Going My Way won Best Picture in 1944 and made Bing Crosby one of the biggest box-office draws of the decade. I mean no offence to Mr. Crosby, the Catholic church, or the writers of Going My Way, but this was one extremely boring movie. I was interested in the story at the beginning when … More Going My Way (1944)
I’ve been to a total of eight Broadway shows in my lifetime, which includes The Phantom of the Opera, twice. When I tracked down the 1936 Best Picture winner, The Great Ziegfeld little did I know I would have a glimpse into Broadway history. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell) was a brilliant mind, a man … More The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
It has been 62 years since Ben-Hur graced the silver screen and went on to win an astonishing 11 Oscars, a new record for the time. This epic masterpiece was joined by West Side Story just two years later in the 11 win circle, and together the pair ruled the cinema universe until 1997 when … More Ben-Hur (1959)
According to IMDb, Cimarron is the second lowest-rated Best Picture of all-time, collecting just a 5.9 rating with 5,486 votes. To be quite honest, these people were pretty generous since this has to be one of the worse winners ever. Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is definitely one of the worse main characters I’ve ever seen … More Cimarron (1931)
For most of my life, I only knew James Stewart for one role: George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. I learnt that he had many other iconic parts in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Vertigo, yet it amazed me to see how many Best Pictures he was cast in over the years. James … More You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
If I had to estimate the number of movies I have seen in my life, I would say over 2,000. Hundreds of them made me cry, broke my heart, got me upset, bored me to death, and made me look away because I can’t stand certain levels of gore. When I started this Best Picture … More The Lost Weekend (1945)
When it came time to sit down and watch The Greatest Show on Earth, I was curious about what was in store for me. This 1952 Best Picture winner featured Charlton Heston and James Stewart, two brilliant actors whose work I am very familiar with. Behind the lens was Cecil B. Demille, whose Ten Commandments … More The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
When I sat down to write my review of How Green Was My Valley, I felt guilty. Maybe I wasn’t quite in the mood for this film, or maybe I just didn’t care enough about what I was watching. Even though the subject material is the type of stuff to melt even the coldest hearts, … More How Green Was My Valley (1941)
When I was growing up, I loved to study history. I did focus most of my efforts on sports and United States Presidents; however, I did manage to explore other areas of history. Lost among the millions, maybe billions of stories out there of years gone by, is the story of Emile Zola. I mentioned … More The Life of Emile Zola
Grand Hotel was the Best Picture winner for 1932, the fifth movie in history to win such an honour. Given that the date of this review is 2021, we are close to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first award ceremony, which means I still have time to learn how the Academy used to think. … More Grand Hotel (1932)
