The deceptively unassuming figure of Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk), with his rumpled raincoat, cheap cigars, and seeming absentmindedness, might not call to mind the sprawling existentialist novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky. But Columbo’s ancestry can be traced all the way back to Porfiry Petrovich, the pesky, psychologically attuned investigator in Crime and Punishment.
Like that literary classic, the show that shares Columbo’s name functions as an inverted detective story, not so much a whodunit as a howcatchem. In each episode, we spend time with the murderer, soak up their milieu, and witness the commission of the crime. Only then does Columbo make his entrance onto the scene. From there, it’s an escalating battle of nerves between the dogged detective and the initially arrogant murderer.
While Rodion Raskolnikov, the tortured protagonist of Crime and Punishment, is an impoverished student who kills out of economic necessity...
Like that literary classic, the show that shares Columbo’s name functions as an inverted detective story, not so much a whodunit as a howcatchem. In each episode, we spend time with the murderer, soak up their milieu, and witness the commission of the crime. Only then does Columbo make his entrance onto the scene. From there, it’s an escalating battle of nerves between the dogged detective and the initially arrogant murderer.
While Rodion Raskolnikov, the tortured protagonist of Crime and Punishment, is an impoverished student who kills out of economic necessity...
- 12/7/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Calling all vinyl lovers: back up for grabs today is 2023’s deluxe subscription service from our friends at Waxwork Records, which notably includes five vinyl soundtrack releases *exclusive* to the service.
The stacked lineup reveals what’s ahead for their 2023 releases.
Waxwork explains “We are so excited to announce the return of the Waxwork Records Subscription! 2023 marks our eighth year offering an exclusive and deluxe subscription service. With this service, we are proud to present the absolute best quality re-mastered soundtracks and film scores on vinyl, featuring all new artwork, and with high quality packaging. In addition to Six subscriber-exclusive colored vinyl soundtracks, you get some dope goodies and discounts throughout the year.”
The lineup includes…
Dawn Of The Dead Original Theatrical Soundtrack Library Music 3xLP (1978)
“You’ve been asking for it, and we listened! For the very first time on vinyl, you’ll be able to enjoy the complete...
The stacked lineup reveals what’s ahead for their 2023 releases.
Waxwork explains “We are so excited to announce the return of the Waxwork Records Subscription! 2023 marks our eighth year offering an exclusive and deluxe subscription service. With this service, we are proud to present the absolute best quality re-mastered soundtracks and film scores on vinyl, featuring all new artwork, and with high quality packaging. In addition to Six subscriber-exclusive colored vinyl soundtracks, you get some dope goodies and discounts throughout the year.”
The lineup includes…
Dawn Of The Dead Original Theatrical Soundtrack Library Music 3xLP (1978)
“You’ve been asking for it, and we listened! For the very first time on vinyl, you’ll be able to enjoy the complete...
- 12/13/2022
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
When Guillermo del Toro walks out of the darkness to introduce his “Cabinet of Curiosities,” he’s also walking directly out of the year 1969.
The eight-episode horror anthology has been in Netflix’s top 10 since its release Oct. 25. Each beautifully crafted episode begins with creator and host del Toro pulling an objet d’art from his elaborate cabinet to introduce the tale and its director, as well as a chess-piece-sized carving of each director.
In a tweet, del Toro explained some of the inspiration of his Cabinet: “First night: EC vibes,” he wrote, referring to the massively influential EC horror comics of the ‘50s such as Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. “Second night: unsettling and ‘now’, Third night: period/pulp classics and Final night: voices that, in my estimation, are clear and loud in the symphony of our genre.”
But del Toro goes much deeper in his introduction to the upcoming,...
The eight-episode horror anthology has been in Netflix’s top 10 since its release Oct. 25. Each beautifully crafted episode begins with creator and host del Toro pulling an objet d’art from his elaborate cabinet to introduce the tale and its director, as well as a chess-piece-sized carving of each director.
In a tweet, del Toro explained some of the inspiration of his Cabinet: “First night: EC vibes,” he wrote, referring to the massively influential EC horror comics of the ‘50s such as Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. “Second night: unsettling and ‘now’, Third night: period/pulp classics and Final night: voices that, in my estimation, are clear and loud in the symphony of our genre.”
But del Toro goes much deeper in his introduction to the upcoming,...
- 11/11/2022
- by Mark Rahner
- The Wrap
Night Gallery (Season 1)
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1969/ Color / 1.33:1 / 408 Minutes
Starring Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley, William Windom
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Boris Sagal, Jeannot Szwarc
A modern-day mythologist with a populist bent, Rod Serling fused the cautionary tales of fantasists like Ray Bradbury to the righteous anger of muckrakers like Ambrose Bierce and A.J. Leibling. Add to that mix the never ending run-ins with network honchos and we can assume that the beleaguered Everyman who populated Serling’s most enduring creation was more than a little autobiographical.
Serling began his long journey on October 2, 1959—and while the signpost up ahead may have read “The Twilight Zone”, the world-weary Serling’s real destination was the past. An early entry in that ground-breaking series was the writer’s own Walking Distance, the story of Martin Sloan, a burned-out ad man who, thanks to some homespun hocus-pocus, has a heart-to-heart chat with his own 11-year-old self.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1969/ Color / 1.33:1 / 408 Minutes
Starring Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley, William Windom
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Boris Sagal, Jeannot Szwarc
A modern-day mythologist with a populist bent, Rod Serling fused the cautionary tales of fantasists like Ray Bradbury to the righteous anger of muckrakers like Ambrose Bierce and A.J. Leibling. Add to that mix the never ending run-ins with network honchos and we can assume that the beleaguered Everyman who populated Serling’s most enduring creation was more than a little autobiographical.
Serling began his long journey on October 2, 1959—and while the signpost up ahead may have read “The Twilight Zone”, the world-weary Serling’s real destination was the past. An early entry in that ground-breaking series was the writer’s own Walking Distance, the story of Martin Sloan, a burned-out ad man who, thanks to some homespun hocus-pocus, has a heart-to-heart chat with his own 11-year-old self.
- 1/25/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
By Todd Garbarini
If the title Killdozer is familiar to you, you may have seen it before. Originally a novella by Theodore Sturgeon published in the November 1944 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, a Marvel Comics book in April 1974, and later appearing in The Mammoth Book of Golden Age: Ten Classic Stories from the Birth of Modern Science Fiction Writing (1989), Killdozer was adapted into a made-for-tv movie which aired on Saturday, February 2, 1974. Sporting the tagline “Six men…playing a deadly game of cat and mouse…With a machine that wants to kill them,” and billed as A World Premiere ABC Saturday Suspense Movie, there is little suspense in this overly silly tale of a Caterpillar D9 that is enlisted by a team of construction workers who have been assigned to build a landing strip for an oil drilling company on an island near Africa.
By Todd Garbarini
If the title Killdozer is familiar to you, you may have seen it before. Originally a novella by Theodore Sturgeon published in the November 1944 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, a Marvel Comics book in April 1974, and later appearing in The Mammoth Book of Golden Age: Ten Classic Stories from the Birth of Modern Science Fiction Writing (1989), Killdozer was adapted into a made-for-tv movie which aired on Saturday, February 2, 1974. Sporting the tagline “Six men…playing a deadly game of cat and mouse…With a machine that wants to kill them,” and billed as A World Premiere ABC Saturday Suspense Movie, there is little suspense in this overly silly tale of a Caterpillar D9 that is enlisted by a team of construction workers who have been assigned to build a landing strip for an oil drilling company on an island near Africa.
- 3/6/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Music supervisor Maggie Phillips had her hands full on “Homecoming” and “The Umbrella Academy,” but for very different reasons. When director Sam Esmail insisting on using only pre-existing classic soundtracks to score his conspiracy thriller, Phillips found herself in uncharted territory, which turned into a licensing nightmare. And even though the series about an adopted sibling superhero rivalry offered a more conventional challenge, Phillips was still keen on pushing the nostalgic factor in fresh musical ways.
“All of my projects before [‘Homecoming’] I’ve chosen songs and editors are temping in score, and then the composer comes in and replaces,” Phillips said. “And sometimes I’ll help with the temp score, but that’s not very common. But Sam wanted all pre-existing soundtracks as cues [to evoke the paranoia vibe] of ‘All the President’s Men,’ ‘Klute,’ and ‘The Conversation,’ and then that list got expanded and changed out of necessity because of the licensing...
“All of my projects before [‘Homecoming’] I’ve chosen songs and editors are temping in score, and then the composer comes in and replaces,” Phillips said. “And sometimes I’ll help with the temp score, but that’s not very common. But Sam wanted all pre-existing soundtracks as cues [to evoke the paranoia vibe] of ‘All the President’s Men,’ ‘Klute,’ and ‘The Conversation,’ and then that list got expanded and changed out of necessity because of the licensing...
- 6/13/2019
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Both Amazon Prime’s “Homecoming” and Netflix’s “Russian Doll” provocatively play with the 30-minute format, cramming their existential journeys with confusing timelines and visual detail. But, thanks to binge watching, the two shows actually function like long movies, according to editors Rosanne Tan (“Homecoming”) and Laura Weinberg (“Russian Doll”).
In “Homecoming,” the ’70s-style conspiracy thriller from director Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”), social worker Heidi (Julia Roberts) tries to help troubled soldiers transition back to civilian life in one timeline (shot in a wide aspect ratio), while attempting to solve the strange mystery of her memory loss as a result of a nefarious plot in a future timeline (shot in a shorter aspect ratio). And, in “Russian Doll,” the black comedy from showrunner/star Natasha Lyonne, her self-absorbed software engineer, Nadia, repeatedly dies on her 36th birthday in a “Groundhog Day”-like loop, only to discover fellow traveler, Alan (Charles Barnett), also stuck in time.
In “Homecoming,” the ’70s-style conspiracy thriller from director Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”), social worker Heidi (Julia Roberts) tries to help troubled soldiers transition back to civilian life in one timeline (shot in a wide aspect ratio), while attempting to solve the strange mystery of her memory loss as a result of a nefarious plot in a future timeline (shot in a shorter aspect ratio). And, in “Russian Doll,” the black comedy from showrunner/star Natasha Lyonne, her self-absorbed software engineer, Nadia, repeatedly dies on her 36th birthday in a “Groundhog Day”-like loop, only to discover fellow traveler, Alan (Charles Barnett), also stuck in time.
- 6/6/2019
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Universal has embarked on a long-range plan to preserve and restore its unreleased movie music and, starting next week, release some of these scores as limited-edition soundtrack albums.
The imprint will be called Universal Pictures Film Music Heritage Collection, and its first release, to be formally announced Tuesday, will be Michel Colombier’s music from the 1970 science-fiction film “Colossus: The Forbin Project.”
Following in August will be Henry Mancini’s score for the 1979 Peter Sellers remake of “The Prisoner of Zenda.” Both will be on the La-La Land label, which specializes in movie and TV soundtracks.
“We’re a century-old media company,” Mike Knobloch, Universal Pictures president of global film music and publishing, told Variety. “As much as we’re always looking forward, sometimes we have to look back, and recognize and value our history. Our catalog dates back to the beginning of cinema and the advent of sound. This...
The imprint will be called Universal Pictures Film Music Heritage Collection, and its first release, to be formally announced Tuesday, will be Michel Colombier’s music from the 1970 science-fiction film “Colossus: The Forbin Project.”
Following in August will be Henry Mancini’s score for the 1979 Peter Sellers remake of “The Prisoner of Zenda.” Both will be on the La-La Land label, which specializes in movie and TV soundtracks.
“We’re a century-old media company,” Mike Knobloch, Universal Pictures president of global film music and publishing, told Variety. “As much as we’re always looking forward, sometimes we have to look back, and recognize and value our history. Our catalog dates back to the beginning of cinema and the advent of sound. This...
- 6/22/2018
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
By Lee Pfeiffer
The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night". The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for...
The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night". The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for...
- 8/6/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Sometimes a small cast and an intriguing premise are all that’s needed for effective TV horror. (And it makes it a hell of a lot cheaper to produce too.) Case in point: 1973’s A Cold Night’s Death, starring Eli Wallach and Robert Culp, a two man tour de force pitting man against man against the fragility of the human mind. Plus monkeys!
Acnd originally aired on Tuesday, January 30th as an ABC Movie of the Week, which was always a top 20 performer, getting trounced only by Maude and Hawaii Five-o over at CBS. (It’s hard to beat the combined star power of Bea Arthur and Jack Lord.) But fans of finely turned horror always knew that ABC was the place to be.
Let’s check out our brittle and frosted faux TV Guide to see what’s in store:
A Cold Night’S Death (Tuesday, 8:30pm,...
Acnd originally aired on Tuesday, January 30th as an ABC Movie of the Week, which was always a top 20 performer, getting trounced only by Maude and Hawaii Five-o over at CBS. (It’s hard to beat the combined star power of Bea Arthur and Jack Lord.) But fans of finely turned horror always knew that ABC was the place to be.
Let’s check out our brittle and frosted faux TV Guide to see what’s in store:
A Cold Night’S Death (Tuesday, 8:30pm,...
- 1/1/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Michael Winner is the bad-taste choice to give The Exorcist a run for its money in the faux-religious horror shocker sweepstakes, and the brave actress Cristina Raines leads an impressive supporting cast as the unfortunate suicide attemptee chosen to be the new Gatekeeper for the portal to Hell. Don't expect to see a Keymaster, but instead some of the most indigestible exploitation of the mainstream decade -- mainly real sideshow oddities to represent 'evil' people. Easily the hands-down insensitivity champ of the '70s. The Sentinel Blu-ray Shout! Factory / Scream Factory 1977 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date September 22, 2015 / 27.99 Starring Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Arthur Kennedy, Deborah Raffin, Ava Gardner, John Carradine, Beverly D'Angelo, Eli Wallach, Sylvia Miles, Martin Balsam, José Ferrer, Christopher Walken, Jerry Orbach, William Hickey, Jeff Goldblum, Anthony Holland, Tom Berenger. Cinematography Dick Kratina Special Effects Albert Whitlock Special Makeup Effects Dick Smith Original Music Gil Melle...
- 10/13/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By David S. Schow
Hall: “Where’s the library?”
Dutton: “No need for books — everything’s in the computer.”
One of the few regrets of my adult life is that I never got to meet Michael Crichton, who died too young, November 2008. Eminently emulatable, he had conquered publishing, film and television and remains a personal hero. I was hooked from the moment my father returned from his Arctic DEWLine duties bearing a paperback first printing of The Andromeda Strain, which I plowed through while in high school. Then immediately re-read, and re-read again.
I still have that paperback.
Subsequently I devoured everything Crichton wrote — the “John Lange” potboilers written to pay his way through medical school; the landmark A Case of Need (written as “Jeffrey Hudson;” a stingingly strong pro-choice novel done prior to the Roe v. Wade decision); even the dope fantasia Dealing, written with his brother as “Michael Douglas.
Hall: “Where’s the library?”
Dutton: “No need for books — everything’s in the computer.”
One of the few regrets of my adult life is that I never got to meet Michael Crichton, who died too young, November 2008. Eminently emulatable, he had conquered publishing, film and television and remains a personal hero. I was hooked from the moment my father returned from his Arctic DEWLine duties bearing a paperback first printing of The Andromeda Strain, which I plowed through while in high school. Then immediately re-read, and re-read again.
I still have that paperback.
Subsequently I devoured everything Crichton wrote — the “John Lange” potboilers written to pay his way through medical school; the landmark A Case of Need (written as “Jeffrey Hudson;” a stingingly strong pro-choice novel done prior to the Roe v. Wade decision); even the dope fantasia Dealing, written with his brother as “Michael Douglas.
- 6/29/2014
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
By Erin Lashley, MoreHorror.com
When Michael Calls - 1972
Helen begins receiving phone calls from a troubled child who claims to be her nephew Michael. The problem is that Michael died fifteen years ago.
Phone calls from beyond the grave are bad enough, and these sound mighty eerie, if you are affected by sounds in horror films the way that I am. But what really has the potential to be chilling is the idea that, if it’s not a ghost calling, then someone has to be absolutely batshit crazy to perpetrate a hoax like this. Not only that, but they’ve managed to coerce a living child into making the phone calls.
Michael Douglas is here in an early role, and if you’re a fan of Falling Down then you know that he does disturbed characters very well.
When Michael Calls stars Ben Gazzara, Elizabeth Ashley, and Michael Douglas,...
When Michael Calls - 1972
Helen begins receiving phone calls from a troubled child who claims to be her nephew Michael. The problem is that Michael died fifteen years ago.
Phone calls from beyond the grave are bad enough, and these sound mighty eerie, if you are affected by sounds in horror films the way that I am. But what really has the potential to be chilling is the idea that, if it’s not a ghost calling, then someone has to be absolutely batshit crazy to perpetrate a hoax like this. Not only that, but they’ve managed to coerce a living child into making the phone calls.
Michael Douglas is here in an early role, and if you’re a fan of Falling Down then you know that he does disturbed characters very well.
When Michael Calls stars Ben Gazzara, Elizabeth Ashley, and Michael Douglas,...
- 8/14/2012
- by admin
- MoreHorror
Directed by: John Badham, Jeannot Szwarc, Timothy Galfas, Jack Laird
Written by: Rod Serling, Jack Laird, Halsted Welles, David Rayfiel
Starring: Rod Serling, Joanna Pettet, Burgess Meredith, Vincent Price, Bill Bixby, Geraldine Page
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery is a beloved cult series with a complicated history. It was Serling’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed Twilight Zone, which ran on CBS from 1959–64. Its eerie opening introduction featuring Serling in a dark gallery surrounded by dynamic, often disturbing paintings was the hallmark of the show. Serling would introduce new paintings (by gifted artist Tom Wright) each week, which would segue into a story that usually revolved around a supernatural or occult theme.
Night Gallery began its run with a well-received two-hour pilot on NBC in November 1969. The following year it was included as part of NBC’s Four-in-One programming wheel. It rotated every fourth Wednesday with The Psychiatrist, McCloud and San Francisco International Airport.
Written by: Rod Serling, Jack Laird, Halsted Welles, David Rayfiel
Starring: Rod Serling, Joanna Pettet, Burgess Meredith, Vincent Price, Bill Bixby, Geraldine Page
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery is a beloved cult series with a complicated history. It was Serling’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed Twilight Zone, which ran on CBS from 1959–64. Its eerie opening introduction featuring Serling in a dark gallery surrounded by dynamic, often disturbing paintings was the hallmark of the show. Serling would introduce new paintings (by gifted artist Tom Wright) each week, which would segue into a story that usually revolved around a supernatural or occult theme.
Night Gallery began its run with a well-received two-hour pilot on NBC in November 1969. The following year it was included as part of NBC’s Four-in-One programming wheel. It rotated every fourth Wednesday with The Psychiatrist, McCloud and San Francisco International Airport.
- 4/24/2012
- by Bradley Harding
- Planet Fury
Welcome to the first Notebook Soundtrack Mix—Hyper Sleep! A word about the mix: There's no thematic thread through this collection, it's a variety of intriguing music. In making soundtrack mixes, I'm drawn to the subjective qualities of association and meaning that arise from experiencing the musical narratives that result from transitions and combinations of tracks in succession. Though there are several favorite films, Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill, for one, individual pieces are chosen simply for the music. I haven't seen some of the films. Robert Drasnin, Vladimir Cosma and Antoine Duhamel are represented with curious French T.V. work, rather than with some of their more well known output (The Kremlin Letter, Diva and Pierrot le fou, respectively.) Maybe this is the first of a series…I have several ideas for themed mixes, but wanted to start this way, including work that reflects jazz, classical, experimental and pop influences.
- 8/29/2011
- MUBI
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