Martin Kenyon is the sort of person who makes the rest of the world think that everyone in the United Kingdom and Ireland is an extra in some huge, ongoing production of Waking Ned Devine. No-nonsense, stoic, practical, pragmatic, and a darkly quirky sense of humour? Check.

The movie is set sometime after The Wizard of Oz debuted in August 1939 (the characters in the department store while Ralphie is waiting to see Santa are clearly modeled after the film characters, not the books), but probably before America entered WW II in December 1941: there’s no mention of the war, and no soldiers…

The 1945 Ealing film Dead of Night features an absolutely terrifying ‘ventriloquist’s dummy’ tale as the fifth of the five ghost stories that make up the movie (six, if you include the wraparound story). Michael Redgrave stars as a ventriloquist whose dummy, Hugo, seems to be taking on a life of his own, and turns in…

What, no mention of the fact that the announcement was made on the 57th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Doctor Who (‘An Unearthly Child’ on Nov. 23, 1963, for those not good with math)?

After his death in 1988, British comedian and actor Kenneth Williams’ diaries - all 43 volumes - were edited into one volume covering the entire period of writing (40+ years), and even though it’s obviously just a fraction of what he wrote, it’s still extremely well-edited and a fascinating read.

Yes, that line reading of ‘Flat rate’ kills me every time. It’s perfect, and as you note, conveys so much in just two words.

The Sting is one of those films where absolutely everything - from casting and screenplay down to score, costumes, and set design - comes together perfectly. While Newman and Redford are undoubtedly the stars, everyone is at the top of their game, and it’s almost impossible to imagine any of the roles played by…

Yes, that film went through a few different (on paper) casting iterations until landing on Connery and Caine as Daniel and Peachy, who are perfection (as are Christopher Plummer as a spot-on Rudyard Kipling and Saeed Jaffrey as Billy Fish: ‘Gurkha foot soldier, not cavalry! Rifleman Majendra Bahadur Gurung wishing you…

Oh, Wheatley wrote ripping yarns, that’s for sure. And now that you mention it, if the results go the Orange Cheeto’s way next week then the climate might be just right for some more adaptations of his works.

I think you mean the non-Dracula film The Devil Rides Out, which was a 1968 Hammer production that did indeed start Lee as the good guy (and Charles Gray as the baddie), and features the only horror film appearance by Prime Minister Jim Hacker himself, Paul Eddington. It’s based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley, most of…

Her, um, other assets are referenced in a nice exchange between two of the sailors on the Sea Grass, when one of them says he’d like to meet her, and another says he saw her once at the supermarket. ‘Yeah?’ prompts the first guy. ‘You would like to meet her,’ is the response.

I love this movie even more than Halloween, and I love Halloween. The Fog is a more classical ghost story in structure and execution, which was deliberate on Carpenter’s part; he was apparently forced to add some of the more gory shots at the insistence of the studio, which was looking at the excesses of some of the…

Interestingly, that’s why people here in British Columbia are going to the polls in a provincial election on Oct. 24, instead of next October, which is when BY LAW the next provincial election was supposed to happen. The governing New Democratic Party has, for the last three+ years, been able to govern because they…

‘Theatre of Blood’ is sheer brilliance, and Price shows he can ham it up with the best of them when necessary. The only vaguely nice thing the inspector can think of to say about Lionheart is ‘He was a very [pause] vigorous actor.’

Lansbury, when she started out and for a couple of decades after, always looked a lot older than she was, and then at some point in the 1970s she grew into her age so her years lived/appearance aligned. After that she started doing a Dorian Gray, and began looking a lot younger than she was.

Yes, it was Casa Loma, which is an amazing place. I first went there when I was 10 to visit my paternal grandparents, who lived in Etobicoke, and as a kid who loved adventure and mystery and ghost stories, Casa Loma was awesome. It even has a secret staircase!

It was headline news out here in British Columbia as well, so it’s a pretty well-known story in Canada, especially since there’s usually a reference to it whenever there is a First Nations blockade of their territory.

Plus he has two sons who look like they’re, what - two and five, or thereabouts, and he’s been working from home since March? That’s bound to add a few years to how you look.

I hope, among all the justified praise for Rigg in The Avengers and Game of Thrones, there will be some love for her turn as Vincent Price’s (too) devoted daughter in the marvelous 1973 horror film Theatre of Blood. It’s the blackest of black comedies, and Price and Rigg are clearly having a blast going OTT where…

Rigg was a bit surprised to be tapped as a Bond Girl, given that by 1969 there was a certain ‘image’ to Bond Girls that she felt she didn’t fit: ‘At the end of all that pulchritude, there’s me, and I’m not exactly all tits and teeth.’