By Alan Hurst June 22, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Judy Garland. She was only 47, but seemed to have packed multiple lifetimes into that short span of years. She had achieved significant success in films, records, on stage, and on television, but the well-known struggles were equally part of her…
By Alan Hurst Flipping channels a few nights ago we caught a few minutes of What’s Up Doc? (1972), probably my favourite comedy of the seventies. It was at the point in the film where Madeline Kahn – upset, wig askew – was loudly expressing her frustration with being treated so badly by her fiancé…
By Alan Hurst I’ve been looking for a reason to write about two of my favourite Douglas Sirk films and, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, the timing is perfect. When Sirk hit his prime in the mid 1950’s his films were major money makers for Universal but they were not critically well received, particularly…
By Alan Hurst A great era for performances by some of Hollywood’s best and brightest, the forties were the dream decade with dozens of films headlined by women, many of which found their way into the annual competition for the Best Actress Oscar. I think the Oscars got it right on more than a few…
By Alan Hurst If you watch The Quiet Man through the filter of 2019, it could easily be dismissed as being a broad and overly sentimental comedy, hopelessly dated and filled with misogynism and superficial stereotypes. But to do that, you would deprive yourself of one of the most perfect movies director John Ford ever made,…
By Alan Hurst For whatever the reason, there was a dearth of great comedies in the late forties but thankfully that was remedied with the 1949 release of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ A Letter to Three Wives. Mankiewicz enjoyed a successful hyphenate career as producer, writer and director (not always at the same time) from the…
By John H. Foote (****) When Tennessee Williams wrote The Glass Menagerie, he drew heavily on his own life, his past and the result was the birth of the neo realistc American theatre. A Streetcar Named Desire would blow the lid off that movement and, together with Arthur Miller’s Death Of a Salesman, make the late forties the…
By Craig Leask Much like the Cleopatra (1963) filming fiasco and its nearly devastating effect on the financial stability of 20th Century Fox Studios, Hello, Dolly! (1969) nearly accomplished the same thing by practically bankrupting the same studio, not through a lack of planning and over paying its actors as with Cleopatra, but by vastly…
By Alan Hurst For the two of us, New Year’s Eve isn’t about heading out to a party, joining the throngs downtown or even making it to midnight. It’s more about hibernating and hunkering down after the social and gastronomical whirl of the previous few weeks with friends and family. Our perfect New Year’s Eve…
By Nick Maylor So far this December, Alan, Craig, Melissa, and John have all listed their favourite/must-see Christmas/Holiday films. Alan and I also threw a spotlight on television specials we hold dear. When I was asked to do a list of my top 5 Christmas movies, I found myself at the inescapable truth that at…