The Stars Look Down (1940) **

Mostly dull kitchen sink melodrama about pre-war Scottish miners saved by a gutsy finish.

The Sleeping Cardinal (1931) **

Worthy Holmes mystery is well written and stylishly filmed (for the time). Mr. Wontner sets a high bar for future Sherlocks.

Nightmare (1956) **

Preposterous blackout noir is watchable thanks to Eddie G.

An Englishman Abroad (1983) **

Well played two hander, sort of a sequel to Blunt. Strong script.

Ladybug Ladybug (1963) **

Efficient anti-nuke flick touches almost all the bases in less than 90 minutes, with maybe just a tad too heavy of a hand. Good work by the mostly kiddie cast.

Blunt (1987) **

Spy v. spy chamber drama shines whenever Sir Anthony shows up. Otherwise fairly pedestrian quality Brit flick.

Down by Law (1986) ****

Superbly photographed and directed buddy pic with a trio of stellar performances. Goes from artsy to fine art.

The Night Heaven Fell (1958) ***

Unusual French flick sticks to the Hollywood formula with Steve Boyd and Brigitte as doomed lovers on the run through some gorgeous Spanish countryside. Well shot in CinemaScope (which means no extreme close-ups) and briskly paced. Touching finale.

Eyes Without a Face (1960) ***

French shocker goes there and has several iconic scenes. Well made, very creepy.

The Depths (1963) **

Out there flick that's not sure if it's some kind of Marxist allegory or true crime reenactment, features two mesmerizing performances, some hilarity and some horror. Nicely shot and composed.

One Battle After Another (2025) ***

Thrilling, and often hilarious, actioner has a fistful of superb sequences. Not a fan of the cinematography nor shot selection however.

Florida Man Arrested For 'Maliciously' Starting Palisades Fire In LA

As the LA Times reports, among the evidence collected by invesitgators was an image that Rinderknecht allegedly used ChatGPT to generate depicting a city on fire. He also allegedly asked ChatGPT, while calling 911, "Are you at fault if a fire is lift because of your cigarettes?"

Theater of Blood (1973) **

The dream of all actors to get revenge on the critics is played out in this grand guignol flick enhanced by top notch actors including the lovely Dame Diana.

The Gun Runners (1958) **

Another go at that Hemingway story, this time with the miscast Audie Murphy and the terrific Eddie Albert as the heavy. Tight script, a brisk pace and Gita Hall also helps.

The Sentinel (1977) *

The movie looks good and has a stellar cast but is so ridiculous and not believable for a minute.

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) **

Typically well produced/shot Roger Corman spooky feature is kind of silly and suffers from a miscast Vinnie. And I say this as a huge Vinnie fan! He's just too old for the lovely Liz Shepherd.

Invaders from Mars (1953) **

Terrific first half hour then there's too much footage of tanks and the finale goes off the rails. Along the way it's well filmed and for the time fairly provocative.

Chess of the Wind (1976) **

Nice to look at but the story is not compelling and the characters one dimensional.

The Killer Is Loose (1956) **

Boffo finale and a terrific Wendell Corey performance saves this police procedural that sorely lags in the middle.

“Megadoc” Shows Francis Ford Coppola Going for Broke on “Megalopolis”

A revelatory sequence in “Megadoc” shows Coppola arguing with the cinematographer, Mihai Mălaimare, Jr., about the lighting of a shot, which Mălaimare wants to keep consistent with other shots in the scene, for the sake of a conventionally smooth edit. Coppola says that Mălaimare has no business anticipating how the film will be edited, and the director lays down the law: “To me, your job is not to match all the light. Your job is to get beautiful images of the scenes that we have.”

Modern cinematographers need to learn this.