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This week on TCM Underground: The Return of Roller Boogie!
A rich girl from Beverly Hills and a poor boy from Venice Beach become partners to win a roller boogie contest and save a local skating rink from being torn down by unscrupulous developers. ROLLER...
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Orson Welles at One Hundred
Part man, part myth and part mystery. 100 years after his birth, Orson Welles remains a towering figure in cinema history and a difficult character to pin down. Welles’ immeasurable talents, larger...
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You Never Forget Your First Love
May 6th, 2015 is the one hundredth birthday of the great Orson Welles, and tonight, even though it’s not quite his birthday yet, TCM is airing Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons back to back....
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The Back of Joan Crawford’s Head
Up above, that’s a picture of the back of Joan Crawford’s head. You might be wondering why I think that’s worth looking at, or how I expect to squeeze 1500 words out of it. I happen to think this is a...
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Stanley Film Festival with Stuart Gordon
The 3rd annual Stanley Film Festival calls it a wrap today. The first year was a modest affair, but in the 2nd year the programmers brought their A-game and branched out to include the Historic Park...
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Mr Arkadin: Don’t Believe That Scorpion
More than twenty years have passed since I last saw Mr. Arkadin, Orson Welles’s unconventional tale of an eccentric but powerful man. I look forward to revisiting this dark drama when TCM airs the film...
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Fighting Spirit: Kung Fu Killer (2015) and Skin Trade (2015)
The summer movie season seems to begin earlier and earlier every year. 2015′s blockbustering began on April 3rd, when Furious Seven started fueling its way to a billion dollars. Avengers: Age of...
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This week on TCM Underground: Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive (1974)
An expectant couple’s newborn baby emerges from the womb a monster. IT’S ALIVE (1974) Written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen. Cast: John P. Ryan (Frank Davis), Sharon Farrell (Lenore Davis),...
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World premiere of Jim Akin’s The Ocean of Helena Lee, Friday May 8th, at the...
I haven’t been everywhere but I’ve been some places, some pretty good places. At the top of the Eiffel Tower. in the labyrinth of the Dorsodura in Venice, gazing down into the belly of the Coliseum in...
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Think Pink: The Enduring Appeal of Lady Penelope
Last week I celebrated the 100th birthday of Orson Welles and this week I’m celebrating another milestone, the 50th anniversary of THUNDERBIRDS and the International Rescue team featuring secret agent...
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Who Directed This Thing Anyway?!
Anyone who knows classic Hollywood knows that there have been many occasions where the name under the “directed by” credit isn’t the actual person who directed the picture. One of those happens to be...
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Downton Valley, or Ruggles Conquers the West
Ruggles of Red Gap is an odd duck. It is a crucial turning point into the formative genre of screwball comedy, but it isn’t easily recognizable as a romantic comedy nor is it especially female driven....
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Your Mother Should Know
TCM celebrates Mother’s Day by offering up a selection of cinematic mothers who reinforce the ideals upheld by most of us when thinking of great mothers. Barbara Stanwyck’s Stella Dallas is a...
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A Forgotten Film to Remember: The Last of Sheila
Film historians often proclaim the 1960s and 1970s to be one of Hollywood’s most creative eras. Dubbed the Film School Generation, or New Hollywood, directors, producers, and writers enjoyed a level...
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The Show Must Go On: 42nd Street (1933)
When sound came to cinema, the musical came along with it. The tremendous box office returns of The Jazz Singer (1927) had producers reeling, and the market was soon flooded with song and dance. But...
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Ass, Grass, and Mishegoss. An American Hippie in Israel (1972) and I Love...
A disillusioned Vietnam veteran escapes the madness of modern living and attempts to establish a Utopian commune on a desert island. AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (1972) aka HA-TREMPIST, THE...
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British Science Fiction: A Poster Gallery
Today (May 14th) TCM is airing a batch of entertaining and inventive British science fiction films beginning with THE TUNNEL aka TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL (1935) in the early morning hours of 5:45 AM...
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When Going to the Movies was More Important Than the Movie
Today on TCM, there’s a short movie running between the other movies and it’s about the making of Westworld, the 1973 sci-fi mediocrity about androids that go berserk and start killing the guests of...
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Ginger Rogers: Sad Sacks of Fifth Avenue
Gregory La Cava’s 1939 comedy Fifth Avenue Girl is an excellent example of the 1930s style of romantic comedies, and possibly my favorite Ginger Rogers film of all. It is also a decidedly deviant 1930s...
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SFF Post Mortem
In my last post I interviewed Stuart Gordon. I also interviewed some other folks while up in Estes Park attending the third annual Stanley Film Festival and, in the interest of making it relevant to...
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