Kvinnodröm (1955), usually given as Dreams . Directed by Ingmar Bergman. With Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ulf Palme, Inga Landgré, Sven Lindberg, Bengt Schott, Naima Wifstrand, Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt, and Ingmar Bergman. A fashion designer who has had an affair with a marrie...

Kvinnors Väntan , alias Waiting Women , alias Secrets of Women (1952). Directed by Ingmar Bergman. With an outstanding cast of Anita Björk, Eva Dahlbeck, Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Gunnar Björnstrand, Håkan Westergren, Karl-Arne Holmsten, Jarl Kulle, Aino Taube, Gerd Andersson, Björn Bjelf...

The Firefly (1937). Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. With Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, Warren William, Douglass Dumbrille, Henry Daniell, Belle Mitchell, and quickly, for about six lines, Billy Gilbert. During Napoleonic times, singer/dancer Nina Maria Azara (Miss MacDonald) acts as an undercover...

Il Conformista (1970), which is to say The Conformist . Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Gastoni Moschin, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda. In the environment of Fascism in WWII Italy, a new hire for Mussolini’s administration, emotionally damaged by having had to de...

Pote tin Kyriaki (1960), perhaps better known as Never on Sunday . Directed and written by Jules Dassin. With Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, Giorgos Foundas, Mitsos Ligizos, Alexis Solomos, Faidon Georgitsis. Dilettante philosopher decides to restore to modern Greece the glory of ancient Greece by ...

Flic Story (1975). Directed by Jacques Deray. With Alain Delon, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Renato Salvatori, Mario David, Claudine Auger, Maurice Barrier, Marco Perrin. Justice pursues a violent murderous escaped criminal in 1947 Paris. This film, which I would award the lukewarm honor of being “suffi...

Le Voyou (1970), which is to say The Crook . Directed by Claude Lelouch. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Danièle Delorme, Christine Lelouch, Charles Gérard, Charles Denner, Yves Robert, Amidou. Through a bold plan, a crook (Trintignant) escapes from prison, upon which he engages in another bold plan t...

Un Homme et Une Femme (1966), which is to say A Man and a Woman . Directed by Claude Lelouch. With Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée. A widower and a widow, each with a child, meet, and deal, separately and together, with their developing feelings of love against a background of his auto racin...

Tôkyô monogatari , which you will recognize more readily as Tokyo Story (1953). Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. With Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara, and a further whole troupe of splendid players. Aged Dad and Mom come to Tokyo on a rare visit from where they live in the outlands, but their...

A strange film that seems relevant to our time is The Boy with Green Hair , a 1948 outing directed by Joseph Losey and starring Dean Stockwell as the title character. He's orphaned after his parents are killed in Europe during WW II (apparently working with war orphans). He ends up living with Gram...

So Evil My Love (1948). Directed by Lewis Allen. With Ray Milland, Ann Todd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Raymond Huntley, Leo G. Carroll, Hugh Griffith. Artist with a wide range of felonious abilities charms the recently-bereaved widow of a missionary into knowingly assisting him with his plans. What at ...

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). Directed by Don Weis. With Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Susan Hart, Basil Rathbone, Aron Kincaid, Boris Karloff, Jesse White, Harvey Lembeck, Nancy Sinatra, Francis X. Bushman, Claudia Martin, Benny Rubin, Patsy Kelly, Piccola Pupa, George Barrows, inter ali...

Il Sorpasso (1962). Directed by Dino Risi. With Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant. By chance, a somewhat introverted young man becomes the (automobile) traveling companion of a carefree extrovert for about a day and a half. The picaresque, nearly plotless, film follows their experiences a...

Anna Boleyn (1920; alias Deception ). Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. With Emil Jannings, Henny Porten, Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein, Aud Egede-Nissen, Paul Biensfeldt, Paul Hartmann, Ferdinand von Alten, Ludwig Hartau. Philandering King Henry is smitten by the innocent Anna Boleyn, and finds a pretext in ...

The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (or perhaps The Hot Rod Gang Meets the Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow ; 1959). Directed by William J. Hole, Jr. With Jody Fair, Russ Bender, Leon Tyler, Dorothy Neumann, Kirby Smith, Jeanne Tatum, Jimmie Maddin. Income for the Hot Rod Gang is depleted and so they have to va...

Having been in the throes of finishing a book project (anyone who delights in pre-Yankee California history—and who doesn’t?—may now wish to peruse the newly available The Bandini Papers ) made my “last film you saw” efforts here go on break. I have in the meantime, though, seen quite a muster of no...

His "Hallelujah, brother!" near the end of Cat Ballou is, to me, one of the magic moments of Cinema.

A Christmas Carol (1954). Directed by Ralph Levy. With Fredric March, Basil Rathbone, Craig Hill, Sally Fraser, Bonnie Franklin. I just watched this hour-long reduction for TV of the tale, with Fredric March as Scrooge, Basil Rathbone as Marley, a young Bonnie Franklin as a Cratchit child (I think ...

Ride the Hot Wind (1971). Directed by Duke Kelly. With Tommy Kirk (as Tom Kirk), Duke Kelly, Cheryl Waters. Disgraced Army officer Capt. Shank (Kirk), responsible or maybe not responsible for a Vietnam massacre (think My Lai), meets with setbacks in attempts at life as a civilian, ending up with a ...

Dancing Lady (1933). Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. With Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Winnie Lightner, Ted Healy, Robert Benchley, Moe Howard, Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy, May Robson, Sterling Holloway, Eve Arden, Blanche Payson. As alicefaye gave us a splendid...

Escapade in Florence (1962). Directed by Steve Previn. With Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Nino Castelnuovo. Architecture student studying in Florence Italy runs across an art theft plot and Annette Funicello, not necessarily in that order. Will good prevail over evil? Will our hero get the girl? T...

I continue my off-and-on retrospective of and tribute to the late Tommy Kirk with . . . Bon Voyage! (1962). Directed by James Neilson. With Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman, Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Michael Callan, Jessie Royce Landis, Kevin Corcoran, Richard Wattis, James Millhollin. Family of Midwest...

Orpheus in der Unterwelt (East German TV movie of 1974). Music by Jacques Offenbach. Original operetta’s book and lyrics by Ludovic Halévy and Hector Crémieux. 84 minutes. Directed by Horst Bonnet. With Rolf Hoppe, Kurt Marschner, Wolfgang Greese, Dorit Gäbler, Mona Boxberger, Lisa Macheiner, Fred ...

[...] as is another great Criterion Eclipse DVD set: SILENT NARUSE with five films. David I took you up on this, and am delighted to report my great pleasure with all five of the films in the Silent Naruse set: Flunky, Work Hard No Blood Relation Apart From You Every-Night Dreams Street Without End...

Der Junge Törless (1966), which is to say Young Törless . Directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Cinematography by Franz Rath. With Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky, Bernd Tischer, Fred Dietz, Jean Launay, Barbara Steele. Pensive young man arrives at an Austrian military school in pre-World War I times,...

From https://www.baltimoresun.com/la-et-mn-gunter-grass-controversial-author-the-tin-drum-20150413-story.html , an article from the 4/13/2015 Baltimore Sun , including this from Grass about the film Die Blechtrommel vis-à-vis the novel: __________ In an interview published in 1991 in the Paris Revie...

I literally haven't seen The Tin Drum since it first came out in the wave of New German Cinema™ that actually introduced me to serious 'film,' but, that said, I feel like your review is probably a fair one. Still, it's been on the pile for quite some time and at some point I do intend to get to it ...

Die Blechtrommel , which is to say The Tin Drum (1979). Directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Based on the novel by Günter Grass. With David Bennent, Daniel Olbrychski, Angela Winkler, Maria Adorf, Charles Aznavour, Otto Sander. Boy decides to stop growing, arranges a fall down cellar stairs which indeed...

Tokyo Chorus (1931). Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. With Tokihiko Okada, Emiko Yagumo, Hideo Sugawara, Tatsuo Saitô, Takeshi Sakamoto. Likeable young Everyman figure stands up against a company injustice to a fellow worker, suffers the consequence and has to deal with it. Wonderful film which starts out...

Unkissed Bride (1966), alias Mother Goose à Go-Go . Directed by Jack H. Harris. With Tommy Kirk (as Tom Kirk), Danica d’Hondt, Jacques Bergerac, Robert Ball, Anne Helm, Joe Pyne. Bridegroom finds that he is unable to proceed past the kissing stage with the bride (never mind the film’s title; the br...