As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1998’s Top Of The World!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Top of the World on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!
On this date, 115 years ago, Lon Chaney, Jr. was born in Oklahoma City. At the time, Oklahoma wasn’t even a state. His father was the actor Lon Chaney Sr.
Originally named Creighton Chaney, Lon Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps. Like many sons of famous men, he often struggled to escape his father’s shadow. While he would never be mistaken for a man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney, Jr. did make a name for himself, first as Lenny in the Oscar-nominated 1939 film version of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and then as Larry Talbot, the unfortunate man who found himself cursed to turn into the Wolf Man whenever the moon was full. Chaney spent the majority of his career appearing in horror films and, later, westerns. Not only did he play The Wolf Man but he was also one of the many actors to take a shot at playing both Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula. Later, he would appear in a series of low budget horror films that were often a far cry from his best-known films. In his later years, he was a favorite of producer/director Stanley Kramer, who cast him in both High Noon and The Defiant Ones and who once said that Chaney was one of the finest character actors in Hollywood. His deep voice and craggily face made an undeniable impression in those later films. Looking at him, you could see had lived a tough life but he had the heart of a survivor.
In today’s scene that I love, Larry Talbot learns the facts about being a werewolf. From 1941’s The Wolf Man, here is Lon Chaney, Jr in his signature role.
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!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Alexander Payne! It’s time for….
4 Shots from 4 Alexander Payne Films
Election (1999, dir by Alexander Payne, DP: James Glennon)
Sideways (2004, dir by Alexander Payne, DP: Phedon Papamichael)
The Descendants (2011, dir by Alexander Payne, DP: Phedon Papamichael)
Nebraska (2013, dir by Alexander Payne, DP: Phedon Papamichael)
Don’t ask me to explain why the M3Gan 2.0 Super Bowl spot was the same as the teaser that’s already been out for a few days. I’m still trying to understand why there’s been so few Super Bowl movie trailers this year. It feels like the end of an era.
How To Train Your Dragon is getting a live action remake. I loved the animated film but I’m not sure why we need a live action version. I mean, the dragons are still going to be animated, right? Anyway, here’s the Super Bowl teaser!
It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which means we’ll be getting a lot of trailers and commercials for upcoming films. I just saw a spot for Jurassic World: Rebirth. Here’s the spot!
There’s a $2500 dollar reward out for the masked bandit known as the Durango Kid but little do the residents of Timber Rock know that the Kid is actually Steve Brent (Charles Starrett), a Treasury agent who puts on a mask whenever he needs to go undercover and discover what the bad guys are doing.
A range war has broken out between the sheep farmers led by Jack Mahoney (Jock Mahoney) and the cattlemen led by Carl Buckley (Tristram Coffin). To broker a peace and discover which side is the most to blame, Brent works for the cattlemen while the Durango Kid sides with the sheepmen. It turns out that Buckley’s to blame here. He’s using the war to thin out his cattle so that an Eastern beef syndicate can keep prices high. When Mahoney gets too close to the truth, he is framed for the murder of Mr. Woodstock and it’s up to the Durango Kid to prove that Mahoney is innocent. Meanwhile, Carl wants to blow up an entire mountain so that it will really thin out his cattle herd.
This is a typical Durango Kid movie, entertaining if you like B-westerns and probably boring if they’re not your thing. It has all the usual gunfights, horse chases, and dynamite explosions that are promised by every Durango Kid film. Starrett was always one of the most convincing cowboys on screen, even if his use of the Durango Kid alter ego didn’t always make sense. All the usual members of the Durango stock company show up, all playing different characters than they did in the previous Durango Kid film. Mahoney gets to play one of the good guys for once and his spirited girlfriend is played by the lovely Dani Sue Nolan. Smiley Burnett shows up to provide comic relief. This time, he’s a singing tour guide. He sings a song called It’s Got To Get Better. Let’s hope so.
In honor of Joe Pesci’s birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from 1990’s Goodfellas. This iconic scene was largely improvised by Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. Reportedly, Pesci based the scene on an actual incident that he observed.
It’s also interesting to note that Tommy’s comment of “you might fold under pressure” turns out to be true.
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!
Since today is Super Bowl Sunday, it seems appropriate to pay tribute to America’s unofficial holiday with….
4 Shots From 4 Football Films
The Freshman (1925, dir by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, DP: Walter Lundin)
Any Given Sunday (1999, dir by Oliver Stone, DP: Salvatore Totino)
Friday Night Lights (2004, dir by Peter Berg, DP: Tobias Schliessler)
Carter High (2015, dir by Arthur Muhammad, DP: Ron Gonzalez)
