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.
Now Hear This (1962, Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 21, 2012
Now Hear This is a fairly amazing cartoon. It’s even more amazing when one considers it’s a Warner Bros. cartoon under the “Looney Tunes” banner. Jones and co-director Noble play with the idea of sound as it relates to movies. I suppose cartoons specifically, but it’s read more
The Third Secret (1964, Charles Crichton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 20, 2012
Between Crichton’s fantastic CinemaScope composition and Douglas Slocombe’s wondrous black and white photography, it’d be hard not admire The Third Secret. It’s an engaging enough thriller, though it does run into the problem of having one ending too many. Stephen Boyd plays read more
Buried Treasure (1926, Robert F. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 19, 2012
Buried Treasure would be a lot better if director McGowan knew how to embrace the absurdity of the short. The gang has made a seaworthy boat. They take it out to look for buried treasure. Unfortunately, everyone–dog and cat included–get seasick and they’re out all night. Obviously read more
Mouse and Garden (1960, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 18, 2012
Mouse and Garden has some bad animation… shockingly bad. The cartoon’s about Sylvester and his sidekick, Sam, fighting over a mouse. The animation on Sam (an orange cat) and the mouse is awful. Freleng apparently didn’t care about appearing three dimensional. Actually, a lot of th read more
Blue Thunder (1983, John Badham)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 17, 2012
Blue Thunder is astoundingly dumb. It’s not exactly bad, as there are some fantastic effects and some of the script has shockingly sublime moments, but it’s astoundingly dumb. It starts off strong, with a decent enough first act. Daniel Stern is new to the Astro division of the LAPD and read more
I Do (1921, Hal Roach)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 16, 2012
Where to start with I Do…. There are two big places and one little one. The little one is just suburban paranoia in the twenties, with newlyweds Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis terrified over being robbed. It leads to hijinks. But this subplot is only the last seven minutes, tacked on to the r read more
Hook, Line and Stinker (1958, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 14, 2012
I don’t get it. I haven’t seen a Road Runner cartoon since I was a kid, but watching Hook, Line and Stinker, I couldn’t figure out the appeal. Oh, Jones’s direction is outstanding and the animation is great, but it’s a long series of gags. They’re not laugh out l read more
Never Weaken (1921, Fred C. Newmeyer)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 12, 2012
Never Weaken combines two of Lloyd’s favorite features (at least from his shorts of the era)… skyscraper derring do and failed suicide attempts. While the former is definitely thrilling, the latter is unpleasant and, in terms of narrative, rather lazy writing. The short starts strong, w read more
By Word of Mouse (1954, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 11, 2012
I feel like By Word of Mouse should be better. It turns out it’s a Sylvester cartoon–not without good gags–but the concept deserves more. A German mouse heads to the U.S. to visit a relation; free market capitalism–well, American consumerism, wows him and the two cousins fin read more
Tarantula (1955, Jack Arnold)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 10, 2012
Science may make monsters, but the morale of the story–according to Tarantula anyway–is the Air Force will always be there to bomb such monsters back to the Stone Age. The problem with Tarantula is fairly simple… it’s not a movie about a giant tarantula. Oh, it might have ro read more
High and Dizzy (1920, Hal Roach)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 9, 2012
Sometimes low concept is the best concept. High and Dizzy concerns a drunken Harold Lloyd and his adventures about town with his sidekick, played by Roy Brooks. Lloyd and Brooks get into all sorts of trouble, some predictable, some not, and it just makes for a pleasant comedy. It helps, of course, read more
The Woman on Pier 13 (1949, Robert Stevenson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 8, 2012
The politics of The Woman on Pier 13 are more interesting than the film itself. While it’s rabidly anti-Communist, the film is pro-Union. It sets up the Communist Party (the USA branch—there’s no mention of Soviet ties) as an unimaginably devious and effective organization. There’s no motive read more
Sea Salts (1949, Jack Hannah)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 7, 2012
Sea Salts opens with a framing device, which doesn’t make much sense from a story point of view. Well, wait, maybe the frame is to show the viewer Donald Duck (as a sea captain) is a likable greedy, selfish jerk, not a dangerous one. The protagonist is actually a beetle, one of Donald’s read more
Non-Stop New York (1937, Robert Stevenson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 6, 2012
I’d almost say Non-Stop New York has to be seen to be believed, but it might imply someone else should suffer through the film’s endless seventy-some minute running time. It’s a completely idiotic British attempt at an American proto-noir. The film opens in New York, so you have a read more
Haunted Spooks (1920, Hal Roach and Alfred J. Goulding)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 5, 2012
Haunted Spooks is a disjointed experience. It starts well enough, with unmarried Mildred Davis inheriting a mansion… so long as she’s married. Her lawyer promises to get her a husband, which the title cards have already revealed will be Harold Lloyd. Then Haunted takes its time bringing read more
Feed the Kitty (1952, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 4, 2012
A tough bulldog adopts an adorable kitten in Feed the Kitty; a story Jones liked so much he remade it. This one, the original, manages to be charming without saccharine, maybe because of the really strange objectification of the dog’s lady owner. She kicks up her skirt at one point, revealing read more
Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941, Walter Forde)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 3, 2012
For the final Inspector Hornleigh picture, the filmmakers go propaganda. They do have some fun with it—the film’s first sequence is Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim on an army base, undercover as aged privates, investigating scrounging. It’s all played for laughs, sort of wasting some of the running read more
An Inspector Calls (1954, Guy Hamilton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 1, 2012
For the majority of An Inspector Calls, I thought Alastair Sim’s delicate, thoughtful performance was out of place. The film’s incredibly melodramatic and contrived. After the twist ending… well, I’m pretty sure it’s still melodramatic and contrived, but it gives the i read more
Golden Yeggs (1950, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 31, 2012
Once again, the boys at Warner Bros. have some problems with basic gender realities. Not only does Daffy Duck lay eggs (something he strongly infers in Golden Yeggs without getting graphic), neither do ganders. That incredible plot problem aside, Yeggs is a lot of fun. It starts on Porky Pig’ read more
Inspector Hornleigh (1939, Eugene Forde)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 30, 2012
It would be interesting to know how much of Inspector Hornleigh features Gordon Harker (playing Inspector Hornleigh) on screen. While Harker does get a fair amount of the running time, a lot is spent on his sidekick, played by Alastair Sim, and the villains. The script’s approach to narrative read more