As soon as you see star Greer Garson hobble down the gigantic staircase of her ornate mansion all decked out in old gal makeup at the very beginning of the film, you immediately realize that you’re in for one of those deals where Old Girl is going to be sitting around flasbacking her way through her tumultuous life. Continue reading “Mrs. Parkington (1944)”
Category: 1940s
Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
Tomorrow Is Forever completely ignores any worries about coincidence piled atop happenstance heaped upon chance and hefts around its wildly unbelievable story with an Orson Welles-sized assurance only a classic old movie could have. Continue reading “Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)”
The Great Lie (1941)
The Great Lie recycles the same plot as an earlier Bette Davis movie, The Old Maid, only this time Davis is the one raising the kid that isn’t hers and lying to everyone about it. The Great Lie‘s great sin though isn’t reusing a story full of silly sacrifice and artificial drama, but that it is so damn gimpy in doing so! Continue reading “The Great Lie (1941)”
Arabian Nights (1942)
Arabian Nights was a big hit for Universal and launched one of the most improbable of film genres: the exotic picture starring the very white and decidedly un-exotic Jon Hall and the somewhat exotic and decidedly untalented Maria Montez (did it occur to anyone that this movie succeeded in spite of these two?) which saw them re-team for later efforts like White Savage, Gypsy Wildcat, Cobra Woman, Sudan, and of course Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves. Continue reading “Arabian Nights (1942)”
I Remember Mama (1948)
To: Kathryn Forbes
From: MonsterHunter Publishing
Re: Your Submission
We are in receipt of your stories about your mama that you’ve gone and turned into a movie. Since we aren’t in the practice of actually reading, we were forced to watch the movie version of your book, Mama’s Bank Account. Frankly, we are not convinced of the complete veracity of your tales. Is the audience really expected to believe that a simple woman from Norway could overcome such soul-shattering odds as a sick kitten or a child with an earache? We can only assume that you felt your mother’s war against indigestion and the time she had a bad haircut was simply too much for the audience to handle. Continue reading “I Remember Mama (1948)”
House of Horrors (1946)
This is another one of those Rondo Hatton movies about a really ugly dude named the Creeper who breaks people’s spines. Aside from the fact that the guy’s name is Rondo, you may be wondering what qualities he had that made Universal want to build a no-budget thriller franchise around his Creeper character. Continue reading “House of Horrors (1946)”
The Brute Man (1946)
Back in the mid 1940s, the only thing required to find fame in the movies was nothing more than some horribly disfiguring disease. How else to explain Rondo Hatton’s brief and unremarkable run as a screen heavy in a couple of low budget horror flicks released during the period? Continue reading “The Brute Man (1946)”