Louis Gossett Jr. had already established a long, enviable career in movies by the time he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his remarkable performance as the drill instructor in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. However, that achievement did little to divert him from the path of racism, poor health and self-destructive habits. Gossett has now released his memoirs, titled An Actor and a Gentleman and weaves a remarkable story about overcoming prejudice, drug abuse and even health problems related to mold in his home.

Here is the description of the book from Amazon:

"Louis Gossett Jr. is one of the most respected African American stage and screen actors, who rose to fame with his Emmy-winning role in the television miniseries Roots and Oscar-winning performance in An Officer and a Gentleman. Now he tells the story of his fifty-plus years in the entertainment world—from his early success on the New York stage appearing with Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun, through his long Hollywood career working alongside countless stars, including Marilyn Monroe and Dennis Quaid. He writes frankly of his struggle to get leading roles and fair pay as a black man in Hollywood, his problems with drugs and alcohol that took years to overcome, and his current work to eradicate racism and violence and give our children a better future.

• Includes revealing stories and reminiscences involving famous performers, including Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Shirley Booth, Sammy Davis Jr., Steve McQueen, Richard Gere, Maggie Smith, Halle Berry, and Gena Rowlands
• Spans half a century of American theater and film history, people, and performances
• Highlights the problem of racism in Hollywood and the challenges faced by African American actors from the 1950s and 1960s onward

An Actor and a Gentleman penetrates the celebrity glitz and glamour to offer an honest, heartfelt portrayal of the African American experience both in Hollywood and the New York theater world, as told by one of the nation's most enduring and highly esteemed actors."

To watch a video about Gossett's career on Amazon and to order the book, click here

Gregory Peck and Mary Badham in the Oscar-winning film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.

As hard as it is to believe, Harper Lee's masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird has come under attack from some political commentators, even as the book celebrates its 50th anniversary as one of America's best-loved classic novels. The film version is so revered that its main character, Atticus Finch, was voted by the American Film Institute as the greatest movie hero of all time. Seems that doesn't sit well with some critics, who now denounce that character, who favors reason over violence, as weak-kneed and feminized. Writer Jesse Kornbluth fights back on behalf of the fictional Mr. Finch. Click here to read

The self-imposed career meltdown of Mel Gibson continues. Not only did his talent agency drop him in the wake of his well-publicized tirade against his former lover, but the scuttlebutt in Hollywood is that Gibson is now too toxic to work with. Even in a town that tends to gloss over scandals, Gibson's anti-Semitic statements from his 2006 drunk driving arrest, coupled with the latest bad publicity, is apparently too much. Gibson had laid low for a few years before re-emerging a few months ago with Edge of Darkness, the kind of thriller that once would have been a major hit. The movie barely broke even at the box-office. Now distributors of his next two films seem to be in no hurry to announce premiere dates. Additionally, Gibson doesn't seem to have any supporters in the industry. A few years ago, he was hailed as a role model by many religious groups for bringing  The Passion of the Christ to the screen - but those folks have been conspicuously silent since Gibson was caught on tape wishing horrible things for his former girlfriend. For more click here

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from the British Film Institute:

The BFI is launching two national projects as part of its LONG LIVE FILM campaign to celebrate the BFI Archive’s 75^th birthday.  

LONG LIVE FILM will give members of the public a unique opportunity to adopt a Hitchcock film with a fund-raising appeal to restore his early films: RESCUE THE HITCHCOCK 9. 

And there’s a national hunt for the BFI’s 75 MOST WANTED FILMS, a search for important but elusive films, including the only missing Hitchcock film, The Mountain Eagle. 

RESCUE THE HITCHCOCK 9

Alfred Hitchcock’s early silent films need urgent attention to restore them to their former glory. The BFI needs YOUR help to bring these cinematic masterpieces back to life and secure them for future generations as the BFI celebrates 75 years of the BFI National Archive.  

A dedicated cinema trailer, voiced by Kenneth Branagh, and a new website are part of the campaign. www.bfi.org.uk/saveafilm

Every penny counts and even small amounts can add up to help us reach our target of £1 million. From July onwards, members of the public who would like to save an important and historic film can contribute by visiting www.bfi.org/saveafilm. Donors with upwards of £5,000 ADOPT a specific film from the shortlist and receive an on-screen credit, whilst a donation of £100,000 will secure the full restoration of an individual film with their name in the credits. All donations are welcome but £25 and upwards will help RESCUE one of the films, from 50cm of film to restoring a whole scene, and make the contributor a BFI Supporter, receiving regular updates about the status of the restoration while having the satisfaction of knowing that they have helped to save a crucial part of British cultural history. With enough support, we also hope to be able to commission a new score for each film from a major composer of international standing. 

Hitchcock is internationally recognised as one of Britain's greatest ever film-makers. 30 years since his death he remains one of the world's most influential and important directors. Funds permitting, we hope to start restoration work on The Farmer's Wife (1928), a delightfully unexpected comedy of a farmer in search of rural matrimony.  

Hitchcock's early films are among the finest achievements of British silent cinema. On its first release The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926) was acclaimed as a masterpiece and his subsequent films refined his techniques of stunning visual composition, richly cinematic storytelling linked to dramatic invention, which are uniquely Hitchcock.  

New digital techniques mean that we are now in a position to transform scratched and damaged negatives into beautiful viewing copies. The original nitrate materials for all these films are in a very poor state as decades of wear and tear have taken their toll.

THE HITCHCOCK 9:

THE PLEASURE GARDEN (1925)

THE LODGER (1926)

DOWNHILL (1927)

EASY VIRTUE (1927)

THE RING (1927)

THE FARMER'S WIFE (1927)

CHAMPAGNE (1928)

THE MANXMAN (1929)

BLACKMAIL (1929)

Sony has released an exciting new collection of Film Noir gems in association with Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation.  Here is the official press release for the set, which will be released in July. 

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPHE) and Martin Scorsese’s non-profit film preservation organization, The Film Foundation, partner once again to bring five films to DVD for the first time, fully-restored and re-mastered, in Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics II, debuting on DVD July 6. This must-have collection includes Pushover (1954), Human Desire (1954), The Brothers Rico (1957), Nightfall (1957) and City of Fear (1959). In this second volume, renowned directors Fritz Lang, Phil Karlson and Irving Lerner are joined by Jacques Tourneur and Richard Quine in proving that lust, adultery, greed and revenge all add up to cold, calculated murder. Film Noir Classics II takes viewers on a dark journey among low-lifes and mobsters, cops and gun molls, and the dim-witted, hapless pawns who forever changed the landscape of cinema, and whose doomed paths are as disturbing today as when they were first committed to film.