I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer (1990, Dir. by Ran Satlof)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

When singer Terri Knight (Vanessa Williams) is shot and murdered, her husband and manager, Jack (Tim Reid), is arrested.  It’s a good thing that Jack’s professor in law school was Perry Mason (Raymond Burr)!  Perry and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) take the case and investigate to see who silenced the singer.  (Does Perry know anyone who hasn’t been accused of murder?  Someone even tried to fame Della!)

This Perry Mason movie was slightly different than those that came before it.  It was full of flashbacks, showing how Terri became a star and went from being nice and innocent to being a diva.  Every time that Perry or Ken would interrogate someone, it would lead to scene of Vanessa Williams wearing a wig and playing Terri at a different time in her life and career.  There was also a lot singing and the movie actually seemed to be more focused on the music and showing Terri’s rise to fame than it did on solving the actual mystery.  It was was if Perry Mason got dropped into the middle of a production of Dreamgirls.  It didn’t really work for me because Terri wasn’t an interesting enough character to carry the flashbacks but it was still interesting to see a Perry Mason movie trying to do something different.

The most memorable thing about this movie was Angela Bassett, playing a fellow singer and a former friend of Terri’s. She even told off Perry Mason at one point!  It was early in her career but it was easy to see that, from the start, Angela Bassett was obviously going to be a star.

The Rawhide Terror (1934, directed by Jack Nelson and Bruce Mitchell)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There are some Poverty Row westerns that even I can’t defend.

A group of bandits, disguised as Indians, attack a pioneer family.  The father and the mother are killed but their twin boys survive.  One wanders into the wilderness while the other stays with the remains of his family and waits for help.  Years later, the town of Red Dog is thriving, with the former bandits as its leading citizens.  Someone has been gunning down the former bandits.  The townspeople demand that Sheriff Luke (Edmund Cobb) do something about the man that they’ve nicknamed the Rawhide Killer.  First, however, Luke has to deal with Jim Briggs (William Barrymore), who has been abusing his son (Tommy Bupp).  It also turns out that Jim Briggs is the Rawhide  Killer and he’s looking for vengeance against those who killed his parents.  Jim’s brother also lives in the town.  Guess who!

The Rawhide Terror gets off to a good start with the bandit attack but it falls apart soon afterwards.  I don’t know if it was just because I was watching a bad print but the sound quality was terrible and the lack of an original score really highlighted just how boring it is to watch men silently ride their horses from one side of the screen to the other.  This movie was only 47 minutes long and half of it was made up of shots of people riding horses.  Add some really bad acting and you’ve got a western that was bad even by the standards of a 1934 second feature.

Two men are credited with directing the film, though the production was actually supervised by Victor Adamson, the father of the notorious schlock filmmaker, Al Adamson.

Song of the Day: Luck Be a Lady (by Robert Alda)

Posted on by Arleigh

In The Wrangler, using Robert Alda’s original version of “Luck Be a Lady” from Guys and Dolls hits differently than the more famous Sinatra take. Alda’s rendition, coming from the Broadway stage, is less smooth and more desperate—it’s a man bargaining with luck, not charming her. That’s a crucial difference in Fallout’s world. When Alda’s voice drifts through the smoky ruin of The Wrangler, it feels like an echo from a long-dead civilization—one where people still believed that fortune was something you could negotiate with. It grounds the scene in Fallout’s favorite tension: the clash between old optimism and new despair.

Thematically, the original version suits Fallout’s tone better. Sinatra’s version oozes control and self-assurance, while Alda sings with the anxious rhythm of someone clinging to hope. In the episode, that anxiety fits the stakes perfectly—characters gambling with their lives, exchanging trust for survival, and hoping the “lady” of luck doesn’t turn her back at the wrong moment. The Broadway earnestness becomes a tragic counterpoint to the brutality around it, emphasizing how fragile that old-world faith in luck or charm truly is.

By choosing Alda over Sinatra, the show subtly reframes what “luck” means in this universe. It’s not style or swagger—it’s survival by the skin of one’s teeth. The song’s theatrical flair feels almost haunting in a world where the audience is gone and the casino’s collapsed. Yet that’s what gives the moment its punch: Fallout has always used nostalgia as both soundtrack and satire, and with Alda’s pleading vocals hanging in the air, The Wrangler reminds us that sometimes, luck isn’t a lady at all—it’s just what’s left when everything else runs out.

Luck Be a Lady

They call you Lady Luck
But there is room for doubt
At times, you’ve had a very unlady-like way of running out
You’re on this date with me
The pickin’s have been lush
And yet before this evening is over
You might give me the brush

You might forget your manners
You might refuse to stay
And so the best that I can do is pray

Luck be a lady tonight
Luck be a lady tonight
Luck if you’ve ever been a lady to begin with, luck be a lady tonight

Luck let a gentleman see
How nice a dame you can be
I know the way you’ve treated other guys you’ve been with
Luck, be a lady with me

A lady doesn’t leave her escort
It isn’t fair, it isn’t nice
A lady doesn’t wander all over the room
And blow on some other guy’s dice
Let’s keep this party polite
Never get out of my sight
Stick me with me baby, I’m the fella you came in with
Luck, be a lady tonight

Luck, let a gentleman see
Just how nice, how nice a dame you can be
I know the way you’ve treated other guys you’ve been with
Luck be a lady with me

A lady doesn’t leave her escort
It isn’t fair, and it’s not nice
A lady doesn’t wander all over the room
And blow on some other guy’s dice
So let’s keep the party polite
Never get out of my sight
Stick with me baby, I’m the guy that you came in with
Luck be a lady
Luck be a lady
Luck be a lady, tonight

Scenes That I Love: The Concorde …. Airport ’79

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from 1979’s The Concorde …. Airport ’79.  

Under attack from a drone, George Kennedy does what any responsible pilot would do.  He opens up the cockpit window — while in flight! — and fires off a flare gun.  Meanwhile, Alain Delon does some Top Gun-style moves with a commercial airliner.  No wonder Eddie Albert and Jimmie Walker look so alarmed!  Beyond the “don’t try this at home” narrative logic, this scene is definitely worth it for the shots of the passengers reacting.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Disaster Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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, we pay honor to one of my favorite genres, the disaster film!

It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Disaster Films

The Poseidon Adventure (1972, dir by Ronald Neame, DP: Harold E. Stine)

The Towering Inferno (1974, dir by John Guillermin and Irwin Allen, DP: Fred J. Koenekamp and Joseph Biroc)

Airport 1975 (1974, dir by Jack Smight, DP: Philip H. Lathrop)

The Swarm (1978, dir by Irwin Allen, DP: Fred J. Koenekamp)

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 2.9 “A Family Affair”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

This week, the playoffs continue.

Episode 2.9 “A Family Affair”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on January 13th, 1987)

A playoff game against Denver is approaching.  Denver is coached by a former protegee of Denardo’s and Denardo is obsessed with winning.  He’s so obsessed that he alienates the players and Coach Grier (Stan Kamber).  Grier is tempted to take a job as Houston’s head coach.  Denardo says he doesn’t care until Diane reveals that Grier has turned down several other jobs out of loyalty to Denardo.

As for the other assistant coach, T.D. Parker (OJ Simpson) has problems of his own.  His youngest son is acting out and the only thing that’s kept him out of juvenile detention is the fact that the cops are all fans of T.D. and the Bulls.  T.D. tells his son that he’s not allowed to leave the house.  When T.D.’s wife says that she thinks T.D. is being too strict, T.D. tells her to back off.  T.D. gets really mad in this episode but none of it is convincing because OJ Simpson was too amiable an actor to really come across as being threatening.  That’s something that would prove helpful to OJ in the years to come.

Meanwhile, the players all invest in the stock market.  The stock doesn’t do well.  The player who recommended the stock is chased out onto the field before the start of the big game against Denver.  Ha ha, those players are all broke now.  Good luck dealing with life after the game.

This show, I never know what to make of it.  Is it a comedy?  Is it a drama?  Why is it so oddly edited?  How many scenes were cut for syndication?  Why do storylines start and then just disappear?  For that matter, why do characters suddenly vanish?  Dr. Death was a huge part of the show during the first half of the second season but I haven’t seen him during the second half.  Did he get traded?  Did he get injured?  Seriously, what’s going on with this show?

I have no idea.  Football’s a confusing sport.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Desperate Deception (1990, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Marine Captain David Berman (Tim Ryan, who looked a lot like Bruce Willis) gets a transfer to Paris so that he can track down Dieter Krugman, a Nazi war criminal who killed his grandparents and crippled his mother (Teresa Wright).  He is told that Krugman is now living under the name of Felix Altmann.  David confronts Altmann at a health spa but, when someone else shoots Altmann, David is framed for the crime.  Luckily, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is an old friend of the family’s.  He and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) hop on the first plane to Paris and Perry starts to read up on the Uniform Code of Military Justice so that he can defend David.  Della (Barbara Hale) stays behind in Denver but Perry calls her a few times.

This was a good entry in the Perry Mason film series.  The mystery was intriguing and the acting — from Ian Bannen, Ian McShane, Terry O’Quinn, Yvette Mimieux, and Paul Freeman — was excellent all around.  Especially good was Teresa Wright as David’s mother.  Some of her scenes were chilling and she gets a great moment at the end of the movie.  Raymond Burr is as good as always but, for the first time, William R. Moses really feels like he belongs in the movie.  This is the first time that I’ve seen Ken without wishing he was Paul.

It’s too bad Della had to stay back in America.  I bet she would have enjoyed seeing Paris with Perry.

Rainbow Valley (1935, directed by Robert N. Bradbury)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the early 1900s, the town of Rainbow Valley is trying to complete a road that will connect it to another town.  Outlaw Rogers (LeRoy Mason) doesn’t want that road finished because he wants to buy up all the land around Rainbow Valley.  He brings in a hired gun named Galt (Jay Wilsey) to intimidate the townspeople.  When a traveler named John Martin (John Wayne) saves mail carrier George Hale (George “Gabby” Hayes) from the outlaws, the townspeople ask Martin to serve as their marshal and to help finish the road.  Martin agrees but it turns out that he and Galt have a history.

This was one of the B-westerns that John Wayne made before Stagecoach made him a major star.  Wayne gives a confident performance as John Martin.  It’s about as close to a traditional John Wayne performance as you are likely to find in his early films.  It’s a good and short western, with enough gunfire and tough talk to appeal to fans of the genre.

The most interesting thing about this film is that it takes place at the turn of the century, when the old west was being replaced by the modern world.  Everyone in town is amazed that George Hale drives a car.  John says that it’s the first car that he’s ever actually seen.  Of course, this is a western and all the important work is done on horseback.  The best part of the movie is when George realizes that he and Miss Eleanor (Lucille Brown) can’t drive to warn John about an ambush because the car is out of gas and there’s not a filling station to be found.  Eleanor can’t ride a horse so he does the next best thing.  He has the horses pull his Model T like a wagon!

Four years after this movie came out, John Wayne starred as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach.  In Rainbow Valley, he showed that he was already a star.