Baby Face has earned a reputation as one of the films that led to the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code—and it’s easy to see what gave censors the vapours. Not only does Alfred E. Green’s film dare to speak plainly about female exploitation, it depicts a woman ruthlessly exploiting men and celebrates her. (The story […]
Stranger in a Strange Land: ‘Local Hero’ (1983)
Local Hero is a fish-out-of-water comedy about an American oilman who travels to a tiny Scottish town and tries to do business with the locals. So far, so run-of-the-mill. But look again. Bill Forsyth’s film is also about the price we pay for progress, the emptiness lurking in seemingly full lives and the beauty of […]
Adventures in Time and Space: ‘Dr. Who and the Daleks’ (1965) and ‘Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.’ (1966)
At 5:16 PM on 23 November 1963, a new science fiction show premiered on the BBC. What started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard has grown into the world’s longest-running science fiction series, a grand adventure spanning over 50 years across television, radio, comics, videogames and novels (plus a marvellous, fan-made stop-motion animation series). […]
The Measure of Love: ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ (1951)
This post is part of The James Mason Blogathon, hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films. See the other posts here. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is set in Spain in the 1930s. Much of it takes place by the sea. Its lead characters are the embodiment of a Dutch maritime legend and a woman […]
His Last Duchess: ‘Corridor of Mirrors’ (1948)
Corridor of Mirrors begins with a respectable British housewife sneaking out of the house to see her lover—or rather, the wax figure of her lover in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud’s. FilmStruck was made for oddities like this. How else would I have found a film so nonchalantly bizarre, so casually baroque? The […]
Everyday Wonders: ‘Miracle in the Rain’ (1956)
This post is part of the Second Van Johnson blogathon, hosted by Love Letters To Old Hollywood. See the other posts here. “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” -‘Anthem’, Leonard Cohen In Miracle in the Rain, two strangers meet during a New York City downpour and fall in love. […]
A Very English Haunting: ‘Blithe Spirit’ (1945)
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 […]
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 […]