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.
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956, Curt Siodmak)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 16, 2011
Siodmak sure does love his medium shots. He uses the same medium shot for every indoor scene in Curucu, which, along with the atrocious acting and writing, brings some regularity to the film. I’ve wanted to see this one since I was a kid, mostly because of the excellent poster. It’s str read more
Berlin Express (1948, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 14, 2011
Berlin Express is a postwar thriller. In the late forties and early fifties, there were a number of such films—most filmed either partially or totally on location in the ruins of Germany. I was expecting Express to be more of a noir, but it’s not. With its pseudo-documentary approach, down to the read more
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946, Robert Clampett)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 27, 2011
Is that Porky Pig cameoing in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery? I kept expecting him to be revealed as the big villain. The story concerns Daffy Duck getting clomped on the head and imagining himself in a Dick Tracy adventure. Now, for Tracy fans, there’s a lot to see, including some inventive takes on read more
Daffy Duck Slept Here (1948, Robert McKimson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 25, 2011
So all you need to make Daffy Duck an incredibly sympathetic character is Porky Pig. In Daffy Duck Slept Here, Porky’s a traveler in search of a hotel room. He ends up lodging with Daffy, only they haven’t met yet. Once they do, the majority of the hilarity ensues. And it is hilarity. Slept Here read more
The Hep Cat (1942, Robert Clampett)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 13, 2011
In the last minute and a half of The Hep Cat, Clampett finally comes up with some really interesting shots. The short’s a cat and dog one. It follows the standard. Dumb dog versus a mean, vain and not much smarter cat. The titular hep cat breaks out into a song routine, but it’s not enough to separ read more
The Goose Goes South (1941, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 11, 2011
There aren’t any real gags in The Goose Goes South until the finish. And that gag is sort of predictable. The cartoon concerns a goose who can’t fly and therefore has to find other ways south for the winter. The uncredited narrator explains the goose’s problem and describes some of his adventures. read more
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977, Joseph McGrath)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 7, 2011
The Strange Case of the End of the World as We Know It was a TV special, which might explain for the awkward structure. It has the elements of a strong spoof and some excellent scenes, but the pacing is dreadfully off. It opens with Ron Moody’s Henry Kissinger stand-in being assassinated (no spoile read more
Lonesome Ghosts (1937, Burt Gillett)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 6, 2011
The animation in Lonesome Ghosts is so exquisite, it seems impossible the narrative could screw it up. Though, when the cartoon moves into a haunted house from this amazing outdoor scene, I suppose the possibility is there. The cartoon is Mickey, Donald and Goofy as ghost hunters. They run into tro read more
Clockwise (1986, Christopher Morahan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 5, 2011
At some point during Clockwise, I realized it plays like a TV movie. The direction is fine–Morahan doesn’t have any sweeping vistas, but it’s not because he’s framing it like a TV movie. The script is very funny (though I guess the language is pretty clean–not sure if read more
The Trans-Atlantic Mystery (1932, Joseph Henabery)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 4, 2011
The Trans-Atlantic Mystery is an early thirties mystery reduced to two reels. Gone is personality for the protagonist, gone is any humor between protagonist and sidekick; forget about a romantic interest or even any actual investigation. Instead, it’s some scenes of criminal plotting, some violent read more
Soldiers in White (1942, B. Reeves Eason)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 29, 2011
Everett Dodd’s editing makes Soldiers in White painful to watch. Some of the fault is director Eason’s, of course. His insert close-ups are awful. Given Soldiers is half comedy and half Army propaganda film (the titular soldiers are Army doctors), it’s hard to believe Eason was worried about runnin read more
So You Think You Need Glasses (1942, Richard L. Bare)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 27, 2011
Here’s a strange one. So You Think You Need Glasses starts off as an instructional short about common eyesight problems and their solutions. It’s of particular note for the opthamologist’s office… which sports much of the same equipment in 1942 it does today. Art Gilmore narrates the entire read more
Mouse Wreckers (1948, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 22, 2011
I have some not insignificant problems with Mouse Wreckers. First, the cartoon is almost entirely beautiful. Great backgrounds, great talking mice, almost everything. Except the mice’s victim, a cat. The animation on the cat is fine, but the design of the cat itself is awful. It frequently di read more
Beetlejuice (1988, Tim Burton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 21, 2011
How did Beetlejuice ever get past the studio suits? It really says something about eighties mainstream filmmaking and today’s. It’s not just the absence of a likable protagonist—Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are the main characters for the first forty-five minutes, then hand the film off to Winona read more
The Golf Specialist (1930, Monte Brice)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 20, 2011
The Golf Specialist has a very odd beginning. W.C. Fields doesn’t even show up for almost three minutes (significant in a twenty minute short); instead the film follows Shirley Grey as the house detective’s wandering wife. It’s a set-up for later, but it’s an odd way to start. The short’s read more
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985, Jerry Paris)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 16, 2011
Julie Brown shows up at the end of Police Academy 2, which doesn’t make much sense since her character is only in one other scene and she doesn’t have a single line. I was left wondering if she didn’t have a bigger role and ended up cut out (she would have been Steve Guttenberg read more
Conrad the Sailor (1942, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 15, 2011
I wasn’t sure what I was going to say about Conrad the Sailor when it started. It seemed pretty simple–Conrad is a lame cat sailor and Daffy Duck makes fun of him. It was a simple case of Daffy being a bully. Maybe I could have done something about how cartoon icons are often callous an read more
One Crazy Summer (1986, Savage Steve Holland)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 14, 2011
When Demi Moore gives a film’s best performance, it’s obviously not a good film. One Crazy Summer is apparently Holland’s attempt at doing a zany teen vacation picture. It’s the kind of movie “USA Up All Night” wouldn’t have bothered playing because it’s too boring. But the real problem read more
Readin’ and Writin’ (1932, Robert F. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 13, 2011
Readin’ and Writin’ opens on an incredibly unrealistic note–teacher June Marlowe is looking forward to the school year starting. Even ignoring the worst students in the bunch, none of them are sweet or nice. But Marlowe (and the class) have to contend with Kendall McComas’s read more
The Secret of Convict Lake (1951, Michael Gordon)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 9, 2011
The Secret of Convict Lake is a depressing affair. I knew it was Glenn Ford and Gene Tierney, but Ethel Barrymore’s in it too. So you have these three fantastic actors—Ford and Tierney even muster enough chemistry to accomplish their ludicrous romance—and an otherwise lousy Western. The film opens read more