Book Reviews: Everything Has Teeth

Everything Has Teeth
by Jeff Strand

Do you like horror stories? What kind? What is the point of a horror story? 

Is it to give you chills? Should it make you think about society's various "isms". Is it to make you laugh? 

Or should a good horror tale disgust you? 

Should it make you run to the porcelain throne and lose your lunch? Should it make you wonder about the probity or mental stability of the author? 

Is a good horror story something that you hide from friends or family members lest they think that you are morally bent?

Is a good horror story something that makes you feel guilty for having read it? 

Is a good horror story something that makes you want to see the author and his/her publisher hauled before Congressional Committees for televised denouncement? 

Or is a good horror story something that makes you keep the lights on a little later than normal or jump at some unexplained nighttime creak on the stairs or scratch at the window? Jeff Strand is a writer who is able to evoke all of the above responses in the reader. 

Movie Reviews: Hit!

Hit!
directed by Sidney Furie

I think that some people might unfairly dismiss this early seventies film as a low quality blaxploitation film. It wasn't that at all. 

It's an action drama that was directed by the same fellow who had just recently directed Diana Ross in the Billie Holiday bio Lady Sings The Blues. 

Hit! was not originally conceived as a "Black" movie. It was supposed to be a Steve McQueen vehicle. 

It was a sign of the times that the director and producer did not change the demographics of the cast or the race of the female love interest when Black actor and then male sex symbol Billy Dee Williams became attached to the film as the lead actor.  

This film, like many seventies movies, takes its own sweet time setting up events. It lets things play out naturally. 

Movie Reviews: Born To Kill

Born to Kill
directed by Robert Wise

Robert Wise also directed West Side Story, The Andromeda Strain, The Sound of Music, Audrey Rose, and The Hindenburg among other films. Born to Kill is a post war film noir that stars noted knucklehead Lawrence Tierney in the male lead. 

As in the film Bodyguard that came out shortly after this movie, Tierney is playing a tough guy. 

The difference here is that in Born to Kill, Tierney is a bad man, very bad actually. He's not someone that you want around you or taking interest in your affairs. 

We can all argue over the technical definitions of words like "evil", "sociopath", or "psychopath" but it's fair to say that Tierney's character is a man who takes everything personally, lies without any remorse, views other people as tools to be used in his inevitable rise to fame and fortune, and has a very low boiling point for committing violence. 

Call it what you like but this guy is bad news. 

Born to Kill asks what sort of society produces men like this, and worse, what if there are women like him as well. What happens when they run into each other? Likely nothing good, that's what. This movie also takes a few shots at the sexual mating strategies of men and women. Sometimes these strategies work and everyone is happy. Other times playing such games can get people hurt.

Louisiana Female Teacher Commits Sexual Assault And Child Abuse

I don't have much to say about this story other than to repeat what should be blindingly obvious.

Women are not more morally upright than men. 

Women are just as capable as men of committing sexual assault.

Some women will assist in or direct sexual assault.

Making  gendered assumptions about the identity of the victim and criminal can make us miss the true perpetrator.

I am glad that this woman was caught. I would bet that this is not the first time or only time that she has done something like this.

I am not sure that I agree with the death penalty or that it should apply in situations where no one was killed.

I do know though, that if this woman happened to depart the world in a sudden and violent event in prison, I don't think many people would be shedding tears. 

I know I wouldn't. Also, it's a teacher and cop who are involved. Bad cops exist.

A former Louisiana middle school teacher has been sentenced to 40 years behind bars after admitting she fed students cupcakes laced with the sperm of her ex-husband, an ex-sheriff’s lieutenant.
Cynthia Perkins, 36, was sentenced Friday to 40 years of hard labor without the possibility of probation or parole. 

Don't Mess With Bulls!!!

For a variety of reasons it's important to be able to tell the difference between a cow and a bull. Fortunately I already had that piece of information stored away somewhere in my brain. Now a California cyclist also knows that a wise man ascertains if the large bovine impeding his path is a bull or cow before he proceeds.

Movie Reviews: The Garment Jungle

The Garment Jungle
directed by Vincent Sherman

This 1957 noir movie, like the previous film On The Waterfront, was another noir NYC film based on the real life infiltration of organized crime into business. 

On The Waterfront looked into the mob control of shipping and waterfront labor activities, which in real life were in part controlled by Mafia boss Albert "The Lord High Executioner" Anastasia.

The Garment Jungle reviews the mob dominance of clothes manufacturing and fashion distribution, which were then overseen by people like  Mafia boss Tommy "Three Finger Brown" Lucchese and top hoodlum Johnny Dioguardi.

Shortly before this movie was released, Dioguardi arranged for the  acid blinding of a newspaper journalist who was exposing mob control of the New York City garment industry.

The two movies shared a star in Lee J. Cobb. In On The Waterfront Cobb played an extroverted and dangerous hoodlum who was quite similar to Anastasia. In The Garment Jungle, Cobb was equally boisterous but portrayed a garment manufacturer who wanted to keep his shop non-union and wasn't too particular about how he accomplished this. 

Although both movies argue that crime doesn't pay, On The Waterfront is a more radical film. The Garment Jungle  softened its critiques, perhaps because the film studio didn't want to be too pro-worker and be stigmatized with the "Commie" label and because Cobb didn't want his character to be depicted as too bad of a guy.  

Movie Reviews: Crack House

Crack House
directed by Michael Fischa

I guess even icons have bills to pay. In some ways that's reassuring I suppose. In other ways it's sad. Perhaps most people sometimes do things for money. 

I mean most of us have jobs right? Or if we don't we used to or rely on our savings from previous jobs. 

Well when that money gets low and you're an actor perhaps you show up in movies like Crack House. That's about the only way I can understand how former leading men Richard Roundtree (Shaft) and Jim Brown (Slaughter) wound up in movies such as this. 

Now get this straight, considering that this was a Cannon Films production I wasn't expecting much. At the time Cannon Films was owned by Israeli film makers (and cousins) Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus , who were notorious for cheap low budget (but not always low quality) films. But even by Golan: Globus standards Crack House was a pretty s****y movie. The visual quality was poor. 

The sets looked like thrift shop rejects. The lighting was dim. I've seen better cinematography at family birthday parties.