"Eternity can be wonderful with the right person to share it."
A while ago I vowed that I would spend 2022 watching all the remaining Stuart Gordon films that I didn’t see during my last dive into his career from two years ago, so it seems as sensible a place as any to start with the made-for-TV horror flick he made in between Robot Jox and The Pit and the Pendulum, CBS’s Daughter of Darkness (available on YouTube). It’s a…
"Harry, this place is a loony bin!"
"Yeah, just promise me one thing: if we get kicked outta here, let’s not get kicked into someplace worse."
"There IS no place worse! This is hell!"
Thank you to threepenny for pointing me towards Combat Academy, aka Combat High (available in a fuzzy but watchable upload on YouTube), a surprisingly enjoyable teen comedy that rose above my expectations based on a slew of bad reviews on Letterboxd. I mean, I say "surprisingly"…
"The river, like love, cleanses all things."
Much like Different from the Others, I find it unfair to judge the logging camp drama The River in its partially extant form - available on YouTube, running 54 minutes altogether - given that huge chunks of the film are lost and filled in only by expository intertitles and still photos, although what remains is pre-Code ecstasy. Director Frank Borzage stages the sheerest eroticism: Rosalee (Mary Duncan) gazing shamelessly at Allen John (Charles…
"Much of this movie falls somewhere between GHOST (1990) and the more surreal INCUBUS (1965), without any of the supernaturalism. An owner of a remote farm has her home invaded by three dangerous convicts. There are times when the innocent farm owner is fully aware of the three invaders, and there are times when she seems completely unaware of their menacing presence. Just like an advanced Alzheimer's patient, she seems to easily and frequently forget that she is surrounded by…
"How would you characterize The Great Gatsby?"
"He was... uh... great!"
Sure, it's almost as dumb as "65-year-old millionaire Rodney Dangerfield decides to attend college alongside his son" sounds, but it's the kind of dumb that I can mostly appreciate. Hey, at least I gave it a proper rating, unlike my last Dangerfield comedy (The Godson) - is that an evolution or devolution in my taste?
After this and The Legend of Billie Jean, I think I just might watch…
"On Earth, your name is still spoken, your face is still remembered. As long as one is left who remembers you, so long is the matter unended. Until you have been completely forgotten, my son, you will not be finished with the Earth..."
Women Film Editors #42: Margaret Clancey
For approximately a decade, Margaret Clancey worked at Fox, editing some of the studio's most interesting films, like by Four Sons and Hangman's House (both 1928) by John Ford; They Had…
"How dare those people treat us like we're stupid teenage girls!"
"We are stupid teenage girls."
"No. We're human beings, and we're American citizens. And four score and seven years ago our forefathers... did something. I don't know what. But I do know one thing - Dick's ass is grass!"
Women Film Editors #41: Mia Goldman
You know, when I saw Bruce McCulloch onstage in his one-man show last month, he closed by telling the audience "remember to keep your…
"We've got to have/We plot to have/For it's so dreary not to have/That certain thing called the boy friend!"
Hey, Tommy Tune alone would be worth giving The Boy Friend five stars. The man is approximately 75% legs! A real terpsichorean dream.
I'll never be able to separate my love for this particular Ken Russell film from the nostalgia of enjoying it as a kid, eventually followed by a sublime chance to see it on the big screen in 2016,…
"You think you can do anything you want and then lie about it and we just have to take it, because what are we? Just a bunch of kids. Well, not this time. From now on, we're doin' this our way. No lyin', no cheatin', fair is fair. $608 for the scooter your son trashed. That's what you owe, and we're NOT turnin' ourselves in 'til we get it. Fair is fair! We didn't start this, we didn't mean it…
"Steven told me it was because I had cut the first picture that was a monumental success in which you can really see the editing. And people discovered that it was a woman who edited Jaws." (Verna Fields, discussing her Oscar win)
Women Film Editors #39: Verna Fields
It wouldn't truly be July 4th weekend without another look at Jaws, would it?
It's extraordinary when you start to think about how many defining examples of American and international cinema were…
"I'm better now. In fact, I'm determined to enjoy myself. It's so blissful here, so tranquil, so far from all violence and trouble."
"Yes, you are right, Madame; the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and yet you forget that everywhere there is evil under the sun."
If an Agatha Christie mystery set in a beautiful Spanish beach resort sounds exactly right as the July weather creeps in, then you'll agree that Evil Under the Sun is summer fun!…
"I don't take any steroids and I don't take any shit!"
Trust me, even if you've seen some dopey action comedies from the 90s, you are not adequately prepared for the Barbarian Brothers.
David and Peter Paul, a pair of identical twins who got into the biz after achieving some success as bodybuilders, play a good cop/good-ish thief duo in Double Trouble, a wacky flick directed by John "Jambi from Pee-wee's Playhouse" Paragon. The extra beefy bros team up to…