You've found the best spot on the web for fans of classic movies! News, reviews, previews, and lots of other fun stuff! And we've got several sister sites for your amusement and entertainment and edification, including SATURDAY MATINEE MEMORIES at inthebalcony.com/matinee, suspense serial thrills at inthebalcony.com/cliffhanger, short subject merriment at inthebalcony.com/shorts, movie party fun at inthebalcony.com/FNF, and our annual salute to Poverty Row filmmaking at its finest with inthebalcony.com/monogram.

Wanna know what we're watchin' this week? It's a special kid-friendly lineup, and you can check it out right HERE. And REMEMBER to join us every Saturday Morning as we read the latest 50-year-old funny books!

NEW: A pair of rare, odd, obscure, and completely nutty ROCK AND ROLL MOVIES now on view at our BALCONY REVIEW SITE right HERE.

The guy with the skunky haircut is TINYMAN (don't ask) and he's here to tell you... Well, okay, he's here to tell you he's going to get outta the comic book hero game and go to Law School, probably not a bad idea in his particular case, but he's also reminding you that we read vintage comics LIVE every Saturday morning on our Message Boards, and also that if you click on that skunky-looking streak in his hair he'll tell you what's on hand at our Friday Night Movie this week!

No, The Purple Monster Strikes isn't coming out on DVD any time soon, darn it, but we thought you'd enjoy seeing this vintage mat ad. Dennis Moore was no great shakes as the leading man; he was okay, relatively handsome in an innocuous kind of way, and appeared in several serials, including Raiders of Ghost City, The Master Key, The Mysterious Mr. M, and Perils of the Wilderness. Linda Stirling, however, is perhaps our second-favorite serial heroine in the Balcony, right after Jean "Hubba Hubba" Rogers. We were lucky enough to correspond with Ms. Stirling several years ago, and she was a sweetie. An autographed photo of her as The Tiger Woman adorns our Balcony hallway.

The Purple Monster Strikes is a fun sci-fi serial released in the late summer of 1945; it would be the last of the Republic 15-chapter serials (the rest would be 12 or 13 episodes, tops). Roy Barcroft (whose name is, believe it or not, "The Purple Monster" in this serial... As in, "Hi, it's the Purple Monster calling. Is it too late to get a pizza delivered?") has come to Earth from Mars to scope out the jernt prior to a massive invasion of Martian might. He kills and then inhabits the body of James Craven. You'll see the same scene of Barcroft-becoming-Craven in just about every episode, but hey, that's why we insist you only watch one chapter a week.

Last time we checked, most Republic serials were still wasting away in the Lions Gate vaults. Shame on them. A boxed set with this and The Crimson Ghost would certainly make a colorful release, eh?

Here's a sneak peekerino at the upcoming Vol. 3 set of chronological Three Stooges shorts, due this fall from our friends at Sony. This 2-disc set will contain 23 additional Stooges shorts, including some of their much-beloved WWII shorts. Meanwhile, the first two volumes are reviewed -- including the famed "Lost Liner Notes" that weren't included in the DVD sets -- over on our sister website, inthebalcony.com/shorts. To go there, click HERE. Don't cost nothin'.

JULY 2008 DVD RELEASE CALENDAR AVAILABLE HERE. LOTS OF CRITERION CLASSICS THIS MONTH, PLUS MOVIES STARRING THE BROTHERS OF FAMOUS SCREEN COMICS, PLUS TYRONE POWER, TRULY AWFUL CARTOONS, AND A "WORST DVD OF THE MONTH" STARRING JOHN WAYNE, SORT OF.

DICK TRACY SERIALS come to DVD from VCI! For the whole darn story, Click that CRIME INC. poster over there on your right. No, no, your RIGHT. Silly. It'll take ya to our Cliffhanger site. You'll like it there! It's well lit!

From 1963 through 1966, Gene Barry starred as Amos Burke, millionaire L.A. Chief of Police, solving crimes with class and pinache on the popular TV series Burke's Law. Now, VCI Entertainment proudly presents, from the original 35mm masters, Burke's Law: Season 1, Vol. 1, featuring 4 discs with the first 16 episodes of this hit TV favorite. Each episode is packed with special guest stars, including such all-time favorites as William Bendix, Rod Cameron, Zasu Pitts, Elizabeth Mongomery, Soupy Sales, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Carl Reiner, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Howard Duff, and Ida Lupino, just to name a few. Oh, yeah, and there's a comprehensive episode guide and history of the show written by that wacky Lunatic Video Pirate himself, yours truly, as well as a wonderful overview of the series by Joel Blumberg of silverscreenaudio.com. Bonus commercials from the era are included, too. Reviewers at amazon.com have given this thing 4.5 (out of 5) stars. So order it already from amazon or VCI or somebody like that.

Larry Blamire, the mad genius behind one of the great films of the sound era, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, sends greets warm, personal greetings to Balconeers and says...

DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, our 1930s old dark house murder mystery spoof, is going before the cameras June 9th (with lens caps off and everything...and real film in the camera--only it isn't, it's HD).  Now one of the things I'm most excited about here is that the amazing Bob Burns (yes BOB BURNS) is dusting off the old gorilla suit to do a cameo.  How excited am I about that?  Have you seen the Ghost Busters TV show?  Do you marvel at how dang outright hilarious anyone can be under all that hair and suit and hair?  And what's cool is, Bob's just as excited as we are.  He told me one thing he always wanted to do was play the gorilla in an old dark house movie.  Well, doesn't this work out nicely.  I am most happy about this.

Bob's rounding out a great cast--many of them the usual suspects.  There always seemed to be four main categories in these victims-gathered-on-a-nasty-night scenarios.  First, nosy protagonists like Danny Roebuck and Jen "Animala" Blaire who play competing reporters, with Dan Conroy as the hapless cabby in tow who brought them out to the gloomy Cavinder estate.  You've of course got the greedy gathered heirs drooling over the will, like Brian Howe, Fay Masterson, James Karen, Andy Parks, Jim Beaver and Christine Romeo.  Then there's the my-car-broke-down-can-I-stay-the-night kind of saps--in this case medium Alison Martin, idiot me, and racketeer Kevin Quinn.  Then there's the lurking help as I like to call it; cockney maid Trish Geiger, suspicious butler Bruce French, and deeply disturbed cook Bob Deveau.

And there are cameos by lovely Betty Garrett, alternate cop/heavy character actor Tom Reese and the most excellently funny Marvin Kaplan.  And of course we have to have an unctuous lawyer, played here by actor-writer-director Mark Redfield, which just gives me a chance to use the word unctuous.  H.M. Wynant shows up looking for an escaped mental patient.  Susan McConnell's in this too, but she's in her own category that I can't divulge under pain of death (or death of pain--something like that).

The set by production designer Tony Tremblay (check the imdb) is a knockout--this is a complete soundstage mansion I tell you--it's like a freakin' maze in there.  Costumes by Kristin Burke and Kristina West are authentic and real and vintage and wonderfully good in ways that are positive.  Music by Christopher Caliendo who knows more notes than practically anyone I know.  Producer Sara Van der Voort is producing in ways that haven't been produced before.  And to top it off, ace DP A.J. Rickert-Epstein is shooting on one of the original HD cameras from the 1930s--think of it!  And you know how big those suckers were.

Add thunder and lightning, a hooded phantom, sliding panels, secret passageways, a missing letter, lots of murders and what do you have?  Why, the movie we're making of course.  What a coincidence!  Should be ripping good fun what?  And I swear I am not biased in any way as writer-director and have absolutely no vested interest in saying this.  It'll be great.  Really.

Thanks to Mr. Blamire; we're already checking Fandango to see when we can buy tickets to this thing. And remember, we're available to do a cameo -- we have just the most DARLING blue eyes and would look terrific as the "peepers behind the mysterious painting" guy... Oh, and thanks to Tony Tremblay, who did the gorgeous production paintings, as shown above!

One can only imagine that somebody at Lucky Strikes got canned because THEY never thought to use the manager of the Paramount Cafe Continental to promote THEIR cigarettes, eh? Well, based on what we previously learned (see below) about Frank Sinatra, there was no problem on the set of such films as Sergeants 3 or Robin and the 7 Hoods with Dino or Frank bummin' a smoke off of each other. Both of those film, along with the original Oceans 11 and one or two others are coming to DVD this week as the "Rat Pack" collection. Frank and the gang didn't refer to themselves as The Rat Pack, and I don't like that term either, so we don't use it much here in the Balcony. Besides, if you've seen this place, you know talking about "rat packs" in front of prospective patrons is a BAD idea.

Incidentally, I know what you're thinkin', and NO, that is NOT Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. Good guess, though.

So the Marx Bros. make five films for Paramount, and the last one, Duck Soup (1933), is not a success at the box office. Maybe 'cause it's the only Paramount film in which Harpo and Chico don't play musical instruments, or maybe Thelma Todd is sorely missed, or maybe in 1933 comedies about war simply aren't high on anybody's list of films to see. (I rank it third behind Horse Feathers and Animal Crackers in those first five films, but I still love it.) Anyway, Hollywood legend tells us that boy wonder Irving Thalberg over at MGM tells his buddy Chico Marx that the problem with Duck Soup was that it had too many jokes and not enough plot. "I'll make a Marx Bros. movie with half the laughs and twice the gross," he famously said, and -- sans Zeppo, who retired to become an agent or a tailor or invent the Zeppo lighter or something -- the Marxes moved over to Metro and made A Night at the Opera, a film with plenty of jokes AND plenty of story, including transforming the devilish, hilarious Harpo character into a mischievous guy who gets slapped around by the film's villain. One of the great characters and comics in movie history gets turned into a "battered spouse" to make him more sympathetic to audiences? Well, I guess that's why it's called "Show Business," but here in the Balcony we find it heinous. And that is our Marx Bros. story for the day.

On the set with Mr. Frank Sinatra. I have no idea what that was like (and I certainly hope nobody ever visits this website to find out about fascinating movie history, true cinema facts, or little-known anecdotes from Tinsel Town, because any such info would entail actual RESEARCH, and actual RESEARCH isn't nearly as much fun as watching an old movie and then pontificating about it at length in our trademarked blowhard manner), but... Where was I? Oh, yeah, Mr. Sinatra. I wouldn't want to be on a set with him. He scares me. I mean, if he sends me to go get him a carton of Chesterfields, I'm going. And I'm gonna RUN, too. And once I get to the store, if I discover that I forgot to ask him if he wanted Kings or Regular, I'm getting one of each. No, two of each. He is, after all, Sinatra. With a capital S. Nobody is as Sinatra as he is, nor ever will be, I'll predict.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of his passing, and Turner Classic Movies is showing all kinds of Sinatra stuff, and Warners is releasing all kinds of Sinatra stuff (see our DVD Calendar), and we're watching all kinds of Sinatra stuff. And thanks to TCM, we've got a nice gift for somebody... A collection of Frank Sinatra Movie Poster Postcards. Simply send us an email at balconymailroom (one word) at yahoo.com and put the name of your favorite Sinatra movie in the subject line. We'll select one winner at random at 10 p.m. California time on May 16. One entry per person, please.

We've been slow in mailing out previous prizes. Hey, they're FREE, ya want 'em FAST, too? Well, to the winners: Sorry. We'll try and get everything out this week, including those CDs. Oh, and don't forget to attend the SerialFest in Pennsylvania and watch Daredevils of the West. Visit serialsquadron.com for more details, and if you go to SerialFest, give everybody a hug from us In The Balcony. (Then check your pocket and make sure your wallet's still there.) Oh, and speaking of serials, don't miss this week's FUNNYBOOK TIME, Saturday morning at... well, when we get up. Usually around 6:30 a.m. Pacific time. This week, we're doing a special "All Serial" comic book. You'll like it. Visit our Message Boards (see button above) for all the fun. Don't cost nothin'.

We got a nice email from somebody who wants to know what th' hell Irving Thalberg did to Harpo Marx (see below). Well, we're gonna tell you that story (which entails no research). But not tonight; it's late, and I feel like a Chesterfields. And I don't even smoke.

The Harpo Marx I know wouldn't have "honked" for vodka; he would've stolen it, poured it over Edgar Kennedy's hat, and set fire to it. And then gone off to hug his horse. THAT'S the Harpo I know and love; what Irving Thalberg did to him is unforgivable if ya ask us. Watching Animal Crackers with my sister, Squeaky Gravy, several years ago, during the "bridge" scene in which Margaret Dumont exclaims of Harpo, "What's WRONG with that man?!?" my sis blurted out, "I was just gonna ask the SAME QUESTION." She loved Harpo, though, as bizarre and surrealistic a character as there was in movies for his first five Paramount films (1929-1933). So I'm takin' a shot of Absolut and toasting my fave Marx Bros. And then I'm gonna eat the bottle.Some changes are a-brewin' here In The Balcony, as we've added some fun stuff like Image Galleries. For example, if you click on Ghost of Zorro over there, visit our inthebalcony.com/cliffhanger site to find some nifty display ads from your fave comic book-type serial heroes and newly added movie double feature ads.

Also, if you'd like to see what we're watching at this Friday night's movie event -- our annual DRIVE-IN DOUBLE FEATURE -- why, you need only click right HERE.

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Say, you know anybody who wants to see the covers -- front and back -- for the new THREE STOOGES chronological boxed set collection, vol. 2? SOITENLY you do. So here's a scoop for ya... click on that cover on your left and it'll whisk you right off to our SHORT SUBJECT department, and you'll the most fun you can have short of gettin a pie right in the kisser!

And did you FURTHER know that every Saturday morning, we all climb on each other's laps (metaphorically speaking) and read a classic funnybook? Well, we do. Don't miss any of the fun -- visit the "Ink On Your Trigger Fingers" section of our matchless MESSAGE BOARD for more info. Tell 'em Uncle Gravy sent ya!

Well, the early Technicolor Laurel & Hardy film The Rogue Song (released in 1930, and directed by Lionel Barrymore) no longer exists (somebody left it on a bus, I've heard) but that doesn't stop us from singin' the swell numbers from the soundtrack, such as "When I'm Looking at You". Yes, this is really part of our fabled In The Balcony sheet music collection that dates back to the 1920s and includes "Laugh, Clown, Laugh" from the Lon Chaney silent classic, as well as an awful lot of songs about darkies humming in dem ol' cotton fields back home. A surefire hit in those days, apparently. But here's also for your viewing enjoyment a promo for other great songs from MGM talkies, circa 1930.

And speaking of classic songs and singers, we're pleased as all get-out to tell you that Ready for You, the sixth sensational CD of fizzy, sassy and naughty songs from Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys is now available and it's every bit as wonderful as her first five, which is high praise indeed. Songs include Take a Number from One to Ten, Walkin' My Baby Back Home, My Canary has Circles Under Its Eyes, I Love a Ukelele, I Don't Know Whether to Do It Or Not, and the three that are getting the heaviest airplay 'round here, Have a Martini, I Ain't that Kind of a Baby, and Who's That Knockin' at My Door? You can order the CD from CD Baby, and you should. You'll love it!

Dave Kehr of the N.Y. Times reviews the new VCI DVD of The Phantom Empire, calling it "the first watchable disc of the lunatic public domain classic" and raving, "long a victim of third-rate, public-domain releases on home video, Phantom Empire has been nicely restored by VCI." This is the DVD to which your Balcony Webmaster contributed bonus material, and is HE proud of it. Read the Times review HERE (you may need to register to view it). Then click on that big ol' cover of the DVD on your left and read what WE have to say about it, and see stills from it. THEN, go to amazon.com or deepdiscountdvd.com or even the VCI website and ORDER the darn thing! You'll be glad ya did; accept no inferior substitutions!

Lucy says that Royal Crown Cola tastes best, and we never argue with a lady on a seahorse.

ELIOT NESS was a fascinating crimefighter and rackets-buster whose story has been a fixture on TV and at the movies for decades, yet until now his REAL exploits have never been dramatized. Max Allan Collins has written and directed an engrossing biography of the man called "the most famous true-life detective in the history of America" (well, that's what it says on the DVD case, anyway) and we've got a Balcony review for ya. You'll also find our review of The Live Wire, a vintage obscurity starring one of the movies' greatest stuntmen, Richard Talmadge. It comes from the fine folks at qualityinformationpublishers.com and we're warning you, do NOT click that link unless you're prepared to seriously open your wallet. Yeah, their stuff is THAT good.

It was just 75 years ago that the most famous monster movie and greatest movie adventure first shone on the nation's silver screens: happy birthday, KING KONG, oft imitated but never duplicated. Your wacky Balcony Webmaster attended the birthday showing in NYC and returned with gifts for a lucky Balconeer... We've got a truly nifty Kong flip book, plus a lovely commemorative 75th anniversary movie booklet from the Sons of Kong. Simply send one email to balconymailbag (one word) at yahoo.com and put KONG in the subject line and your name and mailing address in the email. We'll select a winner at 10:00 p.m. California time on April 11. Good luck, and remember, it was beauty killed... well, you know.

When we're not watching movies or writing about movies or talking about movies, we from time to time actually pick up a book and not just to swat a spider with, neither, buddy. Let's take a look at three recently-acquired volumes that are sure to be of interest to Balconeers, including two of prolific author John Howard Reid's movie tomes, Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema and Hollywood's Classic Comedies, and Mark Evanier's remarkable Kirby: King of Comics. Go HERE to read our reviews. Oh, for heaven sake's, g'head and click THERE. It won't hurt you. You big baby.

Hey, congrats to D. Dale of Buffalo NY, winner of Andy Fish's copy of the new VCI DVD of The Phantom Creeps starring Bela Lugosi! And there's more serial fun right HERE, where you'll find our review of the new SCARLET HORSEMAN DVD and this week's scintillating episode of our blogged serial YOUNG EAGLES as Bobby, the 300 lb. 10 year old, disrobes. Can YOU stand the excitement?!? Here in the Balcony -- it's always 1935! Join Us! And check out our DVD COLLECTION or what we're going to be watching at our MAY 2nd In The Balcony FNF Friday Night MOVIE PARTY!

Remember, IN THE BALCONY is the ONE and ONLY classic movie website that features classic serials AND classic cereals. Also ya wanna see what we've been watching lately? Everything from cartoon insects to cult films from Johnny Legend and VCI to little-known British suspense thrillers, a rare Western, Turner Classic Movies documentaries, and Gosh that's only part of it! Click on Mr. Bug and then hop on over to our DVD Screening Room for details!

BAGDAD -- "The crossroad between civilized WEST and savage EAST!" -- well, that's what Vincent Price tells us, anyway. BAGDAD -- the 1949 Technicolor romance adventure starring Mr. Price and Maureen O'Hara -- is now available on DVD, and reviewed by our Balcony staff, who are frankly more savage than civilized themselves. Click the picture at right to read the review.

The 58th Annual Amazing Colossal MONOGRAM WEEK has concluded! CLICK THE "BelaBration 2008" logo to take part in the festivities over at inthebalcony.com/monogram! Meet the sensational, the stupefying, the.. ummm... studious JENNIFER ROUSE, MS. MONOGRAM 2008!

MORE NEWS ON THE "LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA" SEQUEL... VISIT BALCONY NEWSROOM FOR THE EXCITING SCOOP FROM OUR PALS AT SONY.

The SERIAL SQUADRON - the second-best site on the Internet for fans of classic cliffhangers - to show previously "lost" Republic serial DAREDEVILS OF THE WEST at their annual Serialfest in May! Click HERE for more info. And there's more serial fun right HERE, where you'll find our review of the new SCARLET HORSEMAN DVD and this week's scintillating episode of our blogged serial YOUNG EAGLES!

"THANKS for those tips on foreign releases of the films we love so much!" - Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight and leonardmaltin.com.

"In The Balcony, a great website that covers classic movies." - TV/comics writer Mark Evanier, povonline.com.

"It IS fun in the Balcony, indeed!" - Randy Skretvedt, author of Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies.

"A great site with a unique look and style!" - Max Allan Collins, award-winning mystery and comics writer, director, and musician (creator of Ms. Tree and The Road to Perdition), maxallancollins.com

LAUGHING GRAVY at the BIJOU! From the Balcony to the Bijou! Yes, your wacky webmaster contributes from time to time over at the MATINEE AT THE BIJOU site, when they let their guard down. Click the logo there to visit that site, and watch for the return of the TV show later this year!

A bomb -- hidden in an unsuspecting child's toy! Ruthless Robert Shaw has created the perfect crime, and we've got a great suspense film to introduce you to. TOMORROW AT TEN. No, you can read our review NOW. That's what the film's CALLED, silly. Click the cover to the right to read the review. G'head, it's free.

NOT A DREAM! NOT A HOAX! NOT AN IMAGINARY STORY! It's the 7th Annual IN THE BALCONY DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD!

Every Saturday morning on our Balcony Message Boards, we read the kiddies a classic comic book from the '40s or '50s. Join us for the fun!

At long last, we're ready to share some brief impressions of some of the new DVDs we've been enjoying lately. Click HERE -- carefully -- for at least 6 or 7 new reviews (we lost count).

For nearly 30 years, impatient Bela Lugosi fanatics have searched high and low for a decent copy of his most notorious serial, the 1939 Universal chapterplay The Phantom Creeps, with Regis Toomey, Robert Kent, and a massive, scary-lookin' killer robot.

The wait is over!

We've seen the new DVD from VCI Entertainment, and at long last, you'll be able to view this sinister serial in all its digitally remastered glory. Twelve twinkling episodes of thrills 'n chills from the same studio that gave us Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy's Tomb, and Captive Wild Woman. You can order the DVD direct from VCI and you can go to our Serial Box for a closer look at the new DVD -- Oh, and at the new Junior G-Men of the Air DVD, too, which stars the Dead End Kids and Lionel Atwill! And don't forget -- the BELABRATION 2008 is coming as part of MONOGRAM WEEK! Scroll down for more on that!

Recently In The Balcony, we've acquired some RCS that we'd like to... Eh? What's that? Oh, it stands for "Really Cool Stuff".  For example, there's... 

THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF PULPS, and they only call it the "Big Book" because if they called it the Amazing Colossal Enormous You're Gonna Need Help Carryin' This Bad Boy Home Book nobody would've believed 'em. More than 1000 pages of the best of pulp fiction of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, edited by Otto Penzler. A must have, and you'll be reading it and re-reading it for... well, forever. You can order it from amazon.com by clicking on it.