The logline for The Offer is "The greatest movie almost never made."
There were many moving pieces that took a lot of finagling to get it all together.
Al Ruddy was the man moving all of the pieces. That alone would have been enough for the series.
Ruddy was the last lone producer who just so happened to produce arguably the best movie of all time.
But Ruddy's role gets muddled with the mob stuff, which, frankly, isn't that interesting.
Al's best moments are working the system and manipulating situations so that everything comes together.
The mob is a part of that, but corralling the studio execs is far more interesting.
Of course, that's just my opinion, but with The Offer Season 1 Episode 5, it got tiring watching Al get spun in circles by the mob and the local politicians.
Anybody with that kind of power just annoys the hell out of me.
There were many moving pieces that took a lot of finagling to get it all together.
Al Ruddy was the man moving all of the pieces. That alone would have been enough for the series.
Ruddy was the last lone producer who just so happened to produce arguably the best movie of all time.
But Ruddy's role gets muddled with the mob stuff, which, frankly, isn't that interesting.
Al's best moments are working the system and manipulating situations so that everything comes together.
The mob is a part of that, but corralling the studio execs is far more interesting.
Of course, that's just my opinion, but with The Offer Season 1 Episode 5, it got tiring watching Al get spun in circles by the mob and the local politicians.
Anybody with that kind of power just annoys the hell out of me.
- 5/13/2022
- by Carissa Pavlica
- TVfanatic
Since 1980, UCLA film grads and industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy have honored the very worst in cinema with the Razzie Awards. Here’s a look back to the worst pictures of the last four decades.
“Can’t Stop the Music” (1980)
The Golden Raspberry Awards got their start by recognizing this musical comedy, a justly mocked quasi-biopic of the Village People.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 8%
“Mommie Dearest” (1981)
Faye Dunaway goes full camp as Joan Crawford in a docudrama whose comedy was often unintentional.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 53%
“Inchon” (1982)
This bloated, over-budget Korean war film starring Laurence Olivier as Gen. Douglas MacArthur was an epic turkey.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%
“The Lonely Lady” (1983)
Pia Zadora followed her mysterious (and widely mocked in retrospect) Golden Globe win for “Butterfly” with this adaptation of a trashy Harold Robbins novel about a schoolgirl/wannabe screenwriter.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%
“Bolero” (1984)
Bo Derek ditches her “10” cornrows to...
“Can’t Stop the Music” (1980)
The Golden Raspberry Awards got their start by recognizing this musical comedy, a justly mocked quasi-biopic of the Village People.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 8%
“Mommie Dearest” (1981)
Faye Dunaway goes full camp as Joan Crawford in a docudrama whose comedy was often unintentional.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 53%
“Inchon” (1982)
This bloated, over-budget Korean war film starring Laurence Olivier as Gen. Douglas MacArthur was an epic turkey.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%
“The Lonely Lady” (1983)
Pia Zadora followed her mysterious (and widely mocked in retrospect) Golden Globe win for “Butterfly” with this adaptation of a trashy Harold Robbins novel about a schoolgirl/wannabe screenwriter.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%
“Bolero” (1984)
Bo Derek ditches her “10” cornrows to...
- 3/26/2022
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Roughly three months after her death, the stately Los Angeles compound of Martha De Laurentiis has popped up for sale, armed with a hefty $37.5 million asking price. The longtime home of the filmmaker and her legendary producer husband, Dino De Laurentiis, who passed away back in 2010, the nearly 6,000-square-foot mansion was built in the 1940s and sits in the mountains above Beverly Hills, replete with jaw-dropping vistas stretching from downtown L.A. to the Pacific Ocean.
The Italy-born Oscar winner and his American wife acquired the spread 35 years ago for about $2.8 million and subsequently embarked on an elaborate customization of the premises. They renovated the kitchen, converted a portion of the attic into a bedroom and bath, and added a tennis court; Martha also later installed solar panels in the canyon below.
Once upon a time, the residence was also owned by millionaire restaurateur Steve Crane, former husband of Lana Turner,...
The Italy-born Oscar winner and his American wife acquired the spread 35 years ago for about $2.8 million and subsequently embarked on an elaborate customization of the premises. They renovated the kitchen, converted a portion of the attic into a bedroom and bath, and added a tennis court; Martha also later installed solar panels in the canyon below.
Once upon a time, the residence was also owned by millionaire restaurateur Steve Crane, former husband of Lana Turner,...
- 3/17/2022
- by Wendy Bowman, Dirt.com
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“House of Gucci” has a transfixing backstabbing allure. It may be a drama about a crazy rich Euro chic Old World fashion dynasty, with a cast dominated by American actors scheming and emoting in gaudy Italian accents, but that doesn’t mean it’s some operatic piece of high camp. Based on the trailer, a lot of people apparently thought that’s just what it was going to be, yet trailers can be deceiving. There are moments in “House of Gucci” that will make your jaw drop, and moments you’ll laugh at the sheer audacity of what you’re seeing, but just because the characters in a drama behave in an over-the-top shameless manner doesn’t mean that the film that’s observing them is over-the-top.
Directed by Ridley Scott, in what is easily his finest work since “Gladiator,” the film is absorbing because it takes the world it...
Directed by Ridley Scott, in what is easily his finest work since “Gladiator,” the film is absorbing because it takes the world it...
- 11/22/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The year of 1969 saw the moon landing of the Apollo 11’s Eagle module, Richard Nixon sworn in as the 37th president of the United States, the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village ushering in the gay rights movement, the Tate-La Bianca murders by the Manson Family, the landmark Woodstock Music and Arts Fair which attracts 400,000, the tragic and violent Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway and even Tiny Tim marrying Miss Vicki on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”
But one major event was basically ignored by the mainstream media: the Harlem Cultural Arts Festival which took place June 29-August 24 at the Mount Morris Park. Founded by Tony Lawrence, the festival celebrating Black pride, music and culture features such landmark performers as Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension and Mahalia Jackson. And when the NYPD refused to supply security,...
But one major event was basically ignored by the mainstream media: the Harlem Cultural Arts Festival which took place June 29-August 24 at the Mount Morris Park. Founded by Tony Lawrence, the festival celebrating Black pride, music and culture features such landmark performers as Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension and Mahalia Jackson. And when the NYPD refused to supply security,...
- 7/17/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
By Fred Blosser
In “Stiletto,” a 1969 release from Joseph E. Levine’s Avco Embassy Pictures, Cesare Cardinali (Alex Cord) enjoys a jet-setting lifestyle rivaling and maybe even surpassing those of his real-life contemporaries in the “Playboy” era. He resides in a lavish Midtown Manhattan penthouse, hobnobs with movie stars and minor European royalty at red-carpet parties, races cars on the international circuit, and romances two beautiful girlfriends. But he’s increasingly uneasy about what he has to do to keep the money coming. On the books, he earns his millions through a lucrative importing business. In reality, he’s on the Mafia’s payroll through his patron, crime boss Ettore Matteo (Joseph Wiseman). Whenever a particularly important murder contract is ordered, Cesare is called in to do the job. His specialized tool is a medieval stiletto, and although he’s good at what he does,...
By Fred Blosser
In “Stiletto,” a 1969 release from Joseph E. Levine’s Avco Embassy Pictures, Cesare Cardinali (Alex Cord) enjoys a jet-setting lifestyle rivaling and maybe even surpassing those of his real-life contemporaries in the “Playboy” era. He resides in a lavish Midtown Manhattan penthouse, hobnobs with movie stars and minor European royalty at red-carpet parties, races cars on the international circuit, and romances two beautiful girlfriends. But he’s increasingly uneasy about what he has to do to keep the money coming. On the books, he earns his millions through a lucrative importing business. In reality, he’s on the Mafia’s payroll through his patron, crime boss Ettore Matteo (Joseph Wiseman). Whenever a particularly important murder contract is ordered, Cesare is called in to do the job. His specialized tool is a medieval stiletto, and although he’s good at what he does,...
- 3/17/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It’s lurid, it’s soapy, it’s forbidden: where does the line form? Joseph E. Levine made hay from Harold Robbins’ best seller, with prose that The New York Times said belonged more properly “on the walls of a public lavatory.” So why is the picture so much fun? When the performances are good they’re very good, and when they’re bad they’re almost better. Plus there’s a who’s who game to be played: If George Peppard is Howard Hughes and Carroll Baker is Jean Harlow, who exactly is Robert Cummings? I think this is the first time on Blu for this title, and playback-wise it’s A-ok for Region A.
The Carpetbaggers
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 9 (Australia)
1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 150 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / Available at [Imprint] 34.95
Starring: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Martin Balsam, Lew Ayres, Carroll Baker, Ralph Taeger, Archie Moore,...
The Carpetbaggers
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 9 (Australia)
1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 150 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / Available at [Imprint] 34.95
Starring: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Martin Balsam, Lew Ayres, Carroll Baker, Ralph Taeger, Archie Moore,...
- 9/19/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Paramount Pictures has apparently decided that everything old is new again, especially in the time of coronavirus quarantines.
This week, the studio launches “Paramount Presents,” a new way to market library titles that are “enduringly popular movies, as well as films that had a cultural impact upon their release.” The new label will also be used to bring some of these films back to theaters for limited theatrical runs to revive the big-screen experience.
The first Blu-rays, all remastered from a 4K film transfer, include two iconic titles from the ’50s: King Creole (1958) starring Elvis Presley, and...
This week, the studio launches “Paramount Presents,” a new way to market library titles that are “enduringly popular movies, as well as films that had a cultural impact upon their release.” The new label will also be used to bring some of these films back to theaters for limited theatrical runs to revive the big-screen experience.
The first Blu-rays, all remastered from a 4K film transfer, include two iconic titles from the ’50s: King Creole (1958) starring Elvis Presley, and...
- 4/24/2020
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Fifty years ago, 1,500 individuals from 53 countries attended the fifth edition of MipTV at Cannes. It’s a small fraction of the estimated 10,500 expected this year, but organizers in 1969 were ecstatic at the turnout. They were also ecstatic to welcome celebs such as Harold Robbins, plugging “The Survivors,” starring Lana Turner.
On April 30, 1969, Variety reported that the hour-long drama was budgeted at “a new all-time high of $300,000 per episode.” Robbins was hot stuff in the 1960s as he virtually invented sex-and-wealth blockbuster novels with “The Carpetbaggers” and “Where Love Has Gone.” In addition to his Mip-promoted “Survivors,” various companies were planning adaptations of four Robbins works, including big-screen projects “The Adventurers,” “The Inheritors” and “Stiletto,” plus the TV-targeted “79 Park Avenue.” That quartet represented a total investment of $36 million.
“I am the only writer able to make three major companies go broke in one year,” he joked at Cannes.
“The Survivors,” which also starred George Hamilton,...
On April 30, 1969, Variety reported that the hour-long drama was budgeted at “a new all-time high of $300,000 per episode.” Robbins was hot stuff in the 1960s as he virtually invented sex-and-wealth blockbuster novels with “The Carpetbaggers” and “Where Love Has Gone.” In addition to his Mip-promoted “Survivors,” various companies were planning adaptations of four Robbins works, including big-screen projects “The Adventurers,” “The Inheritors” and “Stiletto,” plus the TV-targeted “79 Park Avenue.” That quartet represented a total investment of $36 million.
“I am the only writer able to make three major companies go broke in one year,” he joked at Cannes.
“The Survivors,” which also starred George Hamilton,...
- 4/8/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
The force of nature born Elizabeth Ann Cole, and rechristened Elizabeth Ashley for stage and screen of the late 1950s, first drew the attention of critics and fans with her work in New York theater, garnering an early-career Tony Award for her portrayal of Mollie in the Broadway production of “Take Her, She’s Mine” in 1961.
Ashley’s big-screen debut in 1964, the hit film adaptation of Harold Robbins’ mega-best-seller “The Carpetbaggers,” earned her a Golden Globe supporting actress nomination and led to decades of work on screens big and small, including an Emmy Award-nominated turn in the Burt Reynolds ’90s comedy series “Evening Shade.”
More recently, Ashley appeared in the hit film comedy “Ocean’s 8” and has lit up the Netflix mind-twister “Russian Doll” as Natasha Lyonne’s unconventional therapist. Her first time in Variety was 60 years ago, when she appeared in a critically trounced 1959 summer stock production of noted...
Ashley’s big-screen debut in 1964, the hit film adaptation of Harold Robbins’ mega-best-seller “The Carpetbaggers,” earned her a Golden Globe supporting actress nomination and led to decades of work on screens big and small, including an Emmy Award-nominated turn in the Burt Reynolds ’90s comedy series “Evening Shade.”
More recently, Ashley appeared in the hit film comedy “Ocean’s 8” and has lit up the Netflix mind-twister “Russian Doll” as Natasha Lyonne’s unconventional therapist. Her first time in Variety was 60 years ago, when she appeared in a critically trounced 1959 summer stock production of noted...
- 3/8/2019
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
If Frank Capra had been around to tackle a Harold Robbins’ novel, it might have a vibe such as Jean Cocteau’s forgotten 1948 masterpiece, the rendering of hist stage play Les Parents Terribles (aka known as its English language title The Storm Within). With only six films to his directorial resume (eight if you count the co-directed 1957 experimental film 8×8: A Chess Sonata in Eight Movements and 1950’s unreleased Coriolan), Cocteau’s influence on the enduring legacy of French cinema is all the more impressive—though to be fair, his written word has been incorporated and re-hashed by a significant number of peers and later generations of filmmakers.…...
- 10/16/2018
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Dick Delson, a well-known Hollywood publicist who worked with stars including Sylvester Stallone, Walter Matthau and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and on campaigns for films including “The Deerhunter” and “Jaws,” died Sunday in Yarmouth, Maine. He was 81.
His niece, Joanna Delson, said he died in his sleep at a longterm care facility.
Among his other clients were James Coburn, whose Oscar campaign for “Affliction” Delson designed, Robert Culp, Peter Graves, Lou Gossett, Jr., Marsha Mason, George Segal, Fred Dryer and Roddy McDowall, as well as authors Harold Robbins and Iris Rainer Dart.
Before forming his own firm in 1984, Delson was national director of publicity/promotion and television advertising at Walt Disney Productions, where he worked on campaigns for films including “Tron,” “Tex” and “Fantasia” as well as for “Splash” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Prior to Disney, he served as national director of publicity for Filmways Pictures, promoting titles like “Dressed to Kill,...
His niece, Joanna Delson, said he died in his sleep at a longterm care facility.
Among his other clients were James Coburn, whose Oscar campaign for “Affliction” Delson designed, Robert Culp, Peter Graves, Lou Gossett, Jr., Marsha Mason, George Segal, Fred Dryer and Roddy McDowall, as well as authors Harold Robbins and Iris Rainer Dart.
Before forming his own firm in 1984, Delson was national director of publicity/promotion and television advertising at Walt Disney Productions, where he worked on campaigns for films including “Tron,” “Tex” and “Fantasia” as well as for “Splash” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Prior to Disney, he served as national director of publicity for Filmways Pictures, promoting titles like “Dressed to Kill,...
- 6/19/2018
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Gilbert on the set of the 1977 James Bond blockbuster The Spy Who Loved Me with production designer Ken Adam and producer Albert R. Broccoli at Pinewood Studios, London.
By Lee Pfeiffer
Cinema Retro mourns the news of director/producer Lewis Gilbert's death in London at age 97. Gilbert was a good friend to our magazine and gave what is probably his last interview to our correspondent Matthew Field several years ago. It ran in three consecutive issues of Cinema Retro (#'s18, 19 and 20).
Gilbert had a remarkable career that began early in life as a music hall performer and an actor in small roles in British films. During WWII he served in the Raf, producing and directing documentaries for the military. His first feature film as director was "The Little Ballerina", released in 1947. Gilbert toiled through directing low-budget, often undistinguished films, honing his craft along the way. He earned praise for...
By Lee Pfeiffer
Cinema Retro mourns the news of director/producer Lewis Gilbert's death in London at age 97. Gilbert was a good friend to our magazine and gave what is probably his last interview to our correspondent Matthew Field several years ago. It ran in three consecutive issues of Cinema Retro (#'s18, 19 and 20).
Gilbert had a remarkable career that began early in life as a music hall performer and an actor in small roles in British films. During WWII he served in the Raf, producing and directing documentaries for the military. His first feature film as director was "The Little Ballerina", released in 1947. Gilbert toiled through directing low-budget, often undistinguished films, honing his craft along the way. He earned praise for...
- 2/28/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Because we're having fun with this little feature we'll continue. On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
1881 Ahead of her time Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. She doesn't get a biopic because Hollywood is only interested in "Great Man" biopics
1916 Happy Centennial to author Harold Robbins who penned 25 best-sellers some of which became famous movies like The Carpetbaggers (1964), the Elvis flick King Creole (1958), and the notorious Pia Zadora Razzie winner The Lonely Lady (1983)
Rope (1949) and Swoon (1992) - two great movies inspired by the Leopold & Loeb case
1924 Chicago college students Leopold & Loeb murder a teenage boy in a "thrill killing." Their crime inspires the story of the gay deviants in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1949), the Cannes Best Actor winning Compulsion (1958) and is recreated in the New Queer Cinema classic Swoon (1992)
1926 Kay Kendall of Les Girls (1957) fame is born
1952 Two time Oscar nominee John Garfield (best...
1881 Ahead of her time Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. She doesn't get a biopic because Hollywood is only interested in "Great Man" biopics
1916 Happy Centennial to author Harold Robbins who penned 25 best-sellers some of which became famous movies like The Carpetbaggers (1964), the Elvis flick King Creole (1958), and the notorious Pia Zadora Razzie winner The Lonely Lady (1983)
Rope (1949) and Swoon (1992) - two great movies inspired by the Leopold & Loeb case
1924 Chicago college students Leopold & Loeb murder a teenage boy in a "thrill killing." Their crime inspires the story of the gay deviants in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1949), the Cannes Best Actor winning Compulsion (1958) and is recreated in the New Queer Cinema classic Swoon (1992)
1926 Kay Kendall of Les Girls (1957) fame is born
1952 Two time Oscar nominee John Garfield (best...
- 5/21/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...
- 9/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
A forgotten gem of the late 1970s comes to Blu-ray for the first time, Frank Pierson’s adaptation of the novel King of the Gypsies. Notable for several reasons, namely as the credited debut for actor Eric Roberts and a star studded cast packed to distraction, this is the kind of pulp oddity often whisked off the shelves of the bestseller list for glossy cinematic reinterpretation. This gypsy saga was based on a novel by Peter Maas, better known as the biographer of Serpico, which resulted in the novel inspiring Sidney Lumet’s classic 1973 film starring Al Pacino. Eventually, Maas’ works, often revolving around sensational true crime treatments, would be adapted mainly for television (including the 1991 Valerie Bertinelli Lifetime film, In a Child’s Name), and this sometimes outlandish antique feels like an exaggerated heirloom in the Harold Robbins’ vein (The Carpetbaggers; The Betsy; The Adventurers), a frumpy comparison...
- 7/28/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Howard Hughes movies (photo: Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator') Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Howard Hughes-produced, John Farrow-directed, Baja California-set gangster drama His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum, Hughes discovery Jane Russell, and Vincent Price, at 3 a.m. Pt / 6 a.m. Et on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Hughes produced a couple of dozen movies. (More on that below.) But what about "Howard Hughes movies"? Or rather, movies -- whether big-screen or made-for-television efforts -- featuring the visionary, eccentric, hypochondriac, compulsive-obsessive, all-American billionaire as a character? Besides Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays a dashing if somewhat unbalanced Hughes in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Best Picture Academy Award-nominated The Aviator, other actors who have played Howard Hughes on film include the following: Tommy Lee Jones in William A. Graham's television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), with Lee Purcell as silent film star Billie Dove, Tovah Feldshuh as Katharine Hepburn,...
- 11/6/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Philip Marshak, who directed the 1980 Troma film Cataclysm (aka The Nightmare Never Ends and Satan’s Supper), died July 24 in his home in Los Angeles of diabetes, heart disease and leukemia, his son Darryl said. He was 80. Marshak also directed a segment of the horror anthology Night Train to Terror (1985) as well as a string of X-rated films. Born in the Bronx, Marshak served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, studied acting in New York with Maxine Marx (Chico Marx’s daughter) and performed in such plays as Detective Story and Harold Robbins' A Stone for
read more...
read more...
- 7/30/2014
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Blood Simple: Canet’s English Language Debut an Enjoyably Prostrate Epic
For his English language debut, actor/director Guillaume Canet arrives with Blood Ties, a remake of Rivals, a 2008 French film of which he was the star, from director Jacques Maillot. While it’s original running time has been cut by about half an hour after a premiere at Cannes (aligning it with its predecessor’s running time), the film is undeniably a slow burn. Set in 1974 vintage heavy Brooklyn, Canet’s film has drawn mostly unfavorable comparison to the works of Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese that were actually made in the era. While it’s not on par with similar masterworks it evokes (maybe more of a Harold Robbins version of Lumet), it does manage to be an engrossing faux saga, nonetheless, despite a handful of foibles that work against its success.
After serving a 12 year prison...
For his English language debut, actor/director Guillaume Canet arrives with Blood Ties, a remake of Rivals, a 2008 French film of which he was the star, from director Jacques Maillot. While it’s original running time has been cut by about half an hour after a premiere at Cannes (aligning it with its predecessor’s running time), the film is undeniably a slow burn. Set in 1974 vintage heavy Brooklyn, Canet’s film has drawn mostly unfavorable comparison to the works of Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese that were actually made in the era. While it’s not on par with similar masterworks it evokes (maybe more of a Harold Robbins version of Lumet), it does manage to be an engrossing faux saga, nonetheless, despite a handful of foibles that work against its success.
After serving a 12 year prison...
- 3/19/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
By Brian Hannan
With all the (deserved) appreciation of Zulu, it’s hard to imagine it was a massive flop in the Us. Independent producer Joe Levine planned a double whammy for summer 1963 – The Carpetbaggers, an adaptation of the sizzling Harold Robbins bestseller, and Zulu. He even arranged for Zulu to follow The Carpetbaggers into the prestigious Palace first run cinema in New York. Spending big, Levine, whipped up a huge marketing campaign for Zulu, which had notched up record grosses in the UK.
But the two films could not have been further apart. Where The Carpetbaggers stormed to $862,000 from 25 theatres in the New York area, Zulu could only manage $190,000 from 30 in Los Angeles. Zulu scored well in first run in Detroit (running four weeks) and Chicago, but was quickly (perhaps too quickly) consigned to drive-ins. Failure to find a niche was not for want of trying. In successive weeks in La,...
With all the (deserved) appreciation of Zulu, it’s hard to imagine it was a massive flop in the Us. Independent producer Joe Levine planned a double whammy for summer 1963 – The Carpetbaggers, an adaptation of the sizzling Harold Robbins bestseller, and Zulu. He even arranged for Zulu to follow The Carpetbaggers into the prestigious Palace first run cinema in New York. Spending big, Levine, whipped up a huge marketing campaign for Zulu, which had notched up record grosses in the UK.
But the two films could not have been further apart. Where The Carpetbaggers stormed to $862,000 from 25 theatres in the New York area, Zulu could only manage $190,000 from 30 in Los Angeles. Zulu scored well in first run in Detroit (running four weeks) and Chicago, but was quickly (perhaps too quickly) consigned to drive-ins. Failure to find a niche was not for want of trying. In successive weeks in La,...
- 1/29/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Darren Allison
Normal 0 false false false En-gb X-none X-none
Our good friends at Vocalion Records have released three excellent CDs. First is the super score to Bernard Kowalski’s 1969 B-movie thriller Stiletto (Vocalion Cdsml 8501). Starring Alex Cord in the lead role and with support from Britt Ekland, Patrick O’Neal, Joseph Wiseman and Roy Scheider, the film was based on the Harold Robbins novel of the same name. Whilst Stiletto was never going to be an Oscar contender, as so many of these great little thrillers proved, it did gather something of a cult following. More often than not, restricted budgets and tight schedules surprisingly lead to great production values, with artists and crews having to think instinctively on their feet and with little time to elaborate. Stiletto music by American composer Sid Ramin is a truly evocative score. Ramin’s work was often uncredited and as a result,...
Normal 0 false false false En-gb X-none X-none
Our good friends at Vocalion Records have released three excellent CDs. First is the super score to Bernard Kowalski’s 1969 B-movie thriller Stiletto (Vocalion Cdsml 8501). Starring Alex Cord in the lead role and with support from Britt Ekland, Patrick O’Neal, Joseph Wiseman and Roy Scheider, the film was based on the Harold Robbins novel of the same name. Whilst Stiletto was never going to be an Oscar contender, as so many of these great little thrillers proved, it did gather something of a cult following. More often than not, restricted budgets and tight schedules surprisingly lead to great production values, with artists and crews having to think instinctively on their feet and with little time to elaborate. Stiletto music by American composer Sid Ramin is a truly evocative score. Ramin’s work was often uncredited and as a result,...
- 1/18/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Lee Pfeiffer
When it opened in 1970, director Lewis Gilbert's film version of Harold Robbins' best-seller The Adventurers was reviewed by New York Times, which referred to the production as "a spectacular blast-furnace lulu of human waste". Indeed, Gilbert himself said of the film a few years ago that it was "terrible" and that he regretted having been involved with it. With such a reputation, it's no wonder that even retro movie lovers such as myself have never made the effort to watch the movie. However, the Warner Archive has just re-issued Paramounts original DVD release of the film and, upon receiving the screener, I had enough morbid curiosity to give it a try. How, after all, could a film by a major director and featuring a big all-star cast go so completely wrong? The answer is: it didn't. The Adventurers is not high art, but it doesn't...
When it opened in 1970, director Lewis Gilbert's film version of Harold Robbins' best-seller The Adventurers was reviewed by New York Times, which referred to the production as "a spectacular blast-furnace lulu of human waste". Indeed, Gilbert himself said of the film a few years ago that it was "terrible" and that he regretted having been involved with it. With such a reputation, it's no wonder that even retro movie lovers such as myself have never made the effort to watch the movie. However, the Warner Archive has just re-issued Paramounts original DVD release of the film and, upon receiving the screener, I had enough morbid curiosity to give it a try. How, after all, could a film by a major director and featuring a big all-star cast go so completely wrong? The answer is: it didn't. The Adventurers is not high art, but it doesn't...
- 11/4/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
New York, Jun. 2: Harold Robbins' former wife has revealed in her new book, the author's demands for an "open marriage" and his affairs ranging from Beverly Hills to Cannes.
In her book 'Cinderella and the Carpetbagger,' his third wife Grace Robbins wrote that Harold once told her that he had to have sexual gratification, especially when he is away from her, the New York Post reported.
Grace recalls in her book that Harold, once the world's most-popular author with 750 million books sold, told her that he would need to travel for weeks on end for "research."
She remembered him telling her that all of these affairs would be meaningless. He also told her that while he was gone if she wanted a man to replace him it.
In her book 'Cinderella and the Carpetbagger,' his third wife Grace Robbins wrote that Harold once told her that he had to have sexual gratification, especially when he is away from her, the New York Post reported.
Grace recalls in her book that Harold, once the world's most-popular author with 750 million books sold, told her that he would need to travel for weeks on end for "research."
She remembered him telling her that all of these affairs would be meaningless. He also told her that while he was gone if she wanted a man to replace him it.
- 6/2/2013
- by Rahul Kapoor
- RealBollywood.com
E! Online is exclusively reporting that the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Adrienne Maloof may leave the cast, as her nemesis and fellow cast mate Brandi Glanville climbs the New York Times bestseller list with her tell-all "Drinking and Tweeting and Other Brandi Blunders" book. Glanville appeared at a packed Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Los Angeles Grove last night, meeting a real housewife of Beverly Hills from the 60s and 70s, Grace Robbins, the wife of Harold Robbins, who sold near a billion books that were turned into movies. Notably at this event, Lita Weissman, the Barnes & Noble book event manager, announced that Brandi Glanville had cracked the New York Times bestseller list. Grace...
- 2/21/2013
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" is an ongoing drama of a scandalous group of ladies who for the most part (there are a few exceptions) couldn't hold the water of Real Hollywood housewives, according to the top wife herself, Grace Robbins. Grace was the third wife of the late American novelist Harold Robbins, and was his longest marriage, and in her words "true love." Together they lived it up in decadent decades of the 1960s through the early 1980s. Notably in the roaring sixties and seventies, Harold Robbins' fiction was more widely read than the Bible. His steamy, potboiler novels sold more than 750 million copies, and created the sex-power-glamour genre of popular literature that...
- 1/23/2013
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Keeping up with his career plan of paying homage to every film genre going, Quentin Tarantino has moved onto the spaghetti western with Django Unchained (2012). It’s not a remake of the pasta classic Django (1966), or indeed a spaghetti western, but it has clearly taken its inspiration from those violent Italian productions that swamped the late sixties.
Hollywood may have dominated the field since the beginning of motion pictures but European westerns are not exactly new; the earliest known one was filmed in 1910. Sixties German cinema made good use of Kay May’s western heroes Shatterhand and Winnetou, and the British produced The Savage Guns (1961), Hannie Caulder (1971), A Town Called Bastard (1971), Catlow (1971), Chato’s Land (1972) and Eagle’s Wing (1979). When the genre showed signs of flagging in the mid-sixties, a clever Italian director named Sergio Leone took it upon himself to reinvent the western – spaghetti style!
What made the spaghettis...
Hollywood may have dominated the field since the beginning of motion pictures but European westerns are not exactly new; the earliest known one was filmed in 1910. Sixties German cinema made good use of Kay May’s western heroes Shatterhand and Winnetou, and the British produced The Savage Guns (1961), Hannie Caulder (1971), A Town Called Bastard (1971), Catlow (1971), Chato’s Land (1972) and Eagle’s Wing (1979). When the genre showed signs of flagging in the mid-sixties, a clever Italian director named Sergio Leone took it upon himself to reinvent the western – spaghetti style!
What made the spaghettis...
- 1/21/2013
- Shadowlocked
Since its publication in 2001, Glen David Gold‘s Carter Beats the Devil has been on Hollywood’s agenda — which isn’t to say that it’s actually got anywhere in those eleven years, though. The most famous attempt at adaptation would involve one Tom Cruise, who, under Paramount, would’ve produced and starred in the period piece about magic, Warren G. Harding (America’s worst President), and a murder conspiracy that mixes both with what most describe as wit, verve, and flavor. It sounds like a book that could make a great film, and it might finally be in motion.
It’s been almost a year since Warner Bros. snatched up rights, and THR says they’ve finally set their sights on someone(s): Phil Lord and Chris Miller, those behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and, most recently, the hilarious 21 Jump Street. The various parties are only...
It’s been almost a year since Warner Bros. snatched up rights, and THR says they’ve finally set their sights on someone(s): Phil Lord and Chris Miller, those behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and, most recently, the hilarious 21 Jump Street. The various parties are only...
- 6/4/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
On Sunday's (April 29) upcoming episode of "Mad Men" -- titled "At the Codfish Ball" -- Don Draper (Jon Hamm) takes a break from his usual wardrobe of sharp suits to lounge in his pajamas and catch up on some light reading. Meanwhile, new wife Megan Draper (Jessica Paré) is opting to stick close to the TV.
So what does Don read in his spare time? In the picture, he's holding a copy of Bernard Malamud's 1966 novel, "The Fixer." The book -- about "a man who finds himself a stranger in his community and a victim of irrational prejudice as a wave of anti-Semitic hysteria engulfs a town after the murder of a boy" -- won that year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction and The National Book Award.
From the Wikipedia book synopsis: "[The main character] finally finds it in his heart to forgive his former wife, who left him just before the novel began.
So what does Don read in his spare time? In the picture, he's holding a copy of Bernard Malamud's 1966 novel, "The Fixer." The book -- about "a man who finds himself a stranger in his community and a victim of irrational prejudice as a wave of anti-Semitic hysteria engulfs a town after the murder of a boy" -- won that year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction and The National Book Award.
From the Wikipedia book synopsis: "[The main character] finally finds it in his heart to forgive his former wife, who left him just before the novel began.
- 4/27/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Independent book publisher Author Solutions has made a first-look partnership with management/production company Principal Entertainment. The goal is to turn the books into films and TV projects. Asi has created a Film and New media department that will be run by Marcus Chait, former director of development for Paula Wagner and who partners with Patrick Wilson in Lost Rhino Films. Liz Robinson, Danny Sherman and Jen Weinbaum will oversee the arrangement for Principal. Asi, through which authors self-publish their works, has about 120,000 untapped titles in its library, and recently made a deal with Harold Robbins' widow to re-release 12 of the late author's steamy titles. "Several of our titles, including Legally Blonde and September Dawn, have found success and we hope through this partnership to provide more of our authors these opportunities," said Asi president/CEO Kevin Weiss.
- 1/12/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
The National Board Of Review, or Nbr has released their award winners for 2010 and The Social Network is coming out on top.
In a press release today, The National Board Of Review stated:
The Social Network Named 2010 Best Film Of The Year By The National Board Of Review
2010 Gala to be held on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 hosted by Meredith Vieira
New York, NY . December 2, 2010 . The National Board of Review named The Social Network the 2010 Best Film of the Year. Directed by David Fincher, this timeless drama explores the moment at which Facebook, the most revolutionary social phenomenon of the new century, was invented and the resulting lawsuits. The film was released on October 1st by Columbia Pictures.
Below is a full list of the awards given by the National Board of Review:
Best Film: The Social Network Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network Best Actress: Lesley Manville,...
In a press release today, The National Board Of Review stated:
The Social Network Named 2010 Best Film Of The Year By The National Board Of Review
2010 Gala to be held on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 hosted by Meredith Vieira
New York, NY . December 2, 2010 . The National Board of Review named The Social Network the 2010 Best Film of the Year. Directed by David Fincher, this timeless drama explores the moment at which Facebook, the most revolutionary social phenomenon of the new century, was invented and the resulting lawsuits. The film was released on October 1st by Columbia Pictures.
Below is a full list of the awards given by the National Board of Review:
Best Film: The Social Network Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network Best Actress: Lesley Manville,...
- 12/2/2010
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Is there really such a thing as writers' block? For some like John Updike, John Grisham, Stephen King, Sidney Sheldon, and Harold Robbins, there is probably no such thing given their ability to churn out books and magazine articles annually. Others, perhaps even those who write more serious novels, are not so lucky and must depend on inspiration. One way to gain inspiration is to hang out at a writers' retreat in Vermont or Chesapeake Bay, Virginia as examples, where you get together with others in your profession in the peace and quiet of a bucolic environment. This is exactly what a number of authors and would-be writers do in "Tamara Drewe," directed by Stephen Frears ("The Queen") and adapted from Posy Simmonds's graphic novel by Moira Buffini. What they find there, given the numbers of affairs that take place amid fights and others surprises that interrupt the silence of the landscape,...
- 9/8/2010
- Arizona Reporter
Beloved Broadway, film and television star Paul Ryan Rudd has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 70. The entertainer died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on Thursday, August 12.
His Broadway credits include "The National Health" in 1974, a 1975 revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!", and a revival of "The Glass Menagerie" that same year. He also starred in the original production of John Guare's comedy "Bosoms and Neglect" in 1979, was part of the original Broadway cast of David Rabe's "Streamers" in 1976, and starred as Romeo in a 1977 production of "Romeo and Juliet". Alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Bosco, Rudd played the title role in a 1976 production of "Henry V" for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
On U.S. television, he starred in "Beacon Hill", and in 1977 TV movie "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye". He also appeared in "The Betsy", the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel,...
His Broadway credits include "The National Health" in 1974, a 1975 revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!", and a revival of "The Glass Menagerie" that same year. He also starred in the original production of John Guare's comedy "Bosoms and Neglect" in 1979, was part of the original Broadway cast of David Rabe's "Streamers" in 1976, and starred as Romeo in a 1977 production of "Romeo and Juliet". Alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Bosco, Rudd played the title role in a 1976 production of "Henry V" for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
On U.S. television, he starred in "Beacon Hill", and in 1977 TV movie "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye". He also appeared in "The Betsy", the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel,...
- 8/16/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Beloved Broadway, film and television star Paul Ryan Rudd has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 70.
The entertainer died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on Thursday.
His Broadway credits include The National Health in 1974, a 1975 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!, and a revival of The Glass Menagerie that same year.
He also starred in the original production of John Guare’s comedy Bosoms and Neglect in 1979, was part of the original Broadway cast of David Rabe’s Streamers in 1976, and starred as Romeo in a 1977 production of Romeo and Juliet.
Alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Bosco, Rudd played the title role in a 1976 production of Henry V for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
On U.S. television, he starred in Beacon Hill, and in 1977 TV movie Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye. He also appeared in The Betsy, the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel, and continued his TV career throughout the 1980s with guest roles on TV series Hart to Hart, Moonlighting and others before leaving acting to raise his children.
Rudd is survived by his second wife, Martha Bannerman, their three children, Graeme, Kathryn and Eliza and his mother, Kathryn Rudd.
The entertainer died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on Thursday.
His Broadway credits include The National Health in 1974, a 1975 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!, and a revival of The Glass Menagerie that same year.
He also starred in the original production of John Guare’s comedy Bosoms and Neglect in 1979, was part of the original Broadway cast of David Rabe’s Streamers in 1976, and starred as Romeo in a 1977 production of Romeo and Juliet.
Alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Bosco, Rudd played the title role in a 1976 production of Henry V for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
On U.S. television, he starred in Beacon Hill, and in 1977 TV movie Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye. He also appeared in The Betsy, the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel, and continued his TV career throughout the 1980s with guest roles on TV series Hart to Hart, Moonlighting and others before leaving acting to raise his children.
Rudd is survived by his second wife, Martha Bannerman, their three children, Graeme, Kathryn and Eliza and his mother, Kathryn Rudd.
- 8/15/2010
- WENN
No 84 Alan Ladd 1913-64
He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.
He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.
But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...
He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.
He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.
But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...
- 3/7/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Horror writer Stephen King is to retire after completing his next five books. The famed author is planning to stop writing and end his career in publishing, promising fans just five more projects, two of which are already scheduled for 2002 - including new novel From A Buick Eight. King explains, "You get to a point where you get to the edges of a room, and you can go back and go where you've been and basically recycle stuff. I've seen it in my own work. People when they read Buick Eight are going to think Christine. It's about a car that's not normal, OK? You can either continue to go on, or say I left when I was still on top of my game. I left when I was still holding the ball, instead of it holding me." King's Rose Red, adapted into an ABC miniseries, has become a big hit on TV in America - its debut on Sunday drew in almost 20 million viewers. He adds, "I don't want to finish up like Harold Robbins," referring to the pulp novelist who started with well-reviewed works, later suffered a damaging stroke and ended his career in steep decline. "That's my nightmare."...
- 1/31/2002
- WENN
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.