Celebrating Films of the 1960s & 1970s - Book News/Reviews

IS "THE SAINT" STILL RELEVANT TODAY?

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:31:00 -0500

With Leslie Charteris' once popular books showcasing The Saint now back in print, writer Allan Massie of The Telegraph examines why the stories still entertain today. With all due respect to Roger Moore's visual representation of the hero in the 1960s, Massie argues that the character rightly belongs in his original time period, the 1920s. He also examines how Simon Templar differs from that other iconic British hero (coincidentally also portrayed by Moore), James Bond 007. Click here to read

COMING SOON: "RAY HARRYHAUSEN: MASTER OF THE MAJICKS" VOLUME 1 BY MIKE HANKIN

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:36:05 -0500

Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks

Volume 1: Beginnings and Endings

by Mike Hankin

Foreword by Tom Hanks

Preface by Sir Christopher Frayling

www.archive-editions.com

Finally Completed and off to the Printer!

Vol. 1 is planned to ship in early Summer, 2013.

Written and produced over the past 10 years with Ray Harryhausen's cooperation and support, the complete 3-volume definitive 295,000-word career/biography features interviews with Ray and his colleagues and is profusely illustrated with several hundred rare photographs, artwork, and illustrations (many of which have never been previously published).

We published Volume 2 ("The American Films") first, then Volume 3 ("The British Films"), and are now wrapping up the set with Volume 1 (“Beginnings and Endings”).

Chapters in Volume 1 extensively cover:

Ray's Early 16mm Experiments, The Influence of Willis O'Brien and King Kong, George Pal's Puppetoons®, Ray's Film Work During World War II, The Fairy Tale Short Subjects, Ray's Retirement Years (including tributes, awards, convention appearances, colorizing his films, unfinished projects, the King Kong 50th Anniversary celebration at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1983, Ray's cameo appearances in other films, Ray's Lifetime Achievement Oscar® from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ray's "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and much more).

As a special adjunct to the Willis O'Brien chapter, we're including the complete first draft of the King Kong screenplay by British mystery writer Edgar Wallace.

A special supplement that we're calling "How To Make a Monster" will take you step-by-step through the process of constructing a stop motion model using photos from numerous stop motion films (Caveman, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Willis O'Brien films, and more) — from blueprint to armature to clay sculpture to plaster mold to final foam rubber animation model. (Now you'll know the answer when someone asks, "How did they DO that...?")

Contributors to Volume 1 include Famous Monsters editor Forrest J Ackerman, Darlyne (Mrs. Willis) O'Brien, Lost World star Bessie Love, King Kong producer Merian C. Cooper and star Fay Wray, screenwriters Beverley Cross and Kenneth Kolb, animator and visual effects artists Jim Danforth and Randall William Cook, director John Landis, producer Arnold Kunert, and many others, some of whom have since passed away.

Stills and other visual material come from numerous private collections, including considerable material that has never been seen in print before (including Ray Harryhausen's own books).

PLUS—

• “Ray Harryhausen's Los Angeles” – A multi-page map of key locations connected to Ray and his films in the 1940s and 50s;

• Advertising art and posters from different countries;

• Reviews and story synopses;

• Filmographies of key cast and crew.

• 370 pages, 125,000 word text (chapters, appendices, and more);

• Over 1,500 images —photos, artwork, posters, technical diagrams and

other illustrations— in Spectacular Color, Nostalgic Sepia-Tone, and Glorious Black-and-White.

• Hardcover: dark brown imitation leather with title stamped in gold foil;

• Full color dust jacket;

• Heavy 70 pound semi-gloss paper stock;

• Overall dimensions 9" x 11-1/2";

• Weight: 5 pounds.

Majicks Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 are long sold out and now command prices ranging from $350 to $500 to over $700 per copy on eBay and Amazon. So don't delay— sales have been brisk and our limited edition print run of Vol. 1 (the final volume in the set) is on its way to selling out soon.

From his Preface to Volume 3 —

"There is no way to overstate the importance of these books. [This book] is simply the most perfect book about Harryhausen ever made. This is the book that you dreamt of having as a child and makes you want to go out and re-watch every single one of the chronicled. It makes you fall in love with cinema all over again."

— Guillermo del Toro, Director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth

From his combination review of Volumes 2 and 3 of Majicks:

“…Hankin’s in-progress overview of Harryhausen’s career is unlikely to be surpassed; other books may offer different pictures, different vantages and depths of specific information, but the totality of Harryhausen’s achievement is best represented here.”

— Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog #166

To order go to www.archive-editions.com

COMING SOON: "THE MAKING OF THE GUNS OF NAVARONE" AND "THE MAKING OF LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" BY BRIAN HANNAN

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

Here are two forthcoming books by author Brian Hannan that are sure to interest Cinema Retro readers:

THE MAKING OF THE GUNS OF NAVARONE by Brian Hannan (published by Baroliant Press May 2013 £8.99)

History tells us The Guns Of Navarone was a huge critical and box office success. But for most of the filming and the run-up to release it didn’t look that way. US producer Carl Foreman, a victim of the McCarty anti-communist witch-hunt of the early 1950s, lost his scriptwriter (Eric Ambler), preferred cast (William Holden and Cary Grant), director (Alexander Mackendrick), two leading ladies and very nearly one the stars, David Niven who almost died during shooting. Actor Gregory Peck turned into a potential liability after the disastrous box office of Beloved Infidel. Calling on new research material, Brian Hannan takes a fresh look at an old favourite, creating a snapshot, movie-wise, of the period.

THE MAKING OF LAWRENCE OF ARABIA by Brian Hannan (published by Baroliant Press May 2013 £8.99)

Nearly forty years in the making, with around twenty different attempts to get the film off the ground, Lawrence Of Arabia finally emerged in the triumphant David Lean version. If the movie shoot was a nightmare, with spiralling costs and the production eventually postponed, what followed was even worse with disastrous advance bookings, a newspaper strike that paralysed advertising and the worst snowstorms in a century that stopped people getting out. Using a wealth of new research, Brian Hannan traces the genesis of the movie from the day TE Lawrence himself purportedly walked into a movie producer’s office in the 1920s through to the glorious reissues, providing, along the way, a history of the movie world of the time.

BOOK REVIEW: "DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS" - REISSUE OF THE NOVELIZATION BY JOHN BURKE

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 05:39:00 -0600

By Lee Pfeiffer

BearManor Media is a niche market publishing company that backs unusual subject matters, largely related to the celebration of cult movies. The company has just released a reprint of writer John Burke's novelization of the 1965 horror film Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. The movie was produced by Amicus Films, which sought (with success) to emerge as a rival to Hammer Films. Amicus head honchos Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky even "stole" Hammer's two signature stars on occasion: Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, both of whom starred in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and provided an impressive supporting cast that included Donald Sutherland, Roy Castle, Neil McCallum, Michael Gough, Bernard Lee and Jeremy Kemp. The less-than-subtle title doesn't do justice to an entertaining and film about a group of strangers who encounter an ominous and mysterious man (Cushing) on a long rail journey. In the course of their travels, the man terrifies his travel companions by predicting a very morbid future for each of them. The idea of an anthology built around a horror movie presence was not new at the time, having been successfully employed twenty years earlier with the British film Dead of Night. However, Amicus successfully dusted off the premise and the response to this film was so positive that the studio would utilize the same format time and again with films like Tales From the Crypt and The House That Dripped Blood.

BearManor's reprint of the tie-in paperback novelization features a stunning poster reproduction on the cover as well as B&W film stills peppered throughout. The novel was originally only available in England through Pan Books, so this marks the book's first appearance in the American market. As the movie is not officially available on DVD in the States, this book will whet the appetites of those might be inspired to order the British Region 2 edition. Writer and film historian Richard A. Ekstedt provides an informative and entertaining foreword that gives a history of the film and novelization (although he curiously spells the title Doctor Terror's House of Horrors throughout his article instead of the movie's actual title, which is spelled Dr. Terror's House of Horrors.) The book is part of "Philip J. Riley's Nightmare Series". Despite its modest production values, this volume is most welcome for all of us who have fond memories of seeing the movie many years ago. Now if an American release DVD will only follow....

Click here to order from Amazon

"THE GODFATHER EFFECT": EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS FROM AUTHOR TOM SANTOPIETRO

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 05:21:00 -0600

The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America and Me by Tom Santopietro

(In this exclusive article for Cinema Retro, author Tom Santopietro takes an introspective look at his motivations for writing his acclaimed book, The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America and Me and provides an extended excerpt from the book).

Arthur Laurents, the author of Gypsy, West Side Story, The Way We Were, Rope, and The Turning Point, once stated that whatever book you think you’re sitting down to write, it will inevitably turn out quite differently. That, in a nutshell, is exactly what happened to me in writing my recent book The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me. I thought I was sitting down to examine the film trilogy I, along with millions of others around the world, love and obsess over. Write about the films I did, but I also unexpectedly ended up delving into the history of Italian immigration to the United States, learning about those, like my grandparents, who left the horrendous living conditions in southern Italy and journeyed to the United States for a new start in life. More to the point, and most surprising of all, I also ended up writing about my own life, growing up half-Italian in an overwhelmingly WASPy world of private schools and country clubs. In the process I ended up confronting the irony at the heart of my obsession with The Godfather: It took The Godfather, or more specifically, The Godfather Part II, epic sagas concerning gangsters with whom I thought I had nothing in common, to make me fully connect with a sense of being Italian, fostering a pride in my heritage that had never previously existed in my genetically half-Italian, but culturally three-quarters anglo upbringing.

Time Magazine dubbed The Godfather “The Italian-American Gone With the Wind”, but for me it was more a case of the personal rather than the epic. One look at the very young Don Corleone sailing past the Statue of Liberty in Part II, staring in awe at the new world which awaited him, and I was overcome with a personalized emotion I had never before experienced in a movie theater. There on the screen, in the person of young Vito, was my grandfather, Orazio Santopietro, thirteen years old, twenty lira in his pocket, arriving in America for the very first time. The power of the image of this solitary boy made me realize for the first time in my comfortable, cocooned, upper-middle-class life just what had transpired in my grandfather’s lap to L’America. Thanks to Coppola and co-screenwriter Mario Puzo, I finally got it. Well, it would take decades and the loss of both of my parents before I fully understood, but that one image of young Vito and the Statue of Liberty first opened the door to a sense of “Italian-ness” that had heretofore utterly escaped me.

When The Godfather Effect was published early in 2012, I was actually unprepared for the very personal letters and e-mails that I received from readers. My previous three books dealt with the careers of music and acting legends Barbra Streisand, Doris Day, and Frank Sinatra, and I had always enjoyed hearing from fans of the stars. But—those responses had never been so personal, so nakedly emotional, as the letters I received regarding The Godfather Effect. People all over the globe love the Corleones- for all sorts of complicated reasons- and my view of the immigrant experience through the lens of The Godfather seemed to remind readers of their own families and immigrant ancestors. Italian, Irish, eastern European, Hispanic- we all have ancestors whose journeys made our own twenty-first century lives possible. By the time I received my fifth letter which began “I’m not Italian but your story made me think about my grandparents and their own journey to the United States”, I realized that the Corleones don’t just register as Italian-American: they are American. The sort of personal response engendered by the book has little to do with my writing, but everything to do with the intense reaction that the Corleones evoke in movie audiences of all ages and ethnicities. Thanks to the work of extraordinary artists like Coppola, Brando and Pacino, The Godfather, like all great pop culture, provides us glimpses of our own journeys and very American lives.

So- with that as background I here offer an excerpt from the beginning of The Godfather Effect- part film history, part immigrant journey, and a salute to two of the best films ever made. Not just the best gangster movies, but the best movies. Ever.

(Continue reading for excerpt from the book)

Continue reading ""THE GODFATHER EFFECT": EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS FROM AUTHOR TOM SANTOPIETRO "

BOOK REVIEW: "REGIONAL HORROR FILMS 1958-1990" BY BRIAN ALBRIGHT

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:19:00 -0600

By Lee Pfeiffer

Author Brian Albright brings a new angle to the well-worn path of movie books dedicated to horror films. In Regional Horror Films 1958-1990, Albright devotes an entire volume to low-budget horror (and sci-fi) movies made by independent producers and directors generally on shoestring budgets. The first section of the book contains interviews with such cult figures as Ed Adlum, Donald Barton, J.R. Bookwalter, Martin Folse, Milton Moses Ginsberg, William Grefe, Lewis Jackson, Russ Marker, Robert W. Morgan, Tom Rahner, Albert J. Salzer, Larry Stouffer and Robert Burrill. The filmmakers tell revealing and often amusing tales of how they used mind over money to create movies that, in some cases, became surprise cult hits, bringing in considerable profits. Titles covered include Last House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave, The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead and more obscure films that many readers will not have heard of. The book's second half is a very entertaining and useful breakdown by state of the horror films shot in every region during this time period. (I never dreamed so many were filmed in my native New Jersey!) Each film is accorded a synopsis and some interesting trivia facts. There is also an extensive bibliography, index and web site referral page in addition to ample photos from many of the movies.

As with all McFarland Publishing ventures, this one is pricey ($45 for a softcover edition), but that's because the print runs are small and the books are designed to appeal to niche audiences. Author Albright has done his homework- and it shows. This book should be considered to be indispensable reading for anyone with a love of low-budget horror flicks.

To order go to www.mcfarlandpub.com or call their order line at 800-253-2187

RARE PHOTOS OF ELIZABETH TAYLOR ARE THE SUBJECT OF A NEW BOOK

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:49:00 -0500

The new book Elizabeth Taylor: A Shining Legacy on Film pays tribute to the screen legend through publication of some rare photos highlighting her in key roles and behind the scenes on film sets. Click here to view slideshow.

Click here to order book discounted from Amazon

BOOK REVIEW: "ALIEN: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY" REMASTERED EDITION FROM TITAN BOOKS

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 05:42:00 -0500

By Lee Pfeiffer

In 1979, comic book writer and artist Walt Simonson teamed with fellow comic writer, editor and artist Archie Goodwin to create Alien: The Illustrated Story, a graphic novel tied into the release of Ridley Scott's new science fiction film. Graphic novel icon Frank Miller has said of this release, "Alien: The Illustrated Story might just be the only successful movie adaptation ever done in comics. It's a amazing graphic novel." Indeed, the artwork and adherence to the film remain impressive, even today. The original graphic novel has been out of print for decades despite the fact that the original Alien film has gained iconic status among sci-fi fans. Now Titan Books has reissued the graphic novel with significant enhancements: every page has been digitally remastered from original art that has been preserved in Walt Simonson's studio. The new release comes in 8x11 softcover format and glossy paper stock that does full justice to the outstanding artwork.

By 1979, the graphic novel was already pushing boundaries in ways that conventional comic books could not. For one, they were not bound by the constraints of the quaint comics code, a self-imposed censorship board that was put in place to stave off do-gooders who almost shut down the entire comic book industry in the 1950s. The artwork was also ground-breaking, adding considerably to the suspense of following the storyline. The novel does an admirable job of compacting all of the key story elements without resorting to the kinds of "artistic license" that often compromise many other comic adaptations of films. In all, it's a great concept to bring back classic comics such as this in restored editions, much the same way that great movies are routinely made available to new generations. Don't miss adding this one to your collection.

Click here to order from Amazon.

BOOK REVIEW: "HOLLYWOOD MOVIE STILLS" BY JOEL W. FINLER (TITAN BOOKS)

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 05:17:00 -0500

(Published by Titan Books $24.95/£19.99) 208 pages, Illustrated (B&W) ISBN 9781781161937

By Kevin Wilkinson

Movie stills have been a rather neglected area of the film industry so it is pleasing to see Titan publish this book of the golden days of Hollywood photography. It is not just a book full of gorgeous photos, as the text contains fascinating information detailing the history of movie publicity stills from the silent days through the heyday of the studio and star system to the mid Sixties when colour photography would come to the fore.

The book is lavishly illustrated with portraits, production stills, behind the scenes and candid photos. The often unheralded Hollywood photographers often worked under contract to a specific studio. Their duties included capturing portraits and scene stills, behind the scenes production shots showing the director and crew at work and costume and movie set photos for reference. They would also be assigned to take candid photos at the studio, premieres, parties and the star’s homes to capitalize on the actors’ growing popularity. These often included some obviously staged photographs designed to portray the actor or actress as a dedicated family person. (The book includes a wonderful photo of Errol Flynn in costume with his wife on the set of The Adventures of Robin Hood.) Examples are shown of stills that were adapted for movie posters and how some directors would take an intensely personal interest in the photos used for marketing campaigns. (A still of John Gavin and Vera Miles from Psycho looking at at a rocking chair was carefully arranged by Hitchcock so as not to give the game away.)

Movie buffs and photographers alike will enjoy this book immensely. Highly recommended.

Here is the official description:

Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe... It is through the eye of the stills camera that we experience and recall some of the cinema's most memorable events and faces. Still images are so powerful that they can easily pass for actual scenes for the movies they represent - rather than separately posed, lighted and photographed shots that may not even find their way into the finished film.

This book is the most detailed and perceptive survey ever devoted to this neglected aspect of film-making. It traces the origin of stills photography during the silent era and the early development of the star system, through to the rise of the giant studios in the 1930s and their eventual decline. Finler focuses on the photographers, on the stars they photographed, and on many key films and film-makers.

Hollywood Movie Stills is illustrated with hundreds of rare and unusual stills from the author's own collection, including not only portraits and scene stills but production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, poster art, calendar art, photo collages and trick shots. There are also photos showing the stars' private lives and special events in Hollywood. This lavishly presented new edition of Finler's classic work includes many new stills and much new insight and information into this fascinating aspect of the great film studios in their heyday.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

"THE DARK KNIGHT RISES" TIE-IN NOVEL BY GREG COX PUBLISHED BY TITAN BOOKS

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:15:00 -0500

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises,” the much-anticipated final chapter in writer-director Christopher Nolan’s Batman film trilogy has been adapted into an official tie-in novel written by award-winning author Greg Cox and published by Titan Books, under a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

Novelist Greg Cox is no stranger to Batman or the DC Comics universe, having written the official novelizations for such major comic book storylines as Infinite Crisis (2006), 52 (2007), Countdown (2009), and Final Crisis (2010). He has produced numerous bestselling adaptations and original novels based on Star Trek, Underworld, Warehouse 13, and other popular properties. His original novel Terminator Salvation: Cold War won the 2010 Scribe Award for tie-in fiction, and CSI: Headhunter took the award in 2009.

“Batman is one of the most iconic characters of popular culture,” Titan Publisher Nick Landau said. “We’re tremendously excited to work with Warner Bros. on the novelization of ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ especially since it is the culmination of everything Christopher Nolan has done with his amazing trilogy. This is a part of motion picture history.”

The publishing of Titan Books’ The Dark Knight Rises on Tuesday, July 24, was timed to coincide with the Warner Bros. Pictures release of “The Dark Knight Rises,” which opened in theatres on Friday, July 20, 2012.

About “The Dark Knight Rises”

Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises” is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar^® winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter”) again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar^® winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.

Returning to the main cast, Oscar^® winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar^® winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) reprises the role of Lucius Fox.

The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight.” The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. The film is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures. Slated for release on July 20, 2012, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

About Titan Publishing Group

Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981, comprising three divisions: Titan Books, Titan Magazines/Comics and Titan Merchandise. Titan Books' rapidly growing fiction list encompasses original fiction and reissues, primarily in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, horror, steampunk and crime. Titan Books also has an extensive line of media and pop culture-related non-fiction, graphic novels, art and music books. The company is based at offices in London, but operates worldwide, with sales and distribution in the US & Canada being handled by Random House.

About Warner Bros. Consumer Products

Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.

About DC Entertainment

DC Entertainment, home to iconic brands DC Comics (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash), Vertigo (Sandman, Fables) and MAD, is the creative division charged with strategically integrating its content across Warner Bros. Entertainment and Time Warner. DC Entertainment works in concert with many key Warner Bros. divisions to unleash its stories and characters across all media, including but not limited to film, television, consumer products, home entertainment and interactive games. Publishing thousands of comic books, graphic novels and magazines each year, DC Entertainment is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world. In January 2012, DC Entertainment, in collaboration with Warner Bros. and Time Warner divisions, launched We Can Be Heroes—a giving campaign featuring the iconic Justice League super heroes—to raise awareness and funds to fight the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

RAY HARRYHAUSEN BOOK NEARLY SOLD OUT- BEFORE IT'S PRINTED!

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:38:00 -0500

FXRH was the magazine published between 1971 and 1974 and devoted entirely to the film legacy of special effects genius Ray Harryhausen. Now Archive Editions is publishing all of these rare issues, along with new supplementary materials, in the form of a limited edition book. Click here for details and to pre-order.

Update! Very few copies left..Book almost sold out before it is printed.

BOOK REVIEW: "DROPPED NAMES: FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN AS I KNEW THEM" BY FRANK LANGELLA

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:18:00 -0500

By Harvey Chartrand

Frank Langella played an aging writer in Starting Out in the Evening (2007). Who would have figured this for typecasting?

In his superb memoir, Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them (HarperCollins), Langella reveals that he is an incomparable memoirist and storyteller, recalling his encounters with scores of luminaries from the world of entertainment in a career spanning half a century. All of these luminaries are deceased and the cast of characters is listed “by order of disappearance”. Just as well, as many of the revelations are quite shocking.

Langella must be the most sociable and congenial actor on the planet, as the busyness of his social and professional lives and the breadth and depth of his friendships, romantic liaisons and acquaintances are very impressive indeed. He met Marilyn Monroe in 1953. She stepped out of a limousine and said “hi” to the adolescent from Bayonne, New Jersey. In 1962, Langella, struggling for a toehold on Broadway, carried a dead drunk Montgomery Clift to his nearby townhouse several times. “He never spoke a word to me. Never even knew my name,” Langella recalls.

He knew Anthony Perkins in the late fifties when the future Norman Bates was the king of Broadway, and decades later met him in the parking lot of a grocery store in L.A., shortly before his death.

“I turned and saw what looked to me like a ghostly apparition, a paper-thin, wide-eyed, sallow-faced, walking cadaver. (…) He did not speak. (…) It was a terrifying sight. Clearly dying and clearly desperate, he seemed disoriented and lost. Only his familiar crooked grin gave me the sense he knew who he was. (…) Staring through my rearview mirror at him wandering around in the grass and weeds, I remembered when the world was his oyster and it seemed nothing could stand in his way; a book with such a beautiful cover on whose pages were most likely written crippling and indelible words of shame and guilt.”

Several of Langella’s memoirs deal with the ravages of time on the careers of actors and actresses who had been to the top of their profession and smelled its rarefied air. In 1976, Langella co-starred with Cameron Mitchell “in a ghastly television series entitled Swiss Family Robinson.” By then, the once handsome Mitchell was “fifty-eight, a fat, jowly mess, covering his sad decline with an over-the-top wisecracking demeanor; its most heartbreaking manifestation its constancy.” The wardrobe lady finds an old Napoleonic-era jacket with Mitchell’s name on it, probably the one he wore in Desirée, a 1954 film he did with Marlon Brando. Mitchell does “a little yo ho yo ho strut” in the jacket that is now two sizes too small for him, “like a vaudeville clown getting ready to throw a pie.” Pathetic.

Langella is unusually frank about his relationships with Rita Hayworth (20 years his senior, her memory failing) and an aging Elizabeth Taylor, whom he gently spurns, knowing that he could not be part of “her indiscriminate search for the one thing she could not and would never have: Enough!”

Langella has serious regrets about lost opportunities: blowing a possible relationship with Dinah Shore; treating an older Deborah Kerr callously as they co-starred in Edward Albee’s play Seascape on Broadway in 1974… and then trying to meet with her 30 years later to apologize; turning down a role in John Frankenheimer’s The Horsemen in order to star in Mel Brooks’ flop The Twelve Chairs, which led to an angry rebuke by Frankenheimer, who never asked for Langella again.

Langella befriended Alan Bates during the Broadway run of Ivan Turgenev’s play Fortune’s Fool and they remained very close friends until Bates’ death in 2003. Langella also expresses admiration for Tony Curtis: “(…) apart from the absurdity of his desperate attempts to look cool, hip and young, I found him always to be charming, instantly connected, and very funny. He was, as well, ruthlessly honest when he didn’t like someone or something. A no-shit guy who had taken a lot of abuse, often challengingly bringing it upon himself.”

As for Paul Newman, who tried to befriend Langella, the memoirist writes: “He was a great audience, a true lover of acting and actors, and wanted, I believe, to be thought of as a great actor. He wasn’t. But he gave everything he had to every role. As his movie star days faded and turned mostly to stage and television projects, his limitations became more apparent. As indeed, they were in life. After dirty-sexy jokes, shop talk, cars, or politics were exhausted, Paul was a pretty dull companion. Never rude or unkind, just dull.” However, Langella ends his chapter on Newman with a description of his final heartbreaking encounter with the actor famed for his baby-blues when he is stricken with cancer.” As I read this passage, I was so moved that tears welled in my eyes.

Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them is so damned interesting and well written that it should be savoured, but that is almost impossible. I dashed through the book in one sitting and will read it again just to study Langella’s literary artistry. My only quibble is that Langella doesn’t mention Kate Nelligan, his ravishing leading lady in John Badham’s 1979 Dracula.

Other stars and entertainers profiled by Langella include Billie Burke, Noel Coward, Lee Strasberg (whom Langella treated with contempt), Celia Johnson, Dolores del Rio, James Mason, Richard Burton (a thundering bore), Yul Brynner, Elsa Lanchester, Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis, Rex Harrison (a dreadful man), Coral Browne, Colleen Dewhurst, Gilbert Roland, Jessica Tandy, Raúl Juliá, Ida Lupino, Jo Van Fleet (who ended her days as a bag lady), Robert Mitchum, Roddy McDowall, Oliver Reed, George C. Scott (terminally sad), Loretta Young, Roger Vadim, John Gielgud, Anthony Quinn, Hume Cronyn, Elia Kazan (“talent such as his doesn’t give you rights” to become “a serial fucker of women’s bodies and men’s minds”) , Arthur Miller, Anne Bancroft (terminally miserable despite all her gifts), Maureen Stapleton, Yvonne De Carlo, Charlton Heston, Richardo Montalban, Jill Clayburgh and Susannah York.

To browse through Dropped Names, click here

To order from Amazon click here

KIRK DOUGLAS BLACKLIST CLAIMS SPUR CONTROVERSY

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:54:00 -0500

For decades, Kirk Douglas has been boasting that he was the man primarily responsible for breaking the Hollywood blacklist against suspected communists by hiring screenwriter Dalton Trumbo for his 1960 production of Spartacus. While no one denies that Douglas was bold in support of the blacklisted writer and gave him his first screen credit in years, a darker side of this era is emerging thanks to Douglas' new book about the of the movie. Trumbo's family and the film's producer Edward Lewis accuse Douglas of greatly exaggerating his role in breaking the blacklist. They have been arguing for decades that, while Douglas deserved credit for putting Trumbo's name back on screen credits, he had to be shamed into doing so. They also say that Douglas was so nervous about this act of defiance against the established studios that he refused to give Trumbo screen credit for work he did on their follow-up production, Town Without Pity. Trumbo's heirs also say Douglas' production company exploited blacklisted writers by hiring the desperate men at a fraction of their usual salaries. Click here for more

BOOK REVIEW: "ELSTREE SCREEN HERITAGE" BY PAUL WELSH: AN HOMAGE TO THE LEGENDARY BRITISH STUDIO

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:48:00 -0500

By Dave Worrall

For the past 35 years Paul Welsh MBE, film historian and Chairman of 'Elstree Screen Heritage', has written about the local film and TV studios in a weekly newspaper column

for the Borehamwood & Elstree Times. Paul, who recently wrote about the MGM Borehamwood Studios in our Where Eagles Dare special tribute edition, has now written “Elstree Confidential” a unique book bringing readers highlights of 50 years of Paul’s memories of the studios, lavishly illustrated by private photos and correspondence never before published. For anyone remotely interested in the history of film, this is a must-have, as Paul's research, and indeed his history with these world re-known studios, is unsurpassed. MGM's famous quote used to be "We have more stars than there are in heaven." Well, judging by the snapshots in this book, Paul met them all too! I felt as though I was there with the author while going through these pages. Many of the photos are to die for - especially those depicting sets on the old back lots, etc. An excellent and personal account of an era long lost, and which should (could?) have been preserved.

Published by Elstree & Borehamwood Museum, this hardbound book costs only £15.95 (plus £4.15 postage and packing in the UK) Your copy will be posted to you on the same day you place your order! To order a copy simply go on-line to the web site at www.elstreescreenheritage.org

LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS MAGAZINE #28 CELEBRATES HAMMER FILMS RESURGENCE

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Sun, 20 May 2012 05:48:00 -0500

By Lee Pfeiffer

I almost hate it when Dick Klemensen publishes a new issue of his long-running Hammer Films tribute magazine Little Shoppe of Horrors. It takes a lot of my time just to work on my own magazine, Cinema Retro, and the distractions that Little Shoppe inevitably offers makes me put off reading the latest issue until that rare day when I have a few free hours. LSOH has been running for many years and publisher Klemensen never seems to run out of material, even though every article is dedicated to the Hammer phenomenon. Not surprisingly, this issue makes the most of the legendary film studio's resurgence with the brilliant new version of The Woman in Black. The magazine dedicates about half of its entire page count to the making of the movie, and affords exclusive behind the scenes access with most of the major cast and crew including Daniel Radcliffe. But there is so much more, including a vintage interview with the now deceased British character actor Nigel Stock and a fascinating, seemingly quixotic search for a mythical missing Japanese version of Horror of Dracula (with a terrific and unexpected payoff). Klemensen, like Cinema Retro, benefits from the talents of a loyal and highly talented group of international writers and columnists and every article proves to be a page-turner. Toss into the mix some wonderful original artwork, countless rare photos and some very moving personal tributes to Hammer screenwriter and director Jimmy Sangster, and you have another top-of-the-line issue.

Click here to order from official web site