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Destination Moon – The 1950 science fiction classic is pioneering in more ways than just one.

On June 29th,1950, the science fiction film finally came into its own as a commercially viable genre. Produced by George Pal and directed by Irving Pichel from a screen story by the great Robert A. Heinlein, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Rip von Ronkel, “Destination Moon” (1950) was the first major American science fiction film of the postwar era. Up until that point, the science fiction genre in American cinema, especially the spacefaring kind, was largely confined to serials instead of features, and certainly wasn’t considered a mature genre worthy of adult attention. There had been a few German films in the Twenties and Thirties that tried to realistically depict space travel, most notably Fritz Lang’s “The Woman in the Moon” (1929), but for obvious reasons most of them were never released outside of Europe...

Errol Flynn goes to war! One of the last major direct-combat pictures to come out of Hollywood during the war, Raoul Walsh’s finely-crafted ode to the jungle fighters in Burma lets loose a powerful, almost frightening blast of anti-Japanese rage. Errol Flynn earned his pay slugging it out through the swamps, George Tobias provides the Brooklyn humor and Henry Hull the outrage over combat atrocities. And the English were none too happy either, claiming that the movie made it look as if America had done the heavy fighting in what was largely a Brit field of battle.

Objective, Burma!

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1945 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 142 min. / Street Date July 13, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Errol Flynn, James Brown, William Prince, George Tobias, Henry Hull, Warner Anderson, John Alvin, Mark Stevens, Richard Erdman, Anthony Caruso, Erville Anderson, Hugh Beaumont, Douglas Henderson, William Hudson, Rodd Redwing, George Tyne.

Cinematography: James Wong Howe

Art...

1964: Primetime soap opera Peyton Place premiered on ABC.

1988: Santa Barbara's Eden Capwell was raped.

2009: Guiding Light's Alan Spaulding died.

2010: As the World Turns' Carly and Jack married one last time."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1964: Primetime soap opera Peyton Place premiered on ABC. Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. Peyton Place ran for 514 total episodes with the series finale airing on June 2, 1969.

In the first episode, Dr. Michael Rossi...

1985: Nancy Lee Grahn debuted as Julia on Santa Barbara.

1985: Gh's Rick began to suspect Derrick was Mike's biological father.

1987: Dynasty's Alexis drove her car off a bridge. 1999: AMC's

Erica made her first public appearance since being disfigured."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1965: On Peyton Place, Claire (Mariette Hartley) stunned her mother, Grace (Edith Atwater), with the news that Dr. Vincent Markham (Leslie Nielsen) was actually Claire's husband. After learning Michael Rossi (Ed Nelson) knew Constance (Dorothy Malone) as an orderly...

1964: Primetime soap opera Peyton Place premiered on ABC.

1988: Santa Barbara's Eden Capwell was raped.

2009: Guiding Light's Alan Spaulding died.

2010: As the World Turns' Carly and Jack married one last time."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1964: Primetime soap opera Peyton Place premiered on ABC. Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. Peyton Place ran for 514 total episodes with the series finale airing on June 2, 1969.

In the first episode, Dr. Michael Rossi (Ed Nelson) arrived from New York City to set up practice in town.

1985: Nancy Lee Grahn debuted as Julia on Santa Barbara.

1985: Gh's Rick began to suspect Derrick was Mike's biological father.

1987: Dynasty's Alexis drove her car off a bridge. 1999: AMC's

Erica made her first public appearance since being disfigured."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1965: On Peyton Place, Claire (Mariette Hartley) stunned her mother, Grace (Edith Atwater), with the news that Dr. Vincent Markham...

Submarine movie evening: Underwater war waged in TCM's Memorial Day films In the U.S., Turner Classic Movies has gone all red, white, and blue this 2017 Memorial Day weekend, presenting a few dozen Hollywood movies set during some of the numerous wars in which the U.S. has been involved around the globe during the last century or so. On Memorial Day proper, TCM is offering a submarine movie evening. More on that further below. But first it's good to remember that although war has, to put it mildly, serious consequences for all involved, it can be particularly brutal on civilians – whether male or female; young or old; saintly or devilish; no matter the nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other label used in order to, figuratively or literally, split apart human beings. Just this past Sunday, the Pentagon chief announced that civilian deaths should be anticipated as “a...

'Broadcast News' with Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter: Glib TV news watch. '31 Days of Oscar': 'Broadcast News' slick but superficial critics pleaser (See previous post: “Phony 'A Beautiful Mind,' Unfairly Neglected 'Swing Shift': '31 Days of Oscar'.”) Heralded for its wit and incisiveness, James L. Brooks' multiple Oscar-nominated Broadcast News is everything the largely forgotten Swing Shift isn't: belabored, artificial, superficial. That's very disappointing considering Brooks' highly addictive Mary Tyler Moore television series (and its enjoyable spin-offs, Phyllis and Rhoda), but totally expected considering that three of screenwriter-director Brooks' five other feature films were Terms of Endearment, As Good as It Gets, and Spanglish. (I've yet to check out I'll Do Anything and the box office cataclysm How Do You Know starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson.) Having said that, Albert Brooks (no relation to James L.; or to Mel Brooks...

Stop! Don't touch that dial... if you like your atom-age propaganda straight up, MGM has the movie for you, an expensive 1946 docu-drama that became 'the official story' for the making of the bomb. The huge cast includes Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Audrey Totter, Hume Cronyn, Hurd Hatfield, and Joseph Calleia. How trustworthy is the movie? It begins by showing footage of a time capsule being buried -- that supposedly contains the film we are watching. Think about that. Mom, Apple Pie, the Flag and God are enlisted to argume that we should stop worrying and love the fact that bombs are just peachy-keen dandy. The Beginning or the End DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 112 min. / Street Date September 22, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler, Audrey Totter, Hume Cronyn, Hurd Hatfield, Joseph Calleia, Godfrey Tearle, Victor Francen,...

Robert Walker: Actor in MGM films of the '40s. Robert Walker: Actor who conveyed boy-next-door charms, psychoses At least on screen, I've always found the underrated actor Robert Walker to be everything his fellow – and more famous – MGM contract player James Stewart only pretended to be: shy, amiable, naive. The one thing that made Walker look less like an idealized “Average Joe” than Stewart was that the former did not have a vacuous look. Walker's intelligence shone clearly through his bright (in black and white) grey eyes. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” programming, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating today, Aug. 9, '15, to Robert Walker, who was featured in 20 films between 1943 and his untimely death at age 32 in 1951. Time Warner (via Ted Turner) owns the pre-1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library (and almost got to buy the studio outright in 2009), so most of Walker's movies have...

Cary Grant films on TCM: Gender-bending 'I Was a Male War Bride' (photo: Cary Grant not gay at all in 'I Was a Male War Bride') More Cary Grant films will be shown tonight, as Turner Classic Movies continues with its Star of the Month presentations. On TCM right now is the World War II action-drama Destination Tokyo (1943), in which Grant finds himself aboard a U.S. submarine, alongside John Garfield, Dane Clark, Robert Hutton, and Tom Tully, among others. The directorial debut of screenwriter Delmer Daves (The Petrified Forest, Love Affair) -- who, in the following decade, would direct a series of classy Westerns, e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree -- Destination Tokyo is pure flag-waving propaganda, plodding its way through the dangerous waters of Hollywood war-movie stereotypes and speechifying banalities. The film's key point of interest, in fact, is Grant himself -- not because he's any good,...

Today on Trailers from Hell, Josh Olson takes a look at Don Siegel's savage 1958 thriller "The Lineup," the big screen adaptation of the 1950s TV series starring Warner Anderson. Warner Anderson, star of the long-running early fifties TV show "The Lineup," repeated his role in 1958's big screen version but the real stars of director Don Siegel's brutal thriller were Eli Wallach and Robert Keith as a pair of sociopathic crooks and, of course, Siegel himself who masterminded several lethal set pieces including the hair-raising climax (involving a chase on an unfinished freeway). Seasoned TV writer Stirling Silliphant ("Route 66," "Naked City") was responsible for the screenplay and cinematographer Hal Mohr ("The Wild One," "Destry Rides Again") lensed the appropriately gritty black and white San Francisco landscapes.

Warner Anderson, star of the long-running early fifties TV show The Lineup, repeated his role in 1958's big screen version but the real stars of director Don Siegel's brutal thriller were Eli Wallach and Robert Keith as a pair of sociopathic crooks and, of course, Siegel himself who masterminded several lethal set pieces including the hair-raising climax (involving a chase on an unfinished freeway). Seasoned TV writer Stirling Silliphant (Route 66, Naked City) was responsible for the screenplay and cinematographer Hal Mohr (The Wild One, Destry Rides Again) lensed the appropriately gritty black and white San Francisco landscapes.

The post The Lineup appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Natalie Wood: Hot Hollywood star in the ’60s - TCM schedule on August 18, 2013 See previous post: “Natalie Wood Movies: From loving Warren Beatty to stripping like Gypsy Rose Lee.” 3:00 Am The Star (1952). Director: Stuart Heisler. Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watson, June Travis, Paul Frees, Robert Warrick, Barbara Lawrence, Fay Baker, Herb Vigran, Marie Blake, Sam Harris, Marcia Mae Jones. Bw-90 mins. 4:30 Am A Cry In The Night (1956). Director: Frank Tuttle. Cast: Edmond O’Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood. Bw-75 mins. 6:00 Am West Side Story (1961). Director: Robert Wise. Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente, David Winters, Eliot Feld, John Bert Michaels, David Bean, Robert Banas, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Harvey Evans aka Harvey Hohnecker, Tommy Abbott, Susan Oakes, Gina Trikonis, Carole D’Andrea, Jose De Vega, Jay Norman,...

Humphrey Bogart movies: ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘High Sierra’ (Image: Most famous Humphrey Bogart quote: ‘The stuff that dreams are made of’ from ‘The Maltese Falcon’) (See previous post: “Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall Movies.”) Besides 1948, 1941 was another great year for Humphrey Bogart — one also featuring a movie with the word “Sierra” in the title. Indeed, that was when Bogart became a major star thanks to Raoul Walsh’s High Sierra and John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon. In the former, Bogart plays an ex-con who falls in love with top-billed Ida Lupino — though both are outacted by ingénue-with-a-heart-of-tin Joan Leslie. In the latter, Bogart plays Dashiel Hammett’s private detective Sam Spade, trying to discover the fate of the titular object; along the way, he is outacted by just about every other cast member, from Mary Astor’s is-she-for-real dame-in-distress to Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominee Sydney Greenstreet. John Huston...

Drum Beat from 1953 starred Alan Ladd and Charles Bronson and was based on a true story about a violent Indian uprising in the 187os. It’s an impressive and exciting outdoor adventure but Hollywood studios were churning out hundreds of westerns in the early 50′s so it’s not too surprising that Drum Beat, though so superior to many, hasn’t received its due. The most notable thing about Drum Beat is that it provided Charles Bronson with his real break-through role as an actor. Bronson’s scene-stealing performance as an Indian chief received a lot of attention and paved the way for his long and successful career, but Drum Beat is Not available on DVD.

Drum Beat was based on a little-known occurrence in 1873 where (for the only time) an American Army General was killed during the wars against the Indians. The Modoc tribe, lead by their chief, Captain...

In Charles Bronson news, two of his westerns, Once Upon A Time In The West and The Magnificent Seven, made this weeks list of Top Ten Westerns here at Wamg, but there’s an outstanding western that Bronson costarred in very early in his career worthy of discussion that most readers are probably unfamiliar with. Drum Beat from 1953 starred Alan Ladd and was based on a true story about a violent Indian uprising in the 187os. It’s an impressive and exciting outdoor adventure but Hollywood studios were churning out hundreds of westerns in the early 50’s so it’s not too surprising that Drum Beat, though so superior to many, hasn’t received its due. The most notable thing about Drum Beat is that it provided Charles Bronson with his real break-through role as an actor. Bronson’s scene-stealing performance as an Indian chief received a lot of attention...