TheArchive: Reviewing the Rare, Retro, and Restored

This week, we’re taking the time to remember the life and career of Julian McMahon, the Australian actor and former model who made his mark with his magnetism and charm. The Australian actor died from lung metastasis as a result of head and neck metastatic cancer .  In our library, McMahon stars in the 1992 cult comedy Wet and Wild Summer! , a sun-soaked beach flick where he plays Bobby, the laid-back son of a powerful property developer. Sent to Australia under the guise of an exchange lifeguard, Bobby’s mission is to scout out land for his father’s next big resort deal. But things take a turn when he finds himself falling for the very woman who owns the beach his father is determined to take over. Wet and Wild Summer! is a snapshot of his early on-screen potential. Before his acting breakout, McMahon made waves as a model in 1987 with an iconic Levi’s campaign that turned heads and helped start his career . One particularly memorable ad, featuring him pulling up a pair of classi...

This week, we’re remembering the incredible career of Lalo Schifrin , who recently passed away at the age of 93 . Schifrin was one of the most influential film and TV composers of the last century. His music helped shape the sound of action, suspense, and horror, and he brought something iconic to every project he worked on. He’s best known for creating the theme to Mission: Impossible , one of the most recognizable TV themes of all time. But his work goes far beyond that. He scored films like Bullitt and Cool Hand Luke , utilizing a blend of jazz and traditional orchestral music to create tension, mood, and emotion in ways that still resonate today. You can also hear his work in the 1979 horror classic The Amityville Horror . Schifrin’s score is a big part of what made that film so scary. He used jarring, discordant notes to build suspense, especially during scenes involving the haunted house. The music made everything feel more unsettling and played a major role in the film’s lasti...

Pride Month is a time to celebrate love, identity, and everything that makes the LGBTQ+ community so diverse and vibrant. Over the years, we’ve seen some real progress in how queer stories are told in film, and that visibility means more than just entertainment. It creates understanding, empathy, and lets people in the community know they’re not alone. For a long time, LGBTQ+ characters in movies weren’t given the spotlight. Often, queer people were side characters, comedic relief, or figures who experience tragedy who don’t make it to the end of the movie. But luckily, things are changing for the better. More films are showing queer people as the full, complex humans whose sexual identity and gender identity are just a part of who they are, but not their entire being. Now, we’re seeing more films where queer characters are falling in love, fighting back, cracking jokes, messing up, and growing. And it’s about time. The film Alto , for example, is a super fun LGBTQ+ rom-com with a m...