Over the years, I’ve often wondered what the story was behind the Rochester-based creative team of Watson and Webber, who made experimental, avant-garde films in the 1920s and 30s.  James Sibley Watson was an M.D. with connections to early 20th Century modern poets such as E. E. Cummings and Marianne Moore.  The less-documented Melville Webber, [...]

On December 30th, 2009, the Library of Congress announced the next twenty-five films chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry, merited on their “enduring importance to American culture.”  On the list was the 1975 animated short QUASI AT THE QUACKADERO by Sally Cruikshank. As the Library of Congress announced: “Quasi at the Quackadero” has [...]

HENLEY BEACH, ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA — Back in the early 1980s during the battle for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the last 2 states to vote were Florida and Missouri. Wanting to do my part, I drove to Florida for an ERA rally at the state capital. I knew there should be some celebs [...]

ELECTION NIGHT — Around the time the polls started closing, I decided to watch the stunning, powerful Criterion Collection DVD of Fritz Lang’s THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE. Good choice. Mabuse was a criminal genius (Lang had made a film about Mabuse in the 1920s and his last film in the 1960s was also about [...]

I rented a VHS tape of ONE MILLION B.C. recently. This is NOT the Raquel Welch movie from the 1960s; that’s ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. This is a 1940 movie starring Victor Mature, Carole Landis and Lon Chaney Jr. (in his first role with horror make-up) with direction by Hal Roach (!) and D. W. [...]