If ever there was a cinematic labor of love, then George Hoellering’s 1951 adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s verse drama MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL is it. Shot in black and white on a limited budget and using mostly amateur performers, MURDER is nonetheless a very powerful film. That power comes from the simple settings, the strikingContinue reading “T. S. Eliot’s MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL (1952): Beautifully Done But Of Limited Appeal”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
CARNEGIE HALL (1947): The Experience Of A Lifetime For Classical Music Lovers
This love letter to several major classical music artists of the mid 20th century came from Edgar G. Ulmer, a director who specialized in working on low budget movies. He was known in Hollywood as “the King of PRC”. Producers Releasing Corporation was a Poverty Row studio that was considered Tinsel Town’s bottom rung. MostContinue reading “CARNEGIE HALL (1947): The Experience Of A Lifetime For Classical Music Lovers”
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA / MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN: 30 Years Later
Some three decades later (I’ll split the difference as BSD dates from 1992 while MSF is 1994), both of these Francis Ford Coppola produced movies (he also directed BSD) and make for an interesting double feature that really should be viewed back-to-back. Both were successful at the box office (DRACULA more so than FRANKENSTEIN) andContinue reading “BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA / MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN: 30 Years Later”
CINEMA’S FIRST NASTY WOMEN (2022): Early 20th Century Silent Films As Seen From A 21st Century Perspective
Kino Lorber continues their ongoing series devoted to marginalized early filmmakers with CINEMA’S FIRST NASTY WOMEN. Earlier titles in this series were PIONEERS: AFRICAN AMERICAN CINEMA (2016) and PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS (2018). The title for this December 2022 release is a direct reference to Donald Trump’s calling Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during theContinue reading “CINEMA’S FIRST NASTY WOMEN (2022): Early 20th Century Silent Films As Seen From A 21st Century Perspective”
SCORPIO (1973) Is Still Engaging After 50 Years
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Michael Winner’s Cold War spy thriller SCORPIO and it’s just as engaging now as it was when it was first released back in 1973. Director Winner (1935-2013) earned more than his share of critical brickbats during his career thanks primarily to having directed the controversial DEATH WISH (and 2Continue reading “SCORPIO (1973) Is Still Engaging After 50 Years”
VITAGRAPH: The Greatest Movie Studio You Never Heard Of
As a long time lover of silent movies, especially those made before the advent of the Hollywood Studio System in 1924, I found this book absolutely indispensible. Vitagraph (the name means “living pictures”) was founded by two British born Americans, J. Stuart Blackton & Albert Smith, in 1897 and lasted until 1925 when they soldContinue reading “VITAGRAPH: The Greatest Movie Studio You Never Heard Of”
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM (1962): One Of The Finest Family Films Of All Time
This review concerns a movie that I consider to be one of the finest family films of all time, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM from 1962. I first saw this when I was on a German ocean liner on my only trip to Europe in what must have been a high quality 70mmContinue reading “THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM (1962): One Of The Finest Family Films Of All Time”
BERSERK (1967): Late Joan Crawford Flick Is More Circus Than Horror
As a circus picture, Joan Crawford’s penultimate film BERSERK is really good. There’s lots of great footage of Billy Smart’s Circus mixed in with shots of Crawford as ringmaster. The poodle act, the elephants and horses, even a scene with a lion tamer are all classic old school circus routines that recall an earlier timeContinue reading “BERSERK (1967): Late Joan Crawford Flick Is More Circus Than Horror”
EL VAMPIRO NEGRO: This 1953 Argentinian Re-Thinking of Fritz Lang’s M Takes a Woman’s P.O.V.
I have to hand it to Flicker Alley. They keep coming up with quality movies that I have never heard of. A few months ago it was the French silent epic CASANOVA. Shortly before that it was Robert Siodmak’s labor drama THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS. Now it’s EL VAMPRO NEGRO (The Black Vampire) whichContinue reading “EL VAMPIRO NEGRO: This 1953 Argentinian Re-Thinking of Fritz Lang’s M Takes a Woman’s P.O.V.”
NOSFERATU Is Not A Horror Film But A Tale Of German Dark Romanticism
I have seen NOSFERATU a number of times from truly bad public domain copies in the 1980s to several authorised video editions from the turn of the century. However it wasn’t until I recently saw a showing of this Kino Deluxe Remastered Edition which has been speed corrected, broken down into five acts as ifContinue reading “NOSFERATU Is Not A Horror Film But A Tale Of German Dark Romanticism”
The Capsule Critic 