For the Love of Film Blogathon 2015

Yesterday I wanted some background noise TV, but when I turned it on an error message popped up on my screen, and that led me to contacting cable support, who worked me through a series of steps only to tell me that my receiver/DVR combo unit had died. I thought I had lost all my…

For the Love of Film Blogathon: Alfred Hitchcock & His Terriers

Alfred Hitchcock’s visage has been compared to the bulldog’s, but he preferred terriers. He was a fancier and owner of Sealyham Terriers.  The Sealyham faces extinction today and has been called “rarer than a tiger,” but it was once favored by royalty, authors, and Hollywood stars. Princess Margaret, Dorothy Parker, Maurice Sendak, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth…

Name this Film? An Unidentified Silent Film Featuring Dorsey

The Nitrate Film Interest Group has posted new stills from another unidentified film in its vaults. Can you help them solve the mystery? Here are your first clues. The film is a silent, and it features a lawyer, who may be named Dorsey. Here’s a still:   If you would like to see more stills…

For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon: The Bookseller Babe in The Big Sleep (1946)

Perhaps because I’ve worked as a bookseller, I’ve always felt a special affinity for Dorothy Malone‘s bookstore proprietress in The Big Sleep. In the film private detective Philip Marlowe investigates an increasingly confusing case that centers around a dysfunctional family. Clues keep leading him back to one blond sister or the other. The younger has gotten…

For the Love of Film (Noir): The Mechanical Man of CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS (1953)

John H. Auer‘s CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS is an odd hodgepodge of a film. It crosses noir with docudrama with the guardian angel film. Its villains, Hayes Stewart, Lydia Biddel, and Penrod Biddel, are far more compelling than the lead Johnny Kelly. He’s a cop dissatisfied with his life. His hardworking wife Kathy Kelly fears he’s distant due…

For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon

This month I’m participating in the For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon. I caught on to last year’s too late to participate, but eighty-one other film bloggers raised $30,000 in donations and matching funds for film preservation. Two early shorts were saved. This year’s beneficiary is the Film Noir Foundation. Headed by Eddie Muller,…