The films of George Pal nourished the hungry imaginations of many a child, both big and little. A bright-eyed man with an infectious smile, he knew when a scene should shout and when it should whisper. To millions of open-eyed dreamers the world over, he [...]
To mangle the great English poet Alexander Pope, sometimes sequels rush in where originals have already tread. For every "Bride of Frankenstein," "Godfather Part II" or "Empire Strikes Back," there are those continuations [...]
’The Fantasy Worlds Of Irwin Allen, ’ recently released by Image Entertainment, pays tribute to one of the last (if not the last) Hollywood ’showman.’ With ’Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’ about to surface on DVD, the documentary about the [...]
Remember when you could see two movies for the price of one? When going to the movies meant all day or all night affairs? To inaugurate their new "Fox Double Feature" DVD collection, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment happened to select two of [...]
"I am but mad north-northwest; When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw." William Shakespeare, "Hamlet" Act II, Scene II I first encountered Alfred Hitchcock’s breezy 1959 comic [...]
No one could ask for a better university than the classic Universal monster movies. All the great themes are there: unrequited love, intolerance, jealousy, sin, pride, obsession, and the beast within. Point to any of the original monster films and a map [...]
A guiltier pleasure not to be had, ’The Brain That Wouldn’t Die’ finds renewed life in Synapse Films’ spiffy DVD of writer/director Joseph Green’s gruesome, sexy 1959 low budget bloodfest. Brilliant surgeon (aren’t they always?) Dr. Bill [...]
"Mother Night, " Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 parable about guilt, redemption and identity could not have found better mentors for its transition to film than director Keith Gordon and screenwriter/producer Robert Wiede. Translating Vonnegut’s [...]
Reviewing this DVD afforded a unique opportunity for me. Since its theatrical debut in 1984 and despite its availability on VHS, laserdisc, cable and even broadcast television, I have never seen "Repo Man" in its entirety. I’ve caught bits [...]
America’s most recent brush with politics and heavy petting notwithstanding, sex scandals have been around as long as men have ruled and women have allowed them to. The Profumo sex scandal of the 1960’s rocked England and helped bring down the then [...]
