No No: A Dockumentary (2014)

NO NO: A DOCKUMENTARY  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Jeff Radice
As a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Dock Ellis secured his place in baseball legend back in June 1970, when he took the mound against the San Diego Padres and became the first (and undoubtedly last) human being to throw a major-league no-hitter while tripping on LSD. It turns out there was a lot more to Dock's life than that, and that's what this documentary's about. As a young player, Ellis was cocky and flamboyant - "the Ali of baseball." He was assertive and outspoken in a way that earlier black players like Mays and Banks and Aaron couldn't be and weren't. As a pitcher, he was good but not overpowering, and erratic. He had a journeyman's career with a journeyman's share of ups and downs, enhanced, or maybe just amplified, by his claim that he was high on something every time he pitched. In fact, it was only after his time on the field ended, at about the point where you'd expect a drug-addicted, washed-up athlete to self-destruct, that Ellis found his life's calling, as a knowing and articulate rehab counselor. Radice, thankfully, doesn't try to whitewash Dock's dark side, and two ex-wives testify to his sometimes abusive behavior. But it's a remarkable life story, in which the no-no on acid is just one (admittedly entertaining) chapter. Ellis died of cirrhosis in 2008. He was 62.

Act of Violence (1949)

ACT OF VIOLENCE  (1949)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Fred Zinnemann
    Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh,
    Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter, Berry Kroeger
Van Heflin plays a World War Two vet who's living the American dream, with a successful business, a nice house and car, and a pretty young wife played by Janet Leigh. He's also got a secret going back to his time as a POW in Germany, and an old Army buddy (Robert Ryan) has been tracking him down, determined to kill him. This is film noir territory - at least that's where it ends up - with enough guilt and despair to give anybody a case of the black-dog blues, plus Mary Astor in fatalistic support as a woman with street connections who's seen it all and then some. Zinnemann's direction is crisp and efficient, and the climax, at night on a railroad platform, plays like a distorted twist on "High Noon". 

Spine Tingler (2007)

SPINE TINGLER: THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY 
    D: Jeffrey Schwartz                                   (2007)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
A documentary on the career of William Castle, the schlock filmmaker whose cinematic gifts to the world included "The Tingler", "Straight-Jacket", "13 Frightened Girls" and "House On Haunted Hill". Like a lot of B-movie directors, Castle knew how to get a picture made on the cheap, but his genius was in the field of gimmicky promotion. He knew his audience - mostly teenagers - and he knew how to fill the seats, especially when the seats were rigged with tiny vibrating buzzers timed to go off at a particular moment in the film. The gimmicks were never less than cheesy, and Castle's adolescent viewers never had less than a good time. There's nobody quite like Castle working today. In the age of viral Internet ad campaigns and big opening weekends, there couldn't be. The promotional landscape has changed. Of course, there's nobody quite like P.T. Barnum working today, either. And that's something William Castle would understand. 

13 Ghosts (1960)

13 GHOSTS  (1960)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: William Castle
    Charles Herbert, Donald Woods, Rosemary DeCamp,
    Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Margaret Hamilton
A nice American family moves into a haunted house, and William Castle rolls out "Illusion-O", a process whereby special glasses worn at certain points in the film allow viewers to get a better look at the ghosts. Also, Margaret Hamilton plays a witch, or something like a witch, but she's not green this time around, and, anyway, the movie's in black and white. You can't take any of it seriously for a second, but it's not like moviegoers in 1960 didn't have a pretty good idea going in what they were going to get. It's William Castle, after all.

Martin Milner

(1931-2015)

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK  (2012)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: David O. Russell
    Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro,
    Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, Dash Mihok
Because crazy people need love, too.

Scream (1996)

SCREAM  (1996)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Wes Craven
    Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard,
    David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore
In the serene suburban community of Woodsboro, where apparently only white people live, a mad stalker in a mask inspired by Edvard Munch is practicing a ghoulish form of population control - terrorizing high-school kids on the telephone before carving them up with a butcher knife. A bloody, tongue-in-cheek slasher movie that takes most of its cues and references from other slasher movies. You don't expect logic or restraint in a picture like this, and you don't get it. (Well, okay, the nudity is restrained - there isn't any - though in a couple of scenes maybe there should be.) What you do get is an accomplished piece of work by one of the genre's original masters, a movie that can tell you point blank what's coming up next, as a joke, and then scare you with it anyway. Followed by a sequel. And another. And another.

Wes Craven

(1939-2015)

The Stratton Story (1949)

THE STRATTON STORY  (1949)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Sam Wood
    James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan,
    Agnes Moorehead, Bill Williams, Jimmy Dykes
A movie based on the true story of Monty Stratton, a baseball player from rural Texas who became the best pitcher in the American League for a year or two, and then amazingly managed to pitch again after a hunting accident forced the amputation of his right leg. Predictable, inspirational Americana, sincerely intended and efficiently accomplished. The lanky (6'3") Stewart and the diminutive (5') Allyson have an easy, natural chemistry together, and Stewart does his own pitching in the baseball scenes.