“The thumb isn’t good enough for you. You have to use your whole body.”  Naked underneath her trenchcoat, frightened hitchhiker Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman) gets private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) to stop his car by standing in the middle of the highway with her arms outstretched in an X pattern.  This is the first time we ... read more »

With blu-ray and instant viewing on netflix, the whole world of movie watching is changing, and new vs. old releases is becoming harder to pinpoint, so my discoveries here are proudly of all ages based only on what I saw this year that I wanted to write about, liked, but didn’t have anything clever to ... read more »

FOB (“Friend of Bright Lights“) Ed Howard writes in to announce: “my new blog-a-thon, which will run from January 12-23, 2009 and will focus on the early films of Howard Hawks. More details here. I’m announcing it far in advance to give time for the word to spread and for those who are interested to ... read more »

Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira – actress, comedienne, artist, and horror hostess – was one of the most interesting and extraordinary persons I have ever met. MAILA KNEW EVERYBODY The first thing she asked me was, “Are you a genius?” adding, “I only associate with geniuses.” Taken aback, I realized that if I wanted to keep ... read more »

What with all the year-end lists we’ve been seeing lately, I’ve been surprised at some of the omissions. Well, not all that surprised, since lists like these almost always neglect films released during the first three-quarters of the year in favor of movies released at the year’s tail-end (Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood, Atonement), ... read more »

Perhaps the most famous of all uncompleted film projects is the Orson Welles version of Don Quixote (starring Francisco Reiguera, Akim Tamiroff, and Patty McCormack, above). Like so many of Welles’s projects – from his first short film, The Hearts of Age (1934), to his final films, The Immortal Story, Chimes at Midnight, The Other ... read more »

Much as I actually like Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) and goth women generally, Maila Nurmi (as Vampira, above) was the greatest of them all. More stunningly beautiful than her successors. Funnier. Sexier. And scarier. (That scream…) Bet you didn’t know she was brought to Hollywood by Howard Hawks. Not for her latent goth qualities (she was ... read more »

One of the not-so-guilty pleasures of Death Proof, the Quentin Tarantino-directed second half of Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse, is the performance of Sydney Tamiia Poitier (above) as Austin D.J., “Jungle Julia.” The way Tarantino directs actors – in this film and generally – owes a lot to Howard Hawks. Like Hawks at his most Hawksien ... read more »