Damon Houx

DD: Paging Dr. Jones

In full Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls gettin’ ready fever – and in my case a real fever – I decided to watch all those Indiana Jones films again. I said a while back that all good directors have to have a sense of rhythm. This is true. But to be a great action director … Continue reading

DD: Lubitsch Musicals: MONTE CARLO

A countess pulls her third runaway bride routine, to the embarrassment of her would-be husband, who promises to tame her with his caveman tactics. The Countess, Helene Mara (Jeanette MacDonald) decides to go to Monte Carlo to break the bank. Jack Buchanan, who killed it as Jeffery Cordova in The Band Wagon (one of the … Continue reading

DD: Lubitsch Musicals: THE PROLOGUE

I’ve come to realize I tend to do about a dozen things total. You could break up my week into percentages. I work at least 40 a week, I sleep about 49 hours a week. I’m on a computer/writing about 40 hours a week, I watch movies about 30-40 hours a week (there’s overlap with … Continue reading

DD: Lubitsch Musicals: THE LOVE PARADE

The film opens with Maurice Chevailer having the cuckolded walk in on him and his mistress. The woman shoots herself. The husband shoots Maurice. Having survived, Maurice summarizes that the gun is loaded with blanks. The husband, duly relieved, takes his wife in his arms and out of the room. MC tosses the gun into … Continue reading

The Dellamorte Dugout: 1.21 Gigawatts!

I watched a couple episodes of Homicide last night. I liked it well enough, but it has the best example of bad neat television writing I can think of. There’s a thread where Yaphett Kotto asks the rook to find out who lights the candle that stands by the board with the bodies. The rook … Continue reading

DD: And When the Groove is Dead and Gone…

The greatest thing for me of the fall out of the lack of Prince vs. MJ is my renewed interest in listening to their music. iPut Thriller on the iPhone and drove around to it while passing billboards for the 25th Ani release. I went to Amoeba and – though they didn’t have the Eclipse Lubitsch Musicals collection – they started … Continue reading