David J. Skal Movies

Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went into full gear in the early '30s, launching such valuable properties as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and (in the 1940s) The Wolf Man, and making stars of the "twin titans of terror," Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The studio maintained its horror quota well into the 1950s with its Creature From the Black Lagoon series, but the emphasis in this special is on the pre-1948 scare fests. Highlights include interviews with surviving Universal actors and technicians (Gloria Stuart is particularly amusing), and rare clips from Dracula [Spanish-language version]. Universal Horror made its American TV debut on the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adam Carolla, Tommy Chong, Melvin Van Peebles, Barbara Hammer, Chris Gore, Linda Williams, and others discuss the history of the American "stag film" in his documentary from Bazaar Bizarre director Benjamin Meade. Up until the 1960s, the vast majority of American pornographic films were anonymously produced black and white shorts, that were frequently referred to as "blue movies" or "smokers" due to the fact that they were generally screened in cramped, smoke-filled rooms. While the early stag films were shot on 35mm film, the advent of 8mm and 16mm consumer stock opened the floodgates by making the format more accessible and allowing approximately 1000 of these films to be produced between 1915 and 1968. Featuring film clips from the largest private "stag film" collection in North America, American Stag explores the history of the "blue movie" not for the titillating subject manner or sub-par production values, but for the important role it played in helping to both shape and reflect American pop culture. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi