Clint Eastwood proved that the skills he displayed as a first-time director with "Play Misty for Me" in 1971 were not a fluke. In 1973, he directed and starred in the revisionist Western "High Plains Drifter", playing upon his star-making image as a mysterious drifter with a murky past. In this case, the film had an added unique element: supernatural overtones. John Wayne hated the film but audiences flocked to it and even some critics grudgingly conceded that Eastwood was showing some promising skill as a director. Little would anyone know that in 1993, he would receive the Best Director Oscar for another Western, "Unforgiven".
This is a rare trade ad for "High Plains Drifter" that ran in Boxoffice magazine in July, 1973.
Celebrity interviewer Bobbie Wygant posted this 1968 interview with Robert Vaughn when he was in Czechoslovakia to begin filming the WWII epic "The Bridge at Remagen". Vaughn speaks optimistically about the new freedoms found in the country, which was under domination of the Soviet Union. The so-called "Prague Spring" didn't last long, however. Shortly after this interview was conducted, the Soviets had second thoughts about having extended significant freedoms to the people of Czechoslovakia, fearing that other satellite states would demand the same. As Vaughn recounted to Cinema Retro, he and other members of the cast and crew received a rude awakening at their Prague hotel when Soviet tanks rumbled through the city streets, sent by Soviet leaders to reimpose the iron boot of an authoritarian regime. In the protests and street violence that followed, the cast and crew had to fend for themselves to devise ways to escape the country.
Vaughn recounts all of this in his highly-readable memoir, "A Fortunate Life" but he also joined cast members George Segal, Bradford Dillman and Bo Hopkins in providing his memories of the experience to writer Steven J. Rubin in Cinema Retro issues #'s 33 and 34.
Having first teamed three years earlier in Billy Wilder's "The Fortune Cookie", Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau reunited for the 1968 screen version of the Broadway smash, Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple". It was the perfect casting in the perfect comedy. If you need to ask why, just watch this clip.
This featurette from Turner Classic Movies is a "celebration of song and dance from Hollywood's most iconic Black performers of the 1940s-1950s." Features some marvelous performers displaying some equally marvelous talents.
Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson epitomized "the strong, silent type" of leading men. Neither of them were very enthused about promoting their films on publicity tours but occasionally they would bite the bullet and go before the press. In 1981, Marvin and Bronson, who had co-starred in "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), reunited for director Peter Hunt's adventure film "Death Hunt". Probably due to contractual obligations, the men made some joint press appearances. This interview with host Bobbie Wygant consists mostly of the usual softball questions as she tries to run out the clock with a polite Marvin and a seemingly bored Bronson.
If you were fortunate enough to call Sir Christopher Lee a friend, then you knew who his best friends were: fellow screen legends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. Christopher would never miss an opportunity to extol his admiration for both of them as actors and colleagues. In this brief video, he discusses his affection for both.
An amusing blast from the past from "Saturday Night Live", 1992, featuring the funeral of Superman, attended by a Who's Who of superheroes and villains. Chris Farley's Incredible Hulk is a highlight.