The generically named ‘Producers Releasing Corporation’–or, familiarly, PRC–was an ultra low-budget, poverty-row movie studio that existed from 1939 to 1947 and is now primarily known as the studio behind Edgar G. Ulmer’s immortal noir ‘Detour’ (1946). Ulmer made a number of PRC movies–others include ‘Strange Illusion’ with Hedy Lamarr and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkattXslzEo After exhausting the subject of film leader (see previous three posts) I’m moving onto what comes after the leader is finished counting down. And that would be the logo of the studio who produced/released the film. Logos are an essential part of the filmgoing experience as they set up
Here are six beautiful countdowns complete with some random V.O. (‘Lifeguard’…final mix’…etc.), the requisite flash frame of a pretty 1960s-ish woman and the curious private language found in the world of leader: the letters CF stand for ‘check frame’ and the beeping sound on the number 2 is called a
The glut of shows–series, limited series, Netflix/Amazon/Hulu series–that are streaming on your 60 inch screens, your computers, your iPads, your phones, your watches–are frankly too much for me to deal with. The chore of watching the amount of material that one is told (by friends and the New York Times)
Above witness a seemingly interminable four minute marathon of Three Stooges slaps, kicks, pokes etc. culled mainly (for some mysterious reason) from movies made in the 1935-36 window. And when I say interminable, I mean: in·ter·mi·na·ble/inˈtərmənəb(ə)l/adjective endless (often used hyperbolically).“we got bogged down in interminable discussions”synonyms:(seemingly) endless, never-ending, unending, nonstop, everlasting, ceaseless, unceasing, incessant, constant, continual, uninterrupted, sustained;
Here are excerpts from the 1937 film adaptation of Sidney Kingsley’s ‘Dead End’, directed by William Wyler. This little grouping of scenes has apparently been assembled by an acting coach who uses it to teach his students an old-time New York East Side accent. It’s kind of a gas to
During the Second World War, most of Walt Disney’s staff of animators and directors wound up being drafted into the service to make army-related films and cartoons. (What kind of cartoons? Animations about the dangers of V.D.? These must have been rather peculiar, don’t you think? A subject for further
Saul Bass, master designer/title-ist/graphic wizard and doormat creator (I’ll get to that in a minute) designed one of his most felicitous credit sequences for Edward Dmytryk’s 1962 movie version of Nelson Algren’s ‘Walk On the Wild Side’. There’s nothing more for me to say about it. Simply watch and enjoy.
Or so Lawrence Welk supposedly once called it while announcing Billy Strayhorn’s immortal ‘Take The A Train’. The above is Duke’s 1943 band playing the band’s theme (as of 1941 when it was written) on a train apparently–it’s a scene from a wartime contraption called ‘Reville With Beverly” (har). The