Today is a special day here at the Shattered Lens as we celebrate the birthday of Dario Argento!
Now, we’ve got a lot of Argento-related stuff scheduled for October so, for today, I’m just going to share one of the best scenes from one of my favorite Argento films, 1975’s Deep Red. This scene features what is seriously the creepiest puppet that I’ve ever seen.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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!
116 years ago, on this date, Elia Kazan was born Istanbul. Kazan would go on to become a groundbreaking director, both for the stage and in movies. He would play a key role in turning both Marlon Brando and James Dean into stars and he made films, like Gentleman’s Agreement and A Face In The Crowd, that challenged the political pieties of the day. Of course, he also named names in front of HUAC, a decision that continues to be controversial to this day. Two of Kazan’s films — Gentleman’s Agreement and On The Waterfront — won the Oscar for Best Picture. A Streetcar Named Desire was widely expected to win before it was upset by An American In Paris. A Face In The Crowd is often cited as being one of the most prophetic films ever made. When Kazan was given an honorary Oscar in 1999, many in the auditorium refused to applaud but his influence as a filmmaker cannot be denied.
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Elia Kazan Films
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, dir by Elia Kazan, DP: Harry Stradling)
On The Waterfront (1954, dir by Elia Kazan, DP: Boris Kaufman)
East of Eden (1955, dir by Elia Kazan, DP: Ted D. McCord)
A Face In The Crowd (1957, dir by Elia Kazan, DP: Gayne Rescher and Harry Stradling)
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week, Zach takes up terrorism.
Episode 1.8 “The Boy Who Cried Rat”
(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 11th, 1989)
Miss Bliss has been nominated for Indiana Teacher Of The Year because of course she has. Mr. Belding is super-excited. He is convinced that Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars will put her over the top! What is the Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars? Miss Bliss wears silly costumes and asks historical questions. Miss Bliss can’t wait to be named Teacher of the Year.
Uh-oh, Zach Morris needs an extra week to study for his midterm so he can get the B that his father is requiring before he’ll take Zach on a ski vacation. Zach convinces Screech to set his two pet rats free in the school. As a result, the school is shut down for a week and the Best Teacher judge will not get to see Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars. But when Zach hears that Miss Bliss is going to miss her chance to be Teacher of the Year, he feels guilty and confesses. Somehow, this leads to the school not being closed for a week. I mean, Screech was able to find one of his rats but the other one is still loose in the school. Zach confessing doesn’t change the fact that there’s still a rat infestation. Mr. Belding offers Zach and Screech a deal. If they act really enthusiastic during Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars and they help Miss Bliss win the title of Teacher of the Year, Belding won’t give them detention. Zach agrees.
(Personally, I think it can be argued that Zach should have been expelled and that his behavior is evidence of a sociopathic personality but whatever. Miss Bliss is what matters here!)
Unfortunately, Zach and the class get too enthusiastic about the Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars. They’re so busy praising Miss Bliss that Miss Bliss fears that they’ve become distracted from studying for their midterms. Miss Bliss tells the judge that her number one concern has to be getting the kids ready for their test, not competing for a title.
So, of course, Miss Bliss wins the title.
More than any previous episode of Good Morning Miss Bliss, this episode felt like a typical installment of Saved By The Bell. Zach came up with a wacky scheme. Screech somehow got roped into it. And, in the end, no one faced any real consequences for their behavior. That said, this is also a typical Good Morning Miss Bliss episode in that Miss Bliss is again portrayed as being too good to be true and the entire school was portrayed as revolving around keeping her happy.
Personally, I don’t think Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars was all that impressive. Teacher of the Year? STOP THE COUNT!
Big Brother 27 (CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV, 24/7)
Only one more month of this crap left! I’ve been writing about Big Brother, on an increasingly irregular basis, over at the Big Brother Blog. I’ll be happy when Survivor and The Amazing Race return.
The Dark Side of Comedy (Hulu)
I watched a few episodes of this show because I was bored. The Dustin Diamond episode was sad. You know what wasn’t sad? The Family Matters episode, in which the only two members of the cast willing to be interviewed complained endlessly about being overshadowed by Jaleel White. I mean, admittedly, if my big chance at stardom was short-circuited by Urkel, I’d probably be bitter too but still, there comes a time when you have stop whining.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Hulu)
I finished up the latest season. I have to admit that the trip to the dog track almost made me throw up, it got so (intentionally) disgusting. But no matter! Frank as the Golden Bachelor? Brilliant! Now, I want to see Dennis and Mac on The Amazing Race. Or maybe Charlie and Frank on The Amazing Race. Or Dee and …. well, she’d probably end up running alone. It would still make me laugh, though.
The Paper (Peacock)
From the creators of The Office …. oh, I really wanted to like this. And the show had its isolated funny moments but what it didn’t have were any characters who were, in any way, as interesting as the folks on The Office. The Paper mixed the format of The Office with the earnestness of Parks and Rec and I was pretty bored by the sixth episode. One thing that this show didn’t seem to get is that people could see themselves in The Office because everyone hates their job. Everyone could relate to Jim’s frustrations and Pam’s boredom. The Paper, on the other hand, is about people who love their job to an almost obnoxious extent and, as such, the characters just weren’t relatable. If anything they were kind of annoying. The show attempts to do a Jim-and-Pam thing with the characters played by Domhnall Gleeson and Chelsea Frei but it doesn’t work because 1) he’s her boss and 2) the two actors don’t really have much chemistry. Their scenes together felt forced. (I was happy to see Oscar Nunez again, if just because he brought so much needed cynicism to the show.) I’m a big admirer of producer Greg Daniels and the King of the Hill reboot was brilliant but, in this case, I think he overestimated that amount of nostalgia that people have for newspapers.
The Serial Killer’s Apprentice (HBOMax)
This documentary took a look at the disturbing life and crimes of Texas serial killer Dean Corll and it featured an interview with Elmer Henley, the young man who went from being Corll’s accomplice to eventually being Corll’s killer. Henley is still serving a life sentence. This documentary featured an interview with him and it made the mistake of featuring an actor playing the older Henley as he spoke on the phone in the jail. It’s an interesting story and I’m surprised that it hasn’t been turned into a cheap B-movie like so many other real-life serial killer tales have. That said, this documentary was a bit on the shallow side. Elmer Henley may have ultimately killed Corll but, before that, he helped Corll kill a lot of people. Henley is right where belongs, in prison for the rest of his life.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, Lisa will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.
This week, we have an anemic adaptation of a Nathaniel Hawthorne short story.
Episode #14: Rappaccini’s Daughter
(Dir by Deszo Magyar, originally aired in 1980)
This week’s episode is an adaptation of one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s more intriguing short stories. Giovanni (Kristoffer Tabori) is a young scholar who, in 18th Century Italy, falls in love with the beautiful and mysterious Beatrice (Kathleen Beller). Beatrice has been raised in a garden that is full of poisonous plants that have been developed by her father, Dr. Rappaccini (Leonardo Cimino). As a result, Beatrice is immune to the plants but she herself is poisonous. Giovanni falls in love with her and is willing to become poisonous himself but it ultimately turns out that everything comes with a price.
Hawthorne’s short story was not only an early example of gothic literature but it was also a well-deserved parody of the nature-loving, self-righteous transcendentalists. (The story came out at the same time as Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.) Unfortunately, this particular adaptation really doesn’t do the story justice. It moves extremely slowly and the performances are not particularly memorable. Kristoffer Tabori and Kathleen Beller have very little chemistry and, in the end, the adaptation misses the satirical nature of the story altogether. There’s a reason why Vincent Price made for an excellent Dr. Rappaccini in 1963’s Twice Told Tales.
Today’s scene that I love comes from the surrealistic 1968 musical, Head. It features Davy Jones dancing with the wonderful Toni Basil.
Enjoy and try not to cry because it’s a seriously sad song.
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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Tommy Lee Wallace!
4 Shots From 4 Tommy Lee Wallace Films
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, dir by Tommy Lee Wallace)
Fright Night Part 2 (1988, dir by Tommy Lee Wallace)
It (1990, dir by Tommy Lee Wallace)
Vampires: Los Muertos (2002, dir by Tommy Lee Wallace)
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. 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 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? The Godsend!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
The film is available on Prime!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Plex!
This week, Freddy is out for revenge.
Episode 7.1 “Sister’s Keeper”
(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on November 20th, 1988)
Freddy’s Nightmares started with Freddy Krueger killing Deputy Blocker, the man who had led the vigilante mob that set him on fire. This episode finds Freddy seeking revenge on Blocker’s twin teenager daughters, neurotic Merit (Hili Park) and the supercool, super awesome Lisa (Gry Park). Merit is convinced hat Freddy is haunting her nightmares and, as a result, she’s a bit of an outcast at school. Lisa, on the other hand, believes that Freddy is dead and buried. Lisa is stable and popular at school and even has a jock boyfriend.
Needless to say, Merit is a bit jealous of Lisa. For me, this was the most realistic part of this episode. People are always jealous of girls named Lisa, especially when they’ve got it all together as this Lisa does. (Trust me, I know!) It’s a heavy burden to bear but it happens. Lisa, being a saint, tries to help Merit out but Merit is pretty unappreciative.
Lisa even dresses up like Merit and pretends to be Merit so that she can experience what it’s like to be her sister. Lisa discovers that her boyfriend is just as interesting in sleeping with Merit as in sleeping with her. Booo! What a creep! Even worse, Lisa discovers that Freddy is real and that he’s after both her and Merit.
Like the pilot, this episode tells one story and most of the action centers around Freddy. Freddy actually takes part in this week’s story and, even by his standards, he’s cruel. “I’ll make it gentle,” he tells the terrified Merit, a reminder that Freddy was always a far more perverse killer than the seemingly asexual Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. This episode was a reminder of just how scary Freddy could be. Robert Englund didn’t hold up.
Merit and Lisa learn how to dream “in sync” so that they can both face Freddy at the same time. It’s a cool idea that does absolutely no good. As Lisa puts it, “It doesn’t work, you can’t make him go away!” Lisa ends up dead (boo!) while Merit is blamed for her murder. And so the episode ends.
Wow, that’s not a happy ending. Not only did Freddy triumph but supercool Lisa was killed, largely due to her sister’s incompetence. Then again, there really aren’t that many happy endings to be found when it comes to Freddy Krueger. The ending was depressing but effective and, even more importantly, it was really the only way the story could have ended.
This episode was pretty good. It’s certainly the best that I’ve seen so far. Merit and Lisa were real-played by the Park sisters and Robert Englund once again showed just how frightening he could be as Freddy Krueger. Within the confines imposed by television syndication, this was a genuinely frightening episode.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Hulu and, for purchase, on Prime!
This week, things get depressing.
Episode 2.14 “Drama Center”
(Dir by David Anspaugh, originally aired on February 15th, 1984)
This week’s episode opens with a disturbing scene in which a woman, trying to get her car to start on a snowy night, is attacked and raped in the parking lot of St. Eligius. The rapist is wearing a green jacket and a ski mask.
At first, I assumed that the rapist was a random lowlife, someone who would likely never be seen again. But then Dr. Cavanero’s wealthy boyfriend tried to force himself on her and I was left wondering if maybe he would be revealed as the man in the ski mask. However, towards the end of the episode, there was scene featuring Dr. Peter White. Having been banned from working in the ER and from prescribing medicine, White is now working in the morgue and, needless to say, he spends this entire episode bitching about it. As the episode ends, we see that Peter is holding a capsule in his hand, suggesting that he is once again abusing drugs. However, I also noticed that Peter was wearing the same green jacket as the man in the ski mask!
This was a good episode, well-written and well-acted. It was also pretty depressing. Dr. Westphall brings his severely autistic, noncommunicative son Tommy (Chad Allen) to St. Eligius so that Dr. Ridley can examine him. Dr. Ridley warns Westphall that Tommy is aggressive and that Westphall might not be able to continue to care for him at home, despite the fact that Westphall’s daughter (Dana Short) is planning on forgoing her dream college to stick around and help. Westphall ends his day reading Tommy a book (“Your mom bought you this book.”) and breaking down into tears and it made me cry a little too.
Meanwhile, a TV crew followed around Dr. Craig for a documentary. Needless to say, they got in the way and they got on Craig’s nerves. The director was played by Michael Richards, who, of course, is best-known for playing Kramer on Seinfeld and then having a racist meltdown when he got heckled at a comedy club. In an episode that was, emotionally, pretty dark, it was almost a relief to get some scenes of Dr. Craig losing his temper with the documentary crew. As someone who knows William Daniels best as the kindly Mr. Feeney from countless Boy Meets World reruns, it’s been a real pleasure to Daniels as the prickly and arrogant Dr. Craig. Dr. Craig wouldn’t have had much use for the Matthews clan and all of their drama.
This was an intense and sad episode. It was St. Elsewhere at its most emotional.
Through the Shattered Lens 