In 1962 I was a sophomore in college in Philadelphia and
one fine day Basil Rathbone came to the school to do a one-man show. He regaled
us with tales of what it was like to work with the great stars of the past,
reenacted a couple of scenes from his films, told how in those days the studio
system kept actors working all the time, and how the world had changed so much
since then. (You didn’t know the half of it Basil, baby!) Afterwards, he held a
meet and greet in the student lounge. I wanted to talk to him but I couldn’t
think of anything to ask him except something dumb like: "Is it true you
taught Errol Flynn everything he knows about fencing?" Before I knew it I
was shaking hands with him, asking if he taught Errol Flynn everything he knows
about fencing. I really don’t remember that much more about my meeting with
him, but I do recall what a sharp, dynamic guy he was even at age 70.
Intimidating as well. Kind of like Sherlock.
Which brings me to this review of one of the more
obscure, but nevertheless intriguing films in Rathbone’s career. Kino Lorber
has released “Rio” (1939) a film from Universal studios directed by John Brahm
(“Hangover Square”, “The Brasher Doubloon”) one of the many German emigres who
fled to America to escape Hitler. “Rio” is a sort of film noir mixed with
elements from movies like Boris Karloff’s “Devil’s Island" (1938), or
Victor Jory’s “Escape from Devil’s Island” (1935). Rathbone plays Paul Reynard,
a con man who has managed to swindle a group of Parisian bankers out of
millions of dollars. He’s married to Irene, a French singer (Norwegian actress
Sigrid Gurie), over whom he has almost hypnotic control. Also in the cast is
big burly Victor McLaglen as Paul’s best friend Dirk, who also seems bound to
Paul by the fierce magnetism of his personality. When Paul’s fraudulent
activities are discovered, he displays complete confidence that he’ll find a
way out of trouble, as he always has. Only things don’t turn out so good and
Paul is not only found guilty, he’s sentenced to 15 years on St. Jacques
Island, a French penal colony 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before he’s
sent away, Paul tells Dirk to help Irene as much as he can. However, the cold
nature of his personality is revealed when he tells Dirk that he told her not
to wait for him. She should divorce him and go on with her life. He says he
knows that giving her that option will only ensure that she’ll never leave him.
He continues to manipulate her even from prison.
Conditions are miserable in the penal colony.The
commandant there despises Reynard and is determined to crack his stony exterior
by withholding Irene’s letters. Tough-minded as he is, Reynard begins to feel
the mental strain and is determined to find a way out. Irene and Dirk,
meanwhile have moved to Rio to be near Paul. She has taken a job singing in a
small nightclub where she meets Bill Gregory (Robert Cummings), an American
civil engineer who built a bridge there that collapsed. He was blamed for it,
but he claimed it was corruption that destroyed the bridge, alleging greedy
contractors used inferior materials. Unable to live down the public disgrace,
he’s been drunk ever since the collapse occurred. During Carnival, however, he
and Irene become close and she helps him rehabilitate by getting him to take on
a new engineering project, rebuilding a dam.
So there it is. You got an iron-willed con artist
determined to make a break from the penal colony; a woman trying to be faithful
to her imprisoned husband, but who is beginning to fall in love with another
man; a drunk trying to rehabilitate himself and earn a place back in society,
and big old Victor McLaglen ready to help Basil and Ingrid get back together
somehow. Pretty good set up.
“Rio” was written by a team of four writers-- Aben Kandel
(“I Was a Teenage Werewolf”), Edwin Justus Mayer, Frank Partos, and Stephen
Morehouse Avery, based on a story by Jean Negulesco (“How to Marry a
Millionaire”, “Johnny Belinda”). They managed to pull off something rather
unique for its time. By concentrating on the four main characters in the first
part of the story, they avoided making just another plot- heavy melodrama about
a man trying break out of prison. Director Brahm crafted a film about a totally
amoral character who sees life not as a matter of right and wrong but as a
challenge to his ability to dominate and control everyone around him. It was a
unique role for Rathbone, who we’re used seeing either as an upright upholder
of law and order (Sherlock) or flat out villains. Here his character is a
mixture of good and bad, mostly bad,—an early noir antihero to be sure.
“Rio” was shot by Cinematographer Hal Mohr, who won an
Oscar for “The Phantom of the Opera”. His use of shadow and light is an early
example of German Expressionism as it began to evolve into film noir. Also
appearing In the film are the Cisco Kid’s pal, Leo Carillo as a Rio night club
owner who has eyes for Irene, along with other Universal regulars Samuel S.
Hinds, Billy Gilbert, and Irving Pichel.
Kino Lorber presents “Rio” in a brand new 2K Master with
an audio commentary track featuring film historian Samm Deighan, plus half a
dozen trailers for other notable Universal B movies.
Recommended for those looking for something a little
different.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Imprint, the Australian video company. Most of their releases are region-free.
Today marks
FIVE YEARS since our release of Imprint Films Spine #1 - the worldwide Blu-ray
debut of The War Of The Worlds (1953).
Thank you to every customer, contributor, and champion of Imprint Films, who
has supported us on this first part of our journey. Because of you, we are
still here - and we're not slowing down! Right now, we have new titles being
signed, negatives being scanned, and a mammoth second half of 2025 in the
works.
Help us celebrate this five-year milestone with 25% OFF SITE-WIDE NOW
LIVE!
Plus, every order over $100 AUD receives a free exclusive Imprint Films Tote
Bag - while stocks last.
Excludes New Release and Pre-Order titles. Discount applied automatically at
checkout.
In “Springfield Rifle,” (1952), a new Warner Archive
Collection release, Gary Cooper stars as U.S. Cavalry Major Alex Kearney who is
charged with cowardice when he refuses to issue a command to his men to open
fire on some Confederate horse rustlers. His second in command, Captain Tennick
(Philip Carey), reports him to his commander, Col. Hudson (Paul Kelley), who
has no choice but to put the major under arrest and court martial him. He’s
found guilty of treason, sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and marched out
of the fort with a freshly painted yellow stripe down his back. Not only that,
he’ll be shot on sight if he ever steps foot in a US Army fort again.
The film was released in October 1952, the same year Cooper appeared in his Oscar-winning role in Fred Zinnemann’s “High Noon,” in
which he played a sheriff running around town looking for somebody to help him
handle some bad hombres. Zinnemann’s intention was to show that law and order is a
social responsibility, not just the problem of the man wearing a badge. (Howard
Hawks would dispute that idea when he made “Rio Bravo” with John Wayne as a
sheriff who believed if you were “good enough” you didn’t need any help except
maybe for a drunk like Dean Martin and an old geezer like Walter Brennan). In
“Springfield Rifle” it appears that this time Coop can’t go to anybody for help
even if he wanted to. At least not anybody on the Union side.
So naturally what does he do? He goes to work helping the
Confederates. What? Coop on the wrong side of history? Well, of course we know
Gary Cooper would never do that. He’s a gold- plated hero in all his movies, so
something sneaky must be going on here. And this is one aspect of “Springfield
Rifle” that makes it interesting, despite an overlong, overcomplicated script
and dull direction by Andre de Toth. Espionage becomes a key element of the
story when Coop joins up with the rustlers who are getting ready to drive a
herd of a thousand horses over the mountains into Colorado and then due south. Is
he really joining them or is he actually a spy for the Union? Not hard to guess
which.
But then we get a new problem when we learn that Coop’s
young son, a private in the Army now has left home and is determined to track
down his father and bring him to justice and thus cleanse the family name of
his father’s disgrace. And then there’s Major Kearney’s wife who comes out to
the fort from back east to find out what’s going on with her family. There’s
more but that’s basically why “Springfield Rifle” is not the success it could
have been. Too much “monkey business” as Chuck Berry liked to say. Too much
going on with plot lines that get twisted and either don’t develop or have a
payoff.
The script was by Charles Marquis Warren, Frank Davis and
Sloan Nibley. All good writers. Warren wrote many a good western and created
the classic TV series “Gunsmoke” and “Rawhide”.Nibley was a veteran writer for Republic Pictures, having turned out
about half a dozen Roy Rogers feature films. His writing was always fast-paced
but slowed the story down by introducing new twists, as there was always time
for an unnecessary tune or two from Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers. But
unnecessary plot complications? Never. So maybe the problem was there were just
too many good writers working on this project. A lot of ideas but not enough
glue to hold it all together.
On the plus side, “Springfield Rifle” has a host of
well-known faces from the Warners stable in the cast, including: Lon Chaney,
Jr., David Brian, James Milligan, Alan Hale, Martin Milner, Guinn “Big Boy’
Williams, and Fess Parker (uncredited). It was filmed in the usual familiar
locations around Lone Pine, CA, Mt. Whitney, and The Bell Ranch in the San
Fernando Valley with the cinematography of Edwin D. DuPar. The music score was
provided by the ubiquitous Max Steiner, just one of over 300 scores he
completed in his lifetime.
The Warner Archive presents “Springfield Rifle” on Blu-ray, but it doesn’t
appear to be a fresh scan and while the picture and color are good it doesn’t
exactly pop out of the screen at you. Along with the main attraction the disc
includes several classic Warners cartoons, a Joe McDoakes comedy short, and a
theatrical trailer.
Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store.
(John M. Whalen is the author of "This Ray Gun for Hire...and Other Tales". Click here to order from Amazon.)
The YouTube channel Black Film History presents the original trailer for Fox's 1964 western "Rio Conchos" starring Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Edmond O'Brien and - most significantly- football legend Jim Brown in his screen debut. Brown's screen presence was such that within a few years he would be a leading man and major boxoffice draw. The film itself is a rousing adventure, directed by the ever-underrated Gordon Douglas and set to a wonderful Jerry Goldsmith score. There are so many similarities to Fox's 1961 western "The Comancheros" starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman, that some retro movie lovers are still debating whether "Rio Conchos" can be considered a remake. It's a topic we covered in an early issue of Cinema Retro. (Lee Pfeiffer)
Click here to order DVD double feature with "Take a Hard Ride" starring Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Sony:
THE ROMANTIC SCI-FI MODERN CLASSIC FROM DIRECTOR JOHN CARPENTER
4K ULTRA HD DISC
AVAILABLE AS A LIMITED EDITION 4K ULTRA HD STEELBOOK
MAY 27TH
SYNPOSIS
Director John Carpenter presents a romantic science
fiction odyssey starring Jeff Bridges in his 1984 Oscar®-nominated role as an
innocent alien from a distant planet who learns what it means to be a man in
love. When his spacecraft is shot down over Wisconsin, Starman (Bridges)
arrives at the remote cabin of a distraught young widow, Jenny Hayden (Karen
Allen), and clones the form of her dead husband. The alien convinces Jenny to
drive him to Arizona, explaining that if he isn't picked up by his mothership
in three days, he'll die. Hot on their trail are government agents, intent on
capturing the alien, dead or alive. En route, Starman demonstrates the power of
universal love, while Jenny rediscovers her human feelings for passion. Written
by Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon.
DISC DETAILS AND BONUS FEATURES:
4K UHD DISC:
Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision,
restored from the original camera negative
Dolby Atmos + 5.1 + 2-Channel Surround
BLU-RAY DISC™
· Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the
4K master
· English 5.1 + 2-Channel Surround
· Special Features:
o Audio Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Actor
Jeff Bridges
o Deleted Scenes
o Behind-the-Scenes Time Lapses
o They Came from Hollywood: Revisiting Starman Featurette
o Making-Of Featurette
o Music Video
o Still Gallery
o Theatrical Trailer
CAST AND CREW
Directed By: John Carpenter
Produced By: Larry J. Franco
Executive Producer: Michael Douglas
Written By: Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon
Co-Produced By: Barry Bernardi
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith,
Richard Jaeckel
SPECS
Run Time: Approx. 115 minutes
Rating: PG
4K UHD Feature Picture: 2160p Ultra High Definition,
2.39:1
4K UHD Feature Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD
7.1 Compatible) | English 5.1 DTS-HD MA | English 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD MA
I
Vampiri (Riccardo Freda, 1957) is, despite the gothic
imagery used in the promotional material, a modern-day horror thriller about a
journalist investigating a series of mysterious murders in Paris. Girls have
been found drained of blood, and whilst trying to solve the crimes he soon
becomes involved with the beautiful Giselle du Grande (Gianna Maria Canale), an
aristocratic woman who is more than she seems.
I
Vampiri (the literal translation is ‘The Vampires’)
was released in the United States as Lust of the Vampire and is generally
credited with being Italy’s first horror film. As such it was a change from the
director Riccardo Freda’s usual fare; having initially worked in the film
industry for the previous twenty years as a screenwriter and editor, Freda seemed
to specialise in historical action adventures such as The Mysterious
Cavalier (1948) and Spartacus (1953, several years before Kubrick’s
version). He often told the story that this film was made as a bet with a
producer that he could make a horror film of the kind that was made overseas
but not in Italy, although Roberto Curti does explore Freda’s
self-mythologising here and suggests the truth is more nuanced. With a script
co-written by Freda and prolific screenwriter Piero Regnoli (with later additions
made by cinematographer Mario Bava when he had to take over the production), I
Vampiri has for a long time been little more than a footnote in the careers
of both Freda and Bava, perhaps because it made barely a dent in the Italian
box office at the time. However, with this new monograph and a recent restoration
and Blu-ray release of I, Vampiri from Radiance Films, the time is right
to revisit the film and discover its secrets.
This
Rondo Award-winning book is another essential read from Roberto Curti, who is THE
number one authority on popular Italian cinema. His is the life I aspire to – sitting
around in Italy writing books about Italian films all day. This monograph covers
every aspect of the film, plus its place within Italian horror history,
something which Curti knows almost everything about. Having previously written
an excellent biography of Riccardo Freda, Curti is well-placed to take a deep
dive like this into one of his key works, also exploring Freda’s private life
and his marriage to his frequent leading lady, Gianna Maria Canale. With plenty
of accompanying imagery, this is an excellent piece of writing which makes the
perfect companion to the new Blu-ray, and will appeal to anyone wanting to
learn more about Italian cinema.
You
can order this book direct from the UK-based publisher by clicking here.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Los Angeles, CA - Bathe in supernatural suspense as
Scream Factory celebrates 25 years of the 2000 all-star Harrison Ford and
Michelle Pfieffer thriller with What Lies Beneath [25th Anniversary
Edition], available on 4K UHD for the first time in America.
The celebratory release will entertain horror enthusiasts
with brand new features including a 4K transfer from the original 35mm camera
negative approved by Cinematographer Don Burgess, as well as “You Know:
Uncovering What Lies Beneath,” a feature-length documentary including brand new
interviews with filmmakers and cast, among other bonus features.
In this riveting supernatural thriller, Harrison Ford and
Michelle Pfeiffer play a married couple who uncover a terrible secret ... a
secret so disturbing it threatens to destroy them.
When Claire Spencer (Pfeiffer) begins seeing ghostly
images and hearing mysterious voices in their home, her husband Norman (Ford)
suspects it’s just her imagination — until the images turn horrifyingly real.
Now, together they must uncover the truth, confront their worst fears, and find
'what lies beneath … with twisting and terrifying results
BONUS FEATURES FOR UHD/BLU-RAY
DISC ONE (4K UHD):
· NEW 4K Transfer From The Original 35mm Camera
Negative Approved By Cinematographer Don Burgess
· NEW Presented In Dolby Vision (HDR-10 Compatible)
· Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & 2.0
· Audio Commentary With Director Robert Zemeckis
DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):
· NEW 4K Transfer From The Original 35mm Camera
Negative Approved By Don Burgess
· Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & 2.0
· Audio Commentary With Director Robert Zemeckis
· NEW “You Know: Uncovering What Lies Beneath” – A
Feature-Length Retrospective Documentary Including Brand-New Interviews With
Robert Zemeckis, Producers Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, Writers Sarah
Kernochan and Clark Gregg, Cast Member Amber Valletta, Director Of Photography
Don Burgess, Production Designer Rick Carter, Costume Designer Susie DeSanto,
Composer Alan Silvestri, Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Legato, Special
Effects Supervisor Shane Mahan, and Puppeteer Jason Matthews
Hard
to believe that the Mission: Impossible movie phenomenon began almost 30
years ago, but here we are, 8 films and $5 billion in box office gross later, Tom
Cruise and the IMF team are reportedly taking their final cinematic bow with Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.If, indeed, it’s the IMF’s closing time, they
couldn’t have ended the franchise any bigger.This is an edge-of-your-seat, “How’d they do that?” thriller that HAS to
be seen on the big screen, preferably in IMAX.
Paramount
Pictures invited CR to the IMAX headquarters in Playa Vista to see
the film on their enormous screen and it was worth the trek.The film picks up where MI: Dead Reckoning
Part I leaves off – the IMF team is still trying to stop “the entity”, a
highly invasive AI rogue program that is about to trigger a nuclear
winter.This film included easter eggs from
many of the previous instalments – from flashes of Jon Voight (Mr. Phelps) to
clips of iconic sequences and the surprise reappearance of actors from MI #1.
The Final Reckoning’s filmmakers also cannily captured the world’s current
political turmoil and disinformation, turning it into a plot point.
From
the opening frame, the film is a non-stop action juggernaut, but two incredible
sequences stand out – a recovery mission inside a sunken Russian sub that is
both claustrophobic and terrifying and an aerial chase that can only be
described as insane. (According
to the press info, the stunning submarine scenes came from co-writer/director
Christopher McQuarry’s childhood “obsession” with the 1968 cold-war submarine
thriller, Ice Station Zebra.)
Tom
Cruise… is once again, Tom Cruise - ageless, in peak physical shape, running at
speeds that would leave an Olympic sprinter gasping and hanging off a speeding
biplane – and yes, it’s really him a mile up in the sky. If the weight of
saving humanity is weighing on him, he doesn’t let it slow him down.
Cruise
is surrounded by seasoned actors at the top of their game – Simon Pegg, Ving
Rhames, Hayley Atwell and the enigmatic Pom Klementieff who plays the manic
French assassin from the previous film, now on the right side of things.(She really deserves a spot in a future Bond
film.). Esai Morales reprises his role as a smooth and reptilian villain and
Angela Bassett gives a powerful performance as a female President who refuses
to cave under pressure.
The
Final Reckoning
marks Christopher McQuarrie’s 11th collaboration with Tom
Cruise.They have advanced cinematic
storytelling so much that the star calls him “my creative brother.”Given the scope of the Mission: Impossible
movies, filmmaking headaches are a given, but this intrepid duo embraces them. “Problems for Tom are always good for us. That
just creates drama,” McQuarrie says.Talk about being Zen!
The
U.S. military cooperated on this project, as there is literally an entire armada
on screen – carriers, ospreys, jets and helicopters.
This
is the kind of movie you swore they didn’t make anymore and one worthy of
seeing on the biggest screen you can find.Mission Accomplished!
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Announcing The Hook and the Eye: a Felix Leiter adventure by Raymond
Benson
Ian Fleming Publications is pleased to
announce a new novel coming soon from 007 continuation author Raymond Benson. The
Hook and the Eye focuses on Felix Leiter, James Bond’s trusted American
friend and ally. This full-length novel will be released digitally in ten
instalments, beginning on May 27th, recalling the serialisation of classic pulp
fiction in the early twentieth century. This will be followed by the paperback
publication of the full story on October 2nd.
Felix Leiter – James Bond’s trusted
friend and ally – takes centre stage in a brand new adventure by legendary Bond
novelist, Raymond Benson.
It is 1952. Felix has lost his job at
the CIA and finds himself working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. What
starts as a simple surveillance job turns into a matter of life and death when
Felix stumbles upon a murder and a cabal of spies embedded in Manhattan. Hired
to transport the impossibly beautiful and impossibly secretive Dora from New
York to Texas, Felix is thrust into a non-stop adventure, where danger and
deceit lie in wait around every bend in the road.
The Hook and the Eye is a mystery,
a romance, a spy story, a road trip tale and a postcard of a lost Americana. It
is also Raymond Benson at his very best.
IFPL’s Publishing Director Simon Ward
commented “Raymond may be a Bond author, but he was born to write Felix Leiter.
He came to us with a story – one filled with intrigue, mystery and danger – and
it was exactly what we were looking for. We are thrilled to be working with
Raymond again and we think the fans are going to love the journey he takes our
favourite CIA agent on. I think it’s the best ‘Bond universe’ book Raymond has
ever written.”
Author Raymond Benson added “Having
worked on this project in secrecy since May 2024, I am now pleased and proud to
finally present the first ever Felix Leiter novel, appropriately set in Ian
Fleming’s timeline of the 1950s between the character’s appearances in Live
and Let Die and Diamonds are Forever. As a native Texan myself, I’ve
always had an affinity for 007’s close American friend.”
So how, and when, can you read this
new adventure? Starting on May 27th the eBook serialisation will begin with
‘The Hook and the Eye: Episode 1’ containing the first four chapters of the
novel. This will be followed every two weeks with a new episode, concluding on
September 30th with the tenth instalment. Episodes will be released via updates
to the original eBook file, so be aware that in order to read them you’ll need
to either enable automatic file updates on your e-reader device, or manually
download the updated files. Following the final ‘Episode’ release, we’ll also
be publishing a physical paperback edition of The Hook and the Eye. This
is currently available to pre-order, exclusively via our website.
Readers in the UK can pre-order the
eBook direct from us (and can also access a special bundle
price for both the digital and physical versions together), whilst readers
around the world can pre-order from their preferred eBook retailer.
We’re very excited to share this
thrilling story with you over the coming months.
Beloved character actor Joe Don Baker has died at age 89. The native Texan excelled in playing down-to-earth rural characters, often with comedic overtones. Baker's first screen role was in a 1965 episode of "Honey West". He would appear in many other television shows over the decades but it was his role as real-life Sheriff Buford Pusser that afforded him the leading role in a feature film, "Walking Tall". The 1973 production cast Baker's sheriff as an incorruptible lawman who makes it his mission to clean up widespread graft in a small southern community. This infuriates local crime bosses who carry out acts of violence that touch Pusser's family with tragic results. He goes on a one-man mission to bring the villains to justice. The movie was made on a small budget without an expensive marketing campaign but it immediately clicked with rural audiences and went on to be one of the great sleeper hits in movie history, grossing over $40 million in 1973 dollars. Baker was then in demand and would go on to play important supporting role in such films as "The Outfit", "Congo", "Charley Varrick", "The Natural", "Fletch", "Mars Attacks!" and the Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of "Cape Fear". However, it was his association with the James Bond films that made him a pop culture favorite. He first appeared as the villain in Timothy Dalton's debut as 007, "The Living Daylights" in 1987. He would then be seen as Jack Wade, an American undercover ally to Pierce Brosnan in his first Bond film, "GoldenEye" in 1995. Baker's homespun witticisms contrasted amusingly with Bond's British brand of humor and audiences responded enthusiastically. In fact, Baker made the character so popular that he would reprise the role in the next Bond film, "Tomorrow Never Dies" in 1997. Baker retired from acting in 2012.
Description from the YouTube channel of Century 21 Films:
"Head behind the scenes of 'Return of the Saint' in this making of documentary featuring star Ian Ogilvy (The Sorcerers, Witchfinder General, Upstairs Downstairs) and featuring narration by Roger Moore (The Saint, James Bond). 'Return of the Saint' ran for just one series from 1978 to 1979, but continues to delight fans over forty years later.
In addition to Ian Ogilvy, 'The Saint Steps Into... The 70s' features interviews with executive producer Robert S. Baker (The Persuaders!, The Baron, Crossplot), production supervisor Malcolm Christopher (Minder, Superman IV, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Canterville Ghost), and writer John Goldsmith (The Protectors, Space: 1999, The New Avengers)."
In this vintage interview for the American Film Institute, Martin Scorsese reflects on seeing John Ford's "The Searchers" for the first time at age 13. He also provides some interesting observations about Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne in the 1956 classic.
Once upon a time a highly successful film director named Blake Edwards teamed with his very popular actress wife to make a big budget Paramount musical called "Darling Lili". Released in 1970, the WWI-era movie was a major flop. Edwards blamed studio head Robert Evans for having made significant cuts to the final version of the film, though Paramount maintained that the film's budget had gone out of control and they had to exercise their right to salvage it through whatever means necessary. Several years later, Edwards had a contentious relationship with MGM that was exacerbated by the studio altering his final cuts of "The Carey Treatment" and "Wild Rovers". Hell hath no fury like a director scorned, especially a director who was not lacking in self-esteem. Ultimately, Edwards sought his revenge with the release of his notorious 1981 madcap comedy "S.O.B." The movie is a take-down of the film industry, presenting an ugly picture of Hollywood as a place populated by crooks, shnooks, disreputable studio brass and disloyal hangers-on all willing to sell their souls to advance their careers. Doubtless, Edwards was done wrong by certain studio executives but by all accounts, he wasn't "Mr. Popularity" either. Edwards had fractious working relationships with many people including Peter Sellers, with whom he made several successful "Pink Panther" films despite the fact the men came to loath one another. I was having lunch with a former studio big wig in 2010 when I informed him that the news just broke that Edwards had died. His response: "It's a shame it took so long." Ouch!
Edwards was indeed multi-talented. He was capable of directing successful dramas ("Days of Wine and Roses") and the occasional thriller ("Experiment in Terror") but his niche was comedy and for a period of years he produced some great successes including "Operation Petticoat" and "Breakfast at Tiffanys" as well as the best-received Inspector Clouseau films ("A Shot in the Dark" and "The Pink Panther".) By the 1970s, however, his films were under-performing. In 1975, more out of necessity than sentimentality, he and Peter Sellers returned to the "Pink Panther" franchise and scored three more hits. "S.O.B." was his most personal film, however, and allowed him to figuratively put his considerable list of enemies in his cross-hairs. Edwards wrote, produced and directed the film which boasted an impressive all-star cast, including Julie Andrews, who would break new ground in her career by famously baring her breasts (thus causing Johnny Carson to quip to Andrews that he was thankful to see that "the hills were still alive!")
The film begins with a comical suicide attempt by once-esteemed film director Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), who can't cope with the demise of his career due to the catastrophic boxoffice returns on "Night Wind", his mega-budget family musical starring his wife Sally Miles (Julie Andrews). Felix bungles the attempt which will become a running gag throughout the film as fate keeps preventing him from taking his own life. Now suffering from a mental illness, Felix is convinced that he has heard advice from God about how to salvage his film and career. He approaches the Machiavellian studio chief David Blackman (Robert Vaughn, whose character is supposedly based on Robert Evans.) Felix offers to reimburse the studio for their investment in the musical so that he can own all the rights and reshoot it as a pornographic production complete with the songs intact, only with an S&M take. Blackman jumps at the chance to redeem his own reputation and agrees, but Sally is a tough sell. Her entire career has been built on playing sweet, innocent characters, much as Andrews's career was defined in the early days. She is appalled at Felix's mental state and the fact that he hocked their entire net worth to pull off this madcap scheme. She turns to the film's original director, Tim Culley (William Holden) for advice and he and their mutual friend, quack physician Irving Finegarten (Robert Preston) for counsel. They both convince her the daffy scheme might work and would prove to be a good career move. With Sally reluctantly immersing herself into a sex-filled musical, word around Hollywood gets out that Felix might actually be creating a potential blockbuster. This causes Blackman to renege on the deal. Felix now goes entirely off the deep end and "kidnaps" the reels of his completed film in order to thwart Blackman from exploiting him.
Movies that present Hollywood as a soulless climate are as old as the film industry itself but "S.O.B." is in a class of its own in this regard. There are no sympathetic characters. As Felix devolves into complete madness, his family, confidantes and friends all conspire to take advantage of him for their own selfish purposes. Edwards presents a Devil's Playground of cheating lovers, emotionless sex and untrustworthy partners. It was a parlor game back in the day to guess which real-life personalities were being portrayed on screen. For example, there was little doubt that Shelly Winters' obnoxious talent agent was based on the much-feared Sue Mengers. Loretta Swit, playing the film's most grating character, seems to be a compilation of every gossip columnist who Edwards grew to loathe. Other well-known stars are also used to good effect including Larry Hagman, Robert Webber, Robert Loggia, Marisa Berenson, Stuart Margolin and Craig Stevens. Ostensibly, the star is Richard Mulligan, who gives a very spirited performance that is ultimately undone by Edwards having him cross over into theater of the absurd. Because of the large cast, most of the actors don't get much screen time but those who do resonate very well especially Andrews, Holden, Preston, Webber and Vaughn. The latter has a show-stopping scene that almost rivals the unveiling of Andrews' prized bosoms when it is revealed that his character of the macho studio executive has a passion for making love to his mistress (Berenson) while he is attired in female lingerie.
"S.O.B." is genuinely funny but, as previously stated, Edwards goes overboard into silliness especially in the last third of the film. Until then the events that we witnessed have been mostly plausible but Edwards goes over the top and resorts to almost slapstick as well as introducing some characters such as a manic Asian chef and an Indian guru (played respectively by Benson Fong and Larry Storch) who would be far more at home in a Pink Panther movie. Still, it remains a biting satire that is mostly quite enjoyable- and it's all accompanied by a score from Edwards' frequent collaborator, Henry Mancini.
The Warner Archive Blu-ray looks gorgeous and contains the original trailer.
CLICK HEREto order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Kino Lorber:
While making the transition from swinging ’60s nudie
films to his signature gut-wrenching horror films of the ’70s, Pete Walker
directed four hardboiled gems of contemporary British noir. Walker’s milieu was
a criminal underworld of posh London nightclubs and tawdry amusement halls, of
bisexuality and brutality, pop stars and pornographers. Die Screaming, Marianne
stars Susan George as a free-spirited hippie chick caught in a nightmarish plot
to rob her of an inheritance. Usually marketed (and dismissed) as erotica, Cool It, Carol! (aka The Dirtiest Girl I Ever Met)
follows a small-town couple who seek adventure in the big city and find
themselves involved in the smut film racket (a seedy business which also
figures prominently in The Big
Switch). Moon
(Man of Violence) is an
international heist film starring Michael Latimer as a James Bond-like gun for
hire.
Product Extras
:
Die Screaming Marianne Audio commentary by director Pete Walker with
film historian Jonathan Rigby
Moon (Man of Violence) Audio commentary by film historians Kat
Ellinger and Martyn Conterior
"Pete Walker: An Eye for Terror," an
interview by Elijah Drenner
I pretty much swore off of contemporary horror films some years ago, as gruesome elements increasingly subjugated genuine suspense. The last time I found a horror film to be quite scary was "The Blair Witch Project", which was so long ago that some people reading this might not have been born yet. I don't know what possessed me to return to the genre, but on a whim I decided to check out writer/director/producer Ti West's 2011 supernatural mystery "The Innkeepers". I'm glad I did because this is an old fashioned horror flick in the best sense of the term. I grew up in the Sixties but it isn't pure sentiment that has made me continue to regard films such as "The Innocents" and "The Haunting" as classics of the horror genre, or to sub-categorize them, the ghost story genre. A good director knows that such tales are all the more frightening if much is left to the imagination of the viewers. Today's audiences are used to being spoon-fed severed jugular veins spouting oceans of blood, but in the true classics the real terror is left unseen or only shown briefly.
"The Innkeepers" is somewhat unique among ghost stories in that it isn't set in the Victorian era and the events don't unwind in a remote, cavernous manor house. In fact, screenwriter West takes a different approach by setting the film almost entirely in The Yankee Pedlar, an actual moderate-sized historic hotel that is still operating on the main street of Torrington, Connecticut. (West had stayed at the Inn while filming his previous film "The House of the Devil" and it inspired him to write "The Innkeepers".) The only customers still occupying rooms are a nasty mom and her young son, who soon depart, leaving the remaining occupant Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), a once popular actress who gave up the profession to lecture about the paranormal, as she claims to have psychic abilities. The inn is run by its only two remaining employees in its last days: Claire (Sara Paxton), a perky young woman in her twenties and Luke (Pat Healy), the 30-something cynic who looks at life through a cynical lens. (He's also understandably has an unrequited crush on Claire.) Both have a couple of things in common: they are both college drop-outs who are on career paths to holding low-paying, dead-end jobs. They also are intrigued by long-standing rumors that the inn is haunted by the ghost of a young woman named Madeleine who committed suicide there in the distant past. Luke has some sophisticated equipment that he feels will detect and record any apparitions or inexplicable sounds. So far, the effort has been a bust but the duo keeps up their investigations primarily just to pass the time of day and to avert boredom. Director West is in no hurry to get to the juicy stuff and the film is all the better for it, as it lets the viewer get to know these well-defined and likeable characters. On the final night, strange things begin to happen when Claire witnesses a key on a piano suddenly make a sound on its own. It's a one-off occurrence, though she had captured an audio recording. Despite their continued hunting, nothing else strange materializes. She consults with their guest, Leanne, who convinces Claire that she does indeed have psychic powers, specifically to foretell future events. She gives Claire a stern warning: get out of the inn immediately. In the grand tradition of ghost stories, Claire does not heed the advice and soon she's poking around the dank, dark basement until one last guest checks in. Played very well indeed by George Riddle, the man explains to Claire that he and his late wife had honeymooned at the hotel and he wants to spend the venue's last night in the same room in which the newlyweds had stayed. Claire consents and all hell ultimately breaks loose.
(Photo: Dark Sky Films)
I will not divulge any more about the plot because the fun of it all is trying to guess what comes next. I can say that both Sara Paxton and Pat Healy give terrific and very believable performances as the slackers who may be on the verge of proving the existence of the psychic phenomenon. Director West ratchets up the suspense as the chilling finale nears and it's all set to a marvelous and appropriately eerie score by Jeff Grace and creatively filmed by cinematographer Eliot Rockett. In between scares, the banter between our two protagonists is often quite funny but West never makes the mistake of allowing humor to interfere with the increasing suspense. It's also to West's credit that he places the haunted venue in the middle of a bustling small town, which would seem to rob the scenario of any real scares. After all, at any given point, passersby could be called in as witnesses at any given time. Yet, this doesn't happen because Claire and Luke are determined to carry out their investigations without interference.
"The Innkeepers" received a good deal of acclaim from horror fans when it was released but it never enjoyed wide distribution. Despite its rich production values, its budget was only $750,000. It may not appeal to younger viewers who have been weened on hockey mask-wearing slashers and other fiends who dismember helpless females. This is very much a more intellectual concept, well-executed in every respect. There is a shocking development near the end of the film and the natural consequence would have been for Claire to call the police. When asked by Luke why she didn't, she simply dismisses the question by saying she didn't get around to it. It's an illogical answer to a logical question but the real reason Claire doesn't call the police can be found, improbably, in a scenario involving director John Ford. In discussing the famous chase scene across the desert plains in his 1939 classic "Stagecoach", a journalist once asked Ford why the pursuing Indians didn't stop the stage by simply shooting the horses. Ford replied, "Because then there would have been no movie."
"The Innkeepers" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
A William Holden record album? Well, sort of. When Holden was one of the top boxoffice stars in the world, he loaned his name to this 1959 Warner Bros. record album that featured themes associated with exotic places around the world. Holden wrote the liner notes seen on the reverse side of the album, or allegedly he did. Supposedly he and music director Warren Baker based these themes on Holden's personal travels.
The YouTube channel Old School Cinema presents 8 underrated war movies that Martin Scorsese has recommended (though we haven't verified this claim). In any event, they make for an inpired assortment, from post-war European films to mainstream Hollywood fare. If you can forgive the narrator mispronouncing a couple of things, it makes for an interesting list of recommendations.
The stars arrive in Honolulu to commence filming on the screen adaptation of James Jones' best-selling novel "From Here to Eternity". The resulting film would win Best Picture of 1953 at the Oscars and gain Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress wins for Frank Sinatra (whose career was saved by his role in the movie) and Donna Reed. (Left to right: Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, James Jones and director Fred Zinnemann.)
I'm always somewhat amused when I read articles that look back on the 1960s as the decade in which cinematic Westerns went out of style. The theory is that the new screen freedoms appealed to younger viewers and indeed they did. "Easy Rider" and "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", both released in 1969, would have never made it to theater screens in the prior decade. However, Westerns were far from dead. They may not have dominated movie screens in the manner they traditionally did, but the genre was still thriving and co-existing with the breakthrough films being made a generation of inventive young turks. Case in point: the year 1969, which saw the release of three classic Westerns: Henry Hathaway's "True Grit", Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" and George Roy Hill's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". The latter inspired an Emmy-winning documentary that has appeared on special edition videos of the film and is now streaming on Amazon Prime. The show was made during production of the film and narrated by George Roy Hill but it was not telecast until after the movie had been released to sensational reviews and boxoffice. Thus, when watching the show, it's from an interesting perspective, as the director admits he doesn't know how well his ambitious film will be received. In fact, "Butch Cassidy" would help to not only reinvent the Western in a hip, funny manner but would also inspire the countless "buddy" movies that would follow in its wake. They would all feature characters patterned after Butch and Sundance's habit of making quips even in the face of deadly threats.
The program provides a master class in filmmaking, demonstrating how many talented people are crucial to bringing a movie to the screen. In this case, Hill constantly refers to the contributions of cinematographer Conrad Hall, already an esteemed industry veteran and composer Burt Bacharach, who decided to go with a contemporary-sounding score that worked surprisingly well. Hill's commentary isn't sanitized (though his expletives most certainly would have been censored for T.V. broadcast.) The challenges he faced are made clear starting with stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who were to play inseparable best friends. In real life, the two actors had not known each other prior to filming. Luckily, they bonded immediately. Hill seems to have been not so enamored with his leading lady, Katharine Ross, who he alludes to having some frustrations with and dismisses with some faint praise, not to be mentioned again despite being shown throughout the program. Hill demonstrates how he was open to hearing creative suggestions from his stars and sometimes going with their judgment.
The most enjoyable aspects of the program, which was impressively directed by Robert Crawford, Jr., is the way it demonstrates the monotonous aspects of movie-making, which quickly strips the glamour away. If you have ever watched a major movie being filmed then you know most of the time is spent just waiting around as the director, actors and technicians discuss strategies and even the seemingly easy scenes require a great deal of preparation and the involvement of countless professionals. Hill also points out the magic of filmmaking through the use of deceitful methods. When Butch and Sundance make their famous jump into the rapids, the stars were filmed atop a cliff in Colorado but the actual jump was shot with two stuntmen at the famed Fox Ranch studio set in California, using the same lake where scenes from "Our Man Flint" and "Planet of the Apes", among countless others, were filmed.
George Roy Hill and his stars and crew thought they had a winner with "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". They were probably wrong only in the sense that it transcended being a hit and became an all-time classic, reaffirming Paul Newman as an endurable leading man and launching Robert Redford to superstardom. None of them would realize that their second act would be even bigger, with their combined talents reunited for the Oscar winning Best Picture "The Sting" four years later.
Three Limited Edition
Hardboxes, all strictly limited to 1500 copies each.
Pre-order now at www.imprintfilms.com.au - available individually, in an
exclusive Bundle Pack, or in a MEGA Bundle Pack with all TEN July releases -
shipping free internationally and presenting a saving of AUD $100.
MALCOLM X (1992) ??
Denzel Washington stars in Spike Lee’s visionary biopic
of civil rights activist Malcolm X, joining the Imprint collection in 4K UHD
with Dolby Vision.
Praised by endless key filmmakers and critics, including
Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert, this masterpiece of cinema is a unique,
essential, confronting vision of history, identity, and revolution.
Including brand NEW and archival Special Features.
====
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967) ????
In HDR and Dolby Vision for the first time worldwide!
Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger star in the mystery crime
thriller In The Heat of The Night, joining the Imprint collection in 4K
UHD with Dolby Vision.
The winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards, In
The Heat Of The Night is a powerful examination of dignity and prejudice,
becoming a staple of Hollywood that retains its longevity to this day.
Includes a Hardback Booklet and hours of Special
Features.
====
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) ????
Worldwide first on 4K UHD!
"I'm walkin' here!"
Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight star in the undisputed
classic drama Midnight Cowboy, making its worldwide debut on 4K UHD with
Dolby Vision.
The winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Midnight
Cowboy has achieved a legacy like few other films. A dissection of the
nostalgia of the New York nightmare, this raw, uncompromising picture takes you
inside the minds of two desperate men chasing dreams in a city that offers
none.
Includes a brand NEW Audio Commentary, and the worldwide
Blu-ray debut of 2022 feature documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and
the Legend of Midnight Cowboy.
(Prices are in Australian dollars. Use currency converter for your local currency.)
Here is rare behind the scenes production featurette for "4 for Texas", the 1963 Western comedy that starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ursula Andress, Anita Ekberg and Charles Bronson under the direction of Robert Aldrich. Click here to order the DVD from Amazon.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Warner Bros.:
THE ALTO KNIGHTS
The Biographical Crime DramaStarring Robert De Niro and
Directed by Barry Levinson Debuts on Digital on April 11
Blu-ray and DVD Arrive on May 27
Burbank, CA, April 10, 2025 – From Warner Bros.
Pictures, “The Alto Knights,” starring Academy Award winner Robert De Niro in a
dual role and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson, will
debut Digitally at home on April 11.
The film follows two of New York’s most notorious
organized crime bosses, Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (De Niro),
as they vie for control of the city’s streets. Once the best of friends, petty
jealousies and a series of betrayals place them on a deadly collision course
that will reshape the Mafia (and America) forever.
“The Alto Knights” was written by Oscar nominee Nicholas
Pileggi (“Goodfellas”) and produced by Oscar winner Irwin Winkler (“Rocky,”
“Goodfellas”), Levinson, Jason Sosnoff, Charles Winkler and David Winkler, with
Mike Drake executive producing.
De Niro stars alongside Debra Messing (“Will &
Grace”), Cosmo Jarvis (“Sh?gun”), Kathrine Narducci (“The Irishman”) and
Michael Rispoli (“Billions”), along with Michael Adler (“Peppermint”), Ed
Amatrudo (“Till,” “Nashville”), Joe Bacino (“Kick-Ass”), Anthony J. Gallo (“The
Irishman”), Wallace Langham (“Ford v Ferrari”), Louis Mustillo (“Cooper’s Bar,”
“Mike & Molly”), Frank Piccirillo, Matt Servitto (“Billions”) and Robert
Uricola (“Raging Bull”).
Joining Levinson (“Rainman,” “The Natural,” “Wag the
Dog,” “Good Morning Vietnam”) behind the camera are Oscar-nominated director of
photography Dante Spinotti (“The Insider,” “L.A. Confidential”), production
designer Neil Spisak (the “Spider-Man” films, “Dopesick”), Oscar- nominated
editor Douglas Crise (“Babel,” “Dopesick”), Oscar-nominated costume designer
Jeffrey Kurland (“Bullets Over Broadway,” “Tenet”), award-winning casting
director Ellen Chenoweth (“Past Lives”) and composer David Fleming (“Hillbilly
Elegy,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”).
· On
April 11, “The Alto Knights” will be available Digitally at home on
participating digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Fandango
at Home, and more.
· On
May 27, “The Alto Knights” will be available to own on Blu-ray and DVD from
online retailers. “The Alto Knights” will also continue to be available in high
definition and standard definition from participating digital retailers.
DIGITAL ELEMENTS
“The Alto Knights” Digital contains the following special
features:
Here's a sneak peek at the forthcoming 4K UHD release of Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" Arrow Films UK release. It will be followed by releases of "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". The releases will include both legacy and new bonus materials.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Oak Tree Books Acquires Cold War-to-Hollywood
Memoir from Lidia Hitchcock
A GRIPPING BLEND OF COLD WAR INTRIGUE AND HOLLYWOOD REVELATIONS
INCLUDES CANDID ANECDOTES FEATURING STARS LIKE TOM CRUISE, LEONARDO DICAPRIO,
AND SEAN CONNERY. PLUS LEGENDARY DIRECTORS STANLEY KUBRICK AND BRIAN DE PALMA.
PUBLISHING SEPTEMBER 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oak
Tree Books has acquired worldwide rights to Escape to Hollywood, the memoir of
Lidia Hitchcock, an Eastern-bloc film production manager who fled communist
Prague and went on to build a prolific career working behind the scenes on
major Hollywood blockbusters. The book was written with entertainment writer
Gareth Owen.
Encouraged by Barbra Streisand, Hitchcock spent years planning her escape from
Czechoslovakia before arriving in the West and building herself a new life.
Over time, Lidia worked her way up to become a key figure in the production of
blockbusters such as Cast Away, The Man In The Iron Mask, and the Mission:
Impossible series. Lidia’s candid, often humorous memoir includes
behind-the-scenes stories of working with Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean
Connery, Richard Gere, and Tom Hanks, as well as legendary directors Stanley
Kubrick, Brian De Palma, and John Woo.
“This is the story I wanted to write for a long time, but never came to be
until now,” says Lidia Hitchcock. “This account is a true story with nothing
added or glamorised.”
Rights to the book were acquired directly from the author by Oak Tree Books
publisher and CEO, Paul Andrews. Escape to Hollywood will be published in
September 2025 and will feature more than 50 personal and production
photographs.
“Lidia’s story is fascinating,” says Paul Andrews, publisher and CEO of Oak
Tree Books. “It’s a Cold War escape thriller, a Hollywood ‘making of’, and a
personal journey of resilience all in one. Her unique perspective working on
some of the biggest movie productions offers insight, humour and humanity in
equal measure. We’re honoured to be publishing Lidia’s remarkable memoir.”
Escape to Hollywood is a story that only Tinseltown could produce — a candid
peek beyond the bright lights and red carpets, with a star-studded cast that
would be the envy of anyone in show business.
About Lidia Hitchcock
Lidia fled communist ruled Prague in the 1980s in an edge-of-seat escape which
was three years in the planning, and from arriving in the UK with little more
than the clothes she stood in, Lidia went on to carve a very successful career
in movies (behind the scenes) working on sone of Hollywood’s biggest hits, and
ultimately marrying the head of Warner Bros. production, Paul Hitchcock.
Escape to Hollywood is Lidia Hitchcock’s first book.
About Oak Tree Books
Since the year 2000, Oak Tree Books — Andrews UK’s premium imprint — has all
new high-quality titles, covering a range of genres from biographies, fantasy,
horror and so much more! We also publish or re-publish often beloved books of
characters and brands from to 70s and 80s for that nostalgic feel everyone
adores.
About Gareth Owen
Gareth Owen is an entertainment writer and author who has collaborated with
some of the biggest names in Hollywood on their memoirs.
A
pilot for a television series that never got off the ground (no pun intended)
and, perhaps mercifully, remained confined to the launchpad (still, no pun
intended!), Tom Gries’s Earth II (1971), while boasting some above-average
special effects clearly inspired by Douglas Trumball’s work on Stanley
Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), to say nothing of the casting of
2001 stalwart Gary Lockwood in a major role, begins promisingly and ends
with a whimper. The central conceit behind the film is both admirable and
hopeful. Taking place following the successful 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing
(which on the surface – there’s that pun again – was taking a “giant leap for
mankind” but actually designed to make America outshine the Soviets), a group
of astronauts and citizens from around the world rally to create a separate nation
aboard a space station called Earth II, itself a sovereign entity possessing inclusion
in the United Nations. I can see Elon Musk championing a similar scenario with
Space X in his on-going desire to save humanity by colonizing Mars. Earth II’s raison
d’etre is in performing scientific research to benefit those back on Earth.
David Seville (Gary Lockwood), not to be confused with the singer known for his
association with Alvin and the Chipmunks (though in retrospect it would have
made the whole affair far more entertaining if he was involved!), is the aloof
leader of this project. Earth II is comprised of colleagues who work in a
democratic fashion with all discussions being decided by the adult population
on Earth. Weapons and references to violence of any kind have no place on Earth
II. These notions come on the heels of John and Yoko’s “Give Peace a Chance” and
harken back to Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek series wherein our
differences are what make us all human and deserving of celebration. That
show was cancelled just two years earlier in a move that in hindsight was both
foolish and short-sighted. Once the good intentions of the space station are
set in place, you can bet your sweet bippy that trouble ahead is brewing. In
this case, China deploys a nuclear warhead approximately 150 miles away with
Moscow in its sights. In comes Frank Karger (Anthony Franciosa), who previously
worked with Seville, to set things straight by creating a situation that locks
horns with China. They debate as to whether or not they should force China’s
hand and disarm the weapon themselves, however this can prove to be a conflict
of interest behind Earth II’s sole reason for having been created in the first
place. This is where the film falters as Karger’s well-meaning, but little-more-than-window-dressing
wife Lisa (Mariette Hartley) takes it upon herself to dispense with the now
onboard warhead. The idea is to direct it into the sun where it will melt prior
to detonating. Unfortunately, she fails to consider the gravitational pull of
Earth on the warhead, and this creates much tension to get the warhead back on
track when her maneuver is discovered as it is now hurtling towards Earth
instead. Care to guess how the movie ends?
Earth
II, which aired on the ABC Sunday Night Movie on
November 28, 1971, is now available on Blu-ray in a beautiful transfer from the
Warner Archive. I have no recollection of ever having heard of or read about this
tele-film despite it reportedly being produced with the full cooperation of
NASA. The film suffers most through the long-winded and technical expository
dialog scenes. Actor Lockwood reportedly had disdain for it for this very
reason. Anthony Franciosa, a favorite of mine from the time that I saw him as
author Peter Neal in Dario Argento’s Tenebre (1982), provides the film’s
best performance as he challenges the status quo in favor of what he
believes is right and just. The superior Gene Roddenberry-helmed The Questor Tapes (1974) would come along three years later, and
that title is available from Kino Lorber.
Argentinian
composer Lalo Schifrin provides a decent score for the film, and if you are a
fan of it, it was released on compact disc in 2010 by Film Score Monthly in
their five-disc MGM television music compilation called TV Omnibus: Volume
One (1962 – 1976).
Earth
II is framed at 1.33:1, however the trailer is 16x9
and runs nearly three minutes. There are no other special features on the region-free disc,
and it would have been nice to have had an audio commentary from either someone
affiliated with the film or a film historian as, despite the many flaws, there is still much to admire here if you are a fan of outer
space fare.
Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store
If you are a Cinema Retro reader, I'll go out on a limb and assume you are familiar with John Ford's 1956 masterpiece "The Searchers". The film was a hit when it opened but didn't gain the stature of being a classic until years later. Over time, film scholars began to reassess the movie and proclaimed it to be perhaps Ford's greatest work. Not surprisingly, the film has proven to be very popular over the decades in every manner of "new technology" video from VHS to laser disc to DVD and Blu-ray. In fact, Warner Brothers' Blu-ray editions have seemed to be as close to perfect as anyone could ask for. But now the much-beloved boutique label the Warner Archive has released the film as their premiere 4K edition.To be candid, there are perfectly reasonable debates ongoing in the video collector's communities about whether 4K upgrades are worth the investment, if one already possesses the Blu-ray release. The answer is: it depends on the release and your enthusiasm for the title. To be sure, there are plenty of 4K titles that can understandably be deemed to be not worth the cost of upgrading. However, "The Searchers" most certainly is. From the opening credits, which are simply titles that play out over artwork of a plain adobe brick wall, it becomes clear that this is as close to home video perfection as you will ever see. The opening frames of John Wayne's Ethan Edwards approaching the ranch house, photographed from a distance by the legendary Winton C. Hoch, are enough to make you tear up at the sheer beauty of the presentation...and things only get better from there.
As is undoubtedly the case with many of our readers, I have seen "The Searchers" in every format numerous times, including on the big screen at festivals and art houses. I have to say that watching the Warner Archive 4K renewed the excitement of watching the film, making all aspects of this tale of tragedy and retribution seem as fresh as ever, thanks in no small part to Max Steiner's emotionally moving score. The 4K edition includes a remastered Blu-ray and ports over the legacy bonus features from previous editions including
An audio commentary by director Peter Bogdanovich, one of the few people who could get John Ford to sit for an interview. Ford was known to be cantankerous with journalists and when he wasn't insulting them, he was providing a good deal of Irish blarney in telling tall tales that were a distortion of how some of his films were made. However, he liked Bogdanovich, who was a young man when he befriended Ford. Consequently, Bogdanovich's commentary is essential to understanding both Ford and "The Searchers".
"A Turning of the Earth", the superb 1998 "making of" documentary by the late, great Nick Redman and his partners Brian Jamieson and Vince Stancarone.
A 1996 on location introduction by Patrick Wayne, who recalls playing a supporting role in the film.
A series of B&W T.V. promotional shorts about the filming of "The Searchers" from its initial release. Hosted by Gig Young, the staging is hokey and quite unintentionally funny with Young pretending he is actually at Monument Valley, when it's all too clear he is in a small studio set. Young's "location" appearances are interwoven with some valuable behind the scenes footage of the movie, so there's more value to these segments than the chuckles they evoke.
The original theatrical trailer.
Ford's film has aged very well indeed. Short of seeing the movie on the big screen, the Warner Archive 4K is a thing of beauty to behold....and yes, it's very much worth the upgrade.
Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store
Burbank,
CA (April 29, 2025) – THE
SEAN CONNERY COLLECTION fromMetro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), a
collection of six James Bond films starring Sean Connery as 007, will be
available to own on June 10 as a 4K UHD collection for the first time for the
ultimate at home movie-watching experience. The collection includes Dr.
No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You
Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.
The
collection will be available in collectible steelbook packaging and as a
standard 4K collection.
These
six films will also be available on Digital from MGM.
The
action, the intrigue, the women… The films and THE Bond that established the
enduring franchise. Experience the spy thrillers that made Sean Connery
immortal like you’ve never seen them before in stunning 4K for the first time.
The films are part of the 5th highest grossing film franchise
of all time with more than $7.8 billion in worldwide box office revenues.
The
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs of THE SEAN CONNERY COLLECTION will feature Dolby
Vision® ultra-vivid imaging. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby
Vision® can deliver spectacular colors never before seen on a screen,
highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times
darker. With Dolby Vision®, you will feel as if you are inside the action
alongside 007 as the picture comes to life.
4K Ultra HD** showcases 4K
resolution with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and a wider color spectrum, offering
consumers brighter, deeper, and more lifelike colors for a home entertainment
viewing experience like never before.
(Cinema Retro's Author's Corner column invites authors to provide personal insights into their latest book.)
By Thomas D. Clagett
“The French
Connection has a street language no one can write,” said William Friedkin
who won an Academy Award for directing that film, a police thriller about a New
York City narcotics detective named Popeye Doyle investigating a massive drug smuggling
operation. When I saw it, I knew Friedkin was a director to watch.
His next film was The
Exorcist. This was not a horror film to me. It was a profound struggle
between good and evil. After seeing it, I couldn’t stop wondering how Friedkin
had done it.
Then he produced and
directed Sorcerer. It remains, for me, one of the most muscular, visceral
films ever made.
Friedkin made these
three films back-to-back-to-back. The idea of writing a book about his films had
taken hold. The reason is, I love movies;
always have, and no one had done a thorough study of Friedkin’s films. I believe
The French Connection, The Exorcist and Sorcerer are films
as important and as significant as Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, David
Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, and Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.
When
I met Friedkin at his office in Burbank in September of 1979 to discuss my
proposal of a book on his films, he said he was not interested in participating
“unless it’s honest, otherwise it’s just a waste of my time.” Relieved, I
assured him that a serious study was exactly what I wanted to do. He then asked
me what I thought of his films. I told him I had not yet seen his early
documentary or television work. Then I began naming off his films, telling him
what I liked, did not like, and briefly why. I felt nervous. He had asked for
honesty. It was too late to stop now, and I wasn’t going to lie to him. He sat
behind his desk, listening quietly, never looking away from me. When I
finished, he said, “That sounds fair. I’d agree with that assessment.” So began
years of research for this book.
I interviewed
Friedkin and nearly 100 of his colleagues. They included producers,
screenwriters, actors, cinematographers, production designers, film editors,
costume designers, choreographers, assistant directors, location managers, key
grips, property masters, sound mixers, sound effects editors, assistant film
editors and more. All had stories to tell.
A brief sampling:
“There is a very fine
line as to how far realism can go, and that fine line is what Billy was after,”
said Marcel Vercoutere, special effects man on The Exorcist. “That was
the reason we tested the exorcism effects and checked the makeup before we
started shooting. That’s what was worrying him¾if they were
believable.”
On The French
Connection, William C. Gerrity, the first assistant director, recalled that
Friedkin wanted the Brooklyn Bridge tied up with traffic for the climax to a
scene where Doyle and his partner Russo are tailing a drug dealer. “We had no
permission to do this, of course,” Gerrity said. “I said to Billy, ‘This is
rush hour, kiddo. We can’t do this. We’ll be in trouble.’ He said, ‘I don’t
care what it is. I don’t care how you do it. I want this bridge tied up, and I
want them stuck in traffic, and I want to see the heavy get away,’ So we took
two of our cars, faked them to be broken-down, and created such a traffic jam
that we had traffic backed up from Brooklyn to Queens and, I think, everyplace
else. The cops didn’t take too lightly to that.”
For The Brink’s
Job, property master Barry Bedig said that “Billy wanted a horse-drawn beer
wagon for a scene. I said, ‘We better get a horse from New York or Hollywood so
it won’t spook.’ Billy said, ‘No, there’s millions of horses here in
Massachusetts.’ This was a night scene that took hours to light. Billy says it
would be great to have this horse pull the wagon out and we pan the car in.
Well, there was this arc light staring at this horse. Sure enough, the horse
spooked. Billy said, ‘Barry, what the fuck is wrong with this horse?’ Everybody
is silent. I said, ‘Billy, I don’t know. I can only get the horse. You teach it
to act.’ He just started laughing. And we got a horse from New York.”
On Killer Joe,
Caleb Deschanel, the cinematographer, recalled the time “shooting a scene
outside where a truck pulls up and we caught the reflection of the camera on
the truck. I went to Billy when the take was done and I said, ‘You got to
reshoot because we can see the camera reflected in the truck,’ and he said,
‘Don’t you realize that everybody out there knows we use cameras to make
movies?’”
After the critical
and commercial failure of Sorcerer, Bud Smith, who edited the film,
recalled Friedkin saying to him, “You know, Bud, if it had been a success, we’d
have gone back to the jungle and tried to make another film, a better one.”
Friedkin, long recognized for his dark, aberrant,
visceral films, had a career that spanned more than 60 years (he died on August
7, 2023) and was marked by some of the most contentious and compelling
successes and failures in American cinema.
Along with The French Connection, The
Exorcist and Sorcerer, Friedkin’s films include The People Versus
Paul Crump, an early documentary that saved a man’s life from the electric
chair, Good Times (Friedkin said, “If I could I’d burn the negative...”),
The Boys in the Band (“I had no particular desire to make a film about
homosexuals,” Friedkin recalled. “It was just the best script to come to me at
that time.”),Cruising (“The only faults
Friedkin sees in ‘Cruising’ are his own inadequacies as a filmmaker,” said the Los
Angeles Times), Deal of the Century (“Not every film works” goes the saying in Hollywood),To Live and Die in L.A. (“Coming off of Deal,
Billy wanted to make a statement that hard-hitting filmmaking is his forte,”
said Bud Smith, film editor), Bug (Friedkin called it “a comedy, pitch-black, … certain to
offend audiences, even as it challenged their expectations”), Killer Joe
(“The
most disturbing film I’ve ever made,” Friedkin said), and his last film, The Caine Mutiny
Court-Martial about which actor Keifer Sutherland said, “Working with William
Friedkin was one of the great honors of my life.”
Back
in 2003 when the 2nd edition of my book was published, I sent Billy
two copies. One I had inscribed thanking him for his help and encouragement,
and the other I asked if he would sign for me. He did, and this is what he
wrote: “To Tom - Who knows more about me than I do.”
I
hope he would feel the same way about this third and final edition.
(Mark Cerulli and Luciana Paluzzi. (Photo: Mark Cerulli).
Cinema Retro's Mark Cerulli was invited to cover the world premiere 4K restoration of "Thunderball" at the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival in L.A. Here is his report:
Have
you ever wanted to take a time machine back to the 1960s, even for a couple of
hours?Turner Classic Movies (TCM) gave
a Hollywood audience the chance last Friday when it premiered a brand new, pristinely
restored 4K transfer of Thunderball as part of their annual TCM Classic
Film Festival at the famous Chinese Theater.For two blissful hours, current turmoil and the price of eggs were left
behind as James Bond – played by a 35-year-old Sean Connery at the top of his 00
game – saved the world from a nuclear plot.Even though it screened at 9AM, the theater was almost at capacity with
a very vocal crowd that applauded the opening and closing credits and almost
everything in between.The restored colors
were vibrant and crisp, the underwater sequences looked stunning and were even
better on a giant screen. The sound effects and, of course, John Barry’s
magnificent score practically shook the seats.
(TCM host Eddie Muller interviews Luciana Paluzzi. (Photo: Mark Cerulli).
The
entire Bond team was firing on all cylinders for this film, and it showed.After Goldfinger’s huge success, United
Artists and the producers realized they had lightning in a bottle, so they
lavished over $6M on the film – which grossed over $141M in 1965 dollars. The
glimpses of an unspoiled Bahamas and a refined elegance that has faded from
modern life are two of the film’s many attractions.Sadly, the original Café Martinique is long
gone, Palmyra is in disrepair and the Coral Harbor Hotel is now a fenced off military
property. Even Love Beach (where Vargas
got the point) has been developed with houses on it. The sea wall Bond climbs on to observe Largo’s
dive team is still standing in the sprawling Atlantis resort, but for how long?
After
the screening, radiant Luciana Paluzzi joined for a quick Q&A with TCM's Eddie Muller.Smiling and full of energy at 87, she was
only too happy to talk about making the film.Luciana was asked about working with Connery, who she described as “a
man’s man” who preferred going out to dinner with the production crew than
attend the high-end parties that were offered by Nassau society during their
three month stay.She also noted that
she maintained a friendship with the star for decades after, visiting his New York
townhouse and Bahamas home.Having
missed the original 1965 release and the epic 1970 Thunderball/You Only Live Twice
double-feature, I try to catch Thunderball on a big screen whenever I
can.Once again, “The Biggest Bond of
All” didn’t disappoint.
James
Cagney demonstrates his martial arts skills in the 1945 thriller “Blood on the
Sun,” available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The film opens in 1929 Japan where
newspaper man Nick Condon (Cagney) comes into possession of the Japanese plan
for world domination, the Tanaka Memorial. What
follows is Nick trying to stay one step ahead of the Japanese government agents
as he attempts to get out of Japan alive with the infamous document. The crawl
at the start of the movie sets things up with Baron Giichi Tanaka’s “plan of
world conquest depends upon secrecy for success.”
Believed
to be authentic due to the actions of the Japanese during this period, the
authenticity of The Tanaka Memorial is questionable at best and is widely
believed today to be a hoax created by the Chinese. The alleged plan was used
for propaganda purposes by the Allies throughout WWII.
Nick
is editor of the Tokyo Chronicle where he writes and prints a story critical of
Japanese aggression in China and the region. Japan and America were still 12
years away from the war in the Pacific, but Japan was only a couple years away
from the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 which was the start of their regional
domination.
Nick
is seen practicing his karate skills when we first meet him and is soon
confronted by Japanese agents and their thugs regarding his article. Later,
when confronted by the publisher, Arthur Bicket (Porter Hall), about the
validity of the article, Nick tells him, “I’ll write a retraction when they
prove the story is false.” Nick exposes the plan with no hard evidence, but the
Japanese government is convinced he has proof which endangers Nick and those
working for the newspaper.
Nick’s
friend Ollie Miller (Wallace Ford) starts flashing cash around a bar and drunkenly
announces he and his wife are leaving for America. This gets the attention of
the Japanese agents and Nick finds Ollie’s wife, Edith (Rosemary DeCamp), dead
onboard thei ship. Ollie soon turns up at Nick’s home dying of injuries he
received earlier and hands Nick an envelope containing the plan for Japanese
conquest. When the Japanese agents arrive, Nick hides the envelope behind a
framed portrait of the emperor knowing they will not touch it. Nick gets to
demonstrate his karate skills only to be overwhelmed and arrested. He’s roughed
up and the charges make it seem he was drinking, and the Japanese agents hide
all evidence of the murder of Ollie and his wife.
Nick
meets Iris Hilliard (played by Sylvia Sidney), a mixed-race Chinese agent, who
appears to working on behalf of the Japanese government, but who might also be
a double agent. She’s working for Premier Giichi Tanaka (John Emery), who
rewards her with expensive jewelry. It turns out the Japanese don’t really
trust Iris and they discover she has the envelope with the document which Nick
hid in his apartment.
Robert
Armstrong features as the villainous Colonel Hideki Tojo. Armstrong is almost
unrecognizable beneath his makeup and teeth prosthetics as is Marvin Miller as
Yamada, Leonard Strong as Hijikata, Frank Puglia as Prince Tatsugi, and John
Halloran as Captain Oshima. The white elephant in the room is that all the
actors playing the major Japanese characters are white actors wearing so called
“yellow face” make-up. This was common for this period and the movie must be
viewed with this in mind. Uncredited are two of the few Asian actors in the
cast, Philip Ahn as Secret Police Captain Yomamoto and Joseph Kim as Hayoshi.
Also
going uncredited is Hugh Beaumont as the deputy ambassador Johnney Clarke. Beaumont
is mostly remembered today as the dad in “Leave it to Beaver.” However, did you
know he’s the voice used on the recording for the U.S. Naval Observatory Master
Clock? I checked and his voice is still being used. I’ll always remember him
from my Air Force days synchronizing our clocks at base operations.
James
Cagney is one of the Hollywood greats and he’s excellent in this movie. The
finale includes a three-minute fight scene in which Cagney demonstrates his
martial arts prowess for the third and final time. The movie ends with Cagney
saying to his Japanese foes, “Forgive your enemies, but first get revenge.”
Sylvia
Sidney is another Hollywood great who continued to appear in films well into the
1990s including “Damien: Omen II” in 1978 and two by Tim Burton, “Beetlejuice”
in 1988 and “Mars Attacks” in 1996. Rosemary DeCamp played Nellie Cohan, Cagney’s
mother in the 1942 release “Yankee Doodle Dandy” despite being 11 years younger
than Cagney. She appeared in many movies and TV series including “Buck Rogers
in the 25th Century” as Buck’s mother in 1981.
Released
months prior to the Japanese surrender, “Blood on the Sun” is a thriller that would
have been more effective as propaganda if it had been made in the late 1930s or
early 1940s. The film is directed by Frank Lloyd, who is probably best
remembered as the director of the 1935 version of “Mutany on the Bounty” with
Clark Gable and written by Lester Cole, Nathaniel Curtis and Garrett Fort. Fort
is best remembered for his writing credits on “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” in
1931. The film was produced by William Cagney, James’s brother, for their production
company and was released by United Artists. The score is by the great Miklos
Roza and it’s a good one. The movie entered the public domain in 1973 and made
the rounds on broadcast television and home video in copies made from inferior
release prints. Kino Lorber does the film justice with a very nice release on
Blu-ray that looks and sounds terrific, clocking in at 89 minutes.
The
Kino Lorber disc contains an audio commentary by film historian and writer Julie
Kirgo and writer and filmmaker Peter Hankoff. Kirgo has provided dozens of
enjoyable and entertaining audio commentaries for a wide variety of Blu-ray
releases in addition to her many film essays. Hankoff is probably best known as
the producer of two outstanding WWII documentaries, “The Cold Blue” and
“Apocalypse ’45.” Hankoff and Kirgo make a great commentary team and provide
insides into the production, the actors and the historical context of the
period. Their commentary alone is worth the price of the disc. The disc also contains
trailers for this and five other Kino releases. Highly recommended for fans of
Cagney, early film noir and pre-WWII history.
The
final picture directed by the great William Wyler, The Liberation of L. B.
Jones, is indicative of the type of “social awareness” films that Hollywood
was making at that time, mainly between 1967 – 1973. These were movies that cast
spotlights on such topics as racial injustice, civil rights, the Vietnam War,
student unrest, and more controversial themes.
More
interesting than the film itself is the trajectory of the author of the novel
from which it was based, Jesse Hill Ford. Ford, who resided in a small town in
Tennessee, published The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones in 1965 and it
became a bestseller. But it was allegedly loosely based on people in the town,
and they didn’t approve. When the movie came out in 1970, it poured salt on the
wound. Ford found himself to be ostracized in his hometown. His own shooting of
a Black man in his driveway found the author accused of murder—and then he
became the recipient of the kind of “Southern justice” that he had written
about in his novel (he was found “not guilty”—of course, Ford was white).
Ford’s writing career faltered and years later the man ended his life by
suicide.
Ford
co-wrote the film’s screenplay with none other than Stirling Silliphant, who
had won a writing Oscar for In the Heat of the Night (1967), another
tale of “Southern justice” and a major Hollywood entry about racism in America.
Suffice it to say that The Liberation of L. B. Jones is no In the
Heat of the Night, although it attempts to be.
One
of the problems—of the film, at least—is that there is no protagonist per se.
Lee J. Cobb has top billing as the “mildly” racist attorney who handles many
cases for the Black population in town. Prominent African-American actor Roscoe
Lee Browne portrays the title character, L. B. Jones, and he is the man with
whom the filmmakers want the audience to sympathize. But poor Mr. Jones is not
with us for the entirety of the film. Other important characters are portrayed
by a young Anthony Zerbe, Lola Falana, Lee Majors, Arch Johnson, and Yaphet
Kotto, but none of them can claim the protagonist slot. Barbara Hershey and
Brenda Sykes also make notable appearances.
Lord
Byron Jones (Browne) is a wealthy Black undertaker in town. He has a young
wife, Emma (Falana), who is having an affair with white, racist cop Willie Joe
Worth (Zerbe). Jones hires Oman Hedgepath (Cobb) to represent him in divorce
proceedings. But Emma hires her own lawyer, hoping to get a payout from Jones.
The problem is that a divorce trial would reveal the affair between the white
cop and the Black woman, which would cause Worth to lose his job (and he’s
married with kids, too). Instead, Worth and his cop buddy, Stanley Bumpas
(Johnson), take it upon themselves to “convince” Jones to drop the divorce.
Naturally, the situation goes from bad to tragedy. In the meantime, a vengeful
Sonny Mosby (Kotto) has returned to town with a gun in hand, hoping to extract
payback from Bumpas for a long-ago unjust crime against him and his family.
The
thrust of the picture is to show how, even in the late 1960s when the movie
takes place, justice in the south is more of a “white justice.” Murders of
Black citizens can be swept under the rug by all the white politicians,
attorneys, and law enforcement personnel. The corruption here goes all the way
up to the town’s mayor (played by Dub Taylor), and even the attorney we were
hoping would stand up for Jones—Hedgepath—fails us.
Wyler
and his screenwriters want the audience to feel outrage at the proceedings, and
we do, but unfortunately there is no payoff in the film. It simply leaves us
with the notion that this is the way things are and there’s nothing that
can be done about it. It is no wonder that the movie was a critical and box
office failure, despite strong performances by the entire cast and the
well-meaning intentions of the filmmakers. That said, the movie manages to hold
interest today, is never boring, and it gives us a look at many younger actors
who went on to do bigger and better things.
Imprint
(ViaVision) gives us the first Blu-ray release of the film in a wonderfully-restored high definition presentation that
accents that early 1970s film stock look. There are no other supplements
included on the region-free disk.
The
Liberation of L. B. Jones could be of interest to fans of any of the cast members,
of director William Wyler, and of Hollywood racial injustice pictures of the
period.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from TCM.
Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM)original limited series “Two for One” returns with 12 nights of brand-new double features curated by some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood beginning Saturday, May 3. Each week, TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz will be joined by legendary guests including Kathy Bates, John Carpenter, and Lin Manuel Miranda to introduce the two films of their choice, offering commentary on the pairing’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections. “Two for One” also explores the history, artform and allure of the double feature, a staple of moviegoing for decades.
Two Films. One Legendary Guest. Countless Stories.
Film Schedule Below:
May
Saturday, May 3 | Lin Manuel Miranda -The Bandwagon&All That Jazz
Saturday, May 10 | Jamie Lee Curtis -The Manchurian Candidate&Sweet Smell of Success
Saturday, May 17 | John Carpenter -Frankenstein&The Curse of Frankenstein
Saturday, May 31 | Kathy Bates -Bringing Up Baby&Stage Door
June
Saturday, June 7 | Paul Giamatti -Carnival of Souls&Rosemary’s Baby
Saturday, June 14 | Brian Tyree Henry -Imitation of Life&The Learning Tree
Saturday, June 28 | Nathan Lane -Double Indemnity&Chinatown
July
Saturday, July 5 | Joe Dante -The Night of the Hunter&The Fool Killer
Saturday, July 19 | Rosie Perez -Killer’s Kiss&The Harder They Fall
Visittcm.comfor more information on the full schedule, guests, and film information.
The
Boulting Brothers (John and Roy) were a British filmmaking team (and identical
twins!) active primarily in the 1940s and 50s. They mostly made acerbic
satirical comedies, often with a social issue stance. They directed a handful
of titles together, but usually either John or Roy would direct (Roy did the
most), they both produced, and one or the other would contribute to the
screenplays. Having formed their own production company, Charter Film
Productions, in 1937, the brothers enjoyed a great deal of creative freedom
and, at times, considerable success. Their films were not for everyone, but occasionally
they made a classic.
Heavens
Above! is
a later period picture (1963) in which Peter Sellers stars as a vicar assigned
to a small village. Other British character actors appear throughout, including
Cecil Parker, Isabel Jeans, Eric Sykes, Miriam Karlin, Bernard Miles, Ian
Carmichael, Irene Handl, Roy Kinnear, Miles Malleson, Kenneth Griffith, and
others. African-American actor Brock Peters also has a strong supporting role
and, given the setting and the rest of the all-white cast, he stands out a bit…
on purpose.
Sellers
is Reverend John Smallwood, a rather naïve but extremely sincere and pious
prison chaplain. An administrative mistake (“I never thought of myself as a
clerical error,” he would later say) sends him to be the vicar of the town of
Orbiston Parva, when in fact a different Reverend John Smallwood
(Carmichael) was supposed to have been given the job. The town is mostly
supported (and run) by the wealthy Despard family, whose drug factory makes Tranquilax,
a combination sedative, pain killer, and laxative. Money is what makes the town
go ‘round, despite the presence of a rather large family of squatters, the
Smiths, on land meant for company expansion. Sellers’ Smallwood immediately
begins to chastise the town’s citizens for caring too much about money and citing
Biblical passages to back up his sermons. At first the citizens are outraged by
this upstart vicar telling them how to behave. When he hires a Black dustman
(Peters) to be his church warden and then allows the Smiths—with all their many
children—to live at the parish, things really get out of hand. But then
Smallwood charms the Despard matriarch (Jeans) who decides to become
charitable—an act that sends the company stock and sales plummeting. The
citizens soon follow her lead and do the same. Suddenly, the commercial
businesses of the town start failing, too… and an uprising against Smallwood
begins. The archdeacon (Parker) and the bishop realize that a mistake has been
made and then go about attempting to correct it.
The
movie is indeed a sardonic and rather dark comedy about religion, politics, and
charity versus capitalism. There is a lot being said in the film, much of which
may make some of the more devout viewers uncomfortable. The others will be
laughing aloud.
Sellers
is surprisingly subdued here. He keeps his calm throughout, portraying a compassionate
“good” man who is almost a foreshadowing of his Chauncey Gardiner in Being
There (1979). He carries the picture with aplomb and confidence, a movie
made just prior to his shot to international stardom in The Pink Panther (also
1963). Others, including Peters, Parker, Jeans, Kinnear, Malleson, Carmichael, and
the adult Smiths (Sykes, Karlin, Handl) are all terrific and very funny.
Written
by Frank Harvey and John Boulting, Heavens Above! is possibly one of the
Boulting Brothers’ better pictures, although it feels a little too long—it
could have perhaps lost a good twenty minutes and been just as effective.
Kino
Lorber’s new Blu-ray release looks wonderful (the transfer is from StudioCanal)
and comes with an audio commentary featuring authors and comedy historians
Gemma and Robert Ross. The theatrical trailer and other Kino comedy trailers
round out the package.
Heavens
Above! is
for fans of Peter Sellers, the Boulting Brothers, and British comedies of the
1960s.
NOTE:
A few weeks ago we published a review of this title released by Kino Lorber
Studio Classics. A different release from the excellent Australian label,
Imprint, has offered another edition with the American Masters 2011
piece “Woody Allen: A Documentary” that we felt was worth reviewing. Much of
the review of the film itself is repeated from Raymond’s earlier post.
Finally,
after many years of the title being available only as a DVD, the Woody Allen
classic comedy that’s not a Woody Allen film, Play It Again, Sam, is on
Blu-ray, thanks to Imprint.
What
did you say? you
ask. That’s right. Woody Allen did not direct Play It Again, Sam.
Herbert Ross, a renowned Broadway theatre dancer and choreographer who
graduated to stage directing before moving into film, helmed the movie. Ross
had previously directed the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
and The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) prior to landing the job to direct Sam.
Ross went on to direct such notable pictures as The Sunshine Boys (1975),
The Turning Point (1977, an Oscar nominee), and The Goodbye Girl (1977,
also an Oscar nominee).
But
Woody Allen wrote it and stars in the film. It’s Allen’s sensibility all over
it. It’s co-produced by Allen’s Rollins-Jaffe managerial production company. It’s
a Woody Allen film in all but directorial credit. That’s not to say Ross didn’t
do an excellent job adapting Allen’s stage play into a successful, popular
film.
Yes,
first it was a hit Broadway play in 1969. Its stars—Woody Allen, Diane Keaton,
Tony Roberts, and Jerry Lacy—all moved over to the film’s cast. While much of
the story’s action takes place in interiors (mostly apartments), director Ross
managed to “open up” the material to include outdoor scenes and other locations
such as bars and restaurants. Interestingly, the story takes place in San
Francisco, not Allen’s familiar New York City!
The
story focuses on Allan Felix (Allen), whose wife, Nancy (Susan Anspach),
abruptly decides to leave him. Grieving and insecure, Allan leans on his
friends Dick and Linda Christie (Roberts and Keaton) for emotional and social
support. They are happy to help him, especially Linda. They try to fix him up
with blind dates that don’t go too well (the one with Sharon (Jennifer Salt) is
a particularly funny and memorable example). All Allan really wants is to
“score” again to boost his fragile, shattered ego, and maybe—just maybe—fall in
love with perhaps some reciprocity. A huge film buff, Allen gets advice from
none other than a fantasy Humphrey Bogart (Lacy), who appears at various times
to nudge him along. Bogart is one of Allan’s heroes (the movie begins with
Allan rapturously viewing Casablanca in a cinema). As time goes on, though,
(see what I did there?), Dick and Linda’s own marriage begins to show signs of
fracturing due to Dick’s busy career and his tendency to put his job before his
wife. Ultimately, Allan and Linda are drawn to each other. When they’re finally
on the couch together in his apartment, Bogart insists that Allan deliver a
corny, mushy line to her. He resists at first but finally he does… and she
reacts favorably. “She bought it!” Allan deliriously exclaims to the audience.
You can guess what happens next.
Play
It Again, Sam was
the first screen collaboration between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, and we can
already see that this is a match made in heaven. The real life actors began
dating during the run of the Broadway play in 1969 and they were a couple in
the early 70s up to and including the making of this film. Afterwards, they
split up but remained the closest of friends for the rest of their careers. The
late Tony Roberts was also an integral part of this screen duo in these early
years, appearing in several of Allen’s other pictures. It is the chemistry
between these three actors that makes Play It Again, Sam such a
delightful—and funny—motion picture.
Allen
had directed two features prior to starring in this one, and he had already
created for himself a screen persona best described as a Jewish, nebbish
neurotic. His Allan Felix here solidifies that character, and one can argue
that the actor/director played this character for the remainder of his career.
While he delivers extremely witty and funny lines and displays priceless facial
expressions, it’s notable that Allen engages in a great deal of
slapstick—pratfalls and clumsy maneuvers that wreak havoc on his and others’
apartments. It’s easily one of Allen’s funnier performances.
Diane
Keaton, a fairly new face on the screen at the time (it was the same year she
appeared, virtually unknown, in The Godfather), is marvelous. She is so
endearing, honest, gorgeous, and luminous, that it is no wonder that she became
a star. Again, the rapport between Keaton and Allen is perfect. Of course, she
would go on to make seven more films with Allen under his direction.
Tony
Roberts is also hilarious, constantly having to phone the office to let them
know where he is at a given time. “This is Mr. Christie. I’m no longer at
752-0420. I’ll be at 731-0711 for the next half hour, and then I’ll be at…” One
might think this repetitive joke would get old, but it doesn’t. It becomes increasingly
funnier as the movie goes on.
Being
originally written as a play in 1969 and filmed in 1971 for release in 1972,
yes, there are lines that some will consider inappropriate or politically
incorrect today. But they are few and far between. For the most part, the
dialogue is rich, intelligent, and very laugh-out-loud amusing. This is Allen’s
writing at his best. And Ross’ direction isn’t bad at all.
Imprint’s
all-region HD presentation is excellent. (Whether they used a different restoration
of the film than the one by the earlier Kino Lorber release is unknown… to
these eyes they are the same or very similar).
What
elevates the Imprint edition is the inclusion of the excellent, over three-hour
2011 American Masters documentary film by Robert B. Weide, Woody
Allen: A Documentary. This is perhaps the most intimate and close-up
portrait of the writer/director/actor ever made. Presented in two parts, the
documentary includes personal interviews with Allen, revealing his working
habits and methods, interviews with key players in Allen’s life and career (his
sister Letty Aronson, Diane Keaton, Louise Lasser, Tony Roberts, and many other
actors; collaborators Gordon Willis, Juliet Taylor, Marshall Brickman, Douglas
McGrath, and more; film critics Richard Schickel, Leonard Maltin, and more; Martin
Scorsese, Dick Cavett, and other personalities. It’s a virtual treasure trove
of New York and Hollywood talking heads who weigh in on Woody’s career.
Woody
is candid about his relationship with Mia Farrow and what happened in
1992; however, the documentary was released prior to adult Dylan Farrow’s
accusations… so this is not addressed. Primarily, though, the otherwise
in-depth documentary dissects Allen’s Brooklyn upbringing, his early
gag-writing and television years, the stand-up comedy era, breaking into films,
and nearly a title-by-title retrospective discussion of Allen’s oeuvre.
Also
included are several deleted scenes/outtakes from the documentary, including
Allen amusingly answering “12 questions,” such as “What film do you like that
you always defend and what film do you defend disliking?” An interview with
director Weide is also part of the selection. Alas, there is no theatrical
trailer on the Imprint edition.
In
short, the inclusion of Woody Allen: A Documentary in this package is a
must. Play It Again, Sam is for fans of Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony
Roberts, and early 1970s pictures that redefined the rom-com. Recommended.
Click here to order. Prices are in Australian dollars so use a converter for your local currency.
I
was too young to watch Saturday Night Live in the 1970s. It was the sort
of show that my parents forbade me to watch despite their never having seen it
themselves. It was this “thing” that was on way too late and was occasionally referred
to but never really talked about because the perception was that it was
off-color and risqué. I only became aware of the cast members peripherally in
the ensuing years when I saw scenes from John Landis’s Animal House
(1978), Michael O’Donoghue’s Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979), Steven
Spielberg’s 1941 (1979), and John Landis’s The Blues Brothers (1980)
on television. Two of the show’s most popular segments, Mr. Bill, the
clay figurine character, and The Coneheads both adorned elementary and
middle school-aged students’ t-shirts for years. By the time I finally did
manage to see new episodes in 1984, I felt that I was late to the party
following the tragic passing of John Belushi in March 1982.
I
became a fan of George Carlin that same year by collecting his comedy bits that
were released by Flip Wilson and Monte Kay’s record label Little David Records
(1969 – 1980) and was pleasantly surprised to see that he hosted the show’s
premier episode on Saturday, October 11, 1975, originally simply titled Saturday
Night. It is the 90 minutes preceding the show’s fateful debut that is the
focal point of Jason Reitman’s frenetic 2024 film of the same name which posits
a fictionalized account of creator Lorne Michaels’s full-steam-ahead mindset to
create a show very few believed would make it past its first broadcast, let
alone half a century.
Saturday
Night, which opened, fittingly, on
Friday, October 11, 2024 nationwide after limited runs in New York and Los
Angeles, does an expert job of finding people who look very similar to the real-world
counterparts they are portraying, in particular Dylan O’Bryan as Dan Aykroyd, Nicholas
Podany as Billy Crystal, Nicholas Braun doing double duty as Andy Kaufman and
Jim Henson, and Matt Wood as John Belushi. Gabrielle LaBelle, who portrayed
Steven Spielberg’s alter ego Sammy Fableman in the 2022 film The Fablemans,
based on Mr. Spielberg’s childhood, portrays Saturday Night’s creator,
Lorne Michaels, racing between offices and sets while trying to placate the
network suits and deciding which skits will make it to airtime and which will
not. Fielding questions from staff members and dealing with lights that nearly
kill two stars after they fall to the ground are just some of the situations he
must deal with.
The
action is shot on 16mm film, and it does a nice job of approximating the look
and feel of the mid 1970s. I love the result. It possesses the type of visual warmth
that one associates with film that is generally lacking from digital video recordings.
The film was shot in continuity. Coming from a television production background
at college and two local cable stations, I was thankfully never exposed to the
stress levels as displayed onscreen here, however there were always jitters
prevalent in the moments preceding a live broadcast. The film ends just before
show time.
Saturday Night is now available on Blu-ray and comes with a
wealth of extras. The cover art harkens back to the days of Mad Magazine with a
Jack Davis-style collage of the onscreen characters. It reminds me of The Big Bus (1976) and Animal House (1978).
The
audio commentary was recorded on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 on the Sony Lot,
formerly the MGM Lot where The Wizard of Oz (1939) was filmed. Director Reitman
explains that the film came about because he wanted to speak with the people
who were in the building the night the show premiered and depict the hours
before show time. What he found were different interpretations of people’s
experiences, hence the loose fictionalized account of the transpiring events.
He tells the story of how nobody he spoke to had the original script, except
for Billy Crystal (who would join the show nine years later) from whom they
copied and used in the film.
Cinematographer
Eric Steelberg discusses the grain structure and the color palette of the films
of the early 1970’s and how they approached capturing that in 16mm. They have
succeeded smashingly.
Jess
Gonchor is the film’s production designer who, along with sound mixer Steve
Morrow, weigh in and discuss the challenges they faced regarding their
contributions to the film. Saturday Night was shot on a set which was
created with meticulous detail.
Trailers
for the following films are included (strangely, no trailer for the title film
featured): Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), Damien
Chazelle’s Whiplash (2014), Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money (2023),
and Robert Zemeckis’s Here (2024).
The
Making of the Movie of the Show That Almost Never Made It runs 16:23 and features comments from Jason
Reitman, Gil Kenan, Gabrielle Labelle, Corey Michael Smith, Matthew Rhys, Ella
Hunt, Matt Wood, Willem Dafoe, Lamorne Morris, Erica Mills, Joanne Perritano,
Eric Steelberg, Dylan O’Brien, Cooper Hoffman, J.K. Simmons, Emily Fairn, Kim
Matula, Rachell Sennot, Jason Blumenfeld, Jon Batiste, Danny Glicker, and Jess
Conchor and provides interesting insight into how the film was made.
The
Look of Saturday Night runs 2:10
and is an introduction to the characters in the film.
Super
8 From Studio 8H: Home Movies from the Set runs 4:49 and is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the cast and crew
during breaks in the shooting schedule.
Creating
Comedy Icons runs 10:52 and features
the performers who portray Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd,
Jane Curtain, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Jim Henson/Andy Kaufman, Lorne
Michaels, Rosie Shuster, Jacqueline Carlin, Dick Ebersol, and Billy Preston.
John
Batiste: Scoring Live runs 1:21 and
takes a much-too-short look at the creation of the score which elicits and
complements the onscreen pandemonium.
The Blu-ray also contains a digital code for viewing through an app.
It
is worth nothing that Chevy Chase’s reaction to the film: he stated on the "Morning Joe" chat show that it is not an accurate
account of what went on. Then again, how could it be if it was made by people
who were not there? It is based on others’ recollections, and for that reason it
is very entertaining.
This
big-screen version of a small-screen hero is as pleasant a diversion as you can
get. Nostalgia pretty much gives it a free pass and in any case the action,
which punctuates the drama at regular intervals, was always going to be
budget-restricted. Despite being in almost constant danger the insouciance of
gentleman thief Simon Templar dictates that the pace is no more than languid.
As the title
suggests, we’re in Mafia country, Templar (Roger Moore) drawn into a Cosa
Nostra succession scenario as the result of a casual encounter with
former bank clerk Houston (Fulton Mackay), later found dead. Houston has
cast doubts on the real identity of Mafia Don Destiamo (Ian Hendry), one
of several contenders to become the next Mafia overlord. Templar sneaks into
Destiamo’s world by pursuing his niece Gina (Rosemary Dexter). Although
outwardly respectable, Destiamo a bit too fond of using his cigar as a weapon
of disfigurement, threatening his blonde English moll Lily (Aimi MacDonald) in
this fashion.
Part of
Templar’s attraction is that, although he has a nefarious side, he is happy to
walk those mean streets and has a strict moral code. And he moves in such
elevated circles that he has a nodding acquaintance with dying Mafia chieftain
Don Pasquale (Finlay Currie) who has yet to pick his successor. The other
part of his attraction is that he’s played with such suaveness by Roger Moore.
For a good chunk of the time someone is trying to knife him, shoot him, blow
him up, capture him, jab him with a truth serum, and generally trying to stop
him. In fending off such attacks, or out-smarting the villains, there’s rarely
a hair out of place. It’s not so much devil-may-care as
devil-is-wasting-his-time with such an imperturbable fellow.
Although the action is pretty
straightforward, Templar is not above a clever ruse – jamming a bus in a
gateway preventing his pursuers continuing the chase – nor an old one such as
tying sheets together to climb out of a window. While Malta stands in for
Italy, the locations still look authentic enough, ancient stone buildings, the
occasional horse pulling a cart. When the action/drama eases up, there’s always
pleasant scenery.
Following
MGM’s success in stitching together into a movie two episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
television series (which of course had pinched the idea from Walt Disney’s
cinematic re-presentation of Davy
Crockett episodes) it was no surprise that ATV, then under the
control of future movie mogul Sir Lew Grade (Raise
the Titanic, 1980), decided to adopt the same idea. Although The Saint had been showing
on British television since 1962, by the end of its run in 1969 it had stepped
up to bigger budgets, 35mm and colour. Given each episode lasted around 50
minutes, it was relatively simple to devise a two-part programme shown over
consecutive weeks on ITV in Britain and then release it throughout the rest of
the world as a feature film. The first such project was The Fiction Makers (1968)
followed by Vendetta for the
Saint.
Roger
Moore’s movie career had been in limbo since Romulus
and the Sabines (1961) and there’s no doubt that his performance as
Simon Templar and later in another glossier British television series The Persuaders (1971-1972)
made him a candidate for James Bond. While his interpretation of Templar,
especially the wry delivery, does bear some similarities to his incarnation as
007, that only holds true as long as you set aside the year’s supply of
Brylcreem dumped on his hair, the shoulder-padded shoulders and the fact that
he had not yet perfected his trademark move, the raising of the single eyebrow.
While no
match for the quips prevalent in James Bond, Canadian screenwriter Harry W.
Junkin – best known for his television work, his only other movies being a
similar melding of television episodes of The
Persuaders – and John Kruse (Hell
Drivers, 1957) – had some neat one-liners. Despite the obvious
limitations, director Jim O’Connelly (Berserk,
1967) does a decent enough job.
But Moore
carries the show. Ian Hendry makes a passable villain but not a passable
Italian. In general, not surprisingly since most characters were played by
British actors, the accents are all over the place though Moore, courtesy of
squiring Luisa Mattioli (later his wife) manages to deliver his Italian lines
in an acceptable accent. Otherwise, the only one who comes close is Rosemary
Dexter (The Shoes of the
Fisherman, 1968) and that’s because she was Italian. Worth checking
out in the supporting cast are Finlay Currie (Ben Hur, 1959) and Fulton Mackay (BBC series Porridge, 1974-1977).
You can find
a lot wrong with this without looking very hard but if you switch off your
over-critical faculties you will be pleasantly surprised.
(Brian Hannan is a columnist for Cinema Retro magazine. He also runs the web site The Magnificent 60s and is the author of numerous film related books including "The Making of The Magnificent Seven" which was adapted as special issue of Cinema Retro.)
It would be a stretch to accurately describe No. 1 of the Secret Service as the third
of a series of five films featuring secret agent Charles Vine (aka
“Bind”).In 1965 and 1966, at the zenith
of the James Bond inspired spy-film boom, director Lindsay Shonteff would helm
the first of these two Bond pastiches, Licensed
to Kill (1965, aka The Second Best
Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World).Though Shonteff was not directly involved with the second of the series,
Where the Bullets Fly (1966), both
pictures showcased actor Tom Adams as a Connery-styled British secret agent. So
it was surprising when, in 1976, Shonteff chose to resurrect the agent, a decade
late of the once profitable and exploitable spy-film craze.
Technically speaking, British
actor Nicky Henson’s spy, rechristened in No.
1 of the Secret Service as “Charles Bind,” is a different character all
together.Though Henson reportedly
signed a contract to reprise the role as agent Bind in two subsequent films,
the actor, not unwisely, chose instead to return to the more dignified stratosphere
of Shakespeare.Shonteff reportedly
allowed Henson to break contract, unfazed by the actor’s departure. It was a minor annoyance. Shonteff was already
plotting out Charles Bind’s next adventure, working titles provisionally sold as
Number One in California or Orchids for No. 1.
Two years following No.
1 of the Secret Service, the director released his follow-up, now titillating
titled Licensed to Love and Kill
(1979, aka Undercover Lover and The Man from S.E.X.), with actor Gareth
Hunt playing the role of Bind in a one-shot.Shonteff would helm one final spy comedy based on Vine/Bind character, Number One Gun (1990), with actor
Michael Howe credited as a super spy simply referred to as “Number One.”Spy film wonks can argue over their vodka
martinis whether or not these five films, strung-out over a period of twenty-five
years, constitute an actual
series.At the very least, one can say the
films are cousins.
In the course of a ten-minute video essay included in
this new Blu-ray set from Kino Cult, “The Irrepressible Lindsay Shonteff”
(2024), writer-narrator Chris O’ Neill, helps set the stage of how No. 1 of the Secret Service came to fruition.The British studio film industry was
suffering an acute economic downturn in the 1970s, production of higher-quality
studio films in decline.This circumstance
gave such savvy independents as the Canadian-born Shonteff open-door access to cinema
bookings by delivering a stream of bankable low-budget – and sometimes tawdry -
film product for exhibition.The gruff
voiced Shonteff was neither an auteur nor a particular genre specialist: he
churned out horror, western and war films, sex comedies and hippie-rock dramas
in equal measure.
As there was a scarcity of roles available to actors due
to the industry downturn, many well-respected players, by necessity, would take
on roles not likely considered in better times.Taking advantage of the depressed economic situation, Shonteff managed
to pull together an inarguable respectable cast for No. 1 of the Secret Service: a film which, quite frankly, was neither
a particularly interesting nor reputation-enhancing project.In July of ’76 Shonteff hinted to Screen International, “We’re negotiating
for what I think is a pretty exciting British cast.I can’t reveal the names until we finalise
the three key performers we’re going for.”
Such negotiations broke his way.Shonteff’s greatest “coup” was convincing the
dramatic actor Richard Todd – nominated by the Academy in 1950 as “Best Actor
in a Leading Role” - to agree to appear in his film as the villainous Arthur
Loveday.Nicky Henson (Charles Bind) and
Aimi MacDonald (Anna Hudson) were perhaps not as famous as Todd, but were familiar
faces to British television audiences.Other notables cast in supporting roles was Jon Pertwee (of Doctor Who fame) and Geoffrey Keen
(“Rockwell,” as a Defence Minister at MI5).Keen, of course, soon afterward would play a very similar character (“Frederick
Gray,” Minister of Defence) in six James Bond films.
As the starting date of production loomed, Shonteff – having
recently suffered through a terrible critical response to his dramatic adaptation
of Len Deighton’s Spy Story – was
anxious to move on - and lighten things up.Though his 008 of the Secret
Service (working title) was designed as just another James Bond knock-off,
the director bragged he was determined his Charles Bind was “going to be every
bit as good as the high-priced agent.We’ve got things in 008 that
haven’t even been seen in features yet.”
The film was shot at a “frantic pace” as per documentarian
O’Neill.Indeed, No. 1 of the Secret Service was shot in the spirit of “a live
action cartoon,” with episodic sequencing ala a Looney Tunes “Roadrunner vs. Wile
E. Coyote” standoff.The film’s editor,
John Luton, would describe Shonteff, both a friend and mentor, as a “low-budget
guerilla filmmaker” and “rule-breaker,” a movie industry maverick who cut every
potential corner possible.Shonteff shot
his films entirely on location, sans soundstage rentals, formal permits
or even with proper union cast and crew representation. Luton would describe Shonteff as a filmmaker
“ahead of his time,” a “clever,” “good-hearted” boss with a “Mel Brooksian”
sense of outrageous parody.
Luton first met Shonteff in 1966, having agreed to an
uncredited actor’s casting in the director’s production of Run with the Wind.The twenty-one
year old wasn’t particularly interested in acting: he was actually looking for
industry entry as a prospective writer-editor.Luton would eventually accomplish his goal, successfully working in
London as a television commercial editor.Luton’s very first opportunity to edit a feature film project came when
Shonteff hired him to cut No. 1 of the
Secret Service.The editor admitted
to being a bit nonplussed when, after finishing his physical cut, discovered
Shonteff went a bit overboard in post-production, looping in an assortment of
crazy sound effects.Shonteff once
humbly admitted to Luton of the artistic shortcomings of his oeuvre.They “Weren’t great pictures,” Shonteff reasoned,
“but they were good enough.”
I suppose that assessment is a fair one.The scripting of No. 1 of the Secret Service is thin in construction, the storyline entirely
subservient in tying together the film’s comedy and action sequences.The film’s screenwriter is credited as one
Howard Craig, but it’s alleged this was simply Shonteff’s writing
pseudonym.The project was something of a
family affair, Shonteff’s wife, Elizabeth Gray, serving as the film’s producer.The plot revolves around the desire of multi-millionaire-villain
Arthur Loveday to orchestrate the assassinations of high-finance figures.Loveday believes such men are crass arms
profiteers, impediments to world peace.
Singer-songwriter Janis Ian was born on 7 April 1951, the
grandchild of Russian, Ukrainian and Polish immigrants.Her family would maintain a modest chicken
farm in rural Farmingdale, New Jersey.As ancestors had suffered the indignities and harassments of pogroms
directed at Jews in Czarist Russia, the American vision of both of her parents was
of a democratic and just society that championed politically progressive
ideals.As such, both her mother and
father were actively involved in the civil and worker’s rights issues of the
day.Sadly, these noble desires brought
her father to the attention of the F.B.I. in the paranoid, dark days of the
country’s McCarthyism.Though gifted on
both piano and guitar and holding personal ambition to teach music, her
father was unable to secure a tenured position in education due to F.B.I.
interference in hiring.
With his great love of classic music and jazz, Ian’s
father was the first to school his daughter on piano.Like many pre-teens of the era, Ian’s
earliest music desire was to be a Beatle.But with the Cold War raging and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 offering
fearful headlines, Ian began to tune into folk music orientated radio programs.She was introduced to - and greatly impressed
by - the powerful voice of the folksinger Odetta whom she caught on a Harry
Belafonte television program.Teaching
herself guitar from her father’s copy of an old Lead Belly songbook, the young
girl soaked in the musical influences surrounding her: a disparate mélange of
blues, jazz, folk, classical and Elizabethan balladry.
Ian spent several summers at a children’s camp in upstate
New York. It was there that she continued honing her guitar skills, discovering
the solidarity of sing-a-longs when such politically left-performers as Pete
Seeger would pass through to entertain the campers.Though Ian would leave high school while
still in the tenth grade, she wrote songs almost from the beginning.Since she was musically gifted and well
tutored, many of her compositions were more complex in structure than the usual
three-chord bangs of her contemporaries on the folk scene.New York’s Broadside magazine was hosting Sunday afternoon singer-songwriter
hootenannies at Greenwich Village’s Village Gate, the editors always interested
in showcasing new artists.Though she
was only thirteen-years-of-age, Ian was invited to the Gate to share the stage
alongside the folk-singing, topical song heroes she had been listening to on
radio: Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Len Chandler and Eric Anderson to name a few.
One of her earliest and most challenging songs was
“Society’s Child,” a song addressing prejudicial attitudes regarding
inter-racial relationships.Her talent
was recognized immediately, one producer, George “Shadow” Morton, bringing her
in for a formal audition.Though
Atlantic Records had fronted the studio costs of producing Ian’s debut album,
the label ultimately balked upon hearing “Society’s Child” and its AM
radio-unfriendly, taboo subject matter.Though
Morton was given permission to market the album to other interested parties, no
fewer than twenty-two labels turned them down flat due to the inclusion of the controversial
song.In 1966, the Verve Forecast label
would formally sign Ian, releasing the artist’s first four albums and even bravely
issuing “Society’s Child” as a 45rpm single.
The LP might have been lost in the shuffle of the
folk-rock craze had it not been for the intervention of Leonard Bernstein, music
director of the New York Philharmonic.Bernstein, a political liberal of note, would showcase Ian on an episode
of his television program.Sales of
Ian’s eponymously-titled album would soar due to the exposure.Not yet a seasoned stage performer, Ian found
herself the scourge of racists who purchased blocks of tickets only to disrupt
her concerts with bomb threats and angry shouts of “n****r lover.”Though shaken, Ian stood her ground, noting service
and integrity was the responsibility of a true artist.Visiting the west coast, Ian was greeted
warmly at Berkeley and made fast friends with the likes of Janis Joplin and
Jimi Hendrix, both artists supportive of her vision and protective due to her
young age.
Ian would move in and share a romantic relationship of
four or five years with photographer Peter Cunningham, though she was already –
perhaps not yet fully aware or accepting of it – bisexual.Comedian Bill Cosby caused her trouble early
on by (falsely) outing her following their mutual appearance on TheSmothers Brothers Comedy Hour.The charge was brushed away and, at only seventeen
years of age, Ian could already boast of a sold out concert at Lincoln Center’s
Philharmonic Hall.
Shaken by the assassination of Martin Luther King in
April 1968, a grieving Ian walked home sadly through Manhattan.A stranger offered her a consoling bottle of
Coca-Cola, not telling her it was laced with acid.Ian would experience a particularly bad acid
trip, hallucinating for four full days.She eventually needed the assistance of a Philadelphia-based
psycho-therapist to help right her ship.She slowly returned to writing, Don McLean’s debut album - and particularly
his Van Gogh tribute “Vincent” – having convinced her to re-focus her energies
on songwriting.
Ian would record a trio of her best known albums for
Columbia Records at 914 Studios in Blauvelt, NY, each under the direction of
producer-engineer Brooks Arthur.The
first of these, Stars (1974) burnished
her songwriting credentials, several of her songs recorded by the
likes of Cher, Roberta Flack, Nine Simone, Mel Torme and Glen Campbell amongst
others.Her follow-up album, Between the Lines (1975) proved a true commercial
breakthrough as the LP included Ian’s pensive and haunting “At Seventeen.” The song scored a #3 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, its success enabling
an appearance on Johnny Carson’s late night talk show. Ian would later bring
home the Best Pop Vocal Performance award at the annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
Ian would celebrate her twenty-first birthday on the west
coast, entering into a new relationship with a woman.Though her sexuality was known to an
inner-circle of close friends and collaborators, her personal life remained
mostly off the media radar.That
relationship would sadly be the first of a number of ill-fated pairings with
partners of both sexes.Reflective of this
difficult time, Ian’s third album for Columbia, Aftertones (1975) underperformed on the charts, her personal,
elegant songs losing market vogue.Her
relationship with Columbia cooled as the label turned their attention to such
emerging rock-styled artists as Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.
There was a downturn in her professional and personal
life. Producer Arthur and Ian would part ways following disagreement on the
best path forward to promote her artistry.Then a headline-grabbing reporter publicly outed her bisexuality in a
long piece published in the Village Voice.
Ironically, that revealing article was
published near the time the songwriter had separated from her partner, the
girlfriend abandoning her for a male session drummer.Ian too would eventually meet (and marry) a
man, but this relationship too would sour, this emotionally abusive husband even
holding a gun to her at one point.
Cinema Retro has been made aware of a unique new book, "The Blofeld Files" by Peter Waelty and Stefan Appel, which chronicles the making of the 1969 James Bond classic "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". The book features Forewords by George Lazenby and Steven Saltzman and boasts over 700 photographs, many published here for the first time.
“The
Black Tulip,” a 1964 release starring Alain Delon and Virna Lisi, is now
available in a Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.The film begins in 1789 as the French
Revolution looms, a coming storm that the country’s counts, barons, and
marquises casually dismiss.The lower
classes simply need to be kept in line by hanging the troublemakers, they
decide.A greater threat is the Black
Tulip, a masked bandit who regularly stops their carriages and takes their
valuables at sword-point.One nobleman,
Baron La Mouche, suspects that the masked man is actually a fellow aristocrat,
Guillaume de Saint Preux, and sets a trap to prove that his conjecture is
right.When the Black Tulip attacks his
coach, La Mouche crosses swords with him and slashes his cheek.The wound will mark de Saint Preux when the
young man appears at the next dinner hosted by the Marquis de Vigogne.Exposing Guillaume as the bandit will make La
Mouche a hero among his fellow patricians.It will also remove the handsome de Saint Preux as La Mouche’s primary
rival for the sexual favours of the marquis’ wife, Catherine.
Fortunately
for the one aristocrat and unfortunately for the other, Guillaume has a twin
younger brother, Julien, on whom he prevails to take his place for as long as
it takes his wound to heal.Guillaume
needs Julien’s eyes and ears in de Vigogne’s inner circle so that he can plan
his next robberies.The idealistic
Julien admires Guillaume’s dashing personality and agrees to the scheme.The ruse enables the younger brother, who
comes to sympathise with the common folk, to gather valuable intelligence for
the rebels.Delon deftly plays both
roles, or rather three roles: Julien, Guillaume, and Julien pretending to be
Guillaume.Learning that royalist troops
are on their way to suppress the uprising, Julien hopes that the shrewd,
tactically minded Guillaume will help him foil the crackdown.But the cynical older brother throws cold
water on his optimism.Guillaume reveals
that he’s never had any sympathy for the underclass, and whatever wealth he
steals from his peers, he keeps for himself.So it’s up to Julien to help the peasants without his experienced
brother’s assistance.
“The
Black Tulip” was widely released in Europe but a no-show in U.S. theaters, at a
time when interest here in the swashbuckling genre pioneered by Douglas
Fairbanks Sr., Fairbanks Jr., Errol Flynn, and Tyrone Power was at a low ebb.In the new Hollywood of the era, the French
Revolution and costumed heroes were out, the sexual revolution and Brooks
Brother suits were in.The genre would
remain dormant for another decade, until the success of Richard Lester’s “The
Three Musketeers” (1974) inspired a modest revival.Remakes of “The Three Musketeers” and other
swashbucklers continue to appear sporadically, including parodies and oddities
like “Cheech and Chong’s The Corsican Brothers” (1984), Mel Brooks’ “Robin
Hood: Men in Tights” (1993), and even “Barbie and the Three Musketeers” (2008).
The
new Kino Lorber release of “The Black Tulip” will enable most viewers to see
the movie for the first time.The
opening credits cite Alexander Dumas as an inspiration for the premise and
script, and indeed Dumas wrote a novel titled “The Black Tulip,” but as critic
Simon Abrams observes in his audio commentary, the novel and the film have
nothing in common but the title.Instead
the storyline takes a little bit of this and a little of that from Dumas’ other
popular works, from the swashbuckling fiction of his successors Rafael
Sabatini, Baroness Orczy, and Anthony Hope, and especially from the five
decades of earlier pictures based on those novels.Consequently, we have the lookalike imposter
(“The Corsican Brothers,” “The Man in the Iron Mask,”“The Prisoner of Zenda”),
the masked hero (any number of Zorro stories), and intrigue during the French
Revolution (“Scaramouche,” “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” A Tale of Two Cities,” and
two 1940s titles actually based if loosely on Dumas novels, 1945’s “The
Fighting Guardsman” and 1949’s “Black Magic”).Some fans will have fun teasing out the influences, but others may
conclude they’ve
already been-there, done-that once too often, although counter-balancing assets
include lavish production values and energetic performances by Delon, Lisi as
Julien’s girlfriend Caroline in the rebel camp, Akim Tamiroff as the marquis,
and Dawn Addams as his promiscuous wife.Fans of Girl Power will appreciate that the luminous Virna Lisi has as
many scenes wielding a sword as Delon has, including a flirtatious match
between Julien and Caroline in which she scores points as often as he does.
The Kino Lorber
Blu-ray presents “The Black Tulip” in its original French language version in a
2.20:1 aspect with sharp, rich cinematography and clear English subtitles.Besides Simon Abrams’ informative commentary,
the disc includes the movie’s theatrical trailer and trailers for several other
Alain Delon films on Blu-ray.
The
Boulting Brothers (John and Roy) were a British filmmaking team (and identical
twins!) active primarily in the 1940s and 50s. They mostly made acerbic
satirical comedies, often with a social issue stance. They directed a handful
of titles together, but usually either John or Roy would direct (Roy did the
most), they both produced, and one or the other would contribute to the
screenplays. Having formed their own production company, Charter Film
Productions, in 1937, the brothers enjoyed a great deal of creative freedom
and, at times, considerable success. Their films were not for everyone, but occasionally
they made a classic… and I’m All Right Jack is absolutely one of them.
The
picture did a great service for actor Peter Sellers, catapulting him into
stardom on the British scene after a stellar radio career (The Goon Show)
and several cinema appearances in the latter 1950s. Even though he didn’t have
top billing, Sellers’ standout performance in Jack was noticed by
Hollywood and, by 1963, he had migrated across the Atlantic.
I’m
All Right Jack takes
its name from a British slang phrase that is, according to Collins Dictionary,
generally a smug remark that indicates complacent selfishness. The story has to
do with the rather serious subject of unions in the U.K., and it’s a send-up of
industrial working class sensibilities in the late fifties. It’s a sequel to
the Boultings’ 1956 comedy, Private’s Progress, and Sellers’ costars,
Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Richard Attenborough, and Miles
Malleson all reprise the roles they played in that picture. Sellers, though,
won a BAFTA Best Actor Award for playing the trades union shop steward.
Stanley
Windrush (Carmichael) is a well-meaning but ultimately naïve and oafish young
man who wants a job in “industry.” After a few unsuccessful and comical
landings at various factories, his uncle, wealthy Bertram Tracepurcel (Price)
and his pal, Sidney DeVere Cox (Attenborough), push Stanley into an unskilled
labor job at Tracepurcel’s missile factory. The union shop steward, Mr. Kite
(Sellers) is at first in conflict with Stanley, but eventually becomes
something of a mentor, even allowing Stanley to lodge at his home. There,
Stanley becomes enamored with Kite’s daughter, Cynthia (Liz Fraser), and vice
versa, much to Kite’s chagrin. However, the factory personnel manager, Major
Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) hits a roadblock with Stanley when the latter
outperforms the other workers in a rigged time and motion study that was
secretly instigated by Tracepurcel and Cox. When Hitchcock wants the rest of
the workers to do as well as Stanley, Kite orders a general strike… which is
what Tracepurcel and Cox want so that Cox’s own company can steal a lucrative
contract with a Middle Eastern country. But soon tables are turned and all hell
breaks loose among the trade unions… all over the country!
Yes,
the plot is political and a bit complicated, but it also provides several
scene-stealing moments for Sellers as he, at first, undergoes a slow burn, but
then quickly escalates to red-faced anger (too bad the film is in black and
white!). Carmichael, as Stanley, is the protagonist, though, and he, too, is
quite winning as the insufferable fool who manages to be at the center of
everyone’s frustrations. In fact, there are so many popular British character
actors in supporting and cameo roles that anyone with a knowledge of UK cinema
history will have a grand time spotting the players. Even Sellers pops up in a
brief secondary role at the beginning of the movie.
Written
by Frank Harvey and John Boulting with Alan Hackney, the dialogue is razor
sharp. The film must have been considered for adults only at the time. One
stuttering shop steward is aghast at seeing Stanley on the fork lift for the
first time and shouts, “What’s he doing on a f- f- fork lift truck?” An opening
scene at a nudist colony displays bare bottoms in the background action. And this
was 1959!
Kino
Lorber’s new Blu-ray release is top-notch with an excellent transfer. It comes
with an audio commentary by authors and comedy historians Gemma and Robert
Ross. There is also an interview with actress Liz Fraser which highlights her
roles in various British comedies of the era. The theatrical trailer for this
and other Kino comedies round out the package.
I’m
All Right Jack is
for fans of Peter Sellers, other UK actors in the cast, British comedies, and
the always interesting Boulting Brothers.
Critics should always tread carefully when covering movies in the film noir genre. Generally speaking, these are complex plots with a number of twists and all too often reviewers tend to disclose too many spoilers. Having said that, I'll try to cover Crime of Passion in a manner that doesn't commit that cardinal sin. The film has a couple of elements that are common to the genre, most notably a femme fatale who plays upon the trust of her husband in order to engage in illicit activities. In this case, our leading lady is Barbara Stanwyck as Kathy Doyle, a liberated independent career woman who exists in an era that doesn't look favorably on independent career women. However, Kathy enjoys her position as a prominent and popular advice columnist for a major San Francisco newspaper. She answers her readers' queries in a witty and often sarcastic manner that has become her trademark. (Adding to the unique aspects of the character, Stanwyck was 50 years-old at the time.) Her life takes a change when she is visited by two L.A. police detectives, Lt. Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden) and Captain Charlie Alidos (Royal Dano). They want to enlist her help in flushing out a female murder suspect who is hiding in San Francisco. In short order, Kathy uses her sources and column to locate the suspect, gain her trust and convince her to surrender. In the course of the investigation, she and Bill form a mutual attraction. When Kathy's grumpy boss continues to disparage her contributions to the newspaper, she accepts a position with a New York paper and summarily quits her current job. However, she phones Bill and offers to make a one night stopover to see him in L.A. It is a decision that will have dramatic consequences for both of them.
Upon arriving in L.A., Kathy and Bill's reunion proves to be a torrid one....so passionate, in fact, that they spontaneously decide to quickly get married, despite Kathy's previous aversion to trying to find wedded bliss. This being 1957, as a condition of marriage, Kathy has to agree to quit her career and settle down in Bill's modest suburban house in Burbank. She readily does and is soon welcomed into Bill's social circle that consists almost entirely of fellow cops and their wives. The urbane Kathy soon tires of the monotony of her new social life which finds the cops sitting in one room drinking, smoking and playing poker while their wives sit in another room discussing boring domestic issues. The only factor that changes is the locations, as the friends alternate in hosting the get-togethers. Kathy is also becoming frustrated by Bill's lack of interest in achieving advancement in his police career. He's a laid-back, unambitious guy who is content at just being a good, honest cop. Kathy sees things differently and begins to hatch an elaborate secret scheme to ensure the couple's social status rises. She focuses on Bill's boss, Inspector Anthony Pope (Raymond Burr) and his wife Alice (Fay Wray). We won't divulge all the details but suffice it to say that her attempt to seduce Pope leads to terrible and unforeseen consequences that include betrayal, infidelity and finally murder.
The movie has some interesting historical and sociological overtones. In the post-WWII era, America had emerged as the world's only superpower. After enduring the Great Depression and the horrors of two world wars and the Korean War, the nation had settled into a period of relative affluence and comfort with the emergence of an empowered middle class. The government was trusted and benefits came to the working class, as suburbia boomed and people left the big urban centers in droves. Much of this was depicted in T.V. shows of the era which presented suburban life as middle-class bliss, ignoring the fact that not only were the picket fences pure white, but with few exceptions, so was the population that was shown. Movies, however, often had a darker view of suburbia. If television often over-sanitized it, films sometimes went overboard in presenting the new American lifestyle as defined by people who had too much money and leisure time, thus turning the American Dream into scenarios defined by greed and lust befitting the court of Caligula. Perhaps the most powerful example of this is director Martin Ritt's "No Down Payment" released the same year as "Crime of Passion". By the end of the 1960s, bored suburbanites were fodder for comedies that included the wife-swapping classic "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" from director Paul Mazursky.
"Crime of Passion" is by no means classic film noir but thanks to a terrific cast, it is an intriguing contribution to the genre....if one can get over a key plot weakness, namely, Kathy's overwhelming passion for Bill and her decision to quickly ditch her career in order to be with him. As played by Sterling Hayden, Bill is a normal working stiff and isn't a Rock Hudson lookalike. His manner is subdued and in terms of wit, he doesn't appear to be the Noel Coward of Burbank. There is never any logical reason for the cosmopolitan (and presumably sexually liberated) Kathy to fawn over him like a high school girl with her first crush. Nevertheless, Barbara Stanwyck plays the role to the hilt and is never less than mesmerizing on screen. The film, under the steady hand of Gerd Oswald, features a marvelous supporting cast, with Raymond Burr particularly good as yet another man in a stable relationship whose life is adversely affected by meeting Kathy. There's a good deal of talent behind the scenes, too, including screenwriter Jo Eisinger, who wrote "Gilda" and "Night and the City" and sound effects editor Verna Fields, who would go on to be an Oscar-winning film editor.
"Crime of Passion" is a flawed but entertaining film noir flick. It is currently streaming on Screenpix, though the print being used is underwhelming in terms of quality. Unfortunately, the American DVD from MGM is out of print and it hasn't been released on Blu-ray. Screenpix is an add-on streaming service available through Amazon Prime, YouTube, Roku and other major services.
(Trivia note: Turner Classic Movies' film noir host Eddie Muller has pointed out that the film marked the end of Barbara Stanwyck and Raymond Burr's association with the film noir genre. Burr would go on to star in the iconic "Perry Mason" TV series and Stanwyck would also star in a hit series, "The Big Valley" and would continue to appear occasionally on the big screen in supporting roles. Director Gerd Oswald would work with Burr again on numerous episodes of "Perry Mason".)
Ted Kotcheff, one of the most prominent Canadian movie directors, has passed away at age 94. Kotcheff became interested in directing after a trip to Broadway in 1953. Enamored by the shows he had seen, he decided to concentrate on a career in the arts. He emigrated to London where he directed live T.V. shows and theater productions. In 1974, he had gravitated to feature films and directed "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz", the acclaimed Canadian film that made a star of Richard Dreyfuss. The success of that film opened doors in Hollywood. Kotcheff provided Sylvester Stallone with his first post-"Rocky" hit, 'First Blood", the movie that introduced the character of Rambo. Despite the film being a boxoffice smash, Kotcheff declined to direct the sequel because he felt it glamorized the Vietnam War, which he opposed. Kotcheff's portfolio of films were distinguished by their diversity. Among them: "North Dallas 40", "Life at the Top", "Uncommon Valor", "Weekend at Bernie's", "Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe" and the acclaimed 1971 Australian film "Wake in Fright" (aka "Outback"), a truly unsettling and disturbing tale that won wide critical acclaim but which never enjoyed a wide international release. Kotcheff was also the Executive Producer of the long-running hit T.V. series "Law and Order:SVU". For more, click here. (Lee Pfeiffer)
Paperback (collector’s
hardback edition also available)
ISBN:
978-1-915316-43-1
RRP: £23.99
The list of people that Chris Alexander has
interviewed is quite extraordinary. In this book you can find, amongst others,
interviews with Maria Rohm, Gene Simmons, Gary Sherman, Anna Biller, Caroline
Munro, John Waters, Nicky Henson, Mink Stole, Luigi Cozzi, Judy Matheson, Lone
Fleming, Michael Winner (Alexander is clearly a brave man), Joe Dante, Werner
Herzog and Nicolas Cage, the latter providing a memorable experience when the
author gets an invite to Cage's private island in the Bahamas.
The tagline for Art! Trash! Terror!
states that the book explores “some of the most eccentric and unforgettable
movies in cult film history,” which is of course highly subjective. But it does
lead to a wide range of films (along with a whole section being dedicated to The
Twilight Zone (1959-1964) being discussed) from older classics like The
Pit and the Pendulum (1961), to relatively recent offerings like the
controversial The House That Jack Built (2018). The latter is a film
which caused festival screening walkouts and MPAA fury but is defended here are
as a black comedy which only the Danish “purveyor of bad taste,” Lars Von Trier,
could make.
It would be pointless to try and list them
all, so I’ll just mention that some of the other films which fall under the
umbrella of “eccentric and forgettable” include Kiss Meets the Phantom of
the Park (1978), Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960), Maximum
Overdrive (1986), Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972), Who Can Kill a
Child? (1976), Contamination (1980) and Scream Blacula Scream
(1973). Any of these would be a great night out, but if like me you usually
have to watch movies like this on your own, reading Chris Alexander’s essays is
a good substitute for that chat you have with a friend after the movie has
finished and you’re trying to figure out what it was you just saw.
Art! Trash! Terror!
is an eclectic collection of essays, musings, reviews and interviews with a
heavy leaning towards horror, which, given that the author is the former Fangoria
editor-in-chief, is as it should be. The only negative aspect is that the
book is littered with spelling mistakes, some so egregious they would make Cinema
Retro’s copy editor explode with rage. Perhaps it helps give the book the
feel of a personal blog or diary rather than a polished, edited final product.
This writing is straight from Chris Alexander’s brain to the printed page, and then
straight into yours.
In the estimation of many film scholars the 1970s was the most
adventurous and liberating period in the history of the medium. The new
freedoms in regard to sex, violence and adult themes that had exploded
in the mid-1960s became even more pronounced in the '70s. Among the most
daring studios to take advantage of this trend was United Artists. The
studio had been conceived by iconic actors in the silent era with the
intent of affording artists as much creative control over their
productions as possible. UA had continued to fulfill that promise,
producing a jaw-dropping number of box-office hits and successful film
franchises. The studio also disdained censorship and pushed the envelope
with high profile movie productions. The daring decision to fund the
X-rated "Midnight Cowboy" paid off handsomely. The 1969 production had
not only been a commercial success but also won the Best Picture Oscar. A
few years later UA went even further out on a limb by distributing
"Last Tango in Paris". The studio fully capitalized on the worldwide
sensation the movie had made and the many attempts to restrict it from
being shown at all in certain areas of the globe. Like "Midnight
Cowboy", "Tango" was an important film by an important director that
used graphic images of sexual activity for dramatic intensity.
Unfortunately, not every filmmaker who was inspired by these new
freedoms succeeded in the attempt to mainstream X-rated fare during
those years that the rating wasn't only synonymous with low-budget porno
productions. Case in point: screenwriter John Byrum, who made his
directorial debut with "Inserts", a bizarre film that UA released in
1975 that became a legendary bomb. The movie had previously been released as a limited edition Blu-ray by the late, great boutique label Twilight Time and has been out of print for years. Now, the Warner Archive has released their own Blu-ray edition.
The claustrophobic tale resembles a filmed stage production. It is
set primarily in one large living room in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
The time period is the 1930s, shortly after the introduction of sound to
the movie industry resulted in the collapse of silent pictures (Charlie
Chaplin being the notable exception.) The central character, played by
Richard Dreyfuss, is not named but is referred to as "The Boy Wonder".
From our first glimpse of him we know we are seeing a man in trouble. He
is unkempt, dressed in a bathrobe and swizzling booze directly from the
bottle. We will soon learn that he was once a respected mainstream
director of major studio films and was revered by Hollywood royalty. Now
he is a has-been who has resorted to making porn movies in 16mm in his
own home. (Yes, Virginia, people liked to watch dirty movies even way
back then.) He is entertaining a visitor, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright),
a perpetually cheery, bubble-headed young woman who was once a
respected actress but who, like Boy Wonder, has fallen on hard times.
She is now a heroin addict who earns a living by "starring" in Boy
Wonder's porn productions. They make small talk and some names from the
current movie business are bandied about. Harlene tells Boy Wonder that a
rising star named Clark Gable is said to be an admirer of his and wants
to meet him. Instead of responding favorably to this news, Boy Wonder
seems unnerved by it. The implication is that he is locked in a
self-imposed downward spiral and lacks the self-confidence to attempt a
real comeback. Harlene also needles him about his sexual prowess. It
turns out that the king of porn films has long been impotent for reasons
never explained. As they prepare to film some scenes Harlene's male
"co-star" (Stephen Davies) arrives. He is nicknamed Rex, The Wonder Dog,
which seems to bother him especially when the Wonder Boy uses it to
intentionally disparage him. Like Harlene, Rex is short on brains but is
physically attractive. Boy Wonder seems to have a real resentment
towards him, perhaps because Rex is a powerhouse in bed while he can't
get anything going despite directing naked people in sex scenes. It
becomes clear that Boy Wonder and Rex don't like each other. Boy
Wonder ridicules Rex for performing sex acts on male studio executives
who he naively believes will help him become a star. However, their
relationship looks downright friendly compared to the interaction
between Harlene and Rex. When Rex is a little slow in becoming
physically aroused, Harlene mocks him mercilessly. This results in him
essentially subjecting her to a violent rape which thrills Boy Wonder,
who captures it all on film. Harlene doesn't appear to be any worse for
the wear, however, and blithely says she's going off to a bedroom to
rest.
The household is next visited by mobster Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), the
man who finances Boy Wonder's film productions. He is accompanied by his
financee Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), a pretty young woman who seems to
have a particular interest in the forbidden world of pornography. Big
Mac and Boy Wonder also hate each other. Big Mac berates Boy Wonder for
making his porn flicks too esoteric and artistic for their intended
audiences who just want a cheap thrill. However, for Boy Wonder the porn
films represent the last opportunity he has to demonstrate the
cinematic style and camera angles that once impressed critics and the
public. In the midst of their arguing, it is discovered that a tragedy
has occurred: Harlene has died from a heroin overdose. Everyone seems
nonplussed by the news and Big Mac's only concern is to ditch the body
somewhere quickly. Turns out Rex has a part time job in a funeral parlor
and can arrange for a gruesome plan in which they dump her body inside a
grave that is being prepared for another person's funeral the next day.
The plan is to dig a bit deeper, bury Harlene, then place a layer of
dirt over her and have the "new" body placed on top of hers. As Big Mac
and Rex leave to "undertake" this sordid task, Boy Wonder finds himself
alone with Cathy Cake. She wants to use the time to have Boy Wonder film
her in her own personal porn movie since Big Mac would never let his
"fiancee" do so with his knowledge. She finds the idea of sex on film to
be a stimulant but Boy Wonder won't have any of it. He knows that Big
Mac's volatile temper and ever-present bodyguard could result in him
being the next corpse in the house. Cathy Cake tries another tactic and
feigns interest in Boy Wonder. He lets his guard down and gradually is
seduced by her. She even manages to cure his impotence but the tryst
turns ugly when she learns he has not filmed it. Boy Wonder soon
discovers that his renewed pride and self-respect is to be short-lived
when it becomes clear that Cathy Cake actually loathes him and was only
using him in order to fulfill her porn movie fantasy. The ploy works to a
degree- her attention to Boy Wonder reawakens his sexual prowess but
when she learns the camera wasn't rolling, she cruelly tells him that
she only used him for selfish purposes. With this, Big Mac and Rex
return from their horrendous errand and catch Boy Wonder in bed with
Cathy Cake. The situation becomes dangerous with Big Mac threatening to
kill Boy Wonder and things only deteriorate from there.
Richard Dreyfuss seemed to have a personal
obsession with this film. He was very involved in all aspects of its
production and remained defensive about the movie after its harsh
reception from critics. The movie's complete rejection by reviewers and
the public might have hurt his career but Dreyfuss already had "American
Graffiti" and "Jaws" under his belt. Soon he would also star in another
blockbuster, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" followed by his
Oscar-winning performance in "The Goodbye Girl". The fact that so few
people ever saw "Interiors" actually worked to his advantage. However,
whatever motivated him to become involved in this bizarre project
remains a mystery. It's an ugly tale about ugly people doing ugly things
to each other. If there is a message here, I didn't receive it. There
isn't a single character you can identify with or sympathize with. They
are all self-obsessed cynics with no redeeming traits. That leaves us
with whatever values the performances afford us and it's a mixed bag.
Dreyfuss is miscast. He was twenty nine years-old when he made the film
and, despite his sordid appearance which ages him considerably, he is
still far too young to portray a once-great movie director who has
fallen on hard times. John Byrum's direction of Dreyfuss is unsteady. At
times he encourages him to underplay scenes while at other times he has
Dreyfuss chew the scenery mercilessly. Similarly, Stephen Davies plays
the brain-dead hunk Rex with flamboyantly gay characteristics one minute
then suddenly transforms into a heterosexual stud the next. Bob Hoskins
in what would become his trademark tough-guy gangster mode but gives a
solid performance. The best acting comes from the two female leads with
Veronica Cartwright especially good as the ill-fated Harlene. Jessica
Harper also does well in her thankless role. Both women seem at ease in
doffing their clothes and playing much of their scenes in a provocative
state. Cartwright even goes full frontal for the violent sex scene with
Rex while Harper spends almost the entire last act of the film being
photographed topless. Curiously, the willingness to appear nude onscreen
was considered the epitome of female emancipation in films during the
1970s but the practice has largely become frowned upon in more recent
years. In fact the days are long gone when virtually every major actress
had to appear naked on screen. Today, female emancipation is the
ability to play erotic scenes on screen without having to be completely
compromised.
Everybody loves the late, great John Candy.
Although he sadly passed away at the extremely young age of 43, he left behind
a comedic legacy that has entertained and will continue to entertain millions.
From his start as a member of the famed improv comedy troupe “The Second City”
to the beloved sketch comedy show SCTV,
to a string of classic comedies throughout the 1980s and 90s such as The Blues Brothers (1980), Stripes (1981), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Going Berserk (a guilty pleasure of mine also from ‘83), Splash (1984), Brewster’s Millions (1985),
Armed and Dangerous (1986),
Spaceballs (1987), Only the Lonely
(1991) and of course, Planes, Trains and
Automobiles (1987) and Uncle Buck
(1989), just to name a few, Candy never failed to make us laugh.
Recently, a well-loved Candy starrer, Summer Rental, was released on Blu-ray.
Summer Rental follows loveable Jack
Chester (Candy); a burnt-out air traffic controller who takes his family to
Florida for a much-needed vacation, but finds constant (hilarious) frustration
at every turn.
Solidly directed by comedy legend Carl Reiner
and released in August of 1985, Summer
Rental is a very enjoyable 80s comedy which is definitely worth checking
out. Besides a wonderfully charming performance from Candy, the movie also
features Richard Crenna and Rip Torn (who both steal quite a few scenes) as an
obnoxious rich sailing champion and a “pirate” who owns a restaurant boat,
respectively.
The talented cast continues as we have Karen
Austin (as Candy’s wife), John Larroquette, Richard Herd, Lois Hamilton,
Carmine Caridi and, as Candy’s children, Kerri Green, Joey Lawrence (in his
theatrical debut) and Aubrey Jene. Reni Santoni, Leigh French and Murphy Dunne
also show up, and the feel-good film further benefits from Ric Waite’s lovely
cinematography, Alan Silvestri’s terrific musical score, and a song by Jimmy
Buffett.
Summer Rental has been released on
a region one Blu-ray, comes in a brand new HD master from a 4K scan of the
original 35mm camera negative, and is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect
ratio. The movie looks and sounds fantastic and the disc also contains an audio
commentary by film historian Joe Ramoni as well as the featurette “Ear Candy:
The Music of Summer Rental” and the original theatrical trailer. Fun stuff.
Recommended.
Although I saw Best Defense theatrically way back in 1984, I remembered very
little about it. I loved Dudley Moore mainly because of Arthur, but I’m pretty sure my buddy and I went to this one because
of Eddie Murphy. Murphy, now a comedy legend, had scored big as a cast member
on Saturday Night Live and had also
just starred in the now classic films 48
Hrs. and Trading Places. I loved
all of it, so, when Best Defense was
announced, it was a no brainer that I would be there. As I said, I didn’t
remember much about the film except that I was mostly disappointed. And in the
over 40 years since its release, I’ve never bothered to sit down and watch it
again. Until now, that is.
Best Defense concerns Wylie Cooper
(Moore), an engineer who is working on a tank’s targeting system for the US
Army. Two years later, Lt. T.M. Landry (Murphy) finds himself in Kuwait testing
out the new tank. However, due to Cooper’s screw-ups, Landry loses control of
the vehicle and finds himself smack dab in the middle of a war zone.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures and based
on the novel “Easy and Hard Ways Out” by Robert Grossbach, Best Defense, which was directed by Willard Huyck and co-written by
Huyck and his wife, Gloria Katz (who also produced the movie), is, 40 years
later, unfortunately still a mess. A big problem is how obvious it is that
Eddie Murphy was never supposed to be part of this film and was added in later
due to his incredible popularity. The comedy king doesn’t even have scenes with
any members of the cast including Dudley Moore. It was still a smart move
because Murphy is the funniest thing in the movie. When he’s on screen, which,
sadly, isn’t that often, the film really comes alive. The rest of the movie,
however, is a bit slow paced and uninvolving in spots. Because of this, it
didn’t score well with test audiences which is why Murphy was called in.
It’s a shame that the film tanked (see what I
did there?) because it not only contained comedy giants Murphy and Moore, but
it also featured performances by wonderful talent like Kate Capshaw, George
Dzundza, Helen Shaver, Tom Noonan and David Rasche.
Still, the movie holds some kind of nostalgia
for me (as I’m sure it does with others who saw it on its original release or
on cable in the 80s) and, to be honest, I’ve seen worse.
Best Defense has been released in
a brand new HD master from a 4K scan of the 1984 35mm camera negative and is
presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1). I must say that the
film looks and sounds amazing, and the Region 1 disc not only gives us the
original theatrical trailer, but also an extremely informative audio commentary
by screenwriter/producer Alan Spencer and author/film historian Justin
Humphreys.
