News

Bob Yerkes, the acrobatic stunt performer who slid down a clock tower cable for Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future and hung around the Statue of Liberty under repair for Fred Ward in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, has died. He was 92.

Yerkes died Tuesday of natural causes in Northridge, Darlene Ava Williams, a stunt performer and one of his many mentees, announced.

The amiable Yerkes, who started out in the circus and was a skilled trapeze aerialist and tightrope walker, also plummeted from a helicopter through a roof in Breakout (1975), starring Charles Bronson.

“I was getting ready for the stunt and the guy said, ‘Break a Leg!,” and I broke them both,” he recalled in a 2017 interview. He said he also broke legs while working on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Her Alibi (1989), but, in a career that spanned eight decades, that was the extent of his serious injuries.

Amber Midthunder battled the iconic Predator in the film Prey last year, and now Deadline reports that she is set to star in a mysterious horror project called Opus for A24. Also in the cast are Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), John Malkovich (Billions), Stephanie Suganami (Power Book II: Ghost), Young Mazino (Beef), Tatanka Means (Killers of the Flower Moon), and The White Lotus Emmy winner Murray Bartlett. Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets) is also in talks to join the cast.

The feature debut of writer/director Mark Anthony Green, Opus is being kept shrouded in secrecy, but Deadline did hear the story centers on an iconic pop star’s return following his decades-long disappearance.

A24 is producing and financing the film, and will be handling its global distribution. Opus is being produced by Collin Creighton and Brad Weston of Makeready, Poppy Hanks and Jelani Johnson of Macro Film Studios, and Josh Bachove.

Exclusive: Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) and John Malkovich (Billions) are set to star in Opus, a horror pic marking the first feature of writer-director Mark Anthony Green, which will be financed and produced by A24.

Additional cast set for the film, which has received an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA to continue production, includes The White Lotus Emmy winner Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder (Prey), Stephanie Suganami (Power Book II: Ghost), Emmy nominee Young Mazino (Beef), and Tatanka Means (Killers of the Flower Moon). Then, there’s Juliette Lewis, the Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner currently starring on Showtime’s Yellowjackets, who is in talks for a role, as well.

While specifics as to its plot are under wraps, the film to be released globally by A24 is said to center on an iconic pop star’s return following his decades-long disappearance. Producers will include Collin Creighton and Brad Weston for Makeready,...

A husband and father suddenly disappears under shady circumstances, leaving behind cryptic notes and a bundle of cash, as The Last Thing He Told Me gets underway. His new wife and high school-age daughter are then left to track down the truth about the man they thought they knew. In a moment, we’ll want to know what you thought about the premiere of Apple TV+’s mystery drama (based on Laura Dave’s novel of the same name). But first, our quick recap:

Jennifer Garner (Alias) plays Hannah Hall, a wood turner living in Sausalito with her husband of about a year,...

While promoting the summer film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, actor Thomas Middleditch played the part of reporter for Interview magazine to ask questions of the film's screenwriter Zach Shields. The juiciest bit from their chat became the headline: "Godzilla's Zach Shields and Thomas Middleditch Bonded at an Adult Swingers Club." 

The story, published in July, detailed what Shields referred to as "a pretty good adventure," one that saw Shields and girlfriend Kelli accompany Middleditch and his wife Mollie to an Atlanta club called Trapeze for a double date (of sorts). "The first night ...

Four out of five psychologists agree that something rotten is alive and well between the sawdust and the high wire in the delirious Circus of Horrors. Lame big-top horror pix are common enough, but this fiendishly entertaining delight would inspire the voyeur-sadist in MisterRogers. Anton Diffring is the steely-eyed medical maniac with a mission to populate an insane circus exclusively with cosmetically-enhanced prostitutes and criminals. And I won’t turn that into a White House joke.

Circus of Horrors

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1960 / Color / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 88/92m. / Phantom of the Circus / Street Date September 10, 2019 / 29.95

Starring: Anton Diffring, Jane Hylton, Kenneth Griffith, Erika Remberg, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Monlaur, Donald Pleasence, Colette Wilde, Vanda Hudson, Yvonne Romain, John Merivale, Carla Challoner.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Film Editor: Reginald Mills

Makeup: Trevor Crole-Rees

Art Direction: Jack Shampan

Original Music: Muir Mathieson, Franz Reizenstein

Written by George Baxt

Produced by Leslie Parkyn, Julian Wintle

Directed...

Burt Lancaster in Frank and Eleanor Perry's The Swimmer (1968), based upon the John Cheever short story. Courtesy of Film Forum.For decades, film critics and academics interested in the classical Hollywood cinema have been dutifully studying the canonized big stars—Cary Grant, Garbo, the Hepburns, Bogart and Bacall, Dietrich and Crawford and Monroe—while downplaying one of the most highly varied and fascinating careers of any studio actor: Burt Lancaster. Now, New York’s Film Forum is giving us a great excuse to revisit this actor’s towering body of work—emphasis on “body.” From big-name classics like Louis Malle’s Atlantic City (1980) and John Frankenheimer’s Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) to little-known masterpieces like Carol Reed’s Trapeze (1956) and Luchino Visconti’s late decadent chamber drama Conversation Piece (1974), a meaty, healthy range of Burt is on display for the next four weeks, between July 19 to August 15.Serious film talk...

Above: Italian 4-fogli for Birdman of Alcatraz. Artist: Renato Casaro.Starting today with a week-long run of Robert Siodmak’s The Killers, New York’s Film Forum is hosting a 4-week, 37-film retrospective of one of the great he-men of Hollywood. With his square jaw, gymnast’s physique, and megawatt grin, Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) must have been a boon to movie poster artists and over the years he was drawn or painted by many great affichistes. I could have curated a post on just the Italian renditions of Lancaster alone: over the years he was painted by Ercole Brini, Anselmo Ballester, Luigi Martinati, Renato Casaro, Averardo Ciriello, and many more. To mark the retrospective I have selected 50 of my favorite illustrated images of the indelible star, from his brooding film noir youth (though he was actually 33 when he made his debut in The Killers), through his serious thespian mid-period to his...

The Haddad family’s role as one of the founders of today’s global film business began shortly after the birth of cinema.

Empire Intl. was launched 100 years ago when a young pharmacist named Georges Haddad began projecting silent shorts in Beirut cafes, and in 1919 opened the city’s first movie theater, which he called the Cosmograph.

By 1935, in partnership with entrepreneur Nicolas Cattan, Haddad had built 36 cinemas across a swathe of the Middle East, “the smallest of which had 1,000 seats,” recalls his son Mario Haddad Sr. Their flagship venue was the Empire Cinema on

Beirut’s trendy Rue Gouraud, where Ernst Lubitsch’s first talkie, “The Love Parade,” premiered locally in 1931. With 1,200 seats and two balconies, it was among the most luxurious hardtops in the Arab world.

Then, in 1956, having become the leading film company in the region, the Cattan and Haddad partnership was dissolved after Georges’ death and...

Exclusive: In competitive bidding, Netflix and Sugar23 landed feature rights to Erica Katz’s upcoming book The Boys’ Club. Sugar23’s Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta will develop a film based on a book that will be published by the HarperCollins imprint Harper in summer 2020.

The Boys’ Club follows first-year female associate Alex Vogel as she navigates her way through a top Manhattan law firm. She quickly becomes seduced by the allure of NYC high-life that is offered by big paychecks and elite status, while having to confront the limitation of male privilege that is still very much alive in 2019. The novel will be published in the UK by the Orion/Hachette imprint Trapeze.

Sugar23, hatched by Spotlight producer Sugar, has its first-look feature deal at Netflix, where he is producing The Laundromat, the Panama Papers exposé drama that Steven Soderbergh is directing with a cast that includes Gary Oldman,...

Top stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida earn their keep in Carol Reed’s powerful tale of ambition and excellence performing forty feet above a circus arena. The best circus movie ever is also among Reed’s most exciting, best directed movies, a solid show all around.

Trapeze

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez, Sidney James, Johnny Puleo.

Cinematography: Robert Krasker

Costume Design: Veniero Colasanti

Editorial Supervisor: Bert Batt

Production Design: Rino Mondelli

Dialogue Coach: Harriet White Medin

Original Music: Malcolm Arnold

Written by James R. Webb & Liam O’Brien from a novel by Max Catto

Produced by James Hill, Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster

Directed by Carol Reed

For a long time it seemed that Carol Reed had been canonized for The Third Man, Odd Man Out and...

3-D in CinemaScope? That seems like a strange combination, but this obscure treasure hunt adventure with Joanne Dru and Mark Stevens is indeed billed as being filmed in the ‘Miracle of Stereo-Vision,’ five years after the demise of Hollywood’s first fling with ‘depthies.’ Kino and the 3-D Film Archives extras include two vintage 3-D shorts, one of them never screened in 3-D.

September Storm

3-D Blu-ray

Kino Classics

1960 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date March 28, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95

Starring: Joanne Dru, Mark Stevens, Robert Strauss Asher Dann, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Véra Valmont..

Cinematography: Lamar Boren, Jorge Stahl Jr.

Film Editor: Alberto Valenzuela

Art Direction: Boris Leven

Underwater director: Paul Stader

Original Music: Edward L. Alperson Jr., Raoul Kraushaar

Written by W.R. Burnett from a story by Steve Fisher

Produced by Edward L. Alperson

Directed by Byron Haskin

The 3-D Film Archive has been an amazing resource for the fascinating depth format,...

For Dennis Cozzalio, "since 2010 there has been one film festival I have attended that I can call home, a place which has felt like just that for going on seven years now—the annual TCM Classic Film Festival." We're rounding up previews of this year's edition, the seventh, running from today through Sunday. Plus, interviews with Carl Reiner, whose Steve Martin-starring comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid will be screening. Faye Dunaway will be on hand for a presentation of Network. And Gina Lollobrigida will be making a rare public appearance as the festival presents Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell and Trapeze. » - David Hudson...

For Dennis Cozzalio, "since 2010 there has been one film festival I have attended that I can call home, a place which has felt like just that for going on seven years now—the annual TCM Classic Film Festival." We're rounding up previews of this year's edition, the seventh, running from today through Sunday. Plus, interviews with Carl Reiner, whose Steve Martin-starring comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid will be screening. Faye Dunaway will be on hand for a presentation of Network. And Gina Lollobrigida will be making a rare public appearance as the festival presents Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell and Trapeze. » - David Hudson...

This fascinating look at the world of the flying trapeze centers on one of the greatest acts in circus history, The Flying Gaonas. First performing on a trampoline, the Gaonas went on to become a star attraction for the best circuses in the world, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

"The Flight Fantastic" opens April 1st a the Cinema Village in New York.

Having left the center ring, we see The Flying Gaonoas pass the torch through teaching and coaching to new generations. When Tito decided to retire from the circus he did not retire from the trapeze and set up programs at Club Med and Camp Care for children with cancer. When the next big circus act, the Vasquez Family, succeeded theirs, Tito’s comment about them was “I’m just glad they’re Mexican like us”.

You will love the circus spirit of this documentary. And the love that went into creating it is a charisma to the trapeze artists themselves.

Sports Illustrated has said, "Tito Gaona may be the finest athlete in the world...whenever circus people gather to speak of the best acrobats of all time he will be mentioned; some will even say that Tito Gaona was the best ever."

Director Tom Moore, a long-time Broadway Director (and trapeze flyer), brings their story to life through interviews with family members and colorful archival material. The Gaonas light up the screen with their blazing charisma, a quality that is undiminished in their "second act".

Your career on Broadway and in television is so vast and varied, what inspired you to make this documentary?

I feel I’ve been very fortunate in my career and life in that I’ve had an opportunity to do so many things. A good many successful, and even more a great experience. But like many people in the arts I’m always looking for a new adventure and a new way of work.

Mike Nichols was once asked, what do you enjoy doing most plays or films, and he replied “Whatever I haven’t done last.” Well, documentary was a form I had never had a chance to direct, and because of my passion for the trapeze, and my passion for film, it allowed me to combine my skills to tell a story I felt had to be told.

Do your past productions on B’way and in TV share anything in common with “Flight Fantastic”?

First and foremost, all of my productions whether on B’way or TV or film hopefully tell an interesting and intriguing story with compelling characters, with a lot of excitement and drama thrown in for good measure. As a director, there is also probably a certain style and sense of theatrics that hopefully helps tell the story and progress the plot.

You say you also work out on the trapeze? How did that come about?

What led to trapeze also led to making this documentary. In retrospect, it all seems like a through line from the first time I took hold of the trapeze bar and “flew,” to making this film called “The Flight Fantastic.”

I had been entranced as a child with the circus, but more particularly the flying trapeze and I no doubt fantasized about being a trapeze star. As my life and career went on of course, that faded into childhood and the past. But one year, feeling I had been doing too much of the same thing for way too long, I began looking for a new adventure. Well, I discovered the Flying Trapeze, and a childhood memory was brought to life when I had a chance to learn to “fly” with Richie Gaona at the Gaona Trapeze Workshop.

As Sam Keene, a wonderful writer on the trapeze world said. “Sometimes a childhood fantasy that you never dared to dream, holds the key to renewal.” And that is exactly what it did for me. It gave me a new sense of exhilaration which led to better work and better life. As I continued to practice it as a sport, I also got to know Richie and the whole Gaona family. These were some of the greatest athletes who ever lived, and absolutely one of the “greatest flying acts in the history of the circus,” and outside the circus world,, most no longer knew who they were. I felt I had the skills to right that wrong, and the result is “The Flight Fantastic.”

What other involvements do you have with the Gaona family?

The Gaona famly is quite the amazing group of individuals, charismatic and compelling, and I have gotten to know them deeply over the years, and have become almost a surrogate, though very wasp Gaona. I have a photo where Richie photoshopped me, wearing a matching trapeze robe, into one of their iconic press photos, and it looks like Victor, the patriarch is looking at me saying something like “Who let the blonde guy in???”

I’m very fond of all of them, and all of them, by the way, are very unique and different from each other, but the one I love the most was the matriarch Teresa (Mama Terre) Gaona. Had she been alive, she would have been one of the stars of this film. I am quite sure the warmth of this family came directly from her care. People were drawn to her everywhere, and being around her made for a “happy” time. There were four children that became performers on the trampoline and trapeze, but there are 3 others that had different careers altogether. One of the narrators of this film is Jose, often called “The Walking Gaona.”

Who do you see as your audience?

We knew that the film would have a core audience of those who love the circus and the aerial arts (and it has brought many to the film) but Tff seems to reach many others because of the warmth of the family, the closeness of the family, and the family’s ability to work together to build something (as Paul Binder, founder of the Big Apple Circus says) “magnificent.” It seems to reach old and young alike for many different reasons. The ringmaster at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus used to say: “Ladies and Gentlemen, and Children of All Ages…..”

Something happens when an audience sees this film in a theatre. (And this was a surprise to me when I first saw it on a big screen). It seems to unite them in a shared sense of hope and joy. It seems to rejuvenate and inspire. At all of our screenings in many different places, the reactions have been the same and it has been very exciting.

Tell us about Camp Care

Camp Care (a camp for children coping with cancer) is located on Lake Lure in North Carolina, and it was actually our first shoot for the documentary. It was knowing that Richie and Armando Gaona were going there to coach, teach, and support, that got me off of the theoretical idea and into the practical of making the movie. Within a couple of days, I had gotten our equipment, and a few people together to help, and off we went.

I can safely say that I don’t think I have ever been in a more inspirational, supportive and caring environment. Many of these kids had just gotten out of a hospital room to come to camp which is held for one week every year, and their joy in being there was palpable. That they never complained, and that they worked through fear to go up on that trapeze to achieve their goal was impressive at every turn. And it wasn’t just the kids, as I was also very impressed with the counselors, many who arranged their year of study or work just to be available at Camp Care for these children, some of whom had been coming to the camp for years. I have so much film of this camp, as I just couldn’t stop filming, as around every corner and every group of children, there was something remarkable. I could have stopped right there and made a documentary about this magical place alone. I look forward to going back there again some day as I remember it and everyone there with great fondness.

In the days when the circus was one of the most important events of the year and when audiences went to see their favorite performers each and every season, The Flying Gaonas were Big Top royalty. Often called the "First Family of the Air", The Flying Gaonas are a 4th generation Mexican circus family. They began their careers on the trampoline, but quickly took to the air.

From the beginning, Tito Gaona always knew he wanted to be a trapeze artist and used to fly with any trapeze act that came to the circus, starting at the age of 10. And after seeing the Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis movie “Trapeze”, Tito convinced his father, Victor - a legend in his own right- and siblings to develop a trapeze act, making their debut at the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers circus. It took only a couple of years for them to become one of great acts of the circus, and in their time they were the headliners in circuses around the world. Most notably, they performed for 17 years with Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey, The Big Apple and the legendary European circuses. For this, The Flying Gaonas won the circus world's highest award, The Golden Clown, at the international circus festival at Monte Carlo - the Oscars of the circus world.

The charismatic and very handsome Tito was the center of the act and one of the foremost innovators in the world of trapeze. People would come again and again to see him perform, and often he would have arenas of 40,000 people chanting and clapping: “Tito, Tito, Tito! It is said that Tito communicated with an audience as if he or she was a very personal friend, and he could mesmerize 25,000 or 40,000 people at a time.

When the Gaonas were in residence at Madison Square Garden with the Ringling show, the flying act was covered by all the major media in the city, each and every year. NBC news called him “arguably the greatest athlete in the world today.”

It is said that their skill came from their father,Victor and that their warmth and generosity came from their mother, Teresa. “The Flight Fantastic” is dedicated to her memory.

“The Flight Fantastic “is Tom Moore’s first documentary feature, although he has had a long career in theatre, film, and television fiction. He directed the film of “Night Mother” with Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft, following his direction of the Broadway production with Kathy Bates, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and for which he received his second Tony nomination

In the theatre, Mr. Moore is best known as the director of the original production of “Grease”, which ran for eight years and is one of the longest running shows in the history of Broadway. Over the years, this production introduced John Travolta, Richard Gere, Patrick Swayzee, Peter Gallagher, Treat Williams, Barry Bostwick, Marilu Henner, Adrienne Barbeau, and countless others.

His first directorial Tony nomination was for the direction of the Big Band Musical “Over Here!”, which brought the Andrews Sisters out of retirement. Other Broadway productions include the critically-embraced revival of “Once in a Lifetime” (with John Lithgow, Deborah May, Treat Williams, and Jayne Meadows) at the Circle-in-the Square, “Division Street”, “The Octette Bridge Club”, “A Little Hotel On The Side” with Tony Randall and Lynn Redgrave, and the short-lived, but legendary

“Frankenstein” at the Palace Theatre.

His most recent Broadway production was “Moon Over Buffalo” with Carol Burnett.

On television, he directed Disney’s first original musical for television, “Geppetto”, starring Drew Carey and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. He has helmed episodes of “ER” (Emmy nomination), “Mad About You” (Emmy nomination), “L.A. Law” (Emmy nomination), “Cheers”, “Ally McBeal”, “Gilmore Girls”,”Thirtysomething”, “Cybil” and many others.

He was a fellow at the American Film Institute, and he holds a B.A. from Purdue University and an M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Drama. He was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, by Purdue University.

As an avocation, Mr. Moore is actively involved with the Circus Arts, and spends as much time as possible on the flying trapeze.

★★★☆☆ This week's Second Sight rerelease of Carol Reed's high flying epic Trapeze (1956) is a welcome reminder of the domineering screen presence of Burt Lancaster and the Technicolor epics that dominated the box office throughout the 1950s. Destined to be confused and compared with Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Trapeze is arguably the superior picture, with Reed using the circus as a backdrop to a simple love triangle.

Read more »...

Thirty-six years ago today, on April 25th, 1976, filmmaker Carol Reed passed away. One of the greatest directors ever to come out of the U.K., Reed started out as an actor, but gained fame as a writer-director in the late 1930s and 1940s, thanks to films like "Night Train To Munich," and the outstanding "Odd Man Out" and "The Fallen Idol." Later, he'd also find success with films like "Trapeze," "Our Man In Havana," "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and "Oliver!," for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director, beating out Stanley Kubrick's "2001" and Gillo Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers."

But Reed's undisputed masterpiece is "The Third Man," a 1949 film noir based on a screenplay by the great British writer Graham Greene. The film involves a writer of Westerns, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), who comes to post-war Vienna after being promised a job by his childhood friend Harry Lime.

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity   1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...

Burt Lancaster on TCM: The Leopard, Scorpio, The Killers I haven't watched Michael Winner's Scorpio (1973), an unflattering portrayal of Us foreign policy and the CIA that reunited Lancaster with his The Leopard co-star Alain Delon. As per the TCM synopsis, "a CIA hit man [Lancaster] is stalked by a former partner [Delon] when the agency turns on him." A Man for All Seasons' Best Actor Oscar winner Paul Scofield and Gayle Hunnicutt are also in the cast. Robert Siodmak's 1946 film noir The Killers is one of the best-looking efforts in the genre thanks to Elwood Bredell's glistening black-and-white cinematography. Although The Killers turned newcomer Lancaster into a major star, as far as I'm concerned this adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story belongs to Ava Gardner; in fact, The Killers could just as easily have been called "The Leopardess (La gattaparda)." Edmond O'Brien co-stars. For The Killers, Siodmak...

Will Young swings on a trapeze in the music video for his new single 'Jealousy'. The singer has joined the circus for his latest clip, which is based on the 1956 film Trapeze, starring Burt Lancaster. Young premiered the Richard X-produced track on radio stations earlier this month. It will trail his fifth studio album Echoes, out on August 22. The record follows 2008's Let It Go, which reached number two on the (more)...

Although then-resident New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther found Carol Reed's Trapeze (1956) "dismally obvious and monotonous" when it opened at the Capitol "to the tune of much ballyhoo", his review offers an entertaining observation that makes me keen to watch the film yet again (I've seen it several times): "The only thing that startled us in the whole show was due to a slip of the film-cutter. Signorina Lollobrigida's double is seen flying through the air in a green costume. The next shot of the actress in a medium close-up has her grabbing the hands of Mr. Lancaster and wearing a brown-and-white striped number. We would like to have seen that quick change."

Such a prurient notation indicates to me that Crowther was not as thoroughly bored as he lets on. How could he be with such a bounty of classic beauty on the silver screen? Granted,...

Filed under: Cinematical

Last week, Hollywood lost one of its last Golden Age stars, Tony Curtis, at the age of 85. Like many non-wasp actors of his time, the Bronx-born actor changed his name, from Bernard Schwartz to the Anglo-sounding Tony Curtis. Curtis' career, which spanned an astounding six decades and 130 film and television credits, peaked long before most readers of this article were born, but the Oscar-nominated actor still managed to leave a brief, if no less compelling, series of performances, both in light, comic roles ( 'Operation Petticoat,' 'Some Like It Hot') and hard-hitting dramatic films ('Sweet Smell of Success,' 'The Boston Strangler').

Like other GIs returning home from World War II, Curtis took advantage of the government's generous GI program, and studied acting before heading off to Hollywood. His first role, a walk-on in 'Criss-Cross,' a crime-noir starring Burt Lancaster,...

Filed under: Cinematical

Last week, Hollywood lost one of its last Golden Age stars, Tony Curtis, at the age of 85. Like many non-wasp actors of his time, the Bronx-born actor changed his name, from Bernard Schwartz to the Anglo-sounding Tony Curtis. Curtis' career, which spanned an astounding six decades and 130 film and television credits, peaked long before most readers of this article were born, but the Oscar-nominated actor still managed to leave a brief, if no less compelling, series of performances, both in light, comic roles ( 'Operation Petticoat,' 'Some Like It Hot') and hard-hitting dramatic films ('Sweet Smell of Success,' 'The Boston Strangler').

Like other GIs returning home from World War II, Curtis took advantage of the government's generous GI program, and studied acting before heading off to Hollywood. His first role, a walk-on in 'Criss-Cross,' a crime-noir starring Burt Lancaster,...

Philip French looks at the career of an actor who defied his detractors with several unforgettable performances

Universal was so pleased with City Across the River, its topical 1949 film about New York's juvenile delinquents, that it decided to end it with a tracking shot around the set so each member of its cast of newcomers could nod to the audience. But the only one to become a star was the 23-year-old Anthony (later Tony) Curtis, born to Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, whose name the studio had changed from Bernie Schwartz earlier that year. Back then no one would have predicted a career that would take him from an undistinguished decade as a glamorous pin-up through five years as a great movie actor followed by 40 years of mostly banal films in which he grew increasingly bloated and grotesque.

In those early movies Curtis worked in westerns, easterns, Arthurians, war movies,...

Talk about a fast turnaround. Turner Classic Movies will run a 24-hour marathon of 12 Tony Curtis movies on Sunday, October 10th. (In fact, Tony once joked that TCM stands for Tony Curtis Movies.) The movies to be shown are Beachhead (1954), Kings Go Forth (1958), The Vikings (1958), Operation Petticoat (1959), Who Was That Lady? (1960), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), You Can’t Win ‘Em All (1970), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958), Trapeze (1956), The Great Race (1965), Don’t Make Waves (1967).

Tony Curtis, who grew beyond his start as a studio-groomed matinee idol to play snappily seductive schemers in such 1950s classics as "The Sweet Smell of Success" and "Some Like It Hot," died Wednesday evening of cardiac arrest at his home in the Las Vegas-area city of Henderson, Nev. He was 85.

"He died peacefully here, surrounded by those who love him and have been caring for him," his wife, Jill Curtis, told the Associated Press outside their home. "All Tony ever wanted to be was a movie star. He didn't want to be the most dramatic actor. He wanted to be a movie star ever since he was a little kid."

A flamboyant personality with a ribald wit and zest for the high life, Curtis epitomized the storied glamour of old Hollywood. Widely known for his onscreen sizzle and his offscreen personal life -- he and first wife Janet Leigh...

Actor whose good looks and charm took him to the heights of Hollywood with films such as Some Like It Hot and The Defiant Ones

Born into a family of Hungarian Jews who had emigrated to the Us, Bernard Schwartz – the boy who became the actor Tony Curtis – could scarcely have dreamed of the wealth, fame and rollercoaster life that awaited him. Curtis, who has died aged 85, starred in several of the best films of the 1950s, including Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958) and Some Like It Hot (1959). He enjoyed a long career thanks to his toughness and resilience (despite insecurities that demanded years of therapy).

He grew up in the Bronx, New York, the eldest of three sons. As a child, he was ill-treated by his mother, Helen, and spent time in an orphanage. One of his brothers, Robert, was a schizophrenic and the other, Julius, was...

Photo by Annie Leibovitz for the June 2005 issue of Vanity Fair. Iconic American actor Tony Curtis died yesterday at the age of 85. Curtis starred in a number of 50s and 60s films that would go on to become Hollywood classics, Spartacus, Sweet Smell of Success, Trapeze, and, most famously, Some Like It Hot, in which he starred opposite Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. Curtis never won an Academy Award; he was nominated only once, in 1958 for his leading role in The Defiant Ones, which co-starred Sidney Poitier. In 2006, he said of the awards, “Everyone takes the Oscars too seriously—it’s ape shit and so fake!” In his later life, Curtis adopted an outspoken demeanor, most visibly on display in his 2008 autobiography, American Prince: A Memoir, in which he dished on his sexual exploits (Natalie Wood, allegedly) and his enemies (Joan Collins).

By Lee Pfeiffer

News reports indicate that Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at age 85. According to the MSNBC news show Morning Joe, the actor's daughter Jamie Lee Curtis has confirmed the rumor. Entertainment Tonight says that Curtis died of a heart attack in his Nevada home. The actor, who was born Bernard Schwartz,was one of the last symbols of Hollywood's golden era. He emerged as a star almost immediately. It was a far cry from his upbringing in the Bronx, where he and his brother Julius were temporarily placed in an orphanage because their parents could not provide adequate care for them. Curtis served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, having enlisted because he was impressed by seeing Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo. After the War, Curtis found stardom in Hollywood through a contract with Universal. He ended up becoming one of the top sex symbols of the 1950s and 60s.

Article by Dana Jung

Decades before there was ‘J-Lo’. or ‘LiLo’, we had ‘La Lollo’,. one of the most beautiful actresses ever to grace movie screens, Gina Lollobrigida. Along with Sophia Loren, Elsa Martinelli, Monica Vitti, and others during the new wave. of Italian and European cinema, she gained fame as an international sex star in the 1950’s and 60s in low-budget Italian films with racy titles such as Fast & Sexy and Go Naked In The World. But when Loren won her Oscar for Two Women, Lollobrigida was already 35 years old, way beyond starlet status. In 1968 (ironically the same year her compatriot actresses Claudia Cardinale & Luciana Paluzzi respectively starred in the cult classics Once Upon A Time In The West and The Green Slime), Gina made probably her best Hollywood film, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, which is sadly not available on DVD.

A pleasant mash-up of Hollywood screwball comedy and Italian sex farce,...