Last year, legendary filmmaker John Carpenter teamed up with Shout! Factory to host a kaiju movie marathon called Masters of Monsters, which consisted of the original Godzilla film, Rodan; Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, and The War of the Gargantuas. That marathon was re-run earlier this month. Now the folks at Far Out magazine have dug up a 1996 article from Film Comment magazine in which Carpenter named The War of the Gargantuas as “the ultimate Japanese monster movie” – and included it on a list of his seventeen favorite “guilty pleasure” movies. It’s a fun list, so we have it included below, with thanks to this site.
Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.
Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.
- 11/7/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
The Movie Orgy.The title is a kind of ontological dare: can an assemblage of movies all lay on top of each other, swap positions, feel each other? Surely humans love, as they say, “to watch,” to raise voyeurism up as art. But when left to its own devices, does cinema also experience such base urges? Asked another way: when we say “the movie orgy,” don’t we mean “editing”? Disparate parts colliding with and enveloping one another, penetrating and being penetrated, and finally mutating after coming together? Cinema is transformed by—and transforms (us) through—the spaces between the images. A classier writer might cite Robert Bresson, speaking to Cahiers du cinéma at Cannes in 1957: “The cinema must express itself not with images, but with relationships between images, which is not at all the same thing.” A happy vulgarian—I betray that I am one, as I suspect Joe Dante,...
- 10/31/2023
- MUBI
CineSavant’s reviews for the new Blu ray set, Cold War Creatures-Four Films from Sam Katzman, are in two parts. You can find Glenn Erickson’s review of Zombies of Mora Tau and The Giant Claw in Part One.
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Blu ray
Arrow Films
1955, ’56/ 1.85
Starring Richard Denning, S. John Launer, Steven Ritch
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Fred F. Sears
Sam Katzman began his Hollywood career in 1933 with His Private Secretary, a romantic comedy starring John Wayne made for Screencraft Pictures—he endured for five decades, hopscotching from Victory Pictures to Monogram to MGM before bowing out in 1972 with The Loners, an Easy Rider rip-off starring Dean Stockwell (who called the movie “a mess”). But it was at Columbia where the familiar Katzman brand was born—exploitation fodder inspired by the fish stories found in tabloids. These were movies about headlines, not human beings,...
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Blu ray
Arrow Films
1955, ’56/ 1.85
Starring Richard Denning, S. John Launer, Steven Ritch
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Fred F. Sears
Sam Katzman began his Hollywood career in 1933 with His Private Secretary, a romantic comedy starring John Wayne made for Screencraft Pictures—he endured for five decades, hopscotching from Victory Pictures to Monogram to MGM before bowing out in 1972 with The Loners, an Easy Rider rip-off starring Dean Stockwell (who called the movie “a mess”). But it was at Columbia where the familiar Katzman brand was born—exploitation fodder inspired by the fish stories found in tabloids. These were movies about headlines, not human beings,...
- 9/25/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Powerhouse Indicator moves forward to their fourth fancy box of noirs from the studio of Harry Cohn, six pictures stretching from the postwar boom to the end of the original classic noir era. This time around we have some notable directors, and a nice selection of stars — Dennis O’Keefe, George Murphy, Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun and Richard Conte. Kim Novak makes her starring debut as a femme fatale; noir icon Richard Conte shines in a movie that marks a turn into a new kind of existential, paranoid thriller. And speaking of paranoid, we again get to lighten up with another selection of theme-appropriate Three Stooges shorts.
Columbia Noir #4
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1948-1957 / B&w + Color / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / Street Date September 27, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / 49.99
Starring: Louis Hayward, Dennis O’Keefe; George Murphy; Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak; Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun; Dennis O’Keefe,...
Columbia Noir #4
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1948-1957 / B&w + Color / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / Street Date September 27, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / 49.99
Starring: Louis Hayward, Dennis O’Keefe; George Murphy; Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak; Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun; Dennis O’Keefe,...
- 9/14/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Yes, sometimes a producer could earn ‘auteur’ status making B pictures. A name that’s never going to be uttered in the same breath as Val Lewton is Sam Katzman, who for the 1950s settled into a profitable tenure making Columbia program pictures. They pretty much stayed in the category of ‘obvious junk’ yet include a number of endearing favorites. And Katzman deserved to slip through the pearly gates just for helping get Ray Harryhausen’s feature career into motion. Besides their minimal production outlay, Katzman’s horror/sci fi attractions have one strange thing in common: they don’t carry Columbia torch Lady logos. Part One of this review takes on two of the four features in Arrow’s gorgeously appointed boxed set; reviewer Charlie Largent will follow with a review of the second pair of creature features.
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Part 1: Zombies of Mora Tau...
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Part 1: Zombies of Mora Tau...
- 9/11/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mill Creek and Kit Parker package nine mid-range Columbia features from the 1940s and 1950s, not all of them strictly noir but all with dark themes — crime, creepy politics, etc. None have been on Blu-ray, and all but one are in fine condition.
Noir Archive 9-Film Collection
Address Unknown, Escape in the Fog, The Guilt of Janet Ames, The Black Book, Johnny Allegro, 711 Ocean Drive, The Killer That Stalked New York, Assignment: Paris, The Miami Story
Blu-ray
Mill Creek / Kit Parker
1944 -1954 / B&W / 8 x 1:37 Academy; 1 x 1:85 widescreen / 734 min. / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 49.95
Starring: Paul Lukas, Nina Foch, Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, George Raft, Edmond O’Brien, Evelyn Keyes, Dana Andrews, Barry Sullivan.
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté, George Meehan, Joseph Walker, John Alton, Joseph Biroc, Franz Planer, Joseph Biroc, Burnett Guffey, Henry Freulich.
Written by Herbert Dalmas, Aubrey Wisberg, Louella MacFarlane, Philip Yordan, Karen DeWolf, Richard English, Harry Essex, William Bowers,...
Noir Archive 9-Film Collection
Address Unknown, Escape in the Fog, The Guilt of Janet Ames, The Black Book, Johnny Allegro, 711 Ocean Drive, The Killer That Stalked New York, Assignment: Paris, The Miami Story
Blu-ray
Mill Creek / Kit Parker
1944 -1954 / B&W / 8 x 1:37 Academy; 1 x 1:85 widescreen / 734 min. / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 49.95
Starring: Paul Lukas, Nina Foch, Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, George Raft, Edmond O’Brien, Evelyn Keyes, Dana Andrews, Barry Sullivan.
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté, George Meehan, Joseph Walker, John Alton, Joseph Biroc, Franz Planer, Joseph Biroc, Burnett Guffey, Henry Freulich.
Written by Herbert Dalmas, Aubrey Wisberg, Louella MacFarlane, Philip Yordan, Karen DeWolf, Richard English, Harry Essex, William Bowers,...
- 4/9/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Actress Roberta Haynes died Thursday in her home in Delray Beach. She was 91.
Haynes is known for her role opposite Gary Cooper in the 1953 Mark Robson-directed film Return to Paradise where she played a native of Matareva who develops a relationship with Cooper’s American drifter Mr. Morgan. In the same year, she starred in two westerns including The Nebraskan directed by Fred F. Sears and Gun Fury directed by Raoul Walsh.
Born Roberta Arline Schack in Wichita Falls, Tex. on Aug. 19, 1929, Haynes was raised in Toronto and moved on to California where she starred on Broadway and film. In 1949, she appeared in the film Knock on Any Door starring Humphrey Bogart and the John Huston-directed We Were Strangers. On stage, appeared The Madwoman of Chaillot in 1950 opposite John Carradine as well as The Fighter with Lee. J. Cobb in 1952. Her other film credits include High Noon, Gun Fury and Hell Ship Mutiny.
Haynes is known for her role opposite Gary Cooper in the 1953 Mark Robson-directed film Return to Paradise where she played a native of Matareva who develops a relationship with Cooper’s American drifter Mr. Morgan. In the same year, she starred in two westerns including The Nebraskan directed by Fred F. Sears and Gun Fury directed by Raoul Walsh.
Born Roberta Arline Schack in Wichita Falls, Tex. on Aug. 19, 1929, Haynes was raised in Toronto and moved on to California where she starred on Broadway and film. In 1949, she appeared in the film Knock on Any Door starring Humphrey Bogart and the John Huston-directed We Were Strangers. On stage, appeared The Madwoman of Chaillot in 1950 opposite John Carradine as well as The Fighter with Lee. J. Cobb in 1952. Her other film credits include High Noon, Gun Fury and Hell Ship Mutiny.
- 4/7/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Femme fatale Audrey Totter: Film noir actress and MGM leading lady dead at 95 (photo: Audrey Totter ca. 1947) Audrey Totter, film noir femme fatale and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player best remembered for the mystery crime drama Lady in the Lake and, at Rko, the hard-hitting boxing drama The Set-Up, died after suffering a stroke and congestive heart failure on Thursday, December 12, 2013, at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles County. Reportedly a resident at the Motion Picture and Television Home in Woodland Hills, Audrey Totter would have turned 96 on Dec. 20. Born in Joliet, Illinois, Audrey Totter began her show business career on radio. She landed an MGM contract in the mid-’40s, playing bit roles in several of the studio’s productions, e.g., the Clark Gable-Greer Garson pairing Adventure (1945), the Hedy Lamarr-Robert Walker-June Allyson threesome Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), and, as an adventurous hitchhiker riding with John Garfield,...
- 12/15/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Actress Joan Taylor, best remembered for two sci-fi / horror B movies of the late 1950s, died March 4 in Santa Monica, in Los Angeles County. Taylor was 82. According to various sources, Taylor was born Rose Marie Emma in Geneva, Illinois, on August 18, 1929. She was the daughter of Austrian vaudeville player Amelia Berky and an Italian-born immigrant who later became a Hollywood prop man. Curiously, last Friday night I watched for the first time the 1957 Columbia release 20 Million Miles to Earth. Though wasted in a non-role in this King Kong rip-off with stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen, Taylor looked quite pretty (as an Italian) whether angry at leading man William Hopper (son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper) or screaming at the ballooning Martian creature. I guess it says something about her screen presence that I was rooting for the Martian Monster to gobble up the film's director (Nathan Juran), writers (Robert Creighton Williams...
- 3/7/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Margaret Field, best remembered for the 1951 sci-fier The Man From Planet X, died at her Malibu home on Sunday, Nov. 6, the day her daughter Sally Field turned 65. Margaret Field, who had been diagnosed with cancer six years ago, was 89. Directed by cult B-movie director Edgar G. Ulmer, The Man From Planet X turned out to be the highlight of Field's film career. The story revolves around a mysterious journalist (Robert Clarke) who may or may not be an alien with ties to a spaceship that has landed near an observatory on a remote Scottish island. Most of Field's previous movie appearances had been uncredited bit parts, chiefly in Paramount productions such as The Perils of Pauline, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, and Samson and Delilah. Her parts got bigger following The Man from Planet X, but they remained subpar roles in mostly B movies. Among those were Philip Ford's...
- 11/8/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
As I was perusing through my usual stack of Halloween movies I found myself endlessly bored with the selection. Every film I picked up echoed through my hallow mind, the classic quotes and memorable scenes so fresh in my memory that I felt I had only just seen them. I needed a cure, and fast, my itch for a horror film outside the box tore at my insides like a zombie at flesh.
Even my horror movie metaphors were becoming played out and contrived. “The Internet!” I proclaimed. There’s tons of stuff on there. Armed with only my address bar (and a bottle of whisky) I set out on a quest to find hidden gems of horror that lie outside the border of my own comfort zone to either add to my Lovefilm account, order from Amazon or are available to download legally from the internet.
So this week,...
Even my horror movie metaphors were becoming played out and contrived. “The Internet!” I proclaimed. There’s tons of stuff on there. Armed with only my address bar (and a bottle of whisky) I set out on a quest to find hidden gems of horror that lie outside the border of my own comfort zone to either add to my Lovefilm account, order from Amazon or are available to download legally from the internet.
So this week,...
- 10/25/2011
- by Jay D.
- Obsessed with Film
Above: Publicity still from John Parker's Dementia (1955).
Rep houses in San Francisco, like those in most American cities, are struggling to stay open. But for something like thirty nights a year, the clouds lift and big crowds materialize for films of the past: call it the noir exception. To be sure, one needn’t actually attend the Film Noir Foundation’s annual Noir City festival at the Castro or Elliot Lavine’s grittier programs at the Roxie to know that the generic fantasy of film noir (style, sex and violence washed together) still holds powerful allure. You could hardly miss the bus stop advert for Rockstar Games’ latest blockbuster, L.A. Noire, outside the Roxie during Lavine’s latest marathon, “I Wake Up Dreaming: The Legendary and the Lost”. For those of us still invested in the non-interactive cinema experience, however, the popularity of these series is a remarkable if curious thing.
Rep houses in San Francisco, like those in most American cities, are struggling to stay open. But for something like thirty nights a year, the clouds lift and big crowds materialize for films of the past: call it the noir exception. To be sure, one needn’t actually attend the Film Noir Foundation’s annual Noir City festival at the Castro or Elliot Lavine’s grittier programs at the Roxie to know that the generic fantasy of film noir (style, sex and violence washed together) still holds powerful allure. You could hardly miss the bus stop advert for Rockstar Games’ latest blockbuster, L.A. Noire, outside the Roxie during Lavine’s latest marathon, “I Wake Up Dreaming: The Legendary and the Lost”. For those of us still invested in the non-interactive cinema experience, however, the popularity of these series is a remarkable if curious thing.
- 6/13/2011
- MUBI
Actor William Campbell died on April 29 at age 87 of "natural causes" at the Motion Picture & Television Fund's hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. Though perhaps best-remembered for his roles in two Star Trek episodes, "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The Squire of Gothos" (doing a Liberace sendup), Campbell appeared in more than 30 features, and nearly 50 television series and movies. On the big screen, Campbell's most notable role was probably as San Quentin inmate Whit Whittier, the "Lovers' Lane Bandit," in Fred F. Sears' Cell 2455 Death Row (1955), a competent if uninspired prison drama based on death-row inmate Caryl Chessman's bestselling autobiography. (Despite worldwide appeals for clemency, Chessman was sent to the gas chamber in 1960.) Had Cell 2455 Death Row been a sleeper hit, Campbell might have become a star (one of his romantic interests in the film, Kathryn Grant, went on to [...]...
- 5/1/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It's another week of great revival screenings here in Weirdsville, and although the Paramount's Summer Film Series has come and gone for another year, there are still a mess o' fine flicks for the Classic Film connoisseur to enjoy.
And although the Austin Classic Movies Examiner has a somewhat arbitrary, self-imposed time limit of ten years before a film is considered "classic," he would be remiss if he did not give mention to what is sure to be a hilarious evisceration of M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 craptacular The Happening by the geniuses at Master Pancake Theater this weekend at the Alamo Ritz. What a twist!
Here are This Week's Classic Movie Screenings in Austin from Friday September 17th through Thursday September 23rd:
Grease (1978) with John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and Sid Caesar, directed by Randall Kleiser, Sing-Along at Tinseltown South, Fri. @ 4:40, 7:30, and 10:10 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. @ 11:50 a.
And although the Austin Classic Movies Examiner has a somewhat arbitrary, self-imposed time limit of ten years before a film is considered "classic," he would be remiss if he did not give mention to what is sure to be a hilarious evisceration of M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 craptacular The Happening by the geniuses at Master Pancake Theater this weekend at the Alamo Ritz. What a twist!
Here are This Week's Classic Movie Screenings in Austin from Friday September 17th through Thursday September 23rd:
Grease (1978) with John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and Sid Caesar, directed by Randall Kleiser, Sing-Along at Tinseltown South, Fri. @ 4:40, 7:30, and 10:10 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. @ 11:50 a.
- 9/17/2010
- by malthursday
- Examiner Movies Channel
Science fiction writers of every generation had their own visions of the future, but what if their predictions became a reality? Rob dons his silver suit and delves into the archives to find out...
To me, living in 2010 seems like the future (well a bit anyway), and some of the things people dreamt of in years gone by have indeed come to pass. We have iPods which contain all our music, videos and data like the PADDs in Star Trek, have unlocked parts of the human genome, cloned livestock and created primitive artificial life. And while we don't have jet-packs, teleporters or the ability to travel to Mars, current technology hasn't don't too badly on the whole.
We love our technology, all sleek, thin and mobile, full of wafer-thin elements that can pass data at massive rates, wrapped up in shiny and lovingly-designed bits of kit. The ‘aesthetic of the...
To me, living in 2010 seems like the future (well a bit anyway), and some of the things people dreamt of in years gone by have indeed come to pass. We have iPods which contain all our music, videos and data like the PADDs in Star Trek, have unlocked parts of the human genome, cloned livestock and created primitive artificial life. And while we don't have jet-packs, teleporters or the ability to travel to Mars, current technology hasn't don't too badly on the whole.
We love our technology, all sleek, thin and mobile, full of wafer-thin elements that can pass data at massive rates, wrapped up in shiny and lovingly-designed bits of kit. The ‘aesthetic of the...
- 6/28/2010
- Den of Geek
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