Celebrating Films of the 1960s & 1970s - Out of the Past

WHY "SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE" WAS BOXOFFICE KRYPTONITE

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:09:00 -0500

With Superman about to be revived (again) for the big screen, the Geeks of Doom site looks back at the entry that put an end to the Christopher Reeve Supey franchise. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was to be the most ambitious entry in the series. However, despite the presence of Reeve and Gene Hackman (reviving Lex Luthor), the 1987 film was a disaster on all levels. The article includes extensive comments from actor Jon Cryer, who was initially thrilled to be in the film but later learned from Reeve that the final cut would be a major disappointment, thanks to penny-pinching producers who reduced the budget by about 2/3. Click here to relive the unhappy memories.

JOHN WAYNE ALMOST PLAYED LAWRENCE OF ARABIA!

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:23:00 -0500

Would you buy a used camel from this man?

Brian Hannan, author of the new book The Making of Lawrence of Arabia, has unveiled a startling fact: an early production of David Lean's masterpiece was announced in January 1953- a decade before Lean's version was released. It was to be filmed in Cinerama and star John Wayne! Now, there are no bigger fans of the Duke than us, but what were they thinking? Fortunately, plans fell apart for this particular film. Hannan relates how Marlon Brando was Lean's first choice for the role, so even in saner hands the emphasis was in casting an American actor as the iconic Brit. By the way, Duke Wayne may have dodged a bullet with Lawrence, but a few years later he went one worse by playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror! For more click here

HOW THE BEATLES GOT FINANCIALLY SCREWED

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:17:00 -0500

The Beatles with Brian Epstein at the 1964 London premiere of A Hard Day's Night.

The next time you hear American politicians debating the "onerous" tax burden on the wealthiest citizens, consider England in the 1960s when the tax rate on their highest earners skyrocketed to 98%. This forced many of the UK's most creative artists into tax exile. By the time sanity had returned to the British tax code, some of these people had left their native country permanently. The Beatles were among the most notable victims of the tax system but they also suffered from an abundance of bad business deals. Their hip, young manager Brian Epstein is fondly recalled for shepherding the Fab Four throughout their early career but Epstein (who died in 1967) was not the best business manager they could have had. An article in Bloomberg News features an interview with Peter Brown, the 74 year old man who took over managing the Beatles after Epstein's death. Brown reflects on Epstein's shortcomings and the turmoil that followed his death. Turns out Epstein had negotiated ludicrously low royalty deals for the lads from Liverpool that literally saw them making a fraction of a penny on every record sold. It was only due to the sheer number of records sold during the Beatlemania era that they ended up being wealthy in spite of these bad deals. Epstein also foolishly negotiated away the rights to Beatles merchandising for peanuts. Although the Beatles became fabulous wealthy, they always remained haunted by the fact they were cheated out of proper royalties and never even controlled the rights to the records they made. For more click here

MARIA CALLAS WAS TO STAR IN "THE GUNS OF NAVARONE"

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:57:00 -0500

If not for a last minute change, legendary opera star Maria Callas would have been the female lead in The Guns of Navarone.

Opera superstar Maria Callas was set to make her movie debut in Carl Foreman’s iconic war film The Guns Of Navarone, according to a new book, The Making Of The Guns Of Navarone launched this weekend at the Bradford Widescreen Film Festival (April 26-29) by Scottish film historian Brian Hannan.

The singer had scandalised the world by her affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who would later marry Jackie Kennedy, widow of assassinated president John F Kennedy. Callas was first choice for the role of the older female Greek partisan. Producer Carl Foreman promised ‘mucho love scenes’ with star Gregory Peck.

Commented Hannan, ‘At the time, Maria Callas was the most famous woman in the world, a fiery mixture of Princess Diana and Madonna, the role model for every diva to come. This was an astonishing publicity coup. Names did not come any bigger. Although few opera stars can act, she was considered more than capable. Smouldering European actresses like Sophia Loren were much in demand in Hollywood at the time and she fitted the bill.’

Born in America in 1923 to Greek parents, she mad her singing debut in 1941 but her early career was tumultuous and it was not until she married wealthy industrialist Giovanni Meneghini that she achieved major success. Even so she battled with employers and was known as much for her tantrums, walkouts and love life as her singing. Her presence was a considerable departure from the best-selling book by Scottish writer Alistair Maclean for in the original there were no female characters.

The news received worldwide coverage – Callas was that big a star. Hollywood was agog. Offers of movie roles had been made to Callas before and she had turned them down. There was a history of opera stars making the jump to Hollywood. Popular 1930s due Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald had both been opera stars. More recently Mario Lanza had been a box office sensation - his film The Great Caruso had ranked third in the US box office charts in 1951 ahead of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and Elizabeth Taylor in A Place In The Sun. There had also been a trend for operas to be filmed and show in cinemas.

But Callas’s career had been riddled with bust-ups and insiders predicted the relationship with Foreman would not last. Callas abruptly quit the production before shooting began and was replaced by classical actress Irene Papas.

Nor was she the only casualty of the filming. Producer Foreman lost first choice actors Cary Grant and William Holden, director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers), scriptwriter Eric Ambler (Mask Of Dimitrios), and a second female star Annette Stroyberg, wife of director Roger Vadim who had turned Brigitte Bardot into a star. British actor David Niven nearly died during filming. The set, the biggest ever built in Britain, for the titular guns collapsed and had to be rebuilt and the budget soared by 25%.

Despite these setbacks, the film burned up the box office and was the number one film of the year and nominated for seven Oscars.

Hannan has also published two books on Hitchcock – Darkness Visible:Hitchcock’s Greatest Film and Hitchcock’s Hollywood Hell.

The author will introduce a new restored 4K version of The Guns Of Navarone film on Sunday April 28 preceded by a book signing of his book and its companion The Making Of Lawrence Of Arabia.

The Making Of The Guns Of Navarone by Brian Hannan is published by Baroliant Press, priced £8.99 and is available on Kindle and in bookshops.

(U.S. readers can click here to order the Amazon Kindle edition)

Contact Brian Hannan by email on bhkhannan@aol.com or mobile 07946 278403

REEL IMAGES PRESENTS RECREATIONS OF THOSE GLORIOUS OLD 8MM MOVIE DIGESTS

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:54:00 -0500

From the Reel Images web site:

Here for your online viewing pleasure we have included the following nifty recreations of those great one-reel Super 8 sound horror and sci-fi digests of the past in a special salute to Castle Films and Ken Films! All but "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Return of Frankenstein" were edited by one Henry Senerchia, who may be contacted at creature8859@aol.com to direct your comments. Each film isguaranteed to produce 9 minutes of "warm fuzzies" for any "monster kid" who was lucky enough to grow up in the heyday of those great boxed film digests that winked seductively from spinning racks and shelves in elite camera departments of the finest department stores of the 1960's and 70's!

Click here to view

CLINT EASTWOOD'S "DIRTY HARRY": THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES STORY

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:23:00 -0500

If you're a Cinema Retro reader, chances are you've probably seen director Don Siegel's 1971 crime classic Dirty Harry more times than you can count. However, what you may not know is that the film was not originally developed for Clint Eastwood. Other actors from John Wayne to Burt Lancaster turned it down first and Frank Sinatra had actually been signed for the role before an injury to his hand made him drop out. The web site www.todayifoundout.com provides some fun facts about the making of the movie. Click here to read

OUT OF THE PAST: NIGEL BRUCE DISCUSSES THE SHERLOCK HOLMES SERIES

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:37:00 -0500

There's a wonderful Facebook web page called The Old Movie Guy's Page that presents all sorts of great photos and comments pertaining to vintage cinema. In one recent posting, they unearthed some rare comments made by Nigel Bruce regarding the series of Sherlock Holmes films he did with Basil Rathbone. Bruce said, “The stories we did were modernised but the characters of the famous detective and his biographer were kept more or less as originally written by Conan Doyle. Watson, however, in the films was made much more of a 'comic' character than he ever was in the books. This was with the object of introducing a little light relief. The doctor, as I played him, was a complete stooge for his brilliant friend and one whose intelligence was almost negligible. Many of the lovers of Conan Doyle must have been shocked, not by this caricature of the famous doctor but by seeing the great detective alighting from an aeroplane and the good doctor listening to his radio. To begin with, Basil and I were much opposed to the modernising of these stories but the producer, Howard Benedict, pointed out to us that the majority of youngsters who would see our pictures were accustomed to the fast-moving action of gangster pictures, and that expecting machine guns, police sirens, cars travelling at 80 miles an hour and dialogue such as 'Put em up bud', they would be bored with the magnifying glass, the hansom cabs, the cobblestones and the slow tempo of an era they never knew and a way of life with which they were completely unfamiliar.”

Click here for The Old Movie Guy's Facebook page

THE MOVIE POSTER ART OF JOSEPH A. MATURO

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:03:00 -0500

On TCM's Movie Morlocks web site, writer Susan Doll celebrates the movie poster art of Joseph A. Maturo. Never heard of him? Neither had we, but his work on Fox movie posters from the 1930s and 1940s is remarkable. The Italian immigrant, who once designed dresses for flappers in the 1920s, created memorable posters for Shirley Temple's Heidi, The Prisoner of Shark Island, Charlie Chan's Secret and many other golden oldies. Click here to read.

THOSE GLORIOUS OLD MOVIE ADS: FEBRUARY 1965

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 05:22:00 -0500

Here's a plethora of great movies showing during the same week in February 1965, as illustrated in this page from the Winnipeg Free Press: Mary Poppins, Goldfinger, Sex and the Single Girl, Jungle Fighters (aka The Long and the Short and the Tall), My Fair Lady and A Shot in the Dark. Wish we had a time machine....

THE WORST BATMAN COMIC BOOK VILLAINS EVER

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:57:00 -0500

We love the vintage Batman comic books from D.C. Comics. They're provided us with immortal villains like The Joker, Catwoman, The Riddler and The Penguin. However, over the decades, there have been a few lame guys who were probably created during severe cases of writer's block. They include The King of Cats, The Calculator (he has a calculator attached to his head!) and the Penny-Pincher. The Cracked web site has some insightful looks into the creation of these villains whose flirtations with fame came and went faster than the Bay City Rollers. Click here to read

THE WORLD OF PLAYBOY BUNNIES IN THE 1960S

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:38:00 -0600

The Mail On Line provides a fascinating sociological glimpse into American pop culture in the 1960s by unveiling vintage solicitations for young women to join Playboy as Bunnies in the newly-launched Playboy clubs. For anyone who thinks that we haven't come a long way in terms of equality of the sexes, just consider that women were so pigeon-holed into a small number of careers that the application actually lists these specific professions (along with measurement statistics!) For some, this will be a sentimental journey back to a time when belonging to the Playboy Club made men the envy of their peers. For others, it's a reflection of just why the Women's Lib movement felt it had to become so radical in order to combat long-standing sexism. In either case, you'll find this glimpse into a bygone era fascinating. Click here to read.

THE 32 GREATEST UNSCRIPTED MOVIE SCENES

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:25:00 -0600

From The Godfather to Jaws to Raiders of the Lost Ark, some of the most memorable scenes in classic movies were ad-libbed to some degree. The web site ScreenRant provides a slide show of these great, impromptu moments in cinema history. Click here to view

VISIT "THE VINCENT PRICE EXHIBIT" WEB SITE

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 05:53:00 -0600

The Vincent Price Exhibit is an informative and very entertaining web site dedicated to the legendary actor. Run by long-time fan and admirer Richard Squires, the site features interesting memorabilia from all aspects of Price's career, including personal correspondence to Squires. Those of us who are long-time admirers of Price always get a bit ruffled when someone refers to him as a "horror film actor". While it is undeniable that the horror genre certainly boosted Price to name-above-the-title stardom, his accomplishments extend to many other areas. He appeared in countless non-horror films, was a master chef and was a major force in bringing an appreciation of fine art to the general public. He was also said to be a complete gentleman at all times as well as the definitive Renaissance Man. Click here to visit the site.

"TRAILERS FROM HELL" PRESENTS HAMMER FILMS' "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA" STARRING HERBERT LOM

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:22:00 -0600

Joe Dante's Trailers From Hell site presents the original theatrical trailer for the criminally underrated Hammer Films version of The Phantom of the Opera featuring a remarkable performance by Herbert Lom. Click here to watch trailer in original version or with commentary from director Brian Trenchard-Smith.

THE REMARKABLE STORY BEHIND EVA BRAUN'S HOME MOVIES

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:09:00 -0600

Artist Lutz Becker was born in Berlin in 1941, the height of Adolf Hitler's military triumphs. He is still haunted by early memories of four years later, trying to survive in the midst of the carnage that was once the fabled city of Berllin. He never forgave Hitler and the Nazis for the destruction they brought to Germany. After seeing a photograph of Hitler's mistress Eva Braun holding a 16mm film camera, Lutz became obsessed with finding out what happened to her home movies. The public had seen only the side of Hitler that had been presented in carefully orchestrated propaganda films, designed to make him look like a god. But what if there were images that showed him as a real man in his private life? Becker's quest took many years and extensive travels, but his persistence paid off: he located the now famed home movies of Eva Braun that present Hitler and the Nazi brass in more relaxed and natural state. Braun's home movies came to an end in 1941 when Hitler's fortunes changed following his ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union and the entry into the war of the United States. For his troubles, Becker was reviled by many for presenting this "humanized" version of the men he so hated. However, since then, these films have become essential to the historical record of the doomed Third Reich. Click here to read the remarkable story.