There are films I long to see and know I never will: Michael Powell’s Prospero; Orson Welles’ Heart of Darkness; Martin Scorsese’s Gershwin; Max Opühl’s The Duchess of Langeais. Film history is haunted by the spectres of unmade movies, films which for whatever reason—cast reshuffles, vagaries of financing—never saw the light of a projection booth. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Light and Shadow: Ray Milland
When I was eight or nine, I wandered into the living room and found my mother watching a film I didn’t recognize. Grace Kelly was pleading with a man not to reveal their affair to her once distant, now much-reformed husband. Then, ‘Mr. Kelly’ arrived. He was charming, witty, impeccably dressed and secretly plotting to […]
A Few Words on Robert Donat
He was one of the biggest stars in British cinema, but only made 19 films. He was celebrated for his beautiful speaking voice, but suffered from crippling asthma. He made his name playing dashing heroes, but is now best remembered for his performance as a shy schoolteacher. He might be the finest actor Britain ever […]