Back at the Chicken Shack 2

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

BACK ON THE AIR!!

DRY RUN with KRIS & KEN
Wednesdays - 7pm - 10pm
WMSC 90.3
Playlists & Archives are coming soon!

http://wmscradio.com/

Friday, May 4, 2012

Picked These Goodies Up for a Song at the Womens Club Book Sale!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Cover of the Week #198756674909

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

RIP Bosco. there was no greater friend.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Cover of the Week #599978483760

Friday, March 2, 2012

Not just Movies, but Films too!

Expensive Women (1931) –* ½. Silent-star Dolores (Drew Barrymore’s grandmother) Costello’s last leading role casts her as a rich socialite. She is fine and quite beautiful and has some real chemistry with co-star Warren William, but this is tossed aside for her romance with wimpy Anthony Bushell who is just awful.

The Black Swan (2010) - *1/2. Portman won an Oscar for this pretentious ‘thriller’ about a ballerina who wins the role of a lifetime and promptly goes nuts. If the overwrought dramatics don’t turn you off, the in-your-face camera style of director Androfsky will.

The Valiant (1929) - **. In his film debut, Paul Muni received a best actor nomination for this stagebound relic about a murderer’s mysterious past. For some unexplained reason, he’s allowed to write a newspaper column about his plight which alerts his heart-of-gold mother in small-town Ohio. Pretty unendurable, but finale does carry some emotional weight.

The 10^th Victim (1965) - ** ½. Ultra-cool Marcello Mastroianni and stunning Ursula Andress are hunter and victim in this amusing pop-art futuristic comedy that unfortunately runs out of gas near the end.

Men of Chance (1931) - ***. Solid racetrack yarn has Mary Astor (in a nice understated performance) posing as a countess to dupe a gambler (Ricardo Cortez). Film should be better known.

Color Me Kubrick (2005) - ** ½. John Malkovich is fun to watch as Alan Conway, a real life gay, alcoholic con-man who somehow convinces half of London that he is reclusive director Stanley Kubrick. Screenplay is by the real Kubrick’s assistant.

Cedar Rapids (2011) - ***. Surprisingly effective comedy about a straight-laced insurance salesman (Ed Helms) cutting loose at a convention. Takes awhile to get going but worth sticking with. Even Anne Heche is likable in this one.

Numbered Men (1930) - *. Early Mervyn LeRoy film is stiff, unrealistic (convicts are rewarded for good behavior with dynamite and firearms) prison film. Pretty rough viewing. Hard to believe LeRoy was only one year away from making Little Caesar and two years from I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Stars Conrad Nagel.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Book cover of the week #8834547

Seriously doubt there were Billions & Billions read.

Friday, January 13, 2012

A Hard Sell

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Killing Time with Old Movies (and Such)

Games (1967) - ** ½. I had just finished reading Hal (Duke, Tomboy) Ellson’s novelization of this Curtis Harrington thriller when it popped up on cable. It’s minor Harrington but still worth seeing Katherine Ross & James Caan in early pre-stardom roles.

Way Out West (1930) - ** ½. One of the better William Haines talkies I’ve seen about a carny huckster forced to work off a debt on a ranch. Lovely Leila Hyams co-stars with fine support from Charles Middleton, Cliff Edwards and Francis X Bushman Jr. Hyams is fondly remembered for roles in Freaks, Island of Lost Souls, & Ruggles of Red Gap, but this is the largest role I’ve seen for her. She retired in 1936 to everyone’s loss.

James Cagney was my favorite actor when I was growing up when his films played constantly on local television. So it was great to see a few of his early films that I’d only read about.

Sinner’s Holiday (1930) ** 1/ 2 is both Cagney and Joan Blondell’s film debuts and they clearly outshine stars (the doomed Grant Withers & obscure Evalyn Knapp). Cagney’s tearful confession scene with his mother is especially jarring and shows the talent to come.

Taxi! (1932) ** ½ is also a mixed bag but hotheaded Cagney keeps the contrived plot moving. Best scene: Cagney( & Loretta Young) lose a dance-off to George Raft so he slugs Raft creating a riot.

Much better is Picture Snatcher (1933) *** 1/2 , prime Cagney and a must for any Warner Bros. fan. The fast-paced plot is very loosely based on the newspaper reporter who snuck into an electrocution of husband murderer Ruth Snyder to take a picture.

The American (2010) - ****. Slow, meditative film set in Italy stars George Clooney as a hitman looking to connect. Reminds me of a cryptic 70s foreign film (Antonioni's The Passenger comes to mind). Costar Violante Placido is too stunningly beautiful for words.

The Smart Set (1928) - **. This trivial silent was William Haines’ most popular film and if you couldn’t figure out his sexual orientation from this, oy vey! His outrageously effeminate prancing and preening and mugging (as a spoiled rich polo player in pursuit of plain Alice Day) is hard to take and makes it extremely difficult to like his boorish, prissy, obnoxious character. He may have been instructed to overact (to add some needed life to lame story?), because he is much more subdued in Vidor’s Show People (1928) opposite Marion Davies.