There’s a story Alfred Hitchcock always liked to tell about how, when he was five years old, his father dropped him off at the local police station near his home in East London. William Hitchcock left a note for the coppers explaining that his son had been misbehaving. A policeman locked young Alfred in a cell for a few minutes and explained, “This is what we do to naughty boys.”
When Hitchcock recounted that story to Dick Cavett he was in his 70s, but the incident continued to leave a profound mark on the director. He said he was still “terrified of the police” because of that and drew a connection from that to the feelings of guilt and wrong-men-on-the-run paranoia that seeps into so many of his films.
The funny thing is, though, father characters are almost entirely absent from Hitchcock’s work. There are a few: Cedric Hardwicke...
When Hitchcock recounted that story to Dick Cavett he was in his 70s, but the incident continued to leave a profound mark on the director. He said he was still “terrified of the police” because of that and drew a connection from that to the feelings of guilt and wrong-men-on-the-run paranoia that seeps into so many of his films.
The funny thing is, though, father characters are almost entirely absent from Hitchcock’s work. There are a few: Cedric Hardwicke...
- 5/12/2024
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
World War II was still raging in May 1944. The allied invasion of Normandy — aka D-Day — was just around the corner on June 6th. Americans kept the home fires burning and escaped from the global conflict by going to the movies. Two of the biggest films of the year, Leo McCarey’s “Going My Way” and George Cukor’s “Gaslight,” recently celebrated their 80th anniversaries.
Actually, “Going My Way” had a special “Fighting Front” premiere on April 27th: 65 prints were shipped to battle fronts and shown “from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The sentimental comedy-drama-musical arrived in New York on May 3rd.
And it was just the uplifting film audiences needed. Bing Crosby starred as Father O’Malley, a laid-back young priest who arrives at a debt-ridden New York City church that is run by the older, set-in-his ways Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The elder...
Actually, “Going My Way” had a special “Fighting Front” premiere on April 27th: 65 prints were shipped to battle fronts and shown “from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The sentimental comedy-drama-musical arrived in New York on May 3rd.
And it was just the uplifting film audiences needed. Bing Crosby starred as Father O’Malley, a laid-back young priest who arrives at a debt-ridden New York City church that is run by the older, set-in-his ways Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The elder...
- 5/9/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Linda Haynes, who notably appeared in films including “Coffy,” “Rolling Thunder,” “The Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina — the news had not spread widely until Friday. She was 75.
“It is with great sadness that I report that my mother, Linda Haynes Sylvander has passed away, peacefully at home,” her son Greg Sylvander wrote on Facebook on Friday. She had moved to South Carolina three years ago to live with Greg. “As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely.”
Haynes’ first film was 1969’s “Latitude Zero,” an international co-production directed by legendary Japanese filmmaker Ishirō Honda. The movie co-starred Joseph Cotton and Cesar Romero, among others. It was in the 1970s,...
“It is with great sadness that I report that my mother, Linda Haynes Sylvander has passed away, peacefully at home,” her son Greg Sylvander wrote on Facebook on Friday. She had moved to South Carolina three years ago to live with Greg. “As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace and had the most beautiful life these final years together with her grandchildren, Courtney Sylvander and I. We are going to miss my mom immensely.”
Haynes’ first film was 1969’s “Latitude Zero,” an international co-production directed by legendary Japanese filmmaker Ishirō Honda. The movie co-starred Joseph Cotton and Cesar Romero, among others. It was in the 1970s,...
- 8/11/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
Few literary figures have achieved the same kind of pop culture afterlife as Edgar Allan Poe. Much like Franz Kafka, the idea of Poe has become conflated with the writer's most famous works: The tragic, haunted figure, scribbling away feverishly by candlelight, only pausing occasionally to fling open the shutters of his window and gaze out into the night beyond with fear and trepidation.
This romantic notion makes Poe an intriguing character who has carried well into other mediums. There are hundreds of comics based on the author and/or his works (even teaming up with the Dark Knight in "Batman: Nevermore"), as well as stage plays, radio shows, books, and, of course, movies. The controversial master of silent cinema, D.W. Griffith, directed the first film based on the author, "Edgar Allan Poe," back in 1909, and actors including Joseph Cotton, Klaus Kinski, and Ben Chaplin have all played the gloomy author on screen.
This romantic notion makes Poe an intriguing character who has carried well into other mediums. There are hundreds of comics based on the author and/or his works (even teaming up with the Dark Knight in "Batman: Nevermore"), as well as stage plays, radio shows, books, and, of course, movies. The controversial master of silent cinema, D.W. Griffith, directed the first film based on the author, "Edgar Allan Poe," back in 1909, and actors including Joseph Cotton, Klaus Kinski, and Ben Chaplin have all played the gloomy author on screen.
- 4/8/2023
- by Lee Adams
- Slash Film
When news of Angela Lansbury’s death broke on Tuesday, less than a week before her 97th birthday, a major link to the entertainment world of the past was severed. A legend of the stage, television, and cinema, the London-born Lansbury’s career began in 1944 with the George Cukor-directed thriller “Gaslight” starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotton. Revolutionary theater work followed, including the first Broadway production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” and then, of course, the 264 episodes of “Murder, She Wrote.”
Over the years she had three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress and was presented with an Honorary Oscar in 2013. She won five competitive Tony Awards and received a Lifetime Achievement award in 2020. She was nominated for 18 Primetime Emmys, but never nabbed the statue, and also was nominated for one Grammy, for the “Beauty and the Beast” soundtrack.
Many notables were...
Over the years she had three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress and was presented with an Honorary Oscar in 2013. She won five competitive Tony Awards and received a Lifetime Achievement award in 2020. She was nominated for 18 Primetime Emmys, but never nabbed the statue, and also was nominated for one Grammy, for the “Beauty and the Beast” soundtrack.
Many notables were...
- 10/12/2022
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
1953 was an important year for Marilyn Monroe. She'd been appearing in films since 1947, but '53 is when she became a star. That year, she appeared in three films for 20th Century Fox and one of them stands tall as defining her legendary screen persona: director Howard Hawks' "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Monroe plays Lorelei Lee, the titular blonde and one of the film's two co-leads; the other is her brunette best friend Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell). Lorelei is a bit ditzy and not shy about her expensive tastes (in men and otherwise), but there's no more loyal friend around.
Earlier that year, Monroe starred in the technicolor thriller "Niagara" as the murderous Rose Loomis, who conspires with her lover (Richard Allen) to murder her husband (Joseph Cotton). Hawks' film, though, was a musical comedy. Since she was playing a totally different type of character, Monroe needed to show a different side of herself.
Monroe plays Lorelei Lee, the titular blonde and one of the film's two co-leads; the other is her brunette best friend Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell). Lorelei is a bit ditzy and not shy about her expensive tastes (in men and otherwise), but there's no more loyal friend around.
Earlier that year, Monroe starred in the technicolor thriller "Niagara" as the murderous Rose Loomis, who conspires with her lover (Richard Allen) to murder her husband (Joseph Cotton). Hawks' film, though, was a musical comedy. Since she was playing a totally different type of character, Monroe needed to show a different side of herself.
- 9/26/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Hello, dear readers! We’re back with a brand-new batch of horror and sci-fi home media releases that will be out this Tuesday. One of my favorite films of 2021, Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections is being released on various formats this week, and two other great 2021 releases—Agnes and Silent—are headed to both Blu-ray and DVD as well. Dario Argento’s Phenomena is getting the 4K treatment courtesy of the fine fiends over at Synapse Films, and Full Moon is showing some love to a pair of cult films—Island of the Fishmen and Mansion of the Doomed—that fans will undoubtedly want to check out.
Other genre home media releases for March 8th include Monster From Green Hell: Special Edition, 13 Fanboy, The Legend of La Llorona, Video Psycho, Night of Doom, and the final season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Agnes
Inside a quaint convent,...
Other genre home media releases for March 8th include Monster From Green Hell: Special Edition, 13 Fanboy, The Legend of La Llorona, Video Psycho, Night of Doom, and the final season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Agnes
Inside a quaint convent,...
- 3/7/2022
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
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“Citizen Kane” is being restored by the Criterion Collection in honor of the film’s 80th anniversary. Regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, “Citizen Kane” follows the story of a reporter tasked with decoding the meaning of “Rosebud” — the final word uttered by Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) on his death bed. Kane, a fictitious newspaper mogul, was inspired by real-life tycoons William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, Samuel Insull, and Harold McCormick.
The Criterion edition of Welles’ 1941 feature film directorial debut will be released on November 23, but you can pre-order it now to make sure that you get a copy (in case they sell out during the Black Friday...
“Citizen Kane” is being restored by the Criterion Collection in honor of the film’s 80th anniversary. Regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, “Citizen Kane” follows the story of a reporter tasked with decoding the meaning of “Rosebud” — the final word uttered by Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) on his death bed. Kane, a fictitious newspaper mogul, was inspired by real-life tycoons William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, Samuel Insull, and Harold McCormick.
The Criterion edition of Welles’ 1941 feature film directorial debut will be released on November 23, but you can pre-order it now to make sure that you get a copy (in case they sell out during the Black Friday...
- 11/4/2021
- by Latifah Muhammad
- Indiewire
All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
The glamour of Old Hollywood is timeless, but the holiday season is a great time to purchase one of these classic film-themed gifts. In addition to curating broadcast lineups of the greatest films of all time (from one of the largest film libraries in the world), Turner Classic Movies has also curated a wide variety of gifts for the classic film fan in your life — or yourself, if that’s you. And if you subscribe to Hulu Live or Sling TV, you can stream all the TCM movies your heart desires. If you’re not subscribed, Hulu Live costs just $64.99 a month after a free seven-day trial. That means you can officially cut...
The glamour of Old Hollywood is timeless, but the holiday season is a great time to purchase one of these classic film-themed gifts. In addition to curating broadcast lineups of the greatest films of all time (from one of the largest film libraries in the world), Turner Classic Movies has also curated a wide variety of gifts for the classic film fan in your life — or yourself, if that’s you. And if you subscribe to Hulu Live or Sling TV, you can stream all the TCM movies your heart desires. If you’re not subscribed, Hulu Live costs just $64.99 a month after a free seven-day trial. That means you can officially cut...
- 11/2/2021
- by Jean Bentley and Latifah Muhammad
- Indiewire
All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
What makes film noir so fascinating? There are a lot of components that come into play with noir films, but cynicism, suspenseful music, a mysterious plot, figures lurking in the shadows, femme fatales, and fedora-wearing detectives are some of the staples of the classics.
Film noir, or “dark cinema,” was first coined by a French film critic in 1946 to describe the downtrodden themes in American movies. Although the term wasn’t widely adopted by American directors until years later, the ’40s and ’50s are regarded as a classic era that produced pioneering noirs such as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Double Indemnity.”
With that in mind, we have curated a list of films that...
What makes film noir so fascinating? There are a lot of components that come into play with noir films, but cynicism, suspenseful music, a mysterious plot, figures lurking in the shadows, femme fatales, and fedora-wearing detectives are some of the staples of the classics.
Film noir, or “dark cinema,” was first coined by a French film critic in 1946 to describe the downtrodden themes in American movies. Although the term wasn’t widely adopted by American directors until years later, the ’40s and ’50s are regarded as a classic era that produced pioneering noirs such as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Double Indemnity.”
With that in mind, we have curated a list of films that...
- 8/11/2021
- by Latifah Muhammad
- Indiewire
In the tradition of “All the President’s Men” and “Spotlight,” “Collective” is a modern detective story about a team of journalists who uncover corruption within a power structure. Though made with the tension and precision of a feature, this Romanian film directed by Alexander Nanau is a documentary — the first, in fact, to be submitted by Romania for the Best International Film Oscar.
The movie begins with a tragic 2015 fire at a nightclub named Colectiv in Bucharest, Romania. From there, Nanau follows a small team of reporters from Gazeta Sporturilor, a daily sports paper of all things, who discover a web of systemic fraud that killed dozens of the fire’s survivors — with a curious echo of the classic 1949 film “The Third Man” starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles.
“It was a democracy that had been basically taken over by corrupted populist politicians,” Nanau told TheWrap from his home in Romania.
The movie begins with a tragic 2015 fire at a nightclub named Colectiv in Bucharest, Romania. From there, Nanau follows a small team of reporters from Gazeta Sporturilor, a daily sports paper of all things, who discover a web of systemic fraud that killed dozens of the fire’s survivors — with a curious echo of the classic 1949 film “The Third Man” starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles.
“It was a democracy that had been basically taken over by corrupted populist politicians,” Nanau told TheWrap from his home in Romania.
- 1/5/2021
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
The taglines for the 1966 overstuffed turkey “The Oscar give viewers a preview of the machinations of this camp delight- “The Dreams and the Schemers… the Hustlers and the Hopefuls…All Fight for the Highest Award!”
And you thought there was a lot of campaigning now for the Academy Award!
Kino Lorber has unleashed “The Oscar” just in time for the Academy Awards Sunday on Blu-ray with a brand new 4K restoration and two audio commentaries- one with film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and a much more funny and caustic one with comic/actor Patton Oswalt, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) and producer/writer/director Erik Nelson.
“The Oscar” was penned by Harlan Ellison, yes Harlan Ellison of “A Boy and His Dog,” “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone” fame and the team of Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, who penned the 1949 classic noir “D.O.A.,...
And you thought there was a lot of campaigning now for the Academy Award!
Kino Lorber has unleashed “The Oscar” just in time for the Academy Awards Sunday on Blu-ray with a brand new 4K restoration and two audio commentaries- one with film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and a much more funny and caustic one with comic/actor Patton Oswalt, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) and producer/writer/director Erik Nelson.
“The Oscar” was penned by Harlan Ellison, yes Harlan Ellison of “A Boy and His Dog,” “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone” fame and the team of Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, who penned the 1949 classic noir “D.O.A.,...
- 2/6/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Jerry Fogel, a longtime screen actor best remembered as the beleaguered bridegroom Jerry Buell on NBC’s 1960s sitcom The Mothers-in-Law, has died, He was 83.
Fogel, who diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008, died Monday at the Kansas City Hospice House in Kansas City, Mo, his family announced.
The son of a Rochester, NY, movie theater owner, Fogel found his first showbiz audience in his hometown as a highly rated disc jockey for Wbbf-am, a local rock ‘n’ roll radio station. Fogel signed off in Rochester, however, when he signed up with the William Morris Agency and headed west to seek his fortune in Hollywood. His big break arrived in the form of The Mothers-in-Law, a Desi Arnaz production created by I Love Lucy writing tandem Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh Davis.
The show, aired from 1967-68, was about the “relative” insanity that a just-eloped couple, Jerry (Fogel) and Susie...
Fogel, who diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008, died Monday at the Kansas City Hospice House in Kansas City, Mo, his family announced.
The son of a Rochester, NY, movie theater owner, Fogel found his first showbiz audience in his hometown as a highly rated disc jockey for Wbbf-am, a local rock ‘n’ roll radio station. Fogel signed off in Rochester, however, when he signed up with the William Morris Agency and headed west to seek his fortune in Hollywood. His big break arrived in the form of The Mothers-in-Law, a Desi Arnaz production created by I Love Lucy writing tandem Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh Davis.
The show, aired from 1967-68, was about the “relative” insanity that a just-eloped couple, Jerry (Fogel) and Susie...
- 10/23/2019
- by Geoff Boucher
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Orson Welles | Written by Orson Welles, Booth Tarkington (novel) | Directed by Orson Welles
Aka the film that Orson Welles made after Citizen Kane, and which has become synonymous with studio interference. Perhaps an hour of footage was slashed and burned, hence the 90-minute version we are left with. Though, even without the full vision of Welles, it’s a cracking piece of cinema.
On the surface The Magnificent Ambersons is a simple story of youthful jealousy and impudence. It’s the early 20th century, and the western world is on the cusp of an automobile revolution. 20-year-old George (Tim Holt) doesn’t see it as such – he just sees an opportunistic businessman named Eugene (Joseph Cotton) trying to seduce his lonely mother, Isabel (Dolores Costello).
George has no great ambitions of his own. What use are ambitions when he...
Aka the film that Orson Welles made after Citizen Kane, and which has become synonymous with studio interference. Perhaps an hour of footage was slashed and burned, hence the 90-minute version we are left with. Though, even without the full vision of Welles, it’s a cracking piece of cinema.
On the surface The Magnificent Ambersons is a simple story of youthful jealousy and impudence. It’s the early 20th century, and the western world is on the cusp of an automobile revolution. 20-year-old George (Tim Holt) doesn’t see it as such – he just sees an opportunistic businessman named Eugene (Joseph Cotton) trying to seduce his lonely mother, Isabel (Dolores Costello).
George has no great ambitions of his own. What use are ambitions when he...
- 12/13/2018
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
The saying goes that books and their covers aren’t always the same or words to that effect; this particular logic had long been applied to the hallowed halls of the video stores, as eye-popping box art used to lure an unsuspecting victim could lead to atrocities or worse, boredom. And then there’s Screamers (1981), which promises something cool and twisted on the cover yet delivers a completely different film – an Italian period adventure tale with killer fish guys filleting to and fro. Different? You bet. Kind of delightful? Definitely.
The cover of Screamers boasts well, a screaming man who has been turned inside out, or rather appears just to be wearing his veins like an Italian horror wetsuit. Groovy, right? Well you can thank Roger Corman and his New World Pictures for the hucksterism; Screamers original title is The Island of the Fishmen, made in ’79, director Sergio Martino (Torso...
The cover of Screamers boasts well, a screaming man who has been turned inside out, or rather appears just to be wearing his veins like an Italian horror wetsuit. Groovy, right? Well you can thank Roger Corman and his New World Pictures for the hucksterism; Screamers original title is The Island of the Fishmen, made in ’79, director Sergio Martino (Torso...
- 9/29/2018
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
TV or, not TV, that is the question. The answer is TV.
I know, I’ve spent the past five columns writing about a TV show and not comic books, and also four out of the five columns before that doing the same. But sometimes these TV shows are just asking for it.
Like “By His Own Verdict,” the November 15, 1963 episode of 77 Sunset Strip. Okay, most of us weren’t even born when this episode first aired. And those of us who were – like, gulp, me – couldn’t shave yet. But the law involved in the story hasn’t changed in the almost fifty-five years since the episode aired. In fact, it’s been the law since 1910, which is before all of us were born. So the topic is still topical, even if it’s not timely.
Joseph Cotton played Arnold Buhler, a criminal defense attorney who was about to retire.
I know, I’ve spent the past five columns writing about a TV show and not comic books, and also four out of the five columns before that doing the same. But sometimes these TV shows are just asking for it.
Like “By His Own Verdict,” the November 15, 1963 episode of 77 Sunset Strip. Okay, most of us weren’t even born when this episode first aired. And those of us who were – like, gulp, me – couldn’t shave yet. But the law involved in the story hasn’t changed in the almost fifty-five years since the episode aired. In fact, it’s been the law since 1910, which is before all of us were born. So the topic is still topical, even if it’s not timely.
Joseph Cotton played Arnold Buhler, a criminal defense attorney who was about to retire.
- 9/5/2018
- by Bob Ingersoll
- Comicmix.com
Review by Roger Carpenter
Even the great Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, was capable of producing a flop now and then, and Under Capricorn was just that—a big budget, star-studded, Technicolor affair that failed miserably at the box office as well as in the critic’s circle. In fact, even after a half-century to re-evaluate the film, many critics and Hitchcock fans dismiss Under Capricorn as merely a blip in Hitchcock’s oeuvre, which is unfair as the film, while not the standard fare one would expect from the filmmaker, is still a quality gothic romance.
Joseph Cotton stars as Sam Flusky, a one-time inmate in Australia’s penal colony who was released after completing his sentence and has become one of the wealthiest denizens of New South Wales. Flusky is married to Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman), who is a very sick woman and rarely leaves her bedroom.
It...
Even the great Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, was capable of producing a flop now and then, and Under Capricorn was just that—a big budget, star-studded, Technicolor affair that failed miserably at the box office as well as in the critic’s circle. In fact, even after a half-century to re-evaluate the film, many critics and Hitchcock fans dismiss Under Capricorn as merely a blip in Hitchcock’s oeuvre, which is unfair as the film, while not the standard fare one would expect from the filmmaker, is still a quality gothic romance.
Joseph Cotton stars as Sam Flusky, a one-time inmate in Australia’s penal colony who was released after completing his sentence and has become one of the wealthiest denizens of New South Wales. Flusky is married to Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman), who is a very sick woman and rarely leaves her bedroom.
It...
- 8/23/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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