Movie Review: Broadway Limited (1941) directed by Gordon Douglas Our story opens in Chicago, where Hollywood director Ivan Ivansky (Leonid Kinskey), his top star April Tremaine (Marjorie Woodworth) and personal assistant Patsy Riley (Patsy Kelly) are promoting their most recent movie. It’s going swell, but Ivansky is already planning his next movie, which will have a… Continue reading Movie Review: Broadway Limited
Tag: Chicago
Book Review: Union Bust
Book Review: Union Bust by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy Quick recap: Remo Williams used to be a cop before he was framed for murder and “died” in the electric chair, only to find out he’d been recruited by the secret U.S. government agency CURE. He was trained in the deadly martial art/lifestyle Sinanju by… Continue reading Book Review: Union Bust
Movie Review: Risky Business (1983)
Movie Review: Risky Business (1983) directed by Paul Brickman Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is an upper-middle class kid in his last year of a Chicago high school. He’d like to get into Princeton like his father, but his grades are only okay, his SAT scores are mediocre, and his extracurriculars aren’t very shiny. Even his Future… Continue reading Movie Review: Risky Business (1983)
Book Review: Great Science Fiction About Doctors
Book Review: Great Science Fiction About Doctors edited by Groff Conklin and Noah D. Fabricant, M.D. While medical doctors are common and important in science fiction, stories directly about them or the field of medicine are a bit rarer. It was one magazine’s speculation that it would be difficult to fill an anthology with really… Continue reading Book Review: Great Science Fiction About Doctors
Movie Review: The Damned Don’t Cry
Movie Review: The Damned Don’t Cry (1950) directed by Vincent Sherman Someone may be getting rich off this Oklahoma oilfield, but it’s sure not Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford). She, her husband Jim (Morris Ankrum) and son Timmy live in her parents’ house, and they’re still barely getting by. Jim isn’t getting promotions or raises, and the… Continue reading Movie Review: The Damned Don’t Cry
Comic Book Review: Long Distance
Comic Book Review: Long Distance by Thomas F. Zahler Commercial artist Carter Blue and rocket scientist Lee Smith meet in a New York airport when he’s knocked over by an unruly child. She sees his sketches, they both make geeky references, the two start talking, and a spark is lit. This could be love. Just… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Long Distance
Magazine Review: Hooded Detective January 1942
Magazine Review: Hooded Detective January 1942 The Black Hood was one of the superheroes created for the MLJ (later Archie) Comics line, first appearing in Top-Notch Comics #9 in 1940. Matthew Kipling “Kip” Burland was originally a rookie cop who was framed for grand larceny and injured to near death by a criminal known as… Continue reading Magazine Review: Hooded Detective January 1942
Movie Review: The Hunter
Movie Review: The Hunter (1980) directed by Buzz Kulik Frank “Papa” Thorson (Steve McQueen) is an old-fashioned kind of guy. He collects antique tin toys, struggles to show his emotions, and is a bounty hunter, going after those who have jumped bail to bring them back–usually alive–for a reward. Right now, he seriously needs the money… Continue reading Movie Review: The Hunter
Manga Review: The Crater
Manga Review: The Crater by Osamu Tezuka In the late 1960s, Osamu Tezuka’s career was facing a crisis. He was still popular, with publishers quite willing to buy more of the kid-friendly material he’d become famous for. But he wasn’t a trend-setter anymore. The new generation of manga creators was into gekiga, more serious and… Continue reading Manga Review: The Crater
Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files
Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files edited by Max Allan Collins and Martin H. Greenberg In 1990, the venerable Dick Tracy comic strip got a movie adaptation, Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. To cash in on the publicity, the then-writer of the strip, Max Allan Collins, was asked to do both a… Continue reading Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files