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Watt’s new: Fervid Filmmaking
Fresh from that Stomboli’s Circus of an academic book mill, McFarland & Company, is a new tome by Pennsylvania DIY filmmaker and genre aficionado Mike Watt (not to be confused with the co-founder...
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What’s the deal with Virginia O’Brien?
I’ve slagged off the Marx Brothers’ The Big Store in this forum before, but I’ll admit it has one outstanding moment–a memorable instance of absolute transgression against the norms of classical...
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What Will Survive?
Recently, I found myself humming the theme from The Magnificent Seven in the company of a twenty-something I know. I got to the big crashing refrain and kind of expected him to join in. He didn’t....
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Considering Richard Matheson and Somewhere in Time
A blogathon by TCM’s Movie Morlocks has been long overdue, and no topic seemed more appropriate than the work of novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson. Saddened by his passing on June 23, we...
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Richard Matheson enters The Twilight Zone
Richard Matheson was already an established writer in 1959, the year he started contributing to The Twilight Zone. But it took him a while. Over the course of the 1950s he rose from pitching sci-fi...
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Duel: Menace, not Meaning
Last year, I mentioned Steven Spielberg’s Duel in another post I was doing and said, “ How many times can a filmmaker claim to have made a movie in which it could be argued the entire plot structure is...
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Someone is Bleeding: Les seins de glace (1974)
Before Richard Matheson etched out a name for himself as a popular writer of horror and science fiction he dabbled in crime fiction and mysteries. His very first novel was a pulpy noir titled Someone...
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Hell House is other people
When Richard Matheson adapted his 1971 novel Hell House for 20th Century Fox (and producer James H. Nicholson, late of American International Pictures), the material underwent a significant name change...
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The Incredible Shrinking Woman
As our weeklong tribute to Richard Matheson nears its conclusion, I thought it was high time that someone got around to commenting on Matheson’s comedy work. The only problem is, Matheson wasn’t really...
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Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
I should have suspected that the combination of a script by Richard Matheson and direction by Roger Corman would result in a great film, but I didn’t. In retrospect, I can only chalk that up to my own...
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Offering a ‘Tip on a Dead Jockey’
Adventurers roaming the cobble-stoned streets of Paris; writers in berets drinking to excess in cafes; disillusioned veterans adrift in Spain. Who doesn’t love stories of expatriates in Europe? This...
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The Entertainer: Allan Dwan (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of a series on director Allan Dwan. Part 1 focused on his silent films. Dwan was ready for the transition to sound. He had experimented with the new technology as early as 1925, when he...
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We Had Faces… Lots of Faces
Showing tonight at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on TCM is George Pal’s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao from 1964. Although it wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup, that’s not because the film was lacking in...
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Barbara Stanwyck’s Career… in Advertising!
In case you missed it, Tuesday (July 16th) was Barbara Stanwyck’s 106th birthday. Although the beloved actress has been dead for more than 20 years, she’s still grabbing headlines and making new fans....
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Put your hand in the hand of the man… Hands of the Ripper on DVD and Blu-ray!
Jack the Ripper movies have long danced around the tune of the ghastly known facts. As ready-made as were the Whitechapel murders of 1888 for the nascent medium of moving pictures, censorious...
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Rene Clair hits the jackpot
On Sunday, July 21, TCM will be screening a pair of early talkie comedies by Rene Clair. Of the two, A Nous la Liberte is the more celebrated—perhaps even a bit notorious. It was the film Charlie...
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Mon Film Préféré Tati
Tonight on TCM, Jacques Tati’s wonderful 1958 film, Mon Oncle, airs at 8:00 p.m. (EST). Of all the silent filmmakers, Tati is my favorite. While his films were made in the sound era and even...
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Forgotten Films to Remember: ‘Between Two Worlds’
Ever since Morlock Greg Ferrara questioned why some classic movies are remembered and others are forgotten in a post earlier this month, I have been turning over in my mind the implications of his...
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Heat Waves: A Summer Place (1959)
The infernal weather system that soaked the Northeast in sweat this past week was moving backwards. In the United States these systems usually travel west to east, but this persistent “dome of hot air”...
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Mel Brooks: Restrain Yourself
Tonight on TCM, the AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Mel Brooks, will air and I couldn’t help but reminisce about the first comedy filmmaker I got to know by way of stuff he never did in the...
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