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On Svengoolie tomorrow, July 24, 2021: In terms of plot, performances, design, and sheer creepiness, Edgar Ulmer's 1934 pre-code masterpiece The Black Cat is one of the great films. " Did you hear that, Vitus? The phone is dead. Even the phone is dead." The Lugosi/Karloff chess game likely inspired Ingmar Bergman's similar scene in The Seventh Seal. Karloff's character, architect Hjalmar Poelzig, is named for Hans Poelzig, a German architect, but is said to be based partly on Aleister Crowley. There's even a little humour, particularly in this scene between Henry Armetta and Albert Conti.

El Dorado (1966) I recall back in 1967 debating as to which John Wayne western I would go to the show to see, El Dorado or The War Wagon. I went to the latter because it co-starred Kirk Douglas. Last evening I watched El Dorado again, Wayne's second last film to be directed by Howard Hawks. In many respects it is a partial re-hash of Rio Bravo, and it plays, in its familiar ways, like old comfort food, I'm sure, for Wayne fans. This time the Duke is a gunslinger who decides to help sheriff-turned-drunk Robert Mitchum when he learns some hired guns will be headed to Mitchum's town after being hired by a local cattleman seeking to expand his empire. Truth is, re-hash or not, it's still quite entertaining, even if none of the action scenes are staged by Hawks with the same kind of panache he had brought to past productions. Wayne is Wayne, romancing a beautiful and spirited Charlene Holt, 31 years his junior. James Caan is fun as a dude cowboy named "Mississippi" who throws a mean knife but doesn't know anything about guns so is given a shotgun that can bring down anything that gets in front of it. Ed Asner plays the under written role of the local cattleman in a performance that fails to make an impression a few years before he did make a great impression with a wonderfully written part as Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. A scarface Christopher George, on the other hand, does make a smooth impression as a professional gunman who regards Wayne with respect (and wants to see, of course, how things will come out between them in a gunfight). But best of all is Mitchum, particularly in any of his scenes as a rummy sheriff laughed at by the town. A few of Mitchum's drunk scenes are played for laughs, such as when Duke konks him over the head with a bucket and Bob stands cross eyed for a moment before collapsing. Other moments are played more realistically such as when he doubles over from withdrawal pains (or threatens to) when it's getting down to the action. This is the only film in which Wayne and Mitchum were co-starred (excluding the all star Longest Day, in which I can't recall if they shared any scenes) and they have great chemistry. I wish they could have worked together more often. Even in this film, made in the latter stages of their careers, particularly Wayne's, their scenes together really work. In retrospect while I didn't make a bad decision when I picked The War Wagon over this one at the show El Dorado holds up well, maybe even a bit better. Either way Wayne fans (as well as those of Mitchum and Douglas) will probably be satisfied. 3 out of 4

How about Inherit the Wind (1960). An entertaining adaptation of the Scopes Trial. The Crucible (1996). Witch hunts and McCarthyism.

The Doors (1991) -- Jim Morrison and The Doors Beyond the Sea (2004) -- Bobby Darin Jimi Hendrix (1973) -- good doc about Hendrix Amadeus (1984) -- Mozart, "popular music icon" of the late eighteenth century

It just occurred to me that one of my favorite genres is scholastic "Educational" short films. I have several series of Driver's Educational (drunk driving/railroad crossings) Atomic Bomb scares, Sex Education and my favorite...dangers of Drug use. These are 15 minute windows into different time periods and social expectations, often well produced & creative, sometimes absurd! There are many behavioral subjects covered too like dating, marriage, good posture, speaking well, neatness/cleanliness, nutritious diet, etc. I love these films because it illustrates common fears & aspirations of my parents' world. The "educational" part is the contrast of our culture, our world today. A great source is AVGeeks.com And Periscope YT Channel. A recent appropriate one for this group:

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (2020) Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) Annie Hall (1977) Paul Simon Carnal Knowledge (1971) Art Garfunkel Funny Girl (1968) Barbara Streisand

I've never heard of anyone thinking Bela Lugosi as "swoonworthy". Not in a GOOD way at least. Sepiatone

uh huh. Bet you'd like to see what's underneath that robe . . . . . . . it's ANOTHER SET OF EARS!!

Re: "All those people are dead now" Old age is a leading cause of death. Want to blame someone...

Sammy Davis Jr. in Oceans 11, Sweet Charity (he was so talented) The Band in The Last Waltz Sweet Dreams (Jessica Lange plays Patsy Cline) Tina Turner was in one of The Mad Max movies

Aretha Franklin, from The Blues Brothers Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones from Gimme Shelter Bob Dylan from Don't Look Back Stevie Wonder in Muscle Beach Party

The Glenn Miller Story (1954) Rock Around the Clock (1956) - Bill Haley Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) - Loretta Lynn La Bamba (1987) - Ritchie Valens What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) - Tina Turner

I watched The War Wagon again last year and found it quite entertaining, primarily because of Kirk Douglas's enjoyably flashy performance. Speaking of flashing, if I recall correctly, there was a moment at the show in which Kirk showed off his butt (the joke was that he had his holster strapped on even when he had no pants) but I believe that cheeky moment on Kirk's part has since been excised, even from the DVD of the film. You pick True Grit and The Cowboys as your two favourite Wayne westerns, do you, Moe? True Grit was another one I saw at the show when it came out but I can't call it a favourite of mine. I regard The Searchers as Wayne's greatest western, with Red River, Hondo and Rio Bravo all deserving honourable mention. I guess I should sit down to watch Stagecoach again some time, as it's been quite a while since I last viewed it.

And in keeping with the earlier mentioned western genre... Considering this ongoing and lengthy major drought presently taking place across the American West, might I suggest you have the kid watch The Big Country, as this film is basically about water rights and how water in the western states is so often viewed as preciously as gold is and historically has been the cause of conflicts since the time the west was first being settled by those of European descent. (...Jerome Moross' stirring score for this film will probably help him get right into this one too...does ME every time, anyway)

Well this certainly is perfect timing....I just watched THE DIVORCE OF LADY X '38, a 3 strip Technicolor screwball comedy starring Laurence Olivier & Merle Oberon. I had seen this as a teen spurring a lifelong love of Merle Oberon who I thought was the most adorable actress ever. I had zero recollection of the male lead & was pleasantly surprised to see it was Olivier in the opening credits. It's the story of a madcap girl who is forced to stay overnight in town because of impassible fog. She's not the only one scrambling for a room, Olivier's charactor snags the last one in town-a big suite. She sneaks in his room just to get a safe night's sleep and being the gentleman, he gives her the bed & sleeps on the floor. The next morning there is of course, misunderstanding about "propriety" and people get confused over what did or did not happen, making the comedy screwball. But obviously all ends well. I cannot imagine what about this movie intrigued me so much, because this viewing, it fell pretty flat in several ways. I was kind of disappointed in Oberon's charactor, she was incredibly manipulative & smug in her treatment of men. How could you? It made Larry's charactor look like a dolt, which I did not like. Although his charactor remained honest & kind throughout. For the most part, he was the straight man. This was a British film, directed by A Korda. It was sumptuous looking, but there were a few lags in the editing. But the real distraction was the overly kooky music: a lot of wah-wah-wah of the trumpet a la WB Looney Tunes. Larry was gorgeous and all the supporting cast great. I was amazed how "Asian" Oberon appeared, I know she was British/East Asian and her make up accentuated her eyes even moreso. Were Americans that prejudice in the 30's to hold Anna Mae Wong back, while British audiences accepted those of Asian decent better? Could this be a reason Merle Oberon didn't have a bigger career in Hollywood? I've always found her fascinating and always thought Audrey Hepburn modeled herself after her. (the absolutely most symmetrical fave I've ever seen)

Unsurprisingly, I just noticed that the starting time on the TCM online schedule is wrong: Cutter's Way begins at midnight, not at 11:45. I learned this only by checking on my TV's viewer's guide. I kind of suspected something was fishy about that 11:45 time, given that the 10:00 movie, Night Moves, runs for 109 minutes, and that alone would make it end at 11:49, even without the introduction and wrapup commentary. This is a big deal for those of us who are setting our DVD recorders or DVRs and want to record the movies on separate tracks.

Apparently free on Youtube. Went looking for a trailer to refresh my memory 20 minutes in, and a short nap later, I realized it was the movie.

Richard Jeni but his exact quote was...It is a sad fact that 50 percent of marriages in this country end in divorce. But hey, the other half end in death. You could be one of the lucky ones

Michael Jackson — THIS IS IT, CAPTAIN EO, and he is in THE WIZ as well

I'd go to that footbridge any time with Bela!

"It's Capulets like you who make blood in the marketplace, Yee-Gods!

Again I say -- you watch your phraseology!!! Ya wild kid, ya!!! LOL

SPOILER ALERT! I found this description of The Black Cat online. I think it's pretty apt. Necro_philia, Satanism, drugs, a chess game of doom, torture, a black mass with a human sacrifice, and a man being skinned the f*ck alive. 1934’s pre-code The Black Cat is like a giant terror scenario onion that gets peeled back... sending us into a nightmare carnival of shadows with two mortal enemies locked in a game of death... and it’s marvelous. Boris Karloff plays a satanic architect cult leader who lives in a insane Art Deco death mansion built over a mass grave, keeping dead bodies frozen in glass coffins for “observation”. He also keeps the daughter of his mortal enemy locked in his bedroom because that’s apparently what evil sickos did on 1934. Bela Lugosi plays a PTSD non villainous (debatable) crazy person who has an insane fear of black cats (judging by how he throws a knife at one, and almost falls through a window after seeing another one) who finally escapes POW prison (after 15 years, jfc) to exact revenge on the person who put him there (Karloff) decades earlier, and reclaim his wife and child. Both of these men are f*cking mad and so many things about this movie are totally nutso given its year of release, from Karloff stocking his death mansion with black cats because he knows one day his enemy will return, to his treason which caused the death of thousands including the false imprisonment of Lugosi. Once these two titans showdown in the unforgettable razor finale of shadow, it pretty much seals the deal for this easily being one of my favorite Universal Horror pictures, and one of, if not the best Horror film of the 30’s. Originally titled House of Doom. I can see why. 1934 was a hell of a year. Horrifying then AND now, no matter how old you are.

David Manners....sigh! So handsome! I've seen this one since childhood. Bela is particularly swoonworthy here, most especially in a robe!

Moving to a different genre: Thank God It's Friday (1978) - 👎 Much as I hate to condescend a film by calling it a "time capsule" of when it was made, I've been on a craze lately for digging up the 70's movies I either couldn't or wouldn't have seen in paying theaters, just to see what I missed at the age when sixth grade and school-night bedtimes were the center of my universe. One particular problem is that there were not that many Disco Musicals as we commonly assume (there was the gritty Brooklyn-drama one, and Grease and Xanadu don't count), so I would estimate this was one of the only other wide-release movies to try and take on the craze in a true time-capsule sense...For good or bad. Like most trend-movies, it tries to sell the trend to the suburban mainstream, with an interconnected Love Boat-style sitcom story of five sets of newbies taking their first "trendy" night at the local discotheque: A pair of high-school girls sneaking in to win a dance contest, a Mary & Rhoda pair of singles trying not to look for Mr. Wrong, a suburban married couple trying something "new" on the way out of their anniversary dinner, and Donna Summer, in her first (and last) movie role as a kid looking for her big show-biz break, before saving the evening with her Oscar-winning disco hit. This would all be cute if it had more professional actors (like a very early Jeff Goldblum as the disco's oily owner), but as it is, it tries WAY too hard to pitch itself at a borscht-belt sitcom level for us suburban folk, and a little of it goes on way too long. The bright spot of the entire movie goes to Chick Vennera, who steals the third act as a wacky-Latin-stereotype king of the dance floor, who shows more energy in the parking lot than anything going on inside: One of my favorite jokes in Saturday Night Fever is the scene where Tony stops at the dance studio, where the owner makes more money teaching classes of the "hottest new steps" to dopey suburban people. But for those looking for a "70's time capsule", it's surprising how negative the movie's humor takes for granted most people's ideas of discos for the time--Everyone wanted in on the trend, but seemed to have no illusions that an actual disco was where you went to hit and be hit on, by greasy single guys in gold chains and drugged-out party girls in tinsel wigs. (There's a funny line where the Mary & Rhoda girls give their list of Mr. Wrong warning signs--"No polyester, no pickup lines, no Zodiac symbols.") Everyone knew NY's legendary Studio 54 was a pink snowball, and yet the police raids still took the nation by surprise, before it all came crashing down. Today, like then, it's just best looked at from a wishful distance--We get the impression it wasn't the music that killed disco, it was the discos that killed disco.

Neo Noir line up is good. I like Blood Simple, and Night Moves. Cutter's Way is good for 4/5 of it's length then goes off the rails at it's denouement.

A valid concern, SansFin, especially in this day and age but please believe me, as a cautious and vigilant person like yourself, that I have used this site for many, many years and can say without reservation that there is nothing to worry about in this regard.

Too late now! Glad I didnt put my real first name in there.

Are we talking THE BITTER STEMS here? (If so, I gotta see this movie!!!!)

Innocent! The man was a heartless, self centered, drunken, road hazard ! How many loaded school buses were run over a cliff by him driving back and forth to berate poor hard working Chinese launderers! And are we sure he wasn't the one who caused his sister's paralysis? Clearly he wants to get up to Northern Canada so he can wheel her outside some subzero evening in order to screw her out of her half of the house. And don't get me started on his diabolical cat electrocution trap. It explains what kind of meat was in those burgers. Innocent schminnocent.

A friend of mine attended a horror film convention years ago (can't remember where exactly, Ohio?) that was attended by Gloria Stuart who signied photos of herself. I was pleasantly surprised when he returned from that trip to hand me a signed pix of Miss Stuart, personalized by the lady to me. It was a photo of her being grabbed by Karloff in The Old Dark House. This isn't the same pix but the photo was similar in nature to it The days of being able to attend a convention with film participants from the 30s, 40s or even 50s is over now, I'm sorry to say. Today, if you're lucky, maybe one of the offspring of a star or two will appear. Mind you, in covid 19 times, I guess there aren't any paper show conventions at all.

I did because I'm Hungarian (like Korda) loved it. Ah, you're absolutely correct! I had totally forgotten about establishing Olivier as a woman-hater in the early courtroom scene! Bearing that in mind, everything makes much more sense.

Neff, Walter - played by Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity

Saturday, July 24 noon. The Petrified Forest (1936). I dig Duke’s haircut in this one.

The Shining (1980) Period of Adjustment (1962) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) The Burning Bed (1984)

MAN OF TWO WORLDS

QUEEN KELLY

A DOLL’S HOUSE LIFE WITH FATHER TENET

Thank you, LonesomePolecat, for hosting a rousing challenge!

Yikes! Your birthday and home town are two of the most important pieces of information needed for identity theft.

Another Merm double feature-- We're Not Dressing & Anything Goes (1936)

Yep, those little mid-engine Renault pocket-rockets have become very desirable in the collector car market of late alright, Moe. I think they're at about $100K presently, if of course they're in excellent condition. (...and yes, every Suzuki Gamma I've ever run across here in The States have been spirited across the Canadian border somehow...there's a couple of guys who ride into the Hansen Dam British Meet in SoCal on 'em every year...crazy fast bikes, like ya said...don't know how they get 'em registered, though)

There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) Next: Call Me Madam (1953) two with Ethel Merman

We knew something was wrong with Alfredo from the beginning — living with his mother and suffering nightmares whenever he slept, his coworkers trying to bring him back to “reality,” the relationship with his girlfriend. All of that intro could have been done better but I viewed him as off his nut from the get go. The actor was so good that he was believable as a normal person, hiding everything. The gay angle is right there, and you wonder if Luidas doesn’t exploit it. The whole scheme is his, and the past he tells, he’s a natural manipulator. He’s not exactly innocent. In the beginning. Only later do we learn different. That’s one of things I find interesting about this film — you see things in hindsight.

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) Monsieur Verdoux (1947) Nuts in May (1976) The Color Purple (1985)

"Black Sunday" (1960) Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava in his official directorial debut, and starring Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici and Enrico Oliveri. Loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's short story "Viy", the film takes place in Moldaviaand tells the story of a witch who is put to death by her brother, only to return two centuries later to seek revenge upon his descendants This scared the **** out of me when I was 7!! "Black Sunday" (1977) Conspiracy to detonate the Goodyear blimp turned into a flying bomb over the Super Bowl.

Living close to the border has a few advantages, circumventing the DOT regs on grey market imports is one. Of course I'm not suggesting our Figaro drivers employed such illicit means, but a few high performance cars and bikes have snuck in. You might remember those old GSXR precursors the 2-stroke RG500 ? The bikes were insane, lift the front tire at 100 mph by just rolling on the throttle, 4 time GP winner! I've only seen a few and they were all just driven across the border. Another example, the R5 Turbo 2. It was featured in a Pink Panther movie -I think, Son of- and the red head stepchild of Bond films Never Say Never Again. Some of these came in the same way.

Night People (1951) Show People (1928)

7) He received an Emmy nomination for an episode of The Streets Of San Francisco called "Police Buff". He played a vigilante who dresses in a police uniform and kills suspects who were released for legal technicalities or lack of evidence.