Italian Neo-Realist Masterpiece “Bicycle Thieves” Voted Greatest Film of the 1940’s in Internet Poll

 
by Sam Juliano
One of world cinema’s crowning glories, Vittorio DeSica’s seminal neo-realist post-war masterpiece, Bicycle Thieves, was named the greatest film of the movie-rich 1940’s by a comfortable margin, in a polling result announced today by Angelo D’Arminio Jr.  The 1949 film, known in Italian as Ladri di biciclette, chronicles the desparate attempts of a [...]

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Sam on Robert Bresson’s Les Anges du Péché

 
by Sam Juliano
Frenchman Robert Bresson (1901-1999) is one of the greatest film directors of all-time, yet his output, considering both the advanced age he achieved and his active years was relatively limited.  Meticulous and uncompromising, Bresson was idiosyncratic, disavowing conventional notions of cinema and popular subjects, in favor of personal issues and themes.  Indeed, despite [...]

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Love on the Dole ****½

 
by Allan Fish
(UK 1941 100m) DVD2
Down in Hankey Park
p  John Baxter  d  John Baxter  w  Walter Greenwood, Barbara K.Emery, Rollo Gamble  play/novel  Walter Greenwood  ph  James Wilson  ed  Michael C.Chorlton  m  Richard Addinsell  art  R.Holmes Paul
Deborah Kerr (Sally Hardcastle), Geoffrey Hibbert (Harry Hardcastle), Clifford Evans (Larry Meade), George Carney (Henry Hardcastle), Joyce Howard (Helen), Frank [...]

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1940’s Polling Has Ended; Angelo D’Arminio Will Be Tabulating Outcome

by Sam Juliano
     The 1940’s balloting has concluded after a nearly two-month window for posting “Top 25″ lists.  Voting tabulator Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. will be adding the numbers over the next few days and will subsequently be announcing the group’s top choices, much in the same way the 30’s poll was managed.  A total [...]

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Gaslight ****½

 
by Allan Fish
(UK 1940 88m) DVD1
Aka. Angel Street
Ze rooooobies!
p  John Corfield  d  Thorold Dickinson  w  A.R.Rawlinson, Bridget Boland  play  Patrick Hamilton  ph  Bernard Knowles  ed  Sidney Cole  m  Richard Addinsell  art  Duncan Sutherland
Diana Wynyard (Bella Mallen), Anton Walbrook (Paul Mallen/Louis Bauer), Frank Pettingell (Rough), Robert Newton (Vincent Ullswater), Cathleen Cordell (Nancy), Jimmy Hanley (Cobb), Minnie [...]

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Alexander Coleman Reports from the Castro in SF at Noir Festival

by Alexander Coleman
Friday night at the San Francisco Castro Theatre was a great deal of fun, as it opened up the ten-day schedule of festivities. After entering the building, I conversed with the “czar of noir,” Eddie Muller, and pointed out that he commented on my August 24, 2008 review of The Big Heat when [...]

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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ****½

 
by Allan Fish
(Jeez, I almost feel strange going back to movies after the weekend’s events, so let’s pick a forties film that tries to offer a ray of hope among the grime)
(USA 1945 128m) DVD2
The Brooklyn Thrush
p  Louis D.Lighton  d  Elia Kazan  w  Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis  novel  Betty Smith  ph  Leon Shamroy  ed  Dorothy [...]

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My Learned Friend ****½

 
by Allan Fish
(UK 1943 73m) not on DVD
All games played in this club are for amusement only
p  Michael Balcon  d  Basil Dearden, Will Hay  w  John Dighton, Angus MacPhail  ph  Wilkie Cooper  ed  Charles Hasse  m  Ernest Irving  art  Michael Relph 
Will Hay (William Fitch), Claude Hulbert (Claude Babbington), Mervyn Johns (Arthur Grimshaw), Charles Victor (Safety [...]

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Sam on John Ford’s “How Green Was My Valley”

 
 
by Sam Juliano                    
I am leaving behind me fifty years of memory.  Memory…..Who shall say what is real and what is not?  Can I believe my friends all gone when their voices are a glory in my ears?  No.  And I will stand to say no and no again, for they remain a living truth within my [...]

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Somewhere in Europe ****½

 
by Allan Fish
(Hungary 1947 100m) DVD1
Aka. Valahol Európában 
Alas, poor Kuksi
p  Laszlo Szirtes  d  Géza von Radványi  w  Béla Balázs, Géza von Radványi  ph  Barnabás Hegyi  ed  Félix Máriássy, Géza von Radványi  m  Dénes Buday  art  Jószef Pán
Artur Somlay (Piotr Simon), Miklós Gábor (Péter), Zsusza Banki (Éva), György Bárdi (Police commissioner), Ladislas Horvath (Kuksi), Abraham Ronai [...]

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