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.
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House (1921, Winsor McCay)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 28, 2018
The Flying House does a lot in its eleven minute runtime. First and maybe foremost–it’s questionable given where the film ends up–it’s a successful, ambitious format change for the Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend comic strip. Adapted by its creator, McCay–who’s got his twenty-five year-old son, read more
Johnny English (2003, Peter Howitt)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 27, 2018
Johnny English runs just under ninety minutes, which is one of the film’s secret weapons–nothing ever goes on too long, not the good stuff, not the bad stuff, not the mediocre stuff. There’s not a lot of bad stuff–more varying degrees of mediocre; when things then get better, when things finally read more
Naked Alibi (1954, Jerry Hopper)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 26, 2018
The first half hour of Naked Alibi–the film runs just under ninety minutes so the entire first third–is separate from the remainder. Set in a small city (shot on the backlot, but rather well thanks to Russell Metty’s glorious photography), chief of detectives Sterling Hayden has been getting a read more
DeepStar Six (1989, Sean S. Cunningham)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 25, 2018
DeepStar Six is a bad looking movie. There’s maybe one decent special effects moment–very limited, slightly gory–and it comes at the end, after the film has flubbed bigger effects sequences and other gore moments. Director Cunningham pretends he’s doing “Jaws at the ocean floor” for a while, read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 11: The Water Goddess
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 24, 2018
So while Yvonne Dario is still consoling Yvette Andréyor about deceiving her–again, it’s not clear how much of the blame Dario takes on herself, which should be a lot since she made René Cresté vow to kill Andréyor’s father–Cresté goes off to save Andréyor’s father. On the way, he meets read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 10: Jacqueline’s Heart
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 23, 2018
Jacqueline’s Heart is a very short episode. Nine minutes or so. And nothing much happens except René Cresté plays fast and loose with his multiple identities and Yvette Andréyor finds his make-up kit. Overhearing Andréyor wish his sweet old man persona would show up, Cresté obliges. A note from read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 9: When the Child Appeared
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 22, 2018
This chapter begins with the principals removed from their problems and living it up on the Mediterranean. Édouard Mathé and mother Yvonne Dario have taken Yvette Andréyor, Olinda Mano, and (of course) René Poyen away from the troubles in Paris to a beautiful seaside estate. Somewhere they can all read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 8: The Underground Passages of the Chateau-Rouge
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 21, 2018
The Underground Passages of the Chateau-Rouge shows the audience the most of Judex’s base so far. There’s a finished bedroom and some castle interior hallways. Not just the ruins and then laboratory. Some of it is revealed when brothers René Cresté and Édouard Mathé show their mom, Yvonne Dario, read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 7: The Woman in Black
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 20, 2018
The Woman in Black introduces the first new character to Judex since the first chapter. There’s the prologue and then the first chapter; The Woman is the first new character since the first chapter. It’s Judex’s mom, played by Yvonne Dario (mostly in some awesome old age makeup–Judex is great read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 6: The Licorice Kid
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 19, 2018
The Licorice Kid–René Poyen–gets his own chapter. Sort of. Poyen figures into it quite a bit, but it’s not his chapter. He doesn’t even save the day (he does help save the day). While Yvette Andréyor is safe, René Cresté is still very sad she doesn’t like him after he threatened to kill read more
Lifeboat (1944, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 18, 2018
Lifeboat never feels stagy, which is one of the film’s greatest successes. The entire thing takes place in a single lifeboat, with director Hitchcock not doing many medium or long shots of the lifeboat exterior. All the action is with the actors, Hitchcock using distinctive composition–Glen MacWill read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 5: The Tragic Mill
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 17, 2018
The Tragic Mill earns its title. Villains Musidora and Jean Devalde kidnap currently sickly damsel in distress Yvette Andréyor and take her to an old mill. The kidnapping–Andréyor’s second in Judex (so far)–happens only before René Cresté arrives to protect her. While the villains bicker over read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 4: The Secret of the Tomb
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 16, 2018
I was wondering how Judex was going to move forward–the last chapter ended with villains Musidora and Jean Devalde foiled in their kidnapping of Yvette Andréyor. This chapter begins with Musidora suspicious of Judex’s warnings. She convinces Devalde to investigate and they head to the graveyard. read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 3: The Fantastic Hounds
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 15, 2018
The Fantastic Hounds seems like a silly name for the chapter, but it turns out Judex’s dog pack is rather fantastic. They aren’t just able to sniff out kidnapped Yvette Andréyor, they’re able to rescue her. Sure, a ten or twenty dog pack is intimidating, but they execute their mission perfectly. read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 2: The Atonement
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 14, 2018
The Atonement might be a peculiar chapter for Judex; since it’s only the second one, however, maybe it’s going to be the norm. It starts with Judex gently intimidating his captive–Louis Leubas. At first, it seems like Leubas is going to be doing some atoning. It’s also where Feuillade has some read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Episode 1: The Mysterious Shadow
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 13, 2018
The first chapter (proper) immediately follows the prologue, with Yvette Andréyor taking over the lead (possibly for the rest of Judex). Unlike her father, she’s swayed by the mysterious Judex’s demand–half her father’s fortune was to go to charity or he’d be killed. Andréyor, shedding herself read more
Judex (1916, Louis Feuillade), Prologue
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 12, 2018
The prologue to Judex mostly concerns banker Louis Leubas. He’s rich, he’s French, he’s corrupt. He wants to carry on with a younger woman–Musidora–but he’s got a widowed daughter (Yvette Andréyor) and a grandson living with him. So he decides to marry off Andréyor to a presumably suitable read more
Soylent Green (1973, Richard Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 11, 2018
If you leave the twist–which isn’t even a twist, just a justification for conspiracy–ending off Soylent Green, it’s a detective story. The case–the murder of a wealthy businessman–isn’t as important as how that case affects lead Charlton Heston. He starts carrying on with the victim’s read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 10, 2018
For the first few chapters, Bela Lugosi can carry The Phantom Creeps. He’s hamming it up as a mad scientist surrounded by actors who can’t even ham. Creeps has some truly terrible performances, particularly from its other leads, Robert Kent and Dorothy Arnold. He’s the military intelligence officer read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 12: To Destroy the World
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 9, 2018
Sadly, there’s not much world destroying in To Destroy the World. Not even when Bela Lugosi, finally reunited with his meteorite and able to escape, decides instead he’s going to steal a biplane and bomb things. Starting with the federal building. Only he drops a bomb on a zeppelin, which does inde read more