Roger Corman was a legend of filmmaking, and his contributions to the medium are unparalleled. He was known for low budgets and short shoots that made him an easy-to-work-with director, and for making B-movies that hit big with audiences. Most importantly, Corman mentored many of our greatest filmmakers, spreading his influence far and wide as those mentees broke big and started influencing others themselves. Take Martin Scorsese, one of the best living directors, who continues to be greatly influenced by Corman's work. But Corman's influence is also felt in more lowbrow cinema, like the work of Joe Dante and James Cameron.
Indeed, Corman's influence is still very much felt today, like in the way "The Fast and Furious" got its name. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, producer Neal Moritz explained that the 2001 franchise starter was initially going to be titled "Race Wars," or maybe "Racer X," or "Street Wars." Then, everything...
Indeed, Corman's influence is still very much felt today, like in the way "The Fast and Furious" got its name. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, producer Neal Moritz explained that the 2001 franchise starter was initially going to be titled "Race Wars," or maybe "Racer X," or "Street Wars." Then, everything...
- 5/20/2024
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
Clark Gable is the Oscar-winning matinee idol who starred in dozens of films before his untimely death in 1960, but how many of those titles are classics? Let’s take a look back at 12 of Gable’s greatest movies, ranked worst to best.
After appearing in bit parts in a number of films, Gable shot to stardom with his performance in “A Free Soul” (1931) as a gangster who bewitches a young woman (Norma Shearer) whose attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) helped him beat a murder rap. From there forward, the actor’s persona as a raffish leading man who’s every guy’s best friend and every gal’s dream became cemented in a number of subsequent roles.
He won an Oscar just three years later for Frank Capra‘s screwball classic “It Happened One Night” (1934), in which he played a newspaper reporter traveling with a spoiled socialite (Claudette Colbert). The film...
After appearing in bit parts in a number of films, Gable shot to stardom with his performance in “A Free Soul” (1931) as a gangster who bewitches a young woman (Norma Shearer) whose attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) helped him beat a murder rap. From there forward, the actor’s persona as a raffish leading man who’s every guy’s best friend and every gal’s dream became cemented in a number of subsequent roles.
He won an Oscar just three years later for Frank Capra‘s screwball classic “It Happened One Night” (1934), in which he played a newspaper reporter traveling with a spoiled socialite (Claudette Colbert). The film...
- 1/26/2024
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
In the history of Rod Serling's original run of "The Twilight Zone," the season 2 episode "The Silence" sticks out like a sore thumb. The episode in no way falls under the categories of science fiction or fantasy, instead opting to tell a disturbingly human story about an extreme bet between two men. Wealthy Archie (Franchot Tone) bets fellow men's club member — and known chatterbox — Jamie (Liam Sullivan) that he can't spend a year in silence.
The episode unfolds in an odd and surprising but never unbelievable fashion. Jamie accepts the bet, hoping to win $500,000 (about 5 million dollars today). In an attempt to surveil his colleague and prevent cheating, Archie erects a public glass room in which Jamie will be trapped for the year. Archie also spends much of his time taunting Jamie with lies about his wife, but Jamie doesn't fall for the low blow. At year's end, Archie...
The episode unfolds in an odd and surprising but never unbelievable fashion. Jamie accepts the bet, hoping to win $500,000 (about 5 million dollars today). In an attempt to surveil his colleague and prevent cheating, Archie erects a public glass room in which Jamie will be trapped for the year. Archie also spends much of his time taunting Jamie with lies about his wife, but Jamie doesn't fall for the low blow. At year's end, Archie...
- 12/30/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
(Welcome to Did They Get It Right?, a series where we look at an Oscars category from yesteryear and examine whether the Academy's winner stands the test of time.)
We are in somewhat of a transitional period with how we think about the acting categories for entertainment awards. This, primarily, has to do with gender. We have had separate categories for female and male performers for decades upon decades, but if you really stop to think about it, there is no difference in what a female actor does compared to a male one. Why shouldn't Colin Farrell in "The Banshees of Inisherin" compete against Cate Blanchett in "TÁR"? Of course, the worry is that in our patriarchal society, men will come to dominate that category and fewer women will be nominated and win. Then you have the added issue of non-binary performers being forced to slot themselves in a particular...
We are in somewhat of a transitional period with how we think about the acting categories for entertainment awards. This, primarily, has to do with gender. We have had separate categories for female and male performers for decades upon decades, but if you really stop to think about it, there is no difference in what a female actor does compared to a male one. Why shouldn't Colin Farrell in "The Banshees of Inisherin" compete against Cate Blanchett in "TÁR"? Of course, the worry is that in our patriarchal society, men will come to dominate that category and fewer women will be nominated and win. Then you have the added issue of non-binary performers being forced to slot themselves in a particular...
- 8/6/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
It's been 22 years since Rob Cohen directed a shameless knockoff of Kathryn Bigelow's "Point Break," starring Paul Walker instead of Keanu Reeves, Vin Diesel instead of Patrick Swayze, and street racing instead of surfing and sky diving. And while at the time, the success of the film "The Fast and the Furious" seemed only vaguely remarkable, over the course of the last two decades it has ballooned into a multi-billion dollar franchise, full of epic car stunts, ludicrous storylines, and endless ruminations about the meaning of "family."
Yes, "Fast and Furious" has become a household name, perhaps permanently associated with the blockbuster vehicular nonsense films of Vin Diesel and company. But it was not always this way. The common expression "fast and furious" has been used many times in Hollywood, for films about race car driving, funny murder mysteries, beloved Looney Tunes adventures, and low-budget crime thrillers.
Some of...
Yes, "Fast and Furious" has become a household name, perhaps permanently associated with the blockbuster vehicular nonsense films of Vin Diesel and company. But it was not always this way. The common expression "fast and furious" has been used many times in Hollywood, for films about race car driving, funny murder mysteries, beloved Looney Tunes adventures, and low-budget crime thrillers.
Some of...
- 5/16/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Few names in Hollywood's illustrious history get people talking quite like Joan Crawford. The legendary actress began her career in silent films before transitioning to sound, and worked for decades, appearing in more than 80 films and television shows. However, the images conjured up of Crawford these days are rarely of her -- instead, they're of Faye Dunaway, who played a diabolical and utterly maniacal version of the actress in "Mommie Dearest," That 1981 film -- based on a shocking book from Crawford's daughter Christina -- changed Crawford's reputation forever and all-too-often erases her stature as one of cinemas greatest stars.
That is nothing short of a tragedy. Few actors could match Crawford's talent, determination, and tenacity. Indeed, even after she retired and then passed away in 1977, very few have matched her prodigious abilities. It can be difficult to look past her domineering facade (especially in a post-"Mommie Dearest" world), but...
That is nothing short of a tragedy. Few actors could match Crawford's talent, determination, and tenacity. Indeed, even after she retired and then passed away in 1977, very few have matched her prodigious abilities. It can be difficult to look past her domineering facade (especially in a post-"Mommie Dearest" world), but...
- 4/2/2023
- by Barry Levitt
- Slash Film
Sometimes, the antagonism you see between two characters in a movie isn't acting. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" is one of the most infamous examples thereof; their feud has inspired books, podcasts, and even a mini-series.
In the film (directed by Robert Aldrich), they play the Hudson sisters, Jane (Davis) and Blanche (Crawford). The limelight has moved past them both; Jane was a child star whose talents didn't last to adulthood while Blanche had a film career before being paralyzed in a car crash. Jane has to dote on the incapacitated Blanche, only furthering the resentment. There's a clear meta-textual undercurrent; Davis and Crawford were not considered "bankable" as women in their fifties, and there's no industry as hostile to middle-aged women as Hollywood.
Davis/Crawford's infighting began before the film even started production. According to Davis, Crawford initially suggested she play Jane and Davis play Blanche,...
In the film (directed by Robert Aldrich), they play the Hudson sisters, Jane (Davis) and Blanche (Crawford). The limelight has moved past them both; Jane was a child star whose talents didn't last to adulthood while Blanche had a film career before being paralyzed in a car crash. Jane has to dote on the incapacitated Blanche, only furthering the resentment. There's a clear meta-textual undercurrent; Davis and Crawford were not considered "bankable" as women in their fifties, and there's no industry as hostile to middle-aged women as Hollywood.
Davis/Crawford's infighting began before the film even started production. According to Davis, Crawford initially suggested she play Jane and Davis play Blanche,...
- 3/10/2023
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Cary Grant was a one-of-a-kind movie star. Sure, there have been others who have reached his level of fame, acclaim, and stature, but in terms of what made Grant a movie star, there has been no one like him before or since. His ability to seamlessly shift between a Hitchcock noir like "Notorious" to a total goofball comedy like "Monkey Business" remains unparalleled. Add to that his dashing good lucks, tall, athletic frame, and signature mid-Atlantic accent, and you have one of the greatest Hollywood icons of all time, if not the greatest.
For someone with such a distinctly defined movie star persona, his malleability as a performer was rather unusual. In the classic Hollywood era, the major studios were the ones molding stars. They had performers under long-term contracts, allowing them to basically plug in anyone they wished into certain projects. Actors would be paid like regular salaried employees...
For someone with such a distinctly defined movie star persona, his malleability as a performer was rather unusual. In the classic Hollywood era, the major studios were the ones molding stars. They had performers under long-term contracts, allowing them to basically plug in anyone they wished into certain projects. Actors would be paid like regular salaried employees...
- 3/4/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
Many have tried to define Bette Davis, but few have succeeded. Nobody stormed into Hollywood and changed it forever as she did. She took great delight in playing tough, complicated women, the kind of women who loved men, like most female characters in early Hollywood. And although these were women who loved men, they didn't need them to survive. Davis was exceptionally confident and was never afraid to speak the truth. Whether it was a bad script or a director she didn't like, Bette Davis made sure they knew they weren't up to her talents.
Davis brought incredible honesty to her roles, making the characters she played seem like real human beings. That's all the more impressive, considering that many female parts at the time were two-dimensional. She earned an incredible 11 Oscar nominations throughout her career, though somehow, she only won two.
While there will always be talk about the...
Davis brought incredible honesty to her roles, making the characters she played seem like real human beings. That's all the more impressive, considering that many female parts at the time were two-dimensional. She earned an incredible 11 Oscar nominations throughout her career, though somehow, she only won two.
While there will always be talk about the...
- 2/19/2023
- by Barry Levitt
- Slash Film
In 1936, “Mutiny on the Bounty” made history as the first and only film to earn three Oscar nominations for lead acting. The supporting categories were established in response one year later. Since then, 119 more movies have amassed three or more acting bids each. While this triple play has been accomplished a few times with no lead nominations, at least one supporting bid has always proven necessary. “The Power of the Dog,” which is set to become the next film on this list, adheres to this rule.
Our Oscar prediction odds currently have “The Power of the Dog” reaping a total of nine nominations, and we further predict that it will win Best Picture, Best Director (Jane Campion), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The film’s leading man, Benedict Cumberbatch, and featured actress Kirsten Dunst are both running second in their respective races behind Will Smith (“King...
Our Oscar prediction odds currently have “The Power of the Dog” reaping a total of nine nominations, and we further predict that it will win Best Picture, Best Director (Jane Campion), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The film’s leading man, Benedict Cumberbatch, and featured actress Kirsten Dunst are both running second in their respective races behind Will Smith (“King...
- 2/4/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Hollywood’s last big all-star war epic in Black & White? Otto Preminger took a happy film company to Hawaii for this enormous saga about the Naval push in the Pacific Theater of WW2, with none other than John Wayne as the competent commander leading the charge. Soap-opera scenes aside, it’s a thrilling epic directed with Preminger’s well-known reserve. The star-gazing isn’t bad either — Kirk Douglas! Patricia Neal! Henry Fonda! Paula Prentiss! The finish is a huge naval battle with impressive live-action special effects, and given a moody music score by Jerry Goldsmith.
In Harm’s Way
Blu-ray
Paramount Viacom CBS
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 167 min. / Street Date June 29, 2021 / Available from Paramount Movies / 13.99
Starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carroll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Barbara Bouchet.
Cinematography:...
In Harm’s Way
Blu-ray
Paramount Viacom CBS
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 167 min. / Street Date June 29, 2021 / Available from Paramount Movies / 13.99
Starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carroll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Barbara Bouchet.
Cinematography:...
- 7/10/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
James Cagney and George Raft in Each Dawn I Die (1939) will be available on Blu-ray April 27th from Warner Archive
Framed for manslaughter after he breaks a story about city corruption, reporter Frank Ross is sure he’ll prove his innocence and walk out of prison a free man. But that’s not how the system works at Rocky Point Penitentiary. There, cellblock guards are vicious, the jute-mill labor is endless, and the powers Ross fought on the outside conspire to keep him in. Frank’s hope is turned to hopelessness. And he’s starting to crack. Two of the screen’s famed tough guys star in this prison movie that casts a reform-minded eye on the brutalizing effects of life in the slammer. James Cagney “hits a white-hot peak as [Ross,] the embittered, stir-crazy fall guy” (Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide). And George Raft (Cagney’s friend since their vaudeville days) portrays racketeer Hood Stacey,...
Framed for manslaughter after he breaks a story about city corruption, reporter Frank Ross is sure he’ll prove his innocence and walk out of prison a free man. But that’s not how the system works at Rocky Point Penitentiary. There, cellblock guards are vicious, the jute-mill labor is endless, and the powers Ross fought on the outside conspire to keep him in. Frank’s hope is turned to hopelessness. And he’s starting to crack. Two of the screen’s famed tough guys star in this prison movie that casts a reform-minded eye on the brutalizing effects of life in the slammer. James Cagney “hits a white-hot peak as [Ross,] the embittered, stir-crazy fall guy” (Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide). And George Raft (Cagney’s friend since their vaudeville days) portrays racketeer Hood Stacey,...
- 4/12/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Review: Billy Wilder's "Five Graves To Cairo" (1943) Starring Franchot Tone; Blu-ray Special Edition
By Raymond Benson
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“Billy Wilder Goes To War”
By Raymond Benson
In 1943, Hollywood churned out dozens of war films in support of the U.S. involvement in the global conflict raging at the time. Many were cheaply made rush jobs, others were good “B” pictures, and a select group were “A” level, excellent pieces of celluloid that are now classics. All were essentially propaganda pictures made to lift the spirits of the American people and the troops who were able to see them. Rah Rah, Let’s Go Get ‘Em!
Billy Wilder, an Austrian Jew who had fled Germany as the Nazis gained power, settled in Hollywood in 1933 after a brief stint in France. He immediately found work as a talented screenwriter, ultimately earning his first Oscar nomination for co-writing Ninotchka (1939). As war heated up in the 1940s, Wilder then became, after the likes of Preston Sturges,...
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Billy Wilder Goes To War”
By Raymond Benson
In 1943, Hollywood churned out dozens of war films in support of the U.S. involvement in the global conflict raging at the time. Many were cheaply made rush jobs, others were good “B” pictures, and a select group were “A” level, excellent pieces of celluloid that are now classics. All were essentially propaganda pictures made to lift the spirits of the American people and the troops who were able to see them. Rah Rah, Let’s Go Get ‘Em!
Billy Wilder, an Austrian Jew who had fled Germany as the Nazis gained power, settled in Hollywood in 1933 after a brief stint in France. He immediately found work as a talented screenwriter, ultimately earning his first Oscar nomination for co-writing Ninotchka (1939). As war heated up in the 1940s, Wilder then became, after the likes of Preston Sturges,...
- 10/17/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It’s smart, it’s funny, it has a touch of romance… it’s Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett’s entertaining espionage thriller set between the battle lines of the North Africa campaign. Franchot Tone must impersonate a double agent, when the command staff of General Rommel (Erich von Stroheim!) takes over a half-bombed hotel run by the forlorn Akim Tamiroff. Anne Baxter is the French maid desperate to make a deal, with whichever side will help her get what she wants. Even the title of this winner has a clever special meaning.
Five Graves to Cairo
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date September 29, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Erich von Stroheim, Peter van Eyck, Fortunio Bonanova.
Cinematography: John F. Seitz
Film Editor: Doane Harrison
Original Music: Miklos Rozsa
Written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett from a play by Lajos Biró...
Five Graves to Cairo
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date September 29, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Erich von Stroheim, Peter van Eyck, Fortunio Bonanova.
Cinematography: John F. Seitz
Film Editor: Doane Harrison
Original Music: Miklos Rozsa
Written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett from a play by Lajos Biró...
- 9/15/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Lewis John Carlino, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director, and playwright known for writing and directing “The Great Santini,” died on June 17 on Whidbey Island in Washington state, his family has announced. He was 88.
Carlino received an Oscar nomination with Gavin Lambert for best adapted screenplay for the 1978 drama “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” based on the novel by Joanne Greenberg. In 1979, he wrote and directed the screenplay for “The Great Santini,” from the novel by Pat Conroy. The film earned Academy Award nominations for Robert Duvall for his portrayal of a Marine pilot and for Michael O’Keefe as the son of Duvall’s character.
His screenwriting credits include John Frankenheimer’s “Seconds,” “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea,” which he also directed and co-produced; “The Brotherhood,” starring Kirk Douglas; “The Mechanic,” starring Charles Bronson; and “Resurrection,” starring Ellen Burstyn. During production of “The Brotherhood,” he met Jilly Chadwick,...
Carlino received an Oscar nomination with Gavin Lambert for best adapted screenplay for the 1978 drama “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” based on the novel by Joanne Greenberg. In 1979, he wrote and directed the screenplay for “The Great Santini,” from the novel by Pat Conroy. The film earned Academy Award nominations for Robert Duvall for his portrayal of a Marine pilot and for Michael O’Keefe as the son of Duvall’s character.
His screenwriting credits include John Frankenheimer’s “Seconds,” “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea,” which he also directed and co-produced; “The Brotherhood,” starring Kirk Douglas; “The Mechanic,” starring Charles Bronson; and “Resurrection,” starring Ellen Burstyn. During production of “The Brotherhood,” he met Jilly Chadwick,...
- 6/24/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
“We Have Ways Of Making Men Talk”
By Raymond Benson
Despite its grammatically incorrect title, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is considered one of the great old-school Hollywood epic adventure movies, and it remains so to this day. It was released very early in 1935 after a long gestation period and became one of the most popular pictures of the decade. It was nominated for the Oscar Best Picture, Best Director (Henry Hathaway), Best Adapted Screenplay, and four other awards, but it won only one—Best Assistant Director? (Obviously a now defunct category.)
What are Bengal Lancers, you ask? They were British soldiers serving in India in those days of the British Raj between the two world wars. Apparently, one didn’t have to be British to serve. The protagonist, Lieutenant Alan McGregor (Gary Cooper), is Scottish-Canadian. Lieutenant John Forsythe (Franchot Tone) seems to be American, but maybe the actor...
By Raymond Benson
Despite its grammatically incorrect title, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is considered one of the great old-school Hollywood epic adventure movies, and it remains so to this day. It was released very early in 1935 after a long gestation period and became one of the most popular pictures of the decade. It was nominated for the Oscar Best Picture, Best Director (Henry Hathaway), Best Adapted Screenplay, and four other awards, but it won only one—Best Assistant Director? (Obviously a now defunct category.)
What are Bengal Lancers, you ask? They were British soldiers serving in India in those days of the British Raj between the two world wars. Apparently, one didn’t have to be British to serve. The protagonist, Lieutenant Alan McGregor (Gary Cooper), is Scottish-Canadian. Lieutenant John Forsythe (Franchot Tone) seems to be American, but maybe the actor...
- 5/6/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Exclusive: It’s official. Ford v Ferrari’s co-stars Christian Bale and Matt Damon have decided to buck the dismal odds of actors going against each other in the same category and will be campaigned by 20th Century Fox and Disney in the Lead Actor category at the Academy Awards and other contests including Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, SAG and BAFTA.
Ever since the well-received film premiered in Telluride I have been asking the consultants on the film if the two stars — both leads in my opinion — would be competing in the same category for awards consideration. But I always got the response that no decision had been made regarding importing one of them into Supporting Actor so they would not have to face each other — a common practice now despite billing or the size of the role. Some pundits speculated that they could be split as Bale, who plays tempestuous test driver Ken Miles,...
Ever since the well-received film premiered in Telluride I have been asking the consultants on the film if the two stars — both leads in my opinion — would be competing in the same category for awards consideration. But I always got the response that no decision had been made regarding importing one of them into Supporting Actor so they would not have to face each other — a common practice now despite billing or the size of the role. Some pundits speculated that they could be split as Bale, who plays tempestuous test driver Ken Miles,...
- 10/21/2019
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Billy Wilder became an indelible fixture of American cinema with his iconic noir masterpiece, 1944’s Double Indemnity, going on to direct some of the studio era’s finest crafted films. A trio of films just prior to that seem to have been obscured or forgotten, such as the WWII Franchot Tone headlined thriller Fives Graves to Cairo (1943), which was Oscar nominated for Art Direction and Cinematography, and his 1934 French language comedy Bad Seed, a debut which featured Danielle Darrieux. But it’s his 1942 sophomore film and English language debut The Major and the Minor which seems like the sterling Wilder comedy we’ve all been missing out on, which provides a template for the identity crisis semantics which would later be utilized to subversive maxims in 1959’s Some Like It Hot.…...
- 10/1/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
To both lead or to have only one lead, that is the big Oscar question for one pair of male co-stars, still firmly perched at the top of their games, as Gold Derby launches its Academy Award prediction site today. The ultimate answer is below — but first some background.
Once upon a time in Hollywood, male co-leads in a film were allowed to go mano-to-mano and duke it out in the same Oscar category. The first instance of this situation was when cast mates Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone went up against each other in 1935’s “Mutiny on the Bounty.” In that case, there was no other choice since supporting acting categories weren’t added to the ballot until 1937. Alas, all three stars were bested by Victor McLaglen in “The Informer.”
SEEPaul Revere and the Raiders singer Mark Lindsay think ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is a good thing
Since then,...
Once upon a time in Hollywood, male co-leads in a film were allowed to go mano-to-mano and duke it out in the same Oscar category. The first instance of this situation was when cast mates Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone went up against each other in 1935’s “Mutiny on the Bounty.” In that case, there was no other choice since supporting acting categories weren’t added to the ballot until 1937. Alas, all three stars were bested by Victor McLaglen in “The Informer.”
SEEPaul Revere and the Raiders singer Mark Lindsay think ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is a good thing
Since then,...
- 8/7/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Quentin Tarantino‘s highly anticipated “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, debuted to raves at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, which is not really that shocking. What might have been less expected, though, were all the notices — stellar ones, to be clear — for Pitt as a lead. So now the question is: Could this film try to and actually get two Best Actor Oscar nominations, ending a 35-year dry spell?
All this time we’ve been operating on the assumption that DiCaprio was the “obvious” lead of the film, which covers three days in Los Angeles in 1969, the last of which is the night of the Manson Family murders. DiCaprio, who is first-billed, plays Rick Dalton — excuse us, Rick F—in’ Dalton — a TV star struggling to break into films in a changing Hollywood, while Pitt plays his stunt double and Bff Cliff Booth.
All this time we’ve been operating on the assumption that DiCaprio was the “obvious” lead of the film, which covers three days in Los Angeles in 1969, the last of which is the night of the Manson Family murders. DiCaprio, who is first-billed, plays Rick Dalton — excuse us, Rick F—in’ Dalton — a TV star struggling to break into films in a changing Hollywood, while Pitt plays his stunt double and Bff Cliff Booth.
- 5/23/2019
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
by Nathaniel R
Walter Huston a fascist American president in "Gabriel Over the White House"
Those of us who live in big cities with dozens of theaters and access to films from around the world sometimes forget the need for communities of dedicated cinephiles elsewhere. Likeminded cinephiles are easy to find online and share obscure movie-watching with but Irl outside the biggest cities you often need a regional film festival to find them. Community, and not just of cinephiles, is what film festivals thrive on. The best regional festivals find ways to incorporate local groups and artists of multiple kinds. Slo Fest does that with local filmmakers of course and also local musicians like the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra. But sometimes local groups sponsor specific festival selections.
For instance we were completely puzzled at the inclusion of a 1933 movie we'd never heard of in a festival that mostly centers around new films,...
Walter Huston a fascist American president in "Gabriel Over the White House"
Those of us who live in big cities with dozens of theaters and access to films from around the world sometimes forget the need for communities of dedicated cinephiles elsewhere. Likeminded cinephiles are easy to find online and share obscure movie-watching with but Irl outside the biggest cities you often need a regional film festival to find them. Community, and not just of cinephiles, is what film festivals thrive on. The best regional festivals find ways to incorporate local groups and artists of multiple kinds. Slo Fest does that with local filmmakers of course and also local musicians like the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra. But sometimes local groups sponsor specific festival selections.
For instance we were completely puzzled at the inclusion of a 1933 movie we'd never heard of in a festival that mostly centers around new films,...
- 3/15/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Robert Siodmak’s first film noir is a visually expressive masterpiece in the lush romantic tradition that imposes a dreamlike mood on a nightmarish story. Ella Raines goes to extreme lengths to break the conspiracy that’s sending her boss to Death Row, aided by the Kafka-like indifference of modern Manhattanites. Franchot Tone is the man with the weird hands, but Woody Bredell’s chiaroscuro cinematography is what puts this proto-feminist tale in the top tier.
Phantom Lady
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 87 min. / Street Date March 5, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda, Thomas Gomez, Fay Helm, Elisha Cook Jr., Andrew Tombes, Regis Toomey, Joseph Crehan, Doris Lloyd, Virginia Brissac, Milburn Stone.
Cinematography: Woody Bredell
Film Editor: Arthur Hilton
Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld, based on the novel by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich)
Produced by Joan Harrison
Directed by Robert Siodmak
1944’s...
Phantom Lady
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 87 min. / Street Date March 5, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda, Thomas Gomez, Fay Helm, Elisha Cook Jr., Andrew Tombes, Regis Toomey, Joseph Crehan, Doris Lloyd, Virginia Brissac, Milburn Stone.
Cinematography: Woody Bredell
Film Editor: Arthur Hilton
Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld, based on the novel by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich)
Produced by Joan Harrison
Directed by Robert Siodmak
1944’s...
- 3/5/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Great news for fans of vintage Film Noir! Robert Siodmak’s Phantom Lady (1944) will be available on Blu-ray March 12th From Arrow Academy.
From one of the masters of the film noir, Robert Siodmak, comes the consummate crime classic, Phantom Lady.
After a fight with his wife, Scott Henderson heads to a bar to drown his sorrows. There he strikes up a conversation with a mysterious, despondent lady who agrees to accompany him to a show uptown but withholds her name. Arriving home, Scott is met by grimly countenanced cops – his wife has been strangled with one of his neckties and he is the prime suspect. He has a solid alibi but his theatre companion is nowhere to be found and no one remembers seeing them together. When Scott is charged with murdering his wife, it falls to his devoted secretary Kansas to find the phantom lady and save Scott from the electric chair…...
From one of the masters of the film noir, Robert Siodmak, comes the consummate crime classic, Phantom Lady.
After a fight with his wife, Scott Henderson heads to a bar to drown his sorrows. There he strikes up a conversation with a mysterious, despondent lady who agrees to accompany him to a show uptown but withholds her name. Arriving home, Scott is met by grimly countenanced cops – his wife has been strangled with one of his neckties and he is the prime suspect. He has a solid alibi but his theatre companion is nowhere to be found and no one remembers seeing them together. When Scott is charged with murdering his wife, it falls to his devoted secretary Kansas to find the phantom lady and save Scott from the electric chair…...
- 2/22/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Clark Gable would’ve celebrated his 118th birthday on February 1, 2019. The Oscar-winning matinee idol starred in dozens of films before his untimely death in 1960, but how many of those titles are classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of Gable’s greatest movies, ranked worst to best.
After appearing in bit parts in a number of films, Gable shot to stardom with his performance in “A Free Soul” (1931) as a gangster who bewitches a young woman (Norma Shearer) whose attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) helped him beat a murder rap. From there forward, the actor’s persona as a raffish leading man who’s every guy’s best friend and every gal’s dream became cemented in a number of subsequent roles.
SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History
He won an Oscar just three years later for Frank Capra‘s screwball...
After appearing in bit parts in a number of films, Gable shot to stardom with his performance in “A Free Soul” (1931) as a gangster who bewitches a young woman (Norma Shearer) whose attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) helped him beat a murder rap. From there forward, the actor’s persona as a raffish leading man who’s every guy’s best friend and every gal’s dream became cemented in a number of subsequent roles.
SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History
He won an Oscar just three years later for Frank Capra‘s screwball...
- 2/1/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
On April 14, 1933, Today We Live, a star-studded adaptation of a William Faulkner story, "Turnabout," hit theaters, featuring a cast of Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.
When Today We Live is cut down to exhibition length it should prove very good entertainment. With Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper for the draw, it should sell about all the tickets there are to be sold in your zone.
The story by William Faulkner, with the screen play by Edith Fitzgerald and Dwight Taylor, is swell writing from beginning to end, but it...
When Today We Live is cut down to exhibition length it should prove very good entertainment. With Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper for the draw, it should sell about all the tickets there are to be sold in your zone.
The story by William Faulkner, with the screen play by Edith Fitzgerald and Dwight Taylor, is swell writing from beginning to end, but it...
- 4/14/2018
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
<em>On April 14, 1933, Today We Live, a star-studded adaptation of a William Faulkner story, "Turnabout," hit theaters, featuring a cast of Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.</em>
When <em>Today We Live</em> is cut down to exhibition length it should prove very good entertainment. With Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper for the draw, it should sell about all the tickets there are to be sold in your zone.
The story by William Faulkner, with the screen play by Edith Fitzgerald and Dwight Taylor, is swell writing from beginning to end,...
When <em>Today We Live</em> is cut down to exhibition length it should prove very good entertainment. With Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper for the draw, it should sell about all the tickets there are to be sold in your zone.
The story by William Faulkner, with the screen play by Edith Fitzgerald and Dwight Taylor, is swell writing from beginning to end,...
- 4/14/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
“The Shape of Water” is one of two Best Picture Oscar nominees with three acting nominations — the other being “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — but star Sally Hawkins and supporting players Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins are not predicted to win any of them. If they indeed go 0-3 on Sunday and “The Shape of Water” takes the top prize, the fantasy drama will join eight other Best Picture champs that did not convert any of its three-plus acting nominations into wins.
“Birdman” (2014) was the most recent Best Picture winner not to carry an acting award from at least three nominations, as Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton fell to Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”) and J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash”), respectively. Arquette and Simmons were the supporting frontrunners all season, but Keaton was locked in a tight Best Actor race with Redmayne until the SAG Awards...
“Birdman” (2014) was the most recent Best Picture winner not to carry an acting award from at least three nominations, as Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton fell to Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”) and J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash”), respectively. Arquette and Simmons were the supporting frontrunners all season, but Keaton was locked in a tight Best Actor race with Redmayne until the SAG Awards...
- 3/3/2018
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
In 2009 — when the Academy Awards went to 10 Best Picture nominees for the first time since 1943 — the preferential system of voting, which had been used from 1934 to 1945, was reintroduced. The academy did so as it believed this “best allows the collective judgment of all voting members to be most accurately represented.”
We have detailed how the preferential voting system works at the Oscars in the modern era. So, let’s take a look back at those dozen years early in the history of the academy when it first used this complicated counting to determine the Best Picture winner rather than a simple popular vote. (At the bottom of this post, be sure to vote for the film that you think will take the top Oscar this year.)
See Best Picture Gallery: Every winner of the top Academy Award
1934
This seventh ceremony marked the first time that the Oscars eligibility period was the calendar year.
We have detailed how the preferential voting system works at the Oscars in the modern era. So, let’s take a look back at those dozen years early in the history of the academy when it first used this complicated counting to determine the Best Picture winner rather than a simple popular vote. (At the bottom of this post, be sure to vote for the film that you think will take the top Oscar this year.)
See Best Picture Gallery: Every winner of the top Academy Award
1934
This seventh ceremony marked the first time that the Oscars eligibility period was the calendar year.
- 2/28/2018
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Sam Rockwell (‘Three Billboards’) would be sixth Best Supporting Actor Oscar champ to beat a co-star
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” ended a 26-year drought in Best Supporting Actor, producing two nominees, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, from the same film for the first time since “Bugsy” (1991) stars Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley lost to Jack Palance (“City Slickers”). By all appearances, it’s smooth sailing for Rockwell for the win, which would be the sixth time a Best Supporting Actor winner defeated a co-star in 18 dual duels.
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939) stars Harry Carey and Claude Rains were the first co-stars to be nominated against each other in Best Supporting Actor, but they lost to Thomas Mitchell for “Stagecoach.” It would be another 32 years — with seven pairs of double nominees in between — before a Best Supporting Actor champ, Ben Johnson, beat a co-star, Jeff Bridges, for 1971’s “The Last Picture Show.”
Three years later, Robert De Niro prevailed over fellow “The Godfather Part II...
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939) stars Harry Carey and Claude Rains were the first co-stars to be nominated against each other in Best Supporting Actor, but they lost to Thomas Mitchell for “Stagecoach.” It would be another 32 years — with seven pairs of double nominees in between — before a Best Supporting Actor champ, Ben Johnson, beat a co-star, Jeff Bridges, for 1971’s “The Last Picture Show.”
Three years later, Robert De Niro prevailed over fellow “The Godfather Part II...
- 2/22/2018
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
“The Shape of Water” numbers three acting bids among its leading 13 Academy Awards nominations for lead Sally Hawkins and supporting players Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer. According to our exclusive Oscar odds none of them is predicted to win on March 4. Should that scenario play out, does that mean that their film won’t win Best Picture?
Not so fast.
While 53 of the 89 Best Picture champs to date include an Oscar-winning performance, 36 of them (40%) did not win any acting awards. And among those three dozen winners are four of the eight films — “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “Argo” (2012), “Birdman” (2015) and “Spotlight” (2016) — decided by preferential ballot under the newly expanded slate of Best Picture nominees.
Surprisingly, an even dozen of the Best Picture winners did not even reap any acting nominations. That is welcome news for “Arrival,” which does not number an acting bid among its eight nominations. However, four of those films...
Not so fast.
While 53 of the 89 Best Picture champs to date include an Oscar-winning performance, 36 of them (40%) did not win any acting awards. And among those three dozen winners are four of the eight films — “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “Argo” (2012), “Birdman” (2015) and “Spotlight” (2016) — decided by preferential ballot under the newly expanded slate of Best Picture nominees.
Surprisingly, an even dozen of the Best Picture winners did not even reap any acting nominations. That is welcome news for “Arrival,” which does not number an acting bid among its eight nominations. However, four of those films...
- 2/13/2018
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Edgar G. Ulmer movies on TCM: 'The Black Cat' & 'Detour' Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 Star of the Month is Audrey Hepburn, but Edgar G. Ulmer is its film personality of the evening on June 6. TCM will be presenting seven Ulmer movies from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, including his two best-known efforts: The Black Cat (1934) and Detour (1945). The Black Cat was released shortly before the officialization of the Christian-inspired Production Code, which would castrate American filmmaking – with a few clever exceptions – for the next quarter of a century. Hence, audiences in spring 1934 were able to witness satanism in action, in addition to other bizarre happenings in an art deco mansion located in an isolated area of Hungary. Sporting a David Bowie hairdo, Boris Karloff is at his sinister best in The Black Cat (“Do you hear that, Vitus? The phone is dead. Even the phone is dead”), ailurophobic (a.
- 6/7/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ryan Murphy’s new FX series Feud chronicles the bitter rivalry between screen legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as they film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, but the tension between the actresses actually started long before they filmed their 1962 thriller.
Their decades-long feud — which is dissected in the upcoming issue of People — stemmed from their very early days as they navigated the brutal Hollywood system.
The 1930s
When Davis moved from Broadway to Hollywood in 1930 at age 22, a then-25-year-old Crawford was already a sought-after star. Davis was the first to win an Oscar (for 1935’s Dangerous) but lost...
Their decades-long feud — which is dissected in the upcoming issue of People — stemmed from their very early days as they navigated the brutal Hollywood system.
The 1930s
When Davis moved from Broadway to Hollywood in 1930 at age 22, a then-25-year-old Crawford was already a sought-after star. Davis was the first to win an Oscar (for 1935’s Dangerous) but lost...
- 3/6/2017
- by Patrick Gomez
- PEOPLE.com
Hell hath no fury like two Hollywood actresses scorned!
That's the exact premise behind season one of FX's newest anthology series, Feud: Bette and Joan, which premieres this Sunday, March 5. The limited series, which heralds from the mind of executive producer Ryan Murphy, stars A-list actresses Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, respectively, and fixates on the bitter, lifelong rivalry between them.
But before you tune in, we've crafted the ultimate Feud cheat sheet to break down all the real-life drama!
Watch: Susan Sarandon & Jessica Lange in Character as Bette Davis & Joan Crawford
Getty Images
Who Is Joan Crawford? Born Lucille Fay LeSueur in 1904, Crawford (Lange) became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, by the end of the 1930s, her films began losing money and she was labeled "Box Office Poison." She made...
That's the exact premise behind season one of FX's newest anthology series, Feud: Bette and Joan, which premieres this Sunday, March 5. The limited series, which heralds from the mind of executive producer Ryan Murphy, stars A-list actresses Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, respectively, and fixates on the bitter, lifelong rivalry between them.
But before you tune in, we've crafted the ultimate Feud cheat sheet to break down all the real-life drama!
Watch: Susan Sarandon & Jessica Lange in Character as Bette Davis & Joan Crawford
Getty Images
Who Is Joan Crawford? Born Lucille Fay LeSueur in 1904, Crawford (Lange) became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, by the end of the 1930s, her films began losing money and she was labeled "Box Office Poison." She made...
- 3/3/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Gabriel Over the White House
DVD-r
The Warner Archive Collection
1933 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 86, 102 min. / Street Date October 20, 2009 / available through the Warner Archive Collection / 17.99
Starring: Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, Arthur Byron, Dickie Moore, C. Henry Gordon, David Landau, Samuel S. Hinds, Jean Parker, Mischa Auer.
Cinematography: Bert Glennon
Film Editor: Basil Wrangell
Original Music: Dr. William Axt
Written by: Carey Wilson, from a book by T. F. Tweed
Produced by: William Randolph Hearst, Walter Wanger
Directed by Gregory La Cava
A Review Revisit.
The unique political fantasy Gabriel Over the White House has become painfully topical lately. This is an update of a 2009 review. To my knowledge nothing has changed with the product — I saw a re-promotion of Twilight Time’s 1984 disc and thought, Gabriel is twice as relevant and at least as scary.
Unstable times in America have produced some pretty strange political-religious message pictures.
DVD-r
The Warner Archive Collection
1933 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 86, 102 min. / Street Date October 20, 2009 / available through the Warner Archive Collection / 17.99
Starring: Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, Arthur Byron, Dickie Moore, C. Henry Gordon, David Landau, Samuel S. Hinds, Jean Parker, Mischa Auer.
Cinematography: Bert Glennon
Film Editor: Basil Wrangell
Original Music: Dr. William Axt
Written by: Carey Wilson, from a book by T. F. Tweed
Produced by: William Randolph Hearst, Walter Wanger
Directed by Gregory La Cava
A Review Revisit.
The unique political fantasy Gabriel Over the White House has become painfully topical lately. This is an update of a 2009 review. To my knowledge nothing has changed with the product — I saw a re-promotion of Twilight Time’s 1984 disc and thought, Gabriel is twice as relevant and at least as scary.
Unstable times in America have produced some pretty strange political-religious message pictures.
- 2/4/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Daily Beast Michael Musto talks to an anonymous Oscar voter about who they're voting for. They're very unhappy with Meryl Streep's 20th and La La Land's 14
/Film Barry Jenkins chooses movies from the Criterion Collection -wonderful. (And people forget how obsessed people were with La Haine when it came out)
Variety ABC picked up a pilot starring Toni Collette. Please let it be good. Miss her so much. Totally the best actress that directors aren't using which I will Never understand
Cinematic Corner Sati falls for The Handmaiden
Film School Rejects on Stranger Things SAG acceptance speech and season two
Mnpp Jason lets Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) take him on a train of thought and it is a joy as is that movie or at least Gable and Franchot Tone in it
Village Voice Bilge Ebiri's 10 favorites from Sundance include Where is Kyra? and Mudbound
World...
/Film Barry Jenkins chooses movies from the Criterion Collection -wonderful. (And people forget how obsessed people were with La Haine when it came out)
Variety ABC picked up a pilot starring Toni Collette. Please let it be good. Miss her so much. Totally the best actress that directors aren't using which I will Never understand
Cinematic Corner Sati falls for The Handmaiden
Film School Rejects on Stranger Things SAG acceptance speech and season two
Mnpp Jason lets Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) take him on a train of thought and it is a joy as is that movie or at least Gable and Franchot Tone in it
Village Voice Bilge Ebiri's 10 favorites from Sundance include Where is Kyra? and Mudbound
World...
- 2/1/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
1916 Happy Centennial to Best Actor winner Peter Finch (Network), one of only two posthumous acting winners in Oscar history. The other is Heath Ledger. (Curiously they were both Australian)
1924 Marcello Mastroianni (La Dolce Vita, 8½) is born in Italy. Becomes one of the all time great movie stars by his mid 30s. His career spans over 50 years of cinema.
1933 Greer Garson weds Edward Snelson, first of three husbands, though the cohabitation is brief. Ten years later she famously marries her screen son in Mrs Miniver.
1934 ...And God Created Brigitte Bardot in Paris
1945 Mildred Pierce opens. Joan Crawford will win Best Actress for this fabulous noir melodrama
1949 Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis first film together My Friend Irma
1950 American indie icon John Sayles is born in New York. Among his most famous films: Return of the Secaucus 7, Passion Fish, and Lone Star
1951 Franchot Tone marries Barbara Payton, his third wife, a disastrous marriage for both.
1924 Marcello Mastroianni (La Dolce Vita, 8½) is born in Italy. Becomes one of the all time great movie stars by his mid 30s. His career spans over 50 years of cinema.
1933 Greer Garson weds Edward Snelson, first of three husbands, though the cohabitation is brief. Ten years later she famously marries her screen son in Mrs Miniver.
1934 ...And God Created Brigitte Bardot in Paris
1945 Mildred Pierce opens. Joan Crawford will win Best Actress for this fabulous noir melodrama
1949 Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis first film together My Friend Irma
1950 American indie icon John Sayles is born in New York. Among his most famous films: Return of the Secaucus 7, Passion Fish, and Lone Star
1951 Franchot Tone marries Barbara Payton, his third wife, a disastrous marriage for both.
- 9/28/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
From a pop culture perspective, private detectives stand for all that’s memorable about film noir. The indifference, the wittiness, and the moral ambiguity that define each urban knight has since become the stuff of parodied legend. We’re talking about the mediators between the crooks and the cops, the embodiment of back alley grayness that’s so tough to pin down. P.I.’s could cooperate with the law if needed, but they could just as soon do business with the bad guys for the right price. To a certain extent, that is – shamus work has always attracted the ignored and the ethical. The Wild West has mythical men with no name, The Asphalt Jungle has names with investigating licenses attached to them. Instead of a poncho and a ten gallon hat, they’re provided a fedora and trench coat.
The archetype has undergone many faces throughout Hollywood’s history,...
The archetype has undergone many faces throughout Hollywood’s history,...
- 2/16/2016
- by Danilo Castro
- CinemaNerdz
By Patrick Shanley
Managing Editor
Director Tom McCarthy’s true story drama about Boston Globe reporters investigating the local Catholic archdiocese and the surrounding child molestation scandal, Spotlight, is a serious Oscar contender, particularly for its star-studded cast.
The film, which won the best ensemble performance award at this month’s Gotham Awards and the Robert Altman award at the Independent Spirit Awards, boasts serious contenders in the best supporting actor category led by performances from last year’s best actor nominee Michael Keaton and former Oscar-nom Mark Ruffalo.
It seems likely that both Keaton and Ruffalo will receive nominations this year, which would be quite a feat in itself as no film has had two of its actors nominated in the best supporting actor category since Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley both earned noms for 1991’s Bugsy (though the supporting actress category has had a number of films with...
Managing Editor
Director Tom McCarthy’s true story drama about Boston Globe reporters investigating the local Catholic archdiocese and the surrounding child molestation scandal, Spotlight, is a serious Oscar contender, particularly for its star-studded cast.
The film, which won the best ensemble performance award at this month’s Gotham Awards and the Robert Altman award at the Independent Spirit Awards, boasts serious contenders in the best supporting actor category led by performances from last year’s best actor nominee Michael Keaton and former Oscar-nom Mark Ruffalo.
It seems likely that both Keaton and Ruffalo will receive nominations this year, which would be quite a feat in itself as no film has had two of its actors nominated in the best supporting actor category since Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley both earned noms for 1991’s Bugsy (though the supporting actress category has had a number of films with...
- 11/30/2015
- by Patrick Shanley
- Scott Feinberg
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Gary Cooper movies on TCM: Cooper at his best and at his weakest Gary Cooper is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 30, '15. Unfortunately, TCM isn't showing any Cooper movie premiere – despite the fact that most of his Paramount movies of the '20s and '30s remain unavailable. This evening's features are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Sergeant York (1941), and Love in the Afternoon (1957). Mr. Deeds Goes to Town solidified Gary Cooper's stardom and helped to make Jean Arthur Columbia's top female star. The film is a tad overlong and, like every Frank Capra movie, it's also highly sentimental. What saves it from the Hell of Good Intentions is the acting of the two leads – Cooper and Arthur are both excellent – and of several supporting players. Directed by Howard Hawks, the jingoistic, pro-war Sergeant York was a huge box office hit, eventually earning Academy Award nominations in several categories,...
- 8/30/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Joan Crawford Movie Star Joan Crawford movies on TCM: Underrated actress, top star in several of her greatest roles If there was ever a professional who was utterly, completely, wholeheartedly dedicated to her work, Joan Crawford was it. Ambitious, driven, talented, smart, obsessive, calculating, she had whatever it took – and more – to reach the top and stay there. Nearly four decades after her death, Crawford, the star to end all stars, remains one of the iconic performers of the 20th century. Deservedly so, once you choose to bypass the Mommie Dearest inanity and focus on her film work. From the get-go, she was a capable actress; look for the hard-to-find silents The Understanding Heart (1927) and The Taxi Dancer (1927), and check her out in the more easily accessible The Unknown (1927) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). By the early '30s, Joan Crawford had become a first-rate film actress, far more naturalistic than...
- 8/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Katharine Hepburn movies. Katharine Hepburn movies: Woman in drag, in love, in danger In case you're suffering from insomnia, you might want to spend your night and early morning watching Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" series. Four-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn is TCM's star today, Aug. 7, '15. (See TCM's Katharine Hepburn movie schedule further below.) Whether you find Hepburn's voice as melodious as a singing nightingale or as grating as nails on a chalkboard, you may want to check out the 1933 version of Little Women. Directed by George Cukor, this cozy – and more than a bit schmaltzy – version of Louisa May Alcott's novel was a major box office success, helping to solidify Hepburn's Hollywood stardom the year after her film debut opposite John Barrymore and David Manners in Cukor's A Bill of Divorcement. They don't make 'em like they used to Also, the 1933 Little Women...
- 8/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'The Devil Strikes at Night,' with Mario Adorf as World War II era serial killer Bruno Lüdke 'The Devil Strikes at Night' movie review: Serial killing vs. mass murder in unsubtle but intriguing World War II political drama After more than a decade in Hollywood, German director Robert Siodmak (Academy Award nominated for the 1946 film noir The Killers) resumed his European career in the mid-1950s. In 1957, he directed The Devil Strikes at Night / Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam, an intriguing, well-crafted crime drama about the pursuit of a serial killer – and its political consequences – during the last months of the mass-murderous Nazi regime. Inspired by real events, The Devil Strikes at Night begins as war-scarred Hamburg is deeply shaken by the horrific murder of a waitress. Through the Homicide Bureau, inspector Axel Kersten (Claus Holm) begins an investigation that leads him to a mentally disabled laborer,...
- 5/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Way We Were' tonight on Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. (See TCM's Robert Redford film schedule below. See also: "On TCM: Robert Redford Movies.") 'The Great Gatsby': Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby Released by Paramount Pictures, the 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby had prestige oozing from just about every cinematic pore. The film was based on what some consider the greatest American novel ever written. Francis Ford Coppola, whose directing credits included the blockbuster The Godfather, and who, that same year, was responsible for both The Godfather Part II and The Conversation, penned the adaptation. Multiple Tony winner David Merrick (Becket,...
- 1/21/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Way We Were' tonight on Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. (See TCM's Robert Redford film schedule below. See also: "On TCM: Robert Redford Movies.") 'Out of Africa' Out of Africa (1985) is an unusual Robert Redford star vehicle in that the film's actual lead isn't Redford, but Meryl Streep -- at the time seen as sort of a Bette Davis-Alec Guinness mix: like Davis, Streep received a whole bunch of Academy Award nominations within the span of a few years: from 1978-1985, she was shortlisted for no less than six movies.* Like Guinness, Streep could transform...
- 1/21/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Loretta Young films as TCM celebrates her 102nd birthday (photo: Loretta Young ca. 1935) Loretta Young would have turned 102 years old today. Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the birthday of the Salt Lake City-born, Academy Award-winning actress today, January 6, 2015, with no less than ten Loretta Young films, most of them released by Warner Bros. in the early '30s. Young, who began her film career in a bit part in the 1927 Colleen Moore star vehicle Her Wild Oat, remained a Warners contract player from the late '20s up until 1933. (See also: "Loretta Young Movies.") Now, ten Loretta Young films on one day may sound like a lot, but one should remember that most Warner Bros. -- in fact, most Hollywood -- releases of the late '20s and early '30s were either B Movies or programmers. The latter were relatively short (usually 60 to 75 minutes) feature films starring A (or B+) performers,...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cary Grant movies: 'An Affair to Remember' does justice to its title (photo: Cary Grant ca. late 1940s) Cary Grant excelled at playing Cary Grant. This evening, fans of the charming, sophisticated, debonair actor -- not to be confused with the Bristol-born Archibald Leach -- can rejoice, as no less than eight Cary Grant movies are being shown on Turner Classic Movies, including a handful of his most successful and best-remembered star vehicles from the late '30s to the late '50s. (See also: "Cary Grant Classic Movies" and "Cary Grant and Randolph Scott: Gay Lovers?") The evening begins with what may well be Cary Grant's best-known film, An Affair to Remember. This 1957 romantic comedy-melodrama is unusual in that it's an even more successful remake of a previous critical and box-office hit -- the Academy Award-nominated 1939 release Love Affair -- and that it was directed...
- 12/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Veterans Day movies on TCM: From 'The Sullivans' to 'Patton' (photo: George C. Scott in 'Patton') This evening, Turner Classic Movies is presenting five war or war-related films in celebration of Veterans Day. For those outside the United States, Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day, which takes place in late May. (Scroll down to check out TCM's Veterans Day movie schedule.) It's good to be aware that in the last century alone, the U.S. has been involved in more than a dozen armed conflicts, from World War I to the invasion of Iraq, not including direct or indirect military interventions in countries as disparate as Iran, Guatemala, and Chile. As to be expected in a society that reveres people in uniform, American war movies have almost invariably glorified American soldiers even in those rare instances when they have dared to criticize the military establishment.
- 11/12/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Two films, made decades apart, that deserve to be better known are playing on Turner Classic Movies this week: King Vidor’s The Stranger’s Return (1933), which airs on Tuesday, and Bob Rafelson’s Mountains of the Moon (1990), on Friday. I’ve written about the Vidor film before, most recently when it screened at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival. I first saw it decades ago, when William K. Everson showed a 16mm print, and fell in love with it then. It’s a surprisingly adult film for its time, and showcases Miriam Hopkins, Lionel Barrymore, and Franchot Tone in tailor-made roles, alongside a fine supporting cast. Vidor never mentioned it in his autobiography, and I always...
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- 10/13/2014
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
I was glued to the Twitter application of my iPhone Sunday night waiting for the reactions to Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" to roll in as the film bowed in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was interesting to watch the first wave of knee-jerks, all of them just a touch muted, I assume because Miller is not a filmmaker whose movies hit you right away. They kind of seep into you the more you spin away from them, and I got the feeling "Foxcatcher" is absolutely one such example. We were all more or less expecting something special out of Steve Carell here. From photos and that early trailer that slipped out last fall, it was clear he had undergone a transformation for the role of multimillionaire murderer John du Pont, both physically and professionally. And indeed, all indications are that it is a career-altering portrayal. Here's one juicy...
- 5/20/2014
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
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