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FILMFEST OLDENBURG: Situated in the northwest corner of Germany, between Bremen and Dutch Amsterdam, Oldenburg is a picturesque medieval town that once a year plays host to a cadre of international filmmakers with a festival that the trades call the “German Sundance.” Director Torsten Neumann organizes a slate of outstanding programming, retrospective tributes, unforgettable parties, an incredible staff, and an intimate, amiable atmosphere that has resulted in a huge growth spurt over the past 15 years. I was present at the very first event in 1994 and this year enjoyed my ninth visit. I’ve had feature films play there that I’ve written and directed (MEN LIE, THE DELI, BLUE MOON, CUPIDITY), shorts I’ve written and directed (PENANCE, ACTING CLASS, this year’s “and the winner is …”), and features I’ve been involved with as exec producer (HIGH TIMES’ POTLUCK) and producer (THE INSURGENTS, a fest winner in 2006 and currently playing on Showtime), or as co-production company (MIXING NIA). I’ve also presented my video interviews with Lee Marvin and James Toback, a special screening of Roman Polanski’s THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, and curated the first William Wellman retrospective in Germany – so I believe I’m entitled to say “Ich bin ein Oldenburger!” This year’s festival set a new high for the Oldenburg Film Fest, with coverage in The Hollywood Reporter (August 29—September 1, 2008 edition), and tributes to special guests James Toback, who screened his Cannes hit TYSON as well as a half dozen of his films, and the elusive Michael Wadleigh, director of WOODSTOCK (1970) and WOLFEN (1981), both on display. I’ve seen WOODSTOCK 25 times if I’ve seen it once, and it was great to hear the stories of that fabled film right from the source. I always wondered why Michael never included performance footage of The Grateful Dead – he told me their set was unusable because the band was so whacked at Woodstock. When Jerry Garcia asked to look at the footage, the guitarist could only agree and thank Michael for not including it! Another tribute was held for Marius Muller-Westernhagen, an 80s German movie star who left acting to become a musical icon. The festivals enjoys the full-blown support of Oberburgermeister Prof. Dr. Gerd Schwander, the mayor of the city, a presence throughout the fest, and a bonafide movie lover (many of us dubbed him the coolest mayor we’d ever met!).
I was honored to serve on the jury for the German Independence Award this year with actor-director LeVar Burton (jury president), actress Fanny Bastien (KILLING TIME), producer Jen Gatien (HOUNDDOG) and sales agent/producer Rosana Coutinho. Our task was to screen five independent German movies and choose a winner. We unanimously chose Emily Atef’s extraordinary DAS FREMDE IM MIR (THE STRANGER IN ME), a riveting study of post-natal depression with a remarkable and brave performance by Hamburg stage actress Suzanne Wolff, a young woman who will no doubt make an international mark with this film. The picture also won the Audience Award and a prestigious national prize, and we also cited Suzanne’s performance along with that of Irina Potapenko for REVANCHE. Indeed, the acting in all the German films was exemplary (Suzanne also starred in HAPPY PEOPLE, a kind of German BIG CHILL).
LeVar Burton presented the world premiere of an outstanding film he directed, the straight-from-the-heart drama REACH FOR ME. The great Seymour Cassel (FACES, MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ) stars as a cantankerous patient in a cancer hospice, with tremendous support from Lacey Chabert (superb in her best performance), Johnny Whitworth, Adrienne Barbeau, Alfre Woodard, Charlene Blaine-Schulenberg (who also produced with Mark Wolfe and Susan Rodgers), and LeVar himself. The always colorful Seymour, an Oldenburg favorite and inevitable life of the party, truly gives an Oscar-worthy performance in REACH FOR ME, and the film deserves to be seen widely. One of the joys of Oldenburg is the opportunity to spend quality time with artists like Jim Toback, LeVar Burton and Seymour Cassel, who regaled us for hours one evening with tales of Cassavetes. And it was uber-fun to hang with British director Julian Richards, German director R.P. Kahl, filmmaker Thomas Stiller, Euro rock star/actor Bela B., and the wonderful actors Ken Duken and Annalena Duken.
Among the filmmakers who screened their work were Bernard Rose (THE KREUTZER SONATA), Oldenburg veteran Matthew Harrison and Ben Rodkin (BIG HEART CITY), Chris Eigeman (TURN THE RIVER), Chee Keong Cheung (BODYGUARD: A NEW BEGINNING), Austin Chick (AUGUST), Darren Curtis (WHO IS K. K. DOWNEY?), and Jan Cvitkovic (I KNOW); Jen Gatien screened her feature documentary CHELSEA ON THE ROCKS, directed by Abel Ferrara, about the late great Chelsea Hotel. My film “and the winner is …” was graced by the presence of three of its actresses, Christina Broccolini, Christina Gooding and Margherita Ramella. Like the best festivals, there’s only a few hours available for sleep at the Oldenburg Film Festival, what with screenings, receptions, and parties til dawn, so it feels like you’re packing a month into five days. It’s a feast for filmmakers and audience alike. For more on the festival, visit their website at www.filmfest-oldenburg.de, and check out “and the winner is …” at www.youtube.com/johnandrewgallagher.
SONY: I laughed my tukas off at DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (2008), Adam Sandler’s outrageous madcap comedy about a one-man Israeli anti-terror commando who really just wants to cut and style hair. It’s irreverent and over-the-top (after all, Robert Smigel, creator of Triumph the Insult Dog, is one of writers), and Sandler does justice to the action as well as the comedy. ENTOURAGE’s Emmanuele Chiriqui, Lanie Kazan, and a hilarious John Turturro. The unrated, extended edition include commentary with director Dennis Dugan, and a separate track with Sandler, Smigel and co-stars Rob Schneider and Nick Swardson, ten deleted scenes and ten production featurettes.
Horror fans will have to own the ICONS OF HORROR COLLECTION 3: HAMMER FILMS, a two-disc set of four restored, hard-to-find chillers from Britain’s premiere thrill factory. Hammer regulars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are teamed in THE GORGON (1964), while Lee stars in Fisher’s THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL (1960) and Seth Holt’s SCREAM OF FEAR (1961), aka TASTE OF FEAR. Michael Carreras’ THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1964) rounds out the set. These are all good, serious horror movies, with SCREAM OF FEAR the best of the batch.
Sony has a new brand for some of their catalogue titles called “Martini Movies,” all available for the first time on DVD. The first batch consists of five excellent movies, the highlight being Richard Brooks’ terrific $ (1971) aka DOLLARS. Warren Beatty stars as a bank efficiency expert teamed with call girl Goldie Hawn to rob the safe deposit boxes of three criminals. This is an underrated film in the Brooks canon (his best include CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, ELMER GANTRY, LORD JIM, THE PROFESSIONALS and LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR), with gritty location photography in Hamburg, Germany, and the two stars at their most attractive and charismatic. George C. Scott and Stacy Keach are THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972) are Los Angeles cops in an episodic and downbeat drama based on a Joseph Wambaugh novel, directed with flair by Richard Fleischer. Sidney Lumet’s THE ANDERSON TAPES (1971) is an excellent heist movie with Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon and a young Christopher Walken, one of the director’s best and least known works. Director Vincent Sherman has two noir entries in the first wave of “Martini Movies,” the tropical murder mystery AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD (1953) with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, and THE GARMENT JUNGLE (1957), with Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Matthews and Robert Loggia in an ON THE WATERFRONT-inspired drama about mob influence in Manhattan’s garment district (started by Robert Aldrich but signed by Sherman). All the titles include negligible “shorts” (e.g., “How to Play the Leading Man,” “How to Play the Leading Lady”) that are really promos for the series, but so what? It’s great to have these movies available and I look forward to the next wave of “Martini Movies.” Kim Edwards’ best-selling novel THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER was produced for Lifetime earlier this year. It’s a sensitive adaptation about how a Down Syndrome child affects a family’s life. The performances by Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol and especially Emily Watson are stellar, and Mick Jackson (THE BODYGUARD, L.A. STORY) does a wonderful job of directing.
UNIVERSAL: After directing the dark satire CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND and the scintillating drama GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, George Clooney tackles Hawksian screwball comedy with LEATHERHEADS (2008). Set in the ragtag world of pro football in 1925, the picture suffers by comparison, but is still solid entertainment by virtue of Clooney’s light comedic touch as both director and actor, an interesting visual style, and a fun, Capraesque performance by Renee Zellweger as a newspaper reporter. Clooney and Zellweger have great chemistry together, but THE OFFICE’s John Krasinski seems a tad too modern for his co-starring role. I hate to be a stickler about these things, but the movie opens with the glittering Universal Pictures logo from 1936-1945; if the filmmakers were true to period, they would have used the company’s airplane-round-the-globe logo of the 20s. Clooney and producer Grant Heslov provide audio commentary, there are deleted scenes, and four production featurettes.
Universal has released a lavish 50th anniversary special edition of Orson Welles’ noir masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL (1958), featuring no less than three feature-length versions. The restored version (considered definitive) was re-edited in 1998 by Rick Schmidlin to conform with Welles’ 58-page memo to the studio after they changed the film on him (in a welcome marketing stroke, the full memo is included in the set); the original 1958 theatrical version; and a preview version that included many of Welles’ ideas, re-discovered by Universal in 1976. Stars Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh provide a fascinating audio commentary, guided by Schmidlin. Welles steals the show as a corrupt border town police chief, and expertly handles a cast that includes Akim Tamiroff, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Weaver, Joseph Calleia, Joseph Cotton, Zsa Zsa Gabor and an unforgettable Marlene Dietrich. TOUCH OF EVIL is essential viewing, and offers rewards with each screening. There are two featurettes, and four commentaries – Heston, Leigh, Schmidlin (preview version), Welles experts Jonathan Rosenbaum and Rick Naremore (preview version), writer/filmmaker F.X. Feeney (theatrical version), and Schmidlin (restored version).
WARNER: Albert Lewin wrote and directed a lavish and literate adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) for MGM, creating a hauntingly atmospheric drama about a young man (the incredibly stiff Hurd Hatfield) in Victorian London who never ages; instead the visage of his portrait ages horrifically throughout the years, a reflection of his depraved morality. Harry Stradling won an Academy Award for his glossy cinematography, a stunning example of 40s deep-focus, and WHV has restored the print to include Technicolor inserts of the portrait in various states of moral leprosy. Angela Lansbury earned an Oscar nomination as a music hall girl, Donna Reed and Peter Lawford had early important roles, and George Sanders is impeccable delivering Wilde’s bon mots in his inimitably sardonic style. Extras include commentary by Lansbury and historian Steve Haberman, the Oscar-winning Passing Parade short subject STAIRWAY TO LIGHT, and the Oscar-winning Tom and Jerry cartoon QUIET PLEASE!
Terrence Malick’s THE NEW WORLD (2005) never really found its audience. I feel it’s one of those historical epics like BARRY LYNDON (1975), GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002) and THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007) that will continue to enhance its reputation in the coming years. THE NEW WORLD: THE EXTENDED CUT should help in that process, with nearly 30 minutes of additional footage ranging from action sequences to the nature shots so beloved by Malick, and so important in creating primeval ambience. The NBR named Q’orianka Kilcher their Female Breakthrough Performer for her haunting performance as Pocahontas; Colin Farrell as John Smith and Christian Bale as John Rolfe also contributed fine work. Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography, James Horner’s score and Jack Fisk’s production design are brilliant; shot on real locations in Virginia and England, this is one of the most breathtaking movies ever shot. If you liked the original version, you’ll love this; if you didn’t love it, give it another chance, since the additional footage adds a good deal of depth and emotion to the proceedings. On the other hand, if you loved SEX AND THE CITY, you’ll love SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE (2008), but if you didn’t, you certainly won’t like SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE – EXTENDED CUT! The adventures of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristen Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Big (Chris Noth) continued on the big screen and the HBO series’ multitude of fans made it one of the year’s biggest hits. This extended double-disc version includes audio commentary by director Michael Patrick King, a conversation with Parker and King, and production and fashion featurettes. DISNEY: The latest release in the Magic Kingdom’s line of limited edition Walt Disney classics is SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959), a visually dazzling fairy tale that has been painstakingly restored to its 70mm glory, with restored soundtrack outfitted for a 5.1. home theater mix, all the better to enjoy the music inspired by Tschaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty Ballet. There’s plenty of romance and adventure, a classic Disney villain in the demonic Malificent, George Bruns’ Oscar-nominated score and the lovely “Once Upon a Dream,” and three delightful fairy godmothers, with the direction and treatment wonderfully balancing the movie so that it may be equally enjoyed by child and adult. This two-disc 50th anniversary edition gets the full Disney Platinum treatment, with deleted songs, never-before-seen alternate opening, a new making-of documentary, games for the kids, the 1958 animated rendition of Grofe’s GRAND CANYON, and a new “Once Upon a Dream” music video by HANNAH MONTANA’s Emily Osment (and pretty darn good it is, too). Here are some links:
Eyvind’s Beginnings (Bonus)
http://www.totaleclips.com/player/Splash.aspx?custid=3&clipid=e41715&playerid=69&affiliateid=-1&bitrateid=378&formatid=10"></iframe>
Sequence 8 (Bonus)
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Walt’s Interest (Bonus)
http://www.totaleclips.com/player/Splash.aspx?custid=3&clipid=e41710&playerid=69&affiliateid=-1&bitrateid=378&formatid=10"></iframe>
Dungeon (Bonus)
http://www.totaleclips.com/player/Splash.aspx?custid=3&clipid=e41708&playerid=69&affiliateid=-1&bitrateid=378&formatid=10"></iframe>
Emily Osment’s Once Upon a Dream Music Video (Bonus)
http://www.totaleclips.com/player/Splash.aspx?custid=3&clipid=e41696&playerid=69&affiliateid=-1&bitrateid=378&formatid=10"></iframe>
Trailer
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THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY: Lou Reed’s controversial 1973 record “Berlin” split critics and fans, a concept album about the dark side of love. Lou never played “Berlin” live until last year when director Julian Schnabel and cinematographer filmed Lou and company performing the whole album at St. Ann’s arts center in Brooklyn. Schnabel does an excellent job covering the performance, intercutting Emmanuelle Seigner (the female lead in Schnabel’s THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) as the character of “Caroline” from “Caroline Says.” I’ve always thought “Berlin” was a great, if often depressing, album; check out BERLIN (2008) from the Weinstein’s Miriam Collection and see what you think. Extras include “Berlin” on tour and an interview with Reed and Schnabel by Elvis Costello.
KINO: Buster Keaton’s epic Civil War adventure comedy THE GENERAL (1927) is one of the greatest of silent films, and Kino gives it the Criterion treatment with a two-disc special edition, mastered in HD from a 35mm archival print struck from the original camera negative. Based on a true incident, Keaton plays a Confederate railroad engineer who hijacks a Union train; the period detail is vivid, the Oregon locations beautiful, and the action sequences among the best ever committed to film. There are three musical scores to choose from – by Carl Davis, Robert Israel and Lee Erwin; a video tour of the actual train The General; a then-and-now tour of the filming locations; behind-the-scenes home movies; a montage of Keaton chase scenes from throughout his career; and filmed introductions by Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles. It’s simply spectacular. Also new from Kino: Severo Perez’ … AND THE EARTH DID NOT SWALLOW HIM (1994), from the Tomas Rivera novel, about a young boy’s coming of age in a family of Chicano migrant workers in the 50s; and Ilya Chaiken’s LIBERTY KID (2008) from Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix, an urban drama about two Williamsburg dropouts affected by 9/11 and the war. There’s audio commentary by the director and actors Al Thompson and Kareem Savino, deleted scenes, a production featurette and conversations with Iraq War veterans (www.kino.com).
IMAGE: Helen Hunt directs and stars in THEN SHE FOUND ME (2008), a diverting dramedy about a schoolteacher (Hunt) breaking up with her husband (Matthew Broderick), reuniting with her birth mother (Bette Midler), exploring love with a new man (Colin Firth). The performances are strong up and down the line in this mild entertainment that plays like an above average Lifetime TV movie. Hunt does audio commentary, and there are cast interviews and behind-the-scenes footage included.
TV: Darren Star tried to repeat the success of SEX AND THE CITY with his series CASHMERE MAFIA, starring Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, Frances O’Connor and Bonnie Sommerville as four Manhattan friends juggling their private lives with careers in the business world. CASHMERE MAFIA: THE COMPLETE SERIES (Sony) will certainly please fans of the earlier show, and the four actresses generate considerable chemistry. Extras include four production featurettes.
CDs: Todd Rundgren is one of the great jack of all trades in the world of pop music, with his “Something/Anything” undoubtedly one of the best pop/rock albums in history. His latest work is ARENA, an imperative buy for Rundgren fans with fantastic tracks like “Mad,” “Mercenary,” “Gun,” “Bardo,” and “Mountaintop.” Todd has never sounded better, and this is his best in years, a return to his rock ‘n roll roots.
BOOKS: A number of fascinating volumes have crossed my desk recently. Thomas R. Lindlof’s Hollywood Under Siege: Martin Scorsese, The Religious Right, and the Culture Wars (University of Kentucky Press) is an important study of the making, unmaking and religious backlash of Scorsese’s THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988). Much to his credit, Lindlof covers the production details (both the aborted 1983 Paramount version, cancelled shortly before cameras rolled, and the eventual Universal picture shot with limited resources in Morocco) with the eye of a film historian, and details the many voices that sought to silence Scorsese’s voice with the insight of a social scientist. This is an important contribution to the Scorsese legacy as well as a vital examination of religious right cultural hysteria about a film that was condemned before anyone ever saw a frame.
Claudette Colbert has long been overdue for a full biography, and now esteemed author Bernard F. Dick has filled this film history gap with Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty (University Press of Mississippi). He has thoroughly researched his subject, and helps us relive her Broadway days in the 20s and her litany of memorable performances in DeMille’s THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932) and CLEOPATRA (1934), Capra’s IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), LaCava’s SHE MARRIED HER BOSS and PRIVATE WORLDS (both 1935), Lloyd’s UNDER TWO FLAGS (1936) and MAID OF SALEM (1937), Lubitsch’s BLUEBEARD’S EIGHTH WIFE (1938), Leisen’s MIDNIGHT (1939) and ARISE MY LOVE (1940), Ford’s DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939), Conway’s BOOM TOWN (1940), Sandrich’s SO PROUDLY WE HAIL (1943), Cromwell’s SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944), Negulesco’s THREE CAME HOME (1950) and her many Broadway productions. Dick paints an indelible portrait of the artist and the woman, and dispels the rumors that have lingered for years about her “relationship” with Marlene Dietrich.
Making Movies with Orson Welles: A Memoir (Scarecrow Press) is a crucial contribution to the literature about Welles by the late Gary Graver (with Andrew J. Rausch), the cinematographer and confidante of The Great Man in his later years. After his mercurial CITIZEN KANE (1941) and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942) revolutionized cinema, while still in his early 20s, Welles fell into a scattershot career that alternated between directing (THE STRANGER, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, MACBETH, TOUCH OF EVIL, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, THE TRIAL) and acting (JANE EYRE, BLACK MAGIC, THE PRINCE OF FOXES, THE BLACK ROSE , MOBY DICK and dozens more). By 1970, Welles had become best known as a guest raconteur on THE JOHNNY CARSON SHOW and TV commercial personality. In 1970 young Graver called Welles at the Beverly Hills Hotel and offered to shoot for him; Welles told him only one other cameraman, Gregg Toland, had ever called him with such an offer, and they ended up making CITIZEN KANE, so, incredibly, as Graver was the first to admit, Welles said yes. For 15 years, a period deemed fallow for Welles by many, the maestro and the apprentice worked on more than a dozen projects together (while Graver also shot everything from Z-movies to Cassavetes films). There were lots of unfinished films – most notoriously THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND starring John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich, but also the landmark F FOR FAKE – prior to Welles’ death in 1985. Graver tells tales of guerilla filmmaking with his mentor under ridiculous circumstances, tremendous and contagious fun with Orson from Spain and Paris to Los Angeles, and the many lessons learned about life and art. We are blessed that Andrew Rausch compelled Graver to put his reminiscences on paper before his own untimely death from throat cancer in 2006. Graver loved Orson Welles, and this book allows us to share the love.
I became obsessed with the legend of John Barrymore at an early age, saw all his movies I could see, both silent and talking (DON JUAN, MOBY DICK, SVENGALI, THE MAD GENIUS, RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS, COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW, TOPAZE, TWENTIETH CENTURY, ROMEO AND JULIET, MIDNIGHT, THE GREAT PROFILE etc.), read Gene Fowler’s Good Night, Sweet Prince, published only a year after Barrymore’s death in 1941, devoured John Kobler’s 1977 aptly named bio Damned in Paradise, visited Barrymore’s many Manhattan addresses (one of which is located right next store to the NBR offices). By the end of his life (1939-41) “The Great Profile” had become an alcoholic wreck, the shell of his former matinee idol/best-actor-of-his- generation self, given to shameless self-parody on Broadway, on tour, in Hollywood. Despite his degeneration, Barrymore was beloved, indeed idolized, by young actors like Errol Flynn, Anthony Quinn, and John Carradine (all in their twenty- something primes), and a motley crew of artists and writers of his own generation, including Gene Fowler, Sadakichi Hartman, John Decker and W.C. Fields. Together, they were known as The Bundy Drive Boys, after Decker’s art studio, and many legendary nights of conversation and libation ensued. Stephen C. Jordan has written a wonderful book, Hollywood’s Original Rat Pack: The Bards of Bundy Drive (Scarecrow Press), collecting the stories, remembering these long lost days and nights of wine and roses. It is highly recommended.
I love a well-researched film history book. Norbert Aping’s The Final Film of Laurel and Hardy: A Study of the Chaotic Making of and Marketing of Atoll K (McFarland Press) just may be the best researched film history book I’ve ever read. Apring chronicles the last movie of Stan and Ollie, an absolutely atrocious venture from every possible standpoint, yet treats it with an historical intricacy worthy of Everson or Brownlow. The details that Aping has unearthed are simply mind-blowing, considering that the movie was made in France by a discombobulated independent company that has long since gone out of business. There are dozens of volumes on Laurel and Hardy, but this piece of archaeological work deserves a special place on the shelf.
The Cinema of Tod Browning: Essays of the Macabre and Grotesque (McFarland Press), edited by Bernd Herzogenrath, is a remarkable collection of scholarly pieces on the director of DRACULA (1931), FREAKS (1932), MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935), THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936) and a series of Lon Chaney silents that include THE UNHOLY THREE (1925), THE UNKNOWN (1927) and LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927). This book is tough going for the casual reader, but has its rewards for those already familiar with the Browning oeuvre. I was sorry to see that three of Browning’s early talkies -- OUTSIDE THE LAW (1930), THE IRON MAN (1931), FAST WORKERS (1933) – aren’t covered, but there is a chapter on his rarely discussed final film, MIRACLES FOR SALE (1939), and a detailed discussion of the lost THE BIG CITY (1928) by F. Gwynplaine McIntyre, who tells an entertaining tale of screening the film through the graces of a European collector. The Flash Gordon Serials, 1936-1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide (McFarland) by Roy Kinnard, Tony Cankovich and R. J. Vitone is the definitive work on the fantastic Universal sci-fi series starring Buster Crabbe as Flash, Jean Rogers as Dale Arden and Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless. The authors cover each serial episode by episode, loading the text with production and biographical info, and a plethora of cool photos. Flash fan? This is a must have.
TCM ALERT: Finally, a word about Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for October, Carole Lombard. TCM is showing a slew of her films, including many rarely if ever screened on TV: THE RACKETEER (1929),VIRTUE (1932), NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932, with future husband Clark Gable), NO MORE ORCHIDS (1932), BRIEF MOMENT (1933), THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK (1933), LADY BY CHOICE (1934), THE GAY BRIDE (1934), Hawks’ TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934, with John Barrymore), Leisen’s HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (1935), LaCava’s MY MAN GODFREY (1936), Wellman’s NOTHING SACRED (1937), Leisen’s SWING HIGH SWING LOW (1937), FOOLS FOR SCANDAL (1938), IN NAME ONLY (1939), Stevens’ VIGIL IN THE NIGHT (1940), Hitchcock’s MR. AND MRS. SMITH (1941) and her final film before her tragic plane crash, Lubitsch’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942).
They’re all worthwhile, from the comedies to the dramas, showing Lombard’s great beauty, talent and range. Check out www.tcm.com for schedule.
JOHN GALLAGHER
jgmovie@aol.com
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