Filmically Perfect

Robert Rossen's scalding tale of drunken love and billiards is as powerful today as it was forty some years ago. Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, and The Great One (Jackie Gleason) all bring their roles to gritty life. Even Martin Scorsese's color follow-up, The Color of Money, with all its cinematic bravado, cannot hold a candle to the stark black and white-ness of this amazing cinematic treasure.

James Whale's 1935 follow-up to his film Frankenstein is a tour-de-force of gothic story-telling and all around ghoulish fun. Karloff adds another layer to his portrayal of The Monster while the highly nostrilled Ernest Thesiger weirds everyone out as the alchemist Dr. Praetorius.

Mix together equal parts Gable, Monroe, Wallach, and Clift, garnish with Miller and stir with John Huston and you've got one of the most bizarre cinematic cocktails. One has to wonder whether Huston gathered the three "doomed" stars for their talent or for all the emotional baggage they carried. For whatever reason, it worked. Gable in particular is amazing as the worn-out leader and hunter of the misfits.

What better way to start of 2008 than with the Three Stooges?? And here they are in their sole Oscar-nominated short from 1934, Men In Black! Listen to the Film Guys completely befuddle Niki Dakota with their brilliant philosobabble!

John Lasseter's ground breaking feature set the stage for the digital animation explosion and, for good or ill, this type of animation is here to stay, effectively eradicating traditional animation in its wake. Fortunately Toy Story has what it takes to be a "keeper" and a Perfect Movie. Good story, great characters, wonderful music, sublime animation. Oh that more films, real or animated, could be as good as this.

The Film Guys attempt to get a jump on the Christmas Season and give our listeners a few new, cool ideas for DVD giving this year!

Once again, Niki Dakota and the Film Guys open up the lines and allow the public into their twisted little world of Cinema!

Regardless of what our dear host Niki D. thinks, this is one of the great harbingers of the sci-fi explosion of the 1950's! A story line that has been used over and over again--a small group trapped in a secluded area with a vicious monster on the prowl--seldom done better than in this film, directed by Christian Nyby and over-lorded by the redoubtable Howard Hawks!

In "the last great B&W action movie," bruised anti-hero Paul Labiche, portrayed by the ever-great Burt Lancaster, rescues a train-load of impressionist paintings from a mean old Nazi bad guy, played with depth and aplomb by the amazing Paul Scofield, one year away from his Academy Award for A Man for All Seasons. John Frankenheimer beautifully plays the human emotions against the iron and steam of the trains themselves, creating a powerful film about the triumph of the will. Hmm, that didn't come out quite right.

On a very Special Episode of Filmically Perfect, Niki and JT discuss the role of The Library of Congress in Film Preservation with Geo., who is their "inside man" at the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA.