November's Streaming Roulette: The Harder They Fall at Block Parties and in Nightmare Alleys

HELLO NOVEMBER. You know the drill. We point out ten random titles that are brand new or new (again) to streaming and just for fun, freeze frame them at a totally random place in the scroll bar (no cheating - what comes up is what comes up). If there's a link in the long list after the selected titles it goes to previous articles on that film.

Now I aint gonna kill you, Wiley. You and I were friends once.

THE HARDER THEY FALL (2021) on Netflix
Idris Elba (speaking, hovering over the fallen man) is the antagonist in this movie with Jonathan Majors as our outlaw hero (a rare hero named "Nat", yay!!!) in this all-star Black western. Love those long shadows. The cinematography here is by the super talented Romanian DP Mihai Malamaire, Jr (The Master, Jojo Rabbit, Youth Without Youth).

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Showbiz History: Wait until dark for full frontal Oscar nominees

8 random things that happened on this day, October 27th, in showbiz history

Sonny & Cher in 1964

1964 Sonny & Cher marry. Huge fame follows the next summer with the release of their debut album and their first #1 hit I Got You Babe"

1967  Opening weekend for the thriller Wait Until Dark. It's a hit at the box office and snags star Audrey Hepburn, playing a blind woman, her fifth and final Oscar nomination at the age of 38...

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50th Anniversary: Wait Until Dark

by Tim Brayton

This week marks the 50th anniversary of Wait Until Dark. The grotty thriller was initially mostly sold on the basis of a third-act gimmick (the climax takes place in total darkness, and theaters were instructed to turn down all security lights and such things for the climax). And yet here we are, half a century later, and gimmick or not, the film holds up extraordinarily well. It's one of the best thrillers of its generation, with two of the best genre performances ever, one from brand-new screen actor Alan Arkin (it was just his second feature film role), the other from beloved screen icon Audrey Hepburn, functionally at the end of her career (she'd retire for nine years, and only made four more films over the next 22 years).

Quite a strange Audrey Hepburn vehicle it is, too...

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