DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 30, 2025

Matinee (1993) Looking to capitalize on the dread generated by the Cuban missile crisis, master showman Lawrence Woolsey brings his latest celluloid extravaganza, Mant!, to a small Florida town. While teen drama and atomic paranoia run rampant around him, Woolsey prepares for the film's premier by setting up a number of gimmicks. These include having an actor dressed as the movie's half-man/half-ant monster terrorize ticket buyers and setting up large speakers to shake the auditorium, a gag he has dubbed Rumble-Rama. Once the lights go down, havoc erupts. This light hearted love letter to B-movies is a joy for film fanatics and John Goodman's performance as the William Castle wannabe will make you love him even more than you already do.

TIL: Writing in Crisis Magazine, Ronald J. Rychlak relates how, during the Cuban missile crisis, JFK sent a message to Pope John XXIII imploring him to help. The Pontiff responded with a radio address and letter published in newspapers all over the world, including Pravda, in which he begged for peace. Rychlak notes, "With his plea, Pope John XXIII had given Khrushchev a way out. By withdrawing now, he would be seen as a man of peace, not a coward." This, along with the U.S. and Russia agreeing to withdraw missiles form strategic locations, managed to calm things down. As Rychlak explains, "Pope John’s role in the resolution of the Cuban missile crisis is often overlooked, but it was very important. It also helped move the world in a positive direction."

The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) Overexposure to a variety of household chemicals causes suburban homemaker Pat Kramer to begin diminishing in size. This not only turns Pat into an overnight celebrity (a commercial product if you will), but also brings her to the attention of a cabal of mad scientists who want to shrink the world. They kidnap the now doll-sized Pat for experimentation, but she manages to find an unlikely ally in one of those super-intelligent gorillas mad scientists always have locked up in their labs. This early effort from Joel Schumacher featuring Lily Tomlin's comic take on the classic tale abandons metaphysics for satire of consumerism. The result is no gut-buster, but still makes for good family fun.

TIL: In his encyclical Centesimus Annus, St. Pope John Paul II noted that capitalism is the preferable economic system because, in theory, it encourages producers of goods to be attentive to the needs of others in order to be successful. However, he does warn that capitalism can lead to consumerism, a way of living in which people make consumer goods the source of their identity and the goal toward which their lives are oriented. As Fr. Richard John Neuhaus put it, "Consumerism is, quite precisely, the consuming of life by the things consumed." Or put another way, as we see in the movie's visual metaphor, consumerism eventually shrinks one's personhood until, finally, it simply disappears forever.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 26, 2025

 

Vice Squad (1982) Unable to break the glass ceiling, a businesswoman changes her name to Princess and turns to the oldest form of entrepreneurship to make ends meet. Her new job goes okay until a fellow hooker dies following a savage rape and beating from her own pimp. Princess does her best to stay uninvolved, but soon finds herself coerced into helping the police track down the culprit. This could have easily slid into 80's exploitation obscurity except for one thing, Wings Hauser. The man is legendarily slimy as the world's most vile pimp, Ramrod, and his mere presence forces everyone else to bring it up a notch.

TIL: Victory over Vice was a series of talks given by the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (and, like most of his stuff, eventually turned into a book) in which he used the seven last words of Christ on the Cross as a counter to the seven deadly sins. For example, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” is a perfect antidote to the vice of anger. Basically, his method boils down to four steps to overcome vices; introspection, avoiding sinful opportunities, willpower, and a right philosophy.

The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) An American detective tracking a serial rapist/murderer through Venice discovers she has the titular disorder, a mental condition which basically causes the brain to short circuit when viewing great works of art. Once her prey learns of the detective's weakness, he uses it to plot against her. Mind games and super weird plot twists ensue. Certainly nowhere near Argento's best movie but, notwithstanding some questionable character decisions (and kind of icky given the film's star is the director's daughter), it's probably his last really decent one.

TIL: Speaking on the effects of art, Jem Sullivan, Ph.D. notes, "There are many, many stories of people who are not believers, who are atheists, perhaps, or just secular people, and something about the beauty that they encounter either in nature or in a work of a beautiful work of art, a piece of beautiful music, brings them closer to God in some way that was unexpected. That’s the interesting thing about beauty: It takes us by surprise and has a hold on our attention for however long we’re engaged in the encounter with beauty. But it leaves us changed. It leaves us transformed."

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 12, 2025

The Relic (1997) Something is beheading people at the the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and removing their hypothalami. With the help of some cantankerous cops, it's up to the institution's evolutionary biologists to determine what's going on, that is if they can literally keep their heads about them long enough to solve the mystery before the night of the museum's annual fundraising gala. With solid acting from the likes of Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller, not to mention a pretty nifty monster design, this is the kind of dependable B-level creature feature one could often find in cinemas before the millennium changed.

TIL: The act of placing a relic (a piece of a Saint's body) underneath the altar stone of a Catholic Church goes all the way back to Christianity's beginning when, by necessity, Christians assembled in the Catacombs. A letter from the 2nd Century mentions holding mass over the remains of St. Polycarp, noting, "we took up his bones, more valuable to us than precious stones and finer than refined gold. We laid them in a suitable place, where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in gladness and joy.” The practice is not strictly required these days (there's only so many parts of Saints to go around), but it's still strongly encouraged.

The Night Stalker (1972) A number of bloodless corpses turn up along the Las Vegas Strip, leading investigative reporter Carl Kolchak to suspect a vampire is involved. Both his boss and the authorities tell him to back off the story, even after a man breaks into a blood bank and runs off after being shot multiple times. However, undeterred, Kolchak continues to pursue the story in the name of truth. The script is fairly boilerplate for an ABC movie of the week, but Darren McGavin's portrayal of the beatdown, gruff journalist is an instant classic and makes the movie a must watch. No wonder people clamored  for more.

TIL: Apologetics, meaning to give a reason or defense of an action, comes from the Greek word 'apologian'. That's the word which appears in the original texts of 1 Peter wherein the apostle encouraged Christians to, much like Kolchak, stand up for the truth no matter what. As he put it, we should "always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 9, 205

The Mutilator (1984) As a child, poor little Ed Jr. accidentally discharges a shotgun into his mother, causing his father Big Ed to have a violent psychotic break. Years later, Ed Jr. and his college buddies head to his family's beach condo for Fall Break (huh?), but someone with a lot of sharp implements lying around isn't happy about their arrival. Could it be Big Ed? Okay, so the Mutilator isn't big on mystery. What it does have, though, is a ludicrously happy opening theme song extolling Fall Break (is that a thing?) and a handful of brutal set pieces guaranteed to please readers of Fangoria.

TIL: Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons (i.e. cutting off a gangrened limb), the Church considers intentional amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons to be a violation against a moral understanding of bodily integrity This pretty much nixes anything from lopping off the hands of thieves to gender reassignment surgery. The only exception granted is for non-therapeutic circumcision. Parents can choose that for their child if they wish since the procedure was established by God himself as a sign of the Old Covenant, and therefore by definition cannot be immoral.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) Ten years following Dracula's dusting at the hands and cross of Van Helsing, two English couples touring the Carpathian Mountains get talked into staying at the Count's castle. After one of the men is sacrificed to resurrect Dracula, it's up to the tough-talking gun-toting Father Sandor to make sure things don't get out of hand. Christopher Lee's second time around as the titular lord of vampires is Hammer at its artistic peak. Lee actually never says a single word during the entire runtime and yet that somehow makes him all the more regal and menacing. Good stuff.

TIL: Prior to Dracula and Ozzy Osbourne laying claim to the title, the Prince of Darkness was one of the many monikers bestowed upon Satan. It doesn't appear in Scripture, though. The nomenclature first appears in John Milton's poem Paradise Lost published in 1667 where, despite the sinister implications of his sobriquet, the devil is portrayed in a way many interpreted as sympathetic. Don't believe it, though, said C. S. Lewis. In his forward to the 1941 edition of Milton's work, Lewis insists Milton "uses all his skill to make us regard Satan as a despicable human being" by focusing on his egotism and monomaniac concern with himself.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 4, 2025

An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1970) Vincent Price sits alone on a handful of dimly lit gothic looking stage sets and recites four Edgar Allan Poe stories: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Pit and the Pendulum. Les Baxter adds a little music here and there. That's all there is to this televised one-man show and that's all you need. Say what you want to about Price's particular acting style (though it better be said with respect around these parts), but his technique couldn't work more perfectly than it does here as the beloved thespian appears to have been born to interpret the master's works.

TIL: It's a shame Price didn't read Poe's "Catholic Hymn", originally published as part of the story Morella. It goes like this: Sancta Maria! turn thine eyes - Upon the sinner’s sacrifice - Of fervent prayer, and humble love, - From thy holy throne above. - At morn, at noon, at twilight dim, - Maria! thou hast heard my hymn, - In joy and wo, in good and ill, - Mother of God! be with me still. - When my hours flew gently by, - And no storms were in the sky, - My soul, lest it should truant be, - Thy love did guide to thine and thee. - Now, when clouds of Fate o’ercast - All my Present, and my Past, - Let my Future radiant shine - With sweet hopes of thee and thine.

Satan's Satellites (1958) Realizing Mars is too far from the sun to grow crops, Martians decide that rather than wasting time conquering the Earth or, you know, simply asking for help, they'll use a hydrogen bomb to move our planet out of the way so Mars can be scooted closer to Sol. It's up to cut-rate Commander Cody stand-in Larry Martin to foil their plans. This is just the Republic serial Zombies of the Stratosphere trimmed of all its cock-a-doodie cliffhanger nonsense to make it suitable for quick and easy viewing. Notable mostly for a young Leonard Nimoy showing up in Martian makeup.

TIL: Based on comments in Aquinas and Augustine, there are a number of folks who believe UFOs/UAPs are not from another planet, but from another plain of existence. Angels and demons, the Saints noted, are pure intelligence with no corporeal bodies, but they can assume physical bodies. And though they can't do miracles, they can affect things in the physical world by using certain material elements. Given this, some believe the unexplained phenomena in our skies are spiritual beings engaged in cosmic warfare. Some might be friendly while others could be... Satan's satellites. Well, it's a theory anyway.