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The tropes and character types associated with Western films work well within the framework of a thriller, resulting in some truly captivating movies. The actions of an outlaw or bounty hunter in several Westerns make for a thrilling chase that keeps audiences on their toes. In many of these films, the protagonist is neither good nor bad, blurring the lines for audiences and creating a more suspenseful viewing experience, as seen in Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood's William Munny.

Films like No Country for Old Men or The Proposition tell gritty, somewhat realistic stories, subverting the expectations of audiences greatly familiar with the genre's formula and tropes. These films typically incorporate aspects of other genres like horror and action to create a well-rounded and increasingly effective thrill for audiences. Though Westerns have always been associated with gunfights and rough protagonists, as the years have passed, more modern Westerns have told darker stories,...

Oscar, Emmy and Tony-award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn will be honored at this year’s Venice Film Festival with the Liberatum Pioneer Award for her lifetime contribution to cinema.

The 91-year-old acting legend will be honored at a “Women in Creativity” event and gala dinner in Venice on Sept. 4 at the Blue Pavilion in the Palazzina Grassi Hotel on the Grand Canal. Burstyn will also take part in an on-stage discussion of her decades-long career.

Burstyn made her acting debut on Broadway in Fair Game in 1957 and was a TV regular throughout the 1960s but her breakthrough came on screen in the 1970s, with Oscar-nominated performances in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971), and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the widow Alice Hyatt in Martin Scorsese’s romantic drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1974. A year later,...

In 1991, Reese Witherspoon made her cinematic debut in the coming-of-age drama The Man in the Moon, notably the final film directed by the acclaimed Robert Mulligan.

Reese Witherspoon made her screen debut as Danielle ”Dani” Trant in The Man in the Moon (Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Reese Witherspoon’s Film Debut at 14

Reese Witherspoon recalls seeing a newspaper ad seeking a 14-year-old Southern girl for a movie role. After auditioning, she didn’t hear back for a month. Then, after returning from softball practice, her mom informed her that she was called for a screen test in Los Angeles.

Her audition impressed director Robert Mulligan, and she was offered the central role of tomboy Dani Trant. He admitted casting the Louisiana-born, Tennessee-raised actress in The Man on the Moon was risky.

“We had a casting team that went out and saw several thousand kids and tested them on video. When I saw Reese’s test,...

To Kill a Mockingbird was filmed on a Universal Studios backlot in Hollywood, not in the actual town of Monroeville, Alabama. Art Director Henry Bumstead won an Academy Award for recreating the small Southern town setting effectively. The iconic "Mockingbird Square" on the Universal Studios lot was later renamed "Courthouse Square" after the Back to the Future movies.

The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird is a critical piece of the film and book's legacy, considering how important the racial attitudes of the town are to telling the story. This has some fans of the 1962 movie wondering, "Where was To Kill a Mockingbird filmed?" To Kill a Mockingbird is not just one of the best movies of the 1960s, but many consider it a classic of cinema, and the book it's adapted from a critical piece of American literature. Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, Scout, Jem, and Tom Robinson are iconic characters of the courtroom genre.

The black and white images of "To Kill a Mockingbird" are seared onto my brain. Just the film's monochrome snapshots of young, rambunctious Scout with her friends in the sweltering days of summer -- or being scolded for her unkindly manner -- are enough to conjure memories of childhood without tipping over into nostalgia. 

Compare that to the scenes set at nighttime where Scout and her companions investigate their elusive, reclusive neighbor, Arthur "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall). These sequences evoke the terror of being a helpless child with their long shadows and sinister ambience, culminating with the film's intense climax (and its profoundly touching aftermath). Even in the movie's agitated courtroom scenes, the black and white visuals serve to augment the fiery emotions on display rather than distract from them.

Director Robert Mulligan's classic 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winner, itself a bildungsroman loosely inspired by Lee's own upbringing,...

The red carpet will soon roll out for the 77th Festival de Cannes. The international film festival, playing out May 14-25, has a distinct American voice this year. “Barbie” filmmaker Greta Gerwig is the first U.S. female director name jury president. Many veteran American helmers are heading to the French Rivera resort town. George Lucas, who turns 80 on May 14, will receive an honorary Palme d’Or. Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated “Megalopolis” is screening in competition, as is Paul Schrader’s “Oh Canada.” Kevin Costner’s new Western “Horizon, An American Saga” will premiere out of competition and Oliver Stone’s “Lula” is part of the special screening showcase.

Fifty years ago, Coppola was the toast of the 27th Cannes Film Festival. His brilliant psychological thriller “The Conversation” starring Gene Hackman won the Palme D’Or and well as a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury. The film would earn three Oscar nominations: picture,...

Chicago – During Oscar week, all eyes turn to Unit Photographer Dale Robinette, who got the assignment on the Oscar nominated “Barbie.” The following on-set pictures were snapped during the production’s time in Los Angeles, which including the iconic cowpoke wardrobe of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

“Uncle Dale” Robinette first contacted me via email in 2013, to give information about some photos he took on the film “Lovelace.” Ever since then he has been a reliable email pal, sending me image after image from the movie sets that he is “blessed” (his word) to work on. He has plied his skills in Hollywood as a Unit Still Photographer since 1988, after a career as a stage and television actor in New York and Los Angeles. Starting with a TV short called “The Big Five” (1988), he has worked his way up the ladder, and has built an impressive photo resume through familiar films like “Donnie Darko,...

Herman Raucher, a best-selling author and the Academy Award nominated screenwriter of “Summer of ’42,” died Dec. 28 of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was 95.

Raucher got his start in the industry working in live television. He wrote one hour dramas for anthology series including “Studio One,” “Good Year Playhouse” and “The Alcoa Hour.” In his screenwriting career, he wrote the scripts for two films starring Anthony Newley, “Sweet November” (1968) and “Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?” (1969), which Newley also directed.

Raucher was inspired by Bobbie Gentry’s popular song “Ode to Billie Joe” to write the screenplay for Max Baer Jr.’s 1976 romance film of the same name starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor. Raucher also co-wrote the script for the 1977 film “The Other Side of Midnight.”

Raucher is remembered for penning the script for the popular coming-of-age film “Summer of ’42,...

Raucher was nominated for an Oscar for the 1971 box office hit.

Herman Raucher, the Oscar-nominated American writer of Summer Of ‘42 as well as other films, plays and novels, has died aged 95.

A statement from his family said Raucher died of natural causes on December 28.

Born in New York, Raucher began his writing career in television and advertising. His early feature work included the screenplays for Sweet November, Melvin Van Peebles’ Watermelon Man and cult musical comedy Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe And Find True Happiness? The latter brought him the Writers Guild of Great Britain award for...

Veteran screenwriter Herman Raucher, best known for writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay for the 1971 coming-of-age drama “Summer of ’42,” has died. Raucher was 95.

Raucher died on Dec. 28 of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford Connecticut, his daughter Jenny Raucher told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Summer of ’42,” directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Gary Grimes and Jennifer O’Neill, tells the bittersweet story of a teenage boy who falls for an older woman while on summer vacation as her husband is away fighting in World War II. A major hit for Warner Bros., “Summer of ’42” earned critical acclaim and several Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for Raucher’s script.

Raucher went on to adapt the story into an international bestselling novel in 1971. Though he wrote several other popular films over his decades-long career, such as “Ode to Billy Joe” and “The Other Side of Midnight.” “Summer of ’42” remained his most notable work.

Herman Raucher, whose Oscar-nominated Summer of ’42 screenplay became one of Hollywood’s best-loved coming-of-age tales, has died of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Ct. He was 95.

His December 28 death was announced by daughter Jenny Raucher, who was by his side when he passed.

Subsequently adapted by Raucher into an international best-selling novel, 1971’s Summer of ’42 was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay. It told the nostalgic and bittersweet story of teenager Hermie — played by Gary Grimes and based on Raucher himself — who, during a summertime vacation on Nantucket Island, becomes infatuated with a beautiful (and soon grieving) older woman (Jennifer O’Neill) whose husband has gone off to fight in World War II.

The film, directed by Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird), was a critical success and a major hit for Warner Bros. Michel Legrand’s score won an Oscar and quickly became...

Herman Raucher, the best-selling author and screenwriter who earned an Oscar nomination for the coming-of-age classic Summer of ’42 and wrote the script for the thought-provoking Watermelon Man, has died. He was 95.

Raucher died Thursday of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Connecticut, his daughter Jenny Raucher told The Hollywood Reporter.

Raucher, who started out in live television, penned the screenplays for two Anthony Newley-starring films: Sweet November (1968), directed by Robert Ellis Miller and also featuring Sandy Dennis, and Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969), featuring Joan Collins.

He also was given inspiration from Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit song to write the screenplay to Ode to Billy Joe (1976), a love story that starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor and was helmed by Max Baer Jr.

With the Robert Mulligan-directed Summer of ’42 (1971) in postproduction, someone came up with the idea of Raucher writing a...

Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" is about as quintessentially American as a classic book can get. The 1960 novel, which is still commonly read in schools today, follows young Alabaman girl Scout Finch as she endures the trials and tribulations of her pre-teen years -- and witnesses the grim realities of the Jim Crow-era South. Some aspects of "To Kill A Mockingbird" haven't aged perfectly, but the book remains beloved for good reason. It's funny, sharp, and emotional, full of wisdom and harsh truth, and builds a world that's vividly alive.

That world made the leap from the page to the big screen in 1962, when director Robert Mulligan and playwright Horton Foote adapted "To Kill A Mockingbird" as a film. The movie version is indelible in its own right. It's anchored by a precise performance from Gregory Peck, who plays compassionate defense attorney Atticus Finch. In the 60 years since...

Peter White, who portrayed Linc Tyler on the ABC soap opera All My Children over four decades and starred in the original stage production and film adaptation of The Boys in the Band, has died. He was 86.

White died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles of melanoma, his All My Children castmate Kathleen Noone (Ellen Shepherd Dalton on the show) told The Hollywood Reporter.

White also played Arthur Cates, the attorney for Sable Colby (Stephanie Beacham), on the first two seasons of the ABC primetime soap The Colbys in 1985-86, and he recurred as the deceased doctor dad of the characters played by Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, Patricia Kalember and Julianne Phillips on the 1991-96 NBC drama Sisters.

White first portrayed Lincoln Tyler, son of stern Pine Valley matriarch Phoebe Tyler (Ruth Warrick), from 1974-80 — he was the third actor in the role, starting with James Karen — then returned...

Linda Haynes, who notably appeared in films including “Coffy,” “Rolling Thunder,” “The Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina — the news had not spread widely until Friday. She was 75.

“It is with great sadness that I report that my mother, Linda Haynes Sylvander has passed away, peacefully at home,” her son Greg Sylvander wrote on Facebook on Friday. She had moved to South Carolina three years ago to live with Greg. “As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely.”

Haynes’ first film was 1969’s “Latitude Zero,” an international co-production directed by legendary Japanese filmmaker Ishirō Honda. The movie co-starred Joseph Cotton and Cesar Romero, among others. It was in the 1970s,...

Linda Haynes, who appeared in films including “Rolling Thunder,” “Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina. She was 75.

Her son Greg Sylvander reported her death on Facebook.

“As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely,” he wrote.

In 1977, Haynes co-starred in John Flynn’s psychological thriller “Rolling Thunder,” written by Paul Schrader and starring William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones and James Best. The film follows former Vietnam prisoner of war Charles Rane who, after surviving a violent home invasion and losing a hand, sets out on a crusade to get revenge with help from a friend. Haynes played Linda Forchet, a Southern belle who welcomes Rane back...

Lelia Goldoni, who was cast in the lead role for John Cassavette’s race-centered film “Shadows,” died over the weekend at the age of 86.

The actress died on Saturday at the Actors Fund Home in Engelwood, New Jersey, Goldoni’s friend, Jd Sobol, told TheWrap on Thursday.

The New York City native was born on Oct. 1, 1936, and got her start in the entertainment business during the 1940s, with one of her first roles being a cameo in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “House of Strangers” in 1949. That same year she also had a role in John Huston’s “We Were Strangers.”

Martin Scorsese later brought Goldoni on to star as a friend of Ellen Burnstyn’s character in his 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Her resume also included performing in the original “The Italian Job” (1969), John Schlesinger’s “The Day of the Locust” (1975) and Robert Mulligan’s “Bloodbrothers.”

Goldoni, who...

Clockwise from left: Rocky (Warner Bros.), Do The Right Thing (Universal), Scarface (Universal), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Paramount), Marcia Straub (Getty Images)Graphic: AVClub

In Field Of Dreams, when Kevin Costner is asked of his homemade baseball diamond, “Is this Heaven?” there’s a reason he doesn’t answer,...

It was an epic night for the Academy, with now-classic films and performances in competition, an anomaly between Best Picture and Best Director nominations, a young actress redefining the acting categories and the culmination of a decades-long feud. Let’s flashback to when first-time host Frank Sinatra guided the 35th Academy Awards ceremony on April 8, 1963.

In the years of the Best Picture category being limited to five films, the Best Director category typically fell in line with those productions, with maybe one variation. In 1963, only two directors from Best Picture nominees received bids; unsurprisingly, those two films also had the most nominations and the most wins. David Lean‘s sprawling epic biopic “Lawrence of Arabia” led the pack, coming into the night with ten bids and leaving with seven statues, including Best Picture and Lean’s second career win for Best Director. It has the unusual distinction of being the...

Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, who was one of the world’s most famous actresses enjoying success in Europe and Hollywood in her 1950s and ’60s heyday, has died in Rome at the age of 95.

Related Story Sophia Loren Remembers Longtime Rival Gina Lollobrigida Related Story Chris Ledesma Dies: 'The Simpsons' Longtime Music Editor Was 64 Related Story Jeremiah Green Dies: Modest Mouse Cofounder And Drummer Was 45

Tributes poured in for the actress from across Italy and the world.

“In the immediate period after the war and throughout the 1950s there was one face that represented Italian beauty in the eyes of the world and it was that of Gina Lollobrigida,” wrote the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera in a tribute article.

Related: Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries

“More than (Sophia) Loren, but also more than (Lucia) Bosè, (Gianna Maria) Canale, (Silvana) Mangano or (Silvana) Pampanini,” continued the article,...

Click here to read the full article.

Albert Brenner, the innovative production designer, art director and five-time Oscar nominee whose work was admired in films from Fail Safe, Bullitt and Point Blank to The Sunshine Boys, The Turning Point and Backdraft, has died. He was 96.

Brenner died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced.

The Brooklyn native started his career dressing mannequins for window displays and worked on such TV shows as Car 54, Where Are You? before progressing to a much larger canvas — designing the five-acre New York Street backlot for Paramount in Hollywood after the original was destroyed by fire in August 1983.

Across his 50-plus-year career, Brenner collaborated on eight features with director Garry Marshall, seven with Herbert Ross, five with Peter Hyams, three with Sidney Lumet and two with Robert Mulligan. Comedies, sci-fi flicks, Westerns, period pieces — he did them all.

Of...

One could be forgiven for thinking every Halloween costume based on a movie is from Star Wars​​​​​​. Even E.T. wore a Yoda costume in his movie. However, costumes have been made for films of every genre, and that extends beyond the fandom and applies to the movies themselves.

The Jedi costume worn by Spielberg's beloved extraterrestrial is just one example, as there are plenty of characters over the years who have gotten dressed up in one silly or scary outfit or another. The best of them tend to involve a dash of meta with a hint of funny, but there's something to be said for the more serious ones, as well.

The Ham - To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

So much has been written about both Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Robert Mulligan's phenomenal 1962 film adaptation. But the most glaring difference...

Audrey Diwan’s Happening launched New Directors/New Films in April, mesmerizing viewers with the story of a brilliant literature student from a working-class background seeking an abortion to keep her life from derailing. In 1963 France the procedure was illegal. The suspense builds with each week a new chapter title as she seeks help from doctors, friends, the boy she slept with, and her body continue to change. Everyone backs away, judgmental, terrified of being thrown in prison for helping, or both.

‘Happening’ took the Golden Lion in Venice last year. Star Anamaria Vartolomei won the César Award for best newcomer Deadline review here. Diwan and Marcia Romano wrote the screenplay based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Annie Ernaux.

IFC Films releases ‘Happening’ (L’événement) in four theaters this weekend – IFC Center/Lincoln Plaza in New York, the Landmark/the Grove in LA, expanding thereafter a bit faster than anticipated.

Mary Badham, Hollywood’s original Scout Finch in the 1962 film of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, has been cast in the touring stage production of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation. This time around, Badham, who has acted infrequently in the decades since her indelible performance in the classic movie, will portray Scout’s mean-as-a-snake drug-addicted racist neighbor Mrs. Dubose.

Badham’s surprise casting was announced today by producers, who unveiled the complete cast of the play’s first national tour. The tour, which stars the previously announced Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch, launches March 27 in Buffalo, before moving on to Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and other cities.

The Broadway production of Sorkin’s adaptation is currently on hiatus and is scheduled to reopen with Greg Kinnear as Atticus on June 1. Jeff Daniels originated the role when Mockingbird opened in 2018 and returned when the production re-opened (at the Shubert Theatre) following the pandemic shutdown.

Documentary

Channel 4-backed U.K. independent content production company Spirit Studios has teamed with James Watt, co-founder of multinational brewery BrewDog, to produce “Mission Finpossible,” a drama documentary aiming to to highlight the issues facing the world’s shark species. Humans kill over 120 million sharks a year, mainly for their fins for soup and many shark species are now under considerable risk of unrecoverable decline with some species having declined to near extinction in recent years. The shark is an apex predator and crucial to maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems.

Spirit Studios, whose previous content activism campaigns include global mental health movement #Iamwhole, will produce the documentary that will feature an original scripted element together with input from the world’s leading shark experts and archive footage. BrewDog is funding the project and will also produce an exclusive beer to raise funds for shark support groups around the world. The...

Richard Evans, who tussled with Ryan O’Neal’s character on the ABC primetime soap Peyton Place and appeared in Dirty Little Billy, the final film from producer Jack L. Warner, has died. He was 86.

Evans died Oct. 2 of cancer on Whidbey Island in Washington state, a family spokesman announced.

Evans also co-starred in the Robert Mulligan-directed neo-noir crime drama The Nickel Ride (1974) and played the sidekick of George C. Scott’s artist character in Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream (1977), helmed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

During his 40-year acting career, Evans showed up as a guest star on ...

Richard Evans, who tussled with Ryan O’Neal’s character on the ABC primetime soap Peyton Place and appeared in Dirty Little Billy, the final film from producer Jack L. Warner, has died. He was 86.

Evans died Oct. 2 of cancer on Whidbey Island in Washington state, a family spokesman announced.

Evans also co-starred in the Robert Mulligan-directed neo-noir crime drama The Nickel Ride (1974) and played the sidekick of George C. Scott’s artist character in Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream (1977), helmed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

During his 40-year acting career, Evans showed up as a guest star on ...

Over the course of her legendary career, Alice Lee “Boaty” Boatwright has cast iconic movies, served as a studio exec and repped starry talent including Joan Didion, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Reflecting on it today, she says her career really took off after a pivotal encounter at Sardi’s restaurant more than 60 years ago. Sitting with her friend Sue Mengers, not yet the legendary agent she would become, Boatwright jumped out of her seat and grabbed Alan Pakula, whom she had never met.

“I have to find you Scout,” Boatwright, then a young publicist at Universal, informed Pakula. She knew that he and Robert Mulligan had recently secured the film rights to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the studio.

The following day, after a conversation with her boss, Boatwright had lunch with Pakula and Mulligan. Her Southern background and charm won the producing-directing duo over, and...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Luis Buñuel (left) and Jean-Claude Carrière (right).The great Jean-Claude Carrière has died. The prolific screenwriter worked across genres and penned scripts from Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and more recently, Philippe Garrel's The Salt of Tears. Revisit Notebook contributor Lawrence Garcia's overview of Carrière's wide-ranging career here. Actor Christopher Plummer, one of the last links between Classic Hollywood and today, has also died. Throughout his long and illustrious career, Plummer worked with filmmakers like Nicholas Ray, Sidney Lumet, Anthony Mann, Robert Mulligan, Anatole Litvak, Michael Mann, Spike Lee, Terrence Malick, and Pete Docter.The International Film Festival Rotterdam has come to an end, and the winners of this year's awards can be found here. The Berlinale is continuing...

Update: “Beginners” director Mike Mills has spoken to IndieWire about the passing of Christopher Plummer, who won an Academy Award for his role in the film. Plummer played Hal Fields, an aging patriarch who comes out to his son late in life, and chooses to live his final years as an out gay man.

“It was a great honor to work with Christopher, to be in conversation with such a dedicated artist,” Mike Mills said. “In his 80s when we met, I marveled at his intense curiosity, hunger to make something vulnerable, and his need to challenge himself. Christopher was both dignified and mischievous, deeply cultured and always looking for a good laugh. As he said about playing my father who was dying ‘not an ounce of self pity,’ and that’s how he was. I’ll always be indebted to Christopher for honoring the story of an older man...

All hail the cinematic delights of Luis Buñuel, a world-class directing genius whose work ranges from insightfully impish to point-blank outrageous. Driven from Spain by Fascists and from New York by commie hunters, he found a cinematic haven in Mexico, adapting his surreal mindset to popular film forms. These final three French features embrace the surrealist ethos, where a coherent narrative is optional. We definitely recognize our ‘rational’ world; Buñuel’s high art simply tells the truth.

Three Films by Luis Buñuel

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 102. 290, 143

1972-1977 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 5, 2021 / 99.95

Cinematography: Edmond Richard

Production Designer: Pierre Guffroy

Film Editor: Hélène Plemiannikov

Written by Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Produced by Serge Silberman

Directed by Luis Buñuel

Tracking down the films of Luis Buñuel has been an ongoing effort.

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By Tim McGlynn

The Warner Archive has released Robert Mulligan’s Inside Daisy Clover on Blu-ray and this new edition is a winner.

15 year-old Daisy Clover is a Depression era resident of Angel Beach, CA where she lives with her mother (Ruth Gordon) in a trailer on the boardwalk. She scratches out a living selling autographed photos of Hollywood stars that she signs herself. Daisy dreams of becoming a singer and enters a contest sponsored by mercurial studio owner Raymond Swan (Christopher Plummer).

Daisy auditions for Swan, wins a contract with the studio and is immediately put to work in a Busby Berkley style musical. With the help of Swan’s wife, Melora (Katharine Bard), Daisy is primed to become America’s newest movie sweetheart. This includes removing her from her mother’s care and allowing her obnoxious sister (Betty Harford) to become her guardian.

Good Old Tony Curtis! We could always depend on Tony for a sly, ingratiating smile, charm that ranged from candid-sweet to barracuda insincerity, and a desire to please that never quit. Some of his best work came while schmoozing and nice-nice clawing his way to the top, where he epitomized the glamorous movie star with universal appeal. Kino gathers three of Curtis’s better mid-career starring vehicles, directed by three top talents — Blake Edwards, Robert Mulligan and Norman Jewison.

Tony Curtis Collection

The Perfect Furlough, The Great Impostor, 40 Pounds of Trouble

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

312 minutes

Street Date August 4, 2020

available through Kino Lorber

49.95

Starring: Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis appears to have become a Golden Boy at late-’40s Universal-International by playing the role of ambitious actor to the hilt. Everybody caught him dancing a mean rumba with Yvonne de Carlo in Criss Cross; it’s fun to seem him perform a ‘look,...

by Nathaniel R

We hope you loved listening to the Smackdown Podcast and discussing various 1947 movies this month. It means a lot when you watch, vote, listen, and share these events. Another round of applause to our returning guests Dana Delany (she previously guest-starred on "1973"), Angelica Jade Bastién (she previously guest-starred on "1941"), and the newbies, actor Patrick Vaill (Netflix's upcoming Dash & Lily) and lyricist Tom Mizer (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel S3). Dana wanted to send a note to listeners that she was sorry for accrediting the direction of To Kill a Mockingbird to Richard Brooks rather than Robert Mulligan... the names just got jumbled because it was Richard Brooks who wrote "The Brick Foxhole" which she was also discussing.

I was so into this conversation that now I have ordered a copy of "The Brick Foxhole" to understand Crossfire in a fully homosexual way. I didn't know...

It’s a Hollywood rags-to-riches tale seen as a cruel coming-of-age story — when Natalie Wood’s feisty street kid becomes a child star, she learns that tinsel town is not only fake, but oppressively evil as well. Cut off from her dotty mom (Ruth Gordon) and surrounded by the sinister minions of studio head Swan (Christopher Plummer), Daisy Clover finds that major stardom is hollow and dispiriting. Gavin Lambert & Robert Mulligan’s beautifully made movie does everything but make an audience feel good, especially when the dazzled Daisy falls in love with a sexually dishonest dreamboat matinee idol (Robert Redford). It’s a great picture and also a big downer.

Inside Daisy Clover

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 128 min. / Street Date May 12, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford, Ruth Gordon, Roddy McDowall, Katharine Bard, Peter Helm, Betty Harford, Harold Gould.

Cinematography: Charles Lang...

Natalie Wood and Robert Redford in Inside Daisy Clover is now available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering info can be found Here

“You’re Gonna Hear from Me,” 15-year-old gamine Daisy Clover sings from the silver screen to an adoring public, although in the 1930s, “star treatment” can go all the way from being discovered to being discarded. Natalie Wood plays the title role with gusto in this blend of Hollywood stardust and melodrama from the producer/director team (Alan J. Pakula and Robert Mulligan) that had already sublimely showcased her in Love with the Proper Stranger. Also heard from are Wood’s costars Robert Redford (as the vain movie star who weds Daisy) and Ruth Gordon (as Daisy’s mother), both winning Golden Globes® for their work here (Gordon earned an Oscar nomination as well).

Natalie Wood plays the title role in this tale of a 1930s child...

Helping you stay sane while staying safe… featuring Leonard Maltin, Dave Anthony, Miguel Arteta, John Landis, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Plague (1979)

Target Earth (1954)

The Left Hand of God (1955)

A Lost Lady (1934)

Enough Said (2013)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Down to Earth (2001)

Down To Earth (1947)

The Commitments (1991)

Once (2007)

Election (1999)

About Schmidt (2002)

Sideways (2004)

Nebraska (2013)

The Man in the Moon (1991)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

The Night Walker (1964)

Chuck and Buck (2000)

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Duck Butter (2018)

The Good Girl (2002)

The Big Heat (1953)

Human Desire (1954)

Slightly French (1949)

Week-End with Father (1951)

Experiment In Terror (1962)

They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)

Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (1987)

Airport (1970)

Earthquake (1974)

Drive a Crooked Road (1954)

Pushover (1954)

Waves (2019)

Krisha (2015)

The Oblong Box (1969)

80,000 Suspects (1963)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

It Comes At Night (2017)

Children of Men (2006)

The Road (2009)

You Were Never Really Here...

” I didn’t have the courage to die. I knew what I had to do to stay alive. “

Gregory Peck in The Stalking Moon (1968) vailable on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering information can be found Here

Veteran army scout Sam Varner (Gregory Peck) agrees to escort a former Apache captive (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-Apache son to safety across a sprawling Southwest of desert wastelands and imposing mountains. But shadowing their path is a renegade killer dead set on getting the boy back.

Peck powerfully reunites with his To Kill a Mockingbird producer, Alan J. Pakula, and director, Robert Mulligan, for a suspenseful tale with the direct leanness and hypnotic landscape of classic Westerns. Events tighten around Varner, his charges and his best friend (Robert Forster) like a noose. The siege is relentless. The terror grows. And the stage is set for a final, violent showdown between hunter and hunted.

Horror movies have always captured the imagination of William Brent Bell.

As a curious kid growing up in Kentucky, he devoured Dan Curtis and Karen Black's anthology film Trilogy of Terror — the evil Zuni doll is something he'll never forget — and Robert Mulligan's psychological thriller The Other, with the two films leaving an indelible mark. Richard Donner's cult classic The Omen was hugely important, too.

"I had an active imagination, kind of not too dark, but dark stuff," Bell tells The Hollywood Reporter, the same day that Brahms: The Boy II releases ...

Horror movies have always captured the imagination of William Brent Bell.

As a curious kid growing up in Kentucky, he devoured Dan Curtis and Karen Black's anthology film Trilogy of Terror — the evil Zuni doll is something he'll never forget — and Robert Mulligan's psychological thriller The Other, with the two films leaving an indelible mark. Richard Donner's cult classic The Omen was hugely important, too.

"I had an active imagination, kind of not too dark, but dark stuff," Bell tells The Hollywood Reporter, the same day that Brahms: The Boy II releases ...

Academy Award winner Alvin Sargent, who penned an extraordinary number of popular and critically successful films, from “Paper Moon” and “Ordinary People” to the “Spider-Man” sequels of the 2000s, died Thursday, his talent agency Gersh confirmed to Variety. He was 92.

Sargent won adapted screenplay Oscars for “Julia” in 1978 and “Ordinary People” in 1981 and was also nominated in the category in 1974 for “Paper Moon.” (He also received Writers Guild awards for all three films.) The writer worked with many of Hollywood’s top directors over the course of his career, including Alan J. Pakula, John Frankenheimer. Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Redford, Martin Ritt, Norman Jewison, Stephen Frears and Wayne Wang, though not always when those helmers were doing their best work.

Sargent started as a writer for television but broke into features with his screenplay for 1966’s “Gambit,” a Ronald Neame-directed comedy thriller starring Michael Caine,...

With the temperature rising outside, Shudder is still giving horror fans plenty of good reasons to stay inside with a good view of the screen this month thanks to the new additions to their streaming slate, including Neil Marshall's Doomsday, Jenn Wexler's The Ranger, the horror anthology V/H/S: Viral, the Spierig Brothers' Predestination, and more.

Below, check out the full list of titles coming to Shudder in the Us this month, and visit Shudder online to learn more about the streaming service.

"Yes, it’s getting warm outside. But let’s get real—wouldn’t you stay inside and chill with Shudder Originals The Ranger and The Night Shifter, new episodes of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, and Eli Roth’s History of Horror: Uncut podcast?

Programming also available on Shudder Canada where noted.

Shudder Original Movies

The Ranger (2018) — available Thursday, May 9

Director: Jenn Wexler,...

“One time Atticus said you never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walked around in them; just standin’ on the Radley porch was enough. The summer that had begun so long ago had ended, and another summer had taken its place, and a fall, and Boo Radley had come out.”

We live in a time of super heroes and intergalactic adventurers, but according to the American Film Institute, the greatest hero in film history doesn’t wear a cape, carry a gun or crack a whip: He’s Atticus Finch, played with soft-spoken, gentle conviction by Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird.

The greatest movie hero of all time doesn’t wear a cape, carry a gun or crack a whip – he’s Atticus Finch, the soft-spoken Southern lawyer at the center of To Kill a Mockingbird. Named the screen’s greatest hero by the American Film Institute,...

Atticus Finch returns to movie theaters to inspire a new generation in To Kill a Mockingbird, part of the TCM Big Screen Classics Series. The greatest movie hero of all time doesn't wear a cape, carry a gun or crack a whip, he's Atticus Finch, the soft-spoken Southern lawyer at the center of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Named the screen's greatest hero by the American Film Institute, Atticus is played by Gregory Peck in director Robert Mulligan's adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The unforgettable film returns to the big screen for two days only, on March 24 and 27, as part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series, featuring newly produced commentary from TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz.

Told through the eyes of Atticus Finch's young daughter, Scout (Mary Badham), the black-and-white film explores how the small-town idyll of the Finches' Southern town is shattered when educated,...

Jacques Demy, Agnès Varda, Michel Legrand, and Catherine Deneuve on the set of The Young Girls Of Rochefort Photo: Agnès Varda

Three-time Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand has died today in Paris at the age of 86. Legrand's first Oscar was for the song The Windmills Of Your Mind, lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, from Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair and he won again with the Bergmans for the score of Barbra Streisand's Yentl. On his own he won a best original score Oscar for Robert Mulligan's Summer Of '42.

Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand at the harbour Photo: Agnès Varda

Michel Legrand's most famous collaborations were with Jacques Demy for Lola, Bay Of Angels, The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, The Young Girls Of Rochefort, and Donkey Skin and Agnès Varda's Cleo From 5 To 7 (Cléo de 5 À 7).

Upon hearing of the great composer's passing, Agnès...

Tributes have begun pouring in for Michel Legrand, the three-time Oscar-winning composer of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” “Yentl” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort,” who died at his home early Saturday in Paris at the age of 86.

Gilles Jacob, the former president of the Cannes Film Festival, said that Legrand’s “notes were soft as caress, his umbrellas made us cry. By leaving us on the sly, Michel Legrand commits his first false note. Music, Maestro, please.”

On le fredonnait partout. Ses notes étaient douces comme des caresses, ses parapluies nous faisaient pleurer. En nous quittant en catimini, Michel Legrand commet sa première fausse note. Musique, maestro, please.

— gilles jacob (@jajacobbi) January 26, 2019

Pierre Lescure, the current president of the Cannes Film Festival, tweeted: “Michel Legrand composed cult songs. And some little fantasies, full of his pretty fierce irony. I remember this title ‘1964’ where a father tells the Yéyés to his children.

Fair or not, when I think of movies that made the screen-to-stage transition, two notorious flops come to mind. The great screenwriter Bud Schulberg himself adapted his 1954 classic Brando morality tale On the Waterfront for Broadway in 1995, but neither Brando nor the film’s director Elia Kazan were around to help make the play anything close to a contender. The play lumbered through 24 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.

At least Waterfront has been forgotten: Screen-to-stage musical flop Carrie, the $8 million blood bath from 1988, has long since become synonymous with Broadway disaster.

Both productions had their issues — and then some — but commenters at the time and rearview gawkers later were quick to point a finger at Hollywood and raise the question, “Why would anyone want to pay Broadway prices for something they could watch on the late show?”

But times change. While Broadway critics (this one included...

Jeff Daniels can sense the moments during performances of Broadway’s To Kill A Mockingbird when audiences jump aboard for the Aaron Sorkin ride, when fans of maybe The Newsroom or The West Wing recognize that Atticus or Scout or Calpurnia is about to “roll out a Sorkin,” to launch into one of those trademark ten-sentence runs. The new Atticus Finch says he feels theatergoers signing on for the rides, but acknowledges that this Mockingbird is really just beginning its flight.

The new play, directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, was shepherded and developed by producer Scott Rudin and playwright Sorkin,...

Film fans can take a yearlong journey through Hollywood history in 2019 when Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) come together for the fourth annual "TCM Big Screen Classics," presenting 14 film favorites throughout the year, spanning seven decades.

From the Golden Age of Hollywood to groundbreaking movies from the seventies, eighties and nineties, the TCM Big Screen Classics series combines each film with little-known facts and insight provided by TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz. In addition, every film is presented in its original aspect ratio, offering audiences the chance to see these movies on the big screen just as they were originally enjoyed.

The lineup for the 2019 "TCM Big Screen Classics" includes:

&#8226 The Wizard of Oz - 1/27, 29 & 30&#8226 My Fair Lady - 2/17 & 20&#8226 To Kill a Mockingbird - 3/24 & 27&#8226 Ben-Hur - 4/14 & 17 &#8226 True Grit - 5/5 & 8&#8226 Steel Magnolias - 5/19, 21 & 22&#8226 Field of Dreams - 6/16 & 18&#8226 Glory - 7/21 & 24 &#8226 Hello, Dolly! - 8/11 & 14&#8226 Lawrence of Arabia - 9/1 & 4&#8226 The Shawshank Redemption...

Beverlee Dean, a manager and casting executive who discovered and then helped guide the careers of Jim Caviezel and Reese Witherspoon, has died. She was 79.

Dean died Nov. 21 in Tarzana after a long battle with dementia, acting coach John Kirby announced.

In 1990, Dean and Shari Rhodes cast the Robert Mulligan film The Man in the Moon, which marked the onscreen debut of Witherspoon, whom Dean had discovered at age 13 and then managed.

Dean also discovered the twin brothers Jeremy London (Party of Five) and Jason London (Dazed and Confused) that year; the latter also appeared in...