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When TCM channel host Dave Karger used to be a writer for Entertainment Weekly in his early days as a print journalist, he would focus a great deal on interviewing the big pop stars of the day, along with his duties on the film beat. But little did very many people suspect then that what he really wanted to be writing about was “Laura”… not Branigan, but David Raksin’s music for the classic 1945 noir. That was the film that really prompted Karger’s lifelong love of movie scoring.

“His score for ‘Laura’ really turned me on to classic film music, and film scores in general,” says Karger. “And then you go back and you learn that in 1945, there were 20 Oscar nominees that year in the category of best score for a non-musical film — and David Raksin wasn’t even one of the 20 nominees. That’s a score that has...

Billie Eilish, Finneas, Ludwig Göransson and Nicholas Britell were among the winners Tuesday evening at the 5th annual Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards.

Eilish and Finneas took home the award for outstanding original song for a comedy or musical for “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie.” The win continued their sweep of the season from the Golden Globes and the Grammy Awards.

Olivia Rodrigo and Dan Nigro won outstanding original song for a drama or documentary for “Can’t Catch Me Now” from “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” Britell took home the prize for outstanding original score for a television production for “Succession.”

Göransson, who was honored with Variety’s Artisans Award in Santa Barbara this past weekend, won outstanding original score for a studio film for “Oppenheimer.” John Powell won outstanding original score for an independent film, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” and Stephen Barton...

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (Scl) has announced the nominees for the 2024 Scl Awards, including songwriters Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lenny Kravitz, Diane Warren, and Jon Batiste, all who earned spots on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Original Song.

Also among the dual nominees are composers Anthony Willis for Saltburn, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for Barbie, Laura Karpman for American Fiction, the late Robbie Robertson for Killers of the Flower Moon, and Mica Levi for The Zone of Interest.

The awards will be presented on February 13, 2024, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Other categories still to be announced include the Spirit of Collaboration Award which honors the long relationship between a composer and a director.

The Society of Composers & Lyricists is for professional film, television, video game, and musical theater composers and songwriters. The 78-year-old organization is focused on education and addressing the creative, technological...

This expensive production was dismissed as a flop, and literary critics scorned it for diluting the famed novel by Theodore Dreiser. But it plays well now: William Wyler gives star Laurence Olivier what may be his best film acting role ever. Jennifer Jones’ title part suffers from script changes that censor and sentimentalize Dreiser’s intentions, but the film remains a shattering tragedy. Eddie Albert co-stars in one of his first dramatic roles; this encoding includes a scene dropped from the original release.

Carrie (1952)

Region Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #200

1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 121, 118 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / Aud 34.95

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy, Charles Halton, William Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline de Witt, Don Beddoe, Royal Dano, Margaret Field.

Cinematography: Victor Milner

Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson

Costume Design: Edith Head

Film Editor: Robert Swink...

Wednesday night at the 2023 Scl Awards (Society of Composers & Lyricists), Michael Abels won the award for top studio film score for his work on “Nope,” while Ryan Lott and his experimental band Son Lux earned the statuette for Outstanding Independent Film Score for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The 4th annual gala took place at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Read on for all of the 2023 Scl Awards winners.

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was a champion along with Alexandre Desplat and Roeban Katz in the Outstanding Song for a Musical or Comedy category for the tune “Ciao Papa” from “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” Also scoring a victory in a song category was the legendary Diane Warren, who became the first songwriter to receive an honorary Oscar in December. She accepted her award in Outstanding Song for a Drama or Documentary for “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman.

The composers of the scores to “Nope” and “Everything All at Once” and songs for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” have won the film awards at the fourth annual Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards, which were handed out on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Michael Abels won for “Nope” in the Outstanding Score for a Studio Film category, where he was up against Oscar nominee Carter Burwell for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” as well as the scores for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “The Batman” and “Don’t Worry Darling.” In the Outstanding Score for an Independent Film category, the award went to the only Oscar nominees in the category, Son Lux for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Diane Warren won the award for a song from a drama or documentary film for “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman,” while Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz and Guillermo del Toro won for the song “Ciao Papa” from “Pinocchio.

The Society of Composers & Lyricists has unveiled its Scl Award nominees for 2023, naming composers Alexandre Desplat (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), Carter Burwell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Michael Abels (Nope), Michael Giacchino (The Batman) and John Powell (Don’t Worry Darling) as its contenders for Outstanding Score for a Studio Film.

The Scl’s Musical/Comedy Song nominees are as idiosyncratic as they are starry this time around, with such veteran composers as Desplat and Danny Elfman (White Noise) nominated for Musical/Comedy song alongside Bros‘ Billy Eichner and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘s Weird Al Yankovic.

Entrants in the Drama/Documentary Song category include recent Honorary Oscar winner Diane Warren (Tell It Like a Woman), Taylor Swift (Where the Crawdads Sing), Lady Gaga (Top Gun: Maverick), Rihanna (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and the Oscar-winning Nine Inch Nails duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who this year penned a...

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Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga’s film songs shortlisted for the Oscars will compete at the upcoming Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards.

Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Swift’s “Carolina” from Where The Crawdads Sing and Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick are nominated for outstanding song for a drama/documentary. The Diane Warren-penned “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman and “(You Made It Feel Like) Home” from Bones and All, written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, round out the nominees.

Billy Eichner and “Weird” Al Yankovic earned nominations for outstanding song for a musical/comedy. “Love Is Not Love” from Bros and “Now You Know” from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story will battle “Light the Match” from Central Park (Danny Elfman), “Good Afternoon” from Spirited (Khiyon Hursey, Sukari Jones, Benj Pasek,...

The Society of Composers & Lyricists announced the winners of its 3rd Annual Scl Awards this evening at The Skirball Cultural Center. The event, which was hosted by rapper Aloe Blacc, recognizes composers and songwriters in all visual media.

Oscar-nominated siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell accepted their award virtually for Outstanding Original Song for a Drama/Documentary for the theme from No Time To Die.

Outstanding Original Song for a Musical/Comedy went to “Just Look up”, co-written by Nicholas Britell, Taura Stinson, Ariana Grande and Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi, from Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up.

Germaine Franco, also nominated for an Oscar this year and the first woman to score an animated feature film for Disney, won in the category of Outstanding Original Score for a Studio film for Encanto, while Daniel Hart was awarded in the Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film category for A24’s The Green Knight.

In a possible preview of what may take home Oscars for music, “No Time to Die” songwriters Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell and “Encanto” composer Germaine Franco won Society of Composers & Lyricists awards Tuesday night at Los Angeles’ Skirball Center.

Franco’s Colombian-flavored music for “Encanto” took the award for outstanding original score for a studio film, overtaking scores for “Dune” and “The Power of the Dog,” among others, in the balloting. Daniel Hart’s medieval sounds for “The Green Knight” won original score for an independent film. “Encanto” is Oscar nominated, while Hart was short-listed for the Oscar but didn’t make the final five.

Billie Eilish’s Bond theme won outstanding original song for a drama or documentary, while “Just Look Up” — by Ariana Grande, Nicholas Britell, Kid Cudi and Taura Stinson, from “Don’t Look Up” — won in the category of original song for a musical or comedy.

2Nd Update, 6:00 Pm: The Society of Composers & Lyricists has rescheduled its Covid-delayed third annual Scl Awards for Tuesday, March 8, at the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A.

“After much deliberation, we have also decided to extend out final voting period,” the group said this evening. “This will allow our many mem bers who have been impacted by the surge in Covid-19 additional time to review all the nominees’ excellent work.” The voting period now will begin Monday and run through February 25.

See the list of nominations below.

Updated, 4:30 Pm: The Society of Composers & Lyricists has postponed its third annual Scl Awards amid the surge in Covid cases tied to the Omicron variant. No new date was set for the ceremony that had been set for February 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Here is the statement from the group’s president, Ashley Irwin:

Upon...

The Society of Composers & Lyricists have announced the full list of Scl Awards’ nominees, to be presented the 3rd Annual Scl Awards for score and songs in visual media on February 1st at the Skirball Cultural Center (Covid permitting). Awards are presented in seven competitive categories: Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film, Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film, Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production, Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production, Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production, Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media, and the David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent.

The evening hosted by Darren Criss will include musical performances from Grammy-nominated singers/songwriters of Bridgerton: The Unofficial Musical Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy winner Judith Hill, and more. A musical tribute will accompany the spirit of collaboration award.

Full list of nominees below:

Outstanding...

In 2001 I wrote, ‘Someday I’ll get to see a good copy of Robert Aldrich’s great movie Apache.’ Kino’s excellent new Blu-ray of a recent MGM remaster brings back the color and the correct screen shape, and even cleans up some wicked frame damage that’s been there for sixty years. The athletic Burt Lancaster will make every man and boy feel like running across whatever landscape is available, leaping like a gymnast from rock to rock. Properly restored, the tale of the rebellious Massai plays better than a dozen politically revisionist westerns, even with Burt as a blue-eyed Apache. The movie solidified Lancaster’s producing career and Robert Aldrich earned his first box office hit.

Apache

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date December 1, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, Charles Bronson, John McIntire, John Dehner, Walter Sande, Paul Guilfoyle.

Cinematography:...

For Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars, the scoring and music supervision on “On the Rocks” became the highlight of his five-film collaboration with director and wife Sofia Coppola. Indeed, this father-daughter comedy, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, turned into a musical expression about bonding over New York on so many levels.

For starters, Coppola came up with Chet Baker’s “I Fall in Love Too Easily” as the perfect entry for Murray’s charming and irresistible Felix, the Don Juan-like art dealer. The movie opens with a voiceover of Felix telling young Laura (Jones) that her heart will always belong to him, even after she gets married. Fade in to Laura and husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) running off after their wedding for a playful tryst to the romantic strains of the iconic trumpeter Baker. It immediately conveys Felix’s strong hold on her, which must be resolved during their later...

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By Darren Allison

“Casablanca - Classic Film Scores for Humphrey Bogart” (CDLK4639 ) was originally recorded on September 6th & 7th, 1973 and released on vinyl (on both the RCA Gold and Red Seal label in 1974). It was also released on a Quadraphonic LP the same year. The album masters were remastered at BMG Studio D on August 18, 1989 and from that came the CD for which we are probably most familiar (a successful series which came in a dark blue coloured tray and recognised by the silver film strip across the top right of the cover of the 20 page booklet). The recordings by Charles Gerhardt and The National Philharmonic Orchestra are quite spectacular, from the opening Warner Bros logo and the superb suite from Casablanca (1942) to Passage to Marseille (1944) to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)… in fact, name just about any Bogart classic and it...

Still one of Tracy and Hepburn’s best, this follow-up to Adam’s Rib works on all levels. It rings the feminist rights gong just hard enough, and drums the notion that women deserve a chance to achieve their potential without sex discrimination getting in the way. Katharine Hepburn is at her most attractive when being athletic. Some fine star-making supporting action adds to the fun, especially the contribution of a young Aldo Ray.

Pat and Mike

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date August 25, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray, William Ching, Sammy White, George Mathews, Gussie Moran, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Don Budge, Alice Marble, Frank Andrew Parker, Betty Hicks, Beverly Hanson, Helen Dettweiler, Loring Smith, Phyllis Povah, Charles Bronson, Frank Richards, Jim Backus, Chuck Connors, Joseph E. Bernard, Owen McGiveney, Lou Lubin, Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer, William Self, Frankie Darro.

Born in St. Louis on May 27, 1911, iconic actor Vincent Price retained a special fondness for his place of origin, and that love was reciprocated with Vincentennial, a celebration of his 100th birthday in his hometown back in May of 2011 (for summary of all the Vincentennial activities go Here).

In 2011, we asked Vincent Price’s daughter, Victoria Price, to write a testimonial about her famous father toasting him on the centennial of his birth, and here’s what she wrote:

When I was a little girl, I believed that to come from St. Louis made you a member of a very desirable club.

I got this impression because whenever my dad met someone from his hometown, he greeted him or her as though he had just found a long-lost friend. Immediately they would discuss where they had “gone to school,” which I later learned did not mean college, as it did everywhere else in America,...

One of Vincente Minnelli’s best is this glamorous ‘Hollywood Looks At Hollywood’ exposé of sin and conniving among the actors, directors and producers that make Quality Entertainment for us unglamorous nobodies. It’s overstated and often grossly overacted but still carries a grandiose charm. Lana Turner gets to play an idealized version of herself. Gloria Grahame generates additional heat, and for her trouble walked away with an Oscar. And composer David Raksin contributes one of his most melodic music scores — the main theme is a winner, right up there with his Laura. CineSavant runs amuck critiquing the way MGM’s movie slams Hollywood creatives, while pretending that the studio bigwigs are infallible Gods.

The Bad and the Beautiful

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1952 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date November 19, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame, Gilbert Roland,...

Otto Preminger and Gene Tierney’s return to the noir fold plays better now than it once did — the performances are impressive and the villain’s diabolical murder scheme is as good as anything that Fantomas or Moriarty ever came up with. Tierney’s pampered wife is the perfect patsy for a con-man with hypnosis skills — a fraud who decides to cover up an earlier crime by mesmerizing a new victim to frame herself for murder. The focus is on third-billed José Ferrer… who puts an oily menace into his character that few actors could provide.

Whirlpool

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1949 / B&w / 1:37 academy / 97 min. / Street Date September 17, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95

Starring: Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford, Barbara O’Neil, Eduard Franz, Constance Collier, Fortunio Bonanova.

Cinematography: Arthur Miller

Original Music: David Raksin

Written by Ben Hecht, Andrew Solt from the novel Methinks The Lady...

A hundred million viewers tuned in to ABC back in ’83 to find out if the world would end with a bang or a whimper. Edward Hume and Nicholas Meyer’s daring docudrama reacquainted Americans with their status as hostages in a global game of nuclear roulette. Gruesome nuclear annihilation visuals complement fine performances led by Jason Robards. The tense, thoughtful show is presented in separate TV and theatrical versions.

The Day After

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen & 1:33 flat TV / 122 & 127 min. / Street Date August 7, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, Jim Dahlberg, John Lithgow, Bibi Besch, Lori Lethin, Amy Madigan, Jeff East, Georgann Johnson, William Allen Young, Calvin Jung, Lin McCarthy, Dennis Lipscomb.

Cinematography: Gayne Rescher

Film Editor: William Paul Dornisch, Robert Florio

Original Music: David Raksin

Special Effects: Robert Blalack

Written by Edward Hume

Produced by Robert A. Papazian

Directed by Nicholas...

A quick Jet-set ride takes us to Rome of 1962, which for a couple of years was the movie capital of the world. Washed-up actor Kirk Douglas reinvents himself amid the vipers of his past — an abusive director (Edward G. Robinson), a medusa-like ex-wife (Cyd Charisse) and a parade of show-biz creeps that want him to fail and grovel. But wait — redemption springs eternal through the love of a simple innocent unspoiled Italiana with no agenda of her own (Daliah Lavi). Will Douglas be reborn? Director Vincente Minnelli tries his hardest to get MGM in on the Italian art-movie gold rush.

2 Weeks in Another Town

Blu-ray

The Warner Archive Collection

1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date June 19, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, Daliah Lavi, Claire Trevor, Rosanna Schiaffino, James Gregory, Joanna Roos, George Macready, Mino Doro, Stefan Schnabel, Vito Scotti, Leslie Uggams.

Meet the lusty Amber St. Clare, a 17th century social climber determined to sleep her way to respectability. Gorgeous Linda Darnell gets her biggest role in a lavishly appointed period epic; Otto Preminger hated the assignment but his direction and Darryl Zanuck’s production are excellent. And it has one of the all-time great Hollywood movie scores, by David Raksin.

Forever Amber

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 138 min. / Street Date December 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, John Russell, Jane Ball, Robert Coote, Leo G. Carroll, Natalie Draper, Margaret Wycherly, Norma Varden.

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler

Visual Effects: Fred Sersen

Original Music: David Raksin

Written by Philip Dunne, Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Kathleen Winsor

Produced by William Perlberg

Directed by Otto Preminger

Three years ago,...

One of the best Hollywood historical epics takes Technicolor to Mexico for a Production Code version of La conquista: the Inquisition is still bad, but the Church is exonerated. Likewise with the invasion — Cesar Romero embodies a marvelous Hernán Cortés, substantially less murderous than the one we now know from accurate history books. Tyrone Power is the heartthrob hero and newcomer Jean Peters the lowborn girl who loves him. The magnificent scenery is matched by the music score of Alfred Newman.

Captain from Castile

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1947 / Color / 137 Academy / 141 min. / Street Date October 17, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero, Lee J. Cobb, John Sutton, Antonio Moreno, Thomas Gomez, Alan Mowbray, Barbara Lawrence, George Zucco, Roy Roberts, Marc Lawrence, Reed Hadley, Robert Karnes, Estela Inda, Chris-Pin Martin, Jay Silverheels, Gilberto González.

Cinematography: Arthur Arling, Charles G. Clarke, Joseph Lashelle

Film Editor: Barbara McLean...

Dana Andrews movies: Film noir actor excelled in both major and minor crime dramas. Dana Andrews movies: First-rate film noir actor excelled in both classics & minor fare One of the best-looking and most underrated actors of the studio era, Dana Andrews was a first-rate film noir/crime thriller star. Oftentimes dismissed as no more than a “dependable” or “reliable” leading man, in truth Andrews brought to life complex characters that never quite fit into the mold of Hollywood's standardized heroes – or rather, antiheroes. Unlike the cynical, tough-talking, and (albeit at times self-delusionally) self-confident characters played by the likes of Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and, however lazily, Robert Mitchum, Andrews created portrayals of tortured men at odds with their social standing, their sense of ethics, and even their romantic yearnings. Not infrequently, there was only a very fine line separating his (anti)heroes from most movie villains.

For the past 47 years, Jeffrey MacDonald’s account of what happened the night his entire family was murdered has stayed the same.

So has the case against him, built largely on blood-type testing — he, his wife and two children all had different blood types — that seems archaic by today’s standards.

But since his 1979 conviction, MacDonald has painstakingly gathered a body of evidence — some of which was suppressed by prosecutors — via Freedom of Information Act requests that he believes prove him right.

“I am innocent,” he says in an exclusive jailhouse interview in this week’s issue of People magazine.

Sean Wilson Jan 16, 2017

From the BBC's Sherlock, through Disney, Hans Zimmer and Young Sherlock Holmes: we salute the music of Mr Holmes...

Few characters have enjoyed as much reinvention as Arthur Conan Doyle's sleuth Sherlock Holmes, an enduring icon who is as much bound up with the history of cinema (and indeed stage, TV and radio) as he is with literature. Indeed, adaptations of Holmes stories stretch right the way back to the earliest days of film at the start of the 20th century. Fittingly enough given Holmes' penchant for a violin serenade, the musical scores to his adventures are as richly varied as the outcomes to his mysteries are unexpected. Here are Holmes' musical highlights, from Buster Keaton through to Benedict Cumberbatch.

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Not, strictly speaking, a Sherlock movie but as the title implies, the legacy of the character casts a long shadow over Buster Keaton's silent classic.

Fox’s first official monster movie is a terrific-looking but mostly flat mystery that tries its utmost not to be a horror film at all. It’s a head scratcher that will interest fans of the expressive John Brahm, and help completists scratch another werewolf film off their gotta-see lists.

The Undying Monster

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 62 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring James Ellison, Heather Angel, John Howard, Bramwell Fletcher, Heather Thatcher, Aubrey Mather, Halliwell Hobbes, Alec Craig, Holmes Herbert, Eily Malyon, Charles McGraw.

Cinematography Lucien Ballard

<Film Editor Harry Reynolds

Original Music Emil Newman, David Raksin

Written byLillie Hayward, Michel Jacoby from a novel by Jessie Douglas Kerrruish

Produced by Bryan Foy

Directed by John Brahm

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

After the heyday of Universal horror in the first half of the 1930s, horror pictures went on the decline for over twenty years.

What? A movie where adults behave like adults? Otto Preminger showcases a quiet maturity in this story of an independent woman caught between two men, adulterous lover Dana Andrews and conflicted suitor Henry Fonda. The script is witty and the people believable -- this is one of Joan Crawford's best performances. Daisy Kenyon Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 99 min. / Street Date Nov 15, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda, Ruth Warrick, Martha Stewart, Peggy Ann Garner Cinematography Leon Shamroy Art Direction George Davis, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor Louis Loffler Original Music David Raksin Written by David Hertz from the book by Elizabeth Janeway Produced and Directed by Otto Preminger

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Why is Daisy Kenyon one of Joan Crawford's best pictures? Crawford could be a fine actress, but too many of her pictures seem distorted by her star persona.

Political terror scenarios were a bit simpler in the 1950s, and movies about them fairly rare. Frank Sinatra gives a strong performance as the villain John Baron, in a tense tale of presidential assassination by high-powered rifle. Suddenly Blu-ray The Film Detective 1954 / B&W / 1.75 widescreen / 75 min. / Street Date October 25, 2016 / 14.99 Starring Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates, Willis Bouchey, Cinematography Charles G. Clarke Art Direction Frank Sylos Film Editor John F. Schreyer Original Music David Raksin Written by Richard Sale Produced by Robert Bassler Directed by Lewis Allen

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Some disc companies do well by refurbishing movies in the Public Domain, using various methods to bring what were once bargain-bin eyesores nearer the level of releases made from prime source material in studio vaults. As I've reported with efforts by HD Cinema Classics and Vci, the results vary dramatically -- did the company do a professional job,...

This adult film noir masterpiece showcases the most glamorous pin-up dream girl of the 1940s. Rita Hayworth, a young Glenn Ford and a sinister George Macready form a sophisticated, poisonous love triangle. Criminal intrigues and killer striptease fill out the bill. Gilda Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 795 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 19, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray, Joe Sawyer, Gerald Mohr, Ludwig Donath, Argentina Brunetti, Eduardo Ciannelli, Ruth Roman. Cinematography Rudolph Maté Film Editor Charles Nelson Music underscore Hugo Friedhofer Written by Marion Parsonnet, Jo Eisinger, E.A. Ellington Produced by Virginia Van Upp Directed by Charles Vidor

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Some of the best 'movie' times I remember were seeing classic pictures cold, with no knowledge beforehand. Back at film school they'd show us things we'd never heard of, often in prints of incredible good quality.

Born in St. Louis on May 27, 1911, iconic actor Vincent Price retained a special fondness for his place of origin, and that love was reciprocated with Vincentennial, a celebration of his 100th birthday in his hometown back in May of 2011 (for summary of all the Vincentennial activities go Here). One of the guests of honor at Vincentennial was Vincent Price’s daughter Victoria Price. Because of their close relationship and her access to his unpublished memoirs and letters, Victoria Price was able to provide a remarkably vivid account of her father’s public and private life in her essential book, Vincent Price, a Daughter’s Biography, originally published in 1999. .In 2011, her biography of her father was out of print. but now it’s been re-issued and Victoria will be in St. Louis this weekend (October 9th – 10th) for three special events. In addition to the biography, she will also be signing...

Jazz music has long expressed its capacity to borrow from various, sometimes contradictory sources in order to create something which in every sense transcends the original elements. Since the earliest days of jazz as a musical form, it has been inspired by military and funeral marches; has stylishly interpreted popular songs; and even brought the classical intricacies of Wagner into the domain of swinging brasses and reeds. This multiculturalism and eclecticism of jazz likens it to cinema which, in turn, has transformed pop culture motifs into something close to the sublime and mixed ‘high’ and ‘low’ artistic gestures to remarkable effect.In the history of jazz, the evolution from ragtime or traditional tunes, to discovering the treasure trove of Broadway songs was fast and smooth. The latter influence was shared by cinema, as the history of film production quickly marched on. The emergence of ‘talkies’ in the United States meant rediscovering Broadway,...

The time travel genre meets up with found footage in Project Almanac, the latest film from Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes.

The plot focuses on David Raskin (Jonny Weston), a very bright high school senior intent on getting into MIT. One day, while investigating the basement of his home, he discovers that his dearly departed dad has left behind plans and blueprints for a time machine he had hoped to build. Looking to make good on his father’s wishes, David brings his friends and sister together to construct it. But in the process of trying to undo past mistakes, they come to discover that changing the past may lead to dire consequences for their future.

The press day for Project Almanac was held at the Sls Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, where Weston, along with Sofia Black D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista and Virginia Gardner were all in attendance.

I’m comfortable in the fact that I’m getting older. I have lived a bountiful life thus far filled with indelible memories and amazing people. Never have I felt the need to go back and relive old memories or capture the “glory days.” For starters, I never had many “glory days” in high school. Writing for the school yearbook, participating in the Art Club, and performing in the school’s musicals and plays at an all boy’s Catholic school was hardly considered normal when I was there. Times have changed though and my afternoons sitting in the lunchroom as an awkward teenager have long passed.

Project Almanac is a found footage journey through time that is clearly aimed at the teen demographic. I don’t have a problem with that, but I understand my enjoyment level would have risen had I been about 15 years younger. That being said,...

The found footage genre is a peculiar one. It rests its laurels on building realism through the urgency and immediacy of the filmed footage. However, quite often, the characters in these films go to such extreme lengths to shoot this footage that one wonders why they are committing to capturing so much extraneous material. Every so often, a genre film will use the recordings in a chilling or original way. However, much of the time, having a character record all of the events on a video camera comes off as a contrived gimmick. The only way a film of this sort can be successful is if the story would not have worked as effectively with a regular, multi-camera staging.

The biggest problem with Project Almanac, a new sci-fi drama aimed at teens, is how rarely its writers convince us that the story should be told through the immediate presence of a video camera.

This is a reprint of our review from Comic-Con 2014. Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey's appearance in Hall H wasn't the only surprise aspect of Paramount's lengthy San Diego Comic-Con panel yesterday. It was also announced, after a brief clip was shown, that "Project Almanac," the Michael Bay-produced found footage time travel movie, would also screen for select attendees. We were able to attend the screening and, while it doesn't exactly blaze a new trail, the movie is smart and knowingly acknowledges both its place in the time travel subgenre and its formal limitations as a found footage movie. That self-awareness makes it fun and silly and, yes, kind of stupid, but in ways that are mostly enjoyable and forgivable. David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is a high school senior and a scientific genius. When the movie begins, we're watching the application video that David is submitting to MIT. He...

A few days ago we had the opportunity to sit down and talk to the cast of the upcoming thriller "Project Almanac."

The film follows a brilliant high school student David Raskin (Jonny Weston) and his friends (Sofia Black-d’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista) who uncover blueprints for a mysterious device leading to time travel with limitless potential, inadvertently putting lives in danger.

"Project Almanac" is Directed by Dean Israelite and produced by Josh Appelbaum, Michael Bay, and Andre Nemec.

Check out what the cast had to say about their latest project.

"Project Almanac" is in theaters January 30, 2015.

Produced by Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes, “Project Almanac” is an agreeable and entertaining teen time-travel thriller that’s equal parts Ray Bradbury and John Hughes, as our five teen leads unlock the secrets of “temporal relocation” and then trample through the delicate space-time continuum in pursuit of riches, repair and romance. Directed by Dean Israelite in his feature-length debut, the big conceit of the script and story is that what we’re seeing is all footage recorded by the film’s characters throughout their adventures. It’s a stylistic and shooting decision that adds very little and ultimately distracts...

Sam Lerner is Quinn Goldberg, Jonny Weston is David Raskin, Allen Evangelista is Adam Le, and Virginia Gardner is Christina Raskin in Project Almanac.

A brilliant high school student and his friends uncover blueprints for a mysterious device with limitless potential, inadvertently putting lives in danger.

The film is produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, written by Jason Harry Pagan & Andrew Deutschman and directed by Dean Israelite.

Project Almanac opens in theaters on January 30th.

Wamg invites you to enter for a chance to win passes (Good for 2) to the advance screening of Project Almanac on Jan. 28th at 7Pm. We will contact the winners by email.

To Enter, Add Your Name, Answer And Email In Our Comments Section Below.

Answer the following:

If you could back, what would you redo?

Head over to ProjectAlmanac.com/Redo  and let em know what you would redo. Your Redo could...

Murder mysteries are so commonplace on TV that each week offers seemingly dozens of them on police procedural series and detective shows. But in the movies, whodunits are surprisingly rare, and really good ones rarer still. There's really only a handful of movies that excel in offering the viewer the pleasure of solving the crime along with a charismatic sleuth, often with an all-star cast of suspects hamming it up as they try not to appear guilty.

One of the best was "Murder on the Orient Express," released 40 years ago this week, on November 24, 1974. Like many films adapted from Agatha Christie novels, this one featured an eccentric but meticulous investigator (in this case, Albert Finney as Belgian epicure Hercule Poirot), a glamorous and claustrophobic setting (here, the famous luxury train from Istanbul to Paris), and a tricky murder plot with an outrageous solution. The film won an Oscar for passenger...

Earlier this week, Carnegie Hall presented Standard Time with Michael Feinstein 'The Bad and the Beautiful'- Celebrating David Raksin and Classic Film Songs. Michael Feinstein, backed by a 12-piece band conducted by Charles Prince, sang classic songs by some of Hollywood's greatest composers. Feinstein performed music by David Raskin, the composer of the themes for The Bad and the Beautiful, Laura, and other memorable films, as well as favorites by other great masters of music for the silver screen. Check out photos from the special night below...

We’ll be celebrating the 5th year anniversary of Super-8 Movie Madness at The Way Out Club in St. Louis on Tuesday October 7th with an encore performance of our most popular show. It’s Super-8 Vincent Price Movie Madness in 3D, the show that we took on the road to promote Vincentennial back in 2011. We’ll be honoring the hometown horror hero by showing condensed (average length: 15 minutes) versions of several of Price’s greatest films on Super-8 sound film projected on a big screen. They are: Master Of The World, War-gods Of The Deep, Pit And The Pendulum, The Raven, Witchfinder General, Tim Burton’s Vincent, Two Vincent Price Trailer Reels, Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein and The Mad Magician in 3D (We’ll have plenty of 3D Glasses for everyone)

The non-Price movies we’re showing October 7th are The Three Stooges in Pardon My Backfire...

Playwright and screenwriter Terence Rattigan was an indubitable influence on mid-century British cinema. He authored several of the era’s most notable titles, including The Browning Version (1951), Lean’s The Sound Barrier (1952) Olivier’s troubled The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and Anatole Litvak’s The Deep Blue Sea (1952), which was recently remade by Terrence Davies in 2011. But it would be a 1958 American adaptation of his play, Separate Tables, from director Delbert Mann that would prove to be his most critically lauded work, nominated for seven Academy Awards, and snagging two (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress). By today’s standards, it’s a film that feels painstakingly melodramatic. Reconsidered within the framework of Rattigan’s own impressive oeuvre, the material hasn’t aged well, and as time has gone on, its cramped exploration of sexual dysfunction now plays like a euthanized product crippled by censorship of the author’s own...

Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey's appearance in Hall H wasn't the only surprise aspect of Paramount's lengthy San Diego Comic-Con panel yesterday. It was also announced, after a brief clip was shown, that "Project Almanac," the Michael Bay-produced found footage time travel movie, would also be screened for select attendees. We were able to attend the screening and, while it doesn't exactly blaze a new trail, the movie is smart and knowingly acknowledges both its place in the time travel subgenre and its formal limitations as a found footage movie. That self-awareness makes it fun and silly and, yes, kind of stupid, but in ways that are mostly enjoyable and forgivable. David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is a high school senior and a scientific genius. When the movie begins, we're watching the application video that David is submitting to MIT. He awkwardly addresses the camera as he moves around...

Following the release of over a dozen films and just a year before the release of his pinnacle endeavor, Delmar Daves utilized his love of the Native American heritage and the never ending translation finesse of Shakespeare to come up with a new twist on the old west. Criterion is bringing his 1956 Jubal to Blu-ray this month as another of it’s Criterion classic collection. The film marks an approximate mid-point in a career that spanned three decades and saw the auteur move from actor to writer and producer/director. The film sets precedent for the more critically acclaimed films to come that would eventually earn the director his own star on the famed Hollywood Walk.

While riding through the mountains, wealthy rancher Shep Horgan (Ernest Borgnine) encounters Jubal Troop (Glenn Ford), a wandering cowhand who can barely stand on his feet. Shep takes him back to his ranch where...

In the early 1950s, as the big studio system breathed its last, Hollywood produced a succession of classic Tinseltown fables: Sunset Boulevard, In a Lonely Place, Singin' in the Rain, The Barefoot Contessa, A Star Is Born and, right in the middle, The Bad and the Beautiful, made in 1952 and back in the cinemas to accompany a Minnelli retrospective at the Nft. Though directed with Minnelli's characteristic delicacy, this is essentially a producer's film, made by John Houseman, one of the great figures of 20th-century American theatre and cinema. Houseman's first Hollywood job was supervising the script of Citizen Kane, his second was working for David O Selznick. In The Bad and the Beautiful, Houseman applies a similar structure, intelligence and suavity to a ruthless Hollywood genius much like Selznick as he brought to Charles Foster Kane.

An old-style Hollywood studio boss (Walter Pidgeon) brings together a movie star (Lana Turner...

After success in the American theatre, a few acting roles on the screen and a series of false starts as a movie director, Otto Preminger, the Austrian protege of Max Reinhardt, suddenly revealed himself as a master when he took over the direction of this classic thriller from Rouben Mamoulian in 1944. It's basically a B-feature whodunnit posing the question: who murdered the beautiful New York advertising executive Laura Hunt? But the film is raised to classic status by the witty script, David Raksin's score, Joseph Lashelle's subtle monchrome photography, and the way Preminger is more concerned with exploring the perversity of its generally dislikable characters (including the homicide detective) than in creating suspense. Preminger made darker, more characteristically noir films than this, but his only movie that's as good, or perhaps better, is Anatomy of a Murder.

CrimeDramaThrillerPhilip French

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"Over eighty percent of silent films are lost. I've always considered a lost film as a narrative with no known final resting place — doomed to wander the landscape of film history, sad, miserable and unable to project itself to the people who might love it." That's Guy Maddin, as quoted by Kim Morgan, introducing Maddin's Spiritismes, happening now at the Centre Pompidou in Paris ("During 'séances'... Maddin and his actors will allow themselves to be possessed by the wandering spirits of the dead, to bring their movies back to life") through March 12:

Filmmaking, dead made undead, is happening live at the Centre — lost or unrealized films by directors as diverse as Jean Vigo, Kenji Mizoguchi, Lois Weber, William Wellman, von Stroheim (I will appear in that particular Poto-Poto), Alexandre Dovjenko and more are coming — rising from the dead, in their own unique way. Maddin will be shooting one film a day.

Laura and Dragonwyck will play as a double feature at the Vincentennial Vincent Price Film Festival at 7:00pm tonight (Monday, May 23rd) at Brown Hall on the campus of Washington University. Admission is free.

“I shall never forget the weekend Laura died”, is the first line, intoned by a somber Clifton Webb, of Laura (1944), a glossy and gripping story of murder among the elite. Vincent Price often said that his favorite of the films in which he appeared was director Otto Preminger’s 1944 film noir, and most movie buffs who don’t like horror are quick to agree. As noirs go, it’s less a dark and dirty crime drama than most, more reliant on character and script, but it really is a classic and Price’s oily supporting performance is nothing short of sublime. The film pits gruff police detective, Mark McPhereson (Dana Andrews) against smug and cultured columnist,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

Born in St. Louis on May 27, 1911, iconic actor Vincent Price retained a special fondness for his place of origin, and that love is now reciprocated with Vincentennial, a celebration of his 100th birthday in his hometown. Price was not only a notable St. Louisan but one of the 20th century.s most remarkable men. To do full justice to the range of his accomplishments, Vincentennial features not only a 10-day film festival but also a pair of exhibits, a stage production, two publications, and illuminating discussions by Price experts and film historians. We decided to do a special edition of Top Ten Tuesday here at We Are Movie Geeks in honor of the many great films that Vincent Price starred in, and after we had assembled the list we realized that all ten of these films will be showing at the...