How could I possibly look through a bunch of classic films and not discuss one of James Dean’s legendary movies? A couple years back I got the complete collection of East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant, and while there are definitely great aspects to both East of Eden and Giant, Rebel Without a Cause is the ultimate James Dean movie. It’s difficult to watch this film knowing just how much further his acting career would’ve taken him. What kinds of movies would he have made in the 60’s and 70’s? He would be 78 years old if alive today. Isn’t that the weirdest thought ever? That if he hadn’t have died in that car accident, he could potentially still be alive today making movies? He’s such an iconic figure that his image supersedes the quality of his performance at times, but he’s so excellent in Rebel Without a Cause, it’s a bit confusing to note that he was nominated for Oscars for his other two movies (more…)

Following my semi-disappointment with Audrey Hepburn’s film debut Roman Holiday, I was delighted to pop in her second film Sabrina into the DVD player just days later. Now this is a great movie. Funny, charming, and very entertaining from beginning to end, the film has a lot to offer. Billy Wilder assembled a terrific cast for this, with Audrey Hepburn feeling a whole lot more natural and comfortable in this than she did in Roman Holiday. She plays the title character, ignored by her rich neighbors and thought of as a dismissable little “girl” by the men. When she returns from Europe a few years later, however, she clearly has gained new confidence and radiant beauty, as playboy pretty boy David (Sunset Blvd’s William Holden) instantly begins to fall for her. His more solemn and serious older brother (Humphrey Bogart) has practically given up on love, but he too finds a lot to admire in Sabrina, and the two brothers begin to realize they’re both in love with the same woman. I hate to keep comparing this movie to Roman Holiday, but I just found Sabrina to be superior in essentially all departments (more…)

I hate being a cynic when it comes to sweet, innocent motion pictures like this, beloved by many for over fifty years, but I flat-out didn’t find much to love in Roman Holiday. The most pleasure comes in the form of watching Audrey Hepburn, in her film debut, as she’s more beautiful and radiant than ever. But more often than that, I found myself a little bit bored by the scenes on-screen. William Wyler directed the film, but it was my friend and roommate William Hyler who got me through it. His running commentary on the movie still cracks me up weeks later after taking place. What’s not to make fun of? While Gregory Peck is admirable as an actor, he feels completely out of place here. He’s not what I would call the most charismatic romantic lead, especially paired with Hepburn, who looks young enough to be his daughter. For all the people who love the movie, please answer me this. Why does Audrey Hepburn spend so much time in the beginning asleep? She works hard to escape her privileged life, all to go to bed. A little odd, if you ask me. There are small joys to the movie, brief scenes that work on their own (including a chase scene on a motorcyle), and an ending that puts a nice capper on the events, but I find it odd this film (more…)

Part of the reason last year I started re-visiting a lot of classic was to catch up on those handful of movies I was embarrassed to say I hadn’t seen. I’m a huge fan of movie musicals, but many have been astonished to learn I’ve never seen the granddaddy of them all, the Gene Kelly masterpiece Singin’ in the Rain. It’s not considered one of the best movie musicals of all time; it’s considered by many to be thee best movie musical of all time! Let’s just say my expectations were fairly high. It felt so good a few weeks back to finally kick back late one night and put this title in, because I’ve rarely had more fun with an older movie. It lives up to the hype in every way. From the fun of the storyline to the juicy and snazzy characters, from the bigger-than-expected humor to the wildly entertaining musical numbers. We all know that famous scene of Kelly dancing in the rain, but I was delighted to find half a dozen other numbers in the movie that became instant favorites. If I had one quibble with the movie, it would be that I found a dream sequence dance number later in the movie to go on about double the length it needed to be. But as those wily gangsters say, fuhgettaboutit (more…)

I watched this very entertaining and somewhat eerie science fiction classic about two days before I learned that a remake was coming starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. I’m happy that I got to watch the original with a fresh eye and that I didn’t sit there thinking what Reeves would do with a role like Klaatu (the lead role of the film). Telling a quiet but internally terrifying story about an alien (Klaatu) who arrives on Earth to basically tell us to keep our wars to our own planet or risk extermination, the film is fascinating to watch from beginning to end. My dad brought me up on horror films and a lot of science-fiction films as a kid, but somehow this own had escaped my grasp, along with the 50’s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which I took a look at soon after this). This is clearly one of the best science-fiction movies ever made, telling a provocative story very cleanly, with terrific performances and a morose atmosphere (more…)

How is it really possible to choose a favorite movie? There are so many films I’ve seen in my life that have touched me in certain ways and opened my eyes. There have been a select few I watched growing up that literally got me interested in pursuing filmmaking as a career. In 1999, I went with some friends to see a movie called American Beauty, something at the time I knew nothing about, just that it had been critically praised to death. I walked out of that movie a changed person. I remember going home that night and telling my dad that I think I might want to start making movies. A year later I was shooting my first short film and I haven’t stopped since.

At least American Beauty was a little bit better choice than my first-ever favorite film. From 1994 to 1999 my favorite film was Speed, yes, that bus movie with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. While I’ve definitely gotten a little tired of it the last few years–I don’t think I’ve even watched it in at least three or four years–I still think it’s one of the best examples of pure action filmmaking. It was also one of the first R-rated movies I ever saw around the age of 10, so it had that kind of visceral impact on me as well. I fell in love with The Truman Show in 1998, but just not quite enough to call it my favorite film. Around this time I knew I had to find a different choice when people asked me, “Oh, so you’re into movies, huh? What’s your all-time favorite?” (more…)

A lot of old romantic comedies I find myself forcing to like (and sometimes forcing to get myself through) but Adam’s Rib hasn’t aged a bit. This is a smart, hilarious comedy, probably the best ever to star both Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (although the only other comedy I’ve seen with them is their first pairing, Woman of the Year.) I’ve seen the film three times now. The first time I saw it on television when I was younger, probably 12 or 13, and I remember, once getting past the blasphemy that I was watching something in black and white, that I was actually enjoying it quite a bit. Then I saw it again two years ago in my Women in Film class at Loyola Marymount University (probably the best film theory class I took in those four years) and I was given a much more modern and enlightening perspective (more…)

By 1948, these Universal monsters, once terrifying creatures of the night (and sometimes day), must’ve been the butt of all jokes, because here’s a comedy that pokes fun at Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster. The reason that these characters would appear in a slapstick comedy like this is that all other uses for the creations had pretty much been played out by this point. Audiences loved Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster in the 30’s because they were new and fresh, and they were given worthwhile stories. By the mid 1940’s, audiences had begun to grow tired of them, with sequel after sequel after sequel. Ghost of Frankenstein, Son of Dracula, and the Houses of Both Those Guys didn’t help matters much.

By 1948, a movie like Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein wasn’t only welcome, it was necessary. Let’s take a popular comedic duo from the day and pair them with these classic monsters. What would happen? The comedic possibilities are endless. The film has a fairly fun storyline. Bud and Lou work for a shipping company (more…)

Sometimes it only takes a few minutes to know that you’re wandering into a true classic, and that was the case with this 1940’s film noir entitled Out of the Past. I didn’t really know very much about it going in except that it was considered one of the best film noirs of all time and that it starred Robert Mitchum. This was my introduction to Mr. Mitchum, and I must say I can’t wait to watch more of his films. He is cool, and this movie is cool. I was absolutely enthralled in the first half, not as interested in the second half, but I very much enjoyed this movie, and it definitely peaked my interest to take a look at more film noir.

The first part of the movie is told in flashback, as a small town gas pumper Jeff Bailey (Mitchum) finds himself face to face with an old friend and he tells his girlfriend a secret past of his that’s about to catch up with him. He used to be a detective, and he took on a rather controversial case in which (more…)

I don’t think I’ve heard so much about a movie’s ending than I have with The Yearling. I’ve heard so much about the tragedy of the movie’s ending that actually watching the movie was a weird experience, in that I almost felt like I had seen it before. It’s unexpected today to find real sadness in films aimed at kids, but in the 1940’s, filmmakers didn’t seem to mind making the children cry, seen originally in 1942’s Bambi, and then in this film. The animal that is the yearling in a darling creature that surprisingly doesn’t come into play until the second half of the movie, and by that time we’ve come to get to know the Baxter family, who will take in the animal, as long as it doesn’t destroy the garden that is the family’s source of food and money. The father is played by Gregory Peck (who would go on to play the ultimate father character in the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird) and the mother is played by Jane Wyman (who acted and particularly looked different in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend), and together they make a strong but unsympathetic couple who may (more…)