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After the first use of atomic bombs at the end of World War II, Americans fears and the fictional symbols that represented them changed from creatures of superstitious folklore (like Dracula and Frankenstein) to those representing more immediate fears around atomic energy and radiation. One of the first and arguably the best examples of these was 1954s Them!, directed by Gordon Douglas for Warner Bros. from a script by Ted Sherdeman. It is also a cinema milestone that set a new standard for special effects after the success of King Kong, and before the advent of CGI.

The genre of giant bug movies has never been a noble one. It arose in the 1950s as fears of nuclear war seeped into the zeitgeist, while giving filmmakers an easy hook for some flashy (for the time) special effects. It rarely attained high art, but it captured some of the era's core anxieties, and insects are creepy enough to ensure that the genre has survived in some form or another right up to the present. It's even attracted Oscar-winning directors in recent years, such as Guillermo del Toro's Mimic and Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong.

The classic era of giant bug movies, however, really has just one indisputable masterpiece. Them! is a 1954 black-and-white effort from director Gordon Douglas that embodies all of the genre's classic tropes assembled in just the right way. Most notably, it relies on practical effects combined with efficient technical filmmaking to make...

The horror films of the 1950s are often relegated to two categories: space invaders and giant bugs. There is some truth in that generalization, but the reality is far more subtle with deep ties to the past along with the political climate of the decade itself. Both these categories can trace their lineage, at least in American film, back to two quintessential classics of the genre—Dracula and Frankenstein, but removed from spooky castles and unspecified European locales and placed squarely in the suburbs and cities of Cold War era America. Like Dracula, the alien invasion film examines the fear of “the other.” The so-called giant bug movies are really “science gone awry” movies and Frankenstein has been the template and ultimate expression of that idea since its publication in 1818. By the 1950s, the great scientific fear was nuclear power, specifically in the form of the atomic bomb and the...

Quick Links Only the Valiant Plot and Cast Why Gregory Peck Considers Only the Valiant the Worst Film He Ever Made What Fans and Critics Thought of Only The Valiant Where to Watch Only the Valiant

Actor Gregory Peck would become one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces, turning out iconic performances in cinema from the 1940s to the 1970s. From his role as Atticus Finch in Robin Mulligan's To Kill a Mocking Bird to his role as Joe Bradley across from Aubrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, it isn't easy to pick the best or definitive role of Gregory Peck. However, there was one movie that the actor regretted deeply, being rushed into the role in a film he never wanted any part in.

We will examine Only The Valiant, the 1951 Western, how Peck came to the project, and why he regretted it. We will also see if it is as...

A true entertainer, Frank Sinatra did more than just sing throughout his career. In the early thirties, Sinatra was destined to become a movie star. Frank was a true performer. He could do anything from dry comedies to the rigid character studies of drama and crime films. Starting early in musicals, he slowly made his way to be a more prominent star. A legendary entertainer that all of us know even if we aren’t aware! Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. ‘On the Town’ Frank began his acting...

Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.

Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.

New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.

Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.

Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...

April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.

One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...

Moviegoers around the world are about to be taken to school by some of the top masters of the field this fall, between new movies by Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, David Fincher, and Martin Scorsese, among others. But as much as cinephiles can spend their entire day arguing about each and every one of these heralded directors online, what can truly compare to getting a little crash course in film history by someone who's commonly considered the greatest filmmaker alive? Many would agree that Steven Spielberg is simply in a class of his own, and thanks to his new role as part of the advisory panel for the esteemed Turner Classic Movies institution, that's exactly what fans are getting.

We previously covered the whole saga surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery's shameful treatment of the hardworking folks over at TCM, necessitating A-list filmmakers like Spielberg, Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson to...

What’s so inspiring and energizing about Steven Spielberg is that he isn’t just one of the greatest filmmakers ever, he’s an eclectic cinephile who talks about his favorite films with the boyish enthusiasm of a fan.

So he was a natural fit, alongside Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, for the advisory panel that came together in June to support Turner Classic Movies. As part of that role, he’s recorded his first “Spielberg’s Picks” video, a recommendations list of his personal faves from the September 2023 TCM lineup. Watch the video above, an IndieWire exclusive, for not just his choices, but his incisive comments.

For his debut picks, he chose Vincente Minnelli’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), Douglas Sirk’s “Imitation of Life” (1959), Gordon Douglas’s “Them!” (1954), Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952), and Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Wrong Man” (1957). Scorsese and Anderson’s own picks are forthcoming,...

Quentin Tarantino is certainly one of the most well-regarded filmmakers working today. He has always been outspoken about his opinion, and his deep knowledge of film history has made him an important figure in regard to film studies. His love for film is well known, and his opinion holds weight regarding the greatness of specific projects. On an episode of the ReelBlend podcast, the filmmaker revealed what he believes to be the greatest 'movie' of all time. It should be no surprise it comes from Steven Spielberg.

Update June 13, 2023: If you enjoy the work of Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, or both, you'll be happy to know this article was updated by Micah Bailey with additional context and more information.

The movie in question was, in fact, Jaws. Released in 1975, Jaws launched the career of the beloved director Steven Spielberg. The movie follows a ferocious shark who terrorizes the inhabitants...

Michael Giacchino ("Werewolf By Night"), will direct an update of the 1954 'monster bug' movie "Them!" for Warner Bros Pictures, using insectoid 'Starship Troopers" and "Alien" creatures as inspiration :

"..directed by Gordon Douglas, 'Them!' starts off when a nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert. 

"They quickly become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to establish new nests..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Having stuck a first couple of toes into directing with his short Monster Challenge and the impressive, entertaining Werewolf By Night MCU Halloween special, composer Michael Giacchino is looking to prove they weren't flukes by making his feature shot-calling debut with a reboot of classic sci-fi thriller Them!

The 1954 original, directed by Gordon Douglas, saw a huge nest of irradiated ants discovered in the New Mexico desert. They become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles…

It definitely sounds like something Giacchino could give a fresh spin to, and he's on the hunt for a writer to start bringing it to life in script form.

"There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head," Giacchino tells Deadline. "For me,...

Oscar winning Up composer Michael Giacchino, who made his directorial debut on Disney+’s black and white throwback Werewolf by Night, is next getting behind the camera for a feature remake of the classic 1954 sci-fi man-eating monster movie Them! at Warner Bros., reports Deadline.

In the original Gordon Douglas-directed film, a huge nest of irradiated ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles.

“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino tells Deadline, “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”

“What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a movie about giant atomic ants, but Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino has us covered. Deadline has reported that Michael Giacchino will make his big-screen directorial debut with a reboot of Them! for Warner Bros.

The original Them! was directed by Gordon Douglas and dealt with ants who had been mutated into giant man-eating monsters after atomic tests in New Mexico. “There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Michael Giacchino told Deadline. “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about, the nuclear age. What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!. It’s about the other, the unknown which one refuses or can’t understand.” Giacchino added, “The current version of Them! is about immigration, and to tell a story...

Exclusive: Oscar-winning Up composer Michael Giacchino will make his big-screen directing debut with a reboot of the 1954 sci-fi man-eating monster movie Them! at Warner Bros.

Giacchino is meeting with writers in hopes of getting the production up quite soon.

In the Gordon Douglas-directed original film, which also was a Warner Bros. release, a huge nest of irradiated ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests. The national search that ensues culminates in a battle in spillways and storm drains of Los Angeles.

“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino tells Deadline. “For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”

He adds: “What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them!

Powerhouse Indicator moves forward to their fourth fancy box of noirs from the studio of Harry Cohn, six pictures stretching from the postwar boom to the end of the original classic noir era. This time around we have some notable directors, and a nice selection of stars — Dennis O’Keefe, George Murphy, Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun and Richard Conte. Kim Novak makes her starring debut as a femme fatale; noir icon Richard Conte shines in a movie that marks a turn into a new kind of existential, paranoid thriller. And speaking of paranoid, we again get to lighten up with another selection of theme-appropriate Three Stooges shorts.

Columbia Noir #4

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1948-1957 / B&w + Color / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / Street Date September 27, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / 49.99

Starring: Louis Hayward, Dennis O’Keefe; George Murphy; Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak; Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun; Dennis O’Keefe,...

Witness six noir heroes, doing what noir heroes do: one crooked gambler, one psycho, another psycho with access to a gun, a dope railroaded into a prison sentence, and an even bigger dope who doesn’t realize he’s poisoning himself. That’s only five, but the sixth is a cop, and not a particularly compromised one, the way we like ’em in noir. This third Columbia Noir Collection can boast big stars and some name directors, beautiful HD transfers and some fascinating short subjects as extras.

Columbia Noir #3

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1947-57 / B&w / 1:37 Academy, 1:85 widescreen / Street Date May 17, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99

Starring: Dick Powell, Lee J Cobb, Nina Foch, William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Dorothy Malone, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Marie Windsor, and Vince Edwards.

Directed by Robert Rossen, Rudolph Mat&eacute, Henry Levin, Gordon Douglas, Edward Dmytryk, Irving Lerner

Powerhouse Indicator’s...

Having been portrayed by George Hamilton in a 1971 biopic, motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel took on the fictionalized role of his own life in this surprisingly well made actioner, the last film directed by the prolific Gordon Douglas. Produced by an uncredited Irwin Allen, it boasts a surprisingly strong cast and production values. Knievel’s life supplied grist for TV movies in 1974, 2004 and 2005.

The post Viva Knievel appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Joan Weldon, stage actress and a Warner Bros. contract player in the 1950s who achieved lasting sci-fi fame in the creature feature giant ant classic Them!, died Feb. 11 at her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She was 90.

Her death was only recently announced by her family. A cause was not specified, but the family notes that she “passed away peacefully” at home.

“A talented and successful opera singer and actress of theatre, film, musicals and television, she was simply known to many as Joanie,” the family writes, “whose love for light-hearted pranks and practical jokes spread joy wherever she went.”

Born in San Francisco, Weldon began her professional career at age 16 when she became the San Francisco Opera’s youngest contract singer. She would return to the live stage often, appearing on Broadway opposite Alfred Drake in the 1961 musical Kean.

In 1958 she played Marian the Librarian in the national touring...

A vanity production along the lines of All That Jazz and Purple Rain, Evel Knievel eschews the pseudonyms employed by Prince and Bob Fosse and just plays himself, a vainglorious stuntman who took the phrase “daredevil” literally. Veteran director Gordon Douglas keeps a tight rein on the action, helped considerably by a supporting cast including Red Buttons, Leslie Nielsen, and, as Knievel’s hard drinking mechanic, Gene Kelly (!).

The post Viva Kneivel appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

The Great Gildersleeve Movie Collection

DVD

Warner Archive

1942, ’43, ’44 / 1.33:1 / 62, 63, 64, 63 min.

Starring Harold Peary, Jane Darwell, Freddie Mercer, Nancy Gates

Cinematography by Frank Redman, Jack MacKenzie

Directed by Gordon Douglas, Tim Whelan

Like the transition from silent movies to the talkies, the progression from radio to film was a rocky road for some performers. Bud Collyer and Daniel Chodos, the actors who lent their musclebound vocals to Superman and Doc Savage, would have been unthinkable modeling skin-tight long Johns or shredded undershirts on the silver screen. But when audiences first caught sight of Harold Peary as the rotund popinjay Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve there was immediate recognition. Peary was built for the part – he looked like a bowling pin in a double-breasted suit but had the self-awareness to describe his character as “a small man who thinks he’s a big man.” Gildersleeve was a pompous fool but he was our pompous fool.

By Todd Garbarini

Long before a carcharodon carcharias wreaked havoc on Amity Island in New York over the July Fourth weekend in the 1970s, atomic blast activity in the 1940s disrupted Mother Nature’s natural chain of events and Hollywood was all too willing to jump on to the atomic admonition bandwagon, churning out fantastic tales of miniscule creatures ballooning to hundreds of times their original size and going medieval on their human counterparts. Gordon Douglas’s Them! (1954) is my favorite film from this era and I find the overall tone of the film to be creepy even today. I was eleven when I first saw it and the sight of oversized, monstrous ants (resulting from nearby military atomic bomb tests) terrorizing La from deep within the Los Angeles Riverbed was truly unnerving. James Whitmore impressed me in his role as the police officer who was determined to save two...

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...

Is this any way to treat a lady? Lovely Nina Foch just wanted a job, but she instead becomes the fall-gal in a psychologically perverse plan to deny her very identity. Cult director Joseph H. Lewis makes deft use of cinematic suspense techniques to compel our involvement in a bizarre conspiracy: not just convincing a woman that she’s insane, but that she’s literally not herself.

My Name is Julia Ross

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1945 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 65 min. / Street Date February 19, 2019 / Available from Arrow Films (UK) / 39.95

Starring: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Leonard Mudie, Anita Bolster, Doris Lloyd, Queenie Leonard.

Cinematography: Burnett Guffey

Film Editor: Henry Batista

Visual Effects: Lawrence Butler, Donald Glouner

Musical director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff

Written by Muriel Roy Bolton, from the novel by Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Malleson)

Produced by Wallace MacDonald

Directed by Joseph H. Lewis

2019 is shaping up just fine for Blu-ray releases of small-scale,...

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear — specifically, the mid-1950s to the late ’60s — when Paramount and Warner Bros. relied on producers such as A.C. Lyles and Hal Wallis, and directors like Henry Hathaway, Gordon Douglas, and Burt Kennedy, to maintain a steady flow of workmanlike Westerns for consumption by diehard horse opera fans at theaters and drive-ins everywhere. That’s the invitation extended by writer-director-star Scott Martin’s “Big Kill,” one of the precious few Westerns of recent years that one can easily imagine as a decades-ago vehicle for John Wayne, Dean Martin, James Stewart, and their contemporaries with only minor tweaking of the script.

Yes, it clocks in at a leisurely 127 minutes, but that makes it only four minutes longer than John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) — just one of the obvious influences on Martin’s scenario about an upright tenderfoot...

Veteran French helmer Bertrand Tavernier (“The French Minister”) is curating a 15-film retrospective of films by Henri Decoin (1890-1969), a larger-than-life character who before directing his first feature, at the age of 43, was an Olympic swimmer, Wwi pilot, sports journalist and novelist.

Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.

Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.

The retrospective...

10 Years of Cloverfield: 8 Undercover Facts You Might Have Missed10 Years of Cloverfield: 8 Undercover Facts You Might Have MissedKurt Anthony1/18/2018 9:30:00 Am

It seems some thing has found us…

Crawling its way into theatres on January 18, 2008, today marks the tenth anniversary of Cloverfield!

Directed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) and co-produced by J. J. Abrams (Star Trek) and Bryan Burk (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Cloverfield follows a group of six New Yorkers as their city is attacked by a gigantic, building-sized monster.

Starring Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), Jessica Lucas (Evil Dead), Michael Stahl-David ("Narcos"), and then-newcomer T.J. Miller (Deadpool), the unique sci-fi thriller is presented as “found footage” from a personal camcorder and offers a modernized take on the beloved creature feature genre. Filmed on an estimated budget of $25M, Cloverfield has since earned its place in the monster movie food chain,...

He sings, he fixes cars, and he takes punches better than De Niro’s Raging Bull. Elvis Presley excels in one of his few ’60s pictures that shows an interest in being a ‘real movie,’ a remake of a boxing saga with entertaining characters and fine direction from noir specialist Phil Karlson. Plus Charles Bronson, Lola Albright and Joan Blackman in standout roles.

Kid Galahad

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date August 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola Albright, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson, Robert Emhardt, Liam Redmond, Judson Pratt, Ned Glass, George Mitchell, Roy Roberts, Michael Dante, Richard Devon, Jeff Morris, Edward Asner, Frank Gerstle, Seamon Glass, Bert Remsen.

Cinematography: Burnett Guffey

Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore

Original Music: Jeff Alexander

Written by William Fay, Francis Wallace

Produced by David Weisbart

Directed by Phil Karlson

What, a good Elvis Presley picture?...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night".  The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for...

Submarine movie evening: Underwater war waged in TCM's Memorial Day films In the U.S., Turner Classic Movies has gone all red, white, and blue this 2017 Memorial Day weekend, presenting a few dozen Hollywood movies set during some of the numerous wars in which the U.S. has been involved around the globe during the last century or so. On Memorial Day proper, TCM is offering a submarine movie evening. More on that further below. But first it's good to remember that although war has, to put it mildly, serious consequences for all involved, it can be particularly brutal on civilians – whether male or female; young or old; saintly or devilish; no matter the nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other label used in order to, figuratively or literally, split apart human beings. Just this past Sunday, the Pentagon chief announced that civilian deaths should be anticipated as “a...

It's ring-a-ding time, with producer-star Frank Sinatra and his cooperative director Gordon Douglas doing a variation on the hipster detective saga. The two Tony Rome pictures are lively and fun and chock-ful of borderline offensive content, like smash-zooms into women's rear ends. Tony Rome & Lady in Cement Blu-ray Twilight Time 1967, 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110 and 93 min. / Street Date September 8, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Richard Conte; Tony Rome: Jill St. John, Sue Lyon, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland, Lloyd Bochner, Robert J. Wilke, Virginia Vincent, Joan Shawlee, Lloyd Gough, Rocky Graziano, Elisabeth Fraser, Shecky Greene, Jeanne Cooper, Joe E. Ross, Tiffany Bolling, Deanna Lund. Lady in Cement: Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Paul Mungar, Richard Deacon, Joe E. Lewis, Bunny Yeager. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Original Music Billy May, Hugo Montenegro; song by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra Written by Richard L. Breen...

By John M. Whalen

“Barquero”(1970) stars Lee Van Cleef as Travis, an ex-gunslinger living a quiet life as the owner/operator of a barge that is the only way to cross the river at a certain spot between Texas and Mexico. When we first see him he’s in bed with Nola (Marie Gomez), a hot looking Mexican chick who likes to suck on cigarillos. Everything’s fine until the creepy Fair (John Davis Chandler) shows up at his doorstep leering down at the naked Nola and says he and two men with him want to go across the water to Texas. Travis doesn’t like the way he’s looking at Nola and tells him “A ride across the river is all your money’s going to buy.” They get across and Fair pulls a gun on him and tells his amigos to tie him up.

Meanwhile, in a...

Above: Danish poster for Geisha Boy (Frank Tashlin, USA, 1958).On March 16 Jerry Lewis turns 90 years old, making him one of the oldest living great filmmakers along with Jonas Mekas (93), Seijun Suzuki (92), Stanley Donen (91), D.A. Pennebaker (90), Claude Lanzmann (90) and Andrzej Wajda (90). And if you have any doubt about his status as one of the great auteurs go and see any of the films he directed at Museum of Modern Art's’s current retrospective: Happy Birthday, Mr. Lewis: The Kid Turns 90.To flip through the films of Jerry Lewis in poster form is to encounter an awful lot of crossed eyes, toothy grins and outsized heads on small bodies (a familiar trope for comedians in movie posters whether it's Fernandel or Cantinflas or Buster Keaton.) That said, Lewis also seems to have inspired illustrators around the world. The French love Jerry Lewis, as the cliché goes, but so, it seemed, did the Germans,...

Director Gordon Douglas is one of many prolific filmmakers who seemed to fall short of auteur recognition despite considerable iconic items lodged within a vast filmography. Starting out in Hollywood as a child actor, he was directing shorts throughout the 1930s and began developing a resume of B-grade features, the most notable from this period being the 1954 sci-fi classic Them!, one of several genre items capitalizing on nuclear warfare fears. The 1960s found Douglas evolving freely with the times, churning out some racy Carroll Baker numbers (including in a biopic of Jean Harlow), the James Bond knock-off In Like Flint (1967), and a trio of Frank Sinatra vehicles. In between directing Sinatra in a pair of movies where the crooner plays Miami Pi Tony Rome, Douglas concocted something much more provocative, a seedy, lurid neo-noir titled The Detective (1968). One of several oft-referenced titles detailed in Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet,...

Frank Sinatra shines in a story of police corruption that tries to say it like it is -- or like it was in 1968, just before the ratings system came in.  The well-intentioned, suspenseful story is burdened by odd censor choices,  Sinatra's conservative self-image, and rudely retrograde attitudes toward gays. In a sparkling new transfer with Jerry Goldsmith's jazzy score isolated on its own track. The Detective Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 114 min. / Ship Date December 8, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, Jacqueline Bisset, William Windom, Al Freeman Jr., Tony Musante, Lloyd Bochner, Robert Duvall, Horace McMahon Cinematography Joseph F. Biroc Art Direction William J. Creber, Jack Martin Smith Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Jerry Goldsmith Written by Abby Mann from a novel by Roderick Thorpe Produced by Aaron Rosenberg Directed by Gordon Douglas

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...

Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...

Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...

Owen Vince considers the "Weirded Urbanisms" of The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Also in today's roundup: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Jonas Mekas, Kent Jones talks with Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett on To Sleep with Anger, A.O. Scott on Star Wars, an essay on and a conversation with Hou Hsiao-hsien, and a round of Halloween reviews: Terence Fisher's The Hound of the Baskervilles, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, Gordon Douglas's Them!—and more. » - David Hudson...

Owen Vince considers the "Weirded Urbanisms" of The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Also in today's roundup: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Jonas Mekas, Kent Jones talks with Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett on To Sleep with Anger, A.O. Scott on Star Wars, an essay on and a conversation with Hou Hsiao-hsien, and a round of Halloween reviews: Terence Fisher's The Hound of the Baskervilles, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, Gordon Douglas's Them!—and more. » - David Hudson...

I'll trade you two RKOs for two Warners', an even swap! This quartet of movie-magic wonderments offer a full course on old-school film effects wizardry at its best. Willis O'Brien passes the baton to disciple Ray Harryhausen, who dazzles us with his own effects magic for the first '50s giant monster epic. And the best monster thriller of the decade is offered at its original widescreen aspect ratio. It's all special enough to merit a mid-week review. Special Effects Collection Blu-ray The Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Them! Warner Home Video 1933-1954 / B&W / 1:37 Academy - 1:85 widescreen / 335 min. / Street Date October 27, 2015 / 54.96 or 19.98 separately Starring Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack,, Frank Reicher, Victor Wong; Robert Armstrong, Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Frank McHugh; Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Donald Woods, Lee Van Cleef; James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow Stevens,...

Batgirl Yvonne Craig. Batgirl Yvonne Craig dead at 78: Also featured in 'Star Trek' episode, Elvis Presley movies Yvonne Craig, best known as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman, died of complications from breast cancer on Monday, Aug. 17, '15, at her home in Pacific Palisades, in the Los Angeles Westside. Craig (born May 16, 1937, in Taylorville, Illinois), who had been undergoing chemotherapy for two years, was 78. Beginning (and ending) in the final season of Batman (1967-1968), Yvonne Craig played both Commissioner Gordon's librarian daughter Barbara Gordon and her alter ego, the spunky Batgirl – armed with a laser-beaming electric make-up kit “which will destroy anything.” Unlike semi-villainess Catwoman (Julie Newmar), Batgirl was wholly on the side of Righteousness, infusing new blood into the series' increasingly anemic Dynamic Duo: Batman aka Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and Boy Wonder Robin aka Bruce Wayne's beloved pal Dick Grayson (Burt Ward). “They chose...

'The Beginning or the End' 1947 with Robert Walker and Tom Drake. Hiroshima bombing 70th anniversary: Six movies dealing with the A-bomb terror Seventy years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Ultimately, anywhere between 70,000 and 140,000 people died – in addition to dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and most other living beings in that part of the world. Three days later, America dropped a second atomic bomb, this time over Nagasaki. Human deaths in this other city totaled anywhere between 40,000-80,000. For obvious reasons, the evisceration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been a quasi-taboo in American films. After all, in the last 75 years Hollywood's World War II movies, from John Farrow's Wake Island (1942) and Mervyn LeRoy's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) to Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001), almost invariably have presented a clear-cut vision...

Don Kaye Apr 22, 2019

For Earth Day, we look at what happens when Mother Nature gets her revenge. Here are 20 films about animals running amok.

We should always have a healthy fear and respect for nature, and especially for all the creatures great and small that inhabit this planet alongside us. But with all the abuse we heap on both them and the Earth, it would hardly be a surprise if they collectively decided one day that they had had enough of us. It’s no wonder that many sci-fi and horror films revolve around the idea of animals attacking humans -- some of them corrupted by man-made poisons like radiation, some seeking revenge, and some, perhaps the most frightening, hunting us simply because we’re there.

There’s no better example of the latter than Steven Spielberg’s masterful Jaws, but we decided to look back at 20 movies -- from...

By Alex Simon

By the mid-1960s, the notorious Hayes Code, the censorship standards begun in the 1930s, had begun to fall away. Films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate and In the Heat of the Night started pushing the envelope in terms of “adult” content portrayed on-screen. With the advent of the MPAA rating system in November, 1968 a new era of freedom was ushered in. Filmmakers could frankly portray sex, violence, profanity and formerly taboo subject matters. While the aforementioned films are all iconic in stature, one of the key films that pushed the rating system into being is now largely forgotten.

Roderick Thorp’s 1966 novel The Detective became an instant best-seller, a mammoth (600 pages), unflinching look at Joe Leland, a weary veteran cop who finds his legal and personal mettle tested while investigating the brutal murder of a wealthy, gay department store heir.

Robert Redford movies: TCM shows 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting' They don't make movie stars like they used to, back in the days of Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Harry Cohn. That's what nostalgists have been bitching about for the last four or five decades; never mind the fact that movie stars have remained as big as ever despite the demise of the old studio system and the spectacular rise of television more than sixty years ago. This month of January 2015, Turner Classic Movies will be honoring one such post-studio era superstar: Robert Redford. Beginning this Monday evening, January 6, TCM will be presenting 15 Robert Redford movies. Tonight's entries include Redford's two biggest blockbusters, both directed by George Roy Hill and co-starring Paul Newman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which turned Redford, already in his early 30s, into a major film star to rival Rudolph Valentino,...

Audrey Long, actress in B film noirs and Westerns, and widow of author Leslie Charteris, dead at 92 (photo: Audrey Long publicity shot ca. late '40s) Actress Audrey Long, a leading lady in mostly B crime dramas and Westerns of the '40s and early '50s, and the widow of The Saint creator Leslie Charteris, died "after a long illness" on September 19, 2014, in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. Long was 92. Her death was first reported by Ian Dickerson on the website LeslieCharteris.com. Born on April 14 (some sources claim April 12), 1922, in Orlando, Florida, Audrey Long was the daughter of an English-born Episcopal minister, who later became a U.S. Navy Chaplain. Her early years were spent moving about North America, in addition to some time in Honolulu. According to Dickerson's Audrey Long tribute on the Leslie Charteris site, following acting lessons with coach Dorothea Johnson, whose pupils had also included...

Blu-ray Release Date: Aug. 12, 2014

Price: Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Twilight Time

The light-hearted 1962 comedy musical Follow That Dream, one of Elvis Presley’s more engaging and charming films, makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Twilight Time.

The movie stars Elvis as a member of a vagabond family who become unlikely homesteaders in serene, idyllic 1950s Florida. Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell), his son Toby (Presley), and a brood of more-or-less adopted children run out of gas on a perfect little beach that just happens to be unincorporated land. No sooner do the Kwimpers stake their claim than government officials, child welfare workers, and a pair of gangsters descend to make trouble—but Toby’s native wits and beguiling innocence may well be a match for them all.

The film was written by Charles Lederer and directed by Gordon Douglas.

As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time...

Godzilla 1954, Mickey Rooney, Giant Ants, Fascists, and rarely seen ‘Musty Stuffer’: Eclectic Packard Theater movies in May 2014 (photo: ‘Godzilla’) Godzilla 1954, Mickey Rooney, military fascists, deadly giant ants, racing car drivers, and The Mishaps of Musty Suffer, a super-rare slapstick comedy series from the 1910s, are a few of the highlights at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theater in May 2014. Godzilla 1954 and fellow movie monsters Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla 2014, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, and Bryan Cranston, opens on May 16 in much of the world. On May 8 at the Packard Theater, you’ll get the chance to check out Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla 1954 aka Gojira — in the original, Toho-released, Japanese-language version (i.e., without Raymond Burr). As part of its Godzilla double bill, the Packard Theater will also present Motoyoshi Oda’s Gigantis, the Fire Monster aka Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Besides Godzilla, the Packard Theater will...

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

Written by Harry Brown

Directed by Gordon Douglas

USA, 1950

Seven people stand on trial for murder in a court of law, but one man is missing, a convict named Ralph Cotter (James Cagney). Had he lived to see his day in court, he would have paid the highest price for his crimes. After a few minutes in which the prosecutor woos the jury with proclamations regarding justice and enemies of the public, the film fades back to tell the full tale, beginning with how Ralph, career crook, escaped prison with help from the inside from a corrupt guard, an escape which costs the lives of two guards and a fellow convict whose sister Holiday (Barbara Payton) partook in the escape plan as well, even shooting one of the prison employees. A free man (of sorts), Ralph temporarily settles in with Holiday and partner Joe ‘Jinx’ Raynor (Steve Brodie...

Hollywood horror has been all about sequels for the last 30-odd years, from the slasher films of Friday the 13th, Halloween, Child's Play and Nightmare on Elm Street, to the modern micro-budget franchise model of Saw, Paranormal Activity and Insidious.  In addition to the wild success of the latter approach, studios will occasionally drop a remake that no one in particular asked for (ahem, Carrie).  Not all remakes are necessarily bad news, however, as just this week we learned that Clive Barker himself would be writing a Hellraiser remake with Doug Bradley likely reprising his role as the iconic antagonist, Pinhead.  All well and good, but there's a huge chunk of Hollywood horror I'd love to see return to the screen: the good ol' fashioned creature feature.  Hit the jump to find out more.  Hollywood!  Adapt this: Them! What It's About: Next year marks the 60th anniversary of this science-fiction film from director Gordon Douglas,...