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Pioneers of African-American Cinema
On the last two Sundays of July, TCM is airing a selection of groundbreaking films made by African-Americans during the early 20th Century. Faced with racism within the industry these pioneering...
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Let’s All Go To The Planet of the Apes
“Get your stinking paws off of me, you damned dirty ape!” There are classic movie lines and then there are lines delivered by Charlton Heston to talking apes. The latter is pretty unbeatable. From that...
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This isn’t your father’s Ganja & Hess
I ran across the IMDB listing for Spike Lee’s 2014 film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus the other day and chuckled at its inept attempt at classification: the film was identified simultaneously as a comedy,...
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The Shooting
Made on roughly the same budget as The Blair Witch Project (1999) and shot shortly after the assassination of J.F.K., Monte Hellman’s The Shooting (1966) is a western very much of its time that was...
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The Story of DeMille’s Lost City
A few weeks ago, my friend and wonderful colleague Daphne Rosenzweig left an article in my mail cubby at Ringling College titled “The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMIlle. ” The article described the enormous...
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Summer of Rohmer: The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)
I am ending my Summer of Rohmer series with a film set in the spring. Yes, it is a shocking betrayal of the series’ seasonal brand, but I was eager to revisit The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007),...
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ABBA ABBA Hey
Earlier this year I made a trek with three friends to Stockholm where we got to experience firsthand the Eurovision Song Contest, that annual feast of musical excess, questionable taste, vocal...
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Poster Gallery: Remembering Jack Davis 1924-2016
Artist and pop culture chronicler Jack Davis passed away this week at age 91 after a long and productive career that spanned decades and traversed many mediums. Throughout his life, Davis won numerous...
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The Next Voice You Hear Won’t Have the Right Accent…
… but does it matter? Tonight on TCM, the 1979 adventure adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, in this case titled The Fifth Musketeer, airs and it’s a good case of a movie that has no genuine...
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I Did It My Way (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Buster Keaton’s...
So, gentle readers, this is my farewell. I started writing for TCM’s website ten years ago; I joined the Movie Morlocks six years ago. Since my debut here in the fall of 2010 I’ve posted over 300 blog...
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The Early Adopters: Cut ‘Em Some Slack
Whenever I see a movie made at the cutting edge of a new technology getting grief for not being an utterly refined example of said technology, I think, “Well, of course not! They were the first!” I...
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David Bordwell and “The Rhapsodes”: Old-School Film Critics
The sheer volume of movie reviews suggests that everyone and their mothers have become film critics. And, I mean that literally. I once worked as the managing editor of a video magazine. One day a...
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Love Triangle: It’s a Date (1940)
“Film for film, William A. Seiter may have given more pleasure to more people than any other director of the classical Hollywood era.” – Dave Kehr, Film Comment William A. Seiter made companionable...
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Give Us Absolution
The passing of screenwriter and playwright Peter Shaffer this summer (June 6, to be precise) is another reminder of how most successful writers tend to be remembered for one or two signature works. In...
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Fay Wray: The Clairvoyant (1934)
“When Fay Wray was a child she wasn’t permitted to scream because her throat muscles were delicate and it was feared her voice would be ruined. When she grew up she screamed her way to fame in horror...
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Criminal Justice Warriors…
… Classic Hollywood Style. [SPOILERS ABOUND] Fighting for justice on the movie screen is often portrayed in the courtroom as noble but flawed lawyers with names like Atticus Finch and Frank Galvin...
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Easy to Love: A Trip in Time to Cypress Gardens
Get out those goggles and fins and join Esther Williams as she swims her way onto our TV screens today as part of TCM’s Summer Under the Stars. Williams has a special connection to my new home state of...
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Opiate of the Masses: Silk Stockings (1957)
Silk Stockings (1957) is remembered less for what it is than what it represents – the end of the Golden Age of MGM musicals. It was adapted from the last musical Cole Porter wrote for the stage,...
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Tripping through England with The Wrong Box and Time Bandits
This Saturday you’ll have a great opportunity to take a little crash course in British comedy courtesy of a double feature of two period films (more or less): Time Bandits (1981) and The Wrong Box...
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Roddy McDowall: Celebrity Photographer
Roddy McDowall surrounded by some of the celebrity portraits he took On Monday, Aug. 15, Roddy McDowall will be headlining TCM’s Summer Under the Stars line-up. McDowell spent most of his life in the...
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