Feb 28, 2020
LONELY WIVES (dir. Russell Mack) meet KEPT HUSBANDS (dir. Lloyd Bacon) in our RKO 1931 episode of The Studios Year-by-Year. Edward Everett Horton sex farce or battle-of-the-sexes melodrama-played-for-farce—this one has got it all. And in our Moviegoing in Toronto section, a Mary Pickford and Clara Bow double feature...
Feb 21, 2020
This time on our Jennifer Jones ‘cast it's two movies based on novels by Communists, bafflingly made during the early Cold War era, one a failure and one a hit. We start with the failure, the original Dirtbag Left hang-out movie, John Huston's BEAT THE DEVIL (1953). It was based on a novel by Claud Cockburn (one-time...
Feb 14, 2020
What better befits a Valentine's episode than a couple of films about star-crossed lovers. First, it's punk (Nicholas Cage, in his first starring role) meets prep in Martha Coolidge's low-key, surprisingly affecting teensploitation cult classic VALLEY GIRL (1983). Then, John Travolta in his sex symbol prime drifts up...
Feb 7, 2020
Back to Borzage for Fox 1931 with the inaptly-titled BAD GIRL, plus Raoul Walsh's THE YELLOW TICKET. Deconstructed masculinity in Depression-era New York! Sex worker registries in czarist Russia! Boxing ring cuddles! Nude bathing in women's prisons! Lionel Barrymore chewing the scenery, James Dunn having male hysterics!...
Feb 3, 2020
Greetings Friends!
Here's our latest snapshot of the upcoming episodes (slight modification in May, as found another subtitled Setsuko Hara film!), with our August and September Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto retrospective talks still TBD, as the TIFF Summer program has yet to be revealed.
Bon Cinema!
February...