The Saint Strikes Back is George Sanders’s first Saint film. It’s strong, even though John Farrow might not be the right director for it. The script’s great, playing to Sanders’s strengths of being the charming cad, but Farrow’s close-ups are poorly conceived and some of Frank Redman’s lighting is questionable. Jack Hively, who went on […]
Entries Tagged as 'RKO Radio Pictures'
The Saint’s Double Trouble (1940, Jack Hively)
March 12th, 2009 · No Comments
George Sanders can do no wrong in The Saint’s Double Trouble, so much so, he has the ability to smooth the film over. He’s such a joy to watch, the critical part of the brain shuts down. Eventually, as the film nears the conclusion, Sanders looses his control, letting judgments percolate to the surface. This […]
Tagged: Bela Lugosi· Ben Holmes· George Sanders· Jack Hively· Leslie Charteris· RKO Radio Pictures· ★★
The Saint in London (1939, John Paddy Carstairs)
January 20th, 2009 · No Comments
One of the unfortunate developments of television is the proliferation of hour-long mystery dramas. While these programs might be good, it means movies like The Saint in London don’t get made anymore. The film’s not episodic, with an abbreviated first act–George Sanders (playing the Saint for the first time) gets no introduction. But the first […]
Tagged: Frank Fenton· George Sanders· John Paddy Carstairs· Leslie Charteris· Lynn Root· RKO Radio Pictures· ★★★
The Son of Kong (1933, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
September 17th, 2008 · No Comments
King Kong opened in April 1933, The Son of Kong opened for Christmas 1933. The rush shows. The special effects really suffer–for whatever reason, when Robert Armstrong and Helen Mack are added to the little Kong’s shots, it’s fine, but when little Kong is added to Armstrong and Mack’s… it’s not. It’s like the focus […]
Tagged: Ernest B. Schoedsack· RKO Radio Pictures· Robert Armstrong· Ruth Rose· ★★
King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack)
September 5th, 2008 · No Comments
King Kong is a perfect film. I don’t think I’d realized before. It’s always hard to talk about films like Kong, influential standards of American cinema. I want to talk about how its structure still sets the tone for modern films–the gradual lead-in (it’s forty-some minutes before Kong shows up), the non-stop action of the […]
Tagged: Bruce Cabot· Edgar Wallace· Ernest B. Schoedsack· Fay Wray· James Ashmore Creelman· Merian C. Cooper· RKO Radio Pictures· Robert Armstrong· Ruth Rose· ★★★★
Youth Runs Wild (1944, Mark Robson)
September 2nd, 2008 · No Comments
It’s hard to know how Youth Runs Wild was supposed to turn out. RKO took it away from producer Val Lewton–the State Department was concerned the film would be detrimental to morale–but they were over his shoulder the entire time. The question is whether Youth Runs Wild was ever anything but silly propaganda. It’s a […]
Tagged: Ardel Wray· Herbert Kline· John Fante· Mark Robson· RKO Radio Pictures· Val Lewton· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
The Thing from Another World (1951, Christian Nyby)
August 27th, 2008 · 2 Comments
The Thing from Another World is a singular motion picture. It’s a combination of Howard Hawks’s fast-paced, overlapping dialogue and 1950s science fiction. It might even be the first of the 1950s sci-fi genre, the one setting the standard. There is a lot of supposition about the director’s chair–it is hard to believe television director […]
Tagged: Charles Lederer· Christian Nyby· Howard Hawks· John W. Campbell Jr.· RKO Radio Pictures· ★★★
