As directed by David Lean, Dr. Zhivago is a movie of sweeping scale and swirling historical events about the life of a Russian poet. Once it was all over though, I wondered why more time wasn’t devoted to Zhivago and less time devoted to shots of trees fluttering, frosted over windows, and really cold countryside. As the movie drew to a close, I felt like all I knew about Zhivago was that he loves to pump blondes, write poems, and isn’t really sold on this Russian Revolution thing. Heck, that could describe any of us! Continue reading “Doctor Zhivago (1965)”
Category: Classic
Deep Red (1975)
Deep Red echoes Daro Argento’s earlier (and not as good) The Bird With The Crystal Plumage with its tale of a foreigner in Rome witnessing and getting himself mixed up in a murder (and getting everyone around him killed along the way). Don’t let the fact that this feels like an instance of a director remaking his own movie deter you from checking it out because Argento is able to play up his strengths (kinetic camera work, sudden vicious violence, a sense of isolation) and jettison all the barnacles that slow his other pictures down (pointless red herrings, lazy plotting, all the self-referential crap that helped to sink Tenebre). Continue reading “Deep Red (1975)”
The Fly (1958)
The Fly opens up with Vincent Price’s brother under an industrial press, his head and arm pulped into unrecognizability. Price (François) sees this and kind of screws up his face in one those “eww, yucky!” expressions like his brother has cooties or something. Then he gets the call all of us fear: his sister confessing that she squashed her husband because he had become part man and part fly! Continue reading “The Fly (1958)”
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
Despite being a Disney cartoon, this film is definitely not for children! Based on The Wind and the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the movie is about a talking toad who is mentally deranged and a horny guy with big feet lusting after some young hottie while he’s supposed to be teaching the town’s schoolchildren!
As it unfolds, we find Toad’s buddies concerned about his poor money management, even going so far as to appoint Angus MacBadger to act as Toad’s trustee. Even as Angus is attempting to get Toad’s books in order, Toad is out and about wreaking havoc with his new ride, a canary yellow horse drawn cart, pulled by his newest best buddy – a horse named Cyril Proudbottom. Continue reading “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)”
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
Three women receive a letter from another broad who says that she left town and took one of their husbands with her as a memento. I was hoping that these three dames would be busting the head of every snitch in Gotham City trying to dig up some info on which man of theirs had taken a powder. I even thought there might be some kind of hair pulling slap fight between these chicks that would end with all of them crashing into a giant fountain in the middle of town.
Admittedly, two of them are almost bickering at one point during the film and one of the characters gets off a jewel of a line about how they were starting to act like they were in a movie about a women’s prison (we wish!), but what do these women do once they get the letter? They go off to a picnic for some children’s organization! Continue reading “A Letter to Three Wives (1949)”
Gaslight (1944)
Young Paula is hustled out of London after the death of her famous singer aunt. As is the case with most survivors of violent crime, Paula is eligible for an all expense paid trip to beautiful Italy! While there, you will try and follow in the melodic footsteps of your aunt, but be sidetracked by the smooth-talking Charles Boyer who is after a bunch of really sweet jewels that your dead aunt got from some shadowy royal figure. Or you can pass and bid on Showcase #2! Continue reading “Gaslight (1944)”
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963)
A three part mega-event of the Disneyland television show back in 1963, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (better known by its video title of Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow) introduced a generation of impressionable youths to the questionable activities and morals of a bootlegger and his highly organized criminal enterprise. Continue reading “Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963)”