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Development continues on a live action, supernatural crime TV series, based on the feature "Maniac Cop" (1988), to be produced and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and John Hyams, for HBO in North America and Canal+ in France:

The first "Maniac Cop" feature, directed by William Lustig, starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North, following an ex-police officer, who returns from the dead, seeking revenge on criminals, corrupt politicians and co-workers who wronged him.

"Maniac Cop" was followed by the feature sequels, "Maniac Cop 2" (1990) and "Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence".

"We've been talking about a re-imagining of the 'Maniac Cop' films for a number of years," said Refn, "but as we continued to work on the material, we found ourselves wanting to explore the world we were creating in greater depth.

"Turning 'Maniac Cop' into a...

The 1970s were an excellent time to be a fan of the spy thriller genre. Franchises like the James Bond films were becoming increasingly popular, with five Bond films being released during this decade alone. 007 wasn't the only force to be reckoned with in the genre, though. Other major features, like 3 Days of the Condor and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, also roared onto the scene, making spy thrillers a beloved genre throughout the country.

Of course, not every spy film received the same level of acclaim as these hits. Because so many of this type of film were being released at the same time, many great ones managed to fly under the radar. Sadly, these films never seemed to get the attention they rightfully deserved. Now, when looking back at this era in the film industry, it is essential to take a look at the more...

The best Richard Roundtree movies and TV shows feature some of the classic exploitation films of the 1970s and some great television shows of the 2000s. Roundtree was born in 1942 in New York and started his acting career after dropping out of college in 1963. He worked as a model while also starring in some theater plays before he finally got his break in a 1970 hidden-camera reality movie called What Do You Say to a Naked Lady. However, his next role made him an icon.

In 1971, Richard Roundtree took on the role of private detective John Shaft in the exploitation crime thriller Shaft. This created a new franchise, and Roundtree became the face of the new strong Black Hollywood action hero, creating a new genre in which future action heroes patterned themselves after his iconic role. However, he refused to be pigeonholed only into that role and still worked in everything...

Peacock and Studio Lambert’s popular competition-reality show, The Traitors, is set to make a comeback in the upcoming year with a fresh cast of well-known individuals, and the show will be hosted once again by the charmingly witty Alan Cumming, accompanied by his trusty sidekick, Lala, the dog. Season 2 will showcase 21 contestants, some of the most competitive reality stars, and prominent figures in the entertainment industry. The roster of contestants includes Carsten “Bergie” Bergersen (Love Island USA), Chris ‘C.T.’ Tamburello (The Challenge), Dan Gheesling (Big Brother), Deontay Wilder (Boxer), Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu (Love Island UK), Janelle Pierzina (Big Brother), Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio (The Challenge), John Bercow (UK Parliament), Kevin Kreider (Bling Empire), Larsa Pippen (The Real Housewives of Miami), Marcus Jordan (Basketball Player), Maksim Chmerkovskiy (Dancing with the Stars), Mercedes “Mj” Javid (Shahs of Sunset), Parvati Shallow (Survivor), Peppermint (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Peter Weber (The Bachelor), Phaedra Parks (Married to Medicine...

It’s one of the best cop shows of the 1960s! Detective Madigan’s police .38 is stolen by a mad-dog killer, forcing him to take extra risks just as more problems personal and professional close in on him. Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens and Harry Guardino give sterling performances, and the assured direction of Don Siegel keeps us on edge throughout. Siegel’s editing is extra-kinetic, and for warped screen villainy, Steve Ihnat’s maniac has no equal.

Madigan

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Techniscope) / 101 min. / Street Date September 12, 2022 / available through Powerhouse / £15.99

Starring: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore, Susan Clark, Michael Dunn, Steve Ihnat, Don Stroud, Sheree North, Warren Stevens, Raymond St. Jacques, Bert Freed, Harry Bellaver, Frank Marth, Lloyd Gough, Virginia Gregg, Woodrow Parfrey, Conrad Bain.

Cinematography: Russell Metty

Film Editor: Milton Shifman

Visual Effects: Albert Whitlock

Original Music: Don Costa...

Development continues on a live action, supernatural crime TV series, based on the feature "Maniac Cop" (1988), to be produced and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and John Hyams, for HBO in North America and Canal+ in France:

The first "Maniac Cop" feature, directed by William Lustig, starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North, following an ex-police officer, who returns from the dead, seeking revenge on criminals, corrupt politicians and co-workers who wronged him.

"Maniac Cop" was followed by the feature sequels, "Maniac Cop 2" (1990) and "Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence".

"We've been talking about a re-imagining of the 'Maniac Cop' films for a number of years," said Refn, "but as we continued to work on the material, we found ourselves wanting to explore the world we were creating in greater depth.

"Turning 'Maniac Cop' into a...

Development continues on a live action, supernatural crime TV series, based on the feature "Maniac Cop" (1988), to be produced and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and John Hyams, for HBO in North America and Canal+ in France:

The first "Maniac Cop" feature, directed by William Lustig, starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North, following an ex-police officer, who returns from the dead, seeking revenge on criminals, corrupt politicians and co-workers who wronged him.

"Maniac Cop" was followed by the feature sequels, "Maniac Cop 2" (1990) and "Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence".

"We've been talking about a re-imagining of the 'Maniac Cop' films for a number of years," said Refn, "but as we continued to work on the material, we found ourselves wanting to explore the world we were creating in greater depth. 

"Turning 'Maniac Cop' into a...

The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Key Largo (1948)

I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)

Camila (1984)

I, the Worst of All (1990)

The Wages of Fear (1953)

Le Corbeau (1943)

Diabolique (1955)

Red Beard (1965)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Ikiru (1952)

General Della Rovere (1959)

The Gold of Naples (1959)

Bitter Rice (1949)

Pickup On South Street (1953)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Viva Zapata! (1952)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Yellow Sky (1948)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Wall Street (1987)

Women’s Prison (1955)

True Love (1989)

Mean Streets (1973)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Abyss (1989)

The China Syndrome (1979)

Big (1988)

Splash (1984)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Long Strange Trip (2017)

Little Women (2019)

Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)

The Guns of Navarone...

Manhattan detective Richard Widmark is up the creek without his .38 special — a maniac killer has stolen it. He’s desperate to get it back, while his personal and professional problems pile up. Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens and Harry Guardino give sterling performances, but the assured direction of Don Siegel is what keeps us on edge throughout. The classic crime saga pushed the limits of the incoming Ratings System — yet provided a style template for a decade of Universal cop shows. Siegel utilizes blunt jarring cutting effects to make its violence feel extra-intense — and for warped screen villainy, Steve Ihnat’s Barney Benesch has no equal — he has less than three minutes of screen time, but you’ll never forget him.

Madigan

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Techniscope) / 101 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore, Susan Clark,...

A new live-action, supernatural crime TV series, based on the 1988 feature "Maniac Cop", will be produced and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and John Hyams, for HBO in North America and Canal+ in France:

The first "Maniac Cop" feature, directed by William Lustig, starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North, following an ex-police officer, who returns from the dead, seeking revenge on criminals, corrupt politicians and co-workers who wronged him.

"Maniac Cop" was followed by the feature sequels, "Maniac Cop 2" (1990) and "Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence".

"We've been talking about a re-imagining of the 'Maniac Cop' films for a number of years," said Refn, "but as we continued to work on the material, we found ourselves wanting to explore the world we were creating in greater depth. 

"Turning 'Maniac Cop' into a series will allow...

Maniac Cop, a TV series reimagining of the cult classic film franchise from Nicolas Winding Refn and John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Regeneration), has been greenlighted by HBO, which will carry the event series in North America, and by Canal+, which has taken French rights.

The series makes the first production for byNWR Originals, ab independent studio launched by Refn as an offshoot of his byNWR.com Web site. He and Hyams will executive produce and direct.

Set in Los Angeles, Maniac Cop is told through a kaleidoscope of characters, from cop to common criminal. A killer in uniform has uncaged mayhem upon the streets. Paranoia leads to social disorder as a city wrestles with the mystery of the exterminator in blue – is he mere mortal, or a supernatural force? You can watch a trailer of the film below the story.

Maniac Cop has been a long-time passion project for Refn.

With his exaggerated visuals, eye-popping color and frantic characterizations, Frank Tashlin has been promoted to a genuine ‘fifties icon. This freewheeling comedy hits on the Top Tashlin fetish subjects: Hollywood glitz, Madison Avenue neurosis, dynamic women, wimpy men and… and… bosoms, dammit. As the bubbly yet calculating sex symbol Rita Marlowe, Jayne Mansfield places career issues way ahead of anything to do with sex. Tony Randall receives his first leading film role as a Mad Man who’ll jump through hoops to keep an account. But the surprise is Betsy Drake, who more than anyone represents the conflicts facing the pre-feminist ’50s woman: she defines success her own way.

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date Feb 19, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Tony Randall, Jayne Mansfield, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Mickey Hargitay.

Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald

Film...

The blacklist strikes back as both writer Ben Maddow and director Martin Ritt examine the booming ’50s phenomenon of The Suburbs. No money up front will get you into an ‘estate’ of your dreams, provided you’re white. Possibly a little too direct in its messaging of sickness in the American dream, much of what we see in the ticky-tacky subdivision of Sunrise Hills will ring true to those of us who lived it.

No Down Payment

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1957 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date April 17, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Joanne Woodward, Sheree North, Tony Randall, Jeffrey Hunter, Cameron Mitchell, Patricia Owens, Barbara Rush, Pat Hingle, Robert H. Harris, Aki Aleong, Charles Herbert, Mimi Gibson.

Cinematography: Joseph Lashelle

Film Editor: Lois R. Loeffler

Original Music: Leigh Harline

Written by Philip Yordan, front for Ben Maddow; from the book by John McPartland

Produced by Jerry Wald...

It’s the loose-censored early 1970s, and screen bandits shootin’ up the American movie landscape are no longer suffering the once-mandated automatic moral retribution. Walter Matthau launched himself into the genre with this excellent Don Siegel on-the-run epic, about an old-fashioned independent bandit who accidentally rips off the mob for a million. It’s great, wicked fun.

Charley Varrick

Region B Blu-ray

Indicator

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Charley Varrick the Last of the Independents; Kill Charley Varrick / Street Date January 22, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99

Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, Felicia Farr, Sheree North, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Rudy Diaz, Charles Matthau, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell

Cinematography: Michael Butler

Film Editor: Frank Morriss

Original Music: Lalo Schifrin

Written by Dean Riesner, Howard Rodman from the novel The Looters by John Reese

Produced by Jennings Lang, Don Siegel

Directed by...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night".  The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for...

Charlie Bronson cashed in big with this lightweight action thriller co-starring Jill Ireland and Robert Duvall. Did Duvall get involved because the original concept was a serious look at political scandals between big business, the CIA and Chile? The clues from the real source story are still there.

Breakout

Region B + A Blu-ray

Koch Media / Explosive Media (De)

1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date January 17, 2017 / Der Mann ohne Nerven / Available from Amazon.de Eur 15,99

Starring: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Sheree North, John Huston, Jorge Moreno, Paul Mantee, Emilio Fernandez, Alan Vint, Roy Jenson, John Huston.

Cinematography: Lucien Ballard

Editor: Bud Isaacs

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by: Howard B. Kreitsek, Marc Norman, Elliott Baker suggested by the book Ten Second Jailbreak by Warren Hinckle, William Turner, Eliot Asinof.

Produced by: Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler

Directed by: Tom Gries

Charles Bronson seems to have been an unhappy...

John Flynn's The Outfit (1974), a brutally efficient bit of business based glancingly on Richard Stark’s procedurally inquisitive and poetic crime novel of the same name, is a movie that feels like it’s never heard of a rounded corner; it’s blunt like a 1970 Dodge Monaco pinning a couple of killers against a Dumpster and a brick wall. I say “glancingly” because the movie, as Glenn Kenny observed upon The Outfit’s DVD release from the Warner Archives, is based less on the chronologically unconcerned novel than an idea taken from it. On the page Stark's protagonist, the unflappable Parker, his face altered by plastic surgery to the degree that past associates often take a fatal beat too long to realize to whom it is they are speaking, assumes the detached perspective of a bruised deity, undertaking the orchestration of a series of robberies administered to Mob-run businesses...

All hail Frank Tashlin! America's subversive secret weapon of the 1950s made incredible adult live-action cartoon movies that satirized all the sex and vulgarity denied by the mainstream. In Technicolor! Political incorrectness meets lollypop-sweet sentimentality in a farce that transcends good taste. Susan Slept Here Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Alvy Moore, Glenda Farrell, Horace McMahon, Herb Vigran, Les Tremayne, Mara Lane, Maidie Norman, Rita Johnson, Ellen Corby, Red Skelton. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Film Editor Harry Marker Original Music Leigh Harline Choreographer Robert Sidney Written by Alex Gottlieb from a play by Gottlieb and Steve Fisher Produced by Harriet Parsons Directed by Frank Tashlin

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Director Frank Tashlin has finally found an appreciative audience with adventurous film fans, but the charms of his glorious style of filmmaking are unknown to...

William Lustig’s late 80’s “horror” film, written by Larry Cohen, is now out on DVD/BluRay courtesy of the fine folks at Synapse Films. The blurb on the Blu-ray case claims Maniac Cop is regarded as a classic of the genre, but is it? I would be hard pressed to even call it a horror movie, but more of an action/thriller/revenge film.

The film concerns itself with Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) a young police officer with marital troubles who becomes the prime suspect in his wife’s murder. But it gets worse…people have reported seeing a rogue cop attacking and murdering people, and naturally our hero is put on the top of the suspect list for those crimes as well.

Of course, the real solution can’t be this simple, so it’s up to detective Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins) and Forrest’s associate Theresa Mallory...

DVD Playhouse—April 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Hereafter (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood’s spiritual thriller follows a trio of characters whose seemingly disparate paths converge: Matt Damon as a blue collar Joe who tries to fight against his psychic powers that see “the other side,” Cecile de France as a journalist who somehow survives the tsunami that crushed Indonesia, and a London schoolboy (Frankie and George McLaren) who seeks answers after losing his twin brother. Like all of Eastwood’s films, the narrative construction is tight as a drum, with solid work by all involved. That said, “solid” would have to be the operative word to describe the proceedings here, as well as “unremarkable” and “uninvolving” on an emotional level. Perhaps we expect too much when we see Clint’s name on a film these days, but that’s the flip side of being one of the best. Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.

DVD Playhouse—April 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Hereafter (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood’s spiritual thriller follows a trio of characters whose seemingly disparate paths converge: Matt Damon as a blue collar Joe who tries to fight against his psychic powers that see “the other side,” Cecile de France as a journalist who somehow survives the tsunami that crushed Indonesia, and a London schoolboy (Frankie and George McLaren) who seeks answers after losing his twin brother. Like all of Eastwood’s films, the narrative construction is tight as a drum, with solid work by all involved. That said, “solid” would have to be the operative word to describe the proceedings here, as well as “unremarkable” and “uninvolving” on an emotional level. Perhaps we expect too much when we see Clint’s name on a film these days, but that’s the flip side of being one of the best. Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.