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The Sprocket Vault Releases 18 Charley Chase Talkies Back in footie pajamas and recount of rose-hued collecting youth when I got first look at a talking Charley Chase. The short was Hasty Marriage , an 8mm print acquired from Blackhawk for $16.98 in 1971. This is still my favorite Chase, a choice driven by sentiment, but how resistible is any comedy shot on then-Culver City streets and revolved around street cars long lost to history? So has been sound-era Charley unfortunately, other than glimpses where TCM used him for a filler. We've had the silents, plenty as tendered by several DVD labels, but all that he did after was buried deep, excepting those for Columbia toward the end of Ch ase's life. Now comes rescue from want via The Sprocket Vault, that laughing place a recent source of When Comedy Was King , The Mysterious Airman , and Go Johnny Go! , each a winner in terms of quality and content. Charley Chase: At Hal Roach: The Talkies Volume One 1930-31 is a two-disc coll

Careful --- You Too Might Faint! Talk all we like about popular and big hit films, but none lit fires like a latest sex thrill spread like grass fire among populace shocked, but curious, to what latest fence was down in exploitation. Much of this stuff was recycled from heaven knows what had run before, but slap on a fresh title and ... off to races we go. Who'd complain to management of having already seen trash like this? Folks entered and left with collars turned up in any event. Sex pics were like peas under a shell at midways --- suckers knew they were being ripped off, and sure enough they were. You had to be at least 21 to see Sex Maniac in San Francisco , but there was bonus of a stage show. Was it burlesque dancing? The "Capitol Follies" venue suggests so. It took two drive-ins to contain crowds for No Greater Sin , outdoors an assist to anonymous view. 56,000 saw it during one Pittsburgh week? Could be, even as they stood in elements because no room was left

The Electric House and Keaton Prints Getting Better All The Time Buster Keaton goes a route followed by other comics who’d spoof household labor-save devices, in this case a residence wired to spare owners even getting off a chair. Now that electricity was part of virtually all homes, anything seemed possible. Buster would always be a proponent of s quirrelly convenience, his electric train table server built in the 50’s much like one he conceived for this long-before two reeler. He also spent idle hours as Metro gagman (post-major stardom) building gadgets for amusement of office visitors like Lu cille Ball, who’d later recall his ingenuity. The Electric House then, is hobbyist as well as filmmaking Keaton, who I’ll bet constructed, or at least took hand, in the short’s every device. At least one laid him low, an escalator on which BK fell and snapped an ankle. Witnesses could actually hear the break, as I almost do whenever I re-see a nd cringe at the mishap. There might lay disad

Where Bela Lugosi Gives Shaving Lotion A Bad Name Thank you, Bob Furmanek, for making your gorgeous 35mm print available to Kino for this Blu-ray transfer. What rapture comes of an intact PRC logo! It's time we recognize how lowest budget could be redeemed just by casting Bela --- he and Erich von Stroheim may have been alone at rescue of hopeless enterprise. Even Karloff was no match for Lugosi where it came to salvage work like this. I think it was BL's total commitment that made the difference; so far as he was concerned, a week on Devil Bat was as time spent doing Ninotchka with Garbo. Devil Bat was just a shorter drive from home. I admire Lugosi not playing down even to debasing material. Not that Devil Bat is that. He's on camera lots, which is as much as we could ask of any Lugosi starrer, frustration with later stuff deriving from fact he's not there enough, or heaven forbid, he doesn't speak, as with The Black Sleep . How necessary was Devil Bat  being m

Holy Andromeda --- The Invisible Ray (1936) Was Once Brand New! Some cling to notion that Universal horror during the 30's were B pictures. Here is proof to fallacy of that. B's didn't get Roxy openings. Management there sized up worthiness of product before any booking. Your show had to fill 5,886 seats, continuous through the day. The Invisible Ray was dying gasp of Universal's first chiller cycle. It began a turn, if tentative, toward science-fiction, a genre fresher to films than at newsstands where such pulps and mags proliferated. Trouble was limit of then-fx to show space travel and takeover of Earth by Martians. Lurid print covers were lots better at that. The Invisible Ray would be more a chamber piece, unknown worlds viewed at distance through Boris Karloff's telescope. He develops a death touch through unwise experiments, that the basis for shivers. The Roxy applied science too with ticket policy, admission a quarter until 1:00, then thirty-five cents

How It Was Every Night at Broadway's Astor Theatre --- and For 96 Weeks The Big Parade (1925) Puts Metro On The Map Watch this and wonder how stardom got away so suddenly from John Gilbert, who'd have hit after resounding hit in late silent days, then come crashing to earth once talkies made him passé. I'd argue Jack's a best performance of the whole voiceless era here; understated, dynamic when called for, a romancer after believable fashion of ordinary guys who'd be watching. Gilbert had rare capacity for coming down to earth when parts called for him to do so. Shave the mustache and he'd be you or me (Burt Reynolds managed a same thing much later). The secret may have been frankly ordinary looks the man had when bereft of dash or sash. You'd not be amiss confusing him with the Lion's Club chairman next door, this of course enabling Gilbert to play a range of characters wider than lead men elsewhere with more glamour to shed whenever conventional par

Guy Madison Is The Hard Man (1957) Guy Madison had hit big as Wild Bill Hickok on television. Could he topline a feature for theatres? That question was asked and answered using other cowboys off the tube: the Jims Garner and Arness, Fess Parker, others. They'd represent a second-tier of western leads, reliable support on bills where saddled-up Jim Stewart or John Wayne rode in front. Outdoor subjects done cheap enough were almost assured of profit; with a name of Madison 's value, modest as it was, expense could be met. Columbia had an "old Arizona " town constructed years before in Tucson , familiar from heaven knows how many of their oaters, and that's where The Hard Man was lensed. Independent-producing "Romson" had been set up by Guy Madison and Helen Ainsworth, the latter an actress turned agent who partnered with Madison for three Romson pics Columbia distributed, these being The 27th Day (sci-fi) and Reprisal! in addition to The Hard Man .

Dead Reckoning (1947) Another Bogart Flash Back Why Say It's Explosive? Isn't Dynamite Always Explosive? A flashbacking crime thriller that Humphrey Bogart literally phones in. I can't recall more of his time and dialogue spent holding a receiver. He's calling after fate of a war buddy who jumps their train on route to receive a Congressional Medal Of Honor. Most of setting is a Louisiana town, as in deep south, which accent Bogie mocks as he speaks to a telephone operator. I'm told an actor's true test is in how real they make a phone scene play; a few got (Academy) rewarded for excelling at it: Louise Rainier, Edmond O'Brien. You wonder why Bogart does his imitative drawl because no one else in Dead Reckoning speaks remotely southern. I was surprised a third of the way in to realize it took place way down there. Dead Reckoning was a loan-out done just before Bogart re-upped with Warners. It's actually better than some of what he'd been in latel

Two-Fisted Carnival Boat (1932) Is Good Early RKO A talker that I suspect was like many silents, being he-man stuff of wood-chopping, runaway trains, and dynamite to the dam. Latter is jammed by logs and Bill Boyd must blow 'em sky high to salvage north wood he commands. Carnival Boat only part-time serves its title, more of length spent among tall trees and challenge to fell them. This was a TCM find, way better than bulk of RKO-Pathe before shed of half that label and its absurdly crowing rooster atop a logo globe. Pathe survived as busy lot for rent to Selznick and others who had no studio of their own, then a site for much television. Wm. K. Everson wrote that Carnival Boat used stock footage from voiceless 20's to flesh out action, a lot of which is whole-hog excitement like serial chapters glued together to fill an hour. William Boyd is familiar "Bill" in credits, presumed pal to boys who liked him since actioning he did for DeMille and pre-talkie others. Bo

Zotz! Is Kiddie Lure For Summer '62 Never kne w William Castle was a coin enthusiast, but arrive h e did to Evansville , Ill. opening of Zotz! with a collection valued at $42,000 (so Bill claimed). The Evansville Drive -In, with parking space for 700 cars, got first-run on Zotz!. We could wonder if it was really worth Bill's time to fly in for that, but then, aspirations were simpler in 1962, or perhaps he understood that where bally went, there was no such thing as minor e ngagements. Castle had learned h ow small ro c ks could fo rm a pile, as  Indiana wind might blow far the word of a drive-in lot filled to capacity that August weekend. His precise ETA, 9:58 on Saturday morning, came with invitation to all Evansville  for meet/greet. Was there risk in announcing that he w ould disembark with that $42,000 coi n collection? Whatever doubts C astle had about peers in the industry, he at least could trust his fans. It would be a busy weekend, Bill "staying over"

Pitfall (1948) Is Deep Fall Into Middle-Class Trap Breadwinning Dick Powell expresses rut f atigue and that paints a target on hi s back for balance of this noir where fun is second to despair we know won't be reli eved. Ordinary Joes on status quo chalkwalks always got it in the neck after WWII when men-folk were expected to hunker down and keep lawns mowed. We're supposed to figure Dick has disaster coming for step out of line with tempting Lizabeth Scott. I always knew men couldn't get laid for free in Code pix, but Pitfall doles out punishment to make us all stay zipped. Powell as fall guy was never a favored stance; he's too good with toss-offs and one-upping to make us like the dumbbell's plummet he takes here. Pitfall gets cultist boost precisely because it skewers postwar conformance, but that's less recipe for fun than resign to middle-class life being hell on bleak earth, then or now. Do moderns who admire Pitfall also enjoy it? Pitfall was done