Horror Watch: Backrooms (2026)

Watched:  10/04/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Kane Parsons

During lockdown, I went down a lot of YouTube holes.  One of the ways I wasted my hours was watching "urban exploration" - videos of people going into facilities and structures which have been abandoned.  

These videos cover everything from empty hospitals with equipment collecting dust to prisons with rotting bars to defunct mega-construction projects in China.  Some folks hit old forts and underground military bunkers left over from the Cold War.  And houses - often mansions, that have simply been left to rot.

The videos are always marginally disturbing.  Buildings are *designed*.  They have purpose where form meets function.   You can see the massive expense for these places, from the labor needed to build them to the equipment and furnishings.  And then... something happened and everyone went away.

The buildings, tunnels, etc.. are left to decay.  America's former malls are a wild thing to behold.  Nature reclaims what it can, rain comes through ceilings, vines and mold grow in odd places.  a layer of dust a half inch thick may have formed in the older examples.

Sci-FI Watch: Project Hail Mary (2026)

Watched:  10/03/2026

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Lord & Miller

I've already seen Project Hail Mary (2026) once in the theater this year.

The book and movie are favorites here at League HQ, especially with Jamie.  She wanted to pick a movie, it had been six months since we'd seen this one, so I was in agreement.  

I will say, as much as I enjoyed this movie again, it was one I'd say should have been seen on the big screen.  It's a sensory experience from the elaborate visuals to the sound to the score.  It's good at home, but it was something else in an auditorium.  

I have heard the social media chatter around this movie is very weird, with edge lords who are mad that our lead character is a relatable human being instead of a gritty kick-ass guy, and then the folks who can only relate to media by turning it into wank material frustrated that there's no one to "ship" Grace with other than a rock.*

Sigh.

Anyway...  I am not going to write up a movie again that I liked perfectly well, already discussed, as well as discussing the book.

*apparently a kick-ass, brilliant woman (with a lovely shade of hair) who gets shit done is not an option

Horror Watch: Weapons (2025)

Watched: 10/03/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Zach Creggar

Y'all, I did not think Weapons (2025) was a good movie, so if you love it, you might as well either close this post or leap to the comments to tell me I didn't get it.

Weapons was a big f'ing deal when it came out.  Horror fiends lauded it, and it's still tracking at an 81 on Metacritic.  So, I know that much like Taylor Swift, it's me.  I'm the problem.

Horror Watch: Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Watched:  10/02/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Hiltzik

So, all I knew about Sleepaway Camp (1983) was this image:

And that 43 years later, it seems like this movie still has an enthusiastic cult following.  

I also saw it was part of Prime, so... why not?

Well, the "why not?" is probably good taste and better judgement, but this is The Signal Watch, and we're in short supply on both.  

Totter Western Watch: The Vanishing American (1955)

Watched:  10/01/2026

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph Kane

The Vanishing American (1955) is based on a Zane Grey novel that is supposed to be pretty good.  The novel is about a Navajo kid taken from home, raised by White folks, sent to college and the collision of his worlds.

This movie uses a tad of that as background for why it's male hero is more relatable to our female lead (Audrey Totter) but focuses on... the hot blonde and her land dispute.  Because it's 1955, people, and we don't want to make the audience feel things when we could just be having a rollicking adventure.

Happy Birthday, Angie Dickinson

Today is the 95th birthday of screen legend Angie Dickinson.

Because of my personal tastes, my favorite of her movies is Point Blank, which I saw at the Castro in San Francisco many years ago with Jenifer, Dug and K.  Dickinson was in attendance and kept the audience of about a thousand enthralled.

As a Rat Pack adjacent young star, Dickinson is sort of the avatar of the connection between mid-Century American cinema and what would come after in film and television.

If you've never seen Point Blank, fix that.

Horror Catch-Up Watch: Obsession (2025)

Watched:  09/28/2026

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Curry Barker

I only knew a few things before going into Obsession (2025):

• It made an insane amount of money (~$520 million) on a modest indie-horror budget
• I knew Inde Navarrette from the excellent Superman & Lois where she played the daughter of Lana Lang

I guess I also knew that Navarrette's character, Nikki, was obsessed with some guy and magic was involved.  And the audience was primarily young people and a few older horror-heads who wanted to see what the fuss is about.

Obsession (2025) isn't just a young person's movie, it's a young person's movie of the modern age of young people.  

Forgot to Post Watch: Miller's Crossing (1990)

Watched:  09/09/2026

Format:  YouTube Movies

Viewing:  ha ha ha ha

Director:  The Coen Bros.

I forgot to post that I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago.  I don't even know which day.

So, no post.  Here's my podcast on the film from a few years ago when we were podcasting.  Thanks, JimD, for the excellent time back in the day.

Marvel Watch: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019)

Watched:  09/26 and 09/27

Format:  BluRay and Regal Cinemas in 3D

Viewing:  Unknown/ Unknown

Director:  The Russos

I don't know that we've ever truly reckoned with what Marvel pulled off across 22 movies between 2008 and 2019.  Instead, we've spent the post-Endgame years grappling with how Marvel seemed to overproduce Marvel content leading to a lack of cohesiveness as the films and shows became uneven and diluted. 

For the youths who are now young adults, what bugs me the most is that they take what Marvel did between 2008 and 2019 *for granted*.  

Look, in no way was it obvious that one could make almost two dozen movies, each film working independently, but also all building to some capstone movies that had a complete and character driven arc for their lead characters while making more money than the GDP of many countries.  

Crampton Watch: Poison (2001)

Watched:  09/27/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jim Wynorski

Always a good sign when a movie has been given multiple names.  This one is listed as Poison (2001) on IMDB, but is also listed as Thy Neighbor's Wife, but I found it - for free - on Amazon as Midnight Vendetta.  

Why did I find it?  I was thinking "man, it's been a while since I watched a Barbara Crampton movie."  And while I am not gearing up to see *every* Barbara Crampton movie, stranger things have happened.  

Youth Watch: Untamed Youth (1957)

Watched:  09/26/2026

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  First, I believe

Director:  Howard W. Koch

This movie exists to accidentally stumble through two important social issues, but was mostly there so we could watch Mamie Van Doren shake it in various states of (un)dress.

It's a movie capitalizing on the rising issues of juvenile delinquency and the exploitation of agricultural workers.  In this case, those workers are delinquent young adults (not teens) who get pinched by the local law for breaking minor infractions or all-together made up infractions.  Then they are pressed into service as indentured servants.

Bug Watch: Tarantula (1955)

Watched:  09/25/2026

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jack Arnold

The only issue with this movie is John Agar.  

I mean, there's the general issue of John Agar being John Agar and I'm still mad about how he was to Shirley Temple.  But he's also a terrible actor.  He has  exactly one line delivery, whether he's inappropriately abandoning his medical practice to hit on Mara Corday or a tarantula the size of a battleship is walking toward him.

And it's a shame, because the movie has a few other actors - Leo G. Carroll who is dialing it in, and is still acting circles around him - and Mara Corday, who is doing her best to get Agar to do something other than just stare straight ahead and speak in a clipped, 1950's manly voice.

Stanwyck Watch: Jeopardy (1953)

Watched:  09/23/2026

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Sturges

I don't know how you can't be blown away by Barbara Stanwyck.  Just an incredible talent.  I might be a fan of, say, Marie Windsor, but I know when someone got Stanwyck, she was going to deliver in a way maybe only 1 or 2 of her contemporaries could.*

It's not like our preferred mode of horror and thrillers these days isn't "nice suburban people suddenly confronted with someone who will kill them".  And Jeopardy (1953) is absolutely in that mode.  

Anyway, this isn't a deep drama.  It's a fast-moving noirish thriller with a small cast, life or death stakes, and proof that kids are just bent on self-destruction, and keeping them safe is probably more trouble than it's worth.

Stanwyck co-stars with first Barry Sullivan, who plays her husband.  They're on a roadtrip from southern California into Mexico to go fishing with their young son, do some camping in a remote spot Sullivan found long ago.  

SPOILERS

Kubrick Watch: Barry Lyndon (1975)

Watched:  09/21/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Stanley Kubrick

Somehow I'd never seen Barry Lyndon (1975).  I assume some part of my brain would look at the film and say "it won't be fun, and it's 3 hours" and would tap out before I could hit play.

In the past 20 years or so, the common wisdom I received in the 1990's - that the movie was dull or not Kubrick's best - seems to have evaporated and the film has received serious reconsideration.  But aside from "people in ruffles cavort in what looks like the second half of the 18th Century", I had no idea what the film was about.  That said, every film student knew that Kubrick's movie was shot with very special lenses, using only candlelight in many scenes -something unheard of in film production.  And I knew Barry Lyndon was supposed to be one of the most visually stunning movie ever produced, which... I mean, Kubrick.   You get that as part of the package.

Texas Watch: Friday Night Lights (Pilot)

Jamie has been along for the ride on DC's Lanterns.  Thanks to her proximity to me and my occasional, intrusive-thought driven monologues, she probably knows more about Green Lanterns than she ever bargained for in this life, so she was primed.  

But she also has been a Kyle Chandler stan since back in the day.  I get it.  

Anyway, that much Kyle Chandler reminded her of the pilot for Friday Night Lights.  

Both of us got vaccinated Friday and are slugging it out with our white blood cells, so when she put it on, I was in full support.

I'll argue two things:

1. The pilot for Friday Night Lights is maybe the best pilot of any TV show I've seen.  
2. Friday Night Lights captures Texas, at least the Texas of its era, the best of any movie or show.  

Monsterpiece Literature: Frankenstein

illustration via the great Bernie Wrightson, available via Nakatomi Inc.*

Back in fall of 2025, when the Guillermo del Toro movie of Frankenstein, I decided to give Mary Shelley's novel a spin one more time before the movie arrived.  I've read it probably four times previously, but with so much Frankenstein media out there, it's easy to get details confused or forgotten.

Rather than look at paper, I picked an audiobook narrated by Dan Stevens, a favored actor, and decided I'd listen while walking Emmylou.  But mid-way through the book - and I cannot remember the circumstances -  it disappeared from my audible library.  I shrugged, gave up, and moved on.  I know the book, I was prepped for the movie in any case.

I certainly had *opinions* about del Toro's film.and spoke about how it confused me that we've never actually seen the book interpreted as it is on page.  Large chunks always get reimagined and changed.  I'm not really sure why that is, as every change seems to morph what author Mary Shelley was doing and saying.  And while I didn't find del Toro's version *offensive*, I found it was changing the course of events in a way that never added up for me.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, the audiobook of Frankenstein re-appeared in my Audible library, and I decided to finish it up before I select a new book for Hallow-read.

Happy Birthday, Cassandra Peterson

Happy Birthday to Cassandra Peterson, who you may know as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

She doesn't put on the outfit anymore, and has successfully made a career out of being herself, which is pretty great.  She appears in movies and at cons and whatnot, and has a thriving merchandising empire.  That's got to be nice to know it's not just the character people adore.

I still pick up Elvira comics, which come out pretty regularly in mini-series form.  And if she were nearby, I think I'd actually drop some coin to go see her.  

I don't normally select pics with someone and their partner (I know her partner has a full name, but she goes by "T"), but this was the best pic I found of Peterson.  I am very happy for her and T.

Happy 75th, Ms. Peterson.  And here's to a successful Halloween season!

Doc Watch: Film Geek (2023)

Watched:   09/15/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Richard Shepard

It's always weird to watch a documentary about someone talking about themselves and their family.  In this way, the recent award winning doc by Mariska Hargitay My Mom Jayne absolutely works.  As her mother Jayne Mansfield passed when she was so very young, it's really about her learning about her own mother decades after the fact.  She just happens to have the best possible access to Mansfield's history.  But she also is clear eyed about remaining objective and talking about it when she isn't and what it means to live with that legacy.

Film Geek (2023) tosses anything like objectivity out the window in the first minute of the film, and you're just along for the ride as film maker Richard Shepard recounts his youth in 1970's and 1980's Manhattan, which was a whirlwind of movie mania and NY-based Gen-X childhood.  This is paired with our director/narrator trying to unpack how movies tied him to a father he wants to present as a romantic rogue and bon vivant and his mother as a saint.

I am Not Nostalgic for 22-Episode TV Seasons

the only way to binge a season of 90's TV

Recently, on a popular social media platform, someone opined that we must support shows like DC's Lanterns so that we eventually work our way back to 20+ episode TV seasons.

I responded with "why on Earth would you want back 20+ episodes of a show again?"  

They took umbrage.  And, look, you can't say things on a public site intended for public reply, but okay.  I was rude, I suppose.  Especially as I did make the mistake of outlining reasons a 20+ episode season was less desirable, to which, I was basically told "shut up" in social media terms.  Which, fair.  Gentleman wasn't the first and he won't be the last with that take on my wisdom.

However - this is not about that.

Catch-Up Watch: Polite Society (2023)

Watched:  09/11/2026

Format:  Peacock 

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nida Manzoor

I'd seen a trailer for Polite Society (2023) when it was coming out, but theatrical windows are short, and I missed it.  Since then, I believe it was Stuart who rec'd it, and I'd had it loosely in the back of my head to watch, meanwhile forgetting why I wanted to see it or what it was about.

Well, whatever I thought it was about, the movie kind of defies genre or expectations at multiple points, and I mean that in the best way.  It's like someone took good ideas and stitched them together into exactly the movie they wanted to make (no, I don't know who Nida Manzoor is exactly, but she also did the series We Are Lady Parts in England, which got good notices).  

Pirate Watch: The Sea Hawk (1940)

Watched:  09/10/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Michael Curtiz

Look, names of directors get forgotten, but Michael Curtiz was one of the best to get behind a lens, making some of my very favorite films - and they may be your favorites, too.  Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, Adventures of Robin Hood, White Christmas, Flamingo Road, and another Errol Flynn pirate movie - Captain Blood.  

And, man, I still am unclear how they filmed these things, with their huge ships, falling masts, flashing sabers and swashing buckles.  The Sea Hawk (1940) merges the scale of Captain Blood and Robin Hood - two prior Curtiz/ Flynn productions with palace sets, huge galleons and more.  

Pat Boone Noir Watch: The Yellow Canary (1963)

Watched:  09/08/2026

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  First

Director:  Buzz Kulik

All I knew was that The Yellow Canary (1963) starred Pat Boone and Barbara Eden, two people I could not imagine paired, let alone in a noir film.

From the intro and outro, my takeaway was that Eddie Muller had gotten involved with preserving this movie because it seemed so unlikely.  Famously squeaky-clean singer and sometimes actor Pat Boone had agreed to play a philandering, jack-ass pop star (a Bizarro-world version of himself) who is married to Barbara Eden and somehow (against all imaginable odds, and my basic understanding of the world) finds that boring.  

Shark/Jet Watch: West Side Story (2021)

Watched:  09/07/2026

Format:  FX Movies on basic cable

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Steven Somebody

I was performing repetitive manual tasks (dealing with comic books.  Where my fellow nerds at?) which means I need something to occupy my brain, but not something *new*, as I might get up to perform part of a task, move around, etc...  And then I saw the 2021 version of West Side Story was on cable, and, sure, why not?

I first saw the play in about 5th or 6th grade with our own Matt A. at the former Capital City Playhouse in Austin.  I then saw the 1961 film in about 1992, and so ask me about bearing witness to Rita Moreno as Anita in her lavender dress.*

But this was the 2021 version, which *also* features Moreno, but doing fewer high kicks.

I really dig this version, too.  I feel like Spielberg did it right, bringing his sense of visuals, character and narrative tension which he built his career on to the material and made it feel both fresh and deeply rooted in the time and place from whence it sprang, managing to make it speak to the now.  

It also fills in some narrative gaps and does some info-dumps to clarify the situation in New York which the general population would have known by osmosis in 1961, but which has shifted and shifted and shifted in the decades since.  The actual politics, economics and on-the-street situation in the film is made abundantly clear in a way it just wasn't previously.

I'm just checking in on this one.  No real notes.  And will say, I'm really glad DeBose and Ziegler are both doing great on the other side of this film.  The guy who played Riff is slated to be in the new East of Eden movie.  

I recall people being a little weird about this when it came out, and a lot of the commentary came down to skill issues and that even dummies can have internet access.  And people oddly offended that a play, done in every town in America, which was a movie, should get remade when the first movie had some really odd weaknesses (like making all the Puerto Ricans wear matching full-body make-up).

So, yeah.  I dig it.   

*Great googly moogly

 

Windsor Watch: Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Watched:  09/06/2026

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  First

Director:  Charles Lamont

Confession time:  I haven't really enjoyed Bud & Lou since I was a kid.  I remember we'd check out 8mm projectors and film from the library and watch their movies and have a good laugh.  I was six.

Subsequent attempts to watch the classic comedy duo have gone less well.  

But, of the main ingrendients, I do like two other things:  classic movie monsters and Marie Windsor.  And, I figure - two out of three things in this movie?  That ain't bad.

Our plot:  Bud & Lou are semi-stranded in Egypt and get involved with a cult, an ancient mummy, a murder and shady characters looking to make some money.  

I dunno.

Dolly Watch: Straight Talk (1992)

Watched:  09/06/2026

Format:  Amazon?

Viewing:  First

Director:  Barnet Kellman

I kind of remember a spate of these sorts of sweet, fluffy, cotton candy movies coming out for a minute.  I think a lot of this sort of thing has made its way to TV or streaming, and that's cool.  

The draw of Straight Talk in 1992 was "want to see Dolly Parton be nice for 90 minutes?" and in 1992, if it didn't have a robot, Wesley Snipes, a serial killer or an alien in it, no, I did not want to see your movie all that bad.  High school me didn't think about Dolly Parton one way or another, so high-school me took a pass.  And that's too bad.  My mom would love this movie, and we never agreed of movies then or now.  I think I'll call and recommend it to her later today.

Signal Watch Reads: Children of Time

Pal Howard recommended this one.  He's a prolific sci-fi reader and eager-beaver movie watcher, and a trusted source.  He also attends ArmadilloCon each year, a convention for hardcore sci-fi literati, and we tend to get together when he's in town for that event.

A while back I asked him to recommend a favorite sci-fi book as I don't actually *read* much science-fiction.  I kind of sputtered out after Bradbury and Asimov as a kid. And I still like Asimov, Bradbury, and Dick.  I liked Solaris and Rendezvous with Rama.  But the sci-fi section of your local Barnes & Noble is not where I'm usually found.  But I figured - Howard is not going to recommend trash.  And he did not.

Children of Time is more or less what I consider hard science-fiction.  There are no wizards, no deities intervening, no space dragons.  Instead, it's all concepts with logic behind them, even if the science is speculative (at best, at times).  We're thousands of the years in the future when the book begins, and thousands more by the time the book ends.  The science injected is *possibly true* and mercifully focused in only a few areas.  One not be a polymath to follow along.

Pitt Watch: Countess Dracula (1971)

Watched:  09/03/2026

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Peter Sasdy

We watched this a few years ago, and at the time I remember being disappointed it wasn't basically just a redux of The Vampire Lovers, though I didn't exactly put it that way.  I think I appreciated it a bit more on this go-round as I engaged with movie on its own terms.

I had no plans to watch it, but noted it was free on YouTube, and here we are.

Rather than a Dracula movie, Countess Dracula (1971) is a deeply fictionalized version of the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian countess who may have tortured and killed hundreds of girls.  What Bathory *actually* did is up for debate, and like a lot of sensationalistic history could have been entirely fabricated to discredit and humiliate her, as well as stick her in a dungeon (see: The Tower of London for endless trumped up charges and nobles who met unfortunate ends).  

Scorsese Watch: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Watched:  09/02/2026

Format:  Started on Hulu on August 30th, they dropped it and Apple+ picked it up

Viewing:  Second

Director;  Scorsese

I saw The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) once before in the theater, and wanted to watch it again, but it's three hours.  And I figured Jamie would want to see it eventually, and at three hours, I was limiting how often I'd invest in watching the flick.  

Plus, when I remember particularly liking a movie, I am not a person who watches it over and over - if the movie gave me something to chew on.  I save those for occasional viewings when I can really take them in.  I did not mean to give it 13 years between viewings.  Whoops.  But here we are.

These days, Wolf of Wall Street is mostly known as the source of a wide range of GIFs and memes.  Star Leonardo DiCaprio plays the real-life role of former stock hustler Jordan Belfort full-tilt, and screen grabs of some of his scenes are just plastered everywhere. If it's DiCaprio and he's not Gatsby, this is probably the movie that GIF came from.

This is one of those movies where I can see how it might have made some people unhappy.  But overall, the critical consensus was strong and I guess this did get some Oscar noms (or so Jamie told me).  It's a movie that is very loud about what it's saying, and still manages to never say it directly, and in that, I recall at the time of the movie's release people were being willfully obtuse, clutching pearls at the content of the film.

Colonialism Watch: Outpost in Morocco (1949)

Watched:  08/30/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR from Marie Windsor day

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Florey

Outpost in Morocco (1949) was part of Marie Windsor day on TCM's Summer Under the Stars.  She's not the lead, that's George Raft, but she plays a Moroccan princess for all intents and purposes.  

Look, I'm utterly ignorant when it comes to Morocco aside from being able to find it on a map (I double-checked, and I was right!  Thanks, Casablanca for leaving that tidbit in my head!).  I don't know its history, and I don't know the culture.   

I am aware of the French Foreign Legion, its kind of wild history and reputation for taking in folks at the end of their rope.  In this story, Raft plays a Captain who is supposedly awesome at his job when he isn't out romancing the ladies.  He's sent to an outpost to deliver Windsor to her father, who is a regional leader.  Windsor goes to France every year for six months and has been summoned home early.  

Product Liability Law Watch: Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

Watched:  08/30/2026

Format:  Regal Cinemas

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dave Green

First:  yes, this is the *completed* movie Warner Bros. was going to just shelve for a tax write-off and then sold to Ketchup Entertainment when word got out and the PR around the move became quite bad.  Yes, I have thought the people who currently own Warner Bros. are absolute chuckle-@#$%s and why having MBAs run your entertainment companies all but guarantees the worst results.

Second:  I almost took a pass on writing this post as, at its heart, Coyote vs. Acme (2026) is a product liability law movie.  And our good pal, JimD, is an actual product liability attorney with a rich history of doing his own blogging.  And I was going to make him go see the movie and write up a post, but assigning homework to friends does not seem like a good way to maintain a pal-ship.

Tim Curry Watch: It (1990)

Watched:  08/29/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Tommy Lee Wallace

It (1990) has long loomed large over the world of horror media.  The book was a big deal, but I never read it.  Honestly, I'm unsure I've read any Stephen King since middle school and the book of It was 1000+ pages, and thusly avoided.  When the TV movie of It showed in November of 1990, I completely missed it.  No idea what I was doing, but I know what would have been happening that Fall, and my eye and interests were elsewhere.

Since, I have not seen the movie as the 3-hour run-time has been a bit of a deterrent.  Still, that's much shorter than taking in two movies as the new version of It was released into cinemas in the 2010's. 

But with this week's passing of Tim Curry, I figured now was the time to finally see the movie.  

SPOILERS

Chabert Watch: Paris is Always a Good Idea

As the internet's least likely source for Chabert coverage, I knew I'd need to watch the six-episode series, Paris is Always a Good Idea, which just released the final episode on August 27th.  Yeah, six fairly long episodes!  Way to spread the butter thin, Hallmark.

There are always two ways to watch a Hallmark film or TV show.  Hallmark's preference is to exist in a world where romance is simply that - romantic.  It's two people making googly eyes at each other, sharing two details about themselves to sound quirky, and having easily resolvable misunderstandings that wrap up in 80 minutes.  Then there's the version *not* on screen where you wonder where sex fits in.  

And, boy howdy, if you apply that most basic of human activities to this show, it kind of makes our lead look like she needs deep, deep therapy.

SPOILERS

Peter Cullen Merges With The Infinite

Voice actor Peter Cullen, who voiced dozens of characters, from the Predator to Eeyore to Venger on Dungeons & Dragons has passed.

Most famously, Cullen provided the voice of Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots in the now mega-franchise Transformers cartoons and movies, based on the popular toys.  So indelible was his voice, when they went to make a big-budget movie, they just hired Cullen again, knowing we'd all find someone else voicing the character distracting and wrong.

And that was absolutely the right choice.

Pretty nice to play a world famous action hero and not spend half your day in the gym.

For the record, I only have two Transformers toys in my collection at this point, and the other one is Soundwave (with some associated cassettes).  It will not shock you I am a big fan of a tank of a hero colored in red and blue and Optimus retains a place of honor, and Cullen was no small part of why he was a favorite.

Marxist Watch: A Day at the Races (1937)

Watched:  08/26/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First?

Director:  Sam Wood

I know I've previously seen the back half of A Day at the Races (1937), but I'd not seen it all the way through, I guess.

This one takes the Marx Bros. back to Florida where Chico is working for a Sanitarium that is struggling , but hoping for investment from their wealthy patient, Margaret Dumont.  Maureen O'Sullivan has inherited the sanitarium and her boyfriend, a singer, buys a race horse to try to win money to save the place for her.  Groucho plays a veterinarian who Dumont thinks is her doctor, and he comes to the sanitarium.  Harpo, a jockey.

This one felt a little slow to get started, but then had some amazing stuff.  They really understood every scene is funnier if a horse runs through before the end.

Tim Curry Merges With the Infinite

Actor of stage and screen, Tim Curry, has passed.  

Curry had been ailing for some time, having experienced a stroke in 2012.  

For the last fifty years, Curry has built generations of fans with diverse roles from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to The Hunt for Red October to Muppet Treasure Island to Clue.   I think I first saw him as Rooster in Annie, when it was in theaters back in the day.  And I very much enjoyed him in movies like The Shadow and The Three Musketeers and plenty of others.  

He has an insane IMDB listing as he was not shy about taking voice work (I really didn't know til now how many voices he'd done).  He may have also been in a few less than amazing movies, and respect.  The man was working.  He was also acting on a whole different level than everyone else in the small indie movie The Scoundrel's Wife I watched last year.

If social media tells me anything, there's some key roles here that people really remember, and that's pretty great.  The man was beloved, and I think he knew it.  I hope so.

Windsor Pirate Watch: Hurricane Island (1951)

Watched:  08/25/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Lew Landers

So, it's entirely possible that the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was somewhat inspired by this B-movie, Hurricane Island (1951).  I'm not saying it is, directly, or there aren't substantial differences, but....

I'm also not sure watching a movie just because it has Marie Windsor in it is wrong, but..!  It was Marie Windsor day on Summer Under the Stars on TCM. This one is also a pirate movie, and, in theory, is based on one or two real historical figures.  Well, it has Ponce de Leon, which is kind of exciting.

Theoretically, this is about Ponce de Leon's search for the Fountain of Youth.  But in this movie, it's about a wounded Ponce outsourcing his adventuring to a husky Captain Montalvo (John Hall) who de facto leads the expedition into the island of Florida (it's like 1513, and I don't think they know dick all about the actual Florida coastline yet).  

Dolly Parton Merges With The Infinite

The great Dolly Parton, musician, storyteller, philanthropist, entrepreneur, amusement park mogul, and one of the best of us, has passed at the age of 80.

If you've never heard it, I highly recommend the podcast Dolly Parton's America from RadioLab on NPR.

I grew up in the 1980's when Dolly - through radio play, TV and her hit movies Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and 9-to-5 - became a household name.  In short, I cannot remember a world before I knew who she was.  I even saw her in November of 1985 .sitting in the rafters of the Erwin Center, in a co-headlining tour with Kenny Rogers (Sawyer Brown was supporting). 

As I became a teen, country music was *the enemy* for a good patch, as I think a lot of us shut it down who live below the Mason-Dixon line as we build our little lines between us and them.  So it was not until after college that I finally clicked to who Dolly was as a musician.  It came, really, with the release of Little Sparrow - pretty late for me as it was her 38th album.  I believe I bought Emmylou Harris's Red Dirt Girl the same landmark day (unaware of the Trio effort with Linda Ronstadt until Nathan C showed me the way a few years back).

Friday Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  08/21/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Fourth?

Director:  Matt Shakman

First - I am no longer discussing Marvel movies as *movies*.  It's ludicrous to do so.  No one has tried and achieved everything Marvel Studios has done, and to pretend any of what is happening in any single movie is not part of a greater whole is untruthful.  If your problem is that a Marvel movie is tied to other Marvel movies and TV shows, the door is that way. 

We already talked about this movie twice before when I saw it in the theater (twice) and then when my dad came over to keep an eye on me after I had a big screw put in my foot (on purpose) and was recuperating/ hopped-up on goofballs.

But with Doomsday coming, I'd been thinking about the movie a great deal.  After all, Victor was conspicuously absent in this Fantastic Four movie, but it sure seemed to point to where things are going as the FF are all over one of the trailers.

HEAVY SPOILERS AND POINTLESS SPECULATION BELOW

Happy Birthday, Kim Cattrall

Happy Birthday to League fave Kim Cattrall.

Whether she's having Big Trouble in Little China, Sex in the City, taking a Split Second, or heading off for Star Trek 6's Undiscovered Country, we're a fan.

I'm not sure what she's up to at the moment, but we hope she's having a good time.

In the words of Crow T. Robot:

Marxist Watch: The Cocoanuts (1929)

Watched:  08/19/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR hosted by Eddie Muller

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Florey and Joseph Stantley

Apparently the first-ish Marx Bros. movie, The Cocoanuts (1929) is also an early talkie.  So, yeah, someone said "we're adding sound!" and someone said "What people need is to keep up with Groucho and then have Harpo say nothing.  Ever."

The movie is more interesting than laugh out loud funny - but it sure feels like a draft of what was to come and what would work for the Marx Bros. for years to come.  Playing scrappy underdogs not above some lightly criminal doings, but with hearts of gold, the Marx Bros. are dropped into a scenario where Groucho plays someone who has fallen backwards into legitimacy, while Chico and Zeppo show up on the scene to see what they can shake loose, moneywise, from a collection of wealthy people.

DC Animated Watch: DC's League of Super-Pets (2022)

Watched:  08/19/2026

Format:  Disc 4K

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Jared Stern

One of the oddest of casualties of a certain point in time was DC's League of Super-Pets (2022).  

Started before COVID and then, mind-bogglingly, released during COVID as a kids' movie - it seemingly tanked at the box office.  Fun note:  it made $80 million more than Supergirl.

My memory was - people found the advertising very confusing, and the notion of Superman having a *dog* seemed preposterous to the uninitiated.  One wonders how a kid's movie about Krypto would fare now.  

DC's "Lanterns" Episode 1

I used to love Green Lantern comics.  I came to Green Lantern by reading Emerald Dawn and then Emerald Dawn II.*  But GL and it's cast were a lot, and so I was an inconsistent reader for years.  I eventually fell into the monthly habit, and was there for the last of Kyle's run as the only Lantern, the return of Hal Jordan, elevation of John Stewart and eventually Geoff Johns' expansion of the Lantern spectrum.

A few things killed Green Lantern for me. Repetition of the same story concepts.  No real notion of how to write stories that fulfilled the promise of space cops.  Stuff like that.

Unstuck Watch: Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)

Watched:  06/16/2026

Format:  TCM - first ever showing on the network

Viewing:  First

Director:  George Roy Hill

It's been many years since I read Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade: a Duty Dance with Death. So long ago that all I can say for certain is that it was post-2000 and probably before this blog was founded.  I was just old enough reading it to know my WWII history and a bit embarrassed I'd not read it earlier in life.

But Vonnegut is, hopefully, something that works for you no matter your age.

As it's been a while since I read the book, I won't spend energy comparing and contrasting.  Instead, I'll just suggest watching the movie Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) sometime if you've already read the novel.  If jumping straight to the movie, it also can't hurt to pre-load your knowledge of the last year of World War II in Europe, to get what audiences in 1972 would have likely known just through cultural osmosis.  Things like "oh... Dresden" may not mean as much to some folks here in 2026 and all that you would know is coming.

I won't get into whether what Billy experiences is real or not.  Y'all can make your own decisions and I don't think the answer is that easy.

Ghost Watch: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Watched: 08/16/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR (Alicia Malone hosting)

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Considered a bona fide classic, I knew the basics of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), but had never managed to get around to the film.  I had no predictions going in - just knew it was a romantic comedy about a widow who moves into a house haunted by the ghost of a former sea captain played by Rex Harrison.

I'm not sure how *funny* this movie is.  It's *charming* and there's humor, but it's more of what Alicia Malone, hosting with TCM, rightfully included into the now very popular genre of Supernatural Romance.  

Gene Tierney plays a widow (Mrs. Lucy Muir) and mother to a young Natalie Wood.  She has some income from her husband's holdings in a gold mine, and so chooses to leave her in-law's house in London to move to the sea-side and live a new life - pushing against turn-of-the-century decorum.  

Happy Birthday, Julie Newmar

Today is the birthday of screen star Julie Newmar, who has just a ridiculous filmography, but has been nerd-famous for decades as one of the women in the Catwoman costume on TV's Batman.  

see!

Newmar is a dancer and actor, and stands at a startling 5'11", which probably kept her from many roles over the years as she'd tower over most of Hollywood's leading men.  For this 6'5" blogger, we think this is just fine.

She appeared in Star Trek, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Call Me Madam, and plenty of others.  We've been looking for a DVD of the 1959 version of Lil' Abner for a while to see her take on Stupefyin' Jones.  You know, for film history research.

Today, she turns 93!  I hope she's having a good one.