All apologies to Bruce Willis for what I’m about to write. Despite his firm stance on the matter, I can’t help but classify Die Hard as a Christmas movie. It takes place at a company holiday party, features festive music, and has Bruce Willis himself whistling “Jingle Bells” in the opening act. The end credits roll to “Let it Snow”, bookending the film in festive music. That checks all the boxes I need to justify putting on this classic action-thriller during the season.
14 Carrot Rabbit (1952)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis, Manuel Perez, Ken Champin
Music by Carl Stalling
This cartoon is set during the Klondike Gold Rush, with claim jumper Chillicothe Sam (actually, our old pal Yosemite Sam) shooting his guns to chase an elderly prospector away from his meager findings. Sam is unhappy that his thievery is producing dismal results, and he is dumbfounded when he discovers Bugs Bunny has a knack for discovering huge gold deposits – whenever he’s over the precious metal, Bugs going into wild convulsions. Sam tries to trick Bugs into a partnership, but (as usual) is constantly outsmarted by his prey.
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It’s the holiday break in the 90’s. Your family turns on the TV in the evening, and change the channel to TNT. There’s now a 50 / 50 chance you’re watching A Christmas Story. On the off chance it isn’t on, a commercial is. This was tradition at the time. It became a part of the cacophony of festive background sounds. The movie was just as much a part of the holiday as a decorated tree, or vibrant colored lights being strewn across the house.
If you were tuned into TNT on television during the holiday seasons of the 1990’s, there was a significant chance that A Christmas Story was playing. Bob Clark’s holiday classic showcased the exploits of a young boy, his comedic family, a passionate pursuit for a “Red Ryder” air rifle, and an iconic leg lamp that was sure to put a smile on any father’s face. If Bob Clark was good at anything, it was catching the spirit of the season. And if there was anything else he was good at, it was turning it upside down to make it feel cold, isolating, and foreboding. Nearly a full decade before Bob Clark would showcase a charming winter vacation, he would terrorize a sorority of young women in his holiday horror hit, Black Christmas.
Now available on disc from Anchor Bay
A man wakes up with an explosive device in his neck after a string of bad luck. What will he be willing to do to survive?
Well, it’s that time of the year again and we all know what this means! It means a bunch of obnoxious songs screaming at you to buy luxury items, malls packed full of depraved people ready to knock old ladies down in order to get the last Xbox, demented family members coming to visit and eat all your food while terrible movies play on a constant loop as if they’re pagan drumbeats that you can’t escape. Luckily, I’ve immunized myself against the last one by watching trash every Monday for the last four years. So let’s talk about that by reviewing today’s movie Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation.
Throughout history, the brandishing of “worst film director of all time” has been bandied about so often that it has lost value. One of the more notorious examples is Edward D. Wood, Jr., the powerhouse schlockmeister behind such turgid affairs as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. Wood’s films are a tour de force of poor editing, direction, acting and special effects. However, Wood at least gave the impression that he genuinely wanted to produce a quality product.
From the other side of the tracks and a much different time was the little known, but nevertheless intriguing director of “B” western dramas, Robert J. Horner. Horner was a producer and director of cheap horse operas who operated on Hollywood’s “Poverty Row,” a group of independent producers and studios whose primary source of income was made from cheap westerns, horror pictures and mystery films from the silent era until the collapse of the studio system in the mid-1950’s.
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