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John Wayne is an American institution, and that's kind of a pity. The films he made from the 1930s through the 1970s all presented what many consider the most persistent cinematic archetypes of old-world machismo. Wayne was a symbol of stalwart, unbending manliness, a testament to the power of being gruff and insoluble. It is, however, hard to accept him as a positive role model when one recalls how bigoted he was in life. Every few years, his 1971 interview with Playboy Magazine resurfaces and a new crowd discovers Wayne vaunting the values of white supremacy and flippantly excoriating minorities.

He also, in that interview, talked about the moral righteousness of his old Westerns, saying that Europeans were in the right for stealing American land from the First Nation people. He was pretty despicable.

But he was also one of the biggest movie stars of all time, and cinema lovers have...

Historian Dr. Joanne Paul explains how A Man for All Seasons is one of the strongest onscreen depictions of the reign of Henry VIII and the Tudor period. Adapted from Robert Bolt's 1954 play of the same name, the 1966 period piece movie explored the career of Lord Chancellor Robert More (Paul Schofield), as he was challenged by the crisis brought about by King Henry VIII's (Robert Shaw) first divorce. The fifth-highest-grossing movie of 1966, A Man for All Seasons is acclaimed for its cast and production values, and celebrated as an influential example of filmmaking.

With YouTube channel History Hit turning its sights to Tudor England in their latest Historian Answers Google's Most Popular Questions, Dr. Paul tackled the question of which movie represents the period best.

Praising A Man for All Seasons, Paul stated that the movie offered "the best representation" of Henry VIII ever put on screen. The...

Trap Official Trailer: "Warner Bros. Pictures presents a new experience in the world of M. Night Shayamalan—“Trap” —featuring performances by rising music star Saleka Shyamalan. A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, “Trap” stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider. The director of photography is Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (“Call Me by Your Name”). The production designer is Debbie de Villa (“The Hating Game”). It is edited by Noëmi Preiswerk and the music is by Herdĭs Stefănsdŏttir (“Knock at the Cabin”). The music supervisor is Susan Jacobs (“Old”); the costume designer is Caroline Duncan (“Old”). The casting is by Douglas Aibel (“Asteroid City”). Warner Bros.

Plot: A young novitiate in Rome (Nell Tiger Free) is warned by an ex-communicated priest (Ralph Ineson) that she’s at the center of a sinister conspiracy at her church dedicated to spawning the anti-Christ.

Review: I’ve always really enjoyed The Omen as a franchise. Even as a kid, I found something about the original trilogy centring around Damien Thorn especially gripping. However, I never had much use for the cheap TV movie sequel (Omen IV: The Awakening) or the scene-for-scene remake, which, despite a game cast, didn’t come close to recapturing the grisly spirit of Richard Donner’s original.

As such, I figured The First Omen would be just another would-be franchise starter, but I have to give 20th Century Studios and Disney credit – they made one hell of a cool horror flick (pun intended). In some ways, it’s a bit like Wonka (bear with...

To celebrate Studiocanal’s brand new 4K restoration of King and Country available in the UK for the first time ever on Blu-ray & Digital and on a new DVD 6th November, we’re giving away a Blu-Ray copy!

Studiocanal is thrilled to announce a brand new 4k restoration of British anti-war classic King And Country (1964) from esteemed American director Joseph Losey (The Servant), available in time for Remembrance Day on Blu-Ray & Digital for the first time ever in the UK, plus a new DVD on 6th November, through the Vintage Classics brand. The new restoration of King And Country recently premiered at Venice Film Festival to great acclaim.

Returning for another stellar collaboration with director Joseph Losey is revered British actor Dirk Bogarde (The Servant), seen here as Captain Hargreaves, a tough army lawyer assigned to defend army volunteer-turned-deserter Private Hamp, played by the brilliant Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar), whose...

Updated with participation of Space: 1999 cast member Nick Tate in the documentary The Eagle Has Landed: Exclusive: Actress Barbara Bain, star of the British sci-fi series Space: 1999, is preparing to board an upcoming documentary about the Eagle, the famed spacecraft at the heart of the show that ran from 1975-1977.

Bain will appear in The Eagle Has Landed as will Nick Tate, her cast mate from Space: 1999. The documentary includes the participation of several other notable figures: Apollo XVI astronaut Charles Duke Jr., Academy Award-winning visual effects artist Bill George, and Brian Johnson, the VFX artist on Space: 1999 whose work is said to have influenced Star Wars. The film is being directed and produced by Jeffrey Morris, who also hosts the documentary.

The Eagle spacecraft in ‘The Eagle Has Landed’

The Eagle Has Landed “explores the cross-generational impact of the iconic vessel...

The heart of London, small-town Wales, or beautiful Florence— the world is your oyster with BritBox! The best-of-British media streamer has announced its August 2023 slate with plenty of diverse titles to choose from— from the classic satirical comedy series “Rumpole of the Bailey,” the critically acclaimed Welsh drama “The Museum,” the beloved 1980s romantic drama “A Room with a View,” and more.

Here are the top five titles coming to the platform we are most excited about at The Streamable!

7-Day Free Trial $7.99 / month via Amazon Prime Video What Are the Best Shows and Movies Coming to BritBox in August 2023? “A Room with a View” | Aug. 17

New to BritBox this month, the beloved British drama “A Room with a View” stars Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman touring Italy with her older cousin (Maggie Smith). While at a hotel in Florence, Lucy meets the charming, free-spirited George Emerson...

It’s the ‘other’ version of Dickens’ terrific novel, an English film that few Americans have seen. This Australian DVD is in the Pal format and from a rather outdated transfer, yet I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a favorite story enacted by a great batch of UK talent. Dirk Bogarde stars and the many character roles go to familiar faces: Cecil Parker, Athene Seyler, Ian Bannen, Alfie Bass, Rosalie Crutchley, Freda Jackson, Christopher Lee, Leo McKern, Donald Pleasence, Eric Pohlmann, Danny Green and the lovely Marie Versini. It’s a regular actor-spotting quiz. Ralph Thomas directed and much of the film was shot in France … with excellent English diction.

A Tale of Two Cities

Region 2 Pal DVD

Viavision (Australia)

1958 / B&w / 1:33 adapted flat / 117 min. / Street Date January 5, 2022 / Available from Viavision / 19.95 au

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Dorothy Tutin, Cecil Parker, Stephen Murray, Athene Seyler, Paul Guers, Marie Versini, Ian Bannen, Alfie Bass,...

What’s the best Ecological Thriller of all time? Finally available in a good Region A disc is Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz’s thrilling, realistic account of our world turned topsy-turvy, and perhaps plunging into a fiery oblivion. The violent shifts of climate and weather patterns echo today’s global warming chaos. Newspapermen Edward Judd and Leo McKern track down a frightening government secret; Janet Munro is the confidential clerk that leaks the truth. One of the top all-time British Science Fiction films is also a great newspaper story about the importance of a free press. Extras include a new Richard Harland Smith commentary.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1961 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date July 7, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Edward Judd, Michael Goodliffe, Bernard Braden, Reginald Beckwith, Renée Asherson, Arthur Christiansen, Pamela Green, Robin Hawdon.

Cinematography: Harry Waxman...

What’s the best Ecological Thriller of all time? Finally available in a good Region A disc is Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz’s thrilling, realistic account of a world turned topsy-turvy, and perhaps plunging into a fiery oblivion. The violent climate/weather pattern shifts predict today’s global warming chaos. Newspapermen Edward Judd and Leo McKern track down a frightening government secret; Janet Munro is the confidential clerk that leaks the truth. One of the top all-time British Science Fiction films is also a great newspaper story about the importance of a free press. Extras include a new Richard Harland Smith commentary.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1961 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date July 7, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Edward Judd, Michael Goodliffe, Bernard Braden, Reginald Beckwith, Renée Asherson, Arthur Christiansen, Pamela Green, Robin Hawdon.

Cinematography: Harry Waxman

Art...

The most striking, urgent, up-to-the-minute film I’ve seen this week was directed by Spike Lee. It speaks to the moment, pulses with turbulent emotional and political currents, overflows with vibrant characters and bluntly confronts society’s painful unfinished business. No, I’m not talking about Da 5 Bloods but, rather, Do the Right Thing.

Yes, that’s right, Do the Right Thing, which is 31 years old (!) but looks and sounds as though it could have been made this year. Even if they’ve remained dramatically and politically relevant after two or three decades, most films show their age one way or the other, through costumes, hairstyles, attitudes, musical choices, outdated slang and language usage or, at the very least, the age of cars on the streets.

But nothing at all about Lee’s third feature needs to be explained, no apologies or adjustments in attitude are required; even if...

"Mr. Topaze" (aka "I Like Money") the 1961 directorial debut of comedic actor Peter Sellers, has been digitally restored, starring Sellers, Nadia Gray, Leo McKern, Herbert Lom and Michael Sellers:

"...'Mr. Topaze' (Sellers) is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy 'Baroness' (Martita Hunt). 'Castel Benac' (Lom), a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, 'Suzy' (Gray), a musical comedy actress, to hire 'Mr. Topaze' as the front man for his business.

"Gradually, Topaze becomes a rapacious financier who sacrifices his honesty for success and, in a final stroke of business bravado, fires Benac and acquires Suzy in the deal. An old friend and colleague, 'Tamise' (Michael Gough) questions him and tells...

"She just slapped my face!" "Congratulations!" Film Movement has debuted the official trailer for a digital restoration of the classic British comedy Mr. Topaze, which originally debuted in London in 1961. The film is directed by and stars the great Peter Sellers as the titular Mr. Topaze, an honest teacher who is given a shady management job but then runs off with the money himself. Seller's first and only credited directorial feature, Mr. Topaze displays the British comic genius at the peak of his powers alongside his future Pink Panther nemesis Herbert Lom, and a stellar supporting cast that includes Nadia Gray, Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw, and Michael Gough. Long considered a "lost" classic, Mr. Topaze was digitally restored from the lone surviving 35mm prints in the BFI National Archive at the request of the British public. Enjoy. Here's the new restoration trailer (+ poster) for Peter Sellers' Mr. Topaze, direct from...

Hammer’s copycat Quatermass picture stands apart from similar ‘mystery sci-fi monster’ thrillers by virtue of its serious tone and realistic presentation. Talk about a sober semi-docu style: there are no major female roles and the leading character is a mass of radioactive mud. (Is there an election year joke in that?) Hammer found a new writer in Jimmy Sangster, imported the Yankee name actor Dean Jagger, tried to hire the expatriate director Joseph Losey. Former child actor Anthony Newley has a small part, but he doesn’t get to sing X’s theme song: “Who can I turn to, when nobody needs me, because the flesh is melting from my skull?”

X The Unknown

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1956 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 80 81? min. / X…the Unknown / Street Date February 18, 2020

Starring: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley, William Lucas, Michael Ripper.

Cinematography: Gerald Gibbs

Film Editor: Philip Leakey

Makeup:...

The supernatural and the religious often become intertwined in battles for souls and psyches in horror cinema, and with the rising popularity of movies such as The Conjuring films and the enduring legacy of franchises like Hellraiser, House of Leaves Publishing is bringing the discussion of faith-based and worship-centric horror to the printed page in the new book Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film. Ahead of its publication in February of 2020, we've been provided with an exclusive excerpt from The Omen (1976) chapter of Scared Sacred to share with Daily Dead readers!

Featuring Dr. Lmk Sheppard's examination of The Omen, you can read our exclusive excerpt by clicking the cover art below, and we also have a look at artist John Sowder's artwork for the chapter.

Edited by Rebecca Booth, Erin Thompson, and Valeska Griffiths, and curated by Rf Todd, Scared Sacred features a foreword by...

Joseph Losey’s fortunes as an expatriate director took an upswing with this efficient, nervous and somewhat overcooked thriller with a daunting ticking-bomb deadline story gimmick — alcoholic wreck Michael Redgrave has only twenty hours to save his son from execution for murder. Losey racks up the tension, but he doesn’t give a hoot for Ben Barzman’s whodunnit scripting. Just the same, it’s good to see the director finally gaining traction — from this point forward most every Losey picture received serious international attention.

Time Without Pity

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1957 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date October 28, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK (Region Free) / £15.99

Starring: Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Ann Todd, Peter Cushing, Alec McCowen, Lois Maxwell, Richard Wordsworth, Joan Plowright.

Cinematography: Freddie Francis

Film Editor: Alan Osbiston

Original Music: Tristram Cary

Written by Ben Barzman from a play by Emlyn Williams

Produced by John Arnold, Leon Clore,...

Baker Street was never like this! Gene Wilder followed up his star turn in Young Frankenstein by writing, directing and starring in this well-researched period comedy featuring the great detective’s younger, envious brother, who is overmatched (to say the least) by Leo McKern’s Moriarty. Lots of hat-tips to Arthur Conan Doyle throughout for devout Holmes fans, but it’s a sublimely silly movie on its own. Albert Finney has a cameo dissing opera singers.

The post The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

George Whaley.

Venerable stage, film and TV director, actor, playwright and teacher George Whaley died yesterday, aged 85.

A former head of acting at Nida and head of directing at Aftrs, Whaley wrote and directed the 1995 movie Dad and Dave: On Our Selection and the miniseries Harp in the South in 1986 and Poor Man’s Orange in 1987, all for producer Tony Buckley.

His longtime friend and former Aftrs director Storry Walton said Whaley had a stellar career as a “wonderful, generous, innovative and influential contributor to Australian life and to our theatre, film and television world.”

In 1962, with fellow director Wal Cherry, he opened the 140-seat Emerald Hill Theatre in South Melbourne. He appeared in numerous plays there and at the Old Tote Theatre, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Nimrod Theatre Company, the Belvoir Street Theatre and the Griffin Theatre Company.

He directed a large variety of plays by Australian and...

Emily Mortimer is to reboot classic British series Rumpole of the Bailey – the legal drama originally created by her father John Mortimer.

The Newsroom and Mary Poppins Returns star is in the early stages of development with the remake, which will be produced by her own indie King Bee and eOne.

The series, which ran on ITV predecessor Thames Television between 1978 and 1992, starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an elderly barrister in London who defended a weird and wonderful mix of clients. It started as a radio play on the BBC before making the move to television.

The reboot was revealed at a Deadline-moderated Banff Connect event in London by Polly Williams, eOne’s head of scripted development in the UK. The Designated Survivor studio has a first-look deal with Mortimer’s company, which she runs with her husband Alessandro Nivola.

Williams told Deadline that Mortimer has “reimagined” the series...

Jamie Andrew Sep 29, 2017

Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner was imaginative, unfathomable, and years ahead of its time...

It’s fifty years this month since The Prisoner premiered on British screens, bringing with it blazers, badges and mind-bending bad guys. The show ran for a mere two years, two truncated seasons and seventeen episodes, but its surreal imagery, iconic catchphrases, cerebral plots and absolutely bonkers ending have earned it a perennial place in our cultural consciousness.

See related Star Trek: Discovery episode 2 review - Battle At The Binary Star Star Trek: Discovery episode 1 review - The Vulcan Hello Star Trek Discovery: take our special quiz here!

It's truly an odd-beast, quintessentially sixties in some respects, timeless in others. It's hard to describe or define it as any one thing: it's a spy show that isn't a spy show; it's an action show with bigger...

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation by Cecil Beaton

This week marks the 90th birthday of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in 1926. The Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on the 21st of April and her official birthday on the second Saturday in June. (Trooping of the Colours)

She is the world’s oldest reigning monarch as well as Britain’s longest-lived. In 2015, she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning queen regent in world history.

Looking to celebrate her Majesty’s birthday? First, everyone rise for the national anthem of the United Kingdom.

God save our gracious Queen!

Long live our noble Queen!

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us:

God save the Queen!

For more on the Queen’s schedule, visit the official site: www.

Our series on remakes continues with a film which is more of a duplication than an actual remake. This week, Cinelinx looks at The Omen (2006).

If you’ve seen the original version of The Omen (1976) and then you watch the remake from 2006, you have to ask “Why did they even bother?” The remake was barely even a remake. It was a shot-for-shot, scene -for-scene copy of the original. Released on the 30th anniversary of the original, it offered absolutely nothing new, except a more modern cast and some mediocre CGI effects. Other than that, this is a completely unnecessary, gratuitous photo-copy of the first version.

About this film Rolling Stone Magazine wrote, “Not since Gus Van Sant inexplicably directed a shot by shot remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho has a thriller been copied with so little point or impact”. Recently, we did a dissection of the Van Sant remake of...

By Darren Allison

Chain of Events 1958 Region 2 DVD Review: Directed by Gerald Thomas, Starring Kenneth Griffith, Susan Shaw, Dermot Walsh, Freddie Mills and Joan Hickson. Released November 2nd 2015

A taut 1958 crime melodrama, Chain of Events features noted actor and film-maker Kenneth Griffith as a bank clerk whose attempt to dodge a fare has devastating consequences; a powerful cast includes Rank "Charm School" starlet Susan Shaw and future Richard the Lionheart lead Dermot Walsh. Chain of Events is also directed in sharp, pacey style by the ‘Carry On’ legend Gerald Thomas.

Rather curiously, Chain of Events was adapted from a radio play written by the late Australian character actor Leo McKern. John Clarke (Kenneth Griffith), an uninspiring sort of gentleman, one day boards a bus on his way home from work and foolishly “forgets” to pay his fare. He is caught by an inspector, but instead of owning up to it,...

'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...

Australian writer-producer Tammy Burnstock has been fascinated by the world.s first and only .Smell-o-Vision. feature ever since she interviewed its director/cinematographer Jack Cardiff in 1986.

Now Burnstock is part of the team that aims to screen a restored version of Scent of Mystery, retitled Holiday in Spain, to cinema audiences around the world including Australia.

Released in 1960, the film starred Denholm Elliott as a mystery novelist who discovers a plan to murder an American heiress (Beverly Bentley) while on vacation in Spain. He enlists the help of a local taxi driver (Peter Lorre) to try to thwart the crime. The cast included Leo McKern, Diana Dors and Paul Lukas.

Cardiff and producer Mike Todd Jr. updated a system invented by a Swiss man, Dr. Hans Laube, which piped artificial scents through a network of tubes to the back of each seat in a theatre.

Laube first demonstrated his .Scentovision...

Robert Mitchum ca. late 1940s. Robert Mitchum movies 'The Yakuza,' 'Ryan's Daughter' on TCM Today, Aug. 12, '15, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series is highlighting the career of Robert Mitchum. Two of the films being shown this evening are The Yakuza and Ryan's Daughter. The former is one of the disappointingly few TCM premieres this month. (See TCM's Robert Mitchum movie schedule further below.) Despite his film noir background, Robert Mitchum was a somewhat unusual choice to star in The Yakuza (1975), a crime thriller set in the Japanese underworld. Ryan's Daughter or no, Mitchum hadn't been a box office draw in quite some time; in the mid-'70s, one would have expected a Warner Bros. release directed by Sydney Pollack – who had recently handled the likes of Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, and Robert Redford – to star someone like Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman.

In the decades since its premiere, The French Lieutenant’s Woman is now most commonly discussed for its placement in the extensive awards resume of its star Meryl Streep, since it was her follow-up to her Best Supporting Actress win for 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer and would serve as netting her first nomination in a leading category (it’s also interesting to note Streep won the Golden Globe but ultimately, perhaps ironically, lost to Katharine Hepburn, the iconic performer who previously held the most nominations record). But at the time of its release, the final product was the result of a decade long ordeal, seeing many auteurs, actors, and screenwriters attempting to adapt the notoriously ‘unfilmable’ 1969 novel by John Fowles, an experiment in form termed “post-modern historical fiction.” Directed by Karel Reisz, the Czech-born British auteur a British New Wave progenitor of the realist strain of filmmaking, it remains one of his most prolific works.

By Lee Pfeiffer

I have seen virtually every James Bond clone released by major studios during the 1960s but "Assignment K" had eluded me until it was released as a burn-to-order title by the Sony Choice Collection. I was expecting another low-brow effort done on a small budget and perhaps affording some guilty pleasures throughout. However, "Assignment K" was a pleasant surprise. It's an intelligently written, well-acted espionage yarn that goes to some lengths to avoid Bondisms in favor of a realistic scenario populated by realistic characters. The film was directed by the woefully under-rated Val Guest, whose talents were generally dismissed at the time as workmanlike competence but which today seem much more impressive. (Guest had some spy movie experience, having previously directed key segments of the multi-director farce "Casino Royale".) 

Stephen Boyd stars as Philip Scott, a high-powered executive of a London-based toy company. When we first meet him,...

'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...

Next in line to inherit the throne of Royal films is Diana. The film takes audiences into the private realm of one of the world’s most iconic and inescapably public women – the Princess of Wales, Diana (two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts) — in the last two years of her meteoric life.

On the occasion of the 16th anniversary of her sudden death, acclaimed director Oliver Hirschbiegel (the Oscar-nominated Downfall) explores Diana’s final rite of passage: a secret love affair with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews, “Lost,” The English Patient), the human complications of which reveal the Princess’s climactic days in a compelling new light. Diana is in select theaters now.

As long as filmmakers have been bringing the lives of England’s Kings and Queens to the silver screen have moviegoers been going to the cinemas to be schooled in British Monarchy.

So Arise, Sirs and Ladies,...

Jodie Foster stars in this zesty comedy caper as Casey, a streetwise orphan who is enlisted by con man Leo McKern to pass herself off as the long-lost granddaughter of an English aristocrat (Helen Hayes). Legend has it that there's a stash of treasure hidden somewhere on Lady Margaret's Candleshoe estate. But when Casey arrives in England, she learns that "grandma" doesn't have a penny and finds herself drawn into another ruse to help butler David Niven keep up appearances.

Calling all Beatles fans… the group’s second feature film, 1965’s Help!, will be released on Blu-ray on Tuesday, June 25 and Wamg is giving away copies to 2 lucky readers.

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band’s debut feature film, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, Help! follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo’s possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.

In addition to starring The Beatles, Help! boasts a witty script, a great cast of British character actors, and classic Beatles songs “Help!,” “You’re Going To Lose That Girl,” “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “Ticket To Ride,...

The Beatles' second feature film, 1965's Help!, is on the way on Blu-ray. On June 24 (June 25 in North America), Help! makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a single-disc package pairing the digitally restored film and 5.1 soundtrack with an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film, memories of the cast and crew, an in-depth look at the restoration process, an outtake scene, and original theatrical trailers and radio spots. An introduction by the film's director, Richard Lester, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese are included in the Blu-ray's booklet.

Help!'s Blu-ray edition follows the 2012 release of The Beatles' digitally restored Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour feature films on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes with extensive extras. Help!'s restoration for its 2007 DVD debut wowed viewers, earning five-times platinum sales in the U.S. and praise from a broad range of...

The Beatles’ second feature film, 1965’s Help!, is on the way on Blu-ray. On June 24 (June 25 in North America), Help! makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a single-disc package pairing the digitally restored film and 5.1 soundtrack with an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film, memories of the cast and crew, an in-depth look at the restoration process, an outtake scene, and original theatrical trailers and radio spots. An introduction by the film’s director, Richard Lester, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese are included in the Blu-ray’s booklet.

Help!’s Blu-ray edition follows the 2012 release of The Beatles’ digitally restored Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour feature films on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes with extensive extras. Help!’s restoration for its 2007 DVD debut wowed viewers, earning five-times platinum sales in the U.S. and praise from a broad range of...

Laffapalooza! week concludes at Trailers from Hell with television writer Alan Spencer introducing "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother," written, directed and starring Gene Wilder.Baker Street was never like this! Wilder followed up his star turn in Young Frankenstein by writing, directing and starring in this well-researched period comedy featuring the great detective's younger, envious brother, who is overmatched (to say the least) by Leo McKern's Moriarty. Lots of hat-tips to Conan Doyle throughout for devout Holmes fans, but it's a sublimely silly movie on its own. Albert Finney has a cameo dissing opera singers.

Gated communities are usually met with some suspicion and mistrust – in this case it’s rightly founded. Something is wrong in Sweetville, and The Doctor is red in the face about it. A bunch of friends reappear to help combat…

The Crimson Horror

by Mark Gatiss

Directed by Saul Metzstein

People are turning up dead in the canal in Victorian Yorkshire, their bodies in varied states of petrifaction and their skin a lobster red. Madame Vastra and Jenny are asked to investigate, and when they realize that The Doctor is somehow involved, they hurry to investigate. A woman is establishing her own ark on dry land, planning to survive the next torrent, not of rain, but of poison.

Mark Gatiss balances comedy and horror with a deft hand, being given the reins on the investigating Silurian and her companions. This may be the closest we ever get to a completely solo Vastra and Jenny adventure,...

The gray rolling seas thundered through the forest of pilings under the piers, sometimes cresting enough to send a geyser of wind-whipped froth up onto the decking. Other places, it poured through the gaps the wind and tide had eaten through the dunes and poured into the beach town streets. It pulled boats large and small from their moorings in the lagoon marinas and piled them like a child’s toys up on the land. Some in apartment buildings would tell of the cars in the ground level garage floating against each other bathtub playthings. But there was nothing childlike in the way it took entire houses, made seaside villages look like an extension of the ocean and not the land.

For the day and a half I watched Hurricane Sandy pound my home state of New Jersey – which was all the time I had before I lost my cable...

Where would a horror movie be without a classic death scene – or two? We’ve had some great ones over the years: Janet Leigh’s shower to end all showers in Psycho (1960); the ill fated nude swim in Jaws (1975); David Warner’s famous decapitation in The Omen (1976); John Hurt’s serious indigestion problem in Alien (1979); and the exploding head in Scanners (1980). And let’s not forget the gruesome ends that befell pre-stardom Kevin Bacon and Johnny Depp.

Hang on a minute! I’ve just mentioned all the classic ones! Well let’s face it, so much has been written and discussed about those famous demises, they’ve been pretty much done to death (sorry!). Therefore, the following ten are horror-related deaths that deserve some kind of classic status, a couple of which are notable for their surreal and ambiguous nature.But beware...since most of the best death scenes are...

When Roger Gibson and Vince Danks’ first graphic novel devoted to Dci Harker – subtitled The Book of Solomon – landed on my desk, it came with a promise of TV detective reference points, charismatic characters and beautiful artwork. And the book, recently released by Titan disappoints on none of those points, offering a convergence of two story-telling worlds that should have happened a lot more in the past – the detective story and the comic book.

But then there hasn’t really been anyone like Gibson writing that sort of material before now, melding the self-referential pastiche of Life On Mars with the eye for authentic characterisation (and just the right touch of idiosyncracy) that underpins all of the best TV and movie detectives. They are islands in a sea of suspects, morally fortified but occasionally happy to bend the rules to breaking point in the name of justice, and in Harker,...

Apocalypse is an ever-popular idea in cinema. After all, what could be more dramatic than the possibility -- or even the actuality -- of the end of everyone and everything that you've ever known. It's an all purpose metaphor, and can be used to tell all kinds of stories, in all kinds of tones, as highlighted by this weekend's comedy-drama "Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World," which sees Steve Carell and Keira Knightley brought together by the impending end of civilization.

The film's only semi-successful at melding romantic comedy with the end of days, as you'll find from our review, but there's plenty in the film to recommend it as well. And if you're still looking for a little more end-of-the-world drama, we've picked out five lesser-known examples that are worth seeking out Asap. Check out our selections below, and let us know your own favorites in the comments section.

By Allen Gardner

Harold And Maude (Criterion) Hal Ashby’s masterpiece of black humor centers on a wealthy young man (Bud Cort) who’s obsessed with death and the septuagenarian (Ruth Gordon) with whom he finds true love. As unabashedly romantic as it is quirky, with Cat Stevens supplying one of the great film scores of all-time. Fine support from Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner, and Ellen Geer. Fine screenplay by Colin Higgins. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson, producer Charles Mulvehill; Illustrated audio excerpts from seminars by Ashby and Higgins; Interview with Cat Stevens. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 stereo.

In Darkness (Sony) Agnieszka Holland’s Ww II epic tells the true story of a sewer worker and petty thief in Nazi-occupied Poland who single-handedly helped hide a group of Jews in the city’s labyrinthine sewer system for the duration of the war.

We know the greats; movies like Metropolis (1927), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977).

And there are those films which maybe didn’t achieve cinematic greatness, but through their inexhaustible watchability became genre touchstones, lesser classics but classics nonetheless, like The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), Them! (1954), The Time Machine (1960).

In the realm of science fiction cinema, those are the cream (and below that, maybe the half and half). But sci fi is one of those genres which has often too readily leant itself to – not to torture an analogy — producing nonfat dairy substitute.

During the first, great wave of sci fi movies in the 1950s, the target audience was kids and teens. There wasn’t a lot in the way of “serious” sci fi. Most of it was churned out quick and cheap; drive-in fodder, grist for the Saturday matinee mill.

By the early 1960s,...

Lifetime has given the green light to a contemporary telemovie remake of the classic 1980 romance/adventure "The Blue Lagoon" at Storyline Entertainment and Peace Out Productions reports Deadline.

The Randal Kleiser-directed original follows two Victorian-era cousins (Christopher Atkins, Brooke Shields) who become shipwrecked and marooned on a tropical island in the South Pacific along with a galley cook (Leo McKern).

After the cook dies the two children grow up together, fall in love and discover sexuality as they survive solely on their resourcefulness.

A sequel was released in 1991 starring Milla Jovovich, while Henry De Vere Stacpoole's original novel was first adapted in 1949 and starred Jean Simmons. Casting on the new 'Lagoon' is already underway with shooting to kick off in Puerto Rico in February.

Lifetime is also behind a "Steel Magnolia" remake featuring an all African-American cast.

Summer is here and "Extra" remembers some of the hottest beach movies! Check it out!

The Best Beach MoviesGidget, 1959

Who: Sandra Dee, James Darren and Cliff Robertson What: A teenager discovers her love for surfing and romance at the beach during an unforgettable summer.

Blue Hawaii, 1961

Who: Elvis Presley What: Happy to be back in Hawaii, soldier Chad Gates (played by Elvis Presley) was released from the army and decided to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency.

DVD Playhouse: May 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Blow Out (Criterion) Brian De Palma’s greatest Hitchcock homage, with a dash of Antonioni thrown in for good measure. John Travolta gives one of his best turns as a sound-effects engineer who unwittingly records a political assassination, then finds himself hunted by a ruthless hitman (John Lithgow, a memorably creepy psycho) after saving the life of the kindly, albeit dim-witted call girl (Nancy Allen, excellent) who was with the deceased. Terrific blend of suspense and very black humor, perhaps De Palma’s finest hour as an auteur. Beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Interviews with De Palma, Allen, cameraman Garrett Brown; Photo gallery; De Palma’s 1967 feature Murder a la Mod; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 2.0 surround.

Kes (Criterion) Ken Loach’s landmark 1970 film is both a heart-rending portrait of adolescence, and a pointed socio-political commentary on life in the North of England.

Let’s go back to when Britain had its own cinema and see who some of our homegrown stars were then. If we dissolve back to 1960, we find a plethora of movie stars - enough to guarantee full houses in all the West End, and regional theatres, in the country. Here are just some of them: Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Grenfell, John Mills, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Virginia McKenna, Denholm Elliott, Fenella Fielding, Alec Guinness, Leo McKern, Diana Dors, Terry Thomas, Richard Burton, Dirk Bogarde, Peter Sellers, Laurence Olivier, Joan Greenwood, Hermione Baddeley, Moira Lister, Oliver Reed, Dennis Price, Michael Hordern, Robert Shaw, Michael Redgrave, Robert Morley, Laurence Harvey, Paul Scofield, Richard Harris, Tom Courtenay, Leslie-Anne Down, George Formby, Peter Ustinov, Peter Finch, Harry Andrews, Maxine Audley, Nigel Stock, Eric Porter, Noel Coward, Dinsdale Landen, Bernard Cribbins, Patrick Wymark, Shirley-Anne Field, and Moira Redmond…...

DVD Playhouse—November 2010

By Allen Gardner

Paths Of Glory (Criterion) Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 antiwar classic put him on the map as a major filmmaker. Kirk Douglas stars in a true story about a French officer in Ww I who locks horns with the military’s top brass after his men are court-martialed for failing to carry out an obvious suicide mission. A perfect film, across the board, with fine support from George Macready as one of the most despicable martinet’s ever captured on film, Ralph Meeker, and Adolphe Menjou, all oily charm as a conniving General. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins; Excerpt from 1966 audio interview with Kubrick; 1979 interview with Douglas; New interviews with Jan Harlan, Christiane Kubrick, and producer James B. Harris; French television documentary on real-life case which inspired the film; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

Winter’S Bone (Lionsgate) After her deadbeat father disappears,...

After a decade of reissues, rereleases, and just plain hernia-inducing box collections, the phrase ‘DVD megaset’ shouldn’t really mean a lot, but it is an apt summarization of this complete set of Rumpole of the Bailey, the courtroom drama that broadcast intermittently on PBS between 1978 and 1991. Spread out across 14 discs, this set collects all seven seasons of the show, as well as a good deal of bonus features (each episode features an introduction with series creator John Mortimer), but this is, in all likelihood, a set that was meant to rally old fans rather than attract new ones. Even within the time-frame of the series, Rumpole shows its considerable age, with its commitment to showing social ills only accentuating how stubbornly quaint the show really is.

Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) is a barrister at the Old Bailey, the central criminal court of London. A lover of the courtroom (as...

After a decade of reissues, rereleases, and just plain hernia-inducing box collections, the phrase ‘DVD megaset’ shouldn’t really mean a lot, but it is an apt summarization of this complete set of Rumpole of the Bailey, the courtroom drama that broadcast intermittently on PBS between 1978 and 1991. Spread out across 14 discs, this set collects all seven seasons of the show, as well as a good deal of bonus features (each episode features an introduction with series creator John Mortimer), but this is, in all likelihood, a set that was meant to rally old fans rather than attract new ones. Even within the time-frame of the series, Rumpole shows its considerable age, with its commitment to showing social ills only accentuating how stubbornly quaint the show really is.

Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) is a barrister at the Old Bailey, the central criminal court of London. A lover of the courtroom (as...

Ah...BBC... where we're you when I was younger and more impressionable. This solid black and white 1966 adaptation of the Lewis Carroll story may help wipe the 'meh taste out of your mouth from the last technicolor 3D one that screamed Eat Meeeee. Every bit as surreal and far better realized than the Burton version this interweaving of innocent whimsy with solid social satire boasts a cast to die for including Peter Sellers , John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Peter Cook and Leo McKern and has original music from the legendary Ravi Shankar.

The extras on this disc are also outstanding and include directors commentary, the original 1903 silent version of Alice in Wonderland, Dennis Potters (The Singing Detetcive, Pennies From Heaven) biopic on Alice Liddell the real life inspiration for the character, a Terence Spencer photo gallery and extra Ravi Shankar footage.

Alice in Wonderland has seen a lot of decent adaptations and some truly forgettable ones.