This post is part of the David Lean blogathon, hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films. See the other posts here. When the ouija board made its commercial debut in the 1890s it was marketed as a parlour game. Charles Condomine takes a similarly playful approach to the supernatural in Blithe Spirit and unleashes havoc. […]
Death in the Snow: ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (1974)
This post is part of the Winter in July blogathon, hosted by Moon in Gemini. See the other posts here. The phrase ‘all-star cast’ can seem hackneyed these days, done to death alongside trailers that begin “in a world” and posters with faces overlaid with text. Yet Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express is […]
La Belle Josephine: ‘Siren of the Tropics’ (1927), ‘Zouzou’ (1934) and ‘Princess Tam Tam’ (1935)
What I remember best about The Triplets of Belleville, Sylvain Chomet’s eccentric, inscrutable animated comedy is its opening: a flashback showing the titular triplets performing on stage in the 1930s. There’s Charles Trenet and Django Reinhardt jamming in the orchestra pit, Fred Astaire inexplicably being devoured by his own shoes and, for reasons best known […]
The Good Fight: ‘Foreign Correspondent’ (1940)
The post is part of the Second Annual Alfred Hitchcock blogathon, hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films. See the other posts here. When it was released in August 1940, Foreign Correspondent was the most topical film Alfred Hitchcock had ever made. British troops had evacuated Dunkirk in May and early June. France and Norway […]
Hammer’s House of Horror: ‘The Brides of Dracula’ (1960), ‘The Gorgon’ (1964) and ‘Dracula: Prince of Darkness’ (1966)
Summer in New York and the streets are baking. Luckily, the Quad has been offering film buffs air-conditioned refuge, plus chills of a different kind: a series dedicated to Hammer, the British studio synonymous with Gothic horror. Founded in 1934, Hammer Film Productions churned out mysteries and adaptations of radio serials before finding its niche […]
Life with Fathers: Nine Fathers for Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day! As we celebrate fathers of all shapes and sizes, here are a handful of cinematic ones who run the gamut of paternal devotion. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) When Scout Finch (Mary Badham) comes home weeping after a disastrous first day at school, her father comforts her with the following advice: “You […]
Blogathons Ahoy!
July is blogathon month on Retro Movie Buff. I enjoyed writing for Moon in Gemini’s Outer Space on Film blogathon so much, I’ve signed up to write for a few more. They are: the Second Annual Alfred Hitchcock blogathon, hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films; the Winter in July blogathon, hosted by Moon in […]
The Walk to the Paradise Garden: ‘A Month in the Country’ (1987)
As the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice approaches the First World War slips further away. The last veterans are gone. A collective memory of trenches, poppies, lions led by donkeys, and Rupert Brooke giving way to Wilfred Owen remains. Yet the Great War, fought by those who never imagined there would be a greater one, […]
A Few Words on Anthony Bourdain
Yesterday I awoke to the news that Anthony Bourdain had died at the age of 61—he had apparently committed suicide. This was inexplicable. How could a man so wonderfully alive possibly be dead? I was a latecomer to Bourdain’s world; it helped that he was a film buff. A few years ago, I bumped into […]
Songs of Enchantment: ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ (1951)
The Tales of Hoffmann exists in defiance of the commonplace. Steeped in magic, bright with beauty, it explodes like a flare, dazzling you with colour and sound. You emerge dazed and longing to see it all over again. Only Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger could have made it. In the 1940s and ‘50s Powell and […]
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