Love Letters to Old Hollywood

It's finally arrived! The second part of the Fourth Golden Boy Blogathon is here, and I'm very happy to be your host for the day. Participants, please comment below with your entry and I'll get it posted as soon as I can. Day 1 was hosted by The Flapper Dame's wonderful Emily, and Day 3 will be hosted by the lovely lady who started this all, The Wonderful World of Cinema's very own Virginie . Let's get to it! Realweegiemidget Reviews | SOB (1981) The Midnite Drive-In | The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1951) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) The Flapper Dame | personal tribute to Holden

Rachel and the Stranger is a film that took me by surprise. I'm not inclined towards movies that take place in America's pioneer days (which is why I'm not always motivated to watch westerns), and the premise of a man buying an indentured servant to be his wife sounded, well, icky. But when I heard that it starred William Holden, Loretta Young, and Robert Mitchum, I was all in. Luckily, the film proved to be much more complex and delicate than I expected. A note about my screenshots before we continue: this film hasn't been released on DVD but I have it recorded on my DVR, so in order to get some of my images, I took pictures of my TV screen, hence the not-so-great quality. Sorry about that. The film starts with a singing man coming closer to the camera from a distance. As he gets nearer, it turns out that it's Robert Mitchum, or rather his character Jim. He approaches a small, sad-looking cabin and an equally small and sad-looking little boy named L...

For a few years now, I've been dying to see Marked Woman , a 1937 drama about a vicious gangster and the women who took him down. The premise, inspired by the real-life 1936 trial of Lucky Luciano, sounded irresistible, and the idea of Humphrey Bogart playing the good-guy prosecutor seemed fun. But if I'm being completely honest, the main reason why I wanted to see this film was this woman: I'm crazy about Bette Davis, and every time I spotted an image of her from Marked Woman , it made me stop in my tracks. It's a superficial thing, I know, but I just couldn't get over how gorgeous Bette looked in this. That hair! Those Orry-Kelly gowns! And then I watched the film. Guys, I gotta tell you: I am obsessed with Bette in this film. Prostitute -- excuse me, "nightclub hostess" -- Mary Dwight is fierce. From the second we see her, we know she is someone not to be messed with. Lighting her cigarette and looking at her new boss, gangster Johnny Van...