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MCU star Chris Evans cited Tombstone as one of his top four favorite movies. A Western from director George P. Cosmatos, the 1994 film is a star-studded ensemble movie featuring the likes of Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, and, of course, Western icon Sam Elliott. In fact, it's widely regarded as one of the best movies for several of the actors involved in the film, such as Russell and Kilmer.

Set in 1879, Tombstone boasts a cast of characters comprised of a slew of historical figures, from notorious outlaws like Johnny Ringo and William “Curly Bill” Brocious to legendary Western heroes like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Despite juggling a massive cast of actors, not to mention surprising appearances from Charlton Heston and Harry Carey Jr., Tombstone succeeds in being an entertaining Western and a longtime favorite of many – including Chris Evans.

Chris Evans Included Tombstone In His List Of Top...

Making movies can be hard, unpredictable work, so it makes sense that, prior to beginning principal photography, many directors try to assemble a team of familiar faces and proven talents. John Ford frequently collaborated with producer Merian C. Cooper; screenwriters like Nunnally Johnson, Dudley Nichols, and Frank S. Nugent; and a whole stock company of actors that included Victor McLaglen, Jack Pennick, Harry Carey Jr., and, of course, John Wayne. On a smaller scale, you've got Joe Dante, who cast character actor Dick Miller in almost all of his movies, and Ron Howard, who's been finding small parts for his brother Clint Howard since making his feature directing debut with 1977's "Grand Theft Auto."

This cohesion gives film productions a sense of built-in camaraderie and purpose; it also conveys an air of confidence in that everyone working on the movie trusts this group of craftspeople knows how to deliver a high-quality picture.

Legendary Western director John Ford had an extremely long and productive relationship with one actor at the start of their careers, and they ended up making 25 films together in just four years. Some of John Ford's best movies are also some of the best Western movies ever made, such as The Searchers and Stagecoach. Ford is a legend in the Western genre for a reason, and part of that reason was that he elevated the actors he worked with to a new level. Evidently, that trend started very early in Ford's career with one legendary actor in 1917.

Many directors, John Ford included, have been known to work with certain actors they mesh well with professionally. For example, Quentin Tarantino has a list of recurring actors, while Sam Raimi puts Bruce Campbell in nearly all his films. Likewise, John Ford made nine Westerns with John Wayne, plus an additional 15 in other genres.

John Wayne defined the Western genre. Thanks to his fringe shirt, cowboy hat, and loping walk, one can't picture a Western hero without imagining his seismic imprint on the genre. However, even someone as prodigious as Wayne can't define American iconography alone. Wayne became the stuff of legends under the poetic and wondrous visions of John Ford and Howard Hawks, and he was supported by a recurring stock company of reliable character actors, including Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr., Ben Johnson, and Maureen O'Hara. Starring in a movie with Wayne was like a family get-together, and no actor reached the status of surrogate blood relative quite like Paul Fix, a versatile and prolific character actor who appeared in a whopping 26 movies with The Duke, from his early days as a plucky outlaw to his final years as an aging guardian of the West.

Back to the Future is filled with hidden references to classic films, showing the passion and knowledge for film of director Robert Zemeckis. The Western-themed Back to the Future Part III features iconic Western actors in a fun bar scene, adding depth to the film. The first film includes clever nods to movies like Safety Last! and 2001: A Space Odyssey, showcasing the attention to detail by the creators.

The Back to the Future films are jam-packed with references to movies of the past. In the 1980s, some audiences may have caught these details, but today, most viewers would probably miss them and consider them to be outdated. These could be things spotted in the background, props, parts of the story, actors, and Easter eggs. The creators of the franchise truly made every creative decision with careful consideration and meaning behind it.

The first film was released in 1985, and was...

Quick Links John Wayne's Classical Western, Explained Ice Age Continued This Biblical Story 3 Godfathers Is One of the Most Remade Movies Ice Age Shows Kids Movies Can Have Meaning

Working alongside Hollywood visionaries like John Ford and Howard Hawks, John Wayne established himself as the film industry's biggest leading man for years. Starring in Western classics like The Searchers, True Grit, and Stagecoach, many saw Wayne as the epitome of American masculinity. One of his all-time classics found an unlikely remake in 20th Century Fox's iconic kids' movie, Ice Age.

Despite being separated by time and genre, Hollywood has many films that closely mirror the same stories, themes, and messages. One of the most creative of these came by way of Ice Age, a modern classic in children's entertainment. Although the film is held up as an example of the wave of excellent animated entertainment between the late '90s and mid-2000s,...

The desert survival tactics depicted in the scene from 3 Godfathers are fairly accurate, particularly the barrel cactus trick. However, the portrayal of desert survival in the film should not be taken too seriously, as the main characters are not experts and their abilities to survive are questionable. Despite its inaccuracies, 3 Godfathers is an entertaining work of fiction that includes religious symbolism and stunning desert scenery, characteristic of John Ford's Western films.

3 Godfathers depicts one desert survival trick very accurately, much to the excitement of survival expert Les Stroud. Released in 1948, the Western film stars John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey Jr., who become godfathers to a newborn baby they find stranded in the desert. The film, which was directed by the legendary John Ford, takes place primarily in the American Southwest desert as the three characters struggle to protect the child from the harsh environment.

In a recent video for Insider,...

As a Western based on real events, "Tombstone" was made with an eye toward historical accuracy, with all but one actor, for instance, growing out a real mustache, to be waxed and curled up in accordance with period photos. Not everything that transpires in "Tombstone" is in line with what really happened, however. The movie documents the feud that erupted between the family of "legendary lawman" Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and a gang of local cowboys in Tombstone, Arizona, in the late 1800s, with tensions spilling over into the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the ensuing Earp Vendetta Ride. Unsurprisingly, though, in compressing a multi-year story down to 130 minutes, "Tombstone" takes some liberties with the timeline of events.

According to MovieWeb, much of the colorful dialogue in "Tombstone" — such as the line from Val Kilmer's tuberculosis-ridden Doc Holliday, "You're a daisy if you do" — is pulled from real newspaper reports.

Director John Ford made some of the most legendary western films in cinematic history, and his frequent collaborator John Wayne often added his cowboy star power to those classics. Highly respected by his contemporaries for his lavish camerawork and on-location shooting style, Ford's 50-year career in cinema earned him four Best Director Oscars among a slew of other accolades. Similarly, Wayne's massive movie and TV catalog earned him a reputation as one of the Golden Age of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, and he won the Best Actor Oscar for his turn in the film True Grit towards the end of his career in 1970.

Starting with 1939's Stagecoach, the actor-director pair would collaborate for a total of 14 feature films, with nine of them being their signature westerns. Though Wayne attempted to break away from westerns at one point in his career, his cowboy roles were what made him famous, and Ford...

Richard Widmark reportedly used his clout to amp up this revisionist western, but the result seems forced at best, and hampered by Universal’s TV-grade production values. The sober screenplay brings in good ideas but the execution can’t quite hold its own with the more progressive westerns of the genre-changing years 1968-’69. A cast of familiar faces makes much of it look fresh: Carroll O’Connor’s venal saloon keeper steals the show, while interesting casting gives us Lena Horne as Widmark’s romantic partner.

Death of a Gunfighter

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 94 min. / working title Patch / Street Date February 27, 2023 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Carroll O’Connor, David Opatashu, Kent Smith, Jacqueline Scott, Morgan Woodward, Larry Gates, Dub Taylor, John Saxon, Darleen Carr, Michael McGreevey, Royal Dano, James (Jimmy) Lydon, Kathleen Freeman, Harry Carey Jr., Walter Sande, Victor French.

Cinematography:...

John Wayne might've been an ornery cuss. He might've made the worst film of his career in support of the Vietnam War at a moment when it was clear to anyone with two eyes and a conscience that the conflict was a moral and logistical sinkhole. He was a racist.

But he never wrote a single movie he performed in, and, from everything I've read about him, tailored movies to fit his persona -- i.e. what he thought audiences expected from him as a movie star. "The Green Berets" is an outlier. For the most part, Wayne understood that he couldn't play infallible heroes. He had to bleed. He had to lose a fistfight or two, or at least take some serious lumps en route to a hard-won victory. On rare occasions, he had to die. Regardless of where the film was headed, when he stepped in front of a camera,...

Western films have been a staple of American cinema for practically as long as movies have been made.

Movies in the Western genre are set in the American West, typically between the 1850s to the end of the 19th century. While it has been a stable genre — no pun intended! — it has also been the starting ground for several hybrid genres like Western comedies, Western musicals and horror Westerns.

No other genre’s history goes back quite as far as that of Westerns. According to documentarian David Gregory, “It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of all films made before 1960 were Westerns.”

Although the category reached its greatest popularity in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, with several becoming cult classics, films continued to be made even through droughts for Westerns in the late ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Actors have also made their name starring in Western films,...

John Wayne starred in dozens of Westerns during his lengthy career, but he very rarely played the bad guy. One of his darkest roles came in "The Searchers," his 14th and greatest collaboration with John Ford, the director who helped the Hollywood icon make his name in "Stagecoach." It was a film that inverted Wayne's heroic screen persona by casting him as Ethan Edwards, a bitterly racist former soldier who spends many years on an obsessive quest to track down his niece after she is abducted by Comanches.

For a director-star combo that had often portrayed Native Americans as a faceless marauding horde in many of their earlier pictures, "The Searchers" is a soulful and sometimes awkward attempt to reckon with that past and, in turn, America's legacy of genocide and Manifest Destiny. While its comedic moments seem to belong to another film and its use of Redface is cringe-inducing,...

There is no more precarious moment in a movie star's career than the day they wake up, flush with box office success, and declare, "What I'd really like to do is direct!" Slightly less dangerous is a star's inclination to produce –- i.e., to diversify their career by generating material that reflects their taste or broadens their brand.

Two years after the end of World War II, John Wayne, who'd sat out the civilization-saving conflict while colleagues like James Stewart and Henry Fonda served, realized he was the biggest star in Hollywood and ought to start calling his own shots. Rather than direct, he found a quaint Western called "Angel and the Badman" written by James Edward Grant, in which a Quaker woman nurses a wounded gunfighter back to health. For an actor who'd made his name as a kickass, take-charge hero in Westerns and war movies, this was an oddly anti-violent movie.

Fandom is not an inherently bad thing. There's nothing wrong with admiring a musician or movie star to the extent that you rush out to buy their new album or check out every film they make. It's when you launch a petition to aggressively, belligerently lobby for artists to accede to your demands. At this point, consumers delusionally elevate themselves to the role of creator. That's not how it should ever work, and it is frightening to see this mentality take hold in certain pockets of fandom.

It's probably a good thing John Wayne lived in the pre-social media era. For starters, he would've had to reckon with a load of highly problematic statements (including that infamously racist observation in his Playboy interview). But had he somehow survived that firestorm, he probably would've never run afoul of his most fervent fans. Because he learned early in his career to give...

Showrunner Eric Kripke joins podcast hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Piranha (1978) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

My Octopus Teacher (2020)

The Evil Dead (1983) – Fede Alvarez’s trailer commentary

Evil Dead II (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Alex Kirschenbaum’s review

Meet The Feebles (1989) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary

Dead Alive a.k.a. Braindead (1992) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary

Bad Taste (1987) – Ti West’s trailer commentary

Infested (2002)

Super (2010)

Forrest Gump (1994)

The Hidden (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Uhf (1989)

Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid (1986)

The Dead Pit (1989)

Batgirl (2022) – Unreleased film

The Fantastic Four (1994) – Unreleased film...

Favorite director Bill Forsyth lends his knack for droll understatement to a screenplay by John Sayles, a crime tale that opts for keen character study and doesn’t stretch credibility. Burt Reynolds has a gem of a role as a career burglar doing his bit for the next generation, showing a ‘new guy’ the ins and outs of thievery; Casey Siemaszko is his thick-headed but resolutely faithful assistant on several outrageous heists. The criminal life almost doesn’t seem too terrible — except for the going-to-prison part. The disc commentary with Forsyth and Sayles is a great listen.

Breaking In

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1989 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date January 11, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Casey Siemaszko, Sheila Kelley, Lorraine Toussaint, Albert Salmi, Harry Carey Jr., Maury Chaykin, Stephen Tobolowsky.

Cinematography: Michael Coulter

Production Designer: Adrienne Atkinson

Film Editor: Michael Ellis

Original Music: Michael Gibbs

Written by John...

The passing of director Peter Bogdanovich January 6, at the age of 82, marks the loss of a maverick director who also kept the spirit of classic Hollywood alive with his entertaining anecdotes and spot-on impressions. He was truly a bridge to the past that served as his muse and eventually mourned the decline in Hollywood storytelling. To Bogdanovich, the difference between the classical and post-modern Hollywood was a full course meal versus an hors d’oeuvre.

The first time I interviewed Peter was for a story about “Mask” in 1985 when I was with The Hollywood Reporter. He was in the midst of a legal battle to obtain the rights to some Bruce Springsteen songs for his biopic about Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz), the sweet teenager who suffered from lionitis, and his struggle to survive with his mom (Cher). Rocky adored Springsteen’s music, which was a source of constant joy for him,...

Well, loyal readers, it’s that time again. December 31st, and you know what that means… it’s Val Kilmer’s birthday!

We here at Trailers From Hell would like to commemorate the moment with a look back at perhaps Kilmer’s signature role, the hard-partying sharpshooter Doc Holliday in the classic modern Western Tombstone (1993).

The story of Doc, the Earp brothers and their battle with a vicious gang of outlaws known as the “Cowboys” for the soul of Tombstone, Arizona, including the historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral, has been depicted on screen many times, many ways. But never with the verve and vigor of this picture, a riveting actioner boasting a cast of All-Stars. They even got Robert Mitchum to narrate!

After a spooky opening that introduces us to the ruthless Cowboys in all their evil ways as they disrupt a wedding in Mexico, we kick off...

By Lee Pfeiffer

In Cinema Retro's never-ending quest to analyze relatively inconsequential movies, the trail takes us to Dirty Dingus Magee, one of Frank Sinatra's last starring feature films. The movie shocked critics when it opened in 1970 due to the trivial of the production. Time has done nothing to enhance its reputation and one can only wonder what possessed Sinatra to star in this tepid Western comedy. In reality, Sinatra's passion for movie-making was also tepid. He always preferred to concentrate on his singing career and regarded acting as a time-consuming sideline. His penchant for rarely approving a second take became legendary. Nevertheless, he was undeniably one of the cinema's great icons. Prior to Dirty Dingus Magee, Sinatra had shown good judgment with the majority of the films he made during the mid-to-late Sixties. There were some misguided efforts but Von Ryan's Express, Tony Rome, Lady in Cement...

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By Fred Blosser

“Man of the East,” a comedic Italian Western starring Terence Hill and directed by Enzo Barboni as “E.B. Clucher,” opened in U.S. theaters on May 1, 1974, as a release through United Artists. I saw it at the old Turnpike Cinema in Fairfax, Va., now long gone. Come to think of it, United Artists is long gone too, at least in its 1974 form. The poster outside the theater carried comic artwork of Hill in a goofy pose on horseback. The tagline read, “The Magnificent One!,” an abbreviated version of the original Italian title, “. . . E poi lo chiamarono il magnifico,” which translates more or less as, “Now They Call Him the Magnificent.” The advertising team at UA didn’t have to look far for a catchy phrase that might remind fans, however subliminally or satirically, of “The Magnificent Seven.” Most...

This adapted Broadway play may be considered minor John Ford moviemaking, and some sources say he had to drop out before he could film very much of it. But what’s on the screen pleased audiences primed for the first wave of WW2 nostalgia. The story of cargo officer Henry Fonda’s one-man war against his Bligh-like Captain James Cagney had all of us ’50s kids asking dad if the war really was like that. James Cagney steals the show while stars William Powell, Betsy Palmer and Ward Bond make their marks. Young Jack Lemmon came out swinging with his bright personality and won an Oscar for his trouble.

Mister Roberts

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date December 8, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond, Philip Carey, Nick Adams, Perry Lopez, Ken Curtis, Robert Roark, Harry Carey Jr.,...

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By Doug Oswald

William Holden commands a newly formed commando group in “The Devil’s Brigade,” available by Kino Lorber on Blu-ray. On the heels of the successful “The Dirty Dozen” from the previous year, “The Devil’s Brigade” is based on the 1966 book by Robert H. Adleman and Colonel George Walton. It chronicles the true events of the 1st Special Service, a joint American and Canadian commando unit assigned to the United States Fifth Army. Inspired by true events, the movie follows the standard tropes of this type of action adventure men- at -war movie. A rag-tag group of soldiers are brought together for a mission, they initially mistrust each other, get into a fight, train together, get into another fight this time working together against another group, graduate from their training and then deploy on their mission to fight the enemy.

Robert Mitchum intercedes in a range war in this ‘A’ western, and he’s got the pro team of director Robert Wise and cameraman Nicholas Musuraca on his side. All but one action scene plays out at night, which is why this is sometimes called a Noir Western. The dark visuals fit that mold but the story values are strictly traditional, starting with the hero’s laconic do-it-don’t-say-it sense of personal honor. Partly filmed in Arizona, the fine production further advanced the laid-back Mitchum persona, this time as an honest cowpoke, not a cool-dude hipster.

Blood on the Moon

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / Street Date April 28, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, Phyllis Thaxter, Frank Faylen, Tom Tully, Charles McGraw, Clifton Young, Tom Tyler, George Cooper, Harry Carey Jr., Iron Eyes Cody, Chris-Pin Martin.

Cinematography: Nicholas...

The exclusive 4K Ultra-hd club welcomes a worthy new member, Joe Dante’s evergreen horror comedy (and Christmas delight) about a cute furry critter and its 2nd-generation horde of scaly, impish demons. These aren’t Gremlins from the Kremlin, but homegrown domestic terrorist monsters, and Dante contrasts their killer antics with a sentimental parody of small town America. No CGI … You will believe that the animatronic rascals can multiply like rabbits, break dance, and run amuck!

Gremlins

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

1984 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date October 1, 2019 / 41.99

Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke, Frances Lee McCain, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Judge Reinhold, Polly Holliday, Belinda Balaski, Edward Andrews, Don Steele, Scott Brady, Corey Feldman, Harry Carey Jr., Chuck Jones, Glynn Turman, Jerry Goldsmith, William Schallert, Steven Spielberg, Kenneth Tobey.

Cinematography: John Hora

Film Editor: Tina Hirsch

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith...

John Ford’s favorite western of his own work is a curiously gentle, endearingly simple hark-back to the verities of silent filmmaking. Mormons crossing the desert are encumbered by show people and beset by a nasty outlaw family — but don’t worry ’cause the Sons of the Pioneers will still be singing backup for ‘The Chuckawalla Swing.’ Ford rodeo discovery Ben Johnson returns with Harry Carey Jr. and every other Ford stock player not nailed down, and the marvelously direct cinematography is keyed to Ford’s idealized vision of life on the frontier.

Wagon Master

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1950 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 13, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr., Ward Bond, Charles Kemper, Alan Mowbray, Jane Darwell, Ruth Clifford, Russell Simpson, Kathleen O’Malley, James Arness, Francis Ford, Hank Worden.

Cinematography: Bert Glennon

Film Editor: Jack Murray

Original Music:...

For this week’s home media releases, we have killer superheroes, prehistoric creatures, Frankenstein by way of Hammer, Anjelica Huston as a witch, the final farewell to Rick Grimes, and more on tap. Kino Lorber is keeping busy this Tuesday with several new Blu-rays, including 4D Man, Dinosaurs! and Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, and Scream Factory is releasing the recent indie horror flick I Trapped the Devil and more Hammer genre goodness with Horror of Frankenstein as well. Another film I’m very excited to see hitting Blu is The Witches from the Warner Archive Collection, and William Friedkin’s Cruising is getting the special edition treatment from Arrow Video.

If you missed it in theaters, Brightburn will arrive on various formats this week, and for those of you who want to enjoy Rick Grimes’ final moments from this past season of The Walking Dead, you’ll get your...

Great news for fans of director John Ford. His 1950 classic Wagon Master is now available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive

The rivers are wide and rapid. The desert is vast and unforgiving. And when the trail turns craggy, men use pickaxes to dig grooves for the wagon wheels. Mother Nature can be overcome, but human nature remains deadly and unpredictable: Outlaws are using the Mormon wagon train as a hideout from a pursuing posse. John Ford’s Wagon Master is one of the legendary filmmaker’s personal favorites, a visually stirring celebration of Western will and cooperation set to the soundtrack crooning of the Sons of the Pioneers. Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Ward Bond (who would later lead TV’s Wagon Train) and other familiar Ford stock company players take the reins in this glorious paean to the pioneer spirit. “Wagons west!”

Master director John Ford assembles most of...

Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1966/ 1.85:1 / 73 min.

Starring John Carradine, Chuck Courtney, Virginia Christine

Cinematography by Lothrop B. Worth

Directed by William Beaudine

William Beaudine, the human assembly line behind a warehouse full of movies that included Voodoo Man and Bowery Buckeroos, hauls John Carradine onto an over-lit and under-budget stage for another shot at the Count in Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula.

In 1966 Beaudine was very near the end of his career but Carradine reigned for three more decades, giving him ample time for reflection: “I have worked in a dozen of the greatest, and I have worked in a dozen of the worst. I only regret Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula. Otherwise, I regret nothing.”

Shot in eight days, producer Carroll Case and writer Carl K. Hittleman conceived the title as part of a matched set for the drive-in crowd – both Billy and Jesse James...

Is it a film noir? This desert-set crime tale sees a rat (Ray Milland) escaping to Mexico with a bag of cash, forcing a hunting guide (Anthony Quinn) to show him the way and stealing his wife (Debra Paget) in the bargain. Remember what Godard said about only needing a girl and a gun to make a movie? Veteran director Allan Dwan has already memorized that lesson, and pulls it off in color and CinemaScope on Mexican locations. Ms. Paget takes both a bath and a shower, only to be upstaged by a peach-colored T-Bird convertible.

The River’s Edge

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget, Harry Carey Jr., Chubby Johnson, Byron K. Foulger, Tom McKee, Frank Gerstle.

Cinematography: Harold Lipstein

Film Editor: James Leicester

Original Music: Louis Forbes

Written by Harold Jacob Smith,...

This look at the ‘adjustments’ of old age and the pain of nostalgia is a prime opportunity to admire a pair of legendary actresses. David Barry’s play observes the intersection of several interesting personalities on one glorious late-summer day. Bette Davis and Lillian Gish earn our full attention, backed by memorable turns from Ann Sothern and Vincent Price, directed by Lindsay Anderson.

The Whales of August

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1987 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 90 min. / 30th Anniversary Edition / Street Date December 19, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern, Vincent Price, Harry Carey Jr., Frank Grimes, Margaret Ladd, Tisha Stering, Mary Steenburgen.

Cinematography: Mike Fash

Film Editor: Nicolas Gaster

Production Design: Jocelyn Herbert

Original Music: Alan Price

Written by David Berry, from his play

Produced by Mike Kaplan, Carolyn Pfeiffer

Directed by Lindsay Anderson

Every once in a while a ‘sunset’ movie comes along, a picture seemingly...

Pity the poor exhibitors in 1953 that splurged on 3-D equipment, only to see the payroll soar and the profits fall. Nope, Anamorphic Widescreen was the innovation that swept the world. It proved perfect for stories with scenic grandeur, such as Fox’s very early mini-epic shot on Florida locations. Thanks to Bernard Herrmann’s impressive music score, this one’s not going away.

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1953 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Boone, Peter Graves, Jay Novello, Angela Clarke, Jacques Aubuchon, Harry Carey Jr., Gloria Gordon.

Cinematography: Edward Cronjager

Film Editor: William Reynolds

Original Music: Bernard Herrmann

Written by A.I. Bezzerides

Produced by Robert Bassler

Directed by Robert Webb

Four years have passed since the now dormant 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD-r label stealth-released a surprise...

Who doesn't love Tombstone? It's one of the most beloved Westerns of the modern era. And if you're a fan, you can undoubtedly quote most, if not all, of the lines delivered with scene-stealing flair by Val Kilmer in what's become the definitive portrayal of gambling gunslinger Doc Holliday. You may know every scene in this movie like the back of your hand, but today we've collected 10 Things You Never Knew About Tombstone. And you may walk away pleasantly surprised and shocked.

Tombstone boasts one of the most formidable macho ensembles imaginable: Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, as well as smaller roles for Michael Rooker, Thomas Haden Church, Stephen Lang, Billy Zane, Jason Priestly, Billy Bob Thornton, and Terry O'Quinn. So let's get into it, shall we?

Tombstone is missing a few Earps.

The heroic ensemble at the center of Tombstone includes Wyatt Earp, played by Kurt Russell,...

Wagon Tracks

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1919 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 64 min. / Street Date January 24, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring William S. Hart, Jane Novak, Robert McKim, Lloyd Bacon, Leo Pierson, Bert Sprotte, Charles Arling.

Cinematography: Joseph H. August

Art direction: Thomas A. Brierley

Titles: Irvin J. Martin

Written by: C. Gardner Sullivan

Produced by: William S. Hart, Thomas H. Ince

Directed by: Lambert Hillyer

Last year we were gifted with an excellent Blu-ray of a silent John Ford western, 3 Bad Men, which turned out to be a satisfying sentimental action tale. This month we get a much older silent western that’s almost as interesting. Its star is William S. Hart, the silent icon most of know through a still of a man in a ten-gallon hat brandishing two pistols in a barroom. Hart frequently played gunslingers, but not always. Olive’s presentation of Wagon Tracks sees him...

By Lee Pfeiffer

"Gun the Man Down" is yet another Poverty Row low-budget Western shot during an era in which seemingly every other feature film released was a horse opera. Supposedly shot in nine days, the film is primarily notable for being the big screen directing debut of Andrew V. McLaglen, who would go on to be a very respected director who specialized in Westerns and action films. The movie also marked the final feature film for James Arness before he took on the role of Marshall Matt Dillon in TV's long-running and iconic "Gunsmoke" series. After failing to achieve stardom on the big screen, Arness found fame and fortune in "Gunsmoke" when John Wayne recommended him for the part. Wayne had been championing Arness for years and provided him with roles in some of his films. Following "Gunsmoke"'s phenomenal run, Arness seemed content to stay with TV and had another successful series,...

This almost completely forgotten '50s western couldn't compete with the big productions, but it has a good cast -- James Arness, Robert J. Wilke, Emile Meyer, Harry Carey Jr. Plus early work by writer Burt Kennedy, and the debuts of actress Angie Dickinson and director Andrew V. McLaglen. Gun the Man Down Blu-ray Olive Films 1956 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 76 min. / Street Date July 19, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring James Arness, Angie Dickinson, Emile Meyer, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Carey Jr., Don Megowan, Michael Emmet, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez. Cinematography William H. Clothier Film Editor A. Edward Sutherland Original Music Henry Vars Written by Burt Kennedy, Sam Freedle Produced by Robert E. Morrison Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When the 1950s rolled in John Wayne stopped being merely an actor and graduated to institution status, starting his own production company, Batjac, and promoting his own group of talent.

John Ford puts a Technicolor sheen on Monument Valley in this second cavalry picture with John Wayne, who does some of his most professional acting work. Joanne Dru plays coy, while the real star is rodeo wizard Ben Johnson and the dazzling cinematography of Winton C. Hoch. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1949 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 103 min. / Street Date June 7, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, George O'Brien, Chief John Big Tree. Cinematography Winton Hoch Art Direction James Basevi Film Editor Jack Murray Original Music Richard Hageman Written by Frank Nugent, Laurence Stallings from the stories War Party and The Big Hunt by James Warner Bellah Produced by Merian C. Cooper, John Ford Directed by John Ford

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Have you never seen real 3-Strip Technicolor used for terrific outdoor photography?...

By Todd Garbarini

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 65th anniversary screening of John Ford’s 1950 film Rio Grande. The film, which stars John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson, and Harry Carey, Jr., will be screened on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actor Claude Jarman, Jr., who appears in the film as Trooper Jefferson “Jeff” York, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss his role and career.

From the press release:

65Th Anniversary Screening Of Rio Grande, And Tribute To Maureen O’Hara

Tuesday, January 12, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

As a tribute to Maureen O’Hara, we present the final chapter in director John Ford’s Cavalry trilogy (following Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon). Rio Grande works affecting variations on some of the director’s favorite themes. While there is an...

Burbank, Calif. May 19, 2015 – On June 2, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Wbhe) will release The John Wayne Westerns Film Collection – featuring five classic films on Blu-ray™ from the larger-than-life American hero – just in time for Father’s Day. The Collection features two new-to-Blu-ray titles, The Train Robbers and Cahill U.S. Marshal plus fan favorites Fort Apache, The Searchers and a long-awaited re-release of Rio Bravo. The pocketbook box set will sell for $54.96 Srp; individual films $14.98 Srp.

Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from University of Southern California, which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western,...

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock heroine (image: Joseph Cotten about to strangle Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt') (See preceding article: "Teresa Wright Movies: Actress Made Oscar History.") After scoring with The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and The Pride of the Yankees, Teresa Wright was loaned to Universal – once initial choices Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland became unavailable – to play the small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. (Check out video below: Teresa Wright reminiscing about the making of Shadow of a Doubt.) Co-written by Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town had provided Wright with her first chance on Broadway and who had suggested her to Hitchcock; Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss author Sally Benson; and Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, Shadow of a Doubt was based on "Uncle Charlie," a story outline by Gordon McDonell – itself based on actual events.

Dear Danny,

Ah, yes, the plague of "not getting it" is one that afflicts all of us festival-goers on occasion, but I admire your willingness to write on Peter Kern's peculiar film as well as Jiang Wen's totally gonzo farce (which you were nevertheless able to appreciate more than myself). As you and I both know, "getting it" isn't completely necessary and doesn't always get in the way of enjoyment and appreciation. Being a relaxed and open-minded viewer doesn't always make one an expert, but hopefully it prepares them for being responsive, a quality we should all aspire to whether we find ourselves in or outside of our wheelhouses.

In my previous letter, I teased at an incredible viewing experience I had, and indeed it may be one my all-time favourite screenings. Let me start off by describing what is my new favourite place to sit and watch a...

Red River

Written by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee

Directed by Howard Hawks

USA, 1948

Howard Hawks’ Red River is supposedly the film that convinced John Ford of John Wayne’s talent (apparently opposed to his abilities to simply perform or suggest a powerful screen presence). Ford had, of course, worked with Wayne previously, and Wayne had appeared in dozens of other films prior to this point, but when Ford saw what Wayne did in the role of the aged, bitter, driven, and obsessive Thomas Dunson, it led him to comment to his friend Hawks, “I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act.” If it were only for Wayne’s performance, which is excellent, Red River would be a vital entry into the Western genre. But there is more, much more to this extraordinary picture. That’s why it’s not only one of the greatest Westerns ever made,...

Following our report yesterday that The Goonies 2 is moving forward at Warner Bros., Ain't It Cool News reports that a remake of Gremlins has also been put on the fast track to production at the studio.

We reported in May that the Gremlins remake will be produced by Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg, although it isn't known if the studio has found a writer or a director at this time. However, the remake likely won't materialize without the involvement of Steven Spielberg, who served as executive producer on the original Gremlins.

Gremlins starred Zach Galligan as a young man who receives a gremlin as a gift from his father, which comes with three stringent rules: don't get them wet, don't feed them after midnight and don't expose them to sunlight. When these rules are broken, the gremlins replicate at an astounding rate and wreak havoc upon this small town. Hoyt Axton,...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will pay tribute to Oscar® winner Joan Fontaine and eight-time Oscar® nominee and honorary Academy Award® recipient Peter O’Toole with tributes Today Sunday, Dec. 29.

The Fontaine collection features Blonde Cheat (1938), The Women (1939), Born To Be Bad (1950), Ivanhoe (1952), Fontaine’s Oscar-nominated roles in The Constant Nymph (1943) and Rebecca (1940), and her Oscar-winning performance in Suspicion (1940).

In the evening, TCM will pay tribute to O’Toole with his Oscar-nominated performances in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) and My Favorite Year (1982). Also featured will be a special encore telecast of Peter O’Toole: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival, a one-hour extended interview with TCM host Robert Osborne taped before a live audience at the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival.

The following is the complete lineup for TCM’s on-air tributes to Joan Fontaine and Peter O’Toole:

Sunday, Dec. 29

All times are Et/Pt.

TCM Remembers Joan Fontaine

6:30 a.

Air Force screens on October 19 at the Museum of the Moving Image's retrospective, The Complete Howard Hawks. For more of Dan Sallitt's writing on Hawks, go here and here.

Air Force occupies an unusual place in Howard Hawks' filmography. As a war propaganda film, its subject matter is necessarily tendentious, with an overt message that is not only coercive but also repetitive. Hawks, whose control over his choice of material was quite unusual by Hollywood standards of the time, shows no sign of resisting the project's wartime agenda, and willingly accepts the character stereotyping and up-front ideology that comes with the package: the eager young recruits, the cynic to be converted, the proud parent set up for loss. In addition, Hawks' streak of dark humor combines with the project's built-in tone of righteous vengeance against the Japanese in a way that can strike peacetime audiences as callous.

On the other hand,...

News.

Over the last week, we lost American actor Harry Carey Jr., 91, and Portugese filmmaker Paulo Rocha, 77. Glenn Kenny posted an excerpt from Carey's memoir Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company on his blog. Cinemateca Portuguesa's Facebook page shares some photos of Rocha:

Above: With Jean Renoir, 1962.

Above: With Manoel de Oliveira, 1965.

Above: 1977.

Finds.

David Hudson shares his twelve favourite films of 2012, along with some thoughts on the year, which you should consider checking out. Hudson closes out his piece with a Notebook-related nod:

"If I were asked if I happened to have a favorite film critic of 2012, my spontaneous reply would be, yes. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. Read him on The Master. Read him on Barbara. And for cinema’s sake, read him on Zero Dark Thirty."

From Observations on Film Art, Kristin Thompson on the top ten films...of 1922:

"As...

Harry Carey Jr., the son of legendary Western movie actor Harry Carey, has died from natural causes at age 91. Although the younger Carey never became a star, he worked steadily over the decades as a reliable character actor. He was the last surviving member of the so-called John Ford "Stock Company", a reference to the mercurial director's penchant for working with the same actors on many films. He also appeared in numerous films starring his good friend John Wayne, who idolized Carey's father, who he also made several films with. It was Ford and Wayne who gave Carey Jr. his most memorable screen roles in films such as Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master and The Searchers. After Ford's death, he appeared with Wayne in the popular Westerns The Undefeated, Big Jake and Cahill: U.S. Marshall. A younger generation of directors were respectful of Carey's...

A melancholy history of Hollywood recounted in terms of the offspring of its greatest personalities would reveal a litany of also-rans, failures and addicts. Harry Carey Jr was one of the happy exceptions to that rule. His father was John Ford's favourite actor; the director dedicated his 1948 film Three Godfathers to "the memory of Harry Carey – bright star of the early western sky". Ford's The Searchers (1956) ended with John Wayne standing, one arm across his chest, in a pose made famous by Carey Sr.

Carey Jr worked prolifically with Andrew V McLaglen, the son of Victor McLaglen, another of Ford's stock company. For that director he made many episodes of TV westerns and roughly a dozen films, often starring Wayne and James Stewart, including The Rare Breed (1966), Bandolero! (1968), Something Big (1971) and Cahill (1973).

Carey was sought out by American directors who recalled the golden era of their national cinema and his part in it.

American character actor who appeared in seven westerns directed by John Ford, including The Searchers and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

The actor Harry Carey Jr, who has died aged 91, was the last surviving member of the director John Ford's stock company, which included John Wayne, Victor McLaglen, Ben Johnson, Anna Lee, Ward Bond, Andy Devine and Harry's own parents, Olive and Harry Carey Sr. They formed a cohesive group and contributed to the distinctive world of the Fordian western.

Carey Jr, nicknamed "Dobe" by his father because his red hair was the same colour as the adobe bricks of his ranch house, made seven westerns with Ford, typically in the role of a greenhorn soldier. The most characteristic of these was Lieutenant Ross Pennell in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), the callow rival of John Agar for the hand of Joanne Dru. After she opts for the more handsome Agar,...