Inferno (1980, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Romana Albano)
Continuing the mini-Inferno theme that we’ve got going today, today’s song of the day is Keith Emerson’s theme song from Argento’s 1980 classic.
In a movie full of amazing actors, Charles Bronson’s introduction in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is as badass as it gets. He exudes the power and charisma that would make him an international superstar a few years later.
I hope your weekend is just as awesome!! Enjoy this amazing scene with Bronson, Yul Brynner, and Steve McQueen.
Today’s scene that I love comes from Dario Argento’s 1980 masterpiece, Inferno. In this music scene, a music student in Rome finds himself suddenly being watched by the legendary Mother of Tears (played by Ania Pieroni). Inferno is one of Agento’s best films and this is one the film’s best scenes.
Today is the birthday of Italian actress Ania Pieroni.
You may not recognize the name but, if you’re a fan of Italian horror, chances are that you’ve seen Ania Pieroni at least once. Even though she only has 11 credits listed on the imdb and apparently made her last film over 30 years ago, Ania Pieroni achieved screen immortality by playing key roles in three of the greatest Italian films ever made.
In Dario Argento’s Inferno, she was the first actress to play the mysterious Mother of Tears.
In Lucio Fulci’s The House By The Cemetery, she played the mysterious housekeeper and nanny who, in one of the film’s most memorable scenes, nonchalantly mops up a huge pool of blood before subsequently losing her head in the house’s basement.
And then, in Argento’s Tenebrae, she played the unfortunate shoplifter who pays a steep price for not paying for Peter Neal’s latest novel.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Ania Pieroni with….
4 Shots From 4 Ania Pieroni Films
Inferno (1980, dir by Dario Argento)
The House By The Cemetery (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci)
Tenebrae (1982, dir by Dario Argento)
Fracchia vs Dracula (1985, dir by Neri Parenti)
Billy the Kid was a big damn hero.
At least that’s the claim of Billy The Kid’s Range War, in which Billy (played by middle-aged Bob Steele) is a do-gooder with a comedic sidekick named Fuzzy (Al St. John) and a hankering to help Ellen Gorman (Joan Barclay) bring a new stagecoach line to town. Williams (Karl Hackett) does want to the Gorman family to success so he hires Buck (Rex Lease) to dress up like Billy the Kid and ride a horse that looks like Billy the Kid’s and commit crimes, like killing Ellen’s father. Framed for all those crimes that he didn’t commit and with his best friend (Carleton Young) ordered to arrest him, Billy decides to go under cover so that he can clear his good name. Someone pretending to be Billy the Kid got him into this mess. Now, Billy’s going to get out of it by pretending to be someone else.
The action is pretty standard for a B-western. Mostly, it’s interesting to see a movie where Billy the Kid is actually a nice guy who gets framed. No wonder a whole generation grew up with no idea about true history of the American frontier. Sam Newfield directed a handful of Billy the Kid films and the capable Bob Steele starred in most of them but this is the only one that I’ve sat down and watched and it actually left me missing the production values of the Johnny Mack Brown films. For fans of these type of westerns, there’s the promise of seeing familiar actors like George Cheseboro and Ted Adams doing there thing. Even the outstanding character actor Milton Kibbee makes an appearance. For those who do not like westerns, this film is not going to change their minds.
Despite the promise of the title, there is no range war in this movie. There’s just Billy the Kid, trying to clear his good name.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix presents Gamera: The Invincible!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Gamera is available on Prime and Tubi! See you there!
Yes, dying is quite fucked up and Osgood Perkins follow-up to his 2024 horror cult-hit Longlegs points and shows this to the audience in spades (and buckets of blood).
The Monkey, based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, tells the story of a drum-playing toy monkey which happens to cause the the deaths of random individuals when it stops playing the drums. Right from the start we see that The Monkey veers away from Perkins usual moody and atmospheric horror language and goes for the absurdist take on the genre.
Anyone who has seen the supernatural horror series Final Destination will recognize the Rube Goldberg-esque ways each kills in that series has become its signature will appreciate how truly absurd some of the kills in The Monkey turns out. To say more would be too much of a spoiler and should be experience by anyone willing to watch this film.
Osgood Perkins still brings to the table his own brand of horror comedy by exploring the ideas and themes of death’s inevitability and randomness, but also childhood trauma and how it impacts the lives of those children even to their adulthood. Where some films would be more subtle in exploring these themes, Perkins decides on drumming it on thickly which, at time, does come off as cringe.
Yet, despite the heavy-handedness of Perkins’ screenplay (he also wrote the screenplay adaptation of King’s tale), The Monkey still succeeds in delivering an early horror hit for 2025 that should be seen with a crowd. this is a film that is actually better when seen as part of a collective experience rather than with a small group.
by Milton Luros
In this cover from 1941, someone has his hands full.
I prefer this version to the original because I don’t like Queen. Deal with it.
Enjoy.
Today, for obvious and tragic reasons, people everywhere have been thinking about their favorite Gene Hackman performances. Hackman was an actor who always brought his all, even when he was appearing in a lesser film. I think you could ask five different people for their five favorite Hackman performances and they would all give five different answers. His performance as Lex Luthor in Superman and Superman II has always been one of my favorites. Others will undoubtedly cite his award-winning performance as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection or his great work as Norman Dale in Hoosiers or his work in classic neo-noirs like The Conversation and Night Moves. Let’s not forget his most unexpectedly great turn, as the blind man in Young Frankenstein. Hackman gave so many great performances that some of them were for films that are not even remembered today.
Twice In A Lifetime is one of those forgotten films but I think it features one of Hackman’s best performances. He plays Harry Mackenzie, a steelworker who is married to Kate (Ellen Burstyn, made up to look frumpy) and who has two daughters (Amy Madigan and Ally Sheedy). Harry is the type of everyman that Hackman excelled at playing. He’s a hard worker, a good family man, and a good friend. What no one, not even Harry realizes, is that he’s also having a midlife crisis. On his 50th birthday, he goes out to the neighborhood bar with his buddies and falls for the new barmaid, Audrey (Ann-Margaret). Harry ends up leaving his wife for Audrey, pursuing the spark that his marriage no longer gives him. The movie follows Harry and Kate and their daughters as they adjust to their new lives and they plan for the younger daughter’s wedding.
Twice In A Lifetime was one of many 80s films that dealt with divorce and it has the same flaws that afflicted many of them. These films, which were often made by middle-aged directors who had just gone through their own divorces, rarely played fair when it came to depicting why the marriage failed. Twice In A Lifetime stacks the odds in Harry’s favor just by suggesting that Ann-Margaret would end up working at a bar frequented by steelworkers. Harry has to choose between his plain and boring wife and Ann-Margaret. That’s going to be a difficult choice! The twist that Harry’s decision was ultimately the right thing for Kate doesn’t feel earned.
But damn if Gene Hackman isn’t great in this film. Even though he was one of the most recognizable actors in the movie, Hackman is totally believable as both a steelworker and a man who worries that he’s destroyed his family. It’s not just one moment or scene that makes this a great performance. It’s the entire performance as a whole, with Hackman portraying all of Harry’s conflicted emotions both before and after leaving his family. Hackman gives a performance that is more honest than the film’s script or direction. The movie believes Harry did the right thing but Hackman shows us that Harry himself isn’t so sure. Hackman captures the middle-aged malaise of a man wondering if his life is as good as it gets. When the movie works, it is almost totally due to the emotional authenticity of Hackman’s performance. Twice in a Lifetime may be a forgotten film but it’s also proof of how great an actor Gene Hackman really was. There will never be another one like him.
Through the Shattered Lens 