Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Movies reviewed by John Grant.

Cosmic Voyage

Posted on June 10, 2014 by John Grant

Director Vasili Zhuravlyov created a fun world that consists of a Soviet space institute and the treacherous valleys of the moon in the 1935 Soviet silent film “Kosmicheskiy Reys: Fantasticheskaya Novella,”  or “Cosmic Voyage.” The film premiered in the United … Continue reading →

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Ramona

Posted on June 7, 2014 by John Grant

Prior to the screening of “Ramona,” a 1928 silent film starring Dolores Del Rio, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra led the large crowd at the Castro Theater in a rendition of the song “Ramona.” The tango-influenced number put everyone … Continue reading →

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The Parson’s Widow

Posted on June 4, 2014 by John Grant

The great Danish (and Swedish) director, Carl Theodore Dreyer, left a memorable trail of films, including the 1928 masterpiece “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” “Master of the House (1925)” and “Michael (1924).” Rather than clutter his films with elaborate … Continue reading →

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Song of the Fisherman

Posted on June 1, 2014 by John Grant

With names like “Little Cat” and “Little Monkey,” the characters in the 1934 Chinese silent film “Song of the Fisherman (Yu Quang Qu),” seem destined for a wild and strenuous life. Being born in a poor fishing family in a … Continue reading →

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Midnight Madness

Posted on May 30, 2014 by John Grant

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) showed “Midnight Madness,” a film from 1928, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on Friday, May 30, 2014. Rather than being a film about nightlife in the big city, most of the action … Continue reading →

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Mughal-E-Azam

Posted on May 25, 2014 by John Grant

“Mughal-E-Azam,” a Hindi language film released in 1960, became the most expensive Indian film ever made, but rewarded its makers with record crowds and a favorable response from critics. It tells the story of a love affair between a Mughal … Continue reading →

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Baseball’s Last Hero

Posted on May 22, 2014 by John Grant

Richard Rossi’s “Baseball’s Last Hero: 21 Clemente Stories (2013),” tells the life story of the greatest right fielder of all time, Roberto Clemente, who played his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I grew up in Pittsburgh and I remember … Continue reading →

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The Blind Side

Posted on May 13, 2014 by John Grant

“The Blind Side,” released in 2009, does a good job in establishing its non-football story before delving into the inevitable big-game sequence that occurs in all sports movies. Sandra Bullock, who won an academy award for best actress for her … Continue reading →

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Can-Can

Posted on May 7, 2014 by John Grant

I put the DVD for “Can-Can,” the 1960 Twentieth Century Fox film, in my machine and the screen went black while some orchestral music played. It took me a while to realize that the film starts with an Overture that … Continue reading →

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On Our Merry Way

Posted on May 4, 2014 by John Grant

“On Our Merry Way,” a 1948 film directed mostly by King Vidor, could have been called “Making a Movie With Friends.” Producer Burgess Meredith and his wife, Paulette Goddard, star in this vignette movie that also features their friends Henry Fonda, … Continue reading →

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