4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on November 1, 2020

Gary Cooper and Babe Ruth Given its hallowed place as American’s original national pastime, I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of the best baseball movies classic Hollywood ever offered during its heyday. I’m not sure if the industry ever made a baseball masterpiece during th   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 29, 2020

You know the drill. In the throes of the Depression, the idle rich fritter their wealth away at such social events as striptease and then attend the ensuing night court until they get bored with the whole affair. Tod Newton (Franchot Tone) is one of their ilk, but he’s more...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 27, 2020

We open up on the Acme Paper Box Co., which has a down-and-dirty industry strewn about its edges. If the people flooding out of the factory are any indication, this will be a dusty, grubby, little picture. Two of their employees are Al Manning (Wallace Ford) and Marian Martin (Joan...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 24, 2020

source: IMDb The L.A. Times headline in 1951 read: “Peggy Dow Sketches Future as She Quits Hollywood to Wed” Many people recall how Grace Kelly famously married Prince Rainier of Monaco and from thenceforward left her stirling Hollywood career behind out of a sense of love and duty. That   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 22, 2020

Our Dancing Daughters is an inflection point of silent film for the very fact it stands out for setting Joan Crawford up to be in incandescent star for generations to come. She calls upon her flapper talents and bouncy effervescence fully embodying the jazz age through the character of “Dange   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 21, 2020

This is my entry in the CMBA Politics on Film Blogathon. Alias Nick Beal handily flips the paradigm of cinematic angels in vogue with Hollywood, specifically during the 1940s. You could make a whole subgenre out of them. As its name suggests, the lynchpin character of the whole movie is...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 20, 2020

As someone always trying to steep myself in more and more silent cinema, I still have much to contend with when it comes to the careers of Tod Browning and Lon Chaney. However, from everything I can gather, The Unknown is a wonderful melding of their talents, Browning drawing on...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 17, 2020

Peggy Dow Helmerich hasn’t been a Hollywood starlet for about 70 years. However, she still delights fans years later in her movies including Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart in one of his incomparable performances. I recently took a look back at some of her other movies that saw her starring al   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 16, 2020

This is my post in The 120 “Screwball” Years of Jean Arthur Blogathon put on by the Wonderful World of Cinema! Mr. Kirby (Edward Arnold), or A.P. as his deferential colleagues call him, is a business magnate with innumerable successful endeavors. He has the full pockets to go along with...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 15, 2020

Recently, it’s come to my attention there is really is a dearth of colonial America pictures between the likes of Disney’s Johnny Tremain and Mel Gibson’s The Patriot. The reasons seem somewhat obvious at least in the current day and age. Period pieces cost money and such material   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 13, 2020

Reputed screenwriting scribe Nunnally Johnson starts off on clever footing by giving his mythic western hero an obvious antagonist. It was the railroad — that lawless iron horse — forcing Jesse James into the position of a criminal. Though he would evolve over time into the complicated   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 10, 2020

As part of our efforts to cater to up-and-coming classic movie fans, here’s our latest installment to our classic movie beginner’s guides. In appreciation of the James Bond franchise and the newest installment that will hopefully still be released early next year, we thought it would be   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 8, 2020

Dark Victory reminds one how eclectic the Warner Bros. stock company was in 1939 because, in a Bette Davis vehicle, the first visage to present itself is none other than a wry Humphrey Bogart. The movie is a veritable grab bag of assorted talent from Bogart to Ronald Reagan and...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 6, 2020

“Chips” of Brookfield School is a bit of a human institution. Now over 80 years of age and retired from his esteemed post at the school, he still is afforded a decent bit of celebrity. The years have not slowed down his wit nor the warmth behind his words. His...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on October 1, 2020

Akira Kurosawa is obviously known for samurai pictures — the famed jidaigeki genre  — and Yasjiro Ozu is most sedulous when it comes to the relational bonds between parents and children in Japanese society. However, in some sense, of the so-called “Big-Three,” it is Kenji Miz   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 29, 2020

If you know very little about In Name Only and only see the two acting forces who lead the charge: Cary Grant and Carole Lombard, you would come to expect a comedy on almost any given occasion. Oddly enough, this movie is very much a melodrama, though our two stars...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 24, 2020

Being the ignorant sot that I am, I needed to reacquaint myself with the allusion in Steinbeck’s title, plucked from Scottish poet Robbie Burns. The Scottsman wrote, to the effect that, the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. This is not cynicism but merely an observation on...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 22, 2020

Note: This post was originally written a few days after the Notre Dame fire on April 15th, 2019. “All over France, in every city there stand cathedrals like this one, triumphant monuments of the past. They tower over the homes of our people like mighty guardians keeping alive the invincible...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 17, 2020

It becomes increasingly apparent Rachel and The Stranger is a peculiar little movie that would have no place in the modern landscape, and not simply because RKO Studios is no longer in existence. It feels like arguably its biggest star is off-screen more than he is on because he was...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 15, 2020

“I’ve seen some cures worse than the disease.” – The Doctor The opening images set the tone. It’s a sleepy afternoon in a ghost town. There’s a boy with his dog. The dog starts yipping at the boots of a rider cutting through town. In an instance, the merciless kil   read more