Released: 1939 Dir.: Jules White The Christmas of 1987 was a special Christmas for me. For it was the year I gave my dad the ultimate Christmas gift. The gift of the The Three Stooges, on VHS. This release featured three of the Stooges short comedies, Playing the Ponies, An Ache in Every Stake, and Three Sappy People. All of them are gems, with the Stooges in their prime. Every Christmas dinner was at my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Ted’s…
Released: 1931 Dir.: Josef von Sternberg Vienna. On a rainy night in 1915, a prostitute committed suicide and her body is being removed from her apartment. With neighbors looking on, Marie Kolerer (Marlene Dietrich), a fellow lady of the evening, replies to a snarky remark about her facing the same fate. Marie replies, ‘No I am not. I am not afraid of life. Although I am not afraid of death, either.’ Marie’s remark is overheard by the Chief of the…
Released: 1939 Dir. Raoul Walsh I remember seeing The Roaring Twenties for the first time on a Sunday afternoon, courtesy of our local PBS station just across the border. During the winter months WNED was airing the classic Warner Brothers films, and if I remember correctly, the focus was mainly on the films of James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. As luck would have it The Roaring Twenties starred both. I’d of course seen films from the golden age…
