1953 – Stream On Demand

‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ – Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in a musical buddy comedy

!Featured, adapted from the stage, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Comedy, Cult Movies, DVD, Hollywood Classic, Musical, SVOD 07/24/2022 Sean Axmaker

Howard Hawks discovered one of the great female screen teams in this musical take on the jazz age tale of two girls from Little Rock in Paris.

The original big screen ‘The War of the Worlds’ on Prime Video and Paramount+

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Hollywood Classic, literary adaptation, Paramount+, Science Fiction, SVOD 05/24/2022 Sean Axmaker

The 1953 adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic is an impressive Technicolor spectacle with Oscar-winning special effects delivering the most terrifying alien invasion audiences had ever seen.

‘Gate of Hell’ – Japan’s first color masterwork on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award, adventure, Blu-ray, Cannes winner, Criterion, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, historical, International Classics, SVOD 03/24/2022 Sean Axmaker

Teinosuke Kinugasa’s samurai tragedy won the the Grand Prix at Cannes and a special Academy Award.

‘Pickup on South Street’ – Sam Fuller’s pickpocket noir

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Crime, Criterion, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, National Film Registry, SVOD, Venice winner 02/20/2022 Sean Axmaker

Richard Widmark gives his most feral performance as three-time loser who gets in the middle of a spy ring in this engaging 1953 film noir classic.

‘The Wages of Fear’ on HBO Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, adventure, Blu-ray, Cannes winner, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, DVD, HBO Max, International Classics, road movie, SVOD, thriller 01/13/2022 Sean Axmaker

It’s man versus machine in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s gripping thriller of four men driving unstable nitroglycerin through the Amazon jungle.

‘The Blue Gardenia’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Classic Movie, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, SVOD, thriller 11/29/2021 Sean Axmaker

Anne Baxter is young woman who becomes the suspect in a lurid murder case in Fritz Lang’s 1953 film noir.

‘It Came From Outer Space’ – an alien visitation

!Featured, based on a short story, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Cult Movies, DVD, family friendly, Halloween, Hollywood Classic, Science Fiction, SVOD 11/01/2021 Sean Axmaker

Ominous title aside, this 1953 science fiction classic is one of the more optimistic movies about visitors from the stars, and in its way was an inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s ‘E.T.’

John Wayne is ‘Hondo’ in the classic Louis L’Amour western on Hulu and Paramount+

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Have You Seen...?, Hulu, Paramount+, SVOD, western 08/29/2021 Sean Axmaker

The leathery frontier drama costars Geraldine Page as a lonely homesteader left alone with her son in the midst of war between the Apaches and the Cavalry.

’99 River Street’ – Bare knuckle noir on Amazon Prime Video

!Featured, Action, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, film noir, Hollywood Classic, SVOD 04/13/2020 Sean Axmaker

Phil Karlson is, to my mind, to toughest of the film noir directors. Films like Kansas City Confidential and Phenix City Story give us heroes who get knocked around by life and come up for more. 99 River Street (1953), arguably Karlson’s greatest film and certainly his most beautifully brutal, is a film driven by […]

Akemi Negishi stars in the final film completed by Josef von Sternberg

Blu-ray: Josef von Sternberg ‘s ‘Anatahan’ restored on Kino Classics

Blu-ray, DVD, Kino Classics 05/09/2017 Sean Axmaker 2 Comments

Inspired by the true story of Japanese sailors stranded on a deserted island during World War II, Anatahan (1953) was the final film completed by Josef von Sternberg. In a career where he was increasingly forced to compromise his style and sensibility, it marked his final hurrah: a film over which he had complete control. […]