It seems only natural that Severin Films would follow up its two Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee box sets with a collection of some of the more offbeat entries in the filmography of Peter Cushing, Lee’s legendary Hammer Films co-star. Cushing Curiosities collects five films and the remaining episodes of a TV series that highlight the diverse aspects of Cushing’s always authoritative on-screen persona. Featuring crisp new 2K restorations sourced from original elements, Severin’s compelling new set comes complete with loads of bonus materials, including some priceless audio interviews with the man himself and commentaries by historians, as well as Peter Cushing: A Portrait in Six Sketches, a 200-page book by film historian Jonathan Rigby.
Cushing appears as a stiff-necked yet urbane airline pilot in 1960’s Cone of Silence, a modestly compelling exposé based on the actual investigation into a 1952 airplane crash. Reprimanded for a crash that killed his copilot,...
Cushing appears as a stiff-necked yet urbane airline pilot in 1960’s Cone of Silence, a modestly compelling exposé based on the actual investigation into a 1952 airplane crash. Reprimanded for a crash that killed his copilot,...
- 12/21/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Synopsis
Black Hawk Down
From acclaimed director Ridley Scott (The Martian) and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) comes the gripping true story about bravery, camaraderie, and the complex reality of war.
Black Hawk Down stars an exceptional cast including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Eric Bana. In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes quickly and terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.
The Guns Of Navarone
Academy Award®-winners Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn star as a team of Allied military specialists recruited for a dangerous but imperative mission: to infiltrate a Nazi-occupied fortress and disable two long-range field guns so that 2,000 trapped British soldiers may be rescued.
Black Hawk Down
From acclaimed director Ridley Scott (The Martian) and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) comes the gripping true story about bravery, camaraderie, and the complex reality of war.
Black Hawk Down stars an exceptional cast including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Eric Bana. In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes quickly and terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.
The Guns Of Navarone
Academy Award®-winners Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn star as a team of Allied military specialists recruited for a dangerous but imperative mission: to infiltrate a Nazi-occupied fortress and disable two long-range field guns so that 2,000 trapped British soldiers may be rescued.
- 9/17/2023
- by ComicMix Staff
- Comicmix.com
Severin Films is celebrating the late Peter Cushing with an unprecedented box set highlighting the most unexpected gems from the filmography of the legendary horror actor.
Cushing Curiosities, releasing August 29, presents 6-discs of rarely seen feature films and television broadcasts restored and scanned from original vault sources, plus a curated plethora of Special Features that celebrate Cushing’s unique career like never before.
From Hammer Films to Star Wars, he remains one of genre films’ best-loved actors. Now celebrate six of the most unexpected, rarely seen and decidedly curious performances from the legendary career of Peter Cushing: Cushing delivers a rare villain turn in the 1960 aviation thriller Cone Of Silence. That same year, Cushing brought gentle dignity to The Boulting Brothers’ cold-war drama Suspect. In 1962’s The Man Who Finally Died, Cushing co-stars opposite Stanley Baker as a former Nazi hiding a grave post-war secret.
Cushing returns to his...
Cushing Curiosities, releasing August 29, presents 6-discs of rarely seen feature films and television broadcasts restored and scanned from original vault sources, plus a curated plethora of Special Features that celebrate Cushing’s unique career like never before.
From Hammer Films to Star Wars, he remains one of genre films’ best-loved actors. Now celebrate six of the most unexpected, rarely seen and decidedly curious performances from the legendary career of Peter Cushing: Cushing delivers a rare villain turn in the 1960 aviation thriller Cone Of Silence. That same year, Cushing brought gentle dignity to The Boulting Brothers’ cold-war drama Suspect. In 1962’s The Man Who Finally Died, Cushing co-stars opposite Stanley Baker as a former Nazi hiding a grave post-war secret.
Cushing returns to his...
- 8/16/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Hell Drivers Hell Drivers, 3pm, Talking Pictures TV (Freeview Channel 82), Monday, February 13
Andrew Robertson writes: Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) is an ex-con caught up trying to scrape by. As a trucker in the 1950s his attempts to keep to the straight and narrow are sometimes not the shortest path. There's romance, racism, recklessness. Hell Drivers tells its story with efficient abandon. The cargo may be ballast but it's well balanced. A cast of not-yet-famous faces bring to life a tale of machismo and machinery. Machinations too, in a scheme involving 'getting' and 'quick' but not everyone will be rich. Near everyone involved would go on to higher heights. Unlike many shared early works this holds up well. It may at times look clumsy to modern viewers but this is robust film-making. Six decades and change have not slowed its pace, nor dulled its anger. Sorry We Missed You covers similar ground.
Andrew Robertson writes: Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) is an ex-con caught up trying to scrape by. As a trucker in the 1950s his attempts to keep to the straight and narrow are sometimes not the shortest path. There's romance, racism, recklessness. Hell Drivers tells its story with efficient abandon. The cargo may be ballast but it's well balanced. A cast of not-yet-famous faces bring to life a tale of machismo and machinery. Machinations too, in a scheme involving 'getting' and 'quick' but not everyone will be rich. Near everyone involved would go on to higher heights. Unlike many shared early works this holds up well. It may at times look clumsy to modern viewers but this is robust film-making. Six decades and change have not slowed its pace, nor dulled its anger. Sorry We Missed You covers similar ground.
- 2/13/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Michael Caine’s heist comedy has been rated one of the top UK movies ever. It’s a flip Swingin’ England slapstick thriller, lavishly produced and with an emphasis on fancy cars. Caine is a cockney crook with an insane scheme to steal millions in Red Chinese gold in Turin. Slick stuntwork combines with ‘Team Brit’ humor for a wild escape in a rush hour traffic jam. The lavish goes for show-off spectacle — its real stars are a trio of undersized, underdog UK automobiles.
The Italian Job 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date January 31, 2023 / Available from / 39.95
Starring: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, Michael Standing, Harry Baird, Robert Rietty, Lelia Goldoni, Valery Leon, Lisa Shane.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Production Designer: Disley Jones
Art Director: Michael Knight
Film Editor: John Trumper
Stunt Driving:...
The Italian Job 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date January 31, 2023 / Available from / 39.95
Starring: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, Michael Standing, Harry Baird, Robert Rietty, Lelia Goldoni, Valery Leon, Lisa Shane.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Production Designer: Disley Jones
Art Director: Michael Knight
Film Editor: John Trumper
Stunt Driving:...
- 1/21/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
History was made when the 2022 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced, as Chadwick Boseman (“What If…?”) and Jessica Walter (“Archer”) became the first pair of direct competitors to be recognized posthumously. They are both up for the Best Character Voice-Over Performance prize after having passed away in August 2020 and March 2021, respectively.
Walter is now the only performer to ever receive two post-death Emmy bids, having just contended in the same category last summer. Now including Boseman, the list of departed acting Emmy nominees consists of 26 entrants, four of whom were honored with wins.
The first actor to be nominated for and win an Emmy posthumously was Alice Pearce, who was awarded the Best Comedy Supporting Actress trophy for “Bewitched” two months after her death in 1966. The other three champs, all of whom triumphed for TV movie performances, are supporting players David Burns and Diana Hyland and lead Raul Julia.
Two more...
Walter is now the only performer to ever receive two post-death Emmy bids, having just contended in the same category last summer. Now including Boseman, the list of departed acting Emmy nominees consists of 26 entrants, four of whom were honored with wins.
The first actor to be nominated for and win an Emmy posthumously was Alice Pearce, who was awarded the Best Comedy Supporting Actress trophy for “Bewitched” two months after her death in 1966. The other three champs, all of whom triumphed for TV movie performances, are supporting players David Burns and Diana Hyland and lead Raul Julia.
Two more...
- 7/14/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Maverick director Robert Aldrich’s one foray into grand-scale epic filmmaking is returned to crystal clarity in this fine import disc, a restoration from original Italian film elements. Stewart Granger’s Lot allies his Hebrew tribe with the notorious cities of evil, and almost loses his soul to Anouk Aimée’s wicked Queen Bera. Pier Angeli is the slave who becomes Lot’s wife, and Rossana Podestà is the daughter taken by Stanley Baker’s rapacious prince. Second unit director Sergio Leone whips up a terrific battle scene (maybe), Ken Adam provides the spectacular sets and Miklós Rózsa the powerful music score. And yes, the explosive finish involves hellfire, brimstone and the Biblical Pillar of Salt.
Sodom and Gomorrah
Explosive Media
All-region Blu-ray
1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 154 and 117 min. / Street Date December 9, 2021 / Available from Amazon.de /
Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), Anouk Aimée, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia,...
Sodom and Gomorrah
Explosive Media
All-region Blu-ray
1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 154 and 117 min. / Street Date December 9, 2021 / Available from Amazon.de /
Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), Anouk Aimée, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia,...
- 1/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jack Hedley, who appeared in films including “For Your Eyes Only” opposite Roger Moore, died on Dec. 11. He was 92.
His death was confirmed by a notice in The Times of London, which reads: “[Hedley] died on 11th December 2021, aged 92, after a short illness bravely borne. At his request there will be no funeral. He will be much missed by his family and friends.”
The actor racked up 99 credits in a career spanning five decades as well as numerous appearances in the theater.
Born in London as Jack Hawkins, he changed his last name at the outset of his career to avoid confusion with a prolific British actor of the same name.
Hedley appeared in numerous British productions including “Colditz,” in which he played Lt. Colonel Preston, and “The Scarlet Blade,” directed by John Gilling. He also had parts in American war epic “The Longest Day,” which starred John Wayne, Robert Ryan and Richard Burton,...
His death was confirmed by a notice in The Times of London, which reads: “[Hedley] died on 11th December 2021, aged 92, after a short illness bravely borne. At his request there will be no funeral. He will be much missed by his family and friends.”
The actor racked up 99 credits in a career spanning five decades as well as numerous appearances in the theater.
Born in London as Jack Hawkins, he changed his last name at the outset of his career to avoid confusion with a prolific British actor of the same name.
Hedley appeared in numerous British productions including “Colditz,” in which he played Lt. Colonel Preston, and “The Scarlet Blade,” directed by John Gilling. He also had parts in American war epic “The Longest Day,” which starred John Wayne, Robert Ryan and Richard Burton,...
- 12/22/2021
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Is Joseph Losey’s elusive, maudit masterpiece really a masterpiece? Stanley Baker’s foolish lout of a writer ruins his life pursuing the wanton Jeanne Moreau, and it’s hard to tell if she’s punishing him or he’s punishing himself. Losey’s directing skills are in top form on location in Venice and Rome for this absorbing art film. Pi’s overdue and very welcome disc sorts out the multiple release versions for the first time, and in so doing finally makes the show critically accessible. Co-starring (swoon) Virna Lisi and James Villiers.
Eve
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1962 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 126 109, 108 min. / Eva, The Devil’s Woman / Street Date October 19, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, James Villiers, Riccardo Garrone, Lisa Gastoni, Checco Rissone, Enzo Fiermonte, Nona Medici, Roberto Paoletti, Alexis Revidis, Evi Rigano.
Cinematography: Gianni Di Venanzo, Henri Decaë
Film...
Eve
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1962 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 126 109, 108 min. / Eva, The Devil’s Woman / Street Date October 19, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, James Villiers, Riccardo Garrone, Lisa Gastoni, Checco Rissone, Enzo Fiermonte, Nona Medici, Roberto Paoletti, Alexis Revidis, Evi Rigano.
Cinematography: Gianni Di Venanzo, Henri Decaë
Film...
- 9/26/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Legendary stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that made him.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Harold And Maude (1971)
White Lightning (1974)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
White Line Fever (1975)
Bound For Glory (1976)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Outsider (1980)
Freebie And The Bean (1978)
Sharky’s Machine (1981)
First Blood (1982)
Night Shift (1982)
Rumble Fish (1983)
Against All Odds (1984)
To Live And Die In L.A. (1985)
F/X (1986)
Tucker The Man And His Dream (1988)
Sea of Love (1989)
Miami Blues (1990)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Demolition Man (1993)
The Crow (1994)
Waterworld (1995)
From Dusk Till Dawn(1996)
Grosse Point Blank (1997)
Django Unchained (2012)
Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park (1978)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Kagemusha (1980)
Ran (1985)
The Fugitive (1993)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Casino Royale (2006)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
The Fast And The Furious (2001)
The Strongest Man In The World (1975)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Bullitt (1968)
Robbery (1967)
S.O.B. (1981)
Vanishing Point...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Harold And Maude (1971)
White Lightning (1974)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
White Line Fever (1975)
Bound For Glory (1976)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Outsider (1980)
Freebie And The Bean (1978)
Sharky’s Machine (1981)
First Blood (1982)
Night Shift (1982)
Rumble Fish (1983)
Against All Odds (1984)
To Live And Die In L.A. (1985)
F/X (1986)
Tucker The Man And His Dream (1988)
Sea of Love (1989)
Miami Blues (1990)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Demolition Man (1993)
The Crow (1994)
Waterworld (1995)
From Dusk Till Dawn(1996)
Grosse Point Blank (1997)
Django Unchained (2012)
Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park (1978)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Kagemusha (1980)
Ran (1985)
The Fugitive (1993)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Casino Royale (2006)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
The Fast And The Furious (2001)
The Strongest Man In The World (1975)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Bullitt (1968)
Robbery (1967)
S.O.B. (1981)
Vanishing Point...
- 8/11/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Mubi's retrospective Outlaw Auteur: Joseph Losey is showing March 30 - May 26, 2020 in the United Kingdom.Above: EvaThe blacklist could be a death certificate or a plane ticket. Informers and suspects alike didn’t work after the United States government went around asking who was a communist and who wasn’t. The list of people who stood up to it is small, the number of people who survived the j’accuse smaller. Director Joseph Losey left the States when he learned his name had been given to House Un-American Activities Committee, to go finish Stranger on the Prowl (1952), when the original director Bernard Vorhaus was fired. Losey came home a year later to find himself radioactive. He left again, and he never came home. Not really. He was an obviously skilled director in America but he was just hitting his stride. The crime films he directed in the States and...
- 4/13/2020
- MUBI
Gangland London, 1960: Expatriate director Joseph Losey gives the Brit crime film a boost with a brutal gangster tale starring the ultra-tough Stanley Baker — and seemingly every up & coming male actor on the casting books. A committed thief returns to his craft the moment he’s freed from prison, but the emphasis is on the nasty betrayals and squeeze-plays of the criminal underworld, that conspire to foil Baker’s plans.
The Criminal
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, John Van Eyssen, Noel Willman, Kenneth Warren, Patrick Magee, Kenneth Cope, Patrick Wymark, Paul Stassino, Tom Bell, Neil McCarthy, Nigel Green, Tom Gerard, Edward Judd.
Cinematography: Robert Krasker
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: John Dankworth
Written by Alun Owen and Jimmy Sangster
Produced by Jack Greenwood...
The Criminal
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, John Van Eyssen, Noel Willman, Kenneth Warren, Patrick Magee, Kenneth Cope, Patrick Wymark, Paul Stassino, Tom Bell, Neil McCarthy, Nigel Green, Tom Gerard, Edward Judd.
Cinematography: Robert Krasker
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: John Dankworth
Written by Alun Owen and Jimmy Sangster
Produced by Jack Greenwood...
- 2/8/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Why do crime caper films have so much appeal? Are we all closet criminals, eager to watch less timid souls risk life and limb to get the big payout and live happily ever after? Peter Yates’ stylish re-telling of England’s Great Train Robbery makes for an excitingly detailed, nonsense-free heist straight from real life, with a just-the-facts clarity. The show begins with an influential car chase — straight through the heart of London.
Robbery
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1967 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, James Booth, Frank Finlay, Barry Foster, William Marlowe, Clinton Greyn, George Sewell, Glynn Edwards, Julie Ege.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Film Editor: Reginald Beck
Original Music: Johnny Keating
Written by Edward Boyd, George Markstein, Peter Yates, from a story by Gerald Wilson
Produced by Stanley Baker, Michael Deeley
Directed by Peter Yates
I’d always heard about Peter Yates’ Robbery,...
Robbery
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1967 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, James Booth, Frank Finlay, Barry Foster, William Marlowe, Clinton Greyn, George Sewell, Glynn Edwards, Julie Ege.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Film Editor: Reginald Beck
Original Music: Johnny Keating
Written by Edward Boyd, George Markstein, Peter Yates, from a story by Gerald Wilson
Produced by Stanley Baker, Michael Deeley
Directed by Peter Yates
I’d always heard about Peter Yates’ Robbery,...
- 5/7/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mubi's retrospective Outlaw Auteur: Joseph Losey is showing November 14 – December 26, 2018 in the United States.The ServantWisconsin-born Joseph Losey began his career in New York theater in 1933, where he quickly established himself, working alongside playwrights Sinclair Lewis and Bertolt Brecht as well as directing Charles Laughton. Turning to the silver screen in 1947, he directed his first feature, The Boy with Green Hair and worked consistently in Hollywood over the next several years, directing such films as a remake of M. Then The Red Scare hit and left Joseph Losey blacklisted. Blacklisted meant no work, and no work meant no money, so he left America, eventually settling in London. Interviewed a year prior to his passing, he spoke of the blacklisting: “Without it I would have three Cadillacs, two swimming pools and millions of dollars, and I’d be dead. It was terrifying. It was disgusting, but you can get trapped by money and complacency.
- 11/15/2018
- MUBI
Mark Harrison Oct 14, 2016
With the question of who's playing James Bond in James Bond 25 unresolved, we look back at the casting conundrums 007 has faced before.
Since 1962, fewer men have played James Bond than have walked on the moon. Despite the relatively long turnaround of the role, the subject of who might follow in the footsteps of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in the future has fuelled many column inches and tabloid splashes.
It feels as if speculation about the seventh 007 in Eon Productions' long-lived spy franchise has been at fever pitch since this time last year, when Craig was doing the promotional rounds for Spectre and commented that he would rather “slash [his] wrists” than play Bond again. It's only after a year of constant reports on the subject that his far more optimistic comments at last weekend's New Yorker Festival...
With the question of who's playing James Bond in James Bond 25 unresolved, we look back at the casting conundrums 007 has faced before.
Since 1962, fewer men have played James Bond than have walked on the moon. Despite the relatively long turnaround of the role, the subject of who might follow in the footsteps of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in the future has fuelled many column inches and tabloid splashes.
It feels as if speculation about the seventh 007 in Eon Productions' long-lived spy franchise has been at fever pitch since this time last year, when Craig was doing the promotional rounds for Spectre and commented that he would rather “slash [his] wrists” than play Bond again. It's only after a year of constant reports on the subject that his far more optimistic comments at last weekend's New Yorker Festival...
- 10/12/2016
- Den of Geek
Joseph Losey doesn't normally make trendy, lighthearted genre films, and in this SuperSpy epic we find out why -- an impressive production and great music don't compensate for a lack of pace and dynamism, not to mention a narrow sense of humor. Yet it's a lounge classic, and a perverse favorite of spy movie fans. Modesty Blaise Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1966 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 119 min. / Street Date August 23, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews, Michael Craig, Clive Revill, Alexander Knox, Rossella Falk, Scilla Gabel, Tina Marquand Cinematography Jack Hildyard Production Designer Richard MacDonald, Jack Shampan Film Editor Reginald Beck Original Music John Dankworth Written by Evan Jones from a novel by Peter O'Donnell and a comic strip by Jim Holdaway Produced by Joseph Janni Directed by Joseph Losey
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When I first reviewed a DVD of Modesty Blaise fourteen years ago,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When I first reviewed a DVD of Modesty Blaise fourteen years ago,...
- 7/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Robert Mitchum all but snoozes through this promising war-espionage thriller that pits lazy Gestapo agents against clueless partisans in occupied Greece. It's got great locations and a good cast, but director Robert Aldrich seems off his feed -- there's not a lot of excitement to be had. The Angry Hills DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1959 / B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Robert Mitchum, Stanley Baker, Elisabeth Mueller, Gia Scala, Theodore Bikel, Sebastian Cabot, Donald Wolfit, Marius Goring, Jocelyn Lane, Kieron Moore, George Pastell, Marita Constantinou, Alec Mango. Cinematography Stephen Dade Film Editor Peter Tanner Production Design Ken Adam Original Music Richard Rodney Bennett Written by A.I. Bezzerides from the novel by Leon Uris Produced by Raymond Stross Directed by Robert Aldrich
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Director Robert Aldrich had come through with successes for Burt Lancaster's production company (Apache, Vera Cruz...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Director Robert Aldrich had come through with successes for Burt Lancaster's production company (Apache, Vera Cruz...
- 5/31/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It's a genuine forgotten gem: American student Jean Seberg's five-year adventure in Paris is mostly a period of romantic frustration. Irwin Shaw and Robert Parrish's look at the problems of an independent woman is remarkably insightful; the chronically miscast and underused Ms. Seberg is luminous. In the French Style Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1963 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 105 min. / Ship Date April 12, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Jean Seberg, Stanley Baker, Phillippe Forquet, Addison Powell, Jack Hedley, Maurice Teynac, Claudine Auger, James Leo Herlihy, Ann Lewis, Barbara Sommers. Cinematography Michel Kelber Original Music Joseph Kosma Written by Irwin Shaw from his short stories Produced by Irwin Shaw, Robert Parrish Directed by Robert Parrish
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Talk about elusive movies: on must keep an eye on the TCM logs to catch many of the films of director Robert Parrish. I had to wait for the advent of...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Talk about elusive movies: on must keep an eye on the TCM logs to catch many of the films of director Robert Parrish. I had to wait for the advent of...
- 4/23/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Tired of stupid sword 'n' sandal costume pictures? Robert Rossen's all-star bio-epic of the charter founder of the Masons is a superior analysis of political ambition and the ruthless application of power. Yeah, he's wearing a blond wig, but Richard Burton captures the force of Alexander without camping up Asia Minor. Alexander the Great Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 136 min. / Ship Date March 15, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Danielle Darrieux, Barry Jones, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Niall MacGinnis, Peter Cushing. Cinematography Robert Krasker Art Direction Andrej Andrejew Film Editor Ralph Kemplen Original Music Mario Nascimbene Produced by Gordon Griffith, Robert Rossen Written and Directed by Robert Rossen
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Critical opinions aren't supposed to flip-flop with every screening of a film, but I have to admit that my appreciation of Robert Rossen's 1956 epic Alexander the Great...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Critical opinions aren't supposed to flip-flop with every screening of a film, but I have to admit that my appreciation of Robert Rossen's 1956 epic Alexander the Great...
- 4/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Todd Garbarini
On March 4, The Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles will be hosting a 50th anniversary screening of Cy Endfield’s fine 1965 film Sands of the Kalahari, which stars Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel, and Nigel Davenport. The 119-minute film is in color and will be screened on 35mm at 7:30 pm. This is a rare screening and a wonderful opportunity to see it on the big screen.
Scheduled to appear at the screening is actor Stuart Whitman. According to actor, film authority, and longtime friend of the legendary Stuart Whitman, Douglas Dunning confirms that, following the screening, Mr. Whitman will be discussing his career and his experience making this film.
From the press release:
From the Collection of the Library of Congress
Sands of the Kalahari (UK, 1965)
A plane crash in the South African desert exposes its survivors...
On March 4, The Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles will be hosting a 50th anniversary screening of Cy Endfield’s fine 1965 film Sands of the Kalahari, which stars Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel, and Nigel Davenport. The 119-minute film is in color and will be screened on 35mm at 7:30 pm. This is a rare screening and a wonderful opportunity to see it on the big screen.
Scheduled to appear at the screening is actor Stuart Whitman. According to actor, film authority, and longtime friend of the legendary Stuart Whitman, Douglas Dunning confirms that, following the screening, Mr. Whitman will be discussing his career and his experience making this film.
From the press release:
From the Collection of the Library of Congress
Sands of the Kalahari (UK, 1965)
A plane crash in the South African desert exposes its survivors...
- 2/23/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
- 12/28/2015
- Shadowlocked
'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Michael Caine young. Michael Caine movies: From Irwin Allen bombs to Woody Allen classic It's hard to believe that Michael Caine has been around making movies for nearly six decades. No wonder he's had time to appear – in roles big and small and tiny – in more than 120 films, ranging from unwatchable stuff like the Sylvester Stallone soccer flick Victory and Michael Ritchie's adventure flick The Island to Brian G. Hutton's X, Y and Zee, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth (a duel of wits and acting styles with Laurence Olivier), and Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men. (See TCM's Michael Caine movie schedule further below.) Throughout his long, long career, Caine has played heroes and villains and everything in between. Sometimes, in his worst vehicles, he has floundered along with everybody else. At other times, he was the best element in otherwise disappointing fare, e.g., Philip Kaufman's Quills.
- 8/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We answer more of your letters, with topics this time ranging from bad posters to Muppets to our inability to spell.
We've delved deep into our bulging post bag to look at some more of our readers' correspondence. As usual, here's a broad cross-section of your thoughts, suggestions and other stuff, ranging from classic Italian giallo movies, Muppets questions, and lots more.
If you want to send us a letter, a painting, or even a postcard while you're on holiday, our address is at the bottom of the page. We look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, here's the latest selection of geek missives...
You Can't Speel!
Most people groan and roll their eyes when people talk about grammar and spelling but as I have to put up with the general mass bad grammar etc. that is Facebook and the internet en mass I expect better from pages such as yours.
We've delved deep into our bulging post bag to look at some more of our readers' correspondence. As usual, here's a broad cross-section of your thoughts, suggestions and other stuff, ranging from classic Italian giallo movies, Muppets questions, and lots more.
If you want to send us a letter, a painting, or even a postcard while you're on holiday, our address is at the bottom of the page. We look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, here's the latest selection of geek missives...
You Can't Speel!
Most people groan and roll their eyes when people talk about grammar and spelling but as I have to put up with the general mass bad grammar etc. that is Facebook and the internet en mass I expect better from pages such as yours.
- 10/16/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the British film classic "Zulu", the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York City will present a rare U.S. big screen showing in digital format. The film, directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and Michael Caine, was the cover story of Cinema Retro issue #28. Join us at this "can't miss" event! For tickets click here ...
- 8/17/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Cinema Retro's Matt Field and Dave Worrall on the red carpet.
By Matthew Field
Prince Harry headlined an exclusive red carpet event at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, to mark the 50th anniversary of Zulu – the 1964 epic about the historic 1879 battle at Rorke’s Drift.
Arriving at the cinema, the Prince told Suzannah Endfield Olivier, the daughter of the film's director Cy Endfield, that Zulu was one of his favourite films. 'I watch this film every single year before Christmas time,' he said. 'Maybe once. Maybe twice.'
Matt and Dave with Cinema Retro contributor Paul Adsacks.
Inside and ahead of the film, guests were treated to a screening of rare behind the scenes footage shot on location in South Africa in 1964. Cinema Retro’s Dr. Sheldon Hall, gave the 2,000 strong audience a running commentary to the black and white footage. Film critic Mark Kermode and Historian Dan Snow...
By Matthew Field
Prince Harry headlined an exclusive red carpet event at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, to mark the 50th anniversary of Zulu – the 1964 epic about the historic 1879 battle at Rorke’s Drift.
Arriving at the cinema, the Prince told Suzannah Endfield Olivier, the daughter of the film's director Cy Endfield, that Zulu was one of his favourite films. 'I watch this film every single year before Christmas time,' he said. 'Maybe once. Maybe twice.'
Matt and Dave with Cinema Retro contributor Paul Adsacks.
Inside and ahead of the film, guests were treated to a screening of rare behind the scenes footage shot on location in South Africa in 1964. Cinema Retro’s Dr. Sheldon Hall, gave the 2,000 strong audience a running commentary to the black and white footage. Film critic Mark Kermode and Historian Dan Snow...
- 6/11/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Above: Japanese B1 poster for Accident (Joseph Losey, UK, 1967).
With the 67th Cannes Film Festival on the eve of its award ceremony, Film Forum is reviving the winner of Grand Prix du Jury from the festival’s 20th edition, Joseph Losey’s Accident. The top prize (then the Grand Prix du Festival, now the Palme d’Or) of that year, 1967, went to Antonioni’s Blow-Up, but Accident, written by Harold Pinter, was equally as daring and confounding. Starring Dirk Bogarde (who had worked his magic with Losey and Pinter four years earlier in The Servant), Stanley Baker and Jacqueline Sassard, Accident is a Resnaisian time-shifting mind-boggler set among the dreaming spires of Oxford rather than Antonioni’s Swinging Sixties London.
A film that has been almost impossible see for many years, Accident has been digitally restored by Rialto Pictures and will be traveling around the country. I’ve collected as...
With the 67th Cannes Film Festival on the eve of its award ceremony, Film Forum is reviving the winner of Grand Prix du Jury from the festival’s 20th edition, Joseph Losey’s Accident. The top prize (then the Grand Prix du Festival, now the Palme d’Or) of that year, 1967, went to Antonioni’s Blow-Up, but Accident, written by Harold Pinter, was equally as daring and confounding. Starring Dirk Bogarde (who had worked his magic with Losey and Pinter four years earlier in The Servant), Stanley Baker and Jacqueline Sassard, Accident is a Resnaisian time-shifting mind-boggler set among the dreaming spires of Oxford rather than Antonioni’s Swinging Sixties London.
A film that has been almost impossible see for many years, Accident has been digitally restored by Rialto Pictures and will be traveling around the country. I’ve collected as...
- 5/23/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
By Lee Pfeiffer
Since its initial release fifty years ago, director Cy Endfield's British war epic Zulu has grown in stature. The film was understandably a hit in England but was deemed a boxoffice disappointment in the United States perhaps due to the fact that, like Khartoum (1966), the story relates to a historic battle that is well known by Brits by is virtually unknown to American audiences. What no one can dispute is that the film represents masterful movie making. Again, like Khartoum, it is a thinking man's war epic. The film relates the story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, a tiny British outpost in southern Africa directly in the heart of the Zulu kingdom. A haunting pre-titles sequence shows the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a British expeditionary force was massacred by Zulus in a sophisticated attack that stunned the government in London.
Since its initial release fifty years ago, director Cy Endfield's British war epic Zulu has grown in stature. The film was understandably a hit in England but was deemed a boxoffice disappointment in the United States perhaps due to the fact that, like Khartoum (1966), the story relates to a historic battle that is well known by Brits by is virtually unknown to American audiences. What no one can dispute is that the film represents masterful movie making. Again, like Khartoum, it is a thinking man's war epic. The film relates the story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, a tiny British outpost in southern Africa directly in the heart of the Zulu kingdom. A haunting pre-titles sequence shows the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a British expeditionary force was massacred by Zulus in a sophisticated attack that stunned the government in London.
- 4/13/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Feature Alex Westthorp 28 Mar 2014 - 07:00
In a new series, Alex talks us through the film roles of the actors who've played the Doctor. First up, William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee...
We know them best as the twelve very different incarnations of the Doctor. But all the actors who've been the star of Doctor Who, being such good all-rounders in the first place, have also had film careers. Admittedly, some CVs are more impressive than others, but this retrospective attempts to pick out some of the many worthwhile films which have starred, featured or seen a fleeting cameo by the actors who would become (or had been) the Doctor.
William Hartnell was, above all else, a film star. He is by far the most prolific film actor of the main twelve to play the Time Lord. With over 70 films to his name, summarising Hartnell's film career is difficult at best.
In a new series, Alex talks us through the film roles of the actors who've played the Doctor. First up, William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee...
We know them best as the twelve very different incarnations of the Doctor. But all the actors who've been the star of Doctor Who, being such good all-rounders in the first place, have also had film careers. Admittedly, some CVs are more impressive than others, but this retrospective attempts to pick out some of the many worthwhile films which have starred, featured or seen a fleeting cameo by the actors who would become (or had been) the Doctor.
William Hartnell was, above all else, a film star. He is by far the most prolific film actor of the main twelve to play the Time Lord. With over 70 films to his name, summarising Hartnell's film career is difficult at best.
- 3/26/2014
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Even back when Britain was an industrial nation, films about industry were relatively rare: audiences who worked on assembly lines presumably wanted to look at something more glamorous on their night at the pictures. In Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Albert Finney snarled, "Don't let the bastards grind you down," a neat encapsulation of the working man's political philosophy, whereas I'm Alright Jack (1959) took a dismayed view of the hostile stand-off between Capital and Labor. That Boulting Brothers satire may have adopted a "plague on both your houses" stance, but in fact its sympathy was with management.
The Agitator (1945) is the product of a gentler age: it tries to be sympathetic to everybody, but again there's a hidden conservative bias. Still, as the product of a generation who had just won the war and were looking forward, some of them, to a bright socialist future of free education and health care,...
The Agitator (1945) is the product of a gentler age: it tries to be sympathetic to everybody, but again there's a hidden conservative bias. Still, as the product of a generation who had just won the war and were looking forward, some of them, to a bright socialist future of free education and health care,...
- 3/20/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Miscasting in films has always been a problem. A producer hires an actor thinking that he or she is perfect for a movie role only to find the opposite is true. Other times a star is hired for his box office draw but ruins an otherwise good movie because he looks completely out of place.
There have been many humdinger miscastings. You only have to laugh at John Wayne’s Genghis Khan (with Mongol moustache and gun-belt) in The Conqueror (1956), giggle at Marlon Brando’s woeful upper class twang as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and cringe at Dick Van Dyke’s misbegotten cockney accent in Mary Poppins (1964). But as hilarious as these miscastings are, producers at the time didn’t think the same way, until after the event. At least they add a bit of camp value to a mediocre or downright awful movie.
In rare cases,...
There have been many humdinger miscastings. You only have to laugh at John Wayne’s Genghis Khan (with Mongol moustache and gun-belt) in The Conqueror (1956), giggle at Marlon Brando’s woeful upper class twang as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and cringe at Dick Van Dyke’s misbegotten cockney accent in Mary Poppins (1964). But as hilarious as these miscastings are, producers at the time didn’t think the same way, until after the event. At least they add a bit of camp value to a mediocre or downright awful movie.
In rare cases,...
- 1/24/2014
- Shadowlocked
Rossana Podestà dead at 79: ‘Helen of Troy’ actress later featured in sword-and-sandal spectacles, risqué sex comedies (photo: Jacques Sernas and Rossana Podestà in ‘Helen of Troy’) Rossana Podestà, the sensual star of the 1955 epic Helen of Troy and other sword-and-sandal European productions of the ’50s and ’60s — in addition to a handful of risqué sex comedies of the ’70s — died earlier today, December 10, 2013, in Rome according to several Italian news outlets. Podestà was 79. She was born Carla Dora Podestà on August 20, 1934, in, depending on the source, either Zlitan or Tripoli, in Libya, at the time an Italian colony. According to the IMDb, the renamed Rossana Podestà began her film career in 1950, when she was featured in a small role in Dezsö Ákos Hamza’s Strano appuntamento ("Strange Appointment"). However, according to online reports, she was actually discovered by director Léonide Moguy, who cast her in a small role in...
- 12/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cinema Retro enters its tenth year of publishing with issue #28 which is now at the printers. It will be mailed to all UK/European subscribers before Christmas. Subscribers throughout the rest of the world will get their issues in January.
We launch our landmark anniversary with one of our best issues ever. Here are the highlights:
Sheldon Hall presents major coverage of the 50th anniversary of the British war movie classic Zulu starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine and Jack Hawkins...complete with rarely seen images. Dave Worrall takes you behind the scenes for the filming of the James Bond blockbuster Goldfinger at Pinewood Studios and presents some rare behind-the-scenes production shots as well as a "now-and-then" guide to specific studio locations from the film. Ray Morton provides an exclusive interview with famed cinematographer Richard H. Kline, whose credits include Soylent Green, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Camelot, Body Heat, The Mechanic...
We launch our landmark anniversary with one of our best issues ever. Here are the highlights:
Sheldon Hall presents major coverage of the 50th anniversary of the British war movie classic Zulu starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine and Jack Hawkins...complete with rarely seen images. Dave Worrall takes you behind the scenes for the filming of the James Bond blockbuster Goldfinger at Pinewood Studios and presents some rare behind-the-scenes production shots as well as a "now-and-then" guide to specific studio locations from the film. Ray Morton provides an exclusive interview with famed cinematographer Richard H. Kline, whose credits include Soylent Green, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Camelot, Body Heat, The Mechanic...
- 12/5/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Blu-ray Release Date: Jan. 22, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $Tba
Studio: Twilight Time
The battle is on in Zulu.
The 1964 epic adventure war film Zulu makes its Blu-ray debut on the 50th anniversary of the film’s London premiere, and the 135th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift at the film’s center.
Directed by blacklisted American screenwriter Cy Endfield in gorgeous Technicolor (and with the Super Technirama 70 widescreen process), the movie depicts the historic 12-hour clash between some 150 British colonial soldiers and more than 4,000 Zulu warriors during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.
Starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine (Dressed to Kill), Jack Hawkins (Lawrence of Arabia), Nigel Green, and James Booth, the film offers exotic adventure, breathtaking battle sequences and a potent anti-war sentiment.
The bonus features for the Blu-ray have not been announced yet, but we’re hoping that one of them is an isolated audio track of composer John Barry memorable score.
Price: Blu-ray $Tba
Studio: Twilight Time
The battle is on in Zulu.
The 1964 epic adventure war film Zulu makes its Blu-ray debut on the 50th anniversary of the film’s London premiere, and the 135th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift at the film’s center.
Directed by blacklisted American screenwriter Cy Endfield in gorgeous Technicolor (and with the Super Technirama 70 widescreen process), the movie depicts the historic 12-hour clash between some 150 British colonial soldiers and more than 4,000 Zulu warriors during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.
Starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine (Dressed to Kill), Jack Hawkins (Lawrence of Arabia), Nigel Green, and James Booth, the film offers exotic adventure, breathtaking battle sequences and a potent anti-war sentiment.
The bonus features for the Blu-ray have not been announced yet, but we’re hoping that one of them is an isolated audio track of composer John Barry memorable score.
- 11/12/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Tonight, Turner Classic Movies (North America) presents a rare showing of the 1957 British B&W gem Hell Drivers. The film centers on the conflicts that occur when an honest driver for a lorry company (Stanley Baker) confronts corruption in the organization and takes on the criminal ring leader (Patrick McGoohan). The film, directed by Cy Endfield, was regarded as a "B" movie in its day, but has developed a cult following that appreciates its intelligent script and fine cast. Shot mostly at Pinewood Studios, featured actors include Sean Connery, Herbert Lom, David McCallum and his real-life wife Jill Ireland, Sidney James, Gordon Jackson and Alfie Bass. A trivia note is that McGoohan, Connery and McCallum would all shoot to stardom in the next decade playing legendary cinematic spies.
- 9/28/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Dirk Bogarde: ‘Victim’ star took no prisoners in his letters to Dilys Powell Letters exchanged between film critic Dilys Powell and actor Dirk Bogarde — one of the most popular and respected British performers of the twentieth century, and the star of seminal movies such as Victim, The Servant, Darling, and Death in Venice — reveals that Bogarde was considerably more caustic and opinionated in his letters than in his (quite bland) autobiographies. (Photo: Dirk Bogarde ca. 1970.) As found in Dirk Bogarde’s letters acquired a few years ago by the British Library, among the victims of the Victim star (sorry) were Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave (Julia), a "ninny" who was “so utterly beastly to [Steaming director Joseph Losey] that he finally threw his script at her face”; and veteran stage and screen actor — and Academy Award winner — John Gielgud (Arthur), who couldn’t "understand half of Shakespeare" despite being renowned for his stage roles in Macbeth,...
- 9/23/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Gregory Peck from ‘Duel in the Sun’ to ‘How the West Was Won’: TCM schedule (Pt) on August 15 (photo: Gregory Peck in ‘Duel in the Sun’) See previous post: “Gregory Peck Movies: Memorable Miscasting Tonight on Turner Classic Movies.” 3:00 Am Days Of Glory (1944). Director: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer. Bw-86 mins. 4:30 Am Pork Chop Hill (1959). Director: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn. Bw-98 mins. Letterbox Format. 6:15 Am The Valley Of Decision (1945). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp. Bw-119 mins. 8:15 Am Spellbound (1945). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, Rhonda Fleming, Bill Goodwin, Norman Lloyd, Steve Geray, John Emery, Donald Curtis, Art Baker, Wallace Ford, Regis Toomey, Paul Harvey, Jean Acker, Irving Bacon, Jacqueline deWit, Edward Fielding, Matt Moore, Addison Richards, Erskine Sanford, Constance Purdy. Bw-111 mins. 10:15 Am Designing Woman (1957). Director: Vincente Minnelli.
- 8/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Spider Baby | Hitchcock | To The Wonder | Perfect Friday | The Kid Stays In The Picture
Spider Baby
This darkly humorous, deeply demented 1964 curiosity is a genuine cult phenomenon, one with a reputation that grows by the year. By the time it came out in 1968, hardly anyone cared. However, it's subsequently found an audience, so today we can enjoy it on a rather well-assembled Blu-ray.
It's usually classed as a horror film or a B-movie but this slice of American gothic doesn't fit neatly into either category. It concerns the Merrye family, a clan so inbred they have a rare malady named after them. Merrye syndrome affects one branch of this rotten family tree, causing regression ("A progressive deterioration of the mental faculty … a rotting of the brain, so to speak") to set in as they reach adolescence. Kept sequestered in a dilapidated house, three afflicted youngsters are protected by custodian Bruno...
Spider Baby
This darkly humorous, deeply demented 1964 curiosity is a genuine cult phenomenon, one with a reputation that grows by the year. By the time it came out in 1968, hardly anyone cared. However, it's subsequently found an audience, so today we can enjoy it on a rather well-assembled Blu-ray.
It's usually classed as a horror film or a B-movie but this slice of American gothic doesn't fit neatly into either category. It concerns the Merrye family, a clan so inbred they have a rare malady named after them. Merrye syndrome affects one branch of this rotten family tree, causing regression ("A progressive deterioration of the mental faculty … a rotting of the brain, so to speak") to set in as they reach adolescence. Kept sequestered in a dilapidated house, three afflicted youngsters are protected by custodian Bruno...
- 6/15/2013
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
French director's first English-language film, a crime thriller starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, to close Cannes
The Cannes film festival has announced its closing film will be Zulu – the first English-language film from French director Jérôme Salle.
Starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, Zulu is a crime thriller set in South Africa during the apartheid era – although it has the same title as the celebrated 1963 Cy Endfield Anglo-Zulu war film, which starred Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. Whitaker and Bloom play two policemen investigating a crime in a film described as part noir, part social study. Adapted from Caryl Férey's novel (also titled Zulu) by Julien Rappeneau, the film is shot entirely on location in South Africa.
The 2013 Cannes film festival runs from 15 to 26 May. Steven Spielberg is president of the jury and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, will be the opening film.
The Cannes film festival has announced its closing film will be Zulu – the first English-language film from French director Jérôme Salle.
Starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, Zulu is a crime thriller set in South Africa during the apartheid era – although it has the same title as the celebrated 1963 Cy Endfield Anglo-Zulu war film, which starred Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. Whitaker and Bloom play two policemen investigating a crime in a film described as part noir, part social study. Adapted from Caryl Férey's novel (also titled Zulu) by Julien Rappeneau, the film is shot entirely on location in South Africa.
The 2013 Cannes film festival runs from 15 to 26 May. Steven Spielberg is president of the jury and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, will be the opening film.
- 4/15/2013
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
The 66th Cannes Film Festival (running May 15 through 26) will close with Jerome Salle's thriller "Zulu," starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom. The contemporary film is shot entirely on location in South Africa, and is adapted from the novel of the same name by Caryl Ferey. It has nothing to do with the famed 1964 Cy Endfield war classic "Zulu" starring Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and Michael Caine. Here's a more in-depth plot synopsis:The action takes place in Cape Town, in a South Africa still overshadowed by apartheid, where destitute townships rubs shoulders with affluent neighbourhoods. Two cops on the beat, Bloom and Whitaker are caught up in a suspenseful search which combines elements of political film noir and social study.The fest will open with Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," with the entire lineup to be announced on April 18.
- 4/12/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
★★★★★ The second of the renowned collaborations between director Joseph Losey and playwright turned screenwriter Harold Pinter is an intense psychological drama that arrives with one hell of a bang. Accident (1967) centres on Stephen (Dirk Bogarde), an Oxford don who from the outside, appears happily married to Rosalind (Vivien Merchant). Beneath his cool exterior Stephen feels his emotions and academic intelligence are deteriorating when pitted against students of a higher social order. His colleague Charley (Stanley Baker) causes Stephen great resentment due to his youthful appeal and sexual gallantry.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 4/8/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
If you're of my particular nourish bent, you already plan to attend every program of the 15th annual Noir City festival of film noir, held at the appropriately vintage Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, home of the American Cinematheque, on Hollywood Boulevard, the appropriately noir boulevard of broken dreams. But if you'd prefer a tip sheet -- the most interesting, difficult to see, or newly restored films -- we've got one. Friday's opening show started things off with two fascinating, propulsive films by the underrated Cy Endfield, resident of England after he was blacklisted: "Try and Get Me," about a true incident of men falsely accused of murder in San Jose that was also the basis of Fritz Lang's "Fury," and the sexy "Hell Drivers," made in England and starring the similarly underrated Stanley Baker. You may know "Sunset Boulevard," which played Saturday, April 6 -- another boulevard of broken dreams,...
- 4/8/2013
- by Meredith Brody
- Thompson on Hollywood
This week: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris and more aging action heroes are back to blow things up in the explosive "The Expendables 2."
Also new this week is a collection of Quentin Tarantino movies handpicked by the filmmaker himself, the Blu-ray debut of 1975's "Zorro" starring Alain Delon and a Criterion Collection edition of the formerly maligned/recently praised 1980 Western "Heaven's Gate."
'The Expendables 2'
Box Office: $85 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 66% Fresh
Storyline: Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and the rest of the Expendables (Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth and Dolph Lundgren) are sent by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to Albania to retrieve an item from a downed plane only to lose one of their own in an ambush by an opposing group of mercenaries led by Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The action then moves to Bulgaria where...
Also new this week is a collection of Quentin Tarantino movies handpicked by the filmmaker himself, the Blu-ray debut of 1975's "Zorro" starring Alain Delon and a Criterion Collection edition of the formerly maligned/recently praised 1980 Western "Heaven's Gate."
'The Expendables 2'
Box Office: $85 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 66% Fresh
Storyline: Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and the rest of the Expendables (Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth and Dolph Lundgren) are sent by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to Albania to retrieve an item from a downed plane only to lose one of their own in an ambush by an opposing group of mercenaries led by Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The action then moves to Bulgaria where...
- 11/19/2012
- by Robert DeSalvo
- NextMovie
(Val Guest, 1960, StudioCanal, PG)
The versatile British journeyman Val Guest (1911-2006) began his prolific movie career in the 1930s writing scripts for comedies starring Will Hay and the Crazy Gang and was still directing in the 1980s. But his memorable films are genre pictures made in the late 50s and early 60s such as this realistic police procedural thriller, an unusual departure for Hammer, shot in black and white on gritty, unfamiliar Manchester locations. The formidable star is the toughest British actor of the day, Stanley Baker, just then embarking on a four-movie partnership with Joseph Losey. He's a no-nonsense cop, anticipating TV's Z-Cars, which started the following year, and he's pursuing a vicious escaped convict. The violence is unusually convincing for a British movie and fresh observations include an illegal gambling school involved in pitch and toss on the edge of the city.
Guest's dialogue is abrasive and unsentimental,...
The versatile British journeyman Val Guest (1911-2006) began his prolific movie career in the 1930s writing scripts for comedies starring Will Hay and the Crazy Gang and was still directing in the 1980s. But his memorable films are genre pictures made in the late 50s and early 60s such as this realistic police procedural thriller, an unusual departure for Hammer, shot in black and white on gritty, unfamiliar Manchester locations. The formidable star is the toughest British actor of the day, Stanley Baker, just then embarking on a four-movie partnership with Joseph Losey. He's a no-nonsense cop, anticipating TV's Z-Cars, which started the following year, and he's pursuing a vicious escaped convict. The violence is unusually convincing for a British movie and fresh observations include an illegal gambling school involved in pitch and toss on the edge of the city.
Guest's dialogue is abrasive and unsentimental,...
- 11/18/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 20, 2012
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98
Studio: Somerville House/Entertainment One
Alain Delon swashbuckles across the screen in Zorro.
International superstar Alain Delon (Purple Noon) stars as the legendary black-clad masked outlaw hero who defends the weak and innocent against tyranny in the zesty 1975 action-adventure film Zorro.
Set in the late 1800s, Zorro finds nobleman Diego de la Vega (Delon) masquerading as the new governor of a territory in Latin America that’s ruled by the cruel Colonel Huerta (Stanley Baker) and his soldiers. Disturbed by the state of tyranny in his province, Diego secretly transforms into Zorro, joining forces with the monk Brother Francisco (Giampiero Albertini) and the beautiful aristocrat Hortensia (Ottavia Piccolo) in a fight against Huerta for all that is good for the oppressed people of the land.
Zorro is one of the more unique films in the renowned swordsman’s international canon. The only...
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98
Studio: Somerville House/Entertainment One
Alain Delon swashbuckles across the screen in Zorro.
International superstar Alain Delon (Purple Noon) stars as the legendary black-clad masked outlaw hero who defends the weak and innocent against tyranny in the zesty 1975 action-adventure film Zorro.
Set in the late 1800s, Zorro finds nobleman Diego de la Vega (Delon) masquerading as the new governor of a territory in Latin America that’s ruled by the cruel Colonel Huerta (Stanley Baker) and his soldiers. Disturbed by the state of tyranny in his province, Diego secretly transforms into Zorro, joining forces with the monk Brother Francisco (Giampiero Albertini) and the beautiful aristocrat Hortensia (Ottavia Piccolo) in a fight against Huerta for all that is good for the oppressed people of the land.
Zorro is one of the more unique films in the renowned swordsman’s international canon. The only...
- 10/11/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
★★★★☆ Hell is a City (1960) is somewhat of a novelty - a Hammer production which isn't a horror film and features none of the studio's regulars in major roles. Developed from Maurice Procter's novel by legendary director Val Guest, the film stars 1960s household names Stanley Baker, Donald Pleasance and Billie Whitelaw. Inspector Harry Martineau (Baker) is a hardened Manchester cop who has seen and done it all. Little worries him anymore except when he hears that his old adversary, career criminal Don Starling (John Crawford) - who Martineau was responsible for getting put away - is out of prison and back in town.
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- 10/9/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
We look back at the work of Herbert Lom, the much-loved Czech-born actor who has died aged 95. His career took in everything from low-budget noir to the Pink Panther movies
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A refugee from the Nazis at the age of 22, Lom arrived in London in 1939 and immediately set about continuing the acting career he'd started in his home city of Prague. His first role was a small but eyecatching one: Napoleon, in the Fox-produced biopic The Young Mr Pitt, with Robert Donat as the wily but principled British prime minister – starts at 6:30. (He would play Boney again in 1956, in the Audrey Hepburn War and Peace.)
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Lom's unmistakeable charisma quickly won him admirers: though lead roles would be few and far between later on, he quickly scored one as the mysterious hypnotist in Brit thriller The Dark Tower, where he exerts his fateful,...
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A refugee from the Nazis at the age of 22, Lom arrived in London in 1939 and immediately set about continuing the acting career he'd started in his home city of Prague. His first role was a small but eyecatching one: Napoleon, in the Fox-produced biopic The Young Mr Pitt, with Robert Donat as the wily but principled British prime minister – starts at 6:30. (He would play Boney again in 1956, in the Audrey Hepburn War and Peace.)
Reading on mobile? Watch here
Lom's unmistakeable charisma quickly won him admirers: though lead roles would be few and far between later on, he quickly scored one as the mysterious hypnotist in Brit thriller The Dark Tower, where he exerts his fateful,...
- 9/27/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Basil Dearden, recently celebrated with an Eclipse box set of his London crime dramas, was almost unique in the early part of his career (the forties and fifties) for trying to look at working-class life in Britain and examine the issues affecting it. Unlike the later "kitchen sink" realist films of the sixties, mainly adapted from plays and novels, Dearden tended to work from original screenplays, and he tended to use genre to sweeten the pill of social commentary.
Violent Playground (1958) is one of his best, and it shows both the strengths and weaknesses of Dearden's approach in great detail. One of the director's quirks, picked up at Ealing, was a fondness for films which interwove multiple storylines (Train of Events, Pool of London), rather like John Sayles, allowing a panoply of a particular time and place to emerge, but sadly limiting the development of each storyline. Fortunately, in Violent Playground,...
Violent Playground (1958) is one of his best, and it shows both the strengths and weaknesses of Dearden's approach in great detail. One of the director's quirks, picked up at Ealing, was a fondness for films which interwove multiple storylines (Train of Events, Pool of London), rather like John Sayles, allowing a panoply of a particular time and place to emerge, but sadly limiting the development of each storyline. Fortunately, in Violent Playground,...
- 8/2/2012
- MUBI
The London Film Memorabilia Convention
Saturday May The 12 th ( 10 am – 4 pm )
Central Hall Westminster
UK’s longest running film convention!
Dealers from all over the UK , Europe and Canada!
Specialising in selling vintage film memorabilia and rare collectIbles. Items covering the history of cinema can be found.
From the silents to the present.
A Unique Event For Anyone With An Interest In Cinema!
Stills Posters Both Vintage & The Latest Releases
Programmes Books Rare And Hard To Find Soundtracks
& DVD’S Books Magazines Lobby Cards Autographs Postcards Vintage & Retro Film And Television Related Toys Props Actors Signings And Talks
Special Guests –
The legendary cult actor David Warner – Who will be signing and selling some personal memorabilia from such films as Star Trk V , Star Trk VI , Titanic , Planet Of The Apes and some Peckinpah related items!
Sylvia Syms – Who acted in such films as Ice Cold In Alex , Victim
Flame In The Streets...
Saturday May The 12 th ( 10 am – 4 pm )
Central Hall Westminster
UK’s longest running film convention!
Dealers from all over the UK , Europe and Canada!
Specialising in selling vintage film memorabilia and rare collectIbles. Items covering the history of cinema can be found.
From the silents to the present.
A Unique Event For Anyone With An Interest In Cinema!
Stills Posters Both Vintage & The Latest Releases
Programmes Books Rare And Hard To Find Soundtracks
& DVD’S Books Magazines Lobby Cards Autographs Postcards Vintage & Retro Film And Television Related Toys Props Actors Signings And Talks
Special Guests –
The legendary cult actor David Warner – Who will be signing and selling some personal memorabilia from such films as Star Trk V , Star Trk VI , Titanic , Planet Of The Apes and some Peckinpah related items!
Sylvia Syms – Who acted in such films as Ice Cold In Alex , Victim
Flame In The Streets...
- 4/26/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Beyond the stock World War II films where soldiers charge the enemy line, the era has served as the setting for some truly unique stories like The Guns of Navarone, a film that’s equal parts spy thriller, grand adventure, and war epic. It’s an impressively layered film for its genre and includes a number of elements rarely found compiled into one place, and it manages to use them all effectively. Framing its story with an evacuation countdown that creates an inherent sense of impending doom, it piles on additional tension by describing a mission to penetrate and destroy a fortress that everyone involved considers suicide. It then mounts well filmed scenes of death-defying acts and an atmosphere of distrust as suspicions of a traitor lurking within the band of heroes, tilting the odds even further against them. Few war films ever attempt to do as much as The Guns of Navarone,...
- 11/4/2011
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
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