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Horror Express / Gothic Originals: The Horrible Sexy Vampire [‘El Vampiro de...
Well, I've got to hand it to ‘em - his behaviour is horrible, he’s somewhat more sexy than most movie monsters, and he is, indisputably, a vampire… as well as an invisible man to boot! Leaving aside...
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Happy Halloween Everyone.
Well, I certainly enjoyed that. My records indicate that I managed to fit in 36 feature length horror films during October, which I think may be a personal record (although I can’t claim I managed to...
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Pan’s People: Moment of Danger by Donald MacKenzie (1959)
After all the excitement of October, I’m going to try to keep this blog afloat by turning to some scans of recent additions to my paperback collection - which is something I’ve not got around to for a...
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Pan’s People: Two Wests (both 1958)
We continue our look at some recently acquired Pans with these two splendidly atmospheric covers by Pat Owen, both illustrating works by the insanely prolific John Creasey, whose 40+ Inspector West...
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Pan’s People: Two Edgars (1956/57)
Many of the cover illustrations used for Pan’s innumerable Edgar Wallace paperbacks are a bit dull, but these two are both absolutely terrific I think, highlighting the same lurid / fantastical aspect...
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Pan’s People: The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (1958)
From looking at Glenn Steward’s striking cover artwork for Josephine Tey’s ‘The Man in the Queue’, I got the feeling it might be one of those mid-20th century explorations of frenzied, urban...
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Pan’s People: The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner (1960)
Finishing off our recent celebration of Pan’s late ‘50s / early ‘60s cover artwork, here’s another absolute banger from Sam ‘Peff’ Peffer. I don’t have much else to say, as my interest in the work of...
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TOP TEN DISCOVERIES: 2022 (Part # 1 of 2)
So, we’ll be doing this end-of-year thing a bit differently this time around. Frankly, those ‘best first-time watches’ lists I’ve put together in previous years were starting to get a bit unwieldy,...
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TOP TEN DISCOVERIES: 2022 (Part # 2 of 2)
5. Sailor Suit & Machine Gun (Shinji Sômai, 1981) It should have been the smash hit pop cultural event of Japan’s summer of 1981, and to a certain extent, it was exactly that; the era’s preeminent...
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Two-Fisted Tales: The Star Witches by John Lymington (Macfadden, 1970)
I was recently hipped to the work of John Lymington via a great piece written by Jacob Charles Wilson in the estimable Books Review of Books (issue # 3, June 2021), wherein Wilson basically makes the...
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Deathblog: Piers Haggard (1939-2023)
I was very sad to hear this week that Piers Haggard - director of probably my favourite horror film of all time, ‘Blood on Satan’s Claw’ (1971) - has passed away at the age of 83. Speaking about...
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New Movies Round-up.
So, for no particular reason, last weekend was a “new movie special” in my house. A rare occurrence, to say the least. Here then are some notes on the post-2020 releases we covered. New Order (Michel...
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Random Paperbacks: Always Say Die by Elizabeth Ferrars (Fontana, 1962)
Given that cover artist John L. Baker appears to have never actually seen a cat (or at least, couldn’t remember what they looked like very well), his decision to illustrate this particular incident...
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Book Review: Wheels of Light: Designs for British Light Shows 1970-1990 by...
Ever since I first began to develop an interest in psychedelic rock as a teenager, the elusive presence of those bubbling, multi-layered liquid light shows which we’re led to believe routinely...
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Exploito All’Italiana: The Weapon, The Hour, The Motive (Francesco Mazzei, 1972)
Although you wouldn’t necessarily know it from reading this weblog, I spend a lot of my time watching Italian gialli. Why I’ve so rarely written about them over the years, I’m not quite sure, as there...
View ArticleThe Other Breakfast in the Ruins & other updates.
So, first of all, I owe loyal/remaining readers an apology for yet another lapse in posting. I had been looking forward to regaining a bit of free time to devote to this-sort-of-thing during March and...
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Noir Diary: Speaking of Murder [‘Le Rouge et Mis’] (Gilles Grangier, 1957)
To those of us in the English-speaking world, it can sometimes feel as if France’s contribution to the culture surrounding mid-century crime/noir cinema remains an obscure and mysterious prospect....
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Noir Diary: Back to the Wall [‘Le Dos au Mur’] (Édouard Molinaro, 1958)
In stark contrast to Gilles Grangier’s no nonsense directorial approach on Le Rouge et Mis, director Édouard Molinaro begins ‘Le Dos au Mur’ [Literal translation: ‘Evidence in Concrete’, but more...
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Noir Diary: Witness in the City [‘Un Témoin dans la Ville’] (Édouard...
Whilst the first two films in Kino Lorber’s French Noir Collection were both interesting, enjoyable and well worth making time for, it is the third and final movie in the set which proved by far my...
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Deathblog: Kenneth Anger (1926-2023)
“I’ve always considered movies evil; the day that cinema was invented was a black day for mankind.” —Kenneth Anger, 2002 And so we say farewell to Kenneth Anger, a man whose influence runs through the...
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