In this appearance on "The Dick Cavett Show", director Blake Edwards shows some of his prized bloopers from the set of "A Shot in the Dark" starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Even the normally dour George Sanders can't resist cracking up!
Dan Blocker, who played the gentle giant Hoss Cartwright on "Bonanza", rarely gave personal interviews but he made an exception in 1971, sitting down with entertainment journalist Bobby Wygant. Blocker discusses his travels, his prediction for the show's future and family aspects of life Tragically, he would die the very next year at age 43.
In
“Man-Eater of Kumaon,” a 1948 feature now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber
Studio Classics, Dr. John Collins (Wendell Corey) undertakes an ill-fated
big-game hunt in the distant land of the movie’s title—an actual region of
India in the Himalayan foothills, not a fantasy world orbiting somewhere
between planets Coruscant and Dune as the exotic name might suggest nowadays.Stalking a tiger in the underbrush, Collins
inflicts an agonizing but not fatal injury as his bullet severs one of the
tiger’s toes.His Indian guides warn
that the wounded tiger will begin attacking and killing humans, and they urge
him to finish what he started.But the
American doesn’t
feel particularly responsible for the villagers now at the mercy of the
carnivore.In his case, it’s less a
matter of Western chauvinism than a general lack of empathy for other people
whatever their ethnicity, a shortcoming that cost him his marriage back in the
States.
After
recovering from an onset of malaria, Collins plans to try his luck inSumatra next.But the tiger has already begun its depredations, and on his way to
Delhi, the hunter encounters a little boy, Panwah, orphaned by the big
cat.Collins conveys the child to a
nearby village, where he is taken in by a young couple, Narain (Sabu) and Lali
(Joanne Page), whom the American befriends.In part, we infer, he becomes close to the loving couple because they
remind him of what he lost back home when his wife divorced him.Still, he resists the idea that, having
turned the tiger into a killer of humans, it’s up to him to restore peace and
security by finishing the job—until the attacks become personal when Lali is
badly mauled while saving Panwah.
“Man-Eater
of Kumaon” was loosely based on a best-selling memoir by big-game hunter Jim
Corbett, who in real life was neither an American nor a disenchanted
physician.This wasn’t the first or last
instance of filmmakers purchasing a popular book, keeping the title for name
recognition, and throwing out most everything else.Unlike many books and films that have
glorified big-game hunting as a macho rite of passage, the dilemma facing John
Collins is a crisis of conscience, not a challenge to his ability to secure a
trophy head.Still, animal-rights
advocates and conservationists are likely to be disturbed by scenes of the
hunter pointing his rifle at the tiger whatever the context.Now, laws would require that the cat be
tranquillised as the first resort and relocated to another habitat away from
humans, not killed.Aside from Sabu, all
the Indians in the story are portrayed by non-Indian actors, a practice that
wouldn’t begin to change for another ten years, when Kamala Devi and I.S Johar
appeared in prominent supporting roles in another movie about ferocious
felines, “Harry Black and the Tiger” (1958).Arguing that studios should have been more inclusive in the 1940s is a
little like contending that Ford’s Theatre should have had metal detectors in
1865.Nevertheless, it’s still a hurdle
for many viewers today, accustomed as we’ve become to the routine presence of
Indian and Indian-American actors in contemporary TV shows and movies, although
critically beloved classics like “Gunga Din” and “Black Narcissus” often seem
to get a pass in this regard.
Well
acted by the always dependable Wendell Corey and capably directed by Byron
Haskin (better known to Sci-Fi enthusiasts for 1953’s “The War of the Worlds”
and six episodes of “The Outer Limits” in 1963-64), “Man-Eater of Kumaon” shows
to good advantage in the new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.The movie was filmed in black and white by
acclaimed cinematographer William C. Mellor, a choice that may have been
necessitated by the budgetary logistics of incorporating old B&W stock
footage into new shots of a tiger prowling through a backlot jungle set, but it
serves a dramatic purpose too.Mellor’s
glistening daytime shots and hi-def, misty nocturnal compositions underscore a
Film Noir quality in the plot, as fate manoeuvres John Collins into an
initially reluctant, then fiercely resigned showdown with the hostile force of
nature represented by the rogue tiger.Special features on the Blu-ray include several trailers for other
jungle movies and Wendell Corey pictures available from Kino Lorber, a
spirited audio commentary by David Del Valle and Dan Marino and reversible sleeve artwork.
"RETRO-ACTIVE: ARTICLES FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVE"
By Lee Pfeiffer
We must admit that when it comes to showcasing bad movies, Cinema Retro is a bit provincial in that we tend to concentrate on misfires from English language cinema. But why not spread the wealth? After all, there are bad movies being made in every language. The good reaction we got from running the 1959 Mexican "Santa Claus" film has now inspired us to honor a bad Turkish flick, the 1972 crime thriller "Kareteci Kiz", of which we have only seen the death scene depicted here. If there is a worse scene showing the demise of a movie villain, we've yet to see it but your intrepid staffers will keep pursuing the quest. This also has the bonus of including what is probably the worst movie fight scene of all time. It's accompanied in part by some brief snippets from Hugo Montenegro's hot-selling 1966 cover version of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." theme, thus illustrating the benefits to producers who don't have to worry about such nit-picky aspects of film making such as obtaining intellectual property rights. Enjoy!
British advertisement for the 1961 double feature of "Gold of the Seven Saints" starring Clint Walker and Roger Moore and "The White Warrior" starring Steve Reeves.
In this memorable scene from the 1969 classic "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", Paul Newman makes short work of his seemingly undefeatable opponent, Ted Cassidy.
In this excerpt from an interview with Ben Mankiewicz from Turner Classic Movies, Jerry Lewis recalls his reunion with Dean Martin after not having spoken to him in 20 years. Here is the famous reunion moment from Jerry's 1976 Muscular Dystrophy telethon:
A dissatisfied housewife brings home a stranded alien and
gradually falls in love, high school students live in fear after a beautiful student
is found dead, her back snapped across the gymnasium balance beam, a young teen
dates the enigmatic daughter of a mad scientist, in one town aliens have
actually become part of the community and started attending the local school, a
late-night DJ picks up signals from across space which appear to be from his
recently abducted wife, the real Creature from the Black Lagoon finds himself
working in Hollywood and falling for Julie Adams, teens on Lover’s Lane find
themselves fighting back against a potential alien invasion, and mysterious
video tapes show the real Bela Lugosi in films made by Ed Wood that cannot
possibly exist, given that he had died years before.
This new collection of stories by Dale Bailey (some of
which were previously published in magazines including Asimov’s Science
Fiction and Lightspeed) draws on his own memories of half-watched movies
on late-night TV and reading articles in Fangoria. Perhaps because of
this many of the stories are told as if distant, troubling memories are being
reluctantly recalled. Although the cover art may suggest a fun,
nostalgia-tinged trip back to the fifties, these are stories infused with loss,
grief and melancholy; one man recalls visiting his dead brother’s apartment in
Hollywood, trying to understand how they drifted apart, another, whose wife has
been missing since he claims to have witnessed her being taken up into the sky,
can no longer fully connect with the people around him, a young wife lives in a
trailer park struggling to overcome the tragedy of her baby daughter dying just
minutes after birth, and the Creature tries to reconcile his feelings for Julie
Adams with his desperate need to return to the swamps. These are people whose
lives have not turned out the way they had hoped, trying to understand and come
to terms with their frightening, life-changing experiences. Yet at the same
time, Dale, not forgetting what most of us are here for, combines B-movie
tropes and titles such as ‘Invasion of the Saucer-Men', ‘The Ghoul Goes West’, ‘Night
Caller from Outer Space’ and ‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’, with humour,
real-world heartbreak and longing.
This hardback collection, published by Electric
Dreamhouse, is a wonderful read for any classic movie fan. Each story is
accompanied by a suitably pulpy illustration (dome-headed aliens, slavering
werewolves and pulchritudinous heroines appear to be Sheady’s specialty), and
the book cover is a work of art in itself, packed with imagery from many
drive-in movies, and not just those referenced in the book. These are stories
that will linger in your mind long after reading, much like the tragic tales
themselves have lingered in the minds of their respective narrators.
Simpson publicity photo for the "Naked Gun" film series. (Photo: Paramount.)
By Lee Pfeiffer
O.J. Simpson, the American football Hall of Fame honoree who went on to develop a successful acting career, has died of cancer at age 76. In 1994, Simpson became the key suspect in the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. The resulting trial became one of the most riveting of the modern era with TV audiences following every aspect of his case. The ensuing mania involving Simpson's fate elevated some people associated with the case to prominence while destroying the reputations of others. Although there was considerable evidence tying Simpson to the murders and the fact that he tried to escape police in a notorious and bizarre slow-moving car chase through Los Angeles, the case took on racial elements that divided the nation. For many Black people, Simpson's ultimate acquittal represented a rare case of justice being delivered to a member of their community. White viewers were largely convinced that Simpson had literally gotten away with murder. The "must-see" TV element of the case often overshadowed the fact that it was about two people who had been brutally murdered, as defense attorneys, prosecutors and even the judge became immediate media sensations. When the verdict was announced, America seemed to come to a standstill while everyone found a TV or radio to gather around during the pre-social media era. Simpson's acquittal didn't end his troubles. He was found liable in a civil case for the deaths and was ordered to pay Ron Goldman's family substantial damages. Simpson went to great lengths to avoid doing so, as Goldman's father used media sources to relentlessly hound him. In his post-trial years, Simpson maintained a low key persona, though comedians would often scoff at his public commitment to track down "the real killer".
After leaving football as a true legend, Simpson successfully built an acting career. Although he was never a major boxoffice draw as a leading man, he was very popular in supporting roles. He appeared in such films as "Capricorn One", along with Hollywood royalty in the 1974 blockbuster "The Towering Inferno" as well as the star-studded "The Cassandra Crossing" before co-starring with Leslie Nielsen in the "Naked Gun" trilogy, adeptly playing a hapless, accident-prone detective. Simpson's acting career and role as a popular TV pitchman were casualties of his murder trial and work in the entertainment field dried up even though he had been found not guilty. Simpson was back in the news again some years later when he was arrested and convicted of an armed robbery connected to his attempt to reclaim sports memorabilia that he said had been stolen from him. Simpson would serve nine years in prison for the crime.
In 1971, director Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood teamed again for the offbeat Gothic Civil War drama "The Beguiled" which daringly cast Eastwood in a villainous role. Universal wasn't happy with the finished film and launched a deceptive print campaign implying the movie was a typical Eastwood action flick, a tactic that appalled Eastwood and Siegel. Not helping matters was the cornball narration of this original trailer. The film has been re-evaluated over the decades and now ranks as a major achievement in both men's careers.
Richard Attenborough wins the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for "Gandhi" at the 1983 Academy Awards. When listening to Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett announce the nominees, try to absorb just how many great films were nominated in this one year.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Blue Underground:
On April 23rd, Blue Underground releases Goodbye
Uncle Tom, one of the most graphic and notorious films ever made, on
Limited Edition 4K UHD and Blu-Ray.
Originally released in 1971, Goodbye Uncle Tom is
an Italian mondo-docudrama based on true events about the rise and revolt of
slavery in America.
Directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco
Prosperi (Mondo Cane) used period documentation and historical
accounts to recreate the antebellum south and the horrors of the slave
trade. The film was so shocking in its detailed look at the atrocities of
slavery that distributors in the US forced Jacopetti and Prosperi to cut it and
radically re-edit the film before release.
Even in its truncated form, Goodbye Uncle Tom created
a stir amongst critics. Roger Ebert called it, “… the most
disgusting, contemptuous insult to decency ever to masquerade as a
documentary.” while Pauline Kael said, “the most specific and rabid
incitement to race war," and The Detroit Chronicle hailed it as
"a graphic, moving, nerve-paralyzing film."
Goodbye Uncle Tom can
now be seen more than five decades after its initial release in both its
original uncut Italian version, alongside its drastically different English
version, both fully restored in 4K from their original camera negatives.
Includes a bonus Blu-ray disc with a wealth of supplemental features that give
context to the staggering and violent look back at this horrific chapter of
American history.
The 4K UHD and Blu-ray Extras special features include
feature-length documentaries; never-before-seen interviews with
writers/directors Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, composer Riz Ortolani
and others; rare behind-the-scene footage; English and Italian trailers; still
galleries, including Giampaolo Lomi’s behind-the-scenes photos; a bonus CD of
the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Riz Ortolani; and a collectible
booklet.
Burt Reynolds had been gnawing around the boundaries of genuine stardom for more than a decade, starring in short-lived television shows and top-lining "B" movies. He ingratiated himself to the American public by showcasing his wit and comedic abilities by appearing on chat shows. In 1972, he struck gold when director John Boorman cast him opposite Jon Voight as the two male leads in the sensational film adaptation of James Dickey's "Deliverance". Finally, he could be classified as a major movie star. Soon, Reynolds was cranking out major films even while his uncanny ability to publicize himself resulted in such stunts as his famed provocative centerfold pose in Cosmopolitan magazine. On screen, Reynolds sensed that he could cultivate an especially enthusiastic audience if he catered to rural movie-goers. He was proven right with the release of "White Lightning", a highly enjoyable 1973 action/comedy that perfectly showcased Reynolds' favored image as a handsome, unflappable hero with a Bondian knack for tossing off quips while facing death and also engaging in good ol' boy towel-snapping humor. Playing bootlegger Gator McClusky, Reynolds drew major crowds, very much pleasing United Artists, which enjoyed hefty profits from the modestly-budgeted production. Reynolds learned, however, that his audience wouldn't necessarily follow him if he deviated from that image. When he went against the grain in films like "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing", "At Long Last Love" and "Lucky Lady", the movies bombed. When he stuck to the basics, he had hits with "Shamus", "The Longest Yard" and "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings". The legendary Variety headline that read "Hix Nix Stix Pix" was no longer true. The American heartland loved Burt Reynolds, especially when he played characters that rural audiences could embrace.
In 1976, Reynolds fulfilled another career milestone by directing his first feature film, a sequel to "White Lightning" titled "Gator". Like the first movie, it was shot entirely on location in Georgia and picked up on the adventures of everyone's favorite moonshiner. When we first see Gator in the sequel, he his getting out of jail only to be targeted by the feds to be used as a pawn in a multi-state crackdown on an epidemic of political corruption that threatens the career of the self-serving, ambitious governor (played very well by famed chat show host Mike Douglas in his big screen debut.) Gator is living in a shack located deep in an inhospitable swamp with his elderly father and precocious 9 year-old daughter when the feds launch a major raid to arrest him on moonshining charges. In reality, they want to use the warrant as leverage to convince him to go undercover for them inside the crime ring. Gator wants no part of it and leads the feds on a merry chase around the bayou in which he is pursued by speed boats and helicopters before finally relenting. The lead federal agent in charge is Irving Greenfield (Jack Weston), an overweight, hyper-nervous Jewish guy from Manhattan who has the unenviable task of ensuring that Gator follows orders. A good portion of the film's laugh quotient comes from Irving's less-than-convincing attempts to "blend in" with small town southern locals. The crime ring is run by Bama McCall (Jerry Reed), an outwardly charming and charismatic fellow who, in reality, uses brutally violent methods to ensure loyalty and intimidate local businessmen to pay protection money. He and Gator are old acquaintances and he doesn't hesitate to give Gator a good-paying job as an enforcer for his mob. Things become more intriguing when Gator sets eyes on Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton), an attractive local TV anchor with liberal political beliefs that find her squaring off against Bama in order to protect the poor merchants he is exploiting. "Gator" proceeds on a predictable path but its predictability doesn't detract from its merits, which are considerable. Reynolds is a joy to watch and it's small wonder he leaped to the top ranks of cinematic leading men. His cocky, self-assured persona served him well on the big screen and "Gator" is custom-made to please his core audience. He also proved to be a very able director, handling the action scenes and those of unexpected tragic twists with equal skill. He also gets very good performances from his eclectic cast, with Weston engaging in his usual penchant for scene-stealing. Reed also shines in a rare villainous role and ex-model Hutton proves she has admirable acting chops, as well. The action scenes are impressive thanks to the oversight of the legendary Hal Needham, who would forge a long-time collaborative relationship with Reynolds.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is a reissue with extras from the 2018 release ported over. The new additional material consists of a commentary track by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson, who also provide a new track on the KL reissue of "White Lightning". The track is quite valuable and entertaining, as old pros Mitchell and Thompson provide a wealth of interesting facts and observations about the film. For example, they discuss that "Gator" is far lighter in tone than the revenge thriller "White Lightning" and say that Reynolds thought the script for "Gator" was sub-par but did the film on the proviso he could direct it. The disc is also impressive not only because of the excellent transfer but also because it contains a filmed interview with Reynolds, who extols the film's virtues and its personal meaning to him. In an unusually candid conversation, he divulges amusing anecdotes about Hutton's on-set quirks that included a penchant for exhibitionism (she would flash her breasts to appreciative crew members.) He also relates how a car crash stunt almost killed Hal Needham. Most poignantly, he talks about his personal affection for Georgia, a state he has filmed over twenty movies in. He also candidly expresses his regret that only directed a few films and never fulfilled his dream of directing productions he didn't star in. The Blu-ray set also includes a new gallery of trailers for Reynolds films available from KL. In all, a highly impressive release of an action film showcasing Reynolds at his best. Recommended.
Cult director Bert I. Gordon was at the helm
for this terrifying story of supernatural passion. Set on an island in a
tight-knit community, Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) is preparing to marry the
woman he loves. All is well until Tom's old girlfriend, Vi (Juli Reding), confronts him at
the top of the island's lighthouse, claiming he can only be hers! A freak
accident throws the scorned woman to her death. At first relieved, Tom's tune
changes when her vengeful spirit begins to follow him wherever he goes. He's
soon tormented, body and soul, by an unforgiving she-ghost! What lengths will
Tom go to in order to protect his secret? Will the vengeful Vi finally reveal
herself to the others at hand?
And the scene is pretty much set for a quite
wonderful slice of low- budgeted shenanigans. Bert I. Gordon was of course a
master of his art in this particular genre of filmmaking. Starting off in
advertising using his trusted 16mm camera, Gordon wasn’t one to sit back and
wait for success, instead he chased his dream, and as a result accomplished a
pretty good career in movies. He’s best known for writing and directing science
fiction and horror B-movie classics such as King Dinosaur (1955), The Amazing
Colossal Man (1957), Earth vs. the Spider (1958), Village of the Giants (1965),
and later the Joan Collins fun fest Empire of the Ants (1977).
In the late 50’s, ghostly supernatural films
were building in popularity, movies such as Roger Corman’s The Undead (1957),
Edward L. Cahn’s Voodoo Women (1957) and William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill
(1959) signified a change in trends. Gordon was always astute and possessed a good
sense of understanding when it came to successful box office. And so, following
the current trend, Gordon embarked upon his own ghost story in the form of
Tormented (1960). Starring Richard Calson, the actor that had already
established himself in genre classics such as The Maze (1953), It Came from
Outer Space (1953) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Carlson engages
in the fun like a seasoned pro. He’s supported by former child star, Lugene
Sanders, the marvellously formed Juli Reding, child actress Susan Gordon
(daughter of the director) and a young, hip Joe Turkel – who appeared in Stanley
Kubrick's The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and later in The Shining
(1980). Aside from being hugely enjoyable throughout, this Film Masters 4K restoration
looks absolutely perfect. Stark, sharp and beautiful on the eye, the amount of
work afforded to this rather cheaply made movie really elevates it to a much
higher level. Blacks are nice and deep, and the images contains just the right
amount of grain without over-cooking it. There seems to be a couple of very
minor jump cuts along the way – best rest assured, blink at the right time and
they’re pretty much undetectable. The print shows no wear, scratches and
virtually free of dust and dirt spots. The audio clarity is also clean and
bright in both DTS and the Dolby digital track. It’s very obvious that the
efforts in restoring this film have really paid off and the results are hard to
fault.
But this Film Masters release offers so much
more – you really have to praise the package as a whole, there’s really no skimping
or cutting corners in terms of its content. Firstly, and as we have come to
expect with the Film Masters releases, there’s an interesting and insightful
commentary track by historian, writer and filmmaker Gary Rhodes along with
contributions by Larry Blamire. The track is a detailed and informative
education. There is an all too brief featurette, Bert I. Gordon: The Amazing
Colossal Filmmaker – which features an archival interview with the charismatic
director who provides us with a general overview of how he began in the
business of movies. Then there is Bigger Than Life: Bert I. Gordon in the
1950’s and 1960’s, a Ballyhoo Motion Pictures documentary featuring film
historian C. Courtney Joyner. This documentary provides a great insight into
the director’s career, with plenty of clips, stories, trailers, poster art and
rare photos illustrated throughout – a real joy. For the more serious scholars,
there is an enjoyable visual essay by The Flying Maciste Brothers (Howard S.
Berger and Kevin Marr). The Spirit is Willing: CineMagic and Social Discord in Bert
I. Gordon’s Tormented, offers a much deeper analysis of the movie and its
implications – which is fine should you want to delve into that particular
territory. At the other end of the spectrum, Film Masters also offers the whole
film again, this time in the form of the Mystery Science Theater 2000 version
(1992). There’s no disputing the fact that these presentations are purely
produced as a put down or a ‘roasting’ for light-hearted entertainment – which is
fine if this is your thing. At least Film Masters has again had the foresight
to cover all areas, and provide something for everyone – dependent upon your
particular taste. One thing I did find particularly interesting during this
version is that it contains the original opening Allied Artists title –
something that was missing from the restored main feature version. There are two
Tormented trailers included, an original ‘raw’35mm version and a 2024 re-cut
version using restored element. Again, a nice way of satisfy all audiences with
both the old and the new, and I’m fully behind that way of thinking. Also
included on the disc is an ‘unreleased TV pilot’ of Famous Ghost Stories
featuring Vincent Price. I was initially quite excited about viewing this, as
it tied in nicely with Tormented because the episode again starred Richard
Calson and Susan Gordon. So, I was a little disappointed to discover that this
was not the full episode and instead was simply just the opening and closing
intro and outro clips featuring Vincent Price. The entire show would hade been
a real treat if included. But overall, this minor quibble takes nothing away
from what is a very generous collection of extras.
On top of that, Film Masters have also
included a nicely produced 22-page illustrated booklet with essays by respected
film historian Tom Weaver and novelist/filmmaker John Wooley. The film sleeve
and booklet cover make good use of the original film artwork.
Film Masters have produced
an excellent package with their presentation of Tormented. The company seems to
grow from strength to strength with each of their new releases. It’s a rare
feeling to feel genuinely excited when considering what might be waiting around
the next corner. I can only hope it’s more of the same.
Some credit director Piers Haggard with coining the term
‘Folk Horror’ during an interview to set his film The Blood on Satan’s Claw
(1971) apart from the more traditional horror offerings by the likes of Hammer
Films and Amicus. As the term has taken hold, such films have become more
closely aligned with a European arthouse style of filmmaking. The genre has
since been retrospectively assigned to many films including the aforementioned
film, alongside the other two points of the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of British Folk Horror;
Witchfinder General (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973). This is a
‘wyrd’ genre, where the films are often unsettling rather than outright
horrifying, although in the case of modern folk horrors such as Kill List (2011),
both things can be said to be true.
When director Ben Wheatley went into the woods to shoot In
the Earth (2021), not only was he returning to the tone and style of his
earlier films Kill List and A Field in England (2013), but he was
also with the title addressing the very essence of Folk Horror: as this new
book discusses in detail, Folk Horror is something with its roots in ancient
(pagan) times, something in the earth, just below the surface - perhaps in an
English field - that once disturbed seeps out, terrifying some, whilst bringing
others together with its community rituals and human sacrifice.
In this new collection of academic essays, the old and
new British examples of the genre are explored in detail from a range of
fascinating perspectives; studies of history, folklore and Britain’s
non-Christian past, the close-knit communities often at the heart of Folk
Horror films and their clashes with modernity, Celtic Folk Horror, the way in
which female filmmakers have subverted tropes and shifted generic conventions,
the recurring use of drums in pagan ceremonies and rituals, the evils of the British
landscape, social and political influences on the films across the decades, and
the relevance and influence of certain British writers such as Arthur Machen on
the genre. As well as the three films of the ‘Unholy Trinity’, each of which
gets a fair amount of analysis here, other films under discussion include Ken
Russell’s wildly entertaining The Lair of the White Worm (1988), based
on the Bram Stoker novel which itself is based on the north-eastern legend of
the Lampton Worm, The Company of Wolves (1984), Doomwatch (1972),
Cry of the Banshee (1970), Psychomania (1973), and many more
including several modern films which this writer was previously unfamiliar but
has to now seek out.
As with all academic collections, the caveat must be
added that the hardback price is because this edition is aimed at libraries,
and a more affordable paperback edition will be available in due course. This
is a worthwhile collection for anyone interested in this ‘wyrd’ sub-genre of
the British horror film, particularly now that Spring is here and soon ‘Summer
is icumen in’.
The White Bus (aka Red, White and Zero) is an experimental film by future acclaimed director Lindsay Anderson. Running a scant 46 minutes, the movie was intended to be one third of a feature film that consisted of other offbeat stories by different directors. For various reasons, the other segments were never completed, thus leaving Anderson's work an orphan. The movie is currently being streamed on the Screenpix service. The merits of the film are debatable. It's visually striking. Filmed primarily in B&W with occasional short sequences in color, the movie is a fairly incomprehensible critique of British society. Like Bryan Forbes' The Whisperers, the movie was largely photographed in and around Manchester and the city fairs equally bad in Anderson's work. The plot, such as a it is, centers on an unnamed young woman (Patricia Healey) who is bored working in a London office. We see her at the end of another mundane day getting ready to leave for home. However, the viewer is then exposed to a pair of legs dangling from above her desk. Someone has hanged themselves, but no one in the office pays the slightest bit of attention. The girl takes a train to Manchester and ends up inexplicably deciding to board a white tourist bus that is packed with an eclectic assortment of international eccentrics. The bus stops at various locations including factories and the group is escorted about by the Lord Mayor (Arthur Lowe) who is decked out in full regalia.
There are bizarre sequences that are at times rather mesmerizing - like outtakes from an episode of The Prisoner in that they mingle realism with fantasy. Anderson seems to be making a cynical comment about the degradation of society and the loss of individualism, though the message is muddled amidst the arresting visual aspects of the film. Consequently, the whole enterprise becomes rather frustrating and wearying. Anderson has something to say but is so obtuse about making his point that the film becomes rather like one of those pretentious movies designed to please no one other than pseudo intellectuals who populate panels at film festivals.
There are some other talented people involved in this enterprise including future Oscar winning producer Michael Deeley (The Italian Job, Blade Runner, The Deer Hunter), acclaimed film maker and movie historian Kevin Brownlow(It Happened Here) and screenwriter Shelagh Delaney, whose novel the segment is based on. Young Anthony Hopkins also has a brief bit in the film. Anderson fans will certainly want to check out this early endeavor, but for the average viewer its rather difficult to warm to.
(Screenpix is available as an add-on subscription to subscribers to Amazon Prime, Hulu and YouTube. Click here for more information.)
After
Woody Allen’s early, zany comedies made between 1969-1975, the filmmaker began
making personal works more akin to those of European auteurs. Art-house
pictures, really. He seemed to have taken his cue from the likes of Ingmar
Bergman, certainly, but also Federico Fellini and others. To this reviewer, though,
Allen’s movies, be they comedies or dramas from Annie Hall (1977)
onwards, almost always deal with the fragility of flawed human relationships—the
same kinds of pictures made by French director François
Truffaut. Truffaut’s films are full of extramarital affairs, love gone wrong,
and sometimes the murder of someone who has gotten in the way of a central
character’s goals.
Now,
Allen’s 50th motion picture, Coup de chance (“Stroke of
Luck”), shot in France with a French crew and cast, and with dialogue entirely
in French (with English subtitles), demonstrates that the director really has
become Truffaut and made his own little European art-house picture like The
Soft Skin or The Woman Next Door (two of Truffaut’s dramas). Or is
it just another Crimes and Misdemeanors or Match Point or Irrational
Man, to name some of Allen’s own dramas that deal with the same subject
matter?
Even
though much of the new film is very familiar Woody Allen territory, Coup de
chance is undoubtedly his most engaging piece since, say, Blue Jasmine.
Is it as good? Not really. And it doesn’t touch Match Point, which is
easily one of the director’s greatest thrillers, which Coup de chance attempts
to be.
Fanny
(the radiant Lou de Laâge) is married to wealthy Jean (the handsome
but appropriately cold Melvil Poupaud). They live in Paris and enjoy an
upper-class, privileged life due to Jean’s work as some kind of financier (“He
makes rich people richer,” Fanny explains). Fanny works at an auction gallery
but is somewhat bored by the couple’s high society social life and especially
by Jean’s continual insistence of going to the country to hunt game with his
friends. Every so often, Fanny’s mother, the wise but somewhat fussy Camille (Valérie
Lemercier), comes to visit for a few days. Camille gets along well with Jean
and even enjoys going hunting in the country with him and his pack while Fanny
stays at the cottage with a book to read. One day on a city street during her
lunch break, Fanny, by happenstance, runs into a former high school
acquaintance, Alain (Niels Schneider). Alain, a divorced writer, immediately
gushes how he had a crush on her back then and would enjoy taking her to lunch.
Fanny agrees. And then she agrees again. Before long, Fanny and Alain are
having an affair. Jean, however, is the jealous type. Extremely so.
To
reveal more would spoil the rest of the story, but most viewers of Woody
Allen’s films can likely predict how it’s going to go. There is an unusual
twist in the third act… and indeed there is a “stroke of luck” that occurs
which emphasizes the film’s themes of coincidence, luck, and fate and how these
concepts can be intertwined. These were common ideas that Polish director Krzysztof
Kieslowski imbued in his pictures, too.
Allen’s
direction here is top form and he is aided by the editing of Alisa Lepselter.
The film moves at a rapid pace with brief vignette-like scenes. The actors are
all superb, despite working with roles that unfortunately do not have much
depth in such a picture of brevity and briskness. The photography by veteran
Vittorio Storaro is gorgeous, and the imagery makes one want to plan an
immediate trip to visit Paris.
The
problems are that we’ve been down this road too many times with Woody Allen.
Yes, there are a few differences in the structure and storytelling, but the
familiarity still nags at the viewer. The novelty of an Allen picture being
entirely in French and in Paris does distinguish it from the others… but then
there’s the issue of whether or not American audiences will relate to these
upper-class French people or care about them at all. (One might have the same
argument about Allen’s portrayal of upper-class New Yorkers in previous
movies!) Another issue is the overuse of upbeat, lively jazz music (mostly
Herbie Hancock’s “Canteloupe Island”), which in some scenes feels highly
inappropriate for a thriller, and ultimately becomes tiresome.
That
said, there’s no question that Coup de chance is an improvement over the
last few Woody Allen titles, but it likely will not be included among the
fifteen to twenty of the filmmaker’s most respected works. But when there are
fifty titles from which to choose, landing somewhere in the middle isn’t bad.
Will
there be future pictures from Allen, who at the time of writing is 88 years old?
Who knows… but if he goes out with Coup de chance then it will be considered
an admirable effort.
(Barbara Rush with Robert Vaughn, Anthony Eisley and Paul Newman in "The Young Philadelphians". Photo: Cinema Retro Archive.)
By Lee Pfeiffer
Actress Barbara Rush has passed away at age 97. Rush had a long career in film, theater and television. She worked under contract in the 1950s for both Paramount and Universal. Her first prominent role was in the 3-D sci-fi cult classic "It Came from Outer Space". She also had a major role in director Martin Ritt's 1957 drama "No Down Payment", a riveting critique of hypocrisy in post-WWII suburban society. She co-starred with Paul Newman in the acclaimed 1959 drama "The Young Philadelphians" and would reunite with him, playing an unsympathetic role, in Martin Ritt's 1967 classic western "Hombre". She was the female lead in the 1958 WII drama "The Young Lions" starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. She would also co-star with Frank Sinatra in the comedies "Come Blow Your Horn" and "Robin and the Seven Hoods". In later years, she found success on television in recurring roles in the prime time soap operas "Flamingo Road" and "7th Heaven". She also toured in the one-woman stage production of "A Woman of Independent Means", earning kudos from critics. She also gained pop culture status in the 1960s by playing the villainess Nora Clavicle in the "Batman" TV series. Rush was married three times, including to actor Jeffrey Hunter. She is survived by her son and daughter. For more click here.
Alan
Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald are American agents in the newly-formed WWII era spy
agency “O.S.S.,” on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Ladd is Philip Masson, an agent
in the recently formed Office of Strategic Services. The head of the spy group
is Commander Brady, played by Patric Knowles, who sends Masson and several
other agents on their first mission to German occupied France in 1942. Their
mission is to blow up a railway tunnel using plastic explosives and connect
with the French Resistance. Along the way they encounter Nazis, French
collaborators and informants. Joining Mason is Ellen Rogers played by Fitzgerald
and they meet up with fellow OSS agents Robert Bouchet, AKA Bernay the radio
operator, played by Richard Benedict, and Rodney Parrish, AKA Gates, the leader
of Team Applejack, played by Don Beddoe.
Philip
and Ellen have assumed new identities as John Martin, a pipe smoking laborer (his
pipe is a nifty gadget that turns into a gun), and Elaine Duprez, a visiting
artist. Gates is captured and killed by the Gestapo soon after the team parachutes
into France. Gates outs himself at a restaurant by using his fork and knife in
the wrong hand moving Philip into the leadership position. Philip becomes
romantically interested in Ellen which is complicated by the arrival of a local
German commander, Colonel Paul Meister (played by John Hoyt making his screen
debut) who is also interested in “Elaine,” after he asks her to create a bust
of himself. Soon he asks “Elaine” to join him on a trip via rail which will take
them through the tunnel they are sent to destroy.
Working
alongside Commander Brady in England is Gloria Saunders as Radio Operator
Sparky. She receives and sends coded messages with Bernay and they quickly form
a friendship. A local Gestapo agent, Amadeus Brink (played by Harold
Vermilyea), discovers the plot, and provides cover for the team of saboteurs as
long as his extortion demands are met. The bust created by “Ellen” is made of
the plastic explosives and this is used to destroy the railway tunnel. Philip
rescues Elaine during the chaos of the explosion and after they escape she
tells him, “Never come back for me again.”
Ladd,
Fitzgerald, Hoyt and Knowles are all terrific, as is the supporting cast. The
movie is dark, intense and a very good spy thriller making good use of light
and shadows. The film was directed by Irving Pichel, who is known for such
genre favorites as “The Most Dangerous Game,” “She,” “Mr. Peabody and the
Mermaid” and “Destination Moon” spanning the 30s, 40s and 50s. The screenplay
by Richard Maibaum was a forerunner to his work in the James Bond series
produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman starting with the 1962
release, “Dr.r No” and continuing through “Licence to Kill” in 1989.
The
cinematography by Lionel Lindon is a highlight, as much of the action takes
place either at night or in dimly- lit rooms and the aforementioned tunnel.
Lindon was cinematographer or director of photography on the movies “Around the
World in 80 Days,” “Casanova’s Big Night,” “Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round,” “Going
My Way,” “Grand Prix, “The Manchurian Candidate,” “My Favorite Brunette,” “Submarine
Command,” and TV series episodes for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “M Squad,” “McHales’s
Navy” and “The Munsters,” to name just a few of his many credits which spanned decades.
Released
by Paramount in May 1946, the movie was made with the approval and support of
the O.S.S. and definitely can be viewed as government propaganda, but it’s much
more than that. The disc features a fascinating audio commentary track by Samm
Deighan which is chock full of interesting information of the origins of the
O.S.S., spy movies and the post WWII communist and Hollywood blacklist. The
movie looks and sounds terrific in glorious black and white clocking in at 108
minutes. The disc also features the trailer for this and other Kino Lorber
titles. “O.S.S.” is highly recommended for fans of Alan Ladd, spy thrillers and
WWII drama.
Comic books are American as apple pie and Uncle Sam… aren’t they? Visit
The Cartoon Museum this Spring to discover how British artists and writers
invaded America and made their mark on iconic superheroes and more!
HEROES: The British Invasion of American Comics tells the story of
early American comics such as Buster Brown, Miss Fury and Superman, how they
influenced British artists and culture, and how the British took that influence
and sold it back to America through legendary comics such as Watchmen and V For
Vendetta.
The exhibition also celebrates The Mighty
World of Marvel which brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents
across Britain every week.
In 1972, Stan Lee launched
Marvel UK with an event at The Bung Hole wine bar in Holborn, London. Up until
then, UK distribution of American comics had been patchy at best, and fans
often had to make do with poorer-quality black and white imitations. The Mighty
World of Marvel brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents across
Britain every week, establishing a new fan base and influencing an upcoming
generation of comic creators.
We are thrilled to be able to
display a rare original press kit given out at the launch event, which has
never been on show before.
The exhibition also shines a
light on the many British creators who provided art for iconic superheroes
including Batman, Spider-Man, Hellboy and Hit-Girl, including works by Brian
Bolland, David Lloyd, Doug Braithwaite and Alison Sampson. On the way you’ll
discover British attempts to imitate American strips in the 1940s, find out the
story behind the 1972 launch of Marvel UK, and enjoy stunning artwork by key
figures from DC Comics and the British Invasion. You’ll even get to see the
costume of a real-life British superhero!
The exhibition features an
incredible collection of original Sunday Paper Strips and artworks from the
early 1900s and wonderful British and American comic art from the 1950s to the
modern day. Among these are works by legendary names such as Jack Kirby, Jack
Davis and Tarpe Mills.
(Miss Fury, by Tarpe Mills.)
Since the 1938 publication of
Action Comics #1 the world has fallen more and more in love with American comic
books, right up to the box office success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Drawing inspiration from popular characters of the 1940s, such as Popeye and
Aquaman, the Brits took no time proving they could do it just as well as the
Americans, leading to decades of collaboration and competition across the
Atlantic. Through this exhibition you will be able to step back in time and see
just how right they were.
“We love our superheroes
because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence,
kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us
of who we are and what we wish we could be.”
- Grant Morrison, Supergods
The Cartoon
Museum can be found at 63 Wells Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1A 3AE. Click here to visit web site.
Louis Gossett Jr., star of stage, feature films and television, has passed away at age 87. Gossett was up against racial prejudice in the entertainment industry when he made his screen debut in 1961 opposite Sidney Poitier in the classic African-American drama "A Raisin in the Sun". Gossett had already appeared in the 1959 Broadway production of the acclaimed drama. A long career in films and television followed including playing both villains and heroes in such productions as "The Deep", "Diggstown" and "Skin Game". He won an Emmy for his performance in the 1977 landmark TV mini-series "Roots". Gossett also dabbled in song-writing and one of his songs was sung by Richie Havens in his opening appearance at the Woodstock festival. In 1983, Gossett became the second Black actor to win an Oscar following Sidney Poitier's 1964 win for "Lilies of the Field". Gossett's win for Best Supporting Actor was for playing a tough-as-nails Marine drill instructor in the 1982 boxoffice smash "An Officer and a Gentleman". He would go on to star in the popular "Iron Eagle" military adventure films. Gossett's career would go into decline due to problems with alcoholism and drug abuse, but he bounced back and began to work steadily once more. Most recently he was seen in the 2023 musical version of "The Color Purple". Gossett had dedicated much of his life to eradicating racism and created a foundation to pursue that aim. For more and a video essay, click here.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Warner Home Entertainment :
AMERICAN
SNIPER COMES
TO 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY AND DIGITAL
THE 2014
BIOGRAPHICAL WAR DRAMA DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD AND STARRING BRADLEY COOPER
WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE
(HDR)
Purchase
the film on 4K Ultra HD Disc with Collectible Steelbook Packaging, 4K Ultra HD
Disc and Digital on May 14
Burbank, Calif., March 26, 2024 – American Sniper,
the 2014 biographical war drama directed by Academy Award Winning Director
Clint Eastwood and starring Academy Award nominee Bradley Coopers as will be
available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital for the first time on
May 14.
American Sniper will be available to
purchase on May 14 on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc from online and in-store at major
retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video,
AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more.
American Sniper stars Bradley Cooper as
Chris Kyle. A two-time Oscar® nominee for his work in “Silver Linings Playbook”
and “American Hustle,” Cooper stars alongside Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Jake
McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Kevin Lacz, Navid Negahban and Keir O’Donnell.
Oscar®-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,”
“Unforgiven”) directed American Sniper from a
screenplay written by Jason Hall, based on the book by Chris Kyle, with Scott
McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The autobiography was a runaway bestseller, spending
18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, 13 of those at number
one. The film is produced by Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar,
Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan. Tim Moore, Jason Hall, Sheroum Kim, Steven
Mnuchin and Bruce Berman served as executive producers.
American Sniper was nominated for 6
Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor and won the Academy Award
for Best Sound Editing.
American Sniperwill
be available on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc with collectible steelbook packaging
for $40.43 ERP and includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the
theatrical version of the feature film in 4K with HDR and a Digital download of
the film, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc for $33.99 ERP and includes an
Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the theatrical version of the feature film in 4K
with HDR and a Digital download of the film. Fans can also own American
Sniper in 4K Ultra HD via purchase from select digital retailers beginning
on May 14.
About the Film
From director Clint Eastwood comes “American Sniper,”
starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, whose skills as a sniper made him a hero
on the battlefield. But there was much more to him than his skill as a
sharpshooter. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is sent to Iraq with only one mission:
to protect his brothers-in-arms. His pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on
the battlefield, and as stories of his courageous exploits spread, he earns the
nickname “Legend.” However, his reputation is also growing behind enemy lines,
putting a price on his head and making him a prime target of insurgents. He is
also facing a different kind of battle on the home front: striving to be a good
husband and father from halfway around the world. Despite the danger, as well
as the toll on his family at home, Chris serves through four harrowing tours of
duty in Iraq, personifying the spirit of the SEAL creed to “leave no one
behind.” But upon returning to his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), and kids, Chris
finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village
Roadshow Pictures, A Mad Chance Production, A 22nd & Indiana Production.
American Sniper Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contains
the following previously released special features:
·One Soldier's Story: The Journey of American Sniper
·Chris Kyle: The Man Behind the Legend?
·Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – The Heart of a Hero
·Navy SEALs: In War and Peace
·Bringing
the War Home: The Cost of Heroism?
·The
Making of American Sniper?
·Guardian
American Sniper
Ultra HD Blu-ray Languages: English, French, Spanish
Ultra HD Blu-ray Subtitles: English French, SDH, Spanish
As
a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film version of Stephen King’s 1977 novel The
Shining, which I saw at the age of fifteen and was completely terrified by,
it is a daunting task indeed to watch any other (excuse the pun) incarnation of
this fantastic story as seen through the eyes of another filmmaker without
being drawn back to Mr. Kubrick’s much-maligned interpretation that was
initially criticized but subsequently revered by some as the greatest horror
film ever made. The Shining is a film that has affected me profoundly in
ways that only a handful of other films ever have. I felt a compelling
obsession with it that was nearly impossible to verbalize. It was my second
Jack Nicholson film, and it made me a lifelong fan of his; it introduced me to
pre-existing music and its use in a contemporary film; and perhaps, most
significantly, it was my introduction into the world of Mr. King’s writings.
Having read the novel a mere two months after seeing the film for the first
time, I was completely surprised to see how much Mr. Kubrick altered the source
material. Much has been written about his decision to jettison nearly all but
the bare bones plot of a former alcoholic schoolteacher-turned-writer taking on
the position of the caretaker of a Colorado hotel during the winter months with
his wife and young son. The film’s most vocal critic is perhaps the author
himself who, while acknowledging Mr. Kubrick’s genius as a film director, has
never held back his disdain for The Shining for which he wrote a
screenplay that was subsequently rejected by the director in favor of his own
collaboration with novelist Diane Johnson. Mr. King’s disappointment in the
film made him vow to make his own version one day, and The Shining, as
presented in a three-part mini-series on ABC in April and May of 1997 and
directed by Mick Garris, is the result.
Jack
Torrance (Stephen Webber) is a recovering alcoholic who has been fired for beating
up a student following the latter cutting the former’s car tire after an
argument. To say that Jack is skating on thin ice would be an understatement,
even after many AA meetings. His marriage is on the rocks with his wife Wendy
(Rebecca De Mornay) following him breaking their son Danny’s (Courtland Mead)
arm after a drinking bout. All he really wants is quiet time to write his play.
Taking care of the remotely located Overlook Hotel during the brutal winter
months is his opportunity to do just that. Stuart Ullman (Elliott Gould), the stern
and surly hotel manager, has been apprised of Jack’s past and is not too
pleased to have to offer him the job as a favor. Dick Halloran (Melvin Van
Peebles), the Overlook’s head chef, gives Wendy and Danny a tour of the
kitchen, and discovers that he shares
the gift of the Shining with Danny, a force described as a “psychic ability to
see visions of the past, present, and future, as well as communicate
telepathically with others who possess similar abilities.”
Once
on their own following the hotel’s seasonal shutdown, the Torrances spend time
acclimating themselves to the quiet solitude of the hotel and their quarters. It
does not take long for them, however, to realize that strange things are going
on in their midst. Unfortunately for Jack, there are evil forces at work that
threaten to unravel the very fabric of his family unit as well as his sanity. Evidence
of past horrors that occurred within the hotel begin to emerge in the form of an
undead and decaying woman in room 217, an anthropomorphized topiary, a hornet’s
nest of not-quite-dead wasps, and a scrapbook of news articles providing
evidence of the hotel’s sordid history. Wendy’s attempts to seduce her husband
into a night of lovemaking while dressed seductively are spurned multiple times
by a distracted Jack who is thinking of incorporating elements of the Overlook
into his play while also dealing with the demons of his alcoholism. In the
midst of this is their seven-year-old son Danny who plays referee between them while
trying to make sense of all that conspires to destroy his family. It isn’t long
before the ghosts of the Overlook’s past begin to show up in their evening
gowns and Jack loses his grip on reality, attempting to destroy his family
while Danny telepathically summons Mr. Halloran who comes to their rescue.
At
four-and-a-half hours, this version of The Shining is highly faithful to
Mr. King’s story and, except for the genuinely frightening woman in Room 217,
there is little in the way of tension and scares. Steven Webber does an
admirable job of portraying a man modeled after Mr. King himself who is trying
to go sober and keep his temper in check. Rebecca De Mornay, who was just
twenty years-old when she was cast in late 1980 as an understudy in Francis
Ford Coppola’s extravagant One from the Heart (1982) and found overnight
fame as Lana in Paul Brickman’s highly successful Risky Business (1983)
opposite Tom Cruise, plays Wendy much closer to Mr. King’s original vision in
his novel. She is a strong-willed mother fiercely protective of her young
charge against the adversity unfurling within the family unit. The film is
ultimately undone by the not-ready-for-prime-time computer-generated imagery
effects (CGI) that come off as silly and unfinished.
It
is impossible to avoid comparisons between this and Mr. Kubrick’s film, the
scariest film I have ever seen and which has only become more revered,
iconoclastic, studied and analyzed in the years since its original release, so
I will tread lightly. There are many areas that make Mr. Kubrick’s version,
which was faked on backlots and massive sets at Elstree Studios in England, a
standout. In his film, the Overlook, as represented by Oregon’s Timberline
Lodge, became a character of its own. The Torrance’s, as played by Jack
Nicholson, Shelly Duvall, and Danny Lloyd, felt as though they were really and
truly snowbound and had absolutely no recourse from the outside world. The same
cannot be said for the hotel in this version which, ironically, is the very
hotel that inspired the story: the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.
The
one area that neither film version touches upon that is a big fear of Danny’s
in the novel of the notion his parents will divorce, which is further
italicized to emphasize innate fear. The other words that do make their
way into both films are, of course, REDRUM and MURDER.
The
miniseries is now available on a double disc Blu-ray from Scream! Factory. Blu-ray
Disc One contains Parts One and Two, and Blu-ray Disc Two contains Part Three
and additional scenes that were cut from the film. The film begins with a
disclaimer: “To provide the most complete version of the film, a few scenes
have been upgraded from the best available, non-Interpositive source.” This
verbiage will go over the heads of the uninitiated, and as such it merely
states that the folks at Scream! Factory did their best to locate the best
available film elements for this high-resolution transfer. I must admit that
even to my trained eyes, I had difficulty differentiating between the best film
elements and whatever less-than-stellar footage was used in the transfer, which
is excellent. There is a highly enjoyable audio commentary by author Stephen
King, director Mick Garris, actor Steven Weber, actress Cynthia Garris, visual effects
supervisor Boyd Shermis, makeup supervisor Bill Curso, and cinematographer
Shelly Johnson that is worth the price of the movie alone. They give great
insight into how the film came to be, especially author King who discusses
staying at the Stanley Hotel in October 1974 with his wife. He explains that,
had the concierge not asked the Kings if they could pay cash to stay overnight,
the book would never have come to be. Talk about a fortuitous exchange. He also
talks about his own experiences and struggles with alcoholism and his relation
to Jack Torrance.
Director
Garris discusses how his version is not intended as a remake of Stanley
Kubrick’s film (which would have been a fool’s errand) but instead a filmed
representation of author Mr. King’s novel, and discusses the challenges of
making a film of a beloved book and working with a child actor, made easier
thanks to Dawn Jeffory-Nelson, an acting teacher. She appears as an unwitting
victim in David Schmoeller’s ultra-creepy Tourist Trap (1979), and worked
extensively with young actor Mead. Steven Weber provides his insights into
working with Ms. De Mornay and how the most difficult scene they did consisted
of nine pages of dialog and had to be in the can in one day.
The
film was originally released on DVD in 2003 and the commentary and additional
eleven scenes that run a total of sixteen-minutes appear to have been ported
over from that release. The image quality of this new double-disc Blu-ray,
however, easily bests that DVD so if you are a fan of this film this is a
worthy upgrade.
In
the aftermath of the surprise runaway success of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and
Clyde – the Warner Bros. crime-drama garnering a fifty-million dollar
profit on a two million dollar investment by the close of 1967 – rival studio
United Artists wisely chose to give the director free-reign in choosing his
follow-up project. Ultimately, Penn
chose to give folksinger Arlo Guthrie’s already fabled talking-blues, the
“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” a big screen treatment. The timing seemed right.
Though
Penn’s new film would be far removed in temperament and style (and certainly
less violent) than his previous effort it was, in many respects, a prudent
choice. Such anti-establishment films as
Easy Rider, Medium Cool and Wild in the Streets had proven
critical and box successes in the years 1968-1969. Such free-spirited films brought in young,
enthusiastic audiences, the movie industry’s most important target demographic. But Penn was also aware that this recent
trend from literary to reality-based story-telling on film signaled an
important shift. He told the Los
Angeles Times that filmmakers were in increasingly “moving more and more
into direct relationship with the populace.”
Guthrie’s
meandering, sardonic epic – one seamlessly weaving an innocent’s view of
government inanities, the overreach of small-town policing, of “American Blind
Justice,” the travails of Selective Service draft board induction and of U.S.
foreign policy in Vietnam – was blistering clear-eyed and acutely withering in
its impossibly gentle, but mocking satire.
In
March of 1968 Guthrie’s manager, Harold Leventhal, was in process of inking the
film deal with Penn and UA. That very
same month Guthrie’s debut album, also titled Alice’s Restaurant, had
climbed to the no. 29 spot on the Billboard Top 100 album chart. Guthrie’s album had, improbably, been
charting steadily upward since it’s entry in the no. 180 position in November
of 1967. This was a particularly impressive
feat for an album whose signature song was eighteen minutes and twenty seconds
long. The song’s maddeningly memorable
and cyclical melody was supported only by the most basic backing
instrumentation: Guthrie’s acoustic guitar, a sparse standup bass and an impish
typewriter-cadence drum beat.
By
all measures, the commercial success of the “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” was
implausible. Guthrie’s studio recording was understandably ignored on
ever-important AM radio – partly as no broadcast-length version was made
available to them.* But long before Guthrie would formally record his
shaggy-dog studio version of the “Massacree” in a professional setting in June
of 1967, the song was already well-known by those listening to such free-form
underground radio stations as New York City’s WBAI and Philadelphia’s
WMMR. The song had been pirated – in
several differing “live” versions and iterations – from reel-to-reel recordings
sourced from Guthrie’s appearances during late-night on-air radio show
appearances.
Thanks
to the underground circulation of those recordings, the “Massacree” was quickly
adopted as an anthem of the counter-culture, and by writers, artists and
anti-war activists. In time, Guthrie’s
talking-blues filtered up from underground radio to a more mainstream
audience. The song particularly appealed
to open-minded listeners, draft-age youngsters, journalists and
social-political pundits. They
immediately recognized that many of Guthrie’s satirical observations were acute
and perhaps too-closely reflected a society going amiss.
Upon
its release in September of 1969, Penn’s cinematic version of Alice’s
Restaurant wasn’t the box-office blockbuster that Bonnie and Clyde
was – but no one expected it to be. It
was a more personal low-budget film, but one that still did great
business. The film would bring in some
6.3 million dollars and sell just shy of 4.5 million paid admissions in the
domestic North American theatrical market alone. The film’s cast of professional actors were
supplemented by the townspeople of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and by Guthrie’s
own friends working as extras on the edges. Penn estimated that ninety percent of the extras in the film were of the
community.
Penn’s
cinema vérité style dabbles are evident throughout. The film’s primary strength is in its
glimpses of the otherwise private involvements of the community congregating at
Alice and Ray Brock’s Old Trinity Church in Great Barrington. The film, on occasion, has a documentary feel
to it. This was Penn’s choice, his
personal way of doing things. “I work
very fluidly, with almost no preconceptions,” he told a visiting journalist on
set. Penn also shared that he did not
work from storyboards nor even visit locations prior to shooting. “I just sort of set up how life would be if
you were in that situation.” It could be
argued that the biggest issue with this approach was Penn’s viewing the
unfolding drama through a lens of presumption: the film’s reality and fictional
episodes are uneasily juxtaposed throughout.
Though
Arlo Guthrie holds mixed feelings about the resulting film (“I only made one
film,” he’d tell concert audiences over ensuing decades, “…’cause I saw
it.”), his memories of working with the creative team involved remain
warm. He thought Penn’s effort was an
“honest” one, his efforts allowing outsiders a small peek into the “scene”
built around the Old Trinity Church. But
Guthrie was also aware that the scene at Trinity circa 1965 – the time of
Guthrie’s Thanksgiving Day crime of littering - was a fluid one. Penn’s film could only provide a brief
snapshot of a time already passed since, in coming days, Guthrie reckoned,
“there’ll be a whole new scene up there, as everywhere else.”
Guthrie
was only twenty-years old when the film went into production - and had not
acted professionally in any capacity. Many on set in the summer of ’68 found the folksinger private and
distant, “elusive” in answers to both crew members and visiting
journalists. According to a long essay
in Playboy magazine, even old friends at the Trinity suggested that
Guthrie was “thought by some” to have already “left the family.” Certainly, his visits to the Trinity were
less frequent due to his new touring and recording commitments. On the brighter side, manager Leventhal was
impressed by his young client’s professionalism. He told the New York Times, “Here’s a
kid who likes to sleep until 3:30 in the afternoon who had to make a 7:30 A.M.
movie call every day for three months of shooting, and he did.”
In
November of 2023 the University of Oklahoma Press published a biography of the
folk-rock singer in which he and I collaborated: Rising Son: The Life and
Music of Arlo Guthrie. Cinema
Retro editor Lee Pfeiffer asked if Arlo might be willing to share some
memories of his experience working on the Alice’s Restaurant film with
Arthur Penn. Though it’s been nearly
fifty-six years since production on the film began in June of 1968, Guthrie
graciously offered to share some of his remembrances of that time with
readers:
Q:
My first question to you is a pretty general one. As a kid growing up in the 1950s and early
‘60s, how would describe your interest in cinema? Were you a big fan of the movies? If so, what sort of films were you attracted
to?
Arlo: I wasn’t so much into films as I was more into TV
shows. Obviously, films that came out when I was a little older - the mid to
late 60s - had a bigger impact on me. “Bonnie & Clyde” for example.
Q:
What were you favorite TV programs? I
understand you were a big fan of Star Trek –
and just missed out on being cast on an episode. What was the story behind that?
Arlo: I got a phone call from Leonard Nimoy one time, out
of the blue! I couldn’t believe I was chatting with Spock! But I have no memory
of being asked to participate with Star Trek. **
Q:
I have a news-cutting from Variety reporting from your overseas
promotional tour for the Alice’s Restaurant film. In this case, from Paris in May of 1970. At the press conference you suggested that following the release of the Alice
film in the U.S. you were suddenly “offered ten films about hippies but
would prefer to do a western.”
Arlo:We didn’t do any promotional tours
in the US, as they were un-needed. But when I was asked to do a promotional
tour of Europe I jumped on it. I wanted to go to Europe. I had offers for more
acting roles, but mostly on TV shows that were popular at the time. Hawaii 5-O,
etc. But in those days everyone who had long hair was cast as a drug-addled
thief or a murderer. So I kindly
declined those invitations.
Q:
In any case, you did accept a number of television acting assignments in the
1990s. Our readers might recall your
reoccurring role as the graying-hippie Alan Moon on ABC’s Byrds
of Paradise. My
personal favorite of your television work was your role as a 1960s
folk-singing, Weather Underground-style fugitive on the Lorenzo Lamas series Renegade. How did those opportunities come about?
Arlo: I don’t remember exactly. But my
booking agents, David Helfant and later Paul Smith, made those roles possible.
Those offers came through their offices. I wasn’t looking for acting jobs.
(Photo: Cinema Retro Archive)
Q:Since you are a musician first and foremost,I’d like to ask you a
few questions about the soundtrack accompanying the Alice’s Restaurant film. Prior to his work on Alice’s Restaurant, Gary Shermanwas the arranger and conductor for John
Barry’s soundtrack for Midnight Cowboy. On Alice’s Restaurant, Sherman is billed as “Musical Supervisor,”
credited as composer and arranger of the film’s “Additional music.” What exactly was Sherman’s contribution? Did
you work closely with him on the arrangements?
Arlo: Gary Sherman wasn’t very familiar with the kinds of
instruments I wanted to be used as a sound track. But he was very knowledgeable with regards as
to how music supported a film. We worked very closely together trying to
integrate our different skills.
Q:Fred Hellerman, the producer of your first two albums for Reprise - is
credited on screen as the film’s “Musical
Director.” What exactly was
Hellerman’s role in creating the soundtrack?
Arlo: Fred had some knowledge of the kinds of musical
instrumentation - and songs - I was into at the time. He may have worked with
Gary more than I was aware of, but I think the credit was more of an honorific
title.
Q:In Rising Son: The Life and Music of Arlo Guthrie, you recall your
enthusiasm of having partnered with John Pilla on the soundtrack sessions. Pilla, of course, would soon become the
“Spiritual Advisor,” producer and/or co-producer of all of your albums from Running
Down the Road (1969) through Someday (1986). What was it about this earlier collaboration
that made you so trusting of John as someone musically simpatico?
Arlo: John and I loved the traditional songs and
instruments that became the underlying sound track for the film. For example,
we made extensive use of the autoharp which had not been used before (or since)
in Hollywood movies.
Q:
Any particular fond (or perhaps not-so-fond) memories of working on the Alice’s Restaurant soundtrack sessions with
Pilla and Sherman?
Arlo: Arguing about music became the
hallmark of my collaboration with John Pilla. He was very traditional in his assessment of what was good while I was a
little too experimental. Gary was good at determining what worked. So between
us we arrived at a consensus.
Q:The Old Trinity Church is central to Arthur Penn’s imagining of the Alice’s Restaurant film. What role did Ray and Alice’s deconsecrated
church-home play in your life?
Arlo: I always felt very much at home at the church. Long
before we began working on the film, I had stayed there often. It wasn’t very
long after Thanksgiving 1965 that I was to spend more time traveling around and
less time at the church. Using the church as a central location was fabulous.
Click here to visit the Movie Mags web site, which features an impressive data base of cover illustrations from the legendary ABC Film Review magazine. The now sadly defunct publication entertained British moviegoers for decades with the latest film industry news, reviews and great photos. The site features hundreds of cover illustrations from the 1950s-1972. Click on the thumbnail cover images on the site to enlarge them.
In the 1960s, musicians Ferrante & Teicher were the kings of cover versions of film score soundtracks. n record stores, racks were filled with their albums. In this June, 1964 segment from "The Ed Sullivan" show they perform Riz Ortolani's main theme from director Lewis Gilbert's Cold War political thriller "The 7th Dawn" which starred William Holden, Capucine and Tetsuro Tamba.
The American Archive of Television presents this marvelous archival interview with Jonathan Harris, who discusses how he came to be cast in Irwin Allen's "Lost in Space". We won't spill the beans but his recollections of meeting with the ingenious but eccentric Allen, who created and produced the series, are hilarious.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Kino Lorber. If you're politically correct, then stop reading now!:
Experience the golden age of burlesque in this titillating triple feature of 1950s grindhouse classics, newly restored from the original negatives. Pinup goddess Bettie Page shares the screen with striptease legend Tempest Storm in the holy grails of full-color burlesque films: Varietease (1954) and Teaserama (1955). Directed by girlie-pix impresario Irving Klaw, the dance card includes performances by strip queens Lili St. Cyr, tantalizing Trudy Wayne, and “female impersonator” Vickie Lynn, interspersed with obligatory appearances by baggy-pants comics and sunny songsters. Concluding the trilogy is Klaw’s Buxom Beautease (1956), which incorporates the short color film Striptease Revealed, and features incendiary performances by Blaze Starr and Dorian Dennis. Working in collaboration with Something Weird, the Sonney Amusement Enterprises Film Collection, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Kino Lorber has performed meticulous 4K restorations of these essential films, introducing them to a new generation of burlesque aficionados.
Product Extras :
4K Restorations of TEASERAMA and VARIETEASE from the 16mm Original Camera Negatives
4K Restoration of BUXOM BEAUTEASE from the 35mm Camera Negative and 16mm Materials
DISC 1: TEASERAMA
TEASERAMA – 4K Restoration
Audio Commentary by Jo Weldon, Author of The Burlesque Handbook
TEASERAMA – Something Weird Video Edition
Audio Commentary by David F. Friedman and Mike Vraney
BUXOM BEAUTEASE – 4K Restoration
TEASERAMA – Theatrical Trailer
BUXOM BEAUTEASE – Theatrical Trailer
DISC 2: VARIETEASE
VARIETEASE – 4K Restoration
Audio Commentary by Film Historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
VARIETEASE – Something Weird Video Edition
Audio Commentary by David F. Friedman and Mike Vraney
When
I was in college, my friend Bill Davis and I spent nearly half a day one
Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at a local movie theatre for a ten-hour
marathon. The lineup included Sergio
Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars,”
“For a Few Dollars More,” and “The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly,” capped with Clint Eastwood’s American Western, “Hang ‘Em High,”
an attempt to replicate the Italian filmmaker’s violent, gritty style. It was the equivalent of binge-watching in
those long-ago days, before home video and streaming services made it easy to
access older films. To revisit favourite
movies in that Neolithic age, you had to hope they would return for second- or
third runs on the big screen, or wait until they resurfaced on TV in visually
degraded, ad-infested prints. The fact
that the Leone movies were still pulling in healthy ticket sales on rerun, four
years after their initial U.S. release, attests to their popularity. Aside from special events like the periodic
return of “Ben-Hur” or “The Ten Commandments,” the only other pictures with the
same level of second-run durability at the time were the first five James Bond
features with Sean Connery.
The
initial success and ongoing appeal of the Leone trilogy prompted Hollywood to
import other Spaghetti Westerns in hopes of matching (or at least approaching)
the same level of commercial success. The era ran from 1968 to the mid-1970s, surviving even the U.S.
box-office disaster of Leone’s fourth Western, “Once Upon a Time in the
West.” The operatic epic starring
Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards was lamely marketed here as a
conventional Western, baffling fans of John Wayne and “Gunsmoke.” Adding insult to injury, it suffered
wholesale cuts that rendered entire sections of the story incoherent. On smaller investments, more modest
imitations in the mode of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” fared better. One such picture was Giuseppe Colizzi’s
Western, I quattro dell'Ave Maria, a tremendous hit in
Europe. The Italian title cryptically
translates to “The Four of the Hail Mary,” which sounds more like a farce about
comedic nuns than a Western. Paramount
Pictures (the same studio that, ironically, mishandled “Once Upon a Time in the
West”) wisely retitled the production “Ace High” for U.S. release.
In
Colizzi’s film, bounty hunters Cat Stevens (Terence Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Bud
Spencer) ride into El Paso with $300,000 in stolen money recovered from train
robber Bill San Antonio. They intend to
turn in the money and claim a hefty reward. The Bill San Antonio back story referred to Colizzi’s previous Western
with Hill and Spencer, “God Forgives . . . I Don’t!” (1967; U.S. release,
1969), but you needn’t have seen the predecessor to get up to speed. Cat and Hutch discover that the bank
president in El Paso was Bill San Antonio’s partner, not his victim, and
instead of settling for the reward, they demand the entire $300,000, else
they’ll expose the banker’s secret. In
turn, the banker approaches an outlaw, Cacopoulos (Eli Wallach), who sits in
jail waiting to be hanged the next morning. He offers to free Caco (as the scruffy felon is called) if he’ll kill
Cat and Hutch.
This
being a Spaghetti Western, a genre that reveres double-crosses like no other,
thanks to the template set by Leone, Caco correctly guesses that the banker
plans to do away with him too, as soon as the bounty hunters are out of the
way. Grabbing the $300,000, he flees
town on his own quest for vengeance. The
money will finance his long-delayed pursuit of two former friends, Paco and
Drake, who left him to take the fall for a heist years before. Cat and Hutch follow after him to reclaim the
$300,000. Caco finds Paco south of the
Border, presiding over the summary execution of rebellious peons, and Drake
(Kevin McCarthy, in hardly more than a brief guest appearance) as the owner of
a lavish gambling house on the Mississippi. Drake is still a crook who swindles his rich patrons with a rigged
roulette wheel. Along the way, Caco and
the bounty hunters befriend a Black high-wire artist, Thomas (Brock Peters),
whose talent is pivotal for the bounty hunters’ scheme to break into the
impregnable casino to take control of the wheel and clean Drake out. Italian viewers probably realized that Caco,
Cat, Hutch, and Thomas were “the four of the Hail Mary” in Colizzi’s original
title, planning their break-in as Caco fingers his rosary. Following Sergio Leone’s lead, the Italian
Westerns loved to tweak Catholic piety.
Colizzi
also dutifully copies other elements of the Leone playbook, especially those
featured in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Alliances are made to be broken, greed and expediency always overrule
loyalty, and the sins of thieves and hired killers are dwarfed by the inherent
corruption and callousness of society as a whole. But Colizzi’s cynicism seems superficial
compared with Leone’s, and his violence toned down. In the Leone movies, showdowns are “hideous
fantasies of sudden death,” to quote the late film critic Bosley Crowther, in
which the losers literally line up in groups to be gunned down. When my friend Bill and I watched the Leone
marathon all those years ago, we counted a hundred casualties even before we
were well into the third feature, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” In one gunfight in “Ace High,” Hutch, Cat,
and Thomas simply shoot the hats off their opponents’ heads, the kind of
slapstick more likely to appear in a comedy Western with Bob Hope or Don
Knotts. The final shootout with Drake
and his henchman is a parody of Leone’s showdowns, which invariably were
choreographed to Ennio Morricone’s dramatic music. Caco has dreamed for years that his reckoning
with his traitorous partner would be accompanied by “slow, sweet” music, and so
Cat and Hutch order Drake’s house orchestra to play a waltz as the “Four of the
Hail Mary” square off against Drake and his henchmen. On one hand it’s a clever idea for viewers
who recognise the joke, but on the other, it trivialises the revenge motif in a
way Leone never would have.
In
another connective thread with “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Eli Wallach’s
scruffy character is virtually a clone of his bandit “Tuco” from the Leone
epic, even to a nearly identical name. But Leone shrewdly counter-balanced Wallach’s manic performance with
Eastwood’s laconic presence and Lee Van Cleef’s steely menace. In “Ace High,” Colizzi already has two
mismatched characters who play off each other—Terence Hill’s terse, handsome
Cat and Bud Spencer’s burly, grouchy Hutch. Wallach is mostly left to his own Actors Studio devices of grins, tics,
and swagger, which is good for fans who couldn’t get enough Tuco but not so
good for others who just want the story to move on. Tied up by villagers who intend to torture
him to learn the location of his stolen $300,000, Caco relates a long,
soporific account of his childhood. The
scene serves a dramatic purpose, since Caco is trying to lull a drowsy guard to
sleep, but it goes on and on. You’re
likely to nod off before the sentry does.
“Ace High” is
available in a fine Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, offering
Colizzi’s film at the correct 2.35:1 ratio in a rich Technicolor transfer. Films like this always looked good on the big
screen, but most casual fans probably remember them instead from lousy,
pan-and-scan TV prints in the old days. The Blu-ray includes the original trailer, plus trailers for several
other Spaghetti Westerns released by KL. The company’s go-to expert on the genre, Alex Cox, contributes a new
audio commentary. Cox has always been
forthright in his dour opinion of directors like Giuseppe Colizzi, Gianfranco
(Frank Kramer) Parolini, and Giuliano (Anthony Ascott) Carnimeo, who turned the
Italian Western in the direction of burlesque in the late 1960s, and away from
the gritty style of Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Sollima. But his comments on “Ace High” are
even-handed, informative, and entertaining.
Director Mark Robson's film adaptation of the novel "Von Ryan's Express" is one of the best war films of its era. The trailer is also very good, if you can withstand the hokey, over-the-top narration!
Joe Jordan, the writer and
film historian who applied his prodigious research and keen analysis to acclaimed
books on the movies of Robert Wise and William Castle, has now focused his
critical acumen on one of Hollywood’s most legendary directors in “Magic Time:
The Films and Scripts of Billy Wilder.” (BearManor Media, 2023)
Born in 1906, Wilder worked
as a journalist before turning to film. He initially made his mark writing film
scripts in Germany before emigrating to America and pairing up with screenwriter
Charles Brackett on such classic pictures as “Midnight” (1939), “Ninotchka”
(1939) and “Ball of Fire” (1941). The two continued working together as Wilder
graduated to the director’s chair on “Double Indemnity” (1944), “The Lost
Weekend” (1945) and “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), before terminating their
partnership upon completion of the latter. Wilder then teamed with screenwriter
I.A.L. Diamond on another run of classics, inclusive of “Ace in the Hole”
(1951), “Some Like it Hot” (1959 and “The Apartment” (1960).
From the beginning to end of
his directing career, Wilder was an authentic auteur, one whose films were
easily identifiable by their visual elegance, sardonic wit and often-dark take
on human nature. Few were his equal at blending cynicism and romanticism. Wilder
maintained this distinctiveness over an extraordinary range of material—film
noir, screwball comedy, wartime thriller, courtroom drama, Cold War satire.
“Magic Time” is another
standout addition to the body of critical literature devoted to the great
filmmaker. Following the recipe of his book “Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures”
(2020), Jordan treats each film to its own chapter. Chapters 1 through 10 cover
the films Wilder worked on as screenwriter only; chapters 11 through 35 on
those he made as a director/writer. Jordan briefly describes the historical and
social context at the start of each new production—including Wilder’s personal
and professional circumstances, his state of mind, his thoughts about the
actors and crew—before launching into a lengthy comprehensive synopsis, leaving
out no detail or plot point. The effect is almost like watching the film unfold
in one’s mind, so if it’s been awhile since you’ve seen, say, “A Foreign
Affair” (1948), Jordan brings you up to speed as he touches on narrative, theme,
tone, performance—the total fabric of the film, liberally interspersed with
classic quotes courtesy of Wilder–Bracket or Wilder–Diamond.
Despite including an amazing
amount of exposition, detail, observation and analysis about each film, the
chapters are relatively brief, with Jordan’s insights and information delivered
in clear, user-friendly language. Thanks to its structure, one can read the book
straight through from start to finish, or simply open to a random chapter to get
a fun, fresh slant on a favorite Wilder film.
Even if you’ve seen a
particular film many times, Jordan can still surprise and enrich you with his
critical acumen. I thought I was on familiar terms with every narrative aspect
of “Sunset Boulevard,” which is in essence the story of three aspiring writers,
but I never gave much thought as to the myriad ways in which those three
narratives contrast and compete with one another, or the degree to which they
inform and direct the film’s overall narrative.
There are many such examples
embedded within this book. One cannot come away from reading it without having
gained new insight and appreciation for the classic Wilder films that we almost
know by heart. But if Jordan helps us see familiar favorites through new eyes,
he also makes a strong case for getting to know lesser-regarded Wilder films
such as “The Emperor Waltz” (1948) and “Fedora” (1978).
Jordan amusingly ends “Magic
Time” with an extended addendum titled “101 Motifs, Catchphrases and More (From
A to Z)” that rounds the book off in an offbeat manner, listing numerous recurring
narrative, object and dialog tropes—including Bolsheviks, catchphrases, card
games, cities in Ohio, close calls, monocles, sharing of cigarettes and more—that
can only be termed Wilderian.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Perhaps even God can't save the Queen in Golden Harvest's
A Queen's Ransom (also known as International Assassin), an explosive
action-thriller starring George Lazenby (The Man from Hong Kong), Angela Mao
(Lady Whirlwind) and the legendary Jimmy Wang Yu (The One-Armed Swordsman).
As Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Hong Kong for a state
visit, a band of skilled mercenaries plan her assassination. Contracted by an
Irish Republican (Lazenby), the international group of hired killers includes a
Japanese explosives expert (Chang Pei-shan), a Thai boxer (Bolo Yeung), a
Filipino sniper (Peter Chan Lung) and a veteran of the National Liberation
Front of South Vietnam (Wang Yu). As the conspirators move to carry out their
plot, two police officials (Ko Chun-Hsiung and Charles Heung) work with a young
socialite (Tanny Tien Ni) in a race against time to save the Monarch's head -
while also trying to manage a crisis that has brought a huge number of refugees
to Hong Kong, including a young Cambodian princess (Mao).
Written and directed by Ting Shan-hsi (Rebel Boxer), A
Queen's Ransom was Golden Harvest's attempt to capitalize on the popular
success of the political thriller in the wake of The Day of the Jackal. Eureka
Classics is proud to present the film for the first time ever on Blu-ray from a
brand new 2K restoration.
BONUS FEATURES:
·1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the
original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration ·1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the
original English language export cut from a brand new 2K restoration ·Original Mandarin and optional classic
English dub (Hong Kong theatrical cut) ·Classic English dub (Export version) ·Optional English subtitles, newly translated
for this release ·Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong
theatrical version by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) ·Brand new audio commentary on the export
version by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema ·Brand new documentary featurette by martial
artist and actor Michael Worth ·Reversible sleeve featuring original poster
artwork ·Trailers
What a year it was! In 1966, you could see the following movies playing locally in Winnipeg, Canada: Dean Martin as Matt Helm in The Silencers, James Coburn as Our Man Flint, The Trouble With Angels, Carry on Cleo, The Sound of Music and a quadruple feature of monsters flicks: Die Monster, Die, Eegah, Tomb of Ligeia and Planet of the Vampires.
Although Charles Bronson had been making movies for nearly 25 years and was quite popular in Europe, this international smash hit made him a superstar for the rest of his career. Michael Winner's provocative saga of a grieving father's vigilante vengeance became a Nixon-era touchstone that engendered four increasingly exploitative sequels over the next two decades. Hard to imagine what originally slated director Sidney Lumet would have made of this with Jack Lemmon in the lead.
As always, you can find more commentaries, more reviews, more podcasts, and more deep-dives into the films you don't know you love yet over on the Trailers From Hell mothership:
http://www.trailersfromhell.com
One
of the most iconic and influential movies ever made, ONCE UPON A
TIME IN THE WEST has been restored from the original 35mm Techniscope camera negative by Paramount’s archive team, L'Immagine Ritrovata and The
Film Foundation. This
restoration honors the 2007 Film Foundation photochemical restoration overseen
by legendary director Martin
Scorsese by matching its build and color palette. The
result is the definitive home release of the film, which features the
165-minute extended cut restored to its glory.
A
must-own for every cinephile’s collection, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE
WEST will be presented in a Limited-Edition two-disc 4K Ultra
HD/Blu-ray™ set that includes both new and legacy bonus
content, as well as access to a Digital copy of the film. The film is
presented in Dolby Vision™* and HDR-10, along with English 5.1
DTS-HD Master Audio and English Restored Mono Dolby Digital for an exceptional
home viewing experience.
·Commentary
by the Hosts of the Spaghetti Western Podcast –NEW!
·A
Look Back with Leonard Maltin—NEW!
·Commentary
with contributions from directors John Carpenter, John Milius & Alex Cox,
film historians Sir Christopher Frayling & Dr. Sheldon Hall, and cast and
crew
Widely
considered to be one of the greatest Westerns—and one of the greatest
films—ever made, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST was
selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the U.S. National Film
Registry in 2009. The film stars Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason
Robards, and Charles Bronson.
Synopsis
Set
in the dying days of the Old West, a struggle to control water in a dusty
desert town embroils three hard-bitten gunmen in an epic clash of greed, honor,
and revenge.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST will also be available on
4K Ultra HD Digital on May 14.
This is a limited edition. Click here to pre-order now from Amazon.
Cinema Retro columnist Brian Hannan takes a sentimental journey back to 1967 to review "B" movie producer Sam Katzman's teenage exploitation film, "Riot on the Sunset Strip". Never shy about using hyperbole, Katzman's trailer for the film immodestly calls it "The most shocking film of our generation!" Click here to read on Brian's addictive blog The Magnificent 60s.
A
very young Stanley Kubrick made his first feature film, Fear and Desire (called
The Shape of Fear during production and until it found a distributor),
at the age of twenty-two. It was very much a DIY production. In many ways
it is the epitome of early independent filmmaking, the kind in which a fellow
with a camera goes out to make a movie and then worries about finding a
studio to release it. The picture was financed by family and friends, written
by a school pal (future Broadway playwright Howard Sackler), and cast with
young, struggling New York actors who were willing to work for peanuts. Kubrick
produced and directed the movie, but he also photographed and edited it
himself, too. It took a year-and-a-half to finish, and then he went about
marketing it himself.
The
astonishing thing about all this is that Kubrick was operating on chutzpah.
While he had already made two documentary shorts, he was simply “winging it”
when it came to making a feature length fiction narrative film. What he had on
his side was his cinematographic capabilities. He knew cameras, lighting, and
composition like the back of his hand, for he had spent four years after high
school working as the youngest staff photographer for Look magazine in
New York creating narrative “photo essays,” almost the equivalent of
storyboards. Editing a movie, directing actors, and telling a good story was
another matter… and something he would eventually learn how to do.
Unfortunately, while Fear and Desire looks gorgeous and is indeed a
lesson in photographic composition and lighting, it fails on all the other
aspects of movie making.
Kubrick
himself disowned Fear and Desire not long after its release in 1953. In
fact, he attempted to acquire all existing prints, including the negative, and
burn them. Luckily for film historians and Kubrick aficionados, he was
unsuccessful. The copyright in the movie was owned by Kubrick’s uncle, Martin Perveler,
a fairly wealthy pharmacy owner in California who put up most of the money and
received Associate Producer credit. The feature had disappeared for decades and
was sometimes available on poor quality bootleg VHS tapes and DVDs. It was only
since Kubrick’s death in 1999 that today’s copyright owners and the Library of
Congress made the movie available. In the USA, Kino Lorber distributed
excellent quality DVD and Blu-ray editions several years ago. Now, Kino has
released new 4K UHD and Blu-ray versions of the film, including the original
70-minute premiere cut that hasn’t been seen since 1953. (After its premiere,
Kubrick cut about nine minutes for the theatrical release, limited as that was.
It was this 62-minute cut that has been the more familiar one to film buffs.)
Another
remarkable aspect about Fear and Desire is how ambitious it was.
Kubrick’s later, more mature works are often extremely existential in theme and
tone—they are big budget art films that challenge audiences to actually think
about what they’ve seen. Kubrick is big on ambiguity, symbolism, and metaphor
in all of his later, more well-known features. Right out of the gate, Kubrick
embarked to make an extremely non-commercial art film that deals with the
meaning of existence and the futility of war. While he would later succeed with
this kind of art house contemplative head scratcher, Fear and Desire unfortunately
comes off amateurish, pretentious, and painfully like a student film.
That
said, one who knows Kubrick’s work can see glimpses of the genius underneath
this early effort. What he was attempting is quite “Kubrickian,” and there are
moments and images that are indeed striking.
The
story is thus… A four-man platoon are fighting an unnamed war in an unnamed
country. They are lost in a forest behind enemy lines. The goal is to get back
to their side. When enemy combatants are spotted in a structure, the men decide
to strike one for the team and kill off the opposition. Weirdly, the enemy
general and his sidekick look just like the platoon’s lieutenant and private
(they’re played by the same actors). Whoa, profound! And, in typical
Kubrickian fashion, one man, another private (played by young Paul Mazursky,
who would go on to be a director of note himself) goes mad, nearly rapes a
civilian (Virginia Leith), and runs off like a banshee from hell. Will the
others make it back to “civilization?” Maybe. Maybe not. As the lieutenant
says, “We have nothing to lose but our futures.”
The
same could be applied to Stanley Kubrick’s first endeavor.
Besides
Mazursky and Leith, the other actors are Frank Silvera as the sergeant (if
anyone is the protagonist here, it’s him), Kenneth Harp as the lieutenant, and Steve
Coit as the first private. Silvera would go on to play the villain in Kubrick’s
next, also independently made, feature, Killer’s Kiss (1955). Kubrick’s
first wife, Toba, has a cameo as a fisherwoman (she and Kubrick had been high
school sweethearts). Toba also worked on the crew, but the stress of making a
first film with Stanley Kubrick destroyed their already unstable marriage.
Kubrick
had flown the cast and tiny crew from New York to California in the spring of
1951 and shot the film in the San Gabriel mountains. It then took him over a
year to raise the money to do all the post-production (mostly post-sync sound).
He submitted the 70-minute cut to the Venice Film Festival in August 1952,
where an unofficial premiere took place (he wasn’t present). Only in late 1952
did Kubrick meet the international film distributor Joseph Burstyn, perhaps the
important figure of art house cinema in America at that time. Burstyn agreed
to release the movie, and it had its official premiere in March 1953. It
received mostly negative reviews, which prompted the director to delete nine
minutes to tighten the feature. There were, however, a handful of very positive
notices from the likes of critics such as James Agee and Mark Van Doren, both
of whom recognized that there was undeniable talent buried within this strange,
unsettling movie.
Kino
Lorber’s new 2-disk release of the 4K restoration comes with a UHD disk and a
Blu-ray disk of both the 70-minute and 62-minute cuts. The longer cut is
accompanied by an audio commentary by film historian Eddy Von Mueller. The
shorter cut has an audio commentary by film historian/screenwriter Gary Gerani.
Von Mueller’s commentary is quite informative about the tortured history of the
film; however he makes several odd mistakes (he says the fisherwoman is
Kubrick’s sister, not wife; he says the star of Barry Lyndon is
“Patrick” O’Neal; and 2001: a Space Odyssey is from 1966, not 1968).
Gerani’s commentary covers much of the same ground with a different
perspective. Sadly, neither pinpoints the bits that were actually cut from the
longer version of the film. It’s up to us to figure it out (this reviewer finds
that some scenes in the first half of the movie were merely shortened… there
are no full scenes missing in the theatrical cut).
The
real treasure trove in this release is that for the first time, in the USA,
that is, we get Kubrick’s early short documentaries in high definition. Day
of the Fight (1951) and Flying Padre (1951) were only available as
bootlegs in bad quality. Only The Seafarers (1953) had been released on
home video prior. Now we have all of Kubrick’s early work on one gorgeous
release.
Kino’s
new Fear and Desire package is a must-have for Stanley Kubrick fans,
because looking past the feature’s shortcomings will reveal what would come
from the master filmmaker. It’s a fascinating step back into the auteur’s
young mind.
I’ve always loved action cinema. It’s one of
my all-time favorite genres. When I was a teenager in the mid-1980s, I saw a
VHS copy of the action film Bucktown
and I’ve been a huge fan of its star, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, ever since.
A former pro football defensive back for
(amongst others) the Kansas City Chiefs (1965-1967), Williamson, who holds
black belts in Taekwondo, Kenp? and Shotokan karate, later moved on to acting.
Some of his first appearances was guest starring on TV shows such as Star Trek and Ironside. He quickly graduated to features, appearing in Robert
Altman’s M*A*S*H and Otto Preminger’s
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.
In 1970, Williamson starred in the
appropriately titled action movie Hammer (the
nickname was given to him during his football days). The film was a success and
it began his long and entertaining career as an action movie superstar. Standing
at 6ft. 3 inches tall and rarely seen without a prop cigar in his hand, Williamson
would go on to appear in a plethora of action classics (many of which were
distributed by major Hollywood studios) such as Black Caesar, Take a Hard Ride, Black Eye, Three the Hard Way,Mean Johnny Barrows (which he also
produced), and 1978’s Inglorious Bastards.
In 1976, the Hammer created his own company,
Po’ Boy Productions, which would not only see him star in, but also direct, a
ton of action films the likes of Death
Journey, No Way Back, Mr. Mean, Foxtrap, and The Kill Reflex. Williamson is also a veteran of Italian
exploitation cinema. He has appeared in the cult classics The New Barbarians, The New Gladiators, and Black Cobra 1-4. Just to name a few. In later years, he would act
in films such as From Dusk till Dawn
(for cinema titans Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino) and Original Gangstas (directed by the
legendary Larry Cohen and co-produced by Williamson) and he shows no signs of
slowing down.
Recently, the Hammer’s somewhat forgotten,
1973, action-packed, James Bond-like film
That Man Bolt was released on Blu-ray.
Solidly directed by David Lowell Rich and Henry
Levin from an entertaining screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Charles Eric
Johnson, That Man Bolt tells the tale
of courier and martial arts expert Jefferson Bolt who is hired to transport a
million dollars from Hong Kong to Mexico City. However, Bolt soon realizes that
he’s been set up and now he’s dead set on paying back everyone who double-crossed
him.
Produced by Universal Pictures and released
in December of 1973, That Man Bolt,
aka Operation Hong Kong, is an
exciting adventure flick (sort of a 007/martial arts combo) which not only
contains well-crafted action sequences, but also some memorable characters
played wonderfully by its talented cast.
Leading the way, of course, is the always
charismatic Fred Williamson who convincingly plays the intelligent and capable
Jefferson Bolt. There are also appearances by familiar faces such as Byron
Webster, Miko Mayama, Teresa Graves, John Orchard, Jack Ging and Paul Mantee;
not to mention martial arts champions Mike Stone, Emil Farkas, David Chow and Kenji
Kazama. Enter the Dragon fans will
recognize Geoffrey Weeks who appears in a brief role, as well as the voice of
the great Keye Luke (who not only dubbed Shih Kien in Enter, but also performs the same duty here).
The fun film which was shot in L.A., Las
Vegas, Macau and Hong Kong, also features some terrific cinematography by Emmy
Award winner Gerald Finnerman, and a cool, Lalo Schifrin/John Barry-like musical
score by composer Charles Bernstein.
That Man Bolt has been released on
Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. The region one disc presents the movie in its original
1.85:1 aspect ratio. The 2K transfer looks gorgeous. The disc not only contains
the original theatrical trailer, but also
That Man Hammer, a short, but entertaining interview with Fred Williamson.
Overall, this is a highly enjoyable, early 70s action-adventure that definitely
deserves to be re-discovered. It’s also a very nice addition to your Fred
Williamson collection. And if you’re just beginning to get into the Hammer’s
filmography, That Man Bolt is a great
place to start.
“YOU
AREN’T REALLY ANYBODY IN AMERICA IF YOU’RE NOT ON TV”
By
Raymond Benson
While
Nicole Kidman had been working in films since the late 1980s and starred in two
big movies with future husband Tom Cruise in the early 1990s, for this reviewer
it was 1995’s To Die For that proved to the world that Kidman could hold
her own and carry a movie alone. Even with an impressive body of work that
would continue to today, To Die For can easily be listed as one of the
actor’s best works.
To
Die For is
based on a 1992 novel by Joyce Maynard, which, in turn, was a fictionalized
improvisation on the true-crime murder-for-hire case of Pamela Smart. The
murder of Smart’s husband by teenagers who were, as it turned out, hired by
Smart herself, was sensational TV fodder in 1990-1991. The keywords of
“sensational” and “TV” become the thematic concepts of Buck Henry’s adaptation
of the novel that turns the tabloid tale into an acerbic dark comedy about the
lust for fame and the means by which some people might employ to get it.
Gus
Van Sant directs the film with a bravura collage of styles that molds the story
into something of a mockumentary. Actors address the camera as if they are in a
television reality program (something that was just beginning to take off in
those years). Videotape footage mixes with film stock, emphasizing the fine
line between Suzanne Stone’s reality and fantasy life on television.
Stone
(Kidman) is a drop-dead gorgeous young woman with big ambitions. She wants fame
and fortune by being a television personality, and once she sets out to
accomplish that goal, her little hometown in New Hampshire will never be the
same. First she seduces and marries Larry (Matt Dillon), the son of Italian
parents who may or may not have connections to the mob. Larry is in a
successful restaurant business, so he has enough money to keep Suzanne in
style. Next, she finagles her way into the local cable TV news station, run by Ed
(Wayne Knight). When she begins a personal video project at the local high school,
she attracts the attention of three juvenile delinquents—Lydia (Alison
Folland), who isn’t a bad person but is sadly trapped in a “white trash” world,
Russell (a young Casey Affleck), the true bad-news of the trio, and Jimmy (a
young Joaquin Phoenix), who is short on brains but long on libido. Suzanne, who
feels resistance from Larry regarding her dreams to leave town and head to Los
Angeles where she’s convinced she can make it big, decides to seduce poor Jimmy
and get him and his friends to bump off Larry. To reveal more, which indeed
differs from the true case of Pamela Smart, would spoil the “fun.”
Yes,
“fun” it is. This is a comedy, folks. Sure, it’s a pretty dark one, but the
team of Van Sant and Henry make sure that this sordid little fable is told with
tongue-in-cheek. It’s also somewhat of a cautionary tale, warning us that what
we see on television isn’t always the truth. Those beautiful people on the
screen who anchor the news, interview celebrities, or present the weather are
not gods and goddesses. It’s one thing to work toward a career in television
with determination… it’s another thing altogether to think of that career as a
Xanadu in which everyone is rich and famous.
Nicole
Kidman is superb in To Die For. She’s funny, sexy, and at times very
scary. Kidman plays this madwoman to the hilt and she’s the backbone of the
movie. Apparently the role was first offered to Meg Ryan, who turned it down.
Kidman, however, takes it and delivers an exhilarating star turn. Phoenix, in
one of his early appearances, also makes an impression. At the time, who knew
that he would one day be a multiple Oscar contender and ultimate winner? The
same is true of Affleck. Other notable actors in the movie include Illeana
Douglas as Larry’s sister, Dan Hedaya as Larry’s father, and Kurtwood Smith and
Holland Taylor as Suzanne’s parents. The film also sports a few interesting
cameos: Joyce Maynard, the novel’s author, appears as Suzanne’s lawyer; Buck
Henry is a high school teacher; George Segal is a lecherous network executive;
and David Cronenberg (!) is a hitman.
The
Criterion Collection’s 2-disk package presents the film in a new 4K digital
restoration, approved by Van Sant and director of photography Eric Alan Edwards.
It comes with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack (and it makes Danny
Elfman’s lively score sound really good!). The first disk is the picture
in 4K UHD with Dolby Vision HDR. The second disk is a Blu-ray and the special
features. Disappointingly, there isn’t much in the way of supplements. An audio
commentary featuring Van Sant, Edwards, and editor Curtiss Clayton is good
enough. The only other extras are some deleted scenes (some of which
tantalizingly depict how the film might have had alternate endings) and the
theatrical trailer. An essay by film critic Jessica Kiang accompanies the
booklet.
To
Die For is
for fans of Nicole Kidman, Joachin Phoenix, and the caustic mind of Buck Henry.
Here's a gem from the web site studdblog.blogspot, which specializes in reproducing old newspaper ads of local American theaters from decades past. This one comes from the Sky Vue Drive-in, though we aren't sure where it was located. This particular double-feature combines two Sean Connery films- the latest (at the time in 1971) James Bond blockbuster "Diamonds are Forever" paired with Connery's ill-fated but impressive historical Arctic adventure "The Red Tent". According to the ad, Connery's co-star in the latter film was the legendary "Claudia Capdinale"! (As publishers, we sympathize with anyone who has to deal with typos!) Most impressive was the ticket price: two major films for $1.25. That was a bargain even in 1971!
The late, legendary New York City sports columnist Jimmy Cannon was known to quip, "Nobody asked me, but..." and then provide his thoughts about whatever was on his mind. In that spirit, nobody asked me but I'll weigh in on the 96th Annual Academy Awards broadcast from last evening. Reviewing the Oscar ceremonies is like shooting fish in a barrel in that there are always aspects of a production of this size that will inevitably be justly criticized. However, no matter how in vogue it is to bash the Oscars, regular readers of Cinema Retro know that I've tried to maintain objectivity. Here are my random observations:
Host Jimmy Kimmel did a decent job, as he had in the past. The Academy long ago abandoned ensuring that the host of the ceremonies has a background in the film industry. That went out the window when long-time host Bob Hope was replaced by Johnny Carson, whose brilliant timing resulted in higher ratings. Carson had the gig for quite some time and a variety of hosts followed, with Billy Crystal being the most popular. Kimmel is probably not well known in certain areas of the globe but his late night chat show is very popular in the U.S. That makes for both good and bad news. The good is that Kimmel is quick-witted and can improvise cleverly. The bad news is that he keeps shoehorning comedy bits into the broadcast that would be suitable for his TV show but still seem out of place on the Oscar presentations. There were mercifully fewer of these transgressions this year and the same can be said with the atrocious "spontaneous" banter between presenters, which was kept to a minimum.
I confess that I never watch the red carpet pre-show simply because of the vacuous banter ("Who are you wearing tonight?") but in general, outrageous attention-getting outfits were not on display. The ladies all looked very glamorous and most of the male stars were nattily attired in traditional black tuxes, although a number of them chose to wear open collar shirts and no ties. I guess that was to show non-conformity but some of them looked like the guys I used to see in the late 1970s queueing outside of Studio 54. (Full disclosure: I'm not a slave to fashion myself and as I write this, I am sporting a T shirt with an image of Shemp Howard imprinted on it.)
The event had its share of big names in attendance but for many years it has been noted that some of the diminishing ranks of living legends rarely attend the ceremonies unless they are nominated. Yes, we had Steven Spielberg there to present the Best Director award and Arnold Schwarzenegger was reunited with his "twin", Danny DeVito, for some amusing moments. Al Pacino attended to announce the Best Picture award but he did so in a cursory and confusing manner that undercut the impact of his appearance. There were no signs of the likes of Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford or Denzel Washington. Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were in attendance, as was Martin Scorsese, as they were all up for awards, though none won. It was astutely pointed out that De Niro and Foster had been in the auditorium before on the same night back in 1977 when they were both nominated for Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". Regarding Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon", his acclaimed film was shut out of any wins, the momentum having switched to "Oppenheimer". Similarly, last year's most popular movie, "Barbie", only won for Best Song. I must admit that while I thought the film's concept and execution were clever, I was not swept up by enthusiasm for the film. But then again, I doubt that men in the late late sixties were the demographic target for the marketing campaign.
It was an innovative idea to have previous winners introduce the nominated actors in their respective categories. Another nice touch was the homage paid to union members who work behind the scenes on film productions. We also learned that there were finally be Oscar recognition for casting directors, though the process might be a challenge in terms of deciding who exactly was the responsible party for casting certain actors, given that producers and studio executives have a say in the process. There was also a good video segment that paid tribute to the importance of stunt people throughout movie history. Acceptance speeches were fine, and the pace was brisk. The show had started earlier this year and, amazingly, ended up finishing on time.
The "In Memoriam" segment was the worst ever. This ritual and the controversies about it had inspired a major Washington Post article that ran a couple of days before the ceremonies. I gave up trying to figure out all the notable people were not mentioned and the staging was awful. The cameras concentrated on the elaborate settings and musicians, with photos of the dearly departed shown on a screen in the background. Most of the images were pretty pretty small even on today's giant-sized TVs and people who were not instantly recognizable had their credits line too tiny to read. Why can't the Academy get this right? TCM certainly does with its annual in memoriam video. They ought to just buy the rights to that.
The songs were all pleasant enough, but none of them particularly memorable.
A highlight of Oscar ceremonies used to be the presentation of honorary Oscars to legendary figures in the industry. The Academy decided with was all too superfluous and years ago relegated the honorees to brief film clips from a separate ceremony. This year, even that cursory effort was no longer included. Instead, we were told to scan a code on the TV screen in order to watch these honorees receive their Oscars. What a wasted opportunity. Mel Brooks was among those honored and the mind reels at how wonderful it would have been to see him receive the award on live TV. As a public service, we are presenting his speech below.
Politics were present, as usual, but kept somewhat restrained. There were references to the Israel/Gaza crisis and a moving and heartfelt speech by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov in which he pleaded that peace might finally come to his beleaguered country. It earned a standing ovation, but unfortunately these people can't move the aid package through Congress. At the end of the show, Jimmy Kimmel read a social media posting by Donald Trump in which he eviscerated the host's performance on the show. Kimmel's reply may have been witty but if he really wanted to one-up the former president, he wouldn't have mentioned him at all. It would be nice if politics didn't play a part in these ceremonies, but that hasn't been the case in decades and with political tensions higher than they have been in the U.S. since the late 1960s, it's doubtful the Oscars will ever again be a telecast that brings people together in a common love of movies.
It was nice to see a Godzilla movie get Oscar recognition and I thought I could hear the cheering in Tokyo in my living room.
In my opinion, this was one of the better Oscar telecasts of recent years, even without Will Smith on hand to provide some spontaneous action.
Here's a blog devoted entirely to director William Friedkin's 1977 masterpiece "Sorcerer". The film bombed with critics and the public when first released but has acquired an enthusiastic following over the decades. Friedkin told Cinema Retro that it was his favorite among all of his films. (See issue #29 for an exclusive interview with Friedkin about the film.) The web site showcases a really cool "Sorcerer" T shirt.
TCM – Thursday, March 7, 2024 - Turner Classic Movies (TCM) today announced a new limited series, Two for One, that will feature 12 nights of double features curated by some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood beginning April 6. TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz will be joined by each director, including Steven Spielberg, Patty Jenkins, and Spike Lee, to introduce the two films they chose. They will offer commentary on the double feature’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections.
“This was such an eclectic group of filmmakers to sit down with, which was invigorating, from Martin Scorsese talking about a Robert Mitchum western, to Spike Lee discussing Elia Kazan, to Olivia Wilde’s breakdown of Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame,” said Ben Mankiewicz. “In these double features, these 12 directors lead us on an insider’s journey through cinematic history.”
Two for One which airs every Saturday night, premieres April 6 at 8PM (ET).
Two Films. One Filmmaker. Countless Perspectives. Below is the complete film schedule:
Saturday, April 6 | Martin Scorsese - Blood on the Moon (1948) & One Touch of Venus (1948)
The first African-American to direct a major film for a Hollywood
studio was Gordon Parks, whose feature film debut "The Learning Tree"
was released in 1969. Parks may have shattered the glass ceiling but
there wasn't a tidal wave of opportunities that immediately opened for
other minority filmmakers, in part because there were so few with any
formal training in the art. One beneficiary of Parks' achievement was
Ossie Davis, who was internationally respected as a well-rounded artist.
He was a triple threat: actor, director and writer but his directing
skills had been relegated to the stage. In 1970 Davis co-wrote the
screenplay for and directed "Cotton Comes to Harlem", a major production
for United Artists. The film was based on a novel by African-American
writer Chester Himes and proved to be pivotal in ushering in what became
known as the Blaxploitation genre. In reality, it's debatable whether
"Cotton" really is a Blaxploitation film. While most of the major roles
are played by Black actors, the term "Blaxploitation" has largely come
to symbolize the kinds of goofy, low-budget films that are fondly
remembered as guilty pleasures. However, "Cotton"- like Gordon Parks's
"Shaft" films which would follow- boasts first class production values
and top talent both in front of and behind the cameras. Regardless, the
movie had sufficient impact at the boxoffice to inspire a seemingly
endless barrage of Black-oriented American films that were all the rage
from the early to mid-1970s. The Blaxploitation fever burned briefly but
shone brightly and opened many doors for minority actors.
The film was shot when New York City was in the midst of a
precipitous decline in terms of quality of life. Crime was soaring, the
infrastructure was aging and the city itself would be on the verge of
bankruptcy a few years later. Harlem was among the hardest hit areas in
terms of the economy. The once dazzling jewel of a neighborhood had
boasted popular nightclubs, theaters and restaurants that attracted
affluent white patrons. By the mid-to-late 1960s, however, that had
changed radically. Street crimes, organized gangs and the drug culture
spread rapidly, making Harlem a very dangerous place to be. It was
foreboding enough if you were Black but it was considered a "Forbidden
Zone" for most white people, who spent their money elsewhere, thus
exacerbating the decline of the neighborhoods. "Cotton Comes to Harlem"
serves as an interesting time capsule of what life was like in the area,
having been shot during this period of decline. Director Davis was
considered royalty in Harlem. Despite his success in show business, he
and his equally acclaimed wife, actress Ruby Dee, never "went
Hollywood". They stayed in the community and worked hard to improve the
environment. Thus, Davis was perfectly suited to capture the action on
the streets in a manner that played authentically on screen. Similarly,
he had a real feel for the local population. As with any major urban
area, Harlem undoubtedly had its share of amusing eccentrics and Davis
populates the movie with plenty of such characters.
The film opens with a major rally held by Rev. Deke O'Malley (Calvin
Lockhart), a local guy who made good and who is idolized by the
population of Harlem. O'Malley is a smooth-talking, charismatic con man
in the mode of the notorious Reverend Ike who uses religion as a facade
to rip off gullible followers. This time, O'Malley has launched a "Back
to Africa" campaign for which he is soliciting funds. It's based on the
absurd premise that he will be able to finance disgruntled Harlem
residents back to the land of their ancestry. The hard-working,
semi-impoverished locals end up donating $87,000 in cash but the rally
is interrupted by a daring daytime robbery. An armored car filled with
masked men armed with heavy weaponry descend upon the goings-on, loot
the cashbox and take off. They are pursued by two street-wise local
cops, "Grave Digger" Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and his partner "Coffin"
Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques). Davis provides an exciting and
colorful car chase through the streets of Harlem, as the cops fail to
snag the robbers. They also discover that O'Malley has gone missing,
leading them to believe that he orchestrated the heist himself so he
could keep the proceeds raised at the rally. The plot becomes rather
convoluted, as Jones and Johnson learn that a bale of cotton has arrived
in Harlem and its somehow connected to the crime. They assume that the
stolen money has been stashed in said cotton bale, which quickly changes
hands among the most unsavory characters in the community. Getting in
on the action is a white mob boss and his goons who are also trying to
recover the cotton bale. The cotton itself is resented in Harlem because
of its historical links to slavery and by the end of the film, the bale
ends up in a stage show at the famed Apollo Theater where it is used as
a prop in a bizarre production that involves historical observations
about the black experience intermingled with a striptease act! Through
it all, Jones and Johnson doggedly chase any number of people through
the streets, engage in shoot-outs and car chases and come in and out of
contact with Rev. O'Malley, who professes his innocence about being
involved in the robbery. The Rev isn't so innocent when it comes to
other unscrupulous activities such as chronically cheating on his
long-suffering girlfriend Iris (Judy Pace) and manipulating other women
in a variety of ways.
The most delightful aspect of the film is the showcasing of some very
diverse talents of the era. Godfrey Cambridge (who made it big as a
stand-up comic) and Raymond St. Jacques enjoy considerable on-screen
chemistry even if the script deprives them of the kind of witty dialogue
that would have enhanced their scenes together. They make wisecracks
all the time and harass some less-than-savory characters but the
screenplay never truly capitalizes on Cambridge's comedic potential. The
film's most impressive performance comes from Calvin Lockhart, who
perfectly captures the traits of phony, larger-than-life "preachers".
He's all flashy good looks, gaudy outfits and narcissistic behavior.
Lockhart seems to be having a ball playing this character and the screen
ignites every time he appears. There are some nice turns by other good
character actors including pre-"Sanford and Son" Redd Foxx, who figures
in the film's amusing "sting-in-the-tail" ending, John Anderson as the
exasperated white captain of a Harlem police station that is constantly
on the verge of being besieged by local activists, Lou Jacobi as a junk
dealer, Cleavon Little as a local eccentric, J.D. Canon as a mob hit man
and Dick Sabol as a goofy white cop who suffers humiliation from
virtually everyone (which is sort of a payback for the decades in which
Black characters were routinely used as comic foils). The film has a
surprisingly contemporary feel about it, save for a few garish fashions
from the 1970s. It's also rather nostalgic to hear genuine soul music
peppered through the soundtrack in this pre-rap era. Happily, life has
not imitated art in the years since the film was released. Harlem has
been undergoing the kind of Renaissance that would have seemed
unimaginable in 1970. The old glory has come back strong and the center
of the neighorhood, 125th Street, is vibrant and thriving once again.
These societal perspectives make watching "Cotton Comes to Harlem"
enjoyable on an entirely different level than simply an amusing crime
comedy.
The film is currently streaming on Screenpix, available for subscription through Amazon Prime.
If the 1960s was the era of spy movie mania, the 1970s was an era of "rogue cop" movies. Seemingly everyone was in on the act and that included John Wayne, who teamed with director John Sturges for the first and only time for "McQ". The Duke played a Seattle detective who is combating corruption in the police department. The film boasted a good script and a fine supporting cast. Here's a highlight from the film. (Lee Pfeiffer)