Aspiring April Consumption 2026

— The Great Muppet Caper (1981), 97 min.
Directed and written by Jim Henson.
Starring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Charles Grodin, Diana Rigg, and Jack Warden.
Released in the United States on June 26, 1981.

— Harold and Maude (1971), 91 min.
Directed by Hal Ashby; written by Colin Higgins.
Starring Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles (and Tom Skerritt).
Released in the United States on December 20, 1971.

Part of the film education of M.E. Bell. I’m pretty sure she fell asleep during this.

Who knew that Tom Skerritt was in this?

— Alien (1979), 117 min.
Directed by Ridley Scott; written by Dan O’Bannon.
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto.
Released in the United States on May 25, 1979.

I’ve seen this film so many times now, but it was worth it to watch it with M. And it was the first entry in the 30 Days of Remakes.

And I wrote about it!

— Wuthering Heights (1939), 104 min.
Directed by William Wyler; written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, based on the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
Starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Hugh Williams.
Released in the United States on April 7, 1939.

Watching this was rather a stupid choice on my part, since an adaptation of the novel will be unlikely remade with fidelity to the first film adaptation!

— Aliens (1986), 137 min.
Directed and written by James Cameron.
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein.
Released in the United States on July 18, 1986.

I watched the Director’s Cut, which was actually 154 minutes long and included scenes in the beginning of the colony on LV420 before the encounters with the alien spaceship, as well as scene about Ripley’s daughter, and Newt calling Ripley “Mommy” when she finally rescues her.

— Saving Private Ryan (1998), 169 min.
Directed by Steven Spielberg; written by Robert Rodat.
Starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Davies, and Ted Danson.
Released in the United States on July 24, 1998.

Won five Academy Awards at the 71st Oscars, including Best Director for Steven Spielberg and Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing.

— The Heat (2013), 117 min.
Directed by Paul Feig; written by Katie Dippold.
Starring Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demián Bichir, Marlon Wayans, Michael Rapaport, and Jane Curtin.
Released in the United States on June 23, 2013.

This is actually a pretty hilarious movie. Yes, of course, it hits lots of the buttons you would imagine. But it’s relentless and therefore kind of brilliant.

— Brute Force (1947), 98 min.
Directed by Jules Dassin; written by Richard Brooks.
Starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, and Sam Levene.
Released in the United States on July 8, 1947.

Based on the poster you can see that the producer, Mark Hellinger, was a big deal. He also produced The Roaring Twenties and High Sierra and The Killers.

Also, apparently Burt Lancaster’s naked chest was quite the draw …

— The Violent Men (1955), 96 min.
Directed by Rudolph Maté; written by Harry Essex.
Starring Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, and Dianne Foster.
Released in New York City on January 26, 1955.

Parrish (Ford) is a rancher who came from the East and seems to deny any responsibility to his community as it is gobbled up by a crippled local rancher Wilkinson (Robinson). But Wilkinon’s wife (Stanwyck) is actually in love with her husband’s brother (Keith).

I found a blog post about this which compliments Ford’s riding skills. Apparently he can both get on and off the horse without using the stirrups.

Want to read more about The Violent Men?

— Wall Street (1987), 126 min.
Directed by Oliver Stone; written by Oliver Stone and Stanley Weiser.
Starring Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Hal Holbrook, and Terence Stamp.
Released in the United States on December 11, 1987.

— Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), 133 min.
Directed by Robert Aldrich; written by Lukas Heller and Henry Farrell.
Starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Bruce Dern, and Cecil Kellaway.
Theatrical release in the United States on January 20, 1965.

Truly, the casting for this film is pretty impressive. I started watching because I couldn’t believe Bruce Dern had short hair and looked straight (in his youth). But he was the least of it.

Viewed on Movies TV (antenna) with continual commercial interruption.

— The Medusa Touch (1978), 109 min.
Directed by Jack Gold; written by John Briley, based on the novel by Peter Van Greenaway.
Starring Richard Burton, Lee Remick, Lino Ventura, Harry Andrews, and Gordon Jackson.
Released in the United Kingdom on April 7, 1978.

Apparently Lino Ventura was dubbed … to give him a French accent? But he looks better than Richard Burton or Lee Remick.

Also viewed on Movies TV (antenna) with continual commercial interruption.

— What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), 99 min.
Directed by Lee H. Katzin; written by Theodore Apstein, based on the novel by Ursula Curtiss.
Starring Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth, and Robert Fuller.
Released in the United States on August 20, 1969.

This film is part of a series of films going back to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (whether intentionally or simply by convenient association).

— Disclosure (1994), 128 min.
Directed by Barry Levinson. The screenplay was written by Paul Attanasio, based on the novel by Michael Crichton.
Starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland, Caroline Goodall, and Roma Maffia.
Released in the United States on December 9, 1994.

Male fantasy? Being seduced by Demi Moore so as to be provided grounds to fire? This last part I’m just guessing since I do not know what happens next.

— Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), 137 min.
Directed by Luc Besson; written by Luc Besson, based on the comic series Valérian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières.
Starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, and Kris Wu.
Premiered in Los Angeles on July 17, 2017.

First 90 minutes.

Perhaps if I were French I would have a much higher opinion of this film, or if I’d read its bande dessinée

— Raymond Williams, Television, 12 pp. 

Contra technological determinism! I’m on board for that.

— Percival Everett, The Trees, 75 pp. 

I read Erasure last year after visiting my friend in Amherst and on his recommendation. I purchased this book but it has sat by my bed since then, alongside other books, waiting to be consumed.

— Happy Gilmore 2 (2025), 118 min.
Directed by Kyle Newacheck; written by Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy.
Starring Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, and Ben Stiller, as well as Bad Bunny, Haley Joel Osment, Steve Buscemi, Benny Safdie and nearly everyone else. For a while I was thinking the Safdie’s character was played by Carrottop.
Released in the Netflix in the United States on July 25, 2025.

I really wish I had not had to watch this movie.

— Harry and the Hendersons (1987), 110 min.
Directed by William Dear; written by William Dear, Bill Martin, and Ezra D. Rappaport.
Starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, and Kevin Peter Hall.
Released in the United States on June 5, 1987.

— Twister (1996), 113 min.
Directed by Jan de Bont; written by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin.
Starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Released in the United States on May 10, 1996.

— Finished The Trees.

The naming in The Trees is no joke. 

— Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, Act 1

— Paul Lockhart, Measurement, 15 pp.

How to calculate the interior angles of a regular polygon.

— Kenn Amdahl, There are No Electrons, 32 pp.

Pointed criticism of the electron model.

I have to say, I hate this poster, perhaps because it is so distant from the content of this film.

— The Letter (1940), 95 min.
Directed by William Wyler; written by Howard Koch, based on the play The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham.
Starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort, Gale Sondergaard, and Sen Yung.
Released in the United States on November 23, 1940.

I’d seen this before, and it’s probably my favorite Bette Davis film, alongside All About Eve. The latter includes Gary Merrill, whereas The Letter does not.

— Another Man’s Poison (1951), 90 min.
Directed by Irving Rapper; written by Val Guest, based on the play Deadlock by Leslie Sands.
Starring Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emlyn Williams, and Anthony Steel.
Released in the United Kingdom on December 4, 1951.

— Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), 96 min.
Directed by Jean Negulesco; written by Nunnally Johnson, based on the novel Phone Call from a Stranger by George Sumner Albee.
Starring Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie, Keenan Wynn, and Warren Stevens.
Released in the United States on August 22, 1952.

This film actually has a series of narratives (although I started watching it at least halfway through), in which the survivor of a plane crash (Merrill) meets the loved ones of his former fellow passengers who perished in the crash.

In each case some secret has been revealed.