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Guest blogger Fred Burdsall writes:
I told you about The Brainiac and The Deadly Mantis from my childhood. Now, I’ll tell you about my favorite movie. The one movie that started my absolute love of horror and sci-fi… The Ridley Scott masterpiece… Alien.
By the time I finally got around to seeing it at the movies it was already on its last legs and playing down the street for a dollar. (Does anyone else remember the days of neighborhood theaters?) My friend Brian asked me if I had seen it yet and when I said no he told me, “I’ll meet you there because you HAVE to see this.” (A personal pet peeve is people telling me what I have to see, because it usually sucks). So with my dollar in hand I went in and was told I should sit in the front row of a fairly empty theater, but he refused to tell me why. This turned out to be the best dollar I EVER spent.
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Guest blogger Bill Wren writes:
I rewatched for the nth time (I’ve lost track) Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby (1938). Apart from being great fun each time I watch it, this time was a bit different having read Marc Eliot’s book, Cary Grant: A Biography and having previously watched Cary Grant: A Class Apart (a documentary on the second disc of the two-disc special edition DVD).
Here’s why this is interesting: Seeing Bringing Up Baby, at least as I do, you would think Cary Grant is in full command of what he’s doing — the ever skillful and brilliant, Cary. However, what you find out is that that is anything but the case.
Grant had had huge success with the previous year’s The Awful Truth (1937). However, he never took credit for its success because he had no idea how he had done it. He felt it was a fluke. He had been extremely anxious over his character, not sure how to play him, copying many mannerisms and stances of his then director, Leo McCarey.
Following closely on The Awful Truth, he was worried again about how to play his character in Bringing Up Baby and, compounding this, “… he was afraid to make a movie that was too stylistically similar in which his performance would not be as good.” (From Eliot’s biography of Cary Grant, p. 178.)
guest-blogs | FanFare Friends
Guest blogger Brian (aka Classicfilmboy) writes:
I recently fixed a gaping hole in my classic film education. Gilda, one of Rita Hayworth's best movies, is infamous for her simulated strip-tease to "Put the Blame on Mame" and is considered one of the sexiest musical numbers put on film during the 1940s.
But I had never seen this movie until recently. While it lived up to its notoriety, what struck me was how Hayworth owns this character. In short, this actress had talent beyond her breathtaking looks. And her chemistry with co-star Glenn Ford is so hot it nearly ignited the TV.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest blogger Brian Burkart writes:
James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar may feature photorealistic aliens, but for my money the most magical special effects were created by a single man: Ray Harryhausen. He brought to life some of the most memorable creatures in film history without the assistance of computers.
I was first introduced to Harryhausen’s work in the second grade when I borrowed the picture book “Creatures!” from my school’s library. The title was part of a book series that featured entries on Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, even King Kong. These books were very popular with the boys in my class and you had to be quick to grab one during our weekly library visit. The photos included in this entry were magnificent and sent my imagination into overdrive.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest blogger Fred Burdsall writes:
What makes you a fan?
Whatever your interests, there’s always something specific that gets your attention and won’t let go.
For me, it was movies—horror movies—and the scarier the better. I liked that nervous feeling we all get when something makes us uncomfortable. I liked sitting there and wondering if this is the one that finally makes me turn my head away. To me, it’s the greatest feeling in the world and I owe it all to four specific films.
My mother loves watching horror movies, so it was early on in life I got introduced to Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Soon after I discovered the joys of Corman, Price and Poe, but in the midst of all that there were two that grabbed me like no other.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Matt Bird from Cockeyed Caravan takes a look at one of his favorite underrated films:
Title: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy
Year: 1982
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Farrar (Cyrano de Bergerac), Julie Hagerty (Airplane), Tony Roberts (Annie Hall), Mary Steenburgen (Parenthood)
The Story: Three couples spend a weekend in the country in upstate New York at the beginning of the 20th Century. While there, they debate the existence of the spirit world and clumsily attempt to seduce each other’s partners.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest blogger Eric Roberts writes:
Admittedly, I didn't see Precious when it was initially released. Like many of my peers, I "thought" I just didn't want to see that aspect of African-American life portrayed and played out on the big screen. It was a struggle because I am a big fan of Lee Daniels, the film's director. A native Philadelphian and a fellow Capricorn, in my opinion, Daniels is the new Black...film director. Never one to shy away from controversial topics or subject matter, Daniels produced the 2002 Academy-Award nominated Monster's Ball, which, by the way, also garnered Halle Berry the coveted Best Actress Oscar. He also directed The Woodsman with Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Mos Def in 2004. However the Daniels-directed film that grabbed my attention and really made me sit up and pay attention is the 2005 release, Shadowboxer -- which stars Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Macy Gray and Mo'Nique. Hold that thought.
Call it short sightedness. Even though I am a fan, I never thought of Mo'Nique as a serious actress. Maybe I saw too many episodes of The Parker's - (remember Nikki?), Showtime at the Apollo, Flavor of Love: Charm School. Then there are her other movies: Soul Plane, Hair Show and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. Unfortunately these films only showed one side of this very talented woman, the one we all know well - the comic.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest contributor Bob Campbell writes:
Growing up in Southern California was a movie-lovers paradise! My home base of Bellflower, California was relatively equidistant to Long Beach, Hollywood and Westwood - each with an abundance of movie theaters to tempt my attendance. Beginning in 1955, at age 10, my parents allowed me to take the bus every Saturday morning to my grandmother’s house in Long Beach, where I earned a dollar an hour doing yard work. I arrived very early Saturday mornings so my afternoons would be free to see as many movies as possible before the 6:00 pm bus would deliver me home. Then when I hit my teens, my parents permitted me to add Hollywood and Westwood to my weekly movie expeditions.
Hollywood being the movie capitol of the world, I soon discovered the tradition known as the “Major Studio Sneak Preview.” There are two kinds of “sneak previews:” those shown nationwide in promotional campaigns designed to help spread word of mouth for a new movie, and others, mostly shown in and around Hollywood, that are legitimate test screenings attended by studio execs to gauge audience response and develop marketing strategies. Since the titles are kept secret, these “genuine” sneak previews are included free with the admission paid to see whatever is playing that week. Audiences are occasionally asked to fill out survey cards and rate the movie after the screening.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest contributor Richard Williams writes:
If you were a “kid” growing up in the United States or Canada in the nineteen-forties, you probably spent many a Saturday afternoon at your local movie house. For twenty-five cents you got admission to the theater, a box of popcorn with enough left over for carfare home. Once in your seat you were ready to spend the next four hours watching a double feature, usually consisting of a western, a cartoon, a chapter of an ongoing serial, a newsreel and a second feature. And on the occasion that one of those features starred a diminutive Indian actor with a broad smile by the name of Sabu the Elephant Boy, then you knew you were in for a rousing adventure, usually in Technicolor.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Glen Macnow--host of Philadelphia-based WIP Radio’s “Movie Club for Men”--and Ray Didinger--football analyst for Comcast Sports Network--have just written “The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies: Featuring the 100 Greatest Sports Films of All Time.” The book is currently available at Amazon.com (you can find it at http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Book-Sports-Movies-Featuring/dp/0762435488 ). In the following interview, Macnow answers some of the most frequently asked questions about this encycolpedic salute to sports cinema.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest contributor Charles Wiebe writes:
Many films are instant classics such as: Gone With The Wind or the Lord of the Rings series. However, many of our most cherished movies have been sleepers; Bringing up Baby and Citizen Kane were both box office busts and required decades to achieve their current status. Classic movies must prove themselves by speaking to more than one generation. So I think that at least one other commercial flop will eventually find its way into Hollywood’s Valhalla; I speak of Philip Kaufman’s 1983 Film, The Right Stuff.
guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Angie and Chantale of www.cinemaobsessed.com write:
Cult films. Sounds kinda scary doesn’t it? If you’re not a movie-buff you might be thinking a cult film is a recruiting video to entice you to join The Alliance of the Stars of Neptune, or some such thing. This isn’t the case.
A cult film is a film that has a small but obsessive following (trust us… we at CinemaObsessed.com have a lot of experience obsessing over movies). A film like this usually doesn’t have mainstream success. Actually most are total box office flops upon their release, but the film eventually gains success through rentals and DVD sales. Our bank accounts have suffered greatly due to our ‘habit’.
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