RETRO-ACTIVE: FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Tony Curtis, like most aspiring screen stars, slogged through bit parts in unmemorable films when he first broke into the industry in the late 1940s. By the mid-1950s, however, he was a major star, even if the films he top-lined were relatively undistinguished. With his boyish good looks and New York wise guy persona, Curtis excelled at playing charismatic rogues and, perhaps improbably for a guy born in the Bronx, cowboys, knights and other exotic men of action. But Curtis was more than just a pretty face and by the late 1950s he was getting challenging roles that allowed him to show off his dramatic acting skills. He was brilliant in "Sweet Smell of Success" and "The Defiant Ones" and gave one of the great comedic performances of all time in Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot". By the late 1960s, however, his star power was fading. He still had enough clout to get the male leads in lightweight comedies like "Sex and the Single Girl" and "Don't Make Waves", but the bloom was off the rose. Ironically, he won fine reviews for his convincing performance in the 1968 film "The Boston Strangler", but most of the good roles would continue to elude him. Like many fading American stars, he turned toward European productions, starring in "Those Daring Young Men in the Jaunty Jalopies" and "You Can't Win 'Em All", the latter with fellow U.S. import Charles Bronson who found major stardom in Europe long before he became a big name in America. One of the least prestigious films that Curtis appeared was titled "On the Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who...", a 1967 sex comedy filmed in Italy and which would not be released in the USA until 1969, when it had limited distribution. Perhaps because theater owners in the UK and USA had pity on the poor souls who had to stand on ladders and put film titles on theater marquees letter-by-letter, the English language version of the film was shortened to the more provocative "The Chastity Belt". Curtis wasn't the only English-speaking actor in the otherwise all-Italian production, as Hugh Griffith and John Richardson were co-starred.

The film opens with Curtis playing against type as Guerrando de Montone, a sniveling, cowardly and bumbling opportunist who finally is granted his wish to be made a knight. As his reward, he is entitled to claim a vast tract of land as his own. Guerrando is quick to abuse his power over the peasants, especially when he discovers that the local game warden and his voluptuous daughter, Boccadoro (Monica Vitti) live on his land. Although Boccadoro is initially attracted to him, Guerrando's misogynistic ways quickly alienate her. Guerrando informs her that he is her lord and master and will use her for sexual pleasure whenever he pleases. Most of the fun in the script, which was co-written by the esteemed Larry Gelbart, centers on the buxom beauty's strategies to avoid going to bed with Guerrando, who becomes increasingly frustrated. To solve the problem, he forces her to marry him but she delays the consummation of the marriage by invoking a rare, ancient ritual that commits them both to spending three days in constant prayer. When that obstacle is removed, Guerrando is ready to make his move only to find that he has been summoned to join the Crusades and leave Italy for a period of years. To ensure that Boccadoro remains chaste, he has her fitted with a chastity belt which causes her to swear vengeance. The film meanders through the couple's misadventures with Boccadoro intent on finding her husband and murdering him. She poses as a knight in armor and infiltrates his camp but both are kidnapped by an evil, horny sultan (Hugh Griffith) who forces Guerrando to convert to Islam while he makes plans to open the chastity belt and have his way with Boccadoro.The whole thing ends in a madcap chase with heroes and villains chasing each other about a castle.

Italian cinema-goers were very enamored of sex farces during this period. "The Chasity Belt" is one of the tamest, as there is no nudity and the most provocative aspects are plentiful shots of Ms. Vitti's ample bosom bouncing around during the many chase scenes. Like most films of the genre, there are plenty of moments of slapstick and narrow escapes. What impresses most about this modest production is director Pasquale Festa Campanile's light touch and the ability to move the action at such a rapid pace that you don't ponder how predictable it all is. While it's still a bit of a shock to see someone of Curtis's stature in this "B" level comedy, he is in good form and provides plenty of laughs by not even attempting to disguise his New Yawk accent. He is matched by the very likable Vitti and Hugh Griffith, who recycles his lovable rascal shtick from "Ben-Hur". What is stands out most are the rather spectacular locations. Most of the action is shot outdoors in ancient ruins and castles that add a good deal of atmosphere to the goings on.

"The Chasity Belt" is the kind of film that Curtis probably did very reluctantly. He would later try his hand in television co-starring with Roger Moore in the sensational action series "The Persuaders", but it lasted only 24 episodes. A later series, "McCoy" lasted only a single season. Curtis would still turn up in a few major films like "The Mirror Crack'd" and "The Last Tycoon" but only in supporting roles. Nevertheless, he remained enjoyable to watch and always gave his best effort. Perhaps for that reason, "The Chastity Belt" is a lot more worthwhile than you might imagine.

The Warner Archive DVD is generally very good with a few blotches and grainy frames, but one suspects there aren't too many archival prints of this long-forgotten film floating around out there. There are no bonus extras.

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From the Cinema Retro archives: newspaper adverts for Walt Disney's "Follow Me, Boys!"  a Boy Scout comedy hit starring Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles and up-and-comer Kurt Russell.

These ads show theater play dates in Colorado.

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:

Called “an absolute spectacle of filmmaking from start to finish” (Lauren Huff, Entertainment Weekly) and “extravagant, decadent…phenomenal” (Jazz Tangcay, Variety), writer/director Damien Chazelle’s glittering tale of Hollywood glamour and excess BABYLON arrives for fans to watch at home on Premium Video-On-Demand and to purchase on Digital January 31, 2023 from Paramount Home Entertainment. 

Nominated for three Academy Awards®, including Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design, BABYLON is a must-see spectacle featuring outstanding work from a world-class cast and filmmaking team.  Fans who buy the film on Digital will have access to over 40 minutes of behind-the-scenes interviews and deleted scenes to further illuminate how the cinematic tour-de-force was brought to life.  Bonus content is detailed below:

• A Panoramic Canvas Called Babylon— The cast and crew discuss the inspiration and motivation behind the original story and development of this epic, 15 years in the making.• The Costumes of Babylon— Discover how costume design was fundamental to character development and the challenges that went into creating over 7,000 costumes for the film.• Scoring Babylon— Take a peek into Justin Hurwitz's musical process to understand the artistry behind composing an iconic score that further elevates the film.• Deleted & Extended Scenes

BABYLON follows an ambitious cast of characters -- The Silent Film Superstar (Brad Pitt), the Young Starlet (Margot Robbie), the Production Executive (Diego Calva), the Musical Sensation (Jovan Adepo) and the Alluring Powerhouse Performer (Li Jun Li) -- who are striving to stay on top of the raucous, 1920s Hollywood scene and maintain their relevance at a time when the industry is moving on to the next best thing.

The film will arrive on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD, and in a Limited-Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook® March 21, 2023.

Click here to pre-order Blu-ray from Amazon

Click here to pre-order 4K Ultra HD  with digital code from Amazon

Click here to order limited edition Steelbook 4K Ultra HD from Amazon

 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Raquel Welch, the actress who took the international film industry by storm with her appearance in the 1966 remake of the fantasy film "One Million Years B.C.", has passed away after a brief illness. Welch was one of the last of the so-called "Glamour Girls" of this period; actresses who were chosen primarily for their looks and measurements as opposed to their acting abilities. But Welch defied the odds and didn't prove to be a flash-in-the-pan in terms of popularity. She was one of the last of the big studio contract players- in this case 20th-Century-Fox, which meant she could only make films for another studio if Fox approved. She had little say over the films she appeared in during this period and she would later look back on them with disdain. However, retro movie fans would be largely defensive of many of these films, as they cast her opposite popular leading men of the period as Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, Stephen Boyd, Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart and Dean Martin. Among her best films of this era were "100 Rifles", "Fantastic Voyage", "Bandolero!", "The Biggest Bundle of them All" and "Lady in Cement".  Some were duds, such as the misguided thriller "Flareup" and the disastrous sex comedy "Myra Breckinridge". She became an instant pop culture icon due to the famous photo of her as a cavegirl sporting a fur bikini in "One Million Years B.C." Teenage boys around the world had the resulting poster adorning their bedroom walls. In the early 1970s, she played vengeance-driven female gunslinger in the Western "Hannie Caulder", a victim of Richard Burton's lady killer in "Bluebeard", a roller derby queen in "Kansas City Bomber" and a member of the all-star cast in the murder mystery "The Last of Sheila". By the mid-190's, she played a comedic co-starring role in the big budget version of "The Three Musketeers" and its sequel "The Four Musketeers". Critics finally acknowledged that she could act and should be judged by her talent and not her image as a voluptuous  sex symbol.

 

When the prime big screen roles began to vanish, Welch suspected it may have been due to her suing MGM over age discrimination when she was fired as the leading lady in the film "Cannery Row" and replaced by Debra Winger. The studio countered that Welch had acted unprofessionally on the set. She won the case and $10 million in damages but it seemed to make studios reluctant to hire her again. Nevertheless, she successfully reinvented herself with live shows on stage including an acclaimed leading role in the Broadway production of "Victor/Victoria". She also scored with a funny self-deprecating appearance as herself in "Seinfeld" in which she was presented as an obnoxious, hot-tempered diva.

Welch kept a low profile in recent years and was rarely seen in public. She was married four times and is survived by a son and daughter. Despite her sex symbol image, she was always proud that she never gave in to offers to appear nude on screen or in print. She was the one who got away, said a disappointed Hugh Hefner who couldn't use influence or money to lure her to the pages of Playboy.

For more on her life and career, click here.

By Darren Allison, Cinema Retro Soundtracks Editor

I always tend to get excited upon the arrival of a couple of new releases from Chris' Soundtrack Corner. They’ve been doing it a long while now, and they have found a seemingly smooth and reliable sense of confident continuity with every subsequent title. Their commitment to the works of composer Stelvio Cipriani has been a journey of discovery which continues with CSC’s two latest releases.

Peccato Senza Malizia (aka Sins Without Intentions, 1975) (CSC 038) certainly brings out the subtly romantic elements of Cipriani’s craft. Theo Campanelli’s film is the story of Stefania (Luciana Tamburini), an 18 year-old girl who leaves her orphanage in Ascoli Piceno to move in with her stepfather, a humble and simplistic fisherman. Seeing the girl as a wife and a lover rather than a daughter, the unnamed stepfather (Luigi Pistelli) (who had minor roles in Leone’s, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) ignites an abusive relationship until Stefania escapes into a series of equally bad situations. Produced in Italy, the film falls into the general realm of erotica and remains widely unseen by a great deal of mainstream audiences.

When the movie was released, an inventive marketing campaign was launched to promote its arrival; foreign promotional campaigns played upon the film’s sexuality, focusing on the single (and comparatively tame) shower sequence in a series of lobby cards and posters. Unfortunately, Peccato Senza Malizia has all but disappeared from the public eye. The film never gained any form of cult status and remained largely ignored by home video labels. It was director Theo Campanelli's only film, and as such, it simply became just another Italian film with the Cipriani score providing more interest than the movie itself.

It’s an old and familiar tale, but one that at least offers a form of longevity and respectability towards the composer's work. Stelvio Cipriani’s score is light, breezy and charming, and weaves its way delicately via the ‘variations of a theme’ approach. Cipriani was well versed in this romantic, playful style of scoring, and it still works well some 50 years on. Cipriani’s composition makes good use of smokey saxophones, loungy sounding piano, trumpets and foreboding harpsichord. Peccato Senza Malizia tries to achieve parallels between Cipriani music and the paintings presented on screen and featured within the film. His score relies upon two basic themes, with its first half building almost all of its cues around the main theme with a strong focus on Stefania's character. Here, Cipriani uses his array of orchestral tricks to showcase the emotional rollercoaster of the main heroine. When Stefania hooks up with her inspiring music teacher, Maurizio, a trumpet is used to suggest his masculine swagger; as their relationship blossoms, Cipriani introduces his love theme. This motif draws upon Stefania's innocence to showcase the transformative power of their romance.

Chris' Soundtrack Corner has worked wonders in making this a really credible listen as well as making the score available at all. This CD marks the soundtrack’s worldwide debut. Given the fact that the first half of the movie is on the more monothematic side, CSC has opted to create a better listening experience by either merging shorter cues together or by simply changing the order of the cues. Peccato Senza Malizia is arguably the label’s most obscure movie soundtrack it has ever released, but it's well worth picking up, especially as a virtually forgotten Cipriani gem. The album is produced beautifully as always by Christian Riedrich and mastered by Manmade Mastering. The packaging is again impressive for such a minor film title and consists of an 8-page illustrated booklet designed by Tobias Kohlhaas and featuring exclusive and detailed notes by Gergely Hubai, who explores the making of the film and its score. An excellent release which I hope is rightfully rewarded.

For their second Stelvio Cipriani score Chris' Soundtrack Corner turned to the ‘Comisario Mendoza’ trilogy from Spanish filmmaker José Antonio de la Loma. El último viaje (1974) (CSC 039) was the second film in the trilogy and featured Eduardo Fajardo as Mendoza.

El último viaje has been described as the sleaziest instalment with the drug plot inviting casual orgies and a fair share of topless women. Whether it's an urban crime thriller, a drug bust movie, or a cross-country manhunt, Comisario Mendoza is always hot on the trail of the criminals even if his screen time varied greatly from mission to mission.

Stelvio Cipriani's musical legacy with the Comisario Mendoza movies is as convoluted as the constant recasting of the trilogy's central hero. Whilst the first two movies were scored by Cipriani, the third movie used pre-existing compositions from the C.A.M. archives. The film also used tracks from other composers, but overall the majority of compositions were previously written by Cipriani (these soundtracks are also available from Chris' Soundtrack Corner). El último viaje's score is largely based around two themes, each representing a different aspect of gangster life. The key idea for the central love theme is deception, as the film spends a good portion of its running time highlighting the fake criminal lifestyle. Interestingly, a recurring feature of Cipriani's score is that it provides some self-contained, almost isolated cues for certain sequences that seemingly separate themselves from the film’s general narrative style, and as a result, seem unrelated to the overall theme of the score. This is more prominent towards the middle section of the movie where the score suddenly throws a couple of unrelated tracks into the mix, one being for a drug-fueled orgy sequence. Here Cipriani provides music for bass guitar, flutes, and percussion and is only interrupted by a sudden burst of violence when somebody is dragged out towards a clifftop. Whilst such sequences proved to be challenging for the composer, Cipriani resolves and fulfils the tasks admirably.

Rather curiously, no soundtrack album was ever issued for this beautiful and immersive score, so Chris' Soundtrack Corner is particularly proud to present a world premiere release of the full soundtrack. With his usual sense of artistic flair, Cipriani provides a memorable and rich 45 minutes of music and also contains a couple of bonus tracks.The album is again impressively produced by Christian Riedrich and mastered by Manmade Mastering. The CD packaging consists of a 12-page illustrated booklet designed by Tobias Kohlhaas and featuring exclusive notes by Gergely Hubai, who explores the making of the film and its score in detail. Chris' Soundtrack Corner have again chosen wisely and intelligently and we can only hope that their Cipriani quest continues to blossom.

Click below to order:

http://www.soundtrackcorner.de/

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

MGM has made available a region-free DVD of the Oakmont-produced British WWII films from the late 1960s-early 1970s. These modestly-budgeted films were not designed as Oscar-bait. In fact, they seem to be specifically created to fill out the bottom of double bills as the era of that great cinema staple was rapidly coming to a close. Hell Boats was shot in 1970 and bares all the ingredients of an Oakmont production: it's intelligently written, well-acted and directed (by Paul Wendkos) and features some exotic locations, in this case Malta. As with some other Oakmont titles (The Last Escape, Attack on the Iron Coast, The Thousand Plane Raid), this rather unconvincingly shoehorns an American leading man into what is clearly an all-British story line, presumably to give the film some broader boxoffice appeal. In this case, James Franciscus (in full, Chuck Heston clone mode) is Jeffords, the new commander of a British torpedo boat unit. There is a brief explanation as to how an American got a job as Commander in the Royal Navy- something to do with having been born in the UK. With that sore point quickly dispensed of, we get to the main plot line. Jeffords is assigned to blow up a seemingly impregnable German gun bastion carved into a mountainside in Malta. The mission appears suicidal but Jeffords concocts a daring plan that involves scuba divers, commandos and the torpedo boats. He does have other distractions: he and his superior officer, Ashurst (Ronald Allen) despise each other. Ashurst wants to prove himself in combat, but is stuck behind a desk. He envies Jefford's courage and is further emasculated by his knowledge that Jeffords is bedding his frustrated wife Alison (Elizabeth Shepherd), who fortunately has an aversion to clothing. The soap opera elements are actually intelligently woven into the story line, creating genuine tension between the two men. Franciscus is all grit-teethed masculinity, but he makes a rather bland hero. He is humorless and all business, all the time. (He even makes his sexual dalliances look about as desirable as changing a tire.) Allen's character is far more interesting and the dissolution of his marriage before his eyes adds an interesting subplot to the military sequences. 

Like most Oakmont productions, Hell Boats does a lot with very little in terms of budget. The photography is excellent and so are the production values, save for the sea battle sequences that betray the very obvious use of miniatures. Nevertheless, this is a highly entertaining adventure movie throughout- and it refreshingly sidesteps what I thought was going to be a predictable plot device leading to a somewhat unexpected conclusion. 

If MGM is listening, the only Oakmont title not available on DVD is The Last Escape starring Stuart Whitman. C'mon guys, keep up the good work and get this one out there. 

Click here to order from Amazon (The film is currently streaming on Screenpix and Paramount +)

"Jerome Miller Lives!"

By John M. Whalen

In 1975 film director Sam Peckinpah was at loose ends. His last film, “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,” while an artistic triumph of a certain kind, was a box office failure. He had a script for a movie called “The Insurance Company,” but couldn’t get any backing for it. When United Artists offered him a chance to direct a movie based on Robert Rostand’s novel, “Monkey in the Middle,” he took it. The book was a thriller about security expert Mike Locken, hired to protect an African diplomat traveling through London. He takes the job because one of three elite assassins hired to kill the diplomat was a former colleague who had shot him up on his last job and left him for dead. The new assignment was a way to get revenge.

Peckinpah saw some elements in the story that he felt he could work with. But when UA offered the Mike Locken role to James Caan, he said he didn’t want to work in Europe, where he’d been working the last several years. He’d do it, if they changed the location to the U.S. Marc Norman rewrote the script that Reginald Rose had written based on the novel, but UA and Peckinpah hated it. Top notch screenwriter, Oscar winner Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”) was hired to do a new script. Silliphant, only married a year to Tiana, his 33-years younger Vietnamese actress wife, said he’d do the script but only if they agreed to put her in the picture as Locken’s love interest. Peckinpah tested her and gave the part.

Tiana and Silliphant were both former students of Bruce Lee and Silliphant had always had an interest in Asian culture and philosophy. So he set the story in San Francisco, using Chinatown, the Golden Gate Bridge and other locations, and brought aboard kung fu and martial arts experts like the legendary Tai Chi master Kuo Lien Ying to play some of the background characters. He created a fictitious security agency named ComTeg, and changed the character of the African diplomat to a Taiwanese politician named Chung (Mako), who was traveling with his daughter Tommy (Tiana). Robert Duvall was brought on board to play George Hansen, Locken’s best buddy, who in the movie’s first act, succumbed to a better offer from the opposition on a previous assignment, and shot Locken in the knee and elbow, “retiring” him from active service. The first 40 minutes of “The Killer Elite” consists mostly of Hansen’s betrayal and Locken’s rehabilitation, rendered in excruciating detail. He learns to use a metal elbow brace and wooden cane as martial arts weapons.

Locken’s bosses at ComTeg, Cap Collis (Arthur Hill), and Lawrence Weybourne (Gig Young), tell him he has to retire with disability. “Let’s face it,” Collis says. “That knee of yours will never be anything but a wet noodle.” When the CIA contracts ComTeg to provide security for Chung and his daughter while they’re in the U.S., they’re not interested until they learn that Hansen is heading up a team to eliminate Chung. Collis and Weybourne offer Locken his old job back—the chance for revenge that Mike has been waiting for.

Locken gets in touch with two members of his old team for two or three days of work. “I don’t think anyone could handle more of what we got.” He meets up with Jerome Miller (Bo Hopkins) on a hillside overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where he’s practicing his skeet shooting, which is probably not something that happens there every day. Miller tells him he doesn’t think his company would hire him. “They’ve got me classified as a psycho.” Locken tells him: “You’re not a psycho, Jerome. You’re the patron poet of the manic depressives.” A typical Silliphant line.

Next up is Mac (Burt Young), his old driver, who now runs a garage, where he just happens to have a bullet proof taxi available that would be just perfect for the job Locken has in mind. Mac’s wife calls Locken Mr. Davis. When Locken asks why, Mac says: “When you’re around, she calls everybody Mr. Davis.” They don’t know it, but while everybody’s getting reacquainted, a mechanic has attached a bomb to the exhaust manifold.

The trio drive to San Francisco’s Chinatown to pick up Chung and his daughter. Naturally there’s a gun battle with Hansen and another gunman perched on the roof of the building across the street from the place where Chung is staying. They manage to shoot their way out, but Mac hears something rattling under the taxi. It’s bomb disposal time. They pull over on an overpass and get some assistance from a dim-witted motorcycle cop— another scene that is as unrealistic and impossible as the scene with Jerome skeet shooting out in the open by the Golden Gate Bridge.

At this point you begin to suspect there’s something weird going on. This is not your typical action thriller being played out here. As the story moves on absurdity piles on absurdity, all of which culminates in an unlikely battle between assassins equipped with automatic weapons and a team of ghost-like ninjas armed with swords, aboard the deck of an abandoned battleship, part of the Navy’s Mothball Fleet anchored in Suisan Bay. Got all that?

Critic Pauline Kael in a 1976 review for The New Yorker described Peckinpah’s career as a constant battle with studio bosses who consistently tried to take the movies he made away from him, demanding changes more in line with their thinking rather than his. As a result he kept making movies that are more about that battle than any melodramatic plot that may be involved. “There’s no way to make sense of what has been going on in Peckinpah’s recent films,” she wrote, “if one looks only at their surface stories. Whether consciously or, as I think, part unconsciously, he’s been destroying the surface content.” According to Kael, “He’s crowing in The Killer Elite, saying, ‘No matter what you do to me, look at the way I can make a movie.’”

She attributes most of the film’s weirdness to Peckinpah, but it might also be instructive to look at the career of screenwriter Stirling Silliphant for some clues about the subtext both he and Peckinpah present in The Killer Elite. Like Peckinpah, Silliphant started out working in television. Peckinpah wrote episodes of “Gunsmoke,” and created “The Rifleman” and “The Westerner” series. Silliphant wrote for just about every TV series on the air in the mid-fifties, eventually writing 70 hour-long episodes of the classic Route 66 series, before moving to the movies. He left television because of the same problem Peckinpah faced in filmmaking—loss of creative control. He went on to achieve great success in films but when he wrote the script for The Killer Elite, it was a year after having penned The Towering Inferno. It was a successful, well-written movie but he probably realized he had sold out his artistic independence when the hopped on the Irwin Allen Disaster Movie bandwagon, which he began with The Poseidon Adventure. It would be only a few years after “The Killer Elite” that he would nearly destroy his career turning out the script for Allen’s “The Swarm.”

For relief between projects, he would take Tiana aboard his yacht, the Tiana 2, and sail to exotic ports in the South Pacific. It’s no coincidence, I think, that “The Killer Elite” ends with Locken turning down a job offer and a promotion from his old boss Weybourne, and sails away on a sailboat with his pal Mac (Miller is killed in the gunfight on the Mothball Fleet). When Silliphant saw no future for him if he remained in what he publicly called “the eel pit” that was Hollywood he sold everything and moved to Thailand.

Peckinpah held similar sentiments about the Hollywood establishment. He said in a 1972 Playboy interview: “The woods are full of killers, all sizes, all colors. … A director has to deal with a whole world absolutely teeming with mediocrities, jackals, hangers-on, and just plain killers. The attrition is terrific. It can kill you. The saying is that they can kill you but not eat you. That’s nonsense. I’ve had them eating on me while I was still walking around.” I think he identified with Silliphant’s image of a hero sailing away from it all if he could.

Imprint’s two-disc box set is a must have for any Peckinpah fan or anyone who digs action thrillers, Silliphant, martial arts, or the poetry of manic depression. The first disc presents the “original” theatrical version in a 1080p high definition transfer from MGM that runs 2 hours and 3 minutes, and includes a ton of bonus features, most notable of which is a fabulous audio commentary by Peckinpah expert Mike Siegel. He provides some terrific revelations about the film and its production and shows a real appreciation of Peckinpah’s work. Siegel indicates that Sam, at Bo Hopkins’ suggestion, filmed an alternate “absurdist” ending in which Locken and Mac find Miller alive and well aboard the sailboat, after having been seen getting shot to pieces. In an interview with Siegel, Hopkins confirms that bit of info, and even shows some footage of the scene that was finally excised by the bosses at United Artists, who just didn’t get it. In a separate commentary ported over from a previous Twilight Time release, Garner Simmons and Paul Seydor, two film historians whom I lovingly refer to as the Peckinpah Peckerwoods, and the late Nick Redman, make the assertion that the complete film, with the Jerome Miller “resurrection” scene had one showing in Northern California and has never been seen again.

Well, I beg to differ with that statement. Fellow Cinema Retro reviewer Fred Blosser and I saw The Killer Elite the night it opened in December 19, 1975 at a local theater in northern Virginia. The scene in question was definitely included. Fred states that he has also seen it in the occasional TV broadcast of the film. So, despite statements made to the contrary, there probably is at least one copy of the unexpurgated “The Killer Elite” out there somewhere. JEROME MILLER LIVES!

Other extras included in the Imprint release include an alternate, shorter version of the film that mainly cuts scenes from Locken’s painful looking rehab; documentaries taken from Siegel’s The Passion and the Poetry Project on the works of Sam Peckinpah; interviews Siegel conducted with Bo Hopkins, Ernest Borgnine, LQ Jones and others. There is so much here to enjoy. The bad news is that Imprint has sold out of the 1500 copies it made. I obtained one the last two copies Grindhouse Video had left, but now they are sold out. Good luck trying to find a copy. Check your usual sources. (Note: as of this writing, there are still a few copies left at Amazon USA. Although it is listed as a Region 2 set, it is actually region-free. Click here to order. Good luck!)

By Lee Pfeiffer

It has always been possible for Netflix subscribers to share their passwords with family members and friends who do not reside with them, even though the company's usage agreement specifies that all password sharing should pertain only to people who live in the same household. With Netflix reporting a net loss of  subscribers, the company is taking new measures to increase revenues. They have introduced a Netflix option for subscribers who don't mind watching programs and movies that are interrupted by commercial breaks. (Obviously, this wouldn't pertain to Cinema Retro readers!) The willingness of some people to watch these compromised versions will result in a whopping $3 a month discount. Cinephiles and purists will find this an offer they can refuse. For many viewers, the initial appeal of streaming services was to get away from the horrendous numbers of commercials that are seen on broadcast TV programs, but there will probably be plenty of undemanding viewers who jump at the offer. The other way to increase revenue will be to crack down on people sharing passwords. Beginning by late March, such individuals will either have to pay for their own subscriptions or lose access. They will be offered a special discount, however, as well as the ability to retain their account data and history. For more, click here.

It was a long-time dream of producer Harry Saltzman to bring the story of the Battle of Britain to the big screen. It took him many years of frustrating delays to fulfill his dream. The movie, directed by Guy Hamilton, featured an all-star cast and some of the most spectacular aerial footage ever filmed- and keep in mind this was done for real in the era before CGI. For an extensive look at the making of the film, see Dave Worrall's report in Cinema Retro issue #45. 

Cinema Retro readers tell us they love issues that feature rare movie trade advertisements, so here's one extolling the boxoffice pull of the 1967 blockbuster "The Dirty Dozen" in its New York City engagements. In those days, major films often played exclusively in select theaters in big cities before opening wide in neighborhood theaters.

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

By Lee Pfeiffer

You don't have to be gay to admire John Schlesinger's 1971 film Sunday Bloody Sunday but it probably helps in terms of appreciating just how ground-breaking the movie was in its day. As a straight guy of high school age when the film was released, I do remember it causing a sensation, although it would literally take me many years before I finally caught up with the film. Gay friends always spoke reverently of the movie and expressed how the most refreshing aspect of the story was how normally a loving relationship between two adult men was portrayed. In viewing the film as a Criterion Blu-ray release, I feel I can finally appreciate that point of view. Gay men have long been portrayed in movies, of course, but for the most part they had been depicted as objects of ridicule or as sexual deviants. There were the odd attempts to present gay characters as sympathetic in films such as The Trials of Oscar Wilde and the brilliant Victim. Yet, even these fine efforts present homosexuality as a burden those "afflicted" must bear. Stanley Donen's 169 film Staircase offered fascinating and bold performances by Rex Harrison and Richard Burton as two aging queens. However, the studio marketing campaign over-emphasized the oddity of two of the film industry's great lady's men playing a gay couple. In fact, the ad campaign showed Burton and "Sexy Rexy" giddily dancing, thus falsely conveying that the film was a comedic romp instead of a poignant and intelligent look at loving homosexual relationship. Schlesinger, one of the first unapologetic directors to come out of the closet (if, indeed, he was ever in one), decided that the most daring aspect of this highly personal film would be in its very ordinariness. The story covers a complicated love triangle between three disparate people. Dr. Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) is a middle-aged, Jewish London doctor who is involved romantically with a much younger man, Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Hirsh doesn't flaunt his homosexuality, nor does he attempt to painstakingly deny it. He just lives his life as a respected member of his community, although it is clear his family thinks he's straight. (In one amusing, though uncomfortable sequence, Hirsh attends a Bar Mitzvah and has to endure attempts by nosy female relatives to set him up with his "dream girl"). The relationship between Hirsh and Bob is fairly intense, but is compromised by one uncomfortable fact: Bob is bi-sexual and is carrying on an equally intense love affair with an older woman, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson). Both Hirsh and Alex know about each other and (barely) tolerate the triangle as the price of having Bob in their lives. For his part, Bob is a rather self-absorbed young man who seems to have genuine affection for both of his lovers, but is also either oblivious or uncaring about how the uncertainties of the relationship are affecting their psychological well-being. 

Sunday Bloody Sunday was released a time when the gay rights movement was moving into high gear in the post-Stonewall period. It illustrates why the 1970s is regarded by many as the most liberating decade in film history, with old line directors like Hawks, Welles and Hitchcock working at the same time young turks like Schlesinger were shaking things up in a way the old masters never had the opportunity to do, thanks to the restrictive motion picture code. Sunday is primarily remembered for an eyebrow-raising scene in which Hirsh and Bob engage in a romantic kiss. There's nothing sensational about the tasteful way in which this rather routine gesture between lovers is presented on screen. In fact, it was the sheer lack of sensationalism that drove home Schlesinger's primary message: that loving gestures between gay men can be every bit as routine as they are between husband and wife. The fact that the kiss was enacted by two straight actors did add considerable gravitas to the moment and must have caused more than one straight viewer to think "Well, if they don't care about enacting such a scene, why should I feel uncomfortable watching it?"  Schlesinger also dared to film tasteful but passionate bedroom scenes between Bob and Hirsh. Nevertheless, nothing much actually  happens in Sunday Bloody Sunday. The story was based in part on real-life experiences and people from Schlesinger's own life. The story merely traces the ups and downs in the love triangle as Bob causes panic in both Hirsh and Alex by announcing he is thinking of moving to America. Hirsh and Alex do have an unexpected face-to-face meeting during this crisis and their sheer civility and inability to engage in more than light banter only adds to the dramatic tension. 

The primary attribute of the film, aside from Schlesinger's spot-on direction, is the brilliance of the performances. Glenda Jackson was then emerging as a national treasure for the British film industry and the little-known Murray Head acquits himself very well indeed. However, it is Peter Finch's performance that dominates the movie as we watch his character go from loving acceptance of Bob's youthful self-absorbing actions to downright fury as his realization that Bob will never have the same passion for him. It's a superb performance on every level. Some viewers find the film's bizarre final sequence in which Hirsh addresses the viewer directly about his philosophy of life, but I found it to be a distraction and somewhat confusing. Nevertheless, this is a fine film, worthy of the praise it has generated over the years, and one that remains remarkably timely today.

The Criterion Blu-ray is right up to the company's top-notch standards. The transfer is beautiful and there are the usual informative extras including:

• New interviews with Murray Head (who says that, as a young actor, he found his character to be rather despicable), cinematographer Billy Williams (who supervised the Blu-ray transfer), production designer Luciana Arrighi, Schlesinger biographer William J. Mann and the director's long-time partner, photographer Michael Childers who shot many of the great production stills for the film.
• A 1975 audio interview with Schlesinger
• Screenwriter Penelope Gillatt's original introduction to the published screenplay (there is plenty of coverage throughout the Blu-ray concerning the tense working relationship between Gillatt and Schlesinger, who accused the writer of taking the lion's share of credit for a screenplay he had extensively rewritten.)
• The original theatrical trailer
• Extensive liner notes by writer Ian Buruma, Schlesinger's nephew who appeared as an extra in the film.

In all, an outstanding tribute to an outstanding work by one of the era's great filmmakers.  

Click here to order from Amazon. The film is also currently streaming on the Screenpix app, available for $2.99 a month through Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV.

By Lee Pfeiffer

A very positive aspect about streaming movies through Amazon Prime is that the service affords retro movie fans a seemingly limitless buffet of films that have never been released on DVD or Blu-ray. Thus, when I came upon a little-remembered 1972 TV movie, "She Waits", I was tempted to tune in. After all, any movie that offers a cast headed by Patty Duke, David McCallum, Dorothy McGuire, Lew Ayres and Beulah Bondi was certain to be worth checking out. I probably saw the movie back in the day but had no recollection of it. The 1970s was the Golden Age of TV movie and mini-series and every week viewers were enticed to check out big stars in original TV productions. The ratio of hits-to-misses was impressive. Some truly memorable productions were broadcast including young Steven Spielberg's classic road rage thriller "Duel". "She Waits" is no "Duel", but it is an interesting entry in the TV movie genre. You might think its premise of otherworldly possession of an innocent person was yet another entry inspired by "The Exorcist", but "She Waits" aired more than a year before "The Exorcist" was released- although a case could be made that it was inspired by the phenomenal success of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel. 

In addition to the impressive cast, "She Waits" also boasted an impressive director: Delbert Mann, whose feature films included such acclaimed gems as "Marty", "Separate Tables" and "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" as well as the Doris Day hits "Lover Come Back" and "That Touch of Mink". By the early 1970s, however, Mann's star had eroded somewhat and he crossed over to television productions where he found constant employment. The script for "She Waits" was written by Art Wallace, who knew a thing or two about supernatural scenarios, having written an abundance of episodes of "Dark Shadows". In short, there's a lot of talent involved with this rather run-of-the-mill production.

McCallum and Duke play Mark and Laura McGuire, a newlywed couple who met in Tokyo, where Mark holds a prestigious executive position for a big company. They have traveled back to the States so that Laura can meet Mark's mother Sarah (Dorothy McGuire), whose precarious health leaves her spending most of her time in bed, cared for by the long-serving nanny Mrs. Medina (Beulah Bondi, reunited with McGuire with whom she appeared in "A Summer Place".) The two women inhabit one of those big Victorian-era homes that generally ensure there are plenty of things that go "bump" in the night. From the moment of their arrival, Mark and Laura find Sarah in a rather disturbed state of mind. She privately encourages Mark to leave the house as soon as possible and stay at a hotel, but Mark will have not consider it. He wants to stay in the house he grew up in. The reason for this sentiment is puzzling because we learn the cause of Sarah's trepidation relates to horrendous memories she and Mark have of his time in the home. It seems that Mark had previously resided there with his first wife, Elaine, who was apparently a nasty, demanding and manipulative woman. After one particularly bad argument with Mark, he stormed out of the house and Elaine was found dead from a gunshot wound which was attributed to suicide. Sarah tries to convince Mark that Elaine's spirit still remains in the house and that she will likely exact revenge on him through endangering Laura. Despite Laura's efforts to win Sarah's affections, she finds the situation in the house to be unnerving, with Mark and his mother keeping her in the dark about how Laura died. (It seems a bit of a stretch that Laura wouldn't have asked Mark about his former spouse prior to marrying him.) Mark summons Sarah's long-time physician, Dr. Carpenter, who seemingly has no other patients, as he virtually moves into the house to care for Sarah through administering numerous sedatives. Before long, Sarah's predictions begin to ring true, as Laura begins to feel a presence in the house and hears ominous voices and other indications that Elaine is still a presence there. Ultimately, Sarah confides in Laura about a shocking secret concerning her death and Mark's involvement. But that's just the beginning of the nightmare scenario, as Elaine's spirit takes possession of Laura.

"She Waits" is hardly a distinguished entry in films of this type, but it is enjoyable on a certain level, primarily due to the cast, who rise above the cliches. The film was obviously done on a low budget, as there are very few exteriors. The production design of the house is impressive, however, and Morton Stevens provides a suitably eerie score, right down to including organ music.

The main problem with watching "She Waits" on Amazon opens up a subject for debate. The source for the streaming version seems to have been derived from a VHS tape, which is the only home video format it has ever been available on. Viewed on today's hi-tech widescreen TVs, the show is barely watchable. The image looks as though it were filmed with a dirty camera lens through a murky pane of glass. Amazon's barely existent standards for what passes as appropriate for its screening service leaves a dilemma for retro movie fans. Is it acceptable to present such an atrocious version of a film if its the only way those interested can see it? Film directors and industry professionals would probably oppose showing their work in such a manner but historians would argue that even a sub-par version can be valuable for research purposes. As is evidenced by this review, I'm in the latter camp, though I certainly sympathize with filmmakers who object to having their carefully-crafted work presented in such a manner. If you have Amazon Prime, watch "She Waits" and decide for yourself.

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Publisher: Little Shoppe of Horrors

345 pages

Full colour illustrations

Hardback £44.95

Paperback £39.99

ISBN: 9798416550684

Review by Adrian Smith

John Hamilton’s 2005 book Beasts in the Cellar: The Exploitation Film Career of Tony Tenser (FAB Press), is probably the book in my collection that I have referred to the most in the eighteen years since I bought it. It is an incredible piece of research and writing and one which has inspired me with my own writing projects. It was during his time spent with Tony Tenser writing that book that the idea for this one first emerged, and now almost twenty years later John Hamilton has given us a book solely dedicated to the films produced in the UK by one of Tony Tenser’s frequent partners, American International Pictures. AIP had achieved unheard of levels of success in the states with their teen-themed drive-in titles such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf (Gene Fowler Jr., 1957) and Invasion of the Saucer Men (Edward L. Cahn, also 1957) and naturally as they expanded, they looked to the UK for skilled craftsmen, excellent studio facilities and perfect locations for their often creepy, gothic-tinged films. With in-house directors such as Roger Corman delivering fantastic films on low budgets they could afford to take some risks, and they began by investing in British projects such as Horrors of the Black Museum (Arthur Crabtree, 1959) before taking a more vested interest in bigger projects such as the giant ape over London epic Konga (John Lemont, 1961).

After establishing relationships with UK producers like Tony Tenser they were able to produce an incredible run of films, many of which are still considered important today. These include The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964), Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968) and The Abominable Dr Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971), to name just three. And yes, they all also happen to star Vincent Price. For more than a decade Price was on the AIP payroll and he loved working in Europe and the UK for them as it gave him plenty of opportunities to scour the art galleries and antique shops, as well as being able to dine at all the finest restaurants and make occasional appearances on radio and television.

AIP’s contribution to British film production during the 1960s and 1970s was massive and it is terrific that John Hamilton has produced this equally massive piece of work to reveal just what they were up to. As is to be expected, the research is exemplary, and the book is packed with images from behind the scenes and publicity shoots, posters and other promotional material, and also, where available, images highlighting the different versions of the films, where occasional ‘hot’ scenes were shot for the continental or Japanese markets. The writing is thorough, leaving no stone unturned, and with its use of archival and new interviews, in many cases the tales are being told by the participants themselves.

With a foreword from the late Gordon Hessler, who made a few of his most memorable films for AIP, and an afterword by Phibes co-star Valli Kemp, Witches, Bitches and Banshees: The British Films of American International Pictures is an essential read for anyone interested in the cinema of the 1960s. The British horror film-focused magazine Little Shoppe of Horrors, now in operation for more than fifty years (and effectively still a one-man operation), is to be congratulated for finally branching out into book publishing, and we at Cinema Retro look forward to seeing what they bring us next.

To order the book in the US: https://www.littleshoppeofhorrors.com/Witches,%20Bitches%20and%20Banshees.htm

To order the book in the UK: https://www.hemlockbooks.co.uk/Shop/category/40

By Sandra de Bruin with Dean Brierly (BearManor Media), 218 pages, Hardback, Paperback & Kindle, ISBN 979-8-88771-028-0

By Steve Stiefel

Overview

Hollywood with a Smile is not your typical self-indulgent memoir. You will find no axe grinding, closet skeleton rattling, or “MeToo” posturing in these pages, just captivating accounts by Sandra de Bruin of her successful and fascinating life as an actress in the film capital of the world. During a career that spanned decades, de Bruin enjoyed professional and personal encounters with countless Hollywood icons. But rather than beating her own drum, she generously directs the focus onto these familiar faces of film and television.

These beguiling narratives enlighten and charm in equal measure: a hilarious fender-bender with Paul Newman; a working relationship/friendship with Charlton Heston; an affecting encounter with Elvis Presley; accolades from Ricardo Montalban, James Garner and Dolly Parton; recurring chance meetings with Cliff Robertson; adventures and misadventures on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson; a romantic relationship with legendary film director Robert Wise. Plus, intimate perspectives on de Bruin’s life and dreams, follies and foibles, friendships and loves.

A poetical prologue sets the book’s tone and tempo and clarifies its raison d’être. Additional context is provided through capsule biographies that introduce each chapter and personality, and which underscore an era in which stars really were stars. This one-of-a-kind book reveals a side of Hollywood rarely remarked upon—its good side. Furthermore, the insights that de Bruin offers into the vagaries of human character and behavior aren’t limited to her star-studded subjects, but have a universal resonance beyond the bounds of the fabled Dream Factory.

Q&A with Sandra de Bruin and Dean Brierly

Q: One of the most unique aspects of the book is reading about famous stars like Paul Newman and Charlton Heston outside of their familiar movie star personas.

A: This was a conscious decision—to present these iconic figures in a down-to-earth and real-world context in which they behave just like anyone else. We're all familiar with the classic stories that have been endlessly repeated and recycled. But in our book, you will encounter a different aspect, a different side, to people like Paul Newman, James Garner, Jason Robards.

Q: What was your reason for starting each celebrity chapter with their mini-biographies?

A: We did that partly with younger generations in mind who might not be familiar with some of the celebrities from Hollywood's Golden Era. And we tried whenever possible to draw parallels to contemporary entertainers: for example, comparing Harry Belafonte's talents and accomplishments to those of Usher. Not all of the subjects in the book received the same renown during their lifetimes, like actor Frederick Combs, designer Ret Turner, or C. Bernard Jackson, the African-American playwright and founder of the Inner City Cultural Center in Los Angeles, yet all three made huge creative and social contributions in their respective domains.

Q: In fact, not all of the people you write about were superstars.

A: We felt it was important to pay tribute to the working actresses and actors and the behind-the-scene folks who, in a real sense, are the backbone of Hollywood. Their stories can be just as important and inspiring as those of their famous contemporaries.

Q: Talk about the tone of the book, which is uplifting and positive rather than self-indulgent and snarky.

A: This was never intended as a "tell-all" book, which as a genre feels overdone. There are countless books devoted to dishing dirt on Hollywood stars, but we felt it important to take a different approach. Everyone who has read the book says they appreciate how positive and uplifting and funny it is in a nonjudgmental way.

Q: Sandra, to a remarkable degree, you don’t blow your own horn, and willingly reveal, as the book's subtitle reads, your own follies and foibles. The focus really seems to be on the subjects you write about rather than yourself. Why did you opt for this approach?

A: We didn’t want this book to be just another memoir about someone the general public has never really heard of. We wanted it to mainly be about the icons of Hollywood and my encounters with them, not the other way around. However, I also wanted to include some of my own follies and foibles so the reader would have a sense of who I am.

Q: Yet, these anecdotes do reveal a great deal about your character and perspective, not only with regard to the famous people you met, but towards your career as well. Were you conscious of this during the writing of the book?

A: Yes, I certainly was. Acting is definitely an art, but it is also a business. When not actually performing, I always conducted myself according to my instilled values and in a friendly business fashion. I never relied on my looks or my sexuality. Talent, intellect, and tenacity made me a professional working actress.

Q: How did these unique encounters influence your career and career decisions?

A: Meeting all these astonishing and highly successful people in a genre known for its harsh climate made me realize that I could succeed by being true to myself. The powers that be apparently respected that and my talent.

Q: What was the most enjoyable aspect of writing this book and the most challenging?

A: Writing this book brought back wonderful memories. It made me giggle at my naiveté and applaud my tenacity. The most challenging parts of it were the bios and pulling it all together, but those issues were solved by my writing partner, Dean Brierly. What a guy!

Q: Sandra, how did you come up with a limerick for the prologue? It’s heartfelt, inspiring, and delightful.

A: Thank you! Dean and I agreed that most prologues are a tad boring and wanted to come up with something different. After a glass of wine, or maybe two, I just sat down at the computer and rolled it out. It came so easily! It still astonishes me.

Q: What do you hope people will take away from your book?

A: That Hollywood is not just Tinseltown, but is also filled with lovely people, some of whom become well-deserved icons.

Testimonials

“Sandra de Bruin’s memories of a cherished era in entertainment history are sure to keep you captivated from one page to the next. The author’s unforgettable encounters with select celebrities are presented with such authority and clarity you feel as if you’re almost reliving the experiences with her.

—J.R. Jordan, film historian and author of Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures

“What a happy romp Sandra has written: a mélange of memorable vignettes about stars she met or admired as a longtime actress in Hollywood. It’s at once warm, revealing and hilarious. I loved it!”

—Nick Lyons, author of Fire in the Straw

“I always felt that actors who did not achieve superstardom have the more interesting stories, and Sandra de Bruin is no exception. She shares her life as a working actress, describing amusing encounters with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.”

—Tom Lisanti, author of Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy & Suspense

About the Authors

• Sandra de Bruin has appeared in over 200 television shows, several major films, many Los Angeles stage productions, numerous commercials, voiceover and looping...and, oh, yes, danced in a production at the Los Angeles Music Center. Her informative and witty articles have appeared in several magazines, and her scripts have been optioned, bought, sold and dropped by major studios and independent producers alike. She created the "Actor's Audition Log" and the "Performer's Workshop Log" to fulfill the organizational needs of her fellow performers from coast to coast and around the world.

• Dean Brierly is a film historian and writer who has contributed to numerous print and online magazines, including Cinema Retro, Filmfax, Outre?, and others. Among his many celebrity interviews are Gordon Parks, David Carradine, Michael Moriarty, Stella Stevens, Fred Williamson, and Joe Dante. Dean has contributed liner notes for Blu-ray and DVD releases, and publishes several film blogs, including Fifties Crime Films and Classic Hollywood Quotes.

Click here to order from Amazon. Available in hardback, softcover and Kindle versions.

Cinema Retro has received the following announcement from Kino Lorber:

“Marathon Man”

(1976, 125m)

4K UHD + Blu-ray

Street Date: 2/28/2023

Director: John Schlesinger

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Marc Lawrence, Jacques Marin, Richard Bright

Is it safe? From the best-selling novel by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, Misery) comes one of the most daring and affecting thrillers ever brought to the screen. Dustin Hoffman (Papillon) plays the likable graduate student and marathon runner of the title, unwillingly trapped in a killing game of intrigue involving a Nazi fugitive, Christian Szell. Laurence Olivier (Sleuth) received an Academy Award nomination for his chilling portrayal of Szell, who turns dental instruments into tools of torture with dispassionate ease. Directed by John Schlesinger (Billy Liar, Midnight Cowboy, The Day of the Locust), Marathon Man moves with nail-biting suspense to its gripping, fever-pitched conclusion. Featuring Roy Scheider (Jaws), William Devane (Rolling Thunder), Marthe Keller (Black Sunday) and the extraordinary cinematography of Conrad Hall (Electra Glide in Blue).

Bonus Features:

DISC 1 (4KUHD): Brand New HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative | NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson | 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Audio | Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc | Optional English Subtitles / DISC 2 (BLU-RAY): Brand New 2022 HD Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative | NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson | The Magic of Hollywood: Original Making of Marathon Man | Going the Distance: Remembering Marathon Man | Rehearsal Footage | Theatrical Trailer | 10 TV Spots | 2 Radio Spots | Dual-Layered BD50 Disc | Optional English Subtitles

Click here to order from Amazon

By Paul Scrabo

Anne Francis was director John Sturges’ only female actor in 1955’s “Bad Day at Black Rock”, and she repeated her solo act ten years later on “The Satan Bug”. But on that production, she and many cast members felt a preoccupation, a distance, from the man who held together “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Great Escape”. Francis was certain “He was thinking about “The Hallelujah Trail”. This was Sturges’ next production, his entry into the world of roadshow presentations; a mammoth production with a huge cast and even huger backdrop: Gallup, New Mexico.

Bill Gulick’s 1963 novel, originally titled “The Hallelujah Train”, seemed a perfect story to upend all western movie conventions, with the cavalry, the Indians, the unions, and the Temperance Movement fighting over the transportation of forty wagons of whiskey. Sturges was comfortable making westerns, but this was a comedy western. He appreciated the Mirisch Corporation’s vision of straight actors trying to make sense of the silliness, but still wanted to persuade James Garner, Lee Marvin and Art Carney for major roles. Sturges knew these actors could handle comedy.

Garner passed. “The premise was too outrageous, not enough truth to be funny”, he said. The rest of Sturges’ dream cast was not available, but what he got seemed attractive: a pair of solid supporting actors, Jim Hutton and Pamela Tiffin, and Lee Remick and Burt Lancaster for the leads. Lancaster had previously worked with Sturges on “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and was impressed how the film turned out. The rest of the supporting cast included Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith, and Martin Landau. They were in for a tough shoot.

The weather was unpredictable (you can spot thunderstorms heading their way in the finished film) and the location had three hundred crew members miles away from the hotels. Scenes contained countless stunts, and fifty tons of Fuller’s earth was blown by several giant fans to create The Battle at Whiskey Hills. Bruce Surtees, son of Sturges’ cinematographer Robert Surtees and focus-puller on the set, recalled “All this and we’re shooting in Ultra-Panavision 70mm, which made life even more difficult!” Despite the difficulties, the director was loving what he saw on set; the film looked as breathtaking as any wide screen western ever could, the stunts were amazing, and thank God he was also laughing all through it.

The hilarity was cut short near the end of the shooting. For the sprawling wagon chase finale, stunt persons Buff Brady and Bill Williams convinced associate producer Robert Relyea to let them delay their jump from inside a catapulted coach. Permission was given, and in the attempt, Williams got tangled somehow during his planned escape. He was killed instantly. Relyea nixed including the footage in the finished film, but was overruled by Mirisch. It’s an incredible shot and it plays in every promotional trailer, probably the most famous footage from the production. Was including it a bad decision or a tribute? There is still a debate over this among retro movie fans.

“We all thought it was going to be a hit picture”, said Sturges, “until we hit an audience.” “The Hallelujah Trail” opened with a 165-minute cut that audiences and critics found “belabored and overlong”. Sturges overheard some patrons wondering if this was a straight western or a deliberate comedy. Screenwriter John Gay blamed much of the response on the performances of Brian Keith and Donald Pleasence. Gay wanted his lines played straight but the actors played it for laughs. The film was soon cut to 156-minutes (the version on this Blu-ray) and the reactions were much more positive; critics noted several inspired sight gags, audiences enjoyed the cartoonish atmosphere of the DePatie-Freleng maps, Variety found the film “beautifully packaged”, and the LA Times proclaimed “The Hallelujah Trail” as “one of the very few funny westerns ever made, and possibly the funniest.”

When the film finished its roadshow run, United Artists cut the film once more, to 145-minutes. It didn’t help. Compared to “Cat Ballou” and even “F Troop”, “The Hallelujah Trail” was unhip.Sturges was done with comedy, but not with roadshow Cinerama, though his future films would have checkered histories. He was set to direct “Grand Prix” but clashed with the original star, Steve McQueen. A year later Gregory Peck turned down Sturges’ “Ice Station Zebra’, wary of its weak third act. Rock Hudson, now middle-aged and wanting a strong lead role, came aboard for this Sturges voyage instead. The MGM release still had a confusing third act, but the film sails nicely mostly due to Patrick McGoohan and some clever dialogue.

Decades later, “The Hallelujah Trail” remains a nice memory to those who attended the Cinerama presentation; not much greatness to retain but a great experience at the movies. But that experience was tough to relive because the film remained in legacy format limbo for years: a letterboxed standard definition transfer. So when Olive Films announced a Blu-ray release in 2019, fans of comedy epics sung Hallelujah! Now this film can be viewed in 1080P! Retreat! Unfortunately, the quality of the Olive release resembled an upscaled version of the original standard definition transfer. But two years later “The Hallelujah Trail” was casually spotted on Amazon Prime, and it was a new HD transfer. And a year after that, it’s a new Kino Lorber Blu-ray release.

Any Cinema-Retro reader worth their Cinerama Chops should have this Blu-ray in their collection. “The Hallelujah Trail” is an hour too long, but you get miles of lovely landscape. My favorite portrayal? Donald Pleasence as Oracle, who predicts the future in return for free drinks. And watch for his amazing jump off a roof! Certainly, the most impressive part of the film is the finale: the runaway wagon chase. There are sections where you swear it’s Remick, Keith and Landau handling those coaches but you know it has to be well made-up stunt people, at least for most of it. You’re also realizing that this sequence, and perhaps the entire film, is performed without any process work or rear projection.

There’s a legitimate debate on how the film may have been more successful if James Garner played the role of Colonel Gearhart, though only Lancaster could have pulled off that bathtub smile scene. There’s no disagreement on the music; Elmer Bernstein’s sprawling score contains so many themes that Sturges’ biographer Glenn Lovell qualifies the film as “almost a pre-“Paint Your Wagon” musical." And here’s your tiniest “Trail” trivia: decades ago, during the production of the laserdisc version, MGM/UA discovered that a few reels were mono sound instead of multi-channel, including the main title featuring the chorus. Yours truly was working on a project for the company at the time, and I happily lent them my stereo score LP. so the main title would be in stereo. That audio track mix remains on this new Blu-ray as well. (You’re welcome, America!)

Kino Lorber is kind enough to provide some expert guides to help you along the “Trail”: the perfect pairing of screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner and filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger. Joyner had already provided his Sturges bonafides with his documentary on the director for the recent Imprint Blu-ray of “Marooned”, and I can verify Schlesinger’s knowledge of film comedy, having been fortunate to join him, along with Mark Evanier, for the commentary track on Criterion’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. Joyner and Schlesinger tackle and acknowledge “The Hallelujah Trail”s social and political incorrectness, but also deflate any virtue signaling by examining how the film is smartly an equal opportunity offender: the Cavalry, the Indians, the Temperance Movement, all up for farce. Thanks to this team, and the picture quality of this Blu-ray, I finally spotted the gag of the Indians circling the wagons as the cavalry is whooping and hollering. Both gents are in a fine fun mood to tackle this type of film, and It’s one of my favorite film commentaries of 2022.

“The Hallelujah Trail” now looks clearer and sharper than any previous home video release, and somehow it makes the comedy and the performances sharper as well. I think you’ll be entertained by this roadshow epic, and with Joyner and Schlesinger as your commentary companions you may indeed learn, as the posters proclaimed, “How the West Was Fun!”

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The late David V. Picker is known to James Bond fans as the United Artists head of production who agreed to finance and distribute the James Bond series after Columbia Pictures turned down its option. But Picker, who was a longtime friend of Cinema Retro, can be credited with being prescient about many other aspects of the movie industry including recognizing the potential of Steve McQueen as a viable leading man in motion pictures, despite the fact that McQueen was primarily known as a "TV actor" at the time. In those days, that made it difficult for actors to fully assimilate into stars of the big screen. Picker approved McQueen as a lead in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape", both directed by John Sturges, who also deserves enormous credit for McQueen's career ascension. Here are clips from these films and the 1968 production of "The Thomas Crown Affair" in which McQueen was allowed to play against type as a rich sophisticate. The rights to the films are now held by MGM but they represent the glory days of United Artists.

From the Cinema Retro archives:

Two news items from the May 25, 1966 issue of Motion Picture Herald trade magazine.

The following news items were reported in the Independent Film Journal on September 3, 1968.

Don't miss Cinema Retro's "That Was the Week That Was" column, which revisits a specific week in movie history, in every issue!

By Lee Pfeiffer

Quite a few years ago, my Cinema Retro publishing partner Dave Worrall, a fellow enthusiast of 1960s spy flicks, warned me to avoid "Danger Route", a 1967 espionage concoction that he deemed to be "awful". Worrall had seen a TV broadcast of the film on British TV.  Complying with his advice wasn't a problem since the film has never been released on home video in America. However, I noticed it was streaming through the Screenpix app, which is available through Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV for a paltry $2.99 additional charge per month. I decided to ignore my esteemed colleague's advice and take the plunge largely because of the impressive cast in "Danger Route": Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, Harry Andrews, Sylvia Sims, Diana Dors, Sam Wanamaker, Gordon Jackson and the "go-to" girl for low-budget Sixties spy movies, Barbara Bouchet.  

The film was a rare non-horror production for Amicus, the company that was the main rival to the legendary Hammer Films. The movie was based on Andrew York's well-received novel "The Eliminator" and adapted for the screen by Meade Roberts, who had some estimable credits before and after this film. There were two types of spy movies during this period: those that spoofed or imitated the James Bond films and those that sought to provide a more realistic depiction of espionage work, seemingly inspired by the success of director Martin Ritt's brilliant screen version of "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold". "Danger Route" is squarely in the latter camp. Richard Johnson plays Jonas Wilde, a top assassin for British Intelligence, who dispenses his victims through a couple of well-placed karate chops. He is partnered with fellow agent Brian Stern (Gordon Jackson) and the two travel widely through Europe to carry out missions on the guise of being yachtsmen. When we first meet Jonas, he's exhausted from having carried out a recent mission on the continent. He comes back to his girlfriend Jocelyn (Carol Lynley in a small but pivotal role that bookends the story). She's a hipster who associates with the mod crowd, clearly to Jonas's dismay. He tells her that even though he is only 37 years-old, he wants to retire and get out of the spy game. They make plans to travel the world living off their wits and working odd jobs. However, reality comes calling when Jonas's boss Canning (Harry Andrews) browbeats him into accepting one more mission- and we all know what happens when the protagonist decides to take on one more mission. Canning informs Jonas that the Americans have a Soviet scientist in their possession who has defected. MI6 thinks he's a Soviet double agent but the Americans don't agree. Thus, they want Jonas to kill him before he is transported to the U.S. It's at this point that the main plot becomes almost incidental, as quirky characters of dubious allegiances interact with our hero, all to the detriment of of a coherent story.

Richard Johnson told this writer that he took himself out of the running to be the screen's first James Bond because he didn't see the potential in the series. Ironically, like every other working actor of the 1960s, he would find himself playing the role of Bond imitators in several low-budget espionage flicks. Johnson gives a very fine performance and makes Jonas an interesting and complex character: a man with a conscience working as a paid assassin. He's a also a vulnerable hero. Though quick on his feet to extract himself from jams without the aid of gadgets, he makes miscalculations in terms of who to trust, with important consequences. Jonas has another vulnerability: he's a borderline alcoholic who is always pouring from a bottle. He finds himself in bizarre situations and death traps, captured by enemy agents and even the C.I.A. There is an extended scene played for some comical effect in which Jonas uses a ditzy, sex-starved housekeeper as a pawn to gain entrance into a mansion house where the bad guys convene. The object of his deceit is winningly played by Diana Dors and she affords the film the few brief moments of humor seen onscreen. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when Canning disappears, Jonas teams for a while with his glamorous wife played by Sylvia Sims. 

The film is ably directed by Seth Holt, but he is guilty of bungling a couple of shots. In one scene, Jonas has his hands bound behind his back by heavy rope. He gains access to a small razor and - presto!- he is free in a matter of seconds, when, in fact, such a feat would take hours to accomplish even if it were possible. In a climactic scene aboard a yacht that is in the midst of a dangerous pea soup-like fog near some dangerous reefs, Jonas simply dives overboard with no explanation as to how he survived and made it back to some finely-tailored clothing. A bit more judicious editing would have helped in these scenes.

The plot of "Danger Route" becomes almost incomprehensible and the film, which was largely shot at Shepperton Studios, didn't ignite much interest and was a casualty of the spy movie tidal wave of the era. Thus, a planned sequel never materialized. However, with all due respect to Dave Worrall, I found the film to be enjoyable fun largely due to the inspired cast, especially since I can't resist any movie featuring Harry Andrews.

(Margolin with Charles Bronson in the 1974 film "Death Wish".)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor and director Stuart Margolin has died at age 82. No details or cause of death have been released as of this writing. Margolin's professional credits began in the early 1960s. He quickly became and in-demand character actor appearing in popular shows such as "The Fugitive", "Love, American Style", "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "Bewitched", "The Monkees", "Gunsmoke", "M*A*S*H", "Hill Street Blues", "The X-Files", "NCIS" and many others. He was also a prolific director of stage and screen productions. On the big screen, Margolin had supporting roles in "Kelly's Heroes", "Death Wish", "The Stone Killer", "The Gambler", "Days of Heaven", and "S.O.B." among others. He is best-remembered, however, for his collaborations with James Garner, especially relating to the hit TV series "The Rockford Files" in which he made recurring appearances, winning two Emmy awards in the process. He also co-starred with Garner in two short-running series, "Nichols" and "Bret Maverick".

On a personal note, this writer knew Stuart Margolin from our days as members of The Players, the historic club for the arts in New York City. When I would encounter Stuart there, he was always a fun guy to chat with, as his long career ensured he had volumes of interesting and amusing anecdotes. I recall him discussing Charles Bronson's personality quirks. He had made both "The Stone Killer" and "Death Wish" with Bronson. Shortly after shooting a key scene with him for the latter film, he ran into Bronson in an airport lounge and had to introduce himself to him because Bronson's insulated personality allowed him to shut out people and things that weren't relevant to the moment. Stuart was a gold mine of information when it came to assisting Cinema Retro in our special issue devoted to the making of "Kelly's Heroes". I recall him joking about the zany antics of the cast and crew when they were "stranded" for an extended period of time filming in a remote area of Yugoslavia. He said that all-night poker games occurred regularly and one was so intense that the players barely looked up to see the moon landing that was being televised live. At the time I knew him, his old friend James Garner was suffering from a debilitating medical condition that he would never recover from. Stuart spoke about how much Garner's friendship meant to his career and to him personally. He kept in touch with Garner until the end of his life. He was a kind and giving man who will be missed by anyone who knew him.

"RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES"

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Olive Films has released a Blu-ray edition of the little-remembered and rarely seen 1979 film "The Outsider", a powerful drama directed by Tony Luraschi , who seemingly had a bright career but who, instead seems to have fallen into obscurity.  This seems to be one of only two films he was ever credited with. The reasons for this remain unclear, given the fact that "The Outsider" is a powerful film that has retained its bite over the decades. One can only wonder why a work of such passion could not have inspired its director to continue to direct movies, although perhaps fate prevented him from doing so. (If any readers has any information to share about this, please let us know.)  The film is set in Northern Ireland during the height of "The Troubles", that seemingly endless period of time when nation was torn apart by state of virtual civil was. The IRA routinely battled British forces on the streets of major cities, turning urban centers into  war zones at times. There were also loyalist paramilitary groups that did not want independence for Northern Ireland and who wanted to stay loyal to the Crown. The end result was a series of bombings, gun battles and kidnappings that ultimately took thousands of lives and left the civilian population in grave danger. The Good Friday peace agreement, brokered by Prime Minister Tony Blair with enthusiastic backing of President Bill Clinton, finally brought about an end to most of the violence but this didn't take place until 1998 and until then, the bloody legacy of Irish fighting Irish forever seared the nation's history. 

In "The Outsider", Craig Wasson plays Michael Flaherty, a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran of Irish descent who grew up under the spell of his grandfather (Sterling Hayden), who continues to relate stories about his glory days serving in the IRA and carrying out dangerous missions against the British. Michael decides to make his grandfather proud by leaving the family home in Detroit to join up with the IRA. He manages to make the proper contacts and when he gets to Ireland, he is promptly met by members of an IRA group located in the Catholic dominated Republic of Ireland. Here his new comrades greet him politely but warily and with good reason: traitors are not uncommon in the movement and there is suspicion Michael might be a British plant. Finally convinced he is sincere, they move him from safe house to safe house, much to his frustration. Michael is eager to see action against the British but all he gets are delays. After griping that he feels he is wasting his time, the IRA commander sends him and another agent on a mission that requires them to cross the border into Northern Ireland,  the geographical area where most of the acts of violence are carried out in the quest to have both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland reunited as one country, independent of British rule. When Michael arrives in Belfast, he finds the city resembling a war zone with bombed-out buildings and an occupying force of machine gun-carrying British forces on seemingly every corner. While he awaits his orders for the mission, he meets and strikes up a romantic relationship with Siobahn (Patricia Quinn), a firebrand of a young woman who hates the British for killing her younger brother. Although she is not officially with the IRA, she is trusted by them and provides cover for their actions. As Michael impatiently awaits making himself useful, a cruel deception is under way. The local IRA commander has come to the conclusion that Michael could be more valuable dead than alive. He theorizes that if the IRA murders him and frames the British, the result will outrage Irish American sympathizers in the USA who would then increase their monetary donations to the group. Simultaneously, the local British commander (Geoffrey Palmer) has had Michael under surveillance and has also concluded that he could be quite valuable dead- especially if the blame could be placed on his IRA comrades. Meanwhile, Michael is oblivious to all this and is finally given orders to proceed on a mission- but it's one that is intended to be his last. The film ends with a shocking revelation relating to Michael's family that sets up an emotional last scene. 

"The Outsider" is a highly accomplished work and is superbly directed by the aforementioned Tony Luraschi. It's a pity that, for whatever reason, he never chose or perhaps had the opportunity to continue making films. The movie is also outstanding in terms of casting with even minor roles played so convincingly that at times you would be forgiven for thinking you were watching a documentary. The story does manage to deftly tip-toe through the tulips when it comes to passing judgment on the political implications of the events depicted. Both the British military and the IRA members are presented in an unflattering light. How you react to the film probably depends on your personal view of the politics involved. After all, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. If there is a criticism of the film, it's related to the script, which is unrelentingly downbeat. Surely even IRA members managed to have a laugh and a joke occasionally in a pub but in "The Outsider", everyone is downbeat, depressed and paranoid. Still, the Olive Films Blu-ray is most welcome and very highly recommended. There is only one disappointment: the presentation is bare bones.  With a film associated  with this much controversy, there should have been a commentary track with scholars who can discuss Ireland's infamous "Troubles" so that the script can be discussed in context. Highly Recommended.

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By Darren Allison

LAWA, the Austrian synthesist Alain Leonard and drummer Alex Wank, have combined again to deliver a dark and brooding nightmare vision with their latest nod to the electro European scores of the past with 'Manipulation' (Cine 27). With Manipulation, the emphasis is largely based upon sterile, heavy electronics and progressive pounding percussion, very reminiscent of the industrial soundscape which dominated so many of the best synth-based scores of the 80s. The album offers a tense and dramatic selection of tracks which are both heavy and dark, so you certainly won’t find any hillside harmonies here, 'The Sound of Music' it ain't!. In fact, LAWA’s approach paints a very dystopian picture, a ‘steampunk’ society of paradise truly lost. But one shouldn’t be disillusioned by the prospect of nightmare scenarios and visions of a nuclear holocaust, as LAWA’s approach is both varied and effectively executed.

A great deal of the tracks lean more towards a dark, synth-pop vibe - and (in most instances) laced with an impending threat of horror and doom. 'Manipulation' does however offer a listening experience constructed of many different flavours. Tracks like ‘injection’ are slower, pulsating tension-builders and could easily form the basis of any Italian Zombie movie, while tracks such as ‘Konstrukt’ make the apocalyptic sound practically joyous with its infectious throbbing backbeat. 'Manipulation' certainly transports you and has the refreshing ability to keep you guessing throughout.

'Manipulation' is a beautifully produced album with a deep, punchy audio range. LAWA’s LP has been pressed on an attractive mixed black and blue 180g vinyl with a black inner. The cover design is reflective of its industrial theme, and comes as a UV Spot varnished sleeve. This is a vinyl only release and is limited to just 500 copies (300 in the black / blue vinyl and 200 in solid black).

Whilst 'Manipulation' is available now, it does form part of a 2-record set. Its sister record release, 'Instrumentalisation' (Cine 28) will also be released separately on vinyl at the beginning of 2023. Furthermore, there will be a CD Version with both albums featured on one CD. This CD Edition comes with an alternative, combined artwork and will come with the vinyl edition of Instrumentalisation. This is the reason behind Cineploit’s decision not to release a dedicated CD edition of 'Manipulation'. The CD Version will have an alternative track order.

Cineploit are offering some special pre-order deals, so it’s worth checking them out at their site at www.cineploit.com

(Darren Allison is the Soundtracks Editor for Cinema Retro magazine.)

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Writer and director Quentin Tarantino delivered one of the most influential films of the 1990s with the critically acclaimed contemporary classic PULP FICTION.  Now, for the first time ever, fans can experience the groundbreaking and wildly entertaining tour de force on 4K Ultra HD™ Digital, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™, and in a Limited-Edition Collector’s SteelBook® December 6, 2022 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

A touchstone of postmodern film, PULP FICTION is a must-have for every film fan’s collection.  Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the film also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and the Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay.  The film features a star-studded cast, including John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken and Bruce Willis.

The PULP FICTION 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Limited-Edition Collector’s SteelBook include the feature film in sparkling 4K Ultra HD, access to a Digital copy of the film, as well as the following legacy bonus content:

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc

· Not the Usual Mindless Boring Getting to Know You Chit Chat

· Here are Some Facts on the Fiction                                                      

· Enhanced Trivia Track (subtitle file) 

Blu-ray Disc

·       Not the Usual Mindless Boring Getting to Know You Chit Chat

·       Here Are Some Facts on the Fiction

·       Pulp Fiction: The Facts – Documentary

·       Deleted Scenes

·       Behind the Scenes Montages

·       Production Design Featurette

·       Siskel & Ebert "At the Movies"- The Tarantino Generation

·       Independent Spirit Awards

·       Cannes Film Festival – Palme d'Or Acceptance Speech

·       Charlie Rose Show

·       Marketing Gallery

·       Still Galleries

·       Enhanced Trivia Track (text on feature)

· Soundtrack Chapters (index points in feature)

Synopsis

Critics and audiences worldwide hailed PULP FICTION as the star-studded movie that redefined cinema in the 20th century. Writer-director Quentin Tarantino delivers an unforgettable cast of characters— including a pair of low-rent hit men (John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson), a gangster's wife (Uma Thurman), and a desperate prizefighter (Bruce Willis)—in a wildly entertaining and exhilarating adventure of violence and redemption.

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

“A hilarious and morose invocation of a lost world. Anyone who has ever been movie-mad will relish this irrepressibly digressive, surprise-filled, exquisitely written memoir (sort of). I certainly did.” —Phillip Lopate Novelist

Todd McEwen grew up in a sleepy suburb just thirteen miles from Hollywood, and at a young age he became obsessed with the big screen. In this collection of essays—part memoir, part film criticism—McEwen spins lush, technicolor memories. He recalls early mornings watching Laurel and Hardy, matinées of Chinatown, and of course, his site of worship: his hometown movie theater.

Cary Grant’s Suit is at once a love letter to old Hollywood, a portrait of McEwen’s postwar, sunbelt neighborhood, and a sharp analysis of a particular moment in American cultural history. The suburban cul-de-sacs of McEwen’s childhood serve as the stage where the fears and obsessions of the era are acted out: the neighborhood kids play “war” in the pool and reenact The Wizard of Ozon the sidewalk. In this environment, McEwen develops a keen eye for the desires and domestic dynamics, the technological optimism and looming anxiety of the era. He uses this sensitivity to produce shrewd (and often hilarious) readings of the films of his youth.

 

This collection includes essays on: Casablanca (in which McEwen humorously catalogs the many drinks and cigarettes that appear throughout the film), Laurel and Hardy (and its resonances with the domestic and technological anxieties of the 1950s), The 39 Steps(and a trip to Scotland to retrace the hero’s path), Chinatown(as an object of obsession), White Christmas(as a “treatise on the textures of the Fifties”), not to mention the titular essay on North by Northwest (arguing that “[it] isn’t about what happens to Cary Grant, it’s about what happens to his suit”),and many, many more.

Todd McEwen was born in Southern California in the 1950s. As a child he was interested in comedy and the undersea realm and was terrified by Bambi. In high school he had his own radio show, interviewing folk singers and puzzle inventors. At college he read Victorian and medieval English literature. He worked in radio, theatre, and the rare books trade before arriving in Scotland in the 1980s. After a spell at Granta, he has often worked as an editor and teacher. His novels include Fisher’s Hornpipe, McX: A Romance of the Dour, Who Sleeps with Katz, and The Five Simple Machines.

CINEMA RETRO ISSUE #14 NOW SOLD OUT.

DVD REVIEW: "THE LAST RUN" (1971) STARRING GEORGE C. SCOTT; WARNER ARCHIVE RELEASE

"DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS" SPECIAL BLU-RAY EDITION COMING FROM FABULOUS FILMS

"THE GODFATHER": FILM HISTORIAN MICHAEL COATE LOOKS BACK ON ITS LEGACY OVER 50 YEARS

STREAMING REVIEW: "CANNON FOR CORDOBA" (1970) STARRING GEORGE PEPPARD (SCREENPIX)

RAYMOND BENSON INTERVIEWED IN CHICAGO TRIBUNE

STREAMING REVIEW: "THE MIND OF MR. SOAMES" (1970) STARRING TERENCE STAMP AND ROBERT VAUGHN (AMAZON PRIME)

CINEMA RETRO ISSUE #11 NOW SOLD OUT

STREAMING REVIEW: "THE LOOKING GLASS WAR" (1970) STARRING CHRISTOPHER JONES, RALPH RICHARDSON, ANTHONY HOPKINS AND SUSAN GEORGE (AMAZON PRIME)

CINEMA RETRO'S MARK MAWSTON'S PHOTO CHOSEN BY JOHN CARPENTER FOR COVER HIS LATEST CONCERT BLU-RAY

CINEMA RETRO ISSUE #54 NOW SHIPPING WORLDWIDE

REVIEW: "BOBBIE JO AND THE OUTLAW" (1976) STARRING MARJOE GORTNER, LYNDA CARTER AND JESSE VINT; KINO LORBER BLU-RAY

CINEMA RETRO COVERS DANIEL CRAIG AND STEPHEN COLBERT AT MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL

ROBERT VAUGHN ON LOCATION FOR "THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN"

CINEMA RETRO COVERS "THE WHALE" AT THE MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL

"BANDED TOGETHER: THE BOYS FROM GLEN ROCK HIGH" WORLD PREMIERE, MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL, NEW JERSEY, OCTOBER 29-30

SCREENPIX IS A RETRO MOVIE LOVER'S DELIGHT

"BY DESIGN: THE JOE CAROFF STORY" NOW ON HBO MAX

ELVIS PRESLEY IN "BLUE HAWAII" 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION FROM PARAMOUNT COMING NOVEMBER 15

REVIEW: "MAID IN SWEDEN" (1971) STARRING CHRISTINA LINDBERG; KINO LORBER/CODE RED BLU-RAY RELEASE

REMEMBERING ANGELA LANSBURY

REVIEW: "THE FRISCO KID" (1979) STARRING GENE WILDER AND HARRISON FORD; WARNER ARCHIVE BLU-RAY RELEASE

REVIEW: DAVID LYNCH'S "LOST HIGHWAY" (1997); CRITERION 4K UHD/ BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION

REVIEW: "STRANGE BEDFELLOWS" (1965) STARRING ROCK HUDSON AND GINA LOLLBRIGIDA; KINO LORBER BLU-RAY RELEASE