Cinema Retro

Here's a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the 1968 western "Guns for San Sebastian" which had Anthony Quinn squaring off against villain Charles Bronson in an underrated gem from the era. Click here to order Blu-ray from Amazon.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Thursday, March 5. 2026

By Fred Blosser

In “Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace,” a 1962 German production with an international cast, Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective (Christopher Lee) knows that his archenemy Professor Moriarty is up to no good in a mystery that involves the Thaysia, a freighter recently docked in London from North Africa. Anything that draws Moriarty’s attention is bound to be associated with the vast criminal network of “forgery, robbery, burglary, and murder” on which he has amassed his fortune. But what does the professor have to do with the Thaysia? That remains to be determined by Holmes, and even then, he’ll have to offer credible evidence of wrongdoing. “Knowing is not proving,” the detective observes to his associate Dr. Watson (Thorley Walters). To the police, Moriarty is a respectable academic whose pursuit by Holmes seems to verge on delusional obsession.

Sherlock soon learns that a priceless Egyptian artefact, a jewelled necklace once worn by Cleopatra, lies at the heart of the mystery. Three of Moriarty’s henchmen stole the relic during an archeological dig in Egypt, and one of the three, Peter Blackburn, made off with it and left the other two in the hands of the Egyptian police. Holed up in a country estate with his wife Ellen (Senta Berger) and her friend Paul King, Blackburn patrols the grounds with a rifle and keeps a close eye out for intruders. He doesn’t have to worry now about one of the other thieves he betrayed, Harrison, who was murdered on board the Thaysia by the third partner, Samuels. But Samuels is still at large and back in England, and it’s only a matter of time until Professor Moriarty exercises his claim for the necklace, using Samuels as his tool. Holmes hurries out to Blackburn’s estate in hopes of getting there first, but by the time he arrives, a dead man wearing Peter’s clothing is lying in the house, his face shattered beyond recognition. Ellen and Paul claim the dead man is Blackburn, the victim of a violent break-in. The police accept the identification and suspect the couple of foul play. No one else was present in the house, signs of a break-in are questionable, and the Blackburns’ marriage was known to be troubled. But the necklace is missing, and Holmes reads a different story from the clues.

Once the backstory of the stolen necklace is established about 25 minutes into the 85 minutes of the movie, and Sherlock uncovers the identity of the dead man in Blackburn’s clothing about 20 minutes after that (in a scene suggested by the plot of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Valley of Fear,” in an otherwise original screenplay by Curt Siodmak), “Sherlock Holmes and the Stolen Necklace” becomes less a murder mystery than a contest between Holmes and Moriarty for the stolen necklace. First one and then the other comes into possession, with Moriarty trying to secure his claim with a variety of deadly gadgets and booby traps that would give James Bond and Indiana Jones pause. He even offers Holmes a partnership and a share of the profits from the necklace. “We are wasting our forces warring against each other,” he amiably suggests. But Sherlock is undeterred: “I have only one ambition at present, to see you hang.” The exchange sets up a trap that Holmes evades with clever foresight, with a sort of resolution to follow after that as Holmes turns the recovered necklace over to the police. The authorities transport the recovered necklace to auction in a carefully guarded van, but Moriarty has an audacious strategy for snatching it back before the van and its escort reach the auction hall. He and Holmes both have more tricks to play in the final moments of Siodmak’s clever script.

Directed by Terence Fisher, “Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace” was not released theatrically in the U.S. In those days before social media and today’s plugged-in movie junkies with websites, few thriller fans in America were likely to have heard of it. In fact, the only ones in the know may have been we relative handful of teenagers who read “Castle of Frankenstein” magazine. A 1965 issue referred to the film, with a couple of accompanying publicity stills, in an article by Michel Parry that surveyed current movie activity in the U.K. and Europe. Even then, we could hardly predict that it would be a half-century on before we would have a chance to see the film in a sharp, subtitled version. It’s difficult to overestimate the benefits of today’s home video and streaming platforms in finally rescuing obscure titles like this from oblivion.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace” has an uneven reputation among Conan Doyle fans who have seen it. Some regret it was filmed in black-and-white instead of color, which might have given it a higher profile for U.S. distribution, but others prefer the black-and-white cinematography as a better fit with the atmosphere and the Edwardian setting of the production. One drawback all can agree on: in the English-language dubbing, Christopher Lee’s voice was replaced by somebody else’s; the voice double does an acceptable job, but the loss of Lee’s distinctive tones is unfortunate, especially in the scenes where Sherlock coolly exchanges verbal barbs with the politely sinister Moriarty, played by German actor Hans Söhnker. In a mostly German supporting cast, the gorgeous Senta Berger is the one most likely to be remembered from the Cinema Retro era, but Spaghetti Western fans will recognize Wolfgang Lukschy as Peter Blackburn; credited as “W. Lukschy,” he played John Baxter, the corrupt town boss double-crossed by Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, in “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964). Rotund actor Leon Askin, who has prominent screen time as Moriarty’s chauffeur and henchman Charles, is another of those “Hey, I’ve seen him before” faces; he had guest roles in every 1960s and ‘70s American TV show from “The Monkees”, “Hogan’s Heroes” and “My Favourite Martian” to “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

“Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace” streams on Amazon Prime Video in a lustrous high-def print apparently sourced from a 2024 Blu-ray edition from Severin Films. A different print posted on YouTube, courtesy of a site called All Time Classic Movies, offers a good, clear alternative for viewers who may not have access to Prime Video.

(Fred Blosser is the author of "Focus on the Spaghetti Western #1:The Films of Tony Kendall". Click here to order from Amazon.)

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Wednesday, March 4. 2026

Click here for this month's daily schedule of films being show on TCM.

Posted by Cinema Retro in TV NEWS on Tuesday, March 3. 2026

By Adrian Smith

I am a big fan of these ‘Tales of Adventure’ collections from Imprint. They are the modern equivalent of the ‘Midnite Movies’ series from MGM around 20 years ago, which presented double-bills of some of the best B movies in the vaults. Many of the films which were previously available through that series are now getting the Blu-ray upgrades they deserve, including the four films in this set.

One can view this collection in a few different ways: as a Doug McClure boxset, a Kevin Connor collection (he directed all four of these) or as an Edgar Rice Burroughs-themed set. Three of the films here are adapted from original Burroughs material and one was made up to fit the general theme and appear as a Burroughs story. Whichever focus you choose to put on the set, the films are a lot of fun and watching them close together will make you long for that time in the 1970s when cinema was simpler – when men were heroes, women needed rescuing, and dinosaurs were made of rubber and papier-mâché.

The Land That Time Forgot (1974), an Amicus production for American International Pictures shot at Shepperton Studios, was the first and is still possibly the best, or at least has the most compelling narrative of the four. Based on Burroughs’ 1918 novel, it is set during the First World War and sees a German U-boat sink a British ship and then take on the survivors, including an American (Doug McClure) submarine builder, a scientist (Susan Penhaligon) and various members of the crew. Through acts of espionage and mistrust between the two sides, they eventually agree to cooperate whilst in international waters, and suddenly find themselves stranded near a mysterious frozen continent where they are forced to land to restock supplies. They soon discover that this is in fact an uncharted subcontinent full of prehistoric creatures and cavemen at various points of evolution. They capture and befriend one of them who helps them find oil, allowing them to gradually refuel so that they can leave. Of course, nothing is quite so simple, and the intrigue between the British and the Germans causes regular fights, double-crossing and tension. Only the U-boat captain (John McEnery but dubbed by Anton Diffring) seems capable of maintaining his sense of honour but gradually loses control over the impatient crew.

This is an exciting, gripping adventure story which shows Doug McClure at his heroic best, and the supporting cast, including several familiar faces such as Keigh Barron and Anthony Ainley, are all excellent. The cinematography is impressive, the Douglas Gamley score is effective, and the special effects are, well, entertaining. This release includes a new interview with Kevin Conner (divided across all four discs), who’s recollections are interesting although at times it does appear that some of his memories of these films are receding into the mists of time. Another new feature is a commentary track from film critic and author Kim Newman and writer and editor Stephen Jones, just the right pairing for a film such as this. The disc also features an interview with Susan Penhaligon and an archival featurette on the making of the film. The picture and sound quality are excellent, and it really demonstrates the high-quality craftsmanship on display.

At the Earth’s Core (1976) sees an American financier (McClure) team up with an eccentric inventor (Peter Cushing, very much in Doctor Who mode), who has built a burrowing machine, The Mole, designed to travel through mountain ranges. On their maiden voyage things very quickly go awry and they find themselves heading deep into the earth, where they finally come to a stop having broken through to the cavernous interior world of Pellucidar. They soon discover humans who are being kept as slaves by the Sagoths, who are controlled telepathically by dinosaur-like bird creatures called the Mahars. One of these humans is naturally a beautiful princess (played by the incredibly luminous Caroline Munro), so of course a love triangle soon forms between her, the American and a jealous fellow-slave. The kingdom is powered by molten lava, and the slaves are forced to protect incubated dino eggs whilst an escape plan is hatched (sorry).

This is an exciting, fire-filled adventure film with some impressive special effects and sound design, much of which feels like it was a dry run for Star Wars (1977), which would also go into production at Elstree Studios. The cast are all fun, even if Cushing’s mad professor can at times be a bit shrill, and Caroline Munro can never get enough screen time; she lights the place up whenever she is on. This was another Amicus production for AIP with a higher budget thanks to the success of The Land That Time Forgot, and it shows. The film looks great on this Blu-ray and comes with more of that Kevin Connor interview along with an interview with Caroline Munro and a new fact-filled commentary from film historians Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons.

The People That Time Forgot (1977) is a direct sequel to The Land That Time Forgot and was another Amicus production for AIP, although they went out of business before its release, so it only says AIP in the credits. In this film a rescue party sets out to find what happened to Doug McClure’s Tyler, who sent out a message in a bottle at the end of that film. The expedition is led by Patrick Wayne as Ben McBride, a daredevil biplane pilot, who along with his mechanic Hogan (the always terrific Shane Rimmer), palaeontologist Norfolk (Hammer regular Thorley Walters) and newspaper photographer Lady Charlotte (Sarah Douglas, about to achieve global fame thanks to her role in the Superman (1978/ 1980) films) is determined to bring his friend home. A ship takes them to the edge of the impenetrable continent, and then the four of them fly over vast walls of ice until they find a rocky, tropical interior where they are instantly attacked by a pterodactyl. Hogan is tasked with repairing the plane whilst the rest head further inland to try and discover clues to Tyler’s whereabouts. They soon bump into a well-endowed tribeswoman (Dana Gillespie), who appears to have bought her outfit at the One Million Years B.C. (1966) department store. She speaks broken English and explains that she was taught by Tyler. Together they must avoid dinosaurs and snakes until they find a tribe called the Nargas who worship a volcano where they are taken prisoner and must try to escape.

The continuity between the two films is not perfect, but The People That Time Forgot, adapted from Burroughs’ 1918 novel, still makes for a great follow-up to the first film. Unlike the studio-bound previous two films in this set, it was mainly shot on location in the Canary Islands and therefore feels much more realistic (along with some interiors and effects shot at Pinewood). According to an interview with Sarah Douglas on this disc, it was hard going with very few creature comforts: Thorley Walters brought his own toilet roll with him for each occasion when he had to nip off behind a rock. With appearances towards the end from Milton Reid and David Prowse (who, let’s not forget, had just shot Star Wars), there’s a bit of a Hammer reunion here which adds to the fun, plus an early appearance from a young Kiran Shah in his first film role. He would go on to achieve global fame as the size double for Frodo the Hobbit in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003).

This Blu-ray looks great, again, and comes with yet another new commentary from Kim Newman and Stephen Jones (these guys are so busy), more of the Kevin Connor interview, the aforementioned Sarah Douglas interview plus one with Dana Gillespie, both recorded in 2016.

Continue reading "REVIEW: "TALES OF ADVENTURE COLLECTION #9"; IMPRINT BLU-RAY RELEASE"

Posted by Cinema Retro in Adrian Smith on Monday, March 2. 2026

Let's take a trip in the Cinema Retro time machine to August of 1970. Here were the big films that were playing in London at the time. Among the titles playing: "Paint Your Wagon", "The Lion in Winter" (in its 78th week!), "Airport", "Battle of Britain", "Patton" (under the UK title "Patton: Lust for Glory"), "M*A*S*H", the star-studded remake of "Julius Caesar", "Woodstock", "Hello Dolly" and John Wayne as "Chisum". Best of all, you could go on a date to a first rate theater in those days without applying for a second mortgage. (Data from Kine Weekly film trade magazine).

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Sunday, March 1. 2026

Cinema Retro's Author's Corner column invites authors of books about the arts to enlighten readers with the background story behind their latest work. In this column, author Brian Hannan discusses his new book "King of the Action Thriller: Films from the Mind of Alistair Maclean", which provides the most comprehensive look at the films that were based on MacLean's bestselling novels.

By Brian Hannan

He was the world’s best-selling author. He was the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood. He didn’t learn to speak English until he was six.“I’m a businessman, not a writer,” claimed the self-effacing Alistair MacLean. While his narrative skills acquired readers in the millions, his understanding of the publishing and entertainment business made him the most business-savvy author since Charles Dickens invented the cliffhanging chapter ending and the author tour. MacLean had an instinctive understanding of synergy.In Hollywood, “property” was king. This was real estate of a different commercial kind, an item on which many fates depended, and which could be used to raise the millions of dollars required to make a movie. And, virtually alone among authors of his generation, and certainly unique among screenwriters, his name acquired marquee status, carrying above-the-credit status, often billed above actors involved, ensuring that movies could be marketed as Alistair MacLean pictures, promising to deliver as certain an experience akin as those who embraced a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Alistair MacLean was unique among the authors who rose to bestselling prominence in the 1950s and 1960s in that his books were translated onto the screen at a startling rate, eighteen in total making the transition. Many became the biggest blockbusters of the day – The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Where Eagles Dare (1968) for example – while others like Puppet on a Chain (1970) and Fear Is the Key (1972) not only attracted a cult following but reinvented the chase picture. His books spanned World War Two and the Cold War, espionage often a consideration, but his gift for authenticity ensured he was as at home in the Wild West or a racetrack.

A number of elements made him stand out from the other big-time bestsellers of the day. For a start, he didn’t rely like Harold Robbins (The Carpetbaggers) on sex, nor a retelling of history in the vein of James Michener (Hawaii), nor reliant in exploring institutions in the manner of Arthur Hailey (Hotel). He wasn’t interested in contemporary issues. He didn’t have a series character like James Bond, which allowed his thrillers to be cherry-picked by a far wider range of producers and Hollywood studios. Although his main characters were loners, often with a disfigurement or major flaw, they were sufficiently different to be interpreted by a very diverse number of actors.

You could argue that he re-purposed the thriller and invented the mission war novel. By the late 1950s the former was polarised between the critically-acclaimed novels of Graham Greene and Eric Ambler and the sexed-up pulp of Mickey Spillane. In the latter, MacLean narratives were defined by serious purpose, dedicated professionals rather than amateurs stumbling onto a conspiracy. The aftermath of the Second World War saw the advent of many mission pictures, but, mostly based on real events, were documentary or gung-ho in style. The Guns of Navarone ushered in a new type of mission book/film, short on exposition and training and overloaded with tension.

Authors rarely become brand names. They may produce bestsellers, become well-known to readers and within the book trade, perhaps appreciated by critics, and yet their fame rarely extends beyond the publication arena. Dickensian, Chandleresque, Shakespearian, Tolkienesque, as well as being shorthand for describing a type of character or a fictional world are, in fact, the biggest accolade that can be bestowed upon an author, that their work has transcended the specific arena of publishing and entered the vocabulary. You can be a multi-million-selling author and still the impact of your work will be limited – nobody has created adjectives around the door-stopping sagas of Leon Uris and James Michener or the thrillers of Lee Child. The contemporary ancillary opportunities available to the likes of Stephen King and J.K. Rowling have ensured they have become brands, their names above the titles of movies made from their novels promising a certain kind of experience and, in broader terms, creating a marketing goldmine.

For over two decades Alistair MacLean was a brand name. The only author whose sales came close was Agatha Christie and yet her mysteries, stewing away in an impossibly English landscape, lacked the full international penetration of the harder-edged thrillers of MacLean. Her two most famous characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, barely made a dent in her lifetime on the big screen. But the pull of MacLean was such that his name was not just above the title of the movies but emblazoned across the posters, as if that was all the marquee an audience required.As Elliott Kastner, producer of Where Eagles Dare, put it, “Alistair MacLean is the first bestselling author equally talented as novelist and screenwriter.This puts him astride the entertainment industry like a golden colossus.” Peter Snell, producer of Bear Island (1979), concurred, “He’s simply an author everyone knows. The films have a guaranteed audience and that’s hard to beat, knowing you have an audience before you begin.”Bestsellers had underpinned Hollywood from the outset, studios believing they were a safer bet because resulting films were pre-sold. But as directors became more demanding, their name often superseded that of the author of the source material to the extent that audiences often believe a movie has emerged from the imagination of a director rather than originating elsewhere (Poor Things, 2023, a case in point).Thus, it is regarded as Martin Ritt’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and Francis Ford’s Coppola’s The Godfather (1972).But after the first few adaptations of MacLean thrillers, it was never Brian G. Hutton’s Where Eagles Dare or Geoffrey Reeves’s Puppet on a Chain or Don Sharp’s Bear Island. These movies were identified with their author. From the outset his films attracted variable budgets – very big for The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra (1968), the last two designated 70mm roadshows – but considerably smaller for The Secret Ways (1961) and The Satan Bug (1965).

(Author Brian Hannan)

In later films, it was apparent that the author’s name was as big a draw as any of the stars, and that you could make a film based on one of his books without going to the expense of recruiting a major marquee name – George Maharis, Sven Bertil-Taube, Anthony Hopkins and David Birney were virtual unknowns when cast, respectively, in the leading roles in The Satan Bug, Puppet on a Chain, When Eight Bells Toll and Caravan to Vaccares (1974).

Audiences knew what they were going to get and if a director added more exciting action sequences as with, for example, the speedboat chase through the canals of Amsterdam in Puppet on a Chain or car chase in Fear Is the Key, that was a bonus. English was a foreign language for MacLean. Though born in Glasgow’s East End, in 1922, the son of a Church of Scotland minister, he was brought up in a small town in the Highlands of Scotland and spoke Gaelic until, aged five, he attended school. Drafted into the Royal Navy at 19 on what proved a five-year stint, seeing action in the North Sea, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and the Far East, these experiences providing authentic material for several books.

Post-war, as a schoolteacher in Glasgow, MacLean tried his hand at short stories to generate extra income, and after winning a competition in a national newspaper was encourage to write H.M.S. Ulysses, the tale of a doomed wartime convoy. A massive bestseller shifting an unprecedented 250,000 copies in hardback, with the film rights selling for £30,000, the combined income allowed him to become a full-time writer, his prospects cemented by the publication in 1957 of The Guns of Navarone. That book sold 450,000 copies in six months and the film rights were purchased by Carl Foreman, who planned a multi-million-dollar star-laden picture for Columbia.However, the first movie to roll off what would become the MacLean bandwagon was a lesser-known smaller-budgeted affair, The Secret Ways (1961). Thereafter, films based on his works appeared at regular intervals. For an author MacLean was unusually involved in the film-making process. Most writers, perhaps attracted by Hollywood mystique and the hefty sums paid out for film rights, generally entertain some interest, at least initially, in participating in the movie machine, but, equally usually, become quickly disaffected by the ruthlessness of a business where the screenwriter is on the lowest rung of the ladder.

William Goldman is usually held up as the best example of someone who straddled both fields with equal success, but of his original works only Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) was a big movie hit, and his fame largely rested on adaptations – Harper (1966), All the President’s Men (1975) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). You could as easily argue that he learned from MacLean to write books that were cinematic and enjoy the financial triple whammy of book sales, selling the film rights and writing the screenplay. American agent-turned-producer Elliott Kastner (Harper, 1966), who had set up an office in London, invited the novelist to write an original screenplay. It’s fair to say that MacLean, in creating Where Eagles Dare, plundered his previous mission opus The Guns of Navarone, but jacked up the suspense and action. Kastner then signed up for another two original screenplays as well as novels. While The Guns of Navarone set MacLean on his way as a hot Hollywood property, it was the experience of Where Eagles Dare that created the legend of an author who commanded such a global following that audiences were guaranteed to turn up for movies based on his thrillers. Over the space of 18 years, from The Secret Ways in 1961 to Bear Island in 1979, a colossal 13 of his books were turned into movies, an extraordinary strike rate.

These 13 movies plus another five made for big- and small-screen are covered in this book. Each chapter focuses on one film, detailing its production, casting, and filming and then analysing both the film and the changes made to the book. The final chapter is a big surprise, which I won’t reveal here, and there’s a chapter devoted to what happened to the other books bought by studios or producers but never made – such as the involvement of Lord Puttnam in an aborted effort to make HMS Ulysses – and there’s a section on box office.

King of the Action Thriller: Films from the Mind of Alistair MacLean (McFarland Publishing) by Brian Hannan and, as ever, with copious and often rare illustrations, is available from all good bookshops and online via Amazon and other such traders as well as on Kindle.

Click here to order from Amazon USA

Click here to order from Amazon UK

Posted by Cinema Retro in Book News/Reviews on Saturday, February 28. 2026

(Photo: Cinema Retro Archives)

Rare shot of Ernest Borgnine on the Mexican set of Sam Peckinpah's 1969 classic "The Wild Bunch". Borgnine is nursing a foot injury that occurred prior to production and posed some obstacles for him in filming the action scenes.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Vintage Movie Ads & Photos on Friday, February 27. 2026

By Ernie Magnotta

“Five against a thousand...the odds are even.”

Although they have both worked in other genres, director Robert Clouse and producer Fred Weintraub will be forever remembered for giving us a series of thrilling martial arts/action films such as the immortal Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973), 1974’s Black Belt Jones starring karate champion Jim Kelly, the always amazing Jackie Chan’s The Big Brawl aka Battle Creek Brawl (1980), 1985’s Gymkata, and 1990’s China O’Brien I and II which both star the queen of martial arts, Cynthia Rothrock. However, in 1981 the dynamic duo teamed up yet again for another action-packed, martial arts extravaganza titled Force: Five.

In order stop the dangerous cult of super-rich and powerful religious leader Reverend Rhee (Master Bong Soo Han), government agent Jim Martin (Joe Lewis) assembles a kick-ass team of martial arts experts who attempt to bring the evil, Jonestown-like organization to its knees.

Directed by Robert Clouse (who also co-wrote the film with Emil Farkas and George Goldsmith) and produced by Fred Weintraub, Force: Five was released in June of 1981 by American Cinema Releasing. The film is a semi-remake of the 1976 Black Belt Jones sequel Hot Potato which was also produced by Weintraub.

Force: Five is a very enjoyable martial arts/action picture. Not surprisingly, director Clouse expertly handles the movie’s many exciting action sequences, but we must talk a bit about the sensational cast. First, we have our Force: Five (six, actually). As group leader Jim Martin, World Heavyweight Full Contact Karate Champion Joe Lewis is totally convincing in both martial arts and acting. Fun fact: the charismatic Lewis was handpicked by Bruce Lee to play Colt in Lee’s fantastic directorial debut Way of the Dragon (1972), but had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts. The role eventually went to the legendary Chuck Norris.

The rest of the team consists of World Full Contact Welterweight Champion Benny “The Jet” Urquidez; 10^th-degree Black Belt (in Zen Do Kai Karate) Richard Norton (who appears in several of Clouse and Weintraub’s films); massive actor and Kenpo Karate expert Sonny Barnes; lovely actress Pam Huntington, and talented voice actor Ron Hayden.

Known as the Father of Hapkido, Master Bong Soo Han shines as evil villain Reverend Rhee. There are also terrific performances from Amanda Wyss, Peter MacLean, Bob Schott, Tom Villard, and a brief appearance by Mel Novak.

The acting from our super athletes may not be perfect, but it’s more than passable and it definitely gives the movie some of its charm.

This film will never be considered one of the greatest martial arts/action movies ever made, but it sure is a lot of fun and the cast seems to be having a great time. If, like me, you’re a fan of this stuff, you will, without a doubt, enjoy Force: Five. It has action, adventure, humor and, of course, expertly choreographed fight sequences performed by crazy talented world champions.

Force: Five has been released on a Region One Blu-ray and is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The movie, although a tad soft, looks better than previous releases while the LPCM 2.0 mono/stereo audio is pretty good, but not great. The special features include a wonderful 50 minute interview with Joe Lewis as well as two other interviews with Benny Urquidez. (I believe these features, including the theatrical trailer, are all ported over from the 2016 release by Scorpion.) We are also treated to some cool reversible artwork, a collectible poster, and a limited edition slipcover made up to look like an old VHS rental box. Worth the upgrade.

Click here to order from Amazon

Posted by Cinema Retro in Ernie Magnotta on Friday, February 27. 2026

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

To mark the 60^th Anniversary of The Good, The Bad and They Ugly (1966) South West Silents (https://www.southwestsilents.com/) is planning a special weekend celebration of the work of Sergio Leone (1929-1989). This Sergio Leone Weekend (https://hdfst.uk/e145608) will take place at the Bristol Megascreen (originally the Bristol IMAX) on Saturday 18^th and Sunday 19^th April 2026.

The weekend is made up of:

SATURDAY 18TH APRIL:

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964): 12:00PM

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965): 3:00PM

SUNDAY 19TH APRIL:

MY NAME IS NOBODY (1973): 12:00PM

VOGLIO A TTE! (1922): 3:00PM

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966): 4:45PM

There are planned intros by filmmaker Alex Cox (recording his intros from Mexico) and in person intros by Leone biographer and historian Sir Christopher Frayling throughout the weekend as well.

“Producing an event around Spaghetti Westerns made in the 1960/70s might seem a bit off subject for an organisation dedicated to the silent era. But when you start patting the dust off one’s poncho you begin to realise the distinctive silent film elements of Leone’s work.” Co-director of SWS James Harrison says.

“From the outset, there is the use of dialogue; or the little use of it to be honest. Sergio Leone’s screenplays/scripts are renowned for keeping the dialogue to a minimum and you can clearly see this in the Dollars Trilogy; A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and, most importantly, in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) are very much lean when it comes to dialogue.”

Happy to say that all three Dollars films as well as My Name is Nobody (1973) will come from the 4K restorations from Cineteca di Bologna.

Then there is the ‘silent film heritage’ of the director himself. Leone’s mother Edvige Maria Valcarenghi (1886-1969) was a silent film star who gave up her film career by the time Leone was born in 1929. Leone’s father on the other hand, Vincenzo Leone (1879 -1959) continued his career as an actor, writer, producer and director until the early 1950s.

But it was between the 1910s and the late 1920s that Vincenzo’s output (who credited himself as Roberto Roberti) is the most profound. Roberti was making a healthy amount of silent films in the Neapolitan film industry alongside other celebrated Italian and Naples based filmmakers such as Giuseppe de Liguoro (1869–1944) and lvira Notari (1875–1946). We will be marking the work of Vincenzo Leone with a screening of Voglio a Tte! (1922) which we have been able to get from our friends at Cineteca Milano.

And of course, silent films were never really silent, and neither were the films of Sergio Leone thanks to the incredible talent of Ennio Morricone (1928-2020).

So expect the films to be big and loud at Bristol’s Megascreen between Saturday 18^th and Sunday 19^th April 2026.

Passes are available here: https://hdfst.uk/e145608

Posted by Cinema Retro in Events on Thursday, February 26. 2026

Alfred Hitchcock was such an iconic personality that he sometimes made himself the foremost presence in trailers for his new films. Such was the case with this very witty trailer for his 1963 blockbuster "The Birds" in which he dominates virtually every frame of the trailer with the only footage from the actual film being seen in the last few seconds.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Wednesday, February 25. 2026

Turner Classic Movies presents a superb podcast series about the trials and tribulations suffered by director Joseph Mankiewicz in bringing 20th Century-Fox's 1963 epic "Cleopatra" to the big screen. As you may be aware, the seemingly endless production underwent cast changes, production disasters and countless other challenges. TCM host Ben Mankiewicz hosts this six-part series and he's just the person to do it. As the nephew of Joe Mankiewicz, he provides the inside story based on first hand knowledge and rare audio comments from his uncle. We're presenting the first episode here. To continue listening to the other episodes (and other TCM podcast editions), click here. But be warned: they are all highly addictive.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Tuesday, February 24. 2026

It was 1966 and Batmania was in full swing. Since most viewers were watching the show on B&W televisions, 20th Century-Fox decided to bring Adam West and Burt Ward to the big screen in a color feature film appropriately titled "Batman". The studio took the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach and hired the most popular villains from the series to appear in the feature film. Here is the original trailer.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Monday, February 23. 2026

By Lee Pfeiffer

I initially saw "Cops and Robbers" on its theatrical release in 1973. Strangely, I retained no memories of the film whatsoever except a few bars of the catchy title theme song by Michel Legrand. I say "strangely" because, upon watching recently, I found the movie to be terrifically entertaining. Perhaps it's because terrifically entertaining films were a dime a dozen back in the 1970s that this particular movie didn't resonate with me at the time. Nevertheless, watching it today, it has a great many pleasures, not the least of which is two leading actors who were not familiar faces at the time, thus allowing the viewer to not have any preconceptions about their mannerisms or previous roles. The film was shot in New York City during a long period of urban decay. Poverty and crime were rising and the infrastructure was crumbling as the city came perilously close to declaring bankruptcy. It's a far cry from today's New York but at the time one benefit of all this chaos was that it inspired filmmakers to take advantage of the somber landscape and use it as fodder for some memorable films. Michael Winner's "Death Wish" and Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" administered the cinematic coup de grace, painting a picture of Gotham as a foreboding urban jungle. This was always overstated, of course, as there was never a period in which New York was in danger of losing its reputation as the most exciting city on earth. However, the grime and grit certainly did much to tarnish its reputation for a good number of years.

Among the films that represented this era was the little-remembered "Cops and Robbers", which is an offbeat entry in the genre of "dirty cop" movies that became popular during the 1970s. The twist is that, unlike the exploits of larger-than-life cops such as Dirty Harry or Popeye Doyle, this film centers on the day-to-day frustrations of two every day patrolmen - Tom (Cliff Gorman) and Joe (Joseph Bologna)- trying to cope with the frustrations of risking their lives for a salary of $43 a day. We watch as they car pool from their cramped suburban housing units to Manhattan, a daily trek of seemingly endless traffic jams that they must endure in the sweltering heat. (Yes, kiddies, most of us working class clods didn't have air conditioning in our cars in the 1970s.) Their familiar grind includes wrestling with mentally unstable people, watching fellow officers getting shot and having an ungrateful populace take them for granted. With wives and kids to provide for, they are at the end of their ropes. One day, Joe casually confesses to Tom that he recently walked into a liquor store in full uniform and held the place up at gunpoint. He only got a couple of hundred dollars, but was amazed at how easy it was to get away with- largely because everyone assumed the culprit was someone disguised as a New York City police officer. After all, although corruption was widespread even in this post-Serpico period, it was mostly carried out discreetly through payoffs and freebies. New York City cops did not commit overt robberies while on the job. Tom is initially appalled, but is also mesmerized by the prospect of using their positions of trust to carry out an even grander robbery: one that would put them on Easy Street for the rest of their lives. Using a disguise, Tom visits the domain of a local mob kingpin and discloses he and his partner are genuine members of the NYPD- and they want his help to work out a scam that will net both cops $1 million each. They are told to rob untraceable securities in the amount of $10 million, for which they will be paid a $2 million "commission". Tom and Joe create a daring plan to gain access to a major finance company on Wall Street on the very day that the Apollo 11 astronauts are receiving a ticker tape parade. Knowing the employees will be distracted, they enter the premises on the pretense of checking out a minor matter. They bluff their way into the inner sanctum of the company president and hold him hostage while his secretary escorts Joe to a vault and gets the appropriate securities. As is the case in most good caper movies, things initially go well but unexpected snafus arise that threaten the cops' getaway. To say more would be to spoil the fun but suffice it to say that the climax of the movie finds them trying to collect the $2 million from the mob in the middle of Central Park- where both sides try to double-cross each other. The result is a wild car chase seems to doom not only the cops' getaway but the cops themselves.

Director Aram Avakian, working with producer Elliott Kastner, makes the most of the New York locations, eschewing studio sets for real places. This adds immeasurably to the realistic feel of the production. Both Joe Bologna and Cliff Gorman were exceptionally well cast and are completely convincing as urban cops. Bologna was starting to ride high on the heels of he and his wife Renee Taylor's success with "Lovers and Other Strangers" and "Made for Each Other". Gorman was primarily known for his acclaimed stage performance as Lenny Bruce but also won kudos for his role in William Friedkin's 1969 film production of "The Boys in the Band". He's so good in this film, you wonder why major stardom eluded him. There is also an abundance of good character actors including Dolph Sweet, Joe Spinell and Shepperd Strudwick. The witty screenplay is the work of Donald E. Westlake, a noted crime novelist who would later turn his script for the film into a successful book. Westlake only makes one creative misstep. It is essential in most crime movies that feature charismatic cads as anti-heroes that their victims are established as villains who don't deserve the sympathy of the viewer. From the classic caper flick "The Sting" to the long-running British TV series "Hustle", the targets of the con men must always be deemed to be unsympathetic. In Westlake's screenplay, the victims of the errant cops are every day, working people. Joe's stickup of the liquor store (seen over the opening credits) terrorizes innocent people. Their protracted plan to rip off the Wall Street firm similarly puts non-criminals in harm's way (although Westlake throws in a twist that is designed to water down the victim's plight). Watching the film through a modern viewpoint, when police corruption is no longer considered to be an acceptable part of every day life, the movie's disturbing celebration of officers who are violating their sacred duty to protect the public seems more distasteful today than it did at the time of the film's release. Even viewed within the context of the era, we can certainly sympathize with the cops' frustrations, but their turning to crime makes a mockery of most police officers who resist taking that path. Nevertheless, if you can overlook the sociological factors and accept the film as pure entertainment, it works wonderfully well.

The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and MGM+.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Sunday, February 22. 2026

Two years after Clint Eastwood's blockbuster hit "Dirty Harry", he returned in the role for 1973's "Magnum Force", directed by his old friend from his "Rawhide" days, Ted Post. Predictably, it became one of the most popular films of the year. This clip shows why.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Saturday, February 21. 2026

They were Hollywood's seemingly least compatible power couple. Charles Bronson was noted for avoiding interviews and publicity while Jill Ireland relished the opportunities to promote her films. The couple had a rather convoluted start to their relationship. Ireland was married to David McCallum when the up-and-coming British/Scottish couple moved to Hollywood to further their ambitions. It worked. McCallum would become a major star within a few years and his career helped give his wife exposure as well. However, behind the scenes the marriage was becoming strained. McCallum and Ireland had formed a close friendship with Charles Bronson when they filmed "The Great Escape" together. When the McCallums moved to Hollywood, Bronson did a lot of socializing with them. But behind the scenes, Bronson and Jill began a tempestuous affair that led to her divorce from McCallum, who went on to marry model Katherine Carpenter. Bronson and Jill married as well and began a long time collaboration of appearing in films together. Initially, Jill had minor roles but as Bronson's star power increased he used his influence to get his wife co-starring roles. In all, they would appear in over a dozen films together before her untimely death from cancer in 1990.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Vintage Movie Ads & Photos on Friday, February 20. 2026

By Lee Pfeiffer

A while back, I joined my colleagues Paul Scrabo and Tony Latino in providing an Imprint Blu-ray commentary track for Charles Chaplin's final film, "A Countess from Hong Kong" (1967) starring two of the biggest stars of the era, Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. I had only seen it once before and thought it deserved its reputation as one of the most disappointing films in history. Expectations were high for the film, with Chaplin in the director's chair but despite a tidal wave of international publicity, the movie was savaged by critics and audiences stayed away despite the onscreen star power. In recording the commentary track, I seem to recall voicing the opinion that while the film was certainly a deserved flop, I found some nuggets of salvation amidst the celluloid rubble. In this episode of Joe Dante's "Trailers from Hell", screenwriter Larry Karaszewski adeptly summarizes much that went wrong in a little over two minutes. It's been said that Chaplin was the only one who deemed the movie to be an artistic success but filming it was a challenge for all. Brando and Loren were at odds during production, which must have been a challenge for them, as they had to enact a whimsical romance. Brando would later tell Playboy that he felt Chaplin was one of the cruelest people he had ever worked with and dared to give him a dressing down about the way the legendary filmmaker would berate his son, Sydney Chaplin (who has a supporting role) in front of the cast and crew. If you've never seen it, do so, if only to see if the film lives up to (or down to) popular opinion.

Check out Trailers from Hell for many more critiques of retro movies.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Thursday, February 19. 2026

There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to The Three Stooges. People either love them or loathe them. Assuming you are among the Stooge lovers, here's one of their funniest: "Brideless Groom" in which hapless Shemp has to get married quickly for reasons unveiled in the plot. We hope all you fellow Cinema Retro knuckleheads enjoy it!

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Wednesday, February 18. 2026

By Lee Pfeiffer

The film world has lost one of its most iconic talents with the death of actor Robert Duvall at age 95. He passed away peacefully at his beloved Virginia horse farm, according to his wife Luciana, who he married after co-starring with her in "Assassination Tango", which Duvall also directed. Duvall was an unlikely candidate for leading man stardom. He was born in San Diego in 1931. His father was a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy and the family moved quite a bit because of his father's varying assignments. Robert served two years in the U.S. Army and in 1955 moved to New York City where he was accepted as a student at the esteemed Neighborhood Playhouse where he became friends with two other penniless aspiring actors, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. Duvall appeared in guest starring roles in popular T.V. series and made his big screen debut as "Boo" Radley, the mysterious, mentally challenged man who appears in the final scene of the 1962 classic "To Kill a Mockingbird". Despite having his one line of dialogue cut from the film, Duvall's physical presence made an impression on critics and the audience. Big screen roles did not pour in, however, and Duvall resumed guest-starring on television series. He did land a role as an arrogant New York City cop in conflict with Frank Sinatra's titular "The Detective" in 1968 and had a minor role as a taxi driver in the blockbuster crime drama "Bullitt" the same year. In 1969, he landed the plum role of likeable villain "Lucky" Ned Pepper in the screen adaptation of the bestselling novel "True Grit". In the film's most iconic scene, he and his fellow bad guys are decimated by John Wayne (in his Oscar winning role) in a blazing gun battle on horseback. That same year, Duvall teamed with young director Francis Ford Coppola on a dramatic film "The Rain People", co-starring another aspiring actor, James Caan. In 1972, Coppola would hire both of them for pivotal roles in "The Godfather", which was accorded the Best Picture Oscar. Two years later, Duvall returned as crime family lawyer Tom Hagan in the sequel "The Godfather Part II", which also won the Best Picture Oscar. In 1979, he worked with Coppola again on his 1979 masterpiece "Apocalypse Now" in which he played what what arguably the most popular role of his career, the wacky, war-loving Colonel Kilgore, who speaks the immortal line "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning...Smells like victory."

(Duvall as "Lucky" Ned Pepper in "True Grit" (1969). (Photo: Paramount.)

Duvall could seemingly play any role from subtle comedy such as the uptight Major Frank Burns in the 1970 big screen version of M*A*S*H to the corporate hatchet man in "Network" to a trouble country singer in his Oscar-winning role in the 1983 film "Tender Mercies". (Duvall would accumulate six other nominations in the categories of Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.) One of his most popular roles was in the blockbuster 1989 Western mini-series "Lonesome Dove". He was also nominated for an Oscar in a key late-career role in the 1997 drama "The Apostle", a film he championed and helped finance. Duvall's "everyman" persona gave viewers the impression he could well be their neighbor or co-worker. He lacked pretentiousness and, while certainly not reclusive, he did not overtly court publicity. Some of his finest work is in films that were not boxoffice hits such as "Get Low" and "True Confessions". He also teamed with Kevin Costner for "Open Range", a 2003 Western that proved there was still a receptive audience for a genre that was widely deemed to be dead by the major studios.

Robert Duvall was an actor's actor. He was modest about his talents and expressed surprise and gratitude for his success. Fittingly, New York Times critic Vincent Canby once appropriately accorded him the great compliment of all by referring to him as "America's Olivier". The breadth and depth of his accomplishments have ensured he will be remembered as one of the screen's greatest talents.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Obituaries on Tuesday, February 17. 2026

More to come on Robert Duvall's life and career...

Posted by Cinema Retro in Obituaries on Monday, February 16. 2026

By Hank Reineke

Less forgiving cineastes choose not to put the filmography of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello on par with the works of Chaplin, Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Their argument is that the storylines of Abbott and Costello’s comedies for Universal were too formulaic, the rewarmed vaudeville bits and occasionally violent slapstick actions and pratfalls too low-brow. While I suppose there’s some fair merit to that argument, I disagree. Personally, I don’t care much for too simplistic, contrasting assessments.

There’s one thing everyone can agree on. The partnership of Abbott and Costello was long-lasting. Though both men initially worked separately in various burlesque and theatrical productions, it wasn’t until 1936 they would formally team as a popular act on the vaudeville stage. The pair importantly gained national exposure following an appearance on The Kate Smith Hour radio program in February of 1938. The duo’s comedy repartee was so well-received that show’s producers routinely brought them back. By summer of 1940, the team (prominently under-billed as the “Radio sensations of ‘I’m a baaad boy’ fame”) were signed by Universal to provide comedic support for the Jerome Kern musical production One Night in the Tropics (1940).

One Night in the Tropics opened to mostly tepid reviews. That said, Variety noted the walk-on comic bits of Abbott and Costello provided the film’s “brightest spots,” perhaps even saving “the picture from general tediousness.” The pair quietly returned to vaudeville to earn their bread and butter. The tepid response to Tropics might have signaled an end of the pair’s career aspirations in motion pictures. But due to the passing of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Conscription Bill, Universal was planning on producing a series of “service pictures.”

Three of Abbott and Costello’s first four top-billed pics for Universal were just that, war-effort comedies, all from 1941 and all successful: Buck Privates, In the Navy and Keep ‘em Flying. The team’s single non-WWII-related outlier was Hold that Ghost, also from 1941. That latter spooky-comedy allowed the two to seamlessly team for a third time with the musical Andrews Sisters. It also marked their first mash-up with Universal’s horror and mystery pics of the day.

If the 1940s offered the greatest films of the teams’ partnership, Charles Barton’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is oft-cited as perhaps their greatest cinematic effort. Upon the film’s release in 1948, not everyone agreed that was so, critical reviews decidedly mixed. I suppose to this very day there remain a few who are of contrarian opinions of believing … Meet Frankenstein to be the pair’s best outing. That said, there’s no doubt - in my opinion, of course - that … Meet Frankenstein is seamlessly assembled, each part fit together in a perfect jigsaw: the direction, the casting, the scripting, the performances, the eerie sets, the sight gags, the warmed-over vaudeville bits… everything. The film expertly mixes comedy and mystery.

The most welcome aspect of the film is that the fabled Universal monsters (Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man) are not mindlessly ridiculed as buffoons. Bud and Lou instead are ceremoniously dropped as inhabitants into the strange world of Bela Lugosi’s vampire, Lon Chaney Jr.’s lycanthrope, Glenn Strange’s monster and Lenore Aubert’s sinister Dr. Mornay. It’s interesting that neither A&C, whose boffo box-office appeal was already in fade near the end of the 1940s, were originally thrilled about appearing in … Meet Frankenstein. The film’s two stars were allegedly not getting along with neither Universal nor each other at this point in their careers. Costello reportedly pronounced the mash-up script as underwhelming.

The quality of the script by Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo and John Grant was also debated by two of the film’s major players who shared differing opinions of it. Chaney Jr. too was not impressed, though his feelings were tinged with a measure of bitterness. The actor had been dropped as a contract player following Pillow of Death (1945), the final installment of Universal’s Inner Sanctum mystery series. Still feeling bruised by that dismissal, Chaney would return reluctantly returned to Universal for … Meet Frankenstein. (The film was actually the actor’s second teaming with A&C, having already appeared in the latter’s Here Come the Co-Eds (1945)).

In an oft-cited damning rebuke, Chaney later groused that A&C made “buffoons of the monsters.” but that quote is rarely bracketed with context. The simple fact remains that in course of … Meet Frankenstein, Chaney’s Lawrence Talbot/Wolf Man is written and played entirely straight. His annoyance with A&C more likely stemmed from the time Chaney’s Frankenstein monster was ignobly lampooned by the pair during two hosted skits on TV’s The Colgate Comedy Hour (1951). Chaney’s feelings were not mirrored by Bela Lugosi who was to reprise his on-screen Dracula for the first time since 1931. The actor was pleased to see Dracula’s sophisticate menace was retained, unblemished as a figure of parody.

I’m not sure the term “oversaturation” was commonplace in the early 1950s, but if it was, the career trajectory of Abbott and Costello would both profit and suffer from it. The two were everywhere: on stage, on radio, on television, on the big screen. Their films continued to do dependably good - if no longer blockbusting - business well into the 1950s. With the advent of television, the pair had become familiar stars on such programs as the Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1951) and their own The Abbott and Costello Show.

The latter program, which began filming in spring of 1951, was a television staple from fall of 1952 through late spring of 1954. Those original episodes would later be syndicated well into the 1970s. The pair’s television appearances - while introducing and extending their popular recognition to a new generation of fans – proved a double-edged sword. Such regular TV appearances would eventually soften their movie-star prowess at the box office.

In any case, the commercial success of … Meet Frankenstein would change the pair’s opinion of sharing similar showdowns with other monsters, Universal and otherwise. It made perfect sense that Bud and Lou’s next meeting with a figure of Universal’s fright-factory would be the Invisible Man. After all, at the conclusion of … Meet Frankenstein, the pair are introduced, sight unseen (naturally) to the laughter of Vincent Price’s Invisible Man. (Price was Universal’s second Invisible Man, having appeared in Joe May’s The Invisible Man Returns (1940). Alas, Price’s “Geoffrey Radcliffe” from Returns is not present in this second A&C thriller. However, director Charles Lamont and the very same trio of writers of … Meet Frankenstein do reference a tie-in to Claude Rains’ original “raving maniac” of James Whale’s seminal The Invisible Man (1933).

Though not a patch on … Meet Frankenstein, this Invisible Man entry is a decent-enough programmer. Newly graduated from detective school, Bud and Lou are contacted by distraught boxer Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz). Nelson is on the run from police, having been falsely accused of murdering his manager. Desperate to clear his name, Nelson has escaped from jail and seeks the help of his fiancé Helen Gray (Nancy Guild). Helen’s uncle, Dr. Philip Gray (Gavin Muir) has experimented with the same invisibility serum originally developed by scientist Jack Griffin, Claude Rain’s character in the Whale film. Gray refuses Nelson’s request for injection as he’s aware that the serum brings about the eventual onset of madness. Undeterred, the boxer injects himself and, with the assistance of Bud and Lou, seeks out the scheming gangsters actually guilty of the murder of his manager.

(Click here to order from Amazon)

My second personal favorite of the “… Meet the Monsters” series is Lamont’s Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), co-scripted by John Grant and Lee Loeb. To be honest, this third opus is not a great film, but it’s a pretty good one, the first to feature a monster outside of the usual Universal milieu. It helps that Boris Karloff is aboard as the titular Jekyll/Hyde, though the actor’s gift for providing a healthy dose of on-screen menace is perhaps too reserved as written. This pic is actually Karloff’s second “meeting” with the pair, having previously been cast as the mysterious Swami Talpur in Barton’s Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949).

In this entry, A&C play a pair of bumbling American cops sent to England to study the methods of the London police force. The two new Bobbies, as one might expect, fare miserably, even finding themselves arrested and jailed following a wild fray at a Woman’s Suffrage rally in Hyde Park. Relieved of their duties as policeman, the pair hope to work their way back into the good graces of the constabulary by solving the mystery behind recent string of local murders.

The …. Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pic offers two separate storylines that gradually mesh. We are introduced to a beautiful suffragette/part-time chorus hall girl, Vicky Edwards (Helen Westcott). Edwards, we learn, is the ward of guardian of the prestigious Dr. Jekyll (Karloff). Edwards falls in fast-track love with the suffragette-sympathetic but prying newspaperman Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens). This romantic coupling causes distress to Jekyll. As Hyde, the doctor has been murdering Londoners and conducting chemical experiments in a secreted basement laboratory. As Jekyll, he’s despairing and jealous of his young ward’s romance with Adams as he too pines for Vicky’s affections. Of course, Bud and Lou soon find themselves in the middle of this brouhaha of mysterious murders and love triangles.

The reason I regard … Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as the second best of the “Meet the Monsters” pics, is that it successfully brings A&C into a genuinely atmospheric Universal horror film. Though I wouldn’t call the comedic elements secondary to the scenario, director Lamont manages to bring a sense of eeriness to the production: there are eerie fog-bound streets, a masked and cloaked mysterious figure lurking about, a secret laboratory hiding “Batley” (John Dierkes), Karloff’s menacing assisting chemist. The spooky Mr. Hyde mask created by make-up man Bud Westmore is original in design, half-Neanderthal/half-Ape in construction. (Click here to order from Amazon)

Continue reading "ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET....AN ASSORTMENT OF MONSTERS IN KINO LORBER 4K UHD RELEASES"

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Monday, February 16. 2026

Rare photo of Steven Spielberg with "Jaws" author Peter Benchley in Martha's Vineyard for the filming of the 1975 classic in which Benchley made a brief cameo appearance. Oh, and we know what you are thinking...yes, we'd also drool over acquiring that production crew T shirt that Spielberg is sporting.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Vintage Movie Ads & Photos on Sunday, February 15. 2026

Enjoy this vintage documentary, "Steve McQueen: Man on the Edge", narrated by his friend James Coburn, with whom he starred in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape". (To watch in full screen mode, click on "Watch on YouTube".)

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Saturday, February 14. 2026

The first issue of Season 22 (issue #64) is now shipping worldwide! Subscribe today and enjoy the world's only magazine devoted to the greatest era of filmmaking!

Posted by Cinema Retro in Magazine News on Friday, February 13. 2026

Here is a brief newsreel of the festivities taking place at the 1962 New York premiere of MGM's "Mutiny on the Bounty", a magnificent epic even though there were almost impossible obstacles to overcome in bringing it to the big screen. (See Cinema Retro's Movie Classics roadshow epics issue for full coverage). Despite causing controversies during filming, Marlon Brando was induced to attend the premiere, a practice he was usually adverse to. Note the theater marquee across the street showing John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate".

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Friday, February 13. 2026

In an article for the website Slashfilm.com, writer Devin Meenan briefly outlines the strange interaction between Alfred Hitchcock and MGM that ultimately- and unexpectedly- led to the creation of his 1959 masterpiece "North By Northwest"- and why, despite the film's success, Hitchcock would never work for MGM again.

Click here to read.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Thursday, February 12. 2026

Here's the original trailer for the 1968 crime thriller "Madigan", directed by Don Siegel with his usual expertise and featuring a sterling cast. Just one of many gritty crime thrillers from this great era of filmmaking.

Click here to order the Blu-ray special edition from Amazon

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Wednesday, February 11. 2026

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FEATURES FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVE

This feature puts the spotlight on those glorious old movie marquees. This one depicts the Loew's Capitol theater on the evening of the New York premiere of The Dirty Dozen in June 1967 at the Loews Capitol. Continue reading to see vintage marquees for Steve McQueen's The War Lover and Requiem for a Heavyweight starring Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason.

Continue reading "THOSE GLORIOUS OLD VINTAGE MOVIE MARQUEES: "THE DIRTY DOZEN"; "THE WAR LOVER" AND "REQUIEM FOR HEAVYWEIGHT""

Posted by Cinema Retro in Vintage Movie Ads & Photos on Tuesday, February 10. 2026

Cinema Retro's Author's Corner column invites authors of books about the arts to enlighten readers with the background story behind their latest book. In this column, author Marshall Terrill provides an inside look at his new book, "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile, The Making of Tom Horn and The Hunter", the final two films of the screen legends career, with photographs by Barbara Minty-McQueen, who was made to Steve McQueen during this period of his life.

By Marshall Terrill

In my new book, Steve McQueen: The Last Reel, the Making of Tom Horn and The Hunter (Dalton Watson Fine Books, 2026) I didn’t set out to write another sweeping overview of the superstar’s glittering career. That story had already been told, and told well. What kept tugging at me instead were his final two films—Tom Horn and The Hunter—and a sense that they hadn’t yet been fully understood.

The seed for the book was planted back in 2009 or 2010, not long after my first collaboration with Barbara McQueen on Steve McQueen: The Last Mile. For that book, we digitized roughly 800 of Barbara’s photographs but only had room to use about 150. A large portion of the unused images came from Tom Horn and The Hunter, and even then I knew they were too important to stay hidden. In my mind, a second book focusing on those films felt like the natural successor to The Last Mile, which was a continuation of both the story and the journey Barbara and I had begun together.

We had a blast working on that first book. It took us all over the world for signings and art exhibits, and for nearly three years it was nonstop. By the end of it, Barbara was exhausted. I, on the other hand, was already thinking ahead. She begged off any talk of another book, and for the next fifteen years the idea stayed on the shelf. It wasn’t until the 45th anniversary of Tom Horn and The Hunter approached in 2025 that I finally convinced her to return—on one condition. She would provide the photographs and I would handle the text. That agreement became Steve McQueen: The Last Reel.

What truly elevated the project, though, was my access to forty-five hours of previously unheard taped conversations with McQueen about Tom Horn. These recordings stopped me cold. When McQueen was alive, he almost never talked about acting. He preferred motorcycles, race cars, anything that felt more rugged. Acting, oddly enough, struck him as not particularly manly. So, to hear him speak so openly and thoughtfully about film, character, camera angles and storytelling was revelatory.

On the tapes, McQueen talks in detail about how he wanted Tom Horn to work visually. He pushed screenwriter Tom McGuane to think less like a novelist and more like a filmmaker. McQueen had an uncanny ability to strip a scene down to its essence—something that sounds simple but absolutely isn’t. One moment that stood out to me involved a scene where the town leaders secretly discuss how Tom Horn’s violence is spiraling out of control. McQueen suggested holding these leaders should meet outdoors, miles from town, so no one could witness it. As a former reporter who’s sat through more than a few “executive sessions” where nothing is recorded on purpose, I immediately recognized how spot-on that instinct was.

Tom Horn wasn’t just another role for McQueen as it was deeply personal. He deeply identified with Horn, once saying he felt like an old man by the time he was seventeen. He even visited Horn’s gravesite and claimed to hear the outlaw’s spirit tell him, “Tell my story.”

(Photo: Marshall Terrill)

Professionally, McQueen was also at a crossroads. Five years earlier, he had co-starred with Paul Newman in The Towering Inferno, then one of the biggest box-office hits of all time. After that, he made An Enemy of the People, a Henrik Ibsen adaptation that depicted him with long hair and a full beard. Warner Bros. shelved the film in 1978 because audiences didn’t recognize the McQueen they expected. As a result, Tom Horn marked his first on-screen appearance in five years, which was an eternity at the time. When audiences finally saw him again, they were meeting a more mature, nuanced superstar.

Then there’s The Hunter, which couldn’t be more different in tone. Here, McQueen knowingly pokes fun at his own image. That choice was entirely intentional and completely against type. To me, it showed a man who was finally comfortable in his own skin. That said, I’ll admit I think he went a little too far. Part of me wanted him to kick ass, and the film leans a bit too cute for my taste. Personally, I find Tom Horn the more satisfying of the two.

Barbara’s photographs—nearly four hundred of them—add an entirely new dimension to this story. In the Tom Horn images especially, you see how hard McQueen worked. He wasn’t just the star; he was an executive producer and, in many ways, the film’s guiding force. He obsessed over details, collaborating closely with writers, costume designers, historians, and directors. By contrast, on The Hunter he showed up, hit his marks, and moved on. The difference is striking.

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DICK CAVETT INTERVIEWS ANTHONY QUINN (1969)

Screen legend Anthony Quinn was not a frequent guest on television chat shows. However, Dick Cavett's progrtam was an exception due to his wit, low-key personality and intellect. In this segment, Quinn discusses his latest film, "The Shoes of the Fisherman" in which he played the Pope. Quinn explains that after he started filming he came down with a mysterious ailment that was traced to an age old problem: nerves. He says he began to think that he would not live up to expectations in the role and became physically sick for weeks. He hoped the producers would recast but when he learned they would not, he rallied and completed the film. As an aside, this episode shows Cavett's talent for attracting diverse high-profile guests and here they include Lee Remick and Wood Allen.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Interviews on Sunday, February 8. 2026

REVIEW: "LUBITSCH MUSICALS" (ECLIPSE SERIES 8) (1929,1930,1931,1932; Directed by Ernst Lubitsch) (The Criterion Collection)

“SINGING WITH THE LUBITSCH TOUCH”

By Raymond Benson

German filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch, who immigrated to Hollywood during the silent era, was known for his light, effervescent comedies of manners and entanglements of the sexes in the 1920s, 30s, and early 40s until his untimely death at the young age of fifty-five. In Tinsel Town, they called his directing prowess the “Lubitsch Touch.”

He also made a handful of innovative, very early musicals when pictures first featured sound. In fact, his first “talkie,” The Love Parade (1929), is considered the premiere musical to successfully integrate singing with narrative dialogue—unlike the few early musicals such as the Oscar-winning The Broadway Melody (earlier in 1929), in which musical numbers are “staged” in a proscenium theater as part of the story, separated from the dialogue and dramatic action. This latter convention did continue into the 1930s with the likes of the Busby Berkeley style pictures (42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, and more) until Lubitsch’s method of creating a story line in which characters break out of straight dialogue and sing became the norm.

Lubitsch Musicals was first released by the Criterion Collection as part of their Eclipse Series, which consisted of lower-budgeted DVD anthologies. Now, Criterion has deemed this title worthy enough to upgrade it to a high definition Blu-ray release. The results are wonderful.

If you think you might not take to pre-Code, technically awkward Hollywood musicals—think again. Lubitsch Musicals contains four delightful titles that are surprisingly entertaining and witty precursors to what we would later call romantic comedies, only with singing. At times they are hilariously funny.

Three of them star a young, vibrant Maurice Chevalier, whose charisma and charm light up the frame. Most of today’s audiences might know Chevalier only as the older French actor who sang “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” in Gigi, the popular Oscar-winning musical from 1958. No, Chevalier was quite the star in the 1930s, and his appearances in this set are worth the price of admission.

First up: The Love Parade, arguably the best and funniest of the quartet, even though, due to its place in the timeline, lacks the technical advancements that eventually improved as Hollywood learned how to use sound effectively and create cinematic compositions at the same time. No matter. The movie was an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Chevalier), and three other technical categories for the 1929-1930 Oscar season. (For the first six years of Academy history, the calendar year went from August to the next July.) Chevalier stars as Count Alfred Renard, a military attaché in the fictional country of Sylvania. He has been ousted from his post in Paris due to his scandalous affairs. The Sylvanian Queen Louise (Jeanette MacDonald), intent on staying unmarried, becomes intrigued by Alfred’s reputation and ultimate attractiveness. A romance naturally ensues between them, as well as between their respective servants, Jacques (Lupino Lane) and Lulu (Lillian Roth). With songs by Victor Schertzinger (music) and Clifford Grey (lyrics), the two couples sing and slapstick their way into our hearts. Great fun.

Next: Monte Carlo (1930), which, while amusing and enjoyable, suffers from the absence of Chevalier. Instead, Jack Buchanan stars as a French Count on the prowl who becomes enamored of Countess Helene Mara (Jeanette MacDonald again). Helene simply does not want to marry the Duke (Claud Allister) and runs from her wedding to Monaco, where she meets Buchanan. A series of cat-and-mouse games between the eventual lovers take place, with intermittent songs by Richard Whiting and W. Franke Harling. The tune “Beyond the Blue Horizon” became a hit record for MacDonald.

Third: The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) also received a nomination for Best Picture during the 1931-1932 Oscar calendar year. Maurice Chevalier is back, this time opposite the luminous Claudette Colbert and talented Miriam Hopkins. The action is in Vienna and the fictional country of Flausenthurm as the three leads navigate a love triangle with comic consequences. The songs are by Oscar Straus. Lieutenant was Paramount’s highest grossing title of its year and is considered one of Lubitsch’s better accomplishments.

Last: One Hour With You (1932), which, again, received a Best Picture nomination in the same calendar year as The Smiling Lieutenant, so the pair were competing against each other. Chevalier and MacDonald are back together for this one, and the results are winning. The movie is actually a remake of The Marriage Circle, a 1924 silent picture that Lubitsch directed, only now with songs by Oscar Straus (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics). Genevieve Tobin and Charles Ruggles co-star as another couple with which the leads are tempted to stray. Being pre-Code, this title may be the most provocative as it suggests that it’s okay to cheat as long as one truly loves one’s spouse and can forget the dalliance the next day (and Chevalier often breaks the fourth wall to address us directly).

This reviewer ranks the four pictures thusly: 1) The Love Parade, 2) The Smiling Lieutenant, 3) One Hour With You, and 4) Monte Carlo.

Criterion’s new two-disc Blu-ray set features The Love Parade and One Hour With You with 4K restorations (and they look pristine!), The Smiling Lieutenant with a 2K restoration, and Monte Carlo, a film now in the public domain, with what appears to be a straight to high definition from DVD transfer. There are no supplements included. An informative historical essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky is in the enclosed fold-out booklet.

The Eclipse Series’s presentation of Lubitsch Musicals is a cinephile’s joy. For fans of Ernst Lubtisch, Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Hollywood pre-Code fare, and movie musicals.

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Posted by Cinema Retro in Criterion Corner-DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on Saturday, February 7. 2026

THOSE GLORIOUS OLD MOVIE ADS

This portion of the movie section from a 1966 edition of The New York Times indicates just a portion of how many fine movies were in release during a single week. Among them: "The Ipcress File", "Thunderball", "Darling", "The Hill", "The Slender Thread", "A Patch of Blue", "Bunny Lake is Missing", "Viva Maria!", "The Pawnbroker" and a Beatles double feature: "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!". Those really were the days!

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Friday, February 6. 2026

OUT OF THE PAST: MAURICE JARRE WINS OSCAR FOR HIS "DOCTOR ZHIVAGO" SCORE

Maurice Jarre's score for the David Lean's 1966 epic "Doctor Zhivago" is one of the most magnificent in screen history. Here, he accepts a well deserved Oscar at the 1966 Academy Awards, presented by James Coburn and Virna Lisi. It begs the question "Why don't we hear film scores like this any more?"

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Thursday, February 5. 2026

REVIEW: "TALES OF ADVENTURE COLLECTION 8" BOXED SET FROM IMPRINT

By Adrian Smith

Imprint have been doing some amazing work with these ‘Tales of Adventure’ sets, and in this 8^th volume the binding theme is Jules Verne (although one is loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe but is as much Verne as the others), and the set includes six films from the silent era up to the 1970s. Some of these films will be very familiar, whereas others are more obscure and worthy of the rescue Imprint have given them.

We begin in 1916 with a silent Hollywood version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Stuart Paton), produced by the legendary Carl Laemmle. This is a fascinating production, and apparently the first film to utilise underwater photography thanks to a specially designed submarine. Location work took place in the Bahamas, and the film uses elements of Verne’s novel Mysterious Island as well, whilst adding a new subplot which gives us more of a background to Captain Nemo (Allen Holubar) and introduces a wild girl on the island, described in the intertitles as a “Child of nature” (Jane Gail). The various plot elements sort of come together and there are some exciting and impressive sequences, particularly when one bears in mind that this was produced less than fifteen years after Georges Méliès Le voyage dans la lune (1902) brought fantastical images from Jules Verne’s imagination to life in the Star Film studios, and films had only just begun to be produced in Hollywood a couple of years earlier. This release features an excellent commentary track from the hugely experienced silent film historian Anthony Slide, who gives plenty of information on the cast and the production itself.

The set then jumps forward to one of the more familiar films in the set (and the first of two starring Vincent Price). Master of the World (William Witney, 1961) is an American International Pictures production, made shortly after Roger Corman pushed them into bigger budget colour films with his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. Like many of those, this is also scripted by Richard Matheson, here adapting two Verne stories about a man who threatens the world’s major military powers from his incredibly advanced airship. The plot is very similar to the Disney adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954), but it is very enjoyable nonetheless, even though the fact that AIP didn’t have Disney’s budgets occasionally shows through, particularly in the overuse of stock footage. With Vincent Price as the captain of what is, let’s be honest, a homoerotic all-male crew, it’s up to the prisoners on board to stop him, led by Charles Bronson in an early starring role. This is a very entertaining film with excellent colour photography which really shines on this disc. Here we get a thorough and enjoyable audio commentary (ported over from a previous release) featuring a whole group of experts corralled by film historian Tom Weaver, coupled with two new video essays, both looking at the film from different angles. There is also a great commentary with the British actor David Frankham, who had a long successful career in Hollywood and has a very good memory of his time on this film. Finally, although it is not listed on Imprint’s website, the disc also features the lengthy documentary Richard Matheson: Storyteller, which is taken from the interviews he gave to support the Midnite Movie releases of some of his films back in the early 2000s. This alone is worth the price of admission.

The next in the set, and probably the most obscure, is Valley of the Dragons (Edward, Berns, 1961), a low-budget second feature produced by the B-movie king Al Zimbalist, who will be remembered for such gems as Robot Monster (Phil Tucker) and Cat-Women of the Moon (Arthur Hilton), both released in 1953; clearly a great year for cinema. Scripted by Zimbalist’s son Donald and adapted from Verne’s Off on a Comet, Valley of the Dragons utilises stock footage from, amongst others, One Million Years B.C. (Hal Roach & Hal Roach Jr., 1940) and Rodan (Ishir? Honda, 1956) to create a surprisingly effective prehistoric adventure. Amongst its delights are back-projected lizards, bodybuilders in fur swimming trunks and a large papier-mâché spider, all shot on leftover sets on the Columbia backlot. It stars the very prolific Italian actor Cesare Danova alongside Irish actor Sean McClory as two rivals who find themselves carried away when a comet collides with Earth, where they improbably discover it has dinosaurs and tribes of cavemen living on it. Joan Staley, perhaps best remembered now for The Ghost and Mrs Chicken (Alan Rafkin, 1966), is a beautiful blonde cavegirl who features in a lengthy underwater swimming sequence reminiscent of Tarzan and his Mate (Cedric Gibbons, Jack Conway & James C. McKay, 1934). Whilst this film seems to be aimed at children, Staley’s swimming appears to have been included for the dads in the audience. This release marks the film’s debut on Blu-ray, and it looks great. Zimbalist’s films may have been cheap, but the technicians behind the camera were professionals who made sure everything looked as good as it could. Sadly, there are no bonus features on here at all, unless one counts the subtitles. They could have asked me to provide a commentary: I could talk for at least an hour on Zimbalist alone. On reflection, perhaps that’s why they didn’t ask me.

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Posted by Cinema Retro in Adrian Smith on Wednesday, February 4. 2026

STREAMING REVIEW: "THE TROUBLE WITH SPIES" (1987) STARRING DONALD SUTHERLAND (AMAZON PRIME)

By Lee Pfeiffer

The little-remembered spy spoof "The Trouble with Spies" has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray, at least to this writer's knowledge. It was released on VHS back in ancient times. However, the movie has surfaced on Amazon Prime. The film had a checkered production history and release. Director/screenwriter Burt Kennedy had purchased the rights to several of novelist Marc Elliott's comedic spy books that featured a bumbling protagonist named Appleton Porter. It was an odd choice for Kennedy, who was primarily known for making Westerns including such entertaining gems as "The War Wagon", "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "The Train Robbers". Kennedy co-authored the screenplay with Marc McShane in the obvious hope that it would inspire a film series. In fact, the film has some historical significance, as it was the first production for HBO's newly-found theatrical motion picture division. The key role of the bumbling hero, an agent of MI6, was reportedly offered to Michael Caine for a salary of $1 million. For reasons unknown, Caine turned down the offer, one of the few times he did reject a well-paying film role during this period of his career. (He would later say that he would come to regret appearing in so many mediocre films simply to gain a sizable pay check.). The role went to Donald Sutherland, who doesn't make much of an effort to retain a British accent and is saddled with an unbecoming haircut that makes him look like an entry in the Stan Laurel Look-a-like Contest.

The film begins with Porter, whose incompetence is a thorn in the side of his stuffy MI6 boss Angus (Robert Morley in full Robert Morley mode). Thus, Angus devises an elaborate plot to send Porter on what he deems to be a suicide mission. The naive Porter is shocked and honored that he is being entrusted with the assignment, which involves him going to the swinging and beautiful location of Ibizia, Spain, where he is to pose as a tourist and stay at the Royal Rose, a quaint small hotel where he is to search for an MI6 who has gone missing after checking at the venue. However, we later learn that the real purpose of the mission is for Porter to become a likely victim for a deadly truth serum that MI6 is desperate to steal from foreign agents. They hope that Porter is kidnapped and that will lead them to the enemy agents who possess the serum that they can then steal. As a "bonus", there is a good chance Porter will be killed during the operation, thus relieving Angus of the frustration of dealing with him. When Porter arrives in Ibizia, he is greeted by Mona (Lucy Gutteridge), the gorgeous and very friendly owner of the Royal Rose. Soon after checking in to the hotel, attempts are made on Porter's life but through pure luck on his part, they fail. Throughout the course of the film, we're introduced to exotic villains and increasingly deadly attempts to lure Porter to his demise. By the end of the film, we find that not everyone is who they appear to be and friends turn out to be foes.

One of the problems with the screenplay is that Porter is presented in an erratic manner. In the beginning sequence, there is the age-old gag of him assuring his boss that his machine gun isn't loaded, only to have it fire off rounds that almost kill his boss. Throughout the first half of the movie, Porter goes through Inspector Clouseau-like scenarios in which he bumbles his way out of death traps. However, he later proves to be quite adept at using his skills to avoid being murdered. This combination of Maxwell Smart and James Bond in his personality traits makes for an uneven viewing experience. Ned Beatty and Ruth Gordon show up in minor roles that largely waste their considerable talents. The Ibizia locations are gorgeous, however, although director Kennedy can't help but dwell on extraneous shots of beautiful, topless young women playing volley ball on the beach, thus capturing every bounce and jiggle for posterity's sake. (In films of this era, there seems to be a psychological correlation between young women doffing their bikini tops with a sudden urge for them to play volley ball.)

HBO deemed the movie to not be worthy of a theatrical release until 1987, when Dino De Laurentiis bought the theatrical rights and finally released the movie. It quickly bombed and faded from public view, thus negating the value of Burt Kennedy's screen rights to future Appleton Porter novels. In the ensuing years, Ruth Gordon passed away in 1985 after filming the movie "Maxie". Thus, when she appeared in a "new" theatrical film in 1987, it must have caused a bit of confusion for her fans. The film isn't terrible and Donald Sutherland is in good form, as are the supporting players. However, the trouble with "The Trouble with Spies" is that it's one of those misguided cinematic productions that makes you suspect many talented people signed on to it primarily to get a paid vacation in in an exotic locations. It would have found a more receptive audience twenty years earlier during the James Bond-inspired spy craze of the 1960s when there was an audience appetite for even the most modestly entertaining espionage thrillers and spoofs.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Tuesday, February 3. 2026

BOOK REVIEW: "A PLACE BOTH WONDERFUL AND STRANGE: THE EXTRAORDINARY UNTOLD HISTORY OF 'TWIN PEAKS'" BY SCOTT MESLOW (RUNNING PRESS)

“LET’S ROCK!”

By Raymond Benson

Over the years since David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks first assaulted a television viewing audience way back in 1990, there have been numerous books published on the subject. From fiction tie-ins, like the best-selling The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (which was pseudonymously written by Lynch’s daughter, filmmaker/writer Jennifer Lynch) or The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (pseudonymously written by Scott Frost, brother of co-creator/co-writer Mark), to canonical fiction by Mark Frost himself. Then there are the many non-fiction studies and fan extravaganzas of Peaks—academic analyses in book form, a regular fanzine (Wrapped in Plastic), and more.

For a primetime television show that was canceled after two seasons, the cult phenomenon of Twin Peaks, like the character Laura Palmer, just didn’t want to completely die. Folks were still asking “Who killed Laura Palmer?” long after the answer had been revealed. Phrases like “Let’s rock!” and “That gum you like is going to come back in style” became codes for fans around the world.

In 1992, Lynch directed a prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, which might have been the final nail in the coffin, despite annual pilgrimages by enthusiasts to the Washington State locations where the pilot and film were made, and continuing publications and online discussions and debates. Then, miraculously, in 2017, a little over twenty-five years later, a third season of Twin Peaks appeared on Showtime, an epic movie divided into eighteen hour-long episodes, directed by Lynch himself. This was alternatively titled Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series or Twin Peaks: The Return. For many fans of the filmmaker, this remarkable work of art has been called a summation of Lynch’s career. Eerily, at the end of the season two finale, the spectral form of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), sitting in the mysterious “Red Room,” tells Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), “I’ll see you again in twenty-five years.” And she did!

Now we have this highly readable and engaging tome by Scott Meslow, A Place Both Wonderful and Strange, which is a blow-by-blow history of the making of all the various cogs of Twin Peaks. Note that this is not one of those academic analysis books, a “what does it all mean?” type of work that dominates most of the non-fiction bibliography on Peaks. Nor is it a complete “episode guide” (something fans sorely need that hasn’t really been done yet). Instead, this is a behind-the-scenes account of how it all began, followed by the evolution (and de-evolution) of the various incarnations of Twin Peaks.

The book starts with David Lynch meeting Mark Frost, of course, and how they worked together for at least a year before the idea for the series, then called Northwest Passage, made it to a pitch-worthy level. We go through the jumping to different networks, finally landing at ABC for a development deal and the subsequent making of the glorious pilot episode. We learn how a European feature film was part of that deal and how a tagged-on “ending,” the footage of which was later used in an episode of the first season, was utilized for that purpose.

Meslow takes the reader through the various stages of seasons one and two and how the show was a huge success at first. But the author documents the network sabotaging the second season so that the series would ultimately fail. Why did they do that? The “talking heads” in the book—interviewees like co-producers/writers/directors Harley Peyton and Robert Engels, as well as Mark Frost himself—are candid in their speculative theories. (Sorry, Lynch did not participate in the creation of the book prior to his untimely death in early 2025.)

But as we know, Twin Peaks saw resurrection in two more lives in the feature film and the third season—and Meslow details these steps, all the way to the end.

Only at times does Meslow offer his own interpretation of some of the storylines, especially in The Return. But he acknowledges that it has always been both Lynch’s and Frost’s desire that the audience make up their own minds “what it all means.” Nevertheless, this turning back the red curtain to see the radical and unorthodox inner workings of Twin Peaks is fascinating.

Both wonderful and strange indeed. There was nothing like Twin Peaks in all its forms, and Meslow tallies how it changed television. Many imitations attempted to usurp its haunting power. There is a good argument to proclaim that much of today’s streaming content would not exist without the groundbreaking experiment that was Peaks.

Including an insightful Introduction by Harley Peyton, Scott Meslow’s history of the Twin Peaks sensation is a fan’s delight. Highly recommended.

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Posted by Cinema Retro in Raymond Benson (see also Criterion Corner) on Monday, February 2. 2026

REVIEW: "DAN CURTIS' GOTHIC TALES: "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY" & "THE TURN OF THE SCREW" KINO LORBER BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION

By Hank Reineke

In January of 1973 Dan Curtis Production placed a full-page ad in Variety to promote the company’s upcoming projects. 1973 was to be a very busy year for Curtis, the producer of ABC-TV’s widely popular Dark Shadows series. Curtis’ The Night Strangler was to be telecast on January 16 as ABC’s “Movie of the Week.” The first half of his two-part Frankenstein adaptation would immediately follow Strangler that same night. Then, on 21 February, NBC was to broadcast the producer/director Curtis’ The Norliss Tapes television-movie. New projects in various stages of pre-production would include adapts of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Still other ambitious projects were listed as “In Development.”

Production on Dorian Gray would begin on 6 February 1973. With his slate already full, Curtis passed directorial duties to Glenn Jordan. The work of Jordan, who recently helmed Curtis’ Frankenstein, was primarily seen on television, as was Curtis’. The screenplay for Dorian Gray was penned by John Tomerlin, a television writer who contributed scripts to such series as Wanted: Dead or Alive, Boris Karloff’s Thriller, and The Twilight Zone. Dorian Gray was to be the second of Curtis’ offerings to ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment/Wide World of Mystery late-night telefilm series. The production was to be shot, on video, on the Trans-American Video (and former MGM) soundstages at Culver City.

Having made a name and small fortune for himself in the horror trade, Curtis was tiring of the genre. He found himself hamstrung by industry execs only willing to extend financing to the same sort of eerie fare on which he built his reputation. Typecast, Curtis offered he wished to extend his filmography into such genres as westerns or romances. With Dorian Gray (and later with The Turn of the Screw), the producer would get the opportunity to explore a bit of the latter. Both features would offer a mix of gothic horror and romance – two subjects not too outside the realm of Dark Shadows.

Cast to take on the role of the haunted and rakish Dorian Gray was twenty-six-year-old British actor Shane Briant. The actor had just come off working on Peter Syke’s satanic folk-tale Demons of the Mind for Hammer Film Productions. Unable to find a suitable “Dorian Gray” in America, Curtis had set up a casting call in London. Briant admitted to the Los Angeles Times, the producer initially seemed diffident to his casting as Gray, but as a young actor working only at home, he was desirous of introducing his talent to the “whole new continent” of the Americas.

Convincing Curtis he was the right man for the role, the producer relented on Briant’s casting. Curtis was partly pressed as production of Dorian Gray was imminent. Briant recalled he was notified on a Thursday he had won the part: by Saturday he was in Culver City, put through a fast-paced, twelve day “shredding machine.” There was little to no time for rehearsal as Curtis’ stock-in-trade was to shoot quickly and economically.

Albert Lewin’s more famous presentation of The Picture of Dorian Gray (MGM, 1945) featuring George Sanders and Hurd Hatfield, was written as a supernatural horror melodrama. Curtis, however, tried to incorporate Wilde’s vision of Hatfield as not suffering inner-torment by his ill-deeds but by his private thoughts. Of course such a psychological approach was far more difficult to translate on-screen, though Briant enthused Curtis managed to successfully bring out this shade of Wilde’s philosophical tale. There were other times however when Curtis freely brought artistic license to Wilde’s work. When a journalist suggested to Briant there is “an unwritten credo that all things on American TV must have happy endings,” the actor agreed conceding Curtis’ version was unfaithful to Wilde’s original. “There is an attempt at redemption,” Briant acknowledged, “and it is quite foreign to Wilde’s story.”

When the series was broadcast in two parts on 23/24 April 1973, critics were not impressed. Critic Kay Gardella in New York’s Daily News savagely called the pic an “exercise in boredom and banality.” She was especially unsparing of the actors in the film, (unfairly) describing Briant as “a piece of plaster, never once convincing us that he was even half alive.”

A Los Angeles Times critic similarly raged the pic an “exercise in unrelieved tedium that is without any saving graces whatsoever […] a hopelessly talky, stagy production, indifferently acted and ploddingly directed.” The critic from Baltimore’s Evening Sun was a bit more merciful in appraisal, noting Curtis’ feature, while “handsome in detail” was perhaps if anything “too faithful” to Wilde’s original tale. Though Wilde wrote his character a decadent soul, “his decadence was mostly a matter of speculation.”

The real issue with both Curtis’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and his subsequent Turn of the Screw (both included in this set from Kino Cult) is that both drip with style but conjure little atmosphere. This is partly the result of Curtis choosing to shoot both pics on video. The technology of the time wasn’t able to match the spooky imagery that grain, artistic lighting and film-stock photography allowed. On Dorian Gray, Curtis relied on his Dark Shadows storehouse of tricks for expediency, so familiarity abounds. Curtis repurposes elements of the fine scores composed by Robert Cobert of earlier projects: notably his “Quentin’s Theme” from Dark Shadows, of the feature Night of Dark Shadows and of Curtis’ earlier telefilm Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

One of the more notable features of his Dorian Gray are the half-dozen paintings commissioned by Curtis that reflected the disintegrating state of the character’s mental and physical well-being. The paintings are the work of the great movie poster artist John Solie. Solie had earlier designed the surreal one-sheet art for Curtis’ theatrical feature Night of Dark Shadows (1971).

Reviews and ratings for both of his Wide World of Mystery programs were limited. The programs were scheduled to broadcast only as late-night entries, Dorian Gray appearing on screen as late as 11:30 PM. The Hollywood Reporter suggested while ABC-TV’s interest in Curtis’ offerings remained “very high,” they nonetheless resisted his wish to slot the films into the network’s prime-time schedule. When Turn of the Screw was broadcast in May of 1973 that effort too would go head-to-head with Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show.

Curtis recalls he was introduced to James’ Turn of the Screw while attending a regional theater stage production of The Innocents in New Jersey. Interestingly, Curtis was unfamiliar with Jack Clayton’s famous 1961 film version of The Innocents, an adaptation of Turn now considered a classic of ghost-story cinema. Intrigued by the tale, Curtis sought out the James novella of 1898 and found himself “even more fascinated” with the work, citing it as his favorite ghost story. This led him to see the Clayton film that famously featured British actress Deborah Kerr as the aggrieved governess. Curtis thought the film “brilliant” and made plans to lens his own version in due time.

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Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Sunday, February 1. 2026

REVIEW: "SCARS OF DRACULA" (1970) STARRING CHRISTOPHER LEE; KINO LORBER BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION

By Hank Reineke

My favorite self-published magazine of the 1990’s was Jim Clatterbaugh and Steve Kronenberg’s Monster from the Vault. Each issue combined wonderful production standards with insightful articles written by the best horror-film historians. The cover story of the mag’s eleventh issue was provocatively titled “Universal vs. Hammer,” a sub-heading offering the “Cinematic Grudge Match of the Century.” As promised, Bryan Senn’s critical essay offered a showdown (unnecessary, really) between the two greatest horror-film factories. In the final tally Senn, an obvious Uni-champion, asserted it was “time to bring the Hammer down,” since “without Universal there would be no Hammer.” Though provocative, I personally found comparing the horror-film catalogs of the two companies misguided. Apples and oranges.

In truth, favoring Universal over Hammer (or vice versa) really comes down to one’s preference in taste, style and storytelling. I imagine it’s also a result of which series you were first introduced. My personal nostalgia for the old Universal pics of the 1930s and 1940s is greater than my nostalgia for the British horrors of Hammer. Which doesn’t necessarily mean I enjoy the Hammer’s horror pics any less. I simply didn’t see too many of them as a child growing up in the States. But I was certainly aware of them.

As a dedicated ten-year old reading Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, I was introduced to Hammer horrors via B&W photo layouts of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing promoting their various ghastly enterprises. It’s perhaps telling that even Famous Monsters magazine, whose target readership barely extended beyond a pre-teen audience, described the scripting of Scars of Dracula as “interesting, though somewhat trite.” Oh, well. Since the film received an “X certificate in Britain and an “R” rating in the U.S., it was evident few young monster movie fans would get the opportunity to see it upon theatrical release anyway.

The old Universal’s played often on such programs as Saturday night’s Creature Features or Chiller telecasts, but those same New York City stations would only broadcast Hammer titles on occasion. And, if memory serves, the Hammer horrors telecasted were primarily those released stateside through Universal-International or other U.S. companies. Roy Ward Baker’s Scars of Dracula (1970) was initially not among those titles. For the record, I was first introduced to Scars of Dracula (henceforth referred to as Scars) at November’s end of 1974 when the pic was finally telecast in the New York City market.

The earliest Hammer horrors were produced, as per Variety, “exclusively under Yank major tie-ups” with Universal, 20^th Century Fox and Warner-Seven Arts. In summer of 1970, Hammer announced it was to cut U.S. backing and co-produce two pics with Britain’s EMI subsidiary Associated British Pictures Corporation and the Rank Organisation. The first two announced titles to be released through these two partnerships were Scars of Dracula and Horror of Frankenstein. Hammer’s Sir James Carreras enthused to Kine Weekly this new deal means “the whole of the revenue from overseas sales will come direct back to Britain.”

Tapped to direct was Roy Ward Baker, helmsman of the recent Hammer horror The Vampire Lovers (1970), as well as the company’s Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Anniversary (1968), and Moon Zero Two (1969). For this new project Baker chose to study all of Hammer’s previous Dracula pics, hoping to capture and retain some of the style and atmosphere of the series’ earlier entries. Baker was given only six weeks to shoot the entire Technicolor film in May-June of 1970 (Variety noted a starting date of 11 May at Elstree), so it was to be a fast-tracked hectic production, a not unusual occurrence.

Though Carreras bragged of a 200,000 GBP production budget allotted for Scars, upon release some Hammer scholars wondered where much of that money went. The expenditures are not visually apparent, with castle exteriors and models mostly appearing unconvincing on screen. That said, most agree that art director Scott MacGregor, as had predecessor Bernard Robinson, worked magic in his recycling of old sets to make them appear fresh. Composer James Bernard provides an elegant score to the proceedings which also invokes mood. The film, coupled with Jimmy Sangster’s Horror of Frankenstein, would enjoy its U.K. premiere in October of 1970, followed by its U.S. debut in December 1970.

The film managed to do decent, if not blockbusting, business in the U.K. The movie would even beget Angus Hall’s collectible paperback edition of the scenario, via UK publisher Sphere Books. Following its first week of regional release in the U.S., the double-bill (distributed by American Continental), brought in a respectable $34,000, earning the no. 36 position as a top-grosser for the week ending January 20. But subsequently the package managed only “fair” business in North America. Double-bill partner Horror of Frankenstein generally would receive more positive notices than Scars, the latter pic getting a big critical staking.

In its review of Scars, the Independent Film Journal sighed Christopher Lee’s Dracula “has a large cross to bear in the form of a poor plot and terrible dialogue.” Though acknowledging Baker’s direction as “competent,” the IFJ thought the pics’ “castle sets, miniatures, painted backdrops, fog machines and all are beginning to look threadbare.” The Los Angeles Times too conceded while Baker had already proved himself capable of turning “out an excellent film” in Scars, “all he manages to do here is to keep things moving.” That same critic deemed the film “needlessly protracted,” the vampire bats far too gruesome, and the juxtaposition of sexual encounters with “hideous deaths […] pretty sick in effect.” Howard Thompson of the New York Times would brutally dismiss Scars in two harsh sentences: “Avoid ‘Dracula’ like the plague. It’s garish, gory junk.”

Of course such criticisms were levied upon the film’s release in 1970/1971. By today’s standards the on-screen blood and sex and special effects of Scars would be seen as antiquated, perhaps even laughable at times. Yes, it’s a Hammer film so there’s brief flashing bits of bums and boobs on screen, but as far as sex goes its only ample cleavage on display. The film is certainly less sexy and suggestive than Baker’s envelope-pushing The Vampire Lovers. It is true that Scars offered some of the most graphic and violent scenes of Hammer’s Dracula series to-date, but these assorted scenes, while disturbing in content, flicker quickly by.

The brutal stabbing of Tanya (Anouska Hempel) by Dracula is perhaps the most disturbing. But, as is pointed out in course of the commentaries included with this set from Kino Lorber, that scene could have been played out much worse. British censors demanded the removal of the stabbing’s aftermath, Dracula drinking from the blood of Tanya’s corpse. This was corpse abuse at its best, outright necrophilia at its worse. The dismemberment of Tanya’s corpse by Dracula’s assistant Klove, also seen in brief, was also unnecessarily sadistic, as was his subsequent flesh-burning punishment by Dracula’s iron-hot sword blade.

In an accompanying eighteen-minute legacy documentary Blood Rites: Inside Scars of Dracula (produced and directed by Marcus Hearn) that has been ported over to the the new 4K/Blu-ray Kino Lorber release, an assortment of Hammer historians deconstruct the film, offering what works and what does not. Jonathan Rigby suggests Carreras was “looking to get out” of the horror business, hence the deals with EMI and ABPC. He thought the scripting of Scars “internally confused,” suggesting Hammer was poised to replace a recalcitrant Christopher Lee in the role. Cultural critic and commentator John Johnston suggests Lee’s gaunt Dracula in Scars appears “unwell rather than undead.” Lee would have likely agreed, once noting his ghost-like white make-up in the film “was wrong.” But then again actor had an infamously long-standing love/hate relationship with the role.

In the early 1980s, Lee offered to authors Robert W. Pohle Jr. and Douglas C. Hart of The Films of Christopher Lee (Scarecrow Press, 1983), that Horror of Dracula (1958) was the first and “probably the best” of all of Hammer’s Dracula’s. “From then on, they all – as far as I am concerned – went straight downhill.” Lee was particularly not fond of Scars, describing the pic as “the weakest and the most unconvincing of the Dracula series… probably the poorest of the whole lot.” Lee thought the main issue was with the script. “Instead of writing a story around the character,” he groused, screenwriter John Elder (aka Anthony Hinds) wrote a scenario and tried “to fit the character into it.”

Then again, in the early 80s Lee was dismissive of all of Hammer’s post Horror of Dracula pics. The actor explained to Pohle and Hart his decision for being near-mute in Dracula, Prince of Darkness, 1966): “There was a great deal of dialogue originally, but it was so bad that I refused to deliver it.” Of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968): “I never saw it. The story had begun to sour on me because I saw the character getting farther and farther away from the author’s original.” Of Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), despite a good cast and special effects, the resulting pic offered nothing but a “Progressive deterioration in the series.”

So it is somewhat refreshing to listen to sit through this more contemporary audio commentary moderated by Marcus Hearn (also ported over from previous releases), author of The Hammer Story. Hearn nimbly guides of through an intelligent discussion/viewing of Scars with both Lee and Baker present contributing their thoughts. The passing of time has, apparently, softened some of Lee’s memories of both Scar and his time as Count Dracula. But only softened.

The actor remained very critical of certain aspects of Scars, not the least of which were the unconvincing oversize, blood-thirsty vampire bats of special effects guru Roger Dicken. He admitted to being “frustrated and despondent” in ways he thought Hammer’s writers were steering the series far from Bram Stoker’s novel, believing the scripts too often crossed the “fine line” between the suspension of disbelief and disbelief itself. He laments of not being consulted when scripts were being prepared, and angry his subsequent on-set improving “comments brushed aside.” Though Lee is given a bit more dialogue than usual in Scars, much of the hackneyed verbiage he delivers dilutes any sense of mystery or menace present.

That said, on the plus side, Lee thought Hammer’s scripters did incorporate “an English sense of humor” to the Dracula films, burnishing the elegant visual style of what’s often referred to as “Hammer Glamour.” It must be said Hearn does a commendable job as moderator, never taking center stage. He occasionally offers up a question or two but mostly leans back and allow the extremely loquacious Lee and the more reticent Baker to free-associate in their recollections.

Continue reading "REVIEW: "SCARS OF DRACULA" (1970) STARRING CHRISTOPHER LEE; KINO LORBER BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION"

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Saturday, January 31. 2026

THE ROLLING STONES' "LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER" 4K UHD SPECIAL EDITION FROM KINO LORBER

Cinema Retro has received the following announcement from Kino Lorber:

The Rolling Stones’ exploding rock & roll film of their record-breaking 1981 U.S. tour. Take an onstage seat amongst the interaction of the group that has been called the world’s greatest rock & roll band. Features 25 songs, ranging from their hottest hits to several songs that were never performed before the tour. Captured on film by renowned director Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, Shampoo, Coming Home), with Pablo Ferro as creative associate, using 20 cameras and the latest in 24-track audio. See the breathtaking aerial views of the Sun Devil Stadium, the high-speed segment of the stage crew setting up a complex indoor stage to the grand accompaniment of “Goin’ to a Go-Go” and a performance of “Honky Tonk Women” featuring a massive chorus line of dressed-up “honky-tonk women.” Surround yourself with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood and Bill Wyman amid the brilliant pinks, yellows and blues of the outdoor show. No real music lover or collector could possibly pass this piece of musical history up. You may never get this close to the Rolling Stones again!

Product Extras :

DISC 1 (4KUHD):

Brand New UHD SDR Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
NEW Audio Commentary by Justin Sosa, Host of Hang Fire: A Rolling Stones Podcast
NEW Audio Commentary by Entertainment Journalists/Authors Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc
Optional English Subtitles
5.1 Surround & Lossless 2.0 Audio

DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):

Brand New HD Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
NEW Audio Commentary by Justin Sosa, Host of Hang Fire: A Rolling Stones Podcast
NEW Audio Commentary by Entertainment Journalists/Authors Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
Theatrical Trailer
Dual-Layered BD50 Disc
Optional English Subtitles
5.1 Surround & Lossless 2.0 Audio

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Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Friday, January 30. 2026

BOOK REVIEW: "CLINT: THE MAN AND THE MOVIES" BY SHAWN LEVY ( MARINER)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Clint Eastwood will justifiably always rank among the most prolific giants of cinema. At times it seems that every professional writer in the world has authored a book covering the career of Clint Eastwood (myself, included.) The latest, by Shawn Levy, presents 560 pages of biographical details and career analysis of Eastwood, from his humble upbringing in California to his near-death experience in the military when a plane he was on crashed at sea, to his entrance into show business and his improbable rise to become an international movie icon and Oscar winner. In his foreword, Levy acknowledges the wealth of books about Eastwood but selects the biographies of him by Richard Schickel and Patrick McGilligan, both published in the 1990s, for criticism. Schickel, the legendary film critic, was a friend of Eastwood, who granted extensive interviews for the project. Thus, Levy concludes the resulting book was tainted by Schickel for his treating his subject's personal controversies with kid gloves. Conversely, he accuses McGilligan of basically authoring a bad faith hit piece on the legendary actor. Levy states in his acknowledgements that he reached out to Eastwood but, unsurprisingly, did not receive a response from the notably private screen icon. However, this actually works in the book's favor because Levy can present a dispassionate and objective viewpoint. His research (thoroughly documented in footnotes) provides a very detailed look into Eastwood's life and it extends up to the present day with the release of his latest film Juror #2. Levy documents Eastwood's complex love life over the decades, his multiple marriages and the large family that resulted from his relationships with wives and lovers, all of whom seem to still enjoy good relationships with him. He also covers in detail the unusual aspects of his ultimately doomed love affair with longtime girlfriend and on-screen co-star Sondra Locke.

The book also delves into Eastwood's political views. Unlike the star he has most been compared to, John Wayne, Eastwood tends to be low-key about his leanings, though Levy does dissect Eastwood's controversial comedic stunt when endorsing GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney at the 2012 Republican convention. Mostly, Eastwood's politics are on a local or California state level. He's primarily right wing but, unlike Wayne, he's not an ideologue and occasionally donates to the campaigns of Democratic candidates. Levy also covers Eastwood's one-term as Mayor of Carmel, a position he ran for not so much for political reasons as much as his desire to undo the overly-strict town rules set by his predecessor. True to his word, he put his career on hold to look after the day-to-day needs of the town. Levy also presents Eastwood's generally good instincts as a businessman and conservationist in his beloved area of Monterey and the town of Carmel. Unlike some books about Eastwood, this one does provide abundant analysis of each of his films. Levy rightly defends underrated gems such as Bird and White Hunter, Black Heart while just as appropriately slamming the very few cinematic misfires of Eastwood's career. He bluntly calls out Eastwood (who, for some reason, he refers to in the familial "Clint") for perceived past character flaws, but the impression left is that he is a great admirer of Eastwood both as an actor and director. Refreshingly, he also covers in some depth Eastwood's often overlooked accomplishments as a composer and musician. The book is highly readable, meticulously researched and engrossing throughout. Your bookshelf may be bending with volumes about Clint Eastwood but you should make space for this one.

(For an interview with Kyle Eastwood about his musical collaborations with his father, see Cinema Retro issue #20)

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Posted by Cinema Retro in Book News/Reviews on Thursday, January 29. 2026

REVIEW: "SHAW-SHOCK: SHAW BROTHERS HORROR COLLECTION VOLUME 2" (1960-1974) (IMPRINT BLU-RAY SET)

By Adrian Smith

When you think of the legendary Hong Kong production company Shaw Brothers it’s most likely their Seventies martial arts spectacles that first come to mind, with titles like King Boxer (Chang-hwa Jeong, 1972), The 36^th Chamber of Shaolin (Chia-Liang Liu, 1978) and The Five Venoms (Cheh Chang, also 1978). Back then everybody WAS kung fu fighting. Watching those films in the west in the 1970s and 1980s meant putting up with dubbed, scratchy prints which did nothing for their reputation and lead to the general opinion that these ‘chop-socky’ films had no artistic merit whatsoever. Thankfully the last decade or so has seen a resurgence of interest in Hong Kong cinema, with boutique labels like 88 Films and Arrow Video in the UK, with their ‘Shawscope’ box sets (now up to volume 4), Shout Factory’s ‘Shaw Brothers Classics’ sets (volume 8 has just been released) and Vinegar Syndrome’s Shaw Scares series in America, and now Australia’s Imprint label getting in on the act with both individual releases and now Shaw-Shock Volume 2. The Shaw Brothers studio released around 1000 films before they finally ceased production in the 1980s, so we are likely to see more releases from all of these companies for years to come, both on Blu-ray and UHD (88 Films and Vinegar Syndrome have already released some titles on this latest 4K format).

These new restorations, liberally augmented with authoritative commentaries, archival and new interviews, and sometimes comprehensive books, mean that the Shaw Brothers film can finally be seen for what they were – fascinating, intricate pieces of work produced by artists, craftsmen, performers and fighters all at the top of their game. And more intriguingly, in this case of these Shaw-Shock sets from Imprint, we can discover that Shaw Brothers were more than just purveyors of martial arts epics. Whilst it is unlikely that anyone is going to start releasing their early 1960s musical operatic melodramas any time soon, we are now starting to see more and more of their supernatural and horror-themed productions coming out. Chinese classical literature is full of tales of ghosts, mysticism and magic, so it was only natural that Shaw Brothers would adapt some of these tales for their films. This latest collection from Imprint features three such classic ghost stories which feature little in the way of martial arts but are great examples of the artistry and skills that were typical of the studio.

The Enchanting Shadow (Li Han-hsiang, 1960), the earliest film in the set, draws its inspiration from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, a collection of around 500 short stories written by Pu Songling, first published in 1766 (many other films were also based on these stories, including A Touch of Zen (1971, King Hu) and Erotic Ghost Story (Ngai Choi Lam, 1990); the became a trilogy which was also released as a boxset by Imprint in 2025). In this film a young poet (Lei Zhao) finds himself needing to stay the night in a haunted abandoned temple, where he falls in love with the young artistic beauty (Betty Loh Ti, a very popular star at the time but who sadly took her own life just a few years after making this film) who lives in the house next door with her domineering aunt. However, things get increasingly confusing when he becomes aware that there is no house next door, and the young artist had died several years earlier and is forced by her demonic aunt to lure men to their deaths.

This is an atmospheric, exquisitely designed film which appears to be drawing inspiration from Hammer’s gothic horror films just as much as from traditional Chinese imagery. Given that the second unit director was King Hu, who would go on to reinvent Chinese wuxia cinema just a few years later with incredible films like Come Drink with Me (1966) and the aforementioned A Touch of Zen, which was caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975, it not a surprise that the film looks as good as it does. Sadly, perhaps because the available elements for this are not in as good condition as their later films, there are some minor issues with this release, where some scenes are a bit dark, and the colour balance seems to be struggling on occasion. However, given that this is a worldwide first on Blu-ray, perhaps because of the difficulty in locating a better element, we shouldn’t really complain. There are some useful extras on here too, whether you’re a beginner with Chinese ghost stories or a Shaw aficionado, including an excellent commentary, an interview with a film historian and an archival documentary on the director.

Moving on to the early 1970s, the next film in the set has the sensational title The Bride From Hell (Hsu-Chiang Chou, 1971), and gives us ghosts, Taoist rituals, comedy, eroticism and revenge. A more accurate (but less exploitable) title would be “The Ghost Bride,” as this is no entity from Hell in the traditional sense but the ghost of woman who was raped and murdered and seeks revenge on the men responsible. A young nobleman (Yang Fang) and his comedic servant (Got Siu-Bo) take refuge one night in a remote country home, where they meet a comely young woman (Margaret Hsing Hui) and her servant (Kong Ha). Very quickly they are all married, and the nobleman takes his new bride home to meet his family, who instantly sense that something is wrong with this new addition to the family.

This is another atmospheric ghostly film with beautiful lighting and set design, and some amusing elements to offset the spooky shenanigans. Previously available in a single release in the UK, this edition comes with a fact-packed and insightful new audio commentary by Asian film experts Arne Venema (who was also on the The Enchanting Shadow track) and Domini Ting.

The final film in the set is The Ghost Lovers (Shin Sang-ok, 1974), in which a young woman (Ching Li) dies of a broken heart whilst waiting for her betrothed to return. Having been beaten and robbed of all his savings on the way there, Han (Lin Wei-Tu) is found by a friend (Chu Yao-Ko) and nursed back to health. He is unaware that his beloved has died, so when she and her servant appear to him in the night and lure him out into the woods, he has no reason to suspect that anything is wrong. He is persuaded to marry her right there and then, but they are shortly disturbed, and the film becomes an almost comedic race against time as they are constantly interrupted whilst attempting to consummate the marriage, ensuring that her ghost can remain with him forever. Meanwhile his friend, who knows there are ghostly things going on, does his best to protect them all, including hiring a local troupe of martial arts experts and a Taoist priest.

This one is closer to a traditional horror film, featuring blood, severed limbs and demonic entities, which all work well alongside the romance and comedy. The film is notable for being directed by South Korea’s Shin Sang-ok, who just a few years later would have his life turned upside down when he and his wife were kidnapped by Kim Jong Il and forced to make films in North Korea for several years until they managed to escape and sought sanctuary in the States. Theirs is a fascinating story which has been the subject of books and documentaries, and it is discussed briefly here in a piece on the film by scholar Wayne Wong, as well as on the excellent commentary from American critic, filmmaker and boutique label owner Justin Decloux.

This Region-Free release is another welcome Shaw Brothers collection, which sits well alongside Imprint’s many individual releases of their more traditional martial arts films.

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(Prices are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter for your local currency.)

Posted by Cinema Retro in Adrian Smith on Wednesday, January 28. 2026

"THE NEW AVENGERS: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1976-1977) COMING FROM IMPRINT

Click here to order and to view the list of extensive bonus extras.

(Prices are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter for your local currency.)

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Tuesday, January 27. 2026

OUT OF THE PAST: PROMOTING "THE IPCRESS FILE" (1965)

It can be a real grind for leading actors to promote their latest film, but in 1965 "grind" was literally part of the promotion for Michael Caine's first Harry Palmer spy thriller, "The Ipcress File" in which the cynical agent drinks brews coffee in his London flat, thus leading to the promotional tie-addressed in this blurb that appeared in the Motion Picture Exhibitor trade magazine.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Monday, January 26. 2026

OUT OF THE PAST: TIMES SQUARE, APRIL 1966

Here's a YouTube blast from the past: footage shot in Times Square in April, 1966. It offers a treasure trove of movie marquees and billboards showcasing "The Silencers", "Battle of the Bulge", "Doctor Zhivago", "My Fair Lady", "Harper" (UK title: "The Moving Target") and "The Group". For those of us who can remember frequenting Times Square during the 1960s, you'll also see familiar landmarks such as the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and dining establishments.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Sunday, January 25. 2026

RARE MATT HELM "MURDERER'S ROW" FEATURETTE HIGHLIGHTS THE SLAYGIRLS

The Slaygirls were twelve beautiful young women who resided with playboy/super spy Matt Helm in the popular 1960s film series starring Dean Martin. In this rare production featurette, presented by The Dean Martin Association, for the second Helm film, "Murderers Row", Martin introduces each of the young actresses. We join other Helm fans in pondering why the series has not appeared on home video since the release of a DVD boxed set many years ago. Unless there are some legal snags we are not aware of, a Blu-ray/4K special edition set is long overdue.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Saturday, January 24. 2026

"BLACK SUNDAY" UK BLU-RAY RELEASE COMING FROM ARROW VIDEO

Cinema Retro has received the following announcement from Arrow Video.

(This is a Region 2/B Blu-ray disc.)

Click here to pre-order. It will be released on 9 March, 2026.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Reviews & News on Friday, January 23. 2026

98TH ANNUAL OSCAR NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

The 98th annual Oscar nominations have been announced. Click here for complete list.

Posted by Cinema Retro in Events on Thursday, January 22. 2026

THE FASCINATING STORY BEHIND "THE LIME KILN CLUB FIELD DAY" (1913)

From the Museum of Modern Art YouTube Channel:

"Lime Kiln Club Field Day is the earliest surviving feature film with an all-Black cast. Shot between 1913 and 1914 but never finished or released, the film was effectively lost to history until MoMA assembled the archival elements and released the film 100 years later. What we originally acquired from the Biograph Studio in 1939 were seven cans of unedited daily rushes. At the time the negative was printed for viewing in the late 1970s, our staff could see the footage featured Caribbean-American vaudeville star Bert Williams, but that was all. Because the film was never completed there were no release prints to which we could compare our reels, nor were there any production records or reviews. We took it up again in 2003 when new digital technology allowed for closer inspection. The detective work involved frame-by-frame study of each reel for glimpses of the directors and crew stepping in front of the camera between takes, as well as facial recognition techniques to identify the cast. Curator Ron Magliozzi and preservation officer Peter Williamson conducted research over nearly a decade to decipher the plot of the film and recover its production history, even going so far as to employ a lip reader and explore Staten Island and New Jersey in search of locations.

(Bert Williams)

Had Biograph finished the film, it would have been a broad comedy of rival suitors competing for the hand of the town beauty on fairground playing fields and a high-society dance floor. But what distinguishes Lime Kiln Club Field Day is the love story between Bert Williams and his leading lady, Odessa Warren Grey, arguably the screen’s first Black woman star. The scene featured in this excerpt is one of joy and laughter, an important representation of middle-class Black life in the 1910s, as well as a breath of fresh air in 2020. Since its initial screening, this work has been the Department of Film’s number-one most requested title for both loans and research screenings. Lime Kiln Club Field Day continues to inspire artists such as Garrett Bradley, whose powerful installation incorporating footage from the film, titled America, will be on view at MoMA soon. Please note: Williams was among a number of leading Black performers who appeared wearing blackface onstage at the turn of the century, and this practice carried over into early films. As we see in this excerpt from Lime Kiln, adopting this convention of the minstrel stage allowed significant numbers of their fellow Black castmates to appear alongside them, without being forced to wear racist makeup as well."

Learn more at Virtual Views: Film Vault Summer Camp https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibit...

Posted by Cinema Retro in Out of the Past on Thursday, January 22. 2026

BOOK REVIEW: "BOOTLACE CINEMA VOLUME TWO: COLLECTING ALL KINDS OF MOVIES ON SUPER 8!" BY MARK WILLIAMS (TREE FROG PUBLICATIONS)

BOOTLACE CINEMA VOLUME TWO: COLLECTING ALL KINDS OF MOVIES ON SUPER 8! By Mark Williams (Tree Frog Publications, £16.99/£26.50), 144 pages, Illustrated (Colour), Paperback and Hardback, ISBN-9798243640213.

Review by Tim Greaves

Following on from last year‘s “Bootlace Cinema”, which surveyed horror, science fiction and exploitation releases on the 8mm “bootlace” film format, author Mark Williams is back with a follow-up that widens the field to comprise collectible releases spanning a more diverse range of genres, which in turn potentially affords it broader appeal.

As was the case with that first volume, it’s eye-opening to learn just how many films were available on the format in other countries back in the hobby’s heyday; remember we had no Internet back in the 1970s and 1980s, so there was little way an eager fledgling collector like myself would ever have known they existed. German collectors were notably treated to some fabulous releases. And that brings us to the book’s real draw: the hundreds of drool-worthy illustrations of box artwork which pack the pages from cover to cover – all reproduced in colour – are a real education as to just how the hobby flourished overseas. A peppering of reproduction pages from old distributor catalogues are the icing on the cake.

Williams covers more than 130 titles, with a number of releases that will be familiar to UK collectors all rubbing shoulders with the likes of Orca, Death on the Nile, Breakheart Pass, Django, Flash Gordon, Warlords of Atlantis and Lemon Popsicle. Then there are the guilty pleasures, such as Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals and Jack the Ripper (Jess Franco’s 1976 version starring Klaus Kinski).

Mentioning Lemon Popsicle, a bonus chapter provides a nice overview of the popular 1970s/80s film series, from which, sadly, only the first spawned an 8mm home release – and once again it was a title exclusive to Germany. At least if they only released one, they went with the best of them.

While both volumes of “Bootlace Cinema” will resonate with collectors of yesteryear such as myself – and may even tempt a few old hands back into the fold – it also functions as a treasure trove of temptation for those who may like the idea of getting into a hobby that it’s comforting to know is still thriving. Who would have guessed that in 2026 you would be able to acquire a full-length widescreen “bootlace” gauge feature of Diamonds are Forever from Spain?

Click here to order from Amazon USA

Click here to order from Amazon UK

Posted by Cinema Retro in Book News/Reviews on Wednesday, January 21. 2026

REVIEW: "ALICE, SWEET ALICE" (1976) STARRING BROOKE SHIELDS, ARROW FILMS 4K/BLU-RAY RELEASE

By Todd Garbarini

The late Alfred Sole was a production designer who carved out a nice career for himself in Hollywood, most notably on the television shows Veronica Mars (2004-7), Castle (2009-16), and the reboot of MacGyver (2017-18). Long before he chose that line of work, however, he dabbled in the world of film directing. His first film, the 1972 hardcore sex “comedy” Deep Sleep, must be seen to be believed because despite a few flourishes of cinematic style and several humorous sequences involving dialogue, the film is nothing more than a hardcore sex romp featuring folks no one in their right mind would want to see naked, let alone copulating. There is absolutely nothing in this film to suggest that he would next direct one of the greatest and most thematically disturbing thrillers of our time, 1976’s Communion, which was later retitled Alice, Sweet Alice when it fell into the public domain and ended up on local television airings and on VHS videocassette. It is not to be confused with the Christopher Walken/alien probe 1989 outing based on Whitley Strieber’s 1987 “non-fiction” book of the same name. Mr. Sole’s subsequent films, 1980’s Tanya’s Island with the late Denise Matthews (credited as “D.D. Winters”) and 1982’s star-studded comedy Pandemonium, both fared poorly at the box office, hence his career change. Thankfully, Alice, Sweet Alice, with its high cinematic style and deceptively low production budget, refused to die.

In her screen debut, Brooke Shields plays Karen Spages (rhymes with “pages”), the younger sister of Alice Spages, the latter brilliantly portrayed by New Jersey-born actress Paula Sheppard, whose only other onscreen credit is Slava Tsukerman’s cult film Liquid Sky (1982). Karen is favored by everyone around her and can do no wrong, mostly because Alice is a troublemaker. Alice teases Karen, locks her in an abandoned building to scare her, and mistreats her communion veil. Why the horseplay? Alice was conceived out of wedlock and is not entitled to receive the Holy Eucharist. As if this is her fault.

On the day of her First Communion, Karen is brutally murdered right in the church and all suspicion points to her sister after she finds the discarded veil and wears it to the altar. This sets in motion some truly well-acted scenes wherein the identity of the killer is constantly in question. Everyone suspects Alice, even her neighbor Mr. Alphonse (Alphonse DeNoble), who plays an obese monstrosity you must see to believe. Karen and Alice’s mother Catherine (Linda Miller) is grief-stricken and meets her ex-husband Dom (Niles McMaster) at the funeral. Afterwards, there are suspicions about Alice’s whereabouts during Karen’s murder and Alice submits to a polygraph which she mischievously pushes on to the floor. Her Aunt Annie (Jane Lowry) battles with Catherine and the latter accuses her of hating Alice because of her sinful status. Annie refutes this until she herself is attacked in a shockingly bloody sequence and fully believes that Alice is the killer.

Alice takes place circa 1961 as evinced by the production design, the old-style cars, the calendar on the wall, and the prevalence of a poster of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) that can be seen if one really looks for it. Originally reviled amid concerns that it is an attack against the Catholic Church (how can it not be?), the film was met with lukewarm box office. Director Sole was rumored to have stated that the church was simply the milieu he wanted to set the story against, but the Blu-ray commentary infers otherwise. It is one of the most Catholic-themed films I have ever seen, even more so than William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) or Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). It has a look, a feel, and an atmosphere all its own. This film is quite simply one of the best low-budget American horror films ever made. It boasts a superbly eerie score by Stephen Lawrence who scored a handful of other films. Yours Truly had been wishing for a soundtrack album of this music for decades, and one finally surfaced from Waxwork Records which, though now out-of-print, can be found on eBay. Great editing, wonderful set design, and excellent music all come together to make Alice an enjoyable shocker that can easily be viewed more than several times.

This film has had a strange history. Filmed in Mr. Sole’s hometown of Paterson, NJ in the summer of 1975, Alice premiered in Paterson (Lou Costello’s old stomping grounds) under its original title Communion, it had its world premiere on Saturday, November 13, 1976 at the Fabian Theater (now the Fabian Building). The event was met with much fanfare, however a subsequent theatrical release failed to stir much interest. Communion was dropped by the original distributor, picked up by another, retitled Alice, Sweet Alice and was even known as The Mask Murders in some ad campaigns. It was re-cut and redistributed on Friday, April 3, 1981 as Holy Terror and played up Brooke Shields’s participation in response to the success of the previous year’s The Blue Lagoon and anticipating the release of her new film at the time, Franco Zefferelli’s Endless Love. It then made its way to cable television and local independent stations where the bulk of us caught up with it. Later, it was relegated to VHS collecting dust in discount bins beginning in 1985 with Goodtimes Home Video, seemingly forever to be lost within the public domain due to a legal snafu.

In 1998, the film received a laserdisc release from the Roan Group which sported a highly entertaining audio commentary from director Sole and the film’s editor, Edward Salier. The film was given two DVD releases later on which ported over the commentary. Even without the benefit of Sole's discussion, one can easily see the influence that Nicolas Roeg's astonishing Don’t Look Now (1973) has on this film.

In 2018, a Blu-ray was issued for this title. The film was restored in a new 2K transfer generated from one of the film’s few remaining 35mm prints and practically restored it to how it looked over forty years ago. I was grateful to have it and it had been a long time coming.

Continue reading "REVIEW: "ALICE, SWEET ALICE" (1976) STARRING BROOKE SHIELDS, ARROW FILMS 4K/BLU-RAY RELEASE"

Posted by Cinema Retro in Todd Garbarini on Tuesday, January 20. 2026

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