When I first started Journeys in Classic Film I was immediately drawn to the work of pre-Code star Jean Harlow. (It helped that I’d received a box set of her films for Christmas, too.) But, just five years ago, access to classic cinema was more limited than it is now, and I ended up having…
Outside of being an amazing opportunity to gather with like-minded folks and watch movies, the TCM Classic Film Festival is the place to hear bizarre stories about movies caught in legal limbo. (I’m fairly certain this festival is the only time where a legal affairs officer can enthrall an audience for 20 minutes.) In fact,…
Last year I reviewed the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) starring James Stewart and Doris Day. I wasn’t in love with it, but Day was solid and the sweeping cinematography captivated me. During the recent TCM Classic Film Festival I was able to watch the original installment of Hitchcock’s kidnapping…
The Phantom of Crestwood is the equivalent of watching a radio serial play out on-screen. Maybe that’s because it was! As the film’s introduction states, the series was broadcast via radio with the final episode, solving the murder, revealed in the film. Call it deceptive or ingenious, The Phantom of Crestwood would attract just as…
Originally published December 4th, 2011 We move on to another diverse Christmas film, one that has a more tenuous connection to Christmas than even Rent could boast, but nonetheless takes place on Christmas! The 1934 W.S. Van Dyke noir The Thin Man is one of my favorite movies and continues my adoration of William Powell…
Hollywood wasn’t betting on the massive success of a piddly little RKO adventure film starring the likes of Chester Morris and Lucille Ball. But when director John Farrow’s measly $225,000 film amassed $262,000 in profits, Hollywood’s ears perked up. In 1939, Five Came Back became one of the most successful films created by an independent…
One of author Dashiell Hammett’s finest works, The Maltese Falcon has received the adaptation treatment three separate time, most famously in 1941 with Humphrey Bogart. But before John Huston directed that masterpiece of noir, there’d already been two previous passes on the material: a 1931 pre-Code titled Maltese Falcon with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade,…
