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A Khmer Rouge Nightmare in Clay
One of the most unusual documentaries screened at the 2013 VFF (Virginia Film Festival) was The Missing Picture by filmmaker Rithy Panh. A personal account of Panh’s childhood in Cambodia during the...
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The White House Super-8 Posse
Another highlight among the documentary entries at the 2013 VFF (Virginia Film Festival) was Our Nixon by Penny Lane, which takes an unexpected approach to a topic which has been the covered...
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Just for Fun
Movie titles can sometimes be deceptive but you know exactly what you’re in for with the aptly named Creature with the Atom Brain (1955). A superior B-horror film with sci-fi elements and a crime...
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The Lost Films of Audio-Brandon
Back in the days before the VHS home video market exploded and Blockbuster became the obiquitous rental store, the 16mm film library was still a viable business in the non-theatrical college and...
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On The Road to Extinction
Ever since I first saw a description for The End of August at the Hotel Ozone in the 16mm rental catalog from New Line Films I’ve wanted to see it. But this 1967 post-apocalyptic drama from...
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A Train Wreck Called Poor Pretty Eddie
Sometimes a movie goes so horribly wrong in so many ways that it ends up working on an entirely different level in spite of itself. Such is the case with Poor Pretty Eddie (1975), which is also known...
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The Many Noses of Orson Welles
“When you are down and out something always turns up – and it is usually the noses of your friends.” – Orson Welles When you’re a film actor, it’s easy to understand how one can obsess over some less...
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The Neopolitan Trinity
Vittorio De Sica (left), Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni in TOO BAD SHE’S BAD (1955) Often overlooked or dismissed as a minor comic trifle, Peccato che sia una canaglia (English title: Too Bad She’s...
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Desert Rats
Nigel Davenport (left ) & Michael Caine in PLAY DIRTY (1969) Underrated by critics and ignored by audiences upon its initial release in 1969, Play Dirty, directed by Andre de Toth, has slowly but...
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Soul Survivors
Although less well known today than Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-nominated 1967 drama, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, and still unavailable on DVD/Blu-Ray, One Potato, Two Potato (1964) was the first...
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Middle Age Crazy
It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely prospect for a film adaptation than John Cheever’s short story, The Swimmer, which was first published in The New Yorker. Yet, it was actually adapted into a major...
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Eurotrash or Subversive Satire?
Is it possible to make a movie that works as both art house fare and exploitation cinema? Arne Mattsson’s Ann och Eve – de erotiska (1970), which was released in the U.S. in an English dubbed version...
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Scandal Sheet Smackdown
In the early thirties, most studios steered clear of social protest films but not Warner Bros. They embraced the genre with the same muckraking glee that characterized some of their subjects. Prison...
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Marco Ferreri’s Hairy Angel
Annie Girardot in THE APE WOMAN (1964) I can remember being fascinated with Marco Ferreri’s The Ape Woman (La donna scimmia) from the first time I saw a still from it in the May 1964 issue 28 of Famous...
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A Western for Adults
Underrated at the time of its release, The Hanging Tree (1959) is now considered a superior western from the waning years of that popular genre which coincided with the end of the studio era. It is...
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Romain Gary’s Cinematic Overdose
How many times do you need to say Kill! In a movie title if you want to stress that it is about murder on an international scale? Apparently the distributors of this 1971 oddity were uncertain about...
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Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves: The Bohemian Girl
Image courtesy of http://www.doctormacro.com and Dieter Even though the 1936 Laurel and Hardy feature The Bohemian Girl is not ranked among their best by the duo’s fervent fans or film historians, I...
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Roger Ebert, Sam Fuller, Woody Strode, Les Blank and Others at the 1981...
Labor Day weekend for most people means a farewell to summer and a final official holiday before the Fall season but for me Labor Day usually means “The Show” – the annual Telluride Film Festival in...
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Hamlet on the Range
Chip Corman is a pseudonym for actor Andrea Giordana The plays of William Shakespeare have provided a bottomless well of material for filmmakers as either faithful adaptations or unacknowledged...
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Big Bands and Tap Dancing: World War II Escapism
When Reveille with Beverly was first released in 1943, it was viewed as little more than a snappy little B musical programmer that showcased a star on the rise (Ann Miller) along with some of the top...
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