Movie of the month: Jigoku (dir. Nobuo Nakagawa, 1960) - Jigoku (translated as Hell) initially seems to share a kinship with PSA films like Reefer Madness. A timid theology student named Shiro (Shigeru Amachi) is...

Industrial Inaction - I’m on strike. Not here at Shadowplay, but at Edinburgh College of Art, which is part of the University of Edinburgh, which has decided to axe a bunch of c...

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Oct. 2 - Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one b...

TCM treats horror fans with scary good October lineup - As a classic horror fan who watches scary movies all year, it’s usually a disappointment for me in October when streaming services and networks bring out t...

Going To the Dogs - OK, if any of you saw my post from about an hour or so ago, you know that I’ve been having trouble with the blog editor loading. It’s ridiculous. If I try ...

TV… Fantasy Island (1977-84) The Big Dipper / The Pirate, Se2 Ep2 - There once was an actress named Vivian Blaine who, in 1978, flew in as a guest star on that Aaron Spelling plane... In one of her many later appearances, V...

New Morals for Old (1932) - Time once again for Pre-Code Crazy, my monthly pre-Code pick with my friend Karen of Shadows & Satin. We each choose a film that’s on this month’s TCM sche...

Pre-Code Crazy for October 2026 - Pre-Code Crazy is the monthly series here at Shadows and Satin and over at the blog of my pal Kristina, Speakeasy, where each month we recommend a pre-Code...

Fame Is Not All It's Cracked Up To Be - This is my entry for the *Vivian Blaine* Blogathon, hosted by *Taking Up Room*. OK. I have to admit several things before getting started. Wh...

What I Watched in September - A very quick (lol) overview of what I watched in September. Read my thoughts about Ricardo Montalban for TCM's Star of the Month here. September wasn't ...

The Love Hypothesis (2026) - Zgrabnie napisany, przyzwoicie poprowadzony i całkiem nieźle zagrany quasiscrewball o dwojgu ludzi, którzy udają związek w imię wyższego dobra. Artykuł p...

Pre-Code Movies on TCM, October 2026 - Miles and miles of Myrna Loy arrive in October, plus some spooky watches to boot!

HITCHCOCKTOBER FROM A HITCHCOCKIAN FAN - —​NEW!— When it's Hitchcocktober and autumn . . . It all makes sense. ​Especially when there's a body to be found. That's . . . THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY.​It’...

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? - WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? is something you have to watch the movie to find out, but what happened to the makers of the infamous 1962 hit was a bizar...

Whiplash (1948) - *Dane Clark and Zachary Scott are two of my noir favorites, and both star in Whiplash. I was really looking forward to seeing it, but I started dragging ...

WORLD CINEMA: Rififi (1955) - The WORLD CINEMA series of posts lasted only a year, like most of my series of posts, and that’s a crazy thought, since there are so many great films from ...

The Big Trail (1930) - It’s remarkable how a pristine print of an old film makes it come alive before your eyes, and I feel this way most ardently with The Big Trail, an early wi...

THE MYSTERIOUS ANDY KAUFMAN - Andy Kaufman didn’t want to make you laugh—he wanted to make you uncomfortable. Onstage, he wasn’t a comedian in the traditional sense. He called himself ...

Cable Guys: The Elevator Operators of Noir - We don’t see many elevator operators in our daily lives, but in noir they’re as common as neon signs and clouds of Chesterfield smoke. Elevator operators i...

Hollywood Renegade - Todd Berliner’s Hollywood Renegade offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky and the extraordinarily complicated producti...

The “Damsel Tied To The Railroad Tracks” Trope Revisited - Everyone loves a good debunked movie myth, especially if that myth is a stubborn one that will never fully die, thus providing lots of future opportunities...

Buster Keaton Silent Shorts—RANKED - [image: 31-DayDreams] After his 14-film screen partnership with Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton took over the Comique comedy unit to direct 19 short comed...

Drifting Leaves: An Autumn Tag - My friend Olivia tagged me with this little seasonal challenge over on her blog, Meanwhile, in Rivendell... last fall. I'm in the mood for blog tags latel...

Silent Shock: Shocking Moments in Silent Cinema - [image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOyv9oG0hILmg4QwO9KcynqqeWHeAze9z_rf2RU_Sz-U7JzlfQdZp2HNl632c8or_6-U70NM0KIjpS-JMTshz...

O Fruto Proibido (1921) / Forbidden Fruit (1921) - Este filme não tem Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Clara Bow ou Gloria Swanson. As estrelas dele estão praticamente esquecidas hoje. Qua...

5 Fun Facts About William Windom - 5 Fun Facts About William Windom With more than 250 film and television credits, William Windom was one of those wonderfully familiar faces who seemed to t...

A Lon Chaney Sr Tribute - I have long considered Lon Chaney Sr to be the ultimate character actor in the history of film. The man was a marvel. Not only could he play anybody, but h...

The Sick Civil Servant; or, Van Houten’s New Chocolate Sensation (1899) - An ailing man is immediately cured when his physician shows up with a large, branded cup of hot chocolate. Early advertising film showcases how the more th...

Gloria Swanson: There’s No Free Lunch - One of our favourite actresses is Gloria Swanson, one of the biggest stars in 1920s Hollywood. She was a wisp of a gal at 4’11” and 110 lbs, but her talent...

Diary of a Lost Girl, starring Louise Brooks, premiered on this day in 1929 - *Diary of a Lost Girl*, starring Louise Brooks, premiered on this day at the Gartenbau-Kino in Vienna, Austria in 1929. (The film was officially released...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING IN THE RECORDING STUDIO - Bing Crosby was a giant among recording artists. Here are some candid shots of Bing at the recording studio... with Judy Garland with Frank Sinatra wit...

Film Albums: Pete's Dragon (1977) - This month's Film Album is the soundtrack from the classic Walt Disney film *Pete's Dragon*, released in 1977. This family musical was notable for combini...

The Quiet American: Original sin - “I know I am behaving badly, but I have every intention of behaving badly. As a matter of fact, this is exactly the kind of situation where one should beha...

This is us, right now...KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1942) excerpt. - For more on this fascinating and important...and timely...film, have a look at this previous post. *Hollywood Fights Fascism* is a collection of posts...

‘Empire of the Ants’ (1977) – B-Movie Review — Part Three - When we last left off, two of the hapless partiers had escaped the boat and wandered across a length of pipe that led to nothing, but the realization that ...

A Woman’s Faces: Every-Night Dreams (1933) - Mikio Naruse’s 1960 film When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (女が階段を上る時 / Onna ga kaidan wo noboru toki) ends with its protagonist, Keiko, once again climbing t...

Gossip Friday: Made For Each Other - From September 1938: Clark Gable accompanied Carole Lombard to her first day’s shooting on “Made for Each Other,” and then had to watch her make love to Ji...

Noir City: Portland - It’s been a while since I posted. I apologize for missing the last blogathons–I’ve been so busy this summer. Between being busy, going to the beach with my...

“Seven Men From Now” (1956): A Landmark Western of Guilt, Vengeance, and Desert Reckoning - Directed by Budd Boetticher, *Seven Men From Now* (1956) is a landmark lean Western starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin, and Walter Reed. T...

198. THE GREAT DICTATOR, 1940 - A profoundly timeless affirmation of humanity in a world gone mad "The Great Dictator" One of cinema’s most extraordinary achievements, “The Great Dictator...

Blind love - *'This is the dialectic -t here is a very short distance between high art and trash, and trash that contains an element of craziness is by this very qua...

All Night Long: Othello in the London '60s Jazz Scene - McGoohan as the ambitious Johnny Cousin.William Shakespeare's plays have provided the source material for science fiction films (*Forbidden Planet* *), *W...

Classic Movie 10: Peter Lorre Films - Classic horror has its own set of icons, with stars like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee serving as some of its most belov...

Western Songbirds’ Playlist, Part 1 - Rhonda Fleming singing Ain’t-a-Hankerin’ in Alias Jesse James The reception afforded our Western Songbirds, Part 1 post is gratifying. We were reluctant to...

Ace in the Hole at 75 - “Billy Wilder has a mind full of razor blades.” That’s William Holden’s assessment of writer-director Billy Wilder -- and few pictures illustrate Holden’s ...

Cornered - Post-war angst and the struggle to adjust to a world which has undergone rapid change has formed the basis of many a film noir, probably too many to count....

'American Graffiti ' Still Rocks 1973 - *'American Graffiti' was George Lucas' love letter to coming of age in the early '60s.* I had only seen American Graffiti once before, and that's when th...

Many Thanks to the Participants of The 8th Wonderful Ingrid Bergman Blogathon! - Recap for the 8th Wonderful Ingrid Bergman Blogathon's entries!

Self-Promotion is Hard: September 1926 - One hundred years ago this month, Grace Kingsley had casting news about people from all kinds of backgrounds: James Pierce, a former football player for In...

An Oscar for Ingrid Bergman! – Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) - My review of George Cukor's Gaslight (1944), a film for which Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar! Continue reading →

Anastasia 1956 – Ingrid Bergman’s Hollywood Comeback! - Ingrid Bergman is one of my top actresses so when the Ingrid Bergman Blogathon came back around, I knew I wanted to dive into one of her performances I h...

Season Three Episode Thirteen --- The Long Goodbye - Lucky episode 13. We’ve come to the end of the train tracks of our season of film noir. Fate has led us here and dropped us — we’re not responsible for whe...

The Mask 1961 Sunday Nite Surreal “I tried to stop, I can’t, I don’t want to! - Put the Mask On…Now!: Glimpses into the Abyss: Descent and Desire, Depth and Despair – The Mask (1961) “I MUST EXPERIENCE THE GREATEST ACT OF THE HUMAN MIN...

Summer Under the Stars 2026: TCM Festival Highlights - It has been quite a while since I visited with you on Once...

Blanche Grady - Incredibly beautiful, with a superb figure, Blanche was a sought-after model, working with prestigious photographers and modeling for publications like Vog...

Losing Her Mind in Africa: THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951) - Despite Kate Hepburn’s reputation for relishing a good challenge and competitively pushing herself towards personal excellence, she couldn’t have possibly ...

How You Know Your Friends Know You - Two water bottles arrived for me today, with a movie camera on front and quotes on the back. This is one is, of course, a quote from my favorite actress,...

Three Strangers (1946) - Premiered January 23, 1946: THREE STRANGERS, starring Sidney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Peter Lorre. Directed by Jean Negulesco (The Mask of Di...

“Screen Guild Theater”: Hollywood Radio Series - Of all the drama anthologies from old time radio, Screen Guild Theater was one of the most varied and unique radio shows. Every week, Hollywood actors came...

BREATH (Kim Ki-duk, 2007, South Korea) - Kim Ki-duk has a way without words. *BREATH* is exhaled into the cold mo(u)rning air, its life quickly fading and becoming intangible. Yeon is apathet...

Pre-Code Girl Summer Line - Just in time for summer, I've launched a new design in the Spellbound with Beth Ann Threadless shop. Check-out my Pre-code Girl Summer line! The post Pre...

La Poison (1951): A Venomous Comedy - This post is my contribution to the CMBA 2026 Spring Blogathon "Make 'em Laugh." Not long ago I was discussing *The Banshees of Inisherin* in a film gro...

The Awful Truth 1937 - Tonight's Cary Grant fix is by way of the excellent screwball comedy, 1937's The Awful Truth. Also starring Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, directed and ...

Somewhere in Time (1980) - Director: Jeannot Szwarc Writer: Richard Matheson, based on his novel *Bid Time Return* Stars: Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer In...

Woman Under the Influence, A (1974) - “Mabel is not crazy; she’s unusual.” Synopsis: When a construction worker (Peter Falk) finds himself unable to handle the increasingly unconventional beh...

Painful Pilots: "Dream Wife" - It started with a martian. The success of *"My Favorite Martian,"* which premiered on CBS in the fall of 1963, kicked off a parade of supernatural sitcoms...

Employees' Entrance: The Monsters We Make - This is my entry in *The Classic Movie Blog Association Early Shadows and Pre-Code Horror Blogathon*. Click *HERE* for more monstrous fun. This store is ...

Coming Up Shorts! with… The Little Rascals: The Restored Silents, Volume 1 - Welcome back for another full post of Coming Up Shorts! This time, I’m going with the Hal Roach theatrical shorts featuring The Little Rascals, and some of...

BLOGGER’S NEWS - It was on September 14, 2017 that I was one of eight speakers at the first one-day conference dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The conference was...

Buster Keaton’s Cops and Laurel & Hardy 1928 Year Two - Buster Keaton’s masterpiece Cops (1922) is one of his seven films inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry as a work of “enduring impor...

Silent Cinema Of Latin America; Pt.1 Mexico - [image: imageedit-1-8609976754] Reading any standard film history of the silent era one would easily get the idea that the early days of film were limite...

“Sarah Jane—Don’t!” - This is an entry for “Cry Me a River,” the CMBA 2025 Spring Blogathon. Note: If you’re new to Imitation of Life, you might want to start with a viewing or ...

Book Review: The Carry On Companion, by Robert Ross - The Carry On Companion by Robert Ross is a reasonably comprehensive look at a British comedy institution, the Carry On films. Beginning with Carry On Serge...

Cinematic Blindspots — 1945 in Film - Happy 2025, classic film fans! I’m beyond delighted to head into this new year as I have so much to look forward to, particularly the upcoming birth of my ...

Audio Commentary for 1933's THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN - This past summer I was honored to be asked by Sony to record the audio commentary for *The Bitter Tea of General Yen* (1933). This feature is part of t...

2024 Holiday Gift Guide - The holiday season is upon us once again and the countdown to Christmas is underway! As you plan to gather with friends and family over the holidays, let...

Sailing the Golden Era seas - Come aboard, Aaron Spelling is expecting you! * Published specifically for The Spellingverse Blogathon hosted by Gill at Realweegiemidget Reviews. * ¤¤¤ I ...

Eternally Marilyn - photo by Milton Greene Like so many summer days in Los Angeles, this one began as a balmy and sunlit morning. It would grow warmer and sunnier, but the l...

Publication Day - Not movie related but… TRANSGESSIONS, my latest collection of short stories is out now as an eBook and paperback. You can order your copy here. If you like...

Dear "Ginge", Love Fred: Fred and Ginger's Correspondence - For one of cinema's most beloved screen partnerships, we don't know a whole lot about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's offscreen relationsh...

“His Name is Engraved in the Ripple Hall of Fame” — Season One, Episode Ten: Springtime in the Ghetto (April 19, 1974) - As the episode opens, Florida is at her sewing machine, working on a new slipcover for the living room sofa. The whole household is abuzz as the family pre...

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