I've lately come across a number of public-domain movies for which the rights have lapsed, that you can watch online. Some of them, while being low-budget, are wonderfully atmospheric, or just plain fun.
I remember watching this one on TV when I was growing up in the early 70's, before it gained acclaim as "the worst movie ever made", and they came up with an annual award for "worst" films, the Golden Turkey awards.
I also love the 1994 semi-bioographical Tim Burton movie Ed Wood, for which Martin Landau won an Oscar for Best Actor, for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. A quirky fun movie that has the trappings of a horror/sci-fi movie itself, but hilariously portrays Ed Wood and his circle of actor-friends struggling to survive and make films, and also vicariously shares Ed Wood's enthusiasm for storytelling, despite his hardship and questionable talent. My favorite scene is where Ed Wood is walking by a funeral parlor, and sees Bela Lugosi (knowing that he hasn't much longer to live) trying out coffins. The idea of the actor famous for playing Dracula shopping for coffins, and irritably laying in them to try out each one!
Courtesy of Youtube, a post-apocalyptic movie about two men and a woman vacationing in Puerto Rico, who appear to end up the only survivors left on earth, that creates an interesting love triangle, in a fight for the last woman. Low-budget, granted, but with some great location scenery, and social commentary in a world where wealth no longer matters.
Robert Towne (as the lawyer) went on to be an Oscar-winning screenwriter. Another from Roger Corman, who had a long run of entertaining low-budget S-F films.
Another movie that preceded it, The World, The Flesh, and the Devil (1959), explores similar themes, with the twist of one of the last 3 being a black guy (played by Harry Belafonte) where despite the world being gone, perceptions of race still endure even though the former world is gone.
A rather odd movie starring Lon Cheney Jr., a mobster (Cheney Jr.) is convicted and executed, and his body after is given to a scientist, who in his experiments exposes the corpse to a jolt of high voltage that brings him back to life and makes him impervious to bullets or stabbing, and the mobster goes after the lawyer and crime partners who betrayed and testified against him. And the police go on a citywide manhunt to track him down before he can kill again.
I would have gone for the movie title "The Frankenstein Mobster" but maybe that would just give it away.
An odd splicing of classic Hollywood film-noir of mobsters, gritty first-person narration and police detectives clashing with criminals in tough-guy dialogue, mixed with sci-fi/horror elements. But a fun mix. More noir than monster movie.
While from an innocent time and very folksy, the series often has plots where the central characters outwit mischevious or outright dishonest characters, usually with some very clever, ironic and hilarious twists.
In this episode, an indian chief brings his daughter to Daniel Boone, explaining to Boone she is promised in marriage to the son of a rival tribe they've been historically at war with, to create peace between the tribes. But it soon becomes clear she doesn't want to marry the rival chief's son, and the mission is a difficult one for Boone and his friends.
The Princess is resourceful, mischevious, strong-willed, and more dangerous than she looks, and puts high demands on her captors to provide for her, which are very funny in the way things play out.
The actress who plays Princess Little Fawn is Brenda Benet, who was during the 1970's married to Bill Bixby, and they had a son together, that ended tragically after the divorce. Even post-divorce, she appeared in an episode of The Hulk TV series with him, before her death. After the divorce, Benet appaarently switched teams, sexually speaking, and Benet had a sexual relationship with now-conservative lesbian pundit Tammy Bruce up till Benet's death in 1982. At the time of her death, Benet was 36 and Tammy Bruce was 19.
A hilariously paced episode, where Boone's friend visits a town and gets in a bidding war as just a bit of mischief, and ends up unwittingly having to buy and own a beautiful female slave he never wanted, and exposes his averssion to commitment with women in general.
The character is played by Jimmy Dean, who was a recurring supporting character on the last year or two of the series, and he often sings and plays guitar, which I guess he was famous for before appearing in the series.
The voice I thought sounded rather familiar, and it turns out after his singing and acting career, he made an even greater fortune in the food business with Jimmy Dean Sausages, and his voice is still used in the commercials 50 years later. Although he himself has passed away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Dean
Again, I love how characters who are supposed to be naive country bumpkins are smarter and more worldly than they initially appear. And with some very funny results.
While I intended this topic to display movies, both of these are like short films, with a lot of clever twists, quite funny, and well worth watching.
The character is played by Jimmy Dean, who was a regular star on the last year or two of the series, and he often sings and plays guitar, which I guess he was famous for before appearing in the series. The voice I thought sounded rather familiar, and it turns out after his acting career, he made an even greater fortune in the food business with Jimmy Dean Sausages, and his voice is still used in the commercials 50 years later. Although he himself has passed away.
I bet you're more familiar with him than you know, given you're about the same age as I am.
Jimmy Dean had a huge hit record back in the day with "Big Bad John," .
In addition to music and sausages, he also had a supporting role in "Diamonds are Forever," playing the Howard Hughesque "Willard White."
The Diamonds Are Forever movie appearance I'm familiar with, although I didn't know who Dean was years ago when I first saw it. I actually think that's one of the worst Bond movies. Sean Connery, after giving up the role to Lazenby for one movie, came back and did this one. Unfortunately. Connery never looked worse in a movie, and seemed very over-the-hill in that film, for such a relatively young actor. Afterward Connery gained an aging elegance in a series of movie roles over many decades, that cemented his place as one of the great lead actors. Diamonds Are Forever was also very trite and silly throughout, with a lot of sweaty out-of-shape actors in tacky polyester clothing, and exceptionally cheap low-budget looking sets. Even Jill St. John was disappointing and a chore to watch. That and the Lazenby film that preceded it were among the weakest links in the franchise. The other weakest links for me were A View To A Kill and the two Timothy Dalton films. The movie after Diamonds Are Forever was Live and Let Die, the first with Roger Moore, and a fantastic return to greatness for the bond series, with the best Bond movie theme song by Paul McCartney of the series. A great introduction to the Bond franchise, and the first I saw, on its release in 1973.
Over the years, I've recorded all the Bond films on DVD, so until the next film comes out I have a complete run of the film series.
But yeah, Jimmy Dean has a role in the movie, and he was one of the better parts of the movie. Beyond his musical talent, Dean was also a gifted comedian.
Noteworthy for the role by Jean Stapleton, about 4 years before she reached the heights of fame as Edith Bunker on All In The Family. She looks like a completely different person in this episode. I'm generally not a fan of the street-tough almost film-noir style, and definitely in the style of an earlier era, but well done. Displaying talent in a very serious and touching role, in contrast to her skill as a comedian in her later role as Edith Bunker, demonstrating her verstality and talent at both.
Starring Gregory Peck, James Mason, Steve Guttenberg and Lawrence Olivier. And in a minor role, John Dehner, who I love from a lot of Twilight Zone episodes and other western TV shows he was in.
An interesting globe-spanning thriller about nazi hunters, Dr. Josef Mengele, and secret societies of nazi war criminals hiding out in Europe and Latin America, plotting a Fourth Reich. With an interesting element of science fiction tossed in the mix. Diected by Franklin J. Schaffner, the same director who created Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and Pappillon (1973), of which this movie was his last great movie in my opinion. And like the others, was nominated for several Oscars and other awards.
The kid in the movie reminds me of the one in The Omen II (1978), out about the same time, having a sinister look, and projecting an unusual air of power in his role. The Omen and Omen II were both great movies, and back in season with Halloween coming up.
Another of my favorites from 1973, a British television production titled Frankenstein: The True Story. I saw it multiple times on television in the 1970's and 1980's, it generally was serialized in two parts, 2 hours (with commercials) each night for 2 nights. The "true story" part comes from its attempt to tell the original story of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in her initial novel, before the classic Hollywood-ization of the story in the 1931 Boris Karloff film and subsequent movies. Although this production likewise takes liberties with Shelley's novel, and I think is more interesting for it.
With guest performances by James Mason, David McCallum, Tom Baker, Agnes Moorehead, and most noteworthy of all for me, Jane Seymour, in her second major role, after her breakout performance in Live and Let Die. This version is as elegant as it is horrific, and also with compassionate human element between creator and monster.
Yes, that's it. That's essentially the original FRANKENSTEIN novel, but with several story changes in the movie version. The cliffhanger at the end of part 1 I thought was a particularly good place to break off. Jane Seymour is essentially the bride of Frankenstein, and her character's exit from the movie is a particularly horrific scene. The musical score is both elegant and eerie.
I selected it to post because I thought it was a perfect selection for Halloween.
I haven't been back to this topic in awhile, but here's another acclaimed classic for your midnight viewing, Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), a remarkably well-directed early science fiction classic, way ahead of its time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still
When I first read Alan Moore's WATCHMEN in the late 1980's, I still hadn't seen this movie. Although I was a huge fan of the 1963-1965 series THE OUTER LIMITS, and definitely appreciated Moore's reference to the "The Architects of Fear" episode.
A rather odd movie starring Lon Cheney Jr. A mobster (Cheney Jr.) is convicted and executed, and his body after is given to a scientist, who in his experiments exposes the corpse to a jolt of high voltage that brings him back to life and makes him impervious to bullets or stabbing, and the mobster goes after the lawyer and crime partners who betrayed and testified against him. And the police go on a citywide manhunt to track him down before he can kill again.
I would have gone for the movie title "The Frankenstein Mobster" but maybe that would just give it away.
An odd splicing of classic Hollywood film-noir of mobsters, gritty first-person narration and police detectives clashing with criminals in tough-guy dialogue, mixed with sci-fi/horror elements. But a fun mix. More noir than monster movie.
I neglected to include a link to the movie the first time I posted it. And here made it easier to see both the Wikipedia listing for the movie, and access to the movie itself. I've developed a recent new appreciation for the film noir genre, with classics like Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, Out of the Past, and more recent films that are more recent tributes or expansions on the genre, such as Peeper (1975), Bladerunner (1982), and L.A. Confidential (1997)
Some true midnight movies, first here's "The Night Stalker" from 1971, starring Darren McGavin as reporter Kolchak. Scary, but also containing a lot of humor. Reporter Carl Kolchak is reluctantly assigned by his editor to cover police investigation of a series of murders. The investigation trail leads in a supernatural direction, that police don't want to discuss, and his own newspaper's editor doesn't believe or want to report it.
Done as a TV movie, it was enormously popular and re-broadcast frequently. A universal crowd-pleaser. And it holds up well even 54 years later.
Scripted by Richard Matheson, a prolific and talented writer and Hollywood scripter, known for his frequently adapted book "I Am Legend", and for his many scripts for the original Twilight Zone TV series. Among many other works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson
Equally good, equally terrifying, equally funny. Also written by Richard Matheson. Starring Richard Anderson as the immortal strangler. Who very soon after became Oscar Goldman, the co-starring government boss of Steve Austin tn the long running very popular Six Million Dollar Man TV series.
And from the above 2 TV movies, The Night Stalker then evolved into a 20-episode very successful The Night Stalker TV series, ended partly because the author of the original story sued for copyright infringement, over expanding his story and characters without his permission, and while the initial 2 movies were enormously popular, the series episodes declined in ratings over the series run, largely due to running in a bad time slot, Friday nights at 8 PM, when the targeted younger audience wasn't home watching TV.
I was surprised to read it had a dip in ratings as the series ran, despite achieving enormous cult status later, after its cancellation. And that Darren McGavin, who is best known for this series, actually wanted out of his role in the series, because he was exhausted by the workload of doing the series, and did not feel adequately compensated for his production and script revision work. Most or all of the 20 episodes are online at Youtube, with great HD reproduction, accessible at the above two linked movies. There were 6 more episodes planned for the series, scripted but not produced.
The previous link expired, and this new link has the advantage of combining the two previously separated parts into a single continuous video.
With one of the earliest roles of Jane Seymour, who starred in this within four months after her role in Live And Let Die with Roger Moore. She was only age 20 in both these roles. Great performances by everyone involved, an elegant sophisticated version that tries to be very true to the original 1819 Frankenstein novel.
It's a mystery to me why this is not re-run on television anymore.
Noteworthy for the role by Jean Stapleton, about 4 years before she reached the heights of fame as Edith Bunker on All In The Family. She looks like a completely different person in this episode. I'm generally not a fan of the street-tough almost film-noir style, and definitely in the style of an earlier era, but well done. Displaying talent in a very serious and touching role, in contrast to her skill as a comedian in her later role as Edith Bunker, demonstrating her versatlity and talent at both.
An error in my first post, the actress is Maureen Stapleton, not Jean Stapleton. While they are both accomplished actresses and similar in appearance, and share the same last name, neither of their listings indicate they are related. Comment retracted, we regret the error.
Here are several classic Hollywood film noir movies that I enjoyed recently. Not only for the stories, but because they portray actual places and events, in cases taken from actual government espionage files.
A story that follows the real espionage case in Canada, about agents in the Soviet embassy in Ontario recruiting Canadians as communist spies, to steal U.S./Canadian science during development of the atomic bomb. It portrays nicely how these Russian embassy employees begin as loyal and fully indoctrinated Soviet Communist patriots, who gradually become disillusioned with their own Communist government, and decide to defect and turn over evidence to the Canadian government.
This movie focuses on a German embassy in the U.S (code named by FBI agents on the case as "the house on 92nd Street")., that is used by the Nazis to recruit a network of spies to steal secrets and advance U.S. intelligence in the years leading up to World War II. This film has the added interesting aspect, that anyone who appears and is not a major character in the film, is an actual employee of the FBI.
In the case of both films, they say in the movie credits these were all top secret files , and with the 92nd Street film, could not be revealed until the war was over. And held secret until both cases were closed and all defendants prosecuted.
Interesting to look back in these movies at the FBI surveillance and investigation procedures used in the 1940's. It makes you wonder what is now possible in the modern era 80 years later, with orbiting satellites, face recognition technology, digital image enhancement, geo-fencing to locate someone by their cel phone and read everything stored on their phone, cyber-warfare and being able to remotely access peoples' computers, phones, home security cameras, on and on. Things that were impossible even 10 or 20 years ago, that are now a standard part of CIA, FBI, or local police investigation.
Directed by the same guy (director Henry Hathaway) who did The House on 92nd Street, it has more of a typical film noir movie feel to it. Starring Victor Mature (who I like best for his role in the biblical epic The Robe ) and co-starring Coleen Gray, who I never heard of till I saw this movie. Bu she's so adorable, you can't help falling in love with her.
Victor Mature portrays Nick Bianco, a repeat criminal who is imprisoned in the opening scene for an armed jewelry store heist, and initially won't "squeal" on others in his gang and is willing to serve his full sentence in jail. But news of the suicide of his wife makes him change his ways and cooperate with the district attorney, released from jail to hang out with a dangerous sadistic mobster named Tommy Udo (played by Richard Widmark) and Bianco gathers information on Udo to prosecute and imprison him.
This film likewise in the credits says that all the prisons, courthouses and other places portrayed were filmed in the actual places portrayed.
Coleen Gray has the additional interesting aspect that she for many years in her personal life visited prisons and helped inmates get a second start and live better lives on their release from prison. So a remarkable person, who admirably used her celebrity to do good in the world.
I had a number of films I planned to add here before Halloween, but didn't get around to it till now.
Here is The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), starring Vincent Price, in a role that is both horrifying and at times humorous. A bizarre 1920's era inventor whose wife died, and he blames the doctors who treated her for his wife's death, and finds grandiose ways to brutally kill them off one by one, in ways patterned after biblical plagues unleashed on Egypt in the book of Exodus. Dr. Phibes at his pipe organ, Phibes in scenes resurrecting from death and then later embalming himself, his beautiful but creepy and deadly silent female assistant Vulnavia, his obsessive and bizarre death traps to kill off the doctors as he exacts his revenge, all done to the sound of his pipe organ as he plays, and to the elegant scores of his mechanical jazz band. Monstrous, twisted, ostentatious, and fun.
A few years ago, an aficionado of Vincent Price discussing Price's many decades of movies, on this particular movie on TCM described it saying: "Of all the Vincent Price movies, this one was the Vincent Priciest."
There was a sequel by the same director, Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972) that while not as good as the first and appeared to be produced on a visibly smaller budget, still is a nice continuation of the bizarre and darkly funny character, with some memorable visuals, such as rowing away at the movie's end in his dead wife's coffin in an underground stream.
Phantom of he Paradise (1974) In some ways similar to Rocky Horror, in that it is both funny, and a musical with a number of well-composed and performed songs. In addition to the humor and musical elements, it also has a sinister and foreboding edge to it. It centers on a famous musician named "Swan" (played by Paul Williams), who became famous about 15 years ago, and has the highest number of gold records of any musician in the field, who at this point has expanded into Swan's Death Records label, and it becomes obvious as the film progresses that Swan has remained on top in the field by stealing music and songs from those he signs on to publish. Particularly using and spitting out aspiring female performers. Swan, it becomes clear, literally sold his soul to the devil for success in the music industry, and weaves those he does business wih into a similar fate. Right down to contracts signed in blood.
In particular, Swan wants to open a Paradise Theatre, and is frustrated at his inability to come up with new songs that will give the new theatre a successful and memorable opening. Until he meets a young songwriter and composer named Winslow Leach, who he recognizes as enormously talented, and Swan promises him great success. But then Swan never calls Winslow back, steals his music to use for opening the Paradise Theatre, and in multiple efforts by Winslow to meet Swan again and get his due credit and payment for his work, is violently thrown out by Swan's thugs, And then Winslow Leach suffers a terrible fate. Horribly disfigured, Winslow hides in the Paradise Theatre, wears a mask and costume, and plots his revenge on Swan. With obvious parallels to the Phantom of the Opera storyline.
It's a great little movie, both fun and intense, and a beautiful commentary on the cut-throat music industry, how it exploits and discards music talents, particularly women, many of whom willingly endure the abuse in exchange for fame and lucrative contracts.
I also love the musical scores, all written by Paul Williams, performed by Swan's band "The Juicy Fruits", who constantly re-invent themselves and rip off whatever popular trend currently dominates the music industry, and over the course of the movie, you see them morph to whatever the current trend is. From Rockabilly to Doo-Wop, to Beach Boys-variety surf music, to country, to pop vocalists, to Kiss or Alice Cooper-variety glam rock. The commentary on the music industry, combined with the visceral revenge story, the Phantom of the Opera element, and the supernatural element of selling their souls for success in the music industry, all together make this an engaging movie on many levels, with a delicious mix of drama and humor.
A few more offerings. One of my favorite action movies, Enemy Of the State (1998), starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman, with supporting roles by Jsson Robards, John Voight, Jason Lee and Jack Black. For me, one of the best political conspiracy movies since All The President's Men. And Jason Robards had a pivotal supporting role in both movies.
Comparisons have been made of Enemy of the State to Three Days of The Condor (1975), both dealing with what would now be termed "the Deep State", a cabal of government officials using their government positions to spy on and eliminate people and other high officials who get in the way of their political / ideological plans to abuse federal power. With the difference that Enemy Of the State goes much further than the preceding 1975 film into the abilities to use technology to spy on other political parties, other federal officials, and to spy on private citizens.
Much of the surveillance technology shown in Enemy of the State was dismissed as fantasy at the time it was released in 1998. But the scandals of Edward Snowden, and then the FBI and CIA spying on and staging multiple coups against the 2016 Trump campaign, and then ongoing FBI traps and surveillance on into 2017, the FBI continuing to spy on the inaugurated Trump administration, abusing the FISA court, infiltrating Trump's campaign with moles like Natalya Veselnitskaya, Josef Mifsud, and Stefan Halper (not just one mole, but many), and other FBI schemes by the highest people in the intelligence field, such as CIA director John Brennan, FBI's James Comey and Andrew McCabe, DNI director James Clapper. and national securitty advisor Susan Rice. And all even having authorization to do so by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
And then the Biden White House in 2022 launched FOUR fake lawfare cases against Trump, orchestrated by the very top FBI, DOJ, CIA and White House officials. Over the last 10 years or so, every last abuse of power possible from the FBI / DOJ arsenal. Including TWO assassination attempts on Trump himself in 2024 (that rogue elements in Secret Service and FBI are still suppressing investigation of, very possibly hiding their own involvement in orchestrating), used in an attempt to prevent Trump from being re-elected president, all done across many years from 2016-2024.
In light of all this, what is portrayed in Enemy of the State is very close to the mark, if not a prophetic warning of what was coming over the last 27 years, and counting.
Directed by Tony Scott, in what I rate as one of his two best films ( the other being Crimson Tide in 1995). A few years ago I learned Tony Scott is the brother of Ridley Scott, both movie directors.
Enemy of the State could be considered a sequel to The Conversation (1974), a movie where Gene Hackman's character was an employee of the NSA, bugging, recording and listening to conversations of people. In Enemy of the State, Hackman's character is someone who used to do surveillance and tech work for the NSA, but abruptly quit and went off the grid in hiding for 2 decades, and is in all but name the same character 24 years later. An intensely fast-paced and thought-provoking movie, and at some points very funny.
And since I mentioned it, and it's also a great movie... Crimson Tide, full movie online at : https://ok.ru/video/932229089990 (running time: 1 hour 56 minutes )
A more straightforward movie, about a husband discovering his wife's extramarital affair, is Unfaithful (2002), starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane as his wife, and Olivier Martinez as the suave charming guy who comes between them. My favorite scene is where Gere as the husband confronts the guy in his love-nest apartment, and the initially low-key conversation leads to a sudden clash between them. And then when Gere is still in the other guy's apartment, the phone rings, and it's his wife leaving the guy a message he overhears. And the ironies just pile up from there.
To satisfy your science fiction craving, here's Outland (1981), starring Sean Connery. On one of the moons of Saturn, there is a corporate-run mining colony, and Sean Connery is the newly appointed sheriff of what is essentially a small mining town in space. There are several deaths of miners that appear to be people suddenly going insane, and the sheriff takes it on himself to find the cause and stop it. And while asking people in the town for help fight the trained assassins sent to kill him, everyone knows the situation but are afraid, none will help, so the sheriff has to fight them completely on his own.
It's essentially the plot of High Noon, only re-told against a backsetting of space. With Peter Boyle as essentially the corrupt corporate-appointed mayor of the town, who repeatedly warns the sheriff to not enforce the law. I love the scene where the sheriff (Sean Connery) first meets the mayor (Peter Boyle) at a crowded town meeting, where Boyle's character in front of everyone basically tells the sheriff not to do his job.
After, Connery quietly storms out of the meeting, clearly angry, and his deputy rushes to talk to the sheriff, struggling to catch up to him. DEPUTY: Now, don't go getting your nose all out of joint. SHERIFF: He's an asshole. DEPUTY: Well, he's a very powerful asshole, so don't mess with him.
A nice suspenseful movie with great space visuals that I'd compare to the very functional utilitarian future settings in Alien, that look futuristic but many years old and well used, and therefore more realistic . Directed by Peter Hyams.
A second movie that I saw it with, in a double-feature with Outland back when both came out, is Excalibur (1981) that tells the tale of King Arthur and his knights, with Merlin, Modred, and Morgan Le Fay, in a version that is engaging and beautifully filmed. Especially memorable are the knights in combat in their gleaming armor. And somehow it just seems much more authentic when directed by John Boorman, a British director, with an all-British cast.
A powerful telling of the Arthur legend, and a visual feast, beautifully directed.
And all the better for the contrast between the two movies as a double-feature. Moving from a very detailed science fiction future with Sean Connery as a sheriff of a mining colony in space, to a memorable historical fantasy epic, in a striking re-telling of the Arthur legend.
Sad news today that Rob Reiner is dead. While he starred in 50 years of movies and TV shows, the role I liked him best in is as the cynical TV producer in the movie Ed TV (1998), direced by Ron Howard. With an $ 80 million budget, it bombed collosally, making only $35 million. And I'm at a loss to understand why, it's very funny, wih Ellen Degeneres, Elizabeth Hurley, Woody Harrelson, Martin Landau, Sally Kirkland, Jenna Elfman, Adam Goldberg, Dennis Hopper, and many others. And is a hilarious and engaging movie to watch from start to finish.
Another movie I love, Ed Wood (1994), directed by Tim Burton. That Martin Landau won the Academy Award that year for as best actor, portraying Bela Lugosi.
Bela Lugosi in the mid-1950's Hollywood era portrayed, meets struggling and out of work director Ed Wood (portrayed by Johnny Depp). Bela Lugosi at this point in the 1950's is a has-been out-of work actor at the end of his career. So Lugosi agrees to appear in several of Ed Wood's low-budget films, and they hang out and become friends. Ed Wood first meets Bela Lugosi while walking past a funeral home. An aging Bela Lugosi knows he is dying, and Wood observes him inside irritably laying in coffins and snapping at the funeral home's salesman, as he tries out multiple coffins in the process of selecting one. It's hilarious, the actor famous for playing Dracula, laying in coffins, to select one to buy.
I just love the whole movie, a director who loves storytelling, who is enduringly optimistic despite being down on his luck and struggling to get work. And even questionably talented at all in his chosen profession. But still in love with storytelling, and savoring every moment and scripted line of his work, often standing backstage, lip-synching the words of his scripts as his actors say them onstage.
I love the atmosphere created throughout, the visuals and eerie music, such as during the opening credits, the camera panning in across a mist filled cemetary, with the names of the film's actors introduced on gravestones, then zooming in to enter a mansion, where Jeffrey Jones rises out of his coffin, to ominously warn viewers of the horrific story to follow, about the life of Edward D. Wood Jr.
It's again a case where I'm at a loss to understand why this movie was produced on an $18 million budget, and bombed in theatres, earning only $13.8 million. I thought for sure after Martin Landau won an Academy Award for his performance (and the film also won a second Academy Award for best make-up) , that people would seek it out at that point and it would become a box office success. But no, it remained a box office flop, despite how good it is.
Director Ed Wood's best-known movie Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957) is in my opening post. As stated before, the copyright has lapsed, and is now in public domain, for your viewing pleasure.
Another of my favorites, The World According to Garp (1982), starring Robin Williams in his first movie role, after his success for several years on the Mork & Mindy TV series. it remains my favorite Robin Williams movie.
At once funny, absurd, and sophisticated in a New England prep school sort of way. If I recall, Roger Ebert was annoyed by it, asking "what was it about?" To me it was easy to see what it was about., With humor, it was about the similar moments everyone shares in our lives: being born, childhood, trying to discover something about ourselves in learning about the lives and histories of our own parents, falling in love for the first time, discovering sex, choosing a career path during high school and college, getting married, buying a home, raising children, experiencing disappointments in marriage, experiencing the social absurdities of the era you live through (in Garp's case, the 1950's,1960's and 1970's). It was my first time seeing Robin Williams, Glenn Close, and John Lithgow in any movie, And all were excellent.
Garp is a gifted writer who struggles to find meaning in the fanatical and radicalism-filled times of the 1960's and 1970's. I think the portrayed "Ellen Jamesians" capture well that fanaticism.
Some very clever lines. intelligent and funny throughout.
I've come to prefer watching them on the Russian site, where they have clear video, and without commercials. Many on Youttube are commercial free too, and others bury you in commercials.
Matinee (1993), starring John Goodman, as a 1950's movie promoter, who enjoys creating cheap stunts to promote his movies. Such as having guys dressed up as alien monsters, who crash though the movie screen into a crowded theatre, at the climactic moment of a sci fi / horror movie, that sends everyone screaming out of the theatre. As Goodman's character stands in the background laughing, enjoying the chaos and terror he created, watching them run screaming in every direction.
One of my favorite parts are the public service ads, one of them instructing people on proper diet in he 1950's, what to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, that we laughably now know is the path to quadruple bypass surgery.
Silent Running (1972), starring Bruce Dern, as one of several astronauts aboard the spaceship Valley Forge, one of a fleet of Earth ships with an environmental mission to preserve the last forests and animals of Earth, preserved in giant terrariums in space, after pollution has made it impossible for them to survive on Earth. Lowell (played by Bruce Dern) is especially dedicated to preserving the forests, and takes the ships and the remaining forests off into space in an attempt to hide them from the Earth administrators, after the president announces a decision to scrap the forests, and re-allocate the spaceships to other more profitable commercial uses.
On a relatively small budget, this was the first film directed by Douglas Trumbull, who with his father did the special effects visuals in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and went on to do special effects for The Andromeda Strain (1971), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Trek: the Motion Picture[/b] (1979), and Bladerunner (1982), among others.
Screenplay writers Steven Bochco ( later creator of the Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue), and Michael Cimino (who went on to fame with Academy Award winner The Deer Hunter) showed their early capacity for greatness in this movie. Silent Runningt has breathtaking visuals, paired with elegant and stirring music by Joan Baez, combined with passionate environmental themes, and unique robot / drones that take on a human aspect and humor, especially when Lowell is alone for long months, and craves their company to fill the void of being completely alone in space.
I first saw this movie in 1973 on the CBS Late Movie, and was just blown away by it. I actually watched it at least one more time again when it replayed on the CBS Late Movie, maybe several times. And when it wasn't replayed anywhere on any other channel into the mid 1980's, I sought it out as a VHS video rental, and dubbed it to watch again later. But the video quality, and particularly the audio, were so bad I didn't watch it again in such a diminished form.
Only about 5 years ago did I look for it on DVD, and enjoy it with the level of reproduction it deserves. And even 50 years later, the story, special effects, music, and environmental themes make it continue to be relevant and powerful.
If you like it as much as I do, the DVD version is very much worth having, with multiple behind-the-scenes documentaries that far exceed the length of the movie itself, and answer virtually any question you could have about how it was created. For the gigantic spaceship Valley Forge, there was a World War II U.S. aircraft carrier Valley Forge that was decommissioned and docked in the Los Angeles area for eventual destrucion, that was used for location filming with some modifications to create the vast interior of the Valley Forge spaceship. I love that the Valley Forge ship of our era was used to portray, and lives on, in the future Valley Forge ship in the movie.
I'm amazed that this great movie never gets any play on any network channel. But, God bless the internet, here it is online for your viewing pleasure.
I haven't been back to this topic in awhile, but here's another acclaimed classic for your midnight viewing, Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), a remarkably well-directed early science fiction classic, way ahead of its time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still
When I first read Alan Moore's WATCHMEN in the late 1980's, I still hadn't seen this movie. Although I was a huge fan of the 1963-1965 series THE OUTER LIMITS, and definitely appreciated Moore's reference to the "The Architects of Fear" episode.
I love the OUTER LIMITS series from 1963-1965, and am very glad I got the complete series on DVD about 20 years ago. Only $25.00 when I got it on Ebay, and a bargain at any price. Many great episodes, not just this one.
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