Movie Review: Ma Barker’s Killer Brood (1960) directed by Bill Karn Kate “Ma” Barker (Lurene Tuttle) was born into a hardscrabble family as the tenth child and suffered many privations growing up. She stepped up a bit by marrying the first young man to take notice of her, George Barker (Nelson Leigh) but by the time… Continue reading Movie Review: Ma Barker’s Killer Brood
Tag: suicide
Manga Review: Ōoku Volumes 13 & 14
Manga Review: Ōoku Volumes 13 & 14 by Fumi Yoshinaga Note: This review may contain SPOILERS for earlier volumes; you may want to read previous reviews if you are unfamiliar with the series. Quick recap: In an alternate history, Shogunate Japan was struck by an epidemic of “red-faced pox”, also known as “bearpox.” For unclear… Continue reading Manga Review: Ōoku Volumes 13 & 14
Comic Book Review: Best of DC #8: Year’s Best Comics Stories
Comic Book Review: Best of DC #8: Year’s Best Comics Stories edited by Julius Schwartz If you were going to have a digest comic called “Best of DC” it only made sense to present a collection of what the creators considered best stories for a given year, in this case, 1979. As the text feature… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Best of DC #8: Year’s Best Comics Stories
Comic Book Review: Gotham Central: Unresolved Targets
Comic Book Review: Gotham Central: Unresolved Targets edited by Matt Idelson Being a cop in Gotham City is rough. In addition to the long hours, hostile population and dangerous streets that come with the police officer’s job in any large city, Gotham City has one of the highest corruption rates of a police department in… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Gotham Central: Unresolved Targets
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
Manga Review: Deserter
Manga Review: Deserter by Junji Ito This volume says that the contents are mostly from the early horror work of noted manga creator Junji Ito. There’s no initial publication dates in the indicia, but his debut was in 1987, so I’m guessing late Eighties to early Nineties. Let’s see what his stuff was like before… Continue reading Manga Review: Deserter
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
Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories
Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories edited by Rogers Terrill This collection of exciting tales of action and bravery plucked from the pages of Argosy, the long-running pulp magazine, is most notable for only choosing from those printed between 1946 and 1952, when the collection was published. Thus it had, at the time,… Continue reading Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories
Movie Review: Oldboy (2003)
Movie Review: Oldboy (2003) directed by Park Chan-wook On his daughter’s birthday, Dae-su Oh (Choi Min-sik) got stinking drunk and taken to the police station. He was still pretty drunk when he was picked up by his friend No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji). So when Dae-su vanished while No’s back was turned in a phone booth, at… Continue reading Movie Review: Oldboy (2003)
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)