A couple of years before Top Gun put us in the pilot seat of the F-14 Tomcat, The Final Countdown had the full cooperation of the U.S. Navy and delivered some stunning aerial photography in this classic time travel film. Boasting performances by Martin Sheen, Kirk Douglas, James Farentino, Katharine Ross and Charles Durning, I…
Tag: kirk douglas
The Fury (1978) – Brian De Palma
Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving star in De Palma’s first film after his success with Carrie, and this one is another supernatural tinged thriller, but this one boasts a score by John Williams, and viewers should watch for brief appearances by Daryl Hannah and Dennis Franz. John Farris pens the screenplay from his own novel,…
Saturn 3 (1980) – Stanley Donen, and John Barry
Gorgeous set and production design can’t save a film with a number of top drawer stars (Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, and Harvey Keitel) thanks to a heavily edited final cut, and flawed story. Not to mention some miniature and model work that may have worked in the 50s but looks incredibly bad in the 80s,…
Ulysses (1954) – Mario Camerini
Kirk Douglas stars in this Italian sword and sandals (and sorcery) epic that also features Anthony Quinn, and is the next film in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book as I explore the chapter on Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales. Using Homer’s epic poem as its basis, the film follows Ulysses (Douglas) on his…
Out of the Past (1947) – Jacques Tourneur
Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas bring the noir genre to roaring life on the big screen with this 1947 adaptation of the novel by Geoffrey Holmes. It’s also the first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Point Blank. Mitchum is Jeff Bailey. He lives…
Spartacus (1960) – Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick takes us back to 1st Century B.C.E. for the next stop in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film. The classic story of a slave that leads a revolt against the Roman Empire, that has become decadent, and indulgent. Leading the cast, and serving as executive producer is Kirk Douglas, who is joined…
Paths of Glory (1957) – Stanley Kubrick
Kirk Douglas stars as French army Colonel Dax in this next film recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of All Quiet on the Western Front. Kubrick brings his inimitable style to bear on the Great War in this film that tells the tale of a failed…
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) – Carl Reiner
Where Monsieur Hulot’s recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book suggested Blazing Saddles as a western send-up, the hilarious Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid starring Steve Martin skewers the noir genre lovingly by intercutting out hero Rigby Reardon (Martin) with actual footage from classic noir films. Reardon, a cynical gumshoe…
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
So Disney shows up on the 101 Sci-Fi Movies list with this classic from 1954. Based on the classic tale by Jules Verne, Disney pulled out all the stops and brought a lavish, extravagant production to the big screen, with an all-star cast including James Mason, Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre. The film, set…
The Mind Reels 