Smart Words About Cinema
20th Century Fox finally follows the leads of Warner, Sony, and MGM and launches their own manufacture-on-demand program aimed at releasing some of the older titles from the vaults, the kinds of “catalog” releases that no longer sell in the DVD sales crash. The 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives debuts with 35 titles in the [...]
Born as Henri Leopold de Fiennes, March 13, 1898; Sacramento, California Death: February 11, 1985; Los Angeles, California Henry Hathaway had a solid, four-decade career as a versatile and proficient Hollywood director. He never made a great film, but he directed so many very good ones that his filmography looms as a monument to the [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, December 22, 2010] Adaptations are always difficult – for the filmmakers, of course, but also for viewers who know the original and face a challenge in trying to meet the new movie on its own terms. With True Grit, the latest offering from Joel Coen and Ethan [...]
WHEN BILLY WILDER’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes opened at Christmastime 1970, no one would give it the time of day – literally. In my city, though a cozy relationship with United Artists forced the local theater circuit to book the film into one of the few remaining downtown movie palaces, they had no [...]