Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“HAT TRICKSâ€.
By Raymond Benson
When Miller’s Crossing was released in 1990, we as an audience were still trying to determine what the Coen brothers were all about. This, their third feature film, was totally different from their previous movie, Raising Arizona (1987), which was radically different from their debut title, Blood Simple (1984). Raising Arizona was a wacky comedy. Miller’s Crossing may have had more similarities to Blood Simple, being that they are both neo-noir crime dramas with a gritty, hard edge but laced with the now-familiar but then-surprisingly unique ingredient of Coen dark humor. Still, Miller’s Crossing, being a period piece that takes place during the Prohibition years, is a more elegant, and certainly more technically accomplished, picture than Blood Simple. Sudden, brutal violence, though, remains a trait of both movies.
In an excellent supplemental interview with Joel and Ethan Coen...
“HAT TRICKSâ€.
By Raymond Benson
When Miller’s Crossing was released in 1990, we as an audience were still trying to determine what the Coen brothers were all about. This, their third feature film, was totally different from their previous movie, Raising Arizona (1987), which was radically different from their debut title, Blood Simple (1984). Raising Arizona was a wacky comedy. Miller’s Crossing may have had more similarities to Blood Simple, being that they are both neo-noir crime dramas with a gritty, hard edge but laced with the now-familiar but then-surprisingly unique ingredient of Coen dark humor. Still, Miller’s Crossing, being a period piece that takes place during the Prohibition years, is a more elegant, and certainly more technically accomplished, picture than Blood Simple. Sudden, brutal violence, though, remains a trait of both movies.
In an excellent supplemental interview with Joel and Ethan Coen...
- 2/14/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Cinema Retro's 18th season begins with issue #52, which is now shipping worldwide.
Highlights of this issue include:
"The Sand Pebbles"- James Sherlock explores the trials and tribulations behind the filming of Robert Wise's epic film which gained Steve McQueen his only Oscar nomination. "Dr. Syn: Alias the Scarecrow"- Dave Worrall's in-depth history of the character in film and literature, concentrating on the evolution of the Walt Disney three-part TV episodes starring Patrick McGoohan which would later emerge as a feature film.
"Tarzan's Greatest Adventure"- Nick Anez argues it's the best Tarzan film ever and his analysis might convince you to agree with him. Gordon Scott starred as the King of the Jungle and te gang of villains included young Sean Connery. "The Pink Panther"- John LeMay presents the fascinating history behind the first film to showcase Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
"The Golden...
Highlights of this issue include:
"The Sand Pebbles"- James Sherlock explores the trials and tribulations behind the filming of Robert Wise's epic film which gained Steve McQueen his only Oscar nomination. "Dr. Syn: Alias the Scarecrow"- Dave Worrall's in-depth history of the character in film and literature, concentrating on the evolution of the Walt Disney three-part TV episodes starring Patrick McGoohan which would later emerge as a feature film.
"Tarzan's Greatest Adventure"- Nick Anez argues it's the best Tarzan film ever and his analysis might convince you to agree with him. Gordon Scott starred as the King of the Jungle and te gang of villains included young Sean Connery. "The Pink Panther"- John LeMay presents the fascinating history behind the first film to showcase Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
"The Golden...
- 2/8/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“BEHIND Every MAN…â€.
By Raymond Benson
One of the more popular Hollywood movies of 1954 was The Country Girl, written and directed by George Seaton, adapted from a stage play by Clifford Odets. The Academy liked it well enough to nominate it for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Bing Crosby), Black and White Art Direction, and Black and White Cinematography (John F. Warren). The movie won Oscars for Actress (Grace Kelly) and for the Adapted Screenplay by Seaton.
The Academy sure loves it when a beautiful actress dispenses with any hint of glamour and presents herself in a dowdy, plain, or even “uglyâ€. appearance. And while Grace Kelly could never not be beautiful, her role as Georgie Elgin is not known to emphasize her timeless attractiveness and sensuality. Furthermore, she delivers an outstanding performance that was good enough to surpass the likes...
“BEHIND Every MAN…â€.
By Raymond Benson
One of the more popular Hollywood movies of 1954 was The Country Girl, written and directed by George Seaton, adapted from a stage play by Clifford Odets. The Academy liked it well enough to nominate it for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Bing Crosby), Black and White Art Direction, and Black and White Cinematography (John F. Warren). The movie won Oscars for Actress (Grace Kelly) and for the Adapted Screenplay by Seaton.
The Academy sure loves it when a beautiful actress dispenses with any hint of glamour and presents herself in a dowdy, plain, or even “uglyâ€. appearance. And while Grace Kelly could never not be beautiful, her role as Georgie Elgin is not known to emphasize her timeless attractiveness and sensuality. Furthermore, she delivers an outstanding performance that was good enough to surpass the likes...
- 2/7/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“HITCH, The Unreliable NARRATORâ€.
By Raymond Benson
The decade of the 1950s is generally considered to be director Alfred Hitchcock’s most glorious period, stocked with some of his acknowledged masterpieces of cinema. Those ten years didn’t begin so promisingly, though.
In the late 1940s, Hitchcock had finally broken away from the smothering contract he had under producer David O. Selznick, and he had set out with a partner to form his own production company, Transatlantic. The company made two box office losers—Rope, and Under Capricorn. Transatlantic bombed, but Hitchcock continued to work with Warner Brothers, the studio that had distributed these two titles.
Stage Fright was made at Elstree Studios in England and employed an all British crew and cast except for the two female leads, Jane Wyman (under contract at Warners) and veteran star Marlene Dietrich. The male...
“HITCH, The Unreliable NARRATORâ€.
By Raymond Benson
The decade of the 1950s is generally considered to be director Alfred Hitchcock’s most glorious period, stocked with some of his acknowledged masterpieces of cinema. Those ten years didn’t begin so promisingly, though.
In the late 1940s, Hitchcock had finally broken away from the smothering contract he had under producer David O. Selznick, and he had set out with a partner to form his own production company, Transatlantic. The company made two box office losers—Rope, and Under Capricorn. Transatlantic bombed, but Hitchcock continued to work with Warner Brothers, the studio that had distributed these two titles.
Stage Fright was made at Elstree Studios in England and employed an all British crew and cast except for the two female leads, Jane Wyman (under contract at Warners) and veteran star Marlene Dietrich. The male...
- 2/5/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Pickpockets And Stool Pigeons”
By Raymond Benson
Samuel Fuller’s 1953 film noir, Pickup on South Street, was shocking in its day and still manages to deliver a punch to the gut.
In the conservative early 50s, who would have thought that Hollywood would green light a picture in which a pickpocket, a “loose” woman, and a stool pigeon are the protagonists? Film noir titles often told stories from the point of view of the criminals when they didn’t focus on cynical and hard-boiled private investigators, but Pickup attempts to make these lowlifes sympathetic. Surprisingly, the movie succeeds. While the film was not well-received upon release, the years have been kind to it. Today, Fuller’s hard-edge crime story-cum-Cold War spy thriller is considered a masterpiece of its ilk.
Sleazy Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) is a professional pickpocket, often preying on unsuspecting women on New York subway trains.
“Pickpockets And Stool Pigeons”
By Raymond Benson
Samuel Fuller’s 1953 film noir, Pickup on South Street, was shocking in its day and still manages to deliver a punch to the gut.
In the conservative early 50s, who would have thought that Hollywood would green light a picture in which a pickpocket, a “loose” woman, and a stool pigeon are the protagonists? Film noir titles often told stories from the point of view of the criminals when they didn’t focus on cynical and hard-boiled private investigators, but Pickup attempts to make these lowlifes sympathetic. Surprisingly, the movie succeeds. While the film was not well-received upon release, the years have been kind to it. Today, Fuller’s hard-edge crime story-cum-Cold War spy thriller is considered a masterpiece of its ilk.
Sleazy Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) is a professional pickpocket, often preying on unsuspecting women on New York subway trains.
- 7/1/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Tomorrow’S News Today!”
By Raymond Benson
One wonders if Bond villain Elliot Carver ever saw the 1944 comedy-fantasy, It Happened Tomorrow. Carver’s evil plot involved making bad news happen so that his newspapers could scoop the headlines before other media outlets even learned about the events. “Tomorrow’s News Today!” was his slogan.
In the fanciful and entertaining It Happened Tomorrow, a newspaper man receives tomorrow’s news today, allowing him to write the piece and get it ready to go to the presses before the incident occurs.
French filmmaker René Clair had come to Hollywood in the early 1940s after working for a time in the U.K. He made a handful of pictures for different studios, namely I Married a Witch (1942) and And Then There Were None (1945). In-between those notable titles came It Happened Tomorrow, which was based on an...
“Tomorrow’S News Today!”
By Raymond Benson
One wonders if Bond villain Elliot Carver ever saw the 1944 comedy-fantasy, It Happened Tomorrow. Carver’s evil plot involved making bad news happen so that his newspapers could scoop the headlines before other media outlets even learned about the events. “Tomorrow’s News Today!” was his slogan.
In the fanciful and entertaining It Happened Tomorrow, a newspaper man receives tomorrow’s news today, allowing him to write the piece and get it ready to go to the presses before the incident occurs.
French filmmaker René Clair had come to Hollywood in the early 1940s after working for a time in the U.K. He made a handful of pictures for different studios, namely I Married a Witch (1942) and And Then There Were None (1945). In-between those notable titles came It Happened Tomorrow, which was based on an...
- 6/4/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Skip The Juvenile Delinquency And Get Right To The Sex”
By Raymond Benson
Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 10—Wages of Sin. Unlike the other exploitation titles that have appeared over the last two years, Wages is not an American picture; instead, it comes from Switzerland and was originally released as a serious drama examining the social problem of illegal abortions and the need to educate the public in birth control, as well as make a case for the legalization of a woman’s right to choose. The original German title translates to, roughly, The Doctor Says… or The Doctor Speaks Out…
However, American producer/director/actor Donn Davison, who at the time was a practitioner in the grindhouse and exploitation film circuit, secured the U.S.
“Skip The Juvenile Delinquency And Get Right To The Sex”
By Raymond Benson
Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 10—Wages of Sin. Unlike the other exploitation titles that have appeared over the last two years, Wages is not an American picture; instead, it comes from Switzerland and was originally released as a serious drama examining the social problem of illegal abortions and the need to educate the public in birth control, as well as make a case for the legalization of a woman’s right to choose. The original German title translates to, roughly, The Doctor Says… or The Doctor Speaks Out…
However, American producer/director/actor Donn Davison, who at the time was a practitioner in the grindhouse and exploitation film circuit, secured the U.S.
- 4/22/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Upgraded Ghouls”
By Raymond Benson
For a film that’s been in public domain for decades and is available on dozens of different poor-quality DVD labels and free to download from Internet, it’s somewhat surprising that The Criterion Collection would pull out the stops to offer an undoubtedly pricier option to own the movie with this lavish 2-disk extravaganza of gore. (There is a precedent, however—Criterion did the same thing with the out-of-copyright Carnival of Souls.)
Don’t get me wrong… this is a very welcome roll-out. What’s unique about Criterion’s excellent package is that it features a new 4K digital restoration of the original theatrical release (not the previously go-to “30th Anniversary Edition” released years ago and that had been recut a little), and it’s supervised by co-screenwriter John A. Russo, sound engineer Gary R. Streiner, and producer Russell W.
“Upgraded Ghouls”
By Raymond Benson
For a film that’s been in public domain for decades and is available on dozens of different poor-quality DVD labels and free to download from Internet, it’s somewhat surprising that The Criterion Collection would pull out the stops to offer an undoubtedly pricier option to own the movie with this lavish 2-disk extravaganza of gore. (There is a precedent, however—Criterion did the same thing with the out-of-copyright Carnival of Souls.)
Don’t get me wrong… this is a very welcome roll-out. What’s unique about Criterion’s excellent package is that it features a new 4K digital restoration of the original theatrical release (not the previously go-to “30th Anniversary Edition” released years ago and that had been recut a little), and it’s supervised by co-screenwriter John A. Russo, sound engineer Gary R. Streiner, and producer Russell W.
- 2/8/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.