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J. A. Frasier
- Dec 31, 2022
New Year’s Eve on Gamma 1... Or a review of War of the Planets (1966)
By John A. Frazier (John A. Frazier wrote a piece on Outland (1981) for It Came From Hollywood Book 3 (writing as J.A. Frasier). John Frazier is an avowed science fiction fan. This piece originally appeared on our friend Sam Panico's bandsaboutmovies back in 2019.) It’s New Year’s Eve and on the Gamma 1 space station the party is in full swing. There’s a “Space Spectacular” wherein Commander Michael Halstead’s crew take to the stars in space suits, link their bodies and spell
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Paul Mcvay
- Dec 29, 2022
Chicago Marquees & Movie-Goers Part Two
In the first part, I explained what I was sharing here and why, so without rehashing all of that, let's jump right into what I dug up for this installment. For a refresher on the general topic, you can click here and read Part One. The Chicago Theater- March 30, 1963 Days of Wine and Roses lights up the marquee. Below: Someone has to pull the pin on The Last Grenade. Chicago Theater, March 1970. No doubt the ladies exiting the bus are on their way inside the 3,800-seat movie
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George Seminara
- Dec 29, 2022
George Does Babylon (2022)!
Happy New Year! No spoilers!!! I do not, as a rule, review movies in the current release. However, I got knocked out by Damien Chazelle's Babylon. Right on the deck, just like a Mike Tyson left to the jaw. Bang! Considering the topics covered in my regular Wednesday blog spot, it's not hard to see why I enjoyed it so much. Babylon is Singing in the Rain without the songs and jokes. No worries, folks. It has jokes of its own. Please, see this film in a cinema. The big screen
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Rob Freese
- Dec 24, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 24
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 24 Now it's time for a classic holiday film, one that has defined the season for me for most of my life. It is a film I watch every year, a film I still cannot believe made as much of an impact on both the holiday and cinema upon its initial release. As soon as it was in theaters, you heard about it. Everyone knew it was out there. It went viral decades before "going viral" meant anything more than getting a bad cold and giving it to your school
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Rob Freese
- Dec 23, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 23
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 23 If the holiday season truly is for children, then there is nothing better than a holiday special made for children. There is always something magical when our favorite animated characters get to celebrate the holidays with us, like celebrating with real friends. But when we grow up we tend to leave those beloved characters behind, just like many of our friends when we were younger. And just like in real life, getting back together with those
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Rob Freese
- Dec 22, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 22
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 22 I get it, you get to December 22nd and you've been cramming all kinds of holiday movies into your eyeballs for three solid weeks. Everything from the classic Christmas slashers to classic TV holiday variety shows to the more contemporary Hallmark fare because, well, you'd never admit it in public, but some of those flicks aren't horrible. But by the 22nd of the month, you are entering burn out- holiday movie jetlag. You need something off the
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Rob Freese
- Dec 21, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 21
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 21 There's something to be said about returning to the world in which you grew up, seeing everything and everyone you left behind with fresh eyes. No matter how far you moved away, no matter how much you may have changed from how you were when you were last in that place, returning can transform you back into that person you once were. This may be why so many people dislike the holidays. Warning: Spoiler Alert! This flick has been around for qui
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George Seminara
- Dec 20, 2022
To Scrooge, or not to Scrooge
To Scrooge, or not to Scrooge, that is my question. Every year will all gather 'round the yule log to make merry... ah who's leg am I pulling? Every year many of us re-watch old movies that help get us into that Christmas feeling. It could be Home Alone. It could be Die Hard, Love Actually, or a classic like It's A Wonderful Life. This year we have a new entry into the Christmas movie sweepstakes with Spirited. Yes, it's silly, but who knew that Will Farrell and Ryan Reynolds
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Rob Freese
- Dec 20, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 20
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 20 What can be better than a creepy Christmas horror story? How about four creepy Christmas stories. Christmas loans itself to so many horror tales, most morality tales about characters grappling with being either naughty or nice, the anthology format is a perfect way to celebrate the season. Warning: Spoiler Alert! This is a film that offers many, many surprises, and I would hate to spoil any before you have seen it. But, anthology films tend t
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Rob Freese
- Dec 19, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 19
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 19 Charles Dickens started it with the Ghosts of Past, Present and Future Christmases, so now spirits are an ingrained part of the season. But there is plenty of room in the season for more traditional ghostly types. You don't have to be Ebenezer Scrooge to experience a holiday haunting. Warning: Spoiler Alert! Much like our Day 18 selection, this is a sequel. This is Part 5, so even if you haven't seen this chapter, you have seen this movie if
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Paul Mcvay
- Dec 18, 2022
Chicago Marquees & Movie-Goers Part One
One of the aspects of the motion picture that has always held my attention has been the photographs that capture the film and its audience (or potential audience.) This doesn't cover photos of an audience watching a film. We've all seen those fantastic pics of a theater audience filled, wearing 3-D glasses, staring up at a larger-than-life screen, waiting for a Gill-Man's hand to come swiping out towards them, or a House of Wax burning down before their eyes. Those are great,
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Rob Freese
- Dec 18, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 18
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 18 If you are anything like me, you get to day seventeen, day eighteen of December, and you've had so much good cheer crammed down your throat you're sick of it. It all seems so fake. Like people have stopped being dicks for a couple weeks out of the year, and you can tell most of them are not sincere about it. You may ask yourself, "What is the point of this holiday anyway?" Then a holiday movie comes along and reminds you about the true meanin
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Rob Freese
- Dec 17, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 17
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 17 Just when you think you've seen every Christmas slasher movie, one of the specialty labels puts one out you've never heard of and then it goes on the list of seasonal viewing. Some films have a raw power that holds you in a trance and you cannot look away. And then others are just so dang bizarre you scratch your head and wonder what in Hell you're watching. Warning: Spoiler Alert! This might be one you've heard about and are curious about if
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Rob Freese
- Dec 16, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 16
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 16 Part of nostalgia, especially in looking back on our childhoods, is the ability to look past the bad stuff and go right to the good stuff. In the moment, while living it, you take the good with the bad as it hits you, but years later, when stuck in the rut of life, you tend to look back fondly on only the good stuff. (Many characters in the original The Twilight Zone series struggled with this.) The bad stuff gets pushed away. Then, when some
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Rob Freese
- Dec 15, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 15
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 15 Many movies live in our minds as only sweet memories. We know we've seen it, but for the life of us we cannot recall anything about it. For a moment they were there and then they were gone. Catching up with these films is a 50-50 prospect of being delighted by finally catching back up with a long lost film from our past, or the crushing disappointment that comes with the realization that it is less than the memory you have of it. Warning: Spo
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George Seminara
- Dec 14, 2022
The Honeymoon Killers (1969)
The Honeymoon Killers, 1969. Written and directed by Leonard Kastle and released by American International Pictures. “The Bride is in the trunk” But first another connected tale: The Honeymoon Killers is one of the best genuinely off-beat films of the late 1960s. The movie was written and directed by Opera composer Leonard Kastle. Originally, Kastle developed the script for the producer Warren Steibel. Stiebel would attain fortune and fame as creator and executive producer of
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George Seminara
- Dec 14, 2022
Shooting Tony Lo Bianco
Tony Lo Bianco poses for George's camera Tony Lo Bianco October 19, 1936 – Brooklyn, NY Over my career, if you can call it that, I have had the opportunity to shoot and interview many people from all walks of life. Sometimes it leaves no impact on me, and other times it does. Meeting Tony Lo Bianco was one of those times. Though I became an American citizen when I turned 21, I identify as an Italian American from Brooklyn. My grandparents were born in Sicily and lived in Litt
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Rob Freese
- Dec 14, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 14
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 14 The premise for some movies is just too good to be true. You read the synopsis out loud, hear the words and still cannot believe they made a movie about it. The mere concept of a film can create instant expectations in people, and if the film doesn't meet those expectations, the film might be deemed a dud. Like Christmas itself. Most go into the season with high hopes, only to see them come crashing down around the midway point. But then othe
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Rob Freese
- Dec 13, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 13
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 13 It's funny how our brains work. Sometimes we get an image from a movie stuck in our head, and tie it in with the title of a different movie, and forever we associate this image or theme or scene with the wrong movie. It can be startling. "Wow, this is way different than I remember. I guess I forgot so-so was actually in this, not whoever." Well, no. You got your movies mixed up. I imagine this happens with a lot of holiday themed flicks. Warn
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Rob Freese
- Dec 12, 2022
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 12
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 12 The holiday season is a time of good tidings and goodwill toward one another. But can that goodwill go too far? Can we possibly get so wrapped up in the holiday and our own pursuit to feel good about ourselves that we actually harm other people, people obviously crying out for help? Oh, yes, it can happen. Toxic Goodwill is a thing, my friends, and this 60+ year old TV show was one of the first to tackle the subject. Warning: Spoiler Alert! Y
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