O.K. so most of my annual journey’s are via the motion picture but this year I did mix it up a bit. While I didn’t actually get to any film festivals, I did see the Rocky Mountains for the first time after flying into Calgary and renting a car and subsequently journeying through the peaks and valleys in a roundabout way towards Edmonton. Figured it was about time I saw some of my own country versus flying off to others. The beauty of the Mountains and lakes are beyond words. Each bend in the road unveiled another image in need of a painter and his canvas.

On to the movies and a few selected links should you care to check out some of my movie memories.

First movie I watched in 2017? Number 2 son Kirk wanted to see Cape Fear. Count me in for a revisit to see the “Mitch” on a rampage.

Here are some categorically divided ramblings.

Let’s start with some fun revisits.

Blow Out, Sons of Katie Elder, The King of Comedy, I, The Jury, Every Which Way But Loose, The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock, The End, Death Rides a Horse, The Land That Time Forgot and the follow up sequel, The People That Time Forget. Lastly let’s rejoice in another viewing of Gunfight at The O.K. Corral.

Blogathons I joined up for.

Carole Lombard – Virtue

Franchot Tone – Spotlighting Tone on the Small Screen

Food – Soylent Green

Villains – Al Lettieri versus the Icons Part 1 and Part 2

Canada – Across This Land With Stompin’ Tom Connors

John Garfield – He Ran All the Way

Some Canadian fare from my homeland.

Oliver Reed in Spasms, Sunday In the Country, Bear Island, Canadian Bacon.

I went on a Stanley Baker fest this year watching 12 consecutive titles not even thinking I should have made it 13 for a Baker’s Dozen! What was I thinking. Of the titles I watched I’d highly recommend you seek out Sands of the Kalahari, the now classic Zulu, Robbery, The Criminal, Hell Is a City, easily the best non-horror flick from Hammer Films and my favorite of the bunch, Hell Drivers.

I do try to read a half dozen or so film books throughout the year and the book by Karin Wieland titled Dietrich and Riefenstahl is a great read for those looking to learn more on both film history and the second world war.

Newer films? Meaning this century. I do my best but have inevitably fall way behind in keeping up. Some of the more recent titles I’d recommend that caught my attention this year include The Martian, The 33, Concussion, Burke and Hare, Elsa and Fred and lastly a couple of made for TV productions, Feud and Five Came Back.

No film festivals this year but the best field trip of the year? Easy…… unearthing a forgotten drive-in that proved to be an enjoyable afternoon of discovery

Always being a fan of cult/exploitation cinema, I can never go too long without wallowing in these flicks we assign to the genre. Titles like The Centerfold Girls, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Miami Blues, The Devil’s Wedding Night, Gone With the Pope, Dogs, and The Police Connection which left me needing a shower to wash away the grime of 70’s cinema.

As I’m always a fan of classic movie poster art, I still continue to feature galleries based on a theme or a particular actor so this year among the featured subjects were Donald Sutherland, James Cagney, Audie Murphy, Burt Reynolds, Wolfman movies and the Price/Poe flicks. As is my custom I try to feature one from my own collection in each gallery.

Here’s 5 flicks that score my highest recommendations though a large number of films from this year could be slotted in here.

Hard Times – 1975

Champion -1949

The Hitch-Hiker -1953

The Red House – 1947

One-Eyed Jacks – 1961

What’s the one film that drew my largest reading audience? Not sure what this says about the people who troll the internet but in a landslide victory it’s the Britt Ekland thriller, What the Peeper Saw.

Campy titles….. I love them. Julie, Avalanche, Killer Fish, Enter the Ninja, A*P*E*, Johnny Guitar, Zombies on Broadway and a Maureen “O’Hara/Jeff Chandler double bill. 

Binge watching. Apart from that run of Stanley Baker flicks, I also watched a selection of Rutger Hauer heroics, forgotten VHS titles in both the horror and action genres, Lex Barker’s 5 flicks swinging through the trees as Tarzan, Ray Milland TV terrors and a run of Brian Dennehy titles. I also had fun revisiting some low budget fare from Cannon studios on a couple of occasions this year and plan to do more of same in 2018.

Fun discoveries for me personally include Night of the Iguana, Strange Bargain, Desire, A Matter of Life and Death, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, Purple Noon, Snowbound, The Ghost Goes West, The Long Haul and a Billy Wilder flick that had eluded me, Fedora. 

Some of the people we lost this year associated with classic films I’ll miss include an actor I’d been following long before he came into prominence as a cult favorite in the mid 80’s, Harry Dean Stanton and of course TCM’s host and everyone’s favorite movie fan, Robert Osborne.

 

A special and sincere thank you to all of you who have dropped in at one time or another over the past 4 years since beginning this project and may each and every one of you find success and happiness in the year that lies ahead. Please continue to drop in unexpectedly at anytime and voice an opinion or two. I do appreciate it and it often “makes my day.”

Sitting on the shelf for a New Years viewing? I’ve got 2 blu rays set aside that have their story lines unveiled as the clock strikes midnight for the dawn of a new year. The Poseidon Adventure and Terror Train. Might only have time for 1 so which will it be?

As for me what do I intend to do in the year ahead? That’s easy. Watch plenty of films with Brando …….

by my side.

And now for some outtakes in fun Hollywood tradition.

Cheers’

Mike Perry