Sunday, April 15, 2012

“Macabre”, “Three Stooges”, “Moneyball”

“Macabre” is a low budget Allied Artist horror movie that I hadn’t seen in more than 50 years at the art deco Spokane Fox Theater so when it was reissued by Warners this month I bought it in a nano second. William Castle directs this black and white graveyard chiller with D list actors, a fog machine and skeletons cued by creepy music. AA insured our lives for $1,000 if we died of fright in the theater during the movie. (Chocking on popcorn or falling asleep from boredom didn’t count).

It was good to get in touch with my boyhood obsession for scary movies after avoiding them in my early childhood (too many nightmares). I can’t say that “Macabre” was all that scary compared to ”Psycho” but then I won’t spoil the plot.

Juvenile slapstick humor brought me to the multiplex here Friday night for a showing of the new “Three Stooges” movie from the Farley Brothers, one of which is quite buff. Anyhoo, my friend Jack and I nearly wet our pants from laughter. There’s nothing like a little eye gouging and a sledge hammer over the head to put you right with the world. Long live the Stooges, saviors of western civilization as we knew it.

Who would have known that the Oakland Athletics had a general manager named Billy Beane (thought he ran a mail order catalog) and who cares? Actually the Brad Pitt film was quite riveting and I don’t know why. I was actually disappointed when they lost to the Twins in the playoffs and no one is chagrin when the Twins win here. So what’s with that?

Watch this space for a review upcoming on “Cabin in the Woods” which should bring back fond memories of summer days at Loon Lake, WA.

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