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In 1939, Judy Garland went over the rainbow, and the world would never be the same again. Garland, who'd first gained major fame singing, dancing, and acting alongside Mickey Rooney, was suddenly catapulted to superstardom. From her roots in vaudeville, Garland had been performing her whole life, and she eventually became one of the world's most beloved stars. Her singing voice is completely unmatched, and it was backed up with intensity, passion, and unparalleled charm. Though her personal history is not without difficulty -- and Rene Zellweger won an Oscar for portraying part of that history in "Judy" -- Garland is largely remembered as one of Hollywood's most beloved actresses.

Looking through Garland's career, it was her latter years that offered opportunities for rich experimentation. Though she still appeared in musicals, after her MGM contract expired, she boldly took risks, such as starring in an animated feature and an epic courtroom drama.

Stuck in a seemingly endless loop, a frustrated young man is confronted by his violent past while living in a limbo of his own making. Alexandra Velasco’s short The Seventh Circle is a chronicling of one man’s neurotic descent into utter madness. Velasco and her crew, made up of close friends and fellow immigrants, decided to create their horror-tinged short film after becoming frustrated with the uncertainty of the future during a time of imposed lockdown. Premiering here on Dn’s pages, Velasco’s film arrives online as a welcome blend of pure catharsis and heightened genre thrills. Directors Notes caught up with Velasco for an in-depth conversation where we discussed The Seventh Circle’s cathartic genesis, the joyful experience she found in collaborating with close friends and family, and the manifested dark energy of her famed central location.

One of the aspects of The Seventh Circle I...

Herman Wouk, the author of novels adapted to the big and small screen, including “The Caine Mutiny,” “Marjorie Morningstar,” “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance,” has died. He was 103.

“The Caine Mutiny,” a 1951 bestseller that won Wouk the Pulitzer Prize, was memorably adapted into the 1954 film starring Humphrey Bogart, who played the paranoid, mentally unstable captain of a Navy minesweeper whose actions drive his subordinates to mutiny. That pic, directed by Edward Dmytryk and also starring Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, drew seven Oscar nominations, including those for best picture and screenplay for Stanley Roberts.

Wouk relied upon his wartime experiences not only for “The Caine Mutiny,” but for his later novels “The Winds of War” (1971) and “War and Remembrance” (1978). These expansive works, which followed one character, Navy Commander Victor “Pug” Henry, through seemingly every important moment in WWII, were adapted into the highly successful ABC miniseries of the same name.

The murky crimes of sordid characters come to the fore in the wide-open Nevada spaces… producer Hal Wallis’ Technicolor noir concentrates on the possessive and perverse competition for Lizabeth Scott’s luscious blonde — the mother that wants to corral her, the gangster who thinks she’s an escape and the local hunk who wears a badge. Robert Rossen’s edgy screenplay depicts its violent action on a psychological level.

Desert Fury

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 96 min. / Street Date Feb 26, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Wendell Corey, Mary Astor, Kristine Miller, William Harrigan, James Flavin, Anna Camargo, Ray Teal.

Cinematography: Edward Cronjager, Charles Lang

Film Editor: Warren Low

Original Music: Miklos Rosza

Written by Robert Rossen from the novel by Ramona Stewart

Produced by Hal B. Wallis

Directed by Lewis Allen

As he was under contract to Hal Wallis, Burt Lancaster...

By Jeremy Carr

There is an immediate appeal in the very premise of Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944), a curiosity that stems from how exactly this story will play out and how the Master of Suspense is going to keep the narrative taut and technically stimulating. It was a gimmick he would repeat with Rope (1948), Dial M for *** (1954), and Rear Window (1954), similar films where the drama is contained to a single setting. But here, the approach is amplified by having the entirety of its plot limited to the eponymous lifeboat, an extremely confined location that is at once anxiously restricting and, at the same time, placed in a vast expanse of threatening openness.

Following a German U-boat attack that sinks an allied freighter and creates the cramped, confrontational condition, a cast of nine diverse, necessarily distinctive characters are steadily assembled aboard the small vessel (and their variety is indeed necessary...

When Alfred Hitchcock films are praised, this 1944 picture tends to get overlooked. Yet it hooks and holds audiences as strongly as any of the Master’s classics. When a handful of English and Americans are lost at sea, survival depends on their ability to cooperate. Can they trust the experienced sea captain — a German — who joins them? And when things become grim, will their behavior be any better than his?

Lifeboat

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1944 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 96 min. /Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee

Cinematography: Glen MacWilliams

Art Direction: James Basevi, Maurice Ransford

Film Editor: Dorothy Spencer

Original Music: Hugo W. Friedhofer

Written by: Jo Swerling, story by John Steinbeck

Produced by Kenneth Macgowan

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock goes to war, this time for 20th...

Battleground

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1949 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Don Taylor, James Whitmore, Douglas Fowley, Leon Ames, Guy Anderson, Denise Darcel, Richard Jaeckel, James Arness

Cinematography: Paul Vogel

Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters

Film Editor: John D. Dunning

Original Music: Lennie Hayton

Written by: Robert Pirosh

Produced by: Dore Schary

Directed by William A. Wellman

“The Guts, Gags and Glory of a Lot of Wonderful Guys!”

— say, what kind of movie is this, anyway?

Action movies about combat are now mostly about soldiers that fight like killing machines, or stories of battle with a strong political axe to grind. WW2 changed perceptions completely, when a mostly civilian army did the fighting. With the cessation of hostilities combat pictures tapered off quickly, and Hollywood gave the subject a break for several years.

By Tim Greaves

(The following reviews pertain to the UK Region 2 releases)

When I'm in the right mood I adore bit of film noir. I admire the diversity of its storytelling, I love every facet, from the hardboiled private eyes, duplicitous dames and characters that seldom turn out to be what they first appear, to the alleyways bathed in inky shadows, ramshackle apartments and half-lit street corners they inhabit. How can you not get drawn in by the sheer delight of Edward G Robinson playing a second rate psychic trying to convince the authorities he can see the future in The Night Has a Thousand Eyes? Or amnesiac John Hodiak on a mission to discover his own identity, in the process getting embroiled in a 3-year-old *** case and the search for a missing $2 million in Somewhere in the Night? Yes, indeed, there's nothing quite like a hearty serving of...

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

Though we last left Judy Garland in 1944 crooning from a trolley and cementing a (troubled) place in Hollywood history, this week we must catapult two years into the future to rejoin our musical heroine. The reason has to do with the odd nature of the Studio System in general and this series in specific. Judy Garland actually shot two movies between 1944 and 1945, but because one was delayed due to reshoots (therefore getting bumped to next week) and the other was a straight drama (therefore not fitting a series focused on musical numbers), we must travel through the end of WW2 and the beginning of Judy Garland's marriage to Vincente Minnelli. Thus, in 1946 we arrive in... the Old West? 

 

The Movie: The Harvey Girls (1946)

The Songwriters: Johnny Mercer (lyrics), Harry Warren (music)

The Players: Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury, Ray Bolger,...

Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and Ingrid Bergman: The 'Notorious' British (Hitchcock, Grant) and Swedish (Bergman) talent. British actors and directors in Hollywood; Hollywood actors and directors in Britain: Anthony Slide's 'A Special Relationship.' 'A Special Relationship' Q&A: Britain in Hollywood and Hollywood in Britain First of all, what made you think of a book on “the special relationship” between the American and British film industries – particularly on the British side? I was aware of a couple of books on the British in Hollywood, but I wanted to move beyond that somewhat limited discussion and document the whole British/American relationship as it applied to filmmaking. Growing up in England, I had always been interested in the history of the British cinema, but generally my writing on film history has been concentrated on America. I suppose to a certain extent I wanted to go back into my archives,...

Marion Cotillard 'Psycho' scream. Marion Cotillard in 'Psycho' A few years ago – more exactly, in Feb./March 2008 – Vanity Fair published a series of images honoring Alfred Hitchcock movies made in Hollywood. (His British oeuvre was completely ignored.) The images weren't from the movies themselves; instead, they were somewhat faithful recreations featuring early 21st century stars, including several of that year's Oscar nominees. And that's why you get to see above – and further below – Marion Cotillard recreating the iconic Psycho shower scene. Cotillard took home the Best Actress Oscar at the 2008 ceremony for her performance as Edith Piaf in Olivier Dahan's La Vie en Rose / La môme. Janet Leigh, the original star of Hitchcock's Psycho, was shortlisted for the 1960 Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but lost to another good-girl-gone-bad, Shirley Jones as a *** worker in Richard Brooks' Elmer Gantry. More nudity, less horror Looking at the Marion Cotillard Psycho images,...

Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock heroine (image: Joseph Cotten about to strangle Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt') (See preceding article: "Teresa Wright Movies: Actress Made Oscar History.") After scoring with The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and The Pride of the Yankees, Teresa Wright was loaned to Universal – once initial choices Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland became unavailable – to play the small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. (Check out video below: Teresa Wright reminiscing about the making of Shadow of a Doubt.) Co-written by Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town had provided Wright with her first chance on Broadway and who had suggested her to Hitchcock; Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss author Sally Benson; and Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, Shadow of a Doubt was based on "Uncle Charlie," a story outline by Gordon McDonell – itself based on actual events.

Mainstream studios may have written off home video, but specialty divisions and entrepreneurs are offering notable discoveries on Blu-ray and DVD. Olive Films has just released a restoration of Dragonfly Squadron (1954) in both disc formats, thanks to Bob Furmanek and the 3-D Film Archive. The Allied Artists production was shot—but never released—in 3-D, making this a historic event. The story behind the film (and its restoration) is more involving than the picture itself, a decent if undistinguished B movie starring John Hodiak, Barbara Britton, and Bruce Bennett that takes place on the eve of the Korean War in 1950. If you have a TV with 3-D capability, you’ll want to check out...

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Somewhere in the Night

Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Directed by Howard Dimsdale and Joseph L. Mankiewizc

USA, 1946

A man (John Hodiak) wakes up in a military hospital, cognizant of the fact that he has been in battle for the United States but entirely oblivious of who he is or where he lives. Only a few cryptic pieces of paper in his pocket inform him of his name George Taylor; that a woman now hates him; and that a good pal of his, Larry Cravat, wants to meet him in Los Angeles transfer a significant amount of saved up funds through a bank account. Thus begins George’s vertiginous journey into the City of Angels, where the clues as to his true identity sometimes add up whilst other times stir further confusion. By all accounts, there are some people who view the name Larry Cravat as either a threat, as in the case of Lt.

‘Gone with the Wind’ actress Mary Anderson dead at 96; also featured in Alfred Hitchcock thriller ‘Lifeboat’ Mary Anderson, an actress featured in both Gone with the Wind and Alfred Hitchcock’s adventure thriller Lifeboat, died following a series of small strokes on Sunday, April 6, 2014, while under hospice care in Toluca Lake/Burbank, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Anderson, the widow of multiple Oscar-winning cinematographer Leon Shamroy, had turned 96 on April 3. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1918, Mary Anderson was reportedly discovered by director George Cukor, at the time looking for an actress to play Scarlett O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s film version of Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller Gone with the Wind. Instead of Scarlett, eventually played by Vivien Leigh, Anderson was cast in the small role of Maybelle Merriwether — most of which reportedly ended up on the cutting-room floor. Cukor was later fired from the project; his replacement, Victor Fleming,...

Washington, April 8: Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle Merriwether in the iconic film 'Gone With the Wind' has died at the age of 96.

The actress was married to famous cinematographer Leon Shamroy and had one child, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

Anderson also starred in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Lifeboat', where she played U.S. Army nurse Alice Mackenzie, opposite Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, John Hodiak and Hume Cronyn. (Ani)...

Femme fatale Audrey Totter: Film noir actress and MGM leading lady dead at 95 (photo: Audrey Totter ca. 1947) Audrey Totter, film noir femme fatale and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player best remembered for the mystery crime drama Lady in the Lake and, at Rko, the hard-hitting boxing drama The Set-Up, died after suffering a stroke and congestive heart failure on Thursday, December 12, 2013, at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles County. Reportedly a resident at the Motion Picture and Television Home in Woodland Hills, Audrey Totter would have turned 96 on Dec. 20. Born in Joliet, Illinois, Audrey Totter began her show business career on radio. She landed an MGM contract in the mid-’40s, playing bit roles in several of the studio’s productions, e.g., the Clark Gable-Greer Garson pairing Adventure (1945), the Hedy Lamarr-Robert Walker-June Allyson threesome Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), and, as an adventurous hitchhiker riding with John Garfield,...

Desert Fury

Written by A.I. Bezzerides and Robert Rossen

Directed by Lewis Allen

USA, 1947

Perception plays a spectacularly large role in how people behave and process information. Everything one does or chooses to do is at least partly a function of one’s perceived reality. Sometimes, one believes to be doing the right thing whereas they are doing the wrong thing and vice versa. It is but one of the many aspects to human cognition that makes life that much more complicated. It stands to reason that perception can influence how one watches a movie and accepts its terms. These nebulous ideas greatly influence many aspects of the 1947 romance thriller Desert Fury, from what the characters believe to be doing to how the viewer ultimately accepts or rejects the film as a whole.

Chuckawalla, Nevada is home to many people from different walks of life. There is the Haller family,...

Article by Dan Clark of Movie Revolt

Well it’s that time again, time for another installment of Streaming for Your Pleasure. With Memorial Day weekend upon us America is about to officially start the summer. Barbeques, beers, and beaches will surely take up much of our time this weekend, however let us not forget the purpose behind this day as we celebrate the glory that is a three day weekend. In all seriousness it is a time to honor our Veterans and current soldiers for the remarkable sacrifices they make. No matter what political stance you may take I feel that is one thing we can all get behind. With that in mind I dedicated this installment to all things military as I look at military centric films currently available on Netflix Streaming.

The Longest Day

Directed By: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, and Darryl F. Zanuck

Written...

Somewhat ironically, Jane Fonda, well known for her liberal politics, may end up playing Nancy Reagan, known for her marriage to a right-wing president, in Lee Daniels' White House-set film project The Butler. According to Variety's Jeff Sneider, the Oscar-nominated Precious director has asked Fonda to join his all-star ensemble. Oscar winner Forest Whitaker will likely play butler Eugene Allen, who served an array of U.S. presidents, from Harry Truman in 1952 to Ronald Reagan in 1986. Co-written by Daniels and Danny Strong, The Butler is based on Wil Haygood's report for the Washington Post. Among The Butler's other stellar possibilities are The Color Purple / Beloved's Oprah Winfrey as the butler's wife (Winfrey was one of Precious' credited executive producers), Rise of the Planet of the Apes / The Help's David Oyelowo as Allen's son, Schindler's List / Kinsey's Liam Neeson as Lyndon B. Johnson, and 2012 / The Grifters...

Silly me. I had the greatest time at the Judy Garland festival at Lincoln Center this week and the movie I didn't write about Presenting Lily Mars was probably my favorite viewing experience. Rent it! Judy was just so funny in it, it was really charming and I liked her chemistry with Van Heflin (I confess I had to look him up since Shane had slipped my mind and I'd never seen his Best Supporting Actor Oscar performance for Johnny Eager (1941). Have any of you seen that one? Is it worth checking out?

But enough about Lily Mars... on to Judy in another incarnation. The Lincoln Center portion of the festival ends tomorrow though the celebration continues at the Paley Center for Television (since Judy did a lot of variety work on TV in the 50s). The last two films I caught were period musicals and here's the first of them.

Filed under: Features, DVDs

Guiding you through the sea of available on-demand movie and television content, What's New will help you settle that age-old argument of what to watch. Covering Netflix Watch Instantly, Redbox and Cable Video-on-Demand services, this weekly Moviefone column does the grunt work so you don't have to. Movie night has officially been simplified.

Netflix Watch Instantly

(Accessed through your Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, personal computer or Roku box)

Action/Adventure

'American Ninja 5' -- In this youthful martial arts adventure, a young ninja teams up with his master to save a scientist's daughters from kidnappers. Play on Netflix.

'Battleground' -- This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Bulge in the waning days of World War II concentrates on a single infantry unit. Van Johnson and John Hodiak are the ostensible stars, but the film is stolen by James Whitmore as the cigar-chomping,...

By Erica Abeel

When was the last time you heard someone drop a mention of Jacques Lacan? (I'll pause if you need to refresh your memory of the name at Wikipedia). If the answer is never, you haven't sat down with the delightful James Gray, who was at Cannes with his new film "Two Lovers," starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw and Isabella Rossellini. In a stream-of-consciousness monologue that could pose a challenge to any interviewer, Gray also cited as influences Dostoevsky's novella "White Nights," Scorsese, Hitchcock, French poet Louis Aragon and a B-movie starring, uh... John Hodiak? There's a sense that Gray's in a hurry to put across his ideas now, since later can be a long time coming, given the gaps between his films. Bowing in 1994 at age twenty-four with "Little Odessa" (which took the Silver Lion in Venice), he didn't produce "The Yards" till 2000, "We Own...