Holiday Classics: “The Thin Man” (1934)

I’ve watched The Thin Man countless times. But I’ll confess, if you put a gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you who the killer is revealed to be at the end of this sophisticated whodunit. That isn’t so much a failing of the storytelling as it is an indication that the mystery runs secondary […]

Cinema Classics: “42nd Street”

“42nd Street” is the definitive backstage musical. It’s also the film that likely saved the movie musical genre. In the early 1930s, a slew of poorly made musicals following the advent of talkies failed to gain a following amongst critics and audiences. “42nd Street”, directed by Lloyd Bacon and featuring spectacularly-shot musical numbers choreographed by the great […]

Cinema Classics: “Footlight Parade” (1933)

Following the huge success of their iconic musical “42nd Street”, director Lloyd Bacon and choreographer Busby Berkeley topped it the next year with a bigger, better film: “Footlight Parade”. James Cagney welcomed the opportunity to break free of his popular gangster persona and return to his song-and-dance roots as the main character, Chester Kent, a […]

Spooktober: “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933)

A couple weeks ago I featured 1953’s “House of Wax” as one of my Spooktober picks, and today I’m going back to a previous version of the story, 1933’s “Mystery of the Wax Museum”. The plots of both films are quite similar, but while “House of Wax” plays up the horror elements, “Mystery of the […]

Spooktober: “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1931)

One of the greatest special effects ever put on film are the transformation sequences in 1931’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde“. Fredric March, who plays the kind scientist who changes into an evil man when he takes a potion, looks right into the camera in these scenes as his face undergoes dramatic changes. The cuts […]