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These days, "Batman Returns" rightfully gets its due. But Tim Burton's sequel to his 1989 effort, "Batman," was assailed by critics upon its release, who felt that it was either too dark, too overcrowded with characters, lacking in plot, or just plain weird. Even many fans were ticked off by the Burton-ness of the whole thing and felt the director and screenwriter, Daniel Waters, had strayed too far from the core of the Dark Knight.

In a way, they were right. Burton had let his freak flag fly, making his own movie and not necessarily a Batman movie. Waters admitted as much after a recent screening of "Returns," saying (via IndieWire):

"It was a weird assignment in that I didn't need to please anyone but Tim Burton. Before the internet, you didn't have to go before a tribunal and say what you were doing — it was just two guys in a room riffing.

One of the reasons "The Twilight Zone" endures today is its uncanny ability to tell any kind of story. Even the most classic episodes often feel like they were made for completely different reasons, and only share between them a whiff of the uncanny or supernatural. "The Night of the Meek" is one of the sweetest, kindest episodes of television ever filmed. "The Eye of the Beholder" is one of the most daringly experimental and powerful.

But sooner or later, "The Twilight Zone" always comes back around to the realm of absolute terror. Godlike children transforming hapless adults into Jack-in-the-Boxes, man-eating aliens from outer space, paranoid suburbanites ripping each other to pieces ... there's a frightening episode of "The Twilight Zone" for just about anybody.

And one of the scariest they ever filmed took place in a tiny cabin, with only one actor — one of the greatest of her generation — and she never says a word.

Showbiz dynamo Ann-Margret tries on ‘teenage hellion’ for size. She terrorizes the straight, impossibly patient John Forsythe, sending him on a weekend ordeal with razor-wielding hooligans. He can kiss both his marriage and his political ambitions goodbye: who will believe David when Jody claims he took advantage of her? Douglas Heyes’ sordid suspense thriller has a loser reputation but is big fun in the star-watching game: Ann-Margret has no choice but to go way over the top and chew scenery, and the direction doesn’t offer enough support. The technical remaster is excellent, and the disc extras generous.

Kitten with a Whip

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint]

1964 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date December 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / 34.95au

Starring: Ann-Margret, John Forsythe, Peter Brown, Richard Anderson, Skip Ward, Patricia Barry, Diane Sayer, Ann Doran, Patrick Whyte, Audrey Dalton, Leo Gordon, Patricia Tiara, Nora Marlowe, Frances Robinson, Maxine Stuart, Jerry Dunphy, Doodles Weaver.

The Brass Bottle

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1964/ Color / 1.85:1 / 89 Minutes

Starring Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden

Directed by Harry Keller

Possessed of a commanding baritone and an even more elegant delivery, Tony Randall was a natural for radio, cutting his teeth as program announcer for Wtag in Worcester before landing the role of a two-fisted detective in the early ’40s with I Love a Mystery. It was a voice—silky but full of import—ideal for Shakespeare in the Park yet the actor’s nervous-nelly demeanor would make him a standard bearer for light comedy. After flaunting his versatility in Broadway’s Inherit the Wind and television’s Mr. Peepers, Randall laid down an actor’s gauntlet with his gender-bending, shape-shifting turn as a mysterious carny barker in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Based on Charles G. Finney’s 1935 satire—a cynical diatribe transformed into a cozy fantasy by George...

Being photographed in black and white doesn’t deter Ann-Margret, even in monochrome the fiery redhead is a dazzling distraction. And when this kitten gets her claws in the blandly handsome politico played by John Forsythe, it’s a match made in pulp heaven. Director Douglas Heyes’s sexed-up Jd film has a well-deserved reputation for being over the top but with Ann working overtime as a hot-to-trot pyromaniac, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The post Kitten with a Whip appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Sometimes a long-running TV show finds itself linked to a certain holiday. Community had Christmas. The Simpsons has Halloween. Brooklyn 99 had Halloween, then changed it to Cinco de Mayo for scheduling reasons. Saturday Night Live has…Election Day, I guess? I probably should have thought this through a bit more.

While Mystery Science Theater 3000 has done a handful of Christmas-themed episodes, the series has a much deeper relationship with Thanksgiving. Turkey Day is essentially its legacy. It started on Thanksgiving and it always comes back to that one Thursday in late November, whether the show is on the air or not.

Back in 1988, Joel Hodgson created a new show idea inspired by a random image from the liner notes of an Elton John album, wherein a couple of silhouettes sit in front of a movie screen. He and some robot puppets would watch bad movies and crack jokes. While the...

As cars pull up to the Wellfleet Drive-In on Cape Cod, a masked attendant hands every vehicle two small pieces of paper — a listing of the current line-up of double features promising rain or shine shows and encouraging early arrival, and a yellow sheet of protocols. On the sheet, printed in bold above a primer on the theater’s quaint original 1957 speaker system and a stern warning against the use of laser pointers, reads:

“Attention. Per order of the commonwealth of Massachusetts: There are two parking spaces between each speaker post and each vehicle is permitted one space. The right side must remain empty even if another car is part of the same quarantine unit. Social distancing must be maintained in all lines. Masks must be worn when outside of your vehicle. Anyone who refuses to comply with the rules will be ejected without refund.”

Welcome to social distancing at the drive-in.

It will come as a surprise to no one that John Waters, as a wayward youth, once got arrested at the since-shuttered Carlin’s Drive-In in Baltimore. He used to spend lots of time at the local drive-ins, including Bengie’s Drive-In in Maryland, which is still open. Waters seems so synonymous with drive-ins, he even shot the final scene of 2000’s “Cecil B. Demented” at a local one.

“I spent a week in the drive-in filming that finale, so that almost cured me ever wanting to go back to the drive-in again,” Waters said during a recent in-person interview. The filmmaker donned an understated brown cloth mask, having just stepped out from his car after introducing the first in a double feature he programmed for the Provincetown International Film Festival over the weekend. We spoke in the fading dusk as ketchup-soaked killer bunnies appeared onscreen, our conversation occasionally interrupted...

Gavin Jasper Nov 27, 2019

In 1988, an oddball comedy experiment hit a certain Uhf station on Thanksgiving and as it grew, so did the MST3K connection to the holiday.

Sometimes a long-running TV show finds itself linked to a certain holiday. Community had Christmas. The Simpsons has Halloween. Brooklyn 99 had Halloween, then changed it to Cinco de Mayo for scheduling reasons. Saturday Night Live has...Election Day, I guess? I probably should have thought this through a bit more.

While Mystery Science Theater 3000 has done a handful of Christmas-themed episodes, the series has a much deeper releationship with Thanksgiving. Turkey Day is essentially its legacy. It started on Thanksgiving and it always comes back to that one Thursday in late November, whether the show is on the air or not.

Back in 1988, Joel Hodgson created a new show idea inspired by a random image from the liner notes of an Elton John album,...

Soap opera veteran Patricia Barry, whose career included runs on “Days of Our Lives,” “All My Children” and “Guiding Light,” died Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. She was 93. According to the AP, Barry died at her home in Los Angeles. Born Patricia Allen White in Davenport, Iowa, Barry made her theatrical debut in summer theater, later appearing on Broadway in productions such as “The Pink Elephant” and “Goodbye Again.” She began appearing in films in 1947. Her big-screen credits include “Kitten With a Whip,” “Twilight Zone: The Movie” and “Sea of Love.” Also Read: 'Days of Our Lives' Star Kassie DePaiva.

By Lee Pfeiffer

One of the most rewarding byproducts of reviewing movies for a living is that you will often encounter some prominent gem that somehow managed to escape your attention previously. In certain cases, it's arguable that a film might well be more appreciated many years later than it was during its initial release. Such a case pertains to the 1965 crime drama Once a Thief. Directed by the under-rated Ralph Nelson, the film successfully invokes the mood and atmosphere of the classic black-and-white film noir crime thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. Although this movie was widely credited as being Alain Delon's first starring role in an English language production, he was among the all-star cast seen the previous year in the big budget Hollywood production of The Yellow Rolls Royce. It is accurate to say, however, that Once a Thief afforded him his first opportunity to be...

Below you will find a list of movie that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright has never seen. Not long ago Wright went out and asked his friends and fans to recommend some movies they thought he may have missed over the last thirty years of his life. He got recommendations from Quentin Tarantino, Daniel Waters, Bill Hader, John Landis, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Dante, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, Greg Mottola, Schwartzman, Doug Benson, Rian Johnson, Larry Karaszeski, Josh Olson, Harry Knowles and hundreds of fans on this blog.

From these recommendations, Wright created a master list of recommended films that were frequently mentioned. The director now wants the fans to choose which of the films on the list he should watch on the big screen.

Wright is holding a film event at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles called Films Edgar Has Never Seen.

Edgar Wright's latest epic project [1] has him partnering with Quentin Tarantino, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, Bill Hader, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Dante, Greg Mottola, Harry Knowles, Rian Johnson and, probably, several of you. Like all of us, Wright has a bunch of classic and cult films he's never seen. Unlike all of us, he has the means to see them for the first time on the big screen and will do just that in December [2] at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles during Films Edgar Has Never Seen. The director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World asked both his famous friends (some of which are listed above) and fans to send in their personal must see lists and, from those titles, Wright came up with one mega list from which he'll pick a few movies to watch December 9-16. After the jump check...

Is there something major going on in film tonight? Who knows? So, enjoy these links about movies that don’t get all the attention!

The big news this week is that the last lab in the UK has just stopped printing 16mm film. That’s right: It is now impossible to get your 16mm film printed in England! Thanks, Deluxe! Filmmaker Tacita Dean writes an impassioned, personal article about this devastating blow to the film world for the Guardian.(By the way, the image above was taken by documentary filmmaker Lynne Sachs and is of Craig Baldwin’s 16mm film archive.)At Africa Is a Country, Sean Jacobs interviews South African filmmaker Dylan Valley about the documentary The Uprising of Hangberg, which Valley co-directed with Bad Lit fave Aryan Kaganof. The film documents the South African police crackdown of a small village full of “alleged” squatters. Heavy emphasis on “alleged.

There’s very little in this world that gets me more excited than when an underground film festival adopts WordPress as a Cms for their website. Even more exciting is when the world’s oldest underground fest does it, as the Chicago Underground Film Festival has recently. Awesome looking site, guys! Gazelluloid is an experimental cinema blog that’s been around almost a year, but I just discovered it. The site posts up tons of great short films with no commentary. You should go bookmark it. There’s another brand new experimental film blog out there, too: cori e comete. However, you have to read Italian to get the full effect. The blog name translates to “choruses and comets.” There’s a new experimental and avant-garde screening space in North America: CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre in Montreal. Lots of great screenings are scheduled already. CineSpace is being run by Daïchi Saïto and Malena Szlam.

John Forsythe was a leading actor on stage, screen and television from the late 1940s, but was never seen in one of his best known roles. He lent his distinctive voice to the role of Charles Townsend, who sent an array of lovely agents on various cases by speaker phone in the Charlie’s Angels television series from 1976 to 1981. The Angels originally included Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith, and were later joined by Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack, and Tanya Roberts. He reprised his role for feature film adaptations twenty years later, Charlie’s Angels (2000) and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003), starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as a new generation of beautiful detectives. Forsythe became a silver-haired sex symbol in his sixties, when he starred as ruthless oil tycoon Blake Carrington in the ABC prime-time soap opera Dynasty from 1981 to 1989. He frequently found himself at the...

American TV actor famous for his role as Dynasty's Blake Carrington and being the voice of Charlie in Charlie's Angels

If the name of the American actor John Forsythe, who has died aged 92, is not immediately recognisable, then that of his character Blake Carrington – the tanned and handsome silver-haired billionaire oil magnate in the long-running television series Dynasty – certainly is. The show, known for its opulent atmosphere, lavish sets and costumes, and preoccupation with the problems of the wealthy, ran alongside Ronald Reagan's years as Us president, 1981-89. It made Forsythe internationally famous and rich. During the second year of the run, Forsythe remarked: "I can't afford to bulge. Being a 64-year-old sex symbol is a hell of a weight to carry."

With his earnest demeanour, Forsythe, as the patriarch plagued by a scheming ex-wife (Joan Collins), a bisexual son, and other tribulations ranging from murder and greed to lust and incest,...

Legendary actor John Forsythe, who was best known to television audiences as "Dynasty" Patriarch Blake Carrington and the voice of Charlie on "Charlie's Angels" died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. He was 92.

The television, stage, and film actor began his career in 1943, but first shot to fame playing the single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s sitcom "Bachelor Father." His roles on "Dynasty" and "Charlie's Angels" helped make him a household name through many decades and generations of fans.

According to E! Online, Joan Collins says of her "Dynasty" co-star, "He was one of the last true gentlemen of the acting profession." His daughter Brooke Forsythe said her father, "died as he lived his life, with dignity and grace."

Forsythe also found big screen success in "Destination Tokyo," "Kitten With a Whip," "Madame X," and "In Cold Blood." His last film was 1988's "Scrooged" opposite Bill Murray...

Lindsay Lohan has landed a dream role opposite her heroine Ann-margret in a new Jack Black comedy.

The actress insists she can't say much about the project, but she simply can't keep quiet about the prospect of working with the Tommy star, who she has emulated for years.

The two redheads met up for a photoshoot in 2006 and Lohan declared Ann-Margret was her ultimate role model. The pair has become firm friends.

And now the Mean Girls star says, "I'm part of a film that Jack Black is involved in that is starting around April, hopefully. We're getting the cast together now.

"I can't say too much. It's a comedy. Ann-Margret is a part of it and I'm very excited (about that).

"One of my favourite movies is her movie Kitten With A Whip. It's a great movie. I just really respect her."...