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This creepy-crawly epic enjoyed a strong reputation on my grade-school playground! Does George Pal’s man-versus-the-elements saga hold up 68 years later? The ‘exotic’ special effects get the point across but the real appeal is the suppressed lust between Charlton Heston and his mail order bride Eleanor Parker — all heavy breathing and stern reproaches. I’m surprised nobody has fully exploited the original short story, which back in the ’60s showed up in numerous best-of collections. “Marabunta” is not a new fragrance line from Arpege.

The Naked Jungle

All- Region Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint]

1954 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date December 29, 2021 / Available from [Imprint], Amazon.us /

Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad, John Dierkes, Abraham Sofaer, Douglas Fowley, Rodd Redwing.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Production Designer: Art Director: Hal Pereira, Franz Bachelin

Film Editor: Everett Douglas

Special Photographic Effects: John P. Fulton

Matte artist Jan Domela

Miniatures Ivyl Burks

Optical cinematography Paul K. Lerpae...

Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...

Actress Monica Potter claims that she lost a chance to appear in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules because she rejected Harvey Weinstein’s advances.

Speaking to her hometown Cleveland television station Wkyc on its Let’s Be Clear show, Potter said Weinstein had tried to bed her three times, “twice in New York and once was in London.”

On two occasions, Weinstein made advances while wearing a bathrobe, she claimed. She rejected him physically, she said, taking advantage of his attire. “I belted him. I flat out belted him… I really hit him where it hurt,’ she exclaimed. ‘So yeah, I missed out on that role because of that hairy pig.”

She added: “I didn’t do something, so therefore I missed out on it. I’m not saying the person who got it did. I’m just saying I didn’t.”

The Cider House Rules lead female role...

The first thing Jon Batiste does when he wakes up each morning is write. It’s a exercise called Morning Pages, and Batiste has been doing it every day for several months now: three pages of handwritten free-writing to clear his mind and help open himself up to creativity before he begins each day.

That concept — blocking out the world around you in order to focus on one’s own deeper creativity — served as the central premise and working thesis of Hollywood Africans, Batiste’s major-label solo debut. It’s...

Recently, I was listening to “I Had a Farm in Africa,” the main theme from Out of Africa, and when it hit that sweeping chorus, I got the feeling that the notes actually know how beautiful they sound and are grateful for having been put in that order. The more I played it, the more I started thinking that if the last sound I heard on earth couldn’t be the voice of a loved one, that song — from 1:10 on, on loop — would be a contender. Then I started wondering what other songs I’d want to hear, and...