Silver Screen Standards at Classic Movie Hub

If you enjoy my classic movie posts here at Virtual Virago, you might also enjoy my new column, Silver Screen Standards, at the fabulous Classic Movie Hub. Each month I have a new post there about a different film, star, genre, or other topic. So far I've written about The Wizard of Oz (1939), Margaret Rutherford, Boris Karloff, Lassie Come Home (1943), and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), with more posts to come every month in 2020. I'm delighted to be part of the CMH community and have really enjoyed reaching new readers with the Silver Screen Standards column.

While you're visiting CMH, be sure to check out regular columns by the other fantastic contributors to the site, including Noir Nook by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, Classic Movie Travels by Annette Bochenek, and Silents are Golden by Lea Stans. You'll find a full list of the CMH monthly columnists here!

My next post for Classic Movie Hub will be about the significance of the kitten in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). I'll also be posting more this month here at Virtual Virago - my move to a new house in October has kept me away from the computer much of the fall, but things have settled down now!

Liebster Love

Thanks to Caftan Woman for nominating me for a Liebster Award! This is just a fun award that bloggers use to show their appreciation for each other, and I certainly am honored that she included me in her round of nominations. The rules require me to answer Caftan Woman's 11 questions, list 11 things readers might not know about me, nominate up to 11 other bloggers, and pose 11 questions of my own to them. Here goes!

1.  What is your favourite book?


That is an impossible question for an English major to answer! I will say that I find The Hobbit, Jane Eyre, and The Last Unicorn endlessly readable, and I cry every time I read A Christmas Carol.

2.  Who is your desert island director?  Why?
Preston Sturges. If I'm stuck on a desert island, I want something to laugh about.

3.  If you had a choice, would you live in the past or the future?


Definitely the future! The past is no place for a liberated female.

4.  Who is your favourite performer to lip-sync to?

Bon Jovi. I'm going down in a blaze of glory, baby.

5.  Cats, dogs or lizards?

CATS! NO LIZARDS! ARGH!!!

6.  Where do you get the majority of your news?  Print?  Television?  Online?

Probably NPR. I listen to it a lot.

7.  Which juror are you in 12 Angry Men?

Henry Fonda for sure. I'm an old school idealist.

8.  Your favourite holiday?  Why?

Halloween. I love Gothic atmosphere, costumes, and candy. Christmas is too much to live up each year.

9.  Do you play a musical instrument?  Sing?

 No instruments, and I only sing badly (though with much enthusiasm).

10. What are the first three films you would induct into your personal Film Registry?

Cat People, The Searchers, Singin' in the Rain - not necessarily in that order.

11.  Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi?
Karloff. He's so marvelous when he talks. I love him in Bedlam, Corridors of Blood, and The Mummy.


11 Things Readers Might Not Know About Me

1. I worked for a while at a men's federal prison teaching ABE/GED classes.
2. I have a PhD in 18th-century British Literature and Feminist Criticism.
3. I love the Muppets, but I don't like actual frogs.
4. I can't stand onions.
5. I used to teach defensive driving classes to US Army Rangers at a military base.
6. I can recite "The Raven" and "Kubla Khan" - along with numerous other poems - from memory.
7. I write introductions to editions of classic novels for various publishers, including Barnes & Noble.
8. I am left-handed and hate manual can openers.
9. My cat's name is Grendel Graymalkin Kagemusha Sparks, and he will be 20 this October.
10. I'm writing a novel about Long John Silver's daughter and her adventures.
11. I have been collecting LEGO for more than 20 years.

Liebster Nominees!

Classic Movie Man
Immortal Ephemera
Cinematically Insane
A Shroud of Thoughts
The Great Katharine Hepburn

11 Questions for My Nominees


1. Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire?
2. What's your favorite Val Lewton film?
3. Name one book about classic movies or stars that everyone should read.
4. What's the absolute worst old movie that you love anyway?
5. Who is your favorite character actor?
6. If you could adapt one literary work for film, which would it be and why?
7. What's the last book you read?
8. Name one of your favorite movie death scenes. What's so great about it?
9. Who should really have gotten the role of Scarlett O'Hara?
10. Coffee, tea, or alcohol?
11. What's your favorite Disney movie?

Rocket City Bloggers Name Their Favorite Classic Movies!

Earlier this year I got to know other Huntsville area bloggers through a group called Rocket City Bloggers. They're a diverse crowd, with blogs about all kinds of interesting topics, and they're also pretty swell folks in general. Recently, I asked them to tell me about their favorite classic movies. Here are some of the responses, along with links to the relevant blogs. You'll find both the usual suspects and some more off-the-beaten path selections among their favorites. So many people replied that I don't have room for all of the movies and the bloggers who picked them, so I might have to do a follow-up post later!

Be sure to check out the blogs while you're adding some of these classic films to your Netflix queue. I have included links to my own reviews of the films whenever possible.

Paula Claunch of AKA Jane Random casts her vote for THE HAUNTING (1963), which is a great choice given that Halloween is just around the corner.

Tina Leach - also known as Trampoline Girl - is clearly a classic movie fan! BALL OF FIRE (1941), CAREFREE (1938), and THE THIN MAN movies all make her favorites list. She says, " I love the Nick and Nora Charles dynamic so much, their martini swilling, joke cracking, and of course Asta!"

Keith Parker is another cinephile, and his blog actually discusses science fiction, fantasy, and horror, so you won't be surprised to hear that DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) tops his list. Keith also gives top marks to CASABLANCA (1942), INHERIT THE WIND (1960), 12 ANGRY MEN (1957), and HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940).

Bo Williams obviously shares some of Keith's genre passions, since his picks include THEM! (1954), METROPOLIS (1927), and Stanley Kubrick's excellent PATHS OF GLORY (1957)  - nice choice, Bo! Bo bills his blog as "rarely senselessly vulgar; frequently slightly tacky," so head over to read his posts with your sense of humor packed and ready.

Carol Marks, who has several blogs, puts IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962), THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961) at the top of her list. Not surprisingly for a group of Alabama bloggers, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD proved quite popular.

Kristen Wilson of She Writes Him offers IMITATION OF LIFE (1934 or 1959?), SCARFACE (1932, I hope!), and GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946) as some of her favorites - all solid picks that show she has also spent a lot of time watching old movies.

Other bloggers put in their votes for SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952), THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), and THE SWORD IN THE STONE (1963). As I said before, they're a diverse bunch, but there's clearly a strong inclination toward musicals and family films.

You can also find reviews of 12 ANGRY MEN, PATHS OF GLORY, and SCARFACE in my book, BEYOND CASABLANCA: 100 CLASSIC MOVIES WORTH WATCHING, which is in paperback and on Kindle at Amazon. Obviously I have several films on my to-review list since I don't have links to everything that people chose for their favorites!

Confessions of a Classic Movie Blogger

I live in Huntsville, Alabama, where the big blogging news right now involves a local reporter who lost her job after posting "Confessions of a Red-Headed Reporter" about her less-than-professional practices. The story seems to be going viral, and the reporter appeared on the Today Show this morning, which just goes to show how bad behavior can get you all the attention you crave if you just behave badly in a public enough forum.

I don't really blog about myself. I'm not nearly as interesting as the classic movies I write about here at Virtual Virago, and I generally prefer to keep the focus on the films. Still, it seems a shame to pass up an opportunity to make a few classic movie confessions while the topic is hot, and my fellow Rocket City Bloggers are having a ball writing their own posts. So here goes.

Confessions of a Classic Movie Blogger

1) I start every movie hoping I'll really like it. Even when a movie lets me down, I try to say something good about it in my review. Every film has its fans, after all, and there must be some reason people like a movie even when I don't. For that reason you won't often see me pan a film outright, even though a lot of reviewers get more traffic from bashing pictures than they do for praising them.

2) I love classic Westerns, but I don't like Sam Peckinpah. He's just too violent and depressing for me. Give me John Ford, Anthony Mann, Henry Hathaway, and Delmer Daves any day. I don't like Quentin Tarantino, either. I love classic movies because I don't really want to be horrified and disgusted by the things I watch, and graphic sexual violence against women tops my list of things I don't want to see. Sam and Quentin will have to entertain other people with stronger stomachs for that sort of thing.

3) I have a pathetically low ranking on iCheckMovies. I just can't make myself care enough to sit through the 3 hour violent testosterone fests that make all the top movie lists, so I hover around 1800-1900 in the rankings. I can watch a dozen movies in a row without any of them being on a single list. Sometimes I have a highly ranked movie in one hand and a 1930s musical comedy in the other, and I end up picking the musical every time. One of these days, I tell myself, I'll slog through all of those depressing foreign dramas and man movies, but right now I'm just too busy with Jean Harlow, Mickey Rooney, and Doris Day.

4) I keep David Thomson's Have You Seen...? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films next to my bed at all times. Yes, I really do, and I pick it up and read entries in it any time I have trouble sleeping. I don't always agree with him, but I do find Thomson highly readable, and I love picking through his entries for all of the films from a single year or starring a particular lead. I think he gets bogged down in the technical aspects sometimes, but I like the way he sums up films without needing to tell everything about them. I wish more classic movie bloggers understood that the key to a great review is to give the reader just enough to think about, not a scene-by-scene summary that gives everything away.

5) I love genre films, even cheesy ones. If it comes from Hammer, stars Bela Lugosi, or involves Roger Corman, I'll watch it, and I'll probably love it. There's a difference between a great MOVIE and a great FILM, and I enjoy a fun movie even if the plot is ridiculous and the strings are showing. William Castle? Heck, yes. Val Lewton? Bring it! Old horror and science fiction movies are some of my very favorites, and I never get tired of watching them.

6) I don't get Turner Classic Movies. I love everything about TCM, but I don't have cable. I buy their DVD collections and books, though, and one of these days I hope to attend the TCM Film Festival in Hollywood. It's on my bucket list. I get access to the movies I write about by buying them, renting them through Netflix, or streaming them. Warner Archive Instant is my current favorite thing on earth next to cupcakes and ice cream. If TCM ever starts a streaming service I'll probably never leave the couch again.

7) I wish I knew how to promote my classic movie guide and blog without being a pain about it. I'm a terrible salesperson, and it turns out that self-promotion is kind of essential to success in the indie publishing and blogging worlds. Sure, I want people to buy my book and read my blog, but I don't want to annoy them into doing it. Speaking of which, if you're reading this post, thanks! By the way, did you know about my book? I hear it makes a swell gift for movie buffs...

8) I take notes when I watch movies. Most people just sit down and enjoy a movie, but to me every one is a text, and I spent too many years in graduate school to resist the urge to take notes. I have a huge binder full of notes; sometimes I draw sketches of characters or scenes to remind me of something I liked about a costume or a camera angle. Sometimes I don't have a chance to write a review until later, and then the notes help me remember what happened and what I wanted to talk about. I never write a review of a movie without watching the whole thing carefully, unlike famous film critic Rex Reed, who recently got into trouble for panning a picture he didn't actually watch.

9) In my other life, I was an English professor. Before I began blogging and writing "full-time," I taught English at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for 14 years. I have a PhD in 18th-century British Literature with a focus on feminist criticism and theory. I left academe for a number of different reasons, but I loved teaching and researching and writing, and blogging about classic movies is a way to keep doing those things. My film reviews often refer to literary terms and texts, and because of my scholarly background I pay a lot of attention to the movie as a narrative. I like to talk about themes, characters, symbols, and other elements that lie at the heart of the English major's work.

10) I love what I do! No, it doesn't make money, and sometimes it feels like nobody is listening, but I keep at it because I enjoy doing it. Having something to be passionate about and having something to write every day gives my life purpose. I like having work to do, and this is the kind of work I have always relished. There are plenty of talented and more successful classic movie bloggers out there. I know I'm not inventing the wheel, but I'm having a great time, and if a handful of people find new classic movies to enjoy because of me then I'll call that a win.