Chicago (2002) spoiled me.  It made me think that a new era of outstanding movie musicals was suddenly possible.  Well, it has now been a decade since Chicago arrived, and I’m still waiting for that new movie-musical heyday.  No one can say that moviemakers haven’t been trying.  There have even been a couple of uneven but [...]

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Though it’s never been in the top tier of Christmas movies, Holiday Affair, directed by Don Hartman, is what you might call a nice little movie.  It’s actually somewhat ambitious in its willingness to take a look at post-war America, addressing some of the issues facing veterans and war widows, even though it ultimately can’t avoid being rather [...]

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Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda turns 75 this December 21st.  Moviegoers (and beyond) have watched her transitions from Hollywood princess to sex symbol to political activist to First Lady of the Screen to exercise guru to corporate wife to author to Comeback Kid (of the senior variety).  She has reinvented herself more times than Joan Crawford or Madonna.  Now back in the acting game, [...]

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The first of director Jean Renoir’s five American films made in the 1940s, Swamp Water is, inevitably, quite a step down from his previous movie, the magnificent French classic The Rules of the Game (1939).  However, it is still very much worth a look.  The main problem with this Fox production is that it’s mired in [...]

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Among countless so-called “women’s pictures” of the 1930s—those soap operas about unwed mothers, back-street lovers, sacrificial mothers, and women who descend into prostitution—The Life of Vergie Winters, delicately directed by Alfred Santell, is one of the better examples of the genre and also among the lesser-known.  Its obscurity can be partially attributed to its forgotten [...]

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