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American lawman Wyatt Earp has become a legendary Western folk hero in film, television, and literature. Throughout the 1870s, Earp worked as a lawman in various cities such as Wichita, Dodge City, and Deadwood. In 1879, Earp moved to Tombstone, where he soon became involved in a conflict with a group of outlaws known as the Cochise County Cowboys. The conflict climaxed with the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which saw Earp, his brothers Morgan and Virgil, and Doc Holliday face off against five members of the Cochise County Cowboys.

Due in part to Earp's exaggerations about his life and the fictitious nature of Stuart N. Lake's best-selling biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, the truth surrounding Earp's Western exploits has faded with time. While film and television have aided in transforming Earp's life into a mythological existence rather than a factual one, they have also captured a uniquely American...

American lawman Wyatt Earp has become a legendary Western folk hero in film, television, and literature. Throughout the 1870s, Earp worked as a lawman in various cities such as Wichita, Dodge City, and Deadwood. In 1879, Earp moved to Tombstone, where he soon became involved in a conflict with a group of outlaws known as the Cochise County Cowboys. The conflict climaxed with the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which saw Earp, his brothers Morgan and Virgil, and Doc Holliday face off against five members of the Cochise County Cowboys.

Due in part to Earp's own exaggerations about his life and the fictitious nature of Stuart N. Lake's best-selling biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, the truth surrounding Earp's Western exploits has faded with time. Film and television have aided in transforming Earp's life into a mythological existence rather than a factual one. My Darling Clementine, Winchester '73, and Tombstone...

The Story: On Io, Jupiter’s moon, miners have begun randomly committing suicide in gruesome ways. This is chalked out to their grueling working conditions, but the outpost’s new marshal, William O’Niel (Sean Connery) becomes convinced something else is afoot. Soon, he discovers the deadly truth, that the miners are being given stimulants with the nasty side effect that they cause psychosis. His pursuit of the truth lands him on the hit list of the outpost’s general director, Sheppard (Peter Boyle), who hires professional hit men to deal with the pesky marshal. Knowing that skilled gunmen are on the way, and without anyone to turn to, O’Niel waits to face the men alone.

The Players: Starring: Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, and Frances Sternhagen. Music by Jerry Goldsmith. Directed by Peter Hyams.

I wanted to do a Western. Everybody said, ‘You can’t do a Western; Westerns are...

Norman Macdonnell and John Meston's "Gunsmoke" drama series aired on CBS for 20 uninterrupted seasons (!), a feat that feels even more impressive due to the consistent quality maintained throughout its run. Initially a radio series that broadcast between 1952 and 1961, "Gunsmoke" gained steady enough popularity to warrant a television adaptation in 1955, whose half to one-hour episodes culminate to form an epic Western saga for the ages. The nexus of "Gunsmoke" is one lawman Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) tasked to maintain order in Dodge City, Kansas, and his exploits underline the brutality of the Old West, challenging stereotypes attached to similar figures molded as unambiguously heroic. Although the show did employ archetypal characters — such as the loyal sidekick Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver) and the trustworthy town physician Doc Adams (Milburn Stone) — an appropriate amount of nuance grounds "Gunsmoke," which works best when rooted in morally grey vignettes.

However, we're not here...

Michael Curtiz directed Dodge City, a classic Western praised for its daring cinematography & timeless plot. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland starred in the successful film, with Flynn fully embracing Westerns after its success. Dodge City remains a masterpiece of classic Westerns, with unique use of composition, color, and a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

American-Hungarian director Michael Curtiz was prolific. With a five-decade-long career from the early 1910s to the early 1960s, he dipped his toes into silent films, talkies, and eventually color movies, directing a total of 178 films. With so many movies produced, they cannot all be masterpieces. However, some separate themselves from the pack, notably Casablanca (1942), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), or Mildred Pierce (1945). Another lesser-known but just as acclaimed film by the director is the 1939 Dodge City.

Curtiz was also a frequent collaborator of heartthrob Errol Flynn and classic actress Olivia de Havilland. The three worked together on Dodge City,...

He was one of the biggest screen icons and one of the most colorful real-life characters in Hollywood history. Still considered the king of swashbucklers more than 60 years after his death, Errol Flynn’s success was a combination of happenstance, luck and his ability to charm.

Errol Leslie Flynn was born on June 20, 1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to an affluent family. A natural born rascal, he was thrown out of several private schools, and eventually wandered, working odd jobs. He fell into acting quite by chance when he won the role of Fletcher Christian in the Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” (1933). There are conflicting stories of how he landed this part, but it is the film that piqued his interest in acting, and eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros. executives.

In Hollywood, a combination of luck and Flynn’s athleticism and charm landed him the lead...

I Heart Skull-Crusher! is a new comic series from Boom! Box that combines a Mad Max-style wasteland with sports, featuring a teenage heroine named Trini. Trini dreams of being like her idol, Skull-Crusher, and will do anything to compete in her favorite sport, Screaming Pain Ball. This genre-blend comic promises an intriguing story of mayhem and misfits, with a focus on Trini's journey to make her dreams a reality.

Boom! Box, an imprint of Boom! Studios has shared the exclusive trailer for I Heart Skull-Crusher! #1 with Screen Rant. This new comic series blends a Mad Max-style wasteland with sports in a story full of mayhem and misfits. Set to release this Spring, it follows Trini, who dreams of being like her idol.

I Heart Skull-Crusher! has the creative team of Josie Campbell, Alessio Zonno, Angel De Santiago, and Jim Campbell. Josie Campbell is a rising writer who worked on DC's...

Western movies are known for their epic bar fights and saloon brawls, which often serve as moments of resolution for the cast of characters. The best bar fights in Westerns involve iconic imagery, quick-draw gunfights, the use of furniture and bottles, and one man fighting against many. Some notable Western movies with memorable bar fights include Blazing Saddles, Shanghai Noon, and Dodge City, each offering unique twists and subversions of genre tropes.

The Western genre is known for its epic bar fights and saloon brawls, but some movies stand out as having the best. Westerns frequently include shootouts and fights, but the bar fight is particularly memorable because of the iconic imagery of the Old West saloon. It's in the bar that the cast of characters must often come together and resolve their tensions one way or another.

Westerns have been around since the dawn of cinema, and they have...

Regardless of who compiles the list of the most influential actors during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the most iconic actors ever, Errol Flynn will always make the cut. However, as if he were Tom Cruise of the 1930s and 1940s, Flynn never received an Oscar for his memorable performances, not even a nomination. While he had already established himself as a formidable force in Hollywood before he donned the cowboy hat in Dodge City, it's that particular gunslinging role that reintroduced and cemented Flynn's legacy among cinematic immortals. As Wade Hatton, Flynn shines bright.

The name Errol Flynn is still synonymous with the Classic Hollywood era decades after his death and a look back on his best movies explains why this is the case. Errol Flynn was one of the first true movie stars. An Australian-born actor, Flynn moved to Hollywood in the early ‘30s after gaining a few minor roles in Australian movies. In California, Flynn became a bigger star than he could have ever dreamed when he got the lead role in 1935’s Captain Blood. This classic swashbuckling adventure movie proved that Flynn had charisma to spare and, before long, he was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men.

A string of hits followed, as well as a turbulent private life and some legendarily troubled productions like Flynn’s infamous Adventures of Don Juan. However, despite Flynn’s hard-partying lifestyle and on-set spats, the actor remains one of the biggest and...

The Western genre is full of great movies, even without the works of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. When considering which films deserve to be counted as the greatest Westerns of all time, it becomes clear that a rather significant portion of them featured either Eastwood or Wayne. The biggest Western actors of their respective eras, Eastwood and Wayne contributed much to the popularity of the genre and enjoyed top billing in a multitude of highly-respected Western films.

While both Eastwood and Wayne have starred in their fair share of Western classics, they alone didn’t drive the success of the genre. When Westerns were at their peak, Hollywood had plenty of bankable stars capable of delivering critical and commercial hits. Randolph Scott, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Joel McCrea, and Glenn Ford were among the many names behind the most popular Western films, many of which being on par with...

Gisèle Galante recalls a recent evening in which she and her husband first watched Dodge City, the 1939 Michael Curtiz-directed western starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. As de Havilland’s daughter, born 17 years after that film’s premiere, Galante was struck equally by her mother’s beauty and her performance: “I had never seen it before, but she was so, so pretty,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And even though it wasn’t what you would call a meaty role, she was excellent. There’s still so much for me to discover, more of my mother’s films that I have not seen.”

For many classic-film fans, de Havilland’s death in July 2020 at the age of 104 signified the end of an era, the passing of perhaps the last great star of Hollywood’s golden years. Galante notes that she’s had those fans in mind while planning...

Receiving one coveted 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes is a massive achievement in itself, with two actors being tied for having the most entries in the 100% club. Unsurprisingly, due to their influence on cinema, many of the films on Rotten Tomatoes with a Fresh 100% rating are considered classics, which means most of the actors with the highest number of 100% critic scores were at their height in the golden age of Hollywood. Many actors whose movies boast multiple 100% Rotten Tomatoes scores are also Oscar winners, suggesting their screen presence influences the films’ continued acclaim.

Beginning with 1920’s The Golem as the oldest movie with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, an increasing number of films have joined the desired list over the years, with the prospect of achieving a 100% score shockingly being easier to attain than a 0% score. Hollywood legends like Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart boast between nine and 11 Fresh 100% scores each,...

Before James Stewart became one of the most beloved stars in Hollywood history, he was -- believe it or not -- a struggling contract player at MGM. During the golden age of cinema, the small-town boy from Pennsylvania had found his way to Los Angeles, where he was churning out films as part of the studio system. It wasn't until Stewart stunned audiences with his turn as Senator Jefferson Smith in Frank Capra's 1939 comedy-drama "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" that his star seriously began to rise.

Considering how much work Stewart put into the part, the praise he received was well-deserved. Aside from breaking his rule regarding rushes for the great Capra, the actor also ingested mercury dichloride to give himself a sore throat and make his performance in the famous 24-hour filibuster scene more believable. Amazingly, after wrapping the movie, Stewart was far from "licked," as Senator Smith would say.

White Plastic Sky

With an earlier track record that includes Sundance short Les Conquerants in ’12 and Clermont-Ferrand’s Leftover ’16, Hungarian filmmaker tandem Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó moved into features with White Plastic Sky – an animated film described as a dystopian eco-fantasy. There’ll be 2D and 3D and rotoscoping involved but what is uber cool is that the filmmakers got help from geologists, botanists and meteorologists to write the screenplay. A young couple living in a barren, post-apocalyptic Budapest in the year 2121, struggle for food and life. This is a co-production between Hungarian Salto Films (Orsolya Sipos and József Fülöp) and Slovakian Artichoke (Juraj Krasnohorsky).…...

By Fred Blosser

In “Union Pacific” (1939), an epic Western produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille for Paramount Pictures in flavorful black-and-white, Union Army veteran Jeff Butler (Joel McCrea) is hired as a troubleshooter by the fledgling Union Pacific Railroad just after the end of the Civil War. In the 2021 corporate world, his job description probably would say “Head of Security.” Butler is an engineer by profession, but he’s traded his slide rule (or whatever engineers used in those days) for a pair of six-shooters. The Union Pacific is laying track westward from Nebraska to connect in Utah with the Central Pacific, as the latter proceeds eastward from California. Jeff’s duty is to make sure the Union Pacific stays on schedule, and that means no malingering or sabotage by the track crew. If the Union Pacific falls behind, the Central Pacific becomes top dog.

Jeff’s main problem...

Women are taking the fight to Isis in “No Man’s Land,” Hulu’s upcoming Syrian civil war drama. IndieWire is exclusively premiering the trailer for the upcoming series, which can be viewed below.

The series’ synopsis reads:

“No Man’s Land” dives into the depths of the Syrian civil war through the eyes of Antoine, a young French man, in search for his estranged, presumed to be dead sister. While unraveling the mystery, piece by piece, Antoine ends up joining forces with a unit of Kurdish female fighters, fierce women and Isis’ biggest nightmare, and travels with them in Isis occupied territory. Antoine’s journey crosses paths with adventurers and anarchists, spies and innocent victims, and provides a unique look on the tragic events in Syria, and the way they affect the entire world.

“No Man’s Land” stars Félix Moati, Mélanie Thierry, and James Purefoy alongside Souheila Yacoub, Joe Ben Ayed,...

Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the last surviving star of Gone With the Wind, died July 26 of natural causes at her residence in Paris, where she lived for more than six decades, according to Variety. De Havilland was 104.

De Havilland turned 104 on July 1. She was the older sister of Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013 at 96. The two Academy Award-winning actresses were estranged for most of their lives. Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916. Her parents, Walter de Havilland, an English professor, and actress Lilian Fontaine, were British. De Havilland and her sister grew up in Saratoga, California, with their mother. Her father married the family’s housekeeper and remained in Tokyo. Havilland’s first performance was in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.

She made her stage debut in Max Reinhardt’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

An incredibly sad weekend filled with many incredible losses has taken another Hollywood legend, as veteran actress Olivia de Havilland has reportedly passed away. Perhaps best known for her role as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, Havilland was the last surviving star of the iconic movie. A legend of the screen with dozens of acclaimed credits to her name, de Havilland was also one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema and was one of the most popular leading actresses of her era.

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916. She was the older sister of actress Joan Fontaine, who was born to the family the following year. Citizens of the United Kingdom by birthwright, the girls relocated with their mother to California in 1919. Starting with ballet as a child, de Havilland later began performing on stage in amateur...

He was one of the biggest screen icons and one of the most colorful real-life characters in Hollywood history. Still considered the king of swashbucklers 60 years after his death, Errol Flynn’s success was a combination of happenstance, luck and his ability to charm.

Errol Leslie Flynn was born on June 20,1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to an affluent family. A natural born rascal, he was thrown out of several private schools, and eventually wandered, working odd jobs. He fell into acting quite by chance when he won the role of Fletcher Christian in the Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” (1933). There are conflicting stories of how he landed this part, but it is the film that piqued his interest in acting, and eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros. executives.

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

In Hollywood, a combination of luck and Flynn...

I was recently challenged to list my top 10 favorite movies of all time, which proved an impossible task; however, I can easily name my favorite Decade for filmmaking: the 1930s. Movies truly evolved during this decade, with the final one of 1939 becoming the greatest year ever for films: “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Stagecoach,” “Ninotchka,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Wuthering Heights” and so many more! Since that special year is celebrating its 80th anniversary, let’s take a look back.

SEEOscar Best Picture Gallery: History of Every Academy Award-Winning Movie

The film industry was still in its youth as the decade rolled in with “talking pictures” becoming the new standard. Besides mastering the technical aspects of that, they were still learning how to develop a story, how to act for the camera as opposed to stage acting, and how to engineer special effects. At the same time,...

Bridget Lamonica Nov 20, 2017

The dead are rising in Dodge City Kansas, but that doesn't mean Dean can't enjoy geeking out over cowboys...

This review contains spoilers.

See related Toy Story 4: what can we expect? Incredibles 2 dated for 2019, Toy Story 4 moves back a year

13.6 Tombstone

It's the episode that both Dean and Jensen were waiting for, since they're both avid western fans. We see Dean relishing in his knowledge of cowboys and outlaws as soon as the guys check into their Wild West-themed hotel. That cowboy love is put to good use when Dean recognises their monster as Dave Mather, a Wild West outlaw and gunslinger for the Dodge City gang.

This isn't the first episode where Dean was able to embrace some western culture. In the season six episode Frontierland Dean travelled back in time and relished in the whole experience. Plus, it's no secret that...

“Unwelcoming Committee”

By Raymond Benson

Although the picture takes place a couple of months after the end of World War II in the year 1945, Bad Day at Black Rock is really a western. The setting is a desert town that’s barely a whistle stop for a train that hasn’t halted there in four years; the main street looks as if it’s right out of Dodge City, and the opening credits are designed in big, colorful, bold words that spread across the wide CinemaScope screen. Even director John Sturges is primarily known for his many westerns.

Good Guy Spencer Tracy rides into town—on that train—and is met with inexplicable hostility from everyone he meets. All he wants is to find a guy named Komoko—a Japanese farmer who supposedly lives just out of town. Most of the residents seem afraid to help Tracy. The ones who...

David Crow May 9, 2017

The director of Highlander and The Shadow has been tapped to direct a biopic on Errol Flynn's early years as a treasure hunter.

Errol Flynn is one of Hollywood’s very first action stars. Known for his dashing good looks (and his notorious after hours affairs), Flynn enjoyed a swashbuckling career in Hollywood throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, famously defining the pirate subgenre with turns in Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940), and going West, young man, for the genre’s first Technicolor extravaganza Dodge City (1938), as well as the classic piece of historical revisionism that is They Died With Their Boots On (1941). Of course, to many, he simply remains the definitive Prince of Thieves from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Sorry, Kevin.

But Flynn had plenty of adventures before he fell into movie song, drink, and lechery. And it appears it will be getting...

Doc Holliday is one of my favorite legends from the old west. I've always enjoyed the stories that revolve around him. My favorite on-screen portrayal of the gunslinger came from Val Kilmer in the classic film Tombstone. He was so damn good in that role!

Now there's a new movie going into development in which Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Avengers) will play John Henry ‘Doc’ Holliday and I'm actually pretty interested to see what his vision of the legend will be like.

According to THR, the film will be based on two novels written by Mary Doria Russell, which include Doc: A Novel and Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral. Those books were optioned by Palmstar Media, who is also producing the film. Producer Kevin Renner had this to say in a statement:

“We are excited to re-introduce this classic American character to a whole new...

A showdown’s a’ comin’! Not on the main street of Dodge City, but at the multiplex once again. The final throw down between the hero and villain has been a staple of cinema since its earliest days, mainly in action films and primarily the western. There have been countless screen versions of that infamous incident , the gunfight at the O.K. Corral (the most famous being the Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster 1950’s classic) . This most likely inspired many other “oaters”, the most celebrated being the iconic 1952 High Noon (which garnered an Oscar for star Gary Cooper). It’s set in real-time as the clock ticks to 12, while Will Kane readies himself for the arrival of the Miller gang. We’ve seen this plot used in many other genres, providing extra excitement to the final acts of every movie hero’s exploits from Rocky to Bond to Batman. But it...

Vikings star Travis Fimmel has found his next big TV project with The History Channel. He's teaming up with the network to develop a scripted series that tells the legendary stories of Wyatt Earp and other "iconic sinners and anti-heroes throughout history."

Fimmel wrote the first episode of the series and will take on the role of Earp. The first installment "will focus on Earp, from his days in Dodge City and his relationships with Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson, to the real story of what happened during the legendary gunfight at the Ok Corral."

I went on a Wyatt Earp history binge after I saw Tombstone for the first time. There are so many incredible stories to tell about his life, and I am stoked that we are going to get a series that focuses on those stories.

Arturo Interian, History’s Svp of scripted programming had this to...

The film industry goes back to the beginning of the 20th century, and most experts still maintain that 1939 is the greatest single year in movie history. At no other point in the long chronicle of the film industry has Hollywood had such an ability to draw in and hold and audiences. Cinelinx looks at 1939.

In 1939, Americans bought an incrediblel 80 million movie tickets per week. There were 365 films released by the major studios in the United States during 1939. That’s an average of one film each a day. If you went to the theater every day, you’d never have to see the same movie twice. And the best part is that most of them were good.

The American Film Institute, along with such critics as Pauline Kael, Siskle & Ebert, Leonard Maltin and others have dubbed 1939 as the cinema's best single year ever. Looking back, its hard to argue with that opinion.

I know my TV Fanatics, and you are all up to date on the latest Vikings news.

So, proceed at your own risk. There is a spoiler ahead if you've been a poor Vikings fan and your head has been in the sand.

Since I watched what I'm avoiding talking about over the Christmas holiday, hopefully you've either watched or turned back by now. And...we're off!

Deadline announced Travis Fimmel will remain with the History family after his expected, but nonetheless sad and shocking death on Vikings.

What's his next project you ask?

It's very exciting. Even if you haven't been a fan of his previous work, you'll be able to see the value to his project.

It's based on an original idea by Fimmel, and he's written the first episode and is also going to be executive producing and starring in a new anthology series.

The scripted series...

A Kansas family is reeling after a game warden shot their “extraordinary” pet deer multiple times in the yard of their farm.

Taryn Mcgaughey captured footage of a Dodge City, Kansas, game warden following the deer named Faline around the yard. One shot is heard before Taryn bursts into tears and stops recording. She says the game warden then went on to shoot the deer four more times.

“They followed her around our horse pen. The first shot in the leg by a handgun,” Taryn tells People. “And then they followed her around our property shooting her four more times...

Lawman Wyatt Earp is itching to get the heck out of Dodge City in this sneak peek from AMC’s The American West (airing Saturday at 10/9c).

RelatedPierce Brosnan to Lead AMC Drama The Son, Replacing Sam Neill

Spanning the years 1865 to 1890, the Robert Redford-produced limited series has been revisiting how — in the aftermath of the Civil War — the United States transformed into the “land of opportunity,” while sharing the personal, little-known stories of Western legends. In the sixth of eight episodes, Billy the Kid seeks revenge for the death of his friend and Jesse James reemerges from years in hiding,...

Did Chandler find the answers he needed?

That was a key question on The Last Ship Season 3 Episode 3 when he had to find out what is going on in an Asian Dodge City, but did the virus pop up?

Watch The Last Ship Season 3 Episode 3 Online

Meanwhile on this post-apocalyptic drama, Slattery had to tried to find out the truth about his predicament, but did he find out enough that would make someone make an attempt on his life?

Use the video above to watch The Last Ship online to get up to speed with the latest drama. ...

Beginning to passionately care about the motives of an antagonist who initially appeared to be self-serving and completely opposed to the commanding hero's goals is usually an unimaginable plot twist in successful and riveting television series.

But as Co Cdr Tom Chandler determinedly continues to search for the missing crew members of his former missile destroyer, the USS Nathan James, on The Last Ship Season 3 Episode 3, the rationale of the ship's enemy surprisingly begins to become understandable.

As the Chief of Naval Operations tries to track down the captives, the American public begins to question President Jeffrey Michener about whether the country is headed into war with China. They have doubts over their safety after hearing that Chinese President Peng has been withholding the virus' cure from the U.S.'s Asian allies.

With President Michener trying to soothe Americans' concerns about a possible war with China, Tom isn't afraid...

Forty-five years may have passed since Kris Kristofferson first made his brief silver-screen debut singing "Me & Bobby McGee" in Dennis Hopper’s tumultuous anti-Western, The Last Movie, but miraculously, Kristofferson is still gracing on-screen frontier towns with his cowboy wisdom and Western soul. Most recently, he can be found bartending in the frontier town of Timothy Woodward Jr.’s Traded, which hit theaters and VOD last Friday. Gone are the days when Kristofferson was helming vigilante roles such as the sharp-shooting Billy The Kid, but they are far from forgotten. In Traded, Kristofferson plays Billy, a hardened barkeep with a strict moral compass, living in Dodge City in the 1800s. When a stranger comes to town in search of his daughter, Billy is at first guarded,...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

As a supplement to our Recommended Discs weekly feature, Peter Labuza regularly highlights notable recent home-video releases with expanded reviews. See this week’s selections below.

Speedy (Criterion)

Harold Lloyd’s mastery of comic timing comes through his respect for environment. While other slapsticians bent reality into a joke, Lloyd’s joke is blending himself into the cruelty of reality. Speedy — his final silent feature — brought him to the streets of New York City to put his Glasses Character into the bustling metropolis, attempting to hold a job and save a fledgling horse-drawn trolley business from corporate conspiracy. Lloyd’s natural comic timing — less mannered than both Keaton and Chaplin — makes him just odd enough to pratfall around the streets with his one-track (or one-baseball diamond) mind, managing to be overly polite and overly clueless at the same time. When he attempts to get a trolley seat for his gal on a crowded car,...

This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the month of December 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.

Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.

Follow-Up Black Friday / Holiday Disc Purchases Mystery Science Theater Kickstarter Star Wars: The Force Awakens DVD Beaver Blu-ray and DVD of the Year: 2015 News CES: Ultra HD Blu-ray News Disney: Snow White Signature Collection Warner Archive Blu-ray releases January 2016: The Ice Pirates, The Wrong Man, A Mighty Wind, Flicker Alley: L’inhumaine Thunderbean: Yuletide Flickers Arrow Video: Waking Life, Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion Twilight Time: March/April titles. January pre-orders Olive Films: March Titles Disney Movie Club: Blackbeard’s Ghost Milestone: Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, Volume 1 Episode Links & Notes

12/1

Downhill Racer Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 Fort Massacre...

or, Savant picks The Most Impressive Discs of 2015

This is the actual view from Savant Central, looking due North.

What a year! I was able to take one very nice trip back East too see Washington D.C. for the first time, or at least as much as two days' walking in the hot sun and then cool rain would allow. Back home in Los Angeles, we've had a year of extreme drought -- my lawn is looking patriotically ratty -- and we're expecting something called El Niño, that's supposed to be just shy of Old-Testament build-me-an-ark intensity. We withstood heat waves like those in Day the Earth Caught Fire, and now we'll get the storms part. This has been a wild year for DVD Savant, which is still a little unsettled. DVDtalk has been very patient and generous, and so have Stuart Galbraith & Joe Dante; so far everything...

Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Revisit 1939, Hollywood’s Greatest Year, with 4 New Blu-ray™ Debuts

The Golden Year Collection June 9

Features Newly Restored Blu-ray Debut of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Starring Charles Laughton, and Blu-ray Debuts of – Bette Davis’ Dark Victory, Errol Flynn’s Dodge City and Greta Garbo’s Ninotchka. Collection also includes Gone With the Wind.

Burbank, Calif. March 10, 2015 – On June 9, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will celebrate one of the most prolific twelve months in Hollywood’s history with the 6-disc The Golden Year Collection. Leading the five-film set will be the Blu-ray debut of

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in a new restoration which will have its world premiere at TCM’s Classic Film Festival beginning March 26 in Los Angeles. Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara star in Victor Hugo’s tragic tale which William Dieterle directed.

The other films featured in the Wbhe...

Green Arrow was never really a loner. When he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 he already had a young partner whose nom de arrow was Speedy and whose other name was Roy Harper. As Ga – other-named Oliver Queen – sauntered through the years, he formed alliances with another greenish hero, Green Lantern, and, maintaining the color-motif, Black Canary, with whom he had a full-out, bells-and-whistles romance. And he was a member in good standing of the Justice League of America, comics’ first…what? – superhero club, I guess.

So no, Ollie, as we are pleased to call him, was never a loner, but I never thought of him as a clubman, either. He was this guy who did what he did and had occasional friends and associates.

Now he is enjoying what are undoubtedly the largest audiences of his life as the title character of a network television series. For whatever (corporate?...

Cinema Retro has received the following announcement:

The most celebrated lawman of the Old West rides again in the complete series (1955-1961) of the popular classic television Series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Hugh O'Brian stars as the famed marshal whose exploits with Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson and the Clanton Gang are boldly brought to life in episodes based on actual events. With his signature Buntline Special pistol in hand, Wyatt Earp held posts in a series of increasingly lawless towns and battled dangerous men in his efforts to keep the peace. Through Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City and Tombstone, Wyatt's reputation as a just and formidable marshal grew, culminating in a storied gunfight that would seal his legend.

The success of the TV series spawned a series of comic book tie-ins.

This complete series includes all six seasons on 30 DVDs, approximately 100 hours of content. Also included in this...

Slamdance Studios and Hulu kicked off a new partnership on Wednesday.

The popular online video delivery site reached a deal with Slamdance Film Festival’s commercial distribution wing, Slamdance Studios, to stream a curated collection of films. The inaugural batch of Slamdance offerings includes 12 features and one documentary short.

See Photos: Inside The Wrap’s Sundance 2015 Industry Panel

Included among those titles immediately available is “D.I.Y.,” a documentary short featuring interviews with directors Chris Nolan (“Interstellar”) and Rian Johnson (“Star Wars: Episode VIII”); and “Tony,” a London-set thriller. Slamdance Studios also plans to add new programs to its Hulu channel on a monthly basis.

The new series Gotham is still finding its feet and many of the cast members seem unsure of where to go with their roles. However, there is one definite bright spot in the series and that’s Robin Lord Taylor as the Penguin, who’s by far the best thing on the show.

The good news for Gotham fans is that the show has been expanded for additional episodes. One of the main reasons for that is Robin Lord Taylor’s scene-stealing role as Oswald Cobblepot, Aka the Penguin. These extra episodes will allow the series more time to find its footing because it’s still raw and needs to cook a bit more before it reaches its potential. In the meantime, however, Taylor’s scenes as the Penguin are always the highlight, and viewers can be carried along through the weaker points of the show by the anticipation of his scenes.

Chandra Maple was once an all-star athlete, but after a career-ending injury she felt broken both inside and out.

"Growing up, I was always the star on the basketball team, so when I had my knee injury and that was taken away from me, I kind of lost that," Maple tells People of ending her sports career when she was just 15. "I didn't know what it was like to succeed anymore."

At 341 lbs., Maple knew it was time to take control of her life and applied to become a contestant on season 16 of The Biggest Loser.

"The biggest thing I...

Chandra Maple was once an all-star athlete, but after a career-ending injury she felt broken both inside and out. "Growing up, I was always the star on the basketball team, so when I had my knee injury and that was taken away from me, I kind of lost that," Maple tells People of ending her sports career when she was just 15. "I didn't know what it was like to succeed anymore." At 341 lbs., Maple knew it was time to take control of her life and applied to become a contestant on season 16 of The Biggest Loser. "The biggest thing I...

Some may say that television hasn’t been too good to senior citizens in terms of their stereotypical depictions. Regardless of the unflattering portrayals there had been some memorable oldsters (in this case over 60) that have given us equal shares of both laughs and cries. In “For Mature Audiences Only”, let’s take a look at some of the more mature characterizations that had an impact on our daily doses of entertainment on the glorious boob tube.

Instead of doing a typical top ten or top twenty listing let’s go in between with a top fifteen selection, shall we? The “For Mature Audiences Only” choices are not necessarily a tasting that everyone will agree on. Perhaps you have your own preferences that were omitted or something that you feel should be added? Anyway, here are the candidates in alphabetical order…

Now for our pop cultural Pepto Bismol personalities:

1.) Doc Galen Adams,...

The following interview took place after 2013 “25 New Face” Nandan Rao had seen for the first time The Other Men of Dodge City, a re-edited version of his own movie The Men of Dodge City cut by fellow 2013 “New Faces” Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson. The film debuts on NoBudge from Wednesday February 19 at 7pm. You can read Ohs and Sisson’s take on the film here. Filmmaker: What was your reaction when Pete and Andrea first got in contact with you? Do you remember what their pitch was in terms of what they wanted to do? Rao: We have a mutual friend who […]...

The following interview took place after 2013 “25 New Face” Nandan Rao had seen for the first time The Other Men of Dodge City, a re-edited version of his own movie The Men of Dodge City cut by fellow 2013 “New Faces” Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson. The film debuts on NoBudge from Wednesday February 19 at 7pm. You can read Ohs and Sisson’s take on the film here. Filmmaker: What was your reaction when Pete and Andrea first got in contact with you? Do you remember what their pitch was in terms of what they wanted to do? Rao: We have a mutual friend who […]...

The following was written by 2013 “25 New Faces” Andrea Sisson and Pete Ohs in advance of the first screening of their film The Other Men of Dodge City, a re-edited version of The Men of Dodge City by fellow 2013 “New Face” Nandan Rao. The film plays on NoBudge from Wednesday February 19 at 7pm. Check back tomorrow for Rao’s response to seeing the reworking of his film for the first time. First and foremost, Nandan’s eye is a force to be reckoned with. When we first saw The Men of Dodge City, we laughed at the snail’s pace and non-existent […]...

The following was written by 2013 “25 New Faces” Andrea Sisson and Pete Ohs in advance of the first screening of their film The Other Men of Dodge City, a re-edited version of The Men of Dodge City by fellow 2013 “New Face” Nandan Rao. The film plays on NoBudge from Wednesday February 19 at 7pm. Check back tomorrow for Rao’s response to seeing the reworking of his film for the first time. First and foremost, Nandan’s eye is a force to be reckoned with. When we first saw The Men of Dodge City, we laughed at the snail’s pace and non-existent […]...