The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
I’m going to start by setting a scene. The head of the Moving Image Section at the Library of Congress, Mike Mashon, takes the stage at the Castro Theater to introduce a screening of Erich Von Stroheim’s ambitious debut Blind Husbands (1919) at the 25th San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It’s a full house and that’s certainly not unusual for this event. “Recently, I was watching a conversation on the Criterion Channel,” Mashon tells the crowd. “Critic/curator Dave Kehr and historian Farran Smith Nehme were discussing Raoul Walsh and one of them said that Walsh was one of the least intellectual directors. He didn’t have a pretentious bone in his body; he was just a straight-ahead guy.” Mashon pauses, timing the silence for comic impact. “So… Erich Von Stroheim.” He need say nothing more. The entire audience erupts in laughter. Mashon smiles, saying, “You know,...
- 5/18/2022
- by Daniel Kremer
- Trailers from Hell
Gotta love that title! Producer Walter Mirisch’s small-scale Monogram noir was once assumed lost, but now it’s making its home video debut on Blu-ray. A luckless young entertainer finds himself neck deep in murder trouble, when an unbreakable string of circumstantial evidence points directly at him. As the date of his execution nears, the only way his desperate wife can help him is to encourage the detective on the case to think he has a chance with her. Taken from a Cornell Woolrich story, the show tries hard despite its low budget — we can almost feel Mirisch behind the scenes, making sure the picture has heart and sincerity.
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1948 / B&w Color / 1:37 Academy / 71 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date July 20, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Don Castle, Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey, Charles D. Brown, Rory Mallinson, Robert Lowell, Dorothy Vaughan, Steve Darrell,...
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1948 / B&w Color / 1:37 Academy / 71 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date July 20, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Don Castle, Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey, Charles D. Brown, Rory Mallinson, Robert Lowell, Dorothy Vaughan, Steve Darrell,...
- 7/13/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Ape
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1940 / 62 min. / 1:33:1
Starring Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon
Cinematography by Harry Neumann
Directed by William Nigh
William Nigh directed over 40 silent films before he signed on for The Ape, which might account for this 1940 film looking far older than its release date—the staging is rudimentary and the dialog so simple that intertitles would convey the action with all its meaning intact. Curt Siodmak’s storyline could have been plucked from a different era too—in particular 1931’s City Lights in which a flower girl regains her sight thanks to Chaplin’s perennial outcast, the little tramp. In The Ape the misfit is Boris Karloff as a scientist who helps a lame girl to walk—and though this low budget melodrama can’t compete with Chaplin’s sentimental masterpiece, like many silent era films, it has its own unvarnished appeal.
Karloff plays Dr. Adrian,...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1940 / 62 min. / 1:33:1
Starring Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon
Cinematography by Harry Neumann
Directed by William Nigh
William Nigh directed over 40 silent films before he signed on for The Ape, which might account for this 1940 film looking far older than its release date—the staging is rudimentary and the dialog so simple that intertitles would convey the action with all its meaning intact. Curt Siodmak’s storyline could have been plucked from a different era too—in particular 1931’s City Lights in which a flower girl regains her sight thanks to Chaplin’s perennial outcast, the little tramp. In The Ape the misfit is Boris Karloff as a scientist who helps a lame girl to walk—and though this low budget melodrama can’t compete with Chaplin’s sentimental masterpiece, like many silent era films, it has its own unvarnished appeal.
Karloff plays Dr. Adrian,...
- 10/20/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
On Saturday morning the Oklahoma City Thunder took a flight from Minnesota to Chicago and, after getting off the plane, they saw there was a giant dent in the nose of their plane.
“What possibly could we have hit in the Sky at this time of night?” Carmelo Anthony wrote alongside a shot of the damaged plane on Instagram. “Everyone is Safe, Though,” he added. “All Praise Due #ThunderStrong.”
And Anthony wasn’t the only player from his NBA team to document the scary moment. New Zealand player Steven Adams also shared a photograph of the damage saying, “We had...
“What possibly could we have hit in the Sky at this time of night?” Carmelo Anthony wrote alongside a shot of the damaged plane on Instagram. “Everyone is Safe, Though,” he added. “All Praise Due #ThunderStrong.”
And Anthony wasn’t the only player from his NBA team to document the scary moment. New Zealand player Steven Adams also shared a photograph of the damage saying, “We had...
- 10/28/2017
- by Maria Pasquini
- PEOPLE.com
Desert Nights with John Gilbert and Mary Nolan: Enjoyable Sahara-set adventure – which happened to be Gilbert's last silent film – dares to ask the age-old philosophical question, “Is there honor among thieves?” John Gilbert late silent adventure 'Desert Nights' asks a question for the ages: Is there honor among thieves? The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release Desert Nights arrived in theaters at the tail end of the silent era. By 1929, audiences wanted lots of singing and dancing – talkies! And they might have been impatient to hear John Gilbert's speaking voice. I can't tell whether sound would have improved it or not, but Desert Nights has a lot of title cards filled with dialogue. Directed by the prolific William Nigh,[1] the film tells the story of diamond thieves who get stranded in the Sahara and almost die of thirst. (At first, Desert Nights' was appropriately titled Thirst.) Cinematographer James Wong Howe perfectly captures the hot, dry...
- 8/7/2017
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Screwball comedy movies, rare screenings of epic box office disaster: Library of Congress’ Packard Theater in April 2014 (photo: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in ‘The Awful Truth’) In April 2014, the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theater in Culpeper, Virginia, will celebrate Hollywood screwball comedy movies, from the Marx Brothers’ antics to Peter Bogdanovich’s early ’70s homage What’s Up, Doc?, a box office blockbuster starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. Additionally, the Packard Theater will present a couple of rarities, including an epoch-making box office disaster that led to the demise of a major studio. Among Packard’s April 2014 screwball comedies are the following: Leo McCarey’s Duck Soup (Saturday, April 5) — actually more zany, wacky, and totally insane than merely "screwball" — in which Groucho Marx stars as the recently (un)elected dictator of Freedonia, abetted by siblings Harpo Marx and Chico Marx, in addition to Groucho’s perennial foil,...
- 3/27/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in ‘Mata Hari’: The wrath of the censors (See previous post: "Ramon Novarro in One of the Best Silent Movies.") George Fitzmaurice’s romantic spy melodrama Mata Hari (1931) was well received by critics and enthusiastically embraced by moviegoers. The Greta Garbo / Ramon Novarro combo — the first time Novarro took second billing since becoming a star — turned Mata Hari into a major worldwide blockbuster, with $2.22 million in worldwide rentals. The film became Garbo’s biggest international success to date, and Novarro’s highest-grossing picture after Ben-Hur. (Photo: Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in Mata Hari.) Among MGM’s 1932 releases — Mata Hari opened on December 31, 1931 — only W.S. Van Dyke’s Tarzan, the Ape Man, featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Edmund Goulding’s all-star Best Picture Academy Award winner Grand Hotel (also with Garbo, in addition to Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and...
- 8/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
This week’s movie poster I present for no better reason than that I came across it this week and fell in love with it. Not that I have any great love for motorbikes or CHiPS-style shenanigans, and I’d never heard of the film before, nor its director William Nigh. But I love its blazing color, its windswept momentum, its faultless typography, and of course its romantic French title, Agent Cyclone (though its German title, Achtung - Überfallkommando!, is even better). The only thing I don't like is the over-large Universal Film title in its blackletter font, something that works much better on French horror movie posters than it does here.
Made in 1936, Crash Donovan runs just over an hour and weaves a series of chases and stunts around a love triangle consisting of carnival stuntman Michael “Crash” Donovan, California Highway Patrolman Johnnie Allen and Doris Tennyson, daughter of the chief of the Patrol.
Made in 1936, Crash Donovan runs just over an hour and weaves a series of chases and stunts around a love triangle consisting of carnival stuntman Michael “Crash” Donovan, California Highway Patrolman Johnnie Allen and Doris Tennyson, daughter of the chief of the Patrol.
- 3/8/2013
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Silent All Quiet On The Western Front: TCM's Library of Congress Tribute [Photo: Kay Francis, Leslie Howard in British Agent.] Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 8:00 Pm The Constant Nymph (1943). A composer finds inspiration in his wife's romantic cousin. Dir: Edmund Goulding. Cast: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith. Bw-112 mins. 10:00 Pm Baby Face (1933). A beautiful schemer sleeps her way to the top of a banking empire. Dir: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook. Bw-76 mins. 11:30 Pm Two Heads On A Pillow (1934). Once-married attorneys face off during a heated divorce case. Dir: William Nigh. Cast: Neil Hamilton, Miriam Jordan, Henry Armetta. Bw-68 mins. 12:45 Am All Quiet On The Western Front (1930). Young German soldiers try to adjust to the horrors of World War I. Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray. Bw-134 mins. 3:15 Am : Will Rogers Winging Around Europe (1927). Bw-0 mins. 3:30 Am...
- 9/29/2011
- Alt Film Guide
Joan Fontaine-Charles Boyer in Rare The Constant Nymph on TCM. [Photo: Miriam Jordan, Neil Hamilton in Two Heads on a Pillow.] Besides the Edmund Goulding-directed Joan Fontaine-Charles Boyer-Alexis Smith movie The Constant Nymph, other Library of Congress Film Archive entries on Turner Classic Movies tonight include Two Heads on a Pillow (1934), a B comedy directed by William Nigh, an important late silent-era director (Lon Chaney's Mr. Wu, Ramon Novarro's Across to Singapore) later stuck with second-rate fare. Apparently a sort of Adam's Rib predecessor, Two Heads on a Pillow features former silent-era leading man Neil Hamilton (Batman's Commissioner Gordon) and minor leading lady Miriam Jordan as once-married attorneys involved in a divorce case. It's probably worth watching even if only because of its cast, which also includes silent-era veterans Betty Blythe (the title role in the now-lost The Queen of Sheba) and Claire McDowell (Ramon Novarro's leprosy-stricken mom in Ben-Hur,...
- 9/29/2011
- Alt Film Guide
Lon Chaney on TCM: He Who Gets Slapped, The Unknown, Mr. Wu Get ready for more extreme perversity in West of Zanzibar (1928), as Chaney abuses both Warner Baxter and Mary Nolan, while the great-looking Mr. Wu (1927) offers Chaney as a Chinese creep about to destroy the life of lovely Renée Adorée — one of the best and prettiest actresses of the 1920s. Adorée — who was just as effective in her few early talkies — died of tuberculosis in 1933. Also worth mentioning, the great John Arnold was Mr. Wu's cinematographer. I'm no fan of Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), or The Phantom of the Opera (1925), but Chaney's work in them — especially in Hunchback — is quite remarkable. I mean, his performances aren't necessarily great, but they're certainly unforgettable. Chaney's leading ladies — all of whom are in love with younger, better-looking men — are Loretta Young (Laugh, Clown, Laugh), Patsy Ruth Miller...
- 8/15/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Oh, MGM. So many classics chills have you provided over the years. It's so good to see your long lost terrors being rediscovered and redistributed. That's right, kids! A fresh crop of vintage spookshow horror is on its way and we've got all the details for you right here!
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is bringing more classics to DVD in May through the unique “manufacturing on demand” (Mod). The newest selection of available films is a part of MGM’s Limited Edition Collection and available through major online retailers.
This latest batch features:
Mr. Wong, Detective (1938): Mr. Wong investigates the deaths of 3 partners in the poison gas export trade - each death occurring while the person was alone in his quarters. Stars Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Maxine Jennings. Directed by William Nigh.
The Mystery Of Mr. Wong (1939): Chinese criminologist Mr. Wong investigates the murder of a curio...
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is bringing more classics to DVD in May through the unique “manufacturing on demand” (Mod). The newest selection of available films is a part of MGM’s Limited Edition Collection and available through major online retailers.
This latest batch features:
Mr. Wong, Detective (1938): Mr. Wong investigates the deaths of 3 partners in the poison gas export trade - each death occurring while the person was alone in his quarters. Stars Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Maxine Jennings. Directed by William Nigh.
The Mystery Of Mr. Wong (1939): Chinese criminologist Mr. Wong investigates the murder of a curio...
- 5/12/2011
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Oscar winner Danny Boyle (127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire) returns to the theatre to direct this visionary new production, Frankenstein by Nick Dear, based on the novel by Mary Shelley.
For the first time ever, National Theatre Live will broadcast two separate performances of a production. Throughout the run of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller are alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. Audiences in cinemas will have the chance to see both combinations, with two broadcasts a week apart.
April 2 at 11am: Benedict Cumberbatch (Creature), Jonny Lee Miller (Victor)
April 9 at 11am: Jonny Lee Miller (Creature), Benedict Cumberbatch (Victor)
You Can Catch Both Of These At The Tivoli Theater In St. Louis.
Synopsis:
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein.s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes,...
For the first time ever, National Theatre Live will broadcast two separate performances of a production. Throughout the run of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller are alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. Audiences in cinemas will have the chance to see both combinations, with two broadcasts a week apart.
April 2 at 11am: Benedict Cumberbatch (Creature), Jonny Lee Miller (Victor)
April 9 at 11am: Jonny Lee Miller (Creature), Benedict Cumberbatch (Victor)
You Can Catch Both Of These At The Tivoli Theater In St. Louis.
Synopsis:
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein.s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes,...
- 3/30/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
© BBC Screenterrier reported back in March on the open casting call to find the lead characters for a new Cbbc comedy drama series called Sadie Jones,
Newcomer Georgia Lock was cast in the lead role of Sadie.
Now called Sadie J, and billed as a feel-good comedy about a feisty 13-year-old girl with the sass of Cheryl Cole and the punch of a prize fighter, the series finally hits our screens on Friday 14th January at 5:25pm on the Cbbc channel.
In the first episode Crushamondo Sadie falls for geek-turned-hottie Joe, but how can she compete with trog-face Chloe? By proving to him that she's not a grease monkey in overalls. Cue one of Kit's makeovers.
14 year old Ronan Carter from Brighouse, who attends Stardom School of Performing Arts and Casting Agency, plays the flamboyant Kit, one of Sadie's best friends.
Newcomer Priyanka Patel stars as Dede, Sadie's other best friend,...
Newcomer Georgia Lock was cast in the lead role of Sadie.
Now called Sadie J, and billed as a feel-good comedy about a feisty 13-year-old girl with the sass of Cheryl Cole and the punch of a prize fighter, the series finally hits our screens on Friday 14th January at 5:25pm on the Cbbc channel.
In the first episode Crushamondo Sadie falls for geek-turned-hottie Joe, but how can she compete with trog-face Chloe? By proving to him that she's not a grease monkey in overalls. Cue one of Kit's makeovers.
14 year old Ronan Carter from Brighouse, who attends Stardom School of Performing Arts and Casting Agency, plays the flamboyant Kit, one of Sadie's best friends.
Newcomer Priyanka Patel stars as Dede, Sadie's other best friend,...
- 1/3/2011
- by noreply@blogger.com (ScreenTerrier)
- ScreenTerrier
Ernest Torrence, John Gilbert, Mary Nolan, Desert Nights Desert Nights (1929) Direction: William Nigh Screenplay: Endre Bohem and Lenore J. Coffee, from a treatment by Willis Goldbeck; titles by Ruth Cummings and Marian Ainslee; story by John Thomas Neville and Dale Van Every Cast: John Gilbert, Mary Nolan, Ernest Torrence Desert Nights arrived in theaters on the coattails of the silent era. By 1929, audiences wanted lots of singing and dancing — talkies! And they might have been impatient to hear John Gilbert's speaking voice. I can't tell whether sound would have improved it or not, but Desert Nights has a lot of title cards filled with dialog. The film tells the story of diamond thieves who get stranded in the African desert and almost die of thirst. Cinematographer James Wong Howe perfectly captures the hot, dry, burning sands of the Sahara — which in reality was likely the Mojave in Hollywood's [...]...
- 12/7/2010
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
I love the fact that there are television channels completely devoted to classic movies of all kinds, but I love any news that involves previously unreleased films being able for my grubby little hands even more. Especially if they involve the words "murder" and "zoo" in the same title. According to Variety, Universal - famous for its monsters and using the earth as its logo - is teaming up with Turner Classic Movies in order to bring some excellent old horror titles to DVDs that will be released this weekend. The titles in question? Murders in the Zoo (1933) - A flick where a man uses animals to kill men who seem taken with his wife. The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942) - A strange film where a shipwrecked man stumbles upon an island that's been overtaken by a mad scientist. The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942) - William Nigh's movie about an avenger who kills men...
- 10/29/2009
- by Dr. Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The B Noir festival is a hit! It's always a delight to hear about retrospective programming doing well. There are still people out there interested in and trying out old movies in theaters. Or maybe the San Francisco noir crowd is just that strong. I'd written about "I Wake Up Dreaming" a couple of weeks back (read it here); I have since went and saw some of the movies they're playing.
If you're in the Bay Area and you haven't spared the time, there's good news. The festival was supposed to end this Thursday, but I have just been informed that since it is selling out so well, they've decided to add another week of showings!
The list of extra screenings is at the bottom, but before that, I want to recommend trying to get to this Friday's showing of The Devil Thumbs a Ride, which I managed to catch on the fest's opening night.
If you're in the Bay Area and you haven't spared the time, there's good news. The festival was supposed to end this Thursday, but I have just been informed that since it is selling out so well, they've decided to add another week of showings!
The list of extra screenings is at the bottom, but before that, I want to recommend trying to get to this Friday's showing of The Devil Thumbs a Ride, which I managed to catch on the fest's opening night.
- 5/27/2009
- by Arya Ponto
- JustPressPlay.net
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