Film Reviews Archives - Page 3 of 8

Film Reviews May 12, 2014July 19, 2014 by Emily

Honolulu (1939)

When you settle in to watch a film called “Honolulu,” you might expect to see a lush, expansive musical with plenty of opulent sets and numbers, perhaps a sequence or two in Technicolor to highlight the natural beauty of the island and to wow the viewer’s imagination. But, lest you start to think that all of 1939’s films were big epics, that’s really not the case for MGM’s 1939 Honolulu—it’s a very small-scale movie, set mostly in the interiors of passenger ships and homes instead of tropical jungles and pristine beaches. Instead, we’re treated to some fun trick photography and several Eleanor Powell dance numbers, which may be a fair enough trade for some people.

Film Reviews May 9, 2014October 9, 2015 by Emily

Stage Door (1937)

In 1937, Katharine Hepburn was struggling. Or rather, the idea of “Katharine Hepburn” was struggling. Though she’d already claimed her first Oscar win in 1933 for Morning Glory, and contributed to the enormous success of George Cukor’s Little Women, a string of financial flops in the late ’30s meant she was proving Marie Dressler’s old adage true: “You’re only as …

Film Reviews May 4, 2014October 9, 2015 by Emily

Ninotchka (1939)

Though romantic comedies have largely fallen out of respect in mainstream cinema today, there was a time—as has been proved repeatedly throughout the Romantic Comedy Blogathon—when romantic comedies were popular with both critics and audiences. Ninotchka is a fantastic example of these converging interests, as Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas make one of cinema’s most classic and celebrated pairings, and …

Film Reviews April 29, 2014October 9, 2015 by Emily

Black Hand (1950)

Though he’s remembered mostly as a song-and-dance man, Gene Kelly also performed in a handful of films that required no tap shoes or leotards; straight dramas that required only acting chops and a willingness to commit. One of those is 1950’s Black Hand, an early example of a mafia drama, with Kelly taking a turn as an …

Film Reviews April 4, 2014September 3, 2014 by Emily

The Fleet’s In (1942)

There’s something so inherently charming about the classic, sailor musical. For the American public, World War 2 had become such a part of their daily lives that it even began to infiltrate the typically happy world of musicals. It’s a subgenre that’s essentially impossible to recreate at any other moment in history—they’re inherently of their time, and I love the sweet kind of optimism and escapism that typically exist, despite the aspects of reality encroaching in. TCM focused on a specific subset of “sailors on leave” pictures a few nights ago, and I caught one that I had never seen: The Fleet’s In, starring Dorothy Lamour and William Holden.

Film Reviews March 16, 2014October 9, 2015 by Emily

Sleuthathon: The Thin Man (1934)

The Thin Man is one of cinema’s most enduring and beloved series, stemming from Dashiell Hemmett’s original novel from 1934. The delightful film series would ultimately span six movies, from 1934 to 1947, and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and, of course, canine actor Skippy as their dog Asta. Though I …