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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Though Hemingway suggested “all modern American literature” comes from Huckleberry Finn, a case could be made for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as…
Articles by Charlie Largent
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The Incredible Shrinking Man
Richard Matheson’s The Shrinking Man debuted in 1956, published by Gold Medal Books in an economical paperback edition with electrifying cover art…
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Smash Palace
Smash Palace is the wryly grandiose name given to a New Zealand junkyard run by Al Shaw, a tight-lipped workaholic up to…
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Female Trouble
The story of one woman’s odyssey from trash-talking trouble maker to tabloid superstar, John Waters’ Female Trouble assembles a hot-tempered crew of…
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The Colossus of Rhodes
Fred Astaire once said of an undulating Cyd Charisse, “She came at me in sections.” So does the star of Sergio Leone’s…
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Au Hasard Balthazar
At moments in his career Robert Bresson, the filmmaker behind The Trial of Joan of Arc and The Diary of a Country Priest,…
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Suspiria
The story of a ballet school staffed by devil-worshipping harridans, Dario Argento’s Suspiria opened at New York City’s Criterion in the dog days of…
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The Bloodthirsty Trilogy
Hell-raising vampires invade the normally serene confines of Japanese cinema in three elegant 70’s shockers directed by Michio Yamamoto. Joining far-flung contemporaries like…
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A Study in Terror
From master criminals like Professor Moriarty to Sebastian Moran, Sherlock Holmes faced his fair share of danger – but his greatest nemesis…
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Joe
Galvanized by Martin Luther King’s assassination, an army of protestors descended upon 1968’s Democratic convention then playing out on Chicago’s south side. They…
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The Three Stooges Collection – Volumes 1 and 2
A frenetic mix of baggy-pants vaudeville and the Spanish Inquisition, the eye-poking exploits of The Three Stooges have appalled faint-hearted sophisticates and…
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The Awful Truth
Thanks to Louis Armstrong and his fellow geniuses, the Jazz Age transformed a generation and dominated pop culture for close to two…
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An Actor’s Revenge
From Twelfth Night to Homicidal, casting calls for cross-dressers are a Hollywood tradition. The stories are alike in their differences; Katherine Hepburn…
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A Trip to the Moon
In the fall of 1886 the magician Georges Méliès was filming near the Place de l’Opera when his camera jammed for a…
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The Passion of Joan of Arc
For over a century the story of Joan of Arc has been catnip to an army of filmmakers ranging from DeMille to…
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Hammer Volume Two: Criminal Intent
Featuring the sloppiest killer this side of the Coen Brothers and the least curious investigator since Chief Wiggum, 1961’s The Snorkel, with…
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Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
John Updike and Philip Roth, those faithful chroniclers of American infidelity, had a kindred spirit in director Paul Mazursky. Employing a double-edged…
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Tom Jones
Yorkshire native Tony Richardson, lauded for a string of melodramas set in grayer than gray factory towns, took an abrupt left turn…
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The L-Shaped Room
The winter of 1962 found British films at their most grandiose and self-effacing. Opening at the Odeon was Lawrence of Arabia, using…
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The Amicus Collection
Released in 1956, Rock, Rock, Rock was a bantamweight jukebox musical bolstered by the presence of three indelible signifiers of 50’s pop…
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Claude Autant-Lara: Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France
Criterion’s Eclipse Series, an ever-expanding line of esoteric dvd releases, ensures that lesser known titles of important filmmakers remain available to the…
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Jabberwocky
The prospect of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky directed by Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam promised a brave new world of sophisticated nonsense; The Mad…
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The Executioner’s Song
Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, target for Saturday Night Live, punchline for Seinfeld and tagline for Nike, was already a pop-culture sensation when…
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Casualties of War
In 1969 The New Yorker published a detailed exposé by Daniel Lang concerning four soldiers deployed in the Phu My district of…
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THE WONDERFUL WORLDS OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN, VOLUME TWO: 1961-1964
Indicator follows up The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Volume One: 1955-1960 with, wait for it, Volume 2: 1961-1964, featuring three of Harryhausen's…
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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Making its debut in April of 1990, Twin Peaks arrived on ABC’s doorstep as a kind of Trojan horse, infiltrating the network disguised…