Monthly Archives: June 2011

Capsule Reviews: June 21 – 23

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1920) – 3.5/5 Sjöström’s silent morality play proves a classic example of style over substance (and not in the pejorative sense). Based on a popular novel written as a hygienic diatribe against “consumption” (TB, not … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged 13 assassins, a fistful of dollars, a song is born, akira kurosawa, august strindberg, ball of fire, barbara stanwyck, billy wilder, broken blossoms, cary grant, d. w. griffith, danny kaye, dashiell hammett, el dorado, emile zola, friz lang, gary cooper, george sanders, hara-kiri, howard hawks, ingmar bergman, irene dunne, joan greenwood, john ford, last man standing, leo mccarey, masaki kobayashi, moonfleet, preston sturges, ralph bellamy, red harvest, rio bravo, rio lobo, robert louis stevenson, sanjuro, sergio leone, snow white and the seven dwarfs, some like it hot, spaghetti western, stanley kubrick, stewart granger, takashi miike, the awful truth, the glass key, the palm beach story, the phantom carriage, the seventh seal, the shining, toshiro mifune, treasure island, victor sjostrom, walter hill, wild strawberries, yojimbo | Leave a comment

Capsule Reviews: June 17 – 20

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

Spies (Fritz Lang, 1928) – 4/5 In effect remaking his own Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Lang interlards rip-roaring action pieces—the most impressive among them, a third-act train wreck—with a pretty conventional “romance between opposing sides” subplot, which never takes … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged 13 assassins, 1950s, 1960s, advertising, alan parker, albert lewin, annie hall, ava gardner, broadway, carole lombard, cinema, cinema review, diane keaton, film, film criticism, film review, frank tashlin, fritz lang, howard hawks, i saw the devil, ichi the killer, james mason, japanese film, jayne mansfield, john barrymore, kihachi okamoto, kramer vs. kramer, movie, movie critique, movie review, pandora and the flying dutchman, samurai, satire, screwball comedy, shoot the moon, spies, takashi miike, the sword of doom, tony randall, twentieth century, visiter q, will success spoil rock hunter?, woody allen | Leave a comment

Capsule Reviews: June 15 – 17

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (Nathan Hertz, 1958) Village of the Giants (Bert I. Gordon, 1965) Queen of Outer Space (Edward Bernds, 1958) Mars Needs Women (Larry Buchanan, 1968) Two trends dominate the latest batch of TCM’s Drive-In Classics series … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged abel gance, AIP, aldo ray, american international productions, anthony mann, attack of the 50 foot woman, beau bridges, ben hecht, bert i. gordon, charles beaumont, cinema, cinema reviews, death proof, edward bernds, erskine caldwell, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, forbidden planet, god's little acre, grindhouse, j'accuse, jack lord, jack nitzsche, james stewart, larry buchanan, mars needs women, movie, movie reviews, movies, nathan hertz, queen of outer space, quentin tarantino, raw deal, robert ryan, ron howard, TCM, the man from laramie, tina louise, tommy kirk, turner classic movies, twilight zone, village of the giants, winchester '73, yvonne craig, zsa zsa gabor | Leave a comment

“Golden Age Thinking”: Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

Midnight in Paris, the latest chapter in Woody Allen’s ongoing Euro-travelogue, commences with an old-fashioned overture—a lengthy montage of postcard-pretty Parisian street scenes set to a Sidney Bechet clarinet number—hearkening back to the opening scenes of Manhattan (1977), the Woodman’s … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged cinema, cinema reviews, ernest hemingway, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, gertrude stein, kathy bates, kurt fuller, lea seydoux, luis bunuel, man ray, marion cotillard, midnight in paris, mimi kennedy, movie, movie reviews, movies, owen wilson, rachel mcadams, salvador dali, scott fitzgerald, vicky cristina barcelona, woody allen | 4 Comments

Capsule Reviews: June 10 – 14

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

The Wasp Woman (Roger Corman, 1959) – 2/5 Quickie cash-in fueled by the runaway popularity of the previous year’s The Fly. By locating his action in a cosmetics empire run by a middle-aged female fashion icon obsessed with cracking the … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged alfred hitchcock, barry lyndon, basil dearden, billy budd, cinema, cinema reviews, dirk bogarde, duel, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, friedrich nietzsche, helmut berger, herman melville, i saw the devil, ingrid thulin, jamie lee curtis, joe dante, john sayles, joseph losey, ken adams, kim ji-woon, king and country, kirk douglas, luchino visconti, midnight in paris, movie, movie reviews, movies, paths of glory, patrick, peter ustinov, piranha, quentin tarantino, rear window, revanche, richard franklin, road games, robert krasker, robert ryan, roger corman, salon kitty, stacy keach, stanley kubrick, steven spielberg, terence stamp, texas chainsaw massacre, the fly, the howling, the third man, the wasp woman, tinto brass, tobe hooper, tom courtenay, victim, woody allen | Leave a comment

Capsule Reviews: June 7 – 9

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, 1947) – 5/5 One of the great exemplars of Technicolor cinematography (provided by Jack Cardiff, who also lensed Powell’s equally ravishing follow-up The Red Shoes [1948]) – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged alberto cavalcanti, alec guinness, alfred hitchcock, benjamin christensen, black narcissus, blue velvet, charles dickens, charles laughton, charlotte zwerin, cinema, cinema reviews, clair de lune, cure, dario argento, david lean, david lynch, deborah kerr, debussy, elton john, eye of the needle, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, fritz lang, giallo, graham greene, great expectation, guy maddin, hammer horror, haxan, house by the river, jack cardiff, jagged edge, jean simmons, jimmy sangster, katherine ross, ken russell, kiki dee, kiyoshi kurosawa, louis hayward, mario bava, michael powell, movie, movie reviews, movies, my winnipeg, night of the hunter, nunsploitation, psycho, pulse, richard marquand, sam elliott, slasher film, ten little indians, the devils, the legacy, the red shoes, thelonious monk: straight no chaser, tokyo sonata, went the day well?, woman in the window | Leave a comment

Into the Abyss of Time: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010)

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

Let’s get the negativity out of the way upfront: Cave of Forgotten Dreams’ 3D effects – although philosophically understandable – are nevertheless frequently murky, rendering the dark cavernous spaces and fitful lighting even more obscurant, as well as inconsistent – … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged 3-D, ancient art, art, art history, cave of forgotten dreams, cave painting, chauvet cave, cinema, cinema reviews, documentary, documentary film review, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, France, Germany, history, movie, movie reviews, movies, werner herzog | Leave a comment

Capsule Reviews: June 3 – 6

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm, Michael Reeves, 1968) – 4/5 As the titular unscrupulous witch hunter, Vincent Price gives one of his most malevolent and restrained performances. Writer/director Reeves, who died from an overdose less than a year later … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged air doll, alfred hitchcock, amelie, barbara stanwyck, ben hecht, brian donleavy, cary grant, charles macarthur, cinema, cinema reviews, days of thunder, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, g. w. pabst, george sanders, henry hathaway, hirokazu koreeda, his girl friday, howard hawks, jonathan demme, kameradschaft, kiss of death, le mans, lee h. katzin, married to the mob, michael reeves, movie, movie reviews, movies, of gods and men, ralph bellamy, rear window, richard widmark, robert newbrook, robert stephens, rosalind russell, roy rowland, samuel fuller, shock corridor, something wild, steve mcqueen, the asphyx, the front page, tony scott, victor mature, vincent price, witchfinder general, witness to murder, xavier beauvois | Leave a comment

Capsule Reviews: May 30 – June 2

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Budd Wilkins

A Generation (Andrzej Wajda, 1955) – 3/5 Kanal (Andrzej Wajda, 1957) – 5/5 Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) – 5/5 A Generation – the first installment in Andrzej Wajda’s War Trilogy – portrays the experiences of an idealistic young … Continue reading →

Posted in film, movie reviews | Tagged a generation, above suspicion, alfred hitchcock, andrzej wajda, arthur penn, ashes and diamonds, black narcissus, cinema, cinema reviews, conrad veidt, dick powell, douglas fairbanks, dustin hoffman, eugen schufftan, faye dunaway, film, film criticism, film review, film reviews, fred macmurray, it happened tomorrow, joan crawford, john ford, kanal, linda darnell, little big man, los olividados, luis bunuel, michael powell, movie, movie reviews, movies, raoul walsh, rene clair, roman polanski, sabu, simon of the desert, the graduate, the man who knew too much, the pianist, the searchers, the thief of bagdad, under the roofs of paris, wajda's war trilogy | Leave a comment

Monthly Archives: June 2011

Capsule Reviews: June 21 – 23

Capsule Reviews: June 17 – 20

Capsule Reviews: June 15 – 17

“Golden Age Thinking”: Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)

Capsule Reviews: June 10 – 14

Capsule Reviews: June 7 – 9

Into the Abyss of Time: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010)

Capsule Reviews: June 3 – 6

Capsule Reviews: May 30 – June 2

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Sinister Cinema 1932-1989