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After a couple of iffy choices earlier in the decade, Michael Caine made the surprisingly sweet and enjoyable comedy, Sweet Liberty in 1986. We take a look back…

Michael Caine showed no sign of slowing down as he entered his third decade as a leading man. The 1980s would see him win his first Academy Award (Hannah and Her Sisters), tackle new genres such as horror (The Hand) and shark-based revenge movie (Jaws: The Revenge) whilst continuing to work with interesting new auteurs like Brian De Palma (Dressed to Kill) as well as old friends from classic Hollywood such as John Huston (Escape to Victory).

Film by film, I’ll be taking a look at Caine’s 1980s filmography to see what hidden gems I can unearth alongside the more familiar classics…

Spoilers for Sweet Liberty lie ahead…

Directed by: Alan Alda

Tagline: Alan Alda’s hit comedy about life, liberties and the pursuit of happiness.

“It’s a hard world for small things,” says Lillian Gish’s Rachel Cooper in The Night of the Hunter. Those words come to mind while watching Sally Aitken’s modestly informative and gently profound Every Little Thing about a Los Angeles-based hummingbird rescue. If there’s any fault to be found in this aptly titled documentary, it’s that it doesn’t exactly benefit from its formulaic voiceover and other supplementary audio. The footage of hummingbirds—usually in slow motion—is intrinsically commanding and in little need of buttressing, particularly with adjectives that fall far short of the images they accompany.

Terry Masear is a wildlife rehabber who, along with others in her field, rises to the seemingly nonstop challenge of caring for L.A.’s fragile population of hummingbirds, who are so delicate in their form that even a cautious rescuer might impact a bird’s survival chances.

Gwen Van Dam, a veteran character actress of seven decades whose 140 credits spanned television, film and the Los Angeles stage, died Dec. 19 at her home in West LA. She was 96.

Per previous reporting attributed to her son Dirk Smillie, the cause of death was a recurrence of cancer.

Throughout her long-tenured career, Van Dam appeared in 1978’s Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, 1994’s Star Trek Generations with Patrick Stewart, the romantic war drama Coming Home featuring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight and the Sidney Poitier-helmed Gene Wilder pic Stir Crazy.

Among her television credits are illustrious series like Days of Our Lives, Gilmore Girls, Knots Landing, ER, Moonlighting, The Brady Bunch, Maude, Owen Marshall, New Girl, Modern Family and Criminal Minds.

On the music video side of things, she appeared in visual works for U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Panic! At the Disco and heavy metal band Mastodon.

Gwen Van Dam, whose 70-year career as a character actress for film, television and the stage included turns in True Confessions, Halloween, Coming Home, Stir Crazy and The Trip to Bountiful, has died. She was 96.

Van Dam, who compiled about 140 acting credits on IMDb, died Dec. 19 at her home in West Los Angeles after a recurrence of cancer, her son, Dirk Smillie, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Van Dam remained a busy actress until the end, appearing on the first five episodes of Prime Video’s Homecoming in 2018, on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie in 2019 and on two installments of Hulu’s Interior Chinatown last year. She recently finished a play, too.

Her TV résumé included The Brady Bunch, Mannix, Maude, House Calls, Days of Our Lives, Moonlighting, 227, Knots Landing, Star Trek: Generations, ER, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, New Girl, Criminal Minds, Angie Tribeca and Modern Family.

Meanwhile, she spent the...

The American Civil War was the most consequential conflict in United States history and has been powerfully depicted on screen countless times. From epic accounts of fierce battles to personal explorations of soldiers experiences, as a medium, film has the power to represent the full spectrum of this harrowing conflict, where brothers fought against brothers and communities turned on one another. This can often lead to emotional movie-viewing experiences, as, more so than any other art form, films allow audiences to witness the shocking, bloody, and uncomfortably graphic sides of warfare.

Like the best war movie, depictions of the Civil War highlight not just the challenges of society during that conflict but also today's social and political tensions. This can be seen through the racial representation in a movie like Glory or even as a thought experiment in the imagined dystopian conflict seen in Alex Garlands Civil War, which showcased...

Just as most young actors who headed to New York post World War II, Eva Marie Saint was a staple on live television. In fact, her first TV appearance was in 1947 in a production of “A Christmas Carol” starring John Carradine as Scrooge. Saint, who celebrates her 100th birthday on July 4, told me in a 2013 L.A. Times interview that she didn’t appear on screen in her first TV gig that same year on NBC’s “The Borden Show.” She was hired to simply supply applause off-camera and called her parents to tell them the good news. “After the show, they called me and mom said, ‘Honey, we just love the show, and Dad thinks he heard you applauding.”’

Doing live TV got the lithe blonde actress a lot of exposure. One time it was way too much exposure. Between 1950-52, Saint appeared as the daughter of a high-powered San...

Illustration by Stephanie Monohan.Kirsten Dunst has played a pageant contestant not once, but twice: famously, in the cult classic Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), then, in a self-reflexive turn in Showtime’s short-lived satire of predatory capitalism, On Becoming a God in Central Florida (2019). In the latter, Dunst plays Krystal Stubbs, a pageant queen turned widow turned cunning representative of the Founders American Merchandise corporation. In one scene, she instructs a goth teen on a stratagem of competition: “Dazzle by any means necessary. If you want better lightin’ than the other girls, give yourself better lightin’ than the other girls.”Dunst has built a career around this principle. Having started as a child star, she has supported superhero franchises, starred in teen movies and art films alike, and worked in both film and television. In each project, she follows Krystal’s advice, juggling each character’s interiority with bigger-picture concerns. She...

“I think it was Andy Warhol who said, “Make art and let others decide whether it is good or bad. But while they are deciding, make some more”.

That was the line with which Nicole Kidman ended her 15-minute acceptance speech after Meryl Streep had presented her with the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award.

That is something that seems entirely appropriate for Kidman, who doesn’t seem to stop “making art,” taking risks at every turn, telling stories through her power not just as an actor, but also a producer dedicated to bringing those stories to screens big and small. At 56, she is on the younger side of the previous 48 recipients of this very high honor, the first Australian to receive it. And someone very much in the middle of creating those life achievements that led to last night’s honor at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where a large...

by Baby Clyde

With their increasingly bizarre choices and lamentable decision to move recipients from the main telecast, long gone are the days when the Academy’s Honorary Awards made any cultural impact. We’re all the losers, because not only did truly deserving legends of the industry being belated rewarded give deep satisfaction to the Oscar nerds at home, from an ailing Myrna Loy and triumphant Charlie Chaplin to a sprightly Lillian Gish and a regal Deborah Kerr, they created some of the most memorable and moving moments in Academy history.

None more so than the man who celebrates his centenary yesterday, Stanley Donen. The master of the movie musical was unaccountably never nominated for a competitive Oscar during his illustrious career but took his opportunity at the 70th Annual Academy awards to give the most charming speech of all time...

Clockwise left to right: Get Out (Universal Pictures), This Is Spinal Tap (MGM Home Entertainment), That Thing You Do! (20th Century Studios), Lady Bird (A24)Graphic: The A.V. Club

It’s always neat when someone you’ve admired shows off a hidden talent that makes you see them in a different light.

John Wilkes Booth was desperate to be famous. Instead, he became infamous as the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. He had been born in 1838 as the ninth of ten children of the famed actor Junius Brutus Booth. Though he had shown talent, his career was often derailed by his emotional instability. His older brother Edwin Booth was considered one of the top actors of the day.

The handsome younger Booth had received strong reviews in a New York production of “Richard III” with the New York Herald declaring him a “veritable sensation.” Booth even told the paper “I’m determined to be the villain.” A staunch supporter of the Confederacy, by 1864 he had recruited several co-conspirators in his plan to kidnap Honest Abe. Their attempts failed, but on April 14, 1865, he learned Lincoln would attend the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater that evening, During the third act...

The Night of the Hunter is getting a modern-day remake. Originally released in 1955, The Night of the Hunter is a classic thriller about a preacher who marries a widow whose children will not tell him where their later father hid $10,000 that he stole in a robbery. The Night of the Hunter was directed by Charles Laughton and starred a leading cast of Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, and Evelyn Varden.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, The Night of the Hunter is set to receive a remake.

More to come…

Source: THR...

Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, the terrorific team behind horror hits Sinister and The Black Phone, are going noir.

Universal has tapped Derrickson to direct an adaptation of The Night of the Hunter, the acclaimed 1953 crime novel by Davis Grubb that was previously turned into a 1955 thriller starring Robert Mitchum.

Derrickson will write the script with Cargill, his frequent collaborator who also worked with him on Marvel Studios entry Doctor Strange.

Peter Gethers will produce through his KramMar Delicious Mystery Productions, and Amy Pascal will produce through her Pascal Pictures first-look deal with Universal Pictures. 

Hunter told the story of Harry Powell, a murderous ex-con who takes up the identity of a preacher in order to do his misdeeds. While in prison, a cellmate slated for execution tells Powell that he hid stolen cash with his kids. Upon his release, Powell finds the widow, woos her and marries her,...

One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.

Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?

Capote was...

The only thing better than a free thing is more of that free thing. This month, Amazon’s ad-supported streamer Freevee is adding dozens of new titles to its existing library of thousands, and no matter your choice (or choices), Freevee titles are available for free on the platform with no additional membership required, so you can watch without an additional hit to the bank account this holiday season!

Take a tour through both the classic and current this December, including the 1950s classic film noir “The Night of the Hunter,” the queer history classic “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” and the complete series collection of “Night Court,” “The Waltons,” and more.

Once you brush up on your history, catch up with the contemporaries, such as the beloved sci-fi series “Fringe”, the animated hit “Hotel Transylvania,” and the superhero black comedy “Kick-Ass.”

Check out The Streamable’s...

Martin Scorsese is famous for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and the first feature-length film with all three, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” has become a critical and commercial success. It’s not unusual for a director to find a “favorite” actor and form a successful relationship. In fact, this practice goes back to the beginning of the industry.

In 1912, pioneering filmmaker D.W. Griffith cast 18-year-old Lillian Gish in his short film “An Unseen Enemy,” and the two worked on more than 40 short and feature-length productions over the next decade. One of the most famous scenes from the silent era is in their film “Way Down East,” in which Gish floats unconscious on an ice floe; she had lifelong nerve damage in several fingers as a result of her performance in that scene.

SEEMartin Scorsese movies: All 26 films ranked worst to best

During the Golden Age of Hollywood,...

Martin Scorsese is famous for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and the first feature-length film with all three, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” has become a critical and commercial success. It’s not unusual for a director to find a “favorite” actor and form a successful relationship. In fact, this practice goes back to the beginning of the industry.

In 1912, pioneering filmmaker D.W. Griffith cast 18-year-old Lillian Gish in his short film “An Unseen Enemy,” and the two worked on more than 40 short and feature-length productions over the next decade. One of the most famous scenes from the silent era is in their film “Way Down East,” in which Gish floats unconscious on an ice floe; she had lifelong nerve damage in several fingers as a result of her performance in that scene.

During the Golden Age of Hollywood, there were quite a few famous collaborations,...

Due to the deliberately mysterious nature of the film, potential spoilers for "Foe" follow. 

The premise of Garth Davis' turgid sci-fi mope-fest "Foe" is intriguing on paper. It's 2065, and the world is dying. Water and food are in short supply, and the government is experimenting with station-bound space colonies. Junior (Paul Mescal) is to be recruited for a two-year space mission that would keep him away from his long-suffering wife Hen (Saoirse Ronan). In exchange, the government has offered to outfit Hen's home with a pre-programmed clone of Junior, designed to keep her company. 

From the premise, one might assume "Foe" plays out like a speculative "Twilight Zone" thought exercise, or perhaps a wicked/fun grim morality tale like one might encounter in "Tales from the Crypt." But, dear readers, let me assure you that "Foe" does nothing intriguing. Indeed, the bulk of Davis' pity party is little more than extended scenes of meandering,...

Above: 1973 New York Film Festival poster designed by Niki de Saint Phalle.The 61st edition of the New York Film Festival, which opens tonight, has 32 films in its Main Slate, fifteen films in its Spotlight section, ten films and seven collections of shorts in the Currents sidebar, and eleven revivals. That's over 60 feature films. Fifty years ago, in 1973, the 11th edition of the festival had just eighteen feature films and nineteen shorts. Just like this year’s opener—Todd Haynes’s May December—1973’s opening night film, François Truffaut’s Day for Night, had premiered four months earlier at the Cannes Film Festival. And as with this year’s festival, the 1973 edition opened, fifty years and one day ago exactly, in the shadow of an artists' strike. Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians had been picketing the New York Philharmonic outside Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, where the festival was taking place,...

Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter is so loaded with neurotic symbology that you can attach nearly any meaning to it, and that’s the source of its uneasy, primordial power. In 1955, it might’ve been logical to assume that Laughton and critic turned screenwriter James Agee, working from David Grubb’s novel, were intending the film as an allegory for McCarthyism. After all, the villain, Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), cannily exploits people’s panic in order to line his pockets, turning them on one another so as to distract them from the true evildoings being committed.

Like those in the grip of the second Red Scare, most of Harry’s victims are easily exploited because they willingly forfeit individual judgment in the presence of reassuringly unquestioned leadership. As in other McCarthyism parables (most obviously Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers), only the children and...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Godzilla & Godzilla Raids Again Novelizations from University of Minnesota Press

First published in Japan in 1955, the original novelizations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again will be released in English for the first time on October 3 via University of Minnesota Press.

Jeffrey Angles, professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University, has newly translated the original material written by Shigeru Kayama, who conceived the initial story for Godzilla.

The two young adult novellas are being published together in one 256-page book, which is available to pre-order in paperback for $17.41 and and e-book for $9.99.

Scooby-Doo Play Set from Mezco Toyz

Mezco Toyz has announced a Scooby-Doo Friends & Foes box set as part of its 5 Points line of retro-style 3.75” scale action figures.

There were numerous superstars during the silent era from the clown princes of comedy Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to such dramatic and action icons as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Lillian Gish. One was a good boy — the German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin. Not only is Rin Tin Tin, aka Rinty, credited with saving Warner Bros., but Hollywood lore also insists he, not Emil Jannings, was the first Best Actor Oscar winner.

With Warner Brothers celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s time to look at the Rinty phenomenon and its place in Hollywood history.

Rinty wasn’t the first canine star. Blair, the pet collie of British director Cecil Hepworth, headlined his 1905 thriller “Rescued by Rover.” The film was so popular it had to be shot twice because the...

Updated: Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard, in a phone interview with IndieWire, said the following about Bill Pence: “[I’ve been going to Telluride] since 1978. Bill Pence was one of the pioneers of repertory cinema. That led to the festival. He had a chain of theaters all across the west, he’d bicycle repertory prints. He’d find archive program stuff no one had heard about for years, the [other theaters] would follow his lead, his festival turned into the ultimate repertory theater in his wild dreams. They put this thing together. Always at Telluride you’d see the best prints out of the archives, it was one of the treats of going there. Bill curated that; one of the roots of the festival was Bill Pence’s love of films and older cinema.

“I remember one year that stands out: Bill had original prints of Hitchcock movies that nobody could get and be able to...

These days it seems like Christmas and horror go together like hot cocoa and candy canes sharpened to a deadly point, but in the long history of film, this is a relatively recent development. Of course there are a few exceptions, but before 1972, it was a rarity to enjoy a vicious Christmas at the local theater. As to why horror was not set at Christmas for so long is an interesting question. Perhaps it was considered off limits to use what many consider a sacred holiday for such dark purposes. But then, holidays of any kind, including Halloween, were rarely seen in horror films before the seventies. In those days, studios would often roll out their theatrical releases over long periods of time, and limiting the reliable market fulfilled by horror films to the small window of the holiday season was likely a risk they were unwilling to take. In the golden age of Hollywood,...

When it comes to movies by one-and-done directors, there is no greater achievement than Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter," one of the most singular American films ever made. Nowadays, we'd probably pitch it as somewhere between a pastoral fable and a proto-slasher, but when it was released in 1955 it was a vision so unique that neither critics nor audiences knew what to make of it. It became such a monstrous flop that Laughton never directed another film.

Thankfully, time has been extremely kind to "The Night of the Hunter," and Laughton's neglected masterpiece is now receiving the recognition it deserves. In this year's Sight and Sound Top 100 list of the greatest films of all time, it vaulted 38 places from 63rd in the 2012 edition to joint 25th alongside "Au Hasard Balthazar." It didn't even make the list in the previous decade's poll, so at this rate of critical reappraisal,...

This mid-60s detective story has the right ingredients — a good mystery and interesting characters. David Jannsen gets to play a ‘Bosch’- style lone wolf investigator given a public thrashing for a ‘mistake’ that he knows was no mistake at all. Can a ‘bad cop’ redeem himself? The parade of mid-level guest stars — Stefanie Powers, Joan Collins, Lillian Gish, Steve Allen — may resemble a TV movie, but the tense show has a good feel for Los Angeles and the new swingin’ singles lifestyle. It might be Buzz Kulik’s best job of direction, and it has a great music score by Jerry Goldsmith.

Warning Shot

Region Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #177

1967 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date October 26, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Stefanie Powers, George Grizzard, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Lillian Gish, Eleanor Parker, Sam Wanamaker, George Sanders, Steve Allen, Carroll O’Connor, Walter Pidgeon.

Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc...

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has one of the most iconic scenes in film history, but it was actually inspired by two movies. The works of Stephen King have become so popular that many of them have been adapted to other media, though not all of them have had the approval of King. One of the most popular adaptations of King’s works, but also one of the most controversial ones, is Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, released in 1980 and based on the novel of the same name, published in 1977. Although it’s considered one of the greatest horror movies ever, Kubrick made a bunch of changes to King’s story, so much so that King has been quite vocal about his opinion on it.

The Shining tells the story of a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic named Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who takes a position as the off-season caretaker...

Click here to read the full article.

Luca Guadagnino may perhaps be best known on these shores as the director of lush scripted films like Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria and this year’s Bones and All. But since the start of his career, he’s also directed documentaries (Bertolucci on Bertolucci; Cuoco contadino, about one of Italy’s most inventive chefs; among others), which he calls the “very highest and noble art form of cinema.”

His latest is Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, about the rise of master shoe craftsman Salvatore Ferragamo, which opened in theaters Nov. 4. With a name that has long been emblazoned on storefronts on high-end fashion streets worldwide, Ferragamo began his career as the footwear-obsessed child of poor Italian farmers who started training for the field at the age of 9. Salvatore follows Ferragamo from these humble origins to Santa Barbara, California, where he crafted shoes...

“Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams,” Luca Guadagnino’s winning documentary delving into the life and career of legendary Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo, begins appropriately enough with a pair of high-heeled ruby slippers in the process of creation. The sparkling red objects pass through various checkpoints and construction moments in a seamless integration of people and machines, wearable art both handmade and mass-produced.

These opening shots, satisfying and methodical — presented without explanation, suggesting that Guadagnino might be assuming a fly-on-the-wall approach for the duration — quickly give way to traditional documentary practices, and pleasingly so. This is history not widely known outside the world of fashion, and Ferragamo’s story is a complex intersection, touching on early-20th-century immigration, youthful ambition, the dawn of Hollywood, passionate artistic hunger, tenacity, foot fascination and wild innovation. Thus Guadagnino’s carefully and lovingly detailed history lesson, free of stylistic flourishes, is as satisfying and methodical as that red shoe–making.

Shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo in Luca Guadagnino’s documentary Salvatore: Shoemaker Of Dreams. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics Through several beautifully costumed movies—including A Bigger Splash and I Am Love—Luca Guadagnino has always been a filmmaker of lusciously chic images. So it was about time that he signed his...

Anthony Asquith’s unusual look at wartime espionage garnered good notices in 1958, perhaps from reviewers rebelling against the trend toward ruthless screen violence. Star Paul Massie is fine as an emotionally-stricken Allied assassin who balks at carrying out his mission; the acting support from Irene Worth and Leslie French is superb. Screenwriter Paul Dehn was an ace at sharp, no-nonsense thrillers, but this story is soft around the edges — it seems to be explaining non-chivalric warfare to your sweet old grandmother. Which reminds us, Lillian Gish has a small role, too.

Orders to Kill

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1958 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 112 93 min. / Street Date September 20, 2022 / available from Amazon / 34.99

Starring: Eddie Albert, Paul Massie, Lillian Gish, James Robertson Justice, Leslie French, Irene Worth, John Crawford, Lionel Jeffries, Sandra Dorne, Lillabea (Lillie Bea) Gifford, Anne Blake, Sam Kydd, Ann Walford, Denyse Alexander, Ralph Nosseck.

Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson

Art Director: John Howell

Film...

Just four years ago, Cicely Tyson made history as the first Black female recipient of an honorary Oscar, which was given in recognition of her six decades of immeasurably influential acting work. Now, the academy’s board of governors have demonstrated their commitment to continue showing appreciation toward Black women in film by announcing Euzhan Palcy as one of this year’s honorary awardees. The innovative director-writer-producer, whose professional career dates back 40 years, follows Sidney Poitier, Spike Lee, and Charles Burnett as the fourth Black filmmaker to receive this distinction, and stands as the fifth female one to do so after Lillian Gish, Agnès Varda, Lina Wertmüller, and Elaine May.

Along with Michael J. Fox, Diane Warren, and Peter Weir, Palcy is set to be recognized at the upcoming 13th annual Governors Awards. The 64-year-old’s tribute comes in acknowledgment of her status as “a pioneering filmmaker whose groundbreaking significance...

The Little Rascals Volume 4

Blu ray – The ClassicFlix Restorations

ClassicFlix

1933, ’34, ’35,/ 1.37:1 / 218 Min.

Starring George McFarland, Dorothy DeBorba, Dickie Moore

Written by H.W. Walker

Directed by Robert F. McGowan, Gus Meins

Often dismissed for their old-fashioned ways, classic films should be applauded for those very qualities. For better—and sometimes for a lot worse—movies operate as de facto documentaries of their generation, and none more so than the string of depression-era comedies produced under the most un-comical circumstances. Those two-reelers featured bankable stars at center stage but lingering on the sidelines were the dime a dozen extras who came to California looking for work and found it in, of all places, Hollywood. Brutalized by their circumstances, these migrants would not have been out of place in a Walker Evans photograph—instead those careworn faces would be documented by the likes of Mack Sennett and Hal Roach. One of Roach...

Westerns are populated with cowboys, gunslingers, bandits, Native American, horses, cows and buffalos. But the genre is much more complex than shoot-‘em-ups. In fact, the best Westerns are Shakespearean in nature exploring such universal subjects as love, hate, revenge, greed, power and good versus evil. One of the most popular sub-genres is the “ranch” Western where the patriarch or matriarch — remember Barbara Stanwyck in “The Big Valley”– governs with a strict and often violent hand. They act like they are above the law and often take legal matters into their own hand. They are often widowers or widows and have sons who run the spectrum from hero to villain.

Jane Campion’s highly acclaimed Netflix Oscar-contender “The Power of the Dog” falls into this sub-genre. Set in Montana in 1925, the story revolves around the charismatic but sadistic Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) who relishes being the master of a cattle rancher.

The journalist and podcaster talks about some of her favorite cinematic grifters and losers with Josh and Joe.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Nightmare Alley (1947) – Stuart Gordon’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Third Man (1949) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

All About Eve (1950)

The Hot Rock (1972) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Die Hard (1988)

Sunset Boulevard (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Producers (1967) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Panic In The Streets (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Music Man (1962)

My Fair Lady (1964)

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s review

The Band Wagon (1953) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Wizard Of Oz (1939) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

A Night At The Opera (1935) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Cocoanuts (1929)

Animal Crackers (1930) – Robert Weide...

Lenka Peterson, whose Broadway performances included a 1984 Tony-nominated turn in the musical Quilters, co-starring roles with Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish and Colleen Dewhurst in plays with creative teams including Truman Capote and Arthur Penn, died Sept. 24 in her sleep at home in Roxbury, Connecticut. She was 95.

Her death was announced by her family, including daughter, actress Glynnis O’Connor.

In addition to her stage work, Peterson appeared in an extensive roster of film and television projects, spanning more than 50 years beginning with a small role in director Elia Kazan’s 1950 film Panic in the Streets (Peterson was a charter member of The Actors Studio) and continuing through the 2006 remake of All The King’s Men starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.

Born Lenka Isacson in Omaha, Nebraska, Peterson moved to New York City following World War II to pursue a stage career, and soon landed...

When screen acting pioneer Lillian Gish was presented with an honorary Academy Award exactly 50 years ago, she broke new ground as the first female director to receive one, having helmed “Remodeling Her Husband” over half a century earlier. Within the last four years, internationally renowned filmmakers Agnès Varda and Lina Wertmüller have followed her lead. Now, the academy has chosen to recognize the eclectic career of multihyphenate Elaine May, thus making her a member of this exclusive club.

Along with Danny Glover, Samuel L. Jackson, and Liv Ullmann, May is set to be honored at the upcoming 12th annual Governors Awards. The 89-year-old has earned this accolade because her “bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director and actress, reverberates as loudly as ever with movie lovers.” Often cited as a revolutionary comedic genius, her work ethic and achievements have only garnered more respect and admiration over time.

As a child of stage actors,...

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode goes back to the 19th Academy Awards honoring 1946. It isn't a particularly beloved Oscar vintage though the Best Picture winner, The Best Years of Our Lives, is sublime. Apart from the winner and the Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life, the Academy all but ignored the most enduring pictures of that post-war year. But we're here to discuss Best Supporting Actress and these five women were having a moment...

The Nominees For the 1946 Oscars the Academy invited back two previous winners (Gale Sondergaard & Ethel Barrymore), tossed a bouquet in the form of 'career' nomination to a legend (Lillian Gish), honored a character actress for stretching (Flora Robson) without realizing how poorly that kind of stretch would age, and invited a new starlet (Anne Baxter) into the club.

Even in the late 1960s, when it seemed like the world was turning upside down, no one had ever seen anything quite like Tiny Tim. Standing onstage in an oversize plaid jacket, a mop of curls draped over his face, strumming his ukulele as he sang “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” in a trilling falsetto quaver so high it sounded like he was being tickled and tortured at the same time, he was like a troll and a little girl in one body — a flower child who was also a come-hither vampire. He presented himself as an “angelic” creature, not quite of this earth, and maybe that’s what he was. Yet there was something else going on in those bedroom eyes, which he would bat like a silent-movie ingenue. Was he for real? Or was he the original Andy Kaufman and Pee-wee Herman, a kind of postmodern put-on sprite?

The...

Some of the best award shows are from the 1970s, when the greats from Hollywood’s Golden Era and the (at the time) new generation of entertainers mingled and celebrated the medium they loved. And this was clearly evident 50 years ago, when the films from the beginning of a new decade were recognized. Held on April 15, 1971, this was the third consecutive year in which there was no host; instead, “34 friends of Oscar,” including Goldie Hawn, Harry Belafonte and Steve McQueen, presented the awards. There are quite a few legendary moments from that ceremony half a century ago: a groundbreaking documentary made Oscar history, there were some firsts in the acting categories and two legends were honored.

Although Marlon Brando‘s Oscar refusal in 1973 is better remembered, George C. Scott was actually the first actor to decline the award, following a Best Actor win for his performance in “Patton.” He believed that actors shouldn’t compete,...

The reunion of Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray for the new A24/Apple release “On the Rocks” comes 17 years after their first collaboration on the Oscar-winning “Lost in Translation.” Such repeated pairings between directors and actors have been mainstay a in Hollywood since the earliest days of cinema. In the silent era, there were multiple films from D.W. Griffith and Lillian Gish and Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance.

One of the great partnerships during the Golden Age of Hollywood was John Ford and John Wayne. Ford had actually befriended Wayne when the young man was doing odd jobs as well as extra work-including in few of the director’s films-at Fox Studios in the late 1920s. Wayne made his official film debut starring in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 epic western “The Big Trail.”

The film wasn’t a hit and Wayne found himself spending the decade doing “B” westerns including 1938’s...

As the auteur behind “Call Me By Your Name,” Luca Guadagnino has established his bonafides as the preeminent chronicler of romantic love. His documentary work often applies that focus to passionate figures in love with what they do, from Tilda Swinton to Bernardo Bertolucci, celebrating cinematic artists with the same gusto that he brings to the form. His delightful “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams” is the best example of that tendency to date, a delightful two-hour love letter to iconic Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo that doubles as a history of Hollywood glamour from the ground up — literally — as it delivers a delectable tribute to his mouthwatering designs.

Ferragamo’s story tracks a series of major historical moments: Blending excitable talking heads, revealing home movies, and ample closeups of ostentatious feet, the movie follows Ferragamo from poverty in the early 20th century to Hollywood stardom at the birth of the industry, through the Great Depression and WWII,...

8 things that happened on this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1838  Legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. Where's his biopic? Seriously.He shows up briefly as a supporting character in both the miniseries North and South and the feature film Gloryin the 1980s but since then, no films or TV about him, apart from documentaries?  

1920 Way Down East starring Lillian Gish as a wronged young woman premieres...

Our 100th Guest! Comedy icon Martin Short joins us to discuss a few of the movies that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Innerspace (1987)

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

On The Waterfront (1954)

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

Terms Of Endearment (1983)

Moby Dick (1956)

The Exorcist (1973)

King Kong (1933)

A History Of Violence (2005)

A Song To Remember (1945)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Annie Hall (1977)

The Oscar (1966)

Sleeper (1973)

Bananas (1971)

City Lights (1931)

September (1987)

The Harder They Fall (1956)

Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Kiss Me Stupid (1964)

The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)

The Bad And The Beautiful (1953)

Ben-Hur (1959)

Spartacus (1960)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Graduate (1967)

Klute (1971)

Blow-Up (1966)

Blow Out (1981)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Burn! (1970)

Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967)

Grease 2 (1982)

The Conversation (1974)

Back To The Future (1985)

Other Notable Items

Saturday Night Live TV...

13th and When They See Us director Ava DuVernay is the latest artist to receive the annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.

With Thursday’s announcement from the Gish Prize Trust, founded by actresses Dorothy and Lillian Gish, DuVernay is the fourth filmmaker to receive the honor. The director follows past honorees Ingmar Bergman, Robert Redford and Spike Lee. Upon receiving the honor, DuVernay referred to the Way Down East actress’ description of the prize.

“She said the prize was going to go to an artist who contributes to our understanding of ‘the beauty of life.’ What a notion. With her description, my own view of what I do has shifted slightly more toward embracing the beauty around me and welcoming it at every turn,” she said.

Each year the Gish Prize Trust hands the award over to an artist who has used their work and platform to contribute to...

Carl Reiner’s wit is well-documented through his work behind and in front of the camera, but in his final years he took to Twitter frequently to muse on art, life and to skewer Donald Trump.

Reiner, who died June 29 at the age of 98, joined the platform in July 2012 and reached a new generation of fans through his witticisms, amassing 6,520 messages and over 367,000 followers. Adorably, he revealed that he first started his account to keep up with his grandson:

What a boon twitter is to me. I get to follow and enjoy the thoughtful, incisivie comments my grandson Jake Reiner makes daily.

— carl reiner (@carlreiner) March 27, 2013

But he was self-deprecating enough to realize that he was quickly getting hooked on the social media platform:

Is it because I'm Jewish I feel guilty if I dont come up with a daily tweet? Do Gentiles have similar guilt about their twitter neglect.

Tarence Ray and Tom Sexton from the Trillbilly Worker’s Party take Joe and Josh on a cinematic journey through the South.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Deliverance (1972)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Boogie Nights (1997)

In Bruges (2008)

The Birds (1963)

Cleopatra (1963)

The Blind Side (2009)

Moneyball (2011)

Next of Kin (1989)

Speed (1994)

Gravity (2013)

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)

Hustle and Flow (2005)

Black Snake Moan (2007)

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Black Snake (1973)

Mandy (2018)

Sling Blade (1996)

One False Move (1992)

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

George Washington (2000)

Prince Avalanche (2013)

Halloween (1978)

Halloween (2018)

Halloween: H20 (1998)

Halloween (2007)

Joe (2014)

All The Real Girls (2003)

Chrystal (2005)

The Accountant (2001)

O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)

Wild River (1960)

The Ladykillers (2004)

The Ladykillers (1956)

Baywatch (2017)

Tin Men (1987)

52 Pick-Up (1986)

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Mad Max (1978)

Mad Max 2 – The Road Warrior (1980)

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

Fire Down Below (1997)

Coal Miner’s Daughter...

Vidor Retrospective is a Hot Alternate Reality at Berlin 70 — by Alex DeleonWith the pickings slim this year in the Competition section, and not much better in the other main sidebars, the nearly complete King Vidor retrospective covering some 33 films from the magnificent silent war saga ‘The Big Parade’, 1925, to ‘War and Peace’, 1956. Vidor’s career spanned some four decades and is a canny choice for a solid retrospective at Berlin 70. All films are in the category “The don’t make ’em like this anymore” and are nearly all daily sellouts.

Nota Bene: King Vidor is Not to be confused with another Vidor in Hollywood, the Hungarian born director Charles (Károly) Vidor,. Vidor is a fairly common Hungarian surname. King Vidor was the son of a 19th-century Hungarian immigrant who settled in Texas.

The King Vidor retrospective is so rich in new discoveries that it is practically a festival within the festival on its own.

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform. Stream “Night of the Hunter” here.

What’s left to say about “The Night of the Hunter,” beyond the brilliance of Charles Laughton’s direction, Robert Mitchum’s horrific and hypnotizing screen presence, and the timeless badassery of a shotgun-wielding Lillian Gish? How about this: If this masterpiece remains a blind spot for you, now’s the time to catch up, before the planned remake threatens to ruin its memory.

More from IndieWireAnother 'Hellraiser'? Yawn. Hollywood, Original Horror Movies Are Nothing to FearStream of the Day: 'Notes on a Scandal' Is a Campy Battle of the Divas

That may sound like a harsh assessment of a project that has yet to come to fruition, but the very notion that “The Night of the Hunter...

Charles Laughton’s sole directorial effort, the 1955 suspense classic The Night of the Hunter is getting a modern remake from Universal Pictures, according to Variety. Amy Pascal’s (Spider-Man: Far From Home) Universal Pictures-based banner Pascal Pictures will produce along with Peter Gethers. The screenplay will be written by Matt Orton, best known for the Nazi-hunter film Operation Finale, based on Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel.

The original film is iconic, and Robert Mitchum’s portrayal of newly released prison convict Harry Powell is one of the greatest villains of the silver screen. This is the film which introduced the hand tattoos Love and Hate and the biblical battle fought just below the knuckles. It is the story of good and evil that goes back to when “Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low.” The inked-fingers had “veins that run straight to the soul of man.”

The book and...