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.
Classic Movie Beginner’s Guide: Gregory Peck
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 12, 2019
We want to try something a bit different at 4 Star Films. Most of what we put out are film reviews. As the years have gone by, they’ve gotten quite hefty. Frankly, they’re what I get the most joy out of writing. But I thought it would be a welcomed addition to help other nascent film fan read more
The Florida Project (2017): The Antithesis of Hollywood Escapism
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 11, 2019
When we run in different circles it’s easy to have a conveniently jaundiced view of our society. On a personal scale, I’m talking about our neighborhoods, our towns, our community institutions. We turn a blind eye to those things that do not concern us — maybe they’re below read more
Days of Wine and Roses (1962): Alcoholics Anonymous
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 9, 2019
I had always heard Days of Wine and Roses was shown to members of AA. It’s no small coincidence the co-founder Bill Wilson served as a technical advisor. But I never realized how integral it is to the very integrity of the plot. Jack Lemmon had the penchant for playing lovable losers — read more
Two Women (1961): Sophia Loren in Her Mother Tongue
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 7, 2019
Sophia Loren is an extraordinary treasure of the cinema. We know her from numerous Hollywood pictures but there’s something especially gratifying about hearing her in her mother tongue. It’s not that she is necessarily less herself in a picture like Houseboat, speaking English dialogue, read more
Do The Right Thing (1989): The Legacy of MLK & Malcolm X
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 5, 2019
The opening images are charged with the beats of Public Enemy matched by a provocative palette and a vibrant kineticism. One is reminded up a very particular point in time and a particular subculture — rap music is a part of it, certainly — but it’s indicative of so much more. Bec read more
Splendor in the Grass (1961): Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 2, 2019
Like William Inge’s earlier piece, Picnic, or some of Tennessee Williams’ most substantial work, Splendor in the Grass seems to hinge on the fact its content is in some way pushing the envelope as far as social issues and subsequent taboos go. It’s no surprise Elia Kazan was often read more
Wild River (1960): Elia Kazan and Monty Clift at Their Most Subtle
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 30, 2019
“You’re getting awful human aren’t you Chuck?” ~ Lee Remick as Carol “I was always human, wasn’t I?” ~ Montgomery Clift as Chuck With the mention of the Tennessee Valley Authority and what feels like Depression newsreel footage suggesting the work they are read more
A Face in the Crowd (1957): Lonesome Rhodes is No Andy Taylor
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 26, 2019
It begins unobtrusively enough. In a backwater Arkansas jail, a drunkard plays his guitar on a radio segment of “A Face in the Crowd” being broadcast from his cell. They don’t know it quite yet but soon the host who found him, Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), and Larry “Lone read more
Baby Doll (1956): Elia Kazan Does Southern Comedy
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 24, 2019
Elia Kazan had a fairly lucrative partnership with Tennessee Williams and the same could be said of his ongoing working relationship with Karl Malden. It’s fitting that all three are back for Baby Doll and yet it still manages to feel like a bit of an outlier in Kazan’s oeuvre thus far. read more
A Tree Grows in Brookyln (1945): The Precursor to I Remember Mama
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 22, 2019
The reveries of a Saturday afternoon in childhood are where A Tree Grows in Brooklyn chooses to begin and it proves a fine entry point, giving us an instant feel for the world the Irish neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Its contours are impoverished, even harsh, but also richly American. The read more
Ad Astra (2019): To The Stars and “The Seeing Eye”
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 21, 2019
Since the dawn of man, the vast reaches of the cosmos up above have enamored us to the nth degree. You need only watch something like 2001 to be reminded of that fact. (There’s no doubt James Gray is well-versed in its frames.) Herein lies a core theme throughout our very existence. We have th read more
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019): Tarantino By Way of Model Shop
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 20, 2019
To his credit, Quentin Tarantino will always and forever be a divisive creative force. There is no recourse but to either love or dislike his work. I fall closer to the latter category though I’m not as vehement as some. At the core of this fission are his own proclivities. Tarantino has alwa read more
To Each His Own (1946): Olivia de Havilland Does Melodrama Well
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 18, 2019
Ginger Rogers purportedly passed over the script for To Each His Own because, at first glance, it’s hardly a glamorous role; but for the right person, it could be something unquestionably special. That actor was Olivia de Havilland. Certainly, the production is bolstered by Mitchell Leisen, a read more
Gentleman Jim (1942): Biopic by Marquess of Queensberry Rules
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 16, 2019
Boxing movies and biopics are a mainstay of Hollywood. It’s an established fact so naming names is all but unnecessary. The affable brilliance of Gentleman Jim is its agile footwork allowing it to sidestep a myriad of tropes attached to biopics and the schmaltz that Old Hollywood was always ca read more
The Sea Hawk (1940): Errol Flynn Against The Spanish Armada
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 12, 2019
Anyone who knows even a smidgeon about historical dates knows what the big to-do with 1588 is. If anything, 1588 automatically means the sinking of the Spanish Armada by Queen Elizabeth’s forces. So when a film opens in Spain in 1585 we already have a good idea of where we might be going. It& read more
Dodge City (1939): An Errol Flynn Western
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 10, 2019
The year is 1866. The Civil War is over and anyone with vision is moving west. One such outpost is Kansas where the railway is replacing the stagecoach. It’s a world of iron men and iron horses. Because a place like the notorious Dodge City is a “town that knew no ethics but cash and kil read more
Captain Blood (1935) Starring Flynn and De Havilland
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 8, 2019
To a certain stratum of society — namely classic movie fans — it’s nearly impossible to imagine Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland not being paired together or not being box office draws, for that matter. However, on both accounts in 1935, the studio was taking quite the risk, st read more
The Naked Dawn (1955): An Edgar G. Ulmer Western
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 5, 2019
The western is founded on certain unifying archetypes, from drifters to revenge stories, showdowns and the westward progress of civilization butting up against the lawless wilderness. It always proved a fitting genre for morality plays and deeply thematic ideas. The tradition of the bank robbery goe read more
The Desperate Hours (1955) Bogart Vs. March
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 3, 2019
As the credits roll, the camera zooms its way down a residential street but doesn’t feel natural. It’s like a peering gaze casing the scene as music hammers away in the background. What makes the imagery more disconcerting is that this tranquil picture-perfect suburbia could be plucked read more
Rancho Notorious (1952): Chug-a-Lug
4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 1, 2019
The legend goes that the ever-meddling megalomaniac of RKO Pictures, Howard Hughes, insisted the film’s title be changed to Rancho Notorious because European audiences wouldn’t know what a “Chug-a-Lug” was. Director Fritz Lang, who was himself a European emigre, snidely repli read more