Comic Book Review: Botticelli’s Apprentice by Ursula Murray Husted Sandro Botticelli actually has several apprentices, from senior apprentice Nino to rookie Datus. But the person we’re concerned with here is Mella, the chicken girl. Her duties include feeding and tending the chickens and collecting their eggs to make tempera paint with. She also cleans paintbrushes… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Botticelli’s Apprentice
Tag: painters
Movie Review: The Life of Emile Zola
Movie Review: The Life of Emile Zola (1937) directed by William Dieterle We first meet Emile Zola (Paul Muni) when he is a penniless writer sharing a freezing garret with his friend, starving artist Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff). They favor the “realist” schools of their respective crafts, which is not only unpopular with the buying public,… Continue reading Movie Review: The Life of Emile Zola
Movie Review: Maniac (1963)
Movie Review: Maniac (1963) directed by Michael Carreras (aka “The Maniac”) Four years ago, French schoolgirl Annette Beynat (Liliane Brousse) was raped by a neighbor. That man was caught in the act by her father Georges, who decided not to turn him over to the police, but instead use an acetylene torch to murder him in… Continue reading Movie Review: Maniac (1963)
Book Review: Head of a Traveler
Book Review: Head of a Traveler by Nicholas Blake (pen name of Cecil Day-Lewis) Nigel Strangeways, a writer and literary scholar when he isn’t being distracted by his private investigation work, is thrilled to have a chance to meet Robert Seaton, one of Britain’s greatest living poets. Plash Meadow, Seaton’s house, is in Oxfordshire near… Continue reading Book Review: Head of a Traveler
Book Review: But Not Forgotten | The Schemers
Book Review: But Not Forgotten | The Schemers by Ruth Fenisong It’s time for another Ace Double paperback, this time a pair of mysteries by Ruth Fenisong (1904-1978). She’s best known for her Lieutenant Gridley Nelson series, but he’s barely in the first, and the other is independent. But Not Forgotten Leo Socarus is a… Continue reading Book Review: But Not Forgotten | The Schemers
Movie Review: The Return of Dracula (1958)
Movie Review: The Return of Dracula (1958) directed by Paul Landres It is a known fact that Count Dracula (Francis Lederer) is a real person, a vampire who drains the blood of the living and creates others of his kind. He’s been terrorizing central Europe for decades, evading attempts to permanently destroy him. At the beginning… Continue reading Movie Review: The Return of Dracula (1958)
Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries
Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler While stories that could be considered “mysteries” in some sense have existed as long as writing, and perhaps a bit before, the short story mystery came into its own during the lifetime of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). This volume collects forty-nine notable stories from… Continue reading Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries
Movie Review: The Gorgon
Movie Review: The Gorgon (1964) directed by Terence Fisher It is 1908, and the police state of Van Dorf has had seven unsolved murders in five years. When painter Bruno Heizt’s (Jeremy Longhurst) model and lover turns up dead and himself hanged, the police, led by Inspector Kanof (Patrick Troughton), are quick to call it murder-suicide.… Continue reading Movie Review: The Gorgon
Movie Review: Easy Virtue (1928)
Movie Review: Easy Virtue (1928) directed by Alfred Hitchcock John Whittaker (Robin Irvine) returns from a Riviera vacation with a surprise bride. Larita (Isabel Jeans) is certainly pretty, and seems pleasant enough. But John’s mother (Violet Farebrother) can’t shake the feeling that she’s seen Larita before, and that the young woman is hiding something. Larita is… Continue reading Movie Review: Easy Virtue (1928)
Book Review: Clive Barker’s Books of Blood Volume II
Book Review: Clive Barker’s Books of Blood Volume II by Clive Barker Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we’re opened, we’re red. Prescript to the Books of Blood, presumably a joke by Clive Barker himself. In the mid-1980s, Clive Barker broke onto the horror scene with a collection of short(ish) stories divided up into… Continue reading Book Review: Clive Barker’s Books of Blood Volume II