Combining two John Steinbeck novels (Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday) into one movie worked surprisingly well for David S. Ward, who wrote the screenplay and directed Cannery Row (1982).  1982 was another great year for movies, and Cannery Row is one […]

One film I’ve always felt has never received its due respect is the wonderful time travel adventure Time After Time (1979), which posits that Jack the Ripper and H. G. Wells stage a fateful confrontation in modern day San Francisco.  […]

The premise of the action-drama Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) may remind astute viewers of Howard Hawks’ Western “jailhouse siege” films Rio Bravo and El Dorado, for they provided writer-director John Carpenter with the inspiration for this modern, urban version.  […]

Vincent Price appears yet again in Douglas Hickox’ horror-comedy Theater of Blood (1973).  The central role of a hammy Shakespearean actor who submits his most vociferous critics to torture and death is a perfect fit for Price, who was a […]

While The Molly Maguires (1970) isn’t one of the great coal mining movies like How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Stars Look Down (1939) or Matewan (1987), it’s just a small step below them.  It’s a fact-based tale of […]

There were quite a few musicals made in the mid- to late-1960s but my favorite among them has to be the one with the longest title, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967).  It’s more a comedy than […]

So-called “family films” are not often among my favorites but I’ve always been partial to this live-action Walt Disney adventure based on Paul Gallico’s popular story of a precocious ginger cat in the Scottish highlands, The Three Lives of Thomasina […]