Mildred Pierce (1945) Film Review A+
Brilliantly filmed in high Germanic style by a wondrously talented bunch of ex-pat Viennese uber talents: Curtiz, Anton Grot and Max Steiner.
Read More
Category: Ratings: Movies and Television
The Uninvited (1944) Film Review B-
The movie from 1944, with four lesbian characters, still entertains. Victor Young’s haunting theme was made into a song “Stella by Starlight.”
Read More
Murder My Sweet (1944) Film Review. B+
Powell is in very good company, and he acquits himself admirably. He also gets props for being the first to play Marlowe.
Read More
Double Indemnity (1944) Film Review A+
“Double Indemnity” is the best of the three great film noirs of 1944, the others being “Laura” and “The Woman in the Window”. The three leads are superb as is Wilder’s direction.
Read More
Laura (1944) Film Review A+
“Laura” is one of the classic film noirs. Gene Tierney is born and Clifton Webb becomes a star in his fifties. Haunting Raksin score.
Read More
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Film Review A+
Alfred Hitchcock, the cinema’s greatest director, made seven perfect films in which every shot, every camera move, every editing sequence is, well, perfect.
Read More
Casablanca (1942-1943) Here’s Looking at you Kid! A+
Written on the fly by the fabulous Epstein twins and Howard Koch and directed by Michael Curtiz, this is one of the most romantic of all Hollywood movies.
Read More
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) Film Review A-
Monty Wooley delights as the impossibly pompous Sheridan Whiteside in William Keighley’s wonderful adaptation of the Kauffman/Hart play.
Read More
The Maltese Falcon (1941) Film Review A-
The performances are there to savor with the great Mary Astor doing a superb turn as Bridget O’ Shaughnessy and the gay triumvirate bringing up the rear!
Read More
Rebecca (1940) Film Review A+
“Rebecca”, marked the arrival in Hollywood of the man who was, or would eventually become, the greatest director in the history of cinema.
Read More
The Wizard of Oz (1939) Film Review A-
She captured everyone’s heart, gay or straight. There is something vulnerable yet confident about her. And then there is that incredible voice!
Read More
The Women (1939) Film Review A-
Every character in the movie, and every animal featured, was female. Great work by Crawford, Russell, Shearer and Mary Boland.
Read More
Bringing Up Baby (1938) Film review A-
When Hepburn’s aunt asks him to explain, he replies exasperatedly, “Because I just went gay all of a sudden” (leaping into the air at the word gay).
Read More
Dodsworth (1936) Film Review A+
“Dodsworth”: William Wyler’s masterpiece, the best movie ever made about the fear of growing old. It was Wyler’s first Oscar nomination.
Read More
Sylvia Scarlet (1935) Film Review B-
Both gay and trans, Sylvia/Sylvester set the bar impossibly high for years to come. One of the great financial disasters of the 1930s, it resulted in Hepburn being labelled box office poison.
Read More
Top Hat (1935) Film Review A+
The Best of the Astaire-Rogers movies. Cinematography: David Abel. Production Design: Carroll Clark/Van Nest Polglase. Songs: Irving Berlin.
Read More
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Film Review A-
Director James Whale’s masterpiece is as close to Susan Sontag’s definition of high camp as the movies can deliver.
Read More
Andrea Arnold Shorts: Wasp (2003) Dog (2001) Milk (1998) A+
A young mother (Natalie Press), who wants to rekindle an old relationship, neglects her four children for an evening.
Read More
Haulout (2022) is a Masterpiece A+
A “haulout” is a place where walruses mate. Thanks to global warming, over 100,000 are packed into one tiny beach. The result is death on a horrific scale.
Read More
Strange Way of Life (2023) Almodovar By Saint Laurent B+
As the movie proceeds, we realize this is more Saint Laurent than Almodovar. If only he trusted himself more and let the beauty come from within.
Read More