Private Det. Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) and his rich client’s pretty, eldest daughter, Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) size each other up and exchange double-entendres to die for in The Big Sleep (1946). The Production Code. Love it, hate it, or have fun mocking it, but there’s no getting around it. It spurred Hollywood to produce films that are...
“It’s your fault I’m the way I am.” Veda (Ann Blyth) tells her mother, Mildred (Joan Crawford), who worries that it may be true in Mildred Pierce (1945). Mildred Pierce (1945) stars Joan Crawford as Mildred, a hard-working, devoted, mother of two who divorces her shiftless, neglectful, husband and seems to be on her way to both financial...
Charlotte (Bette Davis) and Jerry ‘J.D.’ Durrance (Paul Henreid) share a meal that sparks a romance in Now, Voyager (1942). Now, Voyager (1942) tells the tale of Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), a repressed, unmarried woman from a wealthy Boston family, who has a nervous breakdown following years of emotional abuse from her domineering mother. Benefiting from therapy and...
Grab that fur shrug and ditch that healthy grub! Break out the egg nog, get cozy on the couch and let Christmas in Connecticut (1945) wrap you up in good cheer. Famous homemaker and magazine columnist Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) falls for the too-handsome-in-uniform-to-resist Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) in Christmas in Connecticut (1945). It stars Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane,...
Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine) a lonely, good-hearted, 34-year-old, Italian-American butcher who feels too old and ugly for any woman to love in Marty (1955). “Whaddya feel like doin’ tonight?” “I dunno, Angie. Whaddya feel like doin?” “I don’t know. Whadaya feel like doin’?” Those lines could only be from one film, Marty (1955). The story of the shy...
He wasn’t a good student, didn’t like to read and never went to college. Yet, by the time Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was in his 40s he had changed the course of Hollywood history and was hailed as a genius. Between 1940 to ’44 he was responsible for an incredible streak of hit films populated with zany characters, witty...
Classic Film Columnist
I'm a classic film columnist with a special devotion to those shot in black-and-white.
In my columns I celebrate the beauty of classic films and all those who helped to create them. And like all great works of art, I spotlight their continuing ability to influence and inspire.
My columns have appeared in The Catholic Free Press and on the sites 50 Plus CT and Mass Bay Film Project. Locally, I've conducted film programs on the great writer/director Preston Sturges. And, I've also presented my series, "Popcorn Sermons," at The Icon Museum and Study Center.
I'm also a proud member of The Film Noir Foundation, The International Buster Keaton Society and The Classic Movie Blog Association.
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