Andyland, USA

It’s November which means for film fans it’s #Noirvember, the month in which we celebrate the genre that audiences love to yell at improv performers, Film Noir. With perfect timing Warner Archive has released the 1952 RKO Noir “On Dangerous Ground” on blu-ray for the first time. Directed by Nicholas Ray, whose most famous for “Rebel Without a Cause,” with a score by the great Bernard Herrmann, “On Dangerous Ground” stars Noir giants Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino--who in addition to acting was a pioneering producer and director during a time when that was unheard of.   Ryan plays New York cop Jim Wilson, a man who has become so hardened and cynical by his job he says to a thug “Why do you make me do it?” before he smashes him to a pulp. Wilson’s soul is gone. He’s seen too many criminals, too much of the dirt of humanity to have any glimmer of hope left inside of him. Jim Wilson wakes up, does his job, eats, goes to bed. However, it’s all become part of an autopilot mode whe...

How long does this last again? Eh, it’s not that cold out. I’ll be fine. I’ve got my jacket. I wonder who is driving the truck this is hitched to? Should I scoot my chair back a little? I’m not that close to the edge, but things could go wrong. No. No, I will not think about it this way. That’s negative thinking. My therapist said I should make a conscientious effort to squash negative thinking. It’s a Christmas parade! This is a happy place.  Ah, we’re moving now, a good slow crawl. What float is this again? I don’t remember what group this represents, I just was told “look for the red flatbed with the inflatable Snoopy on it.” Maybe this isn’t a group, just a kindly soul who is enthusiastic about Christmas parades. I did it all because she asked me to and I like her. Is it infantile the way I approach potential relationships now that I’m in my 30s? There I go talking like my therapist again. Maybe that’s good? I dunno.  Smile, wave, toss candy to kids. That’s...

Today, the box office is driven by superhero movies, but before 1978 there was no such thing as a “serious” superhero movie. The biggest thing to happen to the genre was the 1966 Adam West “Batman” TV series--which I love with the passion of a thousand suns--but no real attempts at doing anything beyond “kiddie fare” with the genre existed prior to the landmark “Superman” movie of ‘78. A few years back, I talked about the 1994 Alec Baldwin starring film adaptation of “The Shadow,” a pulp hero and precursor to Batman. Much of modern superhero fare has it roots in the hero pulp fiction that peaked in the 1920s and ‘30s.  Along with The Shadow, one of the most popular heroes to come from the world of pulp is Doc Savage, created by the same publishing house as The Shadow, Street & Smith, and driven largely by writer Lester Dent. No less an authority than Stan Lee has called Doc Savage the forerunner to modern superheroes. In the 1960s the Doc Savage stories were repub...

A friend of mine is dating this guy who is a bit, well, super earthy. He’s an alright person, generally speaking, but the patchouli can be detected before he enters the room. He also claims that he can interpret dreams. When the group gets together for a gathering, like a game night, he’ll ask us all if we had any memorable dreams lately. “The memorable ones are the ones you’ve gotta look out for” he says.  At a recent game night, while I was pondering my hand for my turn at Scrabble, Dreamweaver asked me about my recent dreams. I hadn’t had any out of the unusual dreams lately, just that recurring one where I keep getting a dollar on The Price is Right wheel--Dreamweaver doesn’t own a TV, so I never tell him about this one. I decided to see just how far Dreamweaver could go with this skill set and started making up dreams on the spot.  “Oh, well the other night I dreamt that I was swimming in a pool full of gelatine while being given swimming advice from the pet Go...

Got a couple of blu-rays from Warner Archive to talk about this week. Due to life things, I only recently had a chance to watch them. One is a title most appropriate for this time of year, and one I had seen before. The other title is a film I knew only by reputation, but was most pleased to welcome to my zeitgeist. Let’s dive in with that October appropriate one—MGM’s 1945 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Whenever MGM would adapt a literary classic they always made an effort to make it one of their prestige films of the year—keep in mind MGM was the studio that was THE prestige studio of Classic Hollywood to begin with. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is one of those films,  even in the marketing for the film, you can sense MGM not being sure how to sell it. They didn’t know if it should be marketed as a horror film, a dramatic thriller, or a romance. The horror elements are a bit downplayed in the marketing—horror was a well MGM rarely dipped their to...

If there is one bit of esoteric classic movie stuff that simply fascinates me, it’s the trilogy of films directed by veteran actor William Conrad—and all released in 1965. They’re the three of only four feature films directed by Conrad, who spent all of his other directorial adventures on the small screen. The late William Conrad was a famed actor, playing Matt Dillon on the original radio version of “Gunsmoke,” and coming to full pop culture fame on TV in “Cannon” & “Jake and The Fat Man.” For this writer, Conrad will always be immortal for being the narrator on “Rocky & Bullwinkle.”  The three films in question all were released by Warner Brothers—where Conrad had a production office it seems—and are: “Brainstorm,” “Two On A Guillotine,” and the film I’m going to talk about today, “My Blood Runs Cold.” One of the reasons I’m fascinated by these three films is my built in soft spot for 1960s, black and white horror fare with crazy, bombastic promotion. I adore t...

7:00 PM: Meeting called to order, pledge of allegiance held.  7:05 PM: The source of the squeaking sound was determined to be the science class pet ferret loose in the ceiling—Mr. Fiveash called to deal with situation.  7:08 PM: Overwhelming majority votes to defund high school chorus trip to New York City.  7:09 PM: Overwhelming majority votes to fund water polo team trip to Disneyland.  7:15 PM: Meeting opened up to questions from parents.  7:17 PM: Concerned parent asks PTA “Why are we teaching science to our children? Don’t you understand you are placing them in league with the devil?”  7:18 PM: Citizen who supports the question asked by the parent speaks out of turn, demands to know the size of the PTA Chairperson’s hands.  7:19 PM: Awkward silence falls upon the room.  7:25 PM: Bored with the meeting, one PTA board member asks if it would be possible to postpone the rest of that day’s business, and play w...