42nd Street ***** (1933, Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Una Merkel, Guy Kibbee, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers) – Classic Movie Review 3057

Director Lloyd Bacon’s 1933 movie virtually created, certainly established for all time the clichés of the backstage musical genre. Despite its great, venerable age, 42nd Street is still faster, funnier and brighter – and simply just […]

Sullivan’s Travels ***** (1941, Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Porter Hall, Eric Blore) – Classic Movie Review 2593

As World War Two rages, writer-director Preston Sturges calls Hollywood to task for its frivolity in his brilliant 1941 serio-comic road movie. Sturges’s movie is a classic satire, still funny, relevant and worthwhile. Joel McCrea […]

The Bad and the Beautiful ***** (1952, Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame, Gilbert Roland, Leo G. Carroll) – Classic Movie Review 2363

Day for Night [La nuit américaine] ***** (1973, Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, François Truffaut, Nathalie Baye) – Classic Movie Review 1403

His thirteenth film proves lucky number 13 for François Truffaut as his much-loved 1973 success Day for Night [La Nuit Américaine] represents a huge return to form for him. Co-writer/ director/ star Truffaut’s 1974 Best […]

Synecdoche, New York **** (2008, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dianne Wiest) – Classic Movie Review 799

Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a tour-de-force as Caden Cotard, a terminally ill theatre director who struggles with his work and his women. Offered a grant, he decides to turn his life into art, and to […]

Sunset Boulevard [Sunset Blvd.] ***** (1950, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Fred Clark, Nancy Olson, Jack Webb) – Classic Movie Review 159

‘All right, Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.’ Biting the hand that feeds him, Billy Wilder’s eerily dark, deliciously bitter and wryly humorous 1950 film noir classic Sunset Boulevard [Sunset Blvd.] is a […]

Ed Wood ***** (1994, Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray) – Classic Movie Review 98

‘Ed, this isn’t the real world. You’ve surrounded yourself with a bunch of weirdoes!’ – Ed Wood’s girlfriend Dolores Fuller. In this sensationally good 1994 film, Johnny Depp is at his most winning as the […]