Here's a vintage public service announcement in which John Wayne promotes the American Cancer Society. Strangely, the spot has some factual errors. The Duke says he went for a check up after completing his 199th film...which may be accurate if you count every chapter in the old serials he made as a separate movie. The segment shows him in "North to Alaska", which was released in 1960. In fact, Wayne came down ill while filming "In Harm's Way" in 1964 and had a lung removed shortly thereafter which did save his life. The spot goes on to have him show a clip from the 1969 movie "True Grit" which he says was seven years after his diagnosis. In fact, the film came out only five years after his cancer surgery. Well, at least the spot was well meaning and did cause a spike in people getting cancer screenings.
Here's a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the 1968 western "Guns for San Sebastian" which had Anthony Quinn squaring off against villain Charles Bronson in an underrated gem from the era. Click here to order Blu-ray from Amazon.
If you're of a certain age and grew up in the New York City area, then you know that WPIX TV used to show Laurel and Hardy in "Babes in Toyland", otherwise known as "March of the Wooden Soldiers", every Thanksgiving. If you remember those days, then here's pleasant blast from the past.
(To view in Full Screen Mode, click on "Watch on YouTube.)
Writing on the TCM web site, Raquel Stecher looks back at the connection between Warner Bros. boss Jack Warner and Frank Sinatra and how it resulted in several of the Rat Pack motion pictures, though Sinatra would ultimately discard old pals Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford due to personal disputes. The crime classic "Oceans Eleven" featured the full Rat Pack but by the time "4 for Texas" was made, only Sinatra and Dean Martin appeared together. Click here to read.
From a 1974 issue of Boxoffice magazine, though the photos are from at least a couple of years previous to this issue with the exception of the depiction of the Colorado 4 Cinemas in Denver, which was an artist's concept drawing. The Alameda Theatre in San Francisco is showing "Pete 'n Tille" with Carol Burnett and Walter Matthau, while the Americana 5 multiplex in Panorama City, California is showing "The Graduate", "Doctor Zhivago", "The Dunwich Horror", "The Brain" and "Take the Money and Run". The photos were from an advertisement promoting theater chains.
For those readers of a certain age who have retained fond memories of the laser disc era, here are a couple of treats: two 1990s ads promoting laser discs of "Dances with Wolves" and "Terminator 2:Judgment Day".
On this date in 1963, Stanley Kramer's all-star Cinerama comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" opened at the Cinerama Dome Theatre in Los Angeles. The film represents what people mean when they say "They don't make 'em like that anymore!"
Here's the original trailer for one of the greatest espionage movies of all time: director Martin Ritt's acclaimed 1965 screen adaptation of John LeCarre's international bestseller "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold". At the height of the James Bond-inspired spy craze, Ritt's film presented the dark, ugly and non-glamorous side of espionage. Richard Burton received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his brilliant performance as the weary, cynical spy who is disgusted by his profession but finds he can't leave it.
Click here to order Criterion Blu-ray special edition.
When we think of the 1969 Oscar winner "Midnight Cowboy", chances are Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'" comes to mind, as the song played a key part in setting the tone and atmosphere of the film, even though it was not written for the movie. United Artists made a deal to include it in the film. John Barry's moody, haunting main theme for the movie is one of the great composer's best works. If you need to be reminded why, you can relish the song again in this video montage.
From TCM: "In this episode of Film 101, we're focusing on
three from the charming duo of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant--Bringing Up
Baby (1938), Holiday (1938), and The Philadelphia Story (1940).”
The segment also goes into the draconian decency rules that were imposed on older films and how studios managed to get around topics such as sex and infidelity.
Once again we visit the archive pages of the New York Times to celebrate an abundance of fine movies that were all playing in theaters simultaneously. In this case, the precise date was February 2, 1967. Among the gems: "A Fistful of Dollars" (just opened), "The Quiller Memorandum", "Is Paris Burning?", "Georgy Girl", "A Man for All Seasons", "Gambit", "Night of the Generals", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", "The Sand Pebbles", "The Bible", "Hawaii", "Alfie", "The Blue Max", "The Deadly Affair", "Blow-up" and perennial favorite "The Sound of Music".
