Taika Waititi is absolutely wrong about nobody remembering Casablanca filmmaker Michael Curtiz some 80 years after the film was released. The comments came during a cover story interview with The Hollywood Reporter. It’s enough to make someone’s eyes roll. If people do not know the name of Michael Curtiz, it is only because of sheer ignorance. Maybe they didn’t read Alan K. Rode’s superb biography, Michael Curtiz: A Life In Film. Pick it up and…
"Taika Waititi Is Wrong About Michael Curtiz and Casablanca"Tag: Michael Curtiz
While initially greenlit as a war preparedness film, the United States was already at war when Captains of the Clouds was released in 1942. Captains of the Clouds made history during its initial production in 1941. It would mark the first time that a Hollywood film would be produced in its entirety in Canada. Warner Bros. was all about greenlighting any films that would help prepare the US for war. This time around, the studio…
"Captains of the Clouds: A Patriotic Canadian Film"
Dodge City was one of the highest grossing films of 1939 and the fifth of eight feature films to team up Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. There is the Western genre before Stagecoach and then there is everything that came afterwards. Prior to Stagecoach, the genre was seen as a B movie. In addition to Stagecoach and Dodge City, other big Westerns of 1939 included Union Pacific and Jesse James. When studios realized what…
"Dodge City: Errol Flynn Goes West"
Sons of Liberty is an Oscar-winning short film that tells the story of Haym Salomon, the Jewish financier of the American Revolution. It’s not often that Jewish synagogues were depicted on screen during Hollywood’s early years. The founding moguls didn’t push across their religion on screen. Even in The Life of Emile Zola, a film in which antisemitism plays a strong role, they didn’t even say Jew or Jewish at any point in the film.…
"Sons of Liberty: An Oscar-Winning Short Film"
In watching Santa Fe Trail, one starts wondering if this Western was the consolation prize for Warner Bros. after losing Gone with the Wind. In the first moments after pressing play, my first question was just what the hell was Warner Bros. thinking? It’s not just the studio. Michael Curtiz is a filmmaker that is better than this pro-Confederate propaganda. Leave it to him to read into the history of the Santa Fe trail but…
"Santa Fe Trail: What Was Warner Bros. Thinking?"
The Sea Hawk reunites director Michael Curtiz and swashbuckling star Errol Flynn, resulting in one of their best collaborations together. This film might be a period adventure film but it was an allegorical film about Hitler and the need to fight back during WWII. King Philip II of Spain basically stands in for Hitler in the 1940 swashbuckler. While the film takes place in the late 1500s, one can definitely see how they use the…
"The Sea Hawk is One of Errol Flynn’s Best Performances"
Errol Flynn was only a small contract player for Warner Bros. going into Captain Blood but the swashbuckler propelled him to stardom. The film takes us to England 1685 where Irish doctor Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is just performing his duties as a doctor. Next thing you know, he is being arrested for treason against King James II (Vernon Steele). But rather than follow through with the death sentence from Judge Jeffreys (Leonard Muddie), the…
"Captain Blood Made Errol Flynn A Star"
Michael Curtiz’s Oscar-winning Mildred Pierce is now available for audiences to bring home on 4K Ultra HD with many bonus features. The film came to the screen a few years after James Cain’s novel was published. It doesn’t follow the novel as faithfully as the miniseries. After a divorce during the Depression, Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) is now the successful owner of a restaurant chain. But all is not well at home as we eventually…
"Mildred Pierce Gets Criterion 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray"
Casablanca, the greatest film ever made, finally makes its arrival on 4K Ultra HD in honor of the film’s 80th anniversary in November. The 4K UHD upgrade is thanks to a 2022 4K 16bit film scan of the best-surviving nitrate film elements. Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging meticulously handles the restoration and remastering process. Let me tell you right now that this film is certainly as beautiful as it has ever been. The film’s bonus…
"Casablanca: The Greatest Film Ever Made on 4K Ultra HD"
The Oscar-winning Yankee Doodle Dandy is a musical that celebrates the life of “The Man Who Owned Broadway,” George M. Cohan. While this is a fine musical, it’s a stretch to call it a musical biopic. There are a number of dramatic liberties taken in the stretch. For one, Cohan had two wives but this film make it appear that he just had the one love interest. Two, his father preceded his mother in death.…
"Yankee Doodle Dandy Celebrates George M. Cohan"