This Quarter in Film History

Making Love and War

From Here to Eternity (1953) is a transitional film in the American motion picture industry. It is probably the first major Hollywood release to express anti-establishment themes and the new morality. […]

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John Ford’s ‘My Darling Clementine’

I am a war baby who grew up in Texas before leaving for a larger world that included living in Manhattan for 22 years and moving to Los Angeles to work as a story analyst. So, if what I have to say now reads old to anyone, well good — because old has a way of becoming new again, especially when old is as unforgettable as My Darling Clementine. […]

This Quarter in Film History

Sex Sells… a Century Ago

The early silent film Traffic in Souls (1913) remains just as timely as when it was released 100 years ago. The sex slave trade today operates with the same methodology as depicted in this exposé of forced prostitution based on the Rockefeller White Slavery Report of 1910. […]

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Sydney Pollack’s ‘The Way We Were’

The 1970s were years of change for me. I was pregnant with my first child and struggling with the decision to either give up a career that I had worked long and hard to achieve or subject my unborn child to a mother who could be gone more than not. […]

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Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’

When I was a child, I had childish dreams to be a superhero or a pro athlete. Alas, my only super power was secondary perception, the ability to say, after something had happened, “I knew that would happen.” It did not take me long to learn that the Justice League was not looking for a hero with such an annoying super trait. […]

This Quarter in Film History

Dancing with Myself

Cover Girl (1944) is a famous movie for two reasons — one intentional and the other accidental. The film’s legacy is of a time when women were celebrated for their glamour and sexuality. […]

This Quarter in Film History

Separating the Bums from the Contenders

Sixty years after its premiere in June 1954 in Japan, of all places (New York and Los Angeles followed in July), ‘On the Waterfront’ is still regarded as a seminal film because of its immense influence on acting. […]