1931 – Stream On Demand

‘Dracula’ – the 1931 Spanish version on Criterion Channel

!Featured, based on a novel, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, DVD, Halloween, Have You Seen...?, horror, International Cinema, 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.

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

!Featured, Articles, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic, Cult Movies, DVD, fantasy, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, horror, Peacock, SVOD 10/08/2021 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

!Featured, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic, Cult Movies, DVD, Essential Viewing, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, Peacock, pre-code, Science Fiction, SVOD, thriller 10/05/2020 Sean Axmaker

“It’s alive! Alive! In the name of God now I know what it’s like to be God!” James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) is the granddaddy of modern monster movies. Universal was looking to a follow up to the tremendous success of Dracula when it assigned sophomore director Whale to helm an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous novel […]

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

‘The Public Enemy’ – James Cagney’s original gangster on VOD and Blu-ray/DVD

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Action, Blu-ray, Classic, Cult Movies, DVD, Essential Viewing, gangsters, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, pre-code, SVOD 08/12/2018 Sean Axmaker

James Cagney became an overnight sensation as the streetwise dynamo Tom Powers, a Chicago slum kid turned brutal mob goon in The Public Enemy (1931), William A. Wellman’s archetypal gangster classic. In the first depression-era films of the mob rats blasting their way to big screen glory like Molotov cocktails, Cagney’s Tom Powers was the […]

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 […]

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in the film by Howard Hawks

Blu-ray: ‘His Girl Friday’ vs. ‘The Front Page’ on Criterion

Blu-ray, Comedy, Criterion Collecton, DVD 02/02/2017 Sean Axmaker 2 Comments

His Girl Friday (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) should really be listed as a double feature, for the “bonus” movie—a new edition of the original screen version of The Front Page, adapted from the snappy, cynical, double-barrel Broadway hit by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur—is not just a home video debut but a major discovery. The Front […]