Monthly Archives: October 2018

CAUTION: Contains “spoilers.” Lance Comfort’s 1948 “Daughter of Darkness” is one of those films that confounds genre purists. The mise-en-scene is clearly that of a gothic horror film. You can even peg it to the short-lived “New Apocalypse” movement in … Continue reading →

CAUTION: Contains “spoilers.” O.k., let’s say from the get-go that Edward Dmytryk’s 1957 film “Raintree County” is NOT “Gone with the Wind”–no matter how fondly M.G.M. wished it to be. It’s not a perfect film. I like the film but … Continue reading →

Peter Brook’s 1978 film of Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear,” like Orson Welles’ versions of the tragedies “Macbeth” and “Othello” is film first and Shakespeare second. Brook creates a world far removed from the cod-medieval spectacle we might expect to see. … Continue reading →

One of the charms of the Universal stable of Famous Monsters is that each has a lineage to draw on. “The Mummy” is a bit of an exception to this rule. To begin with, the original film “The Mummy” (1932) … Continue reading →

CAUTION: Contains “spoilers.” I enjoyed seeing “Odds Against Tomorrow” so much that I watched both the Saturday and Sunday editions of TCM’s “Noir Alley” just to refresh it in my mind. I saw the film as a new release in … Continue reading →