Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Newly
Restored and Remastered for Its 40th Anniversary, Director
Milos Forman’s Acclaimed Drama is Latest Addition to
the Paramount Presents Line
Debuting
November 16, 2021, Limited-Edition Two-Disc Blu-rayâ„¢ Includes Newly
Discovered Director’s Cut Workprint, Deleted & Extended Scenes, and a New
Look Back at the Film
Oscar®-winning* director Milos Forman’s cinematic epic RAGTIME
arrives for its 40th anniversary in a Limited-Edition two-disc
Blu-ray as part of the Paramount Presents line on November 16, 2021 from
Paramount Home Entertainment. The film was originally released on
November 20, 1981.
Based on E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel, RAGTIME
tells an unforgettable story of disparate characters in New York City in the
early 1900s. From
the emerging New York suburb of New Rochelle to the flashy spectacle of
Atlantic City, a family faces racial tensions, scandals, and violence that will
test everything they believe in. With music by
Randy Newman, the film features a spectacular cast including James Cagney, Brad
Dourif, Moses Gunn, Elizabeth McGovern, Kenneth McMillan, Pat O’Brien, Donald
O’Connor, James Olson, Mandy Patinkin, Howard E. Rollins, Jr., Mary
Steenburgen, Debbie Allen, Jeff Daniels, Fran Drescher, Samuel L. Jackson,
Norman Mailer, John Ratzenberger.
RAGTIME has been remastered from a 4K film transfer
and is presented in collectible packaging featuring a foldout image of the
film’s theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments.
The two-discBlu-ray includes a newly discovered director’s cut
workprint version of the film (along with the theatrical version), deleted and
extended scenes, a look back at RAGTIME with Larry Karaszewski
and screenwriter Michael Weller, access to a Digital copy of the theatrical
version, and the additional legacy bonus content detailed below:
Disc 1
· Newly remastered
theatrical version
· Deleted and
Extended Scenes—NEW!
· Ragtime
Revisited: A Conversation with Larry Karaszewski and screenwriter Michael
Weller on Ragtime—NEW!
· Commentary by
director Milos Forman and executive producer Michael Hausman
· Deleted Scene
· Remembering Ragtime
Disc 2
· Director’s Cut
Workprint—NEW!
About Paramount
Presents
This collectible line spans
celebrated classics to film-lover favorites, each from the studio’s renowned
library. Every Paramount Presents release features never-before-seen
bonus content and exclusive collectible packaging. Additional titles
available in the Paramount Presents collection on Blu-ray include: Fatal
Attraction, King Creole, To Catch a Thief, Flashdance,
Days of Thunder, Pretty In Pink, Airplane!, Ghost,
Roman Holiday, The Haunting, The Golden Child, Trading Places, The Court
Jester, Love Story, Elizabethtown, The Greatest Show on Earth, Mommie Dearest,Last Train From Gun Hill, 48 HRS., Another 48 HRS., Almost Famous, A Place
in the Sun, Nashville, Bugsy Malone, Breakdown,The Sheik and Vanilla
Sky.
Here's a real rarity from some years ago: an officially licensed Steve McQueen Virgil Hilts action figure sold only in Japan back in the 90s. The Great Escape packaging is enough to make a collecting nerd out of any retro movie fan, especially when you throw in the optional U.S Army jacket patterned after the one McQueen wore in the film. The bad news: these figures sell for hundreds of dollars whenever they periodically show up on the collector's circuit. Now if they'd only make that Donald Pleasence companion figure! (Image from UK-based Metropolis Toys, which has a cool catalog of toys based on classic TV shows and movies)
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
“Crocodile Dundee†Trilogy: Together for the First Time on
Blu-ray, Fan-Favorite Trilogy Debuts September 21, 2021
Say g’day to Michael J. “Crocodile†Dundee (Paul Hogan), the
eccentric Australian crocodile hunter who won the hearts of fans around the
globe when he made his feature film debut in “Crocodile†Dundee, which
celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Originally released
on September 26, 1986, the film earned over $328 million worldwide and spawned
two sequels: “Crocodile†Dundee II and “Crocodile†Dundee in Los
Angeles. Now, all three films will be available together in one
Blu-ray collection when the “CROCODILE†DUNDEE TRILOGY debuts
September 21, 2021 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
The “CROCODILE†DUNDEE TRILOGY includes all three
films in high definition, along with access to digital copies of each:
“Crocodile†Dundee
Paul Hogan's hilarious, endearing performance made
"Crocodile" Dundee the #1 comedy at the U.S. box office in 1986,
surpassed only by Top Gun in ticket sales. Michael J.
"Crocodile" Dundee (Hogan) is a free spirited Australian who hunts
crocodiles with his bare hands, stares down giant water buffaloes, and drinks
mere mortals under the table. But he's about to face the ultimate torture
test—a trip to New York City. The Blu-ray also includes the theatrical
trailer in HD.
“Crocodile†Dundee II
Just as the eccentric Australian is starting to adjust to life in
New York City, Dundee (Paul Hogan) and his girlfriend (Linda Kozlowski) are
targeted by a gang of ruthless drug dealers. Dundee evens the odds by leading
the big-city hoods into the treacherous Australian outback. The Blu-ray
includes a previously released behind-the-scenes featurette in standard
definition and the theatrical trailer in HD.
“Crocodile†Dundee In Los Angeles
He's wrestled crocodiles Down Under and fought crime in New York,
but can Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee swim with the sharks in
L.A.? Paul Hogan returns as “Crocodile†Dundee in this hilarious third
installment of the beloved film series, making its Blu-ray debut. The
disc also includes a previously released “Making of†featurette and the
theatrical trailer in standard definition.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Celebrate
the 25th Anniversary of the Iconic Thriller,
Newly Remastered on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-rayâ„¢
Subversive
Fan-Favorite Arrives October 19, 2021
with an All-New Look at the Film’s Impact and Legacy
In celebration of its 25th
anniversary and just in time for Halloween, SCREAM will be
released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD and in a newly remastered Blu-ray on
October 19, 2021 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
25 years after its
theatrical debut, SCREAM remains a wildly entertaining and
terrifically terrifying cinematic experience. Directed by Wes Craven and
written by Kevin Williamson, the film is a brilliant deconstruction of the
horror genre that pays homage to the conventions of slasher films while
upending them with clever twists and witty dialogue.
The new SCREAM
4K Ultra HD, Limited-Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook, and Blu-ray include a
brand-new look back at the film and director Wes Craven, featuring archival
behind-the-scenes footage and new interviews with stars Neve Campbell,
Courteney Cox, and David Arquette, as well as screenwriter Kevin Williamson and
the directors and other cast members from the new installment in the franchise
scheduled to premiere in theaters in 2022 from Paramount Pictures and Spyglass
Media Group. The discs also include access to a Digital copy of the film
and the legacy bonus content detailed below:
·A Bloody Legacy: Scream
25 Years Later— NEW!
·Audio commentary by
director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson
·Production featurette
·Behind the Scenes
On the Scream Set
Drew Barrymore
·Q&A with Cast and
Crew
What’s Your Favorite Scary Movie?
Why are People so Fascinated by Horror Films?
Synopsis
After a series of
mysterious deaths befalls their small town, an offbeat group of friends led by
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) becomes the target of a masked killer. As the
body count rises, Sidney and her friends turn to the “rules†of horror films to
help navigate the real-life terror they’re living in. The film also stars
Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy,
Rose McGowan, and Drew Barrymore.
Fathom Events
In celebration of the 25th anniversary, Fathom
Events and Paramount Pictures will bring SCREAM back to select
cinemas for a special two-day event on October 10 and 11. Additional
details will be announced separately.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER 4K HD & DIGITAL EDITION FROM AMAZON
CLICK HERE TO ORDER BLU-RAY AND DIGITAL EDITION FROM AMAZON
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Celebrate
the 55th Anniversary of the Star Trek Franchise with the
Debut of the First Four Films on 4K Ultra HD Blu-rayâ„¢
Newly
Remastered Films will also be Available Individually on Blu-rayâ„¢
New
Releases Arrive September 7, 2021
Just in
time to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the September 8, 1966
airing of the very first Star Trek episode, Paramount Home Entertainment
will debut the following new releases for every fan’s collection on September
7, 2021:
STAR
TREK: THE ORIGINAL 4 MOVIES 4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY COLLECTION
For the
first time ever, experience the original four Star Trek films in
stunning 4K Ultra HD. Newly remastered from original elements for optimal
picture quality, each film is presented with Dolby Vision® and HDR-10.*
This exceptional collection includes four Ultra HD discs, as well as four
remastered Blu-ray discs with hours of previously released bonus content.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (both the
theatrical and director’s cut), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home are presented on both the 4K Ultra HD and
Blu-ray Discs, along with access to digital copies of the theatrical version of
each film. A detailed list of the disc contents follows:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture 4K Ultra HD
·Isolated score in Dolby 2.0—NEW!
·Commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield
Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman
Star Trek: The Motion Picture Blu-ray
·Isolated score in Dolby 2.0—NEW!
·Commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield
Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman
·Library Computer (HD)
·Production
oThe Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture (HD)
·The Star Trek Universe
oSpecial Star Trek Reunion (HD)
oStarfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 001: The Mystery Behind V’ger
·Deleted Scenes
·Storyboards
·Trailers (HD)
·TV Spots
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 4K Ultra HD
·Commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer (Director's Cut and
Theatrical Version)
·Commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto (Theatrical
Version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Blu-ray
·Commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer (Director's Cut and
Theatrical Version)
·Commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto (Theatrical
Version)
·Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda (Director’s Cut)
·Library Computer (HD)
·The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan
·Production
oCaptain’s Log
oDesigning Khan
oOriginal Interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest
Kelley, and Ricardo Montalbán
oWhere No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek
II: The Wrath of Khan
oJames Horner: Composing Genesis (HD)
·The Star Trek Universe
oCollecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics (HD)
oA Novel Approach
oStarfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 002: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI
(HD)
·Farewell
oA Tribute to Ricardo Montalbán (HD)
·Storyboards
·Theatrical Trailer (HD)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 4K Ultra HD
·Commentary by director Leonard Nimoy, writer/producer Harve
Bennett, director of photography Charles Correll and Robin
Curtis
·Commentary by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Blu-ray
·Commentary by director Leonard Nimoy, writer/producer Harve
Bennett, director of photography Charles Correll and Robin
Curtis
·Commentary by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor
·Library Computer (HD)
·Production
oCaptain’s Log
oTerraforming and the Prime Directive
oIndustry Light & Magic: The Visual Effects of Star Trek
oSpock: The Early Years (HD)
·The Star Trek Universe
oSpace Docks and Birds of Prey
oSpeaking Klingon
oKlingon and Vulcan Costumes
oStar Trek and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (HD)
oStarfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 003: Mystery Behind the Vulcan
Katra Transfer
·Photo Gallery
oProduction
oThe Movie
·Storyboards
·Theatrical Trailer (HD)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 4K Ultra HD
·
Commentary by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
·
Commentary by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Blu-ray
·
Commentary by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
·
Commentary by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
·
Library Computer (HD)
·
Production
Future’s Past: A Look Back
On Location
Dailies Deconstruction
Below-the-Line: Sound Design
Pavel Chekov’s Screen Moments
(HD)
The Star Trek Universe
Time Travel: The Art of the
Possible
The Language of Whales
A Vulcan Primer
Kirk’s Women
The Three-Picture Saga (HD)
Star Trek for a Cause (HD)
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief
004: The Whale Probe (HD)
Visual Effects
From Outer Space to the Ocean
The Bird of Prey
Original Interviews
Leonard Nimoy
William Shatner
DeForest Kelley
Tributes
Roddenberry Scrapbook
Featured Artist: Mark Lenard
Production Gallery
Storyboards
Theatrical Trailer (HD)
STAR
TREK: THE ORIGINAL 4 MOVIES ON BLU-RAY
Each of
the original four Star Trek films will also be available individually on
Blu-ray with the bonus content detailed above. Newly remastered versions
of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (both
the theatrical and director’s cut), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,
and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home are presented in high definition along
with digital copies of the theatrical version of each film.
FATHOM EVENTS
In addition, in celebration of the 55th
anniversary, Fathom Events and Paramount Pictures will bring Star Trek IV:
The Voyage Home back to select cinemas for a special two-day event on
August 19 and 22. Additional details will be announced at a later date.
STAR
TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE Synopsis
The U.S.S.
Enterprise boldly debuted on the big screen with the cast of the original Star
Trek series, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley,
George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan. When an
unidentified alien intruder destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain
James T. Kirk returns to the helm of a newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise
to take command. This is the original theatrical cut of the acclaimed adventure
and features Jerry Goldsmith’s rousing iconic overture.
STAR TREK
II: THE WRATH OF KHAN Synopsis
Including
both the original theatrical and director’s cuts, Star Trek II: The Wrath of
Khan is one of the most celebrated and essential chapters in Star Trek
lore. On routine training maneuvers, Admiral James T. Kirk seems resigned that
this may be the last space mission of his career. But an adversary from the
past has returned with a vengeance. Aided by his exiled band of genetic
supermen, Khan (Ricardo Montalbán)—brilliant renegade of 20th century Earth—has
raided Space Station Regula One, stolen the top-secret device called Project
Genesis, wrested control of another Federation starship, and now schemes to set
a most deadly trap for his old enemy Kirk… with the threat of a universal
Armageddon.
STAR TREK
III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK Synopsis
Admiral
Kirk's defeat of Khan and the creation of the Genesis planet are empty
victories. Spock is dead and McCoy is inexplicably being driven insane. Then a
surprise visit by Spock's father provides a startling revelation: McCoy is
harboring Spock's living essence. Kirk attempts to steal the U.S.S.
Enterprise and defy Starfleet's Genesis planet quarantine to search for his
friend, but the Klingons are planning a deadly rendezvous.
STAR TREK
IV: THE VOYAGE HOME Synopsis
When a
mysterious alien power threatens the atmosphere of Earth in the 23rd
century, Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco to save
mankind. Exploring this strange new world, they encounter punk rock, pizza and
exact-change buses that are as alien as anything in the far reaches of the
galaxy.
In
comparing Masquerade (1965) with a recent review of Arabesque (1966)
here at Cinema Retro, this time we have yet another mid-1960s “comedy-spy
thriller,†a genre that was crowding the cinemas in those days because of the
success of Double-O-You-Know-Who.
In
contrast to Arabesque,this one is a British production, directed
by the prolific and often brilliant Basil Dearden, and it utilizes London
locations as well as spots in Spain. And yet, despite the thoroughly British
DNA running through 95% of the movie, it stars American Cliff Robertson as the
hero, David Fraser, a sort of CIA type who seems to approach all the danger
around him with misplaced naivete and amused detachment.
The
script marks the first appearance of the great William Goldman in a screen
credit (co-writing with Michael Relph). It’s based on Vincent Canning’s novel, Castle
Minerva. Apparently, it was Robertson who had enlisted Goldman’s services,
as the dialogue needed some “Americanizing.†That said, the script is
serviceable and certainly makes more sense than what we saw in Arabesque.
Britain
wants oil drilling rights in a fictional Middle Eastern country, but the
country isn’t playing ball. Colonel Drexel (Jack Hawkins) is engaged by Sir
Robert (John Le Mesurier) to fix the problem. Drexel hires an old war buddy, Frazer,
to kidnap the teenage son of the country’s prince. This is supposed to force the
resumption of talks and ultimate agreement between the two countries. Why this
is considered sound diplomacy is anyone’s guess, but that’s the mission. Frazer
goes along with the plan out of loyalty to his friend; however, at one point he
rejects performing an order because he has “scruples†(but kidnapping a prince
isn’t one of them). Frazer eventually finds that he has competition in the form
of a small gang of Europeans who also want the boy. As the tag line for the
movie in its posters and theatrical trailer shouts, “Who is Doing What to Who?â€
Indeed… the audience will be wondering that, too. (Shouldn’t that be “to Whom?â€)
In other words, the movie is filled with double-crosses, switcheroos, and
things that are not as they seem.
The
picture is lively and loaded with action sequences. The supporting cast,
especially the Europeans (namely Marisa Mell and a young Michel Piccoli), are a
hoot. The British side sports familiar character actors besides Hawkins (such
as Charles Gray and Bill Fraser).
Unfortunately,
Masquerade doesn’t quite succeed as intended mainly due to the casting
of Robertson. Like Arabesque, this needed someone with the comic
delivery of a Cary Grant, and the American Robertson is also oddly out of place
in this British-European milieu. Robertson does his best, though, and he gets
the job done—even if the whole thing is more than just implausible. (The poor
guy gets clobbered on the head several times in the movie; one would think a
concussion might have debilitated him after, say, the third time.)
Kino
Lorber’s new Blu-ray displays that distinctive 1960s film stock look, and it’s
a good enough transfer. It comes with an audio commentary by film historians
Howard S. Berger and Chris Poggiali. The theatrical trailer, along with other Kino
Lorber trailers, are the only supplements.
Masquerade
is a
middle-of-the-road example of the 1960s cinematic “spy boom, and the Bond-Wanabe
aspects of the picture plants it firmly within the context of its era.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Being James Bond, from
Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), will be exclusively available to stream on
the Apple TV app as a free rental ahead of the theatrical release of the
upcoming 25th film in the James Bond franchise, No Time To Die.* In
this special 45-minute retrospective, Daniel Craig candidly reflects on
his 15-year adventure as James Bond. Customers in over 30 countries and
regions around the globe can rent the film for free
and stream it exclusively on the Apple TV app from September 7 to
October 7.
Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die,
Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers,
Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, in the lead up to his final
performance as James Bond.
“A lot of people here have worked on five pictures with me,†Craig noted during the conversation with the films’ producers in Being James Bond. “I've
loved every single second of these movies, and especially this one
because I've got up every morning and I've had the chance to work with
you guys, and that has been one of the greatest honours of my life.â€
Said
Broccoli in the film: “Daniel has just taken this, the character, the
series, the whole thing, to a place that is so…extraordinary. And so
emotionally satisfying.â€
“It's also emotionally tough being Daniel's last one. It's tough on Barbara, it's tough on me,†added Wilson.
The
Apple TV app brings together all the ways to watch shows and movies
into one app and is available on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch,
Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL, and others,
Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, and
PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Customers can visit https://apple.co/-beingjamesbondon iPhone, iPad, and Mac now to add Being James Bond to Up Next on the Apple TV app and be alerted when the film is available to watch.
The
Apple TV app also features Apple TV+, Apple’s video subscription
service offering original shows, movies, and documentaries from the
world’s most creative storytellers, as well as Apple TV channels,
personalized and curated recommendations, and movies and TV shows to buy
or rent.
Being James Bond was directed by Baillie Walsh (Flashbacks of a Fool) and produced by Charlie Thomas, Carla Poole and Special Treats Productions. Colin Burrows served as executive producer.
The 25th film in the James Bond franchise, No Time To Die, will be released intheatersbeginning
September 30 in the UK through Universal Pictures International and in
the US on October 8 through MGM via their United Artists Releasing
banner.
I turned age three one month prior to the January 1965
U.S. release of Roger Corman’s The Tomb
of Ligeia (American-International, 1964).The film had been first released in England in November 1964 - which was
only fair - since both The Tomb of Ligeia
and its predecessor The Masque of the Red
Death (also 1964) had been shot at Shepperton Studios and in the
neighboring English countryside. I’m guessing that I only became acquainted
with Corman’s octet of Poe adaptations when the films were televised on New
York City’s 4:30 Movie in the
mid-1970s.
I didn’t know quite what to make of the AIP Poe films at
first.These were horror films without
monsters and, at age fifteen, I had no particular interest in - or
understanding of - “psychological horror†pictures… I wanted rubber-suit
monsters sporting grotesque make-up appliances and causing small-town mayhem.I wasn’t yet old enough to understand the paralyzing
torment and terrors suffered by those with tortured souls.That is until I reached my mid-20s and
discovered, unhappily, I myself was afflicted with one.
The
Tomb of Ligeia was the eighth and last film that would
comprise Corman’s famed “Poe cycle,†a series (of sorts) that launched with the
moody House of Usher (1960).In his entertaining memoir, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and
Never Lost a Dime (Random House, 1990), the filmmaker shared with candor
that while he was pleased he had made “several very good-looking,
psychologically effective horror pictures†from 1960 through 1964, he admitted
that by cycle’s end, “I was repeating myself, taking ideas, images, themes, and
techniques from my earlier work.â€
I would say in defense there was no discernible slippage
of quality present in The Tomb of Ligeia.Both Robert Townes literate screenplay and
Corman’s direction are well crafted. In fact, I’ve long considered Corman’s House of Usher, The Premature Burial, The
Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb
of Ligeia as art-house horror films of a sort.The gold standard.
Or, perhaps, The Gold
Bug standard, if one is to remain true to the Poe terminologies.According to reports of January of 1964,
Poe’s The Gold Bug was actually scheduled
as A.I.P.’s immediate follow-up to The
Masque of the Red Death.In his biography
of Peter Lorre, author Stephen D. Youngkin suggests that previous Corman scribe
Charles B. Griffith (Bucket of Blood,
Little Shop of Horrors) had worked on
script for The Gold Bug, a romp that
was to re-team Price, Basil Rathbone and Lorre, recent stars of AIP’s The Comedy of Terrors (1963).Griffith’s version of The Gold Bug was reportedly sketched as a horror-comedy in the vein
of that earlier film.His script was -
presumably - scrubbed when Lorre passed away in March of 1964.
In any event, I now consider several films in the Poe
cycle among my favorite horror efforts.Thanks to 35mm revival screenings in the 1980s at New York City’s
repertory theaters and at retro all-night drive-in monster movie weekends, I’ve
been able to enjoy these classics in genuine Colorscope as originally designed.I’ve also had the wonderful opportunity to
enjoy a pair of relatively recent screenings of The Tomb of Ligeia in the company of two of the film’s high-profile
participants.In August of 2015 Roger
Corman and actress Elizabeth Shepherd (Lady
Rowena Trevanion) participated in a screening and Q & A at the
Anthology Film Archives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.In 2019 I caught still another 35mm
screening, this time with Elizabeth Shepherd attending alone and sharing more expansive
memories of working with both Corman and her notable co-star and boogeyman
Vincent Price.So it’s impossible for me
to separate my admiration for The Tomb of
Ligeia from such personal memories.
One of the nicest aspects of this Kino Lorber Studio
Classics Blu-ray edition of The Tomb of
Ligeia is that if you weren’t geographically fortunate enough to attend any
of these retrospective 35mm screening events, you now have the opportunity to
listen to Corman and Shepherd share their on-the-set memories on two of this
package’s generous trio of audio commentaries.The third commentary is provided by film historian Tim Lucas who
provides all the nuts and bolts factoids we cinema history train spotters require.With three distinct voices sharing the
commentary tracks, there’s a lot of material and viewpoints and memories to
wade through.
As was so often the case, Corman’s cinematic adaptations
of Poe were not terribly faithful to the original source materials.Instead we are treated to more visual
reimagining’s of the gloomy author’s classic short stories. Corman and a team
of screenwriters (including Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, both of Twilight Zone fame) had constructed new tales
only partly drawn from Poe’s characters and grotesque plot lines.
As Poe’s horrors were psychologically driven and introspective
in presentation, it was necessary for Corman and his team to inject more cinematic
visual tropes.This was accomplished by
introducing completely new scenarios and mixing in original and intriguing subplots.In Corman’s “serious†offerings of the Poe
cycle, the birthing author’s gloomy atmospheres, the dreary broodings on
mortality, the wearisome toll of mental anguish (and subsequent psychic breakdowns)
all remain faithful in tone to the spirit of his visions.
The screenplay of The
Tomb of Ligeia was scribed by the actor-writer Robert Towne.Towne already boasted a screenwriting credit
on The Last Man on Earth (1960) as
well as playing multiple on-screen roles in Corman’s Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961). Towne, who would go on to be feted with no
fewer than four Oscar nominations for his writing (most notably for Chinatwon), serves up a literate
screenplay that comes complete with the moody, erudite - and occasionally
archaic dialogue - that one comes to expect from this series.His work on the script stands alongside the
best Poe adaptations of Matheson and Beaumont.
The film version of The
Tomb of Ligeia concerns the curious and eccentric manner of which Vernon
Fell ((Vincent Price) conducts himself following the passing of his wife
Ligeia.Fell is obsessed, nay
terrorized, by the notion that his late wife is not quite dead in the usual sense of the word.He’s convinced that his wife’s disturbed
spirit – she was, after all, an unrepentant atheist who dabbled in spiritualism
– is now reincarnated in the form of a menacing black cat that prowls along the
premises of the dilapidated ruins of an abbey he calls home.The somber and haunted Fell finds new romance
with Lady Rowena (Shepherd), an already betrothed woman who happens upon his
property when she’s thrown from her horse during a spirited fox hunt.Rowena eventually marries Fell only to find
herself guarding against her new husband’s odd behaviors - and a malevolent black
cat who appears to willfully cause her torment.
Towne’s story takes many liberties with Poe’s original
short story, simply titled Ligeia, and
first published in Baltimore’s American
Museum periodical in September 1838.The most significant of these changes is that there’s no black cat
present in Poe’s version - and Rowena dies nine pages into the twelve-page tale.But since Poe tends to tell his tales as either
a detached narrator or in a “first person†internal dialogue of madness,
Corman’s cinematic vehicle needed a flesh and blood protagonist – even if the one
chosen for the film is adorned only in a coat of black fur – to make any menace
visually tangible.There’s a not too
subtle revelation of necrophilia and a more overt sequence of mesmerism
sprinkled in as well.It was obvious
that Towne, much like his predecessors, were mining a wide swath of Poe’s oeuvre
in a desire to enliven and expand the author’s short story for a film of
feature-length running time.
To celebrate the release of producer Sam Sherman’s memoir,When Dracula Met Frankenstein (Murania Press) Cinema Retro presents
this exclusive interview with the man himself. In our two-hour conversation,
the filmmaker demonstrated a virtual photographic memory when discussing his
remarkable 60 plus year career.Our
interview was a time capsule of the drive-in era where creative marketing,
distribution and production exemplified the true spirit of independent
filmmaking.
Sam Sherman grew up a horror and western film fan.The first horror film Sam ever saw was
Universal’s classic monster comedy, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948) which captivated his imagination at a very young age.Following his dream, he attended City College
of New York to study filmmaking.Like
most CR readers, he was also an avid collector – in his case, horror stills,
which one imagines were almost given away in the 1950s.Those black and white photos, picked up in
the small memorabilia stores that used to dot Manhattan, led to a career – “In
1958, I wrote to Famous Monsters and to my surprise, got a call back from Jim
Warren and asked if they’d be interested in renting my stills,†Sherman
recalled.
“I produced ads for Captain Company (FM’s merchandising
division) and I also acquired product for them.â€(As one who spent a lot of hard-earned
teenage cash on Captain Co products - including a Dr. No movie poster
for all of $4.99 - that was a part of Sam’s long career I could instantly
relate to.)
While ghostwriting articles for FM and working on other
Warren publications like Spacemen, Screen Thrills Illustrated and Wildest
Westerns, Sherman frequently found his enthusiasm for horror looked down upon
by Help! magazine art director, Terry Gilliam. Years later, Gilliam took an
obvious jab (and inspiration) from Sherman’s climactic battle of the monsters
in Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971) with his own comedic dismemberment scene
in Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975).“I made it a point never to see anything
he’s done,†Sam adds.
In the 1950s and 60s, New York was the center of the film
universe and Sherman found himself making the rounds of small distributors
trying to find films to license for his own fledgling company, Signature
Films.Sam later got in with an independent
film company called Hemisphere Pictures which specialized in movies shot in the
Philippines, including the Blood Island horror cult classics directed by
Eddie Romero.Sherman honed his
exploitation skills by creating the theatrical, television, radio and print ad
campaigns which established Hemisphere as The House of Horror with
unforgettable gimmicks and marketing promotions like “The Oath of Green Bloodâ€
for the first audience participation film, The Mad Doctor of Blood Island
(1969).
Sam’s book is full of photos from that era – from
snapshots of early visits to LA, to on-set stills and “ballyhoo†photos of
theater displays, lurid posters and marquees.One image that jumps out is of a young Sam standing behind the iconic Boris
Karloff on A.I.P.’s The Raven set. “Forry Ackerman (Famous Monsters’
longtime editor) took me to the last day of shooting and we spent the whole day
with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price, which was wonderful. I had a nice chat with
Karloff. He finished up for the day and (director) Roger Corman took him away
to do The Terror, which was non-union, somewhere else.â€Talk about maximizing your star!
In 1968, Sherman and several partners – including longtime
friend, filmmaker Al Adamson, formed Independent-International Pictures Corp.(a riff off the very successful American
International Pictures).“Al just wanted
to make movies, he left it to me to figure out how to market them and make
money,†Sam recalls.
Their first production for the new company was a raw biker
film, Satan’s Sadists starring Russ Tamblyn of West Side Story
fame and directed by Adamson. The film tapped into the national shockwaves
reverberating from biker gang violence as well as LA’s horrific Manson
murders.The female lead was a
statuesque California blonde, Regina Carrol, who became Adamson’s girlfriend,
later his wife and star of his films. Wanting to give her a little extra
exposure, Sherman labeled her “The Freak-Out Girlâ€.As the film contained nudity, the then-new
movie ratings board wanted to slap an X on Satan’s Sadists.Sam went to the mat to contest it, even
advising the theatre circuits to rate the film themselves based on regional
tastes vs the Motion Picture Board’s inconsistent classifications for
independent films.
Sam’s book is full of similar throw out the rulebook tales
– like licensing an odd Filipino caveman film named Tagani which was
shot in black & white. To modernize it, Adamson shot some new scenes with
veteran horror star John Carradine but the film still didn’t look right, so Sam
suggested using various tints (“Like they did in silent moviesâ€). He wrote MORE
new scenes (including computer sex!), added an eye-catching title - Horror
of the Blood Monsters and they now had a releasable film!
At Independent-International, Sam and Al shrugged off the
industry’s notoriously unforgiving deadlines: “We released an imported German
picture called Women for Sale which had been a big hit and I said ‘We
can’t find anything like it to follow up with, so let’s make a picture like
this’, it’ll be called Girls for Rent…â€Sam hired an industry friend to write it, months went by without a
script.“We’re getting closer to the key
summer playdates, and we were really in a jam†Sam recalled. “I got another
writer and we knocked the picture out fast, doing the campaign fast, ordered
prints and got it into release by the end of the summer. Sixty days, I couldn’t
believe we could do it but we did and it was a pretty good film!â€
Of course, there’s a chapter on Independent-International’s
biggest picture – Dracula vs Frankenstein, which actually started out as
Blood Freaks (aka Blood Seekers).“The script was not much of anything but I was working on it… we wanted
a name actor so Al went to agent Jerry Rosen who said ‘You can have Lon Chaney,
Jr. and J. Carrol Naish for a week for $6K.’â€They booked them sight unseen – and when they reported for work, both
were in ill health. “Naish had a bad eye and Chaney had throat cancer. (Dracula
vs Frankenstein would be his final horror film.) “Ya gotta meet the people,†Sam adds
knowingly.Diminutive Angelo Rossitto rounded
out the cast as the carnival barker Grazbo. The resulting film was so bad,
backers recommended it just be shelved.Sam lives by the motto “Waste not, want not†and since he was an editor
himself, he went to work watching the film repeatedly until he found a line of
dialogue he could use to expand the storyline to include the last surviving
Frankenstein… and the monster. “And once I thought that I said, ‘Let’s bring in
Dracula for good measure.’â€Scraping
together $50K for reshoots they hired a tall, dark-haired record store
employee, Rafael Engel (named “Zandor Vorkov†by Forry) to play the Count and
7’4†accountant, John Bloom, to play the monster.“I left it to Al to make the picture, but as
the president of Independent International, I made the final decisions,†Sam
adds. Sam also tapped Famous Monsters’ Forry Ackerman who not only acted in the
film, but also secured the electrical equipment and props of special effects
wizard Kenneth Strickfaden for the production. Strickfaden’s crackling
electrical contraptions were originally used in Universal’s Frankenstein
film 40 years earlier.Against the
odds, Dracula vs Frankenstein was a monster hit!Ahead of his time, Sam even released the film
on TV AND in theaters/drive-ins “day-and-date†at the same time.“Nobody caredâ€, Sam says, chuckling, “I did what
I wanted to do.â€
Naturally, Sam devotes a chapter to his creative partner
and “the brother I never hadâ€, Al Adamson, who was tragically murdered by a
contractor renovating his desert house in 1995.Incredibly Sam still had a connection with him because one night after Al
had been declared “missingâ€, Sam silently asked his friend to give him a sign
of where he was… the word “Cement†popped into his mind. He communicated that to police and sure
enough, when they investigated, Al’s body was discovered underneath a cement floor.The contractor was apprehended in Florida and
is now serving decades in prison but the pain of Sam’s loss is palpable.He still keeps Adamson’s name alive with
drive-in screenings and special DVD and Blu-ray releases of their work.
Behind the scenes on "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein": (L to R): John Bloom, Sam Sherman, Zandor Vorkov, Al Adamson.
Now 81, Sam feels the time is ripe for his story to be
told.His oversize book is full of
industry lore and life lessons.“I hope
readers get that if they want to be in the picture business, they can… and people
who aren’t filmmakers but want to know the history of Al and myself, the whole
story is there – how we did it, why we did it and what really happened.â€Summing up, Sam says, “We did what we had to
do.â€
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Originally released in 1921 at the height of the nation’s appetite
for motion pictures, the epic romantic drama THE SHEIK became a
massive sensation, breaking box office records and earning over $1 million
during its first year of release. 100 years later, Paramount Pictures
celebrates this towering classic of the silent film era with a brand-new
Blu-ray release, arriving as part of the Paramount Presents line on October 19,
2021.
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, THE SHEIK
was directed by George Melford and stars the legendary Rudolph Valentino as the
title character. The role helped propel Valentino into stardom and sealed
his status as a Hollywood heartthrob—and the original “Latin Loverâ€â€”at the age
of 26.
THE SHEIK restoration employed modern technology so
viewers can experience the original beauty of this monumental silent
film. Since
original negatives for silent films rarely exist, Paramount searched the world
for the best elements and used a print and an intermediate element called a
fine grain. One source of the film yielded better results for image
quality, another for intertitles. One of the elements was
“stretch-printed†and had to be adjusted digitally during the restoration
process. In the silent era there was no standard frame rate, so stretch
printing was done to show silent films at 24 frames per second. In
addition, tints and tones were digitally applied, guided by an original
continuity script from the Paramount archive. The result is the best
picture quality THE SHEIK has had since it was originally shown
in theaters 100 years ago.
While THE SHEIK was wildly successful, it did
provoke controversy, much as the source material had upon its original
publication in 1919. Many of the themes and controversial elements of the
film are still being grappled with today, a subject that is explored in a new
featurette on the Blu-ray with film historian and professor Leslie Midkiff
DeBauche entitled “Desert Heat: 100 Years with The
Sheik.†The disc also includes a music score
by Roger Bellon and access to a Digital copy of the film.
As with all films released in the
Paramount Presents line, THE SHEIK is presented with collectible
packaging featuring a foldout image of the film’s theatrical poster and an
interior spread with key movie moments.
Synopsis
Rudolph Valentino is Ahmed Ben
Hassan, a charming Arabian sheik who becomes infatuated with the adventurous,
modern-thinking Englishwoman Lady Diana Mayo, played by Agnes Ayres. When
the sheik abducts Lady Diana, the two clash, but ultimately profess their love
for one another in this quintessential “desert romance†that effectively
capitalized on the popularity of the genre.
About Paramount
Presents
This collectible line spans
celebrated classics to film-lover favorites, each from the studio’s renowned
library. Every Paramount Presents release features never-before-seen
bonus content and exclusive collectible packaging. Additional titles
available in the Paramount Presents collection on Blu-ray include: Fatal
Attraction, King Creole, To Catch a Thief, Flashdance,
Days of Thunder, Pretty In Pink, Airplane!, Ghost,
Roman Holiday, The Haunting, The Golden Child, Trading Places, The Court
Jester, Love Story, Elizabethtown, The Greatest Show on Earth, Mommie Dearest,Last Train From Gun Hill, 48 HRS., Another 48 HRS., Almost Famous, A Place
in the Sun, Nashville, Bugsy Malone, and Breakdown.
In this clip from the 1964 classic "Goldfinger", Desmond Llewelyn as "Q" introduces Sean Connery's James Bond to the soon-to-be-iconic Aston Martin DB5. The vehicle would become a star in its own right and continues to appear in contemporary Bond films. Cinema Retro co-publisher Dave Worrall wrote the history of the vehicle in his book "The Most Famous Car in the World", a designation that still remains valid today.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
New York, NY -- August 3, 2021 -- Kino Lorber proudly announces the Blu-ray and DVD release of the
critically-acclaimed documentary APOCALYPSE
'45, a stirring account of the final year of World War II. Directed by
celebrated documentarian Erik Nelson (The
Cold Blue), APOCALYPSE '45
includes stunning restorations of never-before-seen archival footage (culled
from over 700 reels in the National Archives) in vivid color and surround
sound, and the voices of 24 men who lived through these experiences, immersing
viewers in the events of the Pacific Theater with an immediacy and presence
that brings history to life and serves as a tribute to the last of the Greatest
Generation.
Presented
in the extended director's cut, APOCALYPSE
'45 comes to Blu-ray and DVD on September 7, 2021, with a SRP of $29.95 for
the Blu-ray, and $19.95 for the DVD. Bonus features include Ford at Pearl, a new featurette
containing long-lost color footage directed by Oscar®-winning filmmaker John Ford at
Pearl Harbor in 1942 (23 minutes), plus two fully restored Oscar®-nominated documentaries from
1945, To the Shores of Iwo Jima (Newly Restored 6.5K Color Film, 5.1/Stereo Audio Mix, 20
Minutes), and The Last Bomb (1945,
Newly Restored 6.5K Color Film, 5.1 Stereo/Stereo Audio Mix, 36 Minutes). Also
included are a restoration demonstration, and the trailer.
Erik
Nelson pioneered the genre he describes as "Big Screen History" with
his groundbreaking 2018 documentary The
Cold Blue, which featured newly-restored footage shot by Oscar®-winner William Wyler during
his time with the 8th Air Force in World War II. The Cold Blue became the first in this genre of documentary films
that would soon be followed by Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old and Todd Miller's Apollo 11.
With
unprecedented access to footage shot at the time of the events, restored with
state-of-the-art technology, APOCALYPSE
'45 brings audiences closer than ever before to this defining chapter of
American history, as told (and seen) by the men who were there.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Eight Feature Films Plus Hours of Special Features Arrive August
10, 2021, in Time for this Year’s Only Friday the 13th
Take a ride down memory lane with everyone’s favorite psychotic
killer Jason Voorhees in the new FRIDAY THE 13th 8-MOVIE
COLLECTION on Blu-ray, arriving August 10, 2021 from Paramount Home
Entertainment.
Get ready for the only Friday the 13th of the year on
August 13th with this to-die-for collection, which includes newly
remastered versions of the first four films in one of the most influential and
successful horror franchises in cinematic history. This must-have
set for fans of heart-stopping horror is gushing over with hours of previously
released special features including slashed scenes, making of featurettes,
killer commentaries and much, much more. The set also includes access to
digital copies of all eight movies, including the “uncut†edition of the
original Friday the 13th.
Return to the terror of Camp Crystal Lake and re-experience all
the screams, scares, and creative kills. From the too-often ignored
warnings of Camp Crustal Lake’s “death curse,†through an ever-increasing
body-count that culminates on the streets of New York City, the hockey-masked
mayhem is unleashed and unstoppable.
The eight films in the collection are: Friday The 13th, Friday
The 13th Part 2, Friday The 13th Part 3, Friday The 13th Part IV:
The Final Chapter, Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning, Friday The 13th
Part VI: Jason Lives, Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood, and Friday
The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.
(right to left) George Feltenstein poses with Michael Feinstein, and
Roddy McDowall in front of a re-creation of Rick’s cafe for the 1992
VSDA trade show.
BY LEE PFEIFFER
Film historian Tim Millard has launched an addictive new blog titled "The Extras" in which he interviews various people in the movie industry. Millard is a former Warner Brothers Home Entertainment veteran who went on to create many of the "extras" (i.e bonus content) found on popular home video releases, hence the title of the podcast. For a high profile launch for the podcast, Millard turned to an appropriate interview subject: George Feltenstein, with whom he worked with for many years at WB. The average retro movie fan may not know Feltenstein by name, although he is a legend in the home video industry, but anyone who appreciates how classic and cult movies are made available to the general public owes him a debt of gratitude. Feltenstein was in charge of home video originally at MGM before moving to WB. I first met him in 1994 when he was still at MGM. At a meeting in his office in L.A., my partners John Cork and Mark Cerulli and I pitched the idea that we should be given a contract to create original "making of" retrospective documentaries about the James Bond films for laser disc release. After less arguing than we anticipated, Feltenstein gave us the go-ahead in spite of our reed-thin credentials to carry off such an expensive and high profile project. During the months of madcap production, he never once interfered with us as long as we continued to promise to deliver the goods on the agreed-upon date. They were successful and were expanded into VHS release in conjunction with a boxed set. Feltenstein's laid-back approach to doing business belies his passion and enthusiasm for the film industry itself. He loves and reveres movies and his life's mission has been to make films accessible to the general public in the most impressive way the current medium will allow. He pioneered the release of widescreen versions of movies, for example, so that they could finally be seen again in their original aspect ratios. George Feltenstein's remarkable career continues to this day and he shares with Tim Millard some marvelous stories that any classic movie lover will want to here. The multi-part podcast can be heard by clicking here.
This special 80-page limited edition issue celebrates the Spy Girls of 1960s and 1970s cinema through a unique collection of rare production stills, posters and publicity photos. They're all here: the heroines and femme fatales of James Bond, Matt Helm, Our Man Flint, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Harry Palmer, Bulldog Drummond,Modesty Blaise, Fathom, "Operation Kid Brother" and many others.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Hailed by critics and
audiences alike and Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes®, John
Krasinski’s “exhilarating†(Sean O’Connell, Cinemablend), and “nerve-shreddingâ€
(Tim Grierson, Screen International) thriller A QUIET PLACE: PART II debuts
on Digital July 13, 2021 and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray and DVD July 27
from Paramount Home Entertainment. Plus, fans can experience the whole
Abbott family saga with the 2-Movie Collection, available to buy exclusively on
Digital or Blu-ray with bonus content on both films.*
The A QUIET
PLACE: PART II 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray and Digitalreleases
boast exclusive special features that take viewers deeper into the world
originated in the global smash hit A Quiet Place.Follow
Krasinski on the set of the new film as he details the cast and crew’s
incredible work in a video Director’s Diary; uncover the secrets of the
monstrous invaders; dig into the two-film character arc of daughter Regan;
watch a breakdown of the unforgettable marina scene; and delve into the
extraordinary visual effects and sound design.
The 4K Ultra HD and
Blu-ray Discs™ also boast a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack
remixed specifically for the home to place and move audio anywhere in the room,
including overhead, and the 4K Ultra HD disc features Dolby Visionâ„¢
high dynamic range (HDR), which delivers greater brightness and contrast, as
well as a fuller palette of rich colors.**
A Quiet Place: Part
II Synopsis
Following the deadly
events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe)
must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for
survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize
that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond
the sand path in this “gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller†(Scott Mantz,
BFCA) written and directed by John Krasinski.
A Quiet Place 2-Movie
Collection Synopsis
If they hear you,
they hunt you! Silence is survival in these two terrifyingly suspenseful
thrillers. Follow the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent
Simmonds, Noah Jupe) as they face the terror of mysterious creatures that hunt
by sound. Click here to order from Amazon.
A QUIET PLACE: PART
II 4K Ultra HD Combo
Pack
Fans can enjoy the
ultimate viewing experience with the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, which includes an
Ultra HD Disc with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and a Blu-ray Discâ„¢ with Dolby
Atmos. The Combo Pack includes access to a Digital copy of the film and
the following:
4K Ultra HD
·Feature
film in 4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray
·Feature
film in high definition
·Director’s
Diary: Filming with John Krasinski
·Pulling
Back the Curtain
·Regan’s
Journey
·Surviving
the Marina
·Detectable
Disturbance: Visual Effects and Sound Design
The
A QUIET PLACEBlu-ray is
presented in 1080p high definition with Dolby Atmos. The Blu-ray includes
access to a Digital copy of the film as well as the bonus content detailed
above. Click here to order from Amazon.
A
QUIET PLACE
DVD
The
DVD includes the feature film in standard definition. Click here to order from Amazon.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
Groundbreaking Films
Arrive on Blu-rayâ„¢ this August with New Bonus Content
Three acclaimed cinematic classics join the collectible Paramount
Presents line with the Blu-ray release of A PLACE IN THE SUN and NASHVILLE
on August 10, 2021 and BUGSY MALONE, making its U.S. Blu-ray
debut on August 31, from Paramount Home Entertainment.
A PLACE IN THE SUN
Director George Stevens’ masterwork A PLACE IN THE SUN won
six* Academy Awards® and is widely considered one of the finest
works of America cinema. Remastered from a 4K film transfer in
celebration of its 70th anniversary, the film is presented on Blu-ray with a
brand-new Filmmaker Focus featuring film historian Leonard Maltin talking about
George Stevens and the innovative film techniques he used for this
unforgettable story of ambition, passion, and betrayal. The disc also includes
previously released bonus content, including commentary by George Stevens, Jr.
and Ivan Moffat, retrospective cast and crew interviews, and a segment on
George Stevens featuring filmmakers who knew him.
Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a young man determined
to win a place in respectable society and the heart of a beautiful socialite
(Elizabeth Taylor). Shelley Winters is the factory girl whose dark secret
threatens Eastman’s professional and romantic prospects.
Director Robert Altman’s seminal film NASHVILLE remains
an essential classic of 70s cinema with its complexly textured portrayal and
critique of America’s obsession with celebrity and power. Newly
remastered from a 4K scan of original elements, the film is presented on
Blu-ray with a new featurette entitled “24 Tracks: Robert Altman’s Nashville.â€
The disc also includes a previously released commentary by Altman.
Fittingly, NASHVILLE is Volume 24 of the Paramount
Presents line as the film follows 24 distinct characters with intersecting
storylines over five days in the titular city. The phenomenal ensemble
cast includes Ned Beatty, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Karen Black,
Geraldine Chaplin, Henry Gibson, Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin, Shelley Duvall, Scott
Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, and Barbara Harris.
Acclaimed director Alan Parker redefined the movie musical with
his first feature-length film, BUGSY MALONE, which celebrates its
45th anniversary this year. Available for the first time in
the U.S. on Blu-ray, the film has been remastered from the original elements
for this limited-edition release. The Blu-ray includes a new Filmmaker Focus
delving into this early work from the director of Fame, The
Commitments, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Mississippi Burning, and Evita.
Set in 1929 New York City, BUGSY MALONE captures a
flashy world of would-be hoodlums, showgirls, and dreamers—all portrayed by
child actors. As Tallulah, the sassy girlfriend of the owner of Fat Sam's Grand
Slam Speakeasy, future superstar Jodie Foster leads a talented cast.
Parker’s sharp script, combined with the music and lyrics of Paul Williams,
makes for an irresistible satire that’s truly one-of-a-kind.
The limited-edition Paramount Presents Blu-ray Discsâ„¢
come in collectible packaging featuring a foldout image of each film’s
theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments. Each
disc also includes access to a digital copy of the film.
This collectible line spans celebrated classics to film-lover
favorites, each from the studio’s renowned library. Every Paramount
Presents release features never-before-seen bonus content and exclusive
collectible packaging. Additional titles available in the Paramount
Presents collection on Blu-ray include: Fatal Attraction, King Creole,
To Catch a Thief, Flashdance, Days of Thunder, Pretty
In Pink, Airplane!, Ghost, Roman Holiday, The Haunting, The
Golden Child, Trading Places, The Court Jester, Love Story,
Elizabethtown, The Greatest Show on Earth, Mommie Dearest,Last Train
From Gun Hill, 48 HRS., Another 48 HRS., and Almost Famous.
Kino
Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present
“Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture†with Volume 11—Girl
Gang/Pin-Down Girl, a double bill of so-bad-they’re-funny early 1950s
“crime†movies. They were marketed as such, but they were really what passed
for softcore in those days. If the movie ratings had existed then, these two gems
would likely have been rated “R.â€
These
delicious and suitably sleazy pictures in the “Forbidden Fruit†series were
made cheaply and outside the Hollywood system. They were distributed
independently in the manner of a circus sideshow, often by renting a movie
theater for a few nights, advertising in the local papers, and promoting the
scandalous title as “educational.†It’s certain, however, that in this case
both Girl Gang and Pin-Down Girl are not educational in any way
except to show you how to use illegal drugs (uh oh!), and to appeal to prurient
interests.
Producer
George Weiss specialized in fare that defiantly challenged the Production Code
and therefore made cheap—very cheap—exploitation flicks with filmmakers
and actors who were not, shall we say, A-list material. For example, Weiss
produced Ed Wood’s notorious Glen or Glenda (1953), along with Test
Tube Babies (1948, previously reviewed in Cinema Retro as part of
the “Forbidden Fruit†series). Weiss is responsible for both titles in Volume
11.
Girl
Gang (1954)
is a hoot. Unintentionally hilarious, it’s one of the better titles in the
series. Exploitation film regular Timothy Farrell is Joe, the sleazy leader of
a “girl gang†of outlaws—all of them thieves, drug users and dealers, and con
artists who use sex as bait. Joe gets help from alcoholic Doc Bradford (Harry
Keatan), who regularly checks the young women for, presumably, pregnancy and
venereal diseases. There are a handful of young men in the gang who act as
muscle, but mostly the members are 1950s-era Bettie Page-types who, for
example, might hitchhike to stop an unsuspecting male motorist. Once two of the
girls are in the car with him, two more drive up. The four women beat up the
man, rob him, and hijack his car. Back at headquarters, Joe gives them “weed to
make them less anxious.†Some of them have already graduated to heroin. The
alpha-gal is June (Joanne Arnold, a popular pin-up model and occasional actress
of the day), and she sets out to make a big score by seducing and fleecing an
insurance agency head who she gets a part time job working for. Yes, folks, you’ll hear
some of that devil boogey-woogey rock ‘n’ roll and see pot-smoking, smack-shooting,
gunplay and beatings, and scantily clad women, all in a head-spinning 63
minutes.
There
are truly some laugh-out-loud moments, such as when one of the girls has been
shot in the gut. She’s brought to the Doc, who is forced to operate on the
filthy kitchen table. The tremendously bad acting, the clumsiness of the
direction, and the wince-poor editing make it a scene worthy of the Three
Stooges.
Pin-Down
Girl is
the second feature, made three years earlier by the same producer (Weiss) and
director (Robert C. Dertano). The movie is also known as Racket Girls,
and The Blonde Pick-Up, which is what is seen in the opening credits. This
one stars real-life lady wrestler Peaches Page as “herself.†Peaches gets
involved in a ladies’ wrestling “club†that is a front for a gang that practices
racketeering, prostitution, and bookmaking. Timothy Farrell appears again as
Scalli, the gangster who manages the club. One might say it’s more of a crime
tale, although it is sprinkled throughout with sequences of the
leotard-and-tights-wearing women wrestling in the gym for those in the audience
who are into that stuff.
While
Girl Gang is unintentionally bad and funny, Pin-Down Girl is just
unintentionally bad. At 55-minutes, though, perhaps it’s worth it for anthropological
study.
Kino
Lorber continues its fabulous job in the presentation of the Forbidden Fruit
series. Girl Gang looks pristine in its digital restoration. It comes
with an audio commentary by the always-interesting film historian Alexandra
Heller-Nicholas, plus the theatrical trailer.
Pin-Down
Girl is
a bit choppy in places (missing frames of splices) and shows more damage to the
source material. It comes with an audio commentary by Eric Schaefer, author of the
book Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films and
one of the curators of the Forbidden Fruit series. The theatrical trailer is
included.
For
fans of midnight-movie sensationalism and nuttiness… Girl Gang/Pin-Down Girl
is for you!
Two years before "Bonnie and Clyde" revolutionized the American crime movie genre a far more modest production centered on a star-crossed pair of lovers who were young, in love and killed people. "Young Dillinger" starred Nick Adams in the titular role, playing notorious gangster John Dillinger who was among the "Most Wanted" criminals of the Depression era. Although the real Dillinger had a hardscrabble life and a dramatic death (ambushed by police when benignly exiting a movie theater), any resemblance to the historic figure and the character portrayed by Adams on screen is purely coincidental. The film was distributed by Allied Artists, which would go on to release some top-shelf hits in the 1970s including "Cabaret", "Papillon", "The Man Who Would be King" and "The Wild Geese". However, in 1965 Allied was strictly a Poverty Row studio that churned out low-budget movies for undiscriminating audiences in hopes of making a quick, modest profit. Shot in B&W, "Young Dillinger" opens with "Johnny" and his girlfriend Elaine (former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley) necking in a car and bemoaning the fact that they are too broke to get married. Elaine must still live at home under the rules set by her mother and father, an inconvenience that intrudes on her not-inconsiderable sex drive. She spontaneously comes up with a plan of action: they can break into her father's office and steal a load of cash that he keeps in the safe. Dillinger is all in immediately but the plan goes awry when they are spotted by a watchman. Still, they get the loot and head off on a cross-country spending spree, indulging in expensive meals, liquor, gambling and hotel rooms. It all comes to an end when the cops track them down and arrest them. Dillinger makes a deal: he will plead guilty if Elaine is not charged. Consequently, he is sent to jail for several years, an experience that leaves him even more cynical and disillusioned. Sure enough, Elaine is waiting for him when he emerges and they immediately take to crime again. Dillinger is hired by professional gangsters to carry out an audacious plan to spring 'Pretty Boy' Floyd (Robert Conrad) and 'Baby Face' Nelson (John Ashley) from a prison farm. When he succeeds in carrying out the plan, Floyd invites him to join him and 'Baby Face' in their newly-formed gang. With Elaine along for the ride, the group terrorizes the Midwest through small-time robberies that eventually lead to daring bank jobs. Before long, Dillinger is on the F.B.I's "Most Wanted" list.
Directed by Terry O. Morse, who was primarily known as an editor, the movie breezes along at a brisk pace even if the style is quite unimpressive and pedestrian. In fact, the film looks like a standard TV episode of "The Untouchables" in terms of production values. Even a fleeting glimpse at Dillinger's biography will make it immediately apparent that story is almost entirely fictionalized. The performances are adequate, nothing more. Adams, who was a seasoned actor, tries to bring some intensity to the role but the script presents Dillinger as a superficial gangster type with no effort expended to provide some of the more interesting aspects of his background. Similarly, we know nothing about Elaine aside from the fact that this "girl next door" type can turn into a hardened criminal on a whim. Why? We never learn anything about her background, either. The supporting actors don't fare much better. Robert Conrad, who would soon find stardom with the hit TV series "The Wild, Wild West" is given little to work with as 'Pretty Boy' Floyd and is mostly seen shooting at the cops. One exception is the inimitable and delightful Victor Buono, who makes a couple of cameos as "The Professor", an eccentric mastermind who provides the gang with operational plans for bank jobs. Equally good is John Hoyt as a mob doctor who Dillinger hires to undergo some plastic surgery (a rare instance of the film depicting an actual event). The doctor botches the surgery but while Dillinger is lying helpless in bed in terrible pain and his face wrapped up like The Mummy, the surgeon takes advantage of the situation by trying to rape Elaine. She has to keep him at bay with a loaded gun while not alerting Dillinger to the crisis when he's helpless to assist her. It's the best scene in the film and the only one that provides a bit of suspense. It also allows Mary Ann Mobley to display her acting chops instead of being presented as Gidget as opposed to a Depression-era gun moll.
Richard Donner with Marlon Brando on the set of the 1978 blockbuster "Superman".
Director/producer Richard Donner has died at age 91. Donner honed his skills by directing episodes of such classic television shows as "Wanted Dead or Alive", "Perry Mason", "The Fugitive", "The Twilight Zone" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." before moving into feature films. Among his blockbuster hits: "The Omen", "Superman" , "The Goonies" and "Lethal Weapon". For more about his remarkable life and career, click here.
(For an exclusive interview with Richard Donner about the making of "Superman", see Cinema Retro issue #42).
“GOIN’
TO TOWN†(1935;
Directed by Alexander Hall)
“KLONDIKE
ANNIE†(1936;
Directed by Raoul Walsh)
“GO
WEST, YOUNG MAN†(1936;
Directed by Henry Hathaway)
“EVERY
DAY’S A HOLIDAY†(1937;
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland)
“MY
LITTLE CHICKADEE†(1940;
Directed by Edward F. Cline)
(Kino
Lorber)
“GOODNESS
HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT—THE MAE WEST FILMS, PART TWOâ€
By
Raymond Benson
This
is the continuation of reviews of the classic 1930s (and 1940) films of Mae
West, which began here.
Kino
Lorber has just released in gorgeously restored, high-definition presentations
every Mae West film made between 1932-1940—the Paramount years, plus one with
Universal. This review will cover the last five of nine titles.
What
is not commonly appreciated among Hollywood enthusiasts is that Mae West held a
unique position in the history of cinema. Until the modern era, she had the
extraordinary fortune—for her time—of being a leading actress who wrote her
own screenplays. Six of the nine pictures reviewed here and in Part One were
written by West, one was co-written, and all but the first was based on or
adapted from West’s plays or stories. It wasn’t until the likes of Tina Fey,
Kristen Wiig, Angelina Jolie, and a finite number of other actresses appeared
on the scene to write original scripts for themselves that Hollywood allotted
that kind of opportunity to a female performer. West was doing it in the 1930s,
and this was unprecedented. Her talent and wit deserve a renewed appreciation
today.
Goin’
to Town (1935)
takes place at the turn of the century when automobiles are appearing but there
are still horses and buggies. It’s a globe-hopping affair that begins in what
appears to be the Wild West as Cleo Borden (West) is a cattle rancher who
juggles men on the way to fulfill her desire to refine her manners and join
high society. Although her designs are really aimed at British engineer Edward
Carrington (Paul Cavanaugh), she marries
Fletcher Colton (Monroe Owsley) for convenience, but he’s an obsessive gambler.
In Buenos Aires, Cleo faces off with rival Grace Brittony (Marjorie Gateson).
As a recurring theme to this and other West vehicles, the actress sings “He’s a
Bad, Bad Man, but He’s Good Enough for Meâ€! Goin’ to Town is
entertaining enough—it’s better than the previous Belle of the Nineties,
but the picture lacks interesting co-stars for West. The Blu-ray comes with an
audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger, plus the theatrical trailer.
Klondike
Annie (1936)
is overseen by solid filmmaker Raoul Walsh, and it shows. It is perhaps the
best of West’s post-Code pictures, despite its embarrassingly offensive take on
Asian characters, which was standard operating procedure in Hollywood for the
time. It’s the 1890s again (why do so many of West’s films take place in that
decade?). Rose Carlton (West) is a “kept woman†in San Francisco’s Chinatown by
cruel club owner Chan Lo (Harold Huber, not an Asian actor). Rose ends up
killing Lo and escapes on a ship to Alaska, the captain of which is Bull Brackett
(the fabulous Victor McLaglen). Rose disguises herself and impersonates the
deceased Sister Annie Alden, a missionary who was on her way to Nome to head up
the only establishment of worship in an otherwise rough Gold Rush town. Bull
falls hard for “Annie,†and she likes him, too, but she also has eyes for
Mountie-like inspector Jack Forrest (Phillip Reed), who is looking for Rose
because she’s now wanted for murder. Klondike Annie went through major
Hays Office interference and in fact two major scenes were deleted from the
film—the murder of Lo (we now only hear about what happened in conversation
later), and the sequence in which Rose dons Annie’s clothing and dresses the
former sister in the garb of a streetwalker (the censors seriously objected to
this on puritanical grounds!). Nevertheless, Klondike is lively, rather
suspenseful, and features the most exotic of settings for a Mae West movie. The
disk comes with an audio commentary by film historians Alexandra
Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, plus the theatrical trailer.
Go
West, Young Man (also
1936) was helmed by accomplished director Henry Hathaway, and it fares well for
West and her filmography. West is controversial movie star Mavis Arden, who has
a penchant to get in trouble. Thus, her studio has assigned press agent Morgan
(Warren William, who was known as the “king of pre-Code,†but he was apparently
still working post-Code) to keep an eye on Mavis and stop her from dalliances
with men. On the way to a public appearance, their car breaks down in a hick
town where Mavis and Morgan must stay at a boarding house run by a prudish
woman (Alice Brady) and her more open-minded aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). The
problem is that hunky Bud Norton (Randolph Scott) runs the gas station next
door to the boarding house! It’s another enjoyable West romp that is more of a
screwball comedy than any of her other pictures. The disk comes with an audio
commentary by author/film historian Lee Gambin, plus the theatrical trailer.
Every
Day’s a Holiday (1937)
was the last picture West made for Paramount, after which her contract was
cancelled. She, along with many other actresses such as Katharine Hepburn,
Marlene Dietrich, and even Bette Davis, were deemed at the time by the
Hollywood press as “box office poison†(which was nonsense, of course). It’s
too bad, for Holiday is one of the funnier titles in the West canon,
mainly due to character actor co-stars Charles Butterworth (as Graves, a butler
who is sweet on West’s character, Peaches O’Day), Charles Winninger (as Van
Doon, an outrageous millionaire who also has the hots for Peaches), and
bumbling Walter Catlett (as Nifty, Peaches’ manager). Peaches, who has a habit
of “selling†the Brooklyn Bridge to numbskulls, has her eyes on police
captain McCarey (Edmund Lowe), whose rival is the police chief Quade (Lloyd
Nolan). Peaches, wanted by the law, “disguises†herself by donning a black
wig—and of course no one recognizes her as Peaches anymore (!). Quade, once pursuing
Peaches to arrest her, is now after “Fifi†to woo her. Fun stuff all around. Look
for Louis Armstrong’s cameo leading a marching band and performing a song. The
disk comes with an audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger, plus the
theatrical trailer.
Mark
Mawston lands
a rare exclusive interview with A Hard Day's Night director Richard
Lester, who recalls the making of the iconic film on its 50th
anniversary- with insights from former United Artists production
head David V. Picker, who brought the film to the screen.
Denis
Meilke looks
at the legacy of the Steve Reeves Hercules films and the
spin off Italian sword and sandal flicks in "Blood, Sweat and
Togas".
Nicholas
Anez compares
the John Wayne/Howard Hawks classics Rio
Bravo and El Dorado in the concluding part of
his essay.
Matthew
Field provides
the moving and informative final interview with legendary
cinematographer Oswald Morris, who shot such diverse
films as Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver!, Death Wish and The
Guns of Navarone.
Lee
Pfeiffer on the
legacy of the late, great Eli Wallach.
Brian
Davidson pays
tribute to the short, tragic career of 1960s glamour girl Francoise
Dorleac.
Tim
Greaves celebrates
the guilty pleasures of Warlords of Atlantis
Gareth
Owen's tribute
to legendary Gerry Anderson and his work at Pinewood
Studios
Brian
Davidson revisits
the kinky, British cult thriller Fright starring Susan
George and Honor Blackman
Howard
Hughes concludes
The Oakmont Story with a look at their last production, Hell
Boats starring James Franciscus.
John
M. Whalen explores
the strange tale of One-Eyed Jacks starring and directed
by Marlon Brando
Sergio
Leone's A Fistful of Dollars- the 50th anniversary of the Clint
Eastwood classic
Raymond
Benson's
10 best films of 1989
Plus
the latest film book, soundtrack and DVD reviews
Sheldon
Hall's 13 page spectacular tribute to the 50th anniversary of Zulu starring
Stanley Baker and Michael Caine. Rare behind the scenes photos and
international movie posters.
Dave
Worrall takes on you on a locations "now and then" tour of
where Goldfinger starring Sean Connery was filmed at the
legendary Pinewood Studios.
Ray
Morton's exclusive interview with cinematographer Richard Kline, who
shot King Kong (1976), Death Wish, Star Trek: The Motion
Picture and Camelot.
Dean
Brierly looks at classic American crime movies including The
Killers (1974), The Driver, Point Blank, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo
Garcia and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
Brian
Hannan tells the fascinating story of Elizabeth Taylor's
BUtterfield 8, the film she did not want to do but won an Oscar
for!
Tim
Greaves looks at the short but exotic career of Victoria
Vetri, star of Hammer Films' When Dinosaurs Ruled the
Earth- and provides some rare provocative photos!
Illustrated
tribute to movie comic book tie-ins from the 1960s and 1970s.
Howard
Hughes continues his history of Oakmont Productions with The
Thousand Plane Raid starring Christopher George.
Harvey
Chartrand tells the fascinating story behind Mary Rose, the
dream project that Alfred Hitchcock never filmed.
Trevor
Chapman remembers the glorious Gaumont Theatre, one of Britain's Cinerama
gems.
Gareth
Owen looks at Pinewood Studios in the 1970s and 1980s.
Raymond
Benson's top ten films of 1987
Plus
the latest film book, soundtrack and DVD reviews
Don L. Stradley
examines the dramatic life and career of Lolita star Sue
Lyon
John Exshaw's
unpublished interview with screen legend Peter Cushing
Adrian Smith
interviews Hugh Hudson, director of Revolution and Greystoke:
The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Dean Brierly
looks at classic Japanese crime movies
Stephen C. Jilks
celebrates the Hammer horror flick Curse of the Werewolf
David Savage
examines Liz Taylor's little-seen, late career bizarro cult
movie The Driver's Seat
Howard Hughes
continues his history of Oakmont Productions with Submarine
X-1 starring James Caan
Paul Thomson
provides in-depth coverage of the Amicus Edgar Rice Burroughs film
adaptations The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth's Core and The
People That Time Forgot and reviews the long-forgotten electric
rock Western Zachariah
Remember Ray
Harryhausen
Raymond Benson's
top ten films of 1986
Lee Pfeiffer's
Take Two column looks back on The Valachi Papersstarring Charles
Bronson
Burt
Reynolds underrated
dark comedy The End is re-evaluated by Tim Greaves
Gareth Owen's
Pinewood Past column features Reach for the Sky starring Kenneth
More
Plus the latest
film book, soundtrack and DVD reviews.
Sam
Peckinpah's Straw Dogs: Mike Siegel provides in-depth
coverage of the legendary director's controversial 1971 classic starring
Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. Includes extensive rarely seen behind the
scenes production photos and rare international ad campaigns.
Lee
Pfeiffer interviews comedy genius Mel Brooks, who
reflects on his long career in TV and feature films.
Howard
Hughes examines the 1969 spaghetti Western classic The Five Man
Army starring Peter Graves, Bud Spencer and Tetsuro Tamba
Dean
Brierly pays tribute to the great French crime films of the 1960s and
1970s
David
McCallum recalls
the making of Oakmont Studio's 1969 WWII film Mosquito Squadron
Cinema
Retro attends the 40th anniversary cast and crew reunion of Bob
Fosse's Cabaret and gets interviews with Joel Grey,
Michael York, Marisa Berenson and Robert Osborne of Turner
Classic Movies. Plus we cover the "re-premiere" at New York's
Ziegfeld Theatre, attended by Liza Minnelli herself.
Don
R. Stradley looks at Sextette, the bizarre cinematic swan
song of Mae West
Raymond
Benson's ten best films of 1985
Gareth
Owen examines the making of the 1969 spy flick The Chairman (aka The
Most Dangerous Man in the World) starring Gregory
Peck
Dave
Worrall covers the new restoration of the Hammer horror classic Dracula (aka Horror
of Dracula)
Remembering
the brilliant, cynical comedy of Paddy Chayefsky in The
Hospital starring George C. Scott and Diana
Rigg
Plus
the latest DVD, soundtrack and film book reviews
James
Bond at 50: Cinema Retro interviews Daniel Craig,
producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G.
Wilson and Skyfall director Sam Mendesabout the screen
legacy of Agent 007.
Dr. No cast
and crew reunion at Pinewood Studios, England: Gareth Owen reports
Matthew R.
Bradley covers the Blofelds of screen and literature in The Importance of
Being Ernst: Part 2
Major coverage
of Hammer Films events: convention report, Hammer horror film
locations then and now and coverage of the latest Blu-ray releases.
In-depth look at
the new restoration of David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of
Arabia and exclusive interview with Sony's Grover Crisp, the man who
spearheaded the restoration process.
Best-selling
author Robert Sellers provides a fascinating look at the life and career
of the ultimate "bad boy" of British cinema, Oliver Reed.
Dean Brierly
looks at the best Italian crime movies of the 60s and 70s.
Tribute to the
creator of master of British film posters, artist Tom Chantrell.
Michael Davey
interviews British sex symbol Liz Fraser
Sands of the
Kalahari starring Stuart Whitman and Susannah
York: Lee Pfeiffer revisits an underrated classic adventure
Nicholas
Anez pays tribute to Burt Lancaster's controversial The
Swimmer
The"B"
British war film Attack on the Iron Coast starring Lloyd
Bridges- part one of Howard Hughes' history of Oakmont Studios
Raymond Benson's
top ten films of 1984
Plus the latest
DVD, soundtrack and film book reviews
Our "Girl Power" issue
celebrates female screen heroes of the 1960s and 1970s!
Dawn Dabell examines the phenomenon unleashed by Emmanuelle, a
breakthrough in eroticism from a female perspective. Diane A. Rodgers looks back on two female secret agent heroines of the
1960s: Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaise and Raquel Welch as Fathom. Lee Pfeiffer's exclusive interview with Stefanie Powers about her
title role as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Mike Siegel provides a rare, exclusive interview with Marianne Koch, who
recalls filming Leone's A Fistful of Dollars
Glamour model Pamela Green recalls her role in the notorious Peeping
Tom Hayley Mills is the target of gigolos Oliver Reed and Noel
Harrison in Take a Girl Like You Olivia de Havilland is terrorized by thugs led by James Caan in
the chilling Lady in a Cage Gareth Owen celebrates the career of pioneer female producer Betty
Box Dolores Hart, Pamela Tiffin and Lois Nettleton are
"stewardesses" seeking love on land and in the skies in Come Fly
with Me.
Tribute to the 50th anniversary of the James Bond classic "On
Her Majesty's Secret Service" starring George Lazenby:
a five-page photo feature packed with rare images, some never published before.
"Mackenna's Gold"- a look back fifty years on at
the much-hyped big budget fiasco that has a fascinating back story behind it.
This major article by Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer is the
most comprehensive ever written about the troubled production that starred Gregory
Peck, Omar Sharif,Telly Savalas and an all star
cast.
Cai Ross provides an exclusive interview with director Peter
Medak, who recalls the little-seen Peter Sellers
pirate comedy "Ghost in the Noonday Sun" and relates
the maddening experience of working with the volatile comedy genius.
Dawn Dabell covers the 1966 British coming-of-age comedy "The
Family Way", which allowed Hayley Mills her
first adult role in a scathing comedy about coming of age during the sexual
revolution.
Brian Davdison looks back on the controversial "Assault",
which is regarded as Britain's only true giallo.
Nick Anez analyzes director Robert Aldrich's
bizarre-but-gripping Depression era crime drama "The Grissom
Gang".
Gareth Owen examines the clues in the making of "Sleuth"
starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine
at Pinewood Studios
Brian Davidson pays tribute to actress Virginia
Maskell, whose career and life were tragically short, but very
impressive.
John V. Watson takes a nightmarish journey back to 1971 to
examine the release of numerous high profile films that were extremely violent.
Among them: "A Clockwork Orange", "Get Carter",
"Villain", "Dirty Harry", "Straw Dogs" and
"The Devils".
Plus Raymond Benson's "Cinema 101" column, Darren
Allison's news about the latest soundtrack releases and our extensive
reviews of new Blu-ray and DVD releases.
THIS ISSUE SHIPS FROM OUR UK OFFICE, AS IT IS SOLD OUT IN THE U.S.
ISSUE #36 (SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016) OF CINEMA RETRO MAGAZINE:
Highlights of this issue include:
*Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer celebrate the 50th
anniversary of "The Professionals" starring Burt
Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Claudia Cardinale, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode and Jack
Palance.
*Mark Mawston with a rare exclusive interview with 70's sex
siren Linda Hayden
*Cai Ross takes a bite at covering the underrated 1979
version of "Dracula" starring Frank Langella and Laurence
Olivier
*John LeMay uncovers the top secret story of the unfilmed
"Romance of the Pink Panther" that was to have starred Peter
Sellers.
*Peter Cook continues his celebration of matte painting
artists
*Tim Greaves uncovers the fascinating career of British
"Sex Queen" Mary Millington
*Mark Mawston concludes his interviews with legendary stills
photographer Keith Hamshere, who recalls shooting "Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom" and the James Bond films
*Lee Pfeiffer's personal tribute to the late Euan Lloyd,
producer of such films as "The Wild Geese" and "Shalako"
*Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau burn up
the Old West in "Viva Maria!"
ISSUE #34 (JANUARY 2016) OF CINEMA RETRO MAGAZINE:
HIGHLIGHTS OF ISSUE
#34 INCLUDE:
Steven Jay Rubin presents part 2 of the remarkable
story about the making of The Bridge at Remagen and gets
insights from stars Robert Vaughn, George Segal & Bradford
Dillman .
Legendary stills photographer Keith Hamshere shares
insights from his remarkable career and provides rare images from the
filming of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Bestselling author Robert Sellers presents the in-depth
story behind the making of The Three Musketeers and The
Four Musketeers with exclusive archival comments from producer Ilya
Salkind and cast members including Michael
York and Sir Christopher Lee.
James Bond mania! Matthew
Field returns to Piz Gloria, the Swiss mountaintop location of "On
Her Majesty's Secret Service" for a celebration of the film
with star George Lazenby; Gareth Owen recalls the 007
40th anniversary production kick-off of "Die Another
Day" at Pinewood Studios and Cinema Retro attends the London
royal premiere of "Spectre".
Dawn Dabell examines three WWII films that featured
women in the starring roles.
Tom Lisanti interviews Dean Martin's Matt
Helm Slaygirl Jan Watson
Tim Greaves celebrates the Amicus horror classic Dr.
Terror's House of Horrors starring Peter Cushing,
Christopher Lee and Donald Sutherland.
Brian Davidson's tribute to the guilty pleasure British
sexploitation film Au Pair Girls
Howard Hughes covers the Blu-ray release of the obscure
spaghetti Western "Cemetary Without Crosses"
Plus Raymond Benson's top ten films of 1953, Darren
Allison's soundtrack reviews and the latest movie book and DVD/Blu-ray
releases
"The Sand Pebbles"- James Sherlock explores the trials and
tribulations behind the filming of Robert Wise's epic film which gained
Steve McQueen his only Oscar nomination.
"Dr. Syn: Alias the Scarecrow"- Dave Worrall's in-depth
history of the character in film and literature, concentrating on the
evolution of the Walt Disney three-part TV episodes starring Patrick
McGoohan which would later emerge as a feature film.
"Tarzan's Greatest Adventure"- Nick Anez argues it's the best
Tarzan film ever and his analysis might convince you to agree with him.
Gordon Scott starred as the King of the Jungle and the gang of villains
included young Sean Connery.
"The Pink Panther"- John LeMay presents the fascinating history behind the first film to showcase Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
"The Golden Lady"- Tim Greaves shines the spotlight on the
little-seen and little-remembered spy flick that featured a female James
Bond-type character- with Desmond Llewelyn in the supporting cast!
"The Bad News Bears"- Robert Leese celebrates the hit comedy with the unlikely teaming of Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal
"The Crimson Kimono"- Lee Pfeiffer covers director Sam Fuller's controversial and underrated crime thriller that was packed with racial conflicts.
Plus regular columns by Raymond Benson, Gareth Owen, Darren Allison and Brian Hannan.
It's hard to believe that a half-century has gone by since the opening of director Gordon Parks' "Shaft" starring newcomer Richard Roundtree. The film's impact on the industry, pop culture and society was felt immediately and ushered in the era of the so-called Blaxploitation movies. Writing on the Digital Bits web site, Michael Coate provides a 4-page tribute to the film that contains some fascinating information and culminates on page 4 with a round table format discussion of the film's legacy with Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer, author Josiah Howard and Chris Utley, who provides the viewpoint of a "Shaft" superfan. Click here to read.
Michael Curtiz’s Doctor
X is a more technically extravagant version of the original stage
production of playwrights Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller.The play was first tested at the Fox Theater
in Great Neck, Long Island, for a single night’s performance on January 10,
1931.It was immediately followed by a
brief run at Brandt’s Carlton Theatre in Jamaica, Queens, where newspaper adverts
suggested theatergoers “Bring Your Shock Absorber†along.The production then moved to Brandt’s Boulevard
Theatre in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, for several performances, only to
be followed by a week-long preview and fine-tuning at Brandt’s Flatbush Theater
in Brooklyn beginning January 26.
The three-act “mystery melodrama†would finally make its Broadway
debut at the Hudson Theater, off W. 44th Street, on February 9,
1931.The stage play featured actor Howard
Lang in the role of the sinister Dr. Xavier, but the mystery wouldn’t enjoy a
terribly long run on the Great White Way.The Hudson would eventually shutter the doors on the production in
mid-April 1931.
It’s no coincidence that four Brandt-owned theatres were successively
engaged to showcase the early previews of Doctor
X.The play had been intentionally co-produced
for the stage by the theatre owners William and Harry Brandt.Billboard
would note in December of 1930 that the two brothers had chosen to enter the
field of theatrical production as a potential remedy to offset the “slack
business conditions on the subway circuit.â€
The early reviews of the Brandt’s showcase were mainly
positive, especially when considering the decidedly grim fare offered.The critic from Brooklyn’s Times-Union thought Doctor X a “swell show.†The paper reported that the gruesome
goings-on of Jackson Height’s preview had not only caused a woman in the
balcony to scream in fright but that other patrons nervously called “for the
lights to be turned on†midway through the program.Whether such outbursts of fright were genuine
or simply publicity ballyhoo stunts may never be known.But likely more of the latter than the
former.
Not everyone was impressed. Brooklyn’s Standard-Union newspaper took a
contrarian view of the stage show’s ability to curdle the blood of attendees.In the paper’s review of February 10, 1931,
their critic would grieve that Doctor X
was a mostly undistinguished effort, “Freighted with all the dismal baggage of
those lamentable pastimes known as mystery thrillers.â€â€œEven though the authors, no pikers, have
arranged almost an endless procession of synthetic horrors,†the review
mercilessly continued, “spectators are no longer hoodwinked by such drowsy
tidbits.No longer can an actor with an
anaemic makeup or panels that slide open terrify theatergoers into submission.â€
Nonetheless, and though the play opened to mixed reviews,
some of the New York dailies were impressed.There were enough good notices to allow the Brandt’s to run
advertisements suggesting Doctor X as
“New York’s Only Mystery Hit: Electrifies Press and Public Alike!†The critic of the New York Herald Tribune thought it a grand affair, trumpeting, “’Doctor X’ holds the best claim for some
time to the grand heritage of such creepy works as ‘The Bat,’ ‘The Cat and the
Canary’ and ‘The Spider.’â€These
references to past and successful mystery-melodramas of the stage were not only
interesting but prescient: all three of these theatrical properties were
subsequently licensed by Hollywood studios to be brought to neighborhood movie
screens. Such transitioning of
properties from Broadway to Hollywood was, as referenced by the above review,
not unusual.
Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood’s The Bat had made its Broadway debut at
the Morosco Theatre on August 22, 1921.That play would be belatedly adapted for the screen as a vehicle for
Vincent Price in 1959.John Willard’s The Cat and the Canary would debut on
the boards of the Majestic Theatre on June 14, 1937, and enjoy no fewer than three
film treatments: there was Paul Leni’s celebrated silent film version of 1927,
a popular Bob Hope mystery-comedy of 1939, and a late-arriving 1978 British
production featuring Honor Blackman, Michael Callan and Edward Fox.Fulton Oursler and Lowell Brentano’s The Spider would make two appearances on
Broadway with an initial staging at Chanin’s 46th Street Theater in
March of 1927 and, again, at the Century Theater in February of 1928.That play would be brought to the big screen
twice, first in 1931 as a straightforward murder mystery, then reconfigured in
1945 as a film noir-style mystery picture.
Interestingly, Lionel Atwill was working on a different
Broadway stage at the same time Doctor X
was concurrently running at the Hudson.Atwill was working one block north at Broadway’s Morosco Theatre, the
featured player in Lee Shubert’s production of The Silent Witness (opening date 3/23/31).The
Silent Witness too was quickly picked up by Fox and following that show’s
Broadway run, Atwill traveled out to Hollywood to star in the play’s film
version, co-directed by Marcel Varnel and R.L. Hough.Though there were reports that Lionel Atwill
was to return to the New York stage directly following that film’s wrap, in early
March 1932 newssheets reported that Warner Bros. had asked him to remain in
Hollywood for a spell.He had been
offered the title role in their recently optioned property Doctor X.
There’s a lot to like about this film.With the release of Doctor X, Warner Bros. was most likely hoping to siphon off some of
the public interest and box office that Universal was enjoying with such
macabre fare as Dracula and Frankenstein.Though the studio fell short of producing an
iconic film, they nevertheless produced a pretty decent B-picture that offered
a modicum of thrills and chills.One of
the true highlight’s of the film version of Doctor
X, is the art deco “mad scientist†laboratory sets of designer Anton
Grot.The sets were so elaborate and
grand that the New York Herald Tribune
would run a fifteen paragraph long - and impressively detailed - tribute on
Grot and his designs.That article, “Built-in Menace Hangs Over All in Anton
Grot’s House of Doomâ€), includes an unusual for the period in-depth
interview with the designer.The article
also notes that no fewer than “192 sketches and blueprints†of imaginative and
elaborate design had been drafted in preparation for shooting.
The Warner Archive has released director Lewis Gilbert's excellent WWII espionage thriller Operation Daybreak.The 1975 film is largely unknown despite the fact that it's one of Gilbert's most ambitious and artistically successful movies. The story is based on fact. Allied Intelligence convinced three Czechs serving in the British army to parachute into their occupied homeland to assassinate Reinhold Heydrich, one of Hitler's most trusted commanders and the man he cynically appointed "protector" of the conquered nations of Europe. Heydrich was considered even more brutal than Hitler and the Allies feared the worst if a scenario came about in which he would have been appointed fuerhrer. As Reinhold was heavily guarded at all times, the commandos were left to their own devices to concoct the assassination plan. After an initial attempt went awry, they opted to boldly approach his car in the middle of the street and spray it with machine gun fire. It will not spoil the film to relate the historical fact that the plan ultimately succeeded, but Operation Daybreak is as much about the aftermath of the incident as it is about the mission itself.
Incredibly, the principal assassins and their network of partisans survived, at least initially. However, on the verge of rescue, elements of betrayal and carelessness led to tragedy. In reprisal for the assassinatin, Hitler ordered that the entire village of Lidice be razed to the ground and every citizen murdered or sent to concentration camps. Gilbert shot the film on location in (then) communist Czechoslovakia. The locales add immeasurably to the sense of authenticity. The film also boasts a sizable budget and there are impressive sequences featuring large numbers of German soldiers parading in the streets - a sight that must have been chilling for residences who lived through the actual occupation. Ronald Harwood's screenplay, based on the novel Seven Men at Daybreak by Alan Burgess, is consistently gripping- and the final battle between the conspirators and a large force of German troops takes place inside a magnificent church. Gilbert ensures this sequence is superbly staged on every level.
If there is a weak link in the film it is the casting of Timothy Bottoms in the lead role. Bottoms is competent enough, but makes for a bland and colorless hero. He is out-shown by fellow cast members Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw, Joss Ackland and Anton Diffring, who makes a coldly majestic Heydrich. Curiously, the film contains many extended sequences involving Heydrich in which German is spoken without the benefit of sub-titles. Whether this was the case in the original film, I can't say, but it does make for some irritation on the DVD version. Also, the Czech characters all speak English, but as they are portrayed by American and British actors without any attempt to form a common accent, it gives the film's dialogue a Tower of Babel effect. Nevertheless, Operation Daybreak is a memorable movie about real-life heroes that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Hopefully, the Warner Archive release will achieve just that.
(The late Lewis Gilbert discussed Operation Daybreak and his other war movies in an exclusive interview with Matthew Field in issue #18 of Cinema Retro)
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Retro-Active: The Best from the Cinema Retro Archives.
By Harvey
Chartrand
Neville
Heath was an English killer
responsible for the murders of two young women. He was executed by hanging in
London in 1946 (aged 29). Heath was a handsome and well-spoken sociopath who
could easily lure women to their doom.
In 1967, Alfred Hitchcock was trying to rebound
from the failure of the Cold War espionage thriller Torn Curtain with an
original screenplay entitled Frenzy (and later Kaleidoscope). The
unproduced project was to have been based on the crimes of serial rapist-killer
Heath, although the story would be set in the present day in and around New
York City. The original story would be told completely from the point of view
of a murderer who is both attractive and vulnerable.
Screenwriter Benn Levy wrote in a letter to
Hitchcock in January 1967: “It's got to be (based on) Heath, not (John George) Haigh
(the acid bath murderer). Told forwards, the Heath story is a gift from heaven.
You'd start with a ‘straight’ romantic meeting, handsome young man, pretty
girl. Maybe he rescues her from the wild molestations of a drunken escort. ‘I
can't stand men who paw every girl they meet.’ Get us rooting for them both. He
perhaps unhappily married and therefore a model of screen-hero restraint. She begins
to find him irresistibly ‘just a little boy who can't cope with life’ -- least
of all with domestic problems such as he has described. She's sexually maternal
with him, she'd give him anything -- and we're delighted. Presently a few of us
get tiny stirrings of disquiet at the physical love-scenes but don't quite know
why. By the time we see the climax of his love in action and her murder, then
even the slowest of us get it! But we shouldn't know till then.â€
Rare trade ad for a film that was never made.
Frenzy would also be a stylistic
departure for Hitchcock. After watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up,
Hitchcock felt he had fallen behind the Italians in technique. Hitchcock
biographer Patrick McGilligan writes: “Watching one Antonioni, he sat up
straight at the sight of a man all in white in a white room. ‘White on white!’
he exclaimed to (his personal assistant and script supervisor) Peggy Robertson.
‘There, you see! It can be done!’â€
Hitchcock was also impressed
by the camerawork improvisation of maverick American director John Cassavetes (Shadows). He asked the novelist Howard
Fast (Spartacus, Cheyenne Autumn) to sketch a treatment about a gay, deformed serial
killer. Pleased with the results, Hitchcock composed a shot list with over 450
camera positions and shot an hour’s worth of experimental color tests, using
unknown actors in various states of undress. This footage was filmed in New
York City, and gives a tantalizing glimpse of what Hitchcock had in mind, of how
revolutionary Frenzy/Kaleidoscope would have been in his body
of work – a Psycho for the more
liberated counterculture era. Unfortunately, MCA/Universal were disgusted by
the script and test footage and immediately canceled the project, reducing
Hitchcock to tears. Hitchcock was coerced into directing Topaz, Leon Uris’ behind-the-scenes account of the breakup of a
Soviet spy ring at the highest levels of the French government during the 1962 Cuban
missile crisis. Topaz was another in
a string of artistic and commercial failures for Hitchcock as he approached age
70.
Japanese poster for the 1972 film Frenzy which was entirely different from the previous project Hitchcock had intended to use the title for.
What would have been
Hitchcock's most daring and controversial work was thwarted: an avant-garde
film using hand-held camerawork, a first-person viewpoint and natural lighting
(Ã la Blair Witch Project, filmed
32 years later), detailing the exploits of a gay bodybuilder who dabbles
in murder, rape and possibly necrophilia. It was conceived in 1964 as a prequel
to Hitchcock’s 1942 film Shadow of a Doubt and was initially titled Frenzy,
not to be confused with his eventual 1972 movie of the same name, from which
certain plot elements of the original Frenzy
were recycled.
Hitchcock’s interest in
Neville Heath first manifested itself in 1959 in his unproduced project No Bail for the Judge, which would have
starred Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Harvey and John Williams. A respected judge is
blamed for the murder of a prostitute, and his barrister daughter searches for
the real killer in London’s criminal demi-monde. Hepburn, who desperately
wanted to work with Hitchcock, suddenly withdrew from the project because of a
scene in which her character is brutally raped in Hyde Park by a good-looking London
pimp named Edward “Neddy-Boy†Devlin, who dominates Hepburn by
slowly strangling her with a necktie.
Audrey Hepburn never did work
with Hitchcock, but Laurence Harvey got along with the Master of Suspense and
starred in Arthur (1959), a grisly episode
of the long-running TV anthology series Alfred
Hitchcock Presents in which a beautiful woman (Hazel Court) meets with a
terrible fate.
Neville Heath
The rape scene in No Bail for the Judge obviously was one that Hitchcock wanted to
realize, in one form or another. It is quite similar to the scene of Mark’s
rape of the frigid Marnie on
their honeymoon cruise. The unproduced script of No Bail for the
Judge also looks forward to the unproduced Frenzy/Kaleidoscope
and to Hitchcock’s serial killer masterpiece Frenzy (1972), with its sexually impotent necktie strangler Bob
Rusk (Barry Foster) loose in London, eager to pin the murders of several
attractive women on his best friend. The unproduced Frenzy contains a
sequence in New York’s Central Park where the killer, Willie Cooper, takes a
young woman into the bushes and murders her. And while Bob Rusk may have more victims
to his credit than Neville Heath and Willie Cooper, it is clear that Edward
“Neddy-Boy†Devlin was Hitchcock’s first “necktie stranglerâ€.
So, as Hitchcock matured as an
artist, his impulse to film violent misogynistic scenes intensified – scenes
which would finally be free from censorship in the freewheeling “anything goesâ€
atmosphere of Hollywood in the sixties and seventies.
In browsing through the seemingly endless selection of retro movie choices available on Amazon Prime, I was rather surprised to come across the 1972 Peter Sellers comedy "Where Does It Hurt?", as- to my knowledge- the movie has never been released in any video format in the USA. I had seen the film when it played in theaters and I recalled enjoying it. Thus, I thought that after almost a half-century later, it would be time to revisit the title. At the time, Sellers was working steadily, but from an artistic standpoint, his career was in the doldrums. For the last few years, Sellers was seeming to accept any script that came with a fat paycheck attached. Even the more high profile and promising productions disappointed: Sellers was fired from the mega-budget, all-star 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale" before he had finished filming some key scenes. His reunion with Blake Edwards for "The Party" proved to be a ten-minute gag painfully stretched to feature film length. Until he and Edwards would stop their on-going feud and revive "The Pink Panther Franchise" in 1975, Sellers had been on a downward spiral.
"Where Does It Hurt?" casts Sellers as Dr. Albert T. Hopfnagel, the scheming administrator of an independent hospital in Los Angeles. Hopfnagel has turned the place into his own fiefdom, hiring equally corrupt people to serve in key positions. They coerce patients into staying in the hospital longer than necessary by forging their medical records and billing insurance companies to cover their treatments and room costs. If a patient finally gets wise and causes a fuss, Hopfnagel will let them in on the scheme and bribe them with booze and women to get them to cooperate. Indeed, the place is a virtual bordello with the "nurses" freely dispensing sexual favors along with the aspirin and most of them have been hired because of their bust lines, not brains. Hopfnagel is not above indulging, too. Despite the jealous nature of his on-premises girlfriend Alice (Jo Ann Pflug), who helps fleece the patients, Hopfnagel is addicted to having quickie sexual encounters with female staffers in private nooks. His office even has a secret built in escape route that is hidden by a hallway Pepsi machine. It's the kind of scenario that would have been a perfect fit for Groucho Marx and Sellers milks whatever laughs the film possesses out of his attempts to fool around while assuring Alice he's remaining true. If only the rest of the film were as amusing. In fact, "Where Does It Hurt?" runs out of steam shortly after the maddeningly addictive title song. Director/screenwriter Rod Amateau had some legitimate credentials in the television industry, but his feature films were mostly low-grade, despite the presence of impressive cast members. (His previous film was the notorious "The Statue" with the estimable presence of David Niven, Virna Lisi and Robert Vaughn.) Amateau's screenplay, based on the novel "The Operator", is one long dirty joke. I suppose I can excuse my 15 year-old self for finding the smutty situations amusing back in 1972, but much of it is painful to endure today. Sellers acquits himself well enough but the role is sketchily written and not up to his potential, though he once again displays his ability to project a perfect American accent. Pat Morita has a supporting role that is cringe-inducing due to the idiotic Asian stereotype he plays, but Harold Gould scores some laughs as a hopelessly inept surgeon who gets all the major surgeries precisely because he can be counted on to botch them and worsen the patient's condition.
The film's premise had some nuggets of legitimate social commentary. America has always been the only Western democracy to privatize citizen's health care in a for-profit scenario. Consequently, despite having top rate doctors and research, the financial aspects of the system have been prioritized to the point where you can be charged $10 for a single aspirin and go bankrupt if you become seriously ill and lack adequate coverage. Unfortunately for Amateau, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky beat him to the punch with his scathing, Oscar-winning script for "The Hospital", which was released a year earlier. That film dissected the U.S. health care system and predicted it was on a collision course with destiny. Compared to the earlier film, "Where Does It Hurt" is a fairly anemic medical comedy.
The print shown by Amazon leaves a lot to be desired but then again, so does the film. For Sellers' fanatics only.
The witty, controversial, and
fabulous actress/comedienne Mae West displays her jewelry to the coat check
girl. “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!†the girl exclaims. Mae West coolly
replies in her sultry, New York-accented signature voice, “Goodness had nothing
to do with it, dearie.â€
The line was also the title
of West’s memoir, published in 1959, and is one of her many memorable
utterances, along with “Come up and see me sometime.†(However, the first time
this one is spoken, in She Done Him Wrong, she actually says, “Why don’t
you come up sometime and see me?â€)
Kino Lorber has just released
in restored, high-definition presentations every Mae West film made between
1932-1940—the Paramount years, plus one with Universal. This review will cover
the first four out of nine titles, with the remaining five to come in a later
“Part Two.â€
Hollywood knew that Mae West
would be trouble (but a possible box office winner) before she was invited to
the west coast to star in films. She had made her name in New York vaudeville
as a bawdy, talented, sexy, and very funny lady. West could sing and deliver
one-liners with the best of them; she wasn’t so much a dancer, but she did have
the ability to sashay with aplomb. West transitioned to Broadway, writing and
starring in her own shows to great success. One, though, the 1926 play entitled
Sex, got her into hot water with the morality police and she was
arrested for indecency charges. West quickly bounced back, having garnered even
more publicity because of the raid, and became more popular than ever. That’s
when Hollywood, namely the more adventurous Paramount Pictures, came calling.
Paramount tended to push the
envelope in the pre-Code days with violent gangster pictures, sex comedies, and
the early movies by the anarchic, surreal Marx Brothers. Mae West fit in quite
well at Paramount, where she quickly took control of her screen career. What is
truly remarkable is that West was 39 when she made her first picture. For a
Hollywood studio to introduce any actress at that age was unheard of,
before and probably since.
All of West’s movies follow a
formula established by the second one, which was such a success that it saved
Paramount from bankruptcy. Usually there are crime hijinks going on involving
former and current boyfriends. West acquires a flirtatious love-hate
relationship with the wealthy leading man. All the men try to hoodwink West and
each other, and she does some sneaky trickery to foil their plots. At the end
West always ends up with the leading man, even after it seemed that they were kaput.
Oh, and there are some musical numbers thrown in for good measure.
Herewith are the first four
titles released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, all of which look spectacularly
“new†and blemish-free.
Night After Night (1932) is really a melodrama/gangster flick starring
George Raft and Constance Cummings. Mae West appears in a supporting role as
Maudie Triplett, but she steals the movie. In fact, Raft in later years is
known to have said, “She stole everything but the cameras!†Joe Anton (Raft) is
the owner of a speakeasy (it was still Prohibition at the time), and he must
handle conflicting love affairs and competition from rival mobsters. Maudie is
a former girlfriend (now just a friend) who comes to the club for a good time.
Her scenes with Mabel Jellyman (Alison Skipworth), the matronly woman who is
teaching Joe how to speak “properly†and develop more high-class manners, are
worth the price of admission—almost. The picture is all right, but without
West’s debut, Night After Night would likely have dropped into
obscurity. The Blu-ray comes with an audio commentary by film historians Alexandra
Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, plus the theatrical trailer.
I’m No Angel (1933) is still ensconced in sassy, sexy pre-Code
sensibilities. It was West’s most financially successful picture, coming after
the previous hit. Cary Grant co-stars once again. This time, West is Tira, a hootchy-cootchy
singer/dancer in a circus sideshow, but she also doubles as a lion tamer (!).
In one sequence she puts her head in the mouth of a lion (obviously done with
rear-screen projection, but there are scenes in which West is in the cage with
real lions and pets one). The sideshow impresario, Big Bill Barton (Edward
Arnold) is a crook, Tira’s beau Slick (Ralf Harolde) is just as bad, and Tira
wants to break away from the show and be on her own. She succeeds, goes to New
York, and meets the cousin of a rich beau, Jack Clayton (Grant), who is trying
to keep his relative away from Tira. They fall in love instead, of course. Look
for future Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in an uncredited role as a maid. Mae
West was known for insisting on parts being given to African American actresses
and actors. Unfortunately, in those days, the only roles for black performers
in Hollywood were as maids, butlers, train conductors, and Tarzan natives. I’m
No Angel is second in ranking only to She Done Him Wrong, with Mae
West in top form in a very entertaining picture. The Blu-ray comes with an
audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan, plus the theatrical trailer.
Belle of the Nineties (1934) was originally supposed to be titled It
Ain’t No Sin, but the Production Code went into effect just as production
finished. The censors forced West to revise some dialogue and change the title.
It’s a shame, for the remainder of West’s films in the 1930s, while still
entertaining, were sadly neutered of their frank boldness and—let’s face it—the
daring and evocative innuendos that made Mae West movies something to see. In
this one, she plays Ruby, a singer in the 1890s (again), this time in St.
Louis. Her boyfriend, boxer Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor) finds that he has rivals in
wealthier, “classier†men (who are all crooks, though). She moves to New
Orleans for a better position, only to become embroiled in fight fixing
shenanigans. Belle is a tangible step down from the previous two
pictures. While directed by comedy stalwart Leo McCarey (Duck Soup, The
Awful Truth, and later, Going My Way), Belle sort of plods
along and doesn’t produce the expected belly laughs. It does, however,
introduce the jazz standard, “My Old Flame,†sung by West and accompanied by
Duke Ellington and his band on screen. The Blu-ray comes with an audio
commentary by film historian Samm Deighan, plus the theatrical trailer.
Certainly a boon for film
history lovers and aficionados of 1930s Hollywood, these new Kino Lorber
Blu-ray releases are terrific. Cinema Retro will review the remaining
five Mae West titles—including one co-starring W. C. Fields—in a coming piece.
To be continued!
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There
is a fair amount of gore spilled in this film and by the end you sort of feel
glad that it’s all over. Madman Marz
could be considered the cinematic brethren of Andrew Garth in Tom DeSimone’s far
more entertaining Hell Night (1981) who
creeps around Garth Manor, or even Victor Crwley in Adam Green’s Hatchet movies. Hell
Night was the first film that Frank Darabont worked on (he’s not a fan of
it!) and it truly deserves a Blu-ray release.
What sets this new Madman DVD/Blu-ray combo set apart is Vinegar Syndrome’s wealth of
extras that appear on both formats:
-The
film boasts two separate running commentaries that run through the entire 90-minute
running time. They feature comments from director Joe Giannone, producer Gary
Sales and actors Paul Ehlers and Tony Fish.
-There
is an intro in HD that runs just under one minute as producer Gary Sales talks
before the Blu-ray presentation.
-Madman: Alive at 35 runs 21 minutes, is shot in HD and
features producer Gary Sales and actors Tom Candela and Paul Ehlers who discuss
the making of the film.
-The Early Career of Gary Sales is an interview with producer Gary Sales.
Shot in HD, it runs 14 min. and 15 seconds in length, but Mr. Sales speaks with
a great deal of energy and explains that he went to film school with director Armand Mastroianniwho,
at that time, had directed He Knows
You’re Alone (1980), a clear Halloween
(1978) rip-off. So, despite the sort
running time, he includes a wealth of info. It seemed like everyone was
making these types of horror films at the time, and Madman is loosely based upon the legend of Cropsey, who became famous in Staten Island,
NY. Mr. Sales also explains how he got his start in the industry by working on
a sex film in New York in 1973 entitled It
Happened in Hollywood. If you were looking to break into the film industry
in the early 1970’s, one way to do it was through the adult film industry. It
was here that he met Wes Craven who edited Hollywood,
as well as Peter Locke. Wes Craven and Peter Locke would go on to make The Hills Have Eyes in 1977, so
networking and making contacts are everything. What makes this
documentary/interview so fascinating is that we are given a first-hand account
by the producer as to what it took for him to not only get into the film
industry, but to get the ball rolling on Madman.
It wasn't like it is today, where somebody can make a film on a cell phone or
an iPad and simply upload it to someone.
-The Legend Still Lives is from 2011, which is strange as Code
Red had just released a 30th anniversary edition DVD at the
time. Shot in SD, it runs an
unbelievable 91 minutes (longer than the movie!) and gives you just about all
you would want to know about the film. Cast
and crew and other experts in the field of horror talk about the film and, in a
maneuver that would make Sean Clark happy, we are taken to the filming
location, only to find that most of the buildings that appeared in the film
have been torn down many years ago.
-There
is a stills & artwork gallery that runs over seven minutes and provides newspaper
ads and reviews.
-Music Inspired by Madman runs just over 13 minutes and consists
of submissions of music by fans. This
film has quite a following!
-In Memoriam runs almost six minutes and discusses
the passing of both Joe Giannone the director Carl Fredericks.
-Rounding
out the extras are brief discussions with Mr. Sales and Mr. Ehlers at a horror
film convention; TV spots, and the theatrical trailer.
I would recommend this to not only fans
of the film, but to fans of the genre who want an insight into filmmaking in
general, and what it took to get a film like this made in the
1970’s/1980’s.
A year after their Oscar-winning triumph, The Bridge on the River Kwai, William Holden and writer/producer Carl Foreman teamed again for another drama set in WWII, The Key. The 1958 drama is primarily a love story but there is plenty of action on the high seas, all superbly photographed in B&W by the great Oswald Morris. The offbeat story is set in England in the early days of the war before America entered the conflict. Britain stands alone against the seemingly unstoppable German forces and fights to maintain shipping on the high seas in the face of ever present U-Boat threats. William Holden is Capt. David Ross, a Canadian serviceman who is reluctantly assigned to skipper a rescue tug boat that is sent to retrieve men from sinking ships that have been torpedoed. There is good reason for his less-than-enthusiastic acceptance of his assignment: the tugs are lightly armed sitting ducks for the U-Boats. The specter of death hangs over every mission. Ross is pleasantly surprised to be reunited with fellow tug captain Chris Ford (Trevor Howard). The two old friends bond again by getting drunk then returning to Chris's apartment. He has a rare commodity. While most servicemen are crammed into barracks-like hotel rooms shared by numerous other men, Chris has been fortunate enough to secure his own apartment. He explains that the place has an eerie tradition. The present occupant is to make an extra key and give it to his best friend, who will inherit it in case he dies. Ross is startled to find that the apartment comes with another fringe benefit that is passed down from doomed owner to doomed owner: Stella (Sophia Loren), a beautiful but somber Swiss refugee who acts as housekeeper and lover for the latest tenant. Still, Ross sees that there is genuine affection between Stella and Chris and the two even announce plans to marry. A premonition convinces Stella that Chris will never return from his next mission: a prophecy that sets in motion an engrossing series of events of which nothing else can be revealed here without providing "spoilers".
It's glorious to see three great stars of the cinema playing off each other. (While Holden and Loren reached superstar status, Howard was always regarded as a character actor- albeit, one of the best in the business.) Under the sensitive direction of Carol Reed, the leisurely-paced story contains elements of the supernatural with the premonitions and apparitions accompanied by Malcolm Arnold's eerie score. The supporting cast is also impressive with the great Bernard Lee in fine form as a naval officer with the unpleasant duty of sending rescue boats on virtual suicide missions. In all, a fine film all around- and one that neatly avoids the cliched final sequence you believe the script is building to.
Sony has released The Key on DVD. The transfer is excellent, though no extras are included.
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The Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray special edition of the 1939 crime flick "Each Dawn I Die", based on a novel by Jerome Odlum. The film is primarily notable for the teaming of James Cagney and George Raft, two perennial favorites in Warner's lucrative gangster movie sagas. Like most of these films, this one was shot on a modest budget and consists mostly of interior shots, with "exteriors" largely filmed on the Warner back lot. Nevertheless, it's an unusual movie in Cagney's career because of the character he plays. This time he's on the right side of the law as Frank Ross, a big city crime reporter for an influential newspaper who has been relentlessly exposing powerful elected officials and business titans as criminals. In response, they hire some goons to kidnap Frank, knock him unconscious and drench him in alcohol. They then place him behind the wheel of a car and send it speeding into an intersection where it causes an accident and the deaths of innocent people. At his trial, Frank pleads that he's the victim, but the local D.A. and judge are part of the rackets and ensure he's sentenced to 20 years hard labor. En route to prison, Frank meets fellow prisoner "Hood" Stacey (George Raft), a renowned local gangster. The two men get off to a tense start but when Frank prevents Hood from being stabbed with a shiv, he earns the gangster's respect. Hood concocts a plan to use a forthcoming courtroom appearance as a means to enact an elaborate escape plan. Frank agrees to help him by pretending to be his adversary while secretly aiding in the escape based on Hood's promise to track down the people who framed Frank and force them to confess. The escape goes well but Hood receives mistaken information that Frank had tried to double-cross him, thus leading Hood to drop his promise to aid Frank's cause. Frank faces serving his full sentence, his despair only alleviated by the continued loyalty of his girlfriend and fellow reporter, Joyce (Jane Bryan) and his mother (Emma Dunn), both of whom continue to lobby for his release. Most of the suspense comes from the plot device of when and how Frank and Hood will inevitably resolve their misunderstanding.The film culminates with an attempted major prison break and a resulting battle with National Guard forces, as would later be seen in "Brute Force".
Under the direction of William Keighly, the film is engrossing throughout and ranks as one of the better Warners crime films of the era. On the accompanying informative commentary track, film historian Haden Guest points out that Cagney had been going through a tense period while under contract with the studio, as he held out for more interesting roles. "Each Dawn I Die" represented a victory for him in that he was no longer playing a wisecracking gangster. In fact, Cagney's performance is dramatically different than what audiences had been used to. He's an every day guy who tries to play by the rules under a prison system so cruel that only the warden is the soul official who shows any humanity or compassion for the inmates. It's a largely humorless role for Cagney, who does the unthinkable at one point: he breaks down and cries due to his seemingly helpless situation. Cagney was happy to let George Raft have the flashier role and Raft certainly runs with it, playing the kind of mob boss Cagney was rebelling against playing again. They provide the expected on-screen chemistry but the screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine and Warren Duff tends to be rather confusing at times due to the references to many villains of varying degrees of importance to the story and what their roles are in framing or exonerating Frank. While "Each Dawn I Die" doesn't rank with all those fabled classics released in 1939, it's good, solid entertainment throughout.
The Warner Archive's Blu-ray provides a sterling transfer and a wealth of great bonus extras. On the aforementioned audio track, Haden Guest provides insights into the fact the movie tended to buck the much-hated Production Code which provided self-censorship guidelines for studios that ensured all gangster movies had to uphold the theory that crime doesn't pay. Haden points out that the film nevertheless paints a dim view of public officials by presenting them are rotten to the core. The movie also presents the prison guards as ruthless sadists and the parole board as corrupt. It's surprising this much candor was left in the final cut. Other bonus extras are all from 1939:
A newsreel about Japan's invasion of China narrated by Lowell Thomas
a 1949 reissue trailer
The Oscar-nominated cartoon "Detouring America" as well as bonus cartoon "Each Dawn I Crow"
The documentary color short "A Day at Santa Anita"
The trailer for "Wings of the Navy", a current release from WB that is promoted in the film when the prisoners see it during a movie night
The featurette "Stool Pigeons and Pine Overcoats: The Language of Gangster Films"
"Breakdowns of 1939": a compilation of movie set bloopers
Radio show version of the film with George Raft and Franchot Tone.
This crime movie release from the Warner Archive is an offer you can't refuse.
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Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Turner Classic Movies:
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will celebrate
the life and career of iconic actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd with a programming
tribute on Monday, June 14. Lloyd,
who passed away on May 11 at the age of 106, was known for playing the saboteur
himself in Hitchcock’s Saboteur
(1942) and was part of original company of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater. His
eight-decade career saw him work in all media including Broadway, television,
film, and radio, with stints as director and producer. He attended the TCM
Classic Cruise in 2011 and 2013 and attended all but one TCM Classic Film
Festival in Hollywood.
The following is the complete schedule for TCM's on-air tribute to Norman
Lloyd:
TCM Remembers Norman Lloyd –
Monday, June 14
8:00 p.m. Saboteur (1942) – A young man accused of
sabotage goes on the lam to prove his innocence. 10:00 p.m. Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Norman
Lloyd (2016) –
Norman Lloyd discusses his career in front of a live audience. 11:00 p.m. Limelight (1952) – A broken-down comic
sacrifices everything to give a young dancer a shot at the big time. 1:30 a.m. He Ran All the Way (1951) – A crook on the run
hides out in an innocent girl's apartment. 3:00 a.m. The Southerner (1945) – A sharecropper fights
the elements to start his own farm. 5:00 a.m. Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Norman
Lloyd (2016) –
Norman Lloyd discusses his career in front of a live audience.
RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES.
BY LEE PFEIFFER
Scorpion, the video label that specializes in first-class releases of often second-rate films, does it again with Point of Terror, an obscure thriller from 1971. The film was the brainchild of star/writer/producer Peter Carpenter (Blood Mania). Never heard of him? Neither had I until this screener copy arrived. A bit of research reveals that Carpenter was a wanna-be star with grand ambition and modest talents - much like the character he plays in the film, which was directed by Alex Nicol. Sadly, Carpenter's reed-thin list of movie credits is due to the fact that he died young- in fact, shortly after this film was released. Carpenter, who personifies "beefcake", plays a lounge singer with a loyal following. However, he's frustrated that his fame is limited to a local restaurant. Although he has his pick of the female groupies, he's convinced he's destined for fame and fortune. He meets Andrea (Dyanne Thorne of Ilse, She Wolf of the S.S. fame), an uppercrust cougar who helps her impotent wheelchair-bound hubby operate his record empire. Before you can say "Wayne Newton", the pair is tossing and turning all night under the covers. Both characters are manipulative and unsympathetic, which makes it hard to empathize with either one. Andrea is using Tony as her boy toy, while he is using her clout to advance his record career. Soon, both are enmeshed in dastardly deeds including infidelity and murder.
The film has overtones of Play Misty for Me (i.e, sexual obsession taken to a lethal stage) but Clint Eastwood probably didn't lose any sleep worrying that the impact of his film would be diminished by this one. Carpenter himself is a strangely perplexing personality. At times, he resonates legitimate charisma, but at other times, his acting is grade school level. Additionally, the film's opening credits are set to a scene of Tony performing his lounge act- clad in bright red buckskins! It's doubtful this looked hunky even in 1971 and the sequence is unintentionally hilarious, reminding one of those scenes in which women faint in passion at the sight of Austin Powers prancing about in his underwear. Thorne gives a slightly more accomplished performance and gets to doff her top in a swimming pool to display her trademark assets. (This was the 70s, remember, and such sequences were all but obligatory for B level actresses.) The movie plods at times and the action is rather clunkily directed, but the film is generally engrossing. Scorpion has provided the usual bevy of extras including an interview with actress Leslie Simms, who has a role in the film. She also served as Carpenter's acting coach and reminisces with affection about her friendship with him. Thorne is also heard via a phone interview done for this release. As with Simms, she speaks highly of Carpenter. The DVD release also includes a trailer and the original poster art on the packaging, which deceitfully implies this is a horror film. Another nice job by Scorpion for a film that would otherwise be lost to the ages.
At some point in The Fastest Guitar Alive, a friend tells the
character played by rock legend Roy Orbison that he should stick to
guitar playing because he doesn't have much of a future as a gunslinger.
The same advice appears to have been given to Orbison about his future
as an actor, as this proved to be his big screen debut and farewell as a
leading man. The 1967 movie was the brainchild of producer Sam Katzman,
who was forever associated with schlock that often top-lined popular
singers. Often these poorly-made productions proved to be hits with the
youth audience and it was that philosophy that obviously led Katzman to
think that Orbison could be box-office gold. Katzman had previously
brought several Elvis Presley and Herman's Hermits films to the screen
with success, but his instincts were off track with The Fastest Guitar Alive. Even
by Katzman standards, the 1967 MGM Western comedy is a dud on all
levels. The fact that the Warner Archive has released the movie will
nevertheless be welcome news to Orbison fans, who will treat this an
anomaly in an otherwise distinguished career that saw him write and
perform some of the best known songs of his era.
In this dreary vehicle, Orbison plays Johnny, a gentle singer of ballads
who is partners with Steve (Sammy Jackson). Together, the men travel
through small towns selling snake oil medicine and performing in saloons
with a bevy of showgirls who accompany them (though all seem curiously
virginal). In reality, Johnny and Steve are spies working for the
Confederacy. They use their cover as troubadours to successfully
initiate the robbery of a Union gold shipment in San Francisco with the
hopes of bringing the loot to the fading Southern cause in Texas. The
slight plot is simply a necessary device to frame the numerous ballads
that Orbison gets to warble. It becomes clear that this was a film
designed to support a soundtrack album, not the other way around. To
make Johnny live up to the movie's title, he is given a guitar that must
have been designed by a frontier version of Q Branch: it has a
recoiling rifle that extends when a button is pressed. He uses this to
comic effect on an Indian tribe, the degrading depiction of which must
have been the primary cause for the emergence of Native American
activist groups.
The story ambles from one anemic comic setup to the next without
generating any evidence of wit on the part of the screenwriters.
Although some of Orbison's tunes are fairly good, every time he begins
to sing he is joined by an invisible chorus and full band, all hallmarks
of Katzman productions. The result is absurd, as Orbison is supposedly
plucking away love songs in intimate situations when the soundtrack
clearly has him lip-synching to records made in a state-of-the-art
studio. These unintentional laughs are the only guffaws in the entire
movie. The biggest flaw in the film is Orbison's performance. He looks
nervous and uncomfortable and delivers his lines like a frightened 8th
grader making his stage debut in the school annual play. With every line
he utters, I was reminded of that classic episode of The Honeymooners in
which Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden has a panic attack when filming a
live commercial as the Chef of the Future. He gets scant help from the
supporting cast, although old time Western character actors John
Doucette and James Westerfield bring a modicum of dignity to the
production. There is one curious aspect to the movie's legacy: it's the
only vehicle that ever allowed Iron Eyes Cody to co-star with Sam the
Sham, the lead singer of the 60s rock group The Pharaohs.
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There have been four big screen versions of the classic musical/tragic romance "A Star is Born"...and they have all been very good. The 1976 version starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson was not beloved by critics, but audiences embraced it and made it a major hit. Here is the original trailer.
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