Here's the original 1964 trailer for "A Hard Day's Night". Most people thought the Beatles would be the latest flash-in-the-pan novelty act and the film would be the equivalent of a beach movie designed for fast playoff for teenage audiences. However, director Richard Lester brought to the screen a true musical/comedy classic that was one of the most revolutionary films of its era.
Here is the original 1969 U.S. trailer for director Brian G. Hutton's WWII classic "Where Eagles Dare" starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure.
Click here to order Cinema Retro's "Where Eagles Dare" 116-page tribute issue.
Here is the acclaimed scene between Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's 1954 Oscar winner, "On the Waterfront". The landmark scene shows what great screen acting is all about.
From the pages of the New York Times, here's only a few of the great choices Gotham movie-goers had on the random date of March 16, 1966. Among them: "The Silencers", "The Chase", "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", "The Heroes of Telemark","Viva Maria!" and "Battle of the Bulge". And you wonder why Cinema Retro loves the Sixties so much?
Many retro movie fans associate director Nicholas Ray with producer Samuel Bronston's epics "King of Kings" and "55 Days at Peking". But those films were not really representative of the films he made. In this vintage tribute from Turner Classic Movie, Dennis Hopper pays homage to Ray, who gave him his first break in feature films by casting him opposite James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause". As Hopper poignantly observes, Ray excelled at making small, intimate films that dealt with troubled interpersonal relationships. Ray never quite got his due during his lifetime, but actors and filmmakers today consider him to be one of the greats.
Here is some rare footage of stars arriving for the Hollywood charity premiere of MGM's Cinerama classic "How the West Was Won". It's probably the only chance you'll ever get to see Walter Brennan clad in a tuxedo!
Get ready for tonight's Oscar awards by taking this trip back in time to the opening ceremonies of the 1967 ceremonies, including Bob Hope's monologue. Nominees attending include Alan Arkin and Steve McQueen. Also in attendance, a retired actor now known as Governor Ronald Reagan.
Lee Van Cleef was a man of few words on screen and in real life also, as evidenced by the relatively few interviews he consented to. Here is a rarity: Van Cleef interviewed by Johnny Carson from February, 1984. The reason? He was promoting his TV series "The Master", which also aired on NBC.
From the Cinema Retro archives: newspaper adverts for Walt Disney's "Follow Me, Boys!" a Boy Scout comedy hit starring Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles and up-and-comer Kurt Russell.
Richard Boone is best known for playing the iconic role of gentleman gunslinger Palladin in the classic TV series "Have Gun, Will Travel" which ran between 1957-1963. But there was much more to his career in TV, stage and film. The YouTube channel Remembering Hollywood Celebrity presents a fine overview of his work and reveals some surprising facts through the assistance of Peter Boone, Richard's son. For example, Boone played a pivotal role in the filming of "Hawaii Five-0" on location in Honolulu. This is a fine tribute to a fine actor.
Sit back and relish these highlights from Sergio Leone's masterpiece "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" with the inimitable byplay between Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach.
It was a long-time dream of producer Harry Saltzman to bring the story of the Battle of Britain to the big screen. It took him many years of frustrating delays to fulfill his dream. The movie, directed by Guy Hamilton, featured an all-star cast and some of the most spectacular aerial footage ever filmed- and keep in mind this was done for real in the era before CGI. For an extensive look at the making of the film, see Dave Worrall's report in Cinema Retro issue #45.
In this blast from the past, The Supremes sing yet another Motown #1 hit, the theme song from the movie "The Happening", which starred Anthony Quinn and Faye Dunaway. The film was mediocre, but the Supremes and the song were terrific. The song was yet another hit written by the team of Eddie Holland, Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, who somehow supplied a seemingly endless number of great, chart-topping Motown songs.
In the 1960s, Chuck Connors was a big star in his native America. After spending a few years in professional baseball, Connors entered the acting profession His husky build and good looks got him noticed and he began to land prominent supporting roles in a wide range of films. In the 1960s, he became one of the biggest American TV stars by playing the title role in the long-running classic Western TV series "The Rifleman". When that show finally left the air, Connors returned to feature films. Among them was a little-noticed European Western titled "Kill Them All and Come Back Alone", one of many such movies inspired by the success of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. The film's release in the U.S. was rather haphazard and the primary distributor was a company named Fanfare Films. As evidenced by this marketing poster, the promotion for the movie was lackluster and botched. Connors was the above-the-title leading man, yet the company managed to spell his name wrong. So much for hiring Mr. Magoo as a proofreader!
One of the benefits of subscribing to the New York Times is that you get access to the Times Machine, their on-line archive of every page of every issue of the newspaper dating back to day one. In researching a film review, we couldn't help but browse through the film section. It simply reinforced the opinion that during this era, you could throw a dart on any date on a calendar and be assured that a wealth of worthy flicks were in release. In this case, "The Odd Couple" was a massive hit at Radio City Music Hall while other films, ranging from "B" movies to prestigious hits, were gracing Gotham theaters. They include "Half a Sixpence", "The Producers", "The Detective", "The Devil's Brigade", "The Graduate", "Doctor Doolittle", "The Swimmer", the reissue of "Gone with the Wind", "2002: A Space Odyssey", "Wild in the Streets", "Belle de Jour", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and other gems. Those really were the days!
The late David V. Picker is known to James Bond fans as the United Artists head of production who agreed to finance and distribute the James Bond series after Columbia Pictures turned down its option. But Picker, who was a longtime friend of Cinema Retro, can be credited with being prescient about many other aspects of the movie industry including recognizing the potential of Steve McQueen as a viable leading man in motion pictures, despite the fact that McQueen was primarily known as a "TV actor" at the time. In those days, that made it difficult for actors to fully assimilate into stars of the big screen. Picker approved McQueen as a lead in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape", both directed by John Sturges, who also deserves enormous credit for McQueen's career ascension. Here are clips from these films and the 1968 production of "The Thomas Crown Affair" in which McQueen was allowed to play against type as a rich sophisticate. The rights to the films are now held by MGM but they represent the glory days of United Artists.
Watch the original teaser trailer for "Superman" from 1978 before John Williams' final score was ready to utilize. Interestingly, Warner Bros. didn't show a single frame from the film, obviously wanting to build the sense of anticipation by simply promoting the all-star cast. Nor does the title appear...the logo said it all!
The Three Stooges starred in their last feature film "The Outlaws is Coming" in 1965. This rare behind the scenes footage includes an original TV spot for the film. Also in the cast: future "Batman" star Adam West. The Stooges' original comedy shorts were shown on TV all over the USA in the 1960s, with the programs each having a different host for the individual market that was telecasting the shows. If you grew up in the New York City area, you'll recognize Joe Bolton in the cast. He hosted the TV show under the guise of a policeman named Officer Joe Bolton. Interestingly, there trailer shows a glimpse of an armored stagecoach that resembles "The War Wagon" a couple of years before that movie was released.
In this clip from the 1963 musical comedy "Robin and the 7 Hoods", Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin join their idol Bing Crosby for the terrific musical number "Style". The casting of Crosby was due to some intrigue in Sinatra's personal life. Originally Rat Packer Peter Lawford was cast in the role. However, Sinatra had felt betrayed by President John F. Kennedy, who he had campaigned for enthusiastically. Kennedy won by a sliver against former vice-president Richard Nixon in the election of 1960. Soon after the election, JFK appointed his own brother Robert F. Kennedy as Attorney General, a controversial move to be sure, and Bobby had publicly declared war on organized crime. He badgered JFK to drop all ties with Sinatra because of his alleged (but never proven) ties to the Mafia. JFK listened and gave Sinatra the cold shoulder. Sinatra then called upon Lawford, who was JFK's brother-in-law to sort things out and re-establish their friendship. When Lawford demurred, saying he couldn't have more influence on the president than his own brother, Sinatra responded by blackballing Lawford from the Rat Pack. Sinatra had spent a fortune adapting his mansion to accommodate
JFK when he visited. He even installed a helipad on the
property. When JFK shunned him, Sinatra was said to have gone on a
tirade and wrecked some of the improvements he had made. Adding insult to injury, when JFK did visit the area, he stayed with Bing Crosby- who was a Republican. Sinatra took it out on Lawford and dropped him from "Robin and the 7 Hoods" and cast Crosby in his place. He would never speak to Lawford again despite pleas from Sammy Davis Jr., who continued his friendship with Lawford. Ironically, while the film was in production, President Kennedy was assassinated, causing the filming to shut down temporarily.
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.
Here's a gem from an unusual Fox double feature: "Planet of the Apes" and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines". The only less-compatible combo occurred when Paramount paired "The Odd Couple" with "Rosemary's Baby"!
(Thanks to reader Jim Kroeper for the submission.)
Johnny Carson was a strange dude. It was almost a crime not to watch his late night show every night. But despite Carson being in almost every American bedroom five nights a week, he was strangely uncomfortable in social situations off camera. Carson rarely socialized and felt uncomfortable at industry gatherings. However, there were certain guests he had a genuine warmth for and one of them was the great actor and raconteur James Stewart. Enjoy this full 1989 episode with Stewart as a guest.
Director John Landis looks back fondly on one of Jerry Lewis's biggest hits: the Paramount comedy "The Errand Boy", which appeals to Landis because he worked his way up from the bottom rungs of the studio system.
Here's a marvelous video from the 2011 BAFTA awards in which recently-knighted Sir Christopher Lee accepts the Academy Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award from director Tim Burton, at age 88. As you might expect, his acceptance speech is the epitome of old school class and dignity.
Critics have long cited John Sturges' 1955 thriller "Bad Day at Black Rock" as the epitome of lean, no-nonsense filmmaking. There isn't a wasted frame in the film and there isn't an actor who doesn't thrive under Sturges' inspired direction. Here is the original trailer that features some unusual billing. Lee Marvin, then not yet at leading man status in his career, is billed first while the iconic Spencer Tracy, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, is billed last, perhaps for dramatic effect.
When director William Friedkin's expensive adventure film "Sorcerer" opened in 1977, it died a quick death at the boxoffice. Like other films that met the same fate, however, it has been re-evaluated and - much to Friedkin's satisfaction- it is regarded by many as one of the great movies of its era. In this clip, critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel review the film on their show "At the Movies". As usual, they disagree, with Siskel stating he was not impressed by the movie while Ebert argues the film is terrific. Ebert also gripes that the studio botched the marketing campaign, while Siskel points out that the film's title implied it was relating to the supernatural. Thus, audiences were expecting something akin to Friedkin's previous film, "The Exorcist". In any event, "Sorcerer" has withstood the test of time and plays even better today in the CGI era when we can appreciate the days when special effects and great action scenes were achieved the hard way.
(For an exclusive interview with William Friedkin about the film, see Cinema Retro issue #29).
Take a trip back in time with these TV adverts from Australian TV that ran in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a bizarre use of Frank Sinatra's "It Was a Very Good Year", sung by someone else with some lyrics changes in order to promote Toyota vehicles. There's also a "Man from U.N.C.L.E. spy spoof commercial, "The Man from A.N.T.I.C.O.L." about a secret agent who combats the common cold. Don't say we didn't warn you!
Here's one of those marvelous vintage "making of" production shorts that took viewers behind the scenes on a forthcoming film, in this case, the 1967 blockbuster "The Dirty Dozen". If you can tolerate the hokey narration, the featurette affords some great candid footage of the cast at work and play in London. The movie was shot at the now defunct MGM British Studios Borehamwood. Curiously, although the featurette depicts or at least mentions the major names in the cast, Donald Sutherland is not identified. He was not well known at the time but the film would help elevate his profile in international cinema and major stardom would follow.
In an article for the website Slashfilm.com, writer Devin Meenan briefly outlines the strange interaction between Alfred Hitchcock and MGM that ultimately- and unexpectedly- led to the creation of his 1959 masterpiece "North By Northwest"- and why, despite the film's success, Hitchcock would never work for MGM again.
There's no question that Stanley Kubrick's 1968 production of "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a landmark in film history. However, in the final act of the film it becomes esoteric to the point that viewers and film scholars have debated its meaning ever since it premiered. Writing on the web site CBR.com, writer Ben Hardwick has unearthed an interview with Kubrick that he gave in Japan in which we he explains exactly what the meaning of the finale is. However, his explanation may require an explanation. To read the article, click here.
Sam Peckinpah was never a darling of the critics but occasionally there were some astute reviewers who saw beyond his tendency to present violence in his films and recognized his talents as an innovative director and screenwriter. "The Getaway", starring Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw, was one of Peckinpah's best-reviewed films and a major boxoffice hit in 1972. In days past, some film trade magazines didn't accord their reviewers the dignity of getting a byline. Thus, we don't know who wrote this enthusiastic review for "The Getaway" in Film Bulletin's December, 1972 issue- but it is spot on in terms of extolling the film's virtues.
UPDATE! Director Joe Dante has sent the following clarifying who wrote this review:
"My colleague Jack Ano.
Jack got most of the prestige assignments, but I was happy reviewing stuff like Werewolves on Wheels."
Duke Wayne was a king of the boxoffice but home video releases of his films are not among the select VHS titles that command huge amounts on the auction circuit. In fact, most VHS releases are still largely valueless- but there are those notable exceptions.
BY LEE PFEIFFER
Collectors of vintage, toys, records and comic books have a common refrain: "I had that and my mother threw it out!". You couldn't really blame mom for valuing an uncluttered closet over what appeared to be a bunch of useless junk. Of course, history has proven mom was wrong with all sorts of vintage collectibles now bringing eye-popping prices on the auction circuit. But VHS tapes???? Who'd a thunk it. In fact, some of them have been selling for tens of thousands of dollars, as reported by Cortney Moore in the New York Post. Even those who have been attuned to the value of collectibles might be shocked by this. VHS tapes were once the answer to movie fans' prayers. At last, we were freed from having to watch censored and butchered TV network broadcasts of our favorite films. The phenomenon took off in the early 1980s and serious collectors would lay out about $75 to buy their favorite film. Most people were content to rent titles from the mom-and-pop businesses that pioneered the rental market before being squashed by big-name video store chains. Soon came the next advancement: laser discs. They were pricey and appealed primarily to hardcore movie lovers, who relished the fact that you could see a superior picture in its original aspect ratio. Alas, laser discs were short-lived and begat DVDs which begat Blu-rays and now streaming. So, many movie lovers understandably dumped their worthless VHS libraries by donating them to thrift stores and just tossing them away. Guess what? There's now a booming market for certain VHS tapes in top-grade condition. We're not talking about old Pauly Shore comedies, but titles such as "Star Wars" and "Jaws". Millions were sold but millions ended up being destroyed over the years. A recent top grade VHS of "Star Wars" recently sold for more than $57,000. An original "Jaws" VHS sold for more than $10,000 and certain distinctive Disney titles also sell for thousands. As with pricey baseball cards and comic books, rare VHS editions can now be professionally graded for the auction market. To be clear, most VHS titles are worthless...but before you throw out any, you might want to check their value. This time you can't blame mom.
If you love vintage monster flicks of the 1950s and 1960s, enjoy these original trailers, a few of which are so awful they helped inspire "Mystery Science Theatre"! But director Joe Dante reminds us there are at least a couple of gems in there, including "Unearthly Stranger" and "Invaders from Mars".
On this clip from "American Bandstand", the iconic American TV show that featured teenagers dancing to the latest hit songs, host Dick Clark takes an unusual detour from the world of rock 'n roll to promote ABC-TV's newest sensation, "Batman"- after which there is a countdown of the top ten songs on the charts and everybody rocks to the sounds of Gary Lewis & the Playboys!
