Category Archives: Uncategorized

I first saw DEMENTIA 13 on late night TV back in the mid 1960s and the shadowy lighting, stark b&w photography, dissonant score, and brutal axe murders made quite an impression on me. It would be years before I would see the film again. I rented it from a Mom and Pop video store backContinue reading “DEMENTIA 13 (1963): Best Looking Version That I Have Ever Seen”

THE INTRUDER is best known today as one of the few Roger Corman films to have lost money. Because of that fact and its subject material, racial hatred in the newly desegregated South, it has rarely been seen. This film was shot in 1961 when there was no Civil Rights Act and the film versionContinue reading “THE INTRUDER (1961): Roger Corman’s Notorious Money Loser”

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 evidentContinue reading “JAMAICA INN (1939): Hitchcock’s Last British Movie In A Stunning Restoration”

Done with Hollywood by the mid 1950s, Fritz Lang returned to Germany and decided to remake THE INDIAN TOMB (reviewed elsewhere), a legendary German silent film from 1921 that he had originally been scheduled to direct (he was one of the film’s writers). Just as in the case of the first film, the remake wasContinue reading “FRITZ LANG’S INDIAN EPIC (1959) : A Remake That Holds Its Own”

As the second decade of the 21st century nears its end, I have been going back in recent months to revisit some of my earliest silent film DVDs. One of my early favorites was Joe May’s (pronounced MY) THE INDIAN TOMB from 1921 (now 100 years old) and I am happy to report that afterContinue reading “THE INDIAN TOMB (1921): Indian Mysticism Meets German Exoticism”

When I saw this set announced, I was surprised and delighted as I was completely unfamiliar with any of these movies. I must have read about them in Patrick McGilligan’s thorough 1997 biography of Lang but I don’t recall them. Then again they haven’t been available for home viewing until now. All three are basedContinue reading “FRITZ LANG TRIPLE BILL: Good But Not Great”

I had heard of Fritz Lang’s WOMAN IN THE MOON for many years and had seen stills from it in sci-fi film anthologies but I was never sure if I would ever get to see it. Now that I have seen it I was totally unprepared for how taken I would be with it. ItContinue reading “WOMAN IN THE MOON Or 1929: A Space Odyssey”

SPIES appropriately marks the beginning of the modern spy thriller as we know it today. It features an intrepid hero, a beautiful woman with divided loyalties and a cunning and diabolical villain. There is also international intrigue, bedroom politics, gadgets galore and spectacular stunts. What raises it above the ordinary is Fritz Lang’s passion forContinue reading “SPIES (1928) Marks The Birth Of The Modern Espionage Film”

Yes, METROPOLIS is the movie that everybody knows and while it is a highly influential work of world cinema, for my money Fritz Lang’s true masterpiece is DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER especially when seen in this new authorized edition from Kino which runs 270 minutes. That’s 57 minutes longer than the previous Image release whichContinue reading “DR MABUSE: Fritz Lang’s True Silent Masterpiece”

I first became familiar with THE SPIDERS in David Shepard’s 1999 version on Image DVD. It will always have a special place in my silent film collection as it was my introduction to the exotic pulp fiction serials of the silent era that would culminate years later in the INDIANA JONES films of Steven Spielberg.Continue reading “THE SPIDERS: The Prototype for Indiana Jones”