Grey Market Cinema: Seven Footprints to Satan (1929)

Wealthy young man-about-town James Kirkham (Creighton Hale) may not have the hypnotic power to cloud men’s minds so that they cannot see him…but he’s loaded with dough all the same, and he’s yearning to go to Africa for some “adventure.”  His Uncle Joe (DeWitt Jennings) isn’t particularly sold on the jaunt to the Dark Continent, while…

Where’s That Been? – The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)

The following review is one of several that I composed for the ClassicFlix site under the column title “Where’s That Been?”  Most of those columns made the transition to CF’s new site but some of them stayed behind for reason or another...and since my writer’s ego is just big enough to where I don’t like having what…

Grey Market Cinema: The Undead (1957)

In my formative movie nut years, one of the activities that I looked forward to the most was when the ‘rents did a little stepping out at Saturday night dances at the country club (yes, we belonged to a country club—believe me, it wasn’t as hoity-toity as it sounds since there wasn’t anything else going…

On the Grapevine: Lane closure

Okay, apologies for the lame title of this post.  I couldn’t come up with anything nearly as clever as some of the two-reelers that comprise Lupino Lane Comedy Shorts, a Grapevine Video release that came out last month.  I got wind of this DVD a while back at the Silent Comedy Mafia website, where capo di tutti capi Richard M. Roberts mentioned that…

Guilty Pleasures: Ghost Catchers (1944)

In a review of Murder in the Blue Room (1944) that I wrote for the blog a while back, I slipped in a casual mention of how Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas, and John Brunas—authors of the amazing reference tome Universal Horrors—were not particularly enamored of the Ole Olsen-Chic Johnson comedy Ghost Catchers (1944).  Here’s what they have to say: It’s hard…

Grey Market Cinema: Dante’s Inferno (1924)

It’s one of the greatest works in the history of world literature: the epic poem penned by the Italian bard Dante Alighieri that offers up visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven—The Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia).  Made up of three sections—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—Comedy follows the poet as he journeys through the afterlife…guided by the poet Virgil through Hell and Purgatory before…

Grey Market Cinema: Honeymoon Lodge (1943)

Bob and Carol Sterling (David Bruce, June Vincent) have bought a one-way ticket to Splitsville.  The two of them are getting a divorce, mostly due to those petty annoyances that are known to drive wedges into movie marriages; he has a chain-smoking habit, she munches on crackers…in bed.  But of course, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling are still…

Thoroughly MODern Alley: Tol’able David (1921)

Greenstream, a small hamlet located in the mountains of Virginia, is home to the Kinemon family.  There’s Pa (Hunter, played by Edmund Gurney) and Ma (Marion Abbott), of course, and oldest brother Allen (Warner Richmond), who’s married to the expectant Rose (Patterson Dial).  But until that baby makes his appearance in the world, the youngest of the…

Buried Treasures: Boxing Comedy Twin Bill – The Milky Way (1936) and Kid Dynamite (1943)

On September 22 of this year, longtime New York Post movie critic Lou Lumenick announced on Twitter that he was packing it in after 27 years—he’s been in the newspaper bidness for 48.  Thrilling Days of Yesteryear wishes him all the best; he’s a right guy with a great sense of humor (I had a little fun at his expense one time…