Author Archive: Retro

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How Nitrate Film Set the World Ablaze

Decades before the compact disc, DVDs and streaming services like Hulu and Netflix – even Betamax, there was the film reel – specifically, the nitrate film reel that manufacturers stopped producing in the 1950s.

The reason for the sudden stoppage in the manufacture of nitrate film reels? Combustibility. This posed a huge danger not just to production outfits of the 1930s onward, but also to cinemas that necessarily stored nitrate film reels. By the 1950s, Kodak had replaced both colored and black and white nitrate reels with more stable film stock that didn’t blaze like their predecessors.

Film critics and curators like Genevieve McGillcuddy of the TCM Classic Film Festival state that there’s nothing quite like watching films straight from nitrate film stock, and many similar believers of nitrate film say that the experience of enjoying this type of cinema is close to a spiritual experience.

Explosive cinema

Marilyn Monroe: Enduring Screen Icon

Sexy, glamorous and risqué – these are just three of the mouthful of qualities that are regularly attributed to the most iconic blonde bombshell in American popular culture – Marilyn Monroe. But one can argue that she wasn’t the only pin-up girl or bombshell of her time. There was Bettie Page, Betty Grable, and Jayne Mansfield, to name a few. Why can’t Marilyn Monroe be ‘just’ Marilyn Monroe?

So many things about the enigmatic Monroe tickled the popular imagination, to the extent that even if she was only around in Hollywood for only a few years, her films accrued $200 million in profits, and her legendary blonde locks could be recognized globally, from North America to the Middle East.

A most universal Marilyn

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn was like good literature, because she easily transcended cultural differences and became a remarkably marketable actress and model everywhere she went.

Public Domain Movies with Vincent Price

“Go ahead, smile, it’s funny.”

For a generation of moviegoers, Vincent Price will always be known as the melancholy, ambitious Inventor of the title character in Edward Scissorhands (1990). But before Price imprinted that final elegiac performance upon the minds of millions, he spent over half a century spooking, bewitching, dazzling, and bedeviling audiences worldwide. Price had a singular talent for embodying a staggering array of characters that run the gamut from mice to madmen.

Vincent Price - The Man We Love to Fear

Even when Price played sinister examples of sheer evil, he offered a glimmer of charm; a wry spark of joy in the face of horror. Consider his underrated turn in the title role of the Witchfinder General (1968) or his frantic rendering of The Mad Magician (1954) who screams “Go on, laugh! Laugh! Laugh!” as he thrusts his nemesis’ face into a whirling buzzsaw. Price had an uncanny ability to utilize his cold blue eyes as sou [...]

The High Legacy of Reefer Madness

For anyone interested in experiencing a piece of pure Americana, look no further than 1936’s Reefer Madness.

This outstanding example of the wild possibilities that emerge when camp is played straight has left a legacy for midnight movie crowds and lovers of cult cinema. As a piece of pop culture, Reefer Madness offers a timeless example of a certain American sensibility that has permeated this relatively young country since its inception. Reefer Madness captures a cultural touchstone by exposing the underbelly of anti-insight through the form of an exaggerated lecture on morality.

The creators of this you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me piece of propaganda present their thunderingly virtuous message immediately by the hectoring scrawl that rolls at the top of the picture. You know you’re in for a good talking to right away, and the filmmakers waste no time before plunging into a series of warnings and rebukes. You encounter a distinctly insufferable

Public Domain Cartoons from Max Fleischer Studios In the wake of Disney extension of its domination over the film business of its acquisition with purchase of Fox it is noteworthy to remember a time when the corporate giant faced stiff competition from a rival in the animation sphere: the pioneering, ever-inventive Fleischer Studios, founded by the one and only Max Fleischer. From 1924 to 1940, Fleischer brought to the silver screen a host of iconic characters, including Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman, and many more. Whereas Disney's style was light and polished, Fleischer's was known to be gritty and rough-around-the-edges. When Disney highlighted anthropomorphized animals in its cartoons, Fleischer's leading stars were largely exaggerated humanoids. And, rather than highlighting idyllic meadows and quasi-European fairy tale settings, Fleischer's cartoons took place in something resembling the real world -- full of grimy, urban locales which reflected the anxieties of the Great Depression. But even if the content of Fleischer's noted works re [...]

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