DOUBLE DEAL

Poster

Tagline
GUNS BARK AS RIVAL GANGS FIGHT FOR POWER!

Details
Year of Release: 1939
Genre: Crime/Drama
Rating: N/A
Runtime: 60 mins.
Black & White
Studio: Dixon R. Harwin Productions/Argus Pictures
Producer: Dixon R. Harwin/George Randol
Director: Arthur Dreifuss

Cast
Monte Hawley (Jim McCoy)
Jeni Le Gon (Nita Walker)
Eddie Thompson (Dude Markey)
Florence O’Brien (Sally)
Freddie Jackson (Tommy McCoy)
Maceo Sheffield (Murray Howard)
Buck Woods (Sharpie)
Vernon McCalla (Inspector)
Charles Gordon (Lanny)
F. E. Miller (Slim)
Shelton Brooks (Himself)
Charles Hawkins (Snively)

Synopsis

Murray Howard owns a nightclub where entertainer Nita Walker performs.  Although admired by Dude Markey, she is in love with Jim McCoy. 

Dude is interested in Nita

Sally is not interested in SnivelySnively, the club manager, in turn loves Sally, a cigarette girl, aspiring performer and Nita’s roommate. Sally, however, likes the penniless, Slim.

Dude brings Tommy in on the job

Dude and Howard offer Jim’s little brother, Tommy, a job on the condition that he ask no questions. Tommy had earlier rejected his brother’s offer of a Pullman job, despite it being a respectable position.  Tommy discovers that Dude is a criminal when he accompanies him on a safecracking job at a jewelry store that results in the murder of a night watchman. Dude brings the stolen jewels to Howard, who puts them in his safe as Dude secretly notes the combination. In the nightclub, Dude asks Snively to fix him up with Nita, who then directs her singing of “Gettin’ in Right with You” toward Jim. Nita sings to Jim 2

Dude becomes jealous, goes to Nita’s dressing room and when Jim enters, a fight ensues between the two men. The fracas is broken up by Lanny, a policeman. When Jim escorts Sally and Nita to their rooms, he finds Tommy waiting for him. An inspector arrives and tells them of the recent robbery and murder. Tommy gets nervous and Jim tells him not to look so worried as he was not involved.

the guys play pokerLater, Jim joins Dude and some others in a poker game. Dude excuses himself from the game, goes to Howard’s office and removes the jewels from the safe. Later Dude accuses Jim in front of Howard of robbing the safe, having previously dropped a slip of paper with the combination into Jim’s pocket. Jim escapes and goes to Nita’s. He notices the number 271 on the back of the piece of paper that holds the safe’s combination and asks Slim to find out if it is someone’s “lucky” number. Nita gives Jim the gun she found in her dressing room

Meanwhile, Nita has found Dude’s gun in her dressing room with three cartridges missing and Jim asks Nita to lead Dude on until he can prove that Dude was the one who actually stole the jewels from Howard’s safe. Howard is unhappy that Jim got away, and Dude suggests they bring in Tommy instead. Later Dude tries to convince Nita to elope with him and she tells him to come by her place later and she will give him her answer then. Slim has found out that Dude was playing the number 271, and Nita tells Howard.

Howard is shotDude overhears and shoots Howard through the window and Tommy is blamed. That night, Jim catches Dude picking up the diamonds where he’d previously hidden them.

Dude goes to Nita’s and pulls a gun on her and Sally because he knows it was Nita who told Howard that Dude robbed the safe. Jim arrives and he and Dude fight. Lanny barges in and Dude is shot.Jim and Dude fight at Nita's

With the reward money for the recovery of the jewels, Jim becomes the new owner of the nightclub, which clears the way for his marriage to Nita.  Slim becomes the new club manager, while Sally becomes the new entertainer.Jim owns the club and Sally gets her big breakNotes

The file for the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library contains a letter dated October 19, 1939, in which the PCA warned producer D. R. Harwin to avoid filming the “bump and kootch movements” in the dance sequence, and to remove any sexual suggestiveness in the dialogue between “Dude” and “Sharpie.” In addition, the PCA urged the producer to “minimize the showing of the slot machines… details of the jewelry store break-in … and the killing of policemen by criminals.”

Soundtrack Titles
Hole in the Wall (written and Performed by Shelton Brooks)
Jitterbugs Cuttin’ Rugs (written by Shelton Brooks)
Gettin’ in Right with You (written by Peter Tinturin and Harry Tobias; performed by Jeni Le Gon)

The Retrieval

The Retrievala/k/a September Morning
Release Date:  (February 3, 2015; DVD) (April 2, 2014; Theatrical Release)
(April 5, 2013, Film Festival)
Genre: Drama/Historical
Rating: Unknown
Running Time: 92 mins.
Studio: Doki-Doki Productions/Sixth Street Films/ Variance Films
Director: Chris Eska
Cast:  Tishuan Scott (Nate), Ashton Sanders (Will), Keston John (Marcus), Bill Oberst, Jr. (Burrell), Christine Horn (Rachel).

Story: 1864: as war ravages the nation, on the outskirts of the Civil War business as usual continues for slave-owners and traders. The Retrieval follows Will, a fatherless 13 year-old boy, who survives by working with a white bounty hunter gang who sends him to earn the trust of runaway slaves in order to lure them back to the South.

On a dangerous mission into the free North to find Nate, a fugitive freedman, things go wrong and Will and Nate find themselves on the run. As the bond between them unexpectedly grows, Will becomes consumed by conflicting emotions as he faces a gut-wrenching final decision. Source: theretrieval.com, the official site; IMDB.

Trailer

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

A Day Late and A Dollar ShortRelease Date: April 19, 2014 (Lifetime)
Genre: Drama
Rating: N/R
Studio: Lifetime Television
Director: Stephen Tolkin

Cast: Whoopi Goldberg (Viola), Lyriq Bent (Randall), Ving Rhames (Cecil),  Mekhi Phifer (Lewis), Anika Noni Rose Rose (Paris), Kimberly Elise (Janelle), Tichina Arnold (Charlotte).

Story:  Based on The New York Times bestseller by Terry McMillan. When irascible matriarch Viola Price learns that her next asthma attack will likely kill her, she is determined to fix her fractured family before she leaves this world, from her relationship with her husband to the lives of her four children and grandchildren. Viola must contend with sibling rivalry, teen pregnancy and drug addiction with one child while her jailbird son needs to learn how to be a better father, her granddaughter is in bigger trouble than her daughter is willing to admit and Viola’s estranged husband needs saving from his scheming younger girlfriend. Viola won’t have an easy time bending her loved ones to her will. Source: Shadow and Act. Photo: mylifetime.com

Jimi: All Is By My Side

All is by my sidea/k/a All Is By My Side
Release Date:  9/26/14 (Theatrical)
Genre: Drama/Biography
Running Time: 118 mins.
Studio: Darko Entertainment
Director: John Ridley
Cast: André Benjamin (Jimi Hendrix), Hayley Atwell (Kathy Etchingham), Imogen Poots (Linda Keith), Burn Gorman (Michael Jeffery), Ruth Negga (Ida), Ashley Charles (Keith Richards).

Details: As reported by Shockya, Jimi: All is By My Side is written and directed by Academy Award Winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave). The film takes place between 1966 and 1967, when Hendrix made his big splash overseas in the UK. The movie features Hendrix’s covers of Muddy Waters, the Beatles and others, but none of Hendrix’s own songs–Experience Hendrix, LLC, which manages the Hendrix estate, didn’t allow his songs to be used in the film.

The film debuted in September 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival and premiered in the US at the SXSW Festival on March 12, 2014.

On March 12, 2014, Slashfilm reported that just as John Ridley’s unauthorized Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side is playing SXSW, the late musician’s estate has moved to develop a new authorized Jimi Hendrix biopic. This isn’t the first time there has been a move to make a film with the blessing of the estate. At one point Anthony Mackie was set to star and Paul Greengrass to direct a project that would have featured the full suite of Hendrix songs. But the movie died on the vine. Now the estate has signed with a new agency and Deadline reports that the machinery is in motion to create an authorized biopic.

Shadow and Act stated the film that will be produced under the new deal will be the first authorized by Experience Hendrix LLC, and will have their full cooperation, and thus, will include many of Hendrix’s original classics.  Past actors whose names have been attached to Hendrix projects include Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Anthony Mackie. Source(s): Entertainment Weekly; Shockyo.com; Slashfilm; Shadow and Act. Image: Entertainment Weekly.

Trailer:

Movie Clip:

Untitled Freeway Rick Ross Project

Status:   Development Status Unknown as of July 17, 2014
Release Date:  TBA
Genre:  Drama/Biography
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Not Available
Director:  Not Available
Cast:  Nick Cannon (‘Freeway’ Rick Ross)
Story:  The story of ‘Freeway’ Rick Ross, a notorious drug dealer during the 1980s, who at the height of his game, distributed 100 kilograms of cocaine across the country on a daily basis. Ross claims that he was supplied by the Contras who were fighting the Nicaraguan government at the time and were funded by officials in Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Details:  According to The Hollywood Reporter in March 2013, Nick Cannon will portray former drug kingpin ‘Freeway’ Rick Ross in an upcoming film. Cannon appeared alongside Ross in a YouTube video posted to Ross’ Facebook page to announce the biopic. Director and screenwriter Nick Cassavetes is set to pen the script, according to the post.

The brief video offers little other information regarding the planned film, but does note in a caption that the script will be penned by the writer of Blow, and includes the following description: “This is more than a movie it’s a movement. This is the story of the real Scarface.”   Source(s): The Hollywood Reporter, Shadow and Act, IMDB.

Thelonious Monk Biopic

Thelonious MonkStatus:  Development Status Unknown
Release Date:  TBA
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Not Available
Director:  Not Available
Cast:  Denzel Washington (Thelonius Monk, rumored)

Story:  A rumored biopic based on the life of jazz great Thelonious Monk.

Details:  On February 13, 2012, The Playlist reported, in an interview with The Observer, [Denzel] Washington reveals he has ambitions to play jazz legend Thelonious Monk, has a script in place, and says that “I’m talking about it more, so maybe I’m talking myself into it.” Monk, was the pianist and composer behind standards like “Round Midnight” and “Straight No Chaser,” whose inventive, idiosyncratic style helped to make him the second most recorded jazz artist in history. This isn’t the first time that Washington’s been linked to the role; back in 2007, El Cantante director Leon Ichaso told MTV that he wanted Washington or Wesley Snipes to play the musician in a biopic, but it’s unclear whether Ichaso is still involved, or if the actor is considering making this his third directorial effort, following Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters.

Playlist goes on to say, given Washington’s age, the film might focus on the later stages of Monk’s life when he was plagued with mental health issues. Source: The Playlist.