As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, 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, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? 1992’s Under Siege!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Under Siege on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Today’s song of the day comes to us from the soundtrack of the 1983 film, Revenge of the Ninja. Composed by Robert J. Walsh, this soundtrack will definitely leave you prepared to defeat all of your enemies, ninja-style!
(Actually, don’t try to do that without getting some training once. I speak with the experience who sprained her ankle multiple times as a result of trying to duplicated Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld moves.)
Since today is Roberto Rossellini’s birthday, today’s scene is one of the most powerful of all time.
From Rossellini’s 1945 anti-Nazi masterpiece, Rome, Open City, this scene features Anna Magnani as Pina. For the first part of the film, Pina has been a major character. We see much of occupied Rome through her eyes. We watch as she risks her life to help the Resistance and, because we’ve seen so many movies, we assume that the filmmakers will protect her because she’s the main character. In this devastating scene, Rossellini shows us that no one is safe in an occupied city, not even a pregnant woman.
It’s just another day in Rome.
John Milius later paid homage to this scene in Red Dawn.
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!
120 years ago, on this date, the great Italian neorealist director (and husband of Ingrid Bergman and father of Isabella Rossellini), Roberto Rossellini was born in Rome. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Roberto Rossellini Films
Rome, Open City (1945, dir by Roberto Rossellini, DP: Ubaldo Arata)
Europe ’51 (1952, dir by Roberto Rossellini, DP: Aldo Tonti)
Fear (1954, dir by Roberto Rossellini, DP: Carlo Carlini, DP: Heinz Schnackertz)
Journey to Italy, (1954, dir by Roberto Rossellini, DP: Enzo Serafin)
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!
This episode makes the mistake of pretending to leave California.
Episode 1.4 “A Long Way From L.A.”
(Dir by Arnold Laven, originally aired on October 26th, 1984)
Bleh. This episode annoyed me.
Wally Wallerstein (Paul Eiding), a pickpocket wanted in Los Angeles, is arrested in Texas. Because he needs a break from them, Captain Cain sends Hunter and McCall to retrieve him. Wally turns out to be a nice guy but, when Hunter’s car breaks down in Wilson County, Texas, Wally is accused of attacking a local waitress and is then killed by a sniper. The real culprit is pretty obviously Sheriff Jake Cutter (Bo Svenson), who is the stepson of Chuck Easterland (Morgan Woodward), the richest man in town.
Not a single small town stereotype went unused in this episode. As a Texan, I was annoyed by the fact that everyone had a Southern (as opposed to a Southwestern) accent. And while I understand that the show probably didn’t have the budget or the time to shoot on location, it was still hard not to smirk at the sight of a very California mountain range in the background. This is the flatlands, folks. We don’t have mountains like that in Texas.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958. The show can be viewed on Tubi!
In this episode, Casey goes after a gun dealer.
Episode 1.30 “The Gentle Gun-Man”
(Dir by Michael Gordon, originally aired on May 5th, 1958)
After a man is shot dead while committing a liquor store robbery, Casey goes undercover as his widow. The police don’t just want the man’s accomplice. They want to know where the man got his specially-modified gun. The accomplice turns out to be a rather gentle deli owner named “Knish” Levin (Ludwig Donath). And the gun dealer turns out to be Mr. Johnson (James O”Rear), the same gun dealer who sold Casey her first gun. (This episode implies that members of the police force have to buy their own guns, which sounds a bit odd.) Needless to say, when Casey convinces Knish to introduce her to his dealer, Johnson immediately recognizes her.
This episode had a lot of New York location footage. The scene where Knish leads Casey to Johnson took us from Wallstreet to the waterfront. Indeed, the locations shots were the best thing about this episode. The acting in this episode was, by Decoy standards, subpar, with even the usually reliable Beverly Garland struggling to sell her lines. Unfortunately, this episode’s plot required Casey to make a lot of foolish mistakes, like going to see the gun dealer without proper backup. I liked the fact that Knish wasn’t portrayed as being a typical thug but otherwise, this episode just didn’t work.
Hi, everyone! Tonight, on Mastodon, I will be hosting the #TubiThursday watch party! Join us for Clue (1985)!
You can find the movie on Tubi and you can join us on Mastodon at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) We will be using #TubiThursday hashtag! See you then!
Today, we wish a happy birthday to director Amy Heckerling!
In this scene from the Heckerling-directed 1982 filmFast Times At Ridgemont High, Brad finally gets a moment of triumph. Played by Judge Reinhold, Brad spends most of this movie being humiliated. He kind of deserves it because he can definitely be a bit full of himself, especially when he was working at All-American Burger. But, at the same time, he’s there for his sister when she needs someone and, for a character in a 1982 teen comedy, he’s refreshingly nonjudgmental.
In this scene, poor Brad has been reduced to working at an all-night convenience store. Wherever Brad works, he appears to be destined to have to wait on Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn.) When James Russo attempts to hold him up, Brad finally snaps and becomes the hero that he’s always wanted to be.
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!
Today would have been the 87th birthday of the great Italian director, Ruggero Deodato! And that, of course, means that it’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Films
Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man (1976, dir by Ruggero Deodato, DP: Guglielmo Mancori)
The House On The Edge of the Park (1980, dir by Ruggero Deodato, DP: Sergio D’Offizi)
Raiders of Atlantis (1983, dir by Ruggero Deodato, DP: Robert D’Ettore Piazzoli)
Body Count (1986, dir by Ruggero Deodato, DP: Emilio Loffredo)
