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Remaking the Three Stooge
Spread out! Having been on a remake kick now for several weeks, I can’t pass up the opportunity to comment on the current big-screen “remake” of The Three Stooges. The only problem is, I haven’t yet...
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Leadership classifications for (some, male) classic film protagonists
Really? Is that the subject of this Sunday’s blog post? Couldn’t it be about something a little more scintillating like: “Analyzing Sherwin Williams’ (paint) palette with respect to Technicolor’s” or...
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“My Two Husbands Was Turnips”: Thoughts on Film Noir Dialogue
As promised, this week’s blog post provides the answers to last week’s film noir quiz. The quiz was prompted by the tribute to film noir at the TCM Classic Movie Festival, which ended Sunday, but good...
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Home Video Roundup: Witches and the West
I had a similar reaction to Mr. Stewart when I watched Kim Novak purr her way through Bell Book and Candle, just released by Twilight Time on a gorgeous blu-ray. He also might have been agog at...
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It’s Called Murder, Hitchy.
[Spoilers Abound - All twists explicitly revealed for purpose of discussing the subtext of the film] Alfred Hitchcock’s Murder! (1930) is an odd piece of mystery movie-making but fascinating...
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Spy Games: Matchless (1967)
Following the phenomenal success of United Artists’ early James Bond films many Hollywood studios tried to mimic their crowd winning formula. One of the most successful attempts to cash in on Bond’s...
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The Tod Browning Version
At the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival last week I got to revisit Tod Browning’s DRACULA (1931) … and fall in love all over again. I’ve always liked Browning’s adaptation of DRACULA, which had by 1931...
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Remaking Laurel and Hardy
The Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie is not the first time contemporary directors have sought to recreate slapstick comedies. This week, we’ll visit Blake Edward’s attempt to revive Laurel and...
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Fine Young Cannibals: Part Deux
What do Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991),...
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Adventures at the TCM Classic Film Festival
Recovering from the TCM Classic Film Fest, which was held last weekend in Hollywood, took a few days, but it is now a glorious memory. The fest proved to be a communal experience, a learning...
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Men Not At Work: The Three Stooges and The Day He Arrives
The mind needs structure. So when watching films in quick succession, unexpected linkages emerge, like the strange thematic similarities between Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives (in theaters now from...
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Cinema Chain Reaction I: The Redwood Edition
There are rarely more than a few minutes each day in which cinema does not inform me, excite me or speak to me in some way. I look about and everything I see, in one way or another, reminds me of a...
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Charlotte Rampling: The Look
Woody Allen introduced me to Charlotte Rampling. It was during the early autumn of 1980 or possibly the early winter of 1981. I was a moody adolescent and family friends took me to see STARDUST...
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Deriverance: Do parodies still rob genre film trends of their effectiveness?
My friend Mike Malloy is stealing my chair today to discuss one of my favorite subgenres: backwoods thriller and horror films. So pull up a stump and set a spell… Italy used to be the world’s foremost...
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Here we go again
I knew I was likely to provoke some disagreement a couple of weeks ago when I presented my defense of the Pollock cut of Metropolis. I never claimed it was a better movie than the longer restored...
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Hey Mickey, You’re So Fine, You Blow My Mind
Forget about Boys Town, Judge Hardy and Son, Babes in Arm, The Human Comedy or National Velvet. This is the less traveled road of Mickey Rooney’s post-MGM career where anything goes…and often did....
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Re-Viewing Romania with Lucian Pintilie
Working at Facets Multi-Media for over ten years has expanded my understanding of and appreciation for foreign film—from classic Polish films to subversive Czech New Wave features to contemporary Asian...
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DTV Action Items (Part 1): An Interview With Outlaw Vern
The summer movie season is obnoxiously approaching, with long-form toy commercial The Avengers opening on Friday. While estimable writer-director Joss Whedon is sure to provide a witty quip or two,...
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I Got the Movie Music in Me (and the Sound Effects too)
When I was younger, much younger, I used to listen to LPs (that would be “long-play records” for you youngsters out there, also known as vinyl) and eight tracks (yes, eight tracks) of movie and...
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“A film is a petrified fountain of thought.” – Jean Cocteau
When Jean Cocteau’s name surfaces most of us think of the visionary artist, poet and director who made films such as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946), BLOOD OF A POET (1930), LES PARENTS TERRIBLES (1948)...
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