Roger Corman was an interesting and complex person.  He was known primarily for his low-budget quickies, especially the early works made for American International where he often made two films almost simultaneously, using the same sets and actors.  But he also kept abreast of what was happening with foreign films, and so would be familiar […]

It seems I have been unintentionally compiling a list of attributes which should alert one to a person’s mental condition.  If there’s one thing I learned from 1975’s The Premonition, it is to never trust somebody prone to wearing a large cameo. That is part of Ellen Barber’s ensemble for most of the time she’s […]

Many female-centric films that were originally critically panned have undergone a critical reassessment in recent years.  I have always liked Jennifer’s Body, so I’m glad the consensus on that has swung towards the positive.  The opinion on Jawbreaker also seems to be gradually undergoing a revision, though I’m not on board with that.  I’m curious […]

I have never been on a cruise and I doubt I will ever have the desire to go on one.  I’m hoping we’re past the worst of the COVID years, but I still dread the idea of being stuck on one of those ships during an outbreak.  Slightly less appealing than that possibility is being […]

Some movies fare better on subsequent viewings and others not so much.  2019’s Doctor Sleep is an example of the latter, a picture I was pleasantly surprised by in my first viewing.  Unfortunately, a second viewing a couple of years later revealed its many shortcomings. My original astonishment was because this film shouldn’t have worked […]

Some movies fare better on subsequent viewings and others not so much. 1947’s Nightmare Alley is an example of the former, and this was a picture I was quite impressed with on my first viewing. Tyrone Power stars as savvy low-life who aspires to get rich via an evolving performance set of fake psychic abilities.  […]

A movie must be good if I still liked it despite the main character being a woman who literally emasculates various men.  That the movie succeeds in having the audience sympathize with her is even more remarkable.  Unlike the horrible rape-revenge films of the 70’s where this was a frequent element, at least 1976’s The […]

There is a large, very old and impossibly beautiful cemetery in the city closest to where I live.  Long before we wed, my wife and I spent a great amount of time there.  It is a surprisingly romantic location, as evidenced by the many weddings held there.  There is a similar cemetery in 1958’s I […]

Hauntology is a concept upon which I have a precarious grasp.  To the best I can understand, it could be summed up by Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses when he said, “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”  Then again, I may be misunderstanding that line as well. The best example I […]

The allure of watching concert recordings is largely lost on me, as is the appeal of watching musicians play on laptops, and yet I found myself on the Christmas morning of 2024 watching the TG Berlin blu-ray while my wife was still sleeping.  I have no idea why I thought this would be appropriate viewing […]

This will be my last movie essay to be published in 2024, and I thought I would wrap things up with a great film noir, 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, even if it isn’t my favorite picture of the genre. There is a widespread belief this film is the first noir, though a few pictures came […]

Donald Pleasance has ruined his pants, which I guess happened soon or later, because they appear to be decades old.  Don Calfa has the solution, with an item he once bought at Macy’s bargain basement.  Soon, Pleasance is dressed in the most spectacularly weird fashion: Depression-era newsboy from the waist-up, but from the waist-down, it’s […]

Not having enough room at home for all the physical media I own, I rent a storage unit for the overflow.  Stuff I have yet to watch is at home, as well as the movies and shows I may want to rewatch at the spur of the moment at any time.  I was recently looking […]

I wonder what Coleen Gray did to piss off Hollywood?  In the late 1940’s, she was in films like the astonishing Nightmare Alley.  By the late 50’s and early 60’s, she was in TV fare and garbage like The Leech Woman and 1961’s The Phantom Planet. Typical of low-budget fare, this is not a long […]

Back in the first decade of this century, my wife and I would occasionally attend science lectures.  In retrospect, I’m not entirely sure why we did, whether we were that desperate for entertainment options, deluding ourselves into thinking we were intellectuals or thought we were living in the world of roughly 100 years earlier.  The […]