Book Review: Ruth

Book Review: Ruth written by Kjersti Hoff Baez, illustrated by Al Bohl Ruth was born in the land of Moab, but married a Judahite named Mahlon who had come to live there with his family. The marriage was childless but happy, and Ruth became especially attached to her mother-in-law Naomi, who’d become widowed some years… Continue reading Book Review: Ruth

Book Review: They Lived by Their Guns

Book Review: They Lived by Their Guns by Various Authors Back in the day, Westerns were king. Even pulp magazines like Argosy that weren’t exclusively western-focused tended to have at least one tale set in that genre every issue. Thus this collection of five novelettes reprinted from the magazine from the late 1940s, published in… Continue reading Book Review: They Lived by Their Guns

Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in the West

Harmonica emerges from the shadows.

Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) directed by Sergio Leone Three gunslingers in duster coats (Jack Elam, Woody Strode and Al Mulock) wait at a train station. When the train arrives, at first it seems there were no passengers. But then music is heard, and as the train pulls away we see… Continue reading Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in the West

Book Review: The Guns of Sonora | Black Buzzards of Bueno

Book Review: The Guns of Sonora | Black Buzzards of Bueno by Ben Smith and Tom West respectively Let’s look at another Ace Double Western, two exciting short novels upside down from each other! The Guns of Sonora takes place in Mexico, on and around the rancho of Don Valentine, a wealthy cattle baron. It’s… Continue reading Book Review: The Guns of Sonora | Black Buzzards of Bueno

Comic Book Review: Dark Mysteries Vol. 1

Comic Book Review: Dark Mysteries Vol. 1 by Various Artists This is another of the PS Artbooks softcover collections of pre-Code horror comics, collecting the first five issues of Dark Mysteries from Master Comics, published in 1951-1952. These comic books may have been read by the youth, but the shaping underwear ads indicate an older… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Dark Mysteries Vol. 1

Magazine Review: Other Worlds December 1951

Cover by Malcolm Smith, illustrating "Yelisen."

Magazine Review: Other Worlds December 1951 edited by Ray Palmer Let’s have another look at this long-running science fiction magazine! The opening editorial by Ray Palmer hypes up the serial which will start in the next issue, Rog Phillips’ These Are My Children, advertised here as something truly special. Sadly, the book version seems to… Continue reading Magazine Review: Other Worlds December 1951

Movie Review: Die! Die! My Darling!

Mrs. Trefoile packs heat.

Movie Review: Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) directed by Silvio Narizzano Patricia Carroll (Stefanie Powers) and her fiancé Alan Glentower (Maurice Kaufmann) are back in London after a couple of years in America. Alan has to take care of some business, so Patricia decides she needs to finally make a condolence visit to the mother of… Continue reading Movie Review: Die! Die! My Darling!

Comic Book Review: Botticelli’s Apprentice

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

Movie Review: McLintock!

George Washington McLintock learns his estranged wife is in town.

Movie Review: McLintock! (1963) directed by Andrew V. McLaglen It is summer, 1895, and Elizabeth “Betsy” McLintock (Stefanie Powers) is coming home from college in the East to her hometown of McLintock, named after her father George Washington “G.W.” McLintock (John Wayne). She has no idea what she’s walking in to. G.W. and his wife Katherine… Continue reading Movie Review: McLintock!

Movie Review: Gone With the Wind

Scarlett is breaking under the stress of working with war wounded.

Movie Review: Gone With the Wind (1939) directed by Victor Fleming Gerald O’Hara (Thomas Mitchell) is an Irish immigrant who got lucky in a card game many years ago, winning a substantial tract of farmland in Georgia. He married a woman of French extraction named Ellen (Barbara O’Neil) and by hard work and being a decent… Continue reading Movie Review: Gone With the Wind