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Ted McGinley, Julia Montgomery, Robert Carradine in Revenge Of The Nerds. Image: 20th Century Fox In No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence plays Maddie, a floundering 32-year-old so down on her luck she’s willing to make a deal with the parents of a sheltered 19-year-old to “date” him in exchange...

The movies have a long history of “How to” films including How to Murder Your Wife, How to Steal a Million, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, How to Marry a Millionaire, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog, even How to Train Your Dragon. But the riveting new eco-thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline takes it to new levels of how-to consciousness with a literal approach to its title and the source material on which it is based, that being Andreas Malm’s radical manifesto of the same name.

The author of that book does not go into exact detail on exactly how you could go about blowing up a pipeline, but instead lays out the urgent necessity to do just that act of property destruction, offering up the belief that this good deed...

Middle-aged service worker Hideo (Itsuji Itao) shares his tiny apartment with an inflatable sex doll in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Air Doll,” a contemplative, melancholy — if minor — study of loneliness. (This 2009 film from the director who would go on to make “Shoplifters” and “The Truth” is getting its first U.S. release.)

And though the label on the box reads “Lovely Girl Candy,” and Hideo finds real human interaction “annoying,” he gives the doll the name “Nozomi,” after a former girlfriend. She’s as close to being real as he wants, and she silently absorbs his minor monologues and grievances about his work day before he has sex with her.

There are other inanimate, less functional dolls in Hideo’s home: small figures on shelves, a bedside “Paddington”-style teddy bear, and linens decorated with nesting dolls. But it’s Nozomi who, one day while Hideo is at work, gains consciousness and living,...

Dwayne Hickman, whose turn as eternal romantic Dobie Gillis made him a teen idol in the 1960s, has died this morning at age 87 in his Los Angeles home of complications from Parkinson’s Disease.

An actor, producer, director and artist, Hickman starred in the hit TV series The Bob Cummings Show and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He died on the birthday of his dearest friend and former “Dobie …” cast member Bob Denver, whom he again costarred opposite in the CBS, movie of the week, Surviving Gilligan’s Island, playing a CBS network executive.

Born Dwayne Bernard Hickman on May 18, 1934 in Los Angeles, Hickma’s earliest screen appearances included began at age six, making his film debut, as an extra in The Grapes of Wrath.

As a teen he starred in his first television series opposite Bob Cummings, where he honed his comedic skills under the watchful eyes of...

Dwayne Bernard Hickman, an actor, producer and television director best known for his starring role in the 1950s and ’60s sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” died of complications related to Parkinson’s disease on Sunday. He was 87 years old.

Hickman’s death was confirmed to Variety by the actor’s public relations head Harlan Boll.

Born on May 18, 1934 in Los Angeles, Calif., Hickman began screen acting at a young age with appearances in “The Boy With the Green Hair” and 1940’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” As a teenager, he starred as Chuck MacDonald in “The Bob Cummings Show,” acting alongside the titular comedian across the sitcom’s four-year run.

In 1959, Hickman earned the marquee role on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” The actor starred in all 148 episodes of the 20th Century Fox sitcom. As the first major television series to feature teenagers as its primary characters, “Dobie...

"Life's A Beach"

By Lee Pfeiffer

When it comes to defining cinematic guilty pleasures, one need not look any further than the lame-brained beach movies that were marketed to teenagers in the mid-1960s. The formula started in 1963 with "Beach Party", teaming Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon for the first time as loved-starved teens who are addicted to fun and sun in the surf. The film was such a hit that it spawned numerous sequels, delighting producers Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson and American International, which was mining gold by making big profits from low-budget productions. The beach series didn't vary much in terms of content and many of the most popular actors were utilized in each successive film. There were also simlarly-themed films starring Avalon in different geographical settings. But if the beach series burned brightly, its flame was short-lived. By 1965, the young audiences that initially craved...

Tommy Kirk, the actor known for playing Travis Coates in “Old Yeller” and several other Disney films, was found dead in his Las Vegas home Tuesday. He was 79.

Kirk’s longtime friend Paul Petersen II posted the news on Facebook, writing, “Please know that Tommy Kirk loved you, his fans.”

Kirk was born in Louisville, Ky. in 1941 and grew up in Los Angeles County. He began acting as a teenager, and appeared in a play at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he was discovered by an agent who helped him to make his screen debut in “The Last of the Old Time Shooting Sheriffs,” a 1955 episode of “TV Reader’s Digest.” From there, he appeared in episodes of several TV series including “The Loretta Young Show” and “Gunsmoke.” His profile rose when he began to play the role of Joe Hardy in the “Hardy Boys” series “The Mystery of the Applegate...

Tommy Kirk, one of Disney’s major young stars of the 1950s and early ’60s with performances in generational touchstone films such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog and Son of Flubber, died Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 79.

His death was announced on Facebook by friend and fellow child star Paul Petersen.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

“My friend of many decades, Tommy Kirk, was found dead last night,” wrote Petersen, who has long been an advocate for child actors through his organization A Minor Consideration. “Tommy was intensely private. He lived alone in Las Vegas, close to his friend … and Ol Yeller co-star, Bev Washburn … and it was she who called me this morning. Tommy was gay and estranged from what remains of his blood-family. We in A Minor Consideration are Tommy’s family. Without apology. We will take care of this.

Michael Nader, an actor whose sharp good looks, leading-man intensity and throaty vocal delivery saw him cast on Dynasty and All My Children as romantic interests for two of the era’s most famous vixens, died Monday at his home in Northern California from an untreatable form of cancer. He was 76.

His death was announced by wife Jodi Lister, who released a statement saying, “With heavy heart, I’m sharing the news of the passing of my beloved, Michael. We had 18 wonderful years together with the many dogs we fostered and adopted. Recently, Michael was so thrilled to reconnect with his friends from the cast of Dynasty during Emma Samms virtual event to help raise funds for Long-Covid research. He was a beautiful and fascinating man with many talents and skills. I will miss him forever.”

Born in St. Louis but raised in California, Nader, a nephew of Hollywood actor George Nader,...

March marked the 65th anniversary of the wrap of the first season of the “Mickey Mouse Club,” and the recent death of one of the original Mouseketeers, Johnny Crawford, reminded fans of the enduring talent that the show, and especially its early 1990s iteration, brought to the entertainment industry. The original “Mickey Mouse Club” launched the career of Annette Funicello, who occupied a beloved niche in audiences’ hearts for six decades, and the 1990s revival produced Oscar nominees and artists who’ve sold tens of millions of albums and redefined pop music and pop culture. But who are the greatest Mouseketeers? It’s a list ready for debate between boomers and gen Z.

Justin Timberlake

“The All-New Mickey Mouse Club”

A breakout star from the series, Timberlake really hit it big in Ur boy band *Nsync (with fellow “Mmc” castmate Jc Chasez). He transitioned into an even bigger solo pop career,...

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

Blu ray

Olive Films

1965 / 2.35 : 1 / 93 Min.

Starring Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Mickey Rooney

Cinematography by Floyd Crosby

Directed by William Asher

Sam Arkoff and James Nicholson, the men behind such teen-friendly drive-in fare as Reform School Girl and High School Hellcats, caught a monster wave with 1963’s Beach Party and hung on for three long years before sinking into the sunset with Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, a haunted house spoof starring Tommy Kirk and a frail Boris Karloff.

It was a wild ride sustained by Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon and a rotating cast of fun-loving deadbeats who would become as familiar to 60’s audiences as Eugene Pallette and Hugh Herbert were to depression era movie fans. As weighty as a cherry popsicle in July, the movies were aimed at high schoolers but the gags were older than dirt – vaudeville humor with that Coppertone tan.

Michele Carey, Elvis Presley‘s former costar in Live a Little, Love a Little, has died. She was 75.

The actress, who retired in 1986, passed away on Nov. 21, according to spokesperson Michael Anthony, who confirmed the news on her Facebook page on Saturday.

“Today I have the saddest task, one I had never hoped to do during my lifetime, and that is to report to the many friends and fans of Michele Carey that what you have read online is terribly true,” the post read.

“Michele passed away on November 21st with her family by her side at the tender age...

Model-turned-actress Michele Carey died November 21 from natural causes in her home in Newport Beach. The news was announced on her Facebook page. She was 75.

Carey was born on February 26, 1943, in Annapolis, Maryland. She was a performer at a very early age as a piano prodigy. At the 13, she won a national contest at the Chicago Music Festival and went on to perform with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra.

After graduating from high school in Fort Collins, Colorado. She was briefly married and had a son during high school. After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles with her son to pursue a career in modeling in 1964. While in Hollywood, she took an interest in acting and it wasn’t long before she was on television.

She appeared on television but then went on to have a small role in the 1965 film How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. The following year, she landed...

(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have been, according to the available evidence, heterosexual. (Valentino's supposed affair with fellow “Latin Lover” Ramon Novarro has no basis in reality.) The female cast is also impressive: Veteran Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi) as stage and screen star Alla Nazimova, ex-The Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips as Valentino wife and Nazimova protégée Natacha Rambova, Felicity Kendal as screenwriter/producer June Mathis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), and Carol Kane – lately of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame. Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) is notable as one of the greatest musicals ever made. As a 1930s Cabaret presenter – and the Spirit of Germany – Joel Grey was the year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner. Liza Minnelli...

Some of the international movie posters presented in Cinema Retro issue #28, which features in-depth coverage of the making of Zulu.

By Brian Hannan

The 50th anniversary showing of Zulu in Britain next month is unlikely to be repeated in the U.S. where the film flopped. But even the poorest box-office performer has an afterlife. So in 1965 Zulu was pushed out again anywhere that would have it. That meant it supported some odd, not to say ugly, bedfellows – exploitationer Taboos of the World in Kansas City, The Three Stooges in The Outlaws Is Coming in Phoenix, B western Stage To Thunder Rock in Long Beach, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini in Des Moines and Rhino in Abilene. They liked it in Long Beach where it supported both Circus World and That Man from Rio. It was the second feature to None But the Brave in Provo, Utah, and to two more successful Joe E.

Anthony McCartney, AP Entertainment Writer

Los Angeles (AP) - Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93.

Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home.

Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said it was not their case because Rooney died a natural death.

There were no further immediate details on the cause of death, but Rooney did attend an Oscar party last month.

Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking...

Mickey Mouse Club favourite who appeared with Frankie Avalon in 60s Beach Party musicals

Annette Funicello, who has died of complications from multiple sclerosis aged 70, was instantly associated with two names: Mickey Mouse and Frankie Avalon, both of whom were squeaky clean. As a child, Funicello was one of the first Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club, the hugely popular Walt Disney children's television programme. In her early 20s, Funicello co-starred with the pop singer Avalon in five "Beach Party" musicals, in which they played wholesome "teenage" sweethearts called Dee Dee and Frankie, always testing each other's fidelity.

Born in Utica, New York, Funicello took ballet dancing lessons as a child to overcome shyness. In 1955, some years after her family had moved to southern California, the 12-year-old was chosen by Disney himself from 200 children auditioning for the first season of the Mickey Mouse Club. From 1955 to 1957, she danced, sang...

Today, the Magic Kingdom — and the nostalgic boomers who yearned to make her either their girlfriend or their best friend — are mourning the death of Annette Funicello, the teen idol whose sunny, perky screen presence defined the ’50s and ’60s. The boys in Stand By Me lusted after her; Grease’s Rizzo mocked her (“would you pull that crap with Annette?”); Paul Anka, whom she dated, wrote “Puppy Love” for her in 1960, thus setting the boyfriend bar impossibly high.

Funicello succumbed to complications of multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease from which she’d suffered since 1987. Her Ms effectively removed her...

First it was Roger Ebert, then this morning Margaret Thatcher, and now it's the sweet Annette Funicello, one of the best-known members of the original 1950s Mickey Mouse Club, the original Mouseketeer, has passed away. She was 70.

The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases Inc. posted on Facebook this sad news.

She was just 12 when Mister Disney himself handpicked her to be one of the original Mouseketeers. She quickly became one of the most popular members. Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co. called Funicello a "true Disney Legend." Awwww....

Funicello also tried acting in movies with her first role as Frankie Avalon's marriage-minded sweetheart named Dolores (Dee Dee for short) in the 1963 flick "Beach Party." She starred again as Dee Dee opposite Avalon in 1964's "Muscle Beach Party," "Bikini Beach," and "Pajama Party." And in 1965 in films such as "Beach Blanket Bingo," "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini,...

Reel Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. It is unfortunate that we lose so many great film contributors, on-screen and off, that it's impossible to pay extensive tribute to every one. But I think it's important to recognize them at least in this monthly digest, not to mourn but to remember their work. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in their own way. Wiliam Asher (1921-2012) - Best known as the producer of TV's Bewitched, he also directed many beach movies, including Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Muscle...

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William Asher has died aged 90, it has been announced. The director passed away in Palm Desert, California, according to local daily The Desert Sun. Asher worked on I Love Lucy and Bewitched, and co-created The Patty Duke Show. He also wrote the Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon movies Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. Asher won an Emmy in 1966 for directing an episode of Bewitched, and was nominated at (more)...

The Twilight People screens tonight, Wednesday September 29th, at 11:55 p.m. as part of the "Weird Wednesday" series at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 320 East Sixth Street in downtown Austin. Submitted for your approval is 1973's  oddity The Twilight People, starring John Ashley, best known as Frankie Avalon's rival in such films as Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, who had gone from his '60s glory days as the Ralph Bellamy of Beach Party pictures to starring in a series of made-in-the-Philippines exploitation films.  The Twilight People is pretty...