1979’s The Great Alligator disappointed me in many ways, not the least of which is because it is not the film adaptation I’ve been waiting for of John Grisham’s novel The Alligator Litigator, about an anthropomorphic gator who struggles both in court for the rights of the oppressed and within himself to restrain from eating […]

Howard Hawks directed 1939’s Only Angels Have Wings.  How I was looking for forward to seeing what the man who would go on to helm The Thing from Another World might do with Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Sig Ruman and Thomas Mitchell.  To my surprise, the answer was simultaneously “too much” and “not […]

If Immaculate and The First Omen had not been released at almost the same time in 2024, I would sworn one was ripping off the other.  But then neither need to do that when both so freely borrow from so many films that preceded them. What distinguishes the former is it stars Sydney Sweeney, a […]

Quick one: what do Satanists, Dracula and bubonic plague have in common?  If you guessed all three are major plot elements of 1973’s The Satanic Rites of Dracula, you’d still be wrong, because all three may be featured here, but they still seem to have little to no relationship to each other.  Well, no sensible […]

Movies from before the time I was born intrigue me largely because they are a form of historical record.  In some ways, they show as the world was in reality at a given time.  In other ways, they reflect how people wanted the world to be or how it was regarded from a certain perspective. […]

In my essay on the Bruce Willis / Billy Bob Thorton vehicle Bandits, I observed how the cast seemed to be having a great time on screen, though I felt they sometimes might have forgotten there was an audience they were supposed be appeasing.  Willis is the star of 1991’s Hudson Hawk, a much-derided vanity […]

Many independent films of the 80’s were sarcastic and cynical, but this is the only one I can think of that is as angry as such 50’s works as A Face in the Crowd is 1989’s How to Get Ahead in Advertising.  Similar to that picture, the deceptive nature of advertising is a key element.  […]

Cathy O’Donnell and fugitive Farley Granger are on a bus when it makes a brief stop in some podunk town just before midnight.  Across the street is a quickie wedding chapel, a house with a huge, blinking, neon sign in front blaring “MARRIAGES PERFORMED.  ANY HOUR.  DAY OR NIGHT.”  So much is said in their […]

I can’t recall where I first heard of the concept, but there is a historical Jewish humor about the citizens of the city Chelm.  In the jokes, the residents often come to the right answer to a problem, though through specious reasoning.  Given the city is in Poland, I guess these are a form of […]

“Hey Joe”, that blues standard made famous by Hendrix, does not have the titular words in it anywhere near as much 1948 noir Raw Deal.  In such a movie, I like to think the screenwriter actually typed every single occurrence of that line. Dennis O’Keefe is the designated Joe in this movie, which also stars […]

Remember when Johnny Depp was an actor?  He used to do so much with one certain key expression, a blank stare and a sudden shift of his eyes that somehow equally conveyed being irked and your mind suddenly getting blanked.  It is something from the legacy of silent comedy, harkening back to Chaplin and Lloyd.  […]

The Guardian had an interesting piece about Patric Gagne, an admitted sociopath who discussed in the article how she managed to adjust to society by learning to imitate the emotions of others, so as to react in socially appropriate ways to various scenarios.  That sounds exhausting to me, and I can’t imagine how much of […]

1976’s Devil’s Express begins with so much promise for so much batshit insanity.  It starts in China of 200 B.C. with a group of very serious men carrying something in a large crate which they lower into a pit.  But, before doing that, it is sealed by a seriously cheap-ass amulet. It isn’t like it […]

Some sources credit The Thing from Another World as the first movie to have an extraterrestrial visit Earth, when it was just beaten to be punch in 1951 by The Man from Planet X.  This scrappy independently-produced feature was conceived, completed, and released between the time the big studio production began and when it could […]