The 1971 007 blockbuster Diamonds Are Forever was among many hit films Tom Mankiewicz worked on.

The BBC Radio program Last Word interviews author, filmmaker and Cinema Retro writer Matthew Field about the life and career of screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, who passed away last week. James Bond producer Michael G. Wilson also reminisces about working with Mankiewicz on several 007 hits. Click here to listen. (The Mankiewicz segment begins at approximately 5:50 in the program)

City of Ruins is an ambitious 5 minute documentary film that is gaining high praise after its debut in Poland. A team of filmmakers spent two years creating a virtual flight over the city, using archival footage to demonstrate the level of wholesale destruction in Warsaw that followed the German invasion in September 1939. That incursion marked the beginning of WWII and Poland suffered terribly under Nazi occupation, in part because Adolf Hitler resented the nation's doomed-but-valiant resistance. In 1944, the city was virtually destroyed in reprisal for the Warsaw Uprising which saw hopelessly outnumbered Jewish underground fighters wreak heavy casualties on German forces, despite having only limited armaments. The film is being presented in 3-D in hopes of educating new generations about the extent of Polish suffering during the war. For more click here

Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer

The web site for The Today Show brings us a slide show of the 10 most iconic swimsuits of all time, though the term "swimsuit" seems to be loosely defined: outfits worn by Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. and Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi are included! Click here to view

Robert F. Boyle, one of the film industry's most revered and honored art directors and production designers, died earlier this week at age 100. Boyle worked with many top directors of different generations including Alfred Hitchcock, Don Siegel, Norman Jewison and Joe Dante. Boyle was nominated for four Oscars for his work on North By Northwest, the Jewison films Gaily, Gaily and Fiddler on the Roof and Siegel's 1976 classic The Shootist. Although he never won a competitive Oscar, he was given a lifetime achievement award by the Academy in 2008.He is also the subject of an acclaimed documentary film. For more about his remarkable career click here

The last time Steven Seagal was considered to be "box-office", Bill Clinton was President and the Internet was an emerging phenomenon. Seagal's macho antics came into vogue just as the era of the blue-collar action hero was going out of style. In recent years, he's been confined to "straight-to-video" hell. His 2001 "comeback" movie Exit Wounds had only middling grosses. Seagal has dabbled in TV recently, appearing on a reality-based crime show. He's now preparing to shoot 13 episodes of a new fictional action series in Canada with hopes that he can emulate Chuck Norris' success on the small screen. For more click here

This vintage featurette for the 1966 Western Duel at Diablo shows some amazing stuntwork and horse falls by James Garner and stuntmen. There's also rare footage of Sidney Poitier practicing the fast-draw! Click here to view

Resin (second from right) with Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight in the hit 1979 comedy Caddyshack.

American baby boomers are mourning the death of 79 year old actor Dan Resin, who is better known as the Ty-D-Bol Man in a series of vintage TV commercials for a toilet cleaner. In the absurd, but iconic spots, Resin portrayed a man who lived inside your toilet tank and dispensed information about the effectiveness of Ty-D-Bol in removing bothersome stains. Resin also appeared in feature films, most notably Caddyshack as Dr. Beeper. Despite his affiliation with Ty-D-Bol, he did not live in Flushing, New York! Click here for more (Click here to watch 1971 Ty-D-Bol ad)

Mitch Miller immortalized in a painting by Norman Rockwell

By Lee Pfeiffer

Mitch Miller, who became a pop culture icon in the 1960s, has died at age 99. Miller was a record producer whose 1960s weekly TV show Sing Along With Mitch made him instantly recognizable throughout the world. The thin man with the Don Quixote look would conduct in a virtually immobile style as his all-male choir sang popular standards. A key novelty of the show was a bouncing ball that allowed audience members to sing along. The concept actually began with a series of records that included lyrics sheets. When transformed to TV, the show proved to be a hit, despite the fact that Miller was on the air when rock 'n roll was booming. Miller had some career mishaps including a notorious flop novelty record he produced for Frank Sinatra, one of the few embarrassments of the great singer's career. Yet, Miller remained a fixture in American pop culture long after his show left the air. Additionally, Miller also contributed to the classic 1962 war movie The Longest Day: his choir sang the title song, which was written by Paul Anka. For more click here

By Dean Brierly

The Briefing

“Let me get this straight, Noah. It Takes a Thief is finally out on DVD?”

“That’s right, Al. There’s just one catch — it’s available only in Germany. A company called Polyband just listed Season One on Amazon’s German affiliate.”

“Terrific.”

“Granted, you’ll need a region-free DVD player to watch the discs. But the good news is that the language options include English.”

“You sold me, Noah. Where’s my laptop?”

The Backstory

Yep, it’s finally happened. The coolest TV show never to be released on DVD has at long last entered the digital domain. Not in this country, of course. License holder Universal is still hedging its bets regarding the American market, for reasons known only to fools and madmen. It took the Germans, for crying out loud, to recognize the commercial DVD potential of It Takes a Thief, the action-adventure series that ran from 1968 to 1970 and starred Robert Wagner in his career-defining role as Alexander Mundy, master thief, international playboy and smooth cat extraordinaire.

Besides being must-see TV in the States, the series also proved a hit in Germany, where it debuted on November 18, 1969 under the title Ihr Auftritt, Al Mundy! (Rough translation: Your Appearance, Al Mundy!) One of the reasons for its popularity there was due to the dubbing, which made the lines funnier than they were actually written. This lighter approach was also reflected in some of the episode titles. “A Thief is a Thief” was Germanized to “A Chance for the Playboy,” and “A Spot of Trouble” became “More Champagne for the Ladies.”

The show’s premise was ingenious and irresistible: Mundy was cooling his heels in San Jobel Prison when Noah Bain, head of the secretive SIA spy agency, offered Al a get-out-of-jail card on the condition that he thieve for the government. Bain, played with gruff authority by Malachi Throne, regularly dispatched Al to glamorous European locales to steal secret formulas, defense papers, kidnapped scientists, and whatever else the SIA needed to appropriate in the interest of national security. Naturally, Mundy found time to purloin more than a few feminine hearts along the way. The result was a unique blend of crime and espionage that set the show apart from anything else on the television landscape.

Wagner’s charisma was, of course, integral to the show’s appeal. He was 38 when the series debuted (though he looked a decade younger), and had matured from the callow actor of the early 1950s into a versatile and sophisticated performer. Wagner’s physical grace allowed him to convincingly handle the show’s action imperatives — scrambling cat burglar fashion up and down buildings, throwing down with international spies and criminals, and sweeping an endless succession of nubile females off their lovely feet. Wagner maintained an unimpeachable cool in and out of trouble, and had few equals in the art of repartee. The show’s writers gave him plenty of opportunities to showcase the latter ability. Here’s a typical example from the Season One episode “When Thieves Fall In”:

Alexander Mundy: “What happened?”

Charlene Brown: “Chloroform with a vodka chaser.”

Mundy: “You’re not supposed to spray that stuff on yourself!”

Malachi Throne provided brilliant support as Noah Bain, a gruff, tough badass with no compunctions about sending Mundy into the most desperate and dangerous circumstances; yet who invariably had Al’s back when the chips were down. The series’ guest stars were the cream of the Hollywood crop, from seasoned veterans like Ida Lupino (“Turnabout”) to promising newcomers like Susan St. James (“It Takes One to Know One”) and Bill Bixby (“To Steal a Battleship”). The series’ creative DNA also boasted clever, literate scripts; inventive direction; quality production values; and Dave Grusin’s hipper-than-hip theme tune. Throughout its three-year run, It Takes a Thief effortlessly blended action, suspense, humor and style into a potent televisual cocktail that retains its intoxicating appeal four decades after its debut.

Mankiewicz and his wife Rosemary. (Photo: www.MI6.co.uk)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz has died after a battle with cancer. He was 68 years old. Mankiewicz came from a legendary Hollywood family of screenwriters, directors and producers. He was a screenwriting novice when he was tapped by producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to write the screenplay for the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. The film was especially important for the franchise because it marked Sean Connery's return to the series after a one-film absence. Although most critics attribute the injection of overt (some would say "over-the-top") humor to Roger Moore's assumption of the role in Live and Let Die (1973), this trait was actually introduced by Mankiewicz in Diamonds Are Forever and continued through his other two Bond scripts: Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun. Although Bond purists tend to be critical of the Mankiewicz trilogy because it brought the character of Bond into the realm of the absurd, there is no denying the films scored with the public and each proved to be a major financial success. Mankiewicz would later serve as Creative Consultant and uncredited screenwriter on the Superman series, where his flair for humor was more readily accepted by fans. Mankiewicz also wrote and directed the hit 1987 big screen comedy version of Dragnet. For an in-depth look at his career, click here to visit the MI6 web site.

(Photo and montage copyright Steve St. John)

The web site for the magazine Western Clippings has updates on your favorite cowboy stars of yesteryear. Here we have a trio of popular actors from 50s and 60s TV Westerns: Ty Hardin (Bronco), Clint Walker (Cheyenne) and Will Hutchins (Sugarfoot) For more about the magazine, visit the site by clicking here

Cinema Retro columnist Steve Saragossi has launched an exciting new film-related blog, The Screen Lounge. Steve already has a coup: an exclusive interview with acclaimed character actor Ed Lauter, whose talents have enhanced such memorable films as Magic, The Longest Yard, Hickey and Boggs, Executive Action and so many more. Click here to read

By Lee Pfeiffer

Director Richard Lester's post-apocalyptic satire The Bed Sitting Room enlisted the talents of many notable British actors including Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Ralph Richardson, Spike Milligan, and others. The film was released in 1969 and generally won respectable reviews, but died at the box-office, helping to end Lester's reputation as a new generation director who had his finger on the pulse of what young audiences wanted to see. The film has never been released on home video in the USA but last year Turner Classic Movies presented a rare showing. With great expectations, I began to watch ...but could not get past the first half hour. It was truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and - mind you- I'm a man who has found kind things to say about Ishtar and Heaven's Gate. Because I could not endure the entire film, I'm unqualified to make a complete judgment about it. I suppose it's possible that the movie became enchanting exactly at the point at which I turned it off - or it could be that the praise the movie has gained over the decades could be a cinematic case of The Emperor's New Clothes. Perhaps some people want to say they see subtle, hip qualities the average viewer doesn't perceive - even though the movie may just be an unintelligible mess. Writer Mike Watt, who runs the entertaining Movie Outlaw web blog, has a different take and defends the film's qualities. In the interest of being fair and balanced, click here to read his views.Click here to view trailer

Click here to order the DVD from Amazon UK

Click here to watch the original trailer for Howard Hawks' 1967 Western El Dorado. Interestingly, the trailer was cut before the film was scored, so it has generic music that pales in comparison to the final soundtrack.