The weekly round up of reviews, interviews, and more about A/V materials, usually those that have been undeservedly overlooked (some deservedly, some not overlooked at all in some cases, but those write-ups need to have some larger interest to make this not exactly exclusive list...usually!). More to come in this week's list, sometime tomorrow...thanks to all!
Adam Ferenz: The Fly (1986 film); The Matrix
A. J. Wright: Cathy O'Donnell
Anne Billson: David Lynch; posters as art
Bhob Stewart: Vic and Sade; Trouble the Water; Jazz on Summer's Day; game show scandals
The Big Broadcast 21 August 2016:
Bill Crider: So Fine [trailer]
Bob Clark: Akira
Brent McKee: Democrats v. Republicans in choices of US tv drama
B. V. Lawson: Media Murder
Classic Movie Salon: A Hatful of Rain; this week's Sunday discussion:
Mister 880
Colin McGuigan: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939 film)
Cult TV: The Prisoner: "Living in Harmony"; "The Girl Who Was Death"
Cynthia Fuchs: The Host (2013 film)
David Vineyard: House of Secrets (1936 film)
Elizabeth Foxwell: The 20th Century-Fox Hour: "Deception"; heist films featuring women thieves
Eric Hillis: Conversation Piece (1974 film)
Faculty of Horror: The Babadook; Goodnight Mommy
George Kelley: Muscle Shoals; Indignation
"Gilligan Newton-John": Carry On Christmas
How Did This Get Made?: Gods of Egypt
Iba Dawson: Mae West; Noir in color
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: Chicago Confidential
Jack Seabrook: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Woman Who Wanted to Live"
Jackie Kashian: Karen Rontowski on tarot, comedians, etc.
Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin: The Jackie and Laurie Show
Jacqueline T. Lynch: Seven Days in May
Jake Goldman: NET Playhouse: "Between Time and Timbuktu" (Kurt Vonnegut adaptation)
James Reasoner: Guns in the Dark
Janet Varney: Jessica St. Clair
Jason Abbey: Female Prisoner Scorpion
Jason Bailey: The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996 trainwreck film)
--courtesy Bill Crider
Jerry House: The Patchwork Girl of Oz; X Minus One: "Skulking Permit"
John Grant: The Ninth Guest
John Scoleri: Dark Shadows Before I Die: the episodes reviewed
John Varley: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Jonathan Lewis: Sabata
Karen Hannsberry: The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
Kate Laity: Tutti Frutti
Ken Levine: The Night Before; lost and found scripts
Kliph Nesteroff: The Frances Langford Special
Kristina Dijan: Naked City (tv series)
Laura G: The Deadline (1931 film); Arizona Bound; About Face; The Reluctant Dragon; TCM in November
Lesley Gaspar: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947 film)
Lindsey D: Internes Can't Take Money
Lucy Brown: Leaving (tv)
Maltin on Movies: Mel Brooks
Marilyn Ferdinand: The Incredible Shrinking Man
Martin Edwards: A Game of Murder; One of Us (BBC TV)
Marty McKee: Man on a Swing; Supertrain: "Express to Terror"; HellBound
Mildred Perkins: Stacy
Mitchell Hadley: Cleveland/Columbus television, 26 August 1971; TV Guide, 21 August 1971; sitcoms
Movie Sign with the Mads: Suicide Squad
Noel Vera: You Have Been Weighed and Found Wanting; Lilia Cuntapay (aka Antoinette Jadaone)
Patricia Nolan-Hall: Night Must Fall and Robert Montgomery
Patti Abbott: Sabrina (1954 film); wait staff in drama
Paul Brazill: The Woman in the Window
Pop My Culture: Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert
Raquel Stecher: Song of Russia; CapitolFest
Rick: The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
Robert Hornak: E. T.: The Extraterrestrial
Roberto Curti: Unlikely superheroes of Italian cinema
Rod Lott: Observance; Killing Spree; The Bat People;
"Rupert Pupkin": Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon; Wild in the Streets
Ruth Kerr: American Madness with Constance Cummings
Salome Wilde: quick takes: The Damned Don't Cry; I Confess; Johnny Eager; I Walk Alone; The Devil and Daniel Webster; Ladies in Retirement; The Bat; Elevator to the Gallows; Danger 5: Season 2
Sarah Jane: Underrated films of 1976
Sergio Angelini: The Pearl of Death
Stacia Kissick Jones: Doc Hollywood
Stacie Ponder: films I love
Stephen Bowie: TV series that took a while to find their feet
Stephen Gallagher: TV drama anthologies and adaptations; Jurassic Park when new
Television Obscurities: Slattery's People
Tim Lones: WJAN, Canton, OH
Tynan: October: Ten Days That Shook the World; She Done Him Wrong
Victoria Loomes: You'll Never Get Rich
Vienna: Hitchcock's left turn with Psycho; Ingrid Bergman
Walter Albert: The Kiss Before the Mirror
Courtesy Kate Laity, who notes about the trailer, "Wow.":
The Guardian's Stuart Heritage (?) has a bit of a snarky rant about this trailer here, and it is pretty miserable:
My response to both trailer and rant:
Yes, even given trailers are the worst thing about most movies (and all you need of a film like this, most likely), if "Stuart Heritage" has never seen anything more offensive than this, I envy his life, if not his experience of the world...but, yes, there's a high ratio of flakes among the cast of award-winners, and clearly Zellweger's role was meant for Gwyneth Paltrow, but the nasal drawl was beyond the latter's ability. But, yeah. Smuglift (tm) at its finest.
[I probably didn't come up with this term...but it's useful to describe such films as the Oscar-winning Crash.]
Adam Ferenz: The Fly (1986 film); The Matrix
A. J. Wright: Cathy O'Donnell
Anne Billson: David Lynch; posters as art
Bhob Stewart: Vic and Sade; Trouble the Water; Jazz on Summer's Day; game show scandals
The Big Broadcast 21 August 2016:
- 7 p.m. Yours Truly Johnny Dollar
“The Chesapeake Fraud Matter” Parts 4 + 5 (CBS, Original airdates October 20 and 21, 1955) - 7:30 p.m. Burns and Allen
“George's Allergy Problem” (NBC, Original Airdate September 5, 1946) - 8 p.m. Gunsmoke
“Kitty’s Killing”, episode 285 (CBS, Original airdate February 2, 1958) - 8:20 p.m. The Adventures of Superman
“Airplane Disasters at Bridger Field” Part #6 (Mutual/MBS, Original airdate May 9, 1940) - 8:30 p.m. Dragnet
“Sullivan Kidnapping” (NBC, Original airdate September 10, 1949) * - 9 p.m. The Whistler
“Murder at Twin Pines” (CBS, Original airdate April 10, 1949) * - 9:30 p.m. Dimension X
“With Folded Hands” (NBC, Original airdate April 15, 1950) - 10 p.m. Suspense
“The Man Who Knew How” (CBS, Original airdate August 10, 1944) - 10:30 p.m. Inner Sanctum
“Birdsong For a Murderer” (CBS, Original airdate June 22, 1952)
Bob Clark: Akira
Brent McKee: Democrats v. Republicans in choices of US tv drama
B. V. Lawson: Media Murder
Classic Movie Salon: A Hatful of Rain; this week's Sunday discussion:
Mister 880
Colin McGuigan: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939 film)
Cult TV: The Prisoner: "Living in Harmony"; "The Girl Who Was Death"
Cynthia Fuchs: The Host (2013 film)
David Vineyard: House of Secrets (1936 film)
Elizabeth Foxwell: The 20th Century-Fox Hour: "Deception"; heist films featuring women thieves
Eric Hillis: Conversation Piece (1974 film)
Faculty of Horror: The Babadook; Goodnight Mommy
George Kelley: Muscle Shoals; Indignation
"Gilligan Newton-John": Carry On Christmas
How Did This Get Made?: Gods of Egypt
Iba Dawson: Mae West; Noir in color
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: Chicago Confidential
Jack Seabrook: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Woman Who Wanted to Live"
Jackie Kashian: Karen Rontowski on tarot, comedians, etc.
Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin: The Jackie and Laurie Show
Jacqueline T. Lynch: Seven Days in May
Jake Goldman: NET Playhouse: "Between Time and Timbuktu" (Kurt Vonnegut adaptation)
James Reasoner: Guns in the Dark
Janet Varney: Jessica St. Clair
Jason Abbey: Female Prisoner Scorpion
Jason Bailey: The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996 trainwreck film)
--courtesy Bill Crider
Jerry House: The Patchwork Girl of Oz; X Minus One: "Skulking Permit"
John Grant: The Ninth Guest
John Scoleri: Dark Shadows Before I Die: the episodes reviewed
John Varley: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Jonathan Lewis: Sabata
Karen Hannsberry: The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
Kate Laity: Tutti Frutti
Ken Levine: The Night Before; lost and found scripts
Kliph Nesteroff: The Frances Langford Special
Kristina Dijan: Naked City (tv series)
Laura G: The Deadline (1931 film); Arizona Bound; About Face; The Reluctant Dragon; TCM in November
Lesley Gaspar: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947 film)
Lindsey D: Internes Can't Take Money
Lucy Brown: Leaving (tv)
Maltin on Movies: Mel Brooks
Marilyn Ferdinand: The Incredible Shrinking Man
Martin Edwards: A Game of Murder; One of Us (BBC TV)
Marty McKee: Man on a Swing; Supertrain: "Express to Terror"; HellBound
Mildred Perkins: Stacy
Mitchell Hadley: Cleveland/Columbus television, 26 August 1971; TV Guide, 21 August 1971; sitcoms
Movie Sign with the Mads: Suicide Squad
Noel Vera: You Have Been Weighed and Found Wanting; Lilia Cuntapay (aka Antoinette Jadaone)
Patricia Nolan-Hall: Night Must Fall and Robert Montgomery
Patti Abbott: Sabrina (1954 film); wait staff in drama
Paul Brazill: The Woman in the Window
Pop My Culture: Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert
Raquel Stecher: Song of Russia; CapitolFest
Rick: The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
Robert Hornak: E. T.: The Extraterrestrial
Roberto Curti: Unlikely superheroes of Italian cinema
Rod Lott: Observance; Killing Spree; The Bat People;
"Rupert Pupkin": Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon; Wild in the Streets
Ruth Kerr: American Madness with Constance Cummings
Salome Wilde: quick takes: The Damned Don't Cry; I Confess; Johnny Eager; I Walk Alone; The Devil and Daniel Webster; Ladies in Retirement; The Bat; Elevator to the Gallows; Danger 5: Season 2
Sarah Jane: Underrated films of 1976
Sergio Angelini: The Pearl of Death
Stacia Kissick Jones: Doc Hollywood
Stacie Ponder: films I love
Stephen Bowie: TV series that took a while to find their feet
Stephen Gallagher: TV drama anthologies and adaptations; Jurassic Park when new
Television Obscurities: Slattery's People
Tim Lones: WJAN, Canton, OH
Tynan: October: Ten Days That Shook the World; She Done Him Wrong
Victoria Loomes: You'll Never Get Rich
Vienna: Hitchcock's left turn with Psycho; Ingrid Bergman
Walter Albert: The Kiss Before the Mirror
Courtesy Kate Laity, who notes about the trailer, "Wow.":
The Guardian's Stuart Heritage (?) has a bit of a snarky rant about this trailer here, and it is pretty miserable:
My response to both trailer and rant:
Yes, even given trailers are the worst thing about most movies (and all you need of a film like this, most likely), if "Stuart Heritage" has never seen anything more offensive than this, I envy his life, if not his experience of the world...but, yes, there's a high ratio of flakes among the cast of award-winners, and clearly Zellweger's role was meant for Gwyneth Paltrow, but the nasal drawl was beyond the latter's ability. But, yeah. Smuglift (tm) at its finest.
[I probably didn't come up with this term...but it's useful to describe such films as the Oscar-winning Crash.]
Thanks Todd - a great selection and marvellous to see that early Curtiz movie get a look in too!
ReplyDeleteYour links are always appreciated! Thank you, Todd!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Laura
Thanks to you both..and Sergio, I note the annotated list of unlikely Italian film heroes Sergio...how many did you sit through as a kid, when I was was enjoying (or wondering why they were so repetitive) such things as (Japanese) SPEED RACER and (American or Canadian) WACKY RACERS...Laura, glad I was able to gather up all your reviews this round!
ReplyDeleteThanks again for adding me into that great line-up, Todd.
ReplyDeleteColin
Not at all, Colin...thank you. And apologies for the too-common delays.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! This is a terrific feature for readers. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ruth! And for the retweet. I've been both busy and under the weather, but I'll be damned if I won't get this going again tonight, and finally try to get back on my self-assigned schedule....
ReplyDeleteA belated thanks, Todd! We were out of the country for 2 weeks on vacation.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I saw Jazz On A Summer's Day was when it was broadcast on the LA public broadcasting station, I had an RCA VHS machine and taped it. Still got that tape, though no player. When I heard Anita O'Day sing "Tea For Two" it just knocked me out. Still does. She and Chris Conner were my favorite female vocalists for a while (though I never stopped digging Ella).
ReplyDeleteAnd when we consider O'Day was stoned out of her mind, by her own recollection, at the time of performance, even more remarkable. It does explain why she's wobbling to that degree on the ridiculous shoes...I'm genuinely startled by how small the audience is for her performance...too early? Heavy competition?
ReplyDeleteI knew - not when I first saw it but later - that she was loaded, her ion, I think, at the time, and it explains how she could sing it so fast, perhaps. The Newport Jazz Festival was obviously a very different event than it became later, and it was early-mid afternoon, I believe. The movement and inattention in the audience makes it clear people hadn't really settled in, and I'm guessing a lot of people just dropped by to see what the thing was.
ReplyDeleteIn my days of going to the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl it was like that in the early afternoon, people arriving, setting up, having the lunch they brought, talking across the lesser acts. Different type of venue, of course.
However I remember one afternoon in 1978 when Weather Report came on stage and opened with "Birdland" and all the chit-chat stopped. The whole place was following the song and digging it. Yes, it was their "big hit", but on that cool, sunny afternoon in the Hollywood Bowl, with that band playing that song and the excellent sound system they had there...pure magic.
ReplyDelete