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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 23h

The Saint in New York (1938). Louis Hayward is a good Saint, softly spoken in a silky Oliver Reed sort of way, very English, but walks with American snap and swagger. He's asked to free New York City from 'the plague of cruel meciless gangsterdom', and he agrees to take it on as a bit of lark

Poster for the movie. Close ups on a young man and young woman, both looking sexy and intrepid. Some gangster-looking wrong 'uns in the bakcground

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Chameleon footbridge by our house

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948). As psychedelic as The Red Shoes, which came out in the same year, but more garish, the art design stupendously overdone, yet somehow perfectly balanced, and Douglas Slocombe dialing up the colours to the point where they ought to break, but don't

Poster for Saraband for Dead Lovers. A handsome but sad-looking couple in 17th century dress

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

"How do you live?" "I steal." I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Targets a brutal penal system that creates rather reforms criminals, but it's more striking as a portrait of a divided America, where the North is humane and civilised, the South utterly barbaric and unreconstructed

Poster for I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Paul Muni in a rumpled fedora looks distressed with a big chain hanging behind him

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"That will make you sleep, my pretty sergeant."

RANDOM LINE FROM A MOVIE THAT FANS OF IT INSTANTLY KNOW

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Scaramouche (1952). No one, and I mean not even Errol Flynn, ever looked better in tights than Stewart Granger in this. Mel Ferrer cuts a fine figure to be sure when he's on his own, but put him next to Stewart and he looks a bit puny

Poster for Scaramouche. Stewart Granger poncing about in tights with a sword. Elsewhere he is in a hot clinch with a fiery haired woman, Eleanor Parker

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The relationship dynamics and the depiction of insanity are not credible at all, but there are sophisticated directorial touches, like the comparison of the Lee Grant character's conflicted sexuality with the cosmic disturbances she observes in her job as an astronomer. And you get frames like this

Carol Kane lounges on a hammock in a cage, looking up at Lee Grant who stands outside

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The Mafu Cage (1978). Lee Grant and Carol Kane are very watchable in this of story of dysfunctional sisters. It's all a bit Baby Jane, and the story takes a similar dive into violent insanity, but it is as much a thoughtful mood piece as it is a gonzo exploitation artefact

Poster for The Mafu Cage. A young woman with voluminous red hair sits on a chair behind iron bars.

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

King Solomon's Mines (1937). Has way more story and action then the 1950 version, with the same sort of non-stop spirit as King Kong, Indiana Jones, and Saturday morning cliffhanger serials. Lots of impressive South African location work. Paul Robeson is as big as the landscape, his voice bigger

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

KIng Solomon's Mines, or Lots of Wild Animals Sneaking up on Deborah Kerr (1950). There's not much to this except for the ace location work, the said wild animals, and National Geographic-like observations of the local peoples. It looks really good and must have been sensational in 1950

Poster for King Solomon's Mines. Stewart Granger saving Deborah Kerr from a variety of stampeding African animals.

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Middle of the Night (1959). First ten minutes is a bunch of old geezers talking about their ailments, who’s died, and telling each other how old they are. So that’s that theme settled. You aways know where you are with Paddy Chayefsky dont you? But turns out you don't here, or at least I didn't

Poster for Middle of the Night. Frederick March and Kim Novak looking intense

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Citizen Kane (1941). Umpteenth viewing, I took a pretty deep dive into it this time as I've been teaching it to my grad students. I feel the same way about it as I always have: a film that I can admire, even revere, but only for its technique really. The story has never made much of a dent in me

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"The wicked very young, wicked very old." The Children's Hour (1961). An earlier version of this story, These Three (1936), was a raw melodrama of immense power. This is more complex, angrier at society as a whole, and much sadder

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). Wiser people than me have written about this lately, so pace everyone, I don’t think it works. Basically it’s creep meets girl, creep doesn’t get girl. But it is baffling on many levels. Why is she entertaining him at all? He's waving about a million red flags

Poster for Chilly Scenes of Winter. A big drawing of a man's smiling bespectacled face. He has snow on his head. Tagline reads: "Love does strange things to people. And Charles is a little strange to start with."

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Magic (1978). I know William Goldman is a legend but the characterisations and dialogue in this are really shaky. Hopkins is technically brilliant in the dual role of ventriloquist and dummy but he feels restrained, almost detached. He should have camped it up a bit like he did with Lecter

Poster for Magic. A scary ventriloquist's dummy with big staring eyes

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

But these films do not get enough love. There are treasures among them. To be fair though, the one that really stands out is the least typical. In fact it is not really like anything else I have ever seen. The Brothers (1947) is an extraordinarily dark and strange film that I can't recommend enough

Poster for The Brothers. A young man grabbing a young woman by the arms, she leans into this rough embrace

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Man in Grey (1943). First of the Gainsborough melodramas, and the prime example. The bad characters are bad enough, but there is enough pity or principle in them to render them properly tragic. They could all have been happy, if only their flaws had let them

Poster for The Man in Grey. A psychotic-looking James Mason holding a rod, ready to thrash someone

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The Wicked Lady (1945). An old favourite of mine, and as much fun as ever. Lockwood and Mason are hot stuff: "Oh, just one more!" "I've heard you say that in other circumstances." Oo-er! But she is a bottomless pit of villainy and poor old Captain Jackson doesn't know what he's getting hisself into

Poster for The Wicked Lady. James Mason leaning in close to Margaret Lockwood, their gazes locked. Elsewhere he is posing as a highwayman with pistols out

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Graham Greene on the ending of The Third Man, and how he underestimated Reed's vision. "I was afraid few people would wait in their seats during the girl's long walk from the graveside" From his preface to The Third Man/The Fallen Idol

One of the very few major disputes between Carol Reed and myself concerned the ending, and he has been proved triumphantly right. I held the view that an entertainment of this kind was too light an affair to carry the weight of an unhappy ending. Reed on his side felt that my ending – indeterminate though it was, with no words spoken – would strike the audience, who had just seen Harry die, as unpleasantly cynical. I admit I was only half convinced; I was afraid few people would wait in their seats during the girl's long walk from the graveside and that they would leave the cinema under the impression that the ending was as conventional as mine and more drawn-out. I had not given enough consideration to the mastery of Reed's direction, and at that stage, of course, we neither of us could have anticipated Reed's brilliant discovery of Mr Karas, the zither player.

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Sirāt (2025). It's the Odyssey really isn't it, with its mortal little crew mere playthings of the gods. But it has a much more optimistic view of human nature. I loved the portrait of those people who had become a family, and how they took in needy strangers. It's very quietly and very well done

Poster for Sirāt. A big desert landscape with two wagons parked up, some big sound system speakers set up and people sitting around, all looking small in the middle distance

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

New guitar sticker art from a local artist who came to our gig. Very happy with this

Sherwood green Fender Jazzmaster with a sticker showing a painting of an astronaut in a space helmet surrounded by weird and wonderful decorations

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The Brothers (1947). This is a jaw-dropper. Young orphan Patricia Roc gets sent to skivvy for the dour Macrae family in their stony little bothy on the isle of Skye. Skye is as grim as you like. The only law is fascistic Catholicism, the casting of pagan curses, and the lynch mob...

Poster for The Brothers. A young, lusty looking man holds a woman roughly by the arms. She looks like she doesn't mind this at all

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I drink the hard knock life beer FiLite. It's half the price of most other beers but it tastes fine and makes you feel like Song Kang-ho looks here

The poor family in Parasite all drinking cans of FiLite. Song Kang-ho is smiling happily

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Grabbing a bit of light refreshment. Just noticed I am running on free wifi from the kimbap shop three doors down. I ❤️ mah country

A tin of beer on a table outside a convenience store

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Forgot the poster for this. Won't be able to sleep if I don’t put it up

Poster for The Root of All Evil. Phyllis Calvert looking horrified for no apparent reason

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There's a scene near the beginning where she tries to buy back her own dog at an auction, but gets outbid. Absolutely brutal. I hope I never have to go though anything like this again any time soon

A young woman, Phyllis Calvert, looking like she's just lost her dog

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"What is more unreal and stylised than Cagney? No human being ever behaved the way he does. And every moment of Cagney, his entire life in films, is truth." - Orson Welles The more melodrama I watch, the more I think Orson was right

A young woman in 19th century dress leans against a pillar and looks more heartbroken than anyone has ever been.
Phyllis Calvert in The Magic Bow (1946)

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

And this is what she looks like when she's looking at Stewart Granger in concert. Now THAT'S what I call a close-up

Phyllis Calvert in close-up, hair up, pendant earrings, rapt expression, mouth slightly open, eyes glittering like diamonds

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The Magic Bow (1946). James Mason refused to do it, as did Margaret Lockwood who was "offended by the script". Jean Kent did it but called it "a film that went wrong". Granger thought the role of Paganini wrong for his "boxer's hands" and he had a point. The actual music is great though!

Poster for The Magic Bow. Stewart Granger plays the violin, Phyllis Calvert looks on

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

RIP Richard O'Sullivan. He was a big part of my childhood. I LOVED him in Dick Turpin when I was a kid, and it has really stood the rest of time. Top-tier stuff, busting this out again now

The complete Dick Turpin DVD from Network

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Oh yeah, and if you want to see a 20-year-old Pete Murray lunking about unconvicingly this is the film for you

A young Pete Murray looking uncomfortable as a Spanish waiter

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Granger, naturally, said that the film was terrible. I don't know why he never had a good word for these Gainsboroughs. They made him a star, and he must have had a ball making them. Just look at him here! He is so good too, his slightly unreal sculpted look just perfect for these cartoony films

Granger done up in a flamboyant sort of Zorro costume

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Scorching showdown between Jean Kent and Anne Crawford, who both know how to be larger-than-life gorgeous. Stewart Granger has to choose between them. Crawford owns him really, but Kent gets a nude swimming scene that audiences might not have seen the likes of since the pre-code Tarzan flicks

Jean Kent as a gypsy woman, smouldering with narrowed eyes

Anne Crawford playing a fair fragrant daughter of the English gentry looking calm but deadly

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Dennis Price is marvellous as the cad, and he trowels it on with a delicious edge of humor that Gainsborough's usual dastard, James Mason, lacks. There's some scintillating interplay with Robert Helpmann, his greasy-souled henchman. A memorable and truly repulsive double act

Price and Helpmann, looking like they're up to no good

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Caravan (1946). Satisfying tropey Gainsbrough, throws all sorts in the mix. Stewart Granger is Odysseus with Jean Kent as Calypso, but he's also a bit Edmond Dantès & a bit Zorro. Set in a fantasy world where there's no language barrier between an English country lady & a cave-dwelling Spanish gypsy

Poster for Caravan. Stewart Granger, bare-chested, holds a whip and is prepared to use it. Below he kisses Anne Crawford, while Jean Kent dances in skimpy Gypsy gear

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

A movie that takes place where you are from

Nicol Williamson walking up a back alley in Liverpool in The Reckoning

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Mood in the Department of British and American studies

Magnetic letters on a noticeboard say, "funny alone guys" surrounded by random letters making a heart pendant shape

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

They Were Sisters was a big hit at the time though, so what do I know. And there is one rather wonderful scene, Anne Crawford and Phyllis Calvert, turning it on, letting their faces do the talking, script be damned, no doubt or inhibition, a privilege to see

Anne Crawford and Phyllis Calvert, their faces close together, looking distraught. The next three pictures show them seconds apart in the same scene, displaying various expressions of being distraught

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

They Were Sisters (1945). This is the only Gainsborough melodrama I haven't enjoyed so far, and I disliked it pretty hard. There's a good story in there that anyone can see, but the film doesn't know what it is. Lots of distractions and dead ends, which wouldn't necessarily be bad, but...

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Rainy season here. Torrential. Had to hang my socks up to dry in the classroom

A pair of wet socks hanging a stool frame

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A Place of One's Own (1945). Classed as one of Gainsborough's melodramas, it is really nothing of the sort. The course of true love runs smooth, the social classes rub along fine, there is very little earthly conflict of any sort. This is a modest ghost story that takes its time and leaves its mark

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Just been down the multiplex to see The End of Oak Street, a bravura multiplex experience. Unpretentious, instantly forgettable, had me wriggling gleefully on a hook for a good hour. Bottled physical cinema, 100 proof, no hangover

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Love Story (1944). This is quite a lovely film, not at all cartoonish like the period Gainsboroughs, and with the drama coming out of rounded characters, and dilemmas that are as horribly believable as they are wildy unlikely. Fair to call this a forerunner of Sirk's melodramas

Poster for Love Story. A man and woman embrace while looking sad. Wildly misleading tagline reads: TOLD IN THE FRANK CARE-FREE SPIRIT OF MODERN LOVERS

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Love this film, I think Louis Hayward is such a wild, engaging swashbuckler. And Joan Bennett looks like she’s carved out of marble

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Fanny by Gaslight (1944). Stewart Granger complained the characters were "drippy" and he's right. But him and Phyllis Calvert (or Cehlvert as she would pronounce it) are too attractive for us to care. He's impossibly debonair, she's quivery-lipped but indomitable in the face of outrageous fortune

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Well I have chosen this for Grad School this coming semester. We are going to do Citizen Kane and The Third Man. They won't know them, and they won't be able to argue with them. Only problem is I have to watch Citizen Kane again now

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

"If you leave me, I'll die!" "Don't be melodramatic." 😆 Jassy (1947). Last of the Gainsborough melodramas gets off to a blazing start in a Regency hellhole where you might lose your estate, get dunked as a witch, beaten mute by your own father, or shot dead for nothing by the drunk squire

Poster for Jassy. A smiling woman in a crimson gown. A dark scowling Regency dastard holding a cane.

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Ocean's 11 (1969). This would have been better as Ocean's 3, or maybe 4, plus Akim Tamiroff, who is great. Basically you just want more of Frank, Sammy, and Dino, and less of almost everyone else. The 'getting the gang back together' part of the film goes on waay too long for one thing

Poster for Ocean's 11, fearuring close-ups of the leading actors

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