THE BIG SLEEP (1946): I Prefer The Original 1945 Version
The 1946 film noir THE BIG SLEEP with Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall is an iconic work of classic Hollywood that cemented Bogart’s reputation and confirmed Bacall’s. However the movie that everyone knows is not the original cut of the film. That version went unseen for 52 years until its rediscovery in 1997 when it was released to…
THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970): After 50+ Years It Remains As Bad As I Remembered
Beginning in the mid-1960s, there was a wave of mainstream interest in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). Howard Phillips Lovecraft had been popular in the 1930s and 40s but only amongst a fringe element of readers and/or writers of what was then called “weird fiction”. Once his pulp fiction magazine copyrights expired, his stories…
DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965): H.P. Lovecraft’s COLOR OUT OF SPACE In A Muddled Adaptation
Director Daniel Haller began his career as an art director for Roger Corman. He worked on all the early Edgar Allan Poe pictures and after the success of THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), was later given his chance to direct on another adaptation of an H. P. Lovecraft story. H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was a writer…
JAMAICA INN (1939): Hitchcock’s Last British Film In A Stunning Transfer
If anyone other than Alfred Hitchcock had directed JAMAICA INN, it would be considered a minor masterpiece especially considering when and where it was made. This tale of 19th century smugglers and wreckers off the coast of Cornwall is on par with anything Hollywood did in the pirate genre. The movie’s merits are clearly evident…
TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964): Roger Corman’s Swan Song Envisions Poe As Emily Bronte
TOMB OF LIGEIA is the eighth and final entry in Roger Corman’s cycle of movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe that were made between 1960 and 1964. It is unlike any of the others in that TOMB uses a number of actual locations as opposed to being shot entirely on a soundstage. This enhances Corman’s…
BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960): A Gothic Fairy Tale Instead Of A Horror Film
BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960) was Hammer Films follow-up to their worldwide hit DRACULA (1958). The title, however, is a misnomer as the character of Dracula is nowhere to be found in the movie. He had been spectacularly destroyed at the end of the 1958 film but that never stopped a studio from trying to cash in…
THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963): Roger Corman’s Take on H.P. Lovecraft Disguised as Poe
THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963) was the sixth of the 8 films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe made by producer-director Roger Corman for American International Pictures between 1960 and 1964. It may be the best of the lot after THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) which is usually considered the number one…
The 1962 TOWER OF LONDON Has Its Moments
In 1962, director Roger Corman and actor Vincent Price were riding high. Corman, after making several low budget black and white movies, hit it big in a series of color films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. These movies were inspired by the success of England’s Hammer Films who were remaking, in color,…
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930): The “Silent” Version
I first encountered the 1930 ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT in 1970 when I was a freshman at the University of South Carolina. They had an excellent film series there that offeredd a different movie to students every day. I was already a fan of older movies by that time and had read about the film in…
PHANTOM LADY (1944): The Return Of Robert Siodmak’s First Film Noir
One of the more fascinating Film Noirs to come out of the 1940s, Robert Siodmak’s PHANTOM LADY (1944) is an interesting movie on many levels. It is based on pulp novelist Cornell Woolrich’s book of the same name. Woolrich (1903-1968) was a treasure trove of mystery/crime material in the 1940s being the source of several classic Noirs…
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The Capsule Critic 