News

Archie Comics has confirmed a comic book reboot of "Dick Tracy", available April 11, 2018, as actor Warren Beatty continues to hold onto the character's screen rights, despite a 'use it' or 'lose it' clause in a long-standing  agreement with Tribune Co. to produce a "Dick Tracy" movie or TV show:

The monthly comic book series will be illustrated by Thomas Pitilli...

...with the first cover by Francesco Francavilla.

Created by Chester Gould as a newspaper comic strip, the character has so far appeared in five movie serials from 1937 through 1941, six movies, including Beatty's 1990 feature, plus three TV series including animated cartoons.

Tribune Co. is "...very excited to work with Archie Comics. 'Dick Tracy' is an iconic character, who still resonates with his fan base. 

"The reboot of the franchise will keep 'Dick Tracy' and his cast of rogue villains at the forefront of heroic characters in the battle of good and evil.

Republic raids an early Rko talkie for a fantastic special effects sequence, and you won’t believe how it’s repurposed — in a story about a TV personality (in 1939!) taking on a corrupt political mob. New York crumbles and is then washed away — sort of. It’s yet another resurfacing of a title that not long ago we couldn’t see to save our cinema-curious souls.

S.O.S. Tidal Wave

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1939 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 62 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Ralph Byrd, George Barbier, Kay Sutton, Frank Jenks, Marc Lawrence, Dorothy Lee, Oscar O’Shea, Mickey Kuhn, Ferris Taylor, Don ‘Red’ Barry, Raymond Bailey.

Cinematography: Jack A. Marta

Film Editor: Ernest Nims

Musical Director: Cy Feuer

Written by Gordon Kahn, Stanley Rauh, Maxwell Shane, story by James Webb

Produced by Armand Schaefer

Directed by John H. Auer

If Republic wasn’t...

Anne Jeffreys, an actress who played Tess Truehart in the early “Dick Tracy” serials, starred in the fantasy sitcom “Topper” and spent two decades on “General Hospital,” has died. She was 94. Entertainment reporter for Los Angeles’ Kabc George Pennacchio was one of the first to tweet the news on Wednesday night. Others followed, including multiple friends on Facebook who confirmed the news. Details of her death were not widely available. Her longest-running role was on the ABC soap opera “General Hospital” and its spinoff “Port Charles,” in which she played the snobby, wealthy socialite Amanda Barrington over the course of.

Anne Jeffreys, the elegant actress who was Dick Tracy's girlfriend Tess Trueheart in the movies and starred opposite her husband Robert Sterling as "the ghostess with the mostess" on television's Topper, has died. She was 94.

Entertainment reporter and local Oscar host for Los Angeles' Kabc, George Pennacchio, tweeted Wednesday night that Jeffreys died. Details of her death were not immediately available.

Jeffreys later played the snobby socialite Amanda Barrington on General Hospital during a long association with the soap opera and appeared as David Hasselhoff's mom on Baywatch.

A real trouper, Jeffreys replaced Patricia Morison and starred as...

Ready for more Anthony Mann? This light comedy thriller / borderline noir leans on amnesia for a plot hook and to motivate an all-night prowl on the streets of Los Angeles the Rko back lot. Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford star, but the real thrill is in the secondary female leads -- Jean Brooks from the Val Lewton movies and dreamy Jane Greer in her billed feature debut. Two O'Clock Courage DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 66 min. / Street Date June 16, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 18.49 Starring Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, Jean Brooks, Bettejane Greer, Richard Lane, Lester Matthews, Roland Drew, Emory Parnell. Cinematography Jack Mackenzie Original Music Roy Webb Written by Robert E. Kent, Gordon Kahn from a story by Gelett Burgess Produced by Ben Stoloff Directed by Anthony Mann  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This disc will get immediate attention from fans of director Anthony Mann. Another...

James Woods in 'Videodrome.' James Woods in $10 million Twitter lawsuit feud: Crassly vocal right-wing actor goes after two crassly vocal users who attacked him In a letter dated Aug. 21, '15, Twitter attorney Ryan Mrazik ridiculed Surf's Up and Scary Movie 2 actor James Woods, while also highlighting the potentially dangerous precedent of a $10 million lawsuit the 68-year-old entertainer filed against a Twitter user last July. The lawsuit was followed by a subpoena demanding that the social media giant reveal the user's identity and that of another user with whom Woods has been embroiled in the (generally) no-holds-barred Twitterverse. In case you're unfamiliar with the name, these days the two-time Oscar-nominated Woods is best known for a supporting role as a right-wing sociopath in Roland Emmerich's thriller White House Down, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx (as a liberal-minded U.S. president despised by Woods' character), and for his relentless,...

"There isn't any such thing in the world as a bad boy."

Even people who haven't seen "Boys Town" know Spencer Tracy's line, in character as Father Edward Flanagan, as the credo of the real Boys Town, the institution renowned for its care of orphaned and troubled kids. The classic movie, released 75 years ago this week (on September 9, 1938), was a huge hit, a milestone in the careers of Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, and an inspiration to wayward kids and those who would help them, all over the country.

As beloved as the movie has been for generations, there's still plenty you may not know about it -- how it almost didn't get released, how Tracy's Oscar victory almost turned into a publicity nightmare, and how the movie almost did more harm than good to the real Boys Town.

Read on for 25 true tales behind the making of "Boys Town.

After 21 years of inactivity, following his 1990 starring and directing turn adapting creator Chester Gould's newspaper comic strip detective character "Dick Tracy", actor/producer Warren Beatty has won his lawsuit against a unit of Tribune Co, to prevent Tribune from taking back film/TV rights to creator Chester Gould's newspaper comic strip detective character.

Budgeted at $47 million, Beatty's "Dick Tracy" earned $103,738,726 domestic and $59,000,000 foreign for a worldwide box office of $162,738,726.

According to court documents, rights to the character would have reverted back to Tribune if "a certain period of time" lapsed without Beatty having produced another "Dick Tracy" movie, TV series or TV special.

Tribune sent Beatty a letter November 17, 2006, giving him two years to begin production on new "Dick Tracy" programing.

"Tribune asserted it still wanted to terminate Beatty's 'Dick Tracy" rights and effect a reversion, and purported to do so," the lawsuit said, with Beatty seeking...

She was born on the 4th of July, 1910 in Santa Monica and a little over a century later she left this mortal coil right next door in West Los Angeles. But oh how this American blonde travelled in between.

She was engaged to The Invisible Man (1933) in a tiny village in Sussex. She made it out of The Old Dark House (1935) in Wales as a young ingenue, when the gothic mansion was set on fire. Her husband was jailed in the West Indies as The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). She was cousin to rising radio star Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). She spun around the dance floor with Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year (1982). And quite famously, she survived the Titanic (1997) which departed from England but never made it to its New York City destination.

And that's just a few of Gloria Stuart's best known screen journeys.

Off screen her life was also rich,...

After years of inactivity, following his starring/directing turn in the 1990 Disney feature "Dick Tracy", actor/producer Warren 'Clyde Barrow' Beatty recently sued a unit of Tribune Co, to prevent Tribune from taking back film/TV rights to creator Chester Gould's newspaper comic strip detective character.

Budgeted at $47 million, "Dick Tracy" earned $103,738,726 domestic and $59,000,000 foreign for a worldwide box office of $162,738,726.

According to court documents, rights would revert to Tribune if "a certain period of time" lapsed without Beatty having produced another Dick Tracy movie, TV series or TV special.

Tribune sent Beatty a letter November 17, 2006, giving him two years to begin production on new "Dick Tracy" programing.

"Tribune asserted it still wanted to terminate Beatty's 'Tracy' Rights and effect a reversion, and purported to do so," the lawsuit said, with Beatty seeking a declaration that his work on a developing Dick Tracy documentary TV special precludes Tribune from...