(Photo: Thomas Hauerslev)

By Bruce Campbell 

Over four days the 2013 Bradford Widescreen Festival located at The Pictureville Cinema played host to a mixture of classics in 70mm, CinemaScope and Cinerama formats. There was a special tribute to the 60^th anniversary of CinemaScope, the famous widescreen process developed for Twentieth Century Fox back in the 1950s.

Friday kicked off with a rare 70mm screening of The Longest Day preceded by an informative introduction by Sir Christopher Frayling. This was followed by the much- loved The Great Escape presented for the first time in 4K Digital and the picture and sound were simply stunning. Cinema Retro contributor Dr. Sheldon Hall provided an illuminating introduction to this war classic. Following the delegates’ reception in the Kodak Gallery, The Sound of Music was presented in 70mm. The print was generally good although three quarters of the way through, a reel snapped resulting in a 10 minute wait for reparations to take place. When the show resumed, the audience cheered and applauded.

Saturday provided a different selection of features commencing with a wonderful short directed by Grant Wakefield in 2k called Remnants. Filmed using motion controlled time-lapse photography, Remnants captures on film the thousands of complex stone monuments constructed by the Neolithic peoples of Northern Europe from 3800 to 1000 BC. Stunning 2K resolution and extraordinary music provided by Tangerine Dream member Thorsten Quaeschning.

Dave Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch who do so much for the preservation and restoration of the Cinerama documentary features updated the audience on Seven Wonders of the World, another 3 strip Cinerama classic that required extensive work to bring this forthcoming restoration to a new generation of audiences. Following this came the European premiere of Cinerama Holiday shown in 2k Digital on the curved screen. Randy Gitsch provided the introduction and background to the extensive work needed to bring this second of the three Cinerama travelogues up to date. A highly rewarding experience for all. (Cinerama Holiday will be released later this year along with another Cinerama feature South Seas Adventure on the Flicker Alley label).

Saturday afternoon concluded with the European premiere of David Strohmaier's In the Picture short, which was filmed in 3 panel Cinerama for the first time in 50 years! This was followed by The Last Days of Cinerama, an affectionate look at the making of the aforementioned feature. A 70mm print of Hello Dolly rounded off the Saturday evening, again an excellent presentation.

Sunday opened with the regular and popular Cineramacana a montage of shorts and news items that included DTS demonstration reels and a 70mm reel of Tomorrow Never Dies which never saw a 70mm release in the UK. The traditional onstage photograph followed. Sunday afternoon ran the 3 strip feature of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm, the only known print in existence. It looked magnificent on the Pictureville's curved screen.

How to Marry a Millionaire was screened on Sunday afternoon, with a beautiful CinemaScope print that was well received by all present. Tony Sloman provided a fascinating and amusing intro to this Fox Classic. The day concluded with a screening of The Guns of Navarone, shown for the first time in a 4k print. Again patrons were experiencing a much improved presentation of this war movie classic. This was introduced by Author Brian Hannan who has just written two books: The Making of the Guns of Navarone and The Making of Lawrence of Arabia.

The final day Monday showed the marathon feature Gettysburg over two parts which was introduced by Dr. Sheldon Hall.

The Bradford 2013 Widescreen festival will go down as one of the best ever, with improved organisation allowing delegates longer breaks between features and also arguably for the first time ever, ran pretty much to schedule!

Ably organised by Bill Lawrence and Duncan McGregor patrons seemed very happy with both the presentation and quality of the features on offer.

Congratulations to all concerned and roll on 2014.......

With Leslie Charteris' once popular books showcasing The Saint now back in print, writer Allan Massie of The Telegraph examines why the stories still entertain today. With all due respect to Roger Moore's visual representation of the hero in the 1960s, Massie argues that the character rightly belongs in his original time period, the 1920s. He also examines how Simon Templar differs from that other iconic British hero (coincidentally also portrayed by Moore), James Bond 007. Click here to read 

The Beatles with Brian Epstein at the 1964 London premiere of A Hard Day's Night.

The next time you hear American politicians debating the "onerous" tax burden on the wealthiest citizens, consider England in the 1960s when the tax rate on their highest earners skyrocketed to 98%. This forced many of the UK's most creative artists into tax exile. By the time sanity had returned to the British tax code, some of these people had left their native country permanently. The Beatles were among the most notable victims of the tax system but they also suffered from an abundance of bad business deals. Their hip, young manager Brian Epstein is fondly recalled for shepherding the Fab Four throughout their early career but Epstein (who died in 1967) was not the best business manager they could have had. An article in Bloomberg News features an interview with Peter Brown, the 74 year old man who took over managing the Beatles after Epstein's death. Brown reflects on Epstein's shortcomings and the turmoil that followed his death. Turns out Epstein had negotiated ludicrously low royalty deals for the lads from Liverpool that literally saw them making a fraction of a penny on every record sold. It was only due to the sheer number of records sold during the Beatlemania era that they ended up being wealthy in spite of these bad deals. Epstein also foolishly negotiated away the rights to Beatles merchandising for peanuts. Although the Beatles became fabulous wealthy, they always remained haunted by the fact they were cheated out of proper royalties and never even controlled the rights to the records they made. For more click here

If not for a last minute change, legendary opera star Maria Callas would have been the female lead in The Guns of Navarone.

Opera superstar Maria Callas was set to make her movie debut in Carl Foreman’s iconic war film The Guns Of Navarone, according to a new book, The Making Of The Guns Of Navarone launched this weekend at the Bradford Widescreen Film Festival  (April 26-29) by Scottish film historian Brian Hannan.

The singer had scandalised the world by her affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who would later marry Jackie Kennedy, widow of assassinated president John F Kennedy. Callas was first choice for the role of the older female Greek partisan. Producer Carl Foreman promised ‘mucho love scenes’ with star Gregory Peck.

Commented Hannan, ‘At the time, Maria Callas was the most famous woman in the world, a fiery mixture of Princess Diana and Madonna, the role model for every diva to come. This was an astonishing publicity coup. Names did not come any bigger. Although few opera stars can act, she was considered more than capable. Smouldering European actresses like Sophia Loren were much in demand in Hollywood at the time and she fitted the bill.’

Born in America in 1923 to Greek parents, she mad her singing debut in 1941 but her early career was tumultuous and it was not until she married wealthy industrialist Giovanni Meneghini that she achieved major success. Even so she battled with employers and was known as much for her tantrums, walkouts and love life as her singing. Her presence was a considerable departure from the best-selling book by Scottish writer Alistair Maclean for in the original there were no female characters.

The news received worldwide coverage – Callas was that big a star. Hollywood was agog. Offers of movie roles had been made to Callas before and she had turned them down. There was a history of opera stars making the jump to Hollywood. Popular 1930s due Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald had both been opera stars. More recently Mario Lanza had been a box office sensation - his film The Great Caruso had ranked third in the US box office charts in 1951 ahead of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and Elizabeth Taylor in A Place In The Sun. There had also been a trend for operas to be filmed and show in cinemas.

But Callas’s career had been riddled with bust-ups and insiders predicted the relationship with Foreman would not last. Callas abruptly quit the production before shooting began and was replaced by classical actress Irene Papas.

Nor was she the only casualty of the filming. Producer Foreman lost first choice actors  Cary Grant and William Holden, director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers), scriptwriter Eric Ambler (Mask Of Dimitrios), and a second female star Annette Stroyberg, wife of director Roger Vadim who had turned Brigitte Bardot into a star. British actor David Niven nearly died during filming.  The set, the biggest ever built in Britain, for the titular guns collapsed and had to be rebuilt and the budget soared by 25%. 

Despite these setbacks, the film burned up the box office and was the number one film of the year and nominated for seven Oscars.

Hannan has also published two books on Hitchcock – Darkness Visible:Hitchcock’s Greatest Film and Hitchcock’s Hollywood Hell.

The author will introduce a new restored 4K version of The Guns Of Navarone film on Sunday April 28 preceded by a book signing of his book and its companion The Making Of Lawrence Of Arabia.

The Making Of The Guns Of Navarone by Brian Hannan is published by Baroliant Press, priced £8.99 and is available on Kindle and in bookshops.

(U.S. readers can click here to order the Amazon Kindle edition)  

Contact Brian Hannan by email on bhkhannan@aol.com  or mobile  07946 278403

By Lee Pfeiffer

Scorpion has released a fun horror double-feature DVD consisting of The Hearse (1980) and Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969). 

The Hearse is a comparatively upscale production (anything is upscale compared to the Dracula flick) that top-lines two good actors: Trish Van Devere and Joseph Cotten. Van Devere plays Jane Hardy, a recently divorced thirty-something woman who is suffering from psychological problems relating to the end of her marriage. When her mother dies, she inherits a charming country home that used to belong to her maiden aunt. Jane decides to spend the summer in the house in the hope that a rural lifestyle might ease her personal problems. From minute one, she has second thoughts, however. The townspeople are rude to her and there are rumblings about some nasty legends relating to the house. The lawyer who is overseeing the property (Joseph Cotten) is a nasty, cynical old coot who does everything in his power to dissuade Jane from staying in the home she has inherited. The reasons why become immediately apparent. No sooner has Jane moved in than strange things start occurring. Doors slam on their own, noises emanate from the attic and cellar and she believes she catches glimpses of her aunt watching her. In the glorious tradition of "women in haunted houses" films, Jane doesn't do the sensible thing and move out. Rather, she convinces herself there is a logical explanation. However, the nightmarish scenario moves outside of the house and Jane (who inevitably finds herself driving at night on back country roads) is terrified by a mysterious hearse that tries to run her off the road. She later learns that the secret may relate to her aunt's past. In reading her diaries, Jane is shocked to find that her aunt was once a shy, conservative woman who was planning on marrying a preacher. However, she fell under the spell of a sexually perverted man and ended up becoming practicing the black mass with him. The two devil worshipers were killed in an accident but the hearse carrying their bodies was also destroyed in a bizarre twist of fate and their bodies were never found. Despite the increasing threats on her life, Jane remains determined to stay in the house and seeks solace from a new man in her life, the handsome Tom Sullivan (David Gautreaux), who is so creepy he practically sprouts horns and fangs, but Jane never catches on. The film presents every cliche of the genre including a heroine who uses candles and flashlights to investigate things that go bump in the night. (There may have been a reference to an old Indian burial ground, too, but I could have missed it.) There are some genuinely creepy scenes but long-time editor George Bowers (who made his directorial debut with this film) can't figure out how to milk any suspense from the overall weather-beaten scenario. The film is best in the early scenes when Jane is haunted by relatively mundane occurrences. By the time the movie reaches its climax, Bowers resorts to an "everything but the kitchen sink" formula that throws in exorcisms and car chases. The premise of a demonic automobile should have been sent to the cinematic junk yard after the unintentionally hilarious The Car (1977). The Hearse isn't as bad as all that, thanks to fine performances by Van Devere and Cotten, but it falls short of its overall potential. It makes for passable entertainment, but in the aggregate, it's pretty much stuck in neutral. The DVD contains an introduction by scream queen Katarina Leigh Waters and there is an audio interview with screenwriter Bill Bleich. The original trailer is also included. 

Blood of Dracula's Castle is an infamous gem from director Al Adamson, who was so inept he made Ed Wood look like Sir David Lean. The film was shot in 1966 but not released until 1969. Falling squarely into the "so bad it's good" category, the story centers on Glen and Liz (Gene O'Shane and Barbara Bishop)  a young couple who are engaged to be married. Glen learns he has inherited a castle in the California desert (!) that belonged to an eccentric uncle. Upon arriving at the castle, they are greeted by George (John Carradine), an erudite but eerie long time butler to the residents of the mansion. They turn out to be the Townsends (Alex D'Arcy and Paula Raymond), a bizarre couple who claim they hold royal titles of Count and Countess. They are distressed to learn that Glen and Liz intend to move into the residence, which means they will have to find a new abode. This makes for a major problem because they are vampires and are quite happy with their present situation, which finds them keeping young women chained to the wall in their dungeon and using them as a source of blood supply. (They feel that biting victims in the neck is a rather quaint way of sustaining immortality when one can indulge in refreshing blood cocktails.) The Townsends extend every courtesy to the young couple who intend to evict them and introduce them to their friend Johnny (Robert Dix), who is actually an escaped convict who gets murderous urges whenever there is a full moon. Before long, Glen and Liz are victimized and facing life in the dungeon. Townsend also reveals he is the original Count Dracula, a plot device thrown in merely for marquee value as there is absolutely nothing about him that evokes any of the popular perceptions of the Count. In fact the Townsends are about as threatening as Gomez and Morticia Addams, as they trade witticisms and charm their intended victims with their perpetually jolly outlook on (eternal) life. There is one other resident of the mansion: Mango (Ray Stevens), an Igor-like mute who captures young women for the Townsends and who is periodically rewarded by being allowed to sexually abuse them. The film is a complete disaster on all levels, which makes it fun to watch.  The irresistible presence of John Carradine only adds to the fun. The shoddy sets are somewhat offset by the fact that director/producer Adamson found an actual castle-like mansion that was located in the California desert. The film is padded out with chase scenes that are designed to make the clock run out in order to get to an appropriate running time. Adamson's ineptness is part of the film's charm, as is the presence of members of his own stock company who gamely appeared in his numerous low-budget productions. The DVD features Katrarina Leigh Waters interviewing production manager John "Bud" Cordos, who went on to direct his own films, most notably Kingdom of the Spiders. Cordos is an affable guy who relates marvelous stories about his friendships with Adamson and Robert Dix (son of silent screen legend Richard Dix). He states that Dix never played the Wolfman in the film, which may seem erroneous because there is footage of Dix's character turning into the Wolfman. Research shows that this footage was inserted into the film to spice up TV syndication sales and that the actor in the furry rubber mask was not Robert Dix. Thus, Cordos is correct in his statement. 

The entire DVD double feature package is very well produced by Scorpion founder Walter Olsen, who goes to extraordinary lengths to give first class treatment to second-class films. Half the fun of watching a Scorpion DVD is indulging in the informative extras, as is demonstrated with this package. This double feature DVD evokes memories of the glorious old days of theatrical double features. Highly recommended for pure kitsch value.

Click here to order from Amazon 

Harrison Ford and Chad Boseman in "42", a surprise boxoffice hit.

Hollywood studios, long criticized for catering almost exclusively to young audiences, is discovering that if they release intelligent fare aimed at older audiences, they will be rewarded with boxoffice gold. In recent years, films that feature the usual  big action sequences, boring special effects and low-brow comedy have been rivaled by some highly praised films aimed squarely at baby boomers and senior citizens. Case in point: last week's strong opening for 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic that top-lines 70 year old Harrison Ford, who now refers to himself as a "character actor". For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

If you think Terrence Mallick makes films infrequently, consider the career of Robin Hardy, who gained acclaim for his direction of the 1973 British horror classic The Wicker Man. In the ensuing decades, Hardy has been associated with precisely three other feature films, all little-seen: as writer of Forbidden Sun (1989), The Wicker Tree (2011, as writer and director) and the 1986 film The Fantasist, which he also wrote and directed. The latter film suffered from a botched release and poor reviews, with the verdict being that Hardy's much-anticipated return to filmmaking was a letdown. Scorpion Releasing has issued The Fantasist on DVD and the movie deserves to be re-evaluated with the passage of time. 

The film is set in Ireland and Hardy makes excellent use of both urban and rural locations. Moira Harris (sometimes billed as Moira Sinise nowadays due to her marriage to actor Gary Sinise), an actress who is American by birth, gives an astonishingly convincing performance as a  Patricia Teeling, young Irish woman who moves from her family's farm to Dublin in order to break the monotony and pursue a career as a teacher. Urban life agrees with her and she takes out a room in a boarding house. However, Dublin is being terrorized by a serial killer who phones young women and chats with them in a seductive, yet sexually explicit way. Some of these women end up being so intrigued by the mystery man that they invite him to their apartments only to be sexually abused and murdered. Patricia is oblivious to the murders. She befriends a charming American, Danny Sullivan (Timothy Bottoms) who is also a boarder in the house. He's quirky but funny and seems harmless enough- until she overhears him making obscene phone calls. The tension rises when a female boarder in the house falls victim to the serial killer. In panic, Patricia's roommate moves out, leaving her alone with the increasingly creepy Danny. She finds an ally in Dublin Detective McMyler (Christopher Cazenove), who becomes especially welcome when Patricia begins receiving the ominous phone calls herself. In one terrifying incident, she finds herself in the house with the unseen murderer but manages to make a daring escape by crawling atop the roof and climbing down to the ground. The police peg Danny as the prime suspect but they can't find anything but circumstantial evidence so he isn't indicted. A fellow teacher, Robert Foxley (John Cavanagh) also emerges as a suspect. He's also eccentric and carries a torch for Patricia. The film comes to a suspense-filled climax with Patricia finding herself captured by the killer. In a cringe-inducing, sexually explicit sequence, she decides to attempt to save herself by using erotic techniques to disarm her would-be murderer. The film is only compromised by an epilogue set on a ferry that reduces this otherwise superior, intelligent thriller to the level of a typical slasher movie with some over-the-top action straining credibility. 

The Fantasist has much to recommend about it. All of the performances are first rate and the identity of the killer will keep viewers guessing right up until he is revealed. Harris is simply superb and the supporting performances are equally first rate. As director and writer, Robin Hardy impresses with this double-duty assignment, eschewing studio shots for making use of actual locations. The film has a cliched scenario but is a far more mature and sophisticated work than most other "women in jeopardy" thrillers. 

Scorpion's DVD edition features a first rate transfer and is presented as part of the label's signature Katrina's Nightmare Theatre which means you get an optional, campy introductory segment hosted by former wrestler (!) and B movie sexpot Katarina Leigh Waters. She not only provides plenty of eye candy but also relates some interesting facts about the making of the movie and its undeserved neglect by audiences and critics. The package also contains the original trailer as well as an ample sampling of trailers for other Scorpion releases. The box art seems to be a new creation and doesn't even mention Harris on the credits, which seems patently unfair. 

I may be one of the few critics who looks favorably on The Fantasist. It's got plenty of flaws, but its Dublin setting and fine performance by Moira Harris earn it a hearty recommendation. 

Click here to order from Amazon 

Harrison Ford isn't generally known to be a ball of laughs in interviews. He plays the good soldier and makes the circuit to promote his latest film (in this case, the new Jackie Robinson biopic). However, he generally appears to enjoy the process as much as enduring a root canal. However, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he engaged in a spirited and very funny routine in which he confronts some eccentric Star Wars fans- and is uncomfortably reunited with a certain alien. Click here to view 

Intrada Records  has announced the premiere of Jerry Goldsmith original soundtrack scores for two great Frank Sinatra films: Von Ryan's Express and The Detective. Both scores appear on the same special edition CD.  For details click here to order from Screen Archives. 

The web site SpyVibe informs us that some ultra groovy 60's spy soundtracks from classic TV series are being made available...some in glorious mono! Among them is a repressing of the original soundtrack from The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Click here for more info

Disney isn't wasting any time capitalizing on their costly purchase of the Star Wars franchise. The studio has announced that, beginning in 2015, a new Star Wars film will arrive annually. Some will be new series based on various characters from the franchise. For more click here

Eddy Friedfeld, Carl Reiner and Fran Zigman. (That's Mel Brooks on the phone). (Photo: Karen Caesar.)

By Eddy Friedfeld

The late great Larry Gelbart once said about his friend and colleague, the still great Carl Reiner: “Carl Reiner and my maid have a lot in common- they both abhor a vacuum.” Having spent time with Mr. Reiner, I can attest that Mr. Gelbart was spot on.

His newly released autobiography, I Remember Me, is a very entertaining and wonderful and inspiring collection of anecdotes. His third biography, following My Anecdotal Life and How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories, is a collection of funny and poignant, and extremely well-crafted stories range from friends and family, including his late wife of 65 years, Estelle (whose When Harry Met Sally iconic line “I’ll have what she’s having,” rated ahead of Humphrey Bogart’s Casablanca close “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” on the AFI list of all-time great movie lines,), to famous friends and acquaintances, including Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, George Burns, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, Ernie Kovacs, Gregory Peck, Julie Andrews, and Dinah Shore.

A regular at bi-monthly dinner parties at Sid Caesar’s home in Beverly Hills organized by producers Fran and Lou Zigman, Reiner read from his new book, extolling Caesar’s gifts as the best sketch comedy performer that ever lived, and talked about being creative with Brooks. When prompted by Estelle Harris (Seinfeld’s Mrs. Costanza), who is as warm and friendly as her Seinfeld counterpart was tough and overbearing, he said that he saw himself as the ultimate master of ceremonies: “As child I loved movies so much that when I saw one I really liked I gave a friend money to go see it.”

With all due respect to the master, he undersold himself. He is an Agent Provocateur of creativity and comedy. He makes everything and everyone he interacts with smarter, funnier, and better.

He understands the fundamental art of storytelling and how to share a stage. An actor, writer, director and producer, he is the consummate partner; a chronic comedy enabler: From Caesar’s comedic foil, to Brooks Two Thousand Year Old Man partner, to The Dick Van Dyke Show’s creative force, to Steve Martin’s early film collaborator, and to anyone whom he happens to be in a room with at the time, his kinetic energy is uplifting.

He enters Caesar’s home with Mel Brooks, his oldest friend, his partner in creative crime, with whom he has a palpably enviable and inspiring bond. They are the Butch and Sundance Kid of comedy, both comedic alchemists, creating funny lines, images and situations literally from the air spinning their golden wit and entertaining and energizing everyone around them.

Indefatigable, his energy level would make Seal Team Six tired. There is a deceptive effortlessness with which he creates. It belies years of training and even more years of passionate pursuit of craft. He will turn a conversation into a riff or a small sketch. And for the self-proclaimed tone-deaf man who once needed an entire orchestra to back him up for a one line of musical song- and missed it, he is a virtuoso at the music of comedy, and its innate rhythms and vibrations. He is a pleasure to watch in action. When actress Diane Ladd came over to his table during dinner and said, “please don’t get up,” he responded with dignity and velocity: “I am up. I am just not standing.”

At 91, he still stands over six feet tall. Distinguished looking, and a stylish and dapper dresser, he could easily pass for a retired lawyer or banker. There is a decided dignity that is coupled with a mischievous spark in his eyes. He is studying the room, stealthily casing it like a creative cat burglar, mining it for ideas, talent and potential laughter: He is going figure out how to make you laugh, you just don’t know it yet. And you are not just going to laugh- you are going to be an active participant in the party. His Raison d'être is to bring out the best in you.

At another dinner party, he produced a ceramic mug he received from the Off-Broadway show Old Jews telling Jokes. Seeing an opportunity, he turned the mug into a prop and a tradition; a faux microphone- whomever it was passed to was required to tell an old joke. From contemporaries Dick Van Dyke and Monty Hall, to later generations of comedians and actors, including Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna, Richard Lewis and Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross, and guests who never told a joke on stage or for money, each of whom took the cup, got up and executed a joke with equal fervor and gusto, encouraged by his spirit.

At one of the dinners, I showed the group a segment of an episode of NBC’s Producers’ Showcase from 1954 which had a satire of "Meet the Press" called "Beat the Press." Caesar was in his Professor character the purported expert on everything, with Reiner playing the earnest reporter interviewing him about subjects ranging from mountain climbing to the pyramids, and was being quizzed by real-life journalists Lawrence Spivak, H.V. Kaltenborn, and Emanuel Freedman.

The clip prompted a recollection from Reiner that he was on the Jack Paar Show with Radio Foreign Correspondent H.V. Kaltenborn who talked about meeting Adolph Hitler during World War II. “Hitler had such a warm relationship with his dogs, he was so kind to them,” he recalled Kaltenborn saying.

To which Reiner interjected: “Do you recall his relationship with the Jews?” The story got resounding applause from the dinner party. Reiner said that Paar’s audience had a similar reaction and that the reporter couldn’t recover from the resounding applause to make another point.

He has given me both advice and friendship over the years, graciously sharing stories and wisdom. Excited that I introduced my NYU film class to Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, he said: “It’s the most fun I ever had making a picture. We spent six months editing clips from old Film Noir movies finding clips we could use. The name Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin’s character) came from lines from other movies uttered by Charles Laughton and Humphrey Bogart.” Showing him original programs from Your Show of Shows prompted a story about how Bob Hope produced his first national television special using the Show of Shows cast and crew, including Reiner.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he once said to me. “Fried-feld.  You don’t need both.”

(Cinema Retro Contributor Eddy Fried(feld) teaches comedy and film history at Yale and NYU)

Click here to order Carl Reiner's I Remember Me from Amazon  

By Todd Garbarini

On Saturday, April 23, 1988, I attended the Official Starlog Festival at the then-Penta Hotel in midtown Manhattan on Seventh Avenue. It was my first time meeting makeup artist Tom Savini and several cast members of Star Trek were also on hand. Film producer Frank Marshall, whom cineastes will know from The Warriors (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Poltergeist (1982), Back to the Future (1985), and most recently The Borne Legacy (2012), also showed up for a few hours to debut footage that director Robert Zemeckis shot for a new upcoming film entitled Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which was based upon the 1981 novel by Gary K. Wolf, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The footage that we saw consisted of Bob Hoskins interacting with Roger and other animated characters and it looked pretty seemless. When the film opened two months later, I was delighted to see my favorite cartoon characters appear in one film.

The premise is fairly straight forward and owes a huge debt to the film noirs of the Thirties and Forties and there is more than a passing wink at Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) as Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is hired by R.K. Maroon (the head of Maroon Cartoons) to investigate allegations that Jessica Rabbit, the wife of cartoon star Roger Rabbit (both of whom live in Toontown with other cartoon characters who act in movies for real people producers and directors), is having an affair. Eddie hates toons because his brother, Teddy, was killed by one some years earlier. Eddie shows Roger pictures that he took of Roger’s wife, Jessica, playing patty-cake with Marvin Acme. Roger interprets this as his wife cheating on him, and when Acme is killed the next day by a fallen piano, Roger moves to the head of the suspect list. Since toons are pretty much indestructible (they have to be in order for them to be “killed” in their cartoons!), an evil man named Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd), who presides over Toontown, knows that the only way to kill a toon should one of them step out of line is to submerge them into a vat of acid he calls “The Dip”. His minions are sent out to find Roger and bring him back for the murder of Marvin Acme. This leads to a series of action-packed misadventures that are executed in the tradition of most of the beloved Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoons.

This is the film’s first foray on to Blu-ray, and its third go-round on DVD. It comes in a 2-disc set with one Blu-ray and one DVD. The Blu-ray contains the following extras:

Filmmaker’s running commentary (runs in tandem with the film)

The Roger Rabbit Shorts: Tummy Trouble, Roller Coaster Rabbit & Trail Mix-Up

Who Made Roger Rabbit (10:55)

Deleted Scene: The Pig Head Sequence (5:30)

Before and After (3:07)

Toon Stand-Ins (3:14)

Behind the Ears documentary (36:37)

On Set! behind-the-scenes (4:50)

The DVD contains these additional extras:

Valiant Files

Toontown Confidential, a feature that can be enabled while watching the film which has facts and trivia

What is missing, and this is something I have never seen on any home video release of the film be it VHS, laserdisc (does anyone remember the controversy surrounding this release?), or previous editions DVDs, is the CBS-TV special Roger Rabbit & the Secrets of Toon Town which aired on Tuesday, September 13, 1988. Its exclusion might be attributed to a rights issue. Fortunately, it can be seen here on Youtube. The quality is not stellar, however it is better than not having access to it at all.

All in all, this Blu-ray is a worthy upgrade to a fun film that has earned its place in movie history.

Click here to order from Amazon

With 1980s screen icons back in style, we're actually kind of excited over the prospects for Escape Plan, which pairs Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Formerly titled The Tomb, Entertainment Weekly describes the movie this way: "Stallone stars in the film as a brilliant prison architect who has to break out of the world’s greatest prison with Schwarzenegger, and presumably they do indeed conceive some kind of “plan” for their putative “escape.” The film also stars Jim Caviezel, 50 Cent, Sam Neill, and Vinnie Jones."  In the photo above, the former Governator looks particularly cool. The flick will be released in North America in September. For more click here

A prop phaser rifle designed for one of two original pilot episodes for the original 'Star Trek' TV series has been sold at auction for an astronomical $231,000. The rifle was designed by Rueben Clamer for producer Gene Roddenberry and was wielded by William Shatner in a pilot episode for NBC. A previous pilot episode had been filmed with Jeffrey Hunter in the lead role, but the episode was rejected by NBC brass. Still, the network saw promise in Gene Roddenberry's creation and authorized a second pilot episode. The rests, as they say, is history. Click here for more about the gun, as well as film clips.  

Cinema Retro was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of screenwriter Michael France at the age of 51. He died from complications from diabetes. France's big break was writing the screenplay for Sylvester Stallone's 1993 blockbuster Cliffhanger, which he did "on spec", meaning he pitched his idea to the studio and was not commissioned to write it. France also wrote story lines for the 1995 James Bond smash GoldenEye, though he was not credited with the actual screenplay, which was a source of a strained relationship with the Bond producers. Some of his ideas  that were developed for GoldenEye were utilized in the 1999 Bond hit The World is Not Enough. In the 1970s, he published the short-lived 007 fan magazine Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. France was a major comic book fan and wrote the screenplays for Ang Lee's 2003 version of The Hulk as well as the super hero flick The Punisher. On a personal note, I had lost contact with him in recent years, but have fond memories of both of us having many laughs at Eon Productions' spectacular London premiere of GoldenEye. The following year, I was a consultant on an official Bond celebration in Jamaica and managed to get an invite for France and his wife as guests. We had plenty of fun in the sun and these memories are quite special to me. My heart goes out to his family on the loss of this personable and very talented screenwriter. - Lee Pfeiffer

From the Reel Images web site:

Here for your online viewing pleasure we have included the following nifty recreations of those great one-reel Super 8 sound horror and sci-fi digests of the past in a special salute to Castle Films and Ken Films! All but "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Return of Frankenstein" were edited by one Henry Senerchia, who may be contacted at creature8859@aol.com to direct your comments. Each film isguaranteed to produce 9 minutes of "warm fuzzies" for any "monster kid" who was lucky enough to grow up in the heyday of those great boxed film digests that winked seductively from spinning racks and shelves in elite camera departments of the finest department stores of the 1960's and 70's!

Click here to view  

Showgirls! The Musical! is a satiric stage production based on the notorious NC-17 1995 film Showgirls that has had a vibrant after-life as a guilty pleasure for lovers of campy movies. The stage show debuts April 17 in New York City and runs through May 4. According to the web site DNAinfo.org:

"The new musical promises not only the “erotic dancing” of the original but also “questionable dancing,” according to a statement.

There will also be musical numbers like “Don't Lick that Pole, Girl” and “I’d Look Great in Versace” – as well as plenty of thrusting."

“Showgirls! The Musical!” will run at the Kraine Theatre at 85 E. Fourth St. from April 17 to May 4. All shows are at 8 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $18 from ShowgirlsTheMusical.com and can also be bought at the door for $20.

Winters in the classic gas station sequence from Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

Jonathan Winters died on Thursday at age 87. Although superstardom eluded him, Winters is acknowledged as one of the most innovative comics of his era, having inspired others such as Robin Williams to emulate his talent for improvisation. Winters' off-beat, often crazy antics relied on off-the-cuff remarks rather than rehearsed comedy routines, though he did prove to be a popular television presence and released hit comedy albums. He was too unstructured to capitalize on his successful roles in classic comedy films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! A WWII veteran, Winters found early success with live comedy routines in nightclubs, but the pressure caused him to suffer two nervous breakdowns and he gave up the format in favor of making feature films and TV appearances. For more click here 

If you're a Cinema Retro reader, chances are you've probably seen director Don Siegel's 1971 crime classic Dirty Harry more times than you can count. However, what you may not know is that the film was not originally developed for Clint Eastwood. Other actors from John Wayne to Burt Lancaster turned it down first and Frank Sinatra had actually been signed for the role before an injury to his hand made him drop out. The web site www.todayifoundout.com provides some fun facts about the making of the movie. Click here to read

Actor Robert Vaughn discusses  his long career and his new film, The Magnificent Eleven, a UK-sports based movie loosely based on the classic Western The Magnificent Seven in which Vaughn co-starred with other stars-to-be. He humorously relates his greatest career satisfactions and disappointment (he won't get to play Hitler) and talks about his most embarrassing scene as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Click here to read

(Photo: David Kogut)

By Eddy Friedfeld

“There is no one like Jack Black… No, I read that wrong- no one likes Jack Black,”s aid Roastmaster Bob Saget as the School of Rock star and Tenacious D musician was honored at star-studded Friars Club event held at the New York Hilton on Friday April 5.

Saget masterfully set the tone for the roast: “To say that Jack Black is a one-trick pony is an insult to ponies… Jerry Lewis, you’re an icon,” he told the Friar’s Club Abbott, who announced that he is celebrating his 84^thyear in the entertainment business, “but I’m glad you don’t take a bow- you’d yank your balls out of your socks.”

“It’s unusual for Sarah Silverman to be at table with comedians,” Saget said introducing her, “she’s usually under a table jerking them off.” “Anyone who’s seen Bob do comedy knows it’s nothing like Full House,” Silverman replied. “He played a sweet Dad in Full House, and now plays a lousy comedian for a half-full house.” Turning to the corpulent actor Oliver Platt, she said: “you’re distantly related to Princess Diana, which means that bulimia is not an inherited trait… Jeff Ross made a sex tape and the next day his girlfriend was arrested for bestiality.”

The star-studded guest list ranged from Al Roker, Oliver Platt, to KISS founder Gene Simmons, Debbie Harry, Chad Smith, Richard Marx, The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, The Spin Doctors, Boyd Tinsley, Dee Snider, Dreamworks’ co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg to Black’s Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass.

“There are so many fossils here, I thought that Ben Stiller was shooting another Night at the Museum sequel,” Silverman said. Turning to Lewis, she said: “The last person who thought you were funny in France just died. Jerry Lewis doesn’t think that women are funny and now no one thinks Jerry Lewis is funny.”

“Jack Black is very shy- he prefers to be left alone- that’s why he made Nacho Libre…School of Rock changed my life- because you can’t get rid of anal warts… Jack is so fat, his last movie was shot by Google Earth. He’s not starved for attention, just onion rings.”

Introducing Roastmaster General and creator and star of Comedy Central’s “The Burn” Jeffrey Ross, Saget said: “Before the roast he was standing next to Jerry Lewis in the lobby and somebody made a donation. And Jerry took it. And then he humped the guy.”

“Bob is currently on a stand-up tour of colleges, and it’s just nice to see someone not killing at a school these days,” Ross said. “What a turnout: Dee Snider, Debbie Harry, Joan Osborne. Last time I saw these three musicians together was in a Dollar CD bin… Is this a roast or a charity concert for shingles? Turning to Mike Love, he said: “Don’t you think it’s about time you change the name of the band to something more age appropriate, like The Grateful Dead?”

Turning to the guest of honor, he added: “Jack is widely considered a show business triple threat: Diabetes, blood pressure, and gout… Anybody see Jack in the remake of King Kong? Your version sucked so bad, King Kong jumped off The Empire State Building! Jack sounds like Meat Loaf and his partner Kyle smells like meatloaf… This is fun- I never roasted a marshmallow before!”

In its best incarnation, the roast is a celebration of a career or life through testimonials barely veiled as insults (and more often just insults themselves). Saget introduced Ross as one of his closest friends (“he came to my father’s Shiva, and he was so funny he made my mom choke on his kishka, which is what he calls his balls.”)

Ross’ interplay with Saget harkened back to the legendary era of Friar’s roasts where most of the roasters were lifelong friends, where Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Red Button, and Jan Murray would jab each other like expert swordsmen. Comrades in insulting arms, they were skilled at honoring someone they loved and respected through devout, passionate, and creative dishonor. As much as they were coming to see the guest of honor, audiences wanted and still want to be part of the beloved family of friends that made fun of each other with regularity and deep affection. With close friends Saget and Silverman, Ross continued the private party tradition where the roasters were happy to have you become a part of, where the friendship made even the harshest barbs affectionate.

Turning to Gene Simmons, he said: “You look like a Rabbi fucked an Indian Chief. What happened, Gene? You used to rock and roll all night and party every day- now you get up six times a night to go to the bathroom.” Getting Simmons to show his infamously large tongue, he added “you’re two pieces of pumpernickel away from being the Number 3 at the Carnegie Deli!”

Ross’ observation about Lewis: “We make fun of Jerry Lewis, but what about the good things Jerry Lewis does? What about the fact that just a few years ago, a six year old boy got up out of his wheelchair and walked for the first time- to turn off the Jerry Lewis Telethon,” brought down the house with the greatest laughs coming from Lewis himself.

Ross poignantly closed his set by telling the capacity crowd how much the roasts mean to him. “I love, love coming to these Friar’s roasts every year. Some of my best friends are on this dais and in this room. I started out at these roasts. I will finish my life at these roasts. And the fact that Jack Black knows enough about the traditions of comedy that he would agree to do this is an inspiration to people with Downs Syndrome everywhere.”

Roast-contest winner and newcomer Amadeo Fusca did an impressive job, starting by telling Saget “Thank you, Uncle Jesse.” To Katzenberg he said, “I’ve seen your movies. Your dreams don’t work… Jeff Ross is a veteran of these roasts- he shows up once a year and will probably be homeless.”

“Jack Black will do anything for a movie role, except sit-ups and pushups,” said Vh1’s Carrie Keagan; “This is my first Friar’s roast and obviously Jerry Lewis’ last,” said Amy Shumer, “it’s hard to film School of Rock when you’re not allowed 500 feet in front of one… how are you holding a pen,” she said to Saget, “don’t your hands hurt from hanging on by a thread for so long?” “In your version of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver travelled right the video store,” Artie Lange said. “It’s very expensive to bring Jerry Lewis to the roast- it costs $10,000 to bring him here and $10,000 to tell him where he is.”

There were also videos from Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride, Matthew McConnaughey (“Jack Black is a very nice man, unless you’ve met any other men”),Will Ferrell in his Ron Bergundy persona, accusing Black of not returning “the AMC Hornet he borrowed,” and Shirley MacLaine, talking about how much she loved Jack in “Save the Tiger,” confusing him with former co-star, Jack Lemmon.

For photos from the event visit the Friars web site by clicking here 

Cinema Retro contributor Eddy Friedfeld teaches film and comedy history at NYU and Yale and will be hosting the Dick Van Dyke Lifetime Achievement Award program at New York’s 92^nd Street Y on April 26^th.

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Warner Archive has released That Hagen Girl as a burn-to-order DVD title. The 1947 soap opera stars Shirley Temple as Mary Hagen, a high school girl who is socially ostracized when it is suspected she was born illegitimately. The presumed father is Tom Bates (Ronald Reagan), who twenty years earlier had been romancing the high school prom queen. She suddenly vanished without explanation only to return with her parents and kept in isolation. The rumor mill indicated that she had given birth to a daughter, who was then given to a local childless couple to raise. Tom makes attempts to see his girlfriend but is rebuffed by her strict parents. Eventually Tom moves to another town but returns many years later when he inherits a house in his hometown. Now a successful lawyer, the handsome Tom turns heads even as the rumors resume over his presumed status as  Mary's real father. Tom is unaware of the "scandal" and ironically ends up befriending young Mary and acting as her mentor. He later realizes that his presence in town has reignited the unsavory rumors that have haunted Mary since her birth. Her only real friend is Julia Kane, a young teacher who tries to stop the bullying of Mary by fellow students and school officials, who single her out as too undesirable to play the lead in the school play. Ultimately, Tom takes a bold stand to defend his presumed daughter- and in the process informs her of some very surprising facts about her heritage. 

That Hagen Girl is predictably corny by today's standards, with even the wildest teenagers dressed in suits and ties and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm-style dresses. A product of the era, I suppose. Nevertheless, it's hard not to find much of the goings-on unintentionally funny. Yet, the film does manage to pack a punch in terms of being among the first such movies  to denounce bullying and illustrating its devastating impact on the sense of self-worth of those who are victimized by it. The seemingly bold subject matter of out-of-wedlock birth becomes somewhat watered down in the conclusion, but the movie remains an enjoyable and engrossing experience thanks to the considerable star power of Reagan and Temple, who segued rather nicely from child star to respected adult actress.  Reagan is his usual stalwart self. If there wasn't an Oscar-worthy performance lodged within him, it can be said he was a far better actor than most of his future political opponents would ever concede. Lois Maxwell is particularly impressive and won a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer for her performance. (She would become beloved by movie fans worldwide as James Bond's original Miss Moneypenny.) 

The DVD features a fine transfer and includes an original trailer.  

Click here to order from the Warner Archive and to watch a preview clip 

By Dr Karen Oughton

Naughty little Nana stands in front of the camera. With her head in close-up, she poses: left, full profile and then right. Throughout Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie, the philosophising prostitute is both alluring and clinical, free-spirited and forced, but despite her famous speech in the cafe (and being seen and perhaps censured by capricious cinephiles) can she be held responsible for her actions within the film

Godard’s piece (naturally enough for the New Wave) is a mixture of different styles, as suggested by its teasing, nimble title, Vivre Sa Vie, which translates roughly as “live life” and has been moulded variously into It’s My Life, My Life to Live and To Live Her Life across the territories. It suggests an approach mixing direct cinema with cinema verite-style camera work to indicate a defiant, almost decadent posturing that is nonetheless a delicate portrayal of its theme and holds its truth in the quickest flecks of light caught on camera behind the beguiling Nana. Indeed, Nana’s relationship with the camera changes from scene to scene; she flirts with it almost as a client, forces herself on it when dancing and is followed by it when fleeing terrified from the scene of a shooting. The film’s subtitle is A Film in Twelve Scenes. Simply speaking, it charts segments in the life of Nana, a wife and mother who has left her family to tread the boards.

She aspires to life as an actress and it could be argued that she subsequently spends most of the time fulfilling a series of roles, such as the moll she becomes for most of the feature’s duration. From the opening frame, Godard goads us, makes us strain for the meaning in her scenes, for the meaning of her mythos as a whole.

Following the frames in which we are given information about the film’s festival-circuit run, the opening section is where Godard’s starlet seduces the camera. Nana stands still, sometimes almost in silhouette. Her eyelashes are fluttering and there are slight movements of her tender mouth and smooth throat as she breathes. While an understated gesture, it is sexual, sordid even and oddly uncomfortable for the viewer, so personal is the image that it reminds them of their own breath and rhythmic deglutition. The music appears, then disappears and we are denied Nana’s eyes as they are blotted out by obviously obtrusive text in the titles. The referent paradox is clear: she is Miss X of the same generation, one of the modern masses, yet a subject worthy of study and a creature so captivating she must be periodically censored for her audience’s own good.

The film is an exercise in illustrating the paradoxes of interpretation, so much to consider, yet every element included is a potential deconstruction. Nana is an appealing mix of style and naturalism, function and frivolity. Her short hair makes her comparatively boyish (as she semi-acknowledges in her letter to a potential Madam, stating that it could quickly be grown out), yet it also shows off that sensual neck. From the opening scene where we only truly see the back of her head and hair, bulky jacket and cigarette smoke, she may drink like a man, play like a man and talk like a man, but she can also be moulded by a man. She talks about her torturous life to her ex-husband, Paul, in the café. We see their backs and note their similar shapes and the ferocity of fear for her fate versus her desire to be seen as “special” by him. She acts in place of his inaction. We are desperate for them to touch as shutting us out of their conversation (as the framing does) makes us feel vulnerable too, all the while praising Nana for her forward-thinking vehemence. Above all, however, her hair’s sleek cut makes her look extremely functional, as underlined by her clothes and chamber while working as a call girl. Nana has an innate glamour that both enhances her sex appeal and sterilizes her environment.

Here is a girl who borrows her gestures from the gentlemen she galvanises. Her head bobs with theirs on her bored, business-like but Byzantine journey; while leading them often around the room, she also follows their lead when allowing herself to be purloined for their pleasure. The easy, lazy angle of her hand holding a cocked cigarette is her calling card and is the art of the tart considering the inevitable conclusion of her next conquest.

Art or apparatus, Godard wants us to feel the grit under Nana’s shoes in order to understand the poetry of the situation; she cannot appreciate the responsibility she claims during the canteen scene as for her (an actress in both senses) it must remain unsaid lest it becomes a piece of performed fiction. As Susan Sontag states in Against Interpretation, she’s there to be seen, not to explain, so we must fill in the gaps for her. Against this interpretation, however, is our own interpretation of that. As Godard changes his camera angles and plays with diegesis we cannot help but imply an interpretation. According to Sontag, these are simply snippets of a kaleidoscope, a section of discourse that relates to the narrative frame but not to our assertive femme for whom (she feels) no explanation is given. Yet despite Sontag’s clear investment in stating the alternative, it becomes impossible not to see the implied implications of the oddly innocent girl’s situation.

Indeed, Nana’s more masculine behaviour only serves to silhouette her slightness and frailty. As Sontag comments, each one of the film’s twelve segments recalls a text and, as the ‘text’ in the café sequence suggests, Nana’s story is that of ‘The Chicken’, that which’s soul can only be found when she has given of herself. However, this is not through negation of herself as Sontag suggests – it is not exactly a process during which Nana has no control over the layers that are stripped away, but it is controlled submission. We see Nana unburdened in the scenes in which she drifts, when her smile shines brightly enough for it to light up her eyes. This is when the body and soul of this little ‘chick’ are peeled away and we notice Nana unconstructed, a Nana of pure feeling inside the skin cage, a ghost inside the machine.

We listen to Nana and her lover discuss passages of Poe and may think her mask is beginning to slip; despite the simple, clinical setting alongside the business-like montages of our Mademoiselle and her men, we begin to feel warmth. Nevertheless, this is hope for the future that feels hallucinogenic, so far is it from the narrative’s precision-focused frame. Nana has become a body, a sculpted doll not only in her looks but in her assertive, masculine behaviour, so it is natural that this, too, must be discarded. This occurs in our final sequence, wherein our miss is sold to another pimp. She is manhandled across a bleak parking slot from man to man until she is shot. Her delicate figure contrasts against the shaft of the gun, yet like it she has become little more than a mechanism of male control, a cog in a wheel of a criminal machine maintained by money and murder. Nana’s impregnation by the phallic symbol represents a loss, a commercial union turned sour. Nana the machinic mode of production has been decommissioned. To put it crudely, the bullet has given her more holes than necessary for her occupation and has marked her. Particularly in the cold, hard light of the modern-day chicks, she is simply an appendage sullied, and therefore sullying by association, another man.

After her evisceration and an indelicate death dance, therefore, she falls to the floor by the car.

It is here the viewer finally feels Nana in a way that Sontag would probably support; we feel her precisely because we don’t. As she lies lifeless in the street, her personality begs a playback the fast-paced action will not permit. We watch in horror as first one car leaves her, then the other half speeds towards her as though to crush the evidence of her calamitous conclusion by driving straight across her and leaving a pool of unbelievably black blood oozing and oscillating on the tarmac. Such is the departure from the film’s abstracted gentility that the idea alone of this sort of image – regardless of the film’s final fade before it becomes possible – remains with the viewer. While Sontag complains bitterly that the bombastic director destroys the thematic complexity of his piece by allowing Nana’s death to mirror the parable of the ‘poule’, it actually seems to do the exact opposite. It forces Nana to live in our mind’s eye. We recoil from the image despite the fact it never worries our retinas. We instead see Nana in all humanity, philosophy and beauty precisely because God(ard) deprives her – his muse and off-screen wife Anna Karina – of it in those final few frames. By placing herself in that scenario, she is given chance to bear her soul.

She is responsible.

Dr Karen Oughton is an academic and film journalist. Click here for her web site

(Viva Sa Vie is available as a special edition Blu-ray from Criterion. Click here to order from Amazon) 

Annette Funicello, who was discovered by Walt Disney himself and who went on to become the most legendary of his original Mouseketeers, has died from multiple sclerosis at age 70. Ms. Funicello was one of the biggest child stars of  the 1950s, receiving thousands of fan letters every week. She was also placed under contract to make feature films for Disney. As she matured, Funicello became the subject of a lot of jokes as she tried to maintain her wholesome image even while nature took effect and she blossomed into a voluptuous young woman. She had a short-lived romance with fellow teen idol Paul Anka and she also built a second career in the popular "beach movies" of the mid-to-late 1960s, often starring with Frankie Avalon. As she matured, Funicello married and delighted in her role as a stay-home mom, though she would occasionally be lured back into the spotlight. She did a beach reunion film with Avalon in 1987. Upon being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she set up a research foundation for neurological disorders in 1999. For more on her life and career click here 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Some of the most inspired special edition DVD and Blu-ray releases are coming from independent, niche-market labels that afford certain film titles the kind of grandeur that would never be afforded them by major studios. Case in point: Synapse Films, which routinely releases first rate special editions of "B" movies, cult films and obscure foreign imports (often with an erotic edge). The most impressive Synapse release I've seen to date is their Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of the 1971 Hammer horror film Twins of Evil. The movie is rather notorious for representing a kinky penchant for shocking violence and a marketing campaign that implied an on-screen lesbian relationship between Playboy models (and real-life twin sisters) Madelaine and Mary Collinson. (In reality, there are no such scenes in the film.) The story is centered in a rural  European village during the 17th century. The townspeople are in awe of a local nobleman named Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas), a handsome but evil young man who uses his absolute power to indulge in a penchant for practicing witchcraft and seducing local girls to visit his castle where he seduces them into a life of sexual deviancy. Karnstein also has a penchant for killing off certain virgins for pleasure and selecting specific women to fall victim to his secret powers as a vampire. Karnstein's crimes results in the formation of The Brotherhood, a local group of puritan vigilantes headed by Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing), a religious zealot who is also a self-appointed witch hunter. The local women have as much to fear from him as they do from Karnstein, as The Brotherhood routinely accuses young girls of being in league with the vampire. This results in them being burned at the stake in order to have their souls redeemed. In short, this ain't a great place to live if you're a single woman. Into this hellish situation come Gustav's nieces, Freida and Maria (Madelaine and Mary Collinson), two recently orphaned teenagers who must now reside with their uncle. Upon being warned about Karnstein's nefarious activities, Maria chooses to be vigilant but the more daring Freida is intrigued by stories of sexual perversion and orgies. She secretly visits Karnstein, who seduces her and turns her into his vampire lover. He convinces her to assume the identity of her sister so that Mary is convicted of murder and is sentenced to be burned at the stake. 

Twins of Evil came at a time when Hammer Films were struggling to maintain the audiences they had built in the previous decade. By 1971, seemingly every studio had made an attempt to emulate Hammer's success. The result was that there was a sea of imitators and the Hammer brand became in danger of imitating the imitators. The studio decided to rely more and more on nudity and overt violence, often at the expense of storylines and character development. Although this film is part of that exploitation campaign, it ranks with the better Hammer efforts of the period thanks to a good script, intelligent direction by John Hough and an impressive performance by Peter Cushing, as one of the least sympathetic heroes he ever portrayed. Damien Thomas was being groomed as the next Christopher Lee, with the intention of being a reliable leading man for Hammer. Although he makes a compelling villain, stardom was not on the horizon for him. The Collinson twins (both dubbed for their roles) provide plenty of eye candy, but the nudity that is overtly exploited in the publicity photos is somewhat fleeting. Twins of Evil is one of the gorier Hammer films, but it also remains one of the most compelling. It ranks alongside the other two great witch hunting-themed films of the era, The Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan's Claw. 

Synapse Films has presented Twins of Evil as a truly outstanding Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. The extras are to die for, if you'll pardon the pun. These include a superb documentary about the making of the film that is almost feature length. Directed and produced by Daniel Griffith, this is a fairly expensive extravagance for a niche market DVD company. The fascinating documentary is titled The Flesh and the Fury: X-Posing Twins of Evil and features a very informative overview of the Hammer vampire trilogy that derived from the classic 19th century vampire novel Carmilla that introduced lesbianism into the genre. (The first two films were The Vampire Lovers and Lust for a Vampire.) The documentary includes interesting insights from a wealth of Hammer and cult movie experts including director Joe Dante, director John Hough, Sir Christopher Frayling, film critic Kim Newman and publisher Tim Lucas. It's even more entertaining if you are not well-versed in Hammer lore. Other extras include a featurette that covers a private collection of Hammer film props, a stills gallery, TV spots and trailers, an isolated music and effects track and a deleted scene that absurdly presents teenage girls singing a 1970's-style love song. 

In all, a great release from Synapse Films, a company that continues to impress us with their zeal for paying tribute to often overlooked and underrated films.   

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON 

By Lee Pfeiffer

One hates to get sociological or philosophical about a lightweight sex farce like How to Save a Marriage (and Ruin Your Life), a 1968 trifle that nonetheless boasts an impressive cast: Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Eli Wallach and real-life wife Anne Jackson, Jack Albertson and Betty Field. However, the premise of the movie is so distinctly distasteful that it is sure to offend any self-respecting modern woman as well as any male who isn't still walking about clad in animal skins and clutching a club. The film, which is now available as part of Sony's burn-to-order DVD line, has a value that is more anthropological than comical. Wallach plays Harry Hunter, a successful New York business executive who is unhappily married to an attractive but shrewish wife (Katharine Bard). He finds solace by keeping a mistress, Muriel Laszlo (Anne Jackson)  in an opulent apartment. His frequent visits there are as much therapeutic as they are sexual, with Muriel happily gearing her entire existence toward pleasing her man. She fawns over him, makes no demands, and pampers him constantly. When Harry brags to his best friend and fellow executive Dave Sloane (Dean Martin) about the joys of having a dedicated mistress, Dave sets out to test his theory about her never straying into the arms of another man. (One of the more cynical aspects of the script is that "kept women" are supposed to be completely loyal to their married sugar daddies). However, Dave mistakes another woman for Harry's mistress: Carol Corman (Stella Stevens), an attractive young sales girl in the corporation. When he observes her social behavior with other men, he assumes he has proof that Harry's "other woman" is cheating on him. To get further evidence, he decides to prove he can seduce her.  Dave romances Carol and ends up renting her a luxury apartment right next door to Harry's real mistress, Muriel. It seems the apartment building is basically a classy bordello that houses numerous girlfriends of married rich men. In the film's most amusing scenario, Dave finds Carol understandably receptive to his sexual advances (after all, he looks a lot like Dean Martin.) Dave, however, can't take his "investigation" to the point of actually bedding the woman he thinks Harry really loves. There are some funny scenes in which Dave has to find a way to explain why he isn't eager to jump into bed with Stevens, who saunters about clad in a low-cut nightgown with a pouty look of sexual frustration on her face. He concocts a scenario whereby he explains that he is a widower whose beloved, late wife made him promise to never make love to another woman. It's a sign of the times that in 1968 you could plausibly present a plot scenario in which Carol still readily agrees to live with Dave, quit her job and devote her entire life to pleasing him. Naturally, complications ensue and she discovers she has been lied to. The script presents "liberated women" as those scorned mistresses who band together in order to force their sugar daddies to give them legally binding pension plans to get them through their later years, when they will have been discarded in favor of younger women. It's enough to give Gloria Steinem heartburn. 

You don't have to be a knee-jerk liberal to wince at the entire tasteless scenario of this film. Not helping matters is director Fielder Cook's insistence that the always-watchable Wallach play his role in an "over-the-top" manner that is only matched by Betty Field's equally hysterical portrayal of an older, scorned mistress looking to wage war on all males. Usually, one doesn't analyze the production design in a romantic urban comedy, but it bears mentioning that, aside from a few second unit shots in New York City, there is absolutely nothing that suggests the look or feel of the city. A sequence showing the exterior of Dave Sloane's private club looks more like London than Gotham and the film has a rather cheesy feel to it, given the abundance of interiors. On the positive side, Martin and Stevens exude some real chemistry and there are a few scattered laughs. However, for the most part, this is a laborious exercise that celebrates an era in which women's fates were tied to dependency on the man in their lives. 

The DVD presents a crisp, clean transfer but there are no extras.  

Click here to order from Amazon. 

There's a wonderful Facebook web page called The Old Movie Guy's Page that presents all sorts of great photos and comments pertaining to vintage cinema. In one recent posting, they unearthed some rare comments made by Nigel Bruce regarding the series of Sherlock Holmes films he did with Basil Rathbone. Bruce said, “The stories we did were modernised but the characters of the famous detective and his biographer were kept more or less as originally written by Conan Doyle. Watson, however, in the films was made much more of a 'comic' character than he ever was in the books. This was with the object of introducing a little light relief. The doctor, as I played him, was a complete stooge for his brilliant friend and one whose intelligence was almost negligible. Many of the lovers of Conan Doyle must have been shocked, not by this caricature of the famous doctor but by seeing the great detective alighting from an aeroplane and the good doctor listening to his radio. To begin with, Basil and I were much opposed to the modernising of these stories but the producer, Howard Benedict, pointed out to us that the majority of youngsters who would see our pictures were accustomed to the fast-moving action of gangster pictures, and that expecting machine guns, police sirens, cars travelling at 80 miles an hour and dialogue such as 'Put em up bud', they would be bored with the magnifying glass, the hansom cabs, the cobblestones and the slow tempo of an era they never knew and a way of life with which they were completely unfamiliar.”

Click here for The Old Movie Guy's Facebook page 

Mike Bloomfield of moviepostermem.com is pleased to announce the launch of a new 
website www.fiskenposter.com This website is dedicated to a single owner 
collection of movie posters. We're showcasing posters in the collection & 
trying to explain something about the artists behind the posters & the 
market in general. Hopefully people will enjoy browsing & find it a useful 
resource base. Of course, if you have any posters that you think would fit 
into the collection. please contact me on info@fiskenposter.com
(For a special tribute article to the legendary British movie poster artist Tom Chantrell, see Cinema Retro issue #25) 

Click here for details 

Spanish film director Jess "Jesus"  Franco has died at age 82 in Malaga, Spain. The prolific pioneer of Spanish horror and fantasy cult films capitalized on a relaxation of censorship laws to create a body of films that have withstood the test of time and still maintain loyal followings today. Among them: Succubus, Vampyros Lesbos, 99 Women, The Awful Dr. Orlof, Necronomicon and the 1969 Count Dracula starring Hammer film favorite Christopher Lee.  He also served as second unit director on Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight. A respected talent who specialized in exploitation films, Franco also occasionally acted, wrote screenplays and composed music for his own films as well as those of other artists. In all, Franco was involved in the production of over 200 films.

Click here to read Variety obituary

Click here to view kinky trailer for Vampyros Lesbos. 

By Todd Garbarini

Pasha Roberts is the director of the new film Silver Circle.  He obtained his masters in financial engineering, which he describes as “hedge fund math,” roughly ten years ago.  His interest was in financial digitalization and how to apply modern computer graphics to high finance. His thesis subject consisted of applying a game-like graphics engine to doing equity trading in finance so that a reasonably intelligent 13-year-old gamer could use it to learn this type of trading.  Upon doing this, he realized that what was missing from financial communications was a way of describing complicated concepts from a Ph.D level and bringing it down to a Masters level, essentially reducing the complexity and making it accessible; he did this by working with banks, corporations and think tanks.

Beginning around 2006, he began moving towards more economic-type concepts, and felt that it was important to describe things on more of an economic level rather than a financial level. When the housing and financial crash occurred in 2008, he decided that Silver Circle should really be about a crash and the intrigue around that crash.

Todd Garbarini: Your animation company, Two Lanterns Media, produced a series entitled Save Sonny which concerns a young adult entering the workforce who becomes perturbed to find that some of his paycheck is being deducted by a mysterious entity known as FICA (laughs). Does Sonny personify the average young American in your mind?

Pasha Roberts: At that point, we kind of did that, yeah. That was kind of a South Park-level of humor, there are some farts jokes in there as well. The goal at the time was to take the subject and make it interesting and acceptable for somebody who, when they get their first job, suddenly realizes that they don't get all of their money. They want to know where it goes to, specifically FICA, and why. That was a whole, completely different other style and was not as serious as (our new film) Silver Circle, but kind of tongue-in-cheek and somewhat educational.

TG: The series reminds me of Schoolhouse Rock which endeavored to educate children on science, economics, history, etc. Do you see yourself as an educator for social change and personal financial responsibility through animation?

PR: Yeah, you could say it that way. We were focusing on the story first and therefore tried to make it fun and interesting without trying to be too pedantic about it. That's why Silver Circle isn't full of speeches, although it has one or two that are kind of mixed in. We were interested in working with people who wanted to make a movie with a backbone and a spine and ideas in it. The audience can certainly enjoy it on an intellectual level in that regard, but otherwise they can also enjoy themselves from the movie perspective as we do have some action sequences and a car chase.

TG: Silver Circle posits the financial collapse of the United States economic system roughly six years from now. It is animated in the style of a contemporary video game. Was this your decision from the get-go?

PR: We were actually looking at A Scanner Darkly, actually we did use Maya, we didn't really use cel shading for this but we did look a lot at that. We really wanted to make the characters look less realistic and keep them from looking kind of spooky, and even so I think we could have done more with that. It's kind of a crossover thing, you don't see a lot of animated movies that are not comedies or fantasies, so people aren’t used to seeing this type of animation with something serious.

TG: How long did the process of making the film take, from conception to final product?

PR: Four years. We basically started brainstorming about it the day after Lehman Brothers went down because it was such a big dramatic moment, and I thought this could be a real interesting theme. The screenwriting itself took about a year as there was a completely different concept at first and it took a little while to burn through a couple of screenwriters until we finally settled on Stephen (Schwartz). Then we spent three years on production. The overall budget was roughly $2M. One of the really interesting things about the movie is that the end credits contain the names of about ten core people who really worked on it, compared to an army of animators.

TG: In the film, the Federal Reserve has been tasked with stabilizing the economy, but all attempts have failed and the Rebels illegally mint silver coins hoping to stabilize the financial health of the country. How do you feel this mirrors the current economic situation in the U.S. today?

PR: I think that we are currently heading in the direction that is depicted in the film, although I don't think that it will be as bad. There were a couple of things that are in the movie and were even in the script but hadn't happened yet but actually came true as we progressed through making the movie. For example, there is a guy by the name of Bernard von Nothaus who is currently in prison for making money out of silver, and that’s his crime. His sentencing judge basically called him a domestic terrorist for trying to make money out of silver. So, that was not going on. Then, the Federal Reserve was actually talking about taking over neighborhoods and basically calling them “land banks,” which is of course essential part of Silver Circle’s plot. So, there are angles going on in that direction already and I do believe that marijuana is on its way to being legalized, and this also occurs in the movie. I hope that the movie obviously isn't prescient in terms of being completely true. We looked at a lot of the history of Argentina and Zimbabwe and what happens when a currency begins to die and how people behave as a result of that.

TG: What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?

PR: First off, I hope that they enjoy the story. Obviously, I want them to have a great time. I want it to be a fun, good story for the audience. After that, I hope that people are not only entertained, and but there are also a lot of embedded things in the movie for the so-called armchair economists and conspiracy theorists. I really do hope that it gets people to start to think about money and know that there is this thing out there called the Federal Reserve that is very real and they are not murderous bastards (laughs). I want the audience to not take the concepts of money for granted. Most other countries understand that and the changing of European currency and so on and so forth - things abroad do not appear to be as well-established or as stable as things appear to be here. So, hopefully the audience will think about that. The angle that we're taking is that we really can make an animated movie with a spine of ideas that people will actually appreciate instead of just offering up a whitewashed movie.

Silver Circle Theater Schedule:

4/05 Laemmle’s NoHo – Los Angeles, CA (Buy your tickets here)

4/11 Pollack Tempe Cinema – Tempe, AZ (Buy your tickets here)

4/12 Regal Cinema – Ballston – Arlington, VA (Tickets on sale soon)

4/18 Flix Brewhouse – Round Rock, TX (Buy your tickets here)

Silver Circle’s official website is here.

Click here to read Todd Garbarini's review of Silver Circle 

O'Shea squares off in court against Paul Newman in The Verdict.

The acclaimed Irish actor Milo O'Shea has died after a brief illness at age 86. The Dublin-born O'Shea had lived in New York City since 1976. He was described as a giant talent of stage, screen and TV. His memorable feature film performances include the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, Barbarella, Ulysses and as the compromised judge who argues with attorney Paul Newman in Sidney Lumet's 1982 film The Verdict. O'Shea, an "actor's actor", also appeared in many popular American and British TV shows including The Golden Girls, Cheers, The West Wing and Me Mammy. For more click here

On TCM's Movie Morlocks web site, writer Susan Doll celebrates the movie poster art of Joseph A. Maturo. Never heard of him? Neither had we, but his work on Fox movie posters from the 1930s and 1940s is remarkable. The Italian immigrant, who once designed dresses for flappers in the 1920s, created memorable posters for Shirley Temple's Heidi, The Prisoner of Shark Island, Charlie Chan's Secret and many other golden oldies. Click here to read. 

By David P. King  

Most Google searches for “Chiller,” the five-installment horror series originally broadcast in the mid-90s on Britain’s ITV will turn up a lot of forums where fans ask: “Does anyone else remember being scared by this show?” 

Like many old horror movies, the fright it inspired after stumbling upon the program probably sticks in the mind more than the episodes themselves. But while “Chiller” may not be the pinnacle of scary story-telling, it often stands the test of time. Part of the reason: Forsaking the trappings of cheap surprises or over-the-top gore of many horror projects on a smaller budget, each episode builds on a single creepy or supernatural premise.

The plots are your standard horror staples: spirits brought back from the underworld, demonic children, haunted houses, etc. Most are summoned through the typical tropes as well. (Pro tip: Reading ancient inscriptions outloud with a group of carousing friends has never led to anything good.) Although there’s not much here that hasn’t been done elsewhere, there’s something comforting about the nostalgia of made-for-TV horror.

The special effects are limited and the sets throughout the British countryside are both quaint and creepy. And the acting carries the sotries. The talent assembled for the episodes includes many prolific British actors. (John McEnery, Nigel Havers, John Simm, Sophie Ward and more all star in episodes.)

One can easily imagine catching one of these programs late at night after everyone else has gone to bed and having more than a few sleepless nights. The Synapse Films DVD print is clean, although somewhat bare-bones: Five episodes on two discs with no special features (to be fair, there was little demand for behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries on a short-run TV show in the 1990s).

Whether you’re looking to see if the program stands up to your memories or looking for a taste of horror that plays more on the mind than the senses, “Chiller” passes the test of a creepy good time.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER DISCOUNTED FROM AMAZON 

By Todd Garbarini 

Room 237 is the title of the excellent new documentary by director Rodney Ascher that takes the points of view of five off-screen individuals who do their best to unmask the purported hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick’s initially disappointing yet subsequently revered 1980 film version of Stephen King’s The Shining. In doing so, they are keeping in line with a motif derived straight from the novel in a sequence wherein Horace Derwent, a former owner of the Overlook Hotel, urges his costumed party-goers to unmask at a lavish celebration, thereby revealing their identities. The human face as a mask is also a common theme throughout all of Mr. Kubrick’s filmography, so it is only fitting that Room 237 takes the approach of removing layers to reveal what might be hidden beneath the surface in order to get at The Shining’s essence.

As a fan of Mr. Kubrick’s film for the past thirty years, I can honestly say that even though I have seen it easily more than fifty times I never noticed the props, visual references or subtexts that these five narrators diligently point out (granted this was difficult to do on archaic home video systems such as CED or VHS due to their significantly reduced image quality, to say nothing of the substandard televisions they were played back on, although the technically superior Blu-ray is a much better medium due to its high definition quality and lends itself ideal for this examination). Nor did I see the various continuity errors, judged as deliberate by Mr. Kubrick from the narrators’ perspectives, such as the carpet that changes direction in the hallway or the chair against the wall disappearing during Jack Torrance’s (Jack Nicholson) emotional outburst after his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) interrupts his writing. An argument can be made that Room 237 is less about the hidden meanings in The Shining than it is an explanation of five different people’s interpretations and experiences of seeing The Shining. There were times wherein the person speaking discussed in great length the strange layout of the Overlook Hotel and I must admit I could not see what they were getting at, however this is just one point that is made and there are numerous theories to go around on other subtexts of the film: the purported significance of the number 42; the architectural impossibility of the window in Mr. Ullman’s office; the ludicrous sexual reference in Mr. Ullman’s first handshake with Jack (this is a bit of a stretch – no pun intended, of course!); the Minotaur motif; the strange layout itself of the Overlook Hotel; the references to the genocide of Native Americans and even the Holocaust, the subject of which Mr. Kubrick later attempted to make a film about but eventually abandoned as he felt he could not do justice to the horror of this bleak period in history.

Director Ascher makes the interesting choice of not showing the faces of the narrators, and this maneuver works to the film’s advantage since so much of it is about pointing out what the narrators see. Cross-cutting between the narrators and the points they want to make would have either reduced the film’s running time (102 minutes, roughly the same as The French Connection (1970), my favorite film) or would have left most of the cogent points on the cutting room floor. I can only hope that the forthcoming DVD will offer up some nice extras in the way of deleted scenes. I am certain that there must have been some discussion about the significance of Jack telling Mr. Ullman that Wendy is a “confirmed ghost story and horror film addict,” yet her artistic escapes consist of reading The Catcher in the Rye and watching Summer of ’42 (there’s that number again!), two classics about the coming-of-age of a young male.

I especially liked Room 237’s framing device of using Lamberto Bava’s Demons (1985) and Demons 2: The Nightmare Continues (1986) as footage of an audience viewing The Shining in a theater and on television, respectively, to make certain points. Ideally, The Shining should be viewed in a movie theater, although realistically that is unfortunately not an option for most of us. The home video revolution saved many a film from inevitable obscurity and this is where the majority of Shining enthusiasts (myself included) had the opportunity to see it and thrill to it to our heart’s content.

The prerequisites for enjoying Room 237 include more than a passing interest in The Shining (it certainly helps to be a rabid fan of the film, thus having tremendous familiarity of it), patience, and certainly a sense of humor. Room 237 succeeds in imparting to the audience just how compelling and frightening The Shining can be to a first-time viewer. It is also a testament to the notion that film viewing is a solitary experience as no two people will see any one film with the same set of eyes. Perhaps, as is the case with The Shining, and many other Kubrick films, multiple viewings of Room 237 will clear up and even reveal more of what the narrators say they see. Whether you consider the film to be completely true or complete bollocks, one thing that can be said is that Room 237 is entertaining, thought-provoking, fascinating and enlightening. It’s my choice for Best Documentary at the 2014 Oscars.

Click here for the film’s official site.

By Dave Worrall

SFX guru Dennis Muren says, during one of the interviews in Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan, that today special effects are no longer special. Audiences expect them, and are no longer impressed by them. This wasn't the case back in the 50s and 60s when master animator Ray Harryhausen was breaking new ground and entertaining audiences the world over. That said, Harryhausen's work was right for the time, but would not stand up with audiences not familiar with his work today. They have come to expect the impossible, and that's what CGI almost delivers. However, the difference between Harryhausen's creations and today's computer generated creatures is that the latter were animated objects. They were 'real' and as dimensional as the actors who worked alongside the. Tangible objects that had a life of their own. Today they may seem dated, but they have far more character than a CGI effect, which is no better than watching a computer game.

This brilliant 2-disc documentary covers the remarkable career of the movie industry's most admired and influential special effects auteur. A man who inspired the likes of Spielberg, Dante, Landis Cameron and Jackson, who in their own words admit it was Harryhausen who inspired them to become movie makers. Loaded with clips, trailers, rare test footage, props as they are today, and even home movies from Harryhausen's immense collection, this is a documentary to die for. Miss it at your peril.

(Note: this review is based on the UK Region 2 DVD release. It has not yet been released in the North American market).