Legendary playwright Harold Pinter seems an unlikely author of a screenplay for a spy thriller, and yet he wrote that of 1966’s The Quiller Memorandum.  Though this doesn’t have many of the qualities of Pinter’s best-known works, this is a work that stands out in that decade of endless Bond rip-offs. That’s largely because this […]

The 80’s were the heyday of fantasy cinema.  As somebody who was in the target market for such features at that time, I find myself wondering why I was so slow to take to it.  I may have seen The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth in theatres during their initial runs, and may regard them highly […]

In this advanced technological age of ours, I’m astonished there are people (in what I think is still called the western world) who believe those of a different political bent than themselves consume the blood of children so as to gain magical powers.  What depresses me even further is such people seem to believe that […]

Teenagers do stupid and pointless things in their perpetual state of boredom.  I recall trying to make audio collages by recording the radio while randomly scanning the radio dial, hoping I might accidentally capture some sort of interesting or humorous juxtapositions.  As one likely will conclude, the results were disappointing. I have a feeling the […]

I wasn’t a drama kid in high school, nor did the acting bug bite me later.  Given that, I am a bit confused by the only memory I have of a drama class I must have taken.  In a complete lapse of judgment, the instructor left me to direct a scene of Arsenic and Old […]

Was Peter Fonda in any movies in the 60’s or 70’s where he doesn’t spend a great deal of screen time driving a car or riding on a motorcycle?  Off the top of my head, there’s Easy Rider and Race with the Devil.  Then there’s 1974’s Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, where he drives a getaway […]

Comedy and film legend Elaine May first achieved fame as a comedic duo with future The Graduate director Mike Nichols.  Later, she was one of Hollywood’s most sought-after script doctors.  She has also directed four feature films to date, writing three of those.  One of those films completely astonished me, and it sure as hell […]

What a strange time we live in, where it seems a great many otherwise sane people are so easily swayed into believing the craziest shit, usually from information posted on social media by somebody they don’t even know.  I write this as we approach a presidential election which has me filled with outright fear, as […]

1971’s How to Frame a Figg was the last of the feature films Don Knotts starred in for Universal Pictures.  He had an interesting run of five films for the studio, starting with The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, which many regard as the best of the lot.  I didn’t find any of these films to […]

When did we stop making movies set in the future that made it look like a better place than the present?  I used to love movies with such a grim outlook back when that was the less popular view, such as how poorly Blade Runner was regarded in its initial release.  Now, every film sci-fi […]

1969’s The Love God? is the only one of the five films on Shout Factory’s Don Knotts collection that is rated higher than a G.  I was very surprised to see it is rated PG-13.  Now, having watched it, I’m even more surprised it is rated higher than a PG.  Typical of the other films […]

As we learned from a legendary Monty Python sketch, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.  I especially wouldn’t expect it in Italy, but yet there’s the mysterious red-hooded and black-cloaked figure in 1972’s The Devil’s Lover.  At least, it sure looks like an Inquisitor.  Instead, it is only the devil (Edmund Purdom) dressed as one—so, somebody […]