My Holiday Pix

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) was based upon the smash Broadway play from 1941. The play was written by Joseph Kesselring and massaged into a hit by producers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Ostensibly staring Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane, the film belongs to the two actresses reprising their roles from the stage: Josephine Hull as Aunt Abby...

Is acceptance a victory or a defeat? A nod to reality or the betrayal of one’s own self-worth? Questions I can’t help but ponder when watching longtime couples constantly bicker. The theory is that their bickering is their own particular love-language, developed over the years and understood only by the two of them. That could be true. But,...

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) stars James Cagney in this musical biopic of the legendary Broadway song and dance man, performer, playwright, songwriter – and, supposedly born on the 4th of July – George M. Cohan (1878-1942). A proud American of Irish decent who was a great patriot. Cohan wrote many songs. You’ll be surprised by how many you...

The Production Code. Love it, hate it, or have fun mocking it, but there’s no getting around it. It spurred Hollywood to produce films that are still as emotionally powerful and beloved today as they were decades ago. How? One way, was by forcing the already incredibly talented writers, directors, actors and cinematographers to come up with clever,...

Mildred Pierce (1945) stars Joan Crawford as Mildred, a hard-working, devoted, mother of two who divorces her shiftless, neglectful, husband and seems to be on her way to both financial and personal success as a restauranteur, when it all falls apart. Labeled over the years as a melodrama, a hard-hitting crime story, and now, as a classic film...

Now, Voyager (1942) tells the tale of Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), a repressed, unmarried woman from a wealthy Boston family, who has a nervous breakdown following years of emotional abuse from her domineering mother. Benefiting from therapy and the experience of true love, Charlotte is transformed. She goes on to create her own life, made of her own...

Grab that fur shrug and ditch that healthy grub! Break out the egg nog, get cozy on the couch and let Christmas in Connecticut (1945) wrap you up in good cheer. It stars Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, the most successful homemaking magazine columnist in America. Only problem is, she has no home, no husband, no baby and she can’t...

“Whaddya feel like doin’ tonight?” “I dunno, Angie. Whaddya feel like doin?” “I don’t know. Whadaya feel like doin’?” Those lines could only be from one film, Marty (1955). The story of the shy and lonely, 34-year-old, Italian-American, Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine), a butcher who lives with his widowed mother (Esther Minciotti) in the Bronx.  There have been...

He wasn’t a good student, didn’t like to read and never went to college. Yet, by the time Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was in his 40s he had changed the course of Hollywood history and was hailed as a genius. Between 1940 to ’44 he was responsible for an incredible streak of hit films populated with zany characters, witty...