DVD Reviews
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- By Loron Hays
When the “Yes” men start telling you “NO”, you are probably approaching the trash-lined gutters along Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood is clearly sending you a message. You are no longer needed . . . or are you?!?! Well, if Billy Wilder (director of The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, ...
Read more: Sunset Boulevard: 4K Restoration (1950) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
“You stinkin’ rat!” For crime flicks, High Sierra, directed by Raoul Walsh, is indeed a watershed moment as the gangster pictures of the 1930s gave way to the fatalism found in Film Noir, which would dominate the 1940s. Making spectacular use of its locations ...
Read more: High Sierra: Criterion Collection (1941) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Mad Love: Warner Archive Collection (1935) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: The Hunchback of Notre Dame: 4K Restoration (1923) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Emily Strong
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 ...
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- By Loron Hays
"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 ...
Read more: Bringing Up Baby: The Criterion Collection (1938)
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House: Warner Archive Collection (1948) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: Isle of the Dead: Warner Archive Collection (1945) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
Read more: M: The Criterion Collection (1931) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
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- By Loron Hays
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 ...
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- By Loron Hays
“She’s afraid of the big bad wolf. Tra la la la laaaaaa.” It Happened One Night remains a phenomenal romantic comedy. After all these years, this pre-code American film - which was made when being a reporter was idolized and the screwball comedy was only just hitting its stride - still hits all the perfect notes as ...
Read more: It Happened One Night: Criterion Collection (1934) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
The Marx Brothers are coming! The Marx Brothers are coming! Well, after a bit of exposition that is as Casablanca (and others like that film) get a big kiss-off thanks to the parody on display throughout the 86-minutes that make up A Night in Casablanca. This REEL CLASSIC might not be the ...
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- By Loron Hays
It’s hard to conceive in this era of remakes that some redos in the history of cinema go on to become classics in their own right. For genre fans, John Carpenter’s The Thing is often cited as a prime example. For comedy, however, Billy Wilder’s beloved cross-dressing romp, Some Like It ...
Read more: Some Like It Hot: Criterion Collection (1959) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
"What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, All About Eve continues to shine bright thanks to the dazzling performance of Bette Davis as Margo Channing as she takes Anne Baxter as ...
Read more: All About Eve: Criterion Collection (1950) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
Los Angeles after dark is always an exciting place. Whether it be out on the street or gazing out the window of your home, the air of unpredictability is always lurking about in the air. And it is that unpredictability which opens director Billy Wilder’s film noir classic, Double Indemnity as a ...
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- By Loron Hays
“Did you bring me here by force?” And INTRODUCING Audrey Hepburn. That’s right, the screen legend begins here with Roman Holiday, a quintessential romantic comedy, which was shot on location in Rome . . . even though Paramount wanted it filmed on their studio ...
Read more: Paramount Presents: Roman Holiday (1953) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
From identical dresses to the fire which ravishes Manderley, the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) can never, ever take the place of Rebecca. Cue the romance, the heartbreak, the haunted tension and wind it all up because this film is all about the snap. That’s what makes this ...
Read more: Rebecca: Criterion Collection (1940) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
A minister-turned-serial killer in one of the most beautiful films ever made by Hollywood? Sure. Why not? When the results of exaggerated set designs and a directing style reminiscent of early silent cinema are as good as they are in The Night of the Hunter, no one is going to complain ...
Read more: The Night of the Hunter: Criterion Collection (1955)
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- By Loron Hays
Was he trying to kiss or kill her on that hilltop? The verdict is still out as Suspicion makes its debut on blu-ray thanks to the efforts of the Warner Archive Collection. Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact - which is as dissimilar as they...
Read more: Suspicion: Warner Archive Collection (1941) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
You can’t say that Hitchcock didn’t warn audiences of Hitler. He made several films with Hitler’s world view overhanging the shadows in each frame. But, after a decade in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock took that warning to a new level and gave audiences the ultimate romance between a ...
Read more: Notorious: Criterion Collection (1946) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
“I know what happens in those mystery pictures! A guy walks over to a perfectly ordinary door he opens it up and - ZOWIE! - out falls a body right on its kisser!” And, of course, a body falls to the ground! When it comes to getting the tone of horror comedies right, you have to sometimes go ...
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- By Loron Hays
Sandra! Junior? SANDRA! Junior? SAAAANNNNNDRA! Having successfully stolen the show in 1941’s One Night in the Tropics, the comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello - who were big on radio but untested on film - were quickly signed by Universal Pictures ...
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- By Loron Hays
THE POST SAVES EARL WILLIAMS! Hear all about it in His Girl Friday, now available on blu-ray thanks to the Criterion Collection. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell with standout performances from ...
Read more: His Girl Friday: Criterion Collection (1940) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
If you ever get a hankering for some solid improvisational comedic skills on display throughout a major motion picture, look no further then director Leo McCarey’s slapstick comedy, The Awful Truth. It might have been his first film for Columbia Pictures, but that didn’t stop McCarey from ...
Read more: The Awful Truth: Criterion Collection (1937) - Blu-ray Review
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- By Loron Hays
Swamp gators (with their mouths taped shut as evidenced by this crisp 4K handling!), dead lawyers, and mighty sums of money! Such frightful delights await those that can stay sane in the Norman clan. ...
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- By Loron Hays
It’s the simplest twist of fates as Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard return to do battle with the supernatural in The Ghost Breakers! Voodoo, ghosts, and island-bound zombies! Add in a criminally underrated performance from Willie Best and you have the makings of another REEL CLASSIC! ...
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- By Loron Hays
Sometimes it takes meeting the wrong person to finally get to the right person. That’s one of the territories in Holiday, an often overlooked romantic comedy from 1938 which deals with clashing values and what it means to truly live as pie-in-the-sky dreamers mix drinks with the aristocrats ...
Read more: Holiday: Criterion Collection (1938) - Blu-ray Review
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Movie Reviews
Morbidly Hollywood
- Colorado Street Suicide Bridge
- Death of a Princess - The Story of Grace Kelly's Fatal Car Crash
- Joaquin Phoenix 911 Call - River Phoenix - Viper Room
- Screen Legend Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79
- Suicide and the Hollywood Sign - The Girl Who Jumped from the Hollywood Sign
- The Amityville Horror House
- The Black Dahlia Murder - The Death of Elizabeth Short
- The Death of Actress Jane Russell
- The Death of Brandon Lee
- The Death of Chris Farley
- The Death of Dominique Dunne
- The Death of George Reeves - the Original Superman