Cinema [magazine] (December 1965) [cover: Jean-Paul Belmondo]

[modest wear along the spine and a few tiny scuff marks on the front cover, otherwise a nice clean copy]. (B&W photographs) An exceptional issue of this exceptional film publication, which took a couple of years from its inception in 1962 to really find its footing, but by this time (under the still-fresh editorship of future screenwriter-director Curtis Hanson, who had just succeeded founding editor/publisher James Silke one issue prior to this one) had really begun to settle into its groove. I mean, really: if the mix of elements and contributors in this issue isn't indicative of how well this magazine was in tune with the mid-Sixties movie zeitgeist, I don't know what else I can say. Two contributors in particular were on the cusp of bigger and better things (as was the editor himself): Robert Towne, here penning an article about the comparable screen appeal of Humphrey Bogart and cover boy Jean-Paul Belmondo; and Harlan Ellison, who contributed three film pieces. Two are film reviews -- of Franklin Schaffner's THE WAR LORD ("categorically the single most boring film I have ever almost seen") and Arthur Penn's MICKEY ONE ("an example of consummate directorial artistry") -- and are juicy enough, but the real prize is the third: a pre-review of THE OSCAR, then in production, for which Ellison himself had written the screenplay. The film itself would not crash and burn -- er, be released -- until about six months later, and it was one of the resounding turkeys of its year, but one can forgive young Harlan for being, shall we say, cautiously optimistic: "A great deal of love and vitality and honest has been poured into this film. As the last weeks of shooting near, it seems highly probable that these factors will show up on the screen. Time will tell." (Oh yeah, it did that.) A paired set of interviews (both conducted by Hanson) were themed around character actors ascending to stardom, and featured James Coburn (who was just about to hit it big with OUR MAN FLINT) and Charles Bronson (whose superstardom was still a few years in the future). There's a nice nod to the cinema past (mostly) in the form of a six-page photo feature, "Beauty," featuring achingly beautiful headshots of about three dozen actresses. There are interviews with the directors of two current war-themed films, James B. Harris (THE BEDFORD INCIDENT) and Bryan Forbes (KING RAT), and photo-illustrated reports on an Italian-made sci-fi thriller, THE TENTH VICTIM, and Cornel Wilde's Africa-set adventure THE NAKED PREY. The magazine even manages to pay some attention to independently-produced short films, devoting a whole page to James Frawley's J-24, including a short interview with the filmmaker.

Product Info

Publisher: Spectator International

Year: 1965

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

Seller Info

ReadInk

Address: 2261 West 21st St. Los Angeles, California

Website: https://www.readinkbooks.com

Country: United States