Movie: King Solomon’s Mines (1950)

A few decades ago, I used to be a big fan on the Indiana Jones series.  I was all excited when the original trilogy was released on DVD, only to discover various aspects of the films now seem unpleasant and inappropriate.  When the tone towards cultures outside the “first world” wasn’t condescending, it was patronizing.  […]

Movie: Horror Island (1941)

1941’s Horror Island is the fourth and final film on the third volume of Scream Factor’s Universal Horror series.  All four films in this installment suggest the name of this series is becoming increasingly inaccurate.  The first, Tower of London, was a straight-up historical drama, though it did have a fair amount of suspense and […]

Movie: Never Say Die (1939)

Anybody who seen 1955’s The Court Jester will fondly recall the scene where Danny Kaye struggles to remember a silly rhyming device he’s given to remember which of two goblets has poison in it.  Without looking at an earlier review I wrote of that, let’s see if I can remember it correctly: “The poison is […]

Movie: Robot Jox (1989)

This was the last movie I watched on Arrow Video’s blu-ray boxed set showcasing five films Empire Pictures produced in the 1980’s.  Though they were of different genres (OK, two: sci-fi and/or horror), and made by a few different directors and other creative personnel, these had a weird aesthetic that seemed to suggest more connective […]

Movie: Arena (1989)

Unexpectedly, I had fun watching the first three films on Arrow’s blu-ray box Empire of Scream: Enter the Video Store.  These were low-budget films with aspirations well beyond their budgets.  Each actually had some effects, dialog, performances and plot developments I had not anticipated.  Then I got to the fourth disc, Arena, and it was […]

Movie: The Mad Room (1969)

1969’s The Mad Room is a suspense thriller with Shelley Winters in the largest of the supporting roles.  That alone may tell you everything you need to know about this film and decide whether or not it is right for you. The actual star is Stella Stevens, as the secretary to Winters.  Winters had been […]

Movie: Crime of Passion (1956)

Barbara Stanwyck is a newspaper columnist being pressured by a misogynist cop to surrender the location of a woman who murdered her husband.  Her face says “you and what army?” while her mouth says, “Make me.” This happens early in 1956’s Crime of Passion.  This is a picture usually labelled as a film noir, but […]

Movie: Targets (1968)

In the essays and extras accompanying the Criterion Collection blu-ray of Targets, Peter Bogdanovich goes to great pains to state his movie does not have an anti-gun perspective.  Methinks he protests too much, as it is hard to believe there wasn’t this intention behind it.  Then again, George Romero has always been insistent Night of […]

Movie: The Galloping Major (1951)

I’m not up to it anymore, but I have camped out on sidewalks overnight for many of the past years’ Record Store Days.  In 1951’s The Galloping Major, Basil Radford is much older than I am now, and yet he should have camped out overnight at a horse auction that is essential to the plot.  […]

Movie: Appointment with a Shadow (1957)

On October 3, 2027, I will have gone twenty years without a drink.  I look forward to celebrating that anniversary with a round of shots.  I kid!  Well, about the shots, at least.  About the temperance, not so much.  I guess since I write under an alias, I really put the “anonymous” in Alcoholics Anonymous. […]

Movie: The Black Cat (1941)

I am increasingly wondering what qualifies as “horror” in selections chosen for the Universal Horror series of blu-ray sets Scream Factory has been issuing.  Tower of London, to cite one example, was entirely a history drama, with the only trappings of the genre being the castle’s torture chamber. 1941’s The Black Cat is a comedy […]