BEND OF THE RIVER, the second of the James Stewart/Anthony Mann Westerns, isn’t quite as good as the first, WINCHESTER ’73 . That’s not to say it isn’t a good film; it’s just hard to top that bona fide sagebrush classic. Stewart continues his post-war, harder edged characterizations as a man determined to change his ways, and is supported by a strong cast that includes a villainous turn by the underrated Arthur Kennedy .
Jimmy plays Glyn McLyntock, an ex-outlaw now riding as trail boss for a group of farmers heading to Oregon to begin a new life. He encounters Kennedy as Emerson Cole, a horse thief about to be hanged, and enlists his help on the trail west. Both men know each other’s reputations; they were both once raiders along the Missouri/Kansas border. The wagons are attacked at night by Shoshone, an arrow piercing young Laura Baile, daughter of…
Today’s music video of the day is for the song that convinced an entire generation of parents that heavy metal was Satan’s music. Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris wrote The Number of the Beast after watching the second Omen film and a careful listen to the lyrics will reveal that the song is not meant to be taken seriously. Of course, religious groups across America took it very seriously and spent 1982 protesting Iron Maiden.
It all seems a little silly now.
The video was also controversial, even though it was really just clips of old horror movies mixed with footage of Iron Maiden performing. With Lisa Marie’s help, I think I have correctly identified the source of almost every clip featured in the video:
0:10 — The video starts with a scene from 1944’s The Return of the Vampire. Contrary to popular belief, that is not Vincent Price providing the voice over. Originally, the band wanted Price but, when they discovered they couldn’t afford him, they hired an actor named Barry Clayton instead.
0:30 — The Goatman who first appears here and then reappears throughout the video is taken from 1968’s The Devil Rides Out.
0:36 — This clip is from 1922’s Nosferatu.
0:42 — This is the star of 1957’s I Was A Teenage Frankenstein.
0:50 — The fighting dinosaurs are from 1940’s One Million Years B.C.
1:12 — This is from 1958’s The Screaming Skull.
1:19 — The Godzilla footage is taken from 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla.
2:15 — I’m not totally sure but I think this is from 1946’s The Crimson Ghost.
2:19 — The exploding Goatman is, again, from The Devil Rides Out.
2:30 — This is from 1958’s How To Make A Monster, which was a sequel to I Was A Teenage Frankenstein.
2:38 — This is either another clip from How To Make A Monster or a clip from 1957’s I Was A Teenage Werewolf.
2:41 — This scene is from The Crimson Ghost.
3:21 — The scarred giant is from 1958’s War of the Colossal Beast.
3:24 — I like this way this part of the video was edited to make it appear as if Godzilla was reacting to the Colossal Beast.
3:51 — The big spider is from 1959’s The Angry Red Planet.
4:00 — This is another clip from The Crimson Ghost.
Several years ago, Minneapolis-based cartoonist David Tea worked at the comic shop nearest my home, where I am something of a “regular,” and to the best of my knowledge that was the only place that he sold his beyond-lo-fi comics, neatly stacked at the counter, each of them looking like they were run off a printer at Kinko’s, then cut and stapled by hand — which I’m fairly sure is exactly how they were made. Then, one day, he wasn’t working there anymore, and how one was supposed to obtain these utterly baffling little ‘zines became as mysterious a proposition as their contents, given that the only “distribution network” Tea seemed to employ was hustling them in person.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw that an apparently-randomly-selected work from Tea’s oeuvre, the 2005-produced Five Perennial Virtues #2, had been reprinted in the here and now of 2018, and…
It was 56 years ago today that The Amazing Spider-Man made his first appearance in the 15th issue of Amazing Fantasy. After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker developed super power but it was not until his uncle was murdered that Parker learned what it meant to be a hero.
With great power comes great responsibility and, as these four shots from four films demonstrate, movie stardom! Over the years, Nicholas Hammond, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland have all played America’s favorite web-spinning super hero.
In honor of Spider-Man’s birthday, here they are
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Chinese Web (1979, directed by Don McDougall)
Spider-Man (2002, directed by Sam Raimi)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014, directed by Marc Webb)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017, directed by Jon Watts)
37 years ago today, MTV first started to broadcast. Over the course of the day, the station aired 116 music videos.
Everyone knows that the first video to ever be shown on MTV was Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles. But did you know that the 36th video aired was Blotto’s I Wanna Be A Lifeguard?.
Who were Blotto? A new wave band from Albany, New York, they had a strong cult following among college students in the late 70s and early 80s. Much like the Ramones, all the band members used pseudonyms and took Blotto as their last name. Among the members were: Bowtie Blotto, Broadway Blotto, Cheese Blotto, Lee Harvey Blotto, Sergeant Blotto, Blanche Blotto, and Chevrolet Blotto.
I Wanna Be A Lifeguard was probably their best known song, as it was adopted as an anthem by the Jones Beach lifeguards. Before they made their MTV debut, Blotto and I Wanna Be A Lifeguard were championed by Dr. Demento and, like all good, quirky New York bands, they appeared on both The Joe Franklin Show and the Uncle Floyd Show. Today, it’s clear to see that Blotto were ahead of their time. The band’s mix of humor and music are tailor-made for the age of YouTube and social media.
As for the video, it was filmed by video production students at SUNY Albany and it feels like a cross between two quintessentially 90s shows. Starting in a shoe store and ending on the beach, I Wanna Be A Lifeguard is Married With Children meets Baywatch. Since the video came out ten years before either one of those shows premiered, I Wanna Be A Lifeguard was as ahead of its time as the band that performed it.
Not as hard as the cartoonist who made them, of course — and Austin English busted his tail (and his hands, and probably even his brain) on his latest solo book, The Enemy From Within, published in late 2017 by Sonatina Comics. The sheer effort that went into the creation of the thematically-linked triptych of stories (the titular “The Enemy From Within, ” “Half-Hearted Slogan Dance,” and “Solo Dance #2”) is apparent on all 22 of these intricately-detailed, insanely imaginative pages. English uses every last millimeter of space available to him, his images densely packed from corner to corner, side to side, negative space a luxury he can seldom afford. He’s clearly got a lot to say — but what is it?
I’ll be honest — four times through this book, I’m still trying to figure that out. But I think that’s…
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.
104 years ago today, the most important Italian filmmaker of all time was born. Today is Mario Bava’s birthday! And, as we often do here at the Shattered Lens, it’s time to celebrate with…
Since today is apparently Harry Potter’s birthday (Mazel Tov!), it seems like a good day to share a Harry Potter scene that I love. Here is Harry Potter confronting the sadly misunderstood Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2!
Through the Shattered Lens 