News

Eight years before Barbra Streisand appeared in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born, she dazzled audiences in William Wyler’s Funny Girl with an awe-inspiring performance of intense vulnerability and carefully modulated broad humor that announced to the world that she was, much like her character, Fanny Brice, born to be a star. Released in 1968, several years after the death knell of the classic musical had been rung, Funny Girl endures—unlike other bloated, big budget musicals of the era like Camelot, Hello Dolly!, and Oliver!—precisely because of the strength of Streisand’s magnetic performance.

Whether flailing around on roller skates across the stage or triumphantly belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade” as she recklessly flees her starring gig at the Ziegfeld Follies to meet her lover, Nick (Omar Sharif), Streisand’s Fanny is a woman possessed with ungodly charisma and talent. It was Brice’s singularly sly,...

A new remake of 1956’s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet is officially in the works at Warner Bros. Read more about those plans below.

A new version of Forbidden Planet, Fred M. Wilcox’s 1956 sci-fi film, is in the works at Warner Bros, Deadline has revealed.

The film is set to be written by Brian K. Vaughan, a TV and comic-book writer who has penned several episodes of Lost as well as comic-books such as Y: The Last Man, Ex_Machina and Marvel’s Runaways. Emma Watts is in the producer’s chair and has previously worked on sci-fi films such as Avatar, Alita: Battle Angel and I, Robot.

The original film, which starred Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen, followed the crew of a starship who set out to find out what happened to a previous expedition on the planet Altair IV. Once they get there, they discover only two survivors...

A remake of the 1956 science fiction feature “Forbidden Planet”, an adaptation of Shakespear’s “The Tempest” is in development at Warner Bros., with a screenplay by writer Brian K. Vaughan:

‘…in the original ‘Forbidden Planet’ feature, directed by Fred M. Wilcox, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen…

“… a spacecraft travels to the distant planet ‘Altair IV’ to discover the fate of a group of scientists sent there decades earlier.

“When ‘Commander John J. Adams’ (Nielsen) and his crew arrive, they discover only two people: ‘Dr. Morbius’ ( Pidgeon)…

‘…and his daughter, ‘Altaira’ (Francis), who was born on the remote planet.

“Soon, Adams begins to uncover the mystery of what happened on Altair IV, and why Morbius and Altaira are the sole survivors…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

One of all time classics of the science fiction genre, 1956’s Forbidden Planet is getting a modern day update from Warner Bros., Deadline has exclusively reported this week.

Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) is writing the screenplay, with Emma Watts producing.

Deadline’s report details, “For its forward-thinking themes, the film is considered a north star for science fiction writing and cinema that came after it. It has never had a big-screen remake — though James Cameron reportedly once considered it — partly because the rights were complicated and difficult to untangle.

“The studio and Watts finally got that major obstacle out of the way,” Deadline continues. “The former studio chief Watts has leaned into producing the big ambitious tentpoles she shepherded from the executive suites, and this has the makings to be one of those.”

In the original movie from director Fred M. Wilcox, “A starship crew in the...

Back in 1956, director Fred M. Wilcox and writers Cyril Hume, Irving Block, and Allen Adler brought the world one of the most popular science fiction films ever made, Forbidden Planet, which earned an Oscar nomination for its special effects and, in 2013, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as the film is regarded as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Of course, there have been rumblings of a remake for a long time. Fifteen years ago, there was even some talk about James Cameron directing the remake, and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was working on the screenplay. That take on the concept never made it into production, but now Deadline reports that Hugo and Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan, who created the comics Y: The Last Man and Runaways and worked on the TV...

Exclusive: Warner Bros has made a deal to mount a new version of the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet. The film will be written by comic book and screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan, and it will be produced by Emma Watts.

For its forward-thinking themes, the film is considered a north star for science fiction writing and cinema that came after it. It has never had a big-screen remake — though James Cameron reportedly once considered it — partly because the rights were complicated and difficult to untangle. The studio and Watts finally got that major obstacle out of the way. The former studio chief Watts has leaned into producing the big ambitious tentpoles she shepherded from the executive suites, and this has the makings to be one of those.

Loosely based on Shakepeare’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet is set in the 23rd century, where the starship C-57D arrives at the...

Screenwriter J Michael Straczynski says that the combination of Avatar and a “miffed” studio led to the shelving of a new, James Cameron-directed Forbidden Planet sci-fi movie.

Perhaps best known for his work on TV’s Babylon 5 and Clint Eastwood’s drama Changeling, screenwriter J Michael Straczynski was once assigned to write the script for a new take on the 1956 classic, Forbidden Planet.

In the works at Warner Bros in the late 2010s, the new Forbidden Planet was being overseen by Lethal Weapon and The Matrix producer Joel Silver – though little official word ever emerged, and discussion about the film appeared to cease entirely around the year 2009. In a revealing series of posts on Twitter/X, however, Straczynski has provided what might be a new insight into the production, and writes that James Cameron was once in line to direct – a detail that, to the best of this writer’s knowledge,...

Jeannie Epper, the peerless, fearless stunt performer who doubled for Lynda Carter on Wonder Woman and swung on a vine across a 350-foot gorge and propelled down an epic mudslide as Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone, has died. She was 83.

Epper died Sunday night of natural causes at her home in Simi Valley, her family told The Hollywood Reporter.

Just one member of a dynasty of stunt performers that Steven Spielberg dubbed the “Flying Wallendas of Film” — starting with her father, John Epper, there have been four generations of Eppers in show business since the 1930s — she worked on 150-plus films and TV shows during an astounding 70-year career.

In 2007, Epper received the first lifetime achievement honor given to a woman at the World Taurus Awards and ranks among the greatest stuntwomen of all time.

Known for her agility, horse-riding skills and competitiveness, the 5-foot-9 Epper also stepped in...

This post contains spoilers for "The After Hours."

The innate human fear of being lost in an unknown, empty space can never be properly explained or quantified. This fear that makes us acutely aware of our fragility, and the foreignness of the space, be it inside an abandoned building or out under the vast night sky, adds to the anxiety of being alone without ever knowing if we are truly alone. In "The After Hours," the 34th episode of "The Twilight Zone," a woman suddenly finds herself in an empty departmental store after dark, its bustling daytime charm and security evaporating and molding into deathlike silence once night falls. As a woman trapped in an indoor space with seemingly no exits, this woman, Marsha, experiences horrors beyond her comprehension, as this unwitting trip to the Twilight Zone is the key to unlocking her sense of identity and the fears attached to it.

For as much as Rod Serling's landmark anthology series "The Twilight Zone" reinvented the genre of science fiction storytelling, many of its best episodes also deal in the world of the fantastical, whether through witches, time-traveling radios, or just plain inexplicable phenomena. What kept "The Twilight Zone" consistent through it all is its focus on human nature and irony, the idea of following desire ultimately leading to one's downfall. You can see that in many of the classic episodes of the show, no matter what the genre is.

That focus on human drama is what keeps "Jess-Belle," a most unusual episode of "The Twilight Zone," in the running for the show's top tier. For one, "Jess-Belle" came out of the show's difficult fourth season, during which CBS had contracted hour-long episodes, twice as long as the episodes' usual length, per Marc Scott Zicree's indispensable "Twilight Zone Companion." While...

1956's "Forbidden Planet" follows a crew of astronauts traveling the galaxy in a flying saucer. While visiting planet Altair IV, they find a scientist and his daughter (Anne Francis) living alone on this deserted world — and realize they are hiding something.

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring a young Leslie Nielsen, "Forbidden Planets looks like a kitschy B-movie today — and in a way it always was, but it was also a trailblazer. It was one of the first films to show humans in the distant future flying around in faster-than-light starships. Without "Forbidden Planet," there would be no "Star Wars" or "Star Trek."

While the Enterprise has an underbelly and nacelles beneath its saucer head, the "Forbidden Planet" ship (the C-57D) is a simple flying saucer — except this UFO is operated by humans, not aliens. The ship and the other effects got the "Forbidden Planet" special effects team an Oscar nomination.

Emma Tammi's new horror film "Five Nights at Freddy's," based on a popular series of video games, posits that the animatronic animal band from a local chain of pizza palaces is secretly coming to life at night and stalking the palace's night watchman. A puffy, friendly, anthropomorphic bear becomes a bloodthirsty murderer, haunted by the ghosts of children who have secretly died on the pizza restaurant's premises. The animatronic band at Showbiz Pizza, later Chuck E. Cheese's, was considered greatly unnerving to many children, and it doesn't take a very large cognitive leap to imagine the band members stepping off the stage of their own demonic volition, eager to eat the children in their company. 

A fear of fake people, of animatronics, and of mannequins, however, goes back many years prior to the inception of "Five Nights at Freddy's," or even the Rock-afire Explosion (the name of the Showbiz Pizza band). Indeed,...

Magicians conceal the techniques behind their tricks to maintain a sense of wonder and mystique. In a similar vein, early Hollywood went to great lengths to conceal the secrets of their visual effects. Both sought to preserve the magic and enchantment of their respective performances. Even when "Star Wars" came out in 1977, some news items claimed both Artoo and Threepio were actual robots.

Times have changed, and behind-the-scenes material has become commonplace. Shows like "Entertainment Tonight" and bonus features on home video all made what used to be arcane into knowledge commonplace. Does that destroy the suspension of disbelief required for a movie to be truly immersive? Given the popularity of such features, it's safe to say a significant portion of the audience doesn't think so. On some level, we know it's all make-believe.

Here's a look at what iconic science fiction films look like stripped bare of special effects; be they in-camera tricks,...

Natasha Lyonne’s savvy, road-weary Charlie Cale is a fond homage to classic TV detectives like Jim Rockford and Lt. Frank Columbo: Like Rockford, she lives in a battered mobile home when we first meet her and she’s as dogged in solving crimes as the cigar-smoking Columbo. She also drives a bitchin’ 70s car and rocks a sweater that might have belonged to Paul Michael Glaser’s Starsky.

Here are some of the shows that influenced Rian Johnson’s series and other classic mystery of the week series, and where to watch them.

The Fugitive (1964-1967)

The original series starred David Janssen as a doctor falsely accused of murdering his wife (just like in the 1993 movie starring Harrison Ford). Always on the run from the law and taking odd jobs to survive, each week found him in a new place with a new person needing his help. All while...

A dozen years ago, Laura Linney became the fifth of seven actresses to conquer two lead TV Golden Globe categories by winning Best Comedy Actress for “The Big C” two years after being honored for her work on the limited series “John Adams.” Following her unsuccessful Best Drama Actress bid for Netflix’s “Ozark” in 2021, she now has a second chance to blaze a trail as the first winner of all three Golden Globe awards available to lead TV actresses. Since her show has come to an end and she is up against a slate of category newcomers, she should now stand a better chance of standing out to voters and achieving this impressive feat.

Linney came up short in 2021’s drama actress race against “The Crown” star Emma Corrin, who has passed her role of Princess Diana on to current supporting nominee Elizabeth Debicki. Her other three former challengers...

John Sturges’ 1965 film flaunts Cold War thrills and Strangelovian plot turns worthy of an Alistair MacLean novel – which is just where the story came from. It’s a typically solid Sturges production with prime work from cinematographer Robert Surtees and composer Jerry Goldsmith. Star George Maharis is a colorless leading man but vets Richard Basehart, Anne Francis and Dana Andrews flesh out the cast nicely.

The post The Satan Bug appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

In 1990, years after Grease, “Physical,” and Xanadu, Olivia Newton-John made her TV movie debut as a department store mannequin brought to life — and no, this probably wasn’t the living-mannequin story you’re thinking of right now. Unpacking the masterpiece that is A Mom for Christmas might take some time, so you might want to sit down.

Live mannequins had appeared in TV and film long before 1990. Some were utterly confused and looking for a thimble (Anne Francis in a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone), some were inhabited by ancient...

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

“Our Town With Unions”

By Raymond Benson

This is a little-known gem of a film from producer Louis de Rochemont, the man best known for introducing The March of Time documentary newsreels to cinemas that ran from the 1930s until the early 1950s. He also produced several mainstream pictures, and one of these from 1951, The Whistle at Eaton Falls, is an underdog-battles-severe-odds tale of the highest caliber.

Directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lloyd Bridges, Whistle might be described as Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, only with unions. Yes, this is a union drama along the lines of On the Waterfront or, much later, Norma Rae.

In a tight 96 minutes, Siodmak brings us a riveting story—the kind that gets an audience riled up against the injustices thrown at a protagonist. The suspense builds to a breaking point as we wonder how it...

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,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Among the many gems released by the Warner Archive is the obscure Girl of the Night which afforded Anne Francis a rare starring role in a theatrical feature. The 1960 modestly-budgeted movie purports to examine the pitfalls of a young woman who becomes a high-priced call girl. Francis plays Robin Williams (not the hairy guy from Mork and Mindy), a charismatic 24 year-old trying to carve a life for herself in New York City. She soon falls in love with Larry Taylor (John Kerr), a charismatic cad who pretends to love her while acting as her pimp. For a while, Robin seems content. She's pulling in enough loot to maintain a high lifestyle for herself and Larry, taking "appointments" from floozy madame  Rowena (Kay Medford.) When she learns Larry has been cheating on her, she despairs and seeks advice from psychiatrist Dr. Mitchell (Lloyd Nolan in typically stoic Lloyd Nolan mode.

It’s another CineSavant Revival Screening Review of a show not presently available on disc: not an old favorite, but something we admittedly never heard of … a marvelous 1951 film that’s seemingly been hiding under the carpet for sixty years, despite being directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lloyd Bridges, Dorothy Gish, Carleton Carpenter, Murray Hamilton, Diana Douglas, Anne Francis, Ernest Borgnine and Arthur O’Connell. At first we fear it will be another angry midcentury indictment of free enterprise … but it becomes something else entirely. The unusual near- neorealist picture was filmed on location in a New Hampshire mill town; it is newly restored and hopefully destined for Blu-ray soon.

The Whistle at Eaton Falls

CineSavant Revival Screening Review

Not on Home Video

1951 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Richer Than the Earth / Not Yet On Home Video

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

Now for a real treat for musical fans, a core MGM dazzler with top stars, fully restored and looking incredibly good. Vincente Minnelli’s snappy, funny 1948 show isn’t ranked among producer Arthur Freed’s best but it ought to be. Silly farce gets a high-toned, technically amazing workout as Judy Garland’s demure señorita secretly lusts after the ruthless corsair of the title, Mack the Black! Gene Kelly’s slippery carny womanizer impersonates her piratical fantasy sex object, and it all ends in clowning and killer musical numbers. Cole Porter’s smart songs attest to the great orchestrators and arrangers in MGM’s world-class music department; the new full digital restoration makes the movie look and sound better than I’ve certainly ever seen it.

The Pirate

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1948 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date November 24, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak,...

800x600 Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

By Doug Oswald

An all star cast features in the adaptation of Leon Uris’ “Battle Cry,” available on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection. The granddaddy of contemporary WWII melodramas like “The Winds of War” and “Band of Brothers,” “Battle Cry” was one of the first big dramatic war stories which followed multiple characters through boot camp, romance, heartbreak, the battlefield, death and homecoming. One of my favorite movies in this genre is Otto Preminger’s “In Harms Way” from 1965 which teamed John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. “Battle Cry” was first a best selling novel released in 1953 and quickly adapted to the big screen. Some people criticize these types of military themed melodramas as being light on action and heavy on romance, but there’s certainly a place for both.

“Battle Cry” begins with the narrator setting the stage. It’s...

Wonder Woman, the beloved 1970s live-action television series starring Lynda Carter, has been remastered and is coming to Blu-ray! Wonder Woman: The Complete Collection arrives from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on July 28, 2020.

Save the world? That’s a man’s job. Then along comes star-spangled Wonder Woman with her bullet-deflecting bracelets and golden lariat to set everyone straight. With Lynda Carter staring as the title character, Season One features adventures in Wonder Woman’s original World War II era, while Seasons Two and Three whoosh forward to the disco-loving ‘70s. Times change. The need to smash evil, calamity and injustice does not.

The Wonder Woman: The Complete Collection Blu-ray box set comes complete with all 59 episodes, plus the treasured pilot movie, across 10 discs. Bonus features include:

Audio commentary of the pilot movie by Lynda Carter & executive producer Douglas S. Cramer Audio commentary by Lynda Carter on the episode, “My Teenage Idol is Missing” Featurette – Beauty,...

John Ericson, a star of Hollywood’s Golden Age who appeared in multiple MGM films and in the 1960s TV show “Honey West,” died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, of pneumonia on Sunday. He was 93.

Born Joseph Meibes in Dusseldorf, Germany, Ericson emigrated with his family to the United States to escape the Nazis as they rose to power. Ericson trained in acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and soon appeared in the original production of “Stalag 17” in 1951.

Shortly after that, Ericson signed a contract with MGM and made his cinematic debut alongside Pier Angeli in “Teresa,” playing a World War II veteran struggling to cope with post-war life after marrying a woman he met in Italy. He continued to take on supporting roles in MGM films through the ’50s, starring alongside stars like Elizabeth Taylor in “Rhapsody,” Spencer Tracy in “Bad Day at Black Rock,...

John Ericson, who starred alongside Anne Francis on TV's Honey West and with Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock and with Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, has died. He was 93.

Ericson died Sunday of pneumonia in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had been living since the mid-1990s, a family spokesman said.

Ericson appeared on Broadway in the original production 1951 of Stalag 17, directed by José Ferrer, and he made his film debut in Teresa (1951), directed by Fred Zinnemann. Three years later, he starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Rhapsody (1954).

Ericson played "Man Friday" Sam ...

John Ericson, who starred alongside Anne Francis on TV's Honey West and with Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock and with Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, has died. He was 93.

Ericson died Sunday of pneumonia in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had been living since the mid-1990s, a family spokesman said.

Ericson appeared on Broadway in the original production 1951 of Stalag 17, directed by José Ferrer, and he made his film debut in Teresa (1951), directed by Fred Zinnemann. Three years later, he starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Rhapsody (1954).

Ericson played "Man Friday" Sam ...

When “First Man,” about the events surrounding Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the lunar surface in 1969, touched down at film festivals in the fall, critics in attendance were over the moon for its visual effects and technical achievements as well as for the performances of Ryan Gosling as Armstrong and Claire Foy as his wife, Janet.

But Damien Chazelle‘s follow-up to “La La Land” didn’t quite blast off box-office-wise when it opened in theaters on Oct. 12. It came in third with a gross of $16 million in its first weekend, but ended up with a disappointing total of $45 million domestic and $55 million overseas. In comparison, 2016’s “La La Land” took in $151 domestic and $446 million worldwide. The festival frenzy never carried over to the public and its hopes for picture, directing screenplay and acting nominations — save for Foy, who was up for supporting actress at the Golden Globes — fizzled

There are,...

Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain and Disney’s 1950 animated Cinderella are among the 25 motion pictures that have been inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. Wednesday’s additions to the registry, now in its 30th year, boosts the archive’s overall total to 750 movies selected for heir cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage.

The Library’s total moving-image collection is at 1.3 million pieces. Select titles from 30 years of the registry are available online in the National Screening Room.

Also making the cut today (see the full list below) is the Paul Newman-starrer Hud, musicals My Fair Lady and On the Town, James L Brooks’ Broadcast News, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Kasi Lemmons’ 1997 indie Eve’s Bayou starring Samuel L. Jackson and the documentary Monterey Pop chronicling the seminal 1967 music festival.

In all,...

Okay, it's not earth-shaking, but So Young, So Bad (1950) kept me watching, sometimes goggling. It's the penultimate film of quota quickie master Bernard "Mad" Vorhaus, who made cheap and often very skilled work in the U.K., moved to the U.S. and made The Amazing Mr. X, a really stylish and entertaining thriller shot by the great John Alton, then made this, and got blacklisted the following year. He had already left the U.S., having seen the way the wind was blowing, but aside from shooting second unit on William Wyler's Roman Holiday, Vorhaus made only one more movie, an Italian flick called Finishing School which seems to be impossible to get at present. He went into house renovation back in the U.K. and did alright at it, I believe.So, one doesn't necessarily expect earth-shaking from a B-movie talent like Vorhaus, but he was capable of splendid work,...

By Fred Blosser

Kino Lorber has released the obscure 1969 Western “More Dead Than Alive” in a Blu-ray edition. Discharged from prison in 1891 after serving an eighteen-year sentence for murder, legendary gunslinger Cain (Clint Walker) determines to stay away from firearms, find honest work, and save enough money to buy a ranch. But his reputation as “Killer” Cain precedes him, and chances for employment are slim until he encounters conniving showman Dan Ruffalo (Vincent Price). “People would have something to talk about, if they could see you using this notched Colt of yours,” Ruffalo chortles. He encourages Cain to cash in on his notoriety and join Ruffalo’s traveling show as its star sharpshooting attraction, relegating the show’s current marksman, Billy (Paul Hampton), to a subsidiary role. Monica, a free-spirited artist (Anne Francis), strikes up a friendship with Cain and thinks it’s a bad idea for him to pick up a gun again,...

Clint Walker, who starred in the television Western “Cheyenne” and had a key supporting role in the WWII film “The Dirty Dozen,” died on Monday in Northern California, according to the New York Times. He was 90.

For seven seasons from 1955-61, he played Cheyenne Bodie, a rambunctious wanderer in the post-Civil War West, on the ABC series “Cheyenne.” (He also guested as the character on “Maverick.”)

The actor’s seriocomic confrontation with star Lee Marvin was one of the highlights of the classic 1967 war picture “The Dirty Dozen.”

After “Cheyenne” ended, Walker made some guest appearances on TV — “77 Sunset Strip,” “Kraft Suspense Theatre” and “The Lucy Show,” in an episode called “Lucy and Clint Walker.”

But the actor became more interested in movies both theatrical and for TV. In 1964, he had a supporting role in the Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy “Send Me No Flowers.” His acting was not distinguished,...

Move over James Jones — Leon Uris clobbers the big screen with a sprawling adaptation of his WW2 combat novel, loaded down with roles for promising young actors. This is the one where twice as much time is spent on love affairs than fighting. War may be hell, but if Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, Dorothy Malone and Allyn McLerie are going to be there for comfort, sign me up.

Battle Cry

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 148 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone, Anne Francis, William Campbell, Fess Parker, Justus E. McQueen (L.Q. Jones), Perry Lopez, Jonas Applegarth, Tommy Cook, Felix Noriego, Susan Morrow, Carleton Young, Rhys Williams, Allyn Ann McLerie, Gregory Walcott, Frank Ferguson, Sarah Selby, Willis Bouchey, Victor Milian.

Cinematography: Sidney Hickox

Film Editor: William H. Zeigler

Original Music: Max Steiner...

David O. Selznick’s marvelous romantic fantasy ode to Jennifer Jones was almost wholly unappreciated back in 1948. It’s one of those peculiar pictures that either melts one’s heart or doesn’t. Backed by a music score adapted from Debussy, just one breathy “Oh Eben . . . “ will turn average romantics into mush.

Portrait of Jennie

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&W w/ Color Insert / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date October 24, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe.

Cinematography: Joseph H. August

Production Designers: J. MacMillan Johnson, Joseph B. Platt

Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, also adapting themes from Claude Debussy; Bernard Herrmann

Written by Leonardo Bercovici, Peter Berneis, Paul Osborn, from the novella by Robert Nathan

Produced by David O. Selznick

Directed by William Dieterle

Once upon a time David O. Selznick’s Portrait of Jennie was an...

(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...

“Unwelcoming Committee”

By Raymond Benson

Although the picture takes place a couple of months after the end of World War II in the year 1945, Bad Day at Black Rock is really a western. The setting is a desert town that’s barely a whistle stop for a train that hasn’t halted there in four years; the main street looks as if it’s right out of Dodge City, and the opening credits are designed in big, colorful, bold words that spread across the wide CinemaScope screen. Even director John Sturges is primarily known for his many westerns.

Good Guy Spencer Tracy rides into town—on that train—and is met with inexplicable hostility from everyone he meets. All he wants is to find a guy named Komoko—a Japanese farmer who supposedly lives just out of town. Most of the residents seem afraid to help Tracy. The ones who...

Ryan Lambie Mar 29, 2017

Mazes And Monsters provided the first feature role for a young Tom Hanks in 1982 - and warned against the perils of Dungeons & Dragons...

Where there's great popularity, there's sometimes an equal and opposite backlash. Pokemon has occasionally been accused of promoting everything from Satanism to animal cruelty. The book Why Knock Rock, published in 1984, warned of the morally corrosive dangers hidden in the music of Judas Priest, Kiss and Led Zeppelin.

Before all this, there was the moral panic surrounding Dungeons & Dragons. From humble beginnings, the role-playing game quickly became a phenomenon in the 1970s, taking the company behind it - Tactical Studies Rules, founded by Gary Gygax - from a tiny cottage industry to a 600-strong firm by the end of the decade.

Dungeons & Dragons' brilliance lies in its freeform design; with only a few raw materials - dice, counters, a rulebook - the game conjures...

A friend of mine told me this story about her memories of Debbie Reynolds, and I was so touched that I am writing it here:

Of course I saw “Singing in the Rain”, Debbie Reynolds’ first film. I don’t think anyone could ever forget that movie. And I loved “Tammy and the Bachelor” and can still sing “Tammy’s in Love” by heart. But the one that I loved the most was the one I most identified with when I was 10 and saw “Susan Slept Here”. I was struggling with my own pre-teen “jv” secret wishes. Growing up in what was a pretty anti-semitic Culver City neighborhood, I really wanted to be a “pachuca.” And with my own lack of a father-figure since my father died when I was eight, I fell in love with Dick Powell. And I fell in love with the green dress Tammy wore as...

As we head into the holiday season, Wamg brings you our list of the Best Non-Traditional Christmas Movies to watch after the Holiday ham, pretty presents, and multiple viewings of White Christmas, Home Alone and Miracle On 34th Street are a thing of Christmas Past.

Our choices are filled snarky mistletoe carnage and crafty comedy – Geek style. Santa Claus is coming to town in these “More Naughty Than Nice”. films.

We’ve made a list and checked it twice with our lineup of not just the 20 Best holiday films but the Top 21 Non-Traditional Christmas Movies. After the success of Krampus, we just had to add it!

We kick off our list with our Honorable Mention –

Jingle All The Way

Christmas; It’s the most magical time of the year. High powered businessman Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is hard at work taking last-minute orders from customers to whom he just can...

Don’t mess with the one-armed man — did you know that at 56 years, Spencer Tracy could whup Ernest Borgnine to a frazzle? John Sturges knocked this one out of the ballpark and booted his career into high gear. It’s well remembered… but does anyone remember that the subject is the murder of a Japanese-American? It’s a combo social issue film And a tough guy western.

Bad Day at Black Rock

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:40:1 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date January 17, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande, Robert Griffin, Harry Harvey.

Cinematography William C. Mellor

Film Editor Newell P. Kimlin

Original Music André Previn

Written by Millard Kaufman, Don McGuire story by Howard Breslin

Produced by Dore Schary

Directed by John Sturges

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Warning to...

There are shows that have been justly lauded as the best the medium has to offer. And then there are those series that have been unjustly obscured by history ... for the moment. Some are cult faves that never crossed over; others were short-lived hits that didn’t get kissed by the rerun gods. And some were just plain trash. But as Oscar the Grouch used to sing, we love trash — anything dirty or dingy or dusty. Here are a dozen shows that didn't make our "100 Greatest TV Shows" list but damn,...

Bif Bang Pow!’s Sdcc 2016 exclusive The Twilight Zone 3.75-inch Series 4 color action figures are sold out, but there’s still hope, Twilight Zone fans! Unique, black-and-white versions of Don Carter, Hansen, Jerry and Willie, Alicia, and Marsha White are available now for pre-order at Entertainment Earth!

Press Release: A fan-favorite at San Diego Comic-Con, The Twilight Zone 3 ¾-inch Action Figures Series 4 in Color captured the attention of collectors new and old at the show this year. And although we’ve sold out of the colored convention exclusives, you can still complement your collection with Don Carter, Hansen, Jerry and Willie, Alicia, and Marsha White “as seen on TV” in black and white – now available for pre-order at Entertainment Earth.

Designed similar to the action figures released in the ’70s, each retro-styled figure features 5 points of articulation (neck, shoulders, and hips) and showcases a classic character with episode-specific accessories.

The Twilight Zone...

As the hoary old cliché goes, sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination. This usually doesn’t apply to TV horror, which lives for the payoff; but Haunts of the Very Rich (1972) is not the usual. With this one, the payoff is all in the setup – and it’s delicious.

First airing on Wednesday, September 20th, 1972 as an ABC Movie of the Week (I know, they’re almost all ABC – what can I say? They ruled the horror roost), Haunts was up against The Carol Burnett Show/Medical Center on CBS and the NBC Mystery Movie. I’m sure a lot of folks were watching Carol, but if they scooched over to ABC they could watch Lloyd and Ed bicker in the underworld. Bridges and Asner that is – and yes, I said underworld.

Is that a spoiler? Only if you don’t watch past the first fifteen minutes.

While there’s been a lot of attention paid to the fact that this year is the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, not a lot is being been said about a movie that came out 10 years before which inspired the series. In honor of its 60thanniversary, Cinelinx looks at the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet.

Star Trek is one of the most popular and enduring sci-fi franchises ever made. If it wasn’t for the influential 1956 film Forbidden Planet, we might never have had Star Trek. If you examine Forbidden Planet closely, you’ll see the creative aspects that inspired Gene Roddenberry while he was creating his TV masterpiece, which debuted in 1966. According to ‘Star Trek Fact Check’, Gene Roddenberry once wrote a letter asking “Would it be ethical to get a print of the film and have our people make stills from some of the appropriate frames?”

Forbidden Planet—which...

Kick evil’s butt with this Idle Hands shirt and sticker from Cavity Colors. You know the drill, these items are limited and are available for only 72 hours. Also in today’s Horror Highlights: even more Sdcc 2016 The Twilight Zone figures from Bif Bang Pow! and Entertainment Earth, and a new poster for Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon.

Images and Release Details for Cavity Colors’ Idle Hands Shirt and Sticker: From Cavity Colors: “Idle hands are the devils playground…

Available For 72 Hours Only!

Also available on: Girls Shirts / Tank Tops / Baseball Tees

Quantities / sizes are limited, so don’t miss out!

Style: Unisex T-shirt- click size chart below for measurements.

Printed on our ultra soft Black 100% cotton T-shirts.

Includes printed size tag / logo

Art By: Devon Whitehead

Shipping: Pre-order – Ships In Late June / Early July.

$ 25.00

Sticker: Limited Edition Of Only 125 Stickers.

Style: High quality Die-Cut vinyl sticker.

Features...

By Todd Garbarini

The Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a fun-filled weekend of six science fiction classics from Friday, April 15th to Sunday, April 17th. Several cast members from the films are scheduled to appear in person at respective screenings, so read on for more information:

From the press release:

Anniversary Classics Sci-Fi Weekend

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: www.laemmle.com/ac.

Re-visit the Golden Age of the Science Fiction Film as Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents Sci-fi Weekend, a festival of six classic films April 15-17 at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

It was dawn of the Atomic Age and the Cold War, as Communist and nuclear war paranoia swept onto the nation’s movie screens to both terrify and entertain the American public. All the favorite icons are here: Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet,...

All hail Frank Tashlin! America's subversive secret weapon of the 1950s made incredible adult live-action cartoon movies that satirized all the sex and vulgarity denied by the mainstream. In Technicolor! Political incorrectness meets lollypop-sweet sentimentality in a farce that transcends good taste. Susan Slept Here Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Alvy Moore, Glenda Farrell, Horace McMahon, Herb Vigran, Les Tremayne, Mara Lane, Maidie Norman, Rita Johnson, Ellen Corby, Red Skelton. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Film Editor Harry Marker Original Music Leigh Harline Choreographer Robert Sidney Written by Alex Gottlieb from a play by Gottlieb and Steve Fisher Produced by Harriet Parsons Directed by Frank Tashlin

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Director Frank Tashlin has finally found an appreciative audience with adventurous film fans, but the charms of his glorious style of filmmaking are unknown to...

Jim Knipfel Mar 15, 2019

Forbidden Planet is still dazzling and subversive, and an influence on most major space opera science fiction.

Despite the sudden and unexpected explosion in the popularity of science fiction films in the early 1950s, a number of major studios were resistant to the trend, considering the genre to be B-film fodder at best, and at worst childish gutter trash that was beneath them. When it became apparent just how much money could be made with sci-fi, however, most eventually relented. One neat trick that was used to justify taking the dive while preserving a bit of pride and self-respect was to produce lavish, big budget Technicolor adaptations of established sci-fi literary classics. As a result we ended up with George Pal’s versions of War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and Philip Wylie’s When Worlds Collide. Let Pal toss in his trademark heavy-handed Christian subtext,...

Ryan Lambie Mar 18, 2019

The 1956 classic Forbidden Planet had a huge influence on sci-fi, especially Star Trek and Star Wars...

The 1950s was a golden age for science fiction cinema. The decade saw the appearance of a succession of genre classics, including The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing From Another World, The War Of The Worlds, and This Island Earth.

The period's movies reflected America's fascination with the possibilities of future technology, and also a creeping sense of paranoia about the subversive potential of Communism, reflected in spectacular "Reds under the bed" films such as Invaders From Mars (1953) and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956), in which an insidious alien menace stripped mankind of its individuality.

Of all those '50s classics, one film stands among them all as a true sci-fi icon. Released by MGM in 1956, director Fred M. Wilcox's Forbidden Planet was the most expensive and ambitious...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

"Film historian Bruce Crawford has announced the film to be presented at his 37th Tribute to Classic Films will be the science fiction masterpiece, "Forbidden Planet”. The film will be screened on Friday, October 23th. 2015 at the beautiful Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge St. Omaha, Nebraska. Often considered one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, it inspired several films and television series such as Star Trek. “Forbidden Planet” stars Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis. But the character that became one of the most successful in the film was Robby the Robot who is still today one of the most recognizable robot creations in film history. The evening's special guest will be actor, author and producer Robert Dix who portrayed crewman Grey in the film. Dix is also the son of legendary silent era star Richard Dix. Also, as with other Classic Film Tributes,...