Movies
A Strange Need For Speed: Bullet Train
Bullet Train is a 1975 Japanese disaster film written and directed by Jun’ya Satô and co-written by Ryûnosuke Ono. At 152 minutes, it’s a bit of a slog, which is strange for a film that’s […]
Month: February 2017
Movies
Jammin’ the Blues (and some other stuff)
by Nathanael Hood It wasn’t the first Hollywood film on jazz, but it was damn near the best. Cobbling together some of jazz’s leading luminaries in 1944, Life photographer Gjon Mili shot his first and […]
Movies
Miss Sadie Thompson: Rita Hayworth in 3D!
by Andy Ross There’s a lot of layers to peel away when talking about Columbia’s 1953 production of Miss Sadie Thompson. Based on the W. Somerset Maugham short story “Miss Thompson,” later changed to “Rain,” […]
Movies
The Killers X 2
“The door of Henry’s lunch-room opened and two men came in. They sat down at the counter.” So begins Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story “The Killers,” which begat two feature length films, an innumerable amount […]
Movies
The Gang’s All Here is a Technicolor Explosion
On the surface, 1943’s The Gang’s All Here released by 20th Century Fox, appears to be one of many World War Two era morale boosting escapist films. But this one is in the hands of […]
Movies
Down to The Last Detail
by Sean Barron We’ll start with describing The Last Detail in one sentence because apparently I suck at writing loglines and I intend to practice and make myself not suck at it: Two Navy Men who “got a […]
Movies
B-Roll: Lonely Are The Brave (Cowboys)
Usually when we refer to neo-Westerns, we mean movies that transplant the themes and iconography of the Western genre into modern day settings. Usually these themes—Manifest Destiny, the struggle between wilderness and civilization, man’s ability […]
Listicles
10 Great Movie Music Moments
by Wade Sheeler There are those moments in a good movie, very fleeting, when direction, plot and music all meld to deliver a message that is such a pure hybrid that no other medium could […]
Movies
Edward G. Robinson Double Feature: Unholy Partners and Blackmail
From a man trying to do right, to a man simply doing wrong, Edward G. Robinson has worn the black and white hats of numerous iconic characters spanning all eras. Playing mob bosses and family men, […]
Editor's Picks
Dame in the Game: Queen Bette
Film historian Maureen Lee Lenker is back at the Retro Set with a brand-new edition of her column, Dame in the Game: a much-needed, in-depth look at groundbreaking women in film. “I don’t want people to like me. Nothing […]