Hollywood Has Image Issues
This is the Oscars’ year of nostalgia — or at least that has been the pronouncement among observers. There is, of course, “The Artist,” a silent film set in the silent film era. There is Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” which is…
In A South African Safe House
“Safe House” is an edgy, stylish, frenetic, please-do-not-stand-up-until-the-ride-is-over action movie. If “action” is the right descriptive word, seeming rather limp and a bit of a cliche when referencing this film. The best of the genre, such as “Safe House,” have…
Movies With ‘Atomic’ in Their Title
Some words become buzzworthy in Hollywood at a certain point in time, and filmmakers looking to make some quick cash are more than happy to do whatever it takes to exploit such hot topics. Hot buzzwords for movie titles today…
Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel is a joyous tribute
True movie geeks will be in the queue for just one picture this week: Alex Stapleton’s joyous tribute to B-movie legend Roger Corman. With a career spanning six decades and more than 450 pictures, it’s amazing nobody has produced a…
The Atomic Submarine: Saving the World on a Shoestring Budget
Spencer Gordon Bennet’s The Atomic Submarine has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. It is easy enough to dismiss the film as kiddie matinee fare but, really, what science fiction–adventure movie from the 1950s wasn’t intended, at some level,…
The Blob
The horror and science fiction films of the 1950s were always in search of new monsters. A teenage werewolf was a compromise, targeting the new audience with a variation on an old idea. The original creations made their pictures unforgettable:…
The Deadly Spawn
I saw this movie in the mid ’80s, renting it for a high-school slumber-party I dubbed `Dusk to Dawn’ (a marathon of B-movie horror flicks). My jaw dropped – this was intense stuff! I recently watched it again and was…
The Wicker Man Musical
The Wicker Man is easily one of the weirdest films ever made. Shot on location in Scotland, the 1973 movie tells the story of a devout policeman who travels to a remote Hebridean island to investigate the disappearance of a…
Berlinale film lovers flock to Nazi Moon comedy Iron Sky
FINNISH sci-fi comedy about Nazi astronauts invading the earth has become the surprise hit of the Berlinale film festival. Iron Sky, made in the finest tradition of B movie, is the most talked-about film outside the main competition. It takes…
Corman’s “A Bucket of Blood” On Stage
The spirit of legendary B-movie director Roger Corman will hover over the Kansas City theater scene this spring. In March, the Living Room will present “A Bucket of Blood,” a new stage version of a comic horror film set against…
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by Estelle Marie and Geoffrey Trollope, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his…
Barbarella
Our story opens on Barbarella’s spaceship, the Alpha 7, which is furnished, floor to ceiling, with light brown shag carpeting. How incredibly groovy! Earth tones evidently made a comeback in 40,000 a.d.. The first scene is a unique weightless striptease…
Top Ten B Films Ever Made-Maybe
10. Psycho Beach Party – 2000 This is a relatively recent addition to the list of B-Movie must-sees. This spoofy blend of 1960’s beach party flick and 1970’s slasher film (think “Gidget” meets “Halloween”) offers everything from almost-naked bikini babes…
John Carpenter’s First Film Discovered!
Fun Fact! The only John Carpenter film to ever win an Academy Award – and one of only two nominations total, the other being Starman’s Best Actor nod in 1984 – was a short film called The Resurrection of Broncho…
Taking Laughable Movies Seriously
I have to wonder if studios realize just how laughable some of their movies are. There are plenty of off-the-wall movies out there, and a good deal are enjoyable when they embrace their B-movie material. It’s when movies take themselves…
A Visit With Bianca Allaine
1. While filming Albino Farm how were you impacted personally from the story that it’s portraying? Yes, I have always felt like an ostracized outsider. Looking back, I definitely see the connection I have to the character and story. Growing…
Joi Lansing
Gorgeous actress and model Joi Lansing was born Joyce Brown (later, Loveland) in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 6, 1928 (some sources cite 1929 and 1935 as her year of birth). By the late 1940s, she had made her…
Rocketship X-M
Rocketship X-M (1950) was the second of the American science fiction feature films of the space adventure genre begun in the post-war era, in 1950. Because expensive special effects and production value delayed the release of Destination Moon, this black-and-white…
Remake of Hitchcock’s ‘Suspicion’
Paramount has recruited Veena Sud (The Killing) to script a remake of ‘Suspicion’, the Oscar-winning 1941 Noir psycho-drama from director Alfred Hitchcock.It seems that not even the best work of filmmaking legend Alfred Hitchcock is considered “hands off” anymore, as…
Nazi humour from Finland at Berlin Film Festival
Is it tactless to screen a comedy about Nazis in Berlin? Perhaps. A film dreamed up by Finnish young men about Nazis on the moon, their discovery by American astronauts, and the ideological conflict that ensues, has nevertheless been one…