92 In The Shade (1975)

92 In The Shade (1975) was stranger than I expected. Who knew that being a fishing guide in Florida was such a contentious, dangerous business? Peter Fonda plays a tanned, laidback dude who decides to get in the game of being a “guide”, much to the annoyance of established pros like Warren Oates and Harry […]

Fat City (1972)

Fat City (1972) is directed by John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep) and adapted from a novel by Leonard Gardner who wrote the screenplay as well. One of the first big roles for Stacy Keach who plays Billy Tully, a pro boxer who had a name, but is now drifting in bars and […]

The Train (1964)

A friend, Daniel St. Vincent, recommended checking out The Train (1964), a black-and-white WW2 action drama directed by John Frankenheimer (Seconds, Ronin) and starring Burt Lancaster. For some reason, with that title, I thought the majority of the movie took place on a train like Runaway Train or Unstoppable. Rather, the train is like a […]

The Big Heat (1953)

I don’t know my film history but is The Big Heat (1953) the first movie where a cop is asked to hand in their badge and gun? Before they embark on a personal quest for revenge against an unjust system? It certainly feels like it. All I knew about The Big Heat was the infamous […]

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Watching a few Burt Lancaster movies recently and I was contemplating him as an actor, how he fills up a frame with his tall, athletic physique and his garrulous, charismatic, confidence. Lancaster won the Oscar for Best Actor for playing the title role of Elmer Gantry (1960), based on the Sinclair Lewis novel, and it […]