News

Kathleen Hughes, the statuesque 1950s starlet who unleashed a terrifying scream in connection with her role in the 3D sci-fi classic It Came From Outer Space, has died. She was 96.

Hughes died Monday, according to her close friend, John Jigen Griffin-Atil.

A onetime contract player at Fox and then Universal, Hughes made for a “dainty dish of poison,” as New York Times critic Bosley Crowther put it, in her turn as an actress having an affair with John Forsythe in the crime drama The Glass Web (1953), starring Edward G. Robinson.

A year earlier, she dyed her dark hair blonde to star as a coed in For Men Only (1952), directed by and starring Paul Henreid.

Hughes gave Rock Hudson perhaps his first onscreen kiss when she acted with him in a 1949 screen test, then appeared with him as Piper Laurie‘s handmaiden in the adventure film The Golden Blade (1953).

She also...

Writer-director Guillermo del Toro and co-writer Kim Morgan will present a never-before-seen extended cut of Nightmare Alley in black -and-white as the closing film at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, CA, this Sunday, May 11.

“I know Guillermo’s very excited about this,” festival director Alan K. Rode tells Variety. “He and Kim are nice enough to come out and spend some time introducing the film and watching it. I’m honored that he’s coming out to do this, and I’m really looking forward to introducing his black-and-white extended cut from one of our most honored filmmakers. He’s treating it kind of as a premiere, which is very exciting.”

Del Toro and Morgan will be in attendance to participate in a post-screening conversation with Rode. Tickets are on sale now for $32.64.

Based on William Lindsay Gresham‘s 1946 novel of the same name, which was...

As always, the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs — taking place this Thursday through Sunday — will focus on movies from the primary noir era of the ’40s and ’50s, including a handful of films that have not been screened theatrically in several decades. Also as always, the 2025 edition of the desert fest will reserve a spot for a touch of neo-noir, as seen with the inclusion this time of the 1970s crime thriller “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.”

This year, though, the festival will include a truly neo-neo noir. To close out the gathering Sunday night, director Guillermo Del Toro and co-screenwriter Kim Morgan will be coming to Palm Springs with an apparently never-before-seen extended cut of their 2021 film “Nightmare Alley,” presented in black-and-white, a la nearly every one of the 12 vintage films that will be preceding this newbie over the weekend.

“I know Guillermo’s very excited about this,...

Shane, one of the greatest Western movies of all time, is finally coming to 4K Blu-ray. Kino Lorber is releasing the film in a two-disk 4K set this summer. A critical and commercial hit upon its release in 1953, Shane influenced many subsequent films, including the elegiac superhero Western Logan.

The disc features a brand new 4K transfer of the film, taken from a scan of its original 35mm camera negative. It also features the film's original theatrical trailer and two audio commentaries. That includes an all-new commentary by author and historian Alan K. Rode, who is writing a book on the film, and an archival commentary featuring George Stevens Jr. and associate producer Ivan Moffat. The set will also include a standard Blu-ray disc of the film. Shane will be released on July 14, 2025, and will retail for $29.89 Usd.

What Is 'Shane' About?

Shane stars Alan Ladd (This Gun for Hire) as the title character,...

Jan Shepard, who guest-starred on Rawhide, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and two dozen other TV Westerns and played opposite Elvis Presley in movies eight years apart, has died. She was 96.

Shepard died Jan. 17 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure, her son, Hollywood prop master, Brandon Boyle, told The Hollywood Reporter. “She was a good one and will be dearly missed,” he said.

Shepard portrayed Mimi, the sister of Presley’s Danny Fisher, in the Michael Curtiz-directed King Creole (1958) and the wife of Danny Kohana (James Shigeta), who partners with Presley’s Rick Richards in a helicopter business, in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966).

“The first time, I found him to be just the cutest kid around, a big teddy bear, a lot of fun,” she said in an interview for Boyd Magers and Michael G. Fitzgerald’s 1999 book, Westerns Women. But on their next movie,...

Claude Jarman Jr., who received a Juvenile Academy Award for his heart-tugging performance as the boy who adopts an orphaned fawn in the 1946 MGM classic The Yearling, died Sunday. He was 90.

Jarman died in his sleep of natural causes at his Marin County home in Kentfield, California, his wife of 38 years, Katie, told THR’s Scott Feinberg.

In films released in 1949, Jarman starred with Jeanette MacDonald in the Lassie movie The Sun Comes Up, played the brother of a rancher on the run (Robert Sterling) in Roughshod and reteamed with Yearling director Clarence Brown to portray a youngster out to prove the innocence of a Black man in Intruder in the Dust, based on the William Faulkner novel and filmed in Oxford, Mississippi.

A year later, he played the son of a cavalry officer (John Wayne) in John Ford’s Rio Grande (1950).

Born on Sept. 27, 1934, Jarman was the 10-year-old son...

Like most of the cinema’s recurring images and sensations, there’s no precise “first movie” about the maladjusted, dissatisfied, wounded soul, but the floodgates about this most serious of fellows seemed to open just after World War II. The late 1940s and early ’50s witnessed the infiltration of the New York theater, Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan, Stanley Kramer, Robert Rossen, Abraham Polonsky, Nicholas Ray, and so on—directors, scribes, or actors whose meal tickets more often than not depended on their ability to write the counter-mythology to V-Day utopia. They asked, amid the fanfare and the ticker-tape parades, “Is this all there is?”

Deities such as Brando and James Dean were responsible for taking that particular ship into orbit, but John Garfield was a pioneer of sorts, as early as 1938’s Four Daughters, where his appearance in such a genteel trifle was no less jarring than a Martian invasion.

Chicago – The Czar of Noir is coming to town, bringing his “Noir City Chicago” back to the Music Box Theatre, September 6-12, 2024. Eddie Muller, the host of Turner Classic Movies “Noir Alley,” will host the first weekend of the series, entitled “Darkness Has No Borders.” For more information, full schedule and tickets, click Noir City.

“Noir City: Chicago” is a week-long celebration of “film noir” … the dark category of film drama that usually takes place at night, and features a rogues gallery of dames, gumshoes, coppers and crooks … and will be hosted by Muller from Friday to Sunday, and Film Noir Foundation’s Alan K. Rode the rest of the way. In “Darkness Has No Borders” an international noir film will be paired with its more familiar American and British counterparts, for a unique perspective on the larceny of the soul … in any language.

For the kickoff night on September 6th,...

The days are getting longer everywhere, except Palm Springs, where darkness is on the ascent each May. That’s when the city plays host to the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary May 9-12 with a program of a dozen classic films from the 1940s and ’50s. Great directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Rossen, Andre de Toth and Anthony Mann and stars like Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan will have desert dwellers and visitors alike eager to blot out the sun for four days, culminating in the festival’s customary Mother’s Day crime spree.

As always, the festival is curated and hosted by a face familiar to any serious modern-day noir aficionado, Alan K. Rode, one of the principals of the Film Noir Foundation and a co-host of the Noir City festival every April in Hollywood. Rode’s Noir City cohort,...

Opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival next week will also serve as a Pulp Fiction reunion.

Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosanna Arquette and Harvey Keitel are among those joining John Travolta on April 18 for the 30th anniversary, 35mm screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Fellow actors Eric Stoltz, Julia Sweeney, Frank Whaley, Phil Lamarr and Burr Steers, producer Lawrence Bender and executive producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher are expected to be there as well.

As previously announced, actor Billy Dee Williams and makeup artist Lois Burwell will be honored at the 15th annual festival; author Jeanine Basinger will receive the Robert Osborne Award; and Jodie Foster will partake in a hand- and footprint ceremony.

The festival, with the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film,” runs through April 21 at venues including the rejuvenated Egyptian Theatre.

Among those...

Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow came along at the tail end of film noir’s steady decline in popularity in the 1950s and just before the civil rights movement reached its peak in the ’60s. The quintessential male icons of these two distinct eras clash in the film through the extremely confrontational yet mutually beneficial collaboration between a virulently racist ex-con, Earle (Robert Ryan), and a slick, Black jazz musician, Johnny (Harry Belaafonte).

The unlikely pair are brought together by a disgraced retired cop, Burke (Ed Begley), who caught wind of a robbery that’s a sure thing. If something sounds too good to be true in a noir, it always is, but the weaselly Earle’s too macho to let his doting wife, Lorry (Shelley Winters), continue being the breadwinner. Meanwhile, Johnny’s gambling debts have caused him to be estranged from his wife, Ruth (Kim Hamilton), as...

Tyrannical and brilliant, director Michael Curtiz created film legends out of mere stars, and turned movies into myth. Here are some of his greatest films.

When movie enthusiasts think of legendary director Michael Curtiz, the first thing that pops into their mind is Casablanca (1942), consistently named to, and occasionally topping, lists of the greatest films of all time. Although if we’re being honest, most people think of it as a Humphrey Bogart movie. The same could be said of Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). These are known for their stars, James Cagney, and Errol Flynn, the latter of whom Curtiz put on the map with Captain Blood (1935). In the director’s hands, actors and characters merged into a mythology which exceeded mere signature roles, becoming universal symbols.

Curtiz worked in the motion picture business from its infancy, but began in the theater, graduating Budapest’s...

Chicago – The Czar of Noir is coming to town, bringing his very popular “Noir City Chicago” back to the Music Box Theatre for 2023. Eddie Muller, the host of Turner Classic Movies “Noir Alley,” will appear on behalf of a specially curated series of noir genre classics. For more information, full schedule and tickets, click Noir City.

“Noir City: Chicago” is a week-long celebration of “film noir” … the dark category of film drama that usually takes place at night, and features a rogues gallery of dames, gumshoes, coppers and crooks … and will be hosted by Muller from Friday to Sunday, and Film Noir Foundation’s Alan K. Rode the rest of the way. For the kickoff night on August 25th, Muller will be sailing away with Bogie and Bacall on “Key Largo” (1948), followed by the Orson Welles essential “The Lady from Shanghai” (1947) and wrapping up with John Garfield in “Force of Evil...

The desert will again be a hotbed of deceit and larceny in luxurious black-and-white as the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival returns to Palm Springs this Thursday through Sunday, with the quintessential noir classics “The Killing” and “Double Indemnity” bookending a marathon weekend that otherwise tends toward more rarely screened ‘40s and ‘50s titles.

Several sons or daughters of the original actors or directors will be on hand, but of special interest to festival attendees will be the presence of one of the actual filmmakers: James B. Harris, 94, Stanley Kubrick’s producing partner for several of his best early films, who’ll be able to speak first-hand about the making of 1956’s “The Killing,” the crime drama that turned out to be Kubrick’s first real masterpiece.

“I’m just utterly thrilled that ‘The Killing’ will show and Jimmy will be the guest on opening night,” says the festival’s longtime guiding light,...

Amid the happiness for favorites like Brendan Fraser and Everything Everywhere All at Once getting their big wins at last night’s Academy Awards, one of the more somber moments, as always, came during the “In Memoriam” segment. As the segment started, John Travolta would tearfully pay tribute to his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John with Lenny Kravitz playing Calling All Angels. With every year’s telecast, audiences would often react not only to the tributes but also to the notable absences of certain figures in film.

The Hollywood Reporter has the reactions to some of the bewildering snubs in this year’s segment. Social media platforms lit up with people noticing the absence of actress Charlbi Dean of the Oscar-nominated Triangle of Sadness, Tom Sizemore, Paul Sorvino, Leslie Jordan, and Anne Heche, despite the unfortunate details surrounding her death. Curiously, although those individuals were omitted from the television broadcast, but...

Since the days of silent pictures, the American film industry has grappled with on-set accidents and tragedies. Among the earliest was in 1914, when director Owen Carter and actress Grace McHugh drowned while shooting a sequence of a bandit’s daughter crossing the Rio Grande for the silent feature “Across the Border.” On-set deaths have shadowed the movies ever since, from the accidental shooting of Brandon Lee on “The Crow” set in 1993 to the 2014 death of “Midnight Rider” assistant camerawoman Sarah Jones on a Georgia train trestle.

But those are just the ones we know about: Media attention around on-set tragedies and mishaps, especially the manslaughter charges against “Rust” actor and producer Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, formally filed on Tuesday, is a modern phenomenon. In the early days, the lack of a 24/7 news cycle allowed many accidents and deaths to go unreported.

“The coverage was less in those days [silents and beyond],” Jonathan Kuntz,...

The Black Vampire! The most impressive Spanish-language noir restoration yet, Román Viñoly Barreto’s superior serial murder thriller hails from 1953 Argentina. It re-interprets Fritz Lang’s “M” from a different, more emotionally engaging perspective: star Olga Zubarry’s nightclub singer hesitates to tell what she knows about a child-killer, because she might lose custody of her own young daughter. The expressionist noir owes little to Hollywood. Some find it more satisfying than Lang’s classic version. The Film Noir Foundation’s extras are excellent.

El vampiro negro

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley

1953 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 90 min. / Street Date November 18, 2022 / Available from Flicker Alley / 39.95

Starring: Olga Zubarry, Nathan Pinzón, Roberto Escalada, Nelly Panizza, Pascual Pelliciota, Georges Rivière, Mariano Vidal Molina, Gloria Castilla, Emma Bernal, Lucía Besse.

Cinematography: Anibal González Paz

Production Designer: Jorge Beghé

Film Editors: Jorge Gárate, Higinio Vecchione

Original Music: Juan Ehlert

Written by Román Viñoly Barreto, Alberto Etchebehere

Produced...

Producer-director Michael Curtiz’s femme fatale noir has a lot going for it — high production values, VistaVision, and new film talent in Tom Tryon, Carol Ohmart, Elaine Stritch & Jody Lawrance. Excellent location shooting and a Nat King Cole song provide authentic Los Angeles atmosphere. But the storyline is ten years out of date. The advertising promoted Ms. Ohmart as a new ’50s sex symbol. She may have caught fire, but the show didn’t.

The Scarlet Hour

Region free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #152

1956 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date August 31, 2022 / Available from Amazon Au / 39.95; / Available from Viavision / 39.95

Starring: Carol Ohmart, Tom Tryon, Jody Lawrance, James Gregory, Elaine Stritch, E.G. Marshall, Edward Binns, David Lewis, Billy Gray, Jacques Aubuchon, Scott Marlowe, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Richard Deacon, Benson Fong, Theron Jackson, Almira Sessions.

Cinematography: Lionel Lindon

Costumes: Edith Head

Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen

Film Editor: Everett Douglas

Original Music: Leith Stevens...

The death of actress-activist Marsha Hunt this week is a historical watershed and a personal loss. Marsha was one of the last living actors who began her movie career during the Great Depression in 1935. She became part of a now vanished Hollywood, initially at Paramount then at MGM, that bound contracted talent to studios with artists having little to no say over their choice of roles and careers. Nevertheless, she thrived in the studio system by becoming somewhat less than a genuine movie star and more of a consummate professional actress.

Marsha’s career was derailed by the Blacklist, a perfidious period of American history that has been endlessly chronicled and misunderstood. Never a Communist or radical, she was a forthright liberal who refused to accept her voice being marginalized by the endemic sexism and politics of the period. Marsha was the final survivor of the Committee of the First Amendment,...

Chicago – Eddie Muller, the film historian known as the “Czar of Noir,” is about to prove his point. In about 20 minutes of Part Two to an interview conducted a couple weeks ago, Muller shares his rich knowledge about all things shadowy in the 1940s/50s era of film noir. This coincides with the last two days of “Noir City: Chicago 2022, click Noir City for more info.

“Noir City: Chicago 2022” is a program of screenings, hosted by Muller last weekend, and through Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation for the rest of the event. This dark category of film drama are usually set at night, and features a rogues gallery of dames, gumshoes, coppers and crooks.

At the Music Box Theatre, with Eddie Muller (inset)

Photo credit: MusicBoxTheatre.com/Craig Merrill for EddieMuller.com

Eddie Muller is the recognized world expert on film noir, nicknamed the “Czar of Noir” by James McEllroy,...

Chicago – It’s always darkest before the dawn, and an entire genre of film is available for Chicago. The historic Music Box Theatre presents “Noir City: Chicago 2022” – August 26th-September 1st, 2022 – the celebration of “film noir,” the dark category of film drama that usually takes place at night, and features a rogues gallery of dames, gumshoes, coppers and crooks. Hosting again after the Covid hiatus is Eddie Muller, a recognized world expert on noir and also the host of Turner Classic Movie’s (TCM) “Noir Alley.” For more information, including tickets, click Noir City.

“Noir City: Chicago 2022” is a week long program of screenings, hosted by Muller from Friday to Sunday, and Film Noir Foundation’s Alan K. Rode the rest of the way. On the kickoff night on August 26th, Muller will be screening a double feature and tribute to James Caan. Throughout the rest of the festival, Noir City...

This grouping of Bogart’s Columbia output has one bona fide noir, a pair of exotic ‘romantic intrigue’ thrillers and three social issue pictures. It’s a good set, with films directed by John Cromwell, Nicholas Ray and Mark Robson, and with leading ladies Lizabeth Scott, Florence Marley, Marta Toren, Jody Lawrance and Jan Sterling. And the Powerhouse Indicator extras are especially well curated. Watch out — it’s Region B only.

Columbia Noir #5 Humphrey Bogart

Region B Blu-ray

Dead Reckoning, Knock on Any Door, Tokyo Joe,

Sirocco, The Family Secret, The Harder They Fall

Powerhouse Indicator

1947-1956 / B&w / 1:37 Academy & 1:85 widescreen

Street Date June 27, 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99

Starring or Executive Produced by Humphrey Bogart

For an established actor who really didn’t break through as a starring leading man until age 41, Humphrey Bogart sure gave us a legacy of prominent movies. As movie stars go he...

Kino’s Noir boxes offer interesting noir-adjacent crime and mystery pix. This seventh return to the well of darkness brings up the organized crime ‘meller’ Chicago Confidential with Brian Keith and the more ambitious The Boss, starring John Payne and written by Dalton Trumbo. The third show The Fearmakers is a real oddity. Starring Dana Andrews and directed by Jacques Tourneur, it’s a political conspiracy tale about manipulating opinions with fraudulent polls. It sounds a lot like the fractured state of modern America, 65 years later. With commentaries by Jason A. Ney and Alan K. Rode.

Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema VII

The Boss, Chicago Confidential, The Fearmakers

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1956-1958 / B&w / Street Date June 7, 2022 / 249 min. / available through Kino Lorber / 49.95

Starring: John Payne, Gloria McGehee, Brian Keith, Beverly Garland, Dana Andrews, Marilee Earle.

Directed by Byron Haskin, Sidney Salkow, Jacques Tourneur

Kino treads the dark...

The Palm Springs area will live up to its reputation for seediness under the cover of never-ending nights — irony intended — as the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival returns to town for its 22nd annual marathon of vintage crime dramas this weekend. Leonard Maltin and TCM “Noir Alley” host Eddie Muller will be among the guest hosts joining festival curator Alan K. Rode for a four-day deep dive into the dark that kicks off Thursday night with the 1949 Nicholas Ray film whose title pretty much says it all about the genre being celebrated: “They Live by Night.”

That opening night will be preceded Wednesday by a fundraising performance by frequent festival guest Victoria Mature, daughter of Hollywood golden-age icon Victor Mature, dubbed “Victoria/Victor Mature Cabaret, an Evening of Memories and Music,” to be held, as with the festival proper, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. Mature will also be on...

TCM premiered a welcome restoration of this honorable Louis de Rochemont drama last year, and now it’s on a pristine-quality Blu-ray. Almost an ‘anti- film noir,’ the story of a labor conflict in a tiny New England hamlet is a docu-drama that actually has a positive, if not Utopian, ending. Fine direction by Robert Siodmak breathes life into the thesis that Yankee ingenuity and ethical fair play can still save the day. A superb underdog cast — Lloyd Bridges, Carleton Carpenter, Murray Hamilton, James Westerfield, Lenore Lonergan, Russell Hardie, Helen Shields, Doro Merande, Diana Douglas, Anne Francis, Ernest Borgnine, Arthur O’Connell and even Dorothy Gish — bring this odd ‘Pepperidge Farms’ neo-realist tale to life.

The Whistle at Eaton Falls

Blu-ray

Flicker Fusion

1951 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date March 15, 2022 / Richer Than the Earth / Available from Flicker Alley / 24.95

Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Dorothy Gish, Carleton Carpenter, Murray Hamilton, James Westerfield, Lenore Lonergan,...

Sidney Poitier — film noir icon? That may not be one of the phrases that popped up most frequently in the recent obituaries and appreciations for the late actor, but Poitier did take his turn at noir. The movie with which he made his screen debut, “No Way Out,” will be featured at the upcoming resumption of the annual Noir City Hollywood Festival, which is devoting separate days to the treatment of race and women in the crime dramas of the ’40s and ’50s, along with a continued focus on presenting restorations in 35mm glory.

Noir City Hollywood has been a staple at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre each spring since the late ’90s, but with that theater closed for extensive Netflix-funded renovations, this year it will take place at the Hollywood Legion Theatre a few blocks up Highland Blvd. Hosted as always by Film Noir Foundation president (and...

Lewis Milestone directed this poetic, optimistic ode to the American infantryman, a ‘lone patrol’ saga that emphasizes its soldiers’ hopes and fears. The lineup of fresh, eager acting talent is remarkable: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway, Norman Lloyd, Herbert Rudley, Richard Benedict, Huntz Hall, James Cardwell, Steve Brodie. Voiceovers and ‘ballads’ give a six-mile beachhead incursion the tone of a spiritual rumination. A beautiful full film restoration brings the image back to prime quality. The controversial filmmakers and the unusual production circumstances are covered in Alan K. Rode’s commentary.

A Walk in the Sun

Blu-ray + DVD

Kit Parker Films / Mvd Visual

1945 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 117 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / The Definitive Restoration / Available from Amazon / 29.95

Starring: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway, Norman Lloyd, Herbert Rudley, Richard Benedict, Huntz Hall, James Cardwell, Steve Brodie, Matt Willis,...

A dark desert highway isn’t just something in an Eagles song — it’s what some Angelenos will be taking to Palm Springs this weekend to experience the particular shade of nightfall that is film noir. The Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival is resuming at the Palm Springs Cultural Center after a pandemic-mandated time-out last year, offering a slate of a dozen familiar or obscure picks over the course of one concentrated weekend, some of them unspooling in rare 35mm prints.

Alan K. Rode, a familiar presence to L.A. repertory filmgoers, not to mention noir fans around the country, is returning as producer and host, joined as a presenter by cohort Eddie Muller, the host of TCM’s “Noir Alley.” TCM is signing onto the Palm Springs event as a presenting sponsor for the first time.

Films range from one of the quintessential noirs, “The Big Sleep,” on the...

In 1946, when Humphrey Bogart signed an updated contract with Warner Bros., he was able to stipulate a list of directors preferred for future projects. John Huston and Howard Hawks were no surprise—having helmed some of Bogart’s most admired films, they were also good friends with the iconic star—and two more of his chosen directors, John Cromwell and Delmer Daves, were well-regarded for their efficiency and expertise (they each worked with Bogart the very next year). Then there was Michael Curtiz. While he had directed what was perhaps Bogart’s most venerated film, 1942’s Casablanca, in 1946 the director was hardly synonymous with Bogart’s body of work, or his temperament. And yet, it was Curtiz who had engaged Bogart prior to Hawks and Huston, the two directors widely credited with Bogart’s ascent to celebrity; it was Curtiz who was the last of the named directors to work...

Sunshine and noir are antithetical, as probably anyone who knows even a word of French could tell you. Sunshine and film noir, nearly as much so. Yet summer’s here and the time is right for skulking in the murderously foggy streets, thanks to a three-day festival of vintage ’40s and ’50s crime dramas being presented this weekend at the newly reopened Hollywood Legion Theater by the Film Noir Foundation.

In a year that hadn’t started off with a pandemic in full force, or wasn’t continuing with Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre being closed for renovations, noir fans would have already something close to their fill with the annual Noir City festival that’s usually co-sponsored by the American Cinematheque every March or April. But with the absence of that 22-year-old standby leaving a doom-shaped hole in L.A. repertory moviegoers’ hearts, the Noir Foundation has stepped in with a shorter,...

Is this a horror classic? I’d certainly says yes, just for the shrewd, sympathetic performance of Peter Lorre as an unlucky immigrant whose disfigurement in a fire turns him to life of crime and vengeance. An impossibly young Evelyn Keyes shines as the sweet love interest, but the performances and Robert Florey’s good direction keep the tone from going soft. And the ending is as bleak and chilling as they come. Whatever you may do, my recommendation is to Not double-cross Peter Lorre. The disc producers give experts Alan K. Rode and Kim Newman the podium, and they respond with three full extras on this highly unusual, seldom-seen gem of a horror film.

The Face Behind the Mask

Blu-ray (Plays on Region A players)

Viavision [Imprint] 44

1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 68 min. / Street Date May 21, May 26 or June 2, 2021 / Available from / 34.95 au

Starring: Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe, George E. Stone,...

Fay Wray in Doctor X (1932) will be available on Blu-ray April 13th from Warner Archive

Is there a (mad) doctor in the house? “Yes!” shrieks Doctor X, filmed in rare two-strip Technicolor®. An eminent scientist aims to solve a murder spree by re-creating the crimes in a lab filled with all the dials, gizmos, bubbling beakers and crackling electrostatic charges essential to the genre. Lionel Atwill is Doctor Xavier, pre-King Kong scream queen Fay Wray is a distressed damsel and Lee Tracy snaps newshound patter, all under the direction of renowned Michael Curtiz. The new two-color Technicolor master was restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive and The Film Foundation in association with Warner Bros. Entertainment. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Foundation. Also includes the separately filmed B&w version (which has been restored and restored from its original nitrate camera negative) originally intended for small U.S. markets and International distribution,...

Viavision’s first deluxe Film Noir boxed set gives us four titles that emphasize star power — Glenn Ford, Ray Milland, Kirk Douglas and Lee J. Cobb. The Australian release includes three Columbia titles and the home video premiere of a rare Paramount picture. Which ones are core Noir and which are merely ‘noir adjacent?’ The special extras invest in a quartet of audio commentaries from the top experts and Film Noir Foundation creators Eddie Muller and Alan K. Rode. There’s nothing that pair doesn’t know about these pictures.

Essential Film Noir Collection 1

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 18, 19, 20, 21

1947-1957 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 366 min. / Street Date October 28, 2020 / Available from Viavision [Imprint] / 149.99

Starring: Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan; Ray Milland, Audrey Totter, Thomas Mitchell; Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, Joseph Wiseman, Lee Grant; Lee J. Cobb, Richard Boone, Kerwin Mathews.

Directed by Richard Wallace, John Farrow, William Wyler, Vincent Sherman

The Australian disc boutique...

A bigger and brighter film debut couldn’t be imagined … Doris Day became America’s sweetheart in Michael Curtiz’s peppy production, graced with a witty script and several catchy, radio-ready song hits. And the color is better than new in this impressive Blu-ray remastering job — Woody Bredell’s Technicolor hues are literally eye-popping. It’s great fun seeing Ms. Day invent her natural, fresh-faced screen persona right before our eyes.

Romance on the High Seas

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1948 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 99 min. / It’s Magic / Street Date June 16, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Doris Day, Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Fortunio Bonanova, Eric Blore, Franklin Pangborn, Sir Lancelot, Barbara Bates, George N. Neise, Maila Nurmi, Grady Sutton.

Cinematography: Elwood Bredell

Film Editor: Rudi Fehr

Art Direction: Anton Grot

Special Effects: Robert Burks, Wilfrid M. Cline, David Curtiz

Original Music: Ray Heindorf, Oscar Levant

Written by Julius J. Epstein,...

Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill in The Mystery Of The Wax Museum is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering info can be found Here. This is a new, restored version of the film that was shot in the early Two-Color Technicolor process.Here is a video of the Before and After restoration courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Bodies are mysteriously disappearing all over town, and a new wax museum has just opened. Is there a connection? But of course! In this horror classic, Fay Wray (King Kong) stars as the intended next victim of a mad wax sculptor obsessed with her resemblance to one of his prior creations. Glenda Farrell plays a quintessential wisecracking newspaper reporter, and noted actor Lionel Atwill is the deranged artist who loses his studio to a fire set by his partner. Filmed in the early Two-Color Technicolor® process, The Mystery of the Wax Museum...

James Stewart in Anthony Mann’s The Far Country will be available on Blu-ray November 12th From Arrow Academy

An archetypal example of its genre, The Far Country is one of five superb westerns the screen legend James Stewart made with acclaimed Hollywood auteur Anthony Mann.

Mann s film tells of Jeff Webster (Stewart) and his sidekick Ben Tatum: two stoic adventurers driving cattle to market from Wyoming to Canada who come to logger heads with a corrupt judge and his henchmen. Ruth Romain (Strangers on a Train) plays a sultry saloon keeper who falls for Stewart, teaming up with him to take on the errant lawman.

An epic saga set during the heady times of the Klondike Gold Rush, The Far Country captures the scenic grandeur of northern Canada s icy glaciers and snow-swept mountains in vivid Technicolor. Mann s direction expertly steers the film to an unorthodox,...

American Cinematheque Head of Programming Gwen Deglise Moore became the latest to receive the distinguished Insignia of Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters, an award established in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. The Hon. Christophe Lemoine, Consul General of France in Los Angeles, made the presentation Monday evening at the French Consulate home in Beverly Hills.

Deglise joins a list of past honorees that includes George Clooney, Sofia Coppola, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman and many others. “I’m so proud, very intimidated, and so grateful,” she told me before the ceremony. “To give me the opportunity to look back and to be mostly grateful for the American Cinematheque, and for the importance of our institution and to believe in what we do and to me it...

Richard Erdman, known among classic film buffs for the war dramedy “Stalag 17” but remembered by millennials for his work on “Community” as Greendale’s smart-alecky Leonard Rodriguez, died Saturday. He was 93.

Film historian Alan K. Rode broke the news on Twitter Saturday, stating simply, “Goodbye pal. Dick Erdman 1925-2019.” No additional information on his passing were given.

Erdman won over a new generation with his debut in “Community”‘s fifth episode “Advanced Criminal Law.” During one of his custom end-of-episode speeches, Joel McHale’s Jeff Winger declared that everyone at Greendale was nuts, to which Leonard yelled from the school’s swimming pool, “Not me!”

Also Read: Jed Allan, 'Days of Our Lives' and 'Beverly Hills, 90210' Actor, Dies at 84

“Oh, come on, Leonard. If you’re gonna argue with me, put on a bathing suit,” said Jeff, to which Leonard only replied “Busted!”

Over the course of the series,...

Character actor Richard Erdman, known to contemporary audiences as perpetual student Leonard on “Community,” who also had significant roles for more than seven decades in movies and TV shows such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Stalag 17,” has died. He was 93.

His friend, film historian Alan K. Rode, reported his death on Twitter.

On “Community,” Erdman was one of a group of elderly students, known as the “Hipsters” for their hip replacements, who was often told to “Shut up, Leonard!”

“Community” star Joel McHale paid tribute to Erdman on Twitter. “Such a good & funny man. We’ll miss you ‘Leonard,'” he said.

Fellow “Community” actor Yvette Nicole Brown also took to Twitter, writing, “I knew the day we’d have to say goodbye to this lovely man would come sooner than any of us were ready. But knowing that doesn’t make it any easier. #RichardErdman was Joy walking.

Richard Erdman, best known to TV audiences for his recurring role on Community, died on Saturday at the age of 93.

Erdman played octogenarian Greendale student Leonard, who was first introduced in the fifth episode of Season 1, “Advanced Criminal Law.” He’d go on to appear in 53 episodes throughout all six seasons of the NBC-turned-Yahoo sitcom, which ran from 2009-2015.

It was revealed in the Season 6 premiere that Leonard had attended Greendale since 1975. Erdman’s scenes typically involved the elderly student cracking wise at the expense of Jeff and the study group, before one of them fired back and said,...

Richard Erdman, the mirthful character actor who stood out on the big screen in The Men, Cry Danger and Stalag 17 and then on the sitcom "Community," has died. He was 93.

Erdman, who as a teenager so impressed legendary director Michael Curtiz that he was quickly signed to a contract at Warner Bros., died Saturday, film historian Alan K. Rode reported. No other details were immediately available.

The Oklahoma native also is known for starring as the loutish McNulty, who's given a timepiece that can freeze time, in the memorable 1963 The Twilight Zone episode "A Kind of a Stopwatch."

Erdman excelled ...

Richard Erdman, the mirthful character actor who stood out on the big screen in The Men, Cry Danger and Stalag 17 and then on the sitcom Community, has died. He was 93.

Erdman, who as a teenager so impressed legendary director Michael Curtiz that he was quickly signed to a contract at Warner Bros., died Saturday at an assisted living facility in West Hills, California, film historian Alan K. Rode told The Hollywood Reporter. He said Erdman had age-related dementia exacerbated by a recent fall.

The Oklahoma native also is known for starring as the loutish McNulty, who's given a timepiece that can freeze time,...

Great news for fans of vintage Film Noir! Robert Siodmak’s Phantom Lady (1944) will be available on Blu-ray March 12th From Arrow Academy.

From one of the masters of the film noir, Robert Siodmak, comes the consummate crime classic, Phantom Lady.

After a fight with his wife, Scott Henderson heads to a bar to drown his sorrows. There he strikes up a conversation with a mysterious, despondent lady who agrees to accompany him to a show uptown but withholds her name. Arriving home, Scott is met by grimly countenanced cops – his wife has been strangled with one of his neckties and he is the prime suspect. He has a solid alibi but his theatre companion is nowhere to be found and no one remembers seeing them together. When Scott is charged with murdering his wife, it falls to his devoted secretary Kansas to find the phantom lady and save Scott from the electric chair…...

My Name Is Julia Ross will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy February 19th

After a promising start on Poverty Row quickies, Joseph H. Lewis (The Big Combo) made his first film at Columbia and established himself as a director to watch with this Gothic-tinged Hitchcockian breakout hit, which later proved so popular that Columbia promoted it to A-feature status.

The morning after Julia Ross takes a job in London as secretary to wealthy widow Mrs Williamson Hughes, she wakes up in a windswept Cornish mansion, having been drugged. Mrs Hughes and her volatile son, Ralph, attempt to gaslight Julia into believing she is Ralph s wife, Marion. Her belongings have been destroyed, the windows barred and the locals believe that she is mad. Will Julia be able to escape before she falls prey to the Hughes sinister charade? And what happened to the real Marion Hughes?

A briskly...

Chicago – It’s always darkest before the dawn, and an entire genre of film is available to remind us of that chilling thought. The historic Music Box Theatre presents “Noir City” – August 17th-23rd, 2018 – an annual celebration of “film noir,” the dark category of film drama that usually takes place at night, and features a rogues gallery of dames, gumshoes, coppers and crooks. Hosting for the 10th straight year is Eddie Muller, a recognized world expert on noir and also the host of Turner Classic Movie’s (TCM) “Noir Alley.” For more information, including tickets, click here.

“Noir City” is a week long program of screenings, hosted by Muller from Friday (August 17th) through Sunday, and Film Noir Foundation’s Alan K. Rode the rest of the way. On the kickoff night, Muller will be screening a double feature of neo-noir director Carl Franklin, with “Devil in a Blue Dress” and “One False Move.

This 1937 boxing melodrama was eclipsed by its own 1962 remake starring Elvis Presley and suffered a humiliating title change (The Battling Bellhop) for TV distribution. Regardless, Michael Curtiz’s film, starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis, is sufficiently sturdy to go 12 rounds with any comer and exhibited enough moxey to earn a rematch in 1941 as The Wagons Roll At Night, again with Bogart. For a thoroughly researched and fascinating look at Curtiz’ prolific career, look at Alan K. Rode’s comprehensive biography Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, which can be ordered here.

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from the Classicflix.com:

For one night only, fans of classic film noir will be able to watch a free streaming World Premiere of the recently restored thriller T-Men (1947) on Friday, November 24, hosted by ClassicFlix. Anthony Mann's breakout film will be part of the home video label’s “Black and White Friday,” which will be streaming the film in high definition on their YouTube channel from 5:00 Pm to 7:00 Pm Pt*.

The ground-breaking film recently made its Blu-ray™ debut after undergoing major restoration. The T-Men Special Edition Blu-ray is loaded with bonus features and a 24-page booklet. During the screening ClassicFlix will be hosting a giveaway of T-Men Special Edition via their Twitter page, in addition to a special low-price offering for fans who wish to buy the Blu-ray. Instructions on how to participate in the giveaway will be posted...

Do you think older crime thrillers weren’t violent enough? This shocker from 1948 shook up America with its true story of a vicious killer who has a murderous solution to every problem, and uses special talents to evade police detection. Richard Basehart made his acting breakthrough as Roy Martin, a barely disguised version of the real life ‘Machine Gun Walker.

He Walked by Night

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1948 / B&W /1:37 flat full frame / 79 min. / Street Date November 7, 2017 / 39.99

Starring: Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts, Whit Bissell, James Cardwell, Jack Webb, Dorothy Adams, Ann Doran, Byron Foulger, Reed Hadley (narrator), Thomas Browne Henry, Tommy Kelly, John McGuire, Kenneth Tobey.

Cinematography: John Alton

Art Direction: Edward Ilou

Film Editor: Alfred De Gaetano

Original Music: Leonid Raab

Written by John C. Higgins and Crane Wilbur

Produced by Bryan Foy, Robert T. Kane

Directed by Alfred L. Werker

Talk about a movie with a dynamite...

Found: a must-see Film noir in all its brutal glory, restored to a level of quality not seen in years. Anthony Mann and John Alton made their reputations with ninety minutes of chiaroscuro heaven — it’s one of the best-looking noirs ever. With extras produced by Alan K. Rode.

T-Men

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / Special Edition / 92 min. / Street Date October 10, 2017 / 39.99

Starring: Dennis O’Keefe, Alfred Ryder, Wallace Ford, Charles McGraw, Jane Randolph, Art Smith, Herbert Heyes, Jack Overman, John Wengraf, June Lockhart, Keefe Brasselle, James Seay, Tito Vuolo, John Newland, Reed Hadley.

Cinematography: John Alton

Film Editor: Fred Allen

Original Music: Paul Sawtell

Written by John C. Higgins, story Virginia Kellogg

Produced by Aubrey Schenck, Edward Small

Directed by Anthony Mann

Wow — I’ve seen T-Men many times, but never like this. It’s always listed as a significant success, a trend-starter, a career-launcher, but only...

You can tell it’s film noir — even the cabin cruiser has Venetian blinds. Ernest Hemingway’s favorite film adaptation of his work is this uncompromised story of a good man taking a criminal course on the high seas. John Garfield is again ‘one man alone’ against the system, and the moral quicksand all but swallows up Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter and Wallace Ford.

The Breaking Point

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 889

1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung, Peter Brocco, John Doucette.

Cinematography: Ted D. McCord

Film Editor: Alan Crosland Jr.

Original Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner

Written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Ernest Hemingway

Produced by Jerry Wald

Directed by Michael Curtiz

After...