It’s noir vs. myth in Jean-Pierre Melville’s When You Read This Letter (Quand tu liras cette lettre). When You Read This Letter, released in 1953, the [...]

Judge Noir Decides: Noir or Not? The Flame (1947) directed by John H. Auer Does Film Noir become “Camp Noir” in this Vera Ralston vehicle? The [...]

Going to a Max Ophüls film always feels to me like going to church – and this sense came again to me while watching the film Les amants de [...]

First: A disclaimer. I have a deep affection for Southern California in general, and Los Angeles in particular. I lived there for 18 years, met a lot of [...]

I just saw the very best Billy Wilder film that Billy Wilder had no part in making — it’s an Austrian film titled Episode, made in 1935. [...]

It’s a crowded ferry taking people away from Coney Island, and Dorothy Haley (Sally Eilers) is tired of being hit on by the guys on the boat. When [...]

The Western – movies about the American frontier – are often considered Classic Hollywood’s oldest and most important ‘national [...]

  If there ever was a Hollywood filmmaker who resists the impulse for binary thinking, (good vs. bad, right vs. wrong), it’s John Ford. Saying [...]

  James Whale is best remembered for his his horror films Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of [...]

First, a confession: Before watching The Mad Game I was not a huge Spencer Tracy fan, feeling that at some point in his career he took his acting advice of [...]