Sen. Joe Manchin (D-w. Va.) seemingly dashed any hopes of Democrats abolishing the filibuster anytime soon when he wrote last week that the legislative maneuver was a “critical tool” to protecting “our democratic form of government.” That’s a far different view than that of former President Barack Obama, who called it a “Jim Crow relic,” along with a slew of other critics. But an idealized view of the filibuster as a force for good isn’t an outlier; it’s the way that many students, of past generations and even today, are first exposed to it, via the 1939 Frank Capra classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. As much of a relic as the movie is, the climatic scene, in which Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) stages a nearly 24- hour filibuster against corruption and back-room dealing among his colleagues, has endured. It’s still used as a teaching tool and,...
- 4/11/2021
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
By John M. Whalen
John Payne was one of those “meat and potatoes” kind of actors. Nothing fancy. No complicated method acting style. He just gave good, solid, straight off-the-page performances in dozens of films and television shows over a span of nearly 40 years. I think of him primarily as the guy trapped and fighting for survival in old black and white film noirs of the 1950s-- films like “Kansas City Confidential,” “99 River Street,” and perhaps one of the best noirs ever—“The Crooked Way.”
He made a number of interesting westerns however, including “El Paso” (1949), the first of a several he made for the Pine-Thomas Productions B-movie unit of Paramount. It was notable for the fact that it was the first Pine-Thomas movie to have a decent budget-- $1 million. It was filmed partly in El Paso, but mostly on the Iverson Ranch, which, film historian Toby Roan explains in the audio commentary,...
John Payne was one of those “meat and potatoes” kind of actors. Nothing fancy. No complicated method acting style. He just gave good, solid, straight off-the-page performances in dozens of films and television shows over a span of nearly 40 years. I think of him primarily as the guy trapped and fighting for survival in old black and white film noirs of the 1950s-- films like “Kansas City Confidential,” “99 River Street,” and perhaps one of the best noirs ever—“The Crooked Way.”
He made a number of interesting westerns however, including “El Paso” (1949), the first of a several he made for the Pine-Thomas Productions B-movie unit of Paramount. It was notable for the fact that it was the first Pine-Thomas movie to have a decent budget-- $1 million. It was filmed partly in El Paso, but mostly on the Iverson Ranch, which, film historian Toby Roan explains in the audio commentary,...
- 3/6/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
In today’s film news roundup, Danny Boyle’s upcoming comedy has been moved forward, James Wan is producing a horror movie based on the short “Milk” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is returning to theaters.
Release Date
Universal Pictures will move its untitled Danny Boyle comedy forward three months from Sept. 13, 2019, to June 28.
Lily James, Himesh Patel and Kate McKinnon star. Boyle, who dropped out of directing the James Bond 25 movie recently, is teaming with screenwriter Richard Curtis, whose credits include “Love Actually” and “Notting Hill.” The story focuses on a struggling musician, played by Patel, and is set in the 1960s and 1970s.
Boyle and Curtis are also producing along with Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Matt Wilkinson and Bernie Bellew. Nick Angel and Lee Brazier serve as executive producers.
The film will open against Paramount’s Tiffany Haddish comedy “Limited Partners” and Fox’s untitled Ford vs.
Release Date
Universal Pictures will move its untitled Danny Boyle comedy forward three months from Sept. 13, 2019, to June 28.
Lily James, Himesh Patel and Kate McKinnon star. Boyle, who dropped out of directing the James Bond 25 movie recently, is teaming with screenwriter Richard Curtis, whose credits include “Love Actually” and “Notting Hill.” The story focuses on a struggling musician, played by Patel, and is set in the 1960s and 1970s.
Boyle and Curtis are also producing along with Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Matt Wilkinson and Bernie Bellew. Nick Angel and Lee Brazier serve as executive producers.
The film will open against Paramount’s Tiffany Haddish comedy “Limited Partners” and Fox’s untitled Ford vs.
- 9/20/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Graft, Greed and One Man’s Fight Against Political Corruption: The TCM Big Screen Classics Series Brings Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Back to Movie Theaters Nationwide on October 14 and 17 Only.
he David-and-Goliath story, set within the not-so-hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol. This special presentation of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington also includes exclusive insight from TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz.
When Governor Hubert “Happy” Hopper (Guy Kibbee) appoints affable Jeff Smith — head of the Boy Rangers — to the U.S. Senate, corrupt political boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) and secretly crooked U.S. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) believe they can easily manipulate the newly minted politician when he arrives in Washington. But guidance from his hard-nosed, Beltway-savvy secretary Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), Mr. Smith exposes graft and greed that threatens the very fabric of American democracy, and the junior Senator becomes a heroic one-man filibuster.
he David-and-Goliath story, set within the not-so-hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol. This special presentation of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington also includes exclusive insight from TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz.
When Governor Hubert “Happy” Hopper (Guy Kibbee) appoints affable Jeff Smith — head of the Boy Rangers — to the U.S. Senate, corrupt political boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) and secretly crooked U.S. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) believe they can easily manipulate the newly minted politician when he arrives in Washington. But guidance from his hard-nosed, Beltway-savvy secretary Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), Mr. Smith exposes graft and greed that threatens the very fabric of American democracy, and the junior Senator becomes a heroic one-man filibuster.
- 9/19/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Another 3-D breakthrough, this time for a Paramount musical rescued from oblivion and remastered by the 3-D Archive. Rhonda Fleming and Gene Barry star in a blend of songs and Alaskan adventure filmed in downtown Hollywood. The depth effects are great, but the big surprise is Teresa Brewer, the radio star turned one-shot movie musical wonder. Her voice resurrects memories of pop vocals just prior to the arrival of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Those Redheads from Seattle
3-D Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1953 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date May 23, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95
Starring: Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, Agnes Moorehead, Teresa Brewer, The Bell Sisters, Guy Mitchell, Jean Parker, Roscoe Ates, John Kellogg, Sheila James Kuehl, Dub Taylor, Max Wagner.
Cinematography: Lionel Lindon
Film Editor: Archie Marshek
Original Music: Sidney Cutner, Leo Shuken
Written by Lewis R. Foster, Geoffrey Holmes (Daniel Mainwearing) and George Worthing Yates
Produced by William H. Pine,...
Those Redheads from Seattle
3-D Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1953 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date May 23, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95
Starring: Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, Agnes Moorehead, Teresa Brewer, The Bell Sisters, Guy Mitchell, Jean Parker, Roscoe Ates, John Kellogg, Sheila James Kuehl, Dub Taylor, Max Wagner.
Cinematography: Lionel Lindon
Film Editor: Archie Marshek
Original Music: Sidney Cutner, Leo Shuken
Written by Lewis R. Foster, Geoffrey Holmes (Daniel Mainwearing) and George Worthing Yates
Produced by William H. Pine,...
- 5/20/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This is my seventh TCM Classic Film Festival. At a certain point, some things become routine – one learns to expect the exhaustion at the dawn of day three (of four), the constant negotiation between personal viewing whims and rare presentations, the way plots and aesthetic choices start to run together, and the suspicion that explaining the draw of such an event to those not immediately inclined to attend it may come across a touch insane. Film festivals are innately demanding experiences, but between the pleasure of its programming, the consolidation of the venues, and the brevity of most of its films’ running times, few make it so easy to watch four, five, six movies in a day. You tell your coworkers on Monday what you did all weekend, and it starts to not make a lot of sense. But somehow, in the midst of it all, the point of it couldn’t be clearer.
- 4/11/2017
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Jean Arthur films on TCM include three Frank Capra classics Five Jean Arthur films will be shown this evening, Monday, January 5, 2015, on Turner Classic Movies, including three directed by Frank Capra, the man who helped to turn Arthur into a major Hollywood star. They are the following: Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; George Stevens' The More the Merrier; and Frank Borzage's History Is Made at Night. One the most effective performers of the studio era, Jean Arthur -- whose film career began inauspiciously in 1923 -- was Columbia Pictures' biggest female star from the mid-'30s to the mid-'40s, when Rita Hayworth came to prominence and, coincidentally, Arthur's Columbia contract expired. Today, she's best known for her trio of films directed by Frank Capra, Columbia's top director of the 1930s. Jean Arthur-Frank Capra...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney was earliest surviving Best Actor Oscar nominee (photo: Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in ‘Boys Town’) (See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Dead at 93: MGM’s Andy Hardy Series’ Hero and Judy Garland Frequent Co-Star Had Longest Film Career Ever?”) Mickey Rooney was the earliest surviving Best Actor Academy Award nominee — Babes in Arms, 1939; The Human Comedy, 1943 — and the last surviving male acting Oscar nominee of the 1930s. Rooney lost the Best Actor Oscar to two considerably more “prestigious” — albeit less popular — stars: Robert Donat for Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Paul Lukas for Herman Shumlin’s Watch on the Rhine (1943). Following Mickey Rooney’s death, there are only two acting Academy Award nominees from the ’30s still alive: two-time Best Actress winner Luise Rainer, 104 (for Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth, 1937), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Olivia de Havilland,...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Election Day is just around the corner, and depending on your view of the current state of The Republic, you can look at that day in one of two ways:
It’s a national celebration of history’s greatest, most successful democracy, demonstrating our ability to freely choose our leadership and peacefully see the baton of power passed to the next man;
Or –
It’s a national embarrassment, history’s greatest, most successful democracy squandering it’s hard-won freedoms in a campaign for leadership poisoned by oversimplification, appeals to gut-level fears rather than the intellect, claims and charges plagued by inflation, distortion, and outright falsehood, and warped and distorted by the infusion of tens of millions of dollars from vested interests.
Either way, we still have to get through the day.
So, for those of you who just want to pull the shades and wait for the noise to die down,...
It’s a national celebration of history’s greatest, most successful democracy, demonstrating our ability to freely choose our leadership and peacefully see the baton of power passed to the next man;
Or –
It’s a national embarrassment, history’s greatest, most successful democracy squandering it’s hard-won freedoms in a campaign for leadership poisoned by oversimplification, appeals to gut-level fears rather than the intellect, claims and charges plagued by inflation, distortion, and outright falsehood, and warped and distorted by the infusion of tens of millions of dollars from vested interests.
Either way, we still have to get through the day.
So, for those of you who just want to pull the shades and wait for the noise to die down,...
- 11/2/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – Diabolical twins, obsessed journalists and jail-breaking thugs are heading their way to the Music Box Theatre. The Film Noir Foundation’s third installment of “Noir City: Chicago” features no less than sixteen restored 35mm prints of must-see cinematic rarities. Ten of these noir classics have yet to land a DVD release, thus making this festival all the more essential for local cinephiles.
The week-long festival kicks off Friday, Aug. 12, and includes criminally overlooked performances from Hollywood legends such as Humphrey Bogart, Anne Bancroft, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Burt Lancaster. Acclaimed noir historians Alan K. Rode (“Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy”) and Foster Hirsch (“Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir”) will be presenting the pictures while offering their wealth of historical and filmic insight.
Among this year’s most priceless treasures is “Deadline USA,” starring Bogart as...
The week-long festival kicks off Friday, Aug. 12, and includes criminally overlooked performances from Hollywood legends such as Humphrey Bogart, Anne Bancroft, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Burt Lancaster. Acclaimed noir historians Alan K. Rode (“Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy”) and Foster Hirsch (“Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir”) will be presenting the pictures while offering their wealth of historical and filmic insight.
Among this year’s most priceless treasures is “Deadline USA,” starring Bogart as...
- 8/11/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.