Gary Dennis’ New York City Movie Place

This is a tough, nothing held back, indictment of capital punishment. It makes Dead Man Walking look like Wlly Wonka. The picture takes a stand and shows us an innocent woman, a mother yet, railroaded into the gas chamber at San Quentin. There is never any doubt in our mind that Barbara Graham […]

This was a picture that was very close to Burt Lancaster’s heart. As a kid growing up in East Harlem, Mr. Lancaster became far beyond proficient on the parallel bars, the rings and other sorts of gymnastic equipment. He was so good in fact that he did runaway and join the circus along with neighborhood […]

If there was ever a movie made about three returning soldiers that comes close to Best Years Of Our Lives, this picture comes close. Released in 1946 before Best Years Of Our Lives, the picture follows three soldiers coming home after serving in World War Two and the difficulties they face readjusting […]

This is THE text book film noir. It is the standard by which all others were made and measured up to. I know that this is a bold statement and borderline crazy but all “film noirs” leading up to this picture are funneled into this picture. The femme fatal in the extreme […]

During the war, World War two that is, Dick Powell shed his Busby Berkley young male lead sheen and got butch and manly. The transformation seemed to happen overnight. Playing Philip Marlow certainly helped create his new image. No more shuffling off to Buffalo.
This is an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Farewell […]

Sweet Smell Of Success One of the greatest movies ever made. I have personally seen it over 400 hundred times. Clifford Odetts wrote some of the greatest dialogue ever. An extremely harsh, biting look at the world of journalism that existed once upon a time. Columnists had incredible power and their […]

I love this movie. I watched it constantly in the store. Actually this is one of my favorite movies with “Place” in the title. It is up there with Summer Place, Place in the Sun and In A Lonely Place. It is incredibly tawdry. In fact it falls into the catergorey “dictionary tawdry”.
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The under […]

This is a remake of an earlier picture that starred Claudette Colbert but now it gets the Douglas Sirk treatment. Coney Island, 1947, war widow and actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) meets up with a homeless African American single mother Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore). Both woman have daughters close to the same age and both […]

This is the best way to honor a legend, watch some of his best work. This the way I want to remember Paul Newman. Absolutely.
This was another constantly viewed picture at the store. It had 4 important elements; great acting, great script, great boxing scenes and great location shooting in the New […]

“The only interesting thing this guy did was die in a plane crash” was supposedly said by a producer assigned to do the bio pic of the bandleader Glenn Miller. As most of us know, Mr. Miller got on a small plane in England in 1944 and flew off to Paris in an intense […]