1944 – Stream On Demand

Ingrid Bergman gets ‘Gaslight’ed on Prime Video

!Featured, Academy Award, Amazon Prime Video, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, drama, DVD, Essential Viewing, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, psychological drama, suspense, SVOD 07/11/2023 Sean Axmaker

George Cukor entered Hitchcock territory with this shadowy tale of suspense and madness set in the gas-lit glow and cobblestone quaintness of Victorian London. The film also inspired the term “gaslighting.”

Leaving soon: ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ – a musical for all seasons on HBO Max

!Featured, Academy Award, Academy Award nominee, Blu-ray, childhood, Christmas, Classic Movie, DVD, family friendly, Hollywood Classic, Musical, National Film Registry, Romance, SVOD 04/23/2023 Sean Axmaker

Vincent Minelli’s first Technicolor film is the ultimate in Hollywood Americana and a masterful musical that turned Judy Garland into a true leading lady.

Leaving soon: ‘Phantom Lady’ – a Girl Friday turns detective on Criterion Channel

!Featured, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, Mystery, SVOD 04/23/2023 Sean Axmaker

Robert Siodmak made his first indelible mark on the film noir genre with this low budget classic starring Ella Raines and Franchot Tone.

Leaving soon: ‘The Woman in the Window’ – Fritz Lang’s nightmare noir on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, suspense, SVOD, thriller 03/18/2023 Sean Axmaker

Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett star in Fritz Lang’s film noir nightmare come to life.

Last chance: ‘Double Indemnity’ – Barbara Stanwyck, femme fatale on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Crime, Criterion, Criterion Channel, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, suspense, SVOD 08/01/2022 Sean Axmaker

Billy Wilder’s 1944 film of James M. Cain’s pulp crime thriller is a masterpiece of film noir double dealing.

Last chance: ‘Ministry of Fear’ – Fritz Lang’s World War II spy noir

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, spies and espionage, suspense, SVOD 05/26/2022 Sean Axmaker

Ray Milland is a British man plunged into the middle of a Nazi spy ring in Britain in Fritz Lang’s lively World War II espionage thriller.

Clifton Webb and Gene Tierney in the 1944 film noir 'Laura' directed by Otto Preminger

‘Laura’ – The silkiest film noir of all on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, Essential Viewing, film noir, Hollywood Classic, Last chance, suspense, SVOD 12/25/2021 Sean Axmaker

Gene Tierney is the title character and Dana Andrews the driven cop in the romantic murder mystery from director Otto Preminger.

Blu-ray: ‘Curse of the Cat People’ from Shout! Factory

Blu-ray, fantasy, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, horror, Shout! Factory 08/07/2018 Sean Axmaker

Curse of the Cat People (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray) The success of the original 1942 Cat People, a shadowy psychological horror film simmering with sexual repression, prompted RKO to request a sequel from producer Val Lewton. His solution was surprising and inventive: Curse of the Cat People (1944), a psychological drama with a child’s perspective and […]

Laird Cregar is The Lodger, Merlo Oberon and George Sanders co-star, John Brahm directs

Blu-ray: Laird Cregar is ‘The Lodger’ on Kino

Blu-ray, film noir, Kino Lorber 01/19/2017 Sean Axmaker

Laird Cregar is The Lodger (1944) (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray) in the third screen adaptation of the thriller by Marie Belloc Lowndes (the most famous was the 1926 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock) set in London during the reign of Jack the Ripper. While the city panics in the wake of another murder of […]