Here's a compelling interview with acclaimed German director Werner Herzog, conducted by Oscar-winning documentary maker Errol Morris. Herzog and Morris may seem like an odd couple but they've collaborated on a number of off-beat projects including digging up the grave of a serial murderer's mother! For the interview click here

In an interview on the Den of Geek web site, producer Michael Radford gives some interesting insights into the making of his acclaimed film adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 that was released the same year. Initially, Radford approached Sean Connery to play the part of the villain O'Brian, a soft-spoken, seemingly gentle man who subjects free-thinking individuals to horrendous physical and mental tortures. After spending months trying to get Connery to commit, Radford reluctantly went with Richard Burton. He had great concerns about Burton's reputation as a heavy drinker. He was delighted to find that the iconic actor had since gone on the wagon and his only vice was Diet Coke. Burton delivered the last great performance of his career in the film.

To read, click here

Lord Richard Attenborough is still actively making movies at age 84, as evidenced by his new love story Closing the Ring. In a recent interview, Attenborough admits its hard to find backing for the kinds of films he likes to make: personal stories about intimate relationships. He says if he had thrown in the towel and made films based on sex or horror themes, money would have poured into the coffers. He also discusses his brother, the naturalist David Attenborough and says they both find it incredible that two siblings could have found such success in their respective fields. He says he is pretty much through with acting, unless Steven Spielberg has a project for him. He claims he would even do Jurassic Park 4 for his esteemed fellow director. For the interview click here

In an interview with Time Out New York, Raquel Welch reminisces about filming the notoriouis 1970 film adaptation of Gore Vidal's best-seller Myra Breckinridge. Welch recalls getting premonitions that she was working on a flop-in--the-making and at one point she was reduced to tears by the number of rewrites. She also recalls the surrealistic experience of starring with Mae West, who reminded her of a man in drag! If you miss the golden age of screwball comedies in which women raped men with dildos, then bedded their girlfriends, this one is for you! To read more click here

The Anthology Film Archives in New York City will be showing a new 35mm print of the film tonight (March 7) , Saturday and Sunday. For details click here

In an interview with the British paper The Guardian, Kris Kristofferson reveals some of his inner-most secrets and recalls his days as one of Hollywood's bad boys. Among the nuggets unveiled:

• His trademark beard came about because he had been hospitalized for pneumonia and hadn't shaved in a a week.
• The craziest person he ever worked with was Dennis Hopper on the ill-fated, Hopper-directed The Last Movie. Kristofferson says Hopper was the most self-destructive person he ever met and was so out of control he got a South American priest kicked out of the church after convincing him to perform a bizarre mass for James Dean.
• On the set of A Star is Born, he would drink Jose Cuervo by the bottle! (So would you if you had to work with Barbra Streisand!)

To read the interview click here

Give Entertainment Weekly credit - while the mainstream media hardly mentioned the passing of Roy Scheider, the magazine's website has several excellent tribute to the star of Jaws, The French Connection and All That Jazz. There is a brief but very candid interview with William Friedkin, who directed Scheider in his Oscar-nominated performance in The French Connection as well as in the big budget, ill-fated 1977 adventure film Sorcerer. Friedkin reveals that he very much wanted Steve McQueen for the starring role in that film but refused McQueen's demand that a female role be written for Ali MacGraw. Friedkin hired Scheider to star, but the two had a contentious relationship on the set of the very demanding production. What emerged is one of the truly under-rated adventure films, but the difficulties in bringing it to the screen resulted in hard feelings between director and star. Friedkin also reveals he wanted Scheider to play the Father Karras role in The Exorcist but author William Peter Blatty threw cold water on the decision and Jason Miller was ultimately cast.

To read the interview click here

To read writer Chris Nashawaty's tribute to Scheider's work in The Seven Ups click here

To read writer Gary Susman's appreciation of Scheider click here

Writer Amanda Christine Miller has a light-hearted and amusing interview with famed director Peter Bogdanovich on The Huffington Post site. Bogdanovich speaks at length about his signature "logo" - the stylish neck scarves that are an omnipresent part of his wardobe. He also reflects on the legendary film figures his came to know and expresses the most admiration for John Ford and Howard Hawks, though he concedes Ford's grumpiness made him an unpleasant person to be around. As for his own icon of fashion, Bogdanovich chooses Cary Grant and tells an amusing ancedote that reveals that Grant's Brooks Brothers suits were straight off the rack. To read the interview click here

Throughout the decades, Clint Eastwood has gone against the grain of other top actors by not overtly inserting himself into the political forum, aside from his one term as mayor of Carmel. However, in a recent interview with Neil Cavtuo of Fox News, Eastwood is surprisingly candid about his political beliefs. He says he's traditionally backed Republican candidates, but believes the party has strayed very far from its roots. He doesn't endorse any specific candidate for president, not does he put down any particular one. However, he mentions on several occasions that he has great admiration for John McCain. It's the most revealing side of Eastwood's poltical beliefs we've seen. To read click here

It's hard to believe Sir Michael Caine is 74 years old, but he's still got the irreverant attitude that made him a star in 1964's Zulu. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Caine reflects on his life and career and makes some typical witticisms. He dismisses his knighthood as virtually meaningless outside Britain, tells amusing anecdotes about his 40 year friendship with Roger Moore and Sean Connery and explains why he got out of the restaurant business thusly: "I sold them all 10 years ago. I found that chefs were more annoying than bloody movie stars. They're so temperamental. You can't say anything to them. And I picked all the nutcases, I did. So I got out. Someone offered me a fortune and I left." To read the interview click here

In a recent interview with Premiere's website, Woody Allen tells writer Ryan Stewart that it is unlikely his fans will ever see special editions of his films - especially the older ones. In a shockingly callous manner, Allen says that he routinely throws out any left over footage, a practice he follows even on his more recent movies. He also disdains talking about or analyzing his films and therefore dismisses the premise of cooperating on special DVD editions. Allen, who is known regard the interview process with as much enthusiasm as root canal surgery, tells Stewart he is speaking to him as a courtesy to the people who financed his recently-released movie Cassandra's Dream - which is like telling your prom date you asked her out because her father begged you to. Nevertheless, Allen does give straight-forward, no-nonsense answers to Stewart's intelligent questions and we get some insights intot he persona of one of the film industry's most quirky creative minds. To read click here

The stories are legion about how alumni from producer Roger Corman's low budget movies of the 1960s and 1970s helped launch many an actor and director to prominence. However, you can add a highly successful producer to the mix, as well. Gale Anne Hurd, producer of such blockbuster hits as The Terminator, Armageddon and Aliens, got her first break in show business learning the ropes on Corman's 1980 low budget sci fi "epic" Battle Beyond the Stars, a loose remake of The Magnificent Seven that starred an alumnus of that film, Robert Vaughn. It was on this movie that Hurd met her future partner and husband-to-be, James Cameron, who created the miniature spaceships for the film. In a revealing interview with The Desert Sun's website, Hurd recalls how she grew up amidst show business royalty and how she befriended Red Skelton as a child. She also talks about her ugly realization of the impact of anti-Semitism and how the prejudices she suffered only inspired her to become more successful. To read click here

In a new interview with The Telegraph of London, director Francis Ford Coppola is characteristically candid about the ups and downs of his triumphs and disappointments. Back behind the camera for the first time in ten years, Coppola is fulfilling his initial dream of making small, personal movies inspired by the European cinema that influenced him as a young man. His new movie Youth Without Youth seems to have reawakened the artiste in Coppola in that is is clearly an art house film that stands virtually no chance of being a major box-office hit. Coppola discusses his memories of making The Godfather saying, "What stands out in my mind about that movie is that I survived it...I was so in trouble and I was so miserable. I felt alone in my idea for the film. I was shocked that it was so successful." He also says he stays in touch with peers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and dines with them occasionally. He opines, "It's like three kids with the enthusiasm of how wonderful and magical cinema is; how you can never learn enough and how every time you make a film you learn more. I am struck with the childlike enthusiasm we all have when we discuss the possibilities of what can be done with film." Coppola laments the fact that he has a revered reputation in Hollywood, but still can't find any financing for the films he wants to do. His next project with Matt Damon will be self-financed and modestly budgeted. For the interview click here

Acclaimed cinematographer William Fraker was interviewed by Movie Maker magazine and discusses his experiences working with Roman Polanski on Rosemary's Baby, Richard Brooks on Looking for Mr. Goodbar and planning the famous Steve McQueen car chase in Bullitt with director Peter Yates. To read the interview, click here.

Several years ago, California-based writer John Sammon scored an interview with Clint Eastwood for the now-defunct Monterey County Post in which the iconic star discussed his passion for golf and his investments and business in the Carmel, California area. The interview is reprinted here courtesy of John Sammon.

Q: Let’s begin with some background. What was your childhood like?

CE: I was born in San Francisco, but raised mostly in Oakland. My family moved a lot, and I lived in places like Redding and Spokane in Washington and Sacramento, and Pacific Palisades in California. During the World War II years, my dad worked for Bethlehem Steel in Oakland. I attended Glenview Grammar School. As a kid, I earned a little money selling Liberty and Colliers magazines. Both of these are out of print now. Every magazine I ever worked for went out of print. Then I took a job with the Oakland Tribune, a paper route. After the war, my father went to work for California Container, a corrugated box company. Later on, Dad was transferred to Seattle, where he became a plant manager. I graduated from high school and joined my parents up there for a while. I was trying to get into Seattle University on a music program, but I applied too late. I was drafted into the U.S. Army at the time of the Korean War, 1951. I came to Fort Ord. That’s how I got used to the Carmel area. I got to spend time in Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach and Salinas. I even used to come to Mission Ranch when I was a soldier earning $75 a month.

Q: Did you dream that one day you would own Mission Ranch?

CE: No. Back then, I didn’t plan on owning too much of anything. After I got out of the service, I went to Los Angeles where I attended Los Angeles City College, studying business administration. I started taking acting classes in the evening. After I landed a steady job on Rawhide , I came up to the Monterey Peninsula and bought a little house across from the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. A tiny house with all the furniture inside. I’d been coming up periodically at that time, and stayed wherever I could. I loved that house. It was the first home I ever owned. I paid $20,000, and later sold it for $25,000.

In issue #7 of Cinema Retro, Paul Talbot, author of Bronson's Loose: The Making of the Death Wish Films, revisited the 1974 film that started the franchise. He now brings us interviews with actresses Robin Sherwood and Silvana Gallardo who appeared in the the film's controversial sequel, Death Wish II.

In 1981 star Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner reunited for Death Wish II, a follow-up to one of the highest grossing and most discussed films of 1974. In Death Wish II, vigilante Paul Kersey hits the streets to avenge the brutal rape and murder of his daughter (who had already been rendered comatose after an attack in the first film) and his Hispanic housekeeper. The sequel became not only another box-office hit, but the most-controversial film in the five-title series and the lone entry that alienates even the most diehard Bronson fans. Death Wish II owes most of its notoriety to two brutal and vicious rape scenes that were so grisly that they had to be extensively edited to achieve an R rating in the United States and were cut even further for England.

MGM/20th Century Fox has just released a 2-DVD set of director Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer recently caught up with one of the stars of the film, Veronica Cartwright for her reflections on that Hollywood rarity: a remake that in many ways equals or exceeds the quality of the original. Successful as a child actor, by 1978 Veronica Cartwright already had an impressive acting resume, having worked with Audrey Hepburn in The Children’s Hour and been directed by Alfred Hitchcock in The Birds. She has worked consistently in recent years, gaining Emmy nominations for The X Files and appearing in new, major motion pictures and TV series. She will also be appearing in the new version of the Body Snatchers story, The Invasion with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Veronica Cartwright has a wealth of stories about working with giants in the industry as well as the ups-and-downs most actors experience in their careers. She is unpretentious and good-humored and all too happy to recall one of the major films of her career for Cinema Retro.

CR: You started as a child actor and over the years seem to have become associated with some iconic TV shows and movies dealing with sci-fi and the supernatural. Did you intentionally seek out work in this genre?

VC: I have no idea why that is. At one point I had done so many that I thought to myself, “My God, I’m the queen of sci-fi!” I was just accepting the work that came along. Actually, I had done a couple of Alfred Hitchcock Presents shows and I had appeared on One Step Beyond when I was seven or eight years old. I guess that’s how the whole thing started. Then I did the Twlight Zone episode called I Sing the Body Electric that’s one of the classic ones that’s shown every Halloween.

Steve McQueen's first wife, Neile McQueen Toffel was married to the iconic superstar for 15 years during which she experienced the bliss of seeing her husband become an international superstar. This euphoria was eventually compromised by his constant insecurities, his failure to resist sexual temptations and his immersion in the hippie lifestyle of the late 1960s. In an informative and astonishingly frank exclusive interview given to the website www.mcqueenonline.com, Neile sheds some fascinating anecdotes and rememberances that are both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

To read the interview click here

RARE PHOTOS OF STEVE AND NEILE MCQUEEN FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

AS PART OF OUR CONTINUING CELEBRATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BLOB, WE DIP INTO OUR ARCHIVES FOR A VINTAGE INTERVIEW WITH ACTRESS ANETA CORSEAUT:

The late actress Aneta Corseaut is best known to TV fans for her long-running role as school teacher Helen Crump on the legendary Andy Griffith Show series. Back in the early 1990s, she granted an exclusive interview to Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer for his book The Official Andy Griffith Show Scrapbook. During the course of the interview, Ms. Corseaut recalled filming The Blob:

"It was done by a group of very religious people who thought if they made a science fiction film, they could raise enough money to do religious movies. Everyone connected to it was so religious: the producers, the director. I remember Steve McQueen drove the producers crazy! He was more of a maverick in those days, real hell on wheels. Every day the filmmakers would go into prayer meetings- they would pray to everything including the makeup brushes! They would always finish by saying, "And save us from Steve McQueen!" They worked us about eighteen hours a day on that picture. I ended up with pneumonia from the scene where we were locked into a freezer.. They gave me two hours off so I could get a shot from a doctor! When we were filming, I always kept moving around so my back was to the camera as much as possible. When it opened, I left the country and hoped it would blow over. Of course, it became a big hit quite by accident but I haven't seen it in about fifteen years." (Interview copyright Lee Pfeiffer)

(SEE WRITER HANK REINEKE'S RELATED STORY FOR EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF "BLOBFEST '07" )

David McCallum was filming John Sturges' The Great Escape in Germany when he got the call to test for the role of Judas in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told. In issue #8 of Cinema Retro, McCallum recalls his reaction to getting the call to go to Hollywood for the first time.

"(On the set of The Great Escape) in the production office, they had a map of the world because on weekends people would go off to different places. They literally had pins all over the place showing who was where. It was during The Great Escape that I went to America to test for The Greatest Story Ever Told because John let me take the time off. I remember getting on a TWA 707 and flying the Atlantic in first class to go to Hollywood. When I got to Los Angeles, I got myself a Chevy Impala with red interior and I drove down Sunset Boulevard listening to Sixties music. Hey man, it was a long way from Glasgow!"

(For the full interview, see Cinema Retro issue #8)

In the pantheon of great one-word film titles, there is perhaps none that springs to mind more often (or more menacingly) than Jaws. The mere word evokes vivid terror at the thought of what it implies when associated with the most dangerous fish in existence. After more than thirty years, the groundbreaking Steven Spielberg film has suitably attained a “classic” status alongside other great movie milestones like Citizen Kane, The Godfather, The Sound of Music and Star Wars. Not only that, but Jaws continues to thrive as a timeless pop culture monolith; ever the standard by which all other films of its genre are inevitably compared. Celebrating this tri-decade phenomenon is an all-new retrospective documentary called

The Shark is Still Working – The Impact and Legacy of Jaws.