Chow Yun-Fat was such a big Hong Kong movie star, and he couldn’t do anything wrong in the late 80’s. While he’s most well known for his action films, he also starred in a lot of comedies. He was often goofy and over the top and the audiences loved it. In the hit film, THE DIARY OF A BIG MAN (1988), Chow plays a man married to two of the most beautiful women of Hong Kong cinema, Sally Yeh (THE KILLER) and Joey Wong (GOD OF GAMBLERS)… at the same time. Needless to say, it’s not an easy situation. Fair warning, if you’ve never seen a Chow Yun-Fat comedy, this may take some getting used to. I personally love it and can’t help but smile as big as Chow when I watch it. I present Chow Yun-Fat singing “Oh Very Nice” from THE DIARY OF A BIG MAN. Enjoy my friends!
Prisoner of War (1954, directed by Andrew Marton)
The setting is the Korean War. After getting information that American POWs are being tortured and brainwashed in North Korean prisoner-of-war camps, Major Hale (Harry Morgan) assigns Webb Sloane (Ronald Reagan) to go undercover. After parachuting behind enemy lines, Webb spots a group of POWs being marched through the snow and joins the group. From the minute that Webb joins the march, he begins to observe war crimes. The death march itself, with the POWs being forced to move in freezing weather, is itself a war crime. At the POW camp, Webb discovers the presence of an arrogant Soviet interrogator (Oscar Homolka) and a routine designed to break the POWs down until their ready to betray their native country. Some POWS, like Captain Stanton (Steve Forrest), refuse to break. Others, like cowardly Jesse Treadman (Dewey Martin), break all too quickly. Webb sends the information back to Hale and eventually tries to make his escape.
It’s not terrible. That the North Koreans and, later, the North Vietnamese tortured their POWs and forced some of them to denounce America is a matter of the historical record and, for a 1954 film, Prisoner of War doesn’t shy away from the brutality of the torture that POWs were often subjected too. Of all of Reagan’s film, Prisoner of War had the strongest anti-communist message, though Reagan himself feels miscast as a hard-boiled secret agent. (Reagan’s affability comes through even in a film set in a POW camp.) Sending someone undercover into a prisoner of war camp and then hoping that they’ll find a way to escape doesn’t sound like the most efficient way to determine if the Geneva Convention is being violated.
The film features a dog who is found by one of the POWs. Don’t get attached.
Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on the Street 3.11 “Cradle to Grave”
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC! It can be viewed on Peacock.
This week, secrets are uncovered and trust is betrayed.
Episode 3.11 “Cradle to Grave”
(Dir by Myles Connell, originally aired on January 13th, 1995)
Police Commissioner James Harris (Al Freeman, Jr.) gives Pembleton a special assignment. A congressman (Dick Stillwell) claims to have been temporarily abducted by a man in a van but he also says that he doesn’t want to press charges. Both Harris and Pembleton suspect that the Congressman is lying and that he filed a false police report, which is itself a crime. Pembleton’s investigation leads to the discovery that the abduction story was actually the congressman’s attempt to cover-up a quarrel between him and his lover (Christopher Glenn Wilson). Pembleton goes to the congressman and offers to drop the investigation into the abduction so that the congressman’s personal life will not be exposed. The congressman agrees.
Unfortunately, news of the false police report still gets out and Pembleton is sold out by Harris, who claims that he never gave Pembleton permission to drop the investigation, even though Harris made it clear that he wanted the problem to go away. Outraged over being sold out by his boss and also by Giardello’s refusal to back him up (Giardello is upset that Pembleton lied to him about the investigation), Pembleton turns in his badge and quits the force.
Meanwhile, Lewis and Much investigate the murder of a biker. What they discover is that the biker sacrificed his own life after it was discovered that his wife was an FBI informant. In order to keep the gang from going after his daughter, the victim agreed to be killed in retribution.
And finally, Felton and Howard try to investigate a murder but …. where’s the body!? It turns out that the body is on the move. First, it’s accidentally sent to the hospital before Felton and Howard can get a look at it. Then, it’s returned to the crime scene while Felton and Howard are heading to the morgue. Apparently, this was based on a true story and I can believe it. There’s no incompetence like bureaucratic incompetence.
This was not a bad episode. Andre Braugher did a great job of capturing Pembleton’s pain at being betrayed by his mentor, Commission Harris. Even the biker stuff was well-handled, with Timothy Wheeler giving a strong performance as the club’s “warlord.” The biker stuff had an interesting subplot, with one of the bikers revealing himself to be an undercover FBI agent trying to make a RICO case. As with the case involving the congressman, it helped to create a definite atmosphere of mistrust that ran through the entire episode. Whether it was the FBI or the congressman or just the EMTs, no one could be trusted and no one knew what they were doing.
It’s a good episode. I hope Pembleton reconsiders quitting. The city needs him.
Song of the Day: The Twilight Zone Theme by Marius Constant
Technically, the French composer Marius Constant did not set out to write the theme song for The Twilight Zone. In the 50s, CBS commissioned Constant to compose a number of short pieces for CBS stock music library, basically as musical stingers that could be used for radio shows. In 1960, when The Twilight Zone needed a theme song, an enterprising CBS employee combined two of Constant’s composition to create the iconic Twilight Zone theme.
Enjoy our short but haunting song of the day.
Scenes I Love: Norman Bates Talks About His Mother In Psycho
Norman Bates, now there’s someone who probably made a big deal out of every Mother’s Day. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1960’s Psycho and features Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, and Anthony Perkins at their absolute best,
4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Twilight Zone Edition
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!
It’s Twilight Zone Day! In honor of this site’s favorite anthology show, it’s time for….
4 Shots From The Twilight Zone
Twilight Zone 1.8 “Time Enough At Last” (1959, dir by John Brahm)
Twilight Zone 1.22 “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” (1960, dir by Ronald Winston)
Twilight Zone 2.6 “Eye of the Beholder (1960, dir by Douglas Heyes)
Twilight Zone 2.17 “Twenty-Two (1961, dir by Jack Smight)
Artwork of the Day: Mother and Children
by Erin Nicole
Happy Mother’s Day!
Music Video of the Day: I Must Not Chase The Boys by Play (2003, dir by ????)
Hey, I remember Play.
Enjoy!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 3.16 “My Hero, Mr. Bannister”
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 the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and Peacock!
This week features some adorable kittens!
Episode 3.16 “My Hero, Mr. Bannister”
(Dir by Jayne Schipper, originally aired on January 3rd, 1988)
Stockboy Derek (Andrew Miller) admires Howard and decides that, in order to be like his idol, he’s going to drop out of high school and devote himself to becoming manager of a grocery store. Howard has to show Derek has stupid that would be. Fortunately, Derek comes to his senses by the end of the episode. No one wants to grow up to be Howard.
This was a weird episode, largely because everyone acted as if Derek was a regular member of the cast despite the fact that this was only his second appearance on the show. (He appeared earlier in the season, in yet another episode that was devoted to his character.) One of the oddest things about this season is that it keeps introducing characters who seem like they’re going to be regulars — Howard’s brother, the executive from the company that bought Cobb’s — but who then never show up again. Or in Derek’s case, they showed up on more time. Seen today, all of these episodes feel like backdoor pilots for shows that were never actually put into production. That doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily bad episodes, of course. While Derek’s storyline was a bit forgettable, the third season has still been a marked improvement over the first two.
This episode featured a B-plot about an adorable cat named Marvin who decided to live in the store with “Mrs. Marvin.” They had kittens! And the kittens were adorable. I’m a cat person so I enjoyed that. Otherwise, this episode was fairly forgettable.
4 Shots From 4 Films: The Chow Yun-Fat Edition!
Chow Yun-Fat has been in so many interesting movies, from underrated Hong Kong Films, to multiple Oscar Winners, to big budget Hollywood fluff! As we continue to move forward to his 70th birthday on May 18th, 2025, I celebrate some of his performances that I find quite interesting!
TIGER ON BEAT (1988)
FULL CONTACT (1992)
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)
PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (2007)
Through the Shattered Lens 