F.W. Murnau didn't live long enough to direct a huge slate of films, but the man bullhorning The Last Laugh also has Nosferatu, Faust and Sunrise on his resume. Like those, The Last Laugh is a silent picture And THIS one infamously uses very few intertitles to explain dialogue or motivations. So Emil Jannings went very big! The story is that he loses his job as the doorman of a swanky hotel, leading to depression and shame. The artistry by Murnau and his team are terrific. Their movie is slow-paced and extremely melodramatic, but there's poetry...until an irrational deus ex machina in the last 15 minutes. The story in episode #746 ends up leaving much to be desired. So enjoy the rare Friday show the next few months as I hand out towels and talk about The Last Laugh.

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The key word is charming in the 745th edition of Have You Ever Seen. Only The Lonely has John Candy playing a single Chicago cop who lives with his widowed mother (Maureen O'Hara). He's an extroverted sweetheart who falls for shy Ally Sheedy, but while his bigoted mom might love her son(s), that love is on HER terms. Candy didn't get to play the romantic lead very often (or ever?) before Chris Columbus gave him that chance in the Mama's Boy movie, but he showed he had the chops to evolve as more than just a laugh machine. Then he was dead only a few years later. Only The Lonely wasn't very popular 35 years ago, but it works really well as a dramedy...and it's nearly impossible not to like the 2 leads. In any case, it's good to be a cop in love in a sweet little movie.

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It's as if 007 went to prison for decades, was let out by government guys played by John Spencer & William Forsythe and then he had to help a nerdy Nicolas Cage save hostages on a deserted island. Well, hold up, that IS the plot of The Rock! Michael Bay's action movie is deeper than you might expect, with Ed Harris playing a superstar Marine general who becomes a terrorist…with sympathetic complexity. Cage is the out-of-his-element expert on chemical weapons who teams with Sean Connery's Bond-like ex-spy who once escaped from Alcatraz. The flick is a Bay/Bruckheimer/Simpson collab so it's gaudy, loud, tart-tongued and very exciting. Those 2 Mexican stand-offs are phenomenal scenes. There's death and destruction in The Rock, sure, yet it's just fun. So, yesh, cut Agent Goodspeed some slack as he battles the guy threatening to launch deadly gas while mourning his men (and "his wife") in this 744th episode.

Well, Actually: Mason uses SF Information to find his daughter...he doesn't just magically remember a phone number he never had. Also, the funny line about bailing on lemons is in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, not I Love You, Man. Also also, it DOES seem like Tony Todd's character knocks over a rock on purpose to start a massacre in the shower scene...and also at least SOME of Hummel's marines are killed when that "all enemies…foreign, sir, and domestic" melee is over.

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The first episode of a non-theme month here in June (and the 743rd overall) gets loud about Baz Luhrmann's bombastic Moulin Rouge. It's the kind of zany project where the director and star of this Paris-set movie are both Australians (Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman) while the co-lead is Scottish (Ewan McGregor) and a Colombian (John Leguizamo) plays the real-life French writer Toulouse Lautrec. Kidman and McGregor are well-matched as gaga lovers and, while she got most of the raves, he's just as good...if not even better. Baz's main hook is to use anachronistic pop hits on the soundtrack in his frantic, garish musical that's absolutely in love with love. Either you're all in...or you won't be able to put up with more than 10 minutes of it. But put up with me talking baout the sickly courtesan and her idealistic writer who l'amour things up in the spectacular (spectacular) Moulin Rouge.

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I put a jaunty bow on Heroes Month with another multi-movie episode. For #742, I'm mostly talking about John Ford's My Darling Clementine, but there's a bit at the end about John Sturges' Gunfight At The O.K. Corral and George Cosmatos' Tombstone. Clementine stars Henry Fonda as the stoic marshal Wyatt Earp and Victor Mature as the uber-talented but sickly Doc Holliday. Linda Darnell is in the mix too and they're all surrounded by a smorgasbord of character actors. Doc, Wyatt and his brothers team up to take on the Clantons in what's considered to be one of the greatest westerns. Then it's onto a much-shorter analyses of Gunfight and Tombstone, where I got to do what so many have done for 33 years: rave about Val Kilmer. So let's go, boys, to where they keep the horses and draw some guns as I give you my 3 takes on the world of Wyatt and Doc.

Well, Actually: Elia Kazan was the one who took over directing Pinky after Ford was fired. Also, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson is the name of the actress in Tombstone who plays Wyatt's wife Mattie.

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Since it's Memorial Day, I'm tipping a cap to veterans. And I've got another doubleheader in episode #741, with the bulk of the show devoted to Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (where American soldiers battle Somalis in 1993 Mogadishu), then there's a short bit at the end about William Wellman's Battleground (where American grunts take on the Nazis during the Battle Of The Bulge in WWII). Both films won technical Oscars and are intense, apolitical war stories. Appropriate for Heroes Month, you just fight for your fellow soldiers. Black Hawk Down stars the likes of Hartnett and McGregor, but we've also got well-known character actors like Sizemore, Fichtner and Shepard...not to mention up-and-comers like Bloom, Hardy and a super-cool Bana. So look out for your buddy as I talk about movies set in the Moag and Bastogne.

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The ongoing effort to review long-ago movie stars has me talking about the dashing Tyrone Power and the beautiful Linda Darnell in The Mark Of Zorro. Gail Sondergaard and Basil Rathbone also have key roles in Rouben Mamoulian's 1940 flick. The Mexican man in black shares ties with Robin Hood and Batman, as the Z Man risks his life to rip off the rich to help out the poor. For an action movie, it's pretty muted, but it IS a good time. Then I talked for a bit about Hopalong Cassidy. The conflict is over cattle and territory, which is similar to the storyline in the 1956 Lone Ranger. Hothead Jimmy Ellison wants to fight the whole world while William Boyd kicked off a career playing the title character dozens of more times. "You're alright, kid", so put on a face covering that changes depending on your mood and settle in for this 740th podcast on Have You Ever Seen as I rattle teeth about The Mark Of Zorro and Hopalong Cassidy.

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Call me Snake. Okay, well, that's too cool for me, so just make it Ryan. Either way, this 739th episode gets into the night life and action frenzy that is John Carpenter's Escape From New York. Kurt Russell was already establishing himself as something more than just a Disney kid, then his signature role here cemented it. The eclectic Van Cleef/Borgnine/Harry Dean supporting cast surrounding Russell is effective, but the production design, cinematography, music and other technicals in this dystopian sci-fi bleakness are the drawing card. Carpenter was cynical, yet so underrated in his time...even compared to a top-of-his-game Spielberg in that same era. Now, is Escape From New York funny? Maybe not (partly since it feels like this could actually happen), but it IS fun. So, even though everybody thinks you're dead, burst into the open-air prison that is Manhattan and save the president and his precious cassette tape. Cuz the name's Ellis.

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In anticipation of the theatrical re-release of Top Gun later this week, this 738th episode has me yapping about Tony Scott's blockbuster that put him on the map and made Tom Cruise a megastar. The one about cocky naval aviators is big, loud and very sweaty. You've got sleek jets, cool, sexy men (and also SOME women like Kelly McGillis)...and a killer soundtrack. The fly boys (including Val Kilmer & Anthony Edwards) also play topless volleyball and spend a lot of time in towels. Naturally, the megahit sequel Top Gun: Maverick came up a lot in this review, since it played off the themes of rebellion, adrenaline and guilt the way that the original did. So caress your plaque that says you won a contest and put on your aviator glasses with a big smile on your face as I feel a certain need for a certain velocity while speaking about Tommy And The Jets.

NOTE: a breakdown of all the Oscar nominations in Tony Scott's entire filmography will be the "So I Got Thinkin'" segment in Friday's episode about Escape From New York. Also, during the Coming Attractions Trivia question for that, it should have been Kurt Russell sometimes did "impressions" of other actors, not "inspirations." Oh, and I didn't choose the "E" rating for this episode. Either A.I. did it or the provider...or something. The only objectionable word is the "S" word they say a lot in Top Gun, so if that doesn't bother you, then shrug off that "E" rating.

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Even though it's Star Wars Day, someone else can talk about Luke & Leia. What I have is a super-long episode about much-older movies: the 1932 Tarzan & the 1924 Pan. Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan star in an exciting, sexy, action-adventure story. They worked with lions and hippos and crocs (and actors in animal suits) and it's all convincingly done, especially since none of the principal photography was actually in Africa. Then I talked about the boy who just refuses to age. Betty Bronson's Peter is going to stay in Never(Never)Land forever and ever (and ever)...even if Ernest Torrence's Captain Hook is gunning for his insouciant head. The film is well-made and the acting is not bad either, even if the concept is remarkably mockable. So check out my monlogues about some more good (and sometimes bad) guys here in Heroes Month in this 737th episode: Tarzan The Ape Man and Peter Pan.

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It's Heroes Month! For this 736th episode, cue up the William Tell Overture and get ready for the masked vigilante & his native buddy. That's because the topic of the first of 2 movies today is The Lone Ranger (plus, of course Tonto....and also, hi-yo Silver). Stuart Heisler directs Clayton Moore, Jay Silverheels and Bonita Granville in an enjoyable western with all the necessary thrills and constant danger. For film #2, I spent 13 minutes talking about Gene Autry in South Of The Border. While The Singing Cowboy didn't impress me that much, this DOES get he, William Farnum and George Montgomery on this channel...along with Champion the horse. So that's something. In any case, gear up for this first show in May, a month devoted to classic heroes just like the Ranger & Tonto.

Well, Actually: just to clarify at the 17:45 mark that white men masquerading as natives on horseback wasn't the issue: it was that these fake natives rode with saddles. Also, I can confirm that Monday's show WILL be a doubleheader as I tackle both Tarzan The Ape Man and the 1924 Peter Pan.

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