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Good Old Tony Curtis! We could always depend on Tony for a sly, ingratiating smile, charm that ranged from candid-sweet to barracuda insincerity, and a desire to please that never quit. Some of his best work came while schmoozing and nice-nice clawing his way to the top, where he epitomized the glamorous movie star with universal appeal. Kino gathers three of Curtis’s better mid-career starring vehicles, directed by three top talents — Blake Edwards, Robert Mulligan and Norman Jewison.

Tony Curtis Collection

The Perfect Furlough, The Great Impostor, 40 Pounds of Trouble

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

312 minutes

Street Date August 4, 2020

available through Kino Lorber

49.95

Starring: Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis appears to have become a Golden Boy at late-’40s Universal-International by playing the role of ambitious actor to the hilt. Everybody caught him dancing a mean rumba with Yvonne de Carlo in Criss Cross; it’s fun to seem him perform a ‘look,...

1945: As word spread about the end of World War II, listeners were glued to the radio for updates."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies (World War II). Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-j Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.

1945: On Pepper Young's Family, Harry, Betty, Pepper (Mason Adams) and Mrs. Green discussed Harry and Betty's upcoming marriage.

Ray Milland produces, directs and stars in this odd, forgotten travelogue / adventure / romance /crime tale filmed in Portugal’s beautiful capital. Claude Rains is magnificent, Maureen O’Hara is okay and relative newcomer Yvonne Furneaux is a knockout. Most remembered is Nelson Riddle’s adaptation of the film’s title theme, one of the most admired pop instrumentals of the 1950s. Filmed in Republic’s ‘Naturama’ and ‘Trucolor,’ both of which prompt plenty of fuzzy man Savant-‘splaining.

Lisbon

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date November 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Ray Milland, Maureen O’Hara, Claude Rains, Yvonne Furneaux, Francis Lederer, Percy Marmont, Jay Novello, Edward Chapman, Harold Jamieson, Robie Lester.

Cinematography: Jack Marta (Naturama and Trucolor)

Film Editor: Richard L. Van Enger

Original Music: Nelson Riddle

Written by John Tucker Battle, story by Martin Rackin

Associate-Produced and Directed by R. Milland

Lisbon is one...

As word spread about the end of World War II, listeners were

glued to the radio for updates."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies (World War II). Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-j Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.

1945: On Pepper Young's Family, Harry, Betty, Pepper (Mason Adams) and Mrs. Green discussed Harry and Betty's upcoming marriage. Since the kids didn't want to wait, they...

“Grand Hotel. Nazis come. Nazis go. Nothing ever happens.” That’s a paraphrase from 1932’s Grand Hotel, indicating that the hallowed halls once occupied by Greta Garbo are now overrun with Warner Bros. contract players. As defeat looms, German officers, crooks, fugitives and ordinary citizens fumble for a way to survive. Writer and fervent anti-fascist Alvah Bessie almost didn’t — he would later be politically scourged as a member of The Hollywood Ten. Get set for a soap opera with swastikas.

Hotel Berlin

DVD

The Warner Archive Collection

1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 98 min. / Street Date March 6, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Faye Emerson, Helmut Dantine, Raymond Massey, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Alan Hale, George Coulouris, Henry Daniell, Peter Whitney, Helen Thimig, Steven Geray, Kurt Kreuger, Erwin Kalser, Torben Meyer, Jay Novello, Frank Reicher, John Wengraf.

Cinematography: Carl Guthrie

Film Editor: Frederick Richards

Original Music: Franz Waxman

Written by Alvah Bessie,...

Pity the poor exhibitors in 1953 that splurged on 3-D equipment, only to see the payroll soar and the profits fall. Nope, Anamorphic Widescreen was the innovation that swept the world. It proved perfect for stories with scenic grandeur, such as Fox’s very early mini-epic shot on Florida locations. Thanks to Bernard Herrmann’s impressive music score, this one’s not going away.

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1953 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Boone, Peter Graves, Jay Novello, Angela Clarke, Jacques Aubuchon, Harry Carey Jr., Gloria Gordon.

Cinematography: Edward Cronjager

Film Editor: William Reynolds

Original Music: Bernard Herrmann

Written by A.I. Bezzerides

Produced by Robert Bassler

Directed by Robert Webb

Four years have passed since the now dormant 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD-r label stealth-released a surprise...

The Mad Magician

3-D Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1954 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 72 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor, John Emery, Donald Randolph, Lenita Lane, Patrick O’Neal, Jay Novello, Corey Allen, Conrad Brooks, Tom Powers, Lyle Talbot.

Cinematography: Bert Glennon

Editor: Grant Whytock

Original Music: Arthur Lange, Emil Newman

Written by: Crane Wilbur

Produced by: Bryan Foy

Directed by John Brahm

Twilight Time, bless ’em, hands us another treat to go with their 3-D discs of Man in the Dark, Miss Sadie Thompson and Harlock Space Pirate 3-D — and this time it’s a fun bit of 1950s horror — with a hot pair of short subject extras.

There have been plenty of theories as to why horror films became scarce after WW2; it’s as if the U.S. film industry took a ten-year break from the supernatural, and partly...

Surround three international stars with several thousand extras in Franco's Spain and you've got yourself an instant historical adventure epic. Unfunny Cary Grant has a Big Gun, Spanish peasant guerilla (!) Frank Sinatra looks totally lost, and Sophia Loren conquers Hollywood by making with the sultry eyes and body moves. The Pride and the Passion Blu-ray Olive Films 1957 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 125 132 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Theodore Bikel, John Wengraf, Jay Novello Cinematography Franz Planer Production Designer Rudolph Sternad Art Direction Fernando Carrere, Gil Parrondo Film Editors Ellsworth Hoagland, Frederic Knudtson Original Music George Antheil Written by Edna Anhalt & Edward Anhalt from the novel The Gun by C.S. Forester Produced and Directed by Stanley Kramer

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Successful producer Stanley Kramer graduated to directing in 1955; two years later he was helming this giant, rather ill-conceived big-star epic in Spain.

Let's hear it for the great westerns -- not the Ford and Hawks classics, but the fascinating marginal gems that see The West in a different way. Do you like Sam Peckinpah? Robert Parrish's evocation of Texas and Mexico in the 1880s will be pleasantly familiar -- a testing ground of personal codes and shifting loyalties in a treacherous land. The Wonderful Country Savant Blu-ray Review Kl Studio Classics 1959 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date September 29, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95  Starring Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Pedro Armendariz, Gary Merrill, Jack Oakie, Albert Dekker, Charles McGraw, Leroy "Satchel" Paige. Cinematography Floyd Crosby Film Editor Michael Luciano Production Design Harry Horner Original Music Alex North Written by Robert Ardrey from the book by Tom Lea Produced by Chester Erskine Directed by Robert Parrish

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This gem is as individual a western as any made in the 1950s, and a...

Kirk Douglas movies: The Theater of Larger Than Life Performances Kirk Douglas, a three-time Best Actor Academy Award nominee and one of the top Hollywood stars of the ’50s, is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured star today, August 30, 2013. Although an undeniably strong screen presence, no one could ever accuse Douglas of having been a subtle, believable actor. In fact, even if you were to place side by side all of the widescreen formats ever created, they couldn’t possibly be wide enough to contain his larger-than-life theatrical emoting. (Photo: Kirk Douglas ca. 1950.) Right now, TCM is showing Andrew V. McLaglen’s 1967 Western The Way West, a routine tale about settlers in the Old American Northwest that remains of interest solely due to its name cast. Besides Douglas, The Way West features Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Lola Albright, and 21-year-old Sally Field in her The Flying Nun days.

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

Celebs love to juice!

Alicia Silverstone, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Lea Michele are all gleeful over their healthy concoctions.

Golden Globe host Tina Fey also did some healthy sipping the week before Sunday's award show. She was spotted at Equinox Fitness in Manhattan enjoying the hottest new juice line on the market - Creative Juice Flows.

The fitness giant teamed up with wellness doctor Dr. Jeffrey Morrison, along with culinary rock star chef Michael Romano to launch a line of organic cold-pressed juices.

"Creative juice is a new concept in juicing. It blends ...

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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Happy Tuesday...

Daytime:

"Good Morning America":  Po Bronson

"Today": Khloe and Kim Kardashian, Alison Sweeney

"The Early Show": Matt Damon

"Live with Regis and Kelly": Terrence Howard, Julianne Hough, Chef Michael Romano, guest co-host Bryant Gumbel

"The View": Jenny McCarthy, Rita Wilson, Boys Like Girls

"The Bonnie Hunt Show": Dr. Drew Pinsky, Candy Spelling, Anjelah Johnson

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show": Clint Eastwood, Brandt Bickford, Overtone

"Rachael Ray Show": Katie Couric, David Gray

"The Oprah Show": Mackenzie Phillips (repeat)

"The Martha Stewart Show": Wyclef Jean

"It's On with Alexa Chung": Nick Jonas, Kim and Khloe Kardashian.

Late Night:

"The Jay Leno Show": Gabourey Sidibe, the winner of "The Biggest Loser"

"Late Show with David Letterman": Barbara Walters, Blakroc

"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien": Josh Brolin, Tillie the Dog Artist, Chad Daniels

"Jimmy Kimmel Live": Pee-wee Herman,...

Ah summer. It.s a time for big blockbuster movies and Meryl Streep. The greatest living American actress must contend with a new title . box-office queen. Streep scored in summer of 2006 with .The Devil Wears Prada. and then in 2008 with .Mamma Mia!. Now, she.s getting ready for a three-peat with her meaty performance in .Julie and Julia..

Streep stars as Julia Child, the woman who forever changed the way America cooks and eats. But before she became a household name, Child was an American housewife living in Paris in 1948. .Julie and Julia. captures Child.s rise to culinary fame from her humble beginnings as a student at the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school to her game-changing cooking show, .The French Chef..

Meanwhile, fifty years later, we meet Julie Powell played by Amy Adams. She.s pushing 30, living in Queens, and...