Day 336: Sifting The Scuzz – Worst Films Part 3

originally published December 1, 2012 In 1984, confident that he had completed the greatest movie trilogy of all time, George Lucas decided to step down as president of Lucasfilm and take a stab at being a full-time producer. To provide a bit of historical context, at this time everybody in the free world loved George […]

Day 317: The Nastiest Of The Video Nasties

originally published November 12, 2012 Two fun-filled days ago, I told the story of the video nasty. These are the movies that were determined by some frightened old woman named Mary Whitehouse to be too harsh for the gentle British sensibilities in the early 1980s. Some of these movies – which bypassed theatres and went […]

Day 315: So, So Nasty

originally published November 10, 2012 Back when VCR technology was a fresh-smelling infant, cooing lovingly and crawling its way into our living rooms to spit-up its offerings of pre-recorded fare onto our garishly large tube televisions, the laws around what could and could not be released on the medium had yet to be written. Needless […]

Day 312: Sennett Kops Komedy

originally published November 7, 2012 There once was a time when this was the pinnacle of cinematic comedy: That’s the delightful 30-second family romp known as Cats Boxing, directed by Thomas Edison back in 1894, exactly a hundred years before our culture decided that the height of comedy was captured in Dumb And Dumber and […]

Day 307: Of Lucas And Disney

originally published November 2, 2012 There are several ways one could react to this week’s news regarding the sale of the Star Wars franchise to Disney for $4.5 billion, stock options and free Splash Mountain ride photos for life for George Lucas and his family. Some devotees are hailing this as a miracle of child-dream […]

Day 303: It’s A Life! It’s A Life! The Karloff Story

originally published October 29, 2012 I have been asked by hundreds (or more accurately, two) people whether or not I plan on running a series of spooky-themed articles in the days leading up to Halloween. My response has ranged from “I haven’t decided yet” to “who are you, and why are you in my bathroom?” […]

Day 285: Mr. Special Effects

originally published October 11, 2012 Sure, James Cameron’s Avatar is a fine piece of computer graphics show-offery. And somehow, the decades-old Terminator 2 still looks sharp and impressive. What George Lucas did to ‘improve’ the original Star Wars trilogy is up for debate, and I’m sure someday the internet will get around to discussing it, […]

Day 274: Slumming On Cinema’s Poverty Row

originally published September 30, 2012 Making a low-budget movie with today’s technology is easy. Point your cell phone at your buddy on the garage roof while he wields a fake wooden sword and let the magic happen. This wasn’t always the case, which is why Hollywood once contained a structural hierarchy of low-fi pictures, from […]

Day 267: The Little Tough Dead End East Side Bowery Kids Boys Guys

originally published September 23, 2012 1935 was a good year for Sidney Kingsley, 29-year-old New York playwright. His first production, Men In White, dealt with the touchy issue of illegal abortion and had netted him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama the year before. His sophomore effort was also a hit, and launched an unexpected string […]

Day 262: Beyond The Valley Of Russ Meyer

originally published September 18, 2012 Okay, fellow film scholars, movie lovers and culture critics, here’s a question for you. You’ve got a filmmaker who specializes in “nudie” films, carving out the standards by which the sexploitation genre will be measured, and almost exclusively employing large-breasted attractive women to be his stars, all during the heyday […]