News

Lelia Goldoni, who was cast in the lead role for John Cassavette’s race-centered film “Shadows,” died over the weekend at the age of 86.

The actress died on Saturday at the Actors Fund Home in Engelwood, New Jersey, Goldoni’s friend, Jd Sobol, told TheWrap on Thursday.

The New York City native was born on Oct. 1, 1936, and got her start in the entertainment business during the 1940s, with one of her first roles being a cameo in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “House of Strangers” in 1949. That same year she also had a role in John Huston’s “We Were Strangers.”

Martin Scorsese later brought Goldoni on to star as a friend of Ellen Burnstyn’s character in his 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Her resume also included performing in the original “The Italian Job” (1969), John Schlesinger’s “The Day of the Locust” (1975) and Robert Mulligan’s “Bloodbrothers.”

Goldoni, who...

Rock Hudson and Donna Reed star in a kidnapping-vengeance-pursuit western filmed in large part in gorgeous Sedona, Arizona, in 3-D and (originally) Technicolor. It’s another 3-D treasure from the 1950s boom years. The trailer is in 3-D too.

Gun Fury 3-D

3-D Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1953 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 82 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, Donna Reed, Phil Carey, Roberta Haynes, Leo Gordon, Lee Marvin, Neville Brand.

Cinematography: Lester WhiteMusical Director (Stock Music): Mischa Bakaleinikoff

Written by Irving Wallace, Roy Huggins

Produced by Lewis Rachmil

Directed by Raoul Walsh

I have a new theory for why the 1950s 3-D craze only lasted about 2.5 years: they couldn’t find any more one-eyed directors to make them.

Gun Fury arrived at the end of 1953, in the thick of what would be called the ‘fad’ of 3-D. Columbia Pictures jumped into ‘depth pictures’ as if it were a gimmick,...

It’s Obi-Wan versus Fidel! Well, not really. The pre-Bond espionage genre lights up with cool intrigues and comic absurdities, as a Brit vacuum salesman in Havana is recruited to spy for Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The filmmakers and stars are all top caliber, and the location is legendary: Castro’s Cuba, immediately after the revolution.

Our Man in Havana

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1959 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noël Coward, Ralph Richardson, Jo Morrow, Gregoire Aslan.

Cinematography: Oswald Morris

Music Score: Frank and Laurence Deniz

Art Direction: John Box

Film Editor: Bert Bates

Written by Graham Greene from his novel

Produced and Directed by Carol Reed

One of the best pre-James Bond spy pictures is this brilliant, yet lumpy adventure with an historically unique setting — it was filmed in Castro’s Cuba,...

Alan Alda has penned a touching remembrance of his late friend and costar Wayne Rogers just days after his death. Rogers, best known for his role as Trapper John on the TV adaptation of M.A.S.H., died last week at the age of 82. Roger's former publicist confirmed that the actor died of complications from pneumonia. Alda, 79, published a heartfelt tribute to Rogers in The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, in which he recalled the first time he met Rogers and what it was like working with the actor on the iconic CBS show. "Wayne Rogers and I had never...

A version of this story first appeared in the Jan. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Wayne Rogers and I had never met before the day we began rehearsing for M*A*S*H. We were strangers, but we both knew we somehow had to find a relationship like the one the characters we played had. We went out to dinner that night and over a long meal and a bottle of wine, we promised each other that we would give the show everything we had. We both thought it could be more than

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John Huston sets the bar for director-driven quality filmmaking of the early 1970s. Stacy Keach is a punchy boxing bum who teams up with the ambitious newcomer Jeff Bridges; the glowing discovery is the amazing Susan Tyrell, film history's most convincingly caustic floozy-alcoholic, bar none. Her voice can peel paint, but we love her dearly. Fat City Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date September 8, 2015 / available through the Twilight Time Movies / 20.95 Starring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark, Nicholas Colasanto, Art Aragon, Curtis Cokes, Sixto Rodriguez Cinematography Conrad L. Hall Production Designer Richard Sylbert Film Editor Walter Thompson Original Music Kris Kristofferson, Marvin Hamlisch (supervisor) Written by Leonard Gardner from his novel <Produced by John Huston, Ray Stark Directed by John Huston

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This rewarding show is a fine opportunity to catch up on two great talents, John Huston and Stacy Keach.

Cary Grant films on TCM: Gender-bending 'I Was a Male War Bride' (photo: Cary Grant not gay at all in 'I Was a Male War Bride') More Cary Grant films will be shown tonight, as Turner Classic Movies continues with its Star of the Month presentations. On TCM right now is the World War II action-drama Destination Tokyo (1943), in which Grant finds himself aboard a U.S. submarine, alongside John Garfield, Dane Clark, Robert Hutton, and Tom Tully, among others. The directorial debut of screenwriter Delmer Daves (The Petrified Forest, Love Affair) -- who, in the following decade, would direct a series of classy Westerns, e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree -- Destination Tokyo is pure flag-waving propaganda, plodding its way through the dangerous waters of Hollywood war-movie stereotypes and speechifying banalities. The film's key point of interest, in fact, is Grant himself -- not because he's any good,...

John Garfield on TCM: Humoresque, Four Daughters, We Were Strangers Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Four Daughters (1938) A small-town family's peaceful life is shattered when one daughter falls for a rebellious musician. Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Priscilla Lane, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield. Bw-90 mins. 7:45 Am Blackwell's Island (1939) A reporter gets himself sent to prison to expose a mobster. Dir: William McGann. Cast: John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell. Bw-71 mins. 9:00 Am They Made Me A Criminal (1939) A young boxer flees to farming country when he thinks he's killed an opponent in the ring. Dir: Busby Berkeley. Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson. Bw-92 mins. 10:45 Am Dangerously They Live (1942) A doctor tries to rescue a young innocent from Nazi agents. Dir: Robert Florey. Cast: John Garfield, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey. Bw-77 mins. 12:15 Pm Pride Of The Marines (1945) A blinded...

John Garfield, Joan Crawford, Humoresque John Garfield is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" star on Friday, August 5. TCM will be presenting twelve John Garfield movies, in addition to the 2003 documentary The John Garfield Story. There will be no TCM premieres — but don't blame TCM for that. Garfield was a Warner Bros. star and Warners' movies belong to the Time Warner library; in other words, his films are always available. In fact, I believe the only John Garfield movie that has never been shown on TCM is 20th Century Fox's 1950 drama Under My Skin. [John Garfield Movie Schedule.] Much like Warners' James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Errol Flynn, Garfield was a tough guy at a tough studio. Come to think of it, even Warners' women were tough: Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Glenda Farrell, and, off screen, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie (both of...

FamousMonsters.com is pleased and honored to re-present Steve Vertlieb’s touching tribute to our dear departed Forrest J Ackerman. We’re also very happy to report that Steve’s story is a finalist in this year’s Rondo Awards! Please visit the official Rondo Awards site for the chance to cast your ballot for this and many other outstanding nominees. Also, be sure to check out The Thunder Child, where Steve’s story originally ran.

The Most “Famous Monster” Of Them All

A Personal Remembrance of Forrest J Ackerman

by Steve Vertlieb

In a child-like land of dreams and dragons dwelt a Pied Piper of imagination, a Santa Claus of fantasy and horror, who lived in the mythical kingdom of Horrorweird, Karloffornia. His name was Forrest J Ackerman but, to his friends and colleagues, he was simply “Forry.”

A generation of wide- eyed children grew up under the spell...