CineSavant
2 Weeks in Another Town
A quick Jet-set ride takes us to Rome of 1962, which for a couple of years was the movie capital of the…
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Fear of the Velvet Curtain
SIXTEEN YEARS OF MOVIE LOVE WITH MY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE
My eldest daughter graduated from high school this week, an event that most parents who have been through it before will understand…
CineSavant
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
It's a CineSavant guest reviewer debut for journalist Sergio Alejandro Mims. In its first ever 2-disc set Twilight Time makes a bold…
CineSavant
The Big Country
Ya know, "It's a Big Country!" Westerns and pacifism are like oil and water, but William Wyler, Jessamyn West and three other…
CineSavant
Cold Turkey
Norman Lear's Cold Turkey is preferred by 4 out of 5 doctors, and the other doctor is a fool that doesn't smoke…
CineSavant
The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster!
Do you miss the Stooges? Miss Edgar Kennedy? Here's a bizarre bill of goods for committed film fans in search of retro…
CineSavant
Designing Woman
MGM wasn't the most current studio in 1957, as can be seen by this throwback to another era, a semi-screwball romantic comedy…
CineSavant
Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Paul Mazursky's affectionate memoir of the New York bohemian life circa 1953 has a feel for the milieu and an honest appraisal…
CineSavant
Jack the Giant Killer
"From the land beyond beyond..." -- oops, wrong movie. Kerwin Mathews battles Torin Thatcher once again, with Judi Meredith in a stunning…
CineSavant
Suspiria
The story of a ballet school staffed by devil-worshipping harridans, Dario Argento’s Suspiria opened at New York City’s Criterion in the dog days of…
CineSavant
A Bucket of Blood
Roger Corman's crew of associates must have had some pretty wild times in the 1950's, scraping around Hollywood and Venice Beach trying…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
Q: WHO’S PATSY KELLY? A:…
The following is a slightly re-edited version of a piece that ran during the early days of my blog, Sergio Leone and…
CineSavant
Odds Against Tomorrow
"Racial Tolerance: It's Good for America AND good for Criminals!" Harry Belafonte's second production is a noir keeper, thanks to a top-flight…
CineSavant
Hilda Crane
Call him strange, but CineSavant is fascinated by 'women's films' that advance a consensus role template for American women. Then they ask…
CineSavant
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The Little Song 'n' Dance Show that Could, this over-achieving Jack Cummings production is a bright exception to the dull waning days…
CineSavant
Midnight Cowboy
Pictures like Midnight Cowboy pulled everyone my age group into the movies, while the entire older generation likely stopped going to movies…
CineSavant
Death in the Garden (La mort en ce jardin)
Luis Buñuel's filmic obsessions steered toward the anarchistic, the anti-clerical and anti-bourgeois, with a surreal spin. All of his films are political,…
CineSavant
The Vampire and the Ballerina
Renato Polselli's vampire rally ups the on-screen babe count first and provides horror thrills second, yet Ernesto Gastaldi's screenplay introduces an interesting…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY RETURNS IN 70mm
People always say it, and I often do myself: “Seeing (Movie X) on the big screen again was like seeing it for…
CineSavant
Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott at Columbia, 1957-1960
Bid welcome to five westerns guaranteed to make one fall in love with the genre all over again. Each stars the ultra-virtuous…
CineSavant
Five Steps to Danger
It's a road picture, a spy chase and an oddball romance all in one. A casual highway hitch-hike leads to intrigues with…
CineSavant
The Holy Mountain (1926)
Teutonic art writ large and loud: Arnolf Fanck's first big 'mountain' classic wow'ed them back in 1926, with its massive vistas and…
CineSavant
The Bloodthirsty Trilogy
Hell-raising vampires invade the normally serene confines of Japanese cinema in three elegant 70’s shockers directed by Michio Yamamoto. Joining far-flung contemporaries like…
CineSavant
Espionage Agent
Is this the filmic birth of both the wartime OSS and the SuperSpy genre? State department diplomat trainee Joel McCrea weds refugee…
CineSavant
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
Yes, we've all lived before. When I come back I don't care who I am as long as I'm in the 1%.…