Category Archives: Uncategorized

Back in 2017 Flicker Alley released a restored version of Irvin Willat’s 1919 BEHIND THE DOOR, an intense but forgotten World War I melodrama that still has the power to engage and shock a modern audience. Now they have released, on their Flicker Fusion series in partnership with The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, aContinue reading “BELOW THE SURFACE (1920): A Powerful Silent Drama Beautifully Restored”

ISN’T LIFE WONDERFUL was D.W. Griffith’s last independent production before he was forced to sell his Mamaroneck studio to help pay off mounting debts from his Revolutionary War epic America and his bad business practices. Though little known today compared to earlier films like BIRTH OF A NATION or INTOLERANCE, this little film, in myContinue reading “D.W. Griffith’s Last Great Film”

THE UGLY DUCKLING is a 1959 crime comedy from Hammer Films that is a parody of DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE. In fact the opening credits state that the idea was stolen from Robert Louis Stevenson. The movie, like its namesake, was unwanted for a very long time but seems to have finally come into its own.Continue reading “THE UGLY DUCKLING (1959): A Delightful Oddity From Hammer Films”

By 1961 the low budget American science fiction film was beginning to realize that its days were numbered. Entrepreneurs led by producer-director Roger Corman had discovered that it was possible to purchase quality Soviet Bloc/Iron Curtain movies (which had excellent production values) for only a few thousand dollars. The films were then brought to America whereContinue reading “PHANTOM PLANET (1961): Low Budget Sci-Fi Offering Has Its Merits”

Very few celluloid ghost stories take the less is more approach. Notable early examples are a 1942 movie called THUNDER ROCK which dealt with an embittered lighthouse keeper who encounters the ghosts of those who drowned near his lighthouse. Then there was Hollywood’s 1944 offering, THE UNINVITED. Next year came the watershed anthology DEAD OF NIGHTContinue reading “THE AWAKENING (2011): A Derivative But Excellent Ghost Story That Should Be Better Known”

In 1929 Carl Laemmle, the founder and head of Universal Pictures, decided to make his son, 21 year old Carl Junior, the head of production at the studio. The fact that Junior had no previous production experience was no big deal. Carl Sr. was famous for his nepotism. When the family was forced to sell Universal in 1936,Continue reading “KING OF JAZZ (1930): Junior Lammle’s Folly Is A Fantastic Time Capsule”

1932 was a remarkable  year in film for Bela Lugosi. After his success in DRACULA the previous year, he made 5 movies for 5 different studios. After starting out with MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE for Universal, he made WHITE ZOMBIE for United Artists, CHANDU THE MAGICIAN for Fox, THE DEATH KISS for KBS Productions, and finallyContinue reading “THE DEATH KISS (1932) Is Not A Horror Film Despite Bela Lugosi”

With all the attention being paid to Robert Eggers new version of NOSFERATU, the time seems right to revisit Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake of the classic 1922 German silent version which Herzog called NOSFERATU: PHANTOM OF THE NIGHT. It is more of an homage as opposed to a rethinking of the material which, for those who may notContinue reading “Werner Herzog’s 1979 NOSFERATU Is A Meditation On Life, Death, & Immortality”

In 2023 Flicker Alley released LAUREL & HARDY – YEAR ONE which featured all the silent shorts that L&H made in 1927. Most of them did not feature them as a team. By the following year they were inseparable and the comedies they made together featured one gem after another. Most people don’t know that L&H began theirContinue reading “LAUREL & HARDY: YEAR TWO – THE 1928 SHORTS”

1932 was Bela Lugosi’s banner year in the movies. Coming off the success of DRACULA, he was a hot property although already viewed only as a horror movie actor like his Hollywood peer, Boris Karloff. Karloff was able to overcome this designation and went on to have a storied career on stage and TV asContinue reading “CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932) Is Fun To Watch But Not To Listen To (Except For Bela)”