Calling All Cinemaniacs!: Day 9

Good afternoon Cinemaniacs!

Here's an awesome update on the campaign - we broke the $1,000 mark this morning! I cannot express either my deep gratitude or my amazement at the support that Calling All Cinemaniacs! has received.

Here's the part w...

Top Five Most Moving and Inspirational Movies

Sometimes we watch movies to simply be entertained. Other times we want to be terrified, challenged, intrigued. And there are movies that inspire. Filmmakers have long turned their lenses to situation where humans are required to be better than they ...

Check out this Funny Short from Brothers Tucker

One of the awesome contributors to Calling All Cinemaniacs!, Tony Tucker, is part of Brothers Tucker, a sibling duo intent on making you laugh. Tony doesn't just fund little film related projects, he also makes 'em!

Brothers Tucker just posted the...

Alfred Hitchcock Geek

This beauty of a film blog had me at Alfred Hitchcock. The geek is just a bonus. As you might have guessed from the title, Alfred Hitchcock Geek is all Hitchcock, all the time. And it is good.

From book reviews, news abou...

Review: Tokyo Drifter (1966)

You know when your Yakuza gang disbands because your boss is going straight? And then a rival gang leader tries to recruit you, but you're having none of it because you're so loyal to the old boss? And then that rival gang tries to kill you? And then...

Top 5 Movies Adapted from Novels

As an English student and self-professed cinemaniac, I have to say that there are some terrible film adaptations of fantastic books. Hopefully, this list will show you that yes, there are some fantastic adaptations out there that also maintained some...

Calling All Cinemaniacs! and the Go Go Factor

Calling All Cinemaniacs! Update

Thanks to:

Pam Fossen
Wade Sheeler
Silent Czarina, aka Shirley Hughes
William JR
Caren Feldman
Timothy McNeela
Spencer Lindenman
Steve & Debbie Dean
Tony Tucker
Becki Jolli
Morley Schul...

366 Weird Movies

366 Weird Movies has a mission which is explained in the site's tag line: Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, psychotronic, and the just plain WEIRD!

There's a subset of this mission, which is to compile THE...

Review: Prometheus (2012)

In 1979, Ridley Scott took science fiction to greater proportions with Alien, a terrifying cat and mouse chase between a blood thirsty alien and a desperately frightened crew trapped with the predator on their small enclosed ship in the middle...

Top 5 Movie Clocks

Rather I should say, Top 5 Movies with Clocks or Top 5 Movies That Are Clocks, or some such. Really, I'm talking about movies that are time pieces, where time and the passing of it counts for the characters, the plot, and the audience. If I was just ...

PCF Blog of the Day: Backlots

Every time a post from Backlots pops up in my rss feed, I feel a little tingle of excitement. That's because Lara, the doyenne of Backlots, is truly afflicted with a serious case of cinemania. And she brings that fervor for ...

Review: The Harder They Fall (1956)

The Harder They Fall (1956) was directed by Mark Robson, featuring Humphrey Bogart in his last film before his death in 1957. The film was based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg and remains a stinging indictment of pre-commissioned b...

Watch It: The Finishing Touch (1928)

The Finishing Touch is a 1928 short comedy silent film produced by Hal Roach, directed by Clyde Bruckman and starring Laurel and Hardy. It was shot in November and December 1927 and released February 25, 1928 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

...

Oubah O's Top 5 Most Influential Films

Continuing our ongoing "My Most Influential Films" series, Oubah O. gives us hers. You can see

Review: Pursued (1947)

Funny story. I made plans to see Raoul Walsh's 1947 psychological western Pursued with a friend a month in advance. For some reason, I wrote only Pursued! on the date box in question, leading to a one weird day where I wonde...

Psychic Critic: These Are the 2013 Oscar Winners

This just in: I woke up from a mad dream in a feverish sweat. A voice from the heavens crackled across my brain, and the voice named the Oscar winners to me. It's currently 1:35 PM PST and I want to see if this voice was an ethereal presence, an supe...

Watch It: The Hitchhiker (1953)

Now that you've got a few hours to kill 'til Oscar time, I present to you The Hitchhiker, a 1953 crime drama directed by none other than Miss Ida Lupino.

In the comments section of The Top 5 Film Noir Bad Guys, Grand Old ...

Calling All Cinemaniacs!: A Quick Update

Happy Oscar day my fellow cinemaniacs! No matter how I try, no matter how I resist, no matter how many times I tell myself it's all politics and Forest Gump will always win, I have never successfully resisted watching The Big Show. But boooo on the A...

Oscar Follies: The First Ten Years

The first decade of the Academy Awards was a bit of a wash. Throughout the 1930s, only a few films now considered as true classics actually claimed the golden statue for Best Picture (or Outstanding Production as it was known back the...

PCF Blog of the Day: Caftan Woman

The Caftan Woman ship is manned by one Patricia Nolan Hall, or Miss Patty as I like to call her. I have the great good fortune to have actually spent some time with Miss Patty and her amazing sister Maureen,...

Watch It: Kansas Silent Film Festival Saturday Programme

If you're like me, and I think you are, you're crying into your beer right now because you're not at the Kansas Silent Film Festival. Unless of course you're at the fest and reading this ...

J. Stuart Blackton, Early Animation Pioneer

James Stuart Blackton, a Brit, is often credited as the father of American animation. (Go figure. My people will claim anyone who does something good.) In 1900, Blackton produced The Enchanted Drawing, making it the  silent ...

Top 5 Film Noir Bad Guys

Film noir is famously murky when it comes to good versus evil. These are no westerns where the good guy wears a white hat and the bad guy wears a black hat. But is films noir, the good guy usually deeply flawed and the line between him and the bad gu...

Great Oscar Snubs Part 3: Top 10 Greatest Oscars Mistakes

Hello one more time, Dear Reader. You’ve made it to the final installment of Great Oscar Snubs. This is the one you’ve been waiting for (or at least my editor, Brandy Dean, has). These are the Top 10 Greatest Oscars Mistakes - acting and film winners...

Calling All Cinemaniacs!: What is Cinemania?

Good afternoon, my fellow Cinemaniacs! I'll be honest, day 2 of the "Calling All Cinemaniacs!" funding campaign was a little tougher than day 1. After the initial pop, the hard slog starts. However, thanks to new funders Spencer Lindenman and Steve &...

The PCF Blog of the Day: She Blogged By Night

Okay when you find a classic movie blog that takes it's name, tag line, and site header from the salacious 1953 crime drama Girls in the Night, you should drop whatever you're doing and go check it out. That's exactly what y...

Review: John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

American filmmakers have always had a particular fascination with Abraham Lincoln. From Griffith to Ford and Spielberg, many of America’s greatest directors feel inclined if not compelled to once again impart the legend of President L...

Watch It: The Iron Mask (1929)

The Iron Mask, starring Douglas Fairbanks, was released on February 21, 1929. It's the first talking role for Fairbanks and it's also one of those inter-period, half silent, half talkie movies. Typically, the movie has been ...

Top 5 Bond Girl Names

It's no secret by now that Pretty Clever Film Gal is  just a tad Oscar obsessed at the moment. Turns out, I'm not the only one. The Oscar's seem to have a little bit of Bond fever too. The rumors are swirling that all 7 Bonds - from Connery to Craig ...

Calling All Cinemaniacs!: Day 1 Recap

Good day everyone!

As day 2 of the "Calling All Cinemaniacs!" funding campaign dawns, I'm feeling pretty good. The first day of the campaign saw a total of 12% of the entire goal reached, and I think that's pretty damn good! I mean, I think that's...

The PCF Blog of the Day: Out of the Past

Out of the Past is a classic film lovers paradise. Run by Raquel, the entire site oozes with her love for classic film. (And check out her about page - she's got other blogs too!)

I personally share with Raquel a deep, um, passion fo...

For the Good of Russia:Rasputin and the Empress (1932)

This article was originally published on May 19, 2011. 

Here's the first thing I'll say about Rasputin and the Empress: this film is not factually accurate. There was a Russian Royal family known as the Romanovs,...

Great Oscar Snubs Part 2: 10 Best Films not Nominated for an Oscar

They always say, “It’s a thrill just being nominated.” But what about the great films that got no respect at all? Oscar’s history is littered with some of cinema’s finest that weren’t even invited to the party. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and it’s...

Calling All Cinemaniacs!

Hey all. Pretty Clever Film Gal has been feeling crazy lately, or maybe just crazed.

Here's why: when I started Pretty Clever Films waaaay back in May of 2011, as a cruddy little poorly designed wordpress.com blog, it was supposed to be a hobby. A...

The PCF Blog of the Day: Forget the Talkies

The tagline for the excellent movie blog Forget the Talkies is "cuz silents are sexier." I could not agree more. And this blog makes it clear that silent era is still fresh, vital, and entertaining today.

Forget the Talki...

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)

For this installment of Saturday morning cartoons, I'm reviving this 2012 post on Lotte Reiniger, a pioneer of early animation. I also mock those not lucky enough to attend the 2012 Toronto Silent Film Festival. Cause...

Top 5 Movies About US Presidents

Monday February 18 is President's Day in the United States. This is an amazing fake holiday that gets you a day off work and serious deals on furniture and cars. Seriously, why do furniture stores have President's Day blowouts? At any rate, President...

Film Noir Photos

Let's say you're going to visit a website called Film Noir Photos. What would you expect to find there? Photos - and lots of 'em? Well praise the lard and pass the biscuits, I've found an honest man on the interwebs!

...

The Scarlet Letter (1926)

Here are my top-five horrendously overrated and over hyped movies, and before you read on, just know that these are entirely based on my opinion. That doesn’t mean that I’m apologizing for any of my c...

Flappers Flickers and Silent Stanzas

When you find a movie blog named Flappers Flickers and Silent Stanzas, you know you've found something good. Indeed, Jennifer, the brain behind this beauty, has made something very good indeed and a must read for all you fla...

Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild is one of those films you just want to lock away for your own. It’s a kaleidoscope of vivid and complex images, of triumph and fortitude. I could hardly believe that this was director Benh Zeitlin’s first fil...

Watch It: The Heart of Texas Ryan (1917)

The Heart of Texas Ryan (1917) stars silent cowby hero Tom Mix as Jack Parker. Until he met Texas Ryan, the Eastern-bred daughter of rugged cattle king William Ryan, Jack Parker was just a straight-shooting, hard-riding cowb...

Watch It: Pandora's Box (1929)

Pandora's Box (German: Die Büchse der Pandora) is a 1929 German silent melodrama film based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904).  Directed by Austr...

Packaged Goods: Artful Animation at TIFF Bell Lightbox

The Packaged Goods series at TIFF Bell Lightbox is a showcase of shorts from the commercial sector which, according to the festival, “explores some of the most evocative, entertaining and enlightening animated ads, music videos and sh...

Watch It: Felix the Cat Toons

Forget the mouse, Felix the Cat wa...

10 Things About The Birth of a Nation

If you're going to love silent cinema or if you're going to make a study of the early development of movies, you're gonna have to butt heads with D.W. Griffith. And you're going to have to come to some kind of truce with The Birth of a Na...

Silent Toronto

If you're in Toronto and you're reading this site, you probably know all about Silent Sundays at the Revue Cinema. And if you know about Silent Sundays, you're probably familiar with Er...

Review: Rusty Knife (1958)

Rusty Knife (1958)

Rusty Knife was the first smash for director Toshio Masuda, who would go on to become one of Japanese cinema’s major hit makers. Top Nikkatsu stars Yujiro Ishihara and Akira Kob...

Top 5 James Bond Films

Autumn was very sophisticated in Toronto, what with TIFF's mega James Bond blow out. There was the Bond Exhibit, complete with a rotating bed on which a supine gold painted lady had died and a golden typewriter! Then there as the months long, multipl...

Grand Old Movies

Way back when PCF first launched on wordpress.com, Grand Old Movies was the first blog to notice and say hey. I can't express how much that warm welcome and e...

Review: Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Woman in the Dunes or Suna no onna (1964)

Hiroshi Teshigahara's art-house sensation Woman in the Dunes is about four things: food, wate...

10 Things About What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

What happens when two Hollywood divas age out of the star system and find themselves isolated in a decaying mansion with no support and no attention? What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is what happens. But am I talking about t...

Spellbound by Movies

Spellbound By Movies is the baby of one Beth Ann Gallagher, passionate movie lover and cat owner. While updates to this blog aren't as frequent or regular as o...

Who the hell is Elmo Lincoln?

This is a repost of last year's Elmo Lincoln birthday post. I know so much more about him, thanks especially to @tpjost. I now know exactly who the hell Elmo Li...

Five Must-See Films Directed by Women

Forget Katharine Bigelow and her little Oscar for The Hurt Locker. There's lot of ladies doing it for themselves in the film biz and they've made many awesome movies. Here's five of my favorite films directed by women.

What are yo...

San Francisco Silent Film Festival Blog

You've probably heard about a little event called the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, but did you know that aside from the lovely SFSFF website there's also a Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard H...

The Kitty Packard Pictorial

When you come across a film blog named after Jean Harlow's lonely and conceited Kitty Packard from Dinner at Eight, you know you're in for a real treat. The Kitty Packard Pictorial is the brainchild of one The Master. This image...

Watch It: Salome (1923)

Salome (1923), directed by Charles Bryant and starring Alla Nazimova, is the third film adaptation of  the Oscar Wilde play of the same name., after a short Salome (1910) and the Theda Bara version of Salome (1918, lost). The play itsel...

Pauvre Pierrot (1892)

You learn something new everyday, or at least I do. When I sat down to do some research on the early history of film animation, I made the perplexing discovery that the first instance of public film projection was not held by the Lumiere brothers in ...

10 Things About The General (1927)

So my Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra silent film calendar tells me today is the release date for The General. I get really excited about this - a great reason to talk about The General! The prob...

Classic Movies Digest

Classic Movies Digest is a rather plain and unpretentious movie site design wise. But as the subheader says, "Like classic movies? You're in the right place." This statement is profoundly true.

If you're looking for a steady stream of classic movi...