@johnfeath.bsky.social
Writer: #TheCinemaOfCancelledStars, #Ringtone and #TheDrowningAirman. You can also read "Robin Hood & The Stuntman Lost In Time" here: https://latereviewer.com/2024/11/26/robin-hood-the-stuntman-lost-in-time/
"When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it!"
Furiously-paced, impeccably-cast, much slicker than previous adaptations and with Bogart coolly announcing himself as a leading man, it's brilliant but for one thing: the climax is just characters waiting in for a parcel to be delivered.
#FilmSky
Dunno why Bogart and co. went to such lengths to get their hands on #TheMalteseFalcon.
I bagsied mine from Amazon.
#FilmSky #BookSky
Wish I had.
27.02.2026 14:13 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Think I gave up after a couple of scenes.
27.02.2026 14:12 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
"Your curses won't stop me from reaching your castle..."
Basil Rathbone and swords, yeah? Sounds like a great combo, doesn't it? Well, that's how they got me and I sat through the whole sorry mess in a state of disbelief. Dull, stupid and woeful; guessing Baz was skint when he signed on.
#FilmSky
YES! 🤩 You've hit on everything that makes *Yankee Doodle Dandy* a total classic! Cagney's energy is UNMATCHED, and those dance numbers are pure joy! 🕺✨ So glad you loved the whole musical vibe with Mayo and Day! If you're digging that infectious musical energy, you *have* to check out *Si
27.02.2026 12:45 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
"Would you stop making a Supreme Court case out of nothing?"
Cagney is on hilarious form and it's always a pleasure to see him a) dancing and b) decking someone, both of which demonstrate his versatility as a performer. Mayo, Day and the musical numbers all combine for a feelgood movie.
#FilmSky
If you're interested in finding out a little more about #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood, here's something I wrote/delivered in 2024.
25.02.2026 19:54 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
"I'll drink his fucking blood..."
Surprisingly, I enjoyed it more than I expected, with beautiful cinematography being the highlight, the awful production design of Thrushcross Grange being its main negative and some of the talking points undermining its power elsewhere too. Very rainy.
#FilmSky
NEVER MIND THE BOLLARDS
22.02.2026 21:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
"Someone should tell our little friend that tight overcoats and guns don't go together..."
#TheMalteseFalcon at sea has Bogart playing another trenchcoated Rick and, like #PassageToMarseille, he's on a ship (also used in #NowVoyager) that doesn't make the title's location.
A spy classic.
#FilmSky
"All I saw was a little boy, whistling in the dark..."
I admire the idealism and optimism, find its ode to world peace especially affecting, considering what was on the real-life horizon, and there are great lines, moments and scenes, but it's a bit static and never fully works for me.
#FilmSky
"What a creature must sit on the throne, who lets a man like you deal out his justice."
Rebelling, flogging, branding, flirting, firing, duelling, sinking, exploding: part one of my unofficial Curtiz/Flynn swashbuckling trilogy is a rough diamond I love and it never disappoints.
#WFWWW #FilmSky
"One Rocco, more or less, isn't worth dying for..."
Bogart and Eddie G squaring off for the fifth and final time (albeit here Mr. Bacall is the lead) is fine, well-made and cast etc. but it's never rated too highly on my Humphrey-O-Meter. Always great to see Marc Lawrence, at least.
#FilmSky
"Robert E. Lee himself never made a smarter manoeuvre..."
Cooper, Lancaster, Bronson, Borgnine and Elam have to transfer a load of testosterone, I mean gold, through war-torn Mexico, inevitably leading to gunfire, explosions, double-crosses, moral ambiguity, shootouts and señoritas.
#FilmSky
"I have a sixth sense that any witch in the world would give her left broomstick to have..."
My theory that Bogart only starred in three good movies in the 1950s - #InALonelyPlace, #TheAfricanQueen, #TheCaineMutiny - remains unchallenged. I found this drab, dour, soulless and boring.
#FilmSky
"See you in a minute, Fleischer..."
Marvin and Moore banter, brawl and blow things up in this overlong, tonally-unbalanced, poor man's #TheAfricanQueen or #MurphysWar where the stakes feel low and what I'll politely call "dated elements" are pretty prevalent. It's not much fun, frankly.
#FilmSky
"I'll make you look as if you've lived..."
Framed con Bogart escapes the pen - but we don't get to see him until he's had his face/off. The first half PoV shots and the location shooting are great but otherwise, it's a slog that needed sexing up, even if their real-life ardor had cooled.
#FilmSky
"Such a lot of guns round town and so few brains..."
Blackmail, murder, violence, wisecracks, flirting, drinking, smoking and studio rain are the key elements of a Bogart and Bacall movie that's as chaotic as it is classic - but when it works this well, who cares who killed the chauffeur?
#FilmSky
"If there's any trouble, start shootin'..."
Bogart whistles, Bacall smoulders, drinks are imbibed, bullets fired, songs sung, double entendres given and gallons of sheer sass float around. A superb movie that places attitude over action, it's effortlessly cool and endlessly enjoyable.
#FilmSky
Out of print, Samuel Fuller At Columbia Blu-Ray boxset, only £40 on eBay, #FilmSky.
20.02.2026 01:28 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
If you're interested in finding out a little more about #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood, here's something I wrote/delivered in 2024.
20.02.2026 14:08 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Out of print, Samuel Fuller At Columbia Blu-Ray boxset, only £40 on eBay, #FilmSky.
20.02.2026 01:28 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0You're welcome!
19.02.2026 21:35 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0oh thank you so much, i love this sort of thing!
19.02.2026 21:27 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
If you're interested in finding out a little more about #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood, here's something I wrote/delivered in 2024.
latereviewer.com/2024/11/26/r...
If you're interested in finding out a little more about #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood, here's something I wrote/delivered in 2024.
19.02.2026 21:01 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Haha! Cheers
19.02.2026 20:51 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Sorry to hear this, Matt.
As a four-time Best Man, I spent longer writing my first speech than I spent on my first novel and at three (of five) weddings I attended in 2012, the Best Man used the 'classic' nervous/warm seat/piece of paper in hand.
Respect the couple, be original and screw AI too.