Hollywood’s cross-genre master Michael Curtiz gets biography
Academy Award–winning director Michael Curtiz (1886–1962)—whose best-known films include Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945) and White Christmas (1954)—was in many ways the anti-auteur. During his 27-year tenure at Warner Bros., Curtiz directed swashbuckling adventures, westerns, musicals, war epics, romances, historical dramas, horror films, tearjerkers, melodramas, comedies, and film noir masterpieces. The ...
Anniversary Classics: From ‘Cape Fear’ to ‘Sudden Fear’
Aug
19
2017
From the people who just brought you ‘Cape Fear,’ a doubling down on the same theme: a 65th anniversary screening of ‘Sudden Fear.’ Those would be the folks at Anniversary Classics (produced and hosted by film critic Stephen Farber for Laemmle Theatres). This screening will prove that anything Donald Trump or Kim Un Jong can ...
Dark doings under SoCal sun in “Private Property” at TCM Fest
The Big Sleep and Horse Feathers are among the treasured favorites unspooling in spiffed-up restorations at the TCM Classic Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday night in Hollywood. But it’s not all starry A-listers on this year’s lineup. The vintage-film faithful will have a chance to discover an obscure and deeply weird independent film from ...
The French named it … let’s see how they do it … film noir
Jun
19
2015
The French coined the term “film noir” (both for dark plot lines and shadow-soaked visuals). In a land that reveres cinema like no other, France has hidden in its oeuvre crime films and dark melodramas that capture the essence of noir. A series spooling at the Aero Theatre this weekend, “The French Had a Name ...
Lizabeth Scott a ‘Tigresse’ to die for
A take-no-prisoners film noir, “Too Late for Tears” is saddled with a title that has all the clout of an unused tissue. Its alternate title, “Killer Bait,” is marginally less flimsy. But it was under the far more fitting French handle, “La Tigresse,” that a duplicate negative of the 1949 low-budget picture, which had badly ...
“Un Flic,” c’est fantastique
Jun
25
2013
A cool flick … concerns un flic. Alain Delon plays a French cop (“un flic”) who spends his days and nights chasing criminals, but doesn’t see the crook right under his nose. Simon (Richard Crenna) a smooth nightclub owner, works with a small crew to execute daring heists with big payoffs, while the la belle ...
Insanely great movies to sear Egyptian screen @ NOIR CITY
Apr
2
2013
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Film festival overload, otherwise known as April. The American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation join forces for the 15th annual Festival of Film Noir. Shady dames and murderous mobsters converge for dark tales of jaded gumshoes, femmes fatale and menacing heavies in gloriously gritty black and white. ...
Russ recalls Rusty Tamblyn, child star of GUN CRAZY @ UCLA Film & Television Archive
Mar
3
2013
“I never owned one and could care less about guns,” said the gentle-spirited Russ Tamblyn before a sold-out house at the Billy Wilder Theater on Friday night. The conversation with Shannon Kelley, Director of Public Programs for the UCLA Film & Television Archive, followed a screening of cult-classic, GUN CRAZY (Monogram Pictures, 1950). Tamblyn, then ...
“Gun Crazy”‘s Russ Tamblyn in person @ UCLA Film & Television Archive
Feb
27
2013
Super looking forward to Friday night at the Billy Wilder Theater for a screening of Joseph H. Lewis’ GUN CRAZY at UCLA Film & Television Archive. The film noir cult classic is a stylish example of the doomed-lovers-on-the-lam prototype; it anticipated “Bonnie and Clyde” two decades hence. The screening of “Gun Crazy” opens the UCLA ...
My dad, Dana Andrews, at the Egyptian Wednesday 1
Feb
16
2013
Looking forward to viewing the early film noir, Laura, directed by Otto Preminger and starrring Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb and Dana Andrews.Hosted by The American Cinematheque, the screening takes place next Wednesday night at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The showcase includes bonus appearances. Introducing the film will be Dana Andrews’ daughter, Susan Andrews.Author ...