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It's hard to undersell the impact "Gunsmoke" had on the television landscape when it first aired. Westerns for the small screen were largely occupied by kid-friendly fare like Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy at the time, but the presence of an adult-driven series led to the development of countless genre programs in its wake. But the series outlasted all of them as the longest-running television western of all time with 20 seasons under its holster, with "Death Valley Days" wagon-trailing just behind it. The town of Dodge City was like a beacon for all manner of stories, with James Arness' steadfast Marshal Matt Dillon often finding himself in the center of the episode's conflict. The lawman would often be surrounded by a recurring cast of characters, like saloon owner Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and resident bullet extractor Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), with one of them being his first right-hand man.

For...

When "Gunsmoke" made the leap from beloved radio program to television show, fans of the former had to get used to change. I imagine it must have been difficult at the time because there was a six year period where Marshal Matt Dillon, the legendary lawman of Dodge City, was played simultaneously by William Conrad and James Arness. The groundbreaking CBS Western drama would ultimately win out though, lasting for a staggering 635 episode run across 20 seasons. But at the time where they were both shows on their respective airwaves, changes were made to differentiate each adaptation of its characters, with one of the most notable being Marshal Dillon's right hand man.

In the radio program, Parley Baer played Chester, an assistant to the Marshal who often sounded older than he really was. It was debatable whether he was an actual Dodge City deputy, but nevertheless, he was the best friend...

Television westerns used to skew towards a younger demographic with kid-friendly cowboys like Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy dominating that frontier, but everything changed in 1955. Only a few days after "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" premiered on ABC, it was CBS that truly changed the landscape in the form of the western drama "Gunsmoke" (via MeTV). The series was a risky gamble with the network but proved to be one of its greatest success stories, running for a then-unprecedented 635 episode run across 20 seasons.

For over two decades, "The Thing from Another World" star James Arness made a name for himself as Marshal Matt Dillion, the protector of Dodge City. The role would go on to become the touchstone of his career, but it's easy to forget that there was initially some resistance on account of the popularity of the show's auditory predecessor.

About three years earlier, "Gunsmoke" had...

In the "Bewitched" episode "Sisters at Heart", the young Tabitha (Erin Murphy) brings home a new friend named Lisa (Venetta Rogers) to stay for a few days. Tabitha and Lisa have become very close very quickly, and refer to each other as sisters. Like with every episode of "Bewitched," Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Darrin (Dick Sargent) worry that the new social wrinkle in their lives will expose the fact that Samantha is an ancient, magic-practicing witch and that Tabitha also possesses eerie powers.

The drama of "Sisters at Heart," however, quickly extends past the show's usual shenanigans. A client of Darrin's, a bigoted toy manufacturer named Mr. Brockway (Parley Baer) swings by for a surprise in-home meeting. When he sees Lisa, he is outraged. Lisa is Black and Mr. Brockway, not having met Samantha, assumes that Darrin is married to a Black woman. Because he is evil, Mr. Brockway immediately...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Kino Lorber has released the 1964 comedy "The Brass Bottle" on Blu-ray. The film appears to have been the inspiration for the hit TV series "I Dream of Jeannie" which starred Barbara Eden as the sultry title character. Some cinephiles argue that the film and TV series have nothing to do with one another, but it seems to me that if you make a movie with Barbara Eden and a genie from a brass bottle, than it's more than a coincidence that a TV series starring Eden featuring a genie and a brass bottle soon appears. It is true that Eden does appear as the female lead in the feature film, but in a very down-to-earth role as Sylvia, the fiancee of aspiring-but-unsuccessful architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall). Sorry, guys, no navel-gazing to be had here.The premise of the plot is as old as the pyramids: Harold...

By Lee Pfeiffer

"Young Billy Young" is the kind of film of which it can be said, "They don't make 'em like that anymore". Not because the movie is so exceptional. In fact, it isn't exceptional on any level whatsoever. Rather, it's the sheer ordinariness of the entire production that makes one pine away for an era in which top talent could be attracted to enjoyable, if unremarkable, fare such as this. Such films, especially Westerns, were churned out with workmanlike professionalism to play to undemanding audiences that didn't require mega-budget blockbusters to feel they got their money's worth at the boxoffice. Sadly, such movies have largely gone the way of the dodo bird. In today's film industry, bigger must always be better and mid-range flicks such as are no longer made. However, through home video releases such as Kino Lorber's Blu-ray of "Young Billy Young" and streaming services such as Amazon Prime,...

Two on a Guillotine

Blu ray

Warner Archives

1965/ 2:35:1 / 107 min.

Starring Connie Stevens, Dean Jones

Cinematography by Sam Leavitt

Directed by William Conrad

Imagine shock-meister William Castle directing a Disney movie and the result might be something like Two on a Guillotine. William Conrad, narrator of Rocky and Bullwinkle and star of television’s Cannon, is at the wheel of this thrill ride and he’s happy to rehash a few of Castle’s favorite scare tactics for his own purposes – the moans and groans of a carnival spook house and even a wire-drawn skeleton. There’s no denying Conrad’s effort has some of the Saturday matinee charm of creep shows like House on Haunted Hill but the sunny locales and aggressively perky demeanor of co-stars Connie Stevens and Dean Jones make you wish Frederick Loren would drop by with a well-aimed champagne cork.

Stevens is Cassie Duquesne,...

Stars: Shô Kosugi, James Booth, Donna Kei Benz, Norman Burton, Kane Kosugi, Shane Kosugi, Matthew Faison, Parley Baer, Robert Ito, Michael Constantine, Alan Amiel, Woody Watson | Written by James Booth | Directed by Gordon Hessler

Pray For Death was the second film – outside of the Ninja Trilogy – to feature Sho Kosugi in a lead role and is easily one of, if not the, best film Kosugi has ever made. The film sees Shô Kosugi star as Akira, a Japanese businessman who, jaded by his job and looking for a better life for his family, moves to America. He opens a restaurant with his wife and kids but his world is shattered when he stumbles upon the headquarters of a sinister gang, led by crime lord Limehouse Willie. Wrongfully accused of stealing a precious necklace, the gangsters begin a rampage of murder that takes the life of Akira’s wife and threatens...

Natalie Wood: Hot Hollywood star in the ’60s - TCM schedule on August 18, 2013 See previous post: “Natalie Wood Movies: From loving Warren Beatty to stripping like Gypsy Rose Lee.” 3:00 Am The Star (1952). Director: Stuart Heisler. Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watson, June Travis, Paul Frees, Robert Warrick, Barbara Lawrence, Fay Baker, Herb Vigran, Marie Blake, Sam Harris, Marcia Mae Jones. Bw-90 mins. 4:30 Am A Cry In The Night (1956). Director: Frank Tuttle. Cast: Edmond O’Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood. Bw-75 mins. 6:00 Am West Side Story (1961). Director: Robert Wise. Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente, David Winters, Eliot Feld, John Bert Michaels, David Bean, Robert Banas, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Harvey Evans aka Harvey Hohnecker, Tommy Abbott, Susan Oakes, Gina Trikonis, Carole D’Andrea, Jose De Vega, Jay Norman,...

Producers Barbra Streisand and Joel Silver have set Academy Award-winning writer Julian Fellowes to pen the screenplay adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents' Tony Award winning musical, Gypsy, which Ms. Streisand and Mr. Silver are currently developing for Universal Pictures. Ms. Streisand will portray "Momma Rose" in the new version, her first musical film since Yentl in which the Oscar-winning actress and iconic singer starred, produced, co-wrote and directed in 1983.

Fellowes won the Original Screenplay Academy Award for Gosford Park and most recently earned the Emmy and Golden Globe for creating and writing the acclaimed miniseries, Downton Abbey. His musical theatre work includes adapting the script for Disney's stage production of Mary Poppins.

Gypsy has exhilarated audiences on both stage and screen since its first Broadway run in 1959 with Ethel Merman. Since then, the compelling story based on the memoirs of the famous striptease artist, Gypsy Rose Lee,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Although often erroneously attributed to legendary producer William Castle, the 1965 chiller Two on a Guillotine certainly has all the hallmarks of one of his productions: a modestly-budgeted scarefest backed by an intense, sensational marketing campaign. In fact, the film was, perhaps improbably, produced and directed by William Conrad- that's right, the same character actor who originated the role of Matt Dillon on the Gunsmoke radio program and who would enjoy leading man status in the 1970s as the star of the popular Cannon detective series on TV. The off-beat story begins in the 1940s and finds Cesar Romero as 'Duke' Duquesne, the world's greatest magician and illusionist. Everyone is enamored of him except his wife Melinda (Connie Stevens), who is tired of being a beautiful prop in his act. On the eve of presenting his most ambitious stunt, which involves faking Melinda's beheading on a guillotine,...

The re-release of director Greg Beeman's "License to Drive", the 1988 teen adventure film starring 'the two Coreys', Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, written by Neil Tolkin, will be available on DVD/Blu-ray, from Anchor Bay, November 22, 2011 :

"...'Les Anderson' (Haim), a 16-year-old who is trying to get his driver's license, has a crush on one of the more popular and attractive girls in school, 'Mercedes Lane' (Heather Graham). After failing his driver's exam, Les takes the road test (and passes), following a computer surge that he inadvertently caused.

"Les then lies to his parents and friends, convincing them that he passed the test. Unfortunately, his parents find out the truth and as a result, Les is grounded. That night, having already made plans to use his new license, he sneaks out of the house with his grandfather's prized 1972 Cadillac for a night on the town with Mercedes.

"The dream...