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Standard, reasonably effective horror fare about a doctor who decides to convert a long-abandoned, Civil War-era mansion into a drug rehab clinic and unleashes the evil that has been lurking in the cellar. All the tropes are here--ghostly apparitions, horrifying deaths, skeptical man-splainers, "hysterical" young women--and some of the jump scares provide a satisfying jolt, but it's nothing we haven't seen a zillion times already, and the bizarre, over-the-top finale is definitely something we could have done without. Still, as unsuspecting-innocents-trapped-in-a-haunted-house thrillers go, it's not bad. Lesson learned: don't go in the basement--you never know what's lurking beneath the floor.

Effective and engaging sci-fi/horror about swarms of meteors landing on Earth, rapidly growing and multiplying, turning into stone anyone who comes too close, and in general threatening the very existence of a small desert town. And, oh yes--endangering the life of a partially mummified little girl who might or might not make it to the final credits. The acting is fine, the creatures are unlike most of the monsters that flicks like these tend to feature, and--despite the obvious fact that the filmmakers didn't have much in the way of a budget--"The Monolith Monsters" (wouldn't "The Medusa Monsters" have been a better title?) is head-and-shoulders above a lot of the competition, which is often so slow and amateurish, so Grade-Z, that it's barely watchable. (Unintentionally funny, maybe, but not exactly watchable.) The science behind it all might be a little far-fetched--and, frankly, how our hero defeated the visitors I have no idea--but who cares? As invaders-from-space movies go, this one more than holds its own. If you ever have the chance, check it out.

Fans of truly bad movies--the kind that you can riff on, MST-style, with abandon--may get a kick out of this black-and-white clunker about a mad scientist hellbent on unleashing a mind-altering gas that will turn the world's population into zombies. When a bunch of teens stumble across the brainiac's private offshore island and begin exploring, they end up knocking at the door of her not-so-hidden lair, only to be promptly deposited in a cage in her basement. Will their friends find them? Will the local sheriff be able to pick up their trail? Or will the kids--human fodder, just like the scientist's earlier guinea pigs-- turn into the monsters their captor hopes they will?

Of course, in a Grade-Z clunker like this one--who cares? The acting is awful, the direction amateurish, the script unimaginative, the sets cheap, the sound bottom-of-the-barrel bad, and even the plot twist toward the end--at least I thought it was a twist, the whole thing was so sleep-inducing I might have missed the explanation early on--is tepid, at best. Worth seeing for the occasional guffaw, but not much else.

A horror movie mainstay revisited, to less than stellar effect. When a maverick surgeon replaces the mangled hands of a famous concert pianist with those of a murder victim, chaos--predictably--ensues; the fellow may not be able to play Mozart anymore, but he can certainly, with the help of his new hands, kill. It's a promising premise that's completely sabotaged by stiff performances (particularly by the mad-as-a-hatter pianist himself), a talky script, gaping plot holes, cheap sets, uninspired direction, and--because even bad movies (and maybe ESPECIALLY bad movies) should be a blast to watch--an overall lack of fun. Not worth seeing.

"Star Trek" fans and film noir buffs may get a kick out of this '40s thriller starring DeForest Kelley as Vincent, a man who dreams that he has committed a murder and then awakens with the victim's belongings in his possession. At first, his police detective brother-in-law believes that it was all just that--a dream. But was it? Or was Vincent recalling something that he'd actually done? It's an intriguing premise--and some of the black-and-white imagery helps--but the ending lacked the impact I was hoping for, Kelley was fine but not outstanding (although, admittedly, this was his first starring role), and one or two plot points were real head-scratchers. Worth seeing for the young McCoy, but only moderately effective at best.

The anger in our hearts, and the things it makes us do. When frustrated contractor/handyman Steven Yeun gets into a road rage incident in a parking lot one day, it leads to an ongoing feud between Yeun and the driver of the other car--wealthy, unhappy suburbanite Ali Wong--that soon endangers not just the two of them, but also their friends and families. If the first few episodes were outrageous, the last few were--to put it mildly--eye-popping. The result: as the story hurtled toward its conclusion, "Beef" became wilder, wackier, and more venomous and vulgarity-filled than ever. Excellent performances all around, particularly by the always reliable Steven Yeun and--the real revelation here--Ali Wong. It's all over-the-top, F-bomb-filled fun. If you haven't binge-watched it yet, what are you waiting for?

A witch's brew of blackmail, guilt, and forbidden love. Montgomery Clift stars as Father Logan, a young priest who hears the church handyman confess to murder; predictably, a whole lot of soul-searching ensues--even as the good Father himself is tried for the crime. This is a taut, tightly-plotted thriller that--lacking the master's trademark sense of humor (it's a rather somber film)--stands apart from Hitch's typical fare; but thanks to Clift (with his thoughtful, clear-eyed gaze and subtly expressive face, he commands our attention every moment he's on screen), it works. A bit soapy at times, with an overly intrusive score (ah, for the comparatively simple pleasures of Bernard Herrmann at his best), but awfully compelling nonetheless. With Anne Baxter as a woman from his past, and Karl Malden as the cop who won't go away. Far from Hitchcock's best, but hardly his worst, either.

A rom-com thriller with more laughs than action, and one of the best of Hitchcock's early efforts. Margaret Lockwood plays a young lady travelling through Europe by train; fellow passenger Dame May Whitty is her new friend, a quirky old woman who seems to have disappeared overnight. The only person even remotely willing to help Lockwood look for her is Michael Redgrave, whom Lockwood had met earlier; can the playfully snarky Redgrave give Lockwood the help she needs? And why does no one on the train admit to having even seen the old lady? The entire film is one long charmer--the two stars are delightful together--Whitty is terrific, and Paul Lukas as a doctor travelling with his ailing (and practically mummified) patient gives the film a gravitas it otherwise lacks. The "disappearing companion" gimmick might have been new at the time, but it's been done in the movies and on TV since, once on Hitchcock's own anthology series. Haven't seen it yet? Hop aboard--it's a heck of a ride.

One of the best of all the Roger Corman/Vincent Price Poe adaptations. Price hams it up as the son of one of the Spanish Inquisition's most notorious killers; following the death of his wife, the woman's brother comes calling to get the heartbreaking details...and finds out more (much more) than he bargained for. The suspense is strictly edge-of-the-seat, the colors are vivid, the sets are magnificent, the backdrops are dark and creepy, and the breathtaking finale is so spectacularly edited that you may find yourself doing some desperate squirming around of your own. (Anything to cheat death.) With a terrific script by horror vet Richard Matheson, and some awesome images of the castle itself. (Feel compelled to visit an isolated mountaintop castle, high above a windswept sea? Not a good idea, no matter how noble your intentions.) See it in the daytime--you'll lose less sleep that way.

As charming, funny, and clever as ever. This time around, the victim is Ben, a Broadway neophyte who apparently dies during his opening night performance--but doesn't--only to perish, rather horribly, later on. Our intrepid trio of podcasting sleuths is on the case immediately--namely, of course, Martin Short (the frazzled director of the show), Steve Martin (one of the vic's more unwilling co-stars), and Selena Gomez (due to move out of her apartment shortly, and ready for one last crime-solving adventure). Look for a bunch of new faces, the usual amount of funny one-liners and razor-sharp repartee, and, naturally, an assortment of carefully placed clues--some of them red herrings, others legit. Paul Rudd plays the outwardly unlikeable but inwardly troubled Ben; Meryl Streep is the show's sweetly humble (at least so far) leading lady. Which member of the company--each of whom, it seems, had something against Ben--did the evil deed? The show biz jokes are back, too, and watching Short share camera time with Streep--and fall for her--is a joy. If the first four episodes of the third season are any indication, this is one building that remains a nice place to visit...but you still wouldn't want to live there. (Added bonus: Michael Cyril Creighton hosts a "Talking Dead"-type post-show chatfest called "One Killer Question", in which Creighton and a couple of his castmates discuss the week's episode. Stick around for it--it's almost as much fun as the show itself.)

Part fairy tale romance, part road gang movie, "Deep Valley" stars Ida Lupino (young and fetching) as Libby, a quiet girl living a sheltered existence with her unhappily married parents in a cabin deep in the woods. While off exploring one day she spies a road gang working nearby and can't take her eyes off the group's troublemaker, a stubborn con played by Dane Clark. Sensing an opportunity to experience something new, she helps him when he tries to escape. Lupino is lovely and fragile, Clark is all grit, grime, and determination, and the scenes of the men toiling away in the sun may be enough to make you want to mop your own brow once or twice. The cinematography is wonderful, too. As Libby's mother says of their remote surroundings, there's "no way to get in, no way to get out"; part of the excitement stems from seeing if Libby can get out. Not a great movie, but certainly watchable. See it.

A tightly plotted noir based on one of the most tightly plotted of all of Shakespeare's plays. Joe MacBeth is a hit man for the mob, mean and ruthless and not only good at what he does--very good--but also perfectly content with where his skills have taken him; his ambitious young wife is the voice in his ear, urging him to claw his way higher, all the way to the top if possible, and by any means necessary--including murder. Paul Douglas is a big, intimidating bear of a man, all business all the time; a young Ruth Roman--gorgeous, interesting as always, and costumed in a whole slew of eye-catching gowns--is his won't-take-no-for-an-answer bride. Great performances all around, including from as impressive a gaggle of tough guy types as the movies have ever seen. A "Godfather" for its time, pared down, amped up, and without all the bells and whistles--that still works today. One of the best gangster films ever made. See it.

A watchable film (though generally not a very exciting one), more notable for its all-star cast than anything else. Ida Lupino stars as a young woman fished out of the sea by hard-drinking dockworker Jean Gabin after an aborted suicide attempt. The acting is terrific--as usual, Lupino, in the very earliest stages of her career, simply glows--and the beautifully lit images in the film's suspenseful climax (the best part of the movie by far), set amid the rolling fog and crashing waves of a moonlit shore, will appeal to anyone with a fondness for noir. Yes, the plot takes a while to get going, and Lupino's delicate Anna falls for Gabin's craggy Bobo a bit too quickly (it's an odd couple-type love affair if ever there was one), but with a cast like this...with romance, blackmail, and a mysterious murder...AND so many dockside and fishing boat scenes that you can practically smell the salt in the air--how can you go wrong? Not a masterpiece, but certainly worth seeing.

The comedy--much of it understated, some of it over-the-top--may be what keeps you laughing, but it's the mystery that will keep you intrigued. At the afterparty following an often tension-filled high school reunion, one of the guests--a smarmy Hollywood type--is found dead, having apparently been pushed off a balcony while everyone else (except for his killer) was inside. Each guest is then interviewed by the detective in charge, one after another, and the episodes begin to offer differing perspectives and competing takes on the evening's events. The acting is terrific--Sam Richardson as the lovelorn mensch and Ben Schwartz as the enthusiastic but deluded would-be pop star are particularly good--and, most impressively, the tone shifts drastically from week-to-week; in one episode we're treated to lots of action flick fisticuffs, in another to a mini-concert. "The Afterparty" hasn't wowed me yet (I've watched four episodes of the first season so far), but I think it will only get better, and--as the mystery deepens and the plot gets even more outrageous--maybe even much better. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a go before you start season number two, which is already underway.

Entertaining sci-fi despite its inconsistencies--and there are a few. Richard Benjamin and James Brolin star as a couple of pals vacationing in Westworld, an adult amusement park in the middle of nowhere and a long stone's throw away from its sister parks, Romanworld and Medievalworld. Decked out like a pair of novice cowboys, they take a deep dive into life in their Wild West town--Benjamin nervously at first, and Brolin calmly and coolly, with the hint of a self-satisfied smirk on his face--and, at least in the beginning, everything is perfectly delightful...until the robots (Yul Brynner's gunslinger 'bot, in particular) start to malfunction, and everything goes haywire in a hurry... Most of the action is set in Westworld, so the movie plays out like a spoof of the traditional Hollywood western, with some fully intentional laughs along the way. (Sex with a pair of horny android saloon girls while gunfights are breaking out nearby? Hilarious.) Brynner might as well have been the prototype for Arnold's all-stalk, no-talk "Terminator" character. Another cautionary tale from Michael Crichton about technology run amok--only this time without the dinosaurs. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?

Roy Scheider stars as a successful businessman who has an affair, and then draws the attention of a trio of lowlifes who try to blackmail him. The story gets rolling in the opening minutes and never lets up; Scheider himself is terrific (if a trifle one-dimensional, as they all are) as the wayward husband, Ann-Margret shows off some impressive acting chops in the underwritten role of the wife, and the bad guys (John Glover, Clarence Williams III, and Robert Trebor, not one of whom is as smart as he thinks he is) are fine; and the almost tangible sense of menace (you always have the feeling that something bad is about to happen, you just don't know when) practically oozes off the screen. Adapted by Elmore Leonard (who co-wrote the screenplay) from his own 1974 novel, with a few minor tweaks. This is sleaziness at its sickest, and '80s decadence at its worst; if you're not a fan of full-frontal female nudity--not to mention sadism--look elsewhere. But if you have the stomach for this kind of hard-boiled thriller, give it a chance; it's creepily effective.

A taut little suspense flick starring Edward Arnold as a blind but rough-and-tumble detective who sets out to solve a murder and ends up squaring off against a deadly Nazi spy ring. The acting is fine and the black-and-white imagery is appealing, but the real reason to watch is Arnold's sidekick--no, not his human sidekick, but his canine one, a frisky, athletic, uber-intelligent seeing-eye dog named Friday. The pooch appears in the credits (deservedly so) and I'm not sure just how many takes and how much editing went into his scenes (or even if, despite the credits, Friday was the ONLY dog pulling off those complicated stunts), but if he was...what a scene-stealer! (Watson never did as much for Holmes, that's for sure.) A diverting little movie with just the right amount of action and even a few laughs. Also starring a young Donna Reed at the start of her career. Keep an eye out for "Eyes in the Night"--it's a winner.

Ginger Rogers stars as Marsha, a New York model visiting her kid sister in a small Southern town; no sooner does she step off the bus than she sees the local Ku Klux Klan chapter chase a man down in the middle of the street and murder him. When she finally arrives at her sister's house, she gets the shock of her life: sis' new husband was one of the Klansmen involved in the incident. Should she tell her sister? Should she tell her brother-in-law that she saw what he did? Those are important questions to be sure, but they're answered quickly, leaving the rest of the film to deal with what it really has in mind: what can one person do--what can the law do--to bring down an organization as powerful, as corrupt, as firmly entrenched as the Klan? Rogers is terrific; her performance becomes, if anything, more powerful, more gut-wrenching, as the story moves along (you can't take your eyes off her, especially at the end). In an early role, a young Doris Day is vulnerable in some scenes, tough in others; Ronald Reagan hits all the right notes as the skeptical at first but ultimately ultra-determined DA; Steve Cochran is fine as the boorish and violent husband. The final act is a knockout. "Storm Warning" may not have a whole lot to say about all the shadowy, sinister corners of the Klan's hate-filled agenda, but no matter. By the time the closing credits roll, you'll have been reminded once again of exactly what they were (and still are) capable of...and then some.

Dark and relentlessly violent, "Witchfinder General" (or "The Conqueror Worm") follows Matthew Hopkins--a soldier in the employ of Oliver Cromwell during one of the bloodiest periods in England's history--as he scours a lawless countryside in search of witches, warlocks, and satanists, rounding them up in order to torture, imprison, or kill them (and sometimes all three). Price, more sadistic than ever, is fine as Hopkins (all the actors are top-of-the-line) but the real star of the film is its magnificent look, with its rolling fields, dense forests, and dank, creepy dungeons. This is not a movie for the faint of heart, as the promotional posters available at the time made abundantly clear; don't let your kids anywhere near this, they warned audiences, and if you're a little squeamish yourself, you shouldn't see it, either. The film's final image--a chilling freeze-frame--is memorable, too. Based on Poe's "The Conqueror Worm", and an unforgettable example of what genuine, over-the-top horror looks like. Definitely worth seeing--if you have the nerve.

As the movie begins, Vincent Price--as suspected warlock Joseph Curwen--is being burned at the stake by the good citizens of Arkham, Massachusetts; before the flames consume him he puts a curse on them all and vows that Arkham will pay. Fast forward a hundred years and Price returns to a fogbound Arkham as Charles Dexter Ward, ready to lay claim to the abandoned mansion that has been in his family for generations. Soon the townsfolk are giving him the fish-eye, his beautiful young wife is insisting that they leave, and Price himself, possessed by Curwen's vengeful spirit, is planning--with help--to wreak havoc. Price is reliable as always: evil in some scenes, arch and haughty in others, and even--particularly as Charles --affable. The colors are vivid, the sets magnificent, and the understated final shot a chiller. A Hammer-type film, minus the heaving bosoms. One of a number of thrillers from Corman and Price, and marketed as a Poe film despite its origins as a story by H. P. Lovecraft. Good stuff, and a lot of fun.

Not my favorite Hitchcock, but certainly worth seeing. It has none of the action and visual flourishes of his bigger, better films, none of his sly sense of humor, and there isn't a dead body anywhere; but what it does offer--chiefly that old Hitchcock standby, the regular-Joe-in-trouble storyline--makes up for it. Henry Fonda, underplaying throughout, stars as a night club musician who has been fingered by the police for a string of armed robberies; the movie (based on a true story and shot documentary-style) follows his arrest and subsequent trial as he and his wife (an emotionally brittle Vera Miles, excellent as always) try to come to terms with what's happened. Fonda isn't the typical Hitchcock hero--he's got none of the easy-going charm of Cary Grant, let's say, or the furrow-browed thoughtfulness of Jimmy Stewart--but in his own low-key way he turns in a wonderfully realistic performance. Whole stretches go by with no dialogue at all, and even Bernard Herrmann's score is pared down and muted. A frightening indictment of our criminal justice system circa 1956 (the actual events occurred a few years earlier) and an absorbing, no-frills thriller. If you want to see what the master was up to when he wasn't helming more famous fare like "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo"...don't miss it.

A rarity: a 1940s noir set fifty years earlier, in gloomy, fog-shrouded London. Sydney Greenstreet stars as a disgraced Scotland Yard inspector, whose botched investigation has led to the execution of an innocent man; Peter Lorre is his artist friend. When another murder takes place--a locked room murder, no less--Greenstreet seizes the opportunity to prove his mettle, with loyal pal Lorre's help. The two stars (in yet another of the movies they appeared in together) are fine; also look for Rosalind Ivan as a dotty, aging scream queen beside herself with fear. Tightly plotted and filled to the brim with dark, fogbound images. The solution may not be the jaw-dropper it could have been, but it's clever enough. Worth seeing.

Fans of hospital-set thriller fiction--and the movies based on them--know that there's hardly anything scarier than a sinister conspiracy at a large urban medical facility....and this suspense flick, which I recently revisited for the first time in decades, fits the bill nicely. Well, almost. Too much time is spent establishing the romantic highs and quarrelsome lows of the Douglas/Bujold relationship, the paint-by-the-numbers plot is a bit hackneyed, the characters are made of cardboard, and the dialogue is kind of trite...but the villains are nasty, the chase scenes work, and you'll want to stick around to see how it all turns out. Look for a young pre-"Magnum" Tom Selleck in a small role as a patient, a robotically spooky Elizabeth Ashley as a mid-movie Bujold nemesis, and an older Richard Widmark as the hospital's skeptical chief of surgery. A pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours (or more accurately, a reliably UNpleasant one), and if you haven't got anything better on your movie-watching agenda, worth seeing--if just barely.

If the movie you're watching is barely twenty minutes old and you're already confused, there's a problem. Take this early noir starring John Garfield as a returning prisoner-of-war determined to find out who killed his pal. "The Fallen Sparrow" has it all: the hero's PTSD (Garfield, sweaty-faced and haunted, suffers from it big-time), chilling conversations about water torture, three (count 'em) gorgeous women, and--of course--murder. The film's main drawback is that there are so many plot elements, so many characters, that it's hard to keep track of it all. Garfield is as intense as always, and the imagery works just fine; now if only someone had attacked the whole thing with, let's say, a good sharp pair of pruning shears... For Garfield fans only.

A no-frills little thriller about an escapee from a psych ward holding a bar full of hostages at gunpoint. The acting is fine, the noirish imagery works nicely, and even the spareness of the dialogue (some of the action, particularly early on, is entirely dialogue-free) helps to lure us into the bleak terrain of the storyline immediately. So what if the big flatscreen TV mounted on the wall of the bar seems ridiculously out-of-place? The ending is terrific, and--given what we had been led to understand was the gunman's chief motivation (don't believe everything you're told!)--more than a little surprising. Short (well under ninety minutes) but effective. Worth seeing.