Alan Ladd, briefly though memorably appearing as a reporter in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), was not nearly so good in the crime melodramas which followed that developed his stardom. However, he is absolutely wonderful in Whispering Smith, playing the same (mostly) straight-down-the-track railroad detective—writer Frank H. Spearman’s creation—that H. B. Warner and George O’Brien, […]
Daily Archives: December 18, 2009
From a novel by Nick Hornby, About a Boy was co-written (along with Peter Hedges) by co-directors Chris and Paul Weitz, New York brothers and the sons of actress Susan Kohner, who had had a tasteless hit with American Pie (1999). Another hit, this one fuses grim familial melodrama—a lonely, financially struggling single mother attempts […]
Dennis Grunes 