Wednesday, January 9, 2019

New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (12)

New year, new books! I'm excited to present to you another classic film book round-up. There are so many new releases that I had to be a tad more selective this time. I didn't include some of the higher priced scholarly books and kept mostly to trade and books that I thought you all would be interested in. If you think I overlooked an important title, let me know and I'm happy to add it in!

Are you new to my list? Here are the details. Links lead to Goodreads or buy pages where you can order or pre-order the title. Books include biographies, memoirs, scholary texts, coffee table books and more from a variety of publishers. Publication dates range from January to July and these are subject to change. Using my buy links helps support this site. Thank you!

If you want to hear me chatting about classic film books (and why wouldn't you?) I was a special guest on two episodes of The Movie Palace Podcast including one recorded with the host Carl Sweeney, Classic Film Books episode, and one recorded with Carl and my good friend Vanessa, Gift Ideas episode.

Now on to the books...


A Kid’s History of the Movie Image From Dawn of Time to About 1939
by Jennifer Churchill
CreateSpace
33 pages – Available Now
Amazon – Official Website




by Murray Pomerance
SUNY Press
274 pages – January 2019




The Man Behind Creepy, Vampirella, And Famous Monsters
by Bill Schelly
Fantagraphics
272 pages – January 2019



Fighting Words, Moving Pictures
by Adina Hoffman
Yale University Press
264 pages – February 2019




A Biography of Vivien Leigh
by Alan Strachan
I.B.Tauris
336 pages – February 2019




by Ralph Hancock and Letitia Fairbanks
Lyons Press
296 pages – February 2019



A Hollywood Memoir
by Victoria Riskin
Pantheon Books
416 pages – February 2019



by Jan Wahl and Morgana Wallace
Penny Candy Books
36 pages – February 2019




edited by Martin F. Norden
University Press of Mississippi
272 pages – February 2019




American Silent Cinema and the Utopian Imagination
by Ryan Jay Friedman
Rutgers University Press
232 pages – February 2019


Creating Marilyn Monroe
by Amanda Konkle
Rutgers University Press
280 pages – February 2019




Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film
by W. K. Stratton
Bloomsbury Publishing
352 pages – February 2019


A Century of Screen Sex Scandals
by Nigel Blundell
Pen and Sword History
176 pages – February 2019



by Patrick McGilligan
Harper
640 pages – March 2019



The Hidden Environmental Costs of the Movies
by Hunter Vaughn
Columbia University Press
265 pages – March 2019



All That's Left to Know About the Provocateur of Bad Taste
by Dale Sherman
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
400 pages – March 2019



Quick Takes
Dahlia Schweitzer
Rutger University Press
188 pages – March 2019




The Influence on Costume and Set Design
by Lora Ann Sigler
McFarland
162 pages – March 2019



Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist
by Julien Gorbach
Purdue University Press
484 pages – March 2019




Shooting a Masterpiece
by Christopher Frayling and Angleo Novi
Reel Art Press
336 pages – March 2019



Sinatra of the Seine, My Dad Eddie Constantine
by Tanya Constantine
Feral House
202 pages – March 2019


More than a Scarecrow
by Holly Van Leuven
Oxford University Press
256 pages – March 2019
Amazon – Barnes and Noble 



Smile
How Young Charlie Chaplin Taught the World to Laugh (and Cry)
by Gary Golio and Ed Young
Candlewick Press
48 pages – March 2019
Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Powells




The Phenomenology of Spectacle
by James Phillips
Oxford University Press
136 pages – March 2019



Betty Comden & Adolph Green’s Musicals and Movies
by Andy Propst
Oxford University Press
288 pages – March 2019



Quick Takes
by Rebecca Bell-Metereau
Rutgers University Press
130 pages – March 2019




Performing the Modern
by Shirley Jennifer Limv Temple University Press
262 pages – April 2019


Audrey Hepburn and World War II
by Robert Matzen
GoodKnight Books
400 pages – April 2019




The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Rules the Movies
by Mark A. Vieira
Turner Classic Movies and Running Press
256 pages – April 2019



An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies
by Jill Tietjen and Barbara Bridges
Lyons Press
400 pages– April 2019





by Caroline Jones
Carlton Publishing Group
160 pages – April 2019


Lady Triumphant
by Victoria Amador
University Press of Kentucky
406 pages – April 2019


An Animal Rights Memoir
by Brigitte Bardot with Anne Cecile Huprelle
Arcade
200 pages – April 2019


Every Film, Every Role
by Ellen Cheshire
Sonicbond Publishing
144 pages – May 2019


25 Movies to Make You Film Literate
by Vincent Lobrutto
Praeger
299 pages – May 2019




Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont
by Shawn Levy
Doubleday
384 pages – May 2019



Duke's Solutions to Life's Challenges
by the editors of the Official John Wayne Magazine
Media Lab Books
224 pages – May 2019



The Films of a Hollywood Giant
by Neil Sinyard
McFarland
238 pages – May 2019



The Corleone Family Cookbook
by Liliana Battle and Stacey Tyzzer
Insight Editions
208 pages – May 2019



by John Billheimer
University Press of Kentucky
360 pages – May 2019
Amazon – Barnes and Noble




The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers
by Donald Bogle
Turner Classic Movies and Running Press
264 pages – May 2019



by James L. Neibaur
McFarland
134 pages – May 2019



Actress and Humanitarian, from The 39 Steps to the Red Cross
by John Pascoe
McFarland
208 pages – May 2019



Every Movie, Every Star
by Sam Proctor
Sonicbond Publishing
144 pages – May 2019



A Life of John Buchan
by Ursual Buchan
Bloomsbury Publishing
496 pages – June 2019


Exquisite Ironies and Magnificent Obsessions
by Tom Ryan
University Press of Mississippi
320 pages – June 2019



A Contrarian History of American Screen Comedy from Silent Slapstick to Screwball
by David Kalat
McFarland
247 pages – June 2019


50 Leading Ladies Who Made History
by Sloan De Forest
Turner Classic Movies and Running Press
248 pages – July 2019


The Gabors Behind the Legend
by Sam Staggs
Kensington
352 pages – July 2019



A Remarkable Woman
by Anne Edwards
Lyons Press
448 pages – July 2019


Inspiration from the Goddess of Glam
by Michelle Morgan
Running Press
208 pages – July 2019


Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan
by J. Hoberman
The New Press
400 pages – July 2019


Displaying the Moving Image, 1926-1942
by Ariel Rogers
Columbia University Press
288 pages – July 2019


Male Beauty, Masculinity, and Stardom in Hollywood
by Gillian Kelly
University Press of Mississippi
224 pages – July 2019


Previous Round-Ups
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Monday, January 7, 2019

My Cinema Shame Statement for 2019


For my 2019 Cinema Shame challenge I'm shaking things up a bit by watching films from the year I was born. And there is no shame in telling you that 1980 happens to be my birth year. Although there is a bit of shame in admitting how few films released in 1980 I've actually seen. Not very many. So I plan to correct that in 2019 with this new challenge.

If you're not familiar with Cinema Shame, make  sure to visit the official website for details.

Which of these films from 1980 have you seen and which do you recommend? Here is what I'm planning on watching this year:


American Gigolo (1980)
dir. Paul Schrader
starring Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton and Hector Elizondo



The Blues Brothers (1980)
directed by John Landis
starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd



Caddyshack (1980)
directed by Harold Ramis
starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Henry Wilcoxon




Dressed to Kill (1980)
directed by Brian De Palma
starring Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine, Nancy Allen



Fatso (1980)
directed by Anne Bancroft
starring Dom DeLuise, Anne Bancroft, Ron Carey



Flash Gordon (1980)
directed by Mike Hodges
starring Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow


Hopscotch (1980)
directed by Ronald Neame
starring Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston



Tom Horn (1980)
directed by William Wiard
starring Steve McQueen, Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Elisha Cook Jr.




Urban Cowboy (1980)
directed by James Bridges
starring John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith Osborne




Xanadu (1980)
directed by Robert Greenwald
starring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan


What's on your Cinema Shame list for 2019? Tell me in the comment section below!

Also make sure you listen to the most recent Cinema Shame podcast episode. I'm the special guest!
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Friday, January 4, 2019

The Black Windmill (1974)




Two young boys are kidnapped. The men hired to do the job are blown up as they drive away. Corruption runs deep as two IRA arms smugglers, Celia (Delphine Seyrig) and Mckee (John Vernon), plot against undercover MI6 agent John Tarrant (Michael Caine). Tarrant soon discovers that one of the boys kidnapped is his son David. The other boy is let go but not before he's heavily drugged with a hallucinogenic that prevents him from providing any crucial information. Tarrant finds himself in a state of limbo having to deal with his distraught wife Alex (Janet Suzman), his bosses at MI6 Harper (Donald Pleasence) and Sir Julyan (Joseph O'Conor) and the smugglers, who go by the shared name Drabble. They're the ones holding his son at ransom. And their ask is a big one. They want the £500k worth of uncut diamonds that recently came into the possession of the MI6 department. Harper and Julyan have no plans to give up the diamonds but continue to string Tarrant along. Once Tarrant discovers that the government agents won't back him up, he decides to go rouge and to use his skills as a secret agent to save his son. The corruption is more prevalent than Tarrant expected and with the help of his wife Alex, he begins to uncover the clues of where his son is hidden and how he can rescue him.

The Black Windmill (1974) is based on British author Clive Egleton's debut novel Seven Days to a Killing published in 1973. The film rights to the novel were snapped up fairly quickly. Egleton went on to write numerous spy novels but this is the only one so far that has been adapted to film. According to cinematographer Ousama Rawi, the film was originally called Drabble, a reference to the shared psuedonym used by the kidnappers. Universal Pictures didn't think the name would go over well with audiences so it was on Don Siegel, who served as both director and producer, to work on a new title that would please the studio. The title changed from Drabble to The Two Windmills, then The Twin Windmills before they finally settled on The Black Windmill.

Siegel's film was shot on location in West Sussex, Kent, London and with some scenes shot at Universal Studios. The scenes inside the windmill were actually shot inside one of The Clayton Windmills in West Sussex. Rawi says the stunt man who performed the big fall inside the windmill was seriously injured on the set.  The windmill itself is a crucial part of the film and including it in the title is in itself a spoiler.





The Black Windmill suffers from a lack of real tension and a convoluted plot. I didn't see the plot twist coming but when it did it made sense for the plot but it didn't add any real entertainment value. The film as a whole could have benefited from a better story treatment. The villains are rather flat and one dimensional and I felt they could have been a bit more interesting. Michael Caine turns in a wonderful performance as secret agent Tarrant. He's the main reason you should watch this film. I enjoyed his scenes with frequent collaborator Joss Ackland who plays Chief Superintendent Wray, Tarrant's only ally except for his wife Alex. I'm always looking for how women are portrayed in films of this era and was happy to see that Alex, played by Janet Suzman, has an active part in her husband's mission to save their son and isn't just the helpless distraught housewife.




I'm working through Don Siegel and Michael Caine's respective filmographies so while this wasn't as captivating as I'd hoped it would be, ultimately I'm glad I watched it.





The Black Windmill (1974) is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. When you use my buy links you help support this site. Thanks!

The movie looks great on Blu-ray. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray and DVD includes includes audio commentary by filmmaker Mike Siegel, a great 18 minute interview with cinematographer Ousama Rawi, radio clips, a gallery and Kino Lorber trailers.


 Thank you to Kino Lorber for sending me a copy of The Black Windmill (1974) for review.
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