I remember seeing Sam Raimi’s original 1981 The Evil Dead in the lecture theatre at university and I found it very scary and gruesome at the time. The movie was (unusually for its era) released both in theatres and on VHS, and it generated a lot of controversy as a so-called ‘video nasty’. It has…
Grease
I recently saw Jimmy Fallon ran a segment on The Tonight Show called “Honest Movie Reviews”, where they described Grease as “a bunch of people in their 30s, playing teenagers in the 50s, singing songs written in the 70s”. All of which is true, but it doesn’t much detract from the charm of Grease. Grease…
Torn Curtain
Here are a pair of posters for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1966 thriller Torn Curtain. Like several of Hitch’s later movies, Torn Curtain is rather uneven, old-fashioned and boring in places. I saw it years again on TV and have not revisited it since. Stars Paul Newman and Julie Andrews try hard, but don’t have much chemistry…
Scarface
Here are two very different posters for two very different versions of Scarface. The original 1932 movie is a terrific and hugely influential gangster picture chronicling the rise and fall of Italian immigrant Chicago gangster Tony played by Paul Muni. Directed by the great Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hughes, the movie faced multiple…
Summer Storm / Magnificent Obsession
Here are two very old posters for movies directed by Douglas Sirk. Now, I must admit I am not particularly familiar with Sirk, beyond him being name-checked in the 50s-style diner scene in Pulp Fiction (where a “Douglas Sirk Steak, bloody as hell” is on the menu). Sirk was active predominantly in the 50s and…