Starring: Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, Sandy Farina, Paul Nicholas, Donald Pleasance, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Billy Preston, Stargard, Earth Wind & Fire, George Burns

As 2025 flits away through our fingers like a fickle moth toward the flame of 2026 – The Deuce – once again and with much thanks – do invite YOU (ALL!!) to, again once again – just sit back and let the evening go… with but one humble request: may The Deuce introduce to YOU –  the one and only… SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND?!!? The MOVIE!! With nary a Beatle in sight… nor sound!??! “But.. what?? w\Without ANY Beatles?? “How do they do it?,” you ask… The answer is: with those hairy (for the most part) hunks (for the most part) – The Bee Gees!! And that “… Comes Alive!” heartthrob – Peter Frampton!! That’s how! And it’s guaranteed to raise… a smile!!

Well… ok… Some honesty here is duly deserved: there will be a… let’s say: “a moment”… of quite possibly the most painful movie-going you’ve ever experienced – namely: George Burns… More specifically: George Burns “singing” “Fixing A Hole”… horrendously so… and for some demented reason it is this big-eared, belabored debacle with which some sadist felt the film should be… front-loaded!?! Practically diffidently putting its worst foot forward as if in deliberate disregard of garnering any germ of good-will… a song has never felt so long… BUT – be brave! You will be saved! For – the moment those aforementioned hirsute Bee Gees hit the bandstand, the heretofore hairshirt of bad will that’s been brutally beating you into wanting to bolt for the nearest exit all but vanishes in a poof of candy-colored confectionary pop perfection!! Plunging unabashed into an ever-increasing piling on of eye-popping preposterosities and performances that against all odds hit infectiously giddy heights! A toupée‘d Donald Pleasance as a dastardly record exec belting “I Want You”!??! A dream come true!! The Bee Gees doubling (vocally) as the villainous Mr. Mustard’s robot henchwomen – The Computerettes!??! Genius!  And it just keeps getting better all the time! An Earth, Wind & Fire full-stage show of “Got To Get You Into My Life” – just for the heck of it? Hell yeh! Aerosmith’s hit-making heated-up “Come Together” – oh yes we will!! (“Safety” undergarments recommended if embarrassed by such…)  And on a personal confessionary note: Jeff’s 10-year-old-at-the-time-seeing-it self so believed the wonton sleaze of their “Future Villain Band” that he remains Aerosmith-afraid to this day!! And yet – Alice Cooper’s brain-washing Mr. Sun’s “Because” made him a forever fan… go figure! Then – just when you thought it couldn’t last – “Fifth Beatle” Billy Preston with the weather-vane spinning, Heartland saving “Get Back”!! Oh, God! Big-eared cigar-breath troll be damned!

Deemed a disaster of epic proportions upon its release – if not flat-out blamed for the demise of the movie musical genre as a whole (!) – despite being helmed by a veteran music-centric-movie maker, Michael Schultz (of Car Wash, Cooley High, and Krush Groove fame), built and backed by the hit-making RSO records and movie magnate Robert Stigwood (riding high on the likes of Jesus Christ Superstar and Saturday Night Fever... and – oh yeh – just plain high…), “SPLHCB” still reads as understandably fated to flopping from the get-go, having been loosed unto an era of Fab Four fans still fanning the flame of hope for more from The (actual) Beatles – or – at the very least – still deadly serious (nay “snobbish”?) about that which they held so dear and desperate to find the “deepness” they themselves built around… POP SONGS!??! To which The Deuce says: lighten up!! It’s a movie! It’s music! It’s FUN!! It’s friggin’ out-of-its-gourd bonkers!! A fantasia of frothy flippancy free to be but a bedazzling of fleeting moments… what could be called: a SHOW! And one we truly believe you will enjoy! After suffering the endurance test of its egregiously erroneous opening, at least!

It was 20 years ago today… uh… ok – like 47 and some change, actually – when the Cinerama 1 at Broadway and 47th Street ran its Daily News two-page SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND spread with the invitation: “Tonight, and only tonight, a very Special preview…” – which – 47 and some change years later – The Deuce is extending to YOU! With the greatest of gratitude… You’re such a lovely audience… we’d like to take you home with us – no – we’d LOVE to take you home! If only we had the room! It’s a NYC “bachelor” for chrissakes… could maybe fit like 2 of ya if you don’t mind bumpin’ knees… but – what the heck!?! Why not?!? It is, after all, getting very near the end… of 2025! But with a little help from our friends (and A LOT of help from our Nitehawk friends!) – The Deuce will see YOU ALL in 2026!!

Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Gay Hamilton, Diana Körner

How does an Irish lad without prospects become part of 18th-century English nobility? For Barry Lyndon (Ryan O’Neal) the answer is: any way he can! His climb to wealth and privilege is the enthralling focus of this sumptuous Stanley Kubrick version of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel.

Starring: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

Steven Spielberg’s glorious Jaws is the film that defined the blockbuster and has made generations of movie-goers terrified of going into the water. When a giant great white sharks swims into the town of Amityville during the Fourth of July holiday and begins munching on vacationers, it sets off a battle on both land and in the sea.

The first half of Jaws is the struggle of New Yorker sheriff Brody is get the mayor on board with the idea that a man-eating shark is cause enough to close the beach. The second half is an adventurous boat trip with Brody, marine biologist “city hands” Hopper, and salty fisherman “chalkboard” Quint as they battle the shark on its own surf. In between, you get a lot of intensely scary moments. Trust us, you’ll never forget the first time you see that shark pop out of the water on the big screen!

Starring: Jan-Michael Vincent, Marilyn Hassett, Chief Dan George, Marianne Jones, Pia Shandel, “Bruno The Bear”

This November, pull up to the proverbial table with your Deuce family as we feast on a Fall-y, folksy fright-flick sure to satisfy your hunger for hoary horrors… and lest some forget the fabled fires which fostered such fetes (as so many loggerheady louts these days do non-too-subtly scurrilously suggest) – so shall the spine-chilling siren shriek of SHADOW OF THE HAWK serve as their just desserts! (KEEE-ah KEEE-ah!)

Big-city boy Mike (Jan-Michael Vincent – henceforth simply: “JMV”) seems to have “it all” – what with his cubicled computer career, chi-chi condo, and cash-stacked hence even chi-chier girlfriend… until his haven’t-seen-in-ten-years tribal medicine man grandad (moviedom’s most recognizable Native face, Chief Dan George) crashes his planned “night-with-the-gang” party with talk of taking his petulant progeny (and a newly-found female-friend reporter with a nose for “news”) on a trek “homeward” – through the oft terrifying Teton-ish Northwest Territory forest… in which JMV’s corporate company-man will be forced to fess up to and face the all-too-familiar fears of familial responsibility… “Familiar” – that is – if your familial fears feature saving the world (??) from the devilish demon Dzunuk’wa and all her dastardly Native sorcery conjurings! Such the likes of: a car that just… disappears! Then reappears at random!! And specters! Snake specters!! Warrior wraiths!! And.. a “rabid bear”!! (KEEE-ah KEEE-ah!)

Fermenting or fomenting from a fever-dreamish story/script by The Deuce’s October pic’s penner/codirector/freak Norman Thaddeus Vane (last month’s THE BLACK ROOM) – thus making a make-shift mini-retrospective… be it vain or in vane.. or, say, an almost Vane – SHADOW OF THE HAWK doesn’t shy away from weirdness!! At once Earthbound and ethereal – the “reality” of its nature-film vistas and setting filtered through an eerie atmospheric haze of head-scratching WTF disregard for logic, explanations, and basic storytelling… A miasma of mishegoss and ghoulishness straddling a Grand Canyon of the earnest and ridiculous – the only tether that of Chief Dan George’s slyly letting on to just how fun this whole hokey-hullabaloo really is… And yet, though buoyed by charisma by the buckets-full, still proved a chasm the seasoned crowd of Times Square’s Cine 42 found too hard to fathom – staying nary a week on its screen before being shuttled off to the outer borough boondocks – to be all but forgotten save some naggingly lingering feeling of unease that crept in unnoticed… Festering and forever fated to be remembered – as will you – SHADOW OF THE HAWK… and its “rabid bear”!! (KEEE-ah KEEE-ah!)

Starring: Matthew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Rowan Atkinson, Isla Fisher, Miguel A. Núñez Jr.

Zoinks! Two years after a clash of egos forced Mystery Inc. to close its doors, Scooby-Doo and his clever crime-solving cohorts Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) are individually summoned to Spooky Island to investigate a series of paranormal incidents at the ultra-hip Spring Break hot spot.

Starring: Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Elizabeth McGovern, Paul Giamatti, Dominic West, Hugh Bonneville, Joely Richardson, Laura Carmichael

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the cinematic return of the global phenomenon, follows the Crawley family and their staff as they enter the 1930s. When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.

Starring: Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively, Jenna Boyd, Bradley Whitford

Bridget (Blake Lively), Carmen (America Ferrera), Lena (Alexis Bledel) and Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) are best friends living in Maryland. After many summers together, the four are finally going their separate ways for a few months: while Bridget heads to Mexico, and Lena visits family in Greece, Carmen and Tibby stay closer to home. No matter where they are, they are connected by a pair of jeans that they take turns sharing — pants that fit all four girls and exemplify their tight bond.

Starring: Jason Bateman, Quinta Brunson, Idris Elba, Fortune Feimster, Ginnifer Goodwin, Maurice LaMarche, Ke Huy Quan, Jean Reno, Shakira, Jenny Slate

In Zootopia 2, detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootopia and turns the mammal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before.

Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang

Elphaba, now demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz’s silenced Animals and desperately trying to expose the truth she knows about The Wizard. Glinda, meanwhile, has become the glamorous symbol of Goodness for all of Oz, living at the palace in Emerald City and reveling in the perks of fame and popularity. Under the instruction of Madame Morrible, Glinda is deployed to serve as an effervescent comfort to Oz, reassuring the masses that all is well under the rule of The Wizard. As Glinda’s stardom expands and she prepares to marry Prince Fiyero in a spectacular Ozian wedding, she is haunted by her separation from Elphaba. She attempts to broker a conciliation between Elphaba and The Wizard, but those efforts will fail, driving Elphaba and Glinda only further apart. The aftershocks will transform Boq and Fiyero forever, and threaten the safety of Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose, when a girl from Kansas comes crashing into all their lives. As an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, Glinda and Elphaba will need to come together one final time. With their singular friendship now the fulcrum of their futures, they will need to truly see each other, with honesty and empathy, if they are to change themselves, and all of Oz, for good.

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Arthur Kennedy, Barry Sullivan, Silvia Pinal, Enrique Lucero, and Carlos Berry as “Runt”

Everyone!!! Out of the August water! Drones sight SHARK! swimming in Brooklyn – and The Deuce has the footage!!

Brawny bad-boy braggart gets his illegal gun-running ‘nads caught (and nearly blown to bits!) between a rock and a hard place and opts to join up with a shady “Professor” and his dalliance-prone “daughter” for some deep-sea shenanigans searching shipwrecks for some elusive “shark proteins”??!!?? Wherein both “gun”-running and “shark proteins” are perhaps but euphemisms for more suspect, hence, more profitable, hence, more dangerous doings!!??!! And bolstering this bevy of desperate desperadoes – a drunkard of a “Doc” and the trickster tyke “terrible” raffishly referred to as “Runt” – the whole hot-house stew of backstabbing crew set sail for a sweaty, smokey, sun-baked dip into a sea of Sudanese skullduggery… with REAL SHARKS!! ACTUAL REAL SHARKS!!

Famously touted in the pages of Life magazine for the real-life death-by-shark-attack of one of its scuba-diving stunt-men (“WITH 2 PAGES OF COLOR PICTURES”!!) – and generally derided by director and critics alike (due to some dastardly production-studio-done re-editing and re-branding of Fuller’s delivered finished film, formerly called – after Reynold’s one-named character – “Caine“) – but the brush of the fiery Fuller can still be felt… with its filmmaking that furrows in both fluidity and brute force… Suspenses suspended – terror truncated – letting “life” breeze into the fore… with REAL SHARKS!!

The loud-mouthed louts all brylcreemed and jeaned up for 42nd’s Anco Theatre‘s “top-billed” biker bonanza – Rebel Rousers – were perhaps too needing of 2 wheels firmly gripped to terra firma to venture a ride on the SHARK! tide… but The Deuce gets its kicks in the deep water – where danger lurks!!