Category: Movie Discussions
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The Unknown (1927)
Joan Crawford once said that she learned more about acting from watching Lon Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. “It was then I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera and acting.” She appeared with Chaney in The Unknown (1927) during the first…
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The Blackbird (1926)
If you’ve ever wanted to see Lon Chaney, “the Man of a Thousand Faces,” transform into one of his misshapen characters, there are a couple scenes in The Blackbird (1926) that at least give you a glimpse. He quickly pulls his ankle into the air, twisting his leg at the knee, then jerks his shoulder…
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The Unholy Three (1925)
Having been awed and amazed by previous Lon Chaney films that I’ve seen, I was a little disappointed in the one I’d heard most about: The Unholy Three (1925.) Learning now that it was the first collaboration between Chaney and director Tod Browning at MGM, it stands to reason that each film would only become…
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Satellite in the Sky (1956)
Now comes Satellite in the Sky, a version of the mid-century British sci-fi film I’ve mentioned the last couple of days… but one with a budget. Shot in CinemaScope in Warner Color, this was the first color science fiction movie made in the UK. It looks gorgeous and feels newer than 1956. It’s a shame…
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The Strange World of Planet X (1958)
aka Cosmic Monsters The Strange World of Planet X (1958), aka Cosmic Monsters, aka The Cosmic Monster, belongs to that sometimes-odd sub-genre of mid-century British science-fiction. Think of Hammer’s Four Sided Triangle or Spaceways… Curse of the Fly, The Brain, Konga, etc. They’re all a little dry… a little unusual. At least they are to…
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Satanis: The Devil’s Mass (1970)
This is going to be either a very difficult film about which to write, or a very easy one. First, it’s a documentary, so I can’t critique story or acting. Since it’s factual, supposedly, it’s irrelevant for me to say whether I “like” the “events” that are depicted. The best I can do is share…
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Snow Devils (1967)
Here we go again. I guess after four movies in the “Gamma 1” series, it’s time to admit that any continuity is spotty at best, regardless of my desire to find it. Snow Devils is the worst violator. We have consistency, at least in this and the previous film, War Between the Planets, with Cmdr.…
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War Between the Planets (1966)
Well, I couldn’t have been any more wrong about what I thought the next movie in the “Gamma 1 Quadrilogy” was going to be, at least as far as the characters established in the two previous movies. Say goodbye to Cmdr. Mike Halstead (Tony Russel) and Lt. Connie Gomez (Lisa Gastoni); we hardly got to…
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The War of the Planets (1966)
Wow, talk about being disappointed. After my surprise affection for The Wild, Wild Planet, my expectations for the second film in the “Gamma 1 Quadrilogy” were way too high. My smile after seeing the familiar spinning space station, and realizing Tony Russel and others were reprising their roles, soon turned to a frown because as…
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The Wild, Wild Planet (1966)
There’s a lot to love about The Wild, Wild Planet (1966), and I love a lot about it. From the opening shot of a futuristic city with miniature vehicles on the road and rockets launching, I knew the movie was going to be fun. Sure, the special effects are simple, but they’re not terrible. In…
Classic Horrors Club 