At 56 years of age when this 1977 BBC adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel was filmed, the desire to pun that Louis Jourdan is “long in the tooth” is too great to deny. Yet his older-than-usual Count has a weighty, experienced presence that is an absolute delight to …
There’s a palpable loathing for the 1986 film Big Trouble, mainly because it was John Cassavetes’ last and worst film, a bad combination for a man revered as a god by the stringent hipster crowd that film criticism seems to court with saddening regularity. How Cassavetes even became involved …
“That’s the way film should be. An artist should not moralize. A person who has the audacity to make a film in the first place should never consciously put his own neuroses on the screen.” — Nicholas Ray, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, 1975 *** Wet Dreams is a …
This post is my entry for the Ida Lupino Blogathon hosted by the Miss Ida Lupino blog. Don’t forget to visit the other fine blogs who are participating! Clifford Odets’ vicious drama The Big Knife is a Tinseltown Macbeth, part Hollywood exposé and part exercise in self-aggrandization. Charles Castle, enormously …
My excitement over being the first to pick Plan 9 From Outer Space for the Monster Mash Blogathon was quickly replaced with apprehension as I realized positively everything to be said about Plan 9 has already been said. To combat this disadvantage, I decided to approach P9 as movie that …
For Mr. Gable’s Maneater Week, I took the literal approach and watched Maneater (2007). For those of you who don’t find yourselves staring at the SyFy Channel on Saturday nights watching people get eaten by various creatures both real and imaginary, you probably don’t know what the Maneater series is. …
This part two of my entry for the Queer Films Blogathon held by Garbo Laughs. Part one is here if you didn’t catch it yesterday. Check out all the entries, as they are listed beginning about 10 AM Eastern time this morning. *** Earlier I listed a few examples of …
This entry is for Garbo Laughs’ Queer Films Blogathon, held June 27. Because my post ran long, I put this part up early and posted the second half Monday, which you can find here. ***Despite what you may have heard, portrayals of GLBT characters in early and classic Hollywood …
New York City’s Hotel Monterey was apparently built around 1909, and by the time of Chantal Akerman’s 1972 silent experimental film that features the building as the movie’s sole character, the motel had been turned into lower-rent apartments in the midst of a somewhat run-down neighborhood. Akerman’s stationary cameras capture …
Ann Pennington was easily the best human part of this dud of a film — the best part being the amazing art deco, by the way — and her hiked-over-the-hips ostrich feather skirt that did half of the dancing for her was stunning.
