We will be blogging about films that were shown at past Cinevent conventions until the Picture Show in May. This week we review a movie shown in 1989. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Well, what have we here? Is it an authentic crime procedural? Is it a sensational horror picture? Yes. Yes, it is. The story starts as what seems to be a simple crime drama, as a detective sets out to find the killer of an undercover police officer. Soon after, the foster father of Eugenie, a flowergirl is murd

We will be blogging about films that were shown at past Cinevent conventions until the Picture Show in May. This week we review a movie shown in 2006. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Martha Manning (Wanda McKay) is on her way to Hollywood where she plans to become immediately famous, but first, she needs to eat so she stops by a hamburger stand where she encounters Larry Winters and a stray dog with a penchant for dancing to "The Emperor’s Waltz" on a jukebox. Upon her arrival in Hollywood,

We are feeling squirrely from being cooped up all winter. It's time for some screwball comedies to release that tension. RODNEY BOWCOCK : This film starts as an interesting, if fairly standard, late 30’s mystery movie. We initially meet Guy Johnson (James Stewart) a private detective whose main gig is to keep a close eye on Willie Heyward (Ernest Truex) a frequently blottoed millionaire. Heyward is framed for murder by his wife and her lover. Johnson knows that there is a fra

We are feeling squirrely from being cooped up all winter. It's time for some screwball comedies to release that tension. RODNEY BOWCOCK : After last week, it’s nice to see that we have an actual screwball comedy on our hands. Hands Across the Table is the story of a hotel manicurist, Regi Allen (Carole Lombard) who is using her job in an attempt to land a rich husband. While she enjoys the company of a wheelchair bound ex-pilot (Ralph Bellamy), its really Theodore Drew III (F

We are feeling squirrely from being cooped up all winter. It's time for some screwball comedies to release that tension. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Well, what we have here is the story of Peter Kirk (Henry Fonda) who literally runs into Helen, a lady doctor (can you imagine???) while on a ski trip. Peter is injured in the collision and feeling guilty for him, Helen is determined to oversee his recuperation. Peter decides to use this time to badger her into marrying him, which she agree

This month we examine film noir featuring a variety of leading ladies known for the genre. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Here is a movie that you’ve probably seen if you’re reading this blog, but if not, here goes. Michael O’ Hara (Orson Welles) is an Irish sailor who meets a woman named Elsa (Rita Hayworth) and saves her from a gang that attempts to rob the coach that she is riding in. SAMANTHA GLASSER : This scene reminded me of The Strawberry Blonde  when people would go trolling for m

This month we examine film noir featuring a variety of leading ladies known for the genre. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Robert Mitchum stars as Frank Jessup; he’s an ex-race car driver currently driving an ambulance hoping to save money. When he is called to the estate of a wealthy author for an accidental gas poisoning, he meets nineteen year old Diane Tremayne, who strikes him with her beauty and sensuality. Innocently, Frank begins spending time with Diane instead of his steady girlfr

This month we examine film noir featuring a variety of leading ladies known for the genre. RODNEY BOWCOCK : The Prowler is the story of Webb Garwood (Van Heflin), an unsatisfied cop on the beat who meets Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) while investigating a report of a peeping tom. Susan’s husband works overnight as a radio DJ and her beauty, the unavailability of her husband and the signs of there being a lot of money around create an irresistible combination for Webb who soon

In the collections of every classic movie fan languish neglected films that we’ve had for ages but never quite gotten around to. This January, we tackle a quartet of films that we’ve owned and been meaning to get around to for quite some time. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Middleton USA! This small everytown may seem like a quintessential midwestern town, but it has a problem. Charismatic Danny Brown (Billy Hallop) is in town and has engrained himself into the local teen hangout, The Goph

In the collections of every classic movie fan languish neglected films that we’ve had for ages but never quite gotten around to. This January, we tackle a quartet of films that we’ve owned and been meaning to get around to for quite some time. RODNEY BOWCOCK : “Little” Joe Braun (Mickey Rooney) has a problem. His activities as a crooked union leader have caught up to him and he is facing questioning from a Senate committee. Not one to learn lessons, the power hungry Braun emb

In the collections of every classic movie fan languish neglected films that we’ve had for ages but never quite gotten around to. This January, we tackle a quartet of films that we’ve owned and been meaning to get around to for quite some time. RODNEY BOWCOCK : Hi-De-Ho (1947) tells the story of an up-and-coming jazz musician named Cab Calloway who has put together a band and has solicited the help of Nettie (Ida James), a female band manager, to secure some gigs. Cab’s girlf

In the collections of every classic movie fan languish neglected films that we’ve had for ages but never quite gotten around to. This January, we tackle a quartet of films that we’ve owned and been meaning to get around to for quite some time. RODNEY BOWCOCK : In Guest Wife (1945), Claudette Colbert and Dick Foran are Mary and Christopher Price, a charming young couple in smalltown Ohio just about to embark on a second honeymoon in New York when Chris’ college pal Joe Parker

It's the holiday season and we are watching movies. Why not join us? RODNEY BOWCOCK : What we have here is a story of a 35-year-old screenwriter trying to forge a new path into more serious work who inexplicably has a 17-year-old “delinquent” thrust upon him on Christmas Eve as the police department felt that her spending the holiday with him would make for good research for a screenplay. As happens in these sorts of films, initial distrust soon turns into genuine friendship

It's the holiday season and we are watching movies. Why don't you join us? RODNEY BOWCOCK : A few small-time crooks (Edward G. Robinson and Broderick Crawford) learn of an easy mark of a bank to rob while in prison and upon their release they purchase the leather goods store next to said bank with the plans to dig a tunnel underneath the bank into the vault. Soon however, business starts improving on the struggling store and Pressure Maxwell finds himself becoming a distingui

It's the holiday season and we are watching movies. Why don't you join us? RODNEY BOWCOCK : Mr. Soft Touch is a noirish Christmas comedy (but not really a comedy, just kind of lighter in tone) about a complicated con-man named Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) who takes refuge in a settlement house run by Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes). There’s a series of amusing situations as Joe tries to acclimate himself to his new surroundings, but there’s also an ominous tone as the mob and a shady

Light in the Piazza is a romantic film adapted from a novella of the same name written by Elizabeth Spencer. It follows a mother (Olivia de Havilland) and daughter (Yvette Mimieux) on vacation in Italy. The daughter is in her 20s but a head injury in childhood caused her maturity to stop advancing, so she has the mentality of a pre-teen. The mother is ultra protective of her daughter, but she cannot keep a young Italian man (George Hamilton) from becoming interested. Variety

RODNEY BOWCOCK : Night Must Fall centers on a small English village shook with the news of a missing woman, and zeroes in on the home of a hypochondriac and her team of servants. One of these servants has found herself pregnant by a worker in the town who claims to want to marry her. When Danny (Robert Montgomery), the aforementioned layabout finally appears, he quickly ingrates himself into the household winning the affections of the old dowager (Dame May Whitty) and sets h

RODNEY BOWCOCK : He Walked By Night is a semi-documentary film noir directed by Alfred Werker ( Moon Over Her Shoulder amongst many, many others) and an uncredited Anthony Mann (who may have shot a few scenes of the movie, or may have shot as much as a third, although some reviewers have an unplausible theory that Mann reshot the ENTIRE film), this is the gritty, dirty story of Roy Martin (Richard Basehart), an unscrupulous burglar turned cop-killer and the lengths that the

RODNEY BOWCOCK : Tonight and Every Night is a story based around the Blitz in London, focusing primarily on Rita Hayworth, Janet Blair and Marc Platt as the stars of the Music Box Theatre, a music hall that never missed a performance. The story is told to a photographer from Life magazine (Jim Bannon), and in between the story of the theater is a romance story between Hayworth and Lee Bowman. SAMANTHA GLASSER : Tonight and Every Night is based on a real theater called the W

Halloween and old-time radio are synonymous in our house, so, naturally, I had to take advantage of the opportunity to present a few programs that you may not have heard before. First up, we have an episode of Inner Sanctum Mysteries. This is one of those shows that people that were alive in the radio era remember very fondly, but in spite of its popularity, it was not particularly well preserved. As such, quite a few of the episodes that we have available today exist because