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On paper, the pairing of actor Bruce Willis and director Michael Bay would seem like a match made in heaven. Right from the start of his career, Bay demonstrated an affinity for casting movie stars with big personalities, and Willis was one of the biggest personalities of the '90s. The actor's particular brand of machismo serves Bay's rah-rah jingoism especially well in the director's third feature, 1998's "Armageddon." Who else but Willis could make a general audience buy the patently ridiculous premise that Willis' oil drilling company head, Harry S. Stamper, and his fellow drillers could be given a crash-course in astronaut training in order to man a mission onto a "planet-killer" asteroid headed directly for Earth?

In "Armageddon," as in many of Bay's films, there is much that can be critiqued; even the movie's defenders (yours truly included) admit that the premise is one that stretches the limits of even B-movie credulity,...

Four films by the master of modern cinema, Quentin Tarantino, are set to be released on 4K very soon. The director of films like Inglourious Basterds is embracing technology by entering the 4K era of new transfers and restoration.

The four films by Tarantino that will see their 4K release soon are Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs and both volumes of Kill Bill in steelbook versions with brand-new artwork. As expected, these releases will have plenty of new special features, different audio options (both for 4K Uhd and Blu-ray versions), and subtitles among others. These are some of the details, as per the press release:

Kill Bill: Volume 1: "The action explodes in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1, presented in eye-popping 4K for the first time. This acclaimed fourth film from groundbreaking writer and director Quentin Tarantino stars Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, and Vivica A. Fox in an astonishing, action-packed...

Lionsgate has something special in store for fans of Quentin Tarantino movies this month. Four of his best movies are getting all-new 4K Uhd releases, which includes some of them debuting on the format.

On Jan. 21, Lionsgate will release Jackie Brown along with Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2, marking the debut of these movies on 4K Uhd. Also getting released on that date is the re-printed release of his first feature film, Reservoir Dogs, with all three getting limited edition collectible SteelBooks. Jackie Brown and the Kill Bill films will also be given standard national retail releases.

Related 15 Brilliant Tarantino Movie References in Breaking Bad

The creators of Breaking Bad were big fans of Quentin Tarantino, so they referenced many of his films throughout the series.

The official description for Kill Bill Volume 1 on 4K Uhd reads, "Four years after taking a bullet in the head at her own wedding,...

In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Jacket", Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and George (Jason Alexander) arrange to have dinner with Alton Benes (Lawrence Tierney), the father of Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Because of a drama involving towed cars, Elaine is running late to the dinner, and Jerry and George spend a long, painful time trying to converse with Alton, a gruff, grumpy character. Alton is a famous author, and Jerry assumes he'll be talkative and gregarious, but he is quite the opposite; he is annoyed by his companions' whiny behavior and delicate sensibilities and wears a permanent, disapproving frown. When Jerry refuses to go for a walk in the snow — to save his new suede jacket from water damage — Alton insists. Like with many "Seinfeld" episodes, everyone is uncomfortable by the end.

Lawrence Tierney gave an excellent performance, and the cast was elated to be working with him. Tierney had been acting professionally since the 1940s,...

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This November, Tubi is bringing you a lot of entertainment from the time-travel mystery thriller series 11.22.63 to a dark medical drama series Nip/Tuck. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Tubi this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 10 best films that are coming to Tubi in November 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Licorice Pizza (November 1) Credit – United Artists Releasing Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Licorice Pizza is a romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The 2021 film is set in 1973 and it follows the relationship between Gary Valentine, a teen actor, and Alana Kane, a directionless young woman as they try to grow up and fall in love in California’s San Fernando Valley. Licorice Pizza stars Alana Haim,...

When it comes to acting superstardom, few professional Thespians have as many "certified fresh" films in their portfolio of work as the man, the myth, the legend, John Wayne. In order to achieve such a feat, any movie an actor has appeared in must have scored at least 75% or higher, with at least five reviews from Top Critics, while boasting a minimum of 80 reviews on the aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

To his great credit, John Wayne starred in seven films throughout his prolific career, which earned him this "certified fresh" distinction. Spanning a whole range of genres, including war films, romances, and, of course, Westerns, John Wayne continues to prove himself as one of Hollywood's most remarkable talents to this day, as many of his greatest pictures continue to be beloved by critics of all generations.

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Related 15 John Wayne Movies That Changed the Western Genre

John Wayne's prolific career...

Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs is set to land on a new streaming home in less than two weeks.

Per Tubi, the acclaimed director's 1992 hit crime film is slated to arrive on the streaming platform on November 1. Reservoir Dogs will be joining another fan-favorite Tarantino film, 2012's Django Unchained, in making the move to Tubi, giving fans a chance to catch both completely free of charge.

Related 'It Was a Bummer': Bruce Campbell Wishes He Wasn't Killed Off in 2011 Disney Movie

Bruce Campbell opens up about being killed off in one particular Disney franchise that he still wishes he were a part of.

Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast including Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Edward Bunker, Michael Madsen, and Tarantino himself, all of whom take on pseudonyms in order to take part in a major diamond heist without leaving any of their real names behind. The film also...

Seinfeld witnessed some of its funniest moments when the parents of our iconic leads graced selected episodes. The NBC show often featured the parents as supporting characters. Surprisingly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character Elaine Benes’ parents could never be a prominent part of the show.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes in Seinfeld | Credits: Castle Rock Entertainment

Although Elaine Benes’ mother was never shown in the NBC sitcom, her father Alton Benes was set to be a recurring character after his introduction in Season 2 Episode 3. It was a controversial on-set incident by the late actor Lawrence Tierney that forced Alton Benes to never get another appearance.

Seinfeld, often hailed as one of the greatest sitcoms ever, provided immense laughs to the audiences. But hardly anyone expected Tierney to create a scary environment on set.

Lawrence Tierney’s problematic humor made the Seinfeld cast uncomfortable Lawrence Tierney as Alton Benes in Seinfeld | Credits: Castle...

The movies of Quentin Tarantino are infamous for their high death count, and the filmmaker even extended this to himself, as hes notably died in several of his own films. Whether hes playing a significant character or just in an unnamed cameo appearance, Tarantino has had no issue spilling his guts onscreen as hes experienced gruesome fates, untimely demises, and desperately despicable deaths time and time again. Its not just in Tarantinos directional work that hes bid farewell to this world, as hes also been slain in movies hes written but not directed.

Quentin Tarantino has had several cameos in his own movies, and while he does not always meet an untimely end, more often than not, his character has kicked the bucket before the credits rolled. With a filmography packed with over-the-top violence and extreme brutality, Tarantino does not mind meeting his maker onscreen, and his consistent deaths are...

There's a long, complicated history of celebrity guest stars on "The Simpsons," especially in those early seasons where the celebrities were often never officially credited for their roles. Sometimes the celebrity fits into the "Simpsons" universe perfectly, and sometimes they stick out like a sore thumb. Sometimes they play themselves, and sometimes they play a brand new character. Sometimes they're revered by the characters, sometimes they're treated with total contempt. There are no rules here, although, after 35 seasons and counting, we've learned to pick up on some trends.

In "Simpsons" writer Mike Reiss' 2018 behind-the-scenes book, "Springfield Confidential," he wrote a bit about why so many celebrities have chosen to appear on the show. "The Simpsons" has made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for its absurd number of guest stars, and Reiss has argued that most of them came on the show for one of five reasons.

Read...

Thirty years ago, the release of Pulp Fiction saw Quentin Tarantino reach the peak of his international celebrity. A look back at the Tarantinomania of 1994:

Joining Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino became one of a vanishingly small number of filmmakers who could be described as a household name in the early 1990s. Having broken through with the blackly comic and unabashedly violent Reservoir Dogs in 1992, his fame arguably reached its peak in 1994; to borrow a term from critic Joshua Mooney, it was a time of Tarantinomania.

That year saw the release of Pulp Fiction, which soon became more than merely a popular low-budget thriller: it was a pop cultural event, with its music, snappy dialogue and hip 50s styling appearing all over the place. But 1994 was also the year of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, and the US release of low-budget heist thriller Killing Zoe...

Quentin Tarantino was set to start filming his tenth and final movie this year before outright abandoning the project. While this means the world will miss out on the film, the decision could end up being for the best.

Per Deadline, Tarantino's choice was discussed by Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman. The film, titled The Movie Critic, was reportedly planned to connect directly to Sony's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as it would have seen Brad Pitt reprising his role as Cliff Booth. Rothman addressed having The Movie Critic pulled from Sony's release schedule by sharing his opinion that it will only result in an even greater movie coming out as a result.

Related John Travolta Reveals What Made Quentin Tarantino Cast Him in Pulp Fiction During Pulp Fiction's 30th anniversary reunion, John Travolta discloses the odd story of how he met and left an impression on Quentin Tarantino.

At the end of 2023, Quentin Tarantino reportedly began work on his last film, The Movie Critic. Tarantino’s career, including some of the finest movies to date, has spanned over 20 years and garnered countless fans eagerly awaiting his final cinematic masterpiece. These fans have remained beside the auteur because of the near guarantee that whatever he produces will be intriguing, captivating, and highly stylized within his unique format.

This proprietary style includes a collection of components fans can witness in more than one of his movies if not all. From visceral violence that doesn’t pull punches to fast-paced, back-and-forth dialogue that keeps viewers fixated, Tarantino has honed his craft, resulting in near-universal acclaim from fans and critics as one of the greatest directors ever.

Updated February 14, 2024, by Anthony Jeanetta. Although there's been little news about Quentin Tarantino's latest film, The Movie Critic, fans remain elated at the prospect of...

When it comes to storytelling devices that allow for some truly wild creativity, the holodecks of "Star Trek" certainly rank among the best. They gave the writers the opportunity to take characters from a utopian sci-fi future and put them into a wide variety of stories and situations. Holodeck episodes really helped pad out the season back when seasons were 26 episodes or so, giving a little break from the starships and space exploration, but they also gave the actors a chance to really let loose and have fun. After all, who wouldn't want the chance to play their character playing Robin Hood or King Arthur? Sometimes the holodeck episodes could feel superfluous, but sometimes they ended up creating whole new storylines for the series. Just imagine the later seasons of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" without Vic Fontaine (James Darren)! 

On "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the writers took inspiration...

A new episode of the Real Slashers video series has just arrived online, and in this one we’re looking back at an ’80s classic that features special effects from the legendary Tom Savini: The Prowler (watch it Here)! To hear all about it, check out the video embedded above.

Directed by Joseph Zito, who would go on to make Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter a few years later, The Prowler was scripted by Neal Barbera and Glenn Leopold. Here’s the set-up: A crazed World War II veteran gets revenge on his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend, then stalks teens 35 years later.

The film stars Vicky Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Lawrence Tierney, Farley Granger, Cindy Weintraub, Lisa Dunsheath, David Sederholm, Bill Nunnery, Thom Bray, Diane Rode, Bryan Englund, Donna Davis, Carleton Carpenter, Joy Glaccum, Timothy Wahrer, John Seitz, Bill Hugh Collins, Dan Lounsbery, Douglas Stevenson, and Susan Monts.

A...

It’s time for a new episode of the Wtf Happened to This Adaptation? video series, and with this one we’re looking back to 1985 to see how a Stephen King “novelette” called Cycle of the Werewolf became the 1985 film Silver Bullet (watch it Here). To hear all about the changes Cycle of the Werewolf went through on the way to becoming Silver Bullet, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by Dan Attias from a screenplay written by Stephen King himself, Silver Bullet has the following synopsis: When a series of unexplained murders occurs in the normally quiet town of Tarker’s Mill, the residents decide to hunt down the killer. However, many of these vigilantes end up dead, and those who don’t are no closer to finding an assailant. But, when a young wheelchair-using boy named Marty encounters a werewolf one night, the pieces begin to come together.

Quentin Tarantino has said his next film will be his last. Concerned about diminishing his legacy, the popular director plans to go out with a bang. His final movie is said to be called “The Movie Critic.” If you’d like to look back at his rapid-fire dialogue, unexpected gore, and iconic characters, The Streamable is tracking where you can see all his films.

Tarantino’s filmography is notoriously difficult to stream because he rarely works for major studios. You’ll often see his movies bounce from platform to platform. Be sure to bookmark this page and we’ll update each film, no matter where it goes.

Reservoir Dogs September 2, 1992

Tarantino’s breakout directing debut features many of his calling cards audiences would come to love. A group of highly opinionated criminals, a heist gone wrong, a classic soundtrack, and unexpected bloodshed. The film was once ranked #97 in Empire Magazine...

Get ready to howl at the moon, werewolf fans.

Where Wolf, the graphic novel from creative team Rob Saucedo, Debora Lancianese, and Jack Morelli, is celebrating its upcoming physical release with a Werewolves Across America tour that’ll screen a selection of werewolf films to coincide with book signings.

That includes a brand-new Dcp for Silver Bullet that Paramount created for the tour!

Encylopocalypse Publication will release the graphic novel on July 7, 2023, in paperback and hardcover formats with three variant covers for readers to choose.

Leading up to the wide release of the graphic novel, writer Rob Saucedo will tour movie theaters across the country, screening werewolf films and providing an opportunity to purchase the graphic novel early at concurrent signing events starting March 31, 2023.

The selection includes Silver Bullet, An American Werewolf in London in 4K, The Howling in 4K, WolfCop and more. Additional locations will be added through the...

It’s no secret that Quentin Tarantino gets inspiration from a variety of movies and pays homage to them in his own works, and Reservoir Dogs’ most shocking scene is inspired by one disturbing but acclaimed movie. Reservoir Dogs introduced the audience to Quentin Tarantino’s narrative and visual style, as well as to some of his most used tricks, but it also caused controversy due to one specific scene starring Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), which in turn showed viewers the type of violence they could expect from Tarantino’s works.

Reservoir Dogs follows a group of thieves assembled and led by crime boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Eddie “Nice Guy” Cabot (Chris Penn), whose plan to steal thousands of dollars from a jewelry store goes wrong. The failure of the heist and the deaths of some of the group’s members by the police ended up...

Quentin Tarantino’s career as a filmmaker started strong with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs, released in 1992 and now regarded as a classic of independent cinema and a cult film, and its influence has been such that it has already been remade. Reservoir Dogs introduced the world to Quentin Tarantino’s narrative and visual style, which includes high doses of blood and violence, and while it has its controversial moments and behind-the-scenes stories, it continues to be praised by critics and viewers, and it has earned a spot in film history.

Reservoir Dogs follows a group of thieves assembled and led by crime boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Eddie “Nice Guy” Cabot (Chris Penn) who look to steal thousands of dollars from a jewelry store. Although it was all carefully planned, the heist didn’t go as expected, and the members of the team ended up showing...

One of Reservoir Dogs' team members was involved in a real-life robbery and more, and he had some things to say about the movie's accuracy. Reservoir Dogs established themes that would continue to be addressed in Quentin Tarantino's subsequent movies as well as the tone for the rest of his work, which is mostly known for having high doses of blood and violence – and as Reservoir Dogs is all about a jewelry heist gone wrong, it had a generous dose of violence.

Reservoir Dogs saw a team of criminals assembled and led by crime boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Eddie “Nice Guy” Cabot (Chris Penn) with the purpose of stealing thousands of dollars from a jewelry store. As the heist didn’t go as expected, the members of the team ended up showing their true colors in the aftermath of it – however, there was one who...

Some writers start with elaborate outlines for their stories, planning out the beats of what will happen or starting with the ending and reverse-engineering everything from there. Quentin Tarantino doesn't roll like that. Though his filmography has inspired legions of fans and numerous imitators, Tarantino has said in the past that he considers himself more a writer than a director, and his two Academy Awards to date are both for screenwriting. While every writer's process is different, Tarantino's seems to be fluid and indeed not wedded to a great deal of planning.

In a 2009 interview to promote what may be his best film, "Inglourious Basterds," Tarantino discussed his screenwriting process, telling Filmmaker magazine:

"I don't have an outline or anything like that. I might have a really good idea of what the next few scenes are going to be, and I know a lot of scenes along the way that I need to get to,...

The moment that writer-producer-author Burt Kearns knew he had to write a book about actor Lawrence Tierney came early in 2019 while he was researching a different book called “The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage” that would publish that same year. He came upon a 1951 article in the Los Angeles Times headlined, “Lawrence Tierney Arrested 13th Time.” It was due to drunken driving, a familiar charge for perhaps the most pugnacious, self-destructive star in showbiz annals. “Drunk and disorderly” was another of his favorites.

“I decided to do a little more research,” Kearns recalls, “and it turned out it wasn’t actually his 13th arrest but more like his 22nd.”

Mind you, Tierney had only been acting professionally for less than a decade in ’51. Born in 1919, the Brooklyn native broke into the business with Rko Radio Pictures in 1943, earning a reputation for playing mobsters,...

Quentin Tarantino’s first feature may not be to all tastes, but it is an admirable feat of commercial filmmaking — what other director has broken into the front rank with such panache? The fifth time through, the splintered, elliptical structure still impresses, and there’s always something new to see in the performances of Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, and Steve Buscemi. The (rather bargain-priced) 4K disc set has everything — two formats, a digital code and those deleted scenes to ponder. And a Pulp Fiction 4K is due in just a week or so.

Reservoir Dogs 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital

Lionsgate

1992 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / 30th Anniversary Edition / Street Date November 15, 2022 / Available from Amazon / 22.99

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Randy Brooks, Kirk Baltz, Eddie Bunker, Quentin Tarantino.

Cinematography: Andrzej Sekula

Production Designer: David Wasco

Film Editor: Sally Menke

Dedicatees: Timothy Carey,...

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut "Reservoir Dogs" helped set expectations for what would come in future Tarantino movies: Long-winded conversations, excessive and bloody violence, non-linear storytelling, and of course, inspired music choices. The story of six criminals and their botched robbery made for a wildly compelling film. The small scale of "Reservoir Dogs" could be seen as limiting, but Tarantino took the small budget he had to work with and gave audiences a different kind of heist film. The film never shows the actual heist as it happens, but instead offers audiences a look at everything leading up to and after the theft, which inevitably goes wrong.

The writer/director knew the chemistry between the cast of "Reservoir Dogs" would make or break such an endeavor in storytelling. Thankfully, the anonymous criminals, who all go by color-coded aliases, were portrayed by talents such as Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth,...

A new episode of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw video series has just been released, and with this one we’re taking a look back at a werewolf movie that’s one of the more underrated entries in the sub-genre despite the fact that it was inspired by a Stephen King story. It’s the 1985 film Silver Bullet (watch it Here), and you can find out all about it by checking out the video embedded above.

Directed by Dan Attias from a screenplay written by Stephen King himself (based on King’s novelette Cycle of the Werewolf), Silver Bullet has the following synopsis:

When a series of unexplained murders occurs in the normally quiet town of Tarker’s Mill, the residents decide to hunt down the killer. However, many of these vigilantes end up dead, and those who don’t are no closer to finding an assailant. But,...

Genre: Drama, Crime

Rating: R

On 4K Ultra HD: November 15, 2022

Running Time: 100 minutes

Cast: Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Chris Penn, Edward Bunker, Kirk Baltz, Quentin Tarantino, and Lawrence Tierney

Written by: Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Produced by: Lawrence Bender

Executive Producers: Richard H. Gladstein, Monte Hellman, Ronna B. Wallace

Co-Producer: Harvey Keitel

Director of Photography: Andrzej Sekula

Production Designer: David Wasco

Edited by: Sally Menke

Casting by: Ronnie Yeskel

Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann

Synopsis:

Frenzied, soaked in blood, and featuring gangsters both ruthless and engaging (who debate the deeper meanings of “Like a Virgin”), Reservoir Dogs — Quentin Tarantino’s debut film about a heist gone horribly wrong — attained iconic cult status upon its release in 1992, and launched the career of a director whose singular vision has influenced a generation of filmmakers. To celebrate the movie’s 30th anniversary, the cocked-and-loaded world of Mr.

There's something ironic about the fact that Quentin Tarantino — a director famous for his on-screen violence — got into a physical altercation on the set of his first feature-length film, "Reservoir Dogs." The "Kill Bill" director has had a successful career that was almost jeopardized during the production of his first film.

In the NFL, there are occasions called "welcome to the NFL" moments. While not an official phrase, my understanding is that these are usually the first time something big and negative happens to a player (typically a rookie). Maybe they get tackled hard by a veteran player, maybe they lose the game by dropping a pass, but this concept isn't exclusive to the sports industry. Think about it, we've all had our first major error or dilemma at a new job and Tarantino is no different. His "welcome to directing" moment was the altercation between him and an actor...

Unlike live-action productions, animation offers the opportunity to make changes and revise scenes without disrupting the entire production. You can draw over a frame or re-dub it without having to gather the entire cast and crew for a reshoot. Sometimes this can translate to a lot of studio notes hoping for changes that adhere to strange or strict regulations, as we've been exploring elsewhere on /Film.

One major exception to this is the gargantuan pop culture icon "The Simpsons." There is a clause in the contract for the show that stated Fox executives could not go to table reads or force notes on the writers. This has allowed the animated sitcom to survive for three decades and over 700 episodes while making fun of everything, including religion, politics, sports and the Fox network itself multiple times. 

And yet, "The Simpsons" hasn't been completely immune to studio interference, as there were two...

There’s always somebody new in the rat race trenches whose motto is ‘how to make friends and deceive people.’ Howard Duff’s photographer uses his camera to extort money from criminals while polishing his image as a grabber of Pulitzer-worthy news photos. But how long can he maintain his charade with mobsters Brian Donlevy and Lawrence Tierney, and how soon will his kissing partners Peggy Dow and Anne Vernon see through his lies? This efficient noir was the first feature directing job from the prolific Joe Pevney.

Shakedown

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 80 min. / Street Date March 29, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Howard Duff, Brian Donlevy, Peggy Dow, Lawrence Tierney, Bruce Bennett, Anne Vernon, Peter Virgo, Charles Sherlock, Rock Hudson, Roy Engel, Gregg Martell, Joseph Pevney.

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg

Art Director: Robert Clatworthy, Bernard Herzbrun

Film Editor: Milton Carruth

Music director: Joseph Gershenson

Screenplay by Alfred Lewis Levitt,...

It’s not wedding bells which break up the old gang in Ben Affleck’s The Town, it’s witness protection. The romance in the middle of the film is only there to delineate the boundaries between heist film and crime procedural. The movie’s center is Charlestown, right across the bridge from the rest of Boston, a legend in illicit locales. The blue-collar neighborhood “produced more bank robbers and armored car thieves than anywhere else in the world,” according to the movie’s prologue. Affleck’s second film as a director charts the fall of a mythic heist gang and the streets which made them.

The Boston area was prime cinematic crime fields during the early 2000s. In Black Mass, Johnny Depp plays South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, an Irish gangster who informed on the Italian mob to the FBI. Some of the scenes were shot on the real crime locations depicted.

New remastered restorations of Val Lewton pictures? We’re there. This terrific double bill gives us two Lewton shockers that are in no way ‘lesser’. The progressive psycho killer picture The Ghost Ship suffered a legal setback and disappeared for almost fifty years; it’s a masterpiece of taste and tone. Bedlam is a costume picture with an ideal role for Boris Karloff, and multiple eerie moments worthy of Edgar Allan Poe. Both movies exhibit interesting storytelling techniques, too. Rko should have promoted Lewton to A pictures, as they did his collaborators Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise and Mark Robson.

The Ghost Ship + Bedlam

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1943 + 1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date October 12, 2021 / 24.99

Starring: Richard Dix, Edith Barrett; Boris Karloff, Anna Lee.

Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca

Art Directors: Albert S. D’Agostino, Walter E. Keller

Original Music: Roy Webb

Written by Donald Henderson Clarke; Carlos Keith & Mark Robson...

More or less ignored for 75 years, this curious ‘B’ program picture now finds its way directly to a Warner Archive Blu-ray release. Cult actor Lawrence Tierney has an atypical ‘swell guy’ role as a Marine veteran thrust into a murder mystery and made the fall guy for nefarious foreign spies. Anne Jeffreys becomes his co-fugitive when the villains frame him for murder. It’s like a fancy 1960s romantic thriller, except on a micro scale. Just the same, Phil Rosen’s movie crams a lot of incident into its brisk 62 minutes. Consider it a gift to Lawrence Tierney fans — they might like him in a role that Cary Grant could play.

Step by Step

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 62 min. / Street Date July 20, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Lawrence Tierney, Anne Jeffreys, Lowell Gilmore, Myrna Dell, Harry Harvey, Addison Richards, Ray Walker, Jason Robards Sr., George Cleveland, Lee Bonnell, Robert Clarke,...

“A Senator, Nazi Spies, And A Dog”

By Raymond Benson

Want a fast-paced action thriller, starring attractive leads and a precocious dog, that deals with Nazi spies in the political climate immediately following the war, and be done with it in only 62 minutes? This 1946 potboiler directed by Phil Rosen and starring notorious Lawrence Tierney is for you!

Step by Step is not a film noir, which was what most crime pictures ended up stylistically becoming in the period after World War II. Instead, it’s a rollicking good action drama that packs what today might be two hours’ worth of plot into a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-something single hour. The picture is not only well-written and well-shot, it has a superb cast that functions quite well in this tight little ride.

Perhaps most interesting for today’s audience is the leading man presence of Lawrence Tierney, who had burst onto the...

The fate of Steve Buscemi's Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs has long been one of Quentin Tarantino's biggest mysteries, but Buscemi has a theory that connects directly into Pulp Fiction. Following a crew of robbers in the aftermath of a diamond heist, Mr. Pink is the only survivor after leaving with the stolen diamonds in the end. We can only surmise what may have happened to him outside, but he was either killed by police, arrested, or somehow got away.

On Tuesday evening, Steve Buscemi made an appearance on The Late Late Show to speak with James Corden. Looking back at his career, Buscemi was asked about his work with Quentin Tarantino. That's when Buscemi revealed his theory for Mr. Pink, teasing that we might have actually seen the return of Mr. Pink in Pulp Fiction without even realizing it.

"I don't know if anyone else thinks about this,...

“Just married, eh? Well, imagine that. I buried two wives myself. Eh, had to – they was dead you know.”

Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys in Step By Step (1946) will be available on Blu-ray July 20th from Warner Archive.

Using a white lie, young Evelyn Smith is able to get a sensitive job as secretary to Senator Remmy. They will be working out of the senator’s isolated and usually unused Malibu beachfront house. The current case they will be working on is one of national security, that despite the fact of the war being over. Things take a turn when the senator’s associate, James Blackton, is murdered in the house, Evelyn bound and gagged, and the senator knocked unconscious with a serious concussion by some German spies. Johnny Christopher, a war veteran with the Marines who met Evelyn earlier that day at the beach in his attraction to her,...

The life and wild times of the late Lawrence Tierney will soon be put on the page.

Author, journalist and documentary producer Burt Kearns confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that he is writing Tierney’s biography, which has been acquired by the University Press of Kentucky for publication in 2022.

Born in 1919, the Brooklyn-raised Tierney, who died in 2002, broke into the business in the early 1940s and earned a reputation for playing intense, tough-guy characters like mobsters, murderers and bank robbers. His fame came quickly thanks to a star turn in the film Dillinger, which cast him as the notorious gangster ...

The life and wild times of the late Lawrence Tierney will soon be put on the page.

Author, journalist and documentary producer Burt Kearns confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that he is writing Tierney’s biography which has been acquired for publication by the University Press of Kentucky for publication in 2022.

Born in 1919, the Brooklyn-raised Tierney, who passed away in 2002, broke into the business in the early 1940s and earned a reputation for playing intense, tough-guy characters like mobsters, murderers and bank robbers. His fame came quickly thanks to a star turn in the film Dillinger, which cast him as ...

Quentin Tarantino's hyper-violent feature film debut Reservoir Dogs is full of memorable characters. Whether it's the anxious Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), the professional Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), the psychotic Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), the wisecracking Mr. Brown (Tarantino), the undercover cop Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), the hot-tempered Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn), or the crime boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney), they all leave an indelible mark.

Related: Reservoir Dogs: 10 Films To Watch If You Like Quentin Tarantino's Debut

While every character in the film is memorable, some are far smarter than others when it comes to the professional life of crime. Here's how their wisdom compares.

Michael Madsen has reprised his Mr. Blonde role from Reservoir Dogs for an important and rather violent stay at home PSA. Madsen, like the rest of the world, is spending his days indoors due to our current situation. A lot of people have been performing PSAs from their homes and delivering them on social media with varying forms of success. Gal Gadot's video meant to spread joy was ridiculed by social media. With that being said, Madsen's video should provide more than a few laughs for some Quentin Tarantino fans out there who could use it right now.

Mr. Blonde, aka Vic Vega, is a psychopath in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Michael Madsen made cinematic history during a particularly brutal scene where he tortures a victim by cutting off his ear, among other things. Mr. Blonde gleefully dances to Stealer Wheel's 1973 hit single "Stuck in the Middle With You...

Jim Knipfel Jul 10, 2019

We look back on Rip Torn's career and how the occasional troublemaker turned bit parts into leading roles.

In the summer of 1969, Rip Torn was drunkenly screaming through New York’s West Village on his motorcycle when he slammed it into a police cruiser. Torn broke his leg in the accident but didn’t notice. The next morning, he got up, got on a plane, and flew to Paris where he was set to star in Joseph Strick’s film version of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He shot the entire film all hopped up on painkillers for an untreated leg. And you know what? He still gives a remarkable performance. It wasn’t the only time he worked with broken bones either.

For over 60 years, Rip Torn carried on in the proud tradition of John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lawrence Tierney...

Allene Roberts, who starred with Humphrey Bogart in Knock on Any Door, with Edward G. Robinson in The Red House and with William Holden in Union Station, died Thursday in Huntsville, Alabama, her family announced. She was 90.

Roberts also played the female lead opposite "jungle boy" Johnny Sheffield in Bomba on Panther Island (1949); was caught between onscreen and real-life brothers Edward and Lawrence Tierney in the film noir The Hoodlum (1951); and appeared with Randolph Scott and Leonard Nimoy in Santa Fe (1951) and Kid Monk Baroni (1952), respectively.

Roberts made a big splash in her feature debut at age 17 when she played a ...

Allene Roberts, who starred with Humphrey Bogart in Knock on Any Door, with Edward G. Robinson in The Red House and with William Holden in Union Station, died Thursday in Huntsville, Alabama, her family announced. She was 90.

Roberts also played the female lead opposite "jungle boy" Johnny Sheffield in Bomba on Panther Island (1949); was caught between onscreen and real-life brothers Edward and Lawrence Tierney in the film noir The Hoodlum (1951); and appeared with Randolph Scott and Leonard Nimoy in Santa Fe (1951) and Kid Monk Baroni (1952), respectively.

Roberts made a big splash in her feature debut at age 17 when she played a ...

With production slated to begin later this summer, Quentin Tarantino has added four more cast members to his 1969-set film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds has joined the cast in a major role as George Spahn, the blind man who owned the ranch Charles Manson and his followers lived on for months, before they murdered actress Sharon Tate in cold blood in the summer of 1969. Also joining the cast in unspecified smaller roles are Qt regulars Tim Roth, Kurt Russell and Michael Madsen.

Original reports claimed this movie would center on the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate by the Manson family, but that turned out to be incorrect. While the murder will be featured in this movie, the plot will revolve around a number of different stories, much like Tarantino's 1994 breakout hit Pulp Fiction. The two lead characters will be Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), the...

“Now listen up, Mr. Pink. There’s two ways we can do this job. My way… or the highway!”

Reservoir Dogs will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium Saturday September 16th at 7:30pm

Quentin Tarantino’s feature-length directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs (1992) depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist. The film features Harvey Keitel (Mr. White), Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde), Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink), Chris Penn (Nice Guy Eddie Cabot), Lawrence Tierney (Joe Cabot), Tim Roth (Mr. Orange), and Tarantino (Mr. Brown). Tarantino displays many themes that have become his style and influenced a generation of filmmakers: choreographed violent crime, pop culture references, nonlinear storytelling, dialogue punctuated with profanity.

Somewhere along the way, opinions on Quentin Tarantino have become divided – some still loving his work, others calling it bloated and unnecessarily inflated. However, those are two criticisms that cannot be levelled at his first film. It...

Reservoir Dogs Turns 25! 10 Colourful FactsReservoir Dogs Turns 25! 10 Colourful FactsKurt Anthony9/1/2017 10:00:00 Am

They say that every dog has its day, and today is the 25th anniversary of Quentin Tarantino’s American crime thriller, Reservoir Dogs!

After competing in the dog-eat-dog world of film festival screenings, Reservoir Dogs made its theatrical debut in France on September 2, 1992. Pulling triple duty as writer, actor, and director, the independent heist flick was Tarantino’s first feature-length film and instantly cemented his place at the top of Hollywood’s dogpile, paving the way for future films like Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997).

With a budget of $1.2M and a domestic box office gross of over $2.8M, the independent underdog has since earned its bloody, cult classic status and is often referred to as “the greatest independent film ever made.”

Button up your suit jacket and join our pack as we unleash ten colourful facts...

Fritz Lang continues his take-no-prisoners indictment of America’s curious relationship with crime; this time he presents the thesis that an innocent man can be a pawn in cosmic game of injustice. Three-time loser Henry Fonda, the glummest actor in ’30s films, doesn’t mean to rob or kill, but gosh darn it, They Made Him a Criminal. Those considerations aside, it’s a wonderful cinematic achievement, made all the better by a decent digital restoration.

You Only Live Once

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1937 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date July 25, 2017 / 29.98

Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon,

William Gargan, Jerome Cowan, Charles ‘Chic’ Sale, Margaret Hamilton, Warren Hymer,

Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Ward Bond, Jack Carson, Jonathan Hale

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Art Direction: Alexander Toluboff

Film Editor: Daniel Mandell

Original Music: Hugo Friedhofer

Written by Graham Baker and Gene Towne

Produced by Walter Wanger

Directed by Fritz Lang...

Twenty-five years after premiering his “Reservoir Dogs” to a mixed reception at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino returned to Park City on the last weekend of the Sundance Film Festival to screen a new 35mm print of his first feature and to reflect on his roots at the festival. After the film, Tarantino was accompanied onstage by his long-time producer Lawrence Bender and actor Michael Madsen (who played Mr. Blonde), as the three men took part in an eye-opening 50-minute Q&A.

Tarantino’s immediate reflection after having watched the film for the first time in a while was that he was surprised about its 100-minute length. “I can’t believe I made a movie that short,” joked Tarantino, whose last film, “The Hateful Eight,” was over three hours long.

Gallery: Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite Movies: Stream 10 of His Top Picks on Netflix

Although not often associated with the festival proper,...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival may already have announced their premieres, Spotlights, Competition and Next lineup, among other films and installations, but there’s four more features joining the festival.

Sundance Institute has added two Documentary Premieres and two archive From The Film Collection movies to next year’s lineup. The two documentaries are “Bending the Arc” and “Long Strange Trip,” with the archive films being “Desert Hearts” and “Reservoir Dogs,” which premiered at Sundance in 1986 and 1992, respectively. The 25th anniversary screening of Quentin Tarantino’s classic will be followed by an extended Q&A with Tarantino and producer Lawrence Bender.

Read More: Sundance 2017: The Lineup So Far

The archive films are selections from the the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA, a joint venture between UCLA Film & Television Archive and Sundance Institute, established in 1997. With these additions, the festival will present 118 feature-length films, which represent 32 countries and 37 first-time filmmakers. For...

Festival brass on Wednesday added two Documentary Premieres as well as a pair of favourites from the vaults – Desert Hearts and Reservoir Dogs.

Documentary Premieres are Haitian activism story Bending The Arc from Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos, and Long Strange Trip, about The Grateful Dead, from Happy Valley and The Tillman Story director Amir Bar-Lev.

Desert Hearts and Reservoir Dogs premiered at Sundance in 1986 and 1992, respectively. Quentin Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs producer Lawrence Bender will participate in a post-screening Q&A.

The archive films are selections from the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA, a joint venture between UCLA Film & Television Archive and Sundance Institute established in 1997 that has grown to more than 4,000 holdings representing close to 2,300 titles.

The four additions boost the 2017 roster to 118 feature films representing 32 countries and 37 first-time filmmakers, including 20 in competition.

Entries were selected from 13,782 submissions including 4,068 features and 8,985 shorts. Of the feature submissions, 2,005 were from the Us and 2,063 were international. One hundred...