(Originally for Comedy Central, June 2015, as evidenced by the sadly dated reference to the price of Space Raiders) 1. You can have a cup of tea on a plane…. Read more »
10 Pictures That Prove Glastonbury Goers Can Have A Good Time Anywhere
(Originally for Comedy Central, June 2014) It doesn’t matter how much mud, queuing or admin you throw at them, Glastonbury festival goers can literally have a good time anywhere. Looking… Read more »
What’s with the big clock thing in Metropolis?
There’s a famous scene in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), in which we see one of the down-trodden underclass of the city working on a clock-like machine which resembles something out… Read more »
Week-end at the Waldorf – better than I expected
It’s easy to see the recent Spider-man “re-boot”, just ten years on from the previous version, and upcoming re-makes of nineties films such as Total Recall and Judge Dredd as… Read more »
A Job of Work: John Ford as an Auteur
Finally got around to posting the final part of my piece on the early comedies of John Ford. As this is adapted from my undergraduate dissertation I’ve had to trim… Read more »
Why doesn’t Lon Chaney Jr turn into a wolf?
In Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941) Lon Chaney Jr (son of the great man of a thousand faces, though he seems to have been cut out of the inheritance somewhat)… Read more »
The Acting Business: John Ford’s Star Comedies
Here’s the second part of my piece on John Ford’s early comedy films, concerned with his use of star actors. Part 1 – Just Like the Old Country: John Ford’s… Read more »
Just Like the Old Country: John Ford’s Silent Comedies
Victor McLaglen, shrouded in the Dublin fog, guiltily contemplating the reward poster which looms over him; Henry Fonda, crouched in shadow, the gleam and intensity in his eyes penetrating the… Read more »
The Hunger Games and The Cabin in the Woods
Recently I caught two movies back to back at the cinema which had some interesting parallels. The Hunger Games tells the story of young people who are forced by the… Read more »
Rock ‘n’ Roll is Here to Stay
Rock And Roll is Here to Stay Danny and the Juniors (ABC-Paramount Records, 1958) Rock and roll is here to stay, it will never die, It was meant to be… Read more »
Reclaiming the Past: Hugo and The Artist
Prominently placed among the films vying for attention this awards season are two films set in the 1920s which convey a similar passion for early cinema, but which take markedly… Read more »