Saturday, September 30, 2006

My Latest Netflix Review

For Night Key and Tower of London

When I used to watch old horror movie TV shows like "Chiller Theater," I quickly learned that the programmers would often include pictures that weren't really horror. Sometimes I was disappointed, and sometimes I thought, "Gee, that wasn't so bad.""Night Key" is one of those non-so-bads, a crime thriller with some hi-tech gadgets. Karloff plays the first of his many grandfatherly roles, a nice scientist whose security-thwarting invention attracts the attention of the underworld. "Tower of London" wasn't even part of the Unversal "Chiller" package in the old days. It was too classy, a middlebrow thriller/costumer which borrows the plot - but not the dialogue - of Shakespeare's "Richard III." Basil Rathbone is in good villain mode as Richard, as is Karloff as his loyal executioner/spy/henchman. The best scene in the movie is Rathbone's unusual duel with Vincent Price in his very first thriller. Neither of these pics is a classic, (horror or otherwise) but Universal and Karloff fans should check them out.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

My Latest Newsbusters Post

When Roger Ailes, the maestro of mean-spirited media manipulation had the audacity to criticize Clinton's behavior in Chris Wallace's interview, Newsbusters had to cheer.

And I had to bring something up.

My posts are here, under the name Howard Beale.

At this writing, the last response I got was:

bigtimer Says:
September 28, 2006 - 00:51

....blah blah blah...I've read your droning piddle on all this....do you have some succinct point that really matters to anyone at all about all of this Howard?


How could I respond to that? I mean, I didn't even know President Bush read Newsbuster, let alone commented on it.