Hello!

Josh Olsen and Joe Dante’s interview guest on Trailers from Hell’s The Movies that Made Me podcast from last week is Robert D. Krzykowski, the director of The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot. I listened in — it’s quite a far-reaching, elevated discussion.

Correspondent Jonathan Gluckman pointed me toward Nina Paley’s ‘Copyleft’ feature animation Seder-Masochism, which begins with five minutes of beautiful storytelling animation and then goes forward to present an interesting take on the Book of Exodus. Ms. Paley’s Wiki Page gives us a very organized activist who puts her ideas into her art — on subjects as conceptually daring as the Free Culture Activism and the the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. I’m not ready to endorse all of her causes, but I like her fighting spirit. Seder-Masochism interprets the Bible to “show the rise of patriarchy and the fall of goddess worship.” In and of itself, the animation is terrific.

Longtime correspondent Allen saw Fort Apache on TCM and then read the Savant review, where I mention being a ’50s kid who naturally got a ‘Fort Apache Playset’ for Christmas. Allen not only knows about the things, he collects them, and wrote a note and explained:

“I was delighted at seeing the Marx Playset. Attached is my Fort Apache set that is currently set up in my basement. This one is #3660 from 1956 with the rare blood red Indians that only came in a few sets. I have been collecting Marx playsets since about 2000. I only have about 15 or so with many of them set up in displays along my basement walls. They are totally complete with the original play set bags, instruction sheets and very nice boxes. Yes..I am a purist when it comes to my play set collection. I also have the rare 1951 Fort Dearborn..a hard one to find in pristine condition.”

Like many people, we moved around so much during my childhood that my toys disappeared at regular intervals, but this brings back visions of being four years old again, trying to keep the ill-fitting pieces of the fort from falling apart!   I uploaded the image at full resolution, so open it in a new window if, like me, you want to start playing.

And Twilight Time has announced their June discs — I’m still staring at the mailbox itching for the March titles. They’re good: The Horton Foote/Steve McQueen/Lee Remick Baby, The Rain Must Fall, James Stewart, Raquel Welch & Dean Martin in Bandolero, Marlon Brando in Morituri, and the Henry Fonda/Richard Widmark/Anthony Quinn western Warlock.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson