Testing positive for Covid-19 last October briefly forced my wife and I to quarantine in different houses. Enduring this inconvenience was aggravating for all the expected reasons associated with Covid-19 … Continue Reading Equinox (1970) October 16th, 2020
Oh boy has it been a shitty year. When I started this blog in March I questioned the shelf life of a name like “Quarantined Critic”. It isn’t a great … Continue Reading Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) September 6th, 2020
I still haven’t seen Psycho, North by Northwest, or Rope. I haven’t seen enough Hitchcock to make an unequivocal declaration, but for my money, Rebecca is his best work. I … Continue Reading Rebecca (1940) July 13th, 2020
Is there a term for feeling ‘homesick’ for a place you’ve never lived? I’m feeling that way about Utah. Sigh, today I saw an alert that southern Utah was under … Continue Reading Mackenna’s Gold (1969) May 30th, 2020
This has been a long time coming. According to The List, we should’ve watched I Walked With a Zombie before Calling Dr. Death on April 19th but that wasn’t possible. … Continue Reading I Walked With a Zombie (1943) May 16th, 2020
Strange Confession is an odd addition to the Inner Sanctum Mystery series. It’s missing the melodramatic intrigue and whodunit plot typical of the previous films. No, Strange Confession‘s story is … Continue Reading Strange Confession (1945) May 9th, 2020
House of Dracula follows House of Frankenstein in the Universal Monsters franchise and like most serials I expected a modicum of continuity. Unfortunately that’s the exact amount of continuity in … Continue Reading House of Dracula (1945) May 8th, 2020
A couple of years ago my wife and I began watching the Universal Monsters series because we realized we’d never seen any of them. Not wanting to miss out on … Continue Reading The Mummy’s Curse (1944) April 27th, 2020
70 years before The Avengers regularly broke box-office records for The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Universal Studios had its own cultural juggernaut with the Universal Monsters. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff … Continue Reading House of Frankenstein (1944) April 26th, 2020
In my last review I brazenly compared The Uninvited to Scooby-Doo, which in retrospect now feels like a challenge too tempting for the cinema gods to ignore. As luck would … Continue Reading One Body Too Many (1944) April 25th, 2020
Lewis Allen’s 1944 horror The Uninvited, is a near perfect haunted house movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and want to avoid spoiling your enjoyment by over explaining the plot … Continue Reading The Uninvited (1944) April 20th, 2020
Coming off the heels of Shadow of a Doubt, Alfred Hitchcock outdoes himself with Lifeboat, the quintessential bottle episode. That’s a TV term and I don’t know of a film … Continue Reading Lifeboat (1944) April 19th, 2020
Originally a radio show, the Inner Sanctum Mysteries jumped to the film medium like a Tales from the Crypt precursor with 6 films starring Lon Chaney Jr. We chose to … Continue Reading Calling Dr. Death (1943) April 19th, 2020
In Shadow of a Doubt Hitchcock takes a more subtle approach to his oft used ‘man on the run’ theme, telling the story of a fugitive hiding in plain sight. … Continue Reading Shadow of a Doubt (1943) April 18th, 2020
As I write this we’re in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic. Despite calling this blog ‘The Quarantined Critic’ it’s a subject I’ve neglected because it doesn’t often come up … Continue Reading Things to Come (1936) April 15th, 2020
I really like 39 Steps. It’s one of the best overall pictures I’ve seen from Hitchcock’s British period. The poster for Young and Innocent (retitled to The Girl Was Young) … Continue Reading Young and Innocent (1937) April 12th, 2020