Courtesy of Kino Lorber
by Chad Kennerk
Considered the first film noir to feature a leading black protagonist, Odds Against Tomorrow is a vital entry in the noir canon. Directed by legend Robert Wise and produced by star Harry Belafonte’s HarBel Productions, the gritty look at racial tension is also one of cinema’s most important films about prejudice. Created amidst growing disquiet in America, the film heralds the explosive events to come at the dawn of the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement.
The screenplay was based on the novel by William P. McGivern (The Big Heat) and secretly written by Abraham Polonsky, who penned the screenplays for films such as Body and Soul and Force of Evil. Polonsky had been blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, so Belafonte approached black novelist and friend John O. Killens to serve as the credited screenwriter. It would take until...
by Chad Kennerk
Considered the first film noir to feature a leading black protagonist, Odds Against Tomorrow is a vital entry in the noir canon. Directed by legend Robert Wise and produced by star Harry Belafonte’s HarBel Productions, the gritty look at racial tension is also one of cinema’s most important films about prejudice. Created amidst growing disquiet in America, the film heralds the explosive events to come at the dawn of the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement.
The screenplay was based on the novel by William P. McGivern (The Big Heat) and secretly written by Abraham Polonsky, who penned the screenplays for films such as Body and Soul and Force of Evil. Polonsky had been blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, so Belafonte approached black novelist and friend John O. Killens to serve as the credited screenwriter. It would take until...
- 1/20/2024
- by Chad Kennerk
- Film Review Daily
2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the classic slasher Sleepaway Camp (watch it Here), and 1984 Publishing has announced that they will be celebrating with the release of the “making of” book Sleepaway Camp: Making the Movie and Reigniting the Campfire, as well as a 4-song soundtrack EP! The street date for these releases is October 24th. Hardcover copies of the book can already be pre-ordered on Amazon – but if you want the EP, you’ll have to order directly from 1984 Publishing, and they’re not taking pre-orders just yet.
Written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, Sleepaway Camp has the following synopsis:
After a terrible boating accident killed her family, shy Angela Baker went to live with her eccentric Aunt Martha and her cousin Ricky. This summer, Martha decides to send them both to Camp Arawak, a place to enjoy the great outdoors. Shortly after their arrival, a series of bizarre and...
Written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, Sleepaway Camp has the following synopsis:
After a terrible boating accident killed her family, shy Angela Baker went to live with her eccentric Aunt Martha and her cousin Ricky. This summer, Martha decides to send them both to Camp Arawak, a place to enjoy the great outdoors. Shortly after their arrival, a series of bizarre and...
- 8/7/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
America doesn’t have a system of knights or dames, as Britain, Australia and New Zealand do. If there were such a system, Cicely Tyson would have undoubtedly been honored. But Tyson, who died on Thursday, a month after her 96th birthday, didn’t need any government-sanctioned titles: Admirers such as Ava DuVernay, Tyler Perry and Shonda Rhimes call her Queen Cicely, which was much more appropriate for her.
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Robert Redford movies: TCM shows 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting' They don't make movie stars like they used to, back in the days of Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Harry Cohn. That's what nostalgists have been bitching about for the last four or five decades; never mind the fact that movie stars have remained as big as ever despite the demise of the old studio system and the spectacular rise of television more than sixty years ago. This month of January 2015, Turner Classic Movies will be honoring one such post-studio era superstar: Robert Redford. Beginning this Monday evening, January 6, TCM will be presenting 15 Robert Redford movies. Tonight's entries include Redford's two biggest blockbusters, both directed by George Roy Hill and co-starring Paul Newman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which turned Redford, already in his early 30s, into a major film star to rival Rudolph Valentino,...
- 1/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Just in time for Christmas, and to celebrate its release on blu-ray earlier this year, we are giving three lucky readers the opportunity to win a copy of The Sting Limited Edition Digibook, which was launched to celebrate Universal Studios’ 100th anniversary.
In 1930s Illinois, young hustler Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) vows revenge after his older partner (Robert Earl Jones) is murdered at the behest of kingpin Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) in retribution for a con pulled on one of his runners. Travelling to Chicago, Hooker teams up with old hand Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), and together they plan the ultimate ‘sting’ against Donnegan. This re-teaming of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, following the success of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’, won seven Oscars and helped repopularize the music of Scott Joplin, which features heavily on Marvin Hamlisch’s soundtrack.
The Sting Limited Edition Digibook is available to buy now.
In 1930s Illinois, young hustler Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) vows revenge after his older partner (Robert Earl Jones) is murdered at the behest of kingpin Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) in retribution for a con pulled on one of his runners. Travelling to Chicago, Hooker teams up with old hand Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), and together they plan the ultimate ‘sting’ against Donnegan. This re-teaming of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, following the success of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’, won seven Oscars and helped repopularize the music of Scott Joplin, which features heavily on Marvin Hamlisch’s soundtrack.
The Sting Limited Edition Digibook is available to buy now.
- 11/15/2012
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
Cue Scott Joplin music and prepare to have tons of fun with Newman, Redford, and director George Roy Hill. The trio captures much of the magic that happened with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as well as capturing Oscar gold. The con is on. Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) is an up and coming con man under the tutelage of Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones). When the duo pull a con and get the purse of gangster Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) he orders that they two get rubbed out for the offense. Only Luther gets killed and Hooker is on the run. He runs to more experienced con man Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to plan revenge against...
- 6/4/2012
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
Chicago, the Great Depression. Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and his long time cohort Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) run an unexpectedly successful street hustle, unwittingly grabbing thousands of dollars from a foot soldier of Robert Shaw’s Doyle Lonnegan, who was on his way to drop the money off. Lonnegan decides to send a message by having Luther killed and Hooker knows his card is marked too. Vowing revenge, Hooker joins forces with Paul Newman’s veteran con-artist Henry Gondorff to plan and execute the eponymous sting on Lonnegan, but the police and FBI are closing in on everyone and Hooker may have to betray Gondorff to save his own neck.
*****
Evidence that every now and then the Oscars do get it right, The Sting’s win for Best Picture in 1974, even up against Friedkin’s The Exorcist, was wholly merited. Although written by a relatively untried screenwriter (David S. Ward...
*****
Evidence that every now and then the Oscars do get it right, The Sting’s win for Best Picture in 1974, even up against Friedkin’s The Exorcist, was wholly merited. Although written by a relatively untried screenwriter (David S. Ward...
- 6/4/2012
- by Dave Roper
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
James Earl Jones has been breaking down barriers since the 1950s. As he prepares to star in an all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he tells Maddy Costa about his absent father, elderly sex – and why his stutter was his salvation
The septuagenarian walking slowly through the Novello theatre in London looks like an archetypal American tourist. Tall and wide, he wears a puffy gilet that makes him seem even bulkier, while a faded baseball cap shades his face. Yet this ordinary-looking man is one of America's pre-eminent actors: James Earl Jones. Over the last 50 years, he has won two Tony awards (playing a boxer in The Great White Hope, and for his role in August Wilson's Fences), an Oscar nomination (for the film of The Great White Hope), as well as multiple Emmy nominations and awards for his TV work.
You wouldn't know any of this to look at him,...
The septuagenarian walking slowly through the Novello theatre in London looks like an archetypal American tourist. Tall and wide, he wears a puffy gilet that makes him seem even bulkier, while a faded baseball cap shades his face. Yet this ordinary-looking man is one of America's pre-eminent actors: James Earl Jones. Over the last 50 years, he has won two Tony awards (playing a boxer in The Great White Hope, and for his role in August Wilson's Fences), an Oscar nomination (for the film of The Great White Hope), as well as multiple Emmy nominations and awards for his TV work.
You wouldn't know any of this to look at him,...
- 11/23/2009
- by Maddy Costa
- The Guardian - Film News
Broadway veteran Robert Earl Jones has died at the age of 96. The actor, whose son James Earl Jones found fame voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies, passed away at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home in New Jersey earlier this month. Jones starred as boxing champion Joe Louis in Spirit Of Youth among other films and Broadway productions. However, his career was briefly interrupted in the 1950s when he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Of Un-American Activities Committee. He later had roles in Odds Against Tomorrow, Wild River, The Sting and Witness, as well as a string of stage parts alongside his son. He is survived by James Earl Jones, another son Matthew Earl Jones and a grandson.
- 9/20/2006
- WENN
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