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A $20 Million Cinematic Landmark to Slapstick
When Steven Spielberg’s 1941 opened in December 1979, it was mostly savaged by the critics though a few rose to its defense like Pauline Kael who wrote, “…the film overall is an amazing, orgiastic...
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Norman Lloyd: Hollywood’s Long Distance Runner, Part 1
Norman Lloyd hangs on for dear life in Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur (1942). On November 8, 2017 Norman Lloyd will be 203 and he shows no signs of slowing down. In recent years, he has become the go-to...
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Norman Lloyd: Hollywood’s Long Distance Runner, Part 2
Actor/Director/Producer Norman Lloyd, born 1914. *This is the second part of a revised and updated version of a Norman Lloyd interview which was first recorded in March 2010 just prior to the...
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Egypt is No Place for a Satirist
What do you do when your government becomes a military dictatorship and forbids freedom of speech that is critical of the regime? You can fight back with the one non-violent weapon most bullies fear...
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Ernesto Gastaldi’s Seminal Giallo
With a tumultuous background of waves crashing against a rocky coast, a descriptive statement from Sigmund Freud on the meaning of libido scrolls down the screen. Part of the Austrian psychoanalyst’s...
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Lee Tracy Does Washington
Whenever a repertory cinema like NYC’s Film Forum or a film archive like the George Eastman Museum programs a Pre-Code series you can bet that Lee Tracy is bound to be in a few of the famous titles...
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Love is a Battlefield
Is there something weird in the water in Australia..or maybe the air is different? All I know is that that culture has produced some of the quirkiest and most unusual films of any country beginning in...
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Jacques Tourneur’s Pulp Fiction Pipe Dream
RKO may have been seen as low on the totem pole in the Hollywood hierarchy compared to MGM, Warner Bros. and other larger studios but their importance in film history is assured by a remarkable roster...
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Reelin’ in the Years with Buck Henry
Screenwriter/actor/director/producer Buck Henry Buck Henry has had a remarkable career in the entertainment industry, one that has encompassed acting, screenwriting, directing, producing and even...
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The Age of Assassins (1967)
A paranoid conspiracy thriller delivered in a droll tongue-in-cheek style with generous helpings of black comedy and anti-establishment satire doesn’t really fit neatly into any genre and Kihachi...
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Battle of the Bands Throwback
Among the many titles being released through the no-frills Warner Archive Collection are a few oddball orphans and obscurities that didn’t get much love the first time around such as 1971’s Dusty and...
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Picaresque Americana
Everyone involved creatively with the making of Arthur Penn’s landmark of sixties cinema, Bonnie and Clyde (1967), benefited greatly from its astounding international success. Certainly the director...
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Disconnected and Lost in Capri
When did alienation in modern society become a favorite thematic concern in the culture and the arts, particularly in the cinema? Certainly the films of Michelangelo Antonioni addressed the inability...
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The Radioactive Mud Monster
In many ways a precursor to The Blob (1958) and Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), X the Unknown (1956) is a much more thought-provoking and serious attempt to demonstrate the consequences of...
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Brigitte Bardot Plays Herself
Before he had reached the age of thirty, French director Louis Malle (born in 1932) had already emerged as one of his country’s most critically acclaimed and internationally recognized filmmakers on...
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The Films of Richard Rush: An Interview
Director Richard Rush poses with a flyer for his most famous film, The Stunt Man Richard Rush has had his ups and downs in the unpredictable world of Hollywood. His more than three decades of...
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Ken Loach’s Weapon for Change: Cathy Come Home (1966)
Reg (Ray Brooks), Cathy (Carol White) and their children find themselves in desperate circumstances in Cathy Come Home (1966), directed by Ken Loach. It is often regarded as the most important British...
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Vintage Peplum
The French film poster for My Son, the Hero (1962) Remember the Italian sword and sandal films (known as peplum in their native land) that enjoyed a brief period of popularity in the U.S. from around...
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Martyrdom, Italian Style
Ingrid Bergman in Europe ’51 (1952), directed by Roberto Rossellini. The second film collaboration between Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, Europe ’51 (1952) might be the most overlooked and...
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Way Out West With Zoot Suit Jessy
Quick, name your favorite film by Robert Downey, Sr., director/father of two-time Oscar nominated actor Robert Downey Jr. Drawing a blank? If film buffs know him at all it is probably due to his 1969...
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