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Rejoice! On Sunday, April 20, 2025, you have multiple ways to fully mark the Easter holiday with some of history’s greatest epic films. TCM gets an early start with director William Wyler‘s Best Picture–winning religious saga Ben-Hur (1959). Starring Charlton Heston in the title role, which scored him the Best Actor Oscar, the story follows a freed Roman slave who becomes a chariot racer, meets Jesus, and converts to Christianity. The movie won a whopping 11 of the 12 Oscars for which it was nominated (a feat only later matched by 1997’s Titanic and 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). But perhaps most impressive is its iconic chariot race, which ranks as one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed. TCM continues with more religious historical epics: 1954 drama The Silver Chalice (noon/11am c), led by Virginia Mayo and Paul Newman in his film debut; 1961’s Barabbas...

Exhumed Films is resurrecting some beloved horror favorites from the 1970s and ’80s and projecting them onto the big screen at Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers, including Friday the 13th Part III, starring my original horror crush and maybe yours, too, Jason Voorhees! And also, we have release details for Escape Room, Paperbacks From Hell, Ghastlies, and Mountain Fever, as well as information on the new book Godzilla Faq.

Exhumed Films' Guilty Pleasures IV Marathon: Press Release: "Exhumed Films Presents: Guilty Pleasures IV--in 3-D!

Exhumed Films is pleased to return to the Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers to present the fourth edition of The Guilty Pleasures Marathon, our annual assault of cinematic insanity. For this year’s marathon, we present some of the greatest 3-D films of all time, projected from original 35mm prints using state of the art technology! The 1970’s and 1980’s saw a resurgence of three-dimensional movies, particularly in the realm of genre cinema.

Charles Bronson plays a real-life Mafiosi in a period picture with a fine script, some good performances and a production so sloppy that the whole thing could be called The Anachronism Papers. Joseph Wiseman and Lino Ventura bring additional tough-guy star-power, and Bronson actually commits himself to the role — quite a change of pace for one of his later pictures.

The Valachi Papers

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Charles Bronson, Lino Ventura, Jill Ireland, Walter Chiari, Joseph Wiseman, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Amedeo Nazzari, Fausto Tozzi, Pupella Maggio, Angelo Infanti, Guido Leontini.

Cinematography: Aldo Tonti

Film Editor: Johnny Dwyre, Monica Finzi

Original Music: Riz Ortolani, Armando Trovajoli

Written by Stephen Geller from the novel by Peter Maas

Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, Roger Duchet

Directed by Terence Young

In 2001 I received the plum assignment of editing a...

Joe Robinson, 2004. (Photo copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Joe Robinson, the estimable stuntman, stunt arranger and occasional actor, has passed away in his native England at age 90. Robinson came from a family of wrestlers and he won the European Heavyweight Championship in 1952. Robinson drifted into the film industry initially as an actor, starring in the 1955 movie "A Kid for Two Farthings". Leading man status eluded him but he found a steady career arranging stunts for films and television shows and occasionally acting in them as well. Like many British and American actors, he gravitated to Italy in the early 1960s to appear in some of the "Hercules"-inspired strongman films that were quite popular during that era. He scored small action roles in "Barabbas" and "Ursus" before returning to England, where he had a supporting role in Tony Richardson's classic "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Rnner.

Remember Charlie Chaplin's 'The Killer with a Heart?' You too will be frustrated by this well-produced story of a slum kid who commits an unpardonable crime... except that a do-gooder priest wants to pardon him. Dana Andrews and Farley Granger star but the good work is in the smaller roles of this urban tragedy. Edge of Doom DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / Street Date February 9, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 18.59 Starring Dana Andrews, Farley Granger, Joan Evans, Robert Keith, Paul Stewart, Mala Powers, Adele Jergens, Harold Vermilyea, John Ridgely, Douglas Fowley, Mabel Paige, Howland Chamberlain, Houseley Stevenson Sr., Jean Inness, Ellen Corby, Ray Teal. Cinematography Harry Stradling Film Editor Daniel Mandell Original Music Hugo Friedhofer Written by Philip Yordan Produced by Samuel Goldwyn Directed by Mark Robson

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

What's the most hopeless, depressing, feel-bad film noir on the charts? How about Detour,...

Germany's Explosive Media company has a serious itch for American westerns, and they have a trio of new releases. One is a minor Hollywood classic with major graces, from the late 1950s. A second sees an American producer based in England filming in Italy with a rising international star, and for the third an established American star goes European  to stay in the game. The best thing for Yankee buyers? The discs are Region-free.

Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders, A Man Called Sledge Three Westerns from Explosive Media Blu-ray Separate Releases 1958-1970 / Color Starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter; George Maharis, Telly Savalas; James Garner

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The majority of American studios now choose not to market their libraries for digital disc, and license them out instead. Collectors unwilling to settle for whatever's on Netflix or concerned about the permanence of Cloud Cinema, find themselves increasingly tempted by discs from Europe,...

Sneak Peek the new biblical TV mini-series "Barabbas", starring Billy Zane ("Titanic") airing March 25 and 26, 2013 on Reelz, inspired by the 1950 novel by author Pär Lagerkvist:

"...'Barabbas' begins where the famous Bible story left off.

"Inspired by the novel of the same name, the mini-series 'Barabbas' is a story of redemption about a man whose life was spared before the death of Jesus..."

According to Zane, 'Barabbas' is "...the greatest story never told".

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Barabbas"...

Barabbas | Movie Trailer | Review...

We have the first look at Reelz' next mini-series, and it's clear that it will take viewers on a journey of Biblical proportions. The first teaser trailer for Barabbas has just been released, giving viewers a taste of the upcoming epic drama. Shot on location in Tunisia and starring Billy Zane, Barabbas tells the story of the man whose life was spared by the decision to crucify Jesus Christ. The sweeping epic will pick up where the Bible left off, following Barabbas in a powerful story of faith and redemption. Based on the 1950 Nobel Prize-winning novel by Pär Lagerkvist, Barabbas will premiere on Reelz in Spring 2013.

Next Showing:

Link | Posted 10/16/2012 by reelz

Barabbas...

Actor who won an Oscar for his role as Marty in the 1955 film of the same name had a 60-year career in film and television

Ernest Borgnine, the Italian-American actor who carved out a distinctive screen presence in a range of pugnacious character roles over a 60-year career, has died at the age of 95.

Borgnine won an Oscar for his role as Marty in the 1955 film of the same name, and was a star of the small screen during the 1960s as the scheming Navy officer in the comedy McHale's Navy. In the 80s, he came to the attention of a new generation of TV viewers as Dominic Santini in the hit series Airwolf.

In other roles, particularly during the earlier years of his career, his stocky build and bulldog appearance made him a natural choice to play the classic Hollywood 'heavy' and he was memorable as the sergeant who...

Los Angeles – Ernest Borgnine was the movie star who was America’s “every man,” with roles like his Best Actor Oscar winning “Marty” (1955), Quinton McHale in TV’s “McHale’s Navy” (1962), tough guy Fatso Judson in the classic film “From Here to Eternity” (1953) and even as a cartoon voice (Mermaid Man) on “Spongebob Squarepants.” Borgnine died Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 95.

I interviewed Ernest Borgnine twice for HollywoodChicago.com, and his wit, passion and voice was as strong in his 90s as it was sixty years earlier. He told me stories from the sets of “Marty,” “Emperor of the North” (1973) and “September 11” (2002), as if they had happened yesterday, with the same emphasis on the love of life that sustained him in his long career in show business, appearing in unforgettable film and TV roles.

Ernest Borgnine in Chicago, March 26th, 2011

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.

Los Angeles — He was a tubby tough guy with a pug of a mug, as unlikely a big-screen star or a romantic lead as could be imagined.

Yet Ernest Borgnine won a woman's love and an Academy Award in one of the great lonelyhearts roles in "Marty," a highlight in a workhorse career that spanned nearly seven decades and more than 200 film and television parts.

Borgnine, who died Sunday at 95, worked to the end. One of his final roles was a bit part as a CIA records-keeper in 2011's action comedy "Red" – fittingly for his age, a story of retired spies who show that it's never too late to remain in the game when they're pulled back into action.

"I keep telling myself, `Damn it, you gotta go to work,'" Borgnine said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press. "But there aren't many people who want to put Borgnine to work these days.

Legendary film and television actor Ernest Borgnine has died this afternoon from kidney failure, he was 95. His wife, Tova, and children were at his side at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles reports CNN.

After serving in the U.S. Navy in the Second World War, the gap-toothed Borgnine made the move into television and then film, forging out a six decade long career as a widely liked and respected character actor.

His first big break was the role of the cruel Sgt. 'Fatso' Judson in 1953's "From Here to Eternity" along with a few villain roles in films like "Vera Cruz" and "Bad Day at Black Rock". In 1955 though came "Marty" in which he played a lovelorn butcher, a performance that won him the Best Actor Oscar over the likes of James Cagney, James Dean, Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy.

He worked with filmmaker Sam Peckinpah on both the...

Francesco Quinn, son of the late Anthony Quinn, died Friday evening in Malibu of a suspected heart attack.

Quinn, 48, was walking home from a nearby store with one of his sons when he collapsed. A neighbor attempted to revive him but told the Malibu Patch, "there was no response."

Francesco was pronounced dead at Santa Monica-ucla Medical Center. His agent said in a statement, the cause had not been determined, but that he was believed...

When I was a kid, I devoured the kitschy fun of producer Dino De Laurentiis' films such as the 1976 "King Kong" remake. His name got branded in my feeble mind. When you see his "Dino De Laurentiis Presents" before a trailer, you know that film would be fun!

So the death of the Oscar-winning Italian film producer saddened me. The Italian media was reporting that Laurentiis, who gave the world nearly 500 films including "La Strada," "Serpico," and "Three Days of the Condor" died in Los Angeles. He was 91.

Here's a lengthy but absolutely wonderful snap shot of Laurentiis' life written by John Gallagher from film reference:

One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles,...

Italian movie tycoon whose list of credits featured as many disasters as hits

The Italian-born film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has died aged 91, will perhaps go down in movie history as the last "transatlantic" tycoon. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, producing films on both sides of the ocean, he had as many flops as hits. But De Laurentiis almost always succeeded in staying afloat.

In Rome, he produced Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning La Strada (1954) and the grandiose spectacular War and Peace (1956), but also made The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) and Waterloo (1970), which never recovered their costs. Relocating to the Us, he enjoyed success with Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Conan the Barbarian (1982), but had financial disasters including Year of the Dragon (1985) and a failed food emporium, which he opened in New York. De Laurentiis was also a starmaker, both in Italy, where...