News

Studiocanal launched a brand new official podcast – and the host might just be familiar to Film Stories listeners.

This is a bit of an odd story for me to write. Basically, well, because I’m in it. I’ll see how I get on.

The rather fine folks at Studiocanal have launched an official podcast, digging into the huge archive of movies under its stewardship. It’s arriving regularly, and as well as focusing on a movie of the month, there’s a broader exploration of other bits and bobs too.

Don’t take our word for it. Here’s Jamie McHale, the head of theatrical marketing at the studio: “We’re thrilled to be launching an official podcast to celebrate our incredible library of titles and upcoming theatrical releases. The in-depth analysis and regular features such as “Dream Double Bills” and “Hidden Gems” from Simon and his guests are...

To celebrate the release of Once Upon a Time in the West on 4K Ultra HD today, as part of a 4K Uhd & Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition, we have a Collector’s Edition to give away to a lucky winner!

Director Sergio Leone’s monumental Western classic Once Upon A Time In The West celebrates its 55th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion Paramount Home Entertainment will release the fully restored film for the first time on 4K Ultra HD on May 13, 2024, as part of a 4K Uhd & Blu-ray Collector’s Edition.

One of the most iconic and influential movies ever made, Once Upon A Time In The West has been restored from the original 35mm Techniscope camera negative by Paramount’s archive team, L’Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation. This restoration honours the 2007 Film Foundation photochemical restoration overseen by legendary director Martin Scorsese by matching its build and colour palette.

The classic Universal Monsters have returned to life and they’re looking better than Ever before in the freshly unleashed Universal Classic Monsters Limited Edition Collection, a brand new 4K Ultra HD + Digital set that is now available… for a limited time!

Only 5,500 of these limited edition Universal Monsters 4K Ultra HD sets have been produced, and you can grab yours over on Amazon right now for $129.99 while supplies last.

From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters and this upcoming collection showcases 8 of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Exclusive to Amazon, the limited set consists of book-style packaging with rare photos, bios, trivia, and original cover art by renowned artist Tristan Eaton.

Courtesy of Studiocanal

by James Cameron-wilson

1960 was a year that sent shockwaves throughout the film industry. Alfred Hitchcock, who was to direct Anna Massey twelve years later in his lurid thriller Frenzy – about a serial killer in central London – opened a movie called Psycho. Psycho was significant in several regards. Hitchcock refused to show the film to critics and barred his two leads, Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, from doing any promotional interviews as he wanted total control over the film’s publicity and its content. This was in June of 1960. Two months earlier another celebrated filmmaker had released an equally shocking film called Peeping Tom and whose critical reception ruined both the movie and the reputation of its director, Michael Powell. Hitchcock wanted audiences to judge Psycho for themselves. Most audiences never got a chance to evaluate Peeping Tom.

Both films were about serial killers and both showed the murderer as a self-effacing,...

Stars: Karlheinz Bohm, Maxine Audley, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer, Brenda Bruce, Esmond Knight, Martin Miller, Michael Goodliffe, Jack Watson, Shirley Anne Field | Written by Leo Marks | Directed by Michael Powell

Released 64 years ago (!!!), a Martin Scorsese favourite, Peeping Tom, is getting a special edition 4K release this year after being restored by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive in association with StudioCanal.

This was a first-time watch for me, and my immediate reaction, almost from the opening scene is that for a film that was made so long ago, it has aged extremely well and I imagine it might have seemed quite shocking at the time.

That does seem to be the case as “on its initial release in 1960, Peeping Tom received a savage reception from critics who were dismayed by its controversial subject matter and the sympathy it seems to engender for its murderous protagonist.” It then remained...

To celebrate Studiocanal’s Release Brand New 4K Restoration of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom available on Special Edition 4K Uhd, Blu-ray & DVD on 29 January, we have a 4K Uhd copy to give away to a lucky winner!

Studiocanal are proud to announce the release of a spectacular 4K restoration of Michael Powell’s iconic serial killer classic Peeping Tom, restored by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive in association with Studiocanal. Written by Leo Marks (Twisted Nerve) and starring Carl Boehm (Sissi), Anna Massey (Frenzy), Moira Shearer (The Red Shoes) and Maxine Audley (A King in New York), this influential cinematic masterpiece will be available on Special Edition 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD with 32-page booklet and 90 mins of brand new extra content from 29 January 2024.

Mark (Carl Boehm), a focus puller at the local film studio, supplements his wages by taking glamour photographs in a seedy studio above a newsagent.

A couple months ago, it was announced that eight of the classic Universal Monsters movies – Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon – would be receiving a limited edition 4K box set release. That box set was supposed to reach store shelves today, October 3rd… but you may have noticed that it’s not available, and Amazon stopped taking orders. That’s because the release of the box set has been delayed until February of 2024.

Our friends at Bloody Disgusting shared the following message from Universal: “Due to an unexpected packaging issue, the originally planned October 3, 2023 release of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s upcoming 4K collectible box set of the “Universal Classic Monsters Limited Edition Collection” is moving to February 13, 2024. We appreciate your patience and are very sorry for the inconvenience.”

An image of...

Here’s some cool news: eight of the classic Universal Monsters movies – Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon – are being released in a limited edition 4K box set! The release date is October 3rd, and the set can already be pre-ordered through Amazon. But we have to warn you, there is indeed a very limited number of sets being made. Only 5500 of them will exist. So if you want the set, you might want to secure your copy very soon.

An image of the set can be seen at the bottom of this article. The discs come with the following bonus features:

Disc 1 – Dracula (1931):

Includes 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and a digital copy of Dracula (1931) (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)

4x Sharper than Full HD with High Dynamic...

The French New Wave, or La Nouvelle Vague is one of the most important movements in film history. Its fresh energy and vision changed the cinematic landscape during the 50s and 60s and greatly impacted pop culture. The new wave of cinematic auteurs was on the rise and pushed back on the traditional form of filmmaking, instead focusing on social realism, experimentation, and depicting everyday life through the lens.

At the forefront of this movement were French directors François Truffaut, Francoise Bonnot, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Jean-Luc Godard who pushed visual and stylistic techniques. These included a move away from traditional storytelling by applying nonlinear narrative techniques, jump cuts, and handheld cameras that impacted cinema around the world and influenced a new movement of cinema in the United States.

This volume French New Wave: A Revolution in Design celebrates the groundbreaking poster art in selling these Nouvelle Vague films...

It’s been over 200 years since Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was published on New Year’s Day in 1818. It has since spawned countless film and television adaptations that have made a cultural mark in monster cinema. James Whale’s version of Frankenstein(1931), starring Boris Karloff as the creature, solidified the iconic look of the monster as a cultural phenomenon.

Shelley only released 500 print copies in its first edition with some even thinking the book was too radical in implication. A few found the central theme intriguing, but no one could predict its success. It has gone on to inspire over 120 film adaptations between 1931 through to current years as a new Frankenstein will take to the screens and is currently being adapted by none other than the horror maestro himself, Guillermo Del Toro.

Besides film, the horror icon has been adapted to the stage, in novels, comics, advertisements, and even on cereal packets.

Vampire films have captivated audiences for over 100 years and date back to the earliest days of cinema.

From Castles and graveyards to high schools and shopping malls, vampires have managed to captivate and thrill audiences making their mark on film and television over every decade. Filmmakers have brought their own unique vision and interpretation of the genre that has managed to keep vampires culturally relevant.

The first known vampire film was the 1922 German Expressionist film Nosferatu, directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok. Nosferatu became a classic of horror cinema and influenced many future vampire films in cinema.

Over the years, vampires have been depicted in a variety of ways in film. Some portrayals have leaned more towards the traditional, with vampires being depicted as undead creatures of the night with a thirst for blood. Others have taken a more modern approach, depicting vampires...

When I saw "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" for the first time last year, I was taken aback by how it felt as if I had always known "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Blondie's forced march through the desert; Angel Eyes's back as he walks through a house full of dead bodies; Tuco running through the cemetery looking for the right grave marker. Not to mention Ennio Moricone's score, whose main theme I guarantee you can quote from memory even if you've never seen the movie. I cannot say if "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is the best western ever made, because it has plenty of competition even among Leone's own work. But it makes as strong a case as any for mythic permanence, as if it was set down on a tablet rather than filmed.

Of course, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

Between the pore-rich tightness of his close-ups and the mysterious, patient grandeur of his landscapes, Sergio Leone took the Hollywood-forged myths that enraptured him as a child and created one of cinema’s most influential oeuvres.

Considering Leone’s impact, from those sun-cooked, Ennio Morricone–scored westerns through the nostalgic sweep of his final film, “Once Upon a Time in America,” there’s never not a good time to enjoy a detailed, clip-rich tribute to the legendary Italian filmmaker, and now we have Francesco Zippel’s gratifying biographical appraisal “Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America,” making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Cineastes who watch it should start pulling those Leone DVDs from the shelf beforehand; you’ll want them handy when the parade of praised sequences and behind-the-scenes insight is over, and after interviewee-superfan Quentin Tarantino offers up an amusing post-credits anecdote built around the shorthand...

Sergio Leone began the long road to his final film, "Once Upon a Time in America," as far back as the late 1960s, when he was in New York to meet about the marketing for "Once Upon a Time in the West." Leone had read the 1952 novel "The Hoods" by Harry Grey — believed to be the pen name of Herschel Goldberg, a real-life Jewish American gangster who had written the book as a fictional autobiography of sorts during a prison stint. Names were (to quote "Dragnet") "changed to protect the innocent," as Grey was concerned about endangering his family by writing something that might involve thinly veiled versions of real mob events that took place in the 1920s and '30s.

Owing to this, perhaps, Leone initially had a hard time getting ahold of Grey, who was obviously protective of his identity and the circumstances under which he would meet people.

The good news is that Kino’s new 4K encodings of Sergio Leone’s first two Italo ‘Dollars’ oaters look terrific, with Fistful showing a lot of improvement: the basic restorations are from prime Italian film elements. And the packages are collector / home theater enthusiast friendly — standard Blu-ray encodings are part of the deal. As the films are still licensed from MGM, they include the extras from 2007 of which we’re very proud. The end results may be the first Leone disc release that makes this viewer ‘The Man with No Complaints.’ Don’t forget, they’re separate purchases.

A Fistful of Dollars + For a Few Dollars More

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1964-1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date May 31, 2022 / Separate Purchases / Available through Kino Lorber Fistful and A Few More /

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gian-Maria Volontè, Lee Van Cleef

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Directed by Sergio Leone

Yes,...

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster is now Streaming on Apple, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and Microsoft. Read Cate Marquis’ We Are Movie Geeks review of the movie Here

Watch the trailer:

Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster” compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. His films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors. But his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman & John Landis all of whom and many more contribute their personal insights and anecdotes.

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster features interviews with Guillermo Del Toro, John Landis, Roger Corman, Ron Perlman, Sara Karloff, Peter Bogdanovich, Christopher Plummer, Stefanie Powers, Lee Grant,...

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By Hank Reineke

There’s a telling moment at the dénouement of Thomas Hamilton’s and Ron MacCloskey’s affectionate documentary Boris Karloff: The Man behind the Monster. Sara Karloff, the now eighty-two year old daughter of the beloved actor, opines that her father’s lasting cinematic legacy is due, in part, to the tenaciousness of his devoted fan base. It’s a demographic that we soon discover consists of a number of amazingly creative people: folks whose loyalty to and enthusiasm for Karloff’s work has not wavered over the decades. Sara’s contention is inarguably true. As this ninety-nine minute Voltage Films/Abramorama documentary (presented by Shout! Studios) unspools – crisply narrated by Paul Ryan and featuring commentary by preeminent Karloff scholar and “Biographical Consultant” Stephen Jacobs - we discover the actor’s admirer’s bridge several generations of fans and filmmakers.

Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America is as epic as The Godfather, gorier than Goodfellas, and as streetwise as Mean Streets. It tells a full history, from childhood to old age, street hustles to political suicides, community toilets to opium dens. The version which is right now available on Netflix has been amazingly restored by Italy’s Bologna Cinematheque L’Immagine Ritrovata lab. I don’t think I have ever seen the film so clear, and it is a perennial to me, as is The Godfather.

It’s true, even the most devoted gangster fan and cinephile doesn’t watch Once Upon a Time in America as often as The Godfather, and it’s got Robert De Niro at his most gangta. For one thing, Leone’s film has never been as accessible. It is not shown regularly on any kind of broadcast channel, and even the...

(L-r) Boris Karloff with fellow horror star Vincent Price, in a publicity photo. Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster is a documentary about the career and life of Karloff. Courtesy of Abramarama and Shout Studios

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster is a gloriously enjoyable retrospective of the legendary actor, who is forever tied to the horror genre and the monster role of Frankenstein’s monster, which first brought him fame. The film, directed by Thomas Hamilton, is thoroughly enjoyable but, despite its subtitle, it is less a personal biography than a review of this career, with an emphasis on how his work influenced future filmmakers and the horror genre. Karloff fans and serious film history buffs will find little that was not already known about the man but it is a wonderful introduction and retrospective on Boris Karloff.

If ever there was an iconic Hollywood figure who deserves a biopic,...

Sergio Corbucci, described by Quentin Tarantino in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” as the second-best director of Italian westerns, sure knew how to end a movie. He could serve up thrillingly bloody catharsis in the original “Django,” his 1966 breakout that proved the global commercial viability of spaghetti westerns extended beyond the films of Sergio Leone. He could do an operatically sprawling three-way shootout on Leone’s level, as with the ending of “The Mercenary.” He could end his films with a punchline, like the comedic Mexican Revolution tale “Compañeros.” Or he could serve up the most grim, depressing denouement you’ve ever seen for any “hero’s journey” tale, like he did with the “The Great Silence.”

But knowing how to end a movie is not a skill demonstrated in “Django & Django,” a new documentary about the spaghetti auteur by Luca Rea at its best when Quentin Tarantino gives...

It’s still one of the most popular movies ever, and fans are proving that by shelling out for an umpteenth home video release, this time on the 4K Ultra HD format. Everybody knows exactly what to expect from Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, but what about the transfer quality and encoding — Sergio Leone’s film was originally shot in the half-frame Techniscope format, which is on the low-res side to scan in 4K. Kino adds a Blu-ray disc and a mountain of accumulated extras from earlier editions.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 162 min. / Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Street Date April 27, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell, Al Mulock, Antonio Molino Rojo, Mario Brega, Chelo Alonso,...

Cinema Retro Movie Classics Special Edition #8: The Wild Bunch

112 Pages/perfect bound spine. £10.95 / $15.95.

Issn 1751-4606

Now Shipping Worldwide!

This year's Movie Classics Special Edition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece The Wild Bunch (1969). This is an in-depth 124-page special, with a foreword by Sir Christopher Frayling and contributions by Peckinpah experts Mike Siegel, Jeff Slater and Nick Redman, features dozens of many never-seen-before photographs both in front and behind the camera. Interviews with Ernest Borgnine, L.Q. Jones, Lilia Castillo, Gordon T. Dawson, Chalo Gonzalez and Bo Hopkins give an amazing in-sight as to how this film was made, and we feature articles on the deleted scenes (with photos), the locations - then and now, the music and a complete look at how the film was made. Another amazing special on a timeless classic that only Cinema Retro knows how to deliver.

Note: This issue is not part of the subscription plan.

Quentin Tarantino’s love for Sergio Leone and the spaghetti western genre is no secret (his upcoming “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” takes its name from Leone’s iconic “Once Upon a Time in the West”), but that doesn’t make a new essay (via The Spectator) the filmmaker has written on these subjects any less fascinating. Tarantino penned the forward to Christopher Frayling’s upcoming book “Once Upon a Time in the West: Shooting a Masterpiece” (on sale May 21) and refers to Leone’s epic as “the movie that made me consider filmmaking” and “showed me how a director does what he does.”

“It was almost like a film school in a movie,” Tarantino writes. “It really illustrated how to make an impact as a filmmaker. How to give your work a signature. I found myself completely fascinated, thinking: ‘That’s how you do it.’ It ended up...

By Fred Blosser

I saw many, many Italian-made sword-and-toga movies as a kid in the early 1960s at the Kayton, my neighborhood movie house, where they usually played on mismatched double-bills with B-Westerns, British “Carry On” comedies, low-budget noir dramas, and fourth-run Elvis movies. Many of these Italian epics were simplistic and formulaic, as if the producers figured that people had come to see spectacle, sex, and sword-fights, and never mind anything else. Regardless, more ambitious productions occasionally surfaced with slightly more dramatic substance and marginally higher production values. One such entry was “The Colossus of Rhodes” (1961), Sergio Leone’s first acknowledged directorial credit preceding his breakthrough success with “A Fistful of Dollars” in 1964. The Warner Archive Collection has released the 1961 movie on Blu-ray with audio commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling, Leone’s biographer and longtime critical champion.

The script co-written by Leone has plenty of plot -- almost too much,...

Enter worlds filled with magic and terror in John Burr's fantasy horror film Muse that will see a U.S. digital release on August 21st. Also in today's Highlights: the Blu-ray debut for Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years, ScareHouse 2018 opening day details, and Hell House LLC, II: The Abbadon Hotel release details.

Muse Release Details: "TriCoast Entertainment’s horror division, DarkCoast, will finally release John Burr’s eight-time winning fantasy horror Muse onto U.S. digital streaming platforms on August 21st.

Written and directed by John Burr, Muse is described as a twisted, haunted fairytale that combines elements of a psychological thriller, the supernatural, and past Irish legends and mythological influences. Shot entirely in 15 days, Muse is a gripping, psychological thriller that ultimately examines how inspiration can be the downfall of any great artist. “If you have the opportunity, See. This. Movie.” - Nightmarish Conjurings

Muse credits its fantastic editing to longtime,...

By Fred Blosser

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Sergio Leone’s “Giù La Testa,” later retitled not once but twice for American release, opened in Italy in October 1971 to great expectations by the director’s fans. According to the preeminent Leone expert Sir Christopher Frayling, in an informative audio commentary included in a new Blu-ray edition of the film from Kino Lorber Studio Classics under its second U.S. title, “A Fistful of Dynamite,” the Italian phrase meant something like “keep your head down.” In other words, in times of social convulsion like the bloody 1913 Mexican revolution portrayed in the movie, save yourself unnecessary grief and keep as low a profile as you can. Toshiro Mifune’s wandering samurai in “Yojimbo” offered similar advice: “A quiet life eating rice is best.” In Leone’s film, James Coburn and Rod Steiger starred as mismatched partners -- a fugitive...

More mysterious than ever, Sergio Leone’s ode to (condemnation of?) revolution is said to be the centerpiece of his three ‘Once Upon a Time’ movies linking western violence to the modern age of brutal politics and ruthless gangsterism. Crudeness rubs shoulders with sad, beautiful images as Leone takes on a theme he claimed not to like very much. The writers Donati and Vincenzoni show him the way, while James Coburn and Rod Steiger bring to life the non-narrative moments of what becomes a broad, mural-like epic.

Duck You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite)

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / 157 154, 138, 120 min. / Giù la testa, A Fistful of Dynamite, Il était une fois … la révolution / Street Date March 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Maria Monti, Rik Battaglia, Romolo Valli, Antoine St-John, Vivienne Chandler, David Warbeck.

Cinematography: Giuseppe Ruzzolini

Film Editor: Nino Baragli

Art Direction: Andrea Crisanti

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Sergio Leone,...

Mary Shelley's iconic creation turns 200 in 2018, and to celebrate two centuries of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, author Christopher Frayling has written a new book (coming out this Halloween from Reel Art Press) exploring the rich history of Shelley's now legendary novel and the influences it has had on pop culture—on the screen, stage, and page. In today's Horror Highlights, we also have a look at Nerdist's short film The Mystic Museum, and details on the HelLA Horror Night charity event at the Los Angeles Theatre, Blackshaw's Scare Slam at the London Horror Festival, the Filipino folklore animated series Umbra, and the video game Guts.

Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years Book: Press Release: "It all began with a ghost-story contest, a parlour-game, a serious young woman of eighteen years old who had run away with her boyfriend, and some very stimulating company—and a thunderstorm which...

Stanley Kubrick’s contribution to great cinema of the 1970s offers his vision of what an epic should be. Transported by images that recall great paintings of the period, and Kubrick’s new approaches to low-light cinematography, we witness a rogue’s progress through troubled times. And even Ryan O’Neal is good!

Barry Lyndon

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 897

1975 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 185 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 17, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Marie Kean, Diana Körner, Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, André Morell, Arthur O’Sullivan, Godfrey Quigley, Leonard Rossiter, Philip Stone, Leon Vitali Leon Vitali, Wolf Kahler, Ferdy Mayne, George Sewell, Michael Hordern (narrator).

Cinematography: John Alcott

Editor: Tony Lawson

Production design: Ken Adam

Conductor & Musical Adaptor: Leonard Rosenman

Written by Stanley Kubrick from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray

Produced and Directed by Stanley Kubrick

The...

Sergio Leone’s Civil War gunslinger epic is everybody’s favorite western, and most everybody has a bone to pick regarding problems with the previous DVDs and Blu-rays. The good news is that Kino’s 50th Anniversary Special Edition takes giant leaps in correcting older audio issues . . . but the bad news . . .

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Blu-ray

2-Disc 50th Anniversary Special Edition

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Techniscope) / 187 161, 148 min. / Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il cattivo/ Street Date August 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Al Mulock, Aldo Sambrell.

Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli

Production Designer: Carlo Simi

Film Editor: Eugenio Alabiso, Nino Baragli

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, story by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone.

Produced by Alberto Grimaldi

Directed by Sergio Leone

I’d like to report...

Two of the most iconic Universal movie monsters will be celebrated in Complete Legacy Collection Blu-rays due out on September 13th from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Containing several discs and packed with multiple films and plenty of bonus features, both The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection Blu-ray and Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection Blu-rays are priced at $29.72 apiece. We have each release’s bonus features and a look at their cover art:

The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection Blu-ray details (via Amazon): “The original Wolf Man is one of the silver screen’s most unforgettable characters and, along with the other Universal Classic Monsters, defined the Hollywood horror genre. The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection includes all 7 films from the original legacy including the eerie classic starring Lon Chaney Jr. and the timeless films that followed. These landmark motion pictures defined the iconic look of the...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Cinema Retro mourns the loss of Sir Ken Adam, the ingenious, Oscar-winning production designer who has passed away at age 95. Adam's work helped redefine films in terms of the elaborate and creative designs he invented, particularly for the James Bond franchise. Adam's work on the first 007 film, "Dr. No" in 1962 was deemed to be nothing less than remarkable, considering that the entire film was shot on a relatively low budget of just over $1 million. His exotic designs so impressed Stanley Kubrick that he hired Adam as production designer on his 1964 classic "Dr. Strangelove." For that film, Adam created the now legendary "War Room" set which many people believe actually exists at the Pentagon. In fact when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as President in 1981 he asked to see the War Room, only to be told that it was a fictional creation. Reagan acknowledged that he had been intrigued...

Two-time Oscar winner Adam was the first production designer to receive a knighthood.

Sir Ken Adam, the two-time Oscar winning production designer known for his work on James Bond films of the 1960s and 70s, died Thursday [10 March] at his home in London.

In addition to his work on Bond films including Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, Adam was highly regarded for his iconic production design in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. Director Steven Spielberg described the film’s ‘War Room’ as the best film set ever built.

He was also known for designing the original car for 1968 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [pictured below].

Adam won his first Oscar in 1976 for his work on Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, and his second in 1995 for Nicholas Hytner’s The Madness Of King George. He received three additional nominations for Around The World In 80 Days, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Addams Family Values.

Adam was born...

Sir Ken Adam, the production designer best known for his work on the James Bond films of the ’60s and ’70s, died on Thursday at the age of 95. Adam’s biographer, Sir Christopher Frayling, confirmed to the BBC that the production designer died in his London home. “As a person he was remarkable. Roger Moore once said about him that his life was a great deal more interesting than most of the films that he designed,” he said. Among his many visual masterpieces on screen were the war room beneath the Pentagon in Stanley Kubrick‘s 1964 classic “Dr. Strangelove” and the interior.

Updates with more information throughout. Ken Adam, whose hi-tech Aston Martins for James Bond and retractable wings for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang helped make him one of the most celebrated product designers in cinema history and earned him two Academy Awards, has died. His death was confirmed by Sir Christopher Frayling, his biographer, who told the BBC: “As a person he was remarkable. Roger Moore once said about him that his life was a great deal more interesting than…...

Everyone who works with Ennio Morricone calls him "Maestro." It's a title that's both deferential and affectionate for the prolific, 87-year-old composer. Since the late Fifties, he has written some 500 movie scores, including such celebrated and iconic contributions to soundtracks such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Mission and Cinema Paradiso. His music has inspired a wide swath of artists from Metallica to Celine Dion, as well as filmmakers from Sergio Leone to Bernardo Bertolucci. But despite this, he has received few film awards in the U.

We've already got a fine domestic disc with both versions of John Ford's fine Henry Fonda western. This Region B UK release duplicates that arrangement with different extras, and throws in a fine HD transfer of an earlier Allan Dwan version of the same story -- with strong similarities -- called Frontier Marshal. It stars Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, Cesar Romero and Binnie Barnes and it's very good. My Darling Clementine +  Frontier Marshal Region B Blu-ray Arrow Academy (UK) 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 + 103 min. (two versions) / Street Date August 17, 2015, 2014 / Amazon UK / £19.99 Starring Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Cathy Downs, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt, Ward Bond, Alan Mowbray, John Ireland, Roy Roberts, Jane Darwell, Grant Withers, J. Farrell MacDonald, Russell Simpson. Cinematography Joe MacDonald Art Direction James Basevi, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor Dorothy Spencer Original Music Cyril Mockridge Written by Samuel G. Engel, Sam Hellman, Winston Miller Produced by Samuel G. Engel,...

Iconic Hammer actresses Martine Beswick, Veronica Carlson and Caroline Munro. (All photos copyright Adrian Smith. All rights reserved.)

Retro-active: The Best From Cinema Retro's Archives

(The following article was originally run in November, 2014)  

By Adrian Smith 

With around sixty special guests in attendance, the Westminster Central Hall on Saturday the 7th of November was packed to its domed roof with excited Hammer film fans.

Familiar faces including Caroline Munro, Valerie Leon, Madeline Smith and Martine Beswick were providing some glamour, but the organisers managed to make the event extra-memorable by securing the presence of Edina Ronay, George Cole, Freddie Jones and others who had not signed autographs at a fan event before. At times queues to meet them ran out of the building and down the street! Other rare UK appearances were made from Veronica Carlson and Linda Hayden, flown in from the Us to meet their fans. It was...

Welcome back for day two of Daily Dead’s 2014 Holiday Gift Guide. We’re going to be sharing gift ideas and resources for this shopping season in an effort to help you find some great gifts and save you a few bucks along the way too.

Also, be sure to check out our daily holiday horrors trivia question we’re featuring at the end of each Holiday Gift Guide post. Selected winners will receive great items from our sponsors which include HorrorDecor.net, Scream Factory and Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Vendor Spotlight: TeeFury.com

I’ve been a big fan of Tee Fury for a while now and have made purchases from them several times over the last few years. And it seems like with each passing year, Tee Fury just gets bigger and better, featuring a multitude of incredible t-shirt designs. And now, they’ve branched out into the world...

“Ban it. Cut it. Classify it.” That was the stance the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) took when rating movies in the middle of the last century, according to Professor Christopher Frayling. Frayling is just one of the subjects interviewed in Matt Pelly’s BBC Four documentary, “Dear Censor,” originally released in 2011 as part of the doc series "Timeshift." The hour long film takes a look at regulations and alterations the BBFC imposed upon films distributed to for UK audiences, and how such censorship led filmmakers to buck the system in sometimes surprisingly profitable ways. Overseen by Arthur Watkins, Chief Censor from 1948-1956, the BBFC took an incredibly harsh stance against films now considered iconic, including “Rebel Without A Cause.” While the studio fought for an A rating on that release, which would have dubbed the film suitable for adults, the Board felt James Dean would have been seen...

2001: A Space Odyssey has been given its first new officially-sanctioned trailer in four decades.

A brand new teaser for director Stanley Kubrick's classic movie has been commissioned by Warner Bros in commemoration of the BFI's Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder season.

Ignition Creative London have made the sentient artificial intelligence Hal 9000 (Douglas Rain) the focus of their promo clip.

Kubrick's pioneering film chronicled David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and his team of scientists' exploration of space.

2001: A Space Odyssey won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and came in as the 15th greatest film of all time on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list.

Have your say: What are the greatest sci-fi movies ever made?

The BFI's Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder season will include a panel discussion of the movie featuring stars Dullea and Gary Lockwood, writer Sir Christopher Frayling and physicist Professor Brian Cox.

Critic...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

London Film Convention

The 80th Anniversary of Hammer!

Saturday November the 8th ( 10am – 6pm )

Venue : Central Hall Westminster.

Storey’s Gate, Westminster, London SW1H 9Nh

Celebrates in a one-off special event one of the worlds longest running film production companies Hammer’s 80th anniversary.

Founded by William Hindes and James Carerras in November 1934!

The company very much dominated the world market from the 1950’s to the 1970’s in comedies but above all their now classic horror films.

Now very much back in production with several successful films over the past years.

With a sequel to their film version of the play “ Woman In Black “ that starred Daniel Radcliff due for release in 2015 “ Woman In Black : Angel Of Death “ .

The show is also a celebration of the British film industry and of the past and present creative film making in...

By Gary Salem and Michelle McCue

“What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen he’s become a different person.”

– Edith Head

On Monday, Wamg attended the press preview for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences groundbreaking multimedia exhibition Hollywood Costume in the historic Wilshire May Company building.

Taking five years to create, this exhibition is the kickoff for the whole Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Emphasizing how costumes are so important in creating characters, this one-of-a-kind exhibition comes with its own film score, enhanced with dazzling animations and screenplay excerpts.

Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (V&A), and sponsored by Swarovski, this ticketed exhibition...

Being that director Jack Clayton grew up with the misfortune of having no father figure, he grew up with a deep affinity for the Henry James novella he had read as a child called “The Turn of the Screw,” which features a pair of parentless siblings who endure not only the void left by their parents and their neglectful uncle, but the deaths of those most close to them in their governess Miss Jessel and their uncle’s valet, Peter Quint. Following the Academy attention getting success of his 1959 film Room at the Top, Clayton pursued the rights to “The Turn of the Screw” only to find that 20th Century Fox held them through the acquisition of William Archibald’s stage adaptation of the book, “The Innocents,” which he was happy to have his acquaintance Truman Capote adapt into a proper throwback southern gothic ghost story that subverted genre expectations...

This is a huge week for horror fans, as the highly anticipated Halloween box set arrives from Anchor Bay and Scream Factory to officially set the mood for autumn and begin the countdown to the spookiest day of the year. There are also several other fantastic Blu-ray and DVD collections joining the ranks of Michael Myers as well, including Elvira, Jigsaw and Pazuzu!

One of my personal favorites, The Innocents, is also getting the hi-def treatment from Criterion this week, as well as the late 80’s cult classic StageFright, which is being released by Blue Underground. There are also a few new films getting released, including Wer, Found and the sci-fi thriller The Signal. Fans of Sonno Profondo will also be able to pick up a copy of the film on VHS this week too.

Spotlight Titles:

Elvira’s Movie Macabre: The Coffin Collection (Entertainment One, DVD)

26 horrifying films on 13 DVD’s!

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A Ghost Story For Adults

By Raymond Benson

Under appreciated upon its original release in 1961, The Innocents is today considered one of the great film ghost stories. After all, it’s based on Henry James’ creepy The Turn of the Screw, a truly scary masterwork published in 1898. In the capable hands of Jack Clayton (fresh off his success with Room at the Top, which had been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director in 1959), the picture delivers a classic Gothic punch that is strange, beautiful, and, ultimately, powerfully disturbing. Faithful to the source material, the story is set in the Victorian era. The gorgeous and inimitable Deborah Kerr stars as a naive and, as it turns out, sexually repressed governess who is hired by an eccentric and secretive man (“The Uncle,” played by Michael Redgrave). She is to be a governess to his...

This fall the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the final showing of the groundbreaking multimedia exhibition Hollywood Costume in the historic Wilshire May Company building, the future location of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (V&A), this ticketed exhibition explores the central role of costume design – from the glamorous to the very subtle – as an essential tool of cinematic storytelling.

The Academy is enhancing the V&A’s exhibition and will include more than 145 costumes from over 60 lenders. The Academy’s presentation will add more than 30 costumes to this landmark show, including Jared Leto’s costume from Dallas Buyers Club (Kurt and Burt, 2013) – a recent acquisition to the Academy’s collection – as well as costumes from such recent releases as The Hunger Games (Judianna Makovsky, 2012), Django Unchained (Sharen Davis,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 23, 2014

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Deborah Kerr gets haunted in The Innocents.

The genuinely frightening, exquisitely made 1961 supernatural Gothic horror film The Innocents stars Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus) as an emotionally fragile governess who comes to suspect that there is something very, very wrong with her precocious new charges.

A psycho-sexually intensified adaptation of Henry James’s classic The Turn of the Screw, co-written by Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and directed by Jack Clayton (Room at the Top), The Innocents is a triumph of narrative economy and technical expressiveness, from its chilling sound design to the stygian depths of its widescreen cinematography by Freddie Francis (The Elephant Man).

Criterion’s Blu-ray and two-disc DVD editions contain the following features:

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• Audio commentary featuring cultural historian Christopher Frayling

• New interview with cinematographer John Bailey...

David Lynch fans are certainly getting a treat as of late. On July 29 Lynch's "Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery" comes to Blu-ray and now Criterion has announced come September 16, Lynch's Eraserhead will be released on Criterion DVD and Blu-ray. The Eraserhead release will include a new 4K digital restoration of the film, a 2001 "Eraserhead" Stories documentary, a new high-definition restorations of six short films by Lynch including Six Figures Getting Sick (1966), The Alphabet (1968), The Grandmother (1970), The Amputee, Part 1 and Part 2 (1974) and Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1996), all of which include a video introductions by Lynch. Finally it will include new and archival interviews with cast and crew as well as the film's trailer. Also coming in September is the release of Roman Polanski's Macbeth on September 23. The release includes a new 4K digital restoration, new documentary, the 1971 documentary "Polanski Meets Macbeth" and much more. Jack Clayton's 1961 supernatural film...

By Fred Blosser

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On a windy night, a black-clad stranger rides into Daugherty City, Texas. He flips a coin to a scruffy drunk who is strapped for the price of a drink. He exposes a crooked dice game in the local saloon, where most of the townsfolk seem to be congregated. Then he departs. In the meantime, down the street, a gang of acrobatic robbers breaks into the bank and heists a safe containing $100,000 in Army payroll money. The getaway crew escapes town before a wounded trooper can raise the alarm, but out on the trail they run into the stranger, Sabata, who picks them off with a tricked-out rifle and recovers the stolen money.

Thus, in under 15 minutes of running time, Gianfranco Parolini neatly sets up the events that will drive the remaining 90 minutes of his 1969 Spaghetti Western, "Ehi amico... c'è Sabata,...