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Peter Yates' "Bullitt" is one of the most stylish cop flicks ever made. Those multi-screen opening credits designed by the great Pablo Ferro, that jazzily urbane Lalo Schifren score, those wildly cool outfits donned by Steve McQueen at the height of his laconic sexiness (some inspired by the suits sported by real life detective Dave Toschi) –- it's a stone groove punctuated by spasms of violence and, of course, a raucous car chase through the hilly streets of San Francisco. It's so ineffably pleasurable, you don't mind that the narrative is a sketchily plotted afterthought. Who needs an intricately structured story when you're watching, as Quentin Tarantino wrote in his book "Cinema Speculation," "one of the best directed movies ever made?"

You throw on "Bullitt" for the 1968-ness of it all (it's the apolitical flip-side of the coin to Haskell Wexler's roiling docudrama "Medium Cool"), as well as the...

This August, Prime Video is bringing you a lot of entertainment with the highly anticipated Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, an all-new action-comedy film starring John Cena and Awkwafina titled Jackpot!, and an animated Batman series titled Batman: Caped Crusader. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Prime Video this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 10 best films that are coming to Prime Video in August 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Fargo (August 1)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Fargo is a dark comedy crime drama film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The 1996 film follows the story of Jerry, a sales manager who is under a huge debt. To repay his loan he hatches a plan to hire two henchmen to kidnap his wife and...

“Babylon Berlin: Season One” is the beginning of a complex political crime period drama that has run for four seasons in Germany, with a fifth yet to come. It’s won a scheisse-load of awards and nominations for the series and many of its components, and is best appreciated by concentrated viewing – preferably in binges – rather than casual or background entertainment.

It’s set in 1929. Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) is an honest, intelligent cop who has just moved to the titular city. He’s paired with Burno Wolter (Peter Kurth), a brutish fellow detective of questionable virtue. The former looks like mellowed version of Tim Roth; the latter somewhere between Gert Frobe and Simon Oakland. The crimes they’re assigned to cover seem local, but lead quickly down the rabbit hole of international intrigue, overrun with individual and group conflicts, misdirection and betrayals, spanning from Russia to Germany and beyond.

Gunsmoke Season 3 was the first to hit the top rank in the ratings from 1957 to 1958, landing it the most coveted spot in all of television. This is a feat that CBS would achieve consecutively over the next few years, marking the most successful years in the show’s history. Here’s a look at the 5 best-rated Gunsmoke episodes from season 3, according to IMDb.

‘Crack-Up’ L-r: James Arness as Matt Dillon and Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell | CBS

IMDb Rating: 8.2

“Crack-Up” aired on Sept. 14, 1957, as the first episode of Gunsmoke Season 3.

A gunman named Nate Springer (John Dehner) spells out trouble for Dodge City when he arrives with the intention of killing somebody. However, he has a certain hesitance that tips U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) off that there’s more to the story. He decides to get to the bottom of who hired him and what is making the professional so nervous.

It’s time for a new episode of the Revisited video series, and with this one we’re looking back at a TV movie that started a franchise, 1972’s The Night Stalker ((pick up a copy Here)! The Night Stalker was followed by a sequel called The Night Strangler, and then a twenty episode season of a TV series called Kolchak: The Night Stalker. A show that served as inspiration for The X-Files and received a short-lived remake series called Night Stalker in the early 2000s. To find out all about The Night Stalker, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey from a teleplay by Richard Matheson, which was based on a novel by Jeff Rice, The Night Stalker has the following synopsis:

After several high-profile newspapers fire him for his difficult attitude, investigative journalist Carl Kolchak finds a job following the police beat for a small Las Vegas publication.

Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates is one of the most famous villains in horror cinema — or is he? After all, technically it was his mother Norma who murdered Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), Arbogast (Martin Balsam), and other offscreen victims. Or rather, it was the version of his mother who lived in Norman's head. Norman may have murdered his mother years ago, but her grip on him endured post-mortem.

How fitting that a character with multiple personalities was voiced by more than one person. "Psycho" conceals this twist by featuring "mother" only as a voice. We only hear her speak to Norman and the conversations always happen offscreen. For these moments, Hitchcock took three voices, those belonging to Paul Jasmin, Virginia Gregg, and Jeanette Nolan, and mixed them together into the voice of "Mother."

All three actors were uncredited, with their names nowhere to be seen in Paul Bass's legendary title sequence.

Hello, everyone! August 23rd is a quiet day for horror and sci-fi home media releases, but that doesn’t mean that this week’s offerings aren’t pretty darn great all the same. Scream Factory has put together a killer Collector’s Edition 4K release for Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers and Kino Lorber has put together reissues of their Blu-ray box sets for seasons one and two of The Outer Limits, which genre fans will definitely want to pick up.

Cheers!

Dog Soldiers: 4K Collector’s Edition

A group of soldiers dispatched to the Scottish Highlands on special training maneuvers face their biggest fears after they run into Captain Ryan – the only survivor of a Special Ops team that was literally torn to pieces. Ryan refuses to disclose his mission even though whoever attacked his men might be hungry for seconds. Help arrives in the form of a...

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By Doug Oswald

Oliver Reed, Candice Bergen and Gene Hackman are on opposing sides of “The Hunting Party,”a 1971 Western released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. Reed is Frank Calder who kidnaps school teacher Melissa Ruger (Bergen). The plan is to hold her for a ransom, but Frank also wants Melissa to teach him to read. Frank and his gang are pursued by Melissa’s sadistic husband Brandt Ruger (Hackman), a wealthy and powerful rancher. The film opens with Frank and his gang killing and butchering a cow from a heard of cattle and cutting out chunks of meat which they eat raw. The scene is disconcerting and is juxtaposed with a scene of Brandt forcing himself on Melissa, who is not enjoying his actions which border on rape and clearly involve the infliction of pain.

Frank’s gang are warned...

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Complete Series

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1974/ 1.33:1/ 1,020 Minutes

Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland

Directed by Gordon Hessler. Alexander Grasshoff

“I saw what I saw when I saw it.” That was the mantra of Wilbur Grey, an anonymous shipping clerk who made a habit of bumping into some pretty famous monsters. As with most cautionary tales, no one will believe Wilbur about his strange encounters until it’s too late. Carl Kolchak, a beat reporter for Chicago’s Independent News Service, is stuck in the same boat; it seems that toddlin’ town is not only the City of Big Shoulders but Big Monsters—and they have a habit of playing in Kolchak’s backyard.

The newsman made his debut in the early ’70s when producer Dan Curtis parlayed Jeff Rice’s The Kolchak Papers into two television movies, 1972’s The Night Stalker and 1973’s The Night Strangler.

Celebrating the release of his new memoir, multi-hyphenate Steven Van Zandt joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Elevator To The Gallows (1958) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Breathless (1960) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

The Fisher King (1991)

Tony Rome (1967)

Lady In Cement (1968)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

The Killer (1989)

True Romance (1993)

True Lies (1994)

Get Shorty (1995) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Point Blank (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Catch Us If You Can a.k.a. Sweet Memories (1965)

Double Trouble (1967)

Performance (1970) – Mark Goldblatt’s trailer commentary

The Driver (1978)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Tfh’s Don’t Knock The Rock piece

Help! (1965) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s review

Blue Collar (1978) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s...

Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Frank Albertson | Written by Joseph Stefano | Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

There’s no denying that when we look back on the horror film genre, one of the directors that we strongly associate with it is Alfred Hitchcock. Yes, there are multiple accounts of his problematic behaviour now but he did know how to make a solid horror experience and ones that stand the test of time. The most iconic of Hitchcock’s horrors is Psycho.

Now, Psycho is a horror classic and it has been brought again and again over the decades. It’s hard to imagine people don’t know what happens in Psycho but there are some details which are less famous than others. The premise is after stealing money from a client to start a life with her boyfriend, Marion Crane goes...

Häxan

Blu ray

Criterion

1922/ 1.33:1 / 105 min.

Starring Benjamin Christensen

Directed by Benjamin Christensen

Fine art joins forces with the dark arts in Häxan, an impeccably crafted docu-drama with the lurid kick of an exploitation film.

The influence of Benjamin Christensen’s silent horror show can be found far and wide, from movies as beloved as The Wizard of Oz and reviled as The Devils. Variety was certainly conflicted when Häxan was turned loose in 1922 – “Wonderful though this picture is, it is absolutely unfit for public exhibition.”

It’s not Intolerance but Häxan boasts both a sizable cast and elaborate settings (at the time it was the most expensive film ever produced in Denmark). Yet the credits suggest it was something of a one man show – Christensen wrote and narrated (his hypnotic glower is the first thing the audience sees) and he acts up a storm – he plays the devil who...

By Todd Garbarini

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Lieutenant Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is easily the horror cinema’s most pedestrian, laid back, and disinterested police detective in recent memory. In Lucio Fulci’s infamous slasher outing The New York Ripper (1982), a spate of brutal crimes involving young women being sliced up by a knife-wielding maniac who quacks like a duck lands right smack into Williams’s lap and he couldn’t be more bored by it. Mr. Hedley’s characterization of this by-the-book investigator was no doubt in the script, but his character just meanders through his scenes with such an aloof attitude that it’s amazing no one calls him out on it. The few times Williams does appear to spring to life are when the sex lives of his victims are revealed, which he reacts to with a judgmental shrug and smirk when he’s...

By Todd Garbarini

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) returns in The Night Strangler (1973), a follow-up TV-movie to the previous year’s unexpectedly successful The Night Stalker. Kolchak has been booted out of Las Vegas and settles in Seattle and teams up with his old boss Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) just as a string of suspicious murders begin to plague the metropolis. It comes to his attention that the victims, young female exotic dancers, are turning up dead after having had their necks crushed, drained of a small amount of blood, and most disturbingly all had instances of rotting flesh on their necks. The murders occur over a period of 18 days.

Through a researcher, Carl learns that a nearly identical series of killings took place in 1952 (21 years earlier) for the same duration, and then 21 years prior to that, all the way back to at least 1889. The police want Kolchak to cease his...

By Todd Garbarini

I was three years-old when John Llewellyn Moxey’s The Night Stalker premiered on the ABC Movie of the Week on January 11, 1972 and it took me nearly twenty years to catch up with it on a late night rerun on a local ABC-tv affiliate. Featuring the terrific late character actor Darren McGavin in the role of Carl Kolchak, an intrepid reporter who wants to print the truth regardless of what his editor says after finding himself in the midst of several murders, The Night Stalker, penned by the great Richard Matheson based on an unpublished novel, is a delightful slice of early 1970s spooky entertainment fare that is most definitely a product of a time that was populated by groovy music on the radio, TV dinners, and little kids getting tossed around in the backs of mammoth station wagons. The Las Vegas of 1971 when this movie was...

The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1972/73 / 1.33:1 / 74/90 Min. / Street Date October 2, 2018

Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland

Cinematography by Michel Hugo, Robert B. Hauser

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, Dan Curtis

In January of 1972 ABC broadcast the story of a middle-aged newsman hot on the trail of a vampire seemingly escaped from a 50’s horror comic. The man and the monster had one thing in common – by the 70’s they were both anachronisms, adrift in an era of hot pants and roller disco.

Carl Kolchak, the overbearing reporter played by crusty TV vet Darren McGavin, was not simply immune to current fashions – his steadfast belief in the supernatural ensured his outsider status throughout two films and 20 hour-long episodes broadcast between 1974 and 1975.

The first of those movies was The Night Stalker, a nocturnal thriller animated by the lurid neon of the Vegas strip where a string of showgirl...

Steve McQueen's iconic 1968 detective thriller "Bullitt" will be shown at select U.S. theaters on October 7 and 9 through Fathom Events. The screening will include special bonus content from the McQueen family and Ford, which provided the classic Mustang seen in the famous car chase scene. The marvelous supporting cast includes Robert Vaughn (in a BAFTA-nominated performance), Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Robert Duvall and Simon Oakland. Click here for tickets.

Now that October is officially underway, that means we have a big week of Blu-ray and DVD releases to get excited for, and there are some great genre-related titles coming out on Tuesday. Universal Studios Home Entertainment is unleashing both Tales from the Hood 2 and The First Purge on multiple formats, and for fans of action cinema, Death Race: Beyond Anarchy races home this week, too. Kino Lorber is giving both The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler the limited edition treatment, and for those who enjoy indie horror, Feral, Housewife,and Blood Fest are certainly all worth your time.

Other notable releases for October 2nd include Extremity, Molly, The Legend of Halloween Jack, The Evil Dead in 4K, Sleep No More, and West of Hell, with Rob Zombie’s Halloween getting a Steelbook release as well.

The First Purge

Blumhouse Productions welcomes you to the movement that began as...

Before the influential Kolchak: The Night Stalker series aired on ABC in the mid-’70s, Darren McGavin brought the titular investigative reporter to life for the first time in the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, which is getting a 4K restoration Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber this October, along with its 1973 sequel, The Night Strangler.

Announced on Facebook and Twitter, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler Blu-rays will be released on October 2nd in the Us. Each release will come with a new 4K restoration, a new audio commentary with film historian Tim Lucas, and other new special features.

Below, we have the announcements from Kino Lorber, as well as a look at the new cover art by Sean Phillips. Let us know if you'll be adding these releases to your home media collection, and in case you missed it, read Scott Drebit's It Came From the Tube column...

The month of March is closing out with a busy week of home entertainment releases, with two of the highlights this week being Scream Factory's stunning Steelbook editions for Assault on Precinct 13 and Prince of Darkness. Scream Factory is also keeping busy with their Collector’s Edition release of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and their Blu-ray release of IFC Midnight's I Remember You.

David Cronenberg’s Scanners is also making its way into the Criterion Collection this week, and The City of the Dead is the recipient of another limited edition release as well. Other notable titles coming home on March 27th include The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special, The Outer Limits Season 1, Hell’s Kitty, Star Time, The Executioners, Mercy Christmas, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Assault on Precinct 13 Limited Edition Steelbook (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Isolated inside a soon-to-be-closed L.A. police station,...

From Synthia.Ca, Sneak Peek the "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" episode "The Zombie", directed by Alexander Grasshoff, starring Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland, that aired September 20, 1974 on ABC:

"...investigative reporter 'Carl Kolchak' discovers key figures in the Chicago numbers racket are routinely urning up dead...

"...killed by someone, or something with incredible strength. 

"Kolchak soon learns that someone is using 'voodoo' to gain revenge on the criminals in the form of a ruthless  'zombie'.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" - 'The Zombie'...

From Synthia.Ca, Sneak Peek the "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" episode "The Vampire", directed by Don Weis, starring Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland, that aired October 4, 1974 on ABC:

"...when 'Kolchak' put a stake through the heart of vampire 'Janos Skorzeny' and all his victims were cremated, that was thought to have been the end of the line for the vampire.

"However, one victim, a call girl named 'Catherine Rawlins' was not found and after a road crew unknowingly freed her she begins a rampage of her own and eventually makes her way to Los Angeles. 

"Kolchak heads for L.A. to hunt her down and tries to stop her before the 'City of Angels' becomes the city of the undead..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" - 'The Vampire'...

Unsung actress Beverly Garland becomes TV’s first lady cop, in what’s claimed to be the first TV show filmed on the streets of New York City. This one-season wonder from 1957 has vintage locations, fairly tough-minded storylines and solid performances, from Bev and a vast gallery of stage and TV actors on the way up.

Decoy

(Policewoman Decoy)

TV Series

DVD

Film Chest Media

1957-’58 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame (TV) / 39 x 30 min. / Street Date May 30, 2017 / 19.98

Starring: Beverly Garland

Art Direction (some episodes): Mel Bourne

Original Music: Wladimir Selinsky

Written by Lillian Andrews, Nicholas E. Baehr, Cy Chermak, Jerome Coopersmith, Don Ettlinger, Frances Frankel, Steven Gardner, Abram S. Ginnes, Mel Goldberg, Saul Levitt, Leon Tokatyan

Produced by Arthur H. Singer, David Alexander, Stuart Rosenberg, Everett Rosenthal

Directed by Teddy Sills, Stuart Rosenberg, David Alexander, Michael Gordon, Don Medford, Arthur H. Singer, Marc Daniels

How did I experience...

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 complete films projected on 16mm film. The show is Tuesday March 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 Arthur (1981)

Dudley Moore’s (Oscar-nominated) greatest performance carries the heart-warming romantic comedy Arthur (1981) about a ridiculously wealthy man who does what he wants whenever he wishes, but lacks the happiness he craves. Arthur’s life looks up though when he meets waitress Linda (Liza Minnelli), but he’s already engaged to the rich Susan (Jill Eikenberry) so that’s a major problem since his rich granny threatens to cut him out of the will.

Sometimes it’s hard to put a fresh coat of paint on an old house. The colors can bleed through no matter how many new layers are added, giving the house a look of desperation from a block away. But sometimes the right paint is used, the restoration is done with love and affection, and the new owners actually care about their surroundings. Such is the case with The Night Stalker (1972), the ABC TV movie that took the vampire out of his crumbling castle and transported him to the seedier side of the modern day Las Vegas strip; and in doing so created one of the most endearingly reluctant monster hunters of all time, Carl Kolchak.

Originally airing as the ABC Movie of the Week on Tuesday, January 11th, 1972, The Night Stalker slayed the competition in the ratings, including CBS’s successful Hawaii Five-o/Cannon lineup. And I mean destroyed...

It’s a powerful plea against the death penalty, but also an Oscar bid for a fiery actress. And don’t forget the cool jazz music score. On top of this Robert Wise adds a formerly- taboo sequence, a realistic depiction of an execution in the gas chamber. Of such things were gritty, hard-hitting reputations made.

I Want to Live!

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Theodore Bikel, Virginia Vincent, Wesley Lau, Philip Coolidge.

Cinematography Lionel Lindon

Original Music Johnny Mandel

Written by Nelson Gidding, Don M. Mankiewicz

Produced by Walter Wanger (for Joseph Mankiewicz)

Directed by Robert Wise

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Robert Wise’s I Want to Live! from 1958 is a Can of Worms movie… start discussing its subject matter, and opinions immediately become a stumbling block. So I’ll...

It's ring-a-ding time, with producer-star Frank Sinatra and his cooperative director Gordon Douglas doing a variation on the hipster detective saga. The two Tony Rome pictures are lively and fun and chock-ful of borderline offensive content, like smash-zooms into women's rear ends. Tony Rome & Lady in Cement Blu-ray Twilight Time 1967, 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110 and 93 min. / Street Date September 8, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Richard Conte; Tony Rome: Jill St. John, Sue Lyon, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland, Lloyd Bochner, Robert J. Wilke, Virginia Vincent, Joan Shawlee, Lloyd Gough, Rocky Graziano, Elisabeth Fraser, Shecky Greene, Jeanne Cooper, Joe E. Ross, Tiffany Bolling, Deanna Lund. Lady in Cement: Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Paul Mungar, Richard Deacon, Joe E. Lewis, Bunny Yeager. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Original Music Billy May, Hugo Montenegro; song by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra Written by Richard L. Breen...

When I was a kid, I used to love a scary movie. I remember catching the original The Haunting (1963) one night on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie when I was home alone. Before it was over, I had every light in the house on. When my mother got home she was screaming she’d been able to see the house glowing from two blocks away. The only thing screaming louder than her was the electricity meter.

That was something of an accomplishment, scaring me like that. Oh, it’s not that I was hard to scare (I still don’t like going down into a dark cellar). But, in those days, the movies didn’t have much to scare you with. Back as far as the 50s, you might find your odd dismemberment and impaling, even an occasional decapitation, but, generally, the rule of the day was restraint. Even those rare dismemberments,...

What would seem the perfect project for tough-guy director Robert Aldrich still commands a high reputation with some. Ambitious top-dog hobo Lee Marvin squares off against Ernest Borgnine's nearly demonic railroad conductor who routinely murders bums that dare to hitch a ride. The mayhem culminates in a battle on a moving flat car, between Ernie's log chain and Lee's fire ax. But the poetic dialogue and allegorical pretension may be more lethal. Emperor of the North Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Ship Date September 8, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Charles Tyner, Malcolm Atterbury, Simon Oakland, Harry Caesar, Hal Baylor, Matt Clark, Elisha Cook Jr., Joe Di Reda, Liam Dunn, Diane Dye, Robert Foulk, Sid Haig, Vic Tayback, Dave Willock, Lance Henricksen. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Art Direction Jack Martin Smith Film Editor Michael Luciano Original Music Frank De Vol...

Techno-thriller fans have been waiting a long time for a good disc of action ace John Sturges' sci-fi espionage suspenser. George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis and Dana Andrews must stop a madman who has snatched a full battery of deadly bio-warfare viruses from a super-secret government lab. Each flask can wipe out an entire city, and one of them will kill every living thing on the planet. The Satan Bug Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 114 min. / Street Date September 22, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, John Larkin, Richard Bull, Frank Sutton, Edward Asner, Simon Oakland, John Anderson, James Hong, Hari Rhodes, Henry Beckman, Harry Lauter, Tol Avery, Russ Bender, James Doohan, Harold Gould, Carey Loftin. Cinematography Robert Surtees Film Editor Ferris Webster Original Music Jerry Goldsmith Written by Edward Anhalt, James Clavell from the novel by Ian Stuart (Alistair MacLean...

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics' choices (photo: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature show us that life is less horrific if you don't hold grudges) See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association's Scariest Movies Ever Made. Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics's Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in October 2006. (See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, and Mary Philbin among the "Top Ten Scream Queens.") 1. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock; with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam. 2. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow (and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge). 3. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter; with Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran. 4. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott; with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt. 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero; with Marilyn Eastman,...

I don't know about you guys, but I am beyond stoked for the return of 'Bates Motel' on A&E, which kicks off its 2nd Season on March 3rd. As a die-hard Psycho fanatic (hell, I made a documentary about the entire original franchise), the funnest part of the show for me has been seeing what direction they take this new version of the story. By setting it in modern day and changing a few key aspects from the original movie, they've already created a unique new mythology and universe for these characters to flourish in. And because of that, anything goes! We're in new territory from this point on.

So while I have no true insight into what the writers have planned for this new season, I thought it'd be fun to hypothetically toss out the names of a few characters we've gotten to know from the...

Natalie Wood: Hot Hollywood star in the ’60s - TCM schedule on August 18, 2013 See previous post: “Natalie Wood Movies: From loving Warren Beatty to stripping like Gypsy Rose Lee.” 3:00 Am The Star (1952). Director: Stuart Heisler. Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watson, June Travis, Paul Frees, Robert Warrick, Barbara Lawrence, Fay Baker, Herb Vigran, Marie Blake, Sam Harris, Marcia Mae Jones. Bw-90 mins. 4:30 Am A Cry In The Night (1956). Director: Frank Tuttle. Cast: Edmond O’Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood. Bw-75 mins. 6:00 Am West Side Story (1961). Director: Robert Wise. Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente, David Winters, Eliot Feld, John Bert Michaels, David Bean, Robert Banas, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Harvey Evans aka Harvey Hohnecker, Tommy Abbott, Susan Oakes, Gina Trikonis, Carole D’Andrea, Jose De Vega, Jay Norman,...

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) was the best investigative reporter you’ve never heard of. The reason for his anonymity? His exclusive accounts of mass murders and serial killings always wound up being suppressed by the authorities or shelved by his disbelieving editor, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). He had the scoops, they just never made it to print. Kolchak was the textbook example of the detective-journalist, right down to his crumpled seersucker suit and tape recorder. He … Continue reading →...

Ang Lee's new film looks stunning - it's just in other aspects that his latest falls down, and not for the first time

Colour is rearing its pretty little head in all kinds of ways this holiday season. On the sober, monochromatic end of the scale we have Lincoln, whose palette rarely ventures beyond blues, blacks and wood tones, and Skyfall, whose second half lingers in my mind only as a mudslide of undifferentiated browns. Over on Multicoloured Mountain, however, the film-makers are simply drunk on colour, quite pie-eyed: Cloud Atlas floated through recently, like a dizzying succession of 70s prog-rock album covers brought to life – and even that seemed somehow sedate after the Wachowskis' previous flop, Speed Racer, whose candy colours will give you toothache. Soon we'll have The Hobbit, shot by Peter Jackson at a "controversial" 48 frames per second, everything in pin-sharp focus with colours burning deep into the greedy,...

When I was a kid, I used to love a scary movie. I remember catching the original The Haunting (1963) one night on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie when I was home alone. Before it was over, I had every light in the house on. When my mother got home she was screaming she’d been able to see the house glowing from two blocks away. The only thing screaming louder than her was the electricity meter.

That was something of an accomplishment, scaring me like that. Oh, it’s not that I was hard to scare (I still don’t like going down into a dark cellar). But, in those days, the movies didn’t have much to scare you with. Back as far as the 50s, you might find your odd dismemberment and impaling, even an occasional decapitation, but, generally, the rule of the day was restraint. Even those rare dismemberments,...

I thought you might like the attached picture of a classic drive-in movie marquee from the early 60s.  The beautiful lady is actress Jan Shepard, posing with her classic 50s sports car.  As best as I've ever been able to tell, Third of a Man appears to be a lost film.  Neither Jan Shepard nor James Drury have any idea what happened to the film, and apparently the now-deceased director had no idea either.

Martin Sheffield

Retro responds: Thanks so much, Martin.....great photo. It was obviously taken at the drive-in located in Van Nuys, California in 1962. Our research shows that Third of a Man is indeed a little-known film, created for the bottom of double-bills. However, it was released by a major studio, United Artists and afforded a rare starring role for the great character actor Simon Oakland, which makes us want to see it even more. ...

Chicago – If you are looking for a sumptuous present for the film musical admirer in your life, look no further than the Blu-ray 50th Anniversary package of “West Side Story.” The classic Broadway-to-screen adaptation won 10 Oscars, including the coveted Best Picture.

Blu-ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

“West Side Story” is one of the more stunning musical theater achievements in Broadway history, with a creative dream team of composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director/choreographer Jerome Robbins. The film version honors the source material, with Robert Wise sharing a director credit with Robbins (it was the first co-director Oscar win in history). Combining the mind-blowing score, witty prose lyrics and dance talent of the one-of-a-kind cast, “West Side Story” changed the energy of what a musical could be.

Basically a retelling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the story substitutes New York City street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, for the warring Capulets and Montagues.

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #60): “The Rip Van Winkle Caper” (airdate 4/21/61) The Plot: Thieves in the future use suspended animation to elude capture. Their plan goes about as well as could be expected. The Goods: A large semi truck and a sedan pull up to a remote, mountainous area in the desert, and four men exit. They’ve pulled off a fantastic train heist and gotten away with millions in gold bricks. Farwell (Oscar Beregi), the man behind the plan, knows that the theft was the easy part compared to getting away with it, but his plan to avoid capture is simple. The four of them will lock themselves in a cave with the gold and a truck, and...

Eyes. Drains. Stuffed birds. Windshield wipers. $40,000. Marion Crane. The Bates Motel. Norman Bates. Mrs. Bates. “She isn’t quite herself today.” A toilet. A study. A stutter. A private trap. A peephole. A kitchen knife. Skree skree skree skree! “Mother, oh God — blood, Mother, blood!” A car. A swamp. The Bates house. A detective. A crane shot. A creased bed. A sister. A boyfriend. A detective. An attic. A cellar. A rocking chair. A lightbulb. A wig. Skree skree skree skree! A psychiatrist. An asylum. A fly. A smile of the damned…. Half a century ago today, on June 16, 1960, Alfred Hitchcock...

This great character played important roles in Psycho, The Sand Pebbles and Bullitt. His name: Simon Oakland

All movie fans have suffered the frustration of recognizing a familiar character actor but not being able to come up with his or her name. Now there is a web site that provides thumbnail photos of these great thespians, identifies them and provides a link to their IMDb film credits. Click here to view...

London - The Mutant Chronicles unleashes cannibalistic humanoids into a steam punk World War I world. The movie features Thomas Jane (Hung), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Devon Aoki (Sin City), Sean Pertwee (Doomsday) and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) as the only defense against these ungodly creatures in the CGI enhanced environment. Can Aoki cut them all down with her cool sword?

Director Simon Hunter took nearly two years to adapt the role playing game into a cinematic universe. You can get great sense of what he undertook for his first major motion picture on the Two-disc Collector’s Edition DVD and the Blu-ray recently released by Magnolia Home Entertainment. I had a chance to swap questions via email with Hunter. Here’s the Q&A action:

Joe Corey: Have you played the game?

Simon Hunter: Yes I have played the game and enjoyed it very much - the...

Release date: Dec. 12

Dean Martin stars in a pair of romantic farces, both set in New York City and using some locations there, on the Sony Home Entertainment Dean Martin Double Feature release "Who Was That Lady?"/"How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life)" (retail $19.94).

As a matter of coincidence, both films feature "famous couple" co-stars, too. On both films, the monophonic sound is smooth and there are optional English subtitles. Both presentations are letterboxed with an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. Sony has inadvertently left out a menu option that lets you move from one movie to the other without rejecting and restarting the disc, but otherwise, the pairing is fairly enjoyable.

In "Who Was That Lady?," Tony Curtis is a Columbia professor who gets caught fooling around by his wife, played by Janet Leigh. Martin's character is his best friend and they cook up a story, with props, claiming that Curtis' character was "working undercover for the FBI."

She buys into it, only to have some real spies and FBI agents get mixed up with their activities. It takes the 114-minute feature a little while to get all of its pieces in place, but there are some reasonably funny moments and the cast is very appealing. Simon Oakland and Larry Storch, for example, turn up as Russian spies. The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1. The black-and-white image is reasonably solid, with well-defined contrasts.

Anne Jackson plays the mistress of Eli Wallach's character in "How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life)," from 1967, and Martin's character is the best friend again, mistaking Stella Stevens' character for Jackson and then mucking up the other relationship because Stevens' character flirts with him.

Again, the confusions that develop in the 102-minute feature are very amusing and very sweet, and the performers are adept and enjoyable. The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1. The color transfer looks super, with fresh hues and accurate fleshtones.

Both films, incidentally, require that the viewer sympathize with, or at least not entirely reject, men who are acting stupidly, and both films succeed in no small part because Martin is able to smooth over the boorishness of his character's actions in the same manner that his velvety vocals could even out an erratic melody.

The complete database of Doug Pratt's DVD-video reviews is available at http://www.dvdlaser.com. A sample copy of the DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter can be obtained by calling (516) 594-9304.