I’ve been in a Buster Keaton mood lately, so here is a little masterpiece, SHERLOCK JR. I understand it was not a hit when it came out, as a matter of fact I think it was his poorest performer at the Box Office. Since then it has risen quite a bit in the public’s esteem. I believe his masterpiece, THE GENERAL was not a big hit either and now is recognized for the work of genius that it is. Anyway Buster Keaton we salute you. Your work is getting the respect and admiration it deserves.
And here is a short about the making of SHERLOCK JR.
Bruce Lee , the amazing martial Artist/ Movie Star/ Filmmaker was working on this film when he died. A version of it was finished a year later. Now someone has found lost footage of Bruce and it’s pretty cool. this is an edited sequence that I assume Bruce put together with his editor. I don’t really know the whole story but I’ll try and find out. Any way I love Bruce Lee, I met his daughter after the premiere of Man With The Iron Fists, a film I edited. I told her how much I admired her father, she was very nice. But check out these action sequences, too Bad he didn’t get to finish the film.
Here is a very cool film dirrected by the master opf atmosphere Jean Negulescu. Based on a very good book by Eric Ambler, the greatest thing about this film is the re-pairing of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, fresh off their intial work together, Casablanca. Negulescu started out as a painter and his visual sense is evident throughout his films, especially his Film Noirs, like this one. Anyway Enjoy! I found a link to the whole movie on the Internet Film Archive. But first here is the trailer.
Here is a great film that I just watched on Amazon Prime. It was recently restored and looks great. What a cast, Simone Signoret, Marcello Mastroianni, and Silvia Milo, who is amazing in this film. This was made at the height of Italian filmmaking, so much talent! The settings, the camerwork, the clothes by the inimitable Danilo Donati. This film is a joy to watch, a masterpiece. Check it out and see what you think. Here is a scene from Youtube.
Here is a German film of an Edgar Wallace mystery. Creature With The Blue Hand, starring everybody’s favorite psycho Klaus Kinski as twins no less! Double your pleasure, double your fun! There were a lot of Edgar Wallce films made in Germany. This one I was turned onto by Quentin Tarantino, he programmed it as part of a personally curated batch of films that aired on Spike Tv about 10 years ago. Anyway it’s a nice clean version in German mit subtitles so Enjoy!
Here is an animated short film by the late great Adam Beckett. I saw this at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974. It blew my mind. What a great talent, such a sin that he died so young, just after he worked on Star Wars. An early alumnus of CalArts, the great experimental art school that’s now in Canyon Country, although I believe Beckett started there when it was in LA at a closed Catholic school. Anyway check out this genius of the elaborated loop, hand drawn, optical printed, super Cool
Here is the edited version of Ptushko’s great Ilya Muramets, cut down and dubbed by Roger Corman, released in the USA as The Sword and The Dragon A lot of cool foreign films were acquired by American International and other distributor, recut, dubbed and shown at Theaters, mainly to kids. You cans the original Cinemascope version on dvd.
Here is a condensed version of a film by the great Czech animator Karel Zeman. Joseph E. Levine bought the rights to Zeman’s Fabulous World Of Jules Verne in the early 60’s and released it in the US, exposing millions of American kids to it’s magic. See it in Mystimation! A roto-gravure effect where lines were added to images imitating illustrations from the 1800s. Hers’s the American trailer and a documentary on Zeman. Enjoy!
They restored Putney Swope and re-released it! It’s playing in several theaters in Los Angeles right now. I first saw it many years ago at a midnight show at the Park Theater in Caldwell, N.J. It blew my mind. Check it out if you can. I know and worked with the writer/Director Robert Downey Sr. He is a great guy, a prince. Funny and charismatic and an all around great human being. Meeting him made my career in films, I owe him a lot. So here is a trailer for Putney Swope, it was a big hit when it came out in 1969. Same time as Easy Rider.
If you want to catch up on your Spaghetti Western watching look no further than Amazon Prime. I guess they acquired the FilmRise catalog and have a whole slew of Italian Westerns from the 60’s. I’ve watched A Pistol For Ringo, The Return Of Ringo, Cemetary Without Crosses, Django Kill, and last night a crazy one with Lou Castel called Requiescant. But there are a ton on there. You can watch The Great Silence, The Grand Duel, Navajo Joe and many others. So saddle up companeros and tune into Westerns on Prime.
Here is a German film of an Edgar Wallace mystery. Creature With The Blue Hand, starring everybody’s favorite psycho Klaus Kinski as twins no less! Double your pleasure, double your fun! There were a lot of Edgar Wallce films made in Germany. This one I was turned onto by Quentin Tarantino, he programmed it as part of a personally curated batch of films that aired on Spike Tv about 10 years ago. Anyway it’s a nice clean version in German mit subtitles so Enjoy!
