Hello and Welcome (Introduction)

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time sitting on the floor, two feet away from the TV, watching old movies with my mother while she sat curled up in bed behind me. We had the best time. We watched all the classic silver screen films she grew up with and loved, and we also loved any and all horror movies. We would both be warning some teenager about to get sliced up, "No! Don't go in there! You'll be sorry! Watch out! Look behind you!" as my father would wander into the room and mutter, "What are you two watching now?"

On Saturday nights I'd try to stay up all night to watch an all-night horror feature show called "Shock Theatre." This I would do in my father's study, in front of a small, old, black and white TV brought in from the kitchen, and I'd wear little earphones that worked with the TV so as not to disturb the rest of the family as they slept. My father took the above photo of me before I could even look up from the TV, as I was watching "Shock Theatre" late one night.

My love of films has continued throughout my life. My affection for the older ones prevails, and I have along the way also acquired a love of the campy B horror films such as the ones by William Castle and George Romero. However, my favorite director has been and will always be Alfred Hitchcock.

In college I majored in Commercial Art, and double-minored in Film Criticism, and Creative Writing. For the film minor I had to constantly write papers over the course of the four years of college, reviewing the films we were shown. Some that I remember watching and writing papers on were "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Haunting", "Play Misty for Me", and "The Silent Partner". I also remember writing one entire paper just on the music in "Psycho." To me all of this was like getting paid to rob a candy store.

What has bothered me more and more over the years since has been what seems to be a waning interest in older films, and this includes films that were made just 20 years ago (which isn't even old, but many people seem to think so). I whine a lot to friends about all the lousy remakes of classics that keep getting spewed out. The first two that come to mind are the remakes of "The Stepford Wives" and "The Manchurian Candidate". Blasphemy!

Recently a friend of mine suggested I start a movie review website. My reply was, "Why? I'd just be mostly whining about how movies today suck compared to the older ones, and I'd be telling people which older films to go see. I wouldn't review any of the new dumb movies, I'd be saying, "HEY! Go rent the original 'The Manchurian Candidate' or "HEY! Go rent 'All About Eve!'", ad nauseum.

Well, actually, maybe this isn't such a bad idea. Maybe some people who never would have done so will check out some of these oldies but goodies and enjoy them. Or not.

It helps if you understand up front that my taste in movies includes dark humor, politically incorrect situations, British humor, horror, and camp, in addition to my swooning over long-gone hunks of the silver screen such as my all-time favorite, Gary Cooper.

But no, this is not a movie review. Not yet. Don't be hatin'.