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Spy Games: Bang! Bang! You’re Dead! (1966)
In the breezy spy spoof BANG! BANG! YOU’RE DEAD! (aka OUR MAN IN MARAKESH; 1966), which was recently released on Blu-ray by Olive Films, we’re introduced to Andrew Jessel (Tony Randall) who has just...
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Deadlier than the male: COUNTESS DRACULA on DVD and Blu-ray!
I don’t get a lot of review discs these days — and that’s fine by me, as I’m more than a little over the whole reviewing thing — so I was not expecting to find this beauty in my mailbox last week… and...
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2B OR NOT 2B (2)
As part of TCM’s tribute to the films of Mel Brooks, his 1983 remake of To Be Or Not To Be is screening on Tuesday. It’s a curiosity to be sure—too slavish to the Lubitsch original to really find its...
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1970: The Year of Living Radically
I’m working on a project these days that has me cataloging films released in the years between 1970 and 2000. On one level, it’s simple data entry… entering movie titles and pertinent production...
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Davey’s stupidest video purchases
I’ve been collecting movies in one format or another since the late 1970s. Some of my acquisitions are treasured artifacts—the Betamax copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was my first ever...
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Highly Dangerous Duo: Eric Ambler and Roy Ward Baker
Most film fans know The Mask of Dimitrios, the 1944 noir thriller directed by Jean Negulesco. Starring Peter Lorre, Faye Emerson, Zachary Scott, and Sydney Greenstreet, and based on the novel The...
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A Forgotten Film to Remember: The People Versus Paul Crump
One of the last projects that I worked on at Chicago’s Facets Multi-Media before moving on to another phase of my life was the restoration and DVD release of William Friedkin’s The People Versus Paul...
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Movin’ On Up: Alice Adams (1935)
The careers of Katharine Hepburn and George Stevens were forever altered by the flip of a coin. Hepburn and producer Pandro S. Berman had acquired the rights to make a film version of Booth...
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Anthologies, the Boxes, and Roy Ward Baker
We often make connections when exploring a new avenue in the arts that are purposeful. For example, someone sees their first Fellini film, say, La Strada, and becomes excited to seek out more of his...
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Phil Karlson’s HORNET’S NEST not reviewed!
I cannot in good faith review Phil Karlson’s HORNET’S NEST (1970) because I haven’t seen it in over 40 years. No, I don’t stand up here today to tender opinion, or to talk about how this particular...
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“The World’s Most Beautiful Animal!”
Ava Gardner in a publicity shot for THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954) Airing on TCM June 1st. Ava Gardner makes one of my favorite film entrances of all time in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA...
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Cassavetes vs. Ottinger – Arthouse Grudge Match
Several weeks ago, I posted an essay that claimed that the reason movies get made is to make money. I stand by that claim, and have spent the many of the last several weeks trying to explore the edges...
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A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
If you missed A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964) when it screened at the recent TCM Film Fest, you’ll get another shot tomorrow when it airs as part of an evening celebrating the British...
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Behind the Scenes of ‘The Lucky 6′
I caught only one film at the Sarasota International Film Festival this past April—The Lucky Six, a drama about a group of coworkers who win the lottery. I had a vested interest in watching this film,...
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Wrecked: Wake of the Red Witch (1948)
In 1948 John Wayne appeared in Fort Apache, Red River, 3 Godfathers and Wake of the Red Witch. After seeing Red River, John Ford was reported to say, “I never knew that big son of a bitch could...
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When Actors Belong to a Place and Time
The Fifth Musketeer. the 1979 romp based on the works of Alexandre Dumas, and showcasing the classic characters of d’Artagnan and his three musketeer friends, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, airs late...
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They Wore It Well: Actors & Mustaches
James D. Barnes in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903) Throughout the month of June you’re going to be seeing a lot of mustaches on TCM. Every Friday night you can tune in and enjoy some carefully coiffed...
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Shock it to me! New SHOCK CINEMA in the house!
A couple of times a year, SHOCK CINEMA turns up at my front door, like an old undead fishin’ buddy who can’t stay buried, who grows restless and forlorn in his pinebox and claws himself up out of the...
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Write what you know
I read a lot of film books. Sometimes because I’m personally interested in the particular subject, sometimes because I’m obliged to research a topic as part of a larger project. And along the way...
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What Does That Even Mean?
I try to avoid capsule reviews for almost everything. I find capsule reviews pointless because I’m not reading to get a simple recommendation or not, I’m reading to get insight into the film. This is...
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