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A band of rabbits must leave their warren to find safety in a film that, even in a digital age, still has the bloody force to scare young minds

‘The field … it’s covered in blood!” This is the young visionary rabbit Fiver, voiced by Richard Briers, in the British animation from 1978 by Martin Rosen, based on Richard Adams’s classic children’s book. The rabbits’ warren, quite as important as Tolkien’s shire, is about to be destroyed by a property development, announced by the humans’ heartless wooden sign, which of course none of the rabbits can read, but twitchy, squirming Fiver can sense the disaster it represents.

So his brother Hazel (voiced by John Hurt) leads Fiver and a breakaway gang on a quest for safety to far-off Watership Down, a rumoured place of sanctuary foreseen by Fiver; they include hot-headed Bigwig (Michael Graham Cox) and later the...

Alvin Rakoff, the Canadian-born filmmaker who directed Laurence Olivier in A Voyage Round My Father, has died. He was 97.

His death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by his longtime publicist, Nick Pourgourides. He passed away on Oct. 12 surrounded by family at home in Chiswick, a neighborhood in London.

Rakoff as a writer, director and producer of over 100 TV, film and stage productions, as well as novels, directed Olivier and co-stars Alan Bates and Jane Asher in the 1982 TV drama A Voyage Round My Father, a film written by John Mortimer and which earned the director his second Emmy Award.

Alvin and Olivier also worked together on Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson and A Talent for Murder, both shot in 1983. The two-time Emmy Award winner also gave a young Sean Connery his first leading role in the 1957 film Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Alan Rickman as a young actor was...

Alvin Rakoff, the veteran Canadian filmmaker best known for pics like the 1982 feature A Voyage Round My Father starring Laurence Olivier, died in Chiswick, London, October 12 surrounded by his family. He was 97.

Rakoff’s former personal agent confirmed the news with Deadline this morning.

Born on on February 6, 1927, in Toronto Rakoff was the third of seven children. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a psychology degree, Rakoff spent time as a news reporter. His first job as a writer was with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), which later sponsored Rakoff to visit the UK. Within days of arriving, he sold his first fiction script to the BBC. He was soon invited to join the BBC’s director’s training course and, the following year at the age of twenty-six, Rakoff became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department.

As Rakoff once recalled: “I trained at the BBC as a director-producer.

Dame Maggie Smith passed away today at the age of 89, after giving the world decades' worth of indelible, beloved performances. A star of stage and screen since the 1950s, the highly decorated actress was best-known to a generation as Hogwarts' stern but heroic Professor McGonagall, while others loved her best as the Dowager Countess of "Downton Abbey."

Smith may have only become a household name to younger generations in the past two decades, but she did much of her best work in the 20th century, winning Oscars for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "California Suite" in the '60s and '70s and a Tony Award for her role in the satirical play "Lettice and Lovage" in 1990. While her TV, film, and stage work was prolific and wide-ranging, only three Smith movies were ever universally embraced by critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes. One is a James Ivory classic,...

Millicent Martin and Denholm Elliott also star in Clive Donner’s 1964 satire on class, filled with macabre twists

There is some addictive raffishness and raciness in this 1964 British black-comedy satire for which screenwriter Frederic Raphael adapts a short story by American mystery writer Stanley Ellin; Clive Donner directs with cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. Alan Bates plays a pushy, plausible young fellow called James Brewster, employed in an upmarket “auctioneer” house – ie estate agent’s – in London’s West End, a firm greedily taking advantage of the construction boom.

Brewster is competent and hardworking but deeply ashamed of his lower-class background and his poor old mum and dad, and suspects he would do much better in the company if he had some patrician polish; his boss Mr Horton (Harry Andrews) is at present more enamoured of his airily entitled colleague Hugh (James Villiers) who is dating Horton’s daughter Ann, played...

The BBC is celebrating the art of the literary adaptation by screening a variety of classics on BBC Four. More details here.

The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.

It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.

The dramas are:

The Great Gatsby

Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.

Small Island

Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...

This week, Lucasfilm and Bethesda, the makers of hit video games like "Fallout" and "Elder Scrolls," provided an exciting first look at their upcoming Indiana Jones video game. Titled "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle," the game is a first-person adventure (one made for the Xbox Series X/S and PC) that puts players into the shoes of Dr. Henry Jones Jr. as he embarks on yet another thrilling quest for archaeological glory. However, with a total of five films in the Indiana Jones film franchise, you might be wondering: when does this particular story take place? Fortunately, we have the answer.

The trailer for "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" shows us a younger Indiana Jones, so it was clear this wouldn't be taking place closer to the recently released "Dial of Destiny" or even "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Instead, the official press release for the Indy video...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Underworld 4K Uhd from Kino Lorber

Underworld will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on December 19 as part of Kino Lorber’s Kino Cult line. It has been newly mastered in 4K from the 35mm original camera negative with Dolby Vision/Hdr.

Master of horror Clive Barker co-wrote the 1985 British horror film with James Caplin. George Pavlou (Rawhead Rex) directs. Denholm Elliott, Steven Berkoff, Miranda Richardson, Larry Lamb, Art Malik, and Ingrid Pitt star.

It has reversible artwork with its alternate title, Transmutations. Special features include a new commentary by Pavlou, an alternate cut, behind-the-scenes footage, and a gallery.

’80s Horror Print by Kevin Tiernan

Gallery 1988’s horror-inspired “Cover Your Eyes” exhibit is loaded with great artwork,...

There was barely a dry eye in the house at the Los Angeles premiere three decades ago of HBO’s landmark AIDS’ film “And the Band Played On.” During the end credit sequence set to Elton John’s “The Last Song” was a montage of well-known people who had died of AIDS or were HIV positive including Ryan White, Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Rudolf Nureyev, Arthur Ashe, Michael Bennett, Liberace, Halston, Peter Allen, Denholm Elliott, Brad Davis, Amanda Blake and Robert Reed.

No wonder emotions were running high. Deaths were rising every year. According to Social Security Administration, some 37,000 people died of HIV Illness in 1993. And it would be three years before the introduction of Haart-highly active antiretroviral therapy-that is often called the anti-hiv “cocktail.”

Based on Randy Shilts’ 1987 best-seller, “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,” the acclaimed film, which premiered on HBO on Sept.

Giuliano Montaldo, the admired Italian filmmaker who wrote and directed Sacco & Vanzetti, the John Cassavetes-starring Machine Gun McCain and every episode of the big-budget 1982 miniseries Marco Polo, has died. He was 93.

Montaldo died Wednesday at his home in Rome, his family announced.

His big-screen résumé also included The Reckless (1965), starring Renato Salvatori; Grand Slam (1967), starring Janet Leigh; Giordano Bruno (1973), starring Gian Maria Volonté and Charlotte Rampling; And Agnes Chose to Die (1976), starring Ingrid Thulin; and The Gold Rimmed Glasses (1987), starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli and Valeria Golino.

Of the 20 films Montaldo helmed, 16 were set to music by Ennio Morricone; no other director collaborated with the famed composer more.

Montaldo also served as president of Italy’s Rai Cinema from 1999-2004.

Montaldo’s gangster tale Machine Gun McCain (1969), which also starred Britt Ekland, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, and Sacco & Vanzetti (1971), about the Massachusetts trial and 1927 execution of...

Exclusive: David Cornwell, the British spy better known to the world under his pen name John le Carré, reveals secrets of his extraordinary life in a documentary directed by nonfiction filmmaking legend Errol Morris.

The Pigeon Tunnel, from Apple Original Films and The Ink Factory (The Night Manager), is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on October 20.

Following a career in Britain’s MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and ‘60s, Cornwell became the mega-bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager and The Constant Gardener, all of which were successfully adapted by Hollywood. His fictional creation George Smiley, the veteran intelligence officer who appears in many of those books, has been played on screen by James Mason, Alec Guinness, Denholm Elliott, and Gary Oldman.

“Set against the turbulent backdrop of the Cold War leading into present day, the film...

Film-maker who directed the 1984 classic A Private Function, starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith

In a small Yorkshire town in 1947, a pig is being illicitly reared to provide meat for a forthcoming banquet of local dignitaries celebrating the marriage of Princess Elizabeth. That is, until a timid chiropodist (Michael Palin) pig-naps the animal, urged on by his grasping wife (Maggie Smith), who sees it as a possible ticket out of their glumly austere lives and up the social ladder.

So begins A Private Function (1984), originally titled Pork Royale, Alan Bennett’s first script for cinema. With finely rendered performances from Palin, Smith – who is hilariously sour as what Time Out called “a Lady Macbeth of the aspidistras” – and a host of British talent, the film’s tone teeters on the brink of unwholesomeness without ever quite tipping over.

On a rainy, moonless night, the man in the fedora is smiling through bloody teeth. Indiana Jones was always a pulp hero fueled by the nostalgia of George Lucas’ youth; a guy who looks like Charlton Heston in Secret of the Incas (1954), talks like Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948), and performs stunts right out of John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939). But this pure old-school romance of yesteryear was never stronger than during the opening moments of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

After the film’s prologue, director Steven Spielberg cuts to a grown up Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), who takes everything in stride, even another punch to the face as he’s being held captive on a ship in the middle of a hurricane. In this particular sequence, he has been captured by a familiar nemesis who is ready to reclaim a Spanish artifact that Indy stole from him.

In June's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," the titular Indiana (Harrison Ford) once again faces down a Nazi threat. The film's first scenes are set in 1944 when the Nazis are trying to make their escape as the Allies liberate Europe. Indiana and his friend Basil Shaw (played by Toby Jones) try to steal back the Lance of Longinus from the Nazis. But it turns out the Nazis have something much more interesting: Archimedes's Dial, aka the Antikythera. Indiana and Bas make off with it.

Later in the movie, Bas's daughter - and Indiana's goddaughter - Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) contacts Indiana for more info on the dial. The quest for the dial, she says, at least partially drove her dad mad, and viewers learn that Bas has died. The dial ends up sending Indiana and Helena on a globe-trotting adventure with tons of twists and turns.

But...

Malcolm Mowbray, the British director of “A Private Function,” died June 23, producer Deniz Erel confirmed to Variety. He was 74.

Mowbray was known for directing “The Revengers’ Comedies,” “Meeting Spencer,” “Out Cold” as well as the 1984 feature “A Private Function.”

Maggie Smith, Michael Palin, Richard Griffiths, Denholm Elliott, John Normington and Tony Haygarth starred in “A Private Function,” which Mowbray co-wrote. The dark comedy followed the citizens of a small English town in 1947 who were awaiting the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. The citizens had to ration their food, but the royal celebration was the one exception. They gathered to prepare and raise a pig for the celebratory meal — but a couple, Smith’s Joyce and Palin’s Gilbert, decide to steal the pig in an act of rebellion. The film garnered six BAFTA wins, including original screenplay and best film.

In 1989, Mowbray directed the black comedy “Out Cold,...

The company has also sold historical epic ‘The Diamond Sword’ to major territories.

UK sales agent Jinga Films has added four titles to its slate ahead of the Cannes market, including Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s Venice 2022 Horizons Extra title Goliath.

Goliath follows a grieving husband who becomes an unlikely avenger after a criminal boss executes his wife. It is one of 14 features in the last 13 years from prolific Kazakh filmmaker Yerzhanov, who has previously premiered films at San Sebastian, Tallinn and Rotterdam.

Jinga has also acquired Fabian Forte’s occult fantasy The Witch Game, following a rebellious teenage girl who is...

Even though Star Wars Celebration is chock full of anything and everything from a galaxy far, far away, it's also an official Lucasfilm event, so that means this year's convention attendees were also treated to some hype for the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." Since this is the final adventure for Harrison Ford as the iconic archaeologist, Indiana Jones is bound to get one hell of a send-off, and that includes a barrage of new merchandise inspired by all of Indy's adventures over the years. Well, maybe not so much "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," but certainly "Raiders of the Lost Ark, "Temple of Doom," and "The Last Crusade."

Hasbro has already released the first wave of Indiana Jones figures under the Adventure Series banner, but Star Wars Celebration 2023 allowed them to unveil the figures in the second wave, which include new versions of Indy from both...

At the end of Steven Spielberg's 1989 film "Indiana Jone and the Last Crusade," Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford), his father (Sean Connery), Sallah (John Rhys-Davis), and Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) have escaped the now-collapsed temple where the Holy Grail rests. Breathing a sigh of relief, they mount horses and choose to simply go home, literally riding off into the sunset. It seemed that was going to be the final word on Indiana Jones; it was his last Crusade. But, just like "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare," "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter," "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday," "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," and "The Final Destination," the promise of "Crusade" being Indy's final adventure was broken. In 2008, Spielberg returned for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," a film that the director seemed painfully uninterested in.

Because that film wasn't widely beloved, and...

Trading Places remains a highlight in the careers of stars Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis. A riff on the timeless Prince and the Pauper tale, it was a smash hit in the summer of 1983, ranking fourth for the year, only beaten by Return of the Jedi, Terms of Endearment and Flashdance. It became a staple of video stores and cable and is also an unheralded holiday classic, taking place around Christmas and New Year’s.

Flashback to 1982. This was an important year in the lives of all of the leading players involved with Trading Places. For star Dan Aykroyd, it was marked with tragedy, with his best friend and frequent on-screen partner, John Belushi, dying of a drug overdose early in the year. Likewise, director John Landis was involved in a tragedy while directing Twilight Zone: The Movie. While staging a scene involving a helicopter, star Vic Morrow...

Stephen Greif, who is known for playing Speaker of the House Sir Bernard Weatherill on Season 4 of “The Crown,” has died at 78.

“With great sadness we announce the death of our wonderful client Stephen Greif,” the English actor’s rep Michelle Braidman Associates tweeted Monday. “We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

With great sadness we announce the death of our wonderful client Stephen Greif.

His extensive career included numerous roles on screen and stage, including at the National Theatre, RSC and in the West End.

We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are with his family and friends x pic.twitter.com/sYcwILCvNr

— Michelle Braidman Associates (@TeamBraidman) December 26, 2022

Greif was born on Aug. 26, 1944, in Highgate, London. He is survived by two sons.

Also Read:

Dax Tejera, Executive Producer of ABC’s ‘This Week,’ Dies at 37

Greif’s extensive career included numerous roles on screen and stage,...

Click here to read the full article.

Veteran British theater actor Stephen Greif has died at the age of 78.

His death was announced online on Monday by his representatives at Michelle Braidman Associates. “With great sadness we announce the death of our wonderful client Stephen Greif. His extensive career included numerous roles on screen and stage, including at the National Theatre, RSC and in the West End. We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” the statement on the talent agency’s Twitter site read.

Greif played House of Commons Speaker Sir Bernard Weatherill in the fourth season of The Crown in 2020. And the British actor was also known for his performance as space commander Travis in Blake’s 7, a sci-fi series that ran from 1978 to 1981.

Greif was born on Aug. 26, 1944 in Sawbridgeworth, Herts at a nursing home that at one time was a residence for Anne Boleyn,...

As much as Indiana Jones strikes an imposing figure as a lone man on a never-ending quest for all sorts of historical and mythological artifacts, the reality of the legendary character is that he's never quite been able to do it all on his own. From the esteemed Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood to John Rhys-Davies as Indy's right-hand man Sallah to Denholm Elliott as old friend Marcus Brody to the unforgettable Ke Huy Quan as Short Round, Dr. Jones has been more of a team player throughout the decades than even he would probably care to admit.

That grand tradition will apparently continue with the as-of-yet untitled "Indiana Jones" sequel. With the first official trailer presumed to arrive next month with the release of "Avatar: The Way of Water," anxious fans are instead left to sift through newly-revealed details about the plot and tone of the fifth film in the franchise.

The character now known as Pinhead first appeared in Clive Barker's 1986 novel "The Hellbound Heart," as merely one of a small group of supernatural sadomasochists from beyond the grave. A character named Frank, a sexual hedonist on a mad search for the ultimate sensual experience, solves a mystical puzzle box that magically summons threatening, leather-clad beings called Cenobites. The Cenobites have long since shed their humanity in devotion to S&m-inflected sensory overload which requires their bodies to be in a constant state of mutilation. The Pinhead Cenobite, not expressly male or female, was described thus:

"Its voice, unlike that of its companion, was light and breathy -- the voice of an excited girl. Every inch of its head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jeweled pin driven through to the bone. Its tongue was similarly decorated."

When...

The "Indiana Jones" series of movies is a trio of classic action-adventure films that have stood the test of time. The third film in the franchise, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," stands out as the funniest and most light-hearted of the trilogy, with the series seemingly accepting its status as a bit campy and running with it.

The series' humorous turn can partially be credited to the addition of legendary James Bond franchise star Sean Connery as Indiana Jones' father, Henry Jones Sr., who joins his son on his latest adventure. The on-screen chemistry between Connery and Harrison Ford, gives the movie more of a buddy-adventure vibe than previous iterations, lending the movie a tone that stands out among the rest of the series. This, along with more humorous character turns from Denholm Elliot as Marcus Brody and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, make it the most fun entry in the series by a longshot.

4K discs are selling like hotcakes so it’s only natural for studios to give Home Theater fanatics the biggest vintage blockbusters. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s hyper-efficient, no-loitering juggernaut is a return to the joys of serial action thrills, one ‘did you see that?’ bravura sequence after another. Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones is pitted against Paul Freeman’s villainous Belloq, and the might of Jehovah combats the Nazis. Accept the proposition that Adolf Hitler was ‘nuts about the occult’ and everything else will make logical sense. The picture hasn’t dated at all — it overflows with Gee-Whiz excitement that makes Marvel exploits play like weak tea.

Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K

4K Ultra HD + Digital / Steelbook

Paramount

1981 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date June 14, 2022 / Available from / 30.99

Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Alfred Molina, Wolf Kahler, Anthony Chinn, Pat Roach,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Russian Roulette (originally titled Kill Kosygin!) starts out promisingly enough but ultimately ends up being unsatisfying and misguided. Produced by Elliott Kastner, who was an old hand at making good, populist entertainment, the production was shot entirely in Vancouver. George Segal plays a renegade cop (were there any other kind in the 1970s?) who has been suspended from the local police force for various infractions. Suddenly, he is recruited by Canadian secret intelligence to help thwart a reputed plot to assassinate Soviet Premier Kosygin, who is due to arrive in a matter of days for a high profile conference. Segal learns that he is being set up in an elaborate and confusing plot that involves traitorous Kgb agents who want to kill their own premier in order to prevent him from initiating an era of detente with the West. Their plan involves kidnapping a local dissident (Val Avery...

One of our favorite portmanteau-themed horror flicks is "The House That Dripped Blood". Released in 1971 by Amicus,the rival studio to Hammer Films, the movie is constructed of eerie short stories populated by a great cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, John Pertwee, Nyree Dawn Porter and Denholm Elliott. Shout! Factory has a terrific Blu-ray. Click here to order from Amazon.

Read Tim Greaves' in-depth story behind the film in Cinema Retro issue #47.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's timeless 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is said to be the most often-filmed adaptation of a book. I don't know if that's true but it's quite clear that over the decades, the tale has indeed inspired many adaptations for the cinema and television. The 1939 classic introduced audiences to the teaming of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson. The 1959 Hammer Films version was the first Holmes movie made in color and starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in another highly impressive adaptation. By the1970s, revisionist versions of Holmes stories were all the rage in cinema and on television, as evidenced by films such as "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter ", "They Might Be Giants", "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" and "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes". Thus, the famed comic duo of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore opted...

Move over, Angry Young Men: Alfie Elkins leverages class resentment and killer good looks to become a ladies’ man extraordinaire… in his own eyes. Michael Caine was born to play Bill Naughton’s smooth-talking, responsibility-dodging cad’s cad. Alfie mistreats a glorious lineup of actresses — Julia Foster, Jane Asher, Vivien Merchant — and Shelley Winters is hilarious as the widow who has his number. Will Alfie maybe develop a conscience? The two-disc special edition shares a double bill with My Generation, a highly entertaining Swinging London documentary hosted by Michael Caine. Being kind doesn’t make one a fool, Alfie.

Alfie + My Generation

Blu-ray (Region-Free)

Viavision [Imprint] 41

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date June 2, 2021 / Available from Viavision / au 64.98

Starring: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Julia Foster, Jane Asher, Vivien Merchant, Millicent Martin, Denholm Elliott, Alfie Bass, Graham Stark, Eleanor Bron, Shirley Anne Field, Murray Melvin, Sydney Tafler.

Cinematography: Otto Heller

Art Direction:...

Sean Connery’s experience on box office dud The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ended up drawing a line under the mainstream careers of both the legendary actor and director Stephen Norrington. The two parties would frequently clash throughout a troubled shoot, but at least Connery had the benefit of being a major star who was paid $17 million for his efforts, while the latter hasn’t stepped behind the camera since.

During his self-imposed retirement, the Academy Award winner turned down a huge number of offers to make a comeback, which notably included a fourth Indiana Jones movie. Henry Jones Sr. was involved in several of the many drafts that the script went through over the course of two decades, but after speaking with Steven Spielberg, Connery made it clear that he wasn’t interested.

However, following his recent passing at the age of 90, it was revealed that Indiana Jones would...

John le Carré, whose bestselling novels about the chilly world of Cold War espionage were the basis for a long series of popular film and TV adaptations, has died of pneumonia. He was 89.

Le Carré’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, announced his death on Dec. 13 via Twitter. The beloved storyteller, whose real name was David Cornwell, was a favorite among writers and screenwriters for the naturally cinematic touches and propulsive narratives he delivered over a career that spanned a half century and 25 novels, the most recent of which was published in 2019, three days after his 88th birthday.

“It is with great sadness that we must confirm that David Cornwell — John le Carré — passed away from pneumonia last Saturday night after a short battle with the illness… We all grieve deeply his passing. Our thanks go to the wonderful NHS team at the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro for the care...

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“Clouds… Dark… Snow”

By Raymond Benson

This Ealing Studios thriller was a total surprise to this viewer. It’s always a joy to discover a picture from yesteryear that one hasn’t seen, and The Night My Number Came Up happens to be a solid, riveting piece of work.

The movie is based on a real incident experienced by British Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard, and it was adapted to the screen by R. C. Sheriff. Competently directed by Leslie Norman, Number is a taut aeronautical near-disaster flick about a small Royal Air Force plane that carries thirteen people (eight passengers and five crew) from Hong Kong to Tokyo on a harrowing journey.

One could say that the movie has much in common with an episode of The Twilight Zone due to a somewhat supernatural slant. One day at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport,...

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“A British Right Stuff”

By Raymond Benson

There exists a period in the career of the great David Lean in which several of his pictures are today more or less forgotten, especially in the U.S. After the one-two double punch of Brief Encounter and Great Expectations in the mid-40s, Lean directed several pictures that were less than stellar in terms of popularity and critical acclaim before he hit a spectacular stride with Hobson’s Choice, Summertime, and The Bridge on the River Kwai in the mid-50s.

Nestled neatly in this middle period is The Sound Barrier (titled Breaking the Sound Barrier in the U.S.), released in 1952. Despite doing very decent box office on both sides of the Atlantic, the film isn’t one that comes to mind when considering Lean’s genius.

It's the story of how the sound barrier...

Why is David Lean’s stirring ode to British aviation so historically and technically bogus? Because at heart it’s a science fiction film! Ralph Richardson drives his test pilots and his own son to die on the altar of aviation R&d, in a tale focused firmly on futurism and the push to the stars. Nigel Patrick and Denholm Elliott struggle to measure up, while Ann Todd hugs her baby and resists. Watching this terrific production, you’d think the Queen had a monopoly on supersonic aviation.

The Sound Barrier

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 117 109 min. / Breaking the Sound Barrier / Street Date April 28, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin, Dinah Sheridan, Joseph Tomelty, Denholm Elliott.

Cinematography: Jack Hildyard

Film Editor: Geoffrey Foot

Original Music: Malcolm Arnold

Aerial and second unit director: Anthony Squire

Written by Terence Rattigan

Produced and...

With Christmas officially just right around the corner, we have one last big push for home media before the big day, just in case you have any last-minute shopping to do. This week’s horror and sci-fi releases make for a pretty great final batch of titles for 2019, too, with Scream Factory at the forefront. Not only have they put together a Collector’s Edition for Silver Bullet (which is probably my most anticipated release of theirs for the entire year), but they’ve also put together a new volume of Universal Horror films and are showing some love to Murders in the Rue Morgue and To The Devil… A Daughter as well.

Ad Astra is also hitting various formats this Tuesday, and if you missed it during its release in October, Patrick Lussier’s Trick comes home on both Blu-ray and DVD this week, too.

Other releases for December 17th include Gags the Clown,...

The seventies were rough on Hammer Films; horror tastes were passing them by, as audiences became enamored with grittier gutter grue and moved away from ripped bodices and cobwebbed halls. With the success of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973), it only made sense for the company to grasp for the popular straw in an effort to compete in the marketplace. To The Devil…A Daughter (1976) saw that straw burst into flames to the point that it became Hammer’s last horror film before initially shuttering the place in ’79. But my god, is it a spectacular pyre to behold.

Released in March in the UK and other parts of Europe before hitting North America in July, To The Devil did poor business to match its mostly abysmal reviews. This is understandable when one considers some of the lurid behavior on display; there are images conjured here that are closer to Fulci than Fisher.

A review of this week’s The Good Place, “Don’t Let The Good Life Pass You By,” coming up just as soon as I walk to Edmonton to give 85 dollars to a snail charity…

And so, Eleanor Shellstrop, Chidi Anagonye, Tahani Al-Jamil and Jason Mendoza are dead.

Again.

And that’s just fine.

Season Three has definitely picked up in the last few installments, but there’s always been a sense of the series marking time here on planet Earth. The show has tried to bring in magic when it can,...

Simon Brew Kirsten Howard Oct 10, 2018

When an actor can't return for a sequel, sometimes the filmmakers get creative...

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

Sometimes, things don't go to plan. A movie has hit big, or a franchise is rumbling on, and you want one of the original stars back for the next in the series. The problem? You either knocked them off in the last film, or the actor concerned isn't available, or they just didn't want to return. That, or you didn't want them, but you're too polite to say.

The solution? The photo! Have characters looking mournfully at an image of said actor, just to remind you that they were once part of that particular parish, and so everyone else can acknowledge them, and then get on with it. At least, that's usually how it works.

Here are a few choice examples. As always, help yourself in the comments.

To celebrate the new 4K restoration of Merchant Ivory’s Maurice which was first released in 1987, the film will be opening at the BFI and in selected cinemas around the country, which is as good an occasion as any to revisit an old favourite or even discover it for the first time. Heralded as one of the most iconic gay themed productions of the last thirty years, Maurice has recently seen a resurgence in interest since the release of Luca Guadagnino’s beautifully atmospheric 2017 film Call Me By Your Name, for which James Ivory won an screenwriting Oscar.

Related: Read our glowing review of the 4K Restoration of Maurice here.

Earlier this week, HeyUGuys had the pleasure of speaking to the film’s leading actor James Wilby about his fond memories of acting alongside Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves in this groundbreaking production, and about the lasting effect Maurice has...

Like Hammer Films (most affectionately known as Hammer Horror), Amicus Productions was based in England and among other genres, specialized in gothic horror films with plenty of atmosphere and excellent ensemble casts. These movies have a palpable feel and flavor, and are much-beloved by fans such as myself.  This is why I'm happy to say that Scream Factory has knocked it out of the park yet again with their Blu-ray release of Amicus' The House That Dripped Blood, out on Blu-ray today. It's one of those anthology horror films of a certain delicious vintage that's just so much fun. Starring a fantastic cast of British actors, such as Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Jon Pertwee, Joanna Dunham, Nyree Dawn Porter, and Denholm Elliott, The House...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” is predicted to take home five BAFTA Awards on Sunday, including trophies for Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. That combo for one film is rare at BAFTA, and if they pull it off, they’d only be the fourth duo to do so and the first in 19 years.

Since BAFTA added supporting categories for the class of 1968, the only films to nab Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor are “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), which was released a year later in the U.K., for Louise Fletcher and Brad Dourif; “A Private Function” (1984) for Maggie Smith and Denholm Elliott; and “Elizabeth” (1998) for Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush.

See 2018 BAFTAs: Complete racetrack odds in 21 categories

In Oscar history, five films have accomplished this, but there is no overlap with BAFTA: “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) for Vivien Leigh...

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. David Lean's Breaking the Sound Barrier (1952) is playing October 14 - November 13, 2017 on Mubi in the United States.John (J.R.) Ridgefield is a man possessed. The wealthy and influential aircraft industrialist is consumed by his desire to manufacture a plane capable of penetrating the inscrutable sound barrier. This supersonic obsession is a blessing and a curse for the Ridgefield family, providing their ample fortune and triggering largely latent rifts in their ancestral relations. It’s an opposition at the heart and soul of David Lean’s 1952 film The Sound Barrier, a post-war endorsement of British ingenuity and determination, and an emotional, blazing depiction of sacrifice and scientific achievement. The opening of The Sound Barrier (also known as Sound Barrier and Breaking the Sound Barrier), spotlights Philip Peel (John Justin), one of the film’s principal test pilots. In just under two minutes,...

“Love And Angst”

By Raymond Benson

Woody Allen came off an incredible run of five superior films released between 1983 and 1987 (Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Radio Days) and then delivered one of his occasional “serious” pictures (without his presence as an actor) in late ’87 that was so dire that it only grossed approximately $500,000 in its initial run.

Basically a six-character “play” that takes many cues from the works of Anton Chekhov, September is set in a Vermont country house where depressed Lane (Mia Farrow) is recovering from a suicide attempt. Her best friend Stephanie (Dianne Wiest) is there for moral support. Lane is in love with tenant/writer Peter (Sam Waterston), and neighbor/teacher Howard (Denholm Elliott) is in love with Lane. She doesn’t share Howard’s affections, but Peter, however, is in love with Stephanie. Coming to visit into...

Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.

Seth Holt is an odd figure. An editor at first, his career spans classic Ealing comedies (The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951) and gritty kitchen sink drama (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 1960), while his overlapping career as producer saw him preside over the classic The Ladykillers (1955). On becoming a director, he worked mainly at Hammer, which made radically different content from Ealing but perhaps shared the same cozy atmosphere.Taste of Fear (a.k.a. Scream of Fear, 1961) is a zestful Diabolique knock-off, while The Nanny (1965) continued Bette Davis' career in horror. It's incredibly strong, beautifully made and quite ruthless: Bette referred to Holt as "a mountain of evil" and found him the most demanding director she'd encountered since William Wyler. During the daft but enjoyably peculiar Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971), Holt developed a persistent case of hiccups that turned the screening of rushes into hilarious occasions. Then he dropped dead of a heart attack,...

Join us for some old-school 16mm Movie Madness! – It’s our monthly 16Mm Double Feature Night at The Way Out Club (2525 Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis)! Join Tom Stockman and Roger from “Roger’s Reels’ for a double feature of two complete films projected on 16mm film. The show is Tuesday February 7th and starts at 8pm. Admission is Free though we will be setting out a jar to take donations for the National Children’s Cancer Society.

First up is Trading Places

Trading Place is a beloved fish out of water comedy from 1983. The filthy rich Duke brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) conduct a cruel experiment on two completely opposite (and completely oblivious) young men to prove that they could quite easily and successfully trade places.

Dan Aykroyd plays business executive Lewis Winthorpe III, a wealthy snob who works for the callous Duke brothers, and Eddie Murphy is Billy Ray Valentine,...

By Tim Greaves

Numerous actors have occupied the role of Sherlock Holmes over the decades, some more suited to the shoes of author Arthur Conan Doyle's famous consulting detective than others. One of the finest portrayals is that by Ian Richardson. Yet, sadly, his is also one that is often overlooked, not leastways because he played the character just twice (in a pair of 1983 films made for television), but also because his light was to be quickly eclipsed a year later by the arrival on TV screens of Jeremy Brett, whose interpretation of Holmes is considered by many to be the definitive one.

Sy Weintraub – who produced several Tarzan movies throughout the 60s and was executive producer on the popular long-running Ron Ely TV series –teamed up with Otto Plaschkes (whose producer credits include Georgie Girl and The Holcroft Covenant) with the intention of making several Holmes adventures headlining Richardson.

From the mid sixties to the mid seventies, omnibus (or anthology, or portmanteau if you’re really fancy) horror films were big business. And Amicus Productions ruled the roost. Between ’65 and ’74 they released seven such films, starting with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (not to be confused with Dr. Tongue’s Evil House of Pancakes) and culminating with From Beyond the Grave. Today’s film lands in the middle, The House that Dripped Blood (1971) showcasing a company just starting to hit their stride with anthologies.

Popularity of the omnibus format has ebbed and flowed throughout the last 50 years; after Amicus stopped making them, George Romero and Stephen King collaborated on one of the finest, Creepshow (1982), which didn’t so much kick start a revival as have everyone afraid to compete. Throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s there were pockets of inspiration, Tales from the Hood (1995) and of course HBO...

Stars: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin, Dinah Sheridan, Joseph Tomelty, Denholm Elliot | Written by Terrence Rattigan | Directed by David Lean

David Lean is well known for his romantic dramas (Brief Encounter) and literary adaptations (Great Expectations, Doctor Zhivago), which is why The Sound Barrier, his 1952 semi-biographical portrait of the British struggle to surpass the speed of sound, seems like something of an oddity.

The story focuses on the relationships between an ambitious Raf pilot Tony (Nigel Patrick), his military bride Susan (Ann Todd) her father, John (Ralph Richardson), a wealthy plane manufacturer who has lofty goals and doesn’t mind risking human lives to reach them. A brief prelude sees Susan’s brother Christopher – a small but welcome appearance from Indiana Jones’ Denholm Elliott – attempt to join the air force, despite both a lack of interest in and aptitude for flying. This ominous complication, paired with the...

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...