4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 28, 2021

For some Suddenly, Last Summer plays like the Holy Grail of Classic Hollywood cult films. It’s a bit like seeing those old Warner Bros. Studio clips of famed actors muffing their lines and then proceeding to blurt out obscenities. It breaks all illusions for those who have a certain perceptio   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 23, 2021

“I like you. You’re a nice monster.” – Chance Wayne “Well, I was born a monster.” – Alexandra Del Lago In this interchange between Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, I couldn’t help adding my own connotations. Alexandra Del Lago was born a monster. Chanc   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 21, 2021

What’s most intriguing about The Young Philadelphians is how it manages to be a composite of several standalone genres. It’s a rags-to-riches tale. There’s romance. Stunning courtroom drama. But the sinew holding it together are sudsy soap opera tendencies. Like most any life, our   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 18, 2021

One-Eyed Jacks acts as a bit of an anomaly. It was originally meant to be helmed by Stanley Kubrick. Instead, Marlon Brando himself oversaw direction — his one and only time in the director’s chair. The results are as vibrant and totally Brando as they are messy, devolving into somethin   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 16, 2021

The opening of Edward Dmytryk’s The Young Lions, based on Irvin Shaw’s titular novel, could be plucked out of an earlier picture like The Mortal Storm. It’s New Year’s Eve 1938 in Bavaria, Germany. Young lovers ski and frolic in the snow as locals make merry indoors. Marlon   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 14, 2021

Major Lloyd “Ace” Gruver (Marlon Brando) lands on the airbase in Korea and almost immediately gets assigned leave in Kobe. However, this leave has ulterior motives, signed by General Webster (Kent Smith), a friend of his father’s and the father of the pilot’s sometime girlfr   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 11, 2021

Because of his meteoric ascension in Breathless, patterning his insouciant hoodlum on the Hollywood image of Bogart, Jean-Paul Belmondo is easily identified with his predecessor. He was a tough guy — gladly so — and he offered up a long line of memorable performances over a stellar caree   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 9, 2021

The Wild One will never be lauded as a great movie, but it most certainly proves a seminal one even if you give a cursory glance over what would soon come in its wake. These were not only high school and gang-infused dramas of delinquency and adolescent angst, but it’s...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 7, 2021

The place is Mexico City. The year 1909. A contingent of rural farmhands pays a visit to their eminent leader to intercede on behalf of their neighbors. They live a life of poverty and injustice as others gorge themselves on the riches of the land. For all his progressive well-meaning,...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 5, 2021

Since we will be reviewing some films from some of the so-called Method actors, who were prevalent in the 1950s, we thought it would be good to do something a little different and pick four actors who are normally associated with the movement. The Method was an approach to acting...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 3, 2021

“It’s about time the Lord started making all human beings the same on the outside as well as the same on the inside.” – Stewart Granger as Col. Rodney Savage “They’d only change it back again, the moment his back was turned.” – Ava Gardners as Victor   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 1, 2021

While it shares elements with the earlier Pandora and The Flying Dutchman in both its techniques and the mystique projected around Ava Gardner, The Barefoot Contessa ultimately evolves and settles into the narrative rhythms one might expect from its creative partners. Jack Cardiff returns to give A   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 30, 2021

Albert Lewin’s romantic fable opens in Esperanza on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. If the director is a generally unknown name, then Jack Cardiff might just as easily draw your attention with his distinct, intoxicating color tones. It’s true the picture opens with a wonderful shot pe   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 26, 2021

It’s a Sunday morning in St. James Episcopal Church. The minister pulls his sermon from Proverbs 25:28: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” But there is an elephant in the room, an unspoken force coming between the shepherd and his sheep   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 24, 2021

The opening images of Seven Days in May could have easily been pulled out of the headlines. A silent protest continues outside the White House gates with hosts of signs decrying the incumbent president or at the very least the state of his America.  We don’t quite know his egregious...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 20, 2021

Because of the renewed partnership of Grahame Greene and director Carol Reed, it’s difficult not to feel an inclination to compare Our Man in Havana with The Third Man from a decade prior. If you wanted to go out on a limb, you could make the case the earlier film...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 18, 2021

There’s no other way to put it. The West Point imagery of The Long Gray Line is smart from the outset, and if nothing else, it instills this sense of admiration in the military sharpness of this storied institution. However, although this is a hagiography from John Ford, it feels...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 16, 2021

Whether it’s apocryphal or not the term “Mogambo” is purported to be the Swahili word for “passion,” although it’s difficult to know if this was only hearsay propagated by westerners (now including myself). Regardless, it boasts an intriguing if altogether curiou   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 14, 2021

We wanted to continue our ongoing series by highlighting a few of the best films of an actress we’ll be writing about in the next weeks. Ava Gardner was renowned throughout her career as one of the most alluring leading ladies in Hollywood. And although she was linked romantically with...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 8, 2021

“This man bears a cross called cancer. He’s Christ.” Ikiru is instantly a tale of dramatic irony as we see x-ray footage and an omniscient narrator tells us matter-of-factly the signs of cancer are already obvious. Our protagonist’s work life hits hard as he’s a public   read more