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Rip actress Virginia Leith, the star of  Stanley Kubricks' first feature "Fear and Desire"( 1953) and the low-budget shocker "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", released in 1962:

Following the Kubrick film, Leith signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox and had leading roles in "Violent Saturday" (1955), "On the Threshold of Space" (1956), "Toward the Unknown" (1956) and "A Kiss Before Dying" (1956).

Leith completed the feature "The Black Door" (1955), but it wouldn't be released until 1962, under the title "The Brain That Wouldn't Die".

"...'Dr. Bill Cortner' (Jason Evers) saves a patient who had been pronounced dead, but the senior surgeon, Cortner's father (Bruce Brighton), condemns his son's unorthodox methods and transplant theories.

"While driving to his family's country house, Cortner and his beautiful fiancée 'Jan Compton' (Leith) get into a car accident that decapitates Jan. Cortner recovers her severed head and rushes to his country house basement laboratory. He and his crippled assistant 'Kurt' (Anthony La Penna...

Virginia Leith, the star of Stanley Kubrick’s first movie “Fear and Desire,” has died at the age of 94.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Leith died at her home in Palm Springs, California on Nov. 4 after a brief illness.

Kubrick’s 1953 film served as Leith’s acting debut, though the director famously disavowed the work, at one point referring to it as a “bumbling amateur film exercise.” Leith, whose character in the war film is unnamed, appeared as a young girl killed by a soldier.

Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2019 (Photos)

After her role in “Fear and Desire,” Leith signed as a contract player with 20th Century Fox, going on to appear in “On the Threshold of Space,” “Violent Saturday,” “A Kiss Before Dying” and “Toward the Unknown.”

She played the lead role in Joseph Green’s “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” as the wife of a mad...

Virginia Leith, a model and actress who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s debut feature Fear and Desire, has died. She was 94.

She passed away in Palm Springs on November 4 after a brief illness, according to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers.

Leith met Kubrick when he was a photographer and shot her for the cover of Look magazine. Once Kubrick made the transition to film, he cast her in Fear and Desire as a “half-animal” peasant girl captured and eventually killed by a soldier played by Paul Mazursky. The 1953 war film generated lukewarm interest at the box office, and after distributor Joseph Burstyn died, it was taken out of circulation.

Kubrick was no fan of the finished product and was said to have destroyed the original negative. He released a statement through Warner Bros., calling the movie “a bumbling amateur film exercise.”

In 1954 Leith became a contract player for 20th Century Fox...

Actress and model Virginia Leith, who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s first film “Fear and Desire,” which he later disavowed, has died. She was 94.

According to family spokesperson Jane Chalmers, Leith died after a brief illness at her home in Palm Springs, Calif. on Nov. 4.

Born on Oct. 15, 1925, Leith met Kubrick in the 1950s when he shot her for the cover of Look magazine.

“Fear and Desire,” which received moderately positive critical reviews upon its release, was not a box office success. After distributor Joseph Burstyn died, the film fell out of circulation and Kubrick is said to have destroyed the original negative and any other prints he could find. Some original prints still exist, however, and Film Forum organized a screening in 1994. Kubrick released a statement through Warner Bros. at the time, calling it “a bumbling amateur film exercise” and urging press not to attend.

Following her appearance in “Fear and Desire,...

Move over James Jones — Leon Uris clobbers the big screen with a sprawling adaptation of his WW2 combat novel, loaded down with roles for promising young actors. This is the one where twice as much time is spent on love affairs than fighting. War may be hell, but if Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, Dorothy Malone and Allyn McLerie are going to be there for comfort, sign me up.

Battle Cry

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 148 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone, Anne Francis, William Campbell, Fess Parker, Justus E. McQueen (L.Q. Jones), Perry Lopez, Jonas Applegarth, Tommy Cook, Felix Noriego, Susan Morrow, Carleton Young, Rhys Williams, Allyn Ann McLerie, Gregory Walcott, Frank Ferguson, Sarah Selby, Willis Bouchey, Victor Milian.

Cinematography: Sidney Hickox

Film Editor: William H. Zeigler

Original Music: Max Steiner...

Despite the lottery-esque sounding odds, the U.S Dramatic Competition section which produces the finest American indie specimens such as Frozen River, Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station and Whiplash is fairly consistent in terms of quality. Last year’s crop of sixteen have almost all had their theatrical releases with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter being the last one out of the gates (pegged with an early 2015 release). Last week we individually looked at our top 80 Sundance Film Fest Predictions (you’ll find 30 other titles worth considering in our intro) and below, we’ve split the list into narrative and non-fiction film items and have both identified and color-coded our picks in an AtoZ cheat sheet. You’ll find 2015′s answer to Whiplash located somewhere in the stack below. Click on the individual titles below, for the film’s profile.

An instrumental and influential American independent film promoter/curator/supporter/taste-maker in the business, Rooftop Films creator and artistic director Mark Elijah Rosenberg (pictured above) moves from open air cinema, to open space possibilities. While the current outer space talk is the Nolan Imax film, I’m more excited about the prospects for Ad Inexplorata: Toward the Unknown, which has been welcomed by the Sundance folks with open arms: landing support via the Indian Paintbrush Fellowship (2011), Creative Producing Summit (2011), Creative Producing Feature Film Lab (2011), 2011 June Screenwriters Lab (2011), 2012 Screenplay Reading Series (2012) and finally some coin from the San Francisco Film Society before landing the Sundance Nhk Filmmaker Award (2014). Production began earlier this year with Mark Strong toplining. Supporting players include Sanaa Lathan, Charles Baker and Bettina Skye.

Gist: Captain William D. Stanaforth (Strong), is a Nasa pilot alone on a one-way mission toward the unknown. Faced with mechanical problems, physical...

If there is a little Listen Up Philip in the cocktail that will be known as 7 Chinese Brothers, it may have been due to cosmic fate, a lark, creative confidence, or a little of everything. Stars aligned for this trio in a rather convenient way; unbeknownst to Bob Byington, his sixth feature managed to lasso Jason Schwartzman prior to Alex Ross Perry grabbing the Rushmore star for his definitive breakout moment in Park City this past January. It is after those playdates, when production began in February in Austin, and if it has legs like Somebody Up There Likes Me did back in 2012 with a showing at SXSW and at Locarno (was a winner of the Special Jury Prize), then there might be a collective sense of deja vu for Park City patrons. Look for Schwartzman to play off thesps such as Stephen Root, Olympia Dukakis and Tunde Adebimpe, with Perry making another Byington-film appearance.

James Garner movies on TCM: ‘Grand Prix,’ ‘Victor Victoria’ among highlights (photo: James Garner ca. 1960) James Garner, whose film and television career spanned more than five decades, died of "natural causes" at age 86 on July 19, 2014, in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. On Monday, July 28, Turner Classic Movies will present an all-day marathon of James Garner movies (see below) as a tribute to the Oscar-nominated star of Murphy’s Romance and Emmy-winning star of the television series The Rockford Files. Among the highlights in TCM’s James Garner film lineup is John Frankenheimer’s Monaco-set Grand Prix (1966), an all-star, race-car drama featuring Garner as a Formula One driver who has an affair with the wife (Jessica Walter) of his former teammate (Brian Bedford). Among the other Grand Prix drivers facing their own personal issues are Yves Montand and Antonio Sabato, while Akira Kurosawa’s (male) muse Toshiro Mifune plays a...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will remember award-winning actor James Garner on Monday, July 28, with an all-day marathon featuring 12 of his films. The Oscar nominated actor passed away on Saturday in Los Angeles at age 86.

TCM’s lineup features Garner’s performances in such movies as Toward the Unknown (1956), which marked his film debut; the racing drama Grand Prix (1966); the popular romantic comedy The Thrill of It All (1963); the Paddy Cheyefsky-penned The Americanization of Emily (1964); the groundbreaking drama The Children’s Hour(1961); and the gender-bending Victor/Victoria (1982).

The following is the complete schedule for TCM’s tribute to James Garner.

TCM Remembers James Garner – Monday, July 28

6 a.m. – Toward the Unknown (1956) – starring William Holden, Lloyd Nolan, Virginia Leith and James Garner

8 a.m. – Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957) – starring Randolph Scott, James Craig, Angie Dickinson and James Garner

9:30 a.m. – Grand Prix (1966) – starring James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Bedford and Yves Montand

12:30 p.