Netflix, the enormously popular American DVD rental and video streaming service, is facing another blow on top of subscriber backlash regarding recent plan changes and increased fees. The cable channel Starz, which leases its most popular programming to Netflix, is terminating its contract with the company in February. For more click here

Clooney's injuries while filming Syriana have led to his departure from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature.

The mystery regarding George Clooney's recent departure from the Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature film has finally been explained. Clooney was enthused about playing the role of super spy Napoleon Solo, but injuries sustained on the 2005 film Syriana have never properly healed. Thus, Clooney became concerned he would not be able to perform the action stunts required in the movie. The filming is scheduled to start in February with Steven Soderbergh directing. No replacement for Clooney has been announced. For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

The big screen version of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is being hailed as one of the best cinematic spy thrillers ever. Accolades are coming after the film was screened at the Venice International Film Festival. The praise echoes the acclaim given to the 1965 Cold War thriller The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, not coincidentally based on a Le Carre novel. The movie eschews the current preference for big, special effects action sequences in favor of - are you sitting down?- character development and dialogue. Pinch me, I must be dreaming! The studio is nervous that a generation weaned on CGI-packed monstrosities might not accept a film that moves at a slow pace but co-star Colin Firth thinks they are underestimating audiences. He knows what he's talking about, having seen his literate Oscar winner The King's Speech become a major boxoffice hit. Incidentally, Tinker was brought to the small screen in 1979 as an acclaimed mini-series starring Alec Guinness. Click here to view trailer For more click here

The website Slashfilm presents a deleted scene from The Empire Strikes Back (that is included on the new Blu-ray release) as well as unseen fan photos taken in the desert when the Return of the Jedi was in production under a decoy title. Click here to view 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Twilight Time is the exciting new DVD label that has acquired rights to release limited edition DVDs of retro studio titles that would otherwise be ignored. So far the label has shown creativity and taste in the initial batch of films it has released. One of the most inspired choices is the 1967 Fox film The Flim-Flam Man that afforded George C. Scott one of his most memorable starring roles. Scott plays Mordecai Jones, a charismatic old timer who travels through the backwater towns of the American South conning greedy people out of their money through manipulated games of chance. An encounter with Curley (Michael Sarrazin), a young Army deserter, results in the two men forming a partnership with Mordecai acting as mentor for the up-and-coming younger con man. Director Irvin Kershner does a wonderful job of capturing the atmosphere of rural life. Although the movie was set in contemporary times, there is a flavor of the Depression era that runs throughout. Mordecai and Curley live by their own twisted code of honor in that they only con those who they deem to be greedy. The sequences in which they pull off their complicated cons are a joy to watch, with Scott nothing less than brilliant.

The former Governator will team with other 1980s action icons in a sequel to The Expendables.

Last year's hit action movie The Expendables proved that older stars can kick butt on screen and off (the pic grossed $275 million). Now comes good news concerning the sequel: both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis will return, this time in far more extensive roles than their brief cameos in the original film. For more click here

They say that in politics if you want a loyal friend get a dog. The same is true in show biz. Look at the acclaimed screenwriter and director James Toback. Among his early successes was his autobiographical screenplay for The Gambler, an acclaimed 1974 film starring James Caan as a self-destructive man who can't stop his obsessions with betting and high stakes sexual promiscuity. Cut to this week when Toback was informed that the Deadline Hollywood Daily site was reporting that Martin Scorsese plans to remake the film with Leonardo DiCaprio and the movie's original producer Irwin Winkler. Trouble is, no one even bothered to inform Toback and his rebuttal to being dissed on the Deadline Hollywood web site is considered a "must read" in the industry. Click here for more

There was a bit of Roger Thornhill in Cary Grant's personality.

Writer Arthur Axelman of The Wrap web site recounts a memorable conversation he had with Cary Grant when he was a young agent in 1974. Axelman tried to persuade the legendary star to commit to writing his autobiography but Grant kept refusing, saying his life was too boring. It reminds one of the scene of Grant playing Roger Thornhill in North By Northwest. He finds himself climbing down Mount Rushmore with murderous villains in pursuit. Hanging from the edifice, Eva Marie Saint's Eve asks him why his two former wives divorced him. Thornhill replies, "I think they said I lead too dull of a life!" The fact that Grant could be dismissive of his own career indicates there was plenty of the fictional Roger Thornhill in him. Click here for more.

Joan Blondell had a long career as one of Hollywood's most popular glamor girls, and later in her career, as a reliable and always charismatic character actress. Kimberly Lindbergs pays tribute to the late actress on the TCM Movie Morlocks site and specifically analyzes her contributions to the B movie Kona Coast, which we reviewed here. Click here for Kimberly's tribute

The Star Wars Blu-ray box set won't be released until September 16 but it is already outraging purists among the fans. Seems that George Lucas can't stop tinkering with the original trilogy, changing sound effects and making some additions that fans say ruins the impact of the scenes. Lucas incurred similar complaints when he launched the trilogies as special editions some years ago. For more click here

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By Lee Pfeiffer

It was no secret that 85 year old Jerry Lewis had planned to limit his participation in the annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. He said as much last year, but promised to stay on as MDA chairman and also make an appearance to sing You'll Never Walk Alone on this year's show. That signature finale on every MDA telethon over the last 50 years is always a very moving moment, with Lewis often getting choked up during the song. However, last month Lewis announced he had basically severed ties with the MDA- an organization he had raised over $1 billion for. Reasons for the parting of ways are the subject of speculation. MSNBC commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, host of the political show The Last Word, had a scathing segment on his program last month in which he said that Lewis had been unceremoniously dumped by the MDA. Lewis has not issued any comment on the matter, simply saying he is "retired". However, Lewis is not retired- he's making a new movie. Thus, there appears to be hard feelings regarding his departure from MDA activities. Did he jump or was he pushed? Despite Lewis' absence, this year's Labor Day Telethon earned a record $61 million- an incredible feat during a recession -especially since the telethon was streamed to only six hours this year. Nevertheless, as O'Donnell pointed out, the shear sentiment of seeing Lewis' last telethon appearance could have made those numbers even bigger. For baby boomers, his MDA telethon remains a part of their lives. The ratings would have been sky high and his graceful departure from the show would easily have become one of the great moments in TV history. For more click here

It's one of the great guilty pleasures of 70s cinema. The blockbuster Sensurround epic Earthquake that boasted an all-star cast headed by stalwart Hollywood icon Charlton Heston. The dialogue is awful, the Universal sets are cheesy but the model work is still impressive and the effects still hold up well today. Our favorite howler is the casting of Lorne Greene as Ava Gardner's father, even though he was only six years older than her. Ross Warner pays tribute to the film in a major article in issue #20 of Cinema Retro and Thomas Hauuerslev provides a fascinating history of the short-lived Sensurround gimmick. Click here to view original trailer for the film.

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The Huffington Post provides a slideshow of the greatest villains in screen history. This list is more inclusive of worthy candidates than most, but it was obviously written by a Gen X contributor who has a natural tendency to favor villains from awful slasher movies of relatively recent vintage. Still, there are some inspired inclusions ranging from the hillbillies in Deliverance to Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. Click here to view

By Lee Pfeiffer

The sad decline of Burt Reynolds' career and personal life continues. He once shared the honor of being top boxoffice attraction in the world with Clint Eastwood. However, while Eastwood continued to refine his skills as actor and director with off-beat and challenging projects, Reynolds continued to try to milk the same old cinematic cow (i.e corn pone country comedies) long after the craze had passed. His health problems began in the in mid-1980s when he suffered severe consequences from a stunt that went wrong while he was filming City Heat with Eastwood. Rumors abounded that he was suffering from AIDS and the work dried up. He made a comeback of sorts on the small screen in the 1990s with the TV series Evening Shade, which was a modest hit. His big screen comeback in Boogie Nights earned him an Oscar nomination but success was short-lived. He squandered the renewed interest in his career by immediately plunging into low-rent TV crime movies.

Today you can indulge your kinky fantasies by accessing web sites that make the Kama Sutra look like a children's storybook. However, back in the dark ages of 1965, those with prurient interests had to masquerade their sexual desires by patronizing movies that pretended to be important sociological statements. There were countless numbers of these "documentaries" released at the time, each pretending to be instructive about human sexuality. In reality, it was a clever way to get around draconian censorship laws, all the while giving audience members the cover they needed to say, "I wasn't going to a dirty movie! I was just viewing a celebration of the birth process!" The advertisement above is typical of these films in that it paradoxically extolls the joys of childbearing all the while playing up the more sordid elements of sex. Yup, there's nothing to get the old loins heated up like some footage of the birth of triplets!

Despite soaring revenues, there is real concern that the eBay phenomenon may be over. The international auction site has consistently imposed draconian rules and regulations that have driven many of its top sellers to to other venues. Additionally, the primary purpose of the site- to auction goods- has worn thin on many consumers. Some finance experts believe the impact of the site will be greatly negated in the coming years. Click here for more

If not properly preserved, nitrate film stock deteriorates over time. Countless thousands of rare films have been lost forever.

The British Film Institute has opened a £12 million state of the art storage facility for the nation's film and television archives. The institute, located in a rural setting, can house over 450,000 canisters of film including the precarious rare movies that were processed on nitrate stock. They are the most vulnerable as nitrate can deteriorate to dust as well as pose a significant fire hazard. Click here for more

If you wonder why Cinema Retro is dedicated to classic movies of the 60s and 70s, consider this vintage trade magazine advertisement. Over the summer of 1965, the following great movies were released: Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Sound of Music, Zorba the Greek and Von Ryan's Express. These were just from one studio: Fox!

At age 91 novelist Ray Bradbury is still a major influence in the entertainment world. The acclaimed American novelist is delighted that his most personal work, Dandelion Wine, will be made into a feature film. The semi-autobiographical collection of short stories relate to occurrences in a small town during the summer of 1928. Unlike the fantastic premises of some of Bradbury's work, this one is down-to-earth and sentimental. For more click here

Writer Sean Hood has confirmed that he is working on a screenplay titled Rambo: Last Stand. The flick will (supposedly) be the final entry in the Rambo saga. Sylvester Stallone still has several projects in the works before he can turn his attention to this production. Hood says the script will return Rambo to his roots and eschew the fantastic for a plot along the lines of the original film, First Blood, with some elements of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. Hood should be leery of evoking any image of Eastwood's classic Oscar winner with the Rambo project. Something tells us it won't be favorably compared to that film.

On the Huffington Post, Zaki Hasan interviews Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, the married couple who wrote the screenplay for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Click here to read

Britain's fabled Pinewood Studios is in such demand by filmmakers that the studio is turning away a traditional source of revenue, TV productions, in favor of expensive, big-screen films. Revenue has been soaring over the past months as major films such as Dark Shadows, Woman in Black, The Iron Lady and Prometheus have gone into production at the studio, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary shortly. Pinewood is also investing in films with small budgets in hopes of finding the next King's Speech, a modestly-budgeted production that has grossed over $135 million to date. The new James Bond flick is expected to lens there later this year. For more click here

(Don't miss Gareth Owen's columns about the history of the studio- Pinewood Past- in every issue of Cinema Retro)

Regular readers of Cinema Retro are familiar with contributing writer Howard Hughes (please no jokes about the name. He's heard them all!). Howard, the author of numerous acclaimed books  about classic movies (including the recent Cinema Italiano) has launched his own blog regarding retro cinema: The Filmgoer's Guide. It's chock full of great insights into classic and cult movies. Click here to visit

The Heroes of Telemark is director Anthony Mann's intelligent and very exciting 1965 WWII adventure that tells the true story of a daring Allied commando raid on a German heavy water plant in Norway. The destruction of the plant thwarted Hitler's goal of developing an atomic weapon. The film starred Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris. Little known fact: the movie's working title was The Unknown Battle but was changed some months before the general release. While you're at it, feast your eyes on the glorious original movie poster. They don't make 'em like that any more. The film has finally been released in America on DVD. Click here to order from Amazon.