Out of all the on-screen teams the studio system created, none endures as strongly as the teaming of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. The two made nine films together, and had a strong romantic relationship off-screen, and nearly every film they made is magic distilled in some form. Their first pairing put them would set…
The 1950s is easily the decade where the Western thrived. Captured in expansive CinemaScope, the Wild West never looked wilder. But with so many cowpokes roaming the range it was only a matter of time before the range turned in on itself. The year before he took teen rebellion to the mainstream with Rebel Without…
The liminal threshold between the 1950s and 1960s seems as distinct as to be a literal crevasse between the two decades, and the clearest divide comes through in the cinema separating the two eras. Narrative styles, definitions of romance, and gender weren’t just changing and reforming for the new era, but the old guard of…
This post is written in conjunction with the Summer Under the Stars blogathon Since the Bard wrote it out way back when, Hollywood has loved a good Romeo and Juliet story. The illicit romance between King Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor and her relationship with Charles Brandon didn’t directly inspire Shakespeare, but the dream makers…
They don’t make romantic comedies like they used. Or maybe Hollywood just realized there’s no way to top the work of the great Neil Simon. Playwright Simon took the adage “opposites attract” and ran with it to create the fun and sexy rom-com Barefoot in the Park. From the Great White Way to the silver…
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,…
If you’ve looked at my previous coverage on Alfred Hitchcock then you’re aware of the glaring omissions in his filmography for me. Well, cross one of the biggies off the list for I’ve finally seen North by Northwest. Hitchcock’s Bond-esque story of the man who wasn’t there is a top-notch in every sense of the…
