PangeaSeed, artist Craig Drake and Hero Complex Gallery are pleased to announce a shark-saving effort of monstrous proportions: Smile, You Son of a Bitch! An Art Tribute to JAWS!

For three days only, from November 1 - 3, 2013, at Hero Complex Gallery in Los Angeles, we will host a one of a kind art exhibition featuring original artworks created by 70+ of today’s most renowned artists in celebration of one of the most iconic films in movie history. This unprecedented exhibition aims to engage the audience by helping to further bring much needed awareness to the global plight of sharks.

The three day event will see guest appearances by original cast and crew from the movie, original film memorabilia and collectibles on display, special guest presentations from some of today’s leading shark experts and exciting film screenings. Search deep and wide, without a doubt this is the must-see event of the year for JAWS fans!

Leading up to the opening night reception on November 1, PangeaSeed will release 4 limited edition fine art screen prints entitled “JAWS: The Lost Trading Card Set” created in collaboration with supporting artist Craig Drake and printed via Seizure Palace Screen Printing. A new print will be released monthly to help make this event possible - we greatly appreciate your support.

Follow PangeaSeed.org for more event information and updates.

Gilbert Taylor, the legendary cinematographer, has passed away at age 99. Although he photographed some of the greatest films of all time, Taylor never received a single Oscar nomination (though he was nominated for two BAFTAs for his work on Polanski's Repulsion and Cul-de-sac).  He was among the most revered artists in his trade. Among the classics he worked on: Star Wars, Dr. Strangelove, A Hard Day's Night, Dr. Strangelove, Frenzy and The Omen. For more click here

Michael Caine and Sean Connery clown with the late director Michael Winner.

Sir Michael Caine says reports that he told a German publication that his old friend, Sir Sean Connery, is feeble and suffering from Alzheimer's Disease are "bullshit, completely preposterous." Caine points out that the inaccuracy of the story is evidenced by the fact that it states Connery lives in Spain, when, in fact, he moved from there to the Bahamas years ago. For more click here 

The year was 1972 and Jerry Lewis was embarking on the the riskiest venture of his long, successful screen career. He would star in and direct The Day the Clown Cried, a dramatic and sobering tale about a Jewish clown who is imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. He is only able to survive by making himself useful to his captors by distracting doomed children with his antics as he leads them to the gas chamber. The announcement that Lewis would be involved in such a production raised eyebrows at the time and more than a bit of skepticism that he could pull it off. Lewis had been one of the top boxoffice attractions in the world in the 1950s and 1960s, but by the advent of the 1970s he knew that his squeaky clean family films were out of touch with the Woodstock generation. He was convinced he could launch a new career as a dramatic star and director. However, the film ran into problems almost immediately with production funds from private sources routinely drying up. This forced Lewis to cut the budget practically to that of a home movie level. Still, he soldiered on a completed the film. However, legal battles over the rights have prevented it from ever being released. Over the years, Lewis has shown the movie to only a handful of trusted confidants. Their reaction was uniformly terrible and Lewis now accepts the blame for the movie's artistic failures, saying "I lost the magic" and vowing no one else will ever see the movie. Nevertheless, some footage has surfaced from a German documentary done at the time of production that shows Lewis on the set of the movie and a glimpses of him performing as a clown. Click here to view  

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Rescued from obscurity by Twilight Time and released on Blu-ray as a limited edition (3,000 units), The Disappearance is the Rodney Dangerfield of thrillers- it never got any respect. The film actually closed after one day in a theatrical run in one prominent theater when it was released in 1977. Now, Twilight Time has given the deluxe treatment to this moody, Canadian film by director Stuart Cooper. Donald Sutherland plays Jay Mallory, a quiet, unassuming man on the surface but who works as a top assassin for a secret crime organization referred to as The Office. The complex plot finds Mallory assigned to carry out a hit. When he returns home, he finds his gorgeous wife Celandine (played by Sutherland's then real life wife Francine Racette) has inexplicably gone missing. Flashbacks show that the marriage had been strained with Celandine increasingly frustrated by her husband's strange line of work and mysterious comings-and-goings. However, Mallory not only adores her, but is obsessed with having this beautiful woman as his wife. Simultaneous to searching for Celandine, Mallory is browbeaten into traveling to England to carry out an important assassination. This job makes him feel uneasy for reasons that become evident later in the story: the intended victim (Christopher Plummer) has a connection to Mallory's wife. The story is complex and difficult to follow. If you miss a minute, you'll be hopelessly lost. I didn't and I'm still not entirely sure I grasped all of the nuances of the story and characters. Director Stuart Cooper intentionally has his actors perform in an almost robotic-like state, virtually devoid of any overt emotions. Anger and rage are expressed in low-key manners and brutal killings are carried out in business-as-usual manner. Even the geographical settings are cold and remote. Shot in Montreal at the height of winter, the snow bound landscape makes a beautiful city seem barren and inhospitable. Mallory's apartment complex (well-known in the city for its futuristic design) seems as unwelcoming as one of those old Soviet-style complexes. Even the gorgeous British countryside is presented in a gray, ominous fashion thanks to the splendid camera work of the great John Alcott. The film also benefits from a sterling cast, with Sutherland's understated assassin registering strongly. Racette is a beautiful but (perhaps appropriately) opaque presence, showcased more or less as an object of beauty rather than a fully-fleshed out character, although she does hold the key to the film's rather surprising conclusion. There are also fine supporting performances by David Hemmings (who also produced the movie) as the cuckolded man who Mallory stole Celandine away from, David Warner as secretive representative of The Office and young John Hurt as a novice hit man. Christopher Plummer's brief cameo comes late in the movie, but it's a wonderful bit. As a whole, the movie isn't an entirely satisfying experience. There are some ambiguous plot holes that never quite seem to be filled in. Additionally, while Cooper's decision to present the characters as cold, aloof people works artistically, it keeps the viewer from forming any kind of emotional bond with any of them. They are all bad apples so we don't really care what happens to any of them. 

The Twilight Time release is superb on all levels. We at Cinema Retro pride ourselves on giving substantial coverage in our magazine of movies that are virtually ignored by everyone else. Twilight Time follows the same philosophy, as indicated by their painstaking presentation of this relatively minor, but worthy, movie. Upon its abbreviated release, scenes were cut and re-edited by the distributor for U.S. release. Stuart Cooper objected vehemently but could not stop the hacks from making his film "more linear". A new score was added that removed Robert Farnon's orchestrations of Ravel's pieces and replaced them with a synthesizer-fueled pop score. This further horrified Cooper. He all but gave up on the movie ever finding its intended audience. The Twilight Time release features two versions of the film: a stunning, hi def presentation of a re-edited cut and a standard version of the "director's cut". Cooper, in a new interview in the set, says the origin of this particular re-edited cut is a mystery to him but he gives it his blessing because it approximates his original vision of the film.  The "director's cut" vision runs 10 minutes longer and features some major editing differences. The quality of the director's cut pales in comparison to the HD version, but it does provide more plot points.  A 15 minute excerpt of the distributor's cut is also included, which is the version Cooper initially objected to. 

In the bonus feature interview that runs 10 minutes, Cooper discusses his career, which began in the 1960s when he got the acting bug. He gravitated to England and studied drama with future stars like David Warner and John Hurt, which explains their presence in this film. He then landed a role as one of The Dirty Dozen. Watching director Robert Aldrich work inspired him to become a director. He initially offered The Disappearance to his Dirty Dozen co-star Lee Marvin, who loved the script but declined because he felt the role of Mallory was too close to his work in The Killers and Point Blank. Cooper then offered the part to another Dirty Dozen co-star, Donald Sutherland, who initially declined. However, a quick rewrite of the ending and the casting of Francine Racette convinced Sutherland to change his mind. Cooper seems very gratified that the movie can now at least be seen in something approaching the format he originally envisioned. 

The Disappearance is an effectively made gem that should appeal to any fan of the crime movie genre. 

Click here to order from Screen Archives 

By Todd Garbarini  

If the plot of Walt Disney’s animated film Oliver and Company (1988) feels or sounds familiar, it should.  It is loosely based upon Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist but this titular character is not a beggar sent to London.  This time around, he’s a cute little kitten set about the busy streets of New York City and tries his best to fit in and survive.  He is “befriended” by Dodger, an older dog who is streetwise and gets Oliver to aid him in scoring food while keeping the goods for himself.  Oliver is understandably miffed by this, but these are the mean streets of New York, after all.  He learns a valuable lesson about trusting others who appear to want to help him.  Dodger is owned by Fagin and is part of a gang comprised of Tito (a Chihuahua), Francis (a Bulldog), Einstein (a Great Dane), and Rita (a Saluki).  Fagin owes money to Sykes, a loan shark who intimidates him with two Doberman Pinschers to keep him in line, and is given three days to pay back the money he borrowed (which he certainly didn’t spend on accoutrements).  In an effort to score some quick cash to help Fagin, Oliver and Tito attempt to burglarize a limousine, only to be caught by a very young girl, Jenny Foxworth, and Winston her Butler.  Jenny epitomizes the Disney “lonely child” (think of Penny from “The Rescuers”) and takes Oliver home.  Jenny is the victim of rich parents who simply don’t have time for, as they are too busy gallivanting the world. She also has a poodle, Georgette, who truly is a stuck-up bitch and becomes extremely jealous of Oliver.  She wants him out of the house, and is only too happy to oblige when Dodger and his friends come to “rescue” Oliver who confesses that he was actually happy living with Penny and the comforts her home afforded him. Shocked and disappointed at this revelation, Dodger shrugs off Oliver and tells him to leave.  This, of course, leaves us with Fagin who gets wind of the fact that Oliver was with a rich family. His wheels begin to turn and he schemes to put out a ransom for Oliver in an effort to reimburse Sykes.  This sets up a series of misadventures and misunderstandings that culminate in the usual Disney happy ending.

Opening on Friday, November 18, 1988, Oliver and Company was met with a lukewarm response. I must admit to being taken aback by some of the lackluster critical notices towards this film. A lot have carped of the predictable nature of the story and that the songs don't measure up to previous Disney outings. While I will admit that the style of animation is much different than the Disney masterpieces (the reputable Nine Old Men who were responsible for the most well-known Disney cartoons of all-time were by this time retired), this is the first Disney cartoon to utilize computers for the background animation designs. If the movie seems predictable, it is due to the fact that it's based upon a well-known piece of literature that has been read and studied for decades. Besides, the film is geared towards children who are probably are at an age where they are completely unfamiliar with the story’s literary origins. It cannot help but feel familiar to adults and it should not be cast aside due to this fact. Most of the animals are appealing, and there is a humorous shot early on in the film where familiar dogs from past Disney cartoons, specifically Lady and the Tramp (1955), are seen on the streets of New York. Disney enthusiasts will pick this up right away.

All of the characters are nicely drawn. Children will love the interaction between animals. Georgia is an interesting creation, and her disposition mirrors that of the female dog in Friz Freleng’s 1942 cartoon Ding Dog Daddy who sarcastically shrugs off a goofy dog who asks her out, turning her nose up at him and walking off.

The film also sports a handful of musical numbers by Billy Joel, Bette Midler, and Huey Lewis.

Oliver and Company is now available in a DVD and Blu-ray combo. Needless to say, it looks splendid in high definition. The discs include trailers for the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray combo of The Little Mermaid which will be released in October 2013 in addition to an admonition against the smoking effects of secondhand smoke.

The discs are very light on the bonus features and they include:

The Making of Oliver and Company, a vintage featurette that runs 5:31 and is presented in standard definition. It spends much of its time discussing not only the cast involved in the creation of the characters and songs (such as Cheech Marin, Billy Joel and Bette Midler), but also takes a very interesting look at what was then state-of-the-art computerized animation. This is not animation in the original sense of the word, but rather using a computer to make changes in perspective within the confines of animation cells in the film frame. The hardware was very big and bulky at the time and the software looks extremely archaic to our eyes 25 years hence, but it got the job done.

Disney's Animated Animals runs 89 seconds in length and is a quick overview of the anthropomorphized animals that are featured in the film.

Lend a Paw is an animated short produced by Disney released theatrically by RKO Radio Pictures on October 3, 1941. It runs 8:08 and is included due to the fact that it is thematically similar to Oliver and Company.

Puss Café is a Disney cartoon that was released theatrically on June 9, 1950 and runs 7:11. It concerns similar themes in that Pluto is up against a group of cats who are attempting to steal food.

The discs also include both the television and theatrical trailers. 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON 

Harris gave a brilliant performance as a woman who has been targeted by evil spirits in The Haunting (1963)

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Julie Harris, who was regarded as Broadway royalty for winning five Tony Awards (a feat never equaled by any other actress), has passed away at age 87. Harris' career in stage, film and TV spanned almost 60 years. She was the first actress to play Sally Bowles in the original stage adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's I Am a Camera, which recounted the journalist's experiences in Berlin during the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of National Socialism. The musical version of the story was later brought to the stage as Cabaret.  Ms. Harris was widely respected throughout the arts and was among those select American performers who was accorded the Kennedy Center Honors. Ms. Harris also appeared in numerous high profile films beginning with his Oscar-nominated performance in The Member of the Wedding in 1952. She also appeared in the 1955 film version of I Am a Camera. She memorably co-starred with James Dean in East of Eden and throughout the 1960s, her big screen career blossomed even while she performed in high profile stage and TV productions. She often played the role of a troubled woman, sometimes beset by psychological disorders. In the 1962 film version of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight, she played a dowdy, plain Jane who unexpectedly falls in love with a down-and-out, punch-drunk boxer played by Anthony Quinn. In John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye, she played a deeply troubled woman whose husband is having an affair with her best friend. Her biggest impact on the big screen during this era was as a woman whose psychic powers lead to tragedy in director Robert Wise's chilling masterpiece The Haunting. For more about her remarkable career, click here. 

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Twilight Time has released Walter Hill's 1975 directorial debut, Hard Times, on Blu-ray as a limited edition (3,000 units). Hill was an up-and-coming screenwriter with Peckinpah's The Getaway to his credit as well as solid thrillers like The Drowning Pool, The Mackintosh Man and Hickey and Boggs. There is no evidence in Hard Times that Hill was a novice behind the camera, either. This is one of my favorite films of the period, though many retro movie fans probably haven't seen it. The story is set in 1933. Chaney (Charles Bronson) is a middle-aged drifter who ends up crossing paths with Speed (James Coburn), a fast-talking promoter of "street fights" (no holds barred matches between local tough guys with no rules or regulations). Needing some quick cash, the soft-spoken, low-key Chaney forms a partnership with the mercurial Speed. In his first match, they win big when Chaney knocks the local champ out cold with one punch. They gravitate to New Orleans where Speed can put together some high stakes fights. They are joined by Poe (Strother Martin) an amiable quasi-doctor (he had two years of medical school) with a penchant for opium but who is skilled at patching up bruised and beaten fighters. Chaney quickly becomes a local legend and draws the attention of a local fight promoter/kingpin who insists that Chaney fight a seemingly invincible slugger he has imported from Chicago. When Chaney refuses, the kingpin kidnaps Speed and holds him hostage until Chaney shows up for the high stakes fight. The script, co-written by Hill, is a prime example of how less can be more, at least in terms of dialogue. Bronson says very little during the film, but conveys much emotion with a nod of the head, the blinking of his eyes or a wry smile. This is evident in Chaney's relationship with a local down and out woman (Jill Ireland), who he basically sees for easy sex. When she presses him to convert their trysts into a meaningful relationship, Chaney simply walks out. No drama. No speeches. Similarly, the superb performances of Bronson, Coburn and Martin seem inspired by the Sam Peckinpah school of men sticking together no matter what. When Speed is kidnapped, Chaney initially refuses to help him. He correctly points out that Speed is responsible for his own reckless behavior that sees him make enemies of the wrong people and foolishly gamble away money as fast as he earns it. Yet, in a crunch, Chaney comes to his partner's aid. There is no fanfare between Chaney and Speed, who knows that, by appearing for the bout, Chaney has saved his life. Instead, just a quick handshake a "thank you." By de-emphasizing overtly sentimental gestures and dialogue, Hill makes the relationship between the trio even more moving. 

Hill and his co-writers pack a lot of memorable scenes into the film's scant 93 minute running time. Aided by editor Roger Spottiswood (another future director) and cinematographer Philip Lathrop, Hill makes every frame of the film count. There isn't a slow moment or a meaningless line of dialogue. Clearly the highlights are the action sequences. This is Fight Club for the Baby Boomer generation. Bronson, who was in his 50s at the time, performs all of his own gut-wrenching fight scenes, along with co-stars Robert Tessier and Nick Dimitri. They are brutal affairs that will quickly convince you that these men are actually beating each other up. The stunt coordination is among the best I've seen in any film. The film's more whimsical sequences are aided immeasurably by Barry DeVorzon's addictive score. 

With Hard Times, Bronson reached the pinnacle of his acting career. It's wonderful to see him reunited with Coburn, his co-star from The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. However, Coburn became even more interesting as an actor as he grew older whereas Bronson grabbed for the low-hanging fruit and began to concentrate primarily on by-the-numbers action movies. The film remains a testament to his abilities as an actor- and credit Walter Hill for bringing those out in full force.

The Twilight Time Blu-ray features a gorgeous transfer but the only extra is the original trailer and the always-welcome collector's booklet with informative liner notes by Julie Kirgo, who hints that Hill was approached to record a commentary track for this release but declined because he doesn't like to look back on his past work. Well, we do- especially when it's a movie as terrific as Hard Times. 

Click here to order from Screen Archives 

If you're not thrilled with the announcement that Ben Affleck will be the screen's latest Batman, you're not alone. There is already a public petition that has garnered thousands of signatures protesting the studio's choice of Affleck. Some fans actually got a petition temporarily posted on the White House web site begging President Obama to do something about it!  (Click here to read more). We'll give ol' Ben the benefit of the doubt. After all, from the moment Daniel Craig was announced as the new 007, fan protest sites sprang up around the world. They vanished as soon as the film premiered and Craig received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. Maybe luck will shine on Affleck, as well, though comic book fans are even more cynical and hard to please than 007 buffs. In any event, the newly launched web site Do Your Remember? weighs in on the subject, with writer Neil Vazquez offering evidence for his choices for the screen's worst Caped Crusaders. (Fortunately, Adam West did not make the list). Click here to read. 

MI6 Confidential, the British James Bond tribute magazine, offers a limited edition of their latest issue, which is a celebration of the 1983 007 film Octopussy. You can get a copy signed by Sir Roger Moore and both of his lovely co-stars, Maud Adams and Kristina Wayborn, or an issue signed by only the ladies. The inventory is limited and is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Click here to order 

TCM's Dennis Adamovich, Robert Osborne and Jane Powell initiate the formal launch of the TCM Classic Film Tour. (Photo: Turner Classic Movies).

By Lee Pfeiffer

In true Hollywood style, it was an offer I couldn't refuse: an invitation from Turner Classic Movies to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony and inaugural roll out of the TCM Classic Film Tour of New York city movie locations.  This event, which took place on August 20, was restricted to the media and invited guests. TCM host Robert Osborne was there to greet everyone along with a Hollywood legend, Jane Powell, who was clearly delighted to participate. Osborne and Powell used giant scissors to cut the ribbon on the bus, which is distinctively branded with the network's logo (and appropriately enough, the ultimate New York City "big" star, King Kong). Joining them was Dennis Adamovich, Senior VP of Brand Digital Activation and the guru behind the Turner Classic Movies Film Festivals. Once aboard the bus, we were treated to what the average attendee will experience on the tour. There is a video greeting by Robert Osborne and a knowledgeable and enthusiastic tour guide (in this case, an impressive young lady named Roseanne who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the NY film locations.) There is an abundance of film clips pertaining to the various sites on the tour. The bus does make several stops to allow attendees to disembark for photo opts. These include the famed Dakota apartments where Rosemary's Baby was filmed (and where John Lennon was tragically murdered), the 59th Street Bridge where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton filmed an iconic scene for Manhattan, Holly Golightly's apartment from Breakfast at Tiffanys, the subway grate where Marilyn Monroe posed for the famed "up skirt" photo from "The Seven Year Itch" , the famed Zabar's market where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan encounter each other in You've Got Mail and, concluding the tour, Grand Central Station, site of many a film shoot including classic scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest. Even an old movie history war horse like myself was humbled by the fact that I could learn so many new facts about these classic films. The tours, which begin operating today for the general public, are three hours in duration and leave from 51st Street and Broadway. Locations are concentrated on the uptown neighborhoods but go as far south as the Empire State Building.

TCM host Robert Osborne with Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer. (Photo: copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved)

The 59th Street Bridge, the "star" of an iconic scene in Woody Allen's Manhattan and the inspiration for a classic song by Simon and Garfunkel. (Photo: copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

Other film locations that play major or minor backdrops for popular movies include those seen in  Plaza Suite, Coogan's Bluff, Live and Let Die, The Apartment, Arthur, You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Network, West Side Story, The Out of Towners, The Sunshine Boys, Ghostbusters, The Producers, Serpico, Annie Hall, Moonstruck, The Way We Were, Crocodile Dundee, Big, Superman, the Eddy Duchin Story, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town, Baby Boom, Weekend at the Waldorf, My Man Godfrey, Hannah and Her Sisters, Midnight Cowboy, Barefoot in the Park, Nothing Sacred, Miracle in the Rain and many more. Much use  is made of classic film clips showing many of these movies, with emphasis on the 1949 MGM classic On the Town, especially in Columbus Circle where Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin made merry (the original subway entrance and news stand are still intact).

Holly Golightly's apartment from Breakfast at Tiffany's is a residential address today. (Photo: copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

The Dakota apartments where Rosemary's Baby was filmed- and where John Lennon met his tragic end. (Photo: copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

Tour guide Roseanne shows the subway grating where Marilyn Monroe shot publicity stills for The Seven Year Itch. Roseanne informed us that the sequence for the film was shot here but was later redone in the studio. However, the iconic images of Monroe on the New York street still resonate with movie fans worldwide. (Photo: copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

There is another value to the tour that extends beyond Hollywood history- and that is the fascinating facts and anecdotes pertaining to how the city itself has changed over the years (and in some cases, remained consistent in terms of film locations.) On Location Tours, which runs the service in conjunction with TCM, also provides trivia questions on the monitors so that attendees can compete for prizes. (This is used as a pleasant way to kill time in case the bus becomes embedded in one of Gotham's notorious traffic jams.)

In all, this is a marvelous treat for both casual movie fans and die-hard TCM viewers. Tickets are $43 for adults, $27 for children. Click here to book tickets and get more info about the tour.  

Veteran movie director Ted Post has died at age 95. Post was closely associated with the early career of Clint Eastwood, directing 20 episodes of Rawhide and Eastwood's feature films Hang 'Em High (1968) and Magnum Force (1973). Post also directed the hit sequel to Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Post is closely associated with classic TV, having directed episodes of Combat!, The Defenders, The Twilight Zone, Peyton Place and Gunsmoke. His latest television project was a remake of the John Ford classic Stagecoach in 1986. Other feature films include The Harrad Experiment and Go Tell the Spartans.   For more click here

Valentin de Vargas with Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil.

Valentin de Vargas, who menaced Janet Leigh as Pancho in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," has died at the age of 78.

Vargas died June 10 of myelodysplastic syndrome in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was laid to rest at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in New Mexico. His daughter, Vanessa de Vargas, said the family wanted to wait until after his burial to announce his death.

Vargas was active in Nosotros, the organization founded by Ricardo Montalban to support Latinos in show business, and he took acting classes taught by Anthony Quinn.

Vargas reunited with Touch of Evil co-stars Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston.

In addition to "Touch of Evil," Vargas appeared in "Blackboard Jungle," Howard Hawks' "Hatari!," "The Magnificent Seven" and William Friedkin's "To Live and Die in L.A."

Vargas also guest starred in such popular TV shows as "Hill Street Blues," "The Wild Wild West," and "Dallas," as well as a classic horror episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour": The Life Work of Juan Diaz, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.- Harvey Chartrand

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Severin Films has released the definitive version of the cult movie The Manson Family (aka Charlie's Family) as a Blu-ray special edition. If you've never heard of the movie, don't feel bad: most main stream moviegoers have not. However, the film, which became an obsessive dream project for director Jim VanBebber has been a legend on the indie movie circuit for many years. The Severin release is one of those rarities in which the bonus extras equal or exceed the value of the main feature. VanBebber began shooting the movie in 1988 and, in the tradition of all true independent filmmakers, periodically would run out of production funds. He worked in low end jobs and sacrificed anything approaching a reasonably comfortable lifestyle in order to put all of his financial resources into finishing the film. (VanBebber once had to resort to giving blood in order to raise a few dollars.)  The process took fifteen years, leading to the actor who was playing Manson becoming so fed up that he finally walked away from the project. (VanBebber had fortunately shot most of the essential scenes involving Manson by this point). After principal photography finally was wrapped, VanBebber went into years of post-production work, showing the movie at film festivals and trying to perfect a final cut.  

As a finished work, The Manson Family is impressive on a number of levels. The film eschews giving us any major insights into how Manson and his "Family" got acquainted, nor does it attempt to delve into the personal backgrounds of the key members of his inner circle. Instead, the movie simply presents us with how the Family was eeking out an existence in 1969 on a remote ranch that had once been used as a location for Western movies. The place, owned by a aging and naive businessman, is run down and rarely used for filming any longer. Instead, Manson and his followers have basically appropriated the property as their own and they spend their days drinking, smoking weed and indulging in group sex. As Manson's paranoia becomes more pronounced, this seemingly benign existence comes to an end as he encourages his followers to engage in increasingly violent behavior. (VanBebber theorizes that Manson's shooting of a black drug dealer exacerbated his actions because he mistakenly thought he killed the man and thus became convinced that black radicals would try to avenge his death. Ironically, VanBebber concedes that this segment in the finished film also implies that Manson killed the man, when in fact, Manson never personally murdered anyone.)  Manson ultimately orders his followers to commit the Tate/ LaBianca killings, which are so gruesomely depicted that one only realizes later that VanBebber insisted upon showing "restraint" in filming the actual butchering of the pregnant Sharon Tate. (The victims are all incidental characters and are not even referred to by name.) Until this climactic sequence, the film is a rather fascinating depiction of life among the misfits and losers who comprised Manson's inner circle. The story is told in "Rashomon" style with contemporary interviews with the key figures looking back on this period of their lives. The documentary style format works well and it's a credit to VanBebber and his unpaid cast of unprofessional actors that you come to believe you are watching the actual people involved in these notorious events. Where VanBebber goes over the top is in the bloodletting. There probably isn't a tasteful way to depict the brutal murders of innocent people, but VanBebber's insistence that restraint would do injustice to the true horrors that took place does not excuse his pornographic closeups of every aspect of these tortures and murders. I found myself looking away from the screen more than once. Still, The Manson Family is a remarkable achievement considering it was constructed by amateur filmmakers and cast members. There isn't a false note in the performances and their dedication extended to full frontal nudity, which does add a certain courageous quality  and authenticity to the production. As director, VanBebber is quite impressive, even though some of the camera angles and shooting techniques now look somewhat cliched and dated. VanBebber intersperses the story of the Manson Family with sequences of a contemporary group of goth thugs preparing to carry out a murder of their own, having been inspired by Manson. VanBebber's intention was to show that Manson's evil legacy still has tentacles into contemporary society, but the device is rather confusing and off-putting to the viewer. 

For all of VanBebber's troubles, The Manson Family has received scant recognition among movie-goers. The film had a brief theatrical release in England in 2004 but was savaged by critics and died at the boxoffice. Other theatrical screenings have been very limited and VanBebber vowed to never make another film until he had funding firmly in place. Over the years, however, the movie has built a cult following of loyal supporters including the late Roger Ebert (click here to read his original review, which is the very definition of "mixed feelings"). However, on the cult movie circuit, the film made VanBebber a legend among fellow travelers in the indie trade and those who admire his Ahab-like quest to conquer his own great white whale: a final cut of the film that had obsessed him for more than a decade.  

The Blu-ray edition is superb and provides fascinating insights into the long, arduous path to completion that the film underwent. (Most of the materials were presented on a previous DVD release in 2005).  There is an extended version of a 2003 documentary titled The VanBebber Family in which the cast and crew reflect on their memories of making of the movie. It's a warts-and-all affair that doesn't stint in making VanBebber occasionally appear to be more insane that obsessed in his quest to bring the film to completion. VanBebber appears throughout, in uncharacteristic short hair, smoking and drinking as he relates his tales of woe. He also provides an insightful audio commentary that depicts the making of the film in highly personal terms. The Blu-ray also has a new interview with Phil Anselmo, who created the impressive musical score for the movie. There are also some deleted scenes shown as raw footage on a monitor because funding had not been available to make clean, finalized footage of these sequences. Original theatrical trailers are included as well. However, the crown jewel in this edition is a 2001 documentary titled In the Belly of the Beast that covers the action at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. The festival is apparently like Mecca for indie movie makers who embrace the "anything goes" atmosphere and capitalize on showing their latest works or works-in-progress. The documentary dispassionately uses hand held cameras in confined spaces to get inside the heads of these filmmakers. It's a pretty sobering experience. Almost without exception, they choose to depict the ugliest aspects of humanity, with their low-budget productions dwelling on gory closeups of autopsies, butchering, torture and other cringe-inducing sights. They seem like reasonably nice people in interviews, but you have to wonder what the hell is going on in their minds. They know their films have zero chance of getting wide distribution or even making their money back, but they want to indulge in carnage for the sake of carnage. They find appreciative audiences at the film festival with zombie-like fans cheering and applauding during the most gruesome depictions of human behavior (at one point, VanBebber discusses the fact that some audience members laughed during the sequences in his film that re-enact the Tate/La Bianca murders). These are not people you want to be stranded on a desert island with. Yet, one must have admiration for the filmmakers themselves. Regardless of how distasteful their subject matters may be, you have to admire their sheer determination and grit in pursuing their dream projects over a course of years at a cost of all their financial resources. It's a dilemma not uncommon even among major filmmakers today, with big "names" sometimes having to use web-based Kickstarter campaigns to fund their next project. One "professional" director interviewed throughout the documentary is Richard Stanley, but his success is only relative to those whose names will never be known. Stanley had a couple of cult film hits with Hardware and Dust Devil before having been given the opportunity to go mainstream by directing the remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. It was a dream project but Stanley couldn't or wouldn't play nice with the mainstream studio forces around him and was fired after only four days. In his interviews, Stanley shows clips from documentaries he was working on relating to the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion and another fascinating topic, a Nazi propagandist who was Jewish. I'm sufficiently intrigued enough to now search these out. 

The Blu-ray also features interview clips with Charles Manson conducted in the 1980s and the debut of Jim VanBebber's latest short film, Gator Green which centers on a young couple who dabble in drug dealing. When they are lured to a remote bar on the edge of a forbidding swamp, things go wrong immediately and they are captured by a group of backwoods sadists that make the two hillbillies from Deliverance look like Boy Scouts.  The story is set (for no appreciable reason) in 1973 and the villains are (for no appreciable reason) demented Vietnam War veterans. The film, which runs only 15 minutes, starts off moody and atmospheric. The setting is a foreboding bar designed to look like an alligator because it sits next to an alligator preserve. The promising premise quickly disintegrates into a mindless gore fest with the couple subjected to unspeakable tortures. I was a bit disappointed to see VanBebber devolve to this. He is certainly a talented filmmaker, as evidenced by The Manson Family. One hopes that fate affords him the opportunity to use his talents on future projects for something other than presenting the most vile human behavior. 

In all, the Severin Blu-ray is to be highly recommended. It is outstanding on all levels.  

Click here to order from Amazon 

If you can just give Auric Goldfinger some slack when it comes to overlooking his plan to use an atomic bomb to destroy Ft. Knox, he might be viewed as an economic visionary.

In one of the most original spins we've seen in analyzing the James Bond films, Slate.com writer Matthew Yglesias looks at the financial schemes of legendary 007 villain Auric Goldfinger, who- in the 1964 classic film that bares his surname- engages in illicit gold sales and smuggling. Yglesias views Goldfinger as a man ahead of his time and compares his actions and plans as a response to Prime Minister Harold Wilson's austerity measures that he says failed miserably and continued Britain's economic decline. It's pretty deep analysis for the average person who can barely balance a checkbook, but the Slate article brings in some fascinating insights as to why Goldfinger might today just be viewed as a person engaging in a victimless crime that actually benefited England in the long run. (He doesn't, however, excuse Goldfinger's scheme to enhance the value of his own gold by blowing up Ft. Knox!) Fitting improbably into a James Bond article is the specter (pardon the pun)  of President Richard M. Nixon, who Yglesias credits with modernizing U.S. economic policies toward the sale and trading of gold, thus making it accessible to the average person. Click here to read  

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Twilight Time has released the 2005 restored version of Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee as on Blu-ray, providing both the "improved" version of the film along with the controversial original cut. Peckinpah had won respect as a fine director of TV Westerns and his 1962 feature film, Ride the High Country, earned critical praise, particularly in Europe. Columbia hired Peckinpah to direct his first big budget film, Major Dundee, which top-lined two big stars: Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. As would prove to be the case throughout his career, Peckinpah's fiercely independent nature, combined with his propensity for snaring defeat from the jaws of victory, found him over his head on the production even before shooting started. Filmed in some inhospitable areas of Mexico, Peckinpah began shooting before the script was finalized (always a recipe for disaster). Midway through the film, Columbia was going to fire him for going over-budget but Heston used his clout to keep Peckinpah on the film- though in order to do so, he had to sacrifice his entire salary in order to help defray the financial overages. Heston envisioned that his extraordinary gesture would at least have resulted in Peckinpah's vision of a two-hour and forty minute roadshow version of the film being released. However, as soon as filming slogged to completion, the studio prohibited him from participating in the editing process. Producer Jerry Bressler, alarmed that the film's violent content would make it difficult to exhibit, cut the movie to 122 minutes. That may still have seemed long for a Western, but it placed Peckinpah's artistic vision in the trash. The mercurial Peckinpah was outraged but he had no artistic control over the final cut so all he could do was protest. (The film was released in a 136 minute version outside of the USA and UK). Despite an aggressive marketing campaign and that fact that Heston was a top box-office draw, the film was considered to be a financial failure.

In the ensuing years, Peckinpah apologists have argued that the movie had the making of a masterpiece. Others claim that it has a scattershot script that tries to cover too much territory. The plot centers on U.S. Army Major Amos Dundee (Heston), a no-nonsense graduate of West Point who drives his men relentlessly and tolerates no insubordination. For various reasons, we see that Dundee's reputation has been tarnished and he has been relegated to commanding a remote outpost in the New Mexico Territory. The film opens on some chilling images of the aftermath of an Apache raid on a settler's encampment. The adults have been subjected to torturous deaths but Dundee learns that three young boys have been taken hostage. Determined to rescue them (and perhaps his own reputation), Dundee rounds up all the men his commanding officer can spare in order to engage in hot pursuit. Finding he doesn't have enough troops, Dundee offers a contingent of confederate prisoners of war the opportunity to escape the hangman's noose for attempting to escape if they agree to serve under Dundee's command. Complicating matters is the fact that their senior confederate officer is Captain Ben Tyreen (Richard Harris), a former friend of Dundee's who attended West Point with him. It's clear Dundee shows no favoritism to Tyreen and there is true bitterness between the two men who ended up on opposite sides of the Civil War. To round out his motley band of rescuers, Dundee also hires seemingly any drunkard or mercenary willing to take on the dangerous trek. When Dundee finds the Apaches have crossed into Mexico, he defies orders (and American policy) by taking his command across the border. In the process, they not only have to fight Apaches but Mexican troops and their French allies. For good measure, Peckinpah (who co-authored the screenplay) throws in yet another subplot about racial tensions between black troops and their confederate antagonists. This "everything but the kitchen sink" formula sometimes makes the film feel overstuffed and Peckinpah is clearly aspiring for more than he achieved, dramatically speaking. However, since no one will ever see his intended two hour and forty minute version of the film, we'll never know how the movie may have been improved if his artistic vision was kept intact. As it is, Major Dundee is a very entertaining film on all levels. There are some awkward transitions between story lines and the subplot with Senta Berger romancing Heston seems to exist entirely for sex appeal in this otherwise testosterone-fueled production. Heston, in full "I'm posing for Mt. Rushmore" mode, never looked so good on screen and gives a fine commanding performance that is matched by Richard Harris's more sarcastic and humorous Tyreen. The great supporting cast is like "Who's Who" of notable character actors from the era including Ben Johnson, Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, Warren Oates, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens, Karl Swenson and Dub Taylor. Co-starring roles include James Coburn in fine form as a crusty, one-armed scout, Jim Hutton as a greenhorn officer under Dundee's command and Michael Anderson Jr. as a young soldier who provides the narrative of the events that unfold. The film as a whole never completely gels, even in the extended version, and one suspects that even Peckinpah's original cut (that was never realized) would perhaps not lived up to the expectations of his fan base. Nevertheless, Major Dundee is also quite underrated by many critics and film historians. It's a hard-hitting, consistently engrossing film that has well withstood the test of time.

One of the glaring artistic misjudments found in the original cut of the film was the score by Daniele Amfitheatrof, which was often unsuited for the story line (the opening sequence of the massacre's aftermath unfolds over a jovial marching song warbled by the Mitch Miller gang!) The 2005 extended cut of the not only featured an impressive remastering, but also a brand new musical score by Christopher Caliendo that seems more appropriate for the movie, though Peckinpah purists still gripe that the only way they can see the extended cut is with this newly commissioned score.  Twilight Time's Blu-ray release is dazzling, carrying over the extras from Sony's 2005 DVD release of the extended version. These include a commentary track by Peckinpah historians Paul Seydor, David Weddle, Garner Simmons and Twilight Time co-founder Nick Redman. These guys know their stuff and it's fascinating to hear them debate the merits of the film. (The commentary track was recorded in 2004, a year after the Iraq War started and the parallels they make to Dundee's incursion into Mexico seem all the more poignant given the outcome of events.) Other extras include some outtakes and deleted scenes, trailers and part of a promotional reel shown to theater exhibitors. Naturally, there is the usual informative booklet by film historian Julie Kirgo.

Major Dundee may not be first rate Peckinpah on all levels, but the Twilight Time Blu-ray is a first-rate presentation.

(This release is limited to 3,000 units. The Blu-ray is region-free).  

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM SCREEN ARCHIVES 

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The Warner Archive has released the quirky 1966 film A Big Hand for the Little Lady as a burn-to-order title. Originally written for television, the story was aired in 1962 under the title Big Deal in Laredo as part of the DuPont Show of the Week series.  Ostensibly a Western, the movie is a claustrophobic affair with any views of open ranges and wide vistas confined to the film's opening sequence, which finds an undertaker (Charles Bickford) driving his hearse at a frantic speed across the desert. He stops at various homesteads to pick up an eclectic assortment of other men, each of whom seems to regard their final destination with the utmost solemnity. Turns out they are all participants in an annual event that draws spectators from far and wide: a high stakes poker game in Laredo, Texas. The players are the wealthiest businessmen in the county: Tropp, the undertaker, Drummond (Jason Robards), a cantankerous man whose passion for the game has resulted in his leaving his daughter at the alter and her wedding ceremony postponed until the game is completed, Buford (John Qualen), Wilcox (Robert Middleton) and Habershaw (Kevin McCarthy), an erudite, polite man who is the least temperamental of the group. The tournament takes place in private in the back room of the local saloon while crowds of curious townspeople speculate about who will emerge the winner in the high stakes game. In the midst of this, a family of three arrives in town: Meredith (Henry Fonda), his beautiful but prim-and proper wife Mary (Joanne Woodward) and their young son Jackie (Gerald Michanaud). They are pilgrims en route to buying their dream farm in San Antonio, something they have saved for over a period of many years. A broken wagon wheel delays their journey and results in them having to take a room for the night at the saloon. Mary turns many a man's head, but her sweet nature and fawning care of Jackie earns their respect and the family is accorded all due courtesies.  Meredith, who is a compulsive gambler, uses their farm funds to buy his way into the poker game. He loses the entire amount, much to Mary's horror. In the midst of this anxiety, he also falls ill from a stress-induced heart attack. He pleads with Mary to play out his hand, which he says is the best he has ever seen. There are two problems, however: Mary doesn't know how to play poker and they need $500 more to remain in the game and play the hand. Mary imposes on crusty local banker Ballinger (Paul Ford) to lend her the money, using the card hand as collateral. To the amazement of the other players, Ballinger complies, saying he has never seen a more impressive hand to play. With the financial future of her family on the line, Mary sits down at the table to take part in the highest stakes game ever played in Texas. 

A Big Hand for the Little Lady is a delightful tour de force for the talented actors involved. Ironically, Fonda, who was the biggest boxoffice draw in the movie, is off screen for much of the action, as his character is being tended to by the local doctor (Burgess Meredith.) Director Fielder Cook doesn't stress restraint in the performances and his remarkable cast seems to love hamming it up as much as possible, with Robards in full scenery-chewing mode. It's hard to say who is the most fun to watch, but certainly Burgess Meredith and Kevin McCarthy excel, as does the great Paul Ford. (Sadly, this was the final movie of the noted character actor Charles Bickford.)  The film's payoff is designed to be a big surprise, but astute viewers can probably see it coming fairly early on, though there are some "sting in the tail" elements you might not find predictable. To say any more would be a disservice. Suffice it to say we don't have many "little" movies like this today that would draw such top-flight stars and character actors. The movie is a great deal of fun throughout. 

Click here to order from Warner Archive.  

The latest issue of the British James Bond magazine MI Confidential is a 30th anniversary tribute to Octopussy and features interviews, rare photos and coverage of all aspects of production. A limited number signed by Maud Adams and Kristina Wayborn are also available. Click here to order  

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Eureka! Entertainment are delighted to announce the Halloween 2013 theatrical and home video releases of an eagerly awaited new restoration of F. W. Murnau's legendary silent cinema horror classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), expertly restored in Germany by the world-renowned Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (FWMS). 

This revival of a horror classic, one of the most famous of all silent films, follows Eureka! Entertainment's hugely successful restoration showcases of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) in 2010 and Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) in 2012. 

Nosferatu's UK theatrical run will be co-ordinated by Eureka! Entertainment and will open in selected cinemas nationwide on Friday October 25, 2013, just in time for Halloween, and will also feature as part of the BFI’s GOTHIC: The Dark Heart of Film which runs from 21st October 2013 – 31st January 2014. This year the BFI will take Britain back to darker times and thrill the nation by uncovering, as never before, the dark heart of film. With over 150 titles and around 1000 screenings GOTHIC features spectacularly terrifying special events to thrill every corner of the UK. GOTHIC will explore film’s most popular theme, spawning some of the medium’s most iconic, powerful and terrifying scenes and characters whose lasting popularity just refuses to die www.bfi.org.uk/gothic .

Blu-ray, Blu-ray SteelBook and DVD releases of Nosferatu will follow with a raft of special features to be announced nearer the release date, as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series www.mastersofcinema.org .

Ron Benson, head of Eureka! Entertainment, comments: “Eureka! Entertainment have had the real pleasure of releasing some of the absolute classics of silent cinema, and there are arguably no more iconic than F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, the grandfather of all vampire films, which continues to thrill, chill, and horrify audiences nearly 100 years after it was made.”

Craig Keller, producer of The Masters of Cinema Series, adds: “This new restoration of Nosferatu has been meticulously prepared and looks truly outstanding. It will allow a new generation to experience afresh one of the greatest of all cinematographic horrors, and a monument of German expressionism, looking better than ever. The film is uncanny, legitimately terrifying – to see it on the big screen in the midst of the Halloween season will make for an unforgettable experience.”

Critical praise for Nosferatu:

"The first and probably the greatest of all vampire films." –Jonathan Rosenbaum

"[F. W. Murnau is] the greatest film director the Germans have ever known." – Lotte Eisner

Online:

Eureka Entertainment website www.eurekavideo.co.uk

Masters of Cinema Website www.mastersofcinema.org

Twitter: @eurekavideo / @mastersofcinema

Facebook: www.facebook.com/EurekaEntertainment

Foyle's War: one of the most highly acclaimed British TV shows of all time.

Silver Spring, MD; August 15, 2013 – RLJ Entertainment’s (NASDAQ: RLJE) Acorn TV, the first streaming service focused on the best of British TV in North America, announces more exclusive U.S. premieres as well as tripling its available content. Available at www.Acorn.TV and via its popular Roku app, Acorn TV brings many of the best British mysteries, comedies, and dramas, as well as select Australian, U.S. and Canadian series, to the increasing number of consumers who prefer to stream content. Previously, Acorn TV streamed a full season of 18 rotating series; moving forward, Acorn TV will add at least six new and classic series each month, as well as offering a catalog of 65 series for catch-up viewing and discovery of new series, with no set end dates. Acorn TV also continues to offer a free 30-day trial.

Acorn TV is now featuring the exclusive U.S. premiere of Jack Irish, a new, ongoing detective series starring Guy Pearce (Iron Man 3, Memento). Called “the coolest show on television” (Daily Record, UK) and an “intelligent, hard-boiled thriller” (The Wall Street Journal), Jack Irish is the brooding antihero of Australian writer Peter Temple’s award-winning novels. Reeling in the wake of his wife’s murder, the former lawyer has reinvented himself as a part-time private investigator and debt collector. In two feature-length mysteries, Pearce delivers a masterful performance, imbuing Jack with world-weary gruffness and a dash of dark humor. Listen to Guy Pearce’s interview about Jack Irish on NPR Weekend Edition.

Coming this fall, Acorn TV will feature the exclusive U.S. premiere of Series 6 of Acorn’s newest best-selling series and public TV sensation Doc Martin. In the U.K., Doc Martin is ITV’shighest-rated drama series with more than 10 million viewers, while in the U.S., it’s the #1 series on many public television stations and has millions of viewers across the country. The new episodes will debut soon after their UK broadcast. Additionally, Acorn TV will premiere Season 6 of hit period detective series Murdoch Mysteries in September. ‘The Best British TV’ service will also stream the newest episodes of Foyle’s War, the day after they premiere on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS, which begins on September 15. In early 2014, Acorn TV will feature new episodes from the final series of Agatha Christie’s Poirot starring David Suchet.

Miguel Penella, Chief Executive Officer of RLJ Entertainment, Inc., said, “Given the limited broadcast options for U.S. viewers to watch high quality programs from outside the U.S., Acorn TV offers U.S. fans the opportunity to not only stream many of their favorite series but, more importantly, discover new and classic programs previously unavailable to U.S. audiences. We’re very excited about our upcoming premieres of the hugely popular UK series Doc Martin and Agatha Christie’s Poirot, as well as offering our customers much more of the best British mysteries, comedies, and dramas.”

Acorn TV’s recent U.S. premieres included Australian 1920s “lady detective” series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries; P.G. Wodehouse’s Blandings, a witty 2013 series starring Timothy Spall (The King’s Speech) and Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous); medical drama Monroe starring James Nesbitt (The Hobbit); BBC’s The Syndicate, now being remade by ABC as Lucky Seven this fall; as well as new episodes from several of its top-selling series, among many others. All of these programs are now readily available to stream.

Additionally, Acorn TV will feature all previous episodes of many popular British series, including George Gently, Midsomer Murders, The Forsyte Saga starring Damian Lewis(Homeland), iconic miniseries I, Claudius, as well as more than 50 episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot. In the coming months, Acorn TV will add several of the most critically-acclaimed series in British television history, including Prime Suspect starring Helen Mirren and Foyle’s War starring Michael Kitchen.

Launched in July 2011, Acorn TV is accessible on the #1 streaming player, Roku, as well as computers, and through the browsers on iPhones and iPads. It is also available on any portabledevice with a browser that has the most recent version of Flash. Besides its Roku app, Acorn TV is currently working towards apps for Apple TV, Samsung, iOS, Sony, and Android platforms.

With the increased availability of content, Acorn TV will be $4.99/month or $49.99/year, though it’s on sale at $2.99/month or $29.99/year until Sept. 2nd. Acorn TV subscribers also receive free shipping on all orders from Acorn’s distinctive merchandise catalog and website, www.AcornOnline.com.

Called the “chief curators of the best Brit TV” by TIME magazine, RLJ Entertainment’s Acorn brand holds exclusive North American distribution rights to the most critically acclaimed British programs, which are available for streaming on Acorn TV and from Acorn in lavishly packaged DVDs/Blu-rays. RLJ Entertainment also manages the literary estate of Agatha Christie, the best-selling novelist of all time, and owns the hugely popular period detective series Foyle’s War.

Mark Sutton, the 41 year old British stuntman who doubled for Daniel Craig in the 2012 Olympics 007-themed opening skit that featured Queen Elizabeth, has died in a tragic wing gliding accident in Switzerland. Sutton worked with another stuntman, Gary Connery (who doubled for the Queen) in the now famous  sequence in which Her Majesty and Bond parachute into the stadium. The result was universal praise for a brilliant concept that was executed by Oscar winning director Danny Boyle. Sutton was new to the wing glide craze which has attracted a relatively small but highly enthusiastic group of international participants who "glide" from high mountain peeks. The thrill is said to be amazing but the risks are high. Sutton slammed into a mountain and was so badly disfigured that his body had to be identified using DNA. For more click here 

The ever-talented artist Pete Emslie of the Cartoon Cave helps us celebrate the 88th birthday of actor Mike Connors with this artwork. Check out Pete's site for more great cartoons.  

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since a young filmmaker named George Lucas took the world by storm with his Oscar-nominated classic American Graffiti". The film boosted Lucas' name in the industry and paved the way for him to become one of the most influential forces in the history of international cinema. Writer Michael Coate of The Digital Bits web site presents a superb look back at this timeless film and fills you in on many facts you probably didn't know. Click here to read.  

You can't keep a good man down. Sir Roger Moore is back on the road again. He'll tour the UK with stage appearances under the banner of (appropriately enough)  An Afternoon with Sir Roger Moore. Sir Roger packed 'em in during his book tour of the UK last year and left fans in other areas clamoring for the former James Bond to visit their neck of the woods. Moore's ability to relate amusing and fascinating anecdotes about his many years in show business form the center of the show, but he always engages the audience in Q&A sessions. Cinema Retro columnist Gareth Owen, who co-authored books with Sir Roger, will act as emcee and interviewer for the stage appearances. The tour kicks off on 27 October at the Leeds Grand Theatre. Click here for boxoffice information.  

By David King

The Warner Archive has released the 1979 film The Great Santini on DVD. In many ways, the film helped break Hollywood’s long-standing glorification of war -- to a point. But it would seem old habits die hard, and when they do, we’re left with an uneven picture that goes to verge of making a powerful statement on war before backing off to familiar and safe settings.

Right off the bat, we’re introduced to a Marine dogfighter, Lt. Col. “Bull” Meechem (Robert Duvall in an Oscar-nominated performance), as he simulates air-to-air combat with his fellow pilots. Here is clearly a man in his element, trash-talking and verbally harassing his fellow pilots as he makes quick work of them.

The grainy stock footage of fighter planes is followed shortly by a group of carousing Marines making trouble in a bar full of stuffed shirts and officers, a scene straight out of the classic World War II films that preceded it. But then the film takes an abrupt turn as we meet Meechem’s family. These are the Von Trapps of the corps, each precocious and at the same time fiercely loyal and more than a little fearful of their father.

We begin to see that the title is more than a little ironic. Despite Meechum’s corps nickname of The Great Santini, there’s very little admirable about this man. He’s homophobic, misogynistic and physically and emotionally abusive to his wife, children and fellow Marines. Throughout it all, excuses are made for Santini. “He’s getting old, and that’s the hardest thing in the world,” explains his wife Lillian (Bylthe Danner). On multiple occasions, it’s observed that all the Colonel needs is a war in which to let out his aggression and let his true skills as a crack pilot be put to good use.

Released in a post-Vietnam 1979, the film (directed by Lewis John Carlino) is uniquely able to make this argument. In war time, perhaps it’s okay for someone to be both a patriot, decorated soldier and an unrepentant asshole, and the audience will accept these character flaws. But in relatively peaceful times, we plainly see a man whose life is unraveling. The film is careful not to reveal this upfront, instead letting his flaws slowly outweigh his positive characteristics. It’s not until the halfway mark that someone observes of Santini, “I know a drunk when I see one,” even if the audience is never fed the stock scene of a man drinking himself to death.

While the film is careful to let this flawed character unfold deftly by Duvall, it’s often heavy-handed. His eldest son Ben (Michael O’Keefe), arguably the film’s true protagonist, butts heads with his father at every turn. He shows emotion and compassion in stark contrast to Santini, but O’Keefe’s performance often borders on hammy overacting (despite the fact that he was also nominated for an Oscar for his work in the film). The movie also disappoints in its scope. Not content to show one man’s struggle to become a better father and husband (although we can argue about how hard he fights for this), it overreaches in an attempt to also solve racism through a unnecessary subplot that seems thrown in for drama’s sake.

In even acknowledging that some skilled warriors need not be admired beyond their military abilities, the film breaks ground. But The Great Santini falls short in delivering any grand message in the end, instead once again reminding us that Meechem isn’t so bad -- he just needed a war to cure him of his self-destructive behavior. One wishes the Warner Archive bare-bones DVD provided some extras for context (the only special feature is an original trailer).

Ultimately, the message seems to be, to paraphrase Flannery O’Connor, that Santini would be a good man if only there had been someone to shoot at his whole life.

Click here to order from Warner Archive and to view preview clip 

Joe Dante's Trailers from Hell site presents the original theatrical trailer for Dirty Harry. You can listen to the original version or choose the option with commentary by noted screenwriter and director Alan Spencer. Click here

By Bill Duelly 

The Warner Archive Collection has finally released the elusive Liberace feature ‘Sincerely Yours’. Originally released to theaters in 1955, this film is a curio of the times, the studio system and most importantly a snapshot, (in color no less; more on that later) of the early stages of the musician’s career.

To be fair to the movie, we need to turn our mental clocks back to the mid- 50s (so lines such as ‘They’ll love him in San Francisco’ wouldn’t bring immediate chuckles). That upstart- television- had been keeping audiences away from theaters in droves. Various new processes were employed to give audiences an experience they couldn’t get at home, such as Cinemascope and 3-D. So what was one of Warner Brother’s great ideas ? To make a movie with the TV’s first idol, the charming pianist from Wisconsin, Wladziu Valentino Liberace or as he was known professionally, ‘Liberace’. In hindsight, the reasoning was totally illogical and was one of the main reasons for the film’s demise: Liberace was available to TV audiences every day for free, so there was no need to go down to the local theater to pay to see him.

Cynics have long scoffed at the notion of Liberace being presented as a “Ladies Man”. Yet , he never officially came out of the closet and throughout his career, he had plenty of women who swooned at his every appearance. They didn’t seem to care what his sexual preferences were-but Liberace was sensitive to any suggestion that he might not be a full-blooded heterosexual. He even won a famous libel suit against a London critic who dared to suggest otherwise.

For Liberace’s screen debut, Warners dusted off a 1932 property, “The Man Who Played God’, the story of a concert pianist who goes deaf, learns to lip read and then intervenes in the lives of others. The pianist also finds out that the girl he was falling for was herself falling for someone else. Yet all along it was his long suffering secretary who was his real love. Liberace does not set the screen afire as a lead dramatic actor, although the director Gordon Douglas, who seemed to work with everyone in Hollywood, from Laurel & Hardy to Sinatra and Elvis, does a good job in eliciting a fair performance from Lee (as he liked to be called).

One of the popular aspects of Liberace’s TV show was his ability to play to the camera and invite the audience into his world, with his brother George and his mom. Playing the role of a ‘fictional’ performer denied him this resource that worked so well on the small screen. His public appearances, not only relied on his mastery of the keyboard but his charm with the older ladies and frequent interactions with the audience members. And this is where Sincerely Yours really shines, and makes the disc worth every penny. We are treated to numerous concert, dance and nightclub performances, with Liberace charming the audience. The performances are allowed to be worked through and are not rushed or hurried along, so we get to relax and enjoy the music and see the true entertainer that Liberace was during his formative years before the explosion of glitz and glammer of his later Vegas style acts.

Liberace is supported by Joanne Dru as his secretary (unfortunately since finding out she is Peter Marshall’s sister I can’t help thinking Hollywood Squares when she is on); William Demarest, always a delight, plays his manager; Dorothy Malone is his ‘love interest’ and the always dependable LureneTuttle plays one of the beneficiaries of Lee’s goodness.

The DVD release is presented in the correct 16:9 aspect ratio for this movie however the image is a little soft and grainy. In all likelihood this is due to the fact that the film was shot in ‘WarnerColor’, which was just another name for the then new Eastman Color process. The early Eastman color stock was very unstable and had a huge grain structure to it), so don’t expect Technicolor! There are no extras on the disc.

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Karen Black with (L to R) Alan Cumming and Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer and David Savage under the portrait of Players club founder Edwin Booth.

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Cinema Retro is very saddened to learn the news that Karen Black has died at age 74 following a long battle with cancer that was documented on web sites by her husband Stephen Eckelberry. Black found that her insurance plans would not cover some of the experimental treatments she had hoped to try and planned to travel to Europe where they could be administered. Drained of her savings by the cost of health care treatments, Black and her husband made appeals for financial donations on the web in hopes of raising enough money to get to Europe. Sadly, she became completely incapacitated before that could happen. Eckelberry had documented the last three years of Black's life as part of a documentary about her battle with cancer that will be shown in some format in the future. Black first gained attention in a Broadway show in 1965 before gaining fame on film in counter-culture movies of the late 1960s and 1970s including Easy Rider, Drive, He Said and Five Easy Pieces, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. She worked very steadily in films, TV and on stage. Until her illness struck, she had been performing acclaimed one-woman shows in which she would sing and recount amazing stories about her show business career. She also appeared in many other high profile films such as Alfred Hitchcock's last movie Family Plot and Airport '75, a kitschy boxoffice hit in which she played a stewardess who must take command of a plane when the pilots are disabled. She also appeared in Portnoy's Complaint, The Outfit, The Great Gatsby, Capricorn One  and Robert Altman's Nashville.

On a personal note, I only met Karen Black once, a few years ago when her friend, Cinema Retro columnist David Savage, brought her to the Players club in New York City.  Black had asked if she could bring along a "couple" of friends, which turned out to be about a dozen people including such talents as Alan Cumming and Andrea McArdle. It was a wonderful evening, as this charming lady regaled us with fascinating tales about her long career, which she told me had been derailed due to the financial failure of The Day of the Locust, the 1975 big budget boxoffice flop. Black had the starring role and she said that studios blamed her for the film's failure, although she cited behind the scenes talent as the real reason the movie lost money. She was too considerate even then to name the people she felt were the real culprits, but she did say it was the most unhappy experience of her career. She also discussed her long friendship with co-star Jack Nicholson, who always referred to her as "Blackie" and laughingly said that the role she probably still gets the most fan mail from was the 1975 cult classic TV movie Trilogy of Terror in which she played multiple roles. I recall just how ageless Karen Black seemed that night. She was still very much a head-turner and was charming and funny. I will greatly miss her, as will anyone else who has admired her considerable talents over the decades. 

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SECONDS (The Criterion Collection)

THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... (The Criterion Collection)

SCARY SECONDS AND JEWEL-LADEN IRONY

By Raymond Benson

Among the new releases this month from The Criterion Collection, that Cadillac of Blu-Ray/DVD labels, are two oldies-but-goodies—and very different ones—that will impress both the average film lover and the hardcore art house enthusiast. For me, the most anticipated title was Seconds, the 1966 paranoia-science fiction-mystery-thriller directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Rock Hudson in a cast-against-type role. There’s no question that the picture was ahead of its time. The circumstances sound familiar—it was a very intelligent, well-made, strikingly photographed genre movie that audiences found too strange or unpleasant, and it flopped... but later, because it really was good, it became a cult classic.

Seconds is a shocking film today; in 1966, it was radical. It was considered an “adults-only” movie, even though its release was prior to the implementation of the American rating system (besides some disturbing violence, there is an extended scene of Bacchus rite enthusiasts stomping grapes in the nude). Filmed in black and white by James Wong Howe—and his work on the picture is arguably the most impressive aspect of this complex film—Seconds tells the story of a middle-aged, successful, married-with-grown-daughter, man who desperately wants a different life. He finds it through a mysterious organization called the Company, which—for a fee—will fake the man’s death, help him disappear, give him a new face and body through means of elaborate plastic surgery, and plop him into the identity of someone else. If, however, the man is not happy with his new life, then his body becomes the faked corpse for the next client.

Thus, the first third of the movie stars the actor John Randolph, whose features, in retrospect, didn’t change all that much over the next forty years. Randolph is terrific—he displays the character’s inner turmoil over his decision with “calm nervousness”; this is who will eventually be housed inside of Rock Hudson, also poignantly wonderful as a sad, frustrated man... and this is the key to the movie. The character that both actors play is not a happy person to begin with...he is destined to be dissatisfied with his second life, too, even though on the surface it seems more ideal.

Criterion’s Blu-ray is gorgeous—the new, restored 4K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, provides the best possible presentation of this remarkable film. Also of note is the audio commentary by the late Frankenheimer himself, an auteur whose oeuvre is perhaps not as widely respected as it should be. Extras include a new interview with Alec Bladwin (huh?), and the more relevant features such as Hollywood on the Hudson, a 1965 TV program featuring on-set footage and an interview with Rock Hudson. There’s a very good new program on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Frankenheimer’s widow and actress Salome Jens. Plus more. In short, it’s the usual first-class treatment from Criterion.

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Also released this month is Max Ophüls’ acclaimed 1953 French drama, The Earrings of Madame De... (also known as simply Madame De...). For those unfamiliar with Ophüls, you need to be. A German Jew, he escaped Nazi Germany, worked in France, came to America in the late forties and made a few highly regarded Hollywood pictures, then went back to France and made the four movies that cemented his reputation, and Madame De... is one of these. Ophüls was a pioneer in the tracking shot—in his films, the camera moves like a fluid dancer, following actors through sets and along streets. In fact, Stanley Kubrick often stated that Ophüls was one of his favorite directors, and one can see Ophüls’ influence on Kubrick, especially in the latter’s early work.

Madame De...starts off as a comedy, but it soon becomes not a love story, but a tale in which love brings about the characters’ downfalls. It’s an ironic fable adapted from a novella by Louise de Vilmorin about an upper class military couple (Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux), their affairs, and the trust vs. mistrust that exists in marriages in 19th Century France. Mostly, though, the picture is about pride, and how that emotion can dominate that of love. Vittorio de Sica, the famed director, also appears in a large supporting role as Darrieux’s paramour, and he is quite charismatic.

The usual high standard of extras include a commentary by film scholars Susan White and Gaylyn Studlar, and especially the excellent “visual essay” on Ophüls’ tracking techniques, narrated by film scholar Tag Gallagher. The booklet includes the complete novella by de Vilmorin, and another extra is an interview with the author, circa mid-sixties, in which she lambasts the film version, never realizing that her own pride is also ironic. Recommended.

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Cinema Retro welcomes our latest columnist, Ernie Magnotta, who will turn his attention to under-rated cinematic gems and guilty pleasures!

By Ernie Magnotta  

“If a movie makes you happy, for whatever reason, then it’s a good movie.”

—Big E

There are good movies and there are bad movies. There are also movies that some people say are so bad that they're good. I hear that all the time. I've heard it since I was a kid. I think what they actually mean is that they're not good in the way most people might normally watch and judge a film; Excellent writing, incredible acting, masterful direction, etc.

The way I see it, there's more than one way to enjoy a film. Every movie doesn't have to be a five-star masterpiece like Gone with the Wind. You do not have to judge a film the way you would judge a mainstream Hollywood movie and every movie that doesn't follow the Hollywood style of moviemaking isn't necessarily a bad film.

There are plenty of films that follow all the rules of proper writing, directing, etc. and are just awful. And there are just as many inept, low budget B-films that are excruciating to watch.

Like I said, there are many different ways to enjoy a film. You can love a film just for the nostalgia alone. It can take you back to a simpler, happier time in your life. You can enjoy it for a certain actor or actors, wacky dialogue, quirky characters, fun setting, wild plot and, although inept in many ways, the film could have a certain charm and, most of all, be fun.

With my ongoing reviews, I’d like to explain why I love these films so much, why they’ve gotten such a bed rep over the years and, also, to prove my statement that there’s more than one way to watch a movie.

*******WARNING: REVIEWS CONTAIN SPOILERS*******

“Put your weight on it! Put your weight on it! PUT YOUR WEIGHT ON IT!”

These words are instantly recognizable to anyone who has seen the insanely fun and quite unique1979 Blaxploitation classic, Disco Godfather. The entertaining film stars Dolemite himself; legendary comedian/musician Rudy Ray Moore in the title role of former cop turned super cool DJ, Tucker Williams aka the Disco Godfather. While happily spinning records at local disco Club Blueberry Hill, Tucker’s world is turned upside down when he finds out that his nephew Bucky (Julius J. Carry III), a promising athlete, has almost OD’d on angel dust aka “The Wack”. Tucker also learns that Bucky isn’t the first person from the neighborhood to suffer from the evil drug. When Dr. Mathis (Jerry Jones) takes him on a horrific tour of a local rehab center, Tucker witnesses firsthand what The Wack can do. It turns out that drug dealer Stinger Ray (James H. Hawthorne) is pushing the stuff all over town and Tucker ain’t havin’ it.

With the help of the courageous Noel (Carol Speed), the Godfather sets out to “attack the wack.” Of course, this won’t be easy because once Stinger Ray finds out, he sends his army of goons out after Tucker and, before you can say Carl Douglas, everybody starts kung fu fighting. When the smoke clears, The Godfather not only emerges victorious, but manages to locate the angel dust factory as well. Once there, however, he is overpowered and forced to take the dreaded drug himself. High beyond belief, the completely out of control Tucker grabs hold of Stinger Ray and begins choking the life out of him. In an ironic twist, the now rehabilitated Bucky arrives on the scene just in time to see his beloved godfather, who is having horrifying drug induced visions, completely freak out.

Prior to becoming a major star in Blaxploitation films, Rudy Ray Moore was a popular comedian known for his hit risque adult humor albums.

The eclectic film, co-written (with Cliff Roquemore) and directed by J. Robert Wagoner, and produced by Rudy Ray and Theodore Toney, is a strangely mesmerizing combination of comedy, drama, action and horror, peppered with disco music and a few dance numbers. (I told you it was unique.) And it’s not hard to figure out how the title was created. The disco craze was in full force at the time and Francis Ford Coppola’s magnificent The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II were two of the most popular films of the 70s. I first saw this movie in the late 80s under the title Avenging Disco Godfather and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it ever since. I always smile whenever anyone mentions it or recites one of the many quotable lines (which I’ll be listing shortly); especially the aforementioned “Put your weight on it.” The film definitely capitalizes on many popular exploitation elements of the time such as drug use, violence and martial arts, but it distinguishes itself from other run of the mill exploitation films by carrying a very positive and important message.

This is a film with an anti-drug message and you can clearly see that Rudy Ray Moore and the rest of the cast and crew were genuinely concerned about the junk that was polluting their neighborhoods. I believe that, amidst all the off-the-wall insanity in this movie, the filmmakers intentionally included this heartfelt message in the hopes of inspiring change. In that way, it more meaningful than many of the soulless, multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbusters we’ve been subjected to over the years. This movie has heart. Now, having said that, is it a good movie in the classic filmmaking tradition? Hell no! Many viewers will find it difficult to watch and that’s totally understandable. Nevertheless, it manages to be thoroughly entertaining. Most of the credit for this must go to the charismatic Rudy Ray Moore, who had to use creativity to overcome a shortfall of production funds. In many interviews, Rudy Ray explained how he had very little to no money to work with and, instead, used his imagination.

The movie is definitely imaginative. In fact, it’s downright original in spots; especially in the frightening scenes where we see the goings-on through the eyes of an angel dust user. Even the more ineptly done aspects of the film (including some unintentionally hilarious scenes) add to its appeal.

A company called Fast Custom Shirts has immortalized the film on a T shirt. Click here to order.

I always say that there’s more than one way to watch and enjoy a movie and that definitely applies to this film. Here are just some funkalicious reasons to check out Disco Godfather:

1. A cool and fun soundtrack.

2. Decent disco and roller disco scenes.

3. The Godfather’s electrifying first appearance is a sight to behold. Rudy Ray shows up shaking his groove thing on the dance floor in a skin tight, silver studded, turquoise jumpsuit with matching choker necklace and platform shoes. I went blind for a full two minutes.

4. When Bucky’s girlfriend frantically tells Tucker that his nephew is on drugs, Rudy Ray delivers the immortal line “Where is Bucky, and what has he had?”

5. Ambulance is pronounced “am-ba-lance.” Can you dig it?

6. When Bucky gets high in the disco, he thinks he’s in the middle of a basketball game.

7. Abby herself, the always welcome Carol Speed, is spunky and cute in her brief role as Noel. She looks good in a showgirl outfit, too.

8. Under the influence of angel dust, Bucky has terrifying hallucinations that include a severed hand, demons, witches with machetes and Rudy Ray turning into a skeleton.

9. There’s a character named Sweetmeat.

10. One of the addicts at the rehab center thinks he’s an unborn caterpillar.

11. E.C.T. stands for Electro Shock Treatment. (?)

12. At the angel dust rally, one woman’s afro is freakin’ ginormous!

13. With its funky fashions, automobiles, slang and décor, the movie is like a 1970s time capsule.

14. 35 minutes in: The dancing Godfather jiggles and gyrates as only he can.

15. 37 minutes in: I can’t even describe this outfit, but it shows off the Godfather’s man-boobs quite nicely.

16. The Godfather has more amazing lines such as “I want you to put a little slide in your glide!”, “She don't weigh but 90 pounds, baby, but she's got her weight on it!" and the classic “I’m the Godfather and my name is Tucker. Everybody knows that I’m a bad mutha…”

17. Tucker is able to read a crooked cop’s badge number from across the darkened dance floor.

18. Lady Reed, Queen Bee from the Dolemite series, is great as a sorrowful mother who keeps her faith in God and never leaves her drug addicted daughter’s side.

19. Keith David (John Carpenter’s The Thing, There’s Something About Mary) is uncredited as a club patron. See if you can spot him. I couldn’t.

20. At Sweetmeat’s party, people snort cocaine off of a Saturday Night Fever album cover.

21. Some dude in karate pants and a Fu Manchu moustache acts like Bruce Lee.

22. At one point, Tucker is attacked in an urban alley by a bullwhip wielding cowboy. For a second, I thought I was the one who was on angel dust.

23. Tucker fights a pseudo-sumo wrestler.

24. During his trip, Tucker hallucinates and has visions of his dead mother and another woman who I’m assuming is his aunt Betty. The reason I came to this conclusion is because five seconds after he sees her, Tucker screams at the top of his lungs “I hate you, Aunt Betty!”

25. Mama becomes a cartoon while a giant snake head bursts out of her stomach and Aunt Betty just laughs at Tucker while boozing it up.

26. Poetic Justice: Tucker, whacked out of his skull from the angel dust he’d been forced to take, mistakes Stinger Ray for a demon and strangles the drug dealer to death.

27. The movie ends with Tucker still trippin’ balls and screaming in terror.

28. The film immediately cuts to the inappropriately upbeat end credits music.

Tell me you don’t wanna see this movie now. I dare ya.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for a wild, different and hysterical time, then this is the movie for you. But don’t take my word for it. After all, who am I to tell you what to watch? Here’s what The Godfather himself had to say:

“I am your tower of power; the man of the hour; too sweet to be sour. I’m fine, divine and guaranteed to blow your mind. It’s now Godfather time.”

How can you resist that? You can’t, so just grab yourself a copy of Disco Godfather, relax and have a fun, crazy time.

Do it for Rudy Ray, and while you’re doing it, don’t you ever forget to put your weight on it.

I’d like to dedicate this review to the memory of Mr. Rudy Ray Moore. Rest in peace, Dolemite.

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Warner Home Video: 

BURBANK, Calif., August 6, 2013 — When he died in 1955 at the age of 24 in a car crash, James Dean was mourned by millions of fans throughout the world. Despite only making three films – all of them for Warner Bros. – Dean became one of Hollywood’s most spectacular stars, and 50 years later still remains an internationally compelling force, an iconic image, and a cult favorite of timeless fascination.

On November 5, Warner Home Video will debut East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant (a George Stevens production), remastered Blu-ray as the James Dean Ultimate Collector’s Edition – a limited and numbered six-disc set that boasts three feature-length documentaries about Dean’s life including James Dean Forever Young, narrated by Martin Sheen; American Masters James Dean Sense Memories and George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey. Packaged in a double-wide gift set, the collection also contains a 48-page photo book with behind-the-scene images and rare insight into each film. The Ultimate Collector’s Edition will sell for $99.98 SRP; each film will also be available as a stand-alone Blu-ray book for $27.98 SRP each.

All three films were 4k restorations from original camera negatives at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging (MPI). Due to color fading, the original camera negatives could no longer yield an acceptable photochemical print.

For Rebel Without a Cause, the stereo soundtrack was reconstructed from the magnetic soundtrack stripes of Cinemascope release prints. The film’s restoration was done by Warner Bros. in collaboration with The Film Foundation. Restoration funding was provided by Warner Bros., Gucci and The Film Foundation.

Details of the James Dean Ultimate Collector’s Edition

East of Eden (1955)

Based on John Steinbeck’s novel and directed by Elia Kazan, East of Eden is the first of three major films that make up James Dean’s movie legacy. The idol-to-be plays Cal, a wayward Salinas, California youth who vies for the affection of his hardened father (Raymond Massey) with his favored brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Playing off the haunting sensitivity of Julie Harris, Dean’s performance earned one of the film’s four Academy Award^® nominations[i]. Among the movie’s stellar performers, Jo Van Fleet won the Oscar^® for Best Supporting Actress (1955).

Special Features:

• Commentary by Richard Schickel
• "Forever James Dean" [1987 Documentary]
• "East of Eden: Art in Search of Life"
• Screen Tests
• Richard Davalos" [Wardrobe Test]
• "James Dean and Richard Davalos" [Wardrobe Test]
• "James Dean, Richard Davalos and Julie Harris" [Wardrobe Test]
• "James Dean and Lois Smith" [Wardrobe Test]

• "Lois Smith" [Wardrobe Test]
• "James Dean and Jo Van Fleet" [Wardrobe Test]
• "Jo Van Fleet" [Wardrobe Test]
• "Costumes and Production Design" [Wardrobe Test]
• Deleted Scenes
• 3/9/1955 NYC Premier

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

In one of the most influential performances in movie history, Dean plays Jim Stark, the new kid in town whose loneliness, frustration and anger mirrored those of postwar teens – and still reverberates 50 years later. Natalie Wood (as Jim’s girl Judy) and Sal Mineo (as Jim’s tag-along pal Plato) were Academy Award^® nominees[ii] for their achingly true performances. Director Nicholas Ray was also an Oscar^® nominee for this landmark film which was released less than one month after Dean’s fatal car crash.

Special Features:

• Commentary By Douglas L. Rathgeb
• Documentary "James Dean Remembered" [1974 TV Special]
• Documentary "Rebel Without A Cause: Defiant Innocents"
• Dennis Hopper Interview NEW!
• Screen Tests
• Wardrobe Tests
• Deleted Scenes
• "Behind The Cameras: Natalie Wood"
• "Behind The Cameras: Jim Backus"
• "Behind The Cameras: James Dean"
• Theatrical Trailers

Giant (a George Stevens production) (1956)

Based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling family saga about a Texas family of ranchers and oilmen, Giant stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and Dennis Hopper. In his final film role, Dean stars as wrangler turned oil baron Jett Rink. Directed by the legendary George Stevens, this sprawling epic received ten Academy Award^® nominations[iii] including a Best Actor nod for Dean and earned Stevens a win for Directing (1956).

Special Features:

• Introduction by George Stevens Jr.
• Commentary by George Stevens Jr., Ivan Moffat and Stephen Farber
• “George Stevens: Filmmakers Who Knew Him"

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By Todd Garbarini 

Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, which opened on Wednesday, December 25, 1963, may not be all that familiar to young viewers unless they grew up seeing it on VHS in the 1990s or on its maiden DVD release five years ago. I first saw it in January 1973 during a re-release and again in elementary school in the all-purpose room on 16mm in 1975, which was a real treat as it was rare to see a feature-length film in school (the obvious exception being Charlotte’s Web (1973) which was de rigueur for elementary school students.) Having just viewed the new 50^th anniversary Blu-ray, I was shocked to realize just how little of the film I had remembered other than the jousting sequence.

Based upon the 1938 novel by Terence Hanbury White, who passed away some 24 days after the film’s release, The Sword in the Stone concerns the death of King Pendragon, a British ruler whose demise has left his country reeling due to the lack of a successor. In London, the titular sword is buried partially in stone. Upon the sword is an inscription which states that whoever manages to remove the sword from the stone will be ordained the new king of England. Naturally, many overgrown brutes try their hand at it and fail to budge it. Sometime later, a young orphan by the name of Arthur (who is also referred to as Wart) joins his foster brother Kay on a hunting trip. Through a misadventure, he ends up in the home of a magician by the name of Merlin who takes Arthur under his cape, so to speak. When Arthur returns to his foster father, Sir Ector, he introduces him to Merlin. Sir Ector is more concerned with the upcoming annual jousting tournament which is to be held, conveniently enough, in London. Kay will be trained for the event and young Arthur will be his squire.

Merlin takes Arthur through a series of transformations in the hopes of giving the young lad an education. They temporarily become fish in a sequence that predates Finding Nemo by 40 years, and also become squirrels to comprehend the finer aspects of gravity and romantic love in a cute sequence. At this point, Archimedes, Merlin's owl, enters the picture. He is gruff and full of wisdom and takes a “tough love” attitude towards Arthur. The sequence where Merlin begins to wash dishes with his magic will delight children who have seen the Harry Potter films.

Arthur then learns how to fly by being turned into a sparrow and studies under Archimedes’ tutelage. Arthur makes his way down the chimney, the roof of the house shaped just like a witch’s hat – Harry Potter references again – and finds himself in the house of Madam Mim, who ends up in a duel with Merlin, the latter of whom stops the former by transforming himself into a germ and infecting her.

It is now time for the tournament and Sir Ector, Kay, Arthur, and Archimedes go to London. Naturally, Arthur has forgotten Kay's sword at the inn which turns out to be closed and he just happens to notice the sword in the stone. He extricate said with minimal effort and brings it to his father who was stunned when he reads the inscription on. Needing to see his son remove the sword from the stone with his very eyes, he replaces the sword in the stone. When Arthur removes it, it is obvious that he is the chosen King of England.

The Sword in the Stone contains a handful of entertaining songs and the lyrics are enough to baffle both Willy Wonka and Dr. Seuss: “Higitus Figitus” is a tongue-twister. The score was written by the Sherman Brothers, the most prolific songwriting team in the history of film. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Score - Adaptation or Treatment in 1963, but lost out to Irma La Douce.

The new Blu-ray, which also contains a standard definition DVD and a digital copy, is a revelation to behold. The picture can only be described as gorgeous and does not give a hint as to being over fifty years-old thanks to digital restoration. Colors are bright and sharp and look sterling on a large high definition display.

The extras on the disc consist of:

Alternate Opening - Where Wart Meets Merlin (4:02) – this is a look at how the film was originally going to open as seen through storyboards and voiceover.

Music Magic: The Sherman Brothers is an eight-minute featurette on the gentlemen who wrote the music. While is it interesting to watch, I would have liked to have seen much more of them!

All About Magic (Excerpt) – (7:19) is a neat feature in black and white of Walt Disney performing magic tricks. Some are obvious (like the “levitating” table that is being hoisted by strings) and some are a sight to see.

A Knight for a Day (7:06) is a color cartoon featuring Goofy which was released on March 8, 1946 and makes its appearance on this disc thanks to the jousting theme. There is a fair amount of dot crawl on the characters in certain shots as the cartoon has not been restored and appears to be transferred from a theatrical print.

Brave Little Tailor (9:01) is a color cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse that is set during the Middle Ages. It was released on September 29, 1938. Like A Knight for a Day, there is some dot crawl on the characters in certain shots as the cartoon has not been restored and also appears to be transferred from a theatrical print.

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Entertainment Weekly film critics Owen Gleiberman and Chris Nashawaty combine their insights to produce an article that provides their opinions of the ten best and five worst Woody Allen movies. Click here to see if you agree.  

James Cameron has promised (threatened?) that there will indeed be three more films based on his blockbuster Avatar. He will be working with four different screenwriters on the films, which Fox will release over a three year period beginning in 2016. Cameron will co-script each of the films, which will be shot simultaneously presumably with Cameron directing (he is also producing).  It is not certain whether these will be sequels, prequels or both. Cameron has the unique distinction of having the two top grossing films of all time: Avatar and Titanic. Fox is said to be committing to a combined budget of up to $1 billion for the project (Cameron does not work cheap and often exceeds his budget estimates.) Yet, Cameron is considered to be "money in the bank" for any studio lucky enough to enlist his talents. For some of us, Avatar was over-hyped and over-praised, but there is no denying moviegoers embraced the film, seeing it numerous times. Whether that enthusiasm will have waned by 2016 remains to be seen, but it's a likely bet that Cameron-Mania will still be in full swing. - Lee Pfeiffer

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Acclaimed character actor Michael Ansara has died at age 91. Ansara had primarily been known for playing key roles in Western TV series and motion pictures, but is also beloved by Star Trek fans for playing a Klingon commander in three incarnations of the series. Ansara, who was married for many years to actress Barbara Eden, appeared in such films as The Comancheros, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Harum Scarum (aka Harem Holiday) and Sol Madrid (aka The Heroin Gang). For more click here