The Laughing Policeman and Warning Shot
The Laughing Policeman (1973). Walter Matthau starred in two of the finest crime dramas of the 1970s: Charley Varrick (1973) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). Sandwiched between those classics, he made The Laughing Policeman...
Tubi or Not Tubi?
It's never been a better time to watch classic movies--even if you don't have TCM.I know classic film buffs who still bemoan the demise of FilmStruck, TCM's streaming service, which folded in 2018 after two brief years. I was equally sad to see the War...
The V.I.P.s and The Fog
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.The V.I.P.s (1963). A fogged-in London airport provides the setting—and serves as the catalyst—in playwright Terence Rattigan’s The V.I.P.s. This collage of mini-dramas shares the same structure as films such a...
The Movie Quote Game (John Ford Edition)
This month, we're focusing on quotes from John Ford films. We will list a quote from one of his movies and ask you to name it. Try to answer these questions on your own without resorting to Google searches. As always, please answer no more than three q...
Of Vampire Bats and Manitous!
Nick Mancuso as the hero.The late 1970s saw the release of two horror films based on popular novels that featured Native American protagonists: The Manitou (1978) and Nightwing (1979).The latter movie stars Nick Mancuso as Youngman Duran, the...
A Study in Terror and The Detective
A Study in Terror (1965). Murder By Decree (1979) may be the best known pairing of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper--but it wasn't the first. That distinction belongs to the mostly forgotten A Study in Terror. Produced with the cooperatio...
Cornel Wilde’s No Blade of Grass
Nigel Davenport as John Custance.Actor Cornel Wilde directed eight films, beginning with 1955's Storm Fear. His best picture is The Naked Prey (1965), in which he also stars as a safari guide being hunted down by African tribesmen. It's a lean, grippin...
Seven Things to Know About Walt Disney’s Zorro TV Series
Guy Williams as Zorro.1. Walt Disney launched his Zorro TV series on ABC in October 1957. Despite airing on Thursday nights against the Top 10 show You Bet Your Life, Zorro was an immediate hit. The first season's 39 episodes were divided int...
The Killers (1964) and Tenebrae
Clu Gulager and Lee Marvin.The Killers (1964). Don Siegel's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1946 short story "The Killers" is sadly overshadowed by the 1946 film version that made stars of Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. Siegel's The Ki...
The Alternate Movie Title Game – Greatest Hits (Vol. 1)
This month, we're doing something a little different for the Alternate Movie Title Game. The "titles" below have been compiled from some of our previous games--so this is sort of a greatest hits edition! The rules are the same: We will provide an ...