Au Revoir, Colette

Long before Audrey (Amélie) Tautou portrayed the young Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in Coco Before Chanel (2009), Marie-France Pisier essayed the role in Chanel Solitaire (1981), which I quite enjoyed when I first saw it under rather unusual circumstances. I was on an ocean liner, accompanying an elderly aunt on a cruise around Norway, and since [...]

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Givens and Take

I’ve been boning up on the literary exploits of Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in Elmore Leonard’s Pronto and Riding the Rap (although I’ve yet to score a copy of “Fire in the Hole,” the nominal basis for Justified, in his collection When the Women Come Out to Dance), with an eye toward comparing them [...]

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Hexed

Drax has correctly pointed out that The Sunday Drax evolved into Hexes: The Sunday Spectra.  What I neglected to clarify was how much I loved the name of “The Sunday Drax,” which to me had overwhelmingly evoked—and thus tied in perfectly with my item on—Pogo.  We regret any misimpression. It should be noted, first, that [...]

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“Anything” and Everything

In the grand tradition of the late, lamented Sunday Drax, here’s a BOF buffet of unrelated items: Those of you who, like me, enjoy fond memories of the immortal comic strip Pogo (written and drawn by Walt Kelly from 1948 until his death in 1973), and won’t rest until there is a Complete Pogo to [...]

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How I Met Robert Neville on Metro-North

Many factors led me to start writing Richard Matheson on Screen in 1997, only the most obvious one of which was my growing obsession with Matheson’s work.  I did not record for posterity the date when I conceived or started working on it, but if I’d known it would take thirteen years, I would have [...]

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Eyes Without a Face

On the occasion of Georges Franju’s 99th birthday, we revisit this article written for the late, lamented original Scifipedia website. Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face, aka The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus; 1959) prefigured several films in which scientists denude women while attempting to restore scarred beauties.  Director Franju (1912-1987) had drawn [...]

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Dangers on a Train

Last night, only hours after posting my obituary on Sidney Lumet, I treated myself to a memorial viewing of Murder on the Orient Express, which may be my favorite of his films, certainly in my top five (along with 12 Angry Men, Fail-Safe, Network, and The Verdict).  It still holds up like a rock after [...]

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Goodbye, Sidney

Statements of the “a giant has left us” nature are all too common, but I’m afraid Sidney Lumet’s death today at 86 in his beloved Manhattan—the setting for so many of his films—merits no less.  Like The GREAT John Frankenheimer, he was one of the most notable directors to emerge from the Golden Age of [...]

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Tor.com Alert 4/7/11

Okay, let’s see:  yesterday was Wednesday, Wednesday.  Today is Thursday, Thursday.  Tomorrow is Friday.  And Saturday comes afterwards…but I digress.  It’s so easy to get distracted by great literature.  (Man, Steve Allen would have had a field day with that one.) Be that as it may, you can still tune in to Tor.com for the [...]

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The Fly

On the occasion of Kurt Neumann’s 103rd birthday, we revisit this article written for the late, lamented original Scifipedia website. Originally published in the June 1957 issue of Playboy (then an outlet for outstanding short fiction by the likes of Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Matheson), George Langelaan’s “The Fly” won the magazine’s Best [...]

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