Clint Eastwood wasn't exactly Clint Eastwood when he was prepping for his directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me," in 1971.
He was primarily viewed as a Western actor who'd parlayed his television success on CBS' "Rawhide" to attain a cultish, pulpy stardom via Sergio Leone's shot-in-Spain "Dollars Trilogy." The films were commercial hits in the United States but despised by most prominent film critics. They found them silly and excessively violent, and thought Eastwood's taciturn demeanor was less an affectation than flat-out lousy acting.
Nevertheless, Eastwood kept knocking out hits, which pleased Universal Pictures enough that they were more than happy to greenlight his first filmmaking effort. Screenwriters Jo Heims and Dean Riesner had crafted a tightly structured thriller about a ladies' man disc jockey who finds himself stalked by a one-night-stand. It was a curious choice for Eastwood in that his character is vulnerable and somewhat unlikeable. He's certainly not the steely,...
He was primarily viewed as a Western actor who'd parlayed his television success on CBS' "Rawhide" to attain a cultish, pulpy stardom via Sergio Leone's shot-in-Spain "Dollars Trilogy." The films were commercial hits in the United States but despised by most prominent film critics. They found them silly and excessively violent, and thought Eastwood's taciturn demeanor was less an affectation than flat-out lousy acting.
Nevertheless, Eastwood kept knocking out hits, which pleased Universal Pictures enough that they were more than happy to greenlight his first filmmaking effort. Screenwriters Jo Heims and Dean Riesner had crafted a tightly structured thriller about a ladies' man disc jockey who finds himself stalked by a one-night-stand. It was a curious choice for Eastwood in that his character is vulnerable and somewhat unlikeable. He's certainly not the steely,...
- 2/9/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Clint Eastwood had himself quite the contradictory 1971. He starred as a wounded soldier victimized by a seminary headmistress and her young charges in the Civil War gothic "The Beguiled," directed himself as a DJ victimized by an obsessed ex-lover in "Play Misty for Me," and victimized perps and suspects with quippy aplomb as a Miranda-rights-flouting cop in "Dirty Harry." It's the most pivotal year in the star's career, the moment he proved he was willing to tweak his macho image by playing rakish, manipulative men who have their casual cruelty revisited on them tenfold. There's a guilty conscience that roils just beneath the surface of Eastwood's best work, which is probably why he remains a particular favorite of male critics. We're drawn to his characters' above-it-all curtness but empathize, quite uncomfortably, with their emotional transgressions.
These qualities needn't be a referendum on Eastwood the man, and, if you've ever read an interview with the star,...
These qualities needn't be a referendum on Eastwood the man, and, if you've ever read an interview with the star,...
- 12/15/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Clint Eastwood entered the 1970s at a transitional point in his career. He was for certain a movie star, but, despite hits like the crime-thriller "Coogan's Bluff" and the World War II flick "Where Eagles Dare," he was still primarily associated with Westerns. This was hardly a precarious place to be. He'd earned enough studio goodwill to take a risk or two on a movie that wasn't a straight-down-the-middle commercial play.
Thomas P. Cullinan's novel "The Beguiled" presented such a risk. The Southern Gothic about a wounded Union soldier cared for by a headmistress (Geraldine Page) and her young female charges at a Mississippi seminary was dark and creepy and just about as far from the macho heroics of "A Fistful of Dollars" as Eastwood could get. His character becomes an object of desire for many of the women in the house, and he uses his worldly charm to encourage their advances.
Thomas P. Cullinan's novel "The Beguiled" presented such a risk. The Southern Gothic about a wounded Union soldier cared for by a headmistress (Geraldine Page) and her young female charges at a Mississippi seminary was dark and creepy and just about as far from the macho heroics of "A Fistful of Dollars" as Eastwood could get. His character becomes an object of desire for many of the women in the house, and he uses his worldly charm to encourage their advances.
- 12/13/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Director Don Siegel started his filmmaking career back in the 1940s, directing montages for high-profile studio pictures like "Now, Voyager" and "Casablanca." He eventually made a name for himself in the 1950s with hard-boiled crime dramas like "The Verdict" and "Riot in Cell Block 11" as well as the indelible sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Siegel would also become notable for the five feature films he made with Clint Eastwood — "Coogan's Bluff," "Two Mules for Sister Sara," "The Beguiled," "Escape from Alcatraz," and, most popular, the 1971 classic "Dirty Harry."
Film director Sergio Leone also began his career in the 1940s, working as an assistant director or a writer on dozens of features in his native Italy. He would begin directing in 1959 with "The Last Days of Pompeii," but his reputation as an auteur would be cemented with his famed five-film cycle of Spaghetti Westerns, so-called for their country of origin.
Film director Sergio Leone also began his career in the 1940s, working as an assistant director or a writer on dozens of features in his native Italy. He would begin directing in 1959 with "The Last Days of Pompeii," but his reputation as an auteur would be cemented with his famed five-film cycle of Spaghetti Westerns, so-called for their country of origin.
- 12/5/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
In a world crawling with vampiric creatures, Mister helps equalize the fight between the living and the undead. Nick Damici’s memorable character returns for a new journey fueled by Martin’s (Connor Paolo) desire for revenge in Stake Land II. With the sequel out now on digital platforms and hitting Blu-ray and DVD on February 14th from Dark Sky Films, Daily Dead had the pleasure of speaking with Damici about reprising the role of Mister and much more.
Read on for our discussion with Damici, in which he talks about his plans for a third Stake Land film and shares his thoughts on the Stake Land TV series that he had once been developing. He also talks about the response to Bushwick (a movie he co-wrote) following the film’s Sundance screenings, what to expect in the upcoming season of Hap and Leonard, and an interesting conversation he once...
Read on for our discussion with Damici, in which he talks about his plans for a third Stake Land film and shares his thoughts on the Stake Land TV series that he had once been developing. He also talks about the response to Bushwick (a movie he co-wrote) following the film’s Sundance screenings, what to expect in the upcoming season of Hap and Leonard, and an interesting conversation he once...
- 2/7/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Criterion digitally restores this earlier release, a combination offering of Robert Siodmak’s 1946 film noir masterpiece The Killers paired with Don Siegel’s retro 1964 remake. Famed adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s short story, both filmmakers take liberties with the original material to create aggressively different products. Siodmak’s version is not only the German ex-pat’s enduring masterpiece, it’s a definite cornerstone of classic American film noir. Though Siegel’s 60s rehash is considered tacky pastiche of the era, it’s brutal, hard boiled B-grade pulp, notable for its own significant instances.
Siodmak’s version arrived during a golden era of noir, premiering a year after WWII officially ended, with cinematic masculine representation on the eve of an overhaul as method acting would soon reign supreme. Hemingway’s spare story gets a face life from Anthony Veiller (The Stranger; Night of the Iguana), using the murder as a jumping...
Siodmak’s version arrived during a golden era of noir, premiering a year after WWII officially ended, with cinematic masculine representation on the eve of an overhaul as method acting would soon reign supreme. Hemingway’s spare story gets a face life from Anthony Veiller (The Stranger; Night of the Iguana), using the murder as a jumping...
- 7/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
One story, three films, one Blu-ray disc. Excellent! Last night I finished my dive into the Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray release The Killers, which features two feature films and one short film, all adapted from the short story by Ernest Hemingway and all different in their own right and yet the same. From the noirish black-and-white of Robert Siodmak's 1946 original to Don Siegel's made-for-tv, 1964 adaptation shot in bright colors and telling the story from completely different perspective and yet, coming back to similar moral ground, or at least what may be referred to as "guy code" a la Hemingway. And don't forget Andrei Tarkovsky's 1956 short he made as a film student and you have one impressive package. If you're unfamiliar with Hemingway's short you can read it here, or, better yet, there's a reading of it by actor Stacy Keach included on this Blu-ray. Playing closest...
- 7/10/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
“We’Re Gonna Kill The Swede”
By Raymond Benson
The Criterion Collection gave us the DVD versions of these two excellent crime thrillers twelve years ago. The company has now seen fit to upgrade the release to Blu-ray.
Based loosely on a short story by Ernest Hemingway, both versions of The Killers begin with the author’s premise and then take off from there in very different directions. It’s interesting to see how the respective screenwriters adapted the story and then created two disparate feature-length tales out of it. In Hemingway’s piece, two hit men arrive in a small town looking for “the Swede.” They terrorize the owner, cook, and a customer in a diner in an attempt to find the guy. After the killers leave in frustration, the customer runs to the Swede’s boarding house and finds him in bed with his clothes on. He warns the Swede about the men,...
By Raymond Benson
The Criterion Collection gave us the DVD versions of these two excellent crime thrillers twelve years ago. The company has now seen fit to upgrade the release to Blu-ray.
Based loosely on a short story by Ernest Hemingway, both versions of The Killers begin with the author’s premise and then take off from there in very different directions. It’s interesting to see how the respective screenwriters adapted the story and then created two disparate feature-length tales out of it. In Hemingway’s piece, two hit men arrive in a small town looking for “the Swede.” They terrorize the owner, cook, and a customer in a diner in an attempt to find the guy. After the killers leave in frustration, the customer runs to the Swede’s boarding house and finds him in bed with his clothes on. He warns the Swede about the men,...
- 6/29/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The inspiration behind the making of Riot in Cell Block 11 is as equally fascinating as the end product. Producer Walter Wanger (who famously produced Hitchcock’s 1941 film, Foreign Correspondent, among others) was sentenced to a brief stint in prison after shooting a man he believed was having an affair with his then wife, actress Joan Bennett. The dramatic scandal would force Wanger into an experience that apparently changed his life, as leaving prison immediately saw his intense interest in getting this project off the ground, basing it on an actual event that happened in Michigan. Undeniably a semi-documentary message film, it’s an arresting prison drama that features believable performances and striking cinematography. Serving as director Don Siegel’s first major hit at the box office despite lack of female stars and subject matter, it’s his first definitive example of the themes that would mark him as Clint Eastwood...
- 4/29/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Blu-ray/DVD Review
“Riot In Cell Block 11” (Don Siegel)
“The 400 Blows” (Francois Truffaut)
(The Criterion Collection)
Two Gems From The 50s
By Raymond Benson
Two new releases from The Criterion Collection spotlight low-budget filmmaking in the 1950s—American and European—and couldn’t be more stylistically and thematically diverse. And yet, there is a personal stamp on the pictures that is very similar. Both films also tackle social problems with brutal frankness and feature anti-heroes as protagonists.
Riot in Cell Block 11 was produced by longtime Hollywood independent producer Walter Wanger (he was also responsible for two earlier Criterion releases, Stagecoach and Foreign Correspondent) as a hard-hitting, gritty, realistic picture depicting the inequities and maltreatment prisoners receive in American prisons. Wanger had a personal reason to make a film like that. He had barely missed spending some time in one. He’d caught his wife with another man,...
“Riot In Cell Block 11” (Don Siegel)
“The 400 Blows” (Francois Truffaut)
(The Criterion Collection)
Two Gems From The 50s
By Raymond Benson
Two new releases from The Criterion Collection spotlight low-budget filmmaking in the 1950s—American and European—and couldn’t be more stylistically and thematically diverse. And yet, there is a personal stamp on the pictures that is very similar. Both films also tackle social problems with brutal frankness and feature anti-heroes as protagonists.
Riot in Cell Block 11 was produced by longtime Hollywood independent producer Walter Wanger (he was also responsible for two earlier Criterion releases, Stagecoach and Foreign Correspondent) as a hard-hitting, gritty, realistic picture depicting the inequities and maltreatment prisoners receive in American prisons. Wanger had a personal reason to make a film like that. He had barely missed spending some time in one. He’d caught his wife with another man,...
- 4/13/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
In the heart of Jersey City’s colorful and eclectic Little India neighborhood is a secret that is about to explode the art world. Mana Contemporary is more than a gallery, more than a studio, more than a sensation. It’s a burning impression on the mind, body, and heart -- an interior garden of sorts that stimulates the senses by creating sparks in a quiet, light, white space. Housed in a sprawling, abandoned, brick tobacco factory, the industrial exterior trimmed with concrete loading docks and the crunchy sound of aluminum garage doors rolling up and down serve as a gateway between the quotidian and the imagination.
From the deep warm belly of the earth, the boundless starry sky, or the walloping waves of the sea, Mana’s diverse collections seem to ask, “Where do we come from and when will we meet?” Let’s start on the sixth floor.
From the deep warm belly of the earth, the boundless starry sky, or the walloping waves of the sea, Mana’s diverse collections seem to ask, “Where do we come from and when will we meet?” Let’s start on the sixth floor.
- 3/14/2012
- by MichelinaDocimo
- www.culturecatch.com
Beetlejuice is coming back from the dead some twenty years after one of the most infamous sequel attempts in Hollywood history when, and this is no word of a lie, Warner Bros paid a screenwriter to scribe a follow-up to the 1988 classic that would send the pale faced ghoul for hire to Hawaii. The movie was even to be called ‘Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian‘ and was director Tim Burton’s mischievous idea for a sequel he never really wanted to make, screenwriter Jonathan Gems musing after the fact;
“Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism, because they’re totally wrong together”
The movie announced in 1990 would have been a direct sequel (with all the actors back) following the Deetz family moving to Hawaii where Charles is developing a holiday resort only to find it was being built...
“Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism, because they’re totally wrong together”
The movie announced in 1990 would have been a direct sequel (with all the actors back) following the Deetz family moving to Hawaii where Charles is developing a holiday resort only to find it was being built...
- 9/7/2011
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
A sequel to Tim Burton's Beetlejuice is in development. Deadline reports that the project is part of a first-look deal between KatzSmith Productions partners David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith and Warner Bros. The rights are still being worked out, but it is expected to be one of the first projects. The film is planned as a sequel and will not be a remake; the intention is to reboot it by advancing the storyline of the original.
The deal with the studio stemmed from screenwriting work that Grahame-Smith did for Burton on Dark Shadows, currently in production with Johnny Depp heading the cast. KatzSmith is a smart investment for the studio, they get two partners who are full of some great creativity and who are established writers and aspiring feature directors.
Here is what WB production president Greg Silverman had to say:
“We first got to know Seth through his fantastic work on Dark Shadows,...
The deal with the studio stemmed from screenwriting work that Grahame-Smith did for Burton on Dark Shadows, currently in production with Johnny Depp heading the cast. KatzSmith is a smart investment for the studio, they get two partners who are full of some great creativity and who are established writers and aspiring feature directors.
Here is what WB production president Greg Silverman had to say:
“We first got to know Seth through his fantastic work on Dark Shadows,...
- 9/6/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
Moonstone Books upcoming hard cover compendium showcasing "Kolchak The Night Stalker", based on the hit TV series, is written by Christopher Golden, Peter David, Max Collins and Stuart M. Kaminsky, with a cover by illustrator Cortney Skinner :
The book reprints both out of print 'Kolchak' prose anthologies, 'Chronicles' and "'Casebook', with over 40 stories in one volume including 'Kolchak' vs 'Barnabas Collins', 'Kolchak' embroiled in the 'Lovecraft Mythos', secrets of Kolchak's past revealed, plus the first ever original 'Kolchak' novella by Mark Dawidziak :
"...'Carl Kolchak' was TV's first paranormal investigator, albeit a reluctant one. Kolchak is a talented newspaper reporter who used to handle all of the big stories, but his reputation has taken a few hits over the years as his stories get to be more and more strange, surreal and unknown. He is a relentless truth-seeker, no matter how bizarre that truth may be. The fact that no one believes him,...
The book reprints both out of print 'Kolchak' prose anthologies, 'Chronicles' and "'Casebook', with over 40 stories in one volume including 'Kolchak' vs 'Barnabas Collins', 'Kolchak' embroiled in the 'Lovecraft Mythos', secrets of Kolchak's past revealed, plus the first ever original 'Kolchak' novella by Mark Dawidziak :
"...'Carl Kolchak' was TV's first paranormal investigator, albeit a reluctant one. Kolchak is a talented newspaper reporter who used to handle all of the big stories, but his reputation has taken a few hits over the years as his stories get to be more and more strange, surreal and unknown. He is a relentless truth-seeker, no matter how bizarre that truth may be. The fact that no one believes him,...
- 1/1/2011
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
Developer Pop Quiz is a weekly interview series in which we ask developers from around the industry the same 10 questions and post their responses.
One of the most respected names in the games industry, Warren Spector, just released his first major game while at helm of Junction Point Studios. "Disney Epic Mickey" has been one of the most anticipated games of the year, and the mind behind it has years worth of experience and wisdom, which he was happy to share in this week's Developer Pop Quiz. These answers were submitted while "Epic Mickey" was still in the final testing phase.
Name: Warren Spector
Title: Vice President and General Manager
Company: Junction Point – Disney Interactive Studios
Job Description: Creative Director and guy-who-runs-the-studio
First title worked on: Tabletop Games – "Toon: The Cartoon Roleplaying Game"; Electronic Games – "Space Rogue" (first work ever) or "Ultima VI: The False Prophet" (first significant contribution)
Most...
One of the most respected names in the games industry, Warren Spector, just released his first major game while at helm of Junction Point Studios. "Disney Epic Mickey" has been one of the most anticipated games of the year, and the mind behind it has years worth of experience and wisdom, which he was happy to share in this week's Developer Pop Quiz. These answers were submitted while "Epic Mickey" was still in the final testing phase.
Name: Warren Spector
Title: Vice President and General Manager
Company: Junction Point – Disney Interactive Studios
Job Description: Creative Director and guy-who-runs-the-studio
First title worked on: Tabletop Games – "Toon: The Cartoon Roleplaying Game"; Electronic Games – "Space Rogue" (first work ever) or "Ultima VI: The False Prophet" (first significant contribution)
Most...
- 12/6/2010
- by Jason Cipriano
- MTV Multiplayer
COURMAYEUR, Italy -- Belgian film The Alzheimer Case was the big winner at this years Courmayeur Noir in Festival, walking away with the best film award. Alzheimer, directed by Erik Van Loo, is a political thriller following the pursuits of a veteran hit man who is stricken midjob with the symptoms of Alzheimers disease and a change in his moral constitution. Jan Decler, who plays the hit man, was awarded the Napapijri award for best actor. Set in the Italian Alps, the 14th edition of the seven-day film and fiction festival held in Courmayeur wrapped Sunday night. The festival is directed by Italian film industry veteran Giorgio Gossetti. The five-member jury presided over by Stuart Kaminsky bestowed its special jury award to Liu Fen Dou for his film Green Hat.
- 12/15/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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