Preston Sturges is largely, and rightly, regarded as the king of screwball comedy.  Alas, 1949’s The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend has a reputation which precedes it.  For one thing, it was such a disaster that it nearly ended his career.  The picture has had something of a critical reappraisal in decades since.  Now having […]

It doesn’t happen often, but I relish the rare occasion when a movie leaves me buzzing like I’ve had too much coffee.  Well, significantly more coffee than usual, at least.  I drink a lot of coffee. My most recent shot of cinematic adrenaline was courtesy of 1958’s The Lineup.  For an American movie made while […]

Although I have never been much of a fan of Marilyn Monroe, I suspect it is only because I haven’t seen enough movies she was in.  And yet, I can’t deny there is that elusive star quality to her that makes a viewer pay attention to what she is doing whenever she is on screen, […]

The 1958 grade-Z sci-fi film Missile to the Moon is so similar to other fare of the time that I had forgotten I had seen it before; albeit, as a Rifftrax.  Given I don’t remember even the riffs, I assume this film wasn’t exactly fertile ground for quips.  I’m just worried I may accidentally reuse […]

I keep thinking I like the output of studio A24 but, when I really think about it, I have only thoroughly enjoyed The Witch, and that was released a long time ago.  I also keep thinking I like the films of director Ti West, but I really only enjoyed The Innkeepers and that was released […]

I’ve seen sci-fi horror movies where the threat is animal, and at least one where the threat is vegetable, but 1957’s The Monolith Monsters is the first one I can recall seeing where the threat is mineral.  This sci-fi/horror film opens on a shot of the Earth (well, a fairly crude model of the globe) […]

Wernher von Braun was a rocket scientist without whom it is unlikely the Apollo moon mission would have succeeded.  Alas, his rocket skills which were employed by the United States were developed in the V2 rocket program in Nazi Germany.  I didn’t know much about von Bruan before seeing 1960 biopic I Am at the […]

1937’s Topper was an odd movie that rubbed me the wrong way.  I am a big fan of screwball comedies, especially ones starring Cary Grant, but I found it weird he and Constance Bennett were husband and wife ghosts who decide to do a good deed by screwing up the life of Roland Young, who […]

While watching 2018’s Lifechanger, I was reminded of a passage I read somewhere and I had to look it up afterwards.  I was surprised I did not immediately recall the source, as it is from my all-time favorite book.  Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake contains this passage: “I’ll make you mine, lovers said in old […]

The IMDB listing for 1991’s Dead Again puts it in the genres of crime, drama, mystery and thriller.  The one it leaves out is comedy, which is how I will remember this feature.  It is so slyly a comedy that not even the film itself might realize it is one. I will concede one problem […]

Until I saw 1954’s Sabrina, I didn’t realize there was a bad angle from which Audrey Hepburn could be photographed.  And, yet, there is she, perched in a tree and looking slightly up and to the right of the camera.  There is nothing in her appearance at this point which suggests the glamorous fashion icon […]

I have never found Reefer Madness as funny as a great many seem to think it is.  Maybe it’s because I have never smoked pot, and I never intend to.  I say this even after the state I reside in recently legalized it for recreational use.  I don’t have any specific reasons for my apathy […]

Rape.  When a movie’s lead commits rape in the first few minutes of a picture, it had better be A Clockwork Orange.  I watched 1971’s A Fistful of Dynamite expecting nothing more than dumb fun and a bunch of stuff blowing up.  I don’t think that was too much to ask.  Despite being directed by […]

Most of the output of horror studio Blumhouse does little for me.  There is the occasional high-concept fare, but I find most of their stuff to be the kind of unmarkable fright films I never find scary.  You can keep your twitchy, fast-slow-fast, spider-walking all over the walls and ceilings undead things. So it really […]

Nice seems to often to be used as a derogatory term.  That’s a shame, because sometimes one wants a movie that is simply “nice”. 1938’s Penny Paradise is such a film, an effortless confection that is very easy to watch and which is quite enjoyable.  The plot ties itself into some interesting knots I was […]