BEST ‘CAPER’ FILM: The Sting (1973) This selection was a ‘no-brainer’. If Lawrence of Arabia was near-perfect, The Sting is probably a touch better. Quite simply, it is a seamless, brilliant piece of movie-making. Great writing, an ideal cast on the top of their game, and a […]
I was recently asked to name ONE movie in each of a number of genres and categories as my favourite, and ONE in each that I considered to be grossly over-rated. Almost an impossible task, but I promised to take a crack at it. Here are my choices, randomly […]
The Long Ships was a somewhat lame British-Yugoslavian joint venture, shot around Belgrade over six months in 1963-4. Initially, Robert Taylor was lined up to play Rolfe, the Norse leader of a gaggle of seafarers bent on […]
The Vikings was shot in the summer of 1957 when its star, Kirk Douglas, was already 40 years old. Einar, the character he was playing, was supposed to be in his twenties. Well, […]
The Last Valley (1971) was panned almost universally, probably because it echoed writer/director James Clavell’s well-known atheism. Churches hate that kind of thing and they had enough clout back then to strongly influence many critics in their reviews. Personally, I thought the script was brilliant, the acting excellent, and John […]
I often watch movies over and over again, just for the pleasure of re-visiting an extraordinary performance. Occasionally, as for instance with Double Indemnity (1944), it is not only an individual performance, but a combination of strong acting from more than one player, a fabulous script, seamless directing, and a […]
As far as film noirs go, The Blue Gardenia rests somewhere near the middle of the genre. It has its moments, but the hurried ending detracts from its overall effectiveness. Indeed, if we didn’t know better, we could be forgiven for thinking that the production suddenly ran out of […]
Released in the closing years of World War Two, Cover Girl was an ordinary musical comedy featuring Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth, supported by Phil Silvers, Otto Kruger and Eve Arden. With the singular exception of ‘Long Ago […]
In 1906 Chester Gillette murdered his pregnant girlfriend Grace Brown on Big Moose Lake in upstate New York. A jury concluded that he rowed her out onto the lake with the sole purpose of drowning her, struck her over the head with a tennis racquet, and watched her sink […]
As shooting on this picture drew to a close, Paramount executives arranged a little surprise for its star Harrison Ford. Chained to a rock and about to be flogged by a turbaned torturer, he was astonished by the sight of Barbra Streisand dressed in black leather and brandishing a phony […]
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