Category Archives: Great Movies

By Robert J. Avrech | April 25, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: The Nun’s Story

Tweet We continue and conclude our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here. 20. The Nun’s Story, 1959 Think of Audrey Hepburn and [...]

Also posted in Audrey Hepburn, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood, Nuns in Hollywood | Tagged A Stranger Among Us, Fred Zinneman, Kathryn C. Hulme, Movies of Faith, Peter Finch, Religious movies, Robert Anderson, Sidney Lumet | 27 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 11, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Vertigo

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For a listing of the greatest movies of the 20s and 30s click here. 18. Vertigo, 1958 In 1962, Sight & Sound magazine, a British publication, launched a ten-yearly poll to evaluate [...]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Vertigo | Tagged Body Double, Brian De Palma, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Seven Samurai, Sight & Sound | 26 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 4, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Touch of Evil

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For a listing of the greatest movies of the 20s and 30s click here. 17. Touch of Evil, 1958 In one of the most effective opening sequences ever filmed, the camera focuses [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Orson Welles, Touch of Evil | Tagged Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Touch of Evil | 21 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | March 28, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For a listing of the greatest movies of the 20s and 30s click here. 16. The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956 In François Truffaut’s 1967 ground-breaking interview with Alfred Hitchcock, on [...]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Greatest Movies of the 1950s | Tagged Bernard Herrmann, Doris Day, Jimmy Stewart | 14 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | March 14, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For a listing of the greatest movies of the 20s and 30s click here. 15. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956. This film has no CGI. No SFX. And no gripping battle [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood | Tagged Dana Wynter, Daniel Mainwaring, Don Siegel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jack Finney, Kevin McCarthy, Science Fiction, Walter Wanger | 21 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | March 7, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Ordet

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 14. Ordet (English: The Word), 1955. On a rural Danish farm, a young man gets up from his bed in the middle of the night, wanders [...]

Also posted in Carl Th. Dreyer, Greatest Movies of the 1950s | Tagged Birgitte Federspiel, Cay Kristiansen, Christian movies, Conservative Art, Danish Cinema, Emil Hass Christensen, Henrik Malberg, Jan Wahl, Kaj Munk, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Religious movies | 6 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 28, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Night of the Hunter

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 13. Night of the Hunter, 1955 Night of the Hunter, more than any other movie I have ever seen, succeeds brilliantly in evoking the terrors of [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Lillian Gish, Movies | Tagged Billy Chapin, Charles Laughton, David Grubb, Jeffrey Couchman, Night of the Hunter, Robert Mitchum, Shelly Winters, The Killing | 27 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 21, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Rear Window, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Seven Samurai

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 10. Rear Window, 1954 Photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) breaks his legs while photographing a car racing accident. Now, he is confined in his Greenwich [...]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood, Movies | Tagged Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Michael Kidd, Rear Window, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Seven Samurai, Stanley Donen | 27 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 14, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Shane, The Big Heat, Ugetsu

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 7. Shane, 1953. The gunshots in Shane are unlike any other gunshots in Hollywood history. They are heart-stopping thunderbolts, from either heaven or hell. Shane, a [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood, Movies | Tagged Alan Ladd, Brandon deWilde, Fritz Lang, George Stevens, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Kenji Mizoguchi, Lee Marvin, Machiko Kyo, Shane, The Big Heat, Ugetsu, Yoshikata Yoda | 34 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 7, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Ace in the Hole, The Bad and the Beautiful, Singin’ in the Rain

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 4. Ace in the Hole, 1951 A hand-embroidered motto, “Tell the Truth” sits as a dusty epitaph on the newsroom wall of an inconsequential Albuquerque newspaper [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood, Kirk Douglas | Tagged Ace in the Hole, Billy Wilder, Gene Kelly, Jan Sterling, Lana Turner, Singin in the Rain, The Bad and the Beautiful | 35 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | January 31, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Sunset Boulevard, Rashomon, Strangers on a Train

Tweet Call me lazy. Or indecisive. But Seraphic Secret has not updated our Greatest Movies list of each decade for far too long. We’ve covered silent films, the 1930s, and finally the 1940s. It’s time to head into the 50s. This was an interesting decade. Hollywood’s studio system was a wheezing dinosaur. Television was thought [...]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Gloria Swanson, Greatest Movies of the 1950s | Tagged Akira Kurosawa, Farley Granger, Rashomon, Robert Walker, Strangers on a Train, Sunset Boulevard, William Holden | 23 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 13, 2012

Ten Greatest War Movies of All Time

Tweet Last week, Seraphic Secret picked the Ten Greatest Movies of all time. Our ruthlessly reductive list eliminated dozens of great movies that we love. Ultimately, we decided on movies that we return to over and over again because there is always something new to see and because they never fail to entertain and astonish. [...]

Also posted in Ten Greatest War Movies, War Movies | Tagged Akira Kurosawa, Come and See, David Lean, Duck, Duck You Sucker, Ennio Morricone, George C. Scott, Gettysburg, James Coburn, Jeff Daniels, Lawrence of Arabia, Malik Zulu Shabazz, Michael Caine, Myrna Loy, Patton, Rod Steiger, Sergio Leone, Seven Samurai, The Lighthorsemen, Winter War | 27 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 6, 2012

Ten Greatest Movies Ever Made

Tweet Every ten years, Sight & Sound magazine, a British publication devoted to the — cue cultured BBC accent — Art of Cinema, surveys some 1,000 critics, directors and know-it-all yentas, most of whom I’ve never heard, asking them to list the ten greatest movies in the known universe. Here’s the survey. For the past [...]

Also posted in Ten Greatest Movies | Tagged Citizen Kane, Double Indemnity, Gun Crazy, His Girl Friday, Rear Window, Seven Samurai, Show People, Sight & Sound, The Awful Truth, The Freshman, The Lady Eve, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vertigo | 55 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 31, 2012

Three Notable War Movies from Britain, Russia, & Finland

Tweet After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a close friend who commanded a tank in the Sinai and killed at least 35 Egyptian tanks—“You forget to count after a while”—in a drunken moment said to yours truly: “You know what’s great about desert warfare? No civilians. No cities. No nothing. Just you and the enemy. [...]

Also posted in Hollywood, Movies, War Movies | Tagged 1612, Ambush, Anthony Quayle, Continuation War, Finnish Jews, Finnish Movies, Harry Andrews, Ice Cold Alex, John Mills, Soviet Propaganda, Sylvia Syms | 20 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | December 15, 2011

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940′s: ’46-’49

Tweet We continue our series of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade. Here are our our picks for the last five great movies of the 1940′s. 16. Notorious, 1946. No American actor has tampered with his own charming image more successfully than Cary Grant. In Only Angels Have Wings (1939) he is the tough [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1940s, Hollywood | Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Cary Grant, Charles Dickens, David Lean, Great Expectations, Gun Crazy, Howard Hawks, Ingrid Bergman, Jean Simmons, Joanne Dru, John Dahl, John Wayne, Joseph H. Lewis, Montgomery Clift, Notorious, Peggy Cummins, Red River, The Killers | 13 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | December 8, 2011

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s: ’44-’46

Tweet We continue our series of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade. Last week we listed the first Ten Greatest Movies of the 1940′s. Our list continues with the next five great movies. 11. Double Indemnity, 1944. Once again, a Barbara Stanwyck performance that is nothing less than perfection. This time Stanwyck plays bad [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1940s, Hollywood | Tagged Barbara Stanwyck, Billy Wilder, Black Narcissus, Cathy O'Donnell, Charles Boyer, Cluny Brown, Dana Andrews, Deborah Kerr, Double Indemnity, Film Noir, Fred MacMurray, Fredric March, Harold Russell, Jennifer Jones, Kathleen Byron, Kitty, Mitchell Leisen, Paulette Goddard, The Best Years of Our Lives | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | December 1, 2011

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s: ’40-’43

Tweet Several months ago I started a list of my picks for the Greatest Movies ever made. I began with silent films, made my way through the 30′s, then started the 40′s but got sidetracked by, um, laziness. My apologies. I’m going to continue with my list of the 20 films that I feel are [...]

Also posted in Greatest Movies of the 1940s, Hollywood | Tagged Ball of Fire, Barbara Stanwyck, Billy Wilder, Carl Dreyer, Cary Grant, Day of Wrath, Fred MacMurray, Ginger Rogers, Greer Garson, Henry Fonda, His Girl Friday, How Green Was My Valley, Irene Dunne, John Ford, Lisbeth Movin, Mitchell Leisen, My Favorite Wife, Random Harvest, Remember the Night, Robert Taylor, Ronald Colman, Rosalind Russell, The Lady Eve, The Major and the Minor, Vivien Leigh, Waterloo Bridge | 13 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 24, 2011

The Greatest Thanksgiving Movie

Tweet Seraphic Secret usually recommends classic Hollywood movies to help celebrate our national holidays. But this year we’re going to switch gears and recommend one of our favorite Thanksgiving movies, Plains, Trains and Automobiles, 1987. Not only is this one of the finest, most touching Thanksgiving movie ever made, but it’s also the best film [...]

Also posted in Hollywood, Thanksgiving | Tagged Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, John Candy, John Hughes, Planes, Steve Martin, Thanksgiving Movies, Trains and Automobiles | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 10, 2011

Twenty Greatest Movies: The 1940′s, Part Ten, How Green Was My Valley

Tweet Roddy MacDowell in How Green Was My Valley, 1941. We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade with the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940′s Part One, silent movies. Part Two, 1930 – ’33.Part Three: 1934 – ’37. Part Four: 1938 – ’39. Part Five: His Girl Friday, 1940Part Six: [...]

Posted in Great Movies | 15 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 3, 2011

Twenty Greatest Movies: The 1940′s, Part Nine, The Lady Eve

Tweet Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve, 1941. We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade with the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940′s Part One, silent movies. Part Two, 1930 – ’33.Part Three: 1934 – ’37. Part Four: 1938 – ’39. Part Five: His Girl Friday, 1940Part [...]

Posted in Great Movies | 5 Responses

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
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I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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2012
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audio-only mp3 [15MB]: Ninth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2011
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audio-only mp3 [18MB]: Eighth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2010
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audio-only mp3 [80MB]: Seventh Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2009
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audio-only mp3 [64MB]: Sixth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2008
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audio-only mp3 [70MB]: Fifth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

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