Chicagoist (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Tod Browning's 1932 horror classic, Freaks , was far ahead of it's time both in casting and ideology. Browning cast real carnival sideshow performers in lieu of faking their natural deformities through costuming and makeup. Though fictional in plot, the film is a poignant statement on honor and prejudice. On December 9 the Chicago Cultural Center will host a screening of Freaks in the Claudia Cassidy...
Monday Artday (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Another of Hollywood's forgotten - director Tod Browning. Read about him HERE at the josh pincus is crying blog. Subscribe in a reader
SHADOWPLAY (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
I know, I know, a silent film about a talking monkey doesn’t seem to make much sense, but if Tod Browning could make a silent about ventriloquism (THE UNCANNY THREE) then I say Raoul Walsh (yes! he!) is more than entitled to centre a melodrama on the phenomenon of simian conversation: THE MONKEY TALKS (1927). In [...]
SHADOWPLAY (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
I guess DRACULA (1931) was the first horror movie I ever saw. Not a bad starting point, historically, as it’s possibly the first American supernatural horror movie. I always had a great interest in monsters, perhaps stemming from the times I was frightened by the cyclops in THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and the giant [...]
SHADOWPLAY (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR is a Tod Browning murder mystery from 1929, which pushes so far into staginess that the walls break apart and we find ourselves in a Lynchian space of puppetshow poetry. Amazingly, it features Bela Lugosi as a detective, two years before DRACULA made him a star. Even amazinglier, such is the panoply [...]
"Let's Not Talk About Movies" (Free subscription) | 10/25/2009
The Story: And now, submitted for your pleasure and Hallowe'en pre-functioning, this cautionary tale of getting into the real estate trade. Poor, poor Renfield . Not only did he take the place of Jonathan Harker in the transition from Bram Stoker 's novel to the 1931 movie version of " Dracula " , but he was also played by Dwight Frye , whose over-the-top capering would inform many a hunched...
SHADOWPLAY (Free subscription) | 10/25/2009
We do love the quaint and curious use of intertitles in early talking pictures. And Tod Browning’s FREAKS is a particularly wild and off-kilter movie. It contains precisely ONE intertitle, a fairly unnecessary one from a storytelling point of view ~ By refusing to repeat the device and make it into an integrated stylistic mannerism, the [...]
The Irish Times (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
Directed by Paul Weitz. Starring Josh Hutcherson, Chris Massoglia, John C Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Ray Stevenson, Patrick Fugit, Willem Dafoe, Salma Hayek. 12A cert gen release, 108 min
The Stage (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
Peacock, London: There should be a law against reducing the visual splendour of the Swedish company Cirkus Cirkor's show, Inside Out, into mere words. With a gossamer touch, director Tilde Bjorfors has devised the most gorgeous concoction, a perfect blend of contemporary and traditional circus, interspersed with filmed sequences and infused with the flavour of Tod Browning's film, Freaks. Read the...
Hullabaloo (Free subscription) | 10/18/2009
Saturday Night At Movies Death Wish 300 By Dennis Hartley Man of few words: Gerard Butler studies his line. Cartoonist Matt Groening published a panel back in 1985 that was entitled “How to be a Clever Film Critic”, challenging wannabe Eberts and Kaels to ask themselves (among other things) this soul-searching question: “Do you thrill at the prospect of spending a career writing...
Divers and Sundry (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
The Unknown is a 1927 Tod Browning horror film starring Lon Chaney, Sr. and Joan Crawford . This is a grim little tale. Youtube has it online, but the order is wrong so that the autoplay feature doesn't work right. The parts, though, are below: part 2 , part 3 , part 4 , part 5 Moria says, "What is so startling about The Unknown is its perverse freakishness." 1000 Misspent Hours says, Every...
Chicagoist (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the 45th Chicago International Film Festival . First off: there's no way to really discuss Ricky without spilling the beans concerning its plot twist. So if spoilers concern you, here's the bottom line before you stop reading this post: go see this fun and thought-provoking movie. Katie is a single mom working hard to make ends meet. Her little girl...
Needcoffee.com (Free subscription) | 10/04/2009
That's right, nothing to do with alien pod people--and certainly not the third remake with Kidman and Craig...no, we're going back to Robert Louis Stevenson's story, adapted by Val Lewton and directed by Robert Wise. I decided to go with this film after we wrapped up last year at this time with The Dark [...]
The WOW Report (Free subscription) | 09/29/2009
Take a look at the amazing superrealistic sculpture of Thomas Kuebler. This is Schlitze from Tod Browning's 1932 movie Freaks . And there's more at Kuebler's website . Worth a visit. (via Dangerous Minds )
Filmshaft.com (Free subscription) | 09/17/2009
It is rarely highlighted what a strange habit and practice ...
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