Question: To date, several noir sets have been released, but one title is still missing, that being The Window, RKO's tense 1949 nail-biter that helped win the late, great child actor, Bobby Driscoll, a miniature Oscar statuette as the outstanding juvenile performer of that year. Filmed on location on New York's teeming East Side, it's the story of a young boy whose reputation for telling tall tales has destroyed his credibility. As a result, after he witnesses a murder during the wee hours of a stiflingly hot summer night, he's unable to convince anyone of what he's seen... anyone, that is, except the killers, who set out to silence him permanently. The boy's terror is palpable during the film's climactic chase down dark, abandoned streets and through a condemned tenement building. "It Never Lets You Go," proclaimed the 1949 one-sheet. It still holds true today.
Answer: We are huge fans of this classic variation on the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” story. We expect it on an upcoming film noir set from Warner, but we have no clue when it would be issued. Apparently, others have fond memories of the suspenser, too, because we have received lots of requests for it.
There are two ways that people can travel. Whether you’ve gone across the world or across town, you can probably distinguish the two. There are those who will eat McDonald's wherever they can and listen to their all important iPod on a tour bus. They will read or snooze while traveling through beautiful new lands, rather than enjoy the view and insist on keeping their daily schedule wherever they are. But there is the other side of the coin, those who can turn any travel into a real journey. These people willingly immerse themselves within the new lands. They will dance with the natives, marvel at more than the regular tourist stops and try all the new flavors around them. In Around the World in 80 Days which sort of traveler would you become? Read More »
It’s been nearly 20 years since Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was in theaters, charming the world with its fairy tale blend of magical story, gorgeous animation, colorful characters, memorable romance and wonderful music.
For Paige O’Hara, who supplied the talking and singing voice of the book-loving heroine Belle, you would believe that watching the film in its new special Blu-ray edition would bring on a sense of deja vu.
But according to O’Hara, you would think wrong.
“Watching it on Blu-ray was actually like a new experience,” says O’Hara, 54, during a stop in Philadelphia. “The colors, the depth of field, the sound…all of the elements are spectacular.”
Working on both the new DVD and Blu-ray editions of the only animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards did bring back many memories for the singer-actress.
September 25, 1906: Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur astounds audiences nationwide and will blaze new trails in the art of animation.
September 28, 1914: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum's movie company releases The Patchwork Girl of Oz, the first feature-length film based on his books.
September 30, 1919: While holding what he believed to be a prop bomb for a publicity photo, Harold Lloyd loses a thumb and finger when it explodes.
If you want to know what is going on, you have to listen to me. You have to, because you don’t know the f***ing enormity of what we’re dealing with. May the twenty-ninth, 1954: a consortium of bankers, industrialists, corporate CEOs and politicians held a series of meetings over three days at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, Holland. They drew up a plan for maintaining the status quo. It’s the way things are—the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. They devised a plan to manipulate technology, economics, the media, population control, world religion, to keep things the way they are, and they have continued to meet once a year, every year, since the original meeting. Look it up. Read More »
Autumn is upon us, which means that the holidays are right around the corner...like it or not. It also means that summer blockbusters are going to be making their way to DVD and Blu-ray. This is certainly true for this week's new releases, which include such popcorn favorites as Iron Man 2 and Get Him to the Greek. Also coming out are a classic mystery series, one of the most groundbreaking miniseries ever to air, a documentary on babies, other TV offerings and much, much more. Let's check out what titles are now available.
Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) refusal to turn over his Iron Man tech to the U.S. government puts him at odds with old friend Lt. Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle). But when rival weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) teams up with Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a Russian criminal with a vendetta against Stark, Iron Man and Rhodes (who armors up as War Machine) must work together to take them down. Hit sequel co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury; directed by Jon Favreau. Read More »
In the 1937 film Broadway Melody of 1938, a young Judy Garland sings “Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You” to a photograph of the handsome star:
“Dear Mr. Gable,
I am writing this to you
and I hope that you will read it so you’ll know
My heart beats like a hammer
and I stutter and I stammer
every time I see you at the picture show.
I guess I’m just another fan of yours
and I thought I’d write and tell you so.
You made me love you …”
Women have been falling for the charms of Clark Gable for decades, and even those of us who entered this world long after his heyday still find our hearts set aflutter by that cocky grin and rugged countenance. His films, among some of most memorable in Hollywood history, are a staple on TCM.
Here are 10 trivia facts about Airplane! from 1980, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. The movie was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Picture in its category.
Airplane! was nominated for The Hollywood Press Association's Golden Globe award for Best Picture in the category of "Musical/Comedy." The other nominees in 1981 were Fame, Melvin and Howard, The Idolmaker and the winner, Coal Miner's Daughter.
When I was growing up, some of my absolute favorite movies were Samuel Goldwyn’s Danny Kaye/Virginia Mayo musicals made during the ‘40s. For a twelve year old, the films were bright, breezy, funny and chock-a-block with snappy tunes and zippy one-liners.I thought it would be fun to revisit them to see if they’re still just as much fun today as they were then. ( They are).
Up in Arms (1944)
Although this film stars Dinah Shore with Kaye, it firmly sets up what was to be the Kaye/Mayo mold. It was Kaye’s first feature film and Goldwyn didn’t want to risk starring two unknowns, so Shore was brought in at the last minute to amp up the star wattage. Co-starring Dana Andrews and Constance Dowling, Up in Arms is Wartime Propaganda at its finest packaged in the form of a fluffy, sweetly silly romp in which hypochondriac Daniel Weems (Kaye) and best friend Joe (Andrews) are drafted into the army where Kaye’s obsessive compulsive behavior lands them both into a bottomless pit of hot water. Dinah Shore’s Tess’ Torch Song is a definite highlight, but more than that, Up In Arms first introduces us to what would be Kaye’s signature: his tongue-twisting, rapid-fire monologues. Read More »
If you thought hawking hair products on TV was something invented in the later years of the 20th century, you should take a look at a little gem called Lustre Creme Shampoo Commercials: The Movie Star Collection. Long before we had Rula Lenska for Alberta VO5, Victoria Principal for Jhirmack, Jaclyn Smith for Wella Balsam or more recently Sarah Jessica Parker for Garnier, there was Piper Laurie (!) for Lustre-Creme shampoo. Yes, that deep-throated nutjob mother in Carrie using her best light ingénue voice shilled for shampoo. And man, she ain’t the only one.
A who’s who of 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s Hollywood glamour girls were enlisted to be hucksters for Lustre-Creme ("It never dries, it beautifies!") hair products. Lustre-Creme got an attractive spokesperson and the movie studios got publicity for their latest films. Joan Bennett, Vera Miles, Ruth Roman (in a ranch setting), Yvonne DeCarlo, Jane Russell, and Anita Ekberg (for the international audience, I guess) all lined up to extol the virtues of the Lustre-Creme line. Barbara Stanwyck and Elizabeth Taylor were inserted in commercials to plug their respective movies Executive Suite and Rhapsody. Sandra Dee (who always seemed the good sport) made a bunch that also promoted her current movies. Susan Kohner (who shared the screen with Dee in the Lana Turner version of Imitation of Life) also appears in a couple. Lustre-Creme’s tag line was “4 out of 5 top Hollywood stars” use it, and it looks like they did. Janet Blair (promoting herself in the stage version of South Pacific), Jeanne Crain with her young daughter, Jane Powell , Rhonda Fleming, Arlene Dahl, Esther Williams (another movie tie-in), Ann Sheridan, Martha Hyer, Ann Blyth (before Hostess Cupcakes) , Shirley Jones, Dorothy Malone, Ginger Rogers and Bess Myerson all recited the company line. Read More »
Dig Doug : Douglas Sirk, the German-born filmmaker best known for such superior soapers as Imitation of Life, Written on the Wind and Magnificent Obsession, is getting his own collection and Movies Unlimited has an exclusive on it. It’s theDouglas Sirk Filmmaker Collection, a four-disc set which showcases that there was more to Sirk than soap. The most famous title of the batch is The Tarnished Angels (1957), based on William Faulkner’s Pylon, and featuring Rock Hudson as a journalist who befriends WWI ace-turned-barnstorming pilot Robert Stack in 1930s New Orleans. Dorothy Malone is Stack’s wife, desired by Hudson and mechanic Jack Carson, in this exciting and powerful tale of lust in the dust and heroics in the sky. Also included is Thunder on the Hill (1951), in which nun Claudette Colbert believes convicted killer Ann Blyth is innocent and strives to clear her; Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), featuring Hudson as the son of the Apache Indian leader, who battles war-mongering brother Rex Reason and his followers while trying to bring peace with the Cavalry; and Captain Lightfoot (1955), with Rock as the Irish hellraiser mentored by revolutionary Jeff Chandler who battles the British and romances Chandler’s daughter Barbara Rush. All four titles are available individually, as well. Read More »
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September 25, 1906
