The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 1, 2020

Earlier this week TCM showed CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY, a 1970 family-oriented fantasy-adventure made in England. I had never seen the film before. Even though this movie was released in 1970, it feels like something that should have come out at least ten years before. The success of...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 28, 2020

A couple nights ago, courtesy of the MOVIES! TV channel, I watched a 1954 film noir called PUSHOVER. The movie starred two of my favorite actresses of all time--Kim Novak and Dorothy Malone. PUSHOVER was in fact Novak's very first credited film role (she gets a "And Introducing" main title...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 21, 2020

This month Turner Classic Movies is showcasing classic film comedian Joe E. Brown. One of his films the channel showed was SON OF A SAILOR, a 1933 title made by Warner Bros. The major reason I watched it was for the fact that Thelma Todd is in it...but honestly, I...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 17, 2020

Today's YouTube public domain theater entry is a cheap 1948 noir entitled PAROLE INC. One of the companies behind the movie was Eagle-Lion, formerly known as Producers Releasing Corporation. The only notable thing about PAROLE INC. is that it stars Turhan Bey and Evelyn Ankers, two veterans of the   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 15, 2020

In the late 1980s, a purchased a book called MORE CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM. It was written by esteemed film historian William K. Everson. This volume was a follow-up to Everson's CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM, one of the very first movie books I ever bought. In MORE CLASSICS...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 11, 2020

YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU is a 1933 British film starring Thelma Todd and Stanley Lupino. I happened to obtain a grey-market DVD copy of the movie. It's a title that deserves a proper American home video release, and is must-viewing for Thelma Todd fans. The story begins with Stanley...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 8, 2020

A low-budget version of Dostoyevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT from Poverty Row studio Monogram? It isn't a joke--it's the 1946 film FEAR, which transports the distinguished story to the black & white shadowy environs of the post-WWII American big city. Peter Cookson plays Larry Crain, a penniless   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 7, 2020

Today's list comes from an idea that somehow popped into my head. There's a number of famous roles that have been played in movies (and TV) over and over again--legendary fictional and historical characters such as Dracula, Batman, Wyatt Earp, etc. The purpose of this list is to present my...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 4, 2020

THE BLACK RAVEN (1943) is a mystery film with a rather obvious title--what else would they have called it...THE PLAID RAVEN?? It was made by the Poverty Row company Producers Releasing Corporation, and produced by Sigmund Neufeld and directed by Sam Newfield, frequent low-budget filmmakers (and brot   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 1, 2020

THE UNEARTHLY (1957) is a ultra-low budget crazy combination of science-fiction, horror, and noir. It features elements and plot devices reminiscent from films such as the 1935 THE RAVEN, BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT, VOODOO MAN, and THE BLACK SLEEP. It is rather fitting that the star of the film is John...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 29, 2020

The 1966 Hammer historical melodrama RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK contains one of Christopher Lee's greatest film performances. The movie makes its American Blu-ray debut courtesy of Shout Factory. Production began on RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK literally days after DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS wrapped. RASPUTIN   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 26, 2020

Britain's Hammer Films made a number of historical action-adventure pictures in the 1960s. Due to the company's typical low budgets, these films usually bit off more than they could chew, but for the most part they were decent entertainments. THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR (1965) is one of the least of...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 22, 2020

X THE UNKNOWN (1957) was Hammer's first attempt to follow up on the success of their science fiction adaptation THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT. It was also the debut screenplay of Jimmy Sangster, who would go on to write many of Hammer's most famous films. X THE UNKNOWN is not as beloved...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 20, 2020

One of the things that has been trending among movie buffs on Twitter recently is #PreMakeAMovie. The premise is simple: take a recent film (or a relatively modern one) and "premake" it--that is, pretend the movie had been made years before, with a cast and crew befitting the times. It's...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 16, 2020

Joan Collins appeared in a number of 1970s horror films: TALES FROM THE CRYPT, DARK PLACES, TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS....but the weirdest and worst of all has to be a 1975 British production that was known in America as THE DEVIL WITHIN HER. Why is this...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 15, 2020

THE VVITCH, which came out a couple years ago, was a film I made sure to see in the theater. It had plenty of eerie and uncanny moments, and its director, Robert Eggers, knew how to make use of stillness and sound. Eggers' follow-up, THE LIGHTHOUSE, didn't even make it...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 10, 2020

The latest issue of CINEMA RETRO (#46) contains an interview with actor John Richardson, who appeared in such noteworthy genre films as Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY (1960) and the Hammer Films version of SHE (1965). In the magazine Richardson mentions a 1967 Euro Western he starred in called JOHN THE...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 9, 2020

The 1988 fantasy-adventure film WILLOW has been back in the news recently due to info that there may be plans for a TV sequel. I never saw WILLOW in the theater--I must have only seen it on either videotape or on cable. I only saw it once, and it didn't...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 4, 2020

I finally watched JOKER last night. Boy, that was a film that I needed after a hard day at work (sarcasm). As I'm sure everybody knows now, JOKER tells the story of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a mentally unstable, put-upon individual who lives a grim, bleak existence in what appears...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on February 1, 2020

THE SPECIALISTS (1969) is one of Sergio Corbucci's lesser known Euro Westerns. It's not on the same level as the director's DJANGO or THE GREAT SILENCE, and it doesn't have any major spaghetti western or American stars. The main character is in fact played by a French pop star called...   read more