Death doesn't take a holiday in this, the granddaddy of movies about the woeful duties of the Grim Reaper. Fritz Lang's heavy-duty Expressionist fable is as German as they get -- a morbid folk tale with an emotionally powerful finish. Destiny Blu-ray Kino Classics 1921 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 98 min. / Street Date August 30, 2016 / Der müde Tod / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Bernhard Goetzke, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Georg John. Cinematography Bruno Mondi, Erich Nitzschmann, Herrmann Saalfrank, Bruno Timm, Fritz Arno Wagner Film Editor Fritz Lang Written by Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes the prize for the most influential work of early German Expressionism, but coming in a close second is the film in which Fritz Lang first got his act (completely) together, 1921's Destiny (Der müde Tod). A wholly cinematic...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes the prize for the most influential work of early German Expressionism, but coming in a close second is the film in which Fritz Lang first got his act (completely) together, 1921's Destiny (Der müde Tod). A wholly cinematic...
- 8/6/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Its remake time again. For this article, we’re tackling Disney! We’ll be dissecting a popular animated movie, whose cinematic predecessor is a fantasy classic. This week, Cinelinx looks at Disney’s Aladdin. (1992)
Disney has taken many famous old stories and made them into modern cinematic blockbusters. One of those was 1992’s Aladdin, which was based on the story “The Thief of Bagdad” from Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights. Of course, this was not the first time the story was translated to film. It was done previously in 1940 as The Thief of Bagdad, which has been described by Roger Ebert as “One of the greatest fantasy films ever made, on a level with The Wizard of Oz.” (There was actually a silent version released in 1924, but we’re going to save the old silent films for another time.) Was the Disney remake a worthy follow-up to the 1940 classic?...
Disney has taken many famous old stories and made them into modern cinematic blockbusters. One of those was 1992’s Aladdin, which was based on the story “The Thief of Bagdad” from Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights. Of course, this was not the first time the story was translated to film. It was done previously in 1940 as The Thief of Bagdad, which has been described by Roger Ebert as “One of the greatest fantasy films ever made, on a level with The Wizard of Oz.” (There was actually a silent version released in 1924, but we’re going to save the old silent films for another time.) Was the Disney remake a worthy follow-up to the 1940 classic?...
- 1/18/2016
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Rob Young)
- Cinelinx
Fans of Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, John Wayne and Jason Robards rejoice! Altitude Films are releasing Seven classic films between May 27th and June 10th and to celebrate we are offering you the chance to win them all.
Two lucky winners will each receive a bundle of classic movies including a copy of The Fugitive Kind, The Hot Rock, Arabian Nights, Desiree, The Story of GI Joe, The St Valentines Massacre and McLintock!
Here’s the rundown on the films included in this fantastic classic bundle…
Arabian Nights (1942)
Filmed in glorious Technicolor and nominated for four Academy Awards®, Arabian Nights is an action-packed adventure classic.
Starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez, Arabian Nights is a grand tale of intrigue and romance. Haroun-Al-Raschid, the Caliph of Bagdad and his half-brother Kamar are in an epic battle, competing for the throne and for the affections of a beautiful dancer, Scheherazade.
Pre-order your copy now here.
Two lucky winners will each receive a bundle of classic movies including a copy of The Fugitive Kind, The Hot Rock, Arabian Nights, Desiree, The Story of GI Joe, The St Valentines Massacre and McLintock!
Here’s the rundown on the films included in this fantastic classic bundle…
Arabian Nights (1942)
Filmed in glorious Technicolor and nominated for four Academy Awards®, Arabian Nights is an action-packed adventure classic.
Starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez, Arabian Nights is a grand tale of intrigue and romance. Haroun-Al-Raschid, the Caliph of Bagdad and his half-brother Kamar are in an epic battle, competing for the throne and for the affections of a beautiful dancer, Scheherazade.
Pre-order your copy now here.
- 5/29/2013
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
To celebrate the release of the adventure classic Arabian Nights on 10th June, we are offering you the chance to win one of three copies of the DVD.
Filmed in glorious Technicolor and nominated for four Academy Awards®, Arabian Nights is an action-packed adventure classic.
Directed by John Rawlins and starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez, Arabian Nights is a grand tale of intrigue and romance. Haroun-Al-Raschid, the Caliph of Bagdad and his half-brother Kamar are in an epic battle, competing for the throne and for the affections of a beautiful dancer, Scheherazade.
Lavish sets, beautiful costumes and the first-ever pairing of the romantic adventure team of Hall and Montez, Arabian Nights is a film not to be missed!
Pre-order your copy now here.
Click next for your chance to win.
The post Win Arabian Nights on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.
Filmed in glorious Technicolor and nominated for four Academy Awards®, Arabian Nights is an action-packed adventure classic.
Directed by John Rawlins and starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez, Arabian Nights is a grand tale of intrigue and romance. Haroun-Al-Raschid, the Caliph of Bagdad and his half-brother Kamar are in an epic battle, competing for the throne and for the affections of a beautiful dancer, Scheherazade.
Lavish sets, beautiful costumes and the first-ever pairing of the romantic adventure team of Hall and Montez, Arabian Nights is a film not to be missed!
Pre-order your copy now here.
Click next for your chance to win.
The post Win Arabian Nights on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 5/15/2013
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 19, 2013
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98
Studio: Cohen Media/Entertainment One
Fantasy takes flight in 1924's The Thief of Bagdad.
Raoul Walsh’s 1924 film The Thief of Bagdad, a dazzling Arabian Nights adventure fantasy starring Douglas Fairbanks and set in the city of Bagdad, remains one of the most imaginative of all silent movies.
The classic film’s fantastical family-friendly story finds Fairbanks portraying the titular recalcitrant thief Ahmed who vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler (Sôjin) for the hand of a beautiful princess (Julanne Johnston).
Filled with Fairbanks’ acrobatic and energetic stuntwork, elaborate and lush settings, and backgrounds and massive sets by William Cameron Menzies (who would later design Gone with the Wind), The Thief of Bagdad was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Further, the American Film Institute’s 2008 poll of the creative community ranked the movie among the...
Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98
Studio: Cohen Media/Entertainment One
Fantasy takes flight in 1924's The Thief of Bagdad.
Raoul Walsh’s 1924 film The Thief of Bagdad, a dazzling Arabian Nights adventure fantasy starring Douglas Fairbanks and set in the city of Bagdad, remains one of the most imaginative of all silent movies.
The classic film’s fantastical family-friendly story finds Fairbanks portraying the titular recalcitrant thief Ahmed who vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler (Sôjin) for the hand of a beautiful princess (Julanne Johnston).
Filled with Fairbanks’ acrobatic and energetic stuntwork, elaborate and lush settings, and backgrounds and massive sets by William Cameron Menzies (who would later design Gone with the Wind), The Thief of Bagdad was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Further, the American Film Institute’s 2008 poll of the creative community ranked the movie among the...
- 2/4/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Arabian Nights
Directed by John Rawlins
Starring Jon Hall, Maria Montez, and Sabu
USA, 86 min – 1942.
Part of a series of exotic pictures released by Universal in the 1940s (the others of which include Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and White Savage), Arabian Nights places the Hollywood spin on the classic tale of Scheherazade and her murderous husband. The name of the source material’s heroine – Scheherazade – is kept the same, while others are changed. The tale is twisted, so that there seems to be very little of the original myth and of the original Scheherazade. What is left are some names, supposed exotic places (“Arabia”), a brother’s feud, and humorous references to the stories of Aladdin and Sinbad. Arabian Nights becomes a campy adventure film to take war-minded audiences away to a far off place, for a while. It works.
Universal’s Arabian Nights begins with a frame...
Directed by John Rawlins
Starring Jon Hall, Maria Montez, and Sabu
USA, 86 min – 1942.
Part of a series of exotic pictures released by Universal in the 1940s (the others of which include Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and White Savage), Arabian Nights places the Hollywood spin on the classic tale of Scheherazade and her murderous husband. The name of the source material’s heroine – Scheherazade – is kept the same, while others are changed. The tale is twisted, so that there seems to be very little of the original myth and of the original Scheherazade. What is left are some names, supposed exotic places (“Arabia”), a brother’s feud, and humorous references to the stories of Aladdin and Sinbad. Arabian Nights becomes a campy adventure film to take war-minded audiences away to a far off place, for a while. It works.
Universal’s Arabian Nights begins with a frame...
- 1/29/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
My good Sun-Times pal from the 1970s at the Chicago Sun-Times, Cynthia Dagnal, wrote me today:
"A friend in London sent me this, obituary from the London indpendent and I was stunned to see that Jeni Le Gon attended the same Southside dancing school in Chicago that I did. It was probably the most reputable one on that side of the "color line," and not very far from my house. So I studied with the younger "protégés" of Mary Bruce, and all those cute pics of me in little but Expensive tutus and whatnot that I sometimes use on my blogs are reminders of those days! I took tap, jazz and ballet as a wee one, and loved to walk around en pointe all day long in those danged--and also expensive--toe shoes!"
Le Gon (born in Georgia Aug. 24,1916; died December 7, 2012) was the first African-American women to sign with a major studio,...
"A friend in London sent me this, obituary from the London indpendent and I was stunned to see that Jeni Le Gon attended the same Southside dancing school in Chicago that I did. It was probably the most reputable one on that side of the "color line," and not very far from my house. So I studied with the younger "protégés" of Mary Bruce, and all those cute pics of me in little but Expensive tutus and whatnot that I sometimes use on my blogs are reminders of those days! I took tap, jazz and ballet as a wee one, and loved to walk around en pointe all day long in those danged--and also expensive--toe shoes!"
Le Gon (born in Georgia Aug. 24,1916; died December 7, 2012) was the first African-American women to sign with a major studio,...
- 1/25/2013
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Forty 1940s Films: ‘Black Narcissus
Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, and Jean Simmons
UK, 100 min – 1947.
Black Narcissus recreates the western world’s allure for the exotic – with a twist. This is no escapist, romantic drama in the style of Arabian Nights. With Black Narcissus, Powell and Pressburger fill the screen with sexual tension and repressed desire that correlate with Britain’s failed attempts to maintain its empire, post war.
The ‘exotic’ in Black Narcissus are the Himalayas, where five nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) are sent to establish a convent. They arrive to find the palace promised to them, by the Old General (Esmond Knight), to be where the General’s father kept his women. Their first obstacle then seems to be reforming the wild nature of the people they refer to as “children.” Soon though, the nuns are affected by the windy environment,...
Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, and Jean Simmons
UK, 100 min – 1947.
Black Narcissus recreates the western world’s allure for the exotic – with a twist. This is no escapist, romantic drama in the style of Arabian Nights. With Black Narcissus, Powell and Pressburger fill the screen with sexual tension and repressed desire that correlate with Britain’s failed attempts to maintain its empire, post war.
The ‘exotic’ in Black Narcissus are the Himalayas, where five nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) are sent to establish a convent. They arrive to find the palace promised to them, by the Old General (Esmond Knight), to be where the General’s father kept his women. Their first obstacle then seems to be reforming the wild nature of the people they refer to as “children.” Soon though, the nuns are affected by the windy environment,...
- 11/30/2012
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
Successful 1940s film actor whose exotic roles led fan magazines to dub him 'the Turkish Delight'
"Exotic" is the epithet most frequently used to describe the series of Technicolored escapist movies produced by Universal Pictures in the 1940s. These profitable films, often set in a North African or Arabian desert recreated on the studio backlot, featured the Dominican actor Maria Montez; Sabu, the Indian teenage boy; Jon Hall (son of a Swiss actor and a Tahitian princess); and Turhan Bey, who has died aged 90. Bey was often cast as wily, "foreign" villains, or romantic leads in thrillers and Arabian Nights fantasies, for which he was dubbed by fan magazines "the Turkish Delight".
Son of a Turkish diplomat father and a Czech industrialist mother, he was born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy in Vienna, but emigrated to the Us with his mother and grandmother shortly before Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938. In California,...
"Exotic" is the epithet most frequently used to describe the series of Technicolored escapist movies produced by Universal Pictures in the 1940s. These profitable films, often set in a North African or Arabian desert recreated on the studio backlot, featured the Dominican actor Maria Montez; Sabu, the Indian teenage boy; Jon Hall (son of a Swiss actor and a Tahitian princess); and Turhan Bey, who has died aged 90. Bey was often cast as wily, "foreign" villains, or romantic leads in thrillers and Arabian Nights fantasies, for which he was dubbed by fan magazines "the Turkish Delight".
Son of a Turkish diplomat father and a Czech industrialist mother, he was born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy in Vienna, but emigrated to the Us with his mother and grandmother shortly before Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938. In California,...
- 10/10/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Financed largely by Arab countries and shot on location in Tunisia and Qatar, Black Gold is an Arabian Nights fable about the settlement of a long rivalry between two emirs on the Arabian peninsula at some unspecified time in the early 20th century, and how warfare breaks out when a Texas company strikes oil in the no man's land separating the two countries. Nesib (Antonio Banderas) wants to use the new wealth to build schools and hospitals in his land and raise living standards; the austere Amar (Mark Strong) wishes to defy progress and avoid the temptations of mammon and materialism. It's a tepid, timid affair, sexually, dramatically and politically. Nearer, in fact, to the B-movie easterns starring Maria Montez that Universal made in the 1940s than to Lawrence of Arabia, though no one actually says "It is written", which I rather missed. Freddie Young and John Seale, who won...
- 2/26/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Tomorrow and Tuesday in Los Angeles, Redcat will be presenting Two Nights with Ernie Gehr: Early Films and New Digital Works. "It's an eye- and mind-expanding lineup," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "It also provides a condensed primer to some of the issues at stake in American avant-garde cinema, which, partly because of its historical opposition to the dictates of commercial mainstream moviemaking and partly because it resists commodification (unlike, say, abstract painting, oppositional cinema doesn't rack up big sales at Sotheby's), has been relegated to the status of museum pieces and festival marginalia."
Also in La, the Museum of Contemporary Art opens two exhibitions today, Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles and Kenneth Anger: Icons, both on view through February 27.
For the Voice, Melissa Anderson meets Mario Montez, "featured player in Jack Smith's polysexual fantasia Flaming Creatures (1963), Andy Warhol's first drag-queen superstar,...
Also in La, the Museum of Contemporary Art opens two exhibitions today, Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles and Kenneth Anger: Icons, both on view through February 27.
For the Voice, Melissa Anderson meets Mario Montez, "featured player in Jack Smith's polysexual fantasia Flaming Creatures (1963), Andy Warhol's first drag-queen superstar,...
- 11/13/2011
- MUBI
A recent retrospective on the cult film-maker revealed his inspiration – a dazzling 1940s diva who could not even act
Jack Smith and Maria Montez were made for each other. They never met. Sadly, she had died before he started making films – drowning in her bathtub in Paris at the age of 39 on 7 September 1951. Yet her spirit imbued his first movie, Buzzards over Bagdad, which reimagined her teaming with Jon Hall and Sabu in Arabian Nights (1942), one of the garishly fantasies that earned Montez the nickname "the Queen of Technicolor".
Indeed, she inspired many of the works contained in the Ica's recent landmark season, Jack Smith: A Feast for Open Eyes, and even acted as a posthumous beard for his avant-garde manifesto, The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez, which appeared in the Winter 1962 edition of Film Culture and laid out Smith's vision for a new Queer cinema. In so doing,...
Jack Smith and Maria Montez were made for each other. They never met. Sadly, she had died before he started making films – drowning in her bathtub in Paris at the age of 39 on 7 September 1951. Yet her spirit imbued his first movie, Buzzards over Bagdad, which reimagined her teaming with Jon Hall and Sabu in Arabian Nights (1942), one of the garishly fantasies that earned Montez the nickname "the Queen of Technicolor".
Indeed, she inspired many of the works contained in the Ica's recent landmark season, Jack Smith: A Feast for Open Eyes, and even acted as a posthumous beard for his avant-garde manifesto, The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez, which appeared in the Winter 1962 edition of Film Culture and laid out Smith's vision for a new Queer cinema. In so doing,...
- 9/23/2011
- by David Parkinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Conrad Veidt is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" performer of the day. An international star since the 1920s, Veidt worked in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Hollywood — twice. [Conrad Veidt Movie Schedule.] In the late '20s, Veidt was the star of unusual Hollywood fare such as Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs (1928), in the title role as a man with a grin-like scar where his mouth should be, and Paul Fejos' The Last Performance (1929), as a magician in love with pretty Mary Philbin — a Universal star who also happened to be Veidt's leading lady in The Man Who Laughs. With the arrival of talking pictures, Veidt returned to Germany, but with the ascent of the Nazis he fled first to England and later to the United States. In the Hollywood of the early '40s, Veidt became everybody's favorite Nazi in movies such as Nazi Agent, Escape, and Casablanca.
- 8/24/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Turner Classic Movies' look at Arabs in Hollywood movies continues this evening with six movies. Why exactly Gabriel Pascal's film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) is one of the six, I don't know. Caesar was a Roman-born emperor; Cleopatra, a descendant of Greek royalty, was an Egyptian queen long before the Arab conquest of Egypt. Now, I may be puzzled about its inclusion, but Caesar and Cleopatra is very much worth watching chiefly thanks to Claude Rains' brilliant performance as the first half of the title role and Vivien Leigh's highly theatrical but enjoyable star turn as the second half of the title role. Kismet (1944) would have been more enjoyable had it been directed by Henry Hathaway, Michael Curtiz, Frank Lloyd, or even Lloyd Bacon. William Dieterle, best known for several ponderous Warner Bros. biopics of the '30s, had a heavy hand...
- 7/20/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From Rajahs and Yogis to Gandhi and Beyond
Images of India in International Films of the Twentieth Century
By Vijaya Mulay, Seagull Books, 554 pages, Paperback Rs. 695/-
The film society movement in India must get a huge proportion of the credit not only for having created the best filmmakers outside the mainstream – those like Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal but also for inspiring film critics, academics and film scholars, as it continues to do today. Vijaya Mulay, the author of the book under review is one of the pioneers of the movement, having been associated with ‘Indian film culture’ in its infancy and its formative years. Beginning her engagement with cinema more than 60 years ago, Vijaya Mulay (or ‘Akka’ to her friends) has seen Satyajit Ray at work and also come into close contact with international filmmakers like Louis Malle – when he was in India in the 1960s. Malle went...
Images of India in International Films of the Twentieth Century
By Vijaya Mulay, Seagull Books, 554 pages, Paperback Rs. 695/-
The film society movement in India must get a huge proportion of the credit not only for having created the best filmmakers outside the mainstream – those like Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal but also for inspiring film critics, academics and film scholars, as it continues to do today. Vijaya Mulay, the author of the book under review is one of the pioneers of the movement, having been associated with ‘Indian film culture’ in its infancy and its formative years. Beginning her engagement with cinema more than 60 years ago, Vijaya Mulay (or ‘Akka’ to her friends) has seen Satyajit Ray at work and also come into close contact with international filmmakers like Louis Malle – when he was in India in the 1960s. Malle went...
- 5/1/2010
- by MK Raghavendra
- DearCinema.com
Dancer and actor known for his role in the American TV soap opera All My Children
There are legions of actors who are deeply grateful for the existence of long-running television soap operas. James Mitchell, who has died aged 89, was one of them. He enjoyed playing the wily patriarch Palmer Cortlandt in the popular Us daytime soap All My Children from 1979 to 2008. It came at the right time in his career. At 59, his dancing days were over and his film acting had failed to catch fire.
The majority of loyal fans of All My Children were probably not aware that the debonair, grey-haired Mitchell, still svelte and handsome, had been a leading dancer for many years, particularly associated with the celebrated choreographer Agnes de Mille. According to De Mille, Mitchell had "probably the strongest arms in the business, and the adagio style developed by him and his partners has become...
There are legions of actors who are deeply grateful for the existence of long-running television soap operas. James Mitchell, who has died aged 89, was one of them. He enjoyed playing the wily patriarch Palmer Cortlandt in the popular Us daytime soap All My Children from 1979 to 2008. It came at the right time in his career. At 59, his dancing days were over and his film acting had failed to catch fire.
The majority of loyal fans of All My Children were probably not aware that the debonair, grey-haired Mitchell, still svelte and handsome, had been a leading dancer for many years, particularly associated with the celebrated choreographer Agnes de Mille. According to De Mille, Mitchell had "probably the strongest arms in the business, and the adagio style developed by him and his partners has become...
- 4/13/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
The 1944 Technicolor sword and scandal flick takes us back to 1001 Arabian Nights. Maria Montez adds some Spanish flair to her starring role, but they never explain where here character got the accent in the desert. The Mongol Hulagu Khan (Kurt Ketch) invades and overthrows Baghdad disposing the Caliph (Moroni Olsen). The Caliph hides in the palace of Prince Cassim (Frank Puglia) with his young son Ali (Scotty Beckett). During their confinement, Ali makes a blood pact with Cassim.s daughter Amara (Yvette Duguay) to betroth themselves to each other. Cassim turns out to be a treacherous rat and sets a trap for the Caliph and he.s killed. Ali barely escapes, wearing the seal of Baghdad. During his...
- 7/7/2009
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
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