Ask a classic movie fan, “What was your favorite year or the best year for movies?” and I’m guessing that more often than not you’d hear “1939” as the answer. At least that seems to be the case based on numerous discussions I’ve heard over the years. While there were definitely some great movies made that year, there is a year that stands out to me even more, 1941.
Ms. Films Posts
Horror movies are a special breed of American culture, and it is not always about the content of the film. The music is a real driving force for the genre and it is one of those aspects of a horror movie that immortalizes the film.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have both acknowledged that if it weren’t for the music of John Williams, their movies would have never been the astronomical successes that they are today. Well, the same can be said for several horror movies.
Film Adaptation: Do Film & Literature Truly Coincide With One Another?
When studios attempt to adapt a form of literature, they strive to create a visualization of an imagined world. Rarely do they succeed.
According to Toby Osborne, in his article entitled ‘The Art of Adaptation’, “85 percent of movies are adaptations”. This means that only 15 percent of movies are written from scratch. Literature is a very important medium and has been for some time. Hollywood clearly understands this.
While there isn’t a definitive definition of what makes a cult film, there is an essential agreement among film fans that these movies are not business as usual. The description “cult” evokes thoughts of bizarre, potentially uncomfortable, or even controversial cinematic expression. In Cult Filmmakers: 50 Movie Mavericks You Need to Know, Ian Haydn Smith explores the works of fifty filmmakers that he categorizes as cult, following that essential definition.
Hitchcock & Cary Grant Present Delightful Mystery
Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock combine in a great caper movie – maintaining just enough menace to be thrilling, whilst also featuring much comedy.
Roger Thornhill, a suave and handsome advertising executive, gets mistaken for someone else by chance and is thrown into a game of cat and mouse where the mouse doesn’t understand why it’s being hunted down. Pursued by Phillip Vandamm (Mason) and his cohorts, Thornhill must enlist the help of beautiful stranger Eve Kendall (Saint) in his quest to understand who exactly is chasing him and who they have mistaken him for.
You’ll soon see that a number of the horror films on this list have, at one point in time, made a much anticipated return to the big screen. A few however, have never been afforded such treatment, despite the fact that they truly do deserve it.
Join us now as we examine 10 amazing classic horror films worthy of some modern day big screen love!
Ridley Scott is a director that over the course of an almost 50-year career has had a hand in almost every genre imaginable, and has often redefined some of them along the way. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action, Epic, Crime, Drama, Thriller, and Comedy, the helmer has done it all. With his iconic visuals and gifts for storytelling, Ridley has proven to be a remarkable force behind the camera.
Horror movies have never really had the biggest draw at the box office unless there was something super special about them. That usually has to do with the rating of the horror movie in question, and as most horror fans already know, it really isn’t worth it unless they are rated R.
So how has the horror movie genre done at the box office over the years and what movies have really cashed in on the genre? It is safe to assume that everyone could probably guess the top two or three in the genre, but you might be surprised what has fared better at the box office than other truly great horror films.
Is there any other animal more beloved in the movies than dogs? For a while horses were in the running, but when you examine the past century of film, it is clearly canines who have dominated. In the lightly amusing Citizen Canine: Dogs in the Movies, Wendy Mitchell writes about the performances of sixty cinematic pooches in their signature roles.
Orson Welles began filming The Other Side of the Wind in 1970. He died fifteen years later, the film incomplete. It was to be his masterpiece, as important to him as Citizen Kane (1941), if not more so. The Making of The Other Side of the Wind, reveals the whole fascinating, frustrating story of its production, up to the present day, where the effort to release Welles’ final work continues.
Over the fifteen years of its production, Welles constantly sought funding, cast members died, marriages were destroyed and everyone involved did everything possible to complete the film. While money was always an issue, the biggest roadblock was its director, who could never commit to an end date, always striving to bring his work even closer to perfection.
Billed as “a gigantic and joyous musical,” part of the appeal of MGM’s Stanley Donen-directed It’s Always Fair Weather is that it often isn’t that way at all. In contrast to the cheerful optimism of the studio’s typical output, this film admits that life can be disappointing and that one time friends can turn out to be insufferable, though somehow it ends up shuffling away with a smile anyway. Now this television-age take on the Hollywood musical is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive.
With The Female Gaze: Essential Movie Made by Women, Alicia Malone’s follow-up to last year’s Backwards and In Heels, the film reporter, host, and writer continues her invaluable quest to promote the work of women in film. Her message is two-fold: she is diligent in promoting the varied and rich works of female filmmakers, but consistently reminds her audience that not nearly enough women are allowed the opportunities in film their male counterparts are afforded.
I’ve always viewed the films that Bette Davis made with director William Wyler as an emotionally charged conversation between actress and filmmaker. There’s something precise about the cinema they made together, as if they are trying to achieve the perfect mix of the authentic and the dramatic. You can sense it in Jezebel (1938) and The Little Foxes (1941), but I’ve found that mood most intense in The Letter (1940), which just made its Blu-ray debut from Warner Archive.
I don’t know how I got decades into classic film fandom without seeing The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945). Yes, I thought it seemed like it could be excessively sentimental or cutesy (two things which happen to not be true), but I also love Ingrid Bergman in anything and Bing Crosby has grown on me over the years. Fortunately, with the release of its new Signature Edition Blu-ray/DVD of the film Olive Films has helped me to fill this gap in my cinematic experience and opened my eyes to a deeply moving film.
Every year around Halloween the list-making nerd in me feels the urge to create ‘best of’ lists.
Last year’s attempt in compiling a worthy Top 30 Best Horror Movies list wasn’t very satisfying. The whole list felt rushed, looked lame and I forgot about many films that are important to me.
This year I tried to do it right and… yeah, I admit I feel way more pleased with my Top 30 personal favorite Horror Movies of all time. While you are all waiting for the holiday of all holidays, you might like to pass the time by checking ou my 30 personal favorite Horror Movies of all time.