2024-04-22 10:55
CCC: A Brit Box Plus Duke and SammyWHISKY GALORE! (1949) --- Retitled Tight Little Island for US
distribution by Universal, this was a J. Arthur Rank-enabled project of Ealing
Pictures, a fi… Read More
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2024-04-15 11:01
Gone with the Wind Blew Back Last WeekA part of me is for shortening Gone with the Wind to simply Gone. And
yet there are pockets that care, 116 of them showing up for a Fathom Events r… Read More
2024-04-08 11:27
STS: John Barrymore as Richard, Sister Ethel, Handsy Gable, plus Bogie and FlynnJOHN BARRYMORE DOING SHAKESPEARE --- The Show of Shows hindsights as woofing
dog among studio revues, lice upo… Read More
2024-04-01 13:19
Among the One-Hundred: The Black Cat and Other PoeticsAsk anyone to recall who was the first nineteenth-century author to come
to their attention and I bet most would answer Edgar Allan Poe… Read More
2024-03-25 10:30
Ad/Odds: Dick's Doughnut Party, Unholy Love, All-RKO Show, and Dream GirlWHY NOT A DOUGHNUT PARTY? --- Merit badge to all who toss such event after
fashion of Olivia DeHavilland and Dick Pow… Read More
2024-03-18 10:50
Produced by John Wayne --- Part TwoOf the Batjacs, Seven Men from Now may be an only one
called canonical. Of westerns, it is close to a top of fifties heap. Extras for
Seven Men from Now ar… Read More
2024-03-11 11:31
When Paramount Played with Batjac --- Part OneCall this “When DVD Was King,” or Gold Age for Discs. Guess all formats
have such apex, be they laser, even cassettes of long past… Read More
2024-03-04 12:25
PPP: The Scarlet Claw and 1975 Homecoming Parade, and The Lodger (1944)A right combination of setting and selection makes memorable time spent with
shows. Mine of late was The Scarlet Claw w… Read More
2024-02-26 12:55
Digging For, and Finding, Disc "Extra" GoldOnce there stood mighty fortress that was DVD with extras and talkers
and sometimes Easter Eggs, a bargain for modest price to have them. Blu-Ray
b… Read More
2024-02-19 09:40
WWW: Robocop, The Sea Wolves, Sign of the Gladiator, and The HillROBOCOP (1987) --- Outlaw action thriller they’d not dare today, Robocop silly on surface, a title giving ex… Read More
2024-02-12 15:15
Noir: Breakaway, Canicule aka Dog Day, Circle of Danger, Clash by Night, and CloudburstBREAKAWAY (1956) --- It’s another Tom “Duke” Martin thriller with Tom
Conway! There w… Read More
2024-02-05 13:48
LIFE Versus the MoviesAugust 13, 1951, was Detonation Day, not when a cold war turned hot, but
where the Number One family weekly aimed laser at an industry they said was in
throes of declin… Read More
2024-01-29 10:57
Watched: The Cyclops, Law of the Underworld, The Band Plays On, Warlock, and Before DawnTHE CYCLOPS (1957) --- Who'd have dreamed a
sci-fi junker like this would so rivet generations after s… Read More
2024-01-22 11:26
Precodes: Let Us Be Gay, Smart Money, Dark Hazard, Susan Lenox, and a Hot Lobby CardLET US BE GAY (1930) --- Doormat duckling turns swan when wife Norma Shearer
gets shaft from straying husb… Read More
2024-01-15 11:08
If You Can't Make It, Then Fake ItArt as defined for a past hundred and twenty-five years was “there” in
terms of painting, sculpture or whatever solid thing was one of its kind… Read More
2024-01-08 12:15
CCC: Bugs and Daffy and Bringing Up BabyHIS BITTER HALF (1950) --- It pains me to see Daffy Duck excessively
abused. I’ve often wanted his and Bugs Bunny’s circumstance reversed… Read More
2024-01-01 12:29
STS: Roscoe at Sunset, Beasts and Bombs, Our Amuzu, and Exhibition's Beginning or End?ROSCOE STRIKES A SAD POSE --- Are so-called “silent” comedians misnamed?
They are all silent… Read More
2023-12-25 15:54
Melanie Daniels Plays the Game Called Access and OpportunityThe Birds for me is less about avian assault and more about other things.
It is nature in an uproar against backdrop of human natu… Read More
2023-12-18 12:03
Among the One-Hundred: San Francisco (1936)Was lying awake at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood on January
17, 1994, at 4:30 am when earth beneath suddenly shook and it seemed som… Read More
2023-12-11 23:39
Ad/Odds: Hopalong Cassidy, Design for Death, The Outlaw, and Sarong RevueYEAR-ROUND HOPPY HOLIDAY --- Show me someone who to
this late day collects Hopalong Cassidy merchandise, omitting tho… Read More
2023-12-04 14:10
Daughter Schools Mom/Dad in Are Parents People?Jack and Jason Hardy, doing business as Grapevine Video, have been
offering silent films on DVD and Blu-Ray for years. They are located in Ariz… Read More
2023-11-27 11:30
PPP: It Came from Outer Space, I Walked with a Zombie, The Adventures of Superman, and Ali Baba and the Forty ThievesIT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) --- Freak tent that was 3-D moviegoing ma… Read More
2023-11-20 10:13
WWW: Hard Times, The Deep, and Five Easy PiecesHARD TIMES (1975) --- Walter Hill’s first go at direction, Hard Times came as indirect result of success Dillinger ha… Read More
2023-11-13 11:48
Off the Grid Again: This Time, SuspicionSaid Greenbriar, September 14, 2009: “Suspicion remains a frustration
for me, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”… Read More
2023-11-06 10:42
Noir: The Big Chase, Blackout, Blood Simple, and Brass MonkeyTHE BIG CHASE (1954) --- Part of a box entitled “Forgotten Noir:
Collector’s Set, Series Three,” from VCI… Read More
2023-10-30 10:09
Watched: It Started in Naples, Screwball Squirrel, and The ReptileIT STARTED IN NAPLES (1960) --- Clark Gable’s next to last. He crossed the Atlantic and began eating pasta as if it wa… Read More
2023-10-23 10:52
Werewolf Jack Nicholson Tries Venison for LunchGreenbriar's Last Word on WerewolvesWOLF (1994) --- Wolf refreshes for teaching joys of lycanthropy. Having
watched, I would not mind becoming… Read More
2023-10-16 12:55
Werewolf of London Attacks on Lots of LevelsWerewolves are largely class-conscious, tending to come of landed gentry,
this to enhance tragedy as visited upon a lycanthrope. Dr. Wilfred Glend… Read More
2023-10-09 13:20
The Giant Gila Monster and The Killer Shrews Make Good Combo CompanyInterest sustains in The Giant Gila Monster and The Killer Shrews thanks
to a newly released Blu-Ray combining the tw… Read More
2023-10-02 10:44
Thirties Trek Back and Let Pre-Codes CommenceAfter chaotic fashion of Greenbriar’s ongoing Film Noir series, we engage now the Precode era, never minding alphabetical policy that drove… Read More
2023-09-25 13:28
Hurrell's Hollywood as Revealed by Mark VieiraPermit Greenbriar to sing unabashed praise for Mark A. Vieira’s latest book, a reprint, with much new content, the image rich Hurrell&rsqu&hell…Read More
2023-09-18 09:36
CCC: Million Dollar Legs, The Lucky Dog, They Got Me Covered, and Big JackMILLION DOLLAR LEGS (1932) --- Really wacky, almost perverse comedy.
Million Dollar Legs got latter years boost when… Read More
2023-09-11 09:16
War, Love, Loss, and Deanna DurbinConstant wartime query was What Are We Fighting For, to which Hollywood supplied
answer off respective contract lists. Prominent was Deanna Durbin, watched… Read More
2023-09-04 11:54
STS: The Great Audience, The Wonderful Thing, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and AtragonTHE GREAT AUDIENCE --- Infinitude might be defined as ways an audience
can behave badly, carry-on digita… Read More
2023-08-28 11:05
Among the One-Hundred: Rear Window (1954)Time again to be honest re passage of time and taste. When does merely
old become antiquity? Do I dare propose the eighties, even nineties? Look at
Y… Read More
2023-08-21 16:10
Ad/Odds: The Dark Mirror, First Comes Courage, Daughters Courageous, and 1940's Swiss Family RobinsonTHE DARK MIRROR (1946) --- Olivia DeHavilland as twin sisters, one sweet
as was onscreen… Read More
2023-08-14 14:18
Partners I Pick to Dine On and WithIs popcorn essential to the viewing experience? It never was for me at
theatres. Wouldn’t touch it upon hearing of a boy who choked to death on erran… Read More
2023-08-07 13:27
Flynn Finds Out That Everybody Plays The FoolSomeone please enlighten me as to what sort of expectation people
brought into theatres back in the day. Who knows now that witnesses from… Read More
2023-07-31 16:26
Sandwich and Drink and Movies BesidesSome pictures play best by way of whiskey. I discovered this awhile back
where doubling Virginia Gentleman with sour mix and the Blu-Ray of Vanishing
Poi… Read More
2023-07-24 09:32
Noir: Appointment With a Shadow, The Assassin, Bad Blonde, and The Big BluffStill struggling to get out of A and B titles, quicksand too thick to loose me forward in Noir's murky a… Read More
2023-07-17 11:30
Watched/Read The Mummy's Hand, The War Lord, Bombardier, and Dakota IncidentTHE MUMMY’S HAND (1940) --- Alert to fun-seekers --- Tom Weaver and crew
have a new “Script from the C… Read More
2023-07-10 14:36
CCC: Radio Revels and Reginald DennyBREAKFAST IN HOLLYWOOD (1946) --- What’s more gone than radio? And yet
we have more of it online than a lifetime’s listening could absorb, at… Read More
2023-07-03 15:53
STS: Beauty for Sale, The Alamo's Front, Stars Play at Eating, and AIP in BunchesThe best stills have their stories to tell. Here are a few. More will follow as Stills That Speak recurs from… Read More
2023-06-28 10:52
Among the One-Hundred: The Maltese Falcon (1941)Should it matter when The Maltese Falcon first flew my way? Those who repeat screen will understand however, so here and now may do to share w… Read More
2023-06-19 10:50
Ad/Odds: Cornered, The Paradine Case, and ChainedCORNERED (1946) --- “New” being watchword here as Dick Powell new was
less accomplished fact than lately implemented one. Murder… Read More
2023-06-12 12:44
King Solomon's Mines Never Looked So SpectacularKing Solomon’s Mines showed up this week from Warner Archive, a Blu-Ray I
call an event. There have been a number of those … Ivan… Read More
2023-06-05 12:09
Ghost World That is Paramount on ParadeFrom You Tube confine comes one not expected, let alone in quality we
can at last tolerate. Paramount on Parade was of a cycle studios pedaled through… Read More
2023-05-29 12:47
Noir: The Big Caper, A Bullet for Joey, and The Chase (1946)THE BIG CAPER (1957) --- Momentarily back to B’s for pearl found in
oyster that is crime output of the fifties, prolific a w… Read More
2023-05-22 11:55
Greenbriar's Watch List ReturnsTHE HUNTERS (1958) ---
Another from the 50's where jet flight was celebrated, but unlike previous
Strategic Air Command and Jet Pilot, there are dog fights don… Read More
2023-05-15 08:41
5/15/2023: Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Boy's Ranch, and Cross My HeartAnother new feature to recur at Greenbriar, ads, images, discoveries made along comedy lines: Bells are ringin… Read More
2023-05-08 08:33
Did Best-Sellers Make Best Movies in 1939?Heard of 1939’s Disputed Passage? Based on a best-selling novel from
that year, it went largely unseen till recent when Kino issued a Blu-Ray… Read More
2023-04-29 10:23
Ads and Oddities #1Ads and Oddities proposes to be a gather place for what comes of closet cleans, peruse through stacks of kept images, dig among ancient advertising, whatever might fascina… Read More
2023-04-23 06:47
Among the One-Hundred: Now, Voyager (1942)Knew a spinster secretary during the seventies who treasured her copy of
Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty, a writer who understood women beat-do… Read More
2023-04-17 11:27
Noir: Christmas Holiday, City of Fear, and City of IndustryCHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944) --- Deanna Durbin was drawn to Christmas
Holiday like Tyrone Power was later to Nightmare Alley, both… Read More
2023-04-10 21:15
Watching From What Could and Should Be MoreMy idea of rare remains the pre-49 Paramount library, eclipsed only by
Fox now that they've been subsumed by Disney. Are we to see the latter again… Read More
2023-04-03 11:32
Old San Francisco (1927) Is Earth-Shaking Melodrama
Two impressions this one made years before I saw
it: A photo on p. 108 of The Movies (above), by Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer,
s… Read More
2023-03-27 11:32
Noir: Chicago Confidential and ChinatownCHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL (1957) --- Posters say “It Rips Through “Chi” Like a Hurricane,” but really it doesn’t, being cauti… Read More
2023-03-20 11:26
Wade and Wood's and Other WorldsLost again amidst peruse of Filmfax, early issues crash upon shoal of what uncultivated call “bad” or more tactful, “camp” movies. If… Read More
2023-03-13 13:28
A Frank Borzage Double, and Both are GoodCharacters in Frank Borzage pictures have a way of turning into real people, a gift with this director. Two of his silent features, obscure or absent… Read More
2023-03-06 19:15
Noir: Calcutta, Casino, and China MoonCALCUTTA (1947) --- No more nice guy Alan Ladd slaps a murder confession out of dewy Gail Russell, shock to see such angelic visage abused, hers a face… Read More
2023-02-27 13:02
Among the One-Hundred: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) --- Part TwoFred stops by Bullard’s Drug Store, Midway Drugs a chain lately in possession. Too many grab at bargains from over… Read More
2023-02-20 13:14
Among the One-Hundred: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) --- Part OnePictures great enough can stand a frisk because no way does that make them less great. The Best Years of Our Lives might… Read More
2023-02-13 14:33
Noir: Bullet to the Head, The Burglar, and BustingBULLET TO THE HEAD (2012) --- The poster reads “Revenge Never Gets Old,” but do they really mean “Movies About Revenge Nev… Read More
2023-02-06 13:00
1956 Pretty Babies Rock to Rock, Pretty BabyNight of November 7, 1956: D.J. favorite Johnny Grant asks outgoing teens, and moms of teens, “What did you think of Johnny Saxon?” Un… Read More
2023-01-30 13:00
How to Tell a Story That Became Wife vs. Secretary (1936)Retrieved via research done at USC’s Cinema Library in 1989 are memos generated by Metro in 1934-35 for project that became Wif… Read More
2023-01-23 11:38
Noir: Brick, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and Brute ForceBRICK (2005) --- I issue coherence challenge for anyone who can honestly say they understood a quarter of dialogue spoken in… Read More
2023-01-16 10:09
Among the One Hundred: Hot Saturday (1932)Did small towns breed anything other than gossip, misery, more gossip? Resolved by the early thirties was … no they didn’t. It was less… Read More
2023-01-09 09:56
If I Like It, Why Shouldn't Everybody?If you show someone a movie, let alone show a movie to a group, you ownthat movie, at least for purpose of credit or blame depending on where opinions l… Read More
2023-01-02 10:40
Noir: Brawl in Cell Block 99, Breaking In, and The BribeBRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (2017) --- Title bespeaks retro fun circa fifties with Brod Crawford or kin busting out of stir with bulls hot… Read More
2022-12-25 11:38
The Greenbriar One Hundred Begins HereSo I am told that canons are gone and discredited and good riddance to bad rubbish. That means we each may pick minus constraint or expectation that wor… Read More
2022-12-19 13:26
Comedy and Serio, or Serio and Comedy?Holiday picks at random, Witness for the Prosecution and The Apartment, years since seeing either occasion to view both different. Here’s charm of… Read More
2022-12-12 11:01
Noir: Boomerang, Born To Kill, and The Brasher DoubloonBOOMERANG (1947) --- Bold at spelling out how politics dictate local civil and criminal matters. How many innocents were hanged to keep… Read More
2022-12-05 14:09
Greatest of All Novels Inspires Best of All Movies?1974 was the year I just had to have a Gatsby suit. They were white, had a double-breasted vest, and were inspired by the Paramount motion… Read More
2022-11-28 12:52
The Everson Want-To-Watches of 1954All Hail Films in Review, around and prominent from early 1950 until print publication ended in 1997 (web presence still). They sold comparative lots, as n… Read More
2022-11-21 12:37
Noir: Bob Le Flambeur, Bodyguard, and Body HeatBOB LE FLAMBEUR (1956) --- European films are not like American films. We shouldn’t want them to be like American films. One thing you&rs&hell…Read More
2022-11-14 12:31
Go Into Your Dance, Says Joan Crawford as Wild Child DianaOur Dancing Daughters (1928) is Fixed and FantasticRemember how awful Our Dancing Daughters always looked? A one surviving 35mm prin… Read More
2022-11-07 12:00
The Fad Taking Seventy Years So Far to FadeRock and roll was a threat not just to parents but a thinking mainstream everywhere. Even ones calling themselves hep drew lines here. Not only was… Read More
2022-10-31 13:50
Noir: The Blue Lamp, A Blueprint for Murder, and Blue RuinTHE BLUE LAMP (1950) --- Lovely evocation of London life even as it cries against crime let loose by permissiveness after the war an… Read More
2022-10-24 14:57
Their Likes --- Our Likes --- They DifferYou Tube hands me more of the unexpected, comments to go with highlights from Van Helsing, one I assumed was Universal-ly disliked since 2004 when re… Read More
2022-10-17 13:07
Fun For One and One For All on 8mmSeems I fall heir to another collection of 8mm film, a variant to before as this owner still lives, though minus machinery to run reels on, and not inclined… Read More
2022-10-10 12:28
Noir: Blow Out, The Blue Dahlia, and The Blue GardeniaBLOW OUT (1981) --- I saw Blow Out when it was new and sort of liked it. Forty years later however and what a difference. Movies cannot… Read More
2022-10-03 10:01
More Than the Code Ruled ContentLana Turner as “Lily James” in A Life of Her Own (1950) declares “men have been buzzing around me since I was fourteen,” which we can… Read More
2022-09-26 12:49
Where One Critic Played SafeAmong reviewing cliches is assurance an author would “spin in his/her grave” to see what movies did to a novel, as w/ Otis Ferguson re The Adventures… Read More
2022-09-19 10:55
Noir: Black Widow (1954 and 1987) and BlitzBLACK WIDOW (1954) --- Cinemascope does Manhattan, albeit mostly indoors, but there are shots of streets, with sometimes a cast member to show cast… Read More
2022-09-12 11:08
Tashlin/Foster Explore Daffy's Life in FullFrank Tashlin is thought to be underappreciated by much of a cartoon community, that is fans that came up after Tashlin and peers were gone. How st… Read More
2022-09-05 10:47
Does The Parent Trap's Public Still Remember?One must be in at least late-sixties to have seen The Parent Trapfirst-run. Hayley Mills meanwhile is seventy-six and released her memoirs last y… Read More
2022-08-29 10:01
Noir: The Black Dahlia and Black RainTHE BLACK DAHLIA (2006) --- Was the expression “Listen up” in common usage during the mid-forties? Moderns can dress a room to pin-accurate p… Read More
2022-08-22 11:28
The Sin of RestorationUnderstanding is that Leonardo used wonky technique to paint Rectory wall that hosted The Last Supper with result his paint chipped and began falling off within weeks o… Read More
2022-08-15 11:04
Which Gets To Be The Highest Art?That 1975 summer out at USC had us part of the time in a History of Cinema class with instructor John Schultheiss, who knew his topic and shared greats from… Read More
2022-08-08 10:44
Noir: The Black Glove and BlackmailTHE BLACK GLOVE (1954) --- Best I could tell, this Lippert/Hammer confab was shot in 1953, briefly US-released apx. March 1954, then let go to television i… Read More
2022-08-01 10:56
Bank Holiday (1937) is UK Idea of VacationReleased here by Gaumont, but barely, as Three On A Weekend, and if ever a title needed change, here was it. Early directorial effort by Carol… Read More
2022-07-25 12:31
They Laughed 180 Years Ago --- Why Not Now?Plenty can testify re comedy impact on audiences, us all having experienced it in theatres, but what of days long before screens were hung, and fil… Read More
2022-07-18 11:32
Noir: The Big Operator and Black AngelTHE BIG OPERATOR (1959) --- Mickey Rooney could give great performances in repose. Let the film be rag-tag, Mick never missed. By 1959, he was shuttling… Read More
2022-07-11 10:27
"Old-Time Movies" Among Coney MarvelsConey Island for me was merely a place movie characters went to. Real people attended too of course, in droves as to be startling. Here seemed a pl… Read More
2022-07-04 10:36
Blondie Johnson (1933) Takes More Than Expected LibertiesJoan Blondell is a distaff Little Caesar, "a new kind of Gold Digger," so says the trailer, but Gold Diggers didn't engineer murders… Read More
2022-06-27 12:29
How Much Stays Good and For How Long?How soon are best efforts forgot? Success even … great success. There are those who wrote novels that sold into thousands, a million even, whose n… Read More
2022-06-20 09:54
Noir: The Big Clock and The Big KnifeTHE BIG CLOCK (1948) --- Some stories merit telling twice, Nightmare Alley as recent evidence. So too was The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, a noir… Read More
2022-06-13 17:48
Where Cartoons Go To Please AnewCouple of weeks ago, I experienced a MMM at Columbus. Not Mary Miles Minter, but a Magic Movie Moment like we seek from watching what is old and evocative of… Read More
2022-06-06 15:12
More of Marx Comedy for MetroThe first MGM Marx Bros. comedy not road-tested in live theatres prior to production. Did failure of A Day at the Races ($543K loss) disincline the studio toward… Read More
2022-05-30 18:38
Noir: Bewitched and The BigamistBEWITCHED (1945) --- Forty millions were said to have listened to this on radio, so said MGM’s trailer, idea to presell a modest programmer written and… Read More
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