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Pouring through the “In Memoriam” tributes to Connie Francis following her July 16 death, aged 87, I was a little surprised to find how few mentioned her brief but highly successful foray into film — particularly considering her most famous tune, “Where the Boys Are,” was the title of her debut feature. So, like any self-respecting vintage pop culture lover, I popped on the movie this morning to relive the screen presence that was Ms. Francis.

Francis is part of the ensemble in “Where the Boys Are,” which should be the focus of its own film essay series… I mean, truly, this Hays Code-bending 1960 teen comedy-drama focuses on a group of college girls hunting for men while on spring break in Ft. Lauderdale: some are willing to keep their virtue, some are not. Francis plays hockey player Angie, the kind of wise-cracking sidekick character that would eventually support Meg Ryan in ’90s romcoms.

Connie Francis, the actress and beloved pop vocalist who had hits with “Who’s Sorry Now?,” “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are” before her life took several turbulent turns, has died. She was 87.

Ron Roberts, her friend and the president of the musician’s label Concetta Records, shared the news on Facebook on Thursday. “It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that i inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night,” he wrote in a note that was reposted by the official Francis account on Facebook. “I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news.”

The news comes after the star was hospitalized earlier this month. “I am back in the hospital where I have been undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the...

Howard Ruby, the founder of Oakwood Worldwide, the company that provides furnished, extended stay housing, and the husband of late actress Yvette Mimieux, died Monday of natural causes in Los Angeles, a publicist announced. He was 90.

Ruby and Mimieux, known for her turns in such films as Where the Boys Are, Light in the Piazza, Jackson County Jail and Toys in the Attic, were married from December 1986 until her death in January 2022 at age 80.

Mimieux had been married to Singin’ in the Rain director Stanley Donen from 1972 until their 1985 divorce.

Born in Cleveland on March 28, 1935, Ruby graduated from the Wharton School of Business, then joined the U.S. Navy, where he was a supply officer. After the service, he started a real estate partnership in California that led to the formation of R&b Realty Group in 1960.

In 1965, R&b opened the South Bay Club, the first furnished apartments for singles,...

John Lawlor, who portrayed one of Cloris Leachman’s co-workers on the CBS sitcom Phyllis and the Eastland School for Girls headmaster on the first season of the NBC comedy The Facts of Life, has died. He was 83.

Lawlor died Feb. 13 at a veterans’ hospice facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, his family announced.

His 60-plus years as an actor also included turns in such films as Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. (1981) and Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp (1994).

Lawlor played the inept Leonard Marsh, who works with Leachman’s Phyllis Lindstrom in the San Francisco City Supervisor’s office, on the second and last season (1976-77) of Phyllis, one of the many Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoffs. (He had portrayed a cop on a first-season episode.)

When The Facts of Life — a Diff’rent Strokes spinoff — premiered in August 1979, Lawlor was there as headmaster Steven Bradley. He appeared on all 13 installments...

We're in an interesting cultural moment. For a while, it seemed like society was becoming more progressive, and the film industry seemed to follow suit; there are more stories being told now, about more kinds of people. However, if you take a cursory look at Film Twitter or FilmTok, you're likely to find people complaining about "unnecessary sex scenes." There's a backlash brewing, a sense that movies need to get back to an imagined past when everything was about plot.

A lot of that concern involves kids, as if the two kinds of entertainment are either "Oppenheimer" or "Bluey." In fact, there's a lot of middle ground, and there used to be even more. Especially in the 1980s and 1990s, a lot of family-friendly films included scenes for adults that felt a bit out of place but made it in anyway. These days, a lot of those violent, strange edges...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: After Dark but Make It for Gays of a Certain Age

When I was pressed into service for IndieWire After Dark, I hesitated all of five seconds before I screamed, “What’s the Matter With Helen?” at Ali. Partly because it’s a truly bonkers hagsploitation movie but mostly because I greedily grasp at every excuse to discuss Curtis Harrington’s examination of what the mothers of thrill killers Leopold and Loeb might have done with their lives after their sons’ convictions.

Move from the Midwest to Los Angeles to...

Joe Camp, the writer, director and producer who taught that old dog Hollywood new tricks about animal movies as the creative force behind the 1974 franchise-spawning Benji, has died. He was 84.

Camp died Friday morning at his home in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, following a long illness, his son, filmmaker Brandon Camp, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Camp also directed and co-wrote the comedies Hawmps! (1976), about the U.S. Cavalry replacing horses with camels in the 1850s, and The Double McGuffin (1979), which revolved around kids trying to thwart a terrorist (Ernest Borgnine) and featured lots of in-jokes about Hitchcock movies.

Other than serving as an extra on the Robert Mitchum-starring Home From the Hill (1960), Camp had no Hollywood experience when he raised about $500,000 to make Benji, a story about a stray mixed breed — not a fancy pure breed like Lassie! — who helps rescue two youngsters from kidnappers.

Crucial to the movie’s success,...

George Maharis, who starred as the brooding Buz Murdock on Route 66 before he quit the acclaimed 1960s CBS drama after contracting hepatitis, has died. He was 94.

Maharis died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Route 66, created by Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard, featured the Hell’s Kitchen native Murdock and Martin Milner‘s Yale dropout Tod Stiles touring the highways of America in Tod’s Chevrolet Corvette, encountering adventure along the way.

The show “was really kind of a searching or what you may have seen hundreds of years ago where the people came over the mountains to go from one place to the other to find a better life, a place where they belonged, and they didn’t rely on anybody else to do it for them,” Maharis told The Seattle Times in 2008.

All 116 installments of...

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will be a streaming event for the first time on the Netflix YouTube channel. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute.

Among that group will certainly be Oscar winners Louise Fletcher, William Hurt and Irene Cara, plus nominees Angela Lansbury (a SAG life achievement recipient) and Melinda Dillon. Emmy champs Mary Alice, Kirstie Alley, Leslie Jordan, Ray Liotta, Stuart Margolin, Robert Morse and Barbara Walters.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2023: In Memoriam Gallery

Here is our expansive list of over 100 people who died since last year’s ceremony, several of whom will be honored on Sunday’s event:

Ralph Ahn

J. Grant Albrecht

Mary Alice

Rae Allen...

Maggie Thrett, the actress and singer who most memorably played Ruth in the “Mudd’s Women” episode of the original Star Trek, has died her family announced. She was 76.

“Mudd’s Women” is one of the most memorable episodes of the 1960s Star Trek, in no small part because it featured three stunningly beautiful women who seem to have strange powers over the male members of the Enterprise crew — except Spock, of course.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022 Photo Gallery

The women are en route to a mining colony where they are to become wives for the wealthy but lonely men who mine precious dilithium crystals. Their secret is that they are made both beautiful and irresistible by taking a so-called “Venus” drug given to them by one of the series’ most memorable rascals, Harry Mudd (Roger Carmel).

Ironically, though Carmel was her neighbor, Thrett...

Click here to read the full article.

Maggie Thrett, the actress and singer who portrayed one of the three glamorous humanoids who require pills to keep them from aging on the early Star Trek episode “Mudd’s Women,” has died. She was 76.

Thrett died Sunday of complications from an infection at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, family members told The Hollywood Reporter.

Thrett also starred as a flower child alongside Yvette Mimieux, Christopher Jones and Judy Pace in the sex revenge romp Three in the Attic (1968), a box office hit for indie distributor Aip. She and the film received a mention on a TV spot that played in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

On “Mudd’s Women,” which premiered on Oct. 13, 1966, as the sixth episode of NBC’s Star Trek — it was shot as the series’ second installment — Thrett, with her long brown hair,...

Click here to read the full article.

Cliff Emmich, the fun-loving character actor who made his mark in Payday, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Halloween II and Little House on the Prairie, has died. He was 85.

Emmich died Monday at his Valley Village home in Los Angeles after a long battle with lung cancer, his rep Steve Stevens told The Hollywood Reporter.

In perhaps his most well-known role, Emmich played the driver Chicago, who steered the Cadillac sedan with Rip Torn‘s hard-living honky tonk singer Maury Dann in the backseat, in Payday (1973).

In Michael Cimino‘s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Emmich portrayed the Western Union security guard with a porn fetish who is attracted to the long-legged, dress-wearing Jeff Bridges. He played another security guard, one who falls victim to a hammer wielded by Michael Myers, in Halloween II (1981).

Emmich was at his best on the fifth season of NBC’s Little House on the Prairie...

Click here to read the full article.

“It’s great you got all of us lunatics together!” joked realtor James Harris of Bond Street Partners at The Agency.

This feeling of gratitude and jovial collegiality was in the air at The Hollywood Reporter’s second annual Power Broker Awards, presented by The Society Group and sponsored by Ash Staging and the Real real-estate messaging app on Sept. 20. New blood and established legends exchanged hugs and deals at the ceremony, which was held as a private event at private members fitness club Heimat in the Hollywood Media District. The honors were held in conjunction with THR’s 2022 list of Hollywood’s Top 30 Real Estate Agents, honoring top sellers in the greater Los Angeles area based on Mls-listed sales to Hollywood clients, overall deal volume and media visibility.

The awards were hosted by Selling Sunset stars Jason Oppenheim and Mary Fitzgerald — with...

Who will be included for the special “In Memoriam” segment for Sunday night’s Oscars 2022 ceremony? For almost all other Academy Awards productions since the 1990s, producers typically select 40-50 people from the various branches. The 2021 segment had close to 100 people in a particularly fast-paced three minutes that was not very well-received since many of them were only on screen for a second or two.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2022: In Memoriam Gallery

Previous Oscar winners from acting categories passing away since last year’s late April ceremony are Olympia Dukakis, William Hurt and Sidney Poitier. Past acting nominees include Ned Beatty, Sally Kellerman and Dean Stockwell.

Almost all of the dozens on the list below were Academy members, previous nominees/winners or both.

Louie Anderson (actor)

Ed Asner (actor)

Ned Beatty (actor)

Marilyn Bergman (composer)

Val Bisoglio (actor)

Robert Blalack (visual effects)

Peter Bogdanovich (director)

David Brenner (editor)

Leslie Bricusse (composer...

The big-scale Cinerama fantasy once thought unrecoverable is back — a terrific restoration brings us George Pal’s ode to fairy tales, filmed on Bavarian locations with an international cast. Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm are the brothers that compiled the famed tales of princesses, witches, magic spells and fiery dragons. Their idealized biography is interspersed with three full fairy tale stories, about a magic cloak of invisibility, a cobbler’s helpful elves, and a pair of fearless dragon slayers. The show has dancing, beautiful locations, a sequence with Puppetoons and a terrific animated dragon. Featured stars are Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak, Barbara Eden, Oscar Homolka, Martita Hunt, Yvette Mimieux, Russ Tamblyn, Jim Backus, Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett; a long-form docu goes into fascinating detail explaining how Dave Strohmaier and Tom March accomplished the mind-boggling restoration.

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1962 / Color / 2:89 widescreen [Smilebox] widescreen / 140 135 min.

With the proliferation of antiseptic mall-sized ultra-modern mansions and cookie cutter “modern farmhouses,” with their acres of white walls, miles of pale French oak floors and vast walls of disappearing glass, the extravagant, playfully flamboyant more-is-better Bel Air compound of corporate housing magnate Howard Ruby and late actress-turned-artist Yvette Mimieux is a much-welcomed architectural and decorative antidote. Famous for his head-in-the-clouds more-is-more aesthetic, late and influential set designer and decorator Tony Duquette would certainly approve.

An L.A. native who passed in January, at 80, Mimieux was discovered in the late 1950s while horseback riding in the Hollywood Hills. She went on to appear in dozens of television shows and films, including Where the Boys Are (1960) and Light in the Piazza (1962). In 1964 she earned a Golden Globe nomination when she became what’s believed to be the first woman to bare her belly button on American TV when she guest-starred on Dr. Kildare.

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will return to its normal two-hour live format on TNT and TBS. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute. The 2021 segment saluted 55 people because they had responsibility for 14 months instead of 12.

Among that group will certainly be previous SAG president Ed Asner, who was also a life achievement award recipient. That honorary award was also presented to Sidney Poitier and Betty White, who both died this past year.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2022: In Memoriam Gallery

Who else might be featured in the 2022 tribute? Look for Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, Oscar nominees Ned Beatty, Peter Bogdanovich and Dean Stockwell, plus Emmy champs Louie Anderson, Michael Constantine, Charles Grodin,...

“Once upon a time, there were two brothers…”

The classic film The Wonderful World Of Brothers Grimm (1962) will debut as a Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray on March 29 from the Warner Archive Collection. This release features Restored 1080p HD Masters from 6K composite scan of original Cinerama 3-panel Camera Negatives

The classic film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm will debut as a Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray on March 29 from the Warner Archive Collection. Restored in 4K (3840 x 2160) master files from 6K files of original Cinerama Camera Negatives, with the most advanced technology available used by Cinerama Restorationists David Strohmaier and Tom H. March, to eliminate the “join lines” that plagued traditional release prints, and early video format releases. The Cinerama 7-channel sound has also been restored for a new 5.1 mix that brings a spectacular sonic experience to match the amazing Cinerama imagery.

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm...

Actor who found teenage fame playing charming innocents but struggled to break free of typecasting

Midway through an acting career she abandoned early, out of frustrations with her casting, Yvette Mimieux, who has died aged 80, said the parts she was offered were usually “sex objects or vanilla pudding”. Her pale beauty was striking, but ethereal rather than fragile; qualities that led to the early roles that foreshadowed her entire career. “I suppose I have a soulful quality,” she said. “I was often cast as a wounded person, the sensitive soul.”

She was only 15 when the talent agent Jim Byron supposedly spotted her from his helicopter while she walked a horse in the Hollywood Hills; he landed and gave her his card. The other version of the story was more mundane: he spotted her auditioning for a bit part in Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. He generated publicity for her through beauty contests and modelling.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actress Yvette Mimieux passed away on Tuesday from natural causes. She was 80 years old. Mimieux rose to fame starring opposite Rod Taylor in George Pal's 1960 screen adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine". Prominent roles in major films soon followed and she won acclaim for her abilities primarily in dramas, although the1960 film "Where the Boys Are" combined comedy with tragedy and Mimieux's star rose further when the movie became a boxoffice hit with teenagers. In 1962, she teamed again with George Pal for his Cinerama classic "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm".  Other major films in which she starred included "The Light in the Piazza", "Toys in the Attic", "Diamond Head", "The Reward" and the Disney hit "Monkeys Go Home!". In 1968, she reunited with Rod Taylor for "Dark of the Sun" (aka "The Mercenaries"), a brutal but well-made adventure film centering on social unrest and revolution in the Congo.

Actress Yvette Mimieux, who starred in movies including “Where the Boys Are,” “The Time Machine,” “Light in the Piazza,” “Toys in the Attic,” “Dark of the Sun” and “The Picasso Summer,” died Tuesday. She was 80.

The beautiful blonde Mimieux made most of her films in the 1960s, but she was also among the stars of Disney’s 1979 sci-fi film “The Black Hole.”

Among the films Mimieux made in 1960 were MGM’s glossy teen movie “Where the Boys Are,” in which four coeds including Mimieux’s Melanie head to Fort Lauderdale for spring break in search of fun and the “right” boy, and George Pal’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” starring Rod Taylor and with Mimieux third billed as Weena, Taylor’s romantic interest, who lives among the Eloi, a peaceful race living in the year 802,701.

In 1962 she appeared in four films, including the big-budget critical and...

Yvette Mimieux was found dead this morning, a rep for her family confirmed. She had just turned 80 on January 10, and she passed away in her sleep of natural causes.

Mimieux was a prolific actress who is best remembered for starring opposite Rod Taylor in the 1960 George Pal-directed film version of the H.G. Wells novel The Time Machine at MGM where she was soon put under a long term contract. Another big hit came months after in Where The Boys Are. Among her other credits around that time were Platinum High School, Mr. Lucky, Where the Boys Are, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Light in the Piazza. The latter garnered her strong reviews for playing a mentally disabled girl and the time she said, “I supposed I have a soulful quality. I was often cast as a wounded person, the ‘sensitive’ role.

She would take a detour and guest...

1. “A Star is Born” (1954)

Why Should I Watch? If the Lady Gaga-starring remake from 2018 did anything, it was to show us the power of the “Star is Born” narrative – and if you’re going to watch any of them why not watch the best? Judy Garland stars in her what-should-have-been Oscar-winning role as Esther Blodgett, a woman whose rise to fame comes at the expense of her husband, Norman Main (played by James Mason). Outside of this being a career best for both Garland and Mason, the movie has an added power if you know anything about Garland’s history. The scene wherein Esther details her feelings about Norman’s alcoholism is a gut punch every time, especially as it’s easy to hear it as Garland talking about herself. Laugh, sing, and cry with “A Star is Born” on March 2.

2. “North By Northwest” (1959)

Why Should I Watch? One...

She was an amazing woman. At the beginning, I worked with her on Light in the Piazza in Italy, which was extraordinary. There's a British director named Guy Green and a young actress named Yvette Mimieux, and we started working together and in came this force field of Olivia de Havilland. She had done so much, had been such a great star, and I was always joking with her and she was flirting with me. It was an amazing thing because this is a woman who you have the greatest respect for, she had great style and she was a ...

She was an amazing woman. At the beginning, I worked with her on Light in the Piazza in Italy, which was extraordinary. There's a British director named Guy Green and a young actress named Yvette Mimieux, and we started working together and in came this force field of Olivia de Havilland. She had done so much, had been such a great star, and I was always joking with her and she was flirting with me. It was an amazing thing because this is a woman who you have the greatest respect for, she had great style and she was a ...

While all of our attention might currently be focused on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Disney reportedly has its eyes on rebooting another one of its intergalactic features. According to our sources – the same ones who told us an Aladdin sequel was in the works and that Ace Ventura 3 is in early development, both of which have since been confirmed – the studio is intent on remaking The Black Hole.

The 1979 space opera featured an all-star cast that consisted of Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens. With a production budget of $20 million and an additional $6 million spent on advertising, The Black Hole was the most expensive film Disney had ever produced at that time. It was also the first movie by the studio to ever receive a PG rating, which is crazy when you consider the debate currently surrounding...

It’s tendon-biting combat, with guns, trains, planes, chainsaws, and an indestructible all-terrain vehicle (that still couldn’t stand the potholes in the street of Los Angeles)! Rod Taylor, Jim Brown and Yvette Mimieux blast their way through one of the roughest of the ’60s action spectacles, as mercenaries on a mission of mercy that’s really a venal grab to ‘rescue’ a fortune in diamonds. Director Jack Cardiff pushed the limits of acceptability on this one — legends persist about longer, more egregiously violent cuts.

Dark of the Sun

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / The Mercenaries / Street Date December 18, 2011 / available through the Warner Archive Collection / 19.95

Starring: Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Jim Brown, Kenneth More, André Morell, Olivier Despax, Guy Deghy, Bloke Modisane, Calvin Lockhart.

Cinematography: Edward Scaife.

Film Editor: Ernest Walter

Original Music: Jacques Loussier

Written by Quentin Werty (Ranald MacDougall), Adrian Spies from the...

Exciting news for fans of action! Rod Taylor and Jim Brown in Dark Of The Sun (1968) is available on Blu-ray December 18th from Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here

Rod Taylor stars in this action classic, playing the leader of a band of mercenaries attempting to smuggle diamonds and refugees out of Congo via steam train at the height of the ’60s Congo Crisis. Directed by master cinematographer Jack Cardiff, Dark of the Sun shocked contemporary audiences with its stark and unflinching scenes of violent brutality. Jim Brown and Yvette Mimieux join Taylor for the hi-octane, high tension action. Overlooked in its initial run, Dark of the Sun is a justly revered classic of the genre, now seen as a seminal entry in the genre. And now it’s more explosive than ever on this stunning, new HD presentation. And did we mention there is a chainsaw fight scene?...

Happy 72nd Birthday, Tommy Lee Jones! Though he has played his share of rednecks in films, the Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner is in real life a top-notch polo player and famously was Vice President Al Gore‘s roommate while both were studying at Harvard. Jones is an actor who is always full of surprises.

Having gotten his start acting in soap operas and independent films, Jones quickly moved up the ladder, earning his first Golden Globe nomination as singer Loretta Lynn‘s husband in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (opposite Academy Award champ Sissy Spacek). As his work continued to grow, so did Jones’ trophy case. In his film career of over four decades, Jones earned four Oscar nominations three Golden Globe nominations (also including a win for “The Fugitive”) and four Screen Actors Guild nominations (including two SAG trophies for 2007’s “No Country For Old Men” and 2012’s “Lincoln”).

So,...

By Todd Garbarini

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The 1980s were a decade of many cultural phenomenon such as the teen angst film, the splatter horror film, the zombie films, and of course the teen sex comedy. Bob Clark’s Porky’s (1981) was a huge success both financially and artistically. To this day it’s still one of the funniest movies ever made. Many of today’s best-known actors cut their teeth in such fare: Tom Hanks attended an out-of-control Bachelor Party (1984) and even Johnny Depp and Rob Morrow checked into a Private Resort (1985). Stanley Donen, best known for directing Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Funny Face (1957), Charade (1963), and Arabesque (1966), followed up the boring and disastrous Saturn 3 (1980) with Blame It on Rio, a peculiar entry in his otherwise illustrious career. Jennifer (Michelle Johnson) is a pulchritudinous seventeen-year-old who lusts after her father Victor’s (Joseph Bologna) best friend...

Heading for Spring Break somewhere? Long before Girls Gone Wild, kids of the Kennedy years found their own paths to the desired fun in the sun, and most of them came back alive. MGM’s comedic look at the Ft. Lauderdale exodus is a half-corny but fully endearing show, featuring the great Dolores Hart and the debuts of Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton.

Where the Boys Are

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date July 25, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, Jim Hutton

Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton, Frank Gorshin, Barbara Nichols, Chill Wills.

Cinematography: Robert Bronner

Art Direction: Preston Ames, George W. Davis

Film Editor: Fredric Steinkamp

Original Music: Pete Rugolo, Neil Sedaka, George Stoll, Victor Young

Written by George Wells from a novel by Glendon Swarthout

Produced by Joe Pasternak

Directed by Henry Levin

Ah yes, in 1960 first-wave Rock...

Yet another puzzle picture, that came out on DVD back with the first wave of Wac films in 2010. An expensive romance with Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux, it was filmed in Europe, co-written by Ray Bradbury and bears the music of Michel Legrand, including an exceedingly well known pop song. Yet it sat on a shelf for three years, only to make a humiliating world debut on TV — on CBS’s Late Nite Movie. It was clearly one of those Productions From Hell, where nothing went right.

The Picasso Summer

DVD-r

The Warner Archive Collection

1969 originally / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date May 28, 2010 (not a mistake) / available through the WBshop / 17.99

Starring: Albert Finney, Yvette Mimieux, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Theodore Marcuse, Jim Connell,

Peter Madden, Tutte Lemkow, Graham Stark, Marty Ingels, Georgina Cookson, Miki Iveria, Bee Duffell, Lucia Bosé, Jean Marie Ingels.

Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond

Original Music: Michel Legrand

Animator:...

Truth be told, I’ve never been too big on Westerns. I don’t know why; I just don’t connect with most of them, or maybe I feel that there’s something missing. Perhaps…Satan?!? Yes, of course we’re heading back to the ‘70s where the Behooved One thrived, even on the small screen. Saddle up for Black Noon (1971), a long forgotten horror/western TV movie that laid the groundwork for some well-regarded horror films.

First airing on The New CBS Friday Night Movies on November 5th, Black Noon had no real competition from the NBC World Premiere Movie or ABC’s Love, American Style, with audiences taking to this insidiously laid back demon oater.

Let’s crack open our telegrammed copy of TV Guide and have a look see:

Black Noon (Friday, 9:30pm, CBS)

A preacher and his wife deal with mysterious forces in a small western town.

Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...

Dean Jones: Actor in Disney movies. Dean Jones dead at 84: Actor in Disney movies 'The Love Bug,' 'That Darn Cat!' Dean Jones, best known for playing befuddled heroes in 1960s Walt Disney movies such as That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, died of complications from Parkinson's disease on Tue., Sept. 1, '15, in Los Angeles. Jones (born on Jan. 25, 1931, in Decatur, Alabama) was 84. Dean Jones movies Dean Jones began his Hollywood career in the mid-'50s, when he was featured in bit parts – at times uncredited – in a handful of films at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In 2009 interview for Christianity Today, Jones recalled playing his first scene (in These Wilder Years) with veteran James Cagney, who told him “Walk to your mark and remember your lines” – supposedly a lesson he would take to heart. At MGM, bit player Jones would also be featured in Robert Wise's...

Olivia de Havilland on Turner Classic Movies: Your chance to watch 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' for the 384th time Olivia de Havilland is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 2, '15. The two-time Best Actress Oscar winner (To Each His Own, 1946; The Heiress, 1949) whose steely determination helped to change the way studios handled their contract players turned 99 last July 1. Unfortunately, TCM isn't showing any de Havilland movie rarities, e.g., Universal's cool thriller The Dark Mirror (1946), the Paramount comedy The Well-Groomed Bride (1947), or Terence Young's British-made That Lady (1955), with de Havilland as eye-patch-wearing Spanish princess Ana de Mendoza. On the other hand, you'll be able to catch for the 384th time a demure Olivia de Havilland being romanced by a dashing Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood, as TCM shows this 1938 period adventure classic just about every month. But who's complaining? One the...

Teresa Wright and Matt Damon in 'The Rainmaker' Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright vs. Samuel Goldwyn: Nasty Falling Out.") "I'd rather have luck than brains!" Teresa Wright was quoted as saying in the early 1950s. That's understandable, considering her post-Samuel Goldwyn choice of movie roles, some of which may have seemed promising on paper.[1] Wright was Marlon Brando's first Hollywood leading lady, but that didn't help her to bounce back following the very public spat with her former boss. After all, The Men was released before Elia Kazan's film version of A Streetcar Named Desire turned Brando into a major international star. Chances are that good film offers were scarce. After Wright's brief 1950 comeback, for the third time in less than a decade she would be gone from the big screen for more than a year.

Commemorating Rod Taylor, we turn to Dark of the Sun, routinely dismissed as a nasty slice of thick-ear but admired by Scorsese for its unflinching brutality and lean, efficient technique: possibly the best film directed by great cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who otherwise could be said to have squandered years on dreck like Girl on a Motorcycle (lovely to look at, inane and obnoxious) and The Mutations (ugly to look at, inaner and obnoxiouser). It's always a bit of a crime when a great specialist becomes an undistinguished all-rounder, and Cardiff's belated return to cinematography was, on the whole, a happy day. His admired first film in the director's chair, Sons and Lovers, looks magnificent, but screenwriter Gavin Lambert felt Cardiff didn't really understand the material.

Well, in a sense the strength of Dark of the Sun, superficially an action/adventure yarn set in the Congo during revolution, is its simplicity:...

Rod Taylor dead at 84: Actor best known for 'The Time Machine' and 'The Birds' Rod Taylor, best remembered for the early 1960s movies The Time Machine and The Birds, and for his supporting role as Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino's international hit Inglourious Basterds, has died. Taylor suffered a heart attack at his Los Angeles home earlier this morning (January 8, 2015). Born on January 11, 1930, in Sydney, he would have turned 85 on Sunday. Based on H.G. Wells' classic 1895 sci-fi novel, The Time Machine stars Rod Taylor as a H. George Wells, an inventor who comes up with an intricate chair that allows him to travel across time. (In the novel, the Victorian protagonist is referred to simply as the "Time Traveller.") After experiencing World War I and World War II, Wells decides to fast forward to the distant future, ultimately arriving at a place where humankind has been split...

Considering they're the best-known cryptids in history, the humanoids known variously as Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti, the Abominable Snowman and so forth don't get much respect in modern cinema. While thousands of hours of film and video have been dedicated to these elusive man-beasts, there's something about the big dude that makes it nearly impossible for filmmakers to take him seriously, or even tell a semi-competent story about him. It's certainly not for a lack of trying; there have been nearly a hundred Bigfoot and Yeti movies released since the '50s. Old-fashioned giant monster romps, found-footage and slasher entries, feel-good family dramas, romantic comedies... even porno flicks. So why are nearly all of them so damn goofy? Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy these insane interpretations; in fact, the crazier they get, the more I dig 'em. So to honor this dubious cinematic legacy, here are two dozen of...

‘Ryan’s Daughter’ actor Christopher Jones dead at 72: Quit acting following nervous breakdown after Sharon Tate murder, in later years turned down Quentin Tarantino movie offer Christopher Jones, who had a key role in David Lean’s 1970 romantic epic Ryan’s Daughter, died of complications from gallbladder cancer last Friday, January 31, 2014, at Los Alamitos Medical Center, approximately 35 km southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Christopher Jones (born William Franklin Jones on August 18, 1941, in Jackson, Tennessee) was 72. After growing up in a children’s home, joining the army at 16 and then going Awol, being handpicked by Tennessee Williams for a small role in the playwright’s The Night of the Iguana in 1961, and starring in the television series The Legend of Jesse James (1965-1966), Christopher Jones began getting film roles. His first was the title role in Allen H. Miner’s 1967 clash-of-generations drama Chubasco, in which Jones plays a misunderstood youth...

His star burned briefly but bright. Christopher Jones was a counterculture cult hero in the James Dean mold, starring in Wild In The Streets (1968) as Max Frost, the 22-year old rock star millionaire president of the United States who locks up everyone over 30. The same year he played Paxton Quigley in Three In The Attic, a hit about free love in the swinging sixties costarring Yvette Mimieux and Judy Pace. The big studios took notice and David Lean cast him as the romantic lead in the big-budget drama Ryan’S Daughter (1970). It was on the set of this epic that Jones reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown. His part had to be dubbed and he suddenly dropped out of show biz after only a handful of credits. Quentin Tarantino approached him in 1996 and offered him the role of Zed in Pulp Fiction, but Jones turned him down (Zed would be played...

Jeanne Crain: Lighthearted movies vs. real life tragedies (photo: Madeleine Carroll and Jeanne Crain in ‘The Fan’) (See also: "Jeanne Crain: From ‘Pinky’ Inanity to ‘Margie’ Magic.") Unlike her characters in Margie, Home in Indiana, State Fair, Centennial Summer, The Fan, and Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), or even in the more complex A Letter to Three Wives and People Will Talk, Jeanne Crain didn’t find a romantic Happy Ending in real life. In the mid-’50s, Crain accused her husband, former minor actor Paul Brooks aka Paul Brinkman, of infidelity, of living off her earnings, and of brutally beating her. The couple reportedly were never divorced because of their Catholic faith. (And at least in the ’60s, unlike the humanistic, progressive-thinking Margie, Crain was a “conservative” Republican who supported Richard Nixon.) In the early ’90s, she lost two of her...

Charlton Heston movies: ‘A Man for All Seasons’ remake, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ (photo: Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur) (See previous post: “Charlton Heston: Moses Minus Staff Plus Chariot Equals Ben-Hur.”) I’ve yet to watch Irving Rapper’s melo Bad for Each Other (1954), co-starring the sultry Lizabeth Scott — always a good enough reason to check out any movie, regardless of plot or leading man. A major curiosity is the 1988 made-for-tv version of A Man for All Seasons, with Charlton Heston in the Oscar-winning Paul Scofield role (Sir Thomas More) and on Fred Zinnemann’s director’s chair. Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Thomas More’s wife in the TV movie (Wendy Hiller in the original) had a cameo as Anne Boleyn in the 1966 film. According to the IMDb, Robert Bolt, who wrote the Oscar-winning 1966 movie (and the original play), is credited for the 1988 version’s screenplay as well. Also of note,...

Charlton Heston: Moses has his ‘Summer Under the Stars’ day Charlton Heston is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star on Monday, August 5, 2013. TCM will be presenting one Heston movie premiere: Guy Green’s Hawaiian-set family drama Diamond Head (1963), in which Heston plays a pineapple grower, U.S. Senate candidate, and total control freak at odds with his strong-willed younger sister, the lovely Yvette Mimieux. Also in the Diamond Head cast: France Nuyen, Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner George Chakiris (West Side Story), The Time Tunnel‘s James Darren, and veteran Aline MacMahon (Gold Diggers of 1933, Five Star Final) in one of her last movie roles. And last but not least, silent film star Billie Dove reportedly has a bit role in the film. (Photo: Charlton Heston ca. 1955.) (Charlton Heston movies: TCM schedule.) Now, with the exception of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, in which Charlton Heston...

Paul Henreid: From Eleanor Parker to ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ (photo: Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in ‘Between Two Worlds’) Paul Henreid returns this evening, as Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. In Of Human Bondage (1946), he stars in the old Leslie Howard role: a clubfooted medical student who falls for a ruthless waitress (Eleanor Parker, in the old Bette Davis role). Next on TCM, Henreid and Eleanor Parker are reunited in Between Two Worlds (1944), in which passengers aboard an ocean liner wonder where they are and where the hell (or heaven or purgatory) they’re going. Hollywood Canteen (1944) is a near-plotless, all-star showcase for Warner Bros.’ talent, a World War II morale-boosting follow-up to that studio’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, released the previous year. Last of the Buccaneers (1950) and Pirates of Tripoli (1955) are B pirate movies. The former is an uninspired affair,...

One of the Most Amazing Silent Movies (or Movies of Any Era, Period) Ever Made Tops the List of Best of Movies Released in 1921 Rex Ingram’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Metro Pictures' film version of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s epic novel -- from a scenario by the immensely powerful writer-producer June Mathis -- catapulted Mathis’ protégé, the until then little known Rudolph Valentino (photo, left), to worldwide superstardom, as The Four Horsemen became one of the biggest box-office hits of the silent era. Ingram’s wife, the invariably excellent Alice Terry (right, dark-haired in real life; a light-haired in her many movies), played Valentino's love interest. Ninety-two years after its initial launch, the Four Horsemen remains a monumental achievement. Released by MGM, Vincente Minnelli's 1962 remake of this Metro Pictures production featured an all-star cast: Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin (dubbed by Angela Lansbury), Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb,...

Fifty years after its release (on March 28, 1963), we can't stop talking about Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." We're still terrified by it, perhaps because Hitchcock wisely avoided providing any explanation for the avian attacks on Bodega Bay. We're still fascinated by how it was made, especially because, at 83, star Tippi Hedren continues to hold forth on the pleasures and horrors of working with Hitchcock. Much of the story has been retold, in books (notably, Patrick McGilligan's "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light") and in last year's HBO movie "The Girl." Still, as familiar as we think we are with the scary masterpiece, there's still plenty that remains a mystery -- how did Hitchcock wrangle all those birds? How did he mix live ones with pretend birds so seamlessly? And what really went on between him and Hedren? Read on to learn some of the secrets of "The Birds.

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By Harvey Chartrand

Mr. Lucky: The Complete Series is now available for the first time ever as a 4-dvd box set from Timeless Media Group… all 34 episodes, with a running time of about 840 minutes. Mr. Lucky– created by writer/director Blake Edwards (Peter Gunn) – ran for only one season (from 1959 to 1960), even though it was a hit with viewers.

This adventure/crime drama is a sort of Peter Gunn Lite, featuring a lush, organ-powered theme song by Henry Mancini (a bonus CD of Mr. Lucky’s soundtrack is included in the set), an assortment of shady characters aboard a floating casino, and competent acting by series regulars John Vivyan (as suave professional gambler Mr. Lucky), Ross Martin (as his sidekick and business partner Andamo), Pippa Scott (as Mr. Lucky’s girlfriend Maggie Shank-Rutherford) and Tom Brown (as Lieutenant Rovacs, Mr. Lucky’s...

Creature Feature Collection

Contains: Snow Beast, Monsterwolf, Swamp Shark | Released by Signature Entertainment

Signature Entertainment re-release three of their Tesco-exclusive creature features in a special three pack which is now available at all good retailers. We’ve previously reviewed two of the three so I thought I’d repost those together here just in case you’re wondering whether this new collection is worth picking up (Hint: If you love cheesy monster movies and crazy killer-shark flicks it most definitely is!). So without further ado, here’s reviews of Snow Beast and Swamp Shark:

Snow Beast (2011)

Stars: John Schneider, Jason London, Danielle Chuchran, Paul D. Hunt, Kari Hawker | Written by Brittany Wiscombe | Directed by Brian Brough

Snow Beast, shot in 2011, and not to be confused with the 1977 TV movieSnowbeast which starred Bo Svenson and Yvette Mimieux, and is set in the same locale (a snowy hillside) and featuring almost exactly the same plot,...