Classic Movie 10: Close Encounters with the Third Reich

The theme for my spring lifetime learning series was "Close Encounters with the Third Reich," featuring four classic movies where the protagonists get up close and personal in their confrontations with Nazis. With World War II dominating the headlines in the 1940s, it's no surprise that many films from that era examine the threats posed by Hitler's followers, but the Nazis have continued to fascinate and horrify us in movies ever since, with the Indiana Jones trilogy being a particularly familiar example. More recently, we've seen films like Jojo Rabbit (2019) revisit the fascist regime and the suffering it inflicted. If you want to stick with Golden Age Hollywood classics, however, here are ten movies featuring close encounters with the Third Reich and the dangers of fascism.

 

THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) - One of the greatest anti-fascist films of all time, Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece blends comedy and pathos in its story of a Jewish barber who impersonates a cruel dictator (named Adenoid Hynkel but very obviously parodying Hitler). Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the picture, which earned five Academy Award nominations. It's still a powerful cinematic statement today, and well worth watching even if you aren't normally a Chaplin fan.

MAN HUNT (1941) - Adapted from Geoffrey Household's 1939 novel, Rogue Male, this political thriller sees Walter Pidgeon as a big game hunter on the run from the Nazis and his own government after he is caught aiming his rifle at Hitler. The movie also stars Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine, and Roddy McDowall. Director Fritz Lang, who left his native Germany in the 1930s, made other anti-Nazi films, as well, including Hangmen Also Die! (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944), and Cloak and Dagger (1946). Rogue Male was adapted again in 1976, with Peter O'Toole in the starring role.

CASABLANCA (1942) - We'll always have Paris, and we'll always have the outstanding ensemble cast of immigrants who give this Humphrey Bogart favorite its enduring power, many of whom had their own real-life close encounters with the Nazis. Bogart's jaded bar owner, Rick, rediscovers his principles after his lost love (Ingrid Bergman) appears in Casablanca on the arm of a freedom fighter (Paul Henreid) being hunted by the Nazis. Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three, including the Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Michael Curtiz), and Screenplay. 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) - Ernst Lubitsch directs this wartime comedy with a serious message, which stars Jack Benny and Carole Lombard as married actors in Warsaw who end up using their skills to fight the Nazis in their own way. Although the movie was only nominated for one Academy Award (Best Music/Score), it's a brilliant picture that pairs perfectly with The Great Dictator. In 1983, Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft starred in a remake that also earned a single Oscar nod, this time for Charles Durning as Best Supporting Actor.  

DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942) - Not nearly as desperate as the title suggests, this WWII action picture directed by Raoul Walsh mixes heroics, comedy, and some tragedy in its tale of RAF airmen trying to escape from behind enemy lines. It stars Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale Sr., Arthur Kennedy, and Ronald Sinclair as the brave Allies on the run from Nazi forces, including Raymond Massey as their most dogged pursuer. The movie earned its sole Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects, but it's a great choice for fans of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).

LIFEBOAT (1944) - Alfred Hitchcock directs a tense thriller set entirely in a small lifeboat, where the survivors of a U-boat attack find themselves in very close quarters with a Nazi German from the same boat that sank theirs. Stage icon Tallulah Bankhead gives her best film performance as an American reporter, and Walter Slezak is mesmerizing as the German. John Hodiak, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, Heather Angel, Mary Anderson, Canada Lee, and Henry Hull also star. Lifeboat earned three Oscar nominations, including a nomination for John Steinbeck for Best Story.

NOTORIOUS (1946) -  Hitchcock offers a more domestic entanglement with Nazis in this celebrated thriller, which stars Ingrid Bergman as a young woman who agrees to infiltrate a group of South American Nazis and eventually marries one of them while continuing to spy for the United States. Cary Grant plays her handler/love interest, and Claude Rains takes the role of the Nazi husband, but the scene stealer of the film is Leopoldine Konstantin as a truly terrifying mother-in-law. Notorious earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Rains and a nod for Ben Hecht for Original Screenplay.

THE STRANGER (1946) - This Orson Welles thriller appeared the same year as Notorious and also features a woman who marries a Nazi, but Loretta Young's character is completely unaware of her groom's true identity until a determined Nazi hunter (Edward G. Robinson) reveals the terrible truth. Welles directs and also plays the Nazi who will do anything to keep his secret, even murder his wife. The Stranger is in the public domain, so you can easily find places to watch it on streaming services or online. For yet another "I married a Nazi" story, add the 1940 film, The Man I Married, starring Joan Bennett and Francis Lederer.

STALAG 17 (1953) - William Holden stars in this story of prisoners in a German POW camp, and his performance as a cynical American prisoner earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Billy Wilder directs a cast that also includes Otto Preminger, Sig Ruman, Don Taylor, and Peter Graves. Stalag 17 earned additional Oscar nominations for Wilder as Best Director and Robert Strauss as Best Supporting Actor. For a double feature that presages the hit TV series Hogan's Heroes, pair Stalag 17 with Desperate Journey. 

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) - How do you solve a problem like the Nazis? This beloved musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer offers romance, catchy songs, and a fight against fascism, with Plummer's Captain von Trapp memorably (and meme-ably) tearing up a Nazi flag. Young Liesl von Trapp (Charmian Carr) has the most intimate experience with a Nazi when her love interest, Rolf (Daniel Truhitte), embraces fascism. The Sound of Music won five of its ten Academy Award nominations, with Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Robert Wise), Film Editing, Score, and Sound.

If you want to recreate my series for the lifetime learners, we watched Casablanca, Desperate Journey, Lifeboat, and The Stranger. 

Trivia Time!

German native and character actor Sig Ruman appears in three of the movie on this list and plays a Nazi in each: To Be or Not to Be, Desperate Journey, and Stalag 17.

2025 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! As is traditional, I start the new year off with a review of all the movies I watched in the previous year. Often these are movies I have seen before, especially seasonal family favorites that we return to every year, but you'll also find the list sprinkled with new releases, classics I watched for the first time this year, and lots of movies from the last few decades that I decided to revisit. I keep the log in a notebook throughout the year so that I can keep track of what I watched and when, and I now have a complete list going all the way back to 2010. I know there are lots of websites people use to track their film viewing, but I enjoy the old-school method of keeping a physical journal. This year the annual report has been delayed due to travel, weather, and family obligations in January, but here's the log report for 2025!

 

January (11)

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most  Foul (2024)

The Major and the Minor (1942)

The Princess Comes Across (1936)

 The Flame of New Orleans (1941)

Wicked Little Letters (2023)*

Mean Girls (20204)*

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)*

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)*

Rope (1948)

Saturday Night (2024)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

* all watched on planes to and from London

 

February (10)

Girl Haunts Boy (2024)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

Down with Love (2003)

Captains Courageous (1937)

The Fall Guy (2024)

Miss Congeniality (2000)

Deathtrap (1982)

The Nice Guys (2016)

Torch Singer (1933)

 

March (9)

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Ed Wood (1994)

Them! (1954)

Shockproof (1949)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Supernatural (1933)

High Spirits (1988)

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Noises Off (1992)

 

April (5)

Woman of the Year (1942)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Smokey & the Bandit (1977)

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul (2024) - 2nd watch this year

Alias Nick Beal (1949)

 

May (5)

Thunderbolts (2025)

The Big Clock (1948)

Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)

Adam's Rib (1949)

Ordeal by Innocence (1985)

 

June (3) 

Dial M for Murder (1954)

Love Hurts (2025)

Addams Family Values (1993)

 

July (10)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

Jaws (1965)

Jaws 2 (1978)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Superman (2025)

Rear Window (1954)

Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)

 

August (16)

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Psycho Beach Party (2000)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

To Catch a Thief (1955) - 2nd watch this year

Desperate Journey (1942)

Mystery Street (1950)

House by the River (1950)

You Never Can Tell (1951)

The Wasp Woman (1959)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

America's Sweethearts (2001)

Start Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

Mallrats (1995) - not nearly as funny as I remembered from seeing it in 1995

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

 

September (5)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

Village of the Damned (1960)

Mad Love (1935)

Bugsy Malone (1976)

The Thursday Murder Club (2025) - great cast but the books are much better

 

October (15)

Hold Your Man (1933)

Back to the Future (1985)*

Back to the Future II (1989)*

Back to the Future III (1990)*

Night Monster (1942)

Operation Mincemeat (2021) - delightful WWII story based on real events

Hangover Square (1945)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Timestalker (2024) - very weird but fascinating indie British comedy

Murder, He Says (1945)

The Fog (1980)

Christine (1983)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters (2024)

KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

*We saw the stage musical of BTTF and rewatched the trilogy as a result

 

November (8)

The Mummy (1932)

Isn't It Romantic (2019) - a meta rom com about rom com tropes

The Wrong Paris (2025) - surprisingly hilarious rom com about reality dating shows

 Baby Face (1933)

The Ladykillers (1955)

Zero Effect (1988) - still a brilliant revision of the Holmes/Watson/Adler dynamic

The Decoy Bride (2011)

Just Like a Christmas Movie (2023) - more meta rom com but very low budget

 

December (9)

Oceans Eight (2018)

Jingle Bell Heist (2025)

Queen Christina (1933)

Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

The Thin Man (1934)

White Christmas (1954)*

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)*

Die Hard (1988)*

Scrooged  (1987)*

*Every year or it's not Christmas!

 

This year's total was 106 movies. I saw very few new releases in the theater (true since Covid started in 2020), and all 3 were summer blockbusters. I watched a lot of movies on the Criterion Channel and streamed some on Netflix or Kanopy, while the rest were from my physical media collection. I've been making more time to read in 2025 and hopefully 2026, as well, which reduces my movie viewing time but has helped me reclaim my attention span and ability to focus after Covid and the general state of things wrecked my mental health. If you make any New Year's resolutions, making time for the things that bring you joy is always a good one!

50 Favorite Films from the 21st Century

The recent list of 100 best films of the 21st century in The New York Times inspired me to think about my own list of favorite movies since the year 2000, even though I think 2025 is much too early to begin talking about the best movies of a whole century. Classic movie fans know that today's critical darling can fade into obscurity after a decade or two, even if it took home an armful of awards, while an overlooked flop can become a beloved staple. The NYT list was compiled with the input of some 500 film professionals, but my list of 50 favorite films is purely personal. My list is not meant to be analytical or in any way objective, and I knew when I read the NYT list that there would be little crossover between our picks. If, however, you're looking for some newer movies to watch that aren't already being touted to you by every major publication as "the best," then my picks might be able to help. 

When making my list, I asked myself these questions: 

1) Have I watched the movie more than once? (I keep a log of every movie I have watched since 2010)

2) Did I love it enough to buy a physical copy? 

3) When I think about the movie, what do I really remember about it and how I felt when I saw it? 

4) How often do I quote the movie? Has it become part of my family's shared language? 

Some additional context will also explain - if not justify - my choices. I became a parent in 2001, so I've spent most of this century raising a child while also working both part and full-time, meaning that I saw a LOT of family films and not nearly as many grown-up movies for much of this period, especially when it came to seeing movies in actual theaters. My personal tastes run to indie films (especially from the UK), musicals, smart comedies (but NOT raunchy ones), romantic comedies if they're clever about it, and horror comedies that aren't too graphic or gruesome. I love sci-fi, superhero, and comic book movies, but I don't want them to be joyless or grim because I already get my daily dose of despair from reading the news. Rather than ranking my choices, which I would find absolutely impossible, I'm presenting them in chronological order, so we can stroll through the first 25 years of this cinematic century together. Asterisks indicate my top ten personal favorites from this list!

 

1 O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) *

2 Chicken Run (2000)

3 The Emperor's New Groove (2000) *

4 The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) *

5 Spirited Away (2001)

6 Love Actually (2003)

7 Down with Love (2003)

8 Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

9 Hellboy (2004) 

10 Shaun of the Dead (2004)

11 Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

12 Corpse Bride (2005)

13 Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) 

14 Fido (2006)

15 Hot Fuzz (2007) *

16 Mamma Mia! (2008)

17 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

18 True Grit (2010) 

 

19 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) *

20 The Shape of Water (2011)

21 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) *

22 Warm Bodies (2013)

23 Iron Man 3 (2013)

24 What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

25 Chef (2014)

26 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

27 Hail, Caesar! (2016)

28 The Nice Guys (2016)

29 Hunt for the Wildepeople (2016)

30 Star Trek Beyond (2016)

31 Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

32 Kong: Skull Island (2017)

33 Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

34 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

35 Little Women (2019)

36 Knives Out (2019)

37 Rocketman (2019)

38 Emma (2020)

39 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

40 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

41 Werewolves Within (2021)

42 Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

43 Glass Onion (2022) *

44 Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) *

45 A Haunting in Venice (2023)

46 Barbie (2023)

47 Hundreds of Beavers (2023) *

48 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

49 The Fall Guy (2024)

50 Superman (2025) *

 

2024 Movie Log in Review

It's time for my annual look back at the previous year's movie viewing! 2024 was another busy year for my family, and as usual my movie viewing was dependent on other people's schedules and preferences. My list for 2024 therefore represents a mix of old and newer movies, some chosen by the other members of the household. Many of these are films I have seen before, but I did manage to see some new-to-me pictures throughout the year, too.

Since the pandemic, my in-theater movie viewing has become almost non-existent, partly due to the closure of my favorite local theater but also because of ticket prices, audience misbehavior, and the long run times of modern movies with all of their attached ads and trailers. I don't live in a city with a real film culture or an indie theater/museum that shows a lot of classic films, so I watch most of those movies at home anyway, and these days I'm also watching newer movies from the comfort of my living room couch. Almost all of the movies in this year's list were either seen at home or shown by me to my lifetime learners and retirement community group. Thanks to my subscription to the Criterion Channel, I have access to some interesting new-to-me classics every month, but I've also leaned into physical media this year to expand my personal collection of films I want to continue to enjoy. I'll post later about the DVDs and Blu-rays I've recently added to my stash.

Here's the complete list of films viewed for 2024, with links to my relevant posts from this year on this blog and over at Classic Movie Hub.

January

Escape from New York (1981)

The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

The Cat Creeps (1946)

The Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)

The Pirate (1948)

Dumplin' (2018)

Nimona (2023)

Cat's Eye (1985)

Work It (2020)

Jezebel (1938)

We Have a Ghost (2023)

Burlesque (2010)

Lift (2023)

February

The Seventh Veil (1945)

My Name is Julia Ross (1945)

When Strangers Marry (1944)

Plus One (2019)

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Dark Victory (1939)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mad Love (1935)

Defending Your Life (1991)

The Frighteners (1996)

Hundreds of Beavers (2023)

March

Dodge City (1939)

Annie (1982)

Falling for Figaro (2020)

Damsel (2024)

The Ghost Goes West (1935)

Godzilla (2014)

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Damn Yankees (1958)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

April

Lured (1947)

Three Godfathers (1948)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Born to Be Bad (1950)

Hundreds of Beavers (2023) 2nd time this year

Them! (1954)

May 

Vera Cruz (1954)

What a Way to Go! (1964)

Three Amigos (1986)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

The Fall Guy (2024)

Laura (1944)

June

Noises Off (1992)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

The Ladykillers (1955)

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Born Yesterday (1950)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

July

Phffft (1954)

Jaws (1975)

Out of Sight (1998)

State and Main (2000)

You Can't Take It with You (1938)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Artists and Models (1955)

The Big Sleep (1978)

August

Dangerous Crossing (1953)

Brighton Rock (1948)

The Last of Sheila (1973)

Inferno (1953)

Desert Fury (1947)

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

His Kind of Woman (1951)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Blithe Spirit (1945)

Con Air (1997)

Hope Floats (1998)

Brats (2024)

Twisters (2024)

September 

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

The Awful Truth (1937)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Spirit Halloween (2022)

Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Frankenweenie (1984)

October

Frankenstein (1931)

My Favorite Wife (1940)

Christine (1983)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

House of the Long Shadows (1983)

Viy (1967)

Fido (2006)

I Married a Witch (1942)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

The Monster Squad (1987)

November

Notorious (1946)

Ghost Rider (2007)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

Year without a Santa Claus (1974)

Muppets Christmas Carol (1992)

Scrooged (1988)

December

White Christmas (1955)

Anything Goes (1936)

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

Inside Out 2 (2024)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Die Hard (1988)

It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

Scrooged (1988) 2nd time this year

The Avengers (2012)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Hit Man (2024) 

 

Total for 2024: 111

Annoyingly, my total for 2024 is 19 fewer than I watched in 2023, with several months where I only got to watch 6 movies (April, May, and June). In my defense, I was spending a lot of time in early 2024 finishing up Space, the Feminist Frontier: Essays on Sex and and Gender in Star Trek, and I was also finishing another novel manuscript that I will have to figure out what to do with in 2025. 

Happy New Year to all the classic movie fans and film fanatics! I hope your 2025 will be full of great movies and good fortune.

10 Classic Frankenstein Movies Worth Watching

This fall I taught a lifetime learning class about the history and cinematic legacy of Frankenstein, so of course I've had the iconic tale of gods and monsters on my mind throughout the Halloween season. One of the reasons for the story's enduring success is its adaptability; like Shakespearean plays, Frankenstein can change with the times to reflect an era's particular fears about life, death, science, and what it means to be human. Even from the early days, movie versions of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel have varied wildly from their source material, altering both story and meaning to suit their own aims. Here are 10 of my favorite Frankenstein movies, presented in chronological order, to make a frightful film festival for monster movie fans.

1) Frankenstein (1931)

The original Universal movie has to start this list because Boris Karloff and Colin Clive create indelible images with their performances as the Creature and his creator (inexplicably renamed Henry Frankenstein). I think it drags a bit when it leaves the laboratory to focus on Henry's domestic life and worried loved ones, but its influence over later adaptations continues to be felt, especially when we see Shelley's articulate, philosophical Creature reduced to a shuffling, undead thing.

2) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

I prefer the sequel to the first Universal picture because it lets James Whale and his cast loose from the limitations of the first movie's roots in a stage play adaptation of the novel. It's wilder, weirder, and a lot more fun all the way through, especially with Ernest Thesiger, Una O'Connor, and Elsa Lanchester joining Karloff and Clive for this outing. If you only see one of the classic Universal entries, this is the one to watch.

3) Son of Frankenstein (1939)

The next generation succumbs to the family's penchant for reanimation in this follow-up, with Karloff returning as the Creature and Basil Rathbone stepping in as Wolf Frankenstein, the son of the original scientist. This one is also notable for its gorgeous German expressionist sets and for Bela Lugosi's appearance as Ygor, the first time that name refers to Dr. Frankenstein's assistant. This is probably the best of the later Universal films, although I do enjoy Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) for its revival of the long-suffering werewolf, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.).

4) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

More treat than terror, this horror comedy is a Halloween favorite that pits Abbott and Costello against a ghoulish gang of classic monsters, including Glenn Strange as the Creature, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Lon Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot, aka the Wolf Man. If you want to introduce kids to classic Universal monsters without scaring them too much, this movie is a great choice. You even get Vincent Price making a cameo "appearance" as the Invisible Man at the very end!

5) The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Hammer started its own series of Frankenstein films with this adaptation, which stars a very creepy looking Christopher Lee as the Creature and Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein. Scream queen Hazel Court also appears as Elizabeth, and the whole thing is rendered gorier because it's in color. Although Cushing's character is condemned to execution in the first movie, he survives to wreak more havoc with his experiments in The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974).

6) Young Frankenstein (1974)

No list of Frankenstein movies would be complete without this comedy gem from Mel Brooks, with Gene Wilder starring as Frederick Frankenstein, the unwilling heir to his family's legacy who nonetheless ends up building a Creature of his own. The movie uses sets from the original Universal films and is stuffed with gags that work best if you've seen both the 1931 movie and the 1935 sequel. Often hailed as one of the best comedies of all time, it's still uproariously funny 50 years later.

7) Frankenweenie (1984)

Tim Burton has a long-standing love affair with the Frankenstein story, as evidenced by Edward Scissorhands (1990) and the 2012 stop motion remake of this 1984 live action short, but I like the short for its brevity and concentrated weirdness. Disney originally considered this version too scary for kids and fired Burton because of it, but Burton's later success caused Disney to reconsider the short's appeal. Kids today are unlikely to be phased by anything in Frankenweenie, especially those who have already seen any of Burton's other, later films.

8) The Bride (1985)

Fair warning that I haven't rewatched The Bride in a long time, but it makes the list for nostalgia's sake because I first saw it in the 80s and loved it then, partly for its focus on a female Creature (played by Jennifer Beals) and partly for its casting of rock god Sting as Dr. Frankenstein. The movie also stars Clancy Brown as the male Creature and Cary Elwes as another man with a romantic interest in the heroine. I won't pretend this is a brilliant movie, but it is very much a product of its era, and my inner teenager still regards it with affection.

9) The Monster Squad (1987)

Speaking of the 80s and nostalgia, The Monster Squad brings plenty of love for classic monsters and a Goonies sensibility to its horror comedy hijinks, with a group of kids who band together to fight the evil schemes of Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr) and his minions. Frankenstein's Creature, played by Tom Noonan, is supposed to be helping the vampire but turns out to be an ally to the kids, and his friendship with a little girl (Ashley Bank) makes a sweet counterpoint to the tragic scene with a different girl in the 1931 film. This one might actually be too scary (and too free-wheeling with its profanity and sexual references) for very young kids, but it's a perfect pick for tweens, teens, and adult monster kids.

10) Gods and Monsters (1998)

Although it isn't technically a horror movie or an adaptation of Shelley's novel, this fictionalized account of the last days of James Whale is an insightful look at the director's life and work, and it seems fitting to end this list here. Ian McKellen gives a brilliant and moving performance as the aging Whale, and the picture includes flashbacks to the making of Whale's most memorable films. Brendan Fraser costars as Whale's young gardener. Gods and Monsters earned three Oscar nominations, with nods for McKellen as Best Actor and Lynn Redgrave as Best Supporting Actress, and it won the award for Best Screenplay. 

See also: 10 Classic Movies Starring Boris Karloff and 10 Classic Movies Directed by James Whale

Capital Classics for the Fourth of July

Summer has arrived, and the Fourth of July is just around the corner. It's too hot to be outside, so why not celebrate with some classic movies set in our nation's capital? If you haven't been feeling especially optimistic about our country's politicians lately, these films might provide some relief from the debacle of modern politics, although it's important to remember that the Hays Code helped to tint those rose-colored spectacles an even softer shade. Nonetheless, here are some classic movies that memorably depict the ideals of the American experiment if not its reality.

 

MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) - Frank Capra's tale of a young Senator's political education is quintessential Capra "corn" with James Stewart and Claude Rains delivering outstanding performances, especially Stewart in the famous filibuster scene. Although some in the US took offense at the depiction of Washington insiders, the film was banned in other countries precisely because of its pro-democracy stance. Capra, Stewart, Rains, and costar Harry Carey all picked up Oscar nominations for their work, and the movie earned six additional nominations, but it only won the Academy Award for Lewis R. Foster's writing for Best Original Story. The stellar cast also includes Jean Arthur, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, and H.B. Warner.

THE MORE THE MERRIER (1943) - This wartime romantic comedy uses a housing shortage in Washington, D.C., to bring together an unlikely trio played by Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. George Stevens directs the stars through some hilarious situations, with sizzling fireworks going off between Arthur and McCrea, but Coburn proves the scene-stealer of the lot in a performance that earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The picture garnered five additional nominations, including nods for Stevens and Arthur. It's an absolute delight from start to finish, and fans of modern rom coms will find a lot to love in this underrated classic.

 

BORN YESTERDAY (1950) - George Cukor directs the brilliant Judy Holliday in her Oscar-winning performance as Billie Dawn, a former chorus girl whose domineering and crooked boyfriend (Broderick Crawford) wants her to become more respectably well-educated now that his business has him hobnobbing with Washington politicians. William Holden plays the political writer hired to tutor Billie, and the two inevitably fall in love while touring the sights of the nation's capital. Billie's personal and political awakenings drive the picture, which was adapted from the 1946 Broadway play by Garson Kanin (in which Holliday also originated the role). 

These three classics make a great triple feature for your Fourth of July holiday, but if you prefer patriotic goodwill outside the Beltway, you can always celebrate with the beloved James Cagney musical, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942). If you prefer something darker, dive into JAWS (1975) for red blood, a Great White, and deep blue ocean with a climax that takes place over the Fourth of July weekend.

You'll find full-length reviews of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Born Yesterday, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and hundreds of other classic movies in my two books, BEYOND CASABLANCA and BEYOND CASABLANCA II, both of which are available as ebooks on Amazon. Hundreds more are posted here on my blog. Just use the labels to search for your favorite actors, directors, and genres!

2023 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2024 brings you good moments and many great movies. It's time again to look back at the last year of my movie viewing and make the final tally of films watched. My classic movie choices for 2023 were heavily affected by the many great collections on the Criterion Channel last year, and I'm looking forward to another year of old favorites and new discoveries there. Most of the other streaming services continue to be useless for classic films, but I watched quite a few new movies on them. Visits to the theater continue to be low compared to pre-pandemic numbers; we saw a few new releases on the big screen this year - including super hit Barbie - but in general it just wasn't worth the cost and hassle, especially after we were accosted by a drunk/high and very noisy audience member at Dungeons and Dragons. Much of my energy in 2023 went to work on a forthcoming anthology of feminist essays about Star Trek, so I spent a lot of time rewatching episodes and films from that iconic franchise (more about that later!). 

Here's the monthly breakdown for every movie I watched at home or elsewhere in 2023.

January

The Woman on the Beach (1947)

Francis (1950)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

The Nice Guys (2016)

Love is News (1937)

Honor Society (2023)

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

Big Brown Eyes (1936)

The Pale Blue Eye (2023)

Dead of Night (1945)

Goldeneye (1995)

February

The Unknown (1927)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Harvey (1950)

The Suspect (1944)

The World is Not Enough (1999)

Rosaline (2022)

The Sound of 007 (2022)

Lover Come Back (1961)

Phantom Lady (1944)

A View to a Kill (1985)

Send Me No Flowers (1964)

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The Queen of Spades (1949)

March

Dancing Lady (1933)

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)

The Princess Bride (1987)

42nd Street (1933)

The Heroic Trio (1993)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

Antman: Quantumania (2023)

Clue (1985)

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

Thunder on the Hill (1951)

Prom Pact (2023)

April

Sky High (2005)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1951)

A Woman's Face (1941)

Grease 2 (1982)

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Magic (1978)

 

May  (my kid graduated from college and we had a big family trip to the UK!)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

The Damned Don't Cry (1950)

 

June

The Lost King (2023)

What's Love Go to Do With It? (2022)

For Me and My Gal (1942)

Monkey Business (1952)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

 

July

Polite Society (2023)

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

The Mad Miss Manton (1938)

On the Town (1949)

The Woman in Question (1950)

 

August

Haunted Mansion (2023)

Barbie (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Asteroid City (2023)

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Ladies in Retirement (1941)

Brigadoon (1954)

 

September 

Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)

Mr. Vampire (1985)

Mr. Vampire II (1986)

Mr. Vampire III (1987)

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Jane Eyre (1943)

Mr. Vampire IV (1988)

MST3K: Beyond Atlantis (1973) - live at the Center for Puppetry Arts

Ivy (1947)

Moss Rose (1947)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2023)

Blanche Fury (1948)

Elemental (2023)

3000 Years of Longing (2022)

 

October

Red, White and Royal Blue (2023)

So Long at the Fair (1950)

Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Doctor X (1932)

Haunted Mansion (2023) - second time this year

The Old Dark House (1933)

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Corridor of Mirrors (1948)

Gaslight (1944)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Dial M for Murder (1954)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

So Evil My Love (1947)

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Devotion (1946)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Dead Again (1991)

Freaks (1932)

Madeline (1950)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Haunted Spooks (1920)

Bewitched (2005)

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Casper (1995)

 

November

The Lodger (1944)

The Quick and the Dead (1995)

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Rancho Notorious (1952)

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

The Marvels (2023)

The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)

High Anxiety (1977)

Dragnet (1987)

Werewolves Within (2021)

The Cheat (1931)

Three on a Match (1932)

 

December

The Spiral Staircase (1946)

Repeat Performance (1947)

Bell, Book and Candle (1958)

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Die Hard (1988)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Hudson Hawk (1991)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Scrooged (1987)

White Christmas (1955)

Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

Love, Actually (2003)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

A Christmas Story (1983)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Glass Onion (2022)

 

Total for 2023: 130

I watched 23 more movies in 2023 than in 2022, so that's an improvement! As usual, it's an eclectic mix of classics, new releases, family favorites, and weeknight compromises with the spouse.

 

 

My Criterion Closet Wish List

I really enjoy watching the Criterion Closet Picks videos where various actors and filmmakers get to choose movies to take home with them. Their selections reveal interesting details about their tastes and experience with film, although they do tend to favor certain genres, decades, and directors, partly because of the generational range of the guests themselves and partly because of the cinematic tastes cultivated by being in the film business. I don't own a lot of Criterion Collection discs because I spent many years building up a classic movie DVD collection back when they were more widely available and fairly cheap, but now that DVDs and Blu-rays of classic movies are much harder to acquire I am increasingly turning to Criterion and Kino Lorber to expand my collection.

The Closet Picks videos always make me wish I could afford a full scale Criterion shopping spree, but if, by magic or divine intervention, I got to be a guest on Closet Picks, what movies would I choose? I'd want to pick films I don't already own and that I have seen at least once and know I would enjoy owning. I'm limiting myself to eight movies because the Closet Picks videos only show a handful being selected, which means I spent a lot of time narrowing my list! 

Here's my fantasy Criterion Closet list:

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) - I absolutely adore this comic gem from Powell and Pressburger, with Wendy Hiller as a headstrong young woman determined to marry a rich, older man in spite of the handsome Scottish laird fate suddenly throws her way. The location cinematography, the delightful visual style, and the wonderful characters make this movie truly special. 

Nightmare Alley (1947) - As much as I love the romantic swashbuckling version of Tyrone Power, I can't deny his brilliance as the scheming carny in this original movie adaptation of the novel. It's one of the weirder noir classics, but the carnival sideshow makes a perfect setting for noir's favorite themes. The Criterion Blu-ray has been in my Amazon wish list for ages, but other items keep taking precedence.

The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed's fantastic post-war noir is such a great use of Orson Welles' sinister charisma. Who can resist Harry Lime? Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli are also terrific, and the musical score really gets into your head. I've seen this movie several times, but somehow I haven't managed to own it yet, even though I love it enough to build LEGO tributes to its more iconic scenes.

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - I would love to own all of the Ealing Studios films, but this one is especially hilarious thanks to Alec Guinness playing eight different characters. It's currently listed as out of print on the Criterion website, but I bet they still have copies in that closet. (It looks like Kino Lorber might have this and some other Ealing pictures available for those of us who can't get invited to raid the closet or launch a daring Ladykillers style heist.)  

Stagecoach (1939) - Along with My Darling Clementine (1946), this is one of my favorite John Ford Westerns, thanks to its amazing ensemble cast. John Wayne doesn't show up right away, but he has a tender romance with Claire Trevor that works beautifully and allows him to be sweet and vulnerable. I'm a sucker for great character actors, and this movie just bursts with them  - John Carradine, Andy Devine, Thomas Mitchell, and Donald Meek all have significant roles.

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) - I don't have an actual Boris Karloff movie on this list, but he's present in spirit for this wacky Capra adaptation of the stage play, in which Karloff played the role taken by Raymond Massey for the movie version. This is one my top Halloween favorites, so it's a shame I don't own it yet, but I went with the Criterion edition of I Married a Witch (1942) the last time I had to pick which Halloween comedy to buy.

Beauty and the Beast (1946) - Jean Cocteau's dreamy fairy tale is a great starter choice for kids and people just venturing into foreign classics. It's both deeply familiar and hauntingly strange, and Disney borrowed heavily from it for their own animated version of the old story. Every frame is just gorgeous, and I'd love to be able to revisit it whenever I want.

Mildred Pierce (1945) - This Joan Crawford tour de force is another one I've seen several times but haven't managed to pick up yet for my personal collection. It's packed with so many of the things I love in classic movies - female narratives, noir style, romance and melodrama, great cinematography and costumes. Women's noir fascinates me, and this is one of the very best of the genre. I especially appreciate the way it focuses on Mildred's relationship with her poisonous daughter and the lengths to which the guilt-stricken Mildred will go to protect her.

Two Criterion films I already own (both great!).

That's my wish list! Some of the movies that almost made the final eight are To Be or Not to Be (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Hobson's Choice (1954), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), and The Heiress (1949), but there are dozens of others in the Criterion catalog that I would love to own. What movies would you pick from the Criterion Closet if you had the opportunity?*

* Reminder! If, like me, you enjoy classic movies on a more modest budget, you can get access to a wide selection of Criterion titles by subscribing to the Criterion Channel, which is a great bargain at $11 a month.

2022 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! Here's my annual post listing every movie I watched in the previous year. Getting the Criterion Channel rather late in 2022 helped me add more new-to-me classics to my list - it's far and away my favorite streaming service at the moment, and I plan to continue using it in 2023. As always, my list is a wide-ranging collection of classics, favorite hits, and new movies. June and August were busy months for family travel, gardening, and other activities, which meant less time for movies. As always, we closed out the year with the family's holiday favorites.

Total for 2022: 107

January 

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

Sparrows (1926)

Iron Monkey (1993)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Afterlife of the Party (2021)

Dark City (1998)

The Egg and I (1947)

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Easy A (2010)

Jonah Hex (2010)

Jolt (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

February

Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Down with Love (2003)

Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020)

Palm Springs (2020)

March

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Turning Red (2022)

Save Yourselves! (2020)

That Night in Rio (1941)

Midnight (1939)

Death on the Nile (2022)

April

Holiday (1938)

The French Dispatch (2021)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Turning Red (2022) - Second time

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Cruella (2021)

 

May

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) - Second time

The Lady Eve (1941)

The Lost City (2022)

Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

June

Fire Island (2022)

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

 

July

Stage Fright (1950)

Bombshell (1933)

The Bad Guys (2022)

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)

 

August

Lightyear (2022)

The Sea Beast (2022)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

September

Holiday Affair (1949)

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

The Blob (1958)

Star Trek (2009)

Destry Rides Again (1939)

The Mark of Zorro (1920)

Marjorie Prime (2017)

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

 

October

Do Revenge (2022)

Angel Face (1952)

Winchester 73 (1950)

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

Tormented (1960)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

Wolfen (1981)

Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)

The Raven (1935)

Caught (1949)

The Mummy (1932)

November

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

The Dark Corner (1946)

Cape Fear (1962)

The Glass Key (1942)

Out of the Fog (1941)

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

The Man from Laramie (1955)

The Divorce of Lady X (1938)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

The Bubble (2022)

See How They Run (2022)

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

December

Twentieth Century (1934)

Murder, He Says (1945)

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

You Never Can Tell (1951)

Pinocchio (GDT version) (2022)

Lady in the Lake (1946)

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

His Girl Friday (1940)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

White Christmas (1954)

Scrooged (1988)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Glass Onion (2022)

Knives Out (2019)

Your Christmas or Mine (2022)

The Addams Family (1991)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Easy Living (1937)

Strange World (2022)

The Adam Project (2022)

Bullet Train (2022)

Five Favorite Films: Claude Rains Villains

With his distinctive English voice and intensely intelligent manner, Claude Rains made himself at home in a wide variety of memorable roles, although he was more often the heavy or a supporting character instead of a leading man. Born in London in 1889, the actor grew up in the English theater scene but made an indelible mark with his first big film role as the unseen protagonist of James Whale's horror classic, The Invisible Man (1933). He would go on to be nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and even though he never took an Oscar home he became one of classic Hollywood's iconic stars. Rains didn't always play villains, but his dark characters are delightfully complicated, so my list here compiles five of my favorite Rains rascals, each a slippery cinematic sinner worthy of your time.

The Invisible Man (1933)

It's no surprise that Rains would become a favorite Hollywood heavy after his breakthrough performance in this Universal horror adaptation of the novel by H.G. Wells. Completely unseen except for the last shot of the picture, Rains nevertheless triumphs as the increasingly insane Dr. Jack Griffin, who uses himself as a test subject for his invisibility formula. Even more than his other horror films for Universal, The Invisible Man lets director James Whale indulge his very dark sense of humor, and Rains goes over the top with Griffin's murderous, mad antics.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Rains is just one of many great stars packing into Sherwood Forest for this glorious Technicolor adventure, but his Prince John is a villain you'll love to hate. Sadistic, petty, and vain, the prince usurps the English throne in the absence of his brother, King Richard (Ian Hunter), only to be plagued by the rebellious Robin (Errol Flynn) and his merry band. Fans of the Disney version from the 1973 animated Robin Hood will enjoy comparing the vocal performance of Peter Ustinov with Rains' live action incarnation.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Director Frank Capra spins a story of political idealism clashing with corruption and cynical power in this beloved picture. James Stewart stars as naive newcomer Jefferson Smith, who is suddenly thrust into the machinations of the US Senate. Rains plays Joseph Paine, the senior Senator who is Stewart's hero and mentor, but he turns out to be far less noble than Jefferson originally believes. Paine is one of Rains' more realistic antagonists, not so much outright evil as self-interested and jaded, but Rains gives a terrific performance in the role and earned his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor as a result. 

Notorious (1946)

Rains gets to be a subtler, more devious sort of villain in this Hitchcock thriller, but he's still delightfully bad as the Nazi Ingrid Bergman is asked to spy on by the US government. Rains' character, Alexander Sebastian, marries Alicia (Bergman) but is also willing to murder her in order to protect himself and his secrets. His duplicitous nature gives Rains plenty of opportunities to be both charming and chilling, especially in scenes with Alexander's sinister mother (Leopoldine Konstantin). The role earned Rains his final Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The Unsuspected (1947)   

This noir mystery from director Michael Curtiz is another role that makes great use of Rains' fantastic voice by casting him as the popular host of a radio mystery show. Unfortunately, Rains' suave radio star, Victor Grandison, goes from just talking about murder to actually committing it. Rains has a much more central role in this picture as the "unsuspected" murderer of the title, but it's pretty obvious from the beginning, in spite of the title, that Victor is up to no good. The movie also stars Joan Caulfield, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, and Hurd Hatfield.

For more of the darker side of Claude Rains, see Kings Row (1942), Phantom of the Opera (1943), and Angel on My Shoulder (1946). Get a sense of his range with The Wolf Man (1941), Casablanca (1942), Mr. Skeffington (1944), and Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Rains made his final screen appearance as one of the greatest villains of human history, King Herod the Great, in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

2021 Movie Log in Review

It's that time again, when I post my my movie log in review for the previous year and reflect on another year's worth of movie watching. 2021 continued to be dominated by the pandemic, which affected my movie viewing in several ways. I saw exactly one new release in an actual theater in 2021, and that was the disappointing Marvel offering, The Eternals. Alabama has done almost nothing to curb Covid cases, and theaters just haven't felt safe or worth the risk. Vaccinations did allow me to return to my lifetime learners and retirement community residents for film programs in the summer and fall, and I really enjoyed being with them again. With my family still at home for much of the year, newer movies remained a more popular group choice in the evenings, and I had less time to squeeze in classics that I hadn't seen before. We also watched a lot of British murder mysteries and Disney+ TV series.

Here's the list for 2021 - let's hope that we'll eventually see some normalcy again in 2022!

January (15)

The Return of the King (2003)

The Enchanted Cottage (1945)

Valley Girl (2020)

Dragonslayer (1981)

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)

The New Mutants (2020)

Fisherman's Friends (2019)

Judy (2019)

Never Too Late (2020)

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

Max Reload and the Nether Blasters (2020)

Evil Under the Sun (1981)

The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

House (1977)

The History of Future Folk (2012)

 
February (9)

Yojimbo (1961)

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

The Flesh and the Fiends (1960)

Space Sweepers (2020)

Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)

Gotham by Gaslight (2018)

Justice League Dark: Apokalips War (2020)

 

March (2)

Legally Blonde (2001)

Stagecoach (1939)

 

April (6)

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

Mystery Men (1999)

Dark Shadows (2012)

The Reluctant Debutante (1958)

 

May (7)

Scooby Doo (2002)

In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

Summer Stock (1950)

The Harvey Girls (1946)

Separate Tables (1958)

Rachel and the Stranger (1948)

Bathing Beauty (1944)

 

June (11)

Streets of Fire (1984)

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

42nd Street (1933)

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

Dangerous When Wet (1953)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

In the Heights (2021)

Luca (2021)

Suicide Squad (2018)

Roxanne (1987)

Hidalgo (2004)

 

July (16)

Demolition Man (1993)

The Mummy (1999)

Black Widow (2021)

The Avengers (2012)

Pygmalion (1938)

My Fair Lady (1964)

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

She's All That (1999)

Victor/Victoria (1982)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The Opposite Sex (1956)

Miss Congeniality (2000)

Ocean's 8 (2018)

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Jungle Cruise (2021)

The Truman Show (1994)

 

August (7)

Ivanhoe (1954)

The Birdcage (1996)

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2020)

The Green Knight (2021)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (1997)

Cruella (2021)

 

September (4)

Cinderella (2021)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The 39 Steps (1935)

The Haunting (1963)

 

October (11)

They Drive by Night (1940)

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

The Duff (2015)

The Haunted Hotel (2021)

Death on the Nile (2004)

Good News (1947)

House on Haunted Hill (1959) - Again!

Carnival of Souls (1963)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

Monster House (2006)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

 

November (7)

The Sparks Brothers (2020)

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Free Guy (2021)

The Harder They Fall (2021)

The Eternals (2021)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) - 2x this month

December (16)

Love Hard (2021)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Single All the Way (2021)

Mixtape (2021)

My Man Godfrey (1936)

A Castle for Christmas (2021)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Encanto (2021)

Scrooged (1988)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins II (1990)

Love and Monsters (2020)

White Christmas (1954) 

Total film count for 2021: 111