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John Ford is one of the greatest directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, most famous for his Western films, for which Ford often collaborated with John Wayne. Ford is one of the most influential American directors, and he played a pioneering role in Hollywood's transition from silent films to talkies. In a career spanning over 50 years, he made more than 100 films, and is often considered the first auteur in Hollywood.

Critically acclaimed, John Ford holds the record for most directing Oscars, having won four of them during his illustrious career. While his Westerns are his most celebrated films, his dramatic works are equally compelling; in fact, Western star and legendary director Clint Eastwood's favorite John Ford movie isn't, surprisingly, a Western. A true master of his craft, Ford dabbled in almost every genre, and was consistently successful at making good films in them all.

The Whole Town's Talking...

From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney has been known to include some darker elements in their family-friendly animated features. While Disney is known for its high-quality films aimed at young audiences, it has never avoided including dark aspects that pushed the age rating to its limits. Most of these darker stories were featured in the features released throughout the 20th century, although some of the more recent releases have occasionally featured dark moments, storytelling, or visuals.

These darker elements vary from scary villains to complex themes to terrifying visuals. These moments not only pushed the limitations of its age limit but also showed their young audiences the power of complex and darker storytelling while remaining mostly family-friendly. Some of these moments in Disney films stood out as especially dark.

The Pink Elements From Dumbo Disney Pushed the Limits of the G Rating...

Disney's animated movies have a rich history dating back to 1937, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being their first fully animated film. Disney's films cover a wide range of genres and storytelling styles, from musical masterpieces like Fantasia to heartwarming tales like Bambi. Many of Disney's classic animated films are available to watch on platforms like Disney+, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, Vudu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Watching Disney's animated movies in order reveals the studio's incredible track of animated features. Established in 1923, The Walt Disney Studios has produced a huge library of films that have become an established part of many people's lives. Their animated movies can serve as a comfort, with their memorable storylines and lovable characters.

From musical masterpieces to sweet animal stories to brave princess tales and everything in between, Disney has some of the most iconic stories ever told in animation form. This includes...

No film of the Hays Code era revels in its own perversity quite like Mad Love (1935). Mad science, body horror, insanity, obsession, executions, gaslighting, sadomasochism—it’s all here and presented with unparalleled excellence of craft. Though it may seem tame compared to pre-Code fare like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Freaks, and Island of Lost Souls (both 1932), it manages to just barely sneak its lurid subject matter by the censors under a layer of dark humor, exceptional cinematography, and a masterful performance by Peter Lorre in his first American film.

After Dracula proved to be a huge success for Universal, other Hollywood studios became eager to get in on the horror game, though many of these studios felt the genre was beneath them. Metro Goldwyn Mayer was considered the most prestigious of the golden-age studios, famous for its big budget musicals, epic spectaculars, and boasting “more stars than there are in the heavens.

What a Halloween treat! Karl Freund stopped directing after this classic, which is a shame — it’s German expressionism’s most exciting foray into classic Hollywood horror of the ’30s. Peter Lorre is incredible as Dr. Gogol, making himself as creepy and repulsive as possible while retaining a giddy audience sympathy. It’s Grand Guignol all the way — macabre, funny and irresistible. The screenplay toys with uncomfortable Body Horror and psychological weirdness; Colin Clive must contend with becoming the recipient of murderous hands. Frances Drake is the beauty that drives Dr. Gogol mad, and comedian Edward Brophy is a highlight in a non-comedic scene. “I have conquered science. Why can I not conquer love?!”

Mad Love

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1935 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 68 (86) min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date October 19, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Sara Haden, Edward Brophy, Henry Kolker, Keye Luke, May Beatty, Billy Gilbert,...

Above: Shit-heels at the diner.As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***The Lindbergh Baby Case enthralled not just the world's journalists; in the funny pages, Dick Tracy was soon on the case, in a fiction-reality crossover soon brought to a halt by the tragic discovery of the murdered tot's remains. But movies continued to exploit the theme of baby-napping, and for some reason George Marshall, a useful Fox journeyman, was most associated with this particular sub-sub-sub-genre.Marshall had worked with Laurel & Hardy and is best known today for Destry Rides Again. Despite these strong comic associations,...

In the last decade of his career, John Ford produced and directed this ode to crony politics, with Spencer Tracy as an old-fashioned mayor who uses underhanded ploys to do right by his constituents. Tracy is backed by a veritable army of supporting actors, neatly orchestrated in Frank Nugent’s screenplay. We’re talking scores of John Ford stock company players; it’s like old home week, with Ford in firm control.

The Last Hurrah

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date September 18, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Basil Rathbone, Pat O’Brien, Donald Crisp, James Gleason, Edward Brophy, John Carradine, Willis Bouchey, Basil Ruysdael, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Ford, Frank McHugh, Carleton Young, Frank Albertson, Anna Lee, Ken Curtis, Jane Darwell, O.Z. Whitehead, Charles B. Fitzsimons, Arthur Walsh, Bob Sweeney, William Leslie, Danny Borzage, Richard Deacon, James Flavin,...

'The Magnificent Ambersons': Directed by Orson Welles, and starring Tim Holt (pictured), Dolores Costello (in the background), Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead, this Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Booth Tarkington's novel earned Ricardo Cortez's brother Stanley Cortez an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. He lost to Joseph Ruttenberg for William Wyler's blockbuster 'Mrs. Miniver.' Two years later, Cortez – along with Lee Garmes – would win Oscar statuettes for their evocative black-and-white work on John Cromwell's homefront drama 'Since You Went Away,' starring Ricardo Cortez's 'Torch Singer' leading lady, Claudette Colbert. In all, Stanley Cortez would receive cinematography credit in more than 80 films, ranging from B fare such as 'The Lady in the Morgue' and the 1940 'Margie' to Fritz Lang's 'Secret Beyond the Door,' Charles Laughton's 'The Night of the Hunter,' and Nunnally Johnson's 'The Three Faces...

Neurotic coward Eddie Cantor decides to defend an amusement park against gangsters, and nothing but fun ensues! Ethel Merman has a small role here, but we're more than entertained by Parkyakarkus, Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, Jack Larue. Plus Sally Eilers, the Goldwyn Girls and a terrific forgotten talent, billed in this movie as Rita Rio. Strike Me Pink DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1936 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 100 min. / Street Date August 4,, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, Parkyakarkus, Rita Rio (Dona Drake), Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, Jack Larue, Gordon Jones, Helen Lowell The Goldwyn Girls. Cinematography Merritt Gerstad, Gregg Toland Film Editor Sherman Todd Original Music (Alfred Newman) Dance Director Robert Alton Special Effects Gilbert Pratt, Ray Binger, Paul Eagler Written by Francis Martin, Frank Butler, Walter Deleon from the story and novel Dreamland by Clarence Buddington Kelland Produced by Samuel Goldwyn Directed by...

Norma Shearer: The Boss' wife was cast in 'The Divorcee.' Norma Shearer movies on TCM: Early talkies and Best Actress Oscar Note: This Norma Shearer article is currently being revised and expanded. Please Check back later. Norma Shearer, one of the top stars in Hollywood history and known as the Queen of MGM back in the 1930s, is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of Nov. 2015. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that even though its parent company, Time Warner, owns most of Shearer's movies, TCM isn't airing any premieres. So, if you were expecting to check out a very young Norma Shearer in The Devil's Circus, Upstage, or After Midnight, you're out of luck. (I've seen all three; they're all worth a look.) It's a crime that, music score or no, restored print or no, TCM/Time Warner don't make available for viewing the...

Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...

Way back in July of last year, Disney announced that it is bringing the 1941 classic animated adventure Dumbo back to theaters with a new live-action take on the story. Today it was announced that Tim Burton will direct that movie. This is the second time Tim Burton has taken one of Disney's animated classics and given it a human-spin, following the box office success of 2010's Alice in Wonderland.

Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey announced the director earlier this morning. Dumbo is still in development and does not yet have a release date. It is just one of a number of animated movies-turned-live action for the studio, with Cinderella in theaters this week. Disney is also currently in production on a live-action/CGI take on The Jungle Book directed by Jon Favreau, which will be in theaters April of next year. This will be followed by Alice...

Dumbo

Written by Otto Englander, Joe Grant, and Dick Huemer

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen

USA, 1941

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ catalogue began with an artistic bang when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio were released to audiences. While not the commercial successes the studio fantasized about, both demonstrated the sharp if simple storytelling and, arguably more impressive, a quality of animation that seemed unparalleled at the time. The issue, alas, was the lack of monetary success (especially with the company’s other 1940 release, Fantasia), a result that discouraged Walt Disney from swinging for the fences with his next outing, Dumbo. As far as the script is concerned, Dumbo performs some extraordinarily unorthodox circus acts to tell what is an extremely simple story, which compensates for the lower quality of the visuals, even though the latter is not quite as bad as it seems upon first glance.

The story begins in Florida,...

Air Force screens on October 19 at the Museum of the Moving Image's retrospective, The Complete Howard Hawks. For more of Dan Sallitt's writing on Hawks, go here and here.

Air Force occupies an unusual place in Howard Hawks' filmography. As a war propaganda film, its subject matter is necessarily tendentious, with an overt message that is not only coercive but also repetitive. Hawks, whose control over his choice of material was quite unusual by Hollywood standards of the time, shows no sign of resisting the project's wartime agenda, and willingly accepts the character stereotyping and up-front ideology that comes with the package: the eager young recruits, the cynic to be converted, the proud parent set up for loss. In addition, Hawks' streak of dark humor combines with the project's built-in tone of righteous vengeance against the Japanese in a way that can strike peacetime audiences as callous.

On the other hand,...

Eleanor Parker: Palm Springs resident turns 91 today Eleanor Parker turns 91 today. The three-time Oscar nominee (Caged, 1950; Detective Story, 1951; Interrupted Melody, 1955) and Palm Springs resident is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of June 2013. Earlier this month, TCM showed a few dozen Eleanor Parker movies, from her days at Warner Bros. in the ’40s to her later career as a top Hollywood supporting player. (Photo: Publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in An American Dream.) Missing from TCM’s movie series, however, was not only Eleanor Parker’s biggest box-office it — The Sound of Music, in which she steals the show from both Julie Andrews and the Alps — but also what according to several sources is her very first movie role: a bit part in Raoul Walsh’s They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 Western starring Errol Flynn as a dashingly handsome and all-around-good-guy-ish General George Armstrong Custer. Olivia de Havilland...

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

Abduction - Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina

Dolphin Tale 3D - Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr.

Killer Elite - Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro

Moneyball - Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill

Movie of the Week

Moneyball

The Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill

The Plot: The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

The Buzz: Correct me if I’m wrong, but has there ever been a really great baseball movie? Yes, there have been a few, like Major League, Bull Durham, and A League of Their Own. Those are comedies though, so let me rephrase the question: has there ever been a really great baseball drama? Hmm, The Natural was decent, albeit dated and a consequently a bit cheesy.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the animated classic Dumbo with brand new Blu-ray and DVD editions hitting the shelves today, September 20. We have a new contest running and we're giving away copies of this Blu-ray edition to our readers. You know these prizes will go fast, so enter this contest today.

Winners Receive:

Dumbo 70th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray

Here's How To Win!

Just "Like" (fan) the MovieWeb Facebook page (below) and then leave a comment below telling us why these prizes must be yours!

If you already "Like" MovieWeb, just leave a comment below telling us why these prizes must be yours!

In celebration of this landmark film's 70th anniversary, experience the daring adventures of the world's only flying elephant with a dazzling all-new digital restoration and brilliant Disney Enhanced High Definition Theatre Mix Sound. The inspirational tale of Dumbo, the courageous baby elephant...

Take that, Snow White! Looks like Peter Jackson's epic two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" will feature a lot more than seven dwarves. New Line chose Comic-Con weekend to unleash the below photo of the films' surly-looking dwarf crew. Take a deep breath -- from left to right: Ed Brophy as Nori, Dean O'Gorman as Fili, Mark Hadlow as Dori, James Nesbitt as Bofur, Peter Hambleton as Gloin, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield (center), Ken Stott as Balin, John Callen as Oin, Stephen Hunter as Bombur, William Kircher as Bifur, Adam Brown as Ori and Aidan...

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has just announced the 1941 classic Dumbo will be re-released in an all new 70th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray and DVD on September 20. The studio has also released a new trailer for this Bd release, which you can watch below. You can also read the full press release with details on pricing, special features, and the restoration process of this animated classic below the trailer.

Click to watch Dumbo Trailer!

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment invites audiences to let their spirits soar with the release of the beloved animated classic Dumbo, for the first time ever in high definition as a 70th Anniversary Edition, coming on September 20, 2011. The Academy Award-winning (1942, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture) favorite will take flight for the first time with a premium restoration in stunning Blu-ray highdefinition featuring pristine 7.1 Digital Theater System High-Def Surround Sound, allowing fans to see more,...

Is the IRS making you feel a poorer? As today is tax day, Disc Dish is celebrating with some great films in which characters use not-so-legal ways to fill their wallets (not that we’re advocating any, but they’re so much fun to watch.)

The question is, how well do you know your cinematic capers? Below are some of the best heist movies.

How many film titles can you match with the prize the characters are trying to steal? If you get tripped up, steal a peak at the answers.

The Movie The Loot 1. Larceny, Inc. (1942) – Ex-cons J. Chalmers Maxwell (Edward G. Robinson), Jug Martin (Broderick Crawford) and Weepy Davis (Edward Brophy) launch an elaborate scheme to get to this enticing jackpot. But there’s one problem – the fake luggage shop they set up to mask their criminal goings-on is doing a booming business and taking them away from the task at hand.

When Disney released the first six volumes of its Animation Collections it wasn’t surprising to see Mickey and the Beanstalk or The Prince and the Pauper headlining two of the releases. After all, they represented two of the crown jewels of Disney’s short films collection. What was alarming was the omission of Mickey’s Christmas Carol, the beautifully animated take on Dickens’ seminal classic using some of the best old time Disney characters. There are a precious few animated Christmas films worthy of annual viewing. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown are two of them and Mickey’s Christmas Carol rounds out the trio.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)

Directed by Burny Mattinson and written by Burny Mattinson and Tony Marino

Starring Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, Hal Smith, Will Ryan, Eddie Carroll, Patricia Parris, Dick Billingsley

Ebenezer Scrooge, ghosts of Christmas past, present and future...