Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 667 )

• Gilda

  

  "Hate is the only thing that has ever warmed me."Gilda (1946) gave Rita Hayworth her signature role. From her introductory hair flip to her iconic musical... Read more

  Posted on 01 August 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Support Your Local Sheriff!

  

  Burt Kennedy graduated from Budd Boetticher's favorite screenwriter to directing broad Western comedies. Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) is representative,... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Big Heat

  

  "You can't set yourself against the world and get away with it."Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) might be that auteur's best Hollywood film. Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Blue Angel (1959)

  

  Edward Dmytryk's The Blue Angel (1959) is a typically worthless remake. Josef Von Sternberg's 1930 original is a hoary melodrama bolstered by good direction... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Blackboard Jungle

  

  "Kids are people, and people are worthwhile."Richard Brooks' Blackboard Jungle (1955) tackled the hot issue of juvenile delinquency. Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Sheepman

  

  (1958) offers Glenn Ford an unusual vehicle. George Marshall allows Ford a self-parodying turn in this seriocomic Western.Jason Sweet (Glenn Ford) arrives in a... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Cowboy (1958)

  

  "A man has to have something besides a gun and a saddle." Few list Delmer Daves among the great Western directors, but he spent the '50s making interesting,... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Nevada Smith

  

  Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers inspired a monstrously successful film, which in turn inspired a Western prequel. Nevada Smith (1966) boasts veteran director... Read more

  Posted on 22 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Fail Safe

  

  "You make death an entertainment...that can be played in a living room."Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe (1964) suffered from awful timing. Released the same year as... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Spaghettis Galore! The Five Man Army/Red Sun

  

  TCM treated us to a fusillade of Spaghetti Westerns yesterday. It's always fun to visit that wonderfully eccentric subgenre, which offers unique pleasures even... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Medium Cool

  

  "All good people deplore things at a distance."Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969) is a unique cinematic happening. Wexler found his fictional drama colliding... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Another Nice Mess

  

  The President of Amnesia and his loyal hyenaTelevision lore holds that Richard Nixon hated The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour so much that he pressured CBS to... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Cimarron (1960)

  

  serves as a bridge between Anthony Mann's '50s "adult Westerns" and his historical epics. A remake of the 1931 Best Picture winner, it's an ambitious but... Read more

  Posted on 16 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Law and Jake Wade

  

  "Now that I'm holding the gun, you're willing to give me my honor back!"One of John Sturges's less-heralded Westerns, The Law and Jake Wade (1958) offers an... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Final Days

  

  Even the best Richard Nixon movies suffer from one handicap: it's impossible to find someone, however talented an actor, who convincingly resembles our 37th... Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• A Foreign Affair

  

  "Take my lovely illusions, some for laughs, some for tears."Billy Wilder interrupted his stream of postwar dramas with A Foreign Affair (1948). Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Deadly Companions

  

  Sam Peckinpah graduated from television to features with The Deadly Companions (1961). Straightjacketed by domineering star Maureen O'Hara, he struggles to... Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Bad Day at Black Rock

  

  One of John Sturges's best films, Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) cross pollinates several storylines. A Western noir with a socially conscious twist, it scores... Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• A Clockwork Orange

  

  Many Stanley Kubrick films exist more as cerebral exercises than entertainment. Thus A Clockwork Orange (1971), which inundates viewers with ugliness posing as... Read more

  Posted on 05 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• RIP To Several

  I've shied away from celebrity obituaries lately, partly because there's been so many this year, partly because I'd rather this be a fun, if occasionally grouch... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES