This Quarter in Film History

Napoléon vu par Abel Gance has had as many comebacks as the conqueror it portrayed, yet has always remained Waterloo-proof.

High Noon has often been interpreted as an anti-McCarthy era story of mass cowardice when confronted by evil. It is a moot point now because the story has multiple meanings as a personal epiphany.

‘The Manchurian Candidate’ reveals how the two sides of extremism can destroy centrist politics.

Body and Soul has remained one of the least dated, most influential films since its release 60 years ago.

Though not well known, Edwin S. Porter should be regarded as the father of film editing because the basic principles of the craft did not exist before he directed and edited ‘The Life of an American Fireman’.

Though Leni Riefenstahl always denied she was a Nazi propagandist. Two recent biographies have unearthed damning evidence that she was a narcissist Nazi diva who legitimized the Nazi ideals of force and physical beauty through the power of her images.

The John Ford film proved just as inspirational, and true to the “This Land Is Your Land” philosophy of Guthrie.  It is still considered one of the great works of art in international cinema.

Since its premiere 60 years ago in September 1948, ‘The Red Shoes’ has been a part of our lives and is the ‘Gone with the Wind’ of dance films.

 ‘Dr. T’ reveals––as few others of its era did––the dysfunctional cracks in the post-war little box subdivisions that exploded in the 1960s

A fluffy musical with an innocuous title, Gold Diggers of 1933, contains a mother lode of social comment from characters who are thinly disguised call girls.