William “Bill” Cunningham, who more than 50 years ago founded the company that became Cesd Talent Agency, has died at 96. The agency said he died July 15 at his West Hollywood home but gave no other details.
Starting out as Cunningham & Associations in the early 1970s, Cesd now is led by partners Ken Slevin and Paul Doherty. Specializing in commercial, voice-over, print, digital influencer, theatrical/TV-film and young performer talent, it has 32 agents spread over two offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Born on January 2, 1927, in San Francisco, Cunningham was enamored with the movies at an early age and eventually found his way to Hollywood. But his country called, and Cunningham enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the PGM11 minesweeper craft during World War II. He also was a singer, and joined and toured with Fort Emory Drum and Bugle Corp, playing to audiences throughout the Pacific theater.
After...
Starting out as Cunningham & Associations in the early 1970s, Cesd now is led by partners Ken Slevin and Paul Doherty. Specializing in commercial, voice-over, print, digital influencer, theatrical/TV-film and young performer talent, it has 32 agents spread over two offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Born on January 2, 1927, in San Francisco, Cunningham was enamored with the movies at an early age and eventually found his way to Hollywood. But his country called, and Cunningham enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the PGM11 minesweeper craft during World War II. He also was a singer, and joined and toured with Fort Emory Drum and Bugle Corp, playing to audiences throughout the Pacific theater.
After...
- 7/27/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
"The Night of the Hunter" may hold back from showing any murders onscreen, but that doesn't make Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) any less creepy. A fanatical Christian that's equally misogynist, Powell roams the Great Depression Ohio valley, marrying widows before robbing them of both of their largesse and lives. The not-at-all-good reverend sees no conflict between his faith and his black widowing. After all, the Bible is full of killings.
While Powell is said to have a high body count, only two of his killings are directly featured in "The Night of the Hunter." The film opens with him fleeing from one, catching a glimpse of his victim's lifeless legs from her basement door. Powell then marries Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) to find money stolen and hidden away by her late husband. After brainwashing her into his faith, he disposes of her. She ends up being so robbed of...
While Powell is said to have a high body count, only two of his killings are directly featured in "The Night of the Hunter." The film opens with him fleeing from one, catching a glimpse of his victim's lifeless legs from her basement door. Powell then marries Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) to find money stolen and hidden away by her late husband. After brainwashing her into his faith, he disposes of her. She ends up being so robbed of...
- 12/17/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Join Joe Friday and Frank Smith as they make a case against the rotten gangland crooks that moiderized Dub Taylor with a shotgun, point blank! See detectives loiter about while smart remarks and Big music stings provide the excitement! The big-screen version of the hit TV show has a surfeit of guest crooks, unhappy women, and a script that wants to grant cops the right to harass and wiretap whoever they wish without restraint. Jack Webb’s ‘interesting’ ideas of script, performance and direction are really… interesting. The Joe Friday-fest comes with an informative commentary by Toby Roan, laying down plenty of Dragnet and Jack Webb history I didn’t know, not ‘just the facts.’
Dragnet
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen + 1:37 unmatted / 88 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Victor Perrin, Dub Taylor,...
Dragnet
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen + 1:37 unmatted / 88 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Victor Perrin, Dub Taylor,...
- 11/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Abbott & Costello perform at full strength in this very good, very silly jungle safari comedy. It’s definitely for kids and nostalgic fans — with equal parts slapstick, cornball repetitive vaudeville gags, and Lou Costello’s weirdly endearing infantile schtick. An impressively beautiful restoration has pulled it back from the pit of Public Domain ugliness. Plus ClassicFlix & the 3-D Archive appoint this 2-D movie with a tall stack of creative, relevant extras.
Africa Screams
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Special Limited Edition / Street Date June 30, 2020 /
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Hillary Brooke, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Burt Wenland, Charles Gemora, Arthur Hecht, Bill Walker, Martin Wilkins.
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Film Editor: Frank Gross
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Written by Earl Baldwin
Produced by Edward Nassour
Directed by Charles Barton
I can’t say that I was one of the zillion...
Africa Screams
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Special Limited Edition / Street Date June 30, 2020 /
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Hillary Brooke, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Burt Wenland, Charles Gemora, Arthur Hecht, Bill Walker, Martin Wilkins.
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Film Editor: Frank Gross
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Written by Earl Baldwin
Produced by Edward Nassour
Directed by Charles Barton
I can’t say that I was one of the zillion...
- 7/4/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Even lesser Abbott & Costello movies are still comedy gravy to the avid fans of the fast-talking duo. Their first film deal away from Universal yields a so-so production graced with a string of their patented old-time comedy routines. And the transfer beats anything we’ve yet seen.
The Noose Hangs High
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 77 min. / Street Date August 15, 2017 / available through ClassicFlix / 24.99
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol, Cathy Downs, Mike Mazurki, Fritz Feld, Murray Leonard, Ellen Corby, Russell Hicks, James Flavin, Minerva Urecal, Fred Kelsey.
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Film Editor: Harry Reynolds
Assistant Director: Howard W. Koch
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Written by John Grant, Howard Harris from an earlier screenplay by Charles Grayson, Arthur T. Horman story by Julian Blaustein, Daniel Taradash, Bernard Feins
Produced and Directed by Charles Barton
A few famous movie comedy teams prospered with good will and parted with hugs,...
The Noose Hangs High
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 77 min. / Street Date August 15, 2017 / available through ClassicFlix / 24.99
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol, Cathy Downs, Mike Mazurki, Fritz Feld, Murray Leonard, Ellen Corby, Russell Hicks, James Flavin, Minerva Urecal, Fred Kelsey.
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Film Editor: Harry Reynolds
Assistant Director: Howard W. Koch
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Written by John Grant, Howard Harris from an earlier screenplay by Charles Grayson, Arthur T. Horman story by Julian Blaustein, Daniel Taradash, Bernard Feins
Produced and Directed by Charles Barton
A few famous movie comedy teams prospered with good will and parted with hugs,...
- 8/26/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Director Charles Laughton’s and screenwriter James Agee’s adaptation of the novel The Night of the Hunter has become a reverently admired and extremely influential film in the 60 years since the ‘failure’ of its initial release. The film has placed very highly in many international critical polls, including Cahier du Cinema’s 2007 listing of the ‘100 Most Beautiful Films’, where it sits at #2. Many filmmakers have cited it as a key inspiration, and Steven Spielberg showed it to the crew of E.T. in order to help them understand the child’s perspective from which he wanted the film to be told. It was even re-made as a virtually unwatchable 1991 TV movie with Richard Chamberlain as Harry Powell, and a musical stage version was created in the late ‘90s for which a soundtrack CD is available.
Perhaps the most important indication of the esteem in which the film is now held...
Perhaps the most important indication of the esteem in which the film is now held...
- 11/1/2013
- by Ian Gilchrist
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Peter Kimpton tops up our writers' favourite film series with an ode to Charles Laughton's 1955 thriller, a tale as dark and disquieting as a half-forgotten dream
Want to write your own review of the film? Do so here – or brave the cut-throat comments section below
Motionless for 90 minutes, I could not even remove my coat. I sweated and shivered. I felt in shock. Was the film recreating scenes from my sleep? I had never seen, as far as I can recall, The Night of the Hunter. That is until a cold, wintry night in the 1990s when, working in Glasgow, I went to the city's Gft cinema to catch a new 35mm print of Charles Laughton's 1955 masterpiece. It was his only film as a director. Critics panned it on its release, consequently killing off the actor's career behind the camera, and perhaps robbing history of further works of greatness.
Want to write your own review of the film? Do so here – or brave the cut-throat comments section below
Motionless for 90 minutes, I could not even remove my coat. I sweated and shivered. I felt in shock. Was the film recreating scenes from my sleep? I had never seen, as far as I can recall, The Night of the Hunter. That is until a cold, wintry night in the 1990s when, working in Glasgow, I went to the city's Gft cinema to catch a new 35mm print of Charles Laughton's 1955 masterpiece. It was his only film as a director. Critics panned it on its release, consequently killing off the actor's career behind the camera, and perhaps robbing history of further works of greatness.
- 12/8/2011
- by Peter Kimpton
- The Guardian - Film News
The Night of the Hunter: Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]
The Film
While researching the aspect ratio of Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) on DVDBeaver.com, I noticed something rather telling in the review. In each DVDBeaver review, there are links to books related to the film. For instance, if you look at the review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), you'll find links to books on Kubrick. For the review of Night of the Hunter, DVDBeaver supplied a list of film noir book titles including Alain Silver's appropriately titled Film Noir, which features Hunter's antagonist Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) on the cover. Re-watching the film, I couldn't help but wonder what classified it as noir (for my classical noir retrospective, click here).
Sure, I can see on the surface where one might brand the film a noir. The film owes its aesthetic to German Expressionism, is shot in black and white,...
The Film
While researching the aspect ratio of Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) on DVDBeaver.com, I noticed something rather telling in the review. In each DVDBeaver review, there are links to books related to the film. For instance, if you look at the review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), you'll find links to books on Kubrick. For the review of Night of the Hunter, DVDBeaver supplied a list of film noir book titles including Alain Silver's appropriately titled Film Noir, which features Hunter's antagonist Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) on the cover. Re-watching the film, I couldn't help but wonder what classified it as noir (for my classical noir retrospective, click here).
Sure, I can see on the surface where one might brand the film a noir. The film owes its aesthetic to German Expressionism, is shot in black and white,...
- 11/17/2010
- by Drew Morton
It’s a strange, post-modern conundrum I experienced this morning, I’ll set the scene: I wake up, check Twitter Before I check my e-mail, only to discover that Criterion has finally sent out their June e-mail newsletter (after announcing on Twitter that it might be a little late due to some revamping), and that apparently they’ve either announced Do the Right Thing on Blu-ray, or Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter. Clearly it was the latter.
Having not seen the movie before, but heard many people talk up how intense Robert Mitchum is as the murderer Robert Powell (specifically the Battleship Pretension, but I cannot remember the episode), I cannot wait for this release. Apparently this is an MGM title that Criterion has licensed (MGM is not doing too well these day’s financially, and it is rumored that Criterion has a nice long list of...
Having not seen the movie before, but heard many people talk up how intense Robert Mitchum is as the murderer Robert Powell (specifically the Battleship Pretension, but I cannot remember the episode), I cannot wait for this release. Apparently this is an MGM title that Criterion has licensed (MGM is not doing too well these day’s financially, and it is rumored that Criterion has a nice long list of...
- 6/18/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
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