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Judd Bernard, the producer and screenwriter behind films such as “Point Blank” and “Double Trouble,” died Jan. 25 in Burbank, Calif., his family confirmed to Variety. He was 94.

Bernard was born in 1927, and grew up in Chicago. He attended University of Wisconsin, and after graduation moved to New York City to become a band leader and then a publicist. As a publicist, he worked with Billie Holiday, Stanley Kramer, Louis B. Mayer, David Selznick and Ben Hecht, among others.

Bernard would begin his career as a producer in 1967 with the Elvis Presley musical film “Double Trouble.” While working on the film as a co-producer, he met Patricia Casey, who served an assistant on the film. He and Casey married shortly afterwards and moved to London together. The two worked together as producers on multiple projects, including “The Man Who Had Power Over Woman,” “Fade In” and Bernard’s final film credit,...

The Destructors Dvdmgm-mod Limited Edition Collection1974/Not Rated/90 MinsList Price: $19.98 – Now AvailableTough guy Brits of today Jason Statham and Clive Owen have nothing on Sir Michael Caine, who at 78 can still be charming with the right touch of menace just as he was back in the late sixties and early seventies. Caine's persona is as timeless as fellow actor Anthony Quinn whom he co-starred with in the 1974 feature The Destuctors. The Paris based thriller hasn't seen the light of day much in the nearly forty years since its release, but is now readily available on DVD thanks to MGM's new movies-on-demand service.Quinn plays Steve Ventura, a Us agent assigned in Paris who has been struggling to take down Marseilles kingpin and dope trafficker Jacques Brizard (James Mason). When Brizard's men send Ventura a message by executing a fellow agent and good friend, he feels guilty and it doesn't help...

At first glance, The Destructors looks like a bargain offering of little redeeming value. It’s a genuine pleasure to discover that the film (originally bearing the superior title The Marseille Contract) is a competent Euro-thriller with two contrasting but equally laudable performances by Anthony Quinn and Michael Caine. Director Robert Parrish works from a script by Judd Bernard, delivering an occasionally clumsy film that benefits hugely from a charismatic lead in Caine and being shot on location in Paris, Marseille and beyond.

The locations, in particular a seemingly abandoned train station, have an old-fashioned charm that makes the rote chase sequence stand out. Also notable are two excellent car chases that demonstrate that CGI may have incapacitated the genuine thrill of an experience stunt driver showing off. Quinn plays Steve Ventura, an American cop who’s stuck in a very personal prison behind a desk at a Parisian embassy.

Deep End was acclaimed by critics. Then it all but sank out of view. Ryan Gilbey on a newly salvaged British classic

It's not uncommon for movies to drop out of circulation and simply disappear, as fans of Deep End will attest. Barely seen since its release in 1971, the film concerns Mike (played by John Moulder-Brown), a floppy-fringed 15-year-old who becomes dangerously infatuated with Susan (Jane Asher), his co-worker at the public baths. What's unusual about this prolonged absence is that it should have befallen a film so passionately admired. The influential critic Andrew Sarris thought it measured up to the best of Godard, Truffaut and Polanski. The New Yorker's Penelope Gilliatt called it "a work of peculiar, cock-a-hoop gifts". If something as venerated as Deep End can sink, what hope for the rest of cinema?

After years of being mired in rights issues, this vivid, rapturous film is about...