Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
My Science Project (1985, Jonathan R. Betuel)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 8, 2012
It’s hard to say what’s worse in My Science Project, Beutel’s lame characters or his direction of the actors playing those roles. And I’m not counting Dennis Hopper, who plays an ex-hippie in the picture. While Hopper certainly has a poorly written character and Beutel’ read more
His Trysting Place (1914, Charles Chaplin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 7, 2012
The best thing about His Trysting Place is probably Frank D. Williams’s photography. Chaplin’s athletics are impressive, but he doesn’t have much use for them. They’re most exciting during his food fight with Mack Swain. The food fight itself isn’t particularly funny&# read more
Christine (1983, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 6, 2012
John Carpenter does some amazing work on Christine. He’s got help from his cinematographer, Donald M. Morgan, but the first forty-five or fifty minutes of the film are simply masterful. Carpenter has a wide variety of scenes–high school, ominous, family scenes, conversations–and a read more
Ménilmontant (1926, Dimitri Kirsanoff)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 5, 2012
I’m hesitant to call parts of Ménilmontant brilliant. There are some great moments, with amazing composition and editing, but there are also some painfully pedestrian ones. If those sequences were the only problem, I suppose I would. But director Kirsanoff also displays an abject lack of self read more
Happy Days (1926, Arvid E. Gillstrom)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 3, 2012
Happy Days is a good example of a bad silent comedy short. Ostensibly about Ethelyn Gibson’s secretary slash girl about town (it’s based on a comic strip), the short more focuses on her brother (the androgynous Billy Butts) and his baseball game. The baseball game is basically a rip-off read more
Paul Bunyan (1958, Les Clark)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 2, 2012
The beginning of Paul Bunyan is cute. It’s little Paul Bunyan (though a giant) growing up in Maine. Very cute. The song, which later becomes annoying, is well-used. Director Clark’s direction is pretty good throughout, though once Paul’s enormous ox, Babe, enters the picture, Clar read more
The Dying Detective (1921, Maurice Elvey)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 31, 2012
Given the terrible attempts at humor and Eille Norwood’s histrionic performance as Sherlock Holmes, one might think The Dying Detective is a farcical adaptation. Unfortunately, I doubt director Elvey gets farce as he doesn’t get pacing or filmic storytelling. Almost every shot in Detect read more
Pluto’s Christmas Tree (1952, Jack Hannah)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 29, 2012
Pluto’s Christmas Tree gets off to a somewhat rocky start; it turns out, the animators spend more time on one nut than they do on Mickey Mouse. Besides looking perpetually hung over, Mickey’s also very loosely drawn. However, Tree soon picks up because Hannah’s direction is inspir read more
Pig-Eyed (1925, Scott Pembroke and Joe Rock)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 27, 2012
There’s got to be something good about Pig-Eyed. I just can’t think of it. I suppose directors Pembroke and Rock do show some competence; they save the stupidest gag for last. Stan Laurel falls seven stories without injury. If there’s never any danger to him, why be interested? Bu read more
The House of Tomorrow (1949, Tex Avery)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 26, 2012
The House of Tomorrow is such a well-made cartoon, the technical aspects more than make up for some of the weak writing. However, that weak writing does make the cartoon an interesting historical artifact. First the technical stuff. Tomorrow is a tour through a house of 2050. The year’s made read more
Jean Cocteau Addresses the Year 2000 (1962, Jean Cocteau)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 24, 2012
The title sort of gives away Jean Cocteau addresses… the year 2000, but not really. The short, conceptually, is meant to be preserved in a time capsule and projected to young people in the year 2000. Cocteau is very specific about the audience; he ostensibly hopes they will be less materialis read more
Social Lion (1954, Jack Kinney)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 22, 2012
Social Lion is such a truly awful cartoon, one would need to sit with pencil and paper to make notes on every moronic detail in its six minutes. Director Jack Kinney–brother to co-writer Dick Kinney, who, with Milt Schaffer, writes a lousy story–doesn’t have bad ideas, particularl read more
You’re in Love, Charlie Brown (1967, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 20, 2012
As hard as director Melendez tries, there’s not much he can do with “You’re in Love, Charlie Brown.” The special’s two salient problems are the animation and the writing. Melendez comes up with some truly stunning shots in the special; for example, he closes with a bea read more
The Story of Anyburg U.S.A. (1957, Clyde Geronimi)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 19, 2012
The Story of Anyburg U.S.A. is an odd one. A small town decides to sue cars–personified here as cute, the windshields as big eyes–for all the auto accidents. Sadly, Anyburg opens with a lot more energy–the narrator goes on and on about homicides on the highway and such and it does read more
Stopover in Hollywood (1963, Will Williams)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 17, 2012
Shockingly enough, Paramount Pictures produced Stopover in Hollywood. Watching the short, it’s hard to believe any studio put money behind the lame travelogue–especially since it doesn’t make any use of the Paramount studio. Just off the content, I would have guessed Marineland pa read more
Sunday (1971, Klaus Georgi and Lutz Stützner)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 15, 2012
Sunday opens with lovely music from B. Güttler and a slow zoom to the planet Earth. The zoom is actually fades, with retouched photographs immediately giving the short a particular feel. There isn’t a lot of motion in Sunday. Often the animated figures are superimposed over photographs and mo read more
Wood Choppers (1929, Paul Terry)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 12, 2012
Wood Choppers is not a good cartoon. The animation is weak and director Terry’s approach to the cartoon’s reality is anything goes. Dogs resurrect themselves after being turned into sausages and mice are able to reattach their heads and morph their tails into anything they can imagine. read more
Oliver the Eighth (1934, Lloyd French)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 10, 2012
Watching Oliver Hardy muddle through Oliver the Eighth‘s terrible dialogue makes one wonder if the short truly did not have a writer–there isn’t one credited–or if the actors just made it up on the spot. Given the rampant stupidity in Eighth, the latter seems more likely. Th read more
Robin Hood Daffy (1958, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 8, 2012
Robin Hood Daffy is an unappealing mix of pointless, dumb and bewildering. Besides Porky beating up Daffy (Porky’s Friar Tuck, Daffy’s apparently Robin–more on that one in a bit), Jones’s gags all seem recycled from a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. It’s Daffy swinging around read more
The Hoose-Gow (1929, James Parrott)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 6, 2012
The Hoose-Gow is something of an early talkie mess. The shots are paced for a silent movie, leaving long awkward pauses in the soundtrack. The short’s synchronized sound is a fledgling effort. The stock sounds, when used, are obvious. Parrott’s direction is problematic throughout, with read more