-
Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure
My first movie Tarzan was stuntman and former Range Rider Jock Mahoney in Tarzan Goes to India, so maybe it was TV that introduced me to Gordon Scott’s take on the ape man. All due respect to Mahoney, but he didn’t look right and he was on the wrong frickin’ continent. He looked like he’d…
-
Shutter Island
I’m not trying for spoilers, here, but if you want to keep yourself pure, don’t read on. Read this instead. It’s probably my most popular post. I set out to see The Wolfman at the weekend, but got there an hour before showtime so bought a ticket for Shutter Island instead. (I saw The Wolfman…
-
The End of the Road
If I see a worse film than 2012 this year it’ll only be because Roland Emmerich rushes out another one… not that it wasn’t well-made on every technical level, but it was of an order of dumb magnificence that pretty much took my breath away. Its narrative intelligence was at the level of a simulator…
-
Movies of the Year
It’s awards voting time again and although in previous years I’ve kept a strict silence over my preferences, I’ve noticed that I seem to be the only one doing it. I suppose it’s hubris to imagine that anyone really cares… so in the interests of humility I’ll tell you what I’ve liked this year. I’ve…
-
Kong at Christie’s
The 22-inch metal armature from one of the animation figures created for the original 1933 King Kong has been sold at auction for £120,000. Because of the perishable nature of the materials used in their construction, little usually survives of stop-motion models once a few years have passed. As with the rest of us, only…
-
On the Set
It’s always pleasant to work on a set where visits by family members are welcomed. It makes for a nice atmosphere. On Friday, the father of our cameraman Eric Roizman came in to watch some filming and meet his son’s co-workers. I got to lend him my chair in the video village. If you’re wondering…
-
Titans Will Clash
Have you seen the new trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans? “Titans Will Clash!” I’m cool with it, because I thought Clash was a way less than perfect movie and was far from Uncle Ray’s best work… that crappy mechanical owl that has to have been inserted by the studio as a…
-
Star Wars
Star Wars? I was right there at the beginning, I tell you. Well, when I say the beginning, I mean I got into the press show. In Manchester. All right, so it was hardly the creative coalface, but looking back on it I can feel that I was a witness to something. I saw the…
-
William S Hart
William S Hart was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. He made Westerns with the onscreen persona of a strong and silent hero, usually with a criminal past for which he’d earn redemption by displaying moral conscience in extreme adversity. In his day, his drawing-power and earnings made him the equal of…
-
New Work, and Some Old Places
I’m thinking of going to the Gene Autry Western museum in Griffith Park this weekend. See if there’s anything that helps my ideas for the new book. (That’s the new new book; the new book, a big historical in the same vein as The Kingdom of Bones and from the same Random House imprint, is…
Hauling Like A Brooligan
Stephen Gallagher
