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Dallas‘ spin-off, Knots Landing, ran for 14 seasons, from 1979 to 1993, and got a two-part sequel movie in 1997. Dynasty’s spin-off, The Colbys, barely squeaked out two years on the air, from 1985 to 1987. Knots Landing may be streaming on Amazon. But The Colbys is perfectly positioned for a weekend binge. The complete run is available on DVD on Amazon. Here’s why it’s worth your while to give it a watch.

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Dallas launched with The Man From Atlantis and Major Nelson from I Dream of Jeannie in the lead. Dynasty had Bachelor Father and John Derek’s ex-wife, then hired the woman who’d starred in Empire of the Ants. The Colbys, on the other hand, burst out of the gate with a cast that included Katherine Ross, who’d co-starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate,...

Donald Trump has enjoyed the perks of fame and money for a long time. Life was especially good for him in the 80s as it was in this particular decade that he made his first appearance on the Forbes list and ventured into many significant businesses. New Yorks Trump Tower synonymous with the former Presidents brand opened in 1983, while his semi-memoir, The Art of the Deal, was published in 1987, becoming one of the best-selling American non-fiction books of all time. The tycoon also purchased or became a major investor in many businesses, including the New Jersey Generals and the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle.

Taking advantage of his growing popularity, Donald Trump fulfilled his dream of starring in movies and TV shows. He made his first on-screen appearance playing himself in a 1985 episode of The Jeffersons titled Youll Never Get Rich, before featuring in the miniseries Ill Take Manhattan. He then...

In 2012, filmmaker Andrew Dominik released the follow-up to his critically acclaimed film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; its name, Killing Them Softly. Unfolding during the 2008 Presidential election, this film tells the story of a hitman hired to tie up loose ends following the robbery of a high-stakes Mafia poker game.

Related 10 Underrated Gangster Movies That Are Flawless From Beginning to End

There are plenty of underrated gangster films that are just as good as many of the iconic staples in the genre.

At the time of its release, Killing Them Softly became a misunderstood failure in nearly every sense of the word, one that earned the rarest of cinematic audience scores and almost burnt down all the goodwill its relatively novice filmmaker had made for himself. If Killing Them Softly is remembered for anything today, it's for being one of the final movies to feature...

The best movie remakes are those that can stand on their own merits, and have their own identity separate from their source material. This is especially true for remakes of movies that are considered by both critics and general audiences to be untouchable classics. That said, there are some remakes that are so well-made and popular that they don't just surpass the original, but outright bury them and leave them in obscurity.

This doesn't mean that the original movie was inferior or never good to begin with. Truth be told, many of the original movies still hold up well under modern scrutiny. It's also not difficult to see why audiences of the time loved them. But thanks to a combination of the passage of time, the new cast's and crew's talents, and modern tastes, these remakes' original versions were forgotten and fell through the cracks.

The Ten Commandments Transformed a...

Following Channing Tatum's appearance as Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, it's possible that many other canceled Marvel movie characters could finally make their live-action debuts in the MCU. Channing Tatum first auditioned to play Remy LeBeau's Gambit for 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, but the role was cut, and he was replaced in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Although Tatum's much anticipated solo Gambit movie never came to fruition, Marvel Studios gave him a chance to play the Cajun hero in Deadpool & Wolverine, and other canceled Marvel characters could get the same treatment.

Over the years, many movies based on characters from Marvel Comics have been planned, but not all of them have managed to get out of the planning stages. There have been a huge number of unproduced Marvel movies, some of which would have starred high-profile actors as some iconic heroes and villains. Marvel Studios' exploration of...

Producer David O. Selznick was always looking for the next big thing. He had scored an enormous hit — it was a cultural phenom — with his 1939 Civil War drama “Gone with the Wind,’ which won eight Oscars including best picture, director, actress and supporting actress. And for those fashion-minded, “Gwtw” also caused an uptick in sales of the women’s headgear called the snood.

The following year, Selznick produced the best picture winner, Alfred Hitchcock’s romantic mystery “Rebecca.” Four years after ‘Rebecca” on July 20, 1944, Selznick released the sentimental, home-fires-burning drama “Since You Went Away,” which he hoped would the next “Gwtw” in terms of box office and Oscar love.

The world was war weary in 1944. In fact, World War II seemed never ending. The Allied troops launched its invasion of Europe on the beaches of Normandy on June 6th. But even with the success of D-day, the war wouldn’t...

Carla Balenda, who starred alongside Dana Andrews and Claude Rains in the Rko Pictures thriller Sealed Cargo and portrayed Mickey Rooney’s girlfriend on the NBC sitcom Hey Mulligan, has died. She was 98.

Balenda, billed at times as Sally Bliss, her birth name, died April 9 of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, her grandson Jim Martin told The Hollywood Reporter.

She also played a nurse on the 1955-56 syndicated series The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu, starring Glen Gordon, and recurred as Miss Hazlitt, Timmy’s (Jon Provost) teacher, on CBS’ Lassie from 1958-63.

In Sealed Cargo (1951), Balenda portrayed a woman who is aboard a fishing trawler bound for Newfoundland when she and the skipper (Andrews) wind up tangling in the North Atlantic with Nazis led by Rains’ character. She often said it was her favorite role.

When Rooney took his first crack at television,...

John Wilkes Booth was desperate to be famous. Instead, he became infamous as the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. He had been born in 1838 as the ninth of ten children of the famed actor Junius Brutus Booth. Though he had shown talent, his career was often derailed by his emotional instability. His older brother Edwin Booth was considered one of the top actors of the day.

The handsome younger Booth had received strong reviews in a New York production of “Richard III” with the New York Herald declaring him a “veritable sensation.” Booth even told the paper “I’m determined to be the villain.” A staunch supporter of the Confederacy, by 1864 he had recruited several co-conspirators in his plan to kidnap Honest Abe. Their attempts failed, but on April 14, 1865, he learned Lincoln would attend the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater that evening, During the third act...

Don Murray, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1956 film adaptation of William Inge’s play “Bus Stop,” has died. He was 94.

His son Christopher confirmed his death to the New York Times.

In the 2017 reboot of “Twin Peaks,” he played Bushnell Mullins, the chief executive of Lucky 7 Insurance.

Murray also starred in the fourth entry in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”; played Brooke Shield’s father in “Endless Love”; and recurred on prime-time soap “Knots Landing” as Sid Fairgate.

Reviewing “Bus Stop,” directed by Joshua Logan, the New York Times said: “With a wondrous new actor named Don Murray playing the stupid, stubborn poke and with the clutter of broncos, blondes and busters beautifully tangled, Mr. Logan has a booming comedy going before he gets to the romance. A great deal is owed to Mr.

This fall marks 30 awards seasons I’ve covered, not only as neutral observer, which is my main gig, but also as a fervent film fan, quietly cheering on my filmmaking heroes who sometimes manage to put their teams on the field. Sometimes they even manage to win.

But most of the time, I’ve spent the past 30 years hoping, not hyping.

I’ve hoped that the achievements that seem special to me also resonate with voters for the Oscars, Golden Globes, various guilds and critics’ groups. It doesn’t matter, if you care passionately about great cinema, you never hit the “off” button. But I’ve done so in the context of equal attention to everything, no playing favorites, let the fastest horse win at the gate.

I have also managed to personally avoid the predictions game, which now seems to almost dominate coverage across all publications, including this one.

Westerns often showcase shootouts, but fist fights and brawls are equally iconic and emotionally impactful. Fight scenes in Westerns represent more than just physical confrontations - they convey deeper emotions and philosophies. Some of the best Western fights include intense brawls with personal stakes, brutal duels, and unexpected subversions of audience expectations.

Westerns are known for showcasing some of the best shootouts ever seen, however, plenty of instances have consisted of conflicts in Westerns being resolved with bawled-up fists instead. Known worldwide for their depictions of just and honorable lawmen combating wild and dangerous outlaws during the American frontier, fist-fights, and brawls have become just as iconic in Westerns as their accompanying shootouts. Despite being one of Hollywood's oldest genres, everything from classics to more modern Westerns have featured some brilliantly brutal brawls.

A common criticism of fight scenes in movies is that they often lack any strong emotional weight behind them.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe really gives us a novelty that took forever for comic book movies to fully embrace. The idea of superhero properties crossing over and building to a much wider world is something that’s in the DNA of the source material. Outside of the Lou Ferrigno Hulk rubbing elbows with half-realized versions of Thor and Daredevil, it’s something that we never truly got to see until Nick Fury stopped by Tony Stark’s house after the Iron Man credits. Before that, the closest thing we had was J. Jonah Jameson referencing the existence of Doctor Strange. Even their rivals at DC Comics couldn’t give us more than a Superman reference in Batman and Robin or a Batman and Robin reference in Steel.

But we did have some close calls over the decades. Some closer than others. Movies and sequels that would have brought together various...

“The Ten Commandments” is the 1956 epic religious drama feature produced, directed and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, based on the 1949 novel “Prince of Egypt” by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, the 1859 novel “Pillar of Fire” by J. H. Ingraham, the 1937 novel “On Eagle's Wings” by A. E. Southon and the “Book of Exodus”, found in the ‘Bible’, starring Charlton Heston (“Planet of the Apes”):

“…the ‘Ten Commandments’ dramatizes the biblical story of the life of ‘Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of the enslaved ‘Hebrews’ and leads the ‘Exodus’ to ‘Mount Sinai’, where he receives the ‘Ten Commandments’…”

Cast also includes Yul Brynner (“Westworld”) as ‘Rameses’, Anne Baxter as ‘Nefretiri’, Edward G. Robinson as ‘Dathan’…

…Yvonne De Carlo (“The Munsters”) as ‘Sephora’, Debra Paget as ‘Lilia’, John Derek as ‘Joshua, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as ‘Seti I, Nina Foch as ‘Bithiah’, Martha Scott as ‘Yochabel’, Judith Anderson as ‘Memnet...

Writer/Director Joe Cornish discusses a few of his favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Attack The Block (2011)

Rocks (2019)

Poltergeist (1982)

Gremlins (1984)

Avanti! (1972)

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

The Last Wave (1977)

Witness (1985)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Fearless (1993)

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (2003)

Gallipoli (1981)

The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

The Rescuers (1977)

Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971)

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Moonraker (1979)

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)

Bambi (1942)

Dumbo (1941)

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

This Island Earth (1955)

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Matinee (1993)

The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

The Omen (1976)

Damien: Omen II (1978)

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

The Exorcist (1973)

The Exterminator (1980)

Friday The 13th...

Humphrey Bogart is practically the face of film noir. While not quite a genre, the very flexible film movement reflected America's malaise following the Great Depression and eventually World War II. There was a grimness and heightened sense of realism to the movies, often made on lower budgets and with a documentary intensity. Even when the movies ended happily, as many did, the feelings unearthed in the telling of the story would be left unresolved to gnaw at viewers indefinitely.

Bogart, the Broadway actor turned B-movie character actor turned one of the biggest stars in the world, fit the mood perfectly. His scars and trademark lisp separated him from his more conventionally beautiful peers and gave him a natural feel for the hardboiled material. His way with dialogue — spat out with ferocity or tenderness — colored the films as well. His cinematic stature, helped by his refusal to do television, also...

By Lee Pfeiffer

International screen icon Jean-Paul Belmondo has died at the age of 88. The French star was one of the major influences in terms of popularizing anti-heroes on screen. His somewhat shaggy, rough-hewn look was at odds with traditional screen leading men. Belmondo was not handsome in the traditional sense, nor did he specialize in playing erudite, sophisticated characters. He excelled  in playing the common man who was often caught up in extraordinary situations. Belmondo had flirted with being a boxer in his youth before gravitating to acting at the precise time French cinema's "New Wave" was taking the world by storm, led by directors and actors who would revolutionize world cinema. After appearing in numerous French films in the late 1950s, he became a sensation with his leading role in director Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 crime classic "Breathless". There would be no looking back. In the decades to come,...

Impeachment isn’t the only thing Donald Trump could face as he leaves office. On Tuesday, the national board of SAG-AFTRA announced that it will hold a disciplinary hearing against the outgoing president, where he could face expulsion from the actors’ guild.

The board made the move to hold the hearing after a request from SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, who cited the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6 and Trump’s role in inciting the attack as grounds for expulsion. The hearing will be overseen by the guild’s disciplinary committee, which did not participate in the national board’s vote on approving the hearing. Carteris and National Executive Director David White, who submitted the hearing request to the board on Carteris’ behalf, will not participate in the hearing.

“Donald Trump attacked the values that this union holds most sacred — democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races...

In Bo Derek’s new Reelz documentary, “In My Own Words,” the actress and former model admits, “I don’t care if anybody remembers me. I’ve never had the need to leave my mark on the world.”

That may be so. But Derek, now 63, will forever be remembered for her shot to stardom when she played Dudley Moore’s love interest in Blake Edwards’ 1979 romantic comedy “10.”

Her swimsuits and cornrows made her an instant sex symbol. But her life in the spotlight actually began a few years prior, in 1973, when she was just 17 and cast in her first movie, “Fantasies.” While on location in Greece, she fell in love with her director, former screen idol John Derek, who was 30 years her senior. Their romance ended Jon’s marriage to Linda Evans. Bo and John were married for 22 years before his death in 1988.

Variety caught up with Derek from her home in Santa Barbara,...

Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. You’ve probably never heard of these films, but the upside is that watching them alone at home won’t require a mask.

According to the one-sheet, in 1965’s Nightmare in the Sun, Ursula Andress was old enough to know better but too beautiful to care. She’s cheating on her older husband with the town sheriff, then takes up with a hitchhiker. It turns out the husband knows better than to kill people, but was too drunk to care.

The soap opera that accompanied the production reads like an early draft of Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. The story goes that Andress’s real-life husband, John Derek, agreed to let his wife do a nude scene with Aldo Ray, but reportedly reneged on the deal just before shooting started.

A topsy-turvy take on The Postman Always Rings Twice, Ursula Andress, John Derek and Aldo Ray engage in some murderous fun and games in this 1965 potboiler directed by Hollywood stalwart Marc Lawrence. Shot in a little over two weeks in Calabasas, California, Lawrence co-wrote the steamy screenplay with his wife Fanya.

The post Nightmare in the Sun appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

The Colossus of Rhodes

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1961 / 2:35 / Street Date June 26, 2018

Starring Rory Calhoun, Lea Massari, Georges Marchal

Cinematography by Antonio Ballesteros

Directed by Sergio Leone

Fred Astaire once said of an undulating Cyd Charisse, “She came at me in sections.” So does the star of Sergio Leone’s The Colossus of Rhodes, a 300 foot titan whose sky-scraping vertical stance is at extreme odds with Leone’s widescreen frame. Save for some long shots, one of The Seven Wonders of the World is reduced to a slide show of disconnected body parts. Such are the giant-sized headaches of epic movie-making.

Even before an earthquake would wreak havoc on the community and topple the Colossus in 226 BC, Rhodes was a city in turmoil. Darios, a Brylcreemed military hero and would-be romeo has just dropped anchor but in lieu of a warrior’s welcome, he’s immediately ensnared in a two-pronged...

Tony Sokol Jul 29, 2019

Sharon Tate rode into the 1960s on an All-American missile and defined the decade in a perfect frame.

“Honey, let's face it; all I know how to do is take off my clothes,” Jennifer North said in the film Valley of the Dolls, deflating the image of the sexual revolution and one of the decade’s most cinematic sex symbols. But that’s because Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski and the hypnotic witch in the under-appreciated cult horror thriller Eye of the Devil, had a deeper knowledge. The actor and model encapsulated both the look and attitudes of ‘60s youth, from her Thea Porter-designed micro-mini dress to her coppertone tan. Even the Malibu Barbie is said to be based on a Sharon Tate character.

Tate would have turned 75 last year had she not died at the age of 26 during the summer of ‘69. While...

This unusually sensitive, overlooked WW2 romance skips the morale-boosting baloney of the day. Two people meet on a train, each with a personal shame they dare not speak of. Ginger Rogers and Joseph Cotten are excellent under William Dieterle’s direction, and Shirley Temple doesn’t do half the damage you’d think she might.

I’ll Be Seeing You

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1944 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date November 21, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, John Derek, Tom Tully, Chill Wills, Kenny Bowers.

Cinematography: Tony Gaudio

Film Editor: William H. Zeigler

Special Effects: Jack Cosgrove

Original Music: Daniele Amfitheatrof

Stunt Double: Cliff Lyons

Written by Marion Parsonette from a play by Charles Martin

Produced by Dore Schary

Directed by William Dieterle

Aha! A little research explains why several late-’40s melodramas from David O. Selznick come off as smart productions,...

on this day in history as it relates to showbiz

30 BC Cleopatra commits suicide, allegedly by purposeful snake bite. I don't remember that scene in Liz Taylor's Cleopatra but it might have been at the four hour mark and t'was possibly asleep

How to honor this day: play with someone's snake. In the absence of a suitable one, wink at someone as saucily as Liz

← 1915 "Of Human Bondage" by W Somerset Maugham published. 19 years later it becomes a movie and marks Bette Davis's ascent to superstar actress

How to honor this day: Let it all out like Bette in that performance that's pure...

It’s time to head back to Twin Peaks, salute some major names (Gus Van Sant, James Cameron, Hal Ashby, Guillermo del Toro, Orson Welles), icons (James Dean), and (former) power players (Mike Ovitz). Plus, Harry Potter, Seinfeld, and McDonald’s! Let’s start with a loving look back at 50 years of the starship Enterprise.

Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years (Titan Books)

There have been a number of interesting books released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, but there’s no question that 50 Artists 50 Years is the handsomest. As the title makes clear, the premise is simple: 50 respected artists, all with wildly unique styles, were tasked with creating a work of art highlighting some element of the Trek universe. There’s plenty of original series — Glen Brogan’s jaunty representation of the bridge of the Enterprise is my personal favorite — and lots of Spock. Plus, Leonard Nimoy himself...

“Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!”

The Ten Commandments screens Wednesday October 5th at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in ‘The Loop’) as part of their new ‘Classics in the Loop’ film series. The movie starts at 7pm and admission is $7. It will be on The Tivoli’s big screen.

Sixty years after its initial release, The Ten Commandments remains one of the highest-grossing and most popular titles of all time. Filmed in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula with one of the biggest sets ever constructed for a motion picture, The Ten Commandments remains a cinematic triumph and perennial fan-favorite. Directed by renowned filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, The Ten Commandments grossed more than $65 million at the U.S. box office in 1956—equal to more than $1.1 billion today—ranking it below only Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of Music, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Titanic on the list of highest-grossing titles.

Tarzan the Ape Man (1981) Director: John Derek Stars: Bo Derek, Richard Harris, Miles O'Keeffe The King of the Apes is returning to his rightful throne this weekend in The Legend Of Tarzan, so Awfully Good Movies is celebrating by looking at MGM's failed 1981 reboot of Edgar Rice Burroughs' famed white ape: Tarzan The Ape Man, starring Bo Derek, Richard Harris and... Read More...

"This land is mine, God made this land for me." Those are just song lyrics, while Otto Preminger's politically daring 70mm mega-production is a lot more subtle in its presentation of the 'Palestinian problem' that led to the formation of the State of Israel. It's a bit ponderous, but Dalton Trumbo's screenplay avoids the pitfalls -- 56 years later, the story is still relevant. Exodus Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 208 min. / Ship Date March 15, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, David Opatoshu, Jill Haworth, Hugh Griffith, Gregory Ratoff, Felix Aylmer, Marius Goring, Alexandra Stewart, Martin Benson, Paul Stevens, George Maharis, John Crawford, Victor Maddern, Paul Stassino, John Van Eyssen Cinematography Sam Leavitt Art Direction Richard Day Film Editor Louis R. Loeffler Original Music Ernest Gold Written by Dalton Trumbo from...

Sixty years after its initial release, The Ten Commandments remains one of the highest-grossing and most popular titles of all time, and on Sunday, March 20, and Wednesday, March 23, Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) offer a rare chance to see the monumental epic on the big screen.

For four screenings only – two each day – the TCM Big Screen Classics series presents this fully restored Vista Vision production, which reveals every vibrant detail of the stunning landscapes, costumes and visual effects, digitally projected in its original 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio. This special presentation of The Ten Commandments will play at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (local time) each day in more than 650 theaters nationwide.

Filmed in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula with one of the biggest sets ever constructed for a motion picture, The Ten Commandments remains a cinematic triumph and perennial fan-favorite. Directed by renowned filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille,...

From Wonder Woman to Red Sonja, here are the female comic book projects that we’ve missed out on…

Although Supergirl, Catwoman and Elektra are movies that exist, there are times when we wish they didn’t. To be honest, the ‘perfect’ female-headlined superhero movie is still the stuff of our cinematic dreams. Saying that, TV’s Agent Carter provided us with a brilliant example of bringing a female comic book character to the small screen earlier this year, which hopefully Hollywood will learn a lot from going forward.

Of course, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel will be joining their respective cinematic universes soon, with Supergirl getting a pop at small screen success too. It looks like female comic book heroes will be getting the attention they deserve in the live action realm, finally.

This isn’t the first time the powers-that-be in Hollywood have tried to launch a slate of female superheroes,...

By taking home his second Razzie for Worst Director for "Transformers: Age of Extinction," action filmmaker Michael Bay now holds the distinction of being tied for the most "wins" in the category. He had previously prevailed in this category for the second instalment of the Transformers franchise, "Revenge of the Fallen" (2009). -Break- Only two other directors have taken home this dishonor on more than one occasion: John Derek prevailed first for "Bolero" (1984) and then for "Ghosts Can't Do It" (1990), which was the last film he directed before he passed in 1998. And M. Night Shyamalan was recognized for "Lady and the Water" (2006) and "The Last Airbender" (2010), 20 years after Derek had set the record in the category. Related: Complete list of 2014 Razzie Awards winners With five career bids for Worst Director, Bay also holds the distinction of being tied with Brian De Pal...'...

From rock operas to Wes Craven to Dazzler, here's some Marvel movies that never quite made it...

Recently, we looked at the DC movies that never got the greenlight. We saw hordes of Superman movies which didn’t make it to screen, along with Batman film ideas and whole hosts of other DC heroes whose movies plummeted out of production (You can read that piece here).

On the other side of the superhero cinema fence, we have the seemingly all-encompassing, game-changing Marvel Cinematic Universe at the height of its powers, the X-Men franchise in rude health and the still-fresh memory of Spider-Man’s hasty reboot. You could be forgiven for thinking that not as many Marvel movies have struggled to get made as their DC counterparts.

However, having delved once more into the ancient scrolls of cinema history (still better known as extensive Googling), we can confirm there’s plenty...

Femme fatale Audrey Totter: Film noir actress and MGM leading lady dead at 95 (photo: Audrey Totter ca. 1947) Audrey Totter, film noir femme fatale and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player best remembered for the mystery crime drama Lady in the Lake and, at Rko, the hard-hitting boxing drama The Set-Up, died after suffering a stroke and congestive heart failure on Thursday, December 12, 2013, at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles County. Reportedly a resident at the Motion Picture and Television Home in Woodland Hills, Audrey Totter would have turned 96 on Dec. 20. Born in Joliet, Illinois, Audrey Totter began her show business career on radio. She landed an MGM contract in the mid-’40s, playing bit roles in several of the studio’s productions, e.g., the Clark Gable-Greer Garson pairing Adventure (1945), the Hedy Lamarr-Robert Walker-June Allyson threesome Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), and, as an adventurous hitchhiker riding with John Garfield,...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated in May of 2011 on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and I’ve been writing a regular monthly movie-related column since. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I post all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks. This month’s edition of The Globe takes place in 1865, the year President Lincoln was shot .Steve and I originally decided I would write an article...

Well, you gotta at least give the girl a, um, 10 for effort, right? With her hair in cornrows and decked out in a gold bikini, Courtney Stodden did her best over the weekend to try and channel Bo Derek, the famous sex symbol who became a household name when she sported a somewhat similar look in the 1979 romantic comedy hit, 10. "I wanted to pay respect to [Derek], because her situation was similar to mine," says Stodden, adding that the actress' age-gap with husband John Derek was similar to Stodden's own. Of course, this isn't the first time Stodden has been inspired by hotties from yesteryear. Last summer, the 17-year-old wife of 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison struck a pose...

Dynasty star Linda Evans agreed to pose nude for Playboy to help her cash-strapped husband John Derek fund a new film.

The actress reveals she never intended the intimate shots her husband took of her to hit the pages of Playboy - but when he needed money, she agreed to free them up for the men's magazine in 1971.

Appearing on U.S. news show Access Hollywood Live on Wednesday, Evans said, "We took the pictures for us. He loved photographing me and he took pictures of me every day.

"At one point in our life we ran out of money, he wanted to do something and that offer came (from Playboy bosses) and he said, 'Can we?' and I said, 'Yeah'."

And Evans has no regrets about becoming a Playboy pin-up.

She added, "They made me who I am today."...

Alluring actor in a string of glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s

The seductive brunette Elaine Stewart, who has died aged 81, may have lacked that ineffable essence that makes up star quality, but she had enough allure to attract attention in several glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s, both in leading parts and noteworthy supporting roles. Among the best of the latter were her brief though memorable appearances in two films directed by Vincente Minnelli.

She was both bad and beautiful in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) as Lila, a wannabe film star, hoping to make it by sleeping with Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), the studio head. When told that Shields is a great man, Lila responds, "There are no great men, buster. There's only men." The scene which lingers most in the mind is when Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), who has just triumphed in a Shields movie, leaves a...

"Elaine Stewart, 81, an actress who appeared in a string of films in the 1950s and after taking a break to start a family appeared on the 1970s TV game shows Gambit and High Rollers, died Monday," reports the Los Angeles Times.

Mike Barnes in the Hollywood Reporter: "In a pair of 1954 films, Stewart starred opposite Gene Kelly and Van Johnson as nonstop talkative socialite Jane Ashton in Brigadoon and played a sexy harem princess in The Adventures of Hajji Baba, with John Derek as the title character. The former model and Montclair, NJ, native also appeared with Kirk Douglas in the classic Hollywood insider soap The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and with Richard Widmark and Karl Malden in the basic-training set Take the High Ground! (1953)."

Images above: March 23, 1953 cover of Life; and James Stewart, Elaine Stewart and director James Neilson on the set of Night Passage (1957).

Update, 6/29: David Ehrenstein...

Child actor who became a Hollywood film star known for her dazzling beauty and her eight marriages

The film star Elizabeth Taylor, who has died of heart failure aged 79, was in the public eye from the age of 11 and remained there even decades after her last hit movie. She managed to keep people fascinated, by her incandescent beauty, her courage, her open-natured character, her self-deprecating humour, her eight marriages (two of them to the actor Richard Burton), her many brushes with death, her seesawing weight, her diamonds and her humanitarian causes, all of which often obscured the reason why she was famous in the first place – she had a tantalising screen presence, in films including A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Butterfield 8 (1961), Cleopatra (1963) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Taylor was born in Hampstead, north London, of American parents. Her mother, Sara, was...

Sinatra was in a slump when he met the beautiful Ava Gardner at a party. Soon they were driving through the night guns blazing, says James Kaplan in an excerpt from his new biography, Frank.

In January 1949, MGM celebrated its Silver Jubilee by gathering 57 of its biggest stars, including Lassie, for a historic group photograph. There they sat (except for Lassie, who stood in front), in chairs arranged on bleachers on a soundstage, row on row of them, Tracy and Hepburn and Gable and Astaire and Garland and Durante and Errol Flynn, living proof that the great studio had, if not quite more stars than in the heavens, then at least more than anyone else. Wearing an unflattering light-gray suit and looking oddly pallid (and distinctly balding), Sinatra sat at the far right in the second-to-last row, in between Ginger Rogers and Red Skelton (who had broken everyone up when he walked in,...

This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for a few of them in particular.

These esteemed examples of entertainment include Crazy Heart, Batman, Batman Returns, Fist of Legend, the first season of Merlin, the DVD release of the classic Battleship Potemkin and an obscure direct t0 dvd movie called Crimes of Fashion featuring Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco and Megan Fox. And, of course, the non-3D Blu-ray release of Avatar hits stores this Thursday (pictured above with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana).

Movies

Avatar ~ Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver (Blu-ray and DVD)

Battleship Potemkin ~ Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Barsky (Blu-ray)

Batman ~ Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson (Blu-ray)

Batman Returns ~ Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken (Blu-ray)

Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This! ~ Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong...

Samuel Fuller had one of the most fascinating of Hollywood careers -- a 50-plus-year self-mythologizing rampage that began with scriptsmith work in the mid 1930s at the age of 24, evolving into one of the most distinctive auteurs America has ever produced, writing/directing some 25 movies and having a hand in writing 25 more, helplessly manufacturing himself into a crusty man's-man Hollywood gadfly in the process, readily available for manic interviews and iconic appearances in young auteurs' self-conscious films.

There are always corners in his career that you, whomever you are, haven't yet explored (honestly, any single Fuller film remains half-experienced if you've only seen it once), and so the new Sony set of Fulleriania is a prize, beginning as it does with "It Happened in Hollywood" (1937), Fuller's first screenplay credit, and an utterly freakish, Charlie Kaufman-esque launch of meta-ness that centers on Hollywood's discomfiting transition from silents to talkies, barely...

More good news for my favorite film genre! Back in May, I attended and wrote about the great “I Wake Up Dreaming” noir film festival at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater, hosted by Elliot Lavine. Showcasing old and rare B-movies from the 30s to the 50s, the festival was so successful that it was extended for another week.

Consider this a further extension two changing seasons later, as starting this Thursday Mr. Lavine will once again bring 22 rare noir gems to the Roxie for two weeks of betrayals, knife-sharp suspense and treacherous women.

This time around, the films are newly restored 35mm archive prints from Columbia Pictures—directed by acclaimed directors like Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang, Samuel Fuller, Don Siegel, and king of gimmicks William Castle. As with “I Wake Up Dreaming,” the films are shown as double features: two films for $11.

This collection offers a couple of noir-horror hybrid,...

He's already tackled Huckleberry Finn and Mowgli, so let's see what Stephen Sommers can do with Tarzan.

The "Jungle Book" director is in negotiations with Warner Bros. to bring a new version of the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs creation "Tarzan, Lord of the Apes," to the big screen. "Collateral" screenwriter Stu Beattie will write the project with Sommers.

Jerry Weintraub ("Ocean's Eleven") is producing through his Jerry Weintraub Prods. Jessica Goodman and Jesse Ehrman will oversee for the studio.

Guillermo del Toro had been attached to direct a script written by John Collee ("Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World") when the project was announced two years ago. But "The Mummy" director will get his shot now that Del Toro is committed to a four-year stint choreographing dwarves in New Zealand for the MGM-Warner Bros. two-fer of "The Hobbit."

With the first two "Mummy" movies, "The Scorpion King" and "Van Helsing,...

Bo Derek has launched her own range of canine care products - so your dogs can smell nice enough to jump into your bed. Bo, who lost husband John Derek to heart failure in 1998, now lives with her sister Kerry in Santa Ynez, California, and has nine dogs and 22 horses. She explains, "My dogs always slept on my bed so you certainly want them to be clean and smell nice. That was my goal in developing these products. To me, the phrase 'man's best friend' is no exaggeration. My dogs have given me so much happiness, love and companionship over the years, I wanted to give them my best in return. That's why I spent the last four years developing and fine tuning a unique line of the finest pet care products." Her product line is on sale across America at Petco stores.

Media tycoon TED TURNER has found new love with actress Bo Derek just months after splitting from Jane Fonda. Three-times-married Ted is 19 years older than 43-year-old Bo, but those close to the 61-year-old say he's very keen on the sexy 10 (1979) star. A source says, "It's in the early days yet, but Ted has been escorting Bo around very discreetly. Ted loves beautiful women and he gets a big buzz out of the whole movie scene. " However the pair are playing down the reports themselves. Turner's spokesman Philip Evans says, "It is not true. I don't know where you got it. " And a spokeswoman for Bo says, "They've been friends for a long time - but there's no romance. " But the sources say Turner and Derek have found they have a lot in common - including their mutual love for The Great Outdoors Both are also nursing major heartaches - TIME WARNER mogul Turner's nine-year marriage to Fonda collapsed in January and Derek is still mourning the 1998 death of her husband and mentor, John Derek.