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Scratchy Movie Theater: an Appreciation
Back in my formative years—or my movie watching formative years at least—there was a local independent TV station in Raleigh, NC called Channel 22. It was my constant friend and companion, the venue...
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What is a War Movie, Anyway?
Genre is a term that means the same thing to many people while many nothing at all to most. It’s meant as a way to organize and compartmentalize different types of movies so that, at the very least,...
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Roy Scheider: He Didn’t Need a Bigger Boat
On Saturday, June 4, TCM pays tribute to actor Roy Scheider by showcasing three of his films, The French Connection, The Seven Ups, and 2010. Scheider’s greatest success came during the Film School...
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Injustice Department: Hide in Plain Sight (1980)
In June of 1967, Thomas Leonhard’s children disappeared. They vanished along with his ex-wife and her new husband. A year later Leonhard would learn that they were given new identities as part of...
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This week on TCM Underground: The Church (1989) and The Devil’s Bride (1968)
We’re bringing back a couple of party favorites this week on TCM Underground – like Hell we are! Italian filmmaker Michele Soavi (above, left, being strangled by Dario Argento) has retained a...
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Morlock Bonus! Shock Cinema @ 50!
Shock Cinema turns 50 this year – not half a century, mind you, but 50 issues. I’ve been reading this mag since it was mimeographed on a turtle’s shell and let me tell you, boils and ghouls, what a...
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Revisiting The Terror (1963) on Blu-ray
TCM’s spotlight on American International Pictures is over but I recently got my paws on a copy of The Film Detective’s new Blue-ray of The Terror, a film that was originally released by AIP in 1963....
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The Sequels That Never Were
Coming on TCM tomorrow is one of those sequels that was never necessary but also turned out to be not bad. The sequel is 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the original is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, of...
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First Things First
DVR alert—thanks to this month’s Marie Dressler tribute, coming up on June 6th TCM is running the 1914 comedy feature Tillie’s Punctured Romance. This is a hugely important work in film history—just...
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Are the Legends of Tomorrow Already Here?
Today on TCM, the 1982 comedy My Favorite Year airs and it marked Peter O’Toole’s twentieth year as a star. His stardom began with his breakout role in Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and continued, with...
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John Alton: Painting with Light in The Big Combo
If you like your noir lean and mean, catch The Big Combo on TCM this Thursday, June 9. The minimalist plot pits volatile police detective Leonard Diamond, played by Cornel Wilde, against a morally...
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Martial Artist: Xu Haofeng’s The Final Master (2015)
Xu Haofeng is a student of martial arts, a chronicler of its lore and history. He graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1997, but instead of entering the movie business, he spent over a decade...
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This week on TCM Underground: Some Call It Loving (1973) and Lolita (1962)
Neither of the features that comprise our TCM Underground lineup this weekend is new to Turner Classic Movies but the pairing of them is likely to raise eyebrows and emotions in light of certain...
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Billy Wilder: A Poster Gallery
Throughout June, TCM is airing a string of Billy Wilder films every Friday night for your viewing pleasure. Wilder was the child of a Jewish Austrian-Hungarian family and made his first film (Mauvaise...
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When Do The Movies Move Past Us?
Today on TCM, The Spirit of St. Louis airs, one of the all-times stretches in performing a character far younger than the actor portraying him. James Stewart, at the age of 49, plays Charles “Lucky...
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Alices in Wonderslands
The latest installment in Walt Disney’s Tim Burton’s Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland series has arrived only to falter unexpectedly. The 2010 film was an outsized international hit, and the sequel...
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From outside the box to within the sphere
If I had to select one day this week on TCM to engage in some binge watching it would be Tuesday, starting with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948). The next four films? The Graduate (Mike...
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Star-pics: Biopics of the Stars
Tomorrow, TCM devotes its daytime programming to biopics, or biographical pictures. Fans of this genre know not to expect an accurate chronicle of the life of a famous person; instead, biopics (or,...
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Love Is In the Air: Rome Adventure (1962)
I marked the arrival of summer by watching one of Delmer Daves’ grandly romantic teen melodramas, Rome Adventure (1962). It is earnestly sweet travelogue about a 21-year-old ex-librarian who seeks her...
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Vertigo: Hitchcock was wrong
“VERTIGO: ver´ti-go – a feeling of dizziness . . . a swimming in the head . . . figuratively a state in which all things seem to be engulfed in a whirlpool of terror.” – from Alfred Hitchcock’s...
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