Blog
These stories have been around a long time. Some of them I have updated. Many of them I haven’t. This started out when blogs were like, new!
“Good Sam” On Netflix: A Cheer Or Two
As the International Movie Database on the internet describes it, "A news reporter looks into who has been anonymously leaving large cash gifts on random doorsteps in New York." These are accurate words about the premise of the new picture, Good Sam (2019), in which...
New York Disgrace
Ivan Szabo's Sunshine is a film I criticized, but not because of its deeply Jewish content. In today's America there are foolish people who would object to this content, as we are led to believe after reading such articles as David Marcus's "Skyrocketing Attacks on...
“Albuquerque”: The Movie
Ray Enright's Albuquerque (1948), a Western, shows us the capitalist building of a town, as well as the selfishness of a business tycoon who does evil. When his nephew, Cole Armin (Randolph Scott), witnesses this evil, he goes to work for the tycoon's competitor, who...
Re Two Stories By Arthur C. Clarke: “Into the Comet” and “The Star”
I have not read any of Arthur C. Clarke's novels, but I am familiar with the reasonable mind behind such short stories as "Into the Comet," "The Star," "The Sentinel" and "Death and the Senator." It is a probing mind too, an instrument for meaningful science fiction....
Metaluna Wants “This Island Earth”
The planet Metaluna will perish under the weapon blows of an alien race, but its inhabitants intend to get abundant help from unsuspecting Earth, especially its scientists. This Island Earth (1955) is, then, a tale of two planets, with all the sinister action...
In Me Dwelleth No Good Thing: “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile”
The judge in Ted Bundy's trial pronounced the serial murderer's deeds Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, which is an inspired title for Joe Berlinger's new movie (2019) on Netflix. As Bundy Zac Ephron is compelling, never phony, never trying for...
Silent Susie In A Silent Film: “True Heart Susie”
The title character in the D.W. Griffith film, True Heart Susie (1919), is a gentle country girl who is supposedly plain, except that Lillian Gish, who plays her, is not at all plain. In love with a boy named William (Robert Harron), she sacrifices a great deal for...
“Gone with the Wind” Will Always Be With Us
Does the experience of war ever change people for the better? In Gone with the Wind, it seems to do so for Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), but not for Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), who retains her rotten soul. . . After a war's catastrophe, it is often the quality of...
Korda’s “Rembrandt” Should Have Been Much Better
I certainly wasn't bored by the 1936 film Rembrandt, by Alexander Korda, but I have to consider it kitsch. This is because Charles Laughton, as the great Dutch painter, draws every jot of attention to himself while the other actors are forced to be virtually...
