Bringing Up Baby: Bones, Balls, and Butterflies
Howard Hawks’s madcap battle of the sexes is a reminder of how necessary and sneakily profound silliness can be.
Dance, Girl, Dance: Gotta Dance
Pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner brought a rare feminist sensibility to this backstage drama that explores the role of ambition, friendship, and love in the lives of two dancers.
The Great Escape: Not Caught
John Sturges’s POW drama is an ode to ingenuity and cooperation that anticipated a wave of demythologizing war films.
The Hot-Blooded Love Cry at the Cold Heart of Badlands
Mickey & Sylvia’s 1956 hit “Love Is Strange” injects a hint of lustful energy into a screen romance that is otherwise unsettlingly detached.
Something Wild: Last Chances
Jack Garfein’s no-holds-barred account of sexual assault and trauma captures the volatile sensibility of the Actors Studio.
The Long Shadow of Gilda
In Gilda, Charles Vidor’s “violent, sexual, chaotic” noir, the director focused on Rita Hayworth’s skills as an actor and a dancer, eliciting a performance that became iconic in its own right and made her an international superstar.