Arsenic and Old Lace
Blu-ray
Criterion
1941 / 1.33: 1 / 118 Min.
Starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane
Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein
Directed by Frank Capra
Almost supernaturally handsome, Mortimer Brewster is quite the catch; a celebrated man about town and theater critic who saves his most acerbic reviews for matrimony, Mortimer’s latest bestseller is a typically curdled diatribe called Mind over Marriage. He’s a tough egg to crack but leave it to his childhood sweetheart, a pretty strawberry blonde named Elaine Harper, to cure Mortimer’s gamophobia—and what better time for a nervous bachelor to get hitched than Halloween?
Their honeymoon is just around the corner but first the newlyweds have family business in Brooklyn, home to Elaine and Mortimer’s childhood haunts. They don’t realize just how haunted; the cozy Brewster homestead has been transformed into a makeshift cemetery where bodies are stored away in...
Blu-ray
Criterion
1941 / 1.33: 1 / 118 Min.
Starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane
Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein
Directed by Frank Capra
Almost supernaturally handsome, Mortimer Brewster is quite the catch; a celebrated man about town and theater critic who saves his most acerbic reviews for matrimony, Mortimer’s latest bestseller is a typically curdled diatribe called Mind over Marriage. He’s a tough egg to crack but leave it to his childhood sweetheart, a pretty strawberry blonde named Elaine Harper, to cure Mortimer’s gamophobia—and what better time for a nervous bachelor to get hitched than Halloween?
Their honeymoon is just around the corner but first the newlyweds have family business in Brooklyn, home to Elaine and Mortimer’s childhood haunts. They don’t realize just how haunted; the cozy Brewster homestead has been transformed into a makeshift cemetery where bodies are stored away in...
- 11/1/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
This may be the year for new cinephile converts to the cult of appreciation for the great Ernst Lubitsch. One of his last pictures but his first in color is this Production Code-defying tale of a serial philanderer and his relationship with the woman of his dreams, his wife. It’s stylized as a series of birthdays, and our hero is judged not by St. Peter but at the gates of Hades, by the fallen angel himself.
Heaven Can Wait
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 291
1943 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 112 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 21, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Laird Cregar, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Eugene Pallette, Signe Hasso, Louis Calhern
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Art Direction James Basevi, Leland Fuller
Film Editor Dorothy Spencer
Original Music Alfred Newman
Written by Samson Raphaelson from a play by Leslie Bush-Fekete
Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Wait one second,...
Heaven Can Wait
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 291
1943 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 112 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 21, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Laird Cregar, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Eugene Pallette, Signe Hasso, Louis Calhern
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Art Direction James Basevi, Leland Fuller
Film Editor Dorothy Spencer
Original Music Alfred Newman
Written by Samson Raphaelson from a play by Leslie Bush-Fekete
Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Wait one second,...
- 8/7/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Guilt, gloom, weird nightmares of death and persecution — and romance? The wondrous Gail Russell brings a spark of life into Frank Borzage’s weird expressionist masterpiece produced at the seldom-artistic Republic Studio. The bitter, despairing Dane Clark has just committed what a jury will likely call first degree murder, but the night can offer atonement and forgiveness, if he’ll just listen to Russell’s good advice.
Moonrise
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 921
1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 90 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 8, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram, Henry Morgan, Lloyd Bridges, Selena Royle.
Cinematography: John L. Russell
Film Editor: Harry Keller
Original Music: William Lava
From the book by Theodore Strauss
Written and Produced by Charles Haas
Directed by Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage’s 1948 Moonrise is a critic’s delight, especially among aficionados that like to point out the artistic margins of traditional Hollywood filmmaking.
Moonrise
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 921
1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 90 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 8, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram, Henry Morgan, Lloyd Bridges, Selena Royle.
Cinematography: John L. Russell
Film Editor: Harry Keller
Original Music: William Lava
From the book by Theodore Strauss
Written and Produced by Charles Haas
Directed by Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage’s 1948 Moonrise is a critic’s delight, especially among aficionados that like to point out the artistic margins of traditional Hollywood filmmaking.
- 5/5/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Yes, it is a perfect title for a horror picture, but it belongs to an early film noir -- or as we discover, a murder thriller that previews the classic '40s noir visual look. Victor Mature is the man on the spot for a killing, Betty Grable and Carole Landis are a pair of sisters in danger, and Laird Cregar is the creepiest police detective in the history of the force. I Wake Up Screaming Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date November 1, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, William Gargan, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook Jr. Cinematography Edward Cronjager Art Direction Richard Day, Nathan Juran Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge, Harold Barlow Written by Dwight Taylor from the novel by Steve Fisher Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
My,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
My,...
- 10/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Jean Arthur, Cary Grant, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn Joslyn, Sig Ruman, Victor Kilian | Screenplay by Jules Furthman | Directed by Howard Hawks
When thinking about the great flying pictures of Hollywood’s Golden Age, many would immediately turn to war films containing dogfights, high political drama and the sense that all the death we see onscreen is somehow noble because it’s for the causes of peace and freedom. But perhaps the greatest of these pictures, Only Angels Have Wings, isn’t a war movie and doesn’t contain a single dogfight. It’s an altogether smaller story than those sweeping dramas, and all the more powerful for it.
When Jean Arthur’s chorus girl, Bonnie, gets off a steamer at the fictional South American port of Barranca, she expects to see the sights (comprising a bustling market, a couple of dive bars and a rickety open-topped...
When thinking about the great flying pictures of Hollywood’s Golden Age, many would immediately turn to war films containing dogfights, high political drama and the sense that all the death we see onscreen is somehow noble because it’s for the causes of peace and freedom. But perhaps the greatest of these pictures, Only Angels Have Wings, isn’t a war movie and doesn’t contain a single dogfight. It’s an altogether smaller story than those sweeping dramas, and all the more powerful for it.
When Jean Arthur’s chorus girl, Bonnie, gets off a steamer at the fictional South American port of Barranca, she expects to see the sights (comprising a bustling market, a couple of dive bars and a rickety open-topped...
- 5/3/2016
- by Mark Allen
- Nerdly
'The Merry Widow' with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Minna Gombell under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Ernst Lubitsch movies: 'The Merry Widow,' 'Ninotchka' (See previous post: “Ernst Lubitsch Best Films: Passé Subtle 'Touch' in Age of Sledgehammer Filmmaking.”) Initially a project for Ramon Novarro – who for quite some time aspired to become an opera singer and who had a pleasant singing voice – The Merry Widow ultimately starred Maurice Chevalier, the hammiest film performer this side of Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler – the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, “hammy” isn't my idea of effective film acting. For that reason, I usually find Chevalier a major handicap to his movies, especially during the early talkie era; he upsets their dramatic (or comedic) balance much like Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Jerry Lewis in anything (excepting Scorsese's The King of Comedy...
- 1/31/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By Doug Gerbino
In an episode of the Jack Benny radio show from 1948, Jack and Mary Livingstone are being driven to the Warner Bros. studios in his "trusty" Maxwell by his manservant, Rochester. They are stopped at the gate by the studio guard, voiced by the wonderful Mel Blanc. When the guard demands identification in order to be admitted, Jack tells him that he is Jack Benny. The guard still demands ID. Benny pleads with him to recognize him: "…after all, I made a film here a few years ago, The Horn Blows at Midnight…I am sure you remember that!" "Remember it??? I directed it!!!" replies Blanc as the guard. Such amusing set-ups became some of Jack Benny's most famous self-deprecating jokes. The Horn Blows at Midnight has become legendary because of Benny's making fun of it but as we can now see with its release on DVD, the...
In an episode of the Jack Benny radio show from 1948, Jack and Mary Livingstone are being driven to the Warner Bros. studios in his "trusty" Maxwell by his manservant, Rochester. They are stopped at the gate by the studio guard, voiced by the wonderful Mel Blanc. When the guard demands identification in order to be admitted, Jack tells him that he is Jack Benny. The guard still demands ID. Benny pleads with him to recognize him: "…after all, I made a film here a few years ago, The Horn Blows at Midnight…I am sure you remember that!" "Remember it??? I directed it!!!" replies Blanc as the guard. Such amusing set-ups became some of Jack Benny's most famous self-deprecating jokes. The Horn Blows at Midnight has become legendary because of Benny's making fun of it but as we can now see with its release on DVD, the...
- 1/5/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Jeanne Crain: Lighthearted movies vs. real life tragedies (photo: Madeleine Carroll and Jeanne Crain in ‘The Fan’) (See also: "Jeanne Crain: From ‘Pinky’ Inanity to ‘Margie’ Magic.") Unlike her characters in Margie, Home in Indiana, State Fair, Centennial Summer, The Fan, and Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), or even in the more complex A Letter to Three Wives and People Will Talk, Jeanne Crain didn’t find a romantic Happy Ending in real life. In the mid-’50s, Crain accused her husband, former minor actor Paul Brooks aka Paul Brinkman, of infidelity, of living off her earnings, and of brutally beating her. The couple reportedly were never divorced because of their Catholic faith. (And at least in the ’60s, unlike the humanistic, progressive-thinking Margie, Crain was a “conservative” Republican who supported Richard Nixon.) In the early ’90s, she lost two of her...
- 8/26/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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