Dario Argento was born on 7 September 1940. So he turns 85 years old today.

I’m a big fan of his work. He makes really interesting films at the same time that he is a craftsman. That’s a rare combination! But I don’t get too excited about him. That’s not his fault. Too many cinephiles see him as an art director. So when most people tell me they like his work, I assume it is for all the wrong reasons. (Note: “wrong reasons” equals “not my reasons.”)

Dario Argento started as a screenwriter. He even got story credit on Once Upon a Time in the West. He directed his first film in 1970, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. It’s a remarkable film regardless. But for a first film? It’s a miracle.

Like many horror directors, Argento has a trilogy that isn’t. “Three Mothers” is made up of Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), and Mother of Tears (2007). All three films are excellent and well worth watching. Suspiria, of course, is a psychotronic essential.

From 1970 through 1990, Lucio Fulci directed 28 films. Argento hasn’t directed that many films in his entire career. And during that time, he directed only eleven. But that does explain why I can’t think of a single unworthy Argento film whereas there are a few of Fulci’s that I wish he hadn’t bothered with.

Having said that, I think you can celebrate Dario Argento’s 85th birthday with any of his films. But let me suggest one of his films you may have missed, Phenomena (1985). I tend to like anything with Jennifer Connelly. I don’t know any young actor who so well projects a sense of generational sadness. And she is fantastic paired with Donald Pleasence. This film is a lot of fun and I think is the ultimate way to say “Happy birthday!”

I’m assuming here that everyone has watched Suspiria. If you haven’t see it, you absolutely must watch it right now!

Image cropped from Dario Argento Signign Session by Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz/ under CC BY 2.0.

John Berry was born on 6 September 1917. He was a very successful Hollywood director. Then, in the 1950s, Hollywood blacklisted him — outted by Edward Dmytryk and others.

There are a couple of interesting things about this. First is that Hollywood showed as much backbone then as all our modern elite institutions are showing toward our rush to full fascism.

Second, John Berry joined the Communist Party in the late 1930s because he supported the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. So he wasn’t exactly some political extremist who wanted to overthrow the US government. But this was and is the way that reactionaries on the right always act. The HUAC hearings were every bit as fake as the Stalin show trials.

Luckily, Berry was able to move to France and work in Europe. It’s interesting that Europe didn’t have the freak-out that the US did. It’s also pretty typical. Authoritarianism thrives on fake problems.

In the early 1960s, he returned to the US where he worked in TV for a few years. After that, he made features — some for TV but mostly for wide release.

Probably his least auspicious was The Bad News Bears Go to Japan in 1978. It isn’t as good as the original The Bad News Bears. Reviews at the time weren’t great but they were reasonably positive. But today, it’s so universally hated that all psychotronic fans should rush out to watch it! I think it’s a sweet little film with a lot to like. And here is an acceptable print from OK.RU:

The Bad News Bears Go to Japan poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

RKO Radio Pictures released Citizen Kane throughout the United States on 5 September 1941. It had previews earlier in the year in New York (1 May), Chicago (6 May), Los Angeles (8 May), Washington (16 May), Boston (19 May), and San Francisco (27 May).

For a long time, cinephiles claimed Citizen Kane as “the greatest film ever made.” This was largely due to the Sight & Sound poll. It was always a questionable claim. And when Vertigo displaced it, the uselessness should have been clear to all.

One thing can’t be denied. Citizen Kane stands out compared to the films that came before it. Viewers at the time must have seen that it was new. But I’ve never been a huge fan of the film.

I am, however, a big fan of Orson Welles. I just don’t care that much for the story. And I’m not that interested in watching Welles’ brilliant direction anymore, considering (1) I’ve seen it a lot and (2) filmmakers since have fully taken in and improved on what he did.

I only own one Welles’ film: F for Fake. That was a revolutionary film. And I don’t know of any filmmaker who has taken this approach and run with it. But I’m also a big fan of his crime films Mr Arkadin and Touch of Evil. I would be a fan of his other crime film, The Lady from Shanghai, but its such a mess! (You should, however, watch the funhouse scene!)

Sadly, most people stopped watching Orson Welles after Citizen Kane. And it isn’t hard to see why. It’s the same reason people watch the latest big movie or TV show. People are followers. Marketing campaigns tell people what they should care about. And people care about it. Hollywood said Welles was a failed genius, and that was that.

Citizen Kane is now a just symbol. It is a film that “everyone must watch” at the same time it is the reason not to watch Welles’ other films that are more enjoyable.

I don’t think Welles ever made a film that wasn’t at least interesting. But for psychotronic fans, Touch of Evil is the touchstone. It is the Welles film that should guide any further forays into his work. So, let’s watch it to celebrate the release of Citizen Kane…

Touch of Evil poster via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Film director Roy William Neill was born on 4 September 1887. He died before he reached 60. But Neill directed over 50 feature films during the sound era and even more during the silent era.

We remember Neill today because he directed 11 of the 14 Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. But these are the Sherlock Holmes films. While I may like other films more, Rathbone will always be Homes to me and Bruce will always be Watson.

Roy William Neill didn’t direct the first three films. Sidney Lanfield directed the first, The Hound of the Baskervilles. But I’m not fond of it because I’m not fond of the novel. The story makes no sense. On the other hand, I love the scandalous (if appropriate) final line, “Watson! The needle!”

But Lanfield did not direct the second film, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It wasn’t really his kind of film. So Alfred L Werker directed it and he was clearly a better fit. Universal Pictures took over the film rights from 20th Century Fox for the third film. They chose John Rawlins to direct who was an even better choice for the third film, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror.

Neill directed the fourth installment of the series. Universal never looked back. So let’s have a film festival for Roy William Neill’s 138th birthday! And I’ll embed the first film, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, and provide links to all the other films below:

Here are links to all the films in the series, including the three before Neill took over:

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
3. Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
4. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)
5. Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
6. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
7. The Spider Woman (1944)
8. The Scarlet Claw (1944)
9. The Pearl of Death (1944)
10. The House of Fear (1945)
11. The Woman in Green (1945)
12. Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
13. Terror by Night (1946)
14. Dressed to Kill (1946)

I continue to find it amazing that all these great films are available for free if you just look around a bit. But I understand. Everyone wants to watch the newest stuff that everyone is talking about. It makes sense. We are a social species. But I wish people would recognize this and not just assume that new is better. Because it isn’t.

Happy birthday Roy William Neill!

Roy William Neill via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Alan Ladd popped into the world on 3 September 1913. He died young. He was the victim of the pox of barbiturates. Doctors seemed to have given them out like candy to actors in the 1950s and 1960s.

Ladd starred in four crime dramas with Veronica Lake. For years, people have claimed this is because he was short and she was one of the few female actors who made him look tall. This makes no sense.

For one thing, Ladd wasn’t that short. He was 5’7″. This was the average height of men his age. And there were plenty of actors the same height or shorter: Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield, James Cagney — to name a few.

But more important, there were plenty of petite female actors. Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, and Lana Turner were all just a smidge over five feet. (Sources claim Lake was anywhere from 4’11” to 5’2″. Take all quoted heights of all actors with a grain of salt. Actors are notoriously neurotic about their heights and numbers usually come from their publicists.)

Anyway, I don’t especially care about Alan Ladd as an actor. But he was in a lot of good films. And I think he was impressive in Shane because he doesn’t especially look the part. Here’s a hot take: he did it better than Clint Eastwood, who had several tries.

Let’s celebrate Alan Ladd’s birthday by watching probably my favorite of his films, The Blue Dahlia. Here’s an excellent print from Archive:

Alan Ladd via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Hal Ashby was born on 2 September 1929. He died of cancer at only 59 years old. But he still managed to direct more than a dozen feature films — many of them iconic.

Although I’ve seen more, Ashby is important to me for three films: Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, and Being There. He had a positive view of humanity at the same time that he was sad about the world. Each of these three films end wistfully. Characters continue on despite the insanity of the world.

I like these kinds of films. They seem “true.” But I don’t get excited about them. This is Psychotronic Review, not New Hollywood Review. Part of this is that people already make far too big a deal out of these men. (It is almost entirely these men; also, these white men. I know there are exceptions, which rather proves my point.)

New Hollywood wasn’t so much a movement as a financial crisis for the film business. The studios didn’t have the control they once had. Television was cutting into profits. And tastes were changing. But Hollywood can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted. And so money flowed more easily to new filmmakers. So, as usual, it’s all about money.

Hal Ashby worked as an assistant editor from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s. Then he edited a number of notable films in the late 1960s including In the Heat of the Night, for which he one an Academy Award. This led to his directing The Landlord, and the rest is history. (Note, however, that this is almost exactly the path that Edward Dmytryk took to directing the 1930s so… Maybe New Hollywood is kinda BS?)

Ashby would be 96 if he were still alive. I’m tempted to watch Harold and Maude but some of that film makes me cringe a bit. And I can’t face The Last Detail. So I guess it is Being There…

Hal Ashby via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Paramount Pictures released Rear Window to film festivals around the world in August of 1954. But they released it throughout the United States on 1 September 1954.

Readers probably think of me as hating Alfred Hitchcock. This is not true! Well, Hitchcock was a terrible human being. But I like much of his work. What I hate is The Cult of Alfred Hitchcock. Those people think he’s an art film director. He’s not. He was a good (and sometimes great) genre filmmaker.

Rear Window is certainly one of Hitchcock’s best films. This is saying something! I really don’t like James Stewart. And he isn’t very good in this film. But the script is good. The camera use for the voyerism works as well as anything in any Hitchcock film. And perhaps most important, he doesn’t use any special effects or rear projection — things that he always did a bad job of.

On the other hand, we are still stuck with the Hitchcock colors. Technicolor was, for films of the mid-20th century, what the Yamaha DX7 was for late-1980s pop music. That is: it made those films age very poorly. And Hitchcock makes it worse with his design choices. (I know! He didn’t do it. But if you look at the art direction of Joseph McMillan Johnson outside of Hitchcock, it looks quite different.)

One problem I have with the script is the treatment of Miss Lonely-Hearts. She gets a happy ending, which I like. But all the stuff about her trying to kill herself is cruel. Plus, Stewart’s performance is mostly lacking here unless the idea was to make me hate him even more.

But Rear Window is a good and enjoyable film. It features some great suspense, which is what most people want from a Hitchcock film. If you haven’t seen it for a while, I recommend checking it out on its 71st birthday!

Rear Window (1954) poster via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Who is Julie Brown? We should call her a comedian since she does so much: acting, writing, directing, producing, songwriting, and singing. And she’s 67 today (born 31 August 1958).

I knew her songs “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” and “‘Cause I’m a Blonde” long before I saw her in any movies. Dr Demento featured her work, which is probably why I heard it early.

And then Earth Girls Are Easy came out. Brown was already well established as an actor. From 1980, she had small parts in films and TV shows. This included two episodes of Newhart where she played Buffy Denver. If you want to know what the character was like just think about pretty much any other role she has played.

Earth Girls Are Easy was produced specifically for her. She co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Charlie Coffey and then-husband Terrence E McNally. And the film features two musical numbers, “I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid” and “‘Cause I’m a Blonde.” But Geena Davis was unquestionably the star of the film.

Julie Brown has gone on to have an excellent career. She’s too idiosyncratic to be a huge star. But she has done a lot of great work that psychotronic fans will like.

Speaking of which, you should definitely check out Attack of the 5 ft 2 in Women. She co-wrote (again with Coffey) and co-directed (with Richard Wenk). If you like Julie Brown, you will like it.

Official Portrait of Julie Brown via Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Frank Conniff is 69 years old today. That means he was born 30 August 1956.

He was TV’s Frank during seasons 2-5 on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I have complicated thoughts about that show. On the one hand, it presents low-budget films as nothing but fodder for mocking. On the other hand, it introduced viewers (including me) to a lot of great psychotronic films.

Conniff is a talented writer. I can’t call what he does on screen acting. But he is charming in his awkward delivery of lines. But I’m not highlighting him today for any of this.

During his time on MST3K, he was the guy who screened the films. People reported seeing him walking around with a tattered copy of The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. You don’t do this if you don’t love the films, regardless of what happens on screen.

When I saw The Mads live, I had them sign my copy. Trace Beaulieu was very excited to see the book. Conniff wasn’t terribly excited about anything. He found all the fan service old hat. And it was new for Beaulieu. Not that Conniff was rude. I would describe him as “exhausted.”

Anyway, let’s celebrate Conniff’s birthday by watching one of his favorite films. Earlier this year, he posted his five favorite black & white films: (1) Citizen Kane; (2) Sweet Smell of Success; (3) The Night of the Hunter; (4) Dr Strangelove; and (5) Duck Soup. From this group, I have to go with The Night of the Hunter.

Happy birthday, Frank!

Frank Conniff at Dragon*Con 2008 by Timdorr under CC BY 3.0.

Exploitation film lovers cherish the date 29 August 1950. It was the day Frank Henenlotter was born.

Henenlotter made Basket Case and its two sequels. The first film is absurd enough. But each subsequent one gets more absurd. And they are all excellent.

After the first film, he made the wonderful Brain Damage. According to Henenlotter, Basket Case fans did not like it at the time. But today, those few who see it tend to think it is one of his best.

He made Frankenhooker at the same time as Basket Case 2. I won’t say it is Henenlotter’s best film. But it is the one I rewatch the most. Most of the film features Franken by himself. Yet it just works.

Frank Henenlotter generally takes a lot of time between films. This may explain the consistent high quality of his work. Or it may be that it just takes that long to get financing. There was a 4-year period when he made four films. Otherwise, it was six years between Basket Case and Brain Damage. And then 17 years between Basket Case 3: The Progeny and Bad Biology — and seven more years before his last, Chasing Banksy. (I haven’t seen the last two films.)

After the Basket Case films, Henenlotter became involved with Something Weird Video. Fans probably know the company and that its name comes from the Herschell Gordon Lewis film. That’s the kind of guy Frank Henenlotter is. Our kind of guy! (Note: The Something Weird Video is currently just a “new site coming” page. Hopefully it survives.)

Since I never tire of it, here is a commercial-free version of Frankenhooker. Treat yourself to 84 minutes of fun!

Frank Henenlotter at Cinémathèque de Toulouse 2016 by YanRB under CC BY-SA 4.0.