How I long to one day see a strong gust of wind whisk a terrified mime through the air and over the horizon.  I think everybody agrees with Ernie Hudson’s cop in the original The Crow when he said, “That walking against the wind shit, I hate that.” In 1974’s Shanks is the first time […]

1947’s The Flame is the kind of noir where the entire story is told in flashback.  That is a conventional device for the genre, and it isn’t the first picture where everything we see from the past is being read for a very long letter.  In these kinds of films, I always wonder who had […]

In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, there are unions, or “guilds”, for everything.  There’s a beggars’ guild, for example.  Another is for assassins.  Then there’s the one for thieves.  You have to wonder what their operation is like.  You know, meetings, dues collection.  The boring stuff. I wonder if it is similar to the thieves’ union […]

One might not realize how important ambient sound is to a movie until you see a picture without it.  In the earliest days of the talkie era, pictures often had little more audio than voices.  It’s as if they should have labeled them “only talkies”.  The resulting effect is worse than a silent movie, as […]

My grandfather loved westerns, especially those starring John Wayne.  I remember watching these with him, so many that I feel like I had to have seen every film in the man’s filmography.  And yet, I somehow can’t recall a single frame of any one of them, nor have I been motivated to see any of […]

Lately, empathy has been in alarming decline in the U.S., most tellingly by some outspoken alleged Christians.  I will concede one can only extend themselves to help others, and that the difference between a hand-out and a hand-up is always a grey area.  Peter Sellers plays an idealistic and optimistic vicar in 1963’s Heavens Above!.  […]

It has been nearly a decade since the last 3D TV was manufactured.  In that same period, we have seen a remarkable decline in sales of movies on physical media.  Between these two facts, it seems odd distributors like Kino Lorber keep making 3D blu-rays, but God bless ‘em for continuing to do so.  As […]

Now here’s a horrid slice of ugly that is confused just from its title.  1968’s Dark of the Sun is the kind of title which immediately scans as a none too clever attempt to sound intelligent.  In only this regard, I was reminded of Eyes Wide Shut.  That one of the writers of the screenplay […]

An odd recurring conversation I have had with various people over the years is a debate whether, if it was possible, one would want to live forever.  I am always solidly against it, as there is already enough disconnect between generations  Basically, so much of one’s psyche is inevitably shaped by their formative years that […]

It now seems hard to believe I used to wear a tie to work every day, and I had two novelty holiday ones to break up the somber assortment of patterned black and blue.  One of those was a Christmas tie, with the Grinch on it.  The other had the Peanuts gang in costumes and […]

What is it about the title 1955’s Female on the Beach that it feels obvious it would be a Joan Crawford movie while simultaneously not sounding like one?  It is a title that immediately, and incorrectly, brings to my mind Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr passionately making out in the sand in From Here to […]

The very first couple of minutes of 1958 noir Never Love a Stranger are interesting.  John Drew Barrymore stumbles out into the street after apparently having just taken a bullet to the chest.  He gets in a car and tears off, swerving wildly until driving straight into a pillar.  I was impressed to see the […]

I have heard the term “nuclear football”, but 1959’s The Mouse That Roared is the first time I have a literal incarnation of one.  This “Q-bomb” has been invented by American professor David Kossoff and it is taken by Peter Sellers when he abducts the professor and daughter Jean Seberg. Sellers is Tully Bascome, and […]

An ancient, small bus of a firm ironically named the Rocket Transportation Company drops off Brenda Joyce in the town of Domingo.  As that means “Sunday” in Spanish, I wondered if that town was in Mexico, though it doesn’t appear to be.  At least, it isn’t identified as such. I don’t even know if she […]

Midnight Lace sure sounds like it would be one of those soft-core Skinemax movies from 80’s or 90’s.  The first sign is isn’t is that it was released in 1960.  Oh, and by a large American studio.  And, oh yes, it stars Doris Day.  So, rather the opposite of anything libidinous.  The picture is set […]