Elsa Lanchester – MRQE

The Flood (TV)

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Stravinsky and Balanchine’s take on the apocalyptic Biblical tale. An opera composed for video.

Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood (TV)

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Eight hundred German filmmakers (cast and crew) fled the Nazis in the 1930s. The film uses voice-overs, archival footage, and film clips to examine Berlin’s vital filmmaking in the 1920s; then it follows a producer, directors, composers, editors, writers, and actors to Hollywood: some succeeded and many found no work. Among those profiled are Erich Pommer, Joseph May, Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Peter Lorre. Once in Hollywood, these exiles helped each other, housed new arrivals, and raised money so others could escape. Some worked on anti-Nazi films, like Casablanca. The themes and lighting of German Expressionism gave rise in Hollywood to film noir.

Hell’s Half Acre

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A woman travels to Hawaii to find out if a man in prison there is actually her missing husband.

Daydreams

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A young cleaning woman in a boarding-house relieves the drudgery of her job by daydreaming that a foreign student at the house, who she believes is interested in her, is actually a wealthy nobleman who sweeps her off on a romantic journey.

Rembrandt

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

This character study joins the painter at the height of his fame in 1642, when his adored wife suddenly dies and his work takes a dark, sardonic turn that offends his patrons. By 1656, he is bankrupt but consoles himself with the company of pretty maid Hendrickje, whom he’s unable to marry. Their relationship brings ostracism but also some measure of happiness. The final scenes find him in his last year, 1669, physically enfeebled but his spirit undimmed.

Willard

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father by his boss. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates. However, when one of them is killed at work, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.

That Darn Cat!

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A young woman suspects foul play when her cat comes home wearing a wristwatch. Convincing the FBI, though, and catching the bad guys is tougher than she imagined.

Turnabout: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Documentary about the Yale Puppeteers. A bit eccentric, certainly off beat and creative, the puppeteers and their story – as well as their place in history – is meticulously documented and tugs at the heartstrings.

Die Laughing

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A San Francisco cab driver find himself in possession of a monkey that is carrying a formula for turning atomic waste into a plutonium bomb. He finds himself framed for a murder and chased

Dreamboat

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Thornton Sayre, a respected college professor – secretly formerly a silent films romantic action hero – is disturbed, feeling his privacy has been violated, and his professional credibility as a scholar jeopardized, when he learns his old movies have been resurrected and are being aired on TV. He sets out to demand this cease. However, his former co-star is the hostess of the TV show playing the films, and she has other plans.