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This past week, we watched the three films in Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema XVI collection: The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) Chicago Deadline (1949) Iron Man (1951) The Mystery of Marie Roget is a fun film, but at only 61 minutes there isn't much time for complexities. A healthy dose of...

Yes! Night Passage is excellent.

Continuing to focus on westerns this month, we watched the three movies in Kino Lorber's third Audie Murphy Collection: Hell Bent for Leather (1960) Posse from Hell (1961) Showdown (1963) Posse from Hell is the standout here. Murphy plays a haunted loner tasked with leading a misfit posse...

We're focusing on westerns in February and just finished going through Kino Lorber's Audie Murphy Collection II. Sierra (1950) Kansas Raiders (1950) Destry (1954) Destry was a surprising favorite here. I don't remember ever seeing this remake of Destry Rides Again before and wasn't expecting...

We watched some Don Siegel movies last week: Stranger on the Run (1967) Madigan (1968) Charley Varrick (1973) I don't remember ever seeing Stranger on the Run before. It's a made for TV western with Henry Fonda as an alcoholic drifter who runs afoul of the law in a small railroad town...

Last week, we watched some Raquel Welch movies one of which also starred Jim Brown who did this past week. One Million Years B.C. (1966) 100 Rifles (1968) Fuzz (1972) One Million Years B.C. was a disappointment. I remembered it as being a fun adventure story, but I think the memory of Welch...

The Prize (1963) I don't think I ever saw this film before. We watched Warner Archive release from a couple of years ago. Paul Newman plays a writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature who gets caught up in some international espionage at the award ceremony. It's done more as comedy than...

We watched a couple of Fritz Lang directed films this week: Fury (1936) Scarlet Street (1945) Scarlet Street was still fairly fresh in my mind from a recent TCM airing. It's a terrific film but there's one plot element that I always struggle with -- if you've seen the film, you probably know...

The Square Jungle (1955) The Tarnished Angels (1957) I wouldn't call The Square Jungle film noir, but it's close enough to be included in Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema X. Tony Curtis plays a grocery store clerk turned boxer, Jim Backus is his alcoholic father turned manager, and Ernest...

We started on the Kino Lorber Dark Side of Cinema X collection, but decided to break it up a bit rather than watch three straight boxing movies. These two, both directed by Joseph Pevney and both dealing with deafness in some way, made a nice pairing. Flesh and Fury (1952) Man of a Thousand...

We picked out a movie for St. Patrick's Day and build the movie theme for the week around John Ford directing Maureen O'Hara. How Green Was My Valley (1941) Rio Grande (1950) The Quiet Man (1952) How Green Was My Valley is one of my all-time favorite films, and we watch it every few years. It...

This past week, we watched James Stewart in a few Andrew McLaglen directed films. Shenandoah (1965) The Rare Breed (1966) Bandolero! (1968) I quite like Shenandoah. Stewart plays the cantankerous father trying to raise a large family and run his Virginia farm while the Civil War rages around...

Over the weekend, we watched the three films in Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema IX: Lady On a Train (1945) Tangier (1946) Take One False Step (1949) Lady On a Train seems the most out of place in this series, but it was our favorite. It owes more to screwball comedies than it does to film...

I've been busy and haven't been on the site much, but our most recent movies starred Jennifer Jones: Portrait of Jenny (1948) Terminal Station (1953) While each of us liked both films, we differed on which was our favorite. My wife preferred the romantic fantasy Portrait of Jenny with Joseph...

We spent time last week watching the three films in Kino Lorber's Audie Murphy Collection: The Duel at Silver Creek (1952) Ride a Crooked Trail (1958) No Name on the Bullet (1959) We were in agreement that they got better chronologically. The Duel at Silver Creek is interesting in that it's...

Repeat Performance (1947) — We saw this noirish fantasy for the first time when it aired on Noir Alley about a year ago. I picked up the blu-ray when it was released but saved it to watch on New Year's Eve. Joan Leslie plays a stage actor, married to an alcoholic writer played by Louis...

An Inspector Calls (1954) — It's puzzling to me that I have no recollection of ever seeing this film before, but I don't. One the gaps in my experience, I guess. We watched it on the Kino Lorber blu-ray release. We both loved this movie based on a J. B. Priestley play and set just before the...

We've started watching some of our favorite Christmas movies, and this year we added a new one to the lineup: Christmas in July (1940) Is this a Christmas movie? Despite the fact that it's set in the middle of summer, I think so. It certainly has a spirit of Christmas feel to it. Dick...

We watched two westerns this week. The first I hadn't seen in a long time and the second was new to me: The Horse Soldiers (1959) Buck and the Preacher (1972) The Horse Soldiers is a lesser John Ford and John Wayne effort, but lesser John Ford is better than most. It's set during the Civil...

We watched a few more Robert Aldrich films over the weekend: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) I'd seen Baby Jane before, but it has been a long time and my wife didn't remember it at all. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are...

The Paradine Case (1947) It's a second tier Hitchcock film, but it's still Hitchcock and we both quite liked this legal thriller. Gregory Peck plays a hotshot London barrister brought in to defend a woman accused of killing her war hero husband. There are a number of twists and turns along...

This past week, we watched three movies that deal in some way with theater. For no particular reason, we ended up watching them in reverse chronological order. 99 River Street (1953) Stage Fright (1950) To Be or Not To Be (1942) 99 River Street, directed by Phil Karson, has John Payne playing...

It was a hot day on Saturday, so after some yard work in the morning we enjoyed a double-feature inside with two Warner Archive releases. Both of these are familiar stories that have been done better, but they have their moments. World Without End (1956) The Golden Arrow (1962) I preferred...

we watched a couple of Rock Hudson movies this week: Battle Hymn (1957) Come September (1961) Battle Hymn is directed by Douglas Sirk, but this one falls a little short of the great Sirk/Hudson films. It's based on a true story with Hudson playing Dean Hess, a minister and Air Force pilot who...

I wasn't on the site much in July but we're still watching movies. Most recently, we worked our way through Kino Lorber's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VI. Singapore (1947) Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) The Raging Tide (1951) We liked all of these, but both of us picked The Raging Tide as...

We're continuing to dig into our film noir collection and watched Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema V over the past week: Because of You (1952) Outside the Law (1956) The Midnight Story (1957) This set pushes the boundaries of film noir a bit, but we thoroughly enjoyed all three movies. As is...

We recently watched the John Alton Film Noir Collection from Classic Flix -- three films shot by John Alton on one disc. T-Men (1947) Raw Deal (1948) He Walked By Night (1948) All three feature narration. Both T-Men and He Walked By Night are done in a pseudo-documentary style in which the...

We recently watched Kino Lorber's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema IV (we have some catching up to do). Calcutta (1946) An Act of Murder (1948) Six Bridges to Cross (1955) I should have liked Calcutta more than I did. There's nothing wrong with the cast and crew -- it stars Alan Ladd, Gail...

Over the past week or so, we went through the four movies and commentary tracks in Kino-Lorber's Ida Lupino box set: Not Wanted (1949) Never Fear (1949) The Hitch-Hiker (1953) The Bigamist (1953) We'd seen The Hitch-Hiker before, and it's a terrific film noir. I wish Lupino had the chance to...

A few months ago, I went on a Titanic kick and watched a few different movies based on that incident. I think A Night to Remember is my favorite, but I also quite like the 1953 Titanic with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb.