CineSavant Column
Hello!
First up is a simple link to a bit of film analysis I liked, from critic David Cairns, July 11, 2026. I’ve been reading about Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity for a long time now, but was surprised that Cairns could put so many great observations and thoughts into such a short space.
Some of his remarks note improvements that Wilder and Chandler made to Cain’s original book.
“Fred MacMurray underplays — Even Humphrey Bogart didn’t underplay before MacMurray.”
“Like many Wilder characters, Neff keeps trying to win by immoral means right up to the third act, then turns noble when he realises he can’t win.”
“And whoever came up with and shot the titles was a bit of a genius too.”
And after my wondering about early TV Sci-fi the other day, we really wanted to see a ‘Space Patrol’ remnant for ourselves. Michael McQuarrie was able to find an episode.
We’re told that the show ran for five years. We like that it gave early work to so many actors: Lee Van Cleef, Robert Shayne, Dorothy Ford, John Larch, William Schallert, Roland Varno, Dabbs Greer, Gloria Saunders, Sally Fraser, Richard Devon. I was looking for Ernest Borgnine on the list, but nah, he was a proud contributor to the ‘other team,’ Captain Video and his Video Rangers.
This episode is pretty glorious, no kidding. It also features Lee Van Cleef and Virginia Hewitt.
Norman Jolley later co-wrote the screenplay for The Monolith Monsters, so penning 77 episode with Commander Corry and Cadet Happy honed his skills.
But wait, here is a much-needed post on the very non-film subject of World Cup Fútbol!
When Argentina played on Saturday, we were ready, with Argentinian Empanadas and Malbec … there’s nothing better.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson