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Accentuate the Accent… or Don’t
I know someone who lets details destroy everything when it comes to art. This is a person to whom appreciation of art does not come naturally, or at all. I avoid discussing film with this unnamed...
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Fighting Prejudice with Sidney Poitier
2013 has quietly developed into a groundbreaking year for black actors and directors. Steve McQueen’s 12 YEARS A SLAVE starring Chiwetal Ejiofor, Ryan Coogler’s FRUITVALE STATION starring Michael B....
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“There’s the island!” or the Horror of Atoll
I’ve been on an island horror movie kick lately. An island setting can really goose the claustrophobia factor of certain horror movies, limiting the free range of the characters and forcing the...
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Unpure Chabrol
If you look up the word “self-indulgent” in the dictionary, I wouldn’t be surprised if you find that the definition is a TCM blogger who commits three entire weekly posts to a French director whose...
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Talking to Singing and Back Again
I noticed Scrooge on the schedule today at TCM. It’s the musical version of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ timeless classic (I’ve never used that cliche before but if it doesn’t apply to A...
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Happy Birthday Dalton Trumbo and Kirk Douglas: Revisiting the Blacklist
As coincidence would have it, today marks the birthday of both Dalton Trumbo and Kirk Douglas, whose names are linked because of their participation in breaking the back of the infamous Hollywood...
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Pigskin Addicts: College Coach (1933) and Easy Living (1949)
Staring disconsolately at a blank wall as the Buffalo Bills are eliminated from playoff contention is one of my longest held traditions. It’s been fourteen years since that benighted franchise has...
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The Ghosts of Movie History
Many stars of the silent period became stars of the sound period, too. Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo are two big examples of a star’s silent movie appeal crossing over into the sound era. Others...
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Remembering Buck Jones and the Cocoanut Grove Fire of 1942
Today is Buck Jones’ birthday (b. Dec. 12th 1891) and although his name might not be familiar to modern movie audiences the much loved B-movie cowboy was once one of the most popular western stars in...
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“Weep no more my lady” Arch Oboler’s BEWITCHED (1945) on DVD!
Remembered today as a radio pioneer, and as the creator of the creepy anthology series LIGHTS OUT! (an influence on Rod Serling’s TWILIGHT ZONE and NIGHT GALLERY), Arch Oboler turned his hand in 1944...
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A girl and a gun
For the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at the career of Claude Chabrol, a filmmaker who took pride in repeatedly remaking the same basic film endlessly. We’re finally done with Chabrol—which means...
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More Cat/egories…
My last post was spurred on (emphasis on “purr”) by the poster for Inside Llewyn Davis. The protagonist of that film at one point passes by a poster for The Incredible Journey (Fletcher Markle, 1963),...
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10 Films You Will Likely Never See from 2013
I should start calling my annual compilation of neglected indies, unknown documentaries, and mishandled and mistreated Hollywood films the “Lost Cause List.” Not only are these films hampered by the...
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The Grating American Novel: Youngblood Hawke (1964)
If my blog posts were the only articles you read this year, you’d come away thinking Delmer Daves was the most popular man in America. Alas, this is only true in my living room. But this was the year...
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The Eternal Star, Trapped in Time
Quick, how long was Clark Gable’s movie career? If you said 38 years, lasting from 1923, his first uncredited extra work in Fighting Blood, to the 1961 posthumuous release of The Misfits in 1961,...
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A Celluloid Revolution – James Dean: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
“In sixteen months of acting, he left a more lasting impression on the public than many stars do in thirty years.” - Henry Ginsberg (GIANT producer) The original rebel, the first rock star, the...
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Don’t get lonely: SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT on DVD (again)
I was asked recently — it being the season to be jolly and all — about my favorite Christmas movie and after a moment I said, or typed, “SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT!” I surprised the questioner. I...
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Putting Christmas back in (the title of) Christmas in July
OK. So Preston Sturges’ Christmas in July isn’t a Christmas movie. But it has Christmas in the title, and you know what? The Thing wasn’t a Christmas movie either, so there. Christmas in July is...
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The Sincere Cinema
One Foot in Heaven aired this morning on TCM and if you missed it, you missed a good one. Directed by Irving Rapper, nominated for Best Picture, and starring Fredric March, it tells the true story of...
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Not Your Typical Christmas Movies
I’m not a holiday type of person, because bad things tend to happen to me on holidays. Even Labor Day makes me anxious. Despite my anti-holiday attitude, I do like to watch Christmas movies. This month...
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