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The Battle Hymn of Republic Pictures
On July 18th, Olive Films will begin their roll-out of the Republic Pictures library with DVD/Blu-Ray releases of High Noon (1952) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Republic has long been one...
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A Declaration of Love and Independence
Today’s the day my facebook feed gets inundated with pictures of James Cagney because, well, you know why. And who can blame my facebook film friends for turning to Cagney as George M. Cohan as the...
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Summer Reading
Above: Actress Merle Oberon enjoying a book while lounging around the pool I do a lot of reading all year long but during the summer months I tend to set aside some extra time to catch up with the...
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This song reminds me of that movie!
More than once this past week, as I have driven about the sun-kissed San Fernando Valley, I’ve had occasion to hear that seminal 70s anthem “A Horse With No Name” on the radio. Written and recorded by...
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Ring around J-Horror
J-Horror don’t get no respect. The long-haired ghosts have become a cliché to be ridiculed, and the tragedy of it is that the audiences perhaps best attuned to appreciate what J-Horror had to offer in...
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How about a “big screen” tennis biography?
It was over 5 years ago that I wrote on these pages about my other passion and its relation to this one, and referred to an ‘essay’ that I’d written on the topic for my site. (The article is really...
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More Than an Actress with a Pretty Face
Ethel Barrymore, a respected thespian on the stage and screen for six decades, once noted, “For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of...
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Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
For the sixth year running, the Japan Cuts film series in New York City presents an eye-opening glimpse of contemporary filmmaking from across the Pacific, the vast majority of which will never receive...
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Let Me Tell You Something About Ernie
Ernest Borgnine died three days ago, July 8, 2012, at the age of 95. He was only seven years younger than Luise Rainer (still going at 102), one year younger than Olivia de Havilland (still going at...
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Buggin’ Out with Buggies
I’ve been thinking a lot about dune buggies lately. It all started a few weeks ago while I was watching HEAD (1968) on TCM starring The Monkees. This psychedelic blast from the past has many memorable...
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“We exist… only in Hell!“
The new Synapse Films DVD/Blu-ray combo pack of Hammer’s TWINS OF EVIL (1971), third leg of the studio’s “Karnstein Trilogy,” arrived just a wee bit late to make the cut for last week’s Morlocks...
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Seven vs. Dr. Phibes
When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. And I was wrong. I figured the breakout thriller to see in 1995 was going to be Copycat. I know, I know, but hear me out—I wasn’t alone. A lot of industry press at...
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HORROR AND THE HORROR FILM, by Bruce Kawin
Bruce Kawin is a widely published scholar, film historian, and poet. As Professor of English and Film at the University of Colorado at Boulder, he has influenced many careers. Some 25 years ago, Dayton...
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Funny Lady: Nora Ephron
Before the deaths of Andy Griffith and Ernest Borgnine dealt a double blow to Baby Boomers who have fond memories of both actors, Nora Ephron passed away from leukemia. Boomers grew up on the...
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Still Singin’
Singin’ In the Rain (1952) is 60 years young in 2012, a birthday which Warner Brothers is celebrating with a dazzlingly remastered Blu-Ray that comes out today. Richly textured with popping primary...
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Can a Movie be a Victim of Genre Success?
Or put another way, can the progressive efficiency of a genre retroactively make an early example of the form tired and predictable? That’s going a bit far but if I couldn’t be a little provocative in...
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Spy Games: Double Agents (1959)
In this month’s installment of Spy Games I decided to focus my attention on Robert Hossein’s French thriller DOUBLE AGENTS (aka La nuit des espions; 1959). Countless espionage films have scrutinized...
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Crowned and Renowned: A Look Back at Crown International Pictures (Part 1)
Today I put you in the good hands of my friends David Konow and Chris Poggiali, who look back fondly on those indefatigable brokers of bad-ass, Crown International Pictures. This is a massive piece of...
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This Year at Marienbad
When I first encountered Alain Resnais’ famously impenetrable Last Year at Marienbad, roughly fifteen years ago, I watched it out of a sense of obligation. I knew it to be an acknowledged “classic” by...
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JOY HOUSE aka Les Felins aka The Love Cage
The Women of the “Joy House” Allowed Him Every Freedom…Except the Freedom to Leave! He loved as if his life depended on it…and it did! He couldn’t leave it alone….He couldn’t leave it alive… Taglines...
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