Tim Yahner

B movie theater: Night of the Ghouls

Ed Wood has contributed a number of classic B movies. One of his last entries into the field was Night of the Ghouls (1959.) It was once said of Wood that he enjoyed telling stories much more than he enjoyed...

Animals in film with King Kong

There is something about animals (particularly mammals) that captivates people. Numerous films have attempted to capitalize on that fascination, with varying degrees of success. One of the first, most famous and most timeless of these films is 1933’s...

12 Angry Men and minimalist settings

While there is nothing inherently wrong with big, sprawling epic settings, they are expensive to produce, and do not necessarily pay off in kind. On the flipside, movies with very minimalist settings typically require a very specific plot. This means...

Should a movie make sense on the first viewing?

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It pioneered numerous storytelling, special effects and writing techniques in film. Of the rather small list of critiques of...

History through cinema with The Battleship Potemkin

Most films that are historically significant become so through artistic merit, popular appeal or social commentary and significance. Few set out to directly influence politics, society and history, with the exception of the propaganda films. The Battleship Potemkin (1925) is...

B movie theater: Death Bed: The Bed That Eats

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats was originally completed in 1977, although was finally released in 2003. In those intervening years, the film gained considerable cult status, even though the director, writer and producer, George Barry, supposedly forgot that it...

B movie theater: The Unearthly

Most B movies take massive leaps of logic and apply a truly addled understanding of science, medicine and psychology. The Unearthly (1957) takes the cake in terms of bad science combined with bad storytelling, which is not an easy cake...

The food Western revival

The film Western began in Hollywood in 1903 with The Great Train Robbery. They remained popular until the end of the silent film era in the late 1920s. Until 1939, with the release of Stagecoach kicking off John Wayne&rsquo...

Permission to visit the Forbidden Planet

Based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, 1956’s Forbidden Planet is an early science fiction masterpiece. The story revolves around a spaceship crew sent to investigate the disappearance of a colony. When they arrive, they find only...

Say "yes" to Dr. No

Style over substance. The unspoken assumption made by virtually anyone reading that quote is that substance trumps style, and anything valuing style more is misguided. Beginning with the first film, Dr. No (1962), the Bond series has always valued style...

Currently in Los Angeles