Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here.

North by Northwest is the third film I’ve seen by Alfred Hitchcock, which triples the number of Hitchcock films I’d seen before the start of this year. Hitchcock is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, which is why it’s particularly disappointing that I have nothing at all new or interesting to say about him or this movie.

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Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here.

Second note: this review contains plot points from throughout the movie, including the final resolution of the main characters. It’s not a good movie, so you shouldn’t watch it, but if you want to watch it without any prior knowledge, skip this review.

This movie is icky. That’s the best word for it. If you prefer, we could also go with gross, or distasteful, or “oh god, now I totally get what the sexual revolution in the 60s and 70s was about, we needed if it this is really how things were.”

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Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here.

With a dozen memorable songs, sharp comedy (both in words and physical), and amazingly choreographed dance numbers, Singin’ in the Rain is the pinnacle of movie musical perfection (if you ask me, which you clearly did, since you’re reading this review).

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Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here.

The first lines in An American in Paris, as the camera lovingly pans over Paris and we see all the famous architecture and tree-lined streets, are “This is Paris. And I’m an American who lives here.” You don’t say! It’s so useful when movies tell you right up front what kind of movie they are.

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Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here. Although I read a whole whack of Classic Literature in high school, and a couple plays were in that mix, I never managed to read anything by Tennessee Williams. Still haven’t, actually. My high school didn’t perform any of his works, nor did any nearby high schools where I might have gone to see a friend perform. Basically, coming in to this, I was a total Tennessee Williams neophyte. Except I wasn’t. Because I saw Blue Jasmine last summer, purely for awards-season reasons, as Cate Blanchett was talked about as the shoe-in for the Best Actress Oscar (which she won, more than six months later). Continue reading →

Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here.

I don’t know if it’s because I wasn’t buying into the story, but I was shocked when I learned that Mrs. Miniver is in the extremely exclusive club of having had a whopping five actors nominated for Academy Awards. Now, basic math indicates that since there are only four acting categories (Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress), that means Miniver got nominations in all of them and two nominations in one. There are only three other films in the history of the Oscars to achieve that (From Here to Eternity, Bonnie and Clyde, and Network), so Mrs. Miniver is in rarefied air indeed.

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Note: This Week in the Box is a year-long series where Sam works through the entire Warner Brothers 50 Film Collection box set. To find reviews of the other films in the series and see the complete list, click here.

Things I knew about The Maltese Falcon before watching it:

• It is a classic example of the MacGuffin
• It is film noir, whatever that means

What that apparently means is that Humphrey Bogart is smarmy and annoying, there’s a woman in a lot of trouble, and several people get killed. Also, it’s in black and white. But plenty of other movies I’ve seen from this time period have also been in black and white, so that isn’t as notable.

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