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Halloween Harvest 2018 --- The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934) Sees Rains Declare War On Atwill  A rarity until MCA included it among 77 "Horror Greats," the rebranded Universal monster group made available for syndication in 1972 after Screen Gems' fifteen year le ase had expired. MCA didn't have  Columbia titles that salted the now- retired "Son Of Shock" package, but added most of "weirdies" dating from the 50's, plus The Man Who Reclaimed His Head , largely unseen till '72 even by ardent fans. The cast, plus mention here and there in monster mags, implied c hills. Its title gave promise of a head gone truant from host body, plus there were names of horror pedigree to conjure with --- Claude Rains and Lionel Atwill at lead loggerheads. Certain films can frustrate for coming out of hibernation, only to disappear aga in, The Man Who Reclaimed His Head  gone to us since local stations were done with it. I came across a boot ... no box...

Government Girl (1943) Was Special To Someone I 'll go sentimental route today and mention a rare find among lobby card s, one I nearly failed to note, as who regards the "verso" of such a collectible where imagery is on the front side? Serious gatherers are as scrupulous to the back, for often it is tip-off to damage and/or restora tion effort having been made. Rest assured that lobby cards are a sought-after modern art, many of us hooked on them from early age. This sample was response to my liking Government Girl , a Washington-based comedy with Olivia De Havilland and Sonny Tufts. Presumably funny in 1943, it is dated now as meat rationing and black market tires (GPS dealt with GG in July 2010 ). What moves me about the card is what a long-ago someone wrote on its flip side: "Note --- This lobby is in memory of my beloved Aunt Evelyn, when we saw this film at Warner's Hollywood Theatre, Hollywood Blvd. , Calif. " A number of the words are underlined...

Melodrama Meant Much, and Why Not? I've got this need to escape present time and show-go when it was immediate, and more so, communal. Laugh and the audience laughs with you, say many with regard comedy, but when melodrama played to crowds, it was mirth plus tears they shared, and gladly so. We lost that when everyone got smugly superior to performance, stage or screen, rather than surrendering to it. Do we at least cry where alone with a film that moves us? I wept at a recent and private sit through Now, Voyager , affected as much by WB craftsmanship, and Max Steiner music, as Bette Davis' romantic, then mean mom, travails. To blubber through a feature has cleansing value, the "good cry" called that for plenty good reason. People went to stage melodramas, and then nickelodeons, to let out emotion otherwise kept at bay. Now it seems we suppress at theatres and spill guts for venues more public and less appro priate (like social media, a too-oft indifferent, or harshly...

Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts Arrive On DVD The Sprocket Vault, of previous humor finds like Charley Chase (Roach talkies) and Youngson's When Comedy Was King , has raided a deepest so-far tomb and brought back all of two-reelers with distaff team of Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts, most unseen, let alone in toto, since they were new. I've asked before, and hereby do again: Did anyone see these on TV? --- Ever? Not this viewer, whose Roach diet was Rascals and Laurel-Hardy only, despite there being so much more from HR's Fun Factory. These too will make way to DVD, but only if sales enable continued releasing. It's for that reason each need all of support a buff community can give, no act of charity for bargain t h is double-disc is, seventeen Todd-Pitts shorts for a mere twenty-five dollars. So what is that, less than a dollar and fifty cents apiece? I knew a collector who gladly forked a hundred each for the things in 16mm, back when it took a divining rod over breadth o...

Not So Dumb (1930) Is Davies-Vidor Again At Comedy Marion Davies is a thoroughgoing ditz in this, her second talkie. It was also director King Vidor's second go at sound (after Hallelujah ), so both had hills to climb. Not So Dumb 's source play had action confined to parlor and patio of a country estate. Vidor talked years later of how he tried to open things up by letting players migrate among rooms, but best intentions of 1929 don't make a 2018 s it easier. Davies is locus of modern interest --- there are buffs still who like her a lot --- and we can admire how she overcame what was purportedly a bad stutter to do dialogue sans handicap. Her "Dulcy" is a scatterbrain, always saying wrong things and i nviting embarrassment, a high wire to walk where such types inevitably try patience. Not So Dumb tests Davies' charm. The title suggests there is brighter light to her dim bulb, which I waited for. Dulcy nearly wrecks her fiancé's chance at business succes...

Showmen Find The Selling Key For Doctor Cyclops (1940) Paramount's 1940 Roll-Out Made, so said, "behind locked doors,"  Doctor Cyclops  would have been an ideal child's frolic but for its title character killing two of sympathetic doll-size victims in cold blood, an outcome we don't see coming for larkish fun had to that point (though there is tip-off of grim opener death for Paul Fix, bathed in green light as he's put under a lethal ray). A shrunk-to-scale cast interacts with giant props built after example of  Devil Doll  from MGM in 1936. Dumpsters must have groaned for post-production input , for where could massive books, balsa chairs, what not, ever be re-used? Directing was Ernest Schoedsack, recognized by publicity for trick films past,   King Kong   his stan dout, which you could say he followed up here. Interesting to have taller-than-tall Schoedsack calling action and cut on tiny folk besie ged by a giant turned loon, for in a sense this was Sc...