Author Archives: Jim Rutherford
The Spirit Movie
Frank Miller and Will Eisner were good friends, and there’s no doubt Miller had nothing but the best intentions when he made The Spirit movie. That said, he seems to have little or no faith in the source material. The humor, humanity, fun, and sheer joy of visual storytelling have all been stripped away. Miller, in a desperate attempt to give The Spirit a kind of “edge cred,” has retrofitted the comic with an ill-fitting contemporary “attitude,” pumped it up with exaggerated, over-the-top action, and injected it with a terminal dose of “irony” steroids.
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Filed under Movie Reviews
The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942)
Ever wonder what two great writers like Poe and Charles Dickens would talk about if they met? Well The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe finally answers that question. They’d talk about copyright law, of course! Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews
Curse of the Faceless Man (Plus Audio Review of The Lost Missile)
A mummy movie is never a good idea. Why? Because the only way to make the mummy a credible threat is by having it lumber after women who appear to suffer from some kind of inner-ear disorder. Incapable of sustained equilibrium, these women always stumble and fall for no apparent reason as they run in a blind panic, even when a brisk walk could easily out distance their bandaged assailant.
It’s not enough that the “faceless man” of the title is ancient and slow and wrapped in bandages–no, this particular mummy is also made of stone! This not only makes it the slowest mummy in film history, but for the first half of the film, even when the Faceless Man does manage to move, he is only capable of sustained, modest activity for minutes at a time.
Not every effort can be a home run, but this isn’t even a bunt.
In any case, Curse of the Faceless Man remains a cautionary tale for anyone who might consider making a mummy movie. The lesson? Don’t. That’s all there is to it: don’t.
Filed under Cult, Movie Reviews
Spaceflight IC-1
Unpublished Playboy interview with Stanley Kubrick/Bernard Knowles.
Interview by Anonymous.
Early in 1968, Playboy magazine contacted me about the possibility of interviewing Stanley Kubrick. It was an offer I eagerly accepted. 2001: A Space Odyssey had just opened, and critics, whether they loved the film or hated it, were united on one point: nothing like it had ever been see on a movie screen before.
But was that really true? Continue reading
Filed under Cult, Movie Reviews
Classic Silent Comedy: Never Weaken
What about Harold Lloyd’s character in Never Weaken (who is mildly criminal, suicidal, and cowardly) makes him a silent comedy hero? While he doesn’t evoke the sympathy felt for Chaplin’s tramp, or demonstrate the amazing athletic abilities of a stone faced Keaton, Lloyd still possesses the one quality that a silent comedian must have if he’s to become a hero: he challenges the status quo in some way (even if it’s inadvertently, completely by mistake) and upsets the apple cart of daily routine. Make no mistake about it. Never Weaken isn’t about anything but being funny. It has a single, burning question at it’s center: how many jokes can be crammed into a single 40 minute film? Still, like all good silent comedies, Never Weaken can’t help but also reveal a world of unlimited possibilities, surprises, and laughter. Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews, Silent film
The World’s Greatest Sinner
Plot:Frustrated insurance salesman Clarence Hilliard (played by Timothy Carey, who also wrote and directed) writes a Nietzche-esque pamphlet that claims, “all men are gods,” and then forms a rock ‘n roll band to help push his agenda. Not long after this, politics beckon, and Clarence ditches his guitar and makes a run for the presidency. Continue reading
Filed under Cult
X-Files: I Want to Believe
If you’re expecting government cover-ups, ETs, implants, and alien hybrids–you know, X-Files kind of stuff–this might not be the movie for you. Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews
High and Dizzy (classic two-reeler)
Harold Lloyd’s two-reeler High And Dizzy is definitely a *high* point in silent drunken antics. The drunk routine is like a virtuoso piece of music. The notes never change. It’s all about the performance. Complicated, but clean and direct. Difficult, but appearing effortless. The drunk has three emotional gears he can shift between. Happy camaraderie, confusion, and belligerence. There’s more than enough to provide variety and pacing for a two-reeler. Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews, Silent film
The House in the Middle
In the mid fifties, a Civil Defense short was created to address what can only be called The Tidiness Gap. Since the film was intended for the outlying suburbs and towns not immediately in the kill zone of a ground zero explosion, the whole issue of large metropolitan areas being vaporized is discretely sidestepped. The short also tends to focus on the atomic heat or “thermal wave” from a nuclear explosion, and doesn’t have a great deal to offer on the other affects from the blast like… well, for one thing, radiation.
All these years later, it comes as something of a surprise to realize that Hazel might have been our first line of defense against nuclear attack. Perhaps the Civil Defense seal should have been replaced by The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
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Filed under Cult
Jim Rutherford
Nancy Louise Rutherford
Lou Aguilar
The Misfits
