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Tag: golden age of cinema

The Bedford Incident: In the Shadow of the Cold War.

The Bedford Incident: In the Shadow of the Cold War.

Released: November 1965 Directed by: James B. Harris Cast: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, James MacArthur, Martin Balsam, Wally Cox, Eric Portman, Michael Kane, Gary Cockrell, Phil Brown, and Donald Sutherland as Hospitalman Nerney. Some spoilers. Cold War movies usually lurk in the shadows. The shadowy alleyways of East or West Berlin or an endless Scandinavian night. The Bedford Incident exists in the shadows of the bridge of the USS Bedford, a US Navy destroyer patrolling the Denmark Strait off the…

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A Matter of Life and Death: Life and Death and So Much More.

A Matter of Life and Death: Life and Death and So Much More.

Released: December 1946 Directed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, Richard Attenborough, Abraham Sofaer, and Raymond Massey as Abraham Farlan. First time viewing. A Matter of Life and Death is a movie about love, but it also about so much more. Life and death to be sure. The afterlife without theology to gum up the works, but rather humanity as a whole needing to embrace and begin…

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The Cameraman: The Art of Unrequited Love.

The Cameraman: The Art of Unrequited Love.

Released: September 1928 Directed by: Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton Cast: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Stacey, Harry Gribbon, Edward Brophy, Josephine the Monkey, and Vernon Dent as Man in Tight Bathing Suit. Love is frequently a theme of Buster Keaton’s films. Love of the unrequited variety, you know, loneliness, rejection, pain, physical and mental, and the ever popular little guy getting sand kicked in his face. The Cameraman is one such picture, and my favorite of Mr….

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A Christmas Wish aka The Great Rupert

A Christmas Wish aka The Great Rupert

Released: March 1950 Directed by: Irving Pichel Cast: Jimmy Durante, Terry Moore, Tom Drake, Frank Orth, Sara Haden, Queenie Smith, Chick Chandler, Jimmy Conlin, Rupert the Squirrel. I’ve believed for a long time that squirrels are the dolphins of the backyard, and A Christmas Wish confirms that belief. Rupert the Squirrel is the most amazing squirrel I have ever seen. He not only dances, but he does a Scottish jig that would make any Highlander proud. He is an astute…

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Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: That Magical Time of Year When We Turn to Warm Thoughts of Alien Invasion.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: That Magical Time of Year When We Turn to Warm Thoughts of Alien Invasion.

Released: November 1964 Directed By: Nicholas Webster Cast: John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck, Bill McCutcheon, Victor Stiles, Donna Conforti, Chris Month, Pia Zadora. It was the middle of Septober on the planet Mars, and Kimar (Leonard Hicks) was concerned. His children, Bomar (Chris Month) and Girmar (Pia Zadora), were addicted to watching Earth programs on the video scope. If you saw the programs the kids were watching, you’d be concerned as well. KID-TV was broadcasting live from Santa’s Workshop…

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Casablanca: Monsieur Rick, Signor Ugarte, and the Fine Art of World Building.

Casablanca: Monsieur Rick, Signor Ugarte, and the Fine Art of World Building.

Released: January 1943 Directed By: Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre. By the time we meet Richard Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in the first act of Casablanca, two German couriers have been murdered and two valuable letters of transit have been stolen, Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains) has rounded up the usual suspects, Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) of the Third Reich shows up ahead of the impending arrival of Victor…

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Gun Crazy: “Thrill Crazy… Kill Crazy… ‘Deadly is the Female.’”

Gun Crazy: “Thrill Crazy… Kill Crazy… ‘Deadly is the Female.’”

Released: January 1950 Dir.: Joseph H. Lewis Cast: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Anabel Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, Russ Tamblyn. Right from childhood Bart Tare (John Dall) was crazy about guns. So much so he tried to break into a hardware store to steal a revolver. His attempt failed and earned him 5 years up the river to reform school. Bart learned his lessons the hard way, at the ripe old age of 7 he shot a baby…

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Buck Privates: ‘You’ll Be Caught in a Draft…of Laughter!’

Buck Privates: ‘You’ll Be Caught in a Draft…of Laughter!’

Released: January 1941 Dir.: Arthur Lubin Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis, Jane Frazee, Nat Pendleton, The Andrews Sisters. Imagine a world where you and a pal could hangout on a street corner selling neckties for 10 cents apiece. Be chased by a cop, for illegally selling said neckties, hide from him by ducking into a movie theater and then accidentally enlisting in the army. Imagine a world where while waiting to be shipped off to boot…

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All Through the Night: ‘This is Broadway, Not Berlin!’

All Through the Night: ‘This is Broadway, Not Berlin!’

Released: 1942 Dir.: Vincent Sherman How can you not like a movie that pits Humphrey Bogart against Conrad Veidt? Better still, gangsters versus Nazis! All Through the Night has this, and more. Add William Demarest, Frank McHugh, Judith Anderson, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, and the always awesome Peter Lorre, and you have a great night’s entertainment. Gloves Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) is a popular Broadway sporting figure and man about town, in other words a gambler. And when Gloves’ friend, and…

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Hiroshima mon amour: ‘…the Obvious Necessity of Remembering…’

Hiroshima mon amour: ‘…the Obvious Necessity of Remembering…’

Released: 1959 Dir.: Alain Resnais First time viewing reaction. I’ve known about Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima mon amour for years but knew absolutely nothing about it. And that’s how I went into the film when I watched it for the first time Monday night. It is a beautiful, yet devastating film. I understand that the main characters, who are unnamed in the film, but are identified in cast listings as, Elle (Emmanuelle Riva) and Lui (Eiji Okada), can be interpreted as…

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