Rachel Maddow’s new book explores a dark episode of American history, one that flies in the face of our sanitized national narrative about the United States being the unalloyed champion of democracy that crushed foreign fascism during World War II.
Prequel examines the rise of home-grown fascism in America in the 1930s and 40s — as well as notorious infiltrators from Hitler’s government who cultivated and funded the movement, even capturing hearts and minds among members of the U.S. House and Senate.
The book lays out terrifying plots...
Prequel examines the rise of home-grown fascism in America in the 1930s and 40s — as well as notorious infiltrators from Hitler’s government who cultivated and funded the movement, even capturing hearts and minds among members of the U.S. House and Senate.
The book lays out terrifying plots...
- 11/18/2023
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
f it was the summer of the megawatt blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” September has turned into a month of sequelitis with “The Nun 2,” “Equalizer 3” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” Even Kenneth Branagh’s “A Hunting in Venice,” is the third installment in the actor/director’s Hercule Poirot mystery series. It’s all a bit of a snooze. That wasn’t the case 70 years ago this month.
There were some oddball films that were released September, 1953 including “Cat-Women of the Moon” with Sonny Tufts and Marie Windsor and “The Sins of Jezebel” starring Paulette Goddard. But 70 years ago, audiences were introduced to a new wide-screen format and young actress who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s and ‘60s and Clark Gable returning to a role he originated in 1932.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck unveiled the studio’s new widescreen process Cinemascope...
There were some oddball films that were released September, 1953 including “Cat-Women of the Moon” with Sonny Tufts and Marie Windsor and “The Sins of Jezebel” starring Paulette Goddard. But 70 years ago, audiences were introduced to a new wide-screen format and young actress who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s and ‘60s and Clark Gable returning to a role he originated in 1932.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck unveiled the studio’s new widescreen process Cinemascope...
- 9/19/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Movie star John Wayne took his career very seriously. He starred in a wide assortment of Western and war movies, but they weren’t all winners. Wayne wasn’t afraid to admit when a movie role wasn’t the right one for him. However, he always took it personally when a bad one came across his desk. It once went so far that he threatened to fire his agent when he read a script that he found offensive. Nevertheless, it went on to win big at the Academy Awards.
John Wayne wanted to play strong movie roles John Wayne | Rdb/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Wayne made his first box-office disaster with 1930’s The Big Trail, which was directed by Raoul Walsh. He didn’t get the opportunity to explode into stardom until 1939’s Stagecoach, which was his first leading collaboration with his mentor, John Ford. The movie star had...
John Wayne wanted to play strong movie roles John Wayne | Rdb/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Wayne made his first box-office disaster with 1930’s The Big Trail, which was directed by Raoul Walsh. He didn’t get the opportunity to explode into stardom until 1939’s Stagecoach, which was his first leading collaboration with his mentor, John Ford. The movie star had...
- 3/9/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
For nearly 100 years, pundits have predicted the outcome of Oscar voting. Sometimes it’s an educated guess, but it’s a guess nevertheless, since a minimal number of PricewaterhouseCoopers execs know the actual tallies and they never talk. So pundits often look to Oscar history to back up their theories, like tribal natives trying to predict their future by watching smoke from a volcano.
Too often, people talk about voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as if they work as a unit: “They will never vote for this” or “they always love such-and-such.” One of the fun aspects of predictions is that Academy history is like Scripture: You can always find something to back up your claims.
This year, voters nominated 10 very different films for best picture. Each has inspired predictions about why it couldn’t win because “they” won’t go for it. But actually,...
Too often, people talk about voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as if they work as a unit: “They will never vote for this” or “they always love such-and-such.” One of the fun aspects of predictions is that Academy history is like Scripture: You can always find something to back up your claims.
This year, voters nominated 10 very different films for best picture. Each has inspired predictions about why it couldn’t win because “they” won’t go for it. But actually,...
- 3/1/2023
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
This Penny Dreadful: City of Angels review contains spoilers.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels Episode 10
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels closes out the season in a strangely moving way, which is par for the course for a series like this. It’s not because of who and what is lost during the episode, but the movement of the arc which is thrown off-kilter. “Day of the Dead” opens with a funeral march which swings into an uprising. The repercussions will rattle Los Angeles heavily for days, but the implications will rearrange the urban landscape forever.
The future belongs to “big, fat men” like Mussolini, Huey Long and himself, Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) declares over a celebratory breakfast. The event which makes him so happy is the exact kind of thing someone in his position should be appalled by: a riot in the very city he has sworn responsibility to.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels Episode 10
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels closes out the season in a strangely moving way, which is par for the course for a series like this. It’s not because of who and what is lost during the episode, but the movement of the arc which is thrown off-kilter. “Day of the Dead” opens with a funeral march which swings into an uprising. The repercussions will rattle Los Angeles heavily for days, but the implications will rearrange the urban landscape forever.
The future belongs to “big, fat men” like Mussolini, Huey Long and himself, Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) declares over a celebratory breakfast. The event which makes him so happy is the exact kind of thing someone in his position should be appalled by: a riot in the very city he has sworn responsibility to.
- 6/29/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Not all Tennessee Williams film adaptations are successful, but Richard Brooks’ blend of romance, show biz venality and political thuggery is just too entertaining to dismiss. The entire cast is better than good, with Geraldine Page shining and Paul Newman well-cast. And the ingenue Shirley Knight receives her most iconic role, right at the beginning of her career. It’s sad timing for admirers of Ms. Knight, but still good to see her looking so radiant.
Sweet Bird of Youth
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date April 28, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood.
Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Film Editor: Henry Berman
Written by Richard Brooks from a play by Tennessee Williams
Produced by Pandro S. Berman
Directed by Richard Brooks
As with many American playwrights, Tennessee Williams was definitely bitten by the bug to...
Sweet Bird of Youth
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date April 28, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood.
Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Film Editor: Henry Berman
Written by Richard Brooks from a play by Tennessee Williams
Produced by Pandro S. Berman
Directed by Richard Brooks
As with many American playwrights, Tennessee Williams was definitely bitten by the bug to...
- 4/28/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I was just the right age for Swamp Thing when he shambled into comics back in the early 1970s. I had years of super-heroes committed to memory so I was primed for something different. Along came Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s creation and it dealt nicely with familiar horror tropes but with enough of a twist to feel different along with continuing characters and exquisite artwork.
The arrival of Swamp Thing on DC Universe was equally well-timed in that we’ve had plenty of super-hero films and live-action television so it was a welcome addition to their initial lineup. Then came the news that there was trouble on the set, the series order was cut, then canceled after one ten-episode season. We were left with plenty of unfulfilled potential.
For those who missed out on the show, Warner Home Entertainment has released Swamp Thing the Complete Series in a fine Blu-ray package.
The arrival of Swamp Thing on DC Universe was equally well-timed in that we’ve had plenty of super-hero films and live-action television so it was a welcome addition to their initial lineup. Then came the news that there was trouble on the set, the series order was cut, then canceled after one ten-episode season. We were left with plenty of unfulfilled potential.
For those who missed out on the show, Warner Home Entertainment has released Swamp Thing the Complete Series in a fine Blu-ray package.
- 2/17/2020
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
David Simon, creator of The Wire and Treme, had just finished filming the second season of The Deuce, his opus about the birth of the porn industry, when he got on the phone with Rolling Stone for a wide-ranging conversation. The former Baltimore Sun reporter is 58 and speaks in enviable and eloquent full paragraphs, but he hasn’t mellowed with age. If anything, he’s more fired up than ever before about where American culture and democracy are headed.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
I was a...
What’s the best advice you ever received?
I was a...
- 9/8/2018
- by Sean Woods
- Rollingstone.com
It’s hard to know much exaggeration is used in movies about crazy Suth’un politics, when some of the serious movies resemble Julius Caesar with mint juleps. This true story is about an old-school populist Louisiana governor who falls for a nationally-known stripper, the famous Blaze Starr, and is told from the stripper’s Pov. Paul Newman is at his late-career best, and Lolita Davidovich lights up the screen. The governor can get away with most anything except what he wants to do most — pass some color-blind laws about hiring and voting.
Blaze
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1989 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date April 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Paul Newman, Lolita Davidovich, Jerry Hardin, Gailard Sartain, Richard Jenkins, Jeffrey DeMunn, Robert Wuhl, Garland Bunting, Brandon Smith.
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler
Film Editor: Robert Leighton
Original Music: Bennie Wallace
From the book Blaze Starr: My Life as Told to Huey...
Blaze
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1989 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date April 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Paul Newman, Lolita Davidovich, Jerry Hardin, Gailard Sartain, Richard Jenkins, Jeffrey DeMunn, Robert Wuhl, Garland Bunting, Brandon Smith.
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler
Film Editor: Robert Leighton
Original Music: Bennie Wallace
From the book Blaze Starr: My Life as Told to Huey...
- 4/21/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Manuel here kicking off our centennial celebration of under appreciated (and under discussed!) Oscar winning actress Mercedes McCambridge.
We begin with her film debut which also happens to be her Oscar-winning vehicle, All The King's Men. She'd been doing radio work consistently for over a decade but this was as big a break as they got. The film is a political parable about that most rare of characters, the honest politician (Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark), who succumbs to corruption on his way to the top only to be punished by his deeds. It's Shakespearean in essence and all the more powerful for being based on a real-life politician, Louisiana governor, Huey Long (the inspiration behind Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name).
It's a testosterone-fueled film with only two gals...
We begin with her film debut which also happens to be her Oscar-winning vehicle, All The King's Men. She'd been doing radio work consistently for over a decade but this was as big a break as they got. The film is a political parable about that most rare of characters, the honest politician (Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark), who succumbs to corruption on his way to the top only to be punished by his deeds. It's Shakespearean in essence and all the more powerful for being based on a real-life politician, Louisiana governor, Huey Long (the inspiration behind Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name).
It's a testosterone-fueled film with only two gals...
- 3/11/2016
- by Manuel Betancourt
- FilmExperience
The Gus Van Sant-directed, Sean Penn starring Harvey Milk biopic Milk opens next week, and it's already generating controversy, especially in California in the wake of the Prop 8 debacle. Penn is certainly no stranger to playing politicians in the limelight; his Willie Stark character in All The King's Men was loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana. While we've had a slew of movies about fictional presidents and politicians, we'd like to see more biopics based on some of the larger than life characters who have dominated ...
- 11/18/2008
- by Kevin Kelly
- Spout
The Gus Van Sant-directed, Sean Penn starring Harvey Milk biopic Milk opens next week, and it's already generating controversy, especially in California in the wake of the Prop 8 debacle. Penn is certainly no stranger to playing politicians in the limelight; his Willie Stark character in All The King's Men was loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana. While we've had a slew of movies about fictional presidents and politicians, we'd like to see more biopics based on some of the larger than life characters who have dominated the p ...
- 11/18/2008
- by Kevin Kelly
- Spout
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