What begins as a routine tour for a visiting Congressman of Strategic Air Commands headquarters in Omaha, turns into the ultimate nightmare. An unidentified aircraft is spotted on a course toward Detroit. Airborne bombers are scrambled to fixed points around Soviet Russia until the aircraft can be identified. The identification process takes a bit longer than usual, but nothing seems unusual. An all clear is
It’s been widely reported that Bette Davis (All About Eve) wanted to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. When the role went to Vivian Leigh, she was very disappointed. Sometimes described as a consolation prize, Davis played Julie Marsden in Jezebel, winning an Academy Award for Best Actress. Directed by William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver), the film is based on a 1933 stage play
Peter Fonda’s third and final (as of this writing), directorial effort, Wanda Nevada is set in 1950’s Arizona against the backdrop of the Korean War. Fonda stars as Beaudray Demerille, a drifter and grifter, who wins 13-year-old Wanda Nevada (Brooke Shields) in a game of poker. An orphan, Wanda harbors dreams of singing at the Grand Ole Opry. Despite his best efforts, Wanda sticks to
An unconventional Hollywood blockbuster, On Golden Pond is a character driven drama that explores aging, mortality, and reconciliation. Based on the play by Ernest Thompson, On Golden Pond finally earned legendary actor Henry Fonda a Best Actor Academy Award in what turned out to be his final film performance. Co-star Katharine Hepburn picked up her fourth Academy Award for Best Actress, while Ernest Thompson, who
Shout Factory has announced plans to release On Golden Pond: Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray. Directed by Mark Rydell The Rose) and based on a popular play by celebrated writer Ernest Thompson, critically acclaimed motion picture is a classic tale of family told with heart and warmth, as well as a timeless treasure that represents the end of an era for Hollywood cinema. Nominated for ten
Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name Trilogy—A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)—made a movie star out of Clint Eastwood, but by the early 1970’s the spaghetti western had fallen out of favor with Hollywood and audiences alike. Like a lot of things that become very popular very quickly, spaghetti westerns started
Produced and directed by Fielder Cook from a screenplay by Sidney Carroll, adapted from their TV play Big Deal in Laredo (which had originally aired on the DuPont Show of the Week in 1962), A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966) stars Henry Fonda as Meredith, a gambler trying to resist the urge to take up the game again. As the film opens Meredith
Sometimes a Great Notion—the second of five films directed by Paul Newman in his career and based on a novel by Ken Kesey—is both impressive and exasperating. It’s Impressive, because cinematographer Richard Moore (The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Annie) so adeptly captures the beauty and rawness of the logging industry. In one scene, a very tall tree falls toward a camera shooting
Rouben Mamoulian is the director who helped create the greatest swordfight in movie history, in The Mark of Zorro (1940), between Tyrone Power as Don Diego Vega and Basil Rathbone as Captain Esteban Pasquale. So right away, I trust his attempt to make a comedy, as he did with Rings on Her Fingers, two years after The Mark of Zorro, still at 20th Century Fox.
On the face of it, a movie which takes place almost entirely in one room, consists of 12 men who do nothing but talk—and don’t even have names—should be anything but a searing experience. 1957’s 12 Angry Men an undisputed classic, is an inspiring and well crafted masterpiece. The story is a simple one: 12 ordinary men are given the task of deciding the fate