Mongrel Sherlock was an invention of the times, following the new idea of evolution. The notion of pure reason being able to perceive and comprehend everything in life was especially novel. This was contrasted to the bumbling inductive logic of doctors like Watson. Handling Holmes is easy if you stick to the magic of Holmes… Continue reading The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Tag: 1950s
Films released in the 1950s
The Band Wagon (1953)
42nd Street in the Rain The colour musical film is a strange beast. Hollywood explored many of its possibilities. And people did buy lots of tickets. But until very recently, musicals were all but dead. That’s because they were never able to create a self sustaining genre, actually what they missed were a few constants… Continue reading The Band Wagon (1953)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Just Bad There are an astonishing number of movies about the movie business. many of these interest me because they use the situation as a way of engaging the audience: we are tricked into being the audience IN the film. This is a common trick, which I believe to be the most effective in all… Continue reading The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Short Story Long What astounds me is how things change. Here’s a film that was celebrated in its day. In fact, I remember my third grade class in the DC area taking the day off to go to this. (The year previously, we had gone to see a Cinerama movie in the same theater.) We… Continue reading Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Missing This 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 of cinematically transitioning from beautiful women to abstract… Continue reading Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Angels One Five (1952)
Definitions I’m watching this right after the terrorist attacks on London. Immediately, the Brits snapped back to this period, the so-called Battle of Britain where a few outnumbered airmen held off that bad guys. They’ve since forgotten that the bad guys were the Germans (not the Nazis), but they’ll never, ever forget the unifying experience… Continue reading Angels One Five (1952)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Drunk Lawyers There seems to be a sub-genre of movies that feature drunk or downtrodden lawyers taking on cases and winning. This is sometimes associated with the “courtroom” film where reality is unfolded according to specific rules, coloured by human dynamics. And this is under the larger branch of the detective narrative, that one where… Continue reading Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
An American in Paris (1951)
Sienna Shoes ‘The Red Shoes’ changed the world of film. It was deeply self-referential (a performance about a performance with the two enfolded) and had the extra advance of sometimes making the camera a dancer. So Gene Kelly tried his own ‘Shoes’. MGM refused to horse around with the camera but let him try on… Continue reading An American in Paris (1951)
The Amos ‘n Andy Show (1951-1953)
Honorable I saw this series, pretty much all of it, on TeeVee when I was a kid. I can speak from the remembered experience then as well as my reaction on seeing the series again now. The role we expect film to take now is rather complex, but fifty years ago on TeeVee the very… Continue reading The Amos ‘n Andy Show (1951-1953)
All About Eve (1950)
Fabrications I 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 about movies, actresses portraying actresses with resonances among… Continue reading All About Eve (1950)