I had the chance to catch a movie I had not seen with Joan Crawford, “The Damned Don’t Cry” (1950) The movie done right after she did “Mildred Pierce,” is pretty much similar, only this time Mildred is a little tougher, or as I put it, on steroids. Joan plays Ethel Whitehead, a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage, and in a poverty stricken state of mind. Although she is unhappy, she sticks it out for the sake...

I’ve often thought of the feuding sisters, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. They are now in their 90′s, and still do not speak to each other! So what happened? You’d think that after decades of ill feelings, they would have reconciled. But unfortunately in this instance, that is not the case. Back in the day this was news. Nowadays you don’t hear about it much, but most classic movie fans know of the...

328 Chauncey Street, in Brooklyn NY is what I remember most about Jackie Gleason’s character, Ralph Kramden in “The Honeymooners.” You see, that building and street does exist in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NY, where Jackie grew up and where I was born. I didn’t live in the same building, but born and lived for a few years in the Bushwick area. So I’ve always felt an affinity with Ralph because of this. I...

Just watched an obscure, but very good movie, “The Goddess,” (1958). TCM featured some films which used the “method” acting this month, and this is one of them. What on earth is method acting? Basically this type of acting uses techniques such as sense and memory to achieve realism. Actors who use the method rely on using their own emotions from their past in order to bring raw emotion to a part. In other words, they...

Lately I’ve been thinking of stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood who are still with us. Believe it or not, there are quite a few. I don’t like thinking of them leaving us one day soon. To think of them still around, makes me feel grounded and rooted in the old values and principles of their generation. It gives me a sense of order. So as they pass, in my mind, so do the values, principles, and order. I want to devote a few...

I’ve met many a fem fatales in film noir, but I think I met the absolute worst one on record. The film noir is titled,  “Too Late for Tears,” (1949). Lizabeth Scott and Arthur Kennedy play Jane and Alan Palmer a middle class couple who don’t make much money, just enough money to “get by.” As Jane put it, they are not exactly “poor,” but they are, “white collar poor.” The movie starts with the couple...