Notizie

While Ronald Reagan will always be known as the 40th President of the United States, before entering politics, he had a successful career as a Hollywood star. With acclaimed roles in dramas, war movies, and Westerns, Reagans impressive entertainment career showcased him as a heroic leading man and likely influenced the American public's desire for him to then act as the countrys commander-in-chief. While Reagan has continued to remain a prominent figure on the big screen, such as through Dennis Quiads performance in the 2024 biopic exploring his presidency, looking back on his movies, several great roles stand out.

Although many actors have played Reagan in movies and TV shows, the former president himself has also portrayed some truly iconic characters. Reagan's Hollywood career was categorized by variety as he portrayed everything from real-life football legend George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American to the chimpanzee teaching psychologist Peter Boyd in Bedtime for Bonzo.

Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary director, lent his name to "The Three Investigators" book series, appearing as a supporting character and offering advice. The decision to use Hitchcock's name was made by author Robert Arthur Jr. to bring attention to the series, as he had knowledge of Hitchcock's work. After Hitchcock's death, his name was removed from the books and replaced with a fictional film director, Hector Sebastian, due to a copyright change or royalty issue.

For approximately 60 years, Alfred Hitchcock dominated the movie scene with his suspenseful and thrilling films, however, one lesser known fact about the British director is that he was also the star of a long-running book series for young adults entitled "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators." Alfred Hitchcock began his film career in the early 1920s and, over many decades, proved himself a cinema legend up until the release of his final film, 1976's The Family Plot.

In the glory days of Universal Pictures, the studio had two big things going for it at the box office: the Universal Monsters, and a comedy duo known as Abbott and Costello. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello met on the burlesque circuit — the story goes that one day, Costello's regular comedy partner got sick, allowing Abbott to step in and begin a long, prosperous partnership. Abbott, tall and thin, was the straight man; a surly, frowning bully who frequently had it up to here with his sidekick. Costello, short and stout, was the fool; the childlike clown who was prone to falling down and acting like a buffoon, all to Abbott's annoyance. The act worked like gangbusters, with the duo moving on to radio before landing a movie contract in 1940. By 1942, they were considered to be the top box office stars in the country.

As for the Universal Monsters, they...

“Two smoldering women made all the danger worthwhile!”… heck, we didn’t even see ’em catch fire. John Wayne is charismatic and Andrew V. McLaglen’s direction is decent for once in this formulaic ‘easy listening’ pot-boiler from the Wayne school of laid-back ’60s entertainment. After winning the Vietnam War, our intrepid action man extinguishes 101 out-of-control oil fires, which appear to happen every twenty minutes. When nothing’s burning, there are plenty of domestic tangles to straighten out with the womenfolk. In support are Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Bruce Cabot and Jay C. Flippen. It’s old-fashioned but not embarrassing — Wayne still has his charm.

Hellfighters

Blu-ray

Mill Creek

1968 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date May 4, 2021 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 19.99

Starring: John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Jay C. Flippen, Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner, Barbara Stuart, Edmund Hashim, Valentin de Vargas, Frances Fong, Alberto Morin,...

Joan Crawford in 'Mildred Pierce.' 'Mildred Pierce' review: Very entertaining soap opera Time has a way of making some films seem grander than they really are. A good example is Mildred Pierce, the 1945 black-and-white melodrama directed by Casablanca's Michael Curtiz, and that won star Joan Crawford a Best Actress Oscar. Mildred Pierce is in no way, shape, or form great art, even though it's certainly not a bad film. In fact, as a soap opera it's quite entertaining – no, make that very entertaining; and entertainment is a quality that can stand on its own. (The problem in recent decades is that cinema has become nothing but entertainment.) In the case of Mildred Pierce, the entertainment is formulaic and rather predictable – but in an enjoyable, campy sort of way. Unbridled Hollywood melodrama Now, what makes Mildred Pierce a melodrama is something known as the Dumbest Possible Action – Dpa for short.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 4, 2014

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Kirk Douglas gets the scoop in Ace in the Hole.

Billy Wilder’s (Sabrina) 1951 film noir drama Ace in the Hole is one of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker.

Kirk Douglas (Paths of Glory) gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter who washes up in dead-end Albuquerque, happens upon the scoop of a lifetime, and will do anything to keep getting the lurid headlines.

Also starring Jan Sterling and Bob Arthur, Wilder’s follow-up to his ominously alluring Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé of the American media’s appetite for sensation that has gotten only more relevant with time.

Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo edition of the movie contains the following features, the bulk of them ported over from...