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There’s no doubt that John Ford was a master of the Western genre. Ford’s eye for storytelling made him one of the greatest directors of all time, and when it came to depicting the Civil War in How the West Was Won, he brought the same sharp vision that defined his career. The film is separated into five segments, each directed by a different filmmaker, about a frontier family experiencing defining moments of the 19th century.

In John Ford’s Civil War chapter, the story follows Zeb Rawlings (George Peppard), a young man drawn into the conflict despite his mother’s desperate wish to keep him out of it. Zeb witnesses the horrors of the Battle of Shiloh, losing his father in the process, and later returns home to find his mother dead and his family farm no longer a place he belongs. Ford’s direction makes this...

While some actors have gone out on a high note with extremely memorable final films, there are other performers whose final roles may surprise viewers. Whether they passed away or retired, it’s always sad to say goodbye to icons of Hollywood, although sometimes their final roles were overshadowed by other work in their acclaimed careers. In some cases, a late-career performance was so popular that many viewers wrongly think it was their final swansong, or other times, a lackluster final movie tarnished an actor's legacy so much that it was best just forgotten about entirely.

Even though some of these actors’ final movies weren’t their most memorable or acclaimed, it’s important to note that a great Hollywood career is based on the cumulative works of a performer, and no actor should be judged on their last performance alone. With this in mind, it’s also essential to...

There have been many stories about Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean bonding during the production of George Stevens’ epic “Giant” in Marfa, Texas, in 1955. Though not exactly a “Harold & Maude” scenario, the 24-year-old Dean also developed a strong friendship with Edna Ferber, the diminutive Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such classic novels as “So Big,” “Showboat,” “Cimarron,” and “Giant,” who turned 70 that summer in Marfa. Ferber, who never married, was seen sitting on the back of Dean’s motorcycle as they would take rides during breaks. And she even tried her hand at twirling the lasso.

Author Julie Gilbert, Ferber’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated grand nice and biographer (“Ferber: The Biography of Edna Ferber and Her Circle”), doesn’t think the two were in love. “He was very young,” said Gilbert, who writes about her great aunt and the making of the Oscar-winning film in her latest book “Giant Love” set for a Dec.

Kevin Costner doesnt make short movies, and the actor probably knows the reason for this. During an appearance at the History Channels History Talks event, the Horizon director recalled one of the very first movies he remembers watching being the Western epic How the West Was Won at the age of around 7. It was also one of the movies that began his obsession with the American West, something that has remained with him across many of his movies.

Costner is currently in the middle of his ambitious and very costly passion project, Horizon. Envisioned as a four-part saga, Chapter 1 was released in cinemas earlier in the summer, but failed to make its mark at the box office thanks to a combined general lack of audience interest and some very mixed reviews from critics. This forced Warner Bros. who are distributing but not financing the movie to push back the release...

The most disturbing psychological thrillers dive into the darkest recesses of human nature and challenge viewers to confront uncomfortable themes. Filmmakers like David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky excel in creating thought-provoking and psychologically intense narratives in the thriller genre. Movies like The Game, Vertigo, and Requiem for a Dream leave a lasting impact on viewers by pushing boundaries and exploring themes of identity and trauma.

While thrillers can leave viewers on the edge of their seats with excitement, the most disturbing psychological thrillers get to the very heart of human nature and make audiences confront the darkest recesses of mankind. From heart-racing crime stories of sinister serial killers to surreal dreamscapes that shake the very foundations of perceived reality, the psychological thriller genre goes to extremes seldom seen in other types of movies. These tense and shocking stories can often be too much for viewers to bear, as the uncomfortable...

Disney delved into the horror genre in the 1980s due to a shift in audience preferences favoring high-stakes suspense. The Watcher in the Woods is a supernatural horror film featuring Bette Davis, aliens, ghosts, and the occult. After significant negative reactions, Disney made several changes to the film to fix the complicated ending, creating somewhat of a cult classic.

If you just so happened to watch any of the films Walt Disney Studios released in the 1980s, you could see that the subject matter and themes were, more often than not, a bit dark for the younger audience. This was because movies like George Lucas Star Wars and Steven Spielbergs Jaws dominated the box office and shifted audience dynamics. The days of good-natured, joyful characters that danced and sang their way to the finale were out, and high-stakes suspense with emotional arcs was in (due to a more teenage audience...

The plot twists in these films were mind-blowing and changed the viewing experience forever. Uncovering clues and unraveling the mysteries behind each twist was a thrilling journey. While rewatching brings new insights, nothing compares to the excitement of experiencing the twists for the first time.

Theres nothing more exciting than a well-executed plot twist, but sadly, once its been revealed, it's impossible to experience the film the same way ever again. While I agree that rewatching a movie with knowledge of its twist can also be very enjoyable, the experience has been irreparably changed because I cant help but constantly try to spot clues to its twist the whole way through. If only there was a way to erase these films from my memory, then I would love to go back and experience them again, like it was the very first time.

The best movie twists often come as total surprises in the moment,...

Quick Links What Is How the West Was Won About? What Is Cinerama? Why Were Four Cinematographers Used? Could Cinerama Make a 21st Century Comeback?

Released in 1962, How the West Was Won remains one of the most cherished epic movie Westerns on record. In addition to boasting a star-studded ensemble cast, the 3-time Oscar winner is a technical marvel that made history by becoming one of the first films to adopt Cinerama, a widescreen projection format allowing directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall to shoot the most expansive canvas possible.

Achieving the stunning technical feat required four cinematographers, each earning an Academy Award nomination. As Kevin Costner's epic Western Horizon struggles to find footing, a look back at How the West Was Won's groundbreaking cinematography, formatting, and depiction of the American frontier could help to revitalize a traditional movie genre that is becoming less popular in 2024.

What...

The 1962 Western film "How the West Was Won" showcased a star-studded ensemble cast, including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, and Debbie Reynolds. The movie's unique structure featured five different stories following the Prescott family, allowing each actor to have their moment to shine. "How the West Was Won" was a major success, grossing $50 million on a $15 million budget, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three.

A 1962 Western put together an impressive cast that elevated the film and made it an instant classic that would also become a box office champion and a critically acclaimed hit. Casting has always been one major factor in a movie's success, not just in terms of what the actors can deliver, but also the star power that comes with them. It was no different for Westerns, a genre that shaped some of the greatest actors of all time. Likewise, the works of actors like John Wayne,...

The Big Country, led by Gregory Peck, stood the test of time and earned a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film's star-studded cast and innovative techniques helped it to become a standout in the Western genre. Watch the timeless classic on MGM+, Fubo, or Pluto TV, and experience the visual storytelling for yourself.

Bringing an ensemble cast to the screen, led by Gregory Peck, The Big Country may not have made a major impact on its release in 1958. However, the film has gone on to be considered one of the best Westerns of the era and now sits at a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is due to various factors, but William Wyler's epic Western has continued to get accolades from those who discovered the movie for the first time decades after its release.

We will look at the cast and crew behind The Big Country, the...

George Maharis, who starred as the brooding Buz Murdock on Route 66 before he quit the acclaimed 1960s CBS drama after contracting hepatitis, has died. He was 94.

Maharis died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Route 66, created by Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard, featured the Hell’s Kitchen native Murdock and Martin Milner‘s Yale dropout Tod Stiles touring the highways of America in Tod’s Chevrolet Corvette, encountering adventure along the way.

The show “was really kind of a searching or what you may have seen hundreds of years ago where the people came over the mountains to go from one place to the other to find a better life, a place where they belonged, and they didn’t rely on anybody else to do it for them,” Maharis told The Seattle Times in 2008.

All 116 installments of...

Home video label Vinegar Syndrome just launched their Flash Pre-Order for Halfway to Black Friday 2023, and included in the mix are several brand new horror releases.

The Flash Pre-Order runs now until 11:59 Pm, Est on Sunday and it includes Six new releases, including horror films A Blade in the Dark (1983) and The Boogeyman (1980).

Here’s the full rundown, straight from Vinegar Syndrome…

“We couldn’t be more excited to kick off this Pre-Order with the reveal of our next Vsu, Paul Verhoeven’s incredible Showgirls (1995), which makes its US 4K Uhd debut, exclusively restored by Vinegar Syndrome, with no digital tinkering or smoothing plaguing cinematographer Jost Vacano’s stunning visuals.

“On the “regular” Vs side, we’re elated to at long last offer Lamberto Bava’s giallo masterpiece, A Blade In The Dark (1983), newly and exclusively restored by Vs, in 4K from its Super 16mm original negative, and available...

Severin Films is bringing out the big guns and starting 2023 with a bang, exclusively telling Bloody Disgusting this afternoon about the first two releases they’re bringing to the new year.

On January 31st, Severin Films unleashes two definitive action releases: Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian Collection includes Almost Human, Syndicate Sadists, Free Hand For A Tough Cop, The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist and Brothers Till We Die. January also brings the North American debut of the 1981 Australian action classic Attack Force Z, starring Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and John Phillip Law.

Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection: Italian director Umberto Lenzi had recently completed a landmark string of kinky gialli with Hollywood outcast Carroll Baker. Cuban-born/Actor’s Studio-trained Tomas Milian had become one of Spaghetti Westerns’ most popular stars. But when these two notoriously mercurial talents came together for a series of...

Suppress your bitter aching loneliness this holiday by watching some very anti-Valentine’s Day cinematic relationships on Shudder! We here at Trailers From Hell have culled through all of the least romantic flicks currently showing on that spookiest of movie streaming platforms, and found some intriguing viewing fodder if you’re less-than-receptive to the typical amorous pablum.

Valentine (2001)

This hokey slasher, starring such staples of the early aughts as Denise Richards and David Boreanaz (plus a pre-Grey’s Anatomy Katherine Heigl). A serial killer wanders the streets of San Francisco (with a Los Angeles interlude) wearing a creepy marble Cupid mask, using a variety of slick household items, including an electric drill and a hot iron. Not the healthiest form of romantic self-expression for our Cupid.

White Zombie (1932)

The Haitian-set Bela Lugosi horror classic so memorable it inspired the name of a multiplatinum hard rock band five decades later! In White Zombie,...

There’s something inherently seductive about the glitz and glamour of Old Hollywood. Perhaps it’s the backstage intrigue and the tawdry tales of showbusiness hedonism that draws us in again and again. Or maybe it’s the romanticized image of smokey rooms, silken gowns and stylish fedoras that we find so endlessly alluring. For many, however, it’s the larger-than-life figures from silver screen history that remain irresistible decades later.

Whatever the reason, films, books and television shows about Hollywood’s Golden Age continue to captivate new generations year after year. Look no further than Oscar-winners like “The Artist,” bestsellers like Shawn Levy’s “The Castle on Sunset,” acclaimed documentaries like “Tab Hunter Confidential,” and a host of recent TV series from Ryan Murphy if you have any doubt. Each of these attempt, in some way, to simultaneously celebrate the era while pulling back the curtain on the studio system.

Seth Holt, the director of some of Hammer’s most distinctive films, steers this desert-bound potboiler about an overheated vamp whose jealous husband crashes their car into an isolated oil station. Carroll Baker plays the blonde seductress and Peter van Eyck is the sadistic boss determined to keep Baker to himself and his hot and bothered crew on the sidelines. The movie was shot mainly at Shepperton Studios with limited location work in Libya.

The post Station Six-Sahara appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

1962 found Great Britain and West Germany collaborating on an action picture, Station Six Sahara. The movie is a remake of 1938’s S.O.S. Sahara. Carroll Baker plays a beautiful woman who turns up at a tiny oil pipeline station in the desert. She and her husband just happen to be driving along, three days from anywhere, when he crashes the car. Wrong turn? “Shoulda made a left at Albakoykee.”

His attempt at killing both of them lands him in the sick bay, where he can only imagine what his estranged bombshell wife is doing with the five men who work there. They leer at her the way the cartoon wolf saw sheep as mutton, and she leers back. The film’s sexual heat is as real as that of the desert, which surprised at least one critic, since the British were involved.

The movie was shot in Libya, which...

“In those days, if you were a member of the Actors Studio, you were really in, you were something very, very special,” says Carroll Baker, the actress who leapt from the Actors Studio to Hollywood in the 1950s and is now, at age 90, one of the last survivors of its Golden Age. Speaking from her home in New York with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast, Baker adds with a chuckle, “Also, I was young and pretty. That didn’t hurt. The movie people started coming to me right away.”

The article continues below.

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Past guests include ...

“In those days, if you were a member of the Actors Studio, you were really in, you were something very, very special,” says Carroll Baker, the actress who leapt from the Actors Studio to Hollywood in the 1950s and is now, at age 90, one of the last survivors of its Golden Age. Speaking from her home in New York with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast, Baker adds with a chuckle, “Also, I was young and pretty. That didn’t hurt. The movie people started coming to me right away.”

The article continues below.

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Past guests include ...

Baby Doll

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1956 / 1.85:1 / 114 min.

Starring Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach

Cinematography by Boris Kaufman

Directed by Elia Kazan

Depraved, degenerate, and dreadfully funny, the genre known as Southern Gothic blurred the line between humor and horror and helped define the work of artists like William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and Tennessee Williams. Depending on who you talked to, the experience was either a bracing walk on the wild side or freak show sensationalism. Poetry or not, books like Sanctuary and Reflections in a Golden Eye were catnip to thrill-hungry Hollywood execs who gobbled up the rights and, true to form, removed the raw carnality that made the original stories so… stimulating. That wasn’t the case with Williams’ screenplay for 1957’s Baby Doll—though its Rabelaisian spirit made it one of the most controversial and widely condemned events in movie history, the driving force behind Elia...

Carroll Baker in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll (1956) will be available on Blu-ray February 2nd from Warner Archive – Ordering info can be found Here

Times are tough for cotton miller Archie (Karl Malden), but at least he has his child bride (Carroll Baker), who’ll soon be his wife in title and truth. The one-year agreement keeping them under the same roof – yet never in the same bed – is about to end. But a game with a sly business rival (Eli Wallach) is about to begin. In Baby Doll, as in A Streetcar Named Desire, director Elia Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams broke new ground in depicting sexual situations – earning condemnation from the then-powerful Legion of Decency. They earned laurels too: four Academy Award® nominations, Golden Globe® Awards for Baker and Kazan, and a British Academy Award for Wallach. Watch this funny, steamy classic that, as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide proclaims,...

It’s lurid, it’s soapy, it’s forbidden: where does the line form? Joseph E. Levine made hay from Harold Robbins’ best seller, with prose that The New York Times said belonged more properly “on the walls of a public lavatory.” So why is the picture so much fun? When the performances are good they’re very good, and when they’re bad they’re almost better. Plus there’s a who’s who game to be played: If George Peppard is Howard Hughes and Carroll Baker is Jean Harlow, who exactly is Robert Cummings? I think this is the first time on Blu for this title, and playback-wise it’s A-ok for Region A.

The Carpetbaggers

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 9 (Australia)

1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 150 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / Available at [Imprint] 34.95

Starring: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Martin Balsam, Lew Ayres, Carroll Baker, Ralph Taeger, Archie Moore,...

Severin’s extravagant four-film six-disc The Complete Umberto Lenzi / Carroll Baker Giallo Collection is a luxurious trip into sexy, violent Italo thrill territory. CineSavant concentrates on the first Lenzi-Baker collaboration, a truly nasty bit of misanthropy that bridges the gap between standard ‘Lady In Peril’ fare and the full-bore giallos that would soon become the norm. It’s presented under its original title, which sounds more appropriate for a porn movie… in the U.S. the given title was Paranoia.

Orgasmo

Blu-ray

One feature in The Complete Lenzi / Baker Giallo Collection

Severin Films

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Orgasmo 97 min., Paranoia 91 min., all four films 369 min. / available through Severin Films / Street Date July 7, 2020 / 119.98

Orgasmo credits:

Starring: Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, Colette Descombes, Tino Carraro, Lilla Brignone, Franco Pesce, Tina Lattanzi, Jacques Stany.

Cinematography: Guglielmo Mancori

Film Editor: Enzo Alabiso

Art Direction: Giorgio Bertolini

Assistant Director Bertrand Tavernier

Original Music: Piero Umilani

Written by Ugo Moretti,...

Severin’s extravagant four-film six-disc The Complete Umberto Lenzi / Carroll Baker Giallo Collection is a luxurious trip into sexy, violent Italo thrill territory. CineSavant concentrates on the first Lenzi-Baker collaboration, a truly nasty bit of misanthropy that bridges the gap between standard ‘Lady In Peril’ fare and the full-bore giallos that would soon become the norm. It’s presented under its original title, which sounds more appropriate for a porn movie… in the U.S. the given title was Paranoia.

Orgasmo

Blu-ray

One feature in The Complete Lenzi / Baker Giallo Collection

Severin Films

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Orgasmo 97 min., Paranoia 91 min., all four films 369 min. / available through Severin Films / Street Date July 7, 2020 / 119.98

Orgasmo credits:

Starring: Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, Colette Descombes, Tino Carraro, Lilla Brignone, Franco Pesce, Tina Lattanzi, Jacques Stany.

Cinematography: Guglielmo Mancori

Film Editor: Enzo Alabiso

Art Direction: Giorgio Bertolini

Assistant Director Bertrand Tavernier

Original Music: Piero Umilani

Written by Ugo Moretti,...

“Sometimes there seems to be something out there. Sometimes I hear someone whispering in the wind.”

If you’ve listened to Daily Dead’s Corpse Club podcast, then you might know that half the time I open my mouth, it’s to talk about Disney Channel Original Movies (no matter what the topic of the episode is). I’ve always found great delight in how movies released on the family-friendly network can still retain nightmare-inducing thrills and chills, whether it be through a theater of frozen bodies in Halloweentown or the sharp-toothed imaginary friend in Don’t Look Under the Bed.

While the DCOMs have had their macabre moments, the truth is that previous generations of viewers got to experience an even more spooky side of Disney on the big screen. In the cinematic world following the release of John Carpenter’s Halloween, Walt Disney Productions wasn’t holding back when...

When it comes to releasing unique and collectible Blu-ray box sets (such as their Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection), Severin Films has done an amazing job preserving horror history, and this summer they'll continue to do so with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, featuring Umberto Lenzi's collaborations with Carroll Baker:

"On June 30th, Severin Films is bringing together the complete collaborative works of two cult film legends with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, which includes superlative editions of Orgasmo, So Sweet… So Perverse, A Quiet Place To Kill, and Knife Of Ice.

Italian writer/director Umberto Lenzi helmed popular peplums, created extreme poliziotteschi, and invented the Italian cannibal phenomenon. Hollywood actress Carroll Baker was the Golden Globe® winning/Academy Award® nominated star of Baby Doll, Giant and The Carpetbaggers. Together in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, they made four landmark films that changed the erotic thriller and giallo genres forever.

“Succession” is one of HBO’s most acclaimed drama series and an Emmy frontrunner in 2020, and its popularity has been bolstered in part by its addicting opening credits sequence. The 90-second sequence is set to Nicholas Britell’s Emmy-winning original theme music and cuts together footage of the New York City skyline with home video footage of the Roy family. The grainy home videos remind viewers about the privilege and isolation of the Roy family at the start of each episode. It turns out this now-classic opening credits sequence owes a lot of credit David Fincher, who crafted virtually the same sequence to open his 1997 mystery thriller “The Game.” Both openings have been embedded in videos below.

An eagle-eyed Reddit user recently noticed the similarities between the “Succession” and “The Game” opening credits and brought it to the attention of viewers. Fincher’s 1997 movie begins with grainy home video footage...

Jack Garfein, the longtime teacher, director, writer, producer and pivotal member of the Actors Studio died on Dec. 30 due to complications from leukemia, according to Playbill. He was 89.

Garfein’s influence and expertise touched the lives of many names from directors George Stevens and John Ford to actors Sissy Spacek and Bruce Dern.

Garfein founded the Actors Studio West in Los Angeles, created the Actors and Directors Lab (both in New York and Los Angeles), co-founded the Strasberg Institute in N.Y. and the Jack Garfein Studio in Paris. He was also a co-founder of the Hollywood Theater Row, a collection of over 22 stages now called the Live Theater District of Los Angeles.

Establishing the first Actors Studio on the West Coast wasn’t immediate — first he had to convince actor Paul Newman, Garfein recalled on a recent panel for the Film Society of Lincoln Center. “[I called and said] Paul I found a...

Carroll Baker’s work in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll and Jack Garfein’s Something Wild is just as impressive and valuable as any performance delivered by her legendary Actors Studio contemporaries Marlon Brando and James Dean. So why isn’t she talked about in the same way? After the simultaneous sensation and scandal of Baby Doll (it was condemned by the Legion of Decency), Baker became a star, but she spent most of her career either avoiding sex-symbol roles or begrudgingly accepting them. Despite a handful of other great performances, conflicts with studios, producers, and […]...

Carroll Baker’s work in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll and Jack Garfein’s Something Wild is just as impressive and valuable as any performance delivered by her legendary Actors Studio contemporaries Marlon Brando and James Dean. So why isn’t she talked about in the same way? After the simultaneous sensation and scandal of Baby Doll (it was condemned by the Legion of Decency), Baker became a star, but she spent most of her career either avoiding sex-symbol roles or begrudgingly accepting them. Despite a handful of other great performances, conflicts with studios, producers, and […]...

Barry Coe, who starred in the 1957 film Peyton Place, was considered as a possible series regular on Bonanza and became familiar to a new generation of TV viewers as the Mr. Goodwrench character in commercials that ran in the 1970s and ’80s, died July 16 in Palm Desert, CA. He was 84.

Coe’s death from the bone marrow disease myelodysplastic syndrome was announced by his family.

A resident of Sun Valley, ID, in later life, Coe began his Hollywood career with small, uncredited roles in such mid-1950s fare as How to Be Very, Very Popular, D-Day The Sixth of June and TV’s Cheyenne, moving on to credited roles in the 1956 Elvis Presley hit Love Me Tender and TV’s The 20th Century-Fox Hour.

His breakthrough came in 1957’s Peyton Place, in the role of Rodney Harrington. Although the character would be played by Ryan O’Neal in the subsequent TV adaptation,...

“Avengers: Endgame” might have surpassed 2009’s “Avatar” when it comes to its domestic box-office — besting James Cameron’s sci-fi fantasy’s $750 million handily by taking in $816 million since its opening on April 26. But it is still a far cry from 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” still the champ with $937 million in domestic ticket sales.

But on social media, there has been some discussion beyond the big bucks about whether “Endgame” with its multitudes of Marvel-ous superhero actors might have the most Oscar winners and nominees ever for a cast of a feature film. I know there is an ongoing thread in the forums about just this topic with various permutations on who counts or not. But for my purposes, actors who won or were nominated in categories other than acting do not qualify. Same with honorary trophies.

By that measure, I count seven winners among the names: Brie Larson,...

“There’s nothing as trustworthy as the ordinary mind of the ordinary man,” is the haunting mantra scrawled in leering monogram on the façade of the monolith created for overnight celebrity, Lonesome Rhodes, an exemplification of the terrifying end result of America’s perverted worship for the cult of personality.

As the grandiose anti-hero of Elia Kazan’s 1957 classic A Face in the Crowd, there are reasons the character and title are not as revered as other subjects from Kazan’s filmography, who reunited with his Oscar winning scribe Budd Schulberg from 1954’s Best Picture winner On the Waterfront and was fresh off equally seminal or noted titles East of Eden (1955) and Baby Doll (1956), a salacious Southern drama of sexual hysteria starring Carroll Baker (from a Tennessee Williams screenplay).…...

Charlton Heston would’ve celebrated his 95th birthday on October 4, 2018. Born in 1923, the actor became a household name with leading roles in action adventures and biblical epics. But his credits extended past those two well-worn genres. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

After serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII, Heston made his professional movie acting debut with the film noir “Dark City” (1950). His big breakthrough came just two years later with Cecil B. DeMille‘s big top soap opera “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952), in which he played the circus manager. Though an audience favorite in its time, the film often ranks among the all-time worst Oscar winners for Best Picture.

Heston later reunited with DeMille to play the Old Testament prophet Moses in “The Ten Commandments” (1956), which brought him a Golden Globe nomination.

Ya know, “It’s a Big Country!” Westerns and pacifism are like oil and water, but William Wyler, Jessamyn West and three other top writers found a way for Gregory Peck to surmount eight showdowns and never fire a pistol in anger. Jean Simmons and Charlton Heston win top acting honors, while Burl Ives earns his Oscar, Carroll Baker gets the thankless role and composer Jerome Moross makes western music history. MGM’s remastering job fixes the problems of an earlier Blu-ray, and even brings the title sequence up to tip top condition. Plus several hours of special extras.

The Big Country

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 166 min. / Street Date June 5, 2018 / 60th Anniversary Edition / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoya, Chuck Connors, Chuck Hayward, Dorothy Adams, Chuck Roberson.

Cinematography: Franz F. Planer

Film Editor: Robert Swink...

By Doug Oswald

“Hitler’s SS: A Portrait of Evil” is a 1986 made-for TV movie telling the fictional story of Helmut (Bill Nighy) and Karl Hoffmann (John Shea), brothers who become a part of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. The movie opens in 1931 as we meet the brothers, their family, friends and associates. Hoping they can sway and minimalize the radical elements through their intellect and character, Helmut and Karl willingly join the Nazi Party.

The Hoffmann brothers are eager participants in the Nazi party early on as their mother Gerda (Carroll Baker) provides worried commentary. Factory worker Karl joins the Sa while his university student brother Helmut is coaxed into joining the SS by fencing instructor Reinhard Heydrich (David Warner), much to the objection of his mentor and Jewish professor Ludwig Rosenberg (Jose Ferrer). Tony Randall is interesting appearing as a comic performer for the Nazis known as Putzi.

By strange and fortuitous coincidence, my meeting with Jack Garfein fell upon the nexus of several intersecting moments in history. It was Friday, January 27th — International Holocaust Remembrance Day. One week earlier, Donald J. Trump was sworn to office as forty-fifth President of the United States; and in the ensuing weekend, allegations of Trump’s unpunished sexual misconduct, callous attitudes toward women and courting of radical right-wing supporters helped bring about the Women’s March on Washington, one of the largest mass protests in the nation’s history. All around, people are anxiously reading the past with tenuous hopes and fears for the future. History, so often a thing defined after the fact, is currently in violent and furious motion.

Jack Garfein is living history, and he’s not shy about telling it. Born to Ukrainian Jews in 1930, Mr. Garfein personally witnessed as a child the rise of Nazi Germany...

Seth Holt is an odd figure. An editor at first, his career spans classic Ealing comedies (The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951) and gritty kitchen sink drama (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 1960), while his overlapping career as producer saw him preside over the classic The Ladykillers (1955). On becoming a director, he worked mainly at Hammer, which made radically different content from Ealing but perhaps shared the same cozy atmosphere.Taste of Fear (a.k.a. Scream of Fear, 1961) is a zestful Diabolique knock-off, while The Nanny (1965) continued Bette Davis' career in horror. It's incredibly strong, beautifully made and quite ruthless: Bette referred to Holt as "a mountain of evil" and found him the most demanding director she'd encountered since William Wyler. During the daft but enjoyably peculiar Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971), Holt developed a persistent case of hiccups that turned the screening of rushes into hilarious occasions. Then he dropped dead of a heart attack,...

To most, American independent cinema began in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s. With the rise of names like Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Kelly Reichardt and Quentin Tarantino, American Independent film has been the breeding ground for some of cinema’s greatest artists, and fostered some of cinema’s greatest artistic achievements. However, for anyone with even a surface level interest in independent film, knowledge of its deeper, decade-spanning history here in the Us is quite clear.

Dating back to the very birth of cinema, independent artists of every race, creed, gender and sexual orientation have been creating films looking at specific experiences. However, many of these films, from the silent era to more modern times (Kelly Reichardt’s River Of Grass only just last year saw a real release outside of festival appearances) have gone relatively unseen.

One of these films even comes from a prestigious pedigree. A product, of sorts,...

Warner Archive Delivers the Best Way to Enjoy a Bad Day at Black Rock

Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support Fsr in the process!

Pick of the WeekBad Day at Black Rock [Warner Archive]

What is it? A one-armed man arrives via train in a remote western town, and the populace reacts with suspicion and violence.

Why buy it? Spencer Tracy excels as the polite but mysterious stranger whose presence sets everyone on edge, and the more he probes the harder they push. The film explores threads of America’s deep-seated racism and small-town insulation, and it pairs that commentary with a steadily increasing suspense. The themes and actions here are still sadly relevant, even now, and it makes for an important watch that still manages to entertain. Tracy’s potential adversaries include Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan, and...

Something Wild

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 850

1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Aaron Copland

Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann

Produced by George Justin

Directed by Jack Garfein

After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:

“Dear Glenn Erickson,

Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.

If possible, I would appreciate if you could send

me a copy of your review by email.

Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”

Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...

Los Angeles – The shocking news of the passing of Debbie Reynolds, hours after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away, is still resonating in the 2016 atmosphere. Ms. Reynolds died of a massive stroke on December 28th, at her son’s home near Los Angeles, while making funeral arrangements for her daughter. She was 84.

Debbie Reynolds is a true movie star, straddling the era between the studio system of the 1940s through co-starring in a film by Albert Brooks (“Mother”). She was the old fashioned “quadruple threat,” adept at song, dance, drama and comedy. Her daughter Carrie was the prodigy of her marriage to singer Eddie Fisher – they were the All-American couple of the 1950s – but they were destined to have a messy and public divorce two years after Carrie was born, when Eddie revealed an affair with Elizabeth Taylor. Through it all, Reynolds maintained her movie star status, from her first...

The Criterion Collection has announced its slate for January, 2017, with offerings from Howard Hawks (“His Girl Friday”), Rainer Werner Fassbender (“Fox and His Friends”), Jack Garfein (“Something Wild”), and Ousmane Sembène (“Black Girl”). Check out the covers for the films below as well as synopses provided by the Criterion Collection. For more information on the special features and technical specs of each of these films, visit the Criterion Collection website.

Read More: The Criterion Collection Announces December Titles: ‘Heart of a Dog,’ ‘The Exterminating Angel’ and More

“His Girl Friday” (Available January 10)

One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever made, “His Girl Friday” stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson, a standout among cinema’s powerful women. Hildy is matched in force only by her conniving but charismatic editor and ex-husband, Walter Burns (played by the peerless Cary Grant), who dangles the chance for her to scoop...

Cinema Art from Lawrence, Kansas?   Industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey comes through with a classic horror gem for the ages. A haunted church organist begins to suspect that her hallucinations are more than just nerves. And who is that ghoulish man who keeps appearing in reflections, or popping up out of nowhere? Carnival of Souls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 63 1962 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 78 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 12, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Herk Harvey. Cinematography Maurice Prather Film Editor Dan Palmquist, Bill de Jarnette Original Music Gene Moore Assistant Director Raza (Reza) Badiyi Written by John Clifford Produced and Directed by Herk Harvey

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Herk Harvey's marvelous Carnival of Souls is an anomaly in screen horror, a regional effort that transcends its production limitations to deliver a tingling encounter with the uncanny. Harvey was a prolific producer of industrial films,...

Director Gordon Douglas is one of many prolific filmmakers who seemed to fall short of auteur recognition despite considerable iconic items lodged within a vast filmography. Starting out in Hollywood as a child actor, he was directing shorts throughout the 1930s and began developing a resume of B-grade features, the most notable from this period being the 1954 sci-fi classic Them!, one of several genre items capitalizing on nuclear warfare fears. The 1960s found Douglas evolving freely with the times, churning out some racy Carroll Baker numbers (including in a biopic of Jean Harlow), the James Bond knock-off In Like Flint (1967), and a trio of Frank Sinatra vehicles. In between directing Sinatra in a pair of movies where the crooner plays Miami Pi Tony Rome, Douglas concocted something much more provocative, a seedy, lurid neo-noir titled The Detective (1968). One of several oft-referenced titles detailed in Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet,...

Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...

Theodore Bikel. Theodore Bikel dead at 91: Oscar-nominated actor and folk singer best known for stage musicals 'The Sound of Music,' 'Fiddler on the Roof' Folk singer, social and union activist, and stage, film, and television actor Theodore Bikel, best remembered for starring in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and, throughout the U.S., in Fiddler on the Roof, died Monday morning (July 20, '15) of "natural causes" at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Austrian-born Bikel – as Theodore Meir Bikel on May 2, 1924, in Vienna, to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European parents – was 91. Fled Hitler Thanks to his well-connected Zionist father, six months after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 ("they were greeted with jubilation by the local populace," he would recall in 2012), the 14-year-old Bikel and his family fled to Palestine, at the time a British protectorate. While there, the teenager began acting on stage,...

Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...

It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.

Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.

As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.

57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...

Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson on the Oscars' Red Carpet Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson at the Academy Awards Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson are seen above arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The 95-year-old Wallach had received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2010. See also: "Doris Day Inexplicably Snubbed by Academy," "Maureen O'Hara Honorary Oscar," "Honorary Oscars: Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo Among Rare Women Recipients," and "Hayao Miyazaki Getting Honorary Oscar." Delayed film debut The Actors Studio-trained Eli Wallach was to have made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1953 blockbuster From Here to Eternity. Ultimately, however, Frank Sinatra – then a has-been following a string of box office duds – was cast for a pittance, getting beaten to a pulp by a pre-stardom Ernest Borgnine. For his bloodied efforts, Sinatra went on...