The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 19, 2010

We have always had a certain fascination with royalty.  Little girls dream of being princesses, men want to be king of their castle.  Right now the whole world is buzzing about a new royal wedding in the works.  But what about Russian royalty?  Ah, that’ll put a damper on your...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 18, 2010

To describe this film in one sentence, I’d tell you to imagine a black and white American Graffiti in a dusty, run down little town, where the kids are jaded, romance is substituted for unsatisfying sex and if you don’t leave town young, you’ll live a miserably long life there....   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 16, 2010

Coming up next week is Thanksgiving and with that comes the Christmas season and all sorts of traditions.  My family usually keeps the Macy’s Parade on, with my dad yelling for all of us to see a float or something now and then.  My mom has always enjoys watching the...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 15, 2010

Phillip Green (Gregory Peck) seems to be trying to carry the whole world on his shoulders.  He’s a widower raising a young son, taking care of his sick mother, wooing a beautiful woman and works as a respected reporter.  His assignment is to write an article about anti-Semitism, an especially...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 13, 2010

As the opening credits fade away, we are shown a dark room and two shadows fighting on the wall.  The light is broken, leaving the end of the struggle a mystery.  When the light is replaced, we see one man on the floor, another sitting in a chair pulled up...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 12, 2010

In David Lean’s adaptation of the classic Dickens novel, young Pip (Tony Wager) is a naive orphan living with a blacksmith and his wife near the marshlands.  One day, while visiting the graves of his parents, an escaped convict asks Pip to bring him food, threatening him with a horrible...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 11, 2010

The film takes place at Christmas time.  Snow falls and people of all ages look in the store windows dreaming of gifts and miracles.  Little do they know that an angel is walking among them, guiding a blind man across the busy street and catching a baby carriage just before...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 10, 2010

Less is more.  We’ve all heard this bit of banality at one point or another, but these days it might be hard to actually experience it.  There are camp sights with Internet access and most people find their way there using a GPS, probably built into their car.  We just...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 9, 2010

In a Japanese POW camp, prisoners are overworked and the death rate is extremely high.  We first meet Shears (William Holden) as he’s digging a grave, by the time he’s finished he can’t even remember who he just buried.  He has seen so many men arrive and die in this...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 8, 2010

Directed by Billy Wilder and based off Agatha Christie’s play, Witness for the Prosecution is an intriguing courtroom drama full of well thought out characters, engaging dialogue and plot that delivers surprise after surprise. British lawyer, Sir Wilfred Robarts (Charles Laughton), has just been rel   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 7, 2010

Within the two and a half hours of Peyton Place, there is more drama packed in than in two seasons of your typical soap opera.  That being said, it’s no surprise that Peyton Place became the basis for a soap opera running between 1964 and 1969.  But before you write...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 2, 2010

Army pilot Major Lloyd ‘Ace’ Gruver (Marlon Brando) has just been transferred from the action in Korea to a desk job in Japan.  There he will be closer to his girlfriend Eileen (Patricia Owens) and her military based family.  It seems his military life has always been perfectly on track....   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 31, 2010

Though this film was a little low quality on YouTube, I still felt transported back to the time of China’s civil war right away.  As the camera maneuvers around the platform in Peking, hundreds of people are walking around, but with all the congestion we still get a good introduction...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 30, 2010

Sadly, another piece of classic film is out of my grasp.  I’ll keep looking for Five Star Final, any leads would be most helpful.   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 29, 2010

We see right away that Berlin’s Grand Hotel is a place of hustle and bustle, but it seems that a new drama lies behind every door.  Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) just got news that he doesn’t have long to live, so he plans to spend a few days living in...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 27, 2010

Style-wise, this is basically a cookie cutter copy of One Hour with You and it doesn’t help that it also stars Maurice Chevalier.  That would be alright, but The Smiling Lieutenant doesn’t have the same silly, toe tapping feel that made me fall in love with One Hour with You....   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 26, 2010

This has got to be the most charming little film of the 1930’s I’ve encountered yet. In One Hour With You we meet a young, happily married couple: Andre (Maurice Chevalier) and Colette (Jeanette MacDonald).  It’s summarized (partially in song) how happy they are and how great marriage is.  The...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 25, 2010

Many times, a boy looks up to his father no matter what faults he possesses.  That’s certainly the case here in The Champ.  Andy ‘The Champ’ (Wallace Beery) was once a heavy-weight champion boxer but has since become washed up within a mixture of alcohol and gambling.  Always by Andy’s...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 23, 2010

Here is John Ford’s very first Oscar nominated film.  Let’s just say he could only go up from here. Arrowsmith is based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis about a young medical research scientist with so much potential.  All Martin Arrowsmith’s (Ronald Colman) life seems to be in preparation to...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 21, 2010

In this New York based story, Dorothy (Sally Eilers)and her friend Edna (Minna Gombell) realize the sexism all around them.  Men constantly make passes at them and it’s expected.  They just brush it off saying little things like, “I guess nature made them that way.”  But when they meet Eddie...   read more