'Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond' by Paul Sherman -- Web special: $16 including shipping!

Two August screenings at Video Underground in J.P.

I'll write about these more at a later date, but Jamaica Plain's Video Underground has scheduled two screenings of Boston movies with yours truly introducing, as well as selling and signing copies of Big Screen Boston. Scroll down to see info about these and several other backyard screenings at this truly indie store.

'Steve Sweeney Show" this morning!

I'll be doing local comedy icon Steve Sweeney's show on WWZN (1510 AM) this morning, talking about Boston movies from 9 to 10 a.m. Of course, Steve is mentioned in the book several times. Give us a call if you can.

'Walk East on Beacon!' reactions

So... now that the little-seen (and not on VHS/DVD) Walk East on Beacon! has had its TCM airing, I'm  interesting in hearing people's reaction to Boston's unwitting contribution to the early 1950s' Red Scare. Let's get some comments going here.

Also--sales pitch time--click on the PayPal rectangular box on the right sidebar to take advantage of the $16 Summer website special on the book.

'Walk East on Beacon!' on TCM, July 24

I've been surprised that several people have come up to me at my signings/screenings and wanted to talk about 1952's Walk East on Beacon! Never released on video, it's pretty obscure. It's one of the first Hollywood features made in Boston, and the Red Scare drama is certainly the most hysterical. But its documentary style and its taste for "realism" (the quotes included because the movie is pure propaganda) mean that it's usually shot in bright daylight with little creative lighting, which makes it very handy for taking a gander at the city, post-war and pre-urban renewal (it's the only commercial movie with a glimpse of Scollay Square, albeit a brief but tasty one). It's on rare display this coming Thursday on Turner Classic Movies, as part of the cable channel's series coinciding with the FBI's centennial. So "enjoy" it while you can.

Book signing and screening July 12 @ Cornerstone Books, Salem, MA

I'll be signing books, talking up Boston movies, answering questions and showing one of my favorites--Beth Harrington's one-of-a-kind featurette The Blinking Madonna and Other Miracles (not available on commercial home video)--at Cornerstone Books in Salem, Mass. this Saturday [July 12] at 7 pm. Join me in the Witch City for a cheap but fun Saturday night out...

Check out Ty Burr's review!

Boston Globe movie critic Ty Burr's review of Big Screen Boston went up on boston.com today. He says, among other things, "An essential purchase for Bay State cinemaniacs, this does what all good movie books do: Makes you want to run out and see the movies." Pre-BSB, Ty wrote one of the more extensive looks at movies made in Boston, in the Globe magazine a few years back.

Book excerpts--and plenty of them

There are a whole lot of excerpts from Big Screen Boston up here, though most of them are in past months' archives. Here are links to some of those excerpts:

• Introduction: The 'Beanstreet movies, Part 1, a look at the gritty local dramas of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Mystery Street, the 1950 film noir--the first fictional feature to take advantage of predominantly Greater Boston locations.
• Introduction: The 'Beanstreets' movies, Part 2, a look at the impact of those movies.
• Girltalk, Kate Davis' unforgettable 1987 documentary.
• Billy in the Lowlands, Jan Egleson's ground-breaking 1979 drama.
• The Brink's Job, 1978's amusing comic take on the 1950s robbery and--perhaps more importantly--the fiasco-like production that soured Hollywood on Boston for years to come. 
• The Blinking Madonna and Other Miracles. Beth Harrington's one-of-a-kind personal documentary.
• Titicut Follies, Frederick Wiseman's still-disturbing 1967 documentary about Bridgewater State Hospital.
• The Thomas Crown Affair, the impossibly urbane Steve McQueen picture.
• Walk East on Beacon!, the hysterical (but scenic) Red-baiting 1952 "thriller."
• The Dark End of the Street, Egleson's equally engrossing follow-up to Billy in the Lowlands.
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle, the best movie ever made in Boston, Period. And still not on home video!