WHERE'S THE DRAMA?

The Red House is a 1947 psychological thriller starring Edward G. Robinson. It is adapted from the novel The Red House by George Agnew Chamberlain, published in 1943 by Popular Library. The novel was serialized in five consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post, 10 March 1945 through 7 April 1945 Handicapped farmer Pete (Robinson) and sister Ellen (Anderson) have raised ward Meg as their own on a reclusive farm. Now a teen, Meg (Roberts) convinces her friend Nath to come help with chores on the farm. When Nath insists on using a shortcut home through the woods, Pete warns the young man of screams in the night and the terrors associated with the abandoned red house. Curious, Meg and Nath ignore his warnings and begin exploring and troubling secrets are revealed.

Francesca Cunningham (Ann Todd) is a suicidal, silent, mental patient under the care of Dr. Larsen (Herbert Lom). Via hypnosis Larsen leads her to describe her life history so he can investigate the events that brought her to attempt suicide. The film largely consists of a series of flashbacks in which Francesca talks about her life, removing successive ?veils? to recover memories. Only her second cousin and guardian Nicholas, a crippled musician (James Mason), is interested in her. Nicholas though is a bitter man, faintly jealous of her talent and very misogynistic because of his relationship with his mother, but a divine music teacher who encourages her to excel but also to avoid all emotional entanglements. While at the Royal College of Music Peter (Hugh McDermott), an American studying in London, becomes romantically interested in her. Although she is initially unresponsive, Francesca and Peter become engaged, but she has not yet reached her majority, then 21, and Nicholas withholds his consent. He insists they leave for Paris in the morning; she completes her education, and begins her career, on the continent. Years pass. Nicholas and Francesca return to Britain when she is invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, but she discovers Peter has married someone else. An artist, Maxwell Leyden (Albert Lieven), is invited to paint her portrait by Nicholas; they soon fall in love and agree to live together. Still apparently her guardian, Nicholas becomes angry at the news and strikes her hands with his cane while she plays. She flees from him, but while with Max, is involved in a serious car accident where she suffers burns to her hands. Francesca becomes convinced she will never play again. After therapy, now cured according to Dr Larsen, Francesca finds Nicholas is her real love rather than Peter (now divorced) or Max.

Brilliant underrated TV Comedy, well worth a look, an original look at reality TV. AB The Comeback is a television series produced by HBO that stars actress Lisa Kudrow as sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in modern-day Los Angeles, California. It was created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, a former executive producer of Sex and the City. Kudrow and King were also screenwriters and executive producers of the series, with King also serving as the director of some episodes. The series premiered on HBO on June 5, 2005 and aired for a single season. The show, a comedy, was shot by a two-camera crew, in the style of reality television. Viewers of The Comeback are actually watching raw footage shot for the fictional reality show within The Comeback, also called The Comeback. The series' episode titles (excluding the pilot) begin with the main character's first name "Valerie..." followed the theme of the episode as the main character would have named them, e.g. "Valerie Triumphs at the Upfronts". Despite a coveted time slot after the hit series Entourage, The Comeback debuted to low ratings and a mixed critical response; despite this, it was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Kudrow. HBO confirmed on September 21, 2005 that the series was officially canceled after only being on the air for thirteen weeks. The show placed #79 on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list. In 2009, the publication named The Comeback one of the ten best shows of the decade, calling it "the most brilliantly brutal satire of reality TV ever captured on screen."Valerie Cherish is a D-grade actress who had it all. From 1989 until 1992, Valerie starred on a sitcom known as I'm It! The show was a hit during its initial run, but fell just three episodes shy of reaching syndication status. Valerie claimed that the show was canceled over a Rodney King joke, but in a later episode it is made clear that the quality of the show had declined before that point and that a chimp had been brought onto the show to star as another lawyer at the firm. Since then, the fame and fortune Valerie gained from her success and triumphs has depleted. She has become unemployed, married, and does not get the roles for which she was once famous due to her age and personality. Valerie vows that she will make a comeback, which is the ultimate goal in her career as an actress. The Comeback is shot in the style of a reality show (also called The Comeback). The show-within-a-show follows Valerie through her home life and her career resurgence. It offers behind-the-scenes footage of the other fictional show-within-a-show, Room and Bored, a network sitcom on which Valerie plays a minor role. Each episode begins with color bars, over which are superimposed the words "The Comeback: Raw Footage", indicating that viewers to the actual HBO series The Comeback are watching unedited video for the fictional reality show The Comeback. Kudrow stated in 2010, speaking of where the show may have gone in season two if it were not canceled: "All we really knew for season two was that Paulie G. would end up getting fired, Gigi would end up in charge and the sitcom turns into a huge mess - that and Valerie?s marriage would be on the rocks."[

Phantom of the Paradise is a 1974 American musical film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Faust, and also briefly references Frankenstein, Psycho and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Initially, it was a box office failure and was panned by some critics but has since acquired a cult following. Its music was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

The film opens with two men running across a beach at dawn, it also appears that their hands are tied behind their backs. After several shots of a helicopter frantically searching the landscape, it becomes apparent that the two men are escapees of some kind. It is later revealed that their names are MacConnachie and Ansell. The two continue running across barren land, trying to escape the sight of the helicopter. MacConnachie continuously berates Ansell as they run, showing that he is the leader, more or less. The film was quite revolutionary with its use of mystery to the audience; the characters, background, and location all go unknown throughout the entire film. The only information on the characters is revealed through dialogue. Whereas the book reveals the characters to be soldiers, this never comes up in the film. The film also makes much use of long takes, mainly in the shots which take place in the helicopter, the long takes signify the helicopter's long search.

Our Town is a 1938 three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. Set in the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners, it tells the story of an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives. Scenes from the town's history between the years of 1901 and 1913 are performed. The play is performed without a set and the actors mime their actions without the use of props. Throughout Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, such as narration by a stage manager. Our Town was first performed at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey on January 22, 1938. It later went on to success on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It remains popular today and revivals are frequent.  This is the 2003 Broadway production, featuring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager.

Charlie's Tramp character finds himself at a circus where he is promptly gets chased around by the police who think he is a pickpocket. Running into the bigtop, he is an accidental sensation with his hilarious efforts to elude the police. The ringmaster/owner immediately hires him, but discovers the Tramp cannot be funny on purpose, so he takes advantage of the situation by making the Tramp a janitor just happens to always in the Bigtop at showtime. Unaware of this exploitation, the Tramp falls for the owner's lovely acrobatic daughter, who is abused by her father. His chances seem good, until a dashing rival comes in and Charlie feels he has to compete with him.

A series of 42 short films based on Dreams commissioned by 42 Below Vodka. Every once in awhile i like to go back and watch these. My favorites are Dream Forward (at 12:18) and ESPECIALLY Playthings (at 24:20), and of course Harmony Korine's Crutchnap. Also, check out Last Day Dream, which is amazing and as moving as a 42 second film can be.

Reconstructed program of a typical weekend at the local drive-in in the 1960s. Double feature with two tales of insane maniacs (Manos and Bloody Pit of Horror)! Plus a cartoon. And plenty of awesome snack bar foods and other stuff. All you need is Dad's old station wagon!

College student Nan Barlow visits the village of Whitewood as research for her paper on witchcraft in New England, particularly the case of Elizabeth Selwyn. Her tutor, Professor Alan Driscoll(Lee), recommends the Raven's Inn, run by a Mrs. Newless. Rather unwisely, given the amount of low-hanging fog outside(and against the advice of Mrs. Newless), Nan takes an immediate interest in the basement...

Director: John Llewellyn Moxey

Producer: Ben Arbeid

The great Lionel Atwill's finest screen characterization is his Dr. Eric Gordon, a man whoe very glare evokes menace and a twisted menace it is. When eyes alone can convey impending doom, we know we're in for a ride with a psychopath. He loves just as fiercely, and it's his lone weakness. His wife is portrayed by Chicago theater usherette Kathryn Burke of East Rogers Park, who came to Hollywood after winning a national contest sponsored by Paramount to assume the distinctly feline role of the Panther Woman in its sister project at the studio, Island Of Lost Souls. Adolph Zukor decreed that they would green light the first two story treatments which promised to go one-on-one against Universal's Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1932), and RKO's The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and King Kong (1933). He delivers with the story of big game hunter Atwill, who sews up loose ends in Indonesia and returns with his wife to Los Angeles to inject some, uh, excitement into the hum-drummery of the LA Zoo which has fallen on hard times.