An abnormally hairy, scratching, apish Bogart and a normally haughty Hepburn appear to thrive and purr and scarcely conceal their delight amid the purported annoyances of the Congo wilderness, of the First World War, and of each other's company. James Agee's script seems somewhat trampled-on, as though it were regarded …

The title encapsulates a recipe for pretension, culminating in an endless eighteen-minute "ballet." (A Gershwin musical score could not be expected to impose some restraint.) Vincente Minnelli would further overreach himself, in the same general direction, in Lust for Life. With Gene Kelly (dazzling dancing and choreography), Leslie Caron (her …

Science fiction with a United Nations message. The stuffiness of that aside, there is plenty of low-key suspense built up around a tall and finely chiselled extraterrestrial (Michael Rennie) who maintains a low profile in a Washington, D.C. boarding house while satisfying his curiosity about the American Way of Life. …

One could not actually read the Dostoevski novel in the time it takes to sit through the Kurosawa screen translation of it; it only seems as though one could. Some very pretty imagery, but one sometimes has to pinch oneself to be sure to notice it. With Masayuki Mori, Toshiro …

A fast-talking hustler (Bob Hope) dreams up a scheme to open a home for old ladies and then dump ’em on the street come Christmas day. For decades, America’s most enduring comedian spent his holidays overseas selflessly entertaining our troops, only to bring filmed evidence of his munificence back to …

Luis Buñuel's boisterous proletarian comedy -- not at all noir -- about the bumpy trip on a rattletrap bus from the jungle, over the mountains, to the big city. Buñuel tosses in a gratuitous dream sequence with some frisky sheep (one of his pet animals), but the wacky passenger list …

Vittorio De Sica introduces sugar-plum fantasy to the realm of neo-realism, and the relationship does not take.

Strong opening in a grim city in the company of a brutal cop (Robert Ryan, an actor of powerful undercurrents). Slacker thereafter, throughout a working sabbatical in rural America, and specifically in the homey home of a blind woman (Ida Lupino) who can see into men's souls. The musical score …

Uneven suspense film from Alfred Hitchcock, watered down from the diabolical Patricia Highsmith original. Too many lumpish set pieces and too many stuffy characterizations (a glamorous tennis star, his loyal fiancée, her U.S. Senator father, a gaggle of Capitol Hill socialites, and an unctuous psychopath). However, the beautifully synchronized opening, …

The delicacies of the Production Code, circa 1951, combined with the oily insinuations of Tennessee Williams, do not make it entirely clear what deep, dark secrets are hidden behind Blanche Du Bois's self-delusions, lies, and twittering airs. With nowhere else to turn in this cruel world, Blanche pays a visit …

A bad-girl potboiler from Buñuel, not the logical next step after the esteemed Los Olividados, with an ending so happy you have to laugh. It would not be altogether redundant to say that this ending is not serious. And there is plenty else before then to alert the avid Buñuelian: …

Powell and Pressburger's gorgeously filmed Offenbach opera.

Science fiction about a six-foot-six-inch frozen vegetable (James Arness) that is chopped out of the Arctic ice, thaws out underneath an electric blanket, and terrorizes a tiny Air Force outpost until the smart-aleck woman on the scene suggests that the way to domesticate a vegetable is to cook it. Claustrophobic …

Mexican director Emilio Fernández blends film noir, melodrama, and musicals. Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a cabaret performer who adopts the abandoned child of Rita (Rita Montaner) and Rodolfo (Rodolfo Acosta), her murderous pimp. Motherhood forces Violeta to give up her career, but the kindhearted club owner Santiago (Tito Junco) saves …