One of the greatest crime movies of all time, "The French Connection" is William Friedkin's gritty drama based on a true story. Gene Hackman stars as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a no-nonsense, rule-breaking cop who gets caught up investigating a case in which the Italian mob is bringing drugs into America with the help of a French heroin-smuggling syndicate. But this isn't an open-and-shut case. The lawmen are seemingly foiled at every turn, and things end on a shocking, bleak note. It's an amazing movie with one of the best chase sequences ever captured on film. "The French Connection" was released nearly 53 years ago, which means many of its cast members have left us, along with director Friedkin, who died last year. But a few are still around. So here are the only major actors still alive from "The French Connection."
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- 2/17/2024
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
For “Judas and the Black Messiah” production designer Sam Lisenco and director Shaka King, “a big factor … in the development of the look of the movie was, how can we make this as truthful as possible, but keep in mind the kinds of action movies that make the medicine go down a little easy?” Watch our exclusive video interview with Lisenco above.
“Judas” tells the true story of Chicago Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya), who was assassinated by the FBI in 1969. But Lisenco and King wanted to create a look reminiscent not just of the history of Chicago in the 1960s, but of thrillers from the period like “The Hot Rocks” and “The Seven-Ups.” “If we started to explore those kinds of genre-normative cues, even subconsciously, we would be able to come up with a language that was much more entertaining while being as historically accurate as possible.
“Judas” tells the true story of Chicago Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya), who was assassinated by the FBI in 1969. But Lisenco and King wanted to create a look reminiscent not just of the history of Chicago in the 1960s, but of thrillers from the period like “The Hot Rocks” and “The Seven-Ups.” “If we started to explore those kinds of genre-normative cues, even subconsciously, we would be able to come up with a language that was much more entertaining while being as historically accurate as possible.
- 1/25/2021
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
There’s nothing like a good car chase in a movie. Maybe it’s the daring-do of the stunt drivers that makes you feel you’re in danger even though you’re comfortably in your seat, or the high stakes of the moment in which the characters we’re rooting for will either get out of the situation or have a gruesome finale, but an impressive car-chase scene can make even a mediocre movie a beloved classic. What makes a car chase legendary, you ask? They’re the ones that keep you at the edge of your seat and actually fit in with the rest of the plot. While the “Fast and Furious” movies have collectively taken the car chase to the next level, they don’t count. They’re far too CGI-enhanced. The 1970’s may have marked a new age in American cinema, but it was also a decade...
- 4/24/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Cinema Retro's Todd Garbarini with Sonny Grosso at a screening of The French Connection in 2010.
By Todd Garbarini
Salvatore Anthony Grosso, known affectionately as Sonny Grosso, passed away on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at the age of 89. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, his work most assuredly did. Mr. Grosso was originally a New York City police detective who was the partner of Detective Eddie Egan. These two gentlemen both, on a hunch, broke up an organized crime ring which resulted in the seizure of 112 pounds of heroin. This then-unprecedented bust in 1961 provided the basis for the 1969 Robin Moore chronicle of their exploits, The French Connection, and was made into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name two years later, resulting in a Best Picture win for producer Philip D’Antoni, Best Director for William Friedkin, Best Actor for Gene Hackman (he personified Eddie Egan’s Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle...
By Todd Garbarini
Salvatore Anthony Grosso, known affectionately as Sonny Grosso, passed away on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at the age of 89. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, his work most assuredly did. Mr. Grosso was originally a New York City police detective who was the partner of Detective Eddie Egan. These two gentlemen both, on a hunch, broke up an organized crime ring which resulted in the seizure of 112 pounds of heroin. This then-unprecedented bust in 1961 provided the basis for the 1969 Robin Moore chronicle of their exploits, The French Connection, and was made into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name two years later, resulting in a Best Picture win for producer Philip D’Antoni, Best Director for William Friedkin, Best Actor for Gene Hackman (he personified Eddie Egan’s Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle...
- 1/26/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Actor Ken Kercheval, best known as Texas businessman Cliff Barnes on the CBS series Dallas, has died. A cause of death is not known, but a spokesperson at the Frist Funeral Home in the actor’s hometown of Clinton, Indiana, told Deadline that Kercheval died Sunday. He was 83.
Kercheval’s character was a signature presence on Dallas — along with his bitter rival J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Barnes was the only character to appear in all 14 seasons (1978-1991) of the soapy saga about Texas crude and crude Texans. The character was originally modeled on Robert F. Kennedy but that template didn’t hold for long. Instead Barnes was defined by his family’s rivalry with the Ewings and his character was spun in varied directions as needed — his job title, for instance, changed a dozen times over the course of the series.
Kercheval was also in the 1986 prequel Dallas: The Early Years, a TV movie that fleshed out the franchise’s central conflict, the rivalry between the two oil industry families. Kercheval also returned to the character for the 1996 television movie Dallas: J.R. Returns and then again for three seasons (2012-2014) of a Dallas revival, which presented the career-bouncing Barnes as a casino industry player.
Dallas also gave Kercheval a chance to experiment with job directions himself: He went behind the camera to direct an episode of the series in each of its final two seasons.
Kercheval was born July 15, 1935, in Wolcottville, Ind., and raised in nearby Clinton. A music and drama major at Indiana University he later studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Kercheval began his professional acting career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1962 play Something About A Soldier. He went on to appear Off-Broadway in 1972’s Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill revue. His other theatre credits include The Apple Tree, Cabaret (replacing Bert Convy as Cliff), and Here’s Where I Belong. He also appeared as the title character in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, co-starring with Herschel Bernardi, Maria Karnilova, Julia Migenes, Leonard Frey, and Pia Zadora.
It was television, however, where Kercheval became a face familiar to millions. His credits included appearances on E.R., L.A. Law,, Murder She Wrote, CHiPs, Highway to Heaven, Kojak, The Love Boat, Matlock, and Starsky & Hutch. His film credits include Network, The Seven-Ups and F.I.S.T. in the 1970s.
Kercheval’s character was a signature presence on Dallas — along with his bitter rival J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Barnes was the only character to appear in all 14 seasons (1978-1991) of the soapy saga about Texas crude and crude Texans. The character was originally modeled on Robert F. Kennedy but that template didn’t hold for long. Instead Barnes was defined by his family’s rivalry with the Ewings and his character was spun in varied directions as needed — his job title, for instance, changed a dozen times over the course of the series.
Kercheval was also in the 1986 prequel Dallas: The Early Years, a TV movie that fleshed out the franchise’s central conflict, the rivalry between the two oil industry families. Kercheval also returned to the character for the 1996 television movie Dallas: J.R. Returns and then again for three seasons (2012-2014) of a Dallas revival, which presented the career-bouncing Barnes as a casino industry player.
Dallas also gave Kercheval a chance to experiment with job directions himself: He went behind the camera to direct an episode of the series in each of its final two seasons.
Kercheval was born July 15, 1935, in Wolcottville, Ind., and raised in nearby Clinton. A music and drama major at Indiana University he later studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Kercheval began his professional acting career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1962 play Something About A Soldier. He went on to appear Off-Broadway in 1972’s Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill revue. His other theatre credits include The Apple Tree, Cabaret (replacing Bert Convy as Cliff), and Here’s Where I Belong. He also appeared as the title character in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, co-starring with Herschel Bernardi, Maria Karnilova, Julia Migenes, Leonard Frey, and Pia Zadora.
It was television, however, where Kercheval became a face familiar to millions. His credits included appearances on E.R., L.A. Law,, Murder She Wrote, CHiPs, Highway to Heaven, Kojak, The Love Boat, Matlock, and Starsky & Hutch. His film credits include Network, The Seven-Ups and F.I.S.T. in the 1970s.
- 4/24/2019
- by Geoff Boucher
- Deadline Film + TV
Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) is a cop. He’s been on the force for a while, long enough to see an old partner (Don Johnson) get a fancy desk job and help get a new partner, Anthony (Vince Vaughn), busted for excessive force. The two of them were filmed interrogating a suspect — if you’d call placing your boot on the neck of a handcuffed man on his fire escape in broad daylight “interrogating.” The brass is not happy. Both men are temporarily suspended without pay. Brett is told that...
- 3/20/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Philip D’Antoni, producer of the first R-Rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, “The French Connection,” died last week of kidney failure, according to his son-in-law, Mark Rathaus. He was 89.
D’Antoni made his name in the ’60s and ’70s as a producer of films with iconic car chases. In “French Connection,” New York detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) chases down a subway train holding a wanted sniper with a stranger’s Pontiac. D’Antoni was also producer on the famous 1968 crime film “Bullitt,” which is known for a climactic car chase through the streets of San Francisco with Steve McQueen behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang.
Also Read: Verne Troyer, Mini-Me Actor in 'Austin Powers,' Dies at 49
After those films, D’Antoni also served as producer on several more crime movies and TV shows, including ABC’s “Strike Force,” and the 1973 Roy Scheider film “The Seven-Ups,” the latter of which he also directed.
Like “Bullitt” and “French Connection,” “Seven-Ups” features a major car chase, with Bill Hickman getting chased by Scheider in a pursuit on the streets of New York in a pair of Pontiacs. In all three films, Hickman was involved as a stunt driver in the chase sequences.
Also Read: Avicii Mourned by Calvin Harris, Zedd, Liam Payne: 'I'm Crying on the Airplane'
New Hollywood filmmaker William Friedkin, who directed “The French Connection,” honored his friend and collaborator on Twitter.
Phil D’Antoni. My friend and the great producer
Of The French Connection has died. May he Rest
In peace
– William Friedkin (@WilliamFriedkin) April 23, 2018
D’Antoni is survived by his wife, five children, and nine grandchildren.
Read original story Philip D’Antoni, ‘French Connection’ Producer, Dies at 89 At TheWrap...
D’Antoni made his name in the ’60s and ’70s as a producer of films with iconic car chases. In “French Connection,” New York detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) chases down a subway train holding a wanted sniper with a stranger’s Pontiac. D’Antoni was also producer on the famous 1968 crime film “Bullitt,” which is known for a climactic car chase through the streets of San Francisco with Steve McQueen behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang.
Also Read: Verne Troyer, Mini-Me Actor in 'Austin Powers,' Dies at 49
After those films, D’Antoni also served as producer on several more crime movies and TV shows, including ABC’s “Strike Force,” and the 1973 Roy Scheider film “The Seven-Ups,” the latter of which he also directed.
Like “Bullitt” and “French Connection,” “Seven-Ups” features a major car chase, with Bill Hickman getting chased by Scheider in a pursuit on the streets of New York in a pair of Pontiacs. In all three films, Hickman was involved as a stunt driver in the chase sequences.
Also Read: Avicii Mourned by Calvin Harris, Zedd, Liam Payne: 'I'm Crying on the Airplane'
New Hollywood filmmaker William Friedkin, who directed “The French Connection,” honored his friend and collaborator on Twitter.
Phil D’Antoni. My friend and the great producer
Of The French Connection has died. May he Rest
In peace
– William Friedkin (@WilliamFriedkin) April 23, 2018
D’Antoni is survived by his wife, five children, and nine grandchildren.
Read original story Philip D’Antoni, ‘French Connection’ Producer, Dies at 89 At TheWrap...
- 4/23/2018
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Philip D'Antoni, who won an Academy Award for his work on The French Connection and produced two other crime thrillers also renowned for their amazing car-chase sequences, has died. He was 89.
D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told The Hollywood Reporter.
D'Antoni also produced the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt (1968), famous for its 11-minute car chase in and around San Francisco, and he produced — and directed — The Seven-Ups (1973), which featured a NYPD cop (French Connection actor Roy Scheider) in hot pursuit of...
D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told The Hollywood Reporter.
D'Antoni also produced the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt (1968), famous for its 11-minute car chase in and around San Francisco, and he produced — and directed — The Seven-Ups (1973), which featured a NYPD cop (French Connection actor Roy Scheider) in hot pursuit of...
- 4/23/2018
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Philip D’Antoni, who produced Oscar-winning films like “The French Connection” and “Bullitt,” died at age 89 on April 15. The producer died at his home in New York.
D’Antoni was best known for the 1971 crime drama “The French Connection,” which won three Golden Globes and five Oscars, including best picture. Gene Hackman won for best actor and William Friedkin for best director and the film also won best adapted screenplay and best film editing. Also on the late producer’s resume is the Steve McQueen action flick “Bullitt,” which won an Oscar for film editing.
TV documentaries like “Elizabeth Taylor in London,” “Sophia Loren in Rome,” and the “Proud Land” miniseries made up much of D’Antoni’s early work in Hollywood in the early 1960s. “Bullitt” marked his first feature film producing credit in 1968, and from there he went on to produce “The French Connection” before returning to TV later in life.
D’Antoni was best known for the 1971 crime drama “The French Connection,” which won three Golden Globes and five Oscars, including best picture. Gene Hackman won for best actor and William Friedkin for best director and the film also won best adapted screenplay and best film editing. Also on the late producer’s resume is the Steve McQueen action flick “Bullitt,” which won an Oscar for film editing.
TV documentaries like “Elizabeth Taylor in London,” “Sophia Loren in Rome,” and the “Proud Land” miniseries made up much of D’Antoni’s early work in Hollywood in the early 1960s. “Bullitt” marked his first feature film producing credit in 1968, and from there he went on to produce “The French Connection” before returning to TV later in life.
- 4/23/2018
- by Christi Carras
- Variety Film + TV
Forget All Singing! – All Dancing! Tonight’s bill of fare is wall-to-wall high grade crime action. Roy Scheider leads a great cast in an all-New Yawk tale of gangsters, kidnapping and betrayal. The police tactics of Scheider’s special felony crime squad would today land them all in jail, but they’re all stand-up guys. And buckle up for one of the best, most realistic pre-cgi auto chase scenes ever filmed.
The Seven-Ups
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval, Larry Haines, Richard Lynch, Bill Hickman, Joe Spinell.
Cinematography: Urs Furrer
Film Editors: Jerry Greenberg, John C. Horger, Stephen A. Rotter
Stunt Coordinator: Bill Hickman
Original Music: Don Ellis
Written by Sonny Grosso, Alexander Jacobs, Albert Ruben
Produced by Philip D’Antoni, Kenneth Utt, Barry J. Weitz
Directed...
The Seven-Ups
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval, Larry Haines, Richard Lynch, Bill Hickman, Joe Spinell.
Cinematography: Urs Furrer
Film Editors: Jerry Greenberg, John C. Horger, Stephen A. Rotter
Stunt Coordinator: Bill Hickman
Original Music: Don Ellis
Written by Sonny Grosso, Alexander Jacobs, Albert Ruben
Produced by Philip D’Antoni, Kenneth Utt, Barry J. Weitz
Directed...
- 3/24/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
There’s nothing like a good car chase in a movie. Maybe it’s the daring-do of the stunt drivers that makes you feel you’re in danger even though you’re comfortably in your seat, or the high stakes of the moment in which the characters we’re rooting for will either get out of the situation or have a gruesome finale, but an impressive car-chase scene can make even a mediocre movie a beloved classic. What makes a car chase legendary, you ask? They’re the ones that keep you at the edge of your seat and actually fit in with the rest of the plot.
Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver opens Wednesday, June 28th. Baby (Ansel Elgort), is an innocent-looking getaway driver who gets hardened criminals from point A to point B, with daredevil flair and a personal soundtrack running through his head. That’s because he...
Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver opens Wednesday, June 28th. Baby (Ansel Elgort), is an innocent-looking getaway driver who gets hardened criminals from point A to point B, with daredevil flair and a personal soundtrack running through his head. That’s because he...
- 6/27/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
By Todd Garbarini
I first became acquainted with director Peter Medak’s work in 1983 when I saw his 1980 masterwork The Changeling, one of the most frightening ghost stories shot in color. Also known for 1972’s The Ruling Class and 1990’s The Krays, Mr. Medak made the film noir Romeo is Bleeding, shot in 1992 and released on Friday, February 4, 1994. The film is told in an elliptical narrative fashion, starting with the end and going back in time to show us how the protagonist got to where he is. We first see Jack Grimaldi in a dilapidated diner, his voiceover indicative of a man full of regrets who is probably in the Witness Protection Program and forced to lead a life bereft of any true purpose or feeling. Once upon a time, he was a police officer in New York City and his partners are comprised of actors we know well today:...
I first became acquainted with director Peter Medak’s work in 1983 when I saw his 1980 masterwork The Changeling, one of the most frightening ghost stories shot in color. Also known for 1972’s The Ruling Class and 1990’s The Krays, Mr. Medak made the film noir Romeo is Bleeding, shot in 1992 and released on Friday, February 4, 1994. The film is told in an elliptical narrative fashion, starting with the end and going back in time to show us how the protagonist got to where he is. We first see Jack Grimaldi in a dilapidated diner, his voiceover indicative of a man full of regrets who is probably in the Witness Protection Program and forced to lead a life bereft of any true purpose or feeling. Once upon a time, he was a police officer in New York City and his partners are comprised of actors we know well today:...
- 8/31/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The French Connection 45th Anniversary Screening in Los Angeles
By Todd Garbarini
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning 1971 crime drama The French Connection. The 102-minute film will be screened on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Fernando Rey, Marcel Bozuffi, and the two real-life detectives who broke the actual case: the late Eddie Eagen and Salvatore “Sonny” Grosso, The French Connection is a New York movie of the first order and paved the way for gritty crime dramas like The Seven-Ups and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
Director Friedkin is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session following the film.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
45th Anniversary Screening
This gritty and gripping police thriller won five...
By Todd Garbarini
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning 1971 crime drama The French Connection. The 102-minute film will be screened on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Fernando Rey, Marcel Bozuffi, and the two real-life detectives who broke the actual case: the late Eddie Eagen and Salvatore “Sonny” Grosso, The French Connection is a New York movie of the first order and paved the way for gritty crime dramas like The Seven-Ups and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
Director Friedkin is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session following the film.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
45th Anniversary Screening
This gritty and gripping police thriller won five...
- 6/11/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The advertising promised a surfeit of sleaze -- but the film is a superior thriller about a real-life, low-rent serial killers from back in the late 1940s. Tony Lo Bianco and the great Shirley Stoler are Ray and Martha, mixed-up lovers running a Merry Widow racket through the personals ads in romance magazines. Leonard Kastle's film is dramatically and psychologically sound, while the disc extras detail the true crime story, which is far, far, sleazier. The Honeymoon Killers Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 200 1969 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 107 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 29, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Shirley Stoler, Tony Lo Bianco, Mary Jane Higby, Doris Roberts, Kip McArdle, Marilyn Chris, Dortha Duckworth, Barbara Cason, Ann Harris Cinematography Oliver Wood Film Editor Richard Brophy, Stanley Warnow Music Gustav Mahler Produced by Warren Steibel Written and Directed by Leonard Kastle
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The ad campaign for this crime shocker...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The ad campaign for this crime shocker...
- 9/29/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By
Alex Simon
Hollywood, like any place that is more about its lore than the actual sum of its parts, is full of unsung heroes who have given audiences some of their most cherished cinematic moments. Odds are if you’re a movie buff, you’ll remember the car chases in iconic films like Bullitt, The French Connection and The Seven-Ups. Stuntman, stunt driver and later, stunt coordinator Bill Hickman was one of those people who remained virtually anonymous during his lifetime, but is responsible for some of cinema’s most iconic, and hair-raising moments.
The Los Angeles native was born in 1921 and had been working in Hollywood for ten years before landing his first (visible) role in Stanley Kramer’s legendary The Wild One, the 1953 film that cemented star Marlon Brando’s status as an icon of post-war teen rebellion. Hickman can be seen as one of Brando’s...
Alex Simon
Hollywood, like any place that is more about its lore than the actual sum of its parts, is full of unsung heroes who have given audiences some of their most cherished cinematic moments. Odds are if you’re a movie buff, you’ll remember the car chases in iconic films like Bullitt, The French Connection and The Seven-Ups. Stuntman, stunt driver and later, stunt coordinator Bill Hickman was one of those people who remained virtually anonymous during his lifetime, but is responsible for some of cinema’s most iconic, and hair-raising moments.
The Los Angeles native was born in 1921 and had been working in Hollywood for ten years before landing his first (visible) role in Stanley Kramer’s legendary The Wild One, the 1953 film that cemented star Marlon Brando’s status as an icon of post-war teen rebellion. Hickman can be seen as one of Brando’s...
- 3/17/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Steven Awalt – author interviewed by Todd Garbarini
“Well, it’s about time, Charlie!”
Dennis Weaver utters these words in my favorite Steven Spielberg film, Duel, a production that was originally commissioned by Universal Pictures as an Mow, industry shorthand for “movie of the week”, which aired on Saturday, November 13, 1971. The reviews were glowing; the film’s admirers greatly outweighed its detractors and it put Mr. Spielberg, arguably the most phenomenally successful director in the history of the medium, on a path to a career that would make any contemporary director green with envy. Followed by a spate of contractually obligated television outings, Duel would prove to be the springboard that would catapult Mr. Spielberg into the realm that he was shooting for since his youth: that of feature film directing. Duel would also land him in the court of Hollywood producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck and get him his...
“Well, it’s about time, Charlie!”
Dennis Weaver utters these words in my favorite Steven Spielberg film, Duel, a production that was originally commissioned by Universal Pictures as an Mow, industry shorthand for “movie of the week”, which aired on Saturday, November 13, 1971. The reviews were glowing; the film’s admirers greatly outweighed its detractors and it put Mr. Spielberg, arguably the most phenomenally successful director in the history of the medium, on a path to a career that would make any contemporary director green with envy. Followed by a spate of contractually obligated television outings, Duel would prove to be the springboard that would catapult Mr. Spielberg into the realm that he was shooting for since his youth: that of feature film directing. Duel would also land him in the court of Hollywood producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck and get him his...
- 10/16/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Todd Garbarini
Scream Factory continues their winning streak of releasing horror film favorites with their double feature Blu-ray release of 1988’s Bad Dreams and 1982’s Visiting Hours. They originally released these films together on DVD in September 2011.
Bad Dreams opened on Friday, April 8, 1988 and is, in hindsight, eerily prescient of David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidian religious sect who met a horrific end when the FBI closed in on him and his compound ignited into a conflagration on April 19, 1993 in Waco, TX. Jim Jones and the Jonestown deaths in 1978 also come to mind. In this film, the late Richard Lynch plays a cult leader named Harris who convinces a group of people that love and unity are the only ways to live, and he shows that love by dousing them all in gasoline and lighting them on fire. Jennifer Rubin plays Cynthia, a confused and reluctant holdout...
Scream Factory continues their winning streak of releasing horror film favorites with their double feature Blu-ray release of 1988’s Bad Dreams and 1982’s Visiting Hours. They originally released these films together on DVD in September 2011.
Bad Dreams opened on Friday, April 8, 1988 and is, in hindsight, eerily prescient of David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidian religious sect who met a horrific end when the FBI closed in on him and his compound ignited into a conflagration on April 19, 1993 in Waco, TX. Jim Jones and the Jonestown deaths in 1978 also come to mind. In this film, the late Richard Lynch plays a cult leader named Harris who convinces a group of people that love and unity are the only ways to live, and he shows that love by dousing them all in gasoline and lighting them on fire. Jennifer Rubin plays Cynthia, a confused and reluctant holdout...
- 2/19/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
I looked for him, but he was gone. I checked the boozy dives and the greasy spoons and the street corners where the not-nice girls hang out.
Nothing.
He was gone.
Tall guy, fedora, trench coat. You must’ve seen him. Usually smoking. He was always hanging around, poking his nose where it didn’t belong and usually getting it punched.
A real wisenheimer, too, always cracking wise.
You see him, you call. And if I find out you’ve been holding back…
If you don’t miss that kind of patois, you’re either too young to remember it, or you’ve got a tin ear. God knows, I miss it.
Back in May, some of you might remember I interviewed Road to Perdition author Max Allan Collins (http://www.soundonsight.org/max-allan-collins-road-to-perdition-on-carrying-on-mickey-spillanes-legacy/). A lot of the discussion had to do with his connection with one of the giants of private eye fiction,...
Nothing.
He was gone.
Tall guy, fedora, trench coat. You must’ve seen him. Usually smoking. He was always hanging around, poking his nose where it didn’t belong and usually getting it punched.
A real wisenheimer, too, always cracking wise.
You see him, you call. And if I find out you’ve been holding back…
If you don’t miss that kind of patois, you’re either too young to remember it, or you’ve got a tin ear. God knows, I miss it.
Back in May, some of you might remember I interviewed Road to Perdition author Max Allan Collins (http://www.soundonsight.org/max-allan-collins-road-to-perdition-on-carrying-on-mickey-spillanes-legacy/). A lot of the discussion had to do with his connection with one of the giants of private eye fiction,...
- 8/11/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Once again 2012 saw the passing of another cult favorite with the death of one of the exploitation cinema’s greatest villains. On 19 June 2012, the versatile and highly underrated Richard Lynch was found dead at his home in Yucca Valley, California by his good friend, actress Carol Vogel. She had not heard from him for several days and turned up at his home only to find his front door ajar and the actor’s body in the kitchen.
The death of Richard Lynch marked an end to a career that many fans felt should have been a lot better. After a promising start in films following extensive theatre training, Lynch never achieved the major success he deserved. It was a big shame because had real screen presence. He always brought a raw and dangerous edge to his many cinema and TV roles, that was made all the more powerful by his handsome,...
The death of Richard Lynch marked an end to a career that many fans felt should have been a lot better. After a promising start in films following extensive theatre training, Lynch never achieved the major success he deserved. It was a big shame because had real screen presence. He always brought a raw and dangerous edge to his many cinema and TV roles, that was made all the more powerful by his handsome,...
- 6/28/2012
- Shadowlocked
The popular young-adult fantasy novel series by Michael Scott, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, will be heading to the big screen as Lawless Entertainment will partner with the Australian based Ampco Films to adapt the first novel in the six-book series, The Alchemyst. Scott will adapt his own book, though no director has been announced. Production, however, is scheduled to begin in February in Australia and New Zealand. No distributor has picked it up, either.
Deadline is reporting that Gaumont International Television and producer Martha De Laurentiis are looking to adapt the 1968 cult film Barbarella into a TV series. Martha, and her husband, Dino De Laurentiis -who produced the original film- acquired the property back in 2007 and was working on a remake before his death in 2010. Gaumont International Television is a French based company that launched a small office in Los Angeles back in the fall of last year,...
Deadline is reporting that Gaumont International Television and producer Martha De Laurentiis are looking to adapt the 1968 cult film Barbarella into a TV series. Martha, and her husband, Dino De Laurentiis -who produced the original film- acquired the property back in 2007 and was working on a remake before his death in 2010. Gaumont International Television is a French based company that launched a small office in Los Angeles back in the fall of last year,...
- 6/21/2012
- by spaced-odyssey
- doorQ.com
His scarred countenance was the result of setting himself on fire during a late ’60s acid trip, but that disfigured look led to a ton of villain roles in a career that spanned four decades and over 100 films. I first took notice of Richard Lynch in the 1972 film Scarecrow when he played a scary prisoner who rapes Al Pacino. It was his first film and after that he almost always played bad guys in movies such as The Seven-ups, Open Season, God Told Me To, Deathsport, and The Ninth Configuration. He battled Chuck Norris as the head baddie in Invasion USA and attempted his own Freddy Kruger spin-off in 1988 starring in Bad Dreams. His performance as the evil “King Cromwell” in the hit fantasy film The Sword And The Sorceror won Lynch the Saturn Award for Best Actor from the Academy of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 1982. In 2007 he was...
- 6/20/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Rob Zombie continues to waste from page space on our site posting one oddball casting after another, this time revealing that Richard Lynch will be joining The Lords Of Salem, filming in just two weeks. Lynch, who will play the protagonist "Reverend John Hawthorne", joins the previously announced Meg Foster, Ernest Thomas, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Torsten Voges, Bruce Dern, Sheri Moon Zombie, Dee Wallace and Billy Drago in the film from the producing team behind Insidious and Paranormal Activity. Richard been in some classic films over the years such as Scarecrow, The Seven-Ups, God Told Me To, The Ninth Configuration and Serpico. You will also remember him as the world's scariest principle in Zombie's Halloween.
- 10/8/2011
- bloody-disgusting.com
Rob Zombie has let slip some more details regarding The Lords of Salem . "With only 9 days to go until cameras roll on The Lords Of Salem I thought it was time to let another cast member out into the wild. Richard Lynch has signed on to play Reverend John Hawthorne another key player in the saga of The Lords. He along with Judge Mather get down to some serious business. Christ, these two are the heroes? Richard been in some classic films over the years such as Scarecrow, The Seven-Ups, God Told Me To, The Ninth Configuration and Serpico, You will also remember him as the world's scariest principle in Halloween 2007. Richard has appeared in dozens of TV staples such as Baretta, Police Woman, Bionic Woman, Starsky and Hutch, Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team."...
- 10/8/2011
- shocktillyoudrop.com
Ryan Gosling shines as the man behind the wheel in Nicolas Winding Refn's gripping and lyrical take on Hollywood noir
Thirty years ago Colin Welland brandished his Chariots of Fire Oscar aloft at the Academy awards ceremony. Echoing the legendary words of Paul Revere to his fellow Bostonian colonials, he shouted: "The British are coming!" Similar hubris, one trusts, will not possess the current wave of Scandinavian filmmakers, though they might be forgiven for chanting: "The Vikings are coming!", that admonitory cry that once had the frightened denizens of our east coast lighting warning beacons and locking up their daughters. These past couple of weeks we've seen the Dane Lone Scherfig follow her British debut, An Education, with One Day, and Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of Let the Right One In, cross the North Sea to make his excellent version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Now another Dane,...
Thirty years ago Colin Welland brandished his Chariots of Fire Oscar aloft at the Academy awards ceremony. Echoing the legendary words of Paul Revere to his fellow Bostonian colonials, he shouted: "The British are coming!" Similar hubris, one trusts, will not possess the current wave of Scandinavian filmmakers, though they might be forgiven for chanting: "The Vikings are coming!", that admonitory cry that once had the frightened denizens of our east coast lighting warning beacons and locking up their daughters. These past couple of weeks we've seen the Dane Lone Scherfig follow her British debut, An Education, with One Day, and Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of Let the Right One In, cross the North Sea to make his excellent version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Now another Dane,...
- 9/24/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
(Celebrating award week with a look at one of Oscar’s most notable champions: The French Connection. Thirty-nine years ago, Connection – besides being one of the biggest hits of the 1970s – was the top winner at the Academy Awards walking away with gold for Best Picture [collected by producer Phil D’Antoni], Director [William Friedkin], Actor [Gene Hackman], Adapted Screenplay [by Ernest Tidyman], and Editing [Gerald Greenburg].)
“I grew up in a world where Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney …these were the heroes. Not the cops. Cops were the bad guys. Or they were stumbling around, couldn’t find their asses with both hands.”
So says Sonny Grosso, and it is a screen icongraphy he has worked hard to change. Grosso-Jacobson Communications has produced over 750 hours of programming for network and premium and basic cable television in its thirty-odd years. Though its output has run from Pee Wee’s Playhouse to adventure fare like Counterstrike, the most acclaimed of the company’s offerings...
“I grew up in a world where Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney …these were the heroes. Not the cops. Cops were the bad guys. Or they were stumbling around, couldn’t find their asses with both hands.”
So says Sonny Grosso, and it is a screen icongraphy he has worked hard to change. Grosso-Jacobson Communications has produced over 750 hours of programming for network and premium and basic cable television in its thirty-odd years. Though its output has run from Pee Wee’s Playhouse to adventure fare like Counterstrike, the most acclaimed of the company’s offerings...
- 2/20/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
(1973, 12, Optimum)
The New York film-maker Philip D'Antoni spent most of his career in television, but his reputation depends on the three seminal big-screen movies he produced 40 years ago: gritty police procedural thrillers about maverick cops, shot entirely on location and featuring extended, spectacular car chases staged in city streets.
They're Peter Yates's Bullitt (1968), William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups, which D'Antoni both produced and directed. Roy Scheider, a key actor of the 1970s, is promoted from the sidekick role in The French Connection to lead a special group of New York cops using unconventional methods to nail major crooks, sending them to jail for seven years and up, hence the jokey title.
His current investigations draw him via a devious informer into a battle between the mafia and a gang of freelance villains making a fortune snatching mob leaders for ransom. The chase in this film starts in the Bronx,...
The New York film-maker Philip D'Antoni spent most of his career in television, but his reputation depends on the three seminal big-screen movies he produced 40 years ago: gritty police procedural thrillers about maverick cops, shot entirely on location and featuring extended, spectacular car chases staged in city streets.
They're Peter Yates's Bullitt (1968), William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups, which D'Antoni both produced and directed. Roy Scheider, a key actor of the 1970s, is promoted from the sidekick role in The French Connection to lead a special group of New York cops using unconventional methods to nail major crooks, sending them to jail for seven years and up, hence the jokey title.
His current investigations draw him via a devious informer into a battle between the mafia and a gang of freelance villains making a fortune snatching mob leaders for ransom. The chase in this film starts in the Bronx,...
- 11/7/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
When referring to a movie that nabbed a second life, typically home video is the savior. There are countless movies that didn’t fare well in their original theatrical runs but have earned a so-called second life thanks to profitable video sales and rentals that make them much stronger than they ever were when they first arrived. Examples of this trend vary greatly, whether you’re referring to genre, era, proliferation (or magnitude of the “second life”) and, of course, how deserving it is. Most that get a boost long after its premiere got where it is now slowly, spread wide by word of mouth and critical re-analysis. Most of them were not well received during the initial run, and many are re-evaluated, and mistakes are mended. Among them: 2001, The Princess Bride, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, Office Space and Dazed and Confused. These...
- 3/13/2009
- by Matt Medlock
- JustPressPlay.net
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