LIBERATION HALL BLU-RAY RELEASE: The Buster Keaton Show (1949)
By the late 1940s, Buster Keaton, the man who literally reinvented what a human body could do on film, was basically a ghost. He was doing daywork, a four-week circus stint in Paris and touring in a stage production of The Gorilla. It looked like the credits had rolled on one of the greatest careers […]
RETURN OF KAIJU DAY: Mighty Joe Young (1949)
The inspiration for these annual day long posts of kaiju films come from my childhood and WOR-TV in New York. Every Turkey Day, it would air after King Kong and Son of Kong, making you feel better after the depression of that second movie, until 1985, when RKO General sold Channel 9 to MCA Inc. I did […]
The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: She Shoulda Said No (1949)
Roadshow Rarities (June 30 – July 6) In the old days of theatrical releases some of the more lavish movies would be promoted by holding limited screenings in large cities. These roadshow releases would generate hype before the nationwide release and allow producers to tweak the film to the audience’s reaction. This model also worked […]
The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: The Devil’s Sleep (1949)
Roadshow Rarities (June 30 – July 6) In the old days of theatrical releases some of the more lavish movies would be promoted by holding limited screenings in large cities. These roadshow releases would generate hype before the nationwide release and allow producers to tweak the film to the audience’s reaction. This model also worked […]
Cisco Kid Movie Collection: The Gay Amigo (1949)
Cisco (Duncan Renaldo) and Pancho (Leo Carillo) are at the border of Arizona and Mexico when they see the U.S. Cavalry pursuing some Mexico bandits. As they get to Mexico themselves, they see a bandido fall off his horse, dead. What’s strange is that the Mexican criminal is really an American soldier all dressed up. […]
Cisco Kid Movie Collection: The Daring Caballero (1949)
Directed by Wallace Fox and written by Betty Burbridge, this has Cisco (Duncan Renaldo) learn that Pappy Del Rio (David Leonard) is about to be hung for a crime he didn’t do. The Padre (Pedro de Cordoba) thinks he’s innocent as well, as so Cisco and Pancho (Leo Carrillo) break him out. Later, when Cisco […]
Cisco Kid Movie Collection: Satan’s Cradle (1949)
The Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo) and Pancho (Lee Carrillo) have to stop Steve Gentry (Douglas Fowley) who has killed Jim Mason (Frank Matts), the well-respected leader of a small town. He takes over all of his businesses and is uses an actress named Lil (Ann Savage, Detour) who pretends to be the man’s widow. How bad […]
Histoires Extraordinaires à Faire Peur ou à Faire Rire… (1949)
A group of policemen is tracking down the criminals behind three murder cases. There’s a cutthroat killing young women, a madman that hid his deformed landlord’s corpse in the floor and a wine aficionado who has buried his friend alive. If you read that and said, “Two of those stories sound like “The Tell-Tale Heart” […]
Kentucky Jubilee (1951) and Square Dance Jubilee (1949)
Bruce Eder, in the liner notes of the 1989 The Criterion Collection reissue of A Hard Day’s Night, reminds us that, in a 1964 review of that classic Beatles’ film, critic Andrew Sarris described it as “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals.” Since then, the term “jukebox musical” has, in my opinion, gone a wee-bit […]
The Invisible Man Appears (1949)
“There is no good or evil in science, but it can be used for good or evil purposes.” Five years before he did the effects for Godzilla, Eiji Tsuburaya worked on this film, one of the earliest science fiction movies to be made in Japan. Much in the same way that Toho continued the Hammer look […]
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