Category: home video hovel
From the opening narration by George Sanders, a dazzlingly loquacious bit of verbiage in which he, ironically, makes fun of the character on screen for being long-winded, it’s clear that Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve is going to be...
As of the writing of this review, I have not watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode in which they mock Arch Hall Sr.’s 1962 teensploitation mess Eegah, even though it’s available as a special feature on the new, limited...
The Omen films have the distinction of being both undeniably mediocre and surprisingly iconic. They were built around a pulpy spiritual premise and given a prestigious sheen due to the initial casting of heavy hitters like Gregory Peck and William...
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that is the case, then there are a number of filmmakers who should be deeply flattered by Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps. Released to very little fanfare in...
Most of Yasujirô Ozu’s output is a blind spot for me but, from what I have seen, I understand that quiet familial and marital discord is pretty common in his work. And yet it’s a testament to his power as...
Count Dracula’s status as horror’s most sinister sex symbol is a mythology built over the last 100 years. From the pages of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel to Bela Lugosi’s iconic performance, the Count’s grotesque appeal is both hypnotic and repulsive....
Like so many tragedies, Ritwik Ghatak’s The Cloud-Capped Star starts off feeling like a comedy. Every character and scenario is so flush with emotion–most of it happiness–that it feels as if they may burst into song. One of them, on...
Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 debut film Fists in the Pocket reminded me of my family and that’s not a good thing. A ferociously unpleasant depiction of a family that appears to be slowly eating itself alive and asking for seconds, the film...
Sound was introduced into cinema in a mainstream, commercial way in 1927 and it’s always felt a little ironic and a little tragic that so many of the greatest silent films were made just as the silent format was being...
With every film from the era that I watch, I become increasingly convinced that the late 1920s represented a peak in the cinematic art form. Like many of these films that I’ve seen in recent years, I watched Fridrikh Ermler’s...
