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HBO’s anthology series “True Detective” is back after five years with a new season that will compete at the 2024 Emmy Awards. This latest installment that premiered in January comes with the subtitle “True Detective: Night Country” and, while still part of the franchise, it’s the first to not have the involvement of creator Nic Pizzolato – other than his executive producer credit. It was instead developed by Issa Lopez who wrote (or co-wrote) and directed all six episodes, and stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as detectives in an Alaskan town investigating the disappearance of eight scientists. Let’s re-examine the three previous seasons of “True Detective” at the Emmys – which garnered a combined total of 22 nominations and five wins – to determine possible nominations in categories for the current season.

Here is the complete Emmys history for the first three seasons of “True Detective”:

Season 1 (2014):

Best Drama Series

Nic Pizzolato,...

The central villain of George Lucas' 1977 sci-fi flick "Star Wars" is a stern, steel-eyed military general named Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing). He is in command of a moon-sized structure called the Death Star which can destroy entire planets with a single, powerful laser blast. Like all the employees who work for the evil Empire, Tarkin is miserably unhappy. One might note that no Empire employees in any of the "Star Wars" films smile, laugh, or appear to enjoy their jobs. Joy is not in Tarkin's vocabulary. 

Tarkin is a fine character and Cushing is an excellent actor, but, as a character, he was massively upstaged by his mysterious lieutenant, an evil mask-wearing, semi-robotic warlock named Darth Vader. The character, of course, warrants no description as you can buy toasters with his face on them to this very day. Because Darth Vader left such an impact on audiences, the many...

Many people rightly feel that the origins of Count Dracula — that mythic, blood-sucking vampire — have their roots in the mountains of Transylvania. However, if humans of the future were to unearth the graves of those buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, they might believe differently. Because actor Bela Lugosi was laid to rest there donning one of the iconic capes he wore in his portrayals of the famous vampire on screen. To unearth him would be like unearthing The Count himself.

And maybe, in a way, that would be true. Even though Lugosi's body of work includes much more than just his performance as Dracula in the original 1931 Universal film of the same name (as well as a role reprisal in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"), when you mention him today, the first thing that comes to mind is that infamous bloodsucker. Lugosi has become synonymous with the character,...

It’s the final theatrical western of the legendary director Budd Boetticher, and he also wrote the screenplay! Ace cinematographer Lucien Ballard was behind the camera, and Audie Murphy produced and plays Jesse James! This disc release is a gift to die-hard western fans that want to see everything, but the film itself remains a mystery — oddly nihilistic and cruel, but also awkward, with amateurish acting, slack direction and a TV-movie appearance. The one gotta-see factor for completists is Victor Jory’s three scenes as Judge Roy Bean: he nails the sleazy, gross-out charm of the Texas threat to civilization, chewing the scenery like a pro.

A Time for Dying

Region Free Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1969 (1982) / Color / 1:85 widescreen + 1:37 Academy / 72 min. / Zeit zum Sterben / Street Date March 22, 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Richard Lapp, Anne Randall, Robert Random, Beatrice Kay, Victor Jory, Audie Murphy, Burt Mustin, Peter Brocco,...

It’s a manhunt South of the Border — Niven Busch’s drama has violence and murder but is really a novelistic character study that goes against the typical rules of Hollywood. Lew Ayres tries to atone for mistakenly killing a man, by coming to the aid of the victim’s widow. But he doesn’t realize that Teresa Wright’s ranch wife has learned the truth about him. The independent production is a modern oil-field western set in Mexico, and unusual both in storytelling style and emphasis, with an atypical imperfect hero and a romance far removed from Hollywood clichés. John Sturges is the director of this interesting obscurity.

The Capture

Blu-ray

The Film Detective

1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 91 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / Available from The Film Detective / 24.95

Starring: Lew Ayres, Teresa Wright, Victor Jory, Jacqueline White, Jimmy Hunt, Barry Kelley, Duncan Renaldo, William Bakewell, Milton Parsons, Felipe Turich, Edwin Rand,...

” I have just received a dispatch that Santa Anna has captured San Antonio. Colonel Travis, with less than 200 men, has withdrawn across the river to the Alamo to prepare for its defense. At the moment, that is the only military force between the Mexican army and the Sabine River… and those men need help!”

Two lavishly produced Mexican war epics, The Man From The Alamo and They Came To Cordura make their high-definition debut in this star-studded double feature spotlighting the talents of Glenn Ford, Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Julia Adams and many more!

The Man From The Alamo (1953) stars Glenn Ford as John Stroud, a heroic survivor of the brutal battle at The Alamo who is branded a coward for fleeing to warn the local townsfolk of the approaching Mexican armies. He sets out to clear his name and avenge those who killed his wife and child.

Directed by...

Marlon Brando is back in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending. The cameraman is Boris Kaufman and the director is Sidney Lumet; Marlon’s a classic tomcat drifter in a dangerous parish, who attracts two women. Acting styles mesh, or mix without blending — Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward each get opportunities to shine. It’s all poetics and symbolism — dig the snakeskin jacket! — in a fairly realistic setting.

The Fugitive Kind

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 515

1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 121 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 14, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory, R.G. Armstrong.

Cinematography: Boris Kaufman

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins

Written by Meade Roberts, Tennessee Williams from his play Orpheus Descending

Produced by Martin Jurow, Richard Shepherd

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Tennessee Williams sometimes seemed a continuation of William Faulkner’s literary legacy. This story’s...

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Blu ray

Kino Lorber Home Video

1938 / 1.33:1 / Street Date July 10, 2018

Starring Tommy Kelly, May Robson, Marcia Mae Jones

Cinematography by James Wong Howe

Directed by Norman Taurog

Though Hemingway suggested “all modern American literature” comes from Huckleberry Finn, a case could be made for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as the great American campfire tale.

David Selznick’s picaresque film version of Mark Twain’s bucolic farce plays out through the producer’s rose-colored glasses – an elegy to “the beautiful past, the dear and lamented past.” The brisk adaptation by screenwriter John Weaver (only 91 minutes) is a laundry list of Tom’s greatest hits – his graveyard vigil with Huck Finn, the pirate escapade, the hair-raising cavern finale – all are adventures ingrained in the collective unconscious of most sentient human beings – even those who never cracked a book.

Directed by Norman Taurog, a man who specialized...

Anybody that appreciates good theater and good moviemaking will be in awe of Arthur Penn’s marvelous visualization of this tale of a determined woman achieving the impossible — teaching a child that can neither see nor hear. The knock down, drag ’em out scenes between Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke are unique, to say the least.

The Miracle Worker

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1962 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory, Inga Swenson, Andrew Prine, Judith Lowry.

Cinematography: Ernesto Caparrós

Film Editor: Aram Avakian

Art Direction: George Jenkins

Original Music: Laurence Rosenthal

Written by William Gibson, from his stage play

Produced by Fred Coe

Directed by Arthur Penn

I can barely believe that Arthur Penn’s obviously superior picture The Miracle Worker wasn’t picked off by Criterion years ago. It’s that good — it ought to...

Timeless titans of the horror genre—including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee—are featured in a new 9-disc, 26-film DVD set fittingly titled Horror Hall of Fame, coming this October from Mill Creek Entertainment.

Fright fans can keep an eye out for the Horror Hall of Fame DVD set (featuring over 35 hours of film footage) when it's released on October 17th. We have the cover art and full list of films below, and to learn more, visit Mill Creek Entertainment's website. Will you be adding this set to your home media collection this fall?

"Hungry for Horror? Stay glued to the edge of your seat with a 26 film bundle including some of the greatest works from the masters of Horror.

Bat, The - 1959 - Vincent Price

Before I Hang - 1940 - Boris Karloff

Black Room, The - 1935 - Boris Karloff

Boogie Man Will Get You,...

Randolph Scott fights to let the railroad go through in this old-fashioned rip-snorting action adventure movie, the kind where shooting bad guys means never having to say you're sorry. Jane Wyatt gets top billing but the big burner on this prairie is newcomer Nancy Olson, who puts more sex appeal into her homegrown heroine than all of her later roles combined. Canadian Pacific Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1949 / Color /1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / Street Date August 9, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Randolph Scott, Jane Wyatt, J. Carrol Nash, Victor Jory, Nancy Olson, Robert Barrat, Walter Sande, Don Haggerty, Grandon Rhodes, John Hamilton, George Chandler, Holmes Herbert, Norman Jewison, Chief Yowlachie. Cinematography Fred Jackman, Jr., Film Editor Philip Martin Art Direction Ernst Fegeé Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin Written by Jack DeWitt, Kenneth Gamet story by Jack DeWitt Produced by Nat Holt Directed by Edwin L. Marin Reviewed by Glenn Erickson All Randolph Scott movies aren't created equal,...

Coleen Gray in 'The Sleeping City' with Richard Conte. Coleen Gray after Fox: B Westerns and films noirs (See previous post: “Coleen Gray Actress: From Red River to Film Noir 'Good Girls'.”) Regarding the demise of her Fox career (the year after her divorce from Rod Amateau), Coleen Gray would recall for Confessions of a Scream Queen author Matt Beckoff: I thought that was the end of the world and that I was a total failure. I was a mass of insecurity and depended on agents. … Whether it was an 'A' picture or a 'B' picture didn't bother me. It could be a Western movie, a sci-fi film. A job was a job. You did the best with the script that you had. Fox had dropped Gray at a time of dramatic upheavals in the American film industry: fast-dwindling box office receipts as a result of competition from television,...

Vivien Leigh ca. late 1940s. Vivien Leigh movies: now controversial 'Gone with the Wind,' little-seen '21 Days Together' on TCM Vivien Leigh is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 18, '15, as TCM's “Summer Under the Stars” series continues. Mostly a stage actress, Leigh was seen in only 19 films – in about 15 of which as a leading lady or star – in a movie career spanning three decades. Good for the relatively few who saw her on stage; bad for all those who have access to only a few performances of one of the most remarkable acting talents of the 20th century. This evening, TCM is showing three Vivien Leigh movies: Gone with the Wind (1939), 21 Days Together (1940), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Leigh won Best Actress Academy Awards for the first and the third title. The little-remembered film in-between is a TCM premiere. 'Gone with the Wind' Seemingly all...

'Jurassic World' velociraptor kicks Iron Man ass at worldwide box office. 'Jurassic World' officially surpasses 'The Avengers' at worldwide box office Directed by Colin Trevorrow; starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Vincent D'Onofrio; and co-executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic World has officially become the third biggest worldwide box office hit in history. The Jurassic Park sequel – or reboot, as it's basically the same story with a slightly different twist – has surpassed Marvel's Joss Whedon-directed all-star superhero flick The Avengers, which broke box office records back in 2012. Of course, "officially" just ain't what it used to be – like, in the days before The Fall. So you wisely ask, "But which movie has actually sold the most tickets?" After all, that's the true measure of a film's popularity. Well, that's a tough one to answer without the studios providing accurate, precise numbers. And that's not about to happen. It always...

Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

Last week, I taunted you with visions of ancient superhero movies – serials, as they were called back then. Today we’d call them really low-budget webcasts. Here’s a few more worthy of your consideration, and this time we’re delving into a trio of iconic heroes from the pulps and newspaper strips – and now, of course, comic books.

The Shadow is the best-known of all the classic pulp heroes, and for a very good reason: many of the more than 300 stories published were quite good. Walter B. Gibson created something magical – a series with a lead character who had plenty of secrets but no secret identity, aided and abetted by a slew of agents who had no idea who their master was. The character’s popularity was enhanced massively by a highly successful radio series, one that gave The Shadow an alter-ego and a female companion and took away most of his agents.

The old saying goes is that if you want to win an Academy Award then the best way is to undertake playing a disabled part or portraying a famous personality in a biopic. In some cases, actors have accomplished both themes and reached their Oscar-attaining goals (see Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker or Daniel-Day Lewis in My Left Foot for instance).

In Able to Disable: Top 10 Oscar-Winning Disability-Bound Movie Characters we will look at the top movie characters that became Academy Award-winning figures within their films. Interestingly, there have been a couple of performers that were real-life disabled individuals that convincingly embodied their fictional disabled alter egos (see Harold Russell from The Best Days of Our Lives or Marlee Matlin from Children of a Lesser God).

Anyway, this selection of Able to Disable: Top 10 Oscar-Winning Disability-Bound Movie Characters are (in alphabetical order according to film title):...

‘Gone with the Wind’ actress Alicia Rhett dead at 98; was oldest surviving credited Gwtw cast member Gone with the Wind actress Alicia Rhett, the oldest surviving credited cast member of the 1939 Oscar-winning blockbuster, died on January 3, 2014, at the Bishop Gadsden Episcopal Retirement Community in Charleston, South Carolina, where Rhett had been living since August 2002. Alicia Rhett, born on February 1, 1915, in Savannah, Georgia, was 98. (Photo: Alicia Rhett as India Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.) In Gone with the Wind, the David O. Selznick production made in conjunction with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM head Louis B. Mayer was Selznick’s father-in-law), the stage-trained Alicia Rhett played India Wilkes, the embittered sister of Ashley Wilkes, whom Scarlett O’Hara loves — though Ashley eventually marries Melanie Hamilton (Rhett had auditioned for the role), while Scarlett ends up with Rhett Butler. Based on Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller, Gone with the Wind was (mostly) directed by Victor Fleming...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 27th successful year! Steve and I collaborated in 2011 on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and I have been writing a regular monthly movie-related column since. Our working alliance is simple: Steve tells me a year and I pick a movie from that year and write about it. Last month Steve threw me the year 1963. Since I was hosting a Ray Harryhausen tribute event at the St. Louis International Film Festival and was eager to...

Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in ‘Gone with the Wind’: TCM schedule on August 20, 2013 (photo: Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in ‘Gone with the Wind’) See previous post: “Hattie McDaniel: Oscar Winner Makes History.” 3:00 Am Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). Director: David Butler. Cast: Joan Leslie, Dennis Morgan, Eddie Cantor, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, George Tobias, Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall, Hattie McDaniel, Ruth Donnelly, Don Wilson, Spike Jones, Henry Armetta, Leah Baird, Willie Best, Monte Blue, James Burke, David Butler, Stanley Clements, William Desmond, Ralph Dunn, Frank Faylen, James Flavin, Creighton Hale, Sam Harris, Paul Harvey, Mark Hellinger, Brandon Hurst, Charles Irwin, Noble Johnson, Mike Mazurki, Fred Kelsey, Frank Mayo, Joyce Reynolds, Mary Treen, Doodles Weaver. Bw-127 mins. 5:15 Am Janie (1944). Director: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton,...

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

Eleanor Parker today: Beautiful as ever in Scaramouche, Interrupted Melody Eleanor Parker, who turns 91 in ten days (June 26, 2013), can be seen at her most radiantly beautiful in several films Turner Classic Movies is showing this evening and tomorrow morning as part of their Star of the Month Eleanor Parker "tribute." Among them are the classic Scaramouche, the politically delicate Above and Beyond, and the biopic Interrupted Melody, which earned Parker her third and final Best Actress Academy Award nomination. (Photo: publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in Scaramouche.) The best of the lot is probably George Sidney’s balletic Scaramouche (1952), in which Eleanor Parker plays one of Stewart Granger’s love interests — the other one is Janet Leigh. A loose remake of Rex Ingram’s 1923 blockbuster, the George Sidney version features plenty of humor, romance, and adventure; vibrant colors (cinematography by Charles Rosher); an elaborately staged climactic swordfight; and tough dudes...

Gone With The Wind Actress Ann Rutherford Dies. [Photo: Ann Rutherford as Carreen O'Hara, Evelyn Keyes as Suellen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.]

Ann Rutherford‘s most notable screen roles were in films made away from both MGM and Wallace Beery. She was a young woman who falls for trumpeter George Montgomery in Archie Mayo’s 20th Century Fox musical Orchestra Wives (1942), and became enmeshed with (possibly) amnesiac Tom Conway in Anthony Mann’s Rko thriller Two O’Clock Courage (1945).

Following a couple of minor supporting roles — in the Danny Kaye comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) at Goldwyn and the Errol Flynn costumer The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) at Warner Bros. — and the female lead in the independently made cattle drama Operation Haylift (1950), opposite Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford retired from the screen. (Rutherford would later say that her Operation Haylift experience was anything but pleasant.)

She then turned to television, making regular television appearances in the ’50s (The Donna Reed Show, Playhouse 90,...

It was a marathon of theater at the second day of the industry weekend for the 36th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 11:30 p.m., festivalgoers attended four different works. The day started on a sobering, shattering note with Lucas Hnath’s “Death Tax” in the intimate Victor Jory studio space. Lit by designer Brian H. Scott with harsh fluorescent tubes, the play is set in a nursing home and chronicles the ethical conflicts that take place when a rich patient accuses her nurse of trying to kill her. Like John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” Hnath’s incisive script examines the moral questions raised when the issues are muddy. Each of the four characters - Maxine, the elderly woman afraid of dying; Tina, the Haitian nurse engaged in a bitter custody battle for her son; Todd,...

Joan Blondell on TCM: Dames, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Reckless Hour (1931) A young innocent almost ruins her life for the love of an unfeeling cad. Dir: John Francis Dillon. Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Conrad Nagel, H. B. Warner. Bw-71 mins. 7:15 Am Big City Blues (1932) A country boy finds love and heartache in New York City. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Jobyna Howland. Bw-63 mins. 8:30 Am Central Park (1932) Small-town kids out to make it in the big city inadvertently get mixed up with gangsters. Dir: John G. Adolfi. Cast: Joan Blondell, Wallace Ford, Guy Kibbee. Bw-58 mins. 9:30 Am Lawyer Man (1933) Success corrupts a smooth-talking lawyer. Dir: William Dieterle. Cast: William Powell, Joan Blondell, David Landau. Bw-68 mins. 10:45 Am Traveling Saleslady (1935) A toothpaste tycoon's daughter joins his rival to teach him a lesson. Dir: Ray Enright.

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

The Hangover Part II – Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms

Kung Fu Panda 2 – Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan

Movie of the Week

The Hangover Part II

The Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms

The Plot: Right after their infamous Las Vegas bachelor party, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu’s wedding. Stu’s plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.

The Buzz: Like many wines and cheeses before him, Hangover II writer/director Todd Phillips has aged well. With Road Trip, his directorial debut, he made a film just funny enough to facilitate the production of his 2nd film, the far superior, Old School. From there Phillips helmed Starsky and Hutch, which was respected well enough, for what it was, before taking a major misstep with School for Scoundrels. Phillips bounced back big-time from his first flop,...

My experience with Tennessee Williams's work is limited to multiple viewings of both A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I love both of those films and still have yet to entirely crack into the rest of my Tennessee Williams Collection from 2006 to get more acquainted, but after watching Sidney Lumet's adaptation of The Fugitive Kind I am certainly more likely to do so.

Starring Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani, The Fugitive Kind swallows you whole. It's an atmospheric romance of class and conflict that slowly warms but has enough restraint to never boil over even if its players might. Brando stars as the drifter Valentine Xavier. Just released from jail, Val finds himself caught in a torrential downpour when he is offered a place to stay for the night by Vee Talbot (Maureen Stapleton). Vee helps him find work in his effort to "turn over a new leaf.

The actor Fess Parker, who has died aged 85, was a quintessential westerner, a tall, rugged, Texas-born athlete turned actor, famous for his portrayals of two frontiersmen, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, as well as sheriffs, cowboys and ranchers. He greatly appreciated the commercial success of these two title roles, and himself became a substantial businessman.

The Walt Disney Studio was the first in Hollywood to move wholeheartedly into television, and had the bright idea of combining three episodes of the Davy Crockett series Parker had made for them in 1954 into a feature. The result, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955), spawned the craze for "racoon-fur" hats and became a box-office hit on the back of its singalong theme - Bill Hayes's recording of The Ballad of Davy Crockett topped the charts for three months,...

I don't know why this surprises me, but hey! They made blooper reels in the '30s! This contains a lot less cursing and convulsive giggling than contemporary gag reels do, but I don't know if that's a difference in the actors or in the editing of said reels. I think my favorite is around 7:03 with Victor Jory flubbing his lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream. What's your favorite vintage flub, PopWatchers? [via]...

Restored Serials’ Super Restoration Series brings you the Columbia Pictures’ 1940 serial The Green Archer, based on Edgar Wallace’s 1923 novel, fully restored on DVD!

The loose adaptation of the Edgar Wallace story starts out with Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan) inheriting Garr Castle only to be falsely accused and imprisoned by his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven), who wants Garr Castle for his own in order to run an jewel thieving operation. After a few suspicious events, like when Michael’s wife Elaine (Dorothy Fay) doesn’t return from a trip to the Castle, private detective Spike Holland (Victor Jory) moves into the neighborhood, determined to crack the case. Abel desperately tries to remove the threat of the troublesome detective, only to be thwarted by mysterious appearances of the legendary Green Archer. The forces of good and evil struggle against each other in battles of wits and brawn and the serial...