Ron Moody in 'Oliver!' movie. Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' actor nominated for an Oscar dead at 91 (Note: This Ron Moody article is currently being revised.) Two well-regarded, nonagenarian British performers have died in the last few days: 93-year-old Christopher Lee (June 7, '15), best known for his many portrayals of Dracula and assorted movie villains and weirdos, from the title role in The Mummy to Dr. Catheter in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. 91-year-old Ron Moody (yesterday, June 11), among whose infrequent film appearances was the role of Fagin, the grotesque adult leader of a gang of boy petty thieves, in the 1968 Best Picture Academy Award-winning musical Oliver!, which also earned him a Best Actor nomination. Having been featured in nearly 200 movies and, most importantly, having had his mainstream appeal resurrected by way of the villainous Saruman in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies (and various associated merchandising,...
- 6/12/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Macbeth was the first film Roman Polanski made following the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, and friends at the hands of the Manson family. At the time he'd been working on the sci-fi thriller The Day of the Dolphin, which would later be made by Mike Nichols. It was during a skiing trip arranged by Victor Lownes, a subsequent producer of the film, Polanski made the decision Macbeth would be his next film. It was a decision he made feeling his next film "should be something serious, not a comedy... something with some depth." Polanski would team with Kenneth Tynan to write the screenplay and, thanks to urging from Lownes, Hugh Hefner and Playboy would eventually serve as the film's producer after no one else would touch it. As Polanski notes in an included 60-minute documentary on this new Criterion Blu-ray release, to that point there had only been...
- 10/15/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Macbeth
Written by Roman Polanski and Kenneth Tynan
Directed by Roman Polanski
UK, 1971
Following the success of Rosemary’s Baby in 1968, and prior to what is arguably still his greatest film, Chinatown (1974), Roman Polanski made three curious filmmaking choices. One was the international coproduction and rarely discussed What? (1972), one was the racing documentary Weekend of a Champion (1972), and the third, which actually came before these two, was Macbeth (1971). It is obviously not that a Shakespearean adaptation in itself is unusual, but rather that it so seemingly diverted from the films that were garnering the young Polanski his worldwide acclaim: taut thrillers like The Knife in the Water (1962), Repulsion (1965), Cul-De-Sac (1966), and Rosemary’s Baby. Yet in Macbeth, there are a number of characteristic Polanski touches — in story and style — harkening back to these previous works and in many ways pointing toward those to come.
Don’t be fooled by the Playboy...
Written by Roman Polanski and Kenneth Tynan
Directed by Roman Polanski
UK, 1971
Following the success of Rosemary’s Baby in 1968, and prior to what is arguably still his greatest film, Chinatown (1974), Roman Polanski made three curious filmmaking choices. One was the international coproduction and rarely discussed What? (1972), one was the racing documentary Weekend of a Champion (1972), and the third, which actually came before these two, was Macbeth (1971). It is obviously not that a Shakespearean adaptation in itself is unusual, but rather that it so seemingly diverted from the films that were garnering the young Polanski his worldwide acclaim: taut thrillers like The Knife in the Water (1962), Repulsion (1965), Cul-De-Sac (1966), and Rosemary’s Baby. Yet in Macbeth, there are a number of characteristic Polanski touches — in story and style — harkening back to these previous works and in many ways pointing toward those to come.
Don’t be fooled by the Playboy...
- 9/30/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
The Mummy’s Curse
Written by Bernard Schubert, Leon Abrams, and Dwight V. Babcock
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
USA, 1944
“The devil’s alive and he’s dancing with the mummy.”
Universal’s mummy series plateaus with 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse. Set in the 1990s, men on an irrigation project working in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou help unearth mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) and his Princess Ananka (Virigina Christine). Knowing this, the film’s High Priest, Dr. Izor Zandaab (Peter Coe) follows his supposed boss Dr. Halsey (Dennis Moore) to retrieve the mummies. What ensues is mostly a chase film and blatant repetition of The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, and even The Mummy’s Ghost.
Part of the repetition comes when Zandaab tells Kharis and Ananka’s story. Stock footage from the previous films is used to explain how Kharis’s attempt to bring Ananka back to...
Written by Bernard Schubert, Leon Abrams, and Dwight V. Babcock
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
USA, 1944
“The devil’s alive and he’s dancing with the mummy.”
Universal’s mummy series plateaus with 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse. Set in the 1990s, men on an irrigation project working in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou help unearth mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) and his Princess Ananka (Virigina Christine). Knowing this, the film’s High Priest, Dr. Izor Zandaab (Peter Coe) follows his supposed boss Dr. Halsey (Dennis Moore) to retrieve the mummies. What ensues is mostly a chase film and blatant repetition of The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, and even The Mummy’s Ghost.
Part of the repetition comes when Zandaab tells Kharis and Ananka’s story. Stock footage from the previous films is used to explain how Kharis’s attempt to bring Ananka back to...
- 2/5/2014
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
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