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Dan Duryea and Peter Lorre in Black Angel (1946) will be available on Blu-ray January 28th From Arrow Academy

Elegantly directed by Hollywood veteran Roy William Neill (best known for his 11 Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone), Black Angel is an underappreciated film noir treasure, adapted from a novel by the acclaimed crime writer Cornell Woolrich (Phantom Lady).

When the beautiful singer Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is slain in her chic apartment, the men in her life become suspects. There is Martin Blair, her alcoholic musician ex-husband, nursing a broken heart; there is the shady nightclub owner Marko who has been sneaking around her place, and there is Kirk Bennett (John Phillips), the adulterer who found his mistress s dead body and fled the scene. When Bennett is convicted and sentenced to death, his long-suffering wife Catherine (June Vincent) joins forces with the heartbroken pianist Martin Blair to uncover the truth…...

Everyone’s heard the famous maxim, generally accredited to legendary music producer Brian Eno: while the Velvet Underground’s debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, sold a paltry 30,000 copies upon release in 1967, every person who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band. Though a slight exaggeration, the line is a testament to the album’s far-reaching influence trumping its commercial failure. Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker merged raw rock and roll with musique concrète and the avant-garde to create an untamed and menacing sound that perfectly underscored their poetic tales of drug deals, sadomasochistic sex...

By John M. Whalen

Cornell Woolrich is a writer whose work was much loved and cherished by fans of film noir. The Internet Movie Database lists 102 credits for him for both film and TV shows—titles including “Rear Window,” “The Bride Wore Black,” “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” “Black Angel,” “Fear in the Night,” and “Phantom Lady,” He didn’t write any screenplays that I know of. The films and TV shows were all adapted from a prolific output of stories written under his Woolrich and William Irish pseudonyms, and under his real name, George Hopley.

While Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain make up the Big Three in noir fiction, Woolrich carved out a special niche for himself. Chandler, and Hammett wrote about tough guy heroes who usually overcame the web of evil they encountered. Cain’s heroes weren’t always so lucky, but at least...

Happy March, everyone! This month’s home entertainment offerings are starting off with the proverbial bang as there seems to be a little something for every genre fan arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. Scream Factory is releasing both The Boy and Narcopolis on both formats this week, and Kino Lorber is resurrecting a pair of cult classics in HD as well: Gog (3D) and Transformations. Grindhouse Releasing has assembled an incredible Blu set for their release of Pieces, and the recent home invasion thriller, Intruders, makes its way onto DVD on March 1st.

For those of you who have made the leap to 4K, both The Last Witch Hunter and Mad Max: Fury Road are getting a special 4K release on Tuesday and other notable titles making their way home this first week of March include Zoombies, The Sinful Dwarf, The Fear of Darkness, Scream at the Devil,...

Peter Mayhew has posted a copy of his original shooting script from the 1977 space fantasy blockbuster online, settling the debate over Greedo, the alien bounty hunter’s fate

It’s been a fierce topic of debate amongst fans ever since George Lucas’s Special Edition tinkering in 1997: who shot first, Han Solo or Greedo, at the Mos Eisley Cantina in 1977’s Star Wars? But in a new twist to the tale, Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew has revealed the alien bounty hunter wasn’t even present in the original shooting script.

Related: Star Wars short Black Angel to get feature-length upgrade

Continue reading...

Black Angel, the short fantasy movie commissioned by George Lucas that screened in select locales before The Empire Strikes Back during its theatrical run, is being remade as a feature length film. The 25-minute short was recently uploaded to YouTube, but was considered to be lost until it surfaced a few years ago. Original director (and one of the people who helped design the first lightsaber) Roger... Read More...

A long time ago, in a cinema far, far away, this short film played before Empire Strikes Back, and now it has been rediscovered. No seriously, that's the story behind this. Back in 1980, George Lucas commissioned his art director, Roger J. Christian, to make a short film that would show before his Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back. That short was called Black Angel, sort of a classic fantasy about a lone warrior fighting a dark force. It only played in a few hundred UK cinemas, but it was hugely influential anyway. And even though all the prints were thought to be lost, Christian has restored and released the full 25-minute short Black Angel online - seen below. It's actually pretty good, and has some very iconic shots in it. Enjoy. The video also features a quick introduction from Roger J. Christian, but for more history read this review.

Over three decades ago a film known as Black Angel screened in front of The Empire Strikes Back in several countries. Unfortunately the prints of the film disappeared and Black Angel was thought to have been lost; then, several years ago, a print finally turned up and the effort to restore the long-lost film was underway. Black Angel has since screened at several festivals and was made available on iTunes last year, but it has now popped up on YouTube for the rest of us to enjoy. Black...

These days, Disney is the rare studio still putting short films in front of some of their features. Coincidentally, a famous company they’d eventually own did that several decades earlier. In 1980, George Lucas wanted a short film to screen in front of his highly anticipated sequel to Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back. He got his […]

The post Watch ‘Black Angel,’ the Long-Lost Short That Ran With ‘Empire Strikes Back’ appeared first on /Film.

After being lost for years, the Star Wars short film "Black Angel" is finally online...short a very short time.

"The Lost Empire Strikes Back Short Film Black Angel is Now Online" was originally published on Film School Rejects for our wonderful readers to enjoy. It is not intended to be reproduced on other websites. If you aren't reading this in your favorite RSS reader or on Film School Rejects, you're being bamboozled. We hope you'll come find us and enjoy the best articles about movies, television and culture right from the source.

The Lady Confesses

Written by Irwin Franklyn and Helen Martin

Directed by Sam Newfield

U.S.A., 1945

Vicki McGuire (Mary Beth Hughes) is resting at home one night, awaiting the return of her husband to be, Larry Craig (Hugh Beaumont), when who should appear at her door but Larry’s believed to be deceased former wife Norma (Barbara Slater). Stern in composure and unimpressed by Vicki, she storms off, warning the shell-shocked fiancée that no one else can have her husband. All the while Larry is hanging out at a club owned by Lucky Brandon (Edmund MacDonald), getting drunk silly. The evening grows ever more complicated when Norma’s body is later discovered in her apartment. The recently departed caused quite a stir during the few hours when she made her presence known, and now her demise is about to further stir the pot, especially with police captain Brown (Emmett Vogan...

The Woman in the Window

Written by Nunnally Johnson

Directed by Fritz Lang

USA, 1944

Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) is an assistant professor of psychology at a local university. While the academic’s family is away for the summer, he spends his evenings at a gentlemen’s club with fellow intellectuals, among them Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey). Just next door to the club is an art shop where, set beside the window for all to see, a portrait of a beautiful woman sits, catching Richard’s attention. Happenstance has it that the subject, Alice Reed (Joan Bennett), passes by one night and, flattered by Richard’s admiration, invites him over to view other sketches. Everything is quite innocent until a middle-aged man, an acquaintance of Alice’s, storms into the apartment and attacks Richard out of jealousy. The professor has no other choice but to retaliate and stabs...

Black Angel

Written by Roy Chanslor

Directed by Roy William Neill

USA, 1946

Famous recording artist Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) has sheltered herself from her drunkard husband Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) in her lush Los Angeles condo. To ensure tranquility and peace of mind, she has asked the doorman to disallow Martin from reaching her, the latter looking up anxiously from street level at her window high above. The doorman’s rebuttals send Martin into a drinking frenzy, during which time another man, Kirk Bennet (John Phillips), enters Mavis’ home for reasons unknown only to find her dead. It isn’t long before the police track Kirk to his homely domain, where his wife Catherine sees her better half arrested for murder, sending her into a tizzy. With Kirk convicted and sentenced to death, Catherine takes it upon herself to piece together the puzzle to clear her husband’s name. To do so,...

I have never heard of this before. From BBC News:

Black Angel, a short film shown in the cinemas before the 1980 Star Wars feature The Empire Strikes Back, disappeared for decades and was believed to have been lost before it re-emerged in 2012.

Shot in spectacular locations, directed by an Oscar-winner and shown before screenings of Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Black Angel had it all. Then the film was lost.

Black Angel is an Arthurian tale of a knight who rescues a princess while he is returning home from the Crusades.

Shot in Scotland on a shoestring budget in 1979, it was shown the following year in cinemas in the UK, Scandinavia, Japan and Australia as part of screenings of The Empire Strikes Back.

Why didn’t I see this?

In the Us shorts were no longer shown ahead of feature films but the tradition still continued in Europe and elsewhere.

Not that Lou Reed would have recognized me (though I was introduced to him once, which I'll get to), but he and his body of work intersected my life in more personal ways than that of any other major rock star. So this isn't an obituary so much as a series of memories. For obituaries, check out Gary Graff in Billboard and Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone.

Lou was from Long Island and I was from Long Island. At the most basic level, this meant that, growing up listening to Long Island radio stations, I heard lots of Lou even when he was no longer especially fashionable (between about 1976 and 1981). Thus, while most of the world ignored his 1978 album Street Hassle, I heard much of it on Wlir and Wbab, and bought it – my first Lou album. He had started out underground in the Velvet Underground, had managed to claw...

Göteborg, Sweden – Free Angela and All Political Prisoners was screened at Way Out West 2013 in cooperation with Folkets Bio. This powerful feature-length documentary is centered on the struggle of legendary college professor and civil rights activist, Angela Davis, who finds herself accused in a failed escape attempt that ended in a shootout, four dead and Angela on the FBI Most Wanted list.

Directed by Shola Lynch, Free Angela combines archival material with new interviews including a series of interviews with Davis herself that makes for a well executed film. Through the film, Angela has the opportunity to share her intimate stories and speak out about her actions during that time.

Lynch’s film captivates the viewer, returning them to a troubled time in American history, during the civil rights movement and Angela’s struggle. Her story challenged the perceptions of political freedom in America back then and is as relevant then,...

Cinema is a kind of uber-art form that’s made up of a multitude of other forms of art including writing, directing, acting, drawing, design, photography and fashion. As such, film is, as all cinema aficionados know, a highly collaborative venture.

One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.

This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.

There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...

We scour the interwebs for the coolest movie news and more so you don't have to ...

• Some people make their home theaters look like the Batcave and the bridge of the Enterprise and stuff. [ScreenCrush]

• Let's give a big hand for the Sexiest Movie Trends of 2012! [Movieline]

• Ryan Gosling: The Sexiest Man Alive in 20-Anything. [Hollywire]

• Which Hollywood hottie did you want to kiss last night (or this morning)? Take the poll! [Hollywood Crush]

• A breakdown of Kevin Smith's announcement regarding the release date of "Clerks 3." Warning: Kevin Smith Hatred herein. [FilmDrunk]

• Fightin' words! "Django Unchained" has a passion that "Lincoln" lacks. [The Wrap]

• Watch the trailer for "Playback," the lowest-grossing movie of 2012. Really, it needs all the help it can get. [YouTube]

• The long-lost 25-minute fantasy film "Black Angel" that played before theatrical prints of "The Empire Strikes Back" has been rediscovered. [Wired]

• Listen to Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's unreleased score to "The Master." [The Weinstein Company]

• Speaking of scores,...

Tony Scott and I became friends in the early days of British Cinema. Tony asked me to join Rsa to make commercials after I had designed a few for him and Ridley, but I had just got the green light on Black Angel from George Lucas, so I concentrated on getting that made and a film career. It was a strange time in Britain. Ridley, Alan Parker and Tony, were especially singled out by the “serious” critics as being commercial directors who made TV ads and were thus dismissed as such. Time has shown that these critics were clearly out of touch with the changes coming and cinema, after all, is a commercial industry.

Read more...

Tony Scott and I became friends in the early days of British Cinema. Tony asked me to join Rsa to make commercials after I had designed a few for him and Ridley, but I had just got the green light on Black Angel from George Lucas, so I concentrated on getting that made and a film career. It was a strange time in Britain. Ridley, Alan Parker and Tony, were especially singled out by the “serious” critics as being commercial directors who made TV ads and were thus dismissed as such. Time has shown that these critics were clearly out of touch with the changes coming and cinema, after all, is a commercial industry.

Read more...

    I knew what she looked like by heart this time.

    That scrap of newspaper she was on should

    have been worn ragged by now, the number of

    times I'd pulled it out and looked at it when I

    was alone in the place.

        -- Cornell Woolrich, "The Black Angel"

It's the fear as much as the tenderness. It's the desperation in the way they clutch hands in a darkened theater, and the sensuousness in the way they caress each other in bed. It's the contradiction of having found yourself by stepping into a mystery, and the cruelty of discovering that the heaven of love is a gossamer skein stretched over a black hole. "And the mysteries of love come clear," is the way David Lynch put the paradox in the song he wrote for "Blue Velvet." Those mysteries have never been as heartrending in Lynch's work as they are in...