Drama

Made in 1958, Man of the West is a western directed by Anthony Mann and starring Gary Cooper, forever identified with his iconic role as the brave, noble sheriff in the classic movie High Noon. Audiences loved Coop, as he was called. As for Anthony Mann, during the 1950s he made his own mark on the western genre by directing five gritty westerns starring actor Jimmy Stewart. But when it came time for him to make Man of the West, Mann chose to work with Gary Cooper instead, an

1941’s The Maltese Falcon is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest American films ever made. Many credit it with being the first film noir, that uniquely American genre of movies filled with moody shadows, disillusioned, cynical heroes, femme fatales, and life on the mean streets of crime and corruption. It’s also the film that allowed Humphrey Bogart to escape being typecast in tough guy roles and emerge as a true leading man. The film was the first to be directed by Jo

Stories about serial killers are not my favorite kind of book to read or film to see. As a young journalist, I had a difficult time investigating and writing about a real-life serial killer. Beyond the gruesome details of his crimes, it was hard for me to experience first-hand the intense pain and suffering that also destroyed the families of his victims. So, I am unsettled when serial-killer stories do little more than exploit their crimes as mere entertainment without at an

Sidney Poitier was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. The year was 1964. He won the Oscar for his wonderfully engaging performance in the film Lilies of the Field. Lilies is a small, character-driven comedy-drama about an itinerant handyman named Homer Smith who encounters a group of five Catholic nuns—German nuns who have escaped from behind the Berlin Wall and now live in a remote part of the Arizona desert. Homer stops at their place because his

The premise is golden. Three women friends are about to escort a group of schoolchildren on a boat ride and picnic. Suddenly a messenger shows up with a letter addressed to the three of them. It’s from a fourth woman who makes apologies to her close friends for not joining them on the outing because…well, because she’s run off with one of their husbands. If that poison letter isn’t devilish enough, she doesn’t bother to say which husband she’s plucked. And since the story tak

Federico Fellini was one of the greatest film directors of the 20th century. His movies are so distinctive that the term “Felliniesque” was coined to describe his artistic style. One of his great early masterpieces, made in 1954, is La Strada. In italian, “la strada” means “the road”…and the road here is filled with profound heartache, anguish and joy. Set in post-World War II Italy, the story is about a sweet, slow-witted young woman named Gelsomina who lives in dire poverty

It’s fair to say that some of director Martin Scorsese’s best movies are about lonely men, at war with themselves and with the world around them. Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver is a classic example. So is Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. In both of those films, Robert De Niro portrays Travis and Jake as emotionally isolated human beings, driven by a furious desire for some kind of recognition; to be seen, and to fight their way free of the snakes that haunt them. If there’s a case

Here’s something different. Instead of reviewing one movie this week, let me tell you about 146 of them! Sort of. Let me explain. When the great film director Orson Welles was asked to name his all-time favorite directors, he didn’t hesitate. He said: “I prefer the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” Ford’s influence on Welles was so great that when it came time for Welles to make his first movie Citizen Kane, he took a crash course in how to

A warning upfront: the movie Jacob’s Ladder is not for everyone. As a horror film, it ranks as one of the most painfully difficult, intensely sad, nightmarish ones that I’ve ever seen. Pitch black trauma, hallucinations, a confusing spiral into insanity—the web of despair in which the main character Jacob Singer finds himself trapped traps the viewer as well. The movie is a theme park ride through a ravaged, dark corner of psychological hell—and I love it! Made in 1990, dire

I remember my father trying to watch Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan when it came out in 1998. Soon after it started, he turned it off. The opening sequence of the D-Day invasion at Normandy was too much for him. As a World War II vet, he found it too violent. Too real. Too historically accurate in its depiction of the slaughter of human life that happened that day. A full-tilt fantasy about how movies fought the war and saved the world. For anyone with a similar react

In the history of the Philadelphia pop music scene, the name Bob Marcucci is legendary. Talent manager, songwriter, promoter, Marcucci was most famous for being a starmaker, who in the 1950s discovered two Philly teenagers he believed he could mold into rock and roll teen idols. Their names were Frankie Avalon and Fabian, and Marcucci plucked them from obscurity and began to relentlessly create and control everything about their singing careers—from the songs they sang to the

I love the city of Memphis—from its raw and gritty and soulful music scene to eating barbecue at The Rendezvous. And I love movies set in Memphis, too. Hands down, my favorite one is 2005’s Hustle & Flow. Written and directed by Craig Brewer, the movie is set in a decaying part of Memphis, worlds away from Graceland and Beale Street. It’s about a hardened, streetwise man named Djay who makes his money selling bags of weed and managing the lives of three women who toil for him

Nothing says the holidays for me quite like spiking my eggnog with some good Kentucky bourbon and kicking back to watch one of a favorite Christmas movies. There are so many that I love, but here are three that I always seem to come back to. The one that I’ve seen the most in my life—by far—is White Christmas. Made in 1954, it’s about a popular song-and-dance team—played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye—who team up with two showbiz sisters—played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ell

There was a time when movie theatres were so unlike many of the faceless, homogenous ones that we have today. The theatres of my youth were like churches to me—churches where a special kind of flickering magic happened. Even the modest theatres of the 1950s and 60s were grand, in their way. The bold colors on the lighted marquees. The ornate Art Deco flourishes on the carpets and walls. The movie screens that were hidden behind heavy curtains until it was time for the show to

Of the action movie stars who dominated the big screen during the 1960s and 1970s, there is one who was bigger, stronger, tougher, more imposing than any other. Before Clint Eastwood came along, that is. His name: Charles Buchinsky, a.k.a. Charles Bronson. With a weathered slab of a face and a muscled physique that looked like it was chiseled out of the Pennsylvania coal mine where he toiled as a child, Bronson stepped up and took care of business no matter what movie he was

Movie lovers often debate what’s the greatest movie ever made. For me, the answer often depends on what day you ask me. The same goes for what’s the worst movie. Ask me today, and I’d probably say it’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, made in 1957 by the legendary writer-director Ed Wood. If you have not seen this famously dreadful film, let me urge you to see the 1994 bio-pic Ed Wood instead. Wonderfully directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and a stellar supporting cast,

It’s a one-of-a-kind dark, comic satire. Of the ten or so classic movies that Stanley Kubrick directed and co-wrote in his brilliant career, Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a favorite. Made in 1964, it’s a one-of-a-kind dark, comic satire about an American brigadier general named Jack D. Ripper who goes bonkers and orders a B-52 plane under his command to drop a nuclear bomb on the Soviet Union. Ripper is played with crazed, rugged gust

It’s amazing to realize that in just four years—between 1972 and 1975—a young Al Pacino starred in a quartet of American films that are now classics: The Godfather, Serpico, The Godfather Part Two, and Dog Day Afternoon. Incredibly, Pacino almost didn’t make Dog Day because he was too exhausted from acting in the second Godfather film. But when the producers of Dog Day moved to replace him in the cast with Dustin Hoffman, Pacino changed his mind. A good rivalry works wonders

Of the 50-some movies that Woody Allen has written and directed in his long career, one of my favorites is Crimes and Misdemeanors. It’s a boldly original, provocative film about crime and punishment and questions of morality. “The eyes of god are always watching”. Made in 1989, the film stars Martin Landau as Judah Rosenthal, a wealthy, happily married ophthalmologist and respected pillar of his community. Raised in a religious family, Judah’s father taught him that “the eye

The movie Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman, was released in 1967 and instantly became an iconic film of the era. The battle cry of the 1960s was non-conformity and rebelling against the establishment, and the movie hit those nerve endings like a lightning strike that excited and resonated with audiences. Originally, Cool Hand Luke was a novel written by the author Donn Pearce, a World War II vet who ended up serving time on a Florida prison chain gang. And the cruel world