Had a blast at my buddy Bismo’s place, sharing beers and watching the restored Invaders From Mars in 4K UHD. Before directing that 1953 Sci-Fi classic, William Cameron Menzies designed and directed Things to Come in 1936.
Written for the screen by H.G. Wells, with some of the worst dialogue this side of Ayn Rand, Things to Come is a Sci-Fi classic for its impressive design and visual effects. Some of what Menzies envisioned for the future became reality, such as widescreen, flat-panel HDTV.
Mars invaded Earth twice in 1953. In War of the Worlds the Martians blasted us into submission. In Invaders from Mars their plan was to subvert us from within. These are two of my very favorite movies.
I have Invaders From Mars on a LaserDisc from Image, restored to the best possible quality at the time. They later released a 50th Anniversary DVD edition of the title.
A new restoration has been completed and Invaders from Mars is now available in 2K HD and 4K UHD. I have invited those wily Martians to invade my house by ordering a Blu-ray copy.
Director Joe Dante recommends Bill “Karloff” Pratt in The Man Who Lived Again… or is it The Man Who Changed His Mind?
By whichever title it’s known, here’s the movie. Boris at his best!
Can there be any doubt what will happen when artificial intelligence is powered by quantum computers running on limitless fusion energy, and combined with robotics?
Recorded a year after the first Covid lockdown, something suitable to continue my reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin.
Almost a year ago I mentioned I was reading a complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. After taking a couple of breaks I am now very close to the end. I knew that long before Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock, there was Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin, but until yesterday I had never read “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
Doyle wasn’t just inspired by Poe, Holmes could almost be a continuation of the Dupin series. Everything in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” found its way into Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of Holmes, including the narrator, who may as well be Doctor Watson. I sort of knew this, but now I know it.
My heretofore ignorance of the matter, impressed upon me for these many years by my own negligence, made me laugh in such a manner as I have not experienced in many a day! The longstanding failure to take the necessary action in resolving my curiosity, despite having a sense of propinquity regarding the subject, shall forever be a nagging reminder of my limitless capacity for procrastination. Having indulged at last a reading of the original text, I am intrigued not only by the tale itself as realized in the fertile imagination of its short-lived author, but also by the writing style that contains what are, by today’s standards, passages of a certain quaint opacity that are nonetheless compelling in their vividness and vigor.
Here is the story as told by Christopher Lee.
Here is the text of the story, so you can read along with Lee’s narration, which begins in the #119 section, after “The narrative which follows will appear to the reader somewhat in the light of a commentary upon the propositions just advanced.”
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tales_(Poe)/The_Murders_in_the_Rue_Morgue
