NYC's Film Forum Salutes United Artists

Lower Manhattan's Film Forum is in the middle of a five week salute to the films produced by the legendary United Artists studio. Currently run by Tom Cruise, the studio (independent till the 1980s) was the place for filmmakers (such as Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman ) who could make movies without any creative interference. The Film Forum series is scheduled to run until May and you can pull up their schedule here . I've seen some of the movies being shown and can testify that the film quality is terrific.

Below, I've included trailers (thank you YouTube) for some of the films that are or have been shown in this series. These films infuenced a whole generation of moviemakers and their effect is still being felt today. (Note how several of the movies still hold up decades later!) Enjoy.








-Ed

Related links: The United Artists Lot , the official studio site.

Bad Movie Alert!Update

If you're up very late tonight, say around 2 am, and you have cable, you have to tune into the Turner Classic Movie channel for this gem:

Skidoo (1968)
A retired gangster has to pull off a hit when his daughter is kidnapped.
Cast: Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon. Dir: Otto Preminger. C-98 mins, TV-14


So bad the family of late director Otto Preminger (Laura; Anatomy of a Murder, In Harm's Way)has refused to have it released on home video! Find out why tonight! (For more info, click here.)

(Interest in Mr. Preminger and his work is currently being revived via Foster Hirsch's new biography, Otto Preminger:The Man Who Would Be King, which the library carries, and by the showing of several of his much better classic films at New York's Film Forum. Go here for their film schedule.) -Ed