On the Road (review)
If you didn’t know that Jack Kerouac’s novel was a seminal influence on postwar America, you would never, ever guess it from this lifeless, soulless, pointless adaptation.
1940s
Easter Parade (retro trailer)
Where today there are cavalcades of explosions, pratfalls, and punchlines, once there were cavalcades of silly song-and-dance numbers.
retro ad: 1940s Camel cigarette ad — endorsed by doctors!
So wrong… and yet so hilarious.
In Darkness (review)
It’s The Diary of Anne Frank, only with sewers. Elegantly presented, chock full of moments of dreadful suspense in a horrible milieu, and buoyed by strikingly naturalistic performances…
retro ad: 1940s Swift cured-meat ad satirizes political speeches
It’s about bacon! It’s about politics! It’s all the same old shit, and it was in 1948, from whence this ad comes to us.
The Black Cat (1941) (retro trailer)
I’m guessing the poor black cat is getting a bad rap here…
G-Men (retro trailer)
We catch a glimpse of a cinema marquee showing this 1935 classic in the trailer for Clint Eastwood’s new FBI flick J. Edgar…
The Three Musketeers (1948) (retro trailer)
Unlike Paul W.S. Anderson’s sure-to-be opus, this one doesn’t have 3D. But there are some painted backgrounds that are fairly hilarious.
The Grapes of Wrath (retro trailer)
Wherever there’s a director goin’ over budget, Fox’ll be there. Wherever there’s a spoiled movie star renegotiatin’ a contract, Fox’ll be there.
Jane Eyre (1943) (retro trailer)
The bit of Bronte fever happening in the U.K. at the moment really isn’t anything new…
