William Powell and Kay Francis in a publicity photo for Jewel Robbery (William Dieterle, 1932) Jack Miller extols the virtues of Jewel Robbery, a slightly weird and completely wonderful pre-Code romantic comedy starring the wildly charming team of Kay Francis and William Powell. The luminous pre-Code star Kay Francis appeared in seven movies in the… Read more »
Joan Bennett in Jean Renoir’s The Woman on the Beach, Jack’s favorite film of this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival In this recap of Italy’s recent Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival, Jack Miller showcases the unique offerings and exclusive screenings he was able to experience earlier this summer. This past June, cinephiles from all over… Read more »
What ever happened to George Stevens? The director of such classic Hollywood titles as Swing Time (1936), The More the Merrier (1943), A Place in the Sun (1951), and Shane (1953), Stevens was one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of his day, winning the Academy Award for Best Director on two separate occasions. These days,… Read more »
“The western is always the same, which gives the director tremendous freedom,” Jean Renoir, a director who never made a western, once opined. In this regard, the classical American western film, which reached its fullest peak of maturity and creativity in the 1950s, represents one of the greatest playgrounds that cinema was ever offered. Many… Read more »
Though I regard Howard Hawks as one of the greatest American filmmakers and have written about the use of amorality or nihilism as a fundamental structuring principle in his comedies, the Hawks film that I might regard as his absolute greatest (on certain days, it’s my favorite) remains a very neglected title: his sublime and… Read more »
“So, Von Sternberg’s movies had to have plots even though they already had them inherent in the images. What he did was make movies naturally — he lived in a visual world. The explanation plots he made up out of some logic having nothing to do with the visuals of his films. His expression was… Read more »