Ball of Fire, 1941, RKO Radio Pictures. Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Dana Andrews. Directed by Howard Hawks. B&W, 112 minutes. Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) and seven esteemed colleagues (six bachelors, one widower) are compiling a new encyclopedia of human …
Tag: Classic Film Reviews

Wuthering Heights (1939)
Wuthering Heights, 1939, United Artists. Starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven. Directed by William Wyler. B&W, 104 minutes. A passionate tale of ill-fated love, Wuthering Heights takes a deep look into the hearts and motivations of Cathy (Merle Oberon) …

The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth, 1937, Columbia Pictures. Starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy. Directed by Leo McCarey. B&W, 90 minutes. Rapid-fire conversations, a sophisticated script and a cast to match make this one of the definitive screwball comedies of all …

Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Here Comes Mr. Jordan, 1941, Columbia Pictures. Starring Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes. Directed by Alexander Hall. B&W, 93 minutes. Death has come about 50 years too soon for boxer Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery) when well-meaning but novice Angel …

Easy Living (1937)
Easy Living, 1937, Paramount Pictures. Starring Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland. Directed by Mitchell Leisen. B&W, 89 minutes. A series of misunderstandings almost lead to a stock crash that could rival that of October 29, 1929, and all because …

Dark Victory (1939)
Dark Victory, 1939, Warner Bros. Starring Bette Davis, George Brent. Co-starring Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart. Directed by Edmund Goulding. B&W, 104 minutes. Stubbornly confident and exasperatingly independent, socialite Judith Traherne is accustomed to doing what she wants, when she wants, …

The Heiress
The Heiress, 1949, Paramount Pictures. Starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift. Directed by William Wyler. B&W, 116 minutes. Shy, naïve and devoted to the father who wants little to do with her, Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) is easily taken …

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, 1936, Columbia Pictures. Starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur. Directed by Frank Capra. B&W, 116 minutes. Small-town poet Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) has inherited an astonishing $20 million from a distant uncle, and the attorney who …

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1947, Twentieth Century Fox. Starring Rex Harrison, Gene Tierney, George Sanders. Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. B&W, 104 minutes. A headstrong, independent widow goes against her late husband’s family’s wishes and strikes out on her own, …

The Big Sleep (1946)
The Big Sleep, 1946, Warner Bros. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. Directed by Howard Hawks. B&W, 113 minutes. Summoned to work on one case, then turned around for the real story, hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) finds more …