News

Supermandirector James Gunn addressed the rumors that he'd asked a major Guardians of the Galaxy star to play Lex Luthor in the debut DC Universe film, before casting Nicholas Hoult. This, of course, was Bradley Cooper, who ultimately played the hero's father, Jor-El, instead in a cameo appearance.

The first live-action Jor-El was played by Nelson Leigh in 1948's Superman film serial, with later cinematic portrayals by Marlon Brando and Russell Crowe. As such, Cooper joins a long legacy of actors to play Superman's birth father.

However, Gunn revealed that this was not the original plan in an appearance on Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz. The filmmaker explained: "I did talk to Bradley about it. We had a short conversation and at the end, [...] I did want Lex to be someone that was more [a] contemporary of Superman's."

He elaborated that "Lex Luthor is important to Superman" and " to the future of the DC universe,...

Mill Creek’s latest disc collection gathers three Columbia Sci-fi faves and throws in a Blu-ray debut for a fourth. It’s a good selection: two giant Ray Harryhausen monsters, one marginal bad-taste Sam Katzman zombie epic, and a quirky Lou Costello comedy with Dorothy Provine doing a wholesome take on Allison Hayes’ biggest role. Do these encodings measure up to fancier editions? We give them a spin.

Sci-Fi from the Vault: 4 Films

Blu-ray

Creature with the Atom Brain, It Came from Beneath the Sea, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock

Mill Creek Entertainment

1955-1959 / B&w / 303 min. / Street Date February 14, 2023 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 29.99

Starring: Richard Denning; Kenneth Tobey & Faith Domergue; William Hopper & Joan Taylor; Lou Costello & Dorothy Provine.

Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Sidney Miller

Disc collectors are now tempted weekly by plenty of interesting disc releases...

Only once in a generation do we behold a classic such as this! The ’embiggened’ adventures of Nancy Archer lack technical sophistication, but good direction and a very direct story — female revenge writ large — grab us every time. Let the absurdities pile up, because Allison Hayes cuts a mean fifty-foot figure in that white two-piece, and saucy Yvette Vickers really warms up the clientele down at Tony’s place. It’s a terrific piece of late ’50s exploitation anti-art. The fantastic Reynold Brown poster is a key expression of the monsterrific worldview.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 65 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date December 6, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon, George Douglas, Ken Terrell, Otto Waldis, Eileene Stevens, Michael Ross, Frank Chase, Nelson Leigh, .

Cinematography: Jacques Marquette

Film Editor: Edward Mann

Original Music: Ronald Stein...

John Wayne! Janet Leigh! Nifty jet-age flying sequences! Goofy, bad-taste sex jokes! Hans Conreid as a chortling Russian army officer! Howard Hughes’ personal fun project took seven years to make while he played games with the aerial footage. It’s a highly-polished absurd joke, but it’s certainly entertaining. See Hughes try to do for Janet Leigh what he did for Jane Russell — I assume Ms. Leigh was too shrewd to sign any long-term contracts! This German disc has excellent widescreen image and audio.

Jet Pilot

Blu-ray

Explosive Media GmbH

1957 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 113 min. / Düsenjäger / Street Date June 14 2018, 2019 / 12.99 euros

Starring: John Wayne, Janet Leigh, Jay C. Flippen, Paul Fix, Richard Rober, Roland Winters, Hans Conried, Ivan Triesault, Hall Bartlett, Gregg Barton, Gene Evans, Paul Frees, Harry Lauter, Nelson Leigh, Denver Pyle, Gene Roth, Kenneth Tobey, Mamie Van Doren, Carleton Young.

Cinematography: Winton C. Hoch

Aerial Stunts: Chuck Yeager

Original Music:...

Duck and Cover! And while you’re down there, enjoy a Flaming Atomic Cocktail! Loader, Rafferty & Rafferty’s influential documentary-satire uses authentic ’50s films and songs to illuminate the lies and myths about Cold War civil defense. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be like children in the face of a horror being characterized as an inconvenience to Americans insufficiently willing to Love the Bomb. And don’t forget to Sing: “Nobody’s worried ’bout the day my Lord will come, When he’ll hit, great God a-mighty, like an atom bomb!”

The Atomic Cafe

Blu-ray

Kino Classics

1982 / Color+B&W / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / Street Date December 4, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Lloyd Bentsen, Richard Nixon,

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Hugh Beaumont, James Gregory, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Leigh.

Archival Research: Pierce Rafferty, Nan Allendorfer, Victoria Peterson, David Thaxton, Jon Else, Margaret Henry, Richard Prelinger

Film Editors: Jayne Loader,...

“Thru the Time Barrier, 552 years Ahead… Roaring To the Far Reaches of Titanic Terror, Crash-Landing Into the Nightmare Future!” … and as Daffy Duck says, “And it’s good, too!” Allied Artists sends CinemaScope and Technicolor on a far-out timewarp to a place where the men are silly and the women are… very female. Hugh Marlowe stars but the picture belongs to hunky Rod Taylor and leggy Nancy Gates.

World Without End

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date March 28, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Nelson Leigh, Rod Taylor, Shawn Smith, Lisa Montell, Christopher Dark, Booth Colman, Everett Glass.

Cinematography: Ellsworth Fredericks

Makeup: Emile Lavigne

Art Direction: Dave Milton

Film Editor: Eda Warren

Original Music: Leith Stevens

Produced by Richard V. Heermance

Written and Directed by Edward Bernds

“CinemaScope’s first science-fiction thriller.”

First, huh? What about MGM’s CinemaScope attraction Forbidden Planet, which...

Director Robert Montgomery's last is a war movie like no other, a study in leadership and command with no combat scenes. James Cagney uses none of his standard personality mannerisms; the result is something very affecting. And that music! You'll think the whole show is the memory of a soul in heaven. The Gallant Hours Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1960 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 5, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring James Cagney, Dennis Weaver, Ward Costello, Vaughn Taylor, Richard Jaeckel, Les Tremayne, Walter Sande, Karl Swenson, Leon Lontoc, Robert Burton, Carleton Young, Raymond Bailey, Harry Landers, Richard Carlyle, James Yagi, James T. Goto, Carl Benton Reid, Selmer Jackson, Frank Latimore, Nelson Leigh, Herbert Lytton, Stuart Randall, William Schallert, Arthur Tovey, John Zaremba. Cinematography Joseph MacDonald Art Director Wiard Ihnen Original Music Roger Wagner Written by Beirne Lay Jr., Frank D. Gilroy Produced and Directed by Robert Montgomery...