Chaim Topol, who became professionally known solely by his last name in a career that included starring in “Fiddler on the Roof” on stage and screen and co-starring in the James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only” and the sci-fi film “Flash Gordon,” died Thursday in Tel Aviv after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87 years old.
Topol’s death was confirmed by Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, who described him as a “gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and especially entered deep into our hearts.”
Topol began his long association with the starring role of Tevye the milkman in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1967, appearing in the West End production, which ran for 2,030 performances. He starred in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film version, which carried a budget estimated at $9 million and garnered a domestic gross of $80 million.
Topol’s death was confirmed by Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, who described him as a “gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and especially entered deep into our hearts.”
Topol began his long association with the starring role of Tevye the milkman in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1967, appearing in the West End production, which ran for 2,030 performances. He starred in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film version, which carried a budget estimated at $9 million and garnered a domestic gross of $80 million.
- 3/9/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Actor who starred in films of the 1950s and 60s including Ice Cold in Alex and went on to a long career in supporting roles
Although Sylvia Syms, who has died aged 89, emerged as an actor during the decade from 1956 to 1966 that saw British cinema changing radically, she seemed to belong to an earlier stiff-upper-lip tradition of British films rather than “kitchen sink” drama. Nevertheless, the ethereal Syms starred in a wide variety of films during that period before she developed in later years into a fine supporting actor.
She was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which had Syms playing the “other woman” for whom Anthony Quayle wants to leave his wife (Yvonne Mitchell). Based on a play by Ted Willis, this candid social drama heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making. However, the same director-writer team...
Although Sylvia Syms, who has died aged 89, emerged as an actor during the decade from 1956 to 1966 that saw British cinema changing radically, she seemed to belong to an earlier stiff-upper-lip tradition of British films rather than “kitchen sink” drama. Nevertheless, the ethereal Syms starred in a wide variety of films during that period before she developed in later years into a fine supporting actor.
She was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which had Syms playing the “other woman” for whom Anthony Quayle wants to leave his wife (Yvonne Mitchell). Based on a play by Ted Willis, this candid social drama heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making. However, the same director-writer team...
- 1/27/2023
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Sylvia Syms, the British actress whose body of work stretched back to the 1950s and included roles in Ice Cold in Alex, Victim and The Queen, has died. She was 89.
In a statement to Sky News, her family said she “died peacefully” on Jan. 27 at a London care home for those in the entertainment industry.
“She has lived an amazing life, and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end,” they said. “Just yesterday, we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed.”
Born in London in 1934, Syms attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and became an almost instant star in her 20s, thanks to major roles in films such as WWII drama and 1958 Berlinale winner Ice Cold in Alex (alongside John Mills, Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews), English Civil War drama The Moonraker and Expresso Bongo with Cliff Richard.
In 1961, she...
In a statement to Sky News, her family said she “died peacefully” on Jan. 27 at a London care home for those in the entertainment industry.
“She has lived an amazing life, and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end,” they said. “Just yesterday, we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed.”
Born in London in 1934, Syms attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and became an almost instant star in her 20s, thanks to major roles in films such as WWII drama and 1958 Berlinale winner Ice Cold in Alex (alongside John Mills, Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews), English Civil War drama The Moonraker and Expresso Bongo with Cliff Richard.
In 1961, she...
- 1/27/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s hard to believe that six decades has passed since David Lean’s breathtaking epic “Lawrence of Arabia” was released. Nominated for ten Oscars, the landmark classic revolves about the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence, the British intelligence officer stationed in Cairo who helped the Arabs crush the Ottoman Empire. Lean, who had won his first Oscar five years earlier for the World War II drama “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” was the peak of his powers as a filmmaker. And he elicited dazzling performances from his uber-handsome stars, Peter O’Toole as Lawrence and Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali. The later is memorably introduced in the film with a long, slow shot of him travelling on a camel in the desert.
It was no surprise that “Lawrence” conquered the 35th Academy Awards which took place April 8, 1963 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium earning seven statuettes including film, director, cinematography, editing,...
It was no surprise that “Lawrence” conquered the 35th Academy Awards which took place April 8, 1963 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium earning seven statuettes including film, director, cinematography, editing,...
- 1/11/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Director John Sturges’ final feature is a handsome production that fumbles and stumbles in unexpected ways. Michael Caine and especially Donald Sutherland lead an impossible commando mission to kidnap Winston Churchill right from English soil. Tom Mankiewicz’s dialogue is witty but the tone is all over the place. We don’t know whether it’s the script, the direction or the editing that muffs so many potential bravura moments. On the other hand, every scene with Sutherland and Jenny Agutter is gold. [Imprint] gives us both a theatrical cut and a more satisfying extended cut.
The Eagle Has Landed
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 193
1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 135 + 151 min. / Street Date December 28, 2023 / Available from / au 69.95
Starring: Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Donald Pleasence, Anthony Quayle, Jean Marsh, Sven-Bertil Taube, John Standing, Judy Geeson, Treat Williams, Larry Hagman, Joachim Hansen, David Gilliam, Siegfried Rauch, Wolf Kahler, Roy Marsden, Ferdy Mayne.
The Eagle Has Landed
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 193
1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 135 + 151 min. / Street Date December 28, 2023 / Available from / au 69.95
Starring: Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Donald Pleasence, Anthony Quayle, Jean Marsh, Sven-Bertil Taube, John Standing, Judy Geeson, Treat Williams, Larry Hagman, Joachim Hansen, David Gilliam, Siegfried Rauch, Wolf Kahler, Roy Marsden, Ferdy Mayne.
- 1/7/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Haven’t yet seen all the best old-school vintage naval combat epics? This color & ‘scope thriller has a terrific cast of Brit stars and up-n-comers, can boast excellent visuals and is historically accurate. Alec Guinness captains a ship during the Napoleonic Wars, and finds his duty complicated by a psychopathic top officer (Dirk Bogarde) who usurps authority and sees the crew as fresh meat for his sadistic ideas about discipline. All the tech and art credits are top-tier, plus we get nice supporting perfs from the likes of Anthony Quayle, Nigel Stock, Maurice Denham, Victor Maddern, Tom Bell, and Murray Melvin.
Damn the Defiant!
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 136
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / H.M.S. Defiant / Available from Viavision / Australian 34.95 / and Amazon US / 34.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock, Richard Carpenter, Peter Gill, David Robinson, Robin Stewart, Ray Brooks, Peter Greenspan, Anthony Quayle, Tom Bell,...
Damn the Defiant!
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 136
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / H.M.S. Defiant / Available from Viavision / Australian 34.95 / and Amazon US / 34.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock, Richard Carpenter, Peter Gill, David Robinson, Robin Stewart, Ray Brooks, Peter Greenspan, Anthony Quayle, Tom Bell,...
- 7/26/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What do the 25th and 75th Tony Awards have in common? The landmark Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical “Company,” Angela Lansbury and the beloved tuner “The Music Man.”
The gender-bender revival of “Company” is considered the front-runner for the Tony for Best Musical Revival as well as featured actress for Broadway legend Patti LuPone who brings down the house with “Ladies Who Lunch.” Elaine Stritch originated the LuPone’s character of Joanne; her rendition of “Ladies Who Lunch” is considered one of the indelible show-stopping numbers in Broadway history. Stritch was considered a shoo-in for lead actress but lost to Helen Gallagher for the revival of -the 1920s musical “No, No Nanette.” Go figure. Gallagher was good, but she wasn’t as great as Stritch.
The original “Company” waltzed into the Tony Awards — which took place at the Palace Theatre on March 28, 1971 — with a whopping 14 nominations and won six including Best Musical,...
The gender-bender revival of “Company” is considered the front-runner for the Tony for Best Musical Revival as well as featured actress for Broadway legend Patti LuPone who brings down the house with “Ladies Who Lunch.” Elaine Stritch originated the LuPone’s character of Joanne; her rendition of “Ladies Who Lunch” is considered one of the indelible show-stopping numbers in Broadway history. Stritch was considered a shoo-in for lead actress but lost to Helen Gallagher for the revival of -the 1920s musical “No, No Nanette.” Go figure. Gallagher was good, but she wasn’t as great as Stritch.
The original “Company” waltzed into the Tony Awards — which took place at the Palace Theatre on March 28, 1971 — with a whopping 14 nominations and won six including Best Musical,...
- 6/1/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
“No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing.”
Peter O’Toole in David Lean’s Iconic Classic Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) will be available on 4K Ultra HD Steelbook June 7th
Celebrating its 60th anniversary. Winner of 7 Academy Awards® including Best Picture of 1962, Lawrence Of Arabia stands as one of the most timeless and essential motion picture masterpieces. The greatest achievement of its legendary, Oscar®-winning director, David Lean, the film stars Peter O’Toole — in his career-making performance — as T.E. Lawrence, the audacious World War I British army officer who heroically united rival Arab desert tribes and led them to war against the mighty Turkish Empire. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 1962, Lawrence Of Arabia won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography [Color], Best Art Direction-Set Decoration [Color], Best Film Editing, Best Music [Score] and Best Sound.
Bonus Materials...
Peter O’Toole in David Lean’s Iconic Classic Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) will be available on 4K Ultra HD Steelbook June 7th
Celebrating its 60th anniversary. Winner of 7 Academy Awards® including Best Picture of 1962, Lawrence Of Arabia stands as one of the most timeless and essential motion picture masterpieces. The greatest achievement of its legendary, Oscar®-winning director, David Lean, the film stars Peter O’Toole — in his career-making performance — as T.E. Lawrence, the audacious World War I British army officer who heroically united rival Arab desert tribes and led them to war against the mighty Turkish Empire. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 1962, Lawrence Of Arabia won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography [Color], Best Art Direction-Set Decoration [Color], Best Film Editing, Best Music [Score] and Best Sound.
Bonus Materials...
- 2/28/2022
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Though the Continental Congress severed political connections with Great Britain on July 4, 1776, with the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. has never detached with their obsession with the British Royal Family. Just look at 2021 Emmy nominations.
The fourth season of Netflix’ “The Crown” reaped 24 bids — the show has already won 10 Emmys — including series, for leads Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, Emma Corrin as Diana, the Princess of Wales and Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles and for supporting players Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret and Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles. And Oprah Winfrey’s blockbuster interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was nominated for best hosted nonfiction series or special.
There has been a lot of Emmy love over the years for the British monarchs. So make yourself cup of tea, heat up your scone or crumpet — with lemon curd, natch — keep...
The fourth season of Netflix’ “The Crown” reaped 24 bids — the show has already won 10 Emmys — including series, for leads Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, Emma Corrin as Diana, the Princess of Wales and Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles and for supporting players Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret and Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles. And Oprah Winfrey’s blockbuster interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was nominated for best hosted nonfiction series or special.
There has been a lot of Emmy love over the years for the British monarchs. So make yourself cup of tea, heat up your scone or crumpet — with lemon curd, natch — keep...
- 7/20/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Can a war movie be reassuring in a time of crisis? Each of the films in this excellent collection stress people working together: to repel invaders, escape from or attack the enemy, and just to survive in sticky situations. All are inspirational in that they see cooperation, organization and leadership doing good work. See: the ‘other’ great escape picture, the original account of Dunkirk, and the aerial bombing movie that inspired the final battle in Star Wars. Plus a tense ‘what if?’ invasion tale, and a desert trek suspense ordeal that’s one of the best war films ever. The most relevant dialogue in the set? Seeing the total screw-up at Dunkirk, Bernard Lee determines that England will have to re-organize with new people in key leadership positions, people who know what they’re doing. I’m all for that Here and Now, fella.
Their Finest Hour 5 British WWII Classics
Went The Day Well,...
Their Finest Hour 5 British WWII Classics
Went The Day Well,...
- 4/4/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile,” Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” and Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park” are among the classic murder mysteries mentioned as inspiration for Rian Johnson’s deliciously clever thriller “Knives Out,” which has earned three Golden Globe nominations and several critics’ awards.
But alas, dear reader, the game is afoot.
As soon as I saw the puzzle-perfect interior of mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer)’s mansion, I thought of the 1972 classic mystery thriller “Sleuth,” starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted by Anthony Schaffer from his Tony Award-winning 1970 play.
The film version of “Sleuth” earned four Oscar nominations: Best Actor for both Olivier and Caine, director for Mankiewicz (it would be the multi-Oscar-winner’s final film) and John Addison’s playful score. Though most acting honors for lead actor went to Marlon Brando for “The Godfather,...
But alas, dear reader, the game is afoot.
As soon as I saw the puzzle-perfect interior of mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer)’s mansion, I thought of the 1972 classic mystery thriller “Sleuth,” starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted by Anthony Schaffer from his Tony Award-winning 1970 play.
The film version of “Sleuth” earned four Oscar nominations: Best Actor for both Olivier and Caine, director for Mankiewicz (it would be the multi-Oscar-winner’s final film) and John Addison’s playful score. Though most acting honors for lead actor went to Marlon Brando for “The Godfather,...
- 12/16/2019
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
‘Mission impossible’ escapism about high-stakes wartime sabotage looks at an authentic, dramatic episode of WW2 — the onslaught of futuristic V-Weapons on London — and then veers into fictional fantasy (think big explosions). George Peppard toughs it out to get free of his MGM contract. Lili Palmer and Barbara Rütting do the heavy lifting, while Sophia Loren is in as a glamorous sidebar. Weirdly, the movie all but lionizes the Germans that develop, test and fire the V-Weapon rockets at England … exaggerating their scientific progress and giving them a strange kind of ‘Right Stuff.’
Operation Crossbow
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, Lilli Palmer, Barbara Rütting (Rueting), Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine, Richard Todd, Sylvia Sims, John Fraser, Maurice Denham, Patrick Wymark, Richard Wattis, Allan Cuthbertson, Karel Stepanek,...
Operation Crossbow
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, Lilli Palmer, Barbara Rütting (Rueting), Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine, Richard Todd, Sylvia Sims, John Fraser, Maurice Denham, Patrick Wymark, Richard Wattis, Allan Cuthbertson, Karel Stepanek,...
- 11/5/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By John M. Whalen
If you’ve ever read one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels, you know that there has always been a big difference between Tarzan as he is in the movies versus Tarzan in the books. For some reason Hollywood has never really been able to get the character exactly right. As much fun as the Johnny Weissmuller and Lex Barker Tarzan movies are, for example, they really didn’t get close to Burroughs’ concept of the ape man. The real Tarzan didn’t speak Pidgin English for one thing. He actually spoke fluent English and French. He was as at home in an English Tea Room as the son of a British Lord, as he was in the prehistoric land of Pal-ul-don. While the movies showed Tarzan as protector of the animals, and friends with cute chimpanzees, in the books Burroughs present a world where death usually came on four feet,...
If you’ve ever read one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels, you know that there has always been a big difference between Tarzan as he is in the movies versus Tarzan in the books. For some reason Hollywood has never really been able to get the character exactly right. As much fun as the Johnny Weissmuller and Lex Barker Tarzan movies are, for example, they really didn’t get close to Burroughs’ concept of the ape man. The real Tarzan didn’t speak Pidgin English for one thing. He actually spoke fluent English and French. He was as at home in an English Tea Room as the son of a British Lord, as he was in the prehistoric land of Pal-ul-don. While the movies showed Tarzan as protector of the animals, and friends with cute chimpanzees, in the books Burroughs present a world where death usually came on four feet,...
- 2/11/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Ethan Hawke is this awards’ season critical darling earning several best actor nods from critic’s groups including the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and New York Film Critics Circle for his powerful performance as a troubled clergyman haunted with his past and the future in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.”
Hawke, who also won the Gotham Awards honor for best actor, is also nominated for a Critics Choice and a Film Independent Spirit Award but was snubbed in the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
But Hawke, who has received four previously Oscar nominations including for supporting actor for 2014’s “Boyhood,” shouldn’t give up the faith about a fifth nomination. Over the years, the academy has embraced actors and actresses who played members of the clergy with six wins and upwards of two dozen nominations.
Predict the Oscar nominations now; change them until January 22
Both Spencer Tracy...
Hawke, who also won the Gotham Awards honor for best actor, is also nominated for a Critics Choice and a Film Independent Spirit Award but was snubbed in the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
But Hawke, who has received four previously Oscar nominations including for supporting actor for 2014’s “Boyhood,” shouldn’t give up the faith about a fifth nomination. Over the years, the academy has embraced actors and actresses who played members of the clergy with six wins and upwards of two dozen nominations.
Predict the Oscar nominations now; change them until January 22
Both Spencer Tracy...
- 1/2/2019
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
A movie for people who don’t normally like costume dramas about kings and queens, this adaptation of Maxwell Anderson’s play is great entertainment from head to toe. Richard Burton gives one of his better late-career performances, and Geneviève Bujold is a dynamo in a tiny package. It’s an impressive portrait of male power run amuck.
Anne of the Thousand Days
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 146 min. / Street Date , 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Richard Burton, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas, Anthony Quayle, John Colicos, Michael Hordern, Katharine Blake, Valerie Gearon, Michael Johnson, Peter Jeffrey.
Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson
Film Editor: Richard Mardon
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written by Bridget Boland, John Hale, Richard Sokolove from the play by Maxwell Anderson
Produced by Hal Wallis
Directed by Charles Jarrott
Anybody still saying that the Production Code made movies better? One minor effect of Code Enforcement was...
Anne of the Thousand Days
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 146 min. / Street Date , 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Richard Burton, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas, Anthony Quayle, John Colicos, Michael Hordern, Katharine Blake, Valerie Gearon, Michael Johnson, Peter Jeffrey.
Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson
Film Editor: Richard Mardon
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written by Bridget Boland, John Hale, Richard Sokolove from the play by Maxwell Anderson
Produced by Hal Wallis
Directed by Charles Jarrott
Anybody still saying that the Production Code made movies better? One minor effect of Code Enforcement was...
- 12/29/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Exciting news! Tarzan’S Greatest Adventure (1959) is now available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives! Ordering information can be found Here
After Lex Barker carried the mantle clear of Weissmuller’s long shadow, Gordon Scott was free to claim the crown of King of the Jungle. His Tarzan was keen, intelligent, and literate – much as Tarzan’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, had envisioned – and in the aptly named Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure, Scott’s run as the jungle lord reached a peak in what is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the prodigious series of action adventure classics. Tarzan is on a deadly trail, determined to find the diamond hunters (including Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery) who brought terror and death to a peaceful village. But as much as Tarzan is a tracker and avenger, he’s also a protector. An irresponsible gadfly from the so-called civilized world...
After Lex Barker carried the mantle clear of Weissmuller’s long shadow, Gordon Scott was free to claim the crown of King of the Jungle. His Tarzan was keen, intelligent, and literate – much as Tarzan’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, had envisioned – and in the aptly named Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure, Scott’s run as the jungle lord reached a peak in what is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the prodigious series of action adventure classics. Tarzan is on a deadly trail, determined to find the diamond hunters (including Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery) who brought terror and death to a peaceful village. But as much as Tarzan is a tracker and avenger, he’s also a protector. An irresponsible gadfly from the so-called civilized world...
- 11/19/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Tarzan got a new lease on life when a film company finally went to Africa to pit the excellent ‘Lord of the Jungle’ Gordon Scott against a formidable phalanx of villains. Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery and Niall MacGinnis are perfect Dastards of the Darkest Continent. Also top-flight are the women in this jungle combat, wicked Scilla Gabel and naughty Sara Shane. Fun for adult kids of all ages!
Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1959 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date November 13, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sara Shane, Niall MacGinnis, Sean Connery, Al Mulock, Scilla Gabel.
Cinematography: Edward Scaife
Film Editor: Bert Rule
Original Music: Douglas Gamley
Written by Les Crutchfield, Berne Giler, John Guillermin from the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Produced by Harvey Hayutin, Sy Weintraub
Directed by John Guillermin
Of all the big-screen Tarzans — Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, Jock Mahoney,...
Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1959 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date November 13, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sara Shane, Niall MacGinnis, Sean Connery, Al Mulock, Scilla Gabel.
Cinematography: Edward Scaife
Film Editor: Bert Rule
Original Music: Douglas Gamley
Written by Les Crutchfield, Berne Giler, John Guillermin from the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Produced by Harvey Hayutin, Sy Weintraub
Directed by John Guillermin
Of all the big-screen Tarzans — Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, Jock Mahoney,...
- 11/10/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A Study in Terror
Blu ray
Mill Creek Entertainment
1966 /1:85 / Street Date April 3, 2018
Starring John Neville, Donald Houston, Anthony Quayle
Cinematography by Desmond Dickinson
Written by Donald Ford, Derek Ford
Directed by James Hill
From master criminals like Professor Moriarty to Sebastian Moran, Sherlock Holmes faced his fair share of danger – but his greatest nemesis may have been the man who created him, Arthur Conan Doyle. Exasperated by his brainchild’s overwhelming popularity, the weary scribe groused, ”I think of slaying Holmes… and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things.”
Doyle tried to kill off his cash-cow on at least one occasion but the great detective had the last word, maintaining a firm grip on our imagination decades after other seemingly invincible literary characters dropped down the memory hole – perhaps because Holmes is far more mysterious than any mystery he himself might have...
Blu ray
Mill Creek Entertainment
1966 /1:85 / Street Date April 3, 2018
Starring John Neville, Donald Houston, Anthony Quayle
Cinematography by Desmond Dickinson
Written by Donald Ford, Derek Ford
Directed by James Hill
From master criminals like Professor Moriarty to Sebastian Moran, Sherlock Holmes faced his fair share of danger – but his greatest nemesis may have been the man who created him, Arthur Conan Doyle. Exasperated by his brainchild’s overwhelming popularity, the weary scribe groused, ”I think of slaying Holmes… and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things.”
Doyle tried to kill off his cash-cow on at least one occasion but the great detective had the last word, maintaining a firm grip on our imagination decades after other seemingly invincible literary characters dropped down the memory hole – perhaps because Holmes is far more mysterious than any mystery he himself might have...
- 5/12/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
April is kicking off with an eclectic assortment of genre-related home entertainment releases, with Adam Robitel’s Insidious: The Last Key leading the charge on both Blu-ray and DVD (there’s also a nifty Insidious 4-pack hitting DVD as well). Shout! Factory is putting out the stellar revenge thriller Sweet Virginia this week, and Severin Films is keeping busy with a double dose of Jess Franco with their Blu-rays for Sinfonia Erotica and The Sadist of Notre Dame.
Other notable releases for April 3rd include A Study in Terror, A Place in Hell, 4/20 Massacre, and 12 Feet Deep.
4/20 Massacre (Film Chest, DVD)
Over 4/20 weekend, five young women have decided to celebrate their friend's birthday by taking a camping trip to a secluded part of a nearby national park. However, their fun is quickly snubbed out when they stumble upon an illegal marijuana grow operation hidden in the greenery and protected by a bloodthirsty maniac.
Other notable releases for April 3rd include A Study in Terror, A Place in Hell, 4/20 Massacre, and 12 Feet Deep.
4/20 Massacre (Film Chest, DVD)
Over 4/20 weekend, five young women have decided to celebrate their friend's birthday by taking a camping trip to a secluded part of a nearby national park. However, their fun is quickly snubbed out when they stumble upon an illegal marijuana grow operation hidden in the greenery and protected by a bloodthirsty maniac.
- 4/3/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Author: Competitions
To mark the release of Ice Cold in Alex on 19th February, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.
1942: The Libyan war zone, North Africa. After a German invasion a British ambulance crew are forced to evacuate their base but become separated from the rest of their unit. Somehow they must make it to Alexandria, but how?
Their only hope is a dilapidated ambulance named “Katy” and an irrational, alcoholic soldier known as Captain Anson. Facing landmines, a Nazi attack, suffocating quicksand and the relentlessly brutal and unforgiving Sahara desert, can Captain Anson face his demons and make the road to hell a journey to freedom?
Directed by J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns of the Navarone) with one iconic set piece after the next and with career best performances from John Mills (Goodbye Mr Chips, Great Expectations), Sylvia Syms (The Tamarind Seed,...
To mark the release of Ice Cold in Alex on 19th February, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.
1942: The Libyan war zone, North Africa. After a German invasion a British ambulance crew are forced to evacuate their base but become separated from the rest of their unit. Somehow they must make it to Alexandria, but how?
Their only hope is a dilapidated ambulance named “Katy” and an irrational, alcoholic soldier known as Captain Anson. Facing landmines, a Nazi attack, suffocating quicksand and the relentlessly brutal and unforgiving Sahara desert, can Captain Anson face his demons and make the road to hell a journey to freedom?
Directed by J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns of the Navarone) with one iconic set piece after the next and with career best performances from John Mills (Goodbye Mr Chips, Great Expectations), Sylvia Syms (The Tamarind Seed,...
- 2/12/2018
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Director Ermanno Olmi’s The Legend Of The Holy Drinker (1988) Starring Rutger Hauer will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy September 26th
Winner of the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, The Legend Of The Holy DRINKERr is another classic from the great Italian director Ermanno Olmi (Il posto, The Tree of Wooden Clogs).
Adapted from the novella by Joseph Roth, the film tells the story of Andreas Kartack, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris. Lent 200 francs by an anonymous stranger, he is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances – and his alcoholism – forever intervene.
Working with professional actors for the first time in more than 20 years, Olmi cast Ruger Hauer as Andreas and was rewarded with an astonishing performance of subtlety and depth. Hauer is joined by a superb supporting cast, including Anthony Quayle (Lawrence of Arabia), Sandrine Dumas (The Double Life of Veronique...
Winner of the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, The Legend Of The Holy DRINKERr is another classic from the great Italian director Ermanno Olmi (Il posto, The Tree of Wooden Clogs).
Adapted from the novella by Joseph Roth, the film tells the story of Andreas Kartack, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris. Lent 200 francs by an anonymous stranger, he is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances – and his alcoholism – forever intervene.
Working with professional actors for the first time in more than 20 years, Olmi cast Ruger Hauer as Andreas and was rewarded with an astonishing performance of subtlety and depth. Hauer is joined by a superb supporting cast, including Anthony Quayle (Lawrence of Arabia), Sandrine Dumas (The Double Life of Veronique...
- 9/6/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Powell & Pressburger’s big-scale historical epic is perhaps the best show ever about an old-school naval encounter between battleships. The first half depicts the showdown between England and Germany in the South Atlantic, and the second half a tense diplomatic game in the neutral country of Uruguay. Peter Finch, Bernard Lee and Anthony Quayle shine as sea captains.
Panzerschiff Graf Spee (The Battle of the River Plate)
Region B Blu-ray
ITV Studios Home Entertainment (Germany)
1956 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 119, 106 117 min./ Pursuit of the Graf Spee / Street Date 2010 / Available from Amazon UK £16.90
Starring: Peter Finch, Bernard Lee, Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Lionel Murton, Anthony Bushell, Peter Illing, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Lee.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Production Design: Arthur Lawson
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: Brian Easdale
Written, Produced & Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger
The best way so far to see the impressive The Battle of the River Plate...
Panzerschiff Graf Spee (The Battle of the River Plate)
Region B Blu-ray
ITV Studios Home Entertainment (Germany)
1956 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 119, 106 117 min./ Pursuit of the Graf Spee / Street Date 2010 / Available from Amazon UK £16.90
Starring: Peter Finch, Bernard Lee, Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Lionel Murton, Anthony Bushell, Peter Illing, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Lee.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Production Design: Arthur Lawson
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: Brian Easdale
Written, Produced & Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger
The best way so far to see the impressive The Battle of the River Plate...
- 7/22/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'Ben-Hur' 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM's '31 Days of Oscar.' '31 Days of Oscar': 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Ben-Hur' are in, Paramount stars are out Today, Feb. 1, '16, Turner Classic Movies is kicking off the 21st edition of its “31 Days of Oscar.” While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being vociferously reviled for its “lack of diversity” – more on that appallingly myopic, self-serving, and double-standard-embracing furore in an upcoming post – TCM is celebrating nearly nine decades of the Academy Awards. That's the good news. The disappointing news is that if you're expecting to find rare Paramount, Universal, or Fox/20th Century Fox entries in the mix, you're out of luck. So, missing from the TCM schedule are, among others: Best Actress nominees Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son, Nancy Carroll in The Devil's Holiday, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds. Unofficial Best Actor...
- 2/2/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Alfred Hitchcock's true-life saga of a man wrongly accused may be Hitchcock's most troublesome movie -- all the parts work, but does it even begin to come together? Henry Fonda is the 'ordinary victim of fate' and an excellent Vera Miles is haunting as the wife who responds to the guilt and stress by withdrawing from reality. The Wrong Man Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date January 26, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, John Heldabrand, Doreen Lang, Norma Connolly, Lola D'Annunzio, Robert Essen, Dayton Lummis, Charles Cooper, Esther Minciotti, Laurinda Barrett, Nehemiah Persoff. Cinematography Robert Burks Art Direction Paul Sylbert Film Editor George Tomasini Original Music Bernard Herrmann Written by Maxwell Anderson and Angus MacPhail Produced and Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Wrong Man sees Alfred Hitchcock at the end of...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Wrong Man sees Alfred Hitchcock at the end of...
- 1/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
J. Lee Thompson’s taut 1958 war-thriller stars John Mills and Anthony Quayle as two soldiers engaged in a nerve-wracking trek across the North African desert. A bracing mix of suspense and sharply-drawn characterization, the film was well received in the UK but was not so lucky in its stateside release where it was given the more matinee-friendly title of Desert Attack and 54 of its original 130 minutes cut.
- 8/21/2015
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Glenda Jackson: Actress and former Labour MP. Two-time Oscar winner and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson returns to acting Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson set aside her acting career after becoming a Labour Party MP in 1992. Four years ago, Jackson, who represented the Greater London constituency of Hampstead and Highgate, announced that she would stand down the 2015 general election – which, somewhat controversially, was won by right-wing prime minister David Cameron's Conservative party.[1] The silver lining: following a two-decade-plus break, Glenda Jackson is returning to acting. Now, Jackson isn't – for the time being – returning to acting in front of the camera. The 79-year-old is to be featured in the Radio 4 series Emile Zola: Blood, Sex and Money, described on their website as a “mash-up” adaptation of 20 Emile Zola novels collectively known as "Les Rougon-Macquart."[2] Part 1 of the three-part Radio 4 series will be broadcast daily during an...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ron Moody in Mel Brooks' 'The Twelve Chairs.' The 'Doctor Who' that never was. Ron Moody: 'Doctor Who' was biggest professional regret (See previous post: "Ron Moody: From Charles Dickens to Walt Disney – But No Harry Potter.") Ron Moody was featured in about 50 television productions, both in the U.K. and the U.S., from the late 1950s to 2012. These included guest roles in the series The Avengers, Gunsmoke, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, and Murder She Wrote, in addition to leads in the short-lived U.S. sitcom Nobody's Perfect (1980), starring Moody as a Scotland Yard detective transferred to the San Francisco Police Department, and in the British fantasy Into the Labyrinth (1981), with Moody as the noble sorcerer Rothgo. Throughout the decades, he could also be spotted in several TV movies, among them:[1] David Copperfield (1969). As Uriah Heep in this disappointing all-star showcase distributed theatrically in some countries.
- 6/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Actor known for his Shakespearean roles, but who also appeared on TV and in films including Winstanley and Orlando
Jerome Willis, who has died at the age of 85, was an actor who might have described himself, without bitterness, as an "attendant lord". He was a natural Shakespearean, in possession of a strong physique and the ability to speak verse with enviable confidence. In a distinguished career spanning almost 60 years, he brought to every part he undertook a perceptive intelligence that illuminated even the smallest cameo. He also became a familiar face on television from 1974 to 1978 as Charles Radley, the deputy governor of Stone Park prison in Within These Walls, with Googie Withers as his boss.
Jerome began his career as a disc jockey, newsreader and actor by turns, posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1946 for his national service in the Raf and serving in communications for the Ceylonese station Radio Seac.
Jerome Willis, who has died at the age of 85, was an actor who might have described himself, without bitterness, as an "attendant lord". He was a natural Shakespearean, in possession of a strong physique and the ability to speak verse with enviable confidence. In a distinguished career spanning almost 60 years, he brought to every part he undertook a perceptive intelligence that illuminated even the smallest cameo. He also became a familiar face on television from 1974 to 1978 as Charles Radley, the deputy governor of Stone Park prison in Within These Walls, with Googie Withers as his boss.
Jerome began his career as a disc jockey, newsreader and actor by turns, posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1946 for his national service in the Raf and serving in communications for the Ceylonese station Radio Seac.
- 1/27/2014
- by Paul Bailey
- The Guardian - Film News
‘The Thief and the Cobbler’: Original version of Richard Williams’ animated film has first public screening at the Academy The first public screening of the original version of Richard Williams’ The Thief and the Cobbler will be held at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10, 2013. Williams will be in attendance to introduce the recently reconstructed original workprint from 1992. The Thief and the Cobbler will be accompanied by Richard Williams’s 1972 Oscar-winning animated short A Christmas Carol, adapted from Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella. Featuring animation by Ken Harris and Abe Levitow, among others, A Christmas Carol has, according to the Academy’s website, "a distinctive and dark tone" inspired by John Leech’s engraved illustrations of the Dickens’ tale. In conjunction with the screenings, the Academy’s public exhibition “Richard Williams: Master of Animation,” featuring film clips,...
- 11/27/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Gregory Peck from ‘Duel in the Sun’ to ‘How the West Was Won’: TCM schedule (Pt) on August 15 (photo: Gregory Peck in ‘Duel in the Sun’) See previous post: “Gregory Peck Movies: Memorable Miscasting Tonight on Turner Classic Movies.” 3:00 Am Days Of Glory (1944). Director: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer. Bw-86 mins. 4:30 Am Pork Chop Hill (1959). Director: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn. Bw-98 mins. Letterbox Format. 6:15 Am The Valley Of Decision (1945). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp. Bw-119 mins. 8:15 Am Spellbound (1945). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, Rhonda Fleming, Bill Goodwin, Norman Lloyd, Steve Geray, John Emery, Donald Curtis, Art Baker, Wallace Ford, Regis Toomey, Paul Harvey, Jean Acker, Irving Bacon, Jacqueline deWit, Edward Fielding, Matt Moore, Addison Richards, Erskine Sanford, Constance Purdy. Bw-111 mins. 10:15 Am Designing Woman (1957). Director: Vincente Minnelli.
- 8/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Alec Guinness: Before Obi-Wan Kenobi, there were the eight D’Ascoyne family members (photo: Alec Guiness, Dennis Price in ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’) (See previous post: “Alec Guinness Movies: Pre-Star Wars Career.”) TCM won’t be showing The Bridge on the River Kwai on Alec Guinness day, though obviously not because the cable network programmers believe that one four-hour David Lean epic per day should be enough. After all, prior to Lawrence of Arabia TCM will be presenting the three-and-a-half-hour-long Doctor Zhivago (1965), a great-looking but never-ending romantic drama in which Guinness — quite poorly — plays a Kgb official. He’s slightly less miscast as a mere Englishman — one much too young for the then 32-year-old actor — in Lean’s Great Expectations (1946), a movie that fully belongs to boy-loving (in a chaste, fatherly manner) fugitive Finlay Currie. And finally, make sure to watch Robert Hamer’s dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets...
- 8/3/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Paul Henreid in ‘Casablanca’: Freedom Fighter on screen, Blacklisted ‘Subversive’ off screen Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013, Paul Henreid, bids you farewell this evening. TCM left the most popular, if not exactly the best, for last: Casablanca, Michael Curtiz’s 1943 Best Picture Oscar-winning drama, is showing at 7 p.m. Pt tonight. (Photo: Paul Henreid sings "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca.) One of the best-remembered movies of the studio era, Casablanca — not set in a Spanish or Mexican White House — features Paul Henreid as Czechoslovakian underground leader Victor Laszlo, Ingrid Bergman’s husband but not her True Love. That’s Humphrey Bogart, owner of a cafe in the titular Moroccan city. Henreid’s anti-Nazi hero is generally considered one of least interesting elements in Casablanca, but Alt Film Guide contributor Dan Schneider thinks otherwise. In any case, Victor Laszlo feels like a character made to order for Paul Henreid,...
- 7/31/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Reintroduced to the geek generation as the film Michael Fassbender's android character David was watching in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, Lawrence of Arabia is an undoubted classic. And now it's coming back to cinemas.
A 50th anniversary restoration of the film is being released in the UK on November 16. The movie will screen at the BFI Southbank, Empire Leicester Square and nationwide. A trailer is included below.
David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia won seven Oscars including 1962 best picture and best director, and four BAFTAs including best film.
It starred Peter O'Toole in the title role alongside Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Claude Rains, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quayle and Arthur Kennedy.
Official synopsis and background
One of the screen's grandest epics, this monumental story recounts the true life experiences of T.E. Lawrence, better known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia.
A young, idealistic British officer in Wwi,...
A 50th anniversary restoration of the film is being released in the UK on November 16. The movie will screen at the BFI Southbank, Empire Leicester Square and nationwide. A trailer is included below.
David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia won seven Oscars including 1962 best picture and best director, and four BAFTAs including best film.
It starred Peter O'Toole in the title role alongside Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Claude Rains, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quayle and Arthur Kennedy.
Official synopsis and background
One of the screen's grandest epics, this monumental story recounts the true life experiences of T.E. Lawrence, better known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia.
A young, idealistic British officer in Wwi,...
- 10/3/2012
- by David Bentley
- The Geek Files
I saw this movie for the first and only time crossing the Atlantic in 1957, on the Mauritania, on the way to the States. My fellow English Speaking Union scholars and I, still in the grip of Look Back in Anger and seething from the moral and political debacle of Suez, regarded it with mirthful contempt. It was the kind of stilted, patronising British movie about working-class and lower-middle-class life we were in flight from after we'd just embraced Paddy Chayefsky's Marty, The Catered Affair and The Bachelor Party, and been thrilled by Ealing's Alexander Mackendrick making his American debut with Sweet Smell of Success. It's now being revived, or disinterred, as a major harbinger of British kitchen-sink realism, a term coined in the mid-1950s by my future mentor David Sylvester.
The movie turns upon a lower-middle-class clerk (stiff-upper-lip specialist Anthony Quayle) preparing to leave his loving, depressed, slatternly...
The movie turns upon a lower-middle-class clerk (stiff-upper-lip specialist Anthony Quayle) preparing to leave his loving, depressed, slatternly...
- 7/28/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Dr Seuss' The Lorax (U)
(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.
Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.
Searching For Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.
An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...
(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.
Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.
Searching For Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.
An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...
- 7/27/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
J Lee Thompson's unmissable proto-kitchen-sink drama goes all the way where Brief Encounter loitered hesitantly
Terence Davies's recent film The Deep Blue Sea returned audiences to Britain's lost postwar world of dingy flats, unhappy marriages and sing-songs in smoky pubs where adulterous couples are to be seen hunched in corners staring silently into their drinks. The rerelease of this brilliant proto-realist kitchen-sink drama from 1957, written by Ted Willis and directed by J Lee Thompson, is from just this world. Anthony Quayle and Yvonne Mitchell are Jim and Amy, a married couple: they are middle-aged, though modern audiences might find their mannerisms much older. The stars were respectively 44 and 42 years old. Amy is a superficially cheerful chatterbox, and Jim seems tolerant of her scatterbrained inability to keep the flat tidy, her habit of leaving things burning on the stove and often never getting out of her dressing-gown all day. Amy...
Terence Davies's recent film The Deep Blue Sea returned audiences to Britain's lost postwar world of dingy flats, unhappy marriages and sing-songs in smoky pubs where adulterous couples are to be seen hunched in corners staring silently into their drinks. The rerelease of this brilliant proto-realist kitchen-sink drama from 1957, written by Ted Willis and directed by J Lee Thompson, is from just this world. Anthony Quayle and Yvonne Mitchell are Jim and Amy, a married couple: they are middle-aged, though modern audiences might find their mannerisms much older. The stars were respectively 44 and 42 years old. Amy is a superficially cheerful chatterbox, and Jim seems tolerant of her scatterbrained inability to keep the flat tidy, her habit of leaving things burning on the stove and often never getting out of her dressing-gown all day. Amy...
- 7/27/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Asif Kapadia on shooting his London Olympics film, and Sylvia Syms on a neglected 50s classic
As if by magic
My favourite of the official Olympics films is by Asif Kapadia. His The Odyssey examines London from the skies against a backdrop of Olympian expectation and politics, like these two were fighting it out to be the prevailing winds over the city. A panoply of voices give their Olympics memories and London thoughts, but just as in his award-winning doc Senna we don't see their faces: they could be media personalities (Richard Williams, Robert Elms, Lord Coe) or boys or elderly ladies interviewed on the street.
The film includes social comment on the closure of council leisure facilities and the shock of the 7/7 bombings. I hear now that Asif is developing his themes into a feature film. "Even though we shot in a very short time, there was still a...
As if by magic
My favourite of the official Olympics films is by Asif Kapadia. His The Odyssey examines London from the skies against a backdrop of Olympian expectation and politics, like these two were fighting it out to be the prevailing winds over the city. A panoply of voices give their Olympics memories and London thoughts, but just as in his award-winning doc Senna we don't see their faces: they could be media personalities (Richard Williams, Robert Elms, Lord Coe) or boys or elderly ladies interviewed on the street.
The film includes social comment on the closure of council leisure facilities and the shock of the 7/7 bombings. I hear now that Asif is developing his themes into a feature film. "Even though we shot in a very short time, there was still a...
- 7/21/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Ten years and one day ago, Doug Liman was an independent director with a couple of critical favorites behind him. Ten years and one day ago, Matt Damon was the promising writer/star of "Good Will Hunting" who's seemingly squandered his potential on a string of questionable movie choices, kept near A-list only by his presence in "Ocean's Eleven" (where he tellingly only played a smaller supporting role). Ten years and one day ago, the spy genre was increasingly tired, with the Bond movies moving into new levels of ridiculousness (that year's "Die Another Day" would introduce Madonna and invisible cars to the series).
And then came Jason Bourne. "The Bourne Identity," directed by Liman, written by Tony Gilroy (who wrote the entire 'Bourne' trilogy' and now has the keys to the franchise) and starring Damon, had been long-delayed and had a famously troubled production, but when it finally hit at the height of summer,...
And then came Jason Bourne. "The Bourne Identity," directed by Liman, written by Tony Gilroy (who wrote the entire 'Bourne' trilogy' and now has the keys to the franchise) and starring Damon, had been long-delayed and had a famously troubled production, but when it finally hit at the height of summer,...
- 6/14/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Vivacious Irish actor best known for her role opposite Albert Finney in Tom Jones
The red-haired, vivacious and provocative Irish actor Joyce Redman, who has died aged 93, will for ever be remembered for her lubricious meal-time munching and swallowing opposite Albert Finney in Tony Richardson's 1963 film of Tom Jones. Eyes locked, lips smacked and jaws rotated as the two of them tucked into a succulent feast while eyeing up the afters. Sinking one's teeth into a role is one thing. This was quite another, and deliciously naughty, the mother of all modern mastication scenes.
Redman and Finney were renewing a friendship forged five years earlier when both appeared with Charles Laughton in Jane Arden's The Party at the New (now the Noël Coward) theatre. Redman was not blamed by the critic Kenneth Tynan for making nothing of her role as Laughton's wife. "Nothing," he said, "after all, will come of nothing.
The red-haired, vivacious and provocative Irish actor Joyce Redman, who has died aged 93, will for ever be remembered for her lubricious meal-time munching and swallowing opposite Albert Finney in Tony Richardson's 1963 film of Tom Jones. Eyes locked, lips smacked and jaws rotated as the two of them tucked into a succulent feast while eyeing up the afters. Sinking one's teeth into a role is one thing. This was quite another, and deliciously naughty, the mother of all modern mastication scenes.
Redman and Finney were renewing a friendship forged five years earlier when both appeared with Charles Laughton in Jane Arden's The Party at the New (now the Noël Coward) theatre. Redman was not blamed by the critic Kenneth Tynan for making nothing of her role as Laughton's wife. "Nothing," he said, "after all, will come of nothing.
- 5/13/2012
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Beyond the stock World War II films where soldiers charge the enemy line, the era has served as the setting for some truly unique stories like The Guns of Navarone, a film that’s equal parts spy thriller, grand adventure, and war epic. It’s an impressively layered film for its genre and includes a number of elements rarely found compiled into one place, and it manages to use them all effectively. Framing its story with an evacuation countdown that creates an inherent sense of impending doom, it piles on additional tension by describing a mission to penetrate and destroy a fortress that everyone involved considers suicide. It then mounts well filmed scenes of death-defying acts and an atmosphere of distrust as suspicions of a traitor lurking within the band of heroes, tilting the odds even further against them. Few war films ever attempt to do as much as The Guns of Navarone,...
- 11/4/2011
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
October 31st sees the DVD release for the first time ever of Time to Remember!
Time To Remember is a series recounting through the exclusive use of British Pathe’s newsreel footage the dramatic social, political and cultural transformation of the Western World in the first half of the 20th century. Divided into 12 thematic episodes, this series is based on the stunning footage and narrative of the 1960s landmark documentary of the same name.
Executively produced by David Okuefuna, Time To Remember explores the iconic and pivotal moments, as well as the new and passing social trends, which served to define the first half of the 20th century. From Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee to the allied victory in 1945, via suffragettes, flappers and music hall stars, all aspects of the society are featured in this wide-ranging series. All of which is held together by an exceptional script, brought to life...
Time To Remember is a series recounting through the exclusive use of British Pathe’s newsreel footage the dramatic social, political and cultural transformation of the Western World in the first half of the 20th century. Divided into 12 thematic episodes, this series is based on the stunning footage and narrative of the 1960s landmark documentary of the same name.
Executively produced by David Okuefuna, Time To Remember explores the iconic and pivotal moments, as well as the new and passing social trends, which served to define the first half of the 20th century. From Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee to the allied victory in 1945, via suffragettes, flappers and music hall stars, all aspects of the society are featured in this wide-ranging series. All of which is held together by an exceptional script, brought to life...
- 10/25/2011
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
Arriving on Blu-ray courtesy of Optimum (now Studio Canal), Ice Cold in Alex is the latest in a line of HD restorations in the Optimum Classics range. Probably familiar to many for the Carlsberg advert that it spawned, even if they have not seen the film itself, this World War II thriller was originally released in the UK in 1958 following its success as the International Critics Award winner at the Berlin Film Festival that year. The film did not have an easy journey across the Atlantic though and was not released in the Us until 1961, by which point it had been retitled Desert Attack and lost over forty minutes of its two hour running time.
The film centres on Captain Anson (John Mills) and Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews), who are tasked with transporting an army ambulance and two nurses across the unforgiving Libyan desert to their final destination, Alexandria. Mills...
The film centres on Captain Anson (John Mills) and Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews), who are tasked with transporting an army ambulance and two nurses across the unforgiving Libyan desert to their final destination, Alexandria. Mills...
- 7/7/2011
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Montgomery Clift, I Confess Alfred Hitchcock is the focus of tonight's programming on Turner Classic Movies, which will be showing five of the director's films: Stage Fright, I Confess, Dial M for Murder, The Wrong Man, and Strangers on a Train. None of them is a masterpiece; all of them are worth your time. My favorite of the five is I Confess, partly because of its intriguing plot about a murderer who confesses his crime to a priest who later becomes the chief suspect in the case; and partly because Montgomery Clift is quite good as the tormented priest. Anne Baxter is his leading lady. However flawed, I find both Stage Fright and Dial M for Murder enjoyable. The former is immensely helped by Alastair Sim's performance, though Jane Wyman does solid work as the heroine while Marlene Dietrich gets to sing a song or two. In Dial M for Murder,...
- 6/28/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
To celebrate the digitally remastered release of Ice Cold in Alex on Blu-ray released on June 13th, Optimum Home Entertainment have given us three copies of the Blu-ray to give away. The movie is directed by J. Lee Thompson and stars John Mills, Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Sym.
A fatigued transport officer, Captain Anson, his loyal Msm, two stranded nurses and a mysterious South African officer endure a gruelling journey across the North African desert and enemy lines in a battered old ambulance in WWII. All that sustains them is Anson’s promise of the tall, frothy, ice-cold glasses of beer that await them upon their arrival in Alexandria (the “Alex” of the title).
Adapted by Christoper Landon from his own classic novel and based on his own experiences serving in North Africa, Ice Cold In Alex is a rip-roaring tale of determination, courage and ingenuity in the most unforgiving of environments,...
A fatigued transport officer, Captain Anson, his loyal Msm, two stranded nurses and a mysterious South African officer endure a gruelling journey across the North African desert and enemy lines in a battered old ambulance in WWII. All that sustains them is Anson’s promise of the tall, frothy, ice-cold glasses of beer that await them upon their arrival in Alexandria (the “Alex” of the title).
Adapted by Christoper Landon from his own classic novel and based on his own experiences serving in North Africa, Ice Cold In Alex is a rip-roaring tale of determination, courage and ingenuity in the most unforgiving of environments,...
- 6/7/2011
- by Competitons
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Father’s day is on the horizon and a whole bunch of cool Blu-ray’s are being released to celebrate that fact, a few films of which are particularly some of my Dad’s favourites.
Sam Peckinpah’s bloody anti-war movie Cross of Iron (out June 3rd), the British Wwi classic The Cruel Sea (June 13th) and the excellent Ice Cold Alex (June 13th), all digitally restored and available on the first time in Blu-ray. Excitedly if you are in London on father’s day weekend, the Odeon Panton St are showing Cross of Iron and Ice Cold in Alex from June 17th!
Owf have three copies of all three films to give away…
6 June: Cross Of Iron – Only On Bluray – Digitally Restored
Heralded as the most anti-war war film ever made, Cross Of Iron is a bloody and thought-provoking depiction of the horrors of war featuring an epic battle...
Sam Peckinpah’s bloody anti-war movie Cross of Iron (out June 3rd), the British Wwi classic The Cruel Sea (June 13th) and the excellent Ice Cold Alex (June 13th), all digitally restored and available on the first time in Blu-ray. Excitedly if you are in London on father’s day weekend, the Odeon Panton St are showing Cross of Iron and Ice Cold in Alex from June 17th!
Owf have three copies of all three films to give away…
6 June: Cross Of Iron – Only On Bluray – Digitally Restored
Heralded as the most anti-war war film ever made, Cross Of Iron is a bloody and thought-provoking depiction of the horrors of war featuring an epic battle...
- 6/3/2011
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler is, in many ways the animation equivalent of Welles' Don Quixote. Williams, a successful animator making a lot of money in title sequences (Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, the original Casino Royale) and commercials, decided to make the world's greatest animated feature film, funding it himself. "The golden rule in film-making is Opm, Other People's Money. But I never had Opm. I only had Dm: Dick's Money."
For somewhere between twenty and thirty years, Williams worked on his masterpiece, employing many of the great animators who had worked at Disney in the studio's golden age. Then, he got the job of directing the animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The film's success made Williams suddenly bankable, and The Thief and the Cobbler acquired a studio deal. Williams carried on making it at the leisurely...
For somewhere between twenty and thirty years, Williams worked on his masterpiece, employing many of the great animators who had worked at Disney in the studio's golden age. Then, he got the job of directing the animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The film's success made Williams suddenly bankable, and The Thief and the Cobbler acquired a studio deal. Williams carried on making it at the leisurely...
- 2/24/2011
- MUBI
Starring: Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, José Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains
Directed By: David Lean
“Everybody needs a Hero.” This is one thing that the film constantly reminds us, throughout, from the first scene to the last. It all starts off with this slightly over the top(what I felt then) scene of Lawrence putting off a matchstick between his fingers, and his famous reply
“The trick is not...
(more...)...
Directed By: David Lean
“Everybody needs a Hero.” This is one thing that the film constantly reminds us, throughout, from the first scene to the last. It all starts off with this slightly over the top(what I felt then) scene of Lawrence putting off a matchstick between his fingers, and his famous reply
“The trick is not...
(more...)...
- 8/11/2008
- by Srinath
- ReelSuave.com
This review was written for the festival screening of "Sleuth".Venice International Film Festival
VENICE, Italy -- Kenneth Branagh's new version of the crime caper "Sleuth" looks smashing and it features several great lines by screenwriter Harold Pinter. But despite top-flight acting from Michael Caine and Jude Law, it loses its grip in the third act and let's the air out of what might have been a memorably gripping film.
The idea of Caine doing a remake of the 1972 production in which he costarred but playing the Laurence Olivier role, and Jude Law, who has already stepped into Caine's shoes in "Alfie", doing Caine's part will no doubt intrigue audiences. The quartet of big names and a tight 86-minute running time also will help, but the film's downbeat tone won't encourage huge boxoffice.
The Joseph L. Manciewicz original was a theatrical romp some 50 minutes longer than the new version and Olivier, having mocked Anthony Quayle for stooping to it onstage, hammed it up mercilessly.
Pinter's screenplay pares the plot to the bone: two men argue and subject each other to humiliating game-playing over the love of a woman. Out-of-work actor and part-time chauffeur Milo Tindle (Law) shows up at the impressive country mansion of wealthy bestselling novelist Andrew Wyke (Caine) to demand that he grant his wife a divorce.
Pinter sets the rules at the front door showing that this is an all-male affair with the two men comparing the size of their ... cars. Wyke never misses a chance to observe that Tindle is what the English call an oik, an ignorant young man of little worth, mocking everything about him including his name, parentage, accent, job, appearance, you name it. The younger man grins and explains what he and Wyke's missus like to do with each other.
Soon the author has an offer to make. He will let Tindle keep his wife if he will do him the favor of breaking into his highly stylized home and stealing some gems worth close to a million pounds. He says he doesn't want his wife back and but wishes to provide for her and needs the insurance money. Of course, there's a catch and this is merely the opening serve in what will become a three-set match.
The setting is Wyke's opulent home filled with modern art and all kinds of doors, windows, mirrors, sky-lights, ladders, stage lights, and even an elevator, that operate by remote control. He also has an elaborate security set-up with cameras that number up to the 800s.
Tim Harvey's production design captures the mood of the piece brilliantly and Branagh and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos make the most of it. Composer Patrick Doyle's nimble score adds greatly to the film's enjoyment.
Pinter produces some cracking lines of dialogue that Caine and Jude relish to the full. He even has Law ask: What's it all about? The two actors deliver movie star performances of the highest level and their gamesmanship is hugely entertaining. Until, that is, the third set when a grimmer mood takes over along with considerable homoerotic banter that seems to have little grounding and lacks wit. "Sleuth" is the kind of film that should leave audiences with a wicked smiling shiver, but that's not the case here.
SLEUTH
Sony Pictures Classics
Produced by Timnick Films, Castle Rock Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, Riff Raff Film Prods.
Credits:
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenwriter: Harold Pinter, from the play by Anthony Shaffer
Producers: Kenneth Branagh, Simon Halfon, Jude Law, Simon Moseley, Marion Pilowsky, Tom Sternberg
Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos
Production designer: Tim Harvey
Music: Patrick Doyle
Co-producer: Ben Jackson
Costume designer: Alexandra Byrne
Editor: Neil Farrell
Cast:
Milo Tindle: Jude Law
Andrew Wyke: Michael Caine
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
VENICE, Italy -- Kenneth Branagh's new version of the crime caper "Sleuth" looks smashing and it features several great lines by screenwriter Harold Pinter. But despite top-flight acting from Michael Caine and Jude Law, it loses its grip in the third act and let's the air out of what might have been a memorably gripping film.
The idea of Caine doing a remake of the 1972 production in which he costarred but playing the Laurence Olivier role, and Jude Law, who has already stepped into Caine's shoes in "Alfie", doing Caine's part will no doubt intrigue audiences. The quartet of big names and a tight 86-minute running time also will help, but the film's downbeat tone won't encourage huge boxoffice.
The Joseph L. Manciewicz original was a theatrical romp some 50 minutes longer than the new version and Olivier, having mocked Anthony Quayle for stooping to it onstage, hammed it up mercilessly.
Pinter's screenplay pares the plot to the bone: two men argue and subject each other to humiliating game-playing over the love of a woman. Out-of-work actor and part-time chauffeur Milo Tindle (Law) shows up at the impressive country mansion of wealthy bestselling novelist Andrew Wyke (Caine) to demand that he grant his wife a divorce.
Pinter sets the rules at the front door showing that this is an all-male affair with the two men comparing the size of their ... cars. Wyke never misses a chance to observe that Tindle is what the English call an oik, an ignorant young man of little worth, mocking everything about him including his name, parentage, accent, job, appearance, you name it. The younger man grins and explains what he and Wyke's missus like to do with each other.
Soon the author has an offer to make. He will let Tindle keep his wife if he will do him the favor of breaking into his highly stylized home and stealing some gems worth close to a million pounds. He says he doesn't want his wife back and but wishes to provide for her and needs the insurance money. Of course, there's a catch and this is merely the opening serve in what will become a three-set match.
The setting is Wyke's opulent home filled with modern art and all kinds of doors, windows, mirrors, sky-lights, ladders, stage lights, and even an elevator, that operate by remote control. He also has an elaborate security set-up with cameras that number up to the 800s.
Tim Harvey's production design captures the mood of the piece brilliantly and Branagh and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos make the most of it. Composer Patrick Doyle's nimble score adds greatly to the film's enjoyment.
Pinter produces some cracking lines of dialogue that Caine and Jude relish to the full. He even has Law ask: What's it all about? The two actors deliver movie star performances of the highest level and their gamesmanship is hugely entertaining. Until, that is, the third set when a grimmer mood takes over along with considerable homoerotic banter that seems to have little grounding and lacks wit. "Sleuth" is the kind of film that should leave audiences with a wicked smiling shiver, but that's not the case here.
SLEUTH
Sony Pictures Classics
Produced by Timnick Films, Castle Rock Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, Riff Raff Film Prods.
Credits:
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenwriter: Harold Pinter, from the play by Anthony Shaffer
Producers: Kenneth Branagh, Simon Halfon, Jude Law, Simon Moseley, Marion Pilowsky, Tom Sternberg
Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos
Production designer: Tim Harvey
Music: Patrick Doyle
Co-producer: Ben Jackson
Costume designer: Alexandra Byrne
Editor: Neil Farrell
Cast:
Milo Tindle: Jude Law
Andrew Wyke: Michael Caine
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/31/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Venice International Film Festival
VENICE, Italy -- Kenneth Branagh's new version of the crime caper Sleuth looks smashing and it features several great lines by screenwriter Harold Pinter. But despite top-flight acting from Michael Caine and Jude Law, it loses its grip in the third act and let's the air out of what might have been a memorably gripping film.
The idea of Caine doing a remake of the 1972 production in which he costarred but playing the Laurence Olivier role, and Jude Law, who has already stepped into Caine's shoes in Alfie, doing Caine's part will no doubt intrigue audiences. The quartet of big names and a tight 86-minute running time also will help, but the film's downbeat tone won't encourage huge boxoffice.
The Joseph L. Manciewicz original was a theatrical romp some 50 minutes longer than the new version and Olivier, having mocked Anthony Quayle for stooping to it onstage, hammed it up mercilessly.
Pinter's screenplay pares the plot to the bone: two men argue and subject each other to humiliating game-playing over the love of a woman. Out-of-work actor and part-time chauffeur Milo Tindle (Law) shows up at the impressive country mansion of wealthy bestselling novelist Andrew Wyke (Caine) to demand that he grant his wife a divorce.
Pinter sets the rules at the front door showing that this is an all-male affair with the two men comparing the size of their ... cars. Wyke never misses a chance to observe that Tindle is what the English call an oik, an ignorant young man of little worth, mocking everything about him including his name, parentage, accent, job, appearance, you name it. The younger man grins and explains what he and Wyke's missus like to do with each other.
Soon the author has an offer to make. He will let Tindle keep his wife if he will do him the favor of breaking into his highly stylized home and stealing some gems worth close to a million pounds. He says he doesn't want his wife back and but wishes to provide for her and needs the insurance money. Of course, there's a catch and this is merely the opening serve in what will become a three-set match.
The setting is Wyke's opulent home filled with modern art and all kinds of doors, windows, mirrors, sky-lights, ladders, stage lights, and even an elevator, that operate by remote control. He also has an elaborate security set-up with cameras that number up to the 800s.
Tim Harvey's production design captures the mood of the piece brilliantly and Branagh and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos make the most of it. Composer Patrick Doyle's nimble score adds greatly to the film's enjoyment.
Pinter produces some cracking lines of dialogue that Caine and Jude relish to the full. He even has Law ask: What's it all about? The two actors deliver movie star performances of the highest level and their gamesmanship is hugely entertaining. Until, that is, the third set when a grimmer mood takes over along with considerable homoerotic banter that seems to have little grounding and lacks wit. Sleuth is the kind of film that should leave audiences with a wicked smiling shiver, but that's not the case here.
SLEUTH
Sony Pictures Classics
Produced by Timnick Films, Castle Rock Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, Riff Raff Film Prods.
Credits:
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenwriter: Harold Pinter, from the play by Anthony Shaffer
Producers: Kenneth Branagh, Simon Halfon, Jude Law, Simon Moseley, Marion Pilowsky, Tom Sternberg
Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos
Production designer: Tim Harvey
Music: Patrick Doyle
Co-producer: Ben Jackson
Costume designer: Alexandra Byrne
Editor: Neil Farrell
Cast:
Milo Tindle: Jude Law
Andrew Wyke: Michael Caine
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
VENICE, Italy -- Kenneth Branagh's new version of the crime caper Sleuth looks smashing and it features several great lines by screenwriter Harold Pinter. But despite top-flight acting from Michael Caine and Jude Law, it loses its grip in the third act and let's the air out of what might have been a memorably gripping film.
The idea of Caine doing a remake of the 1972 production in which he costarred but playing the Laurence Olivier role, and Jude Law, who has already stepped into Caine's shoes in Alfie, doing Caine's part will no doubt intrigue audiences. The quartet of big names and a tight 86-minute running time also will help, but the film's downbeat tone won't encourage huge boxoffice.
The Joseph L. Manciewicz original was a theatrical romp some 50 minutes longer than the new version and Olivier, having mocked Anthony Quayle for stooping to it onstage, hammed it up mercilessly.
Pinter's screenplay pares the plot to the bone: two men argue and subject each other to humiliating game-playing over the love of a woman. Out-of-work actor and part-time chauffeur Milo Tindle (Law) shows up at the impressive country mansion of wealthy bestselling novelist Andrew Wyke (Caine) to demand that he grant his wife a divorce.
Pinter sets the rules at the front door showing that this is an all-male affair with the two men comparing the size of their ... cars. Wyke never misses a chance to observe that Tindle is what the English call an oik, an ignorant young man of little worth, mocking everything about him including his name, parentage, accent, job, appearance, you name it. The younger man grins and explains what he and Wyke's missus like to do with each other.
Soon the author has an offer to make. He will let Tindle keep his wife if he will do him the favor of breaking into his highly stylized home and stealing some gems worth close to a million pounds. He says he doesn't want his wife back and but wishes to provide for her and needs the insurance money. Of course, there's a catch and this is merely the opening serve in what will become a three-set match.
The setting is Wyke's opulent home filled with modern art and all kinds of doors, windows, mirrors, sky-lights, ladders, stage lights, and even an elevator, that operate by remote control. He also has an elaborate security set-up with cameras that number up to the 800s.
Tim Harvey's production design captures the mood of the piece brilliantly and Branagh and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos make the most of it. Composer Patrick Doyle's nimble score adds greatly to the film's enjoyment.
Pinter produces some cracking lines of dialogue that Caine and Jude relish to the full. He even has Law ask: What's it all about? The two actors deliver movie star performances of the highest level and their gamesmanship is hugely entertaining. Until, that is, the third set when a grimmer mood takes over along with considerable homoerotic banter that seems to have little grounding and lacks wit. Sleuth is the kind of film that should leave audiences with a wicked smiling shiver, but that's not the case here.
SLEUTH
Sony Pictures Classics
Produced by Timnick Films, Castle Rock Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, Riff Raff Film Prods.
Credits:
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenwriter: Harold Pinter, from the play by Anthony Shaffer
Producers: Kenneth Branagh, Simon Halfon, Jude Law, Simon Moseley, Marion Pilowsky, Tom Sternberg
Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos
Production designer: Tim Harvey
Music: Patrick Doyle
Co-producer: Ben Jackson
Costume designer: Alexandra Byrne
Editor: Neil Farrell
Cast:
Milo Tindle: Jude Law
Andrew Wyke: Michael Caine
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/31/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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