Perhaps, however.... With the demise of the studio system, the double feature - the lifeblood of the independent producers, Poverty Row studios, and B-units of the major studios - also bit the dust. How to fill that time? Longer features. Directorial ego? Which director was egoless? To the extent di...

Recently finished: Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (Patrick McGilligan & Paul Buhle 1997) - A collection of interviews conducted by the authors (sometimes with others) with persons impacted by the blacklist, including John Berry , Alvah Bessie , Jules Dassin , Mickey Knox...

All femmes fatale, all the time at the NYC Forum in its Femmes Noirs film series, July 18 - August 7.

A bit mainstream in the programming area, but still a grand opportunity for NYC folk...Calling Dr. Maven...Calling Dr. Goddess....to see the fine film noir.

Let us not forget:

Woody Allen
David Lynch
David Cronenberg
Tim Burton
Wes Anderson
Coen Brothers
Quentin Tarantino
Martin Scorsese
Werner Herzog
Michael Haneke

For 1961, six movies jumped to the top. Of the next tier, three stood out. As for the 10th, darn near a pick'em. 1961 1. BLAST OF SILENCE (Allan Baron) - Film noir . Nihilism. Lionel Stander as the Voice of God. Or the Anti-Christ. 2. SOMETHING WILD (Jack Garfein) - What is on the screen is enough. ...

A few coming up this week that shouldn't slip under your radar, especially if yo've never seen them. All times are CST . Links are to trailers or clips. Sunday, June 8 9:30am – D.O.A. (Rudolph Mate 1950) – A film noir classic! A small town CPA goes on vacation to San Francisco. Feeling ill, he is di...

1960 is a tough one for me. Lots of non-English language films that are top-notch, but relatively few English language movies really grabbed me. But here goes: 1960 1. PEEPING TOM (Michael Powell) - The travails of an artist trying to achieve perfection, but failing and being rejected. Did Powell kn...

We continue our regularly scheduled weekend matinee of mysticism and the occult. Beautiful women are mutilating their faces all over the city. And none of them remember doing it or feeling any pain while doing it. Why, oh, why is this happening? Perhaps we can learn through THE HYPNOTIC EYE (George ...

Saturday afternoon, a perfectly gorgeous day, requires nothing less than a triple-feature magical mystery tour of the occult in a dark theater. MIRACLES FOR SALE (Tod Browning 1939) is the name of Robert Young ’s New York City business venture, the construction of the hardware used by magicians for ...

Happy Noir Birthday to Robert Allen Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan . [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXzXYrhrdOE[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqRw718JPMQ[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJpnfL3DQmU[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDqq6IXgMNw[...

Roxie headline: LUCIEN BALLARD MAKES CRIME BEAUTIFUL . A tale of two criminal biopics. Cicero isn’t big enough for Al Capone. The wide-screen isn’t big enough for Rod Steiger in AL CAPONE (Richard Wilson 1959). Steiger gives a bravura performance as Al Capone. It’s big. It’s bold. It’s brave. It’s S...

Roxie headline: CARL E. GUTHRIE EXPOSES CRIME PLAGUES! Co-pilots. Happy pills. Wake-up pills. Bennies. You know what they are…amphetamines. And they are endangering YOU…and every driver of the big rigs. DEATH IN SMALL DOSES (Joseph M. Newman 1957) continues Newman ’s gritty, semi-documentary style f...

Thank you, JF. It's all about the movies. (You know, Arthur Hunnicutt acting like Arthur Hunnicutt is the last person one would expect in SPLIT SECOND ...but it works). Two more familiar ones tonight, but I'm itching to see to see one of them on a big screen. Let's see...he's brooding, heavy-lidded....

Last night at the Roxie was da Bomb. And not just because Don was finally in the house. Lesson learned: A little radioactivity never hurts anybody, unless…. The ominous sounding EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ (Edward L. Cahn 1950) presents five prisoners of Alcatraz volunteering for a military medical experime...

Two or three 1960 movies are on tap for re-visiting this week at the Roxie. May make a difference.