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Reel Classics

Details: Created: 19 October 2021; Published: 19 October 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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Metallic hands and dark glasses! There can be only one Dr. Gogol! Maybe it is the warning that is issued as the film begins in total blackness or maybe it is the way that Peter Lorre is lit and filmed throughout this horror film, but Mad Love absolutely works its twisted ways in a modern viewing and ...

Details: Created: 05 October 2021; Published: 05 October 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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Lon Chaney as Quasimodo. Need I say anymore? I don’t really think so, but I’ll flex. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a certified REEL CLASSIC of silent, cinematic horror and it begins right there with Chaney’s performance as the deaf, half-blind, hunchbacked bell-ringer of the famous Cathedral of ...

Details: Created: 20 September 2021; Published: 20 September 2021; Written by Emily Strong

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It’s Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn. Are you sold on it yet? No? Alright, let’s talk: When you think about Tracey-Hepburn films, Frank Capra’s 1948 State of the Union is certainly not as revered or remembered in the way that Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, or even Guess Who’s ...

Details: Created: 11 July 2021; Published: 11 July 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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"I've got my head. I've lost my leopard!" As far as screwball comedies go, the pairing of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn was probably seen as an odd choice in 1938. She didn’t have a hit film and Grant, hitting his comedic stride, was just coming off of The Awful Truth to ...

Details: Created: 23 May 2021; Published: 23 May 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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The comedic timing. The charisma of all involved. The breaking of the fourth wall. Hollywood’s definitive leading man! What’s not to love about Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House as Cary Grant takes his physical comedy and his mannerisms from the office to home construction woes ...

Details: Created: 13 May 2021; Published: 13 May 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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A psychological thriller in which Boris Karloff does NOT play a creature of the night? Say it ain’t so?! But it’s true. Isle of the Dead, produced by the legendary Val Lewton, concerns itself with that which haunts Greek nightmares: the Vrykolakas and this female vampire is certainly NOT ...

Details: Created: 05 May 2021; Published: 05 May 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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Madness. Mayhem. And, of course, MURDER. This is what follows the anti-archetype characters of M. It is a thriller that is meant to unsettle the viewer with its hunt for a serial killer, making it an unforgettable REEL CLASSIC ...

Details: Created: 07 March 2021; Published: 07 March 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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The new comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson called The Hustle is an almost identical remake of the 1988 classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin - itself a remake of Marlon Brando’s Bedtime Story. I say “almost” because ...

Details: Created: 13 February 2021; Published: 13 February 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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Suspicions! Accusations! It’s all on the screen in this minor film noir classic. The Suspect arrives on blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber and I, as a fan of Laughton’s performances, couldn’t be happier ...

Details: Created: 30 January 2021; Published: 30 January 2021; Written by Loron Hays

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One wouldn’t normally equate Cary Grant with a family movie about adoption and the drama which lies therein, but perhaps that’s why Room for One More (also known as The Easy Way) lingers with viewers. Grant, playing one half of The Roses, never gets time alone as his house is filled ...