Late Night Memories: Up All Night with Rhonda

Before you indulge in the latest edition of Late Night Memories, I want to share a quick note about this post. I wrote a version of it many, many years ago for a website called The Retro Network. Recently, I was looking up information on USA Up All Night, as I am wont to do, … Continue reading Late Night Memories: Up All Night with Rhonda →

From the Vault: Joan Collins in Fatal Charm

This post was first published at my old blog. It’s been revised slightly and I’m re-presenting it here, just in time for Dame Joan Collins’s 92nd birthday tomorrow. I've made it my mission to hunt down and watch all of Starfire Lounge VIP Joan Collins's pre-Dynasty cult films. From crime dramas to horror to erotic thrillers, … Continue reading From the Vault: Joan Collins in Fatal Charm →

Marilyn Monday

As American icons go, Marilyn Monroe is the alpha and the omega. Like millions of others people, I’ve been obsessed with her since childhood—her incandescent beauty, inside and out, positively bowled me over—and that obsession is built for the long haul. I could post about her every single day and still never lose an ounce … Continue reading Marilyn Monday →

Michelle Monday

“I love the way you swig.” That’s what Johnny (Al Pacino) says to Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) in one of my favorite scenes from my favorite movie, Frankie and Johnny. It happens during a raucous party in a New York apartment , as the two characters tentatively stoke the flames of their budding romance. Frankie, of … Continue reading Michelle Monday →

Lost and Found: Dirty Weekend

This is the story of Bella, who woke up one morning and realized she’d had enough. Nearly twenty years after the zeitgeist-defining Death Wish (1974), director Michael Winner retuned to the exploitation revenge genre with the nasty little gem Dirty Weekend (1993). Adapted from Helen Zahavi’s controversial novel, Dirty Weekend manages the impressive feat of … Continue reading Lost and Found: Dirty Weekend →

Giallogy: The New York Ripper

Lucio Fulci’s sleazefest The New York Ripper (1982) is a masterwork of perversion. Sexually explicit and gruesomely bloody, the film features a serial killer ripping his way through the seedy streets of New York’s Times Square. Inexplicably, the mysterious killer speaks in a Donald Duck quacking voice (!) and viciously slices up a series of … Continue reading Giallogy: The New York Ripper →

Michelle Monday

This Michelle Monday is extra special! Happy birthday to my fellow Taurus, the woman who inspires so much of my writing, and whose film work has defined so much of my life and brought me immeasurable amounts of joy. Happy 66th birthday, Michelle. We Taurus signs gotta stick together.