It's a Classical Life

SOURCE   It's been a while since I've written a Saturday matinee post but when I watched the film The Blue Dahlia  (1946), written by Raymond Chandler and starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake I knew I had to share it with you. I loved this film so much, and even weeks after watching it I keep thinking back on it. The great thing is, you can watch online too here . The Blue Dahlia  is considered one of the original film noir movies. If you've never heard of the term before, film noir it refers to a particular style of movie, made popular in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Elements of this particular style include dark lighting aspects, a crime or mystery to be solved (they often included detectives or private investigators) and a moral lesson to be learnt. Post WWII films made also included some of the challenges that society faced after the end of the war. The Blue Dahlia does this rather poignantly through the scenes of the character Buzz Wanchek (William Bendix) who s...

Hello, and welcome back to It's a Classical Life! If this is your first time here then I hope you will leave a comment saying hi and that something inspires you as you go about your day. As my mother cleaned out her house recently, I inherited a small collection of classic movies on DVD. They had been my grandmother's and my mother, knowing how much I love the classics, offered them to me after my grandmother passed away. I've watched a few of them already and though it would be a great idea to share some thoughts I've had whilst watching. This new little series (which won't be every week) is called Saturday Matinee, so if you're interested in classic films, please be sure to keep an eye out for that heading.  Today, I want to begin with a silly, but fun favourite: Three Coins in the Fountain. This American film was made in 1954 and won two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Best Song). Set in Rome, Italy it follows the lives of three American secretaries w...