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The Way You Wear Your Hat, Part 1
At the turn of the 20th century, a woman could be reprimanded by her husband for appearing in public without a hat, which was considered an essential article of clothing. According to the website...
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Vintage Violence: Sands of the Kalahari (1965) and Live Like a Cop, Die Like...
A baboon and Santa Claus are witnesses to man’s descent into savagery. In Sands of the Kalahari (1965, out on DVD today from Olive Films), a charter plane crashes in the African desert, and its...
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Wait, How did THAT become a classic?!
My father-in-law, Jim, is in his eighties. He doesn’t shop very often, go to new restaurants or buy movie tickets with any regularity. As a result, his idea of what things should cost is lodged in a...
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The Many Faces of Rochester – Jane Eyre’s Romantic Hero
In a 2009 poll conducted by the popular romance book publisher Mills & Boon (Harlequin Enterprises), women unanimously voted to name Edward Fairfax Rochester the most romantic character in...
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It’s almost Ann Dvorak Day!
Christina Rice is a Los Angeles-based librarian, film historian and new mother who is currently writing a biography of Hollywood actress Ann Dvorak (1911-1979) while maintaining the website Ann Dvorak:...
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Lucy Ricardo Was Just Like Us — She Loved Movie Stars!
This coming Saturday — tomorrow, August 6th – marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of show business’ forever and always top funny lady Lucille Ball, and also a day of Lucille Ball on TCM’s Summer...
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The Nanny Diaries
Recently I rejoined the traditional nine-to-five workforce after close to 14 years as a stay-at-home father. It was a momentous step and one that changed more than just my life–we hired a nanny to take...
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DELBARAN – Diamond in the Rough
Although released in 2001 and greatly admired by many prominent film critics, DELBARAN, directed by Iranian filmmaker Abolfazl Jalili, is not nearly as well known as other Iranian prize winners such as...
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The Way You Wear Your Hat, Part 2
Last week’s post on memorable movie hats for women was fun and enlightening but time consuming because of the laborious process of researching examples. Women’s hats tend to be unique variations on...
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Lance Henriksen: Not Bad for a Human
You know this gaunt growler. He lurks in the disreputable direct-to-video section of your local video store, if it still exists, or pops up on Netflix in a low-budget creeper rated with one reluctant...
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Once is Never Enough with a Plot like You
Remakes. It’s possible, just possible, they’re hated more than sequels. After all, a sequel is continuing a successful story with the same actors and director (under most conditions but not all)...
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They said WHAT?! Classic Insults from Classic Actors
Humphrey Bogart and William Holden duking it out on the set of SABRINA (1954) In June actor Harrison Ford made news after publicly calling, Shia LaBeouf, his young costar from INDIANA JONES AND THE...
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Forgiving Leonard Maltin
If you love movies, particularly horror, science fiction, fantasy, European, cult, Psychotronic, obscure, rare and anything other than THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, CASABLANCA and DUCK SOUP, then at one time...
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A Twist of Claude Chabrol
I am a Claude Chabrol fan. What does this mean? Well, among other things, it means that when I heard that Twist had come out on DVD, I immediately rushed to the Internet to buy a copy, and the instant...
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Star-childs: From Soviet Union era Czechoslovakia to Kubrick
A copy of Ikarie XB 1 was recently put in my hands along with an enthusiastic recommendation. “It’s a game-changer,” my friend said. “Its influence on Kubrick is obvious.” As most people know, the seed...
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Mary Pickford: Much More Than a Sweetheart
The Silent Film Society of Chicago launched their Summer Film Festival a couple of weeks ago, and this year’s line-up includes A Girl in Every Port featuring Louise Brooks, Why Change Your Wife? with...
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Lucille Ball at RKO
To celebrate Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday on August 6th, Warner Archive released three films from her time as “Queen of the Bs” at RKO. She appeared in 21 films for the studio between 1938 and 1942,...
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Paranoia Strikes Deep
In Hollywood during the 1930s, political movies dealt with corruption strictly on a small scale. Whether it’s the corrupt politicians following the orders of their political bosses in Mr. Smith Goes...
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A Great Character Actor — Skip Homeier
Although he’s been retired from movies and television since the early 1980s, actor Skip Homeier is a talented character actor whose face will be familiar to almost anyone with a passing interest in...
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Joan Blondell Goes Hawaiian
During the month of August TCM highlights the work of a select group of talented performers as part of their annual Summer Under the Stars festival. The Movie Morlocks were asked to select one...
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