A Hundred in 2016: Volume 1 (Annual Series)

During 2016, Hal C. F. Astell remembered important filmmakers by reviewing an interesting film from each of their careers on what would have been (or, in two instances, actually were) their 100th birthdays.

He covered films from 1936 to 1988 in a variety of genres, exploring in the process such topics as the birth of 3-D, the Hollywood blacklist, the PATSY awards for animal performers, lavender marriages, the H for Horrific certificate and the work of the American Humane Society, not to mention baby farms, faith healing, Scotland Yard's Black Museum, Cockney rhyming slang, the postal service police and more!

Thrill to sights you thought you'd NEVER see!

Jackie Gleason dropping acid in prison!
George Hamilton beating up Burt Reynolds!
Sterling Hayden bringing a harpoon to a gunfight!
Terrorist Gregory Peck slapping a priest!
Dorothy McGuire without a mouth!
Olivia de Havilland getting stuck in a lift!
Clint Walker backhanding Ron Ely!
Blind Van Johnson solving a mystery!
Vincent Price in dinky gold boots!
Peter Finch going walkabout!
Oliver Reed turning into a werewolf!
Forrest J. Ackerman exploding!
Richard Attenborough as a serial killer!
Kirk Douglas playing Wile E. Coyote!
Betty Grable shooting a judge in the ass!
Ralph Bates turning into Martine Beswick!
and many more wild and crazy moments!

Films reviewed include the following:

The Inheritance (1962) for Masako Kobayashi
The Brute Man (1946) for Jan Wiley
Skidoo (1968) for Jackie Gleason
Death Car on the Freeway (1979) for Dinah Shore
Bwana Devil (1952) for Sidney W. Pink
Dance of the Vampires (1967) for Ferdy Mayne
Angel Baby (1961) for Mercedes McCambridge
Terror in a Texas Town (1958) for Sterling Hayden
Behold a Pale Horse (1964) for Gregory Peck
Babies for Sale (1940) for Glenn Ford
Postal Inspector (1936) for Patricia Ellis
The Ghost Breakers (1940) for Willie Best
The Lost World (1960) for Irwin Allen
The Spiral Staircase (1945) for Dorothy McGuire
Deathtrap (1982) for Irene Worth
Lady in a Cage (1964) for Olivia de Havilland
The Night of the Grizzly (1966) for Keenan Wynn
23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) for Van Johnson
Hellzapoppin' (1941) for Martha Raye
The Iroquois Trail (1950) for George Montgomery
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) for James H. Nicholson
Doctor Syn (1937) for Margaret Lockwood
Psychout for Murder (1969) for Rossano Brazzi
The Shiralee (1957) for Peter Finch
The Tattered Dress (1957) for Jack Arnold
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) for Anthony Dawson
Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968) for Talbot Rothwell
The Dark Eyes of London (1940) for Greta Gynt
Johnny O'Clock (1947) for Evelyn Keyes
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) for Michael Gough
Curse of the Queerwolf (1988) for Forrest J. Ackerman
10 Rillington Place (1971) for Richard Fleischer
The Villain (1979) for Kirk Douglas
The Beautiful Girl from Bashful Bend (1949) for Betty Grable
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) for Roy Ward Baker

While he still has a day job, Hal C F Astell is a teacher by blood and a writer by inclination, which gradually morphed him into a movie reviewer. He writes primarily for Apocalypse Later, his film review site, but also for others who ask nicely, such as the Nameless Zine for the Western Science Fiction Association.

In addition to being a film critic and author, he runs the Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival, the only dedicated annual genre film festival in Phoenix. He also programs mini-film festivals at a variety of conventions across the American Southwest, such as Phoenix Comicon, FearCon, Wild Wild West Con, San Diego Comic Fest, Gaslight Gathering, LepreCon, DarkCon and CopperCon. He also screens submissions for a number of film festivals and has served as a judge on numerous occasions.

Born and raised in the rain of England, he's still learning about the word 'heat' after a decade in Phoenix, AZ, where he lives with his better half, Dee, in a house full of assorted critters, a library and a growing number of secret panels.

Just in case you care, his favourite movie is Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, his favourite actor is Warren William and he thinks Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is the best film ever made. He's always happy to talk your ears off about the joys of precodes, fifties B pictures or Asian horror movies.

He's usually easy to find at film festivals, conventions and events in Arizona because he's likely to be the only one in a kilt. His fading English accent is recognisable on panels and podcasts. He's friendly and doesn't bite unless asked.