The Last Blog Name On Earth

Directed by Victor Fleming

Screenplay by John Mahin, based upon the play of the same name by Wilson Collison

Starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlowe, Mary Astor, Gene Raymond, and Tully Marshall

Here’s a question: when you think of Clark Gable, what’s your flavor?  With, or without, mustache?  In my world I can only picture Gable with a mustache, largely because I most closely associate him with Gone With The Wind, where his mustache was so front and center it was basically the defining characteristic of Rhett Butler.  And while Gable didn’t win an Oscar for that role, it is his signature role, so if the mustache defines the role, so it defines him.

Which means it might come as a surprise to realize he wasn’t completely tied to the mustache.  History says he originally hated the facial hair as a sign of uncleanliness, but when it became part of his star, he then hated shaving it.  Now and then, though, you’d catch him on screen with a bare upper lip.  They were rare, but happened.  Most notably he went without in Mutiny on the Bounty – a fantastic film – and also in his supporting turn in A Free Soul.  Relevant to this entry?  He doesn’t have a mustache in Red Dust.

Let’s dig in. Continue reading →

Directed by Orson Welles

Screenplay by (No Credited Screenwriter) based upon the play by William Shakespeare

Starring Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, and Dan O’Herlihy

I don’t know why I bother with Shakespeare anymore.  Yes, I know he’s one of those great writers we have to learn about – or supposedly-great.  So, there’s that.  Then, for a moviegoer there’s all these adaptations of his works, which means you inevitably have to contend with him in some way as more than just a dusty book on a shelf.  I don’t want to bother, yet there’s often no way around it.

The truth is, I mostly find Shakespeare impenetrable.  People can rave over the poetry of the plays and all that junk, but for me, the poetry and other junk keep me out.  This was a fact I noted in my The Also-Ran’s Project entry about Henry V, and rather than beat that horse to death here, I’ll quote myself: Continue reading →

Directed by Russel Rouse

Written by Russel Rouse and Frank D. Gilroy, based on Gilroy’s teleplay, “The Last Notch”

Starring Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford

Broderick Crawford winning Best Actor for All The King’s Men (1949) is probably one of the stranger choices to win an acting Oscar.  Not strange in the sense he was an actor of limited range,[1]because many Oscar winners have limited range.[2]  Which is a less-backhanded way of saying that winning an Oscar is not usually proof of an actor’s quality.  If anything, winning an Oscar is merely ratification of the zeitgeist in the moment, and is also why the Oscars are essentially meaningless and good acting cannot truly be appreciated in the moment. Continue reading →

Directed by Delmer Daves

Screenplay by Wendell Mayes and Halsted Wells, from the novelette of the same name by Dorothy M. Johnson

Starring Gary Cooper, Ben Piazza, Karl Malden, Maria Schell, and George C. Scott

Gary Cooper was a movie star of the highest order, with a career lasting something like 35 years, coming up as an extra and even appearing in the first Best Picture winner, Wings.  Career longevity aside, though, he always felt like a wooden actor to me.  Of course, being a movie star, and being a good actor, are frequently two different things: acting requires the ability to act, being a movie star is more about charisma and charm than anything else.  And it almost feels idiotic to argue he was a wooden actor, given he won two Oscars, and was nominated for three others, so somebody thought he had skills.  But I say he was a wooden actor, and so he was. Continue reading →

Directed by George Stevens

Screenplay by DeWitt Bodeen, from the play of the same name by John Van Druten, which was based on the novel of the same name by Kathryn Forbes

Starring Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Phillip Dorn, Steve Brown, Peggy McIntyre, Oscar Homolka, Ellen Corby, and Edgar Bergen

George Stevens might be one of the most underrated directors in history, which is sort of an insane thing to think about a man who has two Oscars for Best Director.  But ask anybody to name ten directors working before 1960 and you’d probably not hear his name mentioned once.[1]  He might not even be in the top 20. Continue reading →

Directed by Irving Rapper

Screenplay by Alan Le May, adaptation by Alan Le May and Harold Sherman, with additional dialog by Harry Chandlee, all from the play by Harold Sherman

Starring Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, and John Carradine

Is Mark Twain a great novelist?  That seems the single question asked by this film, which is purportedly Twain’s life story.  Given the movie about Twain is asking the question, it’s no surprise it answers that, yes, he was a great novelist.  And, though Twain does not start writing in earnest until maybe 30% of the way through the film, after moving from one successful career to another – riverboat pilot to newspaperman – if we did not come to the same conclusion, then what was the point of making a movie about him in the first place? Continue reading →

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick

Screenplay by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, from the novelette by Ernest Lehman

Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, and Susan Harrison

Sydney Falco (Tony Curtis) is a New York City press agent, desperate to place items about his clients in J.J. Hunsecker’s (Burt Lancaster) gossip column.  Just a mention there carries enough weight to make, or break, a career, which explains all the anxiety and jockeying for position that follows Hunsecker.  But while Falco and Hunsecker usually have a shark-and-remora relationship,[1] Hunsecker has lately frozen Falco out, insisting Falco be the hatchet man ruining the relationship between Hunsecker’s little sister, Susan (Susan Harrison), and the guitar player, Steve Dallas (Marty Milner), who Hunsecker has no appreciation for.  As days go on and the end does not come for Susan and Steve’s love, Hunsecker grows vicious toward Falco, pushing Falco even deeper into his desperation.  Eventually, both men hit a version of rock bottom

Continue reading →

Murder at the Baskervilles, a.k.a. The Silver Blaze (1937)

Directed by Thomas Bentley

Screenplay by Arthur Macrae and H. Fowler Mear, based upon the Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”

Starring Arthur Wontner, Ian Fleming, Lyn Harding and John Turnbull

The Woman in Green (1945)

Directed by Roy William Neill

Screenplay by Bertram Millhauser, based in part on the Arthur Conan Doyle stories “The Final Problem” and “The Adventures of the Empty House”

Starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, and Henry Daniell

Continue reading →

Directed by John M. Stahl

Screenplay by Jo Swerling, from the novel by Ben Ames Williams

Starring Gene Tierney, Cornell Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Darryl Hickman, Mary Phillips Vincent Price, Ray Collins, Chill Wills, Gene Lockhart

Even though I saw Laura years ago, where Gene Tierney stars as the titular Laura, and I recall enjoying it, even though Tierney did not register with me.  I was far more into the fact that Clifton Webb, who I always thought of as the archetype of fussy, but not overly-stern movie dads thanks to his turn in Cheaper by the Dozen,[1] did a pretty good heel turn.  Plus, the fact that a very-young Vincent Price got to play a straight part in something other than a B-grade thriller was pretty exciting to see. Continue reading →

Directed by George Marshall

Screenplay by Felix Jackson, Gertrude Purcell, and Henry Myers, from an original story by Felix Jackson, suggested by the novel of the same name by Max Brand

Starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart and Brian Donlevy

I started reading the book Best. Movie. Year. Ever. by Brian Raftery recently.  The whole premise of the book is 1999 was the greatest movie year ever.  To support this, just look at the lineup of 1999 releases: Fight Club, The Blair Witch Project, Being John Malkovich, Election, American Beauty, Go, Three Kings, Office Space, Eyes Wide Shut, and Magnolia.  And that’s just naming a few.  Which is a murderer’s row of films by any stretch.[1]

Continue reading →