Fierce Irish rebels go head-to-head with Brit occupation forces, and James Cagney is first on the barricades. Michael Anderson’s thriller about terror violence in 1921 Dublin has suspense, beautiful cinematography in real Irish locations, and a standout cast: Don Murray, Glynis Johns, Dana Wynter, Michael Redgrave, Cyril Cusack and Sybil Thorndike — plus added-value players Richard Harris, Donal Donnelly and Niall MacGinness. Cagney’s surgeon-turned guerilla doesn’t yell “Top of the World!” but he’s as psychotic as Cody Jarrett: he wants to shoot both the leading ladies. Included is a good interview with Don Murray.
Shake Hands with the Devil
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1959 / Color B&w / 1:66 widescreen/ 111 min. / Street Date January 4, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusack, Marianne Benet, Robert Brown, John Cairney, Harry H. Corbett, Eileen Crowe, Allan Cuthbertson, Donal Donnelly, Richard Harris,...
Shake Hands with the Devil
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1959 / Color B&w / 1:66 widescreen/ 111 min. / Street Date January 4, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusack, Marianne Benet, Robert Brown, John Cairney, Harry H. Corbett, Eileen Crowe, Allan Cuthbertson, Donal Donnelly, Richard Harris,...
- 3/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This article contains I Care a Lot spoilers.
J Blakeson’s I Care a Lot is one of very few films where everyone in it is a villain. In the lead role, Rosamund Pike ushers in a new amoral high mark as conservator con artist Marla Grayson. Peter Dinklage meanwhile mines the standard Hollywood heavy role for an unexpected haul of gangster gravitas. And with his turn as Roman Lunyov, the former black sheep of the Lannister family in Game of Thrones joins the likes of Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Wesley Snipes, and Humphrey Bogart as memorable cinema crime bosses.
However, this isn’t Dinklage’s first turn in a mob movie. He got his button in Find Me Guilty (2006). The film was based on the true story of Lucchese crime family soldier Jackie Dinorscio, played by Vin Diesel, and the longest mafia trial in American history. The movie...
J Blakeson’s I Care a Lot is one of very few films where everyone in it is a villain. In the lead role, Rosamund Pike ushers in a new amoral high mark as conservator con artist Marla Grayson. Peter Dinklage meanwhile mines the standard Hollywood heavy role for an unexpected haul of gangster gravitas. And with his turn as Roman Lunyov, the former black sheep of the Lannister family in Game of Thrones joins the likes of Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Wesley Snipes, and Humphrey Bogart as memorable cinema crime bosses.
However, this isn’t Dinklage’s first turn in a mob movie. He got his button in Find Me Guilty (2006). The film was based on the true story of Lucchese crime family soldier Jackie Dinorscio, played by Vin Diesel, and the longest mafia trial in American history. The movie...
- 2/20/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
The Irishman
Blu ray
Criterion
2019 / 209 Min. / 1:85.1
Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino
Cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Brotherhood, betrayal, bloodshed… memories are made of this. And these days memories are Frank Sheeran’s only companions. He was a man who engaged in crimes at the behest of some of the most powerful and dangerous men in the country, including the former Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared in 1975. Frank took credit for that “disappearance” in a widely disputed confession to Charles Brandt, a writer who decided, like so many romantics, to print the legend.
Frank’s remembrances, both far-fetched and frighteningly credible, first appeared in Brandt’s 2004 book, I Heard You Paint Houses. Using Brandt’s work as a launching pad, Martin Scorsese began production in 2007 on what would eventually become 2019’s The Irishman. In some literary corners Brandt has been painted as unreliable as his subject—fortunately,...
Blu ray
Criterion
2019 / 209 Min. / 1:85.1
Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino
Cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Brotherhood, betrayal, bloodshed… memories are made of this. And these days memories are Frank Sheeran’s only companions. He was a man who engaged in crimes at the behest of some of the most powerful and dangerous men in the country, including the former Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared in 1975. Frank took credit for that “disappearance” in a widely disputed confession to Charles Brandt, a writer who decided, like so many romantics, to print the legend.
Frank’s remembrances, both far-fetched and frighteningly credible, first appeared in Brandt’s 2004 book, I Heard You Paint Houses. Using Brandt’s work as a launching pad, Martin Scorsese began production in 2007 on what would eventually become 2019’s The Irishman. In some literary corners Brandt has been painted as unreliable as his subject—fortunately,...
- 11/28/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Now restored to perfection, this genuine classic hasn’t been seen intact for way over sixty years. Michael Curtiz and Robert Rossen adapt Jack London’s suspenseful allegory in high style, with a superb quartet of actors doing some of their best work: Robinson, Garfield, Lupino and newcomer Alexander Knox.
The Sea Wolf
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 100 min. uncut! / Street Date October 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Alexander Knox, Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Gene Lockhart, Barry Fitzgerald. Stanley Ridges, David Bruce, Francis McDonald, Howard Da Silva, Frank Lackteen, Ralf Harolde
Cinematography: Sol Polito
Film Editor: George Amy
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Special Effects: Byron Haskin, Hans F. Koenekamp
Original Music: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Written by Robert Rosson, from the novel by Jack London
Produced by Hal B. Wallis, Henry Blanke
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Chopping up films for television was once the...
The Sea Wolf
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 100 min. uncut! / Street Date October 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Alexander Knox, Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Gene Lockhart, Barry Fitzgerald. Stanley Ridges, David Bruce, Francis McDonald, Howard Da Silva, Frank Lackteen, Ralf Harolde
Cinematography: Sol Polito
Film Editor: George Amy
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Special Effects: Byron Haskin, Hans F. Koenekamp
Original Music: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Written by Robert Rosson, from the novel by Jack London
Produced by Hal B. Wallis, Henry Blanke
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Chopping up films for television was once the...
- 10/14/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Raoul Walsh’s most muscular gangster pic with an all-time great James Cagney as Cody Jarrett, the psychotic killer that only a mother could love. She’s the underappreciated Margaret Wycherly, brilliant as the most monstrous mom since Agrippina. But she doesn’t get much attention in the trailer.
- 7/5/2017
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Great news for Tura Satana fans: a documentary about the legendary actress, vedette and exotic dancer is in the works.
Satana became a cult icon after playing Varla — the leader of a women’s gang who kills a young man with her bare hands and helps kidnap his girlfriend — in the 1965 Russ Meyer’s cult classic “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”
Read More: John Waters Wants You to Wreck Things From the Inside in ‘Make Trouble’ Book Trailer — Watch
Off screen, the Japanese-born actress lead a turbulent live. As a child, she was interned at WWII Japanese relocation camp Manzanar, in California. Then, she moved with her family to Chicago, where she was the victim of a racially-motivated rape by a group of teenagers before her tenth birthday.
However, Satana turned her life around, becoming a famous burlesque dancer, and even dating Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. According to The Guardia,...
Satana became a cult icon after playing Varla — the leader of a women’s gang who kills a young man with her bare hands and helps kidnap his girlfriend — in the 1965 Russ Meyer’s cult classic “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”
Read More: John Waters Wants You to Wreck Things From the Inside in ‘Make Trouble’ Book Trailer — Watch
Off screen, the Japanese-born actress lead a turbulent live. As a child, she was interned at WWII Japanese relocation camp Manzanar, in California. Then, she moved with her family to Chicago, where she was the victim of a racially-motivated rape by a group of teenagers before her tenth birthday.
However, Satana turned her life around, becoming a famous burlesque dancer, and even dating Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. According to The Guardia,...
- 3/20/2017
- by Yoselin Acevedo
- Indiewire
Filmmakers Cody Jarrett and Siouxzan Perry are raising funds through Kickstarter to complete their documentary Tura!,the Incredible True Life Story of Tura Satana, the Russ Meyer & Burlesque Superstar, Asian American Cinema Pioneer and Ultimate Self-Empowered Female. Read the We Are Movie Geeks tribute to Tura Here
The Kickstarter link can be found Here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1486618309/tura-the-tura-satana-documentary
Here is a video from the filmmakers discussing their project and showing some of the footage they’ve already shot:
“Tura!” is the true life story of cult movie icon & burlesque dancer Tura Satana, chopped straight from the pages of her handwritten memoir. Best known as the star of Russ Meyer’s classic film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Tura stunned 1960’s movie audiences as the sexy, dominant, fast-driving, karate-wielding lesbian gang leader Varla. Her groundbreaking look, attitude, and performance were all years ahead of their time and continue to influence...
The Kickstarter link can be found Here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1486618309/tura-the-tura-satana-documentary
Here is a video from the filmmakers discussing their project and showing some of the footage they’ve already shot:
“Tura!” is the true life story of cult movie icon & burlesque dancer Tura Satana, chopped straight from the pages of her handwritten memoir. Best known as the star of Russ Meyer’s classic film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Tura stunned 1960’s movie audiences as the sexy, dominant, fast-driving, karate-wielding lesbian gang leader Varla. Her groundbreaking look, attitude, and performance were all years ahead of their time and continue to influence...
- 3/16/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
[Hello, readers! With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we here at Daily Dead thought it would be fun to do things a little different this year. We're putting the spotlight on our favorite horror-loving characters from genre cinema, people who have represented our own fandom on screen and, in many cases, helped bring our passion for horror into the mainstream. Be sure to check back here on Daily Dead every day through Valentine's Day for our tributes to some of the greatest horror fans to ever grace the big screen.]
Eric Binford, the protagonist (antagonist?) of Fade to Black (1980), loves movies so much, he is wholly subsumed by them. When not working in a Los Angeles film distribution center delivering prints to various locations, his life revolves around watching films on a projector in his room, or on TV, or reluctantly sharing a film at the theater with a crowd. Eric, played by Breaking Away’s Dennis Christopher, has no need for human interaction—the shadowy figures in the flickering lights are his only allies.
For those unfamiliar with Fade, it tells the simple tale of a lonely young man with an already tenuous grip on reality whose overwhelming passion for film leads him down a vengeful path of retribution against those who’ve wronged him. Dressing up as his favorite characters from filmdom (Dracula, The Mummy, Hopalong Cassidy, Cody Jarrett), Eric lays to waste those who come between him and his celluloid dreams.
Eric Binford, the protagonist (antagonist?) of Fade to Black (1980), loves movies so much, he is wholly subsumed by them. When not working in a Los Angeles film distribution center delivering prints to various locations, his life revolves around watching films on a projector in his room, or on TV, or reluctantly sharing a film at the theater with a crowd. Eric, played by Breaking Away’s Dennis Christopher, has no need for human interaction—the shadowy figures in the flickering lights are his only allies.
For those unfamiliar with Fade, it tells the simple tale of a lonely young man with an already tenuous grip on reality whose overwhelming passion for film leads him down a vengeful path of retribution against those who’ve wronged him. Dressing up as his favorite characters from filmdom (Dracula, The Mummy, Hopalong Cassidy, Cody Jarrett), Eric lays to waste those who come between him and his celluloid dreams.
- 2/12/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
I’ve always been obsessed with watching movies. From seeing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the age of four at a Saturday matinee revival to today, the flickering shadow shows have filled my life. Consumed, I’m sure some would say. However, discerning fact from fiction has never been an issue, unlike Eric Binford, the hapless ‘hero’ of the eerie (and funny) Fade to Black (1980) – now here’s a kid with issues.
Written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman (The Unholy Rollers), Fade to Black was distributed by American Cinema Releasing on October 14th, 1980. The film bypassed audiences for the most part, but critics were generally pleased with the offbeat tone that it brought to the genre. If you love movies about movies, especially with a horror bent, Fade to Black is the film for you.
Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher – Breaking Away) lives with his haranguing aunt, and spends his days...
Written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman (The Unholy Rollers), Fade to Black was distributed by American Cinema Releasing on October 14th, 1980. The film bypassed audiences for the most part, but critics were generally pleased with the offbeat tone that it brought to the genre. If you love movies about movies, especially with a horror bent, Fade to Black is the film for you.
Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher – Breaking Away) lives with his haranguing aunt, and spends his days...
- 12/19/2015
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Badass Digest has just opened up voting for their Villain Death Match. Unlike our recent Monster Madness where we focused on horror movie monsters, Bad's goal is slightly different. They are opening up the battle to all genre’s in hopes to crown the ultimate movie villain. Here is how the brackets break down:
Bracket 1: The Sinister Sixteen
Darth Vader, Star Wars
Jason, Friday The 13th
The Thing, The Thing
T-1000, Terminator 2
Captain Rhodes, Day Of The Dead
Lord Humungus, Mad Max 2
Simon Phoenix, Demolition Man
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, Trading Places
Emma Small, Johnny Guitar
Cruella de Vil, 101 Dalmations
Ramrod, Vice Squad
Angel Eyes, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Bob Barnes, Platoon
Edwin Epps, 12 Years A Slave
Anton Chigurh, No Country For Old Men
Connie Marble, Pink Flamingos
Bracket 2: The Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Khan, The Wrath Of Khan
The System, Brazil
Loki, Thor/Avengers Franchise
The Xenomorph,...
Bracket 1: The Sinister Sixteen
Darth Vader, Star Wars
Jason, Friday The 13th
The Thing, The Thing
T-1000, Terminator 2
Captain Rhodes, Day Of The Dead
Lord Humungus, Mad Max 2
Simon Phoenix, Demolition Man
Randolph and Mortimer Duke, Trading Places
Emma Small, Johnny Guitar
Cruella de Vil, 101 Dalmations
Ramrod, Vice Squad
Angel Eyes, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Bob Barnes, Platoon
Edwin Epps, 12 Years A Slave
Anton Chigurh, No Country For Old Men
Connie Marble, Pink Flamingos
Bracket 2: The Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Khan, The Wrath Of Khan
The System, Brazil
Loki, Thor/Avengers Franchise
The Xenomorph,...
- 5/5/2014
- by Chris Connors
- FEARnet
White Heat
Written by Ivan Goff and Robert Evans
Directed by Raoul Walsh
U.S.A., 1949
Where would people be without their mothers? Whether by birth, adoption or simply maternal figures, these great dames have, since time immemorial, commanded love, admiration, respect and devotion from their children. Codes of conduct, signs of affection, life lessons, mothers are so often considered the obvious heart and soul of one’s family, the father more commonly seen as the backbone. Appreciation for one’s own mother and, at the very least, respect for another’s mother are understood as basic concepts that, if challenged, speak gravely ill of the offending party. Sometimes the devotion stretches too far, venturing into eerie symbiosis, as was the case with poor Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho (1960). While James Cagney’s Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarrett in White Heat does not belong in quite the same category as Bates,...
Written by Ivan Goff and Robert Evans
Directed by Raoul Walsh
U.S.A., 1949
Where would people be without their mothers? Whether by birth, adoption or simply maternal figures, these great dames have, since time immemorial, commanded love, admiration, respect and devotion from their children. Codes of conduct, signs of affection, life lessons, mothers are so often considered the obvious heart and soul of one’s family, the father more commonly seen as the backbone. Appreciation for one’s own mother and, at the very least, respect for another’s mother are understood as basic concepts that, if challenged, speak gravely ill of the offending party. Sometimes the devotion stretches too far, venturing into eerie symbiosis, as was the case with poor Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho (1960). While James Cagney’s Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarrett in White Heat does not belong in quite the same category as Bates,...
- 6/14/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
When you’re looking to put together a movie collection, it doesn’t hurt if you happen to be Warner Brothers. If the collection you’re after is classic gangster movies, you’re really in luck.
For fans of the genre, especially those looking to upgrade titles to Blu-Ray, the new Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics is one you’ve got to get your hands on. Not only do you get some of the films that helped create the genre, and have become the foundation upon which countless movies are built, but the extras are worth the price on their own.
The collection here comes at you like a history lesson, not just of the genre, but of film. Little Caesar, with Edward G. Robinson setting the stage for all future gangsters with “short man syndrome,” but struggling mightily against the production theories of the day, is not only a classic treasure,...
For fans of the genre, especially those looking to upgrade titles to Blu-Ray, the new Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics is one you’ve got to get your hands on. Not only do you get some of the films that helped create the genre, and have become the foundation upon which countless movies are built, but the extras are worth the price on their own.
The collection here comes at you like a history lesson, not just of the genre, but of film. Little Caesar, with Edward G. Robinson setting the stage for all future gangsters with “short man syndrome,” but struggling mightily against the production theories of the day, is not only a classic treasure,...
- 6/7/2013
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
Ultimate Gangster Collection — Classics
Little Caesar
The Public Enemy
The Petrified Forest
White Heat
Due Out: May 21, 2013
The “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classics“ and “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary” are available on Blu-ray 5/21
Who’S It For?
This collection is for anyone who gets excited for a gangster flick. The look of each film is fantastic, especially considering the age of these movies. Just being able to own (and compare) Little Caesar and The Public Enemy is worth the price alone. Little Caesar has every single cliché that Hollywood is still using for its gangster films. It doesn’t hold up compared to modern movies, but that’s the point of watching it. With Little Caesar these aren’t exactly clichés, but new attempted techniques. The Public Enemy completely holds up. It’s an amazing character study brought to life by the brilliant Cagney. Seeing the intro, explaining that Hollywood is against...
Little Caesar
The Public Enemy
The Petrified Forest
White Heat
Due Out: May 21, 2013
The “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classics“ and “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary” are available on Blu-ray 5/21
Who’S It For?
This collection is for anyone who gets excited for a gangster flick. The look of each film is fantastic, especially considering the age of these movies. Just being able to own (and compare) Little Caesar and The Public Enemy is worth the price alone. Little Caesar has every single cliché that Hollywood is still using for its gangster films. It doesn’t hold up compared to modern movies, but that’s the point of watching it. With Little Caesar these aren’t exactly clichés, but new attempted techniques. The Public Enemy completely holds up. It’s an amazing character study brought to life by the brilliant Cagney. Seeing the intro, explaining that Hollywood is against...
- 5/21/2013
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
‘White Heat’
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Starring James Cagney, Virginia, Edmond O’Brien
USA, 114 min – 1949.
“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Raoul Walsh’s White Heat stars James Cagney as yet another gangster (Cagney being known for other films such as The Public Enemy and Angels with Dirty Faces), Cody Jarrett. Cody runs a gang of criminals that have recently killed four people during a train robbery. When the police come close to catching his gang, Cody admits to a lesser crime and is sentenced to one to three years in prison. He worries that gang member Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is trying to take over and decides to break out of prison.
Unlike the other gangsters Cagney has played, his character Cody draws strength from and finds comfort in the care of his mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly). Whenever Cody has...
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Starring James Cagney, Virginia, Edmond O’Brien
USA, 114 min – 1949.
“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Raoul Walsh’s White Heat stars James Cagney as yet another gangster (Cagney being known for other films such as The Public Enemy and Angels with Dirty Faces), Cody Jarrett. Cody runs a gang of criminals that have recently killed four people during a train robbery. When the police come close to catching his gang, Cody admits to a lesser crime and is sentenced to one to three years in prison. He worries that gang member Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is trying to take over and decides to break out of prison.
Unlike the other gangsters Cagney has played, his character Cody draws strength from and finds comfort in the care of his mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly). Whenever Cody has...
- 5/14/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
Flowers, a brunch featuring eggs benedict and mimosas, an ill-fitting spring sweater -- it’s Mother’s Day! Rather than bore you senseless with good movie mothers or create some awkward moments today with great movie mamas, we have compiled a list of five more of the worst movie moms. We began this endeavor a few months back with “5 Of The Worst Movie Moms,” and thanks to the holiday, we have an excuse to expand on the theme that may or may not make our mothers proud. From emotionally damaging to rising from the dead, these mothers are awful, horrible and terrifying, enough to spook you into making that dreaded weekly phone call to hear about your mother’s rhododendron and that darn squirrel that keeps eating all of the birdseed. Here’s to mothers and their ability to not turn you into a raging psychopath (we hope)! Margaret Wycherley...
- 5/12/2013
- by Diana Drumm
- The Playlist
With Father’s Day coming up, it makes perfect sense for Warner Bros. to look to the past, and release two impressive Blu-ray collections. Ultimate Gangster Collection Classic and Ultimate Gangster Collection Contemporary should make plenty of men happy*.
*Women are also allowed to be happy by this news.
Here is the news release…
Burbank, Calif., March 11, 2013 – As part of the studio’s 90th Anniversary celebration, eight of Warner Bros. Pictures’ greatest gangster films – from Edward G. Robinson’s 1931 classic Little Caesar to Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning masterpiece The Departed– will now be available in two Blu-ray sets May 21. Released to coincide with Father’s Day gift-giving, the WB genre greats, along with one of Paramount’s best gangster films, will be offered in the Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classic and Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary.
The four films in the Classic Collection have been remastered for their Blu-ray debuts. They include...
*Women are also allowed to be happy by this news.
Here is the news release…
Burbank, Calif., March 11, 2013 – As part of the studio’s 90th Anniversary celebration, eight of Warner Bros. Pictures’ greatest gangster films – from Edward G. Robinson’s 1931 classic Little Caesar to Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning masterpiece The Departed– will now be available in two Blu-ray sets May 21. Released to coincide with Father’s Day gift-giving, the WB genre greats, along with one of Paramount’s best gangster films, will be offered in the Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classic and Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary.
The four films in the Classic Collection have been remastered for their Blu-ray debuts. They include...
- 3/11/2013
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
The life of the gangster isn’t as glamorous in the movies as it once was. Sure the title characters of The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Scarface all met horrific deaths before the final fade-outs, but their lives of excess must have looked pretty great for depression audiences. And then the Hayes Office, the studios’ censorship board, cracked down. In James Cagney’s last great crime epic White Heat, his Cody Jarrett is a vicious psychopath. And later with the classic Goodfellas and TV’s “The Sopranos”, mob life was shown as dangerous, dirty work. The easy cash is never really easy. And so it is with Killing Them Softly which re-teams star Brad Pitt with his The Assassination Of Jesse James director Andrew Dominik. Few films have been as gritty as this “simple” score that goes bad in a big, big way.
The tale begins on the very...
The tale begins on the very...
- 11/30/2012
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Here’s a sucky way to spend one’s birthday: voiceless with a serious summer head cold. Bitch, bitch; moan, moan. Okay, I had a great day-before-my-birthday in Manhattan lunching with Danny Fingeroth and dinnering with fellow ComicMixer Martha Thomases. Nine hours of fantastic conversation in the best thing in life with your clothes on.
Sadly, as the overly-breaded but otherwise tasty General Tzu’s was being presented to me at our Greenwich Village dungeon of culinary delight, I was starting to sound like a frog in a blender. By the time I was on the subway back to Grand Central Terminal, I was grateful somebody bothered to invent texting. The gifted Miss Adriane picked me up and dragged me home. That was birthday-eve.
On birthday day, we first had to ransom my car back from the shop – I can’t complain; 100,000 miles on one battery is pretty damn good...
Sadly, as the overly-breaded but otherwise tasty General Tzu’s was being presented to me at our Greenwich Village dungeon of culinary delight, I was starting to sound like a frog in a blender. By the time I was on the subway back to Grand Central Terminal, I was grateful somebody bothered to invent texting. The gifted Miss Adriane picked me up and dragged me home. That was birthday-eve.
On birthday day, we first had to ransom my car back from the shop – I can’t complain; 100,000 miles on one battery is pretty damn good...
- 8/8/2012
- by Mike Gold
- Comicmix.com
John Hillcoat's new crime thriller Lawless has a resolutely old-school feel to it and some fresh twists. It's a bloody bootlegging tale with a charismatic cast and more spent rounds than Oliver Reed's bar tab. But as these new pictures show, the gangster-and-grog storyline is underpinned by some wardrobe choices that might have Cagney and Robinson shaking their heads quizzically.You never saw Cody Jarrett in a cardie. Still, Tom Hardy's dapper liquor lubber pulls it off effortlessly. He plays one of the Bondurant brothers, siblings with Shia LeBeouf and Jason Clarke in a family of bootleggers who haunt the woods and creeks of Prohibition-era Virginia. Nick Cave's adaptation of Matt Bondurant's 2008 novel The Wettest County In The World.These magnificently moody imagines are currently adorning Empire's August issue, along with in-depth chats with writer Cave and director Hillcoat. It's onsale now (and completely legal) in all good newsagents.
- 6/29/2012
- EmpireOnline
Juice, 1992's 'film noir' with teenagers – and hip-hop, is still finding young fans today
Juice wasn't supposed to taste so fresh. A morality tale featuring a quartet of Harlem teens – aspiring DJ Q, ladies' man Raheem, comic foil Steel and hothead Bishop – Ernest Dickerson's 1992 directorial debut was initially filed by many critics as a rapsploitation retread of the previous year's Boyz n the Hood.
But nearly 20 years after its release, Juice is still making noise. From dance maestro Sidney Samson sampling a Bishop quote to Soulja Boy hyping up an ill-advised remake, Dickerson's movie has quietly become a hip-hop classic. Dickerson had paid his dues as Spike Lee's go-to cinematographer (he shot She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, among others) and Juice, despite ticking all the early 90s hood-movie boxes, also turned out to be buoyant celebration of hip-hop culture, feeding off seminal 80s B-boy flicks,...
Juice wasn't supposed to taste so fresh. A morality tale featuring a quartet of Harlem teens – aspiring DJ Q, ladies' man Raheem, comic foil Steel and hothead Bishop – Ernest Dickerson's 1992 directorial debut was initially filed by many critics as a rapsploitation retread of the previous year's Boyz n the Hood.
But nearly 20 years after its release, Juice is still making noise. From dance maestro Sidney Samson sampling a Bishop quote to Soulja Boy hyping up an ill-advised remake, Dickerson's movie has quietly become a hip-hop classic. Dickerson had paid his dues as Spike Lee's go-to cinematographer (he shot She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, among others) and Juice, despite ticking all the early 90s hood-movie boxes, also turned out to be buoyant celebration of hip-hop culture, feeding off seminal 80s B-boy flicks,...
- 9/29/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
If you were to peruse any greatest films of all time list chances are you would find a ‘gangster’ film pretty high up there, battling it out with the Jedis, Sharks and Tim Robbins.
But who exactly would come out on top if the wise-guys squared off against each other? Who’d end up sleeping with the fishes and who would reign supreme as the big screen don? (I’m done with the clichés now…)
So to celebrate the release of the ridiculously awesome looking Scarface on Blu-ray I thought I would compile said list, so here is a countdown of the Top 10 Gangster Films to ever hit the big screen and if you don’t like my list don’t put a horses head in my bed… Capiche?
(Okay, now I’m done…)
#10
The Untouchables
(1987)
Based on some of the most infamous figures in organized crime history, directed, and written,...
But who exactly would come out on top if the wise-guys squared off against each other? Who’d end up sleeping with the fishes and who would reign supreme as the big screen don? (I’m done with the clichés now…)
So to celebrate the release of the ridiculously awesome looking Scarface on Blu-ray I thought I would compile said list, so here is a countdown of the Top 10 Gangster Films to ever hit the big screen and if you don’t like my list don’t put a horses head in my bed… Capiche?
(Okay, now I’m done…)
#10
The Untouchables
(1987)
Based on some of the most infamous figures in organized crime history, directed, and written,...
- 8/22/2011
- by Gareth Bunkham
- Obsessed with Film
A look at what's new on DVD today:
"Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection"
Directed by Fernando Di Leo
Released by RaroVideo
Fans of badass '70s cinema and the stoic Henry Silva rejoice! Underappreciated Italian crime master director Fernando Di Leo finally comes to the U.S. via this set of four films -- "Caliber 9," "The Italian Connection," "The Boss," and "Rulers of the City" -- that shows what made him an influence of filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo.
"The Absent" (2011)
Directed by Sage Bannick
Released by Passion River
Twin brothers are bonded by the experience of having their parents try to kill them for insurance money, only to become killers themselves in this slasher film from Sage Bannick.
"Be My Teacher" (2011)
Directed by Lakisha R. Lemons
Released by Maverick Entertainment Group
A student's (Derek Lee Nixon) flirtations with his English teacher (Lateace Towns-Cuellar) has serious...
"Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection"
Directed by Fernando Di Leo
Released by RaroVideo
Fans of badass '70s cinema and the stoic Henry Silva rejoice! Underappreciated Italian crime master director Fernando Di Leo finally comes to the U.S. via this set of four films -- "Caliber 9," "The Italian Connection," "The Boss," and "Rulers of the City" -- that shows what made him an influence of filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo.
"The Absent" (2011)
Directed by Sage Bannick
Released by Passion River
Twin brothers are bonded by the experience of having their parents try to kill them for insurance money, only to become killers themselves in this slasher film from Sage Bannick.
"Be My Teacher" (2011)
Directed by Lakisha R. Lemons
Released by Maverick Entertainment Group
A student's (Derek Lee Nixon) flirtations with his English teacher (Lateace Towns-Cuellar) has serious...
- 3/14/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Beverly Hills, CA . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. .Monday Nights with Oscar®. series will celebrate film noir with a screening of .White Heat. (1949) on Monday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International in New York City. Academy Writers Branch member Richard Lagravenese (.The Fisher King,. .Water for Elephants.) will introduce the screening.
Directed by Raoul Walsh, .White Heat. marked the return of James Cagney to the gangster genre that made him a star. Cagney portrays Cody Jarrett, a mother-obsessed escaped convict and leader of a ruthless gang of thieves. While plotting the biggest heist of his life, Jarrett unwittingly befriends an undercover cop (Edmond O.Brien) and sets the stage for his own downfall. Virginia Moll rounds out the cast as the gangster.s wife.
The screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts features such memorable lines as .Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Directed by Raoul Walsh, .White Heat. marked the return of James Cagney to the gangster genre that made him a star. Cagney portrays Cody Jarrett, a mother-obsessed escaped convict and leader of a ruthless gang of thieves. While plotting the biggest heist of his life, Jarrett unwittingly befriends an undercover cop (Edmond O.Brien) and sets the stage for his own downfall. Virginia Moll rounds out the cast as the gangster.s wife.
The screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts features such memorable lines as .Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
- 3/3/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Contrary to popular belief, one of my biggest guilty pleasures in the entire cinematic world is the “women in prison” genre. I’ve watched more than I care to openly admit, and while I’m usually not a big fan of softcore exploitation flicks, for some bizarre reason I can’t seem to get enough of these embarrassingly enjoyable endeavors. So is it any surprise that Cody Jarrett’s upcoming action flick “Sugar Boxx” has popped up on my radar? Probably not. At any rate, the film appears to have adequately captured the look and feel of this shameless little genre, and for that I have to give its director some major kudos. To be fair, as long as there are a few scantily-clad fight scenes, I’ll be in seventh heaven. How sad. Want a plot synopsis? Here you go: Sexy reporter Valerie March (Geneviere Anderson) goes undercover inside...
- 2/12/2011
- by Todd Rigney
- Beyond Hollywood
Leave it to The Daily Beast to get Scorsese talking about films. Not that it would be hard to do. The man is “Mr. Cinema.” He directs, produces and he even has his own nonprofit organization for preserving classic films, The Film Foundation. The director may have toyed with other genres during his lifetime, but the one people would discuss aplenty is his contributions to crime cinema. To think of Scorsese is to think of Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed, despite also directing films like After Hours and The Last Temptation of Christ. As he turns his attention to the small screen with HBO’s Boardwalk Empire – touted as being the network’s costliest production to date – the director lists off his 15 favorite gangster movies. Scorsese writes:
“Here are 15 gangster pictures that had a profound effect on me and the way I thought about crime and how to portray it on film.
“Here are 15 gangster pictures that had a profound effect on me and the way I thought about crime and how to portray it on film.
- 9/17/2010
- by thedvdlounge
- Examiner Movies Channel
HollywoodNews.com: “White Heat” (1949), featuring the return of James Cagney to the gangster genre that made him a star, will be screened as the final feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Oscar Noir: 1940s Writing Nominees from Hollywood’s Dark Side” on Monday, August 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The film will be introduced by writer, producer, director and five-time Oscar® nominee Paul Thomas Anderson.
“White Heat,” which stars Cagney as Cody Jarrett, a mother-obsessed escaped convict, was directed by Raoul Walsh from a screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. It received an Academy Award® nomination for Writing – Motion Picture Story (Virginia Kellogg).
At 7 p.m., the Warner Bros. cartoon short “Golden Yeggs” (1950), starring Daffy Duck, and footage from the 1975 dedication of the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters building and Samuel Goldwyn Theater will be screened as part...
“White Heat,” which stars Cagney as Cody Jarrett, a mother-obsessed escaped convict, was directed by Raoul Walsh from a screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. It received an Academy Award® nomination for Writing – Motion Picture Story (Virginia Kellogg).
At 7 p.m., the Warner Bros. cartoon short “Golden Yeggs” (1950), starring Daffy Duck, and footage from the 1975 dedication of the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters building and Samuel Goldwyn Theater will be screened as part...
- 8/24/2010
- by Linny Lum
- Hollywoodnews.com
As any solid movie buff knows, there's a certain number of ingredients that go into making a movie about gang life. Whether it be the mob or street gangs, a crucial component in the world of those violent killers and drug-runners is the women that love them. They're usually bad dames, dumb broads, or diabolical femme fatales that navigate the underworld just as deftly as the man (or men) they're screwing (or screwing). And because of their love for the dark side, we love them right back. I bravely delved into the underworld to return with the 10 Sexiest Gangster Girlfriends and a few images that should act as a helpful visual aid. Plus, some of the movies on this list are a few of the best gangland films ever made so it's okay if you start geeking out over the movies instead of the women. Grab your tommy gun and check out these gorgeous molls - now...
- 7/3/2009
- by Dr. Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
'Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" With these words, mama's boy Arthur Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is blown to smithereens in Raoul Walsh's blistering "White Heat" (1949).
The film includes two other standout scenes: Jarrett going bonkers in the prison mess hall when he learns his beloved mom has died, and an obliging Jarrett riddling a car trunk with bullets when a prisoner inside pleads for air.
"White Heat" unreels May 10 (Mother's Day!) and 11 as part of Film Forum's new series,...
The film includes two other standout scenes: Jarrett going bonkers in the prison mess hall when he learns his beloved mom has died, and an obliging Jarrett riddling a car trunk with bullets when a prisoner inside pleads for air.
"White Heat" unreels May 10 (Mother's Day!) and 11 as part of Film Forum's new series,...
- 5/3/2009
- by By V.A. MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.