Independence Day Obsession: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Latest Classic Cinema Obsession is HERE.

So, I just ordered three Jean Simmons movies from the Warner Archive Collection...

... because I'm not ready to say goodbye to Jean Simmons! Jean was TCM's Star of the Month in June and I'm already beyond sad that June is now officially over. Farewell, SOTM Jean! I offer my admiring thoughts about Ms. Simmons HERE at Libertas in my latest Classic Movie Journal.

I also wax poetic about one of her best movies, ANGEL FACE (Preminger, 1952). It's as disturbing and genuinely shocking a film noir as any I've seen. In fact, back in the day Jean-Luc Godard included it as one of his ten best American films EVER, which is pretty freakin' high praise!

Derelict Goes to Hollywood

Basically, the TCM Classic Film Festival was everything I hoped it would be and more. To read my rambling musings on the whole shebang, go to Libertas Film Magazine HERE.

I stuck to my schedule for the most part, but I did make some interesting changes and ended up seeing movies I wasn't planning to see, both out of choice and necessity. Final verdict on the festival: I will definitely be going again next year.

And it turns out Twitter -- which I resisted for so long -- is pretty darn cool. I ended up meeting fellow festival-goers @tpjost, @salesonfilm, and @oldfilmsflicker through Twitter and they turned out to be very groovy people indeed. Meeting other old movie fanatics who are also young?! WIN!

It's almost here...

The Greatest Four Days of My Life are almost here. On Thursday, I'm off to Hollywood for the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival.

If you want to know just how much TCM and this festival means to me, go read my tribute to TCM at Libertas and then (God help me) follow me on Twitter if you want to get up-to-the-minute updates on what I'm doing at the festival.

I'll also be covering the festival for Libertas, so keep checking back there for my articles and reviews.

My latest Obsession

I've decided to stick around in Dark Alley for my latest article on Libertas. It's a visual essay on the underrated Fritz Lang noir, HUMAN DESIRE (1954), starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Broderick Crawford.

Check it out HERE.

Tony Curtis, 1925-2010

I don't really do obituaries, but I can point you in the direction of a very beautiful and heartfelt one, HERE.

Tonight I'll be watching SOME LIKE IT HOT.

Mad Men Double Edition

I'm a little behind on updating things here, but my recap of episodes 8 and 9 of MAD MEN was posted at LFM last week.

Go read it! HERE

"Miss Blankenship, Queen of Perversions!"

My musings on this week's episode of MAD MEN are now up at Libertas!

I went a little beatnik poetical/personal reflection this time in my recap. This episode -- as everyone's been saying -- was beyond superb in every way (acting, script, direction, etc.), but for me it was more than a brilliantly produced hour of television. Something about this episode really hit me, touching me on a deep personal level that few television shows have ever reached. It was a masterpiece.

Please do read my thoughts on episode 7, "The Suitcase," at LFM!

"I'll never let you go. Never. Never."

This week's Classic Cinema Obsession: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (John M. Stahl, 1945)

Check it out at Libertas! (Be warned though: Lotsa spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, get thee to Netflix!)

Also, I my thoughts on last week's MAD MEN are up at LFM.

Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Maaaaad Meeeeeen

My thoughts on episode four can be found HERE.

I am liking Dr. Miller a lot more this episode, by the way.

Also: PETE!

And: TRUDY!

And: KEN COSGROVE!

The gangs all here!!!

"Look to Norway!"

It's not a great movie, but EDGE OF DARKNESS (Lewis Milestone, 1943) really stirred up my emotions the other day, so I decided to write about it in my latest "Classic Cinema Obsession" column for LFM.

It's your typical Warner Brothers WWII propaganda-type film, but its message about freedom and the sacrifices necessary for liberty had me fist-pumping the climactic battle scenes. It just felt like the message was as relevant today as it was back in the 1940s.

This is also a movie about the importance of firearms -- and what NRA-supporting conservative doesn't like that? Everybody is packing heat in this one, from sweet little old ladies to the town minister.

Plus, with Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan -- two of my all-time favorites -- starring in it, I was almost guaranteed to like this flick.

Guns, Flynn, Sheridan, lotsa speechifying about the importance of fighting for your freedom -- how could a heavy duty right winger like me resist?

Having brilliant actors like Walter Huston, Judith Anderson, and Ruth Gordon in the supporting cast didn't hurt either.

I ring the bell for EDGE OF DARKNESS here.

Mad Men Musings! Ep 4.3: "The Good News"

My weekly musings can be found at Libertas Film Magazine, as usual.

I'm already liking this season a lot more than season 3, though it's early yet.

This article from Reuters tries to make it seem like MAD MEN is slipping in the ratings, saying that this week's episode is down 24% in ratings from the season four premiere -- but both the 2.2 million viewers for this past Sunday's ep and the 2.9 million viewers for the season four premiere are BOTH higher than last season's average of 1.8 million. Yeah, the ratings have slipped 24% since the premiere, but the season as a whole is actually doing better than last season, ratings-wise.

So, that "ratings plunge" headline is a leeeetle misleading. Headline should have read: MAD MEN RATINGS DROP FROM SEASON PREMIERE, STILL HIGHER THAN LAST SEASON'S AVERAGE. That doesn't sound nearly as exciting, though. Boring old facts getting in the way of a good headline! The nerve!

Anyway, the show has been really great so far in season 4, even just three episodes in. Can't wait for next week, which looks like a Pete-centric ep. PETE!

My excuse to post some of those awesome TCM Summer Under the Stars posters

My latest article for LFM is about TCM's annual Summer Under the Stars festival. It's also a defense of movie stars in general, in which I argue that the movies still need movie stars and we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss them.

I also wax a little nostalgic about Entertainment Weekly's "100 Greatest Stars of All Time" -- a magazine special edition I bought when I was sixteen and which I credit with turning me into the old movie fanatic I am today. I fell in love with old movies because I fell in love with the movie stars in them. I still have my dog-eared copy of "100 Greatest Stars of All Time" and I still pick it up from time to time to revisit those old loves.

I first discovered Barbara Stanwyck and Steve McQueen in those pages, if you can believe it. If it weren't for that fateful day in a Walgreens drug store all those years ago -- when I grabbed "100 Greatest Stars of All Time" off the newsstand on a whim -- I might not have known the pleasures of LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER or BALL OF FIRE.

But most of all, my article is just an excuse to post some of those amazing posters from last year's Summer Under the Stars. I wish TCM would turn all of these into full-sized glossy posters so I can put them on my wall. Seriously:

Mad Men Thursdays!

I was a little late in writing it, but my recap of this week's episode of MAD MEN has been posted at LFM.

Check it out -- before you get sucked into the multi-dimensional warp on Roger's office wall!

"Give me back my beast!"

If you're anything like Greta Garbo and you want your beast back, head on over to Libertas Film Magazine where my newest Classic Cinema Obsession has just gone live. This week it's Jean Cocteau's LA BELLE ET LA BETE and the meaning and function of fairy tales (with assists from G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien).

"Go where I am going, go go go!"

New Mad Men Mondays!

My latest at LFM is a MAD MEN article in which I share my thoughts on the premiere episode of season four. I hope to make this a weekly feature at LFM, kind of like my ol' "Mad Men Mondays" here on dereliction row, only now I'll be posting them at LFM.

Don Draper is back! Though to be honest, I'm most excited about seeing Pete Campbell and the Silver Fox again.

The Greatest Movie Endings of All Time?

In my opinion, GONE WITH THE WIND needs to be near the top -- if not at the top -- of any list of the best movie endings of all time. It is a classic. Everyone knows "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Or at least I thought everyone did.

What happens when GWTW gets left off such a list altogether?

My latest piece at LFM attempts to answer that very question.

Check it out HERE. Or face Scarlett's wrath!

MOLOCH!

My latest piece is up at Libertas Film Magazine!

I recently saw the new restoration of METROPOLIS at the Detroit Film Theater. I review the experience at LFM.

Marie I and Marie II for the win!

My latest piece is up at LFM. It's about the Czech New Wave, an exhilarating and little-known (well, little-known to the general populace) anti-Communist cinema movement of the 1960s.

Check it out!

Dedicated to B-movies

My latest is up at Libertas Film Magazine!

This week's Classic Cinema Obsession is VIVRE SA VIE (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), now available from the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-Ray.

This one was hard to write, but I hope readers can find some meaning in my ramblings.