Sad news: that multi-talented actor, Rip Torn, passed away the other day at 88 years old. Most of the news items I read led off with his well-remembered stint on The Larry Sanders Show, but I didn’t see any mentions of his best performance: 1973’s country drama, Payday. Advertisements
So. It’s getting late and I don’t want to screw around. I don’t want “good” TV or “fine television” (blech), and I don’t want what everyone else wants, like GOT (this country, no question, is doomed). I want old timey stuff from my youth, with grown-up actors and actresses whom I recognize, in plots I… Read More ‘Disaster on the Coastliner’ (1979): It’s Shatner to the rescue when Amtrak goes off the rails
Chilled, stylish Americanized giallo thriller, with just acceptable TV-level suspense, a glamorously grungy New York City production design, a solid lead performance from wide-eyed Faye Dunaway…and a seriously dopey message about “women” and “fashion” and “violence” and “photography” that not one person involved with this movie could believably hawk to you…even with a gun at… Read More ‘Eyes of Laura Mars’ (1978): Stylish but cold – there’s a movie in here somewhere
Mill Creek Entertainment has taken three Adolf Hitler-themed documentaries (one feature length, and two long-form TV outings), and put them together in a newly-monikered set, Secret Stories of Hitler.
In honor of Elizabeth Taylor’s birthday, Movies & Drinks thought it an ideal time to look at her 1973 thriller from AVCO Embassy Pictures, Night Watch—one of Miss Taylor’s less-successful mid-career outings that should have put her back on top with both critics and ticket buyers.
At Christmastime, if I’ve been a good boy, I usually get a couple of movie and TV books to enjoy during the more relaxed, quiet days of the holiday (before the inevitable New Year’s Eve brawl). This go-around, I was fortune to receive Simon Sheridan’s exhaustive, marvelously entertaining Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades… Read More ‘Confessions of a Pop Performer’ (1975): Brit sex comedy by future Bond screenwriter still a hoot
Flashy but familiar, bait-and-switch ABC Movie of the Week entry.
