Last week we took a look at Preston Sturges’ Palm Beach Story, and in so doing I took a swipe at Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels.  Well, this week I cycle back to give Sullivan’s Travels a second look.  I still think it’s weak tea compared to Sturges’ more madcap films like Hail the Conquering Hero, Christmas [...]

Hollywood’s fascination with itself has generally meant that movies about movies–or, more precisely, movies that celebrate movies–tend to be overvalued by the film establishment relative to their actual merits. For example, Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels tends to show up on a lot of classic movie lists, it was singled out for the Criterion treatment back [...]

I’ve been in a state of sleep-deprivation-induced delirium for a couple of weeks now, an unending surrealist haze, and so I decided to pay a visit to one of the nutty dream-like movies that most closely approximates this state of mind–the wonderfully structured horror-comedy Viy!

I knew I was likely to provoke some disagreement a couple of weeks ago when I presented my defense of the Pollock cut of Metropolis.  I never claimed it was a better movie than the longer restored cut—and I certainly never suggested it should supplant that version in the marketplace.  I have a wife and [...]

The Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie is not the first time contemporary directors have sought to recreate slapstick comedies.  This week, we’ll visit Blake Edward’s attempt to revive Laurel and Hardy in the 1980s. You have to be careful with titles like A Fine Mess.  If it isn’t perfect (and what movies are?), you’ve just [...]

Spread out! Having been on a remake kick now for several weeks, I can’t pass up the opportunity to comment on the current big-screen “remake” of The Three Stooges.  The only problem is, I haven’t yet seen it (I write these blogs a week or more before they go up), so I’m not in a [...]

Last year I had the privilege of participating in the Blu-Ray restoration of the restored version of Metropolis (the UK Blu-Ray edition at least, from Masters of Cinema), recording an audio commentary alongside Jonathan Rosenbaum.  It was a tremendous thrill to see this once-lost footage brought back into circulation—it makes you think that maybe anything [...]

Agatha Christie aficionados and detective fiction fans take note: Behind the deceptively bland title The Inugami Family lies a superb pulp mystery of the highest order–a cinematic classic that won awards, influenced a generation, and remains as thrilling today as when it was made.  Those of you who are inspired by this blog to rush [...]

One day, Japanese pulp cinema auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa was watching TV.  A killer had been apprehended, and the TV newscasters mobbed the perp’s neighbors to ask all the familiar questions: what was he like?  Did he act unusual?  Did you ever suspect you were living next door to a monster?  And the answers to these inevitable [...]