Los Angeles bursts into flames, total disaster, no mercy …. but it’s not a firefighting problem. Steve De Jarnatt’s classic apocalyptic thriller comes back in a remastered edition, with an entire disc devoted to the writer-director’s career story. Anthony Edwards’ and Mare Winningham’s ill-fated 24-hour romance in the City of the Angels is more poignant…
Whoa — RKO’s wartime hit is a bright spot for mainstream filmmaking: major studio talents turn an unpromising idea into a sweetheart film everyone loved. Cary Grant has total control of his ‘bad’ gambler-grifter, while the unsung but wonderful Laraine Day gives him a reason to reform. The Damon Runyon-inflected tale is frequently hilarious, with…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we remember a guy who was hard to forget. We have wine pairings, too, for the inevitable toasts to his name. The late film exec and TFH guru Michael Schlesinger was…
What at first seems a plain-wrap generic western is actually anything but; Borden Chase’s circular storyline pulls in a bit of every theme the genre had going before 1950. This first James Stewart – Anthony Mann collaboration is one of their toughest; something violent or despicable happens in every reel. Mann gets to adapt Shakespearean…
It’s an excellent ‘thinking man’s safari picture’: Bob Rafelson’s beautifully produced epic examines the partnership of two of the 19th century’s greatest explorers. They jointly found the source of the Nile, but after their amazing adventure, London politics and malicious interference broke them up. Patrick Bergin and Iain Glen are the truly intrepid explorers and…
Wow, this time we review a picture just a couple of months old. Good director Edward Berger guides some fine performances in a drama about backroom deals and dark secrets in the voting to elect a new pope. The movie looks lavish in 4K — entire Vatican chapels were duplicated at Cinecittà — and the…
What a great picture to see bumped to 4K … when that grinding Elmer Bernstein cue launches the titles, we know we’re in for a hardboiled experience. Roy, Lilly and Myra are highly attractive ‘poison’ people in their own cheap rackets — hooking, fixing racetrack odds and grifting, aka practicing petty con-man ripoffs on unsuspecting…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we deal with wine pairings for three films featuring le roi de la comédie, Jerry Lewis. The two faces of Jerry Lewis. There is the lovable loon, the frantic, crazy clown…
It’s another intense film noir with a strong woman dealing with a weak man. Ann Sheridan comes through with a great performance in her most promising Warners star vehicle. ‘Accidental Homewrecker’ Nora is the anti-femme fatale, who can only watch as her doctor-lover Kent Smith throws away his practice, his family, his upscale lifestyle and…
