News

Wayne rose to fame in the 1930s, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s, built up his reputation as Hollywood's ultimate bastion of masculinity. Wayne didn't possess a lot of range as an actor, typically playing "John Wayne," but his character type proved to be pliable in certain kinds of ultra-popular genre films. He was a Western star and a War Movie star, and his no-nonsense, rah-rah-America personality was eagerly eaten up by audiences. As Wayne rounded the 1960s, however, a lot of his image had begun to tarnish. This was mostly because times were changing, and the kinds of Westerns and war movies that he once headlined became gauche with a new generation. Antiwar sentiment was more popular than the pro-war propaganda that was released in the wake of World War II. 

One can see Wayne struggling in his notorious stinker "The Green Berets," a film that attempted to apply...

Not all of the classic Universal Monsters were based on classic stories. While Frankenstein and Dracula came from the minds of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, The Wolfman, and previously Werewolf of London, was based on folklore dating back centuries rather than fiction. While the character has had a hard time coming back into the limelight with the disappointing Wolfman from 2010 and even more disappointing Wolf Man from 2025, the myth has done well for itself even while not being as in the public favor as the Zombie or Vampire. Those original films may not be based on books but that didn’t stop writers from creating their own stories or studios from adapting them. This includes the likes of Hammer Studios Curse of the Werewolf being adapted from The Werewolf of Paris and The Wolfen getting turned into the 1981 movie Wolfen. Speaking of 1981, there were two other rather small werewolf...

Neca is ready to transform your toy collection with The Howling werewolf ultimate action figure.

The 7″ scale toy stands over 9″ tall and is fully articulated, including its jaw.

Three interchangeable heads and six interchangeable hands are included along with a posing base feature different-sized rods for various height positions. It’s packaged in a window box with opening front flap.

Due out in August, the lycan costs $49.99.

Rob Bottin designed the creature for Joe Dante‘s 1981 cult classic in which a TV news anchor’s mountain retreat turns out to be a terrifying ordeal full of transforming werewolves.

Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks star.

The post Transform Your Toy Collection with Neca’s ‘The Howling’ Werewolf Ultimate Action Figure appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It's hard to forget the Blazing Saddles fart scene and the campfire symphony will live on forever as a groundbreaking moment in comedy movies. One of Mel Brooks' most hilarious movies, Blazing Saddles is another in his long line of spoof films, this time taking aim at the Western movies that were incredibly popular at the time. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder star as Bart, a black sheriff, and Jim the Waco Kid, an alcoholic gunslinger, respectively, who join forces to protect the small town of Rock Ridge from a greedy land developer named Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman).

A sharp satire, a hilarious comedy, a rousing buddy action film, and ridiculously self-aware to the point that characters end up watching a movie of their own exploits, Blazing Saddles is aptly named as it blazed a path forward for comedies and satires that only Mel Brooks himself has been able to consistently match.

Among the best archetypes in all of film, the sharpshooter character that appears in all Western films presents audiences with a nice blend of great characterization and entertainment value. Whether crafted as the protagonist or a supporting role, the sharpshooter delivers tension and release when conflict occurs and can also highlight wonderful storytelling throughout dramatic scenes. At the same time, as action is paramount to a Western film, the sharpshooter heightens the viewer’s attention whenever on screen by showcasing tremendous skill with a weapon.

Moreover, the sharpshooter also helps provide great filmmaking for Western films, where the construction of a sharp action set piece or an intimate scene with the character, allows the production to properly visualize the tone within the moment and adds to the narrative at hand. As Western movie fans consume a variety of features within the genre, the sharpshooter character can easily excite viewers and...

Since the early days of film, the Western genre has been a staple of the cinema world. Audiences around the world love tuning in for these stories of the West, often featuring cowboys, outlaws, and the sprawling settings of the American frontier. Of course, because of these factors, violence is often a very prominent element of these films. Many Western fans love when the dramatic showdowns between good and evil culminate in violent gunfights, explosions, and all-around calamity. However, it is essential to note that these aspects of the genre are not everyone's cup of tea.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of enjoyable Westerns that don't rely on these explosive elements. From beloved classics to modern stories, many films highlight the essential characters and settings of the genre without diving too deep into the violent side of life on the frontier. After all, even the most dedicated Western fans need...

Pauline Kael once called the gulf between E.T. and Poltergeist a testament to the confounding ability for one man, Steven Spielberg, to produce one enduring masterpiece and one miserable failure in the space of a year—and God forever damn her for not realizing that Poltergeist is, if anything, a more harrowing portrait of the nuclear family on the verge of dissipation, but I digress. Apparently, she hadn’t seen Mel Brooks’s 1974 one-two punch.

Young Frankenstein is so loving and charmingly goofy in spoofing one of Hollywood’s most successful early genres (the Universal monster movies of the 1930s) that it winds up as much a tribute as it is a parody. But Blazing Saddles, a burlesque about a western town standing in the way of the railroad expansion and the Black sheriff sent to discourage its citizens from deserting, is a limp, shapeless mess of a film...

Warner Bros. is bringing two cinematic classics to a new physical media transfer this Thanksgiving season. Blu-ray.com has announced the 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-ray releases of Alfred Hitchcock‘s spy thriller North by Northwest and Mel Brooks‘ irreverent western satire Blazing Saddles. Both releases will be hitting retailers on November 19.

North by Northwest stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, and Leo G. Carroll. The description reads, “Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him of murder.

The classic Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024. In honor of the occasion, the film is making a return with its debut on 4K Uhd.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has announced that Blazing Saddles is one of three films celebrating a special anniversary this year with a debut on 4K Ultra HD. North by Northwest, which turns 65 this year, is also getting released, as is The Terminator for its 40th anniversary. All three will be dropping on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on Nov. 19, 2024. Additionally, The Wizard of Oz will be getting a new 85th Anniversary Edition on Nov. 5.

Related Josh Gad Confirms Hes Writing Spaceballs 2, Reveals Mel Brooks Reaction

Frozen star Josh Gad is officially writing the hotly-anticipated and long-overdue sequel to Mel Brooks' 1987 sci-fi comedy classic - Spaceballs.

The official description for Blazing Saddles reads, "Ribald, tasteless and hilarious ... this classic spoof of...

From classic thriller to science fiction classic to controversial comedy, three iconic movies are celebrating the anniversaries of their release Blazing Saddles (50th anniversary), North by Northwest (65th anniversary) and The Terminator (40th anniversary), and all three of them will be released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on November 19.

Also celebrating anniversaries are The Wizard of Oz (85th anniversary), which will be available in an 85th Anniversary Theater Edition on November 5 and The Polar Express (20th anniversary), which was released on 4K in 2022.

Released in 1974, Blazing Saddles, which returned to theaters last month to mark the milestone, has been called ribald, tasteless and...hilarious. This classic spoof of the Western genre by director Mel Brooks pokes fun at everyone and everything. A corrupt governor grants a reprieve to an African American convict if the condemned man agrees to serve as sheriff of a small Western town,...

With over 100 years of gritty and dramatic approaches to the era, the American Old West is one of the most explored in films, and Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles remains one of the more unique 50 years later. At the time, Brooks was a rising name in the world of film, having originally made a name for himself in the world of TV by co-creating Get Smart and musicals like Shinbone Alley. While he would go on to be better known for his various parodies, Blazing Saddles proved to be a far better focus on genre satire than anything else.

Blazing Saddles

Director Mel BrooksRelease Date February 7, 1974Studio(s) Warner Bros. PicturesDistributor(s) Warner Bros. PicturesWriters Alan Uger, Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg, Mel BrooksCast Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Mel BrooksRating RRuntime 93 minutesGenres Comedy, WesternBudget $2.6 million Stream on NetflixStream on NetflixStream on NetflixStream on NetflixStream...

Quick Links Who Does James Earl Jones Play in Dr. Strangelove? James Earl Jones Landed the Part Thanks to Surprising Reasons

James Earl Jones, the voice of an entire generations childhood, passed away earlier this week at the age of 93. To call him a titan is underselling it; with his voice alone, he was able to breathe life into larger-than-life characters like Darth Vader and Mufasa, making them instantly iconic. And this is all before getting into his widely beloved work as a stage actor or his underrated supporting turns in Conan the Barbarian and Field of Dreams.

With such an immense filmography, it seems like a daunting task to single out even one movie from the lot. Yet his highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes is a surprising one in 1994, he lent voiceover narration to the nature documentary Africa: The Serengeti, which currently boasts a 100% approval rating. But considering its...

Mel Brooks’ classic western comedy Blazing Saddles is getting a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release to mark its 50th anniversary. More here.

Mel Brooks’ much-loved and groundbreaking comedy favourite Blazing Saddles is arriving at its 50th birthday this year. And just as with other anniversary films this year such as North By Northwest and A Nightmare On Elm Street, Warner Bros appears to be pulling out the stops for a posh-looking 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collector’s set.

The film hasn’t been on the 4K disc format before, so it’s enjoying a 4K remaster for a start. The set will always include a Blu-ray disc too, to carry across previous additional features too.

Then, the 50th anniversary set will come in Steelbook casing, and include an envelope with 10 art cards inside. There’s also a double-sided bookmark, a double-sided retro art card, three double-sided behind the scenes cards,...

Everyone knows that Steven Spielberg's "1941" was a notorious box office flop. And everyone ... is wrong. Despite its reputation over the years, Spielberg's 1979 war comedy was not a box office failure. It just looked that way because, well, it was a Steven Spielberg movie. In '79, in the wake of the record-breaking box office juggernaut that was "Jaws" and its successful follow-up "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Steven Spielberg seemed untouchable. It felt like the wunderkind director could not fail — that, like a cinematic King Midas, everything he touched would turn to gold.

"1941" changed that. While the film went on to become a modest box office success, taking in $94.9 million on a $35 million budget, it was not well received. Critics were mixed at best on the film. As Roger Ebert wrote, "The movie finally reduces itself to an assault on our eyes and ears, a nonstop series of climaxes,...

Mel Brooks beloved, controversial comedy classic Blazing Saddles rides back into theaters nationwide courtesy of Fathom Events and Warner Bros. later this month. In celebration of the groundbreaking comedys 50th anniversary, this Fathom Big Screen Classic also includes a special introduction by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. Blazing Saddles will return to the big screen for a limited time on September 15 and September 18, and tickets are available for purchase now via the Fathom Events site.

Ribald, tasteless, and hilarious... Mel Brooks classic spoof of the Western genre pokes fun at everyone and everything. Together with his nefarious railroad baron-backer Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), corrupt Governor Lepetomane (Brooks) cooks up a scheme to grant a reprieve to an African American convict (Cleavon Little), on the condition that the condemned man agrees to serve as sheriff of a small Western town - with the intent that the newly-minted lawman will only...

Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" remained depressingly relevant. We live on a planet wherein humans have invented single explosive devices powerful enough to eliminate all life on Earth, and yet they are being handled by whiny, insecure, clownish politicians and violence-obsessed military wonks with impotence and delusions of grandeur. It's telling that one of the biggest hits of 2023, Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," was also about how petty egos tend to take precedence over the profound immoral invention of the nuclear bomb.

1964 was a time when phrases like "balance of power" were bandied about in the news, all while politicians and pundits argued about the moral righteousness of every major global superpower possessing the ability to destroy the world with equal skill. If everyone on Earth can blow up the planet, surely, then, everything is in perfect balance.

Kubrick...

A strong case could be made that Mel Brooks co-writing and directing "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles" in the same year (1974) is one of the greatest filmmaking one-two punches of the 20th century. It's hard enough to make a single comedy that becomes a stone cold classic, but for both of them to have such fantastic reputations 50 years later (despite "Blazing Saddles" having some aspects in it that don't age well for modern viewers) makes this achievement downright legendary. Of course, the fact that these movies came out 50 years ago sadly means that most of the actors who starred in these projects are no longer with us.

For "Blazing Saddles," a film that was so controversial even upon its release that Brooks thought he might be killed because of its content, that means we've already lost towering performers like Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Corman, Slim Pickens, the great Madeline Kahn,...

The Cowboys is considered the most accurate Wild West film by historian Michael Grauer. John Wayne's character in The Cowboys hires young boys as trailhands, facing realistic dangers along the way. Despite some inaccuracies, The Cowboys received mixed reviews but maintains a strong 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

A historian explains why The Cowboys is the most accurate Wild West film. Directed by Mark Rydell, the 1972 Western film follows a grizzled veteran rancher who recruits a group of inexperienced schoolboys as cowhands to get his cattle herd to market on time, though the drive is fraught with dangers, including a gang of rustlers trying to steal the herd. John Wayne leads the cast alongside Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, Robert Carradine, and Slim Pickens.

In a video from Insider, the cowboy and Old West historian Michael Grauer explained why The Cowboys is an accurate Wild West movie, and also his favorite.

Carla Balenda, who starred alongside Dana Andrews and Claude Rains in the Rko Pictures thriller Sealed Cargo and portrayed Mickey Rooney’s girlfriend on the NBC sitcom Hey Mulligan, has died. She was 98.

Balenda, billed at times as Sally Bliss, her birth name, died April 9 of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, her grandson Jim Martin told The Hollywood Reporter.

She also played a nurse on the 1955-56 syndicated series The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu, starring Glen Gordon, and recurred as Miss Hazlitt, Timmy’s (Jon Provost) teacher, on CBS’ Lassie from 1958-63.

In Sealed Cargo (1951), Balenda portrayed a woman who is aboard a fishing trawler bound for Newfoundland when she and the skipper (Andrews) wind up tangling in the North Atlantic with Nazis led by Rains’ character. She often said it was her favorite role.

When Rooney took his first crack at television,...

Steven Spielberg, the master auteur, had somewhat of a crash course in the interdependent working relationship between a director and the studio quite early on in his career. Despite his natural expertise and ingrained talent for producing cinematic masterpieces, Spielberg is not entirely immune to box office failures.

Steven Spielberg on the sets of 1941 [Credit: Amblin]

The director of the aquatic thriller, Jaws, and sci-fi alien film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, had ridden the wave of success and glory for far too long to realize that without studio interference, a project can sometimes go downhill too. And Spielberg was quick to learn that on the evening of the premiere of 1941.

Steven Spielberg and His Radical New Hollywood Era

No studio production enters the final theatrical lineup without the absolute say-so of the higher-up execs. The Hollywood of today is entirely guided by the principle of equal collaboration between the suits and the creatives.

1978's The Swarm was called the worst movie ever. This was the case in spite of the fact that it starred MIchael Caine, Henry Fonda, and seven other Oscar nominees. The movie's 9% Rotten Tomatoes score belies its quality, though it still has entertainment value.

The 1978 movie The Swarm, which features a star-studded cast that includes Henry Fonda, Michael Caine, and many other Oscar winners and major celebrities, has been called "the worst movie ever." This is an astonishing fact considering the track record of its cavalcade of major performers. Critical reception for movies featuring these stars has generally been high. In fact, on Rotten Tomatoes, only 10 of Fonda's 41 pre-1978 movies later received Rotten scores.

Michael Caine had also only had 10 Rotten movies before The Swarm. While the iconic star's career has varied wildly between beloved classics and outright flops, he is best known for well-received movies as varied as the...

Personally and professionally, Sam Peckinpah was running on fumes by the time he made 1973’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Years of substance abuse left the director in such fragile health that he spent some days on the production’s Mexico locations filming from a hospital bed, and his dilapidated condition only exacerbated his notoriously combative personality and contributed to the film’s budget and schedule overruns. Infuriated by the escalating expense of the production and set on an arbitrary runtime ceiling, MGM took over editing before Peckinpah could finish the job and released a hastily assembled 106-minute version that hit theaters to indifferent reviews and middling returns. Only in 1988, four years after the director’s death, did the film gain stature as one of his finest works thanks to the release of a rough, never-finalized preview cut prepared by Peckinpah.

An account of the final days of the...

It's impossible to picture the 1964 Stanley Kubrick masterpiece Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb as anything but the biting piece of Cold War satire that changed the course of cinema. When Major "King" Kong, (Slim Pickens) rides that atomic bomb named "Hi There!" like a bucking bronco as it drops from the B-52, it's the cherry on top of what may be the most meaningful movie that the great filmmaker ever made. This made it even more fascinating to discover that Kubrick initially had designs on making a serious and grim picture at the very height of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, based on the very serious and frightful book Red Alert by Peter George. He was poised to follow up his harrowing and heroic prior projects Paths of Glory and Spartacus with a titillating thriller about the out-of-control...

Before Disney extended their business with the Star Wars franchise, the studio had an expensive bet against George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope— a space adventure that took Hollywood by storm. It was one of the greatest hits of the time, which prompted several studios to have their pie in the game.

George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope poster.

Of course, it was before Disney acquired Lucasfilm— founded by the director of the first and several Star Wars movies, George Lucas. Decades before the acquisition of the company on 30 October 2012, Disney had their own ambitious plan to create another space adventure marvel.

Disney’s Most Expensive Bet Against Star Wars A still from Disney’s The Black Hole

Disney was very keen to have their shot at the space adventure genre following the mega-hit of George Lucas’ 1977 Star Wars movie. Disney made the...

With its scathing social satire, raunchy humor and frequent use of the controversial N-word, “Blazing Saddles” got mixed reviews upon its release February 7, 1974. Nonetheless, it galloped to the top of the box office and earned three Oscar nominations, and set new standards for comedy films with its irreverence, spoofs and just plain silliness. Some reviewers did get the joke from the beginning, including Roger Ebert, who awarded it four out of four stars, saying it’s “a crazed grab bag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken.” On its 50th anniversary, we look back at how “Blazing Saddles” has endured as one of the greatest and most beloved comedies of all time.

It all started when Mel Brooks bought the film rights to a story titled “Tex-x” (changed so it wouldn’t be mistaken for an X-rated...

Netflix generates more contemporary content than anyone, but they’re dipping into the past to curate the great movies from the ’70s. These are the films that people like myself discovered as kids in the early days of when HBO premiered on cable. Bravo, I say. Here’s the preliminary list.

Alice Doesn’T Live Here Anymore

A widowed singer and single mother starts over as a diner waitress in Arizona, befriending her coworkers and romancing a ruggedly handsome rancher.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer: Robert Getchell

Producers: Audrey Maas, David Susskind

Key Cast (Alphabetical): Ellen Burstyn, Jodie Foster, Diane Ladd, Alfred Lutter, Harvey Keitel, Kris Kristofferson, Vic Tayback

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Discovery

Initial Release Date: December 9, 1974

At the 47th Academy Awards, Burstyn won Best Actress

Black Belt Jones

High-kicking Black Belt Jones is dispatched to take down a group of Mafia goons trying to muscle in on a downtown karate studio.

1974 was quite a year for cinema; 50 years later, Netflix (of all places) is celebrating the golden jubilee.

In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).

Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...

Bender, the alcoholic robot from "Futurama," is one of the primary protagonists of the show, but might also be considered one of its central villains. Bender (John Dimaggio) is an unabashed kleptomaniac and heavy drinker who mugs people regularly, sometimes takes hostages, siphons blood out of humans when they're not looking, and encourages people to beat their children on live TV. He even once worked as a professional stalker, creeping out the robot TV star Calculon (Maurice Lamarche). In one 2012 episode called "Fun on a Bun," he accidentally fed his best friend Fry (Billy West) into a sausage grinder, turning him into hot dogs that he unwittingly served to people at Oktoberfest. Leela (Katey Sagal), Fry's sometime paramour, even had a few healthy bites before realizing the truth. 

Don't worry. It is later revealed that Fry is safe. But for a while, it looked like Bender was complicit in sausage-based cannibalism.

Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley are teaming for a West End stage production of Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1964 war satire, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Billed as the first-ever adaptation of a Kubrick work, Dr. Strangelove will star Coogan in multiple roles at London’s Noel Coward Theatre for a limited run from October 8, 2024-December 21, 2024.

The adaptation hails from Veep creator and Coogan’s Alan Partridge collaborator Iannucci, and Olivier Award-winner Foley. Foley will also direct.

The original Oscar-nominated film about a rogue U.S. General who triggers a nuclear crisis, starred Peter Sellers, George C Scott, Sterling Hayden and Slim Pickens, among others. Sellers memorably played more than one character, scoring an Oscar nomination in the process.

Said Coogan, “The idea of putting Dr. Strangelove on stage is daunting. A huge responsibility. It’s also an exciting challenge, an...

Paramount+ is starting September with a bang with hundreds of new film titles joining its library, from comedies like “Blazing Saddles” and “The Big Lebowski,” to award-winning dramas like “Schindler's List” and “Forrest Gump” and sci-fi thrillers like “Terminator 2” and “Annihilation.”

But the streamer isn’t stopping there, with even more TV series (including Paramount+ originals and exclusives) and sports available throughout the month on the Paramount+ Essential plan and even more titles on the Paramount+ with Showtime.

Check out The Streamable’s picks for the top five titles arriving to the streamer this month!

30-Day Free Trial $5.99+ / month paramountplus.com

For a Limited Time, Get 1 Month of Paramount+ With Code: Lioness

What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Paramount+ in September 2023? “Blazing Saddles” | Friday, Sept. 1

Return to Rock Ridge with Mel Brooks’ fourth-wall-breaking classic that will leave you anything but tired. The satirical Western-black comedy follows...

On March 13, 1981, one of the best werewolf movies ever made – director Joe Dante’s The Howling (watch it Here) made its debut on theatre screens in the United States. 42 years later, we’re celebrating The Howling with the latest episode of our video series Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? To find out all about it, check out the video embedded above!

Scripted by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, The Howling was loosely based on a novel by Gary Brandner. Here’s the synopsis for the adaptation: In Los Angeles, television journalist Karen White is traumatized in the course of aiding the police in their arrest of a serial murderer. Her doctor recommends that she attend an isolated psychiatric retreat led by Dr. George Waggner. But while Karen is undergoing therapy, her colleague Chris, investigates the bizarre circumstances surrounding her shock. When his work leads him to suspect the supernatural,...

"This movie could never be made today" is an increasingly familiar refrain in our fractious times. As our society grows more diverse, and we reckon with the racism and sexism of less enlightened eras, some crotchety members of the old guard have a tendency to throw up their hands and lament that an assortment of classic films with perceived problematic content would never make it past development in modern Hollywood.

In certain, screamingly obvious cases, this is a very good thing. D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation," a virulently racist movie that celebrates the Ku Klux Klan's heroic lynching of a freed slave would be a one-way ticket to infamy (or a three-picture deal with The Daily Wire). The mere notion of Walt Disney's "Song of the South" would probably result in the creator being ousted from his own company (and maybe offered a gig as the chief...

As a member of the legendary writing staff of NBC's "Your Show of Shows" in the 1950s, Mel Brooks played a key role in pushing the formal boundaries of television comedy, so it stands to reason that he would be equally adventurous behind the lens of a film camera. Taking his cues from such pioneering entertainments as Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and H.C. Potter's "Hellzapoppin'," Brooks played broadly to viewers, occasionally breaking the fourth wall to get them involved in the front. He does this multiple times in "Blazing Saddles:" in one instance, he has Harvey Korman's Hedley Lamarr pause his direct-to-camera scheming to ponder to the audience, "Why am I asking you?" There's also the moment where the film's climactic melee crashes into the set of a Busby Berkeley musical, prompting Slim Pickens to blurt out "P*** on you, I'm working for Mel Brooks" before...

Steven Spielberg is currently on the receiving end of Oscar buzz and some of his best reviews of all time for his deeply personal coming-of-age dramedy The Fabelmans. Ever since his World War II farce 1941 became the first critical and commercial bomb of his career, Spielberg has tended to avoid directing straightforward comedies. But that doesn’t mean his movies aren’t funny.

From the cat-and-mouse caper of Catch Me If You Can to the quippy one-liners of the Indiana Jones films to the dry Coen brothers humor of Bridge of Spies, Spielberg has helmed many hilarious movies throughout his career.

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)

Spielberg tried his hand at cutting-edge motion-capture animation to bring Hergé’s classic stories to life in The Adventures of Tintin. The movie draws on the “odd couple” dynamic of Tintin and Captain Haddock to punctuate its dazzling action sequences with humor.

The movie also...

Steven Spielberg's "1941" is one of the most blissfully chaotic movies ever made. It is obscenely expensive, narratively scatterbrained, and unabashedly irreverent about one of the most devastating acts of war ever carried out by a foreign nation on American soil. It's more of a model train set than a movie, one operated by a spoiled brat who'd rather send the cars soaring off the track into the basement wall than keep his meticulously constructed railroad running smoothly. Crammed somewhere in the movie is an unruly satire about self-destructive, run-amok jingoism, but it's also a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon where a runaway Army tank crashes through a paint factory and then a turpentine factory.

After the back-to-back blockbuster triumphs of "Jaws" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Spielberg could call his tune at Universal, and he threw his all into this nutty World War II flick scripted by...

Click here to read the full article.

Mark Miller, who portrayed the patriarch of a castle-dwelling family on the 1960s NBC sitcom Please Don’t Eat the Daisies and co-wrote the Keanu Reeves-starring romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds, has died. He was 97.

Miler died Friday in Santa Monica of natural causes, a family spokesperson announced. Survivors include his daughter and Tony-nominated actress Penelope Ann Miller.

Miller also wrote, produced and starred in the classic family film Savannah Smiles (1982), which was inspired by and named for his youngest daughter. It’s the story of a runaway girl (Bridgette Andersen) who forms an improvised family with the two escaped convicts (Miller, Donovan Scott) who find her.

On Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, which aired for two seasons and 58 episodes from 1965-67, the native Texan played college professor Jim Nash opposite Patricia Crowley as newspaper writer Joan Nash. They are the...

When one thinks of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 Cold War satire "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," the most iconic image that comes to mind is that of a hollering Slim Pickens straddling a descending hydrogen bomb. The journey to that image was a royal pain for the celebrated filmmaker.

"Strangelove" co-writer Terry Southern penned a memoir piece titled "Strangelove Outtake; Notes from the War Room," originally published in Grand Street magazine in 1994. He describes the pressure that Kubrick was under to employ Peter Sellers in multiple roles, which the Columbia suits had determined was the sole reason for the success of "Lolita" (it wasn't). So Kubrick agreed to cast Sellers in "at least four major roles," three of which made the final cut: Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and the titular Doctor Strangelove.

The fourth role was Major Kong, who commands...

Another unexpected comic treasure from the mid ’70s! Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston make an irresistible pair of would-be outlaws in a tale of the modern West — high-country Montana, actually — where a gentleman rancher from New Jersey owns all the land and making an honest living is just too boring. Thomas McGuane’s hilariously laid-back dialogue pits our slacker cattle rustlers against society — but only in the pursuit of having a good time. Frank Perry’s beautifully directed show gives choice roles to a fistful of actors: Clifton James, Elizabeth Ashley, Harry Dean Stanton, Slim Pickens, Charlene Dallas, Richard Bright, Joe Spinell, Patti D’Arbanville. Call it ‘literate’ country comedy, with musical accompaniment by Jimmy Buffett. The extras include a great new interview with star Jeff Bridges.

Rancho Deluxe

Blu-ray

Fun City Editions

1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date July 19, 2021 / Available from Vinegar Syndrome /

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Elizabeth Ashley,...

Hollywood’s last big all-star war epic in Black & White? Otto Preminger took a happy film company to Hawaii for this enormous saga about the Naval push in the Pacific Theater of WW2, with none other than John Wayne as the competent commander leading the charge. Soap-opera scenes aside, it’s a thrilling epic directed with Preminger’s well-known reserve. The star-gazing isn’t bad either — Kirk Douglas! Patricia Neal! Henry Fonda! Paula Prentiss! The finish is a huge naval battle with impressive live-action special effects, and given a moody music score by Jerry Goldsmith.

In Harm’s Way

Blu-ray

Paramount Viacom CBS

1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 167 min. / Street Date June 29, 2021 / Available from Paramount Movies / 13.99

Starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carroll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Barbara Bouchet.

Cinematography:...

It’s a new deluxe Limited Edition of Sam Peckinpah’s mangled masterpiece, the third fancy boxed set in as many years. Arrow’s presentation is certainly got the edge in graphic elegance. They’ve also strived to include as many earlier extras as possible, plus new analytical-critical takes on the picture, and an excellent (and wickedly funny) visual essay from David Cairns. The disc has both of my commentaries, including the comprehensive one that details the missing scenes with information taken directly from Sam Peckinpah and Oscar Saul’s screenplay. And hey, you never know: this could be the year that Mitch Miller’s Singalong Gang makes an incredible comeback, and we can All fall in behind the Major.

Major Dundee

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 136, 122 min. / (2-Disc Limited Edition) / Street Date June 29, 2021 / 59.95

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters,...

The new [Imprint] label turns its attention to the Sam Peckinpah favorite, the almost-classic that suffered a number of setbacks — a studio regime change, impractical remote locations, the wrong producer — and a director with zero diplomatic skills, who couldn’t finish his script and fought political battles when his movie needed his full attention. That the finished film shows so much brilliance is a tragedy, as this could have been a landmark epic, Charlton Heston’s best. CineSavant turns its attention to a favored film one more time — to play imagination games with re-cuts. Viavision [Imprint]’s lavish boxed set is said to be sold out, but that may only be at the company source.

Major Dundee

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 11

1965 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 136, 122 min. / Street Date October 28, 2019 / available at [Imprint] / $79.95 au

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong,...

It’s difficult to quantify the breadth of the effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; but since those pivotal August days in 1945 when World War II suddenly became a nuclear war, many filmmakers have attempted to capture the uncertainty that nuclear weapons have unleashed. You know that feeling of uncertainty. Anyone who saw that mushroom cloud exploding out of Beirut August 4 was filled with nuclear age dread, even though it appears, thankfully, as if no nuclear material was part of the blast.

“the bomb” is a film and art installation created by artist/filmmaker Smriti Keshari, Kevin Ford, and author Eric Schlosser (“Fast Food Nation”) that explores the threat of nuclear weapons and captures much of that anxiety. After premiering it at Berlin and Tribeca in 2017, the filmmakers have adapted it into a museum piece that will premiere at Pioneer Works. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,...

While all of our attention might currently be focused on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Disney reportedly has its eyes on rebooting another one of its intergalactic features. According to our sources – the same ones who told us an Aladdin sequel was in the works and that Ace Ventura 3 is in early development, both of which have since been confirmed – the studio is intent on remaking The Black Hole.

The 1979 space opera featured an all-star cast that consisted of Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens. With a production budget of $20 million and an additional $6 million spent on advertising, The Black Hole was the most expensive film Disney had ever produced at that time. It was also the first movie by the studio to ever receive a PG rating, which is crazy when you consider the debate currently surrounding...

Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Mangled Masterpiece’ gets a new lease on life with this Austrian import, which corrects all the things that bugged me about Twilight Time’s impressive Blu-ray back in 2013. This is the first time that the original uncut Preview-International version of Major Dundee has come to Blu-ray with its original soundtrack intact. The Two-Disc set includes a longform making-of docu from the prolific producer Mike Siegel, and the other extras make an extensive raid of our combined Dundee photo archives.

Major Dundee (Sierra Charriba)

Region-Free Blu-ray Mediabook

Explosive Media GmbH

1965 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 136, 121 min. / Sierra Charriba / Street Date December 12, 2019 / available at Amazon.de / 21,99 €

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, Dub Taylor, Michael Pate, Karl Swenson, Begonia Palacios, Aurora Clavell.

Cinematography: Sam Leavitt

Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Don Starling, Howard Kunin...

Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Mangled Masterpiece’ gets a new lease on life with this Austrian import, which corrects all the things that bugged me about Twilight Time’s impressive Blu-ray back in 2013. This is the first time that the original uncut Preview-International version of Major Dundee has come to Blu-ray with its original soundtrack intact. The Two-Disc set includes a longform making-of docu from the prolific producer Mike Siegel, and the other extras make an extensive raid of our combined Dundee photo archives.

Major Dundee (Sierra Charriba)

Region-Free Blu-ray Mediabook

Explosive Media GmbH

1965 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 136, 121 min. / Sierra Charriba / Street Date December 12, 2019 / available at Amazon.de / 21,99 €

Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Michael Anderson Jr., Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, Dub Taylor, Michael Pate, Karl Swenson, Begonia Palacios, Aurora Clavell.

Cinematography: Sam Leavitt

Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Don Starling, Howard Kunin...

Twilight Time goes for a Blu-ray upgrade of the western remake with the all-star cast. Forget that there was ever a John Ford or a John Wayne and it’s a perfectly presentable wild west story, but the mileage may vary for classic western fans inclined to make comparisons to the 1939 classic. Top billing goes to an enthusiastic Ann-Margret… but we’re sorry to report that her hip-swinging rock number, ‘Viva Geronimo!’ was cut at the last minute.

Stagecoach

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies / 29.95

Starring: Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim Pickens, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn.

Cinematography: William H. Clothier

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Joseph Landon from the screenplay by Dudley Nichols from a story by Ernest Haycox

Produced by Martin Rackin

Directed by Gordon Douglas

The Hollywood western...

Canadian actor Shane Rimmer, who voiced pilot Scott Tracy on the series “Thunderbirds” and appeared in multiple James Bond movies, died early Friday at his home in England. He was 89.

His death was reported on the official website of Gerry Anderson, who created “Thunderbirds” and said Rimmer’s widow, Sheila, confirmed the news. A cause of death was not reported.

Rimmer was born on May 28, 1929, in Toronto. In addition to “Thunderbirds,” he worked with Anderson on “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons,” “Joe 90,” “The Secret Service,” “UFO,” “Space: 1999,” and the pilot “Space Police.”

His first major movie role came in 1964’s “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” as Capt. Ace Owens, co-pilot of the B-52 Stratofortress opposite Slim Pickens and James Earl Jones. Rimmer had uncredited roles in the early James Bond movies “Live and Let Die” and “Diamonds are Forever” and...

The ‘other’ Hollywood studio version of the Alamo story is quite good, with strong production values, exciting stunt battle action and something Republic Pictures didn’t manage very often, a solid screenplay. Sterling Hayden is Jim Bowie, this version’s central hero, with great backup from Anna Maria Alberghetti, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, and Ben Cooper. But best of all is that old hay-shaker Arthur Hunnicutt, as the movies’ best and most natural Davy Crockett.

The Last Command

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1955 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date December 11, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Richard Carlson, Arthur Hunnicutt, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper, John Russell, Virginia Grey, Jim Davis, Eduard Franz, Otto Kruger, Russell Simpson, Roy Roberts, Slim Pickens, Hugh Sanders, Morris Ankrum, Argentina Brunetti, Robert Burton.

Cinematography: Jack A. Marta

Film Editor: Tony Martinelli

Original Music: Max Steiner

Special Effects: Howard...

It’s impossible to have any discussion about actor and icon Sam Elliott without mentioning That Voice. Simultaneously rough and smooth, like gravel coated in melted butter, that distinctive, husky sound seems to emanate not from Elliott’s throat, but his very soul.

Filmmaker Brett Haley, who has made two recent films with Elliott, calls it “the most beautiful voice ever, special and singular.”

Bradley Cooper found it so distinctive, he used it as a launchpad for his character, country singer Jackson Maine, in his directorial debut “A Star Is Born” — and then cast Elliott as his brother, Bobby.

“We had never met and so I felt like I was taking a gamble,” Cooper admits of the day he invited Elliott over to his house to talk about the film. “I said, ‘I’m going to play something for you, and this might sound weird.’” He proceeded to play a...

It’s time to celebrate the Irwin Allen disaster epics for what they are — huge, indigestible spectacles that first seem funny and then congeal into a cinematic badness that words cannot describe. This sprawling ordeal tortures good actors and shatters every limit of audience patience. I alone have survived to tell thee. Is a fair review even possible?

The Swarm

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1978 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 156 116 min. /Extended Edition / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Cameron Mitchell, Christian Juttner, Alejandro Rey.

Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp

Film Editor: Harold F. Kress

Visual Effects: L.B. Abbott

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Stirling Silliphant, from the novel by Arthur Herzog

Produced and Directed by Irwin Allen

“I never dreamed that it would...