I was surprised by how gripping 49TH PARALLEL was when I saw it on TCM, and how individualized and not caricatured the Nazis were.  CURSE OF THE DEMON's great Niall MacGinnis (also a memorable Zeus in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS) was particularly impressive as the one who has a change of heart at the commune.I need to see…

I don't know if I have a favorite Archers; it's a toss-up between  BLACK NARCISSUS, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, and A CANTERBURY TALE.  My favorite black and white moment in their filmography is in IKWIG, when Katrina comes striding in like Diana over the moor, shotgun on shoulder and hare in…

Apparently Mama is played by that inhumanly skinny guy who was the final zombie in [REC].  When I saw that film, due to the night vision effects, I thought he was CGI, but apparently he's really built like that.  Can't recall his name, but he's been referred to as the Spanish Doug Jones.

Just on YouTube. Yowza, that backbend she does.  I need to get that film on DVD.

"Remember my Forgotten Man" in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933.   The entire movie's been backstage romance and glittery, sexy art deco production numbers, and then, with no preamble, in ends in THIS.  Jesus.

I suspect the preposterousness of The Girl Hunt Ballet taking place on a stage was deliberate, as is the way it's impossible to imagine the (mostly vintage) songs being part of any coherent musical.   At any rate, it doesn't matter when she comes at him in sections and the film achieves the sublime.

THE BAND WAGON is my favorite musical.  Partially for Charisse, who was never sexier, and for the amazing Spillane inspired (but also a dig at Gene Kelly) Girl Hunt Ballet, my favorite number from any musical.  But the whole film has this air of melancholy and loneliness and mortality below the surface that I respond…

I hope that wasn't meant ironically. Christopher Lee's performance in THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE, and particularly the song "Name Your Poison," deserve to be better known.  Years later, he released an album, CHRISTOPHER LEE SINGS DEVIL ROGUES AND WITCHES, FROM BROADWAY TO BAYREUTH.  His voice wasn't as strong as…

As others have pointed out, Holmes was a student of Bartitsu, the Victorian martial art that combined jiu-jitsu, savate, boxing, stick/cane fighting and, its founder claimed, "Chinese boxing" (kung fu, although it's doubtful Barton-Wright ever did anything more than observe it, as the Chinese were not as open to…

As others have pointed out, Holmes was a student of Bartitsu, the Victorian martial art that combined jiu-jitsu, savate, boxing, stick/cane fighting and, its founder claimed, "Chinese boxing" (kung fu, although it's doubtful Barton-Wright ever did anything more than observe it, as the Chinese were not as open to…

I love Peter Chan's  pre-Handover comedy-dramas for Hong Kong's United Filmmakers Organization, particularly HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN (much better than its title) with the adorable Anita Yuen and Leslie Cheung, not to mention its sequel WHO'S THE WOMAN, SHE'S THE MAN, in which Yuen and Cheung are joined by the…

I love Peter Chan's  pre-Handover comedy-dramas for Hong Kong's United Filmmakers Organization, particularly HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN (much better than its title) with the adorable Anita Yuen and Leslie Cheung, not to mention its sequel WHO'S THE WOMAN, SHE'S THE MAN, in which Yuen and Cheung are joined by the…

If it's like the novel, at first the tiger is too seasick and traumatized, plus it has a couple of other animals to eat.  Pi constructs a raft connected to the lifeboat that puts him out of the tiger's range, and rigs a system that allows him to manipulate the  lifeboat's sea-anchor from the raft.  With this,he can…

If it's like the novel, at first the tiger is too seasick and traumatized, plus it has a couple of other animals to eat.  Pi constructs a raft connected to the lifeboat that puts him out of the tiger's range, and rigs a system that allows him to manipulate the  lifeboat's sea-anchor from the raft.  With this,he can…

I like DOCTOR NO now rather better than I did as a kid.  I'd read the novel (my introduction to the character) at age 11 and loved it.  It was so deliriously over-the-top, with its Fu Manchu style villain, yet somehow serious, too, and with a hero who was a major badass and more interesting than the bland whitebread…

I like DOCTOR NO now rather better than I did as a kid.  I'd read the novel (my introduction to the character) at age 11 and loved it.  It was so deliriously over-the-top, with its Fu Manchu style villain, yet somehow serious, too, and with a hero who was a major badass and more interesting than the bland whitebread…

Pike plays Pussy Galore (as an American from the South, as in the novel) in the recent BBC radio adaptation of GOLDFINGER with Toby Stephens as Bond and Ian McKellan as Goldfinger.

Pike plays Pussy Galore (as an American from the South, as in the novel) in the recent BBC radio adaptation of GOLDFINGER with Toby Stephens as Bond and Ian McKellan as Goldfinger.

One reason why the early Connery fights have aged so well (as have Lazenby's) is that make very little use of karate.  In 60s American films, that martial art was rarely convincing, mainly because of the same misconception that restricted "martial arts tournaments" to point-sparring and shadow boxing (that's right,…

One reason why the early Connery fights have aged so well (as have Lazenby's) is that make very little use of karate.  In 60s American films, that martial art was rarely convincing, mainly because of the same misconception that restricted "martial arts tournaments" to point-sparring and shadow boxing (that's right,…