BARBIE GOES HOLLYWOOD

I have a confession to make. I like dolls. A lot. I’ve been a casual collector for many years and I’ve also written about dolls for a few publications. I usually keep my fascination with classic films and dolls separate but it’s not easy trying to compartmentalize your interests. The film fans I’ve met often …

Six Months of Movie Morlocks: May – Oct. 2016

It's been an interesting, busy and to be honest, an extremely stressful year due to some ongoing medical issues I'm dealing with that you can read more about here: Vertigo: Hitchcock was wrong. In turn, I've been terribly lax about updating the blog but due to looming work related developments that I'll be sharing soon, …

6 Months of Film Writing

I'm afraid I've been neglecting Cinebeats again but I've been busy with various personal projects and obligations. I've also recently started writing for Publishers Weekly but I thought I'd finally update with some highlights from TCM's Movie Morlocks. Here's some of the more interesting (in my estimation) film related writing & entertaining babble I've produced …

2013 at the Movie Morlocks

Jess Franco 1930-2013 What follows is a collection of links to some of my posts at TCM's Movie Morlocks from 2013. These are (in my estimation) the best and most interesting articles I wrote last year but you can read my entire output for 2013 at the Movie Morlocks if you peruse the archives. From …

The Man of the Hour: Alfred Hitchcock

Back in May when I debuted Klara Tavakoli Goesche's video tour of VERTIGO locations at the Movie Morlocks I made note of the fact that: "Alfred Hitchcock’s name seems to be everywhere these days." It seems that my observation was somewhat premature because I had no idea that Hitchock would became a subject of daily …

On Location With Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo

In my latest post at the Movie Morlocks I interview fellow film blogger and all-around groovy gal, Klara Tavakoli Goesche who manages Retro Active Critiques. Klara also makes videos and she recently produced her own short film highlighting some of the San Francisco locations seen in Hitchcock's VERTIGO. I asked her if I could debut …

Spy Games: The Prize (1963)

My latest installment of "Spy Games" is available to read at the Movie Morlocks and this time I'm discussing Mark Robson's sxy espionage thriller THE PRIZE (1963) starring Paul Newman, Elke Sommer, Edward G. Robinson and Diane Baker. Here's a little sample from my Morlock post: "THE PRIZE was based on a bestselling novel by …

Something Is Always Left Behind

Images from A Place of One's Own (1945) Summer officially makes way for autumn this week and in celebration of my favorite season I decided to write about the classic supernatural thriller A PLACE OF ONE'S OWN (1945) at the Movie Morlocks. This unusual British film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock's cinematographer Bernard Knowles and …

Barbie Goes Hollywood

This week at the Movie Morlocks I discuss the latest classic film themed Barbie dolls from Mattel. A brief paragraph from my post: "For more than 50 years Mattel has been making pop culture history and their celebrity Barbie dolls have become highly collectible. It all started in 1967 when Mattel decided to create a …

Alfred Hitchcock Needs Our Help

From my newest post at TCM's Movie Morlocks Blog: "This week the BFI (British Film Institute) launched a new campaign called “Rescue the Hitchcock 9” that asks the public to help them rescue 9 of Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest films. The original movies were shot on nitrate film, which is notorious for its incendiary properties. Nitrate …

Barbie has gone to The Birds

This might be old news to some, but it's new news to me. I just discovered Mattel released a Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963) Barbie doll in October complete with attacking birds and a mini reproduction of her fabulous green dress suit. The Birds terrified me when I first saw it …

Paracinema #4

The new issue of Paracinema Magazine has just become available and it's a doozy! It contains a terrific indepth study of Hitchcock's Vertigo as well as pieces on Takashi Miike’s Ichi The Killer, Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song and Jacques Tourneur's The Leopard Man. There are also lengthy articles on the films of …

A few thoughts about Anthony Perkins

I've had the late great actor Anthony Perkins on my mind a lot lately. September 12th marked the 16th anniversary of his death and whenever September 11th rolls around I'm reminded of Perkins' wife Berry Berenson (and the mother of his two sons, Oz and Elvis Perkins) who was killed when the plane she was …

Brian G. Hutton’s Night Watch (1973)

By 1973 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's nine year marriage was coming to an end and both actors wanted to focus on their individual careers. Night Watch (1973) features one of Elizabeth Taylor's few solo performances as an actress while she was married to Burton and it's one of my favorite Taylor films from the …

Experience Rod Serling for Free!

I'm currently busy writing about some of my favorite Post-1966 Elizabeth Taylor films, but I wanted to share some fantastic news I stumbled across while I was roaming around online. Two of my favorite television shows from the ‘60s and ‘70s are Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (1959-64) and Night Gallery (1970-73). CBS and NBC …