Movie Classics Posted by Judy on May 14, 2010

Ever since watching the Michael Curtiz pre-Code prison movie 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis, I’ve been interested in seeing the Anatole Litvak remake with John Garfield and Ann Sheridan taking over their roles. Now at last I’ve had the chance, after the   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on May 7, 2010

James Cagney, Edward Woods and Beryl Mercer Most of the early William A Wellman movies I’ve written about here are  little-known – and the same goes for a lot of the James Cagney movies I’ve written about up to now. I often find it’s easier to find things to say about films...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on April 25, 2010

As a gangster film made only the year after The Public Enemy, directed by William A Wellman and starring Edward G Robinson and Loretta Young, this could have been a masterpiece. Sadly, it isn’t. The big problem is that it is supposedly set in the San Francisco’s Chinatown, but almost...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on April 17, 2010

Frankie Darro and Dorothy Coonan in 'Wild Boys of the Road' All six of the William A Wellman pre-Codes included in the Forbidden Hollywood Collection volume three are great to watch, and am sure I’ll go back to them all in the future. But the last one in the package,...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on April 6, 2010

Continuing my efforts to watch as many William Wellman pre-Codes as possible, I’ve now seen Lilly Turner a couple of times. This movie sadly isn’t available on DVD as yet – I believe it sometimes turns up on TCM in the US, though, and is well worth looking out for....   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on March 27, 2010

Just to say that the website for the 13th British Silent Film Festival is now up  - it will run from April 15 to 18 in Leicester, and goodies in store include the chance to see William Wellman’s silent masterpiece Beggars of Life on the big screen, as well as Tol’able...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on March 14, 2010

Richard Barthelmess might be best known as a star of silent films, but I think he was equally good in early talkies, when his boyish looks were starting to fade. He was great as a tormented wartime aviator in Howard Hawks’  The Dawn Patrol (1930) – and he gives another...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on March 7, 2010

Just when I was starting to think that every William Wellman pre-Code was a masterpiece, I came across one that I don’t like quite so much. For me the uneasy blend of comedy and melodrama in The Star Witness, starring Walter Huston, doesn’t quite work, although I still found it interesti   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on February 27, 2010

It seems to me as if 1931 was a great year for William Wellman. He made five films that year, four of which I have now seen and loved – including his masterpiece The Public Enemy. (I hope to write about that one in due course, but am slightly daunted by its...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on February 22, 2010

Loretta Young and Una Merkel If you like either William Wellman or Loretta Young, I’m prepared to bet you would love this dazzling pre-Code film. Made at MGM, it blends that studio’s sexy glamour with Warner-style grit, and moves at a cracking pace to cram so much into just 74 minutes,   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on February 18, 2010

Ruth Chatterton and James Murray For a director with a macho reputation, William Wellman made a lot of movies featuring strong female characters. Admittedly, it wasn’t always his choice to make these films – for instance, I have read that Wings was originally supposed to be an all, or ma   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on February 15, 2010

Barbara Stanwyck in So Big! After thoroughly enjoying William Wellman’s pre-Code comedy-drama The Purchase Price,  I was delighted to get the chance to watch So Big!, another film he made the same year, just a couple of months earlier, also starring Barbara Stanwyck as a farmer’s wife. B   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on February 8, 2010

The main thing I have to say about this silent movie directed by William A Wellman is that, while it’s no great classic, it isn’t nearly as bad as Wellman himself made out. It’s also very interesting to watch for fans of his great silent movie Wings, as, even though...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on January 16, 2010

In interviews with William Wellman included in the Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 3 box set, he suggests that he sometimes had problems working with actresses, recalling arguments with some of his leading ladies when he refused to let them look glamorous. (To be fair, he also mentions falling   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on January 4, 2010

It’s often said that William Wellman’s pre-code melodrama Night Nurse takes a long time to get going – and that there is too much about heroine Barbara Stanwyck’s training as a nurse before she gets involved in the film’s main plot.  I’d have to say I think just the opposite....   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 27, 2009

I originally wrote this posting a while ago, but have now rewritten it  as part of my William Wellman season here. I first watched Other Men’s Women on a dodgy bootleg copy, which was the only way of seeing it at the time, but am now delighted to have a...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 24, 2009

Just to wish everyone who visits my blog a happy and restful break over the holidays. Here are a couple of Christmas stills from films I like but haven’t written about here yet – The Sisters (1938), directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, and Pride...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 19, 2009

Since I’ve just been starting to get into silent movies, I was pleased to have the chance to see this little-known silent melodrama at the BFI in London, where it was screened as part of their Josef von Sternberg season. I was especially attracted by this film because it stars...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 12, 2009

Now that I’ve seen two great William Wellman silent films, Wings and Beggars of Life, I’d love to see the rest. Sadly, I can’t, and I won’t be able to see all his early talkies either. Some of his early movies have been lost (along with an estimated 90 per cent...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 6, 2009

After being overwhelmed by William Wellman’s  Wings (1927), I wanted to see another of his few surviving silent films. This is a haunting tale of tramps wandering through a shadowy underworld, starring Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen and Wallace Beery. Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen Although this film   read more