The 1932 Take On Scarface Still Remains One Of The Best Gangster Movies!

Howard Hughes is like a never-ending source of historical trivia. The guy's eccentric and reclusive private life is already the stuff of legend, and while I was well aware of him having a heavy hand in the film industry, I had no idea he was a staunch fighter against The Production Code (an entity meant to curb raunchy or unsavory behavior in American cinema) while he was the producer of the 1932 version of Scarface. Apparently, he told the directors in charge of this project (Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson) to forego any consideration for having their Scarface adhere to the guidelines of The Production Code and instead focus on making the most realistic and highest quality movie they could.

The Original 1932 Mummy Movie Is More Tedious Than Chilling

And so, in preparation for that new Mummy movie that opens in theaters everywhere this Friday, I've decided to take a deep dive into the Universal Mummy franchise by way of watching all five original Universal Mummy movies as well as the first two Brendan Fraser Mummy movies (I've already seen the third in that series). This journey begins with, of course, the very first Universal Mummy movie, the one in 1932 that kicked things off for the franchise and reaffirmed Boris Karloff (who also played Frankenstein's Monster for Universal in this era) as a prominent fixture of monster movie mayhem in this era.

Which Grinch Is Best? (The Answer Is Obvious)

Here's another exciting entry in this Holiday themed column, 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

I've gotten really addicted to Patton Oswalts standup this week, the dudes just hilarious in his comedy. One great bit is where he talks about how a primary flaw with the Star Wars prequels is that they feel compelled to talk about the origins of beloved characters like Boba Fett and Darth Vader, which Oswalt likens to someone give you the starting ingredients for Ice Cream and saying it's just delicious as that confection.