Hollywood Extra Girl (1935, Herbert Moulton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 5, 2011
At the surface, Hollywood Extra Girl is just a promotional tie-in to Cecil B. DeMille’s The Crusades. The short’s lead, Suzanne Emery, was an extra in The Crusades and the short suggests she might make it in Hollywood just because of that inclusion. According to IMDb, she did not. But the short read more
New York Portrait: Chapter I (1979, Peter B. Hutton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 28, 2011
It takes three minutes for something to “happen” in New York Portrait. The first three minutes are just static scenes, unless one want to count the smoke coming out of a stack. Portrait might be better titled, New York Establishing Shots. With the exception of a lengthy–for the sh read more
The Scribe (1966, John Sebert)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 23, 2011
The Scribe isn’t totally silent, but Buster Keaton is throughout. While he’s old (Keaton died soon after the film, an instructional short finished shooting), he and the filmmakers don’t make it obvious. There’s some stunt footage where it’s obviously not Keaton—flying around, hooked on a read more
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965, Honda Ishirô)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 22, 2011
So… Godzilla dances in Invasion of Astro-Monster. He also boxes a little. Unfortunately, the boxing part does little to liven up the last half, which is incredibly tiring. The dancing comes earlier—though not by much, but enough to “help.” Godzilla doesn’t appear in the film until the middle read more
Rodan (1956, Honda Ishirô)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 20, 2011
The end of Rodan makes the monster’s death tragic—there are two Rodans (giant pterosaurs) and one commits suicide after its mate dies in volcano fumes. Even more tragic is the Japanese defense force hounded these big dumb birds until they intentionally attacked populated areas and those volcanic read more
Deadhead Miles (1972, Vernon Zimmerman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 17, 2011
Deadhead Miles is a piece of great seventies filmmaking. It’s not a great film, but a great piece of filmmaking. The distinction’s important. Most of the film is about a peculiar truck driver, played by Alan Arkin, and his adventures after picking up a hitchhiker, played by Paul Benedict. Arkin’s read more
The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933, Clyde Bruckman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 16, 2011
As it turns out–it’s hard to tell from the first ten minutes–The Fatal Glass of Beer is something of a spoof of melodramas. Those first ten minutes though are mostly just W.C. Fields being a gold prospector in a snow storm. There’s very little narrative. Fields introduces on read more
Warning Red (1956, Nicholas Webster)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 9, 2011
What’s strange about Warning Red—a Federal Civil Defense Administration commissioned short about atomic attack—is how effective some of the short can be. Not the silly stuff about the nuclear attack or the neighborhood banding together, but the actual procedural. Joseph Cunningham heads all over read more
Romance with a Double Bass (1974, Robert Young)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 7, 2011
It’s hard to know where to start with Romance with a Double Bass. I suppose one could call it a comedy of errors, but the error in question is skinny dipping. First John Cleese, as a musician, goes skinny dipping and then Connie Booth, as the princess whose betrothal ball he is engaged to play at, read more
Escape from New York (1981, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 3, 2011
Man and boy, I’ve probably seen Escape from New York ten times. This viewing might be the first where I noticed the film’s quietness. Carpenter uses the relative silence to make the first third (even before Isaac Hayes shows up), the most memorable parts of the film. Some of that memora read more
The Package (1989, Andrew Davis)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 27, 2011
If it weren’t for the cast and direction, I’m not sure how The Package would play. The combination of Gene Hackman and Andrew Davis makes the film, which has a bunch of problems, noteworthy. Davis gives the film enough grit and realism to make it seem wholly believable, just so long as read more
N.Y., N.Y. (1957, Francis Thompson)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 24, 2011
N.Y., N.Y. is, ostensibly, a day in the city. It opens in the early morning, features a man waking for work, movies through a series of daytime shots, finally finishing with shots of night in the city and nighttime activities. However, Thompson has no narrative. He uses special kaleidoscope lenses read more
About (7)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 16, 2011
Hello, and welcome, to the Stop Button “About” page. I’m Andrew Wickliffe and I’ve been blogging here so long the site can get a driving permit. I write about movies, comics, and television. On rare occasion, I write longer pieces in hopes of driving traffic to the older pie read more
Manhatta (1921, Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 12, 2011
About three quarters of Strand and Sheeler’s shots in Manhatta could just be stills. It’s less about the camera being motionless than about the subjects being motionless. While the subjects are varied, a lot of them are related to the water—whether the tugboats or the ocean liners or the docks, read more
Boxing Gloves (1929, Robert A. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 5, 2011
It’s hard not to like Boxing Gloves’s central sequence—a boxing match between Norman ‘Chubby’ Chaney and Joe Cobb—it’s two little fat kids in enormous boxing gloves duking it out. It’s also the sequence where McGowan shows the most directorial zeal. Unfortunately, it’s the place where read more
Rendezvous (1976, Claude Lelouch)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 3, 2011
Okay, I’m not the only one who wondered if Rendezvous might have been dubbed. The short is a high speed drive through Paris—sometimes the pace seems questionable, like Lelouch was able to speed it up (which seems unlikely in most parts, because other cars move at a normal pace) and the traffic patt read more
The Stuff (1985, Larry Cohen)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 25, 2011
According to IMDb, Larry Cohen cut about a half hour out of The Stuff. It’s entirely possible with that added footage, the movie might have made sense. As it’s cut now, it’s a somewhat diverting–at least until the third act–cross between The Blob and Invasion of the Bo read more
About (4)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 18, 2011
Hello, and welcome, to the Stop Button “About” page. I’m Andrew Wickliffe and I’ve been blogging here so long the site can get a driving permit. I write about movies, comics, and television. On rare occasion, I write longer pieces in hopes of driving traffic to the older pie read more
Salem’s Lot (1979, Tobe Hooper)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 15, 2011
During Salem’s Lot’s finale, Hooper gets this amazing physical performance out of Bonnie Bedelia as she is exploring the vampire’s lair. At that moment, I realized Hooper was intentionally making Lot palatable for a television audience—he could have made the entire three hours terrifying, but read more
Age of Consent (1969, Michael Powell)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 13, 2011
With Age of Consent, Powell bewilders. His approach to James Mason and Helen Mirren’s dramatic arcs is excellent, but then he includes this terrible comedy material. He’s got a bunch of slapstick in an otherwise very gentle drama. Mason is a successful artist who feels like a sellout so he runs read more