Don't Bother to Knock (1952) **

Weird little thriller is well paced but the casting is a bit off. Anne Bancroft's film debut.

Cast a Dark Shadow (1955) **

Dirk excelled at playing amoral sociopaths and here is no different. Tightly paced, nicely shot, top cast.

Office Killer (1997) ***

Nifty Grand Guignol neo-noir showcases two terrific performances and captures the 90's office vibe perfectly. Well made on a shoestring.

The French Dispatch (2021) **

This one just does not work as a complete film. Tremendous art direction, top notch cast but the pacing is way too fast and the sections so short the result is a blur of information and no emotion, no engagement. Will be better on DVD when you can watch and re-watch the sections individually, catching the myriad nuances.

David and Lisa (1962) ***

You just have to let the all-too-pat psycho drivel slide and the trio of fine actors will make the denouement, which can be seen coming from a mile away and redeems the film, work in spite of it all.

Electric vehicles could fully recharge in under 5 minutes with new charging station cable design - Purdue University News

Though the prototype hasn’t been tested on EVs yet, Mudawar and his students demonstrated in the lab that their prototype accommodates a current of over 2,400 amperes – far beyond the 1,400-ampere minimum that would be needed to reduce charging times for large commercial EVs to five minutes. The most advanced chargers in the industry deliver only currents up to 520 amperes, and most chargers available to consumers support currents of less than 150 amperes.

Ok, now electric cars become viable in the USA.

Dean Stockwell in 'Blue Velvet': The Movie That Made Him Timeless - Variety

So Ben, who looks like a candy-colored clown, stands up in front of the room in his huge-collared frilly open shirt and smoking jacket, brandishing a cigarette holder, using an industrial work light as his pretend microphone (it lights up his face), and proceeds to do an act of lip-syncing that is so hypnotic you’re tempted to call it bad-dream karaoke. He’s not actually singing. The sound is all Roy Orbison warbling “In Dreams” (“A candy-colored clown they call the sandman/Tiptoes to my room every night…”). But as the great Roy sings, and as Ben, standing in his self-styled industrial spotlight, mimics that song, you’d swear that you could almost hear him, and time seems to stop. The movie seems to stop. We’re no longer just watching “Blue Velvet.” The film has sliced through all our rational defense mechanisms, pulling us in like the TV set in “Poltergeist.”

Why is Ben standing there, miming that song? Because he wants to; because Frank, whose response to the song is so intense it looks like he’s going to either cry or explode (or both), wants him to. But really, Ben is doing this because David Lynch simply had to stage that scene, because it poured out of him, because he needed to see it and needed us to see it, and knew that Dean Stockwell, performing it with a private smirk that comes off as bizarrely innocent, even as it marks him as a figure out of a horror movie designed to scare children to death, would be the only actor who could make that scene cut across time itself.

Niagara (1953) ***

Lushly photographed oddball noir turns into an actioner in the third act. Well produced and Ms. Monroe is stunning as the femme fatale.

The Hucksters (1947) *

Extremely dated "exposé" of the ad game is laughably arch today. Clark does his best but the role is a cartoon. Deb and Ava fare better.

Nightmare Alley (1947) **

Not a big fan of Ty Power but he's pretty good here. Too bad the film doesn't have the guts of the superb novel.

Frenzy (1972) ****

Hitch returns to his familiar tropes with a new candor that's still startling 50 years on. Still the master.

Why Francis Ford Coppola Was Nearly Fired During The Godfather's Production

"They hated the fact that I decided to set it in New York and they fought it."
At the time, New York had a reputation for being, in Coppola's words, "inhospitable" and "expensive" to film productions. Add to this the cost of shooting "The Godfather" as a period picture, and it gave Paramount reason to balk at the New York idea. They wanted him to film in St. Louis instead.

The JFK Cover-Up Strikes Again by James K. Galbraith

The irony is that by withholding the records, the government has already admitted, without saying so, that the Warren Commission lied and that there are vile secrets which it is determined to protect. It concedes, without saying so, that there was a conspiracy and that there is an ongoing cover-up. If there were not, all the records would have been released long ago. You don’t have to be a “conspiracy theorist” to see this.

'Doc' (1971) **

Watchable western is as inaccurate as the sources it is allegedly revising but Ms. Dunaway shines here.

The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970) **

Early conspiracy thriller is well made despite its made-for-tv origins. Better shot than most contemporary Hollywood blockbusters.

No Time to Die (2021) *

Turgid exercise in contemporary movie making. Indistinguishable from any other "action film" made recently. Highly dispiriting viewing.

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) ***

Strong lead performance by Ms. Stanley carries the picture which starts off strong but goes off the rails as the script veers into psycho-babble territory. Well shot in crisp B&W.

Mort Sahl Dead: Stand-Up Comedian Tackled Political Themes - Variety

Throughout his career, Sahl frequently provoked his audience. Everyone was fair game. He went after Joseph McCarthy and the blacklist, Eisenhower and even Kennedy, whom he admired. The politically skeptical comic once declared, “Democrats are the left wing of the Republican party. Do you want vanilla or French vanilla?” Another time he said: “Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they’ve stolen.”

He was unyielding, even in old age. In 2011, the 84-year-old Sahl began his show at a Mill Valley, Calif., club before a pro-Obama crowd with the line, “No, he can’t.” He continued performing near his Mill Valley home

“If you were the last man on earth,” Sahl told an interviewer, “I’d have to oppose you. That’s my job.”

One of a kind original to the end. Here is his first recording. The manic energy is stunning.

Cat People (1982) **

Entertaining but half-baked thriller seems like it should have been much better. Great cast.

Dead of Night (1945) **

Spooky anthology starts to gather some steam then stops for a comedy and a song before returning with its best tale which saves the flick.