Neuigkeiten

When Humphrey Bogart appeared in the 1939 horror film “The Return of Doctor X” as a scientifically engineered vampire, he already had a couple of dozen movies behind him but was still two years away from becoming a true star with John Huston‘s “The Maltese Falcon.” As a contract player at Warner Bros., the studio that signed Bogart when he came there to reprise his stage role as Duke Mantee in “The Petrified Forest,” the actor was largely subject to the idiosyncratic whims of his bosses, and it was clear that they didn’t quite know what to do with Bogart before Huston got a hold of him.

In 1939 alone, he appeared in a Western “The Oklahoma Kid,” a tearjerking melodrama, and multiple gangster films. Several of these films are better remembered than “The Return of Doctor X,” but as Bogart’s only horror film, “X” is a fascinating curiosity,...

When I first walked out of The Many Saints of Newark, my initial reaction was to call it a B-movie. What I didn’t say at the time, however, was how much I love B-movies. While I saw the flaws in the film and couldn’t wholly endorse it to cinemagoers spoiled by the perfection of The Godfather, Goodfellas, and New Jack City, I can wholeheartedly recommend it to people like me. Those who appreciate the low-budget gangster movies sometimes because of their warts. A majority of fans of The Sopranos will have the same reaction: Meh, The Many Saints of Newark could have been better. So when’s it playing next? I plan to see it again, more than once, on the big screen.

In one of the film’s quieter moments, the Soprano family is gathered around a TV set, watching the classic Key Largo (1948). The specific scene...

Odd List Simon Brew Ryan Lambie 17 Feb 2014 - 06:24

Whether they're bleak, shocking or sad, the endings to these 22 movies have haunted us for years...

Warning: There are spoilers to the endings for every film we talk about in this article. So if you don't want to know an ending for a film, then don't read that entry.

It's probably best to start by talking about what this article isn't. It's not a list of the best movie endings, the best twists, the most depressing endings or anything like that. Instead, we're focusing here on the endings that seeped into our brain and stayed there for some time after we'd seen the film. The endings that provoke in an interesting way, and haunt you for days afterwards.

As such, whilst not every ending we're going to talk about here is a flat out classic - although lots of them are...

Jennifer Jones, Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Beat the Devil Humphrey Bogart on TCM: The Caine Mutiny, The Maltese Falcon, Sahara Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Bogart: The Untold Story (1996) Stephen Bogart hosts this one-hour special on the life and career of his legendary father, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Chris Hunt. Cast: Stephen Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Robert Sklar. C-46 mins. 7:00 Am Bullets Or Ballots (1936) A cop goes undercover to crack an influential crime ring. Dir: William Keighley. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane. Bw-82 mins. 8:30 Am San Quentin (1937) A convict's sister falls for the captain of the prison guards. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan. Bw-70 mins. 9:45 Am King Of The Underworld (1939) A lady doctor gets mixed up with a criminal gang. Dir: Lewis Seiler. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis, James Stephenson. Bw-67 mins. 11:00 Am To Have And Have Not...

Filed under: TV Replay

The good ol' boys of 'Swamp People' (Thu., 9Pm Et on Hist) came face to face with the big, bad "Lucifer Gator" on a thick and creepy bog they call "the Devil's Swamp."

After swashing around in the murky water for six hours, the hunters finally came upon their dangerous target, a giant gator that had earned the nickname, "The King of the Underworld."

While most of us would have hightailed it out of there after spying a giant gator named after the devil, the Swamp People looked the beast in the eye, grabbed a shotgun and pulled the trigger.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments...

Mark Kermode picks film and TV's most enduring bloodsuckers

Max Schreck, Nosferatu (1922)

An unacknowledged adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (which was banned in Britain after copyright complaints from the author's litigious widow), Fw Murnau's silent gem still startles and amazes; the sight of the vampire's shadowy hand grasping at the heart of his victim ranks among cinema's most enduring images. So convincing was Max Schreck's unearthly performance that the modern movie Shadow of the Vampire would playfully suggest that he was the real deal; a genuine vampire hiding his identity in plain sight beneath the cover of movie magic.

Federico Luppi, Cronos (1993)

Debunking that most enduring vampire cliche, Guillermo del Toro's chilling masterpiece manages utterly to desexualise its antihero's bloodlust with extraordinary results. Having availed himself of the weirdly mechanical "Cronos" device, Federico Luppi's Jesus Gris staves off death with the occasional snifter of spilled claret. A...

[Our thanks go out to Chris MaGee and Marc Saint-Cyr at the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow for sharing their coverage of the 2010 Nippon Connection Film Festival.]

In 2005 director Toshiaki Toyoda was poised to take his career to the next level. At that point only 35-years-old Toyoda had already gained a reputation as one of Japan's most promising filmmakers. Throughout films like "Pornostar (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rampage")", the Taiyo Matsumoto manga adaptation "Blue Spring", and the masterful ensemble prison break film "9 Souls" he showed that he could combine tongue-in-cheek comedy with brutal drama, but by mid-decade he was ready to release a film that would place him alongside the likes of international festival favorites Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda. "Hanging Garden" was an unblinking look at the disintegration of the Japanese family starring Kyoko Kozumi and Itsuji Itao as parents who demand 100% honesty from each other and their children, but who end up holding damaging secrets from each other. Not since Yoshimitsu Morita's "The Family Game" had a filmmaker presented such a damning llok at the core of Japanse society.