This is Part Two of a tribute to that irrepressible force of nature known as Ninian Joseph Yule Jr. (aka Mickey Rooney) and some of the more offbeat, underrated and over-the-top movies he made in the post-MGM years. Part One covered the ‘50s and ‘60s  – http://moviemorlocks.com/2012/04/29/hey-mickey-youre-so-fine-you-blow-my-mind/  – and this post takes us through the [...]

Forget about Boys Town, Judge Hardy and Son, Babes in Arm, The Human Comedy or National Velvet. This is the less traveled road of Mickey Rooney’s post-MGM career where anything goes…and often did.  

Johnny Weissmuller strikes a Vanity Fair-like pose in this second series of candid on-the-set snapshots, oddball publicity stills and off-the-set photographs.          

The celebrated photographers Ruth Harriet Louise and George Hurrell are partly responsible for creating the mystique and allure that surrounded the first major stars of the studio system. Their spellbinding portraits transformed actors like Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn and Joan Crawford into objects of beauty to be desired and worshipped, a Hollywood version of the [...]

“The Pill Dragnet! Blasting the Blackest Market of all…the girl peddlers of the deadliest thrill for sale!” – Tagline for DEATH IN SMALL DOSES (1957).    

Have you ever wondered how the Academy comes up with the five nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film each year? I am always a little puzzled by the selections and wonder why some of the most critically acclaimed contenders of the year didn’t make the grade. The category usually ends up looking like a [...]

There is one cinema gimmick that always works for me and can sometimes lift a movie out of the ordinary and take it somewhere unexpected. And this usually occurs when someone either puts on a mask or appears in one. The simple act of doing this immediately brings something theatrical and visually arresting to the [...]

MILLIONAIRES IN PRISON. Great title and the sort of news headline I’d like to see in an era where Wall Street robber barons and corporate raiders are creating a new society of haves and have-nots.     

“I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!” – Sergeant Jim Moore