RALPH MEEKER HAMMERS ROBERT ALDRICH'S 'KISS ME DEADLY'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh08pO4qc5MbAoDeqi7Gs1-mYufr0mg4QOavoNUgEz7pTVCrLhnbPhjCSm1bVn5L5WxpmLMJ9RGys4laeryoZQbhHtjm5Ukln2fqy6LSUErWjwO5MH17WO4ay8C2JB5d6NemC-SEQdNa3UmZ7KBXFQtfyTJ717QzGXXkkbWK1l68tV1noQwuMQfyIehMOxe/s2570/Screen%20Shot%202026-04-09%20at%2011.45.51%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="2570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh08pO4qc5MbAoDeqi7Gs1-mYufr0mg4QOavoNUgEz7pTVCrLhnbPhjCSm1bVn5L5WxpmLMJ9RGys4laeryoZQbhHtjm5Ukln2fqy6LSUErWjwO5MH17WO4ay8C2JB5d6NemC-SEQdNa3UmZ7KBXFQtfyTJ717QzGXXkkbWK1l68tV1noQwuMQfyIehMOxe/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-04-09%20at%2011.45.51%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Wesley Addy & Ralph Meeker in KISS ME DEADLY Year: 1955 Rating: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>When hitchhiking damsel-in-distress Cloris Leachman is picked up by convertible driving private-eye rogue Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's noir classic KISS ME DEADLY, actor Ralph Meeker epitomizes the role without uttering a single word... <br></p><p></p><p>After she asks if he likes poetry, his manly/glib shrug speaks volumes in what's a gumshoe thriller that plays out like a tapestry of vignettes... thrust into a cautionary tale involving the most important of three ingenues that Meeker's Hammer uses to figure out what/who killed first-girl Leachman, and why... </p><p><span></span></p>

albert dekker, cloris leachman, fifties, film noir or melodrama, gumshoe, jack elam, jack lambert, leigh snowden, marian carr, maxine cooper, paul stewart, ralph meeker, robert aldrich, wesley addy

RALPH MEEKER HAMMERS ROBERT ALDRICH'S 'KISS ME DEADLY'

Wesley Addy & Ralph Meeker in KISS ME DEADLY Year: 1955 Rating: ***** When hitchhiking damsel-in-distress Cloris Leachman is picked up ...

JOHN CASSAVETES, SUSAN SARANDON & MOLLY RINGWALD 'TEMPEST'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOjbxvgew4JMj5DZouYxihcINVY6Kxj-YW7CTWG_QzFz36TLrJpC7hUCDZ_jdNMx_ZkwuzQ2-3f2n_hAU4ESJo-z6cwPQfU8Ljr_LfTa5U6Zvxbe0uyhe7PdhlOAWFfFYQW61pzlXulQNaqY-s3LeCwFKUDhS6hWBDiQPipqWrHs5TctVbNMYNLMsQV_bA/s2798/371771697_1793030641126104_7233667350935818661_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1274" data-original-width="2798" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOjbxvgew4JMj5DZouYxihcINVY6Kxj-YW7CTWG_QzFz36TLrJpC7hUCDZ_jdNMx_ZkwuzQ2-3f2n_hAU4ESJo-z6cwPQfU8Ljr_LfTa5U6Zvxbe0uyhe7PdhlOAWFfFYQW61pzlXulQNaqY-s3LeCwFKUDhS6hWBDiQPipqWrHs5TctVbNMYNLMsQV_bA/s16000/371771697_1793030641126104_7233667350935818661_n.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: TEMPEST Year: 1981 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table>“Show me,” says John Cassavete’s intensely desperate character each time a tempest brews: once in New York, where he’s married to Gena Rowlands; the next on a tiny Greek island he lords over with frustrated daughter Molly Ringwald, sexy girlfriend Susan Sarandon, and horny goat herder Raul Julia...<div> </div><div>The best aspects of this unique dark comedy are how the time-frames are edited together, beginning with Cassavetes on his island; then going back in time to New York where he, as a frustrated Architect, desperately needs a getaway: creatively sustaining past and present till the mainline story connects...</div><div><span></span></div>

dark comedy, drama, eighties, gena rowlands, john cassavetes, molly ringwald, paul mazursky, paul stewart, raul julia, sam robards, shakespeare, susan sarandon

JOHN CASSAVETES, SUSAN SARANDON & MOLLY RINGWALD 'TEMPEST'

Title: TEMPEST Year: 1981 Rating: ***1/2 “Show me,” says John Cassavete’s intensely desperate character each time a tempest brews: once in N...

ROBERT BLAKE & SCOTT WILSON BREAKTHROUGH 'IN COLD BLOOD'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkZWYOuVMgVfu7D-CYzlXLUfdOjffQkvII_XPwEphtYHXdvk7IYZZzocFfSPOSOcV7eGW8Z2enyWzvUpGt9n27B7qOwFJ9K_a_iMhqyyeECHT60fYCyPiIrPr4bZVPV_Hs3kkSLTyA_rMbBrHaSUXomwpdSvOMu9PmBXRk-GCBzGcJkiWyerz0KO43OLK/s1652/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-18%20at%2010.35.47%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1652" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkZWYOuVMgVfu7D-CYzlXLUfdOjffQkvII_XPwEphtYHXdvk7IYZZzocFfSPOSOcV7eGW8Z2enyWzvUpGt9n27B7qOwFJ9K_a_iMhqyyeECHT60fYCyPiIrPr4bZVPV_Hs3kkSLTyA_rMbBrHaSUXomwpdSvOMu9PmBXRk-GCBzGcJkiWyerz0KO43OLK/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-18%20at%2010.35.47%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: IN COLD BLOOD Director: Richard Brooks Year: 1967 Rating: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Made in the late-1960's leading to the early-1970's American Renaissance, Richard Brooks's theatrical adaptation of Truman Capote's non-fiction bestseller IN COLD BLOOD, taking place in the late 1950's, is a sublime combination of the then-budding style of modern-method/character-driven performances and the more polished and studied throwback to Hollywood's Golden Age (including hard-boiled documentary-style narration)...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And as real-life killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcok, Robert Blake and Scott Wilson hand-off individual importance: Wilson during the first half as a cocky conman instigating the heist of a supposed Kansas farmer's lucrative safe, and, following their Nevada capture, the previously brooding, strong-silent Blake drives the story home, right down to the inevitable hangman's noose...</p><span></span>

biopic, brenda currin, charles mcgraw, crime, gerald s. o'loughlin, james flavin, jazz-score, jeff corey, john forsythe, john mcliam, paul stewart, richard brooks, robert blake, scott wilson, sixties, will geer

ROBERT BLAKE & SCOTT WILSON BREAKTHROUGH 'IN COLD BLOOD'

Title: IN COLD BLOOD Director: Richard Brooks Year: 1967 Rating: ***** Made in the late-1960's leading to the early-1970's American ...

JAMES STEWART WITH JEAN HAGEN IN 'CARBINE WILLIAMS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdbXLuA5iZFJzv9yeOf3dVj0zjRIzqtx0QDjitIsdJqZztiNENQkK_DQt6JEOu_BcmKn-jEIfkrrp3yNC21-zJbputXU88O19wuqiSf1dbSSmmpgZZ8Hh4S59ZWNYQN3-VQMyFFzVYCNhrqKxm0uP7V_9V9T5xmd9apchfCeYaSUF8YA47UkCei05epQ=s966" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="966" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdbXLuA5iZFJzv9yeOf3dVj0zjRIzqtx0QDjitIsdJqZztiNENQkK_DQt6JEOu_BcmKn-jEIfkrrp3yNC21-zJbputXU88O19wuqiSf1dbSSmmpgZZ8Hh4S59ZWNYQN3-VQMyFFzVYCNhrqKxm0uP7V_9V9T5xmd9apchfCeYaSUF8YA47UkCei05epQ=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: CARBINE WILLIAMS Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Famously likeable James Stewart did his share of dramatic roles, although most were of simple, everyday fellas, so in CARBINE WILLIAMS he plays a determined, insanely stubborn white trash loser...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Although he starts out nice enough in a frame story about the titular gun-maker whose backstory begins with a perfect marriage contrasting a secret, very illegal and dangerous moonshine gig... </p><p><span></span></p>

biopic, fifties, james arness, james stewart, jean hagen, melodrama, paul stewart, prison, warner archives, wendell corey

JAMES STEWART WITH JEAN HAGEN IN 'CARBINE WILLIAMS'

Title: CARBINE WILLIAMS Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2 Famously likeable James Stewart did his share of dramatic roles, although most were of sim...

IRWIN ALLEN'S 'CITY BENEATH THE SEA' WITH STUART WHITMAN

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiftNDBTZqw8ZR_q_9CHPYATRVwnrYtIxLLaQLTsdmlFGeDqKuqUJvIV3-3_dnL8SsezRrmGreXOKjfdK5vtQgPfEJYjquScxdmJppI_s6I3X1XFxyNK6x_xlR2_FIQGteTZECmUNOYyeq8dSWUcpWVgLN6c7QPfvw8-CiJ5I2NqUBNwLKHu9wNpXFeCg=s1171" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiftNDBTZqw8ZR_q_9CHPYATRVwnrYtIxLLaQLTsdmlFGeDqKuqUJvIV3-3_dnL8SsezRrmGreXOKjfdK5vtQgPfEJYjquScxdmJppI_s6I3X1XFxyNK6x_xlR2_FIQGteTZECmUNOYyeq8dSWUcpWVgLN6c7QPfvw8-CiJ5I2NqUBNwLKHu9wNpXFeCg=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: CITY BENEATH THE SEA Director: Irwin Allen Year: 1971 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Between his b-science-fiction series and a-list disaster films, Irwin Allen combined both in a TV-Movie that plays out like a hopeful series pilot, CITY BENEATH THE SEA stars Stuart Whitman who, halfway through the 21st Century, is called back into the Modern-Atlantis underwater world he once ran...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Feeling more like a sequel to a previous installment since so many plates are dangling, including a beloved employee who'd been killed, blamed on Whitman by sulky ingenue Rosemary Forsyth... completely overshadowed by insanely-gorgeous secretary Susana Miranda alongside a fish-man diver and the token bad guy in Robert Wagner, out to rob Fort Knox's gold, placed within the city...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, disaster, irwin allen, joseph cotten, paul stewart, robert colbert, robert wagner, rosemary forsyth, science-fiction, seventies, stuart whitman, susana miranda, tv movie, warner archives

IRWIN ALLEN'S 'CITY BENEATH THE SEA' WITH STUART WHITMAN

Title: CITY BENEATH THE SEA Director: Irwin Allen Year: 1971 Rating: *** Between his b-science-fiction series and a-list disaster films, Irw...

DANA ANDREWS WITH FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PzFAsx4v-EVguq04ofxZb45-RXlp9I5y7MGnhzzcs4YupXPCch-kpGElpSs9iDO0jeERi9vL9W-6oxEUKWN6llibXYSeaGlNvNvAbq5VAdmDuSsnqWguayBD5Vsc5kCVVnIldtk_iZNOz1AZ0uwwwW9rcqU4OFbTAHFVB4wyI1duWmbAMOQTZcRIL9qg/s1498/514941129_1412931453686518_8372849479591904166_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PzFAsx4v-EVguq04ofxZb45-RXlp9I5y7MGnhzzcs4YupXPCch-kpGElpSs9iDO0jeERi9vL9W-6oxEUKWN6llibXYSeaGlNvNvAbq5VAdmDuSsnqWguayBD5Vsc5kCVVnIldtk_iZNOz1AZ0uwwwW9rcqU4OFbTAHFVB4wyI1duWmbAMOQTZcRIL9qg/s16000/514941129_1412931453686518_8372849479591904166_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The idea of a Catholic Film Noir isn't so strange being that the "genre" and the religion are both full of guilt, and this above-average crime melodrama in the fashion of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT stars super-guilty-looking Farley Granger (equally as ashamed of his murdering-self in Alfred Hitchock's ROPE), who kills an old cranky priest that didn't give his long-dead father last rites because he'd committed suicide instead of — like Granger's beloved mother that he wants a lavish funeral for despite their shabby apartment-dwelling reality — dying more naturally, and with dignity...<br> <br> Enter Dana Andrews... not as the doomed priest but the young, more open minded Father with the normally Jewish last name of Roth (Hollywood obviously wanted to please everyone): he's called in for Ma's last rites instead of the old man, dealing with his own pointless personal family issues...<br> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

adele jergens, dana andrews, farley granger, fifties, film noir or melodrama, mala powers, mark robson, paul stewart, robert keith, thriller

DANA ANDREWS WITH FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

Title: EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2 The idea of a Catholic Film Noir isn't so strange being that the ...

LAURA JOHNSON HAUNTS GENA ROWLANDS IN 'OPENING NIGHT'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_UAsgPMu9qLDJOOc_gc0IPCEmtLPRrEkCkEGvnTDab7w3_Q2bWl2jcQLHBnfy2r_ALn-ipUrGwyaj7fckqzmHLHqse5y6lag5khEKHHEwe31YdPXuLk2IYe7wKYq1u40j6O1xmjAoXFOO/s1600/41843222_572848109811036_8834029222793052160_n.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="960" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_UAsgPMu9qLDJOOc_gc0IPCEmtLPRrEkCkEGvnTDab7w3_Q2bWl2jcQLHBnfy2r_ALn-ipUrGwyaj7fckqzmHLHqse5y6lag5khEKHHEwe31YdPXuLk2IYe7wKYq1u40j6O1xmjAoXFOO/s400/41843222_572848109811036_8834029222793052160_n.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 1977 pictured here is haunting beauty Laura Johnson </u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Not only centering on an actress portrayed by director John Cassevete's wife Gena Rowlands preparing for a Broadway play making initial rounds in New Haven and other small venues, but beneath the surface of this play-within-a-movie, there's an intense and spooky, eerie "ghost story" involving a beautiful young emotional fan, who's killed by a car after the first performance...<br> <br> Enter a primal, lusty, jarring, hauntingly gorgeous Laura Johnson stalking throughout as Cassavetes takes us on a voyeuristic journey with many layers albeit with the same frantic vibe, as if real life and fiction were inseparably hybrid: backstage, on stage, and in various locations where other characters, including Ben Gazzara as the director, Joan Blondell as the writer, Paul Stewart as the producer, and Cassevetes himself as the co-star, all try desperately to get Rowlands on track before <i>opening night.</i>..<br>

ben gazzara, drama, gena rowlands, independent, joan blondell, john cassavetes, laura johnson, paul stewart, seventies

LAURA JOHNSON HAUNTS GENA ROWLANDS IN 'OPENING NIGHT'

year: 1977 pictured here is haunting beauty Laura Johnson Not only centering on an actress portrayed by director John Cassevete's w...