Sort by
Listing Movies
Display Movies
The African Queen (1951)
The greatest adventure a man ever lived… with a woman!
Filmmaker(s): John Huston

At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

Leeches Cruise played an exaggerated version of himself in “Magnolia,” following a tradition set long ago. We liked to believe that the sex sirens we saw in movies the 30’s were really that way in life and probably they were. John Wayne followed, never playing anything...


Published December 12, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
A world of wonders in one great picture!

On a golden afternoon, young Alice follows a White Rabbit, who disappears down a nearby rabbit hole. Quickly following him, she tumbles into the burrow - and enters the merry, topsy-turvy world of Wonderland! Memorable songs and whimsical escapades highlight Alice's journey, which culminates in a madcap encounter with the Queen of Hearts - and her army of playing cards!

Charlie’s Flowers spent a goodly part of my life becoming an expert in the Alice material, so have had to work to temper this comment: My initial feeling on this project is one of utter despair, as Walt and company took something that was both...


Published November 30, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
Othello (1951)
Orson Welles' magnificent screening of Shakespeare's immortal tragedy
Filmmaker(s): Orson Welles

When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes it hard. He allies himself with Iago, who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. When their first plan, to have him accused of witchcraft, fails, they plant evidence intended to make him believe Desdemona is unfaithful.

Dimensional Filmmaking on Shakespeare films is rather like admiring Easter Eggs. First the inside: this was never a great play, relative to Shakespeare's other works. His great plays are about ideas, with characters as vectors to prod and activate them. This play is merely about characters,...


Published December 10, 2024
| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
Tagged: , ,
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
...Blanche, who wanted so much to stay a lady...
Filmmaker(s): Elia Kazan

A fading southern belle moves in with her sister in New Orleans where her ferocious brother-in-law takes stabs at her sanity.

Mass Transit vast majority of films use someone else's vocabulary, so when you can run across one that helped create that vocabulary it is cause for celebration. Usually the originality is in the vision of the filmmaker, but here it is in the manner of...


Published December 11, 2024
| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
Tagged: , ,
Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Biggest musical under the sun!
Filmmaker(s): George Sidney

Gunslinger Annie Oakley romances fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler as they travel with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Missing could have been a miracle. It could have featured Judy Garland who in her prime was the most committed performer (with talent) in movies. She prepared the way for Brando. It could have been arranged by Busby Berkeley, who in his prime invented the notion...


Published April 4, 2023
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
All About Eve (1950)
It's all about women... and their men!
Filmmaker(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

Fabrications admit, I find the story of the Mankiewcz brothers to be one of the most interesting in all filmdom. Part of the allure is their experimentation in narrative perspectives and the nature of fabrication. Here, the fabrication is extra sweetly dimensional. We have a movie...


Published March 8, 2023
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
King Solomon’s Mines (1950)
Lovers trapped in animal stampede!

Adventurer Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an attempt to locate an explorer who went missing during his search for the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon.

The Voyage Only You need to compare this to “Out of Africa” and “African Queen”. And it compares very poorly indeed. Four-fifths of this is the voyage across Africa with only two purposes: to show off the then novel footage of the place, and to portray...


Published March 4, 2023
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
The Invisible Monster (1950)
Filmmaker(s): Fred C. Brannon

Man-woman team of investigators uncover a gang whose mad scientist leader has developed an invisibility chemical and plans to build a mercenary army of invisible men.

Commies! actual story of this as it develops is so ordinary that it is a waste of time: one fist fight after another. The situations are indefensibly unimaginative. It is the premise of the thing that’s interesting. I’ll give it to you here so you don’t...


Published February 18, 2023
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
Treasure Island (1950)
PIRATE'S PLUNDER a young cabin boy, a roguish buccaneer... match wits in a swashbuckling adventure!
Filmmaker(s): Byron Haskin

Enchanted by the idea of locating treasure buried by Captain Flint, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey and Jim Hawkins charter a sailing voyage to a Caribbean island. Unfortunately, a large number of Flint's old pirate crew are aboard the ship, including Long John Silver.

Two Heads, One Leg is rather hard to appreciate in the sea of movies we have now, but once upon a time the world of imagination was owned by books, and this was a king among them. Stevenson invented the modern notion of pirates: the...


Published January 5, 2025
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
All the King’s Men (1949)
He Might Have Been A Pretty Good Guy . . . If Too Much Power . . . And Women . . . Hadn't Gone To his Head !
Filmmaker(s): Robert Rossen

A man of humble beginnings and honest intentions rises to power by nefarious means. Along for the wild ride are an earnest reporter, a heretofore classy society girl, and a too-clever-for-her-own-good political flack.

Actors, Politicians a film, this hasn’t aged well. The various elements, especially the acting, now seem dated and...


Published March 8, 2023
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,