Classic and Horror films unite
In 1968, Mia Farrow showed that she could play a character that required both exhaustive physical and psychological realisation. In Rosemary's Baby, she played a young woman who has the unimaginable happen to her, and she was rightly nominated for a BAFTA and Academy Award for her efforts. A year before that, in 1967, Audrey Hepburn would… Continue reading A Sightless Evil: Mia Farrow in “See No Evil” (1971)
Choosing five essential performances for Al Pacino is nearly impossible. Ask me in a few days time and I may swap out one film for another, because his filmography is such an embarrassment of riches. In every film he's been in I can never take my eyes off of him. Even in Once Upon A Time...In… Continue reading Al Pacino’s Five Essential Performances
The Hitchcock blonde has become a part of popular culture, a creature with varying shades of blonde hair, from honey to ice to strawberry, who embodies beauty, mystery, seduction and at times, danger. The actress, however, who seemed to entirely realise Hitchcock's vision of the perfect leading lady for his films, was Grace Kelly. The… Continue reading A Match Made in Hollywood: The films of Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock
Wikipedia calls The Crow an American superhero film, but for me, it's more a gothic horror/romance film. The Crow isn't really a superhero, he's an antihero who becomes like that because of circumstances. He reminds me more Darkman than Clark Kent. The Crow is largely famous because it was Brandon Lee's final motion picture due to his tragic… Continue reading Rain and Revenge: The Crow (1994)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) was one of the first movies I bought with my own money. I bought it quite by chance, a common thing it seems for films I came to love fiercely. Based on James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 and the 1936… Continue reading Live by no man’s leave: The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Sadly, we must now bid farewell to the Alan Ladd Blogathon. Although there may still be some contributions coming in, including one of my own. Trust me to be slightly late for my own Blogathon. But I'm sure Alan wouldn't mind too much. I would like to thank those who wrote such wonderful pieces in… Continue reading Come back, Shane!
To say what Alan Ladd means to me is almost impossible, but I will try in my own awkward, inadequate way. Alan is a classic film star that I discovered about three years ago, thanks to the You Must Remember This Podcast, which spoke about one of his best film noirs, The Blue Dahlia, co-starring his perfect match,… Continue reading Tribute to an Icon
When I was a teenager, I watched the 1999 adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, and fell in love with it. It had such a wonderful balance of romance, tragedy and theological inquiry. Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore had such incredible chemistry and intensity as the doomed wartime and post war lovers. And so I felt… Continue reading God, can you hear me? Van Johnson in “The End of the Affair” (1955)
This post contains spoilers and graphic content. Please be advised that you may turn into a fly humanoid after reading this. You've been warned. Man's tendency to act like a god and try to control and obliterate nature's tenets has been explored many times, most famously in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. What Shelley explored and taught… Continue reading The Madness of Miracles: Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly” (1986)
As Classic Film Fans we often talk about the stars of classic cinema being great in the singular, as in Joan Crawford was spectacular or Myrna Loy's capacity for shade was untouchable. But what we often don't talk about is how fantastic it was when two classic film stars came together and made the perfect… Continue reading Lake and Ladd: The Perfect Pair
