What exactly is the appeal of the zombie in contemporary cinema? Be they the brain-famished cannibals of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, the shambling lost souls of Tourneur’s I Walked With a Zombie or the crazed killing machines of Boyle’s 28 Days Later, there seems no end to the march of the resurrected across our cinema screens. Read More »The Legions of Entropy
Just as there are times when random elements magically combine to produce a classic movie (Casablanca being perhaps the most famous example), there are many more occasions where the ingredients simply fail to ignite and the project is left languishing on the launch pad. Read More »Review: Ghosts of Mars (2001)
The opportunity to write and direct a screen adaptation of the Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson horror comic came at an interesting juncture in Wes Craven’s career. Read More »Review: Swamp Thing (1982)
The last of Bela Lugosi’s films for “Poverty Row” studio Monogram, Voodoo Man reunited the fading horror legend with William Beaudine, who’d directed him in the previous year’s The Ape Man. Read More »Review: Voodoo Man (1944)
My friend Chrissie Harper has begun posting art videos on her Patreon page, the latest of which is Let’s Draw Darkseid in 15 Minutes (Approx). It’s free to view, so enjoy! Read More »Ol’ Red Eyes is Back
I’m currently working my way through the first four volumes of Pacific Comics’ Johnny Hazard by Frank Robbins, which reprints the daily newspaper strip from its launch on 5 June 1944 (the morning before D-Day, in case anyone needs reminding). Read More »Hazard Warning
In a previous post, I mentioned my regret that I have only a handful of Rockford Files movies left to watch. Well, I’m currently one episode away from completing a re-run of all four seasons of Starsky & Hutch, and that will leave me not so much mourning the series that was but more the one which might have been. Read More »Bay City Roll-Up
A curious trend has developed in the Entertainment Industry, whereby entertainment is no longer prioritised and the chief elements of normal industry — productivity and profit — are cast aside in favour of short-term political goals. Own-goals, in most cases. Read More »The Doctor is Out
It’s always sad when you’re about to bid farewell to an old friend, and I’m feeling that right now, as I finally catch up with the eight Rockford Files tv movies James Garner co-produced from 1994-99. I’ve viewed the first three so far, and for once, the spirit and flavour of a great tv series has been lovingly recaptured, arguably because virtually everyone involved in these extended adventures worked on the original show. Read More »Closing the Files
CBS president William S Paley was apparently a fan both of detective fiction and the frontier tales of Louis L’Amour, so it’s not surprising he would be interested in a radio show which combined both genres. What does strike me as a little mystifying is that after producing two unaired pilots in 1949, with Rye Billsbury and Howard Culver both trying out for the role of gritty US marshal Matt Dillon, it took CBS another three years to finally hand the badge to William Conrad. Read More »The Sound of Gunsmoke (1952-61)