I like parts of "The Killing," but it doesn't hold together as a whole for me. Gad, I may even like "The Asphalt Jungle" better. Still, I like Ted DeCorscia, who just seems to exude an atmosphere of sleaziness, although for th elife of me I can't see what he does that is so essen...

It has always amused me that in 1961, the chairman of the FCC declared TV to be "a vast wasteland." This was when Westerns were on, as well as "Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Do you have shows on basic network TV now that will hold up as well over the d...

The May 13th Arts section of the New York Times had an interesting article about "The Naked City." It was the reactions of the current NYPD commissioner as he watched the film. He regarded it pretty favorably.

I've never seen the original. I saw the Scorsese version. I mentioned seeing it to a couple I knew. The wife has never spoken to me again since I didn't leave after DeNiro attacked Nolte's mistress.

I like the Marx Brothers. Of course, all Marx Brothers films aren't created equal. Watching "The Coconuts" is painful. But I really like "Animal Crackers," and "Monkey Business," "Horse Feathers" and "Duck Soup" are treasures. I like parts of "N...

I guess my favorite is "The Body Snatcher." It opens so quietly, yet by the time it ends you are on the edge of your seat. karloff gives one of his best performances there. Henry Daniell is magnificent too. "Cat people" comes in a close second. I like "The Seventh Victim&quo...

I vote for Universal. film noir seemed to be one of the few times this studio ever caught and developed a genre from the start (perhaps next to the horror film) rather than trying to leap on the bandwagon a few years late. I can't imagine film noir without "The Killers," "Criss Cross&...

I seem to remember a book called "Six Guns and Society" which traced the phases of the Western. There was the "classic" plot, in which a wanderer becomes part of the community and "cleans up the town." Then in the Fifties, you had the "revenge" plot. At the en...

Ken, that is exactly my reaction to "The Hustler." The opening pool match between Newman and Gleason is electrifying, and the rest of the movie feels like watching paint dry.

give me "Cool Hand Luke" any day.

I've heard good things about "Rocky Mountain" but have never seen it. Oddly, it was Ronald Reagan who brought "Rocky Mountain," then called "Ghost Mountain" to the attention of Warner Brothers. He thought he would then be the star, but Warners gave it to Flynn. In the b...

I like the original "Producers" very much. I can't think of "The Producers" without Zero Mostel, as he runs around his office getting ready for the arrival of "hold me-touch me." Gene wilder and Kenneth Mars are terrific as well. When I lived in Cleveland, I would see &...

Isn't "Mary Queen of Scots" around the time that katharine Hepburn was supposedly having an affair with John Ford? I'm sure that was probably giving her some stress at the time of the meatball incident.

The director Curtis Harrington died earlier in May. His heyday was the early Seventies, and he is most famous for "What's The matter With Helen?" which starred Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters. Reynolds is terrific here, but I think the film is more neo-noir than horror. "Who Slew ...

I have mixed feelings about "The Sea wolf." I had first read Jack London's novel, which was terrific until there was this shipwreck and then the characters ended up on an island and a love story flourished. Still, I looked forward to seeing Wolf Larsen on the screen. I saw the movie, and w...

I too prefer "Nightmare Alley' to "Leap of Faith," but I thought "Leap" owed a lot to "Nightmare," particularly in the scene in which Martin smooth-talked a state trooper out of giving him a speeding ticket.