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The very first "Our Gang" short film, "One Terrible Day," was released on September 10, 1922, kicking off a long, long, long cinematic tradition that has continued for nearly a century. Producer Hal Roach first created "Our Gang" as an antidote to children's entertainment of the era, which tended to be magical and fantastical. He wanted to depict kids as they were, complete with their misunderstandings of adult language, innocent concerns, and petty rivalries. All told, there were 220 "Our Gang" shorts released from 1922 to 1944, and the films featured a rotating bevy of young actors.

While "One Terrible Day" was the first film released, the third film, called "Our Gang," was the first one filmed. Roach distributed the shorts through Pathé Exchange from 1922 to 1927, but then shifted over to MGM through to 1936. The studios each distributed over a dozen shorts per year, and...

The 1994 film The Little Rascals, directed by Penelope Spheeris, is a beloved comedy movie with accurately-aged children. The movie follows a group of anti-girl youngsters who enter a soapbox car rally, but the world turns upside down when one of the members develops a crush on a girl that distracts the group from the competition, ultimately leading the bullies (Butch and Woim) to win the prize car. The Little Rascals is a fun story that touches upon the greatness of friendship and the loyalty that comes with childhood bonds.

One debatable topic in the entertainment industry is when actors play roles that are much younger than their current age, causing a disruption of continuity. In The Little Rascals' original series and the movie, the characters are all children, so all the actors are children as well, but their ages are merely assumed in the film and not necessarily talked about much.

Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

by James Cameron-wilson

It’s funny, you think you’ve seen everything that the golden age of Hollywood has to offer, and then along comes a gift-packaged treasure trove of fresh material from over a hundred years ago. Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years is the culmination of painstaking research, detective work and artistry to bring us fifteen shorts from the Anglo-American comic duo made up of the Lancashire-born Stan Laurel and the Georgia-raised Oliver Hardy who, under the canny hand of the producer Hal Roach, became the most enduring comedy duo of all time. The least likely of partnerships, Laurel was the wimpish cry-baby who got into no end of scrapes alongside Hardy, the fastidious, overweight buffoon with the tight-fitting jackets, both of whom more often than not wore matching bowler hats. Having watched countless documentaries on the silent era, particularly the era of silent comedy,...

After 30 years, The Little Rascals finds renewed success on Netflix, ranking as the 10th most-watched movie in the US. Its resurgence indicates a renewed interest despite its poor reviews and age, competing with classics like Matilda. The film's unique story, memorable characters, and child actors' later careers contribute to its rewatchability and potential climb in rankings.

The poorly-reviewed 1994 movie adaptation of the classic comedy shorts The Little Rascals became a hit on Netflix in the United States 30 years later. Directed by Penelope Spheeris, the film acts as an updated version of Hal Roach's Our Gang series of shorts, many of which were originally broadcast under the name the movie would later use. In the movie, The Little Rascals characters discover a member of their anti-girl club has a secret girlfriend, leading to a series of event all stemming from Spanky (Travis Tedford) and Buckwheat (Ross Elliot Bagley) trying to break them up.

Oliver Hardy became a Hollywood legend after pairing up with Stan Laurel to form the comedic duo Laurel and Hardy. Together, the pair produced 79 shorts and 27 features. Yet how many of those titles are classics? Let’s take a look back at 10 of Laurel and Hardy’s best feature films, ranked worst to best.

Laurel and Hardy were already established comedians in their own right before they teamed up for a series of shorts produced by Hal Roach (of “The Little Rascals” fame). One of their most famous, “The Music Box” (1934), won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy).

Their first official foray into features was a cameo appearance in “The Hollywood Revue of 1929” (1929), a musical variety meant to introduce MGM’s silent movie stars to sound. (It’s a sign of the times that this plotless hodgepodge managed to snag an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.) Just two year later,...

Alfalfa, a beloved character from The Little Rascals, brought joy to audiences with his off-key singing and mischievous adventures. Actor Carl Switzer, who portrayed Alfalfa, faced struggles with typecasting and personal hardships after his childhood fame faded. Switzer tragically met an untimely end at 31 during a heated altercation over a $50 debt, reflecting the challenges child actors may endure.

The Little Rascals' original Alfala actor's life was tragically cut short. Initially known as Our Gang and before the popular 1994 movie The Little Rascals, it was a beloved series of American children's comedy short films that first debuted in the silent film era of the 1920s. These shorts showcased the humorous antics of a group of poor neighborhood children, highlighting their innocent and often chaotic adventures. One of the series' most iconic characters was Alfalfa, known for his distinct cowlick and an endearing, off-key singing voice. Alfalfa quickly became a fan favorite,...

George Stevens is considered one of the greatest directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, directing classics in various genres and receiving multiple Oscar nominations and wins. Some of Stevens's best movies, like Vivacious Lady, don't even make the list of his top 10 due to their slightly lower critical acclaim and lasting impact. Movies like Woman of the Year, The Talk of the Town, Gunga Din, The Diary of Anne Frank, I Remember Mama, Swing Time, The More the Merrier, A Place in the Sun, Shane, and Giant are among Stevens's best and are highly regarded for their performances, themes, and enduring legacy.

Given that George Stevens was one of the greatest directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, selecting his best movies and ranking them is a difficult task. Stevens came up in the 1930s working on slapstick comedy films for Hal Roach, but he's known for directing classics in a number of genres,...

Good news for those who wish to know what their Twitter feed’s jacking off to: the Criterion Channel are launching an erotic thriller series that includes De Palma’s Dressed to Kill and Body Double, the Wachowskis’ Bound, and so many other movies to stir up that ceaseless, fruitless “why do movies have sex scenes?” discourse. (Better or worse than middle-age film critics implying they have a hard-on? I’m so indignant at being forced to choose.) Similarly lurid, if not a bit more frightening, is a David Lynch retro that includes the Criterion editions of Lost Highway and Inland Empire (about which I spoke to Lynch last year), a series of shorts, and a one-month-only engagement for Dune, a film that should be there in perpetuity.

Retrospectives of Harold Lloyd, Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, and shorts by Fanta Régina Nacro round out the big debuts,...

Happy 75th birthday to comedian and actor Billy Crystal! What better gift to celebrate than an honorary Oscar? The academy board of governors will meet later in the spring to decide the 2023 honorary recipients. We are hoping that acting governors Whoopi Goldberg, Marlee Matlin and Rita Wilson will put forth Crystal’s name.

Crystal has hosted the Oscars ceremony nine times from 1990 through 2012. He was spectacular in those appearances with an opening musical number each time and sheer joy throughout each show. He really set the standard for what an all-encompassing comedy and musical job can be done for a big awards ceremony. Who can forget his Hannibal Lecter impression with Anthony Hopkins, riding in on a horse to salute “Dances with Wolves,” honoring the elderly movie pioneer Hal Roach or his Jack Palance jokes, just to name a few? He was nominated 11 times at the Emmys for his work on the Oscars,...

Fay Wray began her autobiography On the Other Hand with an open letter to her most famous co-star. In it she said, “for more than half a century, you have been the most dominant figure in my public life. To speak of me is to think of you. To speak to me is often a prelude to questions about you.” This most dominant figure was of course the mighty King Kong and the film they appeared in together is unquestionably the best remembered in Wray’s career. She went on to tell Kong, “I admire you because you made only one film—and that became famous, whereas I made seventy-five or eighty and only the one I made with you became really famous.” Despite this fact, which was true for many decades, other films in Wray’s filmography have found new life in the years since she wrote those words in 1988. Now,...

There’s a host again. Thank God, there’s a host again. Not three hosts, like at this March’s misbegotten Oscars ceremony. One host. And it’s the same host as the last time we had just one host, almost five years ago: Jimmy Kimmel.

After back-to-back emceeing gigs in 2017 and 2018, including during the infamous Best Picture mixup that resulted in the “La La Land” team temporarily handed statuettes that rightfully belonged to “Moonlight,” the Academy decided to go three straight Oscars ceremonies without a host at all. The hope was for a leaner, faster-paced ceremony.

That never happened.

Meanwhile, ratings for the ceremony kept going down with each year until hitting rock bottom for the odd Covid-impacted ceremony in 2021 that took place at Los Angeles’ Union Station and tried to create a Rick’s Cafe Americain vibe from “Casablanca.” The only problem? There was no Rick. And so...

About 43 minutes into the 1933 pre-code horror classic “King Kong,” aspiring actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) finds herself on a remote island struggling to free herself from the two stone pillars she’s tied to as an offering for the giant ape its inhabitants worship. The trees rustle, and then we see him. Kong. The camera quickly cuts to Wray, who instantly freezes, holding in her breath as if her life depended on it. The camera zooms in on the ape’s face, his eyes growing wide, then suddenly cuts back to Wray, who lets out the most iconic blood-curdling scream in cinema history.

And thus, the scream queen was born.

“I’d become Hollywood’s scream queen without even realizing it,” Wray told journalist James Bawden in a 1989 interview. After the film wrapped, Wray recorded what she called an “Aria of Agonies” — screams and moans for the editors to use as they pleased.

Budd Boetticher’s excellent semi-autobiographical film may be Hollywood’s most uncondescending depiction of high-end Mexican culture. Robert Stack is the pushy Gringo who only slowly understands Latin society’s definitions of loyalty and machismo; his rocky relationship with Joy Page’s cultured señorita is as important as the bullfighting story with Gilbert Roland. It’s Boetticher’s best film, presented for the first time in two encodings, the 87-minute release version and the UCLA Film and TV Archive’s restoration of the full 124-minute seen South of the Border. The extra commentary and featurettes are welcome too.

Bullfighter and the Lady

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...

Track my film passions of the past year and the result is this list. These are the films that wowed and moved me, that turned me into a rabid champion, that gave me hope that brilliant cinematic storytelling — and a rebel spirit — is alive and well. It turned out to be a strong year for women directors (five), romances (three), World War II dramas (two), Angelina Jolie movies (two), animation (one), and documentaries (one).

See More:The Best Movies of 2017, According to IndieWire Critic Eric Kohn 12. “The Breadwinner” (GKids)

Directed by Nora Twomey of Cartoon Saloon (“The Secret of Kells”) and executive produced by Angelina Jolie, Irish-Canadian “The Breadwinner” is based on Deborah Ellis’s Ya novel about 11-year-old Parvana (voiced by Canadian actress Saara Chaudry), a strong-willed Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family and save her father under threat from the Taliban.

A child’s sense of wonder is at the heart of Sean Baker’s joyful story of people living on the impoverished fringes of Florida’s tourist traps

The title of this wonderfully humanist film from Tangerine director Sean Baker offers an ironic twist on the name under which Walt Disney first developed his “community of tomorrow” plans for the so-called Sunshine State. For Disney the “Florida project” was the utopian dream that blossomed into the money-spinning Walt Disney World. By contrast, the run-down motels of Baker’s summer-break drama are more like “projects” in the Us welfare-housing sense – home to low-income families living a hand-to-mouth existence, just beyond the boundaries of the upmarket tourist attractions.

Located in Kissimmee, which lies east of Eden on Route 192, these gaudily hued establishments have names like the Magic Castle and Futureland, evoking a dream of fun, fantasy and adventure that is jarringly at odds with harsh economic realities.

They’re non-corporeal cut-ups, rich ghosts on the town with nothing better to do than spice up the love life of Roland Young’s harried, henpecked bank president. Hal Roach’s screwball hit did good things for everybody concerned, especially star Cary Grant and bit player Arthur Lake. But the show’s nostalgic heart is Billie Burke, of the tinkly-glass voice. Also starring platinum blonde Constance Bennett, Alan Mowbray and Eugene Pallette.

Topper

Blu-ray

Vci

1937 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Street Date October, 2017 / 20.99

Starring: Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray, Eugene Pallette, Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper, Virginia Sale, Theodore von Eltz, J. Farrell MacDonald, Elaine Shepard, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Lana Turner, Russell Wade, Claire Windsor.

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine

Film Editor: William Terhune

Art Director: William Stevens

Original Music: Marvin Hatley

Written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch, Eddie Moran from a novel by Thorne Smith...

Sean Baker’s vivid new film The Florida Project is now playing in New York and Los Angeles and it recently played at the New York Film Festival, fulfilling the director’s long-time dream. While at the festival, he sat down with his producer Chris Bergoch and acting coach Samantha Quan at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater.

The trio took part in Nyff Live, a nightly event held during the festival to go deep into the process of making the films highlighted across every category of the fest. Baker and Bergoch talked about stumbling upon the ‘hidden homeless’ in south Florida that inspired The Florida Project. They also discussed casting breakout star Brooklyn Prince and The Little Rascals influence throughout Baker’s films. Throughout the talk, one gets a taste for Baker’s humanism and how it drives every storytelling decision across his oeuvre. He is gifting American...

Leapin’ Lizards! The original cavemen vs. dinosaurs saga is a winner — if viewer involvement trumps visual effects, it’s got a narrow lead over the Hammer/Harryhausen remake. Victor Mature, Carole Landis and Lon Chaney Jr. all made career hay out of their weeks spent running in loincloths, out in the desert. And Vci’s new disc is a terrific UCLA Archive restoration.

One Million B.C.

Blu-ray

Vci

1940 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 80 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 /

Starring: Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney Jr., Conrad Nagel, John Hubbard, Nigel De Brulier, Mamo Clark, Jean Porter, Inez Palange, Edgar Edwards, Jacqueline Dalya, Mary Gale Fisher.

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine

Film Editor: Ray Snyder

Original Music: Werner R. Heymann

Visual Effects: Roy Seawright, Jack Shaw, Frank Young

Written by Mickell Novack, George Baker, Joseph Frickert

Produced and Directed by Hal Roach

In the late 1930s fantasy and science fiction movies were few and far between,...

All this week, IndieWire will be rolling out our annual Fall Preview, including the very best indie cinema has to offer, all the awards contenders you need to know about, and even blockbuster fare that seems poised to please the most discerning tastes, all with an eye towards introducing you to all the new movies you need to get through a jam-packed fall movie-going season. Check back every day for a new look at the best the season has to offer, and clear your schedule, because we’re going to fill it right up. Next up: contenders who will rule the awards season, well into next year.

“mother!” (September 15)

The return of Darren Aronofsky should be enough to get any cinephile back to the theater, but the fact that “mother!” has remained so secretive with just under a month to go has only made anticipation higher. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem...

All this week, IndieWire is rolling out our annual Fall Preview, including the very best indie cinema has to offer, all the awards contenders you need to know about, and even blockbuster fare that seems poised to please the most discerning tastes, all with an eye towards introducing you to all the new movies you need to get through a jam-packed fall movie-going season. Check back every day for a new look at the best the season has to offer, and clear your schedule, because we’re going to fill it right up. First up: indie films and festival favorites.

“mother!” (September 15)

The return of Darren Aronofsky should be enough to get any cinephile back to the theater, but the fact that “mother!” has remained so secretive with just under a month to go has only made anticipation higher. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a couple whose lives are...

The film industry has a long and unhealthy obsession with the weight of its female stars. The more who speak up – like Moretz did this week – the more chance there is of change

This week, 20-year-old actor Chloë Grace Moretz said she had been “body-shamed” by a male actor on set when she was 15. He was her co-star at the time, in his 20s, cast in the role of her love interest, and he said he would never date her in real life, because she was too big. It was a comment that drove her to tears. Moretz is the latest in a string of Hollywood stars who are prepared to be more open about their experiences of sexism in the industry, from Jennifer Lawrence to Emma Watson. Like the late Carrie Fisher, who revealed she was asked to lose weight before appearing in the new Star Wars series, Moretz...

The first visitor from outer space in the ’50s sci-fi boom is one very curious guy, dropping to Earth in a ship like a diving bell and scaring the bejesus out of Sally Field’s mother. Micro-budgeted space invasion fantasy gets off to a great start, thanks to the filmmaking genius of our old pal Edgar G. Ulmer.

The Man from Planet X

Blu-ray

Scream Factory / Shout! Factory

1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 71 min. / Street Date July 11, 2017 / 27.99

Starring: Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, William Schallert, Roy Engel, David Ormont.

Cinematography: John L. Russell

Film Editor: Fred R. Feitshans, Jr.

Original Music: Charles Koff

Written and Produced by Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

One of the first features of the 1950s Sci-Fi boom, 1951’s The Man from Planet X set a lot of precedents, cementing the public impression of ‘little green men from Mars’ and...

“Moonlight” distributor A24 landed the top English-language acquisition title at Cannes, Director’s Fortnight entry “The Florida Project.” Sean Baker’s follow-up to iPhone movie “Tangerine,” he returned to a project he started researching with co-writer Chris Bergoch back in 2013. (This time, he shot in 35 mm.) Only after “Tangerine” could he score financing for another look at outsiders living on the margins of society.

The duo was fascinated by a strip of Orlando’s budget motels on Route 92, just a mile away from Disneyworld. Once designed to lure tourists, they now teem with families on the edge. Instead of E-rides, the kids find their fun in spitting on cars, peeking at topless bathers, stalking grazing cows, and panhandling for soft-serve ice cream to slurp before it melts in the blazing heat.

Baker had long wanted to make a film about children “that focused on their resilience, their innocence, and their comic nature,...

“Moonlight” distributor A24 landed the top English-language acquisition title at Cannes, Director’s Fortnight entry “The Florida Project.” For Sean Baker’s follow-up to iPhone movie “Tangerine,” he returned to a project he started researching with co-writer Chris Bergoch back in 2013. (This time, he shot in 35 mm.) Only after “Tangerine” could he score financing for another look at outsiders living on the margins of society.

The duo was fascinated by a strip of Orlando’s budget motels on Route 92, just a mile away from Disneyworld. Once designed to lure tourists, they now teem with families on the edge. Instead of E-rides, the kids find their fun in spitting on cars, peeking at topless bathers, stalking grazing cows, and panhandling for soft-serve ice cream to slurp before it melts in the blazing heat.

Baker had long wanted to make a film about children “that focused on their resilience, their innocence, and their comic nature,...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This April will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Monday, April 3 The Chaos of Cool: A Tribute to Seijun Suzuki

In February, cinema lost an icon of excess, Seijun Suzuki, the Japanese master who took the art of the B movie to sublime new heights with his deliriously inventive approach to narrative and visual style. This series showcases seven of the New Wave renegade’s works from his career breakthrough in the sixties: Take Aim at the Police Van (1960), an off-kilter whodunit; Youth of the Beast (1963), an explosive yakuza thriller; Gate of Flesh (1964), a pulpy social critique; Story of a Prostitute (1965), a tragic romance; Tokyo Drifter...

One Million Years B.C.

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91, 100 min. / Street Date February 14, 2017 / Available from Kino Lorber 29.95

Starring: Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Percy Herbert, Robert Brown, Martine Beswick

Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper

Special visual effects: Ray Harryhausen

Art Direction: Robert Jones

Film Editor: Tom Simpson

Original Music: Mario Nascimbene

Written by: Michael Carreras from a 1940 screenplay by George Baker

Produced by: Michael Carreras, Hal Roach, Aida Young

Directed by Don Chaffey

Here’s a title we haven’t seen in a while, and that we’ve never seen at this level of quality. Hammer Films’ most successful release ever, One Million Years B.C. launched a new film star. I count myself among the zillions of kids that pinned her poster on my bedroom wall. At age fifteen, the release of a new Harryhausen film was so important to me that I begged my slightly older neighbor to take me to the drive-in,...

The recent box office success of The Boss firmly establishes Melissa McCarthy as the current queen of movie comedies (Amy Schumer could be a new contender after an impressive debut last Summer with Trainwreck), but let us think back about those other funny ladies of filmdom. So while we’re enjoying the female reboot/re-imagining of Ghostbusters and those Bad Moms, here’s a top ten list that will hopefully inspire lots of laughter and cause you to search out some classic comedies. It’s tough to narrow them down to ten, but we’ll do our best, beginning with… 10. Eve Arden The droll Ms. Arden represents the comic sidekicks who will attempt to puncture the pomposity of the leading ladies with a well-placed wisecrack (see also the great Thelma Ritter in Rear Window). Her career began in the early 1930’s with great bit roles in Stage Door and Dancing Lady.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Richard DeNeut, a child actor who notably appeared in Hal Roach’s Our Gang series in the 1930s and became a successful photojournalist covering entertainment as an adult died on Tuesday at 84 after suffering pneumonia, kidney disease and congestive heart failure. DeNeut was recruited when he was just 4 years old to join the Meglin Kiddies troupe of child actors, and soon after was cast in a minor role in the Our Gang comedy films, billed as Dickie De Nuet. He appeared in…...

Hal Roach looks on as technicians install Vitaphone equipment in his studio screening room, ca. 1928. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) 'A Century of Sound': Q&A with former UCLA Preservation Officer Robert Gitt about the evolution of film sound technology Long before multi-track Dolby stereo and digital sound technology, there were the Kinetophone and the Vitaphone systems – not to mention organ and piano players at movie houses. Much of that is discussed in A Century of Sound, which chronicles the evolution of film sound from the late 19th century to the mid-1970s. A Century of Sound has been split into two parts, with a third installment currently in the planning stages. They are: Vol. 1, “The Beginning, 1876-1932,” which came out on DVD in 2007. Vol. 2, “The Sound of Movies: 1933-1975,” which came out on Blu-ray in 2015. The third installment will bring the presentation into the 21st century.

It happens very rarely, but when inspired casting and beloved subject matter coincide, something very special is created. Such is the case with the upcoming film project Stan And Ollie, which has just found its two leads in the form of Academy Award nominees Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly. Meeting the legendary pair in their later years, the film will centre on their 1953 tour of the UK, during which the stars each met challenges head-on, and reaffirmed one of the most iconic partnerships in entertainment history.

UK born Stan Laurel and Us born Oliver Hardy were both well-established contract players in their own right when they first collaborated onscreen in the 1927 silent short film, Putting Pants On Philip. They remained in partnership at Hal Roach film studios until 1940, when they began to work together with other production companies. Their final feature length film was titled Atoll K, which was...

This new comedy questions an old adage, since it ponders whether you truly cannot “go home again”. It further wonders if you can party “hearty” back at said home. Then you could put another spin on a saying by staggering and weaving down “the road not taken”. The protagonists of this film are not middle-aged “lost boys” usually played by the likes of Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, and Adam Sandler. They flail about in flick after flick as stumbling, bumbling examples of the “man-child”, often with wives mortified at their antics. But what about flipping that comic trope? Can’t these farces feature a “women-child”, or two? Ladies regressing back to simpler times? Well, here’s two actresses that are more than ready for this challenge. Hard to believe that over seven years has passed since they were an on-screen team in Baby Mama. But happily they’ve been deflating...

'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...

“There are not many men yet. Just a few tribes scattered across the wilderness. Never venturing far, unaware that other tribes exist even. Too busy with their own lives to be curious. Too frightened of the unknown to wander. Their laws are simple: the strong take everything. This is Akhoba, leader of the Rock Tribe…”

So what’s brewing at Webster University’s Strange Brew award-winning cult film series this month? It’s Raquel Welch in the movie that made her a star! Raquel teamed up with a fur bikini, special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, fellow 60’s starlet Martine Beswick, and Hammer Studios in 1966 for One Million Years B.C., one of the very best films of the 1960’s! The sexy prehistoric fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143) next Wednesday, November 4th. The movie starts at 8pm.

Long before Spielberg...

The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.

AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.

World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...

Child actor Dickie Moore: 'Our Gang' member. Former child actor Dickie Moore dead at 89: Film career ranged from 'Our Gang' shorts to features opposite Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper 1930s child actor Dickie Moore, whose 100+ movie career ranged from Our Gang shorts to playing opposite the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, and Gary Cooper, died in Connecticut on Sept. 7, '15 – five days before his 90th birthday. So far, news reports haven't specified the cause of death. According to a 2013 Boston Phoenix article about Moore's wife, MGM musical star Jane Powell, he had been “suffering from arthritis and bouts of dementia.” Dickie Moore movies At the behest of a persistent family friend, combined with the fact that his father was out of a job, Dickie Moore (born on Sept. 12, 1925, in Los Angeles) made his film debut as an infant in Alan Crosland's 1927 costume drama The Beloved Rogue,...

Child star of the Our Gang comedies who went on to perform as an adult in Broadway musicals and radio shows

The popularity of the long-running Our Gang series of comedy shorts (1922-44), created by the producer Hal Roach, which followed the adventures of a group of poor urban children, made unlikely film stars of its young cast. Jean Darling, who has died aged 93, joined Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Jackie Condon, Joe Cobb, Mary Ann Jackson, Bobby “Bonedust” Young, Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Dinah the Mule and Pete the Pup for the second Our Gang series in 1926, when she was four years old. With her golden locks, she was often at the centre of storylines that involved the boys fighting over her. But Darling, who appeared in around 35 of the 20-minute silent shorts, was a tough cookie who avoided intentional cuteness.

The strength of the series (which was appropriately renamed Little Rascals...

Adolphe Menjou movies today (This article is currently being revised.) Despite countless stories to the contrary, numerous silent film performers managed to survive the coming of sound. Adolphe Menjou, however, is a special case in that he not only remained a leading man in the early sound era, but smoothly made the transition to top supporting player in mid-decade, a position he would continue to hold for the quarter of a century. Menjou is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Day today, Aug. 3, as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" 2015 series. Right now, TCM is showing William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born, the "original" version of the story about a small-town girl (Janet Gaynor) who becomes a Hollywood star, while her husband (Fredric March) boozes his way into oblivion. In typical Hollywood originality (not that things are any different elsewhere), this 1937 version of the story – produced by...

Harrison Ford injured in plane accident (image: Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff in 'Ender's Game') Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark actor Harrison Ford was supposed to be in critical condition – later reports have upgraded that to "fair" or "stable" condition – following an accident with a small airplane on Los Angeles' Westside. Earlier this afternoon (March 5, 2015), a vintage, one-engine two-seater crash landed at the Penmar Golf Course, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Venice, not far from the Pacific Ocean and just west of Santa Monica Airport. Its pilot, 72-year-old Harrison Ford, was found "seriously" injured. He was alone on the plane. There were no injuries on the ground. As explained in the Los Angeles Times, "fire officials would not identify the victim of the crash but said he was conscious and breathing when paramedics arrived." Ford was later transported to an unidentified hospital. Eleven...

Cary Grant movies: 'An Affair to Remember' does justice to its title (photo: Cary Grant ca. late 1940s) Cary Grant excelled at playing Cary Grant. This evening, fans of the charming, sophisticated, debonair actor -- not to be confused with the Bristol-born Archibald Leach -- can rejoice, as no less than eight Cary Grant movies are being shown on Turner Classic Movies, including a handful of his most successful and best-remembered star vehicles from the late '30s to the late '50s. (See also: "Cary Grant Classic Movies" and "Cary Grant and Randolph Scott: Gay Lovers?") The evening begins with what may well be Cary Grant's best-known film, An Affair to Remember. This 1957 romantic comedy-melodrama is unusual in that it's an even more successful remake of a previous critical and box-office hit -- the Academy Award-nominated 1939 release Love Affair -- and that it was directed...

Talk about a calm before the storm. This is one of those rare weekends where there are no new wide releases hitting multiplexes, but that means there are a lot of specialty films taking advantage of that fact and sneaking into area theaters. You can see all of this week's new releases below, but first we'll take a look at some of the unique repertory screenings booked around town over the next week. 

The Austin Film Society is starting a three-week series turning the spotlight on comedian Jerry Lewis. It begins tonight at the Marchesa with one of his biggest hits, 1963's The Nutty Professor. Screening from a Dcp (digital print), it also plays again on Sunday evening. On Wednesday, they'll feature Rodrigo Reyes' Purgatorio for Doc Nights. The Afs website describes it as a "lyrical meditation on the border between the Us and Mexico." Thursday night brings another...

Having already followed his scurrilous Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth with some episodes of Danny Boyle's Babylon, Jon S. Baird has something very different lined up for his next project. He'll direct a currently unnamed project focusing on the twilight years of Laurel And Hardy. Specifically the film will centre on Stan and Ollie's farewell tour of Britain in 1953. The comedy duo's star was on the wane by the time the tour took place. Their films for Fox and post-war careers hadn't recaptured the magic of their earlier days with producer Hal Roach, and they had filmed their ill-fated final film Utopia (Aka Atoll K) in 1952, though it was yet to be released. They were met by adoring crowds everywhere they went on their music hall tour, however. But sadly the jollity had to be cut short when Hardy became seriously ill with heart problems.Jeff Pope (Philomena) wrote the screenplay for the film,...

Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...

Los Angeles (AP) — Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home. Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and it was not a police case. He said he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing. Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking up film and TV credits more than 80 years later — a tenure likely unmatched in the history of show business. "I always say, 'Don't retire — inspire,'" he told The Associated Press in March 2008. "There's a lot to be done.

Anthony McCartney, AP Entertainment Writer

Los Angeles (AP) - Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93.

Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home.

Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said it was not their case because Rooney died a natural death.

There were no further immediate details on the cause of death, but Rooney did attend an Oscar party last month.

Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking...

Cinema Retro is pleased to announce the premiere of a new column: Criterion Corner, which will highlight reviews and interviews pertaining to new Criterion video releases. For our debut column, we are honored to have Raymond Benson's exclusive interview with Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of legendary comedy star Harold Lloyd.

By Raymond Benson

On the advent of The Criterion Collection’s upcoming release of Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman on Blu-ray and DVD, it’s high time that the silent film star gain some recognition from at least two generations that missed out on seeing this master comedian in action. Last year’s release of Safety Last! certainly got the ball rolling, and with Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, working as the trustee to his film library and head of Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc., the goal is to bring the pictures of the “third genius” (after Chaplin and Keaton) to a wider audience,...

Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Love is playing through January 26 and Paradise: Faith is playing through February 10 on Mubi in the U.S..

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Above: Maria (Maria Hofstätter) in Paradise: Faith.

Think of the silent film star Pearl White, decamped and tuned up in a boxy frame lit through the middle, giggling or screaming or whispering her perils against a few dozen uncomprehending faces. Split into three, she becomes, in Ulrich Seidl’s vision of her, a botched vigilante of her own wayward desires, long unregulated and frayed, whether by age (Teresa, the giggler on holiday in Paradise: Love), chastity (Anna Maria, the gnarled scream of Paradise: Faith), or by size (the impressionable and adolescent Melanie, the whisperer of Paradise: Hope). Seidl’s three films are really one continuous achievement in the art of corporeal crisis management; taken together, they make a fleshy, nested triumvirate with impeccable feline intuition.

The middle-aged Teresa...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has unveiled the first three movies in the lineup for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival, including the recently restored Gone with the Wind (1939) and a presentation of The Wizard of Oz (1939) in its stunning new IMAX 3D format. Set to take place in Hollywood April 10-13, the fifth-annual edition of the festival will also include a screening of the Harold Lloyd comedy classic Why Worry? (1923), with legendary silent-film composer Carl Davis conducting the live world premiere performance of his new original score. Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz are each celebrating their 75th anniversaries in 2014.

Passes for the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival are set to go on sale to the public Thursday, Nov. 14, at noon (Et). Passes can be purchased exclusively through the official festival website: http://www.tcm.com/festival. Descriptions for the first three films on the festival slate are included below.

The Live Action Short Film category has colored the cinematic canvas of the Academy Awards for almost as long as the lavish ceremony has erupted onto the streets of Hollywood. Despite intermittent name and structure changes over the years, this category has brought the best in short form storytelling into the limelight.  With the pre-Oscar buzz in full swing, here's a look back at the Live Action Short Films that have colored the cinematic landscape of the Academy Awards since 1931:  Vimeo and Youtube streaming links to the films: The Music Box (1932) - Hal Roach La Cucaracha (1934) - Kenneth McGowan Stairway to Light (1945) - Herbert Moulton Happy Anniversary (1962) - Pierre Etaix Boys and Girls (1983) - Janice L. Platt Syrup (1993) - Paul Unwin, Nick Vivian  Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life (1994) - Peter Capaldi The Accountant (2001) - Ray McKinnon Copy Shop (2001) - Virgil Widrich Fait d'Hiver (2002) - Dirk Belien  I'll Just Wait for the Next One.

If I had to choose an all-time favorite movie studio, it would be Hal Roach’s, where comedy was king in the 1920s and ‘30s. Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, Charley Chase, and Thelma Todd were among his brightest stars. They were surrounded by directors, writers, cameramen, prop men, and other specialists who knew comedy inside and out. Professor Richard L. Ward examined the business history of this enterprise in his 2006 book A History of the Hal Roach Studios, and decades ago William K. Everson wrote an eloquent monograph for the Museum of Modern Art on the movies themselves. Now, silent comedy expert Richard M. Roberts has undertaken the formidable task of exploring all...

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