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Our decision to declare Miami Vice this century’s greatest action film some eight years ago was neither made lightly nor received unanimously, but fortune favors the bold. Part and parcel of its canonization, Michael Mann’s classic streams on Criterion this July as part of Miami Neonoir, a set boasting Larry Clark’s Bully, the recently departed George Armitage’s Miami Blues, Out of Sight, Body Heat, and John Bailey’s lesser-seen China Moon. Series-wise, films about David Lynch, Picasso, and Basquiat fill out Portraits of Artists, while Summer Romances arrives just in time for you to imagine a better life than watching movies on your laptop.

July is a retrospective-heavy month: the recently restored, totally essential films of Jacques Rozier, works directed and shot by D.A. Pennebaker, shorts by Suzan Pitt, and Lino Brocka, Moustapha Alassane, Michael Haneke, and Hou Hsiao-hsien programs are complemented by an exposition of the Rolling Stones on film.

Related Images invites readers behind the scenes and into the sketchbooks of working filmmakers to learn more about their creative processes.Elizabeth Sankey’s Witches is now showing exclusively on Mubi.Witches.Title cards are an underappreciated art and a powerful tool for every director. They can punctuate a moment, make it more comic, shocking, or beautiful. They can hold your hand and lead you sweetly down the garden path of the story you’re about to experience, or they can undermine your expectations and throw you for a loop. Even their placement in the runtime can have a huge impact. In the black-metal revenge thriller Mandy (2018) Panos Cosmatos waits 75 minutes before abruptly kicking his title card onto the screen. Conversely Luca Guadagnino places the card for Call Me by Your Name (2017) at the end of the film to enhance Elio’s heartbreaking stare into the fire, intensifying his crushing...

One of the sequels to the legendary Western film The Magnificent Seven will soon get a new streaming home. 1969's Guns of the Magnificent Seven will arrive on Prime Video on November 1.

Directed by Paul Wendkos and produced by Vincent M. Fennelly, Guns of the Magnificent Seven stars George Kennedy as the character Chris Adams, originally portrayed by Yul Brynner in previous franchise entries. Rounding out the seven are James Whitmore as Levi Morgan, Monte Markham as Keno, Reni Santoni as Maximiliano "Max" O'Leary, Bernie Casey as Cassie, Scott Thomas as P.J., and Joe Don Baker as Slater. The group bands together to free the Mexican revolutionary Angel Quintero, played by Fernando Rey, and fight the oppression of the sadistic Colonel Diego, portrayed by Michael Ansara. The movie's cast also includes Wende Wagner, Tony Davis, Frank Silvera, Sancho Gracia, Luis Rivera, George Rigaud, and Peter Lawman.

Related 1 of the...

Apple TV+’s hit limited series “Hijack” starring Idris Elba is a nail-biting thrill ride set in real-time. Over the years, there have been many types of hijack films. Besides planes, there have been suspenseful takeovers of ships, trains, subways and even trucks.

“The Taking of the Pelham One Two Three,” from 1974 — avoid the two remakes — is a superb thriller about four men who take over a New York subway car and hold the passengers, conductor and an undercover policeman hostage unless they get $1 million (remember that was a lot of money 49 years ago). If their demands aren’t met, they will start killing hostages. Directed by Joseph Sargent and adapted by Peter Stone from the best-selling novel by John Godey, “Taking” boasts a stellar cast at the top of their game including Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo and Martin Balsam. David Shire penned the influential score.

A year...

Gabrielle Upton, who wrote the screenplay for the classic California surfing movie Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson and James Darren, has died. She was 101.

Upton died Sept. 13 in Santa Rosa, California, her daughter, Greer Upton, told The Hollywood Reporter. News of her death had not been reported until now.

A three-time WGA Award nominee, Upton wrote for such network shows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour/Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, Convoy, One Step Beyond, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, The Virginian, The Big Valley and The High Chaparral.

She also worked on several daytime soap operas during her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, The Secret Storm and Love of Life.

After Frederick Kohner took a crack at adapting his best-selling 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl With Big Ideas for Columbia Pictures’ Gidget (1959), Upton came on and received sole screenplay credit.

Lee Marvin, Vera Miles and Bradford Dillman shine a military courtroom drama, a TV movie released as a theatrical feature five years later. It’s small-scale but effective, with strong performances and a reasonably credible storyline. Marvin’s Ryker is on trial for his life, with the entire U.S. Army convinced that he’s a traitor. Attorney Bradford Dillman stumbles in his defense — other officers catch him consorting with Ryker’s wife. It’s a treat for Lee Marvin fans, provided they don’t expect the action epic depicted on the posters.

Sergeant Ryker

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1968 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 85 min. / Street Date January 10, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Lee Marvin, Bradford Dillman, Peter Graves, Vera Miles, Lloyd Nolan, Murray Hamilton, Norman Fell, Walter Brooke, Charles Aidman.

Cinematography: Walter Strenge

Production Designer:

Art Director: John J. Lloyd

Film Editor: Robert B. Warwick

Original Music: John Williams

Written by Seelef Lester,...

Paul Wendkos directed this 1957 noir from the screenplay (and book) by David Goodis, the writer responsible for Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player. Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield are a duo of unlikely jewel thieves and Martha Vickers, the problem child of Bogart’s The Big Sleep, is still a beautiful fly in the ointment.

The post The Burglar appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Director René Clément brings an entertainingly eccentric David Goodis crime story to the screen in high style. A big score is being prepped by an odd gang, played by a terrific lineup of talent: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Lea Massari and the elusive Tisa Farrow. Only partly an action thriller, this one is weird but good — lovers of hardboiled crime stories can’t go wrong. Studiocanal has restored the original version, a full forty minutes longer than what was briefly shown here.

And Hope to Die

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1972 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 141 min. / Street Date February 25, 2020 / La course du lièvre à travers les champs / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Lea Massari, Tisa Farrow, Jean Gaven, André Lawrence, Nadine Nabokov, Jean Coutu, Daniel Breton, Emmanuelle Béart.

Cinematography: Edmond Richard

Film Editor: Roger Dwyre

Original Music: Francis Lai

Written by Sébastien Japrisot from...

Fear No Evil / Ritual of Evil

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1969, 1970 / 196 Min. / 1:33.1

Starring Louis Jourdan, Wilfred Hyde-White, Bradford Dillman

Cinematography by Andrew J. McIntyre, Lionel Lindon

Directed by Paul Wendkos, Robert Day

Just as she hops into bed with Charles Aznavour in Shoot the Piano Player, Michèle Mercier exclaims, “Television is a cinema that you can see at home.” Et voilà—from Michèle’s lips to Studio City’s ear, Hollywood responded with a new kind of home entertainment, movies made exclusively for TV. The first examples of this awkward hybrid began to appear in the mid-sixties, but it wasn’t the first time the small-screen tried to expand its horizons; CBS beat movie studios to the punch with Playhouse 90‘s original productions of The Miracle Worker in 1957 and Judgment at Nuremberg in 1959. And there was the occasional holiday treat like NBC’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin starring Van Johnson...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Braguino (Clément Cogitore)

Le Cinéma Club excels in presentation—opening their clean website every Friday reveals a free, new, conveniently sized film playing alongside original written content—but more important is their reach: time and again they’re screening unavailable, underseen, sometimes thought-missing work by auteurs established and upcoming alike. Their current program concerns recent documentaries—starting today is French filmmaker Clément Cogitore’s Braguino, which surveys two rival families in images merging you-are-there immediacy with stunning high-definition clarity. At 49 minutes the experience is ideal for your dense quarantine lineup. – Nick N.

Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club

Columbia Noir

To celebrate their one-year anniversary, The...

Mill Creek and Kit Parker have raided the Columbia vault once again in search of Noir Gold from the ‘fifties. Their selection this time around has a couple of prime gems, several straight crime thrillers and domestic jeopardy tales, and also a couple of interesting Brit imports. They aren’t really ‘Noir’ either, but they’re still unexpected and different. The top title is Don Siegel’s incomparable The Lineup, but also on board is a snappy anti-commie epic by André De Toth. Get set for a lineup of impressive leading ladies: Diana Dors, Arlene Dahl, Anita Ekberg — and the great Colleen Dewhurst as a card-carrying Red!

Noir Archive 9-Film Collection Volume 3

The Shadow on the Window, The Long Haul, Pickup Alley, The Tijuana Story, She Played with Fire, The Case Against Brooklyn, The Lineup, The Crimson Kimono, Man on a String

Blu-ray

Mill Creek / Kit Parker

1957 -1960 / B&w...

The old joke goes that the way one gets to Carnegie Hall is practice; while this is also a truism that can be applied to any tenet of life, it’s particularly ironic in The Mephisto Waltz (1971): yes, hard work is great, but it’s much easier to just have Satan put a concert pianist’s soul in your body to achieve your dreams. Not as funny, but easier.

The Mephisto Waltz (based on the novel of the same name by Fred Mustard Stewart) danced onto screens in early June to scathing reviews and tepid box office; even its support group find fault with key elements (we’ll get to the grievances in a bit) all these years later. I would say they are correct except I find the film works well enough despite its issues; truth be told there aren’t many Satanic flicks I don’t like,...

Quentin Tarantino is curating a film series inspired by his new movie “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” that will air later this month on the Sony Movie Channel, Sony Pictures Television announced Monday.

The film series is titled “Swinging Sixties, a Movie Marathon,” which will include nine films from the Columbia Pictures library that were released from 1958 to 1970. All of the movies were handpicked by Tarantino, and each film served as a specific influence on his latest movie, which follows an actor during a changing Hollywood in 1969.

Films such as “Easy Rider,” “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” “Hammerhead” and more will begin airing on the Sony Movie Channel starting July 21, with two films airing each night until July 25.

Also Read: Critics Love 'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood' - but Saying Why Might Spoil Everything

Tarantino will also hold conversations with film writer and historian Kim...

Exclusive: Quentin Tarantino has teamed with Sony Pictures Television on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Quentin Tarantino Present the Swinging Sixties. It’s a series of 10 films personally curated by Tarantino, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Easy Rider — all of which served as a specific influence in the creation of his upcoming 1969-set film.

The 10 films from the Columbia Pictures library, dating from 1958-70, will air over consecutive nights in more than 80 territories worldwide beginning about one week before Sony’s July 26 theatrical release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in each market. Interstitial segments featuring specially created conversations between Tarantino and film writer and historian Kim Morgan will accompany each film, along with a first look at scenes from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The film series will premiere in the U.S. on Sony Movie Channel from July 21-25, with two films airing...

Paranoia is a hell of a drug; feeding on your insecurities until you crumble in a mess of shattered nerves and broken reality. Such is the case with The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970), a tautly wound conspiracy thriller that plays like a top-tier satanic cult TV movie.

Originally broadcast as part of The CBS Thursday Night Movies, Bell was beat by NBC’s Ironside/The Dean Martin Show line-up, but for fans of first rate suspense, the Eye saw all that night.

Let’s open up our ear-marked TV Guide to see what secrets lurk therein:

The Brotherhood Of The Bell

The secret society that a college professor belongs to will stop at nothing to silence him before he tells the world the truth about their insidious dealings. Glenn Ford, Dean Jagger star.

The telefilm opens with Professor Andy Patterson (Ford – Happy Birthday to Me) arriving at a secluded estate,...

The Criterion Channel launches Monday, replacing that void left in cinephile hearts everywhere after the shuttering of FilmStruck just four months ago.

Subscribers can expect very little difference on the new service that wasn’t previously available on the Criterion Collection’s home at FilmStruck.

The service’s core, permanent library available on launch day is the over 1,000 movies, 350 shorts and 3500 supplemental materials that make up the Janus Film library. These are the classic arthouse films that for decades have been a mainstay in DVD restorations as part of the Criterion Collection.

Also Read: Why the New Criterion Channel Streaming Service Won't Be a 'Netflix Killer'

Criterion President Peter Becker referred to The Criterion Channel as “an art house at your house,” adding that the library is made up of the “last name” filmmakers that any movie buff should know well: (Michelangelo) Antonioni, (Jean-Luc) Godard, (François) Truffaut, (Akira) Kurosawa,...

In just two weeks, a cinematic haven will launch. After the demise of FilmStruck left cinephiles in a dark depression, The Criterion Channel has stepped up to the plate to launch their own separate service coming to the U.S. and Canada on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android and Android TV devices. Now, after giving us a taste of what is to come with their Movies of the Week, they’ve unveiled the staggeringly great lineup for their first month.

Along with the Criterion Collection and Janus Films’ library of 1,000 feature films, 350 shorts, and 3,500 supplementary features–including trailers, introductions, behind-the-scenes documentaries, interviews, video essays, commentary tracks, and rare archival footage–the service will also house films from Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, IFC Films, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media, Milestone Film and Video, Oscilloscope, Cinema Guild, Strand Releasing, Shout Factory, Film Movement,...

The Criterion Channel, the streaming service that is bringing classic films back online after the widely lamented shutdown last fall of WarnerMedia’s FilmStruck, has set the lineup for its launch on April 8. (See it below.)

The channel features the same Criterion Collection and Janus Films titles that were on FilmStruck, which went dark last fall, prompting a backlash among a long list of A-list directors, not to mention thousands of fans of the service. FilmStruck had been an effort to take the DNA of Turner Classic Movies into the streaming realm, with hundreds of Criterion titles at its core. Original programming from FilmStruck will also be back on the new channel, including Adventures in Moviegoing, Meet the Filmmakers, Observations on Film Art and 10 seasons of John Pierson’s Split Screen.

Subscriptions are $10.99 per month or $99.99 a year. A promotional offer lowers the lifetime price for those who sign up...

Out of the ashes of FilmStruck comes the Criterion Channel, which is launching April 8 and has announced an exciting first slate of new programming being added onto the streaming platform throughout its first month. When the service goes live next month it will be the exclusive streaming home for the Criterion Collection and Janus Films’ library of more than 1,000 classic and contemporary films. Original series that aired on FilmStruck will be back on the Criterion Channel, including “Adventures in Moviegoing,” “Meet the Filmmakers,” and “Observations on Film Art.”

In addition to its extensive library, Criterion Channel will be adding new films daily. The first new addition to the service on April 8 will be a spotlight on Columbia Pictures’ history of film noir through 11 movies: “My Name Is Julia Ross”; “So Dark the Night” (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946); “The Big Heat” (Fritz Lang, 1953); “Human Desire” (Fritz Lang, 1954); “Drive a Crooked Road” (Richard Quine,...

As sure as the tides ebb and flow, TV horror in the ‘70s had a reputation of mirroring whatever was popular on the big screen. It certainly made financial sense, but an artistic challenge as well; given to restriction (and constriction), filmmakers had to find ways to attack without being too visceral. As with any medium, the results were decidedly mixed; sometimes charming and quirky, others bland without adding any flavor to separate from the pack. Terror on the Beach (1973) falls into the former category; it’s a siege tale that plays so wholesome it comes across as Manson Beach Party Bingo.

Originally airing Tuesday, September 18th as part of The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies, Terror on the Beach duked it out with the ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week and the NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie, followed by Marcus Welby, M.D. and Police Story, respectively. That’s tough competition,...

Creepy kids, am I right? The horror landscape has been littered with them as far back as The Bad Seed (1956). Every once in awhile TV too would trot out the killer tots in hopes of alluring viewers with no-good imps and smiling, murderous waifs. One such early effort is A Little Game (1971), an ABC Movie of the Week thriller that leans heavily on the psychology behind stepparent-child relations.

Originally broadcast on Saturday, October 30th, A Little Game faced off against the Top Ten rated The Mary Tyler Moore Show on CBS and the NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, but held its own due to the already strong ABC brand. The TV movie at this point was a staple of their network, and A Little Game adds the luster it was accumulating.

Let’s open our faux TV Guide and see what mischief the little brat is up to:

A Little Game (Sat,...

By Fred Blosser

“Cannon for Cordoba,” a 1970 film produced by Vincent M. Fennelly for the Mirisch Corporation, written by Stephen Kandel, directed by Paul Wendkos, and distributed by United Artists, has been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in an attractive new Blu-ray edition. In the movie, U.S. Army Captain Rod Douglas (George Peppard) leads a three-man team across the Mexican Border in 1916. Douglas has been assigned to gather intelligence on a predatory rebel general, Cordoba (Raf Vallone), who has confiscated American-owned property in Mexico. Wealthy U.S. ranchers and politicians are demanding that the Army secure the border with troops (an outcry for a $70 billion wall would have to wait another hundred years). After Douglas’ team enters Mexico, one of the trio, Adam, is captured and tortured to death by Cordoba’s troops. Douglas and the third ranger, Jackson (Don Gordon), escape to warn Gen. Pershing (John Russell...

A middling entry in the genre of blow-it-up big action spectacles, Paul Wendkos’ Spain-filmed western gives us all the excitement promised by the poster, but with some cardboard characters and lumpy storytelling. George Peppard is on the job, however, and once again proves he can carry a big picture, flaws and all.

Cannon for Cordoba

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1970 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: George Peppard, Raf Vallone, Giovanna Ralli, Don Gordon, Pete Duel, Nico Minardos, John Russell, John Larch, Gabriele Tinti, Francine York, Lionel Murton, Hans Meyer, Aldo Sambrell, Luis Barboo.

Cinematography: Antonio Macasoli

Film Editor: Walter A. Hannemann

Special effects: Emilio Ruiz del Río

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by Stephen Kandel

Produced by Vincent M. Fennelly

Directed by Paul Wendkos

While providing backing for independent writer-producers like Billy Wilder, Walter Mirisch also shepherded various less ambitious war movies and westerns,...

Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...

Jacqueline Bisset’s in a heck of a fix. Her hubby Alan Alda has been seduced by promises of fame and fortune from creepy concert genius Curt Jurgens, and is responding to weird overtures from Curt’s daughter Barbara Parkins. The pianist’s mansion is stuffed with occult books, and he displays an unhealthy interest in Alda’s piano-ready hands. Do you think the innocent young couple could be in a diabolical tight spot? Nah, nothing to worry about here.

The Mephisto Waltz

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / Color /1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Brad(ford) Dillman, William Windom, Kathleen Widdoes, Pamelyn Ferdin, Curt Jurgens, Curt Lowens, Kiegh Diegh, Berry Kroeger, Walter Brooke, Frank Campanella.

Cinematography: William W. Spencer

Film Editor: Richard Brockway

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Ben Maddow from a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart

Produced...

TV stalwart Paul Wendkos' biggest success in movies was as the director of the Gidget series. I'm Scottish so I don't know what that was. But it turns out he had a real gift for expressionistic noir, as demonstrated in his debut film The Burglar, which was scripted by pulp noir icon David Goodis, whose novels provided source material for Delmer Daves' Dark Passage, Jacques Tourneur's Nightfall, Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player, René Clément's And Hope to Die, Beineix's Moon in the Gutter (the author was big in France) and Sam Fuller's Street of No Return.The movie, a low-budget affair, substitutes flair and vigor for production values, and stars lifelong noir patsy/creep Dan Duryea and up-and-coming sex bomb Jayne Mansfield, with the result that it always seems to be in the wrong aspect ratio. Duryea's cranium seems to have an extra story built...

As the hoary old cliché goes, sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination. This usually doesn’t apply to TV horror, which lives for the payoff; but Haunts of the Very Rich (1972) is not the usual. With this one, the payoff is all in the setup – and it’s delicious.

First airing on Wednesday, September 20th, 1972 as an ABC Movie of the Week (I know, they’re almost all ABC – what can I say? They ruled the horror roost), Haunts was up against The Carol Burnett Show/Medical Center on CBS and the NBC Mystery Movie. I’m sure a lot of folks were watching Carol, but if they scooched over to ABC they could watch Lloyd and Ed bicker in the underworld. Bridges and Asner that is – and yes, I said underworld.

Is that a spoiler? Only if you don’t watch past the first fifteen minutes.

By Lee Pfeiffer

MGM has released the 1970 Western Cannon For Cordoba as part of their burn-to-dvd line. This is yet another film that was written off as "run of the mill" at the time of its initial release but probably plays far better today when Westerns are scare commodities. The film is clearly designed to capitalize on movies such as The Professionals and The Wild Bunch, and while it certainly isn't in the league of those classics, it's a consistently engrossing and highly entertaining horse opera.  Set in 1916, when the Us was embroiled in assisting the Mexican government in suppressing "revolutionaries" who were really bandits, the plot centers on a crime kingpin named General Coroba (well played with charm and menace by Raf Vallone), who launches an audacious raid on American General Pershing's troops and succeeds in stealing a number of valuable cannons that will make him almost invulnerable...

Batgirl Yvonne Craig. Batgirl Yvonne Craig dead at 78: Also featured in 'Star Trek' episode, Elvis Presley movies Yvonne Craig, best known as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman, died of complications from breast cancer on Monday, Aug. 17, '15, at her home in Pacific Palisades, in the Los Angeles Westside. Craig (born May 16, 1937, in Taylorville, Illinois), who had been undergoing chemotherapy for two years, was 78. Beginning (and ending) in the final season of Batman (1967-1968), Yvonne Craig played both Commissioner Gordon's librarian daughter Barbara Gordon and her alter ego, the spunky Batgirl – armed with a laser-beaming electric make-up kit “which will destroy anything.” Unlike semi-villainess Catwoman (Julie Newmar), Batgirl was wholly on the side of Righteousness, infusing new blood into the series' increasingly anemic Dynamic Duo: Batman aka Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and Boy Wonder Robin aka Bruce Wayne's beloved pal Dick Grayson (Burt Ward). “They chose...

You love the horror, suspense thriller, action and science fiction films that make up the world of Canadian cult cinema affectionately known as Canuxploitation.

You’ve watched the entire David Cronenberg genre filmography (if not, please do so now as The Brood, Scanners and The Fly are three of the greatest horror films ever made).

You’ve seen Black Christmas and The Changeling and watched a slasher-ific marathon of Prom Night, Terror Train, Happy Birthday to Me and My Bloody Valentine.

You caught up with Cube, the Ginger Snaps series, Splice, Hobo with a Shotgun and WolfCop all while keeping close tabs on the works of Astron-6.

Yet your hunger for Canadian genre film productions and co-productions cannot be satiated.

To aid you in your deeper exploration of the field, following is a chronological look at a number of Canadian genre films that simply don’t get enough attention.

****

The Groundstar Conspiracy...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Now this is what you call a bargain: three terrific WWII flicks for only $10 on Amazon, courtesy of Shout! Factory's Timeless Media label, which continues to distribute first rate editions of films that were often considered to be second-rate at the time of their initial release. This "War Film Triple Feature" package includes three gems that were not particularly notable at the time of their release. Two have grown in stature, while the third has benefited only from Cinema Retro writer Howard Hughes' enthusiastic coverage in issue #25. The films included in the set are:

"Attack" (1955)- During the period of WWII, both the Allied and Axis film industries concentrated on feature films that were pure propaganda designed to motivate their fighting men and the public at large. By the early-to-mid-1950s, however,  more introspective viewpoints emerged among Hollywood directors and writers. With the conflict now over,...

Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ actor-filmmaker who died last week helped to revolutionize film distribution patterns in North America (photo: Tom Laughlin in ‘Billy Jack’) Tom Laughlin, best known for the Billy Jack movies he wrote, directed, and starred in opposite his wife Delores Taylor (since 1954), died of complications from pneumonia last Thursday, December 12, 2013, at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles County. Tom Laughlin (born on August 10, 1931, in Minneapolis) was 82; in the last dozen years or so, he suffered from a number of ailments, including cancer and a series of strokes. Tom Laughlin movies: ‘The Delinquents’ and fighting with Robert Altman In the mid-’50s, after acting in college plays and in his own stock company while attending university in Wisconsin, Tom Laughlin began landing small roles on television, e.g., Climax!, Navy Log, The Millionaire. At that time, he was also cast...

With the Academy Awards for the 2011 film year in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take a look at one of the event’s most consistently fascinating categories: Best Supporting Actor. The most interesting story in the category this year isn’t who got nominated, it’s who didn’t. More specifically, Albert Brooks was completely robbed of a nomination for his performance as film producer turned lethal gangster Bernie Rose in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive.

As much as I’d like to say I was surprised by this, considering both the quality of performance and Brooks’ slew of nominations from other critical circles, in light of the Academy’s history of overlooking outstanding supporting performances, I simply can’t.

Following is a chronological look at a number of performances richly deserving of a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination.

In some cases, the performances are in films...

The Movie Pool goes in with guns blazing to review Cannon for Cordoba on DVD for the first time!

This DVD is offered as part of MGM's "Limited Edition Collection," which is available from select online retailers and manufactured only when the DVD is ordered. The DVD features a simple menu with no menu for chapters or scenes. Manufacture-On-Demand (Mod) DVDs are made to play in DVD playback units only and may not play in DVD recorders or PC drives. This DVD did not play in our laptop DVD drive but did play in our Toshiba DVD recorder.

DVD Specs

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1  

Running Time: 104 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles: None  

Special Features: Theatrical trailer  

The Set-up

During the Mexican Revolution of 1912, a U.S. Army captain (George Peppard) is sent on a mission to destroy stolen American cannons and capture a rebel leader (Raf Vallone).

Written by:...

Boris Karloff, Gloria Stuart in James Whale's The Old Dark House Gloria Stuart Dies: Titanic, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man In the '40s, Gloria Stuart did stage work and later retired from acting altogether, devoting her time to painting and fine printing. Her comeback in front of the camera took place in the mid-'70s, a few years prior to the 1978 death of her second husband, screenwriter Arthur Sheekman, among whose credits was Roman Scandals. (Her first husband was sculptor Blair Gordon Newell.) Stuart's work at that time was strictly for television, including supporting roles in Paul Wendkos' The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), starring Elizabeth Montgomery; The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel (1979), which also featured movie veterans Jane Wyman and Dorothy McGuire; and The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981), with Patty Duke. One Us newspaper erroneously printed her obit in the mid-'80s, but Stuart...

Film and TV director made famous by his 'Gidget' surf movies

Despite a long and varied career, in which he made several excellent films noirs, westerns, thrillers and war dramas, and a fair number of superior television movies, it was the wry fate of the film and television director Paul Wendkos, who has died of a lung infection aged 87, that his death was announced widely with the words "Gidget director dies".

The popular teen surf movies – Gidget (1959), Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) – directed by Wendkos, are interesting documents of pre-hippy conservative California youth culture. Gidget, a contraction of girl and midget, is the nickname of a 16-year-old adolescent (played in succession by Sandra Dee, Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol) trying to cope with the problems of growing up, mainly defined by her relationship with her boyfriend, Moondoggie (James Darren).

According to the Variety review of...

Gidget director Paul Wendkos has died at the age of 84.

The filmmaker, best known for his work on the 1959 surfing film starring Sandra Dee, passed away on Thursday due to a lung infection following a stroke, according to Reuters.

During Wendkos' 50-year career he also worked on movies Guns of the Magnificent Seven and The Legend of Lizzie Borden, and his first narrative film - The Burglar - helped launch screen legend Jayne Mansfield's career.

Wendkos, who previously served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, is survived by his wife - television producer Lin Bolen - son Jordan, as well as a granddaughter, niece and nephews.

By Frank Swertlow

Paul Wendkos, who directed the 1959 surfing classic "Gidget" and two sequels, died early Thursday at his home in Malibu.

Wendkos, who was 87 (although some reports put his age at 84), had been ill for several years following a stroke.

"Gidget," which starred Sandra Dee and James Darren, was followed by "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" in 1961and "Gidget Goes to Rome" in 1963.

Wendkos' films helped popularize surfing in the U.S. and a...

Hairspray stars Zac Efron and Brittany Snow are set to reteam for a remake of cheesy surf movie Gidget, according to new industry reports.

Miley Cyrus is on board as waverider Gidget in the project, with Efron slated to play her love interest, according to MovieHole.net.

Sandra Dee originated the role of Gidget in Paul Wendkos’s 1959 original and Sally Field took over the role of Gidget in a short-lived TV series.

“It’s surprising that pulp writer David Goodis never named a novel Cul-de-Sac,” ponders Pacific Film Archives curator Steve Seid, “His stories conjure a dead end, littered with the wreckage of lonely losers and lowlifes. An ill fate befalls the typical Goodis fall guy, who often glimpses the high life, however fleetingly, but then through some irascible compulsion or sinister defect must stumble back to the seamy streets. Goodis’s own life follows the same pattern: at age thirty, he saw his novel Dark Passage adapted for the screen and parlayed that into a contract at Warner Bros., but his questionable proclivities made him an outcast even in Hollywood. Back in his hometown of Philadelphia, he churned out paperback originals while prowling the seedy saloons with unguarded desire. At age forty-nine, he was dead of cirrhosis. Though Goodis persisted in relative obscurity, his works falling in and out of print,...