Movie: Plunder Road (1957)

While watching 1957’s Plunder Road, I found myself thinking about thinking a great deal about Henri-Georges Clouzot The Wages of Fear.  I mean that as high praise—both movies are tense and terse.  Not much dialog, but a great deal of suspense.  In both movies, that tension comes down to the transportation of nitro glycerin to […]

Movie: The Burning Hell (1974)

I mentioned my Baptist upbringing in my piece on If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?  One of the few times in my life I have tried to cultivate an interest in comic books was at a time when those religious restrictions upon me were at their most extreme.  Secular music was out, so […]

Movie: The House That Screamed (1969)

The choice of lens one puts on a camera is critically important for each shot in a movie.  Most wide-angle lenses have a certain amount of fish-eye effect to them.  Objects in the center of the frame will be correctly proportioned, while those on the periphery will be abnormally thin.  This is why usually, when […]

Movie: The Return of Dracula (1958)

I love the different ways that some low-budget movies come up with innovative solutions to overcome their lack of funds.  One way that can be effective is to have a character imply something is there which we can’t see.  This is what 1958’s The Return of Dracula does in some of its best moments. The […]

Movie: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

The House the Mouse Built was in a sad state in the 1980’s.  Its attempts at slightly more mature live-action films (such as The Black Hole, Tron and Watcher in the Woods) had underperformed to different extents.  Its animated feature The Black Cauldron was a massive financial failure which wasn’t very well-received critically, either.  Disney […]

How (not) to grow pumpkins

I love fall, and I love pumpkins.  To try to keep the spirit of the season alive, we usually keep a small pumpkin in the middle of our dining room table through to spring. For years, we talked about growing our own pumpkins from the seeds of that one on the table after it had […]

Movie: Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

Billy Wilder wrote or directed some of the best movies of the twentieth century, often handling both duties for the same film.  Movies like Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot.  I felt he started losing his way in the 1960’s and, for most of the time I was watching 1964’s Kiss Me, […]

Movie: The Exotic Ones (1968)

By this point in the Powerhouse/Indicator’s Ormond Family box set, I had been subjected to somebody’s vacation footage of Africa, real surgery footage, an illustration of a man who has a 100-pound testicular tumor, a bloated and washed-up sexpot, dirt track racing, chain gangs and a husband-and-wife harmonica duo.  I thought I had hit every […]

Movie: Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)

William Powell and Ann Blythe star as the titular characters in 1948’s Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.  I like both actors, and I thought this was going to be a light and breezy comedy.  Instead, I got something that I’m imagining was awkward in its original release, and will keep getting more uncomfortable over time. […]

Movie: Girl from Tobacco Row (1966)

Another movie from the first half of the Powerhouse/Indicator box set From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved films of the Ormond Family.  1966’s Girl from Tobacco is the second-to-last movie in the “sleaze” half of the set.  I am so very tired. A pre-credits sequence gave me false hope.  Well, as much hope […]

Movie: Beware! The Blob (1972)

When I say one can learn more about films from the worst movies than they can from the best, I can think of few better examples of this logic than 1972’s Beware! The Blob.  This is a movie that has some aspects filmmakers with more experience, or better taste, wouldn’t have allowed.  And this picture […]

Movie: Cry Vengeance (1954)

When you watch enough noir, you get used to seeing somebody tailing another and suddenly having to duck behind something.  Usually, the pursuer conceals themselves behind the corner of a building, or a pillar, or in a doorway.  But 1954’s Cry Vengeance has the only occurrence I have seen of somebody hiding behind a totem […]