In the early 1940s, two different film versions of Patrick Hamilton’s play Angel Street were produced. The first version was released in 1940 and titled Gaslight. The second version of this film, which kept the same title, was released just four years later. Although both films were based on the same play and follow…
For this week’s entry in the Maudlin Mondays series, I chose to watch the 1952 film Invitation, mainly because of its star, Dorothy McGuire, who plays the role of Ellen Pierce. A few days ago, I watched The Enchanted Cottage, also starring McGuire. In The Enchanted Cottage, she plays a kind, plain-looking young woman who falls in love; in Invitation, she…
Casablanca is my favorite film of all time. It’s one of those movies that I never tire of watching. In fact, one of my first dates with my husband was watching it while eating homemade pasta. Each year we have a tradition of watching this perfect film at least once together. Last year (7/15/2011), he…
By some accounts a champion of female independence, playwright Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), crafted some of the most searingly honest plays ever produced by an American writer, beginning with her debut, the heart-wrenching 1934 drama The Children’s Hour (which was inspired by a true story). The play tells the story of two women who work hard to make their…
Three Comrades (1938) is a love story about a boy and a girl … and their two friends. When I originally read the description for this movie–“A World War I veteran and his two partners love a doomed woman in 1920s Germany”–I assumed that this would be just another film about a love tri ……
I have always been intrigued by stories of self-sacrifice and characters who doom themselves by doing the so-called “right thing.” When watching movies, I find myself rooting for characters to follow their hearts, regardless of the consequences. Things that I would never approve of in the real world, I champion in fiction. Outcast Lady (1934)…
What’s the next best thing to watching Robert Osborne on TCM? Listening to him on Siriusly Sinatra on my hour drive home from work! I’m not surprised to learn that Mr. Osborne has such good taste in music, considering he’s a demigod. Some of his favorites include: Jack Jones – “She Loves Me” Frank Sinatra…
True Classics 