“FanFare Guests” Archive
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Jean Harlow is one of the greatest screen sirens in motion picture history. This post will be about the platinum blonde bombshell who made blonde hair what it is today: Harlean Harlow Carpenter, AKA Jean Harlow. In short, she is one of the best blonde comediennes in film history and we are going to tell you why. Hold on to your hair, Monroe and Aguilera….
Jean Harlow was a woman and comedienne who could only exist in the pre-Code era (although she was still successful in the early Code era). She was a dirty flirt, a temperamental mistress, and sometimes downright untrustworthy. She could be rotten to the core, but also sprinkled with sugar and dressed in shimmering dresses to distract the moral compass. What redeems her, though, is the fact she is also vulnerable underneath her spoiled facade. Although the Production Code banned filmmakers to let audiences sympathise with immoral characters, she made immoral playfulness fun to watch, and we always rooted for her to get her own way because she had a piece of her heart at stake.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Julie writes:
It's rare that films come into being because the idea was best suited for that particular medium. Adaptations obviously happen, as well as transformations during development (Glee, for instance, was originally envisioned as a film), but it's not like a variety of artists are all chasing the same material. Consequently, it occasionally happens that you wind up with a film that (at least in my opinion) should have been something else, where the strengths play to a different medium entirely and the choice of art form drags it down. Here, then, are some films that I think were "born into the wrong body," so to speak.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Simon Columb writes:
"Being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do. Being an old decrepit bag of bones, that's what's ridiculous. Gettin' old" - Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson)
Introduction
"Anarene, Texas, 1951. Nothing much has changed..." is the tag line attached to the poster. 1971's The Last Picture Show, a story that could easily be summarized as a teenage drama based in small-town America, is so much more than that. Like Saturday Night Fever is so much more than urban teenagers dancing and Rumble Fish is so much more than rebellious youth. This is a film that, by charting the changes of primarily two-characters, we see the challenges of life itself.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Angela Petteys writes:
When you have more than one screen adaptation of a novel, usually one is more faithful to the book than the other. However, in the case of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, it has two pretty accurate translations. The first version, released in 1931, stars Ricardo Cortez as detective Sam Spade, Bebe Daniels, and Thelma Todd, and it does a pretty good job of sticking to the source material. However, director John Huston's 1941 film, with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet, is an even more accurate representation. It doesn’t stick to the novel exactly, but most of the dialogue is taken verbatim and the key story elements are kept intact. (Editor's Note: There was also a very loose 1936 adaptation, with Warren William and Bette Davis, entitled Satan Met a Lady.)
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Will Silver writes:
Back to the Future (1985). Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, James Tolkan.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Expectations: I know exactly what to expect. Pure greatness.
Four stars? Really? Perhaps I am being overly generous due to a good 26 years of unadulterated love for this movie, but after re-watching it for what is probably the 50th time, Back to the Future still excites, delights and is just flat-out awesome. As I’m sure everyone has seen the film, this is nothing close to a revelation, but as Back to the Future is one of my favorite films, I simply could not watch it and not write something about it.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
There are a ton of classic movies that remain unavailable on DVD and Blu-ray. For film fans, this is frustrating to say the least. While these gems have yet to be freed from the vaults, we can still voice our appreciation for them...even if we can't watch them! Today's guest post by The Lady Eve looks at the music of one of these favorites:
The Uninvited, from Paramount Pictures in 1944, is an elegantly spooky Rebecca-esque romance with more than one haunting quality. Yes, Windward House, the sea cliff-situated home central to the story, is haunted by a malevolent woman’s ghost, but the film’s music is equally haunting (though not at all spooky).
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Monty Hawes writes:
I just realized that Paul Newman did several films that began with the letter H and that they are some of his best films and most successful. And all came out during a time span in the 1960s. So I thought it would be cool to do a post about that.
First up in 1961 is the much-loved and rightly praised The Hustler, which cast Newman as up-and-coming pool player "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges top shark Minnesota Fats (played by the Great One, Jackie Gleason). This is one of Newman's most famous roles. He even did a sequel 25 years later with Tom Cruise called The Color Of Money. The sequel finally landed him an Oscar, which had eluded him for his whole life. Not taking anything away from the sequel, but it's The Hustler where Newman really shines. The film is one of my favorite films and performances of Newman by far.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Alex DeLarge presents this review of the 1958 film classic Touch of Evil:
In the explosive purgatory between moral boundaries, two men seek Justice by different means: one servant to the Rule of Law and the other...master. This is dynamite in a shoebox. Orson Welles' sweaty and grimy moral epic vivisects two seemingly disparate men, cops who fight with the same sledgehammer conviction of their acts. Vargas is a young swashbuckling detective who is bound to a rigid code of justification who must bring down Quinlan, a shambling mound of a corrupt officer who is suddenly at an end to his means. But is Quinlan touched by evil, or fully embraced? Welles offers no answer in this film steeped in ambiguity and outrage, just the oblique statement that Quinlan was, "some kind of a man".
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Kim Wilson writes:
W.C. Fields isn’t as timeless as one would like. Overall, vaudeville humor hasn’t aged well, either. Still, Fields was a devilishly delicious deadpan comic who knew how to keep a gag running. He was greatly aided in this endeavor by his own clever writing. Who better to convincingly deliver funny lines than the person who wrote them—I’m sure Woody Allen would attest to this. The Bank Dick (1940) is a product of Fields’ comedic wit (director Edward F. Cline was just along for the ride). Oh, pay no attention to the name listed in the writing credit either, Mahatma Kane Jeeves--it was one of Fields’ many pseudonyms (evidently Gandhi was on his mind). The story follows the Fields blueprint: an easy-going, imbibing man just wants to be left alone but finds himself hampered by domestic disturbances and inconvenient chance meetings. What follows is a 74-minute study in Fields’ own unique brand of comedy.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Karen Burroughs Hannsbery writes:
When I think of film noir fatales, Jane Russell is not necessarily the first name that springs to mind. Known mainly for her singing and comedic talents, as well as her voluptuous figure and coal black mane, Russell nonetheless made her mark in the realm of film noir, appearing in three features in two years – His Kind of Woman (1951), The Las Vegas Story (1952), and Macao (1952).
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Stephen Reginald writes:
In 1948, Irene Dunne was a very youthful looking 50-year-old actress. When she made I Remember Mama, Dunne was fitted with padding to make her appear overweight and makeup was applied to make her look older. It’s hard to believe that Dunne wasn’t the first choice for Marta Hanson, because her performance as the matriarch of a clan of Norwegian Americans is one of the great screen characterizations of all time.
Read More »
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Jessica Pickens writes about her love for the 1945 film classic State Fair:
Brief plot: The Frake family travels to the annual Iowa State Fair, entering their mincemeat, pickles, and prize hog Blue Boy into contests. The two children find romance at the fair, but it is uncertain if it will continue once the fair ends. The cast includes Fay Bainter, Charles Winninger, Jeanne Crain, Dick Haymes, Dana Andrews and Vivian Blaine.
Why I love it: State Fair isn’t a highbrow film chock full of symbolism and deep meaning, but it's one of my favorites. It makes me happy no matter what, and that’s what entertainment is about.
Read More »
Tags: 1930s movies, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow