The Huffington Post provides this rare candid of young Clint Eastwood, probably in the pre-Rawhide era when he was still a contract player trying to get noticed. For more click here 

Plans are going forward to relaunch the National Lampoon 'Vacation' film series that was all the rage in the 1980s. Christina Applegate and Ed Helms will star. Producers are in negotiations with the films' original stars, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo to reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold, though their appearance is being planned as a cameo throwback to the original series. For more click here

Richard Griffiths, who graduated from playing minor roles in British TV series and feature films to become one of Britain's most acclaimed actors, has died from complications resulting from heart surgery. He was 65 years old. In an industry obsessed with superficiality, Griffiths used his obesity as an asset. Beginning in the 1970s, he became a familiar face to British TV viewers and later gained prominence as an in-demand supporting actor in films. He is most recognized for his role as "Uncle Vernon" in the Harry Potter films. Griffiths was considered royalty on the stage, however, and he won a Tony for his leading role in the Broadway production of The History Boys. He also appeared opposite his Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe in a 2007 London production of Equus. For more click here

Sean Connery and Lana Wood in Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Throughout the month of April, the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California will be presenting big screen showings of classic James Bond movies including On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Live and Let Die, Octopussy, Licence to Kill and Diamonds Are Forever. Each screening will feature appearances and discussions with a star or stars of a specific film including George Lazenby, Benicio del Toro, David Hedison, Trina Parks, Lana Wood, Kristina Wayborne, Maud Adams and Gloria Hendry. Click here for info and to view original theatrical trailers. 

Our old pal and Cinema Retro contributor Richard Kiel is crossing "the pond" again for a couple of high profile personal appearances in the UK including one at London's Misty Moon Gallery and another at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, where he will be joined by his Moonraker co-star Blanche Ravalec. Click on each ad below for links to web sites.  

Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks

Volume 1: Beginnings and Endings

by Mike Hankin

Foreword by Tom Hanks

Preface by Sir Christopher Frayling

www.archive-editions.com

Finally Completed and off to the Printer!

Vol. 1 is planned to ship in early Summer, 2013.

Written and produced over the past 10 years with Ray Harryhausen's cooperation and support, the complete 3-volume definitive 295,000-word career/biography features interviews with Ray and his colleagues and is profusely illustrated with several hundred rare photographs, artwork, and illustrations (many of which have never been previously published).

We published Volume 2 ("The American Films") first, then Volume 3 ("The British Films"), and are now wrapping up the set with Volume 1 (“Beginnings and Endings”).

Chapters in Volume 1 extensively cover:

Ray's Early 16mm Experiments, The Influence of Willis O'Brien and King Kong, George Pal's Puppetoons®, Ray's Film Work During World War II, The Fairy Tale Short Subjects, Ray's Retirement Years (including tributes, awards, convention appearances, colorizing his films, unfinished projects, the King Kong 50th Anniversary celebration at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1983, Ray's cameo appearances in other films, Ray's Lifetime Achievement Oscar® from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ray's "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and much more).

As a special adjunct to the Willis O'Brien chapter, we're including the complete first draft of the King Kong screenplay by British mystery writer Edgar Wallace.

A special supplement that we're calling "How To Make a Monster" will take you step-by-step through the process of constructing a stop motion model using photos from numerous stop motion films (Caveman, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Willis O'Brien films, and more) — from blueprint to armature to clay sculpture to plaster mold to final foam rubber animation model. (Now you'll know the answer when someone asks, "How did they DO that...?")

Contributors to Volume 1 include Famous Monsters editor Forrest J Ackerman, Darlyne (Mrs. Willis) O'Brien, Lost World star Bessie Love, King Kong producer Merian C. Cooper and star Fay Wray, screenwriters Beverley Cross and Kenneth Kolb, animator and visual effects artists Jim Danforth and Randall William Cook, director John Landis, producer Arnold Kunert, and many others, some of whom have since passed away.

Stills and other visual material come from numerous private collections, including considerable material that has never been seen in print before (including Ray Harryhausen's own books).

PLUS—

• “Ray Harryhausen's Los Angeles” – A multi-page map of key locations connected to Ray and his films in the 1940s and 50s;

• Advertising art and posters from different countries;

• Reviews and story synopses;

• Filmographies of key cast and crew.

• 370 pages, 125,000 word text (chapters, appendices, and more);

• Over 1,500 images —photos, artwork, posters, technical diagrams and

other illustrations— in Spectacular Color, Nostalgic Sepia-Tone, and Glorious Black-and-White.

• Hardcover: dark brown imitation leather with title stamped in gold foil;

• Full color dust jacket;

• Heavy 70 pound semi-gloss paper stock;

• Overall dimensions 9" x 11-1/2";

• Weight: 5 pounds.

Majicks Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 are long sold out and now command prices ranging from $350 to $500 to over $700 per copy on eBay and Amazon. So don't delay— sales have been brisk and our limited edition print run of Vol. 1 (the final volume in the set) is on its way to selling out soon.

From his Preface to Volume 3 —

"There is no way to overstate the importance of these books. [This book] is simply the most perfect book about Harryhausen ever made. This is the book that you dreamt of having as a child and makes you want to go out and re-watch every single one of the chronicled. It makes you fall in love with cinema all over again."

— Guillermo del Toro, Director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth

From his combination review of Volumes 2 and 3 of Majicks:

“…Hankin’s in-progress overview of Harryhausen’s career is unlikely to be surpassed; other books may offer different pictures, different vantages and depths of specific information, but the totality of Harryhausen’s achievement is best represented here.”

— Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog #166

To order go to  www.archive-editions.com

Here's a plethora of great movies showing during the same week in February 1965, as illustrated in this page from the Winnipeg Free Press: Mary Poppins, Goldfinger, Sex and the Single Girl, Jungle Fighters (aka The Long and the Short and the Tall), My Fair Lady and A Shot in the Dark. Wish we had a time machine....

April 13 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of “Casino Royale,” and the University of Illinois will recognize the event with a collaborative celebration hosted by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Spurlock Museum, and the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music. Much of the material featured in “The Birth of Bond” comes from the collection of Michael L. VanBlaricum, the president of the Ian Fleming Foundation and a U. of I. alumnus. | Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

April marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. To celebrate the anniversary, the University of Illinois will be hosting numerous events pertaining to Fleming, the novel and the 007 phenomenon. Titled The Birth of Bond: Ian Fleming's Casino Royale at 60, the exhibition will include a film festival, costumes, props, lectures and rare recordings. The exhibition is being coordinated by Michael VanBlaricum, a well-known Bond scholar and President of the Ian Fleming Foundation. Click here for more info

By Todd Garbarini

Horror films are a hot commodity.  Some of the most well-known slasher films of the 1980’s have been re-issued on DVD and Blu-ray by companies looking to cash-in on audiences’ seemingly insatiable appetite for murder and mayhem while also introducing them to a whole new generation of fans with disposable income. Two titles that fans want on DVD and Blu-ray in the way of special editions are Paul Lynch’s Prom Night (1980) and Richard Ciupka’s Curtains (1983), both Canadian productions through Simcom, the former having fared far better on home video than the latter.

Prom Night was originally released theatrically by Avco Embassy Pictures in July 1980. It was distributed on VHS by MCA Home Video in 1981 and again by Virgin Vision, Inc. in 1988. MCA also released a laserdisc pan-and-scan version on their laser rot-prone DiscoVision line in 1981 (curiously, the film bypassed the RCA Select-A-Vision Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) stylus-based format of the early 1980’s, the direct competitor to laserdisc). The film fared better when a widescreen laserdisc sourced from a 35mm interpositive followed in 1997 courtesy of Elite Entertainment. In February 1998, Anchor Bay Entertainment released a widescreen DVD that included the original theatrical trailer (1.85:1 presentation is a must for this title as a boom mike is clearly visible in several shots in the full frame format). After the rights lapsed the film was picked up by Echo Bridge Entertainment and reissued in October 2007, this time dispensing with said trailer. Overall, Prom Night has been released on home video in three different formats no less than six times in the United States alone, not counting the international, non-Region 1 releases around the globe. All of these U.S. versions contain only the film without any additional extras that are practically a requirement to home video now: running commentaries, on-set interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, isolated musical scores, comments from contemporaries, stills galleries, etc.

Curtains, on the other hand, is a thriller that has suffered indignities far too numerous to list. Plagued from the outset by a problematic production, the financing ran out and put the cast and crew on hiatus for over one year. Much of the crew was replaced, and despite having been released theatrically in April 1983 to many respectable movie theaters by the long-defunct Jensen Farley Pictures, Curtains has only appeared on home video twice in the United States: in December 1983 Vestron Video released it on VHS, and in October 2010 Echo Bridge Entertainment released it as part of The Midnight Horror Collection: Bloody Slashers set which also includes Hoboken Hollow (2006), Secrets of the Clown (2007), and Room 33 (2009). In a maneuver regarded as perfunctory by those not in the know, Curtains appears to be lumped in with these three contemporary tales for no better reason than to “round out” the other titles – the original ad slick for Curtains was jettisoned and replaced with an image of a hand parting a curtain.

Curtains was also released in April 2007 on Region 2 DVD in the UK by Black Horse Entertainment. As with the Echo Bridge Entertainment release, the original poster artwork was not used. Again, an uninspired makeshift cover image that fails to represent the film in any way adorns the case. Curtains can be found at horror film conventions on DVD-R sporting its beautiful and atmospheric original one-sheet artwork, but the DVD transfer is sourced from the Vestron VHS cassette and is therefore in dire need of color correction; a 2K/4K high definition upgrade is long overdue.

Prom Night has a creepy score by Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer (he scored a handful of films for Bob Clark, including the classic 1974 film Black Christmas and was also a musical consultant on “Act II” of Curtains). Mr. Zaza also scored Curtains, which might have been a rejected score for Prom Night as several cues that appear in Prom Night also made their way into Curtains. Director Ciupka’s name was also removed from the credits to Curtains; whether or not this has any bearing on the lack of a DVD release is a mystery.

Fans can ponder why these titles are not available in full-blown special editions, and there are probably many legitimate reasons why the current DVDs turn up in Walmart discount bins. The original 35mm film negatives to each respective film may not be available as the whereabouts may be in question, or they may no longer even exist; management might feel that an insufficient number of fans willing to pay for the films exists and there is a fear of losing money on these titles; both films were made as Canadian tax shelter projects and this may also pose a problem. With the glut of far lesser quality horror thrillers available in beautifully designed special editions, the mind reels as to why these two films in particular have been marginalized and seem to be anathema to the royal treatment.

Echo Bridge Entertainment, a DVD company that uses the slogan “The Entertainment Alternative for What the World Wants to See” (not sure where that came from or what it is based upon), is now being approached by fans on an online petition website respectfully asking them to release the rights for these two films to Scream Factory, the Shout! Factory subsidiary that is making a name for itself with beautiful deluxe versions of genre favorites Terror Train (1980), The Funhouse (1981), Halloween II (1981), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), and the upcoming Deadly Blessing (1981) to name a few. This company would be an ideal organization to release these films as their work thus far has proven that they will spend the time and provide just the proper amount of TLC that these films deserve.

As of this writing, the petition has 300 signatures and is looking for a total of 1200, which is not an impossible number to reach. Click here to sign the petition on Petition Buzz requesting licensing of Prom Night and Curtains.

By Lee Pfeiffer

We straight guys have spent inordinate amount of hours drooling over scantily-clad cavegirls in B movies. Seems only fair that gay guys can exercise the same right when it comes to cavemen. Inspired by a new scientific theory that there may have been gay cavemen, writer Chris Eggersten cobbled together a slide show of "Ten Hot Cavemen Who Can Club Us Anytime!" From Victor Mature to Brendan Fraser to Robert Vaughn, click here to view the slide show

Here are two forthcoming books by author Brian Hannan that are sure to interest Cinema Retro readers:

Harry Reems, who soared to fame in the 1970s as the male star of Deep Throat, has died at age 65. Reems, whose real name was Herbert Streicher, had been battling a variety of health problems in recent years. Ironically, Reems was not supposed to appear in the infamous 1972 porn film that starred Linda Lovelace as a young woman whose particular talents resulted in her getting an orgasm from performing oral sex. Reems was on set as part of the crew. When the male lead didn't show up, director Gerard Damiano recruited Reems for the role. Reems went on to star in numerous porn movies but it wasn't all fun and games. At the height of the Nixon administration's crackdown on pornography, Reems became the only the actor prosecuted for appearing in an X rated film. His case became a cause celebre and anti-censorship forces rallied around him. Eventually, the charges were dropped. Reems may have led an exotic lifestyle compared to the average man but it was fraught with turbulence. He spent much of his "career" in an alcoholic haze. By 1989, however, he had kicked the habit and eventually turned his life around. He married and became a successful real estate broker in Utah. For more click here

AND THEN THERE WAS… BADLANDS

By Raymond Benson

Terrence Malick fans will rejoice for the newly restored (and director approved, I might add—so apparently he’s not as reclusive as he’s been made out to be), marvelous release of the auteur’s first, and very low-budget, feature film. It was originally screened at festivals in 1973, and released to the public in early ’74. No punches pulled here—Badlands is a masterpiece, and its arrival immediately garnered a fan following for the enigmatic director who has made only five films in so many decades. But as producer Edward Pressman says in the exclusive video interview that The Criterion Collection included as one of several good extras, Badlands was not a success on its first release. Reviews were mixed—as would be the case for any Malick film—and the public didn’t go see it. Pressman also had to fight for Malick to have his own artistic vision, despite complaints and pressure from the backers. The film was properly “discovered” when it started playing on cable television some years later. By then, Malick was making Days of Heaven, and these would be the only two pictures he would make before a twenty-year gap in output. Already his mystique had been established.

Badlands is indeed a remarkable film, not only because of the unique point of view Malick brings to the table, but for the performances of young Martin Sheen and young Sissy Spacek. They are both knock-outs, and they were undeservedly ignored when awards season came around. Sheen, especially, gives a chilling performance of psychopath-as-James Dean, more or less, because the character fashions himself after the famous actor. You can’t help but like the guy. He is utterly charming to the girl he’s chosen to run away with him on a killing spree, and the couple’s love for each other is so real and so oddball that we can’t help but be fascinated by them.

It is Malick’s most “accessible” film, perhaps, for it tells a linear, sweeps-you-along story with characters you can follow through a story arc. If you know Malick only from his recent works (The Tree of Life, The Thin Red Line), you’ll know he didn’t always stick to that format. However, Malick displays many of his signature traits even here. A common stylistic and thematic element of the director’s films is the marriage of nature to whatever story is being told, thus there are striking cinematographic images of plains, bugs, birds, flowers, wheat, and sky, all set to some unusual piece of music from an eclectic palate of recorded works. (The unique soundtrack to Badlands has never been compiled and released, and someone should do it!)

Loosely inspired by the real-life Charles Starkweather case of the late 1950s, Badlands is a road movie that is poetry in motion, haunting and unforgettable. The 4K digital transfer is gorgeous. Other extras include an engrossing forty-minute piece on the making of the film, featuring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek today, reminiscing about the extraordinary experience they had with “Terry.” Associate editor Billy Weber also provides an interview, and a highlight is the 1993 episode of TV’s American Justice about Starkweather.

If you’ve never seen Badlands, take a look at this exquisite Criterion release and experience something beautiful and strange.

Click here to order from Amazon

ALSO NEW FROM CRITERION:

Ministry of Fear, 1944, directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, and Dan Duryea, looks fantastic on Blu-ray. It’s one of the best restorations and transfers I’ve seen of a black-and-white film noir of the period. Lang’s German Expressionistic background is classroom-clear in the look of this intriguing spy tale, based on a novel by Graham Greene (The Third Man). The high-contrast light-and-shadow and angled lines are all over the place. Nazi spies in England are the bad guys, and our innocent man on the run (Milland) thinks he knows where a few of them are hiding. The problem is, he’s a former mental asylum patient who served time for mercy-killing his already dying wife. This is a terrific World War II-era paranoia thriller, despite the fact that so many American actors in the picture are supposed to be British, and they make no attempt to sound that way. Still, the story is compelling and the direction is superb. Includes an interview with Lang scholar Joe McElhaney.

Click here to order from Amazon

By Todd Garbarini

James Cameron's The Terminator is a masterpiece of cinematic storytelling, conceived by Mr. Cameron while in Rome with a fever years earlier (the late director Robert Altman had a similar situation that led to the writing of my favorite film of his, Three Women, released in 1977). Shot in early 1984 for roughly $6M (the amount spent solely on the sound mix of the superb $90M sequel seven years later), this futuristic action powerhouse grabs the audience by the throat and takes us on a wild ride. Despite the inexorable pace – much like the titular villain’s nature – the film manages to come up for air and miraculously never feels over-the-top, long-winded or plodding.

The Terminator opened on Friday, October 26, 1984 and yours truly missed out on seeing it, electing to see the horror film greatest hits compilation Terror in the Aisles instead. I had to wait until the end of the school year eight months later to see the film in a classroom on VHS, the small-screen presentation diminishing none of the film’s raw emotional power to my teenage eyes, both of which were glued to the television. The film made Arnold Schwarzenegger a super star and was the surprise sleeper hit of the season, his depiction of a terrifying cyborg with a relentless mission it will stop at nothing to complete solidifying his place as an action icon. Two weeks later Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street was unleashed on unsuspecting moviegoers and cinema hasn't been the same since, introducing a child killer who invades teen-agers’ dreams in his attempts to murder them. The Terminator added “Come with me if you want to live.” and the oft-quoted “I’ll be back.” to the American lexicon and became as familiar as “May the Force be with you.” and “Go ahead. Make my day.” Nightmare, of course, contributed the creepy “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…” children’s song.

Linda Hamilton shines as Sarah Connor, a 28 year-old diner waitress who unwittingly is targeted for termination by the Terminator after it travels from the future, determined to kill her so that her unborn son cannot rise against the machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn in a terrific and underrated performance) is the human counterpart sent to intercept and destroy the Terminator so that Sarah may live. What makes the film so brilliant is not only the ideas it presents but how it conveys them to the audience. For the first thirty-five minutes, we are just as in the dark as Sarah (not knowing she’s about to be on the run for her life) and Kyle (since the Terminator looks human on the outside, he has to wait until it moves in on Sarah before he can strike) and are only given little bits of information until Kyle and the Terminator meet face to face at the TechNoir dance club (the shootout in this ultra-Eighties club, followed by the escape, are beautifully edited set pieces that set the tone for the rest of the film).

The film may be low-budget, but it honestly does not feel like it. The story is enthralling and completely believable. Mr. Biehn gives a performance just as compelling as Donald Pleasence did in Halloween (1978). Without his history, conviction and attempts to make those around him believe that what he is saying is true, Kyle Reese, the soldier from the future who comes across time to father John Connor with Sarah, would fall under the weight of the film. There is a level of plausibility to the story that is lacking from other films about the future, heightened by Stan Winston’s special effects work. The flashback battle scenes of the war in 2019 recall Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max 2 (1981) (retitled The Road Warrior for its 1982 US release). The Terminator is the boiler plate for future films about, well. The future!

Composer Brad Fiedel has created a magnificently menacing score, robotic and simplistic like the Terminator. Dick Miller provides a great cameo as a gun store clerk (I just noticed the store’s address as 14329 and its similarity to 14239, the address of the first Sarah Connor the Terminator kills from the phonebook listing – and I have seen the film many times over! Oh, the clarity of high definition!).

The Blu-ray, which was released at least twice before (once in a special version containing a hardcover book), comes with the same extras ported over from the previous editions:

· Behind the scenes – runes about 13 minutes

· Terminator: A Retrospective – runs just over 20 minutes and contains interviews from 1986 and 1992

· A collection of deleted scenes

I wish that this time around the disc included a running commentary with the director at the very least. This is a watershed film that rewrote the book on science fiction action films and it is deserving of more extras than the studios have lavished on it thus far. If you have not yet picked up the film on Blu-ray, this edition will do quite nicely.

The film has been remastered and looks as good as it is going to in 1080P.

Click here to order discounted from Amazon

Since 1979, there have been rumors of a Man From U.N.C.L.E.  big screen feature film. The near-miss opportunities date back so long that the TV classic's stars Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were originally going to reprise their roles of super spies Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. For various reasons, each planned film project fell apart including a recent one in which George Clooney was to star. Now Guy Ritchie is the director of choice and Deadline reports that Tom Cruise is the latest major actor in talks to bring the film to reality. Fans are skeptical that the project will ever see the light of day and it is virtually certain it will be a hi-tech, modern day, SFX-packed spectacle that will have little in common with the TV series aside from its title. Click here for more 

Although he has collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on several films, legendary composer Ennio Morricone says he will never team with the mercurial director again. Morricone accuses Tarantino of lumping music into his films "without coherence". He is especially miffed that, after he declined to compose a score for Django Unchained, Tarantino simply used a previous Morricone composition in the film. Morricone, who is not known for personal restraint when it comes to expressing his opinion, says that he didn't care for the Oscar-winning Western, saying there was "too much blood." Click here for more

(Photo copyright Graham Hill. All rights reserved.)

Famed producer Robert E. Relyea passed away recently. He was 82 years old. Relyea served as producer, assistant director and unit manager during a long career that included such films as Jailhouse Rock, The Day of the Dolphin, West Side Story, The Magnificent Seven, The Hallelujah Trail, The Great Escape, Never So Few and The Alamo. In 2008, he released his autobiography "Not So Quiet on the Set". Cinema Retro contributing writer Graham Hill visited Relyea at his home in connection with the book's release. Click here to read his report. 

By Todd Garbarini

Most big screen action films feel like video games made for the theatres. The over-the-top, psychotically-edited films of most of Michael Bay’s output of late, specifically the Transformer series, can attest to this fact. While the availability of inexpensive technology that was non-existent twenty years ago has brought tools to those who wish to push the envelope and find new and different ways to tell stories, there is virtually no limit to how filmmakers can realize their vision. We have reached a point in our intake of entertainment wherein movies influence video games and music videos and the lines between these disparate forms of enjoyment are becoming ever less defined.

Video games have experienced a surge in popularity in recent years thanks in part to high definition graphics, powerful home computers and gaming systems, and the ability to play against complete strangers several miles away or across the globe. One of the most profitable series is the Grand Theft Auto game from Rock Star Games, a company that has received flack for their violent and sexual content. The game literally puts the player (or perpetrator, depending upon your point of view) in the driver seat to navigate a dangerous city plagued by vagrants and social undesirables. Your mission is to commit as many crimes as possible as a means to an end. The graphics are high quality and the people are very realistic. It is this style of video game animation that has taken center stage in the terrific new film by Pasha Roberts called Silver Circle.

Set in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. in 2019, the same year as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Silver Circle concerns a world where inflation has run rampant following the financial collapse of the United States. A beer costs $90.00 and a gallon of gas averages $152.00, so $7.00 for a buzz and $3.59 for the precious juice no longer sounds like such a bad deal. But, it’s all relative. Pot has been legal since 2016 (apparently the war on drugs, a roughly $500 billion a year enterprise, is no longer a top priority), the same year that silver and gold was outlawed, and the Federal Reserve, referred to only as The Fed (much like Big Brother) is the country’s third attempt at a centralized banking system and it simply isn’t working. Desperate attempts by the aforementioned entity to stabilize the economy via printing worthless paper money with nothing to back it up except waning public trust is proving disastrous while managing home prices has similar effects.

Jay, an arson investigator, is brought in to determine the party responsible for the destruction of several homes in the Glenwood Homes subdivision which is the property of the Strategic Housing Reserve. He meets the lead realtor at the Cornwall Real Estate office and is intrigued by her assistant, Zoe, who agrees to meet with him later and give him some information off the record. Their meeting proves to be fortuitous as Jay is saved by Zoe when he is ambushed by henchmen looking to throw him off the case. Zoe gives chase in her mini-automobile that would make William Friedkin smile, effectively losing the bad guys. She clearly has some sort of expert training that the average realtor assistant would be oblivious to. It turns out that Zoe is a part of a group that call themselves The Rebels who illegally mint tangible, silver coins (hence the film’s title) in the hopes of stabilizing the financial health of the country.

While it might be easy to dismiss Silver Circle as just a story told through the unorthodox platform of video game animation, the film’s message is very real and serious and most certainly topical. Unlike contemporary action films that hit the audience over the head with cuts so fast that there is little time to process, Silver Circle moves at a much more visually manageable pace. It’s a film that has a message, and it manages to both entertain and inform the audience. The film’s greatest strength lies in getting the audience to think instead of just veg-out.

The film will begin touring the country starting in New York on Friday, March 22^nd. Click here on the film’s official website to see where it is playing and read more about the film, the characters, and the talented animators who brought Silver Circle to life.

Review by Adrian Smith

'Star Trek' has been with us now for almost fifty years. It has spawned five different incarnations on television, ten official movies and soon the sequel to J.J. Abram's successful reboot of the franchise will be in cinemas, titled Star Trek Into Darkness. Gene Roddenberry's vision of an international, interstellar crew aboard a gigantic spacecraft whose mission was simply to explore the universe has touched millions of people and generated some almost alarming levels of devotion and influence. One only has to look at the campaign to build a real Starship Enterprise to see that this show is taken very seriously by many (www.buildtheenterprise.org).

But not everybody is well versed in 'Star Trek' lore. Over the decades of boldly going through the galaxies a massive amount of alien races, mythologies and technology has been devised to keep the shows and movies interesting. Some of these are well known even amongst non-Trekkies, with most people knowing the difference, say, between a Klingon and a Vulcan. What what about the Jem'Hadar? Or the Yridians? Could you name the home planet of the Xindi? Or explain how the Suliban Cabal became genetically enhanced? Thankfully these questions and more can now be answered without needing to trawl back through all those old 'Star Trek' tapes. If you want to be more familiar with the 'Star Trek' universe in time for the new movie, or just want to take a warp speed trip down memory lane, this new book from D.K. guides you through each incarnation of the television series, from the original 'Star Trek' through to 'The Next Generation', 'Voyager', 'Deep Space Nine' and 'Enterprise'. Also included is information from the first ten movies.

Aside from the introduction by John De Lancie, who played the mysterious extra-dimensional Q in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', there is no acknowledgement in here that this is all fictional. The book acts as a glossary providing imagery and information as though it was all real. This is fun for fans who may want to check how to distinguish a Type-1 Phaser from a Type-2 Phaser, but a little frustrating if you are more interested in the history and development of the production from its inception. However, there are plenty of other books out there which cover that side of the story. Where Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary stands out is in its wealth of imagery, plenty of which is quite rare, having only just been released from the CBS archives. The book is well laid out and is something you can quite easily dip in and out of. You can marvel at the intricacies of the designs and the imaginations of the show's creators even if you can't find out who any of them were.

Hemlock Books

ISBN: 9780955777479

Paperback

Price: £17.95

295 pages

Review by Adrian Smith

To paraphrase Jonathan Rigby in his book English Gothic, horror is the one genre that Britain can truly claim as its own. And whilst British horror cinema is inextricably connected to gothic-tinged memories of Christopher Lee, cobweb-strewn castles and buxom scream queens, M.J. Simpson points out in this excellently researched tome that the face of British horror today offers far more.

Simpson appears to have taken on the Herculean task of watching every film that could fit the broad definition of being British (not always easy to tell, with funding and production often involving multiple countries), and being horror, again something of a broad church. A lot of the films he describes, giving not only plot synopses but reviews, production information and interview extracts, sound utterly terrible. He seems to have sat through a staggering amount of punishingly bad films so that we, the readers, don't have to. But along the way he has stumbled across a significant number of excellent films, too, many of which have escaped either critical or commercial attention.

Using the term British Horror Revival, Simpson offers a complete breakdown of the twelve years covered, digging up each film and presenting them in the order they received any kind of release. It is fascinating to see just how difficult some filmmakers have getting distribution, often producing a film in the UK but finding it only coming out on DVD in Japan or Australia. Many films manage a few festival screenings before disappearing into obscurity, so Simpson is to be praised for finding them again. Of course, some of them sound so terrible that it does not seem that much of a pity, but others sound like genuine lost gems. If horror is your thing, this book will have you scouring the internet looking for DVD or download copies.

Amongst the filmmakers discussed are genuine talents like Jake West (Evil Aliens, 2006), Shane Meadows (Dead Man's Shoes, 2006), Neil Marshall (The Descent, 2005) and Danny Boyle, whose brilliant and devastating 28 Days Later (2002) did much to raise the profile of the British Horror Revival around the world. Amongst the more obscure entries you can find Beyond the Rave (2008), a cheap teen-themed vampire horror co-produced by the newly revived Hammer Films, which Cinema Retro covered extensively (and even appeared in briefly!) here: http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php/archives/387-EXCLUSIVE-REPORT-FROM-THE-SET-OF-NEW-HAMMER-HORROR-FILM%21.html

This is an extremely well-researched book, and M.J. Simpson's occasionally sarcastic and exasperated tone is entertaining, even if it does give the impression that he had regrets about this project once he had embarked on it. He has uncovered some gems and revealed that there is a very active, mostly micro-budget British film industry which gets frequently overshadowed by the Bonds, Harry Potters and Richard Curtis rom-coms. It is a pity that aside from a few pages of colour stills the majority of the imagery in the book is black and white. This is a genre that is frequently soaked in the red stuff. The main gripe however has to be the lack of an index or references. It is impossible to search for a specific title unless you know the year it was released, and even then you have to wade through the chapter concerned. The book could have served as a useful reference guide, but instead it appears to have been designed to be read from cover to cover. However, this is only a minor reservation. If you are interested in the horror genre, or want to find out just how active dozens of British filmmakers have are, this is a great read.

(Click here for on-line index of people mentioned in the book)

(Click here for on-line index of titles mentioned in the book)

Screen Archives has released Jerry Fielding's Oscar-nominated score for Sam Peckinpah's 1969 classic The Wild Bunch as a 3-CD special edition with the complete score, remastered soundtrack album and collector's booklet. 

Please click here to order

The Shoes of the Fisherman

By Mike Malloy

Complex and arcane religious rituals wouldn’t seem to make for good filmed entertainment. And yet, the Vatican’s papal election process – occurring again this week to name a successor to Pope Benedict XVI – has been detailed in cinema almost as many times as the more Hollywood-sounding subject of papal assassination attempts.

And while the workings of the pontifical election conclave might not be surprising in a religious film, they were even deemed dramatic enough for inclusion in The Godfather Part III. Yep, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1990 crime epic takes a break between whackings to portray the 1978 conclave that elected the first Pope John Paul.

But more impressive than the fact that cinema has depicted this process is the fact that, on occasion, the movies seem to have gotten it right. When a papal vacancy isn’t being used as a premise for a goofy comedy (witness 1991’s The Pope Must Diet!), the election process is treated with seeming care and accuracy.

Of course, screenwriters can only base such scenes on the generally accepted consensus of how the election conclave of cardinals works; no press members have ever documented the proceedings first hand. No cameras have been allowed.

“And I’ve never heard of a [conclave member] writing a report of it,” says Bill Ryan, spokesman for the United Conference of Catholic Bishops. Ryan says he assumes screen treatments of the conclave are “working backward from the document,” referring to On the Vacancy of the Apostolic See and the Election of the Roman Pontiff.

But 1968’s The Shoes of the Fisherman, which chronicles the rise of fictional Pope Kiril I (Anthony Quinn), also benefited from the technical consulting of Monsignor Adone Terzariol, an unofficial papal advisor. The film is likely the tastemaking cinematic vision of the conclave, the blueprint for other films’ depiction of the same.

Anthony Quinn in The Shoes of the Fisherman.

Indeed, Shoes of the Fisherman – a twice-over Oscar nominee – presents the pontifical election in fine detail. We see the cardinals locked in the annex of the Sistine Chapel by the Marshal of the Conclave. Ballots are cast, placed onto a plate, then dumped into a chalice. Wet straw is burned with the ballots to produce black smoke, indicating a failure to elect a pontiff on the first few days of voting. Canopies collapse overhead each cardinal not elected pope after the new pontiff has accepted.

Shoes of the Fisherman uses a TV news journalist (played by David Janssen) as its exposition. Janssen’s character is stationed outside St. Peter’s, giving very specific play-by-play analysis. If the dry crime-lab films of the 1950s can be termed “Police Procedurals,” the mid portion of Fisherman is truly a Pontifical Procedural.

Not only does Shoes of the Fisherman capture the rituals of the election in great detail, its election of a fictional Russian pope foretells the coronation of Polish pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

Later films The Pope Must Diet! and The Godfather Part III (neither of which credit a religious technical advisor) seem to have borrowed Fisherman’s vision of the election process.

But The Pope Must Diet!, about a schlubby priest (Robbie Coltrane) who is accidentally coronated as Pope, does serve as a reminder that the elected Pontiff need not be a cardinal attending the conclave.

“It could be any baptized male,” says Ryan. Other reports suggest it can be any adult Roman Catholic.

The Pope Must Diet! covers many of the rituals surrounding a papal succession – at least those rituals that serve as easy fodder for cheap jokes. In Diet, the deceased pope isn’t just tapped on the forehead with the silver papal hammer to determine death, he’s given a good whack. Papal nominations are struck down on the grounds of “He’s too fat!” And the cardinals are wanded with metal detectors before entering the conclave (though this last joke isn’t too far off the truth; the conclave is reportedly screened for bugging devices).

Only the 1984 telefilm Pope John Paul II shows a side of the electoral conclave not covered in Shoes of the Fisherman. The Polish pope-to-be, portrayed by Albert Finney, is seen in his sparsely furnished conclave quarters between election days. Apparently, this is an accurate depiction, as each cardinal has a cell furnished only with a bed, a crucifix, a table and chairs.

But even movies that don’t detail the conclave can raise provocative points about papal succession.

The 1972 film Pope Joan – about a rumored female Pope that snuck in around 855 – is one of several films to feature a papal election but that skips the rituals of the election process (2003’s Luther and 1981’s From a Far Country are others). But when Pope Joan’s infirm pontiff (Trevor Howard) suggests a successor on his deathbed, it raises the question of whether an outgoing pope has ever tried to name his replacement.

“It’s totally in the realm of speculation or fiction,” says Ryan.

As it all might be, considering that only cardinals, sworn to secrecy, have witnessed a papal election conclave. The closest depiction we may ever see is on the screen.

Films Depicting the Papal Enclave

“The Shoes of the Fisherman” (1968), with Anthony Quinn as fictional Pope Kiril I

“Pope John Paul II” (1983), with Albert Finney as Pope John Paul II

“The Godfather Part III” (1990), with Raf Vallone as Pope John Paul

“The Pope Must Diet!” (1991), with Robbie Coltrane as a fictional pope

Films Featuring the Election of a New Pope

“Pope Joan” (1972), with Liv Ullman as rumored female successor to Pope Leo IV

“From a Far Country” (1981), with Cezary Morawski as Pope John Paul II

“Luther” (2003), with Uwe Ochsenknecht as Pope Leo X

By Lee Pfeiffer

Apprehensive Films have released another DVD comprised of vintage public service shorts, this time compiled as a triple feature relating to the "horrors" of marijuana smoking. Titled 420 Triple Feature: Contact High, the shorts are uniformly amusing, as most vintage PSA-related films of the era now prove to be. The Terrible Truth is a color 1951 production in which a seemingly ancient judge (all adults in these films tend to look like Ma or Pa Kettle) seeks out a teenager who is representative of someone whose life was dramatically harmed by smoking weed. He is invited to the house of a prissy, goody two-shoes teenage girl who is in the process of recovering from a horrendous experience. Seems she was lured into getting involved with an older man, who seduced her through providing her with her first joint. A common theme throughout these films is that marijuana is instantly addictive and leads to a heroin-like dependency that drives users to sell their bodies and souls in order to get a "fix". Here, our unfortunate teen ends up married to the pot "pusher". When he is busted by police, she turns pusher herself in order to feed her habit. She survives a near-death experience in jail and now is determined to get her life back on track. The Devil's Harvest (1942) is the most unintentionally hilarious of the three features. It follows the tried and true formula of an innocent high school girl who is corrupted by a pot pusher. In this case, organized crime is involved and gangsters force the elderly owner of a hot dog stand to use it as a front to sell marijuana to high school kids. At a raucous teen party, that looks like it takes place in a leftover set from an Our Gang comedy, drug-crazed kids get into a brawl that results in someone's death. (The fight scenes in this film are especially funny since the punches don't come remotely close to connecting with the intended targets.) A teenage girl agrees to work undercover as a nightclub dancer (!) to help police crack the drug ring. It's amusing to see how, even in these public service films, producers try to sandwich in some entertainment value, thus we are treated to a completely superfluous dance number prior to the police crack down. The acting has to be seen to be disbelieved. Suffice it to say, you are guaranteed to witness the worst performances in screen history; no small feat. In the third and last film, The Devil's Weed (1949),(not be confused with the aforementioned Devil's Harvest), a virginal twenty-something young woman slaves away as a show girl in order to pay for her brother's college tuition. She soon gets lured to a pot party run by a local pusher and woman abuser. As with the previous films, the movie implies that pot is a highly addictive substance. Within seconds of taking her first puff, our heroine (pardon the pun) is climbing in the sac with the pusher. (The films all have a salient angle to them, implying that there is a direct correlation between smoking pot and losing your virginity. There is also an occasional political component with one of the shorts blatantly stating that marijuana is a tool of "the Reds" to gain world domination!). This film is longer...almost a full hour and boasts much better production values as well as "name" actors (Lyle Talbot as a police inspector and young Jack Elam as a gangland punk). The acting may still be laughable, but compared to the other two movies in this collection, the performances might seem as impressive as those in The Lion in Winter. There's plenty of sexually-oriented banter and plenty of retro glamor shots of the showgirls in their dressing rooms. This production is far more competently directed and Lila Leeds as the scandalized young woman tries hard and gives a passably competent performance.

The shorts would make the perfect compliment to a film festival topped off by Reefer Madness. The only problem is that, if you aren't currently smoking pot, these anti-drug short films might well encourage you to pick up the habit. 

To order from Amazon click here ( to be released March 26)

Although not intended to be seen by the public, costume test photos of Nicolas Cage were leaked to the web, resulting in mockery by fans of the notion Cage could be a credible Superman. This, along with other factors, may have led to Warner Brothers pulling the plug on the Tim Burton production.

It was announced with great fanfare. Back in 1998, a theatrical blockbuster titled Superman Lives was to go into release through Warner Brothers with red-hot Tim Burton in the director's chair and Nicolas Cage starring as the legendary D.C. Comics hero. Kevin Smith would be among those contributing to the screenplay. Then, after sinking $30 million into the heavily-hyped production, Warners pulled the plug on the film. The exact reasons remain murky and now an independent filmmaker, Joe Schnepp, is raising funds on-line for a documentary about the Supey would-be blockbuster that never was. Many people attribute the cancellation of the film to the failure of the mega-budgeted Batman and Robin, which also sunk that franchise for a number of years before it was revitalized by director Christopher Nolan. Burton himself theorized that his version of Superman may have been deemed "too dark", a notion he now finds ironic, given the overwhelmingly depressing mood of the Nolan Batman movies. Superman spawned two major hit films in 1978 and 1980 for Warner Brothers. Both starred Christopher Reeve. The third Reeve film, Superman III, released in 1983, was successful but turned off fans with its silly storyline featuring Richard Pryor. A relatively low-budget 1987 flick sub-titled The Quest for Peace  was an outright bomb. The next time Superman would appear on film was in the 2006 production Superman Returns. The movie was only modestly successful, but the Man of Steel will get another chance to lure fans to theaters later this year with the appropriately titled Man of Steel. For more on the checkered screen history of Superman click here

We love the vintage Batman comic books from D.C. Comics. They're provided us with immortal villains like The Joker, Catwoman, The Riddler and The Penguin. However, over the decades, there have been a few lame guys who were probably created during severe cases of writer's block. They include The King of Cats, The Calculator (he has a calculator attached to his head!) and the Penny-Pincher. The Cracked web site has some insightful looks into the creation of these villains whose flirtations with fame came and went faster than the Bay City Rollers. Click here to read

Kubrick's research materials on Napoleon formed the basis of a high end coffee table book released several years ago.

Steven Spielberg has announced that he is working with the family of Stanley Kubrick to develop the late director's long-planned screen biography of Napoleon. Kubrick envisioned the project, for which he wrote a script in 1961 and devoted countless hours to researching, as a big screen epic. However, studios became wary of the production costs and the film was aborted before it went into production. Spielberg will utilize Kubrick's own research as the basis for the project, which is being developed as a major TV miniseries. For more click here

(Photo montage: Vanity Fair)

They were the most prolific of many prolific singing duos that came to prominence in the 1960s. However, it was a movie that led to the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel shortly after the release of their masterpiece "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Both men had aspired to acting careers. Director Mike Nichols had cast them in key roles in his 1970 film version of Joseph Heller's anti-war novel "Catch-22". However, shortly thereafter, Nichols made the decision to cut Simon's part. Feeling hurt, Simon spent his time in New York City while Garfunkel filmed in Europe. The resentment led to Simon writing the song "The Only Living Boy in New York City", an allusion to the loneliness he felt writing the songs without the presence of his partner. Making matters worse, Garfunkel went immediately on to star in another Nichols film, Carnal Knowledge. This resulted in the duo splitting up, though they have had numerous (sometimes tension-filled) reunions in the years since. For more click here for Vanity Fair's report. 

The estate of James Bond creator Ian Fleming has announced the latest author to try his hand at writing a "one-off" 007 novel. British writer William Boyd will pen the as-yet-untitled novel, due to be published in September. The only clues about the plot is that it will be retro-based and feature a 45 year-old Bond in the year 1969. (Ironically, this was the year that a very young actor, George Lazenby, debuted as Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.) For more click here

By Todd Garbarini

Walt Disney Studios graciously provided me with the opportunity recently to discuss Peter Pan with two of the film’s stars: Kathryn Beaumont, who provided the voice of Wendy, and Paul Collins, who provided the voice of John Darling.

KATHRYN BEAUMONT

Todd Garbarini: Thank you for speaking with me about Peter Pan.

Kathryn Beaumont: Thank you, it’s my pleasure!

TG: I am a big fan of the Disney cartoons as I spent the better part of my childhood seeing them.

KB: I'm so glad! They really are special, aren't they? The Disney cartoons really stand the test of time.

TG: These are some of the earliest movies I ever saw in both movie theaters and drive-ins. I really miss the drive-ins. There are so few of them left.

KB: I know! I miss the drive-ins, too!

TG: I understand that you were born and lived in London. How did you come to enter show business?

KG: I was in On An Island with You (1948) and Challenge to Lassie (1949) and at that point MGM was scouting characters for their new ideas for British classic-like stories, and so they put me under contract and I started working for them. I was with MGM for a while, and as you know a lot of those ideas just never come into being and ended up being put on the shelf. They kept me under contract though and at that time that was when Walt Disney was looking for his Alice in Wonderland. The rest, as they say, is sort of history! Just about the time that my contract was due to be changed over for the next six months, that is a six-month option, at that point there was some sort of negotiation and I went over to Disney and started working on Alice in Wonderland.

TG: Were you familiar with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when you were asked to perform the voice of the titular heroine?

KB: (laughs) It reminds me of when I first met Walt. He greeted me at the door and walked me into the office where everybody was settled because we were going to be signing the contracts. The publicity department was there and all of that. He walked me over to the little table and chairs. He told me that it would be kind of nice for us to go over the original book. He asked if I was familiar with the story. I said, “Oh yes, yes of course, of course!” (laughs) I had had it read to me when I was very young. Everybody in England was familiar with it. Those were the absolute classics. I was familiar with the stories whether I had read them not and by that time I could read them myself. So yes, I was extremely familiar. So, we sat down and he was sort of trying to explain to me what his vision was for the film and how he was trying to bring a little bit of both Through the Looking Glass and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland into this new animated feature. So, it was very informative and we had a lot of fun looking through the books and sharing all the things that we knew about the stories.

TG: Like so many of the classic Disney films, Alice in Wonderland was animated by the Nine Old Men, the famous animators who worked on so many of these classics. I met two of them, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, in November 1987 at a local mall when they were promoting their book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. They were very nice to speak with. How did you get along with the animators on the set of the film?

KB: Oh, I was just so grateful to them while I was working there. They just made me feel so much at home. They had me involved in the entire process as they would invite me into their offices at the studio where they were working. They showed me the rough drawings that they had been working on. Later on, they allowed me to go into “Ink and Paint” and told me to walk around and see what was going on and how that process worked. It was from one department to another and so on and so forth. As a result, I really felt that I was a big part of this overall process and I really enjoyed it very, very much.

TG: When it came time to doing Peter Pan, did you act as a live action reference for the animators as the character of Wendy?

KB: Oh yes, I did, as I had had a wonderful experience doing this also on Alice in Wonderland. When I was nearly finished with Alice, the studio was really quite ready to move straight into production on Peter Pan. That was their next animated feature. And so I began right away with the scenes that Wendy was involved with, with the live-action recordings. Right after that was the live action. That process usually consisted of a day or two of rehearsal to sort of map things out to see what they were looking for and determine the motion of the characters. As result, we were very prepared for when the camera was there and so we went through the action. This was done of course to help out the artists who were trying to draw the human figures which were the most natural and also the most challenging part of the process.

TG: Peter Pan has a few short musical numbers, among them “Follow the Leader.” Did you provide any additional voices for any of these subordinate characters for the songs or did you stick strictly to Wendy?

KB: No, I wasn't involved with those. They used a lot of boys for those voices, and I was not involved with any of them. The character of Wendy, unlike Alice, was more of a supporting role and that was the only voice that I provided for the film.

TG: What did you like most about your experiences on Peter Pan?

KB: Well, I would say it was similar to my experiences on Alice in Wonderland and that it was just a wonderful time working with very talented people, people whom I admired so much, and people whom I came to know very well, such as Hans Conreid (who provided the voices of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook). Like myself, he was also asked to provide the live-action as well as the voiceover parts. That kind of experience is what, I think, stands out in my memory. It was such a lovely time for me as a youngster playing these important roles and being able to get to know these creative people involved in this wonderful process.

TG: What was your reaction when you heard your voice in these films?

KB: Oh, I suppose that I viewed the movies I thought, “Oh, that's me!” (laughs)

TG: You became a teacher just after your stint in Hollywood. What grade or grades did you teach?

KB: Well, as it goes as a new teacher you're not high up on the totem pole. You end up changing grade levels every year. So, I have a lot of experience in the upper grades as well as the lower grades. I really did enjoy second grade. I took every opportunity to make my desires known that I really liked second grade. So from that point on until the end of my career, I taught second grade.

TG: What do you think is behind the longevity of such classic films as the movies that you worked on?

KB: I believe that it's the timelessness of the stories, and the stories really have something to say to young children. It came down to Disney's expertise in storytelling and his wonderful team that he worked with. They made the characters so realistic in terms that even adults could identify with them and not just the children in the audience.

Variety, the legendary "bible" of show business, has been struggling to survive in the internet age. It's gone through different owners, management staff and several bold business plans- but none of them has staunched the bleeding. It has been announced that Variety will cease publication of its daily edition, once a must-read in the industry, but will continue to publish its weekly issue as well as special editions throughout the year. Variety also becomes the latest publication to concede defeat in its efforts to build a base of paid subscribers for its web site. The site has now reverted to a free service. For more click here

Mendes directing Dame Judi Dench in Skyfall.

Despite the worldwide financial and critical success of Skyfall, Sam Mendes confirmed that he won't be accepting Eon Productions' offer to direct the James Bond movie. Many suspected he would decline the offer because it would be hard to top the international acclaim of Skyfall. However, Mendes cites his regrets at not being able to direct the film and attributes his absence to a full slate of other projects to which he is already committed. For more click here

He's been in movies so long, it's hard to remember when he wasn't on the scene. From his first big splash in the 1962 film adaptation of Billy Budd up to the present day, Terence Stamp proves he is a diverse talent with a knack for stealing every scene he is in. Filmmaker Magazine writer Lauren Wissot caught up with Stamp at the Palm Springs Film Festival and got him to open up about some fascinating aspects of his long career- including an amusing anecdote about Joshua Logan literally begging for him to star in the 1967 screen version of Camelot. Click here to read.

The much-publicized James Bond Skyfall train will run through mid-March from London's King's Cross station to Edinburgh on a daily basis. Aside from having the film poster art adorn the train, the locomotive has been renumbered as "91007".  For more click here

Many James Bond fans felt that the much-anticipated James Bond 50th anniversary tribute at the Oscars fell a little short of its potential, despite very impressive appearances by Shirley Bassey and Adele. A fan named Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr. decided to edit together his own version of the how the tribute could have been assembled. Click here to view and to see if you think it beats the "official" version. 

The Mail On Line provides a fascinating sociological glimpse into American pop culture in the 1960s by unveiling vintage solicitations for young women to join Playboy as Bunnies in the newly-launched Playboy clubs. For anyone who thinks that we haven't come a long way in terms of equality of the sexes, just consider that women were so pigeon-holed into a small number of careers that the application actually lists these specific professions (along with measurement statistics!) For some, this will be a sentimental journey back to a time when belonging to the Playboy Club made men the envy of their peers. For others, it's a reflection of just why the Women's Lib movement felt it had to become so radical in order to combat long-standing sexism. In either case, you'll find this glimpse into a bygone era fascinating. Click here to read. 

Despite bold attempts by influential directors and cinematographers to keep the 35mm format alive, it is going the way of the dodo bird- and taking with it projectionists and any theaters that can't or won't convert to digital.

Cinema Retro has extensively covered the rapid conversion from 35mm film to digital technology. There is no doubt that, despite the determination of acclaimed directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino to keep shooting movies in the traditional method, digital is winning big time. The format results in crystal clear imagery (too clear for some) and the guarantee of a great picture. It also does away with the disruptive process of cinematographers having to pause filming every ten minutes to change film stock. However, purists still like the traditional look and feel of film and find the digital format a cold and rather uninteresting way of shooting movies. Regardless, writer Jonathan Owen of The Independent boldly pronounces 35mm film  as officially dead. He says this year's Oscars may well be the last to feature any films shot in the 35mm format. Click here to read more