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1957 was a big year for David McCallum, the respected Glasgow-born actor known for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Great Escape” and his 20-year run on “NCIS” as quirky pathologist Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard.

From the Oct. 23, 1957, edition of weekly Variety

The actor, who died Sept. 25 at the age of 90, logged six mentions in Variety that year, starting with a review in the March 20 edition of weekly that listed him in the cast of the British “crime meller” (aka crime melodrama) “The Secret Place.” From then on, McCallum was a staple in our pages, boarding movies, TV shows and legit stages in the U.S. and U.K. He never stopped working.

Wedding announcement for David McCallum and Jill Ireland from the May 22, 1957, edition of weekly Variety

1957 was also the year McCallum married actor Jill Ireland in London, an event commemorated with a wedding announcement in the May 22, 1957, edition of weekly.

Val Guest’s cinema quest for his own semi-docu style pays off in this fine, intelligent police investigation into a gruesome dismemberment murder. U.K. favorite Jack Warner is the main detective, Guest’s actress wife Yolande Donlan is a ‘person of interest,’ and the illusion of reality is enhanced by real locations in Greenwich, Brighton, Lewes and points between. It’s an excellent legwork murder mystery, with good atmosphere and colorful characterizations — within the dry ‘serious business’ format, of course.

Jigsaw

Blu-ray

Cohen Media Group

1962 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 108 97 min. / Street Date April 5, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jack Warner, Ronald Lewis, Yolande Donlan, Michael Goodliffe, John Le Mesurier, Moira Redmond, Christine Bocca, Brian Oulton, Ray Barrett, Norman Chappell, John Barron, Joan Newell, Geoffrey Bayldon, Julie Samuel.

Cinematography: Arthur Grant

Art Director: Geoffrey Tozer

Film Editor: Bill Lenny

From the novel Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh

Produced,...

Alec Guinness transfers an acting challenge from the stage to the screen, in this account of a Cardinal forced to knuckle under to a Communist regime — instead of extracting a confession with torture, Jack Hawkins’ Inquisitor uses psychology to find his prisoner’s weakness. The picture is uneven but its key performances are choice, with a special assist from Wilfrid Lawson as a jailer.

The Prisoner

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 12, 2019 / 39.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Wilfrid Lawson, Kenneth Griffith, Jeanette Sterke, Ronald Lewis, Raymond Huntley, Percy Herbert.

Cinematography: Reginald Wyer

Film Editor: Frederick Wilson

Original Music: Benjamin Frankel

Written by Bridget Boland from her play

Produced by Vivian Cox

Directed by Peter Glenville

Is this an anti-Communist piece, or simply a story about human convictions and human weakness? Believe it or not, some interpreted it as anti-Catholic in 1955. European film festivals may have...

Forget the ‘famous book’ doldrums — this exciting seagoing drama will take your head off. Criminally unseen and unheralded, Allied Artists’ classic is an impressive feat by director-co-screenwriter and star Peter Ustinov. It introduced Terence Stamp and provided Robert Ryan with a deserved career highlight.

Billy Budd

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1962 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date January 3, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Rogers, John Neville, David McCallum, Ronald Lewis, Robert Brown, John Meillon, Niall MacGinnis, Terence Stamp.

Cinematography: Robert Krasker

Film Editor: Jack Harris

Original Music: Antony Hopkins

Written by Peter Ustinov, DeWitt Bodeen from the play by Louis O. Coxe, Robert H. Chapman from the novel Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville

Produced by A. Ronald Lubin, Peter Ustinov

Directed by Peter Ustinov

Talk about a book that works like gangbusters… When Warners’ first DVD came out in 2007 I found out...

After obtaining the Last Will and Testament of Jerry Lewis, The Blast discovered that the late comedic actor excluded the six children from his first marriage from receiving any benefits upon his death. "I have intentionally excluded Gary Lewis, Ronald Lewis, Anthony Joseph Lewis, Christopher Joseph Lewis, Scott Anthony Lewis and Joseph Christopher Lewis and their descendants as beneficiaries of my estate, it being my intention that they shall receive no benefits hereunder," the documents obtained by The Blast read. The media outlet also reported that Lewis' son Joseph died of an overdose in 2009 and that Lewis noted that he was deceased in the documents.  According to The Blast, the will...

Jerry Lewis purposefully left out six of his children from his will before he passed away last month, leaving his entire estate to his widow, SanDee Pitnick. According to The Blast and People, a will the comedian executed in 2012 “intentionally excluded” the children and all descendants from his first marriage to Patti Palmer. The entirety of his estate was left to Pitnick, with their adopted daughter Danielle second in line. “I have intentionally excluded Gary Lewis, Ronald Lewis, Anthony Joseph Lewis, Christopher Joseph Lewis, Scott Anthony Lewis and Joseph Christopher Lewis and their descendants as beneficiaries of my estate, it being.

Jerry Lewis certainly got in the last laugh when it comes to his strained relationship with his children.

According to his Last Will and Testament, provided to People by The Blast, the funnyman emphatically cut out all six children he had with his first wife Patti Palmer will inherent nothing.

“I have intentionally excluded Gary Lewis, Ronald Lewis, Anthony Joseph Lewis, Christopher Joseph Lewis, Scott Anthony Lewis, and Joseph Christopher Lewis and their descendants as beneficiaries of my estate, it being my intention that they shall receive no benefits hereunder,” the will – which the comedian executed in 2012 – states.

The couple...

Timeless titans of the horror genre—including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee—are featured in a new 9-disc, 26-film DVD set fittingly titled Horror Hall of Fame, coming this October from Mill Creek Entertainment.

Fright fans can keep an eye out for the Horror Hall of Fame DVD set (featuring over 35 hours of film footage) when it's released on October 17th. We have the cover art and full list of films below, and to learn more, visit Mill Creek Entertainment's website. Will you be adding this set to your home media collection this fall?

"Hungry for Horror? Stay glued to the edge of your seat with a 26 film bundle including some of the greatest works from the masters of Horror.

Bat, The - 1959 - Vincent Price

Before I Hang - 1940 - Boris Karloff

Black Room, The - 1935 - Boris Karloff

Boogie Man Will Get You,...

William Castle’s 13 Ghosts (1960), 13 Frightened Girls, Homicidal, and Mr. Sardonicus are coming to Blu-ray in two double features from Mill Creek Entertainment! Both double bills will be released on July 5th.

From Mill Creek Entertainment: “13 Ghosts (1960) – B&W – 85 minutes – Not Rated

Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp. Donald Woods, Margaret Hamilton

When an eccentric uncle wills a huge, ramshackle house to his impoverished family, they get the shock of a lifetime. Their new residence comes complete with a spooky housekeeper, plus a fortune in buried treasure and 12 horrifying ghosts.”

13 Frightened Girls (1963) – Color – 88 minutes – Not Rated

Murray Hamilton, Joyce Taylor, Hugh Marlowe, Khigh Dhiegh, Charlie Briggs, Norma Varden

The girls of a Swiss boarding school have one thing in common — they are all daughters of diplomats. One in particular finds out that she has a knack for espionage, and uncovers the murder of a Russian diplomat. Now she...

Hammer horror fans are in for a treat, as respective collections of five William Castle films and five Hammer horror movies are coming out on Blu-ray in August, and The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant has been set to come out on Blu-ray.

The William Castle and Hammer horror collections will respectively come out on DVD August 18th from Mill Creek. The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, meanwhile, is slated for release later this year by Kino Lorber. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for further updates.

From Mill Creek: "Iconic horror director William Castle created a simple, but winning formula for his films: a little comedy, a lot of scares, a preposterous gimmick, and a clear sense that fright films should be fun. This even meant Castle would, like Alfred Hitchcock, appear in his trailers and even the movies themselves. Though his career spanned 35 years and included everything from westerns to crime thrillers, he'll...

★☆☆☆☆ The Brigand of Kandahar (1965) - released on DVD for the first time this week - is one of Hammer's most seldom-seen films. After viewing it, you will instantly understand why, as it must rank as one of the studio's slowest and least imaginative offerings. Written and directed by Hammer stalwart John Gilling, this 'Boy's Own' adventure set during the British rule of India in the 1850s starring Oliver Reed and Ronald Lewis has very little to recommend in terms of both performance and production values.

Read more »...

To mark the release of The Brigand Of Kandahar (1965) on DVD for the first time on 16th January, Studio Canal have given us three copies of this Hammer classic movie to give away on DVD. The film stars Ronald Lewis, Oliver Reed and Duncan Lamont and is directed by John Gilling.

1880. British India. Robert Case (Ronald Lewis: Sardonicus), a mixed race lieutenant, is unjustly discharged from the British Army. He joins the rebel Bengali tribesmen offensive led by Eli Khan (Oliver Reed: The Three Musketeers) against the colonial enemy. They capture a foreign journalist and Case recounts his story of false accusation on trumped-up charges, instigated by the bigotry and racism of his commanding officers. Following a successful attack by the British against the rebels, Case is brutally shot by Colonel Drewe (Duncan Lamont: Quatermass and The Pit), his accuser. The journalist returns home determined to report the true story of The Brigand of Kandahar.

Actor known for her roles in The Ipcress File and Crossroads

The actor Sue Lloyd, who has died aged 72, exuded glamour and sophistication on screen in the 1960s, before finding renewed fame two decades later as Barbara Hunter in 714 episodes of the TV soap opera Crossroads. But it took two attempts by the serial's producers to persuade her to join a programme that was roundly abused by the critics.

"My initial reaction was to be a bit sniffy about it," Lloyd recalled in her 1998 autobiography, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. "The soap was renowned for its wobbly scenery, bizarre storylines and regular slaughtering by the critics. Why would I, just back from filming [Revenge of] The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers in the south of France and about to embark on the comedy The Upchat Line with John Alderton, want to get involved in a project like that?...

Alluring Australian actor best known for her role in The Wicker Man

Such is the superficial nature of fame that the Australian-born actor Diane Cilento, who has died of cancer aged 78, was best remembered as the wife of Sean Connery from 1962 to 1973, during the height of his fame as James Bond. The attractive, blonde, husky-voiced Cilento would be more fittingly recalled for her roles in a dozen or so British films in the 1950s and 60s, to which she brought a dose of much-needed sexuality. However, her best-known part was in the cultish The Wicker Man (1973), her last British picture before returning to her homeland.

Born in Brisbane, she was the daughter of Sir Raphael and Lady Phyllis Cilento, both physicians. Much to their initial disappointment, Diane decided against following them into the medical profession. After winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, at the age...

The William Castle Film Collection (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $80.95) assembles the master showman’s eight Columbia Pictures features in one set. Three (Zotz!, 13 Frightened Girls, The Old Dark House) are new to DVD. Only two are in color (Girls, House), but black and white works far better here to evoke film fear anyhow. Castle produced and directed them all (though he shares a producing credit with Hammer Films’ Anthony Hinds on the House remake). Three were scripted by Robb White (who also wrote Castle’s earlier gimmicky genre hits MacAbre and House On Haunted Hill) while Ray Russell and Robert Dillon racked up two scripts each and Starlog contributor Robert Bloch penned one.

The films (fantasies, thrillers, comedies) are grouped sort of by theme, two per disc. So, 13 Frightened Girls (a.k.a. The Candy Web) is teamed with 13 Ghosts for the triskaidekaphobia entry. Homicidal and Strait-jacket represent the murder,...