Man's Castle.“When you’re dead, you get a hunk of earth. When you’re alive, all you’ve got is that hunk of blue.” This is how Bill (Spencer Tracy), the restless hero of Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle (1933), explains his insistence on sleeping under the open sky. Borzage’s films always cast their eyes heavenward with exalted sincerity; they offer no sop to modern irony or cynicism. No one should watch them who is not prepared to be enraptured.The essence of Borzage’s romanticism resides in the enchanted spaces his lovers create together: sometimes a semi-permanent home, like the Parisian garret in 7th Heaven (1927), at other times a fleeting idyll of shared fantasy, like the abandoned plantation mansion where the outcast couple in Moonrise (1948) waltz amid the shadows and cobwebs. These magical playhouses are spaces of care and refuge as much as dreamy eroticism; in Man’s Castle,...
- 4/18/2024
- MUBI
One of the best and most melodic of filmic transpositions from Broadway, James Whale’s beautifully directed movie showcases all-time great performances by Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Hattie McDaniel, and Charles Winninger. If you didn’t grow up with an awareness of this 1936 show, it’s because it was tossed in a vault and kept from view for more than forty years. Criterion’s new disc is a wonderful surprise that does the movie justice.
Show Boat
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1021
1936 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 31, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Sammy White, Donald Cook, Hattie McDaniel, Arthur Hohl, Charles B. Middleton, J. Farrell MacDonald, Clarence Muse, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.
Cinematography: John J. Mescall
Original Music: Jerome Kern and Lyrics Oscar Hammerstein II
Written by Oscar Hammerstein II from the...
Show Boat
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1021
1936 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 31, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Sammy White, Donald Cook, Hattie McDaniel, Arthur Hohl, Charles B. Middleton, J. Farrell MacDonald, Clarence Muse, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.
Cinematography: John J. Mescall
Original Music: Jerome Kern and Lyrics Oscar Hammerstein II
Written by Oscar Hammerstein II from the...
- 3/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One of the best and most melodic of filmic transpositions from Broadway, James Whale’s beautifully directed movie showcases all-time great performances by Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Hattie McDaniel, and Charles Winninger. If you didn’t grow up with an awareness of this 1936 show, it’s because it was tossed in a vault and kept from view for more than forty years. Criterion’s new disc is a wonderful surprise that does the movie justice.
Show Boat
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1021
1936 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 31, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Sammy White, Donald Cook, Hattie McDaniel, Arthur Hohl, Charles B. Middleton, J. Farrell MacDonald, Clarence Muse, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.
Cinematography: John J. Mescall
Original Music: Jerome Kern and Lyrics Oscar Hammerstein II
Written by Oscar Hammerstein II from the...
Show Boat
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1021
1936 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 31, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Sammy White, Donald Cook, Hattie McDaniel, Arthur Hohl, Charles B. Middleton, J. Farrell MacDonald, Clarence Muse, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.
Cinematography: John J. Mescall
Original Music: Jerome Kern and Lyrics Oscar Hammerstein II
Written by Oscar Hammerstein II from the...
- 3/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Great news for fans of old musicals! James Cagney in Footlight Parade (1932) is now available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives
Footlight Parade is sheer cinematic joy. In this Depression-era romp, a timid stenographer (Ruby Keeler) removes her glasses and – wow! – she’s a star. A gee-whiz tenor (Dick Powell) asserts his independence. Plucky chorines tap, greedy hangers-on get their comeuppances, and an indefatigable producer/dancer (James Cagney) and his Girl Friday (Joan Blondell) work showbiz miracles to stage live prologues for talkie houses to keep their company afloat during hard times. Honeymoon Hotel, By a Waterfall and Shanghai Lil are the shows, directed by Busby Berkeley and filled with imagination-bending sets, startling camera angles, kaleidoscopic pageantry and a 20,000-gallon-per-minute waterfall. Curtain up!
James Cagney demonstrates his Big Apple hoofer bonafides while adding his one-of-a-kind fiery grit to this Busby Berkeley musical packed with the usual sensational suspects. Chester Kent (Cagney...
Footlight Parade is sheer cinematic joy. In this Depression-era romp, a timid stenographer (Ruby Keeler) removes her glasses and – wow! – she’s a star. A gee-whiz tenor (Dick Powell) asserts his independence. Plucky chorines tap, greedy hangers-on get their comeuppances, and an indefatigable producer/dancer (James Cagney) and his Girl Friday (Joan Blondell) work showbiz miracles to stage live prologues for talkie houses to keep their company afloat during hard times. Honeymoon Hotel, By a Waterfall and Shanghai Lil are the shows, directed by Busby Berkeley and filled with imagination-bending sets, startling camera angles, kaleidoscopic pageantry and a 20,000-gallon-per-minute waterfall. Curtain up!
James Cagney demonstrates his Big Apple hoofer bonafides while adding his one-of-a-kind fiery grit to this Busby Berkeley musical packed with the usual sensational suspects. Chester Kent (Cagney...
- 7/22/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This amazing Busby Berkeley extravaganza is the best choice to impress newbies to pre-Code musical madness: it is absolutely irresistible. James Cagney’s nervy, terminally excitable stage producer makes the tale of Chester Kent accessible to viewers otherwise allergic to musicals — he’s as electric here as he is in his gangster movies. Remastered in HD, the fantastic, kaleidoscopic visuals will wow anybody — we really expect Porky Pig to pop up and stutter, “N-n-n-o CGI, Folks!”
Footlight Parade
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1933 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 104 min. / Street Date July 16, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert.
Cinematography: George Barnes
Art Directors: Anton Grot, Jack Okey Film Editor: George Amy
Original Music: Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal Harry Warren, Al Dubin
Written by Manuel Seff, James Seymour
Produced by Robert Lord
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Our...
Footlight Parade
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1933 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 104 min. / Street Date July 16, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert.
Cinematography: George Barnes
Art Directors: Anton Grot, Jack Okey Film Editor: George Amy
Original Music: Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal Harry Warren, Al Dubin
Written by Manuel Seff, James Seymour
Produced by Robert Lord
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Our...
- 7/13/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The best part of the DVD-on-demand business (or Mod, as the studios call it) is that Warner Bros., Sony, and 20th Century Fox are unearthing rare titles from their vaults. Many have never been on home video in any form, and some haven’t ever had television exposure. My latest “discovery” is a 1934 Columbia title called Among the Missing, directed by Albert S. Rogell and written by Herbert Asbury and Fred Niblo, Jr., from a story by Florence Wagner. It stars Henrietta Crosman, Richard Cromwell, Billie Seward, and Arthur Hohl—not exactly an all-star lineup, unless you’ve seen Crosman’s memorable performance in John Ford’s Pilgrimage. Crosman was a veteran stage actress who made a...
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- 1/20/2015
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in ‘Gone with the Wind’: TCM schedule on August 20, 2013 (photo: Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in ‘Gone with the Wind’) See previous post: “Hattie McDaniel: Oscar Winner Makes History.” 3:00 Am Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). Director: David Butler. Cast: Joan Leslie, Dennis Morgan, Eddie Cantor, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, George Tobias, Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall, Hattie McDaniel, Ruth Donnelly, Don Wilson, Spike Jones, Henry Armetta, Leah Baird, Willie Best, Monte Blue, James Burke, David Butler, Stanley Clements, William Desmond, Ralph Dunn, Frank Faylen, James Flavin, Creighton Hale, Sam Harris, Paul Harvey, Mark Hellinger, Brandon Hurst, Charles Irwin, Noble Johnson, Mike Mazurki, Fred Kelsey, Frank Mayo, Joyce Reynolds, Mary Treen, Doodles Weaver. Bw-127 mins. 5:15 Am Janie (1944). Director: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton,...
- 8/21/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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