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Holiday Greetings from The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come!
This week TCM is presenting two classic Christmas films on December 7th in association with Fathom Events and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. You can see A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) and CHRISTMAS IN...
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Wait a Minute, Mister, You Got Me All Wrong
There’s an old episode of M*A*S*H (I guess they’re all old since the series concluded over thirty years ago but whatever) in which the guys in the camp are all excited to get a copy of The Moon is...
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Ground Control to Major Tom
Hi everybody–I’m taking the week off to give my spot over to my daughter, Ann Stapel-Kalat. She’s gonna talk about space movies. OK, Ann–take it away! Before I say anything about this topic, let’s...
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I Saw That Coming
Fred Zinnemann had a long and varied career (including the classic From Here to Eternity, airing today on TCM, on the 73rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor) but it was near the end of his...
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Christmas on Celluloid: “Susan Slept Here”
Last week, I wrote about Christmas in Connecticut with its charming romance, role-reversal comedy, and Currier and Ives backdrop. The film is the very essence of a holiday classic for the whole family:...
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Just Visiting: Starman and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Inside each hand, a miracle. Starman (1984) and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) both envision the ineffable, of presences that transcend our earthly domain. But both also celebrate the joys...
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This week on TCM Underground: THE MANITOU (1978)
A bogus psychic and a Native American medicine man combat an ancient entity of unimaginable power. THE MANITOU (1978) Cast: Tony Curtis (Harry Erskine), Michael Ansara (John Singing Rock), Susan...
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“Discover a savage world whose only law was lust!”
Today TCM is airing a batch of great fantasy and adventure films produced by Hammer starring some of the studio’s most memorable leading ladies including the exotic brunette beauty Martine Beswick in...
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A Trio of Diversified Gangsters
Anyone who has seen The Public Enemy has probably noticed the same thing: In the opening scenes, where Tom and Matt as young men are seen, the character playing young Tom looks like a young version of...
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Slapstick While Black
Apologies: this week’s post is about racially insensitive jokes in silent comedy (Yes, Ben Martin, this one’s for you), and so I’ve got some unpleasant screen grabs, illustrating some gags most of us...
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Words for Wilder
. Last night I was visiting the local Alamo Drafthouse and saw that they will be screening The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960). Featured cocktails include Between the Sheets (rum, cointreau, brandy,...
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Christmas on Celluloid: “Donovan’s Reef”
I confess a fondness for Christmas movies that stray from the typical snow-covered farmhouses, nostalgic small-towns, holiday-decorated department stores, and parties overrun with good cheer. While...
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Final Repose: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Albert Lewin is an elusive figure in the history of Hollywood. He was an educated aesthete with a B.A. from NYU and a M.A. from Harvard who took a job as a script reader at Samuel Goldwyn studios....
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This week on TCM Underground: SANTA CLAUS (1959). You know, the one with the...
Mexico becomes ground zero for an all-out turf war between the intergalactic forces of Christmas and the Devil himself. No, seriously, that’s what happens. SANTA CLAUS (1959) Cast: Jose Elias Moreno...
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The Wonderful World of Disney Comes to TCM
As a kid growing up in 1970s my Sunday nights revolved around The Wonderful World of Disney. It was my cherished respite before the much dreaded school week began and I savored every last minute spent...
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The Better Half
The Apartment airs today on TCM and in it are two of the great stars of the silver screen, Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Like any great stars, they have two careers comprised of a first half and a...
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If we took a holiday / Took some time to celebrate
There’s nothing on the books that says that a “classic” has to have been liked much when it first came out. In fact, enormous swaths of what we now revere as America’s film heritage are comprised of...
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The Other Side of Disney
Later tonight, The Vanishing Prairie airs on TCM and I highly recommend it. I wrote the movie up for TCM’s main site and I’m a fan, not just of the documentary itself but of most of Disney’s...
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Christmas with Ginger Rogers
For my last article on not-your-usual Christmas movies, I offer a double feature starring Ginger Rogers. Unfortunately, one of the films, I’ll Be Seeing You, aired on TCM yesterday, December 21, before...
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Film Discoveries of 2014
Let the proliferation of year-end lists wash over you with a resigned calm. And let me add another one to the ocean of opinion. Today I’m presenting my top ten new-to-me movies of 2014. That is, older...
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