After James Cagney went into retirement from filmmaking in 1961 with Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three", he kept a very low profile, preferring to remain on his farm in upstate New York or huddling with his friends at his beloved club The Players in Manhattan. When Cagney reemerged in public in 1974 to accept the American Film Institute's lifetime achievement award, audiences were happy to see how well he looked and how vibrant he still was. Here you can view his marvelous acceptance speech which reflected the man himself: humble, grateful and very witty.
Joe Dante's "Trailers from Hell" web site enlists our ol' pal John Landis to "celebrate" the ultimate guilty pleasure movie, Universal's cheesy "Jaws" on wheels concept, "The Car". Released in 1977, I recall attending an advance critic's screening in New York. As the audience howled in laughter, grim-faced Universal executives made notes on the reaction. I later recommended to one and all that they should see the film immediately, which several did. Apparently, however, while they agreed it was a hoot, some of the most unintentionally hilarious bits were apparently excised from the film before its general release. Perhaps bad movie lovers can launch a quest to find and restore that missing footage, just as historians have been trying to track down all those cut scenes from "The Magnificent Ambersons".
To the dismay of his millions of fans, Cary Grant went into self-imposed retirement after the release of his final film "Walk Don't Run" in 1966. He made no statements about his decision, no dramatic appearances on TV programs to make the announcement. He simply and quietly just let it be known in the industry that he was no longer making films. Right up to the evening at which he was to receive his honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the 1970 ceremonies, it was expected by many that the award would accepted on his behalf by someone else, as Grant was adverse to speaking publicly. It was a real thrill when he walked out on stage and, despite having to contend with some bizarre inside jokes from Frank Sinatra, Grant went on to make an extremely gracious speech, sharing his honor with all of the colleagues he had worked with. No wonder the Cary Grant image is still the gold standard when it comes to style and dignity.
Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman in "The Avengers".
Writing on the Mental Floss web site, Jake Rossen bemoans the fact that in decades past, many of the great TV programs aired by the BBC were systematically destroyed or taped over with no regard for their artistic value. Among the lost gems: early episodes of the first season of "The Avengers" and early "Doctor Who" shows. Rossen examines how one woman's decades-long crusade to salvage the programing and find lost prints resulted in at least some of these treasures being located and saved for posterity's sake. Click here to read.
Writer Ralph Jones looks back on the debacle that was the 1999 big screen production of "Wild Wild West", based on the popular 1960s TV series "The Wild, Wild West". Despite an abundance of talent topped by superstar Will Smith, the film was a critical debacle. Thanks to Smith's boxoffice clout, it wasn't a boxoffice disaster, but even before the movie premiered, there were signs a turkey was about to be unveiled. In his article, Jones contacts some of the key participants in the botched attempt to turn yet another beloved TV series into a big screen franchise.
Writing on the Rolling Stone web site, David Epstein makes the case that director George Roy Hill's 1977 hockey comedy "Slap Shot" starring Paul Newman is the best sports movie of the decade. That certainly wasn't the opinion among critics or the public when it initially opened. The film's advocacy of violence in sports was derided by many who found it distasteful. Influential film critic Rex Reed denounced the characters as "Droogs on ice", a reference to the violent bands of young predators depicted in "A Clockwork Orange". However, like many films that were initially disparaged, "Slap Shot" grew in stature over the years and developed a cult of devoted fans.(Lee Pfeiffer)