1939 is often called Hollywood’s Greatest Year, and it is indisputable that a huge number of America’s greatest classics were produced in that single year. A usually ignored element of that greatness is that 1939 was also the year that Hollywood resumed production on horror films after a two-year pause. In late 1936 two major factors led to the practical death of the genre: the Laemmle family, of whom Carl Laemmle’s, Jr. was horror’s greatest advocate, lost control of Universal and the British Board of Censors began enforcing the “H” certificate, which for all practical purposes banned horror for its target audience in Britain. The loss of this lucrative market combined with dropping box-office receipts and mounting pressure from American religious groups, Hollywood saw no reason to continue producing horror. The phrase “horror is dead” has often been thrown around over the decades but in 1937 and 38, it was actually true.
- 4/17/2024
- by Brian Keiper
- bloody-disgusting.com
Lovers, fighters … and gangsters? On the centenary of the actor’s birth, we pick out his greatest roles
A minor picture with curiosity value: Charlie Chaplin’s final film as a director, starring Brando and Sophia Loren, a comedy in the style of the Hollywood Golden Age, based on the tall tales of a real-life Russian singer and in fact originally conceived by Chaplin in the 30s for Paulette Goddard. Brando plays an American diplomat who is astonished to find that the Russian countess (Loren) he was charmed by in Hong Kong has stowed away in his cabin on the voyage home. Brando does his best and this method legend was sufficiently in awe of Chaplin to submit to his old-fashioned way of working: acting out for Brando the required line-readings and movements. Certainly, Brando would never again be so submissive with a director.
A minor picture with curiosity value: Charlie Chaplin’s final film as a director, starring Brando and Sophia Loren, a comedy in the style of the Hollywood Golden Age, based on the tall tales of a real-life Russian singer and in fact originally conceived by Chaplin in the 30s for Paulette Goddard. Brando plays an American diplomat who is astonished to find that the Russian countess (Loren) he was charmed by in Hong Kong has stowed away in his cabin on the voyage home. Brando does his best and this method legend was sufficiently in awe of Chaplin to submit to his old-fashioned way of working: acting out for Brando the required line-readings and movements. Certainly, Brando would never again be so submissive with a director.
- 4/4/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Last year, legendary filmmaker John Carpenter teamed up with Shout! Factory to host a kaiju movie marathon called Masters of Monsters, which consisted of the original Godzilla film, Rodan; Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, and The War of the Gargantuas. That marathon was re-run earlier this month. Now the folks at Far Out magazine have dug up a 1996 article from Film Comment magazine in which Carpenter named The War of the Gargantuas as “the ultimate Japanese monster movie” – and included it on a list of his seventeen favorite “guilty pleasure” movies. It’s a fun list, so we have it included below, with thanks to this site.
Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.
Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.
- 11/7/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
f it was the summer of the megawatt blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” September has turned into a month of sequelitis with “The Nun 2,” “Equalizer 3” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” Even Kenneth Branagh’s “A Hunting in Venice,” is the third installment in the actor/director’s Hercule Poirot mystery series. It’s all a bit of a snooze. That wasn’t the case 70 years ago this month.
There were some oddball films that were released September, 1953 including “Cat-Women of the Moon” with Sonny Tufts and Marie Windsor and “The Sins of Jezebel” starring Paulette Goddard. But 70 years ago, audiences were introduced to a new wide-screen format and young actress who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s and ‘60s and Clark Gable returning to a role he originated in 1932.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck unveiled the studio’s new widescreen process Cinemascope...
There were some oddball films that were released September, 1953 including “Cat-Women of the Moon” with Sonny Tufts and Marie Windsor and “The Sins of Jezebel” starring Paulette Goddard. But 70 years ago, audiences were introduced to a new wide-screen format and young actress who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s and ‘60s and Clark Gable returning to a role he originated in 1932.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck unveiled the studio’s new widescreen process Cinemascope...
- 9/19/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Movie star John Wayne had dedicated fans who hated seeing any deaths surrounding the characters he played. He held an image that represented America to many moviegoers, making it hard for some to stomach watching his characters die. Nevertheless, Wayne had 8 character deaths out of his large filmography totaling over 200 motion pictures, not including 1955’s The Sea Chase, which left his character’s fate unknown.
‘Reap the Wild Wind’ (1942) L-r: Paulette Goddard as Loxi Claiborne and John Wayne as Captain Jack Stuart | FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
Cecil B. DeMille’s Reap the Wild Wind is set in the 1840s, when a group of salvagers go from profiting off shipwrecks to to causing them. All those in the American South consider King Cutler (Raymond Massey) the most dangerous, who sets his eyes on the ships of the wealthy Devereaux Company, Captain Jack Stuart (Wayne), and the company’s lawyer,...
‘Reap the Wild Wind’ (1942) L-r: Paulette Goddard as Loxi Claiborne and John Wayne as Captain Jack Stuart | FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
Cecil B. DeMille’s Reap the Wild Wind is set in the 1840s, when a group of salvagers go from profiting off shipwrecks to to causing them. All those in the American South consider King Cutler (Raymond Massey) the most dangerous, who sets his eyes on the ships of the wealthy Devereaux Company, Captain Jack Stuart (Wayne), and the company’s lawyer,...
- 2/15/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
When it comes to classic movie stars from Hollywood's golden age in the '40s and '50s, few cast a shadow larger than John Wayne. In a five-decades-long career, Wayne became an iconic western hero -- landing close to 200 performances in film and television. Wayne is one of those rare movie cowboys whose work has lived on past the genre's peak popularity -- making Wayne himself one of the most enduringly rugged stars in history.
Though we've already covered the greatest films in Wayne's career, there are scores of films viewers haven't seen. From bringing the American war effort to the silver screen at the height of World War II to dramatic turns that expanded Wayne's range, Wayne has shown a surprising amount of acting skill. Here we'll explore the underrated movies across Wayne's filmography. Some titles were overshadowed by his more high-profile work whereas others have endured the...
Though we've already covered the greatest films in Wayne's career, there are scores of films viewers haven't seen. From bringing the American war effort to the silver screen at the height of World War II to dramatic turns that expanded Wayne's range, Wayne has shown a surprising amount of acting skill. Here we'll explore the underrated movies across Wayne's filmography. Some titles were overshadowed by his more high-profile work whereas others have endured the...
- 2/8/2023
- by Samuel Stone
- Slash Film
If a single WW2 Hollywood war epic can sum up the complexity of homefront morale-building, this one is it. Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake enlist as Army nurses and are plunged into the disastrous opening onslaught in the Philippines. Adroit screenwriting and direction use the clichés of Hollywood glamour to give mom & dad back home a dramatic idea of what it might be like for a company of nurses in a failing war zone. Great studio effects show the rough retreats and casualties, while George Reeves and Sonny Tufts serve as reassuring sentimental diversions. And a squad of ‘unglamorous’ actresses get to play strong, patriotic roles. It’s an entertaining winner.
So Proudly We Hail
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 126 min. / Street Date September 13, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Reeves, Barbara Britton, Walter Abel, Sonny Tufts, Mary Servoss,...
So Proudly We Hail
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 126 min. / Street Date September 13, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Reeves, Barbara Britton, Walter Abel, Sonny Tufts, Mary Servoss,...
- 9/10/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
When was the last time you were truly dazzled by a special effect? Our mainstream media landscape has been consumed by CGI to the point where we don't even think about the logistics of what we see anymore. In the series premiere of "House of the Dragon," Were you awed by the presence of multiple dragons, or did you just go, "Oh, yeah. Dragons. Sure?" Bear in mind, these creatures don't exist in real life and look entirely real.
At a time where effects are more seamless than ever before, we no longer feel their power because entire movies and television shows go by without a single frame using them. Before digital effects, you had to build this stuff by hand and have them ready to shoot on the day. Because they took so much time, money, and manpower to create, productions would focus their special effects on one single thing: a set piece,...
At a time where effects are more seamless than ever before, we no longer feel their power because entire movies and television shows go by without a single frame using them. Before digital effects, you had to build this stuff by hand and have them ready to shoot on the day. Because they took so much time, money, and manpower to create, productions would focus their special effects on one single thing: a set piece,...
- 8/24/2022
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Is You In There, Zombie?”
By Raymond Benson
There are a handful of Hollywood movies out there that successfully combined comedy with the horror genre. Surprisingly, truly good ones are few and far between. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) is perhaps the quintessential example of the genre mashup. It provided genuine thrills and some frights mixed in with hilarious comedic bits. A more recent one that comes to mind is of course the 1984 megahit, Ghostbusters. There is no question that this Bill Murray vehicle owes a great deal to the 1940 romp, The Ghost Breakers, considered one of Bob Hope’s most beloved early pictures.
Based on the 1909 stage play, The Ghost Breaker, by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard, the 1940 movie is actually a remake of previous adaptations. Both Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred E. Green made silent films of the play in 1914 and 1922, respectively,...
“Is You In There, Zombie?”
By Raymond Benson
There are a handful of Hollywood movies out there that successfully combined comedy with the horror genre. Surprisingly, truly good ones are few and far between. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) is perhaps the quintessential example of the genre mashup. It provided genuine thrills and some frights mixed in with hilarious comedic bits. A more recent one that comes to mind is of course the 1984 megahit, Ghostbusters. There is no question that this Bill Murray vehicle owes a great deal to the 1940 romp, The Ghost Breakers, considered one of Bob Hope’s most beloved early pictures.
Based on the 1909 stage play, The Ghost Breaker, by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard, the 1940 movie is actually a remake of previous adaptations. Both Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred E. Green made silent films of the play in 1914 and 1922, respectively,...
- 4/18/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
For his first re-teaming sans Ginger, Fred Astaire hot-foots it to MGM and the waiting tap & sweep partner Eleanor Powell, already a terrific box office draw in her own right. These were the days when the caliber of talent in Hollywood justified the exalted, glamorous aura of star status. The story is a backstage mixup with sidebar singing and joke acts, decent dialogue and not much else. But when these two alight on a dance floor — not just ‘a’ dance floor but an enormous expanse of glittering glass — Hollywood hits a too-glamorous-to-be-real peak. The music by Cole Porter includes Begin the Beguine. Just-okay George Murphy is the third wheel on this musical bicycle, with Frank Morgan serving as fuddy-duddy comic relief.
Broadway Melody of 1940
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date April 13, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter, Florence Rice, Trixie Firschke,...
Broadway Melody of 1940
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date April 13, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter, Florence Rice, Trixie Firschke,...
- 5/1/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Cat and the Canary
& The Ghost Breakers
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1939, 1940 / 72, 83 min.
Starring Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard
Cinematography by Charles B. Lang
Directed by Elliott Nugent, George Marshall
Bob Hope’s brand of comedy may have been extinct by the sixties but it was alive and kicking in the pages of God Save the Mark, Donald E. Westlake’s comic crime novel about a schnook on the run for a murder he didn’t commit. Published in 1967, Westlake’s farce resembles one of Hope’s own movies; the pace is frenetic and the patter is as snappy as the comedian’s in his prime—a golden age exemplified by his one-two punch from 1939 and 1940, The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers. Those films present Hope in excelsis but in the hands of directors Elliott Nugent and George Marshall they serve as master classes in the tricky art of the scare comedy.
& The Ghost Breakers
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1939, 1940 / 72, 83 min.
Starring Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard
Cinematography by Charles B. Lang
Directed by Elliott Nugent, George Marshall
Bob Hope’s brand of comedy may have been extinct by the sixties but it was alive and kicking in the pages of God Save the Mark, Donald E. Westlake’s comic crime novel about a schnook on the run for a murder he didn’t commit. Published in 1967, Westlake’s farce resembles one of Hope’s own movies; the pace is frenetic and the patter is as snappy as the comedian’s in his prime—a golden age exemplified by his one-two punch from 1939 and 1940, The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers. Those films present Hope in excelsis but in the hands of directors Elliott Nugent and George Marshall they serve as master classes in the tricky art of the scare comedy.
- 9/19/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
We’ve got a big week of home media releases ahead of us, so I hope that your wallets are ready to suffer a whole lot of abuse this Tuesday, because there are a ton of must-own titles headed home that genre fans are definitely going to want to add to their collections. We have two new Vestron Video Collector’s Series releases to look forward to—David Cronenberg’s Shivers and Little Monsters (1989)—and for the first time ever, Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn is being released on Blu-ray.
If you’re a Stephen King fan, Paramount has assembled a 5-Movie Collection on Blu that includes both iterations of Pet Sematary, Silver Bullet, The Stand, and The Dead Zone. Kl Studio Classics is showing some love this Tuesday to the horror comedy The Ghost Breakers featuring Bob Hope, and Dark Sky Films is set to release Luz: The Flower of Evil this week,...
If you’re a Stephen King fan, Paramount has assembled a 5-Movie Collection on Blu that includes both iterations of Pet Sematary, Silver Bullet, The Stand, and The Dead Zone. Kl Studio Classics is showing some love this Tuesday to the horror comedy The Ghost Breakers featuring Bob Hope, and Dark Sky Films is set to release Luz: The Flower of Evil this week,...
- 9/14/2020
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
The Lady Eve
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
- 7/25/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
This article contains mild Hollywood spoilers.
On Netflix’s new series Hollywood, the Stallions of the Gas Station, circa 1947, fill up a dinner party being thrown by legendary filmmaker George Cukor. In between bites, and biting remarks by the ever-incisive Tallulah Bankhead, we are treated to Vivien Leigh, played by Katie McGuinness, giving an impromptu reading of her captivating and iconic Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). At the after party, all of the celebrities entertain illicit passion for a predetermined price. Like his character on American Horror Story, Dylan McDermott’s fictional Ernie is renowned for a certain largesse, and he bestows his beneficence on Leigh, who also carries a secret.
Up until quite recently, Vivien Leigh, the legendary star of stage and screen, was branded with the label nymphomaniac, a derogatory-sounding term which makes it sound like she was a sex addict. In reality, she fought a...
On Netflix’s new series Hollywood, the Stallions of the Gas Station, circa 1947, fill up a dinner party being thrown by legendary filmmaker George Cukor. In between bites, and biting remarks by the ever-incisive Tallulah Bankhead, we are treated to Vivien Leigh, played by Katie McGuinness, giving an impromptu reading of her captivating and iconic Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). At the after party, all of the celebrities entertain illicit passion for a predetermined price. Like his character on American Horror Story, Dylan McDermott’s fictional Ernie is renowned for a certain largesse, and he bestows his beneficence on Leigh, who also carries a secret.
Up until quite recently, Vivien Leigh, the legendary star of stage and screen, was branded with the label nymphomaniac, a derogatory-sounding term which makes it sound like she was a sex addict. In reality, she fought a...
- 5/2/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
In a career spanning more than half a century, he directed films in almost every genre – screwball comedy, musical, film noir, thriller, literary adaptations. With his gentle nature, he coaxed 21 actors to Oscar nominations (with five winning), helmed seven films nominated for Best Picture (with one win), and was himself nominated for Best Director five times (with one win).
Acclaimed director George Cukor was born on July 7, 1899, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. As a child, he became infatuated with the theater and performed in amateur plays, once with future friend and mentor David O. Selznick. His father was an attorney, and Cukor was expected to follow in his path; however, he did not last long in law school, and soon found odd jobs in theater houses. He co-founded a stock company and alternated between directing shows for that and some for Broadway.
Acclaimed director George Cukor was born on July 7, 1899, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. As a child, he became infatuated with the theater and performed in amateur plays, once with future friend and mentor David O. Selznick. His father was an attorney, and Cukor was expected to follow in his path; however, he did not last long in law school, and soon found odd jobs in theater houses. He co-founded a stock company and alternated between directing shows for that and some for Broadway.
- 7/7/2019
- by Susan Pennington and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
In a career spanning more than half a century, he directed films in almost every genre – screwball comedy, musical, film noir, thriller, literary adaptations. With his gentle nature, he coaxed 21 actors to Oscar nominations (with five winning), helmed seven films nominated for Best Picture (with one win), and was himself nominated for Best Director five times (with one win).
Acclaimed director George Cukor was born on July 7, 1899, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. As a child, he became infatuated with the theater and performed in amateur plays, once with future friend and mentor David O. Selznick. His father was an attorney, and Cukor was expected to follow in his path; however, he did not last long in law school, and soon found odd jobs in theater houses. He co-founded a stock company and alternated between directing shows for that and some for Broadway.
Acclaimed director George Cukor was born on July 7, 1899, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. As a child, he became infatuated with the theater and performed in amateur plays, once with future friend and mentor David O. Selznick. His father was an attorney, and Cukor was expected to follow in his path; however, he did not last long in law school, and soon found odd jobs in theater houses. He co-founded a stock company and alternated between directing shows for that and some for Broadway.
- 7/7/2019
- by Susan Pennington, Misty Holland and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
All hail Olivia de Havilland, America’s longest living movie star. The more de Havilland pictures we see, the more we admire her taste and judgment in roles… or is that better expressed as, the more we admire her ability to guide a near-perfect career, going so far as to defy the studios in court. This 1941 drama has director Mitchell Leisen in fine form, a smart script by Brackett & Wilder, and a central topic that’s currently quite hot: illegal immigration.
Hold Back the Dawn
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 116 min. / Street Date July 16, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, Walter Abel, Curt Bois, Rosemary DeCamp, Nestor Paiva, Eva Puig, Micheline Cheirel, Madeleine Lebeau, Mikhail Rasumny, Charles Arnt, Mitchell Leisen, Brian Donlevy, Kitty Kelly, Veronica Lake, Carlos Villarías, Richard Webb.
Cinematography: Leo Tover
Film Editor: Doane Harrison
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Charles Brackett,...
Hold Back the Dawn
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 116 min. / Street Date July 16, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, Walter Abel, Curt Bois, Rosemary DeCamp, Nestor Paiva, Eva Puig, Micheline Cheirel, Madeleine Lebeau, Mikhail Rasumny, Charles Arnt, Mitchell Leisen, Brian Donlevy, Kitty Kelly, Veronica Lake, Carlos Villarías, Richard Webb.
Cinematography: Leo Tover
Film Editor: Doane Harrison
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Charles Brackett,...
- 7/6/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Celebrate Olivia de Havilland’s 103rd birthday by ordering the new blu-ray of one of her best films. Hold Back The Dawn (1941) will be available on Blu-ray July 16th From Arrow Academy
From one of the most underrated directors of Hollywood’s golden era, Mitchell Leisen (Remember the Night), comes the heart-rending romantic drama Hold Back the Dawn…
Charles Boyer (Gaslight) gives an enthralling performance as Georges Iscovescu, a Romanian-born gigolo who arrives at a Mexican border town seeking entry to the Us. Faced with a waiting period of eight years, George is encouraged by his former dancing partner Anita to marry an American girl and desert her once safely across the border. He successfully targets visiting school teacher Emmy Brown, but his plan is compromised by a pursuing immigration officer, and blossoming feelings of genuine love for Emmy.
A moving and thoughtful film with a wonderful script (co-written by...
From one of the most underrated directors of Hollywood’s golden era, Mitchell Leisen (Remember the Night), comes the heart-rending romantic drama Hold Back the Dawn…
Charles Boyer (Gaslight) gives an enthralling performance as Georges Iscovescu, a Romanian-born gigolo who arrives at a Mexican border town seeking entry to the Us. Faced with a waiting period of eight years, George is encouraged by his former dancing partner Anita to marry an American girl and desert her once safely across the border. He successfully targets visiting school teacher Emmy Brown, but his plan is compromised by a pursuing immigration officer, and blossoming feelings of genuine love for Emmy.
A moving and thoughtful film with a wonderful script (co-written by...
- 7/1/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Apologies that Tfe has been out tricking and treating instead of entertaining you. But please enjoy these Hollywood beauties getting into this highly specific autumnal mood. Happy Halloween Everyone
Paulette Goddard
Myrna Loy, Janet Leigh, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Clara Bow and other 'it' girls from Old Hollywood are after the jump with their pumpkins, witch hats, scary books, and cats.
Paulette Goddard
Myrna Loy, Janet Leigh, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Clara Bow and other 'it' girls from Old Hollywood are after the jump with their pumpkins, witch hats, scary books, and cats.
- 10/31/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Nathaniel R welcomes the panel Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic) and Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) to discuss 1943 at the movies with recommended favorites and our favorite switch-the-actresses around game. We had previously reviewed the supporting actress nominees.
We talk about the three actresses in Ww II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well, the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar.
You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? ...
We talk about the three actresses in Ww II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well, the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar.
You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? ...
- 7/30/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Presenting Oscar's Chosen Supporting Actresses of the Films of 1943.
A cruel nun, a flirtatious nurse, a gypsy rebel, a harried mother, and a wealthy hostess. It's not the elaborate start of a joke, but the nominated characters from the Best Supporting Actress race of 1943. There was only one returning nominee (Gladys Cooper) but in the 1940s all newbie lists were common since the supporting categories had been around less than a decade! Anne Revere and Cooper would eventually become three time Supporting Actress nominees but for Paulette Goddard, Katina Paxinou, and Lucille Watson this was their one and only time in Oscar's golden embrace.
This Month's Panelists
Here to talk about these five nominated turns and either agree with the Academy or crown a new retrospective winner are, in alpha order: Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic), Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) and Nathaniel R (your host here at...
A cruel nun, a flirtatious nurse, a gypsy rebel, a harried mother, and a wealthy hostess. It's not the elaborate start of a joke, but the nominated characters from the Best Supporting Actress race of 1943. There was only one returning nominee (Gladys Cooper) but in the 1940s all newbie lists were common since the supporting categories had been around less than a decade! Anne Revere and Cooper would eventually become three time Supporting Actress nominees but for Paulette Goddard, Katina Paxinou, and Lucille Watson this was their one and only time in Oscar's golden embrace.
This Month's Panelists
Here to talk about these five nominated turns and either agree with the Academy or crown a new retrospective winner are, in alpha order: Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic), Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) and Nathaniel R (your host here at...
- 7/29/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
by Nathaniel R
Thanks to all the wonderful readers who've commented on or shared or expressed enthusiasm for the Supporting Actress Smackdowns this summer. So far we've looked at 1970 and 1994. Our 'year of the month' for July will be 1943.
On Sunday July 29th "The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1943"
Gladys Cooper, The Song of Bernadette [Amazon | iTunes] Paulette Goddard, So Proudly We Hail [Amazon] Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls [Amazon | iTunes] Anne Revere, The Song of Bernadette [Amazon | iTunes] Lucille Watson, Watch on the Rhine [Amazon | iTunes | Filmstruck]
Balloting opens July 1st and closes July 26th. Please do not vote before balloting is open as your ballot will likely be lost in the shuffle. How To Vote: E-mail with "1943" in the subject line and each performance that you've seen rated on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (stupendous) hearts. You don't have to include the reasons behind your votes but if you do we might quote you at the smackdown.
Thanks to all the wonderful readers who've commented on or shared or expressed enthusiasm for the Supporting Actress Smackdowns this summer. So far we've looked at 1970 and 1994. Our 'year of the month' for July will be 1943.
On Sunday July 29th "The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1943"
Gladys Cooper, The Song of Bernadette [Amazon | iTunes] Paulette Goddard, So Proudly We Hail [Amazon] Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls [Amazon | iTunes] Anne Revere, The Song of Bernadette [Amazon | iTunes] Lucille Watson, Watch on the Rhine [Amazon | iTunes | Filmstruck]
Balloting opens July 1st and closes July 26th. Please do not vote before balloting is open as your ballot will likely be lost in the shuffle. How To Vote: E-mail with "1943" in the subject line and each performance that you've seen rated on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (stupendous) hearts. You don't have to include the reasons behind your votes but if you do we might quote you at the smackdown.
- 6/28/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Here's what happened on this day, June 3rd, in showbiz related history...
1910 Paulette Goddard born in Long Island. She becomes a star in the 1930s and 1940s making multiple films with Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope among many others and is Oscar nominated for So Proudly We Hail (1943). Famously screen tests and is publicly considered as Scarlett O'Hara but loses the role to then unknown Vivien Leigh.
1918 Burlesque Centennial ~ Stripping star Lili St Cyr was born on this day. Her short lived film career kicked off with B movie Son of Sinbad (1955) but mostly she was famous for burlesque performances. She's name-checked in the famous 'Floor Show' number in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1976) with Susan Sarandon warbling "god bless Lili St Cyr...
1910 Paulette Goddard born in Long Island. She becomes a star in the 1930s and 1940s making multiple films with Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope among many others and is Oscar nominated for So Proudly We Hail (1943). Famously screen tests and is publicly considered as Scarlett O'Hara but loses the role to then unknown Vivien Leigh.
1918 Burlesque Centennial ~ Stripping star Lili St Cyr was born on this day. Her short lived film career kicked off with B movie Son of Sinbad (1955) but mostly she was famous for burlesque performances. She's name-checked in the famous 'Floor Show' number in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1976) with Susan Sarandon warbling "god bless Lili St Cyr...
- 6/3/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Considering everything that's been happening on the planet in the last several months, you'd have thought we're already in November or December – of 2117. But no. It's only June. 2017. And in some parts of the world, that's the month of brides, fathers, graduates, gays, and climate change denial. Beginning this evening, Thursday, June 1, Turner Classic Movies will be focusing on one of these June groups: Lgbt people, specifically those in the American film industry. Following the presentation of about 10 movies featuring Frank Morgan, who would have turned 127 years old today, TCM will set its cinematic sights on the likes of William Haines, James Whale, George Cukor, Mitchell Leisen, Dorothy Arzner, Patsy Kelly, and Ramon Novarro. In addition to, whether or not intentionally, Claudette Colbert, Colin Clive, Katharine Hepburn, Douglass Montgomery (a.k.a. Kent Douglass), Marjorie Main, and Billie Burke, among others. But this is ridiculous! Why should TCM present a...
- 6/2/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“Am I decent?” They said that Ginger Rogers gave Fred Astaire sex appeal, but the teaming of Astaire and Rita Hayworth is something else. Columbia’s 1941 release is a weak service comedy until the dancing starts, at which point it becomes one of the better musicals of the year – and the breakout vehicle for Ms. Hayworth.
You’ll Never Get Rich
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1941 / B&W/ 1:37 flat full frame / 89 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, John Hubbard,
Osa Massen, Frieda Inescort, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Cliff Nazarro.
Cinematography: Philip Tannura
Art Direction: Lionel Banks
Film Editor: Otto Meyer
Original Music: Cole Porter
Written by Michael Fessier, Ernest Pagano
Produced by Samuel Bischoff
Produced and Directed by Sidney Lanfield
Freed from his Rko contract in 1939, Fred Astaire never signed another long-term deal. He instead jumped from studio to...
You’ll Never Get Rich
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1941 / B&W/ 1:37 flat full frame / 89 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, John Hubbard,
Osa Massen, Frieda Inescort, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Cliff Nazarro.
Cinematography: Philip Tannura
Art Direction: Lionel Banks
Film Editor: Otto Meyer
Original Music: Cole Porter
Written by Michael Fessier, Ernest Pagano
Produced by Samuel Bischoff
Produced and Directed by Sidney Lanfield
Freed from his Rko contract in 1939, Fred Astaire never signed another long-term deal. He instead jumped from studio to...
- 4/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Gloria DeHaven, famous for starring in a parade of Hollywood musicals in the 1940s and '50s, has died. She was 91. DeHaven died Saturday in hospice care in Las Vegas after suffering a stroke a few months ago, reports Reuters. The actress made her screen debut in Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film Modern Times as Paulette Goddard's younger sister. She went on to star in a bevy of musicals - many of them for MGM - in the 1940s and '50s including Two Girls and a Sailor , Step Lively with Frank Sinatra (who had his first onscreen kiss with...
- 8/1/2016
- by Jodi Guglielmi, @JodiGug3
- PEOPLE.com
A history of paranormal exterminators in pop culture pre-1984.
Anytime you have a remake or reboot of a popular movie or franchise, fans of the original are going to whine about it. With Ghostbusters, there’s a new level of objection, some of it stemming from the same sort of nostalgic ownership of any beloved property from childhood and some of it arising out of misogyny. The only thing they ought to be concerned with is whether or not fans of the new movie will recognize its roots. And that’s not exclusive to the 1984 movie it’s based on and its 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II.
The Ghost Busters
Most famously, there was already something titled The Ghost Busters, a live-action TV series for children that ran for 15 episodes in 1975 and featured two men and a gorilla hunting mostly spirits and also sometimes famous monsters like Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein’s Creature. The...
Anytime you have a remake or reboot of a popular movie or franchise, fans of the original are going to whine about it. With Ghostbusters, there’s a new level of objection, some of it stemming from the same sort of nostalgic ownership of any beloved property from childhood and some of it arising out of misogyny. The only thing they ought to be concerned with is whether or not fans of the new movie will recognize its roots. And that’s not exclusive to the 1984 movie it’s based on and its 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II.
The Ghost Busters
Most famously, there was already something titled The Ghost Busters, a live-action TV series for children that ran for 15 episodes in 1975 and featured two men and a gorilla hunting mostly spirits and also sometimes famous monsters like Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein’s Creature. The...
- 7/15/2016
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Singer-actress Gloria DeHaven, the perky star of MGM musicals in the 1940s and a stalwart of show business for more than six decades, has died. She was 91. DeHaven, who made her screen debut in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) as Paulette Goddard's kid sister — her father served as an assistant director on the film — died Saturday while in hospice care in Las Vegas, her daughter, Faith Fincher-Finkelstein, told The Hollywood Reporter. DeHaven suffered a stroke about three months ago, she said. The vivacious DeHaven, a studio player at MGM, appeared in a number of top
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- 7/5/2016
- by Mike Barnes and Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"To think that a cook, for example, has her masters' lives in her hands." Cohen Media Group has released this official trailer for the upcoming Us opening of Benoît Jacquot's Diary of a Chambermaid, another adaptation of the well-known 1900 novel by Octave Mirbeau. This time, French actress Léa Seydoux plays Célestine, a "resentful young Parisian chambermaid". This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year and also stars Vincent Lindon, Clotilde Mollet and Hervé Pierre. The description states that the film captures a different feeling this time: "the sense of social stiflement, Célestine’'s humiliating submission to Madame's onerous terms of employment, Joseph's virulent anti-Semitism." If you're intrigued, take a look. Here's the official Us trailer for Benoît Jacquot's Diary of a Chambermaid, from YouTube (via Tfs): Léa Sedoux follows in the footsteps of Paulette Goddard & Jeanne Moreau as Célestine, a resentful young Parisian chambermaid who finds...
- 4/25/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Crafting one of the most eclectic careers in recent memory, following James Bond, Léa Seydoux will be seen in the latest films from Yorgos Lanthimos and Xavier Dolan this year. One of her other features, Diary of a Chambermaid, which premiered last year at the Berlin Film Festival, will finally hit U.S. theaters this summer thanks to Cohen Media Group, and today we have a new trailer.
Directed by Benoit Jacquot, following in the footsteps of Renoir and Bunuel, the story follows Seydoux as a servant who doesn’t exactly fit into her surroundings. Check out the trailer below for the film also starring Vincent Lindon, Clotilde Mollet, Hervé Pierre, Mélodie Valemberg, Patrick D’Assumçao, Vincent Lacoste, Joséphine Derenne, and Dominique Reymond.
Léa Seydoux follows in the footsteps of Paulette Goddard and Jeanne Moreau as Célestine, a resentful young Parisian chambermaid who finds herself exiled to a position in...
Directed by Benoit Jacquot, following in the footsteps of Renoir and Bunuel, the story follows Seydoux as a servant who doesn’t exactly fit into her surroundings. Check out the trailer below for the film also starring Vincent Lindon, Clotilde Mollet, Hervé Pierre, Mélodie Valemberg, Patrick D’Assumçao, Vincent Lacoste, Joséphine Derenne, and Dominique Reymond.
Léa Seydoux follows in the footsteps of Paulette Goddard and Jeanne Moreau as Célestine, a resentful young Parisian chambermaid who finds herself exiled to a position in...
- 4/25/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In a summer that's going to be filled with blockbuster spectacle, if you're in the mood for something a little more literary, you'll have some options. And one of them will come in the form of "Diary Of A Chambermaid," the latest effort from Benoît Jacquot ("3 Hearts," "Farewell My Queen"). Based on the novel by Octave Mirbeau novel, and previously brought to the big screen by Jean Renoir and Luis Buñuel, this version stars Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon in the story of a Parisian chambermaid who is pushed to the professional and personal limit when she's sent to the provinces on a new assignment. Here's the official synopsis: Read More: Berlin Review: Benoit Jacquot's 'Diary Of A Chambermaid' Starring Lea Seydoux Léa Sedoux follows in the footsteps of Paulette Goddard and Jeanne Moreau as Célestine, a resentful young Parisian chambermaid who finds herself exiled to a.
- 4/22/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Filmed in 1940, director George Marshall’s elegantly eerie spook-fest looks better with each passing year. Bob Hope, in top form, plays a radio star who finds himself in the middle of a Havana-bound haunted-house mystery. Paulette Goddard is his luscious companion and as his valet the great Willie Best gives Bob as good as he gets in his definitive performance as a comic foil. Director Marshall went on to film the remake, Scared Stiff, starring Martin and Lewis (with a cameo from Hope and Crosby).
- 3/21/2016
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Kitty Gordon: Actress in silent movies and on the musical comedy stage. Rediscovering a long-forgotten silent film star: Kitty Gordon It seems almost unthinkable that there are still silent stars who have not been resurrected, their lives and films subject to detailed, if not always reliable, examination. Yet I am reminded by Michael Levenston, a Canadian who has compiled what is best described as a “scrapbook” of her life and career, that there is one such individual – and not just a “name” in silent films, but also from 1901 onwards famed as a singer/actress in musical comedy and on the vaudeville stage in both her native England and the United States. And she is Kitty Gordon (1878-1974). 'The Enchantress' and her $50,000 backside Kitty Gordon was a talented lady, so much so that Victor Herbert wrote the 1911 operetta The Enchantress for her; one who also had a “gimmick,” in that...
- 12/12/2015
- by Anthony Slide
- Alt Film Guide
Norma Shearer films Note: This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Turner Classic Movies' Norma Shearer month comes to a close this evening, Nov. 24, '15, with the presentation of the last six films of Shearer's two-decade-plus career. Two of these are remarkably good; one is schizophrenic, a confused mix of high comedy and low drama; while the other three aren't the greatest. Yet all six are worth a look even if only because of Norma Shearer herself – though, really, they all have more to offer than just their top star. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the no-expense-spared Marie Antoinette (1938) – $2.9 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that time – stars the Canadian-born Queen of MGM as the Austrian-born Queen of France. This was Shearer's first film in two years (following Romeo and Juliet) and her first release following husband Irving G.
- 11/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Norma Shearer films Note: This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Turner Classic Movies' Norma Shearer month comes to a close this evening, Nov. 24, '15, with the presentation of the last six films of Shearer's two-decade-plus career. Two of these are remarkably good; one is schizophrenic, a confused mix of high comedy and low drama; while the other three aren't the greatest. Yet all six are worth a look even if only because of Norma Shearer herself – though, really, they all have more to offer than just their top star. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the no-expense-spared Marie Antoinette (1938) – $2.9 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that time – stars the Canadian-born Queen of MGM as the Austrian-born Queen of France. This was Shearer's first film in two years (following Romeo and Juliet) and her first release following husband Irving G.
- 11/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Constance Cummings in 'Night After Night.' Constance Cummings: Working with Frank Capra and Mae West (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Actress Went from Harold Lloyd to Eugene O'Neill.”) Back at Columbia, Harry Cohn didn't do a very good job at making Constance Cummings feel important. By the end of 1932, Columbia and its sweet ingenue found themselves in court, fighting bitterly over stipulations in her contract. According to the actress and lawyer's daughter, Columbia had failed to notify her that they were picking up her option. Therefore, she was a free agent, able to offer her services wherever she pleased. Harry Cohn felt otherwise, claiming that his contract player had waived such a notice. The battle would spill over into 1933. On the positive side, in addition to Movie Crazy 1932 provided Cummings with three other notable Hollywood movies: Washington Merry-Go-Round, American Madness, and Night After Night. 'Washington Merry-Go-Round...
- 11/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture: Movie References of the Day: For Slate, Jacob T. Swinney shows us all the MGM movies referenced in just the trailer for the Coens' Hail, Caesar!: Movie Mashup of the Day: James Stewart has a very weird dream in this surreal, Nsfw mashup of movies by Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick (via Oscilloscope Labs): Director Mashup of the Day: Speaking of Stanley Kubrick, here's a tease of what 2001: A Space Odyssey looks like as directed by Wes Anderson. This is just the trailer for a full-length fan edit by Nathan Hartman that you can download here. Vintage Image of the Day: Charlie Chaplin and wife/co-star Paulette Goddard seated and laughing...
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- 10/16/2015
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
Coleen Gray in 'The Sleeping City' with Richard Conte. Coleen Gray after Fox: B Westerns and films noirs (See previous post: “Coleen Gray Actress: From Red River to Film Noir 'Good Girls'.”) Regarding the demise of her Fox career (the year after her divorce from Rod Amateau), Coleen Gray would recall for Confessions of a Scream Queen author Matt Beckoff: I thought that was the end of the world and that I was a total failure. I was a mass of insecurity and depended on agents. … Whether it was an 'A' picture or a 'B' picture didn't bother me. It could be a Western movie, a sci-fi film. A job was a job. You did the best with the script that you had. Fox had dropped Gray at a time of dramatic upheavals in the American film industry: fast-dwindling box office receipts as a result of competition from television,...
- 10/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Last December, a little movie called The Interview caused a political firestorm. Yanked out of theaters, the subject of rallies for free speech and all of it based on the film’s mockery of real life North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Oddly enough, one of the arguments that came out of this was a group of people who said that movie just shouldn’t poke that bear. Movies shouldn’t wade into foreign policy, make fun of living political leaders, even despots and dictators. The Interview was conceptually daring, but nothing groundbreaking. And mocking real life villains was nothing new. Making its New York premiere 75 years ago this week, in front of the entire world, Charlie Chaplin threw a comic spear in the eye of the biggest villain of them all, Adolf Hitler. That comic spear was The Great Dictator and it would become Chaplin’s magnum opus, a...
- 10/13/2015
- by Charlie Sanford
- SoundOnSight
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
Susan Hayward. Susan Hayward movies: TCM Star of the Month Fiery redhead Susan Hayward it Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in Sept. 2015. The five-time Best Actress Oscar nominee – like Ida Lupino, a would-be Bette Davis that only sporadically landed roles to match the verve of her thespian prowess – was initially a minor Warner Bros. contract player who went on to become a Paramount second lead in the early '40s, a Universal leading lady in the late '40s, and a 20th Century Fox star in the early '50s. TCM will be presenting only three Susan Hayward premieres, all from her Fox era. Unfortunately, her Paramount and Universal work – e.g., Among the Living, Sis Hopkins, And Now Tomorrow, The Saxon Charm – which remains mostly unavailable (in quality prints), will remain unavailable this month. Highlights of the evening include: Adam Had Four Sons (1941), a sentimental but surprisingly...
- 9/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Vivien Leigh ca. late 1940s. Vivien Leigh movies: now controversial 'Gone with the Wind,' little-seen '21 Days Together' on TCM Vivien Leigh is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 18, '15, as TCM's “Summer Under the Stars” series continues. Mostly a stage actress, Leigh was seen in only 19 films – in about 15 of which as a leading lady or star – in a movie career spanning three decades. Good for the relatively few who saw her on stage; bad for all those who have access to only a few performances of one of the most remarkable acting talents of the 20th century. This evening, TCM is showing three Vivien Leigh movies: Gone with the Wind (1939), 21 Days Together (1940), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Leigh won Best Actress Academy Awards for the first and the third title. The little-remembered film in-between is a TCM premiere. 'Gone with the Wind' Seemingly all...
- 8/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rex Ingram in 'The Thief of Bagdad' 1940 with tiny Sabu. Actor Rex Ingram movies on TCM: Early black film performer in 'Cabin in the Sky,' 'Anna Lucasta' It's somewhat unusual for two well-known film celebrities, whether past or present, to share the same name.* One such rarity is – or rather, are – the two movie people known as Rex Ingram;† one an Irish-born white director, the other an Illinois-born black actor. Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” continues today, Aug. 11, '15, with a day dedicated to the latter. Right now, TCM is showing Cabin in the Sky (1943), an all-black musical adaptation of the Faust tale that is notable as the first full-fledged feature film directed by another Illinois-born movie person, Vincente Minnelli. Also worth mentioning, the movie marked Lena Horne's first important appearance in a mainstream motion picture.§ A financial disappointment on the...
- 8/12/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Joan Crawford Movie Star Joan Crawford movies on TCM: Underrated actress, top star in several of her greatest roles If there was ever a professional who was utterly, completely, wholeheartedly dedicated to her work, Joan Crawford was it. Ambitious, driven, talented, smart, obsessive, calculating, she had whatever it took – and more – to reach the top and stay there. Nearly four decades after her death, Crawford, the star to end all stars, remains one of the iconic performers of the 20th century. Deservedly so, once you choose to bypass the Mommie Dearest inanity and focus on her film work. From the get-go, she was a capable actress; look for the hard-to-find silents The Understanding Heart (1927) and The Taxi Dancer (1927), and check her out in the more easily accessible The Unknown (1927) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). By the early '30s, Joan Crawford had become a first-rate film actress, far more naturalistic than...
- 8/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...
- 6/29/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Hold Back the Dawn': Olivia de Havilland behind Charles Boyer and Paulette Goddard 'Hold Back the Dawn' 1941 movie: Olivia de Havilland steals show as small-town teacher in love Olivia de Havilland shines in Mitchell Leisen's melodrama Hold Back the Dawn, a sort of opening bracket for the director's World War II-era films. Adapted by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett from Ketti Frings' semi-autobiographical story, Hold Back the Dawn stars Charles Boyer as George Iscovescu, a Romanian dancer unable to enter the U.S. from Mexico due to immigration quotas imposed at the onset of the European conflict. Paulette Goddard is his scheming former partner, Anita, who marries an American to gain entry into the country only to immediately leave the duped husband. George adopts the idea – a naïve small-town schoolteacher visiting a Mexican border town is his prey. As the unsuspecting teacher, Olivia de Havilland radiates understanding and sympathy.
- 5/7/2015
- by Doug Johnson
- Alt Film Guide
Cecil B. DeMille on the set of Four Frightened People. Image via Doctor Macro.Classical Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille, subject of a recent retrospective at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, is charged in pages upon pages of film history and criticism with codifying modern Hollywood spectacle, often through the lens of Old Testament biblical narrative. However, bookended by his prolific (and oft revered) silent work, and his late career showmanship are a string of virtually un-regarded films that push the director’s ideology into something bordering Naturalism. Specifically, This Day and Age (1933), Four Frightened People (1934), and Reap the Wild Wind (1942) are wholly uninterested in the Christian mythology that defines his more canonical work (The Ten Commandments, 1923 and 1956, King of Kings [1927], Sign on the Cross [1932], etc.); instead they exploit DeMille's scale and sense of melodrama in order to attempt the rather lofty task of explaining the role of man in...
- 3/10/2015
- by Daniel Watkins
- MUBI
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
Lizabeth Scott dead at 92: Film noir star of the '40s and '50s Lizabeth Scott, a Paramount star in the 1940s usually cast as film noir heroines, died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 31, 2015, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Scott, born (as Emma Matzo) on Sept. 29, 1922, was 92. (See also: Lizabeth Scott photo at recent The Strange Love of Martha Ivers screening.) Among the two dozen film featuring Lizabeth Scott – whose hair-style and husky line delivery were clearly inspired by Paramount's own Veronica Lake (along with Warner Bros.' Lauren Bacall) – were the following: John Farrow's You Came Along (1945), with Robert Cummings. Lewis Milestone's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Kirk Douglas. Desert Fury (1947), with Burt Lancaster. Dead Reckoning (1947), with Humphrey Bogart. Pitfall (1948), with Dick Powell. Dark City (1950), with Charlton Heston. The Racket (1951), with Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum.
- 2/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Luis Buñuel movies on TCM tonight (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'Belle de Jour') The city of Paris and iconoclastic writer-director Luis Buñuel are Turner Classic Movies' themes today and later this evening. TCM's focus on Luis Buñuel is particularly welcome, as he remains one of the most daring and most challenging filmmakers since the invention of film. Luis Buñuel is so remarkable, in fact, that you won't find any Hollywood hipster paying homage to him in his/her movies. Nor will you hear his name mentioned at the Academy Awards – no matter the Academy in question. And rest assured that most film critics working today have never even heard of him, let alone seen any of his movies. So, nowadays Luis Buñuel is un-hip, un-cool, and unfashionable. He's also unquestionably brilliant. These days everyone is worried about freedom of expression. The clash of civilizations. The West vs. The Other.
- 1/27/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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