The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 20, 2019

Probably no other entity has done more to showcase "Pre-Code" cinema than Turner Classic Movies. The cable television network constantly shows Pre-Code films day after day, and many home video collections containing titles from that era have been released with TCM's support. The network's connection   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 16, 2019

In my last post I covered THE SON OF DR. JEKYLL....and apparently the dangerous doc had a little girl as well. You won't learn that from Robert Louis Stevenson, but you will if you watch DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL, a 1957 film from Allied Artists directed by cult fave Edgar...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 14, 2019

Last night the legendary Svengoolie, on his nationally syndicated program broadcast every Saturday night on the MeTV network, presented the 1951 Columbia film THE SON OF DR. JEKYLL. This is a film that, believe it or not, I had never seen before, and had very little knowledge of. What makes...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 13, 2019

A wild and wacky horror-kung fu mashup, Hammer's THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES comes to Region A Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Factory. This movie was a result of Hammer head Michael Carreras trying to find new avenues for the company during the early 1970s. Carreras entered into a...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 6, 2019

HOUSE OF THE GORGON was written, produced, and directed by Joshua Kennedy, and it was filmed during the spring of 2018 in Southeastern Texas. The movie is a "Gothic Fairytale" (that phrase actually appears onscreen under the title in the opening credits)--a tribute to the classic horror productions   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on April 2, 2019

If you've watched TV or gone on the internet in the last week or so, you've doubtless seen an untold number of ads for the latest Disney live-action remake, DUMBO. The movie is directed by Tim Burton. When it comes to Tim Burton, I have a certain way of looking...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 31, 2019

While doing research on Val Lewton for the post I wrote on the new Shout Factory Blu-ray of THE BODY SNATCHER, I discovered that the last film he produced before his untimely death at age 46 was a Western for Universal called APACHE DRUMS in 1951. The movie just so...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 30, 2019

I had been debating for a while on whether I should even buy the new Shout Factory Blu-ray of THE BODY SNATCHER. The movie is my personal favorite among the series of famed thrillers produced by Val Lewton for RKO Studios during the 1940s. But I already own the Val...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on March 27, 2019

My last post concerned FORT YUMA GOLD, which is included on a Spaghetti Western double feature blu-ray just released by Mill Creek. Today I'll discuss the other film on the disc, DAMNED HOT DAY OF FIRE. DAMNED HOT DAY OF FIRE (1968) isn't even the title used on the print...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 24, 2019

Mill Creek has just released a "Western Double Feature" Blu-ray containing the films FORT YUMA GOLD and DAMNED HOT DAY OF FIRE. These are two somewhat obscure Spaghetti Westerns--I had never heard of them before--but they do have a couple things in common: they are both set during the Civil...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 23, 2019

Shout Factory's latest Hammer home video release is one of the company's more offbeat productions--the 1966 tale concerning witchcraft in modern England called THE WITCHES. (The American release title was THE DEVIL'S OWN.) The movie starts with a effective pre-credits sequence, showing how Englishw   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 20, 2019

The new documentary APOLLO 11 is absolutely stunning. Director-editor Todd Douglas Miller assembled the film from hundreds of hours of actual NASA footage and audio produced over the course of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The picture and sound quality was cleaned up, and the result, when seen   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 16, 2019

Flicker Alley presents a wonderful find on home video--a rediscovered and restored 1929 German silent version of the most famous Sherlock Holmes story, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. The Blu-ray release also features a 1914 German film adaptation of the tale. For me the discovery of a lost Sherlock   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 11, 2019

What I love most about Turner Classic Movies is how many obscure films they show. particularly ones from the 1930s. Last week TCM presented a 1934 melodrama called THE MAN WITH TWO FACES. The movie stars Edward G. Robinson, and it was produced by First National/Warners. Robinson plays Damon Wells,   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 10, 2019

STAND-IN is a 1937 light comedy satirizing the Hollywood studio system of the period, and it has just been released on home video by Classic Flix. The movie was produced by Walter Wanger and originally released by United Artists. The New York-based bank of Pettypacker and Sons is planning to...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 3, 2019

While scrolling through the list of free movies available on Xfinity OnDemand last night, I stumbled upon a Western I had never heard of--a 1957 film produced by Universal called QUANTEZ, starring Fred MacMurray and one of my favorites, Dorothy Malone. The movie begins with five figures riding hell   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on March 2, 2019

This is my contribution to Fay Wray and Robert Riskin, The Blogathon. I must point out that the day I am writing this, March 2, happens to be the birthday of Willis O'Brien...and yesterday, March 1, was the birthday of Lionel Atwill--two men who had a major impact on the...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on February 28, 2019

Shout Factory gives one of Bela Lugosi's best films of the 1940s the Blu-ray treatment with their release of THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE. This 1943 movie from Columbia has been categorized by some as nothing more than a copy of the Universal horror style. In many ways, though, it's...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on February 25, 2019

My latest cheap DVD purchase is a 1955 film called THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES, released by American Releasing Corporation (the company that would soon become American International Pictures). THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES is one of those low-budget black & white science fiction films tha   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day Jr. on February 18, 2019

My recent post on my favorite silent movies reminded me once again how much I love Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL. I mentioned in that post how the movie is based on a real-life Civil War incident known as the Andrews Raid. In 1862 Union spy James Andrews led a group...   read more