On Nov. 29, 1945, Paramount Pictures and Billy Wilder brought their adaptation of The Lost Weekend to theaters in Los Angeles. The film would go on to be nominated for seven Oscars at the 18th Academy Awards, claiming four wins, including best picture. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, headlined “Brackett, Wilder, Milland Do Great Jobs In ‘Weekend,'” is below:
This is undoubtedly the best horror picture of the year and it is without question one of the best pieces of picture-making, so far as writing, directing, acting and any other techniques are concerned, that Hollywood has turned out in many a long moon. The word-of-mouth advertising alone will prove to be as terrific as the picture is horrific.
Effective is a mild word for the picturization of this novel, taken from the book of the same name. With the exception of the end, it has stuck most faithfully to the original,...
This is undoubtedly the best horror picture of the year and it is without question one of the best pieces of picture-making, so far as writing, directing, acting and any other techniques are concerned, that Hollywood has turned out in many a long moon. The word-of-mouth advertising alone will prove to be as terrific as the picture is horrific.
Effective is a mild word for the picturization of this novel, taken from the book of the same name. With the exception of the end, it has stuck most faithfully to the original,...
- 11/28/2023
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Billy Wilder’s first big Oscar winner holds up as fine work in every respect, and serves as evidence of the writer-director’s moviemaking instincts at a time when he could do no wrong. Starring Ray Milland as a self-destructive alcoholic, Wilder and Charles Brackett manage to retain much of the sordid truth and nightmarish horror of the ordeal of would-be writer Don Birnham, who ducks his guilty self-loathing by taking to the bottle. It’s still a harrowing experience, with a sharp emotional kick. This new remastered edition carries a commentary by Joseph McBride. Co-starring Jane Wyman, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen and Phillip Terry; the scary music is by Miklos Rozsa.
The Lost Weekend
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1945 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 101 min. / Street Date November 24, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Douglas Spencer,...
The Lost Weekend
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1945 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 101 min. / Street Date November 24, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Douglas Spencer,...
- 12/26/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
” Just don’t get too complicated, Eddie. When a man gets too complicated, he’s unhappy. And when he’s unhappy, his luck runs out.”
The Blue Dahlia (1946) starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Tuesday February 18th. The film begins at 7:00pm. This is the final film in a 3-film ‘Lake and Ladd’ series . A Facebook invite can be found Here.
In the first original screenplay by master of the crime thriller Raymond Chandler—for which he received an Oscar nomination—The Blue Dahlia pairs Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake for the third time. Ladd plays Lt. Commander Johnny Morrison, who returns home from World War II only to find that his wife, Helen has been cheating on him. Helen soon after turns up dead, and Morrison enlists the help of a mysterious stranger (Lake) to clear his...
The Blue Dahlia (1946) starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Tuesday February 18th. The film begins at 7:00pm. This is the final film in a 3-film ‘Lake and Ladd’ series . A Facebook invite can be found Here.
In the first original screenplay by master of the crime thriller Raymond Chandler—for which he received an Oscar nomination—The Blue Dahlia pairs Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake for the third time. Ladd plays Lt. Commander Johnny Morrison, who returns home from World War II only to find that his wife, Helen has been cheating on him. Helen soon after turns up dead, and Morrison enlists the help of a mysterious stranger (Lake) to clear his...
- 2/14/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This week at Tfe we're celebrating the centennial of one of cinema’s most prolific and legendary producers, Dino De Laurentiis. We’ll start with three of his key influential early films. Here's Eric Blume...
Bitter Rice was De Laurentiis breakthrough international hit. He married its star
De Laurentiis, born outside of Naples, set up his own company in 1946 when he was just 27 years old. He produced four smaller films before making a huge splash onto the international scene with 1949’s Bitter Rice, a film currently available through the Criterion Collection. Bitter Rice serves up an arresting and hypnotic blend of melodrama, sexuality, and social commentary. The film is set in northern Italy during a typical spring where hundreds of poor women travel to the rice fields to work to the bone for forty days. There are workers with a legal contract and then the “illegals” who come in hopes of getting an opportunity.
Bitter Rice was De Laurentiis breakthrough international hit. He married its star
De Laurentiis, born outside of Naples, set up his own company in 1946 when he was just 27 years old. He produced four smaller films before making a huge splash onto the international scene with 1949’s Bitter Rice, a film currently available through the Criterion Collection. Bitter Rice serves up an arresting and hypnotic blend of melodrama, sexuality, and social commentary. The film is set in northern Italy during a typical spring where hundreds of poor women travel to the rice fields to work to the bone for forty days. There are workers with a legal contract and then the “illegals” who come in hopes of getting an opportunity.
- 8/5/2019
- by Eric Blume
- FilmExperience
Othello
Blu-ray
Criterion
1952 / Black and White / 1:33 / Street Date October 10, 2017
Starring Orson Welles, Suzanne Cloutier, Micheál MacLiammóir
Cinematography by G.R. Aldo, Anchise Brizzi, George Fanto, Alberto Fusi, Oberdan Troiani
Written by William Shakespeare (Adapted by Orson Welles)
Edited by Jenö Csepreghy, Renzo Lucidi, William Morton, Jean Sacha
Produced by Orson Welles, Julien Derode
Directed by Orson Welles
Shakespeare didn’t invent Orson Welles but he did define him; it can be said that if any one director took arms against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, it was the man behind Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight. The 1952 production of Othello is exhibit A.
Filmed over a turbulent three year period in and around Morocco, Venice and Rome, Welles was bedeviled by an ever-changing cast and crew resulting in reshoots by five different cinematographers and assembled by four different editors. The sound recording was a joke.
Blu-ray
Criterion
1952 / Black and White / 1:33 / Street Date October 10, 2017
Starring Orson Welles, Suzanne Cloutier, Micheál MacLiammóir
Cinematography by G.R. Aldo, Anchise Brizzi, George Fanto, Alberto Fusi, Oberdan Troiani
Written by William Shakespeare (Adapted by Orson Welles)
Edited by Jenö Csepreghy, Renzo Lucidi, William Morton, Jean Sacha
Produced by Orson Welles, Julien Derode
Directed by Orson Welles
Shakespeare didn’t invent Orson Welles but he did define him; it can be said that if any one director took arms against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, it was the man behind Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight. The 1952 production of Othello is exhibit A.
Filmed over a turbulent three year period in and around Morocco, Venice and Rome, Welles was bedeviled by an ever-changing cast and crew resulting in reshoots by five different cinematographers and assembled by four different editors. The sound recording was a joke.
- 10/17/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Billy Wilder always more or less disowned his one real musical, which leaves the enthusiast with a choice: keep re-watching the classic Wilder films, of which there are many, or probe into the obscure, disreputable corners of the great man's oeuvre?The year was 1948. Wilder had been involved with the war effort. Lost Weekend had belatedly come out in 1945 and won an Oscar for Ray Milland. And while the rest of Hollywood was churning out movies that developed the film noir genre Wilder had helped launch with Double Indemnity, he made a Bing Crosby musical set in Austria. He claimed it was offered to him, but the script is credited to Wilder and Charles Brackett, so he can't distance himself that easily."On a December night, some forty-odd years ago, His Majesty Franz Joseph the First, Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia,...
- 9/27/2017
- MUBI
Now, after 62 years, viewable again in beautiful 3-D! Scientists are being murdered in a secret underground laboratory overseen by a super-computer and two robots, Gog and Magog. The restoration is a stunning achievement, covered thoroughly on the disc extras. The year is young, but this is an early favorite. Gog 3-D 3-D Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 85 min. / Street Date March 1, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95 Starring Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, John Wengraf, Philip Van Zandt, Michael Fox, William Schallert. Cinematography Lothrop B. Worth Film Editor Herbert L. Strock Original Music Harry Sukman Written by Tom Taggart, Richard G. Taylor, Ivan Tors Produced by Ivan Tors Directed by Herbert L. Strock
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Once viewable only at isolated special film festivals, vintage films on 3-D are enjoying a comeback thanks to a busy independent company. The 3-D Film Archive has done work for various studios and disc distributors,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Once viewable only at isolated special film festivals, vintage films on 3-D are enjoying a comeback thanks to a busy independent company. The 3-D Film Archive has done work for various studios and disc distributors,...
- 2/10/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Forget the proletarian messages, this Italian Neorealist classic is really an exploitation film about ogling brazen, buxom babes in short-shorts, up to their knees in a rice paddy. Hollywood actress Doris Dowling is the nominal star but new discovery Silvana Mangano became the knockout dream of every Italian male suffering from postwar shortages (cough). Giuseppe De Santis delivered the perfect combo -- an art film that pulled in every lonely guy nella cittá. Bitter Rice Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 792 1949 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 109 min. / Riso amaro / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 12, 2016 / 29.95 Starring Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling, Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone. Cinematography Otello Martelli Film Editor Gabriele Varriale Original Music Goffredo Petrassi Written by Corrado Alvaro, Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Franco Monicelli, Carlo Musso, Ivo Perilli, Gianni Puccini Produced by Dino De Laurentiis Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
- 1/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Criterion digs Bitter Rice out of obscurity this month, a pulpy mix of social drama and dime store pathos from director and screenwriter Giuseppe De Santis. Premiering at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, the title was also nominated for an Oscar in 1950 for Best Story. Lumped in with the neo-realism movement, it’s been a well-regarded minor title, but its problematic noir elements seem to have denied it prominent classification, at least compared to De Santis’ contemporary, Roberto Rossellini, whose Rome, Open City (1945) birthed the movement (and had just finished his notable war trilogy the year prior to release of this title). But De Santis creates something a bit stranger with this hybrid, a darker examination of sex and violence from the perspective of two central female characters. In its native language, the title is a pun since the Italian word for rice can also be substituted for the word laughter,...
- 1/12/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Blue Dahlia
Written by Raymond Chandler
Directed by George Marshall
USA, 1946
Three wartime veterans who served in the Navy return home to Los Angeles. They are Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) and his two faithful companions, Buzz (William Bendix) and George (Hugh Beaumont). After an early tussle at a diner in which Buzz shows some unfortunate signs of postwar anxiety, Johnny heads home to re-acquaint with his wife Helen (Doris Dowling), who is hosting a party. Much to Johnny’s chagrin, it is clear that one of the guests, Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva), owner of a luxurious club downtown called The Blue Dahlia, is having a fling with Helen. The wedded couple do not get along swimmingly, yet the revelation stings Johnny nonetheless. Shortly after Johnny walks out on her and meets a beautiful blonde named Joyce (Veronica Lake), Helen is found shot dead on her couch. Evidence points to Johnny as the culprit,...
Written by Raymond Chandler
Directed by George Marshall
USA, 1946
Three wartime veterans who served in the Navy return home to Los Angeles. They are Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) and his two faithful companions, Buzz (William Bendix) and George (Hugh Beaumont). After an early tussle at a diner in which Buzz shows some unfortunate signs of postwar anxiety, Johnny heads home to re-acquaint with his wife Helen (Doris Dowling), who is hosting a party. Much to Johnny’s chagrin, it is clear that one of the guests, Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva), owner of a luxurious club downtown called The Blue Dahlia, is having a fling with Helen. The wedded couple do not get along swimmingly, yet the revelation stings Johnny nonetheless. Shortly after Johnny walks out on her and meets a beautiful blonde named Joyce (Veronica Lake), Helen is found shot dead on her couch. Evidence points to Johnny as the culprit,...
- 12/20/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
The Life of Artie Shaw by Tom Nolan (Norton) This book may seem tangential on a site devoted to film, but music is one of my passions, and Artie Shaw was part of a show-business era that fascinates me; he remains one of my all-time favorite musicians. A brilliant clarinetist, he became a major star of the big band era with a string of hit records, including “Stardust,” “Begin the Beguine,” and “Frenesi.” If you insist on a Hollywood connection, he cut a wide swath through movieland and was married to four beautiful actresses: Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Doris Dowling,…...
- 8/4/2010
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
No 84 Alan Ladd 1913-64
He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.
He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.
But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...
He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.
He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.
But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...
- 3/7/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
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