Category Archives: Entertainment

Dear Cinema Santa: 2022 Edition

Dear Cinema Santa: 2022 Edition ‘Tis the time of year when Hollywood winds down into its shameless baiting for award season recognition with the latest slate of feel-good holiday slasher films, scatalogical comedies and finger-wagging agenda dramas aimed at deflating … Continue reading

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“There Ain’t No Sanity Clause”: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, Dec. 2022 Edition, Vol. 12.25

“There Ain’t No Sanity Clause”: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, Dec. 2022 Edition, Vol. 12.25      With all due deference to Chico Marx, with the approach of that most irresistible season of blind avarice, it is incumbent on that deservedly … Continue reading

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Go to Gift Wrap: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, Dec. 2017 Edition Part Deux, Vol. 25

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Go to Gift Wrap:  Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, Dec. 2017 Edition Part Deux, Vol. 25     In Tom Stoppard’s absurdist play, two minor figures from Shakespeare’s Hamlet are granted the center stage in a theatrical … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews, books, Christmas, Entertainment, History, holidays, Movies, Musicals, photography, Reviews, Romance, women, writing | 4 Comments

A View From the Dark: Movie Freak by Owen Gleiberman

A View From the Dark: Movie Freak by Owen Gleiberman The appetite publishers seem to have for printing the memoirs of even the most irrelevant movie personalities appears insatiable; so much so that in recent years this pseudo-gossipy, trivially anecdotal framework … Continue reading

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Life in Bloom: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, May 2016 Edition, Vol. 111

Life in Bloom:  Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, May 2016 Edition, Vol. 111     Despite the grand apocalyptic allusions to global warming, orbital rotational shifts or the mysterious shortage of stylishly lapelled union suits, there can be no question that Spring is … Continue reading

Posted in blogs, books, Entertainment, Film, food, humor, Movies, Musicals, photography, Puzzles, Reviews, Romance, theater, women, writing | 3 Comments

Pressure Point: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, October 2015 Edition, Vol. 40

PRESSURE POINT: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, October 2015 Edition, Vol. 40  If one thing is certain, it’s that if the current White House claims the world is enjoying an historically unprecedented condition of peace and harmony, you had better … Continue reading

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“Bend Over and Cough”: Classic Film Images Quiz, July 2015 Edition, Vol. RX VII

“Bend Over and Cough”:  CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ,  July, 2015 Edition, Vol. RX VII      Greetings and salutations, to all Obamacare insured and all other ships adrift at sea, and welcome to another unnecessary edition of that most irritating … Continue reading

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AUGUST 2014 CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ, VOL. 222

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN EDITION:  AUGUST 2014 CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ, Vol. 222 Welcome back to America’s favorite waste of time and space (that’s SCIENCE 101, baby), the CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ, brought to you by those wonderful folks who foil … Continue reading

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JULY 2014 CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ, VOL. 1776

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N EDITION: JULY 2014 CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ, VOL. 1776      It’s time to pull out the Coppertone, ship those vile, unwanted kids off to summer camp where they’ll learn life lessons in hiking through poison ivy and the competitive … Continue reading

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MONTHLY PHOTO QUIZ VOL. 8

“THE OUTLOOK IS DOUBTFUL”- MAGIC 8 BALL EDITION: JUNE 2014  CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ, VOL. 8 Welcome to another edition of the monthly Classic Film Images quiz. Today we are doing a bit of Spring cleaning by shaking out the … Continue reading

Posted in art house cinema, Entertainment, espionage, Film, horror, Movies, Puzzles, Sean Connery, silent movies, war movies, women | 2 Comments

A View From the Cheap Seats: “The Movie That Changed My Life” edited by David Rosenberg

     With the wealth (actually gluttonous overabundance) of film books published examining, probing, criticizing, reinterpreting, psychoanalyzing, and performing generally obscure, obtuse and cryptic academic microsurgery-some so labyrinthine in the expression of an aesthetic philosophy, they might as well be expressed … Continue reading

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Buy a Drive-In Theater! (Well… not really, but read on and support a worthy initiative which will preserve and defend a precious American tradition, and perhaps aid in defeating the lingering Communist menace at the same time.)

  Another interesting tidbit which has crossed the desk of the Swain News Service, but first our usual editorial tirade:   In American life, progress is generally defined as eliminating tradition by way of the excuse of advancing technology, changing … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, Culture, drive-in cinema, Drive-In Movies, Entertainment, Film, Movies, new england, theaters, vermont | 1 Comment

Beatles in a Bell Jar: “Let It Be” (1970)

      Sitting through Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s “Let It Be” is not dissimilar to sitting behind someone in a theater and staring at the back of their head, mentally trying to make them turn around: it’s pointless, it doesn’t really work … Continue reading

Posted in 1970's movies, Culture, Documentaries, Entertainment, Film, Film Reviews, movie reviews, Movies, music, Reviews, The Beatles | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The 2013 Annual Critical Establishment Readers Survey

________________________________________________________________ All readers, bloggers and film enthusiasts are encouraged to participate in the following 59 question  survey. ________________________________________________________________________________ 01.  Who/what do you feel is the most overrated actor, actress, director and film?   02.  Who/what do you feel is the … Continue reading

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MONTHLY PHOTO QUIZ VOL. 441

HISTORY IS OLD NEWS: SEPTEMBER CLASSIC FILM IMAGES Ah, the good old days. Plagues, extinction level meteors, worldwide armed conflicts, the career of Elizabeth Taylor. OK, so maybe the past was hideous, filled with horrific events that will disturb Mankind … Continue reading

Posted in art house cinema, cinema, Culture, Entertainment, Film, History, Italian cinema, Movies, Romance, science, war movies, women | 4 Comments

MONTHLY PHOTO QUIZ VOL. 433

Despite the best efforts of the Millennials (a.k.a., the Generation Y, as in “Y do they exist?” collective) to dismiss the very existence of anyone over the age of 30 (which puts the elder of their clique against the firing … Continue reading

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MASS ESCAPISM: “VON RYAN’S EXPRESS” (1965)

    Despite the sterling example of Jean Renoir’s “Grand Illusion”, the prisoner of war escape film did not find a wide popularity until well after the Second World War, presumably as the propagandistic value of the war film during actual … Continue reading

Posted in 1960's cinema, 1960's movies, Entertainment, Film, Film Reviews, Frank Sinatra, movie reviews, Movies, Reviews, war movies, World War II | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Soap Opera: “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925)

     How fortunate for Mary Philbin that in her portrayal of fledgling opera singer Christine Baaé, she is not under the technical requirements to convincingly render the voice of an operatic diva, as per the evidence onscreen, the capacity to … Continue reading

Posted in 1920's cinema, cinema, Entertainment, Film, Film Reviews, horror films, Lon Chaney, movie reviews, Movies, Reviews, silent films, silent movies | Tagged | Leave a comment

MONTHLY PHOTO QUIZ VOL. 684

  PORTRAIT OF A PHOTO AS A TRIVIALITY: JUNE CLASSIC FILM IMAGES QUIZ June is the month of Joyce. James Joyce. Actually, any month is a time for good reading, but the pressure of coming up with new and interesting … Continue reading

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The Colour Out of Place: “South Pacific” (1958)

    The 1958 Joshua Logan film of “South Pacific” is a perfect demonstration of the value of the movie soundtrack album as a preferable experience over a film. In the former, there is much pleasure to be gained aurally … Continue reading

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Double Exposed: “My Week With Marilyn” (2011)

     “My Week With Marilyn” reacquaints the filmmaking world with an occasion to celebrate its favorite subject- itself -in an ultimately pointless exercise in dishonest nostalgia for the sake of the film world’s own self-love.  Portraying real-life personages is always … Continue reading

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The Look of Love: “Stolen Face” (1952)

    Given the fixation the studios had in manipulating audiences, is it any wonder that the “Golden Age” age cinema is awash in overly produced symphonic assaults on the soundtrack, designed to emphasize to the audience the desired way in … Continue reading

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Unfair Play: “The Cheat” (1915)

    Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 “The Cheat” is a morality play that manages the hypocritical feat of allowing the guilty embezzler, the shallow socialite Edith Hardy, to escape punishment from both the law and her particular social class, but excoriate … Continue reading

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Saving Ciphers: “Argo” (2012)

    There has been so much hoopla constructed around Ben Affleck’s “Argo”. most of it concentrated on the meaningless and continuously distasteful circus that is the Hollywood Awards Season- the seemingly year-round orgy of masturbatory, unmerited self-congratulation -with much of … Continue reading

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Shooting Blanks: “Death Wish” (1974)

    “Death Wish” is a genuine curiosity; a  terrible movie which prompted a great deal of useful, spirited and intelligent sociopolitical discussion. The theme of the film is justice, or rather the lack of it, and the rise of vigilantism … Continue reading

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Sex, Drugs and TV: “The Groove Tube” (1974)

   Ken Shapiro’s “The Groove Tube” is a raggedy collection of skits satirizing television ads and programs, a not especially challenging target that is met with a lack of conceptual focus and a wildly variant acuity of wit. In fact, … Continue reading

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Shapeless: “The Blob” (1958)

    Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.’s “The Blob” is a film with an impressive cult legacy, but one that yields few actual rewards upon viewing. This small-town teen versus space monster picture does distinguish itself from many of the grade-B (or … Continue reading

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The Brice isn’t Right: “Funny Girl” (1968)

    Film biographies have always been a tricky business. Subject to less than scrupulous adherence to the factual as opposed to an almost shameless gravitational pull toward the predictable formulaic Hollywood elements of high melodrama and low soap opera, the … Continue reading

Posted in 1960's movies, Barbra Streisand, cinema, Culture, Entertainment, Film Reviews, Films, movie reviews, Movies, Musicals, Romance | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Space Disgrace: “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster” (1965)

   With “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster” the Gothic trappings of Mary Shelley’s seminal work of horror literature are abandoned in the service of timely expediency in capitalizing on the then-current frenzied Space Race, with the concept of the eponymous … Continue reading

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The Stuff of Dreams: “Trollhunter” (2010)

    The sub-genre of the “found film” mockumentary hit the financial jackpot with the tiresome “The Blair Witch Project”, a film which benefited from a wealth of carefully manipulated anticipation by way of Internet hype, but emerged without an … Continue reading

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Headcase: “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (1962)

    With “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”, no discussion would be complete without a concession to the fertile soil that is exploitation cinema, to which this film is a classical example, especially as filtered through the then popular (but still … Continue reading

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Russian Roue: “Love and Death” (1975)

   Woody Allen’s first overt dive into the realm of the serious (though not approached seriously) is an interesting amalgam of 19th Century Russian literature, the cinema of Eisenstein and Bergman  all seen through the eyes of his sarcastic horndog … Continue reading

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A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the End of the World: “The Omega Man” (1971)

The odd thing about an apocalypse are all of the errands you have to deal with afterwards. One might assume that the obliteration of the world’s population might lead to some leisurely quiet time for the lone survivor, but this … Continue reading

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A Most Peculiar Love Story: “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971)

                   Robert Fuest   (September 27, 1927 – March 21, 2012)      With its roots in the serial murder giallo tradition of both Mario Bava’s“The Girl Who Knew Too Much” and “Blood and Black Lace”, … Continue reading

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The Good, The Bad and the Baddest: “The French Connection” (1971)

     Being a narc is assuming the role of a soldier in a never-ending war with the urban streets as the battleground; the debris littered alleys and dark, smoky dive bars being the jungle in which only the criminally depraved … Continue reading

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A LOST AND EPIC GRANDEUR: “THE BIG TRAIL” (1930)

In the late ’20’s, movie mogul William Fox envisioned a leap in motion picture production with the technological breakthrough of 70mm film in WIDESCREEN. Teaming with director Raoul Walsh, the result of this dream was the truly monumental 1930 Western epic … Continue reading

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POE IN THE CINEMA: “HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES” (1968)

The cinema is rife with literary adaptations and the works of Edgar Allan Poe have fared surprisingly well as a good number of films have captured, if not the essence then the spirit of the writer. Considering Poe essentially limited … Continue reading

Posted in 1960's movies, Brigitte Bardot, Edgar Allan Poe, Entertainment, Federico Fellini, Film Criticism, Film Reviews, Poe in the Cinema, Roger Vadim, Terence Stamp | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment