Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 7, 2008

I watched this movie more or less on the spur of the moment. To start with I didn’t know anything about it, and assumed it would be realistic, like most 1930s movies I’ve seen.  So I was surprised to discover that in fact it is a comic fantasy, based on...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 3, 2008

Hi to anyone who reads this! Just to say that I have now started up a second blog at wordpress, Costume Drama Reviews, concentrating on TV and movie costume dramas, which are my other main viewing passion apart from old movies - I wasn’t sure whether to make it part of this...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on December 3, 2008

I came across this movie included on a DVD bringing together three strangely-assorted films under the title Leading Ladies of the Silver Screen.  However, despite Joan Fontaine getting top billing, the lead character is definitely fourth-billed Edmond O’Brien, who stars as lonely travelling salesman   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on November 22, 2008

I was interested to see this one because it’s a pre-Code (just) and also stars Spencer Tracy, an actor who I find extremely watchable. It’s also actually out on an official DVD. However, I must admit I was a bit disappointed with the film, directed by Henry King, as it is rather...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on November 15, 2008

After watching the 1932 movie Hell’s House, set in a reform school, I was keen to see this better-known Warner Brothers movie, directed by Archie Mayo and starring James Cagney, Frankie Darro and Madge Evans, which was made the following year. I was delighted to find that this one is...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on November 11, 2008

I was slightly surprised when I heard there had been a Brief Encounter  remake, because the 1940s original (which I reviewed here recently) is such a masterpiece. (The 1990s movie Falling in Love, which I’ve also seen recently and like very much, isn’t really a remake, but a new film loosely...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on October 31, 2008

I saw this pre-code offering as one of a trio of films crammed on to a budget DVD misleadingly entitled Three Leading Ladies of the Silver Screen – with cover artwork  making it appear that Bette Davis is the star of the movie. In fact, she only has a very...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on October 25, 2008

Although I’d never seen Brief Encounter in full, I thought I knew what it would be like. I’d seen various short clips, and gained an impression of the impossibly posh, clipped voices, the emotional repression and the strained nobility of behaviour. I’d also seen the scene in Alan Bennett’s The...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on October 21, 2008

This tale of a drunken journalist is one of James Cagney’s rarest films, never released on video or DVD and apparently never shown on TV. It seems to be available only on the “grey market”. I was lucky enough to see it in brief segments on Youtube, but am editing...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on October 13, 2008

Filmed in truly glorious Technicolor, this is probably the lightest of the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn movies I’ve seen so far. ( I only have a couple of the ones they made together still to go.) This time there’s no real sense of conflict – although obviously the romantic...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on October 6, 2008

I haven’t had time to write anything new for this blog, but here is another review which I posted on livejournal a while ago… I was very disappointed by Meet John Doe, as the back of the sleeve of the DVD claimed it was dark and sardonic – but instead...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 30, 2008

Yes, everybody in sight is crooked – and, if you meet somebody soft-spoken and well-dressed, you can bet they want to smooth-talk you out of your cash. Even smarmy Joe (Ray Milland), who woos Blondell away from Cagney by getting something out of her eye (shades of Brief Encounter) and...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 28, 2008

I was struck now by how much it is a film of two halves. For me, the first half is brilliant – a powerful depiction of the tough conditions facing truckers – while the second  half is a rather weak film noir with a far-fetched crime plot. However, I am aware...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 21, 2008

Following on from my posting about the silent 1920 version starring John Barrymore, here are some thoughts about the two talkies made in 1931 and 1941, starring Fredric March and Spencer Tracy. SPLIT PERSONALITIES: Fredric March, above, and Spencer Tracy with Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner, below   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 18, 2008

I’m intrigued by the idea of watching different movie versions of classic novels and seeing how they vary, but often come unstuck when doing this, because I find I’ve forgotten one version by the time I watch another! However, I’ve managed to watch three versions of Dr Jekyll and M   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 17, 2008

I’ve now seen several films with James Cagney as a journalist, but this is my least favourite on this theme. In this movie he plays a crusading editor with an American newspaper based in Tokyo. I have to say I thought this was pretty bad – rather like a cut-price...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 16, 2008

I found it a powerful film, with wonderful acting from Cagney and Ann Dvorak in particular, and am puzzled as to why it isn’t better-known – especially as a top director like Howard Hawks was at the helm. You’d think there would be a demand for it just because of...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 11, 2008

Cagney and Bogart leave the mean streets of New York far behind them in this mainly lighthearted Western – which I’d say is a must for fans of either or both. Cagney seems to enjoy himself as a mixed-up outlaw, who turns out to be a hero almost by mistake. Unfortunately,...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 9, 2008

Jean Harlow and Robert Williams By a pure fluke, I watched The Golden Arrow (1936), starring Bette Davis and Platinum Blonde (1931), starring Jean Harlow, on successive days (a couple of weeks ago now, so my memories are already starting to fade). I was startled by how similar the plots...   read more

Movie Classics Posted by Judy on September 8, 2008

Spencer Tracy Seeing this was a pre-code movie about the notoriously tough prison in New York, directed by the great Michael Curtiz, I expected a disturbing, no-holds barred film, maybe something even tougher than the prison scenes in Each Dawn I Die. So I was a bit surprised at how...   read more