The plot against Harry

The following passage kicks off the chapter on comic legend Harry Langdon in Smileage Guaranteed: Past Humor, Present Laughter, the invaluable reference tome written by film historian/friend of the blog Richard M. Roberts: All right...that’s it—hey, you!  Yes, you—come here!  It’s time for a heart-to-heart, mano a mano.  Now I know there’s a lot of…

From the DVR: Nothing But a Man (1964)

Thanks to The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™, I was able to DVR a feature film that’s been on my “must-see” list for many years now. The groundbreaking independent feature Nothing But a Man (1964) was selected to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1993 (the same year it was restored and…

From the DVR: The Underworld Story (1950)

This past Saturday evening (January 25) saw the premiere of Try and Get Me! (1950; a.k.a. The Sound of Fury) on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ as an offering on their Noir Alley showcase, hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Mueller.  TCM ran Get Me at midnight as part of a…

“Ah…the vastness of it all…”

One of my Facebook chums and I were having a chinwag about the latest DVD release from our friends at Kit Parker Films/The Sprocket Vault: Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies Volume Two 1932-33.  This two-disc collection, which “hit the streets” in mid-July this year (July 16), makes available the 15 two-reel comedies that funnyman…

Adventures in Blu-ray: The Big Clock (1948)

How did it come to this?  Within 36 hours, George Stroud (Ray Milland), editor of the popular Crimeways magazine, finds himself trapped in the tower of an enormous clock located in a prominent part of the Janoth Publications building.  In flashback, Stroud explains how a disagreement with his autocratic boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), was the catalyst for the series of events…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Noir Archive Volume 1: 1944-1954

In Jacobellis vs. Ohio (1964), a U.S. Supreme Court case addressing the First Amendment (an Ohio movie theatre banned the 1958 Louis Malle film Les Amants because they believed it to be “obscene”), Justice Potter Stewart made a famous observation about obscenity that has become a colloquial expression today.  “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I…

Go Ask Alice

It wasn’t quite a year ago today (and admittedly, I’m a little late with this review) but in April of last year silent film historian/accompanist Ben Model—the hardest working man in the 88 keys business—launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce a DVD showcasing the work of silent movie mirthmaker Alice Howell.  Howell, described on the back of the…

From the DVR: The Candidate (1972)

Political strategist Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) has been handed an assignment that would surely make a saner man run fast, run far.  The Democratic Party is anxious to field a candidate in the California race for U.S. Senator—but that means taking on a powerful Republican incumbent, three-time Capitol Hill veteran Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter).  The…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Phantom Lady (1944)

After a spat with the wife, civil engineer Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) decides to have a little gin with his misery and bellies up to the bar in a dive called Anselmo’s.  He makes the acquaintance of a mysterious woman wearing a rather distinctive hat...and seeing that she’s just as despondent as he is, asks…

From the DVR: Coma (1978)

Dr. Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) is a surgical resident at Boston Memorial Hospital and though this sort of thing should be discouraged because office romances are always complicated (if Chicago Med is any indication), she's dating the chief resident in surgery, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas).  A longtime friend and college chum of Wheeler’s, Nancy…