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Summer Stock
It was slated to be a reunion for two of MGM’s most popular duos, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The pair had starred in nine films together, the last of which was 1943’s “Girl Crazy.” The script was even tailored to bring back memories of the films the two had been made before—the central plot […]
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The Seats Are Buzzing: The Films of William Castle (A Rerun)
When my column celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2016 I re-ran a few select columns to celebrate that. It was the first, and only time I had done so. However, this week I’m dusting off a favorite from 2014 and running it again, my piece on Director William Castle. My father is ill and I’ve […]
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Oh, No! There’s a Bear!
It was late this past Saturday and I was tired. Not just the “Oh, let’s get to bed early” kind of tired, but the “I’m juggling all the things and coffee is now all I am made of” tired. I got home around 11:00 after a gig, fed my cat, then got ready and climbed […]
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A Face in The Crowd
I’ve been aware of director Elia Kazan’s 1957 film “A Face in the Crowd” for well over a decade, but until this past weekend, I had never actually seen the entire movie. I had caught snippets of it, and years ago a friend went so far as to tape it off of TCM for […]
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Thoughts While Being Abandoned by the Waiter
I walked into the restaurant alone, feeling OK about life and hungry. It had been a long day and I thought I would treat myself to a nice, quiet meal. It was a Tuesday and the restaurant I had chosen was oddly hopping on that particular weeknight. Did I miss that it was some kind […]
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Cleopatra’s Glass Bottom Boat
A pair of really fun, delightful films come to blu-ray thanks to those cinematic curators over at Warner Archive. You wouldn’t immediately think these two films would go together, but as I watched them back to back I found they made for a really grand double feature. First up from 1973 is the soul […]
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Weekend Bicuspid
It was a restless night, about three in the morning. I tried like hell but nothing was working to put me to sleep. Not a medication nor a meditation. I gave up and sat in my living room, grumbling, watching the wastelands of late night TV. That’s when the ad came on, that eerily seemed […]
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Detour
I was familiar with director Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 bleak noir “Detour” in name only. The film was from PRC, a poverty row studio that specialized in low-budget, bargain basement B-films. “Poverty Row” is a term used for studios of the classic Hollywood era that did just that—low-budgets with no name stars. As […]
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The Best Albums You’ve Never Heard
I’m going to be very honest with you, I kinda hate the title of this column. It sounds hipster and pretentious. Yet—I can’t think of any other way to get you “in” to what I am talking about, and frankly, the three albums in question are all amazing albums that should be celebrated as much […]
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A Romantic Evening For One
Valentine’s Day can be a drag when you’re single. Social media blows up with declarations of love and happiness, while you find yourself in your mid-30s, alone on a couch in your underwear eating Chef Boyardee straight from the can. This doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate yourself on Valentine’s Day. After all, they say […]
The Dinner Party
When I was a kid, I used to think that the height of adult life, the zenith of being an adult and enjoying sophisticated evenings, was the dinner party. Part of this existing as a concept in my head was thanks to a CD that I still own from 1995 called “Donna Reed’s Dinner Party” […]
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Notorious
It’s one of the most debated questions in all of movie fandom, “What is Alfred Hitchcock’s best movie?” There really aren’t any bad answers, it boils down to personal taste. It’s a question I myself have always gone back and forth on for most of my life. I used to state, in somewhat of a […]
