The First-Class Jewels: An American in Paris and Gigi
Two golden-age musicals get the deluxe treatment
Author: Matthew Kennedy
Matthew Kennedy is the author of Marie Dressler: A Biography (McFarland, 1999), Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (University Press of Wisconsin, 2004), Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s (Oxford University Press, 2014), and On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide (Oxford University Press, 2024). Go here for more on Matthew and his oeuvre. Book review: Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood Mark Harris. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. Cloth, $27.95, 496pp. ISBN 1-594-20152-8. Observers of the Academy Awards[…]
A Very Special Favor: More Strange Drag from the Hudson Closet
“Never mind that Hudson was a gay man playing a straight man playing a gay man in love with a man who was really a woman.” Universal Studio, never in[…]
David Lean’s Problem Child: Gorgeous but Flawed Ryan’s Daughter on DVD
For maximum effect, see it when you’re 13 The 1965 epic Doctor Zhivago was a Brobdingnagian success and the highest-grossing film at MGM since Gone with the Wind. Director David[…]
Directors · Music & Musicals · Producers & Studios · Reviews
The Hip Hooray and Bally Hoo: Busby Berkeley Explodes on DVD
Come and meet those dancing feet, and pianos, and buildings, and . . . Give the nearest Warner Home Video executive a big hug. The company has at last remastered[…]
Men in Love: On Brokeback Mountain
” … I wanted eternal union with a man too: another kind of love,” he said. “I don’t believe it,” she said. “It’s an obscenity, a theory, a perversity.” “Well[…]
Ann-Margret in Wonderland: But Bates and the Brits Are at Home in The Return of the Soldier
“Her English accent wanders around her mouth like a playful ice cube.” Have pity on The Return of the Soldier. Shot in England in 1982, the film did not get[…]
Renoir on the Seine: Boudu Saved from Drowning on DVD
Criterion’s Renoir-fest continues with this classic Criterion has already remastered Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion(1938) and The Rules of the Game (1939), so the release of Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932),[…]
Two by Jacques Becker: Casque d’or and Touchez pas au grisbi on DVD
Criterion resurrects a French master “Beckeresque” is not a word but maybe it should be. Embedded in its definition would be French director Jacques Becker (1906-1960) at his best: subtle,[…]
Comedy · DVD & Blu-ray · Pre-Code
Dinner Is Served: The Return of MGM’s Witty ’30s Romp
Cukor’s all-star gala remains a tasty dish
DVD & Blu-ray · Noir · Reviews
“She Loves Too Much”: The Ravishing Leave Her to Heaven on DVD
No matter what she says, don’t upset her
DVD & Blu-ray · LGBT & Queer · Silents
Queer Silents: Different from the Others, Michael, and Sex in Chains on DVD
Kino’s unusual series spotlights German silent gay-themed cinema
Directors · Drama · DVD & Blu-ray · Experimental & Underground · Reviews
Doing What Moves Them at the Moment: Five of Cassavetes’ Best on DVD
The master of improv gets his due courtesy of Criterion’s extras-laden box set
On Commies, Stoolies, and Other Assorted Lowlifes: Pickup on South Street on DVD
Widmark and Peters sizzle, but Thelma Ritter steals the show
DVD & Blu-ray · Music & Musicals
Wish Upon a Star! Robert Wise’s Musical Mess on DVD
or, a turkey returns
Recent DVDs: Christ in Concrete, The Garden of Eden, Breaking the Cycle, Mau Mau Sex Sex, Ordinary Sinner
Five DVDs for every taste, though some are more appetizing than others
Actors & Personalities · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
Angela’s Lashes: Charles Busch’s Die Mommie Die!
Stage vet Charles Busch does glam for camp movie
Ho-hum Intrigue in Barcelona: Gaudi Afternoon on DVD
It’s little wonder this yawner didn’t get a theatrical release Gaudi Afternoon, a 2001 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival entry, never got a theatrical distributor and has[…]
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