Category Archives: Uncategorized

As a circus picture, Joan Crawford’s penultimate film BERSERK is really good. There’s lots of great footage of Billy Smart’s Circus mixed in with shots of Crawford as ringmaster. The poodle act, the elephants and horses, even a scene with a lion tamer are all classic old school circus routines that recall an earlier timeContinue reading “BERSERK (1967): Late Joan Crawford Flick Is More Circus Than Horror”

I have to hand it to Flicker Alley. They keep coming up with quality movies that I have never heard of. A few months ago it was the French silent epic CASANOVA. Shortly before that it was Robert Siodmak’s labor drama THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS. Now it’s EL VAMPRO NEGRO (The Black Vampire) whichContinue reading “EL VAMPIRO NEGRO: This 1953 Argentinian Re-Thinking of Fritz Lang’s M Takes a Woman’s P.O.V.”

I have seen NOSFERATU a number of times from truly bad public domain copies in the 1980s to several authorised video editions from the turn of the century. However it wasn’t until I recently saw a showing of this Kino Deluxe Remastered Edition which has been speed corrected, broken down into five acts as ifContinue reading “NOSFERATU Is Not A Horror Film But A Tale Of German Dark Romanticism”

CASANOVA is yet another one of those European silent films I had heard and read about but never had had the opportunity to watch until now. Until 21st century digital techniques came along, it would have been impossible to see the movie outside of La Cinematique Francaise and even then it wouldn’t have looked asContinue reading “CASANOVA (1927) Is Beautifully Made But A Little Too Long”

I was looking forward to this collection from the time it was first announced by The Film Detective. I’m not a Tarzan fan but I am a silent movie enthusiast so I was very interested in the Elmo Lincoln silent Tarzans. I had tried to watch them before back in the VHS days but theContinue reading “For TARZAN Afficianados Only”

If you’re a film buff and hear the name Val Lewton, a Western is the last thing that might come to mind. Nevertheless Lewton ended his career with a Western, and APACHE DRUMS shows that under the right circumstances Lewton could transform this genre just as he did the horror film with his 1940s moviesContinue reading “APACHE DRUMS (1951), Val Lewton’s Last Movie, Deserves A Quality Region 1 Release”

I first saw THE DEVIL’S MEN in its shorter American version known as LAND OF THE MINOTAUR. This was from a DVD set of drive-in cult classics from American explotation specialists, Crown International. Just as soon as the movie was over I said to myself “This is CITY OF THE DEAD / HORROR HOTEL updatedContinue reading “THE DEVIL’S MEN (1976) Is CITY OF THE DEAD (1960) Transplanted From New England To Greece”

I first saw THE SILENT ENEMY back in 2001 when it was released on DVD by Milestone Films and Image Entertainment. Back then there was no need for a disclaimer about it “being a product of its time” and that it should be viewed “as a flawed though beautiful, suspenseful, and well-intended attempt to honorContinue reading “THE SILENT ENEMY (1930): This Landmark Native American Silent Movie Once Seen, Cannot Be Forgotten”

I first saw THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS over 10 years ago at a film society showing in Hendersonville, NC. I had heard of the movie and had seen stills of it showcasing Barbara Stanwyck. I was first interested in it because it had been made by one of my favorite early film directors,Continue reading “THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946): The More You Watch It, The Better It Gets”

Done with Hollywood by the mid 1950s, Fritz Lang returned to Germany and decided to remake THE INDIAN TOMB , a legendary German silent film from 1921 that he thought he was going to direct before producer Joe May (pronounced MY) decided to do it himself. Lang had co-written the script with future wife TheaContinue reading “FRITZ LANG’S INDIAN EPIC (1959): The New Blu-Ray Release Is Not As Good As The Fantoma DVDs”