ONCE UPON A FOREST – James Horner
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Once Upon a Forest is an animated adventure film with an environmental message, set in the tranquil world of Dapplewood, a lush and harmonious forest community. The story revolves around a group of small animal friends who must embark on a perilous journey to save Michelle, a young badger, who is exposed to toxic gas after a careless human truck driver spills it in the forest, and falls into a deep sleep. The group of friends – Abigail the wood mouse, Edgar the mole, and Russell the hedgehog, supported by their wise old mentor Cornelius – sets off on a quest beyond the borders of their familiar forest to find a rare medicinal herb, and along the way they face various challenges – including evading predators, navigating treacherous terrain, and surviving encounters with humans – while also learning about the delicate balance of nature and the interconnectedness of all living beings. Read more…
ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL – Charles Previn
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1937 Universal Pictures decided to embark on a new musical comedy based on an original story by writer Hans Kraly. Joe Pasternak and Charles R. Rogers were assigned production with a $762,000 budget, Henry Koster was tasked with directing, and Kraly was hired to adapt his story and write the screenplay. For their cast, the studios premiere star Deanna Durbin, who was also a vocally trained soprano, would star as Patsy Cardwell. Joining her would be Adolphe Menjou as John Cardell, renown conductor Leopold Stokowski as himself, Eugene Pallette as John R, Frost, and Alice Brady as Mrs. Frost. Read more…
THE FLASH – Benjamin Wallfisch
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER WAITING UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE DONE SO TO READ IT.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about superhero fatigue, and how the movie industry has been eating itself alive with too many entries in the seemingly endless expanded universes from both Marvel and DC Comics. Director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash has been the recipient of a significant amount of criticism in this regard; it’s the 13th film in the DC series that was kickstarted in 2013 by Man of Steel, and the second of four DC entries slated for 2023, with the others being Shazam: Fury of the Gods, and the upcoming pair Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The film also came under fire for the fact that it’s star Ezra Miller, despite being inundated with legal issues stemming from his apparent real-life mental health problems, has been given the full support and backing of Warner Brothers, while the almost completed Batgirl film was unceremoniously scrapped back in August 2022. Whatever the case is; The Flash had problems from the get-go, and in the days since it’s release it has been a critical failure and a comparative flop with audiences. Read more…
ONE NIGHT OF LOVE – Victor Schertzinger, Gus Kahn, and Louis Silvers
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Columbia Pictures was seeking a romantic musical set in the world of opera. Director Victor Schertzinger brought them a story “One Night of Love” by Charles Beahan and Dorothy Speare that seemed to fit the bill. Columbia executives were impressed and Schertzinger was given the green light to proceed with the project as director, Harry Cohn tasked with overseeing production with a budget of $500,000, and James Gow, S.K. Lauren, and Edmund H. North were hired to write the screenplay. A fine cast was assembled, which included Grace Moore as Mary Barrett, Tullio Carminati as Giulio Monteverdi, Lyle Talbot as Bill Houston, and Mona Barie as Lally. Read more…
THE BISHOP’S WIFE – Hugo Friedhofer
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Samuel Goldwyn came across the novella “The Bishop’s Wife” (1928) by Robert Nathan and decided its tender family tale would translate well to the big screen. He would manage production using his own production company to fund the project, with RKO Pictures distributing. The film suffered repeated setbacks that led to Goldwyn sacking his director William A. Seiter and replacing him with Henry Coster, switching the actors for the two male lead roles, tearing down and rebuilding all the sets, and rewrites of the original screenplay of Leonardo Bercovici and Robert Sherwood, by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. A fine trio of actors were cast, including Cary Grant as Dudley the angel, Loretta Young as Julia Brougham, and David Niven as Bishop Henry Brougham. Read more…
CLIFFHANGER – Trevor Jones
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the silliest, but most enjoyable, action adventure movies of the early 1990s was the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Cliffhanger – aka the film that put many people off mountain climbing for life. Sly plays Gabe Walker, a park ranger and expert mountaineer working in the Colorado Rockies. Walker is left traumatized after the wife of his best friend Hal (Michael Rooker) falls to her death during an ill fated rescue; he plans to retire and tries to convince his girlfriend, fellow ranger Jessie (Janine Turner) to come with him. However, his plans for a quiet life are put on hold when they receive a distress call from the mountain, and Gabe and Hal set off to help – only for them to discover that the distress call was a fake placed by Eric Qualen (John Lithgow), a psychopathic British former military intelligence officer, now the leader of the gang of thieves trying to rob $100 million from the U.S. Treasury. Their plane has crashed on the mountain, and the money is scattered all over the area, and Qualen wants Gabe to retrieve it for them. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and was a major box office hit in the summer of 1993. Read more…
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The play 1923 Outward Bound by Sutton Vane enjoyed successful theatrical runs in London and later on Broadway, where it achieved 144 performances. In 1943 Warner Brothers Studios decided to embark on a remake of their original fantasy film version of Outward Bound from 1930. Jack Warner and Mark Hellinger took charge of production, Edward A. Blatt was tasked with directing, and Daniel Fuchs was hired to write a new screenplay, incorporating story elements from both the original 1924 Broadway play and the 1930 film. A stellar cast was hired, including Paul Henreid as Henry Bergner, Eleanor Parker as Ann Bergner, Sydney Greenstreet as the Examiner, the Reverend Tim Thompson, Edmund Gwenn as Scrubby, John Garfield as Tom Prior, George Coulouris as Lingley, Faye Emerson as Maxine, Sara Allgood as Mrs. Midget, Dennis King as the Reverend Duke, Isobel Elsom as Genevieve Cliveden-Banks and Gilbert Emery as Benjamin Cliveden-Banks. Read more…
DAVE – James Newton Howard
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There’s an old adage, which I’m paraphrasing, which says something like: “those who seek out power are the ones to whom it should not be given”. This philosophy is the heart of Dave, one of the best and most interesting comedy-dramas of the 1990s. The film stars Kevin Kline as Dave Kovic, the pleasant and genial owner of a temp agency in Washington, D.C., who, as a side job, capitalizes on his remarkable resemblance to US President Bill Mitchell by comically impersonating him at events. Dave is even occasionally hired by the Secret Service to impersonate the real Mitchell to allow him to carry out an extramarital affair – and it is while at one of these ‘clandestine’ events that Mitchell suffers a massive stroke and is left incapacitated. To cover it up, and to further his own political aspirations, Mitchell’s chief of staff Bob Alexander (Frank Langella) cooks up a scheme where Dave will continue to act as President, implicate the Vice President (Ben Kingsley) in a scandal, appoint Alexander in his place, and then ‘die’ for real, leaving Alexander in the oval office. However, Dave proves to be unexpectedly excellent at the top job, even reconciling with President Mitchell’s estranged wife Ellen (Sigourney Weaver), to the point where Dave wonders whether he shouldn’t have the job for real. The film co-stars Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, and Charles Grodin, and was directed by Ivan Reitman. Read more…
THE CONSTANT NYMPH – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The 1924 novel The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy was a popular sensation, which spawned a successful play by Basil Dean in 1926, and two movie incarnations; a 1928 silent film starring Ivor Novello and a 1933 talkie with Brian Aherne. Warner Brothers decided that they could offer a definitive film version and so bought the film rights from 20th Century Fox in 1940. The studio secured support from Kennedy to proceed and Henry Blanke and Hal B. Wallis were assigned production with a $1.1 million budget, Edmund Goulding was tasked with directing, and Kathryn Scola was hired to write the screenplay based on Basil Dean’s 1926 version. A superb cast was assembled, including; Joan Fontaine as Tessa Sanger, Charles Boyer as Lewis Dodd, and Alex Smith as Florence Creighton. Read more…
DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY – Randy Edelman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Certain film stars, especially those who die young, often attain a mythical status in popular culture after their death. James Dean is one of these figures. Marilyn Monroe is another. More recently, people like Chadwick Boseman are likely to maintain a significant profile for many years to come. For Asian Americans, their iconic star who died too soon is Bruce Lee, the San Francisco-born actor whose passion for martial arts – and his combining of those two things on film – made him a star. Lee died from a cerebral edema in July 1973 at the age of 32 with just a handful of released films – including The Big Boss and Fist of Fury – to his name; Enter the Dragon, his most famous film, and Game of Death, would be released posthumously. Despite his brief period of stardom, Lee’s movies revolutionized martial arts cinema, with their blend of realistic fight scenes and philosophical overtones. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a biopic based on his life; it stars Jason Scott Lee (no relation) in the title role, co-stars Lauren Holly as his wife Linda, and features Nancy Kwan, Robert Wagner, and Michael Learned in supporting roles. The film is directed by Rob Cohen, and has an original score by Randy Edelman. Read more…
CHEVALIER – Kris Bowers and Michael Abels
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Think of a classical composer. Any classical composer. What sort of face springs to mind? White. Male. Middle Aged. Some sort of imposing hairdo, probably a beard. Formal clothes. A facial expression that combines seriousness with intelligence. It’s the sort of face we’ve all seen for hundreds of years, from Mozart to Beethoven to Brahms, to Tchaikovsky and beyond. It’s what we’re all accustomed to seeing and thinking of when western classical music is mentioned. However, the truth is that there is, and has always been, more diversity than that, both in terms of gender and race, but most of the music of non-white non-male composers was overlooked and, at times, intentionally suppressed in the past, to the point that today very few of us know, and can name, any composers outside those gender-based and race-based confines. This new movie, Chevalier, attempts to redress some of that a little. Read more…
DEVOTION – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1942 Warner Brothers decided to embark upon opulent period piece involving a fictionalized biopic of the renown Brontë sisters. Robert Buckner was assigned production with Keith Winter and Edward Chodorov hired to write the screenplay. Curtis Bernhardt was tasked with directing a lavish and opulent tale and a stellar cast was assembled, including Olivia de Havilland as Charlotte Brontë, Ida Lupino as Emily Brontë, Nancy Coleman as Anne Brontë, Paul Henreid as Reverend Arthur Nicholls and Sydney Greenstreet as the renowned publisher William Makepeace Thackeray. Read more…
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I will always maintain that, with the possible exception of Sir Laurence Olivier, the only director who can successfully translate Shakespeare to the big screen is Kenneth Branagh. His 1989 cinematic debut Henry V was a lightning bolt, doing away with stuffy line readings and instead embracing rich and complex emotions, thereby making the Bard’s prose modern and invigorating. He brought scenes to life with lavish settings and action sequences, and surrounded it all with rich, bold music. His second Shakespeare adaptation after Henry V was this one: Much Ado About Nothing, a romantic comedy first published in 1599. Read more…
PETER PAN & WENDY – Daniel Hart
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I have lost count of how many Peter Pan movies there have been since the work was first published by Scottish author J. M. Barrie in 1904, such is its enduring popularity with audiences across the world. It’s a timeless story of Victorian children who yearn for adventure, of pirates and fairies, of lost boys and native princesses, and of a little boy who can fly and who refuses to grow up. One of the most popular big-screen versions of the story was the 1953 animated film produced by Walt Disney, and now as part of their ‘live action remakes’ series that film has been re-imagined as the magical adventure Peter Pan & Wendy. The film is directed by David Lowery – who also helmed the live-action Disney remake of Pete’s Dragon in 2016 – and stars Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson as the title characters Peter Pan and Wendy Darling, plus Jude Law as Captain Hook, Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell, and Alyssa Wapanatahk as Tiger Lily. Read more…
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