Welcome to my corner

Greetings everyone. My name is Kevin Deany and I will be using this little corner of the Internet to write about my passion - the movies. Here you will find thoughts, observations, reviews and critiques of movies current and old (mostly old). I will be posting about movies I've watched, movie news, DVD news and reviews, etc.

When not watching movies, I am an account manager at the Chicago-based Figel Public Relations. I look forward to blogging and hope to use this opportunity to indulge in this unique and fun 21st Century method of communication.

So here we go on this great adventure, with my first post.

So anyway, after coming home from the E.L. Doctorow appearance in Willowbrook (don't worry, there won't be name dropping here) I got home about 9:00. With just about an hour to kill before the 10:00 news, I popped in the VCR a little programmer I had taped off TCM awhile back, "Homicide Bureau" a 1939 Columbia B crime drama with Bruce Cabot and Rita Hayworth. A quick 58 minutes long. I don't think this title had been shown on television in 40 years, so as a Rita fan it was a real treat to see. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good. It was nice to see her, but those Columbia B pics just didn't have the zest and vitality of their contemporaries at, say, RKO or Fox. Just compare the detective series at Fox (Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Michael Shayne) and RKO (with The Saint and The Falcon) with Columbia (Crime Doctor, The Lone Wolf, Ellery Queen and Boston Blackie) and you'll know what I'm talking about. The Columbia's are pretty turgid and rough going, though I have a soft spot in my heart for the Boston Blackies thanks to Chester Morris. TCM recently signed a contract with Sony so a whole slew of Columbia's are being screened for the first time in decades, and while I'm grateful to be getting acquainted with them, there have not been, so far, any real gems uncovered. But I remain hopeful .