Long before Jigsaw and Annabelle, Ghostface and Samara—going back to even before Freddy and Jason—there were the Universal Monsters. These were the creatures and character designs who were so iconic that they defined what the horror genre was to most moviegoers during the earliest decades of talking pictures. Primarily released in two film cycles by Universal Pictures across the 1930s and ‘40s (plus a few outliers on both sides of this), the legacy of these films and the people who made them endures still. It echoes in Halloween costumes and TV specials, merchandise toys and candies, it’s even informing recent Blumhouse films and Netflix’s Wednesday. Right now, you can go to any Universal theme park and meet the Monsters as un-goodwill ambassadors at “Halloween Horror Nights.”
Yet to return to the original movement of films which were so frightening in their day that they essentially invented...
Yet to return to the original movement of films which were so frightening in their day that they essentially invented...
- 10/28/2023
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
It’s a hot soap from ’65, when movies promised raging passion but delivered cheap teases and hypocritical judgments. It’s Suzanne Pleshette’s only starring role, but it doesn’t exploit her bright personality, her sense of humor. John O’Hara’s tale hasn’t much pity for a promiscuous young wife who breaks the rules. Does nymphomania make her a social menace, or is she victimized by a script determined to put the blame on Mame? Costarring Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves.
A Rage to Live
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 197
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / aud 34.98
Starring: Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara, Peter Graves, Bethel Leslie, Carmen Mathews, Linden Chiles, James Gregory, Ruth White, Mark Goddard, Sarah Marshall, George Furth, Virginia Christine, Aneta Corsaut, Frank Maxwell, Almira Sessions.
Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.
Costume Designer: Howard Shoup
Art Director: James Sullivan
Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore...
A Rage to Live
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 197
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / aud 34.98
Starring: Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara, Peter Graves, Bethel Leslie, Carmen Mathews, Linden Chiles, James Gregory, Ruth White, Mark Goddard, Sarah Marshall, George Furth, Virginia Christine, Aneta Corsaut, Frank Maxwell, Almira Sessions.
Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.
Costume Designer: Howard Shoup
Art Director: James Sullivan
Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore...
- 2/7/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Righteous propaganda fuels the patriotic fire: Lewis Milestone and Robert Rossen’s blood-soaked ode to Norwegian resistance goes way over the top. These Norsemen and Norsewomen take up arms to fight their Nazi occupiers tooth and nail. Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan star; some of Hollywood’s best partake of the rah-rah celebration of suicidal vengeance: Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman, Helmut Dantine, Judith Anderson, Ruth Gordon, John Beal, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Dingle, Roman Bohnen, Richard Fraser, Art Smith, and a very young Virginia Christine. We’re all anti-Fascist freedom fighters on this bus!
Edge of Darkness
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 119 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date January 18, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman, Helmut Dantine, Judith Anderson, Ruth Gordon, John Beal, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Dingle, Roman Bohnen, Richard Fraser, Art Smith, Monte Blue, Henry Brandon, Virginia Christine, Tom Fadden, Kurt Katch, Kurt Kreuger,...
Edge of Darkness
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 119 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date January 18, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman, Helmut Dantine, Judith Anderson, Ruth Gordon, John Beal, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Dingle, Roman Bohnen, Richard Fraser, Art Smith, Monte Blue, Henry Brandon, Virginia Christine, Tom Fadden, Kurt Katch, Kurt Kreuger,...
- 2/15/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
ClassicFlix comes forward with an entire 26 original episodes of the comic duo’s 1952 TV show, all fully remastered by the 3-D Archive people. That’s 13 + hours of Abbott and Costello comedy, looking better than new — even the original opening logos have been restored. The repeating leads are fully attuned to A&c’s style of comedy — Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke, Gordon Jones, etc.. The full set comes with numerous audio commentaries and featurettes.
The Abbott and Costello Show Season 1
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1952-1953 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 676 min. / Street Date December 14, 2021 / Available from ClassicFLix / 49.99
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke, Gordon Jones, Joe Besser, Joe Kirk, Bobby Barber, Joan Shawlee, Veda Ann Borg, Elvia Allman, Virginia Christine, Bingo the Chimp; Iris Adrian, Glenn Strange.
Cinematography: George Robinson
Art Director: Mac Capps
Film Editor: Gene Fowler Jr., Fred R. Feitshans Jr.
Original Music: Raoul Kraushaar
Written by Sid Fields,...
The Abbott and Costello Show Season 1
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1952-1953 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 676 min. / Street Date December 14, 2021 / Available from ClassicFLix / 49.99
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke, Gordon Jones, Joe Besser, Joe Kirk, Bobby Barber, Joan Shawlee, Veda Ann Borg, Elvia Allman, Virginia Christine, Bingo the Chimp; Iris Adrian, Glenn Strange.
Cinematography: George Robinson
Art Director: Mac Capps
Film Editor: Gene Fowler Jr., Fred R. Feitshans Jr.
Original Music: Raoul Kraushaar
Written by Sid Fields,...
- 12/18/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Join Joe Friday and Frank Smith as they make a case against the rotten gangland crooks that moiderized Dub Taylor with a shotgun, point blank! See detectives loiter about while smart remarks and Big music stings provide the excitement! The big-screen version of the hit TV show has a surfeit of guest crooks, unhappy women, and a script that wants to grant cops the right to harass and wiretap whoever they wish without restraint. Jack Webb’s ‘interesting’ ideas of script, performance and direction are really… interesting. The Joe Friday-fest comes with an informative commentary by Toby Roan, laying down plenty of Dragnet and Jack Webb history I didn’t know, not ‘just the facts.’
Dragnet
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen + 1:37 unmatted / 88 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Victor Perrin, Dub Taylor,...
Dragnet
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen + 1:37 unmatted / 88 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Victor Perrin, Dub Taylor,...
- 11/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In this episode, Ben and Daniel talk to drag performer and national treasure Russ King aka Miss Richfield 1981 about the 1972 album 'Free To Be... You And Me.' They also discuss Varla Jean Merman, Divine, Jinkx Monsoon, Marlo Thomas, Alan Alda, Rehoboth Beach, Cherry Grove, The Triad, Vonda Kay Van Dyke, Virginia Christine, Pixie Aventura, and Hedda Lettuce. Miss Richfield talks about performance mishaps, working with an audience, and what it's like returning to Provincetown year after year. In addition to her hilarious and acclaimed shows, Miss Richfield is also known as the TV spokesperson for the travel company Orbitz.
- 1/27/2020
- by Ben Rimalower
- BroadwayWorld.com
Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1966/ 1.85:1 / 73 min.
Starring John Carradine, Chuck Courtney, Virginia Christine
Cinematography by Lothrop B. Worth
Directed by William Beaudine
William Beaudine, the human assembly line behind a warehouse full of movies that included Voodoo Man and Bowery Buckeroos, hauls John Carradine onto an over-lit and under-budget stage for another shot at the Count in Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula.
In 1966 Beaudine was very near the end of his career but Carradine reigned for three more decades, giving him ample time for reflection: “I have worked in a dozen of the greatest, and I have worked in a dozen of the worst. I only regret Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula. Otherwise, I regret nothing.”
Shot in eight days, producer Carroll Case and writer Carl K. Hittleman conceived the title as part of a matched set for the drive-in crowd – both Billy and Jesse James...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1966/ 1.85:1 / 73 min.
Starring John Carradine, Chuck Courtney, Virginia Christine
Cinematography by Lothrop B. Worth
Directed by William Beaudine
William Beaudine, the human assembly line behind a warehouse full of movies that included Voodoo Man and Bowery Buckeroos, hauls John Carradine onto an over-lit and under-budget stage for another shot at the Count in Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula.
In 1966 Beaudine was very near the end of his career but Carradine reigned for three more decades, giving him ample time for reflection: “I have worked in a dozen of the greatest, and I have worked in a dozen of the worst. I only regret Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula. Otherwise, I regret nothing.”
Shot in eight days, producer Carroll Case and writer Carl K. Hittleman conceived the title as part of a matched set for the drive-in crowd – both Billy and Jesse James...
- 8/10/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Dogs have long been referred to as "man's best friend," but they can be loyal to the undead as well, as evidenced in 1977's Dracula's Dog, aka Zoltan... Hound of Dracula, coming to Blu-ray this fall with a new 4K master from the team at Kino Lorber, who are also releasing 1966's Billy the Kid vs. Dracula on Blu-ray this August.
Kino Lorber announced the Dracula's Dog Blu-ray release on Facebook, and the Billy the Kid vs. Dracula Blu-ray news comes from Dawn of the Discs and Blu-ray.com.
An exact release date for the Dracula's Dog Blu-ray has yet to be announced, but it is expected to arrive in October, while Billy the Kid vs. Dracula is slated for an August 20th release.
Directed by Albert Band from a screenplay by Frank Ray Perilli, Dracula's Dog stars José Ferrer, Michael Pataki, and Reggie Nalder.
Dracula's Dog Synopsis (via Blu-ray.
Kino Lorber announced the Dracula's Dog Blu-ray release on Facebook, and the Billy the Kid vs. Dracula Blu-ray news comes from Dawn of the Discs and Blu-ray.com.
An exact release date for the Dracula's Dog Blu-ray has yet to be announced, but it is expected to arrive in October, while Billy the Kid vs. Dracula is slated for an August 20th release.
Directed by Albert Band from a screenplay by Frank Ray Perilli, Dracula's Dog stars José Ferrer, Michael Pataki, and Reggie Nalder.
Dracula's Dog Synopsis (via Blu-ray.
- 5/14/2019
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Already eclipsed by James Bond and sexier European films, Paul Newman does his best to energize this derivative but lively spy-chase thriller set during Nobel season, in a Stockholm populated by the glamorous Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle and Jacqueline Beer. Toss several Hitchcock pictures into a blender, and what comes out is reasonably engaging… and more than a little dated.
The Prize
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date January 15, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle, Gérard Oury, Sergio Fantoni, Kevin McCarthy, Leo G. Carroll, Sacha Pitoëff, Jacqueline Beer, John Wengraf, Don Dubbin, Virginia Christine, Rudolph Anders, Martine Bartlett, Karl Swenson, John Qualen, John Banner, Teru Shimada, Albert Carrier, Jerry Dunphy, Britt Ekland, Gergory Gaye, Anna Lee, Gregg Palmer, Gene Roth, Ivan Triesault.
Cinematography: William H. Daniels
Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith...
The Prize
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date January 15, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle, Gérard Oury, Sergio Fantoni, Kevin McCarthy, Leo G. Carroll, Sacha Pitoëff, Jacqueline Beer, John Wengraf, Don Dubbin, Virginia Christine, Rudolph Anders, Martine Bartlett, Karl Swenson, John Qualen, John Banner, Teru Shimada, Albert Carrier, Jerry Dunphy, Britt Ekland, Gergory Gaye, Anna Lee, Gregg Palmer, Gene Roth, Ivan Triesault.
Cinematography: William H. Daniels
Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith...
- 1/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A super-classic receives a super ‘Olive Signature’ Blu-ray release. CineSavant clears up some online rumors complaining that the disc producers didn’t do a full restoration. The original release Superscope version of Don Siegel’s soul-shaking chiller has been handsomely remastered — and with the extras we’ve awaited for 12 years.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1956 / B&W / 2:1 widescreen / 80 min. / Olive Signature Edition / Street Date October 16, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Jean Willes, Virginia Christine, Whit Bissell, Richard Deacon, Bobby Clark, Dabbs Greer, Marie Selland, Sam Peckinpah.
Cinematography Ellsworth Fredericks
Film Editor Robert S. Eisen
Original Music Carmen Dragon
Written by Daniel Mainwearing from a magazine serial by Jack Finney
Produced by Walter Wanger
Directed by Don Siegel
One of the greatest of 1950s science fiction films transcends the genre so neatly that many don’t see it as Sci-fi at all,...
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1956 / B&W / 2:1 widescreen / 80 min. / Olive Signature Edition / Street Date October 16, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Jean Willes, Virginia Christine, Whit Bissell, Richard Deacon, Bobby Clark, Dabbs Greer, Marie Selland, Sam Peckinpah.
Cinematography Ellsworth Fredericks
Film Editor Robert S. Eisen
Original Music Carmen Dragon
Written by Daniel Mainwearing from a magazine serial by Jack Finney
Produced by Walter Wanger
Directed by Don Siegel
One of the greatest of 1950s science fiction films transcends the genre so neatly that many don’t see it as Sci-fi at all,...
- 10/13/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What? Doctors aren’t perfect? And some practicing doctors are incompetent? Stanley Kramer’s All-Star medical soap opera takes two unlikely students (Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra) through med school and confronts them with a number of pat dramatic complications. But the movie belongs to top-billed Olivia de Havilland, who lends a touch of class to the entire iffy enterprise.
Not as a Stranger
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 135 min. / Street Date January 9, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Myron McCormick, Lon Chaney Jr., Jesse White, Harry Morgan, Lee Marvin, Virginia Christine, Whit Bissell, Jack Raine, Mae Clarke, John Dierkes, King Donovan, Franklyn Farnum, Paul Guilfoile, Nancy Kulp, Harry Lauter, Juanita Moore, Jerry Paris, Stafford Repp, Carl Switzer, Will Wright.
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Film Editor: Fred Knutson
Original Music: George Antheil
Written by Edna and Edward Anhalt,...
Not as a Stranger
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 135 min. / Street Date January 9, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Myron McCormick, Lon Chaney Jr., Jesse White, Harry Morgan, Lee Marvin, Virginia Christine, Whit Bissell, Jack Raine, Mae Clarke, John Dierkes, King Donovan, Franklyn Farnum, Paul Guilfoile, Nancy Kulp, Harry Lauter, Juanita Moore, Jerry Paris, Stafford Repp, Carl Switzer, Will Wright.
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Film Editor: Fred Knutson
Original Music: George Antheil
Written by Edna and Edward Anhalt,...
- 1/9/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Psycho killers long ago lost their novelty, but in 1956 Budd Boetticher and Wendell Corey gave us Leon ‘Foggy’ Poole, a screen original with limitless appeal. Imagine a time when ‘normalcy’ was so taken for granted that any weird behavior was enough to give us the chills? Foggy carries this crime potboiler with a refreshing new idea: his dangerous maniac looks more normal than normal people.
The Killer Is Loose
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 76 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / 29.98
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, Alan Hale Jr., Michael Pate, John Larch, Dee J. Thompson, Virginia Christine.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Original Music: Lionel Newman
Written by Harold Medford, story by John & Ward Hawkins
Produced by Robert L. Jacks
Directed by Budd Boetticher
A smartly directed mid-fifties noir with a sensational central performance from the overlooked Wendell Corey, The Killer is Loose shows director Budd Boetticher at ease with a modest budget,...
The Killer Is Loose
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 76 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / 29.98
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, Alan Hale Jr., Michael Pate, John Larch, Dee J. Thompson, Virginia Christine.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Original Music: Lionel Newman
Written by Harold Medford, story by John & Ward Hawkins
Produced by Robert L. Jacks
Directed by Budd Boetticher
A smartly directed mid-fifties noir with a sensational central performance from the overlooked Wendell Corey, The Killer is Loose shows director Budd Boetticher at ease with a modest budget,...
- 10/24/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon (1947-1988) was one of the most celebrated adventure comic strips of the 1950s. The blond, square-jawed hero was on the cutting edge of action as he took to the skies and had adventures around the world. Caniff populated the strip with memorable supporting characters and adversaries so it was a rich reading experience.
The strip was so popular that when Captain Action was introduced in 1966, Canyon was one of the first heroes he could turn into. Somewhat earlier, Canyon also served as inspiration for an NBC prime time series that, sadly, bore little resemblance to the strip (a common problem back then).
In 2008, John R. Ellis brought us this forgotten gem with The Complete Steve Canyon on TV Volume 1 and followed up a year later with Volume 2. The silence until late last year when the anticipated Volume 3 finally arrived, completing the run. Thankfully it came...
The strip was so popular that when Captain Action was introduced in 1966, Canyon was one of the first heroes he could turn into. Somewhat earlier, Canyon also served as inspiration for an NBC prime time series that, sadly, bore little resemblance to the strip (a common problem back then).
In 2008, John R. Ellis brought us this forgotten gem with The Complete Steve Canyon on TV Volume 1 and followed up a year later with Volume 2. The silence until late last year when the anticipated Volume 3 finally arrived, completing the run. Thankfully it came...
- 1/25/2016
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
Criterion digitally restores this earlier release, a combination offering of Robert Siodmak’s 1946 film noir masterpiece The Killers paired with Don Siegel’s retro 1964 remake. Famed adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s short story, both filmmakers take liberties with the original material to create aggressively different products. Siodmak’s version is not only the German ex-pat’s enduring masterpiece, it’s a definite cornerstone of classic American film noir. Though Siegel’s 60s rehash is considered tacky pastiche of the era, it’s brutal, hard boiled B-grade pulp, notable for its own significant instances.
Siodmak’s version arrived during a golden era of noir, premiering a year after WWII officially ended, with cinematic masculine representation on the eve of an overhaul as method acting would soon reign supreme. Hemingway’s spare story gets a face life from Anthony Veiller (The Stranger; Night of the Iguana), using the murder as a jumping...
Siodmak’s version arrived during a golden era of noir, premiering a year after WWII officially ended, with cinematic masculine representation on the eve of an overhaul as method acting would soon reign supreme. Hemingway’s spare story gets a face life from Anthony Veiller (The Stranger; Night of the Iguana), using the murder as a jumping...
- 7/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...
- 3/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
★★★★☆Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner star in this re-issued classic of film noir. Adapted from a short story by Ernest Hemingway, The Killers (1946) borrows the investigative flashback structure of Citizen Kane (1941) to uncover why 'the Swede', a seemingly ordinary gas station worker (Lancaster), came to be murdered by a pair of professional hitmen (Charles McGraw and William Conrad). Investigator Jim Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) pursues the life insurance policy that the deceased had taken out, leading him to a hotel maid (Queenie Smith), a police officer (Same Levene) and his wife (Virginia Christine), a former crook (Vince Barnett), and the Swede's glamorous ex-girlfriend, Kitty Collins (Gardner).
- 12/8/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The Mummy’s Curse
Written by Bernard Schubert, Leon Abrams, and Dwight V. Babcock
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
USA, 1944
“The devil’s alive and he’s dancing with the mummy.”
Universal’s mummy series plateaus with 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse. Set in the 1990s, men on an irrigation project working in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou help unearth mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) and his Princess Ananka (Virigina Christine). Knowing this, the film’s High Priest, Dr. Izor Zandaab (Peter Coe) follows his supposed boss Dr. Halsey (Dennis Moore) to retrieve the mummies. What ensues is mostly a chase film and blatant repetition of The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, and even The Mummy’s Ghost.
Part of the repetition comes when Zandaab tells Kharis and Ananka’s story. Stock footage from the previous films is used to explain how Kharis’s attempt to bring Ananka back to...
Written by Bernard Schubert, Leon Abrams, and Dwight V. Babcock
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
USA, 1944
“The devil’s alive and he’s dancing with the mummy.”
Universal’s mummy series plateaus with 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse. Set in the 1990s, men on an irrigation project working in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou help unearth mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) and his Princess Ananka (Virigina Christine). Knowing this, the film’s High Priest, Dr. Izor Zandaab (Peter Coe) follows his supposed boss Dr. Halsey (Dennis Moore) to retrieve the mummies. What ensues is mostly a chase film and blatant repetition of The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, and even The Mummy’s Ghost.
Part of the repetition comes when Zandaab tells Kharis and Ananka’s story. Stock footage from the previous films is used to explain how Kharis’s attempt to bring Ananka back to...
- 2/5/2014
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
The Killers
Written by Anthony Veiller, Richard Brooks and John Huston
Directed by Robert Siodmak
U.S.A., 1946
Without question, Robert Siodmak was one of the great stylistic directors working in Hollywood during the 1930s, 40s, 50s and even into the 60s. Arriving from Europe as so many of his continental colleagues did during the period when the indescribable of evil of Nazism, had begun to spread its tentacles across their homelands, Siodmak brought with him to the film industry a stunning ability to construct rich films which balanced sharp storytelling and brilliant German Impressionistic visual allure, the latter which helped pronounce the often dire, sad, paranoid tone the stories themselves championed. The excellent thriller The Spiral Staircase (1945) and the underseen noir Phantom Lady (1944) are but two examples of Siodmak working in remarkable harmony with strong scripts and his cinematographers to produce not merely gripping tales, but gripping cinematic experiences of the classic period.
Written by Anthony Veiller, Richard Brooks and John Huston
Directed by Robert Siodmak
U.S.A., 1946
Without question, Robert Siodmak was one of the great stylistic directors working in Hollywood during the 1930s, 40s, 50s and even into the 60s. Arriving from Europe as so many of his continental colleagues did during the period when the indescribable of evil of Nazism, had begun to spread its tentacles across their homelands, Siodmak brought with him to the film industry a stunning ability to construct rich films which balanced sharp storytelling and brilliant German Impressionistic visual allure, the latter which helped pronounce the often dire, sad, paranoid tone the stories themselves championed. The excellent thriller The Spiral Staircase (1945) and the underseen noir Phantom Lady (1944) are but two examples of Siodmak working in remarkable harmony with strong scripts and his cinematographers to produce not merely gripping tales, but gripping cinematic experiences of the classic period.
- 7/12/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Billy Wilder movies, Johnny Carson interviews tonight on TCM Billy Wilder is Turner Classic Movies’ Director of the Evening tonight, July 8, 2013. But before Wilder Evening begins, TCM will be presenting a series of brief interviews from The Tonight Show, back in the old Johnny Carson days — or rather, nights. The Carson interviewees this evening are Doris Day, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis, Chevy Chase, and Steve Martin. (See also: Doris Day today.) (Photo: Billy Wilder.) As for Billy Wilder, TCM will be showing the following: Some Like It Hot (1959), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Spirit of St. Louis (1958), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Of course, all of those have been shown before and are widely available. Some Like It Hot vs. The Major and the Minor: Subversive and subversiver Some Like It Hot is perhaps Billy Wilder’s best-known film. This broad comedy featuring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis...
- 7/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946), the film noir that catapulted Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner (above) to stardom, will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Oscar Noir: 1940s Writing Nominees from Hollywood’s Dark Side.” The Killers will be shown on Monday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Screenwriter Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, State of Play) will introduce the screening. (The Killers is sold out. More info below.) Screenwriter Anthony Veiller turned Ernest Hemingway’s classic short story into a classic film noir. The Killers, about a former boxer and the men out to get him, isn’t one of my favorites noirs, but it’s great to look at thanks to Ava Gardner and cinematographer Elwood Bredell. Also in the cast: Edmond O’Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Virginia Christine,...
- 6/16/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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