Back to Golden Days

I started this blog six years ago as a way to share my passion for classic films and the Old Hollywood era. I used to watch dozens of classic films every month, and every time I discovered a new star I liked I would go and watch their entire filmography. But somewhere along the way, that passion dimmed down. For instance, I watched 73 classic films in 2016, and only 10 in 2020. The other day, I found this film with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. that I had never heard of, and for some reason it made me really excited about Old Hollywood again. It made me really miss the magic of that era and all the wonderful actors and actresses that graced the silver screen. And it also made me think of all the reasons why I fell in love with classic films in the first place. I came up with 80 reasons, which I thought would be fun to share with you. Most of them are just random little scenes or quirky little quotes, but put them together and they spell Old Hollywood to me. Yesterday I posted part one ; here i...

Christmas has always been a source of inspiration to many artists and writers. Over the years, filmmakers have adapted various Christmas stories into both movies and television specials, which have become staples during the holiday season all around the world. Even though Christmas is my favourite holiday, I haven't watched a lot of Christmas films. Still, I thought it would be fun to rank my top 10 favourites, based on the ones that I have indeed seen. Here they are.    10. Holiday Affair (1949) Directed by Don Hartman, Holiday Affair tells the story of a young widow (Janet Leigh) torn between a boring attorney (Wendell Corey) and a romantic drifter (Robert Mitchum). She's engaged to be married to the boring attorney, but her son (Gordon Gebert) likes the romantic drifter better. Who will she choose? Well, I think we all know who she will choose. Holiday Affair is not by any means the greatest Christmas film of all time, but it's still a very enjoyable Yule-tide comed...

A few days after I posted my « Top 10 Favorite James Stewart Films of the 1930s » last year, I finished watching all the films that James Stewart made in the 1940s. At the time, I immediately thought of doing a «Top 10 Favorite James Stewart Films of the 1940s», but I never really got around to do it — until now. I'm still not very good at ranking things, but here are my choices. 10. On Our Merry Way (1948) Directed by King Vidor and Leslie Fenton | Co-starring Henry Fonda and Paulette Goddard On Our Merry Way is an anthology film made up of several comedy vignettes linked by a single theme. Jimmy and his old pal Henry Fonda, in their first joint screen appearance, play a pair of jazz musicians called Slim and Lank. Can you think of two better names for them? Whoever thought of it deserves an award. The film as a whole is not spectacular, but it is still worth a watch because of Slim and Lank, I mean, Jimmy and Hank.     9. Malaya (1949)   Directed by Richard Tho...

Since the Christmas weekend begins tomorrow, this week's «Film Friday» is going to be a little bit different than usual. Instead of telling you about only one Christmas film, which was my original plan, I thought I would compile all the Christmas-y films I have written about since starting this blog. Most of them are part of a « 12 Days of Christmas Films » feature I did last December. If you are looking for a film to watch over the holidays, I think these are some good choices. Let's begin with The Thin Man (1934), an excellent comedy-mystery starring the delightful duo William Powell and Myrna Loy. They play Nick and Nora Charles, a debonair detective and his sophisticated wife, who find themselves embroiled in a murder case during the holidays. While Christmas is not crucial to the central plot of the film, there is still a lovely scene between the Charleses on the morning of December 25. W. S. Van Dyke directed from a script by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, based on...