36 HOURS / TERROR STREET (1953): Hammer Films Before They Discovered Horror
It wasn’t very often that Dan Duryea got the opportunity to play the good guy but when he did, he made the most of it. After appearing as an Air Force pilot in the very low budget SKY COMMANDO (1952) which was shot in only 8 days, Duryea went to London to appear in another…
MADEMOISELLE FIFI (1944): An Unusual Offering From Producer Val Lewton
Along with the 9 horror films on which his reputation rests, Val Lewton produced two other movies during his 1942-46 tenure at RKO. One was YOUTH RUNS WILD about contemporary juvenile delinquency and this adaptation of two short stories by 19th century French author Guy de Maupassant. The stories re BOULE DE SUIF (BALL OF…
SANTA CLAUS (1925) And Much More
Most of the selections in this DVD collection, A CHRISTMAS PAST, are short films that were originally made by the Edison Company. These include a 1905 version of THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS and a 1910 version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL which are quite good considering their age and length. Unfortuntaely the transfer speed for both…
BEAU GESTE (1926): The First And Best Movie Adaptation
I first encountered BEAU GESTE as a 1966 movie which I saw when I was 14 at a local cinema. At that age I was already familiar with several 19th century action-adventure/fantasy novels such as those by H. Rider Haggard and Jules Verne but somehow I missed out on P.C. Wren’s story of three British upper…
LAUREL & HARDY: YEAR THREE – THE 1929 SHORTS Completes Their Silent Era Legacy
As 2025 draws to a close, Flicker Alley closes out their restorations of the silent films of Laurel & Hardy with LAUREL & HARDY: YEAR 3: THE NEWLY RESTORED 1929 SHORTS. This completes a project that began almost 10 years ago. The goal was to find and restore all 33 of the shorts that L&H made…
MOULIN ROUGE (1928): E.A. Dupont’s Penultimate Silent Movie Is Worth Rediscovering
E.A. Dupont (1891-1956) was one of the top directors during Germany’s Weimar years (1919-1933). Two of his noteworthy films during that time were THE ANCIENT LAW (1923) about the son of a Rabbi who becomes an actor and is shunned by his father (which became the basis for THE JAZZ SINGER 4 years later) and VARIETY (1925)…
MAN OF ARAN (1934): Robert Flaherty’s Controversial Irish Docudrama Remains Visually Stunning.
With my viewing of MAN OF ARAN (1934), I have now worked my way through all of the major works of filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty (1884-1951). In addition to ARAN, they are NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922), MOANA (1926), and LOUISIANA STORY (1948). Two movies, TABU (1931) and ELEPHANT BOY (1937) were collaborative efforts with traditional…
HANNAY (1988): Engaging Brit Action Series Is A Prequel To THE 39 STEPS
The character of Richard Hanney first appeared in the 1914 novel THE 39 STEPS by Scottish author, intelligence officer, and eventual Governor General of Canada, John Buchan (1875-1940). Four more books featuring Hanney were written between 1916 and 1936. Hanney’s original character, a mining engineer from South Africa, ultimately developed into an early prototype of James…
THE EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY THEATRE (1959-1965): 47 + 10 = Solid British Entertainment
THE EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY THEATRE is remarkable is several ways. For one it’s not a made-for-television series but a collection of 47 one hour B movies made between 1959 and 1965. The second is the inclusion of 10 independent short features made separately, then lumped in when the series was sold to American TV. But what’s…
HE, WHO GETS SLAPPED (1924): Strange Initial Offering From The Newly Created MGM
HE WHO GETS SLAPPED has got to be the strangest initial offering from any major studio in early Hollywood history. It’s not what you’d expect from MGM which quickly became THE major Hollywood studio known for its glamour and huge roster of stars. What’s perhaps even stranger is the fact that the movie was a box office hit.…
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The Capsule Critic 