Before the Snyde(r) Comments Begin…

The blogging opportunities haven’t really been presenting themselves this week, sadly. On the bright side–I do have a line on one of the pre-”Jennifer Jones” Isley performances, so perhaps the delay in launching my star persona analysis project can be construed as fortuitous. But I thought I would take this opportunity to direct your attention [...]

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Say It Ain’t Sophia

very busy lately, unfortunately–but will check in soon with a post on Warner Brothers’ amazing companion piece to They Won’t Forget in the 1937 anti-lynching sweepstakes– Michael Curtiz’s Mountain Justice (starring the very very unjustly neglected Josephine Hutchinson), which I saw over the weekend. For now–just wanted to mention that I actually watched the entire [...]

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Isley in My Stream of Consciousness

Short post today More in the nature of a public resolution, actually. To wit–I want to explore the star persona (as pseudoteurial node of meaning) of Jennifer Jones (nee Phylis Flora Isley). Best way to do that, of course, is to revisit all of her films–so that’s what I’ll do (probably not one after another, [...]

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Hitler vs. Hosers (Faux-sers?)

They can’t all be winners. Michael Powell’s (screenwriter Emeric Pressburger is not co-billed in triplicate on this one) 49th Parallel certainly has its moments–unfortunately, some of them aren’t GOOD moments. In conception, this thing is truly ingenious: a dark picaresque tale that moves the (Nazi) highwaymen to center stage, beset by all manner of complacent [...]

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The Squire Root of All Evil

Gone to Earth represents the confluence of three of the most important elements in my mental universe: Powell & Pressburger, Jennifer Jones, and (proto-)animal rights (linked–as in the novella I’m launching tonight!–to a critiique of patriarchy). So don’t expect anything resembling objectivity from me on this one (or at any time, really–I hate prescriptive criticism, [...]

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Small Back Pain

I’ve really been Powell and Pressburging my luck lately–revisiting some old favourites and filling in the gaps. Absolutely no disappointments so far. Quite the reverse, actually. I’m more fascinated by these guys than ever before! Case in point–The Small Back Room (1949). How’d I ever miss this one? (I know how–it just wasn’t available in [...]

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Fifty…okay, fifty-two

I like the way Wendymoon presented her interesting top 50 at Movie Viewing Girl (divided up into idiosyncratic categories), and I’m going to steal her format here! It’s a wonderful way to declare your judgments and your biases (and man have I got biases!) at the same time! Disclaimer: if questioned on this matter tomorrow, [...]

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The Lost Tycoon?

This Alternative Film Guide piece on Mark Vieira’s new book on Hollywood’s first “Boy Wonder” (Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg and the Rise of MGM) intrigues me, but not for the reasons you might think. I’m sure it’s a fine book, and I have no doubt that I’ll be checking it out–but, at the [...]

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Lewtonian Leanings?

I figured out how to add a poll! It’s down there at the bottom of the sidebar. Building off of yesterday’s post, I was just curious to know how people see Lewton’s RKO series, now that 9 of the 11 are readily available (the two non-horror entries are still AWOL–although I am expecting to view [...]

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Stick a Pitchfork in Her, She’s Donne

Val Lewton (and director Mark Robson)’s The Seventh Victim is a deeply divisive film. Extravagantly praised by some (although, to tell ya the truth, I don’t think it’s possible to overestimate this gently nihilistic slice of quotidian terror), it is just as often treated as a weak link in the Lewton series (generally by critics [...]

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