1944 horror pic The Soul of a Monster opens with this unusual statement: “You may have lived or, perhaps, dreamed the story you are about to see.”  How did the makers of this know I once dreamed of surgeon George Macready dying of a staph infection after a tear in his surgical glove during an […]

Long before CGI and AI started putting dead actors into movies (and who knows how many other acronyms will soon be involved), there were different ways of accomplishing the same.  Woody Allen’s 1983 mockumentary Zelig managed to incorporate him into archive footage and stills with such figures as Herbert Hoover.  Carl Reiner’s 1982 parody Dead […]

With Ginger Rogers being best known for her musicals she did with Fred Astaire, it is odd to see her as a brassy, rough-edged convict in 1955 noir Tight Spot.  She may not be fully convincing in the role, but damned if she doesn’t give it her all. We first see her in a prison […]

The Beastie Boys once informed the public it was time to get ill, Bill Haley rocked around the clock and Ween told us they’d be our Johnny on the spot.  Mind you, none of these have anything to do with 1947’s Johnny O’Clock, but I thought that would make for a pretty weird opening line […]

I wasn’t much impressed by 1939’s Only Angels Have Wings, a testosterone-fueled Howard Hawks drama about a small airline dying to obtain a lucrative air mail contract.  And they were literally dying to do so, as pilots kept crashing and dying.  I’m sure there are other movies like it, but I was quite surprised to […]

A large amount of the books I read concern movies and filmmaking.  I also tend to watch the special features on the discs for movies, and even sometimes listen to commentary tracks.  Then there are the documentaries about films and it is no surprise most of those are about the worst moviemaking experiences.  The movies […]

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was more than just making jokes at the expense of movies, as there were also the wraparound segments.  In the Trace Beaulieu years, he was evil scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester, who had an assistant first played by J. Elvis Weinstein and then Frank Conniff.  Not that these characters had any real […]

By 1962, Hammer had already made movies around Dracula, Frankenstein and a werewolf, so it seems logical the next step would be to make their own The Phantom of the Opera.  Like their takes on those other characters, they put their own spin on it, in what is a very satisfying take on this property […]

UK’s Tigon Pictures wasn’t active for very long, though they did leave behind a catalog of horror films with some standout examples, such as Witchfinder General and The Blood on Satan’s Claw.  Mind you, I didn’t really like either of those films, but I can still appreciate them.  Both were rather unpleasant films which seemed […]

1944’s Cry of the Werewolf opens at the LaTour museum.  I would have thought this institution would have been devoted to that 90’s electronica outfit which had a minor hit with the song “People Are Still Having Sex”.  Alas, it is instead a horror museum, devoted largely to the same-named family who lived there when […]

During the only time I have been to Los Angeles, I visited the legendary Mann’s Chinese Theatre and saw the various handprints and signatures forever sealed in cement there.  For whatever reason, I was most impressed by that of Marcello Mastroianni, though I think I had only seen him in 8 ½ at that point. […]

David Jason had quite a career in television, but one gets the feeling he could have been so much more.  He was part of the ensemble of the counterculture kids show Do Not Adjust Your Set, alongside Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.  That show even had Terry Gilliam doing some animations.  Even among […]

It seems difficult now to recall a time when we were excited about the world of tomorrow, and often using that exact term.  There were visions of jetpacks, life without labor and items which would last forever.  Of course, when we got closer to another those becoming a reality, we realize what a nightmare that […]

Nothing good ever happens on New Year’s Eve.  Somebody told me a long time ago their alcoholic father described is as “amateur night”.  Then there was that terrible romantic comedy ensemble piece New Year’s Eve in 2011.  Hell, even one of the worst Peanuts specials takes place on the holiday.  But nothing associated with the […]

I love hearing true stories in which cat adopts a person, essentially walking up to them, or even going directly into a house, and going, “You there, human.  You are going to take me in and submit to my every whim.”  We lost our beloved male cat, Sebastian, this year and we had found him […]