“Movie Buzz” Archive
George D. Allen and Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
What famous director was originally asked to direct the silent chiller classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? Which symphony of horror received its lavish premiere at a zoo? Can you guess the name of the legendary actor who was so dedicated he brought his own houseplants to decorate the set? Find out the answers to these mystifying tidbits of Terror-ific Trivia, along with a host of other little-known facts behind your favorite fear films, as Ghouly Irv digs around the darkest corners of his crypt:
Irv Slifkin | Focus On..., Movie Buzz
I must not have been much older than three when I first saw John Wayne’s The Alamo.
It was impressive to say the least. More than likely, my father took me to see it, since he was the one who always took me to the “guy movies,” films with fighting and war and, well, lots of men. (Mom, on the other hand, got the assignment for Jerry Lewis, Disney and Doris Day movies, while Grandmom was my musicals connection.)
But from the beginning The Alamo was special to me. I am almost positive I saw it at least three times in the theaters, going again after it was reissued after its 1960 original arrival.
No doubt the character of Davy Crockett was a big draw. He was a big deal in my household before The Alamo, portrayed by Fess Parker in installments of Walt Disney’s weekly series “Disneyland.” While the exploits of “The King of the Wild Frontier” and sidekick George Russell (limned by a pre-Jed Clampett Buddy Ebsen) offered stirring adventure for any youngster—whether it be bear wrassling or battling river pirates—it was the sequences set at the Alamo and the Texans’ struggle for freedom that really got to me at an early age. So engaged I was in the myth of Crockett, that I donned a coonskin cap—like scores of other youngsters at the time—to take in Davy tackling the Goliaths in rerun after rerun on the new deluxe size Zenith television set my parents had just purchased.
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Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, TV Tip Sheet
Soapy Sales
A favorite for its 1981-1990 run on CBS, Falcon Crest was a nighttime sudser bubbling with colorful characters, duplicitous behavior and big-time movie and TV stars. Jane Wyman is the nasty owner of a Northern California winery and matriarch of a family that includes affable nephew Robert Foxworth and lazy playboy grandson Lorenzo Lamas. Abby Dalton, William R. Moses, and Susan Sullivan also star in this series created by Earl Hamner, Jr. of The Waltons fame; guest appearances during the show’s first season include Lana Turner and Dana Andrews. All 18 episodes from the debut season can be found on Falcon Crest: The Complete First Season.
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Jay Steinberg | Movie Buzz
March 10, 1910: D.W. Griffith launches the Hollywood film industry with In Old California, the first film to be made in the new municipality.
March 10, 1922: Hollywood hires former postmaster general Will H. Hays to oversee "moral and artistic standards in motion picture production."
March 11, 1931: The German director of Nosferatu and Sunrise, F.W. Murnau, 42, is killed in a car accident on the Santa Barbara Highway.
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George D. Allen and Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
He raised comic fans' hackles by casting Michael Keaton as Batman; tinkered with cinematic legend by revisiting the Planet of the Apes; and split audiences and critics by daring to reinvent Roald Dahl's beloved book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp in the role of Willy Wonka. Now, Tim Burton has brought Depp back into the fold for this visually wild cinematic take on Lewis Carroll's classic, Alice in Wonderland. How does the director fare with this latest reimagining of a literary icon? Let's check in with Movie Irv:
Irv Slifkin | In The Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Sounds like a caper film from the distant past. An international production, perhaps, starring the likes of Michael Caine, Lino Ventura and Claudia Cardinale, in which a group of cons with distinctively different backgrounds team together to rip off some priceless art from a highly secure gallery. Or, maybe a tautly wound French film in black-and-white directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and boasting Alain Delon as the dashing lead thief.
Well, The Art of the Steal is a caper film, but what makes it unusual is that it is true. It’s actually a documentary that’s every bit as tension-filled and entertaining as the aforementioned fictional films. But this caper stars a bunch of politicians, a state governor, an eccentric millionaire, opportunists who look to forward their careers and powerful philanthropists. At stake? No less than billions of dollars worth of artwork by the likes of Matisse, Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso.
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Jay Steinberg | Movie Buzz
March 2, 1906: Biograph Studios wins appeal of kinetoscope inventor Edison's patent claims, preventing (temporarily) a potential monopoly on the making of movies.
March 5, 1919: Pioneering black producer/director Oscar Micheaux releases his first film, The Homesteader.
March 5, 1922: A "strange symphony of terror" is unleashed on screens across the world with the debut of Germany's Nosferatu, a unauthorized adaptation of Dracula.
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George D. Allen and Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
Looking for a great DVD/Blu-ray hit you may have missed in the theaters? Check out Movie Irv's recommendations for these three "sleeper" hits:
Jay Steinberg | Movie Buzz
February 25, 1906: Future Universal Pictures president Carl Laemmle enters the moving pictures business with Chicago's first nickelodeon, the White Front Theater.
February 27, 1920: German expressionist painting and design are captured to great effect in Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
February 22, 1934: A Depression-weary American public flocks to Frank Capra's comedy It Happened One Night, starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable.
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Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
The other movie about Iraq that was nominated for multiple Academy Awards is The Messenger, an absorbing drama that was critically acclaimed but little seen. Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson (nominated for Best Supporting Actor) play soldiers who take on a difficult job of informing civilians that their loved ones died at war. Samantha Morton co-stars as the recent widow who gets romantically involved with Foster. A moving film from first-time director Oren Moverman (Interview), who shares a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, The Messenger is being reissued in theaters around the country. Here's my Raw Review:
Here's a trailer for the film, after the jump:
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Irv Slifkin | DVD Beat, Movie Buzz
Roger, Corman
Roger Corman was recently honored with a special Academy Award, and a new 3-D remake of his 1978 production Piranha is heading for theaters this year. So it makes sense that Corman’s “B” movie classics from New World Pictures have found a new home at Shout Factory!/Vivendi.
The Corman library has been out of circulation for a few years, and the company is welcoming such water-logged monstrosity movies as the original Piranha, Humanoids from the Deep, Up from the Depths, and Demon of Paradise back in April. They will be followed by the likes of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, Suburbia, Death Race 2000, Deathsport and others. We say it’s about time the Academy recognized Corman’s contributions to cinema, as a producer, director and mentor to young talent. It’s just a shame his award will not be part of the telecast this year.
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Jay Steinberg | Movie Buzz
February 18, 1913: The Edison Film Co. introduces its synchronized film-phonograph Kinetoscope process for showing "sound films" in New York.
February 14, 1927: Director Alfred Hitchcock first tries his hand at suspense with The Lodger, based on the Jack the Ripper murders.
February 15, 1927: Whatever "It" is, starlet Clara Bow has it in abundance, as can be seen in director Clarence Badger's film of that name.
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