No ghost picture scared people more than The Haunting, with its doomed house where doors seem to buckle and bulge unnaturally from the inside. The opening of Sound of Music, as a helicopter sweeps down on Julie Andrews, in the Swiss Alps is a visual and musical triumph. Both landmark scenes were the work of […]
A legal approach to the decline and fall of the United States
When COVID-19 was beginning it spread throughout the United States, President Donald Trump turned his ire on the World Health Organisation. The White House charged that the WHO was slow to respond to the threat and overly influenced by China. A new book, Play by the Rules: The Short Story of America’s Leadership: From Hiroshima […]
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film by W.K. Stratton My rating: 3 of 5 stars Stratton has written a highly entertaining account of the creation of the Wild Bunch. Beginning with the premise that it is the greatest film ever made, he is clearly besotted […]
Brownlow revises documentary on SDG meeting
The great Hollywood historian Kevin Brownlow has revised his documentary on DeMille. I mention this proposed change is in my book Hollywood Divided. Not sure, if the book had any impact on the change, but we did an email exchange a few years ago about it. You can see the new version here.
Tombstone Rashomon
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is familiar territory for westerns with at least four versions available. Frontier Marshall (1939) directed by Allan Dwan, was followed by John Ford’s iconic My Darling Clementine (1946) with Henry Fonda. Just over a decade later, The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral directed by John Sturgesin 1957 surveyed the […]
Mike Duncan: The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic – a review
Mike Duncan is an American podcaster. The History of Rome aired between 2007 and 2012 and covered Roman history from its founding to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The History of Rome won best educational podcast at the 2010 podcast awards, and was listed among the best podcasts of 2015 by Apple. “The Storm Before the Storm” entered the […]
Is Jesus History? A review
John Dickson has an impressive CV. He was the Founding Director of theCentre for Public Christianity. He has a degree in theology and a Ph.D. inancient history. An ordained Anglican minister, he was a Research Fellow of the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, and became a Visiting Academic in the Faculty of Classics […]
It All Begins With A Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter
A recent documentary on famous singer song writer Dolly Parton showed her performing a 50th anniversary show at the Grand Ole Opry. This is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio ‘barn dance”. It is the longest-running […]
The Brothers Mankiewicz review: a groundbreaking dual biography
Sydney Ladensohn Stern, The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope. Heartbreak and Hollywood Classics (USA: University Press of Mississippi, 2019) The writing talent alone of the Mankiewicz Brothers – Herman and Joseph – is overwhelming. Younger brother Joseph won academy awards for writing and directing, particularly for the verbal fireworks of All About Eve, and Herman laid the basis […]
Wow S1gnal
One night in 1977, Ohio radio astronomers discovered a strong, interstellar signal that many argue could be the best evidence of communication from an extraterrestrial civilization or aliens. It is known as the ‘Wow! Signal’ , because of a note left by the astronomer looking over the computer results. In the documentary, director Bob Dawson […]