This month, The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ is offering “Stars Behind Bars” as the focus of their “Spotlight” series (it concludes tonight, coincidentally). It's allowed Tee Cee Em to run some excellent slammah flicks, one of which was Convicts 4 (1962)—a fictionalized presentation of the prison life of real-life ex-con John Resko. Resko, a Death… Continue reading From the DVR: Convicts 4 (1962)
Month: January 2017
On the Grapevine: Paths to Paradise (1925)
In The Silent Clowns, his seminal tome on those wonderful practitioners of silver screen mirth, Walter Kerr had this to say about Raymond Griffith: “Griffith seems to me to occupy a handsome fifth place—after Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Langdon—in the silent comedy pantheon, a place that is his by right of his refusal to ape his… Continue reading On the Grapevine: Paths to Paradise (1925)
From the DVR: The Long Walk Home (1990)
On March 25, 1991, Caryn Elaine Johnson—better known to fans (and non-fans) as Whoopi Goldberg—received tribute from her acting industry peers when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a charlatan psychic (who learns to her dismay she really is psychic) in the 1990 romantic tearjerker Ghost. If you’ve done well playing a comedic… Continue reading From the DVR: The Long Walk Home (1990)
From the DVR: Forty Little Mothers (1940)
In Jordan R. Young’s wonderful book The Laugh Crafters, veteran comedy writer Bob Weiskopf recalls that he joined the staff of Eddie Cantor’s radio program shortly after a movie that Cantor did for MGM, Forty Little Mothers (1940), was released to box office ennui. In much the same manner that Jack Benny’s scribes later ridiculed his film The Horn Blows… Continue reading From the DVR: Forty Little Mothers (1940)
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear 