Filmically Perfect

Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly created pure celluloid gold with this musical tale of the upheaval of hollywood with the Coming of SOUND! Kelly and his cohorts Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds and the glorious Jean Hagen make beautiful music together and get to poke a few jokes at the rough times in Tinsel Town as movies learned to talk!

James Stewart and Anthony Mann team up for one last time--and the only time in CinemaScope--to bring to life one of the best and grittiest of the first round of “adult westerns” of the 1950s. Stewart inches ever farther from his nice guy persona of the thirties and forties, while Mr. Mann serves up a steaming bowl of his trademarked sudden, palpable violence. Throw in a stellar supporting cast including Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Aline MacMahon and the lovable Wally Ford and you have one of the best FILMS, not just WESTERNS, of the 1950s!

Elvis Presley at his most Elvis-like-ness! In one of his few films not overseen by Hal B. Wallis, Elvis shines as the young ex-con/laborer who finds his singing talent while in the hoosegow, assisted by another singing con, played by the great Mickey Shaughnessy. Judy Tyler, whose life ended much too soon, plays The King’s love interest and her sudden death shortly after the completion of this film kept Elvis from watching it for many years.

Barry Levinson’s film of Bernard Malamud’s novel is Baseball as Mythology. It is also one of the most lyrical, beautiful, and sparse sports films ever made. And even though the ending of the film is RADICALLY different from the novel, we still feel this is a perfect movie--and that’s what we’re here to talk about, yes?? Sadly, twenty-three years after the fact, Mr. Levinson went back and tinkered with his film some more, slightly damaging its perfection, in our estimation.

The Film Guys and Niki Dakota do it LIVE for the second time before a stunned audience at the FilmDayton Festival!

Charles M. “Chuck” Jones was arguably one of the finest minds in animation. We devoted an entire episode to him some time back--listen to it here! His singular style is still being aped by lesser talents to this day. Here, in two of his finest outings, Jones takes the wind out of the opera by ruining Rossini and violating Wagner!

Herk Harvey's horror tour de force is a low-budget delight and a perfect example of creativity triumphing over a lack of funds! A marvelously creepy and atmospheric film, featuring one of the most bizarre amusement piers of all time--"Saltair," built by the Mormons on the edge of the Great Salt Lake!

Anthony Mann and John Alton combine their amazing powers to bring one of the first and best police procedural/film noirs of the early post-war era! Shot mostly on location, with interiors at some small rented studio in Hollywood, T-Men proves that it doesn’t take big bucks to make a great movie. It takes great people with madly creative minds!

Billy Wilder’s painful salute to the crumbling facade of “old Hollywood” bears watching again and again. Gloria Swanson, who truly was a symbol of all that was grand and glitzy truly shows just how good an actress can be as the doomed Norma Desmond. William Holden and Erich Von Stroheim also shine as her unwilling and all-to-willing minions.

After a decade of big budget Technicolored thrillers, Hitch turned to the low-ball world of TV style shooting for this, one of his most nerve-jangling exploits.

After thrilling the world with his bawdy and award-winning comedy Tom Jones, director Tony Richardson came to the States to make this savage and withering satire based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel. The cast is filed with some of the most memorable faces in H’wood and everything is stolen by Jonathan Winters in a beautiful duel role as “The Blessed Reverend” Wilbur Glenworthy and his pathetic brother.

Favorite Line: “We’ve got to find a way to get these stiffs off my property.”