Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 667 )

• The Sting

  

  "Not only are you a cheat, you're a gutless cheat as well!"George Roy Hill scored a runaway hit pairing Paul Newman and Robert Redford with Butch Cassidy and... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

  

  "Don't let the bastards grind you down!"An early entry in the British "kitchen sink" genre, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) shot Albert Finney to... Read more

  Posted on 26 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Hireling

  

  (1973) tells a familiar story with unusual edge, with Robert Shaw and Sarah Miles providing remarkable performances. Both class and fractured personalities... Read more

  Posted on 25 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Free State of Jones

  

  (2015) is everything you'd expect from a Civil War film by the director of The Hunger Games. Gary Ross's epic is well-made but underwhelming, trading depth and... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Figures in a Landscape

  

  "I'd like to kick my bloody head right up into his Perspex!”Joseph Losey never shied from experimentation, however alienating or misguided. Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• A Town Called Hell

  

  (1971) is a dismal Euro Western. An Anglo-Spanish coproduction, it mixes the silliness of the worst Spaghettis with monumentally miscast stars. Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Custer of the West

  

  Hollywood's made many films about George Armstrong Custer and the Little Big Horn, some good, most forgettable. Custer of the West (1967) is a cheapjack epic,... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Luck of Ginger Coffey

  

  Long before The Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kershner cut his teeth directing The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964). This downbeat Canadian drama covers familiar... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Birthday Party

  

  "You're a bit depressed for a man on his birthday!"William Friedkin's The Birthday Party (1968) adapts Harold Pinter's absurdist play into a challenging film. Read more

  Posted on 18 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Tap Roots

  

  "Don't lose your freedom. Rally to Lebanon!"George Marshall's Tap Roots (1948) draws inspiration from the same incident informing The Free State of Jones. Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Kremlin Letter

  

  Spy films don't come much drearier than The Kremlin Letter (1970). John Huston's convoluted thriller struggles to engage viewers despite international... Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Tennessee Johnson

  

  "Is it a crime to forgive? My enemies think so!"To modern eyes, Andrew Johnson seems a poor candidate for a laudatory biopic. William Dieterle's Tennessee... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Alexander Hamilton

  

  (1931) is a competent biopic of the Founding Father which tries balancing his political achievements with personal scandal. George Arliss does his best work... Read more

  Posted on 13 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Ace in the Hole

  

  "I don't make things happen; all I do is write about them!"Few embraced Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) upon release. Bosley Crowther led the critical... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Guest Post: Deadpool

  

  I received an offer from Cassie to write a guest post. She is a blogger for Culture Coverage and Secure Thoughts, writing about pop culture and Internet... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Double Indemnity

  

  "Murder is never perfect. It always comes apart sooner or later."Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944) isn't the first film noir, but it's probably the most... Read more

  Posted on 07 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Faust (1960)

  

  Peter Gorski's Faust (1960) records Gustaf Grundgens' legendary performance as Mephistopheles, considered the definitive portrayal of Goethe's charming demon. Read more

  Posted on 06 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Nazi Brit Bashing: My Life for Ireland and Titanic (1943)

  

  SourceDuring World War II, Germans needed little persuasion to hate France, their perennial enemy, or the Soviet Union. But England was a different matter:... Read more

  Posted on 05 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Quare Fellow

  

  "We never hang a man unless he's in the best of health!"Brendan Behan's satiric The Quare Fellow was a success on the Irish stage, a bitter jailhouse comedy... Read more

  Posted on 03 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Pt 109

  

  One would expect PT 109 (1963), an authorized biopic of John F. Kennedy's WWII exploits, to be an overblown vanity project. One would be right. Leslie H. Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2016 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES