Then Playing — Jay Kelly; Bringing Up Baby; Wake Up Dead Man
Reviews of films directed by Noah Baumbach, Howard Hawks, and Rian Johnson Continue reading Then Playing — Jay Kelly; Bringing Up Baby; Wake Up Dead Man
Tag: howard hawks
Then Playing — The Quick and the Dead; It Felt Like Love; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Reviews of films directed by Sam Raimi, Eliza Hittman, and Howard Hawks Continue reading Then Playing — The Quick and the Dead; It Felt Like Love; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Then Playing — Twentieth Century; The Shrouds; Sneakers
Reviews of films directed by Howard Hawks, David Cronenberg, and Phil Alden Robinson Continue reading Then Playing — Twentieth Century; The Shrouds; Sneakers
Greatish Performances #43
#43 — Jean Arthur as Bonnie Lee in Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks. 1939) By most accounts, Jean Arthur was miserable making Only Angels Have Wings. One of many aces director Frank Capra had in his usual deck, Arthur … Continue reading Greatish Performances #43
Playing Catch-Up: Good Morning; The Big Sky; The Witness
Good Morning (Yasujirō Ozu, 1959). I’ll admit to being underexposed to the work of the revered Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu. (It’s not a good excuse, by any means, but I’ve devoted most of my relevant geographically-based cinema self-schooling to films of … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up: Good Morning; The Big Sky; The Witness
Playing Catch-Up: The Hot Rock, Krisha, Tiger Shark
The Hot Rock (Peter Yates, 1972). This adaptation of a Donald Westlake novel — featuring a screenplay that was William Goldman’s first produced work following his Oscar win for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — is a lithe and cheeky heist film. Robert Redford plays John Dortmunder, a professional thief freshly released from his latest stay is prison. Mere minutes pass before he’s roped into a new scheme involving the theft of an African gem on display in the Brooklyn Museum. What follows is a series of setbacks — all smartly plausible — that require Dortmunder and his assembled … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up: The Hot Rock, Krisha, Tiger Shark
Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Ten
#10 — Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941) Back when I was writing and editing for Spectrum Culture, I had a few little victories that I treasured whenever I was a participant in building one of our semi-regular lists. None of these was more satisfying than leading the campaign to anoint Barbara Stanwyck’s turn as Sugarpuss O’Shea as the Best Comedic Performance of 1941. Despite my booming pride, I don’t think it was all that tough of a fight. Arguably, Stanwyck’s stiffest competition came from her other justly loved comedic acting turns from the same year: as Ann Mitchell in Meet … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Ten
Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Twenty-Six
#26 — Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948) At the midpoint of this particular countdown, this is the fourth Howard Hawks film included. It says something significant about the director that each has belonged to a distinctly different genre. Sure, there’s a little bit of film noir blood running through both To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, but the former is a wartime drama and the latter a detective story, the shared pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall making them seem more similar than they really are. The other film covered thus far, His Girl Friday, can make a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Twenty-Six
Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Twenty-Seven
#27 — To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944) Lauren Bacall was nineteen years old when she made her film debut in To Have and Have Not. Famously spotted on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar by Nancy Keith, the wife of director Harold Hawks, Bacall was given the role of Marie Browning. Nicknamed Slim, just like Keith, the character was a singer in a bar, spotted by Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart), the captain of a small chartered fishing boat. More importantly, Slim was designed to provide the formidable match for the film’s leading man. As Hawks explained to Bogart, “You … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Twenty-Seven
Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Thirty-Three
#33 — The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946) Though The Big Sleep would never be considered experimental enough to suggest that it’s deliberating courting an antinarrative approach, it does oddly wind up making its own accidental argument about the invalidity of sanctifying cogent storytelling. Stories about the convoluted plot of the film flummoxing practically everyone involved are legendary. Based on a Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, the film had three formidable writers credited on the screenplay: William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman. Additionally, with Howard Hawks in the director’s chair, The Big Sleep boasted one of the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Thirty-Three
Coffee for Two 