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Author: Craig

Crime of Passion: A Film with Two Great Leads, Very Little Spark.

Crime of Passion: A Film with Two Great Leads, Very Little Spark.

Directed by: Gerd Oswald Released: January 1957 Cast: Barabra Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Fay Wray, Virginia Grey, Royal Dano, Robert Griffin, Dennis Cross, Jay Adler, and Stuart Whitman as Laboratory Technician. First-time viewing. Crime of Passion is a noir film that indeed begins with a crime of passion. Concludes with a crime of passion. But lacks spark, despite the performances of the two leads. Kathy Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) is a big time San Francisco columnist who is draw into…

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The Spy Who Loved Me: The Diabolical Scheme of Karl Stromberg.

The Spy Who Loved Me: The Diabolical Scheme of Karl Stromberg.

Released: August 1977 Directed by: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curt Jurgens, Richard Kiel, Caroline Monro, Walter Gotell, Geoffrey Keen, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn as Q. In 1977s The Spy Who Loved Me, shipping tycoon, scientist, and one of the richest men in the world, Karl Stromberg is thinking big. Unlike a guy like Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who likes to hold the world hostage for ransom and power, Stromberg (Curt Jurgens) wants to destroy the…

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Christmas in July: It isn’t the Coffee, It’s the Bunk.

Christmas in July: It isn’t the Coffee, It’s the Bunk.

Released: October 1940 Directed by: Preston Sturges Cast: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest, Ernest Truex, and Franklin Pangborn as Radio Announcer. We don’t really have slogan writing contests anymore. For the winner they can be life changing. About a million years ago Wilma Flintstone and Betty Ruble won a trip for two to Hollyrock for their winning slogan ‘Mamma Leone’s Meatballs Don’t Bounce.’ (and they don’t) for Mamma Leone’s Meatballs. Their win put a strain…

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Suspense: Everything You’d Want From a Thriller.

Suspense: Everything You’d Want From a Thriller.

Released: July 1913 Directed by: Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley. Cast: Lois Weber, Valantine Paul, Sam Kaufman, Douglas Gerrard, and Lule Warrenton as the Maid. First time viewing. Suspense has everything you could want in a thriller. Tension, jeopardy, a villain without a conscience, a young mother in life threatening danger, a desperate husband trying to save his wife and baby, a car chase, trigger happy cops, sinister camera angles, nail-biting pacing, justice, a happy ending, and a maid who quits…

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Ministry of Fear: An Eccentric, Flawed Masterpiece.

Ministry of Fear: An Eccentric, Flawed Masterpiece.

Directed by: Fritz Lang Released: October 1944 Cast: Ray Milland, Marjorie Renolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, and Alan Napier as Dr. Forrester. Spoilers. There are a few. You could say Ministry of Fear is something of a flawed masterpiece. Simply put, Ministry of Fear is a wonderfully eccentric film where the climax can’t bear-up under the weight of the eccentricity. Just released from an insane asylum, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) buys a train ticket to London….

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Masters of the Universe: A Step-by-Step Viewers Guide.

Masters of the Universe: A Step-by-Step Viewers Guide.

Directed by: Gary Goddard Released: August 1987 Cast: Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Bily Barty, Courteney Cox, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jon Cypher, Chelsea Field, James Tolkan, and Christina Pickles as Sorceress of Greyskull. First-time viewing. A Disclaimer of Sorts: I went into Masters of the Universe almost completely blind. I have some very basic knowledge of the cartoon series. The few episodes I’ve seen my focus was on Skeletor, possibly one of the most incompetent, most watchable super villains…

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Teenage Gang Debs: Into the Valley of NYC Underground Cinema.

Teenage Gang Debs: Into the Valley of NYC Underground Cinema.

Released: 1966 Directed by: Sande N. Johnsen Cast: Diane Conti, Linda Gale, Eileen Dietz, Robin Nolan, John Betis, George Winship, and Joey Naudic as Nino. Tubi Roulette is a little game I like to play sometimes. The rules are simple. First go on Tubi. Scroll around until you find a movie you’ve watched before, or piques your interest. Click on the movie and scroll down to the ‘You might also like’ list. From the ten films listed, pick one, preferably…

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The Bedford Incident: In the Shadow of the Cold War.

The Bedford Incident: In the Shadow of the Cold War.

Released: November 1965 Directed by: James B. Harris Cast: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, James MacArthur, Martin Balsam, Wally Cox, Eric Portman, Michael Kane, Gary Cockrell, Phil Brown, and Donald Sutherland as Hospitalman Nerney. Some spoilers. Cold War movies usually lurk in the shadows. The shadowy alleyways of East or West Berlin or an endless Scandinavian night. The Bedford Incident exists in the shadows of the bridge of the USS Bedford, a US Navy destroyer patrolling the Denmark Strait off the…

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A Matter of Life and Death: Life and Death and So Much More.

A Matter of Life and Death: Life and Death and So Much More.

Released: December 1946 Directed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, Richard Attenborough, Abraham Sofaer, and Raymond Massey as Abraham Farlan. First time viewing. A Matter of Life and Death is a movie about love, but it also about so much more. Life and death to be sure. The afterlife without theology to gum up the works, but rather humanity as a whole needing to embrace and begin…

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The Cameraman: The Art of Unrequited Love.

The Cameraman: The Art of Unrequited Love.

Released: September 1928 Directed by: Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton Cast: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Stacey, Harry Gribbon, Edward Brophy, Josephine the Monkey, and Vernon Dent as Man in Tight Bathing Suit. Love is frequently a theme of Buster Keaton’s films. Love of the unrequited variety, you know, loneliness, rejection, pain, physical and mental, and the ever popular little guy getting sand kicked in his face. The Cameraman is one such picture, and my favorite of Mr….

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