Doris Day was 40 years old when Delbert Mann’s THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962) premiered, cementing her ridiculous (yet popular) reputation as the “world’s oldest professional virgin.” At this point, she was flourishing in her career within a string of crowd-pleasing sex comedies and rom-coms from the late 1950s that continued into the 1960s. THAT TOUCH OF MINK followed a sure-fire formula with successful films … Continue reading THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962)
Next month marks the 70th anniversary of the gripping film noir, Anthony Mann’s BORDER INCIDENT (1949). It’s a violent, intense, shocking, and visually stunning peek into the slave labor conditions of the braceros who work farming along the American/Mexican border. Here it is 70 years later, and I cannot think of anything more topically relevant. Don’t let the arid, sweltering heat of the Imperial valley … Continue reading BORDER INCIDENT (1949)
My love for Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff is no secret. As a classic film obsessive, I’m often asked who my favorite (male and female) movie stars are. With zero hesitation, Cary Grant and Doris Day. Even her name reflects that Day was destined to be star. Her mother gave her the name “Doris” after the silent film star Doris Kenyon. Later, “Day” was inspired … Continue reading Fangirling Doris Day
*The following are film study notes, as part of an ongoing Ray Harryhausen course I instruct in Lawrence, Kansas. What do you do when you’re a hard-working special effects guy, but need a European vacation? If you are Ray Harryhausen, you kill 2 birds with one stone by simply creating a monster movie opportunity in Italy. That’s exactly what Harryhausen did when he came up … Continue reading Ray Harryhausen Film Notes: 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957)
The following are my notes as I presented to my Film Study course, Ray Harryhausen. In this week’s class we discussed the big ape that continues to capture our hearts, sixteen years after the famous Pre-Code ape that started it all. Mighty Joe Young. For this week, we will explore Ray Harryhausen’s first feature, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949). While not his first solo feature, … Continue reading Ray Harryhausen Film Notes: MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)
For a couple of years now, I’ve been teaching a series of classic film courses. Film Noir, Screwball Comedy, and Hitchcock are some of the topics we’ve tackled. Starting this week, we’re kicking off with a new adventure into a fantasy world of mythical creatures and monsters. A cinematic dream world created by Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen was so enthralled by the wonder of a stop-motion … Continue reading The Ray Harryhausen Film Study
Announcement: 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon 2019 From the time Douglas Fairbanks, then President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hosted the first Awards dinner party for about 250 people on May 16, 1929, to this year’s host-free Oscars ceremony ninety years later, this iconic celebration honoring Hollywood’s finest continues to be just as spectacular and riddled with excellence and contentions as the … Continue reading Announcement: 31 Days Of Oscar Blogathon 2019
A crazy-eyed neurotic. A nervous noir thug. A sell-out weasel. These are not exactly the most flattering depictions of a character. But these are just a few of the characters Elisha Cook Jr. was best known. “Cookie” was a true working actor with over 200 credits across stage, film, and television for a career that lasted nearly sixty years. Starting as young as 14 years … Continue reading Elisha Cook Jr
This following is a guest post on SKELTON KNAGGS for the 7th annual WHAT A CHARACTER! BLOGATHON. The author is Bill Shaffer- President of the Kansas Silent Film Festival, recently retired as Director of KTWU for over 40 years, the go-to fella for anything happening in the “old movie realm” in this corner of the Sunflower State, a spaghetti western aficionado, and a helluva swell … Continue reading Skelton Knaggs
Today we bring you the first day of the 7th annual WHAT A CHARACTER! BLOGATHON, hosted by yours truly and my fellow co-hosts, the classic film loving ladies: Paula of Paula’s Cinema Club @Paula_Guthat and Aurora of Once Upon A Screen @CitizenScreen. As promised, this annual event celebrates the character actors. Those unsung heroes of the silver screen, those familiar faces who often steal every … Continue reading Day One: 7th annual WHAT A CHARACTER! BLOGATHON
Outspoken & Freckled 