Crime doesn’t pay, but it certainly does make life a lot more entertaining – this seems to be the principle that Jean Lucas uses as motivation for his day-to-day life, and after being released from prison for the fourteenth time, decides that he is going to go straight – until he accidentally walks straight into…

Sheer cinematic perfection does exist, and it comes in the form of The Circus, which is quite simply one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever produced. My reverence for Charlie Chaplin has been well-documented, and in both my personal and professional life, I tend to draw a lot of inspiration from his work. His…

Throughout the history of literature, there are few characters quite as iconic as Sherlock Holmes, who has been the source of many productions in every conceivable medium for well over a decade, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic creation becoming a part of the cultural vernacular in a way that very few other characters could…

If you are looking for pure entertainment, you can easily find it by choosing any of the several comedies produced by major studios in the 1960s – the Swinging Sixties was not only influential when it came to music and fashion, with the humour that was brought along with it being quite remarkable, even if…

If there is a theme with which Hollywood has had its longest and most passionate love affair, it would be that of its ingenuity. The industry loves the sound of its voice, and the more celebratory a work based around the concept of filmmaking is, the more admired it tends to be. We can see…

The specific moment that signalled the transition between the sound and silent era has been a subject of debate for decades, especially amongst those who are eager to promote possible alternatives to those canonically referred to as pioneering works. Officially, it was Al Jolson and his distinctive voice that first captivated the audience’s attention in…

We have all at some point encountered Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ theory of the Five Stages of Grief, the self-explanatory belief that every individual will undergo a few different psychological experiences after an immense loss. It’s formed the foundation for a lot of therapy towards those during the mourning period – but like all of psychology, it…

Seeing any great actor or director fall from grace in such a way that questions their entire artistic integrity is never a particularly entertaining experience, especially when they are making something that seems to have good intentions. In the case of Blame It on Rio, we have an example of both an actor (Michael Caine)…

At some point, we have all likely heard the adage that “people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime”, which relates to the idea that some friendships are meant to be temporary, while others become a much more important part of one’s life. We can apply this premise to just…

There is a very narrow membrane between being tough and being mean, and as the protagonist in the play The Meanest Man in the World (a starring vehicle for writer-performer George M. Cohan in the 1920s) will attest, it is extremely easy to cross between the two without realising it – and sometimes, it can…