A true entertainer, Frank Sinatra did more than just sing throughout his career. In the early thirties, Sinatra was destined to become a movie star. Frank was a true performer. He could do anything from dry comedies to the rigid character studies of drama and crime films. Starting early in musicals, he slowly made his way to be a more prominent star. A legendary entertainer that all of us know even if we aren’t aware! Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. ‘On the Town’ Frank began his acting...
- 6/4/2024
- by Devon James
- Hollywood Insider - Substance & Meaningful Entertainment
Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
- 3/18/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Moviegoers around the world are about to be taken to school by some of the top masters of the field this fall, between new movies by Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, David Fincher, and Martin Scorsese, among others. But as much as cinephiles can spend their entire day arguing about each and every one of these heralded directors online, what can truly compare to getting a little crash course in film history by someone who's commonly considered the greatest filmmaker alive? Many would agree that Steven Spielberg is simply in a class of his own, and thanks to his new role as part of the advisory panel for the esteemed Turner Classic Movies institution, that's exactly what fans are getting.
We previously covered the whole saga surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery's shameful treatment of the hardworking folks over at TCM, necessitating A-list filmmakers like Spielberg, Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson to...
We previously covered the whole saga surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery's shameful treatment of the hardworking folks over at TCM, necessitating A-list filmmakers like Spielberg, Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson to...
- 8/30/2023
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
What’s so inspiring and energizing about Steven Spielberg is that he isn’t just one of the greatest filmmakers ever, he’s an eclectic cinephile who talks about his favorite films with the boyish enthusiasm of a fan.
So he was a natural fit, alongside Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, for the advisory panel that came together in June to support Turner Classic Movies. As part of that role, he’s recorded his first “Spielberg’s Picks” video, a recommendations list of his personal faves from the September 2023 TCM lineup. Watch the video above, an IndieWire exclusive, for not just his choices, but his incisive comments.
For his debut picks, he chose Vincente Minnelli’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), Douglas Sirk’s “Imitation of Life” (1959), Gordon Douglas’s “Them!” (1954), Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952), and Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Wrong Man” (1957). Scorsese and Anderson’s own picks are forthcoming,...
So he was a natural fit, alongside Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, for the advisory panel that came together in June to support Turner Classic Movies. As part of that role, he’s recorded his first “Spielberg’s Picks” video, a recommendations list of his personal faves from the September 2023 TCM lineup. Watch the video above, an IndieWire exclusive, for not just his choices, but his incisive comments.
For his debut picks, he chose Vincente Minnelli’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), Douglas Sirk’s “Imitation of Life” (1959), Gordon Douglas’s “Them!” (1954), Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952), and Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Wrong Man” (1957). Scorsese and Anderson’s own picks are forthcoming,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Michael Giacchino ("Werewolf By Night"), will direct an update of the 1954 'monster bug' movie "Them!" for Warner Bros Pictures, using insectoid 'Starship Troopers" and "Alien" creatures as inspiration :
"..directed by Gordon Douglas, 'Them!' starts off when a nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert.
"They quickly become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to establish new nests..."
Click the images to enlarge...
"..directed by Gordon Douglas, 'Them!' starts off when a nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert.
"They quickly become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to establish new nests..."
Click the images to enlarge...
- 1/7/2023
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Having stuck a first couple of toes into directing with his short Monster Challenge and the impressive, entertaining Werewolf By Night MCU Halloween special, composer Michael Giacchino is looking to prove they weren't flukes by making his feature shot-calling debut with a reboot of classic sci-fi thriller Them!
The 1954 original, directed by Gordon Douglas, saw a huge nest of irradiated ants discovered in the New Mexico desert. They become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles…
It definitely sounds like something Giacchino could give a fresh spin to, and he's on the hunt for a writer to start bringing it to life in script form.
"There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head," Giacchino tells Deadline. "For me,...
The 1954 original, directed by Gordon Douglas, saw a huge nest of irradiated ants discovered in the New Mexico desert. They become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles…
It definitely sounds like something Giacchino could give a fresh spin to, and he's on the hunt for a writer to start bringing it to life in script form.
"There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head," Giacchino tells Deadline. "For me,...
- 1/5/2023
- by James White
- Empire - Movies
Oscar winning Up composer Michael Giacchino, who made his directorial debut on Disney+’s black and white throwback Werewolf by Night, is next getting behind the camera for a feature remake of the classic 1954 sci-fi man-eating monster movie Them! at Warner Bros., reports Deadline.
In the original Gordon Douglas-directed film, a huge nest of irradiated ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles.
“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino tells Deadline, “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”
“What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!
In the original Gordon Douglas-directed film, a huge nest of irradiated ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles.
“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino tells Deadline, “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”
“What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!
- 1/5/2023
- by Brad Miska
- bloody-disgusting.com
It’s been a while since we’ve had a movie about giant atomic ants, but Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino has us covered. Deadline has reported that Michael Giacchino will make his big-screen directorial debut with a reboot of Them! for Warner Bros.
The original Them! was directed by Gordon Douglas and dealt with ants who had been mutated into giant man-eating monsters after atomic tests in New Mexico. “There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Michael Giacchino told Deadline. “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about, the nuclear age. What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!. It’s about the other, the unknown which one refuses or can’t understand.” Giacchino added, “The current version of Them! is about immigration, and to tell a story...
The original Them! was directed by Gordon Douglas and dealt with ants who had been mutated into giant man-eating monsters after atomic tests in New Mexico. “There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Michael Giacchino told Deadline. “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about, the nuclear age. What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!. It’s about the other, the unknown which one refuses or can’t understand.” Giacchino added, “The current version of Them! is about immigration, and to tell a story...
- 1/5/2023
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
Exclusive: Oscar-winning Up composer Michael Giacchino will make his big-screen directing debut with a reboot of the 1954 sci-fi man-eating monster movie Them! at Warner Bros.
Giacchino is meeting with writers in hopes of getting the production up quite soon.
In the Gordon Douglas-directed original film, which also was a Warner Bros. release, a huge nest of irradiated ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles.
“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino tells Deadline. “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”
He adds: “What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!
Giacchino is meeting with writers in hopes of getting the production up quite soon.
In the Gordon Douglas-directed original film, which also was a Warner Bros. release, a huge nest of irradiated ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles.
“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino tells Deadline. “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”
He adds: “What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!
- 1/5/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Powerhouse Indicator moves forward to their fourth fancy box of noirs from the studio of Harry Cohn, six pictures stretching from the postwar boom to the end of the original classic noir era. This time around we have some notable directors, and a nice selection of stars — Dennis O’Keefe, George Murphy, Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun and Richard Conte. Kim Novak makes her starring debut as a femme fatale; noir icon Richard Conte shines in a movie that marks a turn into a new kind of existential, paranoid thriller. And speaking of paranoid, we again get to lighten up with another selection of theme-appropriate Three Stooges shorts.
Columbia Noir #4
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1948-1957 / B&w + Color / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / Street Date September 27, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / 49.99
Starring: Louis Hayward, Dennis O’Keefe; George Murphy; Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak; Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun; Dennis O’Keefe,...
Columbia Noir #4
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1948-1957 / B&w + Color / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / Street Date September 27, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / 49.99
Starring: Louis Hayward, Dennis O’Keefe; George Murphy; Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak; Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun; Dennis O’Keefe,...
- 9/14/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Witness six noir heroes, doing what noir heroes do: one crooked gambler, one psycho, another psycho with access to a gun, a dope railroaded into a prison sentence, and an even bigger dope who doesn’t realize he’s poisoning himself. That’s only five, but the sixth is a cop, and not a particularly compromised one, the way we like ’em in noir. This third Columbia Noir Collection can boast big stars and some name directors, beautiful HD transfers and some fascinating short subjects as extras.
Columbia Noir #3
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1947-57 / B&w / 1:37 Academy, 1:85 widescreen / Street Date May 17, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99
Starring: Dick Powell, Lee J Cobb, Nina Foch, William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Dorothy Malone, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Marie Windsor, and Vince Edwards.
Directed by Robert Rossen, Rudolph Maté, Henry Levin, Gordon Douglas, Edward Dmytryk, Irving Lerner
Powerhouse Indicator’s...
Columbia Noir #3
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1947-57 / B&w / 1:37 Academy, 1:85 widescreen / Street Date May 17, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99
Starring: Dick Powell, Lee J Cobb, Nina Foch, William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Dorothy Malone, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Marie Windsor, and Vince Edwards.
Directed by Robert Rossen, Rudolph Maté, Henry Levin, Gordon Douglas, Edward Dmytryk, Irving Lerner
Powerhouse Indicator’s...
- 5/4/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Having been portrayed by George Hamilton in a 1971 biopic, motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel took on the fictionalized role of his own life in this surprisingly well made actioner, the last film directed by the prolific Gordon Douglas. Produced by an uncredited Irwin Allen, it boasts a surprisingly strong cast and production values. Knievel’s life supplied grist for TV movies in 1974, 2004 and 2005.
The post Viva Knievel appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Viva Knievel appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 3/5/2021
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Joan Weldon, stage actress and a Warner Bros. contract player in the 1950s who achieved lasting sci-fi fame in the creature feature giant ant classic Them!, died Feb. 11 at her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She was 90.
Her death was only recently announced by her family. A cause was not specified, but the family notes that she “passed away peacefully” at home.
“A talented and successful opera singer and actress of theatre, film, musicals and television, she was simply known to many as Joanie,” the family writes, “whose love for light-hearted pranks and practical jokes spread joy wherever she went.”
Born in San Francisco, Weldon began her professional career at age 16 when she became the San Francisco Opera’s youngest contract singer. She would return to the live stage often, appearing on Broadway opposite Alfred Drake in the 1961 musical Kean.
In 1958 she played Marian the Librarian in the national touring...
Her death was only recently announced by her family. A cause was not specified, but the family notes that she “passed away peacefully” at home.
“A talented and successful opera singer and actress of theatre, film, musicals and television, she was simply known to many as Joanie,” the family writes, “whose love for light-hearted pranks and practical jokes spread joy wherever she went.”
Born in San Francisco, Weldon began her professional career at age 16 when she became the San Francisco Opera’s youngest contract singer. She would return to the live stage often, appearing on Broadway opposite Alfred Drake in the 1961 musical Kean.
In 1958 she played Marian the Librarian in the national touring...
- 3/4/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
A vanity production along the lines of All That Jazz and Purple Rain, Evel Knievel eschews the pseudonyms employed by Prince and Bob Fosse and just plays himself, a vainglorious stuntman who took the phrase “daredevil” literally. Veteran director Gordon Douglas keeps a tight rein on the action, helped considerably by a supporting cast including Red Buttons, Leslie Nielsen, and, as Knievel’s hard drinking mechanic, Gene Kelly (!).
The post Viva Kneivel appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Viva Kneivel appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 3/1/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The Great Gildersleeve Movie Collection
DVD
Warner Archive
1942, ’43, ’44 / 1.33:1 / 62, 63, 64, 63 min.
Starring Harold Peary, Jane Darwell, Freddie Mercer, Nancy Gates
Cinematography by Frank Redman, Jack MacKenzie
Directed by Gordon Douglas, Tim Whelan
Like the transition from silent movies to the talkies, the progression from radio to film was a rocky road for some performers. Bud Collyer and Daniel Chodos, the actors who lent their musclebound vocals to Superman and Doc Savage, would have been unthinkable modeling skin-tight long Johns or shredded undershirts on the silver screen. But when audiences first caught sight of Harold Peary as the rotund popinjay Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve there was immediate recognition. Peary was built for the part – he looked like a bowling pin in a double-breasted suit but had the self-awareness to describe his character as “a small man who thinks he’s a big man.” Gildersleeve was a pompous fool but he was our pompous fool.
DVD
Warner Archive
1942, ’43, ’44 / 1.33:1 / 62, 63, 64, 63 min.
Starring Harold Peary, Jane Darwell, Freddie Mercer, Nancy Gates
Cinematography by Frank Redman, Jack MacKenzie
Directed by Gordon Douglas, Tim Whelan
Like the transition from silent movies to the talkies, the progression from radio to film was a rocky road for some performers. Bud Collyer and Daniel Chodos, the actors who lent their musclebound vocals to Superman and Doc Savage, would have been unthinkable modeling skin-tight long Johns or shredded undershirts on the silver screen. But when audiences first caught sight of Harold Peary as the rotund popinjay Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve there was immediate recognition. Peary was built for the part – he looked like a bowling pin in a double-breasted suit but had the self-awareness to describe his character as “a small man who thinks he’s a big man.” Gildersleeve was a pompous fool but he was our pompous fool.
- 4/14/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
By Todd Garbarini
Long before a carcharodon carcharias wreaked havoc on Amity Island in New York over the July Fourth weekend in the 1970s, atomic blast activity in the 1940s disrupted Mother Nature’s natural chain of events and Hollywood was all too willing to jump on to the atomic admonition bandwagon, churning out fantastic tales of miniscule creatures ballooning to hundreds of times their original size and going medieval on their human counterparts. Gordon Douglas’s Them! (1954) is my favorite film from this era and I find the overall tone of the film to be creepy even today. I was eleven when I first saw it and the sight of oversized, monstrous ants (resulting from nearby military atomic bomb tests) terrorizing La from deep within the Los Angeles Riverbed was truly unnerving. James Whitmore impressed me in his role as the police officer who was determined to save two...
Long before a carcharodon carcharias wreaked havoc on Amity Island in New York over the July Fourth weekend in the 1970s, atomic blast activity in the 1940s disrupted Mother Nature’s natural chain of events and Hollywood was all too willing to jump on to the atomic admonition bandwagon, churning out fantastic tales of miniscule creatures ballooning to hundreds of times their original size and going medieval on their human counterparts. Gordon Douglas’s Them! (1954) is my favorite film from this era and I find the overall tone of the film to be creepy even today. I was eleven when I first saw it and the sight of oversized, monstrous ants (resulting from nearby military atomic bomb tests) terrorizing La from deep within the Los Angeles Riverbed was truly unnerving. James Whitmore impressed me in his role as the police officer who was determined to save two...
- 12/7/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Twilight Time goes for a Blu-ray upgrade of the western remake with the all-star cast. Forget that there was ever a John Ford or a John Wayne and it’s a perfectly presentable wild west story, but the mileage may vary for classic western fans inclined to make comparisons to the 1939 classic. Top billing goes to an enthusiastic Ann-Margret… but we’re sorry to report that her hip-swinging rock number, ‘Viva Geronimo!’ was cut at the last minute.
Stagecoach
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim Pickens, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn.
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Joseph Landon from the screenplay by Dudley Nichols from a story by Ernest Haycox
Produced by Martin Rackin
Directed by Gordon Douglas
The Hollywood western...
Stagecoach
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim Pickens, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn.
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Joseph Landon from the screenplay by Dudley Nichols from a story by Ernest Haycox
Produced by Martin Rackin
Directed by Gordon Douglas
The Hollywood western...
- 5/18/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Is this any way to treat a lady? Lovely Nina Foch just wanted a job, but she instead becomes the fall-gal in a psychologically perverse plan to deny her very identity. Cult director Joseph H. Lewis makes deft use of cinematic suspense techniques to compel our involvement in a bizarre conspiracy: not just convincing a woman that she’s insane, but that she’s literally not herself.
My Name is Julia Ross
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1945 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 65 min. / Street Date February 19, 2019 / Available from Arrow Films (UK) / 39.95
Starring: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Leonard Mudie, Anita Bolster, Doris Lloyd, Queenie Leonard.
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editor: Henry Batista
Visual Effects: Lawrence Butler, Donald Glouner
Musical director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Written by Muriel Roy Bolton, from the novel by Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson)
Produced by Wallace MacDonald
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
2019 is shaping up just fine for Blu-ray releases of small-scale,...
My Name is Julia Ross
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1945 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 65 min. / Street Date February 19, 2019 / Available from Arrow Films (UK) / 39.95
Starring: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Leonard Mudie, Anita Bolster, Doris Lloyd, Queenie Leonard.
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editor: Henry Batista
Visual Effects: Lawrence Butler, Donald Glouner
Musical director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Written by Muriel Roy Bolton, from the novel by Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson)
Produced by Wallace MacDonald
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
2019 is shaping up just fine for Blu-ray releases of small-scale,...
- 2/9/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear — specifically, the mid-1950s to the late ’60s — when Paramount and Warner Bros. relied on producers such as A.C. Lyles and Hal Wallis, and directors like Henry Hathaway, Gordon Douglas, and Burt Kennedy, to maintain a steady flow of workmanlike Westerns for consumption by diehard horse opera fans at theaters and drive-ins everywhere. That’s the invitation extended by writer-director-star Scott Martin’s “Big Kill,” one of the precious few Westerns of recent years that one can easily imagine as a decades-ago vehicle for John Wayne, Dean Martin, James Stewart, and their contemporaries with only minor tweaking of the script.
Yes, it clocks in at a leisurely 127 minutes, but that makes it only four minutes longer than John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) — just one of the obvious influences on Martin’s scenario about an upright tenderfoot...
Yes, it clocks in at a leisurely 127 minutes, but that makes it only four minutes longer than John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) — just one of the obvious influences on Martin’s scenario about an upright tenderfoot...
- 10/19/2018
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
Veteran French helmer Bertrand Tavernier (“The French Minister”) is curating a 15-film retrospective of films by Henri Decoin (1890-1969), a larger-than-life character who before directing his first feature, at the age of 43, was an Olympic swimmer, Wwi pilot, sports journalist and novelist.
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
- 10/18/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
10 Years of Cloverfield: 8 Undercover Facts You Might Have Missed10 Years of Cloverfield: 8 Undercover Facts You Might Have MissedKurt Anthony1/18/2018 9:30:00 Am
It seems some thing has found us…
Crawling its way into theatres on January 18, 2008, today marks the tenth anniversary of Cloverfield!
Directed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) and co-produced by J. J. Abrams (Star Trek) and Bryan Burk (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Cloverfield follows a group of six New Yorkers as their city is attacked by a gigantic, building-sized monster.
Starring Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), Jessica Lucas (Evil Dead), Michael Stahl-David ("Narcos"), and then-newcomer T.J. Miller (Deadpool), the unique sci-fi thriller is presented as “found footage” from a personal camcorder and offers a modernized take on the beloved creature feature genre. Filmed on an estimated budget of $25M, Cloverfield has since earned its place in the monster movie food chain,...
It seems some thing has found us…
Crawling its way into theatres on January 18, 2008, today marks the tenth anniversary of Cloverfield!
Directed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) and co-produced by J. J. Abrams (Star Trek) and Bryan Burk (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Cloverfield follows a group of six New Yorkers as their city is attacked by a gigantic, building-sized monster.
Starring Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), Jessica Lucas (Evil Dead), Michael Stahl-David ("Narcos"), and then-newcomer T.J. Miller (Deadpool), the unique sci-fi thriller is presented as “found footage” from a personal camcorder and offers a modernized take on the beloved creature feature genre. Filmed on an estimated budget of $25M, Cloverfield has since earned its place in the monster movie food chain,...
- 1/18/2018
- by Kurt Anthony
- Cineplex
He sings, he fixes cars, and he takes punches better than De Niro’s Raging Bull. Elvis Presley excels in one of his few ’60s pictures that shows an interest in being a ‘real movie,’ a remake of a boxing saga with entertaining characters and fine direction from noir specialist Phil Karlson. Plus Charles Bronson, Lola Albright and Joan Blackman in standout roles.
Kid Galahad
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date August 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola Albright, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson, Robert Emhardt, Liam Redmond, Judson Pratt, Ned Glass, George Mitchell, Roy Roberts, Michael Dante, Richard Devon, Jeff Morris, Edward Asner, Frank Gerstle, Seamon Glass, Bert Remsen.
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written by William Fay, Francis Wallace
Produced by David Weisbart
Directed by Phil Karlson
What, a good Elvis Presley picture?...
Kid Galahad
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date August 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola Albright, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson, Robert Emhardt, Liam Redmond, Judson Pratt, Ned Glass, George Mitchell, Roy Roberts, Michael Dante, Richard Devon, Jeff Morris, Edward Asner, Frank Gerstle, Seamon Glass, Bert Remsen.
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written by William Fay, Francis Wallace
Produced by David Weisbart
Directed by Phil Karlson
What, a good Elvis Presley picture?...
- 8/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Lee Pfeiffer
The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night". The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for...
The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night". The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for...
- 8/6/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Submarine movie evening: Underwater war waged in TCM's Memorial Day films In the U.S., Turner Classic Movies has gone all red, white, and blue this 2017 Memorial Day weekend, presenting a few dozen Hollywood movies set during some of the numerous wars in which the U.S. has been involved around the globe during the last century or so. On Memorial Day proper, TCM is offering a submarine movie evening. More on that further below. But first it's good to remember that although war has, to put it mildly, serious consequences for all involved, it can be particularly brutal on civilians – whether male or female; young or old; saintly or devilish; no matter the nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other label used in order to, figuratively or literally, split apart human beings. Just this past Sunday, the Pentagon chief announced that civilian deaths should be anticipated as “a...
- 5/30/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It's ring-a-ding time, with producer-star Frank Sinatra and his cooperative director Gordon Douglas doing a variation on the hipster detective saga. The two Tony Rome pictures are lively and fun and chock-ful of borderline offensive content, like smash-zooms into women's rear ends. Tony Rome & Lady in Cement Blu-ray Twilight Time 1967, 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110 and 93 min. / Street Date September 8, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Richard Conte; Tony Rome: Jill St. John, Sue Lyon, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland, Lloyd Bochner, Robert J. Wilke, Virginia Vincent, Joan Shawlee, Lloyd Gough, Rocky Graziano, Elisabeth Fraser, Shecky Greene, Jeanne Cooper, Joe E. Ross, Tiffany Bolling, Deanna Lund. Lady in Cement: Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Paul Mungar, Richard Deacon, Joe E. Lewis, Bunny Yeager. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Original Music Billy May, Hugo Montenegro; song by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra Written by Richard L. Breen...
- 8/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By John M. Whalen
“Barquero”(1970) stars Lee Van Cleef as Travis, an ex-gunslinger living a quiet life as the owner/operator of a barge that is the only way to cross the river at a certain spot between Texas and Mexico. When we first see him he’s in bed with Nola (Marie Gomez), a hot looking Mexican chick who likes to suck on cigarillos. Everything’s fine until the creepy Fair (John Davis Chandler) shows up at his doorstep leering down at the naked Nola and says he and two men with him want to go across the water to Texas. Travis doesn’t like the way he’s looking at Nola and tells him “A ride across the river is all your money’s going to buy.” They get across and Fair pulls a gun on him and tells his amigos to tie him up.
Meanwhile, in a...
“Barquero”(1970) stars Lee Van Cleef as Travis, an ex-gunslinger living a quiet life as the owner/operator of a barge that is the only way to cross the river at a certain spot between Texas and Mexico. When we first see him he’s in bed with Nola (Marie Gomez), a hot looking Mexican chick who likes to suck on cigarillos. Everything’s fine until the creepy Fair (John Davis Chandler) shows up at his doorstep leering down at the naked Nola and says he and two men with him want to go across the water to Texas. Travis doesn’t like the way he’s looking at Nola and tells him “A ride across the river is all your money’s going to buy.” They get across and Fair pulls a gun on him and tells his amigos to tie him up.
Meanwhile, in a...
- 4/16/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Above: Danish poster for Geisha Boy (Frank Tashlin, USA, 1958).On March 16 Jerry Lewis turns 90 years old, making him one of the oldest living great filmmakers along with Jonas Mekas (93), Seijun Suzuki (92), Stanley Donen (91), D.A. Pennebaker (90), Claude Lanzmann (90) and Andrzej Wajda (90). And if you have any doubt about his status as one of the great auteurs go and see any of the films he directed at Museum of Modern Art's’s current retrospective: Happy Birthday, Mr. Lewis: The Kid Turns 90.To flip through the films of Jerry Lewis in poster form is to encounter an awful lot of crossed eyes, toothy grins and outsized heads on small bodies (a familiar trope for comedians in movie posters whether it's Fernandel or Cantinflas or Buster Keaton.) That said, Lewis also seems to have inspired illustrators around the world. The French love Jerry Lewis, as the cliché goes, but so, it seemed, did the Germans,...
- 3/12/2016
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Director Gordon Douglas is one of many prolific filmmakers who seemed to fall short of auteur recognition despite considerable iconic items lodged within a vast filmography. Starting out in Hollywood as a child actor, he was directing shorts throughout the 1930s and began developing a resume of B-grade features, the most notable from this period being the 1954 sci-fi classic Them!, one of several genre items capitalizing on nuclear warfare fears. The 1960s found Douglas evolving freely with the times, churning out some racy Carroll Baker numbers (including in a biopic of Jean Harlow), the James Bond knock-off In Like Flint (1967), and a trio of Frank Sinatra vehicles. In between directing Sinatra in a pair of movies where the crooner plays Miami Pi Tony Rome, Douglas concocted something much more provocative, a seedy, lurid neo-noir titled The Detective (1968). One of several oft-referenced titles detailed in Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet,...
- 1/19/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Frank Sinatra shines in a story of police corruption that tries to say it like it is -- or like it was in 1968, just before the ratings system came in. The well-intentioned, suspenseful story is burdened by odd censor choices, Sinatra's conservative self-image, and rudely retrograde attitudes toward gays. In a sparkling new transfer with Jerry Goldsmith's jazzy score isolated on its own track. The Detective Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 114 min. / Ship Date December 8, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, Jacqueline Bisset, William Windom, Al Freeman Jr., Tony Musante, Lloyd Bochner, Robert Duvall, Horace McMahon Cinematography Joseph F. Biroc Art Direction William J. Creber, Jack Martin Smith Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Jerry Goldsmith Written by Abby Mann from a novel by Roderick Thorpe Produced by Aaron Rosenberg Directed by Gordon Douglas
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 12/30/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...
- 12/12/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...
- 12/12/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Owen Vince considers the "Weirded Urbanisms" of The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Also in today's roundup: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Jonas Mekas, Kent Jones talks with Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett on To Sleep with Anger, A.O. Scott on Star Wars, an essay on and a conversation with Hou Hsiao-hsien, and a round of Halloween reviews: Terence Fisher's The Hound of the Baskervilles, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, Gordon Douglas's Them!—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/28/2015
- Keyframe
Owen Vince considers the "Weirded Urbanisms" of The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Also in today's roundup: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Jonas Mekas, Kent Jones talks with Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett on To Sleep with Anger, A.O. Scott on Star Wars, an essay on and a conversation with Hou Hsiao-hsien, and a round of Halloween reviews: Terence Fisher's The Hound of the Baskervilles, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, Gordon Douglas's Them!—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/28/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
I'll trade you two RKOs for two Warners', an even swap! This quartet of movie-magic wonderments offer a full course on old-school film effects wizardry at its best. Willis O'Brien passes the baton to disciple Ray Harryhausen, who dazzles us with his own effects magic for the first '50s giant monster epic. And the best monster thriller of the decade is offered at its original widescreen aspect ratio. It's all special enough to merit a mid-week review. Special Effects Collection Blu-ray The Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Them! Warner Home Video 1933-1954 / B&W / 1:37 Academy - 1:85 widescreen / 335 min. / Street Date October 27, 2015 / 54.96 or 19.98 separately Starring Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack,, Frank Reicher, Victor Wong; Robert Armstrong, Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Frank McHugh; Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Donald Woods, Lee Van Cleef; James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow Stevens,...
- 10/23/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Batgirl Yvonne Craig. Batgirl Yvonne Craig dead at 78: Also featured in 'Star Trek' episode, Elvis Presley movies Yvonne Craig, best known as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman, died of complications from breast cancer on Monday, Aug. 17, '15, at her home in Pacific Palisades, in the Los Angeles Westside. Craig (born May 16, 1937, in Taylorville, Illinois), who had been undergoing chemotherapy for two years, was 78. Beginning (and ending) in the final season of Batman (1967-1968), Yvonne Craig played both Commissioner Gordon's librarian daughter Barbara Gordon and her alter ego, the spunky Batgirl – armed with a laser-beaming electric make-up kit “which will destroy anything.” Unlike semi-villainess Catwoman (Julie Newmar), Batgirl was wholly on the side of Righteousness, infusing new blood into the series' increasingly anemic Dynamic Duo: Batman aka Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and Boy Wonder Robin aka Bruce Wayne's beloved pal Dick Grayson (Burt Ward). “They chose...
- 8/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'The Beginning or the End' 1947 with Robert Walker and Tom Drake. Hiroshima bombing 70th anniversary: Six movies dealing with the A-bomb terror Seventy years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Ultimately, anywhere between 70,000 and 140,000 people died – in addition to dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and most other living beings in that part of the world. Three days later, America dropped a second atomic bomb, this time over Nagasaki. Human deaths in this other city totaled anywhere between 40,000-80,000. For obvious reasons, the evisceration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been a quasi-taboo in American films. After all, in the last 75 years Hollywood's World War II movies, from John Farrow's Wake Island (1942) and Mervyn LeRoy's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) to Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001), almost invariably have presented a clear-cut vision...
- 8/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Don Kaye Apr 22, 2019
For Earth Day, we look at what happens when Mother Nature gets her revenge. Here are 20 films about animals running amok.
We should always have a healthy fear and respect for nature, and especially for all the creatures great and small that inhabit this planet alongside us. But with all the abuse we heap on both them and the Earth, it would hardly be a surprise if they collectively decided one day that they had had enough of us. It’s no wonder that many sci-fi and horror films revolve around the idea of animals attacking humans -- some of them corrupted by man-made poisons like radiation, some seeking revenge, and some, perhaps the most frightening, hunting us simply because we’re there.
There’s no better example of the latter than Steven Spielberg’s masterful Jaws, but we decided to look back at 20 movies -- from...
For Earth Day, we look at what happens when Mother Nature gets her revenge. Here are 20 films about animals running amok.
We should always have a healthy fear and respect for nature, and especially for all the creatures great and small that inhabit this planet alongside us. But with all the abuse we heap on both them and the Earth, it would hardly be a surprise if they collectively decided one day that they had had enough of us. It’s no wonder that many sci-fi and horror films revolve around the idea of animals attacking humans -- some of them corrupted by man-made poisons like radiation, some seeking revenge, and some, perhaps the most frightening, hunting us simply because we’re there.
There’s no better example of the latter than Steven Spielberg’s masterful Jaws, but we decided to look back at 20 movies -- from...
- 6/15/2015
- Den of Geek
By Alex Simon
By the mid-1960s, the notorious Hayes Code, the censorship standards begun in the 1930s, had begun to fall away. Films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate and In the Heat of the Night started pushing the envelope in terms of “adult” content portrayed on-screen. With the advent of the MPAA rating system in November, 1968 a new era of freedom was ushered in. Filmmakers could frankly portray sex, violence, profanity and formerly taboo subject matters. While the aforementioned films are all iconic in stature, one of the key films that pushed the rating system into being is now largely forgotten.
Roderick Thorp’s 1966 novel The Detective became an instant best-seller, a mammoth (600 pages), unflinching look at Joe Leland, a weary veteran cop who finds his legal and personal mettle tested while investigating the brutal murder of a wealthy, gay department store heir.
By the mid-1960s, the notorious Hayes Code, the censorship standards begun in the 1930s, had begun to fall away. Films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate and In the Heat of the Night started pushing the envelope in terms of “adult” content portrayed on-screen. With the advent of the MPAA rating system in November, 1968 a new era of freedom was ushered in. Filmmakers could frankly portray sex, violence, profanity and formerly taboo subject matters. While the aforementioned films are all iconic in stature, one of the key films that pushed the rating system into being is now largely forgotten.
Roderick Thorp’s 1966 novel The Detective became an instant best-seller, a mammoth (600 pages), unflinching look at Joe Leland, a weary veteran cop who finds his legal and personal mettle tested while investigating the brutal murder of a wealthy, gay department store heir.
- 4/20/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Robert Redford movies: TCM shows 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting' They don't make movie stars like they used to, back in the days of Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Harry Cohn. That's what nostalgists have been bitching about for the last four or five decades; never mind the fact that movie stars have remained as big as ever despite the demise of the old studio system and the spectacular rise of television more than sixty years ago. This month of January 2015, Turner Classic Movies will be honoring one such post-studio era superstar: Robert Redford. Beginning this Monday evening, January 6, TCM will be presenting 15 Robert Redford movies. Tonight's entries include Redford's two biggest blockbusters, both directed by George Roy Hill and co-starring Paul Newman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which turned Redford, already in his early 30s, into a major film star to rival Rudolph Valentino,...
- 1/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Audrey Long, actress in B film noirs and Westerns, and widow of author Leslie Charteris, dead at 92 (photo: Audrey Long publicity shot ca. late '40s) Actress Audrey Long, a leading lady in mostly B crime dramas and Westerns of the '40s and early '50s, and the widow of The Saint creator Leslie Charteris, died "after a long illness" on September 19, 2014, in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. Long was 92. Her death was first reported by Ian Dickerson on the website LeslieCharteris.com. Born on April 14 (some sources claim April 12), 1922, in Orlando, Florida, Audrey Long was the daughter of an English-born Episcopal minister, who later became a U.S. Navy Chaplain. Her early years were spent moving about North America, in addition to some time in Honolulu. According to Dickerson's Audrey Long tribute on the Leslie Charteris site, following acting lessons with coach Dorothea Johnson, whose pupils had also included...
- 9/24/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Blu-ray Release Date: Aug. 12, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
The light-hearted 1962 comedy musical Follow That Dream, one of Elvis Presley’s more engaging and charming films, makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Twilight Time.
The movie stars Elvis as a member of a vagabond family who become unlikely homesteaders in serene, idyllic 1950s Florida. Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell), his son Toby (Presley), and a brood of more-or-less adopted children run out of gas on a perfect little beach that just happens to be unincorporated land. No sooner do the Kwimpers stake their claim than government officials, child welfare workers, and a pair of gangsters descend to make trouble—but Toby’s native wits and beguiling innocence may well be a match for them all.
The film was written by Charles Lederer and directed by Gordon Douglas.
As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time...
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
The light-hearted 1962 comedy musical Follow That Dream, one of Elvis Presley’s more engaging and charming films, makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Twilight Time.
The movie stars Elvis as a member of a vagabond family who become unlikely homesteaders in serene, idyllic 1950s Florida. Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell), his son Toby (Presley), and a brood of more-or-less adopted children run out of gas on a perfect little beach that just happens to be unincorporated land. No sooner do the Kwimpers stake their claim than government officials, child welfare workers, and a pair of gangsters descend to make trouble—but Toby’s native wits and beguiling innocence may well be a match for them all.
The film was written by Charles Lederer and directed by Gordon Douglas.
As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time...
- 7/14/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Godzilla 1954, Mickey Rooney, Giant Ants, Fascists, and rarely seen ‘Musty Stuffer’: Eclectic Packard Theater movies in May 2014 (photo: ‘Godzilla’) Godzilla 1954, Mickey Rooney, military fascists, deadly giant ants, racing car drivers, and The Mishaps of Musty Suffer, a super-rare slapstick comedy series from the 1910s, are a few of the highlights at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theater in May 2014. Godzilla 1954 and fellow movie monsters Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla 2014, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, and Bryan Cranston, opens on May 16 in much of the world. On May 8 at the Packard Theater, you’ll get the chance to check out Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla 1954 aka Gojira — in the original, Toho-released, Japanese-language version (i.e., without Raymond Burr). As part of its Godzilla double bill, the Packard Theater will also present Motoyoshi Oda’s Gigantis, the Fire Monster aka Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Besides Godzilla, the Packard Theater will...
- 4/22/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Written by Harry Brown
Directed by Gordon Douglas
USA, 1950
Seven people stand on trial for murder in a court of law, but one man is missing, a convict named Ralph Cotter (James Cagney). Had he lived to see his day in court, he would have paid the highest price for his crimes. After a few minutes in which the prosecutor woos the jury with proclamations regarding justice and enemies of the public, the film fades back to tell the full tale, beginning with how Ralph, career crook, escaped prison with help from the inside from a corrupt guard, an escape which costs the lives of two guards and a fellow convict whose sister Holiday (Barbara Payton) partook in the escape plan as well, even shooting one of the prison employees. A free man (of sorts), Ralph temporarily settles in with Holiday and partner Joe ‘Jinx’ Raynor (Steve Brodie...
Written by Harry Brown
Directed by Gordon Douglas
USA, 1950
Seven people stand on trial for murder in a court of law, but one man is missing, a convict named Ralph Cotter (James Cagney). Had he lived to see his day in court, he would have paid the highest price for his crimes. After a few minutes in which the prosecutor woos the jury with proclamations regarding justice and enemies of the public, the film fades back to tell the full tale, beginning with how Ralph, career crook, escaped prison with help from the inside from a corrupt guard, an escape which costs the lives of two guards and a fellow convict whose sister Holiday (Barbara Payton) partook in the escape plan as well, even shooting one of the prison employees. A free man (of sorts), Ralph temporarily settles in with Holiday and partner Joe ‘Jinx’ Raynor (Steve Brodie...
- 2/21/2014
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Writer Lee Gambin calls them Natural Horror films, other writers call them Revenge of Nature or Nature Run Amok films and writer Charles Derry considers them a type of Apocalyptic Cinema.
Of course we’re speaking of one of the great horror subgenres for which we’ll employ writer Kim Newman’s tag: The Revolt of Nature.
Since the end of the 1990s, lovers of animal attack films have been subjected to copious amounts of uninspired Nu Image, Syfy Channel and Syfy Channel-like dreck like Silent Predators (1999), Maneater (2007) Croc (2007), Grizzly Rage (2007) and a stunning amount of terrible shark attack films to name a few that barely scratch the surface of a massive list.
These movies fail miserably to capture the intensity of the unforgettable films they are imitating and the recent wave seems to carry with it the intent of giving the Revolt of Nature horror film a bad name.
Of course we’re speaking of one of the great horror subgenres for which we’ll employ writer Kim Newman’s tag: The Revolt of Nature.
Since the end of the 1990s, lovers of animal attack films have been subjected to copious amounts of uninspired Nu Image, Syfy Channel and Syfy Channel-like dreck like Silent Predators (1999), Maneater (2007) Croc (2007), Grizzly Rage (2007) and a stunning amount of terrible shark attack films to name a few that barely scratch the surface of a massive list.
These movies fail miserably to capture the intensity of the unforgettable films they are imitating and the recent wave seems to carry with it the intent of giving the Revolt of Nature horror film a bad name.
- 10/27/2013
- by Terek Puckett
- SoundOnSight
By Bill Duelly
The Warner Archive Collection has finally released the elusive Liberace feature ‘Sincerely Yours’. Originally released to theaters in 1955, this film is a curio of the times, the studio system and most importantly a snapshot, (in color no less; more on that later) of the early stages of the musician’s career.
To be fair to the movie, we need to turn our mental clocks back to the mid- 50s (so lines such as ‘They’ll love him in San Francisco’ wouldn’t bring immediate chuckles). That upstart- television- had been keeping audiences away from theaters in droves. Various new processes were employed to give audiences an experience they couldn’t get at home, such as Cinemascope and 3-D. So what was one of Warner Brother’s great ideas ? To make a movie with the TV’s first idol, the charming pianist from Wisconsin, Wladziu Valentino Liberace or as he was known professionally,...
The Warner Archive Collection has finally released the elusive Liberace feature ‘Sincerely Yours’. Originally released to theaters in 1955, this film is a curio of the times, the studio system and most importantly a snapshot, (in color no less; more on that later) of the early stages of the musician’s career.
To be fair to the movie, we need to turn our mental clocks back to the mid- 50s (so lines such as ‘They’ll love him in San Francisco’ wouldn’t bring immediate chuckles). That upstart- television- had been keeping audiences away from theaters in droves. Various new processes were employed to give audiences an experience they couldn’t get at home, such as Cinemascope and 3-D. So what was one of Warner Brother’s great ideas ? To make a movie with the TV’s first idol, the charming pianist from Wisconsin, Wladziu Valentino Liberace or as he was known professionally,...
- 8/11/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Doris Day today Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 24, was a special guest at the Nancy for Frank show — that’s Nancy Sinatra for Frank Sinatra — on SiriusXM Radio channel 71. The Doris Day photo above was posted on Nancy for Frank‘s Facebook page and on the Frank Sinatra Family Forum. (See also: Doris Day photo, with furry friend.) The Doris Day special was aired in two parts in late June 2013. The radio show consisted of Nancy Sinatra chatting with Day, in addition to musical interludes featuring Doris Day songs such as "I’ll String You Along with Me," "But Not for Me," "I’ll See You in My Dreams," and "Hooray for Hollywood," plus two versions of "I Didn’t Know What Time It Was" — one sang by Day, another sang by Frank Sinatra. Doris Day and Frank Sinatra made only movie together, Gordon Douglas’ 1954 musical drama Young at Heart,...
- 7/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Them!
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Written by Ted Sherdeman
1954, USA
In that filled-to-bursting canon of 1950s science fiction cinema, movies range from true film classics – like the Hawksian The Thing from Another World (1951), and that alarm bell about human desensitization, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – to cheapie craptasmagoriums like Beginning of the End (1957 – giant grasshoppers crawling over photographs of downtown Chicago), and It Conquered the World (1956 – “It” being an alien that looks like a devil-faced carrot with lobster claws). I’d go as far as to say the consensus is probably there’s just a few of the former, and a whole stinking pile of the latter. But scattered (thinly, I’d have to say) between those poles are movies neither classic nor crap, but made with enough craftsmanship to be eminently and repeatably watchable. You know: just good, damned fun! One of my faves from that group: Them! (1954).
A...
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Written by Ted Sherdeman
1954, USA
In that filled-to-bursting canon of 1950s science fiction cinema, movies range from true film classics – like the Hawksian The Thing from Another World (1951), and that alarm bell about human desensitization, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – to cheapie craptasmagoriums like Beginning of the End (1957 – giant grasshoppers crawling over photographs of downtown Chicago), and It Conquered the World (1956 – “It” being an alien that looks like a devil-faced carrot with lobster claws). I’d go as far as to say the consensus is probably there’s just a few of the former, and a whole stinking pile of the latter. But scattered (thinly, I’d have to say) between those poles are movies neither classic nor crap, but made with enough craftsmanship to be eminently and repeatably watchable. You know: just good, damned fun! One of my faves from that group: Them! (1954).
A...
- 7/7/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
This article is dedicated to Andrew Copp: filmmaker, film writer, artist and close friend who passed away on January 19, 2013. You are loved and missed, brother.
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Looking at the Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film year 2012, the one miss that clearly cries out for more attention is Liam Neeson’s powerful performance in Joe Carnahan’s excellent survival film The Grey, easily one of the best roles of Neeson’s career.
In Neeson’s case, his lack of a nomination was a case of neglect similar to the Albert Brooks snub in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film year 2011 for Drive(Nicolas Winding Refn, USA).
Along with negligence, other factors commonly prevent outstanding lead acting performances from getting the kind of critical attention they deserve. Sometimes it’s that the performance is in a film not considered “Oscar material” or even worthy of any substantial critical attention.
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Looking at the Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film year 2012, the one miss that clearly cries out for more attention is Liam Neeson’s powerful performance in Joe Carnahan’s excellent survival film The Grey, easily one of the best roles of Neeson’s career.
In Neeson’s case, his lack of a nomination was a case of neglect similar to the Albert Brooks snub in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film year 2011 for Drive(Nicolas Winding Refn, USA).
Along with negligence, other factors commonly prevent outstanding lead acting performances from getting the kind of critical attention they deserve. Sometimes it’s that the performance is in a film not considered “Oscar material” or even worthy of any substantial critical attention.
- 2/27/2013
- by Terek Puckett
- SoundOnSight
Our daily countdown continues with the 13th out of 30 in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 180-171.
180) Pan’S Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo Del Toro Spain/Mexico
179) Them (1954) Gordon Douglas USA
178) Hannah & Her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen USA
177) Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Alfonso Cuaron USA/British
176) Wings Of Desire (1988) Wim Wenders Germany/ France
175) The Sting (1973) George Roy Hill USA
174) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Michael Curtiz USA
173) Wild Strawberries (1969) Ingmar Bergman Sweden
172) Top Hat (1935) Mark Sandrich USA
171) The Wild Bunch (1969) Sam Peckinpah USA
Numbers 170-161 coming next.
film cultureClassicslist300...
180) Pan’S Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo Del Toro Spain/Mexico
179) Them (1954) Gordon Douglas USA
178) Hannah & Her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen USA
177) Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Alfonso Cuaron USA/British
176) Wings Of Desire (1988) Wim Wenders Germany/ France
175) The Sting (1973) George Roy Hill USA
174) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Michael Curtiz USA
173) Wild Strawberries (1969) Ingmar Bergman Sweden
172) Top Hat (1935) Mark Sandrich USA
171) The Wild Bunch (1969) Sam Peckinpah USA
Numbers 170-161 coming next.
film cultureClassicslist300...
- 1/14/2013
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Rob Young)
- Cinelinx
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