When Robert Aldrich’s 1968 Hollywood insider yarn, “The Legend of Lylah Clare” screens at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville, Maine, it will represent much more than a simple revival of a New Hollywood-era roman à clef.
The film’s presentation on July 12 will include a discussion between actor Michael Murphy, who co-stars in the film, and former MGM publicity director Mike Kaplan, who has from the film’s earliest screenings defended both the film’s director, who Kaplan feels was “grossly maligned” by the depiction of him in Ryan Murphy’s limited series “Feud,” and the film, which monumentally tanked both critically and commercially when first released.
Kaplan recalls “I loved the script, and I loved the film. MGM had an unexceptional slate at the time. I was a big fan at the get-go.”
But as MGM’s New York City-based publicity chief, Kaplan watched helplessly as others,...
The film’s presentation on July 12 will include a discussion between actor Michael Murphy, who co-stars in the film, and former MGM publicity director Mike Kaplan, who has from the film’s earliest screenings defended both the film’s director, who Kaplan feels was “grossly maligned” by the depiction of him in Ryan Murphy’s limited series “Feud,” and the film, which monumentally tanked both critically and commercially when first released.
Kaplan recalls “I loved the script, and I loved the film. MGM had an unexceptional slate at the time. I was a big fan at the get-go.”
But as MGM’s New York City-based publicity chief, Kaplan watched helplessly as others,...
- 7/12/2023
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
Like many people passionate about movies, particularly those who grew up in the golden age of trash-talking critics like Pauline Kael, Judith Crist, Rex Reed, Gene Siskel, and Roger Ebert, Quentin Tarantino isn't shy about throwing an elbow or twelve when discussing cinema. He doesn't vacillate, nor does he spend much time discussing films that elicit a ho-hum response. You could say he likes to play contrarian, but that would suggest he's basically the Skip Bayless of film discourse. While you may vehemently disagree with Tarantino from time to time, he is anything but a full-of-it blowhard who spouts off inflammatory opinions to get a rise out of low-information fanatics. Tarantino knows his subject inside and out. If you want to enter his arena, you better come armed with ardor and a lifetime's worth of film knowledge.
This doesn't mean Tarantino can't be infuriating on occasion. This is, after all,...
This doesn't mean Tarantino can't be infuriating on occasion. This is, after all,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Hubbell’s girl may be lovely, but Robert Redford’s co-star on “The Way We Were” allegedly wasn’t, according to the actor.
In an oral history of the iconic 1973 romance “The Way We Were,” director Sydney Pollack recalled Redford voicing his concerns over working with Barbra Streisand due to her perceived “controlling” reputation on set.
“She has never been tested,” Redford told Pollack, according to Robert Hofler’s “The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen,” on sale January 24, 2023. “Her reputation is as a very controlling person. She will direct herself. It’ll never work.” While director Sydney Pollack died in 2008, author Hofler compiled years of past interviews for the book.
Redford was particularly concerned with the “Funny Girl” Oscar winner’s musical background, saying, “She’s not going to sing, is she? I [don’t] want her to sing...
In an oral history of the iconic 1973 romance “The Way We Were,” director Sydney Pollack recalled Redford voicing his concerns over working with Barbra Streisand due to her perceived “controlling” reputation on set.
“She has never been tested,” Redford told Pollack, according to Robert Hofler’s “The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen,” on sale January 24, 2023. “Her reputation is as a very controlling person. She will direct herself. It’ll never work.” While director Sydney Pollack died in 2008, author Hofler compiled years of past interviews for the book.
Redford was particularly concerned with the “Funny Girl” Oscar winner’s musical background, saying, “She’s not going to sing, is she? I [don’t] want her to sing...
- 10/21/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
I say what I think of a film and why, and my readers know my tastes by now. Some hate my taste, and so I'm reliable for them, too, since they know they'll like what I hate.
--Judith Crist, American film critic
By Joe Elliott
This month marks the 96th birthday of American film critic Judith Crist (1922-2012). Crist was one of the most influential and controversial movie reviewers of her day. She was a founding film critic for New York magazine and spent over two decades serving as the in-house movie reviewer for TV Guide. In addition, she was a frequent contributor to NBC’s Today show for many years. She was very much a tell-it-like-it-is kind of critic, totally unafraid to speak her mind even when this got her into hot water with powerful people in the industry, which it sometimes did. While it’s hard to believe today,...
--Judith Crist, American film critic
By Joe Elliott
This month marks the 96th birthday of American film critic Judith Crist (1922-2012). Crist was one of the most influential and controversial movie reviewers of her day. She was a founding film critic for New York magazine and spent over two decades serving as the in-house movie reviewer for TV Guide. In addition, she was a frequent contributor to NBC’s Today show for many years. She was very much a tell-it-like-it-is kind of critic, totally unafraid to speak her mind even when this got her into hot water with powerful people in the industry, which it sometimes did. While it’s hard to believe today,...
- 5/22/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Hanky codes. Septum piercings. A knowing glance. Since we’ve been around (at least as far back as ancient Greece), queer people have learned to read between the lines to find kindred spirits out in the world — and onscreen. While straight cinephiles scratched their heads at the recent claim that Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook” is a queer icon, Lgbt audiences were unsurprised: We have always known how to make our own fun.
Read More: The 11 Most Exciting Queer Films of 2017 So Far
Old Hollywood movies had to dance around overtly queer stories, although that didn’t stop them from scoring big with thematically queer classics “Some Like It Hot,” “Rope” and “Rebecca.” (To say nothing of any movie musical ever made). The tides of change slowly but surely progressed throughout the ’70s and 80’s, on to the New Queer Cinema boom of the ’90s. However, even after the success of “Moonlight,...
Read More: The 11 Most Exciting Queer Films of 2017 So Far
Old Hollywood movies had to dance around overtly queer stories, although that didn’t stop them from scoring big with thematically queer classics “Some Like It Hot,” “Rope” and “Rebecca.” (To say nothing of any movie musical ever made). The tides of change slowly but surely progressed throughout the ’70s and 80’s, on to the New Queer Cinema boom of the ’90s. However, even after the success of “Moonlight,...
- 7/7/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Blasphemers, rejoice! For the first time ever, you can now stream “The Devils,” the 1971 Ken Russell film that critic Judith Crist called a “grand fiesta for sadists and perverts.”
When “The Devils” was released in 1971, it faced harsh criticism and censorship due to its Holy Trinity of intense violence, sexuality, and religious themes. It received and X-rating in the U.K. and the U.S., until a heavily edited version was eventually released. Until recently, film historians thought the original cut was lost forever. Now, cinephiles can stream a re-assembled cut on the horror streaming platform, Shudder.
Read More: Can You Make a Great War Movie With a PG-13 Rating? Christopher Nolan Will Try With ‘Dunkirk’
Set in 17th century France, “The Devils” stars Vanessa Redgrave as a hunchbacked nun named Sister Jeanne who lusts after the town priest, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed). When Sister Jeanne inadvertently accuses Grandier of witchcraft,...
When “The Devils” was released in 1971, it faced harsh criticism and censorship due to its Holy Trinity of intense violence, sexuality, and religious themes. It received and X-rating in the U.K. and the U.S., until a heavily edited version was eventually released. Until recently, film historians thought the original cut was lost forever. Now, cinephiles can stream a re-assembled cut on the horror streaming platform, Shudder.
Read More: Can You Make a Great War Movie With a PG-13 Rating? Christopher Nolan Will Try With ‘Dunkirk’
Set in 17th century France, “The Devils” stars Vanessa Redgrave as a hunchbacked nun named Sister Jeanne who lusts after the town priest, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed). When Sister Jeanne inadvertently accuses Grandier of witchcraft,...
- 3/15/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
My first meeting as a member of the New York Film Critics Circle was December 1989 and, in those days, the group met at the old Newspaper Guild building, then on West 44th Street. The meeting room was a cramped, windowless enclosure with fake wood-panel walls, a full assortment of ashtrays and the ambiance of — well, interior designers have a technical name for enclosures like this: Shit-hole, I believe, is the term of trade.
But when I walked into this unprepossessing little room, here were people whose names were magical to me, critics whose work helped shape the way I looked at movies as a college student and then as a nascent critic and film journalist. Pauline Kael. Andrew Sarris. Rex Reed. Richard Schickel.
Schickel, who died Saturday at 84, may have been the name that struck the deepest chord at that time. Long before I discovered either Kael or Sarris, I...
But when I walked into this unprepossessing little room, here were people whose names were magical to me, critics whose work helped shape the way I looked at movies as a college student and then as a nascent critic and film journalist. Pauline Kael. Andrew Sarris. Rex Reed. Richard Schickel.
Schickel, who died Saturday at 84, may have been the name that struck the deepest chord at that time. Long before I discovered either Kael or Sarris, I...
- 2/21/2017
- by Marshall Fine
- Indiewire
Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones and Diane Varsi star in American-International's most successful 'youth rebellion' epic -- a political sci-fi satire about a rock star whose opportunistic political movement overthrows the government and puts everyone over 35 into concentration camps... to be force-fed LSD. Wild in the Streets Blu-ray Olive Films 1968 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones, Diane Varsi, Hal Holbrook, Millie Perkins, Richard Pryor, Bert Freed, Kevin Coughlin, Larry Bishop, Michael Margotta, Ed Begley, May Ishihara. Cinematography Richard Moore Film Editor Fred Feitshans Jr., Eve Newman Original Music Les Baxter Written by Robert Thom from his short story "The Day it All Happened, Baby" Produced by Burt Topper Directed by Barry Shear
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back around 1965 - 1966 we endured this stupid buzzword concept called The Generation Gap, a notion that there was a natural divide between old people and their kids.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back around 1965 - 1966 we endured this stupid buzzword concept called The Generation Gap, a notion that there was a natural divide between old people and their kids.
- 8/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The French Connection 45th Anniversary Screening in Los Angeles
By Todd Garbarini
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning 1971 crime drama The French Connection. The 102-minute film will be screened on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Fernando Rey, Marcel Bozuffi, and the two real-life detectives who broke the actual case: the late Eddie Eagen and Salvatore “Sonny” Grosso, The French Connection is a New York movie of the first order and paved the way for gritty crime dramas like The Seven-Ups and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
Director Friedkin is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session following the film.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
45th Anniversary Screening
This gritty and gripping police thriller won five...
By Todd Garbarini
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning 1971 crime drama The French Connection. The 102-minute film will be screened on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Fernando Rey, Marcel Bozuffi, and the two real-life detectives who broke the actual case: the late Eddie Eagen and Salvatore “Sonny” Grosso, The French Connection is a New York movie of the first order and paved the way for gritty crime dramas like The Seven-Ups and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
Director Friedkin is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session following the film.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
45th Anniversary Screening
This gritty and gripping police thriller won five...
- 6/11/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:
My quick take on 2001: A Space Odyssey is that, after carefully rewatching the film and reading a fair amount about it over this past week or so, I arrived at the conclusion that it’s my favorite movie of all that have ever been made. I have said the same thing in the past, but that was many years ago, long before I had become familiar with so many classics of world cinema and Hollywood’s past that preceded my birth. My deep immersion over the past decade into a self-directed study of film history led me to temporarily suspend judgment on so momentous a question as what I consider to be “the greatest film ever made,” but now I’m pretty comfortable with saying that it’s this one, without any doubt on my part. That’s subjectively speaking,...
My quick take on 2001: A Space Odyssey is that, after carefully rewatching the film and reading a fair amount about it over this past week or so, I arrived at the conclusion that it’s my favorite movie of all that have ever been made. I have said the same thing in the past, but that was many years ago, long before I had become familiar with so many classics of world cinema and Hollywood’s past that preceded my birth. My deep immersion over the past decade into a self-directed study of film history led me to temporarily suspend judgment on so momentous a question as what I consider to be “the greatest film ever made,” but now I’m pretty comfortable with saying that it’s this one, without any doubt on my part. That’s subjectively speaking,...
- 5/4/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Feast your eyes this Valentine's Day on a livestream horror movie marathon featuring some of Scream Factory's cult classic films for free. Also in this round-up: a new teaser for A&E's Damien, The Girl in the Photographs release details, a gallery of images from 6:66 Pm, and release date / trailer for Nailed Down.
Love Is in the Scare Livestream: Press Release: "Have no fear, love is in the scare. This Valentine’s Day, ditch the roses and keep the box of chocolates for yourself while you watch Love Is in the Scare, a marathon of Scream Factory classics streaming free on Sunday, February 14th, from noon to midnight Pt at loveisinthescare.com.
Brace yourself for 12 hours of heart-stopping shocks from seven terrifying films including the Shout! Factory TV premiere screenings of Beyond Darkness, Ghosthouse, Metamorphosis, Nomads, Class of 1984, Witchery and The Editor. The marathon event serves as...
Love Is in the Scare Livestream: Press Release: "Have no fear, love is in the scare. This Valentine’s Day, ditch the roses and keep the box of chocolates for yourself while you watch Love Is in the Scare, a marathon of Scream Factory classics streaming free on Sunday, February 14th, from noon to midnight Pt at loveisinthescare.com.
Brace yourself for 12 hours of heart-stopping shocks from seven terrifying films including the Shout! Factory TV premiere screenings of Beyond Darkness, Ghosthouse, Metamorphosis, Nomads, Class of 1984, Witchery and The Editor. The marathon event serves as...
- 2/2/2016
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
The Slifr Movie Treehouse (the acronym stands in for the title of my blog, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule) is a place where I like to gather a few of my movie-writing pals and exchange long e-mails on the way the movies shaped up for us in the year just left behind. It’s been a few years since I’ve undertaken this project, but the time felt right again, so I invited the very talented critical voices of Brian Doan, Odie Henderson, Marya Murphy and Phil Dyess-Nugent to take part, and to my great happiness they all agreed. (Bios for each writer can be found at the conclusion of each of their individual posts, which can be accessed by clicking below on the title of each post.)
What follows here are samples from the 16 posts we submitted over the week of January 11-17, and we’ll start...
What follows here are samples from the 16 posts we submitted over the week of January 11-17, and we’ll start...
- 1/19/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Pierce Brosnan fights a feared supernatural force in Nomads, coming out on Blu-ray tomorrow from Scream Factory, and we've been provided with three copies to give away to Daily Dead readers.
Nomads: "There are angels who patrol Los Angeles. And then there are the Nomads.
Lesley-Anne Down (Sphinx, Death Wish V) "gives a riveting... performance" (L.A. Weekly) and Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, The November Man) is top-notch in "the most stylish supernatural-themed chiller... since Carrie" (Variety)! Also starring Adam Ant (Slam Dance), Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000) and Frank Doubleday (Escape from New York) and written and directed by John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October), Nomads is a "chiller thriller [that's] brimming with menace and suspense" (Judith Crist)!
They creep. They kill... and no one knows who they are or where they came from. But when these rootless, demonic spirits descend on a determined doctor, all hell breaks loose.
Nomads: "There are angels who patrol Los Angeles. And then there are the Nomads.
Lesley-Anne Down (Sphinx, Death Wish V) "gives a riveting... performance" (L.A. Weekly) and Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, The November Man) is top-notch in "the most stylish supernatural-themed chiller... since Carrie" (Variety)! Also starring Adam Ant (Slam Dance), Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000) and Frank Doubleday (Escape from New York) and written and directed by John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October), Nomads is a "chiller thriller [that's] brimming with menace and suspense" (Judith Crist)!
They creep. They kill... and no one knows who they are or where they came from. But when these rootless, demonic spirits descend on a determined doctor, all hell breaks loose.
- 8/17/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Julian Richings deals with the mind-twisting presence of aliens in Ejecta and Pierce Brosnan fights a feared supernatural force in Nomads, two films coming out on Blu-ray August 18th from Scream Factory, and we have clips and trailers from the upcoming releases.
Ejecta: "A horrific alien invasion forces two men to fight for their lives during one universe-altering night of terror. This nerve-shredding film stars Julian Richings (Cube, X-Men: The Last Stand) in a tour-de-force performance as William Cassidy, a man who, following decades of frightening extraterrestrial encounters, is now trapped in a living hell of fear and paranoia. On the evening of a massive solar flare, Cassidy invites paranormal researcher Joe Sullivan (Adam Seybold, Exit Humanity) to his secluded home in the woods. What occurs there will change both men — and possibly the Earth — forever. Lisa Houle (Pontypool) and Dee Wallace (The Howling) also star."
To learn more about Scream Factory's Ejecta Blu-ray,...
Ejecta: "A horrific alien invasion forces two men to fight for their lives during one universe-altering night of terror. This nerve-shredding film stars Julian Richings (Cube, X-Men: The Last Stand) in a tour-de-force performance as William Cassidy, a man who, following decades of frightening extraterrestrial encounters, is now trapped in a living hell of fear and paranoia. On the evening of a massive solar flare, Cassidy invites paranormal researcher Joe Sullivan (Adam Seybold, Exit Humanity) to his secluded home in the woods. What occurs there will change both men — and possibly the Earth — forever. Lisa Houle (Pontypool) and Dee Wallace (The Howling) also star."
To learn more about Scream Factory's Ejecta Blu-ray,...
- 8/13/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Harry Callahan’s next adventure originated with John Milius, Hollywood’s favorite gun fanatic, surfer and “Zen anarchist.” Milius wrote B Movies for American International Pictures before breaking through with two Westerns, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Jeremiah Johnson. His knack for macho action and pulpy, colorful dialogue fit Dirty Harry perfectly; Milius wrote his draft in 21 days, receiving a Purdey shotgun as payment.
Though uncredited, Milius claims credit for Harry‘s dialogue, especially the “Do I feel lucky?” monologue. Others, including Richard Schickel, credit Harry Julian Fink with that speech. Clint Eastwood marginalizes Milius’s contributions to the film, admitting “we might have taken a few good items John had in there.” Milius resented this: “Look at the movie and you tell me who wrote that,” he challenged an interviewer.
Milius soon moved past any hurt feelings. After reading several articles on Brazil’s “death...
Though uncredited, Milius claims credit for Harry‘s dialogue, especially the “Do I feel lucky?” monologue. Others, including Richard Schickel, credit Harry Julian Fink with that speech. Clint Eastwood marginalizes Milius’s contributions to the film, admitting “we might have taken a few good items John had in there.” Milius resented this: “Look at the movie and you tell me who wrote that,” he challenged an interviewer.
Milius soon moved past any hurt feelings. After reading several articles on Brazil’s “death...
- 6/12/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
We all would like to believe that we have that someone special to look up to for guidance and direction. From time to time we practice the art of worship for the mentor that appears larger than life to us. Whether our designated mentors that we choose to follow are inspirational or insidious it does not matter because that yearning to follow in their footsteps are so great that we blindly give anything to replicate that original blueprint.
Maybe if one dreams of being a famous astronaut you designate Neii Armstrong or John Glenn as your mentoring heroes? Perhaps your foray into film criticism was ignited by Judith Crist, Vincent Canby or Siskel & Ebert? How about emulating your favorite actor or singer and following their paths to success?
In Follow My Lead: Top Ten Mentors in the Movies we will look at some movie characters that served as mentors to...
Maybe if one dreams of being a famous astronaut you designate Neii Armstrong or John Glenn as your mentoring heroes? Perhaps your foray into film criticism was ignited by Judith Crist, Vincent Canby or Siskel & Ebert? How about emulating your favorite actor or singer and following their paths to success?
In Follow My Lead: Top Ten Mentors in the Movies we will look at some movie characters that served as mentors to...
- 3/6/2015
- by Frank Ochieng
- SoundOnSight
As a historical cinematic document that depicts the horrors of the Vietnam War with unflinching nerve and political consternation, Peter Davis’s Academy Award winning film Hearts and Minds stands unparalleled, forty years out still reverberating with the inherent subsequent amnesia of the war, its underlying capitalist ends and the shame of both of these truths, yet it’s very existence has been baptized in controversy since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival back in 1974. Taking a brazenly anti-Vietnam War stance, the film juxtaposes vacuous Us politicians with the ugly aftermath of the misguided conflict in regretful Us soldiers and heart-wrenching footage of Vietnamese civilians mourning the senseless loss of their beloved. Part retrospective assessment of the back-door politics that led to the American funding of the Indochina War and the subsequent militarization of South Vietnam, and part straight-laced propaganda, Davis’s equally lauded and hated documentary is a...
- 7/1/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 17, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
The Vietnam War is examined in Hearts and Minds.
A startling and courageous film, Peter Davis’s landmark 1974 documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronted the United States’ involvement in Vietnam at the height of the foment that surrounded it. The film’s title is based on a quote from President Lyndon Johnson: the ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there.”
Using a wealth of sources—from interviews to newsreels to footage of the conflict and the upheaval it occasioned on the home front—Davis constructs a powerfully affecting picture of the disastrous effects of war.
The winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1975, the explosive and persuasive Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming emotional experience and one of the most important nonfiction film ever made...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
The Vietnam War is examined in Hearts and Minds.
A startling and courageous film, Peter Davis’s landmark 1974 documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronted the United States’ involvement in Vietnam at the height of the foment that surrounded it. The film’s title is based on a quote from President Lyndon Johnson: the ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there.”
Using a wealth of sources—from interviews to newsreels to footage of the conflict and the upheaval it occasioned on the home front—Davis constructs a powerfully affecting picture of the disastrous effects of war.
The winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1975, the explosive and persuasive Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming emotional experience and one of the most important nonfiction film ever made...
- 3/24/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
The first Chicago bar I drank in was the Old Town Ale House. That bar was destroyed by fire in the 1960s, the customers hosed off, and the Ale House moved directly across the street to its present location, where it has been named Chicago's Best Dive Bar by the Chicago Tribune.
I was taken to the Ale House by Tom Devries, my fellow college editor from the Roosevelt Torch. It was early on a snowy Sunday afternoon. I remember us walking down to Barbara's Bookstore to get our copies of the legendary New York Herald-Tribune Sunday edition. Pogo. Judith Crist. Tom Wolfe. Jimmy Breslin. I remember peanut shells on the floor and a projector grinding through 16mm prints of Charlie Chaplin shorts. I remember my first taste of dark Löwenbräu beer. The Ale House was cool even then.
I returned to the North Avenue drinking scene on New Year's Eve...
I was taken to the Ale House by Tom Devries, my fellow college editor from the Roosevelt Torch. It was early on a snowy Sunday afternoon. I remember us walking down to Barbara's Bookstore to get our copies of the legendary New York Herald-Tribune Sunday edition. Pogo. Judith Crist. Tom Wolfe. Jimmy Breslin. I remember peanut shells on the floor and a projector grinding through 16mm prints of Charlie Chaplin shorts. I remember my first taste of dark Löwenbräu beer. The Ale House was cool even then.
I returned to the North Avenue drinking scene on New Year's Eve...
- 5/14/2013
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
The first Chicago bar I drank in was the Old Town Ale House. That bar was destroyed by fire in the 1960s, the customers hosed off, and the Ale House moved directly across the street to its present location, where it has been named Chicago's Best Dive Bar by the Chicago Tribune.
I was taken to the Ale House by Tom Devries, my fellow college editor from the Roosevelt Torch. It was early on a snowy Sunday afternoon. I remember us walking down to Barbara's Bookstore to get our copies of the legendary New York Herald-Tribune Sunday edition. Pogo. Judith Crist. Tom Wolfe. Jimmy Breslin. I remember peanut shells on the floor and a projector grinding through 16mm prints of Charlie Chaplin shorts. I remember my first taste of dark Löwenbräu beer. The Ale House was cool even then.
I returned to the North Avenue drinking scene on New Year's Eve...
I was taken to the Ale House by Tom Devries, my fellow college editor from the Roosevelt Torch. It was early on a snowy Sunday afternoon. I remember us walking down to Barbara's Bookstore to get our copies of the legendary New York Herald-Tribune Sunday edition. Pogo. Judith Crist. Tom Wolfe. Jimmy Breslin. I remember peanut shells on the floor and a projector grinding through 16mm prints of Charlie Chaplin shorts. I remember my first taste of dark Löwenbräu beer. The Ale House was cool even then.
I returned to the North Avenue drinking scene on New Year's Eve...
- 2/18/2013
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Film reviewer and broadcaster with the common touch, she was feared by directors and dismissed by auteurist critics
Judith Crist, who has died aged 90, was, at one stage, probably the most widely read, listened to and watched film critic in the world. At least, due to her appearances on the early morning Us television show Today and her reviews in the weekly magazine TV Guide, which had a huge circulation of 17m in its heyday, she was the American film critic with the largest appeal to a mass audience.
Crist, who called herself a "journalistic reviewer", knew what the public wanted and catered to them. She had no truck with "cerebral" film theorists, nor auteurists such as Andrew Sarris, nor feminist critics such as Molly Haskell. Her idols were James Agee, Otis Ferguson and Frank Nugent, solid writers in the literary tradition. "If you're going to be a movie fan,...
Judith Crist, who has died aged 90, was, at one stage, probably the most widely read, listened to and watched film critic in the world. At least, due to her appearances on the early morning Us television show Today and her reviews in the weekly magazine TV Guide, which had a huge circulation of 17m in its heyday, she was the American film critic with the largest appeal to a mass audience.
Crist, who called herself a "journalistic reviewer", knew what the public wanted and catered to them. She had no truck with "cerebral" film theorists, nor auteurists such as Andrew Sarris, nor feminist critics such as Molly Haskell. Her idols were James Agee, Otis Ferguson and Frank Nugent, solid writers in the literary tradition. "If you're going to be a movie fan,...
- 8/10/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
I only met Judith Crist once, but her career had an enormous role in shaping the world of the movie critics who followed her. She was the first full-time female movie critic for a big American daily newspaper, but set aside her gender: By her success and fame, she created jobs for movie critics where there were none before.
When she went to work for the New York Herald-Tribune in the 1940s, few newspapers had movie critics writing under their own names (the New York Times was an exception). The movie reviews were considered a "house column," farmed out on a film-by-film basis to assorted reporters, who wrote under such punning bylines as "Kate Cameron" (New York Daily News) and "May Tinee" (Chicago Tribune). Crist was fearless, acerbic and merciless--"Hollywood's most hated person," it was said.
She wrote a sensational pan of "Cleopatra," saying Elizabeth Taylor's acting "often rises to fishwife levels.
When she went to work for the New York Herald-Tribune in the 1940s, few newspapers had movie critics writing under their own names (the New York Times was an exception). The movie reviews were considered a "house column," farmed out on a film-by-film basis to assorted reporters, who wrote under such punning bylines as "Kate Cameron" (New York Daily News) and "May Tinee" (Chicago Tribune). Crist was fearless, acerbic and merciless--"Hollywood's most hated person," it was said.
She wrote a sensational pan of "Cleopatra," saying Elizabeth Taylor's acting "often rises to fishwife levels.
- 8/9/2012
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Judith Crist, a blunt and popular film critic for the Today show, TV Guide and the New York Herald Tribune whose reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger labeled her “Judas Crist,” has died. She was 90.
Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness.
Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies for millions of readers and viewers, and also covered theater and books.
She was the first woman to become a full-time critic at a major U.S. newspaper and was among...
Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness.
Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies for millions of readers and viewers, and also covered theater and books.
She was the first woman to become a full-time critic at a major U.S. newspaper and was among...
- 8/8/2012
- by Associated Press
- EW - Inside Movies
Pioneering film critic Judith Crist died yesterday at the age 90. As a fulltime movie critic for the New York Herald Tribune, where she began working in the 1940s, Crist had the distinction of being the first woman to hold such a position at a major U. S. paper. (The best of those early reviews were last collected in the book The Private Eye, The Cowboy And The Very Naked Girl.) Later, Crist worked as New York Magazine’s original film reviewer. But despite her significance in the print industry, Crist was also one of the first movie critics to ...
- 8/8/2012
- avclub.com
Judith Crist, longtime film critic for the "Today Show," TV Guide and the New York Herald Tribune, has passed away at the age of 90 after a long illness, her son Steven tells the AP.
The blunt critic was one of the first film reviewers to gain a national following. Her reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger once called her "Judas Crist." Fellow critic Roger Ebert has credited her with helping to make all contemporary film critics better.
She once wrote that "Cleopatra" was "at worst, an extravagant exercise in tedium" and lambasted classic comedy "Some Like it Hot" for its "perverse" humor and "homosexual 'in' jokes."
But many in the industry liked her frank reviews. For years, Crist hosted a film festival in Tarrytown, N.Y., with guests that included Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Steven Spielberg. In fact, Woody Allen's 1980 film "Stardust Memories," in which Crist has a cameo,...
The blunt critic was one of the first film reviewers to gain a national following. Her reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger once called her "Judas Crist." Fellow critic Roger Ebert has credited her with helping to make all contemporary film critics better.
She once wrote that "Cleopatra" was "at worst, an extravagant exercise in tedium" and lambasted classic comedy "Some Like it Hot" for its "perverse" humor and "homosexual 'in' jokes."
But many in the industry liked her frank reviews. For years, Crist hosted a film festival in Tarrytown, N.Y., with guests that included Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Steven Spielberg. In fact, Woody Allen's 1980 film "Stardust Memories," in which Crist has a cameo,...
- 8/8/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Judith Crist, the tough, witty, and often caustic film critic who combined a passionate love for movies with an equally passionate distaste for movie rubbish, died Tuesday, August 7 at the age of 90. According to her son, Steven Crist, she died at her Manhattan home after a long illness. Director Billy Wilder once remarked that inviting Crist to review one of your films was “like asking the Boston Strangler for a neck massage.” And Wilder was one of her favorites. She was arguably the most powerful film critic of her era because of her two-prong status as main reviewer at both the New York Herald Tribune and NBC’s “Today” show. Never afraid to take on the movie establishment, she famously described “Cleopatra,” 20th Century Fox’s mega-million-dollar 1963 catastrophe, as “At best, a major disappointment, at worst an extravagant exercise in tedium. The mountain of notoriety has produced a mouse.” ...
- 8/8/2012
- by Aljean Harmetz
- Thompson on Hollywood
New York (AP) — Judith Crist, a blunt and popular film critic for the "Today" show, TV Guide and the New York Herald Tribune whose reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger labeled her "Judas Crist," has died. She was 90. Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness. Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies for millions of readers and viewers, and also covered theater and books. She was the first woman to become a full-time critic at a major U.S....
- 8/7/2012
- by Hillel Italie (AP)
- Hitfix
New York — Judith Crist, a blunt and popular film critic for the "Today" show, TV Guide and the New York Herald Tribune whose reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger labeled her "Judas Crist," has died. She was 90.
Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness.
Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies for millions of readers and viewers, and also covered theater and books.
She was the first woman to become a full-time critic at a major U.S. newspaper and was among the first reviewers of her time to gain a national following. Roger Ebert credited her with helping to make all film critics better known, including such contemporaries as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice.
With the growing recognition of such foreign directors...
Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness.
Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies for millions of readers and viewers, and also covered theater and books.
She was the first woman to become a full-time critic at a major U.S. newspaper and was among the first reviewers of her time to gain a national following. Roger Ebert credited her with helping to make all film critics better known, including such contemporaries as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice.
With the growing recognition of such foreign directors...
- 8/7/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Judith Crist, a blunt and popular film critic for the "Today" show, TV Guide and the New York Herald Tribune whose reviews were at times so harsh that director Otto Preminger labelled her "Judas Crist," has died. She was 90.
Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness.
Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies, and also covered theatre and books. She was among the first reviewers of her time to gain a national following, and Roger Ebert credited her with helping to make all film critics better known, including such contemporaries as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice.
Her son, Steven Crist, said his mother died Tuesday at her Manhattan home after a long illness.
Starting in 1963, at the Tribune, Crist wrote about and discussed thousands of movies, and also covered theatre and books. She was among the first reviewers of her time to gain a national following, and Roger Ebert credited her with helping to make all film critics better known, including such contemporaries as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice.
- 8/7/2012
- by Associated Press and Cineplex Staff
- Cineplex
Film critic Judith Crist, who became known to moviegoers nationwide for her tough, no-nonsense reviews during her tenure at NBC’s Today during the 1960s, has died. She was 90. Her son Steven Crist told The Associated Press that she died at her Manhattan home after a long illness. During her long career, she often was a trailblazer. At the New York Herald Tribune, where she worked for 22 years, she became the first woman to serve as a full-time critic for a major American newspaper. She was the Today show’s first movie reviewer, appearing from 1964 to 1973. She
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- 8/7/2012
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
She collected firsts, so many did she have. Judith Crist, who died Tuesday at the age of 90, was the founding film critic at New York Magazine, the Today show's first movie critic (1964–73), and, from 1945–65, the first female full-time film critic at a major American newspaper (the New York Herald Tribune). It was her years at TV Guide, though, where she wrote for more than two decades, that introduced her to one of the widest possible audiences a critic could have. Crist also served as a teacher at the Columbia University Journalism School from 1958 until this past spring.New York Magazine's current film critic, David Edelstein, sent along the following thoughts about Crist: "Judith Crist helped set the stage for New York Magazine as a place for popular and yet essentially serious and wide-ranging film criticism. She was tart, sensible, and irresistibly readable, and she cut a colorful...
- 8/7/2012
- by Kyle Buchanan
- Vulture
Judith Crist, one of the most feared and influential film critics in America, has died, her son Steven said Tuesday. She was 90. Though a movie enthusiast, who said she fell in love with the medium while watching Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" as a child, her pen could drip with venom. Billy Wilder once quipped that having Crist review a film was "like asking the Boston Strangler for a neck massage." Also read: Marvin Hamlisch, Composed 'The Way We Were,' Dies at 68 During a career that spanned six decades, Crist was television critic...
- 8/7/2012
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
A refusal to heed the advice of highbrow cultural critics is nothing new. But when the public can quickly share their own - different - views on Twitter, Facebook, myDigg and other social media, is criticism dead?
● To read critics' responses to this essay and to add your own comments, click here
Late last year there was a confluence of critical opinion in America the likes of which the nation hadn't seen in years. Every single film critic in the traditional media – 350 "best" lists, the ads boast – seemed to anoint The Social Network, director David Fincher's semi-fictionalised account of the founding of Facebook, as the movie of the year, maybe even of the decade. Every single literary critic in the traditional media seemed to agree that Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, his saga of a dysfunctional American family, was the novel of the epoch. And just to make it three for three,...
● To read critics' responses to this essay and to add your own comments, click here
Late last year there was a confluence of critical opinion in America the likes of which the nation hadn't seen in years. Every single film critic in the traditional media – 350 "best" lists, the ads boast – seemed to anoint The Social Network, director David Fincher's semi-fictionalised account of the founding of Facebook, as the movie of the year, maybe even of the decade. Every single literary critic in the traditional media seemed to agree that Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, his saga of a dysfunctional American family, was the novel of the epoch. And just to make it three for three,...
- 1/31/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Yesterday's birthday boy Christopher Walken makes no secret of the fact: he loves to work. And that's one of the reasons he makes as many bad movies as good ones. For every Deer Hunter, Dead Zone, King Of New York, Pulp Fiction or Hairspray, there's a Kangaroo Jack, Man On Fire, Click or Domino. But where does The Mighty Haired One's first lead role in a movie fall fit in the spectrum? In 1972 -- coming off a supporting part in Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes -- the 29-year-old scored this adaptation of Dennis Reardon's Off-Broadway play The Happiness Cage. Given the snazzier title of The Mind Snatchers when it hit cinemas, Bernard Girard's film was praised as "a frightening contemporary thriller" by Judith Crist. Walken, however, was more succinct when he reappraised it as "piece of garbage" and said "it seemed my career in film was finished.
- 4/1/2010
- Movieline
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