Hello, Ms. Fletcher... Angela Lansbury's career was nothing if not well-rounded, and one of my favorite roles of hers is that of flamboyant authoress Salome Otterbourne in 1978's Death On the Nile. Oh, this movie is fun. But we'll get to that. And no, I haven't seen the remake yet, although I'd really like to. It all … Continue reading Miss Angela Cruises the Nile
Robin Hood Gets the Spaghetti Treatment
Westerns weren't the only movie genre to receive an Italian spin in the nineteen-sixties and seventies of course. Another film to come out of that lovely and varied country is 1976's Robin Hood, Arrows, Beans and Karate, or Storia di arcieri, pugni e occhi ner in the original Italian. Does the title give anyone Men … Continue reading Robin Hood Gets the Spaghetti Treatment
The Merry Housewives of Stepford
The Stepford Wives is rather infamous. As we all know, "Stepford wife" is part of the American cultural zeitgeist, denoting something so perfect as to be secretly nefarious, and Irving Levin's novel has been brought to the screen in both 1975 and 2004. Thing is, though, I've never seen either version until now, and was … Continue reading The Merry Housewives of Stepford
That Day In September
Mr. Holden is back... William Holden had a long career right up until his death in 1981, and one of his very late credits is the 1976 TV film 21 Hours at Munich, which chronicles the fateful Munich Massacre on September 5, 1972, right in the middle of what were being called Die heiteren Spiele or … Continue reading That Day In September
It’s Wabbit Season
Here come the B's... Hollywood was desperate to bring people back into the theater starting in the fifties. There was also that pesky problem of once-guaranteed revenue streams disappearing, so belts had to be tightened in so many respects. MGM was no different than any other studio, but given what they had been for audiences … Continue reading It’s Wabbit Season
Don’t Go Upstairs
Back in the Hammer-Amicus universe... I'm still a relative newbie to the Hammer-Amicus universe, but anthology movies seem to be a staple of that universe, and in 1972 audiences were treated to the simply-titled Asylum, four tales within a tale that likes its twists and turns. The movie opens with young Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) approaching … Continue reading Don’t Go Upstairs
Shamedown #7: Starcrash
We're back for another Shamedown, people, and may I say, this one is an especial doozy. If anyone is coming in late and would like to know what this Shamedown business is all about, CinemaShame's original post can be found here. Past 2023 Shamedowns can be found here. And now on with the show... We all … Continue reading Shamedown #7: Starcrash
Move Over, Chucky
OK, so I know I said that the planet Venus will always be an unknown quantity, but Venus has got nothing on the Bermuda Triangle because we can at least partially explain Venus. The Bermuda Triangle, not so much. Not everyone believes the Bermuda Triangle is worse than any other part of the ocean; in … Continue reading Move Over, Chucky
I’ll Be Home For Life Day
Think you've seen all the Star Wars movies? Which one is your least favorite? Do you even have a least favorite? Whatever your answer is, chances are it doesn't stack up to the Star Wars Holiday Special. Well, except for those Chinese Star Wars bootlegs, but we'll get to that on another day. Oh boy, will we. … Continue reading I’ll Be Home For Life Day
Joni Finds Her Feet
Biopic time... Biopics are very common--we all know this. However, it's not often that the subject of a biopic actually stars in their own film. Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the few. 1979's Joni was based on her book of the same title and covers the first five years or so after Tada's life-changing accident. … Continue reading Joni Finds Her Feet
The Movie Is Drunk
My son seems to have caught the bad movie bug. He loves finding terrible stuff on Internet Archive and YouTube. Or Amazon Prime. He's not terribly picky, although my husband and I have taught him to avoid torrent sites like the plague. So yeah, I think I've created a monster, and one of his latest … Continue reading The Movie Is Drunk
Seven Reasons To See “Superman”
The 1978 Superman is, in my opinion, one of the best superhero movies ever made. It wasn't the first time the Man of Steel hit the big screen. That honor goes to Kirk Alyn, who starred in the serials of the late forties and early fifties. It wasn't even the first time Superman had been … Continue reading Seven Reasons To See “Superman”
Five Reasons To See “Young Frankenstein”
Apartment living can be surprising, annoying, and a hundred other similies. It can also be inadvertantly beneficial. I never saw the beat of our current apartment for getting other people's stuff, and it's happened the entire nine years we've been in the place. We gotten court orders from two different counties. Eight cases of Hopsy … Continue reading Five Reasons To See “Young Frankenstein”
Page To Screen: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Few YA books are as daring as E.L. Koningsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It's a thinking book. It's also an unthinking book. For those who aren't familiar with the story, Claudia Kincaid is an upstate New York girl with three brothers who feels like there's nothing to set her apart from … Continue reading Page To Screen: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Page To Screen: The Black Stallion
Who else had to read The Black Stallion for school? I did. Fourth grade. I can't remember anyone complaining about it. In fact, Black Stallion books were kind of the rage in my class. For those who haven't experienced it, the novel follows New York City teenager Alec Ramsey and his friendship with a mysterious, very wild … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Black Stallion
The Documentary of the Future
Hey Boo... Robert Duvall has had a wildly diverse career to say the least. George Lucas, um, not really, but he's George Lucas. In 1971 the two of them made an unlikely team with the release of Lucas's first feature film, THX-1138, a dystopian tale of the world we live in, only not. THX-1138 bears a slight resemblance … Continue reading The Documentary of the Future
This Train Is Bound For Murder
Nice to see Ms. Bergman again... In the seventies, studios liked a lot of star wattage in their prestige films. Maybe it was because their output was so much smaller than it was in past decades, or maybe they were desperate to get audiences away from their TVs and back into theaters. It was probably … Continue reading This Train Is Bound For Murder
Taking Up Room 