| John Carpenter's The Thing | March 14, 2017 |
A few years ago John Carpenter presented a screening of his 1978 horror film Halloween at my local arthouse theater; after the screening the director fielded questions. Someone from the audience asked him about the ending of his 1982 film The Thing, when it came down to the two surviving characters - Kurt Russell and Keith David - which one was human and which one was the alien.
And Carpenter's answer was "Watch their breath. It's obvious". So I had to go re-watch the ending. Because, as we all know, humans have breath in the cold, but aliens not so much...
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| The Hustler: Lagging for the Break | March 7, 2017 |
In pool, specifically pocket billiards, it's a well-known practice to "lag" for the break. The concept is simple: both players hit a random ball at the far cushion, and whoever manages to land a ball as close to the near rail gets the honor of the break. This lobby card from the Robert Rossen pool hall classic The Hustler - the best card in the set - shows Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman "lagging" for the break. This is the only time in conventional pool where both players would be shooting at the same time.
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| Bullets or Ballots | November 3, 2016 |
As our seemingly endless presidential election is finally, mercifully drawing to a close it seemed like a good time to post one of my all-time favorite lobby cards, featuring the great Edward G. Robinson and a fourth-billed Humphrey Bogart.
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| Martians & Monsters | October 24, 2016 |
Just in time for Halloween we've added a selection of lobby cards featuring Alien Invaders, Atomic Insects, Blood-Sucking Vampires, Giant Gorillas, Mutant Teenagers, Man-Made Monsters, Homegrown Psychos, Rampaging Dinosaurs, a 50-Foot Woman and much more.
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| Deliverance upside down | September 20, 2016 |
I have to give credit for this one to Mark del Costello, a pioneer movie poster collector and unparalleled raconteur. I've always felt that Deliverance was an important movie worth collecting. The standard U.S. 1-Sheet is a bit bland, so I have sought out alternative posters with better designs. This International 41x81 inch 3-sheet has been in my collection for years, and I never once noticed what Mark just pointed out to me. The four men carrying the canoe - if inverted - show THREE MEN CARRYING A BODY! This is very clever, and kudos to the artist, because at the end of the film, the four would-be vacationers have indeed lost one of their own. These two images show the 3-sheet in its normal orientation, and upside down. Disturbing, just like the film:
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