“Oh, why did I ever begin this dark deception?”

In March of this year, I made the mistake of opening an e-mail I received from Milestone Films.  (Okay, there was no gun placed to my temple...but you'd think I'd learn by now.)  They were advertising a sale on DVDs in their inventory featuring female filmmakers (to celebrate Women's History Month) and one of the…

“I’m innocent, I tell ya—innocent!”

In the 1935 comedy short The Biffle Murder Case, deliverymen Benny Biffle (Nick Santa Maria) and Sam Shooster (Will Ryan) arrive at a stately mansion with a large crate: ROOSEVELT (a butler): Yes, gentlemen—may I help you? BIFFLE: We got a delivery… ROOSEVELT: Indeed…and whom might you be? SHOOSTER: Whom might we be?  (Pointing to…

Dream along with me

Pierino Ronald Como was a show business fixture for over a half a century, beginning his career as a vocalist in the big band era (with Ted Weems' Orchestra) before striking out on his own as a solo artist.  You know him better as Perry Como, of course; in 1945, Como scored his first #1…

Grey Market Cinema: Non-Stop New York (1937)

On New Year's Eve in the Big Apple, down-and-out chorus girl Jennie Carr (Anna Lee) depends on the kindness of a stranger: mob lawyer Billy Cooper (James Pirrie), who takes the hungry woman in for some sustenance on the eve of his departure for England.  In Cooper's apartment, Jennie stumbles across a transient named Henry…

And away we go!

February 8, 1969 – Jackie Gleason plays host to another corpulent Jack (though he’s lost a bit of weight), famed insult comic Jack E. Leonard: LEONARD: Ladies and gentlemen…you’ve all heard of Frank Sinatra, The Voice…you’ve seen Jimmy Durante, The Nose… (indicating Gleason) You are now looking at The Lump… (Gleason breaks out in laughter)…

All the Starz

DISH gave us a freeview of Starz last week...and normally, this isn't a huge deal because we're still subscribed to the Starz Encore channels (the discount is supposed to end Tuesday...but I have decided to maintain radio silence only until Mom asks me why the satellite bill has suddenly gone up).  A good many of…

Adventures in Blu-ray: The Killer is Loose (1956)

It's just an ordinary working day for teller Leon "Foggy" Poole (Wendell Corey), as he conducts the usual business transactions for customers at the savings and loan where he's employed, chatting with each as they approach his window. Poole's fellow employee has noticed suspicious activity taking place toward the rear of the S&L, however; it…

“Goodbyee…”

Kaleidoscope is a Birmingham, England-based company dedicated to the restoration of British TV programs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s that are "missing believed wiped" (networks like the BBC and ITV often recorded over videotaped telecasts as an economy measure before the advent of home video).  They're responsible for bringing back to life installments of…

From the DVR: The Memory of Justice (1973)

After directing such divertissements as Banana Peel (1964), Marcel Ophuls—the son of famed filmmaker Max (La Ronde, Lola Montès)—embarked on an ambitious documentary about the collaboration during WW2 between France’s Vichy government and Nazi Germany: The Sorrow and the Pity (1969).  Sorrow has turned up on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ within the…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God… Be Back by Five (1998)

From their first childhood encounter, Daniel (Jon Cryer) and Stan (Rick Stear) have enjoyed an inseparable friendship.  While attending school, Stan—whose left leg is shorter than his right, and who will acquire a lifelong limp after a surgical procedure goes awry—would institute a day of hooky by communicating to his pal "We're on a mission…