One of the toughest criteria for Hooptober this year was the Lon Chaney requirement. I originally read it thinking his son and planned to watch Spider Baby again until a friend pointed out my mistake. When I started looking for a replacement and one that was Phantom of the Opera, that proved difficult since 102 of the 157 films Chaney starred in are now lost. … Continue reading Hooptober 2022 #25: The Unknown (1927)
Being Film #9 for Hooptober 2022 The biggest surprise for me upon watching 1925’s The Phantom of the Opera was how – 6 years before Universal horror really kicked off in the sound era with the 1-2 punch of Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931 – a lot of the style and mood of those classics were already in place in the silent era. Maybe that’s … Continue reading Hooptober 9.0 – The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2022 “How long will I live?” asks Alan, gazing up at the Miraculous Cesare, somnambulist star of a sideshow attraction. His eyes stare dead ahead, his lithe body poised at the foot of the stage in front of the gathered crowd. “Until the break of dawn,” the sleepwalker intones. That’s the line that hooked me in about 21 minutes into … Continue reading Hooptober 9.0 – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
I suspect many of us knew Metropolis before we ever had a chance to actually see it. My first exposure to it as a complete (or as close as it was considered to be then) film came in the early 90s with the color tinted Giorgio Moroder version, edited (severely) and scored by the electronic music pioneer. But the images – those stark, expressionistic cityscapes rising to the heavens, the iconic “Other” Maria… those images echo and reverberate within my movie memory far longer than I have any right to claim to them. Continue reading Metropolis Restored (1927, 2010)
Cinema Dual (TEST SITE) 