The Doorway to Hell (1930) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch

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  The Doorway to Hell (1930) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch  American Film, Crime, Drama Academy Awards, 1931- Nominee: Best Writing, Original Story The early 1930s in Hollywood were marked by a frantic, electric energy as the industry found its voice—literally. In the middle of this transition, a gritty little gem called The Doorway to Hell slipped into theaters, offering a blueprint for the gangster epics that would soon dominate the silver screen. While it often sits in the shadow of the titans that followed, this film captures a specific, raw moment in cinematic history that feels surprisingly modern even today. More on Wikipedia or Mubi  The Brutal Elegance of The Doorway to Hell  At its heart, the story follows a young gang leader who attempts to trade the chaos of the underworld for a quiet, respectable life. It is a classic American tragedy wrapped in the smoke of a speakeasy. The narrative leans heavily into the irony of a man trying to es...
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Watch The Sun Shines Bright (1953)

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The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
American Film, Comedy, Western, Drama

 Official Selection

The Sun Shines Bright is a 1953 American comedy-drama Western film directed by John Ford, based on material taken from a series of Irvin S. Cobb "Judge Priest" short stories featured in The Saturday Evening Post in the 1910s, specifically "The Sun Shines Bright", "The Mob from Massac", and "The Lord Provides". Ford had adapted some of the same material in 1934 in his film Judge Priest. That film originally had a scene depicting an attempted lynching of Poindexter (and Priest’s condemnation of the act), but it was cut by 20th Century Fox. The omission was one of the reasons Ford loosely reshaped the Cobb stories two decades later as The Sun Shines Bright for Republic Pictures. This time including Judge Priest's defusing of the mob determined to lynch a young black character named Woodford. In both films, Stepin Fetchit plays the part of Judge Priest's assistant, Poindexter. In later years, the film was championed by critics such as Jonathan Rosenbaum and Dave Kehr, who called it “a masterpiece”. Ford himself had often cited The Sun Shines Bright as his favorite among all his films. However, Peter Bogdanovich, who knew Ford, surmised that the director's "perverse enthronement" of it as one of his very best was largely based on its general dismissal by critics and audiences. It had little to do with the merits of the film itself.

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William Pittman Priest has to use all his wiles to retain his position as judge in his Kentucky hometown, while continuing to be a voice for the town's underclass and for democratic values. More on Wikipedia or Mubi 

Cannes Film Festival, 1953- Official Selection
Viennale, 2004, 2010, 2014- Official Selection
BAFTA Awards, 1954- Nominee: Best Film from any Source
Masterpiece
Full Film

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