News

Mitzi Gaynor, star of 1950s big-screen musicals including “South Pacific” and “Les Girls” and a series of beloved variety specials in the 1970s, died on Thursday. She was 93.

Gaynor’s management team, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, confirmed to Variety that she died of natural causes.

“For eight decades she entertained audiences in films, on television and on the stage. She truly enjoyed every moment of her professional career and the great privilege of being an entertainer,” Reyes and Rosamonda wrote in a statement on Gaynor’s X account. “Off stage, she was a vibrant and extraordinary woman, a caring and loyal friend, and a warm, gracious, very funny and altogether glorious human being.”

Gaynor starred as Navy nurse Nellie Forbush in the 1958 big-screen adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” together with Rossano Brazzi as French planter Emile De Becque and John Kerr as Lt. Cable. Gaynor sang...

The release of First Omen has encouraged many fans to revisit The Omen franchise ( Photo Credit – Facebook )

First Omen has rekindled the viewers’ interest in the classic horror franchise The Omen, prompting many fans to revisit the iconic series. Here, we have explored The Omen franchise in a chronological order. This series has left an indelible mark on the horror genre, and understanding its sequence will enhance your viewing experience, allowing you to appreciate the evolution of its dark and haunting story.

First Omen (2024) Director: Arkasha Stevenson Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sonia Braga, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero Available on: Hulu (US) & Disney Plus hotstar (India) IMDb rating: 6.5/10

Begin your journey into the omen franchise with the movie First Omen that sets the plot in motion for the birth of the Antichrist. Nell Tiger Free stars as a nun sent to a secretive church in Rome, where she unravels...

Michael Caine’s heist comedy has been rated one of the top UK movies ever. It’s a flip Swingin’ England slapstick thriller, lavishly produced and with an emphasis on fancy cars. Caine is a cockney crook with an insane scheme to steal millions in Red Chinese gold in Turin. Slick stuntwork combines with ‘Team Brit’ humor for a wild escape in a rush hour traffic jam. The lavish goes for show-off spectacle — its real stars are a trio of undersized, underdog UK automobiles.

The Italian Job 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date January 31, 2023 / Available from / 39.95

Starring: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, Michael Standing, Harry Baird, Robert Rietty, Lelia Goldoni, Valery Leon, Lisa Shane.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Production Designer: Disley Jones

Art Director: Michael Knight

Film Editor: John Trumper

Stunt Driving:...

After twenty years honing his craft on ever-more precise filmic constructions, David Lean opened up his imagination for a story of loneliness and romance in Venice, Italy. A vacationing American woman searches for — she doesn’t know what. Katharine Hepburn reveals the vulnerable side of her personality, and the woman eventually leaves her fears behind. Lean creates the most compelling ‘relaxed vacation’ ever, yet every shot is as keenly envisioned as in any of his films. It’s an amazing ‘on location’ show that initially ran into trouble with U.S. censors — some thought it was morally incompatible with the Production Code, and shouldn’t be released here at all.

Summertime

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 22

1955 / Color / 1:37 Academy (1:66 widescreen?) / 100 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 12, 2022 / 39.95

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Darren McGavin, Jane Rose, Mari Aldon, Macdonald Parke, Gaetano Autiero, Jeremy Spenser, Isa Miranda, Virginia Simeon,...

I’m beginning to think this Satan character holds a grudge, you know? He tries to take over the world with his kid Damien in The Omen (1976)? A bust. Teenage Damien takes another run at it in Damien Omen II (1978) and survives, but daddy is nowhere to be seen. Deadbeat. So here we are with The Final Conflict (1981), Damien grown up and preparing the throne for pa, but this time, God’s got his own present to deliver. “When does the Devil get a break?” and other burning questions are answered in this low-key yet overall effective finale. (If only temporary.)

Released by 20th Century Fox in North America in late March, The Final Conflict rolled out to the rest of the world shortly thereafter, and made its money back despite less than glowing reviews. And while some of the complaints are valid -- it doesn’t really have that...

Updated: A TV series followup to the 1969 film “The Italian Job” is in the works at Paramount Plus, Variety has learned. In addition, the streamer is planning series adaptations of “Love Story,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Parallax View,” and “Flashdance.”

In the “Italian Job” series, when the grandchildren of the legendary Charlie Croker inherit his old safety deposit box, the quest for the infamous Italian bullion is reignited.

The project has received a script-to-series order at the streamer. Matt Wheeler is attached to write and executive produce, with Donald De Line onboard as a producer. Paramount Television Studios will produce. The announcement was made as part of ViacomCBS’ investor day presentation on Wednesday.

De Line was a producer on the 2003 American remake of “The Italian Job.” Wheeler previously co-created the CBS drama series “Salvation.” He most recently served as an executive producer on CBS’ “Hawaii Five-o” reboot. He is repped by APA,...

[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]

“I’m mad, don’t forget it.”

Rossano Brazzi’s Psychout for Murder feels like an off choice to be writing about for Gialloween. While the marketing of this classic ’60s Italian thriller wants you to expect a piece of giallo, it feels incredibly different and unique in many ways. It can’t be characterized as a murder mystery of gruesome horrors. It’s not suspenseful or shocking even. There is murder, but the way these crimes are executed is much more satisfying and clever than a knife in hand could create. There are no slit throats, no gushes of blood, no one hung bloodied from a ceiling. It’s a psychological thriller of social significance, a symbol of the Swinging Sixties and women’s liberation.

The viewer is greeted with a sensual, sexy opening. A beautiful woman’s features are accentuated as she traces her hand across her lover’s body.

Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the last surviving star of Gone With the Wind, died July 26 of natural causes at her residence in Paris, where she lived for more than six decades, according to Variety. De Havilland was 104.

De Havilland turned 104 on July 1. She was the older sister of Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013 at 96. The two Academy Award-winning actresses were estranged for most of their lives. Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916. Her parents, Walter de Havilland, an English professor, and actress Lilian Fontaine, were British. De Havilland and her sister grew up in Saratoga, California, with their mother. Her father married the family’s housekeeper and remained in Tokyo. Havilland’s first performance was in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.

She made her stage debut in Max Reinhardt’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“A Whole Lot Of Shirley Going On”

By Raymond Benson

Joseph E. Levine, head of Embassy Pictures, was at one time a formidable producer and studio head who brought us some outstanding pictures in the 1960s and 70s. In 1967, he managed to persuade the great Italian director Vittorio De Sica to do a picture in English with big Hollywood stars. De Sica had just previously done an English-language flick, After the Fox (1966). So, in 1967, he made a comic anthology movie called Woman Times Seven, starring Shirley MacLaine in seven different roles opposite seven different leading men (and others).

Anthology movies are often a mixed bag. In almost every case, there are two or three stories that are good, and two or three that are less so. Here, we have seven tales of a woman’s relationship with a man (or men) with a distinctly European slant (especially in its attitudes...

Author Matthew Field has released a new, updated edition of his definitive book about the 1969 comedy crime classic "The Italian Job". The book is titled "The Self Preservation Society: 50 Years of The Italian Job". The profusely illustrated book features a foreword by Sir Michael Caine. Field will appear with special guests at a panel discussion about the film and book at Town Hall in Cheltenham on 6 October. Here is the official blurb:

"You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off’ is one of the most iconic lines in British cinema. The Italian Job is 50 years old this year, the Mini is 60, and to celebrate Matthew Field (The Italian Job) is joined by the film’s producer Michael Deeley, widow of the director Peter Collinson, Hazel Collinson, and David Salamone, who drove the red Mini and sourced all the cars for the film. ‘Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea…...

Earlier this summer, Scream Factory answered the devilish prayers of horror fans by announcing The Omen Blu-ray collection deluxe edition that includes all five Omen films, and now they've revealed the full list of special features for the box set ahead of its release this October.

Featuring five discs and every Omen movie in the satanic franchise—The Omen, Damien: Omen II, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Omen IV: The Awakening, and the 2006 remake—The Omen Blu-ray collection deluxe edition is slated for an October 15th release, and we have the official press release with full release details:

Press Release: Get ready to jump start your ultimate horror binge just in time for Halloween! On October 15, 2019, Scream Factory™ is proud to present The Omen Collection Deluxe Edition, featuring all four original films as well as the 2006 remake that kept movie audiences glued to the screen with white-knuckled terror. Packed with hours of chilling special features,...

Scream Factory is answering the devilish prayers of horror fans this October with The Omen Blu-ray collection deluxe edition that includes all five Omen films.

Featuring five discs and every Omen movie in the satanic franchise—The Omen, Damien: Omen II, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Omen IV: The Awakening, and the 2006 remake—The Omen Blu-ray collection deluxe edition is slated for an October 15th release and will be limited to 10,000 units.

The complete bonus features have yet to be revealed, but we do know that the collection will include a 4K remaster of 1976's The Omen and new interviews with "David Seltzer, Holly Palance, Lee Grant, Robert Foxworth, Elizabeth Shepherd and Brain Taggart."

Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates, and in the meantime, you can check out the collection's cover art below.

From Scream Factory: "You may want to say your prayers after this news: The Omen...

“See Rome And Find A Husband!”

By Raymond Benson

The title of this review is admittedly facetious, but let’s be honest—it’s what this movie is about!

The time is 1954, the Eisenhower years, and America is at the crossroads of remaining in a conservative, sexually repressed era in which women, regardless if they had a career or not, were supposed to be more interested in finding husbands. Things wouldn’t change until the revolutionary 1960s. Hollywood mainstream pictures perpetuated this notion in the 50s with fare like Three Coins in the Fountain, an extremely popular romantic comedy upon its release. In fact, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Three American women, Frances (Dorothy McGuire), Anita (Jean Peters), and Maria (Maggie McNamara), all have jobs working for an American company located in Rome, Italy. One would think that would be fulfilling enough… but, no, all three...

Ah, yes — it’s a hot day in 1954, so what could be better than a cool movie theater projecting beautiful Italian scenery onto an Eee-Nor-Mous CinemaScope screen, and Frank Sinatra warbling an Oscar-winning tune. The simple escapism of Fox’s ‘three girls find love’ epic makes Rome look like a welcoming haven for carefree Americans — the stars park their car anywhere, and admire the fancy fountains without a single competing tourist to bother them: “It’s the favorable exchange rate!”

Three Coins in the Fountain

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan, Maggie McNamara, Rossano Brazzi.

Cinematography: Milton R. Krasner

Film Editor: William Reynolds

Original Music: Jule Styne, Victor Young

Written by John Patrick from the novel by John H. Secondari

Produced by Sol C. Siegel

Directed by Jean Negulesco

Back...

America’s top box office star John Wayne sneaks away to a remote corner of the Sahara Desert with the top Italian sex symbol Sophia Loren … and foolishly brings an entire camera crew with him. Henry Hathaway’s impressive desert adventure boasts a fairly amazing, bona fide Lost City, made even more impressive through the Technirama cinematography of the legendary Jack Cardiff. Rossano Brazzi co-stars as a treasure hunter, who can’t handle the truth about his explorer-father.

Legend of the Lost

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date December 12, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Rossano Brazzi, Kurt Kasznar.

Cinematography: Jack Cardiff

Film Editor: Bert Bates

Art Direction: Alfred Ybarra

Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Written by Ben Hecht and Robert Presnell Jr.

Produced & Directed by Henry Hathaway

Not enough color in your life? Perhaps this movie will perk up your retinas — cameraman...

‘Things Blowing Up Good’ has been surefire entertainment since the beginning of cinema, but this ill-fated Cinerama extravaganza about the biggest explosion in recorded human history limps along despite some pretty darned impressive volcanic effects. It’s quite an entertaining spectacle, with various good performers in three soap opera plots, either overacting or loitering about with nothing to do. And don’t forget the from-left-field musical striptease.

Krakatoa East of Java

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 131 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Maximilian Schell, Diane Baker, Brian Keith, Barbara Werle, Sal Mineo, Rossano Brazzi, John Leyton, J.D. Cannon, Jacqueline (Jacqui) Chan, Victoria Young, Marc Lawrence, Geoffrey Holder, Niall MacGinnis, Sumi Haru.

Cinematography: Manuel Berenguer

Film Editors: Walter Hannemann, Warren Low, Maurice Rootes

Production Design: Eugèné Lourié

Costumes: Laure Lourié

Special Effects: Eugèné Lourié, Alex Weldon, Francisco Prósper

Original Music: Frank De Vol

Written by Clifford Newton Gould,...

Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...

The Barefoot Contessa

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.

Cinematography: Jack Cardiff

Original Music: Mario Nascimbene

Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.

The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.

The great film historian Kevin Brownlow, who has devoted large sections of his life to restoring Abel Gance's 1927 epic Napoleon, takes a dim view of this one. And indeed Austerlitz, a.k.a. The Battle of Austerlitz, has several strikes against it, belongs to several categories of film maudit all at once. It's a late film by a seventy-one-year-old director whose best work, by universal consensus, was in the silent era; it's a kind of belated sequel, the further adventures of Napoleon Bonaparte; it's a Salkind production.Incidentally, viewing the lavish sets for this movie, we can see how the Salkinds, those roving multinational mountebanks, ran up the unpaid studio bills in Yugoslavia which kept Orson Welles from building the elaborate vanishing sets he had planned for The Trial (starting realistic, it would have ended up playing in a featureless void), necessitating the repurposing of a disused Parisian railway station.

Maureen O'Hara: Queen of Technicolor. Maureen O'Hara movies: TCM tribute Veteran actress and Honorary Oscar recipient Maureen O'Hara, who died at age 95 on Oct. 24, '15, in Boise, Idaho, will be remembered by Turner Classic Movies with a 24-hour film tribute on Friday, Nov. 20. At one point known as “The Queen of Technicolor” – alongside “Eastern” star Maria Montez – the red-headed O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons on Aug. 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, County Dublin) was featured in more than 50 movies from 1938 to 1971 – in addition to one brief 1991 comeback (Chris Columbus' Only the Lonely). Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne Setting any hint of modesty aside, Maureen O'Hara wrote in her 2004 autobiography (with John Nicoletti), 'Tis Herself, that “I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne.” Wayne, for his part, once said (as quoted in 'Tis Herself): There's only one woman who has been my friend over the...

Olivia de Havilland on Turner Classic Movies: Your chance to watch 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' for the 384th time Olivia de Havilland is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 2, '15. The two-time Best Actress Oscar winner (To Each His Own, 1946; The Heiress, 1949) whose steely determination helped to change the way studios handled their contract players turned 99 last July 1. Unfortunately, TCM isn't showing any de Havilland movie rarities, e.g., Universal's cool thriller The Dark Mirror (1946), the Paramount comedy The Well-Groomed Bride (1947), or Terence Young's British-made That Lady (1955), with de Havilland as eye-patch-wearing Spanish princess Ana de Mendoza. On the other hand, you'll be able to catch for the 384th time a demure Olivia de Havilland being romanced by a dashing Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood, as TCM shows this 1938 period adventure classic just about every month. But who's complaining? One the...

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...

Fear City

Written by Nicholas St. John

Directed by Abel Ferrara

USA, 1984

New York City holds a large cinematic history of being a hotspot for noirish sleaze, a stage for a morally ambiguous society held together by a justice system without empathy or remorse. The playground was manifested in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver as a window to the subversive end to the American Dream, a place underneath the hopeful symbols of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. The apocalyptic mood of Scorsese’s revelation was transplanted into the works of Abel Ferrara, a Bronx-born local whose early focus on the deep evils of his immediate landscape labeled him a mainstay in exploitative film. After The Driller Killer (1979) and Ms. 45 (1981), Ferrara continued his narrative strength of depicting the consequences of homicidal justice-seekers with Fear City, regarded as a relative failure due to its mainstream compromises without mainstream appeal.

Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ actor-filmmaker who died last week helped to revolutionize film distribution patterns in North America (photo: Tom Laughlin in ‘Billy Jack’) Tom Laughlin, best known for the Billy Jack movies he wrote, directed, and starred in opposite his wife Delores Taylor (since 1954), died of complications from pneumonia last Thursday, December 12, 2013, at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles County. Tom Laughlin (born on August 10, 1931, in Minneapolis) was 82; in the last dozen years or so, he suffered from a number of ailments, including cancer and a series of strokes. Tom Laughlin movies: ‘The Delinquents’ and fighting with Robert Altman In the mid-’50s, after acting in college plays and in his own stock company while attending university in Wisconsin, Tom Laughlin began landing small roles on television, e.g., Climax!, Navy Log, The Millionaire. At that time, he was also cast...

For this week's episode of Best Shot, the collective series in which bloggers are invited to choose their favorite image from a pre-selected movie, we went to Italy for David Lean's Summertime (1955) starring Katharine Hepburn. The film won both of them Oscar nominations, for Direction and Acting respectively, and since I'd never seen it it fills in two Oscar gaps in my 1950s cinema.

It's a relatively modest picture all told, concerned not with big sweeping travelogue beauty (though the travelogue beauty is accounted for) but with an internal flowering. Spinster Katharine Hepburn goes to Italy, goes a little wild (well, wild for an American spinster from Akron Ohio), and then -- spoiler alert -- leaves Italy again. It's all very E.M. Forster really! (See A Room With a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread).

She was coming to Europe to find something. It was way back in...

Chicago – This weekend is the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Classic Film Festival, and few movie stars alive represent that classic status better than Miss Mitzi Gaynor. Whether co-starring in movies with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, or starring in the film version of “South Pacific,” Mitzi Gaynor always inspires the old “razzle dazzle.”

Francesca Marlene de Czanyi Von Gerber – nicknamed Mitzi – was born in Chicago, and her family moved to Hollywood when she was eleven. She started singing and dancing with the Los Angeles Civic Opera at age 13, and managed to get a contract – and a new last name – with 20th Century Fox Pictures at age 17. Her star shined during the last gasp of glitzy movie musicals in the 1950s, co-starring with Marilyn Monroe in “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (1954), Frank Sinatra in “The Joker is Wild” (1957) and Gene Kelly in “Les Girls” (1957).

Gaynor was the...

Chicago – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 25 pairs of classic movie passes up for grabs to see 1958’s “South Pacific” with Mitzi Gaynor in person! For one night only, Mitzi Gaynor will be joined by film historian and author Leonard Maltin.

“South Pacific” comes to Chicago for one night only as part of Turner Classic Movies’ “Road to Hollywood” tour. The film also stars Rossano Brazzi, John Kerr, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall, France Nuyen, Russ Brown, Jack Mullaney, Ken Clark, Floyd Simmons, Candace Lee and Warren Hsieh from director Joshua Logan and writers Paul Osborn and Richard Rodgers.

To win your free “South Pacific” passes courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just get interactive with our unique Hookup technology below. That’s it! This special showing is on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Music Box Theatre in Chicago. The more social actions you complete,...

Kerr in the 1958 box-office blockbuster musical South Pacific (seen above with love interest France Nuyen) and his (few) other post-Tea and Sympathy efforts [Please check out the previous article: "The Two Kerrs in the stage and film versions of Tea and Sympathy."] Director Curtis Bernhardt's Gaby (1956) was a generally disliked remake of Waterloo Bridge, with Kerr and leading lady Leslie Caron in the old Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh roles (1940 movie version -- and even older Douglass Montgomery and Mae Clarke roles in the 1931 film version). Jeffrey Hayden's The Vintage (1957), starring Kerr and Mel Ferrer absurdly cast as Italian brothers, also failed to generate much box-office or critical interest. MGM leading lady Pier Angeli played Ferrer's love interest in the film, while the more mature and married French star Michèle Morgan (a plot element similar to that found in Tea and Sympathy) is Kerr's object of desire. (Pictured above: South Pacific cast members John Kerr and France Nuyen embracing.) Also in the mid-'50s, John Kerr...

Retro-active: The Best Articles From Cinema Retro's Archives

Bradford Dillman: A Compulsively Watchable Actor

By Harvey Chartrand

In a career that has spanned 43 years, Bradford Dillman accumulated more than 500 film and TV credits. The slim, handsome and patrician Dillman may have been the busiest actor in Hollywood during the late sixties and early seventies, working non-stop for years. In 1971 alone, Dillman starred in seven full-length feature films. And this protean output doesn’t include guest appearances on six TV shows that same year.

Yale-educated Dillman first drew good notices in the early 1950s on the Broadway stage and in live TV shows, such as Climax and Kraft Television Theatre. After making theatrical history playing Edmund Tyrone in the first-ever production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1956, Dillman landed the role of blueblood psychopath Artie Straus in the crime-and-punishment thriller Compulsion (1959), for which he...

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity   1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...

Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Forsaking All Others Joan Crawford on TCM: Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Road, When Ladies Meet Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Forsaking All Others (1934) A woman pursues the wrong man for almost twenty years. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable. Bw-83 mins. 7:30 Am I Live My Life (1935) A flighty society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Frank Morgan. Bw-97 mins. 9:15 Am Love On The Run (1936) Rival newsmen get mixed up with a runaway heiress and a ring of spies. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. Bw-80 mins. 10:45 Am When Ladies Meet (1941) A female novelist doesn't realize her new friend is the wife whose husband she's trying to steal. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.

Bette Davis, at 3 a.m. in Vincent Sherman's Mr. Skeffington Forget Judy Garland and Van Johnson (and Spring Byington and three-year-old Liza Minnelli) in Robert Z. Leonard's In the Good Old Summertime. Forget Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum in Don Hartman's Holiday Affair. Forget June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rossano Brazzi in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Women. It's too late to watch any of those Turner Classic Movies Christmas presentations, anyhow. My first TCM Christmas recommendation kicks off at 11 p.m. Pt: Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), Margot Kidder (Superman), and Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) star in Black Christmas (1974), in which "a deranged killer terrorizes the women staying in a sorority house over Christmas." Bob Clark, best known for Porky's and the Jack Lemmon drama Tribute, directed. At 12:45 a.m., TCM offers another Christmas flick for the whole family: Nicholas Webster's Santa Claus Conquers the Martians...

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in David Lean‘s Summertime (top); Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant in Howard Hawks‘ Bringing Up Baby (bottom) Katharine Hepburn having her own private day as part of Turner Classic Movies‘ "Summer Under the Stars" series doesn’t make my pulse race or my heart palpitate. I mean, Hepburn could be an outstanding actress, but her movies are always playing on TCM, and many have found their way onto DVD and, way back when, VHS. [Katharine Hepburn schedule.] (Mr./Ms. TCM, for next year, how about a John Gilbert Day or a Ramon Novarro Day or a Catherine Deneuve Day or a Sessue Hayakawa Day or a Nancy Carroll Day or a Lizabeth Scott Day? Heck, I’d gladly accept a Polly Moran Day.) Among the eleven Hepburn vehicles being presented by TCM (in addition to David Heeley‘s 1993 documentary Katharine Hepburn: All About Me), my favorite is Howard Hawks...

Variety are today reporting that a remake of the classic musical made in 1958, South Pacific is in production. The movie was directed by Joshua Logan and starred Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr and Ray Walston was shot in Hawaii and in it’s year of release had the highest Box Office takings bringing in $36m ($23m). It was based on the James Michener Musical set on an island during World War 2.

According to the site, they plan to keep all the songs from the movie but will make it more hard-edged (whatever that means!). Ileen Maisel and Bob Balaban will producer the movie under their banner, Amber Entertainment.

“Our movie will be a tougher, more realistic retelling of the same classic story of two very different people whose love for each other transcends their enormous cultural differences,” Balaban said. “We think there’s a whole new audience just waiting...

Host/Center Theatre Group’s artistic director Michael Ritchie, and actors France Nuyen (A Girl Named Tamiko, The Joy Luck Club), Mitzi Gaynor (There’s No Business Like Show Business, Les Girls), John Kerr (Tea and Sympathy, opposite Deborah Kerr — no relation), and Rod Gilfry prior to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ screening of Joshua Logan‘s 1958 musical hit South Pacific. Starring Rossano Brazzi, Gaynor, Kerr, and Nuyen, and featuring Juanita Moore, Ray Walston, and others, South Pacific was presented on Friday, June 25, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Rod Gilfry has the Rossano Brazzi role in the national tour of South Pacific. Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Joshua Logan‘s South Pacific: John Kerr, Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi (top); John Kerr, France Nuyen (bottom) Tonight at 7:30 p.m., a recently restored 70mm print of the Joshua Logan-directed film version of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s musical South Pacific will be screened at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. South Pacific stars Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall, and France Nuyen. The Academy screening is presented in association with Center Theater Group, currently hosting the touring version of the South Pacific Broadway revival. Following the screening, Center Theatre Group’s artistic director Michael Ritchie will lead an onstage discussion featuring veteran Mitzi Gaynor (above), a superb dancer who starred (or was featured in) several 1950s musicals, including There’s No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, and Les Girls. Based on James Michener’s novel,...

While you’re already getting your big Academy Awards party ready in time for the telecast on March 7th, we’ve got something for even bigger movie fans to enjoy. Of course, we’re talking about a movie marathon!

All month long, Turner Classic Movies will be running over 360 Academy Award nominated and winning films, back to back, with an interesting twist. In the vain of the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” each film will have a common actor or actress from the previous film.

For example, tomorrow night’s schedule consists of The Graduate with Anne Bancroft and William Daniels, which goes into Reds which stars Daniels and Jack Nicholson, into Chinatown with Nicholson and John Huston. Though we’re already about two weeks into the marathon, there are still plenty of great films to look forward to, including some TCM firsts like Gladiator, Titanic, Alien, and Trading Places.

. Mitzi Gaynor with Cinema Retro contributor Eddy Friedfeld in New York.

By Eddy Friedfeld

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 “I never worked with a stinker- how great is that?” Mitzi Gaynor said as she recalled working with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hammerstein. Probably because the legendary actress, singer, and dancer never worked on any project that she did not make better.

In New York City celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the film South Pacific on Blu-Ray disc, Ms. Gaynor was radiant, charismatic, and vibrant, still possessing all the energy that could “wash that man right out of her hair,” recalling her iconic character, Nellie Forbush.

Filmed on location on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, the classic and enduring South Pacific is about a young American nurse from Little Rock (Gaynor) who meets the handsome and mysterious...

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0 Chicago – Twentieth Century Fox has pulled out all the stops for the 50th anniversary of one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic “South Pacific”. With an entire supplemental disc of not just special features but an extended version of the film and one of the most pristine video transfers that Fox has yet produced, “South Pacific” is one of the best musical HD releases to date.

Having been a theatre student and lover of movie musicals from a young age, I’ve seen “South Pacific” several times, even if it’s never been what I would consider the cream of the crop when it comes to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s work. And yet, and this is the sign of a truly great Blu-Ray release, the film felt knew to me in HD. And despite the film’s overall flaws, the Blu-Ray release of it is absolutely flawless.