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The (Original) Walking Dead!

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I’m all kinds of excited about the new AMC miniseries THE WALKING DEAD, adapted by Frank Darabont from the Image Comics graphic novel first published in 2003.  Yeah, I know that through overexposure zombies are rapidly approaching the complexity of vanilla but it’s a wonderful game when it’s played well and THE WALKING DEAD has [...]

Hey, down in front!

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The welcome unveiling of Flicker Alley’s superb CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE set offers me an opportunity to get up on a particular soapbox.  I’ve always admired KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE as a vital entry in Chaplin’s CV, but that has put me at odds with the vast majority of Chaplin fans and scholars who are [...]

The Magnificent Seven: 50th Anniversary

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The 33rd Stars Denver Film Festival still has a week to go. It offers up hundreds of films that were divided this year into 16 different programs, some of which are festival staples (such as Red Carpet Presentations and Documentary Films), others being very unique (case in point being the four-film selection titled Forgotten Transports: [...]

Eddie Cantor, Ali Baba, and the New Deal: Reading History in Film

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Last Saturday morning, I spoke before a small crowd at Oakton Community College, advocating the teaching of media literacy to high-school and middle-school students. Among the many reasons for teaching media or film literacy is to understand how movies are cultural artifacts that capture the issues, problems, and concerns of the era that produced it. [...]

Stanley Donen’s Double Bill: Movie Movie (1978)

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The Film Society at Lincoln Center is wrapping up its superb Stanley Donen retrospective this week, and beyond the established masterpieces like Singin’ In the Rain lie charming curiosities like 1978′s Movie Movie. I missed the screening, but fortunately it is available to purchase from Amazon On Demand for $9.99. Structured like a 1930s Warner Bros. double [...]

Remembering Jill Clayburgh

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The passing a few days ago of actress Jill Clayburgh really strikes a blow into the hearts of women of a certain age, for whom Ms. Clayburgh was almost an avatar, living out different lives that we weren’t, but might have, in different circumstances.  Lovely to look at but not a devastating beauty, with Jill it was [...]

Missing Mad Men?

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Like a lot of people, I’m a big fan of the AMC series MAD MEN and ever since the fourth season of the show came to an end a few weeks ago I’ve been eagerly awaiting season five. MAD MEN is one of the most highly praised dramas currently playing on television and I think [...]

Current events

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Barbra Streisand turned me on to this movie. In 1939, Boris Karloff ended his decade-long run as the Frankenstein Monster, hanging up his neck bolts with SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939).  When the actor returned to the franchise five years later, with a starring role in Earl C. Kenton’s HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944), it was as [...]

Is there no room for heroes?

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Just look at this man.  Has there ever been a movie star more iconic?  But what does that icon stand for?  Depends on your age, to some extent. For Americans of a certain generation, John Wayne was the ultimate male role model—a perfect father figure.  But then American society started to question just how “perfect” [...]

Hooked on a Feeling…

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…and that feeling is so dark, deep and numb it shouldn’t be disturbed.     Among the slew of Hollywood movies that followed in the final days of the Vietnam War, ROLLING THUNDER (1977) is a fascinating aberration. On the one hand, it flirts with serious issues and concerns addressed in such post-Vietnam dramas as Coming Home [...]

Hooray for Jacksonville!

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TCM’s original documentary series Moguls and Movie Stars continues tonight with Episode 3, “The Dream Merchants,” which chronicles the rise of the major studios in the 1920s—the so-called Silver Age of Hollywood. By this time in American film history, Hollywood had been established as the center of the industry, though films continued to be made [...]

Physical Evidence: White Material

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White Material opens with a shot of dogs crossing a headlight-lit road, followed by flashlights illuminating the well-appointed interior of an abandoned bourgeois home. The sequence ends with the image of an African revolutionary leader named The Boxer (Isaach de Bankole) lying dead, his face etched out in circles of light. It is a film [...]

In Praise of Pee-wee

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Probably everybody’s heard by now about the resurgence of Pee-wee Herman, actor Paul Reubens’ singular creation, who’s now enjoying a joyous renaissance on the Broadway stage after wowing audiences in L.A. with a new version of his classic stage show of the 1980s.  As a super fan of Pee-wee and Reuben I’ve been following the [...]

Bogart & Lorre: A Match Made In Movie Heaven

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The cast of PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES (1943) PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES isn’t the type of film that normally sparks my interest. I have an aversion to propaganda films and I’m not particularly fond of prison break movies but I love Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre so I’ll watch them in anything. I’ve seen all the films that [...]

I am a junk drawer

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I don’t mean that subject header as an iconic rip on the 1951 John van Druten play I Am a Camera but rather intend it as a literal metaphor for my state of mind at any given time.  Recent attempts to restore a measure of order to my kitchen utility drawer (which is stuffed to [...]

Luck of the Drew

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Lillian Travers (Edith Story) makes a surprise visit to her boyfriend Dr. Cassadene (Sidney Drew).  But the surprise is on her when she catches him in what sure seems like a comprising position with a wealthy widow.  He makes the requisite apologies, they make up, and it all goes pear shaped again when he blows [...]

We are such stuff as dreams are made on…

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Three months ago we lost a major talent in the world of animation. Satoshi Kon was only 46-years-old when he died of pancreatic cancer. He was the Japanese anime director behind Perfect Blue (1998), Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Paranoia Agent (2004), and Paprika (2006). He was on pre-production for The Dreaming Machine when [...]

When Ya Comin’ Back, Will Rogers?

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“There should be a moratorium on candidates’ speeches. They have both called each other everything in the world they can think of. From now on, they are just talking themselves out of votes.” This quote could easily have applied to the recent midterm elections, which compelled politicians from both parties to engage in the most [...]

Flickers of the Week (on DVD): Escape from Zahrain and He Who Gets Slapped

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The wheezing, rickety looking vehicle you see above, silently mocked by the parallel oil pipeline, is desperately straining up the incline, hoping to reach the space outside the CinemaScope frame. Why the hurry? Because they’re trying to….Escape From Zahrain! This 1962 Paramount adventure film is being released on DVD by Olive Films on December 7th, [...]

Giving Thanks

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When did “Thank You” become so hard to say? I’m constantly amazed by the surprised looks and unexpected smiles I get from strangers every time I utter those words. It often seems as if I’m speaking another language. A language that is both hopeful and confusing to anyone who doesn’t hear that simple phrase very [...]
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