Blog

The Killing of America

It’s Always Fair Weather

When MGM was almost a ghost town, the Arthur Freed unit hit one last ‘special’ factory musical out of the park with…

Lone Wolf and Cub

Daisy Kenyon

What? A movie where adults behave like adults? Otto Preminger showcases a quiet maturity in this story of an independent woman caught…

HAL PHILIP WALKER, ALBUQUERQUE, NASHVILLE AND ELECTION 2016

From the first time I saw it until this moment, two days before what might just be the most important, potentially resonant…

Private Property

Is this once-lost film the apex of obscure independent Hollywood filmmaking?  Made way outside the limits of the Production Code, it's even…

The T.A.M.I. Show + The Big T.N.T. Show

For nostalgic excitement there's no better '60s pop compendium than this! An impossibly eclectic mix of talent at the Santa Monica Civic,…

Strike Me Pink

Neurotic coward Eddie Cantor decides to defend an amusement park against gangsters, and nothing but fun ensues! Ethel Merman has a small…

The Sea of Trees

Where's M. Night Shyamalan when we need him? Gus Van Sant's spiritual journey through a death forest is pretty to look at,…

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland and Agnes Moorehead play it nasty, chop-chopping their way through a Grand Dame Guignol epic of 'sixties…

Western Union

Wow! Fritz Lang's second western is a marvel -- a combo of matinee innocence and that old Germanic edict that character equals…

John Carpenter’s The Thing

Look out: John Carpenter's chilly tale of shape-shifting chaos at the South Pole creeps back with a new transfer and two fully…

A HALLOWEEN ELECTRIC DREAMHOUSE

Yesterday, amid a crush of sweaty people desperate for last-minute props, I visited a local Halloween superstore with my daughter, looking for…

The Chase

Horton Foote, Lillian Hellman and Arthur Penn's All-Star vision of an Ugly America found few friends in 1965; now its overstated scenes…

I Wake Up Screaming

Yes, it is a perfect title for a horror picture, but it belongs to an early film noir -- or as we…

Little Fauss and Big Halsy

Redford's back and Pollard's got him! Or is it Lauren Hutton? Sidney J. Furie fully earns his shaky reputation with this motorcycle…

The Executioner (El Verdugo)

Now for something truly remarkable from the neglected Spanish cinema. Luis García Berlanga's wicked satire is a humanistic black comedy, free of…

The Return of Dracula

Expatriate Francis Lederer is a cultured menace in UA's revisit of the Dracula myth, made just before Hammer Films staked its claim…

Eye of the Needle

The chase is on: a mix of icy ruthlessness and warm romanticism enliven Ken Follett's novel of pre-invasion esponage intrigue. Kate Nelligan…

The Hills Have Eyes

Arrow Video digs its sharp talons into Wes Craven's dirt 'n' Bowie Knife slaughter-fest horror picture, yet another strange travel advisory not…

THE 2016 LONE PINE FILM FESTIVAL: WORDS AND PICTURES

Ten years ago I attended the Lone Pine Film Festival for the first time. It was the 17th annual celebration in 2006…

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Robert Altman, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie join together for one of the great westerns, a poetic account of the founding of…

Boy on a Dolphin

Killer Greek scenery in CinemaScope graces Jean Negulesco's relaxed thriller about art theft in the Aegean. But viewers are more likely to…

Strategic Air Command

The biggest, most lavish hook-up between Hollywood and the Pentagon was this Anthony Mann-James Stewart collaboration, a morale & recruiting cheer for America's…

The Laughing Policeman

In the early '70s Walter Matthau excelled in three powerful cops 'n' robbers movies; the second sees him as a tough, laconic…

Five Days One Summer

The great Fred Zinnemann's last feature is a very personal story, a fairly uncomplicated drama with a mountain climbing backdrop. Sean Connery…