Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 659 )

• Christmas in Connecticut

  

  Christmas movies don't come much cozier than Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Endearingly sweet, it spins a silly storyline into an enjoyable Hollywood... Read more

  Posted on 04 December 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Spider's Stratagem

  

  "Wine is like a man: it can have flaws and still be pleasing."Bernardo Bertolucci made The Spider's Stratagem (1970) just after completing The Conformist, thoug... Read more

  Posted on 03 December 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Zabriskie Point

  

  What happens when Italy's most pretentious director makes a movie about American counterculture? Try Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), whose... Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Big Sky

  

  Few critics rank The Big Sky (1952) among Howard Hawks' best movies. One of that director's most expansive films, it places that director's preoccupations withi... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Paper Chase

  

  "Speak louder, Mr. Hart! Fill the room with your intelligence!"Imagine trying to sell The Paper Chase (1973) to any studio, then or now: two hours of harried... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

  

  Richard Fleischer directed several worthwhile true crime dramas (The Boston Strangler, 10 Rillington Place) but The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) isn't on... Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Soylent Green

  

  The Seventies inspired a glut of dystopian science fiction, most of it overwrought and forgettable. Soylent Green (1973) ranks among the better ones, memorable... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: Henry Clay Keeps America in Suspense, 1824

  

  "I would rather be right than be president!" Henry Clay (1777-1852) thundered near the end of his life. The record suggests otherwise. Read more

  Posted on 23 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Rebel Without a Cause

  

  "You can wake up now, the universe has ended." More than any other work, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) cemented our image of cinematic teenagers: confused but... Read more

  Posted on 22 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Lady Eve

  

  "Let us be crooked, but never common!"Preston Sturges's The Lady Eve (1941) plays beautifully with screwball comedy tropes. At first glance a typically... Read more

  Posted on 20 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

  

  (1932) is a bleak, uncompromising treatment of systemic injustice. Mervyn LeRoy boldly exposes the prison system's cruelty, daring to posit that such aren't... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Woman of the Year

  

  Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn remained a Hollywood power couple onscreen and off for a quarter century. Their union began with Woman of the Year (1942),... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Narrow Margin

  

  One of Richard Fleischer's best movies, The Narrow Margin (1952) is a top notch thriller. Resembling Anthony Mann's The Tall Target (1951), it's a crisp, tense... Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• D.o.a. (1950)

  

  Rudolph Mate's D.O.A. (1950) offers an innovative film noir. Oft-imitated, its well-conceived race-against-time plot gives a boost to shaky storytelling. Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Wild in the Streets

  

  (1968) is the sort of odd cultural artifact that could only have come from, and doesn't really work, outside of its time. Barry Shear's bizarre... Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Brass Target

  

  Produced at the tail end of the '70s conspiracy craze, Brass Target (1978) is a muddled thriller with its share of grace notes. Lavish production values and a... Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: Richard Nixon's Deplorables

  

  From the start, Watergate married tragedy to farce. There was the "third-rate burglary" itself, botched by a team of inane adventurers too dumb to cover their... Read more

  Posted on 05 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

  

  (1946) is a delectable noir melodrama. Adapted from Jack Patrick's story Love Lies Bleeding, it perfectly renders an improbable intersection of tawdry lives... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Storm Warning

  

  Made in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, Storm Warning (1951) is your typical cockeyed message picture. Stuart Heisler tries a shocking expose of th... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Black Sabbath

  

  Mario Bava delivers a classy anthology with Black Sabbath (1963). Appropriately, it bridges his earlier period horror films and modern-day slashers in an... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES