Back in 1992 Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson — who had met the University of Texas in Dallas and were roomies — decided to make a movie. But after spending $10,000 and shooting 13 minutes of the crime caper comedy “Bottle Rocket,” they ran out of money. Eventually, the short and the full script made its way to Oscar-winning writer/director/producer James L. Brooks. It just so happened that Columbia had a deal with Brooks to finance a low-budget film selected by the filmmaker. And in 1996, the feature-length version of “Bottle Rocket” was released with Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and James Caan. Though the film didn’t set the box office on fire, critics realized Anderson was a new and exciting cinematic voice.
Anderson has made 11 feature films — his latest “Asteroid City” came out earlier this year — and has been nominated seven times for an Oscar including three for screenplay, two for animated features,...
Anderson has made 11 feature films — his latest “Asteroid City” came out earlier this year — and has been nominated seven times for an Oscar including three for screenplay, two for animated features,...
- 10/6/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
John Wayne once described himself as "just the paint for the palettes" of directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks, the filmmakers who steered him in films such as "Stagecoach" and "Red River." Such modesty was characteristic of "The Duke," whom Orson Welles described as one of the best-mannered actors in Hollywood. Yet Wayne was doing himself a disservice, for while he did benefit from the tutelage of two great filmmakers, he also worked long and hard to create the persona of "John Wayne," a figure with a distinctive gait, an easy drawl, and tough morality.
To explore the career of John Wayne is to explore five decades of Hollywood history. Wayne acted opposite everyone from Barbara Stanwyck and Maureen O'Hara to Henry Fonda, James Stewart, and Kirk Douglas. The list of directors he worked with is just as impressive, too.
So, where does one start with John Wayne, both...
To explore the career of John Wayne is to explore five decades of Hollywood history. Wayne acted opposite everyone from Barbara Stanwyck and Maureen O'Hara to Henry Fonda, James Stewart, and Kirk Douglas. The list of directors he worked with is just as impressive, too.
So, where does one start with John Wayne, both...
- 2/1/2023
- by Jack Hawkins
- Slash Film
This Civil War thriller has so much truth to say about War, Patriotism and combatant-vs.-civilian terror that we can hardly believe it was released in 1954. It’s based on a true event from 1864, a daring undercover mission that hit the Union far away from the conventional fighting. Van Heflin is the vengeance-seeking advance agent, Anne Bancroft a war widow, Richard Boone a maimed Union veteran and Lee Marvin a loose cannon with a hair trigger. The anti-war message is stronger than anything from the Vietnam years! The 20th-Fox release is not on quality home video, and is in great need of restoration.
The Raid
Not on Home Video
CineSavant Revival Screening Review
1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min.
Starring: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves, Douglas Spencer, Paul Cavanagh, Will Wright, James Best, John Dierkes, Helen Ford, Lee Aaker, Claude Akins, John Beradino, Robert Easton,...
The Raid
Not on Home Video
CineSavant Revival Screening Review
1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min.
Starring: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves, Douglas Spencer, Paul Cavanagh, Will Wright, James Best, John Dierkes, Helen Ford, Lee Aaker, Claude Akins, John Beradino, Robert Easton,...
- 10/8/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will return to its normal two-hour live format on TNT and TBS. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute. The 2021 segment saluted 55 people because they had responsibility for 14 months instead of 12.
Among that group will certainly be previous SAG president Ed Asner, who was also a life achievement award recipient. That honorary award was also presented to Sidney Poitier and Betty White, who both died this past year.
SEECelebrity Deaths 2022: In Memoriam Gallery
Who else might be featured in the 2022 tribute? Look for Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, Oscar nominees Ned Beatty, Peter Bogdanovich and Dean Stockwell, plus Emmy champs Louie Anderson, Michael Constantine, Charles Grodin,...
Among that group will certainly be previous SAG president Ed Asner, who was also a life achievement award recipient. That honorary award was also presented to Sidney Poitier and Betty White, who both died this past year.
SEECelebrity Deaths 2022: In Memoriam Gallery
Who else might be featured in the 2022 tribute? Look for Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, Oscar nominees Ned Beatty, Peter Bogdanovich and Dean Stockwell, plus Emmy champs Louie Anderson, Michael Constantine, Charles Grodin,...
- 2/25/2022
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Lee Aaker, best known for starring as Corporal Rusty of “B-Company” on the 1950s western series “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” died on April 1. He was 77.
Paul Petersen, another former child actor, confirmed the news to Variety and posted a tribute on his Facebook page, along with a signed photo of a young Aaker with Rin Tin Tin, his onscreen canine pal.
“Saying Goodbye to Lee Aaker,” Peterson said. “You have to be a certain age to remember Rin Tin Tin. Lee Aaker passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone and unclaimed…listed as an ‘indigent decedent.’ As an Air Force veteran Lee is entitled to burial benefits. I am working on that. God knows when a sparrow falls.”
Aaker was born on September 25, 1943. His mother, Myles Wilbour, was the owner of a dancing school in Los Angeles. He was singing and dancing at local clubs by the age of 4. At 8-years old,...
Paul Petersen, another former child actor, confirmed the news to Variety and posted a tribute on his Facebook page, along with a signed photo of a young Aaker with Rin Tin Tin, his onscreen canine pal.
“Saying Goodbye to Lee Aaker,” Peterson said. “You have to be a certain age to remember Rin Tin Tin. Lee Aaker passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone and unclaimed…listed as an ‘indigent decedent.’ As an Air Force veteran Lee is entitled to burial benefits. I am working on that. God knows when a sparrow falls.”
Aaker was born on September 25, 1943. His mother, Myles Wilbour, was the owner of a dancing school in Los Angeles. He was singing and dancing at local clubs by the age of 4. At 8-years old,...
- 4/14/2021
- by Antonio Ferme
- Variety Film + TV
Lee Aaker, best known as the 1950s child star of The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, has died at 77. The news comes via a social media post by former child actor and activist Paul Petersen. Petersen said Aaker “passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone & unclaimed, listed as an ‘indigent decedent.'”
Aaker was 11 when The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin first appeared on ABC. The western’s original run on Friday evenings lasted from October 1954 to May 1959. Aaker played Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid being raised at Fort Apache. He starred opposite James E. Brown’s Lieutenant Ripley “Rip” Masters and, of course, a number of German shepherds who portrayed the titular canine.
Aaker’s career began propitiously. Even before Rin Tin Tin, at the age of 8 he had uncredited appearances in films such as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and High Noon (1952). Aaker then appeared opposite Barbara Stanwyck...
Aaker was 11 when The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin first appeared on ABC. The western’s original run on Friday evenings lasted from October 1954 to May 1959. Aaker played Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid being raised at Fort Apache. He starred opposite James E. Brown’s Lieutenant Ripley “Rip” Masters and, of course, a number of German shepherds who portrayed the titular canine.
Aaker’s career began propitiously. Even before Rin Tin Tin, at the age of 8 he had uncredited appearances in films such as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and High Noon (1952). Aaker then appeared opposite Barbara Stanwyck...
- 4/14/2021
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
Lee Aaker, who starred in the ABC series “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” died this month near Mesa, Arizona of a stroke, according to a Facebook post from fellow former child actor Paul Petersen. He was 77.
Petersen confirmed Aaker’s passing to TheWrap and said that no service was currently planned.
Born in Inglewood, California, in 1943, Aaker was first found by director Fred Zinnemann and cast for his short film “Benjy,” which was commissioned as a fundraiser video by Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital and featured Aaker as a boy with scoliosis who is offered the chance to undergo a medical procedure that could cure him, but must first get permission from his parents whom have rejected him because of his condition. Despite being based on dramatized scenes, it qualified for the Best Documentary Short category at the Oscars and won in 1951.
Later that year, Zinnemann brought Aaker back for...
Petersen confirmed Aaker’s passing to TheWrap and said that no service was currently planned.
Born in Inglewood, California, in 1943, Aaker was first found by director Fred Zinnemann and cast for his short film “Benjy,” which was commissioned as a fundraiser video by Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital and featured Aaker as a boy with scoliosis who is offered the chance to undergo a medical procedure that could cure him, but must first get permission from his parents whom have rejected him because of his condition. Despite being based on dramatized scenes, it qualified for the Best Documentary Short category at the Oscars and won in 1951.
Later that year, Zinnemann brought Aaker back for...
- 4/14/2021
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Lee Aaker, a child actor in the 1950s who starred as the orphan Rusty alongside a German shepherd on ABC’s The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and in films including Hondo and The Atomic City, has died. He was 77.
Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate ...
Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate ...
- 4/13/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Lee Aaker, a child actor in the 1950s who starred as the orphan Rusty alongside a German shepherd on ABC’s The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and in films including Hondo and The Atomic City, has died. He was 77.
Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate ...
Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate ...
- 4/13/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
John Wayne, known as “The Duke” to his fans, starred in upwards of 150 movies throughout his 50-year career. While he had hits in a wide range of genres, he is best known as the macho hero at the heart of some classic westerns. Wayne made a slew of low-grade oaters throughout the 1930s. It wasn’t until John Ford‘s “Stagecoach” (1939), an Oscar-winning adventure epic that took the genre to new artistic heights, that he finally achieved stardom.
In all, the Duke and “Pappy” Ford, as his crew called the famously cantankerous director, made 14 films together. Among these are such other spurs and saddles classics as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949), “The Searchers” (1956) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962). All of these feature on our list of John Wayne’s best westerns ranked.
Despite being a top box office draw for decades, Wayne was only nominated for two acting...
In all, the Duke and “Pappy” Ford, as his crew called the famously cantankerous director, made 14 films together. Among these are such other spurs and saddles classics as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949), “The Searchers” (1956) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962). All of these feature on our list of John Wayne’s best westerns ranked.
Despite being a top box office draw for decades, Wayne was only nominated for two acting...
- 9/4/2020
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
Hondo (1953), which is set to play June 13 - July 4 at the Museum of Modern Art as part of their "3-D Summer" series, was John Wayne's first Western in three years. It was produced by his own Wayne/Fellows Productions (later named Batjac), founded just the year prior by Wayne and producer Robert Fellows. And James Edward Grant, who had already written several Wayne features and had a particular flair for writing classic John Wayne dialogue, penned the screenplay. All told, one gets the sense that everything about this exemplary return to the genre was a carefully conscious decision by the iconic American star. Hondo is a definitive Western. Moreover, it's a definitive John Wayne Western.When Wayne made Hondo, his masculine persona was already firmly established. After viewing the film at one point, Wayne supposedly declared, "I'll be damned if I'm not the stuff men are made of." Such a comment,...
- 6/12/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- MUBI
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 17, 2013
Price: Blu-ray $24.95
Studio: Olive Films
Shadowy thrills rule in The Atomic City.
From 1952, The Atomic City is a classic Cold War thriller and quite representative of its paranoid, Communist-fearing era.
Directed by Jerry Hopper (TV’s The Fugitive), the movie stars Gene Barry (The War of the Worlds) as happily married family man/nuclear physicist Frank Addison, whose life turns into a nightmare when his son Tommy (Lee Aaker, TV’s The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin) is kidnapped. The nefarious culprits’ demands, not surprisingly, concern the secrets behind the making of an H-bomb!
Featuring vivid locales ranging from the mean streets of Los Angeles to the rocky terrain of Santa Fe, The Atomic City makes its Blu-ray debut from Olive two years after the label premiered the title on DVD, freshly mastered in high definition from a 35mm archive print.
No bonus features are on the Blu-ray release.
Price: Blu-ray $24.95
Studio: Olive Films
Shadowy thrills rule in The Atomic City.
From 1952, The Atomic City is a classic Cold War thriller and quite representative of its paranoid, Communist-fearing era.
Directed by Jerry Hopper (TV’s The Fugitive), the movie stars Gene Barry (The War of the Worlds) as happily married family man/nuclear physicist Frank Addison, whose life turns into a nightmare when his son Tommy (Lee Aaker, TV’s The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin) is kidnapped. The nefarious culprits’ demands, not surprisingly, concern the secrets behind the making of an H-bomb!
Featuring vivid locales ranging from the mean streets of Los Angeles to the rocky terrain of Santa Fe, The Atomic City makes its Blu-ray debut from Olive two years after the label premiered the title on DVD, freshly mastered in high definition from a 35mm archive print.
No bonus features are on the Blu-ray release.
- 7/10/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Chicago – If you haven’t picked up a cheesy tie or a new pair of socks for dear old dad, may we suggest a movie? Paramount has released a beloved John Wayne classic, “Hondo,” on Blu-ray for the first time to coincide with the day in which you’re supposed to give your pops a little more respect than usual. What dad doesn’t love John Wayne?
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Well, I’m a dad and I’m not a huge fan of “Hondo.” It’s not my favorite Wayne by any stretch of the imagination but it is iconic Wayne and therefore an interesting film to add to your collection. It is classic settlers vs. Indians material as Wayne plays a cavalry rider who protects a woman (the great and Oscar-nominated Geraldine Page) and becomes a father figure to her son. Hondo is a variation on the Wayne archetype — tough enough...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Well, I’m a dad and I’m not a huge fan of “Hondo.” It’s not my favorite Wayne by any stretch of the imagination but it is iconic Wayne and therefore an interesting film to add to your collection. It is classic settlers vs. Indians material as Wayne plays a cavalry rider who protects a woman (the great and Oscar-nominated Geraldine Page) and becomes a father figure to her son. Hondo is a variation on the Wayne archetype — tough enough...
- 6/15/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 8th, 2011.
Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend is Susan Orlean’s comprehensive and moving account of the famed German Shepherd’s journey from orphaned puppy to Hollywood superstar and pop culture icon. Orlean, a staff writer at The New Yorker, spent nearly ten years researching and reporting her most captivating book to date: the story of a dog who was born in 1918 and never died.
It begins on a battlefield in France during World War I, when a young American soldier, Lee Duncan, discovered a newborn German shepherd in the ruins of a bombed-out dog kennel. To Duncan, who came of age in an orphanage, the dog’s survival was a miracle. He saw something in Rin Tin Tin that he felt compelled to share with the world. Duncan brought Rinty home to California, where the dog’s athleticism and acting...
Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend is Susan Orlean’s comprehensive and moving account of the famed German Shepherd’s journey from orphaned puppy to Hollywood superstar and pop culture icon. Orlean, a staff writer at The New Yorker, spent nearly ten years researching and reporting her most captivating book to date: the story of a dog who was born in 1918 and never died.
It begins on a battlefield in France during World War I, when a young American soldier, Lee Duncan, discovered a newborn German shepherd in the ruins of a bombed-out dog kennel. To Duncan, who came of age in an orphanage, the dog’s survival was a miracle. He saw something in Rin Tin Tin that he felt compelled to share with the world. Duncan brought Rinty home to California, where the dog’s athleticism and acting...
- 11/15/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The latest goody mined from the Paramount Pictures library by Olive Films is the 1952 Cold War thriller-drama The Atomic City, directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Gene Barry (The War of the Worlds) and Lydia Clark.
Shadowy thrills rule in The Atomic City.
It’s finally going to make its DVD debut on Aug. 30 from Olive for a list price of $24.95.
Barry stars as happily married family man/nuclear physicist Frank Addison, whose life turns into a nightmare when his son Tommy (Lee Aaker, TV’s The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin) is kidnapped. The nefarious culprits’ demands, not surprisingly, concern the secrets behind the making of an H-bomb!
Featuring vivid locales ranging from the mean streets of L.A. to the rocky terrain of Santa Fe, The Atomic City premieres on DVD freshly mastered in high definition from a 35mm archive print.
There are no bonus features slated for the DVD release.
Shadowy thrills rule in The Atomic City.
It’s finally going to make its DVD debut on Aug. 30 from Olive for a list price of $24.95.
Barry stars as happily married family man/nuclear physicist Frank Addison, whose life turns into a nightmare when his son Tommy (Lee Aaker, TV’s The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin) is kidnapped. The nefarious culprits’ demands, not surprisingly, concern the secrets behind the making of an H-bomb!
Featuring vivid locales ranging from the mean streets of L.A. to the rocky terrain of Santa Fe, The Atomic City premieres on DVD freshly mastered in high definition from a 35mm archive print.
There are no bonus features slated for the DVD release.
- 6/1/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
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