News

Perhaps more than most genres, Westerns are a genre driven by star power. Certain movie stars possess the ideal qualities needed to properly portray Western heroes and villains. During Hollywood's Golden Era, actors such as John Wayne, James Stewart, and Randolph Scott encompassed the quintessential Western star. The latter half of the twentieth century saw the likes of Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Costner emerge as part of the next generation of iconic Western movie stars.

An often overlooked aspect of the Western is the array of female stars that cemented their legacies through the genre. Actresses such as Barbara Stanwyck, Maureen O'Hara, and Jane Russell enjoyed immense success in the Western genre through their starring roles. Character actresses like Jane Darwell, Joanne Dru, and Katy Jurado became staple figures in dozens of Westerns during Hollywood's Golden Era. These phenomenal actresses played an integral role in shaping the history of the Western genre.

It makes sense that at a certain point, many actors decide to try their hand at acting and step behind the camera to exercise more creative control. There are many famous actors who made the transition and are now better known for their direction, like Greta Gerwig or John Cassavetes. However, the reverse is also true with performers who reached such a level of stardom that discovering they contributed so much to great works of cinema comes as a surprise. However, having experience as a performer gives a director unique insight into how best to work with actors.

There are plenty of actors who make even better directors, but these performers are so well-known for their onscreen roles that it comes as a shock to learn they've stepped behind the camera. More often than not, these actors were already attached to perform in the projects they directed, giving them even more of a challenge.

Western movies have long been built on repeated tropes that define the genre. As the exciting stories of how cowboys, bandits, and outlaws make their way through a lawless life across the Wild West frontier, many tropes and cliches have reappeared time and time again to the point that they become readily associated with the genre itself. These tropes helped create a cinematic language for Western movies and helped them stand apart from other types of genre films.

Many of the best Western movies ever made were packed with tropes and cliches of the genre. The acclaimed collaborations of icons like John Wayne and John Ford would not have been possible without the foundations of the Western genre and the tropes and clichs that it embodied. From over-the-top brawls in dusty saloons to lone gunmen facing off against ruthless crooks in a lawless town, these tropes helped define Westerns.

A...

Every movie genre has specific themes that they frequently explore. The Western, one of cinema's oldest genres, routinely examines themes related to progress toward civilization, justice, man versus nature, United States history and identity, and freedom. Westerns are also one of cinema's best genres for contemplating themes of revenge and vengeance.

Traditional Westerns, which typically depict conflicts of good versus evil, present revenge themes straightforwardly, with a hero seeking vengeance against a villain. Conversely, revisionist Westerns offer a much more nuanced portrait of revenge by demonstrating how quests for vengeance leave one feeling unfulfilled. Heroes obsessed with revenge slowly become villains themselves. John Ford's The Searchers, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven are excellent examples of revenge-themed Westerns.

One-Eyed Jacks Is the Only Film Directed by Marlon Brando (1961)

One-Eyed Jacks Not RatedWesternDrama Where to Watchstreamrentbuy

*Availability in US Director Marlon...

Few actors in Hollywood are as praised and renowned as Marlon Brando. He was at the forefront of cinema for half of the 20th century, initially celebrated for his charming good looks and commanding presence. Over time, Brando evolved into a diverse actor, pioneering the use of method acting among the first famous actors to explore its full potential.

Today, Marlon Brando is best known for his iconic role as Vito Corleone in the film The Godfather, yet his filmography spans a wide variety of classics. Exploring Brando's films not only provides insights into the evolution of acting but also offers a journey through American cinematic history.

One-Eyed Jacks Is the Only Film Brando Directed

One-Eyed Jacks Not RatedWesternDrama Where to Watchstreamrentbuy

*Availability in US Director Marlon BrandoRelease Date March 30, 1961Cast Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Ben JohnsonWriters Guy Trosper, Calder Willingham, Charles NeiderRuntime 141 minutesMain Genre Western Expand One-Eyed Jacks...

Personally and professionally, Sam Peckinpah was running on fumes by the time he made 1973’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Years of substance abuse left the director in such fragile health that he spent some days on the production’s Mexico locations filming from a hospital bed, and his dilapidated condition only exacerbated his notoriously combative personality and contributed to the film’s budget and schedule overruns. Infuriated by the escalating expense of the production and set on an arbitrary runtime ceiling, MGM took over editing before Peckinpah could finish the job and released a hastily assembled 106-minute version that hit theaters to indifferent reviews and middling returns. Only in 1988, four years after the director’s death, did the film gain stature as one of his finest works thanks to the release of a rough, never-finalized preview cut prepared by Peckinpah.

An account of the final days of the...

A controversial Western is about to hit Prime Video, and fans of the classics are gunning for a rewatch of 1952's High Noon.

Directed by Fred Zinneman and starring Gary Cooper, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Ian McDonald, and Lon Chaney, 1952's High Noon is slated to arrive on Prime Video for streaming on June 1. Though the film has been available for purchase and rent previously, the upcoming addition to Prime Video's regular roster of films marks the first time that High Noon has been available for streaming on the service. Upon its release, the film was hailed as "un-American" by classic Western actor and Hollywood icon John Wayne, largely due to its subversions of typical Western themes.

Related Best Comedy Movies To Watch On Prime Video

From hilarious genre parodies like Violent Night to inspiring films like Brittany Runs a Marathon, Amazon Prime Video is home to great comedy movies.

Cinema has long showcased the fight between heroes and villains, with many of the best films climaxing in a showdown between good and evil. Everything from classic westerns to gritty action movies has followed heroes in their attempt to survive or defeat an enemy, all drawing down to a necessary duel. While some cinematic finales follow big, epic battles between armies, the best way to show heroes against villains is in smaller, personal showdowns.

A great showdown between heroes and villains can either lead into the next chapter of a character's story or signal the end of an epic saga. Regardless, fans will often wait until the very end of a film to finally see the protagonist prevail in a tense confrontation against the bad guy. Some of the most enduring and iconic moments ever put into film are centered around these final confrontations, and help the film retain love and praise for decades.

Richard Fleischer’s Biblical epic is a class act all the way, and one of producer Dino De Laurentiis’s greatest accomplishments. Anthony Quinn’s guilty, perplexed bandit survives and subsists but never understands the importance of the man crucified in his place; the view of early Christianity is respectful and free of pious clichés. It’s an excellent image of the ancient world, with gladiator scenes that are possibly the best ever. Fleisher does exceedingly well with the enormous sets and a well-chosen international cast: Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, Vittorio Gassman, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Silvana Mangano, Jack Palance.

Barabbas

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 132

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...

We're revisiting the 1951 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

Surely we all remember Jan Sterling from the excellent 1954 Smackdown, whose performance as an “anxious catfishing pioneer” in The High and the Mighty gave a misogynistic role one of the only moments of real pathos in the whole film. That disaster film was enough of a critical and box office success to justify her nomination, but much like Katy Jurado in Broken Lance and even Nina Foch in Executive Suite (who I love!) from the same lineup, the energy around Sterling’s nomination reeks more than a little of belated recognition.

In Sterling’s case, that missed opportunity came in 1951. Beford the National Board of Review introduced supporting categories to their own awards they handed her Best Actress for her supporting turn as a bored,...

Budd Boetticher’s excellent semi-autobiographical film may be Hollywood’s most uncondescending depiction of high-end Mexican culture. Robert Stack is the pushy Gringo who only slowly understands Latin society’s definitions of loyalty and machismo; his rocky relationship with Joy Page’s cultured señorita is as important as the bullfighting story with Gilbert Roland. It’s Boetticher’s best film, presented for the first time in two encodings, the 87-minute release version and the UCLA Film and TV Archive’s restoration of the full 124-minute seen South of the Border. The extra commentary and featurettes are welcome too.

Bullfighter and the Lady

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

By John M. Whalen

Northrop Frye’s “Anatomy of Criticism” maintains that all stories are about a quest for identity. Identity, he maintains, is derived from one’s position in society and in stories with a happy ending. A character starts out in isolation but eventually finds his place in society. That’s the story of the young hero who rises from obscurity, finds the girl of his dreams, overcomes obstacles and lives happily ever after. Tragic stories are about characters who start out with an established identity but lose it for one reason or another and end up totally isolated or dead. Like Macbeth or Hamlet.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics recently released a double feature on Blu-Ray of a couple of low-budget westerns from the 50’s starring Anthony Quinn that surprisingly, despite their humble origins, demonstrate pretty clearly what Frye meant. “The...

Jodie Foster is the new Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The two-time Oscar winner pulled off a Golden Globe upset in Best Supporting Actress for “The Mauritanian” last month, but she was Mia from Monday’s Oscar lineup, becoming the fifth Globe winner not to earn a corresponding supporting actress Oscar nomination and first in 44 years.

The last Globe champ and Oscar snubbee was Katharine Ross for 1976’s “Voyage of the Damned.” Before that, Katy Jurado of “High Noon” (1952), Hermione Gingold of “Gigi” (1958) and Karen Black of “The Great Gatsby” (1974) all failed to convert their Globe gold into an Oscar bid.

In terms of the men, eight supporting actor Globe champs have been overlooked by the academy, mostly in the ’50s and ’60s. Taylor-Johnson was the most recent one to be blanked. Like Foster, he won the Globe in a shocker, for 2016’s “Nocturnal Animals,” but the academy opted to nominate his co-star Michael Shannon instead.

The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association mostly used a rubber stamp to fill out the TV portion of their Golden Globe ballots this year, saving most of the organization’s traditional chaotic energy for the film categories instead. In one of the most surprising but also welcome moments of the evening, Jodie Foster took home the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “The Mauritanian.”

Foster was in fourth place in Gold Derby’s odds heading into the Globes, behind Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”), Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Olivia Colman (“The Father”), and leading Helena Zengel (“News of the World”). So what does this win mean for Foster’s chances at the Oscars? Well, let’s put it this way: The last actress who won the Golden Globe for supporting actress and was then snubbed by the academy was Katharine Ross, for “Voyage of the Damned...

3-D Blu-ray isn’t going away, even as the equipment to show it becomes hard to find — and the 3-D Film Archive keeps reviving vintage features and getting them shown in special venues and on Blu-ray. This second Rarities disc gives us some interesting odd items, including a pleasing gallery of vintage 3-D ‘Realist’ stills, and an entire feature starring Cesar Romero and Katy Jurado, the first película de tercera dimensión filmed in Mexico.

3-D Rarities II

3-D Blu-ray

Flicker Alley

1941-1983 / B&w + Color / 1:37 Academy / 153 min. / Restored by 3-D Film Archive / Street Date April 7, 2020 / 39.95

Voices: Hillary Hess, Suzanne Lloyd Hayes, Mike Ballew.

Digital Image Restoration: Thad Komorowski

3-D Restoration Greg Kintz

Associate Producer Jack Theakston

Produced by Bob Furmanek

The excellent Blu-ray 3-D video format is going strong despite the fact that new domestic hardware no longer supports it. Europe is the place to go for newer 3-D Hollywood features,...

Long before the push for diversity and inclusion, Hollywood had a few Latin/Hispanic stars who made a big impact. One was Katy Jurado, the first Latina actress to win a Golden Globe (for 1952’s “High Noon”) and the first nominated for an Oscar (1954’s “Broken Lance”).

She was born Jan. 16, 1924, in Mexico, and began making films as a teenager. Though she was originally cast as spitfires or vamps, her roles got better and she added intelligence and subtlety to her characters. Variety reviewed her in the 1951 film “Bullfighter and the Lady,” saying she “makes a very strong impression” in her Hollywood debut. She won three Ariel Awards, the highest honor for Mexican filmmaking, including one for Luis Buñuel’s 1953 “El Bruto”; in 1997, she added a Special Golden Ariel for lifetime achievement.

Painted by Diego Rivera and romanced by novelist Louis L’Amour, Jurado remained the only Mexican actress to be Oscar nominated for nearly 50 years,...

When a certain someone worries publically about caravans reaching our southern border, he may be thinking about an invasion of Mexicans farther north where they are stepping over his plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, scooping up Oscar nominations and absconding with electroplated gold.

The leaders of this caravan are Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron, multi-hyphenate filmmakers who have amassed 22 Oscar nominations among them and a total of nine wins. They have won four of the last five best director Oscars, with Cuaron expected to make it five out of six for “Roma,” and they have won two of the last four best picture awards, with “Roma” favored to make it three out of five.

These self-labeled Three Amigos are also looting the vaults of the studios and financial institutions pumping millions into the making of their movies and paying them millions to do it.

“Roma” scored two surprising Oscar nominations Tuesday in two of the biggest categories: Yalitza Aparicio in Best Actress and Marina de Tavira in Best Supporting Actress. The dual acting bids make Aparicio and de Tavira, both Mexican, two of the few Latina actresses to be shortlisted by the academy.

Aparicio is just the fourth Latin American to be nominated in Best Actress, following Fernanda Montenegra, Salma Hayek and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Aparicio is just the second Mexican nominee after Hayek. None of the first three won.

See Oscar nominations: See the full list of nominations

There have been a few more Latina nominees in Best Supporting Actress. De Tavira joins Katy Jurado, Rita Moreno, Norma Aleandro, Adriana Barraza, Berenice Bejo and Lupita Nyong’o. Jurado, Barraza and Nyong’o are all Mexican-born, and Moreno and Nyong’o are the only winners.

See ‘Roma’ and ‘The Favourite’ reign over Oscar nominations with 10 apiece

Aparicio,...

Academy Award-winner Damien Chazelle is coming to Morelia to kick off Mexico’s 16th Morelia International Film Festival (Ficm) on Oct. 20 with his latest film, “First Man.”

For the first time, the festival will be presenting a medal for artistic excellence to Alfonso Cuaron, whose recent Venice Golden Lion-winner “Roma,” Mexico’s submission to the Oscars and Spain’s Goyas, will screen at the festival.

Pawel Pawlikowski returns to Morelia to present his latest work, “Cold War.” Other notable guests presenting their films include Paul Weitz, who presents “Bel Canto”; Fran Healy with her documentary “Almost Fashionable: A Film About Travis”; Dan Millar, who brings his documentary “Botero”; and Almudena Carracedo, who presents her acclaimed documentary “The Silence of Others.”

Hailed by Variety critic Owen Gleiberman as a film “so revelatory in its realism, so gritty in its physicality, that it becomes a drama of thrillingly hellbent danger and obsession,...

Top stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida earn their keep in Carol Reed’s powerful tale of ambition and excellence performing forty feet above a circus arena. The best circus movie ever is also among Reed’s most exciting, best directed movies, a solid show all around.

Trapeze

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez, Sidney James, Johnny Puleo.

Cinematography: Robert Krasker

Costume Design: Veniero Colasanti

Editorial Supervisor: Bert Batt

Production Design: Rino Mondelli

Dialogue Coach: Harriet White Medin

Original Music: Malcolm Arnold

Written by James R. Webb & Liam O’Brien from a novel by Max Catto

Produced by James Hill, Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster

Directed by Carol Reed

For a long time it seemed that Carol Reed had been canonized for The Third Man, Odd Man Out and...

by Nathaniel R

Are you going to wait for the train downstairs? Why don't you wait here?"

-Katy Jurado to Grace Kelly in High Noon (leaves Filmstruck May 31st)

Y'all. I have a really really hard time with how quickly titles come and go on so many different streaming services. Ugh! I do not like other people curating my movies for me. I'm too much of my own cinephile for that. I want to see what I want to see when I want to see it and usually for highly specific reasons that don't go well with the timetables of corporations! Nevertheless the world is not made to cater to my personal whims (imagine that!?) so I've had to adapt. I have ponied up for FilmStruck and its Criterion Channel entirely because they have more classics than other streaming services. This still hasn't remotely solved all the "where to find things" woes.

Google Doodle is celebrating another Latin icon months after honoring Selena Quintanilla with an animated video set to the tune of her hit “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” and Dolores Del Rio, Mexican actress and well-known crossover star. On Jan. 16, the search giant is featuring an image of Mexican actress and singer Katy Jurado, in recognition of what would’ve been her 94th birthday, by artist Ana Ramirez.

The Doodle “pays homage to the trailblazing actress by depicting her in a powerful pose against a backdrop inspired by the set of her film High Noon.” according to the Google Doodle blog.

Today’s Google Doodle is celebrating the Mexican actress Katy Jurado, whose birthday was January 16. Katy Jurado Celebrated In Google Doodle Jurado was a pioneering Mexican actress who didn’t sacrifice her identity for her Hollywood acting career. Google is honoring her on what would have been her 94th birthday. She rose to fame for her […]

Source: uInterview

The post Google Doodle Celebrates Mexican Actress Katy Jurado appeared first on uInterview.

'Under the Volcano' screening: John Huston's 'quality' comeback featuring daring Albert Finney tour de force As part of its John Huston film series, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be presenting the 1984 drama Under the Volcano, starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews, on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood. Jacqueline Bisset is expected to be in attendance. Huston was 77, and suffering from emphysema for several years, when he returned to Mexico – the setting of both The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Night of the Iguana – to direct 28-year-old newcomer Guy Gallo's adaptation of English poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry's 1947 semi-autobiographical novel Under the Volcano, which until then had reportedly defied the screenwriting abilities of numerous professionals. Appropriately set on the Day of the Dead – 1938 – in the fictitious Mexican town of Quauhnahuac (the fact that it sounds like Cuernavaca...

Marlon Brando put his all into this impassioned, expertly acted and crafted VistaVision western spectacle. Has it been overlooked because of the scarcity of quality presentations? Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson and Slim Pickens are unforgettable, as are the Big Sur locations. One-Eyed Jacks Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 844 1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 22, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Pina Pellicer, Larry Duran, Sam Gilman, Míriam Colón, Timothy Carey, Margarita Cordova, Elisha Cook Jr., Rodolfo Acosta, Joan Petrone, Joe Dominguez, Tom Webb, Ray Teal, John Dierkes, Philip Ahn, Hank Worden, Clem Harvey, William Forrest, Mina Martinez. Cinematography Charles Lang. Jr. Film Editor Archie Marshek Original Music Hugo Friedhofer Written by Guy Trosper, Calder Willingham from the novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider Produced by Frank P. Rosenberg Directed by Marlon Brando...

Another release of the Kramer-Foreman-Zinnemann classic gives Savant another chance to make his argument that this supposedly 'liberal' movie is too confused to be anything but political quicksand -- if anything, its statement is bitterly hawkish. High Noon Blu-ray Olive Signature 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 Starring Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Lloyd Bridges, Lon Chaney Jr, Harry Morgan, Otto Kruger, Lee Van Cleef. Cinematography Floyd Crosby Production Designer Rudolph Sternad Film Editor Elmo Williams Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin Written by Carl Foreman Produced by Stanley Kramer Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This is my fourth time out with a review of High Noon, starting fourteen years ago with a pretty miserable Artisan DVD, then a Lionsgate 'ultimate edition,' followed by Olive Film's first, quite good Blu-ray. Olive now revisits the 1952 classic as...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the lineup for the Revivals section, taking place during the 54th New York Film Festival (Nyff). The Revivals section showcases masterpieces from renowned filmmakers whose diverse and eclectic works have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.

Read More: Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Documentary ‘The 13th’ Will Open 54th New York Film Festival

Some of the films in the lineup include plenty of Nyff debuts returning once again: Gillo Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers,” which was the the Nyff Opening Night selection in 1967, Robert Bresson’s “L’argent,” and Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County USA.” Also included are a program of Jacques Rivette’s early short films, Edward Yang’s second feature “Taipei Story,” Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu,” and Marlon Brando’s solo directorial effort “One-Eyed Jacks.”

The Nyff previously announced three of the films screening...

As much as we’re excited for the already enticing line-up for the 2016 New York Film Festival, their Revivals slate is always a place where one can discover a number of classics or revisit favorite films. This year is no different as they have newly restored films from Robert Bresson, Edward Yang, Jacques Rivette, Marlon Brando, Kenji Mizoguchi, and more. Check out the line-up below and return for our coverage this fall. If you don’t live in New York City, there’s a good chance a number of these restorations will travel in the coming months (or year) as well as get the home video treatment.

L’argent

Directed by Robert Bresson

1983, France, 83m

Robert Bresson’s final film, an adaptation of Tolstoy’s story The Forged Coupon, is simultaneously bleak and luminous, and sharp enough to cut diamonds. The story of a counterfeit bill’s passage from hand...

Director Edward Dmytryk, one of the infamous Hollywood Ten blacklisted by McCarthy and his goons in 1947 Hollywood, debuted the most famous title in his filmography seven years later with war drama The Caine Mutiny. That very same year, in fact, only about a month later, he would premiere another title, a robust 1880s set Western starring Spencer Tracy, a title which would also win Oscar glory. Overshadowed by the popularity of Caine, however, the film seems to have disappeared from contemporary discussions of Dmytryk’s work (never able to divorce himself from his eventual testimony in front of Huac), a shame considering it’s a gripping, framed familial saga of intergenerational misunderstandings, racial hang-ups, and eventually even a court-room drama.

Young Joe Devereaux (Robert Wagner) is released from serving a three year prison sentence and immediately returns to his abandoned familial homestead to wreak vengeance on those who wronged him.

Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...

Edward Dmytryk's big-scale cattle empire saga sees paterfamilias Spencer Tracy drive away his sons and bull his way into a modern civil dispute that can't be resolved with force. Robert Wagner is the loyal son and Richard Widmark the resentful son impatient for Dad to cash in his chips. Fox's early CinemaScope and stereophonic sound western is a transposition of a film noir mystery thriller. Broken Lance Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 96 min. / Ship Date November 10, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, Katy Jurado, Hugh O'Brian, Eduard Franz, Earl Holliman, E.G. Marshall, Carl Benton Reid, Philip Ober. Cinematography Joseph MacDonald Film Editor Dorothy Spencer Original Music Leigh Harline Written by Richard Murphy, Philip Yordan Produced by Sol C. Siegel Directed by Edward Dmytryk Reviewed by Glenn EricksonSome of the early 'big' westerns that aspire to epic status are...

'Affliction' movie: Nick Nolte as the troubled police officer Wade Whitehouse. 'Affliction' movie: Great-looking psychological drama fails to coalesce Set in a snowy New Hampshire town, Affliction could have been an excellent depiction of a dysfunctional family's cycle of violence and how that is accentuated by rapid, destabilizing socioeconomic changes. Unfortunately, writer-director Paul Schrader's 1998 film doesn't quite reach such heights.* Based on a novel by Russell Banks (who also penned the equally snowy The Sweet Hereafter), Schrader's Affliction relies on a realistic wintry atmosphere (courtesy of cinematographer Paul Sarossy) to convey the deadness inside the story's protagonist, the middle-aged small-town sheriff Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte). The angst-ridden Wade is intent on not ending up like his abusive, alcoholic father, Glen (James Coburn), while inexorably sliding down that very path. Making matters more complicated, Wade must come to terms with the fact that his ex-wife, Lillian (Mary Beth Hurt), will never return to him,...

Here's another installment featuring Joe Dante's reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments!

Post-production tampering mitigates against this Western by Sam Peckinpah finding its deserved reception from better-class audiences. Shortened release version is vague, confusing, and is being sold as routine action entry in saturation breaks where it should perform routinely, no more. Kris Kristofferson and acting debut of Bob Dylan provide youth lures. Rating: R.

“It feels like times have changed,” says Pat Garrett. “Times, maybe—not me," says Billy the Kid. A classical Sam Peckinpah exchange, reflecting one of the numerous obsessive themes that run through his latest Western. But times certainly haven’t changed for Peckinpah—for, despite the overdue success of his last venture, The Getaway, the embattled and iconoclastic director who revolutionized the Western with The Wild Bunch...

This article by Fernando Ganzo is an excerpt from Capricci's monograph Sam Peckinpah, edited by Ganzo, which accompanies this year's retrospective at the Locarno Film Festival.Warren Oates in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. © Park Circus / MGM“Don’t ever ruin your career as a loser with a shitty success.”—Jorge OteizaThere is only one thing that can be said about a person as erratic, contradictory, mythomaniac, complex and profound as Sam Peckinpah: here is a director who was made in the image of his characters, those men who belong to a different era, born too late, in a world that opposed all freedom and eccentricity. We like to describe Peckinpah as one of the fathers of New Hollywood, of the baroque aesthetic of the 1970s, as someone who had a primordial and often regrettable influence on that particular style. This is not completely false. However, this...

We're just 9 days away from the launch of another Smackdown Summer. Rather than announce piecemeal, we'll give you all five lineups in case you'd like more time to catch up with these films (some of them stone cold classics) over the hot months. Remember to cast your own ballots during each month for the reader-polling (your 1979 votes are due by June 4th). Your votes count toward the final Smackdown win so more of you should join in. 

These Oscar years were chosen after comment reading, dvd searching, handwringing, and desire-to-watch moods.  I wish we had time to squeeze in a dozen Smackdowns each summer! As it is there will be Two Smackdowns in June, a gift to you since this first episode was delayed.

Sunday June 7th

The Best Supporting Actresses of 1979

Meryl Streep won her first of three Oscars while taking her co-star Jane Alexander along for the Oscar ride in Kramer vs. Kramer.

Hedy Lamarr: 'Invention' and inventor on Turner Classic Movies (photo: Hedy Lamarr publicity shot ca. early '40s) Two Hedy Lamarr movies released during her heyday in the early '40s — Victor Fleming's Tortilla Flat (1942), co-starring Spencer Tracy and John Garfield, and King Vidor's H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), co-starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey — will be broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pt, respectively. Best known as a glamorous Hollywood star (Ziegfeld Girl, White Cargo, Samson and Delilah), the Viennese-born Lamarr (née Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), who would have turned 100 on November 9, was also an inventor: she co-developed and patented with composer George Antheil the concept of frequency hopping, currently known as spread-spectrum communications (or "spread-spectrum broadcasting"), which ultimately led to the evolution of wireless technology. (More on the George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invention further below.) Somewhat ironically,...

We are pleased to welcome StinkyLulu back to Smackdowning. Give him a warm welcome in the comments! - Editor

It has been a while since I dropped into a random year’s field of Supporting Actress nominees. Still, as I have re/screened the relevant films in preparation for Saturday afternoon's Supporting Actress Smackdown, it’s startling how familiar the 1952 roster feels. Remember that “Best Supporting Actress” was only in its 15th year or so (having been introduced in 1936, almost ten years after the Oscar game got started) but, already by 1952, the category seemed to have established some of its most enduring quirks.

1952’s nominated roles are definitely cut from Oscar’s favorite cloth: the hooker with a heart; the hale helpmeet; the full force of youth; the long (briefly) suffering wife; and the shrewish “ex.”

Oscar loves a type - you see these types still!

The field we'll be...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 30, 2013

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Robert Stack plays to the crowd in Bullfighter and The Lady.

The 1951 film drama-romance Bullfighter and The Lady was the breakthrough movie for filmmaker Budd Boetticher (Seven Men From Now).

Robert Stack (TV’s The Untouchables) stars as Chuck Regan, a brash American skeet shooting champion whose visit to Mexico introduces him to two irresistible forces: the exotic Anita de la Vega (Joy Page) and the lure of the way of the matador. Unflinching in his confidence, Regan sets out to conquer both, learning bullfighting from an icon of the Mexican corrida, Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland). But Regan’s headstrong assertiveness and desire to impress Anita gets the best of him when he debuts in the ring and knows there’s only one way and one place he can redeem himself.

Written by James Edward Grant from a story by Boetticher,...

Legendary Spanish-born international film and music icon has died Sara Montiel, also known as either Sarita Montiel or, at times, Saritisima, was one of the Spanish-speaking world's biggest stars. She died on Monday, April 8, apparently of "natural causes" at her house in Madrid's district of Salamanca. She was 85 years old. Earlier today, a cortege driving through the streets of Madrid was attended (and applauded) by thousands of mourning fans. Montiel was born on March 10, 1928; according to online sources, her birth name was María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isadora Abad Fernández; her father was a small farmer and her mother was beauty products salesperson. She left behind her poverty-stricken childhood, spending her days in the streets of her small village while dreaming of Spanish film star Imperio Argentina, after moving to Madrid in her mid-teens. Diction and singing lessons followed. Eventually, she started appearing in films, landing two roles in 1944 releases:...

Cine Latino covers, well, all things relating to Latino culture and the movies. With Expendables 2 in theaters, we decided to switch things up a bit and put together an assemble of tough-girl Latina actresses who could serve as counterparts to the men in this action-packed ensemble. Sylvester Stallone/Katy Jurado With a long career in action films, Sylvester Stallone leads the pack in Expendables 2. Finding his counterpart proved to be a bit challenging, but how about—Katy Jurado? The Mexican actress had a successful career in Mexico and in Hollywood became a fixture in Western films during the 1950s and 1960s. Her most notable roles include High Noon with Gary Cooper, Broken Lance with Spencer Tracy and One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando. She filmed 71 movies and...

Read More

Read Comments...

Cine Latino covers, well, all things relating to Latino culture and the movies, every Friday. With Expendables 2 hitting theaters today, we decided to switch things up a bit and put together an assemble of tough-girl Latina actresses who could serve as counterparts to the men in this action-packed ensemble. Sylvester Stallone/Katy Jurado With a long career in action films, Sylvester Stallone leads the pack in Expendables 2. Finding his counterpart proved to be a bit challenging, but how about—Katy Jurado? The Mexican actress had a successful career in Mexico and in Hollywood became a fixture in Western films during the 1950s and 1960s. Her most notable roles include High Noon with Gary Cooper, Broken Lance with Spencer Tracy and One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando. She...

Read More...

Stocky supporting actor who won an Oscar when he was cast against type as a lonely butcher in Marty

With his coarsely podgy features, bug eyes, gap-toothed grin and stocky build, Ernest Borgnine, who has died aged 95 of renal failure, seemed destined to remain one of nature's supporting actors in a string of sadistic and menacing parts. Instead he won an Oscar for a role which was the antithesis of all his previous characters.

In 1955, the producer Harold Hecht wanted to transfer Paddy Chayefsky's teleplay Marty to the big screen, with Rod Steiger in the title role, which he had created. But Steiger was filming Oklahoma! so was unavailable. Borgnine was offered the role after a female guest at a Hollywood reception quite disinterestedly remarked to Hecht that, ugly as he was, Borgnine possessed an oddly tender quality which made her yearn to mother him. "That," Hecht said later,...

Los Angeles — He was a tubby tough guy with a pug of a mug, as unlikely a big-screen star or a romantic lead as could be imagined.

Yet Ernest Borgnine won a woman's love and an Academy Award in one of the great lonelyhearts roles in "Marty," a highlight in a workhorse career that spanned nearly seven decades and more than 200 film and television parts.

Borgnine, who died Sunday at 95, worked to the end. One of his final roles was a bit part as a CIA records-keeper in 2011's action comedy "Red" – fittingly for his age, a story of retired spies who show that it's never too late to remain in the game when they're pulled back into action.

"I keep telling myself, `Damn it, you gotta go to work,'" Borgnine said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press. "But there aren't many people who want to put Borgnine to work these days.

Ernest Borgnine, the rugged, stocky actor with a brassy voice and the face of the local butcher, died today in Los Angeles at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of renal failure. He was 95.

Borgnine was known for playing characters both brutal and gentle. On the brutal side was the cruel Sgt. "Fatso" Judson in From Here to Eternity, Coley Trimble, the right-hand goon in Bad Day at Black Rock, Dutch Engstrom, in the enduring classic The Wild Bunch and Shack, the train bull after Lee Marvin in Emperor of the North. On the gentle side he was known as the love-lorn Marty in the 1955 film of the same name (for which he earned an Oscar for Best Actor), Lt. Commander Quinton McHale from "McHale's Navy," Rogo, the cop with the prostitute-wife in The Poseidon Adventure and, to a whole new generation, as the voice of the starfish-donning, geriatric Mermaid Man on "SpongeBob SquarePants."

A first generation American Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut. His father was Camillo (later Charles) Borgnino of Ottiglio, in northern Italy and his mother was Anna Bosselli, from Capri, Italy.

Borgnine showed no real interest in acting until well after a ten-year stint in the Navy. He was 32 when his mother suggested that he become an actor, observing "you like to make a fool of yourself in front of other people" so Ernie enrolled in the Randall School of Drama in Hartford and then moved to Abingdon, Virginia for Robert Porterfield's famous Barter Theatre.

Times were lean for Borgnine. He had married for the first time and moved from the Barter to New York, quickly getting noticed for his role as a male nurse in a Broadway production of "Harvey" but he soon moved back to the Barter school again. He then returned to New York but the nascent medium of television, not the stage, sustained him for a while. Borgnine prided himself on not being picky. His original TV work included a stint in the action serial "Captain Video and His Video Rangers." He was noticed by Delbert Mann, himself a budding director, who encouraged Borgnine and gave him small roles.

Borgnine's true break came when he moved to Los Angeles and landed the role of Sergeant "Fatso" Judson in Eternity, a smash hit that, in addition to launching Borgnine's helped reinvigorate numerous careers including Frank Sinatra's and Deborah Kerr's. He played the bad guy again, though one of the goons this time, in Johnny Guitar. Borgnine then parlayed his new-found notoriety with the lead in a screenplay written by Paddy Chayefsky, that of Marty, in the film of the same name, slated to be directed by his mentor, Delbert Mann. The story was about an underdog named Marty, a self-avowed ugly man, who has to evolve beyond his dedication to his overbearing mother and his bonds with his best friend, when he falls in love with Clara, a woman who is also unpopular and unattractive, played by Betsy Blair.

Marty was a surprise hit, was nominated for eight Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Director for Mann) and won four, including Borgnine's unexpected win over a very crowded field which included his co-star in Bad Day at Black Rock,Spencer Tracy, and a posthumous nod to James Dean (who had died the previous September in a car crash) for his role in East of Eden.

The Oscar helped keep the actor in the game and the next seven years included a mix of TV and film work including A Catered Affair, Jubal, The Vikings and various "Playhouse" appearances on the small screen.

1962 brought "McHale's Navy," with Borgnine assaying the role of Lt. Commander Quinton McHale, the put-upon chief of PT boat 73. The cast included Joe Flynn and Tim Conway (Conway would, 35 years later, team up again with Borgnine as the voice of Mermaid Man's sidekick, Barnacle Boy, on "SpongeBob SquarePants"). "McHale's" had a healthy following for four years.

Borgnine had a mid-life Renaissance in the late '60s and early '70s. He played a small but pivotal role in The Dirty Dozen, was Boris Vaslov in Ice Station Zebra and was Dutch Engstrom, the taciturn but decisive bandit throwing in with Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch. He also joined the capsized cast of The Poseidon Adventure, played Shack, the train bull in The Emperor of the North Pole and was the simple-minded but helpful Cabbie in Escape from New York.

Borgnine was married five times. His second marriage was to the fiery actress Katy Jurado. It began in 1959 but was over four years later. Reports differ on when he met his third wife, Ethel Merman. She claimed it was in November of 1963, the same month that he was finalizing his divorce to Jurado. He insisted it wasn't until the next spring. Regardless they were married on June 24th, the following year. It lasted less than a month. In her autobiography entitled "Merman," the actress intimated that Borgnine was abusive stating, "I just feel lucky to have been able to 'walk' away from the marriage." She devoted an entire chapter to their union, entitled "My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine"--it consisted of one blank page.

His last marriage, to Tova Traesnaes, lasted over 35 years and until his death. Borgnine had four children: Gina Kemins-Borgnine, the child from his first marriage to Rhoda Kemins, and three from his fourth wife, Donna Rancourt, named Diana Rancourt-Borgnine (born December 29th 1970), Sharon (born 1965) and Cristofer (born 1969). Oddly, in his autobiography, "Ernie" Bornine only acknowledged the first three children, dropping Diana out entirely.

By John Exshaw

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Being reports of certain events which would have appeared earlier, had fate and the need to earn a buck not intervened.

Western Season

Irish Film Institute, 24-28 August 2011

Waiting at the station for the 3:10 to Tara Street, I was feeling good – deep down good, the way a man can feel when he’s got a bunch of Westerns to watch and a passel of press passes in his pocket. Leaving the Iron Horse at Westland Row, I cut across Grafton Street (no sign of them pesky Rykers) and on down to the Irish Film Institute, where they were about to let rip with a four-day, eight-film season called ‘The Western: Meanwhile Back at the Revolution ... The Western As Political Allegory’. Well, I reckoned they could use all them fancy five-dollar words and dress it up whatever they damn well liked,...

(Luis Buñuel, 1951; 1952, 12, Mr Bongo)

After his two avant- garde collaborations with fellow surrealist Salvador Dali – Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930) – Luis Buñuel disappeared below the radar in Mexico until reappearing at Cannes with Los Olvidados in 1951. He continued working there until re-establishing himself in Europe in the 1960s as one of the great directors. His mostly little-known Mexican films – rough-hewn, low-budget melodramas for the most part – are always interesting, and these two early ones complement each other as they explore characteristic themes of lust, cruelty, class, hypocrisy and corruption. In Susana, a satanic femme fatale offers up successful prayers for escape from her hellhole of a reform school and proceeds to ingratiate herself into a wealthy bourgeois family where she proceeds to destroy everyone around her. In El Bruto, a violent, ox-like abattoir worker (the great Pedro Armendáriz) is hired to do a slum landlord's dirty work and is...

Although then-resident New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther found Carol Reed's Trapeze (1956) "dismally obvious and monotonous" when it opened at the Capitol "to the tune of much ballyhoo", his review offers an entertaining observation that makes me keen to watch the film yet again (I've seen it several times): "The only thing that startled us in the whole show was due to a slip of the film-cutter. Signorina Lollobrigida's double is seen flying through the air in a green costume. The next shot of the actress in a medium close-up has her grabbing the hands of Mr. Lancaster and wearing a brown-and-white striped number. We would like to have seen that quick change."

Such a prurient notation indicates to me that Crowther was not as thoroughly bored as he lets on. How could he be with such a bounty of classic beauty on the silver screen? Granted,...

Sky Movies HD have got quite a good season coming up called ‘Movies You Never Got Around To Watching But Always Wanted To See’ and this sort of thing is perfect for people who aren’t sure what movies they should watch.

Their week of films starts Monday 11th Oct – Sunday 17th Oct and includes classic and groundbreaking movies like Jurassic Park, Jaws, Cool Hand Luke and Dead Poets Society.

Have a look at the list below including the date and time it will air and I’ve given trailers for each movie, when it’s on TV and some of my favourite clips for some of the movies too.

———————————–

Mon 11th 5.45pm Dead Poets Society

Director: Peter Weir

Cast: Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke, Welker White, Robert Sean Leonard, Josh Charles

Synopsis: Set in an exclusive boys preparatory school in 1959, a newly appointed English teacher uses unconventional techniques to inspire his students in classic poetry.

Marlon Brando, Jean Peters in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! Ramon Novarro in Scaramouche on TCM Following Scaramouche, Turner Classic Movies will show a Mexican feature set during the Revolution, Roberto Rodríguez's La Bandida (1963), starring Mexican legend María Félix, Pedro Armendáriz, Katy Jurado, actor-filmmaker Emilio Fernández, and Lola Beltrán. And prior to Scaramouche, TCM is showing two Mexican Revolution films made in Hollywood: Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952), with Marlon Brando (wasn't Katy Jurado or perhaps Sarita Montiel available?) as revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, and Jack Conway's Viva Villa! (1934), with a surprisingly effective Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa. The beautifully shot Viva Villa! (cinematography by Charles G. Clarke and James Wong Howe) is perhaps best known for what's not seen on screen: Lee Tracy, one of the stars of MGM's Dinner at 8, getting drunk and pissing on a military parade passing below his Mexico City hotel balcony, being arrested...

Are you celebrating Mexico today?

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I'm eating tacos for dinner because it's the least I can do. And I'm also perusing amazing photos of Mexican film stars of yore like the deliriously sexy Lupe Vélez and one star of the right now... Señor Bernal of course. Also deliriously sexy. Especially in closeups.

So I thought we'd drool on six of the earliest crossover sensations tonight with a few films of note (for one reason or another) for each of their careers. If you'd like to investigate further, click on the links. Enjoy!

Lupe Vélez The Gaucho, 1927 | Hot Pepper, 1933 | The Girl From Mexico, 1939

Ramon Novarro Scaramouche 1923 | Ben-Hur 1925 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, 1927

These silent stars had volatile lives and careers, both ending with tragic deaths. Vélez career was a series of ups and downs and some say she was bipolar. She had several movie star affairs...