CHAPLIN AND ORSON WELLES’ ONE-HIT WONDER
Few actresses have had a mentor as notable as Charlie Chaplin or a launch-pad as prominent as Citizen Kane, yet the name Dorothy Comingore is as little-known today as it was when that milestone movie was released. I was…
MOVIES WORTH SAVING—AND SHOWING
My Dad always loved my definition of a film buff: someone who will intentionally watch a bad movie. My wife and I put that to the test Monday night when we attended the UCLA Film and Television Archives’ Festival…
SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW ‘HIS GIRL FRIDAY’ AND ‘MILDRED PIERCE’
There are few films I know as well—or love as much—as Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940), the director’s fast and furious remake of The Front Page. I’m also well acquainted with the great Mildred Pierce (1945 ) starring…
A FAMILIAR NAME RETURNS TO THE SCENE
Laurel and Hardy are back on DVD, along with Edgar Kennedy, Snub Pollard, and other silent-comedy favorites, and we have Kit Parker to thank for it. If you rented 16mm films in the 1970s and 80s for your school,…
JOSEF VON STERNBERG’S SALVATION
It’s a cultural crime that several of Josef von Sternberg’s films no longer exist. We shouldn’t be cheated out of seeing anything created by the artist responsible for The Blue Angel, Morocco, and The Last Command. Fortunately, one rarity…
THE BEST FILMS AND PERFORMANCES YOU MISSED IN 2016 Pt. 2
How do good movies manage to slip through the cracks? Sometimes a distributor hasn’t spent enough money on advertising and promotion. It may be that the reviews aren’t strong enough. And sometimes people just aren’t attracted to a particular…
THE BEST FILMS AND PERFORMANCES YOU MISSED IN 2016 Pt. 1
Most avid movie fans I know spend January seeing the year-end releases that are being talked up for awards. I propose an alternative: why not seek out good films and great performances that the award-givers have overlooked? Almost all…
