Blog
These stories have been around a long time. Some of them I have updated. Many of them I haven’t. This started out when blogs were like, new!
I’m Not Gaga Over Her Political Statements
Lady Gaga has said to Mike Pence, "You are the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian," and, incensed over the government shutdown, has castigated "the f--king president of the United States." Hey, aren't we supposed to be living in a time of...
Harold Lloyd Plays It Unsafe
The silent flick, Safety Last! (1923), begins with a scene suggesting that Harold Lloyd (as The Boy) is in a prison cell waiting to be hanged for an unknown crime, but, no, it's just a sight gag. Harold is simply at a railroad station. Yet an approaching hanging, if...
No Matt Dillon Here: The Western Movie, “Gunsmoke”
Audie Murphy was a war hero, but a charmless and very limited actor---too limited as a leading man. Still, the 1953 Gunsmoke, which stars Murphy, is another enticing Old Hollywood Western adapted from an obscure novel. Here, Reb Kittredge, Murphy's character, is...
The Priest Of Ars: “The Wizard of Heaven”
I don't know how much the French priest John Vianney in the old film, The Wizard of Heaven (1949), resembles the real John Vianney, who died in 1859, but I like and respect this atypical Marcel Blistene (director)-Rene Jolivet (screenwriter) achievement. Vianney,...
Fun Fritz: The Movie, “The Woman in the Window”
Like Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window (1944) is an Edward G. Robinson-Joan Bennett collaboration directed by Fritz Lang. At first I thought the film might be about what ensues from the fear of injustice, but, no, it's just about itself. It is film noir with a...
Nocturnal Antonioni: “La Notte”
The protagonists in the 1961 Italian film, La Notte ("The Night"), are a married couple---emphatically married. Disillusionment, the weary efforts to understand and console, the fearful concern over having caused pain, the unwillingness to part---these and other...
You Little “Angel,” You
Ernst Lubitsch, directing the film adaptation of yet another play, gave us in 1937 Angel, more drama than comedy and wonderfully cast. Marlene Dietrich enacts Maria Barker, who feels neglected by her good husband, Frederick (Herbert Marshall), and takes a vacation to...
God’s Salvation: Does Anyone Get Left Out?
A person with cerebral palsy who refuses or fails to become a Christian does not seem like much of an enemy of God. Yet, really, based on what Scripture teaches I believe he or she must be considered such, and now the question is: Is he or she destined to go to...
Thoughts On Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief”
Interesting: a former member of the French Resistance became a jewel thief and now has reformed (albeit he is still in trouble). The role is not a good fit for suave Cary Grant, but we're glad he's in the film---i.e. To Catch a Thief (1955). We're comfortable with...
