Witchcraft in 17th-century Denmark, with something for almost everyone, the moralist, the feminist, the occultist, the cinephile -- especially him. It's not at all for the dogmatist, of whatever persuasion. Carl Dreyer starts out leading your sympathies where they will go most readily. A hoary old Lutheran pastor oversees the …
Shell-shocked veteran John Garfield goes on the hunt for the killer of the soldier who saved him from a Nazi death camp. Based on the novel by Dorothy Hughes, this film noir was directed by Richard Wallace, a relatively obscure subject for further research.
Twice as grim. A hundred times more terrifying! See? They had sequels back then, too.
Busby Berkeley, gorging himself on candy colors, marshals several massive assaults against the human sense of proportion and propriety: an elaborate, disorienting crane shot to kick off the movie with an Ugly American nightclub salute to Brazil, land of coffee beans and the samba; a Carmen Miranda production number, "The …
Not the earlier version of Warren Beatty's film of this title (that was Here Comes Mr. Jordan), but rather a sentimental stage comedy out of Central Europe, transplanted to Technicolor Hollywood by Ernst Lubitsch. And very comfortably and prettily so. It concerns a deceased roué who demands admission at the …
America's introduction to everybody's favorite collie was also Elizabeth Taylor's second feature. Directed by Fred Wilcox.
An escaped show cat, on the prowl in a New Mexico smalltown, unjustly gets the blame for a series of grisly murders. The most sensational of these takes place just out of sight, on the far side of a door, to the accompaniment of horrible noises, and concludes with a …
Preston Sturges's razor-sharp (as well as razor-thin) conception of an American small town confines itself to a few solid characters: a hot-tempered town constable with a pair of motherless daughters on his hands; the unmanageable older one, whining and wheedling, who is impregnated one night by a nameless soldier off …
The story of an adolescent girl's pampering affection for her pet uncle (both are called Charlie), and of her vengeful about-face when she discovers he's the notorious "Merry Widow Murderer," is, so they say, one of Hitchcock's personal favorites among his movies. Not a bad choice. The direction is typically …