A Hyena in the Safe Despite the best efforts of prudes, decency leagues, and opponents of basic human pleasure, film in the 1960s was becoming liberated from the constraints that had been placed upon it. The willingness of the films ...

In 1948, French artist Jean Dubuffet coined the term art brut, which became “outsider art” in 1972 when critic Roger Cardinal imported it to English. Initially, it referred to art created outside of a recognized art school or defined philosophy ...

Since the early 2000s, there has been a small but steady flow of Bollywood film music compilations packed with fantastic funk, go-go, disco, and even the occasional traditional number. Many of these have been assembled by UK-based DJs, Indian or ...

In 1960, French producers wanted to capitalize on the success of three horror films from Britain’s Hammer Pictures: Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (1958), and The Mummy (1959). All three were shot in lurid color and pushed the ...

As a kid, I was a sporadic comic book reader at best, thanks mostly to growing up pretty far from just about anywhere. Within biking distance, as long as I didn’t tell my parents I was riding that far, was ...

“Do it again,” she…pleads? commands? sneers? “I like it!” And with that line, she robs a weak man of his illusion of control. She subverts a submission — being slapped in the face and begging for more — into an ...

The modest, goofball “old dark house” adventure-comedy The Crooked Circle (1932, H. Bruce Humberstone) occupies an important, if almost totally forgotten, place in history. It was a cheap B-film quickie whose most notable stars were comedians Zasu Pitts (soon to ...

Part 1: Just as a Sigh Upon Their Desire There was something about it that made it different. Something about her. Sexy, sure, but it went beyond that. Alluring. Like a smooth cocktail lounge tune accompanying you on a breezy ...

Part 1: A Pagan Past There is a moment in Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, an unimportant throw-away couple of seconds, where the nominal hero of the story catches sight of a couple of shadows, shadows with no physical ...

Life can’t be all hacking through the jungle with a machete or leading a team of frogmen in a suicide mission attempt to sabotage an enemy U-boat. Sometimes, you find yourself slipping out of your shoulder holster (don’t worry — ...