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What’s the best true-story WW2 combat film for pure-grit, no-nonsense tanks ‘n’ bombs ‘n’ crazy mayhem action on a giant scale? This non-stop battle epic gets my vote. George Segal and Ben Gazzara’s infantry dogs are suitably tough, cynical and desperate, especially when they’re repeatedly sent into danger. The history is fairly accurate — there was indeed a race to seize the last bridge across the River Rhine.

The Bridge at Remagen

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Peter Van Eyck, Hans Christian Blech, Bo Hopkins, Matt Clark, G&uunl;nter Meisner.

Cinematography: Stanley Cortez

Film Editors: William Cartwright, Harry Knapp, Marshall Neilan Jr.

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by Richard Yates, William Roberts, Roger Hirson

Produced by David L. Wolper

Directed by John Guillermin

Who...

Al Capone is America’s best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city and an interesting variety of Hollywood stars have had the leading role as Al Capone in the many films that have been made that featured him as a character.

The first film about Capone was produced when he was still making headlines. The main character may be named Antonio Camonte, but there’s little doubt as to who producer Howard Hughes had in mind when he and director Howard Hawks filmed Scarface during the Great Depression. Camonte shares more than the same initials with one Al Capone, who was about to begin his eleven-year sentence for tax evasion when the movie was released...

A lot of great TV horror movies rely on a final image, a real shocker, to hammer home the fear. But not all of them. When Michael Calls (1972) is a telefilm that measures out its chills, leading to a logical conclusion (for a small screen sinner) instead of an iconic screen shot for nostalgic viewers. Regardless, this one provides a platform for a solid thriller with a pedigree behind and in front of the camera.

Originally broadcast on Saturday, February 5th, as the ABC Movie of the Weekend, When Michael Calls had the normal competition from CBS’ New Dick Van Dyke Show/Mary Tyler Moore Show and NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies. But ABC’s Movies of the Week (on Tuesday’s, and here) almost always won out with viewers, providing exciting, original fare. This one is no exception.

Let’s crack open our fair weathered faux TV...

Mubi in the United Kingdom will be showing four films by John Cassavetes beginning with Too Late Blues (March 9 - April 8), followed by Husbands (March 16 - April 15), Gloria (March 23 - April 22), and Love Streams (March 29 - April 28). “Life is a series of suicides, divorces, promises broken, children smashed, whatever.” — Robert, Love Streams“Love is a stream. It’s continuous. It doesn’t stop.” — Sarah, Love Streams I love a good punch. Not the kind Robert Mitchum could land, or the kind Errol Flynn once received, though the mythmaking breeziness of another era’s gossip columns ensures even these retain an ageless charm. I mean the verbal kind, the hit-you-in-the-belly kind. A gut punch. Putdowns are an art: cadence is a weapon, pithiness a bullet. Brevity bruises: it’s not so much what is said as everything that isn’t. The best knocks hurt precisely because, no matter how brutal they get,...

Today on Trailers from Hell, Larry Karaszewski talks John Cassavetes' 1976 crime masterpiece "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," starring Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vittelli. Hitchcock had Jimmy Stewart, Kurosawa had Toshiro Mifune and John Cassavetes had Ben Gazarra. 1976's "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," the second of three tempestuous collaborations between the determined director and his equally strong-willed star, is a fatalistic gangster movie with Gazzara's beleaguered strip club entrepreneur run through an obstacle course of existential conflicts worthy of a Norman Mailer novel. The 135 minute film bombed in its initial release and in 1978 Cassavetes performed some elective surgery bringing the star-crossed movie down to 108 minutes (Criterion released both versions in their Cassavetes box set, "Five Films").

Chicago – It’s rare that I feel comfortable using this kind of hyperbole in a Blu-ray review but here it goes — having watched it again on Criterion Blu-ray, after not seeing it in years, I’m more convinced than ever that John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” is one of the best films ever made. Maybe it’s because I’m older now and have a family of my own, but my most recent viewing of this masterpiece was heartwrenching in a totally different way. It’s stunning.

And the Criterion remaster of it, accompanied by four other of the most important films in the history of the independent film movement in “Cassavetes: Five Films” is a beauty. Oh, yeah, “Shadows,” “Faces,” “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie,” and “Opening Night” are damn good too. This is one of the best possible gifts you could pick up for the...

Blu-ray Release Date: Oct. 22, 2013

Price: Blu-ray $124.95

Studio: Criterion

John Cassavetes—genius, visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film—receives some high-definition respect from Criterion in the John Cassavetes: Five Films collection.

A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this anthology of dramas—all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system—are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children.

Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts—shows him to be an audience’s director.

Here’s a breakdown of the movies:

Lelia Goldoni and Anthony Ray star in John Cassavetes' 1959 directorial debut Shadows.

★★★☆☆ On the surface, revered American filmmaker John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a meandering, almost impenetrable tale of sweaty strip joints and sleazy gangsters. Culled of 25 minutes of footage after the original 1976 cut bombed at the box office, the leaner 1978 re-edit is undoubtedly the easier watch. Yet, with both versions now available on a new BFI rerelease, it's definitely worth viewing Cassavetes' piece in the raw before he was cajoled into compromising his vision, especially since his lead character is essentially a representation of himself - a man who abhors the idea of compromise.

Ben Gazzara plays Cosmo Vitelli, the owner of a backwater strip club who is content to be the king of his own little world. He rides around in a limo, drinks champagne with beautiful woman and works hard to maintain what he believes to be an idyllic existence. Unfortunately, however, Cosmo ends...

The 2013 Soho Film Fest took place between April 5th to April 12th at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in Soho, New York. The fourth year in existence, the Soho Film Fest celebrates all types of filmmakers- from pros to amateurs and anything in between- to help promote the arts and the works of filmmakers everywhere. Anything from 2 minute shorts to full length feature films are shown, and it doesn’t matter who made them since all are shown to get the passion of filmmaking out throughout the world.

The following shorts and films were shown:

A Second Thought: Choice Skinner directed the 2 minute silent short, about a man’s encounter with a woman.

King Tigermore in Strawberry Fields: Tunde Reid-Kapo directed the 3 minute short, which is about a eight year who fell asleep during a chest match to find himself in another world.

Dance of the Books: directed by Lorena Fernandez,...

We're sad to report that actor Ben Gazzara has succumbed to pancreatic cancer at age 81. Over Gazzara's nearly-sixty year career, his greatest screen moments occurred in collaboration with close friend John Cassavetes, along with actors Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel, and Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands. With Falk's passing last year and now with Gazzara's, it seems an opportune time to revisit a 2004 chat I had for Venice Magazine with the surviving members of the Cassavetes "company" that coincided with Criterion's release of their "John Cassavetes: Five Films" collection. Cassel was the only member not present during the conversations, which took place in the home that John and Gena shared from 1962 until his death, and which served as a location for many of their films together.

Remembering Cassavetes:

The Legacy of America’s Most Important Indie Film Pioneer Is Preserved in the Criterion Collection’s New Release John Cassavetes:...

As a new year dawns, a tribute to those we've lost in the year now ending is merited ... and in 2012, those sad milestones have encompassed some of the most popular personalities in television history.

Andy Griffith: The actor-producer who put Mayberry on the map forever will be remembered as one of television's most genial personalities, also extending to his run as wily lawyer Matlock.

Dick Clark: The number of music stars who owe at least part of their success to the "American Bandstand" maestro is incalculable. Thanks to him, people also enjoy "New Year's Rockin' Eve," receive American Music Awards and have a greater appreciation of bloopers. Here's a "so long" salute to you, Dick.

Larry Hagman: The truly unfortunate irony of the veteran actor's recent death is that he was just starting his second round of "Dallas" success as master schemer J.R. Ewing. He'll also...

English was the second language for Ben Gazzara but that didn't stop the son of Sicilian immigrants in New York from joining the Actor's Studio and pursuing an acting career on-stage in acclaimed productions of A Hatful of Rain and in the role of Brick in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Gazzara, according to The Hollywood Reporter, passed today at age 81 from pancreatic cancer at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center. Gazzara made his film debut in the 1957 movie End as a Man but became best known for his role in Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. Gazzara worked with the independent filmmaker John Cassavetes on three films, Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night.