Having recently survived the presidential election of 2024, it is impossible to not think of that when watching 1959 UK comedy Left Right and Centre.  The candidates for office in this are an educated and intelligent woman running for the liberals, while the conservatives rally around a buffoon of a man who is famous only […]

There is a significant difference between the worst films shot on film and those on video.  Film requires more expensive equipment, money to pay a lab to process it, an editor to undertake the costly process of linear editing, prints to be made.  When somebody makes that kind of investment, a filmmaker usually tends to […]

We weren’t far into the 1973 indie horror film Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood when my wife said she bet Rob Zombie was a fan of it.  Closer to the end, I was thinking the picture had devolved into such a mess that I’m certain he will remake it eventually. One positive thing I can say […]

1964’s Nothing But the Best is an odd British dark comedy which straddles a line between the whimsical comedies of Ealing Studios and the more cynical and outré fare of the mid to late 60’s.  It feels like a mash-up of The Talented Mr. Ripley and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, though […]

Carole Lombard co-starred with Fred MacMurray in four feature films.  One I had not seen until recently is 1936’s The Princess Comes Across, an unusual and unsettled mix of whodunit and screwball comedy. Lombard boards a cruise ship while surrounded by paparazzi, as she is going to Hollywood to work as a studio’s latest star […]

We’re not even though the opening credits of Dracula A.D. 1972 (from, um, 1972) when the average viewer will know whether or not this is for them.  By the time the word “Dracula” is on the screen, we will have seen Christopher Lee, as the titular vampire, and Peter Cushing’s Dr. Van Helsing, wrestling on […]

1946’s The Man I Love crams a lot of movie and too many characters in only 97 minutes.  It combines film noir, musical, various domestic dramas and a PTSD storyline, each given such brief coverage as to undermine the effectiveness of the others.  I was only surprised nobody worked in western and science fiction and […]

1935’s Hands Across the Table puts a slight spin on the screwball comedy trope of the female gold digger and puts a small spin on it by adding a male opportunist and having the two schemers fall in love.  These roles are filled by Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.  She’s a manicurist at an upscale […]

Record labels have always appealed to me, especially ones with a catalog that is the vision of one person.  Consider Jac Holzman, who founded Elektra Records, and those early, iconic logos (both of the label of such artists as Love and The Doors) and the musicians he initially hand-picked.  Or 4AD, which had a roster […]

It astonishes me how most people are almost desperate to be conned.  One particular huckster comes to mind, somebody who seduced the American public with their everyman demeanor, only to fleece them for every cent they’re worth.  This is a monster whose appetites have grown to monstrous proportions.  Initially, they only wanted money and women.  […]

I have never been to Paris, but I wonder what it is about the place that lends itself to films about assorted, unrelated characters.  The first one that comes to my mind is 2006’s Paris, Je T’aime, but that may be supplanted by 1953’s Innocents in Paris now that I have seen it. This charming […]

There is some odd slang involving cats, the more I think about it.  Why “cat burglar”, for example?  I found myself thinking this while watching the first scene of Hitchcock’s 1955 picture To Catch a Thief, in where we see a montage of items being stolen by such a sneak thief, interspersed with shots of […]

When I think of actors from Hollywood’s golden era who were best in tough guy roles, my mind immediately goes to Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, and in that order.  From today’s perspective, I find it odd one of the hottest actors of the time for such parts was George Raft. My […]