News

Evans Evans, a character actor who’d made some minor forays into television when she was cast in what would become her most remembered role as a kidnap victim in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, died Sunday, June 16. She was 91.

Additional details were not available. Her death was announced in a public obituary.

Born in Bluefield, West Virginia, on November 26, 1932, Evans was resident of Sherman Oaks, California, the widow of director John Frankenheimer. The two wed on December 13, 1963, and remained married until his death on July 6, 2002.

After a string of single appearances on such ’60s episodic TV programs as The Donna Reed Show, Wagon Train, Death Valley Days and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Evans was cast in what would become her signature role for 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde: As Velma Davis, she and scene partner Gene Wilder, in his big screen debut, portrayed two young lovebirds who, while kissing on their front porch,...

“Pipe Dreams”

By Raymond Benson

Back in 1973, producer Ely Landau and his wife Edie launched a daring and unprecedented cinema series that played in the U.S. for two “seasons,” with a total of fourteen titles (but only thirteen were shown), all renowned works—classic and modern—originally produced on the stage. It was called the American Film Theatre. (A review of a DVD box set of the entire series appeared on Cinema Retro previously. Click here to read.)

The concept tried something different. The directive was to take a great stage play, not change a word, and in most cases, use the actual play script as the screenplay. The next step was to hire an accomplished film director to interpret the text for the film medium but stay faithful to the play. Sometimes the director was the same person who helmed the original stage production. A further step was...

Everyone's got a favorite Gene Wilder performance: to younger viewers, he's a fondly remembered face in childhood favorites like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; to an older filmgoers, he was a brilliantly bawdy performer who owned comedy in the Seventies. At any age, however, he was one of those impossible-to-dislike actors whose very presence had a way of lifting up a film.

Most actors consider it a privilege to land one all-time classic role over the course of their career — Wilder had more than can be counted on one hand.

Chicago – John Frankenheimer’s “Seconds” with Rock Hudson was considered an unusual choice for The Criterion Collection when it was announced earlier this year. Never before available on Blu-ray and discontinued on DVD, the 4K restoration on this edition is the real draw, especially given that the film’s strength lies in its stunning visual compositions. With its canted angles and fish bowl aesthetic, Frankenheimer enhances what is actually a relatively weak script.

“Seconds” is a film that I want to adore given my love for the filmmaker’s other works (especially “The Manchurian Candidate,” another ode to ’60s paranoia) and how I love well-written “Twilight Zone”-esque tales, but repeat viewing of this release reveals the film to be thematically thinner than it should be. There are some great ideas here about personality, success, and apathy but they’re not explored and the final twist is one that modern...

Selected for the Main Comp at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds is a grim, nightmarish thriller that embodies many distinctive aspects of 1960s American cinema. Largely forgotten – one could argue for good reason – by all but the most devoted Frankenheimer fans, the film combines classic noir stylistics with the era’s emerging tremors of social revolution. Folded into the mix are elements of Sci-Fi and speculative fiction, creating a “what if” story filled with metaphors, meditations and mind-games.

The snappy plot begins with some odd occurrences in the quietly desperate life of Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph), a 50-ish, dry as toast bank manager who commutes into the city every day from his tidy colonial in leafy Scarsdale. Recently, the unnerved Hamilton has been receiving phone calls from an old college buddy long thought to be dead. This voice from the past entices Hamilton with vague promises...

After watching John Frankenheimer's Seconds (1966) for the first time with this Criterion Blu-ray, I couldn't help but think of several previous Criterion Blu-ray titles that came to mind. Films such as Alexander Mackendrick's Sweet Smell of Success, Roman Polanski's Repulsion and Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly. You could even through in the feel of a Samuel Fuller film and even a little of Ingmar Bergman's Persona. For anyone that knows these films, that's pretty high praise and while Seconds may be better than a couple and below the others, the mere fact this film put me in the mood and mindset to even consider the comparisons is enough for me to say you really ought to give this one a look. Based on the novel by David Ely, I can't remember if Seconds ever gives us a definitive date in which it's set, but suffice...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 13, 2013

Price: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $39.99

Studio: Criterion

Rock Hudson gets more than he bargained for when he embarks on a new life in Seconds.

Rock Hudson (All That Heaven Allows) star in Seconds, a sinister, science-fiction-inflected thriller from the fractured 1960s directed by John Frankenheimer (Grand Prix).

The 1966 film concerns a middle-aged businessman dissatisfied with his suburban existence, who elects to undergo a strange and elaborate procedure that will grant him a new life. Starting over in America, however, is not as easy as it sounds, even if the new you looks like, well, Rock Hudson.

This paranoiac movie filled with canted camera angles (courtesy of cinematographer James Wong Howe of Sweet Smell of Success), fragmented editing, and layered sound design is a remarkably risk-taking Hollywood film that ranks high on the list of its director’s major achievements.

The DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film...