By John M. Whalen
Kino Classics and the film preservationists at France’s Lobster Films have dug up three interesting, if obscure, old “classics” that, if nothing else, definitely would have qualified for presentation on Art Fern’s old Tea Time Movie skits from Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Names like Helen Twelvetrees, William Farnum, J. Farrell MacDonald, Lowell Sherman, Wade Boteler, Louis Wolheim, and Evelyn Brent appear in the films gathered together here on one disc under the title, “Rko Classic Adventures.”
The first is “The Painted Desert” (1931) starring Helen Twelvetrees and Bill Boyd. The story starts out as a cross between John Ford’s “3 Godfathers” and Sam Peckinpah’s “Ballad of Cable Hogue.” Cash Holbrook (William Farnum) and Jeff Cameron (J. Farrell MacDonald) are two cowboys who discover an abandoned wagon in the Arizona desert containing a baby boy. The two argue over who will take care of him,...
Kino Classics and the film preservationists at France’s Lobster Films have dug up three interesting, if obscure, old “classics” that, if nothing else, definitely would have qualified for presentation on Art Fern’s old Tea Time Movie skits from Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Names like Helen Twelvetrees, William Farnum, J. Farrell MacDonald, Lowell Sherman, Wade Boteler, Louis Wolheim, and Evelyn Brent appear in the films gathered together here on one disc under the title, “Rko Classic Adventures.”
The first is “The Painted Desert” (1931) starring Helen Twelvetrees and Bill Boyd. The story starts out as a cross between John Ford’s “3 Godfathers” and Sam Peckinpah’s “Ballad of Cable Hogue.” Cash Holbrook (William Farnum) and Jeff Cameron (J. Farrell MacDonald) are two cowboys who discover an abandoned wagon in the Arizona desert containing a baby boy. The two argue over who will take care of him,...
- 7/8/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Kino Classics refurbishes public domain title The Death Kiss, a 1932 release made purely to capitalize off the success of Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula by casting three of the main leads from that film. The title retains little interest except for Lugosi completists, who isn’t given much to do this time around as a rather miffed film studio manager. However, film historians may appreciate the film for its locale, set almost entirely within the back lot of what was termed a Poverty Row studio, shackled by the meager prospects of the Great Depression.
As director Tom Avery (Edward Van Sloan) films his final sequence on his new film The Death Kiss at the sound stage of Tonart Studios in Los Angeles, his lead actor Myles Brent (Edmund Burns) is shot with a real bullet. All the prop guns on set are checked. Investigating Detective Lt. Sheehan (John Wray) and Sergeant...
As director Tom Avery (Edward Van Sloan) films his final sequence on his new film The Death Kiss at the sound stage of Tonart Studios in Los Angeles, his lead actor Myles Brent (Edmund Burns) is shot with a real bullet. All the prop guns on set are checked. Investigating Detective Lt. Sheehan (John Wray) and Sergeant...
- 10/21/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Howdy fellow movie geeks. With all the interest in bringing classic heroes to the big screen, I thought I’d begin this column dedicated to discussing classic movie serials available on DVD. And since this masked crime buster is the focus of a brand new feature film this weekend, I thought I’d start with a look at the 1940 Universal thirteen chapter movie serial The Green Hornet.
First a little history of movie serials. You younger film fans may wonder what I’m talking about. First it’s serials with an “s”, not a “c”, so I’m not talking about something you pour out of a box into a bowl and douse with milk in the mornings. Film serials started appearing in 1913. Theatre owners and studios thought this new story telling format would be a great way to get patrons returning week after week. Serials were big, thrilling, adventure...
First a little history of movie serials. You younger film fans may wonder what I’m talking about. First it’s serials with an “s”, not a “c”, so I’m not talking about something you pour out of a box into a bowl and douse with milk in the mornings. Film serials started appearing in 1913. Theatre owners and studios thought this new story telling format would be a great way to get patrons returning week after week. Serials were big, thrilling, adventure...
- 1/15/2011
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Kudos to Vci Entertainment for once again making some rare serials available. Their latest DVDs are the Universal serials The Green Hornet (1940) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1941). Although the movies were released less than a year apart, the role of Britt Reid—the crusading publisher of the Daily Sentinel and secretly the masked crime fighter, the Green Hornet—was played by different actors. The first starred Gordon Jones, usually seen in comedy roles and who would later play Mike the Cop on the Abbott & Costello TV show. For the second serial, Universal brought in Warren Hull, who was no stranger to costumed heroes, having portrayed Mandrake the Magician in a serial and the pulp favorite character the Spider in another chapterplay; Hull would also star in The Spider Returns that same year. Jones speaks as Reid, but in a clever move, whenever the Hornet puts on his mask, the...
- 8/12/2009
- by no-reply@starlog.com (Dan Scapperotti)
- Starlog
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