The character: Kelly The actor: Constance Towers The movie: The Naked Kiss (1964) For me, this is Sam Fuller’s most affecting film. From the beginning, I’ve always found Fuller to be a little bit secondhand. He is a filmmaker of ideas, and while it’s certainly possible to be a filmmaker of ideas with remarkable reliance… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #49
The character: Adam Pontipee The actor: Howard Keel The movie: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) No decade made better revisionist westerns than the 1950s, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers stands as one of the essentials, perhaps only a step down from the work of Budd Boetticher and Anthony Mann and John Ford. The… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #50
I’ve been riffing off the American Film Institute’s mid-2000s lists for a long time now, and the one that I assumed I’d never touch was the Heroes and Villains list. I’m compelled more by the idea now than I used to be. Granted, I still think Joseph Campbell deserves at least one good swirly from… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Intro and Landing Page
Seeing Things Secondhand 