While originally released as House of Usher , the title on the print we viewed was The Fall of the House of Usher , hence its presence at this point in the alphabetical lineup of our 52 Pick-Up series. The first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations,  The Fall of the House of Usher  is a film that I have owned for years, and across many formats. Strangely enough, I have no recollection of ever having seen it, even going back to the days of Creature Features and Chiller Diller. I only have distinct memories of watching one of the Corman Poe's, and that's  The Raven . As a result, I've long wanted to schedule a Corman Poe-a-thon in the Slaughtered Lamb, either as our regular Wednesday night feature over a few months, or as an all-day marathon for one of our monthly movie events. Since we hadn't gotten around to either of those, the 52 Pick-Up series seemed like an ideal time to finally check this one out!  House of Usher  was adapted to the screen by Richa...

An early-80s film that I have not seen since the dawn of home video, and had very little memory of,  Excalibur  is John Boorman's exploration of the King Arthur legend. While it's a bit of a slow burn, by the time it was over I was quite satisfied with it. It perhaps took me a little too long to warm to Nigel Terry's Arthur, but I was immediately captivated by Nicol Williamson's Merlin and Helen Mirren's Morgana, who have some great interactions late in the film. And it was fun to see Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson in early film roles. I was also quite fond of Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere. Her filmography appears to be comprised of predominantly TV work, but she has turned up in several films that I've seen before and may need to revisit (including The Mission and Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ). Vonna was taken aback by how often she felt that Month Python and the Holy Grail (1975) must have been inspired by the film, despite my consta...

Dark City  was Alex Proyas' follow up to The Crow , a film that I really loved. So I can't explain how it is that we somehow missed seeing this one theatrically. We opted to screen the director's cut, which after reading up on the differences, I'm glad we did. It sounds like one of the big differences was an explanatory opening narration in the theatrical cut (shades of Blade Runner ?) that we ultimately didn't feel was necessary to enjoy the film. I can't look at the film and not see visual echoes of  The Crow , so  I was not surprised to see that both films were shot and edited by the same people. I must admit I was  surprised to find that Alex McDowell,  The Crow 's  production designer, did  not work on the film, given the visual similarities (and use of miniatures, etc.).  The film has interesting period/contemporary design elements akin to Walter Hill's Streets of Fire , and a pinch of Clive Barker's cenobites right out of Hellraiser. ...

The Collector  is a fairly recent addition to the library, and a film I've been interested in seeing for some time, so it was an ideal selection for my 52 Pick-Up series. Based on the John Fowles novel, but promoted as 'William Wyler's  The Collector ,' it's safe to say that it's  not what you might expect  from the director of Ben-Hur .  Terence Stamp plays a socially inept entomologist, Frederick, who decides to add a young woman who he's long been infatuated with, Miranda (portrayed by Samantha Eggar), to his 'collection.' It's a creepy film, but not in the same dark and disturbing manner that it would surely be handled in a contemporary film. Wyler makes light of Frederick's eccentric behavior, as opposed to presenting him as a true threat to a woman abducted by an unstable individual. Frederick assures Miranda that he won't do anything untoward, and for much of the film's running time we can believe him; that is, short of his hol...