News

It’s the summer of “Blaxploitation, Baby!,” the latest festival hosted by Film Forum.

The indie theater announced the upcoming festival which will take place August 16 through August 22. The program celebrates the early ‘70s genre of Black cinema, and features films wth iconic movie stars Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Ron O’Neal, Tamara Dobson, Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee, Fred Williamson, Isaac Hayes, and more.

“Blaxploitation, Baby!” is dedicated to author and pioneering film historian Donald Bogle, who collaborated on Film Forum’s first Blaxploitation festival in 1995. Bogle credited Melvin Van Peebles’ filmography for helping to establish the genre. “Blaxploitation, Baby!” additionally ranges from works from directors such as Ossie Davis, Gordon Parks, and Gordon Parks Jr.

As well as the screenings, the festival will include the sales of critic and historian Odie Henderson’s “Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation” and Donald Bogle’s acclaimed TCM book “Hollywood Black” at concessions.

David McKnight, who portrayed the title character in the cult blaxploitation horror classic J.D.’s Revenge and appeared in Hollywood Shuffle and The Five Heartbeats for Robert Townsend, has died. He was 87.

McKnight died Sunday of cancer in Las Vegas, his friend and publicist Cynthia Busby told The Hollywood Reporter.

McKnight also showed up on dozens of TV shows, from Kojak, Hill Street Blues, The Incredible Hulk, Dynasty and Benson to Moonlighting, 227, Roc, L.A. Law and The District.

In the New Orleans-set J.D.’s Revenge (1976), directed by Arthur Marks, McKnight played a deceased hustler who takes over the body of a college student (Glynn Turman) and goes after the man who murdered him and his sister 30 years earlier.

In a 2018 interview, McKnight said that he first met Townsend when the first-time feature filmmaker was putting together Hollywood Shuffle (1987) and offered him advice.

He was then hired to play Uncle Ray,...

No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.

Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.

See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

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3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926

Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...

Arthur Marks, a writer, producer and director best known for his work on CBS series Perry Mason and for directing blaxploitation films, has died at age 92, his family confirmed to Deadline.

Marks was born August 2, 1927 in Los Angeles. His grandparents acted in silent pictures and his father Dave Marks was an assistant director and production manager at MGM.

Arthur Marks began his film career as a background actor and in bit parts on such films in the 1930s and ‘40s as Boys Town, The Good Earth and the Andy Hardy series.

Marks left Hollywood to join the United States Merchant Marines during World War II and served in the Navy during the Korean War.

He briefly attended Santa Monica College and the University of Southern California, before landing a job in the production department at MGM Studios. His career took off in the 1950s as an assistant director at Columbia.

Prolific producer and director Arthur Marks, who worked on “Perry Mason” and blaxploitation movies including “Detroit 9000” and “Friday Foster,” has died. He was 92.

Marks died Nov. 13 at his home in Woodland Hills, Calif. His son, “Narcos” producer Paul Marks, confirmed his passing to Variety.

Marks was a native of Los Angeles who was born in 1927 into a show business family. His grandparents were actors in silent pictures and his father, Dave Marks, worked as an MGM assistant director and production manager who worked on “The Wizard of Oz” and “Easter Parade.” Arthur Marks worked as a child actor, getting work as an extra and bit player on “The Good Earth” (1937), “Boys Town” (1938) and Mickey Rooney’s Andy Hardy series.

Marks joined the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy during World War II and served with the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He began working in the production department at MGM,...

Review by Roger Carpenter

Though there were a couple of films in 1970, the blaxploitation subgenre really hit its stride in 1971 with the release of two seminal films: Sweet Sweetback’s Badassssss Song and Shaft. The next few years saw a steady increase in these types of films but by 1976 there was a marked decrease in Blaxploitation films and the subgenre was all but dead by 1979.

One of the interesting things that came out of this subgenre was an even smaller subset of blaxploitation films which also fell within the horror genre. Some of these are minor classics like Blacula, its sequel Scream, Blacula, Scream, and the Exorcist takeoff, Abby. Some are known more because of how bad they are, such as Blackenstein. And then you have 1976’s J.D.’s Revenge which, if not a minor classic, may be best described as an overlooked gem.

Arthur Marks, director of Linda...

Nick Aldwinckle Nov 27, 2017

Our latest round-up of genre DVDs and Blu-rays covers George A Romero, Damnation Alley and more...

With real life’s ridiculous news stories almost beyond parody, it seems fitting that 2017 was the year we saw George A. Romero, the master of satirical zombie tomfoolery, responsible for horror classics from Dawn Of The Dead through to Tales From The Dark Side, shuffle off this mortal coil. To commemorate three of Romero’s less celebrated early movies, Arrow Video has released the intriguing Between Night And Dawn set on Bluray, with ample extras to sate the most eager fanboy/girl.

First up, and by far the movie most will know (perhaps due to its 2010 remake), 1973's The Crazies plays out almost like a retread of Romero's 1968 debut Night Of The Living Dead, with a group of townsfolk again subject to a dodgy violence-inducing substance whilst military jackanapes try and control the epidemic.

J.D.’s Revenge will be available on Blu-ray November 14th from Arrow Video

It wasn’t long before the Blaxploitation boom moved into the horror market, bringing the world Blacula, Blackenstein, Abby (Blaxploitation’s The Exorcist) and cult favorite J.D.’s Revenge.

Law student Ike is enjoying a night on the town with his friends when his life changes dramatically. Taking part in a nightclub hypnosis act, he becomes possessed with the spirit of a violent gangster murdered in the 1940s. Believing himself to be the reincarnation of murderous J.D., Ike launches a revenge campaign against those who had done ‘him’ wrong all those years ago…

Directed by Arthur Marks (Bucktown, Friday Foster) and starring Glynn Turman (Cooley High) and Academy Award-winner Louis Gossett Jr (An Officer and a Gentleman), J.D.’s Revenge is a alternately tough and terrifying – a Blaxploitation gem waiting to be rediscovered!

This November, Arrow Video is giving horror fans a lot to be thankful for with several Blu-ray releases that are highly anticipated, including the George A. Romero Between Night and Dawn collection and the Hellraiser 30th anniversary SteelBook, and we have full release details on both holiday wish list items:

Press Release: Winter chills just mean that it's November, and Arrow Video are set to heat things up with a George Romero box set, a blaxploitation chiller, classic horror in steelbook form, a modern-day Russian black comedy, and a cult thriller directed by Steve Buscemi! With plenty of lavish packaging and limited edition items, Christmas has come early for film collectors!

Legendary horror cinema innovator, George A Romero, is responsible for arguably the most influential zombie films of all time. But he doesn't just make undead epics, and the three films collected here in the box set George Romero...

Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon (1947-1988) was one of the most celebrated adventure comic strips of the 1950s. The blond, square-jawed hero was on the cutting edge of action as he took to the skies and had adventures around the world. Caniff populated the strip with memorable supporting characters and adversaries so it was a rich reading experience.

The strip was so popular that when Captain Action was introduced in 1966, Canyon was one of the first heroes he could turn into. Somewhat earlier, Canyon also served as inspiration for an NBC prime time series that, sadly, bore little resemblance to the strip (a common problem back then).

In 2008, John R. Ellis brought us this forgotten gem with The Complete Steve Canyon on TV Volume 1 and followed up a year later with Volume 2. The silence until late last year when the anticipated Volume 3 finally arrived, completing the run. Thankfully it came...

This is a reprint from our review from the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Port Arthur lies on the southeastern end of Texas, ninety minutes from Houston, and two hours from Lafayette, Louisiana. It’s a tiny place, home to under 60,000 residents, and one can only imagine it’s the kind of town where if you grow up with any kind of worldly aspirations, you start plotting your escape fast. Port Arthur marks the unlikely and humble beginnings of rock ‘n roll legend Janis Joplin, whose boisterous spirit and refusal to fill pre-conceived social, gender, or sexual roles all but assured the town could never contain her. She “couldn’t figure out how to make herself like everyone else,” her sister reflects in Amy Berg’s sturdy documentary “Janis: Little Girl Blue.” Janis was an outcast, but she soon found a city full of them that she would call home. San...

Port Arthur lies on the southeastern end of Texas, ninety minutes from Houston, and two hours from Lafayette, Louisiana. It’s a tiny place, home to under 60,000 residents, and one can only imagine it’s the kind of town where if you grow up with any kind of worldly aspirations, you start plotting your escape fast. Port Arthur marks the unlikely and humble beginnings of rock ‘n roll legend Janis Joplin, whose boisterous spirit and refusal to fill pre-conceived social, gender, or sexual roles all but assured the town could never contain her. She “couldn’t figure out how to make herself like everyone else,” her sister reflects in Amy Berg’s sturdy documentary “Janis: Little Girl Blue.” Janis was an outcast, but she soon found a city full of them that she would call home. San Francisco was the place to be in the ‘60s and it’s where...

Coffy/Foxy Brown/Friday Foster

Coffy and Foxy Brown written and directed by Jack Hill

Friday Foster written by Orville H. Hampton, directed by Arthur Marks

USA, 1973/1974/1975

Olive Films recently released several Blaxploitation titles on Blu-ray for the first time, all on the same day. This included the Fred Williamson-starring Hammer, from 1972, as well as three Pam Grier films: Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Friday Foster (1975). Hammer isn’t a particular favorite, but these latter three were most welcome, especially Coffy, which is quite possibly the greatest of all Blaxploitation features, even better than the more popular Shaft (1971) and Super Fly (1972). As much as anything, these three releases are notable for showcasing Grier at her finest during a period of immensely enjoyable work and exceptional productivity—15 films from her minor debut in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) to Friday Foster. Around these films, she also starred in several other...

Towering aggressively over the legacy of the problematic film movement of 1970s Blaxploitation is the iconic figure of actress Pam Grier, emblazoned in our memories as the self-reliant beauty holding her own (well, mostly) with her male co-stars prior to her white female counterparts, like Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton. She’s an important cinematic figure, and much like the symbolic essence of Marilyn Monroe, her reputation outweighs familiarity with many of the films that brought her iconicity. Arriving in the middle of her gamut of classic titles was 1975’s Friday Foster, of which Grier is the eponymous star. Campy, cringe worthy, and so remarkably asinine it may just as well be classified as sci-fi, production values and an impressive supporting cast surely solidifies the title as requisite viewing for Grier’s fan base. Unfortunately, for all involved, their talents (a common complaint of the genre) are worthy of less slipshod silliness.

Just when you thought you’d seen everything… here comes another 55 insane trailers to whip you into a frenzy in this collection of sick, depraved and hysterically brilliant movie previews from the golden age of Grindhouse cinema in Grindhouse Trailer Classics 4.

Following the successful and critically-acclaimed release of Grindhouse Trailer Classics 1, 2 & 3, Nucleus Films will once again take you on trip back to the “gory days” of cult and exploitation cinema with their latest unseen compilation of audacious theatrical trailers from the sleazy cinematic sub-genre known as “grindhouse”.

I’m a Huge fan of this series (check out this pic of my signed copies of the first 3 releases) so I’m super-excited to see what stupefyingly awesome trailers this collection has to offer. According to the press release, all of the trailers in this collection have been sourced from ultra-rare 35mm prints, many of which haven’t been seen since they...

It’s time for another update on horror-film screenings for the Halloween 2009 season and beyond; you can track back through our previous items starting here. The most exciting news is the addition of a very special show to the Scary Movies 3 series currently unspooling at New York City’s Lincoln Center: Trick ’R Treat with Michael Dougherty (pictured) in attendance!

The All Hallow’s anthology feature unspools at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street, upper level) this Wednesday, October 21 at 8:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A with Dougherty. Trust us: You want to see this one on the big screen. Full details on Scary Movies 3 can be found here. In addition, adventurous genre fans will want to check out Juraj Herz’s The Cremator when it shows as part of Lincoln Center’s The Ironic Curtain: Czech Cinema series on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. This black...

Written by Arthur Marks and Bob Peete

Directed by John Peyser

Starring Jamie Lyn Bauer, Aldo Ray, Ray Danton, Francine York, Jennifer Ashley, Tiffany Bolling, and Andrew Prine

1974, Dark Sky Films

On DVD April 28th, Centerfold Girls is a gritty and grim movie not just about deranged killer stalking vapid, busty nude models, as the title first implies. It’s about all the horrible things that happen to perfectly nice girls whose only fault is talking their clothes off for a men’s magazine. The way people see them and the way they’re degraded by sex-crazed perverts is completely undeserved: most of them are actually pretty nice girls who just needed a few extra bucks. Centerfold Girls focuses on two models that are systematically stalked and killed by a very convincing Andrew Prine as 'Clement Dunne', a man who feels that posing nude is wrong and that these women need to suffer…...

By Matt Singer

By this point, we're all familiar with "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and "Superfly" and "Shaft," we know all about Pam Greer and Fred Williamson and Jim Brown. But the 1970s produced dozens and dozens of blaxploitation films beyond the handful that have come to stand-in for the entire genre. Many were formulaic, some were downright terrible, but a lot were a cut above. These four uniquely superb blaxploitation films, largely forgotten to history, deserve rediscovery by new audiences and fresh eyes.

"Across 110th Street" (1972)

Directed by Barry Shear

Some 30 years before the groundbreaking crime series "The Wire," an unassuming blaxploitation picture covered similar territory with much the same complexity, albeit on a much smaller scale and with significantly fewer critical accolades. Both were shot in real locations with local actors; both draw parallels between the structure and politics of the underworld and the police force. Often in "Across 110th Street,...

• Dark Sky Films has announced a pair of vintage chillers debuting April 28. The company passed on cover art and details for 1966’s The She-beast and 1974’s The Centerfold Girls.

She-beast, the debut feature by writer/director Michael Reeves of The Conqueror Worm/Witchfinder General, stars genre veterans Barbara Steele and Ian Ogilvy as newlyweds who get into a car accident while driving through a town in Transylvania. Their vehicle winds up submerged in a lake, and while the husband emerges as himself, his wife comes out possessed by the vengeful spirit of an 18th-century witch. The movie will be presented in a new 16x9-enhanced widescreen transfer from original vault materials, with audio commentary by Steele, Ogilvy and producer Paul Maslansky. John Peyser’s Centerfold Girls, starring B-movie stalwart Andrew Prine as a madman “punishing” women who have posed for a men’s magazine, also gets a new uncut transfer from the original camera negative,...