The Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn Blogathon: Woman of the Year (1942)

Woman of the Year is a romantic comedy directed by George Stevens, featuring the first on-screen pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. They star as Tess Harding and Sam Craig, rival reporters at the New York Chronicle, who fall and love and rush into marriage despite the marked differences in their lifestyles. This post is part of the […]

BFI Cary Grant Season: Part One

Throughout August and September the BFI has been hosting a season called Cary Grant: Britain’s Greatest Export. This means that I’ve been spending even more time there than usual, and I’ve watched a lot of his movies over the past few weeks (with even more to come over the next few!). The season is divided into two parts, […]

The Costume Drama Blogathon: Queen Christina (1933)

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, Queen Christina is a pre-code historical biopic which stars Greta Garbo as the eponymous monarch, who struggles to balance the wishes of her subjects and advisors with her own desires. John Gilbert plays Antonio, a handsome Spanish envoy who becomes the queen’s great love. This post is part of The Costume Drama Blogathon hosted by Moon in Gemini The film’s story […]

The Van Johnson Blogathon: In The Good Old Summertime (1949)

Directed by Robert Z. Leonard (with un-credited assistance from Buster Keaton), In The Good Old Summertime is a Technicolour musical reworking of Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around The Corner (1940), starring Judy Garland as Veronica Fisher, and Van Johnson as Andrew Larkin, the shop workers who do not realise they are each other’s anonymous pen pal. This post is part of the Van Johnson Blogathon hosted by Love Letters […]

The Fifth Annual Barrymore Blogathon: A Bill of Divorcement (1932)

A Bill of Divorcement is a pre-code drama following a day in the life of a dysfunctional English family at Christmastime, starring Katharine Hepburn in her big-screen debut as Sydney Fairfield, Billie Burke as her mother Meg, and John Barrymore as her father Hilary, who escapes the mental hospital he has spent twenty years in due to shell shock. This post is […]

The Noirathon: Barbara Stanwyck in the 1940s

Barbara Stanwyck was not only one of classic Hollywood’s most prolific actresses, but also one of its most versatile. Throughout the 1940s and 50s she starred in a number of noir pictures and, despite the heavy conventions of the genre, turned in remarkably different performances in each. In this post I’ll be looking at three […]

The Joan Bennett Blogathon: Arizona To Broadway (1933)

Directed by James Tinling, Arizona To Broadway is a pre-code romantic crime drama starring James Dunn as prolific conman Smiley Wells, and Joan Bennett as Lynn Martin, who becomes embroiled in his schemes. This post is part of the Joan Bennett Blogathon hosted by In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood The film begins in Larrup, “the biggest little city in Arizona”, where Lynn […]

Book Post: Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir

Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir is a fascinating and moving memoir of the actress and screenwriter by their daughter, Victoria Riskin. Alongside the insights into their personal and professional lives is an intriguing glimpse into the world of classic Hollywood, a place made tumultuous by war and political uncertainty. I confess that before […]

Olivia de Havilland Blogathon: It’s Love I’m After (1937)

It’s Love I’m After is a screwball comedy directed by Archie Mayo, starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis as Basil Underwood and Joyce Arden, the constantly bickering Shakespearean actors with a highly dysfunctional relationship who are starring in Romeo and Juliet, and Olivia de Havilland as Marcia West, a debutante who becomes infatuated with Basil after seeing him perform. This post is part […]

The Daphne du Maurier Blogathon: Rebecca (1940)

Rebecca, the classic thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding and mysterious Maxim de Winter, and Joan Fontaine as his second wife, haunted and tormented by the lingering presence of the first Mrs de Winter, who seems to haunt every inch of the grand Manderley Hall which the de Winters call home. This post is part […]