Gary Dennis’ New York City Movie Place

Strategically realeased on Christmas Eve in 1949, it is one of those slightly better than B pictures that RKO produced so many of ; they only did 6 big pictures a year and this was not one of them. The story is familiar, two strangers meet and though it seems that they will never […]

This picture is what I will label a “gem”. It is one of the most touching stories about children ever put to screen. Produced on a what is politely called a modest budget. The picture, however, looks beautiful. This is due to the input photographer Ruth Orkin had with her co-director / producer / cinematographer […]

Turner Classic Movies is showing two Lucille Ball pictures back to back that are very much worth recording and keeping. The genesis of Lucy Ricardo is in both these pictures. Both pictures are perfect for the kids as well.
In Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), a bookie by the name of Dick Richmond (William Holden) uses […]

I know that this is a long post but I do not want to cut it. Back in the mid late 1980’s when I first began working at Movie Place,we had a customer who knew of my longtime obsession with Robert Mitchum. Nothing wrong with that. This customer had also been the […]

Both Humphrey Bogart and William Holden are too old for their roles. Mr. Bogart hated working with director Billy Wilder. No matter what, Humphrey Bogart quit work at 6:00 PM on the dot, because that was the time he started drinking his Scotch and sodas. If anyone tried to get him to work after […]

If there was ever a more “old Upper Westside” picture ever made, it would be news to me. The play and the movie are set on the upper westside. The characters live on the Upper Westside (131 Riverside Drive on 85th street I am so sure). The film makers chose to shoot […]

Paper Moon
Ah, the ’30s, simplier times. The depression was dragging on but the air waves were full of tunes like “Keep Your Sunny Side Up” or “Happy Days Are Here Again”. The contrast of the music to what is happening in this picture is stark. Desperation, poverty and bitterness, […]

The complaint was “no American soldier would ever get a woman pregnant”. This is what was said by the Hollywood office of the War Department during World War II. The picture was completed in 1943 but Paramount held the film from being released for almost a year. However, a woman does get pregnant by […]

Strategically realeased on Christmas Eve in 1949, it is one of those slightly better than B pictures that RKO produced so many of ; they only did 6 big pictures a year and this was not one of them. The story is familiar, two strangers meet and though it seems that they will never […]

This has got to be the fastest paced Billy Wilder picture ever. The story unfolds like a machine gun but in a good way. James Cagney stars as the head of Coca Cola in West Germany. He has eyes on the postion of Head of European Bottling. To please his boss back […]