Robert Siodmak is a name you never hear in film history, but his short American career includes some amazing work. He dabbled in the film industry in Germany, fleeing Nazism to Paris and then fleeing Nazism again to California. After directing “Son of Dracula”, Siodmak found his niche in the…
Want a Hitchcock film that spells out what makes for a typical Hitchcock film? It’s “The 39 Steps.” It’s got the innocent man wrongly accused and a MacGuffin, an irrelevant plot device around which all the action is centered. Hitchcock spends a lot of time introducing us to Mr. Memory,…
The early 1990s were a good time to do husband and wife thrillers, and “Malice” is just about the best. Coming of his hit play-turned-movie “A Few Good Men”, Aaron Sorkin pens this story of intrigue, after which he veered off into politics with “The American President”, “The West Wing”…
“Dirty Harry” was one of those movies that was almost never made. Actors turned down the part. Studios turned down the script. It morphed from a story about a New York cop chasing a serial killer who is eventually shot by Marines, not by Dirty Harry. Then it was moved…
The original Jaws is generally recognized as an amazing film that basically created the summer blockbuster movie model. Summertime was not traditionally the time for audiences to stay indoors to watch movies, and Jaws changed that. The Jaws sequels don’t have any positive reputation at all. Jaws 3 was in…