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The Warner Archive comes through with a film noir gem that still has the power to make one’s skin crawl, as a pair of circus sharpshooters go on the lam, using their skills to pull off cheap robberies. The clammy feeling of being cut off from society, having no place to go, is expressed in near-existential terms. Peggy Cummins’ cheap tease Annie Laurie Starr promises John Dall’s Bart Tare eternal love, but what good are promises from a psycho?

Gun Crazy

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1949 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Street Date , 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Anabel Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, Rusty Tamblyn, Morris Carnovsky.

Cinematography: Russell Harlan

Film Editor: Harry Gerstad

Production Designer: Gordon Wiles

Original Music: Victor Young

Written by Dalton Trumbo and MacKinlay Kantor from his short story

Produced by Frank King, Maurice King

Directed by...

John Goodman shockingly never won an Emmy for his role as working-class father Dan Conner in “Roseanne” despite competing seven consecutive times as Best Comedy Actor for the ABC sitcom (1989-1995). He did eventually win as Best Drama Guest Actor in 2007 for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” but now he could finally cash in that “Roseanne” Emmy I.O.U. with the upcoming series revival, premiering on Tuesday, March 27. But Goodman hasn’t only made a name for himself on TV. In honor of his return to the small screen, let’s take a look back at some of his best big-screen performances. Tour through our photo gallery above of Goodman’s 20 greatest films, ranked from worst to best.

Surprisingly (and criminally), not one of these roles brought Goodman an Oscar nomination. He did compete at the Golden Globes as Best Supporting Actor for “Barton Fink” (1991), but the academy...

The newest big screen “golden age of Hollywood” biography represents something of a 2015 trilogy, a hat trick, if you will. It doesn’t focus on the illustrious career of a celebrated actor or actress, but there are some stars involved and in support. No, this is the story of a legendary screenwriter, yes an idea man. The man in question is one Dalton Trumbo, a fellow nearly as theatrical as the thespians reciting his words. Beyond his work, he was perhaps best known as the most famous of the “Hollywood Ten” during the Communist “witch hunts” of the 1950’s. So the “cold war” is the backdrop for this bio, much as it was for Bridge Of Spies, the true life drama, and that frothy spy send-up, The Man From Uncle, both released earlier this year. It’s odd that this is the last film to arrive in theatres, though its events precede the other two.

Bryan Cranston is irresistible as Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted screenwriter of Oscar-winning classics Roman Holiday and Spartacus, in this sparkling period drama surrounding the Hollywood Ten. His larger-than-life performance promises surface sheen rather than cruel dissection of tinseltown’s failure to stand up for those disaffected by the Red Scare. But Jay Roach’s film has the daring to flatten the reputation of Hollywood’s previously lionised – including John Wayne and Louis B. Mayer – marking an intriguing look at post-Golden Age Hollywood, helped by a very funny script from John McNamara.

After the Second World War, Trumbo rose to become the highest paid writer in Hollywood – “a record breaking contract to make shit up,” as he himself refers to it. But in the late 1940s the Red Scare took hold, and Hollywood was among the first to suffer McCarthyist sanctions. Trumbo, who argues his political position is as a “liberal democrat” in the film,...

Toronto – The damage the House Un-American Activities committee wrought between 1938 and 1975 was unconscionable. As the Cold War heated up thousands of innocent citizens were accused of being members of or sympathetic to the Communist Party and this committee was responsible for much of the hysteria. The witch-hunt hit Hollywood hard and after a number of hearings prompted the infamous blacklist, an unofficial designation that denied work to anyone in the industry with suspected communist ties. There was one man who is credited as bringing the blacklist down, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and his story is chronicled in Jay Roach’s new biopic “Trumbo.” Something tells us if Trumbo were alive today he might pass along some script notes to Roach and writer John McNamara. In theory, “Trumbo” is an incredible true story that should be prime fodder for a great movie. Before the blacklist, Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was one of the...

About the only thing keeping Trumbo from scoring full points on the Bingo card of Oscar season subject matter is that Bryan Cranston’s brilliant-but-tragic historical figure from Hollywood’s Golden Age isn’t the character in it who contracts lung cancer. Portraying life with a fatal disease is old pork pie hat to Cranston, so it’d be cheating history, and his fellow nominees, to give him that particular hallmark of a Serious Work. Yet, what surprises most about Trumbo during its march to a familiar prestige biopic tune is its reined in pretensions.

It’s not just the rich cast and juicy insider perspective that make talking about Trumbo in terms of its awards potential so tempting. The film itself is about one man’s decades-long fight for recognition within Hollywood, both as a writer, and a free man. The post-war America that saw Dalton Trumbo become Hollywood...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2

Harry Shum Jr. ("Glee") has been cast as one of the young leads in Woo-ping Yuen's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel for The Weinstein Company. Filming kicks off this week in New Zealand and China.

Set twenty years after the events of 'Crouching Tiger,' the story revolves around four heroes of the martial arts world - Silent Wolf (Donnie Yen), Yu Shu-lien (Michelle Yeoh), Tie-Fang (Shum Jr.) and Snow Vase — who must use their courage and skills to keep the legendary sword Green Destiny from the hands of the villainous Hades Dai. [Source: Heat Vision]

A Biggger Splash

Dakota Johnson ("Fifty Shades of Grey") is set to star in "I Am Love" director Luca Guadagnino’s "A Bigger Splash." David Kajganich is writing the script and shooting starts next month in Italy.

Based on the 1969 French crime drama "La Piscine," the story revolves around an uneasy triangle...

They may not have shared any scenes, but Bryan Cranston and John Goodman were both great in Argo. Now they may get the chance to shine together as director Jay Roach has Goodman in talks for a role in Trumbo, which Cranston is locked to star in alongside Helen Mirren.It’ll be based on the experiences of Dalton Trumbo, who was locked up in 1950 for refusing to answer questions before the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The panel was obsessed with rooting out suspected communists in Hollywood (and elsewhere) and for his stance, Trumbo was blacklisted and refused work. He managed to score assignments under various pseudonyms, but it wasn't until Spartacus in 1960 that he got public credit for his work again.Assuming he accepts the job offer, Goodman would play Frank King, a powerful producer in Hollywood who hires Trumbo to work for...