News

Norman Spencer, the British producer, production manager and screenwriter who worked alongside famed director David Lean on films including Blithe Spirit, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 110.

Spencer died Aug. 16 in Wimbledon three days after his birthday, the European Supercentenarian Organisation announced.

Apart from Lean, Spencer produced Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn; Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point (1971), the car chase movie that starred Barry Newman; and Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (1987), starring Denzel Washington.

Spencer was Lean’s unit manager on the ghost comedy Blithe Spirit (1945), based on the Noël Coward play, and served as his production manager on his adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).

He produced Lean’s The Passionate Friends (1949) and the Hepburn-starring, Venice-set Summertime (1955); worked on a rewrite of the script for...

Studiocanal is delighted to announce the release of a brand-new 4K restoration of the British comedy classic, Three Men in a Boat, that will be available to own on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from August 19. To celebrate we have a 2 4K Blu-Rays to give away!

Directed by Ken Annakin (Monte Carlo or Bust, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines), Three Men In A Boat stars Laurence Harvey (Women of Twilight, Room at The Top), David Tomlinson (Mary Poppins, The Love Bug) and Jimmy Edwards (The Bed Sitting Room, Innocents in Paris) as three Edwardian men-about-town want to get away from it all and decide to take a boating holiday on the Thames.

Harris (Jimmy Edwards), J (David Tomlinson), and George (Laurence Harvey) decide to take a holiday boating up the Thames to Oxford. George is happy to spend time away from his desk at the bank, Harris is glad to get away from Mrs.

Dated but good-humoured, this 1967 adaptation includes all the era’s popular elements, from villain Terry-Thomas to penny-farthings in haystacks

There’s an serious outbreak of top hats and mutton chops in this amiable adaptation of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, originally released in 1967, when the real world was gearing up for the Apollo moonshot a couple of years later. Produced by the prolific Harry Towers, it adopted the rambling wacky-races format that had proved enduringly popular throughout the 1950s and 60s; most recently with the 1965 hit Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, which it shamelessly capitalised on with its US title (Those Fantastic Flying Fools) as well as redeplying the ubiquitous Terry-Thomas, who played yet another moustache-twirling cad.

Rocket to the Moon is watchable in a bored-Sunday-afternoon sort of way: it’s about whether an international consortium, led by Burl Ives (as Phineas T Barnum) and Dennis Price,...

No matter what happens at the upcoming Academy Awards, the new Sacha Baron Cohen film is already a winner.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has broken the Guinness World Record for longest title for a film nominated for an Oscar. In the words of its title character, “Very nice!”

The 110 characters in the Borat title – usually shortend to Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – was nominated for two Oscars, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

The previous record holder for longest title for a film nominated for an Oscar was Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes with 85 characters. That film did not win its nomination for Best Writing Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Sacha Baron Cohen is...

by Nathaniel R

Year of the Julies: Andrews and Christie dominated both the Oscars and the box office

The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1965 Episode arrives on October 9th, so you have until October 8th to watch the four movies and vote on them. Let's talk context...

Great Big Box Office Hits: 1)The Sound of Music 2) Doctor Zhivago 3) Thunderball 4) Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines 5) The Great Race 6) That Darn Cat 7) Cat Ballou 8) What's New Pussycat? 9) Shenandoah 10) Von Ryan's Express

Oscar's Best Pictures: The Sound of Music  and Doctor Zhivago (10 noms / 5 wins each) led by the two Julies, battled it out at the Oscars The other Best Picture nominees were Ship of Fools (8 noms / 2 wins), Darling (5 noms / 3 wins) another Julie Christie vehicle, and A Thousand Clowns (4 noms / 1 win). But what would have been nominated if the Best Picture race were 10 wide...

Whitman co-starred with John Wayne in the hit 1961 film "The Comancheros".

By Lee Pfeiffer

Stuart Whitman, the popular leading man of feature films and television, has passed away from natural causes at age 92. Whitman generally showed a tough guy persona in films, and although he usually played a hero, he could also occasionally impress as a villain, as well. Among his more memorable films was "The Mark", a 1961 production that earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination as a child molester who is trying desperately to redeem himself. Other key movies include "The Comancheros" in which he co-starred with John Wayne, "The Longest Day", "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", "Rio Conchos", "Murder, Inc." and "Ten North Frederick". In 1965, Whitman scored as a killer in the desert adventure film "Sands of the Kalahari". From that point on, however, he was increasingly consigned to roles in "B" movies. However, he...

Actor Stuart Whitman, an Oscar nominee for his role as a convicted child molester in the 1961 movie “The Mark,” died on Monday of natural causes surrounded by his family at his ranch house in Montecito, Calif., his son Justin told Variety. He was 92.

Whitman had more than 200 film and television credits. His movies include “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines,” “The Longest Day,” “The Comancheros,” “The Sound and the Fury,” “Johnny Trouble,” “Hound-Dog Man,” “The Story of Ruth,” “Murder, Inc.,” “Convicts 4,” “Shock Treatment,” “Rio Conchos” and “The Day and the Hour.” Whitman made his film debut in 1951 in “When Worlds Collide.”

He replaced Richard Burton in the role of Jim Fuller on “The Mark,” which earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. He lost out to Maximilian Schell, who won for “Judgment at Nuremberg.” Whitman portrayed a child molester who gets out of prison and seeks the aid of a psychiatrist,...

Stuart Whitman, best known for his role in the TV western series Cimarron Strip and his Oscar-nominated turn in the drama The Mark, died in his home in Montecito, California. He was 92.

According to TMZ, Whitman had been in and out of the hospital as a result of skin cancer seeping into his bloodstream. He was surrounded by family at the time of his death.

More from DeadlineR.D. Call Dies: 'Into The Wild', 'Born On The Fourth Of July' Actor Was 70Earl Pomerantz Dies: 'Mary Tyler Moore Show' & 'Cheers' Writer, 'Major Dad' Producer Was 75Mart Crowley Dies: The Trailblazing 'Boys In The Band' Playwright Was 84

Whitman was born on February 1, 1928 in San Francisco before his family would move to Brooklyn. He went on to graduate from Hollywood High School and served in the United States Army in the Corps of Engineers.

From aerial bravery in Wwi to Tom Cruise in an F-14 Tomcat, Mark lists his top ten all-time favourite flying movies…

This is a personal list, and as such, won't please everyone. I accept that, but I wanted to look at the films that have best represented flying for me over the years.

I've also excluded helicopters in exchange for a festival of fixed wings. But as a person who loves aircraft and flying of all kinds, these are the ones that made me feel the need. The need for speed...

The Dam Busters (1955)

Gosh, what a place to start. For the most part, the film's an historically accurate retelling of the ultimate daring-do of WWII. Richard Todd plays the unflappable Guy Gibson, who lead the amazing 617 Squadron on their secret mission against the dams of the Ruhr valley.

Using the Barnes Wallis (played by Michael Redgrave) utterly inspired bouncing bomb,...

French actor, singer and dancer Jean-Pierre Cassel has died following a long illness. He was 74. The star, whose talent was discovered by Gene Kelly, died at his home in Paris yesterday. The father of actor Vincent Cassel and father-in-law of Italian actress Monica Bellucci will be best remembered for his role in late 1950s/ early 1960s comedies directed by Phillippe De Broca - but he also starred in English-language films including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Murder on the Orient Express and the Three Musketeers films, as well as the Oscar-winning film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie . Cassel is survived by his three children, actors Vincent and Cécile and rapper Matthias.