Actor Jack Palance died today of natural causes at the age of 87. Palance a movie star during the 50′s always played the bad guy in film noir, westerns, and melodramas. His debut was in “Panic in The Street” followed by his impressive, and Oscar-nominated role as a cad in “Sudden Fear,” (1952) my favorite Jack Palance & Joan Crawford movie. He also starred in Shane (1953 Oscar-Nominated), and Requiem For...

The Cult Classic movie ” A Christmas Story” (1983) is on stage in a small theater in Bedford (MA?). This has got to be one of my very favorite Christmas movies. The director of the play feels it may be a little “ambitious,” but wants to create laughs for the public while at the same time have children be in good roles. The kids are all amateurs; only 4 of the 15 kids have ever been on stage. The director is hoping...

Have you ever watched a classic movie and just fallen in love with the songs in it? I certainly have. It’s funny, I’ve been around very young people, and not so young, but still young enough for them to not recognize these songs if they heard them. I begin to either hum or sing them as if I were born or grew up in that era. And they will look at me and ask, “Hey how do you know that old song?” Anyone who knows me...

“First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don’t come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.” Micheal Caine This is the old Michael Caine, now it’s different for him according to this article. Caine, now 73 years old can pick and choose his roles. And Michael is just lavishing in the freedom to do that. I’m of the school of thought that...

Fritz Lang’s ““M”” (1931) is still chilling today as it was back in ’31. A serial child killer (Peter Lorre) lurks the streets of Berlin. The police have no clues, or leads, and children keep turning up dead. The high profile case interferes with the day-to-day activities of the citizens of Berlin. The citizens ranging from police to criminals-to innocent by-standers falsely accused of the...

“A Woman at War: Marlene Dietrich Remembered,” by J. David Riva & Guy Stern is now available. The book is one in a series of tributes from her grandson filmmaker and writer J. David Riva. When we think of Marlene we automatically think of her in movies like Morocco (1930 her only Oscar nomination), Desire (1936), Destry Rides Again (1939), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), but this book remembers her as “glamour...