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Happy Holidays from the Stars
At left is Betty Grable spreading holiday cheer, which is my favorite Hollywood Christmas photo. In a former life, I used to work as the managing editor for a video magazine, and each holiday season,...
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Ghost Stories For Christmas
There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas — something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails.”...
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This week on TCM Underground: God Told Me To (1976) and It’s Alive (1974)
God! Babies! What could be more Christmassy? This week we are ho-ho-ho-in’ with Larry Cohen! Perhaps the only true heir to Sam Fuller, Larry Cohen has always made his own way. Having honed his craft...
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Christmas Dinner with Cary Grant
Happy Holidays! To celebrate the season TCM is airing a a batch of Christmas films tonight including The Bishop’s Wife (1947) starring Cary Grant as a mischievous and debonair angel who brings some...
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Movies: The Greatest Gift of All
Well, today is Christmas Day. At this point, the many of you who celebrate Christmas will either be elated, exhausted, disappointed, or a combination of all three. Especially if you’re a kid (which...
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Waging War on Christmas
There are many pop culture traditions at Christmastime that are important to me. Charlie Brown Christmas, of course—its power only grows over time. The Grinch (the original 60s cartoon). A Christmas...
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Conversations with Ray Harryhausen (1998)
One of my earliest and fondest movie memories has me watching a black-and-white double-bill creature-feature. I was about six years of age, armed with a melting bowl of ice-cream as I watched Ray...
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Top Ten Films You Will Likely Never See: 2015
As always, my list of cinematic lost causes for this year consists of the type of movies that the commercial Hollywood industry has turned its back on—indies, documentaries, and overlooked gems that...
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Trouble in Paradise: Affair in Trinidad (1952)
Affair in Trinidad (1952) marked Rita Hayworth’s return to the screen after a three-year absence. She had been suspended by Columbia Pictures following her marriage to Iraqi prince Aly Khan and...
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This week on TCM Underground: Night Train to Terror (1985) and Cat’s Eye (1985)
Remember the great anthology horror films you’ve always loved? Well, these ain’t them. The anthology horror film was always more of an imported thing than a domestic one. After World War II, England’s...
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The Thin Man Marathon: Conjugal Concord
If you are planning to spend New Year’s Eve at home this year you will find some great company on TCM where Nick and Nora Charles, as played by the dapper William Powell and charming Myrna Loy, will...
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Time and Time Again
Today on TCM, it’s time to celebrate the New Year and what better way to celebrate than with movies that celebrate time, future, past, and present. There’s Things to Come, Soylent Green, and Time...
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In defense of blockbusters, part 2
A few weeks ago, my post on the legacy of Star Wars films prompted an interesting debate in the comments thread. Syd wrote: “[W]hat saddens me is that the comic book genre is sucking all the oxygen out...
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All the News That’s Fit to Broadcast
If you ask someone to name a great movie about television news, one that satirizes and examines the line between news and entertainment, they will most assuredly name Network first. If asked for a...
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This Is Elvis: Commemorating the King
To celebrate Elvis Presley’s 81st birthday, TCM will show four feature films and two documentaries this Friday, January 8. I have a soft spot for the last film scheduled, This Is Elvis, because it was...
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The Ten Best Action Movies of 2015
Since their inception the movies have been obsessed with fists hitting faces. In the testing phases of Edison’s Kinetograph in 1891, W.K.L. Dickson shot footage of sparring boxers, cementing the sweet...
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This week on TCM Underground: Phase IV (1974) and Them! (1954)
Are you feeling antsy about this new year? Are you bugging in for the winter weekend? Want to watch a couple of classic sci-fi movies that really have legs? Well, look no further! PHASE IV (1974) is...
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William Cameron Menzies: Chandu the Magician (1932)
On the set of Chandu the Magician in 1932 (Back Row): William Cameron Menzies, Weldon Heyburn, Edmund Lowe, Marcel Varnel & Bela Lugosi. (Front Row): Irene Ware & June Lang In recent weeks,...
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Could Anyone Else Play Rhett Butler?
A few weeks ago, I put up a post on different actors playing the same role and which was better. The post asked “who played that part better” and one of the movies on TCM today that I could have...
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Life, Police, and Trouble
Lately I’ve been enjoying the outstanding Blu Ray box set from Flicker Alley of Charlie Chaplin’s Essanay films from 1915-1916 (do you own one of your own? Why not?). And while watching them, I found...
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