News

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

In 1934, the inimitable Bette Davis appeared in a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage," a semi-autobiographical novel about the unfortunate loves of one Philip Carey. The 1934 film was directed by the prolific John Cromwell and starred Leslie Howard as Philip. Davis played Mildred Rogers, a tearoom waitress that Philip falls in love with, but who treats him with the utmost cruelty. It was a great role for Davis, who was only 26 at the time. 

An article in Collider points out that Davis was under contract with Warner Bros. at the time, but really, really wanted to play the part of Mildred, knowing that it was a juicy role. "Of Human Bondage" was being produced by Rko, and Davis would need WB's Jack Warner to loan her talents to Rko to work on the project. Davis...

On July 23, 1937, MGM unveiled in theaters Saratoga, a star vehicle for Jean Harlow, who had died suddenly weeks earlier. Additional shooting was needed to complete the film, which featured the actress alongside Clark Gable. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, headlined “‘Saratoga’ Warmly Greeted … Jean Harlow’s Last Earns High Praise,” is below:

Jean Harlow’s last picture, Saratoga, cannot be reviewed unemotionally. It can only be reported.

Audience reception at a preview last evening in Glendale was unmistakably enthusiastic. Possibly surprised, but never shocked by the fact that the story is a riotous comedy, each time Miss Harlow’s name appeared on the screen and upon the occasion of her first entrance the house rocked with applause. It was more than cursory hand-clapping. The final hand was in honest appreciation of an honestly entertaining offering, splendidly performed, written and directed.

The production by Bernard H. Hyman, with John Emerson as associate producer,...

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

Freed, Garland, & Edens c. 1930s

After the whirlwind that was The Wizard of Oz, it may seem like a letdown for Judy to return to the Mickey & Judy musicals of before. However, she returned with two things she hadn’t had before: A-level star status, and the Freed Unit. The former made her a major box office draw, which meant that her movies had bigger budgets and better material. The latter meant that Arthur Freed - a writer turned producer who’d flitted in and out of Judy’s career since she started at MGM - could use those budgets and material to put on shows unlike any MGM had produced.

The Movie: Babes in Arms (MGM, 1939)

The Songwriters: Nacio Herb Brown (Music), Arthur Freed (Lyrics)

The Players: Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, directed by Busby...

Stop! Don't touch that dial... if you like your atom-age propaganda straight up, MGM has the movie for you, an expensive 1946 docu-drama that became 'the official story' for the making of the bomb. The huge cast includes Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Audrey Totter, Hume Cronyn, Hurd Hatfield, and Joseph Calleia. How trustworthy is the movie? It begins by showing footage of a time capsule being buried -- that supposedly contains the film we are watching. Think about that. Mom, Apple Pie, the Flag and God are enlisted to argume that we should stop worrying and love the fact that bombs are just peachy-keen dandy. The Beginning or the End DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 112 min. / Street Date September 22, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler, Audrey Totter, Hume Cronyn, Hurd Hatfield, Joseph Calleia, Godfrey Tearle, Victor Francen,...

Crime, lust and vigilante lynchings in the wide-open city on the bay, back in the gold rush days. Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson and Joel McCrea form a spirited triangle as a sharp roulette dealer strings one man along and can't prevent another from throwing away a fortune. Sam Goldwyn's impressive production shows Howard Hawks developing strong characters, in a somewhat old-fashioned story. Barbary Coast DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1935 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 90 min. / Street Date June, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel Mccrea, Walter Brennan, Frank Craven, Brian Donlevy, Clyde Cook, Harry Carey, Matt McHugh, Donald Meek. Cinematography Ray June Original Music Alfred Newman Written by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur Produced by Sam Goldwyn Directed by Howard Hawks

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

A Sam Goldywyn film through and through, Howard Hawks' Barbary Coast could almost be a template for a standard 'golden age' Hollywood movie.

Depraved convicts ! Crazy Manhattan gin parties! Society dames poaching other women's husbands! A flimflam artist scamming the uptown sophisticates! All these forbidden attractions are here and more -- including Bette Davis's epochal seduction line about impulsive kissing versus good hair care. It's a 9th collection of racy pre-Code wonders. Forbidden Hollywood Volume 9 Big City Blues, Hell's Highway, The Cabin in the Cotton, When Ladies Meet, I Sell Anything DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1932-1934 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 63, 62, 78, 85, 70 min. / Street Date October 27, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 40.99 Starring Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Humphrey Bogart; Richard Dix, Tom Brown; Richard Barthelmess, Bette Davis, Dorothy Jordan, Berton Churchill; Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Alice Brady, Frank Morgan; Pat O' Brien, Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd, Roscoe Karns. Cinematography James Van Trees; Edward Cronjager; Barney McGill; Ray June Written by Lillie Hayward, Ward Morehouse, from his play; Samuel Ornitz, Robert Tasker, Rowland Brown...

Want to proudly proclaim your Duff status? You can with this awesome giveaway package! Currently available on VOD and landing on DVD/Blu-Ray June 9, "The Duff" chronicles the relationship ups and downs of a high school misfit (Mae Whitman) labeled the "Designated Ugly Fat Friend" of her peers. With a Queen Bee (Bella Thorne) ruling the school and a hot jock next door (Robbie Amell), tensions and hormones run high as Whitman's character learns to embrace her seemingly-offensive label. To mark the film's release, we're giving away one (1) prize including: - The Duff on Blu-ray - The Duff short-sleeved t-shirt, large  - The Duff book signed by Mae, Robbie and Bella - The Duff mini one-sheet signed by Robbie To enter:1. Follow @toofab on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook 2. Fill out the entry form below.Click here for official rules.   Read more...

A truly inventive, and critically-acclaimed, film is coming your way soon, and this is one you should really get hold of when you can.

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter is a fantastic genre-bend that follows a young woman who mistakes a movie for a kind of cinematic, documentary-style treasure map. She becomes obsessed with her discovery, and follows it to North Dakota, where she believes she will find a bag full of cash.

A journey film, and a strange kind of, “Well, this is life,” comedy, the film has received a lot of attention and praise.

Check the trailer below, and don’t forget about this one.

Photo-by-Sean-Porter

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter Coming to VOD & Digital HD on June 19th & to Blu-ray on June 30th

In this darkly comedic odyssey, Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi ( Babel, Pacific Rim) stars as Kumiko, a frustrated Office Lady whose imagination transcends the confines of her mundane life.

By winning the Best Cinematography Oscar for a second year in a row, "Birdman" director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki has joined a truly elite club whose ranks haven't been breached in nearly two decades. Only four other cinematographers have won the prize in two consecutive years. The last time it happened was in 1994 and 1995, when John Toll won for Edward Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" and Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" respectively. Before that you have to go all the way back to the late '40s, when Winton Hoch won in 1948 (Victor Fleming's "Joan of Arc" with Ingrid Bergman) and 1949 (John Ford's western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"). Both victories came in the color category, as the Academy awarded prizes separately for black-and-white and color photography from 1939 to 1956. Leon Shamroy also won back-to-back color cinematography Oscars, for Henry King's 1944 Woodrow Wilson biopic "Wilson" and John M. Stahl...

Hedy Lamarr: 'Invention' and inventor on Turner Classic Movies (photo: Hedy Lamarr publicity shot ca. early '40s) Two Hedy Lamarr movies released during her heyday in the early '40s — Victor Fleming's Tortilla Flat (1942), co-starring Spencer Tracy and John Garfield, and King Vidor's H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), co-starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey — will be broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pt, respectively. Best known as a glamorous Hollywood star (Ziegfeld Girl, White Cargo, Samson and Delilah), the Viennese-born Lamarr (née Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), who would have turned 100 on November 9, was also an inventor: she co-developed and patented with composer George Antheil the concept of frequency hopping, currently known as spread-spectrum communications (or "spread-spectrum broadcasting"), which ultimately led to the evolution of wireless technology. (More on the George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invention further below.) Somewhat ironically,...

There are a few actors who instantly make you sit up straight and take notice, no matter the role he or she is in. One of the best actors of this generation, Ben Foster, is one of those disarming performers. In 2013, he appeared in three superb films in very different roles. In Kill Your Darlings, he brought out the misery and madness of author William S. Burroughs, decades before he wrote Naked Lunch. In Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, he was an officer wounded by Casey Affleck’s bullet, who finds a redemptive love for that outlaw’s wife. In Lone Survivor, out on DVD and Blu-Ray June 3rd, he paid tribute to Matthew “Axe” Axelson, one of four Navy Seals caught in the line of fire during a reconnaissance mission.

Foster is intense and deeply committed to many of the roles he gets, whether it’s adding glaucoma...

From Academy Award®--winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes "John Carter"—a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). "John Carter" is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands. The screenplay was written by Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon. John Carter will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray June 5th.

The 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival has unveiled another spectacular lineup of special guests and events for this year’s four-day gathering in Hollywood. Among the newly announced participants for this year’s festival are five-time Emmy® winner Dick Van Dyke, Oscar® winner Shirley Jones, two-time Golden Globe® winner Angie Dickinson, six-time Golden Globe nominee Robert Wagner, seven-time Oscar nominee Norman Jewison, longtime producer A.C. Lyles and three-time Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker. In addition, the festival will feature a special three-film tribute to director/choreographer Stanley Donen, who will be on-hand for the celebration.

As part of its overall Style and the Movies theme, the festival has added several films featuring the work of pioneering costume designer Travis Banton. Oscar-nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis will introduce the six-movie slate, with actress and former Essentials co-host Rose McGowan joining her for one of the screenings.

Other festival additions include a screening...

Passes Now on Sale Now for Four-Day Festival,

Coming to Hollywood April 12-15, 2012

Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Debbie Reynolds and “Baby Peggy” Diana Serra Cary, along with film noir leading ladies Peggy Cummins, Rhonda Fleming and Marsha Hunt are the latest stars scheduled to appear at the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival.

Also announced today, the festival will feature the North American premiere of a new 75th anniversary restoration of Jean Renoir’s powerful Pow drama Grand Illusion (1937), widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. And the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will provide a live musical accompaniment for a screening of the silent Douglas Fairbanks fantasy-adventure The Thief of Bagdad (1924).

Minnelli and Grey are slated to join TCM’s own Robert Osborne to kick off the four-day, star-studded event with a gala opening-night world premiere screening of the 40th anniversary restoration Cabaret (1971), the film for which the...

Fans of the Showtime series “The Big C”, make sure to mark June 7 on your calendar. The first season of “The Big C” is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray June 7! The DVD set is, of course, chock full of the episodes comprising the first season, but special features will also be available. In fact, the set is packed with features including complex character featurettes, deleted scenes, outtakes and interviews with cast members including Laura Linney, Gabourey Sidibe and Oliver Platt. The first season was such a stellar one that Linney was able to win Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical at...

I am excited about this one!  I sold off my Anchor Bay limited edition DVD of The Stunt Man years ago and have been waiting to upgrade, so when I heard about this through my series on Severin last year, I got very jazzed.  The best news is that in addition to a great new high definition transfer, they are also porting over the full-length making of documentary, "The Sinister Saga of the Making of The Stunt Man" from the old Anchor Bay set.  Great news!  More details and a pre-order link can be found below:severin To Release Definitive Edition Of 'The Stunt Man' On Blu-Ray June 7THOscar®-nominated cult classic features over 6 hours of Bonus Features including feature-length documentary & exclusive new cast interviewsLOS...

On June 7th, Warner Home Video is releasing a pretty fabulous collection, and I want to give you a preview of Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology on Blu-Ray.

This one is filled with extras, and includes alternate versions of the first two films. Check out all the info below, including the rundown of all the special features including in the set.

Superman, the cultural icon and quintessential superhero, is back in a big way. In a powerhouse year marked by the theatrical releases of several major superhero films including Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern, his arrival couldn’t be more perfectly timed. Warner Home Video (Whv) is celebrating the year of the superhero with the June 7 release of Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006) on Blu-ray.

For the first time, fans will be able to own one super-entertaining Blu-ray collection with all four original theatrical Superman films starring Christopher Reeve...

Hot on the heels of their announcement that Nathan Fillion will voice Hal Jordan in the "Green Lantern: Emerald Knights" animated movie, Warner Bros. Animation has released a new image from the feature.

The new image features Hal and another member of the Green Lantern Corps, Arisia, who will be voiced by Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men"). Of course, there are a few other members of the Corps in teh background, too — including a creature that resembles everyone's favorite poozer, Kilowog.

Here's the official press release that accompanied the image:

Nathan Fillion, Elisabeth Moss Lead Stellar Voicecast For Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

All-new DC Universe Animated Original Movie Coming June 7, 2011 From Warner Home Video

Burbank, CA, (February 8, 2011) – Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) lead a diverse array of performers as the voices behind Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, the next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.

Grab your shotguns and pitchforks, because "The Crazies" are being unleashed on DVD and Blu-Ray June 29.

"The Crazies" is a terrifying reinvention of the George A. Romero classic and it shocked audiences in theaters this past winter with its nightmarish vision of the American Dream gone horribly wrong, as a husband and wife find themselves battling for survival as their friends and family descend into homicidal madness. Directed by Breck Eisner ("Sahara") and starring Timothy Olyphant ("Deadwood," "Justified"), Radha Mitchell ("Surrogates") and Joe Anderson ("Across the Universe"), "The Crazies" are ready to overtake America all over again.   In anticipation of the home release, Reel Empire has been provided with three copy of "The Crazies" to giveaway to a few lucky readers. Want to win? We know you do! So read on for the official contest rules and details on how to enter!

Win 'Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition' on Blu-Ray! Arnold Schwarzenneger stars in the original sci-fi action hit arriving on Blu-Ray June 29 featuring an all-new digital restoration of the film and retrospective documentary. Thanks to 20th Century Fox, Reel Empire has three copies of "Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition" on Blu-Ray to giveaway to a few lucky readers. Relive the action-packed thriller in a never-before-seen, high-definition format! We know you want to win, right? Read on for official rules and details on how to enter! "Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition" arrives on Blu-Ray June 29, just in time for the theatrical release of "Predators" on July 9. The Blu-Ray includes includes $10 in Movie Money to see the latest film in theaters across the country. Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger; The Terminator) wages an all-out war against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful and deadly than any on Earth-because the Predator is not of this Earth.

The first trailer for The Cell 2, the direct-to-disc sequel to the 2000 Jennifer Lopez thriller, has popped online. The film is slated to arrive on DVD and Blu-Ray June 16 and stars Frank Whaley, Tessie Santiago, Chris Bruno, Bart Johnson and Charles Halford. It was directed by Tim Iacofano (TV’s 24). The flick follows the Cusp, a serial killer who kills his victims and then brings them back to life...over and over again until they beg to die, and Maya (Santiago), a psychic investigator who gained her powers after a 1 year coma after she was the Cusp's first victim. Now the Cusp Killer is back and Maya has little time to do what she has never done before, go into the mind of a killer unprotected, and save his latest victim.