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Give Him Some Sugar, Baby — Happy Birthday to Bruce Campbell!
If there’s a more deserving fellow to wish a very Happy Birthday to today, I can’t think of him. Actor/director/producer/author Bruce Campbell, born 52 years ago today, is a real pro, a Hollywood...
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The Glamorous World of Paul Hesse
During the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s glamor photography was all the rage in Hollywood. A good portrait could do wonders for an actor’s reputation and make them desirable to fans as well as directors and...
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What’s crackin’?
I’ve lived long enough to see the end of the world (in whole or in part) many times over and there is enough of a selection of worst case scenarios floating around out there for me to be...
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Mary Lee Ling – Astrologer Sleuth
Every amateur detective has his own approach to crime solving but Mary Lee Ling consults the stars and birth dates to narrow down the list of suspects. WHEN WERE YOU BORN (1938) has a terrific premise...
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Remembering Billy Curtis
In life you’ve just gotta take what it gives you. Some people want to be doctors, some want to be actors. Some of those people who want to be actors might not be just like everybody else. Some are...
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Show-Biz Photos from the Chicago Daily News: A Window to the Past
After the Great Fire of 1871, the city of Chicago was rebuilt as a modern metropolis that included theater and entertainment districts. By the turn of the century, Chicago had grown into a show...
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The New York Asian Film Festival & Japan Cuts
The New York Asian Film Festival (June 25th – July 8th) is more essential than ever. With distribution companies shutting their doors to Asian cinemas of all types, there are very few outlets to watch...
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Scopitone A Go-Go
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend The Sacramento Mid-Century Modern Home Tour. The focus of the event was on interior and exterior home design from the ’50s and ’60s but there were also...
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The End (and everything after)
Last week I talked a bit about apocalyptic disaster movies that, generally speaking, build up to and then pull back from destroying the entire world, leaving humanity decimated in the final frames but...
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The Melody Lingers On
Some movies linger on in your memory long after the viewing but it isn’t always because of the story, the actors or the film’s cumulative impact. Sometimes it could simply be a music cue or the end...
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Happy 100th to the Lovely and Talented Gloria Stuart!
She was born a century ago, on July 4, 1910, and what a thrill it is to be able to wish actress Gloria Stuart a Happy 100th Birthday! What a milestone for Ms. Stuart, and how lucky we are to have her...
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Jim Thompson Shows Us the Killer Inside Us
I first heard of hard-boiled writer Jim Thompson around 1990 when his books were suddenly the hottest properties in Hollywood. That year, The Grifters and After Dark, My Sweet were both adapted for the...
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Underrated Eastwood: Firefox (1982)
Beginning on July 9th, the Film Society at Lincoln Center in NYC will be mounting their misleadingly titled “Complete Clint Eastwood” series, which will run all the films he directed, but only a select...
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Alfred Hitchcock Needs Our Help
This week the BFI (British Film Institute) launched a new campaign called “Rescue the Hitchcock 9” that asks the public to help them rescue 9 of Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest films. The original movies...
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Childhoods lost… and found
I’ve always been especially attracted to childhood tales and I enjoy listening to them, from anybody. Yeah, I’m that guy who flips through your photo album uninvited, because he really wants to know...
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LEE TRACY: A Motormouth, Ambulance Chasing, Four Flusher
This past Spring NYC’s Film Forum programmed a series entitled “The Newspaper Picture” and out of the entire schedule, ten of the movies starred Lee Tracy, including The Strange Love of Molly Louvain...
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“Why The French Connection?”
I recently got back from extended travels to face a backlog of queries from Colorado friends and neighbors regarding the belated start of my 16mm backyard cinema program. Using FaceBook I asked if...
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Toby Peters: Detective to the Stars
Though not as doggedly determined as Sam Spade or as quick with the quip as Philip Marlowe, hard-boiled private eye Toby Peters investigates the most entertaining cases because his beat is Hollywood...
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Digging Through the Warner Archives: …All the Marbles (1981)
The Warner Archive continues to empty out WB’s library onto their premium-priced burned-on-demand DVDs, and it’s impossible to keep up. I currently have my wavering cursor over the buy button on Sam...
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Monsieur Hulot vs. The Modern World
In 1958 the world was changing rapidly. The post war economic boom had produced new industries and lots of new jobs. Consumer confidence was high and many families were finally able to afford their own...
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