In SPECTRE, a cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.  Sam Mendes returns to direct SPECTRE, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as 007 for the fourth time. SPECTRE is produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, from a script by John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade.

SPECTRE follows the release of SKYFALL, the biggest Bond film of all time, which took in $1.1 billion worldwide. SPECTRE is set for global release on November 6, 2015.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER AT 007.COM 

In his recent review of the Nitehawk Cinema’s splendid and rare 35mm showing of the James Bond film, “A View to a Kill,” our intrepid correspondent Hank Reineke was skeptical of a claim made that night that the movie played on its first-run at Manhattan’s notoriously déclassé (circa 1985) Selwyn Theater on West 42^nd Street.  According to a newspaper display ad from May 24, 1985, and held in his own files, Reineke determined that the only midtown Manhattan theaters showing “A View to a Kill” on its original release were the Loews Astor Plaza on West 44th, the Loews 84^th Street Six, the Loews New York Twin, the Loews 34^th Street Showplace, and the Orpheum on 86^th and 3rd Avenue.

Following Reineke’s metaphorical throwing down of the gauntlet (however accidental!), Joe Berger, one of the presenters of the Nitehawk’s wonderful film series, “The Deuce,” was quick to contact Cinema Retro to defend their claim.  Berger, in a friendly but firm manner – provided us with a scan from the Village Voice newspaper from that same week in 1985.  The listing leaves little doubt the fourteenth James Bond did, in fact, play the Selwyn, as one part of a twin bill with “The House Where Evil Dwells.”  As Berger would go on to explain, the row of aging theaters comprising “The Deuce,” such as the “Selwyn, Lyric, Harris, and Liberty, VERY FREQUENTLY premiered A-list films on their regular release dates, with a second, [and] sometimes third film as part of the cheaper ticket price.”  Berger explained that multi-bill attractions would, naturally, bring in “a smaller box office gross” since all profits were now “split amongst two or three titles.”  But such campaigns were studio “loss leaders” to some degree as distributors were aware a new film's presence on the Deuce would “attract a younger, more 'inner-city' crowd.”  The one stipulation for the bargain, according to Berger, was “that the theatre COULD NOT advertise” their showing through the usual marketing methods- such as a display in a print advertisement.

The cinematic equivalent of the "smoking gun" tape that brought down President Richard Nixon: the vintage newspaper listing that proves "A View to a Kill" did indeed play on 42nd Street during its initial run.

As for Reineke’s contention that the film played “two blocks north” of the Selwyn at the Loews Astor, Berger went on to explain that the film’s distributor would only want the Astor (and similar high-end cinema establishments) to be prominently advertised as these venues could charge a “larger ticket price” for “a single feature.”  This, naturally, would result in greater profits for all involved.

This all sounds right to us.  As a mea culpa, we intended to fire Reineke, until we realized that he has been donating his services to us on an unpaid basis. We were then going to sentence him to a terrible fate: 24 hours of around the clock screenings of “The Man With the Golden Gun”- until we remembered he likes the damned film. We’ve settled on making him watch Jerry Lewis in “Which Way to the Front?” three times in succession (unless the Supreme Court rules this is truly “cruel and unusual punishment.”)- Lee Pfeiffer

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

MI6 Confidential, the full-colour magazine celebrating the world of James Bond 007, returns with its twenty-ninth issue.

Ask anyone with a passing interest in Bond and they'll recall the terrorist organisation SPECTRE pulling the strings on some of 007’s most dangerous missions; but not because they have been a regular fixture of recent times. However, the organisation will be back (and just possibly its ubiquitous leader, Blofeld) in the 24th screen adventure. This issue pays tribute to the legacy that went before it. Packed with trivia, and historical data, we recount the rise of Blofeld from the germ of an idea from author Ian Fleming and producer Kevin McClory to his most recent filmic appearance in For Your Eyes Only.

We also explore the little-told history of Roger Moore’s seventh and final outing, A View To A Kill

– celebrating its 30th anniversary by catching up with several of the film’s alumni. Featured in this issue:

· Snowbound - An early look at the production of Bond 24, now known as SPECTRE

· The Many Faces of Blofeld - The master villain and his organisation on screen

· Kevin Mc Clory Interviewed - When the Thunderball producer reflected on 007 in 1979

· SPECTRE In Print - Charting the organisation's involvement in the Fleming and Gardner novels

· Dance Into The Fire - The complete history of Roger Moore's final outing as Bond

· Steamy Rendezvous - Fiona Fullerton on spending a day in the hot tub with co-star Roger Moore

· The Final Cut - Editor Peter Davies remembers the global shoot for A View To A Kill

· The Bond Connection - Traditional cool meets modern street grit in Kingsman

Issue #29 is now shipping around the world. To order online, visit www.mi6confidential.com

Email: editor@mi6confidential.com

Find us on Facebook: http://f.mi6confidential.com Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mi6confidential

Eon Productions and Sony have released the official teaser poster for the new James Bond film "SPECTRE" starring Daniel Craig, currently filming and scheduled to open on 23 October in the UK and 6 November everywhere else. 

By Hank Reineke

The Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is an absolute gem.

This was my first visit to the triplex located at 136 Metropolitan Avenue. The cinema is only a couple of blocks stroll from the Bedford Avenue L subway station and sits mere minutes from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As the movie I hoped to catch Thursday night was a special “one night only, one showing only” screening to begin at 9:30 P.M., I hesitated before buying my advance ticket and traveling into the city. I live in central New Jersey; far from where Manhattan’s southern end and Brooklyn meet. I’m 53 years old now and a workday late night out is getting ever more difficult to recover from. But, in the end, I simply couldn’t pass on this opportunity to catch the Nitehawk Cinema’s wonderfully wrought presentation of the fourteenth James Bond film “A View to a Kill”  that was released in 1985. Though 007 film retrospectives aren’t necessarily rare to repertory theater programming, too often fans are offered only such early Sean Connery-era classics as “Dr. No” and “Goldfinger” as exemplars. Here was a rare chance to re-experience - in glorious 35mm and nearly three decades after its original release - Roger Moore’s rarely theatrically re-screened sign-off as James Bond.

It was the right decision. The Nitehawk is a bountiful oasis for moviegoers and film enthusiasts. The walls of the lobby are adorned with both foreign and domestic movie posters and a lengthy plexi-glass wall display of vintage old-school “big box” and clamshell case VHS tapes circa the late 1970s and early 1980s. The cinema itself offers the usual – and sometimes the more unusual - highbrow art-house films, but there’s also great enthusiasm among programmers for pure popcorn movies: the weird, the exploitative, and the guiltiest of celluloid pleasures. Offering a fully stocked bar complete with an impressive array of draft and bottled beers and other alcoholic (and non-alcoholic) refreshments, a great selection of hot comfort foods, and the most delicious hot buttered popcorn I’ve enjoyed in some time (served in a deep stainless steel bowl), the movie-going experience at the Nitehawk is an absolute delight. The terraced seating and plush seats and aisles with ample leg room and courteous attendants are a refreshing bonus. Best of all, the fans who gathered to watch Roger Moore stroll and fire one final time into the trademark gun barrel were simply my kind of moviegoers. There was no one chatting away on cell phones or sending glowing texts about nothing while the feature was in progress.

The Bond film, which played out before a sold-out and appreciative audience, was part of the cinema’s on-going series “The Deuce.” Upcoming screenings in the series include “Fight for Your Life” (1977) and “Wolfen” (1981). “The Deuce,” for the uninitiated, was an affectionate pop-cartographic nickname for the nostalgically remembered stretch of aging movie palaces that once populated the area of 42^nd Street between 6^th and 8^th Avenues. By the early 1970s, this great neighborhood and glorious entertainment strip became the playground of prostitutes and drug addicts. The once magnificent theaters were relegated to playing before houses half-filled with adventurous teenagers, junkies, the homeless and mental cases.

To some degree, “A View to a Kill” was an odd choice for inclusion in the series. Any James Bond, even one of the series less remarkable ones as this one, was, by no means, atypical of the usual 42^nd Street movie fare of the time. The Times Square theaters more usually offered 24/7 programming of the cheapest Kung-Fu films from Hong Kong, the sleaziest and most lurid of low-budget horrors, and the world renowned pornographic all-nighters. To paraphrase one of the film’s presenters this evening, “Some people have described 42^nd street as the place where movies went to die. We think of 42^nd street as the only place where many of these movies could have lived.”

In their opening presentation to the film, organizers of the screening spun a somewhat dubious tale of “A View to a Kill” having played as the top-bill of a double-feature program at the notorious Selwyn Theater. The Selwyn, once one of the brightest fixtures on the strip had, in its final years, fallen prey to disrepair and neglect. It eventually morphed unpleasantly into a legendary dank and ghoulish Grind-house with sordid clientele. I can’t say for certain whether or not this classy James Bond film actually played a fleapit like the late-stage Selwyn, but if true it would have mostly certainly been on a subsequent run. My own clippings book reveal that upon its initial U.S. issue on May 24, 1985, this particular 007 opus had opened two blocks north of the Selwyn at the more elegant Loews Astor on W. 44^th Street.

Though Moore’s final outing as James Bond is, arguably, the least successful of his tenure, it remains a very entertaining programmer throughout. The 35mm print screened was in fine condition, the color palette still mostly bright but with just enough black scratches to remind you that you were enjoying a real film as originally presented. Though few James Bond zealots would allow their true feelings to show, Bond snow “surfing” through a phalanx of Russian assassins as the cover version of the Beach Boys’ “California Girls” played on the soundtrack brought about a murmur of amused giggles and cheers. Time and history have allowed Moore’s lighter-turn as Bond to enjoy a welcome reevaluation. It was somehow liberating for the devoted 007 fan, for two hours time at least, to put aside the grim and solemn tone of the recent Craig Bonds and actually have some fun and smile during a James Bond movie again.

Today is "Red Nose Day" in England, wherein celebrities, sports stars  and the public raise money for charity. The BBC have a show called "Comic Relief" on TV tonight, which comes live from The London Palladium from 7 PM through 2 AM. Filled with comedy sketches, music acts, etc, one of the highlights will be a special James Bond segment filmed at Pinewood starring Daniel Craig - and Sir Roger Moore!

Thanks to Cinema Retro contributor Hank Reineke, who provided this scan of the 1972 James Bond TRIPLE feature that consisted of "Dr. No", "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger". Those were the days....This ad is from the now-deceased State Theatre in Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ.  Below is the U.S. one sheet poster made for the triple feature.