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Picnic-ing
The intrepid Twilight Time label continues their line of limited edition Blu-Ray releases with an absolutely gorgeous version of Picnic, Columbia’s romantic smash of 1955-1956. Sold exclusively through...
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The Three Faces of Oscar
With the release of the Oscar nominations for 2011, I’m once again forced to acknowledge my utterly pointless, irritating and relentless love-hate relationship with the Academy Awards. First of all,...
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Three Cases of Murder and One Uncredited Director
I love a good horror anthology so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I recently sat down to watch THREE CASES OF MURDER (1955) for the first time. This unusual British film seems to have gone...
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One monster in particular
If you have yet to see a Lon Chaney movie, it probably should not be THE MONSTER (1925). Made after his iconic turns in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (which was filmed...
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Across the rooftops of Paris…
Louis Feuillade was the Christopher Columbus of cinema—a pioneer explorer of newly uncovered lands, a touchstone to all who followed in his footsteps. Generations of filmmakers after him called him...
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Sundance films are like…
Yesterday I got an email from IFC that promotes the latest Stephen Dorff film with a quote from the actor himself. The film is called Brake, and it’s about a guy trapped in the cargo compartment of a...
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Diary of a B-Fest Survivor
For my birthday, I treated myself to the 31st Annual B-Fest, a 24-hour marathon of b-movies held each year in January at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “B-movie” is a generous...
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The Films of Robert Mulligan, Part 1
As part of the 100th Anniversary of Universal Pictures, the studio is remastering a series of classic library titles for Blu-Ray, including a 50th Anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962),...
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Support Your Local Lead Character
In early 1973, The Godfather took home the Oscar for Best Picture of the year 1972. The story, in both the novel and the movie, revolves around “good son” Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) as he...
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Spy Games: The Looking Glass War (1969)
One of the best films I saw last year was Tomas Alfredson’s TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY (2011) based on John Le Carré’s novel of the same name. It stars Gary Oldman in a career defining performance...
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Diahann Carroll: The Turner Classic Movies Interview
Our friend Steve Ryfle takes the wheel today in candid conversation with film and TV actress (and Turner Classic Movies fan) Diahann Carroll, which he offers to us as a Movie Morlocks exclusive…...
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The Gentleman Thief
Last week we visisted with Fantomas, the Lord of Terror. This week it’s his opposite number’s turn in the spotlight—the Gentleman Thief, Arsene Lupin. The story surrounding Lupin in all his media...
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Masks Are Powerful
There is one cinema gimmick that always works for me and can sometimes lift a movie out of the ordinary and take it somewhere unexpected. And this usually occurs when someone either puts on a mask or...
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Intimate Exposures: Marilyn Monroe in Photographs
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe, which is the perfect occasion for a reevaluation of her films and career. There has been renewed attention in MM because of My Week...
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The Films of Robert Mulligan, Part 2
This is Part Two of a four-part series that looks at the career of director Robert Mulligan. You can find Part One here. After the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, Robert Mulligan and producer Alan...
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The Set-Up and the Money Shot
When you grow up with a love of film in an age before cable and videotapes (and decades before DVDs and streaming) like me, you get to know a lot of movies by their money shots long before you ever see...
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Girls Will Be Boys
Marlene Dietrich in MOROCCO (1930) Two of the most intriguing performances that were nominated for an Oscar this year can be found in ALBERT NOBBS (2011). In the film Glenn Close and Janet McTeer play...
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Proud Republican
Yes, I am a proud Republican… and by that I mean I am a proud fan of Republic Pictures, the little studio that could. And by could, I mean could produce low budget genre movies that stood toe to toe...
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The Funny Parts
In the introduction to his essential new book The Funny Parts (McFarland, 2011), writer Anthony Balducci relates an anecdote about Bill Cosby appropriating and improving on a routine first performed by...
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A Tribute to Theo Angelopoulos
Acclaimed Greek fimmaker Theodoros “Theo” Angelopoulos died last month. He was killed January 24th when he was hit by a motorcycle a few blocks from where he had been shooting his latest film, The...
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