I'm not a big "Blair Witch" fan either, but I think the opening of the film, in which the townspeople are interviewed and none of their stories about the Blair Witch add up to anything coherent is very well done. That gave me a sense of unease that paid off greatly at the end of the film w...

I really like Hammer horror, and am a big Peter Cushing fan. My favorite Hammer horror films are: "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed," "Horror of Dracula," "Curse of Frankenstein," "The Vampire Lovers," "Curse of the Werewolf" and "Dr. Jekyll and S...

Legendary cameraman Freddie Francis (Glory, Elephant man, Scorsese's Cape Fear) and horror director (The Skull, The Creeping Flesh, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave) died back in February aged 89. I heard David Halberstam speak when I was in grad school. He was marvellous, one of the best guest spea...

I had a funny experience several years ago. I was reading a book about TV detectives. I didn't know any of the shows in the early chapters of the book, so I was relieved when I got to the chapter on "Mannix." I remembered watching that show and Mannix' red convertible. So I start reading t...

It was called "man from the South" and based on a story by Roald Dahl, which is one of my favorites. I've never seen the original TV version, but Lorre's antagonist was Steve McQueen. I thought the Eighties version, which took place in Las Vegas, was mostly junk.

I love the Universal Frankenstein films. When I was a kid, my friend and I put on a play of "House of Frankenstein" when we were in 7th grade. Everyone thought we were crazy. I'd like to mention some Universal horrors that I think are underrated. "The Wolf Man" -- I think this ha...

For "Outer Limits," some of the best starred Robert Culp: "The Architects of Fear," which is perhaps the most touching (although marred by the obvious rubber suit when the alien shows up), "Corpus Earthling," which has an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" feel,...

I saw the "Spanish" Dracula several years ago. It was interesting. The actor who played Dracula did nothing for me. I kept getting distracted by how big his ears were. The two performers who shone were Lupita Tovar as "Mina" and the man who played Renfield. Tovar was very bright ...

I seem to be one of the handful of people in the world who like "You and Me," Fritz Lang's third American film. George Raft and Sylvia Sydney starred. It is very funny, and the opening of the film feels far more modern than the 1930s. I guess this is the one "comedy" Lang directed.

I've only seen it once on commercial TV, but I found it very interesting. I've just finished reading "Company of Heroes" by Harry Carey Jr., and his comments on "Two Rode Together" are interesting. Richard Widmark comes across as very admirable. Carey sees this film as a collecti...

I think this one is the best of the "cavalry trilogy." I like the Fonda vs Wayne conflict, which adds complexity to the cavalry vs. Apache plot. Wayne never had such a strong antagonist in the other two films. I like Fonda's farewell to Wayne, and the way Wayne's character has to keep the ...

I think "Broken Blossoms" is my favorite film from D. W. Griffith. I find Gish's "smile" a little hard to take, but basically this film has a direct, straightforward plot (unlike "Way Down East," which seems to take forever to get started for real.) and three great perf...

I came across this on Fox Movie Channel several months ago, picked it up about a half-hour into it, but I was very impressed. There was a richness to the characterizations that surprised me. It looked like one very well done "town-tamer" western.

The movie that scared me was the 1945 Ealing "Dead of Night." It started out creepy, with the bus story, the lost room story, and the mirror story, but then it became comic with the golf story. The ventriloquist story started, and it looked as if it would be funny as well, but then it beca...

"Wordplay" was the New Twilight Zone episode with Robert Klein. "Her Pilgrim Soul" was perhaps the best NTZ episode. It was a real heartbreaker, directed by Wes Craven of all people. This was a SF "Portrait of Jenny" in a way. "A Day in Beaumont" sent up all t...