The Home of the Creative Mind

Welcome to PooBahSpiel, the online voice and home of the creative mind of Mark Monlux, Illustrator Extraordinaire. Prepare yourself for an endless regaling of art directly from the hand of this stellar artist. And brace yourself against his mighty wind of pontification. Updates are kinda weekly and show daily sketches, current projects, and other really nifty stuff.

Monday, November 20, 2017

The Comic Critic Reviews "The Black Swan"


I want to talk about the great actors in this film. In the title roles we have Tyrone Power, who’s flexing all of his muscles for the audience in the first ten minutes of the film, and Maureen O’Hara, who was often called “The Queen of Technicolor.” This movie would be worth viewing just for them, but we also have other huge talents involved. Laird Cregar strides forth as the legendary pirate, Henry Morgan. Cregar’s presence is very imposing; you half wonder if this film isn’t about him. A couple of villainous pirates are George Sanders as the oily Captain Leech, and Anthony Quinn as the one-eyed Wogan. In the role of Tommy Blue is Thomas Mitchell the great character actor. Mitchell became the first actor to receive the “triple crown” of acting awards (Oscar, Emmy, Tony). I could write at length about any one of these terrific performers. Most of them won Oscars, received stars on the Walk of Fame, and had terrific careers. To have them all working in a swashbuckling pirate movie, with model boat pyrotechnics, sets with garish details, matte-painted landscapes and spliced sunsets is a visual festival full of fun. The only way a modern movie could be this much fun is if they broadsided it with a CGI cannon. It’s well worth a viewing just to see how they did it back in the day.