By Lee Pfeiffer

Ernest Borgnine's final film, The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vincente Fernandez has been released on Blu-ray on the Indican video label. The following is my review of the film's recent theatrical release:

The independent production is a modestly-budgeted family comedy/drama that presents the legendary Oscar-winner with the kind of showcase role that actors in their nineties almost never have. Borgnine makes the most of it, too, giving a terrific and moving performance that earned him the Best Actor award at last year's Newport Film Festival. Written and produced by Elia Petridis, Fernandez centers on Rex Page (Borgnine), a cantankerous old coot given to griping about every aspect of life. He seems oblivious to the fact that he has an adoring wife (June Squibb), a devoted middle-aged daughter (Dale Dickey) and and a worshipful granddaughter (Audrey P. Scott). Rex is frustrated by his failure to fulfill his dream of becoming a big time actor on the silver screen. He once came close to landing the leading role in a spaghetti Western, but lost out to a competing actor. He's spent a lifetime in self-imposed hell, obsessed with watching this B movie and learning every line of dialogue, which he repeats to anyone in his presence. When a health crisis sees the fiercely independent Rex move into a nursing home, a series of incidents motivate him to reevaluate his life. The nursing home is a money mill for corrupt bureaucrats who use the patients as cash cows. It doesn't take Rex long to figure this out and he quickly wears out his welcome by insulting and chastising fellow elderly patients who are part of a click belonging to the corrupt family that owns the facility. He also is abrasive towards the largely Hispanic staff of nurses and orderlies, often referring to them in unflattering racial insults.

The relationship between Rex and his caregivers gradually softens, however, when the young staff members learn that Rex, a former popular DJ, once briefly met and shook the hand of the film's titular character, Vincente Fernandez, a "Mexican Frank Sinatra" who enjoys mythic stature in the Hispanic community. Rex transfixes the staff by telling and retelling his account of this brief meeting in the 1970s. This common bond allows Rex and the staffers to form a mutually respectful relationship that grows stronger by the day. Rex particularly takes a shine to his nurse Solena (stunningly beautiful Carla Ortiz)- and he comes to her defense, saving her from the clutches of would-be molester Dr. Dominguez (Tony Plana), the chief administrator.  In a scenario that is a clearly geriatric version of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Rex inspires his young friends to stand up for their rights and take on the oppressive bureaucrats who exploit them. He must also deal with challenges in his own life when his family feels he's been alienating them in favor of his adopted family at the nursing home. 

The film contains more than its share of sugary scenes and corny cliches. (The villains are so lacking in any redeeming qualities that they practically twirl their mustaches.) Nevertheless, director Petridis offers Borgnine the finest role he's had in more years than I can remember. He dominates every scene and, ironically for his final film, looks like the picture of good health. Petridis, who must clearly be obsessive about spaghetti westerns himself, cleverly manages to intertwine many aspects of Western movie lore into this contemporary story so that even a card game between Borgnine and a nursing home nemesis is drenched in Leone-like imagery and music. This homage extends to the brilliant title credits which are cleverly derived from the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood "Dollars" trilogy. This is a feel good family film that is marred by one easily correctable misjudgment: the insertion of a completely unnecessary expletive said from a mother to her young child. It's wildly out of place in an otherwise uplifting tale for all ages. If director Petridis is wise, he'll exclude this from the video and pay-per-view versions of the film.

I only had the pleasure of meeting Ernest Borgnine once several years ago for an interview for Cinema Retro magazine. He struck me as a warm, honest and kind individual. Thus, perhaps I had a bit more of a personal outlook when viewing Borgnine's final sequence in this film, which Elia Petridis handles brilliantly. It's so touchingly filmed and directed that I was moved to watch this scene several times. Not since John Wayne's final scene in The Shootist has a legendary actor had a more appropriate on-screen send off.

The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez is not high art, nor does it pretend to be. However, it is an enjoyable film that refreshingly extolls family values. The supporting cast members are all very talented and a pleasure to watch, but is  Ernie Borgnine who justifiably dominates the movie and your memories of it.

The Blu-ray release, which boasts an excellent transfer, includes commentary track by director Elias Petridis and producer Darren Brandl, who both enthusiastically share their memories of making the movie. They both acknowledge that the film has been praised for its superb title sequence, but bizarrely don't seem to be aware of the fact that it is a brilliant homage specifically to Sergio Leone's Man With No Name movies. Instead, they simply imply it is based on traditional Westerns. Come on guys, watch The Good, the Bad and the Ugly  and you'll see exactly why everyone loves the credits to Vicente Fernandez. Even the film's ad campaign is creatively based on that classic. The Blu-ray also contains the original trailer and other trailers for Indican video releases, most of which are films centered on themes of social significance.  There is also a bonus supplement of raw footage shot by Brandl on his cell phone of the behind the scenes aspects of the production. While the footage doesn't shed much light on how the movie itself, it does illustrate how the production team had to cope with a very limited budget (everyone is crammed into a small work space). There is also a good deal of reverence in seeing young Petridis return from his first meeting with Ernest Borgnine and speaking incredulously about how the legendary actor promised to defer to him as director and call him "sir". It's nice to see how much respect this new generation of filmmakers had for the revered star. 

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Click here to read Elia Petridis' statement about working with Ernest Borgnine, who passed away before the film was released.  

By Darren Allison, Cinema Retro Soundtrack Editor  

When considering the scores for movie Westerns, film music collectors often refer to classics such as Max Steiner's The Searchers, Dimitri Tiomkin's Rio Bravo or Victor Young's Shane, all of which are, of course, fabulous scores. Monstrous Movie Music have again, (and in keeping with their refreshing style), ventured into new territories with the release of Paul Dunlap’s Western score to Hellgate (1952) (MMM-1972). Rather surprisingly, this CD marks the first full release to feature Dunlap’s film music. The composer was incredibly prolific throughout his career scoring diverse projects which spanned from many of The Three Stooges movies to the cult classic AIP horrors including the Teenage Frankenstein/Werewolf series of films. For a B movie western, there was something a little different about Hellgate – it was really rather good! Hellgate was directed by Charles Marquis Warren, a tough all-rounder who would go on to produce the popular TV series Rawhide. The film boasted a strong, testosterone fuelled cast featuring Sterling Hayden, James Arness and Ward Bond. Hayden plays a veterinarian who is wrongly convicted of guerrilla activities shortly after the Civil War. The prison camp is tough and he has to survive the sadistic commandant (Bond), a cruel guard (Robert Wilke), and deceitful prisoners like Arness. Throw in some Pima Indians (who patrol the canyon walls) in order to catch any escapees for a reward, prisoner punishment that involves being baked in metal coffins or whipped within an inch of their lives and you have a Western story that is well above the expected standard of Poverty Row Lippert Pictures. Dunlap’s music is incredibly dramatic throughout, but it isn’t your regular western score. His main theme begins with heavy brass and drums, but slips into a more solemn, string based theme before it builds gently and provides a sense of hope. It sets the tone perfectly and emphasises the film’s opposing themes of hatred vs. forgiveness. Tracks such as “Kearne Makes Lunge at Nye” illustrate Dunlap’s ability to create genuine excitement by employing his full range of brass and string sections. Quality, for the best part of this score, is highly acceptable. MMM took the decision to release Dunlap’s original recordings in place of re-recording his score, which I believe was the correct option. Whilst there is some minor noise (from the surviving acetates) evident on a handful of tracks, it does not detract or spoil the acoustic soundscape and naturally maintains the composer’s original work. As a bonus, Monstrous movie music has generously included Dunlap’s excellent score for The Lost Continent (1951). A simple enough story, The Lost Continent successfully merged two fantasy elements, combining rocket ships with roaming dinosaurs on a south pacific island. Making good use of an increased budget, Dunlap was able to employ a 47 piece orchestra, and it was warranted – given the enormity of aircraft, rockets, natural disasters and battling monsters that confronted the composer. The result was a highly enjoyable score, and whilst some of the music has been lost in time, the 28mins of music included here make this a CD that is hard to ignore. We can only hope that there is a lot more of Paul Dunlap’s music to come. Included is a great 20 page booklet that covers just about every aspect of the music, composer and the film, all written (in exquisite detail) by David Schecter.

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Click here to read review of Hellgate DVD 

The BFI will showcase a month long London film festival tribute to Japan's legendary Nikkatsu Studios during the month of June. Below is press release information:

The oldest of Japan’s film studios, Nikkatsu was established in 1912 as the Japan Cinematograph Company (Nippon katsudo shashin kaisha). Home to ‘father of Japanese cinema’ Shozo Makino, it fostered early directors like Kenji Mizoguchi, Daisuke Ito and Tomu Uchida, until restructuring of the industry by the wartime government in 1942 saw its production facilities hived off to form the new Daiei Corporation, with Nikkatsu surviving only in an exhibition capacity.

In 1954, Nikkatsu resumed production, rising phoenix-like under the guidance of studio head Kyusaku Hori to carve out a unique identity in the highly competitive market of the postwar Golden Age. Its breakthrough came with the 1956 double whammy of Takumi Furukawa’s Season of the Sun and Ko Nakahira’s Crazed Fruit, kicking off a boom in so-called ‘Sun Tribe’ (taiyôzoku) movies. Such films, with their controversial youths-on-the-loose narratives and sunny beachside settings providing a Japanese mirror to Hollywood titles like Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle, were emblematic of a new era of carefree hedonism and sexual liberation for a generation of postwar baby-boomers, and were soon emulated by other studios.

In the 1960s, Nikkatsu cultivated its ‘Borderless Action’ (mukokuseki akushun) brand – the onscreen worlds drawing from American and European cinema and bearing little resemblance to contemporary Japanese reality. Produced at a conveyer-belt pace by directors including Koreyoshi Kurahara, Toshio Masuda and Takashi Nomura and featuring the company’s ‘Diamond Line’ roster of matinee idols like Yujiro Ishihara, Hideaki Nitani, Akira Kobayashi and Jo Shishido, these gaudy mash-ups of genres including musicals, film noir, gangster movies and even American Westerns defined the company’s product against its rivals. While the playful populism of most of its productions saw them fall beneath the radar of international critics, Nikkatsu’s output as a whole remained eccentric enough to spawn talents such as Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki.

With the steady loss of innocence across the decade marked by the collapse of the Japanese studio system at its end, an era in Japanese cinema came to an end, although it would be Nikkatsu, arguably, who defined the new one too, when from 1971 onwards, it launched its new Roman Porno erotic line.

Click here for film festival tickets and info 

By Darren Allison, Cinema Retro Soundtrack Editor 

From its heavy percussion based main title, She Demons (1958) (MMM-1971) opens with a sense of heart pounding excitement and sets the tone for what is to follow. Nicholas Carras’s jungle-based score is threaded with dramatic cues of which the composer makes impressive use of his 22 piece orchestra. Whist She Demons (as a movie) was never going to attain the title of ‘classic’, Carras’s music, as is often the case, promotes the film to a higher level. Cues such as Escape and Nazis in Pursuit make excellent use of the orchestra’s brass and string section. Carras provides a hopeful, triumphant end title that runs concurrent with a few lonesome drum beats which provides continuity with the film’s central themes. For an isolated island movie (occupied by scantily clad girls, caged mutant women and Nazis) they probably don’t come any better than this. MMM have previously delighted us with a couple of superb Carras scores such as Missile to the Moon and Frankenstein’s Daughter. Their commitment to the composer’s work has proven to be a fruitful decision as She Demons is certainly one of his most accomplished scores.

Doubling up very nicely with She Demons is Guenther Kauer’s score to another low budget slice of sci-fi, The Astounding She-Creature (1957). If Carras’s score for She Demons was impressive, Kauer’s is simply enlightening. Granted, Kauer’s score was recorded using a 45 piece orchestra and as a result, the sound is a great deal richer. Perhaps more remarkably, Kauer sent his 33 minute written score to a friend in Germany who conducted and recorded the music (performed beautifully by The Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra) without screening the actual film. Cue timings were sent, but it often meant that final cues were not always precise. However, what emerged was a wonderful sounding score. Ronnie Ashcroft’s rather poor film succumbed to many edits and, as a result, the final music mix suffered. Thankfully, all of Kauer’s score is delivered here and is an orchestral delight. It is a beautifully crafted and intelligently written composition that really has no right to accompany such a lacklustre movie. Like many sci-fi classics, there is an undeniable ambiance that is certainly Herrmannesque in its delivery, and that can’t be a bad thing. Included is a super 20 page booklet that covers just about every aspect of the music, composer and the film, all written (in exquisite detail) by David Schecter.

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CINEMA RETRO ISSUE #26, THE SECOND ISSUE OF SEASON 9, HAS NOW SHIPPED TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS WORLDWIDE. 

DON'T MISS A SINGLE ISSUE OF THIS SEASON. IF YOU HAVEN'T SUBSCRIBED,DO SO TODAY!

HIGHLIGHTS OF ISSUE #26 INCLUDE:

• Lee Pfeiffer interviews comedy legend Mel Brooks, who reflects on his long career in TV and feature films
• Mike Siegel takes you to the set of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, the 1971 classic starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George; rare production photos and international ad campaigns. 
• Howard Hughes examines the Spaghetti Western classic The Five Man Army starring Peter Graves, Bud Spencer and Tetsuro Tamba
• Dean Brierly pays tribute to the great French crime films of the 1960s and 1970s 
• David McCallum recalls the making of Oakmont Studio's 1969 WWII film Mosquito Squadron
• Cinema Retro attends the 40th anniversary cast and crew reunion of Bob Fosse's Cabaret and gets interviews with JoeL Grey, Michael York, Marisa Berenson and Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies. Plus we cover the "re-premiere" at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, attended by Liza Minnelli herself.
• Don R. Stradley looks at Sextette, the bizarre cinematic swan song of Mae West
• Raymond Benson's ten best films of 1985
• Gareth Owen examines the making of the 1969 spy flick The Chairman (aka The Most Dangerous Man in the World) starring Gregory Peck 
• Dave Worrall covers the new restoration of the Hammer horror classic Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula) 
• Remembering the brilliant, cynical comedy of Paddy Chayefsky in The Hospital starring George C. Scott and Diana Rigg
• Plus the latest DVD, soundtrack and  film book reviews

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With Superman about to be revived (again) for the big screen, the Geeks of Doom site looks back at the entry that put an end to the Christopher Reeve Supey franchise. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was to be the most ambitious entry in the series. However, despite the presence of Reeve and Gene Hackman (reviving Lex Luthor), the 1987 film was a disaster on all levels. The article includes extensive comments from actor Jon Cryer, who was initially thrilled to be in the film but later learned from Reeve that the final cut would be a major disappointment, thanks to penny-pinching producers who reduced the budget by about 2/3. Click here to relive the unhappy memories.  

By Lee Pfeiffer

Sony has released the 1955 crime drama 5 Against the House as a burn-to-order DVD. The little-remembered film is interesting on a number of levels and boasts an impressive, eclectic cast. The low-budget flick depicts four young ex-G.I.s who fought in Korea who return to the States and enroll in college. Al (Guy Madison) is a straight-as-an-arrow type who is engaged to sultry nightclub singer Kay (Kim Novak). Ronnie (Kerwin Matthews) is a brainy upstart with delusions of grandeur and a superiority complex. Roy (Alvy Moore) is an affable joker who is very much a follower, not a leader. Brick (Brian Keith) is the most troubled of the group. He bares psychological problems from his combat experience and has a hair-trigger temper. The guys' only vices are taking an occasional trip to Reno, Nevada and engaging in some minor gambling and womanizing. However, Ronnie concocts an audacious plan to prove he can outwit the authorities and rob a casino. He suggest that the plan be put into operation with the intention of returning the money to the casino after the fact. Ronnie wants to build his ego, not his bank account. Roy and Brick sign on to the plan, but when Al balks, Brick's anger comes through. He threatens his friends with a gun and forces them to pull off the incredible scheme. The film, deftly directed by Phil Karlson, makes effective use of on location shooting in Reno at a place called Harold's Casino. The movie works best as a character study and the performances are all first-rate, with the exception of Madison, who is a bit of a stiff in the lead role. Novak is her usual sexy self and Keith, long-underrated for his dramatic capabilities, gives a powerful performance. The film is one of the earliest to take a sympathetic look at the emotional toll war takes on returning veterans. 5 Against the House is engaging throughout and although it is unremarkable in the long run, it represents the kind of overlooked gems that  the burn-to-order DVD format is rescuing from complete obscurity. 

An original trailer is included.  

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MEL BROOKS: COMEDY AS THE CURRENCY OF FRIENDSHIP

By Eddy Friedfeld

Mel Brooks is profiled in a superb American Masters documentary entitled Mel Brooks: Make a Noise, which premieres nationally on PBS stations on May 20^th.  One of 14 EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) winners, he has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer, and shows few signs of slowing down.  With new interviews with Brooks, his friends and colleagues, including Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman, Rob Reiner, and his close friend, with whom he created The 2000 Year Old Man, Carl Reiner. A DVD with bonus material will be available Tuesday, May 21 from Shout Factory.

"When they called me to say I had been chosen as the next 'American Master,' I thought they said I was chosen to be the next Dutch Master. So I figured what the hell, at least I'll get a box of cigars. When I realized my mistake I was both elated and a little disappointed at losing the cigars," Brooks said.

The comprehensive film takes viewers from Brooks’ early years as Melvin Kaminsky in the Catskills (“I became a drummer because I wanted to make a noise,” Brooks said. “I could have been a floutist, but there was not enough noise”), to his work with Sid Caesar (“that SOB held me back because of his Promethean talent”), to finding his own voice. He knew he had something, he didn’t know how to peddle it, ultimately realizing that his “job was to spot the insane and the bizarre in the commonplace.”

The documentary has a unique and a decidedly different feel. “You get a view of the participants being seen on monitors,” said filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg. “I'm a photographer by trade so I usually shoot my documentaries in studios to achieve a consistent look (and be able to get more people interviewed per day). Because Mel is a filmmaker, I thought it was appropriate to show the milieu - the edges of the set, the monitors, etc. I didn't want the interviews to exist in a vacuum, and I flat out refuse to have a vase of flowers or a lamp behind someone's head.”

“Mel was different from anyone else I've worked with because .... he's Mel! It's a pleasure to talk with someone who is so bright and has such command of the language - you don't want it to end. The most fun was being able to throw out questions that he hadn't heard before - or approach topics from an angle that was new to him. As Rob Reiner says, he's at his very best when he's put in a corner. I asked him deep, probing questions for four months, and he got to keep the shirt we bought for him. So I think we both made out pretty well."

In preparation for my conversation with Mr. Brooks earlier this week, I spent two weeks calling close friends with whom I shared an eternal love and reverence for Brooks and his works and sought their input as to what made him better and more enduring than anyone else who does what he does. It was the joyful conversations themselves that provided the obvious conclusion: No one else could have gotten me to make those calls to other busy people who took the time to think and laugh. Each call reflexively elicited dialogue from his films (including my favorite, “What’s a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?”), which over the years has become the shorthand of our affection. Brooks’ comedy is the currency of our friendships.

While it is well-settled that he is a genius at comedy, he is also a genius at collaboration and friendship. Infused in his work is his love for comedy teams and the journey: The Marx Brothers and the Road Pictures with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. At the core of every one of Brooks’ films there is a partnership and a friendship between at least two characters that are on an adventure. It is the well-defined characters that launches and sustains the comedy and makes the stories enduring. “Unconsciously I was a pup in a cardboard box with three other pups, my brothers, and we tumbled about with each other,” Mel Brooks insightfully said, recalling his modest Brooklyn roots. “That’s why my films are almost always two guys on a journey,” he said.

“When you parody something, you move the truth sideways,” Brooks said. However in developing the on-screen friendships, Brooks built foundations of truth and drilled down deep into the relationships.

I invoked Sid Caesar, Brooks’ friend and former boss, who said: “Great comedy is stories with beginnings, middles and ends. And its best version is combining comedy with pathos. In City Lights, Chaplin’s little tramp character falls in love with a blind girl. He takes out his last dime and gives it to the blind girl to buy the violets she is selling. When she goes over to the water fountain to rinse out her cup, Chaplin follows her with love in his eyes. She rinses the cup and then throws the water in his face. There was a hush in the audience because they didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. That to me was a great piece of comedy because Chaplin captured that bittersweet moment, and was truly working both sides of the street.”

While most of the interviews analyzed the comedy penthouses of his skyscraper classics, I challenged him to analyze the foundation of Brooks’ work: The Da Vinci “science of the art,” the sub-textual pathos of his work- comedy as the currency and engine of friendship, defining the essence of the characters that define and drive the comedy, and a comparison of his fictional friendships with his real-life counterparts. Brooks’ understanding and creation of screen friendships mirror his real-life friendships which go back decades.

Blazing Saddles, Brooks’ 1974 masterpiece is a satire of Western films and a brilliant social commentary on race and government. The two heroes- Black Bart (Cleavon Little), the Sherriff of Rock Ridge and The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), are overtly friendlier than Newman and Redford’s Butch and Sundance, on which they are based. When it comes to character development, the Brooks films take the attendant characters and make them more passionate, compassionate, and affable. The comedy is buttressed by friendship, heroism, and honor.

The last interchange in the film occurs after Bart has killed Harvey Korman’s villainous Hedley Lamarr:

Kid: “Where are you going?

Bart: “Nowhere special.”

Kid: “Nowhere special… I’ve always wanted to go there.”

As the two ride off into the sunset, and then into a town car, the scene is as poignant and heartfelt as it is anachronistically funny, with the best friends not knowing where they are going next, and not concerned because they are going there together.

The screen friendship mirrors the relationship Brooks has with Carl Reiner, his comedic and creative partner in crime for over 60 years. “When I first joined The Admiral Broadway Review, the predecessor to Your Show of Shows, I was so unsure of myself I was throwing up between parked cars. I came from South Third Street in Williamsburg [Brooklyn]. I thought I was destined to work in the Garment Center and work my way up from shipping clerk, to salesman, to maybe a partner. I thought that any minute I would be fired. Sid fought for me, but [Show of Shows producer] Max Liebman didn’t want me.” According to legend the stern and staid Liebman would throw lit cigars at the young and animated Brooks.

With Carl Reiner, 2001 (Photo courtesy Robert Trachtenberg/PBS)

“Carl came to the show and thought I was really talented- he supported me at every turn. Carl was a little older and had been on Broadway, he starred in Call me Mister. I was leaning on him for the first two years until I felt I could be there and had my own sense of confidence. If I said I was the best, he said “’you are.’” He created the 2000 Year Old Man with his tape recorder having faith that I could become any character he threw out: From a submarine commander to an Israeli psychiatrist or a Cockney English director.”

“The first portion of my life Carl was my rock. Christ said on this rock I will found my church. On this Jew from the Bronx I founded my church.”

In public from across a room he looks at Carl not only affectionately and for artistic fuel, but often protectively, to make sure his friend is okay. To anyone with close friendships of their own, their rare and enviable bond is apparent and palpable. There is purity to it. They are the Butch and Sundance Kid of comedy, both comedic alchemists, creating funny lines, images and situations literally from the air spinning their golden wit and entertaining and energizing everyone around them, endeavoring to make everyone in the room not only entertained by but engaged in the comedy. “We have a talent for that- turning a room into a community and we enjoy doing that,” Brooks said.

“He’s not a kid anymore and I still love him,” Brooks said of the now 91-year old Reiner. Things turned around. 60 years later Carl leans on me. We’re both very lucky we’ve survived the storms of age and loss. It’s the son’s duty to take care of the father. He just called to ask whether I want the marinated lamb chops or the baby lamb chops- I said get the baby lamb chops thick.”

In 1967’s The Producers, Brooks took the name of Gene Wilder’s character Leopold Bloom from James Joyce Ulysses, and undertook the challenge of making the audience root for two characters that are crooks. It is because of the affection and friendship between Bloom and Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) that the story works.

“You can’t help yourself, you want them to succeed,” Brooks said. “I try to explain it all in the lovely speech that Bloom makes in the courtroom trying to protect his friend, Max.”

After the jury foreman (Bill Macy) announces that the jury finds the pair “incredibly guilty,” Leo says:

Leo: “Ladies and Gentleman of the jury, Max Bialystock is the most selfish man I ever met in my life.”

Max: “Don’t help me.”

Leo: “Not only is he a liar and a cheat and a scoundrel and a crook who has taken money from little old ladies, he has talked people including me into doing things that they would never have done in a thousand year… this is a wonderful man who made me what I am today. And what about all the women: Max made them feel young, attractive and wanted again.”

“It’s the father taking care of the son,” Brooks said. “And then the young guy is taking care of the old guy. I also had that in The Twelve Chairs. The young streetwise guy is dealing with the “’out of it’” privileged aristocrat, who never had to worry about life until the revolution set him back on his heels.”

1974’s Young Frankenstein, which director Brooks co-wrote with Wilder has Wilder’s Victor Frankenstein nurturing Peter Boyle’s monster. In none of the other 200-plus versions of the genre did the creator ever risk his life to save his creation. Boris Karloff never sang and danced when he portrayed the monster, nor did he sit on his creators lap. “In no other version did anyone say: “This is an angel- this is a good boy,”” Brooks said.

Both The Producers and Young Frankenstein are metaphors for Brook’s friendship with Gene Wilder. In accepting his Oscar for Best Screenplay from Frank Sinatra for The Producers he thanked Wilder three times, with both men fighting back tears. “Gene Wilder came from nowhere, unknown. Just like Carl spotted the talent in me ten years before that, I spotted the talent in him. I knew there was no more talented actor in comedy or drama than Gene Wilder.”

“He was so grateful to me for supporting him emotionally and bringing the best out of him. I have a great wine collection because of him. I was drinking Manischewitz until I met Gene. He really understood wine. Anne [Bancroft] and I went over to his apartment in the [Greenwich] Village one night. A real dump. But he had a rotisserie, a barbequed chicken. I didn’t know how he did it. He served Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a Rhone wine, and I said “What the hell is this liquid?”

So I began buying that wine and then he served Nuits Saint Georges, a burgundy. I had not yet hit gold, a claret or Bordeaux. At the next meal he ordered Lynch Bages, a French Bordeaux, which I began to collect Bordeauxs, including Sassicaia. I now send Gene something I don’t think he can afford and he’s always happy to get it.”

Cinematic legends meet: Mel, Alfred Hitchcock (who he used to call "Al"!) and Anne Bancroft during the production of High Anxiety. (Photo courtesy of Mel Brooks/PBS)

1982’s My Favorite Year was Brooks’ love letter to Sid Caesar and early television, and was based on his own experience as the youngest writer on Your Show of Shows. Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is assigned to chaperone the less than reliable movie-star Alan Swann (Peter O’Toole) who is scheduled to appear on King Kyser’s (Joseph Bologna) Cavalcade of Comedy. The film made me fall in love with Sid as well. I told Brooks that it was 20 years to the week after I saw My Favorite Year that I was writing with Sid. The affection between the two is still strong. “If Sid Caesar was in a coma and you walked into the room, Sid would get up, say “’hello Mel,’” and drop back into the coma,” I said.

Brooks acknowledges the connection he still has with the 90 year old Caesar, whom he visits regularly. “I’m one of the few people who can get his synapses to fire in that special way. And I’m proud that I can do that. Because if there was no Sid Caesar there would be no Mel Brooks.”

I reminded Brooks of an evening at New York’s Pierre Hotel in 2000, where Caesar was honored and Brooks presented him with an award. He moved the capacity crowd of the great ballroom to near tears. “And it’s not the chicken,” the choked up Brooks said at the time, praising his friend. “Life takes you on different paths. I got on the right road when I went with Sid- and it never went wrong.”

He recalled the now fabled “Writers’ Room,” still one of the most romantic metaphors in history for creativity and comedy and arguably the greatest collection of comedic talent ever assembled.

“It was very stressful to be that creative. We had an Olympic level of comedy height and had to get over that crossbar. We knew when we were settling for cheap standup material and when we were exalted in terms of the human condition and being genuinely funny. We always aimed for that. Max Liebman was a master- he put on live Broadway review every week for 39 weeks a year. Sid wanted me- I could come up with bizarre things- all kinds of crazy things that distinguished Sid from other comedians. I came up with material for the German Professor character and foreign movies.”

“There were only a few of us in the beginning. Max supervised the writing with Sid and Carl sitting in. There was Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen and then myself. Tony Webster was brought in. The later incarnation of the Writers’ Room included Doc and Danny Simon, Mike Stewart, Aaron Ruben, Woody Allen, and Larry Gelbart. We’d work separately and all meet and complete each other’s tasks. Unless there was a big movie parody where we all sat in a room together. It is still the only show where the writers became as famous as the stars.”

He recalled meeting another young writer whom he is still close to, Rudy DeLuca, who along with Steve Haberman is part of Brooks’ inner circle. “Rudy is a real pal- he was working on the Carol Burnett show with his partner, Barry Levinson. Rudy has such a funny personality- he was crazy board member in Silent Movie. In High Anxiety, Rudy played the hit man with the aluminum teeth. Who came up with the idea of putting a little Japanese umbrella in his drink when he was stalking me in the bar.”

“Barry also wrote with me on High Anxiety. He would tell me stories about growing up with his friends in Baltimore. I took him to Il Vitelloni, Felini’s first film- which is about a group of friends who grow up together in Italy. I said, this sounds like what you’re talking about. Take your stories put them together and take out the ones that don’t work. He wrote the script to Diner in three weeks.”

I explained to Brooks that two people shaped my creative life and influenced what I wanted to do more than anyone else: Larry Gelbart and Mel Brooks. “Including me, he could have been the best writer in the Writers’ Room,” Brooks said.

I told him that 1974 was my “favorite year,” Gelbart’s MASH was on TV and Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were in the movies. The intellectual driven comedy made the smart kids feel hip and ambitious. “You have to know a little bit about the world and the history. All the references are critical- if you don’t get them you don’t get the essential comedy and what we’re trying to do.”

In 1982- I bought 10 copies of The High Anxiety Soundtrack, the flipside of which included the songs from all of the other prior Brooks’ films, to give as holiday gifts to friends. When I presented it to one of my college friends, he clutched the LP to his chest and ran off eager to play it. Flash forward to 1995, I get a box in the mail- it was The 2000 Year Old Man Boxed Set that had just been released on CD with a note from that friend thanking me for the LP 12 years earlier.

Brooks recalled a similar experience: “I screened High Anxiety for Alfred Hitchcock. He didn’t say a lot, turning to me a few times, when the newspaper ran down the drain, he said “’brilliant,’” which was very nice. He said he had less showering [in Psycho] than I had. At the end he got up and left without saying a word. I was so worried. I thought this is no good. I guess he didn’t like the picture.”

“The next day on my desk in my office at 20^th Century Fox there was a beautiful wooden case of 1961 Château Haut-Brion. Six magnums. Priceless. Unbelievable to this day. There was also a little note: "Dear Mel: I have no anxiety about High Anxiety, it’s a wonderful film. Love Hitch.”

“The only two people who ever said I was a good director were Hitchcock and Billy Wilder. I never heard from anyone else in the business. Until the AFI called me. Last October, the AFI named Brooks the recipient of the 41st American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, which will be presented in June, joining Shirley MacLaine, Tom Hanks, John Ford, James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand, Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier and both Kirk and Michael Douglas.

“I’ve always been saluted as a comedy force but never as a film director. I always explained the movie clearly so that the story worked. My dream was to get over the Williamsburg Bridge and get to Manhattan ever since I was three years old. Me and my childhood [and lifelong] friend Gene Cogan, formerly Eugene Cohen, would walk over the bridge to Delancey Street and get a knish and a root beer. I knew there was something great over that bridge.

Young Melvin Kaminsky got his knish and root beer. And Mel Brooks crossed the East River Rubicon and journeyed to entertain millions as a masterful storyteller and continues to entertain new generations of grateful fans with big noises that get even bigger laughs.

Cinema Retro Contributor Eddy Friedfeld teaches comedy and film history at NYU and Yale and is the co-author of Caesar’s Hours with Sid Caesar

Can't get enough Mel? Check out Lee Pfeiffer's extensive interview with him in the latest issue (#16) of Cinema Retro.

Click here to order Make a Noise from Amazon. 

 

Artist Pete Emslie of the Cartoon Cave web site provides yet another impressive tribute to a pop culture favorite- Batgirl herself, Yvonne Craig, who celebrates her birthday today. Keep 'em coming, Pete!  Click here for more of Pete's tribute to Yvonne.

By Lee Pfeiffer

You don't have to be gay to admire John Schlesinger's 1971 film Sunday Bloody Sunday, but it probably helps in terms of appreciating just how ground-breaking the movie was in its day. As a straight guy of high school age when the film was released, I do remember it causing a sensation, although it would literally take me decades before I finally caught up with it. Gay friends always spoke reverently of the movie and expressed how the most refreshing aspect of the story was how "normally" a loving relationship between two adult men was portrayed. In viewing the film as a recent Criterion Blu-ray release, I feel I can finally appreciate that point of view. Gay men have long been portrayed in movies, of course, but for the most part they have been depicted as objects of ridicule or as sexual deviants. There were the odd attempts to present gay characters as sympathetic in films such as The Trials of Oscar Wilde and the brilliant Victim. Yet, even these fine efforts present homosexuality as a burden those "afflicted" must bear. Stanley Donen's 169 film Staircase offered fascinating and bold performances by Rex Harrison and Richard Burton as two aging queens. However, the studio marketing campaign over-emphasized the oddity of two of the film industry's great lady's men playing a gay couple. In fact, the ad campaign showed Burton and "Sexy Rexy" giddily dancing, thus falsely conveying that the film was a comedic romp instead of a poignant and intelligent look at loving homosexual relationship. Schlesinger, one of the first unapologetic directors to come out of the closet (if, indeed, he was ever in one) decided that the most daring aspect of this highly personal film would be in its very ordinariness. The story covers a complicated love triangle between three disparate people. Dr. Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) is a middle-aged, Jewish London doctor who is involved romantically with a much younger man, Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Hirsh doesn't flaunt his homosexuality, nor does he attempt to painstakingly deny it. He just lives his life as a respected member of his community, although it is clear his family thinks he's straight. (In one amusing, though uncomfortable sequence, Hirsh attends a Bar Mitzvah and has to endure attempts by nosy female relatives to set him up with his "dream girl"). The relationship between Hirsh and Bob is fairly intense, but is compromised by one uncomfortable fact: Bob is bi-sexual and is carrying on an equally intense love affair with an older woman, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson). Both Hirsh and Alex know about each other and (barely) tolerate the triangle as the price of having Bob in their lives. For his part, Bob is a rather self-absorbed young man who seems to have genuine affection for both of his lovers, but is also either oblivious or uncaring about how the uncertainties of the relationship are affecting their psychological well-being. 

Sunday Bloody Sunday was released a time when the gay rights movement was moving into high gear in the post-Stonewall period. It illustrates why the 1970s is regarded by many as the most liberating decade in film history, with old line directors like Hawks, Welles and Hitchcock working at the same time young turks like Schlesinger were shaking things up in a way the old masters never had the opportunity to do, thanks to the restrictive motion picture code. Sunday is primarily remembered for an eyebrow-raising scene in which Hirsh and Bob engage in a romantic kiss. There's nothing sensational about the tasteful way in which this rather routine gesture between lovers is presented on screen. In fact, it was the sheer lack of sensationalism that drove home Schlesinger's primary message: that loving gestures between gay men can be every bit as routine as they are between husband and wife. The fact that the kiss was enacted by two straight actors did add considerable gravitas to the moment and must have caused more than one straight viewer to think "Well, if they don't care about enacting such a scene, why should I feel uncomfortable watching it?"  Schlesinger also dared to film tasteful but passionate bedroom scenes between Bob and Hirsh. Nevertheless, nothing much actually  happens in Sunday Bloody Sunday. The story was based in part on real-life experiences and people from Schlesinger's own life. The story merely traces the ups and downs in the love triangle as Bob causes panic in both Hirsh and Alex by announcing he is thinking of moving to America. Hirsh and Alex do have an unexpected face to face meeting during this crisis and their sheer civility and inability to engage in more than light banter only adds to the dramatic tension. 

The primary attribute of the film, aside from Schlesinger's spot-on direction, is the brilliance of the performances. Glenda Jackson was then emerging as a national treasure for the British film industry and the little-known Murray Head acquits himself very well indeed. However, it is Peter Finch's performance that dominates the movie as we watch his character go from loving acceptance of Bob's youthful self-absorbing actions to downright fury as his realization that Bob will never have the same passion for him. It's a superb performance on every level. Some viewers find the film's bizarre final sequence in which Hirsh addresses the viewer directly about his philosophy of life, but I found it to be a distraction and somewhat confusing. Nevertheless, this is a fine film, worthy of the praise it has generated over the years, and one that remains remarkably timely today.

The Criterion Blu-ray is right up to the company's top-notch standards. The transfer is beautiful and there are the usual informative extras including:

• New interviews with Murray Head (who says that, as a young actor, he found his character to be rather despicable), cinematographer Billy Williams (who supervised the Blu-ray transfer), production designer Luciana Arrighi, Schlesinger biographer William J. Mann and the director's long-time partner, photographer Michael Childers who shot many of the great production stills for the film.
• A 1975 audio interview with Schlesinger
• Screenwriter Penelope Gillatt's original introduction to the published screenplay (there is plenty of coverage throughout the Blu-ray concerning the tense working relationship between Gillatt and Schlesinger, who accused the writer of taking the lion's share of credit for a screenplay he had extensively rewritten.)
• The original theatrical trailer
• Extensive liner notes by writer Ian Buruma, Schlesinger's nephew who appeared as an extra in the film.

In all, an outstanding tribute to an outstanding work by one of the era's great filmmakers.  

Click here to order from Amazon 

By Dollie Banner

When I came of age in the eighties and nineties, cinema art houses were filled with American independent films, most of them gems. It seemed that then movie lovers could see nearly every film released. In the years since the number of independent films have grown exponentially, and I often worry that I’m bypassing, or even worse completely ignorant, of some worthwhile films that get lost in cinematic obscurity.

The Exhibitionists (2012), the second feature from director Michael Melamedoff is such a film, a compelling chamber piece about seven characters revealing their true desires over the course of two nights. At the heart of the film is fragile Regina (Pepper Binkley), who we meet nervously awaiting the arrival of her husband Walter (Richard Short), an agent provocateur filmmaker just returned from a cross-country film shoot. In tow he brings fellow crewmember Gordo (Daniel London), whose dutiful wife Gretchen (Lauren Hodges) has been keeping a tight watch on Regina, and Lynn (Ella Rae Peck) their lovely and vivacious intern who has been earning extra credit with George off the clock. Tensions between the five occupants at Walter and Regina’s apartment are already strained when the arrival of Regina’s brother George (Mike Doyle), on leave from a seminary, and musical diva Blithe Stargazer (Laverne Cox) set a series of betrayals and revelations in motion.

First conceived as a stage play, screenwriter Michael Edison Hayden has adapted his own work into a film that bears a strong resemblance to higher profile plays-turned-films closer (2004) and carnage (2011). All three examine the private truths behind seemingly healthy relationships through expertly written characters. The Exhibtionists never quite reaches the probing dexterity of the other two pieces, but what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for with a titillating and refreshingly ambiguous sexuality. Both Hayden and Melamedoff are aided by a group of skilled and attractive actors. Viewers expect a few thin performances in micro-budgeted films, but this cast is uniformly committed and capable. Particular standouts are Ella Rae Peck of NBC’s deception, whose natural beauty and delivery make an instant impression and Laverne Cox (Netflix’s orange is the new black), a force of indeterminate sex whose palpable magnetism affects everyone else in the film. Their two scenes together sizzle and mark a tipping point in the film.

Shot in just over ten days, Melamedoff deftly places the viewer in the middle of the action often utilizing reverse shots to canvas multiple characters’ perspectives. It’s a shame he didn’t have more funds to work with because although the film has definite style, it also cannot hide it minimal budget. The score by Teddy Blanks, who also created the opening sequence, is unapologetically electronic and retro. It’s a little too similar to music heard in soft core cable offerings, but manages to establish and sustain a sense of unease throughout the film. Perhaps it is the association with the music cues, but The exhibitionists ultimately fails to fully deliver on its title and promise of sexual provocation. I thought I might be watching a modern take on the sexploitation films of the sixties and seventies such as Score (1973) by Radley Metzger, but this film never evolves into erotica. Despite that The Exhibitionists is an intriguing work and engages the viewer from the first shot to the last.

The Exhibitionists was unfortunately relegated to a few festival appearances in lieu of a theatrical run. Now it’s available on VOD and DVD, presented along with a few extras. Best amongst the special features is Michael Melamedoff’s very informative commentary which illustrates how purposefully he went about constructing the film. Also included are some behind the scenes stills, Walter’s edited pitch for Blithe that features some hardcore footage and a festival interview with director Melamedoff and actor Richard Short, all short but nifty. Viewers can also download the score if they want to stage their own party at home. Hopefully with this release The Exhibitionists will finally find the audience it deserves.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

(Click here to visit reviewer Dollie Banner's web site)  

Rome has been the backdrop to some iconic films over the years, but its real heyday was between the 1950s and 1960s, when classics such as Roman Holiday were shot in and around the city centre. Even today, the locations used are considered to be points of pilgrimage for any self-respecting retro film fan, from the Trevi Fountain to the Colosseum, especially as 2013 marks the 60^th anniversary of Roman Holiday hitting our screens.

The easiest way to track down the real life places behind the celluloid is to create your own walking tour, so that you can spend as long as you like at each spot; just use the Rome film map from lowcostholidays.com and dive straight into the sights to plan your own route. Here’s your guide to each of the retro pictures that made the map.

Roman Holiday (1953)

It’s the film that launched Audrey Hepburn; her first leading role, which saw her playing a princess from an unnamed European country who was determined to explore Rome whilst on a royal visit. With Gregory Peck as her guide, she went to the Mouth of Truth, the Spanish Steps and Ponte Sant’Angelo. You can still see the key locations today, but one of the highlights is the Roman Forum, where our main characters meet. There’s no longer a road through the middle of it, but you can still explore the crumbling Arch of Septimus Severus, where Audrey (as Princess Ann) is found asleep.

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)

Aside from the continuity gripe of only two – not three – coins being thrown into the fountain from the title, this 50s film is perfect viewing for anyone who wants to see vintage Rome in all its glory, through the eyes of three American ex-pats. Right from the start, with establishing shots of St. Peter’s and the Tivoli Gardens, we’re treated to picture-perfect views. The Colosseum is a stopping point on a whistle-stop tour of one character’s city recommendations, along with a branch of the National Museum.

La Dolce Vita (1960)

The Trevi Fountain’s most memorable cinema appearance was when Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni climbed in together during a night-time stroll. Sadly you can’t recreate the moment these days, as bathing isn’t actually allowed, but you can relive the magic by visiting after dark, to avoid the huge crowds. Further afield, take a trip to the Baths of Caracalla and see where film star Sylvia (played by Ekberg) danced in front of the press and her fiancé.

As well as the locations used as a backdrop to certain scenes, you can also track down one of director Federico Fellini’s biggest local inspirations – Harry’s Bar, on the Via Veneto, which was a hotspot for celebrities back in the 60s. In the film itself, the popular street was entirely recreated in the studio, but today it would be a lot easier to shoot footage here, as the Via Veneto isn’t considered to be part of Rome’s social scene anymore and is relatively quiet.

Aside from those greats, there were hundreds of films made at the nearby Cinecittà Studios, which is on the outskirts of the city and was built by Mussolini. This is the perfect place to continue your cinematic tour, where you can find out how epics such as Ben-Hur and Cleopatra were made on the sprawling set. Head to Cinecittà by using the Metro system and then enjoy a set and on-site museum tour, which will set you back €15.

Pay tribute to Italy’s most cinematic city and discover the locations behind the iconic scenes; you’ll soon see why directors couldn’t keep away from Rome.

La-La Land has released Jerry Goldsmith's original soundtrack score for the 1968 Western Bandolero as a limited edition CD. The release includes the original album originally released on vinyl as well as never-before-released tracks. Curiously, the cover art depicts James Stewart and Dean Martin - though Raquel Welch is not depicted. On the original album, Martin could not be depicted because his image could only be used on Reprise Records during that period. The same thing occurred with the soundtrack for Lady in Cement- which could not depict the film's star Frank Sinatra. To order the album click here 

UPDATE:

Contributing writer Nick Anez supplies us with the following facts:

Regarding the notice of the new Bandolero CD soundtrack on the Cinema Retro website, I have the original LP album. It is true, as the article states, that Dean Martin is not depicted on the album's cover. But what is even stranger is that his name is not even mentioned. On both the front and back of he album, the cast is listed as "James Stewart, Raquel Welch, George Kennedy in Bandolero." The album has a gatefold cover and opens out. Inside are six photos from the film, none of Martin There is also a complete summary of the story. As each character's name is mentioned, the name of the actor portraying him or her is mentioned afterward in parentheses - except for Martin's  character.  No actor is listed for his character. It's ridiculous. Dean probably couldn't have have cared less.

The man himself may be long gone, but Al Jolson's immortal contributions to music and cinema are still being celebrated by the thriving International Al Jolson Society. Their official web site allows fans from around the world to share in all aspects of Jolson's career and you can listen to some of his most enduring musical accomplishments.  An annual membership in the Society brings even more benefits. This year's convention of Jolson fans will take place in Palm Springs May 16-19 (the location varies every year). There will also be a Jolson festival on Long Island in August (date to be announced). The web site has over 1.5 million hits to date, indicating there's still plenty of life left in Jolson mania.

Click here to visit site

STUDIOCANAL LAUNCHES WORLDWIDE APPEAL TO RETRIEVE ORIGINAL MISSING FILM MATERIALS FOR HORROR CLASSIC THE WICKER MAN:

40th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION TO RESURRECT AND RESTORE FOR UK CINEMA AUDIENCES

LONDON, UK, 30th April 2013 – STUDIOCANAL, with the endorsement of director Robin Hardy, today launched a world-wide public appeal to locate original film materials relating to legendary horror classic THE WICKER MAN, originally released in 1973, in celebration of the cult film's 40th anniversary.

2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the THE WICKER MAN'S original release. In celebration of this and continuing its project to conserve, restore and release for future generations the best of Classic British cinema, STUDIOCANAL today announces its intention to release the most complete version of the film possible. The now widely lauded film was released with minimal promotion in 1973 as second feature of a double bill with Don’t Look Now. The version exhibited to audiences was significantly shorter than director Robin Hardy's original vision. In what has now become an apocryphal episode in British film history, the negatives disappeared from storage at Shepperton Studios, were then allegedly used as landfill in the construction of the nearby M4 motorway, and are considered lost forever.

STUDIOCANAL are now appealing worldwide to film collectors, historians, programmers and all-round fans to support the campaign and come forward with any information relating to the potential whereabouts of original materials.

Director Robin Hardy comments: "I never thought that, after forty years, they would still be finding lost fragments of my film, We thought all of The Wicker Man had gone up in flames, but fragments keep turning up and the hunt goes on!"

STUDIOCANAL General Manager UK Home Entertainment John Rodden adds: "The Wicker Man is not only a great horror film, it is a true classic that grows in stature as the years pass. We’re now appealing to the public to help us create the most definitive version possible.”

A special facebook page has been created to serve as a forum for the search to continue. For further updates and to join the conversation with any news please visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wicker-Man/

More details about the history of the various cuts of the film are below.

THE WICKER MAN: A SHORT HISTORY:

In 1973, Robin Hardy’s debut film THE WICKER MAN fell victim to a boardroom takeover at distribution company British Lion, and had its release temporarily shelved. A finished version of the film that director Hardy was happy with had been delivered with a running time of 102 minutes.

When it did finally reach UK cinemas that year, with little fanfare or promotion, and as part of a Double Bill with DON’T LOOK NOW, 15 minutes had been cut, leaving the film’s running time a trim 88 minutes. Director Robin Hardy and the other filmmakers had not been involved and did not approve of this new version.

A few years later when Hardy tried to track down his original version, he was told that all the negative trims from it that had been stored at Shepperton Studios had been thrown away, and the only “original negative” was now the 88-minute version. He finally managed to ascertain that Cult US Director Roger Corman still had a print of the full-length version, and this was used for the US theatrical release. Corman’s print has been missing since the 1980’s and only poor quality 1” video material is known to exist of this version.

by Todd Garbarini

Samurai Cop, director Amir Shervan's 1989 film starring actors Robert Z'Dar, Matt Hannon and Jannis Farley, has been restored in high definition on DVD by Cinema Epoch and is now available for purchase in a special edition for a limited time on Amazon.com prior to the film's June 4th, 2013 DVD street date. Click here to purchase this new pressing (do not be fooled into purchasing the inferior Media Blasters DVD that was released in 2004). This new version is superior.

While going through boxes last year in a California studio vault, both Cinema Epoch President Greg Hatanaka and Cinema Epoch Producer and Director of Acquisition's Douglas Dunning (he's also a cult actor and voice over artist) discovered the original 35mm camera negative to the late Mr. Shervan's film. It is from this source that the new DVD has been transferred.

Samurai Cop will also be screened at midnight on May 31, 2013 at the Landmark's Nuart Theatre in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. Tentatively scheduled to appear in person at this screening on the 31st are actor/stuntman Gerald Okamura, actors Jimmy Williams and Mark Frazer, film composer Alan DerMarderosian, cinematographer Peter Palian, and Ben Shervan (the late director's son). There will also be a limited number of pre-signed DVDs autographed by actor Robert Z'Dar for purchase at this screening only.

Samurai Cop’s Facebook page can be found here.

Upcoming screenings will also be taking place at:

May 10 & 11 at 12:30m – Egyptian Theatre, Seattle, WA

May 31 & June 1 at Midnight – Uptown Theatre, Minneapolis, MN

June 7 at Midnight – River Oaks Theatre, Houston, TX

June 7 at Midnight – E Street Cinema, Washington, DC

June 7 at Midnight – Ritz at the Bourse, Philadelphia, PA

June 14 & 15 at Midnight – Inwood Theatre, Dallas, TX

June 28 & 29 at Midnight – Sunshine Cinemas, New York, NY

June 28 & 29 at Midnight – Esquire Theatre, Denver, CO

By Lee Pfeiffer

It's pretty amazing how many ways studios have devised to market and re-market The Three Stooges. The latest attempt is Sony's made-to-order 3 DVD set titled Rare Treasures from the Columbia Vault. It's a bit misleading in that the bulk of the material pertains to individual short films starring Stooge cast members, but for this reviewer, that's also what makes the set so special. There are eleven hours of material in the set including two feature films and 28 shorts. The features are Rockin' in the Rockies, a 1945 musical comedy that features the Stooges as inept prospectors in the modern west. The film seems to have been made to promote promising musical talent of the day. The story has the boys kidnapping a Broadway talent agent and holding him hostage until he hears their friends perform their revue, which includes numbers by Spade Cooley, the "King of Western Swing". The Stooges comedy bits are strewn too infrequently throughout, so I confess to keeping my finger on the "fast forward" button during some of the dated song sequences. The second feature is Have Rocket Will Travel, a late career feature for the Stooges during their renaissance period with Curly Joe taking over from the original Curly and Shemp. It's a pretty limp affair, but there is a certain charm about the total innocence of the comedy skits. It depicts an era in which three grown men could be depicted snuggling together in one bed without the slightest hint of a sexual connotation. The script finds the Stooges accidentally ending up on a space ship to Venus. Even within the way out realm they often operated in, this premise is over-the-top. Fortunately, the film ends with a more traditional setting with the boys upstaging snooty guests at a black tie dinner party. Keep an eye out for future Time Tunnel star Robert Colbert as the romantic lead. 

The set also contains some brilliant Columbia cartoons from the 1930s that feature first rate animation. The cartoons depict famous movie stars of the day including  the Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Kate Hepburn, the Marx Brothers, Charles Laughton, etc. They are truly wonderful pieces of entertainment. Most refreshing is the inclusion of numerous shorts featuring solo gigs by Stooge actors who never quite got the acclaim they deserve. Shemp Howard headlines some of the funnier efforts, but there are also terrific turns by Joe DeRita and Joe Besser. Although Besser was married in real life, he always played overtly fey (dare we say "closeted"?) characters long before Paul Lynde had come along. His starring roles in these shorts finally afforded him the spotlight he deserved. Similarly, the porcine DeRita was a terrific comedic presence who never quite got the acclaim he deserved. Both men were of considerable girth which makes their obsession with performing high risk pratfalls even more impressive. Both Besser and DeRita's films find them in almost identical plot situations.  They are  generally married to conniving women or outright battle axes who henpeck them mercilessly. Kitchens often provide ample opportunity for widespread destruction as the simplest of cooking tasks inevitably meet with disaster. These post-War era shorts also accentuate the military and one of the funniest finds Besser drafted into the Army, where he drives his top sergeant crazy with his goofy behavior. (It's pretty easy to see where the inspiration for the Gomer Pyle character derived from.) It should be noted that these short films feature a stock company of brilliant comedic second bananas who appear numerous times. If the films resemble Three Stooges humor, it's not by coincidence: many were directed by the Stooges' own Jules White. Curiously, a couple of the Joe Besser shorts appear twice in re-titled versions that exclude the original prologues. 

In all, this 3 DVD set is manna from heaven not only for Stooges fans but for anyone who appreciates great comedy of this era.

The set contains the following :

Rockin' In The Rockies (1945) (feature film with Curly)

Have Rocket--Will Travel (1958) (feature film with Curly-Joe)

Shemp Howard solo shorts:
Home On The Rage (1938)
The Glove Slingers (1939)
Pleased To Mitt You (1940)
Money Squawks (1940)
Boobs In The Woods (1940)
Pick A Peck Of Plumbers (1944)
Open Season For Saps (1944)
A Hit With A Miss (1945)
Off Again, On Again (1945)
Where The Pest Begins (1945)
Jiggers, My Wife (1946)
Mr. Noisy (1946)
Society Mugs (1946)
Bride And Gloom (1947)

Joe Besser solo shorts:
Waiting In The Lurch (1949)
Dizzy Yardbird (1950)
Fraidy Cat (1950)
Caught On The Bounce (1952)
Aim, Fire, Scoot (1952)
Spies And Guys (1953)
The Fire Chaser (1954)
G.I. Dood It (1955)
Hook A Crook (1955)
Army Daze (1956)

Joe DeRita solo shorts:
Slappily Married (1946)
The Good Bad Egg (1947)
Wedlock Deadlock (1947)
Jitter Bughouse (1948)

Columbia Color Rhapsody cartoons
The Bon Bon Parade (1935)
The Merry Mutineers (1936)
A Hollywood Detour (1942)

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By Lee Pfeiffer 

A year after their Oscar-winning triumph, The Bridge on the River Kwai, William Holden and writer/producer Carl Foreman teamed again for another drama set in WWII, The Key. The 1958 drama is primarily a love story but there is plenty of action on the high seas, all superbly photographed in B&W by the great Oswald Morris. The offbeat story is set in England in the early days of the war before America entered the conflict. Britain stands alone against the seemingly unstoppable German forces and fights to maintain shipping on the high seas in the face of ever present U-Boat threats. William Holden is Capt. David Ross,  a Canadian serviceman who is reluctantly assigned to skipper a rescue tug boat that is sent to retrieve men from sinking ships that have been torpedoed. There is good reason for his less-than-enthusiastic acceptance of his assignment: the tugs are lightly armed sitting ducks for the U-Boats. The specter of death hangs over every mission. Ross is pleasantly surprised to be reunited with fellow tug captain Chris Ford (Trevor Howard). The two old friends bond again by getting drunk then returning to Chris's apartment. He has a rare commodity. While most servicemen are crammed into barracks-like hotel rooms shared by numerous other men, Chris has been fortunate enough to secure his own apartment. He explains that the place has an eerie tradition. The present occupant is to make an extra key and give it to his best friend, who will inherit it in case he dies. Ross is startled to find that the apartment comes with another fringe benefit that is passed down from doomed owner to doomed owner: Stella (Sophia Loren), a beautiful but somber Swiss refugee who acts as housekeeper and lover for the latest tenant. Still, Ross sees that there is genuine affection between Stella and Chris and the two even announce plans to marry. A premonition convinces Stella that Chris will never return from his next mission: a prophecy that sets in motion an engrossing series of events of which nothing else can be revealed here without providing "spoilers".

It's glorious to see three great stars of the cinema playing off each other. (While Holden and Loren reached superstar status, Howard was always regarded as a character actor- albeit, one of the best in the business.) Under the sensitive direction of Carol Reed, the leisurely-paced story contains elements of the supernatural with the premonitions and apparitions accompanied by Malcolm Arnold's eerie score. The supporting cast is also impressive with the great Bernard Lee in fine form as a naval officer with the unpleasant duty of sending rescue boats on virtual suicide missions. In all, a fine film all around- and one that neatly avoids the cliched final sequence you believe the script is building to.

Sony has released The Key as a burn-to-order DVD. The transfer is excellent, though no extras are included. 

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Bryan Forbes, who personified the golden age of British cinema in the post-WWII era, has died at age 86. Forbes started out as an actor before morphing into a screenwriter and esteemed director. He teamed with Richard Attenborough to form a film production company. Among their films was The Angry Silence, an acclaimed 1960 movie in which both men starred. It dealt squarely with England's omnipresent tensions between business leaders and union members. Forbes co-wrote the screenplay and produced the movie. His high profile films as director include such British classics as Whistle Down the Wind, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, The Wrong Box, The Whisperers, King Rat, Deadfall, The Slipper and the Rose, The L-Shaped Room, International Velvet as well as the hit 1975 Hollywood horror flick The Stepford Wives. Forbes also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for some of these films as well as the comedy classic The League of Gentlemen and director Attenborough's Chaplin. Forbes had been nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for The Angry Silence and had won a BAFTA for the same script. He had been nominated for numerous other BAFTA awards and was given a lifetime achievement honor by the organization in 2007. For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The Warner Archive continues to delve into little-remembered crime movies with the release of F.B.I.: Code 98, yet another in the seemingly endless attempts of J. Edgar Hoover to use popular entertainment as a vehicle to promote himself and his bureau as incorruptible pillars of American society. (As usual, Hoover ensures he is personally thanked in the credits, mentioned in the script, depicted in photos on office walls and appears in footage at the end of the movie.) Still, this is a tense little thriller that engages the viewer from minute one with its timely depiction of a task force trying to prevent acts of home-grown American terrorism. The plot centers on a group of business executives who are flying to a government conference. Their company provides crucial materials and engineering for the U.S space program. A nondescript employee of their company concocts a clever scheme whereby he manages to switch out a piece of luggage being loaded onto the executive's corporate jet. Inside is a time bomb. Only a quirk of fate allows it to be discovered and dismantled in time. The F.B.I. is brought in under the direction of field director Robert Cannon (stiff-jawed Jack Kelly). He works with the intended victims to sort out who might have had a grudge against them and this inevitably leads to delving into some sensitive areas of their personal lives- including illicit affairs between married people. The film is tense and engrossing throughout, thanks to expert direction by Leslie Martinson. The capable supporting cast includes Ray Danton (whose baritone voice always seems overly dramatic for any role he played), the always-watchable Andrew Duggan, Philip Carey, William Reynolds, Jack Cassidy (in pure heterosexual mode) and Vaughn Taylor as the mousey, unlikely would-be terrorist. To compensate for the low budget, there are some unintentionally amusing gimmicks to provide some sweep to the locations. An F.B.I. office in Vegas looks directly out onto the casinos on the strip; a Washington D.C. office is in direct line with the Capitol Building; a Florida office has a view of a space launching pad. Still, Martinson's use of real locations throughout most of the film adds to the dramatic intensity. The film takes pains to present every F.B.I. man as scrupulously honest and dedicated. The worst they are guilty of is flirting with secretaries. 

F.B.I.: Code 98 is well worth a look. It's tightly scripted, well-directed and doesn't have a single wasted frame. 

There are no bonus extras on the DVD.  

Click here to view preview clip and order from Warner Archive 

 

Cinema Retro is saddened to convey the news that the legendary Ray Harryhausen has passed away at the age of 92. The man who broke new barriers in cinematic special effects died in London. Although American by birth, Harryhausen made England his adopted home and from there enjoyed a long career that saw him receive countless honors as well as the idolization of a new generation of filmmakers. He was also a good friend to Cinema Retro, contributing to several issues and allowing our writers access to his private archives. We will not see his kind again.- Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall 

For more on Ray Harryhausen's life and career click here 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Loophole is a 1954 low-budget crime movie that is one of a number of a "B" movie titles now available from the Warner Archive. These minor gems remind us of the glory days of cinema when movies were made expressly to be shown as second features. Loophole, directed by Harold D. Schuster, was originally released theatrically by Allied Artists. The film presents Barry Sullivan as Mike Donovan, a respected bank teller who is living a comfortable middle class existence with his wife Ruthie (Dorothy Malone) in L.A. In the midst of a high profile annual bank audit, a nondescript man named Tate (Don Beddoe) manages to pass himself off as one of the auditors. His sexy girlfriend  Vera (Mary Beth Hughes) poses as a customer to distract Donovan while Tate cleans out his cash drawer without his knowledge. At the end of the day, Donovan is astounded to learn he is $50,000 short. He makes the first of several mistakes by not reporting the loss immediately to his boss. It's Friday afternoon and he wants the weekend to ponder what could have happened to the money. By the time he reports the theft on Monday morning, he's the prime suspect. The insurance company assigns a bulldog of an investigator, Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw), to tail him everywhere. In those days before suspects had Miranda rights, Donovan feels the full fury of being interrogated by police and Slavin without the benefit of a lawyer present. His boss believes he is innocent but he is forced to fire Donovan anyway. Every new job he finds ends abruptly when the Javert-like Slavin inevitably shows up and spreads the word that he is a suspected thief. A chance encounter brings Donovan face to face with Tate and triggers his memory of the phony auditor who had access to the cash. Donovan makes another mistake by taking after the man himself, a tactic that results in Tate being mistaken for his accomplice. The entire affair ends with a tense confrontation between Donovan, Tate and Vera in a Malibu beach house. 

Loophole is consistently engrossing throughout its scant 80 minute running time. Filmed mostly on actual locations, the movie gives retro cinema lovers a great view of L.A. as it appeared in the mid-1950s. The cast is peppered with excellent character actors and the black and white cinematography is crisp and impressive. It's a real treat that such forgotten treasures are now readily available on made-to-order DVD. There are no extras on the DVD. 

Click here to view clip and to order from Warner Archive  

 

Commencing May 17, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present a Burt Lancaster film festival to celebrate the iconic actor's 100th birthday. Films to be screened include From Here To Eternity, Sweet Smell of Success, The Swimmer, Elmer Gantry, Twilight's Last Gleaming and Ulzana's Raid. For info click here

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

On Friday May 24th Bruce Crawford will present his 32nd classic film event with  a salute to the legendary music and lyricist team of Rodgers and Hammerstein with a screening of their musical classic, "Carousel", with special guest, star of the film, Oscar winning actress and TV legend Shirley Jones. 7pm. at the Joslyn Art Museum's Witherspoon Hall 2200 Dodge St. Omaha Ne.
Mandy MacRae Daley, the daughter of co star Gordon MacRae, will also be in attendance.

World renowned pop artist Nicolosi will also unveil an original art design he created for this event honoring Miss Jones, MacRae and Rodgers and Hammerstein and it will be available as an official United States Postal Service commemorative envelope.

Tickets are $20 at all Omaha Hy Vee food stores customer service counters.
Proceeds benefit the Omaha Parks Foundation. For more information call: 402-926-8299

www.omahafilmevent.com

By Todd Garbarini

Rarely has distributor exploitation been as blatant as in the case of Simon Wincer’s The Day After Halloween (1980), a ludicrously-named Australian outing originally optioned under the name of Centerfold, then changed to Snapshot after the producers were unable to secure that title, and was eventually released as One More Minute. It appeared on video shelves here in the U.S. on VHS both in 1983 from Catalina Home Video under the title of The Day After Halloween and in 1985 as The Night After Halloween on Magnum Home Entertainment. The film came on the heels of the John Carpenter-scripted Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) which was set against the milieu of the fashion industry. Filmed in 1978 and released in Australia the following year, The Day After Halloween has absolutely nothing to do with John Carpenter’s seminal holiday suspense yarn, and isn’t even a slasher film. It isn’t even a thriller. At best, it can be considered a mystery that concerns a young woman named Angela (Sigrid Thornton) who lives with her wretched, belittling mother and is trying to fend off the unwanted affections of her obsessed and emotionally unstable ex-boyfriend Daryl (Vincent Gil) who drives an ice cream truck (think Phantasm!). She’s late for work which earns her the condemnation of her hairstylist boss but garners the affections of Madeline (Chantal Contouri), a sophisticate who dresses like Joan Collins who encourages Angela to parlay her natural good looks into a modeling career which lands her topless in Cleo, the Australian equivalent of Cosmopolitan Magazine, in an ad for Bermuda Cool cologne. The ad proves lucrative but also draws the unsolicited attention of lots of tongue-wagging men twice her age in an effort to score with her. A photographer sets up a meeting with her and uses an innocent photo session as a ruse to get her drunk and undressed, but she bails, which leads to a frightening confrontation later on.

Given the cookie-cutter nature of films from this era, it isn’t difficult to realize who really idolizes Angela and wants her the most. The Bermuda Cool photographing sequence goes on much longer than it should (remember that long, wordless sequence in Play Misty for Me set to a Roberta Flack song? That was shorter!). Lacking a cinematic style, the film for the most part is shot in masters and throws lots of red herrings at the audience, but it makes for an entertaining film. The acting is impressive for this sort of story. The score is by the late Australian composer Brian May whose music to George Miller’s The Road Warrior (1981) is one of the best action film scores ever. Prior to this, Mr. May scored Patrick (1978) which was produced by Anthony Ginnane who also acts as producer on this film as well (if you have seen the Italian cut of Patrick, Mr. May’s score was replaced by Goblin’s). Director Wincer has gone on to director more notable and successful films: Phar Lap (1983), D.A.R.Y.L. (1985), Quigley Down Under (1990), Free Willy (1993), and The Phantom (1996).

The film has been released on Scorpion Releasing’s Katarina's Nightmare Theater line, hosted by Katarina Leigh Waters. Ms. Waters proves to be a charming and knowledgeable emcee and provides an amusing introduction to the film. She points out that this is the first time the film is being presented on home video in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision aspect ratio. The film is transferred from a theatrical print, but it is free of dirt and scratches. The sound is in mono and is passable.

The DVD contains the entire, uncut version of the film with Snapshot on the title card, however there is an extra that contains a portion of the opening credits with The Day After Halloween as the title (the fuzziness of the image and overall lack of quality appears to be sourced from VHS). There is also an extremely informative running commentary with producer Anthony Ginnane moderated by Ms. Waters. A veteran of over fifty films, Mr. Ginnane is a fountain of knowledge and remembers quite a bit about the making of this film which had a very tight production schedule on the order of three weeks shooting time. The DVD cover replicates the original American one-sheet which is a nicely-designed image but is completely misleading – it is simply the wrong cover for this movie.

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On his web blog Sixties Cinema, Cinema Retro columnist Tom Lisanti pays tribute to schlock producer Bert Gordon's 1965 teenbopper exploitation flick Village of the Giants, featuring such cult stars as Tisha Sterling, Joy Harmon, Vicki London and Tony Basil. Click here for the story behind the film as well as original TV ads.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Impulse Pictures has released Sexcula, a 1974 Canadian hardcore horror spoof, on DVD. The film is more notable for the story behind its production than the finished product, which is generally fairly anemic. It was made in Vancouver with the aid of a loophole in the Canadian government's tax shelter funding even though hardcore porn was illegal in the country until 1978. Consequently, the movie was never shown beyond an alleged initial screening for cast and crew.  Many doubted the very existence of the film, which is presumed to be the first ever Canadian feature length porn flick, since it hasn't been seen at all over the decades. . The bizarre scenario finds a young couple who discover a diary from 1896. In it, an incredible tale is told about a female mad doctor named Fallatingstein (get it?) who used her skills to create an artificial life form: a hunky would-be sex slave named Frank (get it?) The only problem is that while Frank is desirable to the doctor, the "monster" is uninterested in the doctor. In frustration, she reaches out to her relative, Countess Sexcula (Debbie Collins, Canada's answer to Marilyn Chambers). The two women attempt to "raise the dead" in terms of Frank's flaccid sexual state. Although the title hints at overt horror themes and most of the action takes place in a dungeon, Sexcula herself just seems to be an exotic, perpetually horny young woman with no particular ties to the supernatural. (The tag line for the movie promises "She'll suck more than your blood!") The rest of the film consists of humorous vignettes in which the two females try every imaginable scenario to get Frank aroused. Even the inevitable lesbian scene fails to do the trick. The joke is carried on throughout the cheaply made production, which intersperses soft core sex with a few hardcore sequences. The comedy is overt, obviously having been inspired by the goofy appeal Deep Throat held for mass audiences. However, the movie is completely lacking in wit and Ms. Collins' performance makes Marilyn Chambers look like Kate Hepburn. The actresses seem stiff and uncomfortable. There is also footage from what appears to be an unrelated production showing a young couple in a wedding chapel who turn their exchange of vows into an orgy. (Being polite Canadians, they ensure that the preacher joins in as well.) Perhaps the most offbeat sequence features a comely female robot sexually assaulted by a gorilla! The film lurches towards a Blazing Saddles-like conclusion with cast members clearly walking around the sets, indicating the whole production has been a joke. 

Sexcula strives to be a cut above average porn but the talent simply isn't there to carry off the gimmick. Even the hardcore sequences are dimly lit and not very erotic. However, the Impulse release deserves praise because it represents the first public distribution of this film, which was rumored to exist but had been lost in Canadian archives. Liner notes by Dimitrios Otis, who is referred to as a "Porn Archaeologist" (how does one get a degree in that field?) present the interesting tale of how the movie reels were located and salvaged. An original trailer is included as well as a pop art comic synopsis of the movie by Rick Tremble. In all, an impressive package for a relatively unimpressive film. However, there is that terrific poster art concept used on the sleeve. 

 

Brian Hannan, author of the new book The Making of Lawrence of Arabia, has unveiled a startling fact: an early production of David Lean's masterpiece was announced in January 1953- a decade before Lean's version was released. It was to be filmed in Cinerama and star John Wayne! Now, there are no bigger fans of the Duke than us, but what were they thinking? Fortunately, plans fell apart for this particular film. Hannan relates how Marlon Brando was Lean's first choice for the role, so even in saner hands the emphasis was in casting an American actor as the iconic Brit. By the way, Duke Wayne may have dodged a bullet with Lawrence, but a few years later he went one worse by playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror! For more click here 

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Warner Archive has released the 1972 MGM thriller The Carey Treatment as part of its DVD-on-demand program. James Coburn has one of his best roles as Dr. Peter Carey, a rebellious but esteemed surgeon who moves to Boston to take a prominent position at one of the city's most esteemed hospitals. The charismatic Carey loses no time in gaining friends, alienating top brass and bedding the comely chief dietician (Jennifer O'Neill). However, he soon finds himself embroiled in a politically volatile investigation when a fellow surgeon is arrested for performing an illegal abortion on the 15 year old daughter of the hospital's crusty administrator (Dan O'Herlihy). (The movie was released a year before the landmark Roe V. Wade decision that legalized abortion in America.) Coburn believes his friend's protestations of innocence and decides to launch his own investigation into the matter. The case soon unveils a lot of skeletons that some prominent people would prefer to be kept in their closets and Carey finds himself subjected to blackmail and physically assaulted as he comes closer to discovering the shocking truth behind the young girl's death.

 

By Bruce Campbell 

Over four days the 2013 Bradford Widescreen Festival located at The Pictureville Cinema played host to a mixture of classics in 70mm, CinemaScope and Cinerama formats. There was a special tribute to the 60^th anniversary of CinemaScope, the famous widescreen process developed for Twentieth Century Fox back in the 1950s.

Friday kicked off with a rare 70mm screening of The Longest Day preceded by an informative introduction by Sir Christopher Frayling. This was followed by the much- loved The Great Escape presented for the first time in 4K Digital and the picture and sound were simply stunning. Cinema Retro contributor Dr. Sheldon Hall provided an illuminating introduction to this war classic. Following the delegates’ reception in the Kodak Gallery, The Sound of Music was presented in 70mm. The print was generally good although three quarters of the way through, a reel snapped resulting in a 10 minute wait for reparations to take place. When the show resumed, the audience cheered and applauded.

Saturday provided a different selection of features commencing with a wonderful short directed by Grant Wakefield in 2k called Remnants. Filmed using motion controlled time-lapse photography, Remnants captures on film the thousands of complex stone monuments constructed by the Neolithic peoples of Northern Europe from 3800 to 1000 BC. Stunning 2K resolution and extraordinary music provided by Tangerine Dream member Thorsten Quaeschning.

Dave Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch who do so much for the preservation and restoration of the Cinerama documentary features updated the audience on Seven Wonders of the World, another 3 strip Cinerama classic that required extensive work to bring this forthcoming restoration to a new generation of audiences. Following this came the European premiere of Cinerama Holiday shown in 2k Digital on the curved screen. Randy Gitsch provided the introduction and background to the extensive work needed to bring this second of the three Cinerama travelogues up to date. A highly rewarding experience for all. (Cinerama Holiday will be released later this year along with another Cinerama feature South Seas Adventure on the Flicker Alley label).

Saturday afternoon concluded with the European premiere of David Strohmaier's In the Picture short, which was filmed in 3 panel Cinerama for the first time in 50 years! This was followed by The Last Days of Cinerama, an affectionate look at the making of the aforementioned feature. A 70mm print of Hello Dolly rounded off the Saturday evening, again an excellent presentation.

Sunday opened with the regular and popular Cineramacana a montage of shorts and news items that included DTS demonstration reels and a 70mm reel of Tomorrow Never Dies which never saw a 70mm release in the UK. The traditional onstage photograph followed. Sunday afternoon ran the 3 strip feature of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm, the only known print in existence. It looked magnificent on the Pictureville's curved screen.

How to Marry a Millionaire was screened on Sunday afternoon, with a beautiful CinemaScope print that was well received by all present. Tony Sloman provided a fascinating and amusing intro to this Fox Classic. The day concluded with a screening of The Guns of Navarone, shown for the first time in a 4k print. Again patrons were experiencing a much improved presentation of this war movie classic. This was introduced by Author Brian Hannan who has just written two books: The Making of the Guns of Navarone and The Making of Lawrence of Arabia.

The final day Monday showed the marathon feature Gettysburg over two parts which was introduced by Dr. Sheldon Hall.

The Bradford 2013 Widescreen festival will go down as one of the best ever, with improved organisation allowing delegates longer breaks between features and also arguably for the first time ever, ran pretty much to schedule!

Ably organised by Bill Lawrence and Duncan McGregor patrons seemed very happy with both the presentation and quality of the features on offer.

Congratulations to all concerned and roll on 2014.......

With Leslie Charteris' once popular books showcasing The Saint now back in print, writer Allan Massie of The Telegraph examines why the stories still entertain today. With all due respect to Roger Moore's visual representation of the hero in the 1960s, Massie argues that the character rightly belongs in his original time period, the 1920s. He also examines how Simon Templar differs from that other iconic British hero (coincidentally also portrayed by Moore), James Bond 007. Click here to read 

 

The next time you hear American politicians debating the "onerous" tax burden on the wealthiest citizens, consider England in the 1960s when the tax rate on their highest earners skyrocketed to 98%. This forced many of the UK's most creative artists into tax exile. By the time sanity had returned to the British tax code, some of these people had left their native country permanently. The Beatles were among the most notable victims of the tax system but they also suffered from an abundance of bad business deals. Their hip, young manager Brian Epstein is fondly recalled for shepherding the Fab Four throughout their early career but Epstein (who died in 1967) was not the best business manager they could have had. An article in Bloomberg News features an interview with Peter Brown, the 74 year old man who took over managing the Beatles after Epstein's death. Brown reflects on Epstein's shortcomings and the turmoil that followed his death. Turns out Epstein had negotiated ludicrously low royalty deals for the lads from Liverpool that literally saw them making a fraction of a penny on every record sold. It was only due to the sheer number of records sold during the Beatlemania era that they ended up being wealthy in spite of these bad deals. Epstein also foolishly negotiated away the rights to Beatles merchandising for peanuts. Although the Beatles became fabulous wealthy, they always remained haunted by the fact they were cheated out of proper royalties and never even controlled the rights to the records they made. For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

The little-seen 1983 thriller Double Exposure has been released on DVD by Scorpion Releasing as a special edition. The film has an interesting background. It was originally filmed in 1971 under the title of The Photographer by director William Byron Hillman with Michael Callan cast as a photographer of beautiful women who also turns out to be a serial murderer. Hillman and Callan were frustrated that the movie received only a limited release. Twelve years later, they collaborated on a remake of the movie using the title Double Exposure. This time around, Callen served as an uncredited screenwriter on Hillman's new script and he also produced the movie, as well. Major script changes included having the main character, Adrian Wilde (Callan), not certain if he actually is a murderer. He's a generally kind and decent man who eeks out a modest living photographing models. He resides in a mobile home in L.A. which serves as his business office and bachelor pad. He is haunted by recurring nightmares of him committing horrendous murders of some of the women he photographs. When they actually start turning up dead, he is convinced he must be the culprit. He seeks guidance from his shrink (Seymour Cassel) and warns his new girlfriend, sexy Mindy (Joanna Pettet) that he has doubts about his sanity. He also seeks comfort from his brother B.J. (James Stacy) , a rather belligerent, bitter man who nevertheless has not allowed the loss of an arm and a leg prevent him from making a career of stunt driving. He also proves to be quite a lady's man and in one memorable sequence mud wrestles a bikini-clad girl in a bar. As the body count builds, Adrian slides further into madness. 

The film is definitely of "B" movie caliber, but it's generally engrossing and well-made. Callan delivers a very fine performance in the lead role and he is more than matched by Stacy. Pettet does well as the female lead, and exposes a lot of flesh in a fairly graphic bedroom scene. There are other familiar faces who pop in and out of the film including Pamela Hensley as a detective assigned to track down the killer, Cleavon Little (largely wasted) as her perpetually grouchy superior officer and Robert Tessier as a skid row bar manager. Sally Kirkland and future Saturday Night Live star Victoria Jackson also have early career roles. Hillman directs efficiently, though there the ending veers into cliched "woman in jeopardy" territory and the final few frames of the movie, in which the killer is unveiled, boasts some fine acting but disintegrates into a confusing and frustrating scenario in the last few, hectic seconds. Nevertheless, Double Exposure is a good thriller, well-made on a modest budget. 

The DVD has several impressive bonus features including commentary track by Callan, cinematographer Michael Stringer and script supervisor Sally Stringer, an interview with Callen conducted by Katarina Leigh Waters, the original trailer and a selection of bonus trailers from other DVD releases. Recommended. 

Click here to order from Amazon. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

I confess to never having heard of this film prior to receiving a review DVD from Warner Archive. In fact, it's fairly obscure even in its native Britain. However, The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, released in 1970, is one of the most amusing and perceptive political satires I have ever seen. The dark comedy opens with the titular character (Peter Cook in top, deadpan form) inexplicably arriving at a mismanaged London publicity and advertising agency. With nary an explanation about his identity or background, Rimmer simply makes himself at home, though uninvited. The inept brass assumes some big wig has implanted Rimmer among them to be an efficiency expert so they defer to him on virtually everything. In short order, he turns the failing company into a fabulously successful force in terms of marketing potential political candidates. Finding a way to manipulate the dumbest segment of the Tory voter base,  Rimmer quickly becomes a major force in choosing which candidates are the most charismatic, yet intellectually vacuous. Before long, this man of mystery, who says little but achieves a lot through shrewd schemes, is on the A list of London socialites. He's courted by all and beautiful women are at his disposal. Rimmer chooses a comely lovely (Vanessa Howard) as his bride, but she soon learns even she is a tool for political expediency as Rimmer himself becomes a top candidate for public office. He's a British precursor to Robert Redford's Bill McKay in The Candidate (1972). Both end up being ironic political forces, though Rimmer is a clever manipulator while McKay is an empty shell who rises to the top by serving as the charismatic tool of his puppet masters.

The script was co-written by Cook, John Cleese and Graham Chapman- heavyweight comedy talents who specialize in theater of the absurd. However, the writers keep their comedic instincts restrained, opting wisely for subtle laughs rather than slapstick. The inspired supporting cast includes such comedy stalwarts as Cleese, Chapman, Arthur Lowe, Denholm Elliott, Norman Rossington, Dennis Price with Ronald Culver and Harold Pinter thrown in for good measure. The cynicism of the piece is that a brainless segment of the public will be satisfied by the superficial aspects of candidates even if they know nothing about those candidate's backgrounds or motives. Rimmer becomes the toast of the town without ever taking a firm position on any issue. He smiles a lot, charms everyone and remains firmly in the middle of the road on any topic. Thus, the story is as timeless today as ever. Witness the parade of ignorant, empty-headed people who have emerged as leading political figures in the last year alone and you'll understand why The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer plays more like a horror film today than the comedy it was originally intended to be. 

Click here to order from the Warner Archive

By Harvey Chartrand

Neville Heath was an English killer responsible for the murders of two young women. He was executed by hanging in London in 1946 (aged 29). Heath was a handsome and well-spoken sociopath who could easily lure women to their doom.

In 1967, Alfred Hitchcock was trying to rebound from the failure of the Cold War espionage thriller Torn Curtain with an original screenplay entitled Frenzy (and later Kaleidoscope). The unproduced project was to have been based on the crimes of serial rapist-killer Heath, although the story would be set in the present day in and around New York City. The original story would be told completely from the point of view of a murderer who is both attractive and vulnerable.

Screenwriter Benn Levy wrote in a letter to Hitchcock in January 1967: “It's got to be (based on) Heath, not (John George) Haigh (the acid bath murderer). Told forwards, the Heath story is a gift from heaven. You'd start with a ‘straight’ romantic meeting, handsome young man, pretty girl. Maybe he rescues her from the wild molestations of a drunken escort. ‘I can't stand men who paw every girl they meet.’ Get us rooting for them both. He perhaps unhappily married and therefore a model of screen-hero restraint. She begins to find him irresistibly ‘just a little boy who can't cope with life’ -- least of all with domestic problems such as he has described. She's sexually maternal with him, she'd give him anything -- and we're delighted. Presently a few of us get tiny stirrings of disquiet at the physical love-scenes but don't quite know why. By the time we see the climax of his love in action and her murder, then even the slowest of us get it! But we shouldn't know till then.”

Frenzy would also be a stylistic departure for Hitchcock. After watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Hitchcock felt he had fallen behind the Italians in technique. Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan writes: “Watching one Antonioni, he sat up straight at the sight of a man all in white in a white room. ‘White on white!’ he exclaimed to (his personal assistant and script supervisor) Peggy Robertson. ‘There, you see! It can be done!’”

Hitchcock was also impressed by the camerawork improvisation of maverick American director John Cassavetes (Shadows). He asked the novelist Howard Fast (Spartacus, Cheyenne Autumn) to sketch a treatment about a gay, deformed serial killer. Pleased with the results, Hitchcock composed a shot list with over 450 camera positions and shot an hour’s worth of experimental color tests, using unknown actors in various states of undress. This footage was filmed in New York City, and gives a tantalizing glimpse of what Hitchcock had in mind, of how revolutionary Frenzy/Kaleidoscope would have been in his body of work – a Psycho for the more liberated counterculture era. Unfortunately, MCA/Universal were disgusted by the script and test footage and immediately canceled the project, reducing Hitchcock to tears. Hitchcock was coerced into directing Topaz, Leon Uris’ behind-the-scenes account of the breakup of a Soviet spy ring at the highest levels of the French government during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Topaz was another in a string of artistic and commercial failures for Hitchcock as he approached age 70.

What would have been Hitchcock's most daring and controversial work was thwarted: an avant-garde film using hand-held camerawork, a first-person viewpoint and natural lighting (à la Blair Witch Project, filmed 32 years later), detailing the exploits of a gay bodybuilder who dabbles in murder, rape and possibly necrophilia. It was conceived in 1964 as a prequel to Hitchcock’s 1942 film Shadow of a Doubt and was initially titled Frenzy, not to be confused with his eventual 1972 movie of the same name, from which certain plot elements of the original Frenzy were recycled.

Hitchcock’s interest in Neville Heath first manifested itself in 1959 in his unproduced project No Bail for the Judge, which would have starred Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Harvey and John Williams. A respected judge is blamed for the murder of a prostitute, and his barrister daughter searches for the real killer in London’s criminal demi-monde. Hepburn, who desperately wanted to work with Hitchcock, suddenly withdrew from the project because of a scene in which her character is brutally raped in Hyde Park by a good-looking London pimp named Edward “Neddy-Boy” Devlin, who dominates Hepburn by slowly strangling her with a necktie.

Audrey Hepburn never did work with Hitchcock, but Laurence Harvey got along with the Master of Suspense and starred in Arthur (1959), a grisly episode of the long-running TV anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in which a beautiful woman (Hazel Court) meets with a terrible fate.

 

The rape scene in No Bail for the Judge obviously was one that Hitchcock wanted to realize, in one form or another. It is quite similar to the scene of Mark’s rape of the frigid Marnie on their honeymoon cruise. The unproduced script of No Bail for the Judge also looks forward to the unproduced Frenzy/Kaleidoscope and to Hitchcock’s serial killer masterpiece Frenzy (1972), with its sexually impotent necktie strangler Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) loose in London, eager to pin the murders of several attractive women on his best friend. The unproduced Frenzy contains a sequence in New York’s Central Park where the killer, Willie Cooper, takes a young woman into the bushes and murders her. And while Bob Rusk may have more victims to his credit than Neville Heath and Willie Cooper, it is clear that Edward “Neddy-Boy” Devlin was Hitchcock’s first “necktie strangler”.

So, as Hitchcock matured as an artist, his impulse to film violent misogynistic scenes intensified – scenes which would finally be free from censorship in the freewheeling “anything goes” atmosphere of Hollywood in the sixties and seventies.

(Click here to order Cinema Retro issue #18 featuring extensive coverage of Hitchcock's Psycho. Click here to order Cinema Retro issue #24 featuring in-depth article on the making of the 1972 version of Frenzy)  

 

Opera superstar Maria Callas was set to make her movie debut in Carl Foreman’s iconic war film The Guns Of Navarone, according to a new book, The Making Of The Guns Of Navarone launched this weekend at the Bradford Widescreen Film Festival  (April 26-29) by Scottish film historian Brian Hannan.

The singer had scandalised the world by her affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who would later marry Jackie Kennedy, widow of assassinated president John F Kennedy. Callas was first choice for the role of the older female Greek partisan. Producer Carl Foreman promised ‘mucho love scenes’ with star Gregory Peck.

Commented Hannan, ‘At the time, Maria Callas was the most famous woman in the world, a fiery mixture of Princess Diana and Madonna, the role model for every diva to come. This was an astonishing publicity coup. Names did not come any bigger. Although few opera stars can act, she was considered more than capable. Smouldering European actresses like Sophia Loren were much in demand in Hollywood at the time and she fitted the bill.’

Born in America in 1923 to Greek parents, she mad her singing debut in 1941 but her early career was tumultuous and it was not until she married wealthy industrialist Giovanni Meneghini that she achieved major success. Even so she battled with employers and was known as much for her tantrums, walkouts and love life as her singing. Her presence was a considerable departure from the best-selling book by Scottish writer Alistair Maclean for in the original there were no female characters.

The news received worldwide coverage – Callas was that big a star. Hollywood was agog. Offers of movie roles had been made to Callas before and she had turned them down. There was a history of opera stars making the jump to Hollywood. Popular 1930s due Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald had both been opera stars. More recently Mario Lanza had been a box office sensation - his film The Great Caruso had ranked third in the US box office charts in 1951 ahead of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and Elizabeth Taylor in A Place In The Sun. There had also been a trend for operas to be filmed and show in cinemas.

But Callas’s career had been riddled with bust-ups and insiders predicted the relationship with Foreman would not last. Callas abruptly quit the production before shooting began and was replaced by classical actress Irene Papas.

Nor was she the only casualty of the filming. Producer Foreman lost first choice actors  Cary Grant and William Holden, director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers), scriptwriter Eric Ambler (Mask Of Dimitrios), and a second female star Annette Stroyberg, wife of director Roger Vadim who had turned Brigitte Bardot into a star. British actor David Niven nearly died during filming.  The set, the biggest ever built in Britain, for the titular guns collapsed and had to be rebuilt and the budget soared by 25%. 

Despite these setbacks, the film burned up the box office and was the number one film of the year and nominated for seven Oscars.

Hannan has also published two books on Hitchcock – Darkness Visible:Hitchcock’s Greatest Film and Hitchcock’s Hollywood Hell.

The author will introduce a new restored 4K version of The Guns Of Navarone film on Sunday April 28 preceded by a book signing of his book and its companion The Making Of Lawrence Of Arabia.

The Making Of The Guns Of Navarone by Brian Hannan is published by Baroliant Press, priced £8.99 and is available on Kindle and in bookshops.

(U.S. readers can click here to order the Amazon Kindle edition)  

Contact Brian Hannan by email on bhkhannan@aol.com  or mobile  07946 278403

By Lee Pfeiffer

Scorpion has released a fun horror double-feature DVD consisting of The Hearse (1980) and Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969). 

The Hearse is a comparatively upscale production (anything is upscale compared to the Dracula flick) that top-lines two good actors: Trish Van Devere and Joseph Cotten. Van Devere plays Jane Hardy, a recently divorced thirty-something woman who is suffering from psychological problems relating to the end of her marriage. When her mother dies, she inherits a charming country home that used to belong to her maiden aunt. Jane decides to spend the summer in the house in the hope that a rural lifestyle might ease her personal problems. From minute one, she has second thoughts, however. The townspeople are rude to her and there are rumblings about some nasty legends relating to the house. The lawyer who is overseeing the property (Joseph Cotten) is a nasty, cynical old coot who does everything in his power to dissuade Jane from staying in the home she has inherited. The reasons why become immediately apparent. No sooner has Jane moved in than strange things start occurring. Doors slam on their own, noises emanate from the attic and cellar and she believes she catches glimpses of her aunt watching her. In the glorious tradition of "women in haunted houses" films, Jane doesn't do the sensible thing and move out. Rather, she convinces herself there is a logical explanation. However, the nightmarish scenario moves outside of the house and Jane (who inevitably finds herself driving at night on back country roads) is terrified by a mysterious hearse that tries to run her off the road. She later learns that the secret may relate to her aunt's past. In reading her diaries, Jane is shocked to find that her aunt was once a shy, conservative woman who was planning on marrying a preacher. However, she fell under the spell of a sexually perverted man and ended up becoming practicing the black mass with him. The two devil worshipers were killed in an accident but the hearse carrying their bodies was also destroyed in a bizarre twist of fate and their bodies were never found. Despite the increasing threats on her life, Jane remains determined to stay in the house and seeks solace from a new man in her life, the handsome Tom Sullivan (David Gautreaux), who is so creepy he practically sprouts horns and fangs, but Jane never catches on. The film presents every cliche of the genre including a heroine who uses candles and flashlights to investigate things that go bump in the night. (There may have been a reference to an old Indian burial ground, too, but I could have missed it.) There are some genuinely creepy scenes but long-time editor George Bowers (who made his directorial debut with this film) can't figure out how to milk any suspense from the overall weather-beaten scenario. The film is best in the early scenes when Jane is haunted by relatively mundane occurrences. By the time the movie reaches its climax, Bowers resorts to an "everything but the kitchen sink" formula that throws in exorcisms and car chases. The premise of a demonic automobile should have been sent to the cinematic junk yard after the unintentionally hilarious The Car (1977). The Hearse isn't as bad as all that, thanks to fine performances by Van Devere and Cotten, but it falls short of its overall potential. It makes for passable entertainment, but in the aggregate, it's pretty much stuck in neutral. The DVD contains an introduction by scream queen Katarina Leigh Waters and there is an audio interview with screenwriter Bill Bleich. The original trailer is also included. 

Blood of Dracula's Castle is an infamous gem from director Al Adamson, who was so inept he made Ed Wood look like Sir David Lean. The film was shot in 1966 but not released until 1969. Falling squarely into the "so bad it's good" category, the story centers on Glen and Liz (Gene O'Shane and Barbara Bishop)  a young couple who are engaged to be married. Glen learns he has inherited a castle in the California desert (!) that belonged to an eccentric uncle. Upon arriving at the castle, they are greeted by George (John Carradine), an erudite but eerie long time butler to the residents of the mansion. They turn out to be the Townsends (Alex D'Arcy and Paula Raymond), a bizarre couple who claim they hold royal titles of Count and Countess. They are distressed to learn that Glen and Liz intend to move into the residence, which means they will have to find a new abode. This makes for a major problem because they are vampires and are quite happy with their present situation, which finds them keeping young women chained to the wall in their dungeon and using them as a source of blood supply. (They feel that biting victims in the neck is a rather quaint way of sustaining immortality when one can indulge in refreshing blood cocktails.) The Townsends extend every courtesy to the young couple who intend to evict them and introduce them to their friend Johnny (Robert Dix), who is actually an escaped convict who gets murderous urges whenever there is a full moon. Before long, Glen and Liz are victimized and facing life in the dungeon. Townsend also reveals he is the original Count Dracula, a plot device thrown in merely for marquee value as there is absolutely nothing about him that evokes any of the popular perceptions of the Count. In fact the Townsends are about as threatening as Gomez and Morticia Addams, as they trade witticisms and charm their intended victims with their perpetually jolly outlook on (eternal) life. There is one other resident of the mansion: Mango (Ray Stevens), an Igor-like mute who captures young women for the Townsends and who is periodically rewarded by being allowed to sexually abuse them. The film is a complete disaster on all levels, which makes it fun to watch.  The irresistible presence of John Carradine only adds to the fun. The shoddy sets are somewhat offset by the fact that director/producer Adamson found an actual castle-like mansion that was located in the California desert. The film is padded out with chase scenes that are designed to make the clock run out in order to get to an appropriate running time. Adamson's ineptness is part of the film's charm, as is the presence of members of his own stock company who gamely appeared in his numerous low-budget productions. The DVD features Katrarina Leigh Waters interviewing production manager John "Bud" Cordos, who went on to direct his own films, most notably Kingdom of the Spiders. Cordos is an affable guy who relates marvelous stories about his friendships with Adamson and Robert Dix (son of silent screen legend Richard Dix). He states that Dix never played the Wolfman in the film, which may seem erroneous because there is footage of Dix's character turning into the Wolfman. Research shows that this footage was inserted into the film to spice up TV syndication sales and that the actor in the furry rubber mask was not Robert Dix. Thus, Cordos is correct in his statement. 

The entire DVD double feature package is very well produced by Scorpion founder Walter Olsen, who goes to extraordinary lengths to give first class treatment to second-class films. Half the fun of watching a Scorpion DVD is indulging in the informative extras, as is demonstrated with this package. This double feature DVD evokes memories of the glorious old days of theatrical double features. Highly recommended for pure kitsch value.

Click here to order from Amazon 

 

Hollywood studios, long criticized for catering almost exclusively to young audiences, is discovering that if they release intelligent fare aimed at older audiences, they will be rewarded with boxoffice gold. In recent years, films that feature the usual  big action sequences, boring special effects and low-brow comedy have been rivaled by some highly praised films aimed squarely at baby boomers and senior citizens. Case in point: last week's strong opening for 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic that top-lines 70 year old Harrison Ford, who now refers to himself as a "character actor". For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

If you think Terrence Mallick makes films infrequently, consider the career of Robin Hardy, who gained acclaim for his direction of the 1973 British horror classic The Wicker Man. In the ensuing decades, Hardy has been associated with precisely three other feature films, all little-seen: as writer of Forbidden Sun (1989), The Wicker Tree (2011, as writer and director) and the 1986 film The Fantasist, which he also wrote and directed. The latter film suffered from a botched release and poor reviews, with the verdict being that Hardy's much-anticipated return to filmmaking was a letdown. Scorpion Releasing has issued The Fantasist on DVD and the movie deserves to be re-evaluated with the passage of time. 

The film is set in Ireland and Hardy makes excellent use of both urban and rural locations. Moira Harris (sometimes billed as Moira Sinise nowadays due to her marriage to actor Gary Sinise), an actress who is American by birth, gives an astonishingly convincing performance as a  Patricia Teeling, young Irish woman who moves from her family's farm to Dublin in order to break the monotony and pursue a career as a teacher. Urban life agrees with her and she takes out a room in a boarding house. However, Dublin is being terrorized by a serial killer who phones young women and chats with them in a seductive, yet sexually explicit way. Some of these women end up being so intrigued by the mystery man that they invite him to their apartments only to be sexually abused and murdered. Patricia is oblivious to the murders. She befriends a charming American, Danny Sullivan (Timothy Bottoms) who is also a boarder in the house. He's quirky but funny and seems harmless enough- until she overhears him making obscene phone calls. The tension rises when a female boarder in the house falls victim to the serial killer. In panic, Patricia's roommate moves out, leaving her alone with the increasingly creepy Danny. She finds an ally in Dublin Detective McMyler (Christopher Cazenove), who becomes especially welcome when Patricia begins receiving the ominous phone calls herself. In one terrifying incident, she finds herself in the house with the unseen murderer but manages to make a daring escape by crawling atop the roof and climbing down to the ground. The police peg Danny as the prime suspect but they can't find anything but circumstantial evidence so he isn't indicted. A fellow teacher, Robert Foxley (John Cavanagh) also emerges as a suspect. He's also eccentric and carries a torch for Patricia. The film comes to a suspense-filled climax with Patricia finding herself captured by the killer. In a cringe-inducing, sexually explicit sequence, she decides to attempt to save herself by using erotic techniques to disarm her would-be murderer. The film is only compromised by an epilogue set on a ferry that reduces this otherwise superior, intelligent thriller to the level of a typical slasher movie with some over-the-top action straining credibility. 

The Fantasist has much to recommend about it. All of the performances are first rate and the identity of the killer will keep viewers guessing right up until he is revealed. Harris is simply superb and the supporting performances are equally first rate. As director and writer, Robin Hardy impresses with this double-duty assignment, eschewing studio shots for making use of actual locations. The film has a cliched scenario but is a far more mature and sophisticated work than most other "women in jeopardy" thrillers. 

Scorpion's DVD edition features a first rate transfer and is presented as part of the label's signature Katrina's Nightmare Theatre which means you get an optional, campy introductory segment hosted by former wrestler (!) and B movie sexpot Katarina Leigh Waters. She not only provides plenty of eye candy but also relates some interesting facts about the making of the movie and its undeserved neglect by audiences and critics. The package also contains the original trailer as well as an ample sampling of trailers for other Scorpion releases. The box art seems to be a new creation and doesn't even mention Harris on the credits, which seems patently unfair. 

I may be one of the few critics who looks favorably on The Fantasist. It's got plenty of flaws, but its Dublin setting and fine performance by Moira Harris earn it a hearty recommendation. 

Click here to order from Amazon 

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The Warner Archive has released the 1965 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's oft-filmed Ten Little Indians.  It's hard to imagine that the scenario of a disparate group of exotic strangers being summoned to a chateau by a mysterious host once seemed like a fresh concept. Certainly, the concept already had moss on it when this film was made. However, there is something timeless and intriguing about such a story line, primarily because it generally affords a star-studded cast to interact. There are no superstars in this European version of the story, but the movie is packed with wonderful actors. This time around, the individuals are invited to an opulent chalet atop a snow-covered mountain top, accessible only by cable car. (The location is never specified, but the exteriors were filmed in Austria and the interiors were shot in Ireland.) The victims-to-be include square-jawed American hero Hugh O'Brian, sexy Brit Shirley Eaton, fresh from making a sensation in Goldfinger, exotic Israeli actress Daliah Lavi, one-time teen idol Fabian, Swiss actor Mario Adorf, German actress Marianne Hoppe and a wonderful array of great British character actors: Wilfred Hyde-White, Leo Genn, Dennis Price and Stanley Holloway. Each of these people has a secret they are hiding and all are accused of being responsible for the death of an innocent person by their unseen "host" Mr. Owen (the voice of an uncredited Christopher Lee). The crisply-photographed B&W production evolves predictably under the competent, if unexciting direction of George Pollock, who had helmed the hit Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford. The film is more serious in tone than those popular mysteries, but there is still a good deal of witty byplay as the diverse people try to find out what secrets their companions are shamefully hiding. The gimmick of murdering them off one by one revolves around the old Ten Little Indians children's rhyme. There are also some decorative figurines of Indian braves that adorn the dining hall and one of them vanishes each time a person is killed. In the time-worn tradition of such thrillers, as the group is reduced in size, they vow to all stay together in the same room. This logical solution to thwarting the murderer among them is dispensed with regularly, as the women saunter off into dark basements and up ominous staircases to investigate strange noises. 

The film is curiously lacking in any genuine suspense, but it's glorious to revel in the sight of some legendary British actors trying to upstage and outwit each other in this deadly cat-and- mouse game. The film is consistently entertaining and the star power is more impressive today than it was back in the day. The climax of the film is surprising, if a bit of a stretch. It's all accompanied by a hip jazz score by Malcolm Lockyer that sometimes seems a too jaunty and upbeat for a tale revolving around serial murders. For sex appeal, O'Brian gets to walk around shirtless while Eaton has two (count 'em, two) opportunities to strip down to her bra and panties, reminding us why her early retirement from the film industry deprived young men of countless unrealized fantasies. 

The Warner Archive burn-to-order DVD is a crisp, clean transfer with only a few minor artifacts evident. There are some nice bonus features including a "Who-dunnit" gimmick that was obviously inserted into some prints of the film before the real murderer is revealed. The angle is worthy of an old William Castle horror flick as bombastic graphics and film clips are used to remind viewers of who was murdered and how they met their demise. The clip challenges them to take this 60 second slot to discuss with other audience members who they feel the culprit is. It's a hokey, but wonderful touch. There are also trailers for this movie and the Miss Marple films, as well. In all, an irresistible treat.  

Click here to view original trailer and to order from the Warner Archive.  

 

Harrison Ford isn't generally known to be a ball of laughs in interviews. He plays the good soldier and makes the circuit to promote his latest film (in this case, the new Jackie Robinson biopic). However, he generally appears to enjoy the process as much as enduring a root canal. However, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he engaged in a spirited and very funny routine in which he confronts some eccentric Star Wars fans- and is uncomfortably reunited with a certain alien. Click here to view 

Intrada Records  has announced the premiere of Jerry Goldsmith original soundtrack scores for two great Frank Sinatra films: Von Ryan's Express and The Detective. Both scores appear on the same special edition CD.  For details click here to order from Screen Archives. 

 

The web site SpyVibe informs us that some ultra groovy 60's spy soundtracks from classic TV series are being made available...some in glorious mono! Among them is a repressing of the original soundtrack from The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Click here for more info

 

Disney isn't wasting any time capitalizing on their costly purchase of the Star Wars franchise. The studio has announced that, beginning in 2015, a new Star Wars film will arrive annually. Some will be new series based on various characters from the franchise. For more click here

By Eddy Friedfeld

The late great Larry Gelbart once said about his friend and colleague, the still great Carl Reiner: “Carl Reiner and my maid have a lot in common- they both abhor a vacuum.” Having spent time with Mr. Reiner, I can attest that Mr. Gelbart was spot on.

His newly released autobiography, I Remember Me, is a very entertaining and wonderful and inspiring collection of anecdotes. His third biography, following My Anecdotal Life and How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories, is a collection of funny and poignant, and extremely well-crafted stories range from friends and family, including his late wife of 65 years, Estelle (whose When Harry Met Sally iconic line “I’ll have what she’s having,” rated ahead of Humphrey Bogart’s Casablanca close “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” on the AFI list of all-time great movie lines,), to famous friends and acquaintances, including Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, George Burns, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, Ernie Kovacs, Gregory Peck, Julie Andrews, and Dinah Shore.

A regular at bi-monthly dinner parties at Sid Caesar’s home in Beverly Hills organized by producers Fran and Lou Zigman, Reiner read from his new book, extolling Caesar’s gifts as the best sketch comedy performer that ever lived, and talked about being creative with Brooks. When prompted by Estelle Harris (Seinfeld’s Mrs. Costanza), who is as warm and friendly as her Seinfeld counterpart was tough and overbearing, he said that he saw himself as the ultimate master of ceremonies: “As child I loved movies so much that when I saw one I really liked I gave a friend money to go see it.”

With all due respect to the master, he undersold himself. He is an Agent Provocateur of creativity and comedy. He makes everything and everyone he interacts with smarter, funnier, and better.

He understands the fundamental art of storytelling and how to share a stage. An actor, writer, director and producer, he is the consummate partner; a chronic comedy enabler: From Caesar’s comedic foil, to Brooks Two Thousand Year Old Man partner, to The Dick Van Dyke Show’s creative force, to Steve Martin’s early film collaborator, and to anyone whom he happens to be in a room with at the time, his kinetic energy is uplifting.

He enters Caesar’s home with Mel Brooks, his oldest friend, his partner in creative crime, with whom he has a palpably enviable and inspiring bond. They are the Butch and Sundance Kid of comedy, both comedic alchemists, creating funny lines, images and situations literally from the air spinning their golden wit and entertaining and energizing everyone around them.

Indefatigable, his energy level would make Seal Team Six tired. There is a deceptive effortlessness with which he creates. It belies years of training and even more years of passionate pursuit of craft. He will turn a conversation into a riff or a small sketch. And for the self-proclaimed tone-deaf man who once needed an entire orchestra to back him up for a one line of musical song- and missed it, he is a virtuoso at the music of comedy, and its innate rhythms and vibrations. He is a pleasure to watch in action. When actress Diane Ladd came over to his table during dinner and said, “please don’t get up,” he responded with dignity and velocity: “I am up. I am just not standing.”

At 91, he still stands over six feet tall. Distinguished looking, and a stylish and dapper dresser, he could easily pass for a retired lawyer or banker. There is a decided dignity that is coupled with a mischievous spark in his eyes. He is studying the room, stealthily casing it like a creative cat burglar, mining it for ideas, talent and potential laughter: He is going figure out how to make you laugh, you just don’t know it yet. And you are not just going to laugh- you are going to be an active participant in the party. His Raison d'être is to bring out the best in you.

At another dinner party, he produced a ceramic mug he received from the Off-Broadway show Old Jews telling Jokes. Seeing an opportunity, he turned the mug into a prop and a tradition; a faux microphone- whomever it was passed to was required to tell an old joke. From contemporaries Dick Van Dyke and Monty Hall, to later generations of comedians and actors, including Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna, Richard Lewis and Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross, and guests who never told a joke on stage or for money, each of whom took the cup, got up and executed a joke with equal fervor and gusto, encouraged by his spirit.

At one of the dinners, I showed the group a segment of an episode of NBC’s Producers’ Showcase from 1954 which had a satire of "Meet the Press" called "Beat the Press." Caesar was in his Professor character the purported expert on everything, with Reiner playing the earnest reporter interviewing him about subjects ranging from mountain climbing to the pyramids, and was being quizzed by real-life journalists Lawrence Spivak, H.V. Kaltenborn, and Emanuel Freedman.

The clip prompted a recollection from Reiner that he was on the Jack Paar Show with Radio Foreign Correspondent H.V. Kaltenborn who talked about meeting Adolph Hitler during World War II. “Hitler had such a warm relationship with his dogs, he was so kind to them,” he recalled Kaltenborn saying.

To which Reiner interjected: “Do you recall his relationship with the Jews?” The story got resounding applause from the dinner party. Reiner said that Paar’s audience had a similar reaction and that the reporter couldn’t recover from the resounding applause to make another point.

He has given me both advice and friendship over the years, graciously sharing stories and wisdom. Excited that I introduced my NYU film class to Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, he said: “It’s the most fun I ever had making a picture. We spent six months editing clips from old Film Noir movies finding clips we could use. The name Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin’s character) came from lines from other movies uttered by Charles Laughton and Humphrey Bogart.” Showing him original programs from Your Show of Shows prompted a story about how Bob Hope produced his first national television special using the Show of Shows cast and crew, including Reiner.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he once said to me. “Fried-feld.  You don’t need both.”

(Cinema Retro Contributor Eddy Fried(feld) teaches comedy and film history at Yale and NYU)

Click here to order Carl Reiner's I Remember Me from Amazon  

By Todd Garbarini

On Saturday, April 23, 1988, I attended the Official Starlog Festival at the then-Penta Hotel in midtown Manhattan on Seventh Avenue. It was my first time meeting makeup artist Tom Savini and several cast members of Star Trek were also on hand. Film producer Frank Marshall, whom cineastes will know from The Warriors (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Poltergeist (1982), Back to the Future (1985), and most recently The Borne Legacy (2012), also showed up for a few hours to debut footage that director Robert Zemeckis shot for a new upcoming film entitled Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which was based upon the 1981 novel by Gary K. Wolf, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The footage that we saw consisted of Bob Hoskins interacting with Roger and other animated characters and it looked pretty seemless. When the film opened two months later, I was delighted to see my favorite cartoon characters appear in one film.

The premise is fairly straight forward and owes a huge debt to the film noirs of the Thirties and Forties and there is more than a passing wink at Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) as Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is hired by R.K. Maroon (the head of Maroon Cartoons) to investigate allegations that Jessica Rabbit, the wife of cartoon star Roger Rabbit (both of whom live in Toontown with other cartoon characters who act in movies for real people producers and directors), is having an affair. Eddie hates toons because his brother, Teddy, was killed by one some years earlier. Eddie shows Roger pictures that he took of Roger’s wife, Jessica, playing patty-cake with Marvin Acme. Roger interprets this as his wife cheating on him, and when Acme is killed the next day by a fallen piano, Roger moves to the head of the suspect list. Since toons are pretty much indestructible (they have to be in order for them to be “killed” in their cartoons!), an evil man named Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd), who presides over Toontown, knows that the only way to kill a toon should one of them step out of line is to submerge them into a vat of acid he calls “The Dip”. His minions are sent out to find Roger and bring him back for the murder of Marvin Acme. This leads to a series of action-packed misadventures that are executed in the tradition of most of the beloved Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoons.

This is the film’s first foray on to Blu-ray, and its third go-round on DVD. It comes in a 2-disc set with one Blu-ray and one DVD. The Blu-ray contains the following extras:

Filmmaker’s running commentary (runs in tandem with the film)

The Roger Rabbit Shorts: Tummy Trouble, Roller Coaster Rabbit & Trail Mix-Up

Who Made Roger Rabbit (10:55)

Deleted Scene: The Pig Head Sequence (5:30)

Before and After (3:07)

Toon Stand-Ins (3:14)

Behind the Ears documentary (36:37)

On Set! behind-the-scenes (4:50)

The DVD contains these additional extras:

Valiant Files

Toontown Confidential, a feature that can be enabled while watching the film which has facts and trivia

What is missing, and this is something I have never seen on any home video release of the film be it VHS, laserdisc (does anyone remember the controversy surrounding this release?), or previous editions DVDs, is the CBS-TV special Roger Rabbit & the Secrets of Toon Town which aired on Tuesday, September 13, 1988. Its exclusion might be attributed to a rights issue. Fortunately, it can be seen here on Youtube. The quality is not stellar, however it is better than not having access to it at all.

All in all, this Blu-ray is a worthy upgrade to a fun film that has earned its place in movie history.

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With 1980s screen icons back in style, we're actually kind of excited over the prospects for Escape Plan, which pairs Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Formerly titled The Tomb, Entertainment Weekly describes the movie this way: "Stallone stars in the film as a brilliant prison architect who has to break out of the world’s greatest prison with Schwarzenegger, and presumably they do indeed conceive some kind of “plan” for their putative “escape.” The film also stars Jim Caviezel, 50 Cent, Sam Neill, and Vinnie Jones."  In the photo above, the former Governator looks particularly cool. The flick will be released in North America in September. For more click here

 

A prop phaser rifle designed for one of two original pilot episodes for the original 'Star Trek' TV series has been sold at auction for an astronomical $231,000. The rifle was designed by Rueben Clamer for producer Gene Roddenberry and was wielded by William Shatner in a pilot episode for NBC. A previous pilot episode had been filmed with Jeffrey Hunter in the lead role, but the episode was rejected by NBC brass. Still, the network saw promise in Gene Roddenberry's creation and authorized a second pilot episode. The rests, as they say, is history. Click here for more about the gun, as well as film clips.  

Cinema Retro was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of screenwriter Michael France at the age of 51. He died from complications from diabetes. France's big break was writing the screenplay for Sylvester Stallone's 1993 blockbuster Cliffhanger, which he did "on spec", meaning he pitched his idea to the studio and was not commissioned to write it. France also wrote story lines for the 1995 James Bond smash GoldenEye, though he was not credited with the actual screenplay, which was a source of a strained relationship with the Bond producers. Some of his ideas  that were developed for GoldenEye were utilized in the 1999 Bond hit The World is Not Enough. In the 1970s, he published the short-lived 007 fan magazine Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. France was a major comic book fan and wrote the screenplays for Ang Lee's 2003 version of The Hulk as well as the super hero flick The Punisher. On a personal note, I had lost contact with him in recent years, but have fond memories of both of us having many laughs at Eon Productions' spectacular London premiere of GoldenEye. The following year, I was a consultant on an official Bond celebration in Jamaica and managed to get an invite for France and his wife as guests. We had plenty of fun in the sun and these memories are quite special to me. My heart goes out to his family on the loss of this personable and very talented screenwriter. - Lee Pfeiffer

From the Reel Images web site:

Here for your online viewing pleasure we have included the following nifty recreations of those great one-reel Super 8 sound horror and sci-fi digests of the past in a special salute to Castle Films and Ken Films! All but "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Return of Frankenstein" were edited by one Henry Senerchia, who may be contacted at creature8859@aol.com to direct your comments. Each film isguaranteed to produce 9 minutes of "warm fuzzies" for any "monster kid" who was lucky enough to grow up in the heyday of those great boxed film digests that winked seductively from spinning racks and shelves in elite camera departments of the finest department stores of the 1960's and 70's!

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