Category Archives: cinema

The Barkleys of Broadway (Charles Walters, 1949)

Posted on December 18, 2014 by cinemelo

The Barkleys of Broadway (Charles Walters, 1949) contains some expectedly poor-taste jokes, like one that men find it hard to tell women apart at parties, which is actually rather funny in the way the joke is executed through the film although … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema, musical theatre, stars | Leave a comment

Taxi!

Posted on December 14, 2014 by cinemelo

Everyone loves a film with an exclamation mark in the title. I do, anyway. The poster doesn’t have one, but the title card in the film print does. Taxi! (Roy Del Ruth, 1932) starts off by being rather inaudible. At first … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema, stars | Leave a comment

Manhattan Melodrama (“Can I have a hot dog?”)

Posted on December 1, 2014 by cinemelo

Manhattan Melodrama (W. S. Van Dyke, 1934) begins with a formative moment in the lives of two young boys, Blackie Gallagher and Jim Wade, in which they lose their parents in a maritime disaster. Later, during a group meeting to rally … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema, stars | Leave a comment

The Little Foxes

Posted on November 30, 2014 by cinemelo

An early scene in The Little Foxes (William Wyler, 1941) features Birdie Hubbard (Patricia Collinge) sitting in her house, alone at the table, after the husband and son she doesn’t love have left her for the bank they both work at. Framed … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema, stars, women | Leave a comment

Another brief thought on Under the Skin

Posted on June 20, 2014 by cinemelo

A longer reflection on Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) is here: http://kubrickontheguillotine.com/2014/06/18/on-sound-and-silence-in-jonathan-glazers-under-the-skin/   At a crucial point in the alien’s uncomfortable warmth towards humanity, Scarlett Johannson is people-watching. She does a lot of people-watching, observing and learning about human movement and interaction. … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema | Leave a comment

Kanal (Andrzej Wadja, 1957)

Posted on May 30, 2014 by cinemelo

“These are the heroes of the tragedy. Watch them closely. For these are the last hours of their lives.” What do these last hours sound like? A stern, dark eyed man plays the piano gently, his refletion in the polished … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema | Leave a comment

On my favourite films of 1944

Posted on May 6, 2014 by cinemelo

This is a list I created last year for a particular shared social media “game”, where I was asked to provide my favourite films of 1944. Obviously, my instinct was to first go for all those glorious Hollywood productions, but … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema | Leave a comment

Ever in My Heart

Posted on January 10, 2014 by cinemelo

Like so many films of the early classical narrative era, Ever In My Heart (1933) uses newspapers to advance the plot along, to serve as major, and minor, narrations on setting and character. A short feature at 68 minutes, it introduces the … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema, women | Leave a comment

Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence (1961) is a startlingly dark B-film noir that trudges through the gunk and garbage of Manhattan’s streets and spaces. And it’s not just the visuals that make this a unique and powerful film, a commentary … Continue reading →

Posted on January 2, 2014 by cinemelo | Leave a comment

“They’re awful people, these artists, these doodlers!” grumbles the dairymaid to her service clan, when Michel (René Lefèvre) can’t pay his dues, or his rent. And so René Clair as a comedian of language and tone, as well as visual … Continue reading →

Posted on November 22, 2013 by cinemelo | 1 Comment