moon traveller herald

  Dave Purvis -played by Perry Mason nemesis William Talman - is a master criminal planner who robs the Wrigley Field revenues during a ball game. THis is the other Wrigley Field, the one in L.A. for the minor league Angels. THe movie is made in 1950. The hold up goes wrong and a cop is shot and killed. A lot of forensics, radio patrol cars and wire taps ensue in a movie that moves at a clipped pace. Purvis is involved with a burlesque dancer who is easy on the eye but a genuine tough cookie. The burlesque bits pretty much seal the fact that this was a B movie. All the criminals in this noir are desperate and untrustworthy, the kind who "never gave one dime to the United Way." Like many of these movies, the interplay of black and white in cinema composition is at times stunning. While the cops persevere the general impression is that it is a mean old world. Funny thing, The TMC moderator said Armored Car toured the country on a double bill with The Good Humor Man, a Jack Cars...

  s Son of Dracula – 1943 - It being Halloween, I said ‘why not watch a horror film?’ Yes, a Universal Horror film. Even the “Bride of” and “Son of” follow-up films from this studio had some great feel to them. Thus, I alight on “Son of Dracula” directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lon Chaney Jr. Son of Dracula – 1943 - It being Halloween, I said ‘why not watch a horror film?’ Yes, a Universal Horror film. Even the “Bride of” and “Son of” follow-up films from this studio had some great feel to them. Thus, I alight on “Son of Dracula” directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lon Chaney Jr. This is 1943. This Dracula comes to The American South. A bunch of baggage arrives at the RR station, including a long narrow box. That will hold Lon Chaney Jr. [“Son of Lon Chaney Sr.”] . Junior is a little stiff, but finally a believable Dracula – and a good looking one, said Cecelia. Twice I got chills up my spine – both times it was Lon on the lurk. A fellow on IMDB says: “Chaney excelled...

  Alphaville - Godard pic.twitter.com/9Ahom89TJK — Jack Vaughan (@JackIVaughan) September 25, 2022 The assisted passing of director  passing of Jean Luc Godard caused me to revisit his fantastic 1965 film, Alphaville . One of my favorites. A science fiction film that made a better shot at seeing the future than most. It's sometimes slapstick episodic collection of modern architecture, noir film riffs, and poetic dialog - some garnered from the work of Borges - is nowhere else surpassed. Godard considered calling the movie "Tarzan vs. IBM." The world in which I grew up was the future, funnily enough, in retrospect. Alphaville is a city that central figure Lemmy Caution goes to, perhaps to destroy. A technocrat leader has taken over there and human feeling is suppressed. Here is some dialog delivered voice-over in parts drolly in the style of Bogart's Maltese Falcon. Lemmy played by Eddie Constantine is in conversation with skidrower Henri (played by familiar Hollyw...

Posted by Jack Vaughan on  Friday, April 2, 2021

To make a good movie requires some simplification, I suppose. If it is the kind of simplification that distills things to the essential - it improves on what is real but possible to overlook; so I won’t quibble with the fact that Phil Chess never exists in “Cadillac Records.” But other quibbling will this way come. The movie tells a good story and gets at many of the critical elements of the blues in Chicago in America in the 1950s, which is certainly worthy of motion picture treatment. So understand that. But see that it does so without dealing with the fact that Chess was run by the Chess brothers. The film says ‘so long’ to Phil Chess and focuses on Leonard Chess, who by most accounts was in fact the determined driving force behind Chess Records, the fabled label of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Etta James and many others. Ok. Need to go further. Adrien Brody gets the role of Leonard – he plays it well but brings more hair to the role than a literal take on Leonard would call for. Leo...

Saw American Gangster . Ridley Scott movie staring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. The scene is New York City during the War in Vietnam, at the time of haute pimp culture and Ali-Fraser. Very apt depiction. You can go back to this time and place and come back unscathed due to the wonder of film. Soundtrack included Across 110th St by Bobby Womack from the mostly forgotten movie of the same name. That was one of the weird things about living in NYC during this era, if you listened to Frankie Crocker – you heard the soundtracks from the new Blacksplotation Cinema [Across 110ts St, SuperFly, Shaft] and it became a soundtrack to the weird radio movie that early 70s NYC was. Today I pulled out some old 45s of that era.. [the movie covered 1968 to 1975~] Hey Pockaway – The Meters, 1974 Where did your live go - Donnie Elbert, 1971? Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye, 1971 Groove Me - King Floyd, 1971? Mighty High - Mighty Clouds of Joy, 1975 My Honey and Me - Luther Ingram, 1969 Put it Where...