The Greatest Story Ever Told
Perhaps a certain fatigue was setting in at the time of the premiere, only a few years after another Jesus epic, King of Kings (1961). This one was targeted by…
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Cleaning Up the Swamp
Claude Rains and James Stewart. Photo: Columbia No one finds Frank Capra’s best movie controversial today. But it certainly was back in 1939. Many politicians and reporters in Washington saw…
Notorious: Spy Games
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Photo: RKO In the mid-1940s, the legendary Hollywood producer David O. Selznick had plenty of opinions about the casting of Alfred Hitchcock's upcoming thriller Notorious.…
The Invisible Man: Terror Out of Sight
Photo: Universal Claude Rains reportedly once said that it was Michael Curtiz who showed him what not to do in front of a camera. Having come from the theater, Rains…
Casablanca: You Must Remember This
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Photo: Warner Casablanca was just another movie meant to bolster the spirit of American audiences at a time when the nation had just entered an…
Lawrence of Arabia: Lost in the Sand
Peter O'Toole. Photo: Columbia I regret never having seen this film on a big screen, the kind of epic for which the widescreen format was invented. But it is a…