There have been countless books written about the immortal star Elizabeth Taylor, even some credited to her as both memoir or autobiography including 1989’s Elizabeth On Elizabeth. But a book released on January 1, 1965, probably comes closest to a pure autobiography, and the cover simply says, Elizabeth Taylor by Elizabeth Taylor. It is a by-the-numbers account of her life through her own words up until that point, but it actually was written by Richard Meryman, a journalist credited with among other things the last interview with Marilyn Monroe.
Meryman got Taylor to sit for some tape-recorded sessions in 1964, so he would be able to write the book as if Taylor did it herself. Sixty years later, those presumed “lost” recordings have been found and cleared for release by Taylor’s and Meryman’s estates. They have been in Meryman’s wife’s possession all these years,...
Meryman got Taylor to sit for some tape-recorded sessions in 1964, so he would be able to write the book as if Taylor did it herself. Sixty years later, those presumed “lost” recordings have been found and cleared for release by Taylor’s and Meryman’s estates. They have been in Meryman’s wife’s possession all these years,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Elizabeth Taylor was the glamorous Hollywood icon who starred in dozens of movies throughout her career, collecting two Best Actress trophies at the Oscars and three additional nominations. But how many of those titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress, landing her first leading role when she was just 12-years-old with “National Velvet” (1944). She quickly transitioned into adult stardom, earning her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress for “Raintree County” (1957). Subsequent bids for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) quickly followed.
She collected her first statuette playing a prostitute with man troubles in “Butterfield 8” (1960), a film she openly hated. Her win probably had more to do with an emergency tracheotomy she underwent right before the ceremony than the performance, but either way, Taylor was...
Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress, landing her first leading role when she was just 12-years-old with “National Velvet” (1944). She quickly transitioned into adult stardom, earning her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress for “Raintree County” (1957). Subsequent bids for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) quickly followed.
She collected her first statuette playing a prostitute with man troubles in “Butterfield 8” (1960), a film she openly hated. Her win probably had more to do with an emergency tracheotomy she underwent right before the ceremony than the performance, but either way, Taylor was...
- 2/23/2024
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival on Thursday, April 18 with a 35mm screening of the classic neo-noir Pulp Fiction (1994). Two-time Academy Award nominee John Travolta will attend to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film.
Pulp Fiction kicks off a weekend of programming set within the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film,” as well as the 30th anniversary of the network.
“Pulp Fiction is one of the most important and influential movies of the 1990s. It was Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus and the beginning of a well-deserved comeback for John Travolta,” said Ben Mankiewicz, TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival. “Like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather, it changed our thinking about the type of stories Hollywood could tell.”
Pulp Fiction gives an inside look at a community of criminals, starring Travolta, Uma Thurman,...
Pulp Fiction kicks off a weekend of programming set within the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film,” as well as the 30th anniversary of the network.
“Pulp Fiction is one of the most important and influential movies of the 1990s. It was Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus and the beginning of a well-deserved comeback for John Travolta,” said Ben Mankiewicz, TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival. “Like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather, it changed our thinking about the type of stories Hollywood could tell.”
Pulp Fiction gives an inside look at a community of criminals, starring Travolta, Uma Thurman,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Grab your royale with cheese and double-check your grandfather’s watch because “Pulp Fiction” just turned 30.
To honor the anniversary of the Oscar-winning Quentin Tarantino film, the 2024 Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival will kick off with a special 35mm screening of “Pulp Fiction.” Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe and Emmy winner John Travolta will be in attendance to toast to his 1994 comeback role.
“‘Pulp Fiction’ is one of the most important and influential movies of the 1990s. It was Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus and the beginning of a well-deserved comeback for John Travolta,” TCM Classic Film Festival host and TCM primetime anchor Ben Mankiewicz said. “Like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘The Godfather,’ it changed our thinking about the type of stories Hollywood could tell.”
The theme of tje 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival is “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film” to mark the network’s 30th anniversary.
To honor the anniversary of the Oscar-winning Quentin Tarantino film, the 2024 Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival will kick off with a special 35mm screening of “Pulp Fiction.” Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe and Emmy winner John Travolta will be in attendance to toast to his 1994 comeback role.
“‘Pulp Fiction’ is one of the most important and influential movies of the 1990s. It was Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus and the beginning of a well-deserved comeback for John Travolta,” TCM Classic Film Festival host and TCM primetime anchor Ben Mankiewicz said. “Like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘The Godfather,’ it changed our thinking about the type of stories Hollywood could tell.”
The theme of tje 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival is “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film” to mark the network’s 30th anniversary.
- 2/15/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Four years after “Black Panther” became the first Oscar-winning film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” cast member Angela Bassett has made history as the first person to achieve academy recognition for an MCU performance. Included among the numerous actors with whom she reunites in the 2022 sequel is Lupita Nyong’o, who first played her role of Nakia four years after earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “12 Years a Slave.” If Bassett ends up prevailing in the same category this year, Nyong’o will be the 16th woman to have acted in a film that won the same Oscar she previously received.
Until this year, “12 Years a Slave” was the only acting Oscar-nominated film Nyong’o had appeared in. Two of her cast mates in the 2014 Best Picture winner – Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender – respectively competed for the male lead and supporting prizes but eventually...
Until this year, “12 Years a Slave” was the only acting Oscar-nominated film Nyong’o had appeared in. Two of her cast mates in the 2014 Best Picture winner – Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender – respectively competed for the male lead and supporting prizes but eventually...
- 3/7/2023
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Broadway’s legendary Angela Lansbury will receive the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, the Tony Awards Administration Committee announced today.
“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “From her groundbreaking role in Mame to her iconic performances in Deuce and Sweeney Todd, and most recently, in the revival of A Little Night Music, Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso, followed by A Taste of Honey (1960), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and, winning her first Tony, Mame (1966). She also won Tonys for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974) and Sweeney Todd (1979).
After a 24-year hiatus, she returned to Broadway in Deuce (2007), followed by...
“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “From her groundbreaking role in Mame to her iconic performances in Deuce and Sweeney Todd, and most recently, in the revival of A Little Night Music, Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso, followed by A Taste of Honey (1960), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and, winning her first Tony, Mame (1966). She also won Tonys for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974) and Sweeney Todd (1979).
After a 24-year hiatus, she returned to Broadway in Deuce (2007), followed by...
- 5/23/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Angela Lansbury will be honored for her lifetime achievements at the 2022 Tony Awards.
The actress, who has won five Tonys over her 75-year career, will be receiving the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “From her groundbreaking role in ‘Mame; to her iconic performances in ‘Deuce’ and ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and most recently, in the revival of ‘A Little Night Music,’ Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957, when she starred in “Hotel Paradiso.” She won her first Tony less than a decade later for her 1966 performance in “Mame.” She also won Tonys for “Dear World...
The actress, who has won five Tonys over her 75-year career, will be receiving the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “From her groundbreaking role in ‘Mame; to her iconic performances in ‘Deuce’ and ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and most recently, in the revival of ‘A Little Night Music,’ Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957, when she starred in “Hotel Paradiso.” She won her first Tony less than a decade later for her 1966 performance in “Mame.” She also won Tonys for “Dear World...
- 5/23/2022
- by Katie Campione
- The Wrap
“What’s the meaning of goodness if there isn’t a little badness to overcome?”
Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney in National Velvet (1944) will be available on Blu-ray November 16th from Warner Archive
As long as young hearts endure, so will National Velvet and movies like it. in her star-making role, Elizabeth Taylor plays Velvet Brown, a wide-eyed adolescent who, assisted by her jockey pal (Mickey Rooney), trains Pie, a horse she won in a raffle, for the Grand National Steeplechase. Of course, no girl can ride in the National, can she? Yet Velvet, posing as a boy, assuredly does. Superbly directed by Clarence Brown, this exciting winner of two Academy Awards®* (one to Anne Revere for her performance as Velvet’s mother) costars a young Angela Lansbury and veteran Donald Crisp. The film has an off-screen postscript as winning as the on-screen finale:
M-g-m was so impressed with their...
Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney in National Velvet (1944) will be available on Blu-ray November 16th from Warner Archive
As long as young hearts endure, so will National Velvet and movies like it. in her star-making role, Elizabeth Taylor plays Velvet Brown, a wide-eyed adolescent who, assisted by her jockey pal (Mickey Rooney), trains Pie, a horse she won in a raffle, for the Grand National Steeplechase. Of course, no girl can ride in the National, can she? Yet Velvet, posing as a boy, assuredly does. Superbly directed by Clarence Brown, this exciting winner of two Academy Awards®* (one to Anne Revere for her performance as Velvet’s mother) costars a young Angela Lansbury and veteran Donald Crisp. The film has an off-screen postscript as winning as the on-screen finale:
M-g-m was so impressed with their...
- 11/9/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The American Film Institute has announced the launch of The Osborne Collection, a celebration on the Institute’s website of the life and work of the beloved movie historian and whiz TCM host Robert Osborne, who died in 2017. The collection will debut on May 3, which is Osborne’s birthday, and it will feature many of Osborne’s insightful (and quite soothing) film introductions, including clips for “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “From Here to Eternity,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “National Velvet,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “North by Northwest,” “Psycho,” “A Star Is Born,” “The Thin Man,” and “Top Hat.”
As a bonus, the Collection will be connected to the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, the Institute’s exhaustive chronicle of the first century of American film and, it turns out, a handy resource for Osborne himself.
Meanwhile,...
As a bonus, the Collection will be connected to the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, the Institute’s exhaustive chronicle of the first century of American film and, it turns out, a handy resource for Osborne himself.
Meanwhile,...
- 5/1/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Elizabeth Taylor, who would have turned 89 on Feb. 27, lived multiple lives. She was a movie mega-star, a tabloid mega-celebrity (which are not always the same thing), an innovator in creating herself as a brand — and a tireless and effective philanthropist and activist.
She was adored, admired, denounced, scandal-ridden and unpredictable, and the public couldn’t get enough of her.
On screen, she was at her most breathtakingly beautiful in such 1950s and ‘60s films as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “Cleopatra” and “The Taming of the Shrew.” And in the 1966 “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” at age 34, she frumped herself up and gave a great performance, winning the second of two Oscars (after the 1960 “Butterfield 8”).
She also excelled in a wide array of films, like “Giant” (1956), “Raintree Country” (1958), “X, Y and Z” (1972), “Ash Wednesday”, and “The Mirror Crack’d” (1980), her last leading role on the big screen.
She was adored, admired, denounced, scandal-ridden and unpredictable, and the public couldn’t get enough of her.
On screen, she was at her most breathtakingly beautiful in such 1950s and ‘60s films as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “Cleopatra” and “The Taming of the Shrew.” And in the 1966 “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” at age 34, she frumped herself up and gave a great performance, winning the second of two Oscars (after the 1960 “Butterfield 8”).
She also excelled in a wide array of films, like “Giant” (1956), “Raintree Country” (1958), “X, Y and Z” (1972), “Ash Wednesday”, and “The Mirror Crack’d” (1980), her last leading role on the big screen.
- 2/27/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Hi readers. I know I got lost in the weeds a bit in November. It's that damn International Feature Oscar race. It really brings out my Ocd qualities with those Oscar history overviews so I skimped on other stuff. Anyway, here are some of key posts of November in case you missed any. There's one day left but it's the holiday weekend so we're doing the wrap up early ;)
Highlights from the Month That Was
• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?
• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!
• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun
• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities
• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting!
• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection
• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year
• Gene Tierney -...
Highlights from the Month That Was
• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?
• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!
• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun
• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities
• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting!
• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection
• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year
• Gene Tierney -...
- 11/29/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
- 11/24/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
On Aug. 11, 1943, Variety carried a story beginning “Angela Lansbury, 17-year-old English girl, is the colony’s latest Cinderella.” The story said she had gone from an unknown to movie star in only four days.
Since then, Lansbury has forged a career that defies all logic. She received supporting-actress Oscar nominations twice in her first two years of work. At age 41, she became a musical-comedy star with “Mame.” She became a TV star with “Murder, She Wrote” at age 59, an age when most actresses can’t find work. In the show’s 12-year run, she was one of the TV industry’s most powerful women. Maybe her biggest accomplishment: Though powerful women were sometimes maligned, it was thought you needed to be heartless to survive in showbiz, Lansbury has created a 77-year career and nobody has a bad word to say about her.
Lansbury, who turns 95 Friday, is best known for...
Since then, Lansbury has forged a career that defies all logic. She received supporting-actress Oscar nominations twice in her first two years of work. At age 41, she became a musical-comedy star with “Mame.” She became a TV star with “Murder, She Wrote” at age 59, an age when most actresses can’t find work. In the show’s 12-year run, she was one of the TV industry’s most powerful women. Maybe her biggest accomplishment: Though powerful women were sometimes maligned, it was thought you needed to be heartless to survive in showbiz, Lansbury has created a 77-year career and nobody has a bad word to say about her.
Lansbury, who turns 95 Friday, is best known for...
- 10/16/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
James Henerson, an Emmy-nominated writer and producer who worked on such shows as I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and The Flying Nun, has died. He was 84.
Henerson died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Sherman Oaks, his sons, Matthew and Evan, announced.
A staff writer for the famed TV studio Screen Gems, Henerson also wrote episodes of The Partridge Family, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Combat!, National Velvet, Love on a Rooftop, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and The Second Hundred Years.
With partners Jim Hirsch and Michael Douglas, he produced the 1986-87 ABC series Starman, which ...
Henerson died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Sherman Oaks, his sons, Matthew and Evan, announced.
A staff writer for the famed TV studio Screen Gems, Henerson also wrote episodes of The Partridge Family, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Combat!, National Velvet, Love on a Rooftop, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and The Second Hundred Years.
With partners Jim Hirsch and Michael Douglas, he produced the 1986-87 ABC series Starman, which ...
- 6/22/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Spyros Skouras was a practical man with a dream. As a finance-minded studio executive who made his bones in the industry as a frugal theater owner during the Depression, Skouras was looking for a safe bet when he asked producer Walter Wanger to remake the story of Cleopatra on a budget of $2 million. It didn’t work out that way.
Nearly 60 years after Elizabeth Taylor rode into Rome on a sphinx, the gaudy, extravagant, and moribund epic that is Hollywood’s most iconic Cleopatra remains the stuff of legend—and perhaps hellish nightmares for studio execs with greenlighting powers. What was intended to be a by-the-numbers remake of a 1917 film, shot at cost on Fox’s already vanishing backlot, instead became the most expensive international production of its age: a movie with two Alexandrias, two directors, two Antonys and two Caesars, and one highly demanding Cleopatra. Indeed, Taylor was the...
Nearly 60 years after Elizabeth Taylor rode into Rome on a sphinx, the gaudy, extravagant, and moribund epic that is Hollywood’s most iconic Cleopatra remains the stuff of legend—and perhaps hellish nightmares for studio execs with greenlighting powers. What was intended to be a by-the-numbers remake of a 1917 film, shot at cost on Fox’s already vanishing backlot, instead became the most expensive international production of its age: a movie with two Alexandrias, two directors, two Antonys and two Caesars, and one highly demanding Cleopatra. Indeed, Taylor was the...
- 6/12/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
David Crow Oct 28, 2019
Rachel Weisz will play Elizabeth Taylor in A Special Relationship, detailing her crusading activism to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic.
Elizabeth Taylor became a movie icon in the 20th century like few others due to her glamour, her penchant for starring in grandiose, and often lusty, productions, and her string of husbands. However, she also became one of the most visible activists and proponents for AIDS research during the height of the virus’ epidemic in the 1980s. And it is that specific period in Taylor’s life that Rachel Weisz will seek to portray when she dons the violet hued contact lenses in A Special Relationship.
The project was announced Monday by See-Saw Films which will produce the film. The movie will specifically unpack these crucial years in Taylor’s life by studying her relationship with Roger Wall, a gay man she hired as her personal assistant in the 1980s.
Rachel Weisz will play Elizabeth Taylor in A Special Relationship, detailing her crusading activism to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic.
Elizabeth Taylor became a movie icon in the 20th century like few others due to her glamour, her penchant for starring in grandiose, and often lusty, productions, and her string of husbands. However, she also became one of the most visible activists and proponents for AIDS research during the height of the virus’ epidemic in the 1980s. And it is that specific period in Taylor’s life that Rachel Weisz will seek to portray when she dons the violet hued contact lenses in A Special Relationship.
The project was announced Monday by See-Saw Films which will produce the film. The movie will specifically unpack these crucial years in Taylor’s life by studying her relationship with Roger Wall, a gay man she hired as her personal assistant in the 1980s.
- 10/28/2019
- Den of Geek
The first thing to get out of the way is that “Days of the Bagnold Summer” has nothing whatsoever to do with Enid Bagnold, author of “National Velvet” and “The Chalk Garden.” More’s the pity, as Simon Bird’s debut behind the camera, adapted from Joff Winterhart’s graphic novel, could use some of the depth and wit the earlier writer brought to her characters and their situations. Not that the movie is aiming for the same sophisticated vibe – “Bagnold Summer” is about a teenage metalhead forced to spend the summer with his painfully square mother, and its influences come from small, genial American indies with a touch of minor — very minor — Mike Leigh. But : rather too sugared, and immediately forgotten.
Bird’s interest in a high school misfit can conceivably be linked to his starring role in the British coming-of-age series “The Inbetweeners,” though perhaps that’s...
Bird’s interest in a high school misfit can conceivably be linked to his starring role in the British coming-of-age series “The Inbetweeners,” though perhaps that’s...
- 8/31/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
Elizabeth Taylor would’ve celebrated her 87th birthday on February 27, 2019. The glamorous Hollywood icon starred in dozens of movies throughout her career, collecting two Best Actress trophies at the Oscars and three additional nominations. But how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress, landing her first leading role when she was just 12-years-old with “National Velvet” (1944). She quickly transitioned into adult stardom, earning her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress for “Raintree County” (1957). Subsequent bids for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) quickly followed.
SEEOscar Best Actress Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History
She collected her first statuette playing a prostitute with man troubles in “Butterfield 8” (1960), a film she openly hated. Her win probably had...
Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress, landing her first leading role when she was just 12-years-old with “National Velvet” (1944). She quickly transitioned into adult stardom, earning her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress for “Raintree County” (1957). Subsequent bids for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) quickly followed.
SEEOscar Best Actress Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History
She collected her first statuette playing a prostitute with man troubles in “Butterfield 8” (1960), a film she openly hated. Her win probably had...
- 2/27/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Angela Lansbury, 2018 Emmy contender for Masterpiece Theater’s adaptation of “Little Women,” has one of the most unique awards histories of any performer. In her over 75-year career she has managed to amass a significant number of nominations for all three of the major acting awards: three Oscar noms, 18 Emmy bids and seven Tony citations. While she has sailed through the Tony Awards winning five times, the other awards have been more elusive.
Her Oscar nominations all came early in her career and she came up empty handed all three times (the Academy did remedy that with an honorary Oscar in 2013). Lansbury’s Emmy history has been downright infuriating for her fans since she has lost a staggering 18 times. That streak may come to an end this year if Lansbury is able to achieve the award for her work in PBS’s “Little Women.”
SEEEmmys 2018 exclusive: PBS ‘Masterpiece’ categories for ‘Little Women,...
Her Oscar nominations all came early in her career and she came up empty handed all three times (the Academy did remedy that with an honorary Oscar in 2013). Lansbury’s Emmy history has been downright infuriating for her fans since she has lost a staggering 18 times. That streak may come to an end this year if Lansbury is able to achieve the award for her work in PBS’s “Little Women.”
SEEEmmys 2018 exclusive: PBS ‘Masterpiece’ categories for ‘Little Women,...
- 5/17/2018
- by Robert Pius
- Gold Derby
Ten Things I Learned At Tcmff 2018
Yet another TCM Classic Film Festival is in the bank—the ninth out of nine I’ve been privileged to attend. For those who have a mind to, my extended coverage of the festival—not a blow-by-blow of everything I did, but a look at some of the highlights—is available at Slant magazine’s blog The House Next Door, the venue that has sponsored my Tcmff attendance for all of those nine years. As I have said many times, my classic movie education would be considerably less rich without the support of my editor at Slant, Ed Gonzalez, and I would be remiss if he ever had a moment in which the truth of this statement was not perfectly clear in his mind. And as if by way of proving my gain, every year, in addition to the Slant piece, I like to...
Yet another TCM Classic Film Festival is in the bank—the ninth out of nine I’ve been privileged to attend. For those who have a mind to, my extended coverage of the festival—not a blow-by-blow of everything I did, but a look at some of the highlights—is available at Slant magazine’s blog The House Next Door, the venue that has sponsored my Tcmff attendance for all of those nine years. As I have said many times, my classic movie education would be considerably less rich without the support of my editor at Slant, Ed Gonzalez, and I would be remiss if he ever had a moment in which the truth of this statement was not perfectly clear in his mind. And as if by way of proving my gain, every year, in addition to the Slant piece, I like to...
- 5/7/2018
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Add another animal star to the ever-expanding movie zoo. Now make room Garfield and Benjy, ’cause he’s a big fella’, part of the equine film lineage. He’s not recreating a true sports legend like Seabiscuit or Secretariat. No, he’s a descendant of the fictional horses that have had special friendships with their human riders and trainers. It’s a long line going back to Black Beauty thru National Velvet and My Friend Flicka up to Casey’S Shadow and The Black Stallion (plus there’s the sidekick spin-offs such as My Pal Trigger). From the look of this film’s poster art, movie goers might think they’re in for a new version of the sentimental stories of the friendship between a boy and his “four-footed friend”. Well, hold on to the reins, because this tale’s got a curve more surprising than the twistiest of running tracks.
- 4/19/2018
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Todd Haynes relaxes into a couch in a suite at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, having arrived at his final sit down at the end of a long press day for his new film, Wonderstruck, which tells the interlacing stories of two children across different time periods: In 1977, Ben (played by Pete's Dragon actor Oakes Fegley) goes on a quest through New York City to find the father he never knew, while in 1927, Rose (newcomer Millicent Simmonds), a young, deaf cinephile, likewise sets out into the city in search of silent movie star Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore). The movie marks the director's fourth collaboration with Moore, following 1995's Safe, 2002's Far From Heaven (which he was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay and she for Best Actress) and 2007's I'm Not There.
Considering Wonderstruck had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, followed by a run of the festival gauntlet with screenings at Telluride, BFI London and as...
Considering Wonderstruck had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, followed by a run of the festival gauntlet with screenings at Telluride, BFI London and as...
- 10/20/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Like it or not, the awards race 2018 is already underway.
Painful as it may sound, the awards marathon is at least a 12-month proposition these days. With Sundance in the rear-view mirror, the talk of potential 2018 Oscar candidates is already underway in industry circles.
Below, Screen runs through 13 films that could be heading to the dance this time next year (the Oscars will be held one week later in 2018, on March 4).
Downsizing
Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig and Christoph Waltz (all previously nominated) star in awards perennial Alexander Payne’s social satire in which a man realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself. Currently in post-production, the film is slated for a December 22 release through Paramount, which is financing. Payne’s last six films have been Oscar-nominated.
mother!
Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream director Aronofsky returns to a more intimate setting after 2014 blockbuster Noah with the story of a couple...
Painful as it may sound, the awards marathon is at least a 12-month proposition these days. With Sundance in the rear-view mirror, the talk of potential 2018 Oscar candidates is already underway in industry circles.
Below, Screen runs through 13 films that could be heading to the dance this time next year (the Oscars will be held one week later in 2018, on March 4).
Downsizing
Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig and Christoph Waltz (all previously nominated) star in awards perennial Alexander Payne’s social satire in which a man realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself. Currently in post-production, the film is slated for a December 22 release through Paramount, which is financing. Payne’s last six films have been Oscar-nominated.
mother!
Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream director Aronofsky returns to a more intimate setting after 2014 blockbuster Noah with the story of a couple...
- 2/28/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Sal Mineo & Natalie Wood at the Oscars for Rebel Without A Cause (1955) one of only two years wherein two minors were nominated. The other is 1973As Sunny Pawar (Lion) can attest this Oscar season, being a cute kid with a preternatural gift in front of the cameras can only get you so far. A little further if you're a girl but still, the point is: it's not easy to be Oscar nominated when you're a minor. Think of the famous or iconic minor performances that Didn't snag nominations: Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street, Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap, Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, Evan Rachel Wood in thirteen, Jacob Tremblay in Room and so on.
On this 18th day before the Oscars let's quickly survey all the actors who managed a nomination before their 18th birthday!
There are 21 of them...
On this 18th day before the Oscars let's quickly survey all the actors who managed a nomination before their 18th birthday!
There are 21 of them...
- 2/8/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Fox’s first official monster movie is a terrific-looking but mostly flat mystery that tries its utmost not to be a horror film at all. It’s a head scratcher that will interest fans of the expressive John Brahm, and help completists scratch another werewolf film off their gotta-see lists.
The Undying Monster
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 62 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring James Ellison, Heather Angel, John Howard, Bramwell Fletcher, Heather Thatcher, Aubrey Mather, Halliwell Hobbes, Alec Craig, Holmes Herbert, Eily Malyon, Charles McGraw.
Cinematography Lucien Ballard
<Film Editor Harry Reynolds
Original Music Emil Newman, David Raksin
Written byLillie Hayward, Michel Jacoby from a novel by Jessie Douglas Kerrruish
Produced by Bryan Foy
Directed by John Brahm
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
After the heyday of Universal horror in the first half of the 1930s, horror pictures went on the decline for over twenty years.
The Undying Monster
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 62 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring James Ellison, Heather Angel, John Howard, Bramwell Fletcher, Heather Thatcher, Aubrey Mather, Halliwell Hobbes, Alec Craig, Holmes Herbert, Eily Malyon, Charles McGraw.
Cinematography Lucien Ballard
<Film Editor Harry Reynolds
Original Music Emil Newman, David Raksin
Written byLillie Hayward, Michel Jacoby from a novel by Jessie Douglas Kerrruish
Produced by Bryan Foy
Directed by John Brahm
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
After the heyday of Universal horror in the first half of the 1930s, horror pictures went on the decline for over twenty years.
- 11/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“My leading men had been dogs and horses.”
That’s Elizabeth Taylor referring to her various co-stars up until she was cast opposite Montgomery Clift in director George Stevens’ 1951 melodrama A Place in the Sun.
Taylor, the child star of MGM films such as Lassie Come Home and National Velvet, was just 17 when Stevens asked her to play Angela Vickers, the wealthy socialite who falls in love with George Eastman (Clift), an ambitious, but poor, young man who is already engaged to pregnant factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Desperate to get rid of Alice, George resorts to extreme measures.
Although still a teenager, Taylor exudes a worldly sexuality that is unsettling for one so young, but she would mature into and harness that magnetic sex appeal, and emerge as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars.
A Place in the Sun screens as part of Cineplex’s Classic Film Series on July 10th,...
That’s Elizabeth Taylor referring to her various co-stars up until she was cast opposite Montgomery Clift in director George Stevens’ 1951 melodrama A Place in the Sun.
Taylor, the child star of MGM films such as Lassie Come Home and National Velvet, was just 17 when Stevens asked her to play Angela Vickers, the wealthy socialite who falls in love with George Eastman (Clift), an ambitious, but poor, young man who is already engaged to pregnant factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Desperate to get rid of Alice, George resorts to extreme measures.
Although still a teenager, Taylor exudes a worldly sexuality that is unsettling for one so young, but she would mature into and harness that magnetic sex appeal, and emerge as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars.
A Place in the Sun screens as part of Cineplex’s Classic Film Series on July 10th,...
- 7/7/2016
- by Cineplex Magazine
- Cineplex
March 30, 1970. Racing champion Secretariat was born.
After Citation in 1948, Secretariat became the first U.S. Triple Crown winner in 25 years and became the stuff of legend.
New York Post columnist Larry Merchant said:
“Secretariat is the kind of Big Horse that makes grown men weep, even when they are flint-hearted bettors, even when he goes off at 1-10. He is the apparently unflawed hunk of beauty and beast they search for doggedly in the racing charts every day, and never seemed to find. His supporters rhapsodize over him as though he is a four-legged Nureyev, extolling virtues of his musculature, his grace, his urine specimens.” If he were to lose the Belmont, Merchant warned, “the country may turn sullen and mutinous.”
As of 2015, only 12 horses have won the Triple Crown: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), and American Pharoah (2015).
Just as with Secretariat,...
After Citation in 1948, Secretariat became the first U.S. Triple Crown winner in 25 years and became the stuff of legend.
New York Post columnist Larry Merchant said:
“Secretariat is the kind of Big Horse that makes grown men weep, even when they are flint-hearted bettors, even when he goes off at 1-10. He is the apparently unflawed hunk of beauty and beast they search for doggedly in the racing charts every day, and never seemed to find. His supporters rhapsodize over him as though he is a four-legged Nureyev, extolling virtues of his musculature, his grace, his urine specimens.” If he were to lose the Belmont, Merchant warned, “the country may turn sullen and mutinous.”
As of 2015, only 12 horses have won the Triple Crown: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), and American Pharoah (2015).
Just as with Secretariat,...
- 3/30/2016
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The second weekend of “Jane and Charlotte Forever” offers two from Varda, a rare Rivette picture, Serge Gainsbourg’s tribute to his daughter, Zeffirelli‘s Jane Eyre, and a Bertrand Tavernier title, among others.
Museum of Modern Art
Lubitsch, Clair, and Griffith wrap up “Modern ‘Matinees’: Fashionably Late.”
“All That...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The second weekend of “Jane and Charlotte Forever” offers two from Varda, a rare Rivette picture, Serge Gainsbourg’s tribute to his daughter, Zeffirelli‘s Jane Eyre, and a Bertrand Tavernier title, among others.
Museum of Modern Art
Lubitsch, Clair, and Griffith wrap up “Modern ‘Matinees’: Fashionably Late.”
“All That...
- 2/5/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Joan Crawford in 'Mildred Pierce.' 'Mildred Pierce' review: Very entertaining soap opera Time has a way of making some films seem grander than they really are. A good example is Mildred Pierce, the 1945 black-and-white melodrama directed by Casablanca's Michael Curtiz, and that won star Joan Crawford a Best Actress Oscar. Mildred Pierce is in no way, shape, or form great art, even though it's certainly not a bad film. In fact, as a soap opera it's quite entertaining – no, make that very entertaining; and entertainment is a quality that can stand on its own. (The problem in recent decades is that cinema has become nothing but entertainment.) In the case of Mildred Pierce, the entertainment is formulaic and rather predictable – but in an enjoyable, campy sort of way. Unbridled Hollywood melodrama Now, what makes Mildred Pierce a melodrama is something known as the Dumbest Possible Action – Dpa for short.
- 12/12/2015
- by Dan Schneider
- Alt Film Guide
'Sorrell and Son' with H.B. Warner and Alice Joyce. 'Sorrell and Son' 1927 movie: Long thought lost, surprisingly effective father-love melodrama stars a superlative H.B. Warner Partially shot on location in England and produced independently by director Herbert Brenon at Joseph M. Schenck's United Artists, the 1927 Sorrell and Son is a skillful melodrama about paternal devotion in the face of both personal and social adversity. This long-thought-lost version of Warwick Deeping's 1925 bestseller benefits greatly from the veteran Brenon's assured direction, deservedly shortlisted in the first year of the Academy Awards.* Crucial to the film's effectiveness, however, is the portrayal of its central character, a war-scarred Englishman who sacrifices it all for the happiness of his son. Luckily, the London-born H.B. Warner, best remembered for playing Jesus Christ in another 1927 release, Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, is the embodiment of honesty, selflessness, and devotion. Less is...
- 10/9/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It was a winner right out of the starting gate, an instant classic that's still a pleasure for the eyes and ears. Carroll Ballard and Caleb Deschanel's marvel of a storybook movie has yet to be surpassed, with a boy-horse story that seems to be taking place in The Garden of Eden. The Black Stallion Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 765 1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date July 14, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse, Hoyt Axton, Michael Higgins, Ed McNamara, Doghmi Larbi, John Karlsen, Leopoldo Trieste, Marne Maitland, Cass-Olé. Cinematography Caleb Deschanel Film Editor Robert Dalva Supervising Sound Editor Alan Splet Original Music Carmine Coppola Written by Melissa Mathison, Jeanne Rosenberg, William D. Wittliff from the novel by Walter Farley Produced by Fred Roos, Tom Sternberg Directed by Carroll Ballard
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Francis Coppola divided audiences with his war epic Apocalypse Now, but in the same...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Francis Coppola divided audiences with his war epic Apocalypse Now, but in the same...
- 9/15/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
"When I think of 'Jaws' I think about courage and stupidity. And I think of both of those things existing underwater." That's a quote from Steven Spielberg on his time directing the 1975 horror classic, which turns 40 this Saturday. Proving that sometimes greatness can spring from unimaginable misery, the film was famously a nightmare to shoot, with numerous production problems including the frequent malfunctioning of "Bruce," the collective name given to the film's trio of animatronic sharks. But don't take my word for it. Below are ten hellish behind-the-scenes straight from the mouths of those involved that will make you wonder how they managed to finish the film at all. 1. This is what happens when you hire a stuntman with no diving experience When husband-and-wife shark experts Ron and Valerie Taylor were commissioned to get footage of actual Great Whites attacking a cage (for the famous Richard Dreyfuss underwater sequence), the...
- 6/19/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Love, Rosie producer acquires film rights to Ya novel about a 1,200 mile horse race.
Lauren St John’s novel The Glory is set to be adapted for the big screen by Canyon Creek Films.
Simon Brooks, producer of Love, Rosie and White Noise, has acquired the film rights to the novel from Rebecca Watson at Valerie Hoskins Associates on behalf of Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Associates.
Brooks, whose Canyon Creek Films has offices in London and La, will produce alongside Joan Singleton (Because of Winn Dixie), who introduced him to the project.
Brooks said: “I loved The Glory. It’s a fantastic adventure story about an epic, 1,200 mile horse race across the American West.’
The novel was published in the UK on March 5 by Orion Children’s Books and has been described as “National Velvet for modern teenagers”. Top children’s reviewer Amanda Craig said The Glory was a ‘born winner.’
Lauren St John...
Lauren St John’s novel The Glory is set to be adapted for the big screen by Canyon Creek Films.
Simon Brooks, producer of Love, Rosie and White Noise, has acquired the film rights to the novel from Rebecca Watson at Valerie Hoskins Associates on behalf of Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Associates.
Brooks, whose Canyon Creek Films has offices in London and La, will produce alongside Joan Singleton (Because of Winn Dixie), who introduced him to the project.
Brooks said: “I loved The Glory. It’s a fantastic adventure story about an epic, 1,200 mile horse race across the American West.’
The novel was published in the UK on March 5 by Orion Children’s Books and has been described as “National Velvet for modern teenagers”. Top children’s reviewer Amanda Craig said The Glory was a ‘born winner.’
Lauren St John...
- 4/1/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
It's time to raise your glass and rattle your jewelry for a birthday toast to Elizabeth Taylor, who'd have turned 83 on Feb. 27. Though memories of her begin to fade, the legacy of the woman who was perhaps the most beautiful, most popular, most everything movie star of all time remains as vivid as ever.
Younger moviegoers may wonder what all the fuss was about. Here, then, are 13 reasons why Taylor remains, decades after her prime and four years after her death, the queen of Hollywood.
1. In a way, she never left.
Even though she died in 2011, they're still showing her in commercials for her perfume, White Diamonds.
2. She's the original diva.
Long before Beyonce, the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez, and other current divas, Taylor pretty much invented the concept that a celebrity's offscreen life was just as much a performance as onscreen, and just as much part of the job description.
Younger moviegoers may wonder what all the fuss was about. Here, then, are 13 reasons why Taylor remains, decades after her prime and four years after her death, the queen of Hollywood.
1. In a way, she never left.
Even though she died in 2011, they're still showing her in commercials for her perfume, White Diamonds.
2. She's the original diva.
Long before Beyonce, the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez, and other current divas, Taylor pretty much invented the concept that a celebrity's offscreen life was just as much a performance as onscreen, and just as much part of the job description.
- 2/27/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
The American Film Institute is probably best known for those lists of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (y'know... if it's an American production in some way). Well, every year they hold their own awards, because every group of people has to have awards. They recognize the ten best films (for this year, it's eleven due to a tie) and the ten best television programs of the year. There are not winners in these categories, but each one gets celebrated. On that front, I kind of like the AFI approach to awards. Along with the awards, AFI has put together this four and a half minute montage chronicling the last 120 years of film. Now, it would be ridiculous to cover every single year. Instead, they start with 1894's Strong Man and jump every ten years, showcasing films like Rear Window, The Godfather: Part II, Pulp Fiction, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind...
- 1/12/2015
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
It seems a strange question to ask, but films that take on any sort of serious sporting theme are getting rarer and rarer. It’s not as though sports have gone out of fashion. TV audiences, sponsorships and attendances around the world are at an all-time high, but at the same time the movie industry – and its Siamese twin the games industry – seems to have fallen out of love with sports.
Now this strikes us as… well striking. If you look at the history of film, sports plots abound – Raging Bull (boxing) springs to mind as a classic, Rush and Senna (motor racing) stack up impressively, and there are others that we could point to as worthy of merit as well, but rather than list them, it is perhaps equally worth pointing out that for every decent treatment, there are hundreds of duds. Some of them so bad that they...
Now this strikes us as… well striking. If you look at the history of film, sports plots abound – Raging Bull (boxing) springs to mind as a classic, Rush and Senna (motor racing) stack up impressively, and there are others that we could point to as worthy of merit as well, but rather than list them, it is perhaps equally worth pointing out that for every decent treatment, there are hundreds of duds. Some of them so bad that they...
- 1/9/2015
- by Kyle Reese
- SoundOnSight
First Best Actor Oscar winner Emil Jannings and first Best Actress Oscar winner Janet Gaynor on TCM (photo: Emil Jannings in 'The Last Command') First Best Actor Academy Award winner Emil Jannings in The Last Command, first Best Actress Academy Award winner Janet Gaynor in Sunrise, and sisters Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge are a few of the silent era performers featured this evening on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its Silent Monday presentations. Starting at 5 p.m. Pt / 8 p.m. Et on November 17, 2014, get ready to check out several of the biggest movie stars of the 1920s. Following the Jean Negulesco-directed 1943 musical short Hit Parade of the Gay Nineties -- believe me, even the most rabid anti-gay bigot will be able to enjoy this one -- TCM will be showing Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928) one of the two movies that earned...
- 11/18/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It can be such a beautiful happening when the natural forces of humanity and the wild kingdom can get together and establish a sense of harmony in motion pictures. Also, it can be a compelling yet regrettable conflict as well when man and beast decide to collide in the interest of big screen entertainment. Whatever the case may be certainly does not matter because the concept of beasts of all species (rather it be of the four-legged or two-legged variety) collectively clashing or cooperating sends a special message about triumph, tragedy and just plain tenderness.
In Beast of Burden: Top 10 Human-Animal Combinations in the Movies we will look at some of the best selections where man and animal co-exist whether it be in calmness or chaos. There is no doubt that one can come up with numerous top ten lists detailing their ideal man-animal themes in cinema. The struggle for...
In Beast of Burden: Top 10 Human-Animal Combinations in the Movies we will look at some of the best selections where man and animal co-exist whether it be in calmness or chaos. There is no doubt that one can come up with numerous top ten lists detailing their ideal man-animal themes in cinema. The struggle for...
- 8/8/2014
- by Frank Ochieng
- SoundOnSight
Joan Lorring, 1945 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee, dead at 88: One of the earliest surviving Academy Award nominees in the acting categories, Lorring was best known for holding her own against Bette Davis in ‘The Corn Is Green’ (photo: Joan Lorring in ‘Three Strangers’) Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee Joan Lorring, who stole the 1945 film version of The Corn Is Green from none other than Warner Bros. reigning queen Bette Davis, died Friday, May 30, 2014, in the New York City suburb of Sleepy Hollow. So far, online obits haven’t mentioned the cause of death. Lorring, one of the earliest surviving Oscar nominees in the acting categories, was 88. Directed by Irving Rapper, who had also handled one of Bette Davis’ biggest hits, the 1942 sudsy soap opera Now, Voyager, Warners’ The Corn Is Green was a decent if uninspired film version of Emlyn Williams’ semi-autobiographical 1938 hit play about an English schoolteacher,...
- 6/1/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“Some day you’ll learn that greatness is only the seizing of opportunity – clutching with your bare hands ’til the knuckles show white!”
MGM, America’s starriest studio during the Second World War, managed to reach perfection in its writing, music, attitude, and above all the acting performances of its young stars in 1944’s National Velvet. 12-year old Elizabeth Taylor (as Velvet), Jackie Jenkins (as little brother Donald, with his insect necklace), willowy 19-year old Angela Lansbury (as boy-mad older sister Edwina), and 24-year old Mickey Rooney (as Mi Taylor, the jockey with a past, bubbling with resentment of the world), are all outstanding.
The story is a simple and far-fetched one: Velvet Brown dreams of horses, owning them, training them, winning them. Naturally when the chance comes to win a problem horse in a raffle she has to go for it; from here on in, she’s set on...
MGM, America’s starriest studio during the Second World War, managed to reach perfection in its writing, music, attitude, and above all the acting performances of its young stars in 1944’s National Velvet. 12-year old Elizabeth Taylor (as Velvet), Jackie Jenkins (as little brother Donald, with his insect necklace), willowy 19-year old Angela Lansbury (as boy-mad older sister Edwina), and 24-year old Mickey Rooney (as Mi Taylor, the jockey with a past, bubbling with resentment of the world), are all outstanding.
The story is a simple and far-fetched one: Velvet Brown dreams of horses, owning them, training them, winning them. Naturally when the chance comes to win a problem horse in a raffle she has to go for it; from here on in, she’s set on...
- 5/6/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A quarter-century ago, Kevin Costner hit a double-play, following up "Bull Durham" with "Field of Dreams" and becoming king of the sports movie. Twenty-five years later, as "Field of Dreams" marks its 25th anniversary (it was released on April 21, 1989), Costner is back with "Draft Day." The movie's about football, not baseball, and Costner's character plays in the executive suite, not on the field, but his mere presence still offers a reminder of great sports movies past.
And after all, isn't nostalgia a key element of sports movies? "Field of Dreams" makes this explicit -- we long for the sports heroes of our childhood, for a supposed long-gone golden age of our preferred sport, as a way of connecting with our past and bridging the generational divide that separates us as adults from our parents. Sports movies offer more than just the drama of winners and losers, or the journey from dream to achievement,...
And after all, isn't nostalgia a key element of sports movies? "Field of Dreams" makes this explicit -- we long for the sports heroes of our childhood, for a supposed long-gone golden age of our preferred sport, as a way of connecting with our past and bridging the generational divide that separates us as adults from our parents. Sports movies offer more than just the drama of winners and losers, or the journey from dream to achievement,...
- 4/20/2014
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will remember Mickey Rooney this Sunday, April 13, with a 24-hour marathon of his classic films beginning at 6am Et. Rooney passed away April 6 at the age of 93. According to TCM, the memorial tribute to Mickey Rooney will include some of his most iconic performances, including Boys Town (1938) and its sequel Men of Boys Town (1941); the first two films in the Andy Hardy series, A Family Affair (1937) and You’re Only Young Once (1938); Babes on Broadway (1941), one of Rooney’s many pairings with Judy Garland; Captains Courageous (1937); and National Velvet … Continue reading →
The post TCM remembers Mickey Rooney with 24-hour film marathon appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.
The post TCM remembers Mickey Rooney with 24-hour film marathon appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.
- 4/11/2014
- by Jeff Pfeiffer
- ChannelGuideMag
Updated, 3:45 Pm:Turner Classic Movies is expanding its salute to the legendary actor, who died Sunday at 93. The cable channel has announced a “multi-tiered” tribute to Mickey Rooney that includes adding an April 13 screening of his National Velvet — the 1944 hit that made Elizabeth Taylor a star — at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. The 9 Am screening at the Tcl Chinese Multiplex will be followed by a conversation with Rooney’s longtime friend Margaret O’Brien, an Oscar winner for Meet Me In St. Louis. The TCM festival starts tonight and runs through Sunday. Watch TCM’s brief montage of Rooney’s movies below. Related: A Mickey Rooney Appreciation From Pete Hammond Previously: Turner Classic Movies will honor Mickey Rooney with a 13-film marathon on Sunday, April 13. Rooney died Sunday at age 93 with more than 300 credits to his name and two honorary Oscars, becoming a household name with the dozen...
- 4/10/2014
- by LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
- Deadline TV
For the fifth consecutive year, thousands of movie lovers (and Geeks) from around the globe will descend upon Hollywood for the TCM Classic Film Festival beginning this Thursday, April 10 and running through Sunday, April 13.
Coinciding with TCM’s 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film, attendees will be treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events and more.
TCM recently announced the tribute to Mickey Rooney, who passed away last weekend, will be Sunday, April 13 at 9am with a screening of National Velvet at the Tcl Chinese Multiplex 4. Eddie Muller will speak with Margaret O’Brien and read a poem written by Mickey Rooney, titled “Flesh and Bones” to close the tribute.
Fans of Rooney can watch a full day of his films this Sunday on TCM beginning at 6Am with Broadway To Hollywood. The...
Coinciding with TCM’s 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film, attendees will be treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events and more.
TCM recently announced the tribute to Mickey Rooney, who passed away last weekend, will be Sunday, April 13 at 9am with a screening of National Velvet at the Tcl Chinese Multiplex 4. Eddie Muller will speak with Margaret O’Brien and read a poem written by Mickey Rooney, titled “Flesh and Bones” to close the tribute.
Fans of Rooney can watch a full day of his films this Sunday on TCM beginning at 6Am with Broadway To Hollywood. The...
- 4/10/2014
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Mickey Rooney was earliest surviving Best Actor Oscar nominee (photo: Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in ‘Boys Town’) (See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Dead at 93: MGM’s Andy Hardy Series’ Hero and Judy Garland Frequent Co-Star Had Longest Film Career Ever?”) Mickey Rooney was the earliest surviving Best Actor Academy Award nominee — Babes in Arms, 1939; The Human Comedy, 1943 — and the last surviving male acting Oscar nominee of the 1930s. Rooney lost the Best Actor Oscar to two considerably more “prestigious” — albeit less popular — stars: Robert Donat for Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Paul Lukas for Herman Shumlin’s Watch on the Rhine (1943). Following Mickey Rooney’s death, there are only two acting Academy Award nominees from the ’30s still alive: two-time Best Actress winner Luise Rainer, 104 (for Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth, 1937), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Olivia de Havilland,...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney rivaled his National Velvet costar Elizabeth Taylor for number of marriages: He was married eight times throughout his career. As he deadpanned to People in 1993: "Weddings? I've been to a lot of them." Meet the women who helped Mickey Rooney find love, however - in some cases - briefly. Ava GardnerRooney was instantly smitten with Gardner and pursued her doggedly, according to his autobiography, Life is Too Short. But Rooney's compulsive habits - among them working, gambling, and philandering - caused the marriage to implode after a little over a year. Betty Jane BakerRooney once described Baker...
- 4/7/2014
- by Alex Heigl
- PEOPLE.com
People who only know Mickey Rooney from recent public appearances understandably sized him up as a bombastic, living relic of Hollywood’s past. Colleagues and critics were often guilty of taking him for granted. But MGM director Clarence Brown, who worked with the best and the brightest, and made such classics as National Velvet, once told Scott Eyman, “Mickey Rooney is the closest thing to a genius that I ever worked with. There was Chaplin, then there was Rooney. The little bastard could do no wrong in my book. I don’t know how he did it because he never really paid any attention. Between takes he’d be off somewhere calling his bookmaker, then come back and go into a scene as if...
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- 4/7/2014
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Award-winning actor Mickey Rooney died at the age of 93 on Sunday, April 6, prompting an outpouring of grief and remembrances from celebrities. Stars including Mia Farrow and Lena Dunham took to Twitter to remember the late Hollywood great, celebrating his prolific career and commemorating his full life. Rooney, whose film career spanned more than 85 years, is best known for his roles in Breakfast at Tiffany's, National Velvet, and The Black Stallion. He received his first acting credit for the 1926 short silent film, Not to [...]...
- 4/7/2014
- Us Weekly
My only real recollection of Mickey Rooney is him as the highly offensive neighbor Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Today, following the actor's death on Sunday at the age of 93, many are remembering roles of his from the '50s, '60s and even earlier. Rooney was the recipient of two Honorary Oscars in 1939 and again in 1983 and starred in films including The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Black Stallion (1979) and National Velvet (1944) and it wasn't as if he hadn't been working recently, though the roles weren't starring roles. He had a small role in 2011's The Muppets, played one of the security guards opposite Bill Cobbs in Night at the Museum and, according to IMDb, he was at work on a couple films up to his passing. There's no immediate information on the cause of death, but it seems as if Rooney died of natural causes.
- 4/7/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Mickey Rooney, the Hollywood actor who spent his entire life in showbusiness, has died aged 93.
Born Joseph Yule Jr in Brooklyn, his parents included him in their vaudeville act when he was just 18 months old.
After his mother moved him to California, his first film role as Mickey McGuire came when he was six, in Orchids and Ermine, and he starred in a string of ‘Mickey’ movies that stretched into the 1930s.
In 1937, he took the part of Andy Hardy in A Family Affair under his new name, Mickey Rooney, and the box office hit led to another series of films that lasted eight years and famously paired him with Judy Garland.
Alongside serving in the Second World War, Rooney starred in international hit National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944.
The actor had starred in 200 films by 1965, which had earned more than $3bn ($1.8bn) worldwide. But he was also declared bankrupt, with much of...
Born Joseph Yule Jr in Brooklyn, his parents included him in their vaudeville act when he was just 18 months old.
After his mother moved him to California, his first film role as Mickey McGuire came when he was six, in Orchids and Ermine, and he starred in a string of ‘Mickey’ movies that stretched into the 1930s.
In 1937, he took the part of Andy Hardy in A Family Affair under his new name, Mickey Rooney, and the box office hit led to another series of films that lasted eight years and famously paired him with Judy Garland.
Alongside serving in the Second World War, Rooney starred in international hit National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944.
The actor had starred in 200 films by 1965, which had earned more than $3bn ($1.8bn) worldwide. But he was also declared bankrupt, with much of...
- 4/7/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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