"RETRO-ACTIVE: ARTICLES FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVE"

By Lee Pfeiffer

We must admit that when it comes to showcasing bad movies, Cinema Retro is a bit provincial in that we tend to concentrate on misfires from English language cinema. But why not spread the wealth? After all, there are bad movies being made in every language. The good reaction we got from running the 1959 Mexican "Santa Claus" film has now inspired us to honor a bad Turkish flick, the 1972 crime thriller "Kareteci Kiz", of which we have only seen the death scene depicted here. If there is a worse scene showing the demise of a movie villain, we've yet to see it but your intrepid staffers will keep pursuing the quest. This also has the bonus of including what is probably the worst movie fight scene of all time. It's accompanied in part by some brief snippets from Hugo Montenegro's hot-selling 1966 cover version of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." theme, thus illustrating the benefits to producers who don't have to worry about such nit-picky aspects of film making such as obtaining intellectual property rights. Enjoy!

British advertisement for the 1961 double feature of "Gold of the Seven Saints" starring Clint Walker and Roger Moore and "The White Warrior" starring Steve Reeves. 

In this memorable scene from the 1969 classic "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", Paul Newman makes short work of his seemingly undefeatable opponent, Ted Cassidy. 

In this excerpt from an interview with Ben Mankiewicz from Turner Classic Movies, Jerry Lewis recalls his reunion with Dean Martin after not having spoken to him in 20 years. Here is the famous reunion moment from Jerry's 1976 Muscular Dystrophy telethon:

Illustrated by Illan Sheady

Published by Electric Dreamhouse

April 2023

Hardback

266 pages

ISBN 978-1-78636-816-4

RRP: £25

Review by Adrian Smith

A dissatisfied housewife brings home a stranded alien and gradually falls in love, high school students live in fear after a beautiful student is found dead, her back snapped across the gymnasium balance beam, a young teen dates the enigmatic daughter of a mad scientist, in one town aliens have actually become part of the community and started attending the local school, a late-night DJ picks up signals from across space which appear to be from his recently abducted wife, the real Creature from the Black Lagoon finds himself working in Hollywood and falling for Julie Adams, teens on Lover’s Lane find themselves fighting back against a potential alien invasion, and mysterious video tapes show the real Bela Lugosi in films made by Ed Wood that cannot possibly exist, given that he had died years before.

This new collection of stories by Dale Bailey (some of which were previously published in magazines including Asimov’s Science Fiction and Lightspeed) draws on his own memories of half-watched movies on late-night TV and reading articles in Fangoria. Perhaps because of this many of the stories are told as if distant, troubling memories are being reluctantly recalled. Although the cover art may suggest a fun, nostalgia-tinged trip back to the fifties, these are stories infused with loss, grief and melancholy; one man recalls visiting his dead brother’s apartment in Hollywood, trying to understand how they drifted apart, another, whose wife has been missing since he claims to have witnessed her being taken up into the sky, can no longer fully connect with the people around him, a young wife lives in a trailer park struggling to overcome the tragedy of her baby daughter dying just minutes after birth, and the Creature tries to reconcile his feelings for Julie Adams with his desperate need to return to the swamps. These are people whose lives have not turned out the way they had hoped, trying to understand and come to terms with their frightening, life-changing experiences. Yet at the same time, Dale, not forgetting what most of us are here for, combines B-movie tropes and titles such as ‘Invasion of the Saucer-Men', ‘The Ghoul Goes West’, ‘Night Caller from Outer Space’ and ‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’, with humour, real-world heartbreak and longing.

This hardback collection, published by Electric Dreamhouse, is a wonderful read for any classic movie fan. Each story is accompanied by a suitably pulpy illustration (dome-headed aliens, slavering werewolves and pulchritudinous heroines appear to be Sheady’s specialty), and the book cover is a work of art in itself, packed with imagery from many drive-in movies, and not just those referenced in the book. These are stories that will linger in your mind long after reading, much like the tragic tales themselves have lingered in the minds of their respective narrators.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

O.J. Simpson, the American football Hall of Fame honoree who went on to develop a successful acting career, has died of cancer at age 76. In 1994, Simpson became the key suspect in the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. The resulting trial became one of the most riveting of the modern era with TV audiences following every aspect of his case. The ensuing mania involving Simpson's fate elevated some people associated with the case to prominence while destroying the reputations of others. Although there was considerable evidence tying Simpson to the murders and the fact that he tried to escape police in a notorious and bizarre slow-moving car chase through Los Angeles, the case took on racial elements that divided the nation. For many Black people, Simpson's ultimate acquittal represented a rare case of justice being delivered to a member of their community. White viewers were largely convinced that Simpson had literally gotten away with murder. The "must-see" TV element of the case often overshadowed the fact that it was about two people who had been brutally murdered, as defense attorneys, prosecutors and even the judge became immediate media sensations. When the verdict was announced, America seemed to come to a standstill while everyone found a TV or radio to gather around during the pre-social media era. Simpson's acquittal didn't end his troubles. He was found liable in a civil case for the deaths and was ordered to pay Ron Goldman's family substantial damages. Simpson went to great lengths to avoid doing so, as Goldman's father used media sources to relentlessly hound him.  In his post-trial years, Simpson maintained a low key persona, though comedians would often scoff at his public commitment to track down "the real killer". 

After leaving football as a true legend, Simpson successfully built an acting career. Although he was never a major boxoffice draw as a leading man, he was very popular in supporting roles. He appeared in such films as "Capricorn One", along with Hollywood royalty in the 1974 blockbuster "The Towering Inferno"  as well as the star-studded "The Cassandra Crossing" before co-starring with Leslie Nielsen in the "Naked Gun" trilogy, adeptly playing a hapless, accident-prone detective. Simpson's acting career and role as a popular TV pitchman were casualties of his murder trial and work in the entertainment field dried up even though he had been found not guilty. Simpson was back in the news again some years later when he was arrested and convicted of an armed robbery connected to his attempt to reclaim sports memorabilia that he said had been stolen from him. Simpson would serve nine years in prison for the crime. 

For more, click here.  

Here is the original December, 1968 Boxoffice magazine review from Boxoffice magazine for producer Albert R. Broccoli's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". 

The title says it all, describing this delightful tribute to the classic comedies of Grant and Hepburn. 

In 1971, director Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood teamed again for the offbeat Gothic Civil War drama "The Beguiled" which daringly cast Eastwood in a villainous role. Universal wasn't happy with the finished film and launched a deceptive print campaign implying the movie was a typical Eastwood action flick, a tactic that appalled Eastwood and Siegel. Not helping matters was the cornball narration of this original trailer. The film has been re-evaluated over the decades and now ranks as a major achievement in both men's careers. 

Richard Attenborough wins the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for "Gandhi" at the 1983 Academy Awards. When listening to Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett announce the nominees, try to absorb just how many great films were nominated in this one year. 

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Blue Underground:

On April 23rd, Blue Underground releases Goodbye Uncle Tom, one of the most graphic and notorious films ever made, on Limited Edition 4K UHD and Blu-Ray.  

Originally released in 1971, Goodbye Uncle Tom is an Italian mondo-docudrama based on true events about the rise and revolt of slavery in America.  

Directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi (Mondo Cane) used period documentation and historical accounts to recreate the antebellum south and the horrors of the slave trade. The film was so shocking in its detailed look at the atrocities of slavery that distributors in the US forced Jacopetti and Prosperi to cut it and radically re-edit the film before release.  

Even in its truncated form, Goodbye Uncle Tom created a stir amongst critics. Roger Ebert called it, “… the most disgusting, contemptuous insult to decency ever to masquerade as a documentary.” while Pauline Kael said, “the most specific and rabid incitement to race war," and The Detroit Chronicle hailed it as "a graphic, moving, nerve-paralyzing film."  

Goodbye Uncle Tom can now be seen more than five decades after its initial release in both its original uncut Italian version, alongside its drastically different English version, both fully restored in 4K from their original camera negatives. Includes a bonus Blu-ray disc with a wealth of supplemental features that give context to the staggering and violent look back at this horrific chapter of American history.  

The 4K UHD and Blu-ray Extras special features include feature-length documentaries; never-before-seen interviews with writers/directors Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, composer Riz Ortolani and others; rare behind-the-scene footage; English and Italian trailers; still galleries, including Giampaolo Lomi’s behind-the-scenes photos; a bonus CD of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Riz Ortolani; and a collectible booklet.   

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By Lee Pfeiffer

Burt Reynolds had been gnawing around the boundaries of genuine stardom for more than a decade, starring in short-lived television shows and top-lining "B" movies. He ingratiated himself to the American public by showcasing his wit and comedic abilities by appearing on chat shows.  In 1972, he struck gold when director John Boorman cast him opposite Jon Voight as the two male leads in the sensational film adaptation of James Dickey's "Deliverance". Finally, he could be classified as a major movie star. Soon, Reynolds was cranking out major films even while his uncanny ability to publicize himself resulted in such stunts as his famed provocative centerfold pose in Cosmopolitan magazine. On screen, Reynolds sensed that he could cultivate an especially enthusiastic audience if he catered to rural movie-goers. He was proven right with the release of "White Lightning", a highly enjoyable 1973 action/comedy that perfectly showcased Reynolds' favored image as a handsome, unflappable hero with a Bondian knack for tossing off quips while facing death and also engaging in good ol' boy towel-snapping humor. Playing bootlegger Gator McClusky, Reynolds drew major crowds, very much pleasing United Artists, which enjoyed hefty profits from the modestly-budgeted production. Reynolds learned, however, that his audience wouldn't necessarily follow him if he deviated from that image. When he went against the grain in films like "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing", "At Long Last Love" and "Lucky Lady", the movies bombed. When he stuck to the basics, he had hits with "Shamus", "The Longest Yard" and "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings". The legendary Variety headline that read "Hix Nix Stix Pix" was no longer true. The American heartland loved Burt Reynolds, especially when he played characters that rural audiences could embrace.

In 1976, Reynolds fulfilled another career milestone by directing his first feature film, a sequel to "White Lightning" titled "Gator". Like the first movie, it was shot entirely on location in Georgia and picked up on the adventures of everyone's favorite moonshiner. When we first see Gator in the sequel, he his getting out of jail only to be targeted by the feds to be used as a pawn in a multi-state crackdown on an epidemic of political corruption that threatens the career of the self-serving, ambitious governor (played very well by famed chat show host Mike Douglas in his big screen debut.) Gator is living in a shack located deep in an inhospitable swamp with his elderly father and precocious 9 year-old daughter when the feds launch a major raid to arrest him on moonshining charges. In reality, they want to use the warrant as leverage to convince him to go undercover for them inside the crime ring. Gator wants no part of it and leads the feds on a merry chase around the bayou in which he is pursued by speed boats and helicopters before finally relenting. The lead federal agent in charge is Irving Greenfield (Jack Weston), an overweight, hyper-nervous Jewish guy from Manhattan who has the unenviable task of ensuring that Gator follows orders. A good portion of the film's laugh quotient comes from Irving's less-than-convincing attempts to "blend in" with small town southern locals. The crime ring is run by Bama McCall (Jerry Reed), an outwardly charming and charismatic fellow who, in reality, uses brutally violent methods to ensure loyalty and intimidate local businessmen to pay protection money. He and Gator are old acquaintances and he doesn't hesitate to give Gator a good-paying job as an enforcer for his mob. Things become more intriguing when Gator sets eyes on Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton), an attractive local TV anchor with liberal political beliefs that find her squaring off against Bama in order to protect the poor merchants he is exploiting. "Gator" proceeds on a predictable path but its predictability doesn't detract from its merits, which are considerable. Reynolds is a joy to watch and it's small wonder he leaped to the top ranks of cinematic leading men. His cocky, self-assured persona served him well on the big screen and "Gator" is custom-made to please his core audience. He also proved to be a very able director, handling the action scenes and those of unexpected tragic twists with equal skill. He also gets very good performances from his eclectic cast, with Weston engaging in his usual penchant for scene-stealing. Reed also shines in a rare villainous role and ex-model Hutton proves she has admirable acting chops, as well. The action scenes are impressive thanks to the oversight of the legendary Hal Needham, who would forge a long-time collaborative relationship with Reynolds. 

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is a reissue with extras from the 2018 release ported over.  The new additional material consists of a commentary track by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson, who also provide a new track on the KL reissue of "White Lightning".  The track is quite valuable and entertaining, as old pros Mitchell and Thompson provide a wealth of interesting facts and observations about the film. For example, they discuss that "Gator" is far lighter in tone than the revenge thriller "White Lightning" and say that Reynolds thought the script for "Gator" was sub-par but did the film on the proviso he could direct it. The  disc is  also impressive not only because of the excellent transfer but also because it contains a filmed interview with Reynolds, who extols the film's virtues and its personal meaning to him. In an unusually candid conversation, he divulges amusing anecdotes about Hutton's on-set quirks that included a penchant for exhibitionism (she would flash her breasts to appreciative crew members.) He also relates how a car crash stunt almost killed Hal Needham. Most poignantly, he talks about his personal affection for Georgia, a state he has filmed over twenty movies in. He also candidly expresses his regret that only directed a few films and never fulfilled his dream of directing productions he didn't star in. The Blu-ray set also includes a new gallery of trailers for Reynolds films available from KL. In all, a highly impressive release of an action film showcasing Reynolds at his best. Recommended. 

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By Darren Allison

Cult director Bert I. Gordon was at the helm for this terrifying story of supernatural passion. Set on an island in a tight-knit community, Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) is preparing to marry the woman he loves. All is well until Tom's old girlfriend, Vi (Juli Reding), confronts him at the top of the island's lighthouse, claiming he can only be hers! A freak accident throws the scorned woman to her death. At first relieved, Tom's tune changes when her vengeful spirit begins to follow him wherever he goes. He's soon tormented, body and soul, by an unforgiving she-ghost! What lengths will Tom go to in order to protect his secret? Will the vengeful Vi finally reveal herself to the others at hand?

And the scene is pretty much set for a quite wonderful slice of low- budgeted shenanigans. Bert I. Gordon was of course a master of his art in this particular genre of filmmaking. Starting off in advertising using his trusted 16mm camera, Gordon wasn’t one to sit back and wait for success, instead he chased his dream, and as a result accomplished a pretty good career in movies. He’s best known for writing and directing science fiction and horror B-movie classics such as King Dinosaur (1955), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Earth vs. the Spider (1958), Village of the Giants (1965), and later the Joan Collins fun fest Empire of the Ants (1977).

In the late 50’s, ghostly supernatural films were building in popularity, movies such as Roger Corman’s The Undead (1957), Edward L. Cahn’s Voodoo Women (1957) and William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill (1959) signified a change in trends. Gordon was always astute and possessed a good sense of understanding when it came to successful box office. And so, following the current trend, Gordon embarked upon his own ghost story in the form of Tormented (1960). Starring Richard Calson, the actor that had already established himself in genre classics such as The Maze (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Carlson engages in the fun like a seasoned pro. He’s supported by former child star, Lugene Sanders, the marvellously formed Juli Reding, child actress Susan Gordon (daughter of the director) and a young, hip Joe Turkel – who appeared in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and later in The Shining (1980). Aside from being hugely enjoyable throughout, this Film Masters 4K restoration looks absolutely perfect. Stark, sharp and beautiful on the eye, the amount of work afforded to this rather cheaply made movie really elevates it to a much higher level. Blacks are nice and deep, and the images contains just the right amount of grain without over-cooking it. There seems to be a couple of very minor jump cuts along the way – best rest assured, blink at the right time and they’re pretty much undetectable. The print shows no wear, scratches and virtually free of dust and dirt spots. The audio clarity is also clean and bright in both DTS and the Dolby digital track. It’s very obvious that the efforts in restoring this film have really paid off and the results are hard to fault.

But this Film Masters release offers so much more – you really have to praise the package as a whole, there’s really no skimping or cutting corners in terms of its content. Firstly, and as we have come to expect with the Film Masters releases, there’s an interesting and insightful commentary track by historian, writer and filmmaker Gary Rhodes along with contributions by Larry Blamire. The track is a detailed and informative education. There is an all too brief featurette, Bert I. Gordon: The Amazing Colossal Filmmaker – which features an archival interview with the charismatic director who provides us with a general overview of how he began in the business of movies. Then there is Bigger Than Life: Bert I. Gordon in the 1950’s and 1960’s, a Ballyhoo Motion Pictures documentary featuring film historian C. Courtney Joyner. This documentary provides a great insight into the director’s career, with plenty of clips, stories, trailers, poster art and rare photos illustrated throughout – a real joy. For the more serious scholars, there is an enjoyable visual essay by The Flying Maciste Brothers (Howard S. Berger and Kevin Marr). The Spirit is Willing: CineMagic and Social Discord in Bert I. Gordon’s Tormented, offers a much deeper analysis of the movie and its implications – which is fine should you want to delve into that particular territory. At the other end of the spectrum, Film Masters also offers the whole film again, this time in the form of the Mystery Science Theater 2000 version (1992). There’s no disputing the fact that these presentations are purely produced as a put down or a ‘roasting’ for light-hearted entertainment – which is fine if this is your thing. At least Film Masters has again had the foresight to cover all areas, and provide something for everyone – dependent upon your particular taste. One thing I did find particularly interesting during this version is that it contains the original opening Allied Artists title – something that was missing from the restored main feature version. There are two Tormented trailers included, an original ‘raw’35mm version and a 2024 re-cut version using restored element. Again, a nice way of satisfy all audiences with both the old and the new, and I’m fully behind that way of thinking. Also included on the disc is an ‘unreleased TV pilot’ of Famous Ghost Stories featuring Vincent Price. I was initially quite excited about viewing this, as it tied in nicely with Tormented because the episode again starred Richard Calson and Susan Gordon. So, I was a little disappointed to discover that this was not the full episode and instead was simply just the opening and closing intro and outro clips featuring Vincent Price. The entire show would hade been a real treat if included. But overall, this minor quibble takes nothing away from what is a very generous collection of extras.

On top of that, Film Masters have also included a nicely produced 22-page illustrated booklet with essays by respected film historian Tom Weaver and novelist/filmmaker John Wooley. The film sleeve and booklet cover make good use of the original film artwork.

Film Masters have produced an excellent package with their presentation of Tormented. The company seems to grow from strength to strength with each of their new releases. It’s a rare feeling to feel genuinely excited when considering what might be waiting around the next corner. I can only hope it’s more of the same.

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(Darren Allison is the Soundtracks Editor for Cinema Retro), 

Published by Manchester University Press

October 2023

264 pages

Hardback

ISBN: 978-1-5261-6492-6

RRP: £90

Some credit director Piers Haggard with coining the term ‘Folk Horror’ during an interview to set his film The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) apart from the more traditional horror offerings by the likes of Hammer Films and Amicus. As the term has taken hold, such films have become more closely aligned with a European arthouse style of filmmaking. The genre has since been retrospectively assigned to many films including the aforementioned film, alongside the other two points of the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of British Folk Horror; Witchfinder General (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973). This is a ‘wyrd’ genre, where the films are often unsettling rather than outright horrifying, although in the case of modern folk horrors such as Kill List (2011), both things can be said to be true.

When director Ben Wheatley went into the woods to shoot In the Earth (2021), not only was he returning to the tone and style of his earlier films Kill List and A Field in England (2013), but he was also with the title addressing the very essence of Folk Horror: as this new book discusses in detail, Folk Horror is something with its roots in ancient (pagan) times, something in the earth, just below the surface - perhaps in an English field - that once disturbed seeps out, terrifying some, whilst bringing others together with its community rituals and human sacrifice.

In this new collection of academic essays, the old and new British examples of the genre are explored in detail from a range of fascinating perspectives; studies of history, folklore and Britain’s non-Christian past, the close-knit communities often at the heart of Folk Horror films and their clashes with modernity, Celtic Folk Horror, the way in which female filmmakers have subverted tropes and shifted generic conventions, the recurring use of drums in pagan ceremonies and rituals, the evils of the British landscape, social and political influences on the films across the decades, and the relevance and influence of certain British writers such as Arthur Machen on the genre. As well as the three films of the ‘Unholy Trinity’, each of which gets a fair amount of analysis here, other films under discussion include Ken Russell’s wildly entertaining The Lair of the White Worm (1988), based on the Bram Stoker novel which itself is based on the north-eastern legend of the Lampton Worm, The Company of Wolves (1984), Doomwatch (1972), Cry of the Banshee (1970), Psychomania (1973), and many more including several modern films which this writer was previously unfamiliar but has to now seek out.

As with all academic collections, the caveat must be added that the hardback price is because this edition is aimed at libraries, and a more affordable paperback edition will be available in due course. This is a worthwhile collection for anyone interested in this ‘wyrd’ sub-genre of the British horror film, particularly now that Spring is here and soon ‘Summer is icumen in’.

Folk Horror on Film: Return of the British Repressed is available from Manchester University Press - https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526164926/

By Lee Pfeiffer

The White Bus (aka Red, White and Zero) is an experimental film by future acclaimed director Lindsay Anderson. Running a scant 46 minutes, the movie was intended to be one third of a feature film that consisted of other offbeat stories by different directors. For various reasons, the other segments were never completed, thus leaving Anderson's work an orphan. The movie is currently being streamed on the Screenpix service. The merits of the film are debatable. It's visually striking. Filmed primarily in B&W with occasional short sequences in color, the movie is a fairly incomprehensible critique of British society. Like Bryan Forbes' The Whisperers, the movie was largely photographed in and around Manchester and the city fairs equally bad in Anderson's work. The plot, such as a it is, centers on an unnamed young woman (Patricia Healey) who is bored working in a London office. We see her at the end of another mundane day getting ready to leave for home. However, the viewer is then exposed to a pair of legs dangling from above her desk. Someone has hanged themselves, but no one in the office pays the slightest bit of attention. The girl takes a train to Manchester and ends up inexplicably deciding to board a white tourist bus that is packed with an eclectic assortment of international eccentrics. The bus stops at various locations including factories and the group is escorted about by the Lord Mayor (Arthur Lowe) who is decked out in full regalia.

There are bizarre sequences that are at times rather mesmerizing - like outtakes from an episode of The Prisoner in that they mingle realism with fantasy. Anderson seems to be making a cynical comment about the degradation of society and the loss of individualism, though the message is muddled amidst the arresting visual aspects of the film. Consequently, the whole enterprise becomes rather frustrating and wearying. Anderson has something to say but is so obtuse about making his point that the film becomes rather like one of those pretentious movies designed to please no one other than pseudo intellectuals who populate panels at film festivals.

There are some other talented people involved in this enterprise including future Oscar winning producer Michael Deeley (The Italian Job, Blade Runner, The Deer Hunter), acclaimed film maker and movie historian Kevin Brownlow (It Happened Here) and screenwriter Shelagh Delaney, whose novel the segment is based on. Young Anthony Hopkins also has a brief bit in the film. Anderson fans will certainly want to check out this early endeavor, but for the average viewer its rather difficult to warm to.

(Screenpix is available as an add-on subscription to subscribers to Amazon Prime, Hulu and YouTube. Click here for more information.)

“WOODY ALLEN’S 50th”

By Raymond Benson

After Woody Allen’s early, zany comedies made between 1969-1975, the filmmaker began making personal works more akin to those of European auteurs. Art-house pictures, really. He seemed to have taken his cue from the likes of Ingmar Bergman, certainly, but also Federico Fellini and others. To this reviewer, though, Allen’s movies, be they comedies or dramas from Annie Hall (1977) onwards, almost always deal with the fragility of flawed human relationships—the same kinds of pictures made by French director François Truffaut. Truffaut’s films are full of extramarital affairs, love gone wrong, and sometimes the murder of someone who has gotten in the way of a central character’s goals.

Now, Allen’s 50^th motion picture, Coup de chance (“Stroke of Luck”), shot in France with a French crew and cast, and with dialogue entirely in French (with English subtitles), demonstrates that the director really has become Truffaut and made his own little European art-house picture like The Soft Skin or The Woman Next Door (two of Truffaut’s dramas). Or is it just another Crimes and Misdemeanors or Match Point or Irrational Man, to name some of Allen’s own dramas that deal with the same subject matter?

Even though much of the new film is very familiar Woody Allen territory, Coup de chance is undoubtedly his most engaging piece since, say, Blue Jasmine. Is it as good? Not really. And it doesn’t touch Match Point, which is easily one of the director’s greatest thrillers, which Coup de chance attempts to be.

Fanny (the radiant Lou de Laâge) is married to wealthy Jean (the handsome but appropriately cold Melvil Poupaud). They live in Paris and enjoy an upper-class, privileged life due to Jean’s work as some kind of financier (“He makes rich people richer,” Fanny explains). Fanny works at an auction gallery but is somewhat bored by the couple’s high society social life and especially by Jean’s continual insistence of going to the country to hunt game with his friends. Every so often, Fanny’s mother, the wise but somewhat fussy Camille (Valérie Lemercier), comes to visit for a few days. Camille gets along well with Jean and even enjoys going hunting in the country with him and his pack while Fanny stays at the cottage with a book to read. One day on a city street during her lunch break, Fanny, by happenstance, runs into a former high school acquaintance, Alain (Niels Schneider). Alain, a divorced writer, immediately gushes how he had a crush on her back then and would enjoy taking her to lunch. Fanny agrees. And then she agrees again. Before long, Fanny and Alain are having an affair. Jean, however, is the jealous type. Extremely so.

To reveal more would spoil the rest of the story, but most viewers of Woody Allen’s films can likely predict how it’s going to go. There is an unusual twist in the third act… and indeed there is a “stroke of luck” that occurs which emphasizes the film’s themes of coincidence, luck, and fate and how these concepts can be intertwined. These were common ideas that Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski imbued in his pictures, too.

Allen’s direction here is top form and he is aided by the editing of Alisa Lepselter. The film moves at a rapid pace with brief vignette-like scenes. The actors are all superb, despite working with roles that unfortunately do not have much depth in such a picture of brevity and briskness. The photography by veteran Vittorio Storaro is gorgeous, and the imagery makes one want to plan an immediate trip to visit Paris.

The problems are that we’ve been down this road too many times with Woody Allen. Yes, there are a few differences in the structure and storytelling, but the familiarity still nags at the viewer. The novelty of an Allen picture being entirely in French and in Paris does distinguish it from the others… but then there’s the issue of whether or not American audiences will relate to these upper-class French people or care about them at all. (One might have the same argument about Allen’s portrayal of upper-class New Yorkers in previous movies!) Another issue is the overuse of upbeat, lively jazz music (mostly Herbie Hancock’s “Canteloupe Island”), which in some scenes feels highly inappropriate for a thriller, and ultimately becomes tiresome.

That said, there’s no question that Coup de chance is an improvement over the last few Woody Allen titles, but it likely will not be included among the fifteen to twenty of the filmmaker’s most respected works. But when there are fifty titles from which to choose, landing somewhere in the middle isn’t bad.

Will there be future pictures from Allen, who at the time of writing is 88 years old? Who knows… but if he goes out with Coup de chance then it will be considered an admirable effort.

(The film opens Friday in U.S. theaters.) 

 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actress Barbara Rush has passed away at age 97. Rush had a long career in film, theater and television. She worked under contract in the 1950s for both Paramount and Universal. Her first prominent role was in the 3-D sci-fi cult classic "It Came from Outer Space". She also had a major role in director Martin Ritt's 1957 drama "No Down Payment", a riveting critique of hypocrisy in post-WWII suburban society. She co-starred with Paul Newman in the acclaimed 1959 drama "The Young Philadelphians" and would reunite with him, playing an unsympathetic role, in Martin Ritt's 1967 classic western "Hombre". She was the female lead in the 1958 WII drama "The Young Lions" starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. She would also co-star with Frank Sinatra in the comedies "Come Blow Your Horn" and "Robin and the Seven Hoods". In later years, she found success on television in recurring roles in the prime time soap operas "Flamingo Road" and "7th Heaven". She also toured in the one-woman stage production of "A Woman of Independent Means", earning kudos from critics. She also gained pop culture status in the 1960s by playing the villainess Nora Clavicle in the "Batman" TV series.  Rush was married three times, including to actor Jeffrey Hunter. She is survived by her son and daughter. For more click here.

By Doug Oswald

Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald are American agents in the newly-formed WWII era spy agency “O.S.S.,” on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Ladd is Philip Masson, an agent in the recently formed Office of Strategic Services. The head of the spy group is Commander Brady, played by Patric Knowles, who sends Masson and several other agents on their first mission to German occupied France in 1942. Their mission is to blow up a railway tunnel using plastic explosives and connect with the French Resistance. Along the way they encounter Nazis, French collaborators and informants. Joining Mason is Ellen Rogers played by Fitzgerald and they meet up with fellow OSS agents Robert Bouchet, AKA Bernay the radio operator, played by Richard Benedict, and Rodney Parrish, AKA Gates, the leader of Team Applejack, played by Don Beddoe.

Philip and Ellen have assumed new identities as John Martin, a pipe smoking laborer (his pipe is a nifty gadget that turns into a gun), and Elaine Duprez, a visiting artist. Gates is captured and killed by the Gestapo soon after the team parachutes into France. Gates outs himself at a restaurant by using his fork and knife in the wrong hand moving Philip into the leadership position. Philip becomes romantically interested in Ellen which is complicated by the arrival of a local German commander, Colonel Paul Meister (played by John Hoyt making his screen debut) who is also interested in “Elaine,” after he asks her to create a bust of himself. Soon he asks “Elaine” to join him on a trip via rail which will take them through the tunnel they are sent to destroy.

Working alongside Commander Brady in England is Gloria Saunders as Radio Operator Sparky. She receives and sends coded messages with Bernay and they quickly form a friendship. A local Gestapo agent, Amadeus Brink (played by Harold Vermilyea), discovers the plot, and provides cover for the team of saboteurs as long as his extortion demands are met. The bust created by “Ellen” is made of the plastic explosives and this is used to destroy the railway tunnel. Philip rescues Elaine during the chaos of the explosion and after they escape she tells him, “Never come back for me again.”

Ladd, Fitzgerald, Hoyt and Knowles are all terrific, as is the supporting cast. The movie is dark, intense and a very good spy thriller making good use of light and shadows. The film was directed by Irving Pichel, who is known for such genre favorites as “The Most Dangerous Game,” “She,” “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid” and “Destination Moon” spanning the 30s, 40s and 50s. The screenplay by Richard Maibaum was a forerunner to his work in the James Bond series produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman starting with the 1962 release, “Dr.r No” and continuing through “Licence to Kill” in 1989.

The cinematography by Lionel Lindon is a highlight, as much of the action takes place either at night or in dimly- lit rooms and the aforementioned tunnel. Lindon was cinematographer or director of photography on the movies “Around the World in 80 Days,” “Casanova’s Big Night,” “Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round,” “Going My Way,” “Grand Prix, “The Manchurian Candidate,” “My Favorite Brunette,” “Submarine Command,” and TV series episodes for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “M Squad,” “McHales’s Navy” and “The Munsters,” to name just a few of his many credits which spanned decades.

Released by Paramount in May 1946, the movie was made with the approval and support of the O.S.S. and definitely can be viewed as government propaganda, but it’s much more than that. The disc features a fascinating audio commentary track by Samm Deighan which is chock full of interesting information of the origins of the O.S.S., spy movies and the post WWII communist and Hollywood blacklist. The movie looks and sounds terrific in glorious black and white clocking in at 108 minutes. The disc also features the trailer for this and other Kino Lorber titles. “O.S.S.” is highly recommended for fans of Alan Ladd, spy thrillers and WWII drama.

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HEROES: The British Invasion of American Comics

25 April – 20 October 2024

Comic books are American as apple pie and Uncle Sam… aren’t they? Visit The Cartoon Museum this Spring to discover how British artists and writers invaded America and made their mark on iconic superheroes and more!

HEROES: The British Invasion of American Comics tells the story of early American comics such as Buster Brown, Miss Fury and Superman, how they influenced British artists and culture, and how the British took that influence and sold it back to America through legendary comics such as Watchmen and V For Vendetta. 

The exhibition also celebrates The Mighty World of Marvel which brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents across Britain every week.

In 1972, Stan Lee launched Marvel UK with an event at The Bung Hole wine bar in Holborn, London. Up until then, UK distribution of American comics had been patchy at best, and fans often had to make do with poorer-quality black and white imitations. The Mighty World of Marvel brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents across Britain every week, establishing a new fan base and influencing an upcoming generation of comic creators.

We are thrilled to be able to display a rare original press kit given out at the launch event, which has never been on show before. 

The exhibition also shines a light on the many British creators who provided art for iconic superheroes including Batman, Spider-Man, Hellboy and Hit-Girl, including works by Brian Bolland, David Lloyd, Doug Braithwaite and Alison Sampson. On the way you’ll discover British attempts to imitate American strips in the 1940s, find out the story behind the 1972 launch of Marvel UK, and enjoy stunning artwork by key figures from DC Comics and the British Invasion. You’ll even get to see the costume of a real-life British superhero! 

The exhibition features an incredible collection of original Sunday Paper Strips and artworks from the early 1900s and wonderful British and American comic art from the 1950s to the modern day. Among these are works by legendary names such as Jack Kirby, Jack Davis and Tarpe Mills.

Since the 1938 publication of Action Comics #1 the world has fallen more and more in love with American comic books, right up to the box office success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Drawing inspiration from popular characters of the 1940s, such as Popeye and Aquaman, the Brits took no time proving they could do it just as well as the Americans, leading to decades of collaboration and competition across the Atlantic. Through this exhibition you will be able to step back in time and see just how right they were.

“We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.”

- Grant Morrison, Supergods

The Cartoon Museum can be found at 63 Wells Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1A 3AE. Click here to visit web site. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Louis Gossett Jr., star of stage, feature films and television, has passed away at age 87. Gossett was up against racial prejudice in the entertainment industry when he made his screen debut in 1961 opposite Sidney Poitier in the classic African-American drama "A Raisin in the Sun". Gossett had already appeared in the 1959 Broadway production of the acclaimed drama. A long career in films and television followed including playing both villains and heroes in such productions as "The Deep", "Diggstown" and "Skin Game". He won an Emmy for his performance in the 1977 landmark TV mini-series "Roots". Gossett also dabbled in song-writing and one of his songs was sung by Richie Havens in his opening appearance at the Woodstock festival. In 1983, Gossett became the second Black actor to win an Oscar following Sidney Poitier's 1964 win for "Lilies of the Field". Gossett's win for Best Supporting Actor was for playing a tough-as-nails Marine drill instructor in the 1982 boxoffice smash "An Officer and a Gentleman". He would go on to star in the popular "Iron Eagle" military adventure films. Gossett's career would go into decline due to problems with alcoholism and drug abuse, but he bounced back and began to work steadily once more. Most recently he was seen in the 2023 musical version of "The Color Purple". Gossett had dedicated much of his life to eradicating racism and created a foundation to pursue that aim. For more and a video essay, click here. 

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Warner Home Entertainment : 

AMERICAN SNIPER COMES TO 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY AND DIGITAL

THE 2014 BIOGRAPHICAL WAR DRAMA DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD AND STARRING BRADLEY COOPER WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)

Purchase the film on 4K Ultra HD Disc with Collectible Steelbook Packaging, 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital on May 14

Burbank, Calif., March 26, 2024 – American Sniper, the 2014 biographical war drama directed by Academy Award Winning Director Clint Eastwood and starring Academy Award nominee Bradley Coopers as will be available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital for the first time on May 14.

American Sniper will be available to purchase on May 14 on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc from online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more.

American Sniper stars Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle. A two-time Oscar® nominee for his work in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle,” Cooper stars alongside Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Kevin Lacz, Navid Negahban and Keir O’Donnell. 

Oscar®-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) directed American Sniper from a screenplay written by Jason Hall, based on the book by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The autobiography was a runaway bestseller, spending 18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, 13 of those at number one. The film is produced by Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan. Tim Moore, Jason Hall, Sheroum Kim, Steven Mnuchin and Bruce Berman served as executive producers.

American Sniper was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor and won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing.

American Sniper will be available on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc with collectible steelbook packaging for $40.43 ERP and includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the theatrical version of the feature film in 4K with HDR and a Digital download of the film, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc for $33.99 ERP and includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the theatrical version of the feature film in 4K with HDR and a Digital download of the film. Fans can also own American Sniper in 4K Ultra HD via purchase from select digital retailers beginning on May 14.  

About the Film

From director Clint Eastwood comes “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, whose skills as a sniper made him a hero on the battlefield. But there was much more to him than his skill as a sharpshooter. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is sent to Iraq with only one mission: to protect his brothers-in-arms. His pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield, and as stories of his courageous exploits spread, he earns the nickname “Legend.” However, his reputation is also growing behind enemy lines, putting a price on his head and making him a prime target of insurgents. He is also facing a different kind of battle on the home front: striving to be a good husband and father from halfway around the world. Despite the danger, as well as the toll on his family at home, Chris serves through four harrowing tours of duty in Iraq, personifying the spirit of the SEAL creed to “leave no one behind.” But upon returning to his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), and kids, Chris finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind. 

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, A Mad Chance Production, A 22nd & Indiana Production.

American Sniper Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contains the following previously released special features:

· One Soldier's Story: The Journey of American Sniper

· Chris Kyle: The Man Behind the Legend?

· Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – The Heart of a Hero

· Navy SEALs: In War and Peace

· Bringing the War Home: The Cost of Heroism?

· The Making of American Sniper?

· Guardian

American Sniper

Ultra HD Blu-ray Languages: English, French, Spanish

Ultra HD Blu-ray Subtitles: English French, SDH, Spanish

Run Time: 132 minutes

Rating: R

Street Date: May 14, 2024

Digital Street Date: May 14, 2024

Click here to pre-order from Amazon

By Todd Garbarini

As a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film version of Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining, which I saw at the age of fifteen and was completely terrified by, it is a daunting task indeed to watch any other (excuse the pun) incarnation of this fantastic story as seen through the eyes of another filmmaker without being drawn back to Mr. Kubrick’s much-maligned interpretation that was initially criticized but subsequently revered by some as the greatest horror film ever made. The Shining is a film that has affected me profoundly in ways that only a handful of other films ever have. I felt a compelling obsession with it that was nearly impossible to verbalize. It was my second Jack Nicholson film, and it made me a lifelong fan of his; it introduced me to pre-existing music and its use in a contemporary film; and perhaps, most significantly, it was my introduction into the world of Mr. King’s writings. Having read the novel a mere two months after seeing the film for the first time, I was completely surprised to see how much Mr. Kubrick altered the source material. Much has been written about his decision to jettison nearly all but the bare bones plot of a former alcoholic schoolteacher-turned-writer taking on the position of the caretaker of a Colorado hotel during the winter months with his wife and young son. The film’s most vocal critic is perhaps the author himself who, while acknowledging Mr. Kubrick’s genius as a film director, has never held back his disdain for The Shining for which he wrote a screenplay that was subsequently rejected by the director in favor of his own collaboration with novelist Diane Johnson. Mr. King’s disappointment in the film made him vow to make his own version one day, and The Shining, as presented in a three-part mini-series on ABC in April and May of 1997 and directed by Mick Garris, is the result.

Jack Torrance (Stephen Webber) is a recovering alcoholic who has been fired for beating up a student following the latter cutting the former’s car tire after an argument. To say that Jack is skating on thin ice would be an understatement, even after many AA meetings. His marriage is on the rocks with his wife Wendy (Rebecca De Mornay) following him breaking their son Danny’s (Courtland Mead) arm after a drinking bout. All he really wants is quiet time to write his play. Taking care of the remotely located Overlook Hotel during the brutal winter months is his opportunity to do just that. Stuart Ullman (Elliott Gould), the stern and surly hotel manager, has been apprised of Jack’s past and is not too pleased to have to offer him the job as a favor. Dick Halloran (Melvin Van Peebles), the Overlook’s head chef, gives Wendy and Danny a tour of the kitchen, and discovers that he shares the gift of the Shining with Danny, a force described as a “psychic ability to see visions of the past, present, and future, as well as communicate telepathically with others who possess similar abilities.”

Once on their own following the hotel’s seasonal shutdown, the Torrances spend time acclimating themselves to the quiet solitude of the hotel and their quarters. It does not take long for them, however, to realize that strange things are going on in their midst. Unfortunately for Jack, there are evil forces at work that threaten to unravel the very fabric of his family unit as well as his sanity. Evidence of past horrors that occurred within the hotel begin to emerge in the form of an undead and decaying woman in room 217, an anthropomorphized topiary, a hornet’s nest of not-quite-dead wasps, and a scrapbook of news articles providing evidence of the hotel’s sordid history. Wendy’s attempts to seduce her husband into a night of lovemaking while dressed seductively are spurned multiple times by a distracted Jack who is thinking of incorporating elements of the Overlook into his play while also dealing with the demons of his alcoholism. In the midst of this is their seven-year-old son Danny who plays referee between them while trying to make sense of all that conspires to destroy his family. It isn’t long before the ghosts of the Overlook’s past begin to show up in their evening gowns and Jack loses his grip on reality, attempting to destroy his family while Danny telepathically summons Mr. Halloran who comes to their rescue.

At four-and-a-half hours, this version of The Shining is highly faithful to Mr. King’s story and, except for the genuinely frightening woman in Room 217, there is little in the way of tension and scares. Steven Webber does an admirable job of portraying a man modeled after Mr. King himself who is trying to go sober and keep his temper in check. Rebecca De Mornay, who was just twenty years-old when she was cast in late 1980 as an understudy in Francis Ford Coppola’s extravagant One from the Heart (1982) and found overnight fame as Lana in Paul Brickman’s highly successful Risky Business (1983) opposite Tom Cruise, plays Wendy much closer to Mr. King’s original vision in his novel. She is a strong-willed mother fiercely protective of her young charge against the adversity unfurling within the family unit. The film is ultimately undone by the not-ready-for-prime-time computer-generated imagery effects (CGI) that come off as silly and unfinished.

It is impossible to avoid comparisons between this and Mr. Kubrick’s film, the scariest film I have ever seen and which has only become more revered, iconoclastic, studied and analyzed in the years since its original release, so I will tread lightly. There are many areas that make Mr. Kubrick’s version, which was faked on backlots and massive sets at Elstree Studios in England, a standout. In his film, the Overlook, as represented by Oregon’s Timberline Lodge, became a character of its own. The Torrance’s, as played by Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall, and Danny Lloyd, felt as though they were really and truly snowbound and had absolutely no recourse from the outside world. The same cannot be said for the hotel in this version which, ironically, is the very hotel that inspired the story: the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.

The one area that neither film version touches upon that is a big fear of Danny’s in the novel of the notion his parents will divorce, which is further italicized to emphasize innate fear. The other words that do make their way into both films are, of course, REDRUM and MURDER.

The miniseries is now available on a double disc Blu-ray from Scream! Factory. Blu-ray Disc One contains Parts One and Two, and Blu-ray Disc Two contains Part Three and additional scenes that were cut from the film. The film begins with a disclaimer: “To provide the most complete version of the film, a few scenes have been upgraded from the best available, non-Interpositive source.” This verbiage will go over the heads of the uninitiated, and as such it merely states that the folks at Scream! Factory did their best to locate the best available film elements for this high-resolution transfer. I must admit that even to my trained eyes, I had difficulty differentiating between the best film elements and whatever less-than-stellar footage was used in the transfer, which is excellent. There is a highly enjoyable audio commentary by author Stephen King, director Mick Garris, actor Steven Weber, actress Cynthia Garris, visual effects supervisor Boyd Shermis, makeup supervisor Bill Curso, and cinematographer Shelly Johnson that is worth the price of the movie alone. They give great insight into how the film came to be, especially author King who discusses staying at the Stanley Hotel in October 1974 with his wife. He explains that, had the concierge not asked the Kings if they could pay cash to stay overnight, the book would never have come to be. Talk about a fortuitous exchange. He also talks about his own experiences and struggles with alcoholism and his relation to Jack Torrance.

Director Garris discusses how his version is not intended as a remake of Stanley Kubrick’s film (which would have been a fool’s errand) but instead a filmed representation of author Mr. King’s novel, and discusses the challenges of making a film of a beloved book and working with a child actor, made easier thanks to Dawn Jeffory-Nelson, an acting teacher. She appears as an unwitting victim in David Schmoeller’s ultra-creepy Tourist Trap (1979), and worked extensively with young actor Mead. Steven Weber provides his insights into working with Ms. De Mornay and how the most difficult scene they did consisted of nine pages of dialog and had to be in the can in one day.

The film was originally released on DVD in 2003 and the commentary and additional eleven scenes that run a total of sixteen-minutes appear to have been ported over from that release. The image quality of this new double-disc Blu-ray, however, easily bests that DVD so if you are a fan of this film this is a worthy upgrade. 

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By Hank Reineke

In the aftermath of the surprise runaway success of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde – the Warner Bros. crime-drama garnering a fifty-million dollar profit on a two million dollar investment by the close of 1967 – rival studio United Artists wisely chose to give the director free-reign in choosing his follow-up project. Ultimately, Penn chose to give folksinger Arlo Guthrie’s already fabled talking-blues, the “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” a big screen treatment. The timing seemed right.

Though Penn’s new film would be far removed in temperament and style (and certainly less violent) than his previous effort it was, in many respects, a prudent choice. Such anti-establishment films as Easy Rider, Medium Cool and Wild in the Streets had proven critical and box successes in the years 1968-1969. Such free-spirited films brought in young, enthusiastic audiences, the movie industry’s most important target demographic. But Penn was also aware that this recent trend from literary to reality-based story-telling on film signaled an important shift. He told the Los Angeles Times that filmmakers were in increasingly “moving more and more into direct relationship with the populace.”

Guthrie’s meandering, sardonic epic – one seamlessly weaving an innocent’s view of government inanities, the overreach of small-town policing, of “American Blind Justice,” the travails of Selective Service draft board induction and of U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam – was blistering clear-eyed and acutely withering in its impossibly gentle, but mocking satire.

In March of 1968 Guthrie’s manager, Harold Leventhal, was in process of inking the film deal with Penn and UA. That very same month Guthrie’s debut album, also titled Alice’s Restaurant, had climbed to the no. 29 spot on the Billboard Top 100 album chart. Guthrie’s album had, improbably, been charting steadily upward since it’s entry in the no. 180 position in November of 1967. This was a particularly impressive feat for an album whose signature song was eighteen minutes and twenty seconds long. The song’s maddeningly memorable and cyclical melody was supported only by the most basic backing instrumentation: Guthrie’s acoustic guitar, a sparse standup bass and an impish typewriter-cadence drum beat.

By all measures, the commercial success of the “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” was implausible. Guthrie’s studio recording was understandably ignored on ever-important AM radio – partly as no broadcast-length version was made available to them.* But long before Guthrie would formally record his shaggy-dog studio version of the “Massacree” in a professional setting in June of 1967, the song was already well-known by those listening to such free-form underground radio stations as New York City’s WBAI and Philadelphia’s WMMR. The song had been pirated – in several differing “live” versions and iterations – from reel-to-reel recordings sourced from Guthrie’s appearances during late-night on-air radio show appearances.

Thanks to the underground circulation of those recordings, the “Massacree” was quickly adopted as an anthem of the counter-culture, and by writers, artists and anti-war activists. In time, Guthrie’s talking-blues filtered up from underground radio to a more mainstream audience. The song particularly appealed to open-minded listeners, draft-age youngsters, journalists and social-political pundits. They immediately recognized that many of Guthrie’s satirical observations were acute and perhaps too-closely reflected a society going amiss.

Upon its release in September of 1969, Penn’s cinematic version of Alice’s Restaurant wasn’t the box-office blockbuster that Bonnie and Clyde was – but no one expected it to be. It was a more personal low-budget film, but one that still did great business. The film would bring in some 6.3 million dollars and sell just shy of 4.5 million paid admissions in the domestic North American theatrical market alone. The film’s cast of professional actors were supplemented by the townspeople of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and by Guthrie’s own friends working as extras on the edges. Penn estimated that ninety percent of the extras in the film were of the community.

Penn’s cinema vérité style dabbles are evident throughout. The film’s primary strength is in its glimpses of the otherwise private involvements of the community congregating at Alice and Ray Brock’s Old Trinity Church in Great Barrington. The film, on occasion, has a documentary feel to it. This was Penn’s choice, his personal way of doing things. “I work very fluidly, with almost no preconceptions,” he told a visiting journalist on set. Penn also shared that he did not work from storyboards nor even visit locations prior to shooting. “I just sort of set up how life would be if you were in that situation.” It could be argued that the biggest issue with this approach was Penn’s viewing the unfolding drama through a lens of presumption: the film’s reality and fictional episodes are uneasily juxtaposed throughout.

Though Arlo Guthrie holds mixed feelings about the resulting film (“I only made one film,” he’d tell concert audiences over ensuing decades, “…’cause I saw it.”), his memories of working with the creative team involved remain warm. He thought Penn’s effort was an “honest” one, his efforts allowing outsiders a small peek into the “scene” built around the Old Trinity Church. But Guthrie was also aware that the scene at Trinity circa 1965 – the time of Guthrie’s Thanksgiving Day crime of littering - was a fluid one. Penn’s film could only provide a brief snapshot of a time already passed since, in coming days, Guthrie reckoned, “there’ll be a whole new scene up there, as everywhere else.”

Guthrie was only twenty-years old when the film went into production - and had not acted professionally in any capacity. Many on set in the summer of ’68 found the folksinger private and distant, “elusive” in answers to both crew members and visiting journalists. According to a long essay in Playboy magazine, even old friends at the Trinity suggested that Guthrie was “thought by some” to have already “left the family.” Certainly, his visits to the Trinity were less frequent due to his new touring and recording commitments. On the brighter side, manager Leventhal was impressed by his young client’s professionalism. He told the New York Times, “Here’s a kid who likes to sleep until 3:30 in the afternoon who had to make a 7:30 A.M. movie call every day for three months of shooting, and he did.”

In November of 2023 the University of Oklahoma Press published a biography of the folk-rock singer in which he and I collaborated: Rising Son: The Life and Music of Arlo Guthrie. Cinema Retro editor Lee Pfeiffer asked if Arlo might be willing to share some memories of his experience working on the Alice’s Restaurant film with Arthur Penn. Though it’s been nearly fifty-six years since production on the film began in June of 1968, Guthrie graciously offered to share some of his remembrances of that time with readers:

Q: My first question to you is a pretty general one. As a kid growing up in the 1950s and early ‘60s, how would describe your interest in cinema? Were you a big fan of the movies? If so, what sort of films were you attracted to?

Arlo: I wasn’t so much into films as I was more into TV shows. Obviously, films that came out when I was a little older - the mid to late 60s - had a bigger impact on me. “Bonnie & Clyde” for example.

Q: What were you favorite TV programs? I understand you were a big fan of Star Trek – and just missed out on being cast on an episode. What was the story behind that?

Arlo: I got a phone call from Leonard Nimoy one time, out of the blue! I couldn’t believe I was chatting with Spock! But I have no memory of being asked to participate with Star Trek. **

Q: I have a news-cutting from Variety reporting from your overseas promotional tour for the Alice’s Restaurant film. In this case, from Paris in May of 1970. At the press conference you suggested that following the release of the Alice film in the U.S. you were suddenly “offered ten films about hippies but would prefer to do a western.”

Arlo: We didn’t do any promotional tours in the US, as they were un-needed. But when I was asked to do a promotional tour of Europe I jumped on it. I wanted to go to Europe. I had offers for more acting roles, but mostly on TV shows that were popular at the time. Hawaii 5-O, etc. But in those days everyone who had long hair was cast as a drug-addled thief or a murderer. So I kindly declined those invitations.

Q: In any case, you did accept a number of television acting assignments in the 1990s. Our readers might recall your reoccurring role as the graying-hippie Alan Moon on ABC’s Byrds of Paradise. My personal favorite of your television work was your role as a 1960s folk-singing, Weather Underground-style fugitive on the Lorenzo Lamas series Renegade. How did those opportunities come about?

Arlo: I don’t remember exactly. But my booking agents, David Helfant and later Paul Smith, made those roles possible. Those offers came through their offices. I wasn’t looking for acting jobs.

Q: Since you are a musician first and foremost, I’d like to ask you a few questions about the soundtrack accompanying the Alice’s Restaurant film. Prior to his work on Alice’s Restaurant, Gary Sherman was the arranger and conductor for John Barry’s soundtrack for Midnight Cowboy. On Alice’s Restaurant, Sherman is billed as “Musical Supervisor,” credited as composer and arranger of the film’s “Additional music.” What exactly was Sherman’s contribution? Did you work closely with him on the arrangements?

Arlo: Gary Sherman wasn’t very familiar with the kinds of instruments I wanted to be used as a sound track. But he was very knowledgeable with regards as to how music supported a film. We worked very closely together trying to integrate our different skills.

Q: Fred Hellerman, the producer of your first two albums for Reprise - is credited on screen as the film’s “Musical Director.” What exactly was Hellerman’s role in creating the soundtrack?

Arlo: Fred had some knowledge of the kinds of musical instrumentation - and songs - I was into at the time. He may have worked with Gary more than I was aware of, but I think the credit was more of an honorific title.

Q: In Rising Son: The Life and Music of Arlo Guthrie, you recall your enthusiasm of having partnered with John Pilla on the soundtrack sessions. Pilla, of course, would soon become the “Spiritual Advisor,” producer and/or co-producer of all of your albums from Running Down the Road (1969) through Someday (1986). What was it about this earlier collaboration that made you so trusting of John as someone musically simpatico?

Arlo: John and I loved the traditional songs and instruments that became the underlying sound track for the film. For example, we made extensive use of the autoharp which had not been used before (or since) in Hollywood movies.

Q: Any particular fond (or perhaps not-so-fond) memories of working on the Alice’s Restaurant soundtrack sessions with Pilla and Sherman?

Arlo: Arguing about music became the hallmark of my collaboration with John Pilla. He was very traditional in his assessment of what was good while I was a little too experimental. Gary was good at determining what worked. So between us we arrived at a consensus.

Q: The Old Trinity Church is central to Arthur Penn’s imagining of the Alice’s Restaurant film. What role did Ray and Alice’s deconsecrated church-home play in your life?

Arlo: I always felt very much at home at the church. Long before we began working on the film, I had stayed there often. It wasn’t very long after Thanksgiving 1965 that I was to spend more time traveling around and less time at the church. Using the church as a central location was fabulous. 

Click here to visit the Movie Mags web site, which features an impressive data base of cover illustrations from the legendary ABC Film Review magazine. The now sadly defunct publication entertained British moviegoers for decades with the latest film industry news, reviews and great photos. The site features hundreds of cover illustrations from the 1950s-1972. Click on the thumbnail cover images on the site to enlarge them.

In the 1960s, musicians Ferrante & Teicher were the kings of cover versions of film score soundtracks. n record stores, racks were filled with their albums. In this June, 1964 segment from "The Ed Sullivan" show they perform Riz Ortolani's main theme from director Lewis Gilbert's Cold War political thriller "The 7th Dawn" which starred William Holden, Capucine and Tetsuro Tamba. 

The American Archive of Television presents this marvelous archival interview with Jonathan Harris, who discusses how he came to be cast in Irwin Allen's "Lost in Space". We won't spill the beans but his recollections of meeting with the ingenious but eccentric Allen, who created and produced the series, are hilarious. 

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Kino Lorber. If you're politically correct, then stop reading now!: 

By Fred Blosser

When I was in college, my friend Bill Davis and I spent nearly half a day one Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at a local movie theatre for a ten-hour marathon.  The lineup included Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” capped with Clint Eastwood’s American Western, “Hang ‘Em High,” an attempt to replicate the Italian filmmaker’s violent, gritty style. It was the equivalent of binge-watching in those long-ago days, before home video and streaming services made it easy to access older films. To revisit favourite movies in that Neolithic age, you had to hope they would return for second- or third runs on the big screen, or wait until they resurfaced on TV in visually degraded, ad-infested prints. The fact that the Leone movies were still pulling in healthy ticket sales on rerun, four years after their initial U.S. release, attests to their popularity. Aside from special events like the periodic return of “Ben-Hur” or “The Ten Commandments,” the only other pictures with the same level of second-run durability at the time were the first five James Bond features with Sean Connery.

The initial success and ongoing appeal of the Leone trilogy prompted Hollywood to import other Spaghetti Westerns in hopes of matching (or at least approaching) the same level of commercial success. The era ran from 1968 to the mid-1970s, surviving even the U.S. box-office disaster of Leone’s fourth Western, “Once Upon a Time in the West.” The operatic epic starring Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards was lamely marketed here as a conventional Western, baffling fans of John Wayne and “Gunsmoke.” Adding insult to injury, it suffered wholesale cuts that rendered entire sections of the story incoherent. On smaller investments, more modest imitations in the mode of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” fared better. One such picture was Giuseppe Colizzi’s Western, I quattro dell'Ave Maria, a tremendous hit in Europe. The Italian title cryptically translates to “The Four of the Hail Mary,” which sounds more like a farce about comedic nuns than a Western. Paramount Pictures (the same studio that, ironically, mishandled “Once Upon a Time in the West”) wisely retitled the production “Ace High” for U.S. release.

In Colizzi’s film, bounty hunters Cat Stevens (Terence Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Bud Spencer) ride into El Paso with $300,000 in stolen money recovered from train robber Bill San Antonio. They intend to turn in the money and claim a hefty reward. The Bill San Antonio back story referred to Colizzi’s previous Western with Hill and Spencer, “God Forgives . . . I Don’t!” (1967; U.S. release, 1969), but you needn’t have seen the predecessor to get up to speed. Cat and Hutch discover that the bank president in El Paso was Bill San Antonio’s partner, not his victim, and instead of settling for the reward, they demand the entire $300,000, else they’ll expose the banker’s secret. In turn, the banker approaches an outlaw, Cacopoulos (Eli Wallach), who sits in jail waiting to be hanged the next morning. He offers to free Caco (as the scruffy felon is called) if he’ll kill Cat and Hutch.

This being a Spaghetti Western, a genre that reveres double-crosses like no other, thanks to the template set by Leone, Caco correctly guesses that the banker plans to do away with him too, as soon as the bounty hunters are out of the way. Grabbing the $300,000, he flees town on his own quest for vengeance. The money will finance his long-delayed pursuit of two former friends, Paco and Drake, who left him to take the fall for a heist years before. Cat and Hutch follow after him to reclaim the $300,000. Caco finds Paco south of the Border, presiding over the summary execution of rebellious peons, and Drake (Kevin McCarthy, in hardly more than a brief guest appearance) as the owner of a lavish gambling house on the Mississippi. Drake is still a crook who swindles his rich patrons with a rigged roulette wheel. Along the way, Caco and the bounty hunters befriend a Black high-wire artist, Thomas (Brock Peters), whose talent is pivotal for the bounty hunters’ scheme to break into the impregnable casino to take control of the wheel and clean Drake out. Italian viewers probably realized that Caco, Cat, Hutch, and Thomas were “the four of the Hail Mary” in Colizzi’s original title, planning their break-in as Caco fingers his rosary. Following Sergio Leone’s lead, the Italian Westerns loved to tweak Catholic piety.

Colizzi also dutifully copies other elements of the Leone playbook, especially those featured in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Alliances are made to be broken, greed and expediency always overrule loyalty, and the sins of thieves and hired killers are dwarfed by the inherent corruption and callousness of society as a whole. But Colizzi’s cynicism seems superficial compared with Leone’s, and his violence toned down. In the Leone movies, showdowns are “hideous fantasies of sudden death,” to quote the late film critic Bosley Crowther, in which the losers literally line up in groups to be gunned down. When my friend Bill and I watched the Leone marathon all those years ago, we counted a hundred casualties even before we were well into the third feature, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” In one gunfight in “Ace High,” Hutch, Cat, and Thomas simply shoot the hats off their opponents’ heads, the kind of slapstick more likely to appear in a comedy Western with Bob Hope or Don Knotts. The final shootout with Drake and his henchman is a parody of Leone’s showdowns, which invariably were choreographed to Ennio Morricone’s dramatic music. Caco has dreamed for years that his reckoning with his traitorous partner would be accompanied by “slow, sweet” music, and so Cat and Hutch order Drake’s house orchestra to play a waltz as the “Four of the Hail Mary” square off against Drake and his henchmen. On one hand it’s a clever idea for viewers who recognise the joke, but on the other, it trivialises the revenge motif in a way Leone never would have.

In another connective thread with “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Eli Wallach’s scruffy character is virtually a clone of his bandit “Tuco” from the Leone epic, even to a nearly identical name. But Leone shrewdly counter-balanced Wallach’s manic performance with Eastwood’s laconic presence and Lee Van Cleef’s steely menace. In “Ace High,” Colizzi already has two mismatched characters who play off each other—Terence Hill’s terse, handsome Cat and Bud Spencer’s burly, grouchy Hutch. Wallach is mostly left to his own Actors Studio devices of grins, tics, and swagger, which is good for fans who couldn’t get enough Tuco but not so good for others who just want the story to move on. Tied up by villagers who intend to torture him to learn the location of his stolen $300,000, Caco relates a long, soporific account of his childhood. The scene serves a dramatic purpose, since Caco is trying to lull a drowsy guard to sleep, but it goes on and on. You’re likely to nod off before the sentry does.

“Ace High” is available in a fine Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, offering Colizzi’s film at the correct 2.35:1 ratio in a rich Technicolor transfer. Films like this always looked good on the big screen, but most casual fans probably remember them instead from lousy, pan-and-scan TV prints in the old days. The Blu-ray includes the original trailer, plus trailers for several other Spaghetti Westerns released by KL. The company’s go-to expert on the genre, Alex Cox, contributes a new audio commentary. Cox has always been forthright in his dour opinion of directors like Giuseppe Colizzi, Gianfranco (Frank Kramer) Parolini, and Giuliano (Anthony Ascott) Carnimeo, who turned the Italian Western in the direction of burlesque in the late 1960s, and away from the gritty style of Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Sollima. But his comments on “Ace High” are even-handed, informative, and entertaining.

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(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)

 

Sorry to report that we have just sold the last issue of our "Dr. No" special edition. Thanks to all who made it such a success.  

Director Mark Robson's film adaptation of the novel "Von Ryan's Express" is one of the best war films of its era. The trailer is also very good, if you can withstand the hokey, over-the-top narration!

By Dean Brierly

Joe Jordan, the writer and film historian who applied his prodigious research and keen analysis to acclaimed books on the movies of Robert Wise and William Castle, has now focused his critical acumen on one of Hollywood’s most legendary directors in “Magic Time: The Films and Scripts of Billy Wilder.” (BearManor Media, 2023)

Born in 1906, Wilder worked as a journalist before turning to film. He initially made his mark writing film scripts in Germany before emigrating to America and pairing up with screenwriter Charles Brackett on such classic pictures as “Midnight” (1939), “Ninotchka” (1939) and “Ball of Fire” (1941). The two continued working together as Wilder graduated to the director’s chair on “Double Indemnity” (1944), “The Lost Weekend” (1945) and “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), before terminating their partnership upon completion of the latter. Wilder then teamed with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond on another run of classics, inclusive of “Ace in the Hole” (1951), “Some Like it Hot” (1959 and “The Apartment” (1960).

From the beginning to end of his directing career, Wilder was an authentic auteur, one whose films were easily identifiable by their visual elegance, sardonic wit and often-dark take on human nature. Few were his equal at blending cynicism and romanticism. Wilder maintained this distinctiveness over an extraordinary range of material—film noir, screwball comedy, wartime thriller, courtroom drama, Cold War satire.

“Magic Time” is another standout addition to the body of critical literature devoted to the great filmmaker. Following the recipe of his book “Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures” (2020), Jordan treats each film to its own chapter. Chapters 1 through 10 cover the films Wilder worked on as screenwriter only; chapters 11 through 35 on those he made as a director/writer. Jordan briefly describes the historical and social context at the start of each new production—including Wilder’s personal and professional circumstances, his state of mind, his thoughts about the actors and crew—before launching into a lengthy comprehensive synopsis, leaving out no detail or plot point. The effect is almost like watching the film unfold in one’s mind, so if it’s been awhile since you’ve seen, say, “A Foreign Affair” (1948), Jordan brings you up to speed as he touches on narrative, theme, tone, performance—the total fabric of the film, liberally interspersed with classic quotes courtesy of Wilder–Bracket or Wilder–Diamond.

Despite including an amazing amount of exposition, detail, observation and analysis about each film, the chapters are relatively brief, with Jordan’s insights and information delivered in clear, user-friendly language. Thanks to its structure, one can read the book straight through from start to finish, or simply open to a random chapter to get a fun, fresh slant on a favorite Wilder film.

Even if you’ve seen a particular film many times, Jordan can still surprise and enrich you with his critical acumen. I thought I was on familiar terms with every narrative aspect of “Sunset Boulevard,” which is in essence the story of three aspiring writers, but I never gave much thought as to the myriad ways in which those three narratives contrast and compete with one another, or the degree to which they inform and direct the film’s overall narrative.

There are many such examples embedded within this book. One cannot come away from reading it without having gained new insight and appreciation for the classic Wilder films that we almost know by heart. But if Jordan helps us see familiar favorites through new eyes, he also makes a strong case for getting to know lesser-regarded Wilder films such as “The Emperor Waltz” (1948) and “Fedora” (1978).

Jordan amusingly ends “Magic Time” with an extended addendum titled “101 Motifs, Catchphrases and More (From A to Z)” that rounds the book off in an offbeat manner, listing numerous recurring narrative, object and dialog tropes—including Bolsheviks, catchphrases, card games, cities in Ohio, close calls, monocles, sharing of cigarettes and more—that can only be termed Wilderian.

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Perhaps even God can't save the Queen in Golden Harvest's A Queen's Ransom (also known as International Assassin), an explosive action-thriller starring George Lazenby (The Man from Hong Kong), Angela Mao (Lady Whirlwind) and the legendary Jimmy Wang Yu (The One-Armed Swordsman).

As Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Hong Kong for a state visit, a band of skilled mercenaries plan her assassination. Contracted by an Irish Republican (Lazenby), the international group of hired killers includes a Japanese explosives expert (Chang Pei-shan), a Thai boxer (Bolo Yeung), a Filipino sniper (Peter Chan Lung) and a veteran of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Wang Yu). As the conspirators move to carry out their plot, two police officials (Ko Chun-Hsiung and Charles Heung) work with a young socialite (Tanny Tien Ni) in a race against time to save the Monarch's head - while also trying to manage a crisis that has brought a huge number of refugees to Hong Kong, including a young Cambodian princess (Mao).

Written and directed by Ting Shan-hsi (Rebel Boxer), A Queen's Ransom was Golden Harvest's attempt to capitalize on the popular success of the political thriller in the wake of The Day of the Jackal. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film for the first time ever on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration.

BONUS FEATURES:

· 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration
· 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original English language export cut from a brand new 2K restoration
· Original Mandarin and optional classic English dub (Hong Kong theatrical cut)
· Classic English dub (Export version)
· Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
· Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong theatrical version by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
· Brand new audio commentary on the export version by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
· Brand new documentary featurette by martial artist and actor Michael Worth
· Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
· Trailers

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What a year it was! In 1966, you could see the following movies playing locally in Winnipeg, Canada: Dean Martin as Matt Helm in The Silencers, James Coburn as Our Man Flint, The Trouble With Angels, Carry on Cleo, The Sound of Music and a quadruple feature of monsters flicks: Die Monster, Die, Eegah, Tomb of Ligeia and Planet of the Vampires. 

Here's a look at the life and career of Humphrey Bogart illustrated with some great still photos.

From Joe Dante's "Trailers from Hell":

Although Charles Bronson had been making movies for nearly 25 years and was quite popular in Europe, this international smash hit made him a superstar for the rest of his career. Michael Winner's provocative saga of a grieving father's vigilante vengeance became a Nixon-era touchstone that engendered four increasingly exploitative sequels over the next two decades. Hard to imagine what originally slated director Sidney Lumet would have made of this with Jack Lemmon in the lead.

As always, you can find more commentaries, more reviews, more podcasts, and more deep-dives into the films you don't know you love yet over on the Trailers From Hell mothership: http://www.trailersfromhell.com

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Director Sergio Leone’s monumental Western classic ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST celebrates its 55^th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion Paramount Home Entertainment will release the fully restored film for the first time on 4K Ultra HD^™ May 14, 2024, as the latest addition to the studio’s Paramount Presents line.

One of the most iconic and influential movies ever made, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST has been restored from the original 35mm Techniscope camera negative by Paramount’s archive team, L'Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation. This restoration honors the 2007 Film Foundation photochemical restoration overseen by legendary director Martin Scorsese by matching its build and color palette.  The result is the definitive home release of the film, which features the 165-minute extended cut restored to its glory. 

A must-own for every cinephile’s collection, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST will be presented in a Limited-Edition two-disc 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray^™ set that includes both new and legacy bonus content, as well as access to a Digital copy of the film.  The film is presented in Dolby Vision^™* and HDR-10, along with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and English Restored Mono Dolby Digital for an exceptional home viewing experience.

Bonus content presented on the Blu-ray Disc^™ is detailed below:

· Commentary by the Hosts of the Spaghetti Western Podcast –NEW!

· A Look Back with Leonard Maltin—NEW!

· Commentary with contributions from directors John Carpenter, John Milius & Alex Cox, film historians Sir Christopher Frayling & Dr. Sheldon Hall, and cast and crew 

· An Opera of Violence                                            

· The Wages of Sin        

· Something To Do With Death

· Railroad: Revolutionising the West

· Locations Then & Now (Gallery) 

· Production Gallery 

· Theatrical Trailer   

Widely considered to be one of the greatest Westerns—and one of the greatest films—ever made, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the U.S. National Film Registry in 2009.  The film stars Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson.

Synopsis

Set in the dying days of the Old West, a struggle to control water in a dusty desert town embroils three hard-bitten gunmen in an epic clash of greed, honor, and revenge.   

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST will also be available on 4K Ultra HD Digital on May 14.

This is a limited edition. Click here to pre-order now from Amazon.

Cinema Retro columnist Brian Hannan takes a sentimental journey back to 1967 to review "B" movie producer Sam Katzman's teenage exploitation film, "Riot on the Sunset Strip".  Never shy about using hyperbole, Katzman's trailer for the film immodestly calls it "The most shocking film of our generation!" Click here to read on Brian's addictive blog The Magnificent 60s.  

“WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR FUTURES”

By Raymond Benson

A genius has to start somewhere.

A very young Stanley Kubrick made his first feature film, Fear and Desire (called The Shape of Fear during production and until it found a distributor), at the age of twenty-two. It was very much a DIY production. In many ways it is the epitome of early independent filmmaking, the kind in which a fellow with a camera goes out to make a movie and then worries about finding a studio to release it. The picture was financed by family and friends, written by a school pal (future Broadway playwright Howard Sackler), and cast with young, struggling New York actors who were willing to work for peanuts. Kubrick produced and directed the movie, but he also photographed and edited it himself, too. It took a year-and-a-half to finish, and then he went about marketing it himself.

The astonishing thing about all this is that Kubrick was operating on chutzpah. While he had already made two documentary shorts, he was simply “winging it” when it came to making a feature length fiction narrative film. What he had on his side was his cinematographic capabilities. He knew cameras, lighting, and composition like the back of his hand, for he had spent four years after high school working as the youngest staff photographer for Look magazine in New York creating narrative “photo essays,” almost the equivalent of storyboards. Editing a movie, directing actors, and telling a good story was another matter… and something he would eventually learn how to do. Unfortunately, while Fear and Desire looks gorgeous and is indeed a lesson in photographic composition and lighting, it fails on all the other aspects of movie making.

Kubrick himself disowned Fear and Desire not long after its release in 1953. In fact, he attempted to acquire all existing prints, including the negative, and burn them. Luckily for film historians and Kubrick aficionados, he was unsuccessful. The copyright in the movie was owned by Kubrick’s uncle, Martin Perveler, a fairly wealthy pharmacy owner in California who put up most of the money and received Associate Producer credit. The feature had disappeared for decades and was sometimes available on poor quality bootleg VHS tapes and DVDs. It was only since Kubrick’s death in 1999 that today’s copyright owners and the Library of Congress made the movie available. In the USA, Kino Lorber distributed excellent quality DVD and Blu-ray editions several years ago. Now, Kino has released new 4K UHD and Blu-ray versions of the film, including the original 70-minute premiere cut that hasn’t been seen since 1953. (After its premiere, Kubrick cut about nine minutes for the theatrical release, limited as that was. It was this 62-minute cut that has been the more familiar one to film buffs.)

Another remarkable aspect about Fear and Desire is how ambitious it was. Kubrick’s later, more mature works are often extremely existential in theme and tone—they are big budget art films that challenge audiences to actually think about what they’ve seen. Kubrick is big on ambiguity, symbolism, and metaphor in all of his later, more well-known features. Right out of the gate, Kubrick embarked to make an extremely non-commercial art film that deals with the meaning of existence and the futility of war. While he would later succeed with this kind of art house contemplative head scratcher, Fear and Desire unfortunately comes off amateurish, pretentious, and painfully like a student film.

That said, one who knows Kubrick’s work can see glimpses of the genius underneath this early effort. What he was attempting is quite “Kubrickian,” and there are moments and images that are indeed striking.

The story is thus… A four-man platoon are fighting an unnamed war in an unnamed country. They are lost in a forest behind enemy lines. The goal is to get back to their side. When enemy combatants are spotted in a structure, the men decide to strike one for the team and kill off the opposition. Weirdly, the enemy general and his sidekick look just like the platoon’s lieutenant and private (they’re played by the same actors). Whoa, profound! And, in typical Kubrickian fashion, one man, another private (played by young Paul Mazursky, who would go on to be a director of note himself) goes mad, nearly rapes a civilian (Virginia Leith), and runs off like a banshee from hell. Will the others make it back to “civilization?” Maybe. Maybe not. As the lieutenant says, “We have nothing to lose but our futures.”

The same could be applied to Stanley Kubrick’s first endeavor.

Besides Mazursky and Leith, the other actors are Frank Silvera as the sergeant (if anyone is the protagonist here, it’s him), Kenneth Harp as the lieutenant, and Steve Coit as the first private. Silvera would go on to play the villain in Kubrick’s next, also independently made, feature, Killer’s Kiss (1955). Kubrick’s first wife, Toba, has a cameo as a fisherwoman (she and Kubrick had been high school sweethearts). Toba also worked on the crew, but the stress of making a first film with Stanley Kubrick destroyed their already unstable marriage.

Kubrick had flown the cast and tiny crew from New York to California in the spring of 1951 and shot the film in the San Gabriel mountains. It then took him over a year to raise the money to do all the post-production (mostly post-sync sound). He submitted the 70-minute cut to the Venice Film Festival in August 1952, where an unofficial premiere took place (he wasn’t present). Only in late 1952 did Kubrick meet the international film distributor Joseph Burstyn, perhaps the important figure of art house cinema in America at that time. Burstyn agreed to release the movie, and it had its official premiere in March 1953. It received mostly negative reviews, which prompted the director to delete nine minutes to tighten the feature. There were, however, a handful of very positive notices from the likes of critics such as James Agee and Mark Van Doren, both of whom recognized that there was undeniable talent buried within this strange, unsettling movie.

Kino Lorber’s new 2-disk release of the 4K restoration comes with a UHD disk and a Blu-ray disk of both the 70-minute and 62-minute cuts. The longer cut is accompanied by an audio commentary by film historian Eddy Von Mueller. The shorter cut has an audio commentary by film historian/screenwriter Gary Gerani. Von Mueller’s commentary is quite informative about the tortured history of the film; however he makes several odd mistakes (he says the fisherwoman is Kubrick’s sister, not wife; he says the star of Barry Lyndon is “Patrick” O’Neal; and 2001: a Space Odyssey is from 1966, not 1968). Gerani’s commentary covers much of the same ground with a different perspective. Sadly, neither pinpoints the bits that were actually cut from the longer version of the film. It’s up to us to figure it out (this reviewer finds that some scenes in the first half of the movie were merely shortened… there are no full scenes missing in the theatrical cut).

The real treasure trove in this release is that for the first time, in the USA, that is, we get Kubrick’s early short documentaries in high definition. Day of the Fight (1951) and Flying Padre (1951) were only available as bootlegs in bad quality. Only The Seafarers (1953) had been released on home video prior. Now we have all of Kubrick’s early work on one gorgeous release.

Kino’s new Fear and Desire package is a must-have for Stanley Kubrick fans, because looking past the feature’s shortcomings will reveal what would come from the master filmmaker. It’s a fascinating step back into the auteur’s young mind.

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By Ernie Magnotta

I’ve always loved action cinema. It’s one of my all-time favorite genres. When I was a teenager in the mid-1980s, I saw a VHS copy of the action film Bucktown and I’ve been a huge fan of its star, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, ever since.

A former pro football defensive back for (amongst others) the Kansas City Chiefs (1965-1967), Williamson, who holds black belts in Taekwondo, Kenp? and Shotokan karate, later moved on to acting. Some of his first appearances was guest starring on TV shows such as Star Trek and Ironside. He quickly graduated to features, appearing in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H and Otto Preminger’s Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.

In 1970, Williamson starred in the appropriately titled action movie Hammer (the nickname was given to him during his football days). The film was a success and it began his long and entertaining career as an action movie superstar. Standing at 6ft. 3 inches tall and rarely seen without a prop cigar in his hand, Williamson would go on to appear in a plethora of action classics (many of which were distributed by major Hollywood studios) such as Black Caesar, Take a Hard Ride, Black Eye, Three the Hard Way, Mean Johnny Barrows (which he also produced), and 1978’s Inglorious Bastards.

In 1976, the Hammer created his own company, Po’ Boy Productions, which would not only see him star in, but also direct, a ton of action films the likes of Death Journey, No Way Back, Mr. Mean, Foxtrap, and The Kill Reflex. Williamson is also a veteran of Italian exploitation cinema. He has appeared in the cult classics The New Barbarians, The New Gladiators, and Black Cobra 1-4. Just to name a few. In later years, he would act in films such as From Dusk till Dawn (for cinema titans Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino) and Original Gangstas (directed by the legendary Larry Cohen and co-produced by Williamson) and he shows no signs of slowing down.

Recently, the Hammer’s somewhat forgotten, 1973, action-packed, James Bond-like film That Man Bolt was released on Blu-ray.

Solidly directed by David Lowell Rich and Henry Levin from an entertaining screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Charles Eric Johnson, That Man Bolt tells the tale of courier and martial arts expert Jefferson Bolt who is hired to transport a million dollars from Hong Kong to Mexico City. However, Bolt soon realizes that he’s been set up and now he’s dead set on paying back everyone who double-crossed him.

Produced by Universal Pictures and released in December of 1973, That Man Bolt, aka Operation Hong Kong, is an exciting adventure flick (sort of a 007/martial arts combo) which not only contains well-crafted action sequences, but also some memorable characters played wonderfully by its talented cast.

Leading the way, of course, is the always charismatic Fred Williamson who convincingly plays the intelligent and capable Jefferson Bolt. There are also appearances by familiar faces such as Byron Webster, Miko Mayama, Teresa Graves, John Orchard, Jack Ging and Paul Mantee; not to mention martial arts champions Mike Stone, Emil Farkas, David Chow and Kenji Kazama. Enter the Dragon fans will recognize Geoffrey Weeks who appears in a brief role, as well as the voice of the great Keye Luke (who not only dubbed Shih Kien in Enter, but also performs the same duty here).

The fun film which was shot in L.A., Las Vegas, Macau and Hong Kong, also features some terrific cinematography by Emmy Award winner Gerald Finnerman, and a cool, Lalo Schifrin/John Barry-like musical score by composer Charles Bernstein.

That Man Bolt has been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. The region one disc presents the movie in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The 2K transfer looks gorgeous. The disc not only contains the original theatrical trailer, but also That Man Hammer, a short, but entertaining interview with Fred Williamson. Overall, this is a highly enjoyable, early 70s action-adventure that definitely deserves to be re-discovered. It’s also a very nice addition to your Fred Williamson collection. And if you’re just beginning to get into the Hammer’s filmography, That Man Bolt is a great place to start.

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“YOU AREN’T REALLY ANYBODY IN AMERICA IF YOU’RE NOT ON TV”

By Raymond Benson

While Nicole Kidman had been working in films since the late 1980s and starred in two big movies with future husband Tom Cruise in the early 1990s, for this reviewer it was 1995’s To Die For that proved to the world that Kidman could hold her own and carry a movie alone. Even with an impressive body of work that would continue to today, To Die For can easily be listed as one of the actor’s best works.

To Die For is based on a 1992 novel by Joyce Maynard, which, in turn, was a fictionalized improvisation on the true-crime murder-for-hire case of Pamela Smart. The murder of Smart’s husband by teenagers who were, as it turned out, hired by Smart herself, was sensational TV fodder in 1990-1991. The keywords of “sensational” and “TV” become the thematic concepts of Buck Henry’s adaptation of the novel that turns the tabloid tale into an acerbic dark comedy about the lust for fame and the means by which some people might employ to get it.

Gus Van Sant directs the film with a bravura collage of styles that molds the story into something of a mockumentary. Actors address the camera as if they are in a television reality program (something that was just beginning to take off in those years). Videotape footage mixes with film stock, emphasizing the fine line between Suzanne Stone’s reality and fantasy life on television.

Stone (Kidman) is a drop-dead gorgeous young woman with big ambitions. She wants fame and fortune by being a television personality, and once she sets out to accomplish that goal, her little hometown in New Hampshire will never be the same. First she seduces and marries Larry (Matt Dillon), the son of Italian parents who may or may not have connections to the mob. Larry is in a successful restaurant business, so he has enough money to keep Suzanne in style. Next, she finagles her way into the local cable TV news station, run by Ed (Wayne Knight). When she begins a personal video project at the local high school, she attracts the attention of three juvenile delinquents—Lydia (Alison Folland), who isn’t a bad person but is sadly trapped in a “white trash” world, Russell (a young Casey Affleck), the true bad-news of the trio, and Jimmy (a young Joaquin Phoenix), who is short on brains but long on libido. Suzanne, who feels resistance from Larry regarding her dreams to leave town and head to Los Angeles where she’s convinced she can make it big, decides to seduce poor Jimmy and get him and his friends to bump off Larry. To reveal more, which indeed differs from the true case of Pamela Smart, would spoil the “fun.”

Yes, “fun” it is. This is a comedy, folks. Sure, it’s a pretty dark one, but the team of Van Sant and Henry make sure that this sordid little fable is told with tongue-in-cheek. It’s also somewhat of a cautionary tale, warning us that what we see on television isn’t always the truth. Those beautiful people on the screen who anchor the news, interview celebrities, or present the weather are not gods and goddesses. It’s one thing to work toward a career in television with determination… it’s another thing altogether to think of that career as a Xanadu in which everyone is rich and famous.

Nicole Kidman is superb in To Die For. She’s funny, sexy, and at times very scary. Kidman plays this madwoman to the hilt and she’s the backbone of the movie. Apparently the role was first offered to Meg Ryan, who turned it down. Kidman, however, takes it and delivers an exhilarating star turn. Phoenix, in one of his early appearances, also makes an impression. At the time, who knew that he would one day be a multiple Oscar contender and ultimate winner? The same is true of Affleck. Other notable actors in the movie include Illeana Douglas as Larry’s sister, Dan Hedaya as Larry’s father, and Kurtwood Smith and Holland Taylor as Suzanne’s parents. The film also sports a few interesting cameos: Joyce Maynard, the novel’s author, appears as Suzanne’s lawyer; Buck Henry is a high school teacher; George Segal is a lecherous network executive; and David Cronenberg (!) is a hitman.

The Criterion Collection’s 2-disk package presents the film in a new 4K digital restoration, approved by Van Sant and director of photography Eric Alan Edwards. It comes with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack (and it makes Danny Elfman’s lively score sound really good!). The first disk is the picture in 4K UHD with Dolby Vision HDR. The second disk is a Blu-ray and the special features. Disappointingly, there isn’t much in the way of supplements. An audio commentary featuring Van Sant, Edwards, and editor Curtiss Clayton is good enough. The only other extras are some deleted scenes (some of which tantalizingly depict how the film might have had alternate endings) and the theatrical trailer. An essay by film critic Jessica Kiang accompanies the booklet.

To Die For is for fans of Nicole Kidman, Joachin Phoenix, and the caustic mind of Buck Henry.

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Here's a gem from the web site studdblog.blogspot, which specializes in reproducing old newspaper ads of local American theaters from decades past. This one comes from the Sky Vue Drive-in, though we aren't sure where it was located. This particular double-feature combines two Sean Connery films- the latest (at the time in 1971) James Bond blockbuster "Diamonds are Forever" paired with Connery's ill-fated but impressive historical Arctic adventure "The Red Tent". According to the ad, Connery's co-star in the latter film was the legendary "Claudia Capdinale"! (As publishers, we sympathize with anyone who has to deal with typos!) Most impressive was the ticket price: two major films for $1.25. That was a bargain even in 1971!

Here's a wonderful blast from the past: the 1983 TV telecast of "All Star Party for Frank Sinatra". 

By Lee Pfeiffer

The late, legendary New York City sports columnist Jimmy Cannon was known to quip, "Nobody asked me, but..." and then provide his thoughts about whatever was on his mind. In that spirit, nobody asked me but I'll weigh in on the 96th Annual Academy Awards broadcast from last evening. Reviewing the Oscar ceremonies is like shooting fish in a barrel in that there are always aspects of a production of this size that will inevitably be justly criticized. However, no matter how in vogue it is to bash the Oscars, regular readers of Cinema Retro know that I've tried to maintain objectivity. Here are my random observations:

• Host Jimmy Kimmel did a decent job, as he had in the past. The Academy long ago abandoned ensuring that the host of the ceremonies has a background in the film industry. That went out the window when long-time host Bob Hope was replaced by Johnny Carson, whose brilliant timing resulted in higher ratings. Carson had the gig for quite some time and a variety of hosts followed, with Billy Crystal being the most popular. Kimmel is probably not well known in certain areas of the globe but his late night chat show is very popular in the U.S. That makes for both good and bad news. The good is that Kimmel is quick-witted and can improvise cleverly. The bad news is that he keeps shoehorning comedy bits into the broadcast that would be suitable for his TV show but still seem out of place on the Oscar presentations. There were mercifully fewer of these transgressions this year and the same can be said with the atrocious "spontaneous" banter between presenters, which was kept to a minimum.  
• I confess that I never watch the red carpet pre-show simply because of the vacuous banter ("Who are you wearing tonight?") but in general, outrageous attention-getting outfits were not on display. The ladies all looked very glamorous and most of the male stars were nattily attired in traditional black tuxes, although a number of them chose to wear open collar shirts and no ties. I guess that was to show non-conformity but some of them looked like the guys I used to see in the late 1970s queueing outside of Studio 54. (Full disclosure: I'm not a slave to fashion myself and as I write this, I am sporting a T shirt with an image of Shemp Howard imprinted on it.)
• The event had its share of big names in attendance but for many years it has been noted that some of the diminishing ranks of living legends rarely attend the ceremonies unless they are nominated. Yes, we had Steven Spielberg there to present the Best Director award and Arnold Schwarzenegger was reunited with his "twin", Danny DeVito, for some amusing moments. Al Pacino attended to announce the Best Picture award but he did so in a cursory and confusing manner that undercut the impact of his appearance. There were no signs of the likes of Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford or Denzel Washington. Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were in attendance, as was Martin Scorsese, as they were all up for awards, though none won. It was astutely pointed out that De Niro and Foster had been in the auditorium before on the same night back in 1977 when they were both nominated for  Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". Regarding Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon", his acclaimed film was shut out of any wins, the momentum having switched to "Oppenheimer". Similarly, last year's most popular movie, "Barbie", only won for Best Song. I must admit that while I thought the film's concept and execution were clever, I was not swept up by enthusiasm for the film. But then again, I doubt that men in the late late sixties were the demographic target for the marketing campaign. 
• It was an innovative idea to have previous winners introduce the nominated actors in their respective categories. Another nice touch was the homage paid to union members who work behind the scenes on film productions. We also learned that there were finally be Oscar recognition for casting directors, though the process might be a challenge in terms of deciding who exactly was the responsible party for casting certain actors, given that producers and studio executives have a say in the process. There was also a good video segment that paid tribute to the importance of stunt people throughout movie history. Acceptance speeches were fine, and the pace was brisk. The show had started earlier this year and, amazingly, ended up finishing on time. 

• The  "In Memoriam" segment was the worst ever. This ritual and the controversies about it had inspired a major Washington Post article that ran a couple of days before the ceremonies. I gave up trying to figure out all the notable people were not mentioned and the staging was awful. The cameras concentrated on the elaborate settings and musicians, with photos of the dearly departed shown on a screen in the background. Most of the images  were pretty pretty small even on today's giant-sized TVs and people who were not instantly recognizable had their credits line too tiny to read. Why can't the Academy get this right? TCM certainly does with its annual in memoriam video. They ought to just buy the rights to that.
• The songs were all pleasant enough, but none of them particularly memorable. 
• A highlight of Oscar ceremonies used to be the presentation of honorary Oscars to legendary figures in the industry. The Academy decided with was all too superfluous and years ago relegated the honorees to brief film clips from a separate ceremony. This year, even that cursory effort was no longer included. Instead, we were told to scan a code on the TV screen in order to watch these honorees receive their Oscars. What a wasted opportunity. Mel Brooks was among those honored and the mind reels at how wonderful it would have been to see him receive the award on live TV. As a public service, we are presenting his speech below. 

• Politics were present, as usual, but kept somewhat restrained. There were references to the Israel/Gaza crisis and a moving and heartfelt speech by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov in which he pleaded that peace might finally come to his beleaguered country. It earned a standing ovation, but unfortunately these people can't move the aid package through Congress. At the end of the show, Jimmy Kimmel read a social media posting by Donald Trump in which he eviscerated the host's performance on the show. Kimmel's reply may have been witty but if he really wanted to one-up the former president, he wouldn't have mentioned him at all. It would be nice if politics didn't play a part in these ceremonies, but that hasn't been the case in decades and with political tensions higher than they have been in the U.S. since the late 1960s, it's doubtful the Oscars will ever again be a telecast that brings people together in a common love of movies. 
• It was nice to see a Godzilla movie get Oscar recognition and I thought I could hear the cheering in Tokyo in my living room.

In my opinion, this was one of the better Oscar telecasts of recent years, even without Will Smith on hand to provide some spontaneous action. 

Here's a blog devoted entirely to director William Friedkin's 1977 masterpiece "Sorcerer". The film bombed with critics and the public when first released but has acquired an enthusiastic following over the decades. Friedkin told Cinema Retro that it was his favorite among all of his films. (See issue #29 for an exclusive interview with Friedkin about the film.) The web site showcases a really cool "Sorcerer" T shirt. 

TCM – Thursday, March 7, 2024 - Turner Classic Movies (TCM) today announced a new limited series, Two for One, that will feature 12 nights of double features curated by some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood beginning April 6. TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz will be joined by each director, including Steven Spielberg, Patty Jenkins, and Spike Lee, to introduce the two films they chose. They will offer commentary on the double feature’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections.

“This was such an eclectic group of filmmakers to sit down with, which was invigorating, from Martin Scorsese talking about a Robert Mitchum western, to Spike Lee discussing Elia Kazan, to Olivia Wilde’s breakdown of Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame,” said Ben Mankiewicz. “In these double features, these 12 directors lead us on an insider’s journey through cinematic history.” 

Two for One which airs every Saturday night, premieres April 6 at 8PM (ET).

Two Films. One Filmmaker. Countless Perspectives.
Below is the complete film schedule: 

• Saturday, April 6 | Martin Scorsese - Blood on the Moon (1948) & One Touch of Venus (1948)
• Saturday, April 13 | Olivia Wilde - Auntie Mame (1958) & Grey Gardens (1976)
• Saturday, April 20 | Paul Thomas Anderson - The Bad News Bears (1976) & Bugsy Malone (1976)
• Saturday, April 27 | Rian Johnson - Trouble in Paradise (1932) & Jewel Robbery (1932)
• Saturday, May 4 | Spike Lee - A Face in the Crowd (1957) & Ace in the Hole (1951)
• Saturday, May 11 | Patty Jenkins - The Fisher King (1991) & Synecdoche, New York (2008) 
• Saturday, May 18 | Steven Spielberg - Jailhouse Rock (1957) & Forty Guns (1957)
• Saturday, June 1 | Ethan Hawke - The Gunfighter (1950) & Gun Crazy (1950)

• Saturday, June 8 | David Byrne - A Matter of Life and Death (1946) & Wings of Desire (1987) 
• Saturday, June 15 | Gina Prince-Blythewood - Central Station (1998) & Fruitvale Station (2013)
• Saturday, June 2 | Todd Haynes - The Go-Between (1971) & Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) 
• Saturday, June 29 | Nicole Holofcener - Coming Home (1978) & The Last Detail (1973)

More information at TCM.com.

By Lee Pfeiffer

The first African-American to direct a major film for a Hollywood studio was Gordon Parks, whose feature film debut "The Learning Tree" was released in 1969. Parks may have shattered the glass ceiling but there wasn't a tidal wave of opportunities that immediately opened for other minority filmmakers, in part because there were so few with any formal training in the art. One beneficiary of Parks' achievement was Ossie Davis, who was internationally respected as a well-rounded artist. He was a triple threat: actor, director and writer but his directing skills had been relegated to the stage. In 1970 Davis co-wrote the screenplay for and directed "Cotton Comes to Harlem", a major production for United Artists. The film was based on a novel by African-American writer Chester Himes and proved to be pivotal in ushering in what became known as the Blaxploitation genre. In reality, it's debatable whether "Cotton" really is a Blaxploitation film. While most of the major roles are played by Black actors, the term "Blaxploitation" has largely come to symbolize the kinds of goofy, low-budget films that are fondly remembered as guilty pleasures. However, "Cotton"- like Gordon Parks's "Shaft" films which would follow-  boasts first class production values and top talent both in front of and behind the cameras. Regardless, the movie had sufficient impact at the boxoffice to inspire a seemingly endless barrage of Black-oriented American films that were all the rage from the early to mid-1970s. The Blaxploitation fever burned briefly but shone brightly and opened many doors for minority actors. 

The film was shot when New York City was in the midst of a precipitous decline in terms of quality of life. Crime was soaring, the infrastructure was aging and the city itself would be on the verge of bankruptcy  a few years later. Harlem was among the hardest hit areas in terms of the economy. The once dazzling jewel of a neighborhood had boasted popular nightclubs, theaters and restaurants that attracted affluent white patrons. By the mid-to-late 1960s, however, that had changed radically. Street crimes, organized gangs and the drug culture spread rapidly, making Harlem a very dangerous place to be. It was foreboding enough if you were Black but it was considered a "Forbidden Zone" for most white people, who spent their money elsewhere, thus exacerbating the decline of the neighborhoods. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" serves as an interesting time capsule of what life was like in the area, having been shot during this period of decline. Director Davis was considered royalty in Harlem. Despite his success in show business, he and his equally acclaimed wife, actress Ruby Dee, never "went Hollywood". They stayed in the community and worked hard to improve the environment. Thus, Davis was perfectly suited to capture the action on the streets in a manner that played authentically on screen. Similarly, he had a real feel for the local population. As with any major urban area, Harlem undoubtedly had its share of amusing eccentrics and Davis populates the movie with plenty of such characters. 

The film opens with a major rally held by Rev. Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart), a local guy who made good and who is idolized by the population of Harlem. O'Malley is a smooth-talking, charismatic con man in the mode of the notorious Reverend Ike who uses religion as a facade to rip off gullible followers. This time, O'Malley has launched a "Back to Africa" campaign for which he is soliciting funds. It's based on the absurd premise that he will be able to finance disgruntled Harlem residents back to the land of their ancestry. The hard-working, semi-impoverished locals end up donating $87,000 in cash but the rally is interrupted by a daring daytime robbery. An armored car filled with masked men armed with heavy weaponry descend upon the goings-on, loot the cashbox and take off. They are pursued by two street-wise local cops, "Grave Digger" Jones (Godfrey Cambridge)  and his partner "Coffin" Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques). Davis provides an exciting and colorful car chase through the streets of Harlem, as the cops fail to snag the robbers. They also discover that O'Malley has gone missing, leading them to believe that he orchestrated the heist himself so he could keep the proceeds raised at the rally. The plot becomes rather convoluted, as Jones and Johnson learn that a bale of cotton has arrived in Harlem and its somehow connected to the crime. They assume that the stolen money has been stashed in said cotton bale, which quickly changes hands among the most unsavory characters in the community. Getting in on the action is a white mob boss and his goons who are also trying to recover the cotton bale. The cotton itself is resented in Harlem because of its historical links to slavery and by the end of the film, the bale ends up in a stage show at the famed Apollo Theater where it is used as a prop in a bizarre production that involves historical observations about the black experience intermingled with a striptease act! Through it all, Jones and Johnson doggedly chase any number of people through the streets, engage in shoot-outs and car chases and come in and out of contact with Rev. O'Malley, who professes his innocence about being involved in the robbery. The Rev isn't so innocent when it comes to other unscrupulous activities such as chronically cheating on his long-suffering girlfriend Iris (Judy Pace) and manipulating other women in a variety of ways. 

The most delightful aspect of the film is the showcasing of some very diverse talents of the era. Godfrey Cambridge (who made it big as a stand-up comic) and Raymond St. Jacques enjoy considerable on-screen chemistry even if the script deprives them of the kind of witty dialogue that would have enhanced their scenes together. They make wisecracks all the time and harass some less-than-savory characters but the screenplay never truly capitalizes on Cambridge's comedic potential. The film's most impressive performance comes from Calvin Lockhart, who perfectly captures the traits of phony, larger-than-life "preachers". He's all flashy good looks, gaudy outfits and narcissistic behavior. Lockhart seems to be having a ball playing this character and the screen ignites every time he appears. There are some nice turns by other good character actors including pre-"Sanford and Son" Redd Foxx, who figures in the film's amusing "sting-in-the-tail" ending, John Anderson as the exasperated white captain of a Harlem police station that is constantly on the verge of being besieged by local activists, Lou Jacobi as a junk dealer, Cleavon Little as a local eccentric, J.D. Canon as a mob hit man and Dick Sabol as a goofy white cop who suffers humiliation from virtually everyone (which is sort of a payback for the decades in which Black characters were routinely used as comic foils).  The film has a surprisingly contemporary feel about it, save for a few garish fashions from the 1970s. It's also rather nostalgic to hear genuine soul music peppered through the soundtrack in this pre-rap era. Happily, life has not imitated art in the years since the film was released. Harlem has been undergoing the kind of Renaissance that would have seemed unimaginable in 1970. The old glory has come back strong and the center of the neighorhood, 125th Street, is vibrant and thriving once again. These societal perspectives make watching "Cotton Comes to Harlem" enjoyable on an entirely different level than simply an amusing crime comedy.

The film is currently streaming on Screenpix, available for subscription through Amazon Prime.

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If the 1960s was the era of spy movie mania, the 1970s was an era of "rogue cop" movies. Seemingly everyone was in on the act and that included John Wayne, who teamed with director John Sturges for the first and only time for "McQ". The Duke played a Seattle detective who is combating corruption in the police department. The film boasted a good script and a fine supporting cast. Here's a highlight from the film. (Lee Pfeiffer)

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Retro movie historian Mike Malloy presents some vintage interviews in which Henry Silva and Fred Willilamson share their memories of working with Lee Van Cleef.

In this classic clip from the 1967 WWII film "The Dirty Dozen", the late, great Jim Brown shows he could command the big screen with the same assurance that he commanded the football field with as a legendary athlete.

By Lee Pfeiffer

"I Love You, Alice B. Toklas" might leaving contemporary viewers asking "Who is Alice B. Toklas?" The answer: she was a companion of writer Gertrude Stein. Toklas was a fellow writer who became idolized by pop culture addicts for daring to have written a cookbook that included a recipe for pot brownies. The 1968 big screen farce was anything but fun to make. Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker were to have made their directorial debuts with this film. However, once Peter Sellers was signed to star, the mercurial and unpredictable actor had them bounced from the directors chair(s), though their screenplay was retained. Shortly after production began, Sellers brought Mazursky back on board to offer advice about salvaging a production that Sellers was growing increasingly leery about. The truce was short-lived because Mazursky criticized the way Sellers played a love scene with Leigh Taylor-Young, who made her big screen debut in the film. Mazursky was fired again as the film hobbled through production under the direction of Hy Averback. Sellers was apparently also feuding with his wife, Britt Ekland, who was simultaneously filming "The Night They Raided Minsky's" against Sellers' wishes. 

The story presents Sellers as Harold Fine, an L.A. lawyer and self-described "square". He is courting his law firm's secretary, Joyce (Joyce Van Patten), an amiable bubble-head who constantly pressures Harold into proposing to her. He finally relents and a wedding date is set, much to the delight of Harold's parents (amusingly played by Jo Van Fleet and Salem Ludwig). In the meantime, Harold finds himself unexpectedly immersed in the local hippie culture when his car is damaged and he finds the only accessible vehicle is a flower-powered decorated loaner he gets from the repair shop. At the same time, his hippie brother Herbie (David Arkin) introduces him to the gorgeous Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young), a free-spirited young woman who indulges in drugs and free love. Harold finds himself smitten by her and when she leaves him some pot-laced brownies, it results in the film's funniest scene in which Harold ends up serving them to his parents and Joyce, resulting in the kind of over-reaction one might attribute to a tab of LSD. Nevertheless, it is quite an amusing segment. Ultimately, Harold leaves Joyce at the synagogue seconds before taking the vow of marriage. He dashes home and vows to start a new life with Nancy. Before long, he is sporting long hair, mod eyeglasses and is living in his car. It seems perfect until the screenplay predictably delves into one of those scenarios in which the motto is "Be careful what you wish for- you just may get it!".

Sellers is the glue that holds the fragile premise together, even if his American accent slips every now and then. Taylor-Young makes for a lovely leading lady and Joyce Van Patten is stuck in the role of constantly jilted lover who craves Harold no matter how many times he humiliates her. Unfortunately, the premise wears thin pretty quickly and the movie is never as funny as it should be or you expect it to be. In fact, it bears a certain resemblance to Blake Edwards' "The Party", which was released the same year. Both films were based on an initially funny scenario that ultimately ran out of steam as the movie wore on. At the time, Roger Ebert reviewed the film favorably but pointed out that it was another example of a Hollywood studio punting when it came to presenting the hippie culture and depicting the rebellious young people as sanitized caricatures. Perhaps the biggest laugh to be had was by Paul Mazursky, who would direct the smash hit "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" the following year, thus establishing himself as a major name in the film industry.

The region-free Warner Archive boasts a fine transfer. The only bonus feature is the trailer.

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