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In 1975, George Kennedy starred in an unusual revenge thriller in which AI was used to catch the bad guys. A look back at The ‘Human’ Factor:

Revenge films and vigilantes were all over the place in the 1970s, whether it was Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey gunning down crooks in Death Wish (1974) or Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle going on a rampage in Taxi Driver (1976). One of the more unusual thrillers of its type from the era, though, was The ‘Human’ Factor from 1975. For one thing, there’s its high-tech premise, in which George Kennedy’s protagonist uses cutting-edge technology to track down his enemies.

Kennedy plays John Kinsdale, a middle-aged, American computer expert stationed in Naples. Each day, he says goodbye to his picture-perfect Nuclear family – wife, two sons, a daughter with an outsized clown doll – and drives to his workplace at a nearby NATO base. There,...

James B. Sikking, the Steven Bochco favorite who portrayed the no-nonsense Lt. Howard Hunter on Hill Street Blues and the good-hearted doctor dad on Doogie Howser, M.D., has died. He was 90.

Sikking died Saturday at his Los Angeles home of complications from dementia, publicist Cynthia Snyder announced.

Although best known for his TV work, Sikking did have notable turns on the big screen as a mocking hitman in John Boorman’s Point Blank (1967), as the stuffy Captain Styles in Leonard Nimoy‘s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and as the director of the FBI in Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief (1993).

After spending the better part of two decades showing up on such shows as The Outer Limits, Honey West, The Fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes and Mannix, Sikking was cast as the pipe-smoking Hunter, leader of the Swat-like Emergency Action Team, on NBC’s Hill Street Blues.

During its first three seasons on NBC, Stephen J. Cannell's "The A-Team" was one of the most popular shows on television. Critics dismissed it as mindless trash, but its 1983 premiere perfectly captured the gung-ho Reagan-era zeitgeist. The idea of a crack commando unit on the run from a government that did them dirty in the Vietnam War played to the country's bitterness over the mistreatment of veterans. Many Americans wanted to see the American military kick butt again, and what better way to scratch that itch than to build a series around a group of wrongly disgraced heroes?

The challenge for Cannell was satisfying his audience's bloodlust while observing the network's mandate that, due to its family-friendly 8 Pm timeslot, the good guys couldn't kill anybody. Could they fire off loads of cool-looking firearms or turn a bamboo into a bazooka? Absolutely! They just had to make sure their...

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By Fred Blosser

In “Stiletto,” a 1969 release from Joseph E. Levine’s Avco Embassy Pictures, Cesare Cardinali (Alex Cord) enjoys a jet-setting lifestyle rivaling and maybe even surpassing those of his real-life contemporaries in the “Playboy” era. He resides in a lavish Midtown Manhattan penthouse, hobnobs with movie stars and minor European royalty at red-carpet parties, races cars on the international circuit, and romances two beautiful girlfriends. But he’s increasingly uneasy about what he has to do to keep the money coming. On the books, he earns his millions through a lucrative importing business. In reality, he’s on the Mafia’s payroll through his patron, crime boss Ettore Matteo (Joseph Wiseman). Whenever a particularly important murder contract is ordered, Cesare is called in to do the job. His specialized tool is a medieval stiletto, and although he’s good at what he does,...

It’s lurid, it’s soapy, it’s forbidden: where does the line form? Joseph E. Levine made hay from Harold Robbins’ best seller, with prose that The New York Times said belonged more properly “on the walls of a public lavatory.” So why is the picture so much fun? When the performances are good they’re very good, and when they’re bad they’re almost better. Plus there’s a who’s who game to be played: If George Peppard is Howard Hughes and Carroll Baker is Jean Harlow, who exactly is Robert Cummings? I think this is the first time on Blu for this title, and playback-wise it’s A-ok for Region A.

The Carpetbaggers

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 9 (Australia)

1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 150 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / Available at [Imprint] 34.95

Starring: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Martin Balsam, Lew Ayres, Carroll Baker, Ralph Taeger, Archie Moore,...

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By Doug Oswald

Rock Hudson and George Peppard are WWII commandos in “Tobruk,” available on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. Hudson is Major Donald Craig, a Canadian prisoner of war on board a German transport ship anchored off an Italian controlled port in North Africa sometime in late 1942. A group of frogmen surface near the ship and sneak on board with silencers fixed to their guns in order to kidnap Craig. The frogmen are led by Captain Bergman (George Peppard) who is part of a team of German commandos. They take Craig to a German airfield and fly him to a desert landing strip. They’re unexpectedly greeted by a group of British soldiers led by Colonel Harker (Nigel Green). It turns out Bergman is the leader of German Jews who fled Nazi Germany for obvious reasons and are now part of...

Severin’s extravagant four-film six-disc The Complete Umberto Lenzi / Carroll Baker Giallo Collection is a luxurious trip into sexy, violent Italo thrill territory. CineSavant concentrates on the first Lenzi-Baker collaboration, a truly nasty bit of misanthropy that bridges the gap between standard ‘Lady In Peril’ fare and the full-bore giallos that would soon become the norm. It’s presented under its original title, which sounds more appropriate for a porn movie… in the U.S. the given title was Paranoia.

Orgasmo

Blu-ray

One feature in The Complete Lenzi / Baker Giallo Collection

Severin Films

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Orgasmo 97 min., Paranoia 91 min., all four films 369 min. / available through Severin Films / Street Date July 7, 2020 / 119.98

Orgasmo credits:

Starring: Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, Colette Descombes, Tino Carraro, Lilla Brignone, Franco Pesce, Tina Lattanzi, Jacques Stany.

Cinematography: Guglielmo Mancori

Film Editor: Enzo Alabiso

Art Direction: Giorgio Bertolini

Assistant Director Bertrand Tavernier

Original Music: Piero Umilani

Written by Ugo Moretti,...

When it comes to releasing unique and collectible Blu-ray box sets (such as their Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection), Severin Films has done an amazing job preserving horror history, and this summer they'll continue to do so with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, featuring Umberto Lenzi's collaborations with Carroll Baker:

"On June 30th, Severin Films is bringing together the complete collaborative works of two cult film legends with The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, which includes superlative editions of Orgasmo, So Sweet… So Perverse, A Quiet Place To Kill, and Knife Of Ice.

Italian writer/director Umberto Lenzi helmed popular peplums, created extreme poliziotteschi, and invented the Italian cannibal phenomenon. Hollywood actress Carroll Baker was the Golden Globe® winning/Academy Award® nominated star of Baby Doll, Giant and The Carpetbaggers. Together in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, they made four landmark films that changed the erotic thriller and giallo genres forever.

Fifty years ago, 1,500 individuals from 53 countries attended the fifth edition of MipTV at Cannes. It’s a small fraction of the estimated 10,500 expected this year, but organizers in 1969 were ecstatic at the turnout. They were also ecstatic to welcome celebs such as Harold Robbins, plugging “The Survivors,” starring Lana Turner.

On April 30, 1969, Variety reported that the hour-long drama was budgeted at “a new all-time high of $300,000 per episode.” Robbins was hot stuff in the 1960s as he virtually invented sex-and-wealth blockbuster novels with “The Carpetbaggers” and “Where Love Has Gone.” In addition to his Mip-promoted “Survivors,” various companies were planning adaptations of four Robbins works, including big-screen projects “The Adventurers,” “The Inheritors” and “Stiletto,” plus the TV-targeted “79 Park Avenue.” That quartet represented a total investment of $36 million.

“I am the only writer able to make three major companies go broke in one year,” he joked at Cannes.

“The Survivors,” which also starred George Hamilton,...

The force of nature born Elizabeth Ann Cole, and rechristened Elizabeth Ashley for stage and screen of the late 1950s, first drew the attention of critics and fans with her work in New York theater, garnering an early-career Tony Award for her portrayal of Mollie in the Broadway production of “Take Her, She’s Mine” in 1961.

Ashley’s big-screen debut in 1964, the hit film adaptation of Harold Robbins’ mega-best-seller “The Carpetbaggers,” earned her a Golden Globe supporting actress nomination and led to decades of work on screens big and small, including an Emmy Award-nominated turn in the Burt Reynolds ’90s comedy series “Evening Shade.”

More recently, Ashley appeared in the hit film comedy “Ocean’s 8” and has lit up the Netflix mind-twister “Russian Doll” as Natasha Lyonne’s unconventional therapist. Her first time in Variety was 60 years ago, when she appeared in a critically trounced 1959 summer stock production of noted...

What at first seems neighborly becomes something straight out of a nightmare in the 1980 thriller Windows, and to celebrate the movie's new high-def release, Scream Factory has provided us with three Blu-ray copies of the film to give away to lucky Daily Dead readers.

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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of Windows.

How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:

1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:

https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/

2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Windows Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on July 11th. This contest is only open to those who are eighteen years of age...

Happy Independence Day, everyone! While most of us in the Us are busy with BBQs and enjoying some outdoor fun, that doesn’t mean this week’s Blu-ray and DVD releases are taking any time off, as we have a handful of titles making their debuts on July 4th.

Scream Factory has given the cult psychological thriller Windows something of an HD upgrade this week with their brand new Blu-ray, and we have several indie titles arriving on both formats as well, including Accidental Exorcist, Here Alone, Bethany, and Awakening the Zodiac. Rounding out the July 4th home releases are Peelers and a 9-movie creature feature set on DVD featuring all sorts of murderous beasties.

Accidental Exorcist (Cinedigm, Blu-ray & DVD)

A 30-something, dirt-poor alcoholic (Daniel Falicki) can't hold down a day job or maintain a normal life due to the fact that he is a natural-born exorcist. He soon learns...

Something Wild

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 850

1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Aaron Copland

Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann

Produced by George Justin

Directed by Jack Garfein

After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:

“Dear Glenn Erickson,

Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.

If possible, I would appreciate if you could send

me a copy of your review by email.

Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”

Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...

The Criterion Collection has announced its slate for January, 2017, with offerings from Howard Hawks (“His Girl Friday”), Rainer Werner Fassbender (“Fox and His Friends”), Jack Garfein (“Something Wild”), and Ousmane Sembène (“Black Girl”). Check out the covers for the films below as well as synopses provided by the Criterion Collection. For more information on the special features and technical specs of each of these films, visit the Criterion Collection website.

Read More: The Criterion Collection Announces December Titles: ‘Heart of a Dog,’ ‘The Exterminating Angel’ and More

“His Girl Friday” (Available January 10)

One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever made, “His Girl Friday” stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson, a standout among cinema’s powerful women. Hildy is matched in force only by her conniving but charismatic editor and ex-husband, Walter Burns (played by the peerless Cary Grant), who dangles the chance for her to scoop...

High camp or just plain trash? A cultural-cinematic swamp in perfectly rotten taste, this adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's supermarket 'dirty book' seeks out tawdry sleaze like no American movie had before. Junk beyond belief, and great entertainment if you're in a sick frame of mind. Valley of the Dolls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 835 1967 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 123 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 27, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward, Tony Scotti, Martin Milner, Charles Drake, Alexander Davion, Lee Grant, Naomi Stevens, Robert H. Harris, Jacqueline Susann, Robert Viharo, Joey Bishop, George Jessel, Dionne Warwick, Sherry Alberoni, Margaret Whiting, Richard Angarola, Richard Dreyfuss, Marvin Hamlisch, Judith Lowry. Cinematography William H. Daniels Film Editor Dorothy Spencer Conductor / Music Adaptor John Williams Written by Helen Deutsch, Dorothy Kingsley Jacqueline Susann Produced by Mark Robson, David Weisbart Directed by Mark Robson

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I...

Because we're having fun with this little feature we'll continue. On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

1881 Ahead of her time Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. She doesn't get a biopic because Hollywood is only interested in "Great Man" biopics

1916 Happy Centennial to author Harold Robbins who penned 25 best-sellers some of which became famous movies like The Carpetbaggers (1964), the Elvis flick King Creole (1958), and the notorious Pia Zadora Razzie winner The Lonely Lady (1983)

Rope (1949) and Swoon (1992) - two great movies inspired by the Leopold & Loeb case

1924 Chicago college students Leopold & Loeb murder a teenage boy in a "thrill killing." Their crime inspires the story of the gay deviants in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1949), the Cannes Best Actor winning Compulsion (1958) and is recreated in the New Queer Cinema classic Swoon (1992)

1926 Kay Kendall of Les Girls (1957) fame is born

1952 Two time Oscar nominee John Garfield (best...

Before he would be forever marked by the Hollywood Blacklist, Edward Dmytryk churned out a succession of B movies in the late 1930s and early 1940s, averaging a handful of projects a year (he had six films in 1941 alone). Right before his first major breakthrough with 1944’s film noir classic Murder, My Sweet, he’d churn out a quintet of wide-ranging projects the year prior. In between a monster movie for Universal (Captive Wild Woman starring Acquanetta), Dmytryk completed four war related items, including Tender Comrade with Ginger Rogers dealing with a new living situation while Robert Ryan serves overseas, the noir-ish The Falcon Strikes Back which concerns a phony war bond operation, and then an exploration of the rise of militarism in Japan as experienced by a returning veteran with Behind the Rising Sun. But none of these hold a candle to another title he unleashed that year, the sensational Hitler’s Children,...

Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...

A forgotten gem of the late 1970s comes to Blu-ray for the first time, Frank Pierson’s adaptation of the novel King of the Gypsies. Notable for several reasons, namely as the credited debut for actor Eric Roberts and a star studded cast packed to distraction, this is the kind of pulp oddity often whisked off the shelves of the bestseller list for glossy cinematic reinterpretation. This gypsy saga was based on a novel by Peter Maas, better known as the biographer of Serpico, which resulted in the novel inspiring Sidney Lumet’s classic 1973 film starring Al Pacino. Eventually, Maas’ works, often revolving around sensational true crime treatments, would be adapted mainly for television (including the 1991 Valerie Bertinelli Lifetime film, In a Child’s Name), and this sometimes outlandish antique feels like an exaggerated heirloom in the Harold Robbins’ vein (The Carpetbaggers; The Betsy; The Adventurers), a frumpy comparison...

Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies that have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Harve Bennett (1930-2015) - Producer. He worked on the Star Trek movie franchise, beginning with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and staying through Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He died on February 25. (Deadline) Lynn Borden (1937-2015) - Actress. Best known for TV's Hazel, she also appears in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Carpetbaggers, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Black Mama White Mama (see below), Frogs, the...

Read More...

Die Falle

(La morte ha fatto l’uovo a.k.a Death Laid an Egg, A Curious Way to Love & Plucked)

1968, dir: Giulio Questi

Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Great Silence) stars as Marco, a wealthy man who runs a high-tech chicken farm (living the dream right there!) with his wife Anna, played by Gina Lollabrigadia (Beat the Devil). When not taking care of business, Marco has a nasty little habit. He likes to murder prostitutes. Yep, a guy who breeds chickens with no bones or heads for a living needs some sort of distraction right? Not only that, but he also has a thing for his lovely young and nubile secretary Gabrielle, played by Ewa Aulin (Death Smiles at Murder). She lives with the married couple in their grandiose estate. Unsurprisingly, Anna is rather suspicious of her husband and his hobbies. Uncertainty in relationships becomes a running theme with pretty much...

Howard Hughes movies (photo: Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator') Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Howard Hughes-produced, John Farrow-directed, Baja California-set gangster drama His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum, Hughes discovery Jane Russell, and Vincent Price, at 3 a.m. Pt / 6 a.m. Et on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Hughes produced a couple of dozen movies. (More on that below.) But what about "Howard Hughes movies"? Or rather, movies -- whether big-screen or made-for-television efforts -- featuring the visionary, eccentric, hypochondriac, compulsive-obsessive, all-American billionaire as a character? Besides Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays a dashing if somewhat unbalanced Hughes in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Best Picture Academy Award-nominated The Aviator, other actors who have played Howard Hughes on film include the following: Tommy Lee Jones in William A. Graham's television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), with Lee Purcell as silent film star Billie Dove, Tovah Feldshuh as Katharine Hepburn,...

Hollywood glamour girl Martha Hyer, an Oscar nominee when she played opposite Frank Sinatra in 1958's Some Came Running and memorable as William Holden's stunning society fiancée in the 1954 Audrey Hepburn romance Sabrina, died in her Santa Fe home on May 31, it was reported Monday by the New Mexican newspaper, which said she had lived in the town since the mid-'80s. She was 89. Besides the roles she did play, several of them in Westerns, Hyer was also known for a role that got away: victim Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic, Psycho. Instead, that went to Janet Leigh.

Hollywood glamour girl Martha Hyer, an Oscar nominee when she played opposite Frank Sinatra in 1958's Some Came Running and memorable as William Holden's stunning society fiancée in the 1954 Audrey Hepburn romance Sabrina, died in her Santa Fe home on May 31, it was reported Monday by the New Mexican newspaper, which said she had lived in the town since the mid-'80s. She was 89. Besides the roles she did play, several of them in Westerns, Hyer was also known for a role that got away: victim Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 Psycho. Instead, that went to Janet Leigh.

By Brian Hannan

With all the (deserved) appreciation of Zulu, it’s hard to imagine it was a massive flop in the Us. Independent producer Joe Levine planned a double whammy for summer 1963 – The Carpetbaggers, an adaptation of the sizzling Harold Robbins bestseller, and Zulu. He even arranged for Zulu to follow The Carpetbaggers into the prestigious Palace first run cinema in New York. Spending big, Levine, whipped up a huge marketing campaign for Zulu, which had notched up record grosses in the UK.

But the two films could not have been further apart. Where The Carpetbaggers stormed to $862,000 from 25 theatres in the New York area, Zulu could only manage $190,000 from 30 in Los Angeles. Zulu scored well in first run in Detroit (running four weeks) and Chicago, but was quickly (perhaps too quickly) consigned to drive-ins. Failure to find a niche was not for want of trying. In successive weeks in La,...

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,...

Tennessee Williams Centennial Week Wraps

Maggie the Cat, the sex-starved slip-covered wife at the heart of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (discussed earlier this week) is not just alive, she keeps coming back to life. True to her feline symbolism she's had several of them, eight bigs ones actually. Who will risk playing Maggie the Cat's ninth major life and how soon will that be?

Here is a history of the key Maggies for those who love the play... or just if you like to see major actresses in their lingerie. Have you ever seen a production of this play anywhere or just the 1958 film? Do tell in the comments. Would love to hear Tin Roof stories.

1955 ~ Original Maggie

Barbara Bel Geddes, originated the role on Broadway in the 1956 and won a Tony nomination. (She lost to Julie Harris in "The Lark"). Other Key Roles: I Remember Mama (1947, Oscar nomination.

Harlow, one of two major feature films about the legendary screen sex symbol made during the same year, will make its DVD debut on September 28 from Olive Films. This version stars Carroll Baker while the other film (amazingly carrying the same title!) starred Carol Lynley. Here is the official synopsis:

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Hollywood in 1928 is a land of milk and honey, magic and fantasy. Jean Harlow’s spectacularly controversial and tragic career begins with bit parts in movies while she’s living with her mother and opportunistic stepfather. When Hollywood agent, Arthur Landau (Golden Globe Nominee, Red Buttons), spots her on a film set, he gets her a series of comedy roles and soon realizes he has a gold mine in Miss Harlow (Carroll Baker). She becomes an overnight sensation and critics hail her as the next great sex symbol. This film documents the...

No 84 Alan Ladd 1913-64

He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.

He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.

But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...

“You finally made it, Frankie! Oscar night! And here you sit, on top of a glass mountain called success. You’re one of the chosen five, and the whole town’s holding its breath to see who won it! It’s been quite a climb, hasn’t it, Frankie? Down at the bottom, scuffling for dimes in those smokers, all the way to the top. Magic Hollywood!” This ripe narration opens the 1966 movie The Oscar, a cynical look at how an Oscar nomination goes to the head of its nominee and the lengths an unscrupulous man will go to win the coveted gold statuette. With an undeserved reputation as one of the lousiest Show-biz soap operas from the 60’s, The Oscar portrays Hollywood as a cesspool where you sell your soul and it’s certainly amusing for its campy dialog and sleazy situations. Sure, The Oscar is brainless tinseltown trash full of shameless clichés,...

John Michael Hayes, who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's suspense classic Rear Window passed away on November 19. He was 89 years old. Hayes also wrote the screenplays for Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry, To Catch a Thief and the director's remake of his own film, The Man Who Knew Too Much. (Hitchcock forbade Hayes from seeing the earlier version of the movie to ensure he brought a fresh approach to the concept.) Hayes was also Oscar-nominated for Peyton Place. His other prominent film credits include The Carpetbaggers, The Children's Hour, Butterfield 8 and Nevada Smith. For more click here...