When Martin Scorsese was just 11 years old, he storyboarded a cinematic epic named “The Eternal City,” which he described as “a fictitious story of Royalty in Ancient Rome.” It was envisioned to film in 75mm CinemaScope and star Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Virginia Mayo, and Alec Guinness. This remains a fascinating, ambitious artifact that’s been shared far and wide online. But perhaps just as interesting are the storyboards critic Richard Blake describes in his book After Image: The Indelible Catholic Imagination of Six American Filmmakers. According to Blake, Scorsese, aged 10, drew even earlier the Stations of the Cross: images of Jesus Christ’s final days and moments before death.
Many years later, Scorsese would at last film his version of those events in The Last Temptation of Christ, and the result was one of the most controversial films of all time.
Christianity has a deep and enduring impact on Scorsese’s work.
Many years later, Scorsese would at last film his version of those events in The Last Temptation of Christ, and the result was one of the most controversial films of all time.
Christianity has a deep and enduring impact on Scorsese’s work.
- 4/7/2023
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
An old favorite receives a quality restoration: Raoul Walsh, John Huston, W.R. Burnett and actress Ida Lupino launch Humphrey Bogart as an A-list star deemed strong enough to carry romantic leads. Bogart’s gangster Roy Earle is a classic anti-hero; audiences in 1941 surely thought the film’s play with wrongdoing and heroism was edgy material. Lupino’s loser-turned-lover is a dynamite asset for a man on the run, and the sentimental touches don’t mar the spectacular finale: this all-American bandit meets his end on a California peak, not a dirty urban gutter. A second disc carries the full feature Colorado Territory, a remake/transposition of the Bogie classic into an excellent western with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo.
High Sierra
+ Colorado Territory
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1099
1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 100 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 12, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy,
Joan Leslie,...
High Sierra
+ Colorado Territory
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1099
1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 100 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 12, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy,
Joan Leslie,...
- 10/23/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
by Nathaniel R
Today marks the centennial of another Old Hollywood star that seems to be forgotten these days but perhaps there are fans among you? Born in Missouri on this day in 1920, Virginia Clara Jones hit the Vaudeville circuit as a professional entertainer when she was 17 and adopted the stage name of "Virginia Mayo" even before Hollywood came calling in the early 1940s. Her first credited film role was in the biopic Jack London (1943) starring Michael O'Shea (who she would marry four years later). Though she was a leading lady with many box office hits to her name, enduring classics (mostly) eluded her. Naturally then she's best remembered today in a supporting role as the unfaithful wife in the superb Best Picture winner The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), one of those utterly magic films where every single actor is killing it...
Today marks the centennial of another Old Hollywood star that seems to be forgotten these days but perhaps there are fans among you? Born in Missouri on this day in 1920, Virginia Clara Jones hit the Vaudeville circuit as a professional entertainer when she was 17 and adopted the stage name of "Virginia Mayo" even before Hollywood came calling in the early 1940s. Her first credited film role was in the biopic Jack London (1943) starring Michael O'Shea (who she would marry four years later). Though she was a leading lady with many box office hits to her name, enduring classics (mostly) eluded her. Naturally then she's best remembered today in a supporting role as the unfaithful wife in the superb Best Picture winner The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), one of those utterly magic films where every single actor is killing it...
- 11/30/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
When Hollywood from time to time reinvented the western the results were sometimes sensationally good, as attested to by this superior neglected classic. We’d call it the first psychological western if the term weren’t so limiting. Gregory Peck once again proves how good he can be when well cast and he’s surrounded by fine characterizations, not typical oater walk-ons. The screenplay and direction are so pleasing that the downbeat finale isn’t a drawback — it doesn’t strain to enforce an irony, or to sell a deep-dish ‘author’s message.’ This one’s just a winner in all categories.
The Gunfighter
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1053
1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Skip Homeier, Anthony Ross, Verna Felton, Ellen Corby, Richard Jaeckel, Alan Hale Jr., Mae Marsh, James Millican, Kim Spalding.
The Gunfighter
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1053
1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Skip Homeier, Anthony Ross, Verna Felton, Ellen Corby, Richard Jaeckel, Alan Hale Jr., Mae Marsh, James Millican, Kim Spalding.
- 11/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One of the more satisfying costume adventures of the ‘sixties is also one of its star’s best vehicles. Charlton Heston was born to play bigger-than-life historical types, and his Norman knight in this film has the benefit of an intelligent screenplay and a terrific supporting ensemble. This hero’s armor doesn’t shine — he’s more than willing to risk everything to possess a pagan woman with whom he’s become infatuated. Many would-be epics want us to think that the charms of unlikely damsels like Virginia Mayo and Claudette Colbert changed the course of history, but this show makes it seem more than possible. Plus, it features great action scenes and a terrific music score by Jerome Moross.
The War Lord
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Special Edition / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth, Maurice Evans, Guy Stockwell,...
The War Lord
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Special Edition / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth, Maurice Evans, Guy Stockwell,...
- 1/14/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jacques Tourneur’s ‘big sky’ western gives us the beauty of Colorado mountains plus stunning color images (originally Technicolor) of his attractive cast: Robert Stack, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman. North-South antagonisms break out in Denver City, before the Civil War begins, and Robert Stack’s loner opportunist must choose a side. The Wac’s disc includes four Jacques Tourneur short subjects, with mystery themes.
Great Day in the Morning
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1956 / Color / 1:2 widescreen (Superscope) / 92 min. / Street Date November 26, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr, Leo Gordon, Regis Toomey, Carleton Young, Donald MacDonald, William Phipps, Peter Whitney.
Cinematography: William Snyder
Film Editor: Harry Marker
Original Music: Leith Stevens
Written by Lesser Samuels, from the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Note: none of these images reflect the fine quality of the Blu-ray.)
The...
Great Day in the Morning
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1956 / Color / 1:2 widescreen (Superscope) / 92 min. / Street Date November 26, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr, Leo Gordon, Regis Toomey, Carleton Young, Donald MacDonald, William Phipps, Peter Whitney.
Cinematography: William Snyder
Film Editor: Harry Marker
Original Music: Leith Stevens
Written by Lesser Samuels, from the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Note: none of these images reflect the fine quality of the Blu-ray.)
The...
- 11/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
1945: As word spread about the end of World War II, listeners were glued to the radio for updates."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."
― Anselm Kiefer
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies (World War II). Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-j Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.
1945: On Pepper Young's Family, Harry, Betty, Pepper (Mason Adams) and Mrs. Green discussed Harry and Betty's upcoming marriage.
― Anselm Kiefer
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies (World War II). Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-j Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.
1945: On Pepper Young's Family, Harry, Betty, Pepper (Mason Adams) and Mrs. Green discussed Harry and Betty's upcoming marriage.
- 8/14/2019
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Max Hollein with Camp: Notes On Fashion Co-Chairs Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, and Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele at the press preview Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In Susan Sontag's Notes On 'Camp' from 1964, she counts Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble In Paradise and John Huston's The Maltese Falcon as "among the greatest camp movies ever made." Marcel Carné's Drôle De Drame, Greta Garbo, Jean Cocteau, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Russell, Gina Lollobrigida, Victor Mature, Virginia Mayo, Tallulah Bankhead, Jayne Mansfield, Mae West, Edward Everett Horton, and Anita Ekberg's performance in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita are noted by her for their camp appeal.
Andrew Bolton when I asked him "Are dachshunds particularly Camp?": "Oh absolutely!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Baz Luhrmann, Sienna Miller, Lupita Nyong'o, Emily Blunt, Elle Fanning, Emma Stone, Naomi Campbell, Ezra Miller, Cara Delevingne, Celine Dion, Bette Midler,...
In Susan Sontag's Notes On 'Camp' from 1964, she counts Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble In Paradise and John Huston's The Maltese Falcon as "among the greatest camp movies ever made." Marcel Carné's Drôle De Drame, Greta Garbo, Jean Cocteau, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Russell, Gina Lollobrigida, Victor Mature, Virginia Mayo, Tallulah Bankhead, Jayne Mansfield, Mae West, Edward Everett Horton, and Anita Ekberg's performance in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita are noted by her for their camp appeal.
Andrew Bolton when I asked him "Are dachshunds particularly Camp?": "Oh absolutely!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Baz Luhrmann, Sienna Miller, Lupita Nyong'o, Emily Blunt, Elle Fanning, Emma Stone, Naomi Campbell, Ezra Miller, Cara Delevingne, Celine Dion, Bette Midler,...
- 5/7/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
As word spread about the end of World War II, listeners were
glued to the radio for updates."The best prophet of the future is the past."
― Lord Byron
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies (World War II). Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-j Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.
1945: On Pepper Young's Family, Harry, Betty, Pepper (Mason Adams) and Mrs. Green discussed Harry and Betty's upcoming marriage. Since the kids didn't want to wait, they...
glued to the radio for updates."The best prophet of the future is the past."
― Lord Byron
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies (World War II). Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-j Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.
1945: On Pepper Young's Family, Harry, Betty, Pepper (Mason Adams) and Mrs. Green discussed Harry and Betty's upcoming marriage. Since the kids didn't want to wait, they...
- 8/14/2018
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
9 DoigtsThis year at the Locarno Festival I am looking for specific images, moments, techniques, qualities or scenes from films across the 70th edition's selection that grabbed me and have lingered past and beyond the next movie seen, whose characters, story and images have already begun to overwrite those that came just before.***The bracing discovery a one-act opera by Arnold Schönberg in Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’s From Today Until Tomorrow (1996), which is playing in the festival's Pardo d’onore tribute to Straub. Encountering a film by the husband and wife duo of Straub-Huillet is always at double meeting: one, with the perspective of their filmmaking, but also with whatever source material they are transforming into cinema, whether Bach’s music, dialogues by Cesare Pavese, or in this case, a short opera from 1928 by Schönberg. Where most adaptations for the cinema smother their sources to supposedly be more optimized for the seventh art,...
- 8/11/2017
- MUBI
Updated: Following a couple of Julie London Westerns*, Turner Classic Movies will return to its July 2017 Star of the Month presentations. On July 27, Ronald Colman can be seen in five films from his later years: A Double Life, Random Harvest (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942), The Late George Apley (1947), and The Story of Mankind (1957). The first three titles are among the most important in Colman's long film career. George Cukor's A Double Life earned him his one and only Best Actor Oscar; Mervyn LeRoy's Random Harvest earned him his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; George Stevens' The Talk of the Town was shortlisted for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. All three feature Ronald Colman at his very best. The early 21st century motto of international trendsetters, from Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Turkey's Recep Erdogan to Russia's Vladimir Putin and the United States' Donald Trump, seems to be, The world is reality TV and reality TV...
- 7/28/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'The Pink Panther' with Peter Sellers: Blake Edwards' 1963 comedy hit and its many sequels revolve around one of the most iconic film characters of the 20th century: clueless, thick-accented Inspector Clouseau – in some quarters surely deemed politically incorrect, or 'insensitive,' despite the lack of brown face make-up à la Sellers' clueless Indian guest in Edwards' 'The Party.' 'The Pink Panther' movies [1] There were a total of eight big-screen Pink Panther movies co-written and directed by Blake Edwards, most of them starring Peter Sellers – even after his death in 1980. Edwards was also one of the producers of every (direct) Pink Panther sequel, from A Shot in the Dark to Curse of the Pink Panther. Despite its iconic lead character, the last three movies in the Pink Panther franchise were box office bombs. Two of these, The Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther, were co-written by Edwards' son,...
- 5/29/2017
- by altfilmguide
- Alt Film Guide
On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...
Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, and Alec Guinness in The Fall Of The Roman Empire (1964)
190 BC Marucs Arelius, the Emperor of Rome, dies. Was he assassinated? That's the suspicion in most Hollywood accounts. He's been played by Alec Guiness (The Fall of the Roman Empire) and Richard Harris (Gladiator)
1906 Character actor of big and small screen Michael O'Shea, who later married Virginia Mayo, is born...
Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, and Alec Guinness in The Fall Of The Roman Empire (1964)
190 BC Marucs Arelius, the Emperor of Rome, dies. Was he assassinated? That's the suspicion in most Hollywood accounts. He's been played by Alec Guiness (The Fall of the Roman Empire) and Richard Harris (Gladiator)
1906 Character actor of big and small screen Michael O'Shea, who later married Virginia Mayo, is born...
- 3/17/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
by Kyle Stevens
Professor Indiana JonesAfter teaching for years as a graduate student, then as a postdoc, and then as a Visiting Assistant Professor, I’ve finally started a proper position as Assistant Professor of Film Studies. As semesters begin all over the country, I turned to thinking about my favorite on-screen professors. High school movies tend to serve as microcosms of society; they’re all emotional peaks and valleys, in-groups and out-groups, and the goal is to get out. In college movies, from Animal House and Old School to Legally Blonde and The House Bunny, the goal is to stay on the rip-roaring ride of university life.
Not surprisingly, college teachers don’t feature heavily in these movies. And in other genres where professors pop up, they’re not exactly realistic. Think Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor, Natalie Portman in Thor, Hugh Grant in The Rewrite,...
Professor Indiana JonesAfter teaching for years as a graduate student, then as a postdoc, and then as a Visiting Assistant Professor, I’ve finally started a proper position as Assistant Professor of Film Studies. As semesters begin all over the country, I turned to thinking about my favorite on-screen professors. High school movies tend to serve as microcosms of society; they’re all emotional peaks and valleys, in-groups and out-groups, and the goal is to get out. In college movies, from Animal House and Old School to Legally Blonde and The House Bunny, the goal is to stay on the rip-roaring ride of university life.
Not surprisingly, college teachers don’t feature heavily in these movies. And in other genres where professors pop up, they’re not exactly realistic. Think Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor, Natalie Portman in Thor, Hugh Grant in The Rewrite,...
- 9/6/2016
- by Kyle Stevens
- FilmExperience
What's it all about, Alfie? The master of suspense goes in an unusual direction with this murder mystery with a Catholic background. And foreground. Actually, it's a regular guidebook for proper priest deportment, and it's so complex that we wonder if Hitchcock himself had a full grip on it. Montgomery Clift is extremely good atop a top-rank cast that includes Anne Baxter and Karl Malden. Rated less exciting by audiences, this is really one of Hitch's best. I Confess Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 17.95 Starring Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, Roger Dann, Dolly Haas, Charles Andre, O.E. Hasse. Cinematography Robert Burks Art Direction Edward S. Haworth Film Editor Rudi Fehr Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin Written by George Tabori, William Archibald from a play by Paul Anthelme Produced and Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 1/24/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Virginia Mayo/AP
Collider have managed to have a word with James Cameron about the status of the sequels nobody really asked for – namely, Avatar 2, 3 and 4 – and got a tentative release date in the process. Aiming for Christmas 2017 for the first sequel, Cameron had this to say;
“At least, that’s what we’ve announced. But I don’t consider that to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart.”
I’m sure many would agree that the real achievement of the first Avatar wasn’t just financial but technological. For better or for worse, Cameron brought 3D kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and now we all have to face hiked-up prices at the multiplex for shoddy post-conversion jobs. Thanks Jim.
Whilst the story of Avatar was a little one-note, basic and familiar (FernGully, anyone?...
Collider have managed to have a word with James Cameron about the status of the sequels nobody really asked for – namely, Avatar 2, 3 and 4 – and got a tentative release date in the process. Aiming for Christmas 2017 for the first sequel, Cameron had this to say;
“At least, that’s what we’ve announced. But I don’t consider that to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart.”
I’m sure many would agree that the real achievement of the first Avatar wasn’t just financial but technological. For better or for worse, Cameron brought 3D kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and now we all have to face hiked-up prices at the multiplex for shoddy post-conversion jobs. Thanks Jim.
Whilst the story of Avatar was a little one-note, basic and familiar (FernGully, anyone?...
- 12/22/2015
- by Dan Woburn
- Obsessed with Film
Constance Cummings: Actress in minor Hollywood movies became major London stage star. Constance Cummings: Actress went from Harold Lloyd and Frank Capra to Noël Coward and Eugene O'Neill Actress Constance Cummings, whose career spanned more than six decades on stage, in films, and on television in both the U.S. and the U.K., died ten years ago on Nov. 23. Unlike other Broadway imports such as Ann Harding, Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, and Claudette Colbert, the pretty, elegant Cummings – who could have been turned into a less edgy Constance Bennett had she landed at Rko or Paramount instead of Columbia – never became a Hollywood star. In fact, her most acclaimed work, whether in films or – more frequently – on stage, was almost invariably found in British productions. That's most likely why the name Constance Cummings – despite the DVD availability of several of her best-received performances – is all but forgotten.
- 11/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Groucho Marx in 'Duck Soup.' Groucho Marx movies: 'Duck Soup,' 'The Story of Mankind' and romancing Margaret Dumont on TCM Grouch Marx, the bespectacled, (painted) mustached, cigar-chomping Marx brother, is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 14, '15. Marx Brothers fans will be delighted, as TCM is presenting no less than 11 of their comedies, in addition to a brotherly reunion in the 1957 all-star fantasy The Story of Mankind. Non-Marx Brothers fans should be delighted as well – as long as they're fans of Kay Francis, Thelma Todd, Ann Miller, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Allan Jones, affectionate, long-tongued giraffes, and/or that great, scene-stealing dowager, Margaret Dumont. Right now, TCM is showing Robert Florey and Joseph Santley's The Cocoanuts (1929), an early talkie notable as the first movie featuring the four Marx Brothers – Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo. Based on their hit Broadway...
- 8/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright ca. 1945. Teresa Wright movies on TCM: 'The Little Foxes,' 'The Pride of the Yankees' Pretty, talented Teresa Wright made a relatively small number of movies: 28 in all, over the course of more than half a century. Most of her films have already been shown on Turner Classic Movies, so it's more than a little disappointing that TCM will not be presenting Teresa Wright rarities such as The Imperfect Lady and The Trouble with Women – two 1947 releases co-starring Ray Milland – on Aug. 4, '15, a "Summer Under the Stars" day dedicated to the only performer to date to have been shortlisted for Academy Awards for their first three film roles. TCM's Teresa Wright day would also have benefited from a presentation of The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956), an unusual entry – parapsychology, reincarnation – in the Wright movie canon and/or Roseland (1977), a little-remembered entry in James Ivory's canon.
- 8/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...
- 3/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...
- 3/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock heroine (image: Joseph Cotten about to strangle Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt') (See preceding article: "Teresa Wright Movies: Actress Made Oscar History.") After scoring with The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and The Pride of the Yankees, Teresa Wright was loaned to Universal – once initial choices Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland became unavailable – to play the small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. (Check out video below: Teresa Wright reminiscing about the making of Shadow of a Doubt.) Co-written by Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town had provided Wright with her first chance on Broadway and who had suggested her to Hitchcock; Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss author Sally Benson; and Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, Shadow of a Doubt was based on "Uncle Charlie," a story outline by Gordon McDonell – itself based on actual events.
- 3/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Virginia Mayo/AP
Being a movie director is without question one of the most stressful and demanding jobs in the entertainment industry, given that potentially hundreds of millions of dollars depend on one person’s ability to deliver a movie able to find an audience, while ensuring the gainful employment of hundreds if not thousands of cast and crew members.
As such, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s a profession that tends to attract passionate personalities, passionate to the point that actors often characterise them as difficult, a real pain to work with, or in some select cases, even flat-out psychopathic. With so much on the line, the weak-willed need not apply, but even so, these 12 directors have especially earned reputations for being directors who actors don’t especially like working with, even though they tend to turn out satisfactory if not incredible results every...
Being a movie director is without question one of the most stressful and demanding jobs in the entertainment industry, given that potentially hundreds of millions of dollars depend on one person’s ability to deliver a movie able to find an audience, while ensuring the gainful employment of hundreds if not thousands of cast and crew members.
As such, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s a profession that tends to attract passionate personalities, passionate to the point that actors often characterise them as difficult, a real pain to work with, or in some select cases, even flat-out psychopathic. With so much on the line, the weak-willed need not apply, but even so, these 12 directors have especially earned reputations for being directors who actors don’t especially like working with, even though they tend to turn out satisfactory if not incredible results every...
- 1/8/2015
- by Jack Pooley
- Obsessed with Film
Veterans Day movies on TCM: From 'The Sullivans' to 'Patton' (photo: George C. Scott in 'Patton') This evening, Turner Classic Movies is presenting five war or war-related films in celebration of Veterans Day. For those outside the United States, Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day, which takes place in late May. (Scroll down to check out TCM's Veterans Day movie schedule.) It's good to be aware that in the last century alone, the U.S. has been involved in more than a dozen armed conflicts, from World War I to the invasion of Iraq, not including direct or indirect military interventions in countries as disparate as Iran, Guatemala, and Chile. As to be expected in a society that reveres people in uniform, American war movies have almost invariably glorified American soldiers even in those rare instances when they have dared to criticize the military establishment.
- 11/12/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
At age 11 in New York City, Martin Scorsese’s imagination was already deeply entrenched in the cinema. The future director suffered from asthma and was unable to play sports or run around like the rest of the children in his neighborhood. Instead, he spent countless hours at his local movie theater with his family, where he developed an abiding love for film. It was during this time that Scorsese developed an epic Roman film called The Eternal City, which he imagined would star Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Virginia Mayo, Alec Guinness and others. Scorsese even drew a series of storyboards for the drama, which Open Culture describes as a “Cecil B. Demille-like production.” The filmmaker called it “a fictitious story of Royalty in Ancient...
Read More...
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- 7/30/2014
- by Alison Nastasi
- Movies.com
Today we all know Martin Scorsese as the director of acclaimed films like Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, GoodFellas, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets and the Best Picture winning The Departed. But at a young age, Scorsese had a taste for Roman epics, and he actually drew some incredible storyboards to illustrate what his film would look like. These drawings popped up in David Thompson's incredible book Scorsese on Scorsese, but now they've been posted in great quality online. These are super impressive for an 11-year old kid, and what's even more awesome is that at this young age, Scorsese already knew who he wanted to star. Here's 11-year old Martin Scorsese's storyboards from Cinephila and Beyond (via The Playlist): As you can see, the film is called The Eternal City, and the young Scorsese described it as "a fictitious story of royalty in Ancient Rome." And...
- 7/30/2014
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
"...dealing with Howard Hughes at this point in his life, his flaw, the curse so to speak, is the curse for all of us in terms of a nation, a country that acquires wealth like empires," Martin Scorsese told Film4 circa "The Aviator." "I love studying ancient history and seeing how empires rise and fall. They sow the seeds of their own destruction and I think that's what fascinated me. Ultimately the story asks, is that the wave of the future for everyone?" And it would seem that's been an area the director has been fascinated with since childhood. As if you needed any more reason to be in awe of Scorsese, here he is at 11 years-old, making storyboards for a Roman epic titled "The Eternal City." For the imagined movie, the young Scorsese dreamcasted Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Virginia Mayo and Alec Guinness, for what was described as “a...
- 7/30/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
‘Gone with the Wind’ actress Mary Anderson dead at 96; also featured in Alfred Hitchcock thriller ‘Lifeboat’ Mary Anderson, an actress featured in both Gone with the Wind and Alfred Hitchcock’s adventure thriller Lifeboat, died following a series of small strokes on Sunday, April 6, 2014, while under hospice care in Toluca Lake/Burbank, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Anderson, the widow of multiple Oscar-winning cinematographer Leon Shamroy, had turned 96 on April 3. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1918, Mary Anderson was reportedly discovered by director George Cukor, at the time looking for an actress to play Scarlett O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s film version of Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller Gone with the Wind. Instead of Scarlett, eventually played by Vivien Leigh, Anderson was cast in the small role of Maybelle Merriwether — most of which reportedly ended up on the cutting-room floor. Cukor was later fired from the project; his replacement, Victor Fleming,...
- 4/10/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Singer, dancer and actor whose Hollywood career was overshadowed by her marriage to Errol Flynn
The gifted singer, dancer and actor Patrice Wymore, who has died aged 87, had the misfortune to be typecast in secondary roles at Warner Bros studios in the 1950s, and to be known as the third wife of the Hollywood star Errol Flynn.
The 23-year-old Wymore and the 41-year-old Flynn got married after co-starring in Rocky Mountain (1950), a minor western in which he played an army officer who rescues her from marauding Indians, though they had no love scenes together on screen. It was Wymore's second film, while Flynn was a veteran of more than three dozen movies. It was the beginning of her film career, while his was on the slide. Both were under contract to Warner Bros.
At the time, MGM musicals reigned supreme, though Warner Bros had Doris Day, a top box-office singing star.
The gifted singer, dancer and actor Patrice Wymore, who has died aged 87, had the misfortune to be typecast in secondary roles at Warner Bros studios in the 1950s, and to be known as the third wife of the Hollywood star Errol Flynn.
The 23-year-old Wymore and the 41-year-old Flynn got married after co-starring in Rocky Mountain (1950), a minor western in which he played an army officer who rescues her from marauding Indians, though they had no love scenes together on screen. It was Wymore's second film, while Flynn was a veteran of more than three dozen movies. It was the beginning of her film career, while his was on the slide. Both were under contract to Warner Bros.
At the time, MGM musicals reigned supreme, though Warner Bros had Doris Day, a top box-office singing star.
- 3/25/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Oscar-nominated actor who brought sensitivity and warmth to her most famous role in Imitation of Life
From its earliest days, Hollywood, which has always lagged behind wider social advances, limited the roles of black actors to stock, wide-eyed cowards, simpletons or servants, often referred to as "uncles" and "mammies". Juanita Moore, who has died aged 99, suffered from this limitation by having to play maids throughout most of her long career. However, Moore could have echoed what Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award, once said: "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
Where McDaniel as Mammy, Scarlett O'Hara's lovable, sassy servant in Gone With the Wind (1939) was the apotheosis of the black maid, Moore's Oscar-nominated portrayal of Annie Johnson, housekeeper to the glamorous Broadway star Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) in Douglas Sirk...
From its earliest days, Hollywood, which has always lagged behind wider social advances, limited the roles of black actors to stock, wide-eyed cowards, simpletons or servants, often referred to as "uncles" and "mammies". Juanita Moore, who has died aged 99, suffered from this limitation by having to play maids throughout most of her long career. However, Moore could have echoed what Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award, once said: "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
Where McDaniel as Mammy, Scarlett O'Hara's lovable, sassy servant in Gone With the Wind (1939) was the apotheosis of the black maid, Moore's Oscar-nominated portrayal of Annie Johnson, housekeeper to the glamorous Broadway star Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) in Douglas Sirk...
- 1/3/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Top box office movies of 2013: If you make original, quality films… (photo: Sandra Bullock has two movies among the top 15 box office hits of 2013; Bullock is seen here in ‘The Heat,’ with Melissa McCarthy) (See previous post: “2013 Box Office Record? History is Remade If a Few ‘Minor Details’ Ignored.”) As further evidence that moviegoers want original, quality entertainment, below you’ll find a list of the top 15 movies at the domestic box office in 2013 — nine of which are sequels or reboots (ten if you include Oz the Great and Powerful), and more than half of which are 3D releases. Disney and Warner Bros. were the two top studios in 2013. Disney has five movies among the top 15; Warners has three. With the exception of the sleeper blockbuster Gravity, which, however dumbed down, targeted a more mature audience, every single one of the titles below were aimed either at teenagers/very,...
- 12/31/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
Back in 1947, Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo captivated audiences with “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” and on December 25th, Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig will give the story a fresh reboot.
In the newly-released trailer, the “Meet the Parents” star plays a writer at Life magazine who goes on a wondrous journey in order to save his own job and that of Wiig’s character, whom he secretly loves.
Also starring Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, Sean Penn, and Kathryn Hahn, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was a long time coming.
Producer John Goldwyn explained that he waited until writer Stuart Conrad came up with the perfect script. “In every other version, the script skewed closely to the original film, and his didn’t. It gave the character clarity. That’s what got Ben on board, Fox on board, got the thing moving down the track.”
Stiller added, “We...
In the newly-released trailer, the “Meet the Parents” star plays a writer at Life magazine who goes on a wondrous journey in order to save his own job and that of Wiig’s character, whom he secretly loves.
Also starring Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, Sean Penn, and Kathryn Hahn, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was a long time coming.
Producer John Goldwyn explained that he waited until writer Stuart Conrad came up with the perfect script. “In every other version, the script skewed closely to the original film, and his didn’t. It gave the character clarity. That’s what got Ben on board, Fox on board, got the thing moving down the track.”
Stiller added, “We...
- 10/7/2013
- GossipCenter
Rex Harrison hat on TCM: ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘Anna and the King of Siam’ Rex Harrison is Turner Classic Movies’ final "Summer Under the Stars" star today, August 31, 2013. TCM is currently showing George Cukor’s lavish My Fair Lady (1964), an Academy Award-winning musical that has (in my humble opinion) unfairly lost quite a bit of its prestige in the last several decades. Rex Harrison, invariably a major ham whether playing Saladin, the King of Siam, Julius Caesar, the ghost of a dead sea captain, or Richard Burton’s lover, is for once flawlessly cast as Professor Henry Higgins, who on stage transformed Julie Andrews from cockney duckling to diction-master swan and who in the movie version does the same for Audrey Hepburn. Harrison, by the way, was the year’s Best Actor Oscar winner. (See also: "Audrey Hepburn vs. Julie Andrews: Biggest Oscar Snubs.") Following My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison...
- 8/31/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Kirk Douglas movies: The Theater of Larger Than Life Performances Kirk Douglas, a three-time Best Actor Academy Award nominee and one of the top Hollywood stars of the ’50s, is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured star today, August 30, 2013. Although an undeniably strong screen presence, no one could ever accuse Douglas of having been a subtle, believable actor. In fact, even if you were to place side by side all of the widescreen formats ever created, they couldn’t possibly be wide enough to contain his larger-than-life theatrical emoting. (Photo: Kirk Douglas ca. 1950.) Right now, TCM is showing Andrew V. McLaglen’s 1967 Western The Way West, a routine tale about settlers in the Old American Northwest that remains of interest solely due to its name cast. Besides Douglas, The Way West features Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Lola Albright, and 21-year-old Sally Field in her The Flying Nun days.
- 8/30/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Gregory Peck from ‘Duel in the Sun’ to ‘How the West Was Won’: TCM schedule (Pt) on August 15 (photo: Gregory Peck in ‘Duel in the Sun’) See previous post: “Gregory Peck Movies: Memorable Miscasting Tonight on Turner Classic Movies.” 3:00 Am Days Of Glory (1944). Director: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer. Bw-86 mins. 4:30 Am Pork Chop Hill (1959). Director: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn. Bw-98 mins. Letterbox Format. 6:15 Am The Valley Of Decision (1945). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp. Bw-119 mins. 8:15 Am Spellbound (1945). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, Rhonda Fleming, Bill Goodwin, Norman Lloyd, Steve Geray, John Emery, Donald Curtis, Art Baker, Wallace Ford, Regis Toomey, Paul Harvey, Jean Acker, Irving Bacon, Jacqueline deWit, Edward Fielding, Matt Moore, Addison Richards, Erskine Sanford, Constance Purdy. Bw-111 mins. 10:15 Am Designing Woman (1957). Director: Vincente Minnelli.
- 8/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Gregory Peck movies: Memorable miscasting in David O. Selznick’s Western Gregory Peck is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, August 15, 2013. TCM is currently showing Raoul Walsh’s good-looking but not too exciting Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), with Peck in the title role and Virginia Mayo as his leading lady. (See “Gregory Peck in ‘Duel in the Sun’: TCM movie schedule.”) (Photo: Gregory Peck ca. 1950.) Next in line is Zoltan Korda’s crime melodrama The Macomber Affair (1947), based on a story by Ernest Hemingway about a troubled married couple and their safari guide. This is another good-looking film — black-and-white cinematography by veteran Karl Struss, whose credits ranged from the 1920 Gloria Swanson melo Something to Think About to Charles Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. Unfortunately, the psychology, the romance, and some of the acting found in The Macomber Affair is — at best — superficial. Joan Bennett and Gregory Peck look great,...
- 8/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a 1941 short story by James Thurber has been adapted on the big screen before with the 1947 version starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo.
Now, Ben Stiller wants to capture the good, old Walter Mitty magic with the new adaptation coming to theaters near you this Christmas Day!
I love the new trailer (see below) and I love that they used Of Monsters and Men's "Dirty Paws." The film tells the tale of a day dreamer (that would be Stiller) who works at Life magazine with Kristen Wiig. Sean Penn, Kathryn Hahn, Adam Scott, and Shirley Maclaine co-star.
Here's the new, official trailer for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" from our friends at where else, Time Magazine, which shares a parent company with the online version of Life! (For more information on the short story, scroll below)
Here's more info on the short story...
Now, Ben Stiller wants to capture the good, old Walter Mitty magic with the new adaptation coming to theaters near you this Christmas Day!
I love the new trailer (see below) and I love that they used Of Monsters and Men's "Dirty Paws." The film tells the tale of a day dreamer (that would be Stiller) who works at Life magazine with Kristen Wiig. Sean Penn, Kathryn Hahn, Adam Scott, and Shirley Maclaine co-star.
Here's the new, official trailer for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" from our friends at where else, Time Magazine, which shares a parent company with the online version of Life! (For more information on the short story, scroll below)
Here's more info on the short story...
- 7/31/2013
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen more interest in Ben Stiller's next directorial effort, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Though it is more of a reimagining of the musical from 1947 (derived from James Thurber's short story) that starred Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, and Boris Karloff. Stiller elaborated on his current vision of the material, and his attachment to a precious version from years back, .This version is more different than similar to the original,. Stiller said, noting he'd...
- 7/29/2013
- by Niki Stephens
- JoBlo.com
Cinelinx chooses wisely while watching the classic Holy Grail epic The Silver Chalice, Paul Newman's first film!
This Warner Archive release is a Manufacture-On-Demand (Mod) DVD. It is made to be played in "play only" DVD devices, and may not play in some DVD recorders or PC drives. This disc, however, played fine in the Toshiba DVD recorder used for this review. This title is available directly from WBShop.com by clicking here.
The Set-up
A freed slave (Paul Newman) is chosen to cast the Holy Grail in silver, but his efforts are thwarted by enemies out to claim the grail for themselves. In addition, a magician (Jack Palance) uses his magic to convince Rome he is a Christ-like Messiah. Also stars Pier Angeli, Virginia Mayo, and Lorne Greene.
Directed by Victor Saville
The Delivery
The 1954 film The Silver Chalice may not be a classic along the lines of...
This Warner Archive release is a Manufacture-On-Demand (Mod) DVD. It is made to be played in "play only" DVD devices, and may not play in some DVD recorders or PC drives. This disc, however, played fine in the Toshiba DVD recorder used for this review. This title is available directly from WBShop.com by clicking here.
The Set-up
A freed slave (Paul Newman) is chosen to cast the Holy Grail in silver, but his efforts are thwarted by enemies out to claim the grail for themselves. In addition, a magician (Jack Palance) uses his magic to convince Rome he is a Christ-like Messiah. Also stars Pier Angeli, Virginia Mayo, and Lorne Greene.
Directed by Victor Saville
The Delivery
The 1954 film The Silver Chalice may not be a classic along the lines of...
- 6/21/2013
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Victor Medina)
- Cinelinx
White Heat
Written by Ivan Goff and Robert Evans
Directed by Raoul Walsh
U.S.A., 1949
Where would people be without their mothers? Whether by birth, adoption or simply maternal figures, these great dames have, since time immemorial, commanded love, admiration, respect and devotion from their children. Codes of conduct, signs of affection, life lessons, mothers are so often considered the obvious heart and soul of one’s family, the father more commonly seen as the backbone. Appreciation for one’s own mother and, at the very least, respect for another’s mother are understood as basic concepts that, if challenged, speak gravely ill of the offending party. Sometimes the devotion stretches too far, venturing into eerie symbiosis, as was the case with poor Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho (1960). While James Cagney’s Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarrett in White Heat does not belong in quite the same category as Bates,...
Written by Ivan Goff and Robert Evans
Directed by Raoul Walsh
U.S.A., 1949
Where would people be without their mothers? Whether by birth, adoption or simply maternal figures, these great dames have, since time immemorial, commanded love, admiration, respect and devotion from their children. Codes of conduct, signs of affection, life lessons, mothers are so often considered the obvious heart and soul of one’s family, the father more commonly seen as the backbone. Appreciation for one’s own mother and, at the very least, respect for another’s mother are understood as basic concepts that, if challenged, speak gravely ill of the offending party. Sometimes the devotion stretches too far, venturing into eerie symbiosis, as was the case with poor Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho (1960). While James Cagney’s Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarrett in White Heat does not belong in quite the same category as Bates,...
- 6/14/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
‘White Heat’
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Starring James Cagney, Virginia, Edmond O’Brien
USA, 114 min – 1949.
“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Raoul Walsh’s White Heat stars James Cagney as yet another gangster (Cagney being known for other films such as The Public Enemy and Angels with Dirty Faces), Cody Jarrett. Cody runs a gang of criminals that have recently killed four people during a train robbery. When the police come close to catching his gang, Cody admits to a lesser crime and is sentenced to one to three years in prison. He worries that gang member Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is trying to take over and decides to break out of prison.
Unlike the other gangsters Cagney has played, his character Cody draws strength from and finds comfort in the care of his mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly). Whenever Cody has...
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Starring James Cagney, Virginia, Edmond O’Brien
USA, 114 min – 1949.
“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Raoul Walsh’s White Heat stars James Cagney as yet another gangster (Cagney being known for other films such as The Public Enemy and Angels with Dirty Faces), Cody Jarrett. Cody runs a gang of criminals that have recently killed four people during a train robbery. When the police come close to catching his gang, Cody admits to a lesser crime and is sentenced to one to three years in prison. He worries that gang member Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is trying to take over and decides to break out of prison.
Unlike the other gangsters Cagney has played, his character Cody draws strength from and finds comfort in the care of his mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly). Whenever Cody has...
- 5/14/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
Danny Kaye was Unicef's first Goodwill Ambassador, before Audrey Hepburn, and his films, from White Christmas, starring with Bing Crosby, to The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, with Virginia Mayo and Boris Karloff, have become timeless classics. When thinking of Hans Christian Andersen, for many people, his face and voice come to mind. And if you ever wondered if the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle, you should definitely watch the Court Jester duel with the real Ravenhurst, Basil Rathbone. The sandwich "that made Broadway Danny Rose famous - The Woody Allen with lotsa Pastrami," according to Carnegie Deli's menu, is now joined by another famous Brooklyn boy, The Danny Kaye.
Anne-Katrin Titze: What would you tell young people who haven't heard of Danny Kaye to describe your father?
Dena Kaye: I would tell them that my father was very unique....
Anne-Katrin Titze: What would you tell young people who haven't heard of Danny Kaye to describe your father?
Dena Kaye: I would tell them that my father was very unique....
- 5/2/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Latest McQueen directorial effort gets a North American release date Twelve Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's drama based on real-life events, will open in North America on December 27, 2013, Fox Searchlight Pictures has announced. In addition to directing the film, McQueen also co-wrote the screenplay with John Ridley (whose All Is by My Side, about Jimi Hendrix's early years, may also come out this year). (Pictured above: Chiwetel Ejiofor, this year's Best Actress Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis, and Kelsey Scott in TYaS. Please scroll down to check out the film's late-year competition.) Based on the autobiography of a man forced into slavery in the mid-19th century, Solomon Northup, Twelve Years follows the story free man Northup, kidnapped in Washington in 1841, only to be sold as a slave at a Louisiana cotton plantation where he was kept for twelve years. (Hence the film's and autobiography's title.) The film reportedly...
- 3/28/2013
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
Death Wish: Michael Winner’s movie vs. original novel [See previous post: "Michael Winner Dies."] "The point of the novel Death Wish," adds author Brian Garfield, "is that vigilantism is an attractive fantasy but it only makes things worse in reality. By the end of the novel, the character (Paul) is gunning down unarmed teenagers because he doesn’t like their looks. The story is about an ordinary guy who descends into madness." (Photo: Death Wish Charles Bronson.) A few years ago, Sylvester Stallone had plans to remake Death Wish, which (probably not coincidentally) has elements in common with Stallone’s (perhaps even more brutal and more pro-vigilantism) Cobra (1985). Stallone’s Death Wish remake, however, never came to fruition. Early in 2012, The Grey‘s director Joe Carnahan stated that he was planning an updated version of Death Wish. Michael Winner’s other ’70s movies: Directing Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and more Charles Bronson Among Michael Winner...
- 1/22/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Innocence of Muslims / 'Desert Warrior' director Alan Roberts best-known for '70s soft-core porn The polemical anti-Islam "film" (actually, a cheap, grade Z amateur video), now has not only a producer, but also a director. The "Israeli entrepreneur Sam Bacile" has been exposed as the Egyptian Coptic Christian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who allegedly misled all (or most) involved in the production. And Gawker has reported that Alan Roberts aka Robert Brownell, the director of a handful of softcore porn movies in the '70s and early '80s, helmed "Desert Warrior," a cheesy Arabian adventure that was to become -- following some sloppy overdubbing -- Innocence of Muslims. Besides the now infamous Islamophobic YouTube sensation, which has been blamed for riots in several Muslim countries from Tunisia to Pakistan, Alan Roberts' movie credits include several now long forgotten titles. (Please scroll down for more details.) Alan Roberts also produced several little-known movies,...
- 9/16/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Innocence of Muslims: Cast and crew repudiate rabidly anti-Islam 'film' An amateurish, rabidly anti-Islam 'film' -- actually, more like a homemade video made three decades ago -- whose Arabic-dubbed version was initially blamed for this week's attacks by Muslim fanatics against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Muslims was initially called "Desert Warrior." (Photo: Actor purportedly as Islam's prophet Mohammad.) According to 80 cast and crew members of the film, they thought "Desert Warrior" was going to be an adventure flick set in Biblical times. Indeed, the movie's casting notice on Backstage calls it a "historical Arabian Desert adventure film." Below is the statement submitted to CNN on behalf of those who worked on what eventually became Innocence of Muslims. (Please scroll down to check out: Innocence of Muslims creator: Coptic Christian involved in meth manufacture, bank fraud.) "The entire cast and crew...
- 9/15/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Backfire
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Larry Marcus, Ben Roberts and Ivan Goff
U.S.A., 1950
Reviewing movies with the benefit of hindsight offers ample opportunity to discover, analyze and extrapolate the several issues of the day their stories were concerned with. It puts such films into historical context, awarding them a sense of worth perhaps movie goers at the time overlooked. Film Noir is frequently cited as being specific in relating to the American post-Second World War experience, a time during which the innocence of a large and powerful country was shaken, the disillusionment created by mankind’s unhinged ferocious nature exposed during combat having deeply affected returning veterans. People fell on hard times, forced to strive to earn a living all the while reckoning with the truth of human nature. Backfire, from director Vincent Sherman, exposes the down and dirty side of people’s desperation through the...
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Larry Marcus, Ben Roberts and Ivan Goff
U.S.A., 1950
Reviewing movies with the benefit of hindsight offers ample opportunity to discover, analyze and extrapolate the several issues of the day their stories were concerned with. It puts such films into historical context, awarding them a sense of worth perhaps movie goers at the time overlooked. Film Noir is frequently cited as being specific in relating to the American post-Second World War experience, a time during which the innocence of a large and powerful country was shaken, the disillusionment created by mankind’s unhinged ferocious nature exposed during combat having deeply affected returning veterans. People fell on hard times, forced to strive to earn a living all the while reckoning with the truth of human nature. Backfire, from director Vincent Sherman, exposes the down and dirty side of people’s desperation through the...
- 8/17/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Hollywood actor best known for the Hardy family films and her role as Careen, Scarlett O'Hara's sister, in Gone With the Wind
Ann Rutherford, who has died aged 94, was adept at portraying pluck and persistence. As Polly Benedict, Andy Hardy's ever-faithful girlfriend, in 13 of the 15 Hardy family film series made between 1937 and 1946, she had to wait around for Mickey Rooney's accident-prone adolescent to return to her after some dalliance with another girl. Andy would seek advice on romance from his stern but wise and fair father, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone). "Dad, can I talk to you man to man? Can a guy be in love with two girls at once?" Inevitably, Andy would realise, with hints from his dad, that Polly was his own true love.
The Hardy series, one of the most popular in screen history, was the archetypal idealisation of small-town America and apple-pie family values, with...
Ann Rutherford, who has died aged 94, was adept at portraying pluck and persistence. As Polly Benedict, Andy Hardy's ever-faithful girlfriend, in 13 of the 15 Hardy family film series made between 1937 and 1946, she had to wait around for Mickey Rooney's accident-prone adolescent to return to her after some dalliance with another girl. Andy would seek advice on romance from his stern but wise and fair father, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone). "Dad, can I talk to you man to man? Can a guy be in love with two girls at once?" Inevitably, Andy would realise, with hints from his dad, that Polly was his own true love.
The Hardy series, one of the most popular in screen history, was the archetypal idealisation of small-town America and apple-pie family values, with...
- 6/12/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Gone With The Wind Actress Ann Rutherford Dies. [Photo: Ann Rutherford as Carreen O'Hara, Evelyn Keyes as Suellen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.]
Ann Rutherford‘s most notable screen roles were in films made away from both MGM and Wallace Beery. She was a young woman who falls for trumpeter George Montgomery in Archie Mayo’s 20th Century Fox musical Orchestra Wives (1942), and became enmeshed with (possibly) amnesiac Tom Conway in Anthony Mann’s Rko thriller Two O’Clock Courage (1945).
Following a couple of minor supporting roles — in the Danny Kaye comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) at Goldwyn and the Errol Flynn costumer The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) at Warner Bros. — and the female lead in the independently made cattle drama Operation Haylift (1950), opposite Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford retired from the screen. (Rutherford would later say that her Operation Haylift experience was anything but pleasant.)
She then turned to television, making regular television appearances in the ’50s (The Donna Reed Show, Playhouse 90,...
Ann Rutherford‘s most notable screen roles were in films made away from both MGM and Wallace Beery. She was a young woman who falls for trumpeter George Montgomery in Archie Mayo’s 20th Century Fox musical Orchestra Wives (1942), and became enmeshed with (possibly) amnesiac Tom Conway in Anthony Mann’s Rko thriller Two O’Clock Courage (1945).
Following a couple of minor supporting roles — in the Danny Kaye comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) at Goldwyn and the Errol Flynn costumer The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) at Warner Bros. — and the female lead in the independently made cattle drama Operation Haylift (1950), opposite Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford retired from the screen. (Rutherford would later say that her Operation Haylift experience was anything but pleasant.)
She then turned to television, making regular television appearances in the ’50s (The Donna Reed Show, Playhouse 90,...
- 6/12/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Two more names have been added to the cast of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Kathryn Hahn and Josh Charles (photo) will be joining actor-director Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, and Shirley MacLaine in the 20th Century Fox production. Hahn is to play Stiller's sister in the movie. Charles will play Wiig's ex-husband. Among Kathryn Hahn's movies are two box-office bombs starring Paul Rudd, Wanderlust and My Idiot Brother. Hahn also had roles in the Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio drama Revolutionary Road, the Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and in Robert Shaye's family drama The Last Mimzy. Among Josh Charles' movie credits are Peter Weir's Oscar-nominated Dead Poets Society, Pie in the Sky, S.W.A.T., and Weakness. On television, Charles is a The Good Wife regular. Based on a story by James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty...
- 4/5/2012
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
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