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By Hank Reineke

Just following Christmas of 1940, Box Office reported Paramount’s new thriller The Mad Doctor would hit cinemas on Valentine’s Day of 1941. The actual sneak-preview – and accompanying publicity push - of the film would take place ten days prior, February 4, at Los Angeles’s Paramount Theater. Then, on Saturday night, February 6, the studio would pull out all the stops, offering a proper premiere for their “blood-chilling drama.” The studio would celebrate the double-bill of The Mad Doctor and The Monster and the Girl as central to a “Spook Week” celebration. Saturday’s “hair-raising” program would not only feature the films but also a magician and Andy Kirk and his Harlem Orchestra… the latter performing their swinging “Spooks and Boogie Woogie” stage show.

The general release of The Mad Doctor, more fittingly described a “drama” than a horror film in industry trades,...

If you’re a new parent, you know that finding quality movies for your toddler can be a challenge. You want something to keep them entertained, but you also wish to be educational and age-appropriate. Luckily, Disney has a wide selection of great movies for toddlers that will please everyone in the family.

Everything You Need to Know About Disney’s “Baymax!” Series

Disney movies are a cherished part of childhood for many young kids. From classic tales like Cinderella and Snow White to modern-day hits like Frozen, these movies capture kids’ imaginations around the world.

For toddlers, many Disney films can be a fascinating way to learn about the world around them. The vibrant colors and catchy songs help to engage young minds, and the stories often teach kids valuable life lessons.

Whether your toddler is fascinated by animals or loves to dance along with the songs, there will...

When did murder thrillers become horror pix? This one is horror only by association, and star Basil Rathbone would be a suave leading man if he wasn’t slaying wives left and right. He sets his sights on the rich, conveniently suicidal Ellen Drew, yes (sigh) that Ellen Drew. This atypical Paramount thriller has glamour to spare and also some unexpected sideways sexuality with the sinister Martin Kosleck, who almost steals the movie. But not our hearts — in that department it’s Ellen Forever and Ever.

The Mad Doctor

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 90 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Basil Rathbone, Ellen Drew, John Howard, Barbara Jo Allen aka Vera Vague, Ralph Morgan, Martin Kosleck, Kitty Kelly, Sheila Ryan, Norma Varden, Max Wagner.

Cinematography: Ted Tetzlaff

Art Directors: Hans Dreier, Robert Usher

Film Editor: Archie Marshek

Original Music: Victor Young

Written by Howard J. Green...

This CinemaScope musical remake of 1939’s The Women is highly watchable, especially in this flawless digital remaster. The actresses that bare their claws, compete for husbands and just plain cat-fight are a choice batch, with favorites from the ’50s the ’40s the ’30s — plus a few wildflowers that bloomed cinematically for only a few years (Dolores Gray) and one that somehow managed immortality (Joan Collins). It’s highly watchable despite, or maybe because of, its criminally outdated recipe for marital bliss. Did women really go for this fantasy — did anybody ever really live like this?

The Opposite Sex

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date October 27, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller, Leslie Nielsen, Jeff Richards, Agnes Moorehead, Charlotte Greenwood, Joan Blondell, Sam Levene, Alice Pearce, Barbara Jo Allen, Sandy Descher, Carolyn Jones, Jerry Antes, Harry James, Art Mooney,...

With anticipation building for Angelina Jolie's "Maleficent," due May 30, it's worth noting that the source of her live-action remake, Disney's animated "Sleeping Beauty," marks its 55th anniversary this week. Released on January 29, 1959, the movie was only a modest hit at the time, but over the years, it earned acclaim for its gorgeous wide-screen visuals, its memorable music, and its unforgettable villainess.

It's a movie you probably watched many times as a child, and yet there are still some things you probably don't know about "Sleeping Beauty," including its connections to Bugs Bunny, "The Andy Griffith Show," and the British royal family.

Here's a list of 25 such items you can stack on your spindle -- but be careful to shield your fingertip.

1. "Sleeping Beauty" is adapted from both the Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm versions of the classic fairy tale. In Perrault, the princess's name is Aurora; in Grimm, it's Briar Rose.

The Third Annual Gary International Black Film Festival (Gibff) is all set to take place this month, running Oct. 18th to the 20th..Offering a lineup of drama, documentary and short films, the festival opens with Blue Caprice starring Isaiah Washington. Along with an opening night reception, Ron Simons, one of the producers of Caprice, a 2-time Tony Award winner and the president of SimonSays Entertainment, will be in person for a post-screening discussion following the film.Additional films slated for the fest include: a Women in The Director’s Chair panel discussion, featuring Chicago-based filmmaker Barbara Allen and her Emmy nominated documentary Colorblind: Rethinking...

A striking stage presence for more than 60 years and a familiar face on TV

Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.

In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.

The role remained one of her favourites,...

With the third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon, rumbling toward us like that meteor in Armageddon (only without Bruce Willis and his pals to stop it), /Film reports that another project with the same title is in development.

The other Dark of the Moon has a long, deeply weird history: playwright Howard Richardson adapted a centuries old European folk song, “The Ballad of Barbara Allen” into an Appalachian-set musical. The plot centers around a young witch-boy (think of the Banjo Boy on the porch in Deliverance, though evidently slightly less inbred) who falls in love with a human girl and wants to become human.

Richardson’s play was first staged at the University of Iowa in 1942 under the title Barbara Allen. Richardson’s friend and cousin William Berney rewrote it as Dark of the Moon, and it premiered at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City on March...

Chalk this up to a titular coincidence with the upcoming "Transformers" sequel to which it bears no connection.

Entpro, ArtReach and Paul Mason have teamed to pick up the film and stage musical rights to Howard Richardson and William Berney's 1945 Appalachian Mountain-set play "Dark of the Moon" reports Variety.

Based on the folksong "The Ballad of Barbara Allen", the story centres on an Appalachian witch boy who attempts to become human after he falls in love with a human girl.

Scribe Richard Alfieri will pen both the stage musical and the film adaptation, while Arthur Allan Seidelman will direct both incarnations. The musical hopes to hit Broadway in early 2012. No word on the film's schedule yet.

Well, this could be confusing. The third Transformers film is subtitled Dark of the Moon, but there's an older tale that shares that name, and now a film based on the original Dark of the Moon is edging towards development. This alternate story with the same name features no giant bearded robots on the moon, but it might be just the thing for those who have no interest in that sort of thing. The earlier version is set in the Appalachians and follows John, "a witch boy who seeks to become human after falling in love with a human girl, Barbara Allen." Classic setup, right? In 1939 Howard Richardson dramatized a folk song 'The Ballad of Barbara Allen,' and in 1945 his friend William Berney did some additional work on the script and the play premiered on Broadway. So there's a supernatural Appalachian musical floating out there, and producers have bought...

Filmmaker Barbara Allen’s documentary DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis (which we profiled Here last summer) chronicled the black social, cultural and cultural history of Chicago and also broke all ratings records when it premiered on Wttw Chicago’s major PBS station in June.

The show will be broadcast soon this year on other PBS stations nationwide.

Now it has just been announced that the documentary was selected to be screened at this year’s Fespaco (Festival Pan African du Cinema et de Television de Ouagadougou) Film Festival in Burkina Faso, which is taking place Feb 26 to March 5 this year.

Bravo!

Well that is until next week, but can you name me a film that has caused so much intense and heated discussion since…well….Precious? And come to think of it why does it seem that of late it’s always a black film which causes so much rancor? Is it that old touchy subject about how black images are portrayed on screen? Or is there somewhere else going on here? For that and other questions and for all our devoted readers in the Chicagoland area there’s going to be a panel to discuss the film and its ramifications very soon.

The Tofu Chitlin Circuit (catchy title huh?) will have its monthly A La Carte panel and audience discussion this time to discuss (and no doubt argue) about Tyler Perry’s film, on Tuesday Nov 30 2010, at the Dyn Network, which is located at 1050 E. 47th St in Chicago from 6:30-8:30Pm.

Tomorrow night (Monday June 7) Wttw, Chicago’s major PBS station, will premiere the new documentary by award winning filmmaker Barbara Allen, DuSable to Obama; Chicago’s Metropolis. A project over a year in the making (and possibly right up to the very last minute) the feature length documentary covers the history of the black community, from the founding of the city by black explorer Jean Baptiste DuSable, through slavery, the 1919 race riots, the black migration, Mayor Harold Washington up to President Obama. The program will also chronicle many of the great politicians, activists, businesses, artists and pioneers past and present who made Chicago what it is today.

The documentary will be broadcast several times during the month of June and hopefully other PBS stations as well will pick up the program. A longer ‘director’s cut” of the documentary will be available soon on DVD. For more info about the...