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“Double W. C. Fields”
By Raymond Benson
Kino Lorber has been releasing the W. C. Fields catalog in high definition, upgraded from previous releases on DVD, and two more have come to the fore—You’re Telling Me! and Man on the Flying Trapeze, two titles that don’t immediately come to mind when one thinks of top tier, classic Fields pictures, but never fear—they’re hilarious and worth a look.
You’re Telling Me! preceded The Old Fashioned Way and the brilliant It’s a Gift (both previously reviewed here at Cinema Retro), all three of which appeared in 1934, while Fields (real name—William Claude Dukenfield) still had a working contract with Paramount Pictures. Man on the Flying Trapeze was released in 1935, a return to a “Fields comedy” after the actor took a sidetrack sojourn, courtesy of Paramount, into more high-brow fare.
“Double W. C. Fields”
By Raymond Benson
Kino Lorber has been releasing the W. C. Fields catalog in high definition, upgraded from previous releases on DVD, and two more have come to the fore—You’re Telling Me! and Man on the Flying Trapeze, two titles that don’t immediately come to mind when one thinks of top tier, classic Fields pictures, but never fear—they’re hilarious and worth a look.
You’re Telling Me! preceded The Old Fashioned Way and the brilliant It’s a Gift (both previously reviewed here at Cinema Retro), all three of which appeared in 1934, while Fields (real name—William Claude Dukenfield) still had a working contract with Paramount Pictures. Man on the Flying Trapeze was released in 1935, a return to a “Fields comedy” after the actor took a sidetrack sojourn, courtesy of Paramount, into more high-brow fare.
- 4/25/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1939 / 1.33:1 / 79 Min.
Starring W.C. Fields, Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen
Written by Charles Bogle
Directed by George Marshall, Edward CLine
Charlie McCarthy was W.C. Fields’ most formidable antagonist—a wide-eyed charmer with a bright (not to mention permanent) smile, Charlie was everything the great comedian wasn’t. One thing Fields had that Charlie didn’t was flesh (admittedly sagging) and blood (80 proof on the best of days). The diminutive McCarthy was made of wood—only a dummy in top hat and tails but the most famous puppet on the planet, and operated by the worst ventriloquist in Hollywood, Edgar Bergen. Though Bergen couldn’t keep his own mouth from moving when he spoke for Charlie, the little fellow’s dialog still packed a punch. Indeed, the reason the duo proved so effective in their skirmishes with Fields was because their humor,...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1939 / 1.33:1 / 79 Min.
Starring W.C. Fields, Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen
Written by Charles Bogle
Directed by George Marshall, Edward CLine
Charlie McCarthy was W.C. Fields’ most formidable antagonist—a wide-eyed charmer with a bright (not to mention permanent) smile, Charlie was everything the great comedian wasn’t. One thing Fields had that Charlie didn’t was flesh (admittedly sagging) and blood (80 proof on the best of days). The diminutive McCarthy was made of wood—only a dummy in top hat and tails but the most famous puppet on the planet, and operated by the worst ventriloquist in Hollywood, Edgar Bergen. Though Bergen couldn’t keep his own mouth from moving when he spoke for Charlie, the little fellow’s dialog still packed a punch. Indeed, the reason the duo proved so effective in their skirmishes with Fields was because their humor,...
- 4/12/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Every once in a while a movie studio would ruin what might have been a masterpiece — and Preston Sturges’ last-released Paramount comedy suffered exactly that. “Triumph Over Pain” was supposed to be something new, a daring blend of comedy and tragedy. Studio politics intervened and tried to turn it into a straight comedy. Disc producer Constantine Nasr oversees two extras that explain what happened in full detail; it’s a fascinating story of a brillant and successful writer-director at odds with his studio bosses. Joel McCrea, Betty Field and William Demarest star — and the show is still entertaining despite its problems.
The Great Moment
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1944 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Great without Glory, Immortal Secret, Morton the Magnificent, Triumph over Pain / Street Date February 1, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Julius Tannen, Edwin Maxwell, Porter Hall, Franklin Pangborn,...
The Great Moment
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1944 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Great without Glory, Immortal Secret, Morton the Magnificent, Triumph over Pain / Street Date February 1, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Julius Tannen, Edwin Maxwell, Porter Hall, Franklin Pangborn,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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“Ever Done Any Boondoggling?”
By Raymond Benson
Continuing the examination of Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray releases of the W. C. Fields catalog of classic comedies, we now look at The Bank Dick, easily one of the actor/comedian’s greatest works.
Released in 1940 (titled The Bank Detective in the U.K.), Fields was starting to wind down, whether he knew it or not. Alcoholism was taking its toll, and it wouldn’t be long before his amazing run in cinema since the silent era would soon come to an end. He still had some surprises in his pockets, though, and The Bank Dick was one of them.
“Ever done in any boondoggling?” Fields, as Egbert Sousé, submits to another character in the film. In a way, he’s asking that of the audience, too. For The Bank Dick is nothing but a load of boondoggling,...
“Ever Done Any Boondoggling?”
By Raymond Benson
Continuing the examination of Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray releases of the W. C. Fields catalog of classic comedies, we now look at The Bank Dick, easily one of the actor/comedian’s greatest works.
Released in 1940 (titled The Bank Detective in the U.K.), Fields was starting to wind down, whether he knew it or not. Alcoholism was taking its toll, and it wouldn’t be long before his amazing run in cinema since the silent era would soon come to an end. He still had some surprises in his pockets, though, and The Bank Dick was one of them.
“Ever done in any boondoggling?” Fields, as Egbert Sousé, submits to another character in the film. In a way, he’s asking that of the audience, too. For The Bank Dick is nothing but a load of boondoggling,...
- 10/25/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Core pre-Code excellence! This movie delivers sexy situations while nailing small town intolerance and hypocrisy. When push comes to shove, the slighted and slandered Nancy Carroll makes daring, socially unacceptable choices that would never be allowed after the Production Code was enforced. Gorgeous Carroll is a vivacious blend of Clara Bow and Claudette Colbert. She must choose between slick playboy Cary Grant and hunky geologist Randolph Scott. What she really needs is a bus ticket out of her Town Without Pity. The picture is funny, well observed and well written. And it has Grady Sutton — ooh!
Hot Saturday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 73 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods, Lilian Bond, William Collier Sr., Jane Darwell, Stanley Smith, Rita La Roy, Rose Coghlan, Oscar Apfel, Jessie Arnold, Grady Sutton, Marjorie Main, .
Cinematography: Arthur L. Todd
Original...
Hot Saturday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 73 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods, Lilian Bond, William Collier Sr., Jane Darwell, Stanley Smith, Rita La Roy, Rose Coghlan, Oscar Apfel, Jessie Arnold, Grady Sutton, Marjorie Main, .
Cinematography: Arthur L. Todd
Original...
- 9/28/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A bigger and brighter film debut couldn’t be imagined … Doris Day became America’s sweetheart in Michael Curtiz’s peppy production, graced with a witty script and several catchy, radio-ready song hits. And the color is better than new in this impressive Blu-ray remastering job — Woody Bredell’s Technicolor hues are literally eye-popping. It’s great fun seeing Ms. Day invent her natural, fresh-faced screen persona right before our eyes.
Romance on the High Seas
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1948 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 99 min. / It’s Magic / Street Date June 16, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Doris Day, Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Fortunio Bonanova, Eric Blore, Franklin Pangborn, Sir Lancelot, Barbara Bates, George N. Neise, Maila Nurmi, Grady Sutton.
Cinematography: Elwood Bredell
Film Editor: Rudi Fehr
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Special Effects: Robert Burks, Wilfrid M. Cline, David Curtiz
Original Music: Ray Heindorf, Oscar Levant
Written by Julius J. Epstein,...
Romance on the High Seas
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1948 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 99 min. / It’s Magic / Street Date June 16, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Doris Day, Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Fortunio Bonanova, Eric Blore, Franklin Pangborn, Sir Lancelot, Barbara Bates, George N. Neise, Maila Nurmi, Grady Sutton.
Cinematography: Elwood Bredell
Film Editor: Rudi Fehr
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Special Effects: Robert Burks, Wilfrid M. Cline, David Curtiz
Original Music: Ray Heindorf, Oscar Levant
Written by Julius J. Epstein,...
- 7/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***"Would you recognize Milton Berle without his mother? No!" So says the man himself, Milton Berle, in Over My Dead Body (1942), a fairly shoddy reminder that Berle was, for now-inexplicable reasons, a movie star in the early forties. But while some talent from radio and vaudeville slid into cinema with the ease of the proverbial buttered eel, Berle somehow got lodged halfway down cinema's throat, for reasons which may tell us something about classical Hollywood filmmaking, and something about this particular clown.Fox tested Berle on...
- 4/14/2020
- MUBI
The most notorious pre-Code shocker comes to Criterion — and proves to be a superior drama with an entirely mature, sound outlook on the political issues around women’s sexuality and personal freedom. Taken from a raw novel by William Faulkner, this tale of rape and terror stars Miriam Hopkins in one of the bravest, best performances of its era. Truth-telling like this always comes at a price — Temple Drake was a prime target for the oppressive Production Code, with the result that Hopkins’ achievement was banned and unseen for over thirty-five years.
The Story of Temple Drake
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1006
1933 / B&w / 1:33 Academy / 71 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 3, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan, Jack La Rue, Florence Eldridge, Guy Standing, Irving Pichel, Jobyna Howland, William Collier Jr., Elizabeth Patterson, James Eagles, Harlan Knight, Jim Mason, Louise Beavers, Grady Sutton, Kent Taylor, John Carradine.
Cinematography:...
The Story of Temple Drake
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1006
1933 / B&w / 1:33 Academy / 71 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 3, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan, Jack La Rue, Florence Eldridge, Guy Standing, Irving Pichel, Jobyna Howland, William Collier Jr., Elizabeth Patterson, James Eagles, Harlan Knight, Jim Mason, Louise Beavers, Grady Sutton, Kent Taylor, John Carradine.
Cinematography:...
- 12/10/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 50th anniversary screening of Hy Averback’s 1968 film I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! The 92-minute film, which stars the late, great Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Joyce Van Patten, will be screened on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 7:30 pm.
Please Note: At press time, Actress Leigh Taylor-Young is scheduled to appear in person for a discussion about the film following the screening.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)
50th Anniversary Screening
Followed by Q&A with Actress Leigh Taylor-Young
Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30 Pm at the Royal Theatre
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the hit Peter Sellers comedy from 1968, 'I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!' The Establishment meets the counterculture...
Please Note: At press time, Actress Leigh Taylor-Young is scheduled to appear in person for a discussion about the film following the screening.
From the press release:
Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)
50th Anniversary Screening
Followed by Q&A with Actress Leigh Taylor-Young
Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30 Pm at the Royal Theatre
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the hit Peter Sellers comedy from 1968, 'I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!' The Establishment meets the counterculture...
- 4/23/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Before Vincent Price haunted houses, he chalked up plenty of experience as a Broadway star and a versatile character actor. This superb Joseph L. Mankiewicz gothic romance assigns him major leading man duty as a ‘dark and troubled’ soul — the kind that intimidates cowering leading ladies. With typical good humor, Price called it the first of his ‘dead wife’ movies!
Dragonwyck
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1946 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 103 min. / Street Date , 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Vincent Price, Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Connie Marshall, Harry Morgan, Vivienne Osborne, Jessica Tandy, Trudy Marshall, Reinhold Schünzel, Grady Sutton.
Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller
Film Editor: Dorothy Spencer
Original Music: Alfred Newman
From the novel by Anya Seton
Produced by Ernst Lubitsch, Darryl F. Zanuck
Written for the screen and Directed by Joseph H. Mankiewicz
You’d have to say that Vincent Price’s film...
Dragonwyck
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1946 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 103 min. / Street Date , 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Vincent Price, Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Connie Marshall, Harry Morgan, Vivienne Osborne, Jessica Tandy, Trudy Marshall, Reinhold Schünzel, Grady Sutton.
Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller
Film Editor: Dorothy Spencer
Original Music: Alfred Newman
From the novel by Anya Seton
Produced by Ernst Lubitsch, Darryl F. Zanuck
Written for the screen and Directed by Joseph H. Mankiewicz
You’d have to say that Vincent Price’s film...
- 3/13/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
John Monk Saunders is a good example of the screenwriter-as-auteur in the sense that he had a tone (mordant, tragic) and a set of concerns (Wwi aerial combat and its effects) that were consistent throughout his work, almost to the point of claustrophobia. Saunders was an airman himself, and like his characters, he just couldn't leave it behind. A recurring theme of his work is that war is not only traumatic, but addictive. Ace of Aces is a typical work: Saunders would achieve greater glory with William A. Wellman (Wings, 1927), Howard Hawks (The Dawn Patrol, 1930) and, best of all, with William Dieterle and The Last Flight in 1931. Ace of Aces is a relatively minor-league outing. Though director J. Walter Ruben delivers a few elaborate tracking shots, the film belongs mainly to the writer and the Rko effects team—Vernon L. Walker, who worked on Citizen Kane and King Kong, stitches...
- 6/14/2017
- MUBI
Horton Foote, Lillian Hellman and Arthur Penn's All-Star vision of an Ugly America found few friends in 1965; now its overstated scenes of social injustice and violence are daily events. Marlon Brando leads a terrific cast -- Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall! -- to endure the worst Saturday ever to hit one cursed Texas township. The Chase (1966) Blu-ray Twilight Time 1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date October 11, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Miriam Hopkins, Martha Hyer, Richard Bradford, Robert Duvall, James Fox, Diana Hyland, Henry Hull, Jocelyn Brando, Clifton James, Steve Ihnat Cinematography Joseph Lashelle Production Designer Richard Day Art Direction Robert Luthardt Film Editor Gene Milford Original Music John Barry Written by Lillian Hellman from the novel by Horton Foote Produced by Sam Spiegel Directed by Arthur Penn
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 10/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Pioneering woman director Lois Weber socially conscious drama 'Shoes' among Library of Congress' Packard Theater movies (photo: Mary MacLaren in 'Shoes') In February 2015, National Film Registry titles will be showcased at the Library of Congress' Packard Campus Theater – aka the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation – in Culpeper, Virginia. These range from pioneering woman director Lois Weber's socially conscious 1916 drama Shoes to Robert Zemeckis' 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future. Another Packard Theater highlight next month is Sam Peckinpah's ultra-violent Western The Wild Bunch (1969), starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine. Also, Howard Hawks' "anti-High Noon" Western Rio Bravo (1959), toplining John Wayne and Dean Martin. And George Cukor's costly remake of A Star Is Born (1954), featuring Academy Award nominees Judy Garland and James Mason in the old Janet Gaynor and Fredric March roles. There's more: Jeff Bridges delivers a colorful performance in...
- 1/24/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jean Arthur films on TCM include three Frank Capra classics Five Jean Arthur films will be shown this evening, Monday, January 5, 2015, on Turner Classic Movies, including three directed by Frank Capra, the man who helped to turn Arthur into a major Hollywood star. They are the following: Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; George Stevens' The More the Merrier; and Frank Borzage's History Is Made at Night. One the most effective performers of the studio era, Jean Arthur -- whose film career began inauspiciously in 1923 -- was Columbia Pictures' biggest female star from the mid-'30s to the mid-'40s, when Rita Hayworth came to prominence and, coincidentally, Arthur's Columbia contract expired. Today, she's best known for her trio of films directed by Frank Capra, Columbia's top director of the 1930s. Jean Arthur-Frank Capra...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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
Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in ‘Gone with the Wind’: TCM schedule on August 20, 2013 (photo: Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in ‘Gone with the Wind’) See previous post: “Hattie McDaniel: Oscar Winner Makes History.” 3:00 Am Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). Director: David Butler. Cast: Joan Leslie, Dennis Morgan, Eddie Cantor, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, George Tobias, Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall, Hattie McDaniel, Ruth Donnelly, Don Wilson, Spike Jones, Henry Armetta, Leah Baird, Willie Best, Monte Blue, James Burke, David Butler, Stanley Clements, William Desmond, Ralph Dunn, Frank Faylen, James Flavin, Creighton Hale, Sam Harris, Paul Harvey, Mark Hellinger, Brandon Hurst, Charles Irwin, Noble Johnson, Mike Mazurki, Fred Kelsey, Frank Mayo, Joyce Reynolds, Mary Treen, Doodles Weaver. Bw-127 mins. 5:15 Am Janie (1944). Director: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton,...
- 8/21/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...
- 8/1/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Review by Sam Moffitt
I can pinpoint the exact moment I became a film fan, a cinema buff, a Movie Geek if you will. It was while watching a television broadcast of Pigskin Parade, a college musical based around football, released by 20th Century Fox in 1936.
But a little background on myself first. Born in southeast Missouri in 1955 I can remember when television was a rare and exotic device. We knew a few neighbors near us in the little town I started growing up in, Hiram, Missouri who had televisions. Getting to watch it was a rare treat ,we knew a little old lady near us who had a television and she let us come over to watch shows like McKenzie’s Raiders and the Grey Ghost.
In 1959 my mother bought a television, a 19″ Motorola cabinet model. I can be sure of the year because I vividly remember the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone,...
I can pinpoint the exact moment I became a film fan, a cinema buff, a Movie Geek if you will. It was while watching a television broadcast of Pigskin Parade, a college musical based around football, released by 20th Century Fox in 1936.
But a little background on myself first. Born in southeast Missouri in 1955 I can remember when television was a rare and exotic device. We knew a few neighbors near us in the little town I started growing up in, Hiram, Missouri who had televisions. Getting to watch it was a rare treat ,we knew a little old lady near us who had a television and she let us come over to watch shows like McKenzie’s Raiders and the Grey Ghost.
In 1959 my mother bought a television, a 19″ Motorola cabinet model. I can be sure of the year because I vividly remember the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone,...
- 1/15/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
"Greg La Cava is, to my mind, the No. 1 director of these great and grand and glorious United States of ours. I have many friends, Directors, and I hate to have to expose my hand like this." —William Claude Dukenfield.
W.C. Fields, celebrated this month at the Film Forum in New York, might possibly be the greatest of the talking clowns, eclipsing even the Marx Bros, even Laurel & Hardy. It's easy to forget he had a substantial silent career before talkies, so crucial does that distracted drawl seem to his star identity. While Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd seemed somewhat diminished when audible words emerged from their lips, like Stan and Ollie, Fields blossomed in talkies. But, though they truly excel when offered the gift of speech, their silents are nothing to be sneezed at either.
Although Fields' talkies often had gifted comedy directors at the helm, notably former Keaton collaborator Clyde Bruckman,...
W.C. Fields, celebrated this month at the Film Forum in New York, might possibly be the greatest of the talking clowns, eclipsing even the Marx Bros, even Laurel & Hardy. It's easy to forget he had a substantial silent career before talkies, so crucial does that distracted drawl seem to his star identity. While Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd seemed somewhat diminished when audible words emerged from their lips, like Stan and Ollie, Fields blossomed in talkies. But, though they truly excel when offered the gift of speech, their silents are nothing to be sneezed at either.
Although Fields' talkies often had gifted comedy directors at the helm, notably former Keaton collaborator Clyde Bruckman,...
- 4/21/2011
- MUBI
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