Anyone who has spent more than a couple of hours in my company is probably aware that my favorite movie of all time is 1942’s Casablanca. I have waxed rhapsodic about this film so many times in the past that when I am asked why I choose this film over all others, I can rattle…
Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1868 novel Little Women has been adapted into film multiple times–by most counts, fourteen in all–and some of these versions are not readily available for today’s audiences (notably, the two silent versions from 1917 and 1918). Of all of them, perhaps the three best-known (and most beloved) are the ones from…
One of Gene Kelly’s best dances was captured in a 1944 film with which not many people are familiar: the effervescent Cover Girl, co-starring Rita Hayworth in one of her better roles. I first caught this film several years ago on TCM and instantly warmed to it. True, the songs are not the most memorable–with…
For Christmas, my friend Erin (the heretofore referenced “number one reader”) decided to indulge both the classic film fan and the latent foodie in me, and thus gifted me with Francine Segan’s book Movie Menus: Recipes for Perfect Meals with Your Favorite Films. The result of years of research, Segan’s book provides updated, time-tested recipes…
The end of another year (and, perhaps more notably, another decade) is upon us, and as always at this time of the year, I find myself looking back and evaluating my “progress,” as it were. But as this is a movie blog, I’ll save self-analysis and retrospection for my personal blog, and instead take a…
When considering the greatest love affairs in the history of Hollywood, the smoldering pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall would have to rank near the top of the list. Though Bogart was twenty-six years older than the fledgling starlet Bacall (whom he nicknamed “Baby”), their relationship lasted a passionate and loving thirteen years, until…
Classic film actress Jennifer Jones passed away today at the age of 90. Though Jones only appeared in 27 film projects throughout her career (three of them under her birth name, Phyllis Isley), the actress left a large mark on Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, landing five Oscar nominations and winning one, as Best…
No film director in history had quite as deft a hand in crafting wild, outrageous comedy as Preston Sturges. The director also wrote and produced his own screenplays, in addition to dabbling in acting, songwriting, and playwriting, among other varied interests. A prototypical “Renaissance man,” Sturges brought a wide-ranging knowledge to his films, reflected in…
True Classics 