News

A Tennessee sheriff once celebrated as a folk hero — and the real-life inspiration for the 1973 film Walking Tall and its 2004 remake starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — has now been posthumously accused of murder in a shocking turn of events. Authorities announced that Buford Pusser, who served as McNairy County sheriff from 1964 to 1970, fatally shot his wife, Pauline Mullins Pusser, in 1967, contradicting the decades-old story of an ambush that left her dead and him severely injured.

District Attorney Mark Davidson confirmed at a press conference that investigators uncovered enough evidence to close the cold case, stating:

“This case is not about tearing down a legend. It is about giving dignity and...

To many in the South, Buford Pusser was a hero who actively fought against gambling, prostitution and more in Tennessee. For us movie lovers, he was the inspiration for the 1973 vigilante classic Walking Tall. But now his entire legacy will be shaped, as it’s now believed that it was he who murdered his wife, Pauline, in the 1960s.

According to reports, enough evidence has emerged that authorities firmly believe that Buford Pusser was the one responsible for the 1967 murder of Pauline Pusser, despite the then-McNairy County, Tn sheriff claiming there was an ambush. As the story goes, Pusser took Pauline along for a ride-along while checking out a disturbance...

June is a big month for Peacock. Fans of dinosaurs and sharks have a lot to look forward to. All six Jurassic Park movies will be streaming in one place for the first time. This comes just in time before Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters in July.

Also, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jaws, Peacock will add all four Jaws movies to its library. There’s even more coming too! Check out the full list of new shows and movies below.

June 1

Adventures of Priscilla Queen of The Desert

Anna and The Apocalypse

The Best Man

The Big Lebowski

The Birdcage

Blue Crush

Bride of Chucky

The ‘Burbs

Capote

Captain Phillips

The Chronicles of Riddick

A Cowgirl’s Story

Daddy Day Care

The Day After Tomorrow

Death Wish

Deep Rising

Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights

Erin Brockovich

A Fantastic Woman

Fifty Shades Darker

Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades of Grey...

Joe Don Baker, who played a bad guy and a CIA agent in three James Bond films and the star of the classic movie Walking Tall, has died aged 89. His family announced on May 7 that the actor had passed, but no cause of death was revealed. Baker established himself as an action star, first appearing in minor roles on television and in films in the mid-to-late '60s. It wasn't long before he snagged his breakthrough role as real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1976 movie Walking Tall. After that, leading and supporting roles flowed in for the Texas native, who played basketball and football in school.

After serving two years in the United States Army, Baker moved to New York City to study at the Actors Studio. While there, during the 1963-1964 Broadway season, he appeared onstage in Marathon '33, a play based on June Havoc's memoir, which...

Producing movie after movie with your sister’s ex-husband could easily become awkward. Not so for Hiram Garcia, head of production at Seven Bucks Prods., the company behind a string of box-office hits starring WWE powerhouse turned Hollywood megastar Dwayne Johnson.

But then again he and Johnson, once known as “The Rock,” go back decades.

“They’ve known each other for so long, so there is a real shorthand — and an incredible trust — between them,” says Beau Flynn, who produced Johnson-starring films including “San Andreas,” “Skyscraper” and “Rampage” with Garcia. “It’s not easy to tell your boss, the biggest movie star in the world, that you want to talk through an idea, or that maybe there’s another path. And Hiram does it with such elegance and honesty. Dwayne knows that Hiram is always gonna tell him the truth … and he respects and appreciates that.”

“When I first met Hiram back in college,...

Arthur Manson, a veteran film executive whose career in marketing and distribution encompassed numerous Oscar-winning films, died May 14 at his home in Riverdale, N.Y. He was 90.

Manson worked on the marketing campaigns for “Walking Tall,” “Platoon,” “JFK,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “All the President’s Men,” “A Star Is Born,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “The Great Santini,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “The Cider House Rules,” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Manson was an adviser to Oliver Stone, Scott Rudin, Miramax, the Weinstein Company, Joseph E. Levine, and Stanley Kubrick. He worked for MGM, Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Stanley Kramer Productions, Columbia Pictures, Dino De Laurentiis, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.

Born in Brooklyn, he was a graduate of City College of New York and followed his brother Alan into the entertainment business as “advance agent” for Laurence Olivier’s movie “Henry V” in 1948.

Manson was responsible for the worldwide rollout of Stanley Warner’s ultra-wide-screen Cinerama films.

In the grand tradition of Deliverance (1972), Rituals (‘77), and Up the Creek (1984) comes Hunter’s Blood (’86), a backwoods hicksploitation actioner that more than gets by with a cast handpicked by the B movie gods and a script wittier than it has to be. Who says the outdoors hold no charm? (Well, normally that would be me.)

Based on the novel by Jere Cunningham (who later wrote the story for Judgment Night, which is just the urban version of the same tale), Hunter’s Blood was released by Palace Pictures in the U.K. in September, and picked up by Roger Corman’s Concorde Pictures for release stateside in January of ’87, where soon after it was destined to languish on home video shelves, with store clerks puzzled as to where it should be stocked. (By the by, I always saw it in the Horror section, where I think it rightfully belonged.) Hard...

It’s the loose-censored early 1970s, and screen bandits shootin’ up the American movie landscape are no longer suffering the once-mandated automatic moral retribution. Walter Matthau launched himself into the genre with this excellent Don Siegel on-the-run epic, about an old-fashioned independent bandit who accidentally rips off the mob for a million. It’s great, wicked fun.

Charley Varrick

Region B Blu-ray

Indicator

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Charley Varrick the Last of the Independents; Kill Charley Varrick / Street Date January 22, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99

Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, Felicia Farr, Sheree North, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Rudy Diaz, Charles Matthau, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell

Cinematography: Michael Butler

Film Editor: Frank Morriss

Original Music: Lalo Schifrin

Written by Dean Riesner, Howard Rodman from the novel The Looters by John Reese

Produced by Jennings Lang, Don Siegel

Directed by...

Sam Peckinpah was a fine director of actors when the material was right, and his first collaboration with Steve McQueen is an shaded character study about a rodeo family dealing with changing times. Joe Don Baker and Ben Johnson shine, but the movie belongs to Ida Lupino and Robert Preston.

Junior Bonner

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Special Edition / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Ida Lupino, Joe Don Baker, Ben Johnson, Mary Murphy, Dub Taylor, Don ‘Red’ Barry, Bill McKinney.

Cinematography: Lucien Ballard

Film Editors: Frank Santillo, Robert L. Wolfe

Second Unit Director: Frank Kowalski

Bud Hurlbud: Special Effects

Original Music: Jerry Fielding

Written by Jeb Rosebrook

Produced by Joe Wizan

Directed by Sam Peckinpah

I suppose there were plenty of successful rodeo-themed westerns back in the day, perhaps the kind interrupted by a cowboy song every ten minutes or so.

By Doug Oswald

Rock Hudson is an American commando sent to blow up a dam in “Hornets’ Nest,” a 1970 WWII action adventure set in 1944 Italy as the Allies advance on the German occupation force. Directed by Phil Karlson (“Hell to Eternity,” “Kid Galahad,” “The Silencers,” “The Wrecking Crew” and “Walking Tall”), the movie was an American-Italian co-production filmed in Italy with a mostly all Italian cast and crew.

The movie opens as the residents of Reanoto are massacred by German soldiers after they refuse to give up the location of Italian resistance fighters. Meanwhile, American commandos parachute in on a mission to blow up a nearby dam, but all are killed except for Capt. Turner (Hudson). A group of boys hiding in the hills when the German’s murdered their families rescue Turner and hide him from the Germans. Turner is running a fever from his wounds and the boys convince a local doctor,...

Many big screen biographies are often accused of taking…liberties…with the facts, often to help the finished film’s pacing. After all, unless it’s a TV mini-series, it’s difficult to compress a remarkable life into an evening at the movies. Film makers will frequently switch the order of events along with the popular practice of using composite characters (a little bit of this fella’, and a bit of this old pal, and…), even inventing supporting roles, or tagging real folks with invented names. And then there are fantasy tales using a real person (and elements of his life) as the story’s heroic center. In Hollywood famous true Western outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James were the leads in many fictional flicks (hey, those two “met” Dracula and Frankenstein’s daughter!). Those on the opposite side of the law like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson...

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,...

While July 28th may be a light day in terms of the amount of horror and sci-fi titles making their home entertainment debuts, we do have an interesting assortment of films and TV to look forward to. Kino Lorber has dug up two classics—The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein and Cherry 2000 (starring Melanie Griffith)—which are being released on Blu-ray this Tuesday, and Scream Factory has another underrated genre gem getting the HD treatment as well—the horror western Ghost Town.

For all you MST3K fans out there, Shout! Factory is putting out another collection of campy films that you’ll be able to add to your collections this week and Bayview Entertainment also has a double feature of cult movies from Germany—Strangler of the Tower / Monster of London—arriving on DVD.

The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)

After the death of Victor Frankenstein...

The deserted town the Brady family got trapped in on their way to the Grand Canyon is charming compared to the one in 1988's Ghost Town. On July 28th, Scream Factory will release Ghost Town on Blu-ray, and we've been provided with three copies to give away.

Ghost Town synopsis: "A dusty ghost town, seemingly abandoned, holds the lives of its original inhabitants in an animated netherworld for 100 years…

When a modern-day sheriff's deputy is lured to a desolate, spooky ghost town in search of a missing woman, he comes face-to-face with a malevolent spirit from the town's past. The spell of death and suffering over the undead townspeople must end to set them free from eternal pain. The horrors of a possessed outlaw, in a time-suspended dimension are only the setting for a frightening battle for the mind, nerves and flesh.

Starring Franc Luz (The Nest, When Harry Met Sally), Jimmie F. Skaggs (Oblivion,...

This summer, Scream Factory will take viewers to a ghost town that's a lot more sinister than the one the Brady family was trapped in on The Brady Bunch. Slated for a July 28th release, the western horror film Ghost Town hits Blu-ray on July 28th:

Press Release -- "The good. The bad. The Satanic. Scream Factory proudly presents the Empire Pictures classic Ghost Town on July 28, 2015 in its Blu-ray debut.

A dusty ghost town, seemingly abandoned, holds the lives of its original inhabitants in an animated netherworld for 100 years…

When a modern-day sheriff’s deputy is lured to a desolate, spooky ghost town in search of a missing woman, he comes face-to-face with a malevolent spirit from the town’s past. The spell of death and suffering over the undead townspeople must end to set them free from eternal pain. The horrors of a possessed outlaw, in a time-suspended...

All week our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Click here for a complete list of our essays. It’s perhaps a little quaint to choose a year that I wasn’t even alive during to represent the best year of cinema. I was not there to observe how any of these films conversed with the culture around them when they were first screened. So, although I am choosing the glorious year of 1973, I am choosing not just due to a perusal of top ten lists that year—but because the films that were released that year greatly influenced how I engage with movies now, in 2015. Films speak to more than just the audiences that watch them—they speak to each other. Filmmakers inspire each other. Allusions are made. A patchwork begins. These are the movies of our lives. Having grown up with cinema in the 90s,...

Throughout the vast history of cinema the profession of law enforcement has been portrayed heavily and made its mark on the big screen in both dramatic and comical fodder. Whether it be straight up cops and robbers or crooked officers on the take in gangster flicks or ant-hero gun-slinging loners trying to buck the system the presence of crime-busting cads never fail to add compelling, if not at times over-exaggerated, insight into the world of law-enforcing personalities.

The one element of the law-enforcing community that seems somewhat limited but still registers mightily in some cinematic arenas is the concept of the sheriff. Sheriffs do cast a prominent shadow in all sorts of fields in the movies: westerns, medieval times, contemporary country car-chasing farces and even some urban melodramas.

In Arresting Developments: Top Ten Sheriffs in the Movies we will take a look at some of the notable on-screen sheriffs in...

The Run (Lari)

Written and directed by Ahmad Idham

Malaysia, 2013

For most micro budget movies, the mere fact that they could get made can be considered an accomplishment in of itself. Playing at a festival is seen as an added bonus. With limited resources comes the need to get creative in ways that, when everything comes together, can sometimes produce something fresh and new. They don’t have the luxury of spending millions of dollars on sets, actors, stunt choreographers, and special effects. As moviegoers, the one thing that should be avoided as much as possible is to give a small movie a pass simply because it tread rockier waters than studio-mandated tentpole projects. Although it is very tempting to support the little guys, sometimes a spade has to be called a spade. Herein lies the issue with The Run from Malaysian writer-director Ahmad Idham.

The film follows a former...

To Kill a Mockingbird actress Rosemary Murphy died on Saturday in New York City. She was 89.

Rosemary Murphy Dies

Murphy had recently been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away in her Upper East Side apartment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy played neighbor Maudie Atkinson, better known as Miss Maudie. Her character lives across the street from lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and his two young children – Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) in the fictional Maycomb, Alabama.

Prior to appearing in To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy appeared in a number of TV series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Thriller, Naked City, Wide Country and The Doctors and the Nurses. Following her turn in the Oscar-nominated picture, Murphy continued her TV work.

Murphy earned her first Emmy for playing Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin.

Since the release of DVDs in the late ‘90s and freeze frame technology becoming highly accessible, movie makers and manufacturers have been hiding secrets for viewers to discover. Every genre and every studio has likely done it by now; we’ve started to compile them all in a series of posts with the help of the Internet. Happy hunting!

It’s the Pulp Fiction special edition where all the Easter eggs will be from, you guessed it, Pulp Fiction. A few of these are new to me, 20 years later I’m telling you, Pulp Fiction is one of the most layered movies ever made.

The Movie: Pulp Fiction (1994)

The Eggs: Unfortunate Lady

I laughed at this, then felt bad. In the film Reservoir Dogs when Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel are escaping from the failed heist, they pull over a lady in a car who shoots Roth before she is taken care of.

‘Billy Jack’: Tom Laughlin helped to revolutionize Hollywood’s film distribution system (See previous post: “Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ Actor and Director, Robert Altman Difficult Star Dead at 82.”) Featuring the titular hero as a semi-mystical figure who, with a mixture of steely determination and purposeful violence, helps to rescue wild horses from becoming dog meat and allows an independent school to continue operating at an Indian reservation in Arizona — against the wishes of white reactionary bigots and ruthless capitalists — Billy Jack was a box office disappointment when released by Warner Bros. at, in Tom Laughlin’s words, "porno houses" (and drive-ins) in 1971. (Photo: Tom Laughlin in Billy Jack.) Unhappy with the studio’s handling of his film, Laughlin sued Warners. In May 1973, following a settlement with the studio, he began self-distributing Billy Jack at small-town movie theaters throughout the United States. He hired marketing expert, former United Artists honcho,...

As we say in our review of 2 Guns, don’t let the film’s August release date fool you into thinking it’s not one of summer’s funnest rides. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg star as an undercover DEA agent and naval intelligence officer, respectively, who’ve infiltrated a narcotics syndicate with the goal of bringing down drug kingpin Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos). The catch: Neither of them knows the other guy isn’t a real criminal until they receive orders to steal $3 million of Papi’s cash from a Savings & Loan but find $40 million more in the vault than they should.

Sure to become "a newly minted American classic" (The Wall Street Journal), Mud arrives on Blu-ray Disc (plus Digital UltraViolet), DVD (plus Digital UltraViolet), and Video on Demand and Pay-Per-View August 6 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Mud will also be available on Est July 16, three weeks prior to the Blu-ray, DVD and Video on Demand release. Starring Matthew McConaughey (Magic Mike, Killer Joe) in his "finest performance to date, Oscar-worthy at every level" (Hitfix) as the titular character, Mud features an all-star cast that includes Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life), Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down, The Right Stuff), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, HBO's Boardwalk Empire), Joe Don Baker (Walking Tall, Fletch), Ray McKinnon (TV's Sons of Anarchy, The Blind Side), Primetime Emmy nominee Sarah Paulson (HBO's Game Change, TV's American Horror Story), newcomer Jacob Lofland and Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon (Best Actress, Walk the Line, 2005).

Mud is a timeless adventure about two boys,...

Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. John Brascia (1932-2013) - Actor and dancer whose moves delighted in White Christmas (see below) and Meet Me in Las Vegas. He also appears in the original Walking Tall and The Wrecking Crew and wrote and produced The Baltimore Bullet. He died of Parkinson's disease in Santa Monica on February 19. (THR)   Richard Briers (1934-2013) - English actor who starred in many Kenneth Branagh films, including Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet (see him as Polonius below), Henry V, Frankenstein...

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Black Sunday: Remastered Edition (1960) Lorber Films Blu-ray and DVD Available Now

One of director Mario Bava’s most acclaimed works, Black Sunday is a strikingly photographed “old dark castle” thriller revolving around witchcraft and possession. Barbara Steele (Piranha) gives a hypnotic performance as Katia, the unfortunate look-alike descendent of a witch who intends to possess her. This highly influential film, also shot by Bava, was the precursor to countless American and European gothic horrors. This is the uncut European print with a few extra minutes of footage, a different English track and Robert Nicolosi’s haunting original score. After years of ugly public domain releases, Black Sunday is finally being presented in its original aspect ratio with a high definition transfer struck from a pristine 35Mm archival print.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary by Tim Lucas (author of Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark).

• Original Bava theatrical trailers.

The Walking Tall Trilogy (DVD) Directed by: Phil Karlson / Earl Bellamy / Jack Starrett Starring: Joe Don Baker / Bo Svenson Advertised as the “original revenge film,” Walking Tall is a '70s classic that I’m not sure would appeal to today’s audience even though there seems to be a resurgence in the popularity of heroes in revenge films with films like Taken. The movie was popular enough to spawn two sequels in the '70s, a television movie, a television series (albeit short-lived) and eventually a remake with its own two direct-to-dvd sequels. This review covers the '70s theatrical films that have been released as a trilogy in a single package. When Walking Tall was originally released in 1973, I was only eleven years old, but for some reason, I have a strong memory of this film’s impact. The movie was R-rated, so neither I nor any of...

Last week saw the release of 2011’s Oscar-favourite The Artist, alongside two other acclaimed indie films of the year in Martha Marcy May Marlene and Like Crazy. This week brings a different mix to the shelves, with Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, Coriolanus, topping the list.

Continuing on from last week, too, Play are releasing a handful of exclusive Blu-ray steelbooks of contemporary classics that will be must-buys for fans of the films and the format. If you’re not yet Blu-ray capable, now is definitely the time to update your television / player to enable the best viewing experience your home has to offer.

My personal picks of the week:

Another tie this week, with two very different films topping the list for me.

Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus & Michael Dowse’s Goon

Coriolanus Iframe Embed for Youtube

DVD and Blu-ray

Making his directorial debut, Ralph Fiennes brings the Shakespearean tragedy to the...

Well we're back again with the bumper crop of must-have DVDs and Blu-rays for the month of May – from historic Italian epics to underground American sensations to a chilly, expressionistic film noir to movies where Raquel Welch plays a Vegas showgirl fleeing a murderer – we’ve got them all hear for you. So look on below to see what's worth your money this month....

"1900" (1976) Blu-ray

Why You Should Care: At the time of its release, Bernardo Bertolucci's historical epic was said to be the most expensive (requiring the financial commitment of three major studios – 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and United Artists) and ambitious ever mounted in Italy. It's a tale of two friends (played by Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu), born on the same day at the dawn of the 20th century, and the way that their lives crisscross, intersect, and diverge wildly over the rocky course of history.

Joe Don Baker was marketed as a martial arts star in the 1974 actioner Golden Needles, a movie I saw at the Des Peres 4 Cinema back when it was new and haven’t been able to track down since. It had never been released on VHS or DVD so I was psyched to see it’s now out as part of the “MGM Limited Edition” DVD-r series . Before starring in the hit Walking Tall in 1973, Baker had bounced around Hollywood mostly doing TV work . After Kris Kristofferson turned down the role of Buford Pusser, producers offered the role to Baker who had made an impression as Steve McQueen’s younger brother in Sam Peckinpah’s Junior Bonner in 1972.Walking Tall, a true tale about a Tennessee sheriff confronting corruption and gangsters with a large wooden club and a mean attitude, was a surprise success and Baker was soon starring in a...

Parrish Randall is a Texas actor who has a lot of cool stuff going on. He’s part of the team putting together the “Don’t Look in the Basement” remake together and he recently got to work on one of the Chillerama segments that we’ll be seeing this fall. Randall talks about his filming experiences and a few more upcoming projects in the works. Check out my latest Versus with actor and all around cool guy Parrish Randall.

Brian S- First off, how'd you get into acting and filmmaking?

Parrish Randall- I grew up watching the old classics on TV...you know, the Bogie, Jimmy Stewart, John Garfield type of films and was always mesmerized that the medium of film could take the viewer on adventures for two hours that one could never imagine going on. Pretty cool, I thought, even at six years old watching these films.

Since the earliest days of American cinema there has been a shadowy counterpart to the commercial mainstream: exploitation movies — pictures whose appeal lies in their sensational treatment and leering promotion of often lurid and prurient material. Pre-1960, when mainstream Hollywood worked within severe restrictions on content, exploitation movies offered audiences titillating glimpses of the deliciously taboo, usually under the guise of being some sort of instructional cautionary against the very subject matter being exploited i.e. sex in “hygiene” movies like The Road to Ruin (1934), drugs in anti-drug movies like Tell Your Children (1936, re-released in the 1960s/70s as camp classic Reefer Madness), and gambling in the anti-vice Gambling with Souls (1936).

By the 1950s, as the studios entered their long post-war decline, downscale producers launched a new vein of exploitation moviemaking, churning out low-budget thrillers (mostly sci fi and horror) aimed squarely at the burgeoning youth audience. Again, the movies were cheap,...

Article by Dana Jung

In 1970, the Vietnam War had already dragged on for nearly a decade. Filmmakers, like society in general, were making their opinions about the war known. The great anti-war films M*A*S*H and Catch 22 were released that year and, though not set in Vietnam, made bold satirical use of past wars to make their points. However, that same year brought us another anti-war film somewhat overshadowed by those two classics, Hornet’S Nest, starring none other than Rock Hudson. Like some surrealistic cross between John Wayne’s The Cowboys and the original Inglorious Bastards (both of which it predated), Hornet’S Nest is notable for several reasons: it was the final Hollywood film of European screen star Sylva Koscina, it was one of director Phil Karlson’s last movies, and it was the film debut of Hudson’s trademark mustache! However, it is Not notable for being on DVD.

Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel, '70s star Leif Garrett also join season four of VH1 show.

By Gil Kaufman

Jeremy London

Photo: Charley Gallay/WireImage

It will be a mix of mistresses, models, moms, reality stars and former child actors on the upcoming season of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab."

The MTV sister network announced the cast for the latest go-round of the Dr. Drew Pinsky-led show, which will feature Tiger Wood mistress Rachel Uchitel, police blotter regular and former "Hills" cast member Jason Wahler, ex-supermodel Janice Dickinson ("America's Next Top Model"), troubled actor and alleged recent kidnap victim Jeremy London ("Party of Five"), former teen pop star Leif Garrett, socialite and oil heir Jason Davis and Frankie Lons, the mother of singer Keyshia Cole.

The cast will soon check into the Pasadena Recovery Center for season four of the show, which is expected to air before year's end in eight hour-long episodes.

For this edition Shadows of Film Noir, it's time for Phil Karlson's tough 99 River Street, produced by United Artists in 1953. It will be playing in a new print on Saturday, May 15 at San Francisco's Roxie Cinema. The film is not available on DVD, but for those not lucky enough to see it on the big screen, it is at least available streaming on Hulu.

Behind the Scenes

Director Phil Karlson was born in Chicago in 1908, the son of an Irish stage actress. He attended law school in Los Angeles, and began working in the movie industry as a prop man. He moved up to assistant director and began making his own films in the 1940s. Despite directing one notable, early Marilyn Monroe film, he did not make a mark until the 1950s, with a series of very tough, violent film noirs. This run eventually ended, and he went on...

Kevin Bray is in negotiations to direct Dwayne The Rock Johnson in MGM's updated version of its 1973 actioner Walking Tall for Hyde Park Entertainment. A July start date is being planned, right after Bray wraps shooting the pilot for the upcoming UPN drama Platinum. Tall centers on a Tennessee sheriff (Johnson) and his one-man mission to remove corruption from his county. David Klass wrote the update of the project. Hyde Park Entertainment's Ashok Amritraj and Mandeville Films' David Hoberman are producing Tall with Lucas Foster and Jim Burke. Keith Samples is executive producing the project, which is being overseen at MGM by Toby Jaffe and Eric Paquette. Bray, repped by CAA, the Firm and attorney Carlos Goodman, made his directorial debut on New Line Cinema's All About the Benjamins. He continues to be attached to Nowhere to Hide for Warner Bros. Pictures and Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures (HR 10/27).