Stagecoach: Introducing John Wayne
Andy Devine, John Wayne and Louise Platt. Photo: United Artists Today, we remember John Ford as a great director of Westerns. In 1939, that wasn’t really the case. Ford hadn’t…
1917: Crossing No Man’s Land
Photo: Universal We’re only a week away from the Oscars and 1917 is the clear frontrunner, especially since it won the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards. Not that…
Parasite: Movin’ On Up
Choi Woo-shik, Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin and Park So-dam. Photo: CJ Entertainment As fall descended on us this year, it became increasingly clear that class warfare was going to be…
Kramer vs. Kramer: Learning on the Job
Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Justin Henry. Photo: Columbia ”Wall-to-wall sentiment”, Time Out wrote in a disdainful review. Sure, if that’s what you choose to hate. Kramer vs. Kramer became…
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…
An American in Paris: Art, Dance & Romance
Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Photo: MGM ”An American in Paris” first saw the light of day in 1928. A jazzy orchestral piece, it was written by George Gershwin and…
M: Terror in Berlin
Peter Lorre. Photo: Nero-Film AG After announcing that his next movie would be a story about a child murderer, acclaimed filmmaker Fritz Lang was informed that he wouldn’t get to…
Night of the Hunter: John, Pearl and the Big Bad Wolf
Robert Mitchum. Photo: United Artists Charles Laughton had never directed a movie before. Sure, he was an acclaimed actor and had won an Oscar; he had also directed plays on…
Mutiny on the Bounty: Battling Bligh
Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. Photo: MGM 1935 was a great year in Hollywood, so perhaps there’s no wonder that Mutiny on the Bounty only ended up winning one of…
Gone With the Wind: Fall of the Old South
Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Photo: MGM Last August, news came that a cinema in Memphis, Tennessee had decided not to screen Gone With the Wind because of numerous complaints.…