End-of-the-world Sci-fi went mainstream with a heavy message about human extinction in John Paxton’s all-star adaptation of Nevil Shute’s best seller. Always controversial and often derided as ‘glamorous obliteration chic,’ Stanley Kramer’s film plays better than ever. The possibility of Nuke Doom could be ignored back then, but we’ve since gained a more apocalyptic outlook. It’s got fine work from Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire, and only real Australians wince at the iffy accents. It’s also Kramer’s best-judged, best-directed movie overall. [Imprint’s] special edition includes an entire separate documentary feature, Fallout.
On the Beach
Blu-ray
Plus the full feature Fallout
Viavision [Imprint] #147
1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date August 30, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 69.95
Starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, John Tate, Harp McQuire, Lola Brooks, Guy Doleman, John Meillon, Paddy Moran.
Cinematography Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editor...
On the Beach
Blu-ray
Plus the full feature Fallout
Viavision [Imprint] #147
1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date August 30, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 69.95
Starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, John Tate, Harp McQuire, Lola Brooks, Guy Doleman, John Meillon, Paddy Moran.
Cinematography Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editor...
- 9/6/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Cohen Film Collection brings to Region A its beautifully remastered disc of American fringe filmmaking’s weirdest, most obsessively arty shock-fest — a loving return to silent expressionist horror. The New York censors scuttled its commercial chances, and it wound up as a movie-within-a-movie footnote for Steve McQueen. We never thought we’d see the show look this good — John Parker memorialized Venice, California five years before Orson Welles. But the overall package packs a big disappointment, as I’ll explain.
Dementia
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
1955 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 56 min. / Street Date April 26, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Adrienne Barret, Ben Roseman, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Angelo Rossitto.
Cinematography: William C. Thompson
Film Editor: Joseph Gluck
Original Music: George Antheil
Music director: Ernest Gold
Featured Vocal: Marni Nixon
New Concepts in Modern Sounds: Shorty Rogers and his Giants
Written, Produced and Directed by John J. Parker
The BFI first...
Dementia
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
1955 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 56 min. / Street Date April 26, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Adrienne Barret, Ben Roseman, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Angelo Rossitto.
Cinematography: William C. Thompson
Film Editor: Joseph Gluck
Original Music: George Antheil
Music director: Ernest Gold
Featured Vocal: Marni Nixon
New Concepts in Modern Sounds: Shorty Rogers and his Giants
Written, Produced and Directed by John J. Parker
The BFI first...
- 5/3/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be taking a trip to Vienna for a six-week programming initiative including a symposium and film series with a distinct cinematic connection to that fabled Austrian city.
The museum announced today the series launch on December 10 and running through January 31. It is designed to explore what the museum describes as the “large community of predominately Jewish, Austrian-born film artists and professionals who helped shape the films and industry of classical era Hollywood.” Titled “Vienna in Hollywood: Emigres and Exiles in the Studio System,” the series is presented in collaboration with the USC Libraries and the USC Max Kade Institute. The Austrian Consulate General in L.A. also is offering support.
Bill Kramer, director and president of the Academy Museum, said: “During the classical Hollywood era, so many beloved films and so many components of the movie industry were developed and shaped by Austrian émigrés,...
The museum announced today the series launch on December 10 and running through January 31. It is designed to explore what the museum describes as the “large community of predominately Jewish, Austrian-born film artists and professionals who helped shape the films and industry of classical era Hollywood.” Titled “Vienna in Hollywood: Emigres and Exiles in the Studio System,” the series is presented in collaboration with the USC Libraries and the USC Max Kade Institute. The Austrian Consulate General in L.A. also is offering support.
Bill Kramer, director and president of the Academy Museum, said: “During the classical Hollywood era, so many beloved films and so many components of the movie industry were developed and shaped by Austrian émigrés,...
- 10/25/2021
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced Vienna in Hollywood, a new six-week program launching on Dec. 10 that explores the history of the predominantly Jewish, Austrian-born community of filmmakers and professionals who helped shape the classical era of Hollywood.
Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe including actor-director Erich von Stroheim and composer Max Steiner were major players in the early establishment of the American film industry in the 1920s. Due to Nazi persecution, a larger wave came in the ‘30s and ‘40s, bringing in talent such as the directors Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang; actors Hedy Lamarr and Peter Lorre; producers Eric Pleskow and Sam Spiegel; screenwriters Vicki Baum and Gina Kaus; and composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Ernest Gold. With a symposium and film series, Vienna in Hollywood will pay tribute to these artists and many more.
The two-day symposium is titled Vienna in Hollywood: The Influence and...
Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe including actor-director Erich von Stroheim and composer Max Steiner were major players in the early establishment of the American film industry in the 1920s. Due to Nazi persecution, a larger wave came in the ‘30s and ‘40s, bringing in talent such as the directors Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang; actors Hedy Lamarr and Peter Lorre; producers Eric Pleskow and Sam Spiegel; screenwriters Vicki Baum and Gina Kaus; and composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Ernest Gold. With a symposium and film series, Vienna in Hollywood will pay tribute to these artists and many more.
The two-day symposium is titled Vienna in Hollywood: The Influence and...
- 10/25/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson can’t quite bring this all-star western fully to life, even with Robert Aldrich at the helm and a storyline that toys with (then) lurid, adult subject matter. Screen-written by Dalton Trumbo and filmed in Mexico, it perhaps packs too much edgy psychodrama into a simple cowboys & six-guns saga. Dorothy Malone and Carol Lynley give fine support and the locations are nice, as is Ernest Laszlo’s cinematography.
The Last Sunset
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 12, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotten, Carol Lynley, Neville Brand, Regis Toomey, Rad Fulton (James Westmoreland), Adam Williams, Jack Elam, John Shay, José Torvay.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Art Directors: Alexander Golitzen, Alfred Sweeney
Film Editor: Michael Luciano
Original Music: Ernest Gold
Written by Dalton Trumbo from the novel Sundown at Crazy Horse by Howard Rigsby
Produced by Eugene Frenke,...
The Last Sunset
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 12, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotten, Carol Lynley, Neville Brand, Regis Toomey, Rad Fulton (James Westmoreland), Adam Williams, Jack Elam, John Shay, José Torvay.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Art Directors: Alexander Golitzen, Alfred Sweeney
Film Editor: Michael Luciano
Original Music: Ernest Gold
Written by Dalton Trumbo from the novel Sundown at Crazy Horse by Howard Rigsby
Produced by Eugene Frenke,...
- 10/5/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This bizarre, creepy and maudit masterpiece of silent expressionist horror is an independent 1950s production that never had a chance commercially. Butchered by a second distributor, its ignominious fate was to wind up as a movie-within-a-movie footnote for Steve McQueen. Cohen/BFI’s ‘rescue’ remastering of John Parker’s picture does some things great — we never thought we’d see it look this good. But the overall package packs a big disappointment, as I’ll explain.
Dementia (1955)
Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD
BFI
1955 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 56 min. / Street Date October 19, 2020 / £15.89
Starring: Adrienne Barret, Ben Roseman, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Angelo Rossitto.
Cinematography: William C. Thompson
Film Editor: Joseph Gluck
Original Music: George Antheil
Music director: Ernest Gold
Featured Vocal: Marni Nixon
New Concepts in Modern Sounds: Shorty Rogers and his Giants
Written, Produced and Directed by John J. Parker
I screened John Parker’s Dementia at UCLA in 1972, at...
Dementia (1955)
Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD
BFI
1955 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 56 min. / Street Date October 19, 2020 / £15.89
Starring: Adrienne Barret, Ben Roseman, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Angelo Rossitto.
Cinematography: William C. Thompson
Film Editor: Joseph Gluck
Original Music: George Antheil
Music director: Ernest Gold
Featured Vocal: Marni Nixon
New Concepts in Modern Sounds: Shorty Rogers and his Giants
Written, Produced and Directed by John J. Parker
I screened John Parker’s Dementia at UCLA in 1972, at...
- 11/3/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Gerard Schurmann, whose 1960s film scores included “The Bedford Incident” and “Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow” but who also composed extensively for the concert hall, died March 24 at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He was 96 and had recently been in declining health.
Schurmann’s death was announced by his music publisher, Novello & Co. Ltd., in London. Said James Rushton, head of Novello’s Wise Music Group: “Gerard will be much missed – a man and musician of the highest caliber, who expressed himself, whether through his music or in conversation, with the firmest conviction. He understood so very well about writing for the orchestra, and for instruments generally, but unusually knew how to employ the orchestra both in the concert hall and also for film. He wrote for both with such facility.”
The composer’s death came just a few months after Chandos released a collection of newly recorded suites from his film work,...
Schurmann’s death was announced by his music publisher, Novello & Co. Ltd., in London. Said James Rushton, head of Novello’s Wise Music Group: “Gerard will be much missed – a man and musician of the highest caliber, who expressed himself, whether through his music or in conversation, with the firmest conviction. He understood so very well about writing for the orchestra, and for instruments generally, but unusually knew how to employ the orchestra both in the concert hall and also for film. He wrote for both with such facility.”
The composer’s death came just a few months after Chandos released a collection of newly recorded suites from his film work,...
- 3/30/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Every generation has a Halloween meme that exists somewhere in the Venn diagram of weird, scary, and vaguely horny. For boomers, it’s the Monster Mash; for Gen X, it’s the scene in Ghostbusters where Dan Aykroyd gets a blowie from a ghost; for Gen Y, it’s the Kxvo Pumpkin Dance Guy with David S. Pumpkins in close second. Now, Gen Z has their own version of Vaguely Horny Halloween Creepiness thanks to the remix of “Spooky Spooky Skeletons,” a 1996 novelty hit by Andrew Gold that’s now...
- 10/8/2019
- by EJ Dickson
- Rollingstone.com
Ludwig Göransson’s Grammy wins Sunday night broke yet another record: The Swedish composer and collaborative partner with Childish Gambino became the first artist to win song of the year and best score soundtrack for projects in entirely different music genres.
Göransson won for his “Black Panther” score and shared the song of the year Grammy with Donald Glover for co-writing the Childish Gambino song “This Is America.”
He’d also been nominated for a third award, best R&B song, for co-penning another Childish Gambino song, “Feels Like Summer.”
There have been five occasions in Grammy history when the same composer won song of the year as well as original score: Ernest Gold, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, Marvin Hamlisch and Alan Menken.
But all of those instances involved a song and the movie that spawned it. Göransson won for a movie score but also managed to win for a...
Göransson won for his “Black Panther” score and shared the song of the year Grammy with Donald Glover for co-writing the Childish Gambino song “This Is America.”
He’d also been nominated for a third award, best R&B song, for co-penning another Childish Gambino song, “Feels Like Summer.”
There have been five occasions in Grammy history when the same composer won song of the year as well as original score: Ernest Gold, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, Marvin Hamlisch and Alan Menken.
But all of those instances involved a song and the movie that spawned it. Göransson won for a movie score but also managed to win for a...
- 2/11/2019
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Secure one major book with a serious subject, sign up a wagonload of stars (including a legend or two) and make sure every cookie-cutter character repeatedly explains themselves to the camera in close-up. That formula worked well for Stanley Kramer in 1965; his film hasn’t much of a reputation but the cast is gold. A bright new transfer makes the picture look very good.
Ship of Fools
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1965 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 149 min. / Street Date March 9, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, José Greco, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin, Heinz Rühmann, Lilia Skala, Barbara Luna, Alf Kjellin, Werner Klemperer,
Gila Golan, Kaaren Verne.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Film Editor: Robert C. Jones
Special visual effects: John Burke, Farciot Edouart, Albert Whitlock
Original Music: Ernest Gold
Written by Abby Mann from the novel by Katherine Anne Porter
Produced and directed by Stanley...
Ship of Fools
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1965 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 149 min. / Street Date March 9, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, José Greco, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin, Heinz Rühmann, Lilia Skala, Barbara Luna, Alf Kjellin, Werner Klemperer,
Gila Golan, Kaaren Verne.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Film Editor: Robert C. Jones
Special visual effects: John Burke, Farciot Edouart, Albert Whitlock
Original Music: Ernest Gold
Written by Abby Mann from the novel by Katherine Anne Porter
Produced and directed by Stanley...
- 3/10/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Lost In America
Blu-ray
Criterion
1985 / 1:85 / Street Date July 25, 2017
Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty
Cinematography: Eric Saarinen
Film Editor: David Finfer
Written by Albert Brooks, Monica Johnson
Produced by Marty Katz and Herb Nanas
Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein
Directed by Albert Brooks
According to a Newsweek cover story published that same year, 1984 was “The Year of the Yuppie”, referring to those ferociously materialistic young professionals whose numbers blossomed during the Reagan administration. The following year director Albert Brooks and his co-writer Monica Johnson delivered Lost In America, an acerbic road movie detailing what happens when one of those upwardly mobile hot-shots decides to get back to nature and “touch Indians”.
The result is one of the great American comedies, a mile-a-minute talk fest worthy of writer-directors like Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and in particular Preston Sturges, whose The Palm Beach Story told a similar tale about two young-marrieds who find...
Blu-ray
Criterion
1985 / 1:85 / Street Date July 25, 2017
Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty
Cinematography: Eric Saarinen
Film Editor: David Finfer
Written by Albert Brooks, Monica Johnson
Produced by Marty Katz and Herb Nanas
Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein
Directed by Albert Brooks
According to a Newsweek cover story published that same year, 1984 was “The Year of the Yuppie”, referring to those ferociously materialistic young professionals whose numbers blossomed during the Reagan administration. The following year director Albert Brooks and his co-writer Monica Johnson delivered Lost In America, an acerbic road movie detailing what happens when one of those upwardly mobile hot-shots decides to get back to nature and “touch Indians”.
The result is one of the great American comedies, a mile-a-minute talk fest worthy of writer-directors like Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and in particular Preston Sturges, whose The Palm Beach Story told a similar tale about two young-marrieds who find...
- 7/26/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
I Bury The Living
Blu-ray
Shout! Factory
1958 / B&W / 1:85 / / 76 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017
Starring: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel.
Cinematography: Frederick Gately
Film Editor: Frank Sullivan
Written by Louis Garfinkle
Produced by Albert Band, Louis Garfinkle
Directed by Albert Band
I Bury the Living implicates us in a primal childhood thought-crime… what if you stepped on a crack and really did break your mother’s back? What if simply wishing someone dead made it so? Guilt, pure and simple, gives this off–kilter 50’s chiller its lasting power.
The film boasts an off–kilter leading man as well with the crater-faced Richard Boone as Robert Kraft, a small town business man railroaded into managing the family run cemetery. To make matters worse, the perennially gloomy Kraft, already skittish about his disconcerting new position, is saddled with a decrepit, unnaturally chilly workplace watched over by an unnerving bit of decoration, an...
Blu-ray
Shout! Factory
1958 / B&W / 1:85 / / 76 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017
Starring: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel.
Cinematography: Frederick Gately
Film Editor: Frank Sullivan
Written by Louis Garfinkle
Produced by Albert Band, Louis Garfinkle
Directed by Albert Band
I Bury the Living implicates us in a primal childhood thought-crime… what if you stepped on a crack and really did break your mother’s back? What if simply wishing someone dead made it so? Guilt, pure and simple, gives this off–kilter 50’s chiller its lasting power.
The film boasts an off–kilter leading man as well with the crater-faced Richard Boone as Robert Kraft, a small town business man railroaded into managing the family run cemetery. To make matters worse, the perennially gloomy Kraft, already skittish about his disconcerting new position, is saddled with a decrepit, unnaturally chilly workplace watched over by an unnerving bit of decoration, an...
- 4/29/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
"This land is mine, God made this land for me." Those are just song lyrics, while Otto Preminger's politically daring 70mm mega-production is a lot more subtle in its presentation of the 'Palestinian problem' that led to the formation of the State of Israel. It's a bit ponderous, but Dalton Trumbo's screenplay avoids the pitfalls -- 56 years later, the story is still relevant. Exodus Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 208 min. / Ship Date March 15, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, David Opatoshu, Jill Haworth, Hugh Griffith, Gregory Ratoff, Felix Aylmer, Marius Goring, Alexandra Stewart, Martin Benson, Paul Stevens, George Maharis, John Crawford, Victor Maddern, Paul Stassino, John Van Eyssen Cinematography Sam Leavitt Art Direction Richard Day Film Editor Louis R. Loeffler Original Music Ernest Gold Written by Dalton Trumbo from...
- 4/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Otto Preminger’s 1960 film Exodus, which stars Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson and Lee J. Cobb, celebrates it’s 55th anniversary this year. The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be holding a special one-night-only showing of the 280-minute film on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 7:00 pm. Prior to the screening, actress Eva Marie Saint is scheduled to partake in a Q & A and discussion on the making of the film.
From the press release:
Exodus, based on the best-selling novel by Leon Uris about the founding of the state of Israel, was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1960 and won the Oscar for Ernest Gold's majestic, memorable score. Otto Preminger's lavish production, with a screenplay by formerly blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, was filmed on location with an all-star cast headed by Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Sal Mineo, Jill Haworth, Peter Lawford, Ralph Richardson, and Lee J. Cobb.
From the press release:
Exodus, based on the best-selling novel by Leon Uris about the founding of the state of Israel, was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1960 and won the Oscar for Ernest Gold's majestic, memorable score. Otto Preminger's lavish production, with a screenplay by formerly blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, was filmed on location with an all-star cast headed by Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Sal Mineo, Jill Haworth, Peter Lawford, Ralph Richardson, and Lee J. Cobb.
- 3/20/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Songwriter Diane Warren earned her seventh Oscar nomination this year for “Grateful” from Beyond the Lights. The song, which will be performed by Rita Ora at the Oscar ceremony, is Warren’s first nomination in 13 years. With a Grammy and a Golden Globe under her belt, she has yet to win an Oscar and is one of two Oscar-nominated songwriters to have at least seven nominations and not a single win. The other songwriter is Mack David.
Warren received her first nomination in 1988 for the song “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” which she co-wrote with Albert Hammond, from the movie Mannequin. The song was a No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 Hit in 1987.
She next landed four consecutive nominations nine years later starting with 1997’s nomination of “Because You Loved Me” from Up, Close & Personal. Though the song didn’t win an Oscar, it did score a Grammy.
Managing Editor
Songwriter Diane Warren earned her seventh Oscar nomination this year for “Grateful” from Beyond the Lights. The song, which will be performed by Rita Ora at the Oscar ceremony, is Warren’s first nomination in 13 years. With a Grammy and a Golden Globe under her belt, she has yet to win an Oscar and is one of two Oscar-nominated songwriters to have at least seven nominations and not a single win. The other songwriter is Mack David.
Warren received her first nomination in 1988 for the song “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” which she co-wrote with Albert Hammond, from the movie Mannequin. The song was a No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 Hit in 1987.
She next landed four consecutive nominations nine years later starting with 1997’s nomination of “Because You Loved Me” from Up, Close & Personal. Though the song didn’t win an Oscar, it did score a Grammy.
- 2/5/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Cast
Captain T. G. Culpeper Spencer Tracy J. Russell Finch Milton Berle Melville Crump Sid Caesar Benjy Benjamin Buddy Hackett Mrs. Marcus Ethel Merman Ding Bell Mickey Rooney Sylvester Marcus Dick Shawn Otto Meyer Phil Silvers J. Algernon Hawthorne Terry-Thomas Lennie Pike Jonathan Winters Monica Crump Edie Adams Emeline Finch Dorothy Provine Cabdriver Eddie “Rochester” Anderson Tyler Fitzgerald Jim Backus Man driving in the desert Jack Benny Union official Joe E. Brown Biplane pilot Ben Blue Police sergeant Alan Carney Detective Chick Chandler Mrs. Halliburton Barrie Chase Mayor Lloyd Corrigan Police chief William Demarest Sheriff of Crocket County Andy Devine Ginger Culpeper (voice) Selma Diamond Cabdriver Peter Falk Detective Normal Fell Colonel Wilberforce Paul Ford Deputy sheriff Stan Freberg Billie Sue Culpeper (voice) Louise Glenn Cabdriver Leo Gorcey Fire chief Sterling Holloway Mr. Dinckler Edward Everett Horton Irwin Marvin Kaplan Jimmy the Cook Buster Keaton Nervous motorist Don Knotts Airport...
Captain T. G. Culpeper Spencer Tracy J. Russell Finch Milton Berle Melville Crump Sid Caesar Benjy Benjamin Buddy Hackett Mrs. Marcus Ethel Merman Ding Bell Mickey Rooney Sylvester Marcus Dick Shawn Otto Meyer Phil Silvers J. Algernon Hawthorne Terry-Thomas Lennie Pike Jonathan Winters Monica Crump Edie Adams Emeline Finch Dorothy Provine Cabdriver Eddie “Rochester” Anderson Tyler Fitzgerald Jim Backus Man driving in the desert Jack Benny Union official Joe E. Brown Biplane pilot Ben Blue Police sergeant Alan Carney Detective Chick Chandler Mrs. Halliburton Barrie Chase Mayor Lloyd Corrigan Police chief William Demarest Sheriff of Crocket County Andy Devine Ginger Culpeper (voice) Selma Diamond Cabdriver Peter Falk Detective Normal Fell Colonel Wilberforce Paul Ford Deputy sheriff Stan Freberg Billie Sue Culpeper (voice) Louise Glenn Cabdriver Leo Gorcey Fire chief Sterling Holloway Mr. Dinckler Edward Everett Horton Irwin Marvin Kaplan Jimmy the Cook Buster Keaton Nervous motorist Don Knotts Airport...
- 1/22/2015
- by Sam Moffitt
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Having finally found acclaim as a writer/director with critical successes like The Defiant Ones (1958) after a brief period serving as a producer for others at Columbia on films such as Death of a Salesman (1951), The Juggler (1953), and The Wild One (1953), Stanley Kramer took it upon himself to follow-up his politically controversial nuclear war drama On the Beach (1959) with yet another topically contentious production – Inherit The Wind. Based on the stage play of the same name written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, the film fictionalizes the famed 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial, in which a high school teacher named John Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in any state-funded school. Riding high on the creation/evolution controversy, as well as a genius ploy to exploit the witch hunt narrative to discuss the dangers of McCarthyism, which had previously seen Nedrick Young,...
- 1/13/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
By Lee Pfeiffer
Twilight Time has released Stanley Kramer's 1969 WWII era comedy "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" as a limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray. I hadn't seen the film since it was originally released and only had vague recollections of it. Watching it today, I found the movie to be an absolute delight thanks to a terrific script by Ben Maddow and William Rose (the latter co-wrote Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World") and a sterling cast. The film is set in 1943 in the small Italian village of Santa Vittoria. The story opens with a young university studio, Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini in one of his first major roles) who hurries to his native town to breathtakingly inform the residents that Mussolini has just been deposed. The announcement is met with a collective yawn by the townspeople, who have remained largely immune from the effects of the war and their dictator's fascist police state.
Twilight Time has released Stanley Kramer's 1969 WWII era comedy "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" as a limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray. I hadn't seen the film since it was originally released and only had vague recollections of it. Watching it today, I found the movie to be an absolute delight thanks to a terrific script by Ben Maddow and William Rose (the latter co-wrote Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World") and a sterling cast. The film is set in 1943 in the small Italian village of Santa Vittoria. The story opens with a young university studio, Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini in one of his first major roles) who hurries to his native town to breathtakingly inform the residents that Mussolini has just been deposed. The announcement is met with a collective yawn by the townspeople, who have remained largely immune from the effects of the war and their dictator's fascist police state.
- 10/7/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Within the well intentioned lexicon of Stanley Kramer’s filmography, his 1959 title, On the Beach remains the most prescient, a post-apocalyptic science fiction filmed steeped in light melodrama. Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Score (Ernest Gold) and a pair of Oscar nominations, nuclear fallout after the deployment of mankind’s deadliest war time weapons has rendered mankind obsolete with the exception of the inhabitants of Australia and the crew of the U.S. submarine Sawfish, guided by Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck). An Sos signal in San Francisco leads Towers out with a crew to determine if the radioactivity has abated, but there’s no such luck. Worse, the radiation cloud will soon reach Australia’s shores, leaving the last remnants of humanity little time to grapple with the encroaching end.
As the last remaining humans navigate their remaining days of existence in Australia, paralyzed by...
As the last remaining humans navigate their remaining days of existence in Australia, paralyzed by...
- 8/26/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Blu-ray Release Date: Aug. 12, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Anthony Quinn (l.) drinks to his health--not Hardy Kruger's--in The Secret of Santa Vittoria.
Producer-director Stanley Kramer’s 1969 wartime comedy The Secret of Santa Vittoria arrives on Blu-ray for the very first time from Twilight Time.
Set towards the close of World War II, the movie stars Anthony Quinn (Zorba the Greek) as the mayor of an Italian wine-making village that finds its age-old economy imperiled as the Nazis close in. Those nasty Germans are determined to plunder a million-bottle cache of valuable vino, while the villagers are just as determined to keep their treasure safe.
A warm-hearted comedy with dramatic touches, Santa Vittoria also features Anna Magnani (Bellisima), Virna Lisi (Queen Margot), Giancarlo Giannini (The Seduction of Mimi), and Hardy Kruger (Sundays and Cybèle) in the cast.
The film is supported by an Oscar-nominated score by Ernest Gold, which...
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Anthony Quinn (l.) drinks to his health--not Hardy Kruger's--in The Secret of Santa Vittoria.
Producer-director Stanley Kramer’s 1969 wartime comedy The Secret of Santa Vittoria arrives on Blu-ray for the very first time from Twilight Time.
Set towards the close of World War II, the movie stars Anthony Quinn (Zorba the Greek) as the mayor of an Italian wine-making village that finds its age-old economy imperiled as the Nazis close in. Those nasty Germans are determined to plunder a million-bottle cache of valuable vino, while the villagers are just as determined to keep their treasure safe.
A warm-hearted comedy with dramatic touches, Santa Vittoria also features Anna Magnani (Bellisima), Virna Lisi (Queen Margot), Giancarlo Giannini (The Seduction of Mimi), and Hardy Kruger (Sundays and Cybèle) in the cast.
The film is supported by an Oscar-nominated score by Ernest Gold, which...
- 7/16/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
On these warm summer days, what better way to escape the heat than with a visit to a movie theater. Sure, you can catch one of the many new films, but instead why not revisit or introduce yourself to a classic. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is running a 70mm series of films beginning Monday in Beverly Hills. It kicks off the inaugural event with the uproarious It’S A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I agree, it’s usually one that we all watch during the holidays but if you’re fortunate enough to see it on the big screen then you need to make a trip to The Academy.
This week I had the chance to speak with the wife of the film’s late director Stanley Kramer over the phone where she nostalgically talked about one of the funniest comedies in film history. Mrs.
This week I had the chance to speak with the wife of the film’s late director Stanley Kramer over the phone where she nostalgically talked about one of the funniest comedies in film history. Mrs.
- 7/6/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the 1963 ensemble comedy “It.s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World“ as the inaugural film in its series “The Last 70mm Film Festival” on Monday, July 9, at 7 p.m. at the Academy.s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Directed by nine-time Oscar® nominee Stanley Kramer, “It.s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” earned six Academy Award® nominations, including Cinematography (Ernest Laszlo), Film Editing (Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones, Gene Fowler, Jr.), Music . Music Score, substantially original (Ernest Gold), Music . Song (Gold, Mack David), Sound (Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director), and took home the Oscar for Sound Effects (Walter G. Elliott).
Prior to the screening, there will be a panel discussion with actors Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Stan Freberg and Barrie Chase, as well as script supervisor Marshall Schlom, casting director Lynn Stalmaster,...
Directed by nine-time Oscar® nominee Stanley Kramer, “It.s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” earned six Academy Award® nominations, including Cinematography (Ernest Laszlo), Film Editing (Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones, Gene Fowler, Jr.), Music . Music Score, substantially original (Ernest Gold), Music . Song (Gold, Mack David), Sound (Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director), and took home the Oscar for Sound Effects (Walter G. Elliott).
Prior to the screening, there will be a panel discussion with actors Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Stan Freberg and Barrie Chase, as well as script supervisor Marshall Schlom, casting director Lynn Stalmaster,...
- 6/27/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ernest Gold’s hilarious soundtrack for the 1963 comedy It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has been released on CD before (via Rykodisc), but is now being released again by Kritzerland as a limited edition of 1,000 copies. The previous CD edition included a lot of dialogue from the film which “unfortunately impeded the wonderful flow of the music” according to Kritzerland, whose release includes no dialogue. Seven bonus tracks ...
- 1/11/2010
- by Mikael Carlsson
- MovieScore Magazine
Funny movies make us laugh, that’s a no-brainer. But, what happens when you get a movie with Lots of funny people in it? Chances are, if it’s done well, you get an exponentially funnier movie. It’s like asking someone if they’d like a scoop of ice cream, or if they’d like three scoops of ice cream with hot fudge, caramel, whipped topping, nuts, sprinkles (gotta have sprinkles) and a cherry on top… it’s an easy decision. That’s sort of like asking someone if they want to see Mike Judge’s new comedy Extract, which opens nationwide in theaters this Friday. This should be an easy decision as well. So, we Movie Geeks decided to reflect on these movies and “extract” a list of our Top Ten Best Ensemble Comedies.
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
One of the most quotable, most intelligently ridiculous films of all time,...
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
One of the most quotable, most intelligently ridiculous films of all time,...
- 9/1/2009
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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.