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Back in 1994, writer/director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Dean Devlin brought us the sci-fi adventure film Stargate, a box office hit that launched a franchise, being followed by multiple TV shows, books, comic books, video games, and direct-to-video features. The most popular of those follow-ups was the TV series Stargate Sg-1, which ran for ten seasons and then wrapped up with the aforementioned Dtv movies. It’s been a while since we got any new Stargate to watch, though – and not for lack of trying. Back in 2014, it was announced that Emmerich and Devlin would be rebooting the franchise with a new trilogy of films, starting the story over again from the beginning and tell it to its completion. Then developed the idea for a couple of years, but then it all fell apart. Last year, we learned that Stargate is one of the properties Amazon is looking to revive now that they required MGM,...

A meeting of two great masters of horror, Creepshow blends George A. Romero’s macabre brand of satire with Stephen King’s darkly moral vision of the world. The anthology film doesn’t blossom out from the nihilism that marks Romero and King’s more famous works, but from audience-friendly parody and their shared love of the infamous publisher EC Comics, one of the earliest targets and casualties of the Comics Code Authority. Comic-book aesthetics dominate the film, from vivid splashes of color to animated effects like frames divided into panels and page-flip transitions between segments. With Creepshow, Romero and King stepped far enough outside their creative comfort zones to find fruitful common ground in the film’s five stories, and without one artist’s personality outweighing the other’s.

Creepshow’s five stories are linked by a through line of sardonic moralism, a sense of reckoning redolent of Flannery O’Connor’s anti-fables.

Although far from the first horror anthology, Creepshow quickly established itself as the quintessential one. After several stalled attempts to work together, George A. Romero and Stephen King — two undisputed masters in their respective fields, each in their prime — finally collaborated in 1982. With both creators having grown up on EC horror comics of the 1950s like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear, it made sense that an homage to those works would bring the two titans of terror together.

Creepshow packs five tales (three originals and two adapted from existing King short stories) plus a wraparound that bookends the film in two hours flat. The Halloween-set framing story finds a disparaging father lambasting his son for reading horror comics before throwing away the latest issue of Creepshow. Beckoned by the silent host known as The Creep, the tales within the discarded comic serve as the anthology’s segments.

George A. Romero is one of my favorite filmmakers, so of course his 1982 Stephen King collaboration Creepshow (watch it Here) is one of my favorite films… and I’m glad to hear that Scream Factory is set to give the classic anthology movie a 4K Uhd release on June 27th. Copies are available for pre-order on the Scream Factory website, and there are multiple options to choose from. You can buy the 4K Uhd copy of the movie on its own, in a bundle with exclusive posters, an exclusive slipcover, and a prism sticker, in another bundle that adds an enamel pin set into the mix, or in another bundle that adds on some lobby cards. There are limited numbers of these bundles available, so head over to Scream Factory Asap to get yours.

Directed by Romero from a screenplay by King, Creepshow has the following synopsis: Writer Stephen King and director George Romero.

Jaye Davidson's very short-lived career as an actor was a memorable one. He came out of nowhere to earn an Oscar nomination for his performance as Dil in Neil Jordan's controversial "The Crying Game," only losing out on the Best Supporting Actor award to Gene Hackman's malign sheriff in "Unforgiven." Although the film's portrayal of a transgender character is problematic, it was a stunning breakthrough performance that marked him as one to watch. Despite the accolades, Davidson didn't enjoy the attention that fame brought him (via Yahoo), but he hung in there to collect a cool 1 million for playing the alien antagonist in "Stargate," Roland Emmerich's sweeping sci-fi adventure. And then he was gone again, deciding stardom wasn't for him and focusing on a career in modeling and fashion design instead.

Davidson doesn't appear until over an hour into the movie, but he made an unforgettable...

A couple months ago, we looked into the making of horror anthology Creepshow 2 with an episode of our Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? video series. Now with the new episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie?, we have circled back around to the first entry in the franchise. If you’re interested in finding out what went into the making of the 1982 George A. Romero / Stephen King classic Creepshow (watch it Here), check out the video embedded above!

Directed by Romero from a screenplay by King, Creepshow has the following synopsis:

Writer Stephen King and director George Romero. Like Dr. Frankenstein and his monster or Dracula and his blood-sucking harem, this is a team to be reckoned with. King’s works – Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Misery and many others – make him a legend of the silver scream. And the same holds true for Romero, whose...

NBC has given a put pilot order to a followup to the early ’90s drama series “Life Goes On,” with original series star Kellie Martin set to return.

The new iteration of the show was first announced as being in the works back in September as part of Nkechi Okoro Carroll’s new overall deal with Warner Bros. Television.

Okoro Carroll will write and executive produce the show under her Rock My Soul Productions banner. Lindsay Dunn of Rock My Soul will also executive produce, while Martin and Chad Lowe will produce. Michael Braverman serves as executive consultant. Lowe appeared on the show in the role of Jesse McKenna, while Braverman created the series.

The new show will revisit a grown-up Becca Thatcher (Martin), now an accomplished doctor, and her extended family as she returns to her hometown.

“Life Goes On” originally aired on ABC. The show ran for four...

Criterion lets out the stops to celebrate a filmmaker long due for some victory laps — Claudia Weill’s endearing drama takes on the subject of a modern woman trying to be independent but human in the tough art world of New York. The Movies was a hard field to crack as well. Criterion says that when Weill was admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1981, she was only the fourth woman director ever voted in. The cast of this freewheeling show is delightful — Melanie Mayron, Anita Skinner, Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban, Amy Wright, Viveca Lindfors, and of course Eli Wallach.

Girlfriends

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1055

1978 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 88 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 10, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Melanie Mayron, Anita Skinner, Christopher Guest, Eli Wallach, Bob Balaban, Amy Wright, Viveca Lindfors.

Cinematography: Fred Murphy

Film Editor: Suzanne Petit

Original Music: Michael Small

Written by Vicki Polon...

Roland Emmerich’s 1994 sci-fi adventure “Stargate” ended up grossing over $196 million worldwide, but the path to becoming a hit wasn’t easy. The independently-made film that opened 25 years ago this week spawned TV series including the 1997-2007 “Stargate Sg-1,” direct to video movies, video games and comic books, but it was not well-received with audiences in early test screenings.

The problem was with Jaye Davidson’s character, Ra, a powerful and ruthless alien in human form who had enslaved people from Earth and taken them to another planet via the Stargate, an ancient, ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole.

“He wasn’t originally an alien in the movie,” says producer and co-writer Dean Devlin. “He was originally an Egyptian who worked for the aliens. He was the boss of the humans, but he was still slave to the aliens. One day I’ll never forget, Roland and I were in...

Great news for fans of director Fritz Lang. His 1955 western Moonfleet is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive

Adventure and intrigue await all ye who venture into the small and sinister village of Moonfleet on the windswept moors of Dorsetshire. Particularly as directed by master-of-menace Fritz Lang, this colorful tale of a young boy’s experiences among some really bad companions enthralls in the tradition of Kidnapped and Treasure Island. Here, young John Mohune (Jon Whiteley) arrives at his ancestral estate, now owned by the dashing, and mysterious Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger). Out of love for the boy’s mother, but against his better judgment, Fox grudgingly allows John to stay. He soon becomes attached to the boy, but his devotion is tested when John discovers a hidden smugglers’ lair beneath the village graveyard and learns a shocking secret that could cost both him and Fox their lives.

Fritz Lang...

It’s Fritz Lang versus CinemaScope, for the first and last time. The format suited to snakes and funerals effectively hamstrings the great filmmaker’s expressive camera direction, yet the movie is one of the best of MGM’s last-gasp ’50s costume dramas. Corrupt smuggler Stewart Granger is redeemed by the faith of a young boy who believes in him; in this story the words “He’s my friend” take on a big significance. Come see director Lang struggle to adapt the wide-wide screen to accommodate his brand of real cinema.

Moonfleet

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date August 13, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Stewart Granger, Jon Whiteley, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood, Viveca Lindfors, Liliane Montevecchi, Melville Cooper, Sean McClory, Alan Napier, John Hoyt, Donna Corcoran, Jack Elam, Dan Seymour, Ian Wolfe.

Cinematography: Robert H. Planck

Film Editor: Albert Akst

Original Music: Miklos Rozsa

Written by Jan Lustig,...

Tony Sokol Jul 10, 2019

Rip Torn, who played characters from Judas Iscariot to the producer on The Larry Sanders Show, dies at 88.

Respected and versatile character actor Rip Torn died Tuesday in Lakeville, Conn., according to Variety. Publicist Rick Miramontez did not release a cause of death, but said Torn was with his wife, Amy Wright, and two daughters, Katie and Angelica. He was 88.

Torn believed actors should “play drama as comedy and comedy as drama,” according to the statement, and the actor was equally at home both. He starred in comedies like Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life and the Men in Black films, as well as TV comedies 30 Rock, playing General Electric CEO Don Geiss, mentor to Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Torn won an Emmy for his part in HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, and was nominated for a Tony award in...

“Kinder der Eisigen Dunkelheit!” If those words don’t give you a chill, you may be one of ‘The Damned.’ Joseph Losey’s fascinatingly morbid reflection on atomic terror was too much for England in 1961, wasn’t released in the U.S. for four full years, and then only after being shorn of nine minutes of footage. An ‘impossible’ Cold War scenario puts military authority on the same moral plane as delinquent street thugs. Losey transplants his subversive sensibility to England, and the result is one of the top political sci-fi tales of all time.

These are the Damned

Blu-ray

Explosive Media GmbH

1961 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date June 13, 2019 /Sie Sind Verdammt / Available from Amazon.de

Starring: Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors, Alexander Knox, Oliver Reed, Walter Gotell, James Villiers, Tom Kempinski, Kenneth Cope, Brian Oulton, Rachel Clay, Caroline Sheldon, Rebecca Dignam, Siobhan Taylor, Nicholas Clay.

Cinematography:...

I am forever trying to play catch up with foreign horror; France and Spain are two particular regions that give me foggy peepers, so I was delighted to come across the co-produced Bell from Hell (1973) - arthouse meets grindhouse in this fascinating pantsing of the bourgeois through the eyes of a madman.

Aka The Bells and La Campana Del Infierno, Bell from Hell opened in early October in Spain, and saw a U.S. TV premiere long after in ’75; while not a film that many saw (or had the opportunity to see) at the time, it’s an intriguing take on revenge that posits a touch of insanity lies in all of us.

We open with a young and handsome man, John (Renaud Verley – Snails in the Head) applying a plaster mold on his own face before being released on probation from an insane asylum. Placed there by his aunt...

“Stargate” fans have something to live for again. The first teaser for “Stargate Origins,” the new prequel series for the franchise, dropped on Wednesday and the fresh footage will give you plenty to pick apart over the holidays. The trailer sails through tons of clips of our young heroine Catherine Langford (Ellie Gall) — the daughter of Professor Langford (Connor Trinneer) — as she wanders through the desert, runs into Nazis, and a storm of gunfire. Oh, and they revealed a premiere date too. Viveca Lindfors and Kelly Vint Castro played the Catherine in the original 1994 movie from director Roland Emmerich....

Stargate fans are in for a treat. Deadline reports MGM is reviving the popular franchise with a new digital TV show and streaming platform.The new series, titled Stargate Origins, is the latest installment in the long-running sci-fi franchise, which centers on the ability to travel anywhere in the universe in an instant. The upcoming show will "explore a brand new chapter in Catherine Langford’s early history surrounding the extraordinary portal." Langford first appeared in the 1994 film Stargate and was played by Viveca Lindfors.Read More…...

Rob Leane Jul 21, 2017

Stargate is making a comeback! Ten episodes of Stargate: Origins will arrive online this autumn...

Sound the revival klaxon! Stargate is the latest property to get a nostalgia-fuelled kick up the arse, with MGM going so far as to launch its own streaming service to house a new series.

Stargate Command will be the name of the streaming platform, and Stargate: Origins is the title of the show. Ten episodes of the latter will arrive on the former this autumn.

A report from Variety tells us that the show will focus on Catherine Langford, "daughter of archaeologist Paul Langford, who discovered the ancient, round Stargate". In the established canon, she was a young girl when the Stargate was first discovered.

In previous iterations of the franchise, Catherine has been played by Elizabeth Hoffman, Nancy McClure, Glynis Davies, Kelly Vint and Viveca Lindfors.

It's unclear who...

At Comic-Con on Thursday evening, MGM announced a new “Stargate” TV series, one heading straight online.

“Stargate Origins,” a new 10-episode series continuing the story of Roland Emmerich’s 1994 film “Stargate,” is set to premiere on a brand-new dedicated platform. “Stargate Command” will serve as the exclusive streaming home for “Origins,” in addition to hosting content from previous series.

Read MoreCatch Up With All of IndieWire’s Comic-Con News

All 10 episodes of “Origins” will be directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan and will follow the adventures of young Catherine Langford, a character from both the film and TV versions of “Stargate.” MGM’s official statement explains that the new series “will explore a brand new chapter in Catherine Langford’s early history surrounding the extraordinary portal. Young Catherine embarks on an unexpected adventure to unlock the mystery of what lies beyond the Stargate in order to save Earth from unimaginable darkness.

This isn’t the only Alfred Hitchcock film for which the love does not flow freely, but his 1947 final spin on the David O. Selznick-go-round is more a subject for study than Hitch’s usual fun suspense ride. Gregory Peck looks unhappy opposite Selznick ‘discovery’ Alida Valli, while an utterly top-flight cast tries to bring life to mostly irrelevant characters. Who comes off best? Young Louis Jourdan, that’s who.

The Paradine Case

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 125 min. / Street Date May 30, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Louis Jourdan, Ethel Barrymore, Joan Tetzel.

Cinematography Lee Garmes

Production Designer J. McMillan Johnson

Film Editors John Faure, Hal C. Kern

Original Music Franz Waxman

Writing credits James Bridie, Alma Reville, David O. Selznick from the novel by Robert Hichens

Produced by David O. Selznick

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

There...

Simon Brew Mar 6, 2019

From Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride to Misery and A Few Good Men: we revisit director Rob Reiner's incredible hot streak...

One regular subject of conversation around here is directing hot streaks. That is the filmmakers who had a run of terrific movie after terrific movie, and one name has inevitably been cited: Rob Reiner.

Many directors have hot streaks, but what was incredible about the run of films that Reiner enjoyed between 1984 and 1994 was that the films not only received acclaim, but they tended to be successful too. Furthermore, Reiner wasn’t tying himself to an individual genre. He zipped from comedy to courtroom drama, to fantasy favorite to suspense horror.

Here’s that Reiner hot streak, film by film. And what becomes very, very clear as we go along is that Reiner knows his writers. That quality of the pen clearly matters to him,...

Simon Brew Nov 30, 2016

From Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride to Misery and A Few Good Men: we revisit director Rob Reiner's incredible hot streak...

On the rare occasions where we’re let out of our shed, and allowed to go and sit in places that serve beverages, the topic of conversation has a habit of veering towards movies. One regular subject is directing hot streaks. That is the filmmakers who had a run of terrific movie after terrific movie. Within half a pint of shandy and some slightly dated crisps, one name has inevitably been cited: Rob Reiner.

With good reason, too. Many directors have hot streaks. What was incredible about the run of films that Reiner enjoyed between 1984 and 1994 was that the films not only enjoyed acclaim, but they tended to be successful too. Furthermore, Reiner wasn’t tying himself to an individual genre. He zipped...

Rebecca Lea Sep 19, 2016

Our revisit of the screen adaptations of Stephen King arrives at Creepshow...

Spoilers lie ahead.

The Film: A young boy is yelled at by his father for reading a comic book, Creepshow, that is later thrown in the trash. The boy is visited later by the Creep character from the comic and we are treated to five stories from within its pages. Father’s Day sees a woman guilty of murdering her father on the titular celebration return to the scene of the crime, but she’s not the only one. In The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill, a country bumpkin comes across a fallen meteorite that contains voracious alien plantlife. Something To Tide You Over finds a vengeful man finding a particularly soggy way of getting even whilst The Crate offers a unique, monster-shaped solution to his marital problems. Finally, a nasty businessman finds his hermetically...

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,...

Michelangelo Antonioni's pre-international breakthrough drama is as good as anything he's done, a flawlessly acted and directed story of complex relationships -- that include his 'career' themes before the existential funk set in. It's one of the best-blocked dramatic films ever... the direction is masterful. Le amiche Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 817 1955 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 7, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Valentina Cortese, Madeleine Fischer, Yvonne Furneaux, Anna Maria Pancani, Luciano Volpato, Maria Gambarelli, Ettore Manni. Cinematography Gianni De Venanzo Film Editor Eraldo Da Roma Original Music Giovanni Fusco Written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alba de Cespedes from a book by Cesare Pavese Produced by Giovanni Addessi Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

It's time to stop being so intimidated by Michelangelo Antonioni. His epics of existential alienation La notte, L'eclisse and...

Theodore Bikel. Theodore Bikel dead at 91: Oscar-nominated actor and folk singer best known for stage musicals 'The Sound of Music,' 'Fiddler on the Roof' Folk singer, social and union activist, and stage, film, and television actor Theodore Bikel, best remembered for starring in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and, throughout the U.S., in Fiddler on the Roof, died Monday morning (July 20, '15) of "natural causes" at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Austrian-born Bikel – as Theodore Meir Bikel on May 2, 1924, in Vienna, to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European parents – was 91. Fled Hitler Thanks to his well-connected Zionist father, six months after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 ("they were greeted with jubilation by the local populace," he would recall in 2012), the 14-year-old Bikel and his family fled to Palestine, at the time a British protectorate. While there, the teenager began acting on stage,...

'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...

Brad Pitt 'Glory Days' costar Nicholas Kallsen Brad Pitt 'Glory Days' costar Nicholas Kallsen dead at 48 Nicholas Kallsen, who was featured opposite Brad Pitt in the short-lived television series Glory Days, has died at age 48 in Thailand according to online reports. Their source is one of Rupert Murdoch's rags, citing a Facebook posting by one of the actor's friends. The cause of death was purportedly – no specific source was provided – a drug overdose.* Aired on Fox in July 1990, Glory Days told the story of four high-school friends whose paths take different directions after graduation. Besides Nicholas Kallsen and Brad Pitt, the show also featured Spike Alexander and Evan Mirand. Glory Days lasted a mere six episodes – two of which directed by former Happy Days actor Anson Williams – before its cancellation. Roommates Nicholas Kallsen and Brad Pitt vying for same 'Thelma & Louise' role? The Murdoch tabloid also...

Dark City

Written by John Meredyth Lucas and Larry Marcus

Directed by William Dieterle

U.S.A. 1950

Danny Haley (Charlton Heston) calmly walks along the big city sidewalk towards an as of yet unknown destination as the opening credits role. His serious gaze surveys the surrounding area. Moments later the viewer discovers what might have been troubling him as a police convoy raids a nearby building, smashing an illegal betting operation in the process. Danny successfully found refuge across the street, but he and his partners in crime Barney (Ed Begley) and Augie (Jack Webb) are out for the count as far as making quick cash is concerned. Down and out, that is, until they make the acquaintance of army veteran Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) who looks to be loaded and ready to spend big bucks while in town. A fixed card game sees the unsuspecting Arthur hand over a sizable sum via check…...

Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods are said to be in "final negotiations" to write the first of a trilogy of Stargate films, accordingn to The Hollywood Reporter. Roland Emmerich is expected to direct it. He previously directed the 1994 film that kicked off the franchise. Dean Devlin will produce. He originally co-wrote the 1994 film. Writer and Woods recently worked on Devlin and Emmerich's Independence Day 2, and clearly left a good enough impression to be hired to work on their next project. A small group of Us troups and an Egyptologist use an ancient device found in 1920's Egypt to transport themselves to a distant planet where humans resemble ancient Egyptians. Actors: Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson & Viveca Lindfors * Director: Roland Emmerich...

Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Way We Were' tonight on Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. (See TCM's Robert Redford film schedule below. See also: "On TCM: Robert Redford Movies.") 'The Great Gatsby': Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby Released by Paramount Pictures, the 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby had prestige oozing from just about every cinematic pore. The film was based on what some consider the greatest American novel ever written. Francis Ford Coppola, whose directing credits included the blockbuster The Godfather, and who, that same year, was responsible for both The Godfather Part II and The Conversation, penned the adaptation. Multiple Tony winner David Merrick (Becket,...

Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Way We Were' tonight on Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. (See TCM's Robert Redford film schedule below. See also: "On TCM: Robert Redford Movies.") 'Out of Africa' Out of Africa (1985) is an unusual Robert Redford star vehicle in that the film's actual lead isn't Redford, but Meryl Streep -- at the time seen as sort of a Bette Davis-Alec Guinness mix: like Davis, Streep received a whole bunch of Academy Award nominations within the span of a few years: from 1978-1985, she was shortlisted for no less than six movies.* Like Guinness, Streep could transform...

Reclusive blind artist Franz Badulescu makes beautiful life-like sculptures, but as photographer Claude Marchand discovers, they may be a little too realistic. There’s something macabre going on at Franz’s Spanish castle in 1971′s Cauldron of Blood (aka Blind Man’s Bluff), starring horror legend Boris Karloff, and Olive Films is bringing the film’s murderous mystery to Blu-ray and DVD this fall.

Coming to Blu-ray and DVD on October 14th, Cauldron of Blood will be available in time to secure a spot in Halloween movie marathons. For those unfamiliar with the Euro horror film, we have the synopsis and a look at the cover art (image courtesy of Amazon!):

“In a clever twist on the sculptor/murderer theme that runs throughout horror film history, the legendary Boris Karloff stars as blind artist Franz Badulescu, who creates startlingly lifelike statues with the help of his protective daughter, Viveca Lindfors...

Stars: Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E.G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris, Ed Harris | Written by Stephen King | Directed by George A. Romero

Creepshow is an anthology of five stories, some written specifically for the film by Stephen King and others adapted from his own short stories. With tales that include a dead father rising on father’s day for a family reunion, macabre drownings, monsters in crates, a strange “green” infection you’ll never forget and cockroaches revenge every story has a suitably creepy and memorable end.

I could take a look at each story in the anthology but I’m sure that people who are reading this review will no doubt have already seen the film before, if not then you are in for a treat – this is a movie directed by George A. Romero, based on the writing of Stephen King,...

Broadway actress Marta Heflin dead at 68: Featured in several Robert Altman movies (photo: Marta Heflin in ‘A Perfect Couple’) Stage actress Marta Heflin, who was featured in a handful of movies in the ’70s and early ’80s, including three Robert Altman efforts, died on September 18, 2013, after "a long illness." Heflin (born on March 29, 1945, in Washington, D.C.) was 68. On Broadway, Marta Heflin was featured in the musicals Fiddler on the Roof, Hair, Soon, and Jesus Christ Superstar (replacing Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene). Additionally, she was seen in Ed Graczyk’s Robert Altman-directed 1982 play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, about a group of James Dean fans — among them Karen Black, Cher, Sandy Dennis, Kathy Bates, Sudie Bond, and Mark Patton — who get together on the twentieth anniversary of Dean’s death. Marta Heflin movies Along with her fellow Come Back to the Five and Dime,...

Most recent film appearances, plus concert and television work Please check out our previous post: "Montiel La Violetera and Pedro Almodóvar Icon." Her last star vehicle of note was Juan Antonio Bardem's Varietés (1971), a melodrama about an aging actress who continues to dream of becoming a bona fide star. [Please scroll down to listen to Montiel's husky rendition of "Amado mío."] The forty-something hopeful eventually gets her chance at stardom, but it all turns out to be a flash in the pan. By then, following a whole array of formulaic romantic musical melodramas, Montiel's box-office allure had waned rather radically. She turned down roles in Spain's cine del destape -- post-Franco softcore comedies -- which eventually meant the demise of her movie career. Her last official star vehicle was Pedro Lazaga's comedy Cinco almohadas para una noche ("Five Cushions for One Night," 1974) -- though she would be seen in Eduardo Manzanos Brochero's That's Entertainment-like compilation feature Canciones de nuestra...

Backfire

Directed by Vincent Sherman

Written by Larry Marcus, Ben Roberts and Ivan Goff

U.S.A., 1950

Reviewing movies with the benefit of hindsight offers ample opportunity to discover, analyze and extrapolate the several issues of the day their stories were concerned with. It puts such films into historical context, awarding them a sense of worth perhaps movie goers at the time overlooked. Film Noir is frequently cited as being specific in relating to the American post-Second World War experience, a time during which the innocence of a large and powerful country was shaken, the disillusionment created by mankind’s unhinged ferocious nature exposed during combat having deeply affected returning veterans. People fell on hard times, forced to strive to earn a living all the while reckoning with the truth of human nature. Backfire, from director Vincent Sherman, exposes the down and dirty side of people’s desperation through the...

Model and actress Doe Avedon Siegel, best known for her marriages to photographer Richard Avedon and to Dirty Harry movie director Don Siegel, died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 86. Born Dorcas Nowell (on April 7, 1928) in Westbury, New York, she was discovered by Avedon, who married her in 1944. (Avedon herself told journalists she began her acting career while working as a waitress.) A highly romanticized version of their courtship was turned into a would-be play by Leonard Gershe, Funny Face, which finally was produced as a Paramount musical in 1957, starring Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn under the direction of Stanley Donen. By then, the Avedons had been divorced for six years. Doe Avedon's stage debut took place in 1948, in the Broadway production of N. Richard Nash's The Young and Fair, which also featured Julie Harris, Rita Gam, and future Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge. For her efforts, Avedon was...

As part of its "Summer Under the Stars" film series, Turner Classic Movies is showing 12 Anne Francis movies today, including three TCM premieres. Those are actor-director William Conrad's Brainstorm (1965), veteran Raoul Walsh's A Lion Is in the Streets (1953), and actor-director Richard Benedict's Impasse (1969). [Anne Francis Movie Schedule.] Brainstorm is about a scientist intent on killing the husband of the woman he loves. The B thriller stars performers who had seen better big-screen days in the '40s and/or '50s: Jeffrey Hunter, Dana Andrews, Viveca Lindfors, and Francis. At the time, however, Francis was doing well for herself on television in the series Honey West, in which she played a sexy gumshoe whose partner was an ocelot. Based on a novel by Adria Locke Langley, A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) is a political drama that got made probably thanks to Robert Rossen's 1949 Oscar winner All the King's Men.

Anne Francis on TCM: Forbidden Planet, Brainstorm, A Lion Is In The Streets Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Summer Holiday (1948) Musical remake of Ah, Wilderness!, about a small-town boy's struggles with growing up. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Gloria DeHaven, Walter Huston, Frank Morgan, Jackie Jenkins, Marilyn Maxwell, Agnes Moorehead. C-93 mins. 7:45 Am So Young So Bad (1950) A crusading psychiatrist tries to help troubled reform school girls. Dir: Bernard Vorhaus. Cast: Paul Henreid, Catherine McLeod, Cecil Clovelly, Anne Jackson, Rita Moreno. Bw-91 mins. 9:30 Am Battle Cry (1955) A group of Marines eagerly await deployment during World War II. Dir: Raoul Walsh. Cast: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Dorothy Malone, Nancy Olson, Tab Hunter, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, William Campbell. C-148 mins, Letterbox Format. 12:00 Pm Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.

MoMA’s film exhibitions for June include a look at the influence of melodrama and soap opera on cinema, as well as some of Finland’s best documentaries.

Good to note is that the price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket with the presentation of the film ticket stub within 30 days of the date on the stub!

June 4-19, 2011: Drama Queen: The Soap Opera in Experimental Cinema

Through filmmakers such as Eija- Liisa Ahtila, Dara Birnbaum, Stan Brakhage, Ximena Cuevas, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hollis Frampton, George Kuchar, Kalup Linzy, Tony Oursler, Yvonne Rainer, Douglas Sirk, Andy Warhol, and John Waters, “Drama Queen” tackles the cinematic reinvention, deconstruction and parodying of melodrama within experimental filmmaking.

The series’ titles include:

Far from Heaven. 2002. USA. Written and directed by Todd Haynes. With Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson. 107 min.

Coming Apart.

MoMA’s film exhibitions for June include a look at the influence of melodrama and soap opera on cinema, as well as some of Finland’s best documentaries.

Good to note is that the price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket with the presentation of the film ticket stub within 30 days of the date on the stub!

June 4-19, 2011: Drama Queen: The Soap Opera in Experimental Cinema

Through filmmakers such as Eija- Liisa Ahtila, Dara Birnbaum, Stan Brakhage, Ximena Cuevas, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hollis Frampton, George Kuchar, Kalup Linzy, Tony Oursler, Yvonne Rainer, Douglas Sirk, Andy Warhol, and John Waters, “Drama Queen” tackles the cinematic reinvention, deconstruction and parodying of melodrama within experimental filmmaking.

The series’ titles include:

Far from Heaven. 2002. USA. Written and directed by Todd Haynes. With Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson. 107 min.

Coming Apart.

Can it be true? Is the final Saw really upon us? Hard to believe James Wan’s little indie nasty resonated with audiences six years back in a way large enough to spawn six freakin’ sequels. And what’s more surprising is that Jigsaw waited until the very end of his October reign to cash in on the trendy 3D craze that’s been putting the hurt on our wallets the last few years.

With Saw 3D’s release quickly approaching, there’s perhaps no better time to reflect on the genre’s most successful (or, in some cases, most baffling) forays into all three dimensions. Of course we’re going to cover all of the mainstays, but this list wouldn’t be worth much if we didn’t pull the curtain back on some of the truly bizarre offerings that somehow found their way to dimly lit screens all over the world.

Film Noir Classic Collection: Vol. 5, has dusted off eight films of the celebrated genre and adapted them to DVD format. Collections like these, which bring older films to newer light, are godsends regardless (to a degree) of which films are selected, because as timeless as some of these stories and performances might be, the barrier of being stuck in an old format can bury them forever. And these stories deserve to be told. If you watch a few well made noir thrillers you will no doubt see the seeds that were planted in the heads of crime-thriller filmmakers the likes of Martin Scorsese or Michael Mann. Though there are better films in the noir genre that this collection could have culminated, there are also a lot worse. Any fan of noir films or old mysteries and thrillers will be pleased at what this box set has to offer.

Desperate (1947)

Directed...

In my opinion, “Stargate” is undeniably Ronald Emmerich’s top film made. The science fiction actioner which spawned a cult following through the film as well as the TV series, is visually stunning and shines on Blu-ray. Truly, one of my favorite films at the time, I’m glad to say, it’s back to that status after catching it once again in the format it deserves. Revisiting the film, I chose to explore the “Extended” version over the “Theatrical” and was left immediately surprised and pleased with an alternate opening and various new scenes throughout the film. For those who have seen “Stargate” I’d suggest this route, for those who haven’t, watch it as it was, then try the extended offering. I’m sure most know what the story concerns but let’s reminisce a little. James Spader stars as Dr. Daniel Jackson, an Egypologist who’s...

When I consider the term “eccentric”, I think of the orbits of comets, irregularly-shaped pearls, and the conversation I had with my ex-employer when our relationship began to deteriorate and she complained that my “eccentricity credits had run out.” Four years later, I have to ask: “Can eccentricity credits ever really run out?” Or more importantly, should they? I think not! And I consider it highly irregular of her to think so.

Now—due to the programming efforts of Pacific Film Archive’s Steve Seid—to the term “eccentric” I associate cinema. “Eccentric Cinema: Overlooked Oddities and Ecstasies, 1963–82”, currently running at Pfa through August 27, 2009, states Seid’s case: “Eccentric cinema thrives on pictorial surplus, the indulgent storyline, and a contempt for the customary, all resting upon the sagging shoulders of extravagant skill. This is no trash cinema, with its cheesy topics, uninvited camp, and joyful ineptitude. Instead, eccentricity might show...

Left to right: Costume worn by Danny Kaye in The Inspector General (1949), designed by Travilla. Costume worn by Viveca Lindfors in The Adventures of Don Juan (1948), designed by Leah Rhodes. Costume worn by Natalie Wood in The Great Race (1965). designed by Edith Head. Costume worn by Judy Garland in A Star is Born (1954), designed by Irene Sharaff. Costume worn by Frank Sinatra in 4 for Texas (1963), designed by Norma Koch.   "Costume Design in the Digital Age" is the title of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences program presenting the "opportunities and challenges facing motion picture costume designers working in the current era of digital technology." "Costume Design in the Digital Age" will take place on Friday, April 24, at 8 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. (Image, right: Costumes designed by Cecil Beaton for My Fair Lady [...]...

By Michael Atkinson

Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako may have made the one African film everybody needs to see . at least for its disarming fugue of frank political awareness and state-of-the-quotidian African life. In most other ways, though, "Bamako" (2006) is a challenge to orthodoxy, because it's not driven by its narrative, and hardly even provides an establishing context for itself. Before we know it, we're in a sun-dappled Mali courtyard (Sissako's family home, as it turns out), in which a kind of tribunal is going on, complete with black-robed jurists, waiting witnesses, anxious journalists and stacks of documentation. This is, we slowly realize, a fantasy trial in which the African people have taken civil proceedings against the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and American-led global capitalism in general, for the crime of exploiting and loan-sharking the continent and its peoples. The testimony is not from actors, but from real African citizens,...