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8 items from 2013

17 June 2013 7:39 PM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »

Man of Steel weekend box office: Above estimates, but real June record remains beyond the reach of Superman 2013 reboot (image: Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel) Somewhat surprisingly — it’s usually the other way around — Warner Bros.’ Man of Steel grossed more than $3 million above studio estimates released on Sunday, June 16, 2013. Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Sucker Punch), and starring Henry Cavill (The Tudors, possibly the upcoming The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), the 2013 Superman reboot scored $116.61 million from 4,207 North American locations according to weekend box-office actuals found at Box Office Mojo. Once Thursday evening figures are added, the $225 million-budgeted Man of Steel‘s domestic cume reached $128.68 million by Sunday evening. Now, Man of Steel‘s adjusted $116.61 million doesn’t change the June Box-Office Record Chart in any way. The Superman reboot remains ahead of the former official June champ, the Tom Hanks-, Tim Allen-voiced Toy Story 3‘s »

- Zac Gille

9 June 2013 3:13 AM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »

Betty Hutton: Personal nadir (image: Betty Hutton interview on the PBS show American Masters) [See previous post: "Betty Hutton: Annie Get Your Gun, Dancing with Fred Astaire."] The year 1967 was Betty Hutton’s personal nadir: her mother died in a fire, she filed for bankruptcy, and her fourth marriage came to an end. Besides the aforementioned Charles O’Curran, Hutton’s husbands were camera manufacturer Theodore S. Briskin, Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston, and jazz trumpet player Pete Candoli. Repeating a line similar to Rita Hayworth’s complaint that her many husbands went to bed with Gilda but woke up with Rita, Hutton once said, "My husbands all fell in love with Betty Hutton. None of them fell in love with me." Following a partial recovery in the early ’70s, she landed a gig performing Annie Get Your Gun at a dinner theater outside of Boston. One night, she collapsed onstage. "I don’t want to go into how I got here, »

- Andre Soares

9 April 2013 7:04 PM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »

Most recent film appearances, plus concert and television work Please check out our previous post: "Montiel La Violetera and Pedro Almodóvar Icon." Her last star vehicle of note was Juan Antonio Bardem's Varietés (1971), a melodrama about an aging actress who continues to dream of becoming a bona fide star. [Please scroll down to listen to Montiel's husky rendition of "Amado mío."] The forty-something hopeful eventually gets her chance at stardom, but it all turns out to be a flash in the pan. By then, following a whole array of formulaic romantic musical melodramas, Montiel's box-office allure had waned rather radically. She turned down roles in Spain's cine del destape -- post-Franco softcore comedies -- which eventually meant the demise of her movie career. Her last official star vehicle was Pedro Lazaga's comedy Cinco almohadas para una noche ("Five Cushions for One Night," 1974) -- though she would be seen in Eduardo Manzanos Brochero's That's Entertainment-like compilation feature Canciones de nuestra »

- Andre Soares

13 March 2013 5:23 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Blue Velvet has plenty of the makings of noir: a sultry and dangerous atmosphere, big city fear, femme fatale (Dorothy Vallens/Isabella Rossellini), an intrepid detective working outside the police force (Jeffrey Beaumont/Kyle MacLachlan), and, of course, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), a psychopath akin to the best of late-period classic American noirs.

By stirring the pot a bit Lynch moves these ingredients closer to something like revisionist noir or satire. The detective and his love interest Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) are more characters from a Nicholas Ray or John Hughes film than anything hard-boiled; the color scheme pushes the pastel-suburbs so far from the darkly saturated nighttime city as to be nearly comical that the two coexist; even Hopper’s Booth takes the psycho-sexual penchants of the worst of Richard Widmark or Ralph Meeker to new extremes.

Blue Velvet’s centerpiece trope is The Slow Club, a dim, sensual »

- Neal Dhand

12 March 2013 2:16 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Mulholland Drive

Directed by David Lynch

Written by David Lynch

2001, USA

I have never seen a David Lynch film. I know very little about him. I doubt that I truly grasped that Lynch was a surrealist filmmaker before now, yet Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive have been on my to-be-watched list for a decade. So when I sat down to watch Mulholland Drive, I knew absolutely nothing about the “plot” or the characters. Depending on how you view Lynch, two and a half hours of total confusion may be the best or worst way to be introduced to his style.

For my own sanity, I will try to summarize the story. The film begins with a series of parallel storylines: a woman (Laura Harring) is riding up Mulholland Dr. in a limo only to have the driver stop and aim a gun at her; an increasingly nervous man describes his nightmare »

- Katherine Springer

28 February 2013 8:09 AM, PST | DailyDead | See recent DailyDead news »

Titan Books recently released Max Allan Collins’ Seduction of the Innocent, a hardboiled detective novel inspired by the 1950′s witch-hunt against crime and horror comic books. If the topic piques your interest and you want to learn more, check out our exclusive excerpt from the novel.

Synopsis: ”It’s 1954, and a rabble-rousing social critic has declared war on comic books – especially the scary, gory, bloody sort published by the bad boys of the industry, Ef Comics. But on the way to a Senate hearing on whether these depraved publications should be banned, the would-be censor meets a violent end of his own – leaving his opponents in hot water.

Can Jack Starr, private eye to the funny-book industry, and his beautiful boss Maggie unravel the secret of Dr. Frederick’s gruesome demise? Or will thecrackdown come, falling like an executioner’s axe…?

A hardboiled detective novel inspired by the 1950s witch-hunt »

- Jonathan James

19 February 2013 2:39 PM, PST | Disc Dish | See recent Disc Dish news »

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 14, 2013

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Van Heflin (l.) and Glenn Ford star in 1957's 3:10 to Yuma.

The beautifully shot and acted 1957 western movie 3:10 to Yuma was directed by Delmer Daves (Jubal).

Van Heflin (My Son John) stars as a mild-mannered cattle rancher who takes on the task of shepherding a captured outlaw, played with cucumber-cool charisma by Glenn Ford (Gilda), to the train that will take him to prison. What begins as an apparently simple plan turns into a nerve-racking cat-and-mouse game that will test each man’s particular brand of honor.

Based on a story by Elmore Leonard (Freaky Deaky), the classic 3:10 to Yuma is considered to be one of the most psychologically complex and humane Westerns of its time—and certainly some than the 2007 remake starring Russell Crowe (Robin Hood) and Christian Bale (The Fighter), which is still available on DVD and Blu-ray. »

- Laurence

8 February 2013 11:15 AM, PST | E! Online | See recent E! Online news »

The Grammy Awards red carpet is absolutely unpredictable, which, of course, makes it the most fun of award shows! While I love actresses to look like movie stars, I think being a musician gives you leeway to dress any way you like. So here are some fun 'styling mash-ups' that serve as inspiration for how I'd like to see some of the ladies look on Grammy evening—or hey, just some great ideas for your next Halloween! Beyoncé: The star would look best with the glitz and glam of Linda Evans circa Dynasty crossed with the smoldering heat from Rita Hayworth in Gilda and then funk it up with a touch of Rick James. Pink: Harness the raw sexual energy of Sharon Stone in Basic »

8 items from 2013