‘The Burglar’ (1957)
The movie that made me love Dan Duryea The independently produced noir masterpiece “The Burglar” could not have been made within the Hollywood studio system. […]
Classic Films
Women’s History Month
Based on a true story Movies based on the lives of real people aren’t documentaries, but they can get the conversation started. To mark Women’s […]
‘The Crimson Ghost’ (1946)
Coolest. Villain. Ever. Fans of the Misfits will take one look at “The Crimson Ghost” serial and say, “Hey, they ripped off the Misfits!” Actually, […]
‘M’ (1931)
Paranoia in pre-WWII Berlin The director of 1931’s “M,” Fritz Lang, and the film’s star, Peter Lorre, would flee Germany later in the decade, as […]
‘Vampyr’ (1932)
Dreyer’s shadowy world Yes, Carl Theodor Dreyer‘s “Vampyr” deserves respect as a pioneer in the vampire movie genre. But modern audiences are going to have […]
Home for the holidays, not
What? Another shelter-in-place holiday? Talk about “just like the ones I didn’t used to know.” So the theme for my 2020 season movie picks is, […]
Halloween movie picks
In 2020, the biggest horror is something you cannot see. (One guess what I’m talking about.) So my Halloween movie picks this year center on […]
My Lucy ‘Mame’ story
A childhood anecdote A friendly warning: The following childhood anecdote does not have a big payoff. When “Mame” starring Lucille Ball came out in 1974, […]
‘Svengali’ (1931)
Hamlet, schmamlet By 1931, all that boozing and fornicating were beginning to catch up with John Barrymore, but they had yet to vanquish him. Barrymore […]
Zita Johann (1904-1993)
Star burned brightly, but briefly Recently watching actress Zita Johann in “The Sin of Nora Moran” (1933) — just out on Blu-ray and DVD from […]
‘The Sin of Nora Moran’ (1933)
‘Mummy’ beauty Zita Johann’s daring followup ‘The Sin of Nora Moran’ The Film Detective $24.99 (Blu-ray) and $19.99 (DVD) 65 minutes with 20 minutes of […]
‘Rumpelstiltskin’ (1955)
One depressing kiddie flick When children’s films are also foreign films, it can get weird. Movies like the Mexican “Santa Claus” (1959) and “Little Red […]
Baseball movies
In The Summer of ’20, there will be baseball. Albeit, it’s a shortened season — July 23 to Sept. 27 — thanks to You Know […]
Taking flight (on film)
We still can’t hop a plane … but at least we can count on the movies to whisk us away. Following are six flicks that […]
‘Fist of Fear, Touch of Death’ (1980)
A campy Bruce Lee post-mortem ‘Fist of Fear, Touch of Death: 40th Anniversary Edition’ The Film Detective $24.99 (Blu-ray) and $19.99 (DVD) 90 minutes Rated […]
Easter movie picks
By Mark Voger, author “Groovy: When Flower Power Bloomed in Pop Culture” Easter represents rebirth. The birds and flowers are still doing their part, but […]
Sid Haig (1939-2019)
Remembering a gentle genre giant Let’s face it, 80 is up there. But it was still a shock to learn that we lost exploitation-film icon […]
Labor Day movie picks
Life never stops teaching us My idea for this year’s Labor Day movie picks is a sampling of films with senior citizens as protagonists. In […]
Peter Fonda (1940-2019)
Farewell to the guy on the chopper By Mark Voger, author “Groovy: When Flower Power Bloomed in Pop Culture” In 1970, when I was a […]