April Ferry, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning costume designer known for her work on Big Trouble in Little China, Maverick, Rome and Game of Thrones, died Thursday, the Costume Designers Guild announced. She was 91.
Ferry, who graduated to costume designer on Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill (1983), collaborated with John Hughes on Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), She’s Having a Baby (1988) and Flubber (1997) and with Jonathan Mostow on U-571 (2000), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Surrogates (2009).
She received her Academy Award nom for Richard Donner’s reimagining of Maverick (1994) — she lost out to Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Oscar night — and won her Emmy in 2006 for HBO’s Rome.
Her résumé also included Made in Heaven (1987), Child’s Play (1988), The Babe (1992), Donner’s Radio Flyer (1992), Unlawful Entry (1992), Free Willy (1993), Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), Little Giants (1994), Donnie Darko (2001), Elysium (2013), RoboCop (2014) and Jurassic World (2015).
In 2014, she...
Ferry, who graduated to costume designer on Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill (1983), collaborated with John Hughes on Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), She’s Having a Baby (1988) and Flubber (1997) and with Jonathan Mostow on U-571 (2000), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Surrogates (2009).
She received her Academy Award nom for Richard Donner’s reimagining of Maverick (1994) — she lost out to Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Oscar night — and won her Emmy in 2006 for HBO’s Rome.
Her résumé also included Made in Heaven (1987), Child’s Play (1988), The Babe (1992), Donner’s Radio Flyer (1992), Unlawful Entry (1992), Free Willy (1993), Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), Little Giants (1994), Donnie Darko (2001), Elysium (2013), RoboCop (2014) and Jurassic World (2015).
In 2014, she...
- 1/12/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Joan Evans, the daughter of screenwriters and goddaughter of Joan Crawford, who starred opposite Farley Granger in her first three films and with Audie Murphy in a pair of Westerns, has died. She was 89.
Evans died Oct. 21 in Henderson, Nevada, her son, John Weatherly, told The Hollywood Reporter.
She also toplined the Charles Lederer-directed On the Loose (1951), playing a suicidal teenager in the drama written by her parents, Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert; portrayed Irene Dunne’s daughter in the fantasy It Grows on Trees (1952); and enlisted in the U.S. Navy with Esther Williams in the musical comedy Skirts Ahoy! (1952).
Evans played the love interest of Granger’s character in the title role of Roseanna McCoy (1949), a drama loosely based on the family feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The two worked together again in the 1950 releases Our Very Own and Edge of Doom, a bleak film noir directed by Mark Robson.
Evans died Oct. 21 in Henderson, Nevada, her son, John Weatherly, told The Hollywood Reporter.
She also toplined the Charles Lederer-directed On the Loose (1951), playing a suicidal teenager in the drama written by her parents, Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert; portrayed Irene Dunne’s daughter in the fantasy It Grows on Trees (1952); and enlisted in the U.S. Navy with Esther Williams in the musical comedy Skirts Ahoy! (1952).
Evans played the love interest of Granger’s character in the title role of Roseanna McCoy (1949), a drama loosely based on the family feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The two worked together again in the 1950 releases Our Very Own and Edge of Doom, a bleak film noir directed by Mark Robson.
- 10/28/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
David Fincher’s “Mank,” a drama set in the Hollywood of the 1930s and ’40s and focusing on “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, has found itself embroiled in an argument that began when Fincher was only 8 years old. It’s a battle whose combatants included film critic Pauline Kael, director Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles himself.
At issue is the question of how much Welles contributed to the “Kane” script, for which he and Mankiewicz are both credited. Welles’ critics say the screenplay was almost entirely Mankiewicz’s creation, with the director-actor-producer trying to seize writing credit from the man who actually did the work. Welles’ supporters say that Mankiewicz and Welles simultaneously wrote first drafts, which Welles then turned into the final script, largely without input from Mankiewicz.
“Mank” does not adhere strictly to either viewpoint, and much of the film is devoted more to the California gubernatorial election...
At issue is the question of how much Welles contributed to the “Kane” script, for which he and Mankiewicz are both credited. Welles’ critics say the screenplay was almost entirely Mankiewicz’s creation, with the director-actor-producer trying to seize writing credit from the man who actually did the work. Welles’ supporters say that Mankiewicz and Welles simultaneously wrote first drafts, which Welles then turned into the final script, largely without input from Mankiewicz.
“Mank” does not adhere strictly to either viewpoint, and much of the film is devoted more to the California gubernatorial election...
- 12/9/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Brought to life by a stellar cast of A-listers, David Fincher's Golden Era-styled Netflix drama, Mank, hops back and forth in time to develop a rounded picture of its troubled genius subject, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman). A love letter to the early days of Hollywood showbiz, the black-and-white film mostly follows the development of Citizen Kane. But how much of Mank is based on a true story, and how much of it is proverbial movie magic? While there's the occasional Hollywood flourish here and there, much of Mank is rooted in reality.
Did Mankiewicz Write Citizen Kane at a Ranch?
Early in the film, Mankiewicz, an established critic-turned-screenwriter, emerges from a car accident. He ends up at a quiet ranch in Victorville, CA, with a secretary named Rita Alexander (Lily Collins), who helps him type up the script for Citizen Kane. Filmmaker Orson Welles (Tom Burke) occasionally phones...
Did Mankiewicz Write Citizen Kane at a Ranch?
Early in the film, Mankiewicz, an established critic-turned-screenwriter, emerges from a car accident. He ends up at a quiet ranch in Victorville, CA, with a secretary named Rita Alexander (Lily Collins), who helps him type up the script for Citizen Kane. Filmmaker Orson Welles (Tom Burke) occasionally phones...
- 12/4/2020
- by Stacey Nguyen
- Popsugar.com
Gary Oldman plays cynical screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz in a gorgeously shot film that both revels in Hollywood’s golden age and exposes its corruption
David Fincher has dreamed the life of Hollywood screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz; the result looks gorgeous, and sounds gorgeous. It’s a swooning monochrome fabrication of exactly the kind of golden-age Hollywood picture of the 30s and 40s that Mankiewicz worked on, sometimes without billing, until he grabbed a chance to create an authentic masterpiece in 1941: Citizen Kane. He finally accepted a quarrelsome co-writing credit with Orson Welles, sharing with him the film’s one Oscar, for best original screenplay. Apart from everything else, Mankiewicz helped to create a cottage industry in the world of criticism: in a famous contrarian essay of 1971 Pauline Kael declared the praise for Citizen Kane really belonged with unsung Mankiewicz – thus tweaking the nose of certain macho-auteurist male critics.
David Fincher has dreamed the life of Hollywood screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz; the result looks gorgeous, and sounds gorgeous. It’s a swooning monochrome fabrication of exactly the kind of golden-age Hollywood picture of the 30s and 40s that Mankiewicz worked on, sometimes without billing, until he grabbed a chance to create an authentic masterpiece in 1941: Citizen Kane. He finally accepted a quarrelsome co-writing credit with Orson Welles, sharing with him the film’s one Oscar, for best original screenplay. Apart from everything else, Mankiewicz helped to create a cottage industry in the world of criticism: in a famous contrarian essay of 1971 Pauline Kael declared the praise for Citizen Kane really belonged with unsung Mankiewicz – thus tweaking the nose of certain macho-auteurist male critics.
- 11/6/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
"Mank" is the new 1930's-set drama, directed by David Fincher starring actor Gary Oldman, notorious for ranting "Jews control Hollywood...", now oddly cast as Herman J. Mankiewicz, son of Jewish immigrants and screenwriter of "Citizen Kane", co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Sam Troughton, Ferdinand Kingsley, Tuppence Middleton, Tom Burke and Charles Dance, opening in a limited theatrical release November 2020, before streaming on Netflix December 4, 2020:
"...the film follows the life of writer Herman J. Mankiewicz (Oldman) as he scripted 'Citizen Kane' and the problems that arose with Orson Welles (Burke) during production, leading up to the movie's release..."
Cast also includes Joseph Cross as 'Charles Lederer', Jamie McShane as 'Shelly Metcalf', Toby Leonard Moore as 'David O. Selznick', Monika Grossman as 'Fraulein Freda', Jeff Harms as 'Ben Hecht' and Leven Rambin as 'Eve'.
Click the images to enlarge.
"...the film follows the life of writer Herman J. Mankiewicz (Oldman) as he scripted 'Citizen Kane' and the problems that arose with Orson Welles (Burke) during production, leading up to the movie's release..."
Cast also includes Joseph Cross as 'Charles Lederer', Jamie McShane as 'Shelly Metcalf', Toby Leonard Moore as 'David O. Selznick', Monika Grossman as 'Fraulein Freda', Jeff Harms as 'Ben Hecht' and Leven Rambin as 'Eve'.
Click the images to enlarge.
- 10/22/2020
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Gary Oldman stars as Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in the new trailer for Mank, the latest film from director David Fincher (The Social Network, Gone Girl, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). The film will premiere in select theaters this November, followed by a global release on Netflix on December 4th.
Set in Thirties Hollywood, Mank portrays Mankiewicz as an alcoholic and a scathing social critic, re-evaluating the social and political ties in his industry as he races to finish the screenplay for Orson Welles’ magnum opus on time.
Set in Thirties Hollywood, Mank portrays Mankiewicz as an alcoholic and a scathing social critic, re-evaluating the social and political ties in his industry as he races to finish the screenplay for Orson Welles’ magnum opus on time.
- 10/21/2020
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
It’s been six long years since David Fincher’s last feature film, Gone Girl, but in less than two months, we’ll be getting a brand-new movie from the director. Mank is his black-and-white biopic of Citizen Kane scribe Herman J. Mankiewicz, scripted by the director’s late father, Jack Fincher, and led by Gary Oldman. Ahead of a Netflix release on December 4 and a limited theatrical run prior, the first trailer has now landed.
Bringing to life 1930s Hollywood as scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane for Orson Welles, the film features a score by, once again, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, cinematography from Mindhunter‘s Erik Messerschmidt, and editing by Fincher regular Kirk Baxter,
One of Fincher’s past collaborators also got a chance to get an early peek. “It’s so freaking good,” Aaron Sorkin said...
Bringing to life 1930s Hollywood as scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane for Orson Welles, the film features a score by, once again, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, cinematography from Mindhunter‘s Erik Messerschmidt, and editing by Fincher regular Kirk Baxter,
One of Fincher’s past collaborators also got a chance to get an early peek. “It’s so freaking good,” Aaron Sorkin said...
- 10/8/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Although the fall film festivals are now underway, one title not making an appearance is perhaps our most-anticipated of the year. As Netflix sits out of Venice, TIFF, NYFF, and beyond, they will still unveil David Fincher’s Mank before 2020 is up. The director’s first feature in six years is a black-and-white biopic of Citizen Kane scribe Herman J. Mankiewicz scripted by the director’s late father, Jack Fincher, and led by Gary Oldman.
Timed with “Citizen Kane Day”––which took place on September 5, 1941 and was dubbed by Rko as the day when Welles’ film made its wider release across the United States––the first official images from the film have now finally arrived. Along with it, we have an official logline: “1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane for Orson Welles.
Timed with “Citizen Kane Day”––which took place on September 5, 1941 and was dubbed by Rko as the day when Welles’ film made its wider release across the United States––the first official images from the film have now finally arrived. Along with it, we have an official logline: “1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane for Orson Welles.
- 9/5/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It’s another big-star MGM romantic comedy, and not exactly a classic. Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford pick their way through a travelogue story that seems made of leftovers from I Love Lucy, inventing flat-farce gimmicks to sex things up without offending the Production Code. What’s the movie most remembered for? It features the exotic concept car that became TV’s Batmobile.
It Started with a Kiss
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1959 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 25, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Gabor, Gustavo Rojo, Fred Clark, Edgar Buchanan, Harry Morgan, Robert Warwick, Frances Bavier, Alice Backes, Carmen Phillips, Richard Deacon, Martin Garralaga, Robert Hutton, Morgan Jones, Joi Lansing, Marion Ross, Ralph Taeger, Carleton Young.
Cinematography: Robert J. Bronner
Film Editor: John McSweeney Jr.
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written by Charles Lederer story by Valentine Davies
Produced by Aaron Rosenberg
Directed by George...
It Started with a Kiss
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1959 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 25, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Gabor, Gustavo Rojo, Fred Clark, Edgar Buchanan, Harry Morgan, Robert Warwick, Frances Bavier, Alice Backes, Carmen Phillips, Richard Deacon, Martin Garralaga, Robert Hutton, Morgan Jones, Joi Lansing, Marion Ross, Ralph Taeger, Carleton Young.
Cinematography: Robert J. Bronner
Film Editor: John McSweeney Jr.
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written by Charles Lederer story by Valentine Davies
Produced by Aaron Rosenberg
Directed by George...
- 2/22/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Exciting news for fans of classic sci-fi! Kenneth Tobey and James Arness in The Thing From Another World (1951) is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here
Howard Hawks’ production of The Thing From Another World, adapted from the classic story “Who Goes There?” by Science Fiction Grandmaster John W. Campbell, is a pitch perfect example of genre filmmaking at its finest and, much like his entire oeuvre – from screwball comedy to melodrama to hardboiled detective to western – a treasure that makes movie magic. Under Christian Nyby’s lean direction, Charles Lederer’s rapid-fire dialogue and a cast of fine journeymen performers, this tale of scientists and servicemen confronting the unknown above the Arctic Circle shines with crisp atomic-age radiation in this scintillating HD presentation in all its glorious Black and White wonder.
Arctic researchers discover a huge, frozen spaceling inside a crash-landed UFO, then fight...
Howard Hawks’ production of The Thing From Another World, adapted from the classic story “Who Goes There?” by Science Fiction Grandmaster John W. Campbell, is a pitch perfect example of genre filmmaking at its finest and, much like his entire oeuvre – from screwball comedy to melodrama to hardboiled detective to western – a treasure that makes movie magic. Under Christian Nyby’s lean direction, Charles Lederer’s rapid-fire dialogue and a cast of fine journeymen performers, this tale of scientists and servicemen confronting the unknown above the Arctic Circle shines with crisp atomic-age radiation in this scintillating HD presentation in all its glorious Black and White wonder.
Arctic researchers discover a huge, frozen spaceling inside a crash-landed UFO, then fight...
- 12/10/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Intrepid soldiers and scientists battle a bloodsucking alien invader at the top of the world! The Warner Archive Collection releases Howard Hawks’ incomparable Science Fiction thriller, a long-desired favorite. Long handicapped by missing scenes, this Rko classic is intact again, complete with its nerve-rattling bombastic Dimitri Tiomkin music score.
The Thing from Another World
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1951 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 87 min. / Street Date December 18, 2018 / 21.99
Starring: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James R. Young, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Eduard Franz, James Arness, Paul Frees, George Fenneman, John Dierkes.
Cinematography: Russell Harlan
Art Direction: Albert S. D’Agostino, John J. Hughes
Film Editor: Roland Gross
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Written by Charles Lederer from a short story by John W. Campbell Jr.
Produced by Howard Hawks
Directed by Christian Nyby
Still one of the all-time favorites of 1950s science fiction filmmaking, Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World...
The Thing from Another World
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1951 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 87 min. / Street Date December 18, 2018 / 21.99
Starring: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James R. Young, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Eduard Franz, James Arness, Paul Frees, George Fenneman, John Dierkes.
Cinematography: Russell Harlan
Art Direction: Albert S. D’Agostino, John J. Hughes
Film Editor: Roland Gross
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Written by Charles Lederer from a short story by John W. Campbell Jr.
Produced by Howard Hawks
Directed by Christian Nyby
Still one of the all-time favorites of 1950s science fiction filmmaking, Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World...
- 12/6/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Was there a movie genre that Howard Hawks could not master? His 1953 take on the 1949 stage musical has enough iconic moments (including a certain hot-pink dress) to fill several films. Starring Jane Russell and, of course, Marilyn Monroe, the comedy is typically Hawksian; fast-paced and full of double-entendres (courtesy of screenwriter Charles Lederer). If that weren’t enough the music comes courtesy of, among others, Hoagy Carmichael.
- 9/11/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
This is the ultimate in screen sadism circa 1947, and it’s all in the debut film performance of Richard Widmark as a too-nasty-for-words hood who likes to shoot people in the stomach. Actually, Victor Mature is not bad in a grim story of a stool pigeon that tries to square himself with the law, and finds himself a target for mob murder.
Kiss of Death
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Taylor Holmes, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Art Direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle Wheeler
Film Editor: J. Watson Webb Jr.
Original Music: David Buttolph
Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Eleazar Lipsky
Produced by Fred Kohlmar
Directed by Henry Hathaway
The older they get, the better they look. Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death is...
Kiss of Death
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Taylor Holmes, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Art Direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle Wheeler
Film Editor: J. Watson Webb Jr.
Original Music: David Buttolph
Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Eleazar Lipsky
Produced by Fred Kohlmar
Directed by Henry Hathaway
The older they get, the better they look. Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death is...
- 2/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Author: Dave Roper
The Directors, The Auteurs, the Commanders of the Ship, Masters of All They Survey. This is the second of this two-part series on the greatest directors with more of cinematic luminaries under the spotlight. You can see the first part of this article here. You can catch up with the greatest writers, and the greatest actors here.
Here’s Part Two.
Howard Hawks – The Big Sleep
Hawks, like his peer Billy Wilder, proved a genre-hopping master. Like Wilder, he had his crime/noir masterpieces (Scarface, The Big Sleep) and his comedies (Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday). Hawks also did a strong line in westerns, with Red River and Rio Bravo the best known and best regarded of this latter-career focus of his. As with any director who covers a lot of thematic ground during their career, it can be difficult to choose a “Best”, as you...
The Directors, The Auteurs, the Commanders of the Ship, Masters of All They Survey. This is the second of this two-part series on the greatest directors with more of cinematic luminaries under the spotlight. You can see the first part of this article here. You can catch up with the greatest writers, and the greatest actors here.
Here’s Part Two.
Howard Hawks – The Big Sleep
Hawks, like his peer Billy Wilder, proved a genre-hopping master. Like Wilder, he had his crime/noir masterpieces (Scarface, The Big Sleep) and his comedies (Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday). Hawks also did a strong line in westerns, with Red River and Rio Bravo the best known and best regarded of this latter-career focus of his. As with any director who covers a lot of thematic ground during their career, it can be difficult to choose a “Best”, as you...
- 2/24/2017
- by Dave Roper
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart | Written by Charles Lederer | Directed by Howard Hawks
Walter (Cary Grant) and Hildy (Rosalind Russell) used to be married. Hildy is a journalist looking for a way out of the biz, but Walter – who also happens to be her ex-boss – wants to bring her back in. He just wants her, full stop. He sees her new fiancé – a safe dullard named Bruce (Ralph Bellamy) – and he despairs.
But Hildy and Bruce are leaving town tonight and getting married tomorrow. Walter, in typically psychopathic rom-com style, desperately contrives various ways of preventing them. Then the news story of the year is unleashed: a man accused of shooting a black police officer absconds on the eve of his execution.
A domino run of darkly farcical events begins, which not only resurrect Hildy’s passion for journalism, but also her lapsed camaraderie with Walter.
Walter (Cary Grant) and Hildy (Rosalind Russell) used to be married. Hildy is a journalist looking for a way out of the biz, but Walter – who also happens to be her ex-boss – wants to bring her back in. He just wants her, full stop. He sees her new fiancé – a safe dullard named Bruce (Ralph Bellamy) – and he despairs.
But Hildy and Bruce are leaving town tonight and getting married tomorrow. Walter, in typically psychopathic rom-com style, desperately contrives various ways of preventing them. Then the news story of the year is unleashed: a man accused of shooting a black police officer absconds on the eve of his execution.
A domino run of darkly farcical events begins, which not only resurrect Hildy’s passion for journalism, but also her lapsed camaraderie with Walter.
- 1/17/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
The restoration of a newly rediscovered director’s cut of the 1931 The Front Page prompts this two-feature comedy disc — Lewis Milestone’s early talkie plus the sublime Howard Hawks remake, which plays a major gender switch on the main characters of Hecht & MacArthur’s original play.
His Girl Friday / The Front Page
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 849
Available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 10, 2017 / 39.96
His Girl Friday:
1940 / B&W /1:37 flat Academy / 92 min.
Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Ernest Truex, Cliff Edwards, Clarence Kolb, Roscoe Karns, Frank Jenks, Regis Toomey, Abner Biberman, Frank Orth, John Qualen, Helen Mack, Alma Kruger, Billy Gilbert, Marion Martin.
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Film Editor Gene Havelick
Original Music Sidney Cutner, Felix Mills
Written by Charles Lederer from the play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
Produced and Directed by Howard Hawks
The Front Page:...
His Girl Friday / The Front Page
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 849
Available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 10, 2017 / 39.96
His Girl Friday:
1940 / B&W /1:37 flat Academy / 92 min.
Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Ernest Truex, Cliff Edwards, Clarence Kolb, Roscoe Karns, Frank Jenks, Regis Toomey, Abner Biberman, Frank Orth, John Qualen, Helen Mack, Alma Kruger, Billy Gilbert, Marion Martin.
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Film Editor Gene Havelick
Original Music Sidney Cutner, Felix Mills
Written by Charles Lederer from the play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
Produced and Directed by Howard Hawks
The Front Page:...
- 1/3/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Todd Garbarini
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a fun-filled weekend of six science fiction classics from Friday, April 15th to Sunday, April 17th. Several cast members from the films are scheduled to appear in person at respective screenings, so read on for more information:
From the press release:
Anniversary Classics Sci-Fi Weekend
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: www.laemmle.com/ac.
Re-visit the Golden Age of the Science Fiction Film as Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents Sci-fi Weekend, a festival of six classic films April 15-17 at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.
It was dawn of the Atomic Age and the Cold War, as Communist and nuclear war paranoia swept onto the nation’s movie screens to both terrify and entertain the American public. All the favorite icons are here: Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet,...
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a fun-filled weekend of six science fiction classics from Friday, April 15th to Sunday, April 17th. Several cast members from the films are scheduled to appear in person at respective screenings, so read on for more information:
From the press release:
Anniversary Classics Sci-Fi Weekend
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: www.laemmle.com/ac.
Re-visit the Golden Age of the Science Fiction Film as Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents Sci-fi Weekend, a festival of six classic films April 15-17 at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.
It was dawn of the Atomic Age and the Cold War, as Communist and nuclear war paranoia swept onto the nation’s movie screens to both terrify and entertain the American public. All the favorite icons are here: Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet,...
- 4/7/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Coleen Gray actress ca. 1950. Coleen Gray: Actress in early Stanley Kubrick film noir, destroyer of men in cult horror 'classic' Actress Coleen Gray, best known as the leading lady in Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing and – as far as B horror movie aficionados are concerned – for playing the title role in The Leech Woman, died at age 92 in Aug. 2015. This two-part article, which focuses on Gray's film career, is a revised and expanded version of the original post published at the time of her death. Born Doris Bernice Jensen on Oct. 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, at a young age she moved with her parents, strict Lutheran Danish farmers, to Minnesota. After getting a degree from St. Paul's Hamline University, she relocated to Southern California to be with her then fiancé, an army private. At first, she eked out a living as a waitress at a La Jolla hotel...
- 10/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Coleen Gray actress ca. 1950. Coleen Gray: Actress in early Stanley Kubrick film noir, destroyer of men in cult horror 'classic' Actress Coleen Gray, best known as the leading lady in Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing and – as far as B horror movie aficionados are concerned – for playing the title role in The Leech Woman, died at age 92 in Aug. 2015. This two-part article, which focuses on Gray's film career, is a revised and expanded version of the original post published at the time of her death. Born Doris Bernice Jensen on Oct. 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, at a young age she moved with her parents, strict Lutheran Danish farmers, to Minnesota. After getting a degree from St. Paul's Hamline University, she relocated to Southern California to be with her then fiancé, an army private. At first, she eked out a living as a waitress at a La Jolla hotel...
- 10/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Part I.
In 1963, Film Quarterly published an essay entitled “Circles and Squares.” It addressed the French auteur theory, introduced to America by The Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. Auteurism holds that a film’s primary creator is its director; Sarris’s “Notes on the Auteur Theory” further distinguished auteurs as filmmakers with distinct, recurring styles. Challenging him was a California-based writer named Pauline Kael.
Kael attacked Sarris’s obsession with trivial links between filmmaker’s movies, whether repeated shots or thematic preoccupations. This led critics to overpraise directors’ lesser films, as when Jacques Rivette declared Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business a masterpiece. “It is an insult to an artist to praise his bad work along with his good; it indicates that you are incapable of judging either,” Kael wrote.
She criticized auteurist preoccupation with Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock, claiming critics “work embarrassingly hard trying to give some semblance of intellectual respectability to mindless,...
In 1963, Film Quarterly published an essay entitled “Circles and Squares.” It addressed the French auteur theory, introduced to America by The Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. Auteurism holds that a film’s primary creator is its director; Sarris’s “Notes on the Auteur Theory” further distinguished auteurs as filmmakers with distinct, recurring styles. Challenging him was a California-based writer named Pauline Kael.
Kael attacked Sarris’s obsession with trivial links between filmmaker’s movies, whether repeated shots or thematic preoccupations. This led critics to overpraise directors’ lesser films, as when Jacques Rivette declared Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business a masterpiece. “It is an insult to an artist to praise his bad work along with his good; it indicates that you are incapable of judging either,” Kael wrote.
She criticized auteurist preoccupation with Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock, claiming critics “work embarrassingly hard trying to give some semblance of intellectual respectability to mindless,...
- 5/10/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Robert Montgomery’s 1947 sophomore film, Ride the Pink Horse is an exciting film noir gem ripe for rediscovery, available on Blu-ray for the first time courtesy of Criterion’s digital restoration. Best known as a comedic actor and Oscar nominated for roles in Night Must Fall (1937) and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Montgomery would eventually direct a handful of titles mostly neglected by the passage of time with the exception of his first directorial credit, the experimental noir Lady in the Lake (as the film is presented entirely from the point of view of its protagonist, as if we’re looking directly through his eyes), an adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel. Lady premiered earlier in the very same year, and though it is often referenced for its structural technique, it’s his follow-up title that’s more impressive, as unique and off kilter as its enigmatic title.
Former GI Lucky...
Former GI Lucky...
- 3/17/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Top Five Chris Rock's movie was one of the better comedies last year and it took me a couple times to realize this so definitely give it a chance and after that first viewing, if you aren't entirely convinced, give it a second spin.
Penguins of Madagascar Never saw it, never intend to. However, the penguin characters were the best part of the first two Madagascar movies, which in and of themselves, weren't very good.
Ride the Pink Horse (Criterion Collection) I have a copy of this, but haven't yet watched it, though I'm looking forward to it and will share some thoughts down the road. For now, here's Criterion's description: Hollywood actor turned idiosyncratic auteur Robert Montgomery directs and stars in this striking crime drama based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. He plays a tough-talking former GI who comes to a small New Mexico town to...
Penguins of Madagascar Never saw it, never intend to. However, the penguin characters were the best part of the first two Madagascar movies, which in and of themselves, weren't very good.
Ride the Pink Horse (Criterion Collection) I have a copy of this, but haven't yet watched it, though I'm looking forward to it and will share some thoughts down the road. For now, here's Criterion's description: Hollywood actor turned idiosyncratic auteur Robert Montgomery directs and stars in this striking crime drama based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. He plays a tough-talking former GI who comes to a small New Mexico town to...
- 3/17/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
“Border Town Noir”
By Raymond Benson
Most film noir pictures take place in urban centers—New York City, Los Angeles—where the big city is as much a character as the unhappy humans in these often bleak and brutal, sometimes brilliant, Hollywood crime films that spanned the early forties to the late fifties. Film noir peaked in the latter half of the forties, with an abundance of the classic titles released between 1946-1948.
One of the more unique things about Ride the Pink Horse is that the urban setting is gone. Instead, the action is set in a border town in New Mexico, where there is indeed danger, to be sure, but there’s also a little less pessimism among the inhabitants—unlike in the urban noirs in which everyone’s a cynic. Interestingly, one might say that the “border town noir” could be a sub-set of the broader category,...
By Raymond Benson
Most film noir pictures take place in urban centers—New York City, Los Angeles—where the big city is as much a character as the unhappy humans in these often bleak and brutal, sometimes brilliant, Hollywood crime films that spanned the early forties to the late fifties. Film noir peaked in the latter half of the forties, with an abundance of the classic titles released between 1946-1948.
One of the more unique things about Ride the Pink Horse is that the urban setting is gone. Instead, the action is set in a border town in New Mexico, where there is indeed danger, to be sure, but there’s also a little less pessimism among the inhabitants—unlike in the urban noirs in which everyone’s a cynic. Interestingly, one might say that the “border town noir” could be a sub-set of the broader category,...
- 3/12/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Ride the Pink Horse
Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer
Directed by Robert Montgomery
U.S.A., 1947
Set in the small New Mexican town of San Pablo during a locally popular festival, actor-director Robert Montgomery’s Ride the Pink Horse begins as a lonely stranger, Gagin (Montgomery), arrives in town by bus, takes a moment at the station to rent a locker into which he stashes a cheque, and then commences his search for one Frank Hugo (Fred Clark), wealthy businessman and the one responsible for the death of Gagin’s wartime friend. More than claim vengeance through blood, Gagin concocts a scheme to blackmail Frank, the aforementioned cheque holding particular importance in the ordeal. A stubbornly stern individual, Gagin is not easy to make friends with, but in a town where almost everybody is after his skin, including Frank, the latter’s main squeeze Marjorie (Andrea King) and FBI...
Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer
Directed by Robert Montgomery
U.S.A., 1947
Set in the small New Mexican town of San Pablo during a locally popular festival, actor-director Robert Montgomery’s Ride the Pink Horse begins as a lonely stranger, Gagin (Montgomery), arrives in town by bus, takes a moment at the station to rent a locker into which he stashes a cheque, and then commences his search for one Frank Hugo (Fred Clark), wealthy businessman and the one responsible for the death of Gagin’s wartime friend. More than claim vengeance through blood, Gagin concocts a scheme to blackmail Frank, the aforementioned cheque holding particular importance in the ordeal. A stubbornly stern individual, Gagin is not easy to make friends with, but in a town where almost everybody is after his skin, including Frank, the latter’s main squeeze Marjorie (Andrea King) and FBI...
- 1/16/2015
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Blu-ray Release Date: Aug. 12, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
The light-hearted 1962 comedy musical Follow That Dream, one of Elvis Presley’s more engaging and charming films, makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Twilight Time.
The movie stars Elvis as a member of a vagabond family who become unlikely homesteaders in serene, idyllic 1950s Florida. Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell), his son Toby (Presley), and a brood of more-or-less adopted children run out of gas on a perfect little beach that just happens to be unincorporated land. No sooner do the Kwimpers stake their claim than government officials, child welfare workers, and a pair of gangsters descend to make trouble—but Toby’s native wits and beguiling innocence may well be a match for them all.
The film was written by Charles Lederer and directed by Gordon Douglas.
As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time...
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
The light-hearted 1962 comedy musical Follow That Dream, one of Elvis Presley’s more engaging and charming films, makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Twilight Time.
The movie stars Elvis as a member of a vagabond family who become unlikely homesteaders in serene, idyllic 1950s Florida. Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell), his son Toby (Presley), and a brood of more-or-less adopted children run out of gas on a perfect little beach that just happens to be unincorporated land. No sooner do the Kwimpers stake their claim than government officials, child welfare workers, and a pair of gangsters descend to make trouble—but Toby’s native wits and beguiling innocence may well be a match for them all.
The film was written by Charles Lederer and directed by Gordon Douglas.
As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time...
- 7/14/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Humankind’s collision with otherworldly life forms can make for unforgettable cinema.
This article will highlight the best of live-action human vs. alien films. The creatures may be from other planets or may be non-demonic entities from other dimensions.
Excluded from consideration were giant monster films as the diakaiju genre would make a great subject for separate articles.
Readers looking for “friendly alien” films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the comically overrated Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are advised to keep watching the skies because they won’t find them here.
Film writing being the game of knowledge filtered through personal taste that it is, some readers’ subgenre favorites might not have made the list such as War of the Worlds (1953) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).
Now let’s take a chronological look at the cinema’s best battles between Us and Them.
This article will highlight the best of live-action human vs. alien films. The creatures may be from other planets or may be non-demonic entities from other dimensions.
Excluded from consideration were giant monster films as the diakaiju genre would make a great subject for separate articles.
Readers looking for “friendly alien” films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the comically overrated Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are advised to keep watching the skies because they won’t find them here.
Film writing being the game of knowledge filtered through personal taste that it is, some readers’ subgenre favorites might not have made the list such as War of the Worlds (1953) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).
Now let’s take a chronological look at the cinema’s best battles between Us and Them.
- 7/13/2014
- by Terek Puckett
- SoundOnSight
Quentin Tarantino ‘The Hateful Eight’ screenplay leak Quentin Tarantino will no longer be making the Western The Hateful Eight. Why not? Well, Tarantino claims he sent out the film’s screenplay to a group of six people, one of whom allegedly showed it to his agent, who then showed it to other agents, who then began calling Tarantino’s agent Mike Simpson, asking him to cast their clients in the film. (Photo: The Hateful Eight screenwriter Quentin Tarantino.) “I’m very, very depressed,” Tarantino was quoted as saying at Deadline.com, which first broke The Hateful Eight Screenplay Leak story on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. “I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today.” Now, before they begin flailing and wailing, Quentin Tarantino fans should be...
- 1/24/2014
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
La Jolla Playhouse announces two additional productions for its 20132014 season. Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley Glengarry Glen Ross, Memphis will direct His Girl Friday, John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves acclaimed adaptation of the Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play The Front Page and the Howard Hawks film His Girl Friday, with screenplay by Charles Lederer, produced by Columbia Pictures. The production will kick off the season in JuneJuly in the Mandell Weiss Theatre.
- 12/12/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Whether you measure your movies by box office, reviews, or popular appeal, Sony’s $125 million remake of the 1990 Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger interplanetary action fest Total Recall looks like a strike-out. The movie opened with a lethal softness; a $25.7 million first weekend meaning Recall won’t even come close to making back its budget during its domestic theatrical run. In fact, despite 22 years of ticket price increases, it’s doubtful the movie will even match the original’s $119.3 million haul.
And for those of you who think maybe the problem is Total Recall was outgunned opening while The Dark Knight Rises was still sucking up box office coin, entertain, at least for a moment if you will, the possibility the movie just plain sucks. According to Rotten Tomatoes’ canvas, almost 70% of reviewers – and over three-quarters of “top critics” – gave Total Recall a thumbs-down. Those who went to see the movie didn’t...
And for those of you who think maybe the problem is Total Recall was outgunned opening while The Dark Knight Rises was still sucking up box office coin, entertain, at least for a moment if you will, the possibility the movie just plain sucks. According to Rotten Tomatoes’ canvas, almost 70% of reviewers – and over three-quarters of “top critics” – gave Total Recall a thumbs-down. Those who went to see the movie didn’t...
- 8/15/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
We love a chamelonic director here at The Playlist, and Howard Hawks was one of the first, and one of the best. Across a 55-year career that spanned silents and talkies, black-and-white and color, Hawks tackled virtually every genre under the sun, often turning out films that still stand as among the best in that style. Romantic comedy? Two of the finest ever. War? "To Have And Have Not" and "Sergeant York," the latter of which won him his only Best Director Academy Award nomination (though he did win an Honorary Award in 1975, two years before his death). Science-fiction? The much ripped-off "The Thing From Another World." Gangster movies? "Scarface," which practically invented a whole genre. From film noir and melodrama to Westerns and musicals, Hawks took them all in his stride.
The filmmaker famously said that the secret to a good movie was "three great scenes and no bad ones,...
The filmmaker famously said that the secret to a good movie was "three great scenes and no bad ones,...
- 5/30/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Chicago – When one considers that it is five-decades-old this year, the influence of the original “Ocean’s 11” is somewhat jaw-dropping. The fact is that the Rat Pack has defined cool for half-a-century now and their influence on everything from film to music to fashion shows no signs of fading. Find me another 50-year-old movie that breathes cool like “Ocean’s 11.”
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
The definitive Rat Pack movie stars Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean, the leader of a group of heist artists planning their biggest job on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. They’ll knock out the power and drain five casinos at the same time. With a perfect blend of comedy, action, and suspense, “Ocean’s 11” entertains as much in 2010 as it did in 1960. With co-stars Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Cesar Romero, Richard Conte, Red Skelton, George Raft, and Angie Dickinson, “Ocean’s 11” still crackles with energy,...
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
The definitive Rat Pack movie stars Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean, the leader of a group of heist artists planning their biggest job on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. They’ll knock out the power and drain five casinos at the same time. With a perfect blend of comedy, action, and suspense, “Ocean’s 11” entertains as much in 2010 as it did in 1960. With co-stars Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Cesar Romero, Richard Conte, Red Skelton, George Raft, and Angie Dickinson, “Ocean’s 11” still crackles with energy,...
- 11/11/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Elvis Presley holds the throne as “The King” of rock n’ roll. Music was his forte, but he did dabble in film for awhile and the results were a mixed bag. In honor of his 75th birthday which he won’t be able to celebrate for himself (unless you’re an Elvis Lives conspiracy theorist), Fox has released the Elvis 75th Birthday Collection. Presented in 2.35:1 Widescreen (save for Kid Galahad in 1.85:1 and Frankie and Johnny in 1.66:1), the collection shows its age in a few places as Fox seems to have done little to remaster these classics, but overall it’s a nice look at the musician who would be an actor, even if the selection of films leaves a lot to be desired. If the set is good for anything it’s for showing his progress as an actor from his first film ever, Love Me Tender,...
- 6/12/2010
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
Director Marc Abraham (Flash of Genius) told Latino Review that progress has been slow but steady on his prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing.
"This is more of a prequel than a sequel, there is your exclusive. Its going to be taking place in the same time frame,"he told the site. These are the events leading up to the 1982 film.”
The Thing from Another World was originally a novella by the great science fiction author and editor John W. Campbell. Published as Who Goes There? in 1938, the novella was adapted into The Thing by Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks, and Ben Hecht into the 1951 thriller. While the film was credited to Christian Nyby, Hawks did a great deal of unaccredited work behind the camera as well.
Carpenter remade the film in 1982 sticking closer to the original story and it starred both Kurt Russell and the effects from wizard Rob Bottin.
"This is more of a prequel than a sequel, there is your exclusive. Its going to be taking place in the same time frame,"he told the site. These are the events leading up to the 1982 film.”
The Thing from Another World was originally a novella by the great science fiction author and editor John W. Campbell. Published as Who Goes There? in 1938, the novella was adapted into The Thing by Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks, and Ben Hecht into the 1951 thriller. While the film was credited to Christian Nyby, Hawks did a great deal of unaccredited work behind the camera as well.
Carpenter remade the film in 1982 sticking closer to the original story and it starred both Kurt Russell and the effects from wizard Rob Bottin.
- 9/15/2008
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
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