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In 1934, the inimitable Bette Davis appeared in a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage," a semi-autobiographical novel about the unfortunate loves of one Philip Carey. The 1934 film was directed by the prolific John Cromwell and starred Leslie Howard as Philip. Davis played Mildred Rogers, a tearoom waitress that Philip falls in love with, but who treats him with the utmost cruelty. It was a great role for Davis, who was only 26 at the time. 

An article in Collider points out that Davis was under contract with Warner Bros. at the time, but really, really wanted to play the part of Mildred, knowing that it was a juicy role. "Of Human Bondage" was being produced by Rko, and Davis would need WB's Jack Warner to loan her talents to Rko to work on the project. Davis...

[Editor’s note: For this article, The Hollywood Reporter only looked at the shortest and longest screen times in the lead acting categories. Best supporting actor and actress were not included.]

Longest Screen Times Vivien Leigh, Gone With the Wind (1939)

Movie Length 3 hrs 58 mins

Time Onscreen 2 hrs 23 mins

Percent of Run Time 60 Percent

Vivien Leigh holds the record for the longest performance to win an Oscar, though the work took a deep physical and mental toll on her. The film itself is also the longest to win best picture. At the 12th Academy Awards, Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind also won best supporting actress for Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African American to win an Oscar. Leigh was nominated alongside Bette Davis (Dark Victory), Irene Dunne (Love Affair), Greta Garbo (Ninotchka) and Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips).

Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur (1959)

Movie Length 3 hrs 32 mins

Time Onscreen 2 hrs 1 min

Percent of Run Time 57.1 Percent...

Hollywood’s pre-Code era saw filmmakers venturing out on the frontiers of free expression, testing the limits of humor and taste in their depictions of social and sexual mores with relatively little organized interference. While the Hays Code wasn’t strictly enforced until 1934, there were instances before then when Will Hays’s power, along with the loudly professed moral outrage of various individual state censorship boards, was used to directly alter the content of motion pictures, including Howard Hawks’s influential gangster film Scarface.

After being greeted with initial handwringing over its supposed glorification of crime and violence, producer Howard Hughes caved to demands from the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America to add a declamatory prologue calling on the federal government to deal with organized grime, reshoot a different ending that was more harshly judgmental of its protagonist, and tack on an unnecessary subtitle, The Shame of a Nation,...

It hardly needs repeating, but director John Carpenter is known for making multiple horror classics, including "Halloween," "The Fog," "Christine," "The Thing," "Prince of Darkness," "In the Mouth of Madness" and "Vampires." Although Carpenter doesn't have a notable, recognizable style or motif in his filmography (apart from recurring actors) he does seem to possess a subtle, natural mastery of filmmaking craft that makes all his films, even the bad ones, imminently watchable.

Carpenter loves horror, of course, but oddly, he's not a horror guy at heart. He possesses an old-world workman's attitude when it comes to filmmaking, just sort of sussing out, by instinct, how to shoot a scene, regardless of genre. Carpenter has given multiple interviews where he's talked about monster movies and sci-fi flicks that inspired him, but moreso, Carpenter talks about the films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, two American filmmakers best known for their high-profile Westerns.

Every month, the boutique cinephile DVD/Blu-Ray Label the Criterion Collection adds many new cineaste gems to its ever-growing closet, and November 2024 is no different. Four new titles were announced this week, and two classic releases received 4 K upgrades.

New Criterion titles include director William Wyler’s acclaimed 1968 musical “Funny Girl” starring Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif, Peter Bogdanovich’s classic black and white road comedy-drama starring Ryan O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal (the latter won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and became the youngest competitive winner in the history of the Academy Awards at that time), Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar Best-Picture winning “The Shape of Water,” with Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon, and Howard Hawks’ classic 1932 gangster picture “Scarface,” featuring Paul Muni.

Continue reading Criterion’s November Titles Include ‘The Shape Of Water,’ ‘Paper Moon’ & More at The Playlist.

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, the U.S.-based organization behind them has always strived to honor worldwide film achievements. Their extensive roster of competitive acting winners alone consists of artists from 30 unique countries, three of which first gained representation during the 2020s. The last full decade’s worth of triumphant performers hail from eight countries, while 42.1% of the individual actors nominated during that time originate from outside of America.

The academy’s history of recognizing acting talent on a global scale dates all the way back to the inaugural Oscars ceremony in 1929, when Swiss-born Emil Jannings (who was of German and American parentage) won Best Actor for his work in both “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” Over the next three years, the Best Actress prize was exclusively awarded to Canadians: Mary Pickford (“Coquette”), Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee”), and Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill...

The 2024 Oscar race is on, and one film has the potential to accomplish a feat that hasn’t happened in 64 years. “Oppenheimer” leads the nominations with 13, and it’s on track to win several of those categories. If Christopher Nolan‘s epic claims Best Picture, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), it will be the first time since 1960 that the same film (“Ben-Hur”) has won those three exact categories. And it would be only the fourth time it’s ever happened.

See Cillian Murphy interview: ‘Oppenheimer’

Since the Best Supporting Actor category was introduced in 1937, only three films have walked away with Best Picture as well as both male acting categories. In 1945, the inspirational musical comedy “Going My Way” not only became the highest-grossing film of 1944, but also won seven of its ten Oscar nominations, making it the big winner of the night. Beside the top prize,...

To quote a famous lyric from the musical Hamilton, immigrants get the job done. That message seems to be getting lost in the current wave of anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping the nation, if not the world. But it receives a timely reminder in Cabrini, the new drama about Francesca Cabrini, the Catholic missionary who arrived on our shores in 1889 and eventually established enough schools, orphanages and hospitals to form a veritable charitable empire. She became the first U.S. citizen to be canonized, in 1946, 29 years after her death. (And she’s apparently still performing miracles to this day, since she’s billed as one of the film’s executive producers.)

The film arrives courtesy of Angel Studios and director Alejandro Monteverde, both responsible for last year’s surprise, controversial smash hit about child sex trafficking, Sound of Freedom. This effort will likely prove far less divisive, if also less commercial. An old-fashioned,...

Upon securing a spot in the 2024 Best Supporting Actress Oscar lineup, Jodie Foster (“Nyad”) officially shattered the Academy Awards record for longest span between fourth and fifth acting nominations. Following her two Best Actress wins for “The Accused” (1989) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1992), she had last been recognized in that category for “Nell” (1995), making for a general nomination gap of 29 years. Coincidentally, she took this particular distinction from fellow “Silence of the Lambs” winner Anthony Hopkins, who waited 22 years between his supporting bids for “Amistad” (1998) and “The Two Popes” (2020).

Previously, the female record for longest wait for a fifth nomination was 12 years, as shared by Julianne Moore and Frances McDormand. Considering gaps between any two consecutive acting nominations, Foster ranks well behind overall record holder Judd Hirsch, whose first and second career notices for “Ordinary People” (1981) and “The Fabelmans” (2023) came 42 years apart. His female counterpart is Helen Hayes (39 years...

Armitage Trail's original novel "Scarface" was first published in 1930, and traces the rise and fall of the vicious gangster Tony "Scarface" Guarino, who took over the Chicago bootlegging underground during Prohibition. Clearly, Tony Guarino is an analog to Al Capone, and many true crime fans find it tantalizingly suspicious that Armitage Trail (real name: Maurice R. Coons) died of a heart attack at age 28, only six months after the publication of "Scarface." Coons, after all, had to hobnob with real gangsters in order to get ideas for his novel, and he would have been known in certain corners of the underground. 

In 1932, director Howard Hawks made the first film version of "Scarface," starring Paul Muni as Antonio "Tony" Camonte. Hawks' film was well-received, with some critics citing its naturalness and lack of melodrama. Indeed, it was so natural and treated crime with such frankness that some markets refused to show it.

Since the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930, 73 people have received acting Oscar nominations for their debut film performances, yielding a total of 15 breakout wins. Conversely, the list of actors who have earned recognition for their final movie appearances is much smaller, featuring only 18 general and two successful examples. Those who belong to this club gained entry in a variety of ways, with some having voluntarily quit acting altogether, others having specifically stepped away from film performing, and a few having sadly not lived long enough to bask in the glory of their farewell nominations.

Since film acting retirement can never be absolutely permanent while a performer is still alive, only deceased individuals can correctly be counted as official members of this group. Although most currently living retired actors did not pick up Oscar nominations for their latest films anyway, the academy did smile upon one – Daniel Day-Lewis – on his declared way out.

It’s time for Peter Sarsgaard to finally shatter the Oscar glass.

Once upon a time, actor Peter Sarsgaard won the most precursors prizes during the 2003-2004 awards season for his supporting turn in Billy Ray’s “Shattered Glass.” In the film, he plays Charles Lane, a newly promoted editor who suspects one of his revered writers (played by Hayden Christensen) could have fabricated some of his stories. It was a breakout performance in the early days of online Oscar punditry that had everyone buzzing. However, when it came time for the major televised ceremonies, he was only able to muster a Golden Globe nod, then to be followed by shocking snubs from SAG, BAFTA and eventually the Academy Awards.

It was one of the few times in recent awards history where the leader of critics’ acting prizes failed to nab Oscar recognition (others include Ethan Hawke for “First Reformed...

Here’s looking at Warner Bros. which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Earlier this year, Turner Classic Movies, which is a member of the Warner Bros. Discovery family, celebrated the centennial with a monthlong tribute to the studio that gave the world such landmark films as 1927’s “The Jazz Singer,” the first feature with synchronized recorded singing and some dialogue; the ultimate gangster flick 1931’s “Public Enemy,: the glorious 1938 swashbuckler “The Adventures of Robin Hood”; and the beloved 1942 “Casablanca.

And during its Golden Age, its roster of stars included such legends as Rin-Tin-Tin, John Barrymore, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Kay Francis, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Paul Muni, John Garfield and Sydney Greenstreet.

Max is currently streaming the four-part documentary series “100 Years of Warner Bros.” (the first two episodes premiered at Cannes). And also arriving this week is the lavish coffee table book “Warner Bros.

Turner Classic Movies has some of the best film programming when it comes to delivering both famous and lesser-known titles. April 7 until 9 has a diverse group of movies playing over the weekend that provides a little bit of something for all audiences who enjoy the channel. Here’s a look at the five best movies airing on TCM.

‘I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’ (1932) L-r: Paul Muni as James Allen and Noel Francis as Linda | FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images

James Allen (Paul Muni) reenters civilian life after serving in World War I, finding his calling as a construction engineer. He attends a dinner with an acquaintance, only to be forced to commit a robbery at gunpoint. James serves in a Southern chain gang, with inhumane conditions haunting him in the time to follow.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang earned three Oscar nominations for Best Picture,...

Jack Warner and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover Photo: Bettmann In a special series, The A.V. Club looks at the legacy of Warner Bros. 100 years after the studio was founded.It’s sad to see the once mighty Warner Bros. studio celebrate its 100th anniversary in a state of chaos and disarray.

To win a Best Picture Oscar, a film has to have something about it.

Only 94 films in history have been given this award. They’re not voted on by the eccentric members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who pick the Golden Globes, or by specialist groups of critics, but by the roughly 10,000 members of the Academy. That is to say, the choice is made by distinguished figures from within the industry.

Sometimes, though, they do still make some baffling choices.

By the time the Oscars roll around at the end of the awards process, a herd mentality tends to have set in.

When everybody has already voted at all the other awards shows for, say, The King’s Speech or The Shape of Water, the Academy members follow suit. It’s rare for a Best Picture winner ever to be a complete surprise.

Nonetheless, a few questionable films have stolen glory that rightfully belonged elsewhere.

To win a Best Picture Oscar, a film has to have something about it.

Only 94 films in history have been given this award. They’re not voted on by the eccentric members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who pick the Golden Globes, or by specialist groups of critics, but by the roughly 10,000 members of the Academy. That is to say, the choice is made by distinguished figures from within the industry.

Sometimes, though, they do still make some baffling choices.

By the time the Oscars roll around at the end of the awards process, a herd mentality tends to have set in.

When everybody has already voted at all the other awards shows for, say, The King’s Speech or The Shape of Water, the Academy members follow suit. It’s rare for a Best Picture winner ever to be a complete surprise.

Nonetheless, a few questionable films have stolen glory that rightfully belonged elsewhere.

To win a Best Picture Oscar, a film has to have something about it.

Only 90 films in history have been given this award. They’re not voted on by the eccentric members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who pick the Golden Globes, or by specialist groups of critics, but by the 6,000 members of the Academy. That is to say, the choice is made by distinguished figures from within the industry.

Sometimes, though, they do still make some baffling choices.

By the time the Oscars roll around at the end of the awards process, a herd mentality tends to have set in.

When everybody has already voted at all the other awards shows for, say, The King’s Speech or The Shape of Water, the Academy members follow suit. It’s rare for a Best Picture winner ever to be a complete surprise.

Nonetheless, a few questionable films have stolen glory that rightfully belonged elsewhere.

To win a Best Picture Oscar, a film has to have something about it.

Only 90 films in history have been given this award. They’re not voted on by the eccentric members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who pick the Golden Globes, or by specialist groups of critics, but by the 6,000 members of the Academy. That is to say, the choice is made by distinguished figures from within the industry.

Sometimes, though, they do still make some baffling choices.

By the time the Oscars roll around at the end of the awards process, a herd mentality tends to have set in.

When everybody has already voted at all the other awards shows for, say, The King’s Speech or The Shape of Water, the Academy members follow suit. It’s rare for a Best Picture winner ever to be a complete surprise.

Nonetheless, a few questionable films have stolen glory that rightfully belonged elsewhere.

Humphrey Bogart is one of the great icons of classic Hollywood. His trademark snarl and surprising romantic heroism sealed his legendary status in pop culture at large. For how inescapable his impact was, it's hard to imagine a period in sound film before him. But his rise to stardom took time. He wasn't exactly gunning down Nazis in Casablanca in his first year on the Warner Bros. lot.

What he was doing for most of his '30s performances was playing the background gangster in the studio's many crime melodramas. In movies with titles like "Bullets or Ballots" and "Racket Busters," audiences could rely on him showing up, grimacing, and probably dying in a moral way by movie's end. If he wasn't in a gangster movie, he could be oddly miscast, such as his appearance as an Irish stable master in the Bette Davis weepie "Dark Victory." No role was...

Mickey Kuhn, a child actor whose long credits list in the 1930s and 1940s included “Gone With the Wind” and “A Streetcar Named Desire,” has died in Naples, Florida, at the age of 90, his wife, Barbara told reporters.

Kuhn was the last surviving credited cast member of “Gone With the Wind,” playing Beau Wilkes, the son of Ashley and Melanie Wilkes, who were played by Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. Kuhn’s most well-known line comes near the end of the film, when Melanie is on her deathbed from pregnancy complications and Beau asks his father, “Where is my mother going away to? And why can’t I go along, please?”

Despite the mother-son relationship between their characters, Kuhn and de Havilland never appeared on-screen together and had never even met on set. In fact, he told the Naples Daily News in 2017 that his first meeting with de Havilland...

Click here to read the full article.

Mickey Kuhn, the busy child actor of the 1930s and ’40s who played Beau Wilkes, the son of Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard’s characters, in Gone With the Wind, has died. He was 90.

Kuhn died Sunday in a hospice facility in Naples, Florida, his wife, Barbara, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was in excellent health until recently, she said.

Kuhn also portrayed the ward of a famous movie cop in Dick Tracy (1945) and younger versions of Kirk Douglas and Montgomery Clift in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and John Wayne’s Red River (1948), respectively.

And in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Kuhn reunited with Gwtw actress Vivien Leigh to appear as a sailor who gives Blanche DuBois directions. (Was he Leigh’s good luck charm? She won her two best actress Oscars with him in the cast.)

Kuhn was 6 when...

On his 80th birthday, the thespian is not ready to call time on his career. Amitabh Bachchan has been a struggler, superstar, bankrupt, a small screen phenomenon, a celluloid colossus and has more or less essayed all types of roles to remain an iconoclast. The arc of his universe littered with peaks and troughs has been legendary.

In an age where hyperboles are common, he stands apart for his being and remains a true legend. Over the years, I have met him and spoken with him several times. Modest to the point of being self-deprecatory, he refuses to accept that his persona remains larger than life. Never afraid to speak his mind, he is distantly related to funambulism.

As he once told me: “I want to keep working, I shall continue to do my best.” He added, “Actually, I don’t know what else to do. Life is a blur...

Gangster icons aren’t always determined by top billing. Sometimes it’s decided by a flip of a coin. Director Howard Hawks’ 1932 gangster classic Scarface recently celebrated its 90th anniversary. Producer Howard Hughes was so committed to presenting a realistic depiction of mob violence that the film pushed the Motion Picture Production Code to its limit. Paul Muni puts in a gritty, animalistic performance in the title role of Antonio “Tony” Carmonte, modeled after Al Capone, but the actor with the gangland bona fides was the co-star, George Raft.

Hired for his dark and menacing presence, Raft doesn’t have many lines in Scarface. To give the inexperienced actor something to do, Hawks directed him to flip a nickel. Raft practiced the toss to perfection, setting the film up for one of the most memorable mob movie moments: a coin rolling across a floor to a dead stop.

Raft would...

Radioactive Photo: Studiocanal It's World Laboratory Day today, celebrating the work of pioneering scientists around the globe - something that has, arguably, never been more relevant than now, as we continue to fight the Covid pandemic. Films have long had a love affair with laboratories as well, whether as places of industry like that depicted in The Story Of Louis Pasteur, which won Paul Muni an Oscar for his portrayal of the French scientist back in 1936, or as secretive environments where strange potions - or large monsters including the many iterations of Frankenstein's monster - can be cooked up. Today our streaming spotlight is going up to the lab to see what's on the slab. Shivering with antici...pation, entirely optional.

Radioactive, Amazon Prime

Real world lab discoveries don't come much more important than those made by Marie and Pierre Curie - who "did the double" in Nobel terms, first taking home the Physics accolade.

With nine acting nominations to his name, Denzel Washington ranks as one of the six most-recognized male performers in Oscars history alongside Paul Newman, Al Pacino, and Spencer Tracy and behind Jack Nicholson (12) and Laurence Olivier (10). Having been included in so many lineups, it is only natural that he has faced some opponents multiple times. As the star of “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” he is in contention for the 2022 Best Actor award against two former rivals: Andrew Garfield and Will Smith (“King Richard”). This brings his unique rematch total to five, which makes for a new male record.

All five of Washington’s rematches have been in the lead category. The first two occurred in 2002 when he triumphed for “Training Day” over past challengers Russell Crowe (“A Beautiful Mind”) and Sean Penn (“I Am Sam”). The three of them had all lost to Kevin Spacey (“American Beauty”) two years earlier,...

In 2020, Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) won Best Actor from a lineup of five contenders in which he ranked in the middle, age-wise. At 45, he defeated two older competitors [Jonathan Pryce and Antonio Banderas] and two younger ones [Adam Driver and Leonardo DiCaprio]. Two years later, Phoenix could face off once again against those two junior contenders.

Of these three, DiCaprio stands the best chance of making it into the upcoming lead male lineup, as he currently ranks seventh by our odds. He is looking to earn his seventh acting nomination for “Don’t Look Up.” In this deft satie his character, Dr. Randall Mindy, attempts to use his influence as an astronomer to alert mankind about a comet’s impending collision with Earth. Prior to his 2020 bid, DiCaprio competed as the star of “The Aviator” (2005), “Blood Diamond” (2007), and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2014) before prevailing for “The Revenant” in 2016. His first career...

Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America is as epic as The Godfather, gorier than Goodfellas, and as streetwise as Mean Streets. It tells a full history, from childhood to old age, street hustles to political suicides, community toilets to opium dens. The version which is right now available on Netflix has been amazingly restored by Italy’s Bologna Cinematheque L’Immagine Ritrovata lab. I don’t think I have ever seen the film so clear, and it is a perennial to me, as is The Godfather.

It’s true, even the most devoted gangster fan and cinephile doesn’t watch Once Upon a Time in America as often as The Godfather, and it’s got Robert De Niro at his most gangta. For one thing, Leone’s film has never been as accessible. It is not shown regularly on any kind of broadcast channel, and even the...

Michael Constantine, whose long career produced an Emmy award and many memorable turns as a character actor, died Aug. 31 at his home in Reading, Pa. He was 94 and died from natural causes, his agent, Julia Buchwald, confirmed.

Constantine was best known as the fruit and Windex-obsessed father Gus Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, an indie film that rose out of nowhere to become a smash hit. It spawned a sequel and a third version was in the planning stages, this time set in Greece.,

The original film from 2002 scored more than $360 million worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of all-time.

But Constantine had a long career before that breakout hit. He was the school principal on the popular TV series Room 222. The role of Seymour Kaufman was a key to the show, which ran on ABC-tv from 1969 to 1974. He won an Emmy for the role in 1970.

Beyond that role,...

Michael Constantine, who played Gus, the father of Nia Vardalos’ Toula Portokalos in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” by far the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time, died on Aug. 31. He was 94.

Constantine’s agent confirmed the news of his death to Variety. He died of natural causes.

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” scored a domestic gross of $241 million in 2002; No. 2 on the list is “What Women Want” with $183 million. The film drew a SAG Awards nomination for outstanding performance by the cast of a theatrical motion picture.

As Roger Ebert recounted, Constantine’s Gus “specializes in finding the Greek root for any word (even ‘kimono’), and delivers a toast in which he explains that ‘Miller’ goes back to the Greek word for apple, and ‘Portokalos’ is based on the Greek word for oranges, and so, he concludes triumphantly, ‘In the end, we’re all fruits.’ ”

Variety said: “Constantine fares...

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Vintage magazines make a great collector’s item (or gift idea) for movie lovers, and anyone looking to capture that Old Hollywood aesthetic. But you don’t even have to leave the house to get your hands on these collectibles. If you’re not in the mood to visit a garage sale or thrift store, we put together a list of rare magazines that you can buy online.

From Photoplay to Movieland magazine, you might not be familiar with some of the publications listed but if you’re a fan of Hollywood’s Golden Era, then you’re likely to recognize some (if not all) of the screen legends captured on the covers,...

The Venice Film Festival is the starting pistol of the awards season, but that’s only been the case for the past five years or so. The Lido will unveil the first looks at technical juggernauts like “Dune,” from Warner Bros., and emotional period dramas like “The Power of the Dog,” from Netflix. Venice could unleash all the momentum for the upcoming awards season, sure to be dense — and long again — with an Academy ceremony dated March 27.

In the last 20 years, the Golden Lion, the festival’s highest honor, has matched the Oscars’ choice for best picture only two times: “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland.”

But Venice has produced a cache of films that have garnered best pic nominations. Moreover, since the best picture lineup was expanded to 10 nominees in 2009, “Birdman” (2015) took home a best pic Oscar, while “Gravity” (although it played out of competition) and “Philomena” in 2013 landed noms.

This ‘dawn of sound’ classic from Josef Sternberg is an important early entry in the gangster genre, a romanticized tale of urban crime with little violence but a full measure of romantic revenge. Star George Bancroft is the title underworld kingpin, who risks everything to hold his girlfriend Fay Wray the way he holds onto power — with his fists and with his gun. The highly sentimental story has some odd ideas about prison rules on Death Row; although packed with ‘Sternbergian’ touches the visuals aren’t as overtly poetic as is his norm. It’s an interesting study from the first year of ‘all talkie’ pictures: the audio is highly creative but the dialogue delivery is slow — perfect for anyone learning English!

Thunderbolt

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1929 / B&w / 1:20 Movietone (?) / 85 min. / Street Date July 20, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Tully Marshall, Eugenie Besserer, James Spottswood,...

Still the fiercest and most cinematic of the first wave of gangster classics, Howards Hughes and Hawks’s pre-Code rule-breaker was the one that brought down the ban on ‘glamorous’ gangster movies. In this case classic hardly means dated: the cars and clothes are vintage but the sex and violence are sizzling hot. Paul Muni is the primitive killer who falls in love with submachine guns and George Raft is his loyal trigger man. Karen Morley and especially Ann Dvorak are indeed the hottest pre-Code seducers in film. Plus, Boris Karloff contributes a mobster snarl as a lightly-disguised Bugs Moran. It’s a bullet-ridden city, that’s for sure, and the filmmakers frequently use expressionist effects: like X Marks The Spot!

Scarface

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 37

1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. 33 sec. + 95 min. 34 sec. / Scarface, Shame of a Nation / Street Date April 28, 2021 / Available from / 34.95 (au)

Starring: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley,...

Paul Mooney, the comedian, writer and actor known for his close collaborations with Richard Pryor and Dave Chappelle, has died at the age of 79. Mooney died Wednesday at 5:30 a.m. at his home in Oakland, California, his representative confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was provided.

Mooney’s official Twitter wrote to fans following news of the comedian’s death, “Thank you all from the bottom of all of our hearts …you’re all are the best!…… Mooney World .. The Godfather of Comedy – One Moon Many Stars!

“All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for no one,” Tony Montana declares in the 1983 gangster classic, Scarface. Yet Al Pacino’s antihero breaks both in his quest for money, power, and women. And just as he is on the brink of winning the trifecta, he is blown away like so much dust up a nose.

Did he lose because the Cuban mobster didn’t heed the advice of his first crime boss? Or is it because he just couldn’t stand to see his sister and his best friend wearing his-and-her pajamas? In truth, Montana’s fall can probably be traced back to when he learned to speak English by “watching guys like Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.”

Directed by Brian De Palma, and written by Oliver Stone, Scarface is a remake of Howard Hawks’ vastly influential 1932 mob movie,...

Recently, short Best Actor-nominated performances have been scarce at the Oscars. The average screen time of the past decade’s nominees is over 80 minutes, and only a handful of them have not reached one hour. Still, performances that fall under 60 minutes make up nearly one third of the category’s nominees, with plenty boasting much less time. Here is a look at the 10 shortest of all (and here are the 10 shortest winners):

10. Humphrey Bogart (“The Caine Mutiny”)

28 minutes, 22 seconds (22.79% of the film)

Bogart’s third and final Best Actor nomination came in 1955 for his portrayal of tyrannical Naval commander Philip Queeg. Though he is absent from the first quarter of the film and appears on screen for less than 30 minutes, he was classified as a lead. In the decades since, several actors have also been placed in the lead category for relatively short villainous roles, including Michael Douglas (“Wall Street...

Welcome to this week’s Nxt review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and how would you like to f— my wife? Well, meet me at the cemetery and you can get started. As for this show…screw this! I’m just gonna make up some s— and there you go! Paul Muni is back from the dead! Yahoo!

Match #1: Jake Atlas def. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott The following is courtesy of wwe.com:

Isaiah “Swerve” Scott dominated much of the bout, but one miscalculation proved costly. With “Swerve” pinning Jake Atlas in a cradle pin, Atlas reversed the combination for a lightning-quick victory. Incensed with his defeat, “Swerve” refused Atlas’ handshake afterward.

My Opinion: 3.5 out of 5

Match #2: The Grizzled Young Veterans def. Ever-Rise and Imperium in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match The following is courtesy of wwe.com:

A week removed from a chaotic encounter involving all three teams,...

Albert Hughes takes us on a wild journey through the movies that made him, then explains why he’s not a cinephile (Spoiler: He is). Heads up – you’re going to hear some words you’ve never heard on our show before, and only one of them is Metropolis.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Gremlins (1984)

A Christmas Story (1983)

The Candidate (1972)

Menace II Society (1993)

Die Hard (1988)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Scarface (1983)

Goodfellas (1990)

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Raging Bull (1980)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Alpha (2018)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Metropolis (1927)

True Romance (1993)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

The Matrix (1999)

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

A Serbian Film (2010)

Scarface (1932)

The Book of Eli (2010)

The Departed (2006)

Infernal Affairs (2002)

The Godfather (1972)

Casino (1995)

JFK (1991)

Dead Presidents (1996)

Eve’s Bayou (1997)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Psycho (1960)

The Cremator (1969)

The Firemen’s Ball (1967)

Halloween (2018)

From Hell (2001)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Hoffa (1992)

V For Vendetta (2005)

Spartacus (1960)

You Were Never Really Here...

The show must go on. At least the Venice Film Festival must go on. Even a pandemic can’t stop the oldest international film festival from taking place Sept. 2 through Sept. 12 in the picturesque of grand canals. Of course, safety is first with masks, social distancing etc. are all in place as critics get a first glance at possible award-winners.

Over the past seven years, the festival has held world premieres of such Oscar-winners as 2013’s “Gravity”; 2014’s “Birdman”; 2015’s “Spotlight”; 2016’s “La La Land”; 2017’s “The Shape of Water”; 2018’s “Roma”; and 2019’s “Joker.” Only two films that won the festival’s top prize have gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars: 1948’s “Hamlet” and 2017’s “The Shape of Water.”

The festival began in 1932 as part of the Venice Biennale, the city’s legendary exhibition of the arts under the guidance of President of the Biennale, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata,...

Mother of mercy, did the movies mark the beginning of Rico? The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was named after the character Rico Bandello in what is largely considered to be the first gangster movie, Little Caesar. While Edward G. Robinson’s Rico wasn’t specifically Al Capone in that film, the real-life gangster’s signature cigar fumes are all over it. Josh Trank replaced the Cuban Corona with a carrot in the recent Vertical Entertainment film Capone, which stars Tom Hardy as the title character in his twilight years, suffering from a premature burial. The aging mobster’s memories were buried by the syphilis microbe, and along with it went the clues to his buried treasure.

That speculative biopic also depicts Capone as a film aficionado. He sings along with Bert Lahr’s incomparable “If I Were King of the Forest,” from The Wizard of Oz, and educates...

Call Me By Your Name director to take on long-planned update of classic gangster film

Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino is to take on the long-gestating new version of classic gangster film Scarface.

According to Variety, Guadagnino is the latest director installed on a project that goes back to at least 2011. There are two previous versions: the 1932 original starring Paul Muni and directed by Howard Hawks, and the 1983 reworking with Al Pacino and directed by Brian De Palma.

It appears the Scarface remake has a new friend in the director’s chair, but his resume isn’t that little. Indeed, Universal Pictures announced Thursday that Luca Guadagnino, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, has been tapped to direct the long-gestating Scarface reboot.

The news comes paired with the announcement that Guadagnino will be working from the version of the screenplay written by Joel and Ethan Coen, who know a thing or two about crime dramas after making such films as Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Their version is additionally built off earlier drafts by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, Jonathan Herman, and Paul Attanasio.

The hiring of Guadagnino is the latest chapter in an ever-growing saga of musical director chairs on the project. A new Scarface remake has long been a priority for Universal Pictures, which first began developing the film in 2011. In addition to various screenplay drafts,...

Director Luca Guadagnino has added yet another project to his packed slate of upcoming films and television. According to Variety, the Academy Award-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” and “I Am Love” filmmaker is now set to helm a retelling of “Scarface” for Universal Pictures. The script for this latest version comes from Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, working from earlier drafts by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (the “Miss Bala” remake), Jonathan Herman (“Straight Outta Compton”), and Paul Attanasio (“Quiz Show”).

The mythic crime story of Scarface has been told many a time in cinema, from the 1932 Howard Hawks original starring Paul Muni, to Brian De Palma’s lurid Miami-set take, from 1983, with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. Guadagnino’s version will reportedly be a reimagining of the original immigrant narrative established in both those films, and this time will be set in Los Angeles.

This is not Guadagnino’s first dip into remake territory,...

Academy Award Nominee Luca Guadagnino will direct Universal Pictures’ new, original take of one of “Scarface,” an individual with knowledge of the project tells TheWrap.

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen wrote the latest version of the script with earlier drafts by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, Jonathan Herman and Paul Attanasio. Directors David Ayer and Antoine Fuqua was previously attached to direct “Scarface.”

“Scarface” will be produced by Dylan Clark for his Dylan Clark Productions. Scott Stuber will executive produce alongside Marco Marabito. Svp Brian Williams will also executive produce for Dylan Clark Productions. Senior Vice President of Production Jay Polidoro and Director of Development Lexi Barta will oversee the project for Universal.

Also Read: 'Scarface' Director Brian De Palma: I'm Writing a Horror Movie Inspired by Weinstein Scandal

The third and latest iteration of “Scarface” will be set in Los Angeles. The original 1932 film starring Paul Muni took place in Chicago,...

Call Me By Your Name Oscar nominee Luca Guadagnino is now set to direct Universal Pictures’ reimagination of Scarface.

The studio has been in development on the project for quite some time, going back to 2011, with David Ayer and Antoine Fuqua previously attached at directors as Deadline has broken the news on this project over various points. United Artists distributed the 1932 Howard Hawks-Richard Rosson movie, while Universal released the iconic 1983 Brian De Palma movie that starred Al Pacino as Cuban gangster Tony Montana.

In the 1932 Scarface, an Italian (Paul Muni) took over Chicago, and in the De Palma remake, Montana cornered the cocaine trade in 1980s Miami, only to be consumed by it.

The new movie will be set in Los Angeles. The pic’s shooting script will be off of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s version, who’ve been with the project for at least three years,...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

[Editor’s note: This post contains some spoilers for the Netflix series “Hollywood.”]

At the conclusion of Ryan Murphy’s latest limited series, the fluffy revisionist history “Hollywood,” one of its central stars gets her due, ascending to the highest echelon of movie stardom and getting a permanent title to match: Oscar winner. In reality, actress Anna May Wong never won an Oscar, despite being hailed as Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star and appearing in a variety of productions (from silent films to even television) over the span of her decades-long career.

For viewers interested in the true histories of the Hollywood stars and industry brass portrayed in Murphy’s discomfitting and often immature rose-colored glasses, the reality of Wong and her career is a bitter pill to swallow. At the same time,...

The star-studded biopic Capone is due to be released via digital platforms on May 12th. Tom Hardy plays Al Capone in his later years in the movie and he looks fantastic. Linda Cardellini, Kyle MacLachlan, and Matt Dillon co-star. Al Capone is America’s best-known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city and an interesting variety of Hollywood stars have had the leading role as Al Capone in the many films that have been made that featured him as a character.

The first film about Capone was produced when he was still making headlines. The main character may be named Antonio Camonte, but there’s little doubt as to who producer Howard Hughes had in mind when...

Minor Spoilers

Villains have long been dandies. Dressing loud is an established method of implying wealth and standing, particularly for ‘new money’. In a modern day context, this largely began with real life gangsters echoing the obnoxious outfits of Hollywood gangsters like Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931), James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931) and Paul Muni in Scarface (1932). Conversely the actors’ looks in these movies was also drawn from real life crooks – Al Capone, for example, long known for his love of matching silk pocket squares and neckties. It is a chicken and egg situation as to which came first: the dandy gangster gangster or the dandy movie gangster. However, by and large this idea of demonstrating status via clothing has remained in place since the 1920s, with notable ‘black suit’ exceptions during the 1990s as the criminal fraternity became increasingly white collar and preferred to remain behind the scenes.

Hammer’s copycat Quatermass picture stands apart from similar ‘mystery sci-fi monster’ thrillers by virtue of its serious tone and realistic presentation. Talk about a sober semi-docu style: there are no major female roles and the leading character is a mass of radioactive mud. (Is there an election year joke in that?) Hammer found a new writer in Jimmy Sangster, imported the Yankee name actor Dean Jagger, tried to hire the expatriate director Joseph Losey. Former child actor Anthony Newley has a small part, but he doesn’t get to sing X’s theme song: “Who can I turn to, when nobody needs me, because the flesh is melting from my skull?”

X The Unknown

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1956 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 80 81? min. / X…the Unknown / Street Date February 18, 2020

Starring: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley, William Lucas, Michael Ripper.

Cinematography: Gerald Gibbs

Film Editor: Philip Leakey

Makeup:...