Category Archives: music

Suspicious Minds: “Elvis” (2022)

     “Elvis”  (2022)       Is it possible to know even less about a prominent cultural icon after viewing a major motion picture about them than before seeing that film? This is one of the lingering problems with … Continue reading

Posted in Austin Butler, Baz Luhrmann, biography, Elvis Presley, Movies, music, Musicals, Tom Hanks, writing | 1 Comment

They Shoot Bad Movies Don’t They?: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, Aug. 2021 Edition, Vol. 35MM

They Shoot Bad Movies Don’t They?: Classic Film Images Photo Quiz, Aug. 2021 Edition, Vol. 35MM    Despite Chairman Xi’s 2019 Xmas gift to the civilized world (and Vermont) in the form of a mildly annoying pandemic which not only … Continue reading

Posted in Andy Warhol, biography, books, Boston, comedy, Drive-In Movies, football, germ warfare, Ingrid Thulin, Jenny Agutter, Movies, music, religion | 3 Comments

Chandler’s Trailers: “Humanoids From the Deep” (1980)

  “Humanoids From the Deep” (1980)  If one were uncertain as to the gravity of the situation in the small fishing hamlet of Noyo, California one would need no further measurement than the overbearingly ominous music of James Horner which … Continue reading

Posted in Drive-In Movies, horror, movie reviews, Movies, music, Roger Corman, science fiction, women, writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

il fine

Posted in Italian cinema, Italy, Movies, music | Tagged | Leave a comment

Look What They Done to My War, Ma: “F.T.A.” (1972)

        “F.T.A.”  (1972)      In Michael Wadleigh’s celebrated 1970 documentary “Woodstock”, the myth of the purity of Sixties radicalism takes a sharp stick in the eye when the cumulative evidence reveals that rather than the three … Continue reading

Posted in Documentaries, Jane Fonda, movie reviews, Movies, music, politics, Vietnam, writing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Love in a Fog: “The Divorce of Lady X” (1938)

     “The Divorce of Lady X”  (1938)     After a brief immersion in the London fog, the pastel carnival of colors assaulting the viewer’s eyes at the start of Ted Whelan’s “The Divorce of Lady X” is not unlike … Continue reading

Posted in comedy, Laurence Olivier, London, movie remakes, Movies, music, Romance, theater, women, writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

No Smoking in Bed: “Fuego” (1969)

      “Fuego”  (1969)        One may accuse the cinematic works of Argentine actor-director Armando Bo of many things, but subtlety is not probable to be high on the list of likely suspects. In the initial clumsily executed … Continue reading

Posted in erotica, grindhouse, Movies, music, Reviews, Romance, women, writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Silence for Dummies: “Silent Movie” (1976)

       “Silent Movie” (1976)     Mel Brooks’ misplaced ascension as one of the giants of film comedy is brazenly exampled in this woefully constructed comedy of conceptual errors in which the brave artistic instincts of the director-writer-actor is … Continue reading

Posted in comedy, Movies, music, Paul Newman, silent movies, writing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Farm Hands: “Jennie, Wife/Child” (1968)

     “Jennie, Wife/Child”   (1968)     For the advanced connoisseur of sexploitation sleaze, “Jennie, Wife/Child” is bound to disappoint. But for those truly interested in the cinema in all of its permutations, and the small, unexpected demonstrations of unheralded … Continue reading

Posted in Drive-In Movies, grindhouse, movie reviews, Movies, music, Reviews, Romance, women, writing | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Concession Stand Bites: “Shaft” (1971)

“Shaft” (1971) Starring Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi. Directed by Gordon Parks. Written by Ernest Tidyman, based on his novel. The blaxploitation hit that supposedly started the genre into short-lived high gear is neither blaxploitation nor the hit that … Continue reading

Posted in black cinema, Blaxploitation, books, crime, Drive-In Movies, Movies, music, New York City, writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Chandler’s Trailers: “The Boys From Brazil” (1978)

    Beware actors who protest their image too much. In the case of Franklin J. Schaffner’s “The Boys From Brazil”, the thespian in question is none other than venerable good guy Gregory Peck who makes a career backflip to … Continue reading

Posted in books, Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, movie reviews, Movies, music, Reviews, science, World War II | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Scraps: “something big” (1971)

                    “something big”  (1971)     Joe Baker (Dean Martin) is an outlaw with a desire to do “something big” before returning to a Pennsylvania life of domesticity with his Scottish … Continue reading

Posted in comedy, Dean Martin, John Ford, movie reviews, Movies, music, Romance, westerns, women, writing | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Staged Fright: “The Climax” (1944)

          “The Climax”  (1944)     Based upon the 1909 play by Edward Locke, George Waggner’s “The Climax” is a film with obvious pretensions toward elevating the Universal horror film to a more sophisticated and urbane … Continue reading

Posted in 1940's movies, Boris Karloff, horror, Movies, music, Romance, theater, writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Who’s That Sleeping in My Head?: “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” (1975)

       “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud”  (1975)     What is it about extrasensory activity in movies that makes you want to run the other way? If a character is blessed with precognitive visions, it is an inevitable curse leading to … Continue reading

Posted in books, movie reviews, Movies, music, Mystery, new england, psychiatry, Romance, women, writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mop Tops: “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week- The Touring Years” (2016)

    “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week- The  Touring Years”  (2016)      Just when you think that the documentary coverage of The Beatles had reached the saturation point, along comes Ron Howard’s “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week- … Continue reading

Posted in History, movie reviews, Movies, music, Reviews, The Beatles | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Revisit: Scenes From the Scrapbook: “That’s Entertainment” (1974)

        “That’s Entertainment”      (1974) (Originally posted on May 18, 2014)         “That’s Entertainment” is a compilation of some of the best (many not) musical numbers extracted from the great musicals (many not) … Continue reading

Posted in Documentaries, Frank Sinatra, Movies, music, Musicals, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

“Let It Be” (1970) (Originally posted on Nov. 5, 2013)     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 … Continue reading

Posted in Documentaries, movie reviews, Movies, music, Musicals, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Cesspool: “Whirlpool” (1970)

              “WHIRLPOOL”       (1970)   “Protracted” isn’t often the first word that comes to mind when think of film thrillers, especially of the psycho-sexual variety, but a flexible vocabulary certainly comes in handy when talking about José Ramón Larraz’ directorial  debut … Continue reading

Posted in crime, erotica, grindhouse, movie reviews, music, photography, Reviews, sex, women, writing | Leave a comment

The Great White Dope: “The Cotton Club” (1984)

       It’s a gangster epic, it’s a musical: it’s two failures in one. Francis Coppola’s “The Cotton Club” is another example of Hollywood’s continued tradition of minimizing the history and legacy of black culture in America and the … Continue reading

Posted in crime, dance, Film Reviews, Francis Ford Coppola, History, movie reviews, Movies, music, Reviews | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Te Deum With a Beat : “Let the Good Times Roll” (1973)

      Whatever the initial intentions of the makers of “Let the Good Times Roll”, the resulting movie takes a lesser bite out of its subject than the opening few minutes might promise, as the film’s creeping inconsistency of … Continue reading

Posted in black cinema, Documentaries, Film Reviews, History, movie reviews, Movies, music, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A Brief Rumination on the Modern Cinema and the Demise of Classical Dance in the Movie Musical

     At what point in film history did the movement of dancers in a musical film become an impediment to the director’s visual leanings?       In the classical Hollywood studio era musical, the frame is carefully composed to elicit a … Continue reading

Posted in black cinema, Boston, cinema, Culture, dance, Film, Film Reviews, movie reviews, Movies, music, Musicals, theater | 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