Sunday, January 15

Goodbye

The time has come to draw a curtain on the blog.  I know it seems rather sudden and in a way it is.  However, I have been thinking about it for some time now but one thing or another finds me back at the computer pounding out something new.

The blog began 12 years ago.  I can say that after all this time I am finally running out of things to say.  I have covered most all of the movies I've wanted to cover and written pieces on most all of the personalities I wanted to write about.  I have never been particularly interested in writing about any time frame other than Hollywood's Golden Age.  Writing about today's movies or current actors, actresses, directors or others holds little interest for me.  One can read about them anywhere.

In addition to this there are some other things I want to do which I have been unable to do and won't be able to do if the blog continues.  It is simply too time-consuming to leave room for anything else beyond the day-to-day routine.

Movies have consumed my life since I was a young child.  As some of you know, they originally started as a safe haven from the fighting around my house.  When things got really rough, my mother gave me fifty cents and shoved me out the door and told me to head to our neighborhood theater.  After awhile I seemed to need movies like I needed food and water and air.  After a couple of years of weekend movies (and mainly double features), if my mother said we were going somewhere as a family for a day, I wanted to ask her if she wouldn't rather stay home and fight.  I needed my fix.

Writing about them has provided some of that same delirious joy I felt as a child but I also find much of it watching them on television these days with all the resources that are available.  How lovely it will be to watch one after another after another and not say oh yeah, what about the blog?  

I want to add that much of the joy of writing the blog comes from hearing from so many of you.  You've made me think, you've taught me much, you've made me laugh and I have loved how much some of you have loved movies and know so much about them.  I will sincerely miss hearing from you.

Thank you so much.  It's been one of my favorite things I have ever done.

See you at the movies.

Rob




Tuesday, January 10

Visiting Film Noir: The Big Sleep

1946 Film Noir
From Warner Bros
Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring
Humphrey Bogart
Lauren Bacall
Martha Vickers
Dorothy Malone
John Ridgley
Regis Toomey
Sonia Darrin
Peggy Knudsen
Charles Waldron
Bob Steele
Elisha Cook Jr.
Louis Jean Heydt
Joy Barlowe
Theodore von Eltz

Thursday, January 5

Ann Miller

She was a whirling dervish as a tap dancer.  I thought she was one of the fastest, most energetic female tappers I had ever seen.  She always looked like she was having a great time, that big, toothpaste smile never leaving her face.  She loved making movies and she adored Hollywood.  She may have been one of its best goodwill ambassadors.  Too bad they didn't regard her as highly as she did them.

Friday, December 30

Guilty Pleasures: The Honey Pot

1967 Mystery Comedy
From United Artists
Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz

Starring
Rex Harrison
Susan Hayward
Cliff Robertson
Capucine
Edie Adams
Maggie Smith
Adolfo Celi

Sunday, December 25

From the 1940s: Miracle on 34th Street

1947 Comedy
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by George Seaton

Starring
Maureen O'Hara
John Payne
Edmund Gwenn
Natalie Wood
Gene Lockhart
Porter Hall
William Frawley
Jerome Cowan
Philip Tonge
Jack Albertson
Thelma Ritter

Tuesday, December 20

From the 1990s: The Grass Harp

1995 Comedy Drama
From Fine Line Features
Directed by Charlie Matthau

Starring
Piper Laurie
Sissy Spacek
Walter Matthau
Edward Furlong
Mary Steenburgen
Roddy McDowall
Nell Carter
Sean Patrick Flanery
Charles Durning
Joe Don Baker
Scott Wilson
Bonnie Bartlett
Jack Lemmon

Thursday, December 15

The Directors: Edmund Goulding

He is not so well-known today but in Hollywood of the 1920s and 30s he was an eccentric genius whose name was to be reckoned with.  He became well-known for directing a number of highly-polished movies with their well-crafted stories and compelling characters.  Friends and neighbors and coworkers and more than a few sailors and construction workers and European royalty knew him as the host of some of the greatest gay orgies Tinseltown was ever to know.  

Saturday, December 10

From the 1950s: The Big Sky

1952 Western
From RKO
Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring
Kirk Douglas
Dewey Martin
Elizabeth Threatt
Arthur Hunnicutt
Buddy Baer
Steven Geray
Henri Letondal
Hank Worden
Jim Davis
Iron Eyes Cody

Monday, December 5

Visiting Film Noir: They Drive By Night

1940 Film Noir
From Warner Bros
Directed by Raoul Walsh

Starring
George Raft
Ann Sheridan
Ida Lupino
Humphrey Bogart
Alan Hale
Gale Page
Roscoe Karns
John Litel
George Tobias

Wednesday, November 30

From the 1940s: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1941 Horror-Drama
From MGM
Directed by Victor Fleming

Starring
Spencer Tracy
Ingrid Bergman
Lana Turner
Donald Crisp
Ian Hunter
C. Aubrey Smith
Peter Godfrey

Friday, November 25

From the 1940s: The Constant Nymph

1943 Romance Drama
From Warner Bros
Directed by Edmund Goulding

Starring
Charles Boyer
Joan Fontaine
Alexis Smith
Brenda Marshall
Charles Coburn
Dame May Whitty
Peter Lorre
Joyce Reynolds
Jean Muir

Sunday, November 20

From the 1960s: The Cincinnati Kid

1965 Drama
From MGM
Directed by Norman Jewison

Starring
Steve McQueen
Edward G. Robinson
Ann-Margret
Karl Malden
Tuesday Weld
Joan Blondell
Rip Torn 
Jack Weston
Cab Calloway
Jeff Corey
Milton Selzer

Tuesday, November 15

From the 1960s: The Sundowners

1960 Drama
From Warner Bros
Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring
Deborah Kerr
Robert Mitchum
Peter Ustinov
Glynis Johns
Dina Merrill
Michael Anderson Jr.
Chips Rafferty
John Meillon
Lola Brooks
Ronald Fraser

Thursday, November 10

Visiting Film Noir: Key Largo

1948 Film Noir
From Warner Bros
Directed by John Huston

Starring 
Humphrey Bogart
Edward G. Robinson
Lauren Bacall
Lionel Barrymore
Claire Trevor
Thomas Gomez
Harry Lewis
William Haade
Dan Seymour
Monte Blue
John Rodney

Saturday, November 5

Visiting Film Noir: Private Hell 36

1954 Film Noir
From: The Filmakers Releasing 
Directed by Don Siegel

Starring
Ida Lupino
Steve Cochran
Howard Duff
Dean Jagger
Dorothy Malone

Sunday, October 30

Visiting Film Noir: The Man Who Cheated Himself

1950 Film Noir
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Felix Feist

Starring 
Lee J. Cobb
Jane Wyatt
John Dall
Lisa Howard

Tuesday, October 25

Marsha Hunt

A friend of the blog, Julie, requested that I write something about Marsha Hunt who died last month at the age of 104.  I had once briefly considered doing so but decided against it because not only did I know little about her but I was fairly certain the same applied to many of you.  Julie said Hunt was one of the most remarkable women who ever lived.  Well, that was compelling and so I decided to check out the actress and found that I would be hard-pressed to find fault with Julie's comment.  So here we are.

Thursday, October 20

From the 1950s: The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

1958 War Biography
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Mark Robson

Starring
Ingrid Bergman
Curt Jurgens
Robert Donat
Athene Seyler
Peter Chong
Burt Kwouk
Tsai Chin
Moultrie Kelsall
Ronald Squire

Saturday, October 15

From the 1950s: Mister Cory

1957 Drama
From Universal-International
Directed by Blake Edwards

Starring
Tony Curtis
Martha Hyer
Charles Bickford
Kathryn Grant
William Reynolds
Henry Daniell
Willis Bouchey

Monday, October 10

Cameron Mitchell

He was an occasional leading man in B pictures and a second lead in some A films and some good ones, too.  His tenure at 20th Century Fox produced his best work.  In two of his best films, he's a charming, warm-hearted good guy but there can be no doubt he made a career out of playing flotsam.