1931 – Stream On Demand

James Cagney and Jean Harlow star in the gangster classic by William Wellman

‘The Public Enemy’ – James Cagney is the original big screen gangster on Prime Video

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Action, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Cult Movies, DVD, Essential Viewing, gangsters, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, pre-code, SVOD 07/18/2023 Sean Axmaker

Cagney is the most magnificent of the new breed of machine gun-toting anti-hero that exploded in the gangster film genre of early sound cinema.

Leaving soon: ‘Safe in Hell’ – Dorothy Mackaill takes refuge on HBO Max

!Featured, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Cult Movies, drama, DVD, Hollywood Classic, Max, pre-code, SVOD 05/21/2023 Sean Axmaker

William Wellman directs this snappy pre-code drama set in a sleazy backwater where the dregs of civilization hide out and the local law is even more corrupt than the crooks.

Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ on HBO Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Comedy, Criterion, Criterion Channel, DVD, family friendly, Hollywood Classic, Max, National Film Registry, Romance, Sight & Sound 100 Greatest Films of All Time, SVOD 02/09/2023 Sean Axmaker

While the rest of Hollywood was firmly ensconced in the sound era, Chaplin defied convention and made his 1931 romantic comedy into the last silent film from a major Hollywood studio.

Bela Lugosi is ‘Dracula’ on Peacock and Criterion Channel

!Featured, based on a novel, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, horror, Peacock, SVOD 10/09/2022 Sean Axmaker

Tod Browning’s 1931 horror classic launched Universal studio’s run of Gothic horror films and set off the cinematic fascination with vampires.

Universal Horrors: the birth of American horror cinema and the original cinematic shared universe

!Featured, Articles, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Cult Movies, DVD, fantasy, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, horror, Peacock, SVOD 10/05/2022 Sean Axmaker

Decades before the Marvel Comics movie universe was born, Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolf Man crossed paths, teamed up, and battled one another.

The original ‘Frankenstein’ on Peacock and Criterion Channel

!Featured, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, DVD, Essential Viewing, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, Peacock, pre-code, Science Fiction, SVOD, thriller 10/02/2022 Sean Axmaker

Boris Karloff is the misunderstood monster in James Whale’s 1931 adaptation of the Mary shelley classic, the granddaddy of modern monster movies.

‘Dracula’ – the 1931 Spanish version

!Featured, based on a novel, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Cult Movies, DVD, Halloween, Have You Seen...?, horror, International Classics, literary adaptation, supernatural, SVOD 10/09/2021 Sean Axmaker

This little known alternate version, shot on the same sets as the Lugosi classic, features a different cast and a sexy style and is proclaimed by many fans as a superior version.

Marlene Dietrich in the 1932 classic by Josef von Sternberg

Criterion Blu-ray: Dietrich & Von Sternberg in Hollywood

Blu-ray, Criterion Collecton, Hollywood Classic 08/10/2018 Sean Axmaker

Dietrich & Von Sternberg in Hollywood (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) At the dawn of the sound era, as German movie star Emil Jannings left Hollywood to return to Germany, the actor invited Austrian-born/American-raised director Josef von Sternberg (who directed Jannings in The Last Command, 1928) to Universum Film A.G. to direct him in that studio’s first […]

Blu-ray: G.W. Pabst’s ‘Westfront 1918’ and ‘Kameradschaft’ on Criterion

Blu-ray, Criterion, Criterion Collecton, DVD 02/06/2018 Sean Axmaker 2 Comments

Westfront 1918 (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) Kameradschaft (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) Georg Wilhelm Pabst was not only one of the great German directors of the silent film era, he (along with Fritz Lang) explored the expressive possibilities of sound in the early days of sound cinema. Criterion presents two of his earliest sound features, a pair that […]

Harry Bauer is Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret in the film by Julien Duvivier

French classics ‘David Golder’ and ‘La tête d’un homme’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Criterion Channel, DVD, International Classics, Mystery 06/10/2017 Sean Axmaker

Julien Duvivier directs Harry Bauer in two innovative films from the early 1930s in France, based on novels by Irène Némirovsky and Georges Simenon.