[10] This terrifying tale of emasculation is my favorite sci-fi/horror flick from the atomic age. Grant Williams stars as Scott Carey, a man who gets caught in a strange mist while boating with his wife. Afterwards, he notices his clothes don’t fit quite like they used to. His wife assures him everything is fine, that he just needs to eat more. A few days later, …
[10] James Dean received the first posthumous acting nomination from the Academy Awards for his performance as the troubled Cal in East of Eden, his first major film role. (He would die tragically just a few months after the film was released.) It’s a riveting performance, one of the most vulnerable and moving I’ve ever seen. The film, directed with style and elegance by Elia …
[10] James Dean stars as Jim Stark, an angst-ridden teenager who quarrels with his parents almost as much as he tangles with high school bullies. I normally hate tough guy movies, and I’d normally put teenagers with puffed-out chests in the same group as mobsters — but Rebel Without a Cause doesn’t glorify bravado. The Oscar-nominated screenplay is more concerned about the vulnerable, real person …
[10] Two small children run for their lives from a murderous preacher in the only film actor Charles Laughton ever directed. The Night of the Hunter is a unique blend — part fable and part thriller, both pastoral and horrific, a beguiling mixture of qualities that usually mark the work of an amateur… or a genius. Laughton is as precise and purposeful as Orson Wells …
[10] In this darkly comic noir masterpiece from Billy Wilder, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter (William Holden) moves in with a delusional silent film star named Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who wants him to write the script for her big comeback. But when the writer strikes up a relationship with a younger woman (Nancy Olson), the eccentric diva goes dangerously insane with envy. Sunset Boulevard is …
[10] Bette Davis revived her sagging career and writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz continued an Oscar streak with All About Eve. Davis stars as Margo Channing, an aging broadway star who takes a sympathetic, aspiring ingenue under her wing. Anne Baxter plays the ingenue and title character, Eve Harrigton. Over the course of the film, Eve ingratiates herself to Margo’s friends and acquaintances, who include a …
[10] If you want to watch Errol Flynn fight the Nazis, this is your movie! Edge of Darkness is one of those great old World War II propaganda films, this time told from the perspective of a small Norwegian fishing village that’s been under Nazi control for two years. Flynn heads up a superb ensemble, including Walter Huston, Ruth Gordon, Judith Anderson, and Ann Sheridan, …
[10] William Wyler’s portrait of an English family weathering the darkest hours of World War II is a moving drama about hope and persistence. There’s a quiet strength and noble resolve about the characters in this movie that I find utterly disarming. Wyler shows admirable restraint in the direction and storytelling, sidestepping any opportunity to sensationalize the material. One of the greatest scenes in the …
[10] William Dieterle’s adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster is a winning combination of rustic Americana and dark fantasy. A cautionary tale of greed and power, the narrative centers around the character of Jabez Stone (James Craig), a down-on-his-luck farmer who is barely able to support his family in 1840s New Hampshire. When the nefarious Mr. Scratch (Walter Houston) appears during …
[10] John Ford directs John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of a destitute Oklahoma family who pile everything they own into a jalopy and head for California in hope of finding work and a new home. The Grapes of Wrath puts an exclamation point on stories about the Great Depression and the down-trodden. The film features a stellar cast, gorgeous photography by Gregg Toland, and enough …
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