The Band Wagon (No. 10)

by Judy Geater There’s a Western musical number in one of Fred Astaire’s least-known films, Let’s Dance (1950), where a TV set is seen on the wall, showing a cowboy film. Astaire eyes it disbelievingly for a second – then whips out a gun and shoots the screen. A slightly less drastic method of getting [...]

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Paranormal Activity 3, Puss n Boots, House on Haunted Hill, Halloween and October Snow on Monday Morning Diary (October 31)

by Sam Juliano     A ferocious snowstorm blanketed the east coast Saturday, leaving in it’s wake power outages that have affected millions across the region.  My own home remains without electrical power, with people close to the scene predicting restoration no sooner than Tuesday.  This will undermine Halloween festivities in many areas, and has even [...]

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Top Hat (no. 11)

by R.D.Finch “Every once in a while I suddenly find myself dancing,” Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) says to Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) when they meet cute at a London hotel at the beginning of Top Hat (1935). Jerry, a song-and-dance man, has just arrived in London to star in a show for his producer pal [...]

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Dracula (1931, dir. Tod Browning) & Drácula (1931, dir. George Melford) • (Fixing a Hole: Universal Horror Month)

by Jaime Grijalba “Fixing a Hole” is a new series whose sole purpose is to review films that have not yet been covered on Wonders in the Dark. The theme for October is “Universal Horror.” Some spoilers are discussed below. While Joel has selected all the titles, certain films have been assigned to guest writers. This week, [...]

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The Poster – for those few who didn’t see it

No fuss, but here it is,the poster that Joel was talking about.  Enjoy and put your glasses on.  Not as good as Joel’s video, of course, but I’m quite proud of it. Allan

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Blood, Art, Horror and Love: Akiyuki Shinbo’s ‘Le Portrait de Petit Cossette’

By Jaime Grijalba While doing my Horror Madness Month during October at my blog I take the following approach: I need to see and review a film daily, a horror film, but what film can it be? I’ll never know. Sometimes I know the name of the film the day before I have to do [...]

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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (No. 12)

 by James Clark       The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) seems to be a simple and exquisite tale of the vicissitudes of young love. A then-unknown Catherine Deneuve seems to carry the whole show on her perfect, stately and fragile shoulders. Jacques Demy has given her the name, “Geneviève,” likening her to the fair maiden of [...]

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Nightwatching – 2007, Peter Greenaway

by Allan Fish (UK/Netherlands 2007 135m) DVD1/2 A frozen moment of theatre p  Kees Kasander  d/w  Peter Greenaway  ph  Reinier van Brummelen  ed  Karen Porter  m  Wlodzimierz Pawlik  art  Maarten Piersma Martin Freeman (Rembrandt van Rijn), Emily Holmes (Hendrijcke), Eva Birthistle (Saskia), Jodhi May (Geertje), Nathalie Press (Marieke), Adrian Lukis (Frans Banning Cocq), Gerald Plunkett [...]

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Getting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British (and UK) Pop Music (part 47)

by Jamie It’s ever easy by now to chart where BritPop came from stylistically, and probably culturally. In the quickest sentence I can muster, it worked as a virtual pendulum shift (or correction really from my perspective) back to the British roots of guitar based pop music. The 80′s had a few, actually quite a [...]

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An American in Paris (No. 13)

by Joel Bocko • An American in Paris (1951/United States/directed by Vincente Minnelli & choreographed by Gene Kelly) stars Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, George Guetary, Nina Foch written by Alan J. Lerner • photographed by Alfred Gilks (ballet photographed by John Alton) • designed by Preston Ames, Cedric Gibbons • music by George Gershwin, [...]

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