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Western legends John Wayne and Roy Rogers only made one movie together with a 1940 Civil War classic called Dark Command. Wayne is one of the most famous Western stars of the 20th century and is largely responsible for shaping the genre in American film industry and beyond. Wayne starred in several groundbreaking Western movies including John Ford's breakthrough hits Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956).

While Wayne's legacy speaks for itself, Roy Rogers was also a pivotal figure in the Western genre as well. Often dubbed the "King of the Cowboys", Rogers became an icon of Western mysticism and entertainment as an actor, singer, television host, and rodeo performer. Although Wayne and Rogers represent different aspects of the Western genre, they were bound to both appear in the same Western film at some point. This ended up being Dark Command, which is more of a classic war romance drama but still has Western elements,...

When Humphrey Bogart appeared in the 1939 horror film “The Return of Doctor X” as a scientifically engineered vampire, he already had a couple of dozen movies behind him but was still two years away from becoming a true star with John Huston‘s “The Maltese Falcon.” As a contract player at Warner Bros., the studio that signed Bogart when he came there to reprise his stage role as Duke Mantee in “The Petrified Forest,” the actor was largely subject to the idiosyncratic whims of his bosses, and it was clear that they didn’t quite know what to do with Bogart before Huston got a hold of him.

In 1939 alone, he appeared in a Western “The Oklahoma Kid,” a tearjerking melodrama, and multiple gangster films. Several of these films are better remembered than “The Return of Doctor X,” but as Bogart’s only horror film, “X” is a fascinating curiosity,...

Plot: During the WW2 bombing of Britain, a young mother (Saoirse Ronan) sends her young son, Georgie (Elliott Heffernan), off to the countryside for his own safety. Angry at being separated from his mother and used to being taunted for his mixed-race heritage, he jumps off the train to the countryside and embarks on an odyssey through a bombed-out London to reunite with his family.

Review: Blitz wasn’t what I expected from director Steve McQueen. One of the most potent directors in the business, Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Widows and Small Axe were all dazzlingly well-directed, but there was nothing in any of them which made me think McQueen had a family film in him. Blitz, which carries a PG-13 rating, is his most accessible film to date, with it a soft-hearted journey through London which sometimes feels almost Spielbergian. While it’s not as good as...

It’s the perfect time to look back at some of the most memorable mean moms of the movies. Not those lovable mothers who sang to their kiddos or who heroically sacrificed something great for their kiddos, but those moms who made us shudder at the not-so-great things they were willing to do for their offspring, made us despair that any parent could treat a child in such a way or just made us laugh at their absolute ineptness at parenting. Some might not exactly be mean in the traditional sense but are certainly overly permissive or vastly selfish.

Of course, “Mommie Dearest” herself makes the list. But Joan Crawford (played by Faye Dunaway) isn’t the only real-life mom to make the list. The notorious Tonya Harding has a doozy of a stage mother in Lavona Golden (Oscar winner Allison Janney), as does boxer Micky Ward (Oscar winner Melissa Leo...

I’m not saying HBO’s The Penguin is derivative, but it’s the second TV show in less than six months in which Colin Farrell plays a character obsessed with the glamour of black-and-white Old Hollywood movies — specifically using clips from Gilda to evoke nostalgia for a period that our hero is too young to have experienced firsthand, a poignant yearning for a world with mystique and morality that no longer exist.

Built into the semi-recent spate of origin stories for classic TV and movie villains — Norman Bates, the Joker, half of the nefarious Disney catalogue — is an indictment of non-empathetic viewership.

These revisionist approaches to iconic tales assume that, in the process of goading audiences into rooting for figures more traditionally coded as “hero,” there was a failure to acknowledge that even the seemingly worst of figures have their awfulness rooted in very human conditions: loneliness, trauma, treatable mental illness,...

Is there anyone more emblematic of Hollywood than perennial movie star (& director) Clint Eastwood? With screen iconography that practically jumps out of the big screen and into real life, he has kept audiences intrigued through a myriad of genres and eras.

But he might be the quintessential masculine icon, forever etched in memory as the no-nonsense, boundary-pushing Inspector Harry Callahan, better known as Dirty Harry. Interestingly, this now-classic role was turned down by a litany of Hollywood’s who’s who, including the liberal-leaning Paul Newman.

Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry | Credit: Warner Bros.

Then why would Eastwood dive headfirst into such a controversial role that others deemed too hot to handle? Well, he saw gold whereas others saw coal; he recognized the script’s unique flavor!

And by turning conventional wisdom on its head, Eastwood not only took a daring plunge but also set a new cinematic standard, ultimately...

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the studios have lost interest in physical media, with Disney outsourcing its discs to Sony and questions over where the business is going in the wake of Redbox’s demise and Best Buy’s decision to stop selling Blu-rays and DVDs. Yet not only have the rumors of physical media’s death been greatly exaggerated as boutique labels step in to pick up the slack, but even at the studio level, praiseworthy efforts to showcase archival treasures are alive and well. Take, for example, the new Warner Archive Blu-ray of Raoul Walsh’s 1946 classic “The Man I Love.”

“The Man I Love” is a film beloved by cinephiles but hardly famous — among Warners’ 1940s releases, it’s a long way down from “Casablanca” and “The Maltese Falcon” when it comes to widespread popularity. It’s the kind of movie that...

Nicolas Cage is applauding Cate Blanchett’s dedication to the art of acting.

Cage told The New Yorker that Blanchett is among the few stars who truly embodies the “Golden Age vanguard style of film performance” — the style that Cage holds in the highest regard.

“I think that there have been remarkable performances,” Cage said of modern film acting. “I don’t know if it’s new, per se, or a kind of recycling or return to an older style where people are less afraid to express themselves in a larger format. They’re breaking free from ‘If it’s quiet and minimal, it’s great.’ They can liberate themselves and use their voices and gesture and go bigger.”

He continued, “I’ve seen it in different actors — for me, Cate Blanchett certainly reminds me of the Golden Age vanguard style of film performance as well.”

For the “Longlegs” actor,...

Song and dance man or gangster? Few stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era could claim they were equally well known for two such diverse genres. Yet, the legendary James Cagney worked hard to be able to make such a claim.

He was born on July 17, 1899, in New York City. His family was poor, and Cagney was sickly as a child. While growing up in a rough neighborhood, he learned a variety of skills, including tap dancing, street fighting, baseball and boxing. When he was 19, his father died, and he took odd jobs to help support his mother and siblings. On a whim, he auditioned for a role of a chorus girl in a local production. Although he had never had professional training, he landed the role and learned the dances from watching the other performers – and it never bothered him to dress as a girl and perform. Despite his mother...

Despite a cast that includes “The Office” co-creator Stephan Merchant, potential new Bond Claes Bang, and national treasure Christopher Walken, crime comedy “The Outlaws” has largely flown under the radar since debuting on Amazon in 2022. But now “Baby Reindeer” has alerted the rest of the world to the talents of Jessica Gunning, its third season, premiering May 31, should both attract a deservedly bigger audience and continue its regular scene-stealer’s meteoric rise.

The continuation of the saga involving seven petty criminals who become embroiled in a dangerous drug money-laundering scheme while undergoing community service was filmed prior to Martha Scott, and the memeable real-life Scotswoman she was apparently based upon, dominating the cultural discourse. Yet in a timely development, Gunning’s supervisor Diane Pemberley is given much more prominence, and indeed more layers, this time around.

She’s still as ridiculously bureaucratic as ever, with the addition of Stan (Harry Trevaldwyn...

Jessica Gunning is having a moment.

The veteran actress has earned raves for playing unhinged stalker Martha in Netflix’s critically acclaimed limited series Baby Reindeer opposite Richard Gadd. It’s a part she’s embracing as the role of a lifetime, but she’s no overnight sensation. West Yorkshire native Gunning, 38, has been acting ever since graduating from drama school at London’s Rose Bruford College with a long list of credits that includes Doctor Who, White Heat, The Outlaws and Pride.

Baby Reindeer, created by and starring Gadd as inspired by his traumatic real life experiences, casts him as Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian who encounters a lonely woman at the bar where he works. The chance encounter, during which he offers her a free cup of tea, spirals over several months as Gunning’s Martha is revealed to be a dangerous, serial stalker. Gunning recently stopped by...

Later this month, the Green Mountain State will roll out the red carpet for the United States’ newest international film festival: The Vermont Film & Folklore Festival, which will open in Manchester, Vermont on Thursday, May 23 with a full lineup of award-winning narrative features, documentaries, and shorts from around the world, including a spotlight on Vermont-made films.

Founded by a pair of indie film luminaries and recent Manchester transplants — MovieMaker Magazine founder Tim Rhys and Filmmaker Magazine co-founder Karol Martesko-Fenster — the festival will play home to screenings of more than 40 new and classic films, including rare 16mm screenings of some of Hollywood’s most beloved movies, including 70th anniversary screenings of “On the Waterfront” and “La Strada,” a 75th anniversary screening of James Cagney’s “White Heat,” and an 80th anniversary screening of “Double Indemnity, and more.

The festival will kick off at The Southern Vermont Arts Center with the opening...

John Wilkes Booth was desperate to be famous. Instead, he became infamous as the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. He had been born in 1838 as the ninth of ten children of the famed actor Junius Brutus Booth. Though he had shown talent, his career was often derailed by his emotional instability. His older brother Edwin Booth was considered one of the top actors of the day.

The handsome younger Booth had received strong reviews in a New York production of “Richard III” with the New York Herald declaring him a “veritable sensation.” Booth even told the paper “I’m determined to be the villain.” A staunch supporter of the Confederacy, by 1864 he had recruited several co-conspirators in his plan to kidnap Honest Abe. Their attempts failed, but on April 14, 1865, he learned Lincoln would attend the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater that evening, During the third act...

David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era will be chronicled in the new box set Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, out June 14 via Parlophone Records.

The 5-cd, Blu-Ray audio set tracks the late rock star’s creation of the Ziggy Stardust character, the release of 1972’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, and the many U.K. radio sessions and TV appearances Bowie’s famous alter ego participated in.

The collection includes 29 unreleased tracks, from demos to outtakes to live performances. Highlights include a cover of...

An expansive new box set will chronicle David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era. Dubbed Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, the 5xCD/Blu-ray package is due out on June 14th through Parlophone Records (pre-order here).

Notably, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star! contains 29 unreleased tracks, including early songwriting demos, outtakes, alternate versions, rehearsal recordings, and more. Among the featured tracks are alternate versions of “Lady Stardust” and The Who’s “I Can’t Explain,” as well as an unheard version of “Shadow Man.” As a preview, you can stream a demo version of “Ziggy Stardust” from 1971 below.

A companion Blu-ray collects the 2012 remaster of the original Ziggy Stardust album in 96kHz/24bit Pcm stereo, plus the album and additional mixes from 2003 in DTS-hd Master Audio 5.1 as well as the singles, outtakes and alternative versions in 96kHz/24-bit Pcm stereo. It also boasts Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth), a version...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to UK Executive Producer Peter Oxley about his memories of managing a 1980s video shop, video nasties, working with Charlie Steed and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” where Peter remembers school trips to see a three hour movie, the ultimate horror film and old gangster movies on TV.

Waterloo (1970) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) White Heat (1949)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

Powered by RedCircle...

Exclusive: Since Jack Dawson made him a top global star in Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio has largely avoided the straight hero route in favor of shaded, conflicted characters in films from The Revenant to The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood, and others. But he’d never gone to the degree he did on Killers of the Flower Moon. The first version of the film had almost everything going for it: the David Grann bestseller bought for a shocking $5 million by Imperative Entertainment, a script Eric Roth wrote, and the first teaming of Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, the latter going mano a mano for the first time since This Boy’s Life established a teenaged DiCaprio as the young actor to watch.

A green lit script that had DiCaprio playing the incorruptible Texas Ranger-turned FBI agent Tom White...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a full slate of programming set for this year, as the classic movie home celebrates its 30th anniversary.

The 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in April will honor film historian Jeanine Basinger with the Robert Osborne Award, and pay tribute to actor Billy Dee Williams and makeup artist Lois Burwell.

Additionally, The Plot Thickens, TCM’s official podcast about movies and the people who make them will debut later in the year following the release of Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast, TCM’s latest podcast in tandem with Max.

Extending beyond the screen, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood will introduce a WB/TCM Classic Movie Tour in April.

“With the 30th year of TCM upon us, we both look back at all that’s been built over the last several decades and look ahead at what is undoubtedly one of the most exciting times in TCM’s history,...

Turner Classic Movies has a lot going on as it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

On Friday, execs from the beloved cable channel unveiled a new podcast, 2024 programming initiatives, a new branded studio tour of the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and details about the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in April.

On Jan. 16, TCM and sister streamer Max will debut Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast. TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will join filmmakers and actors as they discuss “their earliest film memories, favorite movies, creative influences and guilty pleasures,” with guests including Mel Brooks, Nancy Meyers and Patty Jenkins.

The TCM podcast The Plot Thickens is returning this year for a fifth season, with the subject yet to be disclosed.

In April, TCM will introduce a new franchise, Two for One, with prominent filmmakers co-hosting a double feature of their choice on Saturday nights. Guests will include Jenkins,...

Exactly 50 years to the date of David Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust, digitally restored footage of the performance will be shown at the very venue where it happened. On July 3rd, 2023, London’s Eventim Apollo Hammersmith will host a screening of the 1979 concert film Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture, now restored in 4K.

Known as the Odeon back in 1973, the Eventim Appolo Hammersmith will roll out the red carpet to commemorate Ziggy Stardust’s legacy, welcoming a fleet of some of his frequent collaborators and musical successors for an on-stage panel ahead of the screening.

The restoration of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture also contains famed guitarist Jeff Beck’s performance scenes, which were cut from its original iteration. Shot by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, the new version — complete with 5.1 sound — revitalized stellar onstage antics along with candid backstage...

Exactly 50 years to the date of David Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust, digitally restored footage of the performance will be shown at the very venue where it happened. On July 3rd, 2023, London’s Eventim Apollo Hammersmith will host a screening of the 1979 concert film Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture, now restored in 4K.

Known as the Odeon back in 1973, the Eventim Appolo Hammersmith will roll out the red carpet to commemorate Ziggy Stardust’s legacy, welcoming a fleet of some of his frequent collaborators and musical successors for an on-stage panel ahead of the screening.

The restoration of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture also contains famed guitarist Jeff Beck’s performance scenes, which were cut from its original iteration. Shot by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, the new version — complete with 5.1 sound — revitalized stellar onstage antics along with candid backstage...

I’ve loved gangster movies since I was four years old and saw Humphrey Bogart and Sylvia Sidney in Dead End (1937) on TV, and Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) at the movies (My dad pinched a lobby card for me). Every Friday night, a local NYC station ran old crime flicks on a slot called “Tough Guys.” Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft were the faces over the title. Today that might be Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, and James Gandolfini.

The gangster and crime genre produced some of the most influential films in cinema history. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1931), William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931), and Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), get a lot of credit for breaking ground in topics beyond criminality, shattering sexual taboos as well as the boundaries of acceptable visual violence. High Sierra (1941) and White Heat...

Jack Warner and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover Photo: Bettmann In a special series, The A.V. Club looks at the legacy of Warner Bros. 100 years after the studio was founded.It’s sad to see the once mighty Warner Bros. studio celebrate its 100th anniversary in a state of chaos and disarray.

This Friday, March 24th, Rhino is releasing the Fully Re-Loaded Edition box set of The Velvet Underground’s 1970 classic Loaded. Featuring nearly all the music from the expansive 45th anniversary CD reissue from 2015, this new vinyl collection contains nine LPs and four 7-inches, and it’s limited to just 1,970 copies. Lucky for you, you don’t have to race fans to get in on this incredible boxed set, because we’re giving one away — for free.

Valued at $250, Loaded (Fully Re-Loaded Edition) includes three versions of the album: stereo, mono, and a “full-length” mix that boasts extended takes of “Sweet Jane,” “Rock & Roll,” and “New Age.” The 7-inches include the first-ever vinyl reissue of “Rock & Roll” and the first “Who Loves the Sun” reissue since ’70. There’s also the French single “Head Held High” and the German single “Sweet Jane.”

Also included are a number of demos, early versions, and alternate mixes.

Best known for his successful five-part “Battle Without Honor and Humanity” or “The Yakuza Papers” film series from 1973 to 1974 directed by Kinji Fukasaku in which he played the real-life gangster Shozo Hirono, Bunta Sugawara is certainly no stranger when it comes to yakuza films. Nevertheless, inspired by Raoul Walsh’s gangster film “White Heat” (1949) starring James Cagney, Sugawara and Toei Company came up with their very own machine-gun blazing Japanese version in 1976.

During one rainy night, three gangsters wearing monster masks steal a bag of drugs worth one and a half million yen from some members of the Mutsumi Clan after gunning them down. While making their getaway, gang leader Ryuta Yabuki (Bunta Sugarwara) kills one of his masked partners because of his injury. Interestingly, the remaining member, a female driver, turns out to be his own mother, Masa (Aiko Mimasu). After hiding their loot in a sewer, the pair...

The Film Noir Foundation puts across more impressive rescues in concert with the UCLA Film and Television Archive: a pair of independently-produced noirs released by Monogram in 1947, modest of budget but firmly rooted in the noir style. The Guilty is a Cornell Woolrich ‘ironic twist’ mini mystery involving troublemaking twins and a soldier suffering from Ptsd. High Tide is a hardboiled corruption tale starring the king of smart-talking newsmen, Lee Tracy. Especially rewarding disc extras give us long-form visual essays on Cornell Woolrich, actor Tracy, producer Jack Wrather and the ‘international’ director John Reinhardt.

The Guilty + High Tide

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley

1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 71 + 72 min. / Street Date June 10, 2022 / Available from Flicker Alley / 39.95

Starring: Bonita Granville, Don Castle, Regis Toomey, Wally Cassell; Lee Tracy, Don Castle, Julie Bishop, Anabel Shaw.

Shared Credits:

Cinematography: Henry Sharp

Original Music: Rudy Schrager

Screenplays by Robert Presnell Sr.

Produced by Jack Wrather

Directed...

By Glenn Dunks

A history of exploitation unfurls in Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire like the plot of a Hollywood movie. A deeply empathetic documentary, Cane Fire takes its title from a Lois Weber film, White Heat. That film, Weber’s last from 1934, is considered lost and survives only in images and fragments. As Banua-Simon shows, that is a lot like the non-white population of the island of Kaua’i, where it was filmed, who have been worked until their backs were broken by a series of industries that have crushed and sapped the non-white population like you would strip bare sugar cane.

First it was sugar cane and pineapples, then Hollywood who used locals as extras in bright and colourful productions starring big names like Elvis Presley and John Wayne. Today it’s tourism—an industry that has caused Hawaii more broadly to become the most expensive state to live in,...

While director Anthony Banua-Simon uses the revelation as a sort of “gotcha” moment to end his documentary Cane Fire, hearing Kauai-native Larry Rivera—an entertainer who performed at the Coco Palms before it was destroyed in a hurricane, who rubbed elbows with the likes of Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby—admit the only “Hawaiian legends” he knows are the ones his former boss Grace Guslander fabricated to awe tourists isn’t really a surprise. He and co-writer Michael Vass set the table for that truth too well throughout their deep dive into the island’s colonial legacy, separating allies from exploiters and ancestors from opportunists. That doesn’t make Rivera a villain. It simply shows the insidiousness of the systematic destruction and appropriation of Hawaiian culture and land.

We’re transported back to the origins of the Hawaii we know as the 50th state of America. Captain Cook arrives, white plantation owners follow,...

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By Fred Blosser

Although released in February 1942, Warner Brothers’ wartime drama “Captains of the Clouds” was filmed several months earlier, when America’s official stance toward the crisis in Europe, prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, remained one of isolationism. As the thinking went, the United States was better off conserving its own human and industrial resources as it continued to stagger back from the Great Depression. Let the combatants overseas fight it out between themselves.

Aware of the movies’ enormous power to sway public opinion, watchdogs in Congress — and in the industry itself — threatened severe action should any studio question the prevailing wisdom. Of a different mind and appalled by Nazi fascism, Harry and Jack Warner produced several movies that shrewdly challenged the restrictions by circumventing them. Thus the villains in Warners’ “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” (1939) were Nazi agents subverting freedom not in faraway Europe,...

The crime film is not exactly one known for its art-house aesthetics, as the frantic pace, the intense use of music, and the occasionally extreme violence are almost always, the traits that characterize the category. However, occasionally, and even more frequently during the latest years, we have seen a number of films that despite focusing on criminals and the whole concept of crime, implement mostly artistic aesthetics, with the focus being on them as much as on the story and characters, while the pace is most certainly slow. The quality, however, is by no means lower, as the titles we have winnowed here eloquently highlight.

Without further ado, here are 10 (and one more) great samples, in chronological order:

10. Breathless

The circle of violence started by domestic violence is the prominent focus of the film with nearly all of the characters going through such experiences. Sang-hoon’s abuse during his childhood...

Fierce Irish rebels go head-to-head with Brit occupation forces, and James Cagney is first on the barricades. Michael Anderson’s thriller about terror violence in 1921 Dublin has suspense, beautiful cinematography in real Irish locations, and a standout cast: Don Murray, Glynis Johns, Dana Wynter, Michael Redgrave, Cyril Cusack and Sybil Thorndike — plus added-value players Richard Harris, Donal Donnelly and Niall MacGinness. Cagney’s surgeon-turned guerilla doesn’t yell “Top of the World!” but he’s as psychotic as Cody Jarrett: he wants to shoot both the leading ladies. Included is a good interview with Don Murray.

Shake Hands with the Devil

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / Color B&w / 1:66 widescreen/ 111 min. / Street Date January 4, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusack, Marianne Benet, Robert Brown, John Cairney, Harry H. Corbett, Eileen Crowe, Allan Cuthbertson, Donal Donnelly, Richard Harris,...

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By Doug Oswald

Errol Flynn leads a group of American paratroopers into WWII Burma on a pre-invasion expedition in “Objective, Burma!” released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection. The mission for the paratroopers is to parachute into Burma behind enemy lines, destroy a Japanese radar station and meet up at an old British air strip to be picked up and returned to their base in India. Everything goes as planned and they succeed in destroying the radar installation with no casualties. Mission accomplished. There wouldn’t be much of a movie if things ended with a successful mission and rescue. Naturally, the Japanese are at the airfield ready to destroy the soon-to-arrive C-47 transport aircraft. Flynn orders the aircraft to leave them rather than risk their destruction and he takes his men to a more defendable position in the jungle.

When I saw “The Many Saints of Newark,” I wanted it to immerse me in the lives of New Jersey mobsters in the late ’60s and early ’70s the same way that “The Sopranos” immersed us in the lives of New Jersey mobsters at the turn of the 21st century. The film more or less achieves that. That’s why, while not nearly as great as the series, it’s a pretty good Saturday night movie. Of course, the other thing I wanted from “The Many Saints” was for it to put me in a time machine so that I could witness the formative teenage years of Tony Soprano, who is portrayed in the film by James Gandolfini’s son, Michael (who was 20 at the time the movie was shot in 2019).

The young Tony displays a small handful of delinquent tendencies. As a kid, he organizes a numbers racket at his parochial school.

Julio Vaqueiro will be the next anchor of Telemundo’s signature evening newscast “Noticias Telemundo,” filling a role that had previously been held by Jose Diaz-Balart.

Vaqueiro had been anchoring the NBCUniversal-backed network’s late-night newscast, which airs at 11:35 p.m. eastern. His new assignment will have him leading a 6:30 p.m. news show.

“Julio embodies the passion for news and rigorous reporting that are at the core of what we stand for at Noticias Telemundo,” said Luis Fernandez, president of Noticias Telemundo, in a prepared statement. “Julio has consistently delivered impactful and rigorous journalism across multiple anchoring roles, and we’re thrilled he will be bringing his integrity, unique voice and commitment to our audience to our flagship newscast.” Vaqueiro will also contribute reporting across all of Noticias Telemundo’s news programs and breaking news and special events coverage.

Diaz-Balart is moving to MSNBC, where he will host a late-morning hour,...

Claudia Barrett, an actress whose busy television career of the 1950s was destined to be outdone in the public’s memory by her film performance alongside a gorilla-suited alien in the camp sci-fi trash classic Robot Monster, died April 30 of natural causes at her home in Palm Desert. She was 91.

Her death was announced by her family.

“Although she loved acting, by the mid 60s she realized her career wasn’t advancing, so she switched to ancillary jobs in film distribution, publicity, and PR, but was not satisfied,” according to her family-written obituary. “However, in 1981 she found her dream job at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). She worked in the division that produced the awards for scientific and technical advances, got to go to the Academy Awards Show every year, and was able to give tickets to family members in the early years.”

In an image...

As it’s that time of year to celebrate our moms for Mother’s Day, we thought it would be fun to look back at some of the most memorable mean moms of the movies. Not those lovable mothers who sang to their kiddos or who heroically sacrificed something great for their kiddos, but those moms who made us shudder at the not-so-great things they were willing to do for their offspring, made us despair that any parent could treat a child in such a way or just made us laugh at their absolute ineptness at parenting. Some might not exactly be mean in the traditional sense but are certainly overly permissive or vastly selfish.

Of course, “Mommie Dearest” herself makes the list. But Joan Crawford (played by Faye Dunaway) isn’t the only real-life mom to make the list. The notorious Tonya Harding has a doozy of a stage...

“Cane Fire”, the feature documentary debut by Anthony Banua-Simon, explores the history of oppression on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The film won the Best Feature Documentary award at the 2020 Indie Memphis Festival.

Cane Fire is screening at the San Diego Asian Film Festival

Trying to find a copy of “White Heat”, also known as “Cane Fire”, the first American movie shot on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a “talkie”, Anthony Banua-Simon’s great grandfather appears as an extra leads the director to reconnect with members of his family who are still living on the island his grandfather has once lived. With his great uncle and his grandsons as guides, his search for the movie about a plantation worker’s revolt and his ancestors becomes one of discovery about the oppression and abuse that have continued in one shape or form on the island for hundreds of years. Though the...

William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) turns 90 this weekend. When the film first came out, a theater in Times Square showed it nonstop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The movie marks the true beginning of gangster movies as a genre. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar may have hit theaters first, but The Public Enemy set the pattern, and James Cagney nailed the patter. Not just the street talk either; he also understood its machine gun delivery. His Tommy Powers is just a hoodlum, never a boss. He is a button man at best, even if he insisted his suits have six buttons.

The Public Enemy character wasn’t even as high up the ladder as Paul Sorvino’s caporegime Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. But Cagney secured the turf Edward G. Robinson’s Rico Bandello took a bullet to claim in Little Caesar, and for the...

This article contains I Care a Lot spoilers.

J Blakeson’s I Care a Lot is one of very few films where everyone in it is a villain. In the lead role, Rosamund Pike ushers in a new amoral high mark as conservator con artist Marla Grayson. Peter Dinklage meanwhile mines the standard Hollywood heavy role for an unexpected haul of gangster gravitas. And with his turn as Roman Lunyov, the former black sheep of the Lannister family in Game of Thrones joins the likes of Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Wesley Snipes, and Humphrey Bogart as memorable cinema crime bosses.

However, this isn’t Dinklage’s first turn in a mob movie. He got his button in Find Me Guilty (2006). The film was based on the true story of Lucchese crime family soldier Jackie Dinorscio, played by Vin Diesel, and the longest mafia trial in American history. The movie...

This article contains Judas and the Black Messiah spoilers.

One of the many powerful things about Judas and the Black Messiah is simply the fact that the movie’s story is being told on such a significant platform. As a dramatization of the final days and months of Fred Hampton’s life, the film draws attention to the struggles of a self-described revolutionary—and how by all accounts from the survivors and witnesses of a guns-blazing police raid, he was executed while incapacitated in his bed.

That this horrifying injustice is now streaming in the homes of tens of millions is itself a small act of revolution, as is how the film deconstructs what we expect from movies about law enforcement. For while Shaka King’s brutal filmmaking is a piece of political lightning, one that seeks to better memorialize Hampton’s legacy, it is also technically a crime drama...

David Bowie’s “Brilliant Live Adventures” series — a six-part release focusing on the late icon’s Nineties concerts — continues February 12th with its fourth installment, Look at the Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97).

The latest release features Bowie’s performance at the Phoenix Festival in Long Marston, England, on July 20th, 1997. The setlist boasts a handful of Bowie hits, a heavy helping of his then-new album Earthling, and a rare rendition of Laurie Anderson’s classic “O Superman.”

Look at the Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97) arrives February 12th on limited edition...

Exclusive: American-Canadian filmmaking duo Harley Peyton and Jeremiah Chechik’s production company Modern Story has inked with Buchwald, Deadline has learned.

The duo are currently developing the comedy/horror series Fat Vampire at Syfy, based on the novel of the same name by Johnny B. Truant as well as White Heat based on the novels by M.J. McGrath for Incendo Productions in Canada.

Peyton is a Golden Globe Award-winner and Emmy nominee who is currently an executive producer on Chucky, which was given a straight-to-series order at Syfy earlier this year. His past television credits include Twin Peaks, Project Blue Book, Channel Zero, Dominion and NBC/Universal Television/Carnival’s Dracula. Peyton had a story by on the Justin Timberlake-Mila Kunis Sony/Screen Gems comedy Friends With Benefits which grossed close to $150M WW, and the Bruce Willis-Billy Bob Thorton-Cate Blanchett, Barry Levinson directed comedy Bandits.

Gangster movies have a long and storied history. Hollywood has been making movies about gangsters for decades, with famous movies like Scarface and White Heat being particularly popular throughout the 30s and 40s. The genre has progressed through the ages and is now mostly connected with Martin Scorsese, who has directed many a famous gangster flick.

Related: The McU's 5 Most Overrated (& 5 Most Underrated Characters )

Of course, there are many classic gangster films out there. But do they really deserve that "classic" pedigree? There are also many unappreciated gangster films out there that deserve more respect and attention. These are five gangster movies that are way underrated, and five that are overrated.

The director of Over The Edge and The Accused takes us on a journey through some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Student Teachers (1973)

Night Call Nurses (1972)

White Line Fever (1975)

Truck Turner (1974)

Heart Like A Wheel (1983)

The Accused (1988)

Over The Edge (1979)

Modern Times (1936)

City Lights (1931)

Manhattan (1979)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Apartment (1960)

North By Northwest (1959)

Moon Pilot (1962)

Mr. Billion (1977)

White Heat (1949)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Three Musketeers (1973)

The Four Musketeers (1974)

Superman (1978)

Superman II (1980)

The Three Musketeers (1948)

Shane (1953)

The 400 Blows (1959)

8 ½ (1963)

Fellini Satyricon (1969)

Richard (1972)

Millhouse (1971)

The Projectionist (1970)

El Dorado (1966)

The Shootist (1976)

Woodstock (1970)

Payback (1999)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

Billy Liar (1963)

Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

Bad Girls (1994)

Masters of the Universe (1987)

Giant (1956)

The More The Merrier (1943)

The Graduate (1967)

The Victors (1963)

…And Justice For All (1979)

Citizen Kane (1941)

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...

Jorge Camara, former president and longtime member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, died Friday after a long battle with cancer. He was 84. “It is with great regret that I have to let you know of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Jorge Camara,” Lorenzo Soria, current HFPA president, said in a statement. “Jorge passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon after struggling with health issues for the past few years. As a past president of the HFPA, he was instrumental in the success of our association. Many of you have worked closely with him, and we know you will join in our sorrow.” Camara was born on Jan. 10, 1936. Originally from Mérida, Mexico, he studied journalism in Mexico City and made his way to Los Angeles to pursue a career writing about film, a passion of his from a young age. After arriving in Southern California, he found work writing for three publications.

Jorge Camara, the esteemed Mexico-born film critic and former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, died Friday afternoon after battling ongoing health issues, the organization behind the Golden Globe Awards confirmed Saturday. He was 84.

“It is with great regret that I have to let you know of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Jorge Camara,” the HFPA statement reads. “Jorge passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon after struggling with health issues for the past few years. As a past president of the HFPA, he was instrumental in the success of our association. Many of you have worked closely with him, and we know you will join in our sorrow.”

Camara — who served as president of the HFPA for a total of years, the most recent being from 2007-2009 — joined the organization in 1968 and was on its board for more than 20 years. He was also a member of the...

Jeff Shell, NBCUniversal’s recently appointed CEO, has tested positive for coronavirus, Variety has confirmed.

In a memo to staff, Shell said he was diagnosed with the virus despite being asymptomatic. He told employees that he will self-quarantine and work from home indefinitely while he recovers.

“I recently have been feeling under the weather and just learned that I have tested positive for Covid-19,” Shell wrote. “Although the virus has been tough to cope with, I have managed to work remotely in La and am improving every day.”

Starting last week, NBCUniversal employees had already been directed to work from home in an effort to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

“Many of you, like me, are working from home while trying to balance family commitments and other challenges, and I know this isn’t easy,” Shell said. “But for those of you who can do your jobs from home,...

He’s mean, he’s nasty, he carries a razor and he’s dating your sister! Cosh Boy was front & center in 1953 debates about ‘what’s wrong with the British cinema.’ It holds up well, if not as PC social comment, then as solid exploitation fare, with our verminous hero putting the moves on tough-but-vulnerable local girl Joan Collins. The entire cast will want to stand in line to get revenge against Roy Walsh, the punk who steals from his own mum and lets his criminal gang do the dirty work. Take it from me, he’s a dirty rat.

The Slasher (Cosh Boy)

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1953 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 75 min. / Street Date January 7, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 19.95

Starring: James Kenney, Joan Collins, Betty Ann Davies, Robert Ayres, Hermione Baddeley, Hermione Gingold, Nancy Roberts, Laurence Naismith, Ian Whittaker, Stanley Escane, Michael McKeag, Sean Lynch, Johnny Briggs, Nosher Powell.

Noir Nirvana isn’t found amid literary swells and hoity-toity art connoisseurs — but in the trenches of humble Eagle-Lion Films, where Richard Fleischer, Lloyd Bridges and a hotter-than-hot Barbara Payton steamed up the streets of Los Angeles circa 1949. The Film Noir Foundation experts give us an expertly curated slice of hardboiled crime — Eddie Muller dubs it ‘To Live and Die in L.A.,’ but in the year that the Reds took over mainland China, and the Ussr exploded its first Atom bomb.

Trapped

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley

1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date December 17, 2019 / 39.98

Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, James Todd, Russ Conway, Robert Karnes, Stephen Chase, Tommy Noonan, Douglas Spencer.

Cinematography: Guy Roe

Film Editor: Alfred DeGaetano

Original Music: Sol Kaplan

Written by Earl Felton, George Zuckerman

Produced by Bryan Foy

Directed by Richard Fleischer

The Film Noir Foundation has done it again — the non-profit has...

See-Saw Films has hired “Killing Eve” producer Elinor Day for an executive producer role in its growing U.K. TV division. Day will oversee some of the company’s existing slate and develop her own projects, reporting to head of television Jamie Laurenson and TV COO Hakan Kousetta.

See-Saw’s new recruit recently produced the second season of BBC America series “Killing Eve.” Her credits include “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” for ITV, “White Heat” for the BBC, and Season 2 of “My Mad Fat Diary” for Channel 4.

She has been head of film at Darlow Smithson and deputy head of production at Film4, working on movies including “East Is East” and feature documentary “Senna.”

“We are thrilled to have Elinor join the See-Saw team, especially as we continue expanding our television slate in the U.K.,” said Kousetta and Laurenson. “Elinor’s breadth of experience and extensive...