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The Film Noir Foundation has helped revive yet another difficult-to-see noir gem — the murder cover-up tale begins with a shooting in a mansion and races across San Francisco to a finale given classic lines by director Felix Feist. And the casting: Saggy Lee J. Cobb as a romantic leading man? Sunny Jane Wyatt as a duplicitous killer? Bring it on!

The Man Who Cheated Himself

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley

1950 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, John Dall, Lisa Howard, Harlan Warde, Tito Vuolo, Charles Arnt, Marjorie Bennett.

Cinematography: Russell Harlan

Film Editor: David Weisbart

Production Design: Van Nest Polglase

Original Music: Louis Forbes

Written by Philip MacDonald, Seton I. Miller from his story.

Produced by Jack M. Warner

Directed by Felix E. Feist

In the late ’40s film noir was the default vehicle for ambitious filmmaking — after producing two early Anthony Mann noirs,...

An exercise in dizzy disorientation, this Cornell Woolrich crazy-house noir pulls the rug out from under us at least three times. You want delirium, you got it -- the secret words for today are "Obsessive" and "Perverse." Innocent Robert Cummings is no match for sicko psychos Peter Lorre and Steve Cochran. The Chase Blu-ray Kino Classics 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date May 24, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan, Steve Cochran, Peter Lorre, Lloyd Corrigan, Jack Holt, Don Wilson, Alexis Minotis, Nina Koschetz, Yolanda Lacca, James Westerfield, Shirley O'Hara. Cinematography Frank F. Planer Film Editor Edward Mann Original Music Michel Michelet Written by Philip Yordan from the book The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich Produced by Seymour Nebenzal Directed by Arthur D. Ripley

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

As Guy Maddin says on his (recommended) commentary, the public domain copies of this show were...

This week at Trailers from Hell, B-horror director Joe Dante introduces W. Lee Wilder's "Phantom from Space" (1953). "From the files of the Central Bureau" comes this terminally uneventful, stock footage-laden docu-style alien invader film, one of a series of on-location sci fi cheapies from director W. Lee Wilder. Insomniacs might try double billing this with "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues" for a restful night.

Part of a series by David Cairns on forgotten pre-Code films.

Edward L. Cahn—how shall I sing your praises? Perhaps before seeing this film I wouldn't have bothered, though It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) is a genuinely exciting sci-fi horror, and a clear precursor to Alien. Apart from that, Cahn seems to resemble W. Lee Wilder (Billy Wilder's idiot brother), in that he was capable of semi-decent Z-grade noirs, but concentrated much of his attention on science fiction, a genre he seemed to have no understanding of and nothing but contempt for. Cahn's Invisible Invaders (1959) may safely be recommended to anybody who likes really, really stupid movies. Movies so stupid they forget to breath.

Above: The chain gang chorus line—a surprisingly uncommon trope.

But decades earlier, things were different. Cahn was already churning out several quickies a year, with snap-brimmed titles like Homicide Squad (1931) and Radio Patrol (1932). The difference was,...

Ingrid Pitt in the classic 1970 horror film The House That Dripped Blood. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Lions Gate

By Ronald Bergan; Reprinted from The Guardian.co.UK

In the late 1960s, when audiences were increasingly able to tolerate and even demand more graphic violence and sexuality from mainstream Hollywood films, the British company Hammer Film Productions, known as the "House of Horror", decided to compete by playing up the erotic and gory content of their baroque films. During the scream factory's last gasp period, the erupting female sexuality of young, curvaceous victims of predatory males was common. The voluptuous Ingrid Pitt, who has died aged 73, was fortunate enough to be cast as a perpetrator rather than a victim.

Pitt's reputation, which has been somewhat inflated by horror-movie freaks and camp followers, is largely based on two Hammer movies, The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Countess Dracula (1971). She was able to imbue these vampire...

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

Check out my other column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

George Gallo - Interview

One of the most thrilling things you get to do when you’re in a position to see a film very, very early is knowing that whatever you are feeling about the experience of seeing that movie, is pure. Pure because you are not tainted by the pool of public opinion or subconsciously projecting someone’s off-handed comment onto your own. It’s devoid of judgment and expectation and watching a movie like Middle Men, with a crowd that only knew that it starred Luke Wilson, who hasn’t given such a dynamic performance since The Royal Tennenbaums, Giovanni Ribisi, a complete terror who delightfully and shamelessly steals every scene he’s in, and James Caan, who lets...

Emmy-nominated TV writer Myles Wilder has died at the age of 77.

The son of director W. Lee Wilder and nephew of Oscar-winning writer/director Billy Wilder passed away in Temecula, California on 20 April after a battle with digestive disease diverticulitis.

Wilder began his career by developing, writing and producing 1956 series The Adventures of Marco Polo, and went on to receive two Emmy nominations for his work on 1960s show McHale's Navy.

His other writing credits include U.S. TV classics The Dukes of Hazzard, Get Smart, The Brady Bunch, The Addams Family, Welcome Back, Kotter, and Diff'rent Strokes.

Wilder retired in 1989.

He is survived by his wife, a daughter and two grandchildren.

Myles Wilder was the son of B-movie director W. Lee Wilder, and scripted many of his father’s more memorable science fiction and horror films in the 1950s. Myles wrote such cult classics as Phantom from Space (1953), Killers from Space (1954), The Snow Creature (1954), Manfish (1956), Fright (1956), Spy in the Sky (1958), and Bluebeard’s Ten Honeymoons (1960)

Wilder, who was also the nephew of Oscar-winning director Billy Wilder, began his career writing radio scripts for The Whistler series. He worked frequently on television in the 1960s and 1970s, penning episodes of such series as Bonanza, McHale’s Navy which earned him two Emmy Award nominations, Mr. Terrific, Get Smart, The Flying Nun, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. He was writer and story consultant for numerous animated series including The Addams Family, Inch High Private Eye, Hong Kong Phooey, Korg: 70,000 B.C., Partridge Family 2200 A.D., and Valley of the Dinosaurs.

Wilder died...

Myles Wilder, the prolific TV comedy screenwriter whose resume includes such classics as McHale's Navy and The Dukes of Hazzard, has died. He was 77.

Wilder died April 20 from complications of diverticulitis in Temecula, Calif., according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The son of director W. Lee Wilder and the nephew of Oscar-winning writer-director Billy Wilder, Wilder got his start by developing, writing and producing the 1956 NBC series The Adventures of Marco Polo. He joined the Ernest Borgnine comedy McHale's Navy in ...

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Filed under: TV News Daily

The prolific Myles Wilder, whose resume includes scores of classic '60s TV comedies and Hanna-Barbera shows in the '70s, died April 20 of complications of diverticulitis in Temecula, Calif., according to Variety. He was 77.

Wilder was the nephew of famed director Billy Wilder and the son of director W. Lee Wilder. He was nominated for an Emmy two times for his work on the Ernest Borgnine comedy 'McHale's Navy' from '63 to '66 and also wrote for 'Wagon Train,' 'Bachelor Father,' 'The Lucy Show,' 'The Doris Day Show,' 'Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,' 'My Three Sons' and 'Get Smart' in the decade.

Continue reading Prolific TV Comedy Writer Myles Wilder Dies

 

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