Saboteur (1942)

I was drawn to watch and re-watch some Alfred Hitchcock movies after covering The White Shadow (1923) a few weeks back.  I decided, after polling some of my Cinema and Media Studies folks, to give Saboteur (1942) a spin.  In many ways, it embodies the formula of the classic Hitchcock thriller:  a man is wrongly accused of a horrible crime and must clear his name with the help of a beautiful woman (see also North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, The Wrong Man) and add in a cross-country chase (again, see North by Northwest, another film that reaches its climax atop a national landmark).  Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is a blue collar worker at an airplane plant during World War II.  One day, Barry meets a strange co-worker by the name of "Fry" (Norman Lloyd) and, shortly after, a fire breakouts at the plant, killing Barry's best friend and leaving Barry the prime suspect.  

The Horror! The Horror!: The Exorcist (1973) and Session 9 (2001)

Guided by Scott Weinberg's list of 120 Horror Films now on Netflix Watch Instantly, I decided to hunker down on a rainy, October, Los Angeles day and watch two of them:  William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) and Brad Anderson's Session 9 (2001), one of Weinberg's favorites.  While I have documented my favorites over at Pajiba (and before that in the pages of the UWM Post), my tastes have changed and evolved.  When I last watched it, ten years ago, I wasn't a huge fan of The Exorcist.  See if my tastes towards a purported classic changed after the jump.  

The White Shadow (1923), The New 52, and Women Comic Book Readers Day

Last night was the U.S. debut of a lost, found, restored, yet incomplete print of one of Alfred Hitchcock's first credited (not directed) features, The White Shadow (1923).  Initially a six-reeler, three reels of the film were recently found in New Zealand and sent to the United States for restoration.  The film, directed by early collaborator Graham Cutts, was adapted by twenty-four year old Hitchcock from a novel by Michael Morton (no relation) and featured Hitchcock in several other significant roles including assistant director, editor, art director, set director, production designer.  It featured Betty Compson in a dual role as a set of twins - one socially "evil" (she drinks, smokes, and gambles!) and one her complete opposite - who fall in love with Clive Brook's American. 

Drive (2011)

In Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011), mobster Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) tells his newly hired stunt and getaway driver (Ryan Gosling) that he used to produce B-movie genre films that the critics called “European…  I called them trash.”  That description fits the abyss that Drive attempts to jump, Dukes of Hazard/General Lee-style, between trash (the heist/thriller genre) and art cinema (particularly the existentially infused crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville).  Taking on a mode of filmmaking similar to both Michael Mann and Jean-Luc Godard, directors whose films cross-pollinate pulp narratives with a cool exploration of film form, Refn sticks the landing without the danger of a catastrophic rollover, taking cinephiles on a ride beyond their wildest imaginations. 

Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-Ray Review

On the evening of September 15th 2011, I left my apartment in West Los Angeles to camp out for the Blu-Ray release of all six Star Wars (1977-2005) films.  I hadn't stood in line for Star Wars since a cold day in April when, at age 16, I dressed warmly in a Green Bay Packers jacket and waited outside of the Northshore cinema in southeastern Wisconsin to buy tickets for The Phantom Menace (1999).  When that day in May finally came, I walked away from Phantom Menace - like many others - with disappointment.  I had moderate expectations for the Blu-Ray and clung to a childlike hope that my disappointment would be reversed by the high-definition glory of seeing three of my favorite films on my home theater.  Was my new hope redeemed or did I walk away poisoned with bitter anger?  Continue reading to find out! 

The Cinema Doctor Meets the Popcorn Mafia

Last week, I was invited by CNN's movie critic Grae Drake to sit down and discuss two horror films (Drive-In Horrorshow and The House That Dripped Blood) with Drive-In director Michael Neel.  


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Citizen Kane (1941): 70 Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition

I've been dreading the task of writing a review of Orson Welles's masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941).  For years, I've avoided writing about it.  I've done so by favoring other Welles pictures when it comes to reviews (The Immortal Story, Touch of Evil) simply because the scholarship produced by André Bazin, Peter Bogdanovich, Pauline Kael, Laura Mulvey, James Naremore, and Jonathan Rosenbaum (amongst others!) leaves me with little to say.  It's a great film and far greater writers and thinkers than I have spent the past decades discovering its secrets and disclosing them to cinephiles and potential cinephiles.  That said, this review will be more focused on the features on the new 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-Ray than the film itself.  If you really want to learn about Citizen Kane, read one of those books.  If you know nothing about Kane and want a quick gloss, this is for you.