Gary Dennis’ New York City Movie Place

There are reasons why people became movie stars and every one of them has at least one performance to prove it. Ginger Rogers proved it alright in 1940 with her performance as the title role in Kitty Foyle. This is also a her Oscar performance and ( I believe ) her first non musical […]

Was there any one else better to play Billy Buck, John Steinbeck’s trusted ranch hand, surrogate father figure to a ten year old boy and a smoldering fantasy man for the boy’s mother than Robert Mitchum? No, there was not, and still there is no one.
The longest and costliest movie shoot in the history […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

This was the fourth and final film pairing Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and it is great. Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) travels to a run-down hotel on Key Largo to visit the family of a friend who died bravely in his unit during WW II. His friend’s widow, Nora (Lauren Bacall) and wheelchair bound father, […]

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, […]

Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas) is missing something in life. He has a wife and family and a successful practice. It’s not until he becomes embroiled in an affair with beautiful Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), a neighbor with her own family, that he finds what he has been missing. She is in a […]