Friday, September 22, 2023
It's time for a quick look ahead at the November schedule on Turner Classic Movies!
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Tonight's Movie: Human Desire (1954) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Jeff has the potential for a nice life, with a good, steady job, and Ellen (Kathleen Case), the lovely daughter of his best friend Alec (Edgar Buchanan), clearly has a crush on Jeff and sees him as marriage material.
Jeff says he wants a simple life of fishing and going to the movies, but then he falls hard for the married Vicki (Gloria Grahame) when he sees her on a train and his life quickly gets very complicated.
Unfortunately, Vicki's husband Carl (Broderick Crawford) has just killed a man on that very train, and when Jeff lies at the inquest about seeing Vicki and Carl near the dead man's compartment, he's soon in over his head.Vicki has more than a little similarity to Phyllis in DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), and she'd like to be free of Carl -- permanently. And she certainly doesn't want to take care of it herself...
Spoiler alert: Those not wanting to know more about the plot might want to stop reading here until seeing the movie. I don't give the entire ending away but do discuss some aspects of it.
While I was frustrated with Jeff's stupidity on the first viewing, this time I could better understand how Vicki enticed him, and I also realized that he was under her spell for much less time than I remembered before he snaps out of it and realizes he's being played. Rather than being annoyed by his succumbing to her temptation in the first place, this time around I was glad he had the smarts to extricate himself before it was too late! It comes as a significant relief.Jeff has a great moment near the end where he pulls the cord and sounds the train horn, symbolically reconnecting with Ellen, who blew the horn earlier in the movie when she and Jeff had an important conversation. Combined with Jeff's rapprochement with Alec, seen as Alec lights Jeff's cigarette with his pipe, I found the ending much more satisfying. I also liked that the movie didn't drag on, but clocks in at a pitch-perfect 91 minutes.
Crawford's bullying husband was about as boring as the first time, but I found Grahame fascinating. The passage of a dozen years definitely gave me a fresh perspective on her performance and her character, especially having seen Grahame in numerous films in that time frame.In fact, the Grahame films I watched since my first viewing of HUMAN DESIRE included the phenomenal THE BIG HEAT (1953), the previous film she'd made with Lang and Ford. My great admiration for that film definitely impacted my willingness to give HUMAN DESIRE a new look.
Instead of finding her "poor me" staring-into-space routine tedious, I enjoyed watching a master manipulator at work. The layers of Vicki's character are fascinating; when the film begins she's bored but willing to help out by going back to work when Carl loses his job. Of course, her boredom probably plays into that noble gesture...Vicki seems genuinely reluctant when Carl pushes her to beg a powerful man for his job back...but then she does what she feels she needs to do. And once Carl kills, all bets are off -- and she finally has a good excuse to drop their marital relationship.
HUMAN DESIRE was written by Alfred Hayes, inspired by a novel by Emile Zola.
The supporting cast includes Diane DeLaire, Grandon Rhodes, John Maxwell, Olan Soule, Dan Seymour, and Peggy Maley.
Ford and Crawford, incidentally, would reunite a couple years later in the Western THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE (1956).
Kino Lorber's Blu-ray shows off the superb, gritty black and white photography of Burnett Guffey. It looks great.Blu-ray extras consist of the trailer; a gallery of three additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber; and a brief featurette with actress Emily Mortimer speaking on the film which was carried over from the Columbia Film Noir Classics II DVD release.
This special edition also includes reversible cover art and a cardboard slipcase.
Recommended.
Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.
TweetMonday, September 18, 2023
Tonight's Movie: The Fatal Hour (1940) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The dead man has been investigating smuggling on the waterfront, and before long Bill and private detective Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) are investigating a costume jewelry shop which might be a front for sales of valuable jade.
Unfortunately more deaths occur before the mystery is solved; the interesting solution involves a newfangled remote-controlled radio.
I enjoy Karloff as the eternally unruffled, observant Mr. Wong; it's fun to watch his mind work as he sifts through clues.Reynolds also adds quite a bit. I particularly liked that when Bobbie learns of the death of Bill's close colleague, she drops the sparring which is typical of their relationship and offers Bill genuine sympathy and help. Similarly, Bill's true feelings for Bobbie are apparent in the final scene.
The solid supporting cast includes Lita Chevret, Charles Trowbridge, Richard Loo, Craig Reynolds, Elsa Janssen, I. Stanford Jolley, and Jason Robards (Sr.).
The movie was directed by William Nigh and filmed in black and white by Harry Neumann.
Kino Lorber's Blu-ray print is a new master from a 2K scan of fine grain film. It's a tad soft in spots, but overall it's very good. Sound is also strong. It kind of amazes me that we now have these Monogram Pictures films available looking so good!Previous reviews: MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938), THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG (1939), and MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN (1939). I'll be reviewing the last title in the set, DOOMED TO DIE (1940), in the near future.
Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.
TweetSunday, September 17, 2023
Tonight's Movie: Wichita (1955) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

My favorite supporting performance is Peter Graves as Morgan Earp; he's handsome and charismatic, and I only wish he'd had a larger role.
Saturday, September 16, 2023
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Saturday, September 09, 2023
Tonight's Movie: 42 (2013)

Last weekend I enjoyed seeing the baseball movie THE HILL (2023).
The Jackie Robinson film 42 (2013) came up in the comments of my HILL review (thanks, Margot!), and I decided it was finally time to pull out the bargain Blu-ray I bought a few years ago and watch it. I'd lent the film to multiple family members who enjoyed it, but this was the first time I watched it myself.
The late Chadwick Boseman is outstanding as Dodger legend Jackie Robinson, who agreed to an audacious plan formulated by Dodgers executive Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) to desegregate Major League Baseball.
Rickey's plan was to find and sign an excellent black player to the team; that player would have to be willing to patiently, peacefully put up with the outrageous racist treatment sure to come his way in order to ultimately succeed and pave the way for other blacks to join him in the majors
Jackie agreed that he had the "guts" not to fight back, and he was called up to the major league Dodgers team in 1947. Rickey calculated the public would get behind Jackie, which they did, and in ensuing seasons the Dodgers added additional black players including Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe.42 is a 128-minute film, written and directed by Brian Hegeland. It's presented as a fairly straightforward, traditional baseball biopic, but it's extremely well done.
Boseman's appealing performance once more makes me regret his too-early death, and I thought Harrison Ford was quite a revelation as Rickey. It's not a flashy "Look at me not being Harrison Ford!" role, but as the same time he completely sinks into the character, allowing the viewer to focus on Rickey rather than one of our better-known actors. He's excellent; his Rickey clearly relishes what he's doing, though we're slow to understand some of his motivation.
Nicole Beharie is quite winning as Jackie's smart wife Rachel, and I also particularly enjoyed John C. McGinley as Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber. I've heard many stories about Barber and his sayings over the years from Vin Scully, who became a Dodger broadcaster in 1950, but it was quite enjoyable to see and hear someone impersonating Barber and get a feel for what it was like to hear him call games.42 was filmed by Don Burgess.
The cast also includes Chris Meloni as Leo Durocher, Lucas Black as Pee Wee Reese, Hamish Linklater as Ralph Branca, Andre Holland as sportswriter Wendell Smith, and Alan Tudyk as Ben Chapman, the racist manager of the Phillies. GREY'S ANATOMY veterans James Pickens Jr. and T.R. Knight also have roles. Brett Cullen, who I remember from TV's THE CHISHOLMS (1980), has a nice role as a veteran manager.
Parental Advisory: This film is rated PG-13. Numerous racial epithets are heard throughout the course of the story, but it's part of telling the story of a hero. The themes are adult but I think it's fine for younger children if they're interested; I would have been fine with my kids watching this when they were young. (They did see the 1950 film THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY, in which Jackie played himself.)A love of baseball is an added plus as far as enjoying this film, but I think the story is so compelling that it could be enjoyed by anyone.
Although these events happened when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, I'll always be proud that Jackie Robinson played for the team I've loved my entire life. Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated annually not only by the Dodgers but by all of Major League Baseball. His number, 42, has been retired not only by the Dodgers but by all of baseball.Jackie was only 53 when he died in 1972; he was posthumously given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1984. As I write this, his widow, Rachel, is 101.
This film is available on Blu-ray and DVD. A trailer is here.
42 is recommended.
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Friday, September 08, 2023
Book Review: The John Wayne B-Westerns 1932-1939

Although I'm a longtime Wayne fan, I admit to ignoring those films myself for many years, until I was drawn to them through my time in Lone Pine, California. Over the past decade I've visited and photographed Lone Pine locations for multiple Wayne "B's," including THE MAN FROM UTAH (1934) and KING OF THE PECOS (1936). I've also been able to visit other locations from Wayne "B" films such as Iverson Movie Ranch.
As I watched Wayne's films in conjunction with my location visits, I came to realize that some of them are actually quite good, and even the lesser Wayne films are of interest for various reasons, including watching the young Wayne's growing ability to command a camera. It seems almost paradoxical, but as Wayne learned to be more subtle and reactive, he simultaneously became more interesting to watch.
Neibaur makes similar points in his introduction, noting "a careful look at these films reveal them to be much better than their general reputation." He goes on to mention that some of my favorite Western directors, such as Robert Bradbury and George Sherman, "were able to exhibit some impressive creativity within the confines of a threadbare budget," and he also makes mention of the location cinematography providing "striking visuals."
Neibaur's book covers over three dozen of these early Wayne Westerns, with each movie receiving its own chapter. At the top of each chapter there are cast and major production credits along with a list of each film's locations, which for probably obvious reasons I especially appreciated.In addition to plot descriptions, Neibaur provides information on aspects such as budget, shooting time, and exhibitor response, and in some cases there are relevant quotes from cast members. He also supplies some critical thoughts on each movie.
Each of these angles combines to provide a picture of the development of Wayne's career throughout the decade, along with the fact that he seems to have been universally liked by his coworkers.
I found a chapter on John Wayne's "Year of Non-Westerns" at Universal Pictures to be particularly informative. My older Wayne books contain relatively little about these movies; the 1976 book JOHN WAYNE AND THE MOVIES by Allen Eyles probably does the best job previous to this. Wayne came to feel his sojourn at Universal stalled his development as a Western star, so I was quite interested to read about that aspect of his career and hope to seek out the films.
Although I wasn't there, it's fun to note that the rarely seen ADVENTURE'S END (1937) from this Universal era was just screened at the Cinecon festival over Labor Day weekend.As an additional side note for fellow fans of Wayne's "B's," the 2018 edition of LONE PINE AND THE MOVIES focuses entirely on the "lost" Wayne Western THE OREGON TRAIL (1936), including extensive photos. As Neibaur notes in his book, the film was well received, and I keep hoping a print will turn up unexpectedly.
Neibaur's book concludes with a chapter on Wayne's "graduation" to John Ford's STAGECOACH (1939) and a brief summation of his superstar career, for which Wayne's work throughout most of the '30s had provided the foundation.
This softcover book is 268 pages including bibliography and index. There are numerous black and white photographs which are well-reproduced directly on the pages.In the interest of completeness, I'll mention I felt this book could have used a proofreader to clean up punctuation and typographical goofs, which I found a bit distracting from the book's very worthwhile content.
THE JOHN WAYNE B-WESTERNS 1932-1939 is an informative and useful book which achieves its goal of explaining these films' significance in the context of Wayne's career. It's a book that very much needed to be written, and I'm glad James Neibaur took on the project. I read it cover to cover, and I'm glad to add it to my Wayne bookshelf as a future reference.
Thanks to James L. Neibaur and Bear Manor Media for providing a review copy of this book.
TweetWednesday, September 06, 2023
New at Classic Movie Hub: Destry (1954)
