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Join us for some old-school 16mm Movie Madness! – It’s our monthly 16Mm Double Feature Night at The Way Out Club (2525 Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis)! Join Tom Stockman and Roger from “Roger’s Reels’ for complete films projected on 16mm film. The show is Tuesday May 2nd and starts at 8pm. Admission is Free though we will be setting out a jar to take donations for the National Children’s Cancer Society.

First up Is Mighty Joe Young (1949)

The producer –director team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack attempted to recreate the magic of King Kong in 1949 with Mighty Joe Young, which followed the Kong story closely but this time with more humor, affection and a big ape that kids could see as a hero. Again Robert Armstrong leads a safari to an isolated land to find a new attraction and again discovers a giant ape attached...

Just what is the dreaded ‘Process 97’? Henry Hathaway’s docu-drama combined newsreel ‘reality’ with a true espionage story from the files of the F.B.I., creating a thriller about spies and atom secrets that dazzled the film-going public. But how much of it was true, and how much invented?

The House on 92nd Street

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 88 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, Lydia St. Clair, William Post Jr., Harry Bellaver, Bruno Wick, Harro Meller, Charles Wagenheim, Alfred Linder, Renee Carson, Paul Ford, Vincent Gardenia, Reed Hadley, E.G. Marshall, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel.

Cinematography Norbert Brodine

Film Editor Harmon Jones

Original Music David Buttolph

Written by Barré Lyndon, Charles G. Booth, John Monks Jr.

Produced by Louis De Rochemont

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I can’t believe...

Guns! Guns! Guns! John Milius' rootin' tootin' bio of the most famous of the '30s bandits has plenty of good things to its credit, especially its terrific, funny cast, topped by the unlikely star Warren Oates. The battles between Dillinger's team of all-star bank robbers and Ben Johnson's G-Man aren't neglected, as Milius savors every gun recoil and Tommy gun blast. Dillinger Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video U.S. 1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lewis, John Ryan, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Kanaly, John Martino, Roy Jenson, Frank McRae. Cinematography Jules Brenner Special Effects A.D. Flowers, Cliff Wenger Edited by Fred R. Feitshans, Jr. Original Music Barry De Vorzon Produced by Buzz Feitshans Written and Directed by John Milius

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

There it was in the dentist's office, an article in either...

More than one feature film looks at the making of this picture, focusing on its author, Truman Capote. Criterion's disc returns the discussion to Richard Brooks, the director that dared adapt an unfilmable novel of lurid, unthinkable crime on the Kansas prairie. It's also a last gasp of artistic B&W cinematography from Hollywood, thanks to the indelible images of Conrad Hall. In Cold Blood Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 781 1967 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 20, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Jeff Corey, John Gallaudet, James Flavin, John Collins, Charles McGraw, Will Geer. Cinematography Conrad L. Hall Production Designer Robert F. Boyle Film Editor Peter Zinner Original Music Quincy Jones Written by Richard Brooks from the novel by Truman Capote Produced and Directed by Richard Brooks

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Some directors just want to work. Others...

Chicago – With all due respect to Damián Bichir, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt, I believe that the three best lead performances by an actor in 2011 were entirely overlooked by the Academy. None of the five Oscar nominees quite managed to top Michael Shannon in “Take Shelter,” Michael Fassbender in “Shame” or Leonardo DiCaprio in “J. Edgar.”

While I’ll admit that “J. Edgar” is wildly inferior to the aforementioned titles, there’s no denying the level of ambition in DiCaprio’s stunningly immersive portrayal of the titular FBI director. This picture marks the first time DiCaprio’s distractingly boyish features have entirely vanished within the hardened exterior of an embittered adult whose youth got lost in the shuffle. Though his accent initially sounds a bit labored, DiCaprio quickly eases into the uncomfortable skin of a man who projected his inner shame onto everyone he deemed a threat.

Clint Eastwood's film obscures the fact that Hoover's obsession with sniffing out so-called subversives terrorised America

I'd rather have a dead son than a daffodil son.

– Judi Dench as J Edgar Hoover's possessive mother in the Clint Eastwood film

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's long time chief, J Edgar Hoover, almost was a member of my family. In the 1920s, during the infamous "red scare" Palmer Raids, agents of his newly-formed Bureau of Investigation arrested, beat up and tried to deport my immigrant father for "criminal syndicalism" (union organising).

Combatively anti-labor, reflecting the director's prejudices, Hoover's "G-men" also tried stemming the 1930s union upsurge, in which both my parents were vocal rank-and-filers, by threatening militants and their sympathisers and feeding dirt to employer groups and anti-union newspapers. During the second world war, the FBI split their energies between tracking down the few Nazi spies and much...

J. Edgar

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by Dustin Lance Black

imdb USA 2011

Clint Eastwood has a deceptively simple formula for filmmaking:

Start with a great script. Work with a talented crew that you have known for decades. Hire talented actors and let them work. Work quickly. Go home at a reasonable hour every night. Finish the film on time and on budget.

It is the formula of a craftsman, the measure twice, cut once philosophy of a master carpenter. If Woody Allen is a film archaeologist, using film to peel back the bones of a city and Martin Scorcese is a crazed chef, blending ingredients that seem like they should never work together, than Clint Eastwood is the filmmaker as cabinet-maker, turning out solid, useful films built according to classical blueprints.

In this case, Eastwood takes us from 1919 to 1972 in the life and career of J. Edgar Hoover, but not in a straight line.

Listen up, palookas! I got a tale of tough men who lived by the gun, and weren’t afraid to use them, and of the fast dames who loved those law-breaking goons. There’s coppers and G-Men, always on the trails of those ne’er-do-wells. We have bank robberies, jewel heists, crooked fight promoters, gambling, and lots of shootouts. These are the real-life stories that were written and drawn for the entertainment of comic book readers years ago by two of the highest regarded pioneers in the field, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. While they are best known for their work in superhero titles, they put pen to paper on a number of different genres, including the crime comics.

While Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney were portraying gangsters and crime fighting detectives on the big screen, Simon and Kirby were revolutionizing comics with stories based on true crime stories from the files of the police,...

We catch a glimpse of a cinema marquee showing this 1935 classic in the trailer for Clint Eastwood’s new FBI flick J. Edgar, so I figure now is the time for a closer look. This clip was created to promote the 1949 rerelease, and it strikes me as somewhat hyperbolic. The for-real FBI showed a James Cagney action flick as a training film? *snort* Were descriptions of one’s upcoming travels typically considered threatening in the 1930s? (“A gangster leaves Chicago on the 9:15 train headed for Pittsburgh, see...”) Every word of G-Men is true? We might need to start going a little easier on the people who make trailers today. Watch G-Men online via Amazon Instant Video.

Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in Warner Bros. Pictures. drama .J. Edgar,. a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Keith Bernstein

Due in theaters on November 9 (Limited) / November 11 (Wide), here’s the 1st trailer (via Apple) for Warner Bros. Pictures’ J. Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas, Ken Howard and Judi Dench.

Okay, so what’s everyone think? Will the film will be as great as the trailer or just another by-the-numbers biopic? I guess it all depends on what aspects of Hoover’s career are focused on. They’re obviously hitting on the race riots, the gangsters, having Kennedy under his thumb, but how deep will it delve into him being a Mama’s boy versus being head of the G-Men.

I already love cinematographer Tom Stern’s hazy interior shots. He’s previously worked with Eastwood on Invictus, Gran Torino, Hereafter, Million Dollar Baby,...

Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Three on a Match Ann Dvorak on TCM Part I: Scarface, I Was An American Spy Another cool Ann Dvorak performance is her drug addict in Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match (1932), which features a great cast that includes Warren William, Joan Blondell, and a pre-stardom Bette Davis. Never, ever light three cigarettes using the same match, or you'll end up like Ann Dvorak, delivering a harrowing performance without getting an Academy Award nomination for your efforts. As Three on a Match's young Ann Dvorak, future Oscar nominee Anne Shirley is billed as Dawn O'Day. (And for those who believe that remakes is something new: Three on a Mach was remade a mere six years later as Broadway Musketeers: John Farrow directed; Ann Sheridan, Marie Wilson, and Margaret Lindsay starred.) I've never watched David Miller's family drama Our Very Own...

The daughter of silent-film actress Anna Lehr and director Edward McKim, Ann Dvorak began her film career at the dawn of the sound era. The pretty, wide-eyed Dvorak was one of those performers who not only could but should have become major stars — yet, thanks to studio politics, didn't. Those unfamiliar with Dvorak's name and/or work will be able to check her out all day Tuesday, August 9, on Turner Classic Movies. TCM will be presenting 16 of her films. [Ann Dvorak Movie Schedule.] Considering that TCM generally picks the usual suspects for their "Summer Under the Stars" film series — people like Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis — I find it refreshing when they select someone like Ann Dvorak. Of course, as a Warner Bros. player in the '30s, most of Dvorak's best work has been frequently available on TCM; but to have a whole day devoted to an actress most people...

Before your heart starts racing: No, the first on-set pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar don't include any make-out shots with Armie Hammer. (Gotta save something for the trailer!) What this unofficial paparazzi still of the Clint Eastwood film does include, however, is evidence of DiCaprio's snazzy, G-Men-approved haircut. If you've always wondered what Public Enemies would look like with the Inception star in the lead role instead of Johnny Depp, your prayers have been answered. Click ahead for your first look at J. Edgar.

All the elements for an Oscar-winning epic are present in Public Enemies. Oscar-nominated directed Michael Mann? Check. Prestigious cast led by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale? Check. Biopic with a flawlessly rendered historical setting? Check. However, Mann’s drama about notorious gangster John Dillinger fails to use all it has in its impressive arsenal to move beyond its B-movie roots and become a truly great, or even a very good, film.

Johnny Depp has played antiheroes before, most famously as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean and its sequels, but his has rarely shown the hard edge occasionally on display in Public Enemies. Dillinger was a charmer, a man seemingly as concerned with his image and celebrity as the take from his heists, but Depp doesn’t hesitate to show the gangster’s colder side that audiences witness from the first few moments of the film.

Public Enemies...

In 1934, John Dillinger was famously shot dead coming out of a gangster movie.

The movie in question was a Clark Gable picture called Manhattan Madness. Perhaps sensing the obvious irony, director Michael Mann's vision of Dillinger resembles Gable's smooth gentlemanly rep. Handsome and persuasive, romantic even when he's violent.

Johnny Depp's Dillinger is a far cry from the way Lawrence Tierney or Warren Oates portrayed him in previous films about America's most notorious bank robber. This time he's lovesick and mostly troubled by unnecessary violence, behaving more like a prince charming than a dangerous criminal. Hence the many scenes of him spewing schmaltzy pick-up lines to Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), the gal who had the "honor" of calling herself Dillinger's girl. Elsewhere, a Napoleonic J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), wanting to push his Federal Bureau of Investigations out of infancy, assigns his super-agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to lead the Dillinger manhunt.

Entertainment Tonight just showed 30 seconds of footage from the upcoming "Public Enemies" movie. The full trailer will air tomorrow and will also become available online. Check out the footage below. The movie revolves around Dillinger (Depp), a famous gangster who the federal government attempts to take down in the 1930s. Channing Tatum will play outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd, Giovanni Ribisi will play Alvin Karpis, Stephen Dorff will play Homer Van Meter, and Jason Clarke will play John "Red" Hamilton. That quartet comprised a Dillinger gang that knocked off banks all over the Midwest during the Depression. Bale will play Melvin Purvis, who was tapped by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to lead a manhunt that established the FBI as the country's first federal police force after the G-Men killed Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater in 1934. "Public Enemies" is directed by Michael Mann (Heat) and is scheduled to be released on July 1st.

Tonight, Et will premiere the trailer for the upcoming "Public Enemies," starring Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean). But right now, you can enjoy some footage from it by watching the video below. Come back later to see the full trailer. The movie revolves around Dillinger (Depp), a famous gangster who the federal government attempts to take down in the 1930s. Channing Tatum will play outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd, Giovanni Ribisi will play Alvin Karpis, Stephen Dorff will play Homer Van Meter, and Jason Clarke will play John "Red" Hamilton. That quartet comprised a Dillinger gang that knocked off banks all over the Midwest during the Depression. Bale will play Melvin Purvis, who was tapped by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to lead a manhunt that established the FBI as the country's first federal police force after the G-Men killed Dillinger outside the Biograph...

Thanks to MSN, we now have a the official poster for the upcoming "Public Enemies" film, starring Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), featuring a look at Depp as bank robber John Dillinger. Notice how similar it looks to The Joker poster from "The Dark Knight." The movie revolves around Dillinger (Depp), a famous gangster who the federal government attempts to take down in the 1930s. Channing Tatum will play outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd, Giovanni Ribisi will play Alvin Karpis, Stephen Dorff will play Homer Van Meter, and Jason Clarke will play John "Red" Hamilton. That quartet comprised a Dillinger gang that knocked off banks all over the Midwest during the Depression. Bale will play Melvin Purvis, who was tapped by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to lead a manhunt that established the FBI as the country's first federal police force after the G-Men...