Frank Calvillo Archives -

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN – TROG & THE CARETAKERS “An opportunity to lift the veil from the past.” Our exploration through late-era Bette Davis & Joan Crawford comes to a close this week as we say goodbye to the latter with a look at two final offerings from the beloved legend, including […]

MY MOTHER’S WEDDING MOVIE REVIEW Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today not to exchange vows, but to talk about Kristin Scott Thomas’s directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding. Three daughters return home for the wedding of their twice-widowed mother, Diana—and with them comes more baggage than could ever fit in the bridal registry. All three […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN – EP.11 – WICKED STEPMOTHER & THE WHALES OF AUGUST “Memories last forever.” As our journey with these two legendary leading ladies comes to a close, we look at Bette Davis’ final movie performances, the infamous dark comedy Wicked Stepmother, which was haphazardly completed despite her walking out […]

SAINT CLARE MOVIE REVIEW You know what they say about walking home alone at night, especially if you are a promising young woman. Always have a buddy. What if a buddy would just get in the way of your calling; a calling by God to take down all the sexual deviants and pathetic men that […]

F1 MOVIE REVIEW In this day and age of trademarked products being made into gigantic Hollywood films, it’s at least a little surprising that Formula 1 Racing took this long to get into the act. At least since 2013’s Rush anyway, but never quite so proudly branded as F1 (and to a great deal, paid […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN? EPISODE 7 – “Della” and “Where Love Has Gone” “You have devoted your life to mud and filth.” In our 7th episode, we go camping with Bette & Joan in a pair of projects that aimed for artful drama but quickly devolved into exercises in laugh-out-loud camp. While […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN? EPISODE 5 – BERSERK! & THE NANNY Welcome to another episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, our ongoing journey on late-era Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. This week, we head across the pond to England for a pair of British chillers starring our two legendary […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN? EPISODE 4 – STRAIT-JACKET AND DEAD RINGER On this episode, we jump in head first (no pun intended) into grande dame guignol cinema and Bette & Joan’s part in helping to establish it. After What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? proved that horror and older actresses were a […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN? EPISODE 3: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE & HUSH…HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE “Oh, really, did she like it?” In this sisters and cousins episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, podcaster Jerry Downey and I look at the film that took Bette Davis and Joan Crawford […]

THE AMATEUR MOVIE REVIEW Imagine yourself as CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller. You look like Rami Malek, you’re decidedly a huge dork, and somehow you land Sarah (the stunning Rachel Brosnahan) as a wife. If she was on a trip to London and terrorists killed her, and then your bosses at the #1 spy agency in […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN: EP 2 – THE BEST OF EVERYTHING & POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES “They Live in Dreams” In the second and final pre-Baby Jane episode, critic Elizabeth Stoddard joins me for the pair of movies our former studio queens would appear in just before signing on to star in the […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN: EP 1 – HUMORESQUE & THE LETTER “Don’t You Like Martinis?” In the debut episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan, we go back a couple of decades before the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? to look at classic Bette & Joan with […]

SEVEN VEILS MOVIE REVIEW John the Baptist was a total hottie. He had that wandering the desert skin tone and preaching the gospel six pack, and long flowing silky black hair. That’s probably why Salome, the step daughter of King Herod, wanted to seduce and steal a kiss from him. Heads up, things didn’t turn […]

PREVIEW: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN Critic, blogger, and podcaster Frank Calvillo examines the later careers of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford following the success of 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and the resurgence in popularity it brought. In looking at the various roles the two actresses took on throughout the […]