The bad boys of film noir are here! And they never made a movie together. Let’s dive in! Ohio-born Brian Donlevy started his career in New York, modelling for advertisements, before moving onto the theatre. Hollywood came calling in the 1920s and for the next three decades he was mainstay in film noir and dramas, in films such as Union Pacific (1939, dir. Cecil B. DeMille), Beau Geste (1939, dir. William A. Wellmann), for which he recieved an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor, The Glass Key (1942, dir. Stuart Heisler) and The Big Combo (1955, dir. Joseph H. Lewis). His piercing eyes and d ..read more

It’s April, spring has finally sprung and I’ve been having some lovely writing sessions in the sun! I’m nearly finished with the seventh draft of my TV pilot and my Medium and Substack accounts are more popular than ever. My post about femme fatale Kathie Moffat from Out of the Past (1947) is the most read article ever on The Losers of Film Noir, by a long mile. I was extremey pleased with this, but I can’t say I’m super surprised. She continues to be one of the most popular, fascinating, enduring and enigmatic characters in film noir. Here’s the article. My Medium account has also seen a fai ..read more

Image from filmcomment.com The Mismatched Couples Blogathon is here! And you know I love a blogathon. Blogathons AND mismatched couples? Do you know what that does to a classic movie buff? My heart sings, I tell ya. Sooo, who to talk about? There are plenty of mismatched couples to choose from and luckily a lot of them have been chosen already, which makes my job a lot easier (click on the link above and read all the entries!). So, what about that really mistmatched, not-quite-couple couple Jean Arthur and Joel McRea in one of the cutest romantic comedies ever, The More the Merrier (1943, dir ..read more

She’s cool, icy and blonde. He’s cool, icy an- you guessed it. Seems obvious enough and yet, Kim Novak and Steve McQueen never made a movie together. How? Steve ‘King of Cool’ McQueen was one of the biggest movie stars in the world during the 60s and 70s, with his impossibly chilled persona, striking looks and natural acting style. With films such as The Great Escape (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Pappilon (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), he was a constant presence on our screens, and received his only Academy Award nomination for The Sand Pebbles (1966 ..read more

It’s International Women’s Day! And like the Valentine’s Day article, I wanted to post a little something to celebrate. You know I like a date/holiday/celebration/anniversary, etc… I thought of doing something about classic female directors, but apart from Ida Lupino and Lois Weber and a few select others, there aren’t that many, I’m sorry to say. We’ve come a long way indeed! So I thougth about something else: films about female friendships. I’ve talked about a few of these in previous posts about friendships on film but I want to focus on the female-led ones for this post. Here are just som ..read more

In our second installment of THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE, we are taking you through two of the 1950s’ finest. Two people who, by all accounts, mine mostly as that is the point of this series, would have been perfect together in a movie. It’s kind of unbelievable that that never happened. They are… Rock Hudson and Jeffrey Hunter. Illinois-born Rock Hudson was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1950s. With a string of box office hits such as Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956) and Giant (1956), for which he received an Oscar nomination for ..read more

Image from Trailers from Hell The Sixth So Bad It’s Good Blogathon is here! My friend Rebecca over at Taking Up Room is once again hosting this marvellous blogathon where we all essentially gush over or bash films we consider to be bad… so bad they’re… good is a stretch, but let’s say, alright-ish. Check out all the entries here! My entry is a Western that I’ve always thoguht was one of the weakest ones. I re-watched it again recently for this article and I still stand by it. I’m talking about They Came to Cordura (1959). In They Came to Cordura (1959, dir, Robert Rossen), Major Thomas Thorn ..read more

Image from Unsplash (Markus Spiske) The London-based Instagram page AllOnTheBoard made a post today about the so-called Galentine’s Day, ahead of tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day, for those of you who don’t know, refers to women who prefer to hang out with their friends. So what they’ve done is, they made a bunch of puns for other types of Valentine’s Day, so I thought I’d recommend a movie for each of them, in case you’re staying home tomorrow and/or spending it with whomever. Here we go! Shout-out to AllOnTheBoard, give them a follow Galentine’s Day (gals pals!) – Gentlemen Prefe ..read more

2024 is here and so is my new series of posts. To tell you the truth, everytime I try to think of a new series of posts at the end of the year, I always think I’ve run out of ideas. I’ve talked about movies that should be watched one after the other, comedy scenes, people who never won an Oscar, among many other things… What’s there to talk about? Between the Garden, Losers of Film Noir and Medium, I’m talking about all sorts of things across three blogs, do I really have it in me to come up with a series of posts about movies? Well… what if I don’t have to talk about a movie at all? What if ..read more

Image from en.kinorium.com 2024 is here! And it’s cold. Cold, very bitterly cold. January – March is just torture where I live, so naturally, I keep thinking, Spring can’t get here soon enough! I love Spring, and I can’t stand Winter. And London in April/May is absolutely divine. So then I thought ‘Spring.. spring… it might as well be spring.’ Here’s State Fair (1945). Adapted from the 1933 film of the same name, based on the 1932 novel by Phil Stong, State Fair (dir. Walter Lang) is the ONLY Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written directly for the screen, which makes all of its songs eligible ..read more