Today I watched "Carry On Screaming" (1966) directed by Gerald Thomas. This was the first "Carry On" movie that I've seen, and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't great, (and it's not going to knock "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" or "Young Frankenstein" of...

I just found out that film critic Stanley Kauffmann died on October 9th. He was 97 years old and had written reviews for "The New Republic" from 1958 to this year. I didn't always agree with his views (he really didn't like Woody Allen's work for one thing), but he always seemed fair and o...

The 2010 "Brighton Rock" updates the action of Greene's novel to the early 1960s and the Mods vs. Rockers violence in Britain. The movie was directed by Rowan Joffe. Sam Riley played Pinkie. Andrea Riesenborough played Ida. Helen Mirren and John Hurt had supporting roles. The movie started...

I like a number of Soviet and Eastern European films. As for World War II as a subject, "The Cranes Are Flying" is outstanding. I was lucky enough to see "Trial on the Road" in a theater in the Eighties. That is a Soviet film made in the 70s and banned until the Glasnost era. I f...

Here's another vote for "Fate of a Man"/"Destiny of a Man" with Sergei Bondarchuk. A very powerful film that is largely overlooked in American books on Soviet film.

Yesterday I watched "Swingers" (1996) directed by Doug Liman. This was the first time I had seen the film, and while it did already seem familiar in its story of hapless guys seeking female companionship in the Los Angeles bar scene, it was very funny and I frequently laughed out loud. To ...

Yevgeny Bauer is a real find. He was a giant of the pre-1917 Russian film industry. I haven't seen "Daydreams," but his "Death of a Swan" and "After Death" are very good. ("Swan" is near feature length. "After Death" is about a half hour.) They are a...

This afternoon I watched "Billy Elliot" (2000) directed by Stephen Daldry. I wasn't too keen on watching it, partly because I have no interest in ballet, and it didn't really sound like my kind of film. But I had read about it fairly recently, so I gave it a try. I really liked it. I reall...

Today I watched "Night Nurse" (1931) directed by William Wellman. There is some great stuff in this movie, like the opening shot of an ambulance rushing to a hospital. The failed operation is also very tense and scary. I enjoyed the chemistry between Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell. But...

Today I watched "Bright Young Things" (2003) directed by Stephen Fry. I really liked this movie, which is based on Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies." It deals with the upper class party set of the 1930s, and it is the rare contemporary (okay, 10 years old now) movie that deals w...

Hi Martha, thanks for stopping by. I really love "Yellow Sky." What was it like working with William Wellman? I remember Richard Widmark said that he found Wellman intimidating. Widmark fell off his horse and Wellman supposedly said "That's the last chance you get," and he never ...

Yesterday I watched "Anatomy" (2000) directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky.

I think fans of giallo might like this German horror film about sinister goings on at an elite medical school. I found the film extremely enjoyable.

Yesterday I watched "Anatomy" (2000) directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. I really liked this German horror film. It is inspired by American horror films such as "Scream," but "Anatomy" has its own charm. It is about a very bright female medical student (Franka Potente) who e...

On Saturday I watched "The Devil's Backbone" (2001) directed by Guilermo del Toro. I had heard a lot of great things about this movie, and while I enjoyed it, I found I had an odd reaction to the story about an orphanage in the last days of the Spanish Civil War. I really liked the interpl...

Of Hammer's movies of the Seventies, I think "The Vampires Lovers," "Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde" and "Demons of the Mind" are among the best Hammer ever made. I'd put "Twins of Evil," "Vampire Circus," and "Frankenstein and the Monster From He...