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Jewel Thieves & Giant Monsters
After recently reading and writing about Peter H. Brothers’ book Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda, I was motivated to watch one of Honda’s lesser-known films that...
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Ad nauseam!
One of the things Hollywood really knew how to do, apart from making stars and making movies, was sell stuff. The behind-the-scenes deal-making is worthy of a book of its own but for the purposes of...
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CARNIVAL MAGIC – Al Adamson’s Kiddie Flick
He was the man behind such soft core sleazefests as Girls for Rent (1974), The Naughty Stewardesses (1975) and Cinderella 2000 (1977). He was also the schockmeister responsible for exploitation...
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NIGHT TIDE and Other Films of Note in June on TCM
This month on Turner Classic Movies a number of unheralded and lesser known films that deserve some attention are being aired along with a few personal favorites that I never get tired of watching...
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Summer Fun at Facets: Guest Hosts for the Midnight Movie Series
The fifth session of Chicago’s best-loved midnight movies series began this past Saturday at Facets Multi-Media. Dubbed Night School, the series is intended to be educational as well as entertaining,...
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Wild Throbbings of the Heart: Eric Rohmer’s The Green Ray
The greatest cinephile deal going right now is for Arrow Films’ 8-Disc Box Set of Eric Rohmer films, which includes all six entries in his Comedies & Proverbs series, along with Love in the...
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“The Hasty Heart” — One of “Bob’s Picks” and Mine, Too!
I was gratified to see the 1950 Warner Bros. title The Hasty Heart scheduled tonight at 8pm on TCM as one of Bob Osborne’s personal favorites. I’m not sure why Bob is so crazy about it, but I’ll bet...
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So Big (1953) On Screen
“Always to her, red and green cabbages, were to be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and porphyry. Life has no weapons against a woman like that.”~Edna Ferber in the novel, So Big Please note: Some plot...
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The Many Roles of Mick Jagger
“The only performance that makes it…that really makes it…that makes it all the way…is the one that achieves madness.” Performance (1970) If someone asked me the proverbial question: “The Beatles or The...
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This is a job for Thatcher Colt!
I love a mystery. I didn’t always. My Mom was the mystery fan in our house, while I preferred the more visceral thrills of horror and science fiction; at the age of 10 or 11, I couldn’t fathom the...
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Success at Any Price
Despite a long and prolific career, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is more famous for being the son of the silent era superstar Douglas Fairbanks Sr., his Hollywood social connections (including ex-wife Joan...
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Secret Messages
It has been called “a virtual social H-bomb,” and it detonated at a press conference in New York on September 12, 1957. Advertising researcher James M. Vicary announced that he had successfully tested...
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Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned
Natalie Wood has been named Star of the Month by TCM, and fans and viewers will be treated to a selection of her films every Monday evening in June. Tonight’s bill includes my favorite Wood film,...
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Modern Fight Films: The Undisputed Trilogy
Walter Hill made his directorial debut with Hard Times (1975), a downbeat portrait of Depression-era gamblers, bare-knuckle brawlers, and the women who sleep with them. In 2002, Hill made Undisputed...
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Polo, Anyone?
Quick! What could bring the talented, the powerful and the famous together in studio era Hollywood? Not a movie. Not a premiere. And not a high stakes poker game, though plenty of those went on...
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Talking With Trina: An Interview with Trina Parks
Tomorrow night TCM Underground will be airing the surprisingly surreal and smart blaxploitation comedy, DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975). I hesitate to tag DARKTOWN STRUTTERS with a simplistic label like...
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A Trip to the Moon with Belle Dee
I wish I could draw. I mean,really draw. I’ve always done a bit of sketching, cartooning, and there are people from my distant past who may very well remember me solely as an artist. As a teenager,...
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Strangers on a Gondola
The first Patricia Highsmith novel to be adapted to film was the author’s first book, published in 1950, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, which Alfred Hitchcock made into a movie the next year. Yet, with the...
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Gresham’s Personal Nightmare
On this Father’s Day, 2010, I’d like to take a moment to shine the spotlight on the man behind the film: William Lindsay Gresham, who authored the 1946 novel upon which the film is based. Canonized...
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The Bat Returns: Roland West’s “The Bat Whispers”
The Bat Whispers, Roland West’s sound version of his silent classic The Bat, is scheduled to air this Wednesday, June 23, on TCM. Despite the 2:30am airtime, those interested in visually stylish films,...
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