Lines and shadows, shadows and lines. The Fountainhead is all sharp angles defined by shadows defined by shadows so sharp they could cut through the self-servicing philosophy of the artless Rand on the airless moon. Only one director could have made sense of this!!! King Vidor of Galveston Texas. He cut through the angles when […]

Hitch does tits! Well, there’s a bit more to this blackly comic, London-based thriller than bare breasts, but they’re the most obvious sign the legendary director had embraced the early seventies’ newfound freedoms. Frenzy is graphic at times, much more so than other serial killer efforts such as Shadow of a Doubt and Psycho, but […]

Do you have a favorite little movie that somehow doesn’t get the recognition it deserves? You know, a flick that’s pretty much always met with scorn, lukewarm reviews and general disdain. Year after year you keep expecting the love to materialize, especially as there are so many filmgoers out there gushing over what can only […]

“Men sometimes have strange motives for the things they do.” So says Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, and one of this brutal flick’s coarse joys is trying to work out his. Does he really believe he’s doing God’s work? Or is he merely an opportunist, a man happy to take advantage of the breakdown in law […]

Do you have a mantra that helps you get through life’s darker moments? You know, something that enables you to cope with the searing knowledge that dreams don’t come true and you’ll instead have to settle for second, third or fourth best as you crawl unfulfilled toward your grave. I cling to the insight of […]

“A natural born world-shaker“ Paul Newman has always been in the top tier of the greatest actors of all time. He is certainly in the company of actors like Peter O’Toole, Daniel-Day Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Richard Burton and Sidney Portier. His accomplishments as a beer drinker, race car driver, blue-eyed sex symbol and actor are […]