A while back, I watched the David Essex vehicle Stardust from 1974.  Now here I am watching him in 1973’s That’ll Be the Day and I find myself writing things like “it feels like Stardust is a spiritual sequel to this earlier film”.  So, I was shocked to discover, though only after the fact, that […]

Little Richard is looking uncomfortable on the stage—odd since it is 1956 and he’s in his prime.  Admittedly, his audience is all white people in formal wear.  He looks like a spring wound too tightly, like he’s barely restraining an urge to completely let loose.  What I like best is there is a bit of […]

It can be difficult to be a Residents fan. For 50 years now, this anonymous group has been making music that is an acquired taste.  And the style of their music has changed so radically over the years that each era has its fans and detractors.  Then there’s the volume of material—one would pay a […]

The first movie I had seen Esther Williams in was 1956’s The Unguarded Moment.  What was notable about that film is it was her first serious dramatic role.  Prior to that, every picture she starred in emphasized her legendary swimming ability.  This meant a whole lot of synchronized swimming routines—basically, musical numbers staged in and […]

I love Hamilton Books and the “drops” they have each month where new merchandise is made available on the site.  This outfit seems to specialize in remaindered media, and my library has grown by leaps and bounds through their discounted blu-rays and DVDs.  Their prices are generally quite low, so I have also rolled the […]

I’m still feeling the loss of UK home video distribution Network in 2023.  After the label’s demise, I snatched up any blurays I could of titles that looked even remotely interesting but which I did not own yet. This is how I happened upon 1950’s The Angel with the Trumpet.  I didn’t bother reading much […]

Nathan Rabin used to write a great recurring piece in the AV Club called My Year of Flops.  In this, he would present his musings on various unloved films from all eras of cinema.  He would end each piece with the decision as to whether it was a failure, fiasco or secret success.  With that […]

Let’s get this out of the way.  I know you came to this review thinking this 1940’s horror film was about the terrifying sales on the day after Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, it is about something far less scary. Really, this vehicle isn’t much of a horror film at all, which is odd, as it stars Boris […]

There was a term I kept trying to recall while watching 1956’s The Unguarded Moment.  I looked it up afterwards and discovered it was “cognitive dissonance”.  Basically, this means holding two contrasting beliefs in one’s mind at the same time, usually leading to irritation.  It seems to me a couple of characters in this movie […]

Well, this was a weird one. I like made-for-TV movies, especially ones from the 70s.  It’s interesting how filmmakers had to devise innovative solutions to work in such a restrictive format.  For the most part, they had to be cautious of what would draw unwanted attention from censors.  On the other hand, they also tackled […]

I’m still surprised William Castle, famous for his gimmicky horror films, started out making noirs.  Pretty good ones, too, from what I have seen so far.  The first one I saw was 1949’s Johnny Stool Pigeon and now I have seen that same year’s Undertow.  Both films are similar in that each is solid, but […]

“That dyke cocksucker.”  This curious statement is just one of many made by Dustin Hoffman as part of the verbal diarrhea he spews throughout 1996’s American Buffalo.  This is a movie adaptation of the famous David Mamet play.  As always, his dialogue has a certain profane spark to it which you will either finding intriguing […]

The production code seriously handicapped some types of films when it went into effect in 1935.  The restrictions made it nigh near impossible for major studios to produce horror pictures.  So, what could Universal do, when they still had Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi?  These were actors whose fame was almost exclusively through their work […]

J-horror is a genre that hasn’t clicked with me yet.  The only such movie I have really liked so far is Ringu (remade to great success in the US as The Ring).  That movie and its sequels have way too many shots of women looking out on the sea.  When this one opened on a […]

Steve Guttenberg seems have an unwarranted taint to him, even in my mind.  Yes, he largely was the on-screen personification of the average American male in many mediocre films of the 1980’s and early 1990’s.  But he was basically doing the same shtick Tom Hanks was, though that actor was usually offered the better films.  […]