The world of classic comedy lost another legendary contributor this week with the passing of writer Madelyn Pugh Davis. At a time when there were few women writing in Hollywood (and even fewer writing for comedy), Davis took advantage of the dearth of male writers in the midst of World War II and carved a…
Last week, inspired by blogger R.D. Finch over at The Movie Projector, I posted a list of what I feel are the 30 greatest male performances of the silver screen. Today, the ladies get their due. These types of lists are very hard to compile. Inevitably, with a limited number of slots, someone great gets…
It’s been delayed by a couple of weeks (apologies—it’s been a busy month!), but today we’re going to take a look at the final Doris Day-Rock Hudson pairing, 1964’s Send Me No Flowers. In their third outing together, Day and Hudson are no longer sparring singletons, but a loving husband-and-wife duo, living out the mid-century…
By the late 1980s, it seems that the studio Mickey Mouse built had reached a crossroads. The Walt Disney animation legacy was in danger of being shuttered forever after a series of critical and commercial flops, while simultaneously undergoing an upheaval in its animation department as the revered “Nine Old Men” retired and were gradually…
Recently, R.D. Finch over at The Movie Projector posted a list of what he believes to be the greatest classic film leading performances by male thespians. Reading his list, I found that I agreed with several of his choices, and with a few others, liked the performer but thought the actor was better in a…
Yup … for two weeks in a row, the Saturday Morning Cartoons post title is a villain quote. Oliver & Company (1988) is Disney’s animated and “animaled” take on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (if you must indulge in the Dickens canon, this is probably the way to go). Oliver the abandoned kitten meets Dodger,…
Two years after debuting a sparkling chemistry in 1959’s Pillow Talk, Doris Day and Rock Hudson re-teamed for another romantic comedy, Lover Come Back. Again, they were joined by Tony Randall and a slew of amusing bit players for an appealing, candy-coated concoction of wit, sex, and broad humor. Over the years, I’ve read several…
This past weekend marked classic movie star Doris Day’s 87th birthday (at least, according to TCM’s online biography of the star … some sources list various other years as Day’s official date of birth). And what better way to celebrate than to dedicate this week’s posts to a trio of films from the beautiful, charming,…
