Category: Popular Culture

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #80

    Songs My Mother Taught Me Was the autobiography of actor Marlon Brando. Considered one of the greatest actors of the 20th century he is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting, to mainstream audiences. Born on April 3rd, 1924 and by the time he was…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #79

    Nuts am I ? The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (released in 1948) written and directed by John Huston is a brilliantly sharp-edged study of the effects of greed on otherwise normal men, and one man in particular – Fred C. Dobbs, superbly realised by Humphrey Bogart. Dobbs and Bob Curtin (Tim Holt) are down…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #78

    You must just remember this. Casablanca arguably remains Hollywood’s finest moment, a film that succeeds on such a vast scale not because of anything experimental or deliberately earthshaking in its design, but for the way it adhered to and reaffirmed the movie-making conventions of its day. This is the film that played by the rules…

  • Rabz’ Radio Show July 2023: Music Videos

    This is a difficult one, given that these monthly threads were always meant to be about the music. As far as I’m concerned there’s a golden rule regarding music videos – ideally, they should never be more memorable than the song. Having said that, if a great song has a great video, that’s a bonus.…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #77

    Charles Calthrop. From start to finish, The Day Of The Jackal (released in 1973) is one stylish thriller that qualifies among the best of its genre. Based on Frederick Forsyth’s best-selling novel and handsomely photographed it is impressively acted by the entire cast, whilst showcasing Edward Fox as The Jackal in a performance of smooth…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #76

    The Return of the Great Adventure With the impending release of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny it’s opportune to look back at the film that started it all Raiders Of The Lost Ark released way back in 1981. Nowadays we keep forgetting how magnificent blockbusters can be. Too much CGI makes everything possible…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #75

    Tourists on the menu. The first time watching of a favourite film can be a particularly memorable event, and I will always recall my first viewing of Jaws when the family went to see it way back in the summer of 1976. It would have to rank as one of my top five most purely…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #74

    I think it would be fun to run a newspaper. It is with some trepidation that I write about a film that is often considered one of the greatest film ever made – Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, released in 1941. This quasi-biographical drama examines the life and legacy of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, brilliantly played by…

  • Rabz’ Radio Show June 2023 – Favourite Songs

    All killer, no filler, Cats. One of the many things I love about music is its effortless ability to transfer you back to a particular time and place, emphatically triggering memories. But what exactly are the constituent parts of that rare beast, a favourite song? To me, the most important aspect (obviously) is the music,…

  • WolfmanOz at the Movies #73

    One flew East . . . One flew West. The 70s produced some of the most interesting and worthy Hollywood movies. Before the era of blockbusters, and ever increasing dumbing down of the cinema art by the Hollywood power-brokers and greedy moneymakers, there was this short but truly amazing window of time that produced many…