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Silvia Pinal, an actress in Mexico’s Golden Age of cinema, has died. She was 93.

Pinal had been hospitalized earlier this month for a urinary tract infection. Mexico’s Secretary of Culture confirmed Pinal’s death.

“The Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico regrets the passing of leading actress Silvia Pinal,” read the statement posted on X. “With a career spanning more than six decades, she participated in more than 60 films and plays. Her legacy lives on as a fundamental pillar of cinema, theater and television in Mexico. May she rest in peace.”

Pinal was born in Guaymas, Sonora, México on September 12, 1931. She studied acting at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature. Pinal’s acting debut was in 1949 with the comedy Dos pesos la dejada.

Making her debut during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, Pinal got to star opposite legendary actor Pedro Infante in La...

Nyx UK presents eight chilling channel premieres in July, headed up on Tuesday July 16 at 9pm, with Uwe Boll’s controversial retro-slasher Seed (2007), a divisive portrait of a serial killer which delves into the macabre and grotesque, offering a grim exploration of vengeance and the human capacity for cruelty.

At first you’ll be afraid, you’ll be petrified! On Friday July 5, 9pm, Nyx UK also premieres Renaud Gauthier’s ‘goriously’ humorous Discopath (2013), in which a seemingly ordinary man turns his local Seventh Heaven nightclub into a splatter Disco Inferno.

Other primetime channel premieres include the captivating 1972 Italian giallo Amuck, Reeker 2, Dave Payne’s 2008 prequel to Reeker, Sonja O’Hara’s 2022 horror thriller Mid-century, Black Circle (2018), a stunning Mexican-Swedish horror thriller directed by Adrián García Bogliano. and the Venezuelan supernatural thriller, The House At The End Of Time (2013), directed by Alejandro Hidalgo, broadcast on Fri July 26, 9pm.

The channel also...

If its wins at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards did not send enough of a message that “Oppenheimer” is far and away the frontrunner for Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars, the film’s receiving the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Sunday, February 25 almost certainly sealed the deal.

In her acceptance speech, “Oppenheimer” executive producer Emma Thomas was quick to to first thank the guild in general for the work that they do, as earlier in the evening, PGA co-presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line announced a historic initiative to fund health insurance for full-time working producers in the guild. After that, however, she was also sure to make note of how writer/director Christopher Nolan (both her husband and business partner) also happens to be “the best producer. He’s absolutely brilliant.”

Nolan himself said that,...

In 1965, Martin Scorsese was 22 and surrounded by legends when he won the Jesse L. Laskey Intercollegiate Award at the Milestone Awards dinner hosted by the then-called Screen Producers Guild on March 8, 1965. Now, almost 60 years later, the filmmaker received the David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the 2024 PGA Awards in what he called a “full-circle” moment.

Guillermo del Toro introduced the Killers of the Flower Moon director and producer at Sunday’s award show, calling him an “indispensable titan.” When Scorsese, now 81, took the stage, he started to tell the story of the 1965 awards show and how he kissed German actress Elke Sommer on stage.

“On the stage, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Jack Benny, Samuel Goldwyn, Jack Warner and Norman Lear, Lew Wasserman, Julie Stein, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Janel Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer and David O. Selznick,” said Scorsese. “They were the people on the dais at...

Martin Scorsese accepted the Producers Guild’s David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the PGA Awards tonight and took the Hollywood & Highland Ovation Ballroom down memory lane — to about 60 years ago, when he accepted a PGA nod for his student film, It’s Not Just You, Murray! at the ripe age of 22.

Painting the scene, the Killers of the Flower Moon filmmaker said: “On the stage, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Jack Benny, Samuel Goldwyn, Jack Warner and Norman Lear, Lew Wasserman, Julie SteinCary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Janel Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer and David O. Selznick. They were the people on the dais at the 13th edition of this event on March 8, 1965. That dinner was called the Milestone Awards Dinner and presented at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

“At the very end of the dais was me,” Scorsese continued. “I was all the way on the end. I was receiving the Jesse L.

Action-paced, international intrigue ensues when a Swiss bank president hires an American investigator to ferret out a group of blackmailers who have been terrorizing his clients in The Swiss Conspiracy, available 20th February 2024 in a special collector’s edition on Blu-ray and DVD from Film Masters.

Scanned in 4K from original 35mm archival elements, The Swiss Conspiracy has never seen a high-quality release to date. Film Masters has enlisted colorist and restoration expert Marc Wielage to painstakingly bring back vibrant and original colors that have not been seen since this film made its original debut in 1976.

Shot entirely in and around Zurich, The Swiss Conspiracy, based on the hit novel by Michael Stanley, was directed by Jack Arnold, best known for B horror/cult movie classics such as The Incredible Shrinking Man, Tarantula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came from Outer Space and The Tattered Dress. One of the...

Tony Bennett's first record, "Because of You" was released in 1952 and it instantly codified the entertainer as one of the music world's great crooners. In 1962, his 15th record, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was certified platinum by the RIAA, but that was after he had already established himself with Count Basie and his Orchestra and as a great fan of songwriter Harold Arlen. All told, he released 61 records in his decades-long career, not including his eight albums of collaborations and duets. He sang with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Carrie Underwood, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Mariah Carey, Bono, Sting, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, and many others. Most recently, he released two collaborations with Lady Gaga in 2018 and 2021. Bennett passed away on July 21, 2023 at the age of 96. He will be deeply missed.

Naturally, a talent of Bennett's stature couldn't be ignored by Hollywood, and he would appear...

The Pink Panther franchise is one of the most iconic and beloved series in film history. From its debut in 1963 with the original movie to its most recent installment in 2009, the Pink Panther has been a staple of comedy-mystery films for generations.

Related: 10 Best Comedies of All Time, Ranked by Viewers

Inspector Clouseau’s misadventures have captivated audiences worldwide and left them laughing, guessing, and wanting more.

The films were mainly created by Blake Edwards and had theme music composed by Henry Mancini. Other forms of media, such as books, comic books, video games, and animated series, were later produced based on the elements and characters from the films.

With its unique blend of slapstick humor, witty dialogue, and clever mysteries, it’s no wonder why this franchise has become so popular over the years. In this blog post, we’ll look at all the Pink Panther movies in order...

Much like the first Kill Bill and the rest of his filmography, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is heavy on violence and pop culture references. While Kill Bill Vol. 1 was a direct homage to kung fu cinema, the sequel plays out more along the lines of a Western. So, naturally, allusions to a lot of Spaghetti Western classics can be spotted all throughout the movie as Uma Thurman’s character, Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. the Bride, continues her blood-stained quest for revenge, hunting down her previous accomplices while finally facing her former lover and arch nemesis, the titular antagonist Bill (David Carradine).

Given that Kill Bill: Vol. 2 also delves into the Bride’s training under the legendary martial artist Pai Mei, there are plenty of deliberate nods to cult martial arts films as well. As is common in Tarantino’s filmography, several details also tie in with his other works,...

While the teen slasher is primarily an American invention, that small fact has never stopped other cultures from trying the popular horror subgenre on for size. And like the rest of the world at the time, Germany saw an obvious opportunity after Scream renewed interest in the hottest horror trend of yesteryear. Hiding among the soupçon of comely Deutsche slashers released around the turn of the century is Flashback: Mörderische Ferien (Murderous Vacation). This import won’t evoke nostalgia outside its motherland, but fans of this first revival era of slashers will undoubtedly find a lot to like about it.

Like other slashers, Michael Karen’s movie begins in the past. A killer finds his way to an unsuspecting family’s vacation home after disposing of two random airheads on a train. The young daughter, Jeanette Feelman (Nicola Etzelstorfer), then witnesses the murder of her parents before barely escaping with her own life.

Click here to read the full article.

Wolfgang Petersen, the German writer-director who surfaced in Hollywood following the triumph of his submarine masterpiece Das Boot to make the action blockbusters In the Line of Fire, Air Force One and The Perfect Storm, has died. He was 81.

Petersen died Friday at his Brentwood home of pancreatic cancer, publicist Michelle Bega of Rogers & Cowan Pmk told The Hollywood Reporter.

Petersen will be remembered as one of cinema’s great craftsmen, a director who was able to handle big-budget pieces while deploying a human touch.

The Dustin Hoffman-starring Outbreak, his 1995 thriller about a pandemic, saw renewed relevance amid the real-world coronavirus outbreak.

Petersen spent 18.5 million — then the biggest movie budget in German history — to make the antiwar classic Das Boot (1981). Several submarines of different sizes, including one that mimicked the claustrophobic innards of a real U-96, were constructed, and filming took a year,...

Click here to read the full article.

Maureen Arthur, who starred on Broadway and the big screen as the ambitious mistress and secretary Hedy La Rue in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, has died. She was 88.

Arthur died Wednesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills after a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease, her brother Gerald told The Hollywood Reporter.

The vivacious Arthur also portrayed a nudie-magazine cover girl opposite Don Knotts and Edmond O’Brien in The Love God? (1969), a divorced woman who romances Bob Hope in How to Commit Marriage (1969) and an office tramp alongside John Phillip Law in The Love Machine (1971), based on a Jacqueline Susann novel.

Arthur played the bubble-headed Hedy in the national touring company of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which had opened on Broadway in October 1961 en route to a spectacular run of more than 1,400 performances,...

It has been awhile since I’ve written about Italian legend, Mario Bava. I have no idea why, but every so often images from his films dance through my mind and spin off into the ether. That’s the way phantasms work, I suppose. And now I have the troubled, confusing, and intoxicating Lisa and the Devil (1974) to add to my collection of Bava ghostery.

The film opened in Cannes in 1973, then played overseas the following year. Lisa, a languid, lurid, fever dream, was a dud. Producer Alfredo Leone and Bava’s burgeoning filmmaker son Lamberto shot and added exorcism footage of Lisa (all the rage at the time) while removing some of Papa Bava’s original film. Re-released in 1975 as The House of Exorcism, it too was dud. And bad.

Whereas Lisa and the Devil is not bad. In fact, it is quite good, different, and unique; the original...

Quentin Tarantino says he has “no idea” what his next film will be. Could it be “Kill Bill 3”?

“Why not?” the director said when pressed on this burning issue on Tuesday at the Rome Film Festival, where he received a lifetime achievement award from Italian horror maestro Dario Argento.

But Tarantino’s also got other projects on the horizon. They include a film criticism book and possibly a TV series, as Tarantino told talk show host Fabio Fazio, of Italian state broadcaster Rai, on Sunday, before adding: “But first I want to make a comedy.”

Comedy seems to be on Tarantino’s mind. During an onstage conversation with Rome fest chief Antonio Monda, he described an unspecified project that sounded very funny.

“It’s not like my next movie. It’s a piece of something else that I’m thinking about doing — and I’m not going to describe what it is,...

The always delightful Doctor Z hangs with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante while discussing a few of his favorite monkey movies.

Dr. Z – Tmtmm Pod Mentions

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Planet of the Apes (1968) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Escape From The Planet of the Apes (1971)

Battle For The Planet of the Apes (1973) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

Any Which Way You Can (1980)

The Godfather Part II (1974) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary

Schindler’s List (1993)

Godzilla Vs. Kong (2021)

King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

King Kong (1933)

Conan The Barbarian (1982)

Godzilla (1954) – Don Coscarelli’s trailer commentary

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Stalag 17 (1953)

In The Heat Of The Night (1967) – Michael Schlesinger’s trailer commentary

King Kong Escapes (1967)

Murders In The Rue Morgue (1932)

The Sorrow And The Pity (1972)

My Octopus Teacher (2020)

It Came From Beneath The Sea...

The taglines for the 1966 overstuffed turkey “The Oscar give viewers a preview of the machinations of this camp delight- “The Dreams and the Schemers… the Hustlers and the Hopefuls…All Fight for the Highest Award!”

And you thought there was a lot of campaigning now for the Academy Award!

Kino Lorber has unleashed “The Oscar” just in time for the Academy Awards Sunday on Blu-ray with a brand new 4K restoration and two audio commentaries- one with film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and a much more funny and caustic one with comic/actor Patton Oswalt, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) and producer/writer/director Erik Nelson.

“The Oscar” was penned by Harlan Ellison, yes Harlan Ellison of “A Boy and His Dog,” “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone” fame and the team of Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, who penned the 1949 classic noir “D.O.A.,...

The Oscar

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1966/ 1:66:1 / 120 min.

Starring Stephen Boyd, Tony Bennett, Elke Sommer

Written by Harlan Ellison

Directed by Russell Rouse

Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success is a great movie with two career-best performances from Burt Lancaster as a malignant gossip columnist named J. J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis as press agent Sidney Falco – “a real louse.” The third star of the show is surely the screenplay by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets – a lyrical pastiche of streetwise slang that sizzles like “a pocketful of firecrackers.”

Hunsecker – What’s this boy got that Susie likes?

Falco – Integrity – acute, like indigestion.

Hunsecker – I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.

And so on. Mackendrick’s Broadway melodrama is a tale of bright lights and the big city so some hyperbole is expected. But Lehman and Odets were performing...

This story originally appeared in the May 13, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone with Peter Fonda on the cover

Scene 1—’The Young Lovers’ (1964—produced and directed by Sam Goldwyn Jr.; Peter’s first film on a bike; he gets a coed pregnant; “mildly touching but without any great insight into the prob-lems of today’s youth.”)

It started out as simple as this: I wanted to take a vacation. No sooner had I arrived in Lahaina, Maui — Hawaii’s first capital and former whaling center (see Michener’s Hawaii) — than I wandered...

Paul Newman in The Prize is currently available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering information can be found Here

After unexpectedly winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, closet crime novelist Andrew Craig (Paul Newman) finds himself in Sweden to accept the award but is swept up into Cold War intrigue.More comfortable at the bar than at the abacus, affable souse Craig nonetheless sniffs a whiff of wrongdoing when Dr. Max Stratman (Edward G. Robinson), winner of the Physics prize, undergoes a mysterious personality change. A truly Hitchcockian thriller, with a screenplay penned by North by Northwest scribe Ernest Lehman, The Prize comes with fully realized characters, sweeping surprises and danger-filled denouement – not to mention the always delightful Elke Sommer and a masterful score by Jerry Goldsmith! This sweeping saga of espionage and suspense reveals a multitude of hidden delights on this pristine baby blue transfer in high definition.

Top writers,...

Already eclipsed by James Bond and sexier European films, Paul Newman does his best to energize this derivative but lively spy-chase thriller set during Nobel season, in a Stockholm populated by the glamorous Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle and Jacqueline Beer. Toss several Hitchcock pictures into a blender, and what comes out is reasonably engaging… and more than a little dated.

The Prize

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date January 15, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle, Gérard Oury, Sergio Fantoni, Kevin McCarthy, Leo G. Carroll, Sacha Pitoëff, Jacqueline Beer, John Wengraf, Don Dubbin, Virginia Christine, Rudolph Anders, Martine Bartlett, Karl Swenson, John Qualen, John Banner, Teru Shimada, Albert Carrier, Jerry Dunphy, Britt Ekland, Gergory Gaye, Anna Lee, Gregg Palmer, Gene Roth, Ivan Triesault.

Cinematography: William H. Daniels

Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith...

On Dec. 25, 1963, Roxbury-mgm unveiled the 135-minute film The Prize, starring Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson and Elke Sommer. The Hollywood Reporter's original review, headlined "'The Prize' Is Amusing and Absorbing Film With Strong Box Office Assets," is below. 

MGM's The Prize should be just that at the box office; a funny, suspenseful, romantic film of exotic situations and settings. The Pandro S. Berman production is based loosely on the best-selling novel of the same name; it retains its assets while discarding its drawbacks. Wisely, the story has been attacked from a satirical approach, to ...

On Dec. 25, 1963, Roxbury-mgm unveiled the 135-minute film The Prize, starring Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson and Elke Sommer. The Hollywood Reporter's original review, headlined "'The Prize' Is Amusing and Absorbing Film With Strong Box Office Assets," is below. 

MGM's The Prize should be just that at the box office; a funny, suspenseful, romantic film of exotic situations and settings. The Pandro S. Berman production is based loosely on the best-selling novel of the same name; it retains its assets while discarding its drawbacks. Wisely, the story has been attacked from a satirical approach, to ...

'The Pink Panther' with Peter Sellers: Blake Edwards' 1963 comedy hit and its many sequels revolve around one of the most iconic film characters of the 20th century: clueless, thick-accented Inspector Clouseau – in some quarters surely deemed politically incorrect, or 'insensitive,' despite the lack of brown face make-up à la Sellers' clueless Indian guest in Edwards' 'The Party.' 'The Pink Panther' movies [1] There were a total of eight big-screen Pink Panther movies co-written and directed by Blake Edwards, most of them starring Peter Sellers – even after his death in 1980. Edwards was also one of the producers of every (direct) Pink Panther sequel, from A Shot in the Dark to Curse of the Pink Panther. Despite its iconic lead character, the last three movies in the Pink Panther franchise were box office bombs. Two of these, The Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther, were co-written by Edwards' son,...

Cinema Retro columnist Tom Lisanti co-authored (with Louis Paul) the book "Femme Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973" for McFarland publishers. The book has just been issued in a softcover edition, revised and updated. Here is Tom Lisanti's story behind the creation of the book.

It was a long time coming, fifteen years in fact, but McFarland and Company finally released a soft cover edition of the very popular and well-received Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Film & Television, 1962-1973 by Louis Paul and myself. The book profiles 107 dazzling women (Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch, Dahlia Lavi, Carol Lynley, Elke Sommer, and Sharon Tate, among them) who worked in the swinging sixties spy genre on the big and small screens. Some include interviews with these sexy spy gals. This new edition contains some profile revisions and updates and a few new photos.

The idea for this book was all Louis Paul’s.

Movie sequels are big business for Hollywood. Many fans are getting burnt-out on sequels, especially since so many of them are unnecessary. Still, let’s not forget that when they’re done right, sequels can be great. Here are a dozen of the greatest sequels ever made.

12. Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan (1982): Still the best of all the Star Trek films, this excellent sequel corrected everything that went wrong with its disappointing predecessor, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The action, the humor and the character interactions were all excellent. The comparisons to Moby Dick gave it a literary flavor, and Ricardo Montalban was fantastic as the villain, Khan Noonien Singh. The death of Spock was a surprise to long-time fans, even if it didn’t last. This film made the Trek film franchise fun and set the standard for the future films.

11. The Color Of Money...

Marjorie Lord actress ca. early 1950s. Actress Marjorie Lord dead at 97: Best remembered for TV series 'Make Room for Daddy' Stage, film, and television actress Marjorie Lord, best remembered as Danny Thomas' second wife in Make Room for Daddy, died Nov. 28, '15, at her home in Beverly Hills. Lord (born Marjorie Wollenberg on July 26, 1918, in San Francisco) was 97. Marjorie Lord movies After moving with her family to New York, Marjorie Lord made her Broadway debut at age 17 in Zoe Akins' Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The Old Maid (1935). Lord replaced Margaret Anderson in the role of Tina, played by Jane Bryan – as Bette Davis' out-of-wedlock daughter – in Warner Bros.' 1939 movie version directed by Edmund Goulding. Hollywood offers ensued, resulting in film appearances in a string of low-budget movies in the late 1930s and throughout much of the 1940s, initially (and...

Most female characters in film succumb to the Devil. They are used as vessels or conduits for the Anti-Christ, lesser demons or the grandiose ideas of an occult. More often than not- they are chased, seduced or beaten into submission by satanic happenings. But some of these women do display degrees of ingenuity, agency, and physical prowess in their battle against coercion and the corruption of souls. Ranked from weakest characterization to strongest, the following list discusses the faculties that these women retain in the face of evil. (Minor spoilers ahead).

Lisa Reiner in Lisa and the Devil (1973)

Lisa (Elke Sommer) is overtaken by the spirit of a long deceased woman named Elena and the Devil all at once. Trapped deep in her mind, we hardly know Lisa outside of her light, carefree existence as an American tourist right before her possession. Purely a vessel for the malevolent temptation of...

'And Then There Were None' movie with Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, June Duprez, Louis Hayward and Roland Young. 'And Then There Were None' movie remake to be directed by Oscar nominee Morten Tyldum One of the best-known Agatha Christie novels, And Then There Were None will be getting another big-screen transfer. 20th Century Fox has acquired the movie rights to the literary suspense thriller first published in the U.K. (as Ten Little Niggers) in 1939. Morten Tyldum, this year's Best Director Academy Award nominee for The Imitation Game, is reportedly set to direct. The source for this story is Deadline.com, which adds that Tyldum himself “helped hone the pitch” for the acquisition while Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010, The Thing 2011) will handle the screenplay adaptation. And Then There Were None is supposed to have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, thus holding the...

Still the best-selling novelist of all time with over two billion books sold (beaten only by the Bible and Shakespeare), Dame Agatha Christie's singularly most famous mystery is set to get another film adaptation.

"The Imitation Game" director Morten Tyldum has been hired to helm a new film version of "And Then There Were None" which 20th Century Fox has just acquired the feature film rights to.

Eric Heisserer ("The Thing," "Final Destination 5") has been hired to pen the script for the new version which Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen and Hilary Strong will produce. The new one which reportedly boasts a "take that got the Christie estate excited."

The story follows ten strangers who are invited to an isolated island for a dinner party at the behest of a mysterious host. It's soon revealed they have been cut off from the mainland, and one of the...

Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson on the Oscars' Red Carpet Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson at the Academy Awards Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson are seen above arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The 95-year-old Wallach had received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2010. See also: "Doris Day Inexplicably Snubbed by Academy," "Maureen O'Hara Honorary Oscar," "Honorary Oscars: Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo Among Rare Women Recipients," and "Hayao Miyazaki Getting Honorary Oscar." Delayed film debut The Actors Studio-trained Eli Wallach was to have made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1953 blockbuster From Here to Eternity. Ultimately, however, Frank Sinatra – then a has-been following a string of box office duds – was cast for a pittance, getting beaten to a pulp by a pre-stardom Ernest Borgnine. For his bloodied efforts, Sinatra went on...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Although he was regarded as a comedy genius, the sad truth is that Peter Sellers was more often than not misused in big screen comedies. After making it big on British TV  and in feature films in the late 1950s, Sellers became an international sensation with his acclaimed work in big studio feature films such as "Lolita", "Dr. Strangelove", "The World of Henry Orient" and the first entries in the "Pink Panther" series. Through the mid-Sixties, he did impressive work in films like "After the Fox", "The Wrong Box" and "What's New Pussycat?" If the films weren't classics, at least they presented some of Sellers' off-the-wall ability to deliver innovative characters and comedic situations. By the late Sixties, however, his own personal demons began to get the better of him. Sellers was the epitome of the classic clown: laughing on the outside but crying on the inside.

Most female characters in film succumb to the Devil. They are used as vessels or conduits for the Anti-Christ, lesser demons or the grandiose ideas of an occult. More often than not- they are chased, seduced or beaten into submission by satanic happenings. But some of these women do display degrees of ingenuity, agency and physical prowess in their battle against coercion and the corruption of souls. Ranked from weakest characterization to strongest, the following list discusses the faculties that these women retain in the face of evil. (Minor spoilers ahead).

Mario Bava’s “Lisa and the Devil”

Lisa Reiner in Lisa and the Devil (1973)

Lisa (Elke Sommer) is overtaken by the spirit of a long deceased woman named Elena and the Devil all at once. Trapped deep in her mind, we hardly know Lisa outside of her light, carefree existence as an American tourist right before her possession. Purely...

Last Remaining Copies!

A new concept in special issue publications from Cinema Retro!- Now shipping worldwide! Order this limited edition now!

Our new line of special issues is called Foto Files. The images are derived from the Cinema Retro archives.

Our premiere issue is dedicated to "Spy Girls" of the 1960s and 1970s. It's an 80-page magazine that emphasizes rare and exciting photographs of those actresses who were "deadlier than the male" in some of the best retro spy movies ever made!

Over 350 photos and film poster artwork from the era Limited print run. Not available in most retail outlets. All of your favorite femme fatales from such legendary series as James Bond, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Harry Palmer, Bulldog Drummond, Matt Helm, Our Man Flint, and many others! Among the sex sirens featured in this remarkable collector's item issue: Ursula Andress, Diana Rigg, Elke Sommer, Caroline Munro, Camilla Sparv,...

Maximilian Schell movie director (photo: Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell) (See previous post: “Maximilian Schell Dies: Best Actor Oscar Winner for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg.’”) Maximilian Schell’s first film as a director was the 1970 (dubbed) German-language release First Love / Erste Liebe, adapted from Igor Turgenev’s novella, and starring Englishman John Moulder-Brown, Frenchwoman Dominique Sanda, and Schell in this tale about a doomed love affair in Czarist Russia. Italian Valentina Cortese and British Marius Goring provided support. Directed by a former Best Actor Oscar winner, First Love, a movie that could just as easily have been dubbed into Swedish or Swahili (or English), ended up nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Three years later, nominated in that same category was Schell’s second feature film as a director, The Pedestrian / Der Fußgänger, in which a car accident forces a German businessman to delve deep into his past.

A Conversation with Edith Head will be held at The Sheldon Ballroom in St. Louis on December 6th and 7th

All About Eve, Roman Holiday, The Ten Commandments, A Place In The Sun, The Sting. These great films and hundreds more have one thing in common: costume designer Edith Head (1897–1981). The small woman with the familiar straight bangs, black-rimmed saucer glasses, and unsmiling countenance racked up an unprecedented 35 Oscar nods and 400 film credits over the course of a sixty-year career. The golden age of Hollywood sparkled with extravagant cinematic productions and stars such as Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Mae West, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Redford were made even more glamorous by donning the costumes designed by incredibly talented Ms Head.

Theater director Susan Claassen, a New Jersey native got the idea for a project based on Edith Head several years ago after...

All About Eve, Roman Holiday, The Ten Commandments, A Place In The Sun, The Sting. These great films and hundreds more have one thing in common: costume designer Edith Head (1897–1981). The small woman with the familiar straight bangs, black-rimmed saucer glasses, and unsmiling countenance racked up an unprecedented 35 Oscar nods and 400 film credits over the course of a sixty-year career. The golden age of Hollywood sparkled with extravagant cinematic productions and stars such as Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Mae West, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Redford were made even more glamorous by donning the costumes designed by the incredibly talented Mrs. Head.

Theater director Susan Claassen, a New Jersey native, got the idea for a project based on Edith Head several years ago after she watched a televised biography of the designer. She realized that her physical resemblance to the designer was uncanny,...

Eleanor Parker 2013 movie series continues today (photo: Eleanor Parker in Detective Story) Palm Springs resident Eleanor Parker is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of June 2013. Thus, eight more Eleanor Parker movies will be shown this evening on TCM. Parker turns 91 on Wednesday, June 26. (See also: “Eleanor Parker Today.”) Eleanor Parker received her second Best Actress Academy Award nomination for William Wyler’s crime drama Detective Story (1951). The movie itself feels dated, partly because of several melodramatic plot developments, and partly because of Kirk Douglas’ excessive theatricality as the detective whose story is told. Parker, however, is excellent as Douglas’ wife, though her role is subordinate to his. Just about as good is Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Lee Grant, whose career would be derailed by the anti-Red hysteria of the ’50s. Grant would make her comeback in the ’70s, eventually winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her...

Stars: Joseph Cotten, Elke Sommer, Massimo Girotti, Rada Rassimov, Antonio Cantafora, Umberto Raho, Luciano Pigozzi | Written by Vincent Fotre | Directed by Mario Bava

Italian director Mario Bava was responsible for some truly great horror movies of the 60s and 70s, including The Mask of Satan, Black Sabbath, Blood and Black Lace, Lisa and the Devil and proto-slasher A Bay of Blood. However some, whilst a success at the time, haven’t aged quite so well… like Baron Blood.

The film is yet another gothic horror from Bava that, like Black Sunday before it, features a witch’s curse – this time placed on Baron Otto von Kleist, Austria’s legendarily murderous ‘Baron Blood’, whose corpse is inadvertently revived when an ancient incantation is read out as a joke by a descendant and his girlfriend. Naturally, the Baron decides to carry on where he originally left off, with the help of an...

Lisa And The Devil

Stars: Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas, Sylva Koscina, Alessio Orano, Gabriele Tinti, Kathy Leone, Eduardo Fajardo, Franz von Treuberg, Espartaco Santoni, Alida Valli | Written and Directed by Mario Bava

When it comes to Italian horror it’s fair to say that Mario Bava is one of the most known names. A visionary director he’s brought us the likes of Black Sunday and not only paved the way for the success of Italian horror but also brought us some truly unique films, one of them being Lisa and the Devil. Now that Arrow Video have brought this classic directors cut to Blu-ray along with the alternative version House of Exorcism we can see what his original vision was and why in my view it’s one of his best pieces of work.

When holidaying in Spain, Lisa is shown a painting said to be of the devil,...

It’s Monday, so we all know what that means! Yes, it’s time for another rundown of DVDs and Blu-ray’s hitting stores online and offline this week. It’s a very light week this week, so let us breakdown the new releases and highlight what you should – and shouldn’t – be buying from today, February 4th 2013.

Pick Of The Week

Death Race 3: Inferno (DVD/Blu-ray)

Repentant convict Carl Lucas (Luke Goss) aka Frankenstein is a legendary driver in the brutal prison blood sport known as Death Race. Only one victory away from winning freedom, Lucas is plunged into his most vicious competition yet: the first-ever desert Death Race. Through South Africa’s infernal Kalahari Desert, Lucas is pitted against ruthless adversaries and powerful forces at work behind the scenes to ensure his defeat. Also starring Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames, Death Race: Inferno is an insane, action-packed thrill ride.

Joe Dante leads us through Cold War melodrama "The Prize" (1963), starring Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson and Elke Sommer.  Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Irving Wallace potboiler set during the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, Lehman borrows liberally from his own Hitchcock classic "North by Northwest," which also stars Leo G. Carroll. Among a talented comedic cast, future Bond girl Britt Ekland can be seen in her first Hollywood movie in a bit part as a nudist, no less--"A Shot in the Dark" came the following year.  Watch the trailer below and learn more here.  ...

Rita Hayworth Movies Turner Classic Movies, Wednesday, August 8 6:00 Am Affectionately Yours (1941) A foreign correspondent hurries home to stop his wife from getting a divorce. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Merle Oberon, Dennis Morgan, Rita Hayworth. Black and White-88 minutes. 7:30 Am Angels Over Broadway (1940) A playwright persuades a con artist to help an embezzler go straight. Dir: Ben Hecht. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell. Black and White-79 minutes. 9:00 Am The Money Trap (1966) A cop with financial problems turns crooked. Dir: Burt Kennedy. Cast: Glenn Ford, Elke Sommer, Rita Hayworth. Black and White-92 minutes. Letterbox. 10:45 Am [...]...

 

MacInnes' best-selling Cold War adventure The Venetian Affair was brought to the screen in 1967 starring Robert Vaughn and Elke Sommer.

Scottish novelist Helen MacInnes was known as the Queen of the Cold War thrillers. Prior to her death in 1985, MacInnes had built a loyal international following. However, in recent years, her work has faded into relative obscurity. Now Titan Books has secured the rights to MacInnes' work and will be reissuing these novels. Some of her books had been made into major films such as The Venetian Affair and The Salzburg Connection. Click here for more...

As we enter our 8th year of publishing, we'd like to thank each of our loyal readers for helping us keep the dream alive. It's not easy maintaining a magazine in the age of the internet, but we continue to thrive thanks to our many readers throughout the world. A very special thanks to those of you who subscribe to Cinema Retro. Frankly, there is no greater way of helping us out (unless you have a few million bucks laying around that you'd like to donate). Every subscription goes a long way to ensuring that we'll be able to maintain the high standards you've come to expect- with a minimum amount of advertising. We've also been able to maintain our pricing without a single increase in eight years, despite soaring costs for printing and mailing. Every issue will continue to be a limited edition collector's item. In fact with the...

Cinema Sex Sirens, published by Omnibus Press,  is a unique collection of photographs of female stars of the '60s and '70s.

That period marked a new era of frankness in society and the movie industry lost no time in following suit after some 25 years of censorship and self-imposed regulations. The women who became the new erotic goddesses also became world-famous and defined a generation's view of sexuality.

Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer's gallery illustrates a luminous collection of idealized women and offers a fascinating insight into the movies' depiction of female sexuality during the '60s and '70s. From the indisputable legends to actresses whose used their beauty to gain fame in the short-term through exploitation movies, this book provides little-known insights into their lives and careers.

Foreword by Sir Roger Moore

Chapters include:

Hollywood Or Bust: The Early Years

...And God Created the Sex...

The annal Toronto Jewish Film Festival in Toronto kicks off May 7 with 118 films from 21 countries, including 1 world premiere, 1 international premiere, 3 North American premieres, 34 Canadian Premieres, 7 free programmes and 1 World Class Film Festival. The festival runs until the 15 of May and will also feature a tribute to “Three Lennys” – Bernstein, Cohen and Bruce – with special guests Alexander Bernstein and Kitty Bruce; and with Offerings From Eytan Fox, Lou Reed, Claude Lanzmann, Dani Levy, Tony Palmer. Also the festival will screen China’s First Animated Film To Deal With The Holocaust.

Here is the official press release:

One of the largest festivals of its kind in the world, Tjff returns May 7 and runs through May 15, with films from 21 countries that reflect aspects of Jewish identity and diversity with universal themes. This year’s Tjff features 118 films from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia,...

Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor in Richard Brooks‘ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Paul Newman on TCM: Hud, Rachel Rachel, The Prize Schedule (Pt) and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Rack, The (1956) A Korean War veteran is accused of cracking under enemy torture. Cast: Paul Newman, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis. Dir: Arnold Laven. Bw-100 mins 4:45 Am Until They Sail (1957) Four sisters in New Zealand fall for Allied sailors en route to World War II. Cast: Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Paul Newman. Dir: Robert Wise. Bw-95 mins. 6:30 Am Prize, The (1963) An American Nobel Prize-winner mixes it up with spies when he travels to Stockholm to collect his award. Cast: Paul Newman, Elke Sommer, Edward G. Robinson. Dir: Mark Robson. C-135 mins. 8:45 Am Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) True story of boxer Rocky Graziano’s rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ. Cast: Paul Newman, Pier [...]...

From Abba to Hitchcock, Philip French picks his favourite fleeting 'blink and you'll miss them' moments

Alfred Hitchcock (Rebecca, 1940)

Hitchcock, the brilliant self-publicist who probably devised his own sobriquet "Master of Suspense", virtually invented the movie cameo en route to becoming the world's most recognisable director. His first screen appearance was in a newsroom sequence in The Lodger (1926). Initially, the signature walk-ons were spasmodic, before becoming a feature of each picture after his move to the Us, beginning with Rebecca (1940), where he is seen outside a telephone kiosk being used by George Sanders. Each reflects wittily on the movie.

Walter Huston (The Maltese Falcon, 1941)

The great character actor Walter Huston appeared in son John's directorial debut as Captain Jacoby, the merchant mariner in league with Kasper Gutman and co. He staggers into Sam Spade's office clutching a parcel containing a replica of the eponymous statuette, "the stuff that dreams are made of" [sic]. He says,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

In honor (or dishonor) of this year's Academy Award presentation, TCM North America is showing that gloriously bad gem from 1966 The Oscar, with Stephen Boyd's legendary over-the-top performance as sleezy, has-been actor Frankie Fane who stops at nothing to get an Oscar nomination in order to revitalized his career. Among the other talented cast members who should have known better: Elke Sommer, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan and Milton Berle - and don't forget Tony Bennett's only big screen performance as the immortally-named Hymie Kelly! The film is a hoot from start to finish, though the famous "sting-in-the-tail" finale does legitimately pack a punch. The movie has never been released on DVD. It will air at 9:00 Pm (Est)...

Joe Sirola with old friend David McCallum at Joe's annual summer party atop his New York City penthouse. (Photo: Lee Pfeiffer)

Regular readers of Cinema Retro are well-acquainted with Joe Sirola, the star of stage and screen who is also known as The Voice-over King. Joe has been the voice behind countless high profile commercials over the years, but he's just landed a high profile gig as Sluggy Patterson, the fictional character who allegedly created the legendary game of Punchdub, which revolves around Volkswagens. For decades, people have punched another person in the arm whenever they spot a Vw on the road. The company has now turned this phenomenon into a clever marketing plan and it's the centerpiece of Vw's TV commercials. Joe Sirola has thus far recorded four ads that appear on the Vw web site in which he plays Sluggy, a crusty senior citizen who describes the rules...