Ladies They Talk About is a 1933 pre-code film that stars screen icon Barbara Stanwyck. This film can also be described an early woman in prison film. In this movie, the imprisoned women were actually guilty, as opposed to films where women were being falsely accused of committing a crime and going to jail to…
The Thin Man Goes Home Blu-ray review
The Thin Man Goes Home is the fifth in the six film Thin Man series which stars William Powell and Myrna Loy reprise their roles as Nick and Nora Charles. The 1945 film is notable for being the first that was not directed by W.S Van Dyke who passed away in 1943. In this comedy…
The Cheat (1931) Blu-ray review
The Cheat is a 1931 American pre-code drama film directed by George Abbott and starring screen legend Tallulah Bankhead, Irving Pichel and Harvey Stephens. This is the remake of the 1915 film directed by Cecile B. DeMille and is just as good. Elsa Carlyle (Tallulah Bankhead, Lifeboat) is a gambling addict and likes to…
The Ghost Ship / Bedlam Blu-ray review
The Ghost Ship and Bedlam are two films produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson. Lewton at the time was producing many great semi-horror themed films without showing much in the way of horror as we see it today. The films have been paired together in a Warner Archive Val Lewton double-feature Blu-ray….
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: Gothic Psycho Beauties
Things are gettin’ weeeeiiiirrrd, folks. I thought in this intro, I’d talk a little about the history of weird fiction as I see it (which may indeed be a narrow lens to look through). First, what exactly is weird fiction? Well, it’s fairly self-explanatory actually. Generally pretty strange in tone, often with horror elements and…
Prince of the City Blu-ray review
Back in 1998, I watched a cool monster horror thriller called Deep Rising. This is the movie where I first became aware of Treat Williams. I hadn’t seen many other films with Treat Williams outside of Deep Rising and The Phantom. Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City is the earliest film I’ve seen the actor…
Silip Daughter of Eve Blu-ray review
Silip Daughters of Eve is a Filipino erotic story from 1985 which takes aim at two sisters who take different paths with their sexuality Maria Isabel Lopez, a former Miss Philippines stars as Tonya who has chosen religion and celibacy to fight off her sexuality. She teaches catechism to the local children at a village….
Santa Fe Trail Blu-ray review
Santa Fe Trail is a Western film directed by legendary director Michael Curtiz (Doctor X, Casablanca) that features a fantastic cast that includes Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Van Heflin, and former United States President Ronald Reagan. The film takes place in 1854, just before the Civil War. The story mainly…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: Exorcising the Silver Fisherman
Welcome back, boils and ghouls! I hope you’ve had a fruitful Halloween, catching up on some cool spooky classics, because that’s what I’ve been doing. This time, I’ll cover a towering classic of Jesuit terror, a tragic tale of cosmic horror, a spunky ensemble people in an asylum, a weird ass slice of crime fiction…