Friday, January 19, 2024

On this day in television history – James Ellroy's L.A.: City of Demons (2011)

 James Ellroy's L.A.: City of Demons

Documentary.


Season 1.
Episode 1.
Episode entitled: Dead Women Own Me.
Released: January 19, 2011.
Series directors: Brian Coughlin, Gabe Torres, Brian Coughlin and Robert Kirk.

Cast:
James Ellroy, Jennifer Baute, Caroline Burt, Sarah Delpizzo, Frank C. Girardot, Stephanie Gorman, Helen Knode, Phil LaMarr, Glynn Martin, Elizabeth Short, William Stoner, Zoey Taylor.



Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Monday, January 15, 2024

Monday, January 8, 2024

Born on this day – Elisabeth Fraser:


Actress

January 8, 1920 – May 5, 2005



Credits:
9 to 5 (1980); The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980); Maude (1972); The New Temperatures Rising Show (1972); Mannix (1967); The Second Hundred Years (1967); The Ballad of Josie (1967); The Graduate (1967); Tony Rome (1967); The Monkees (1965); The Way West (1967); Hey, Landlord (1966); Vacation Playhouse (1963); The Glass Bottom Boat (1966); Seconds (1966); Gunsmoke (1955); The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964); Perry Mason (1957); The Fugitive (1963); Bewitched (1964); A Patch of Blue (1965); Rawhide (1959); The Addams Family (1964); The Magical World of Disney (1954); Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964); Mickey (1964); The Bing Crosby Show (1964); Ben Casey (1961); Wagon Train (1957); The Jack Benny Program (1950); The Eleventh Hour (1962); The Bill Dana Show (1963); Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963); 77 Sunset Strip (1958); Dr. Kildare (1961); The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962); McKeever and the Colonel (1962); The Dick Powell Theatre (1961); The Defenders (1961); Two for the Seesaw (1962); The Doctors and the Nurses (1962); Car 54, Where Are You? (1961); One Happy Family (1961); The Donna Reed Show (1958); Fibber McGee and Molly (1959); Border Patrol (1959); Ask Any Girl (1959); The Millionaire (1955); Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958); Man with a Camera (1958); Bachelor Father (1957); The Tunnel of Love (1958); The Phil Silvers Show (1955); Telephone Time (1956); Kraft Theatre (1955–1956); Kraft Theatre (1955); Goodyear Playhouse (1951); Young at Heart (1954); The Steel Cage (1954); Dragnet (1951); Your Play Time (1954); Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson (1952); The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953); Four Star Playhouse (1952); So Big (1953); Lux Video Theatre (1950); Big Town (1950); Half-Dressed for Dinner (1953); Chevron Theatre (1952); Three Chairs for Betty (1953); Your Jeweler's Showcase (1952); Dangerous Assignment (1952); The Ford Television Theatre (1952); Gruen Guild Theater (1952); Schlitz Playhouse (1952); Boston Blackie (1952); Death of a Salesman (1951); Callaway Went Thataway (1951); Racket Squad (1950); When I Grow Up (1951); Studio One (1950); Hills of Oklahoma (1950); Dear Wife (1949); Roseanna McCoy (1949); Your Show Time (1949); All My Sons (1948); Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942); The Hidden Hand (1942); Busses Roar (1942); The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942); One Foot in Heaven (1941).



Saturday, January 6, 2024

Friday, January 5, 2024

Adulterers (2015) - free will ... and its consequences:


Adulterers (2015) - free will ... and its consequences:

Review by Jack Kost

Adulterers is a cautionary tale, a powerful drama inspired by true events, and far more compelling than the contrived Fatal Attraction (1987) and Unfaithful (2002).


How you feel at the end of Adulterers may depend on your personal experience of the subject it deals with.
It’s right there in the title.
If you’ve ever been cheated on by your significant other – then this movie might sting.
If you have cheated on your significant other – then this movie should rightly sting if you have any conscience and sense of guilt about the choice you made.

Consequences for making the wrong choice is the theme unflinchingly examined in this movie, released in the United States on January 5, 2016, written, produced and directed by H.M. Coakley.

Lead actor, Sean Farris threw himself into this role of a betrayed husband.
We see the anguish of his character, his pain, regret, broken heart, broken life, and ultimately broken mind.

Sean Farris is Samuel, a store assistant, working extra hours during a sweltering New Orleans afternoon.
It’s his first wedding anniversary; a special day in any marriage.
Samuel is a proud and happy man, deeply in love with his wife, Ashley (Danielle Savre).
He regrets having to work so many hours and laments at their lack of money, but he plans on making it up to Ashley.
He swings by his home halfway through his day, carrying his wife’s favorite flowers and chocolates.
Besides their money troubles, all seems right with Samuel’s world until he catches Ashley and her lover, Damien (Mehcad Brooks), naked, having sex in the bedroom.
Devastated, Samuel shoots them both.

This is not a spoiler; it happens within the first twelve minutes.


Downstairs, he sits on the couch, and drinks whiskey straight from the bottle.
Suffering a psychological break, he rethinks the situation.


This time, in his imagination, he doesn’t pull the trigger.

What if I’d waited instead of acting on impulse?
What would I say to them?
How far would I go to punish them?
What would they say to justify their sin, or lie their way out of the situation?

These questions are the basis for the imagined trial and torture he puts his wife and her lover through in that stifling room.


As Samuel struggles with the pain of betrayal and infidelity, the wedding ring, crucifix and Bible often the focus of the camera, he struggles with his faith.

Finally, as Samuel himself points out:

"You ain't sorry. You're just sorry that you got caught. It's time that you dealt with the consequences of your actions."

In forcing them to face the consequences of their actions, Samuel is then left to face the consequences of his own.


There are no winners in this story; everyone is destroyed.


Adultery … it’s all fun and games ... until you get caught!

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

George R. R. Martin, on reading:


I was born in Bayonne, New Jersey.
I grew up in the projects.
I never went anywhere.
But I have lived a thousand lives and I've loved a thousand loves.
I've walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time.
Because I read. 

- George R. R. Martin.