Movies Watched in December 2015

I’ll be brief today, rushing to get this post in just under the wire. 2015 was a great year of movie watching and although I didn’t see as many films in December as I would’ve liked (I never do, it seems…), there were some good ones.

River of No Return (1954) Otto Preminger

River of No Return (1954)
Directed by Otto Preminger (and Jean Negulesco, uncredited)
Produced by Stanley Rubin
Screenplay by Frank Fenton from a story by Louis Lantz
Cinematography by Joseph LaShelle
Edited by Louis R. Loeffler
Music by Cyril J. Mockridge
20th Century Fox
(color; 1:31)

Last year I picked up The Robert Mitchum Film Collection from a Fox Connect Black Friday sale for the absolutely insane price of $3.98. That’s right, a 10-movie set that retails for $48.98. It must’ve been a mistake, but I jumped on it and was charged $3.98.

I’m just now getting around to watching them, starting with the first film in the collection, River of No Return (1954) directed by Otto Preminger, a film whose Frank Fenton screenplay is based on a short story by Louis Lantz, who based his story on the 1948 Italian neorealist classic film Bicycle Thieves. River of No Return is similar to the Vittorio De Sica film only in that a farmer named Matt Calder (Mitchum) struggles to care for his son after his horse has been stolen. Aside from that, there’s very little to connect the two films.

Christmas Loot

I just had to post my movie and comic-related Christmas loot. I also want to thank my family and friends for giving me such great gifts, and even more for understanding that books and movies are what I truly love, nerdy as that may seem. Thank you!

Merry Christmas to All!

Stealing an idea from Speakeasy… 🙂

Have a joyous, safe and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Movies and Traditions (Some of Them Possibly Weird)

 

I know lots of people have Christmas movie traditions and I’m no different. Mine, however, is pretty standard: I watch It’s a Wonderful Life every year, which I never tire of seeing. My young nieces will be visiting this afternoon and evening, so I’ll probably pop in A Charlie Brown Christmas and/or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, favorites with both of them (and me).

So I’d like to know if you have Christmas movie favorites and/or traditions. Even more, I’d like to know what odd, perhaps off-kilter holiday movie traditions you have that really have nothing onscreen to do with Christmas. Here’s mine:

Film Noir Releases in January 2016

I certainly hope everyone gets the film noir titles they want for Christmas, but there’s lots of great stuff coming out once the New Year gets underway. Here are a few January noir titles worth considering:

12 Classics in 2016

After reading Kristina’s post over at Speakeasy, I’m considering joining other bloggers in the Blind Spot Series 2016, a pledge to watch and blog about one classic film each month, 12 movies I have not previously seen. Participating would probably help structure my movie-watching, which is always a much-needed goal, so I’ll probably do it.

Now which films to pick?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) J.J. Abrams

I have very little – perhaps nothing – to say regarding any of the details of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What I do want to tell you is how I felt about it without giving away any part of the story. (Wish me luck…)

33 Years of Movies… More or Less

I have always loved to write things down. Before there were blogs, there were blank books and I filled up tons of them with journaling, diary entries, personal goals, song lyrics (not mine, thankfully; people who could actually write songs), and – of course – movie reviews.

Best of Movies 2015: Books on Movies

I didn’t read as many books on movies as I would’ve like this year, but I did run across a few that I read for the first time and some for the second. I hope you’ll find some good reading here: