Last Woman on Earth

Betsey Jones-Moreland aka the last woman on earth

Chinatown is what the writer Robert Towne will be remembered for, rather than Last Woman on Earth, a cheap and short B movie cranked out by one-man movie-making machine Roger Corman in 1960. But it’s worth a look, not just because it was Towne’s first screenplay but also because he acts in it, under the alias Edward Wain. The screenplay is credited to Towne, though, which says a lot about where his priorities lie. Corman and Towne open the action at a cock fight in Puerto Rico, where rich but dodgy businessman Harold Gern and bored trophy wife Evelyn meet Harold’s accountant, Martin Joyce (Towne). While the men chat, Corman’s camera lingers on … Read more

Chinatown

Jack Nicholson bears the scars of combat in Chinatown

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 24 June The Aqua Traiana inaugurated, 109 On this day in 109, the aqueduct the Aqua Traiana was put into service. Built on the orders of the emperor Trajan, it supplied Rome with fresh water. Rome’s appetite for water was huge and among the things the Aqua Traiana did was: help deliver drinking water for Rome’s one millions citizens; water for countless public baths including the massive Baths of Trajan overlooking the Colosseum; spectacular fountains; and other leisure uses including the Naumachia of Trajan, a huge basin used for staging naval displays; not forgetting the importance of water as the motive force … Read more

Without Limits

Billy Crudup as Steve Prefontaine in Without Limits

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 3 November Adolf Dassler born, 1900 On this day in 1900, Adolf Dassler, known to his friends as Adi, was born, in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. A cobbler by training he started making his own sports shoes after returning from the First World War. He got his big break at the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928, where his running shoes were popular with athletes. At the 1936 Olympics Dassler offered Jesse Owens a pair of his running shoes, the first time an African American had had a sponsor. Dassler joined the Nazi party, along with his brother Rudolf, but later left the party … Read more