First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 2

May 14, 2010, 8:21 am

≫ Next: Suckers on the Screen and Suckers in the Audience

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Last week I kicked off my multi-part series of essays on Native Americans in Horror Films with a discussion of the key First Nation Fright Flick gimmick of sacred burial grounds and the violation of, leading to dire consequences and untimely, Indian-themed deaths.  Today we segue from karmic comeuppance to Vengeful Indians of the Mostly [...]

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Suckers on the Screen and Suckers in the Audience

May 15, 2010, 9:18 am

≫ Next: Casino Jack and the United States of Money

≪ Previous: First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 2

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After purposely avoiding it for years due to its terrible reputation, my curiosity finally got the best of me when TCM aired TENTACLES (1977), following the stupefying ZAAT (1972) on Friday May 7th, and I finally watched it from start to finish. One of several ill-conceived and pathetic attempts to cash in on the boxoffice [...]

Casino Jack and the United States of Money

May 16, 2010, 12:05 pm

≫ Next: It’s “Crash” Meets “In Bruges” and “Juno”…in Prague!

≪ Previous: Suckers on the Screen and Suckers in the Audience

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Director Alex Gibney came to prominence with an eye-opening look at financial corruption in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2006. He would go on to actually win the coveted statuette in 2008 for another doc, this one looking at the horrors inflicted by U.S. policies condoning [...]

It’s “Crash” Meets “In Bruges” and “Juno”…in Prague!

May 17, 2010, 9:33 am

≫ Next: Tangential Festival Notes! (Godard, Straub, Cronenberg)

≪ Previous: Casino Jack and the United States of Money

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I work in the marketing department at Facets Multi-Media in Chicago. Part of the Facets operation is a vast videotheque, or video rentals store, which features thousands of foreign, indie, documentary, and classic films for viewers seeking something beyond contemporary Hollywood fare. As such, we are besieged with announcements from all manner of straight-to-DVD production [...]

Tangential Festival Notes! (Godard, Straub, Cronenberg)

May 18, 2010, 11:00 am

≫ Next: Borzage Through Fresh Eyes

≪ Previous: It’s “Crash” Meets “In Bruges” and “Juno”…in Prague!

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A groggy John Huston welcomes you to today’s equally confused post. He’s an interview subject in Peter Lennon’s Rocky Road to Dublin (1967), an acidic documentary portrait of 1960s Ireland. Lennon wrote a series of articles for The Guardian about how the Catholic Church and their Republican government cronies were choking off the cultural life of [...]

Borzage Through Fresh Eyes

May 19, 2010, 4:16 am

≫ Next: The Navy vs. The Night Monsters

≪ Previous: Tangential Festival Notes! (Godard, Straub, Cronenberg)

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Color me green with envy after reading all those positive reports from all over about the recent TCM Classic Film Festival. While giving friends who attended the third degree to extract every droplet of vicarious enjoyment from their accounts of that long, delirious weekend in LA, one of the things that stands out in their [...]

The Navy vs. The Night Monsters

May 20, 2010, 3:36 pm

≫ Next: First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 3

≪ Previous: Borzage Through Fresh Eyes

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Some films start out with the best intentions but due to budget cuts, editing, crew conflicts, miscasting and other factors, the final product ends up being much less than the sum of its parts. Over time the good intentions of all who were originally involved in the film are forgotten and we’re left with the [...]

First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 3

May 21, 2010, 7:53 am

≫ Next: Raymond Burr + Natalie Wood = Cute Couple

≪ Previous: The Navy vs. The Night Monsters

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At some point in the early 1970s, post the founding of the American Indian Movement (AIM), post-BILLY JACK (1971), post-Wounded Knee ’73, post-Sacheen Littlefeather, Native Americans began to percolate into pop culture as totems of white guilt and to serve as conduits between a modernized, secularized present and what was perceived to be a more [...]

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Raymond Burr + Natalie Wood = Cute Couple

May 22, 2010, 9:03 am

≫ Next: Drinking Games

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On screen in A CRY IN THE NIGHT (1956), he played the tormenter and she was his victim but offscreen the 38-year-old actor and the 17-year-old ingenue became close friends and possibly more during the shooting.   (The film will air on TCM on Monday, June 14th at 8 pm ET as part of our “Star of the [...]

Drinking Games

May 23, 2010, 8:59 am

≫ Next: Ruminating on Remakes: From Motion Pictures for Fans to Products for the Target Demographic

≪ Previous: Raymond Burr + Natalie Wood = Cute Couple

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Repertory film is a hard sell on campus, but last night I watched an advance screener for a multi-layered, black-and-white, French-Italian co-production that’s being re-released by Oscilloscope Pictures next month – one that  reminded me (in part) of my college days, and hopefully it will still connect with both students and general audiences today. The [...]

Ruminating on Remakes: From Motion Pictures for Fans to Products for the Target Demographic

May 24, 2010, 10:50 am

≫ Next: Memorial Day Movies: They Were Expendable (1945)

≪ Previous: Drinking Games

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Hollywood has always relied on remakes and reworkings of previous movie hits as a strategy to lure audiences to the theater. As far back as the silent era, directors and producers remade films to speak to new generations, to showcase the talents and images of new stars, and to rework the material with updated techniques [...]

Memorial Day Movies: They Were Expendable (1945)

May 25, 2010, 11:00 am

≫ Next: Hondo (1953): A Western with Dimension

≪ Previous: Ruminating on Remakes: From Motion Pictures for Fans to Products for the Target Demographic

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“This isn’t going to be some goddamned two-bit propaganda flick.” -John Ford to Vice Admiral John Bulkeley, USN John Ford put off making They Were Expendable for over two years. He was busy with his Field Photo Unit making war documentaries, and he wasn’t eager to to go off active service. He was completing post-production [...]

Hondo (1953): A Western with Dimension

May 26, 2010, 4:27 am

≫ Next: Introducing Laurence Harvey

≪ Previous: Memorial Day Movies: They Were Expendable (1945)

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“…a long time ago, I made me a rule. I let people do what they want to do.” I’m always surprised how many John Wayne films I’ve never seen. Not that seeing the young man playing Singin’ Sandy warbling “A Cowboy’s Song of Fate” in Riders of Destiny (1933) is going to enlighten me much [...]

Introducing Laurence Harvey

May 27, 2010, 5:12 pm

≫ Next: First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 4

≪ Previous: Hondo (1953): A Western with Dimension

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A few weeks ago I wrote about Michael Mann’s last film A Dandy in Aspic, which features Laurence Harvey in one of his best roles. At the time I expressed how much I liked Harvey even though many critics are quick to dismiss him. His reputation has been badly tarnished over the years thanks to [...]

First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 4

May 28, 2010, 12:29 am

≫ Next: Missed Cues

≪ Previous: Introducing Laurence Harvey

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For this last installment of “First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films,” we turn to the subject of Helpful Indians – those shamans, scouts, sure-shots and spirit guides who help Anglos out of sticky wickets, both supernatural and otherwise.  I think we all know where to turn for the prototype of the Helpful Indian.  [...]

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Missed Cues

May 29, 2010, 6:37 am

≫ Next: Remembering Dennis Hopper

≪ Previous: First in Fear: Native Americans in Horror Films, pt. 4

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Everyone has seen them, but not everyone has noticed them.  And even fewer fully understand the purpose of the circular scratches that appear about every twenty minutes in a film, like subliminal postage stamps.  They are cue marks (aka cue dots), and they are the projectionist’s friend.  Worldly Morlocks may fully understand the cue mark, [...]

Remembering Dennis Hopper

May 30, 2010, 11:29 am

≫ Next: Clint Eastwood: Not an Auteur, but a Starteur

≪ Previous: Missed Cues

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Dennis Hopper passed away yesterday morning at the age of 74 from complications related to prostate cancer (he’d been diagnosed with it late in 2009). That same morning I heard of the news from over 12 Facebook posts by friends, and from there the tally continued to climb. Somewhere, someone has surely come up with [...]

Clint Eastwood: Not an Auteur, but a Starteur

May 31, 2010, 10:00 am

≫ Next: The Rifleman (Guest Starring Dennis Hopper)

≪ Previous: Remembering Dennis Hopper

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Clint Eastwood turns 80 years old today, though, with a film titled Hereafter in postproduction and one called Hoover in preproduction, he shows no signs of slowing down. Perhaps America’s most significant starteur—that is, both a star and an auteur—Eastwood has been part of the film industry since his uncredited role as Jennings the Lab [...]

The Rifleman (Guest Starring Dennis Hopper)

June 1, 2010, 11:00 am

≫ Next: Summer Time, and the Movie Is Silly

≪ Previous: Clint Eastwood: Not an Auteur, but a Starteur

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Fifty episodes of THE RIFLEMAN (1958 – 1963) are available for viewing on Hulu, and it’s a phenomenally rich show for auteurists (and everyone else). Sam Peckinpah was the lead writer (and directed two episodes), while Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy) directed a large chunk of the rest. It’s a dynamically shot program, with agile [...]

Summer Time, and the Movie Is Silly

June 2, 2010, 4:04 am

≫ Next: Jewel Thieves & Giant Monsters

≪ Previous: The Rifleman (Guest Starring Dennis Hopper)

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“Forgive me for being profound, but it’s good to be alive,” mumbles Troy Donahue to his date, Suzanne Pleshette, as Italian singer Emilio Pericoli warbles the reverberating “Al-Di-La,” in Rome Adventure (1962-Delmer Daves).  Well, forgive me for being a goof, but this girl’s fancy, (and questionable taste) finds such fare pretty irresistible as the days [...]