Budd Boetticher’s excellent semi-autobiographical film may be Hollywood’s most uncondescending depiction of high-end Mexican culture. Robert Stack is the pushy Gringo who only slowly understands Latin society’s definitions of loyalty and machismo; his rocky relationship with Joy Page’s cultured señorita is as important as the bullfighting story with Gilbert Roland. It’s Boetticher’s best film, presented for the first time in two encodings, the 87-minute release version and the UCLA Film and TV Archive’s restoration of the full 124-minute seen South of the Border. The extra commentary and featurettes are welcome too.
Bullfighter and the Lady
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...
Bullfighter and the Lady
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...
- 7/30/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jane Russell in Underwater! is now available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives. Order info can be found Here
Master director John Sturges lends his talents as the helmsman of “Men’s Adventure” movies to this Howard Hughes production starring Hughes’s favorite muse, Jane Russell. While diving off the coast of Cuba, Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) discovers a long-lost fortune but needs help to raise his find from the depths bringing Johnny (Richard Egan) and Theresa Gray (Russell) into his scheme. Now, as the trio fights to lift the decaying hull from its precarious resting spot on the brink of a bottomless undersea chasm, they are attacked by sharks and modern-day pirates (Joseph Calleia). Roland and Egan may bring the beefcake, while Russell and Lori Nelson provide the cheesecake, but the real meal is Sturges’ sweeping undersea spectacle. 16×9 Letterbox . New 2020 1080p HD Master From 4K Scan of the Original Camera...
Master director John Sturges lends his talents as the helmsman of “Men’s Adventure” movies to this Howard Hughes production starring Hughes’s favorite muse, Jane Russell. While diving off the coast of Cuba, Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) discovers a long-lost fortune but needs help to raise his find from the depths bringing Johnny (Richard Egan) and Theresa Gray (Russell) into his scheme. Now, as the trio fights to lift the decaying hull from its precarious resting spot on the brink of a bottomless undersea chasm, they are attacked by sharks and modern-day pirates (Joseph Calleia). Roland and Egan may bring the beefcake, while Russell and Lori Nelson provide the cheesecake, but the real meal is Sturges’ sweeping undersea spectacle. 16×9 Letterbox . New 2020 1080p HD Master From 4K Scan of the Original Camera...
- 1/28/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
No, this isn’t a documentary about the sorry situation faced by too many American homeowners. Howard Hughes takes Rko into SuperScope and color for this attractive, somewhat tame sunken treasure adventure starring his captive glamour star Jane Russell. No off-color advertising slogans this time around, but the show shapes up as a swimsuit catalog for Jane as well as her handsome co-stars Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland. Plus, the Latin rhythms of the incomparable Pérez Prado!
Underwater!
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:1 widescreen (SuperScope) / 99 min. / Street Date January 29, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Gilbert Roland, Lori Nelson, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia, Eugene Iglesias, Ric Roman, Dámaso Pérez Prado, Max Wagner.
Cinematography: Harry J. Wild
Film Editors: Stuart Gilmore, Frederic Knudtson
Original Music: Roy Webb
Second Unit Director: William Dorfman
Underwater photography: Lamar Boren
Written by Walter Newman story by Hugh King, Robert B. Bailey
Produced by Harry Tatelman,...
Underwater!
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:1 widescreen (SuperScope) / 99 min. / Street Date January 29, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Gilbert Roland, Lori Nelson, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia, Eugene Iglesias, Ric Roman, Dámaso Pérez Prado, Max Wagner.
Cinematography: Harry J. Wild
Film Editors: Stuart Gilmore, Frederic Knudtson
Original Music: Roy Webb
Second Unit Director: William Dorfman
Underwater photography: Lamar Boren
Written by Walter Newman story by Hugh King, Robert B. Bailey
Produced by Harry Tatelman,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Long before the push for diversity and inclusion, Hollywood had a few Latin/Hispanic stars who made a big impact. One was Katy Jurado, the first Latina actress to win a Golden Globe (for 1952’s “High Noon”) and the first nominated for an Oscar (1954’s “Broken Lance”).
She was born Jan. 16, 1924, in Mexico, and began making films as a teenager. Though she was originally cast as spitfires or vamps, her roles got better and she added intelligence and subtlety to her characters. Variety reviewed her in the 1951 film “Bullfighter and the Lady,” saying she “makes a very strong impression” in her Hollywood debut. She won three Ariel Awards, the highest honor for Mexican filmmaking, including one for Luis Buñuel’s 1953 “El Bruto”; in 1997, she added a Special Golden Ariel for lifetime achievement.
Painted by Diego Rivera and romanced by novelist Louis L’Amour, Jurado remained the only Mexican actress to be Oscar nominated for nearly 50 years,...
She was born Jan. 16, 1924, in Mexico, and began making films as a teenager. Though she was originally cast as spitfires or vamps, her roles got better and she added intelligence and subtlety to her characters. Variety reviewed her in the 1951 film “Bullfighter and the Lady,” saying she “makes a very strong impression” in her Hollywood debut. She won three Ariel Awards, the highest honor for Mexican filmmaking, including one for Luis Buñuel’s 1953 “El Bruto”; in 1997, she added a Special Golden Ariel for lifetime achievement.
Painted by Diego Rivera and romanced by novelist Louis L’Amour, Jurado remained the only Mexican actress to be Oscar nominated for nearly 50 years,...
- 1/10/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
One of Vincente Minnelli’s best is this glamorous ‘Hollywood Looks At Hollywood’ exposé of sin and conniving among the actors, directors and producers that make Quality Entertainment for us unglamorous nobodies. It’s overstated and often grossly overacted but still carries a grandiose charm. Lana Turner gets to play an idealized version of herself. Gloria Grahame generates additional heat, and for her trouble walked away with an Oscar. And composer David Raksin contributes one of his most melodic music scores — the main theme is a winner, right up there with his Laura. CineSavant runs amuck critiquing the way MGM’s movie slams Hollywood creatives, while pretending that the studio bigwigs are infallible Gods.
The Bad and the Beautiful
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1952 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date November 19, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame, Gilbert Roland,...
The Bad and the Beautiful
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1952 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date November 19, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame, Gilbert Roland,...
- 11/19/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hollywood Noir: ‘Monkey on my Back’ & ‘The Midnight Story’ Reviews by Alex DeleonFriday, April 5, 2019The true story of Barney Ross, a World War II hero and champion professional boxer, who became addicted to morphine.Director:
André De Toth
Writers:
Ivan Bunny (biographical material )
Stars:
Cameron Mitchell, Dianne Foster,
Cameron Mitchell was two fisted as boxing champ Barney Ross with a Monkey on his Back. Produced by Edward Small up against the censorship code for a British company. Strong movie, terrific war scenes in a driving rain on Guadalcanal. Good boxing scenes.
Barney, holder of three boxing titles, retires after taking a beating from Henry Armstrong. Joins Marines at 33 and earns a silver star for valor in combat. However, he becomes addicted to the morphine administered to him to relieve the pain of his battle wounds. Wife (Diane Foster) walks out on him twice, because of his gambling first, and drug addictions later,...
André De Toth
Writers:
Ivan Bunny (biographical material )
Stars:
Cameron Mitchell, Dianne Foster,
Cameron Mitchell was two fisted as boxing champ Barney Ross with a Monkey on his Back. Produced by Edward Small up against the censorship code for a British company. Strong movie, terrific war scenes in a driving rain on Guadalcanal. Good boxing scenes.
Barney, holder of three boxing titles, retires after taking a beating from Henry Armstrong. Joins Marines at 33 and earns a silver star for valor in combat. However, he becomes addicted to the morphine administered to him to relieve the pain of his battle wounds. Wife (Diane Foster) walks out on him twice, because of his gambling first, and drug addictions later,...
- 4/18/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Grand action entertainment bursts forth on the high seas, showing us how much production value Golden Hollywood could lavish on an exciting, artful swashbuckler. Errol Flynn is at his glorious best, backed by greats like Flora Robson, Henry Daniell and Claude Rains in fine form. The special effects and full-sized ship sets impress in ways that computer generated images never will. And the rousing music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold seals the deal — the term ‘Timeless Classic’ was invented for marvels like this.
The Sea Hawk
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1940 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 127 min. / Street Date December 18, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una O’Connor, James Stephenson, Gilbert Roland, William Lundigan, Julien Mitchell, Montagu Love, J.M. Kerrigan, David Bruce, Fritz Leiber, Francis McDonald, Pedro de Cordoba, Ian Keith, Jack La Rue, Halliwell Hobbes, Victor Varconi,...
The Sea Hawk
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1940 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 127 min. / Street Date December 18, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una O’Connor, James Stephenson, Gilbert Roland, William Lundigan, Julien Mitchell, Montagu Love, J.M. Kerrigan, David Bruce, Fritz Leiber, Francis McDonald, Pedro de Cordoba, Ian Keith, Jack La Rue, Halliwell Hobbes, Victor Varconi,...
- 12/22/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
After two straight years of all-white acting nominees in 2015 and 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences responded to the #OscarsSoWhite issue by inviting a far more diverse and younger field of talent both behind and in front of the camera to join. And though there are miles to go until there is true diversity, the academy’s nominees and winners are beginning to reflect our culture.
Last year, “Moonlight” became the first Best Picture winner with an all-black cast. Its director Barry Jenkins shared the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar with Tarell Alvin McCraney, while Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor. Viola Davis also took home Best Supporting Actress for “Fences.”
This year’s black nominees include Jordan Peele, a triple nominee for producing, directing and writing Best Picture contender “Get Out,” which also scored a Best Actor nomination for Daniel Kaluuya. Two-time winner Denzel Washington is nominated for “Roman J.
Last year, “Moonlight” became the first Best Picture winner with an all-black cast. Its director Barry Jenkins shared the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar with Tarell Alvin McCraney, while Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor. Viola Davis also took home Best Supporting Actress for “Fences.”
This year’s black nominees include Jordan Peele, a triple nominee for producing, directing and writing Best Picture contender “Get Out,” which also scored a Best Actor nomination for Daniel Kaluuya. Two-time winner Denzel Washington is nominated for “Roman J.
- 2/7/2018
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Pity the poor exhibitors in 1953 that splurged on 3-D equipment, only to see the payroll soar and the profits fall. Nope, Anamorphic Widescreen was the innovation that swept the world. It proved perfect for stories with scenic grandeur, such as Fox’s very early mini-epic shot on Florida locations. Thanks to Bernard Herrmann’s impressive music score, this one’s not going away.
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1953 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Boone, Peter Graves, Jay Novello, Angela Clarke, Jacques Aubuchon, Harry Carey Jr., Gloria Gordon.
Cinematography: Edward Cronjager
Film Editor: William Reynolds
Original Music: Bernard Herrmann
Written by A.I. Bezzerides
Produced by Robert Bassler
Directed by Robert Webb
Four years have passed since the now dormant 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD-r label stealth-released a surprise...
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1953 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Boone, Peter Graves, Jay Novello, Angela Clarke, Jacques Aubuchon, Harry Carey Jr., Gloria Gordon.
Cinematography: Edward Cronjager
Film Editor: William Reynolds
Original Music: Bernard Herrmann
Written by A.I. Bezzerides
Produced by Robert Bassler
Directed by Robert Webb
Four years have passed since the now dormant 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD-r label stealth-released a surprise...
- 10/3/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'Ben-Hur' 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM's '31 Days of Oscar.' '31 Days of Oscar': 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Ben-Hur' are in, Paramount stars are out Today, Feb. 1, '16, Turner Classic Movies is kicking off the 21st edition of its “31 Days of Oscar.” While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being vociferously reviled for its “lack of diversity” – more on that appallingly myopic, self-serving, and double-standard-embracing furore in an upcoming post – TCM is celebrating nearly nine decades of the Academy Awards. That's the good news. The disappointing news is that if you're expecting to find rare Paramount, Universal, or Fox/20th Century Fox entries in the mix, you're out of luck. So, missing from the TCM schedule are, among others: Best Actress nominees Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son, Nancy Carroll in The Devil's Holiday, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds. Unofficial Best Actor...
- 2/2/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ernst Lubitsch: The movies' lost 'Touch.' Ernst Lubitsch movies on TCM: Classics of a bygone era Ernst Lubitsch and William Cameron Menzies were Turner Classic Movies' “stars” on Jan. 28, '16. (This is a fully revised and expanded version of a post published on that day.) Lubitsch had the morning/afternoon, with seven films; Menzies had the evening/night, also with seven features. (TCM's Ernst Lubitsch schedule can be found further below.) The forgotten 'Touch' As a sign of the times, Ernst Lubitsch is hardly ever mentioned whenever “connoisseurs” (between quotes) discuss Hollywood movies of the studio era. But why? Well, probably because The Lubitsch Touch is considered passé at a time when the sledgehammer approach to filmmaking is deemed “fresh,” “innovative,” “cool,” and “daring” – as if a crass lack of subtlety in storytelling were anything new. Minus the multimillion-dollar budgets, the explicit violence and gore, and the overbearing smugness passing for hipness,...
- 1/31/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
William Cameron Menzies. William Cameron Menzies movies on TCM: Murderous Joan Fontaine, deadly Nazi Communists Best known as an art director/production designer, William Cameron Menzies was a jack-of-all-trades. It seems like the only things Menzies didn't do was act and tap dance in front of the camera. He designed and/or wrote, directed, produced, etc., dozens of films – titles ranged from The Thief of Bagdad to Invaders from Mars – from the late 1910s all the way to the mid-1950s. Among Menzies' most notable efforts as an art director/production designer are: Ernst Lubitsch's first Hollywood movie, the Mary Pickford star vehicle Rosita (1923). Herbert Brenon's British-set father-son drama Sorrell and Son (1927). David O. Selznick's mammoth production of Gone with the Wind, which earned Menzies an Honorary Oscar. The Sam Wood movies Our Town (1940), Kings Row (1942), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). H.C. Potter's Mr. Lucky...
- 1/28/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Constance Cummings: Actress in minor Hollywood movies became major London stage star. Constance Cummings: Actress went from Harold Lloyd and Frank Capra to Noël Coward and Eugene O'Neill Actress Constance Cummings, whose career spanned more than six decades on stage, in films, and on television in both the U.S. and the U.K., died ten years ago on Nov. 23. Unlike other Broadway imports such as Ann Harding, Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, and Claudette Colbert, the pretty, elegant Cummings – who could have been turned into a less edgy Constance Bennett had she landed at Rko or Paramount instead of Columbia – never became a Hollywood star. In fact, her most acclaimed work, whether in films or – more frequently – on stage, was almost invariably found in British productions. That's most likely why the name Constance Cummings – despite the DVD availability of several of her best-received performances – is all but forgotten.
- 11/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright and Matt Damon in 'The Rainmaker' Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright vs. Samuel Goldwyn: Nasty Falling Out.") "I'd rather have luck than brains!" Teresa Wright was quoted as saying in the early 1950s. That's understandable, considering her post-Samuel Goldwyn choice of movie roles, some of which may have seemed promising on paper.[1] Wright was Marlon Brando's first Hollywood leading lady, but that didn't help her to bounce back following the very public spat with her former boss. After all, The Men was released before Elia Kazan's film version of A Streetcar Named Desire turned Brando into a major international star. Chances are that good film offers were scarce. After Wright's brief 1950 comeback, for the third time in less than a decade she would be gone from the big screen for more than a year.
- 3/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cary Grant films on TCM: Gender-bending 'I Was a Male War Bride' (photo: Cary Grant not gay at all in 'I Was a Male War Bride') More Cary Grant films will be shown tonight, as Turner Classic Movies continues with its Star of the Month presentations. On TCM right now is the World War II action-drama Destination Tokyo (1943), in which Grant finds himself aboard a U.S. submarine, alongside John Garfield, Dane Clark, Robert Hutton, and Tom Tully, among others. The directorial debut of screenwriter Delmer Daves (The Petrified Forest, Love Affair) -- who, in the following decade, would direct a series of classy Westerns, e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree -- Destination Tokyo is pure flag-waving propaganda, plodding its way through the dangerous waters of Hollywood war-movie stereotypes and speechifying banalities. The film's key point of interest, in fact, is Grant himself -- not because he's any good,...
- 12/16/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Honorary Oscars 2014: Hayao Miyazaki, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Maureen O’Hara; Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award goes to Harry Belafonte One good thing about the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards — an expedient way to remove the time-consuming presentation of the (nearly) annual Honorary Oscar from the TV ratings-obsessed, increasingly youth-oriented Oscar show — is that each year up to four individuals can be named Honorary Oscar recipients, thus giving a better chance for the Academy to honor film industry veterans while they’re still on Planet Earth. (See at the bottom of this post a partial list of those who have gone to the Great Beyond, without having ever received a single Oscar statuette.) In 2014, the Academy’s Board of Governors has selected a formidable trio of honorees: Japanese artist and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, 73; French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, 82; and Irish-born Hollywood actress Maureen O’Hara,...
- 8/29/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jeanne Crain: Lighthearted movies vs. real life tragedies (photo: Madeleine Carroll and Jeanne Crain in ‘The Fan’) (See also: "Jeanne Crain: From ‘Pinky’ Inanity to ‘Margie’ Magic.") Unlike her characters in Margie, Home in Indiana, State Fair, Centennial Summer, The Fan, and Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), or even in the more complex A Letter to Three Wives and People Will Talk, Jeanne Crain didn’t find a romantic Happy Ending in real life. In the mid-’50s, Crain accused her husband, former minor actor Paul Brooks aka Paul Brinkman, of infidelity, of living off her earnings, and of brutally beating her. The couple reportedly were never divorced because of their Catholic faith. (And at least in the ’60s, unlike the humanistic, progressive-thinking Margie, Crain was a “conservative” Republican who supported Richard Nixon.) In the early ’90s, she lost two of her...
- 8/26/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Wallace Beery movies: TCM offers a glimpse into Beery’s extensive filmography (photo: Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery in ‘Min and Bill’) According to the IMDb, the Wallace Beery Filmography features nearly 240 movie titles, including shorts and features, spanning more than three decades, from 1913 to 1949 — the year of his death at age 64. You’ll be able to catch about a dozen of these Wallace Beery movies on Saturday, August 17, 2013, as Turner Classic Movies continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" series. (See “TCM movie schedule: Wallace Beery from Pancho Villa to Long John Silver.”) Wallace Beery, much like fellow veteran Marie Dressler, with whom he co-starred in Min and Bill and its sequel, Tugboat Annie, was a Hollywood anomaly. At age 45, the ugly, coarse-looking actor became a top box-office draw in the United States after languishing in supporting roles, usually playing villains, throughout most of the silent era. Beery and Dressler,...
- 8/17/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Lana Turner movies: Scandal and more scandal Lana Turner is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, Saturday, August 10, 2013. I’m a little — or rather, a lot — late in the game posting this article, but there are still three Lana Turner movies left. You can see Turner get herself embroiled in scandal right now, in Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), both the director and the star’s biggest box-office hit. More scandal follows in Mark Robson’s Peyton Place (1957), the movie that earned Lana Turner her one and only Academy Award nomination. And wrapping things up is George Sidney’s lively The Three Musketeers (1948), with Turner as the ruthless, heartless, remorseless — but quite elegant — Lady de Winter. Based on Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of John M. Stahl’s 1934 melodrama about mother love, class disparities, racism, and good cooking, Imitation of Life was shown on...
- 8/11/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in ‘Mata Hari’: The wrath of the censors (See previous post: "Ramon Novarro in One of the Best Silent Movies.") George Fitzmaurice’s romantic spy melodrama Mata Hari (1931) was well received by critics and enthusiastically embraced by moviegoers. The Greta Garbo / Ramon Novarro combo — the first time Novarro took second billing since becoming a star — turned Mata Hari into a major worldwide blockbuster, with $2.22 million in worldwide rentals. The film became Garbo’s biggest international success to date, and Novarro’s highest-grossing picture after Ben-Hur. (Photo: Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in Mata Hari.) Among MGM’s 1932 releases — Mata Hari opened on December 31, 1931 — only W.S. Van Dyke’s Tarzan, the Ape Man, featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Edmund Goulding’s all-star Best Picture Academy Award winner Grand Hotel (also with Garbo, in addition to Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and...
- 8/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 30, 2013
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Robert Stack plays to the crowd in Bullfighter and The Lady.
The 1951 film drama-romance Bullfighter and The Lady was the breakthrough movie for filmmaker Budd Boetticher (Seven Men From Now).
Robert Stack (TV’s The Untouchables) stars as Chuck Regan, a brash American skeet shooting champion whose visit to Mexico introduces him to two irresistible forces: the exotic Anita de la Vega (Joy Page) and the lure of the way of the matador. Unflinching in his confidence, Regan sets out to conquer both, learning bullfighting from an icon of the Mexican corrida, Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland). But Regan’s headstrong assertiveness and desire to impress Anita gets the best of him when he debuts in the ring and knows there’s only one way and one place he can redeem himself.
Written by James Edward Grant from a story by Boetticher,...
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Robert Stack plays to the crowd in Bullfighter and The Lady.
The 1951 film drama-romance Bullfighter and The Lady was the breakthrough movie for filmmaker Budd Boetticher (Seven Men From Now).
Robert Stack (TV’s The Untouchables) stars as Chuck Regan, a brash American skeet shooting champion whose visit to Mexico introduces him to two irresistible forces: the exotic Anita de la Vega (Joy Page) and the lure of the way of the matador. Unflinching in his confidence, Regan sets out to conquer both, learning bullfighting from an icon of the Mexican corrida, Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland). But Regan’s headstrong assertiveness and desire to impress Anita gets the best of him when he debuts in the ring and knows there’s only one way and one place he can redeem himself.
Written by James Edward Grant from a story by Boetticher,...
- 6/14/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
News.
Above: Harris Savides. Photo by Brigette Lancombe for Interview magazine.
We were saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of one of film's great cinematographers, Harris Savides. Our brief note includes an indelible clip from Gerry, one of his collaborations with Gus Van Sant. David Hudson has rounded up commentary at Fandor.
One of Savides' chief collaborators, director David Fincher, is also in the news with an animated film project that's appealing to Kickstarter to get funded.
Two big trailer debuts have sprung on us over the last week. One's the second trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained:
...and the other is the first full trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty:
Filmmaker Jon Jost has started a petition calling for Ray Carney to return underground director Mark Rappaport's film materials. As the petition explains:
"In 2005, when Mark Rappaport moved to France, Ray Carney,...
Above: Harris Savides. Photo by Brigette Lancombe for Interview magazine.
We were saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of one of film's great cinematographers, Harris Savides. Our brief note includes an indelible clip from Gerry, one of his collaborations with Gus Van Sant. David Hudson has rounded up commentary at Fandor.
One of Savides' chief collaborators, director David Fincher, is also in the news with an animated film project that's appealing to Kickstarter to get funded.
Two big trailer debuts have sprung on us over the last week. One's the second trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained:
...and the other is the first full trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty:
Filmmaker Jon Jost has started a petition calling for Ray Carney to return underground director Mark Rappaport's film materials. As the petition explains:
"In 2005, when Mark Rappaport moved to France, Ray Carney,...
- 10/17/2012
- by Notebook
- MUBI
By Harvey Chartrand
Frank Langella played an aging writer in Starting Out in the Evening (2007). Who would have figured this for typecasting?
In his superb memoir, Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them (HarperCollins), Langella reveals that he is an incomparable memoirist and storyteller, recalling his encounters with scores of luminaries from the world of entertainment in a career spanning half a century. All of these luminaries are deceased and the cast of characters is listed “by order of disappearance”. Just as well, as many of the revelations are quite shocking.
Langella must be the most sociable and congenial actor on the planet, as the busyness of his social and professional lives and the breadth and depth of his friendships, romantic liaisons and acquaintances are very impressive indeed. He met Marilyn Monroe in 1953. She stepped out of a limousine and said “hi” to the adolescent from Bayonne,...
Frank Langella played an aging writer in Starting Out in the Evening (2007). Who would have figured this for typecasting?
In his superb memoir, Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them (HarperCollins), Langella reveals that he is an incomparable memoirist and storyteller, recalling his encounters with scores of luminaries from the world of entertainment in a career spanning half a century. All of these luminaries are deceased and the cast of characters is listed “by order of disappearance”. Just as well, as many of the revelations are quite shocking.
Langella must be the most sociable and congenial actor on the planet, as the busyness of his social and professional lives and the breadth and depth of his friendships, romantic liaisons and acquaintances are very impressive indeed. He met Marilyn Monroe in 1953. She stepped out of a limousine and said “hi” to the adolescent from Bayonne,...
- 7/13/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
John Garfield on TCM: Humoresque, Four Daughters, We Were Strangers Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Four Daughters (1938) A small-town family's peaceful life is shattered when one daughter falls for a rebellious musician. Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Priscilla Lane, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield. Bw-90 mins. 7:45 Am Blackwell's Island (1939) A reporter gets himself sent to prison to expose a mobster. Dir: William McGann. Cast: John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell. Bw-71 mins. 9:00 Am They Made Me A Criminal (1939) A young boxer flees to farming country when he thinks he's killed an opponent in the ring. Dir: Busby Berkeley. Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson. Bw-92 mins. 10:45 Am Dangerously They Live (1942) A doctor tries to rescue a young innocent from Nazi agents. Dir: Robert Florey. Cast: John Garfield, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey. Bw-77 mins. 12:15 Pm Pride Of The Marines (1945) A blinded...
- 8/4/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
John Garfield, Joan Crawford, Humoresque John Garfield is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" star on Friday, August 5. TCM will be presenting twelve John Garfield movies, in addition to the 2003 documentary The John Garfield Story. There will be no TCM premieres — but don't blame TCM for that. Garfield was a Warner Bros. star and Warners' movies belong to the Time Warner library; in other words, his films are always available. In fact, I believe the only John Garfield movie that has never been shown on TCM is 20th Century Fox's 1950 drama Under My Skin. [John Garfield Movie Schedule.] Much like Warners' James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Errol Flynn, Garfield was a tough guy at a tough studio. Come to think of it, even Warners' women were tough: Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Glenda Farrell, and, off screen, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie (both of...
- 8/4/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Are you celebrating Mexico today?
Happy Cinco De Mayo!
I'm eating tacos for dinner because it's the least I can do. And I'm also perusing amazing photos of Mexican film stars of yore like the deliriously sexy Lupe Vélez and one star of the right now... Señor Bernal of course. Also deliriously sexy. Especially in closeups.
So I thought we'd drool on six of the earliest crossover sensations tonight with a few films of note (for one reason or another) for each of their careers. If you'd like to investigate further, click on the links. Enjoy!
Lupe Vélez The Gaucho, 1927 | Hot Pepper, 1933 | The Girl From Mexico, 1939
Ramon Novarro Scaramouche 1923 | Ben-Hur 1925 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, 1927
These silent stars had volatile lives and careers, both ending with tragic deaths. Vélez career was a series of ups and downs and some say she was bipolar. She had several movie star affairs...
Happy Cinco De Mayo!
I'm eating tacos for dinner because it's the least I can do. And I'm also perusing amazing photos of Mexican film stars of yore like the deliriously sexy Lupe Vélez and one star of the right now... Señor Bernal of course. Also deliriously sexy. Especially in closeups.
So I thought we'd drool on six of the earliest crossover sensations tonight with a few films of note (for one reason or another) for each of their careers. If you'd like to investigate further, click on the links. Enjoy!
Lupe Vélez The Gaucho, 1927 | Hot Pepper, 1933 | The Girl From Mexico, 1939
Ramon Novarro Scaramouche 1923 | Ben-Hur 1925 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, 1927
These silent stars had volatile lives and careers, both ending with tragic deaths. Vélez career was a series of ups and downs and some say she was bipolar. She had several movie star affairs...
- 5/6/2010
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Funny how half a century ago we were all excited about a new format you could see without “special glasses,” and here we are back to special glasses again. I love seeing those old trailers for how they highlight stars whose names mean absolutely nothing today. Robert Wagner’s still around pushing reverse-mortgages on TV, but Terry Moore? Gilbert Roland? J. Carrol Naish? Who the hell...? “The romance of those who defy the reef!” It’s like the Fool’s Gold or the Into the Blue of 1953. Beautiful. Probably 50 years from now people will be saying, Paul Walker? Jessica Alba? Who the hell...? And I hate to be pedantic, but c’mon: if the reefs dated from the Earth’s beginnings, they wouldn’t be razor sharp anymore: they’d have been worn down by time and water. (Also, the Earth is more than a million years old.)...
- 12/6/2009
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Van Heflin stars as Sam Cooper (the film is sometimes known as Sam Cooper's Gold) A man who has struck a rich vain of gold. The problem is one man can't get enough out and back, he needs a partner. Circumstances conspire to land him with three. Manolo Sanchez (George Hilton), who he raised as his son. Mason (Gilbert Roland) A man who holds a grudge against Sam believing he double crossed him some years earlier. The forth partner is "Brent the Blonde" played by Werner Herzog's Best Fiend Klaus Kinski.
Giorgio Capitani's spaghetti western, probaly won't be making too many top ten lists, but its an enjoyable flick and you can watch it right now (Visit this link for full screen) online for free thanks to AMC’s B-Movie Bmc Classics. Bmc provides an online destination to watch some classic (and not so classic) B movies from yesteryear.
Giorgio Capitani's spaghetti western, probaly won't be making too many top ten lists, but its an enjoyable flick and you can watch it right now (Visit this link for full screen) online for free thanks to AMC’s B-Movie Bmc Classics. Bmc provides an online destination to watch some classic (and not so classic) B movies from yesteryear.
- 6/18/2009
- by Leigh
- Latemag.com/film
Anthony Mann spent much of the 1940s directing tough noirs and most of the 1950s directing psychologically complex Westerns. Set on and around a sprawling Arizona ranch, The Furies appears to fall squarely into the latter camp, but it's an untraditional Western even by Mann's tradition-pushing standards. One of four Mann movies released in 1950—three of them Westerns—it's less concerned with gunfighters and the settling of the frontier than with the persistence of wildness even after civilization has set in. Lorded over by T.C. Jeffords (Walter Huston, in a memorable swan song), the eponymous cattle ranch dominates the land around it. Huston even has the power to issue his own currency—he calls his IOUs "TCs"—but some recall the less-than-friendly ways Huston conquered the land. Others, particularly a group of Hispanic squatters led by Gilbert Roland, suggest he never truly conquered the land at all. He's certainly never conquered his.
- 6/25/2008
- by Keith Phipps
- avclub.com
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