The gun was on the couch, smoke still wafting from its muzzle. Stretched out on the marble floor: a poor sap, now just fodder for the city morgue. The woman stood beside him, her face as cold and impenetrable as a cheap waxwork. “It wasn’t me,” she purred. “I swear.” I lit a cigarette, took […]
crime
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CSI: Crime Scene Investigation — Grave Danger
He’s played an Elvis impersonator on an episode of “The Golden Girls,” parodied himself on Margaret Cho’s “All-American Girl” sitcom, and served as a guest judge on that taste vacuum known as “American Idol.” Under the column marked “mitigating factors,” however, was choosing to direct a Very Special Episode of “CSI” in 2005, when the […]
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Wolf Head
Ryan “Staples” Scott just wanted to “do something funny, with guns.” “The image of a gun has so much more weight to it,” said the Yukon resident. “I wanted to create a plot to push that.” The end result is his directorial debut in feature filmmaking, “Wolf Head,” shot entirely in the Oklahoma City metro […]
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Drive
From the pink, cursive typeface and pulsing, instrumental music of the opening credits, audience members will feel as if something is out of place, as if the movie is just a bit “off.” That’s because director Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson”) has immersed this tale in the style of Michael Mann’s “Thief,” rather than today’s “Transporter” […]
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Adequate ammunition
Regarding Joel Hendrickson’s recent comments (Letters, “Gun advocate’s argument full of holes,” March 9, Oklahoma Gazette): Hendrickson lives in Oklahoma, not the United Nations. Our soldiers wear green or tan helmets and are trained to kill and/or destroy things, not wear blue helmets and spew false statistics. Switzerland is an industrialized nation with one of […]
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Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films – Joseph Lanza
Chicago Review Press Director Ken Russell is no stranger to taboos of any kind, and Joseph Lanza’s bio of the maverick moviemaker explains why, starting with the boy’s most unusual reaction to seeing Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio.” “Tommy,” “Altered States” and “Crimes of Passion” are among his best-known works, but his filmography is full of controversy […]
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Oklahoma native ‘Dick Tracy’ creator helped revolutionize law enforcement
Although his often-grotesque villains were larger than life, Gould was big on realism when it came to Tracy’s investigations. Said Michael Vance, volunteer curator of the Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection at the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, “He wanted to be as close and authentic as possible.” “Dad’s goal in life […]