I didn’t know anything about this title before seeing it, other than that Robert De Niro was the star. I have since learned that it has been on the shelf for three years, boasts more than thirty-five producers (including chef […]
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Goldfinger (1964) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One of the few silver linings of this crummy year is that theaters have chosen to turn to older classics in order to lure viewers back. This week, in the wake of Sean Connery’s death at 90, some theaters are […]
Continue reading »Hope Gap (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Small-scale, independent dramas do not often attract actresses the caliber of Annette Bening to headline them, but this British production has managed it. Bening and Brit favorite Bill Nighy star as a couple married twenty-nine years who suddenly reach an […]
Continue reading »Tenet (2020) ☆ ☆
One of the most revered filmmakers working today is Christopher Nolan, a man who makes dark, complex, challenging, time-twisting tales that have captured our national imagination. I thought the “Dark Knight” trilogy was overrated, but loved Inception; I didn’t care […]
Continue reading »The Nancy Drew Mysteries: Overview
This article, and those that follow, initially appeared in Filmbobbery, Volume 9, Issue 1 (Summer, 2007). That should explain any references to other pages and articles. With the recent success of Nancy Drew this summer (my review of it is […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew — Detective (1938) ☆ ☆ ☆
The first Nancy Drew feature establishes the locale as River Heights, Missouri, where Nancy goes to school at the Brinwood School for Girls. When the elderly dowager who is going to endow the school with a gift (for what the […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew . . . Reporter (1939) ☆ ☆
The weakest series entry is the second one, Nancy Drew . . . Reporter (1939), with an ellipsis instead of dashes in the title. Why the change? As Geoffrey Rush might say, it’s a mystery. However, the third films also […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew . . . Trouble Shooter (1939) ☆ ☆ 1/2
With this entry, the series seemed to turn more comic in tone. Ted continues to be the butt of jokes even while he follows Nancy into trouble and helps her escape it. Oddly, however, there’s no romantic feeling from him […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939) ☆ ☆ ☆
The fourth film was not supposed to be the last one of the series, but Bonita Granville chose to turn to more adult roles and Warner Bros. decided not to fill her gumshoes. Her Nancy is more frenetic than ever […]
Continue reading »The Nancy Drew Mysteries: Epilogue
By the end of the fourth film Nancy is perhaps more frenetic and impulsive than ever — Granville plays the role as if she were destined to become an adrenalized Betty Hutton — which is simultaneously entertaining and distracting. The […]
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