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It's probably the fault of closed-minded, conservative propaganda that the idea of subversiveness within art received a bad reputation. Just as all art is political, all art is (or at least can be) a little subversive. Certainly the dictionary definition of the term, where a work of art intends to undermine the power and/or authority of an established idea, system or value, is heavily akin to the way plot structure tends to be broken down within plays and screenplays: a period of Stasis being interrupted by an Intrusion or Inciting Action, and so on.

Given how weird a number of people are when it comes to the behavior and attitudes toward the Christmas holiday, it's no real surprise that any art having to do with Christmas tends toward subversion. This can manifest in tangential ways (like the slapstick violence of the "Home Alone" series) or direct ways (Santa Claus...

Actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd, best known for his title role in Hitchcock’s “Saboteur” and as Dr. Daniel Auschlander on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere” and famously associated with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 106.

His friend, producer Dean Hargrove, confirmed his death and said “His third act was really the best time of his life,” referring to the many historical Hollywood retrospectives and events Lloyd had participated in over the past few decades. Lloyd often said his secret to his long and mostly illness-free life was “avoiding disagreeable people,” Hargrove recounted.

Lloyd was hand-picked by Alfred Hitchcock to play the title character and villain in 1942’s “Saboteur,” and it was his character who tumbled to his death from the top of the Statue of Liberty in the pic’s iconic conclusion.

But the hard-working multihyphenate gained his highest profile only...

Academy Award winner Alvin Sargent, who penned an extraordinary number of popular and critically successful films, from “Paper Moon” and “Ordinary People” to the “Spider-Man” sequels of the 2000s, died Thursday, his talent agency Gersh confirmed to Variety. He was 92.

Sargent won adapted screenplay Oscars for “Julia” in 1978 and “Ordinary People” in 1981 and was also nominated in the category in 1974 for “Paper Moon.” (He also received Writers Guild awards for all three films.) The writer worked with many of Hollywood’s top directors over the course of his career, including Alan J. Pakula, John Frankenheimer. Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Redford, Martin Ritt, Norman Jewison, Stephen Frears and Wayne Wang, though not always when those helmers were doing their best work.

Sargent started as a writer for television but broke into features with his screenplay for 1966’s “Gambit,” a Ronald Neame-directed comedy thriller starring Michael Caine,...

I have a back file of reader notes asking for a Blu-ray for John Huston’s Moby Dick, and more pointedly, wondering what will be done with its strange color scheme. I wasn’t expecting miracles, but this new Twilight Time disc should make the purists happy – it has approximated the film’s original, heavily muted color scheme.

Moby Dick

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1956 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice,

Harry Andrews, Orson Welles, Bernard Miles, Mervyn Johns, Noel Purcell, Frederick Ledebur

Cinematography Oswald Morris

Art Direction Ralph W. Brinton

Film Editor Russell Lloyd

Original Music Philip Sainton

Writing credits Ray Bradbury and John Huston

Produced and Directed by John Huston

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Talk about a picture with a renewed reputation… in its day John Huston’s Moby Dick was not considered a success,...

John Ford's best war movie does a flip-flop on the propaganda norm. It's about men that must hold the line in defeat and retreat, that are ordered to lay down a sacrifice play while someone else gets to hit the home runs. Robert Montgomery, John Wayne and Donna Reed are excellent, as is the recreation of the Navy's daring sideshow tactic in the Pacific Theater, the 'speeding coffin' Patrol Torpedo boats. They Were Expendable Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 135 min. / Street Date June 7, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward Bond, Marshall Thompson, Cameron Mitchell, Paul Langton, Leon Ames, Donald Curtis, Murray Alper, Harry Tenbrook, Jack Pennick, Charles Trowbridge, Louis Jean Heydt, Russell Simpson, Blake Edwards, Tom Tyler. Cinematography Joseph H. August Production Designer Film Editor Douglass Biggs, Frank E. Hull Original Music Earl K. Brent, Herbert Stothart, Eric Zeisl Writing credits Frank Wead, Comdr. U.S.N. (Ret.), Based on the book by William L. White Produced and Directed by John Ford, Captain U.S.N.R.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

They Were Expendable has always been appreciated, but hasn't been given a high roost in John Ford's filmography. Yet it's one of his most personal movies, and for a story set in the military service, his most serious. We're given plenty of service humor and even more sentimentality -- with a sing-along scene like those that would figure in the director's later cavalry pictures, no less. Yet the tone is heavier, more resolutely downbeat. The war had not yet ended as this show went before the cameras, yet Ford's aim is to commemorate the sacrifices, not wave a victory flag. By 1945 Hollywood was already rushing its last 'We're at War!' morale boosters out the gate and gearing up for production in a postwar world. Practically a pet project of legendary director John Ford, They Were Expendable is his personal tribute to the Navy. Typical for Ford, he chose for his subject not some glorious victory or idealized combat, but instead a thankless and losing struggle against an invader whose strength seemed at the time to be almost un-opposable. They Were Expendable starts at Pearl Harbor and traces the true story of an experimental Patrol Torpedo Boat unit run by Lt. John Brickley (Robert Montgomery), his ambitious second in command Lt. Ryan (John Wayne) and their five boat crews. The ambience is pure Ford family casting: the ever-present Ward Bond and Jack Pennick are there, along with youthful MGM newcomers Marshall Thompson (It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Cameron Mitchell (Garden of Evil, Blood and Black Lace) being treated as new members of the Ford acting family. Along the way Ryan meets nurse Sandy Davyss (Donna Reed). Despite their battle successes, the Pt unit suffers casualties and loses boats as the Philippine campaign rapidly collapses around them. Indicative of the unusual level of realism is the Wayne/Reed romance, which falls victim to events in a very un-glamorous way. There's nothing second-rate about this Ford picture. It is by far his best war film and is as deeply felt as his strongest Westerns. His emotional attachment to American History is applied to events only four years past. The pace is fast but Expendable takes its time to linger on telling character details. The entertainer that responds to the war announcement by singing "My Country 'tis of Thee" is Asian, perhaps even Japanese; she's given an unusually sensitive close-up at a time when all Hollywood references to the Japanese were negative, or worse. MGM gives Ford's shoot excellent production values, with filming in Florida more than adequate to represent the Philippines. Even when filming in the studio, Ford's show is free of the MGM gloss that makes movies like its Bataan look so phony. We see six real Pt boats in action. The basic battle effect to show them speeding through exploding shells appears to be accomplished by pyrotechnic devices - fireworks -- launched from the boat deck. Excellent miniatures represent the large Japanese ships they attack. MGM's experts make the exploding models look spectacular. Ford's sentimentality for Navy tradition and the camaraderie of the service is as strong as ever. Although we see a couple of battles, the film is really a series of encounters and farewells, with boats not coming back and images of sailors that gaze out to sea while waxing nostalgic about the Arizona lost at Pearl Harbor. The image of civilian boat builder Russell Simpson awaiting invasion alone with only a rifle and a jug of moonshine purposely references Ford's earlier The Grapes of Wrath. Simpson played an Okie in that film and Ford stresses the association by playing "Red River Valley" on the soundtrack; it's as if the invading Japanese were bankers come to boot Simpson off his land. Equally moving is the face of Jack Holt's jut-jawed Army officer. He'd been playing basically the same crusty serviceman character for twenty years; because audiences had never seen Holt in a 'losing' role the actor makes the defeat seem all the more serious. The irony of this is that in real life, immediately after Pearl Harbor, Holt was so panicked by invasion fears that he sold his Malibu beach home at a fraction of its value. Who bought it? According to Joel Siegel in his book The Reality of Terror, it was Rko producer Val Lewton. John Wayne is particularly good in this film by virtue of not being its star. His character turn as an impatient but tough Lieutenant stuck in a career dead-end is one of his best. The real star of the film is Robert Montgomery, who before the war was known mostly for light comedies like the delightful Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Montgomery's Brickley is a man of dignity and dedication trying to do a decent job no matter how hopeless or frustrating his situation gets. Whereas Wayne was a Hollywood soldier, Montgomery actually fought in Pt boats in the Pacific. When he stands exhausted in tropic shorts, keeping up appearances when everything is going wrong, he looks like the genuine article. Third-billed Donna Reed turns what might have been 'the girl in the picture' into something special. An Army nurse who takes care of Wayne's Ryan in a deep-tunnel dispensary while bombs burst overhead, Reed's Lt. Davyss is one of Ford's adored women living in danger, like Anne Bancroft's China doctor in 7 Women. A little earlier in the war, the films So Proudly We Hail and Cry 'Havoc' saluted the 'Angels of Bataan' that stayed on the job, were captured and interned by the Japanese. Expendable has none of the sensational subtext of the earlier films, where the nurses worry about being raped, etc.. We instead see a perfect girl next door (George Bailey thought so) bravely soldiering on, saying a rushed goodbye to Wayne's Lt. Ryan over a field telephone. Exactly what happens to her is not known. Even more than Clarence Brown's The Human Comedy this film fully established Ms. Reed's acting credentials. The quality that separates They Were Expendable from all but a few war films made during the fighting, is its championing of a kind of glory that doesn't come from gaudy victories. Hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the Navy, Army and Air Corps units in the Northern Philippines that weren't wiped out in the first attacks, had to be abandoned. The key scene sees Lt. Brickley asking his commanding officer for positive orders to attack the enemy. He's instead 'given the score' in baseball terms. In a ball club, some players don't get to hit home runs. The manager instead tells them to sacrifice, to lay down a bunt. Brickley's Pt squadron will be supporting the retreat as best it can and for long as it can, without relief or rescue. Half a year later, the U.S. was able to field an Army and a Navy that could take the offensive. Brickley's unit is a quiet study of honorable men at war, doing their best in the face of disaster. According to John Ford, Expendable could have been better, and I agree. He reportedly didn't hang around to help with the final cut and the audio mix, and the MGM departments finished the film without him. Although Ford's many thoughtful close-ups and beautifully drawn-out dramatic moments are allowed to play out, a couple of the battle scenes go on too long, making the constant peppering of flak bursts over the Pt boats look far too artificial. Real shell bursts aren't just a flash and smoke; if they were that close the wooden boats would be shattered by shrapnel. The overused effect reminds me of the 'Pigpen' character in older Peanuts cartoons, if he walked around accompanied by explosions instead of a cloud of dust. The music score is also unsubtle, reaching for upbeat glory too often and too loudly. The main march theme says 'Hooray Navy' even in scenes playing for other moods. Would Ford have asked for it to be dialed back a bit, or perhaps removed from some scenes altogether? That's hard to say. The director liked his movie scores to reflect obvious sentiments. But a few of his more powerful moments play without music. We're told that one of the un-credited writers on the film was Norman Corwin, and that Robert Montgomery directed some scenes after John Ford broke his leg on the set. They Were Expendable is one of the finest of war films and a solid introduction to classic John Ford. The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray of They Were Expendable looks as good as the excellent 35mm copies we saw back at UCLA. This movie has always looked fine, but the previous DVDs were unsteady in the first reel, perhaps because of film shrinkage. The Blu-ray corrects the problem entirely. The B&W cinematography has some of the most stylized visuals in a war film. Emphasizing gloom and expressing the lack of security, many scenes are played in silhouette or with very low-key illumination, especially a pair of party scenes. Donna Reed appears to wear almost no makeup but only seems more naturally beautiful in the un-glamorous but ennobling lighting schemes. These the disc captures perfectly. Just as on the old MGM and Warners DVDs, the trailer is the only extra. We're told that MGM shoved the film out the door because victory-happy moviegoers were sick of war movies and wanted to see bright musicals instead. The trailer reflects the lack of enthusiasm -- it's basically two actor name runs and a few action shots. The feature has a choice of subtitles, in English, French and Spanish. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, They Were Expendable Blu-ray rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: DTS-hd Master Audio Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 6, 2016 (5135expe)

Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com

Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...

Interview and photo by Michael Lizarraga.

Whether we were on Mars, in a time machine, wandering a realm, or raising the dead, Rod Serling‘s (The Twilight Zone) messages on morals and social justice maneuvered their way into our homes, our hearts, our minds, and our conscience via the vessels of sci-fi and fantasy. Yet more admirable than Serling’s artistry and convictions was his love for his family, extolling the very same warmth and compassion that many of us felt from his stories and films onto his wife and children. And for his youngest daughter, Anne Serling, a unique father/daughter bond was forged between them, as timeless as infinity.

Endowed with both her father’s passion for writing and social concerns, Anne Serling is an accomplished poet, novelist, short story writer, and author of As I Knew Him, an honest and personal biographical memoir of her mentor, “best buddy”, and dad,...

August 30, 2013

CBS Radio Workshop Volume 4 The CBS Radio Workshop debuted at the end of the Age of Classic Radio, which was a time of innovation and experimentation, especially in terms of radio drama. The ten-hour Volume 4 includes “All Is Bright”, a history of the famous Christmas song; “1489 Words”, which featured the debut of later film composer Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Thunder of Imperial Names”, which was written for a concert band and was based on a text piece by Thomas Wolfe; a two-part adaptation of Frederick Pohl and Cyril M. Cornbluth’s The Space Merchants, which offers a satirical look at rampant consumerism from the viewpoint of an advertising executive; Archibald MacLeish’s “Air Raid”, the series’ only re-broadcast, which had first been written for the 1938 Columbia Workshop. Aired during the Cold War era, it took on a sinister new meaning; Henry Fritch’s “The Endless Road”, about a road...

Director Robert Altman.

Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick

By

Alex Simon

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.

It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...

By Allen Gardner

Prometheus (20th Century Fox) Ridley Scott’s quasi-prequel to his 1979 classic “Alien” has an intergalactic exploratory team (Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba) arriving on a uncharted planet, where they discover what appears to be a dormant alien spacecraft and what might be the first discovery of intelligent life outside of Earth. Of course, everything goes straight to hell before you can scream “Don’t touch that egg!” Sumptuous visuals and strong performances from the cast (not to mention a nearly-perfect first half) can’t compensate for gaping plot and logic holes that nearly sink the proceedings in the film’s protracted second half. It feels as though some very crucial footage wound up on the cutting room floor. Perhaps, as with “Alien” and “Aliens” we’ll see a “Director’s Cut” of “Prometheus” arriving on DVD within the next year. In the meantime,...

The Devil’s Coattails – More Dispatches from the Dark Frontier – Edited by Jason V Brock and William F. Nolan

(JaSunni Productions)

Trade Hardcover Edition, signed by both editors! Trade Hardcover with dust jacket; cover art by Vincent Chong. Foreword by S. T. Joshi.

A unique anthology: contains original, never before published works by Ramsey Campbell, John Shirley, Jason V Brock, Marc Scott Zicree, Norman Corwin, Gary Braunbeck, Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem, Earl Hamner, Jenny Brundage, Nancy Kilpatrick, Jerry E. Airth, Sunni K Brock, Richard Christian Matheson, Paul J. Salamoff, Paul G. Bens, Jr., William F. Nolan, Dan O’Bannon, Richard Selzer, James Robert Smith, and Wilum Pugmire/Maryanne K. Snyder. Opaque vellum pages, printed with 100% vegetable inks using windpower; printed and bound in the USA. Trade has a nice hardcover binding in cloth boards.

Foreword by S.T. Joshi

Introduction by Jason V Brock and William F. Nolan

The...

Kcet is airing a special broadcast of Les Guthman's must-see 1996 feature docu, Corwin on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m., followed by a show about the 1938 radio drama The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, in tribute to the late great radio pioneer Norman Corwin, who passed away last week at 101. Corwin left radio in 1955 during the McCarthy era and wrote Hollywood screenplays, including Lust for Life, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Thanks to documentary filmmaker Jeff Kaufman, I got to meet Corwin, who was still dazzling as he neared his centennial. Here's the Nyt obit:Mr. Corwin was a prolific writer and producer for CBS in the 1930s and ’40s, best known for his dramatizations of American history, vivid human-interest reports from abroad ...

Kcet is airing a special broadcast of Lee Guthman's must-see 1996 feature docu, Corwin on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m., in tribute to the late great radio pioneer Norman Corwin, who passed away last week at 101. Corwin left radio in 1955 during the McCarthy era and wrote Hollywood screenplays, including Lust for Life, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Here's the Nyt obit:Mr. Corwin was a prolific writer and producer for CBS in the 1930s and ’40s, best known for his dramatizations of American history, vivid human-interest reports from abroad during World War II, adaptations of American literary works and dozens of radio plays. One of his most celebrated broadcasts came eight days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when four American radio ...

Norman Corwin was one of my heroes; I never dreamed that one day I would also be able to call him a friend. When you’ve accomplished as much as he did, still have all your marbles as you turn 100 and live to be 101, it’s difficult to complain…but I’m still saddened by his death yesterday. Norman had a healthy ego and told Cris, his wonderful caregiver, that he hoped he would die on an unimportant day so people would take notice. I think he would be pleased by the news coverage of his passing. I expressed my feelings about…...

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Norman Corwin has died aged 101.

The broadcasting pioneer passed away on Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

His career spanned more than 70 years, during which time he worked in radio, TV, film and theatre as a writer, producer and director.

Corwin first made a name for himself in the so-called Golden Age of Radio in the 1940s, creating variety shows, dramas, comedies and documentaries enjoyed by millions of Americans.

He turned to TV and film in the 1950s, and went on to pick up an Emmy and a Golden Globe, as well as an Academy Award nomination for his 1956 script for Lust for Life, starring Kirk Douglas.

Corwin also wrote more than a dozen books and theatre plays, and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1993.

Norman Corwin was one of my heroes; I never dreamed that one day I would also be able to call him a friend. When you’ve accomplished as much as he did, still have all your marbles as you turn 100 and live to be 101, it’s difficult to complain…but I’m still saddened by his death yesterday. Norman had a healthy ego and told Cris, his wonderful caregiver, that he hoped he would die on an unimportant day so people would take notice. I think he would be pleased by the news coverage of his passing.I expressed my feelings about Norman in a centenary piece that ran last spring; in case you missed it, I’m reprinting it today as my epitaph for a great man.

Happy birthday to the oldest living Oscar winner, Luise Rainer

"The Good Earth" and "The Great Ziegfeld"May she live to be as old as she wants to!

Luise was the first actress to become a double Oscar winner (36/37) and the first thespian to do it back-to-back though Spencer Tracy repeated her trick immediately (37/38); Katharine Hepburn (67/68), Jason Robards (76/77) and Tom Hanks (93/94) followed suit.

Tonight

TCM is airing interviews with Luise

Oldest Living Oscar Nominees

Luise Rainer (two time Best Actress winner), now 101. Norman Corwin (nominee, wrote Lust for Life) is 100 1/2. Douglas Slocombe (3-time nominee, shot Raiders of the Lost Ark) is 98 next month. Elmo Williams (Oscar winner, editing High Noon) is 98 in April. Oswald Morris (Oscar winner, shot Fiddler on the Roof) recently turned 95. Olivia deHAVILLAND (two time Best Actress winner and featured in fav actresses gallery) is 94 Kirk Douglas (Michael Douglas pappy and 3 time nominee) just turned 94. Ernest Borgnine (Best Actor winner,...

Lombardi ** out of **** Circle in the Square on Broadway Sometimes, the most fascinating people can be terrible interviews. Either they're too protective of their image or -- outside the area of expertise that has made them famous -- they're simply boring. Whatever the case, complex and intriguing people sometimes just don't give good quotes. That seems to be the problem with the ornery (but lovable!) football coach Vince Lombardi in this new bio-play by Eric Simonson (director of A Note Of Triumph, the Academy Award winning short film on legendary radio talent Norman Corwin). It's 1965 and Lombardi (a fine Dan Lauria of TV's The Wonder Years) is in the midst of his remarkable revival of the Green Bay Packers. But a "hatchet job" in Esquire has Lombardi licking his wounds, wary but ready to cozy up to a cub...

Happy birthday to Best Actress winner Joan Fontaine (Suspicion, 1941), also known as the second Mrs. DeWinter. She turns 93 years young today. What on earth was she thinking about when she won the Oscar. This photo to your left fascinates me on account of "who knows?" It seems so much more candid than many Oscar night photos.

I keep the following "still with us!" list, not from any morbid curiousity but from a genuine happiness that some legendary screen stars are still walking the earth even though most of them aren't walking the screens these days. This year has been rough with the losses so maybe I'm going to stop keep this list. My heart was in the right place! We want the following to know that their past accomplishments are acknowledged by new generations.

The Oldest Living Oscar Nominees

All of them were born before the movies even had sound!

Norman Corwin is widely referred to as “the poet laureate of radio.” That won’t have much meaning to people who didn’t grow up in the 1940s or haven’t sought out his brilliant audio dramas. But if you love great writing…if you have a curiosity about the world around you… if you wonder why Americans were so galvanized by World War Two…or if you’d like to learn why performers from Charles Laughton to Groucho Marx were eager to work with one brilliant writer-director above all others, you really ought to check out Corwin’s work. For an overview, you might start with…...

The day slipped up on me. But I just noticed that today is Norman Corwin's birthday. Not just his birthday, but he turns 100. And no, I don't mean this is the 100th anniversary of his birth -- it's his birthday, with a party and cake and everything. Norman Corwin is still going strong, writing, working, teaching. A day like that should not pass without mention. Actually, given that it's Norman Corwin, the day shouldn't pass without more tribute than one can imagine. In his honor, I'm going to re-post a piece I did on the good fellow three years ago, in 2007, when he was just a whipper-snapper of a mere 97. It's about his most famous production, one of the two or three most famous productions in the history of American radio. So,...

Once again, the Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, CA, was the place to be for genre gold, this time for the launch party and signing for the new horror anthology, The Bleeding Edge. Published by Cycatrix Press, this collection of 19 tales by modern masters of the macabre, edited by Jason V Brock and William F. Nolan, received a lavish send-off by a host of its contributors. The book itself is a handsomely mounted volume, printed in a limited edition of 400 and an extremely limited deluxe signed edition of 75.

As usual, hosts and proprietors Malcolm and Christine Bell managed the moiling mobs of fans with courtesy and aplomb, showing how one should run the last standing brick-and-mortar genre bookstore in America’s second-largest city.

Jason Brock took a moment from the busy event to speak with FM.

Earl Hamner, Jr., Jason Brock and William Nolan

“I was annoyed with the current...

Dark Discoveries magazine has alerted FM that a signing for the upcoming anthology title Bleeding Edge is scheduled for next month.

Bleeding Edge features work from luminaries such as Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451), Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, Duel), William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run, Burnt Offerings), Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Return of the Living Dead), George Clayton Johnson (The Twilight Zone, Star Trek), John Shirley (The Crow), Joe Lansdale (Hap and Leonard), and many, many others.

To celebrate the volume, a signing will be held February 20, at the Mystery and Imagination Bookstore, located at:

238 N. Brand Blvd.

Glendale, CA.

Telephone number is (818) 545-0206.

Confirmed signees for the event (health permitting), are:

Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles; Fahrenheit 451)

William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run; Burnt Offerings)

George Clayton Johnson (Ocean’s 11; The Twilight Zone)

R.C. Matheson (Dystopia; Masters of Horror)

Jason V Brock (Charles Beaumont...

Ford's Theatre Society Director Paul Tetreault announced the Society's 2009-2010 season, a lineup that includes "Black Pearl Sings!," a new production of "A Christmas Carol," Norman Corwin's "The Rivalry," originally read as part of the Living Lincoln series, and the musical "Little Shop of Horrors." In addition to the mainstage season, the Society will present political comedian Mark Russell from February 17 to 20, 2010.