An early Cecil B. DeMille film, which helped establish him as a Hollywood powerhouse, a full 40 years before his last and most successful film, "The Ten Commandments". "Joan the Woman" may have been the first Joan of Arc biopic...
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An early Cecil B. DeMille film, which helped establish him as a Hollywood powerhouse, a full 40 years before his last and most successful film, "The Ten Commandments". "Joan the Woman" may have been the first Joan of Arc biopic on film. In it, a British soldier in WWI finds a sword that was used by St. Joan herself, and receives a vision of Joan, telling him that he is actually the same person who betrayed her nearly 500 years earlier, and that he must expiate himself of his sin against her. The life and death of the maiden flashes befores his eyes, occupying most of this long silent movie, and at the end he agrees to go on a dangerous mission for the Allies, one from which he cannot return. This was filmed during the height of the Great War, making it all the more interesting.

I remember crying at the end the first time I saw "The Wizard Of Oz" as a child. "There's no place like home" is the theme, and it's also a study in courage. It's touching to see the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion risk...
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I remember crying at the end the first time I saw "The Wizard Of Oz" as a child. "There's no place like home" is the theme, and it's also a study in courage. It's touching to see the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion risk their lives for a simple little girl they hardly know. In any other year (1939) it would have been a formidable contender at the Oscars, but that was also the year of "Gone With The Wind". As another reviewer suggested, it does somewhat resemble "The Sound Of Music", which came a generation later. To anyone who bashes this movie, I have this to say: "Put 'em up, put 'em up!"

I remember crying at the end the first time I saw "The Wizard Of Oz" as a child. "There's no place like home" is the theme, and it's also a study in courage. It's touching to see the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion risk...
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I remember crying at the end the first time I saw "The Wizard Of Oz" as a child. "There's no place like home" is the theme, and it's also a study in courage. It's touching to see the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion risk their lives for a simple little girl they hardly know. In any other year (1939) it would have been a formidable contender at the Oscars, but that was also the year of "Gone With The Wind". As another reviewer suggested, it does somewhat resemble "The Sound Of Music", which came a generation later. To anyone who bashes this movie, I have this to say: "Put 'em up, put 'em up!"

A classic war-time tale of a London community's struggle for survival amidst the Nazi Blitzkrieg over the city, centering on Garson and her family and circle of friends. A great period piece, well deserving of its Oscars.

Clearly one of the greatest westerns of all time. John Wayne is great as Ethan, the tough, hard, but caring uncle who spends years trying to find his niece, whose family was massacred by Indians. When he finds her, he is appalled that she has...
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Clearly one of the greatest westerns of all time. John Wayne is great as Ethan, the tough, hard, but caring uncle who spends years trying to find his niece, whose family was massacred by Indians. When he finds her, he is appalled that she has absorbed Indian ways and has become one herself, filling him with hatred. He is accompanied on the long journey by the girl's adopted brother, who helps keep Ethan from losing control, and who has a girl waiting for him upon his return. A classic tale of duty, revenge, and redemption. The ending is classic.

A beautiful movie from start to finish. Jennifer Jones is thouroughly convincing in her screen debut as the humble, sweet French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous who receives visitations from the Virgin Mary, and eventually convinces the Catholic...
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A beautiful movie from start to finish. Jennifer Jones is thouroughly convincing in her screen debut as the humble, sweet French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous who receives visitations from the Virgin Mary, and eventually convinces the Catholic Church and much of the secular world. Bernadette was declared a saint, and Jones was named Best Actress. Vincent Price is superb as the prosecutor who is frustrated in his attempts to crush the bourgeoning religious revival that Bernadette's visions bring about. Alfred Newman's musical score is a perfect compliment to this warm, and sometimes sad but ultimitely triumphant story. As the written opening sequence explains, "To those who believe, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not believe, no explanation is possible."

"Double Indemnity" is one of the best of the B&W film noir of the 1940s and 50s. You get the rare opportunity to see Edward G. Robinson as a hero alongside Fred MacMurray as a villain (Barbara Stanwyck is usually a diva, and her role...
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"Double Indemnity" is one of the best of the B&W film noir of the 1940s and 50s. You get the rare opportunity to see Edward G. Robinson as a hero alongside Fred MacMurray as a villain (Barbara Stanwyck is usually a diva, and her role in this is no exception). There is a moral, too: workers of iniquity always find that things never go as they plan, no matter how careful or meticulous the planning. There will always be a monkey wrench.

Part of my reason for giving "Since You Went Away" such a high rating is because it was one of my mother's favorite movies, but even so, it still deserves five stars. Made about a year and a half or so before the war's (WWII) end, it...
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Part of my reason for giving "Since You Went Away" such a high rating is because it was one of my mother's favorite movies, but even so, it still deserves five stars. Made about a year and a half or so before the war's (WWII) end, it features the ups and downs of a family on the homefront. A warm-hearted wartime story with an all-star cast.

"The F.B.I. Story" is educational besides exciting. Among other things, we learn that it was "Machine Gun" Kelly who coined the term "G-Men" in reference to FBI agents. There is also human drama, as agent Chip...
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"The F.B.I. Story" is educational besides exciting. Among other things, we learn that it was "Machine Gun" Kelly who coined the term "G-Men" in reference to FBI agents. There is also human drama, as agent Chip Hardesty and his wife go through good times and bad. Hardesty seems to be there at every major turning point in the Bureau's history, doing battle with bank robbers, communists, and the Ku Klux Klan. Longtime director J. Edgar Hoover oversaw some of the production of the film, which may raise some suspicions, but adds a sense of authenticity. He also makes a cameo early in the film.

I read somewhere that the makers of this movie were inspired by the "moom hoax" theories (that NASA faked the moon landings) even though they didn't really subscribe to them. In "Capricorn One", a space agency, a fictional...
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I read somewhere that the makers of this movie were inspired by the "moom hoax" theories (that NASA faked the moon landings) even though they didn't really subscribe to them. In "Capricorn One", a space agency, a fictional NASA, fakes a Mars landing after finding that a planned manned mission to the Red Planet would likely end in disaster after take-off. The director of the space agency will stop at nothing, including murder, to protect the secret. A fun and entertaining movie, if you don't take it too seriously.

Marty is one of my favorite movies, partly because I can identify somewhat with the title character. It was a surprise Oscar winner of Best Picture, and Best Actor for Borgnine, for 1955. The synopsis above says his mother ran his life, but I...
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Marty is one of my favorite movies, partly because I can identify somewhat with the title character. It was a surprise Oscar winner of Best Picture, and Best Actor for Borgnine, for 1955. The synopsis above says his mother ran his life, but I didn't see it quite that way. He loved his mother, and she him. Also, I think he was in his thirties. At any rate, it's a great movie, especially if you're in the mood for an old B&W movie without much excitement, but a great story nonetheless.

Cecil B. DeMille had already long been one of the premier directors in Hollywood, and indeed took a leading role in establishing the movie industry there, when he decided to take on his most challenging task yet: the life story of Moses, from...
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Cecil B. DeMille had already long been one of the premier directors in Hollywood, and indeed took a leading role in establishing the movie industry there, when he decided to take on his most challenging task yet: the life story of Moses, from birth, to his departure from the earth. It would be his directorial swan song, and the movie for which he is best remembered, his many, many others notwithstanding.

The 1923 silent version, which DeMille directed, was in two parts, part one dealing with the Exodus from Egypt and God giving Moses the Ten Commandments, and part two a modern (1920s) story about two brothers and how they deal with the commandments. The 1956 extravaganza was set entirely in the time of Moses. The special effects made everything, especially the parting of the Red Sea, look so real, like you're really there.

The all-star cast makes it all the more worthwhile, especially John Derek as Joshua, perhaps the most likable character in the movie. And Yul Brynner is a convincing Rameses. Some critics berate some of the dialog, which does seem a bit much at times, and in some scenes some of the players, especially Anne Baxter as Neferteri, seem to be overacting a tad, but it should be remembered that that was DeMille's style. He was from the old school, going back to the silent era when such dialog and acting were the norm and made the silents more understandable. It's classic DeMille, and this reviewer for one wouldn't have it any other way.

It's difficult to imagine anyone other than the late, great Charlton Heston as Moses, but I found it interesting that DeMille's first choice was William Boyd, yes, he of "Hoppalong Cassidy" fame. This and other interesting tidbits are available on the special collector's edition of the DVD, through a superb commentary by Katherine Orrison, author of a book about the making of "The Ten Commandments".

"The Ten Commandments" was the bigest spectacle to come out of Hollywood when it premiered in 1923. Cecil B. DeMille, the Steven Spielberg of Hollywood's silent era and many years following, used all the resources at his disposal to...
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"The Ten Commandments" was the bigest spectacle to come out of Hollywood when it premiered in 1923. Cecil B. DeMille, the Steven Spielberg of Hollywood's silent era and many years following, used all the resources at his disposal to entertain his audiences, and this was no exception. His resources were limited, though, so instead of filming in Egypt, like he did with his spectacular 1956 remake, he had to settle for the sands of Southern California.

The 1923 version is broken down into two parts. The first part, 45 minutes or so, is a retelling of the story of Moses, beginning with the plagues on the Egyptians, and ending with him destroying the tablets on which God carved The Law. In the second part, in "modern-day" (early 1920s) San Fransisco, we find that a woman has been reading the story to her two grown sons. The two sons are more or less Cain and Abel, one who mocks God and His Law, and the other God-fearing. The mother has tried to impress upon both of them the fear of God, but, to her later regret, neglected to tell them about God's love. When the older son, the atheist, becomes a successful building contractor, he employs his younger brother, a carpenter, as his foreman on a church construction site in San Fransisco. The younger brother learns that his older brother, in a cost-cutting effort, has been using too much sand to make the bricks, resulting in tragedy. The moral is, if you break the Ten Commandments, they will break you. And the older brother broke them all, after vowing to do so earlier in the story. He probably wasn't thinking of murder at the time, but he ended up breaking that one too. A strong message, maybe preachy to us today, but a message quite needed at the time, following the carnage of WWI, and the worldwide influenza outbreak, killing millions. The contemporary part is an excellent period piece.

This film is available as a special feature on the DVD collection of the 1956 version, with a superb audio commentary by DeMille authority Katherine Orrison.

The late, great Pat O'Brien was all-Irish and all-American. He is perhaps best-known as the legendary Notre Dame football coach in "Knute Rockne-All American". Other film roles were in "The Front Page", "The Boy With Green Hair", and, perhaps my...
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The late, great Pat O'Brien was all-Irish and all-American. He is perhaps best-known as the legendary Notre Dame football coach in "Knute Rockne-All American". Other film roles were in "The Front Page", "The Boy With Green Hair", and, perhaps my favorite, "Fighting Father Dunne". He also played hard-boiled but likable police detectives in gangster movies. He was a devout Catholic and one of his proudest moments was as a guest at the Vatican of His Holiness Pope Pius XII. His movie offers started to dry up in the late 1940s, and in his biography, "The Wind at My Back", he suggested it was because he opposed communist influence in movie studios, even though he was never very vocal about it. Quite a switch from the many who were black-listed for allegedly supporting communist influence or working toward advancing it (let's face it, many were guilty). He did nevertheless get some good roles, although much of his postwar work was in television. He had the leading role in "Harrigan and Son" (CBS 1960-61) , which lasted one season, and had many guest roles, often as a priest, a profession for which he would have been well-suited, and which he considered before making it in movies.

He was one of the last great Hollywood stars who had real class. It is, tragically, a rarity today. May the wind be at your back, Pat!