One of the great Americans of the 1970s, Lieutenant Columbo, made his first television appearance on February 20, 1968, in the made-for-TV movie “Prescription Murder.” Sure, he was a tad disheveled, and didn’t have a first name—but his understated intelligence, basic decency, and indelible but lightly-worn second-generation ethnicity made him an exemplar of the best…
On February 8 1968, Planet of the Apes premiered in New York City. The film, starring Charlton Heston, was a hit, and spawned four sequels of increasing dystopia and decreasing budget—but at least the unloved fifth installment, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) gave us John Huston as the lawgiver, which works for us….
The hardworking staff at Mid Century Cinema recently had reason to revisit the New Hollywood films of Peter Yates. Of the nine features he directed from 1967 to 1977, two stand out as landmarks of the movement: Bullitt (1968) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). We will consider the under-appreciated Bullitt later this year for…
Despite decades of dedication to the films of Stanley Kubrick, the hard working staff here at Mid Century Cinema had never before screened Spartacus. So now we have really seen them all. How could we possibly have waited this long? Two reasons. First, Spartacus is an epic – a giant, important, purposeful enterprise – and…
Jane Fonda turns 80 on December 21, which makes perfect sense, but nevertheless comes as something of a surprise. Fonda has been in the public eye for so long – and in so many guises (trailblazing video exercise guru in the eighties, the Ted Turner 1990s, most recently an art-house television star) – that one…
‘Tis the season for year-end “best of” lists, so we thought we’d play along with a focus on our favorite home video releases of 2017. A few ground rules – we’re valuing the merits of the release, not simply the movie, so there is an emphasis on discs that offer valuable extras and those that…
In Cold Blood, an adaptation of Truman Capote’s critically acclaimed and wildly successful book, premiered in New York City on December 14 1967. The book, a milestone in the “true crime” genre (and, even more important, in the accomplished narrative non-fiction genre of the period that includes Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer-prize winning Armies of the Night),…
Can we treasure the work of artists whose behavior we vehemently disapprove of? Our short answer is yes. But keep reading. This is a question that must be reckoned with nowadays, given the recent (and continuing) avalanche of simply horrifying revelations of sexual harassment, and often much, much worse, by prominent, powerful men. Many of…
Martin Scorsese turned seventy-five on November 17, a milestone that naturally lends itself to looking back at his remarkable career. (Though, we hasten to add, not in a valedictory way—he is currently working on one film, has another in pre-production, and plans are already taking shape for the one after that.) Given that Scorsese’s overflowing…
November 15, 1967 marked another milestone for the emerging New Hollywood—the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s first feature film at the 1967 Chicago International Film Festival. Not that this was obvious at the time. The movie, then with the title I Call First, had been shooting in fits and starts over several years as its not-quite-shoestring budget…