Top Ten Hammers

Happy Halloween!  In honor of the (apparently) late, lamented Watching Hammer, I offer this nostalgic list, written at their request just before the site ceased posting new material: Sincerest thanks to Watching Hammer for inviting me to contribute a Top Ten.  Since Hammer’s heyday ended when I wasn’t quite old enough to drive, I haven’t [...]

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It Begins…

News about the advent—and I use that term advisedly; for me, after thirteen years, this is like the B.C./A.D. split—of Richard Matheson on Screen is percolating through the Internet, and I would like to thank those who’ve so graciously commented on Richard’s reaction to the book (see “The Only Review That Really Matters”).  Although I [...]

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Tor.com Alert 10/26/10

After some delays related to their exhaustive “Steampunk Fortnight” coverage, Tor.com has my latest installment of the “Richard Matheson—Storyteller” series up, along with the usual yummy artwork.  This one covers the remainder of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle, along with such related works as Matheson’s The Comedy of Terrors and Corman’s The Terror (both [...]

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All Messed Up

I owe Joe Kane (aka The Phantom of the Movies) an apology, because I’ve been so fixated on talking up my own just-released book that I’ve neglected to do so with his, Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever.  Full Disclosure Dept.:  Joe not only is related [...]

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The Two Towerses

In 1964, Austrian actress Maria Rohm (née Helga Maria Grohmann) met British producer and sometime screenwriter Harry Alan Towers (aka Peter Welbeck), whom she wed in 1982, and their personal and professional lives were inextricably intertwined until Harry died at the age of 88 in 2009.  A frequent friend of this site, Maria Towers had [...]

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The Only Review That Really Matters

Phone message from Richard Matheson, October 15, 2010, 8:13 PM EDT:  “Hi, Matthew.  You just cost me a whole day of writing.  They delivered your book today, and I’ve been spending the whole day looking through it.  It’s fascinating.  You really did a great job on it.  It’s beautifully done, extremely complete.  I haven’t finished [...]

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A Career to Remember

Last night, I was surprised to learn that director Roy Ward Baker passed away on October 5 at the age of 93; surprised because, as is so often the case with someone so long off my personal radar, I had assumed he was long gone already.  I see now from the IMDb that he was [...]

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Tor.com Alert 10/12/10

Somehow, amid all the chaos of Movie Night-and-Day-After (see “Harmonic Convergence”), plus getting Alexandra back to Cornell yesterday—resulting in our getting to bed around 2:00 this morning—I managed to write my latest Matheson post for Tor.com.  It’s the first of a two-parter devoted to the four Edgar Allan Poe films he scripted for Roger Corman and [...]

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Harmonic Convergence

Back in February, BOF did a live post (“My Green Heaven”) from one of our infamous Movie Night gatherings, at which we converge with like-minded friends to socialize, devour take-out food in shocking amounts, kill brain cells in even more shocking amounts and, oh yeah, watch wacky movies after a fashion.  I say “after a [...]

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The Eagle Has Landed

I’ve waited thirteen years to write these words:  I am now looking at a copy of Richard Matheson on Screen.  That’s right, the book is off press and in my hot little hands (metaphorically, at least, or I wouldn’t be able to type this).  And, as strange as it sounds, in some ways it has [...]

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