For 2026’s re-visited series of posts, I wanted to talk about someone I have surprisingly only talked about a few times on this blog. I have written about Ninotchka (1939) for COMEDY GOLD, I have talked about how much I love Grand Hotel (1932), but I have never actually written about one of the most fascinating beings ever put in front of a camera: the mesmerizing, and Oscar-less Greta Garbo. The re-visited AND THE OSCAR DOESN’T GO TO goes to her.

Greta Garbo was born in Sweden in 1905. She had a few jobs here and there throughout her teenage years and in 1920, she was cast in adverts for women’s clothing before being cast in the comedy short Peter the Tramp (1922, dir. Erik A. Petschler). At some point in the early 1920s, she met Louis B. Mayer and in 1925, she went to Hollywood. The Temptress (1926), Flesh and the Devil (1926) and The Divine Lady (1928) were just some of the films she starred in before she receiving her first two Best Actress Oscar nominations for Anna Christie and Romance, in 1930. She lost to Norma Shearer for The Gay Divorcee (1930). Her next nomination was for Camille (1936), which she lost to Luise Rainer for The Good Earth. Her last nomination was for Ninotchka, and she might have had a chance, had she not been up against Vivien Leigh for Gone With the Wind (1939).

Greta Garbo’s legacy is untouchable, with or without an Oscar. Her face, her voice, her expressions and her sensitivity brought a light to her performances that is rare to come by. Her career may have been short due to a (very) early retirement in 1941, but she blessed us with something we will likely never see on the screen again.

Well, it’s been quite a few months! As you know, I’m currently freelancing to try and make a living and it’s not easy! But I’m getting there.

Medium is going great, and it is currently my main source of income, despite the ups and downs – things are changing, people are leaving the website but it is still, somehow, going strong. Vocal is good too, though not as good as I hoped. Substack seems to be my most popular blog; I guess people love film noir!

But my most recent venture is Etsy. And that’s not doing too well. In addition to my classic Hollywood t-shirts (click here to see them!), I have also started selling PDFs: meal planners, morning routines, etc, anything people need and may want to buy! I read a few articles about how someone posted a PDF on Etsy and started selling the next day, so I thought I’d give it a try. Unfortunately, I haven’t sold any yet – I may need to re-do a few of them. I will be sharing them on the socials when I do. In the meantime, check out my merch!

Earlier this month, we in the classic movie world celebrated what would have been Katharine Hepburn’s 119^th birthday. I re-watched Desk Set (1957) and was reminded once again of what a great movie it is. Underrated, I’d say. I’ve also got something cooked up about her that I will be posting on Medium, so stay tuned!

And also stay tuned for next month’s series of posts re-visited!

Our second revisited series of posts of 2026 is SCREENPLAY BY, which I started in 2019, if you can believe that! And today’s comeback goes out to Frank Capra’s long-standing collaborator, friend and later frenemy: Robert Riskin.

Robert Riskin was born in New York City in 1897. As a teenager, he developed a love for the stage, before being sent to Florida to run a film production company. He enlisted in the Army and, upon his return, he started producing and writing plays. In the early 30s, he moved to Hollywood where he started writing dialogue for films.

He wrote for Columbia for a while and then in 1931 came his first collaboration with Frank Capra, The Miracle Woman (1931). After this, it seemed that Hollywood had found it next director-writer team. They worked together on several pictures, including Lady for a Day (1933), Mr Deeds Goes To Town (1936), You Can’t Take it With You (1938), all of which he received an Oscar nomination for, and, of course, It Happened One Night (1934), for which Riskin won his only Oscar. After Meet John Doe (1941), Riskin and Capra’s friendship and partnership dissolved, likely due to personal, political and business differences. Still, despite this, Riskin reportedly kept referring to Capra as his ‘best friend’ until the end of his life.

Robert Riskin died in 1955 at the age of 58. He was survived by his wife, the actress Fay Wray whom he married in 1942, and their children.

If the infamous 12 minute standing ovation he got at the 1972 Oscars is anything to go by, people love Charlie Chaplin. He is one of the greatest cinematic talents of all time, and I thought I would pay tribute to him in this brand new, one-off comeback of DOUBLE BILL.

As you know, when DOUBLE BILL was originally featured here in the Garden, I wrote about… 40 films, over 20 editions. So I thought, I need to do something I haven’t done before. And it occurred to me. Silent movies. I have written about a few of them over the years, but never for DOUBLE BILL. So here they are. The Gold Rush (1925) and City Lights (1931).

The Gold Rush (1925) tells the story of a gold prospector, played by Chaplin in his Little Tramp persona, who goes to the Klondike looking for gold. Things take a turn and he ends up falling in love with Georgia (Georgia Hale), a girl he meets at a dance hall.

Set in a sprawling, snowy Alaska, The Gold Rush is one of those silent movies that just bring you immense pleasure, no matter what. It’s a tale of resilience and overcoming adversity, with an impossible dose of charm that only Chaplin could pull off. The scenes in the cabin with Chaplin, Mack Swain (‘Big Jim’) and Tom Murray (‘Black Larsen’) are especially wonderful and some of the best comedic pieces ever put on screen. These moments have become cinematic tropes that we have all come to know and love, but what’s great about them is that they still feel as fresh as they did in 1925. Storytelling at its best.

Not unlike City Lights (1931), arguably Chaplin’s most popular film. City Lights sees Chaplin as the Little Tramp once again, who falls in love with a blind girl, played by Virginia Cherrill. With the help of his new millionaire friend (Harry Myers), Chaplin does everything he can to help the girl with her operation.

A clear precursor to the great screwball comedies of the 1930s, City Lights was voted the greatest rom-com ever by the AFI, and it’s easy to see why. Heart-warming, cosy and ultimately awe-inspiring, it is a story whose beauty lies in its simplicity. The plot points are so well-disguised, the story so masterfully told, it is easy to forget that it’s quite a simple story. But that’s what’s so great about it. It is rom-com at its finest, made even greater by Chaplin’s performance. He breaks your heart, lifts your spirits and makes you forget your problems for 90 minutes.

Or three hours, in the case of this DOUBLE BILL. The Gold Rush and City Lights are just two of the films that leave no doubt as to why Charlie Chaplin is still so popular. Fantastic storytelling, complemented by his equally fantastic performances. It is a lovely way to spend an afternoon. The Gold Rush is a slightly more sombre affair, in my opinion, not least because of its subject matter and setting, but it gave us one of the most famous comedy scenes in movie history. City Lights is as devastating a rom-com as you can get, and yet it is still magnificently uplifting. That’s the thing with Chaplin. You get a bit of everything. And that’s just great.

It’s 2026! And you know what that means… brand new series of posts here at the Garden. Or is it?

I have done many, many series of posts. Nine, to be precise. And, between that and all my other posts, I often feel like I’ve covered everything I possibly can. And this gave me an idea…

I’m going to revisit the old series of posts. As in, every month, I will write one more article for each of the previous series of posts, starting next month with a brand new DOUBLE BILL. After that, COMEDY GOLD, and so on and so forth. I cannot wait.

Meanwhile, my Etsy shop is still pretty new and pretty small, so if you want some Old Hollywood merch, please check out my shop! Earlier this month, on the 11^th, I celebrated what would have been my mother’s 70^th birthday at her favourite restaurant, Hard Rock Café, with my friends, and it was super special. I wrote a piece about her on Vocal and it felt therapeutic.

It’s already been a crazy month but I wanted to update you on everything. See you back here for DOUBLE BILL.

So here it is, December 2025, if anyone can believe that! As you know, this has been a pretty rough year for me. Today is the one-year anniversary of my mother’s death, and it doesn’t get any easier. That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t really posted a whole lot here in the Garden this year. I also started writing on Vocal and selling Old Hollywood merch on Etsy, to try and make ends meet, so I’ve been pretty busy.

This also hasn’t been a great year for film buffs in general. The deaths of Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, David Lynch, Claudia Cardinale, and more recently the tragic murder of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, have really marked 2025 and broken all of our hearts.

On a personal note, I am hoping things will slow in the new year and I’m happy to say I’ve already got a few ideas lined for articles, including my annual series of posts. I have also finally finished what I believe to be the best version of my TV pilot (since 2018!), so hopefully something will come out of that; I will also be posting my short film online for all of you to watch!

So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year! See you all here in 2026.

As you know, Noirvember is my favourite time of the year. I get to celebrate my favourite film genre (or ‘moooood’) throughout November, and I always love finding new noirs to love. Not that I need an excuse, but Noirvember feels like a great opportunity for all of us bloggers to come together and walk down the streets of film noir at our peril.

I’ve already done two noirs for previous SECOND TIME ROUNDs, Born to Kill (1947, dir. Robert Wise) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, dir. Tay Garnett), the latter of which I wrote about on my Substack, The Losers of Film Noir. If I hadn’t started this SECOND TIME ROUND series, it probably would have taken me way longer to re-watch those. I’m glad I watched them again and I’m glad I liked them more this time round.

I have also watched some noirs I hadn’t seen before and I’m planning on crossing some more off my list as well as re-watch some of my favourites. I have also designed a brand new sweatshirt with one of Fred MacMurray’s classic quotes from Double Indemnity on it (‘I wonder if you wonder’), so if you want to buy one, here’s where you can find it.

Lastly, the next Loser on Substack will be Johnny Farrel (Glenn Ford) from Gilda (1946, dir. Charles Vidor) so stay tuned!

(Un)Happy Noirvember!

Noirvember is here! I have been watching a few noirs, as per, and tonight I shall be having an Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake marathon.

Over at The Losers of Film Noir, I have posted my article about Dennis O’Keefe and Alfred Ryder in T-Men (1947, dir. Anthony Mann), and my next article will be about Glenn Ford in Gilda (1946, dir. Charles Vidor), so check it out and subscribe!

As some of you may know, I am now selling t-shirts with classic movie quotes on them, and I’ve made my first sale! It was a t-shirt with Robert Mitchum’s iconic line ‘Baby I don’t care’ from Out of the Past (1947, dir. Jacques Tourneur). Check out my shop and buy a t-shirt if you can!

I have also started writing poems inspired by films! And this November, I’m doing noir. Read them here and try to guess which films I’m talking about!

(Un)happy Noirvember, everyone!

For Horror Month’s SECOND TIME ROUND, I wanted to go back to a film I wrote about a few years ago for my WORLD CINEMA series: I Vampiri (1957, dir. Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava), about a serial killer who terrorizes Paris as he kills his victims, then drains them out of their blood.

I watched this in between lots of old Universal pictures and 70s chillers – it was Horror Month, 2021 -, and so its goofy nature didn’t really resonate with me at the time. I remember liking it a lot, but I did find it to be a little unrealistic at times and a bit of a mess, with all sorts of genres in the mix.

This time round, I definitely enjoyed it more. It is a lot more cohesive than I remembered it, and the horror/gothic/police procedural hybrid is more effective than I realised the first time round. Dario Michaels gives a great performances as Pierre, the journalist who’s trying to crack the case, and Gianna Maria Canale is wonderfully alluring as Gisele du Grand. The twist is as good as I recalled it, and it looks absolutely gorgeous throughout!

It’s definitely not my favourite Horror film but it is certainly a great addition to the genre.