A late addition to the Universal Monsters canon, Jack Arnold's "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was released in 1954, a full 23 years after the premiere of Tod Browning's classic adaptation of "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi.
Some might argue that the Universal Monsters had already established itself with "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1915), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923), and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925), but I feel it wasn't until Carl Laemmle Jr. took over the monster arm of Universal in 1931 that the canon would officially form. Within the next 15 years, Universal would churn out 25 monster movies that existed within the same continuity, making it the Marvel Cinematic Universe of its day. Indeed, just like in the MCU, the characters frequently met one another in epic crossover films like "House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula."
"Creature from the Black Lagoon" came when the classic Monster canon was more or...
Some might argue that the Universal Monsters had already established itself with "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1915), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923), and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925), but I feel it wasn't until Carl Laemmle Jr. took over the monster arm of Universal in 1931 that the canon would officially form. Within the next 15 years, Universal would churn out 25 monster movies that existed within the same continuity, making it the Marvel Cinematic Universe of its day. Indeed, just like in the MCU, the characters frequently met one another in epic crossover films like "House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula."
"Creature from the Black Lagoon" came when the classic Monster canon was more or...
- 10/14/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Jean Allison, the familiar character actress who appeared on dozens of TV shows, from Have Gun — Will Travel, Bonanza, Hawaiian Eye and The Rifleman to McCloud, Adam-12, The Waltons and Highway to Heaven, has died. She was 94.
Allison, a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes, died Feb. 28, her family announced.
Allison made her big-screen debut as a woman menaced by a psychopath (Michael Higgins) in the United Artists drama Edge of Fury (1958), and her film résumé also included The Devil’s Partner (1960), Paul Sylbert’s The Steagle (1971), Robert Benton’s Bad Company (1972) and Paul Schrader’s Hardcore (1979).
Born in New York on Oct. 24, 1929, Allison attended Marymount High School in Tarrytown, New York, and Adelphi College, also in New York.
While appearing on stage in the Patricia Joudry drama Teach Me How to Cry, she was spotted and signed by agent Doovid Barskin. Her first TV gig came in 1957 on CBS’ General Electric Theater.
Allison, a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes, died Feb. 28, her family announced.
Allison made her big-screen debut as a woman menaced by a psychopath (Michael Higgins) in the United Artists drama Edge of Fury (1958), and her film résumé also included The Devil’s Partner (1960), Paul Sylbert’s The Steagle (1971), Robert Benton’s Bad Company (1972) and Paul Schrader’s Hardcore (1979).
Born in New York on Oct. 24, 1929, Allison attended Marymount High School in Tarrytown, New York, and Adelphi College, also in New York.
While appearing on stage in the Patricia Joudry drama Teach Me How to Cry, she was spotted and signed by agent Doovid Barskin. Her first TV gig came in 1957 on CBS’ General Electric Theater.
- 3/8/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The CDC has reported that the average age for most first-time moms is 26-years-old, but plenty of celebrities have welcomed children well before that age.
Kylie Jenner became a mom at the age of 20 and Reese Witherspoon gave birth to her first child when was 23.
But did you know that there are even younger celebrity parents out there? In fact, we’ve uncovered a list of 20 famous individuals who became parents before the age of 20, with the youngest being only 12 years old.
Head inside to check out the full list…
Keep scrolling to see the full list…
Sofia Vergara – 19
Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara welcomed her son Manolo into the world in 1991. At the time, she was married to high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez.
Niki Taylor – 19
Model Niki Taylor became the mother of twins Hunter and Jake at the age of 19. The boys’ father is Miami Hooters linebacker Matt Martinez,...
Kylie Jenner became a mom at the age of 20 and Reese Witherspoon gave birth to her first child when was 23.
But did you know that there are even younger celebrity parents out there? In fact, we’ve uncovered a list of 20 famous individuals who became parents before the age of 20, with the youngest being only 12 years old.
Head inside to check out the full list…
Keep scrolling to see the full list…
Sofia Vergara – 19
Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara welcomed her son Manolo into the world in 1991. At the time, she was married to high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez.
Niki Taylor – 19
Model Niki Taylor became the mother of twins Hunter and Jake at the age of 19. The boys’ father is Miami Hooters linebacker Matt Martinez,...
- 12/13/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
The CDC has reported that the average age for most first-time moms is 26-years-old, but plenty of celebrities have welcomed children well before that age.
Kylie Jenner became a mom at the age of 20 and Reese Witherspoon gave birth to her first child when was 23.
But did you know that there are even younger celebrity parents out there? In fact, we’ve uncovered a list of 20 famous individuals who became parents before the age of 20, with the youngest being only 12 years old.
Head inside to check out the full list…
Keep scrolling to see the full list…
Sofia Vergara – 19
Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara welcomed her son Manolo into the world in 1991. At the time, she was married to high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez.
Niki Taylor – 19
Model Niki Taylor became the mother of twins Hunter and Jake at the age of 19. The boys’ father is Miami Hooters linebacker Matt Martinez,...
Kylie Jenner became a mom at the age of 20 and Reese Witherspoon gave birth to her first child when was 23.
But did you know that there are even younger celebrity parents out there? In fact, we’ve uncovered a list of 20 famous individuals who became parents before the age of 20, with the youngest being only 12 years old.
Head inside to check out the full list…
Keep scrolling to see the full list…
Sofia Vergara – 19
Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara welcomed her son Manolo into the world in 1991. At the time, she was married to high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez.
Niki Taylor – 19
Model Niki Taylor became the mother of twins Hunter and Jake at the age of 19. The boys’ father is Miami Hooters linebacker Matt Martinez,...
- 11/9/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
Universal is headed back into an unknown empire of darkness with a new take on The Mole People, Deadline reports today. The new movie will remake the classic film from 1956.
Chris Winterbauer is writing the script, based on a pitch that Universal Pictures acquired from Winterbauer, with Robert Kirkman (“The Walking Dead”) producing the remake.
“In the new take, a woman travels to a town veiled in a conspiracy to rescue her grandchildren from their father. To do this, she must fight through hell in the underground tunnels where the Mole People reside.”
Deadline reminds, “In the 1956 original, archaeologists stumble into the underground lair of a race of darkness-dwellers who can see in low light and have no pigmentation after being out of the light for so long. The high priest who rules the small pocket of mole people is threatened by the newcomers and wants them dead.”
Robert Kirkman...
Chris Winterbauer is writing the script, based on a pitch that Universal Pictures acquired from Winterbauer, with Robert Kirkman (“The Walking Dead”) producing the remake.
“In the new take, a woman travels to a town veiled in a conspiracy to rescue her grandchildren from their father. To do this, she must fight through hell in the underground tunnels where the Mole People reside.”
Deadline reminds, “In the 1956 original, archaeologists stumble into the underground lair of a race of darkness-dwellers who can see in low light and have no pigmentation after being out of the light for so long. The high priest who rules the small pocket of mole people is threatened by the newcomers and wants them dead.”
Robert Kirkman...
- 3/28/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Ranking up there with “Ryan Coogler rebooting The X-Files” as one of the most unexpected pieces of news today is the announcement that The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will be producing a remake of the 1956 horror film The Mole People (watch it Here) for Universal Pictures. Deadline reports that the project was pitched by Christopher Winterbauer, director of the HBO Max Original Moonshot, who will be writing the screenplay. The news is surprising because The Mole People isn’t exactly one of the most popular titles in the Universal library.
Directed by Virgil Vogel from a screenplay written by László Görög, The Mole People told the story of three archaeologists who come upon an unusual race of albino beings who shun all forms of light and have mutant mole men as their slaves. Because of their “magical cylinders of fire” (what we know as flashlights), these archaeologists are treated...
Directed by Virgil Vogel from a screenplay written by László Görög, The Mole People told the story of three archaeologists who come upon an unusual race of albino beings who shun all forms of light and have mutant mole men as their slaves. Because of their “magical cylinders of fire” (what we know as flashlights), these archaeologists are treated...
- 3/28/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
When it comes to classic collaborations between actors and directors, few can compete with John Ford and John Wayne. The two made movies together for most of their working careers. Even though Ford had a complicated working relationship with Wayne according to most accounts, bullying and belittling him when the cameras were off, they shared a great affection for each other between movies. And at their best, those movies are unbeatable.
Ford had a bit of a reputation for his behavior on sets, coming from his tendency to yell or roughhouse. If Ford could be a bit of a heel on set, a tyrannical bully with a megaphone, he was beloved to many of his longtime actors, the wide-ranging community that became known as the John Ford Stock Company. In many ways, his behavior was probably excused as a lot of masculine ribbing, men ridiculing each other in the tradition...
Ford had a bit of a reputation for his behavior on sets, coming from his tendency to yell or roughhouse. If Ford could be a bit of a heel on set, a tyrannical bully with a megaphone, he was beloved to many of his longtime actors, the wide-ranging community that became known as the John Ford Stock Company. In many ways, his behavior was probably excused as a lot of masculine ribbing, men ridiculing each other in the tradition...
- 3/19/2023
- by Anthony Crislip
- Slash Film
Movie star John Wayne and director John Ford became one of the most iconic filmmaker and actor duos ever to move through Hollywood. It all started with their fateful meeting when Wayne worked as a prop man at Fox, where their personalities quickly hit it off. They would later go on to collaborate on 14 movies together, although the list would be longer if one was to count the times they helped one another in lesser capacities.
‘Stagecoach’ (1939) L-r: Claire Trevor as Dallas and John Wayne as Ringo Kid | Getty Images
A group of unlikely travelers find themselves on a stagecoach headed for Lordsburg, New Mexico, in the 1880s. The arrival of an escaped outlaw named the Ringo Kid (Wayne) shakes up their adventure, as they face riding through dangerous Apache territory.
Wayne played his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail in 1930, but the actor’s career...
‘Stagecoach’ (1939) L-r: Claire Trevor as Dallas and John Wayne as Ringo Kid | Getty Images
A group of unlikely travelers find themselves on a stagecoach headed for Lordsburg, New Mexico, in the 1880s. The arrival of an escaped outlaw named the Ringo Kid (Wayne) shakes up their adventure, as they face riding through dangerous Apache territory.
Wayne played his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail in 1930, but the actor’s career...
- 2/22/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
John Agar never asked to be a movie star, but when the question is put to you by David O. Selznick, you say yes every damn time.
Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Agar was a physical training instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps when, in 1945, he found himself at a glitzy party rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's heaviest hitters, as Shirley Temple's date. Selznick, the legendary producer whose dogged determination brought Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" to the big screen, was struck by the handsome, twentysomething, 6'1" man on the arm of filmdom's most famous child star, and the filmmaker offered him a five-year contract at 150 a week -- that's twice what the Army was paying him. Though he'd never performed before, he signed on and began taking acting lessons.
Three years later, Agar got a chance to prove himself as Second Lieutenant Mickey...
Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Agar was a physical training instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps when, in 1945, he found himself at a glitzy party rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's heaviest hitters, as Shirley Temple's date. Selznick, the legendary producer whose dogged determination brought Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" to the big screen, was struck by the handsome, twentysomething, 6'1" man on the arm of filmdom's most famous child star, and the filmmaker offered him a five-year contract at 150 a week -- that's twice what the Army was paying him. Though he'd never performed before, he signed on and began taking acting lessons.
Three years later, Agar got a chance to prove himself as Second Lieutenant Mickey...
- 1/9/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
The Brain from Planet Arous
Blu ray
The Film Detective
1957 / 1:33:1, 1.85:1 / 71 Min.
Starring John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller
Written by Roy Buffum
Directed by Nathan Hertz (Juran)
In 1957, Screen Gems released 52 of Universal’s classic horror films to television in a package called Shock! Typically broadcast around the midnight hour on Friday nights, the show was a late night epiphany for third graders who raced to the local bijou in search of more monsters—and sent theater owners scrambling for more product. They found it overseas and across the border.
To mollify the playground crowd, those imports—a mix of art house fare and boilerplate exploitation—were dubbed, retitled, and shorn of most dicey material; France’s Les Yeux Sans Visage became The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, and Italy’s Lycanthropus appeared in local listings as Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory. The thrillers produced at...
Blu ray
The Film Detective
1957 / 1:33:1, 1.85:1 / 71 Min.
Starring John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller
Written by Roy Buffum
Directed by Nathan Hertz (Juran)
In 1957, Screen Gems released 52 of Universal’s classic horror films to television in a package called Shock! Typically broadcast around the midnight hour on Friday nights, the show was a late night epiphany for third graders who raced to the local bijou in search of more monsters—and sent theater owners scrambling for more product. They found it overseas and across the border.
To mollify the playground crowd, those imports—a mix of art house fare and boilerplate exploitation—were dubbed, retitled, and shorn of most dicey material; France’s Les Yeux Sans Visage became The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, and Italy’s Lycanthropus appeared in local listings as Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory. The thrillers produced at...
- 6/28/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Early science fiction movies presented mind-bending possibilities for audiences who were new to the idea of alien invasion. Made five years after the July 1952 Washington, D.C., “Big Flap” UFO sightings, The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) presented a more thoughtful takeover: alien possession. Gor, an evil intergalactic brain, invades the human body of an atomic scientist, with plans to conquer the world. The cult classic has been restored with a 4K transfer by the best minds at the Film Detective for a special edition Blu-ray and DVD.
The low-budget, independently produced feature was directed by Nathan Juran, the genre master who gave us The Deadly Mantis (1957), Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), produced and photographed by Jacques Marquette, and released by Howco International. The Brain from Planet Arous stars John Agar, a consummate B-movie favorite as scientist Steve March. Joyce Meadows is his analytically grounded fiancée Sally Fallon.
The low-budget, independently produced feature was directed by Nathan Juran, the genre master who gave us The Deadly Mantis (1957), Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), produced and photographed by Jacques Marquette, and released by Howco International. The Brain from Planet Arous stars John Agar, a consummate B-movie favorite as scientist Steve March. Joyce Meadows is his analytically grounded fiancée Sally Fallon.
- 6/24/2022
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
Hello, dear readers! We’re back with a brand new edition of our rundown of this week’s home media releases, and it’s definitely a good time to be a Nicolas Cage fan as we have two different films featuring the iconic actor headed to various formats - The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Vampire’s Kiss which is receiving the Special Edition treatment from Mvd Visual. We also have some killer new horror movies headed home today too, including The Cellar and You Are Not My Mother, and one of my favorite ‘90s sci-fi/horror movies is also headed to Blu-ray today courtesy of Scream Factory as well: Fire in the Sky.
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for June 21st include Uncle Sam 4K, The Initiation of Sarah, The Brain From Planet Arous, Forced Entry and Monday Morning.
The Brain From Planet Arous: Special Edition
When Gor,...
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for June 21st include Uncle Sam 4K, The Initiation of Sarah, The Brain From Planet Arous, Forced Entry and Monday Morning.
The Brain From Planet Arous: Special Edition
When Gor,...
- 6/21/2022
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
New Featurette: Take a look inside The Black Phone with Ethan Hawke: "The phone is dead. And it’s ringing.
Director Scott Derrickson returns to his terror roots and partners again with the foremost brand in the genre, Blumhouse, with a new horror thriller. Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Starring four-time Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke in the most terrifying role of his career and introducing Mason Thames in his first ever film role, The Black Phone is produced, directed, and co-written by Scott Derrickson, the writer-director of Sinister,...
Director Scott Derrickson returns to his terror roots and partners again with the foremost brand in the genre, Blumhouse, with a new horror thriller. Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Starring four-time Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke in the most terrifying role of his career and introducing Mason Thames in his first ever film role, The Black Phone is produced, directed, and co-written by Scott Derrickson, the writer-director of Sinister,...
- 6/1/2022
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
John Agar plays a careless scientist whose experiments with nerve gas backfire, turning him into a lumbering beast whose touch can kill. Floyd Crosby’s widescreen cinematography lifts Gene Nelson’s 60 minute programmer about as high as it can go, though the sight of the creature stalking suburbia in a trench coat and fedora is memorable. Makeup artist Bob Mark appears to have based the design for Agar’s monster on The Thing, the crater-faced member of The Fantastic Four.
The post Hand of Death appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Hand of Death appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 8/23/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Dino De Laurentiis took a lot of flack for his underwhelming remake of the incomparable 1933 horror classic, which he promoted into a monster-sized hit. Nothing could eclipse the original but the good casting still appeals. An honest ad campaign would have leaned on two points: See Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin carry an insultingly ugly production like real stars! See ‘newcomer’ Jessica Lange play a sexualized ditz so well that she retains her dignity! …and most importantly, See the biggest special effects fraud ever perpetrated on movie screens! Umbrella Entertainment from Australia puts this one back in print, on Blu-ray.
King Kong (1976)
Region B Blu-ray
Umbrella Entertainment
1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date November 4, 2020 / Available at Umbrella Enertainment 19.95 (au)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange, Rick Baker, Rene Auberjonois, Julius Harris, Jack O’Halloran, Ed Lauter, John Agar.
Cinematography: Richard Kline
Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters
Production design: Mario Chiari,...
King Kong (1976)
Region B Blu-ray
Umbrella Entertainment
1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date November 4, 2020 / Available at Umbrella Enertainment 19.95 (au)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange, Rick Baker, Rene Auberjonois, Julius Harris, Jack O’Halloran, Ed Lauter, John Agar.
Cinematography: Richard Kline
Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters
Production design: Mario Chiari,...
- 11/28/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Back we go the golden age of the drive-in, or at least what many see as the ideal time freeze of a continent; family values, mom and dad and the kids loading into the car for a wholesome night under the sky. But the most popular films on the outdoor screen were the horror movies, and those were hitting their very own genre idealism with Atomic Horror, led off by 1954’s Them!, which brought giant ants from their hills to Hollywood’s with resounding success. It was open season on gargantuan critters after that, and first out of the gate was Tarantula! (1955), melding together a larger than life spider with some mad scientist action to create a unique and fun addition to the canon.
As a matter of fact, Tarantula! stands as one of the best B’s from the era; solid performances and pretty damn great special effects help...
As a matter of fact, Tarantula! stands as one of the best B’s from the era; solid performances and pretty damn great special effects help...
- 6/15/2019
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
A plug for commercial exterminators everywhere, William Alland’s titanic hairy spider provided plenty of chills for 1950s drive-ins, delivering exactly the naïve monster thrills teenagers craved. John Agar and Mara Corday do what they can with the clunker script and Jack Arnold’s direction, while Leo G. Carroll saves face by retreating below a rubber mask that makes him look like Droopy Dog. But for fans that like their monsters as big as the Great Outdoors, Clifford Stine and David Horsley’s startling special effects provide a spider-verse of sensational, surreal insect fear.
Tarantula
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1955 / B&W / 1:75 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date April, 2019 / 29,99
Starring: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott, Edwin Rand, Raymond Bailey, Hank Patterson.
Cinematography: George Robinson
Special Optical Effects and Cinematography: Clifford Stine, David S. Horsley
Original Music: Herman Stein, Henry Mancini
Written by Jack Arnold, Robert M. Fresco,...
Tarantula
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1955 / B&W / 1:75 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date April, 2019 / 29,99
Starring: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott, Edwin Rand, Raymond Bailey, Hank Patterson.
Cinematography: George Robinson
Special Optical Effects and Cinematography: Clifford Stine, David S. Horsley
Original Music: Herman Stein, Henry Mancini
Written by Jack Arnold, Robert M. Fresco,...
- 4/16/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The worst nightmare for people with arachnophobia, there's a "crawling terror 100 feet high" on the loose in Tarantula, and ahead of the film's Blu-ray debut on April 30th from Scream Factory, we've been provided with the full list of special features for the 1955 creature feature.
Press Release: Los Angeles, CA – Giant spider strikes! Scream Factory proudly presents the ‘50s horror classic Tarantula on Blu-ray for the first time on April 30th, 2019. This release comes packed with bonus features such as a new 2K scan of the original film elements and new audio commentary. Fans can preorder the film now at shoutfactory.com.
Biochemist Gerald Deemer has a plan to feed the world by using a special growth formula on plants and animals. Instead he creates terror beyond imagining when his work spawns a spider of mammoth proportions!
Feeding on cattle and humans, this towering tarantula has the people of Desert Rock,...
Press Release: Los Angeles, CA – Giant spider strikes! Scream Factory proudly presents the ‘50s horror classic Tarantula on Blu-ray for the first time on April 30th, 2019. This release comes packed with bonus features such as a new 2K scan of the original film elements and new audio commentary. Fans can preorder the film now at shoutfactory.com.
Biochemist Gerald Deemer has a plan to feed the world by using a special growth formula on plants and animals. Instead he creates terror beyond imagining when his work spawns a spider of mammoth proportions!
Feeding on cattle and humans, this towering tarantula has the people of Desert Rock,...
- 3/19/2019
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Not enough love is set aside for this ambitious, under-budgeted Lost Civilization epic. John Agar and Cynthia Patrick find love in an ancient albino race that worships a Death Ray and enslaves a race of Subterranean Humanoid Underground Dwellers — Mole Men, what else? It’s unconvincing and the production lacks polish, but it’s also got clever story gimmicks and sympathetic monsters, so it gets a warm reception at CineSavant Central.
The Mole People
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1956 / B&W / 1.85:1 + 2:1 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date February 26, 2019 / 27.99
Starring: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva, Phil Chambers, Rodd Redwing, Robin Hughes, Frank Baxter, Eddie Parker.
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter
Film Editor: Irving Birnbaum
Mask Maker: Jack Kevan
Special Photography: Clifford Stine
Written by László Görög
Produced by William Alland
Directed by Virgil Vogel
“Mole Hole, Mole Hole — A land of renown!
Iraq is Up and Sumeria’s down!
The Mole People
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1956 / B&W / 1.85:1 + 2:1 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date February 26, 2019 / 27.99
Starring: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva, Phil Chambers, Rodd Redwing, Robin Hughes, Frank Baxter, Eddie Parker.
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter
Film Editor: Irving Birnbaum
Mask Maker: Jack Kevan
Special Photography: Clifford Stine
Written by László Görög
Produced by William Alland
Directed by Virgil Vogel
“Mole Hole, Mole Hole — A land of renown!
Iraq is Up and Sumeria’s down!
- 2/26/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Before February draws to a close, we have one more batch of horror and sci-fi home media releases coming our way, including the Oscar-nominated Border, which this writer loved. There are also a ton of great cult titles that are finally getting their dues this week, including Mausoleum, Invasion of the Blood Farmers, Wacko, Next of Kin, and for all you classic sci-fi fans, Scream Factory is showing some love to The Mole People as well, and if you missed it in theaters, The Possession of Hannah Grace comes home on Tuesday, too.
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for February 26th include Willard (2003), Party Line, Bullitt County, Atone, and Battle for the Lost Planet/Mutant War.
Border
Tina (Eva Melander) is a border guard who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man (Eero Milonoff) with a smell that confounds her detection,...
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for February 26th include Willard (2003), Party Line, Bullitt County, Atone, and Battle for the Lost Planet/Mutant War.
Border
Tina (Eva Melander) is a border guard who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man (Eero Milonoff) with a smell that confounds her detection,...
- 2/26/2019
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Before he played Ward Cleaver—a familiar face in living rooms across the Us from 1957–1963—on Leave it to Beaver, Hugh Beaumont portrayed
Dr. Jud Bellamin in The Mole People. Scream Factory will release the 1956 adventure horror film on February 26th, and we've been provided with full release dates for the new Blu-ray of the vintage creature feature.
From the Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA – From a lost age…horror crawls from the depths of the earth! Scream Factory proudly presents The Mole People on Blu-ray for the first time in North America on February 26th, 2019. Scream Factory’s release presents the film in two aspect ratios (1.85:1 and 2.00:1) and comes complete with special features including new featurette, new audio commentary with Film Historians Tom Weaver and David Schecter and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode of “The Mole People.”
John Agar (Attack of the Puppet People), Hugh Beaumont (Leave It to Beaver...
Dr. Jud Bellamin in The Mole People. Scream Factory will release the 1956 adventure horror film on February 26th, and we've been provided with full release dates for the new Blu-ray of the vintage creature feature.
From the Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA – From a lost age…horror crawls from the depths of the earth! Scream Factory proudly presents The Mole People on Blu-ray for the first time in North America on February 26th, 2019. Scream Factory’s release presents the film in two aspect ratios (1.85:1 and 2.00:1) and comes complete with special features including new featurette, new audio commentary with Film Historians Tom Weaver and David Schecter and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode of “The Mole People.”
John Agar (Attack of the Puppet People), Hugh Beaumont (Leave It to Beaver...
- 1/17/2019
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
With 2018 coming to an end, Scream Factory is giving horror fans plenty of titles to get excited about in 2019 with a bunch of new Blu-ray announcements for March, including 1955's Tarantula, Man's Best Friend (1993), 1966's The Witches (starring Joan Fontaine), and more!
From Scream Factory: "We’re being attacked by giant insects next Spring as the 1950s cult favorites Tarantula and The Deadly Mantis both scuttle to Blu-ray on March 19th!
Tarantula (1955) – Biochemist Gerald Deemer has a plan to feed the world by using a growth formula on plants and animals. Instead he creates terror beyond imagining when his work spawns a spider of mammoth proportions! Feeding on cattle and humans, this towering tarantula has the people of Desert Rock, Arizona running for their lives. Can this horrifying creature be stopped or will the world succumb to its giant claws? This classic sci-fi film from director Jack Arnold stars John Agar...
From Scream Factory: "We’re being attacked by giant insects next Spring as the 1950s cult favorites Tarantula and The Deadly Mantis both scuttle to Blu-ray on March 19th!
Tarantula (1955) – Biochemist Gerald Deemer has a plan to feed the world by using a growth formula on plants and animals. Instead he creates terror beyond imagining when his work spawns a spider of mammoth proportions! Feeding on cattle and humans, this towering tarantula has the people of Desert Rock, Arizona running for their lives. Can this horrifying creature be stopped or will the world succumb to its giant claws? This classic sci-fi film from director Jack Arnold stars John Agar...
- 12/4/2018
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
It’s time to celebrate the Irwin Allen disaster epics for what they are — huge, indigestible spectacles that first seem funny and then congeal into a cinematic badness that words cannot describe. This sprawling ordeal tortures good actors and shatters every limit of audience patience. I alone have survived to tell thee. Is a fair review even possible?
The Swarm
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1978 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 156 116 min. /Extended Edition / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Cameron Mitchell, Christian Juttner, Alejandro Rey.
Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp
Film Editor: Harold F. Kress
Visual Effects: L.B. Abbott
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Stirling Silliphant, from the novel by Arthur Herzog
Produced and Directed by Irwin Allen
“I never dreamed that it would...
The Swarm
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1978 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 156 116 min. /Extended Edition / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Cameron Mitchell, Christian Juttner, Alejandro Rey.
Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp
Film Editor: Harold F. Kress
Visual Effects: L.B. Abbott
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Stirling Silliphant, from the novel by Arthur Herzog
Produced and Directed by Irwin Allen
“I never dreamed that it would...
- 10/13/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s controversy in the Black Lagoon! Universal releases a much-desired box of all three Gill Man epics — but goes cheap on the encoding and hands us a 3-D rendering of Revenge of the Creature at half-resolution. When is a Blu-ray not a Blu-ray? When it’s not even full HD. And all that after commissioning a state-of-the-art 4k 3-D video remaster!
Creature From the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection
Creature from the Black Lagoon (3-D + 2-D), Revenge of the Creature (3-D) + 2-D, The Creature Walks Among Us (2-D)
Blu-ray
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
1954-1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79, 82, 78 min. / Street Date August 28, 2018 / 39.98
Starring: Julie Adams, Lori Nelson, Leigh Snowden, Nestor Paiva, Richard Carlson, Jeff Morrow, John Agar, Rex Reason, Richard Denning, John Bromfield, Jeff Morrow, Greg Palmer…
and as the Gill Man: Ricou Browning, Ben Chapman, Don Megowan, others.
Cinematography: William E. Snyder; Charles S. Welbourne; Maury Gertsman
Film...
Creature From the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection
Creature from the Black Lagoon (3-D + 2-D), Revenge of the Creature (3-D) + 2-D, The Creature Walks Among Us (2-D)
Blu-ray
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
1954-1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79, 82, 78 min. / Street Date August 28, 2018 / 39.98
Starring: Julie Adams, Lori Nelson, Leigh Snowden, Nestor Paiva, Richard Carlson, Jeff Morrow, John Agar, Rex Reason, Richard Denning, John Bromfield, Jeff Morrow, Greg Palmer…
and as the Gill Man: Ricou Browning, Ben Chapman, Don Megowan, others.
Cinematography: William E. Snyder; Charles S. Welbourne; Maury Gertsman
Film...
- 9/1/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s funny how much one year can change something as niche as a bizarre subgenre of ’50s monster movies. A year ago, the Crypt of Curiosities kicked off with a piece that touched on tons of different films in the “Gillsploitation” genre, a silly little corner of horror cinema that riffed on Jack Arnold’s classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon to deliver all sorts of bizarre B-movie delights. There were your run of the mill rip-offs, there were Vincent Price films, hell, there were even Japanese monster movies and Italian gore-fests. It was a short-lived, sparsely populated subgenre, and to tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting there to be any real big Gill-Man films again after Carpenter’s Creature from the Black Lagoon reboot got canned in the ’90s.
And then a little movie called The Shape of Water came out and changed everything. Suddenly,...
And then a little movie called The Shape of Water came out and changed everything. Suddenly,...
- 5/18/2018
- by Perry Ruhland
- DailyDead
Roger Corman’s ferocious gangster epic (more squibs!) bounces back in a UK Region B edition, noisier and bloodier than ever. Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker and a couple of dozen top-notch hoods replay the ugly events that led up to the notorious 1929 gangland slaying — which now almost seems tame — where gun massacres are concerned, today ‘Every Day Is a Holiday.’
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date April 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale, Frank Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Richard Bakalyan, David Canary, Bruce Dern, Harold J. Stone, Kurt Kreuger, Joe Turkel, John Agar, Celia Lovsky, Tom Reese, Jan Merlin,Alex D’Arcy, Reed Hadley, Gus Trikonis, Charles Dierkop, Alex Rocco, Leo Gordon, Russ Conway, Jonathan Haze, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Jack Nicholson, Joan Shawlee.
Cinematography Milton Krasner
Art Direction Philip Jefferies,...
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date April 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale, Frank Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Richard Bakalyan, David Canary, Bruce Dern, Harold J. Stone, Kurt Kreuger, Joe Turkel, John Agar, Celia Lovsky, Tom Reese, Jan Merlin,Alex D’Arcy, Reed Hadley, Gus Trikonis, Charles Dierkop, Alex Rocco, Leo Gordon, Russ Conway, Jonathan Haze, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Jack Nicholson, Joan Shawlee.
Cinematography Milton Krasner
Art Direction Philip Jefferies,...
- 4/21/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Photo courtesy of Tom Block
“Sunset at Monument Valley–the only place I’ve ever seen where night rises instead of falls. The stagecoach stop where Shirley Temple catches John Agar with his shirt off in Fort Apache is 20 feet away from me; the stone cabin that served as John Wayne’s quarters in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is just behind it; and in between the two buildings a bunch of French tourists are watching Stagecoach in a theater so small it’s like a monk’s cell. It’s killing me knowing I’ll never be here again, not at this time of day, with this feeling of peace and contentment, just gazing out on the purple mountains strung along the horizon and the headlights of the last line of cars drifting out of the park like fireflies. Ah, well…I started out with more to say than just that,...
“Sunset at Monument Valley–the only place I’ve ever seen where night rises instead of falls. The stagecoach stop where Shirley Temple catches John Agar with his shirt off in Fort Apache is 20 feet away from me; the stone cabin that served as John Wayne’s quarters in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is just behind it; and in between the two buildings a bunch of French tourists are watching Stagecoach in a theater so small it’s like a monk’s cell. It’s killing me knowing I’ll never be here again, not at this time of day, with this feeling of peace and contentment, just gazing out on the purple mountains strung along the horizon and the headlights of the last line of cars drifting out of the park like fireflies. Ah, well…I started out with more to say than just that,...
- 2/3/2018
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
All hail Bert I. Gordon, who singlehandedly carved out his own niche in ‘fifties monster folklore, and even won a battle or two against those sharpies at A.I.P.. His puppet people were originally just ‘Fantastic,’ but they had to be made into a menace with the “A” word usually reserved for icky poo Giant Leeches, Crab Monsters and 50-Foot Women.
Attack of the Puppet People
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / The Fantastic Puppet People, Six Inches Tall, I Was a Teenage Doll, War of the Puppet People / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 27.99
Starring: John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Susan Gordon, Michael Mark, Kack Kosslyn, Marlene Willis, Ken Miller, Laurie Mitchell, Scott Peters, June Jocelyn, Hank Patterson.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Special Effects: Bert I. Gordon, Flora M. Gordon
Original Music: Albert Glasser
Written by George Worthing Yates
Story, Produced & Directed by Bert I. Gordon
It’s easy...
Attack of the Puppet People
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / The Fantastic Puppet People, Six Inches Tall, I Was a Teenage Doll, War of the Puppet People / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 27.99
Starring: John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Susan Gordon, Michael Mark, Kack Kosslyn, Marlene Willis, Ken Miller, Laurie Mitchell, Scott Peters, June Jocelyn, Hank Patterson.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Special Effects: Bert I. Gordon, Flora M. Gordon
Original Music: Albert Glasser
Written by George Worthing Yates
Story, Produced & Directed by Bert I. Gordon
It’s easy...
- 11/18/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mr. Franz seemed nice at first, but brimming just beneath the surface was a desire to turn his guests into miniature puppets for his own amusement. This unconventional form of entertainment takes center stage in Attack of the Puppet People, and with Scream Factory releasing the 1958 horror film on Blu-ray, we've been provided with three high-def copies to give away to lucky Daily Dead readers.
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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of Attack of the Puppet People.
How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:
1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:
https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/
2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject "Attack of the Puppet People Contest". Be sure to include your name and mailing address.
---------
Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of Attack of the Puppet People.
How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:
1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:
https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/
2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject "Attack of the Puppet People Contest". Be sure to include your name and mailing address.
- 11/16/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
A stunning new video shows a 22-year-old man with cerebral palsy training for the Ironman 70.3 competition this weekend in Florida.
The footage of Johnny Agar, who was born with cerebral palsy, is posted side-by-side with a 2016 Under Armour commercial featuring Michael Phelps titled ‘Rule Yourself.’
Agar, who attends Aquinas College, is seen studying Phelps’ training and mimicking his movements on a track and in the gym. His mother edited the video.
Phelps took notice of Agar’s incredible strength and took to social media on Wednesday to wish him luck.
“Thank you Johnny for being such an inspiration to us all.
The footage of Johnny Agar, who was born with cerebral palsy, is posted side-by-side with a 2016 Under Armour commercial featuring Michael Phelps titled ‘Rule Yourself.’
Agar, who attends Aquinas College, is seen studying Phelps’ training and mimicking his movements on a track and in the gym. His mother edited the video.
Phelps took notice of Agar’s incredible strength and took to social media on Wednesday to wish him luck.
“Thank you Johnny for being such an inspiration to us all.
- 4/7/2017
- by Rose Minutaglio
- PEOPLE.com
"Earth Given 24 Hours to Surrender!" Invisible murderous moon maniacs invade, with invisible troops and invisible flying saucers! John Agar, Jean Byron and John Carradine do their best to keep this underfed sci-fi turnip on its feet --- and we diehard monster fans love it. Invisible Invaders Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1959 / B&W /1:66 widescreen / 67 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring John Agar, Jean Byron, Philip Tonge, Robert Hutton, John Carradine, Paul Langton. Cinematography Maury Gertsman Film Editor Grant Whytock Original Music Paul Dunlap Written by Samuel Newman Produced by Robert E. Kent Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
At the tail end of the '50s monster boom the pickings became lean indeed. For every killer matinee filler like The Blob or The Fly, cheap double bills encouraged by American-International's example became even cheaper. Producers at Columbia, Allied Artists and United Artists turned out...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
At the tail end of the '50s monster boom the pickings became lean indeed. For every killer matinee filler like The Blob or The Fly, cheap double bills encouraged by American-International's example became even cheaper. Producers at Columbia, Allied Artists and United Artists turned out...
- 7/8/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Invisible aliens from the moon threaten to destroy all humankind on Earth, and it is up to scientist Adam Penner (Philip Tonge) to stop them in Invisible Invaders (1959), being released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber this summer.
On July 12th, Kino Lorber will release Invisible Invaders on Blu-ray. Directed by Edward L. Cahn from a screenplay by Samuel Newman, the film stars John Agar, John Carradine, Jean Byron, Philip Tonge, and Robert Hutton. In addition to a trailer gallery, special features on the Blu-ray will include a new audio commentary:
From Blu-ray.com: “Synopsis: Aliens, contacting scientist Adam Penner, inform him that they have been on the moon for twenty thousand years, undetected due to their invisibility, and have now decided to annihilate humanity unless all the nations of earth surrender immediately. Sequestered in an impregnable laboratory trying to find the aliens’ weakness, Penner, his daughter, a no-nonsense army major...
On July 12th, Kino Lorber will release Invisible Invaders on Blu-ray. Directed by Edward L. Cahn from a screenplay by Samuel Newman, the film stars John Agar, John Carradine, Jean Byron, Philip Tonge, and Robert Hutton. In addition to a trailer gallery, special features on the Blu-ray will include a new audio commentary:
From Blu-ray.com: “Synopsis: Aliens, contacting scientist Adam Penner, inform him that they have been on the moon for twenty thousand years, undetected due to their invisibility, and have now decided to annihilate humanity unless all the nations of earth surrender immediately. Sequestered in an impregnable laboratory trying to find the aliens’ weakness, Penner, his daughter, a no-nonsense army major...
- 6/20/2016
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Dirty cops were a movie vogue in 1954, and Edmond O'Brien scores as a real dastard in this overachieving United Artists thriller. Dreamboat starlet Marla English is the reason O'Brien's detective kills for cash, and then keeps killing to stay ahead of his colleagues. And all to buy a crummy house in the suburbs -- this man needs career counseling. Shield for Murder Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1954 / B&W / 1:75 widescreen / 82 min. / Street Date June 21, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Edmond O'Brien, Marla English, John Agar, Emile Meyer, Carolyn Jones, Claude Akins, Herbert Butterfield, Hugh Sanders, William Schallert, Robert Bray, Richard Deacon, David Hughes, Gregg Martell, Stafford Repp, Vito Scotti. Cinematography Gordon Avil Film Editor John F. Schreyer Original Music Paul Dunlap Written by Richard Alan Simmons, John C. Higgins from the novel by William P. McGivern <Produced by Aubrey Schenck, (Howard W. Koch) Directed by Edmond O'Brien, Howard W. Koch
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Here's the kind of '50s movie we love, an ambitious, modest crime picture that for its time had an edge. In the 1950s our country was as blind to the true extent of police corruption as it was to organized crime. Movies about bad cops adhered to the 'bad apple' concept: it's only crooked individuals that we need to watch out for, never the institutions around them. Thanks to films noir, crooked cops were no longer a film rarity, even though the Production Code made movies like The Asphalt Jungle insert compensatory scenes paying lip service to the status quo: an imperfect police force is better than none. United Artists in the 1950s helped star talent make the jump to independent production, with the prime success stories being Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. But the distribution company also funded proven producers capable of putting out smaller bread 'n' butter movies that could prosper if costs were kept down. Edward Small, Victor Saville, Levy-Gardner-Laven. Aubrey Schenck and Howard C. Koch produced as a team, and for 1954's Shield for Murder Koch co-directed, sharing credit with the film's star, Edmond O'Brien. The show is a smart production all the way, a modestly budgeted 'B' with 'A' ambitions. O'Brien was an industry go-getter trying to channel his considerable talent in new directions. His leading man days were fading but he was in demand for parts in major films like The Barefoot Contessa. The producers took care with their story too. Writers Richard Alan Simmons and John C. Higgins had solid crime movie credits. Author William P. McGivern wrote the novel behind Fritz Lang's The Big Heat as well as Rogue Cop and Odds Against Tomorrow. All of McGivern's stories involve crooked policemen or police corruption. Shield for Murder doesn't tiptoe around its subject matter. Dirty cop Detective Lt. Barney Nolan (O'Brien) kills a hoodlum in an alley to steal $25,000 of mob money. His precinct boss Captain Gunnarson (Emile Meyer) accepts Barney's version of events and the Asst. D.A. (William Schallert) takes the shooting as an open and shut case. Crime reporter Cabot (Herbert Butterfield) has his doubts, and lectures the squad room about the abuse of police power. Barney manages to placate mob boss Packy Reed (Hugh Sanders), but two hoods continue to shadow him. Barney's plan for the money was to buy a new house and escape the rat race with his girlfriend, nightclub cashier Patty Winters (Marla English). But a problem surfaces in the elderly deaf mute Ernst Sternmueller (David Hughes), a witness to the shooting. Barney realizes that his only way forward is to kill the old man before he can tell all to Det. Mark Brewster (John Agar), Barney's closest friend. Once again one of society's Good Guys takes a bite of the forbidden apple and tries to buck the system. Shield for Murder posits an logical but twisted course of action for a weary defender of the law who wants out. Barney long ago gave up trying to do anything about the crooks he can't touch. The fat cat Packy Reed makes the big money, and all Barney wants is his share. Barney's vision of The American Dream is just the middle-class ideal, the desirable Patty Winters and a modest tract home. He's picked it out - it sits partway up a hill in a new Los Angeles development, just finished and already furnished. Then the unexpected witness shows up and everything begins to unravel; Barney loses control one step at a time. He beats a mob thug (Claude Akins) half to death in front of witnesses. When his pal Mark Brewster figures out the truth, Barney has to use a lot of his money to arrange a getaway. More mob trouble leads to a shoot-out in a high school gym. The idea may have been for the star O'Brien to coach actors John Agar and Marla English to better performances. Agar is slightly more natural than usual, but still not very good. The gorgeous Ms. English remains sweet and inexpressive. After several unbilled bits, the woman often compared to Elizabeth Taylor was given "introducing" billing on the Shield for Murder billing block. Her best-known role would be as The She-Creature two years later, after which she dropped out to get married. Co-director O'Brien also allows Emile Meyer to go over the top in a scene or two. But the young Carolyn Jones is a standout as a blonde bargirl, more or less expanding on her small part as a human ashtray in the previous year's The Big Heat. Edmond O'Brien is occasionally a little to hyper, but he's excellent at showing stress as the trap closes around the overreaching Barney Nolan. Other United Artists budget crime pictures seem a little tight with the outdoors action -- Vice Squad, Witness to Murder, Without Warning -- but O'Brien and Koch's camera luxuriates in night shoots on the Los Angeles streets. This is one of those Blu-rays that Los Angelenos will want to freeze frame, to try to read the street signs. There is also little downtime wasted in sidebar plot detours. The gunfight in the school gym, next to an Olympic swimming pool, is an action highlight. The show has one enduring sequence. With the force closing in, Barney rushes back to the unfinished house he plans to buy, to recover the loot he's buried next to its foundation. Anybody who lived in Southern California in the '50s and '60s was aware of the massive suburban sprawl underway, a building boom that went on for decades. In 1953 the La Puente hills were so rural they barely served by roads; the movie The War of the Worlds considered it a good place to use a nuclear bomb against invading Martians. By 1975 the unending suburbs had spread from Los Angeles, almost all the way to Pomona. Barney dashes through a new housing development on terraced plots, boxy little houses separated from each other by only a few feet of dirt. There's no landscaping yet. Even in 1954 $25,000 wasn't that much money, so Barney Nolan has sold himself pretty cheaply. Two more latter-day crime pictures would end with ominous metaphors about the oblivion of The American Dream. In 1964's remake of The Killers the cash Lee Marvin kills for only buys him a patch of green lawn in a choice Hollywood Hills neighborhood. The L.A.P.D. puts Marvin out of his misery, and then closes in on another crooked detective in the aptly titled 1965 thriller The Money Trap. The final scene in that movie is priceless: his dreams smashed, crooked cop Glenn Ford sits by his designer swimming pool and waits to be arrested. Considering how well things worked out for Los Angeles police officers, Edmond O'Brien's Barney Nolan seems especially foolish. If Barney had stuck it out for a couple of years, the new deal for the L.A.P.D. would have been much better than a measly 25 grand. By 1958 he'd have his twenty years in. After a retirement beer bash he'd be out on the road pulling a shiny new boat to the Colorado River, like all the other hardworking cops and firemen enjoying their generous pensions. Policemen also had little trouble getting house loans. The joke was that an L.A.P.D. cop might go bad, but none of them could be bribed. O'Brien directed one more feature, took more TV work and settled into character parts for Jack Webb, Frank Tashlin, John Ford, John Frankenheimer and finally Sam Peckinpah in The Wild Bunch, where he was almost unrecognizable. Howard W. Koch slowed down as a director but became a busy producer, working with Frank Sinatra for several years. He eventually co-produced Airplane! The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of Shield for Murder is a good-looking B&W scan, framed at a confirmed-as-correct 1:75 aspect ratio. The picture is sharp and detailed, and the sound is in fine shape. The package art duplicates the film's original no-class sell: "Dame-Hungry Killer-Cop Runs Berserk! The first scene also contains one of the more frequently noticed camera flubs in film noir -- a really big boom shadow on a nighttime alley wall. Kino's presentation comes with trailers for this movie, Hidden Fear and He Ran All the Way. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Shield for Murder Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Trailers for Shield for Murder, Hidden Fear, He Ran All the Way Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 7, 2016 (5115murd)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Here's the kind of '50s movie we love, an ambitious, modest crime picture that for its time had an edge. In the 1950s our country was as blind to the true extent of police corruption as it was to organized crime. Movies about bad cops adhered to the 'bad apple' concept: it's only crooked individuals that we need to watch out for, never the institutions around them. Thanks to films noir, crooked cops were no longer a film rarity, even though the Production Code made movies like The Asphalt Jungle insert compensatory scenes paying lip service to the status quo: an imperfect police force is better than none. United Artists in the 1950s helped star talent make the jump to independent production, with the prime success stories being Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. But the distribution company also funded proven producers capable of putting out smaller bread 'n' butter movies that could prosper if costs were kept down. Edward Small, Victor Saville, Levy-Gardner-Laven. Aubrey Schenck and Howard C. Koch produced as a team, and for 1954's Shield for Murder Koch co-directed, sharing credit with the film's star, Edmond O'Brien. The show is a smart production all the way, a modestly budgeted 'B' with 'A' ambitions. O'Brien was an industry go-getter trying to channel his considerable talent in new directions. His leading man days were fading but he was in demand for parts in major films like The Barefoot Contessa. The producers took care with their story too. Writers Richard Alan Simmons and John C. Higgins had solid crime movie credits. Author William P. McGivern wrote the novel behind Fritz Lang's The Big Heat as well as Rogue Cop and Odds Against Tomorrow. All of McGivern's stories involve crooked policemen or police corruption. Shield for Murder doesn't tiptoe around its subject matter. Dirty cop Detective Lt. Barney Nolan (O'Brien) kills a hoodlum in an alley to steal $25,000 of mob money. His precinct boss Captain Gunnarson (Emile Meyer) accepts Barney's version of events and the Asst. D.A. (William Schallert) takes the shooting as an open and shut case. Crime reporter Cabot (Herbert Butterfield) has his doubts, and lectures the squad room about the abuse of police power. Barney manages to placate mob boss Packy Reed (Hugh Sanders), but two hoods continue to shadow him. Barney's plan for the money was to buy a new house and escape the rat race with his girlfriend, nightclub cashier Patty Winters (Marla English). But a problem surfaces in the elderly deaf mute Ernst Sternmueller (David Hughes), a witness to the shooting. Barney realizes that his only way forward is to kill the old man before he can tell all to Det. Mark Brewster (John Agar), Barney's closest friend. Once again one of society's Good Guys takes a bite of the forbidden apple and tries to buck the system. Shield for Murder posits an logical but twisted course of action for a weary defender of the law who wants out. Barney long ago gave up trying to do anything about the crooks he can't touch. The fat cat Packy Reed makes the big money, and all Barney wants is his share. Barney's vision of The American Dream is just the middle-class ideal, the desirable Patty Winters and a modest tract home. He's picked it out - it sits partway up a hill in a new Los Angeles development, just finished and already furnished. Then the unexpected witness shows up and everything begins to unravel; Barney loses control one step at a time. He beats a mob thug (Claude Akins) half to death in front of witnesses. When his pal Mark Brewster figures out the truth, Barney has to use a lot of his money to arrange a getaway. More mob trouble leads to a shoot-out in a high school gym. The idea may have been for the star O'Brien to coach actors John Agar and Marla English to better performances. Agar is slightly more natural than usual, but still not very good. The gorgeous Ms. English remains sweet and inexpressive. After several unbilled bits, the woman often compared to Elizabeth Taylor was given "introducing" billing on the Shield for Murder billing block. Her best-known role would be as The She-Creature two years later, after which she dropped out to get married. Co-director O'Brien also allows Emile Meyer to go over the top in a scene or two. But the young Carolyn Jones is a standout as a blonde bargirl, more or less expanding on her small part as a human ashtray in the previous year's The Big Heat. Edmond O'Brien is occasionally a little to hyper, but he's excellent at showing stress as the trap closes around the overreaching Barney Nolan. Other United Artists budget crime pictures seem a little tight with the outdoors action -- Vice Squad, Witness to Murder, Without Warning -- but O'Brien and Koch's camera luxuriates in night shoots on the Los Angeles streets. This is one of those Blu-rays that Los Angelenos will want to freeze frame, to try to read the street signs. There is also little downtime wasted in sidebar plot detours. The gunfight in the school gym, next to an Olympic swimming pool, is an action highlight. The show has one enduring sequence. With the force closing in, Barney rushes back to the unfinished house he plans to buy, to recover the loot he's buried next to its foundation. Anybody who lived in Southern California in the '50s and '60s was aware of the massive suburban sprawl underway, a building boom that went on for decades. In 1953 the La Puente hills were so rural they barely served by roads; the movie The War of the Worlds considered it a good place to use a nuclear bomb against invading Martians. By 1975 the unending suburbs had spread from Los Angeles, almost all the way to Pomona. Barney dashes through a new housing development on terraced plots, boxy little houses separated from each other by only a few feet of dirt. There's no landscaping yet. Even in 1954 $25,000 wasn't that much money, so Barney Nolan has sold himself pretty cheaply. Two more latter-day crime pictures would end with ominous metaphors about the oblivion of The American Dream. In 1964's remake of The Killers the cash Lee Marvin kills for only buys him a patch of green lawn in a choice Hollywood Hills neighborhood. The L.A.P.D. puts Marvin out of his misery, and then closes in on another crooked detective in the aptly titled 1965 thriller The Money Trap. The final scene in that movie is priceless: his dreams smashed, crooked cop Glenn Ford sits by his designer swimming pool and waits to be arrested. Considering how well things worked out for Los Angeles police officers, Edmond O'Brien's Barney Nolan seems especially foolish. If Barney had stuck it out for a couple of years, the new deal for the L.A.P.D. would have been much better than a measly 25 grand. By 1958 he'd have his twenty years in. After a retirement beer bash he'd be out on the road pulling a shiny new boat to the Colorado River, like all the other hardworking cops and firemen enjoying their generous pensions. Policemen also had little trouble getting house loans. The joke was that an L.A.P.D. cop might go bad, but none of them could be bribed. O'Brien directed one more feature, took more TV work and settled into character parts for Jack Webb, Frank Tashlin, John Ford, John Frankenheimer and finally Sam Peckinpah in The Wild Bunch, where he was almost unrecognizable. Howard W. Koch slowed down as a director but became a busy producer, working with Frank Sinatra for several years. He eventually co-produced Airplane! The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of Shield for Murder is a good-looking B&W scan, framed at a confirmed-as-correct 1:75 aspect ratio. The picture is sharp and detailed, and the sound is in fine shape. The package art duplicates the film's original no-class sell: "Dame-Hungry Killer-Cop Runs Berserk! The first scene also contains one of the more frequently noticed camera flubs in film noir -- a really big boom shadow on a nighttime alley wall. Kino's presentation comes with trailers for this movie, Hidden Fear and He Ran All the Way. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Shield for Murder Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Trailers for Shield for Murder, Hidden Fear, He Ran All the Way Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 7, 2016 (5115murd)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
- 6/11/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
John Ford puts a Technicolor sheen on Monument Valley in this second cavalry picture with John Wayne, who does some of his most professional acting work. Joanne Dru plays coy, while the real star is rodeo wizard Ben Johnson and the dazzling cinematography of Winton C. Hoch. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1949 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 103 min. / Street Date June 7, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, George O'Brien, Chief John Big Tree. Cinematography Winton Hoch Art Direction James Basevi Film Editor Jack Murray Original Music Richard Hageman Written by Frank Nugent, Laurence Stallings from the stories War Party and The Big Hunt by James Warner Bellah Produced by Merian C. Cooper, John Ford Directed by John Ford
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Have you never seen real 3-Strip Technicolor used for terrific outdoor photography?...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Have you never seen real 3-Strip Technicolor used for terrific outdoor photography?...
- 6/4/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What in the world -- an A + top-rank film noir gem hiding under the radar, and rescued (most literally) by the Film Noir Foundation. Ann Sheridan and Dennis O'Keefe trade dialogue as good as any in a film from 1950 -- it's a thriller with a cynical worldview yet a sentimental personal outlook. Woman on the Run Blu-ray + DVD Flicker Alley / FIlm Noir Foundation 1950 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Street Date May 17, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Keith, John Qualen, Frank Jenks, Ross Elliott, Jane Liddell, Joan Fulton, J. Farrell MacDonald, Steven Geray, Victor Sen Yung, Reiko Sato. Cinematography Hal Mohr Art Direction Boris Leven Film Editor Otto Ludwig Original Music Arthur Lange, Emil Newman Written by Alan Campbell, Norman Foster, Sylvia Tate Produced by Howard Welsch, Ann Sheridan Directed by Norman Foster
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Amazing! Just when one thinks one won't see another top-rank film noir, the...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Amazing! Just when one thinks one won't see another top-rank film noir, the...
- 5/24/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What horrors will we find on the planet Yoo-rah-nuss? A cyclopean dinosaur? Nasty spider monsters? A megalomaniac cerebellum that can turn our X-rated sex fantasies into flesh and blood people? Let's go! Sid Pink's flashy and slightly idiotic adventure stars space cadet John Agar as an average guy willing to have sex with a phantom from his own imagination. Say, doesn't Woody Allen make dirty jokes about that? Journey to the Seventh Planet Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1962 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date April 5, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring John Agar, Carl Ottosen, Ann Smyrner, Greta Thyssen, Peter Monch, Ove Sprogoe, Louis Miehe-Renard, Ulla Moritz, Mimi Heinrich, Annie Birgit Garde. Cinematography Aage Wiltrup Visual Effects Krogh, Wah Chang, Jim Danforth, Ronny Scheemmel. Art Director Otto Lund Editor Tove Palsbo Original Music Jerry Capeheart, Ib Glindemann, Mitchell Tableporte Written by Ib Melchior & Sid Pink Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff & Sid Pink...
- 4/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mind games are played in deep space in Journey to the Seventh Planet. The 1962 film will be released on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber on April 5th, and we have a look at the cover art and release details.
From Amazon: “Newly Re-mastered in HD! You Are in Space… Beyond Space! In futuristic 2001, the United Nations has sent a special team of scientists to explore Uranus. And what this interstellar crew discovers is a planet not unlike Earth-complete with a small Danish village filled with voluptuous women! But underneath the utopian veneer is a so powerful and so heinous that it’s using the crew’s memories against them so it can take their spaceship back to Earth-and conquer it! Wonderfully directed by cult producer, writer and director, Sidney W. Pink (Reptilicus, The Angry Red Planet) and featuring campy performances by John Agar (Invisible Invaders, Miracle Mile) and Greta Thyssen...
From Amazon: “Newly Re-mastered in HD! You Are in Space… Beyond Space! In futuristic 2001, the United Nations has sent a special team of scientists to explore Uranus. And what this interstellar crew discovers is a planet not unlike Earth-complete with a small Danish village filled with voluptuous women! But underneath the utopian veneer is a so powerful and so heinous that it’s using the crew’s memories against them so it can take their spaceship back to Earth-and conquer it! Wonderfully directed by cult producer, writer and director, Sidney W. Pink (Reptilicus, The Angry Red Planet) and featuring campy performances by John Agar (Invisible Invaders, Miracle Mile) and Greta Thyssen...
- 3/4/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Lenny Bruce: Dustin Hoffman in the 1974 Bob Fosse movie. Lenny Bruce movie review: Polemical stand-up comedian merited less timid biopic (Oscar Movie Series) Bob Fosse's 1974 biopic Lenny has two chief assets: the ever relevant free speech issues it raises and the riveting presence of Valerie Perrine. The film itself, however, is only sporadically thought-provoking or emotionally gripping; in fact, Lenny is a major artistic letdown, considering all the talent involved and the fertile material at hand. After all, much more should have come out of a joint effort between director Fosse, fresh off his Academy Award win for Cabaret; playwright-screenwriter Julian Barry, whose stage version of Lenny earned Cliff Gorman a Tony Award; two-time Best Actor Oscar nominee Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy); and cinematographer Bruce Surtees (Play Misty for Me, Blume in Love). Their larger-than-life subject? Lenny Bruce, the stand-up comedian who became one of the...
- 6/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 11, 2014
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
John Agar (l.) and John Wayne star in Sands of Iwo Jima
John Wayne (True Grit, Red River) did a bunch of war movies, but he garnered a 1949 Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his iconic role as the battle-hardened leader of a squad of recruits in Allan Dwan’s classic war film Sands of Iwo Jima, which makes its Blu-ray debut from Olive Films.
Haunted by his personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker (Wayne) is both hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker’s rigid form of discipline, as he leads them into one of the most treacherous battles in the Pacific.
Co-starring John Agar, Forrrest Tucker, Richard Webb and Richard Jaeckel, Sands of Iwo Jima remains...
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
John Agar (l.) and John Wayne star in Sands of Iwo Jima
John Wayne (True Grit, Red River) did a bunch of war movies, but he garnered a 1949 Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his iconic role as the battle-hardened leader of a squad of recruits in Allan Dwan’s classic war film Sands of Iwo Jima, which makes its Blu-ray debut from Olive Films.
Haunted by his personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker (Wayne) is both hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker’s rigid form of discipline, as he leads them into one of the most treacherous battles in the Pacific.
Co-starring John Agar, Forrrest Tucker, Richard Webb and Richard Jaeckel, Sands of Iwo Jima remains...
- 10/15/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Reactions from the talent behind films eviscerated on MST3k have varied (it could be a joke, but the crew claims Joe Don Baker of Mitchell fame wants to take a swing at them), though not as much as fans of the films proper. A famous, though unverified, story has Dennis Miller flying the cast to a filming of his HBO show only to scream at them for having their way with Marooned! In light of the recent announcement that creator Joel Hodgson wants to reboot the cult favourite, here’s a look at a few episodes that may not have been playing fair.
5. Revenge of The Creature (Season 8, Episode 1)
There is a delicate chemistry to enjoying trash on its own merit. Too bad or too good, it can easily throw things off-balance into the oblivion of the unwatchable. Creature upped the stakes of the classic original by bringing it to local beaches and,...
5. Revenge of The Creature (Season 8, Episode 1)
There is a delicate chemistry to enjoying trash on its own merit. Too bad or too good, it can easily throw things off-balance into the oblivion of the unwatchable. Creature upped the stakes of the classic original by bringing it to local beaches and,...
- 5/8/2014
- by Kenny Hedges
- SoundOnSight
Bob Thomas, the tireless, longtime Associated Press reporter who kept the world informed on the comings and goings of Hollywood's biggest stars, from Clark Gable to Tom Cruise, died Friday. He was 92. Thomas died of age-related illnesses at his Encino, Calif., home, his daughter Janet Thomas said. A room filled with his interview subjects would have made for the most glittering of ceremonies: Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Groucho Marx and Marlon Brando, Walt Disney and Fred Astaire. He interviewed rising stars (James Dean), middle-aged legends (Humphrey Bogart, Jack Nicholson) and elder institutions (Bob Hope...
- 3/14/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
Review by Sam Moffitt
I never was a fan of Shirley Temple, far from it. I do recall seeing most of her movies years ago. Back in the Sixties Channel 11, in St. Louis, used to have a Shirley Temple Theater on weekend afternoons. My sister Judy, for some reason, had to watch those Shirley Temple films. So I can recall seeing Bright Eyes, the Little Colonel, Heidi, Little Miss Marker and what have you.
To say I was not impressed would be a major understatement. Even as a young kid I realized there was a strict formula to Shirley’s movies, namely her sunny disposition and optimistic outlook would win over cranky old adults and straighten out bratty little kids, who were usually the villains, in her films, and that was about all.
I do recognize and respect Shirley Temple’s place in film history. She was the biggest star...
I never was a fan of Shirley Temple, far from it. I do recall seeing most of her movies years ago. Back in the Sixties Channel 11, in St. Louis, used to have a Shirley Temple Theater on weekend afternoons. My sister Judy, for some reason, had to watch those Shirley Temple films. So I can recall seeing Bright Eyes, the Little Colonel, Heidi, Little Miss Marker and what have you.
To say I was not impressed would be a major understatement. Even as a young kid I realized there was a strict formula to Shirley’s movies, namely her sunny disposition and optimistic outlook would win over cranky old adults and straighten out bratty little kids, who were usually the villains, in her films, and that was about all.
I do recognize and respect Shirley Temple’s place in film history. She was the biggest star...
- 2/24/2014
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
What had ETonline readers buzzing this week?
What had ETonline readers buzzing this week?
1. Shirley Temple Black Dies
Legendary child actress Shirley Temple Black passed away on Monday night, Feb. 10. She was 85.
The actress, perhaps best known for her 1930s films Little Princess, Bright Eyes and Heidi, died in her Woodside, Calif. home, her nephew Richard Black told The Hollywood Reporter. She had recently begun hospice care.
Temple is survived by her three children, her daughter Linda from her marriage to John Agar, and her son Charles and daughter Lori from her marriage to Charles Black.
Temple, who served as a foreign ambassador and diplomat for four U.S. presidents, won a Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award in 2006. "When I was 3 years old, I was delighted to be told that I was an actress, even though I didn't know what an actress was," she said during her acceptance speech. "I have one...
What had ETonline readers buzzing this week?
1. Shirley Temple Black Dies
Legendary child actress Shirley Temple Black passed away on Monday night, Feb. 10. She was 85.
The actress, perhaps best known for her 1930s films Little Princess, Bright Eyes and Heidi, died in her Woodside, Calif. home, her nephew Richard Black told The Hollywood Reporter. She had recently begun hospice care.
Temple is survived by her three children, her daughter Linda from her marriage to John Agar, and her son Charles and daughter Lori from her marriage to Charles Black.
Temple, who served as a foreign ambassador and diplomat for four U.S. presidents, won a Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award in 2006. "When I was 3 years old, I was delighted to be told that I was an actress, even though I didn't know what an actress was," she said during her acceptance speech. "I have one...
- 2/15/2014
- Entertainment Tonight
Whoopi Goldberg and Mia Farrow praise Temple, the former child star who left the entertainment industry for politics
Whoopi Goldberg and Mia Farrow were among the Hollywood stars who paid tribute to the former child star Shirley Temple, who has died aged 85.
On Tuesday Farrow said Temple, still held as one of the most famous child stars of all time, "raised the spirits of a nation during the Great Depression", while Goldberg identified her as "one of a kind".
George Clooney expressed appreciation for Temple's huge contribution to film history "from the very beginning". He added: "I'm sure it wasn't easy being a child star, although she went on to become an ambassador, so she reinvented herself along the way … it's a great loss."
Temple began her singular career aged three, finding early success with films including Curly Top, Heidi and Bright Eyes, which featured one of Temple's best known performances,...
Whoopi Goldberg and Mia Farrow were among the Hollywood stars who paid tribute to the former child star Shirley Temple, who has died aged 85.
On Tuesday Farrow said Temple, still held as one of the most famous child stars of all time, "raised the spirits of a nation during the Great Depression", while Goldberg identified her as "one of a kind".
George Clooney expressed appreciation for Temple's huge contribution to film history "from the very beginning". He added: "I'm sure it wasn't easy being a child star, although she went on to become an ambassador, so she reinvented herself along the way … it's a great loss."
Temple began her singular career aged three, finding early success with films including Curly Top, Heidi and Bright Eyes, which featured one of Temple's best known performances,...
- 2/12/2014
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor, who became one of the most famous child stars of all time, has died at the age of 85
• Shirley Temple obituary
• Philip French on Shirley Temple
• Shirley Temple: a career in clips
Whoopi Goldberg, James Franco and Mia Farrow have paid tribute to the actor, singer, dancer and politician Shirley Temple, who has died aged 85.
Farrow credited Temple, still held as the most famous child stars of all time, for "rais[ing] the spirits of a nation during the Great Depression", while Goldberg identified her as "one of a kind". Temple began her singular career aged three, finding early success with chirpy hits such as Curly Top, Heidi and Bright Eyes. That film featured one of Temple's best known performances, a rendition of Richard A Whiting and Sidney Clare's On the Good Ship Lollipop.
Temple left the film business in 1950. She returned for a brief stint in television,...
• Shirley Temple obituary
• Philip French on Shirley Temple
• Shirley Temple: a career in clips
Whoopi Goldberg, James Franco and Mia Farrow have paid tribute to the actor, singer, dancer and politician Shirley Temple, who has died aged 85.
Farrow credited Temple, still held as the most famous child stars of all time, for "rais[ing] the spirits of a nation during the Great Depression", while Goldberg identified her as "one of a kind". Temple began her singular career aged three, finding early success with chirpy hits such as Curly Top, Heidi and Bright Eyes. That film featured one of Temple's best known performances, a rendition of Richard A Whiting and Sidney Clare's On the Good Ship Lollipop.
Temple left the film business in 1950. She returned for a brief stint in television,...
- 2/11/2014
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Shirley Temple Black, the one-time child star whose precocious acting ability, cheery demeanor and innocent face made her one of the biggest draws of the 1930s, died on Monday night at her home in California. She was 85.
From the age of six to ten Shirley Temple was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While the rest of the nation was mired in the Great Depression Shirley Temple sang and danced her way through it in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Marker, Heidi and The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, the third and youngest child (and only girl) of George Francis Temple, a bank teller, and Gertrude Krieger, a supremely willful stage mother (Temple dedicated her autobiography to her). Her parents noticed an innate sense of rhythm and extroverted presence as early as eight months in Shirley. She was put in acting classes by the age of three and was starring in a series of cloying shorts in 1932 and ’33, as well as assaying bit parts in larger films.
It was her performance of “Baby Takes a Bow” in 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer, a film that debuted in May, that thrust her into prominence. She was obviously a natural in front of the camera with a wide range of talent. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. Fox signed her on and, by the end of the same year, which also held the hits Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes (where she famously sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and several other roles, Shirley Temple was a star. A mere nine months after Stand Up and Cheer hit screens, in February of 1935, she received a special “Juvenile Award” at the Oscars “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
For the next few years the public couldn’t get enough of her. Exhibitors named her the top box-office attraction of 1935 (when she sang “Animal Crackers” in Curly Top) - 1938. A non-alcoholic drink was named after her (a mixture of ginger ale and grenadine) and a cottage industry sprang up around her likeness including dolls, coloring books, and dress lines. She tapped alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, in The Littlest Rebel, starred in John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie and several Allan Dwan films, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Graham Greene’s review of Winkie, where he accused Temple of being an adult impersonating a child, and where he impugned the motives for older men’s attraction to her, caused such an uproar that Night and Day, the magazine in which the review was published, shortly thereafter was bankrupted and folded.)
Temple was the natural pick to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz but Fox wouldn’t loan its star out so Judy Garland got the role. It was a turning point in both their careers.
As she matured, Hollywood and the audience, now veterans of World War II, and seemingly unable to reconcile the fact that the cherubic star had become a comely young woman, looked elsewhere. Temple was no longer the compliant child but a willful ingénue. After two flops she canceled her contract with Fox and moved over to MGM but fared no better there.
At 17 she wed fellow actor John Agar but the marriage fell apart five years later. Temple, now divorced with a child, lost her interest in movie-making. The audience too moved on. She became a cautionary tale in many circles, an example of the loose morals and bad ends destined for Hollywood types. Her talent agency, MCA, unceremoniously dropped her and Temple’s meteoric career was over. She wasn’t yet 21.
Later life included several quickly-canceled variety shows but she attained a second act as a public figure and politician, even running for office in the vacant Republican seat in her congressional district. In 1968 President Richard Nixon appointed her as the US representative at the United Nations and she became an ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976. She later also held the post of US Chief of protocol and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (appointed by President George H.W. Bush).
Shortly after her divorce from Agar Shirley Temple met and married Charles Black, a TV executive. They were married for 55 years, until his death, and had two children together.
From the age of six to ten Shirley Temple was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While the rest of the nation was mired in the Great Depression Shirley Temple sang and danced her way through it in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Marker, Heidi and The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, the third and youngest child (and only girl) of George Francis Temple, a bank teller, and Gertrude Krieger, a supremely willful stage mother (Temple dedicated her autobiography to her). Her parents noticed an innate sense of rhythm and extroverted presence as early as eight months in Shirley. She was put in acting classes by the age of three and was starring in a series of cloying shorts in 1932 and ’33, as well as assaying bit parts in larger films.
It was her performance of “Baby Takes a Bow” in 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer, a film that debuted in May, that thrust her into prominence. She was obviously a natural in front of the camera with a wide range of talent. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. Fox signed her on and, by the end of the same year, which also held the hits Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes (where she famously sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and several other roles, Shirley Temple was a star. A mere nine months after Stand Up and Cheer hit screens, in February of 1935, she received a special “Juvenile Award” at the Oscars “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
For the next few years the public couldn’t get enough of her. Exhibitors named her the top box-office attraction of 1935 (when she sang “Animal Crackers” in Curly Top) - 1938. A non-alcoholic drink was named after her (a mixture of ginger ale and grenadine) and a cottage industry sprang up around her likeness including dolls, coloring books, and dress lines. She tapped alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, in The Littlest Rebel, starred in John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie and several Allan Dwan films, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Graham Greene’s review of Winkie, where he accused Temple of being an adult impersonating a child, and where he impugned the motives for older men’s attraction to her, caused such an uproar that Night and Day, the magazine in which the review was published, shortly thereafter was bankrupted and folded.)
Temple was the natural pick to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz but Fox wouldn’t loan its star out so Judy Garland got the role. It was a turning point in both their careers.
As she matured, Hollywood and the audience, now veterans of World War II, and seemingly unable to reconcile the fact that the cherubic star had become a comely young woman, looked elsewhere. Temple was no longer the compliant child but a willful ingénue. After two flops she canceled her contract with Fox and moved over to MGM but fared no better there.
At 17 she wed fellow actor John Agar but the marriage fell apart five years later. Temple, now divorced with a child, lost her interest in movie-making. The audience too moved on. She became a cautionary tale in many circles, an example of the loose morals and bad ends destined for Hollywood types. Her talent agency, MCA, unceremoniously dropped her and Temple’s meteoric career was over. She wasn’t yet 21.
Later life included several quickly-canceled variety shows but she attained a second act as a public figure and politician, even running for office in the vacant Republican seat in her congressional district. In 1968 President Richard Nixon appointed her as the US representative at the United Nations and she became an ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976. She later also held the post of US Chief of protocol and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (appointed by President George H.W. Bush).
Shortly after her divorce from Agar Shirley Temple met and married Charles Black, a TV executive. They were married for 55 years, until his death, and had two children together.
- 2/11/2014
- by Keith Simanton
- IMDb News
Cherubic child star of the 1930s who returned to public life as a Us diplomat
From 1934 to 1938, when she was at the height of her fame, Shirley Temple (later known as Shirley Temple Black), who has died aged 85, appeared in films as a bright-eyed, curly-topped, dimpled cherub, whose chirpy singing and toddler's tap dancing were perfect antidotes to the depression. "During this depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that, for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Franklin D Roosevelt stated in 1935, referring to the world's biggest and littlest star.
Temple's message was "be optimistic", the title of the song she sang in Little Miss Broadway (1938). Her biggest hit songs were On the Good Ship Lollipop, from Bright Eyes (1934), which describes a...
From 1934 to 1938, when she was at the height of her fame, Shirley Temple (later known as Shirley Temple Black), who has died aged 85, appeared in films as a bright-eyed, curly-topped, dimpled cherub, whose chirpy singing and toddler's tap dancing were perfect antidotes to the depression. "During this depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that, for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Franklin D Roosevelt stated in 1935, referring to the world's biggest and littlest star.
Temple's message was "be optimistic", the title of the song she sang in Little Miss Broadway (1938). Her biggest hit songs were On the Good Ship Lollipop, from Bright Eyes (1934), which describes a...
- 2/11/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
She was far and away the most popular child actress of all time and at her prime, she was the most recognized star in the world. Shirley Temple’s sweet charisma and loveable voice lifted the spirit of depression-era America in a series of incredibly successful films throughout the 1930′s such as The Little Colonel, Curly Top (which featured her signature song ‘Animal Crackers in My Soup’), Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm, and The Littlest Rebel. Before those, when she was just three and four, Ms Temple starred in a series of politically incorrect ‘Baby Burlesque’ shorts, which featured its toddler cast members clad in adult costumes on the top and diapers fastened with large safety pins on the bottom (I’ve shown a couple of these at my Super-8 Movie Madness show to astounded audiences). In 1945, she married cult actor John Agar and co-starred with him in John Ford’s...
- 2/11/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Shirley Temple dead at 85: Was one of the biggest domestic box office draws of the ’30s (photo: Shirley Temple in the late ’40s) Shirley Temple, one of the biggest box office draws of the 1930s in the United States, died Monday night, February 10, 2014, at her home in Woodside, near San Francisco. The cause of death wasn’t made public. Shirley Temple (born in Santa Monica on April 23, 1928) was 85. Shirley Temple became a star in 1934, following the release of Paramount’s Alexander Hall-directed comedy-tearjerker Little Miss Marker, in which Temple had the title role as a little girl who, left in the care of bookies, almost loses her childlike ways before coming around to regenerate Adolphe Menjou and his gang. That same year, Temple became a Fox contract player, and is credited with saving the studio — 20th Century Fox from 1935 on — from bankruptcy. Whether or not that’s true is a different story,...
- 2/11/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
One of the most beloved child stars ever has passed away.Shirley Temple, also known as Shirley Temple Black, died on Tuesday from natural causes at the age of 85.According to a statement from her loved ones, the former actress "was surrounded by her family and caregivers. "We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black," the statement continues.Known for her trademark curls and the song "On the Good Ship Lollipop," Temple starred in films like "Stand Up and Cheer!," "Bright Eyes," "Baby Take a Bow," "A Little Princess" and "Heidi" back in the 1930s. She was also given a mini Oscar for her work.After retiring from films in the 1950s, Temple Black also worked in politics. She...
- 2/11/2014
- by tooFab Staff
- TooFab
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