Manny Farber's best films of 1951, #4: 'The Thing From Another World," directed (it is said) by
Previous installments here, here, and

"Contract" work
How do you like that for a use of negative space, huh? That's Mr. Vince Edwards, a watch, and a tie, in Murder By Contract, another great one in the below-cited Sony collection.It was a slow news week, movie-wise, so I used the opportunity to wax a little more philosophical about the prerogatives of film noir, particularly the above, in today's installment of

Images of the day, 11/4/09
From the furious climax of Don Siegel's spectacular 1958 The Lineup, one of the crown jewels of Sony's new and very welcome Film Noir Classics I set. The getaway car taking an exit ramp to nowhere and narrowly missing a fatal drop is classic Siegel: a fantastic thrill gen

The Mabuse hour...
Over at The Auteurs', some reflections on one of the biggest DVD events of the year: Eureka!/Masters of Cinema's epic boxset of all of Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse films. A spectacular achievement, just a top-notch presentation of timeless, ever-galvanic cinema. The ornate clock above is from the first film of the series, the nearly-five-hour Dr. Mabuse, der Spi

Comrades, let us seize the time
What tumultuous, nay, can we say even even revolutionary event, could compel the elusive and brilliant Self-Styled Siren to reveal her true, or, rather, her civilian identity? You know it's got to be big, you weepy old Bolshy. Get all the news here and here, go set your DVR, and fix yourself a White Russian. Nostrovia! And congrats to the Siren and her co-conspirator