By Hank Reineke The Manila International Film Festival was set to open its doors to guests on 20 January 1982.  The date was nearly a year to the day that strong-man Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marco had lifted his controversial eight-year term of martial law restrictions in the country.  But the lifting of the martial law brought only small relief to the majority populace.  The Philippines was still racked by issues of rampant poverty, wealth inequality and unemployment.  Both political and cultural observers thought it folly to stage such a gilded film event du ..read more

If you haven't obtained this yet, do so. Here are the official details from Kino Lorber.  Discover the Irreverent, Uproarious, and Astonishing Films of Cinema's First Nasty Women A Four-Disc Collection of 99 Specially Curated, Rarely-Seen Silent Films That Paved the Way for Feminist Comedy and Gender Activism in Movies Today. **Award Winner at the 2023 Cinema Ritrovato DVD Awards** A mind-expanding endeavor, the set features 99 mostly comic rarities produced from 1898 to 1926, gleaned from archives and libraries across the globe. It is a triumph of scholarship.” — Manohla Dargis, Th ..read more

By Hank Reineke Technically speaking, OSS 117 secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath is not a James Bond knock off. The creation of wildly prolific French author Jean Bruce, the first literary adventure of the spy arrived in 1949 with the publication of Tu parles d'une ingénue (Ici OSS 117). This would pre-date the April 1953 publication of the first Ian Fleming James Bond novel, Casino Royale, by nearly four years. In the years following the publication of that first 007 thriller to his last in 1965, Fleming would deliver an impressive thirteen James Bond novels and nine short stories. In ..read more

(Image courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome.) By Lee Pfeiffer Vinegar Syndrome has released a special edition of the 1968 whodunnit Western "5 Card Stud". It's an unusual title for the company, which generally specializes in releasing first rate special editions of obscure cult films and vintage erotica. The film was a follow-up project between veteran producer Hal Wallis and director Henry Hathaway, who had great success with their 1965 Western "The Sons of Katie Elder" which top-lined John Wayne and Dean Martin, who were reunited six years after co-starring in Howard Hawks' classic "Rio Bravo ..read more

By Lee Pfeiffer "Sweet November", released in 1968, came and went without generating much enthusiasm from critics or the public. Produced the estimable team of Jerry Gershwin and Elliott Kastner, who would go on to make "Where Eagles Dare", the film is a romantic comedy set in Brooklyn Heights, just across the river from Manhattan decades before the area was deemed to be hip. Anthony Newley is Charlie Blake, a stuffy British import to Gotham who is the workaholic president of a company that manufactures cardboard boxes. You know the type: no time for love or laughs and just perfect to be taug ..read more

In this appearance on "The Dick Cavett Show", director Blake Edwards shows some of his prized bloopers from the set of "A Shot in the Dark" starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Even the normally dour George Sanders can't resist cracking up ..read more

Dan Blocker, who played the gentle giant Hoss Cartwright on "Bonanza", rarely gave personal interviews but he made an exception in 1971, sitting down with entertainment journalist Bobby Wygant. Blocker discusses his travels, his prediction for the show's future and family aspects of life Tragically, he would die the very next year at age 43 ..read more

By  Fred Blosser In “Man-Eater of Kumaon,” a 1948 feature now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Dr. John Collins (Wendell Corey) undertakes an ill-fated big-game hunt in the distant land of the movie’s title—an actual region of India in the Himalayan foothills, not a fantasy world orbiting somewhere between planets Coruscant and Dune as the exotic name might suggest nowadays. Stalking a tiger in the underbrush, Collins inflicts an agonizing but not fatal injury as his bullet severs one of the tiger’s toes. His Indian guides warn that the wounded tiger will begin atta ..read more

"RETRO-ACTIVE: ARTICLES FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVE" By Lee Pfeiffer We must admit that when it comes to showcasing bad movies, Cinema Retro is a bit provincial in that we tend to concentrate on misfires from English language cinema. But why not spread the wealth? After all, there are bad movies being made in every language. The good reaction we got from running the 1959 Mexican "Santa Claus" film has now inspired us to honor a bad Turkish flick, the 1972 crime thriller "Kareteci Kiz", of which we have only seen the death scene depicted here. If there is a worse scene showing the demise of ..read more

British advertisement for the 1961 double feature of "Gold of the Seven Saints" starring Clint Walker and Roger Moore and "The White Warrior" starring Steve Reeves.  ..read more