Randolph Scott Rides Alone
Randolph Scott as Buchanan.
The Ranown Cycle consists of six Westerns made between 1956 and 1960 that starred Randolph Scott and were directed by Budd Boetticher and written by Burt Kennedy. These films don't comprise a formal series as Randolph Sco...
Revisiting The Red Shoes
Moira Shearer as Vicky Page.Black Narcissus is my favorite Michael Powell-Emeric Pressberger film--and I also think it's their masterpiece. But most critics and fans confer that "masterpiece" title on the duo's The Red Shoes (1948). I watched it m...
Corbucci’s The Great Silence
Jean-Louis Trintignant as Silence.The most acclaimed Spaghetti Western filmmaker not named Sergio Leone. That's an apt description for Sergio Corbucci, a prolific Italian director and screenwriter whose career spanned four decades. Although he dir...
The Eiger Sanction Is a Tough Climb
The Eiger Sanction (1975). This action thriller, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, follows a former assassin who is coerced into one last mission. There is some talk about recovering a germ warfare formula, but the mission is really about reveng...
That’s Dancing in Kiss Me Kate!
Kiss Me Kate (1953) boasts a Cole Porter score full of familiar tunes and was made by MGM during the era when the studio was known for its lavish musicals. And yet, it was considered a box office failure when first released and remains largely forgotte...
The Conversation and Repeat Performance
Gene Hackman.The Conversation (1974). Francis Ford Coppola directed this overlong, but engrossing look into the life of an intensely private surveillance expert (Gene Hackman) whose recording of a seemingly innocent conversation has tragic re...
All That Heavens Allows and Come September
Rock and Jane in front of the picture window.All That Heaven Allows (1955). My second favorite Douglas Sirk film (after Imitation of Life with Lana Turner) stars Jane Wyman as Cary Scott, a wealthy widow in a New England town who falls in love wit...
We Name the TV Characters…You Name the Series!
We thought we'd try out a new game this month! For each numbered item below, we have listed three characters from the same TV series. Your task is to name the TV series! Most of these are easy; we tried not to go for obscure characters (at least for th...
Ghost Story–The Film Adaptation Dilemma
Fred Astaire as a ChowderSociety member.When I watch a film adaptation, I try to evaluate it on its own merits--as opposed to comparing the movie to its literary source. I am struggling with that, though, as I write this review of Ghost Story (198...
Roadgames: A Little Bit of Rear Window, a Dash of Duel
Quid (Stacy Keach) with his harmonica.Directed by Hitchcock admirer Richard Franklin, Roadgames (1981) follows truck driver Patrick Quid (Stacy Keach) as he traverses the desolate highways of rural Australia after witnessing what may have been the afte...