Sly Stallone Rare Behind-the-Scenes Photo from “Lords of Flatbush”!
This is a very rare shot of Sly Stallone behind-the-scenes on Lords of Flatbush!
Source: Brian Stooss.
“Tomorrow at Seven” (1933) / Z-View
Tomorrow at Seven (1933)
Director: Ray Enright
Screenplay: Ralph Spence
Stars: Chester Morris, Vivienne Osborne, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins, Henry Stephenson, Grant Mitchell and Charles Middleton
Tagline: HELPLESS TO DEFEND HER! The girl he loved death-marked by the unknown fiend who killed at the stoke of seven.
The Plot…
A serial killer who calls himself The Black Ace is set to murder again. Before each murder The Black Ace sends his target a large black ace card with a message warning that he will be next! After each kill, a black ace playing card is left on the victim’s chest. Thornton Drake (Stephenson) received a black ace with the warning, “Tomorrow at Seven“.
Thornton, his daughter Martha (Osborne), her new boyfriend Neil (Morris), along with two plainclothes detectives Clancy (McHugh) and Dugan (Jenkins), and two pilots fly to a home Thornton owns out of state. They figure they’ll be safe there. They figured wrong. Now the group have taken refuge in Thornton’s big, old house. Someone has cut the phone lines… and it’s getting close to 7!
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Tomorrow at 7 has the feel of a play. Clancy and Dugan provide comic relief. If Barney Fife had twin brothers, it’d be these guys. Movies like Tomorrow at 7 were popular around this time period. All you need is a killer, a remote house with plenty of rooms (and a secret passage or two), a group of potential victims and a character for laughs to break the tension and you’re good to go. If like me, you like these types of films, you should enjoy Tomorrow at 7. Be aware that the final kill reminded me of Enter the Dragon, which was surprising for a film made in the 1930s.
Tomorrow at Seven earns 3 of 5 stars.
“Movie Maniacs” (1936) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View
Movie Maniacs (1936)
Director: Del Lord
Screenplay: Felix Adler
Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Bud Jamison and Heinie Conklin
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Larry, Curly and Moe go to Hollywood thinking that they’ll become movie stars. Moe believes he knows what makes a great movie. When they sneak on to a studio lot, they are mistaken for out of town Studio Executives that were due to arrive. The boys are given carte blanche to make any changes they want… and boy, do they!
The Three Stooges in charge of a movie studio! What could go wrong?
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
It’s fun to see “behind the scenes” of the making of a movie and even better when the Stooges are showing actors how to act.
Movie Maniacs earns 4 of 5 stars.
“Predator” Alt Poster by Greg Ruth!
How cool is this Predator private commission created by Greg Ruth? It’s amazing that the art is done in pencil! You can see more of Ruth’s art at his Instagram or his website.
“Crown Vic” (2019) starring Thomas Jane / Z-View
Crown Vic (2019)
Director: Joel Souza
Screenplay: Joel Souza
Stars: Thomas Jane, Luke Kleintank, Josh Hopkins, Bridget Moynahan andScottie Thompson
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Ray Mandel (Jane) is a veteran LA cop. Mandel’s seen it all. Nick Holland (Kleintank) is a naive rookie. Mandel and Holland are partnered for a night shift. Over the course of their patrol they will deal with domestic abuse, a car fire, an out of control fellow officer, a kidnapped little girl and more. As the night wears on, the rookie is shocked to learn how things really work for a police officer upholding the law. Everything come to a head when Mandel and Holland make a traffic stop on two cop killers…
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Thomas Jane has never been better! He disappears into his role as a cynical divorced cop who knows there’s a difference between the law and justice.
Writer/director Joe Souza has created a film that captures the slow passing of a shift broken up by moments of tension and life-threatening terror. While some films may have focused totally on the cop killers storyline or the kidnapped little girl, Crown Vic has the events play out as part of the shift. Thomas Jane’s performance and the ending of Crown Vic took everything up a notch.
Crown Vic earns 4 of 5 stars.
“Cookoo Cavaliers” (1940) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View
Cookoo Cavaliers (1940)
Director: Jules White
Screenplay: Ewart Adamson
Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Larry, Curly and Moe are unsuccessful fish salesmen, so they decide to buy a saloon. The only (well, first) problem is they bought a salon. A hair salon in Mexico! The boys decide that they’d make great hairdressers. What could go wrong?
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
The boys get some laughs trying to sell their smelly old fish. The real chuckles come when they open their hair salon. Imagine mani/pedis, mud packs, hair creams and more administered by Larry, Curly and Moe!
Cookoo Cavaliers earns 4 of 5 stars.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022) / Z-View
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Director: Edward Berger
Screenplay: Ian Stokell, Lesley Paterson, Edward Berger based on the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Stars: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Paul Bäumer (Krammerer) is about to graduate high school when he and his classmates hear a rousing patriotic speech about joining the service. Paul and his friends enlist thinking that the war will be over soon and they’ll come back heroes. They will learn how wrong they are… if they survive.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
All Quiet on the Western Front is based on Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel of the same name. Written in 1929, it was banned when the Nazis took over Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front has been adapted three times. Twice for feature films and once for television. It’s a timeless story about the harsh realities of war.
This 2022 adaptation is excellent. It won National Review awards as one of the Top Five Foreign Language Films and for Best Adapted Screenplay. It won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling as well as Best Visual Effects in the European Film Awards.
All Quiet on the Western Front contains powerful, tense scenes of war that are heightened by quiet moments before and after the carnage. There are scenes that will stay with you. For me, one of the most telling is when the new recruits are unknowingly given uniforms taken off dead soldiers. The bullet holes having been sewn together by scores of women at sewing machines.
It’s also a sad comment when young soldiers on both sides are in the elements with little to eat, fighting the weather as well as each other. Meanwhile diplomats and high ranking soldiers are getting the best food and amenities as they argue the terms of surrender. Then when an agreement to end the war at 11:00 is reached, one power-hungry commander orders his soldiers to make a last minute attack that will cost many, many lives but have no positive outcome to the war.
If I was to nitpick, I might say that All Quiet on the Western Front was a bit long, but not long enough to kill my enjoyment of it.
All Quiet on the Western Front earns 4 of 5 stars.
“Punch Drunks” (1934) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View
Punch Drunks (1934)
Director: Lou Breslow
Screenplay: Jack Cluett, story by Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry Howard
Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard and Dorothy Granger
Tagline: A Columbia 2 Reel Broadway Comedy
The Plot…
Moe discovers that any time Curly hears “Pop Goes the Weasel” he gains super strength and becomes violent. With Larry on the violin and Moe as fight manager, Curly becomes a professional boxer known as K.O. Stradivarius. What could go wrong?
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Punch Drunks contains several firsts…
- Punch Drunks is the first and only Three Stooges film selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
- It contains the first time Curly exclaims his famous “Woo-woo-woo!”
- Punch Drunks also features the first time Curly used his catch-phrase he’s a “victim of soycumstance!”
- It is the first time Larry plays the violin (which he would go on to do in 8 other shorts)
- Punch Drunks contains an obscene gesture – during introductions for the fight, an audience member can be seen “shooting a bird”
Punch Drunks is one of the Three Stooges most beloved shorts. Punch Drunks contains funny gags, but it doesn’t resonate with me as well as some of their other shorts. I like Punch Drunks, but feel it lags a bit when Larry has his two “running” scenes. I expected more laughs from Curly’s big fight. I think Punch Drunks is good, but most folks feel it is one of the boys’ best. Your mileage may vary.
Punch Drunks earns 3 of 5 stars.
“The Price We Pay” starring Emile Hirsh & Stephen Dorff – The Poster and Trailer are Here!
The Price We Pay trailer looked like a typical crime movie until, well, check it out and see for yourself. I like crime and I like horror. Deal me in.
From the director of Midnight Meat Train comes this gripping thriller starring Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Stephen Dorff (Blade). After an intense holdup at a pawnshop, Grace is taken hostage by the thieves. Forced to take refuge at a remote farmhouse late at night, they discover a secret dungeon with evidence of sadistic violence—and when “Grandfather” comes home, all hell breaks loose. Can Grace muster the courage to escape the gut-wrenching fates that befall her criminal companions?
The Price We Pay – in select theaters, on digital and on demand 1/13/23! Starring Stephen Dorff (Cody), Emile Hirsch (Alex), Gigi Zumbado (Grace), Tyler Sanders (Danny), Erika Ervin (Jodi), Jesse Kinser (John), Sabina Mach (Carly), and Vernon Wells (The Doctor).
“Little Dixie” starring Frank Grillo & Eric Dane – The Poster and Trailer are Here!
I’m a Frank Grillo and Eric Dane fan. The two of them in a gritty crime film has my attention and it’s directed at Little Dixie. Deal me in.
Frank Grillo (The Purge franchise) and Eric Dane (Euphoria) star in this action-packed revenge thriller. When a deal goes wrong between a corrupt Governor and a ruthless drug lord, ex-Special Forces Operative Doc (Grillo) is caught in the crosshairs. Now, with his family in danger, Doc must take down the Mexican drug cartel and do whatever it takes to protect the one good thing in his life – his young daughter, “Little Dixie”.
Featuring: Frank Grillo, Eric Dane, Beau Knapp, Annabeth Gish, Peter Greene, Thomas Dekker, Mercedes Mason, Maurice Compte
“Condor’s Nest” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!
I like what I see from the poster and trailer for Condor’s Nest. I’ll check this out on streaming.
EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 2 is Coming!
Eerie Archives Volume 2 is available for pre-order now. Here’s the lowdown…
A gruesome gold mine of horror, suspense, and the supernatural, Eerie magazine (and its partner in crime, Creepy), set the bar for gripping tales of terror in the comics medium.
Collecting the groundbreaking series, Eerie Archives is now available in a value-priced paperback edition. Under a jaw-dropping cover painting by Frank Frazetta lies a collection of chilling tales written by comics legend Archie Goodwin and illustrated by a murderer’s row of top talents including Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Gray Morrow, Johnny Craig, Dan Adkins, and more.
Collects Eerie magazine #6–#10.
Deal me in. Pre-Orders are available now.
EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 is Coming!
Hey! If you were excited to learn that Dark Horse is republishing Creepy magazine in a trade paperback format, you’re going to love to know that Eerie is also getting the same treatment!
Now available in an affordable paperback format, Eerie Archives Volume 1 features some of the most acclaimed works of horror, murder, and the macabre in the history of graphic fiction.
Eerie, like its killer kin Creepy, features work from many of the grandmasters of comics storytelling, including Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, and others and stories by the legendary Archie Goodwin.
Features the ultra-rare Eerie #1, for which only 200 “ashcan” copies were originally printed!
Collects Eerie magazine #1–#5.
Deal me in. Pre-Orders are available now.
“Half Shot Shooters” (1936) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View
Half Shot Shooters (1936)
Director: Jack White
Screenplay: Clyde Bruckman
Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Stanley Blystone and Vernon Dent
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
As the last battle of World War I rages, Sgt. MacGillicuddy (Blystone) finds the Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly) sleeping. When the war ends, the Sarge gives the boys a beating for being cowards. After the Stooges are discharged they see Sgt. MacGillicuddy on the street. They thank him and show the medals they received for being wounded in action! Moe, Larry and Curly then give the Sarge a taste of his own medicine.
17 years later… The boys are tricked into re-enlisting! Want to guess who their commanding Sargent will be? Yep, good ole Sgt. MacGillicuddy. What could go wrong?
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Half Shot Shooters is one of the most violent of all the Stooges shorts. Usually we get eye-pokes, punches, slaps and the like, but no real damage is shown. In this one Moe gets a broken arm, the boys are made deaf by the Sargent and it ends with the Stooges being killed! Of course, the violence is not graphic but at the time was considered too intense for kids. Half Shot Shooters was actually banned in Holland!
Half Shot Shooters marks the first appearance of Vernon Dent. Dent would go one to appear in 60 Stooges’ shorts!
Half Shot Shooters earns 3 of 5 stars.
RIP: Stephen “tWitch” Boss
Stephen “tWitch” Boss died yesterday the result of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 40.
Stephen Boss was a dancer, choreographer, actor, television producer, and dj. Mr. Boss got the nickname “tWitch” when he was a child and couldn’t sit still. After graduating high school, “tWitch” studied Dance Performance at Southern Union State Community College in Wadley, Alabama, and Chapman University.
2003 was the year that Stephen Boss began to be noticed. He was a semifinalist on MTV’s The Wade Robson Project and runner-up on Star Search. Mr. Boss began to choreograph dance routines for other artists.
“tWitch” was on So You Think You Can Dance in 2007, but was cut before reaching the Top 20. He returned in 2008 and was the runner up. A dance choreographed by Mia Michaels that “tWitch” performed with Katee Shean that season was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for Choreography. “tWitch” and Katee Shean were brought back the following season to perform the Emmy nominated dance again. So You Think You Can Dance invited “tWitch” back in seasons 7 – 9 as an All Star dancer. In Season 12 he was named as the “Captain” of “Team Street”. In Season 22, Mr. Boss was named as a permanent judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
Stephen Boss’ dancing ability and charismatic personality brought him to the attention of Hollywood. His first role was in Blades of Glory. Mr. Boss would go on to have a career as an actor in both television and feature films.
Some of Mr. Boss’ feature film appearances include: Blades of Glory; Hairspray (2007); Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming; Step Up 3D; Dead in 5 Heartbeats; Step Up All In; Magic Mike XXL and Ghostbusters (2016);
Some of Mr. Boss’ television appearances include: Bones; Touch; Drop Dead Diva (2 episodes); Famous in Love (2 episodes); Modern Family and The Ellen DeGeneres Show (101 episodes; in 2020, Ellen DeGeneres named Twitch a Co-Executive Producer).
I first became aware of Stephen “tWitch” Boss from his appearances on So You Think You Can Dance. He was the total package: charismatic, talented, humble and always upbeat. I enjoyed seeing his success as he repeatedly returned to So You Think You Can Dance. It was even nicer to see “tWitch” getting roles in movies and television. He was the type of celebrity that I felt would be easy to sit and talk with. It’s heartbreaking to think that he’s gone.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Stephen “tWitch” Boss’ family, friends and fans.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
