According to Shadow and Act, Kino Lorber, which for years has specialized exclusively in silent, foreign and independent films, has made a deal with MGM/Fox to release older United Artists titles from the 50’s to the 70’s in new Blu-ray remastered discs, starting in late summer. In September, Kino will be releasing the 1972 heist drama “Across 110th Street” starring Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa and Anthony Quinn.
Considered one of the best films of the famed “blaxploitation” movie era, “Across 110th Street” has influenced filmmakers such as “American Gangster” director Ridley Scott, and Quentin Tarantino, who included the title track from this movie in his homage to this era of filmmaking, “Jackie Brown.” To learn more about the movie, click here.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
Posts tagged as ““American Gangster””
Ruby Dee, best known for her role in 1961’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and latterly for her Oscar-nominated turn as Denzel Washington’s mother in 2007’s “American Gangster,” died Wednesday in New York. She was 91.
Dee’s Oscar nomination in 2008 for her performance as the feisty mother of a Harlem druglord played by Washington in Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” was particularly impressive because the actress made an impression on the Motion Picture Academy with only 10 minutes of screen time. She won a SAG Award for the same performance. Dee also won an Emmy in 1991 for her performance in the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” movie “Decoration Day.”
She and her husband, Ossie Davis, who often performed together, were among the first generation of African-American actors, led by Sidney Poitier, afforded the opportunity for significant, dignified dramatic roles in films, onstage and on television.