This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe, which has motivated me to re-view many of her movies and reread some of the bios about her. Additionally, the anniversary has pushed MM back into the pop-culture spotlight. The television show Smash with its show-within-a-show structure uses Monroe’s life as the basis [...]

The Hollywood studios continue to mine the comic-book and graphic novel genres in search of the next big franchise, even re-booting some series, such as Spiderman and Superman, with new actors and new directors. While there is nothing inherently wrong with reworking or reinterpreting favorite characters—whether they be superheroes from comic books or mythic depictions [...]

Working at Facets Multi-Media for over ten years has expanded my understanding of and appreciation for foreign film—from classic Polish films to subversive Czech New Wave features to contemporary Asian action flicks. The best way to learn about the people, cultures, and histories of other countries is to view their films. Watching international films has [...]

Recovering from the TCM Classic Film Fest, which was held last weekend in Hollywood, took a few days, but it is now a glorious memory. The fest proved to be a communal experience, a learning opportunity, and a chance to reflect on the power of movies to connect us as a society and culture. Watching [...]

As promised, this week’s blog post provides the answers to last week’s film noir quiz. The quiz was prompted by the tribute to film noir at the TCM Classic Movie Festival, which ended Sunday, but good movie dialogue has been on my mind since teaching Citizen Kane in my film studies class a couple of [...]

Next weekend, I am attending the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, and I am more than excited. I am going as a movie fan, not as a TCM blogger, and I can’t wait to see the films, the stars, and the historic theaters. One of the programs at the festival this year is titled [...]

Last month, Carl Reiner turned 90 years old. A show business veteran, to say the least, Reiner began on stage in the late 1940s, became an Emmy-nominated member of Sid Caesar’s TV sketch series Your Show of Shows in the 1950s, produced and wrote The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s, then turned to [...]

Tomorrow evening, TCM offers five films starring Robert Mitchum: Cape Fear, River of No Return, Night of the Hunter, Rampage, and Going Home. The films represent about a twenty-year span, from 1954 to 1971, and range from an undeniable classic (Night of the Hunter) to a complete misfire (Going Home). Whatever the film, or its [...]

The recent success of Hugo and The Artist has sparked interest in the silent era and film history in the press and among the public. This attention has already waned, but, in an era when silent film is completely off the radar of most movie-goers, entertainment reporters, and bloggers, the focus was nice while it [...]