Cereal At Midnight

Anthony Mann's THE TIN STAR is a perfect example of the western genre during its 1950s pinnacle. With the new Blu-ray release from Arrow Video, let's discuss why it's an unsung masterpiece.  Thanks for using this link to order THE TIN STAR and support Cereal At Midnight! https://amzn.to/3TQN0hh Further viewing:  Gene Autry, Western Icon https://youtu.be/_eFV8G6i0gc B-Western Heroes https://youtu.be/Mq9MgxJV7CE Western Spotlight Vol. 1 https://youtu.be/k5rD2T8VmiI Western Spotlight Vol. 2 https://youtu.be/TuFB95idxN8 The Ranown Westerns https://youtu.be/96bb0cx-YE8 Review Archive: CerealAtMidnight.com/p/reviews.html Shop: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight Instagram: CerealMidnight TikTok: OfficialCerealAtMidnight Letterboxd: CerealAtMidnite **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnigh...

 In his essay that's included with the new Blu-ray for 1957's Monster from Green Hell , Don Stradley asks "Would the hardworking souls who made B movies back in the 1950s believe we'd still be discussing their work 70 years later?" It's a reasonable question: these movies were made on the cheap and were never intended to be anything more than disposable entertainment, created for quick thrills and the hopes of making a couple of bucks so the filmmakers could do it again. But something happened that these entrepreneurs never could have predicted: we fell in love with their movies. We didn't fall in love with them because they were slick and polished, we fell in love with them because they were rough and raw. They featured actors that didn't feel like gleaming stars of Tinsel Town, but real people. The films offer unabashed spectacle, or the dime-store equivalent thereof. We love these movies because we can see the fingerprints of the creators who made t...

What would you do if you were given the key to total human extinction? That's the question posed by The 27th Day , a 1957 sci-fi movie from Columbia Pictures. Five strangers from different regions of the world are zapped aboard a space ship where an alien (who calls himself..."The Alien") tells them that his race needs a new planet to inhabit because their sun is about to explode. They have set their sights upon Earth, but their code forbids violence, so they have devised an alternative. Each of the five abductees are given a small box containing three battery-sized cylinders and each cylinder hold the power to destroy all human life in a 3,000 mile radius.  There are a few caveats: each box is mentally attuned to its keeper and can only be opened by that chosen individual; if the owner of the box dies, the weapons within are rendered useless. Next, the weapon's destruction will not affect plant or animal life, only human, meaning enemies can be destroyed with no impa...

It must have been tough trying to come up with unique horror and sci-fi movie titles during the 1950s. You've got Day the World Ended , The Day the Sky Exploded, The Day the Earth Stood Still, just to name a few. For his 1957 disaster movie about combustible geological formations, legendary schlock producer Sam Katzman aptly settled on The Night The World Exploded. In the film, Dr. David Conway (William Leslie, Buchanan Rides Alone, The Horse Soldiers ) has created a machine that he believes can accurately predict earthquakes. The machine says that there's a massive seismic event coming in just 24 hours, so he sets out to investigate further. Accompanied by his colleague Laura "Hutch" Hutchinson (doe-eyed Kathryn Grant, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad ), he descends into a cavern to explore the source of these readings and is shocked by his findings. Not only is the earthquake threat very real, but he's found the existence of a brand new periodic element: a form of rock...

Book talk! In this episode, let's discuss TEENAGERS AND TEENPICS, a deep look at the teensploitation movie cycle of the 1950s! Buckle up for monster mayhem, youth-gone-wild flicks, and rock and roll riots! If you love cult, low budget, and exploitation movies, you won't want to miss this episode! Order the book here Stay up to date on everything happening with Cereal At Midnight with these links: CerealAtMidnight.com Shop: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight Instagram: CerealMidnight Letterboxd: CerealAtMidnite

 Has there ever been a city more perfectly suited for film noir than San Francisco?  Impenetrable fog rolls in from the bay, secluding the towering steel bridge that looms ominously in shadow. Steep hills represent either insurmountable obstacles or uncontrollable descents, and Alcatraz is a literal unreachable island surrounded by murky water. San Francisco is a living manifestation of noir's themes and atmosphere, so it's no coincidence that so many famous films are set in The Golden City ( Out of the Past, The Maltese Falcon, The Lady from Shanghai, Dark Passage ).  And then there's The Midnight Story , a 1957 film noir starring Tony Curtis as Joe Martini, a traffic cop who learns that a local priest, Father Tomasino, has been attacked and brutally killed. Tomasino was like a father to Martini, and our hero asks his superiors for permission to help in the investigation because he's so personally invested in solving the crime. When his request is not granted, he turns...

Depending on your own personal taste (and which of his films you're watching), Sam Katzman is either a legendary or infamous figure in the movie industry. As a producer, he's responsible for over two hundred projects, almost all of them rooted in exploitation. From the 1930s until his death in 1973, Katzman courted every trend in the industry, from westerns and jungle pictures to rock and roll and youth gone wild movies. It's notable that we attach so much rememberance on Katzman as a producer; after all, fanfar is usually reserved for directors, writers, and those directly behind the camera, not for the producers who make it all happen. Yet, Katzman's larger-than-life personality and approach stands out against any particular film, director, or actor from his films. One thing is for certain: his savvy business sense and willingness to lean into any and every pop culture trend has given us scores upon scores of interesting and entertaining (note that I haven't said ...