1952 – Stream On Demand

Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru’ on Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Criterion, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, International Classics, Max, socially aware cinema, SVOD 06/15/2023 Sean Axmaker

Takashi Shimura stars as the career bureaucrat who wakes up from a sleepwalking existence to give his life meaning in Kurosawa’s most personal movie.

‘Kansas City Confidential’ – the original reservoir dogs on Prime Video and Paramount+

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, B-movie, Blu-ray, caper, Classic Movie, Crime, Cult Movies, DVD, film noir, Free, gangsters, Hollywood Classic, Hoopla, Kanopy, Paramount+, SVOD 12/06/2022 Sean Axmaker

Phil Karson directs John Payne in this lean, mean B crime thriller, a two-fisted film noir with a wicked hook and a memorable supporting cast.

Joan Crawford stars in the film noir directed by David Miller

Joan Crawford in ‘Sudden Fear’ free on Kanopy

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, film noir, Free, Hollywood Classic, Kanopy, SVOD 11/18/2022 Sean Axmaker

Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame costar in this terrific noir with a San Francisco setting and ingenious use of a dictating machine in its plot and its execution.

James Mason in ‘5 Fingers’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, based on a novel, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, inspired by a true story, spies and espionage, suspense, SVOD 01/18/2022 Sean Axmaker

Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz spins a true story from World War II into a smart, ironic drama of spies and espionage.

Gene Evans stars in Sam Fuller's 1952 'Park Row.'

‘Park Row’ – Sam Fuller’s tribute to the press on Paramount+ and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, historical, Hollywood Classic, Paramount+, SVOD 12/18/2021 Sean Axmaker

Free press and free enterprise are uniquely intertwined in this drama set in the wild days of the newspaper wars of 19th century New York City.

Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino star in the film noir by Nicholas Ray

Robert Ryan is ‘On Dangerous Ground’

!Featured, Action, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, SVOD 06/07/2021 Sean Axmaker

Ida Lupino costars in this unusual film noir about an angry urban cop tracking a killer in snowy mountain country and confronting his own righteous rage along the journey.

Anna Magnani stars in Jean Renoir's adaptation of the Prosper Merimee play

Jean Renoir’s ‘The Golden Coach’ on Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Classic Movie, Comedy, Criterion, Criterion Channel, DVD, literary adaptation, movies about art, movies about theater, music, stage adaptation, SVOD 11/28/2017 Sean Axmaker

Anna Magnani stars as the earthy, vivacious diva of The Golden Coach (France/Italy, 1952), an adaptation of a Prosper Merimee play about a traveling troupe of Italian commedia dell’arte players in a Peruvian backwater where three men (a viceroy, a bullfighter, and a fellow performer) vie for the affections of the company’s leading lady. An […]

Blu-ray: ‘On Dangerous Ground’ on Warner Archive

Blu-ray, Blu-ray review, film noir, Warner Archive 01/06/2017 Sean Axmaker

On Dangerous Ground (Warner Archive, Blu-ray) (1952), directed by Nicholas Ray from a script he developed with A.I. Bezzerides and producer John Houseman, opens on the urgent yet fractured dramatic score by Bernard Herrmann, a theme that rushes forward anxiously, pauses with quieter instruments, then jumps again as we watch the nocturnal city streets in […]