoriam: RememberingKirk Douglas (1916-2020)
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 6, 2020
One of the greats is gone. At 103 years of age, Issur Danielovitch, known to movie lovers over as Kirk Douglas has finally left us. In full transparency, if he was up against Robert Mitchum I would have probably sided with Bob. If he was facing off with Burt Lancaster I might have gravitated to Bur read more
Arabesque (1966) with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 5, 2020
I was trying to recall if the actual word “arabesque” was ever uttered in the movie. Granted, in a narrative like this, it’s just as easy for something to fly over your head. There’s comparable lingo bandied about pertaining to ciphers and hieroglyphs, mentioned in the conte read more
Mirage (1965): Gregory Peck 20 Years After Spellbound
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 3, 2020
“Most people will do in the dark what they never would think of doing in the light.” Mirage takes full advantage of one of those grab-you-right-away openings. The scene commences in the dark, there’s a power outage, candles are flickering, and voices call out up and down the corri read more
Zelig (1983) and Gordon Willis’s Mimicry of Classical Hollywood
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Feb 1, 2020
I never thought I’d be saying this about a Woody Allen film, but it feels more like a technical marvel than purely a testament to story or dialogue. Although The Purple Rose of Cairo did something similarly compelling, Zelig is literally a film relying on a look that is authentic to a time per read more
Home from The Hill (1960): Underrated Vincente Minnelli Family Drama
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 30, 2020
“They just live in the same house and kill each other a little at a time, and I’m in the middle.” – George Hamilton The beauty of Home from The Hill is how it systematically works against our preconceived notions of what it will be, repeatedly asserting itself in new and dyn read more
On The Beach (1959): Peck, Gardner, Astaire, Perkins, and Apocalypse
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 28, 2020
I recall my dad sharing a recollection about On The Beach. Back when it came out he went to the drive-in with his family, and they took in the movie. He fell asleep part of the way through only to wake up and the movie was still going. While not necessarily a profound observation, the film is unequ read more
Transit (2018): Casablanca in The Modern Day
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 26, 2020
Ever since the days of his James Cain-infused Jerichow, it’s been apparent German writer-director Christian Petzold is indebted to the written word when it comes to his brand of filmmaking. However, this time around he takes an oddly unnerving stroke of brilliance by setting his usual period p read more
Slacker (1991): Richard Linklater’s Ultimate Independent Film
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 24, 2020
Kudos must be extended to Richard Linklater for actually being proactive and going out to shoot the movie countless of us have doubtlessly tossed around in our mind’s eye. Taking our town — the places we know intimately — and building a portmanteau out of it with a group of friends read more
Garden of Evil (1954): Starring Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 22, 2020
It does feel like one of the grand old westerns we left behind in more recent years. It’s a big picture in the horizontal majesty of widescreen, Glorious Technicolor, backed by the only score Bernard Hermann would ever arrange for the West. There’s little doubt we are in for a spectacle read more
Rawhide (1951): Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 20, 2020
Though it’s easy for this film to be overshadowed by Clint Eastwood’s Rowdy Yates, in retrospect, Rawhide is a spare outpost western nevertheless loaded with tension and talent. It is set against the backdrop of a network of stagecoaches transporting mail across the continental United St read more
Classic Movie Beginner’s Guide: Gene Tierney
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 18, 2020
In our ongoing series of selecting 4 films to help newly-minted classic movie fans get their bearings, we’re going to look at one of my personal favorites when it comes to the 1940s, Gene Tierney. If you’re not familiar with her, she filled out a lot of film noir and romances throughout read more
Silver Lode (1954): More Noir on The Range
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 17, 2020
“It looks like Ballard’s past has come to town!” A brood of leery guns lumbers into the town of Silver Lode. We have an instant clash of temperaments. Because this outside force is menacing and foreboding. Meanwhile, the townsfolk are getting everything together for their Fourth o read more
Station West (1948): Starring Dick Powell and Jane Greer
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 15, 2020
First impressions suggest Dick Powell doesn’t fit the boots of a western hero as he did the fedoras of noir. Like Bogart or even Cagney, his physique isn’t imposing and yet he makes up for it with a wry wit. Running off his mouth as he often does fits the cynicism of noir. Not that it read more
Blood on the Moon (1948): A Robert Mitchum Horse Noir
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 13, 2020
This is admittedly nitpicky, but the title cards of Blood on the Moon are a bit jarring as the white-lettered names all but disappear into the sliver of light stretching across the otherwise black canvas of the screen. Thus, I missed out on about a fourth of the names in the cast. Opening credits a read more
Yesterday (2019): How I Longed for a Bit More
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 11, 2020
The majority of movies have to fight to earn our allegiance. However, Yesterday really does have a foolproof premise because, from the outset, it can bank on a viewership who will already have memories crowded with the Beatles and as the Fab Four play a key role in the story, you already have a huge read more