'Ben-Hur' 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM's '31 Days of Oscar.' '31 Days of Oscar': 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Ben-Hur' are in, Paramount stars are out Today, Feb. 1, '16, Turner Classic Movies is kicking off the 21st edition of its “31 Days of Oscar.” While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being vociferously reviled for its “lack of diversity” – more on that appallingly myopic, self-serving, and double-standard-embracing furore in an upcoming post – TCM is celebrating nearly nine decades of the Academy Awards. That's the good news. The disappointing news is that if you're expecting to find rare Paramount, Universal, or Fox/20th Century Fox entries in the mix, you're out of luck. So, missing from the TCM schedule are, among others: Best Actress nominees Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son, Nancy Carroll in The Devil's Holiday, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds. Unofficial Best Actor...
- 2/2/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Part of a series by David Cairns on forgotten pre-Code films.
Edward L. Cahn—how shall I sing your praises? Perhaps before seeing this film I wouldn't have bothered, though It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) is a genuinely exciting sci-fi horror, and a clear precursor to Alien. Apart from that, Cahn seems to resemble W. Lee Wilder (Billy Wilder's idiot brother), in that he was capable of semi-decent Z-grade noirs, but concentrated much of his attention on science fiction, a genre he seemed to have no understanding of and nothing but contempt for. Cahn's Invisible Invaders (1959) may safely be recommended to anybody who likes really, really stupid movies. Movies so stupid they forget to breath.
Above: The chain gang chorus line—a surprisingly uncommon trope.
But decades earlier, things were different. Cahn was already churning out several quickies a year, with snap-brimmed titles like Homicide Squad (1931) and Radio Patrol (1932). The difference was,...
Edward L. Cahn—how shall I sing your praises? Perhaps before seeing this film I wouldn't have bothered, though It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) is a genuinely exciting sci-fi horror, and a clear precursor to Alien. Apart from that, Cahn seems to resemble W. Lee Wilder (Billy Wilder's idiot brother), in that he was capable of semi-decent Z-grade noirs, but concentrated much of his attention on science fiction, a genre he seemed to have no understanding of and nothing but contempt for. Cahn's Invisible Invaders (1959) may safely be recommended to anybody who likes really, really stupid movies. Movies so stupid they forget to breath.
Above: The chain gang chorus line—a surprisingly uncommon trope.
But decades earlier, things were different. Cahn was already churning out several quickies a year, with snap-brimmed titles like Homicide Squad (1931) and Radio Patrol (1932). The difference was,...
- 12/15/2011
- MUBI
Over the summer I made a little video essay inspired by Reverse Shot's Take Three issue, which focuses on the specific use of sound in a film. The video, square shot, is somewhat cryptic so I've included some text for a bit of context. Special thanks to Michael Koresky.
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The sounds of the studio in 1931 are a real pleasure—what you are listening to is literally the sounds of an industrial-artistic complex figuring out how to make its product heard. Cavernous echoes, noises expanded into and being swallowed by massive soundstages—strange, eerie signs of early talkies.
Josef von Sternberg was one of the most inspired filmmakers to leap at the challenge and see the possibilities opened up by sound. An initial mention, or homage, must go first to his brilliant sound debut Thunderbolt (1929), a subject deserving its own poetics, but instead let's look at and listen to the final gunshots in 1931's Dishonored,...
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The sounds of the studio in 1931 are a real pleasure—what you are listening to is literally the sounds of an industrial-artistic complex figuring out how to make its product heard. Cavernous echoes, noises expanded into and being swallowed by massive soundstages—strange, eerie signs of early talkies.
Josef von Sternberg was one of the most inspired filmmakers to leap at the challenge and see the possibilities opened up by sound. An initial mention, or homage, must go first to his brilliant sound debut Thunderbolt (1929), a subject deserving its own poetics, but instead let's look at and listen to the final gunshots in 1931's Dishonored,...
- 12/29/2010
- MUBI
Josef von Sternberg's Thunderbolt (1929), his first talkie, is perhaps not so much forgotten as simply hard to see, which means it lives on in the minds of film lovers but in abstracted form, since so few Sternberg fans have managed to get hold of a copy or attend a screening. It's prime Sternberg and deserves to be seen.
On one level a near-remake of Underworld, the so-called "first gangster film", Thunderbolt, like its predecessor (and like altogether lost filmThe Dragnet) it stars George Bancroft as a tougher-than-nails gangster and bank robber who winds up in jail but plots to avenge himself upon his girlfriend's nice-guy lover. Key differences are that Thunderbolt is written by Jules Furthman and his brother Charles—Jules would go on to script several of the Dietrich movies that cemented Sternberg's immortality—rather than by Ben Hecht, so the wisecracking is more philosophical, peculiar and perverse...
On one level a near-remake of Underworld, the so-called "first gangster film", Thunderbolt, like its predecessor (and like altogether lost filmThe Dragnet) it stars George Bancroft as a tougher-than-nails gangster and bank robber who winds up in jail but plots to avenge himself upon his girlfriend's nice-guy lover. Key differences are that Thunderbolt is written by Jules Furthman and his brother Charles—Jules would go on to script several of the Dietrich movies that cemented Sternberg's immortality—rather than by Ben Hecht, so the wisecracking is more philosophical, peculiar and perverse...
- 7/22/2010
- MUBI
Fay Wray, the stunning beauty who tamed the legendary beast in King Kong, died Sunday at her Manhattan home; she was 96. According to a close friend, director Rick McKay, Wray passed away quietly, "as if she was going to sleep." Canadian-born but raised in Los Angeles, the diminutive actress (her full name was the exotic Vina Fay Wray) appeared in a number of silent films in the 20s, including Erich Von Stroheim's The Wedding March, which showcased her beauty and brought her larger fame. Other notable films of the era included The Legend of the Condemned opposite Gary Cooper, Josef Von Sternberg's Thunderbolt (the director's first sound film), and The Four Feathers, which introduced her to Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack, the team that would make King Kong. Though she made a startling 11 films in 1933, Wray will be remembered always and forever as Ann Darrow, an unemployed actress who takes a job in a movie filming on a strange island and finds herself the love object of a giant ape. Mixing sex appeal with vulnerability, and a pair of lungs that wouldn't quit, Wray established herself as the first "scream queen" and the iconic image of her held in Kong's giant fist (in actuality an eight-foot mechanical arm) became one of the most enduring and legendary images in cinema.
Alas, Wray's follow-up films were less than memorable, and she left the screen in 1942 to marry writer Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night). She made a return in the 50s in small roles, usually playing a teen ingenue's mother (as she did in Tammy and the Bachelor), but gave up moviemaking by the end of the decade and appeared sporadically on television through the 60s. Her last appearance was in the 1980 TV movie Gideon's Trumpet opposite Henry Fonda. In 1988 she published her autobiography, On the Other Hand, and was the guest of honor at the 1991 ceremony marking the 60th birthday of the Empire State Building; she wrote, "Each time I arrive in New York and see the skyline and the exquisite beauty of the Empire State Building, my heart beats a little faster. I like that feeling. I really like it!" Wray is survived by three children, including daughter Victoria Riskin. --Prepared by IMDb staff...
Alas, Wray's follow-up films were less than memorable, and she left the screen in 1942 to marry writer Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night). She made a return in the 50s in small roles, usually playing a teen ingenue's mother (as she did in Tammy and the Bachelor), but gave up moviemaking by the end of the decade and appeared sporadically on television through the 60s. Her last appearance was in the 1980 TV movie Gideon's Trumpet opposite Henry Fonda. In 1988 she published her autobiography, On the Other Hand, and was the guest of honor at the 1991 ceremony marking the 60th birthday of the Empire State Building; she wrote, "Each time I arrive in New York and see the skyline and the exquisite beauty of the Empire State Building, my heart beats a little faster. I like that feeling. I really like it!" Wray is survived by three children, including daughter Victoria Riskin. --Prepared by IMDb staff...
- 8/9/2004
- IMDb News
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