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Anthea Sylbert, an Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on some of the signature films of the late 1960s and 1970s, including “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Chinatown,” “Shampoo,” “Julia” and “King Kong,” and a producer later in her career on a number of films starring Goldie Hawn, has died. She was 84.

Her death was confirmed by Robert Romanus, her stepson.

Sylbert, subject of a forthcoming documentary by Sakis Lalas titled “Anthea Sylbert: My Life in 3 Acts,” also served as an executive at United Artists and Warner Bros., at a time when there were few women in the C-suites of Hollywood. She also worked repeatedly with director Mike Nichols, both onscreen and onstage, and was Oscar-nominated for her costuming on period films “Chinatown” (1974) and “Julia” (1977).

Assessing Sylbert’s work on “Chinatown,” GlamAmor, a website dedicated to the history of fashion in film, said in 2012: “Sylbert crafted clothes for Faye Dunaway that...

If Valentine cards are too lame and saccharine for your taste, then maybe you need something a little more hard-boiled for this lovers’ holiday. Perhaps, “What do I call you besides stupid?” or “We go together like guns and ammunition” are more in line with the romantic sentiments you’d like to express to your gumshoe or femme fatale. If that’s the case, then here are some lethally attractive film noir romances with the cynical bite your cold heart craves.

Marriage vows state, “till death do us part.” But in noir, that death is very rarely of natural causes. I mean, there’s a reason women in noir are referred to as femme fatales – they can be deadly.

Here’s a list of the 10 best classic American films noir to celebrate with on Valentine’s Day.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t already figured it out, I will be...

Chicago – When the envelope was opened, containing the name of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards earlier this month, it was veteran actor Jamie Lee Curtis who won the honor. She brought down the house with her memorable “we just won an Oscar” speech.

She tearfully finished with “ … and my mother [Janet Leigh] and my father [Tony Curtis], who were both nominated in different categories, I just won an Oscar.”

Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com has captured both Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Curtis in his lens, with the Exclusive Portrait of Jamie Lee from 2004 published for the first time. Tony Curtis was photographed during his last trip to Chicago in 2009. He passed away in 2010.

Jamie Lee Curtis in Chicago, circa 2004

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Hollywood “It” couple Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis,...

“Their best album since Exile on Main St!” an FM DJ gushed in 1974 when the Rolling Stones released It’s Only Rock ’n Roll. Only one other new record had come between them, but the implication was clear: that record, Goats Head Soup, was, well, unappetizing. A Stones album with a strummed love-song ballad ripe for Am radio (“Angie”) and a pretty silly song about the demonic underworld (“Dancing with Mr. D.”)? Goats Head Soup had those and more, and looking back, the album feels historic: The mixed response it...

Good Old Tony Curtis! We could always depend on Tony for a sly, ingratiating smile, charm that ranged from candid-sweet to barracuda insincerity, and a desire to please that never quit. Some of his best work came while schmoozing and nice-nice clawing his way to the top, where he epitomized the glamorous movie star with universal appeal. Kino gathers three of Curtis’s better mid-career starring vehicles, directed by three top talents — Blake Edwards, Robert Mulligan and Norman Jewison.

Tony Curtis Collection

The Perfect Furlough, The Great Impostor, 40 Pounds of Trouble

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

312 minutes

Street Date August 4, 2020

available through Kino Lorber

49.95

Starring: Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis appears to have become a Golden Boy at late-’40s Universal-International by playing the role of ambitious actor to the hilt. Everybody caught him dancing a mean rumba with Yvonne de Carlo in Criss Cross; it’s fun to seem him perform a ‘look,...

If you’re looking to dive into the best of independent and foreign filmmaking, The Criterion Channel has announced their August 2020 lineup. The impressive slate includes retrospectives dedicated to Mia Hansen-Løve, Bill Gunn, Stephen Cone, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Alain Delon, Bill Plympton, Les Blank, and more.

In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.

See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.

25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...

When the Rolling Stones rolled out details of their upcoming Goat’s Head Soup box set earlier this month, one of the most exciting elements was a previously unreleased song recorded with Jimmy Page titled “Scarlet.” The package isn’t coming out until September 4th, but on Wednesday, the band released the highly anticipated track.

The song was cut in October 1974 with Keith Richards and Page both handling guitar duties and Traffic’s Ric Grech on bass. “My recollection is we walked in at the end of a Zeppelin session,...

The Rolling Stones are rereleasing their 1973 LP Goats Head Soup as a deluxe box set featuring rarities, outtakes and alternative mixes from the sessions, a new stereo mix of the original album, a complete show from the accompanying tour and three previously unreleased tracks from the period.

One of the new songs, “Criss Cross,” dropped Thursday with a new video. (It was originally known to fans as “Criss Cross Man” from various bootlegs.) The other new tracks are “All the Rage” and “Scarlet,” which features guitar work by Jimmy Page.

They’re ‘The Men Who Broke the Bank and Lost the Cargo!’ Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway shine in one of the funniest crime comedies ever, Ealing Studios’ tale of a pair of nobodies who take the Bank of England for millions. Guinness’s bank clerk follows his dreams into a big time bullion heist, and the joke is that his ad-hoc mob is the most loyal, ethical band of brothers in the history of crime. This being a caper picture, the suspense is steep as well — just what is going to trip up these brilliantly gifted amateurs?

The Lavender Hill Mob

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 3, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, Audrey Hepburn.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Film Editor: Seth Holt

Original Music: Georges Auric

Written by T.E.B. Clarke

Produced by Michael Balcon

Directed by...

Robert Siodmak's Phantom Lady (1944) and The Killers (1946) are showing in March and April, 2019 on Mubi in many countries around the world.The KillersThere’s a long-told apocryphal story about German-born silent film star Emil Jannings. He was the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929. After his career had waned, he would return to his homeland and form close ties with Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda. His stardom was renewed within the Third Reich’s film industry. When Berlin was reduced to rubble and Allied troops advanced on Jannings’ home, the story goes that he held his golden statuette aloft and shouted some placating words to the soldiers: “Don’t shoot, I won an Oscar!” True or not, Jannings’ tale is a cruel sort of reversal of the reality faced by artists who were forced to escape Europe during the Nazis’ reign. Throughout the thirties,...

Steven Soderbergh’s directing career started with “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” a massive breakout that not only launched his career — it changed the industry of independent filmmaking in America. While struggling to find his footing after becoming a household name at age 26, Soderbergh never let himself become frozen by his early success or some preconceived notion of what his career would be. Instead, he dogmatically followed any story that piqued his interest, regardless if it was building the slick “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise or an experimental film he shot in his hometown with friends (“Schizopolis”).

He has been careful to build a career that was commercially viable so as to maximize his ability to be constantly creating and experimenting with films that were sometimes aggressively uncommercial. Along the way, he has fought to be as efficient a filmmaker as possible – constantly trying different approaches and new technology to make and...

Director Steve Sekely’s hardboiled film noir leans heavily on the talents of star-producer Paul Henreid and camera ace John Alton — the three of them whip up the best gimmick-driven noir thriller of the late ‘forties. Strained coincidences and unlikely events mean nothing when this much talent is concentrated in one movie. It’s also a terrific show for star Joan Bennett, who expresses all the disappointment, despair and angst of a noir femme who knows she’s in for more misery.

The Scar (Hollow Triumph)

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks, John Qualen, Mabel Paige, Herbert Rudley, George Chandler, Robert Bice, Henry Brandon, Franklyn Farnum, Thomas Browne Henry, Norma Varden, Jack Webb.

Cinematography: John Alton

Film Editor: Fred Allen

Original Music: Sol Kaplan

Written by Daniel Fuchs from a...

A breathtaking mansion becomes the backdrop of grisly murders in The Spiral Staircase, a 1946 thriller co-starring Ethel Barrymore and coming to Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Kino Lorber.

A release date, cover art, and special features for The Sprial Staircase Blu-ray and DVD have not yet been revealed, but we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on this release. In the meantime, you can check out the official announcement from Kino Lorber below, as well as the film's trailer.

From Kino Lorber: "Coming Soon on DVD and Blu-ray!

Oscar Nominee: Best Supporting Actress (Barrymore)

The Spiral Staircase (1946) Starring Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Elsa Lachester and Sara Allgood - Based on a Novel by Ethel Lina White (The Lady Vanishes) - Shot by Nicholas Musuraca (Out of the Past, Cat People) - Directed by Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross, Cry of the City)"

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.

Robert Siodmak’s superb noir classic pits two graduates of Little Italy against one other: a crook who can deceive relatives and seduce strangers into helping him, and the cop who wants to put him out of business. Starring the great Richard Conte, with Victor Mature in what might be his best role.

Cry of the City

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters, Betty Garde, Berry Kroeger, Tommy Cook, Debra Paget, Hope Emerson, Roland Winters, Walter Baldwin, Mimi Aguglia, Kathleen Howard, Konstantin Shayne, Tito Vuolo.

Cinematography Lloyd Ahern

Original Music Alfred Newman

Written by Richard Murphy from the novel The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth

Produced by Sol C. Siegel

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Perhaps because of a legal or rights issue, Robert Siodmak...

Yesterday, amid a crush of sweaty people desperate for last-minute props, I visited a local Halloween superstore with my daughter, looking for a Pikachu mask. Well, there wasn’t much to choose from in the Cute Kid Division. But this particular hall of Halloween hell definitely had the adult sensibility covered. Of course there were the usual skimpy or otherwise outrageous costumes for purchase —ladies, you can dress up like a sexy Kim Kardashian-esque vampire out for a night of Hollywood clubbing, and gents, how about impressing all the sexy Kim Kardashian vampires at your party by dressing up like a walking, talking matched set of cock and balls! It’s been a while since I’ve shopped for fake tools of terror, but it seems there’s been a real advance in sophistication in the market for “Leatherface-approved” (I swear) chainsaws with moving parts and authentic revving noises,...

A special edition of this confirmed '70s crowd pleaser?  I'm there. Robert Shaw has big plans to hijack a New York subway car, and subway cop Walter Matthau is determined to stop him. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 42nd Anniversary Special Edition Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date July 5, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date November 1, 2011 / 19.99 Starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick, Dick O'Neill, Lee Wallace, Tom Pedi, Jerry Stiller, Rudy Bond, Kenneth McMillan, Doris Roberts, Julius Harris. Cinematography Owen Roizman Original Music David Shire Written by Peter Stone from the novel by John Godey Produced by Gabriel Katzka, Edgar J. Sherick Directed by Joseph Sargent

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I reviewed an MGM-Fox Blu-ray of United Artists' The Taking of Pelham One Two Three back in late 2011, and I can't...

Blinded by science! And no, it's not a sequel to Donovan's Reef.  Lew Ayres yanks the living brain out of a dying millionaire, plugs it into his mad lab gizmos, and is soon obeying the know-it-all noggin's telepathic commands to scheme and murder. Gene Evans and Nancy Reagan assist in Curt Siodmak's creative, compelling tale of possession by mental remote control. Donovan's Brain Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / Street Date March 22, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, Nancy Reagan, Steve Brodie, Tom Powers, Lisa K. Howard, James Anderson, Victor Sutherland, Harlan Warde, John Hamilton. Cinematography Joseph H. Biroc Film Editor Herbert L. Strock Production Design Boris Leven Original Music Eddie Dunstedter Written by Felix Feist, Hugh Brooke from the novel by Curt Siodmak Produced by Allan Dowling, Tom Gries Directed by Felix E. Feist

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Sci-fi and horror...

The newly integrated DC Animated Universe expands with its latest offering, Batman: Bad Blood. While Batman (Jason O’Mara) can work best as a loner, he casts a long enough shadow that somehow involves others to take up the mantle of the Bat. We’ve seen Nightwing (Sean Maher), the former first Robin, and the addition of Bruce Wayne’s son Damian (Stuart Allan) as the new Robin has added an edge.

The new animated film, out now from Warner Home Entertainment, has been sold as the major introduction of Batwoman (Yvonne Strahovski) but we also get Batwing (Gaius Charles) and at the end a cameo from Batgirl. As a result, it’s actually beginning to feel a little too busy with so many players there’s not enough time to properly service them.

The premise here has Talia (Morena Baccarin) recruiting a bunch of disparate rogues to help her break Batman.

Bigger, bolder, blu-er! Warner Archive Collection is proud to present Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete Second Season in Blu-ray™ — available now at www.wbshop.com and your favorite online retailers.

The fearsome fan-addict forces behind The Batman: The Brave and the Bold fired on all bat-cylinders for this fantastic sophomore season that skillfully blends super-heroics, sly satire, and a leviathan scope for an animated concoction embracing the fun of the past with the pow! of the present. Thanks to the series’ first season, Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete Second Season goes even farther beyond the expected grim and grit of the Dark Knight in both its narrative approach And in the fun.

Across the 26-episode second season – presented in HD and widescreen as it was meant to be seen – you’ll find a vacationing Aquaman, a requiem for a Scarlet Speedster, the legendary Justice Society,...

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Batman: The Brave And The Bold, The Complete Second Season Arrives On Blu-ray™ Tuesday, September 9 From Warner Archive Collection

Bigger, bolder, blu-er! Warner Archive Collection is proud to present “Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete Second Season” in Blu-ray™ -- arriving Tuesday, September 9 at www.wbshop.com and your favorite online retailers.

The fearsome fan-addict forces behind “The Batman: The Brave and the Bold” fired on all bat-cylinders for this fantastic sophomore season that skillfully blends super-heroics, sly satire, and a leviathan scope for an animated concoction embracing the fun of the past with the pow! of the present. Thanks to the series’ first season, “Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete Second Season” goes even farther beyond the expected grim and grit of the Dark Knight in both its narrative approach And in the fun.

Across the 26-episode second...

(Richard Fleischer, 1955; Eureka!, 12)

Scripted by Sydney Boehm, a specialist in westerns and crime movies whose best film is perhaps Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, and directed by genre specialist Richard Fleischer, Violent Saturday is a noir thriller in Technicolor that brings together in 90 minutes a key location of the 1940s and 50s with one of those decades' favourite plots.

The setting is a corrupt, middle-American township (key examples being King's Row, Peyton Place and Some Came Running). The opposite of the cosy hometown of Andy Hardy movies and nostalgic Tin Pan Alley songs, it's seething with hypocrisy and inhabited by snobs, alcoholics, thieves, voyeurs, blackmailers, adulterers and womanising playboys. The plot is the heist movie, the story of a carefully prepared robbery, which has been around since The Great Train Robbery (1903) but became an established species of the crime genre in the postwar years in The Asphalt Jungle, Criss Cross and The Killing.

Steven Soderbergh is nothing if not candid. And self-critical. But unless you're a longtime fan you may not have heard the always-frank filmmaker essentially throw himself underneath the bus for Universal/Gramercy Picture’s 1995 crime film, "The Underneath” starring Peter Gallagher, William Fichtner, Elisabeth Shue and Alison Elliott. A remake of 1949's noir "Criss Cross," the film came at a critical time in the filmmaker's development and a tumultuous one in his life. He had started his career with the Palme d'Or breakthrough "Sex Lies & Videotape," a film that essentially jumpstarted the American indie film scene ("it's all downhill from here,” he quipped during his acceptance speech), but his subsequent efforts didn't connect with audiences. And moreover Soderbergh seemed dissatisfied with each to some degree or another. By the time his fourth feature "The Underneath" was ready to roll before cameras, the filmmaker, who was also suffering through a crumbling marriage,...

Josh Olson on Noir! continues at Trailers from Hell, with screenwriter Olson introducing 1953's "Wicked Woman," starring Richard Egan as a small-town barkeep and perennial femme fatale Beverly Michaels as the sexy drifter who has his number.The memories of movie fans are papered with the work of the remarkably prolific producer Edward Small, ranging from such sophisticated fare as Witness for the Prosecution  to boomer favorites like Jack The Giant Killer and It, The Terror From Beyond Space. In 1953 Small produced Wicked Woman, a memorably sleazy but amusingly self-aware noir out of the Jim Thompson playbook. Directed by Russell Rouse (The Oscar), and co-starring Percy Helton, the high-pitched gnome from so many other essential noirs including Kiss Me Deadly and Criss Cross.

The Good German

Written by Paul Attanasio

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

USA, 2006

During the mid-2000s, between his exercise in low-budget filmmaking and new modes of exhibition with Bubble, and his big-budget ensemble Ocean’s Thirteen, Steven Soderbergh made a mid-budget return to 1940s style with The Good German.

Announcing the unambiguous Casablanca reference with a mimicking poster, Soderbergh’s black-and-white film is full of classic Hollywood soft-lighting and sinister wartime figures.

The Good German fits squarely alongside two previous Soderbergh efforts in its near-revisionist status: Underneath and Solaris, which are both bold takes on classic source material. Underneath reworks Robert Siodmak’s Criss Cross into a color-gelled suburban world. Solaris is a re-adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 novel, moving the film closer to a relationship drama than Andrei Tarkovsky’s famous 1972 adaptation was.

These two films point toward Soderbergh’s willingness to take on and reimagine classic tropes. Though...

Susan Bee is a painter, editor, and book artist who lives in New York. Bee is represented by Accola Griefen Gallery, New York, where she will have a solo show of new paintings from May 23 to June 29, 2013. Criss Cross: New Paintings will be accompanied by a catalog with an essay by art critic and poet Raphael Rubinstein.

Bradley Rubenstein: Susan, I just saw this piece by Roger Denson in the Huffington Post: "Mira Schor and Susan Bee, the Thelma and Louise of the Feminist Painting and Crit set, pose the biggest threat to male domination of the medium and criticism of painting in that they are critics as wellas painters, and editors to boot, whose joint imprimatur has been pulsing out the feminist-left political art journal M/E/A/N/I/N/G since the mid-1980s." (Huffington Post, May 1, 2012)

I thought that was really great. It ties...

This article is dedicated to Andrew Copp: filmmaker, film writer, artist and close friend who passed away on January 19, 2013. You are loved and missed, brother.

****

Looking at the Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film year 2012, the one miss that clearly cries out for more attention is Liam Neeson’s powerful performance in Joe Carnahan’s excellent survival film The Grey, easily one of the best roles of Neeson’s career.

In Neeson’s case, his lack of a nomination was a case of neglect similar to the Albert Brooks snub in the Best Supporting Actor category for the film year 2011 for Drive(Nicolas Winding Refn, USA).

Along with negligence, other factors commonly prevent outstanding lead acting performances from getting the kind of critical attention they deserve. Sometimes it’s that the performance is in a film not considered “Oscar material” or even worthy of any substantial critical attention.

Tonight on NBC, Jack Donaghy will dish out his last piece of witty advice to Liz Lemon and she'll fire back one final time with some nerdy, feminist argument. As Lemon's journey to "have it all" comes to an end, ETonline looks back at cast interviews, pics and quips from Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and the rest of the lovable 30 Rock cast.

Here is your essential guide to 30 Rock finale day:

1. 30 Rock Romances! Before Lemon found love with Criss Cross (James Marsden), she had quite a few boyfriends.

2. Jack's Life Lessons "Never go with a hippie to second location" is just one of 20 lessons that we've learned from Jackie D.

3. What's next for 30 Rock creator Tina Fey? The funny lady talks about a possible Mean Girls musical and a new NBC show.

4. 30 Rock Looting There's bound to be a fire sale of all the props and such on the 30 Rock set, but first, the...

The election is about to take an outrageously absurd turn. No, we’re not talking about the ramifications of last night’s presidential debate — we’re talking about the final season of 30 Rock, premiering tonight on NBC, which will tackle the race for the White House in its own uniquely absurd way. Don’t like teases? Can’t handle spoilers? Hate geeky references to Voltron? Then good lord, man, stop reading! Spoiler Warning!

In the sitcom’s second episode, Kabletown bigwig and Republican loyalist Jack (Alec Baldwin) will grieve the news that Governor Mitt Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan,...

An unconfirmed Achievement list for Assassin’s Creed III has been leaked online, revealing a little bit about the game’s plot and some new features.

Assuming the list is accurate, the leaked Assassin’s Creed III Achievements do contain a few spoilers for the upcoming game. Consider this fair warning.

The best news is that the game’s multiplayer Achievements make up only 80G (spread out over five Achievements) of the total 1000G. Reaching level 20 and unlocking one hacked Astergo video seem to be the two that will be the most time-consuming, so those who prefer single-player won’t be missing much.

As for Assassin’s Creed III‘s single-player Achievements, it appears that you will visit a stadium and skyscraper during the modern-day portions of the game, before traveling to the Abstergo laboratory. Exactly what happens at all three locations is not known, however, at some point you...

By Jonathan Melville

Is there something about classic movie fans that makes us more obsessive than your average cinemagoer? Does the fact that we often have to search for years for that obscure Western or noir on DVD mean we're more appreciative when we finally see it? Would most of us rather watch a 1960s Bond movie at the multiplex than a modern CGI-fest?

Those are some of the questions I asked myself as I left my home (and DVD collection) in the UK to fly 5,000 miles to the third annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood over the weekend of 12-15 April 2012. A gathering of thousands of movie aficionados from around the globe, this spin-off from the Us cable TV channel promises attendees that they'll see some of the best films ever made, often in the company of the people who made them, in the way they were meant to be seen.

Steven Soderbergh has been a prolific filmmaker, cranking out a movie every year or two (and sometimes twice a year) since Sex, Lies, and Videotape propelled him to fame in 1989. Always willing to venture into new genres, Soderbergh tried his hand at film noir with his fourth feature, The Underneath.

Released in 1995 and shot in Austin, The Underneath (also known as Underneath) is a remake of Criss Cross, a 1949 thriller based on Don Tracy's 1934 novel of the same title. The story is classic (some would say clichéd) noir, a grim tale of how addiction, lust, jealousy and greed can inspire evil acts, compelling desperate people to take desperate measures.

The film centers on gambling addict Michael Chambers (Peter Gallagher), who returns home to Austin for his mother's wedding. Michael had left town abruptly years earlier to escape his gambling debts, leaving his wife, Rachel (Alison Elliott), to deal with the mess her husband created.

The second edition of the N1FR, n+1's film review, "is very late," begins editor As Hamrah, but there's no need to apologize. The timing is perfect, arriving just many of us will be desperate for distraction from what promises to be a very noisy weekend. As Hamrah notes, there's not one piece in the entire issue on "even one film nominated for an Oscar this year."

Instead, we have Chris Fujiwara setting Vincent Gallo and George Clooney next to each other and riffing on the juxtaposition, Christine Smallwood on Apichatpong Weerasethakul and on Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jeanette Samyn and Jonathan Kyle Sturgeon on Pedro Costa, Dmitry Martov on Serge Bozon and his circle, Emily Gould on Badmaash Company, a Bollywood movie that screams out to be compared and contrasted with The Social Network, Jennifer Krasinski on the rise of the polymath, Ben Maraniss on Mel Gibson,...

The screenwriters behind Horrible Bosses have just closed a deal on the sequel. John Francis Daley (Sam from "Freaks and Geeks"!) and Jonathan Goldstein are hot after the film became a surprise hit, and Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis will be returning. The studio is in talks to have director Seth Gordon return, as well. The first film starred the trio as friends who decide to kill off each other's bosses (Criss cross), played by Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrel and...

In 1929, in a Berlin still in full artistic bloom—not yet ravaged by economic devastation or National Socialism—a group of young filmmakers pooled their creative resources to make a movie. The director: Robert Siodmak, who later found fame in Hollywood with dark-toned thrillers like The Killers and Criss Cross. His assistant: Edgar G. Ulmer, who went on to make the even-darker crime pictures Detour and Strange Illusion. The script was by Robert’s brother Curt, a science-fiction/horror novelist who later wrote the screenplays for The Wolf Man and I Walked With A Zombie. Curt was assisted by ...

Above: Publicity still from John Parker's Dementia (1955).

Rep houses in San Francisco, like those in most American cities, are struggling to stay open. But for something like thirty nights a year, the clouds lift and big crowds materialize for films of the past: call it the noir exception. To be sure, one needn’t actually attend the Film Noir Foundation’s annual Noir City festival at the Castro or Elliot Lavine’s grittier programs at the Roxie to know that the generic fantasy of film noir (style, sex and violence washed together) still holds powerful allure. You could hardly miss the bus stop advert for Rockstar Games’ latest blockbuster, L.A. Noire, outside the Roxie during Lavine’s latest marathon, “I Wake Up Dreaming: The Legendary and the Lost”. For those of us still invested in the non-interactive cinema experience, however, the popularity of these series is a remarkable if curious thing.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85. Jamie Lee Curtis' actor father passed away on Wednesday, September 29. No further details were available as WENN went to press. Born Bernard Schwartz to Jewish immigrants from Hungary, the star endured a tough upbringing in the Bronx borough of New York, which saw him spend a year in an orphanage with his younger brother Julius because his parents were too poor to feed them.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before deciding to pursue his love of acting and enrolling in the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with German director Erwin Piscator. He moved to Hollywood in 1948 when he was 23 and landed a contract with Universal Pictures. It was then that Schwartz changed his name to Tony Curtis, adopting his first name from the book Anthony Adverse and his last name from Kurtz,...

One of the great performers Hollywood has had the great pleasure of seeing, Tony Curtis passed away yesterday at the age of 85. Curtis's cause of death was cardiac arrest, suffered in his home near Las Vegas.

Born as Bernard Schwartz in 1925 to Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, Curtis led the life of a poor family, living in a confined space behind the tailor shop that they owned before his parents -- unable to take care of their children -- placed he and his brother in state care. After high school, Curtis served in the Navy during World War II, and watched through a pair of binoculars during Japan's formal surrender.

After that, he took up acting classes and in 1949, he began his career in films like City Across the River and Criss Cross. This set in motion what would become almost 130 acting credits. Over the next couple of decades is...

Acting icon Tony Curtis died Wednesday evening after suffering cardiac arrest at his Henderson, Nev., home. He was 85.

Curtis was one of Hollywood’s most celebrated leading men, having gained acclaim for his performances in such timeless classics as “Some Like it Hot,” “Sweet Smell of Success, “The Defiant Ones,” “Spartacus” and “Operation Petticoat.”

Born Bernard Schwatrz on June 3, 1925, in New York City, Curtis grew up in an impoverished section of the Bronx and his family struggled through the Depression. According to his official biography, Curtis joined the Navy in 1943 and upon his release from active duty, he returned to New York where he used the GI Bill to attend acting school. Curtis first gained attention in a Greenwich Village stage production of "Golden Boy." Not long after his discovery, he was offered a seven-year contract by Universal Pictures. In 1948, he went to California to make his screen debut with...

By Ali Naderzad - September 30, 2010

After Tony Curtis danced with Yvone de Carlo in “Criss Cross” (1948) he received thousands of fan letters asking for a lock of his hair. And that mane was famous; it should’ve had its own stage name. Curtis left us yesterday and with him a sizable piece of the Hollywood myth goes. Success never seemed to be far and everyone took to liking the Studio City golden boy. And modesty was never quite his thing: when asked who the most attractive person was he had worked with he replied “I am.” Of his undying streak of good luck Curtis has been quoted as saying, “Well, on the one hand you could say I was tremendously blessed, on the other I was definitely cursed.”

More than for a good run Curtis should be celebrated for his lust for life; and there was a yearning to be on the big screen,...

Chicago – Tony Curtis was the Prince of Hollywood, he was the original Fantastic Mr. Fox. He took his pretty boy good looks and carved a career that included the classic films “Some Like it Hot,” “Sweet Smell of Success” and “The Defiant Ones.” Tony Curtis died at his Las Vegas home yesterday at the age of 85.

I had the privilege of interviewing Tony Curtis twice for HollywoodChicago.com in the last couple of years. We spoke of his early days as an actor, his relationship with director Billy Wilder and the various ups and downs in his adventurous life. Between the outline of that life I will add some direct quotes given to me by the man.

Tony Curtis poses for HollywoodChicago.com on Dec. 3, 2009.

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, New York, in 1925, Curtis grew up poor as the son of immigrant parents.

Tony Curtis, the Oscar-nominated heartthrob and father of Jamie Lee Curtis best known for such hits as Sweet Smell of Success and Some Like It Hot, has died. He was 85. Curtis died Wednesday night at his Las Vegas home of cardiac arrest, the Clark County coroner told The Associated Press. Curtis, who had heart bypass surgery in 1994, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was hospitalized in July after he had trouble breathing. The actor almost died in 2006, when he contracted pneumonia and was in a coma for several days. Born Bernard Schwartz, Curtis, who joined the Navy during World War II, signed a contract with Universal Pictures in 1948 at age 23 and made his film debut a year later in Criss Cross. Handsome and athletic, Curtis admitted that he banked on his looks early in his career, but he became a respected actor with a trio of acclaimed hits: 1957's Sweet Smell of Success,...

Actor whose good looks and charm took him to the heights of Hollywood with films such as Some Like It Hot and The Defiant Ones

Born into a family of Hungarian Jews who had emigrated to the Us, Bernard Schwartz – the boy who became the actor Tony Curtis – could scarcely have dreamed of the wealth, fame and rollercoaster life that awaited him. Curtis, who has died aged 85, starred in several of the best films of the 1950s, including Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958) and Some Like It Hot (1959). He enjoyed a long career thanks to his toughness and resilience (despite insecurities that demanded years of therapy).

He grew up in the Bronx, New York, the eldest of three sons. As a child, he was ill-treated by his mother, Helen, and spent time in an orphanage. One of his brothers, Robert, was a schizophrenic and the other, Julius, was...

Tony Curtis, who channeled a rough childhood marked by tragedy into a polished and sustained career on the large and small screen for over sixty years, died yesterday of a cardiac arrest at his home in Las Vegas, his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, reported to Entertainment Tonight. He was 85.

Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx in 1925, Curtis grew up in poverty. The eldest child of immigrant parents, he had almost no formal education and began to sneak into the movies with his younger brother Julius as a means of escape. When he was 10 years old, however, the financial strain on the family became too much to bear and Tony and his brother briefly became wards of the state, admitted to an orphanage for a number of weeks before being reclaimed by his parents. This experience helped shape a strong sense of independence in the boy as Curtis was prematurely forced to learn one of life's toughest lessons; namely, that the only person you can count on is yourself.

In 1938, shortly before Curtis’s bar mitzvah, his brother and constant companion Julius was tragically killed in a traffic accident. Devastated, Tony pulled further away from the conventional life that his parents had always hoped for in the belief that life was to be experienced head-on and hands-on and a few years later joined the Navy. He was honorably discharged after three years of service and with no other plans for a career, auditioned for the New York Dramatic Workshop when he realized the GI Bill would pay for acting school. As is so often the case, fate stepped in for Curtis, as he caught the eye of a theatrical agent during one of his many small stage appearances. Joyce Selznick just happened to be the niece of film producer David Selznick, who ended up offering Curtis a seven-year contract with Universal Studios.

Arriving in Hollywood in 1948 at age 23, he changed his name to Tony Curtis and quickly made an impression with a two-minute role in 'Criss Cross' (1949), in which he makes Burt Lancaster jealous by dancing with Yvonne De Carlo. Based on the strength of that role, Curtis finally got the chance to demonstrate his acting flair, as he was cast in a small, but important role in Sierra (1950). This led to his first big-budget movie, Winchester '73 (1950), which allowed the ambitious, yet still raw talent the chance to act alongside Jimmy Stewart.

Curtis worked steadily throughout the early ‘50’s, consciously working in various genres while actively seeking roles in movies that had some kind of social relevance. His breakout performance as the scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) was the beginning of a great run for the versatile Curtis, who followed an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted, escaped convict chained to Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones (1958) and with a broadly comic turn opposite Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot (1959).

He was drawn to roles and films that would challenge audiences. Curtis was advised against appearing as the subordinate sidekick Antoninus in the epic Spartacus (1960), playing second fiddle to Kirk Douglas, but he was taken with the part and the chance to work with the director Stanley Kubrick. He garnered a significant amount of controversy (and critical acclaim) by playing against type the self-confessed murderer Albert DeSalvo in The Boston Strangler (1968). It was around this time that Curtis ventured into television where he co-starred with Roger Moore in the series “The Persuaders!” (1971) and later, created memorable supporting characters in “McCoy” (1975) and “Vega$” (1978).

On the personal front, Curtis was an avid painter throughout his life and one of his surrealist works went on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2007. More famously, as he detailed in his autobiography “American Prince: A Memoir”, Curtis had relationships with a number of famous actresses, including Natalie Wood and a brief, but widely publicized affair with Marilyn Monroe. He was married five times, most notably to Janet Leigh, with whom he had two daughters, Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis. His last marriage, to Jill Vandenberg, who was 42 years his junior, was in 1998 and lasted until his death. Curtis had six children, five which survive him: two with Leigh, two from his second wife Christine Kaufmann, and two from his third, Leslie Allen.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85.

Jamie Lee Curtis' actor father passed away on Wednesday after suffering a cardiac arrest in bed at his Las Vegas home.

No further details were available as WENN went to press.

Born Bernard Schwartz to Jewish immigrants from Hungary, the star endured a tough upbringing in the Bronx borough of New York, which saw him spend a year in an orphanage with his younger brother Julius because his parents were too poor to feed them.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before deciding to pursue his love of acting and enrolling in the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with German director Erwin Piscator.

He moved to Hollywood in 1948 when he was 23 and landed a contract with Universal Pictures. It was then that Schwartz changed his name to Tony Curtis, adopting his first name from the book Anthony Adverse and his last name from Kurtz, from his mother's family.

Curtis made his film debut with an uncredited appearance in 1949's Criss Cross, but it was only in the mid-1950s that he emerged as a breakout star with roles in movies including 1957's Sweet Smell of Success and alongside Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones (1958), a performance which landed him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

He also starred in dramas The Outsider and The Boston Strangler, but he will perhaps be best remembered for his performance in Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. In 2000, the American Film Institute named the movie classic the greatest American comedy film of all time.

Curtis also embarked on a variety of TV projects and was immortalised as 'Stony Curtis' on popular cartoon The Flintstones in the early 1960s. In the '70s, he co-starred with former James Bond actor Roger Moore in The Persuaders! series, and went on to land roles in U.S. TV shows McCoy and Vega$.

The actor scaled down the number of films he made in the 1980s and embarked on a career as a surrealist painter. His works became such a hit in the art world, he was able to command more than $25,000 (£16,700) a piece and his painting The Red Table went on display at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007.

Curtis was later awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was presented with the prestigious French honour, the Order of Arts and Letters, in 1995. He was also an Emmy nominated star and collected two Golden Globes, in 1958 and 1961.

His final role as an actor was in 2008 romantic war drama David & Fatima, in which he starred with Oscar winner Martin Landau, although he expressed a desire to return to the screen earlier this year.

Outside Hollywood, Curtis was also known for his high-profile personal life - he was married to actress Janet Leigh for 11 years and they had two children together, Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis, who both followed their parents into showbusiness.

He openly admitted to cheating on Leigh during their union and divorced her in 1962 to wed Christine Kaufmann, his then-17-year-old German co-star in Taras Bulba. He fathered two kids with her but his second marriage lasted just four years.

He was married a further three times and had two more children with third wife Leslie Allen, although their son Nicholas died from a heroin overdose in 1994, aged 23.

Renowned womaniser Curtis later revealed he had had a brief fling with Marilyn Monroe in 1949, and detailed their love affair in his autobiography American Prince: A Memoir.

Curtis was dogged by ill health in his later years and came close to death when he was struck down by pneumonia and fell into a coma in December 2006. He regained consciousness several days later but the virus left him weak and he was resigned to using a wheelchair to get around as he could only walk short distances.

He was hospitalised in August last year when he suffered an asthma-like attack and was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Copd), a condition which sent him to seek medical attention again in New York in early 2010.

In July, Curtis was admitted to hospital in Las Vegas after another Copd attack after being taken ill at an exhibition of his artwork.

He is survived by his fifth wife Jill Vandenberg Curtis, who he wed in 1998 despite their 42-year age difference, and his five children.

We remember the classic movies of Hollywood legend Tony Curtis, who passed away yesterday at the age of 85.

We’re sad to report the passing of cinema legend Tony Curtis, who died yesterday aged 85.

The star of such classics as Some Like It Hot, in which he starred alongside Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and Stanley Kubrick’s period epic, Spartacus, Curtis appeared in more than a hundred movies since his debut in 1949’s Criss Cross.

Curtis won a much-deserved Oscar for his role in 1958’s The Defiant Ones, which also starred Sidney Poitier, and made memorable small screen appearances in series such as The Persuaders, and provided the voice of his near-namesake Stony Curtis in The Flintstones.

It’s for his comedy turn in Some Like It Hot that he’ll probably be most fondly remembered, however, and his performance as one of two hapless musicians who decide to...

Hey Gang! Here's a fun little live-action re-enactment of the original Toy Story movie opening, using real toys. The video below was created by Criss Cross Media, and it's the opening scene where Andy is playing with his toys and Woody has to save Bo Beep from the evil One-Eyed Bart. Check out the video below and let us know what ya think! Enjoy!

Actress Yvonne De Carlo, who played two very famous but disparate wives -- to Charlton Heston in movie epic The Ten Commandments and Fred Gwynne in the horror-spoof sitcom The Munsters -- died Monday in Los Angeles of natural causes; she was 84. Born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, Canada, the actress first traveled to Hollywood with her mother at the age of 15, but returned to Canada after finding little success, even though she was named "Miss Venice Beach" in 1938. Upon her return in 1940 at age 18, she found minor success with chorus girl roles and uncredited bit parts, finally securing her first notable role as Princess Wah-Tah in the western The Deerslayer. As a starlet for Universal, she toiled in numerous unmemorable roles before scoring the lead in the box office success Salome Where She Danced (1945), which led to starring roles in movies such as Slave Girl, Casbah, and River Lady. She played a femme fatale alongside Burt Lancaster in the noir classic Criss Cross, the Princess Scheherazade in The Desert Hawk, and the lead opposite a young Rock Hudson in Scarlet Angel. Her two most famous film roles came in the late '50s, when she played wife Sephora to Charlton Heston's Moses in The Ten Commandments, and the female lead opposite Clark Gable in Raoul Walsh's Band of Angels (which also featured the young Sidney Poitier).

By the early '60s, De Carlo was appearing steadily in a number of television series, and in 1964 she was tapped for the role of Lily Munster in the sitcom The Munsters. A show that parodied both horror films and squeaky-clean family sitcoms, where the titular family of monstrous misfits interacted with the regular world at large, it aired on CBS from 1964-66 and became a cultural phenomenon upon going into reruns. Spoofing the Bride of Frankenstein, De Carlo showed off a comic flair that was often missing from her film roles, and though the show lasted for only 70 episodes, Lily Munster became De Carlo's most famous part. (The Munsters debuted in the same year as the similarly-themed The Addams Family, and both were canceled two years later.) Most of De Carlo's film and TV appearances for the rest of her career were in horror movies (or spoofs) or in episodic television, and her last role was in the 1995 TV movie The Barefoot Executive. On Broadway, however, she created the role of Carlotta Campion in Stephen Sondheim's 1972 musical Follies, where she sang the show's signature number, "I'm Still Here," and also published her autobiography in 1987. De Carlo was married to stutman Bob Morgan, whom she divorced in 1968 and with whom she had two sons. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...