naylands Reviews

Curse of the Black Widow (1977 TV Movie)

a nice popcorn movie

[6/10 · 27 October 2000]

After all the movies I have seen, some of the most enjoyable, are those turned out for ABC's Tuesday Night at the Movies in the 1970's. They were B-movies in all their glory. The Curse of the Black Window is one such movie. Filled with good character actors, a fast plot and cheesy special effects, it filled a void for genre movies on tv. Other genre movies created in this time were-The Cat Creature, Black Noon, Dual and the great Night Staker(One of the great Vampire movies.).It was not just horror movies, but detective, war, love and comedies that entertained the viewers. The tv movies of the today are mostly teen flicks, love stories or social pronouncements. I do wish for a good old fashion cheapie horror tv movie.

Just keep your eyes open(0n cable,dvd or video)for the giant black spider of Dan Curtis mind.

The Long Gray Line (1955)

a john ford gem

[8/10 · 24 October 2000]

The Long Gray Line is not of John Ford's great films,such as the Seachers, How Green Was My Valley or She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, but its one that makes one feel with the heart. i happen to be a fan of Ford's minor gems, Three Godfathers, Donovan's Reef and Judge Priest, and The Long Gray Line is fine one. Some modern movie critics dismiss this film and others as "corn" or "dated", but what is "dated" about love, duty and honor. Ford's films about these "dated" are still shineing examples of American film making. I would rather watch this wonderful moive, over and over, then that bleak film of last year-American Beauty. I happy admit that I cry at the end of this film.

The Thing from Another World (1951)

one of the best

[9/10 · 22 October 2000]

This film is one of the best science fiction movies of the 1950's. It rank right up there with The Forbidden Planet, Them and War of the Worlds. This film has real characters, nice dialoge, and a great atmosphere.

As a old fan of the great artist, Milton Caniff(the creator of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon), I think that this film is the nearest to a filmed Steve Canyon story-even with a giant walking carrot. Also, this film, is a Howard Hawks film-the overlaping dialoge, the great woman character and the great male bonding against a menace from another world. The music is great and I still feel cold after seening the film recently. A winner after all these years.

Seven Days in May (1964)

a masterful thriller

[10/10 · 20 October 2000]

Seven Days in May is cold war movie making at its best. This film does not have a car chase, gun battles, or a President as villian. It does have great actors and is one of the finest translattion of a novel to screen. It is the first of the U.S. Militery as villian plot lines, since over used on both the screen and tv. A number of years ago a remake was done for cable-The Enemy within-and it did not work. In that the President is to be over-throw because he will sign a defense bill! The Russians are no longer the enemy and that's why it fails. In the first, made three years after the Cuban Missle Crisis, the fear of the Soviets is real and provides the ploters with a major cause against the President's program of disarmement. One of the best movies of the last fifty years.

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

a gem of a film

[10/10 · 19 October 2000]

This film is one of the finest fansties that were turned out by the Hollywood system in the 1940's. The greatest of the film laids in the two performances of Edward Arnold-as Daniel Webster-and Walter Huston as the Devil. Arnold's Webster is a great,but, flawed man, who is willing to put his very soul on the line, to help a fellow American . Huston's is the model for every conman in history. He always waits until his target is at his or hers weaks moment and he strikes. The music, by the master Bernard Herrmman, is wonderful.

The very ending, not the trial section, is frighten me as a kid and still is eerie.

And Then There Were None (1945)

A JEWEL OF A MOVIE

[10/10 · 27 September 2000]

This classics mystery story has been filmed many times-mostly under the title-TEN LITTLE INDIANS-but this is the finest verison of it.

Directed by RENE CLAIR AND filled with a cast of some of the greatest character actors of the 1930's and 1940's this film is the only one that catches the flavor of a story from the golden age of the British detective story.

The tension is great, the comic bits work and for the first viewer the fun is in trying to catch the murderer, before your family or friends do. Match your wits with the great A. C. Not until the film-MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS-was made did Hollywood equal this film. Both these films are a honor to that great mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie.

This film is always on my top ten mystery movie list.

The Cat and the Canary (1939)

a great combination of comedy and the old dark house play.

[10/10 · 26 September 2000]

I feel that THE CAT AND THE CANARY is the film that really started Bob Hope's film career. For the next decade-1940's-into the middle Fifties Mr. Hope turned out some of the funniest films-THE GHOSTBREAKERS, THE ROAD MOVIES(with a little help from a little known singer named Cosby)My FAVORITE SPY, and the wonderful pirate comedy-THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE-during the golden age of Hollywood.