@matthewbeck.bsky.social
Movies of the Damned (Village of the Damned 1960, Children of the Damned 1964) 🎥
Movies of the Damned (Village of the Damned 1960, Children of the Damned 1964)
John Wyndham was not an especially prolific writer, but a number of his science fiction novels have been adapted for television and cinema with variable results. Perhaps the book that has been most…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Movies of the Damned (Village of the Damned 1960, Children of the Damned 1964) 🎥
Victim (1961) 🎥
Victim (1961)
This is the second part of a two-part article I am writing about Basil Dearden’s films, Sapphire and Victim. In Part 1, I provided a general introduction and a review of Sapphire. Click here …
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Victim (1961) 🎥
I can't help thinking that Franz Kafka would have loved the Google AI attempt at analysing his short story, 'The Great Wall of China'.
December 28, 2025 at 9:03 PM
I can't help thinking that Franz Kafka would have loved the Google AI attempt at analysing his short story, 'The Great Wall of China'.
Vertigo (1958) 🎥
Vertigo (1958)
Vertigo can seem like a cold, clinical and heavily-plotted film. There is also an argument for viewing it as a darkly romantic and passionate love story. Only here the love is unrequited. Judy Bar…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 28, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Vertigo (1958) 🎥
Vera Cruz (1954) 🎥
Vera Cruz (1954)
Robert Aldrich’s 1954 western, Vera Cruz has been described as the first spaghetti western. It is not a spaghetti western of course, but it was an early indicator of what the western was to become …
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 27, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Vera Cruz (1954) 🎥
Les Vampires (1915-16) 🎥
Les Vampires (1915-16)
The days when serial dramas were shown at the cinema are long since over. Most people are now too young to remember seeing any of them. Anyone who has gone back to look at old serials will discover…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Les Vampires (1915-16) 🎥
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 🎥
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Frank Capra’s fantasy comedy, It’s a Wonderful Life is the quintessential Christmas movie. It was released on Christmas Day. The story was based on a greetings card. It takes place at Christmas. Ye…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 25, 2025 at 7:06 PM
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 🎥
A Christmas Story (1983) 🎥
A Christmas Story (1983)
In an age where everything is commercialised, children appreciate Christmas as a time of year that is about more than material goods. It is about family, and good will, and sharing lasting experien…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:56 PM
A Christmas Story (1983) 🎥
Scrooge (1951) 🎥
Scrooge (1951)
Opinions may be divided about which is the best adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol, but Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1951 film Scrooge (named A Christmas Carol in America) will alw…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Scrooge (1951) 🎥
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 🎥
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
In 1843, one of Britain’s best-loved novelists wrote a Christmas-themed novella that would become an immediate favourite with the public, both then and now. That story was of course A Christmas Car…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 🎥
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 🎥
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
The best Christmas movies need to be either very innocent, or else willing to explore darker or more cynical elements. Anything in-between seems like enforced heart-warming nonsense designed to enc…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 🎥
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 🎥
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Frank Capra’s fantasy comedy, It’s a Wonderful Life is the quintessential Christmas movie. It was released on Christmas Day. The story was based on a greetings card. It takes place at Christmas. Ye…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 22, 2025 at 6:06 PM
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 🎥
A Christmas Story (1983) 🎥
A Christmas Story (1983)
In an age where everything is commercialised, children appreciate Christmas as a time of year that is about more than material goods. It is about family, and good will, and sharing lasting experien…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 20, 2025 at 5:33 PM
A Christmas Story (1983) 🎥
The Uninvited (1944) 🎥
The Uninvited (1944)
Nowadays we have so strong an idea of what a haunted house story should involve that The Uninvited might disappoint some viewers. After 1960s movies such as The Haunting and The Innocents, there is…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:08 PM
The Uninvited (1944) 🎥
Unforgiven (1992) 🎥
Unforgiven (1992)
An inexperienced prostitute laughs at the size of her client’s penis. As a result, a woman is horribly disfigured, two men are brutally beaten up, another man is tortured, and nine men die. From su…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Unforgiven (1992) 🎥
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 🎥
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
It is a traditional failing of science-fiction that the stories tend to neglect characterisation in favour of ideas, storyline and visual effects. Perhaps that is one reason why the genre was so we…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 🎥
12 Angry Men (1957)🎥
12 Angry Men (1957)
The power of 12 Angry Men may not be understood by those who have not seen the movie, and perhaps those who have not seen it for a long time may have forgotten its impact too. Much about the plot o…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:36 PM
12 Angry Men (1957)🎥
Journeys with Méliès – The Narrative Movies of Georges Méliès 🎥
Journeys with Méliès – The Narrative Movies of Georges Méliès
There were many remarkable individuals who were involved in the early pioneering years of cinema (the 1890s and first decade of the 1900s), but perhaps none were as colourful or delightful as Georg…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Journeys with Méliès – The Narrative Movies of Georges Méliès 🎥
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) 🎥
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
John Huston made a number of movies in which flawed characters are pursuing a goal that will elude them. With the exception of Moby Dick, where the motive is revenge, the final aim that these men a…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 14, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) 🎥
Touch of Evil (1958) 🎥
Touch of Evil (1958)
With Touch of Evil, we see a turning-point in two areas. It was not the last film noir – arguably some films made today fit into this genre – but it was among the last of the traditional film noirs…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Touch of Evil (1958) 🎥
Top Hat (1935) 🎥
Top Hat (1935)
After the movie industry discovered sound, it was only a matter of time before the musicals would come to play a significant part of its commercial output. Here was a genre that depended entirely o…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Top Hat (1935) 🎥
Tokyo Story (1953) 🎥
Tokyo Story (1953)
We hear films criticised for so many reasons that I could draw up a list of some of the elements that are supposedly necessary to make a good movie. A film should be well-paced, or have a sufficien…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Tokyo Story (1953) 🎥
The Tin Star (1957) 🎥
The Tin Star (1957)
The Tin Star is a movie about law and order. It is not really a movie about justice, or at least the script by Joel Kane, Dudley Nichols and Barney Slater (a rare example of a screenplay for a low-…
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:57 PM
The Tin Star (1957) 🎥
Through a Glass Darkly (1961) 🎥
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
It was Ingmar Bergman’s 1960s movies that did most to cement the image that many people now have of him – that he is a maker of gloomy, po-faced, and not easily accessible arthouse movies, notable …
themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Through a Glass Darkly (1961) 🎥