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There is no separating the character of Lieutenant Columbo from the man who portrayed him on "Columbo," Peter Falk (even if he wasn't the first choice to play the unconventional detective). The actor really made the character his own through his performance, but shockingly, he only directed one episode of the long-running series. It's likely that he wanted to focus on simply acting and wasn't interested in trying to pull double-duty, although he did also write an episode of the series later in its run. In the end, though, fans got only a single magical episode both starring and directed by Falk: season 1, episode 7, "Blueprint for Murder."

"Blueprint for Murder" features "Silent Night, Bloody Night" star Patrick O'Neal as the murderer of the week, Elliot Markham, an architect who kills the extremely wealthy Texan Bo Williamson (Forrest Tucker in a 10-gallon hat) with the help of his lover, Williamson's beautiful trophy wife,...

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

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

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

The Pitch: A Midnight Movie for the Love of a Woman

The cinematic understanding of romance is on the run. It’s a sad topic ahead of Valentine’s Day, I know. But the big romantic gestures and sweeping professions of love that once characterized the rom-com genre are now about as welcome in real life as TikTok therapists are welcome on the big screen. Add a family counselor to your next “Clueless” viewing and you just won’t see Paul Rudd the same way; try planting one on your step-sister at...

Elvis Presley’s handlers found the formula that would keep his stardom solvent through the 1960s in this well-confected, calculatedly vacant star vehicle that Everybody liked and enjoyed in 1961. The coolest celeb in America ended up in some of the squarest, least-hip films of the era. Why do we like it so? Cutting through the fog of nostalgia reveals the appeal. The Hawaiian scenery is a knockout, plus there’s good support from Joan Blackman and especially Angela Lansbury, who humbles herself to play an idiot mother caricature for Mister ‘Rock-a-Hula.’

Blue Hawaii

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Paramount Presents

1961 / Color/ 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date November 15, 2022 / Available from / 39.99

Starring: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Walters, Roland Winters, John Archer, Howard McNear, Steve Brodie, Christian Kay, Iris Adrian, Hilo Hattie, Jenny Maxwell, Pamela Austin (Kirk), Darlene Tompkins, Jose De Vega, Frank Atienza, Ralph Hanalei, Gregory Gaye.

Cinematography: Charles Lang...

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,...

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

by Tom Lisanti / www.sixtiescinema.com

In honor of Elvis Presley's birthday, Turner Classic Movies is running an all-day marathon of his movies on Friday January 8. Below are comments from his former co-stars whom I interviewed for my various publications:

6:15am Harum Scarum

Elvis is a singer kidnapped on tour in the Middle East and goes from swingin' with dancing gypsies Brenda Benet, Gail Gerber and Wilda Taylor to falling in love with a princess, Mary Ann Mobley.

"Elvis was intelligent, quiet and very sweet. But at that time, he seemed like a young man in turmoil—sort of like a ‘Who do I have to fuck to get off this picture’ kind of thing. Elvis was a tortured guy who obviously hoped for, and deserved, something better than the movies he was getting offered to do like Harum Scarum." - Gail Gerber, Trippin' with...