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Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 stars John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Leonie Benesch, and Ben Chaplin as ABC sports journalists unexpectedly put in the position of narrativizing the hostage crisis of the 1972 Munich Olympics. It’s an effective thriller––one couldn’t accuse it of being boring––but takes what feels like the safest possible approach to its fraught subject matter.

September 5 opens with ABC’s vintage logo as a cheerful voice announces these as the first Olympic Games to be broadcast live, promising that the Munich edition will remind the world of what unites us––an irony-loaded statement for those who know what’s coming. The handheld camera follows the ABC journalists as they begin their day in the studio. It is director Geoffrey’s (Magaro) first day on the job. He’s hoping to impress his bosses: the ambitious Roone Arledge (Sarsgaard) and “voice of reason” Marvin (Chaplin). Soon, shocking...

Biography is undoubtedly one of the most popular genres in existence, because people just love to watch a Wikipedia page come to life in live-action format. But as someone who has flunked his history exams quite a few times, I don’t like a by-the-numbers chronicling of the past. I love biographies that tend to have pizazz, if they have the audacity to be experimental with their storytelling, or if they are centered around a not-so-popular subject matter. Off the top of my head, I can name Schindler’s List, Ford v Ferrari, Elvis (the 2022 one), Rocketman, Jarhead, The Aviator, First Man, Spotlight, Serpico, Spencer, American Animals, Dog Day Afternoon, Tetris, Judas and the Black Messiah, Dolemite Is My Name, and Chopper as some of my favorite biopics. Now, it seemed like The Man Who Loved UFOs was tailor-made for me. It had a peculiar subject matter. The filmmaking looked good.

This cynical, noir-adjacent film about a hotshot reporter who inserts himself into the story still stands the test of time

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The journalism industry today looks strikingly different to the journalism industry of 70-odd years ago, when Billy Wilder’s 1951 masterpiece, Ace in the Hole, rolled into town. But if you think its messages might be outdated, au contraire: like Sidney Lumet’s Network (another vivisectional and scathingly cynical satire of media spectacle), the film remains strikingly relevant and scorchingly hot to the touch, told with cyclonic force and style.

A sensationally smug Kurt Douglas stars as Chuck Tatum, a hotshot city reporter who arrives in a small town hoping to land a story that’ll catapult him back to the big time. He marches into the news desk of a humble rag in Albuquerque, dripping bravado, bragging to the publisher about how he’s been fired from 11 newspapers.

Steven Spielberg has always had an eye for the extraordinary. Normalcy surrounding the everyday facets of life was not intriguing enough for the director, even as a bright-eyed 20-something-year-old filmmaker. For him, only stories that defied imagination and completely transported the audience to a land of impossibilities interested him enough to make it into a movie.

The Sugarland Express [Credit: Universal Pictures]

From Spielberg’s bottomless curiosity was born films like Jaws, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Jurassic Park. But it was also his need to unearth the mysteries of mankind that led Spielberg to tell stories based on true experiences, namely Schindler’s List, Catch Me If You Can, Empire of the Sun, Band of Brothers, and most importantly, The Sugarland Express – his feature directorial debut.

Steven Spielberg‘s Grand Hollywood Debut The Sugarland Express [Credit: Universal Pictures]

Even as a new kid on the block, Steven Spielberg showed enough chutzpah,...

With nearly 1,700 titles in their catalog, it’s hard to discern where exactly to start when exploring the Criterion Collection. To celebrate their 40th anniversary, the company has now made it a bit easier as they’ve unveiled CC40, a 40-film, 49-disc collection retailing for around $640 that is now the new go-to gift for that budding cinephile in your life.

“This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition,” they note. “CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology...

Billy Wilder was the six-time Oscar winner who left behind a series of classically quotable features from Hollywood’s Golden Age, crafting sharp witted and darkly cynical stories that blended comedy and pathos in equal measure. Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Wilder was born to a family of Austrian Jews in 1906. After working as a journalist, he developed an interest in filmmaking and collaborated on the silent feature “People on Sunday” (1929) with fellow rookies Fred Zinnemann, Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer. With the rise of Adolph Hitler, Wilder fled to Paris, where he co-directed the feature “Mauvaise Graine” (1934). Tragically, his mother, stepfather and grandmother all died in the Holocaust.

After moving to Hollywood, Wilder enjoyed a successful career as a screenwriter, earning Oscar nominations for penning 1939’s “Ninotchka” and 1941’s “Hold Back the Dawn” and “Ball of Fire.” He...

Floyd Collins, the 1994 musical that has built an enduring popularity due to an Off Broadway cast recording, will finally receive a Broadway staging: The Adam Guettel-Tina Landau musical will be part of the just-announced 2024-2025 40th Anniversary Lincoln Center Theater season.

The musical, based on the true and tragic story of a 1925 cave explorer in Kentucky that has long since passed into folklore, joins the previously announced play McNeal starring Robert Downey Jr. on the Lct season Broadway line-up. Floyd Collins will being previews on March 27, 2025 at Lct’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, with an opening night of Monday, April 21.

Lct also announced its Off Broadway season line-up, which will include The Blood Quilt by Katori Hall, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, and Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, featuring a new version by Mark O’Rowe, directed by Jack O’Brien, both at Lct’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

At Lct’s smaller Clair Tow Theater,...

A movie marathon with our favorite auteurs? Where do we sign up?

Turner Classic Movies’ latest limited series “Two for One” features curated double features coupled with commentary from select guest programmers like Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and more. The upcoming TCM series is hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, who will interview each director about why they chose to highlight their two chosen films.

“Two for One” will feature 12 nights of double features, beginning April 6. With the logline “two films, one filmmaker, countless perspectives,” the series is set to span all of cinematic history. Directors will offer commentary on the double feature’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections.

Martin Scorsese kicks off the show with a conversation comparing “Blood on the Moon” and “One Touch of Venus.” The following week, actress/director Olivia Wilde picks “Auntie Mame” and 1976 documentary “Grey Gardens.

Turner Classic Movies have announced a new limited series, Two for One, that will feature 12 nights of double features curated by some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood beginning April 6. TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz will be joined by each director, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, Spike Lee, Nicole Holofcener, and Rian Johnson, to introduce the two films they chose. They will offer commentary on the double feature’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections.

“This was such an eclectic group of filmmakers to sit down with, which was invigorating, from Martin Scorsese talking about a Robert Mitchum western, to Spike Lee discussing Elia Kazan, to Olivia Wilde’s breakdown of Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame,” said Ben Mankiewicz. “In these double features, these 12 directors lead us on an insider’s journey through cinematic history.”

See...

World-renowned director Steven Spielberg was at the height of his career when he made the Oscar-winning film "Schindler's List," but he wasn't the only filmmaker who was interested in adapting the novel of the same name for the silver screen. The acclaimed director Billy Wilder, an auteur of classic Hollywood cinema who penned and directed such renowned films as "The Apartment" and "Sunset Boulevard," was also vying for the rights to turn this story into a movie. However, by the time Thomas Keneally's evocative historical novel was published in 1993, Wilder's career was already winding down.

For a long time, Wilder enjoyed one of the most prosperous careers in Hollywood. His Oscar-nominated 1944 film "Double Indemnity" is considered the signal film of noir cinema and the model of the femme fatale trope. After Wilder's smashing success "Sunset Boulevard" earned three Oscars in 1951, he quickly went on to release several star vehicles...

Arthur Schmidt, 2-time Academy Award-winning editor and longtime collaborator of Robert Zemeckis, died this past Saturday at the age of 86, his brother Ron announced.

Schmidt’s four-decade career includes some of the biggest films of the late 20th Century, including Zemeckis’ “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Contact” and “Cast Away.” He also received his two Oscars for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Forrest Gump,” the latter of which won Best Picture.

Born in Los Angeles, Schmidt’s career followed in the footsteps of his father, Arthur P. Schmidt, who also had a decorated editing career with films like “Ace in the Hole,” “Sabrina,” “Some Like It Hot,” and Billy Wilder’s legendary noir “Sunset Boulevard.”

The younger Schmidt’s career didn’t start until after his father’s death in 1965, working as an apprentice and assistant editor throughout the 1970s including on films like “Jaws 2.” His big breakthrough came...

Arthur Schmidt, the two-time Oscar-winning film editor who collaborated with director Robert Zemeckis on 10 films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and the Back to the Future trilogy, has died. He was 86.

Schmidt died Saturday of an unknown cause at his home in Santa Barbara, his brother Ron Schmidt told The Hollywood Reporter.

The second-generation film editor also cut three Mike Nichols features — The Fortune (1975), The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998) — and two helmed by Michael Apted — Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), for which he received his first Oscar nom, and Firstborn (1984).

His résumé over four decades included work on Marathon Man (1976), Jaws 2 (1978), Ruthless People (1986), Beaches (1988), The Rocketeer (1991), The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Congo (1995), and he was brought in for three months to help tidy up the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2003.

Schmidt received his Academy Awards in 1989 for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and in 1995 for Forrest Gump,...

Mr. Wilder And Me author Jonathan Coe with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I love Powell and Pressburger, so I was very happy to get in a reference to them.”

With Film Forum’s Written and Directed By Billy Wilder tribute, programmed by Bruce Goldstein, starting next week in New York, Jonathan Coe’s Mr. Wilder And Me is the perfect summer read.

Jonathan Coe on Fedora: “The imagery always reminds me of that Georges Franju film Eyes Without A Face.”

In the first instalment with the author we discuss Christoph Waltz as Billy Wilder in Stephen Frears’ yet-to-be-filmed adaptation of Jonathan’s novel; meeting Volker Schlöndorff just before the Covid lockdown; the images of Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now staying with him; a connection between Georges Franju’s [film id=13604]Eyes Without A...

William Holden may have won his only Academy Award for Billy Wilder’s “Stalag 17,” but he wasn’t the first choice to play Sefton, the cynical sergeant who is a one-man black market at a German Pow camp. Originally, Charlton Heston was going to headline the film. Heston was red-hot at the time coming off his flashy starring role in Cecil B. DeMille’s Oscar winning 1952 circus epic “The Great Show on Earth.” But as Wilder and co-writer Edwin Blum were working on the script for the film, which premiered on July 1, 1953 in New York and two weeks later in Los Angeles, the character became darker and more disparaging; They realized Heston wasn’t right for the part

The AFI catalog noted that supposedly Wilder went to Kirk Douglas who had starred in Wilder’s 1951 “Ace in the Hole,” a masterpiece that flopped badly when released. After he turned...

In the proliferation of subgenres, the media noir is perhaps the rarest. From the ’50s alone, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps, and Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success spring to mind. Just lately, with the exception of Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler (2014), there hasn’t been too much evidence of a renaissance, but Roxine Helberg’s satisfying feature debut taps back into the same dark wells of oral ambivalence corruption and power, casting the excellent Bel Powley as a journalism student who will do whatever it takes to make it in the cut-throat world of TV news broadcasting.

It’s possible that the media noir was supplanted by the white-knight school of journalism movies, which has been going strong since All the President’s Men (1976) and struck Oscar gold as recently as 2015’s Spotlight But that was in the dinosaur print era,...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for the Rabbit Hole Season 1 finale “Ace in the Hole.”] While the Rabbit Hole Season 1 finale did wrap up some threads, it also left us wanting more. John (Kiefer Sutherland) has a new team and seems to have found love with Hailey (Meta Golding). He and his dad Ben (Charles Dance) are on much better terms. Crowley is dead (maybe). But there’s someone else running things, as Ben learns when he finds that in-ear comm at the end. Executive producers, writers, and directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra answer our burning questions and tease what could be next if the series is renewed. Can you confirm that was Crowley and he is dead? Because Charles Dance told me not to trust the finale and then there was that in-ear comm that Ben found and someone was on the other end… John Requa & Glenn Ficarra: That’s a tough one. Let’s...

I reckon that I was not alone in thinking that, as Paramount+’s Rabbit Hole uncorked its season finale, at least one of the twists would involve someone not being who we thought them to be.

That, for example, maybe Ben — somehow — was also Crowley? Or we’d get a [Movie Title Redacted]-ian reveal that a character was purely in twitchy Weir’s imagination all along.

More from TVLineNicole Kidman and Zoe Saldaña's Spy Thriller Special Ops: Lioness Releases First Photos, Eyes Summer PremiereFatal Attraction Premiere Recap: Are You Tempted to Watch More? Grade It!Drag Race Reveals All Stars 8 Judges,...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for the Rabbit Hole Season 1 finale “Ace in the Hole.”] Unsurprisingly, the Rabbit Hole finale was one reveal after another. Among the big ones: John’s (Kiefer Sutherland) ex-wife is an operative; his real wife left him after his competitor kidnapped her. He, Ben (Charles Dance), Hailey (Meta Golding), and Homm (Rob Yang) do stop Crowley’s plan. But, as the finale ends, Ben, after killing Crowley, finds a comm in his ear… Sutherland does a deep dive on John at the end of the season. The first season was so good, and I need to see more with these characters. Kiefer Sutherland: Thank you so much. John [Requa] and Glenn [Ficarra] certainly did an amazing job with developing all of those characters, and they are so rich. It’s so funny, if I run into someone on the street, the first thing that they seem to talk about is, “Oh my gosh, I...

Rarely am I at a loss for words, but Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episode 8 wrapped things up so entirely that this is one of those exceptional times.

If you're like me, you probably lament the possibility of a show being canceled without answers.

Without a renewal, this Paramount+ series offered a closed case (probably) and didn't leave viewers hanging on for dear life if a renewal never comes.

In this case, I'm not sure if that was good or not.

Can this really be all there is to say about how precious data is to those who need it but even more to those who shouldn't have it?

If you were to ask series creators Glenn Ficarra and John Requa -- and I did -- the answer is, well, yeah.

The interview will be live on the site just an hour after the review, so you can see for yourselves how it all plays out.

This expensive production was dismissed as a flop, and literary critics scorned it for diluting the famed novel by Theodore Dreiser. But it plays well now: William Wyler gives star Laurence Olivier what may be his best film acting role ever. Jennifer Jones’ title part suffers from script changes that censor and sentimentalize Dreiser’s intentions, but the film remains a shattering tragedy. Eddie Albert co-stars in one of his first dramatic roles; this encoding includes a scene dropped from the original release.

Carrie (1952)

Region Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #200

1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 121, 118 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / Aud 34.95

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy, Charles Halton, William Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline de Witt, Don Beddoe, Royal Dano, Margaret Field.

Cinematography: Victor Milner

Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson

Costume Design: Edith Head

Film Editor: Robert Swink...

The relationship between fathers and sons is complicated. It can be tough, tender, loving, combative, disappointing, violent, the stuff of Shakespearean and even Greek tragedy. It’s little wonder there have been countless films exploring fathers and sons including “East of Eden,” “Finding Nemo,” “Back to the Future,” “Field of Dreams,” “Nebraska,” “Fences,” “Beginners” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

One of the most indelible is Martin Ritt’s “Hud,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary. And time hasn’t diminished the power of this unapologetic drama starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and Brandon De Wilde.

Newman had played characters of questionable morality such as his Oscar-nominated turn “Fast” Eddie Felsen in 1961’s “The Hustler,” but he had never played anyone quite like Hud, the ultimate heel who never met a bottle of booze he wouldn’t drink or a married woman he didn’t seduce. Living on a cattle ranch in a tiny,...

We're revisiting the 1951 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

Surely we all remember Jan Sterling from the excellent 1954 Smackdown, whose performance as an “anxious catfishing pioneer” in The High and the Mighty gave a misogynistic role one of the only moments of real pathos in the whole film. That disaster film was enough of a critical and box office success to justify her nomination, but much like Katy Jurado in Broken Lance and even Nina Foch in Executive Suite (who I love!) from the same lineup, the energy around Sterling’s nomination reeks more than a little of belated recognition.

In Sterling’s case, that missed opportunity came in 1951. Beford the National Board of Review introduced supporting categories to their own awards they handed her Best Actress for her supporting turn as a bored,...

There’s always somebody new in the rat race trenches whose motto is ‘how to make friends and deceive people.’ Howard Duff’s photographer uses his camera to extort money from criminals while polishing his image as a grabber of Pulitzer-worthy news photos. But how long can he maintain his charade with mobsters Brian Donlevy and Lawrence Tierney, and how soon will his kissing partners Peggy Dow and Anne Vernon see through his lies? This efficient noir was the first feature directing job from the prolific Joe Pevney.

Shakedown

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 80 min. / Street Date March 29, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Howard Duff, Brian Donlevy, Peggy Dow, Lawrence Tierney, Bruce Bennett, Anne Vernon, Peter Virgo, Charles Sherlock, Rock Hudson, Roy Engel, Gregg Martell, Joseph Pevney.

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg

Art Director: Robert Clatworthy, Bernard Herzbrun

Film Editor: Milton Carruth

Music director: Joseph Gershenson

Screenplay by Alfred Lewis Levitt,...

New Release Wall

One of the best films of 2021, the Oscar-nominated “West Side Story” (20th Century) arrives on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD and earns an immediate place in your library. This first release is a little lean on extras, but it does include a new documentary from Laurent Bouzereau, the king of “making-of,” offering a look at Steven Spielberg’s process in crafting this electrifying musical.

Also available:

“The 355” (Universal Home Entertainment) An impressive line-up of stars can’t save this spy thriller from being more by-the-numbers than a Sudoku.

“Belfast” (Focus/Universal) Kenneth Branagh racked up Oscar nods and very mixed notices for his nostalgic coming-of-age drama.

“Coming 2 America” (Paramount Home Entertainment) Were you a fan of the original “Coming to America”? Enjoy seeing every gag repeated if not cut-and-pasted from the first movie.

“Cosmic Dawn” (Kino Lorber) After witnessing her mother’s alien abduction as a child,...

Writer/director Adam McKay kicks off Season 5 by discussing a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Don’t Look Up (2021)

Parasite (2019) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

The Big Short (2015)

Vice (2018)

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s 30th anniversary links

The Second Civil War (1997) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer commentary, Joe Dante revisits the movie

Network (1976) – Chris Wilkinson’s trailer commentary

Broadcast News (1987)

To Die For (1995) – Illeana Douglas’s trailer commentary

The Hospital (1971) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Ace In The Hole (1951) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Over The Edge (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Warriors (1979)

River’s Edge (1986)

Tex (1982)

Rumble Fish (1983) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray...

When crafting this wildly satirical yet all-too-close-too-reality film Don’t Look Up, writer-director Adam McKay admits that the unpredictable and seemingly over-the-top events of recent years convinced him he had to go even bigger to achieve his comedic ends.

“I swear on all the holy books on the planet Earth that I wrote this before Covid, and it was one of those strangest experiences I’ve ever had,” McKay explained Sunday on a panel for Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles panel at the DGA Theater. “The strangest thing about this movie was writing it, casting it and then seeing a lot of the elements come true, and then wondering: do you even make the movie?”

Reflecting on his script during pandemic downtime before shooting, “there was this moment where I realized it was all about how we’ve befouled, broken, profitized, pornographicized our lines of communication, the way we actually talk to each other,...

By Christopher James

Having a Criterion Channel subscription often feels like opening Christmas presents each month. Their monthly programming always provides subscribers with curated series from some of the greatest classic artists both domestically and in world cinema. This month, the Criterion Channel decided to honor the legendary director Billy Wilder with a sampling of five of his movies. The legendary Austrian director won six competitive Oscars over his decades-long career, plus an additional Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988.

Although—or perhaps because—he was born in Austria, writer, director, and Hollywood legend Billy Wilder saw America more clearly than most, probing its absurdities and hypocrisies with a witty yet lacerating eye. This sampler of five of his finest—including the Tinseltown tragedy Sunset Blvd., scathing media satire Ace in the Hole, and gripping Pow drama Stalag 17—showcases the pitch-perfect blend of human understanding and barbed cynicism that defines Wilder worldview.

Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.

I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...

In A Hero, the discovery of a bag of gold coins sets the scene for a knotted Bressonian morality tale. The director is Asghar Farhadi, a filmmaker who has spent his career examining those blurred lines between right and wrong; decency and hubris; righteousness and folly. Taking place in the city of Shiraz, it proves a return to familiar ground for him: both the first he has made in his native Iran after the awful misstep that was Everybody Knows, as well as a return to the moral complexities of A Separation, still his finest film to date.

Farhadi stakes a claim for his latest’s fable credentials with an opening flourish: a weightless craning shot across the marvelous facade of Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia where visiting nobles would come to present their offerings. Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is not a noble man, per se, but certainly one with...

Hollywood acknowledges the existence of America’s proto- C.I.A. intelligence agency with this espionage tale of Yanks working with the resistance in occupied France. It’s basic cloak ‘n’ dagger action, with intrepid Alan Ladd and the daring Geraldine Fitzgerald risking life and limb to plant plastic explosive bombs. The details are fairly interesting: Ladd outwits the Gestapo by working with a turncoat inside their ranks. The outcome is grimly realistic, even if that old Paramount glamour is part of the package. The writer-producer is Richard Maibaum, who would later write almost thirty years’ worth of franchise James Bond 007 adventures.

O.S.S.

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date August 10, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Alan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, John Hoyt, Gloria Saunders, Richard Webb, Richard Benedict, Harold Vermilyea, Don Beddoe, Onslow Stevens, Gavin Muir, Egon Brecher, Joseph Crehan, Bobby Driscoll, Julia Dean,...

Writer, director and actress Rebecca Miller discusses a few of her favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)

The Ballad Of Jack And Rose (2005)

The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee (2009)

Maggie’s Plan (2015)

Explorers (1985)

The Way We Were (1973)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)

Annie Hall (1977)

Repulsion (1965)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Knife In The Water (1962)

The Tenant (1976)

Cries and Whispers (1972)

Persona (1966)

The Magician (1958)

Hour Of The Wolf (1968)

The Virgin Spring (1960)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

The Exorcist (1973)

The Shining (1980)

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Regarding Henry (1991)

Angela (1995)

Badlands (1973)

Casino (1995)

On The Waterfront (1954)

My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Jules and Jim (1962)

The Bitter Tears Of Petra von Kant (1972)

Wings Of Desire (1987)

The Killer Inside Me (1976)

The Killer Inside Me (2010)

Married To The Mob (1988)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Dune (1984)

Imitation Of Life (1934)

Imitation Of Life (1959)

Written On The Wind (1956)

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

All That Heaven Allows...

For his very first feature film, longtime screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos adapted UK writer James Herbert’s novel Shrine into the latest genre offering from Screen Gems. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, William Sadler, and newcomer Cricket Brown, The Unholy is centered around a young woman who regains her hearing after a supposed visitation by the Virgin Mary—an event that also leaves her with the ability to heal others. But when a skeptical journalist arrives to investigate, he begins to suspect that these phenomena are actually the work of sinister forces, and it’s up to him to try and stop this insidious evil from claiming the young woman before it’s too late.

During the recent press day for The Unholy, Daily Dead spoke with Spiliotopoulos about transitioning from the world of screenwriting to the world of directing for this project, how integral producer Sam Raimi was in helping him...

In today’s Global Bulletin, “The Nest” tops Deauville, ITV outlines plans for carbon neutrality, Abacus Media Rights sells “People You May Know” in key territories, Southeast Europe gets its first premium independent series co-production and Sky enlists Gabriela Sperl to document German’s Wirecard financial scandal.

Festivals

“The Nest,” directed by Sean Durkin and starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon, was the big winner at the recently concluded 46th Deauville American Film Festival, taking home the grand prize, the 2020 Louis Roed­er­er Fon­da­tion Rev­e­la­tion prize and the Critic’s prize.

The jury, led by actor Vanessa Paradis, also gave Jury Prizes to Kel­ly Reichardt’s “First Cow” and Sabrina Doyle’s “Lorelei.”

The Revelation jury, led by filmmaker Rebec­ca Zlo­tows­ki (“Savages”), gave the directing prize to Kitty Green’s “The Assistant.”

The City of Deauville Audi­ence award...

When they dig it up, what will they find? Fans will want to see this forgotten Deutsch-noir masterpiece. Helmut Käutner’s tale of trouble on an American air base in West Germany is a swirl of romantic, political and criminal complications — all down & dirty. A tiny burg that serves as a brothel for U.S. airmen attracts displaced women and dispirited men willing to do what’s necessary to survive. We’ve seem nothing quite like this riveting drama — its sixty-year absence carries a taint of political ‘inconvenience.’ If you like challenging fare like Ace in the Hole and Try and Get Me! you’re going to love it. Both censored and uncensored versions have been restored in excellent quality.

Black Gravel

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1961 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 114, 113 min. / Street Date September 1, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Helmut Wildt, Ingmar Zeisberg, Hans Cossy, Wolfgang Büttner, Anita Höfer, Heinrich Trimbur,...

If you go on Kurt Kunkle’s Instagram, you will find stories filled with “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” American happy talk. Kurt leans in, and mostly fails, at living social media meritocracy’s “fake it till you make it” ethos. Whereas social media elites show off their good fortune then go out and live their lives, poor, working-class guys like Kurt scrounge up good vibes, in every embarrassing form, to gain followers (he calls them “Kurties”)––all in hopes of climbing the social media ladder. What he finds at the top is the basis for Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Spree, an equal parts terrifying, thrilling, and satirical look at how social media can warp the mind.

A rideshare driver for Spree (Kotlyarenko’s version of Uber), Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) creates an evil social media campaign called #thelesson to go viral. He installs cameras in his car and livestreams...

We told you. Remember the rules. You didn’t listen. Now we’re Back with an all new batch of guest recommendations featuring Blake Masters, Julien Nitzberg, Floyd Norman, Tuppence Middleton and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Wild Angels (1966)

Spirits of the Dead (1966)

The Trip (1967)

Mooch Goes To Hollywood (1971)

Stalker (1979)

The Candidate (1972)

The Parallax View (1974)

Network (1976)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Margin Call (2011)

Death Wish (1974)

Death Wish (2018)

Seconds (1966)

Soylent Green (1973)

Rage (1972)

Assault on Wall Street (2013)

Repo Man (1984)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

The Train (1965)

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Strange Brew (1983)

To Have And Have Not (1944)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

Easter Parade (1948)

The Band Wagon (1953)

Guys And Dolls (1955)

On The Town (1949)

Casablanca (1942)

The Dirt Gang (1972)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)

My Man Godfrey...

Rlje Films has released the first trailer for Joe Keery’s social media satire “Spree,” six months after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Music giant Drake, Adel “Future” Nur, Anthony Gonzales, Matte Babel and Alex Hughes are executive producers through Dreamcrew Entertainment. Eugene Kotlyarenko directed “Spree” with “Stranger Things” star Keery playing amoral rideshare driver Kurt Kunkle who becomes a murderer in pursuit of becoming a social media star by equipping his car with cameras for a live stream. Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Sasheer Zamata and David Arquette also star and Kyle Mooney, Mischa Barton and Frankie Grande feature as characters in the film.

“Throughout his career, Drake has always made a point to support young creatives as well as provide opportunities and Dreamcrew Entertainment is an extension of this — embracing young, up and coming story tellers like Eugene who are given the backing so they can tell their stories uninhibited,...

Brad Bird knows his classics, and he’ll share 20 of his favorite films this season on Turner Classic Movies’ “The Essentials” with TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz. Bird — known for such films as “The Iron Giant,” “Ratatouille,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and “The Incredibles” — curated this season’s selection, which will air Saturdays on TCM at 8 p.m. beginning May 2.

“Brad’s particular artistic sense works his way into every conversation we had together,” says Mankiewicz. “He sees so many stories through the eyes of an animator, providing a rare perspective on movies we think we know well, like ‘Casablanca,’ ‘Dr. Strangelove’ and ‘The Searchers.’ And his childlike enthusiasm for movies, animated and live action, is unparalleled and infectious.”

That enthusiasm made it difficult to boil the list down to just 20, Bird acknowledges, and that was after deciding to focus on movies made up to 1968.

“For every film that we did,...

The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Key Largo (1948)

I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)

Camila (1984)

I, the Worst of All (1990)

The Wages of Fear (1953)

Le Corbeau (1943)

Diabolique (1955)

Red Beard (1965)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Ikiru (1952)

General Della Rovere (1959)

The Gold of Naples (1959)

Bitter Rice (1949)

Pickup On South Street (1953)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Viva Zapata! (1952)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Yellow Sky (1948)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Wall Street (1987)

Women’s Prison (1955)

True Love (1989)

Mean Streets (1973)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Abyss (1989)

The China Syndrome (1979)

Big (1988)

Splash (1984)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Long Strange Trip (2017)

Little Women (2019)

Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)

The Guns of Navarone...

Above: Detail from the French poster for Ace in the Hole. Artist: Roger Soubie.Kirk Douglas, who died in February at the age of 103, was the last of the superstars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. We had faces then, said Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. She was talking about her silent-era peers, in a film made just the year after Kirk Douglas broke through as a star, but if anyone had a face to remember in Hollywood it was Kirk Douglas. In the Criterion Collection essay for Ace in the Hole (1951), Guy Maddin described him as a man “whose body has always seemed made up of a series of triangles,” but it is even more true of his face: a pointed weapon culminating in that famous dimpled chin. David Thomson in A Biographical Dictionary of Film wrote that “he is the manic-depressive among Hollywood stars, one minute bearing down on plot,...

The life of Kirk Douglas took him from a childhood dominated by a hard-drinking junkman father to adult years in which he lived in a Beverly Hills home with a wine cellar. He was one of the world’s biggest movie stars and most noted actors, and Trailers From Hell remembers him this week after his passing on February 5, 2020.

In the classic Spartacus, we find wine playing at least a supporting role since nobody wanted to drink the foul water in the century before Christ. Even though the Roman Empire’s plumbing system was a miracle of its day, the lead pipes that carried the water to citizens would much later be shown as a bigger health hazard that gladiating.

Douglas, as Spartacus, worries that he and his men “look for wine when we should be hunting bread.” Nick Dennis, as Dionysius, replies that, “When you’ve got wine, you don’t need bread,...

Fade In: Soundstage, Universal Studios. Interior — Nightclub. Kirk Douglas, Gig Young and I are rehearsing a scene from our film, “For Love or Money,” a fizzy, frothy 1963 opus in which Kirk and I were cast as a version of “Rock & Doris” in this variation on their fizzy, frothy opuses with elegant sets and witty banter drenched in beautiful Jean Louis costumes. In this scene, Kirk and I are having an argument that plays out on a dance floor as we gyrate to the then-popular dance craze, the Twist.

I was casually observing Kirk’s preparation for the dance, which seemed very Method, very interpretive. “What is that, Kirk?” I asked demurely. “It’s the Twist,” he answered with all the confidence of Spartacus. When I assured him, again demurely, that what he was doing bore more resemblance to the “March of the Wooden Soldiers” than the Twist, he agreed to let me teach him.

Audiences in 1951 rejected Billy Wilder’s acerbic, jet-black satire, based on a real life incident, as cynical and depressing–and that it is, in spades. But today it looks positively prescient in its unrelenting portrait of a callous and sensationalistic media and a gullible, easily manipulated public. One of Wilder’s best, least appreciated movies.

The post Ace in the Hole appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

The star of Spartacus and Paths of Glory is included in the Academy’s In Memoriam section

Kirk Douglas, the actor who became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the 1950s and 60s, has been remembered at the 92nd Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Douglas died aged 103 on Thursday, just a few days before the ceremony, and was considered the last surviving link to the golden age of Hollywood studio film-making. His square-jawed machismo was put to good use in early films such as Champion, but he showed unexpected range with the satirical Billy Wilder comedy Ace in the Hole, in which he played a rapacious reporter, and The Bad and the Beautiful, as a backstabbing film producer.

The actor, who died last week, will go down in history as Spartacus, but his powerful performance in Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole should not be overlooked

The quiet newsroom of the Sun-Bulletin in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is just a temporary holding pen for Chuck Tatum, the restless and unprincipled reporter played by Kirk Douglas in the 1951 Hollywood classic, Ace in the Hole. Sacked from bigger newspapers for being unreliable, drinking on the job and much worse, Tatum persuades the paper’s worthy editor, who works under an embroidered sampler bearing the words “Tell the Truth”, to give him a job despite his better judgment. “I can handle big news and little news. And if there’s no news, I’ll go out and bite a dog,” Tatum promises.

This is the set-up for the best film made yet about the ethics of the press. And, although the...

The word rang out yesterday, vibrating through the canyons of Los Angeles, much like the echo of thousands of voices sixty years ago that proclaimed “I am Spartacus!”. Perhaps the last of the leading men of Hollywood’s pre-1950 Golden Age is now with his long-departed peers. Here’s how the town’s Hollywood Reporter broke the news:

” Kirk Douglas, the son of a ragman who channeled a deep, personal anger through a chiseled jaw and steely blue eyes to forge one of the most indelible and indefatigable careers in Hollywood history, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 103.

“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” son Michael Douglas wrote on his Instagram account. “To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the Golden Age of movies who lived well into his golden years,...

Los Angeles – From his chiseled-from-marble good looks to his actor intensity on screen, Kirk Douglas defined the very concept of Movie Star. The actor also broke records for longevity, living to the ripe old age of 103. Kirk Douglas died of natural causes on February 5th, 2020, at his home in Los Angeles.

Douglas was known for his fierce commitment to his craft, and his independent spirit … he formed his own production company after dissatisfaction with the movie studio system of his era. He made several classic films, even a popular Walt Disney live action feature. He was father to Oscar-winner Michael Douglas, as well as three other sons from two marriages (his was married to his second wife for 66 years). He also committed his life to several charitable causes.

I Am Kirk Douglas: The Actor in ‘Spartacus’

Photo credit: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Douglas was born Issur Danielovich in Amsterdam, New...

Martin Amis’ 1984 novel “Money,” inspired by his painful experiences as the screenwriter of the disastrous 1980 sci-fi movie “Saturn 3,” includes a character based on “Saturn 3” star Kirk Douglas: “Lorne Guyland,” an aging but still virile screen legend, “had, in his time, on stage or screen, interpreted the roles of Genghis Khan, Al Capone, Marco Polo, Huckleberry Finn, Charlemagne, Paul Revere, Erasmus, Wyatt Earp, Voltaire, Sky Masterson, Einstein, Jack Kennedy, Rembrandt, Babe Ruth, Oliver Cromwell, Amerigo Vespucci, Zorro, Darwin, Sitting Bull, Freud, Napoleon, Spider-Man, Macbeth, Melville, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Methuselah, Mozart, Merlin, Marx, Mars, Moses and Jesus Christ.”

And while “Money” is not, on the whole, particularly kind to Kirk Douglas, this list does reflect the breadth and scope of a screen career that started in 1946 and culminated in the early 21st century.

On screen, Douglas was the epitome of the square-jawed leading man, whether he was playing a Roman slave,...

Kirk Douglas: Lifetime Achievement Award recipient at the 1st Annual Hollywood Film Awards® in 1997. Douglas came to silver screen stardom during the Golden Age of Hollywood in films like “Spartacus,” “Ace In the Hole”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “Paths of Glory,” among many others. Visit Hollywood Film Awards® “Kirk Douglas was an American actor, producer, director, philanthropist and author. After an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films. Douglas was known for his explosive acting style, which he displayed as a criminal defense attorney in Town Without Pity (1961). Douglas became an international star through positive reception for his leading role as an unscrupulous...

After a career as one of Hollywood’s most distinguished performers, the actor Kirk Douglas has died. Here we look back at some of his finest moments, from Paths of Glory to Ace in the Hole

Kirk Douglas, star of Spartacus, dies aged 103Hollywood’s impossibly handsome Colossus of Rhodes

Born Izzy Danielovitch into a poverty-stricken Jewish family in 1916, Douglas legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas on joining the navy during the second world war. He went on to become one of Hollywood’s most charismatic actors, and a producer of considerable influence too.