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Another Day in Black Rock
In most film history books, the advent of CinemaScope and other widescreen processes is attributed to the studios’ attempts to counter the rising popularity of television. Making the big screen bigger...
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“First Look” at the Museum of the Moving Image
Last week Manohla Dargis complained about the overwhelming glut of films released in New York City. The New York Times has a policy to review every new release, and in 2013 they published 900 reviews,...
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But What if They Never Deserved an Oscar?
Whenever an actor or director goes an entire career without winning an Oscar, we often mention all the great performances they gave or all the great movies they directed and shake our heads at the...
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At Home with Joan Crawford
The Morlocks’ week long tribute to Joan Crawford might be over but I’ve still got her on my mind thanks to an interior design book I purchased last month that features Crawford’s last apartment. The...
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Adventures in Cheap Space!
Ever since I wrote about THE GREEN SLIME a few weeks back I’ve been thinking of space travel. Not actual space travel (boring!)… and not the sort of premium space travel that we’re shown via movies on...
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What, No “What, No Beer?”
This coming Wednesday at 6 am Eastern, TCM is running What, No Beer? It is just about as unloved as a movie can be. If all the hatred and invective thrown at this 65 minute-long 1933 comedy were...
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Stunning Visuals, Editing and Sound!
The Oscar nominations for 2013 came out recently and I was once again put in mind of the different technical categories and how misunderstood they are because when most craftsmen and artists do their...
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Edison, the Man-ipulator
This month, TCM’s Friday Night Spotlight is devoted to “Science in the Movies,” which showcases flicks with at least a nominal connection to science, including biopics of famous scientists. Let’s face...
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Transparency of Style: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Academy Awards present what Hollywood considers its best face to the world. Never an objective measure of artistic accomplishment, if such a thing is even possible, it instead functions as a...
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The Viewer’s Cut
There’s an unwritten rule that I stick to, and I hope and believe most other critics do as well, that basically says “Review the movie that’s in front of you, not the one you wanted to see.” In other...
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In space no one can hear you scream
ALIEN airs on TCM January 25th as part of their ‘70s Thrills programming For decades screaming was often the weapon of choice for women in action, science fiction and horror films. We were expected to...
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Spare me the bunk: Jim Dawson’s LOS ANGELES’S BUNKER HILL reviewed!
I came of age as a movie lover in the early 70s, a great time for slim softcover film books packed with useful information and plenty illustrations calculated, it seemed to me, to bend impressionable...
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George C. Scott unwittingly trained a dolphin to kill the President of the...
Mike Nichols was a veteran comedy director of stage and screen, not to mention a comedy performer of no small renown. He would go on to become of the few people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a...
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CAMPUS TRIPTYCH
In his book Campus Life in the Movies: A Critical Survey from the Silent Era to the Present (2008), John E. Conklin “explores themes of college life in 680 feature-length films set in the U.S. and...
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Hair-Raising Characters
Last week, American Hustle garnered ten Academy Award Nominations, including three acting nods. The high-profile stars that make up the talented cast drive this comedy-drama about con artists who...
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Caged: A Nicolas Cage Marathon
In 1999 Sean Penn said Nicolas Cage was “no longer an actor. He could be again, but now he’s more like a…performer.” Penn intended this as a criticism, framing a narrative of Cage abandoning art (Wild...
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A Lesser Appreciation
When we talk about the big directors, we often talk about their biggest movies. And who could blame us? But many times, a director’s lesser credits interest us more, if only because we’re so tired...
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Hello Hello Conrad
One of my favorite musicals happens to be BYE BYE BIRDIE (1963) and you can currently catch it playing on TCM On Demand. George Sidney’s film satirized America’s obsession with the burgeoning pop...
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They had (horror) faces then
Earlier this week my friend Bill Ryan posted to his Facebook page an image of John Barrymore from the 1920 silent version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Bill did this to point attention to his review of...
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Of Jerry Lewis, the French, and an undying myth
Why do the French love Jerry Lewis? It’s an age-old question—one that has dogged American pop culture for over 50 years. It’s inspired no end of speculation—Rae Gordon wrote a whole book on the...
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