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We are back today with another exciting movie recommendation from auteur creator Guillermo del Toro. Today’s pick is a classic actioner that del Toro previously praised via Twitter (it will absolutely never be X to me). The Crimson Peak director has nothing but love for this one. You can scope a quote from the post in question directly below.

While del Toro is surely an enthusiastic fan of the film, he’s far from the only one. The Train has a stellar Rotten Tomatoes critical approval rating of 94% with 18 reviews tallied. Additionally, the flick sits at a very respectable 89% audience approval score on the site.

Critics praised the film for delivering astute commentary on the evils of war and for serving up breakneck action sequences from start to finish.

If you have yet to experience the picture and find yourself eager to do so, make your way over to...

At the outset of the 1960s, the United States felt poised for its greatest decade yet or armageddon. The Soviet Union's launch of the Earth satellite Sputnik in 1957 had placed many Americans on edge. How had the Russkies beaten the most prosperous country on the planet into space, and what were our leaders doing to counteract this disaster? This led to one of the most contentious and closest Presidential elections in U.S. history, which found Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly prevailing over Republican Richard M. Nixon. Many were hopeful that the country was in the right, aspirational hands; almost just as many were convinced we'd consigned the country to certain doom.

In times like these, people used to go to their local movie theater to escape the fresh hell of the outside world. They'd line for any entertainment that promised some kind of catharsis. Romances, comedies, romantic comedies, horror flicks,...

Exclusive: The WGA East is honoring Tony Gilroy at the upcoming Writers Guild Awards with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement.

With the award, which was established in 1992, the Andor creator will be following in the footsteps of his father Frank D. Gilroy, who was honored with the Hunter Award in 2011.

“Tony embodies the best of what it means to be a Writers Guild member. He is an extraordinary talent who has written some of the most thought-provoking and exciting screenplays of the last 30 years,” Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, President of the Writers Guild of America East, said in a statement. “He is also a staunch union ally, one of our most trusted voices when it comes to advocating for writers’ rights, and he gave one of the best damn speeches on the picket lines last summer. We all wish we were Tony, but short of that we are...

My father, Howard Rodman Sr., worked in one-hour episodic network drama in the 1960s, notably on Route 66 and Naked City. There were no writers rooms then in one-hour drama. Only two people, called “story editors,” and a pool of freelancers. That was it. The two of them — my father and Stirling Silliphant — wrote or rewrote every single episode.

You can only imagine — meaning you can’t imagine — the pressure they were under. In those days, a season of television was 32-39 weeks. For comparison: picture having to write and film four seasons of Succession in a span of ten months. (And then, after the shortest of breaks, doing it all again.)

They wrote pages in Los Angeles that were put on airplanes in hopes that they could be shot the next morning in New York. They used every prescription drug available to keep up the pace.

During the course of...

Filmmaker Spike Lee is set to receive the Ian McClellan Hunter Award from the Writers Guild of America East at the Writers Guild Awards in March.

The kudo recognizes writers who have made significant contributions to film and TV through a body work that takes on timely issues and social concerns. Past recipients include Robert Benton, Tom Fontana, Geoffrey Ward, Andrew Bergman, John Sayles, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, John Waters, Richard Lagravenese, Nora Ephron and Walter Bernstein.

“For nearly forty years, Spike Lee has written and directed some of the most meaningful and creative films in cinema,” said WGA East president Michael Winship. “With a unique ability to challenge, entertain, and inform, his narratives spotlight the racism and bigotry that too often have defined the Black experience in America. Spike Lee is a moviemaker and storyteller greatly deserving to be honored with the WGA East’s Hunter Award for Career Achievement.

Spike Lee will be this year’s recipient of the WGA East’s Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement.

The award, which will be presented March 5 at the 75th anniversary WGA Awards in New York City, is named after the famed writer who fronted for Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr. during the Hollywood Blacklist before being blacklisted himself. In announcing Lee’s selection, the guild described him as “one of the greatest writer/directors in film history.”

“For nearly 40 years, Spike Lee has written and directed some of the most meaningful and creative films in cinema,” said WGA East President Michael Winship. “With a unique ability to challenge, entertain and inform, his narratives spotlight the racism and bigotry that too often have defined the Black experience in America.”

Lee began his storied career in the 1980s as a writer-director of such films as She’s Gotta Have It,...

It’s Labor vs. Capital, in basic terms! Sean Connery is the tough, embittered miner looking to strike back against the bosses, and Richard Harris the underdog who sees a way out by becoming an agent provocateur for the Pinkertons. An admirable true-life history lesson, Walter Bernstein & Martin Ritt’s downer of a drama didn’t grab the public’s imagination. But there’s no better vision of the time and place, thanks to James Wong Howe’s realistic, nearly monochromatic cinematography.

The Molly Maguires

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 172

1970 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 124 min. / Street Date October 26, 2022 / Available from Viavision / au 34.95

Starring: Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Frank Finlay, Anthony Zerbe, Philip Bourneuf, Anthony Costello, Bethel Leslie, Brendan Dillon.

Cinematography: James Wong Howe

Art Director: Tambi Larsen

Costumes designed by: Dorothy Jeakins

Film Editor: Frank Bracht

Original Music: Henry Mancini

Written by Walter Bernstein suggested by a book by Arthur H. Lewis

Produced by Walter Bernstein,...

Look into the series Criterion Channel have programmed for August and this lineup is revealed as (in scientific terms) quite something. “Hollywood Chinese” proves an especially deep bench, spanning “cinema’s first hundred years to explore the ways in which the Chinese people have been imagined in American feature films” and bringing with it the likes of Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly, Cimino’s Year of the Dragon, Griffith’s Broken Blossoms, and Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet—among 20-or-so others. A three-film Marguerite Duras series brings one of the greatest films ever (India Song) and two lesser-screened experiments; films featuring Yaphet Kotto include Blue Collar, Across 110th Street, and Midnight Run; and lest we ignore a Myrna Loy retro that goes no later than 1949.

Criterion editions include The Asphalt Jungle, Husbands, Rouge, and Sweet Smell of Success; streaming premieres for Loznitsa’s Donbass, Béla Tarr’s watershed Damnation, and...

At Sunday’s WGA Awards, late-night host, comedian and writer Dick Cavett received the Evelyn F. Burkey Award, speaking in his acceptance speech about what writing means to him.

“Writing is one of the great bastions of civilizations. It’s a branch of the art that needs preserving,” he said in the pre-taped segment, “and I thought I’d try to get through this without using the word ‘honor,’ but this is an honor.”

The honoree, who hosted multiple iterations of The Dick Cavett Show over the course of almost two decades, also fondly recalled time spent with the innumerable literary icons that graced his show. “I have been lucky to spend time with some of the most colorful, wonderful people in this county and the world, and they were writers. Ms. Burkey, whose name is on this award, was a real character. She’s done millions of good things for writers,...

Dick Cavett has been named as the recipient of Writers Guild of America, East’s Evelyn F. Burkey Award for 2022. Late Night’s Seth Meyers will present the late night host, comedian and writer with the honor at the virtual WGA Awards ceremony taking place on March 20.

The award, recognizing someone who has brought honor and dignity to writers, was established in 1978 to honor Burkey, who dedicated her professional life to supporting writers, helping to create the Writers Guild of America, East in 1954, and serving as its executive director until her retirement in 1972. Past recipients include James Schamus, Edward Albee, Walter Bernstein, Joan Didion, Claire Labine, Walter Cronkite, Arthur Miller, Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese.

“Thank you to the Writers Guild of America, East for honoring me with the Evelyn F. Burkey Award,” said Cavett. “I am very grateful to receive this distinguished award from my union and want to thank all the people,...

Who will be included for the special “In Memoriam” segment for Sunday night’s Oscars 2021 ceremony? With last year’s Academy Awards happening over 14 months ago, it means an even larger number of film veterans have died. Producers will hopefully be offering a longer remembrance and not leaving out people for the sake of time.

Superstar actor Chadwick Boseman died late last summer and is a nominee as Best Actor for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Previous Oscar winners from acting categories show who will likely be honored include Sean Connery, Olivia de Havilland, Cloris Leachman and Christopher Plummer. Past acting nominees include Hal Holbrook, Ian Holm, Shirley Knight, George Segal, Cicely Tyson, Max von Sydow and Stuart Whitman.

SEE2021 Oscars presenters: Last year’s winners Renee Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Brad Pitt returning

Almost all of the near 100 people on the list below were Academy members.

Screenwriter blacklisted in Hollywood for leftwing sympathies who based The Front on his own experiences

In Martin Ritt’s 1976 film The Front, Woody Allen plays an unassuming dolt who agrees to pose as the author of scripts written by blacklisted victims of the anti-communist McCarthy witch-hunts, which resulted in the hearings of the Huac (House Un-American Activities committee). Ritt himself was a survivor of the blacklist, as were several of his cast members, including the actor Zero Mostel and the film’s writer, Walter Bernstein, who based the Oscar-nominated screenplay on his own experiences.

Bernstein, who has died aged 101, joined the Young Communist League at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, in 1937 and the Communist party shortly after the second world war. His membership lasted until the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The initial blacklist, of the so-called Hollywood Ten, occurred in 1947 when his screenwriting career was just starting. “I never thought...

Writer’s most acclaimed project, the 1976 film The Front, was based on his own experience of Hollywood’s anti-communist blacklist

Screenwriter Walter Bernstein, among the last survivors of Hollywood’s anti-communist blacklist, whose Oscar-nominated script for The Front drew upon his years of being unable to work under his own name, has died, aged 101.

HIs wife, the literary agent Gloria Loomis, said he died of pneumonia.

Walter Bernstein, who was blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s but returned to writing on many films, including the Oscar-nominated script for The Front, has died at 101.

Bernstein died Friday night, according to former WGA West president Howard Rodman, who reported it on Twitter.

Bernstein’s credits included the films Fail-Safe (1964), Semi-Tough (1977), Yanks (1979) and The Front, (1976), the latter which starring Woody Allen as Howard Prince, who was hired by three blacklisted TV writers to become the face of their work. It was a ruse Bernstein knew well, having employed the tactic himself when he was blacklisted.

The Brooklyn, NY-born Bernstein joined the Communist Party while attending Dartmouth College, then served in the US Army during World War II.

Upon his discharge, he became a television writer, but he was blacklisted in 1950. He was not credited with any work until 1958, but used pseudonyms and hired fronts who passed off the work...

Walter Bernstein, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “The Front” who had spent years on the blacklist in Hollywood, has died. He was 101.

Bernstein died on Friday night, according to former WGA West President Howard Rodman.

In the 1950s, Bernstein was blacklisted from Hollywood after he was suspected to be a communist working in the entertainment industry.

“There was a little booklet called ‘Red Channels,’ which was a collection of about 150 names of people in the entertainment business, with a listing of their so-called ‘communist’ or ‘communist front’ associations, and if you were named you were automatically blacklisted,” Bernstein told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005. “There were about eight designations for me — all true, all things I’d done. I’d written for communist magazines, I’d supported Russian war relief, I’d supported the loyalists in Spain.”

As a result, Bernstein said he needed to rely on multiple “fronts” to get...

Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer Walter Bernstein, who survived the blacklist era by writing pseudonymous scripts for television and later wrote films including “Fail-Safe,” “The Front” and “Semi-Tough,” died on Jan. 22. He was 101.

Bernstein’s longtime friend and former WGA West president Howard Rodman shared the news of his death on Twitter Saturday. “Truly saddened to hear that Walter Bernstein – legendary screenwriter, and one of the great humans – died last night. He was 101. I feel so damn fortunate that three generations of our family got to know him.”

Truly saddened to hear that Walter Bernstein — legendary screenwriter, and one of the great humans — died last night. He was 101. I feel so damn fortunate that three generations of our family got to know him.

Here's Walter from 10 years ago, when he was a young man of 91. pic.twitter.com/yLGvTb3mJY

— Howard A. Rodman (@howardrodman) January 23, 2021

Bernstein’s promising writing career was...

Walter Bernstein, the resilient screenwriter who drew upon his ignominious experience on the blacklist in 1950s Hollywood to pen the Oscar-nominated script for The Front, has died. He was 101.

Bernstein died Friday night, screenwriter, former WGA West president and longtime family friend Howard Rodman reported on Twitter.

Bernstein also adapted Eugene Burdick’s novel for Sidney Lumet’s nuclear-disaster film Fail-Safe (1964) and Dan Jenkins’ book for the Burt Reynolds football romp Semi-Tough (1977), and he wrote the John Schlesinger war drama Yanks (1979), starring Richard Gere. Another three films he worked on starred Sophia Loren.

Born in Brooklyn, Bernstein formally joined the Communist ...

Walter Bernstein, the resilient screenwriter who drew upon his ignominious experience on the blacklist in 1950s Hollywood to pen the Oscar-nominated script for The Front, has died. He was 101.

Bernstein died Friday night, screenwriter, former WGA West president and longtime family friend Howard Rodman reported on Twitter.

Bernstein also adapted Eugene Burdick’s novel for Sidney Lumet’s nuclear-disaster film Fail-Safe (1964) and Dan Jenkins’ book for the Burt Reynolds football romp Semi-Tough (1977), and he wrote the John Schlesinger war drama Yanks (1979), starring Richard Gere. Another three films he worked on starred Sophia Loren.

Born in Brooklyn, Bernstein formally joined the Communist ...

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“Lurid Love And Noir”

By Raymond Benson

Film historian Jeremy Arnold, who provides the excellent audio commentary as a supplement for the terrific Blu-ray release of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, says the movie’s title is remarkably “lurid.” The Production Code people obviously had a problem with the title and tried to get it changed, but an appeal from up and coming star Burt Lancaster, whose newly formed production company (co-founded with Harold Hecht) made the picture, resulted in the “lurid” title staying in place.

The film does not live up to the implied sensationalism. While we do get a dark, at times brutal, and cynical piece of film noir, we also get an atypical love story at the picture’s heart.

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, from 1948, is based on a novel by Gerald Butler, and was adapted by...

Two Classic Hollywood giants celebrated big birthdays today. The legendary two time Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland turned 104 this morning and Gigi herself, Leslie Caron turned 89 years young.  We thought it was time to update our Oldest Living Oscar People list. Pick a few of these giants in 2020 and watch a couple of their movies to appreciate their gift or learn about it for the first time. Our very best wishes of good health and happiness to the following actors, directors and craftsmen who nabbed at least one Oscar honor in their career...

100 Oldest Living Oscar Nominees/Winners

To see a less Oscar-specific list, here's a bigger 'oldest living actors' list 

104 Years Young

Olivia de Havilland (7/1/1916) Oscar stats: 5 nominations | 2 wins

This incredible actress won Oscar's top acting prize twice by the time she was 33 for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). She also received Best Actress nominations for The Snake Pit...

In 1977 Burt Reynolds was on top of the Hollywood world, a bankable star whose popularity knew no bounds. In between his payday Smokey and the Bandit vehicles, he tried working with directors Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Aldrich, Stanley Donen … and with this film, the highly entertaining, somewhat unpredictable Michael Ritchie. The adaptation of Dan Jenkins’ NFL football book takes a left turn into social satire (or honest reportage), and centers on a romantic triangle with Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson. You might not remember all of its non- PC rough edges … which were already Sop for comedies of the ’70s.

Semi-Tough

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1977 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, Brian Dennehy, Bert Convy, Roger E. Mosley, Lotte Lenya, Richard Masur, Carl Weathers, Mary Jo Catlett, Ron Silver.

Cinematography: Charles Rosher Jr.

Film Editor: Richard A.

The world trembles on the brink, and liberals are in charge! The nicest President you ever met gives the Soviet Premier an offer anybody could refuse, while technical glitches, not crazy people or radical politics, are blamed for starting WW3. Sidney Lumet’s taut, scary armageddon-outta-here thriller was weighed in the balance against a certain Stanley Kubrick film and found wanting, but unless you’re a stickler for technical details it really works up a buzz. The cast & crew list is a menu of committed liberal talent.

Fail Safe

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1011

1964 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 28, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Henry Fonda, Dan O’Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Edward Binns, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman, William Hansen, Sorrell Booke, Hildy Parks, Janet Ward, Dom DeLuise, Dana Elcar.

Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld

Film Editor: Ralph Rosenblum

Written by Walter Bernstein from the book by Eugene Burdick,...

A million American GIs are bivouacked in the English countryside, awaiting debarkation to France… and the green fields are loaded with young English women, whose own men have been off fighting for years. John Schlesinger puts together a good drama, with an excellent cast; he also avoids the expected ‘please wait for me!’ clichés attendant to this subgenre of war film.

Yanks

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 139 min. / Street Date , 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick Vennera, Wendy Morgan, Rachel Roberts, Tony Melody, Derek Thompson.

Cinematography: Dick Bush

Film Editor: Jim Clark

Original Music: Richard Rodney Bennett

Written by Colin Welland, Walter Bernstein

Produced by Joseph Janni, Lester Persky

Directed by John Schlesinger

Director John Boorman got to tell his personal wartime home front story in his warm and funny Hope and Glory, and eight years earlier the...

In today’s film news roundup, the M. Night Shyamalanathon is unveiled, Black List founder Franklin Leonard is honored, and “Brown’s Canyon” gets a release.

Screenings

Alamo Drafthouse and Universal Pictures are launching the M. Night Shyamalanathon, the first-ever marathon screening of the filmmaker’s trilogy of “Unbreakable,” “Split,” and “Glass.”

The screenings will take place at Alamo Drafthouse cinemas in 25 theaters on Jan. 12 and include a conversation with M. Night Shyamalan, broadcast from Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn. Universal has partnered with Beyond Fest and American Cinematheque to screen all three films on the same day at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

The showings will be the first public screenings of “Glass,” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, and Sarah Paulson, which opens on Jan. 18. “Glass” brings together the narratives of Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable,” which was released in 2000, and 2016’s “Split.”

Honor

The Writers Guild of America East...

Franklin Leonard, founder and CEO of the Black List, will receive the WGA East’s Burkey Award, given in recognition of his contributions that have brought “honor and dignity to writers.” The award will be presented at 71st annual Writers Guild Awards in New York on Feb. 17.

“Since founding the Black List, Franklin has been one of the strongest advocates for writers in the entertainment industry,” said WGA East president Beau Willimon. “By giving a platform to new voices, stressing the necessity for diversity and championing the importance of the script, Franklin has become an invaluable ally to the Writers Guild of America, East. We are honored to celebrate his accomplishments and continued work.”

“I have always believed that the greatest honor of my career is serving the community of screenwriters,” Leonard said. “To have that same community believe that my service has been of value is frankly overwhelming.”

Leonard launched the Black List,...

Eve Goldberg looks back on a "can't miss" film production that fell short of expectations:

Paris Blues could have been a hit. It could have been a game-changer. It could have become a classic. Starring Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as expatriate jazz musicians, this 1961 movie was filmed in Paris, directed by Martin Ritt and written by Walter Bernstein (The Front). All the ingredients for a compelling, top-notch entertainment were in place.

But the movie misses. Despite strong performances, a fascinating milieu, meaty subject matter, gorgeous cinematography, several unforgettable set pieces, and a score by Duke Ellington, the whole is distinctly less than the sum of its parts.

So, what went wrong?

The problem is the script. How the script falters, and why, is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the film.

Paris Blues is based on a 1957 same-titled novel by Harold Flender. The book tells the story of Eddie Cook,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

All things come to those who wait. Having somehow inexcusably missed actor/writerJim Brochu's award-winning play "Zero Hour" that depicts the controversial life and career of Zero Mostel, I was able to see the show's most recent revival at the Theatre at St. Clement's  which is just off Broadway. The show is presented by the Peccadillo Theatre Company, which specializes in staging worthy productions in the prestigious venue that is just off Broadway. For Brochu, the one-man show is a triumph.. He wrote the script himself and the production is directed with flair by three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie. Mostel was a larger-than-life talent and he is played with uncanny skill by Brochu, who somehow makes himself into the spitting image of the iconic actor (he doesn't bare the slightest resemblance to Mostel off-stage). The imaginative scenario finds the entire play set in Mostel's New York painting...

Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, Jack Warden | Written by Reginald Rose | Directed by Sidney Lumet

It’s the hottest day of the year and a dozen men – not universally perturbed at this point – are put in a room and asked to consider the guilt of a young man accused of killing his father. It’s premeditated murder in the first degree and the sentence is death. The jury takes their first vote and it’s unanimous. Almost.

Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) is the sole dissenting voice. It’s not that he believes the kid did not do it; he’s just not sure. Over the next 90 real-time minutes, #8 will test his doubts against the others, to understand whether or not those doubts are reasonable.

12 Angry Men began life as a teleplay. Written by Reginald Rose (inspired by his own experiences as a juror...

When you think about the Writers Guild of America, which hosted two award ceremonies on Sunday night in two Blue cities, New York and Los Angeles, it’s no surprise that the writers spoke out. (Check out videos of some of the best bits below.)

For example, while accepting his life achievement award, filmmaker Oliver Stone got two standing ovations. After conservative James Woods was targeted at the top of the evening by WGA West Awards show host Patton Oswalt, retaliating by going onstage to steal his shoe, Woods presented the WGA award to the ultra liberal Stone, who starred him in “Salvador,” won three Oscars for “Midnight Express,” “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Platoon,” and penned “greed is good.”

Stone thanked mentors Robert Bolt and Ernest Lehman as well as Wma agent Ron Mardigian. He reminded that when he told Billy Wilder about his “Nixon” running time of 3 hours 10 minutes,...

When you think about the Writers Guild of America, which hosted two award ceremonies on Sunday night in two Blue cities, New York and Los Angeles, it’s no surprise that the writers spoke out. (Check out videos of some of the best bits below.)

For example, while accepting his life achievement award, filmmaker Oliver Stone got two standing ovations. After conservative James Woods was targeted at the top of the evening by WGA West Awards show host Patton Oswalt, retaliating by going onstage to steal his shoe, Woods presented the WGA award to the ultra liberal Stone, who starred him in “Salvador,” won three Oscars for “Midnight Express,” “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Platoon,” and penned “greed is good.”

Stone thanked mentors Robert Bolt and Ernest Lehman as well as Wma agent Ron Mardigian. He reminded that when he told Billy Wilder about his “Nixon” running time of 3 hours 10 minutes,...

“Don’T Mess With Huac”

By Raymond Benson

Perhaps the first film we saw that convinced us that Woody Allen could actually act—i.e., not be his nebbish, nervous comic persona from his early directorial efforts—was Martin Ritt’s 1976 comedy/drama, The Front, which appeared a year before Allen’s Annie Hall.

The Front was perhaps the first Hollywood film to tackle the subject of “the blacklist” that occurred in the movie industry in the late 1940s and throughout most of the 50s. This abominable practice was due to the investigation of “Communist infiltration” in Tinsel Town by Huac—the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was truly a dark time in U.S. history, one in which friends were pressured to “name names” or face the prospect of unemployment or worse, such as jail time. Note that the Hollywood studio heads were responsible for the actual blacklisting. The...

Jelani Cobb, whose Frontline documentary Policing the Police explored the Newark Police Department's fractured relationship with the city's African-American community, has been named the first recipient of the WGA West's newly created Walter Bernstein Award. In the documentary, Cobb embedded with two Newark police detectives in the department's gang unit to witness firsthand how undercover officers operate in what's been called "the most dangerous city in the…...

The Writers Guild of America, East has announced the creation of the Walter Bernstein Award, which will be presented for the first time at the 69th annual Writers Guild Awards at New York’s Edison Ballroom on February 19, 2017. The first… Continue Reading →...

Members of the film community are coming out of the woodwork to band together and push back on the repression that is anticipated to come out of the incoming Trump administration. From documentarians reaffirming their commitment to exposing hidden truths to narrative filmmakers pledging to combat racism with their work, many are planning a strong response to the 2016 presidential election.

Read More: President Donald Trump: How the Indie Film World Will Respond

The Film Society of Lincoln Center assembled some of those voices Wednesday by convening an “urgent conversation” with Film Quarterly entitled “Film & Media in a Time of Repression.” Moderated by Film Quarterly editor and Uc Santa Cruz professor Ruby Rich, the event featured speakers including “House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon, blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein and Portugese documentary filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias. Here are some of the highlights from the discussion, which outlined some key points...

Another release of the Kramer-Foreman-Zinnemann classic gives Savant another chance to make his argument that this supposedly 'liberal' movie is too confused to be anything but political quicksand -- if anything, its statement is bitterly hawkish. High Noon Blu-ray Olive Signature 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 Starring Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Lloyd Bridges, Lon Chaney Jr, Harry Morgan, Otto Kruger, Lee Van Cleef. Cinematography Floyd Crosby Production Designer Rudolph Sternad Film Editor Elmo Williams Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin Written by Carl Foreman Produced by Stanley Kramer Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This is my fourth time out with a review of High Noon, starting fourteen years ago with a pretty miserable Artisan DVD, then a Lionsgate 'ultimate edition,' followed by Olive Film's first, quite good Blu-ray. Olive now revisits the 1952 classic as...

Olive's new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras -- plus a never-before-seen widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better -- we can all compare theories about la Crawford's color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be? Johnny Guitar (Olive Signature widescreen edition) Blu-ray Olive Films 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 but heavily discounted Starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams. Cinematography Harry Stradling Film Editor Richard Van Enger Original Music Victor Young Written by Philip Yordan from the novel by Roy Chanslor Produced by Herbert J. Yates Directed by Nicholas Ray

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Wow, it's already been four years since Olive released a...

Woody Allen has just added a new cast member to his upcoming untitled film. According to Deadline, Jim Belushi has just committed to star alongside Kate Winslet in the helmer’s new drama.

Per usual, details of his role are unknown, as well as additional plot details. The project is a period drama set in the the ‘50s and production for the film will begin in New York this fall. Allen is set to produce alongside Letty Aronson and Edward Walson. This is the first time both actors will work with the “Annie Hall” helmer.

Read More: Kate Winslet to Star in Untitled Woody Allen Film

Allen’s latest feature, “Café Society,” opened the Cannes Film Festival back in May and received a slew of positive reviews. Starring Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Steve Carell, the dramedy is set in the 1930s and follows a young man who moves to...

Woody Allen never stops working. For the latest case in point, consider the news from Variety that Kate Winslet is set to star in his next film despite the fact that “Café Society” has yet to be released. Somewhat remarkably for the prolific, ensemble-friendly writer/director, Allen has never worked with Winslet before.

Read More: Cannes Review: Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg Freshen a Familiar Woody Allen Formula in ‘Cafe Society’

Other than the fact that it’s slated to begin production this fall, few other concrete details are available as of yet: The film has no title, premise, release date or other casting news. Winslet received an Oscar nomination for her performance in “Steve Jobs” and more recently appeared in John Hillcoat’s crime thriller “Triple 9.”

Read More: Woody Allen, Mel Gibson & More Maligned Auteurs: How to Justify Watching Their Films (Or Not)

As per custom, Allen will write,...

My guest for this month is West Anthony, and he’s joined me to discuss the film he chose for me, the 1976 comedy-drama film The Front. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.

Show notes:

Not sure what happened to the audio in the introduction, apologies! The Hollywood blacklist is a term for the treatment of people in the entertainment industry who refused to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee from 1947 to 1960 For a more in depth take on the blacklist, check out the latest season of the phenomenal You Must Remember This podcast WonderCon is a comic book convention that was held annually in Sf until it was cruelly moved to the La area in 2012. Yes I’m still bitter about it. West also recommends the Gabrielle de Cuir directed Thirty Years of Treason by Eric Bentley Among the people famously blacklisted were Lillian Hellman, Lionel Stander,...

Mubi is showing Sidney Lumet's Fail-Safe (1964) May 7 - June 6 and Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) May 8 - June 7, 2016 in the UK.“Yes, it’s a hard day. Goodbye, my friend.”— General Koniev, Fail-Safe“Jack, this is Helen.”— Helen Grady, Fail-SafeTiming was everything during the Cold War. A matter of life and death, democracy or communism, us versus them. And, for true megalomaniacs, my motion picture against your motion picture. In January 1963, Stanley Kubrick filed a lawsuit to halt the production of Fail-Safe, an upcoming adaptation of the recently published novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. A political thriller about nuclear war, it was being directed by Sidney Lumet and starred Henry Fonda. Kubrick’s charge was plagiarism: Fail-Safe, the director claimed, was a copy in all but name of Peter George’s Red Alert, the 1958 novel that...

Read More: Exclusive 'Trumbo' Motion Poster As blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in "Trumbo," Bryan Cranston resurrects a dark chapter in Hollywood history. While the actor will never know how the late screenwriter would react to his performance, other famous names who survived the blacklist era have seen the movie — including Kirk Douglas, who turns 99 next month. During a recent lunch in New York to celebrate this week's release of "Trumbo," attended by Michael Douglas as well as the cast of the film, producer Michael London recalled the experience of joining Cranston for a screening of "Trumbo" for the older Douglas, who's portrayed in the movie by Dean O'Gorman. "We waited in the living room," London said, during a Q&A moderated by blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein. "He came out and gave Bryan a huge, huge hug. He was very moved. He loved the movie and talked a great...

The Bond franchise which has been with us so long, has become so deeply entrenched in popular culture, that we often forget what it was that first distinguished the Bonds a half-century ago. Skyfall might be one of the best of the Bonds, and even, arguably, one of the best big-budget big-action flicks to come along in quite a while, but it’s not alone. The annual box office is – and has been, for quite some time – dominated by big, action-packed blockbusters of one sort of another. The Bonds aren’t even the only action-driven spy flicks (Mr. James Bond, I’d like you to meet Mr. Jason Bourne and Mr. Ethan Hunt).

That’s not to take anything away from the superb entertainment Skyfall is, or the sentimentally treasured place the Bonds hold. It’s only to say that where there was once just the one, there are now many.

Ken Loach, Simone Bitton, Walter Bernstein, Annemarie Jacir and Elia Suleiman among signatories of petition; Locarno Film Festival issues statement.

More than 200 filmmakers and industry professionals are urging the Locarno Film Festival to drop a planned focus on Israel this summer, being organised in partnership with the state-backed Israeli Film Fund

Ken Loach, a Locarno regular and recipient of its Leopard of Honour in 2003, is among the petitioners alongside screenwriter Walter Bernstein and composer Richard Horowitz.

Other protestors include Israeli filmmakers Simone Bitton, Rachel Leah Jones and Eyal Sivan, and Palestinian directors Annemarie Jacir, Elia Suleiman and Hany Abu-Assad.

But a statement from Locarno said the festival “has always been a place of freedom of expression” and that it would not drop the focus, which would “represent an important opportunity for debate and dialogue, within the context of cultural enrichment”.

Click here for the petition in fullScroll down for Locarno’s statement

The Swiss lakeside, summer festival...

The House Of Cards showrunner is looking to expand his political influence from the White House to the union hall. Beau Willimon is among the candidates announced today for a two-year term on the WGA East Council. Fifteen other candidates also will vie for the seven open Freelance seats including incumbents John Auerbach, Jenny Lumet, Terry George, Richard Vetere, Patrick Mason and Walter Bernstein, the 94-year-old Fail-Safe and The Front scribe who was blacklisted during the 1950s. The other candidates are Kyle Bradstreet, Andrea Ciannavei, Timothy Cooper, Marin Gazzaniga, Chris Kyle, John Marshall, Jo Miller, Oren Moverman, Danielle Paige and […]...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

The Hollywood Blacklist, with Screenwriter Walter Bernstein\

When: Thursday, March 6, 6:30 pm

Where: The New School, The Auditorium at 66 West 12th St (between 5th and 6th Aves.)

Register: visit www.cencom.org, e-mail info@cencom.org or call (212) 686-5005

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Sen. Joseph McCarthy carried out a witch hunt for Communists that led to the creation of the infamous Hollywood blacklist, resulting in 150 directors, actors, writers, and others in the entertainment business, being banned from making a living for over a decade.

Don't miss our screening of The Front, written by Walter Bernstein, who received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay in 1976, and directed by Martin Ritt. Both were victims of the blacklist themselves. The movie takes a comedic look at what happened during this dark period in American History. Screening to be followed by a conversation and Q&A.

Blu-ray Release Date: Feb. 25, 2014

Price: Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Twilight Time

Woody Allen stars in The Front.

Woody Allen (To Rome with Love) stars in his first dramatic role (well, let’s call it laugh-tinged dramatic) in the 1976 comedy drama The Front, making its Blu-ray premiere courtesy of Twilight Time.

Allen is Howard Prince, a nebbishy cashier/part-time bookie who, during the McCarthy-era communist witch-hunt, does a favor for an old school friend, a blacklisted TV writer (Michael Murphy, Nashville). As his pal’s “front”—representing the scribe’s work as his own and collecting ten percent of the profits—the apolitical schlemiel is soon enjoying not just the money but the perks, including the love of a sophisticated young producer (Andrea Marcovicci, Irene in Time). But in an atmosphere of fear, nobody’s above suspicion, and Howard’s growing friendship with unfairly accused blacklisted performer Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel, The Producers...

The Nsa's surveillance programme is prompting many Us writers to abandon topics that could be deemed too sensitive – yet that programme looks set to grow

Most people would object to the government searching their homes without a warrant. If you were told that that while you are at work, the government is coming into your home every day and searching it without cause, you might be unsettled. You might even think it a violation of your rights specifically, and the bill of rights generally.

But what if the government, in its defence, said: "First of all, we're searching everyone's home, so you're not being singled out. Second, we don't connect your address to your name, so don't worry about it. All we're doing is searching every home in the United States, every day, without exception, and if we find something noteworthy, we'll let you know."

This is the essence of the Nsa's domestic spying programme.

As the Obama administration responds to the Nsa mass surveillance revelations, Dave Eggers reflects on the impact they have had on Us writers, and asks if the prevailing sense of fear heralds an intellectual ice age

Most citizens would object to their government searching their homes without a warrant. If you were told that while you were at work, your government was coming into your home and rifling through without cause, you might be unsettled. You might even consider this a violation of your rights specifically and the Bill of Rights generally.

But what if your government, in its defence, said: "First of all, we're searching everyone's home, so you're not being singled out. Second, we don't connect your address to your name, so don't worry about it. All we're doing is searching every home in the United States, every day, without exception, and if we find something noteworthy, we'll let you know.

I’m really appalled by a stupid article in today’s New York Post about Oscar voters being old and out of touch. It’s quite the contrary. The Post writer–surprise–had an agenda and went for it. But she obviously knows nothing about the Motion Picture Academy. This is not the Hollywood Foreign Press. This past December I made two trips to Los Angeles. Each time I went to small receptions, cocktail parties, and screenings for various Oscar-buzzed movies. It is the time of the year when older Academy members whom you don’t ordinarily get to meet– they’re retired, or not going to nightclubs with Lindsay Lohan–get to come and learn what’s happening this year with the Oscars. These people invariably surprise me. They are sharp, bright, with it. They know all the movies, who’s in what, what every actor and director has done in the past.

(*My apologies for this coming so long after Sound on Sight’s celebration of 50 years of James Bond, but I’ve been swamped with end-of-semester work and only just now managed to finish this. Hope you all still find this of interest.)

As a coda to the Sos’s James Bond salute, there’s still a point I think deserves to be made.

The Bond franchise which has been with us so long, has become so deeply entrenched in popular culture, that we often forget what it was that first distinguished the Bonds a half-century ago. Skyfall might be one of the best of the Bonds, and even, arguably, one of the best big-budget big-action flicks to come along in quite a while, but it’s not alone. The annual box office is – and has been, for quite some time – dominated by big, action-packed blockbusters of one sort of another.