Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Picture Perfect Wednesday:
Gum In My Hair
Gum In My Hair
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Emerging from the city's shadows: John Law
Will Eisner's John Law: Dead Man Walking (IDW, 2004)
Story and Art: Gary Chaloner and Will Eisner
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
"Dead Man Walking" is an 80-page anthology that serves as a reintroduction to a classic Will Eisner character who never really saw publication until 1983, but whose creation led to a couple of the most celebrated stories in Esiner's famous 'The Spirit' series. The volume contains three all-new tales by Chaloner; the fully restored original John Law tales from the 1940s, by Eisner; and a short, but informative, essay about the character's publication history.
The original John Law tales, which make up the last 25 pages of the book, that are spectacular displays of when Will Eisner was at his finest. The art is fluid, with the action and motion in the panels virtually leaping off the page, and the stories are solid noir crime tales with quirky characters and femme fetales that could only have sprung from Eisner's mind and pen. They're great reading, and anyone who's admired Eisner's graphic novels or his Spirit work should read these tales, too.
The bulk of the book consists of Chaloner's new John Law stories, which capture the flavor and tone of Eisner's Law stories, as well as the elements that made the Spirit stories so fantastic. Chaloner also captures Eisner's writing style with quite a bit of flair. He does these things, however, without aping Eisner, but instead retains a style of his own. In fact, Chaloner's tales are a little darker than Eisner's, and while they definately set in a film-noir world of the 1940s, they also have a modern vibe to them. ("Law, Luck, and the Dead-Eyed Mystic" is a perfect fusion of that film-noir flavor with modern story-telling--and Chaloner throws in some cool backstory elements for John Law, as well as a couple of superhero-type characters.)
The flaw with Chaloner's work is that he, like so many modern artists, doesn't quite have the talent for layouts and pacing of a comic book story that older artists had. No matter how packed with activity that Eisner's pages were, the eyes of the reader always moved easily across the panels and pages; Chaloner's work is less clear and his layouts less easy to follow. In the bigger picture, he doesn't end each page with a "mini-cliffhanger" the way Eisner and other classic comic book artists did... and I think that Chaloner's tales suffer because of these factors.
Despite my complaints relating to Chaloner's mastery of the basics of comic book art above, I think "Dead Man Walking" is a comic book that everyone who loves comics should read. Chaloner's weaknesses as an artist are all too common these days, and his strengths more than make up for them. And vintage Eisner is always worth the price of admission.
(This graphic novel was follewed by a single issue of what was supposed to be a "John Law" ongoing series. That was 2005. I've not seen a second issue. I can only assume this means John Law's second chance for an extended publishing life was only slightly more successful than his first.)
Story and Art: Gary Chaloner and Will Eisner
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
"Dead Man Walking" is an 80-page anthology that serves as a reintroduction to a classic Will Eisner character who never really saw publication until 1983, but whose creation led to a couple of the most celebrated stories in Esiner's famous 'The Spirit' series. The volume contains three all-new tales by Chaloner; the fully restored original John Law tales from the 1940s, by Eisner; and a short, but informative, essay about the character's publication history.
The original John Law tales, which make up the last 25 pages of the book, that are spectacular displays of when Will Eisner was at his finest. The art is fluid, with the action and motion in the panels virtually leaping off the page, and the stories are solid noir crime tales with quirky characters and femme fetales that could only have sprung from Eisner's mind and pen. They're great reading, and anyone who's admired Eisner's graphic novels or his Spirit work should read these tales, too.
The bulk of the book consists of Chaloner's new John Law stories, which capture the flavor and tone of Eisner's Law stories, as well as the elements that made the Spirit stories so fantastic. Chaloner also captures Eisner's writing style with quite a bit of flair. He does these things, however, without aping Eisner, but instead retains a style of his own. In fact, Chaloner's tales are a little darker than Eisner's, and while they definately set in a film-noir world of the 1940s, they also have a modern vibe to them. ("Law, Luck, and the Dead-Eyed Mystic" is a perfect fusion of that film-noir flavor with modern story-telling--and Chaloner throws in some cool backstory elements for John Law, as well as a couple of superhero-type characters.)
The flaw with Chaloner's work is that he, like so many modern artists, doesn't quite have the talent for layouts and pacing of a comic book story that older artists had. No matter how packed with activity that Eisner's pages were, the eyes of the reader always moved easily across the panels and pages; Chaloner's work is less clear and his layouts less easy to follow. In the bigger picture, he doesn't end each page with a "mini-cliffhanger" the way Eisner and other classic comic book artists did... and I think that Chaloner's tales suffer because of these factors.
Despite my complaints relating to Chaloner's mastery of the basics of comic book art above, I think "Dead Man Walking" is a comic book that everyone who loves comics should read. Chaloner's weaknesses as an artist are all too common these days, and his strengths more than make up for them. And vintage Eisner is always worth the price of admission.
(This graphic novel was follewed by a single issue of what was supposed to be a "John Law" ongoing series. That was 2005. I've not seen a second issue. I can only assume this means John Law's second chance for an extended publishing life was only slightly more successful than his first.)
Monday, May 31, 2010
Maybe this is why your mom told you,
'Never talk to strangers'?
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Laura Elliot (aka Casey Rogers) and Patricia Hitchcock
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars
A professional tennis player (Granger) has what he believes is an idle conversation with a very strange fan (Walker) while traveling by train. The fan proposes that he kill the athlete's slutty, unfaithful wife (Elliot), who is denying him a divorce, white the tennis player kills his domineering father. It's the perfect murder, as neither of them have a motive to kill their victim and no one knows they know each other. Although the athlete refuses to take part in the scheme, his wife turns up murdered, and the man from the train appears on his doorstep and demands that he follow through with his part of the arrangement.
"Strangers on a Train" is one of Hitchcock's finest movies. The performances from all the actors are top-notch, with Farley Granger playing his part so effectively that even when it's obvious that he repulsed at the idea of committing murder when it his proposed to him--escially the murder of someone he doesn't even know--there is still just intrigued enough that he might give into the temptation to be rid of his nasty wife.
Co-star Robert Walker is equally excellent as the psychopath who is intent on forcing Granger to be his partner in murder. From his first appearance, the audience can tell that there's something queer about Walker's character--and I'm using that word in any sense you choose to apply it--even if he he initially seems nice enough, if just a bit socially awkward. As the film unfolds, and we become fully aware of just how deranged and evil this man is, Walker becomes the main source of tension in the film... a threat greater to Granger and those he cares about than even the possibility of being arrested for a murder he didn't commit.
Aside from the great acting "Strangers on a Train" is also a showcase for perfection in film editing; if it's not being used in film studies classes, it should be. There is not a wasted second anywhere in its running-time, and the third act is nail-biter it thanks primarily to the editing. The sequence where Granger has to finish and WIN a tennis competition in record time so he can stop Walker from planting incriminating evidence framing Granger once and for all at the murder scene is absolutely spectacular. The same is true of the way we follow Walker on his trip back to the scene of the crime with the damning evidence in hand. Finally, there is the rightfully celebrated climactic and deadly confrontation between Granger and Walker on a out-of-control carousel, a symbolic fight pushed to the height of suspense by artful use of cinematic tricks.
If you have watched and liked any Hitchcock films, I believe you absolutely must see this movie. That goes double if you are an aspiring writer or filmmaker yourself. Few movies are a better one-stop showcase for how to do this right than "Strangers on a Train."
Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Laura Elliot (aka Casey Rogers) and Patricia Hitchcock
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars
A professional tennis player (Granger) has what he believes is an idle conversation with a very strange fan (Walker) while traveling by train. The fan proposes that he kill the athlete's slutty, unfaithful wife (Elliot), who is denying him a divorce, white the tennis player kills his domineering father. It's the perfect murder, as neither of them have a motive to kill their victim and no one knows they know each other. Although the athlete refuses to take part in the scheme, his wife turns up murdered, and the man from the train appears on his doorstep and demands that he follow through with his part of the arrangement.
"Strangers on a Train" is one of Hitchcock's finest movies. The performances from all the actors are top-notch, with Farley Granger playing his part so effectively that even when it's obvious that he repulsed at the idea of committing murder when it his proposed to him--escially the murder of someone he doesn't even know--there is still just intrigued enough that he might give into the temptation to be rid of his nasty wife.
Co-star Robert Walker is equally excellent as the psychopath who is intent on forcing Granger to be his partner in murder. From his first appearance, the audience can tell that there's something queer about Walker's character--and I'm using that word in any sense you choose to apply it--even if he he initially seems nice enough, if just a bit socially awkward. As the film unfolds, and we become fully aware of just how deranged and evil this man is, Walker becomes the main source of tension in the film... a threat greater to Granger and those he cares about than even the possibility of being arrested for a murder he didn't commit.
Aside from the great acting "Strangers on a Train" is also a showcase for perfection in film editing; if it's not being used in film studies classes, it should be. There is not a wasted second anywhere in its running-time, and the third act is nail-biter it thanks primarily to the editing. The sequence where Granger has to finish and WIN a tennis competition in record time so he can stop Walker from planting incriminating evidence framing Granger once and for all at the murder scene is absolutely spectacular. The same is true of the way we follow Walker on his trip back to the scene of the crime with the damning evidence in hand. Finally, there is the rightfully celebrated climactic and deadly confrontation between Granger and Walker on a out-of-control carousel, a symbolic fight pushed to the height of suspense by artful use of cinematic tricks.
If you have watched and liked any Hitchcock films, I believe you absolutely must see this movie. That goes double if you are an aspiring writer or filmmaker yourself. Few movies are a better one-stop showcase for how to do this right than "Strangers on a Train."
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
'Cash on Demand' is an excellent thriller
Cash on Demand (1961)
Starring: Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, and Richard Vernon
Director: Quentin Lawrence
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
A bank manager (Cushing) is forced to assist in plundering his own bank when a robber (Morell) holds is wife and child hostage.
This is an undeservedly obscure thriller with stars Peter Cushing and Andre Morell showing that you don't need hundreds of millions of dollars, gunplay and lots of violence to make an exciting movie. Most of this film takes place within a single room--the bank manager's office--and most of it is Cushing and Morrel talking. This is a movie that shows that a great film can arise from a solid script, good actors, and competent direction and editing. (This film cost about $60,000, adjusted for inflation; not single shot is fire; and the worst violence is when Andre Morrel slaps Cushing a couple of times.)
The film is a remarkable entry into the psychological thriller genre, one of roughly a dozen of this type of film co-produced with Columbia Pictures during the early 1960s in the hopes of capturing the success Universal Pictures and Alfred Hitchcock had with "Psycho." This wasn't new territory for Hammer, however, as they had released numerous crime dramas and thrillers during the 1940s and 1950s, before the studio hit cinema gold with their celebrated Technicolor gothic horror flicks.
But the black-and-white thrillers the studio produced during the early 1960s were better than those earlier efforts, and "Cash on Demand" is one of the best.
The film's strength comes to a large degree from Peter Cushing and his portrayal of Fordyce, a man who treats the bank he manages as his kingdom, his staff as serfs, and his office as his throne room. He is an unliked and unlikable in his professional life, but Cushing presents Fordyce's soft side with a single glance at the picture of his wife and son that he keeps on his desk... and that one glance is all the audience needs to be on Fordyce's side once Andre Morell's villanious and manipulative Hepburn enters the bank and turns Fordyce's throne room into his prison and forces him to destroy his kingdom in order to save his the ones he loves.
We feel for Fordyce as he is reduced from a proud and unyielding to sniveling and begging. But we also watch to see how far Hepburn can push Fordyce, if Fordyce will break, and what the result will be if he does.
But Cushing's performance wouldn't be as strong if he didn't have Andre Morell to play off. Morell presents Hepburn as a charming, cheerful person and he delivers every line with a smile in his voice... but in a couple of instances, he reveals his character's true nature and it becomes apparent that he is a mirror image of Fordyce: Fordyce is a soft man within a cold, hard shell, but Hepburn is a hard man with an even harder core hidden behind a soft and smiling exterior. Hepburn has seen through Fordyce's exterior and he takes a great deal of pleasure at breaking it down while lecturing him on proper interaction with his fellow man. The humanistic approach that Hepburn takes to life--and it is one that seems to be genuine, not just part of his picking at Fordyce as he waits for the right moment to clean out the bank vault--makes him a fascinating and interesting character.
One of the biggest surprises is the film's ending. It is a far more modern one that I anticipated, and it's a great close for a great film. Another appealing aspect is that the film, which takes place just before Christmas, ultimately ends up like a sideways take on "A Christmas Carol," with Fordyce standing in for Scrooge and Hepburn being all the Christmas Ghosts in one smiling--yet very menacing--package.
"Cash on Demand" is one of the six movies featured in "Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films." It's worth the price of the almost all by itself.
For more reviews of movies starring Peter Cushing, visit The Peter Cushing Collection by clicking here.
Starring: Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, and Richard Vernon
Director: Quentin Lawrence
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
A bank manager (Cushing) is forced to assist in plundering his own bank when a robber (Morell) holds is wife and child hostage.
This is an undeservedly obscure thriller with stars Peter Cushing and Andre Morell showing that you don't need hundreds of millions of dollars, gunplay and lots of violence to make an exciting movie. Most of this film takes place within a single room--the bank manager's office--and most of it is Cushing and Morrel talking. This is a movie that shows that a great film can arise from a solid script, good actors, and competent direction and editing. (This film cost about $60,000, adjusted for inflation; not single shot is fire; and the worst violence is when Andre Morrel slaps Cushing a couple of times.)
The film is a remarkable entry into the psychological thriller genre, one of roughly a dozen of this type of film co-produced with Columbia Pictures during the early 1960s in the hopes of capturing the success Universal Pictures and Alfred Hitchcock had with "Psycho." This wasn't new territory for Hammer, however, as they had released numerous crime dramas and thrillers during the 1940s and 1950s, before the studio hit cinema gold with their celebrated Technicolor gothic horror flicks.
But the black-and-white thrillers the studio produced during the early 1960s were better than those earlier efforts, and "Cash on Demand" is one of the best.
The film's strength comes to a large degree from Peter Cushing and his portrayal of Fordyce, a man who treats the bank he manages as his kingdom, his staff as serfs, and his office as his throne room. He is an unliked and unlikable in his professional life, but Cushing presents Fordyce's soft side with a single glance at the picture of his wife and son that he keeps on his desk... and that one glance is all the audience needs to be on Fordyce's side once Andre Morell's villanious and manipulative Hepburn enters the bank and turns Fordyce's throne room into his prison and forces him to destroy his kingdom in order to save his the ones he loves.
We feel for Fordyce as he is reduced from a proud and unyielding to sniveling and begging. But we also watch to see how far Hepburn can push Fordyce, if Fordyce will break, and what the result will be if he does.
But Cushing's performance wouldn't be as strong if he didn't have Andre Morell to play off. Morell presents Hepburn as a charming, cheerful person and he delivers every line with a smile in his voice... but in a couple of instances, he reveals his character's true nature and it becomes apparent that he is a mirror image of Fordyce: Fordyce is a soft man within a cold, hard shell, but Hepburn is a hard man with an even harder core hidden behind a soft and smiling exterior. Hepburn has seen through Fordyce's exterior and he takes a great deal of pleasure at breaking it down while lecturing him on proper interaction with his fellow man. The humanistic approach that Hepburn takes to life--and it is one that seems to be genuine, not just part of his picking at Fordyce as he waits for the right moment to clean out the bank vault--makes him a fascinating and interesting character.
One of the biggest surprises is the film's ending. It is a far more modern one that I anticipated, and it's a great close for a great film. Another appealing aspect is that the film, which takes place just before Christmas, ultimately ends up like a sideways take on "A Christmas Carol," with Fordyce standing in for Scrooge and Hepburn being all the Christmas Ghosts in one smiling--yet very menacing--package.
"Cash on Demand" is one of the six movies featured in "Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films." It's worth the price of the almost all by itself.
For more reviews of movies starring Peter Cushing, visit The Peter Cushing Collection by clicking here.
Picture Perfect Wednesday
with Katharine Hepburn
with Katharine Hepburn
Monday, May 24, 2010
One of Corman's first is also one of his best
A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Starring: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, and Julian Burton
Director: Roger Corman
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Walter (Miller), the dorky, put-upon busboy at the beatnik hangout Yellow Door Cafe, wants desperately to be an artist--both so he can impress his beautiful coworker Carla (Morris) and receive the sort of adulations that are heaped nightly upon poet Maxwell Brock (Burton). After he accidentially kills his neighbor's cat, he hits upon the perfect medium for his creative expression--covering dead bodies with clay and presenting them as sculptures. Soon, people are dying to be his models.
For years, I maligned Roger Corman as a terrible filmmaker. This was partly due to the fact that that the first few movies of his that I saw were indeed awful, such as "The Gunslinger." However, as I've been seeing more of his films, I've realized I misjudged him. He could make good movies, and "A Bucket of Blood" is one of this best!
"A Bucket of Blood" is a dark comedy where a talentless loner, desperate for acceptance, goes to extremes to fit in. Its events and messages can be interperted in many ways--as commentary on what passes for "art"; as a statement about the downsides of societal pressures to fit in, even among supposedly accepting counter-cultures; that the one constant in life is hypocracy; or perhaps even all of these--or the viewer can just switch off the brain and watch Walter's quest for acknowledgement spin out of control.
The general structure, story, and even the types of characters, of "A Bucket of Blood" is similar to Corman's later "The Little Shop of Horrors", but the story is more tightly focused, the humor sharper, and the actors' performances more restrained. Where "The Little Shop of Horrors" was a broadbased spoof, "A Bucket of Blood" keeps its attention on beatniks, artists, and wannabes. The main characters are virtually identical, and they even come to similar final fates, but Walter emerges as a far more sinister and evil character than Seymour, and the climactic moment in "Bucket" is more impactful (where it was just goofy in "Shop".
The camerawork and lighting of this film are near perfect. Yes, this is a low-buget film, and the sets are simple and shabby, but Corman uses a wide range of filmmaking techniques that heighten the drama and horror toward the end of the film, and they greatly enhance the pitch-black comedy when Walter's boss (Carbone) is reacting in the background while Walter is showing his latest creation to him and Carla, after the boss has realized how the sculptures are being created. In fact, during the chase scene toward the end of the film, I found myself wondering if many modern filmmakers should be forced to watch this movie to see how to properly apply the tools of their trade.
The actors are also universally excellent, with great comedic talent shown all-around, from the pair of doped-out beatniks who wander through the scenes spouting hilarious nonsense; to Carbone, as the demanding boss who finds respect and fear for his busboy; to Morris, Walter's kindhearted coworker and target of his affections; to Burton, as the blowhard, psuedo-intellectual poet; to Miller, who, in his only starring role, puts on a spectacular show as a dork who turns into a homicidal maniac because of a hunger for acceptance. Miller does a fine job of going from goofy to menacing, but still maintaining a comic tone.
Starring: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, and Julian Burton
Director: Roger Corman
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Walter (Miller), the dorky, put-upon busboy at the beatnik hangout Yellow Door Cafe, wants desperately to be an artist--both so he can impress his beautiful coworker Carla (Morris) and receive the sort of adulations that are heaped nightly upon poet Maxwell Brock (Burton). After he accidentially kills his neighbor's cat, he hits upon the perfect medium for his creative expression--covering dead bodies with clay and presenting them as sculptures. Soon, people are dying to be his models.
For years, I maligned Roger Corman as a terrible filmmaker. This was partly due to the fact that that the first few movies of his that I saw were indeed awful, such as "The Gunslinger." However, as I've been seeing more of his films, I've realized I misjudged him. He could make good movies, and "A Bucket of Blood" is one of this best!
"A Bucket of Blood" is a dark comedy where a talentless loner, desperate for acceptance, goes to extremes to fit in. Its events and messages can be interperted in many ways--as commentary on what passes for "art"; as a statement about the downsides of societal pressures to fit in, even among supposedly accepting counter-cultures; that the one constant in life is hypocracy; or perhaps even all of these--or the viewer can just switch off the brain and watch Walter's quest for acknowledgement spin out of control.
The general structure, story, and even the types of characters, of "A Bucket of Blood" is similar to Corman's later "The Little Shop of Horrors", but the story is more tightly focused, the humor sharper, and the actors' performances more restrained. Where "The Little Shop of Horrors" was a broadbased spoof, "A Bucket of Blood" keeps its attention on beatniks, artists, and wannabes. The main characters are virtually identical, and they even come to similar final fates, but Walter emerges as a far more sinister and evil character than Seymour, and the climactic moment in "Bucket" is more impactful (where it was just goofy in "Shop".
The camerawork and lighting of this film are near perfect. Yes, this is a low-buget film, and the sets are simple and shabby, but Corman uses a wide range of filmmaking techniques that heighten the drama and horror toward the end of the film, and they greatly enhance the pitch-black comedy when Walter's boss (Carbone) is reacting in the background while Walter is showing his latest creation to him and Carla, after the boss has realized how the sculptures are being created. In fact, during the chase scene toward the end of the film, I found myself wondering if many modern filmmakers should be forced to watch this movie to see how to properly apply the tools of their trade.
The actors are also universally excellent, with great comedic talent shown all-around, from the pair of doped-out beatniks who wander through the scenes spouting hilarious nonsense; to Carbone, as the demanding boss who finds respect and fear for his busboy; to Morris, Walter's kindhearted coworker and target of his affections; to Burton, as the blowhard, psuedo-intellectual poet; to Miller, who, in his only starring role, puts on a spectacular show as a dork who turns into a homicidal maniac because of a hunger for acceptance. Miller does a fine job of going from goofy to menacing, but still maintaining a comic tone.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Anti-aging serum creates murderer
in 'Before I Hang'
Before I Hang (1940)
Starring: Boris Karloff, Evelyn Keyes, Edward Van Sloan, Bruce Bennett, and Don Beddoe
Director: Nick Grinde
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
John Garth (Karloff), a research scientist who devoted his career to cure the disease of aging, developes a successful anti-aging serum that has one teeny-tiny side-effect: It turns him into a mad killer whenever he sees blood.
This is a decent little horror flick with sci-fi overtones and elements that resonate even louder today than they did when it was released in 1940. With its themes of mercy-killings of suffering old people, the death penelty, stem cell research, and anti-aging drugs (I can see Dr. Garth working in one of those "anti-aging clinics" we have a small chain of here in the Northwest), the fillm has something to say on a number of topics that remain the subject of heated discussion in the halls of both scientific and political power.
With good acting--Boris Karloff once again does a great job at transforming one character he is playing into another one, with just his facial expression and body language to help him--and the supporting cast are all excellent in their parts.
This is an interesting flick that might well be a real classic, due to its timeless subject matter. It's one of four Karloff films included in "Icons of Horror: Boris Karloff."
Starring: Boris Karloff, Evelyn Keyes, Edward Van Sloan, Bruce Bennett, and Don Beddoe
Director: Nick Grinde
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
John Garth (Karloff), a research scientist who devoted his career to cure the disease of aging, developes a successful anti-aging serum that has one teeny-tiny side-effect: It turns him into a mad killer whenever he sees blood.
This is a decent little horror flick with sci-fi overtones and elements that resonate even louder today than they did when it was released in 1940. With its themes of mercy-killings of suffering old people, the death penelty, stem cell research, and anti-aging drugs (I can see Dr. Garth working in one of those "anti-aging clinics" we have a small chain of here in the Northwest), the fillm has something to say on a number of topics that remain the subject of heated discussion in the halls of both scientific and political power.
With good acting--Boris Karloff once again does a great job at transforming one character he is playing into another one, with just his facial expression and body language to help him--and the supporting cast are all excellent in their parts.
This is an interesting flick that might well be a real classic, due to its timeless subject matter. It's one of four Karloff films included in "Icons of Horror: Boris Karloff."
Friday, May 21, 2010
Bulldog Drummond is out for revenge
(not sure against whom, but look out)!
Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937)
Starring: John Howard, E.E. Clive, Reginald Denny, John Barrymore, Louise Campbell, and Frank Puglia
Director: Louis King
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
While preparing to travel to Switzerland with his friends Algy (Denny) and Colonel Nielsen (Barrymore), as well as his manservant Tenny (Clive), so he can finally marry the love of his life, Phyllis Clavering (Campbell), Captain Hugh Drummond (Howard) is drawn into a nefarious scheme by murderous froeign agents attempting to steal the only existing sample of a newly developed high explosive, Hexonite. Can Drummond and his friends round up the guilty parties without spoiling yet another set of wedding plans?
"Bulldog Drummond's Revenge" is a fast-paced adventure tale that keeps things funny and lighthearted--almost in spite a sequence where our heroes are tossing about a suitcase that don't realize contains unstable explosives, and a series of ghoulish gags involving a severed arm.
This is the third of eight "Bulldog Drummond" movies produced by Paramount Pictures in the 1930s, and the regular cast-members provide their usual charming and witty performances. Clive shines particularly brightly in this outing, with Tenny's plain frustration with the antics of his "betters" giving rise to some very funny sarcasm.
The film's main weak point is its reliance on far-fetched coincidences to both get started and keep the characters involved in the events. (I could accept that Drummond and pals just happen to be driving along the road where bad guys are executing Stage Two of their scheme... but it taxes my ability to suspend my disbelief that Drummond and Phyllis's train compartment just happens to be next to the ones reserved by the bad guy. There's also the issue that Phyllis seems just a tiny bit too shrewish at times during the film; it's hardly Hugh's fault that a suitcase and a severed arm literally dropped out of the sky as he was returning from London.
This entry in the series will be particularly appreciated by fans of the "Indiana Jones" movies, as it has much of a same tone as they do.
Starring: John Howard, E.E. Clive, Reginald Denny, John Barrymore, Louise Campbell, and Frank Puglia
Director: Louis King
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
While preparing to travel to Switzerland with his friends Algy (Denny) and Colonel Nielsen (Barrymore), as well as his manservant Tenny (Clive), so he can finally marry the love of his life, Phyllis Clavering (Campbell), Captain Hugh Drummond (Howard) is drawn into a nefarious scheme by murderous froeign agents attempting to steal the only existing sample of a newly developed high explosive, Hexonite. Can Drummond and his friends round up the guilty parties without spoiling yet another set of wedding plans?
"Bulldog Drummond's Revenge" is a fast-paced adventure tale that keeps things funny and lighthearted--almost in spite a sequence where our heroes are tossing about a suitcase that don't realize contains unstable explosives, and a series of ghoulish gags involving a severed arm.
This is the third of eight "Bulldog Drummond" movies produced by Paramount Pictures in the 1930s, and the regular cast-members provide their usual charming and witty performances. Clive shines particularly brightly in this outing, with Tenny's plain frustration with the antics of his "betters" giving rise to some very funny sarcasm.
The film's main weak point is its reliance on far-fetched coincidences to both get started and keep the characters involved in the events. (I could accept that Drummond and pals just happen to be driving along the road where bad guys are executing Stage Two of their scheme... but it taxes my ability to suspend my disbelief that Drummond and Phyllis's train compartment just happens to be next to the ones reserved by the bad guy. There's also the issue that Phyllis seems just a tiny bit too shrewish at times during the film; it's hardly Hugh's fault that a suitcase and a severed arm literally dropped out of the sky as he was returning from London.
This entry in the series will be particularly appreciated by fans of the "Indiana Jones" movies, as it has much of a same tone as they do.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
It's 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'!
Here's a Motoon from Boogie Woogie of Kapuskasing, Canada (and maybe even Company B).
Let's make sure this vision of Mo'--one that undoubtedly stirs the loins of RevolutionMuslims and Al-Queerda members everywhere--will never become a reality.
Let's make sure this vision of Mo'--one that undoubtedly stirs the loins of RevolutionMuslims and Al-Queerda members everywhere--will never become a reality.
'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day' 'toons!
Here are Tom's contributions to the Day of a Million Moes.
If you want your drawings of Mohammed hosted by someone other than yourself, feel free to send them. I'll be checking email throughout the afternoon.
If you want your drawings of Mohammed hosted by someone other than yourself, feel free to send them. I'll be checking email throughout the afternoon.
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