Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Tag Archives: Warren Oates
Rediscovered: 50 Years Ago
Usually, I don’t bother going out of my way to meet someone or see something. Only a very few possible high points kick me in the ass. I made sure I went to the screenings in Pacific Film Archive in … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Willeford’s Cockfighter
Fifty years slips past when you’re not even looking. For example, how long ago was it that Warren Oates in Cockfighter hit the silver screen? Fifty years? Correct you are. Based on the novel by Charles Willeford. The blurbage for … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, News, Willeford
Tagged Betsy Willeford, Four Star Theater, Kier-la Janisse, Warren Oates
Sinister Cinema: The Return of The Woman Chaser
Joe McSpadden dropped a dime to let me know that the Charles Willeford movie The Woman Chaser returns to the Alamo Drafthouse on Monday, February 19 at 7:15pm. Great chance to catch it on a big screen. Joe produced the … Continue reading
Posted in Film, News, Willeford
Tagged Alamo Drafthouse, Jake Isgar, Joe McSpadden, Patrick Warburton, Rob Devor, The Woman Chaser, Warren Oates
Sinister Cinema: The Boss Digs Cockfighter
Michael Chong keeps an eye peeled for any online mention of Willeford, and reports in that “The Boss has good taste!” Yes, Cockfighter makes the short list of Springsteen’s fave movies — or, maybe the dude is just another one of us … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Burnt Orange to “Close Venice”
Kent Harrington, who watches the media scene more closely than I do (which means he follows Variety) just popped me a link to an article which reports that the film of Charles Willeford’s novel The Burnt Orange Hersey apparently got … Continue reading
Posted in Film, News, Willeford
Tagged Burnt Orange Heresy, Christopher Walken, Hary Dean Stanton, Kent Harrington, Mick Jagger, Warren Oates
Sinister Cinema: Night Moves
Matthew Asprey Gear’s previous film tome piled up over 300 pages covering the career of Orson Welles, but this year he’s taking it easy with a monograph half that length. Got to appreciate the guys sitting around knocking out monographs. … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Alan Sharp, Arthur Penn, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Gene Hackman, Jim Thompson, Matthew Asprey, Night Moves, Robert Mitchum, Warren Oates
Sinister Cinema: The Wild Life of Warren Oates
Every year or two I make the plunge into looking at refs to me on Google, though I have never managed to get to the end, if there is an end. Kind of fun to see various previously unknown citations … Continue reading
Posse McMillan: For Willeford Fans
Back from a run down to LA, what do I find in the inbox but a link sent by Leo Grin, with his headline “Reality One-Ups Willeford.” Yeah, you can’t really mention cockfighting without thinking of Willeford and Warren Oates … Continue reading
