★★★★☆ On a dark and stormy night, self-conscious genre tropes abound in James Whale’s riotously fun 1932 gothic chiller The Old Dark House. Five people find themselves stuck overnight in a creepy old mansion, tenanted by a bizarre brother and sister, their decrepit father and a monstrous butler played by Continue Reading
★★★★★ Based on the Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925 and adapted from Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee’s play of the same name, Stanley Kramer’s 1960 film is a searing indictment of religious fundamentalism and anti-intellectualism. Inherit the Wind’s relevance continues beyond its immediate parallels with McCarthyism. Opening with an Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ While a Yankee army train stops to restock its water supply, John Deakin (Charles Bronson) is caught cheating at cards at a nearby saloon. No sooner than he’s arrested and packed on to the train along with a state governor, his daughter and a Marshal, passengers start meeting their Continue Reading