Goddammit

Diving into Svankmajer-land
I'll never forget my first encounter with Svankmajer: watching a collection of his short films (Alchemist of the Surreal, I think) on a crummy little five-inch-screen TV in the dark, coffin-like confines of a public library projection room, with no real forewarning as to its contents.

Busting heads at Pinkerton
I'm not sure if it's ever been fully confirmed that Hammett took part in Pinkerton's strike-breaking practices himself. Regardless, they are, I think, usually believed to have driven him from the agency (and toward leftist politics) in the end. Hammett being offered $5,000 to kill union…

I've always had trouble not comparing Chandler unfavorably to Hammet. Chandler's flowery approach reminded me too much of a lot of contemporary authors who seem to try to make up for trite or nonexistent characterization and plots with thick layers of "clever" or "poetic" prose (student work I read in college being…

Order of enjoyment
Tasha, I completely agree with you that watching the film before reading the book is the right way to go with this one. That's how I experienced both and what I've recommended to everyone who I have recommended both to (which is just about everyone I know).

I think Lon Chaney Jr. pretty well proved himself to the world with Spider Baby. Or at the very least, with the Spider Baby theme song.

The Old Dark House is by no means essential, what with its plot seemingly made of nothing but red herrings and its slapdash ending. But it's a pretty enjoyable example of Whale's blackly comic camp, with Bride of Frankenstein's own Ernest Thesiger's humorous performance adding a lot to that. (Although "Saul"s little…

I've gotta throw another vote in for the Body Snatcher as the movie that best utilized Karloff's talents. As far as Val Lewton's oeuvre goes, it stands out just as much as Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie for me and that has everything to do with his performance.

Honarary Universals
I'd highly recommend Paramount's 1931 production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (with Frederic March in the title roles) to anyone who's burned through the big name Universals and is looking for more that doesn't involve the same monsters' progeny or convergences. Or even for fans of this kind of thing…

The Urusei Yatsura anime (both the TV series and movie) is kind of an interesting case. I think it does manage to be an exception to my "it is pointless to watch most animated adaptations of manga" rule, in that it actually brings some new and interesting elements to the table: mainly an obvious love of animation, be…

I remember picking up Dragon Half in the very earliest teenage days of my anime interest (basically just at the point where I was willing to shell out $30 for an hour-long tape but didn't know what the hell any of this stuff was beyond the blurbs on their mostly clam shell boxes). My Evangelion-obsessed cohort at the…

Manga Snob Starter-Kit 2
Drifting Classroom - Another one that's already been recommended. If the "wild and unexpected directions" I mentioned in 20th Century Boys piqued your interest, I have to say, little has anything on Drifting Clasroom in that department. Definitely not for everyone, but fans of horror, Lord of…

Manga Snob Starter-Kit
Based on the AV Club staffers' areas of expertise, I'm guessing that we won't be seeing one of these Gateways to Geekery posts about manga specifically anytime soon. So in line with my previous post's snotty implication that manga is somehow "better" than anime, I thought I'd make a few…