In one of the ugliest movies I’ve seen, Quentin Tarantino’s onanistic Pulp Fiction (1994), a two-bit hooligan named Vincent Vega (John Travolta, lame, making a comeback) reads a book by Peter O’Donnell, a novelization based on a popular British comic strip of O’Donnell’s. My eyes haven’t lit on a single frame of the strip, but […]
Daily Archives: February 25, 2007
Because William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is a better play than his Henry V, it isn’t surprising that Kenneth Branagh’s film of one surpasses his film of the other (1989). Both films are rousing entertainments; but neither Branagh’s Wellesian foray into the trudge of combat, nor his interesting idea that the young king aggresses […]
In my piece about Moontide (1942), I attribute to Archie Mayo much greater talent than was considered his due in his own day. (Mayo was regarded as being more dependable than gifted.) However, Fritz Lang directed some of that exceptionally moody and powerful film, and Robert Florey and Michael Curtiz, though likewise uncredited, are alleged […]
Dennis Grunes 