David Cairns
@dcairns.bsky.social
š¤ 1545
š„ 1008
š 845
Film maker, film critic, film teacher, film lover, fool for film
Finished off Aldrich's WORLD FOR RANSOM which has a lot of nice shots but no good scenes.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/15/n...
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Not playing with a full decoupage
Itās pronounced Dew-RAY-ah, as I understand it, in case you wondered. Anyway, IF Robert Aldrichās debut feature WORLD FOR RANSOM is intended as a parody of the private eye genre, Dan Duā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/15/not-playing-with-a-full-decoupage/
about 2 hours ago
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The first all-Black horror movie? DRUMS O' VOODOO (1934)
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/v...
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Voodoo You
DRUMS Oā VOODOO (1934), AKA LOUISIANA, is claimed to be the first all-black horror movie. Iām not sure if it can be called a horror movie, but it did give me the creeps a little at the ā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/voodoo-you/
1 day ago
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Another Cinema de Papa classic - Claude Autant-Lara's DOUCE:
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/13/p...
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PAPA KNOWS BEST: D is for āDouceā
PAPA KNOWS BEST An A-Z of French Cinema Before the New Wave D is for āDouceā āI wonāt threaten you with Hell. You can get there on your own.ā ~ A priest to Odette Joyeux in Douce At the opening of ā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/13/papa-knows-best-d-is-for-douce/
2 days ago
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THE BEATLES GET BACK. In which Peter Jackson swallows Michael Lindsay-Hogg and tries to digest him.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/c...
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Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf-Aids
No, weāre not doing noirs all month, that might get monotonous. I do love a good noir, though. By way of a change, I just finished watching THE BEATLES GET BACK which Iād have to admit ā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/charles-hawtrey-and-the-deaf-aids/
3 days ago
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I WALK ALONE interestingly anticipates some more modern crime flicks -- Leone, Boorman...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/n...
4 days ago
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Jacob Elordi is good and all, but he's not, like, better than Peter Hinwood.
5 days ago
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Strange blend of style and incompetence in an Aldrich.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/a...
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Aldrich Night
I was always keen to see Robert Aldrichās WORLD FOR RANSOM in hopes that it would have at least some of the interest of KISS ME DEADLY and, now that Iām finally watching it (haven’ā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/aldrich-night/
7 days ago
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reposted by
David Cairns
MidCenturyCinema
8 days ago
11/7/52: B
#filmnoir
maestro Phil Karlson w/Kansas City Confidential -
#noirvember
More: Crowther, unhappy:
nytimes.com/1952/11/29/a...
@dcairns.bsky.social
:
dcairns.wordpress.com/tag/kansas-c...
Manny Farber:
archive.org/details/nati...
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I just knew I'd like MURDER BY CONTRACT this time, even though I didn't last time.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/07/h...
8 days ago
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I look at a single take from TOUCH OF EVIL. But not the usual one.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/a...
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A Touch of āTouchā
So yes, TOUCH OF EVIL. A single shot. No, not that one. I thought Iād try closely analysing a little bit of it I always enjoyed, but I quickly found so much detail there that Iāll have ā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/a-touch-of-touch/
9 days ago
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THE DEVIL'S RAIN is a bad movie with a good movie trying to get out, but the good movie is treated like Whack-a-Mole.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/i...
10 days ago
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Trailer time!
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/i...
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It Takes Courage
I was going to make this a special Noirvember trailer mashup using only classic noir titles, but it kind of got away from me. Maybe next weekā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/it-takes-courage/
12 days ago
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Noirvember seems odd...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/n...
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Noirvember Nights
Starting the gloomy season with Julien Duvivierās PANIQUE (1946) which I first saw on a grey-market VHS. The Criterion edition is a whole other movie. With subtitles by my late friend Lenny Bā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/noirvember-nights/
13 days ago
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It takes two to MATANGO.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/m...
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Mushroom Cloudy with No Chance of Meatballs
Thanks to Scout Tafoya for recommending Ishiro Hondaās MATANGO aka MATANGO FUNGUS OF TERROR, one of the GOJIRA directorās relatively rare non-kaiju works from his, er, mature period. Itā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/mushroom-cloudy-with-no-chance-of-meatballs/
14 days ago
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reposted by
David Cairns
Fiona Watson
14 days ago
#DiadelosMuertos
#Samhain
#Halloween
A long time ago in
#Scotland
,
#Halloween
wasn't anything like its current iteration. We went with the old Celtic tradition of 'guising.' According to AI Overview 'guising' comprises - 'children dressing up in costumes to go door-to-door,
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Strangely, there seem to be no movies of Arthur Machen's work.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/01/r...
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Rhymes with āBlackenā
Arthur Machen is really terrific. And according to the IMDb, unless Iām much deceived, heās never been adapted to film. Ambrose Bierce has countless adaptationsm the Inaccurate Movie Daā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/11/01/rhymes-with-blacken/
15 days ago
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Film people please follow my wife
@monsterfromid66.bsky.social
In a nice way, I mean.
15 days ago
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Tree fellers wanted.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...
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Tabanga Baranga Matango?
Iād never seen FROM HELL IT CAME and the only review Iād read is the famous Ed Naha line āAnd to hell it can go,ā but I still knew it was a tree monster film. I wasnātā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/tabanga-baranga-matango/
16 days ago
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A Japanese ghost story - with swordplay.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/c...
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Chanbara Raiders
KAIKI EDOGAWA RAN-SAN (1937) is a Japanese spookshow of considerable atmosphere. Written and directed by Kenji Shimomura, its title seems to reference author Edogawa Rampo, and its mood is certainlā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/chanbara-raiders/
18 days ago
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"Again there was a silence ā a silence as of consummated Evil brooding above its unnameable triumph." An original ghost story, comprised of 25 different paragraphs swiped from the page 66s of 25 different collections.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/p...
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Page 66: The Crimson Toe
Hereās an original ghost story constructed from random passages chosen from twenty-five different page sixty-sixes (and a couple of sixrty-fives where sixty-six was blank) in numerous differeā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/page-66-the-crimson-toe/
20 days ago
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NOSFERATU: better in German?
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/r...
22 days ago
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When did Dario Argento's DEEP RED acquire this new (to me) scene?
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/23/j...
23 days ago
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More seasonal scariness.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/u...
24 days ago
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An important message... from Mars!
25 days ago
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Concluding THE BRAINIAC.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/21/k...
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Kill it with Fire
So, EL BARON DEL TERROR / THE BRAINIAC ends abruptly after 74 minutes when the stooge cops run into the Baronās castle (castle?) and blast him with flame-throwers (frame-throwers?). The VFX aā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/21/kill-it-with-fire/
25 days ago
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Hello! I am the Baron or Terror and I want to suck your brain out or something.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/19/t...
27 days ago
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beautiful sky for driving in
28 days ago
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KING KONG VS GODZILLA is beneath the dignity of all involved except, apparently, me.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/18/g...
28 days ago
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We wanted to like FRANKENSTEIN. We tried to like FRANKENSTEIN. We could not like FRANKENSTEIN. Ihttps://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/17/talky-horror-picture-show/
29 days ago
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Watched THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER for mild peril Halloween thrills, only to discover it is of all things a Christmas movie.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/n...
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Nosseck, please, weāre British
THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER (Max Nosseck, 1945) opens with a shot of Big Ben by night, prompting the question āBrighton?ā And the clockface is all mistily illumined, bringing up the questionā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/nosseck-please-were-british/
about 1 month ago
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Godzilla is a stuntman in a rubber costume and his roar is a catcher's mitt being dragged down a cello. Idea for an avant-garde version: Godzilla is a cellist wearing a catcher's mitt and his roar is the lumber and crumple of a lizard-costumed stuntie shuffling through a miniature city.
about 1 month ago
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A nice Lovecraftian space in 1933's BEFORE DAWN.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/a...
about 1 month ago
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BUGONIA is a somewhat lame title for a watchable but ultimately somewhat lame film.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/14/b...
about 1 month ago
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Raymond "the Rat" Griffith.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/12/t...
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The Sunday Intertitle: Known as the Rat (and any other aliases he may have)
A re-up of an old piece of mine on Preston Sturges at The Chiseler, which also features a tribute to the late, great Ken Jacobs. And, to my great pleasure, another Raymond Griffith movie has becomeā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/12/the-sunday-intertitle-known-as-the-rat-and-any-other-aliases-he-may-have/
about 1 month ago
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Probably Cardinale's finest performance.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/t...
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The Path of True Love
Luigi Comenciniās LA RAGAZZA DI BUBE might be his masterpiece, though there are others ā LO SCOPIONE SCIENTIFICO, VOLTATI EUGENIO, TUTTI A CASA, DELITTO DāAMORE ā which I maā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/the-path-of-true-love/
about 1 month ago
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Got a slightly early look at WAKE UP DEAD MAN thanks to Edinburgh Filmhouse's buddying up with London Film Festival.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/l...
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Locked Room Service
WAKE UP DEAD MAN, the third Knives Out mystery from writer-director Rian Johnson, is a lot of fun. They always are. No spoilers except that there is indeed a kind of locked room mystery ā reaā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/locked-room-service/
about 1 month ago
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Mario Bava VFX and cinematography elevate THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/t...
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The Day the Earth Stood Still, Caught Fire, Then Exploded
Not really, of course ā the film under review is Italian scifi non-epic THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED. Well, the sky doesnāt explode either. What would that even entail? Every evening down mā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-caught-fire-then-exploded/
about 1 month ago
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Carol Reed's debut is a little amateurish but interesting.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/t...
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The Tars of Tomorrow
Before he attained temporary fame as host of TVās Opportunity Knocks (āAnd I mean that most sincerely folksā ā did TELLING people you were sincere ever work? Simpler times),ā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/the-tars-of-tomorrow/
about 1 month ago
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Our journey through pre-nouvelle vague cinema de papa continues with Gerard Philipe and Maria Casares in THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/c...
about 1 month ago
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I love that they just had a failed rapture. I picture people stuck on the undersides of awnings, in trees, on ceilings, or just wedged halfway through the sky. "This is a terrible rapture!"
#CRAPTURE
about 2 months ago
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Claudia was always my favourite Italian glamour icon.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/c...
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Cuck and Lover
My Saturday night viewing was a Claudia Cardinale double bill ā I donāt much go in for obituary activities but in CCās case, how could I not? I dislike the Oscars In Memoriam thinā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/cuck-and-lover/
about 2 months ago
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Lollobrigida smoulders while Akim Tamiroff flaps.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/s...
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Stupid Cupid
MONSIGNOR CUPID is the fourth instalment of Italian compendium film LE BAMBOLE and itās sure taken me a while to get around to it. The film has taken the time-honoured approach of putting theā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/stupid-cupid/
about 2 months ago
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Sean Penn should certainly get an Oscar for Most Acting, or Most Disgusting Mouth Performance by a Living Human. Truly impressive. I would shake him by the hand so long as I could know for certain it'd never been near that mouth.
about 2 months ago
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THE LIFE OF MOSES (1905). Parting the Red Sea is such sweet sorrow...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/t...
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The Sunday Intertitle: Moses Imposes
PathĆ©ās unsigned 1905 LA VIE DE MOISE / THE LIFE OF MOSES is a quick series of tableaux in the style of the time, with lots of creative stagecraft (rather than illusionist VFX in the Melies fā¦
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/the-sunday-intertitle-moses-imposes/
about 2 months ago
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Is it an action movie? Is it a literary adaptation? Is it fun? Is it really really pertinent to this moment? yesyesyesyes
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/27/r...
about 2 months ago
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Today I saw ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER but am writing about OSCAR, the Sylvester Stallone mob farce from 1991.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/m...
about 2 months ago
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Trailer time!
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/25/t...
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The West
Visit the post for more.
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/25/the-west/
about 2 months ago
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I thought I had to watch STAR! at some point in my life, but I may have been mistaken.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/21/t...
about 2 months ago
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Red.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/20/s...
about 2 months ago
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Baz Lurpak's ELVIS.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/b...
about 2 months ago
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