[amazon_link asins=’B077HKJXTH’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’315380ea-940a-11e8-b549-adc0364a85f4′]French director Louis Malle (Au revoir les enfants) isn’t generally associated with the noir genre, but his first narrative feature, Elevator to the Gallows, based on the pulp novel by Noël Calef, and set to…
[amazon_link asins=’B07C5LQ7PV’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’2fa00139-8dcc-11e8-abc7-4bd968ce0fe1′]An elderly British orthodox rabbi is giving a sermon on freedom and choice–a message that hangs over the entire film–to his rapt audience when he suddenly keels over dead. The film then cuts to Manhattan,…
[amazon_link asins=’B075N6DTJ8′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’0fb8816d-89f6-11e8-8dc2-f1ff274e0e43′]Originally released by The Criterion Collection in 2002, The Complete Monterey Pop Festival consists of three iconic D.A. Pennebaker films: Monterey Pop, Jimi Plays Monterey, and Shake! Otis at Monterey. Held on a June weekend…
[amazon_link asins=’B07CXBY1RQ’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’7be4863a-82d1-11e8-b9d9-c79cbc3332f5′]After several years directing commercials in England, Michael Mann spent the latter half of the 1970’s writing scripts for several popular television shows, including Starsky and Hutch, Police Story and the popular Angie Dickinson cop…
[amazon_link asins=’B07CXZ9DLZ’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c8efadef-7d70-11e8-a0a7-4bab6af9ca4f’]Co-writer/director Steve James’ (Hoop Dreams) Prefontaine tells the story of Steve Prefontaine, considered by many America’s greatest long-distance runner of all time. Holding the American record in seven different distance track events, Prefontaine was favored…
[amazon_link asins=’B073XYGB8T’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e718ad93-7716-11e8-8c3d-95487761a9e3′]Long an admirer of Stanley Kubrick, I count 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb among my favorite films of all time. However, Barry…
[amazon_link asins=’B07D4BZG9J’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8af349a5-7250-11e8-b754-cb1512768506′]Vincente Minnelli—one-time husband of Judy Garland and father of Liza—became famous largely as a result of the lavish musicals he directed during his time at MGM. Some of his best-known films include Meet Me in…
[amazon_link asins=’B07BF3T9D7′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’858c6585-6d97-11e8-9356-15465a932bbc’]In 1970, it was hard to imagine that a comedy with a cast that included Jackie Gleason (Skidoo), Maureen O’Hara (McLintock!) , Shelley Winters (Harper) and Rosemary Forsyth would be a complete box office bomb,…
[amazon_link asins=’B079PGX6LT’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’301c3715-6cf6-11e8-a279-11fe5b1aad2d’]Had Ruby Gentry been released just a few years later, it might have been mistaken for a Tennessee Williams adaptation. Instead, it was written directly for the screen by Silva Richards, who provided Joan Crawford…
[amazon_link asins=’B07BR9FHHN’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c94f6534-6cee-11e8-a6c0-4354cdabc897′]Released in 1983, Trading Places has the feel of a 1930’s screwball comedy. Set in Philadelphia during the holidays, this modern reworking of Mark Twain’s Prince and the Pauper concerns two men of vastly different…