Now that we can read the real story of the great silent actor and makeup magician Lon Chaney, the inaccuracies are fairly glaring in this well-received biopic about his career heights and difficult personal life. But it remains a compelling James Cagney movie, allowing the actor to try on different acting styles (and even a dancing style). The dramatic conflicts may be invented, but they’re compelling just the same. The movie works even as it represents Chaney’s original fantastic makeup creations with a series of ever-worsening rubber masks. Excellent supporting performances from Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer and Celia Lovsky. This one carries a good Tim Lucas commentary as well.
Man of a Thousand Faces
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1957 / B&w / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date October 29, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 34.95
Starring: James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer, Marjorie Rambeau, Jim Backus, Robert Evans, Celia Lovsky, Jeanne Cagney, Jack Albertson.
Man of a Thousand Faces
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1957 / B&w / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date October 29, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 34.95
Starring: James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer, Marjorie Rambeau, Jim Backus, Robert Evans, Celia Lovsky, Jeanne Cagney, Jack Albertson.
- 10/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Wash your face, brush your teeth, and say your Prayers.” Marilyn Monroe’s first plunge into a dramatic starring role casts her as a dangerously unstable babysitter in a hotel-set suspense thriller co-starring Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft. Ms. Monroe may not be Ethel Barrymore (thankfully) but the role suits her well — to play a woman unhinged by low self-esteem and melancholy romantic reveries, she may have tapped personal experience.
Don’t Bother to Knock
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1952 / B&W / 1.37 Academy / 76 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft, Donna Corcoran, Jeanne Cagney, Lurene Tuttle, Elisha Cook Jr., Jim Backus, Verna Felton, Willis Bouchey.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Film Editor: George A. Gittens
Written by Daniel Taradash from a novel by Charlotte Armstrong
Produced by Julian Blaustein
Directed by Roy (Ward) Baker
Although she rates second billing below Richard Widmark,...
Don’t Bother to Knock
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1952 / B&W / 1.37 Academy / 76 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft, Donna Corcoran, Jeanne Cagney, Lurene Tuttle, Elisha Cook Jr., Jim Backus, Verna Felton, Willis Bouchey.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Film Editor: George A. Gittens
Written by Daniel Taradash from a novel by Charlotte Armstrong
Produced by Julian Blaustein
Directed by Roy (Ward) Baker
Although she rates second billing below Richard Widmark,...
- 4/7/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...
- 7/5/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Quicksand
Written by Robert Smith
Directed by Irving Pichel
U.S.A., 1950
Everyone is unfortunate enough to experience, at one point in their lifetime, an episode when it seems as though every single decision they make produces the worst results imaginable. Each successive attempt to ameliorate the predicament only worsens it. Call it Murphy’s Law, call it poor planning and judgment, but whatever it is, car mechanic Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) is bitten by the terrible bug from the moment he meets a lovely girl, Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney), working the cash register at a nearby deli. Sensing an opportunity to for a fun night out, Dan opts, despite his better judgment, to steal 20$ from his employer’s register, fully expecting to pay it back the next day seeing as an old friend owes him that very amount anyhow. When said friend fails to come up with the money off hand,...
Written by Robert Smith
Directed by Irving Pichel
U.S.A., 1950
Everyone is unfortunate enough to experience, at one point in their lifetime, an episode when it seems as though every single decision they make produces the worst results imaginable. Each successive attempt to ameliorate the predicament only worsens it. Call it Murphy’s Law, call it poor planning and judgment, but whatever it is, car mechanic Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) is bitten by the terrible bug from the moment he meets a lovely girl, Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney), working the cash register at a nearby deli. Sensing an opportunity to for a fun night out, Dan opts, despite his better judgment, to steal 20$ from his employer’s register, fully expecting to pay it back the next day seeing as an old friend owes him that very amount anyhow. When said friend fails to come up with the money off hand,...
- 5/29/2015
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...
- 8/13/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you”
Yankee Doodle Dandy is a movie anyone can see and enjoy. No sex, violence or profanity - just lively entertainment. It is good enough to watch on any day, not just the Fourth of July.
As Yankee Doodle Dandy was beginning production, the Japs attack on Pearl Harbor took place, so it would go without saying that the film came along at a much needed time and gave our country, as well as our fighting men a very much needed boost. Though it is a clear representative of times that no longer exist, it has a patriotism that is needed just as much today as it was then, if not more so. The music is great but the film’s highlight in the vibrant, Oscar-winning performance of James Cagney as the hoofer, singer, dancer,...
Yankee Doodle Dandy is a movie anyone can see and enjoy. No sex, violence or profanity - just lively entertainment. It is good enough to watch on any day, not just the Fourth of July.
As Yankee Doodle Dandy was beginning production, the Japs attack on Pearl Harbor took place, so it would go without saying that the film came along at a much needed time and gave our country, as well as our fighting men a very much needed boost. Though it is a clear representative of times that no longer exist, it has a patriotism that is needed just as much today as it was then, if not more so. The music is great but the film’s highlight in the vibrant, Oscar-winning performance of James Cagney as the hoofer, singer, dancer,...
- 7/9/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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