The first movie in this series (Vyi) was beautifully looking, brainless fluff, am OK entertainment for a warm summer night.
The second episode looks like more of the same, but with all dials turned up to eleven. We’ll see what the end result is…
Category Archives: Media
To be born and to die
Ulysses, discovered as a kid in school when I was six or seven, remains one of my favorite heroes, and certainly the first of my heroes, and Kirk Douglas’ portrayal is the definitive article.
And this scene will forever resonate with me.
Kirk Douglas, 1916-2020
We lost Kirk Douglas early this morning, and already I have caught the blasé Facebook Philosophers going “why the shock, why the surprise, he was 103!”
To which I say, fuck you, you soulless wankers.
Kirk Douglas was a giant, a man who made film history, with a catalogue of movies and roles that is staggering for variety, quality and freshness.
Many remember his role in Spartacus, but I would have a hard time selecting the role in which I best remember him – Ulysses in the Italian adaptation of the Odyssey, probably, or as a scarred Viking chieftain in The Vikings, or his turn as Ned Land in Disney’s 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea.
But what of the noirs, like Out of the Past, and Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole?
A legend is gone, and we cannot act blasé about it.
Sunday Night in Hamunaptra
Last night I went and re-watched Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy, from 1999. I first saw it in the theatre, in ’99, with my brother. At the time we were used to go at the matinee show, taking advantage of the discount, and enjoying shows in which we were often the only viewers. For The Mummy, there was about a dozen people in the theatre, mostly pensioners. We smuggled in two packs of crisps and two bottles of Sprite, and had a great time.
Possibly even more than the first Indiana Jones movie, The Mummy is my perfect go-to movie if I need to explain to some mundane friend what pulp is all about.
It often goes like this…
Continue readingMe: I read and often write, you know, pulp fiction…
The other guy: Ah, Tarantino… lots of swearwords, chicks doing coke…
Me: No, rather like The Mummy.
The other guy: (Weird stare) Uh?!
One night at the (Vampire) Circus
Having milked Dracula for all it was worth, in the early ’70s Hammer Films turned their gaze to other vampires and, taking advantage of the more relaxed censorship rules, created what is called the Karnstein Trilogy, very loosely based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Carmilla (that you can find here as a free download in case you missed it).
The three movies in the cycle are The Vampire Lovers (1970), Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1971), and are considered classics – and I will have to write about them sooner or later.
The Karnstein vampires are different from their Transylvanian counterparts, being generally female, much more inclined to nudity and most importantly being able to go about in open daylight.
The Karnstein vampires would make two more appearances in the Hammer Films catalog: once in Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, in 1974 and before that, a band of Karnstein vampires in all but name brought madness and death to a small Serbian Village in Vampire Circus (1972).
Radio drama: The Hex
Here’s something spooky for a cold winter night: The Hex, based on M.R. James’ Casting the Runes (which was made into a movie called Night of the Demon, by Jacques Tourneur).
Enjoy!
Lime pie noir
Having spent most of the last 72 hours running around – mostly on trains – all I have to post today is this great little noir movie…
Karavansara 