The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Sometimes it’s like they read your mind—or just notice upcoming releases as you do. Whatever the case, I’m thrilled that the release of Terence Davies’ Benediction played (I assume!) some part in a full retro on the Criterion Channel this June, sad as I know that package will make me and anybody else who comes within ten feet of it. It’s among a handful of career retrospectives: they’ve also set a 12-film Judy Garland series populated by Berkeley and Minnelli, ten from Ulrike Ottinger, and four by Billy Wilder. But maybe their most adventurous idea in some time is a huge microbudget collection ranging from Ulmer’s Detour to Joel Potrykus’ Buzzard, fellow success stories—Nolan, Linklater, Jarmusch, Jia Zhangke—spread about.
Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...
Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Years in the making! The glory of MGM on parade! Enough studio resources to film twenty pictures were expended on this paean to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. It’s really Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Technicolor valentine to itself, showing off the studio’s enormous stable of musical talent, along with various of its comic performers. Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer’s notion of ‘something for everyone’ results in weird stack of grandiose musical numbers and mostly weak comedy. The biggest draw is the incredible color cinematography that peeks through in three or four jaw-droppingly elaborate musical spectacles. The picture is a workout to find the artistic limits of the Technicolor system.
Ziegfeld Follies
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...
Ziegfeld Follies
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...
- 7/20/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
On the surface, Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) is a very successful airline stewardess. The protagonist of HBO Max’s juicy, fun comedy series “The Flight Attendant” lives in New York City and has the primo routes in Europe and in Asia. But she’s also a drunk and quite frankly, a slut. And when she wakes up in bed in her hotel room in Bangkok, she discovers the man she spent the night with who had been her flight is dead with his throat slashed. It’s a delicious eight-season flight with Cuoco and the series earning nominations for the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Critics Choice honors. And it’s expected to be a shoo-in for multiple Emmy nominations.
Over the decades, flight attendants have been depicted in movies and on TV from a Madonna to a whore and everything in between. Of course, the most...
Over the decades, flight attendants have been depicted in movies and on TV from a Madonna to a whore and everything in between. Of course, the most...
- 6/14/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The Arthur Freed MGM musical unit gives this 1927 musical remake the old College Try! It’s a vehicle for the wartime sweetheart June Allyson, aided by Peter Lawford, who is quite good if not real musical material. The fun original tunes are joined by a couple of new ones, including an all-time terrific song & dance number staged by Robert Alton and performed by the incredible Joan McCracken. The new restoration does wonders with the 1947 Technicolor and the Wac adds hilarious, eye-opening musical excerpts from the crazy 1930 early talkie version with Penny Singleton. Good news indeed. With Patricia Marshall, Mel Tormé and Tommy Rall.
Good News
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1947 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. / Street Date January 26, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Patricia Marshall, Ray McDonald, Mel Tormé, Robert E. Strickland, Donald MacBride, Tom Dugan, Clinton Sundberg, Loren Tindall, Connie Gilchrist, Morris Ankrum, Tommy Rall,...
Good News
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1947 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. / Street Date January 26, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Patricia Marshall, Ray McDonald, Mel Tormé, Robert E. Strickland, Donald MacBride, Tom Dugan, Clinton Sundberg, Loren Tindall, Connie Gilchrist, Morris Ankrum, Tommy Rall,...
- 2/13/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Courier Trailer — Dominic Cooke‘s The Courier (2020) movie trailer has been released by RoadsideFlix. The Courier trailer stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessie Buckley, Rachel Brosnahan, Merab Ninidze, Anton Lesser, Angus Wright, Miles Richardson, Keir Hills, David Bark-Jones, Charles Walters, Mariya Mironova, Vladimir Chuprikov, Merab Ninidze, and James Schofield. Cast and crew Tom O’Connor wrote the [...]
Continue reading: The Courier Trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch is a Businessman-turned-spy in RoadsideFlix’s 2020 Espionage Film...
Continue reading: The Courier Trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch is a Businessman-turned-spy in RoadsideFlix’s 2020 Espionage Film...
- 1/28/2021
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Once upon a time, MGM launched a big spectacle Western remake with the top star Glenn Ford and the bright import Maria Schell — and then second-guessed the whole production, cutting back on everything so severely that director Anthony Mann ankled the set for Spain and El Cid. The storytelling is a mess — after starting big, the show soon falls into pieces. But many of individual scenes and set pieces are exemplary, especially Mann’s re-run of the Oklahoma Land Rush, staged in Arizona and augmented by classy special effects. The large cast rounds up some big talent — Mercedes McCambridge, Russ Tamblyn — to tell Edna Ferber’s multi-generational story about ambition, intolerance and dreams of glory on the frontier.
Cimarron (1960)
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1960 / Color / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 147 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Arthur O’Connell, Russ Tamblyn, Mercedes McCambridge, Vic Morrow,...
Cimarron (1960)
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1960 / Color / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 147 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Arthur O’Connell, Russ Tamblyn, Mercedes McCambridge, Vic Morrow,...
- 1/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I don’t know if Garland fans still go around chanting ‘Judy Judy Judy’ at her every appearance, but they do have a timeless song ‘n’ dance number to celebrate here. Her last MGM movie is only a so-so vehicle but Gene Kelly and the studio’s top music & dance talent work hard to put it over the top. Garland’s lack of stability is still an issue. For much of the movie she looks visibly overweight, yet in the showstopper ‘Get Happy’ she suddenly slims down to the best — maybe not the healthiest — look of her career.
Summer Stock
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 109 min. / Street Date April 30, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, Phil Silvers, Ray Collins, Nita Bieber, Carleton Carpenter, Hans Conried, Jeanne Coyne, Carol Haney, Almira Sessions.
Cinematography: Robert H. Planck
Film Editor: Albert Akst...
Summer Stock
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 109 min. / Street Date April 30, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, Phil Silvers, Ray Collins, Nita Bieber, Carleton Carpenter, Hans Conried, Jeanne Coyne, Carol Haney, Almira Sessions.
Cinematography: Robert H. Planck
Film Editor: Albert Akst...
- 5/4/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Our Howard Keel Centennial celebration begins. Here's Nathaniel R...
What is the lasting legacy of Hollywood's biggest musical of 1950, Annie Get Your Gun? The best remembered thing about it may well be its place in Judy Garland's storied career; she was infamously fired well into production, marking in some ways the nadir of her career, and fueling the mythology of that comeback of all comebacks with A Star is Born (1954) after a four year absence from the big screen. But that's not the movie as it exists today, only what could have been. And "could have beens" are many with this troubled production which lost its original star (Judy), its first two directors (Busby Berkeley and Charles Walters) and one key supporting cast member on its way to its final cut.
The first shot of Howard Keel in "Annie Get Your Gun"
Though "Annie Get Your Gun" has had...
What is the lasting legacy of Hollywood's biggest musical of 1950, Annie Get Your Gun? The best remembered thing about it may well be its place in Judy Garland's storied career; she was infamously fired well into production, marking in some ways the nadir of her career, and fueling the mythology of that comeback of all comebacks with A Star is Born (1954) after a four year absence from the big screen. But that's not the movie as it exists today, only what could have been. And "could have beens" are many with this troubled production which lost its original star (Judy), its first two directors (Busby Berkeley and Charles Walters) and one key supporting cast member on its way to its final cut.
The first shot of Howard Keel in "Annie Get Your Gun"
Though "Annie Get Your Gun" has had...
- 4/11/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Stanley Donen, the director of such stylish and exuberant films as “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Funny Face” and “Two for the Road” and the last surviving helmer of note from Hollywood’s golden age, has died at 94.
The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips tweeted that one of his sons had confirmed the news to him.
Confirmed by one of his sons this morning: Director Stanley Donen has died at 94. With Gene Kelly he brought On The Town and Singin’ In The Rain into the world; on his own, 7 Brides, Charade and Two For The Road. A huge, often neglected talent. #StanleyDonen
— Michael Phillips (@phillipstribune) February 23, 2019
Though he was never Oscar-nominated for any of the many films he directed, Donen received a lifetime achievement Oscar at the 1998 Academy Awards “in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation.”
His films were known for their brisk pace,...
The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips tweeted that one of his sons had confirmed the news to him.
Confirmed by one of his sons this morning: Director Stanley Donen has died at 94. With Gene Kelly he brought On The Town and Singin’ In The Rain into the world; on his own, 7 Brides, Charade and Two For The Road. A huge, often neglected talent. #StanleyDonen
— Michael Phillips (@phillipstribune) February 23, 2019
Though he was never Oscar-nominated for any of the many films he directed, Donen received a lifetime achievement Oscar at the 1998 Academy Awards “in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation.”
His films were known for their brisk pace,...
- 2/23/2019
- by Carmel Dagan and Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.
- 6/9/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Emma Stone shines with Ryan Gosling in Damien Chazelle's La La Land Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Take the opening number from Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles De Rochefort mixed with Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and copy to Los Angeles. Put girls in traffic light-colored dresses that vaguely resemble those from Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town. Add an introspective song, channeling Claudine Longet, from Blake Edwards' The Party - plus an elephant and mix in some Esther Williams underwater fun. Make a melody sound like the one given by Michel Legrand to Michel Piccoli's M Dame. Borrow from Fred Astaire: Sand Under Shoes in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat, A Fine Romance of George Stevens' Swing Time, and the lift in Charles Walters' The Belle Of New York. From Kelly: Seine dance, paintings coming to life, studio setting and It's Always Fair Weather - without the war.
Take the opening number from Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles De Rochefort mixed with Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and copy to Los Angeles. Put girls in traffic light-colored dresses that vaguely resemble those from Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town. Add an introspective song, channeling Claudine Longet, from Blake Edwards' The Party - plus an elephant and mix in some Esther Williams underwater fun. Make a melody sound like the one given by Michel Legrand to Michel Piccoli's M Dame. Borrow from Fred Astaire: Sand Under Shoes in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat, A Fine Romance of George Stevens' Swing Time, and the lift in Charles Walters' The Belle Of New York. From Kelly: Seine dance, paintings coming to life, studio setting and It's Always Fair Weather - without the war.
- 2/26/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
When Debbie Reynolds died on Wednesday at the age of 84, she had been famous for more than 65 years. A multi-talented star who fixed her place in the Hollywood firmaments when she was just 19 years old (the same age that her daughter, the late Carrie Fisher, was introduced to the world as Princess Leia), Reynolds’ life was the stuff of Tinseltown legend, and she never seemed to grow tired of the spotlight. On the contrary, she was a force of nature until the bitter end, brightening almost every corner of showbiz at one point or another during her decades on stage and screen.
Read More: Debbie Reynolds’ Co-Stars and More Celebrities Mourn Her Passing on Twitter
A hit recording artist, an Oscar (and Tony)-nominated leading lady, a Las Vegas lounge sensation, and a dedicated collector of movie memorabilia (some of her most heroic efforts were dedicated to the preservation of...
Read More: Debbie Reynolds’ Co-Stars and More Celebrities Mourn Her Passing on Twitter
A hit recording artist, an Oscar (and Tony)-nominated leading lady, a Las Vegas lounge sensation, and a dedicated collector of movie memorabilia (some of her most heroic efforts were dedicated to the preservation of...
- 12/29/2016
- by Anne Thompson, David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland, Liz Shannon Miller and William Earl
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Four years ago Carrie Fisher wrote the following article for Deadline’s AwardsLine magazine, remembering her first visit to the 1965 Oscars when her mother Debbie Reynolds was nominated for Best Actress for the title role in Charles Walters’ musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Like many memoirs Fisher, who died Tuesday, it’s a piece that reflects her Hollywood insider sensibility and hysterical wit. Having come from a show business family, I was aware of the…...
- 12/28/2016
- Deadline
In 'Judy by the Numbers' Anne Marie looks back at Garland's career through key songs
By the time Judy Garland turned 28, her entire adult life and her entire star persona had been a product of MGM. In 1950, Judy Garland's image - as cultivated by MGM and the Freed Unit - was of an exuberant talent, small in stature but big in heart and voice; a buoyant box office sensation. However, the reality was different. In the 13 months between the release of In The Good Old Summertime and Summer Stock, Judy Garland fought drug addiction, rehab, an increasingly strained marriage, an unsympathetic studio, and a suicide attempt that made headlines worldwide. Filmed before her attempt but released two months after it, Summer Stock is a record of the conflict between the image of Judy Garland and the reality of Frances Gumm.
The Movie: Summer Stock (1950)
The Songwriters: Harold Arlen (music...
By the time Judy Garland turned 28, her entire adult life and her entire star persona had been a product of MGM. In 1950, Judy Garland's image - as cultivated by MGM and the Freed Unit - was of an exuberant talent, small in stature but big in heart and voice; a buoyant box office sensation. However, the reality was different. In the 13 months between the release of In The Good Old Summertime and Summer Stock, Judy Garland fought drug addiction, rehab, an increasingly strained marriage, an unsympathetic studio, and a suicide attempt that made headlines worldwide. Filmed before her attempt but released two months after it, Summer Stock is a record of the conflict between the image of Judy Garland and the reality of Frances Gumm.
The Movie: Summer Stock (1950)
The Songwriters: Harold Arlen (music...
- 7/20/2016
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...
Easter Parade has becomea perrenial holiday favorite. Inevitably, the lighthearted musical appears on TCM Easter Sunday marathons, sandwiched between Ben Hur (1959) and King of Kings (1961). However, despite the annual dominance of this Judy Garland/Irving Berlin musical, the movie nearly stopped before it began. A combination of bad luck, souring relationships, and weak ankles nearly prevented the production from getting off the ground. Fans of the film have one person to thank for its resurrection: Fred Astaire.
The Movie: Easter Parade (1948)
The Songwriter: Irving Berlin (music & lyrics)
The Players: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ann Miller, Peter Lawford, directed by Charles Walters
The Story: The production of Easter Parade was plagued from the start. Though Irving Berlin enthusiastically agreed to expand upon his hit Holiday Inn for a new Judy Garland vehicle, the rest of the cast and crew was harder to secure.
Easter Parade has becomea perrenial holiday favorite. Inevitably, the lighthearted musical appears on TCM Easter Sunday marathons, sandwiched between Ben Hur (1959) and King of Kings (1961). However, despite the annual dominance of this Judy Garland/Irving Berlin musical, the movie nearly stopped before it began. A combination of bad luck, souring relationships, and weak ankles nearly prevented the production from getting off the ground. Fans of the film have one person to thank for its resurrection: Fred Astaire.
The Movie: Easter Parade (1948)
The Songwriter: Irving Berlin (music & lyrics)
The Players: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ann Miller, Peter Lawford, directed by Charles Walters
The Story: The production of Easter Parade was plagued from the start. Though Irving Berlin enthusiastically agreed to expand upon his hit Holiday Inn for a new Judy Garland vehicle, the rest of the cast and crew was harder to secure.
- 6/29/2016
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
'Ben-Hur' 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM's '31 Days of Oscar.' '31 Days of Oscar': 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Ben-Hur' are in, Paramount stars are out Today, Feb. 1, '16, Turner Classic Movies is kicking off the 21st edition of its “31 Days of Oscar.” While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being vociferously reviled for its “lack of diversity” – more on that appallingly myopic, self-serving, and double-standard-embracing furore in an upcoming post – TCM is celebrating nearly nine decades of the Academy Awards. That's the good news. The disappointing news is that if you're expecting to find rare Paramount, Universal, or Fox/20th Century Fox entries in the mix, you're out of luck. So, missing from the TCM schedule are, among others: Best Actress nominees Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son, Nancy Carroll in The Devil's Holiday, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds. Unofficial Best Actor...
- 2/2/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Debbie Reynolds ca. early 1950s. Debbie Reynolds movies: Oscar nominee for 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown,' sweetness and light in phony 'The Singing Nun' Debbie Reynolds is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 23, '15. An MGM contract player from 1950 to 1959, Reynolds' movies can be seen just about every week on TCM. The only premiere on Debbie Reynolds Day is Jerry Paris' lively marital comedy How Sweet It Is (1968), costarring James Garner. This evening, TCM is showing Divorce American Style, The Catered Affair, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and The Singing Nun. 'Divorce American Style,' 'The Catered Affair' Directed by the recently deceased Bud Yorkin, Divorce American Style (1967) is notable for its cast – Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, Jean Simmons, Jason Robards, Van Johnson, Lee Grant – and for the fact that it earned Norman Lear (screenplay) and Robert Kaufman (story) a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination.
- 8/24/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Fred Astaire ca. 1935. Fred Astaire movies: Dancing in the dark, on the ceiling on TCM Aug. 5, '15, is Fred Astaire Day on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its “Summer Under the Stars” series. Just don't expect any rare Astaire movies, as the actor-singer-dancer's star vehicles – mostly Rko or MGM productions – have been TCM staples since the early days of the cable channel in the mid-'90s. True, Fred Astaire was also featured in smaller, lesser-known fare like Byron Chudnow's The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and Yves Boisset's The Purple Taxi / Un taxi mauve (1977), but neither one can be found on the TCM schedule. (See TCM's Fred Astaire movie schedule further below.) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals Some fans never tire of watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together. With these particular fans in mind, TCM is showing – for the nth time – nine Astaire-Rogers musicals of the '30s,...
- 8/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...
- 6/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jean Arthur films on TCM include three Frank Capra classics Five Jean Arthur films will be shown this evening, Monday, January 5, 2015, on Turner Classic Movies, including three directed by Frank Capra, the man who helped to turn Arthur into a major Hollywood star. They are the following: Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; George Stevens' The More the Merrier; and Frank Borzage's History Is Made at Night. One the most effective performers of the studio era, Jean Arthur -- whose film career began inauspiciously in 1923 -- was Columbia Pictures' biggest female star from the mid-'30s to the mid-'40s, when Rita Hayworth came to prominence and, coincidentally, Arthur's Columbia contract expired. Today, she's best known for her trio of films directed by Frank Capra, Columbia's top director of the 1930s. Jean Arthur-Frank Capra...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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
Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...
- 8/13/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...
- 8/1/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Esther Williams: ‘Pools and Smiles’ formula grows stale [See previous post: "Esther Williams: Swimwear MGM Musical Star Dies."] By the early ’50s, Louis B. Mayer had been ousted from the studio he had helped to found, having been replaced by Dore Schary. Whether or not a coincidence, with the exception of Million Dollar Mermaid, the Esther Williams movies of the ’50s — e.g., The Duchess of Idaho, Skirts Ahoy! (stolen by Vivian Blaine in a supporting role), Dangerous When Wet, Easy to Love — lacked the luster of those released in the previous decade, despite more prestigious directors (George Sidney, Charles Walters, Robert Z. Leonard) and the usual co-stars (Van Johnson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel). (Photo: Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid.) Not surprisingly, although MGM’s color musicals would remain in vogue a few more years, Esther Williams and the studio parted ways following George Sidney’s tired-looking Jupiter’s Darling (1956), with Williams and Howard Keel (as Hannibal) fooling around in ancient times.
- 6/6/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Deanna Durbin: Highest-paid actress in the world [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin in the '40s: From Wholesome Musicals to Film Noir Sex Worker."] Despite several missteps in the handling of her career, David Shipman states that Deanna Durbin was Hollywood’s (and the world’s) highest-paid actress in both 1945 and 1947. In 1946, Durbin’s earnings of $323,477 trailed only Bette Davis’ $328,000 at Warner Bros. Those are impressive rankings (and wages), but ironically Durbin’s high earnings ultimately harmed her career. By the mid-’40s, her domestic box-office allure was beginning to fade, a situation surely worsened by World War II closing off most of Hollywood’s top international markets. As a result, Universal, since 1947 a new entity known as Universal-International, was unwilling to spend extra money in their star’s already costly vehicles. That’s a similar predicament to the one faced by silent-era superstar John Gilbert at MGM in the early ’30s: the studio had to pay Gilbert an exorbitant salary that made his movies much...
- 5/5/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The songs of a musical don't have to be toe-tappingly catchy or particularly memorable to make the film a success, as long as they work well in the moment in which they occur. Such is the truth of Irving Berlin's Easter Parade, directed by Charles Walters and starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, the story of a dancer who takes on a relatively inexperienced new partner to create a new act when his old one falls through. You won't hear the musical numbers of Easter Parade sung out of context too often, but that says nothing of their quality and the general feel good story the film offers. It's an above par musical and an excellent entry from both Fred Astaire and Judy Garland's careers.
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- 3/15/2013
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
I was very saddened to learn this morning of the death of Celeste Holm, the Oscar-winning actress who starred in numerous classics of Hollywood's Golden Age -- among them Elia Kazan's best picture Oscar winner Gentlemen's Agreement (1947), Anatole Litvak's The Snake Pit (1948), Henry Koster's Come to the Stable (1949), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and best picture Oscar winner All About Eve (1950), and Charles Walters's The Tender Trap (1955) and High Society (1956) -- and who I was honored to count as a friend over the last decade of her life. I first met
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- 7/15/2012
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
- 5/27/2012
- Shadowlocked
Jean Dujardin kissing Oscar statuette Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin kisses his Oscar statuette at the Governors Ball 2012. For his performance as a fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in the acting categories: Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier, and Gérard Depardieu had all been nominated before, but none of them had ever won. (Photo: © A.M.P.A.S.) The list of Frenchwomen who either won or were nominated for Oscars in the acting categories is much more extensive. The French-born, American-raised Claudette Colbert was the Best Actress of 1934 for Frank Capra's comedy It Happened One Night. The other French Best Actress Oscar winners are Simone Signoret for Jack Clayton's 1959 British drama Room at the Top and Marion Cotillard for Olivier Dahan's French-language Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose. Additionally, Juliette Binoche was a...
- 3/6/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Anna Magnani in (what looks like) Luchino Visconti's Bellissima At the end of Giuseppe Tornatore's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso, small-town projectionist Philippe Noiret has died and the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso has become a pile of rubble. The bratty Italian boy Salvatore Cascio has grown into the classy Frenchman Jacques Perrin (like Noiret, dubbed in Italian), a filmmaker who sits to watch a mysterious reel of film the deceased projectionist had left him. It turns out the reel contains clips from films censored by the prudish local parish priest, whose family values found kisses, embraces, and bare breasts and legs a danger to society. Now, who's doing all that kissing, embracing, and breast/leg-displaying in that film reel? (Please scroll down for the Cinema Paradiso clip.) Here are the ones I recognize: Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949); Mangano...
- 2/14/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity 1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...
- 1/10/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
MGM meant musicals for more than a decade after the second world war. David Thomson looks at a time when a little cheer at the movies was appreciated – and wonders if the same couldn't be said now
There had been musicals before. In the 1930s, as soon as sound permitted, Warner Brothers developed what we call the Busby Berkeley pictures: they were black and white, and often aware of the harsh Depression times, but a choreographic lather of girls and fluid, orgasmic forms where the camera was itching to plunge into the centre of the "big O" – think of Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933 or 42nd Street. They had aerial shots of waves and whirlpools of chorus girls, opening and closing their legs in time with our desire. A few years later, at Rko Pictures, the Astaire-Rogers films came into being – where the gravity, beauty, and exhilaration of the...
There had been musicals before. In the 1930s, as soon as sound permitted, Warner Brothers developed what we call the Busby Berkeley pictures: they were black and white, and often aware of the harsh Depression times, but a choreographic lather of girls and fluid, orgasmic forms where the camera was itching to plunge into the centre of the "big O" – think of Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933 or 42nd Street. They had aerial shots of waves and whirlpools of chorus girls, opening and closing their legs in time with our desire. A few years later, at Rko Pictures, the Astaire-Rogers films came into being – where the gravity, beauty, and exhilaration of the...
- 11/11/2011
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Minnelli's 1951 classic is being rereleased in a new print and given an extended run at the BFI Southbank (or the National Film Theatre as I persist in calling it) in a two-part season of MGM musicals. Warner Brothers and Rko made the best musicals of the 1930s, before Arthur Freed's unit at MGM took the lead in the 1940s, principally with movies by Minnelli, Stanley Donen and Charles Walters. This isn't my favourite MGM musical or my favourite Kelly picture (Singin' in the Rain heads both those categories), nor is it my favourite Minnelli film (a tie between Meet Me in St Louis, The Band Wagon and The Bad and the Beautiful). There's something distasteful about the ogling of the gamine Caron by much older men, not just here but later in Lili and Gigi, and I recall Shirley Temple's story of Arthur Freed exposing himself to her...
- 10/29/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Howard Keel on TCM Pt.2: Rose Marie, Pagan Love Song, Callaway Went Thataway Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Desperate Search (1953) A man fights to find his children after their plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. Dir: Joseph Lewis. Cast: Howard Keel, Jane Greer, Patricia Medina. Bw-71 mins. 7:15 Am Fast Company (1953) The heiress to a racing stable uncovers underhanded dealings. Dir: John Sturges. Cast: Howard Keel, Polly Bergen, Marjorie Main. Bw-68 mins. 8:30 Am Kismet (1955) In this Arabian Nights musical "king of the beggars" infiltrates high society when his daughter is wooed by a handsome prince. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. Cast: Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Dolores Gray. C-113 mins, Letterbox Format. 10:30 Am Rose Marie (1954) A trapper's daughter is torn between the Mountie who wants to civilize her and a dashing prospector. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Fernando Lamas, Bert Lahr, Marjorie Main.
- 8/30/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Howard Keel on TCM: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate Callaway Went Thataway is a pleasant comedy in which Keel has two roles: that of a cowboy star who spends most of his time wasted and a naive hick hired to impersonate said cowboy star. Keel is fine in both comedic roles, and so is Dorothy McGuire as the Hollywood slicker who falls for him. Fred MacMurray, as usual, is just there; also there are Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, and Esther Williams playing themselves in brief cameos. Charles Walters' Texas Carnival (1951) is a disappointingly flat Esther Williams musical. Not even Ann Miller manages to save this one. Robert Alton's Pagan Love Song (1950) uses the song and the setting — but not the story — of the 1929 Ramon Novarro blockbuster The Pagan. Nacio Herb Brown and future producer of MGM musicals Arthur Freed wrote the hit song "Pagan Love Song,...
- 8/30/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Forsaking All Others Joan Crawford on TCM: Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Road, When Ladies Meet Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Forsaking All Others (1934) A woman pursues the wrong man for almost twenty years. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable. Bw-83 mins. 7:30 Am I Live My Life (1935) A flighty society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Frank Morgan. Bw-97 mins. 9:15 Am Love On The Run (1936) Rival newsmen get mixed up with a runaway heiress and a ring of spies. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. Bw-80 mins. 10:45 Am When Ladies Meet (1941) A female novelist doesn't realize her new friend is the wife whose husband she's trying to steal. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.
- 8/22/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jean Hagen, Debbie Reynolds, Singin' in the Rain Debbie Reynolds on TCM: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Singing Nun Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Affairs Of Dobie Gillis (1953) A lovesick teenager searches for romance at college. Dir: Don Weis. Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van, Barbara Ruick. Bw-73 mins. 7:15 Am I Love Melvin (1953) A photographer's assistant promises to turn a chorus girl into a cover girl. Dir: Don Weis. Cast: Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Una Merkel. C-77 mins. 8:45 Am The Tender Trap (1955) A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line. Dir: Charles Walters. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne. C-111 mins, Letterbox Format. 10:45 Am Bundle Of Joy (1956) A shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling. Dir: Norman Taurog. Cast: Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Adolphe Menjou. C-98 mins. 12:30 Pm Tammy And The Bachelor...
- 8/20/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Pert, pretty, multi-talented, actress-singer-dancer-Hollywood collector Debbie Reynolds is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Day on Friday, August 18, as TCM continues its "Summer Under the Stars" series. TCM is presenting 13 Debbie Reynolds movies. [Debbie Reynolds Movie Schedule.] Fans of Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain (1952) will be able to watch the romantic comedy-musical for the 118th time. I'm not one of them; in fact, I much prefer Kelly and Stanley Donen's On the Town (1949), and I'd say that George Sidney's Show Boat (1951) and Donen's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) are my favorite musicals of the 1950s. But fan or no, there's much to enjoy in Singin' in the Rain, including Reynolds and Donald O'Connor's performances, several great songs from the 1920s, and Jean Hagen's high-pitched mix of Norma Talmadge, (the British) Mabel Poulton, and Corinne Griffith. The iconic "Singin' in the Rain" number is one of my least favorite...
- 8/20/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine in Billy Wilder's The Apartment Shirley MacLaine on TCM: Ocean's Eleven, The Yellow Rolls Royce Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Two Loves (1961) A conservative teacher struggles with her values while teaching natives in New Zealand. Dir: Charles Walters. Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Laurence Harvey, Jack Hawkins. C-97 mins, Letterbox Format. 8:00 Am The Sheepman (1958) A tough sheep farmer battles the local cattle baron for land and a beautiful woman. Dir: George Marshall. Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen. C-86 mins, Letterbox Format. 9:45 Am Two For The Seesaw (1962) A conservative attorney considering a divorce gets involved with an emotionally fragile dancer in New York. Dir: Robert Wise. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine, Edmon Ryan. Bw-119 mins, Letterbox Format. 12:00 Pm The Children's Hour (1961) A malicious student tries to destroy the teachers at a girls' school. Dir: William Wyler. Cast: Audrey Hepburn,...
- 8/11/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Impressive retrospective of Judy Garland.s films will feature 31 titles including a presentation of seldom seen short films and rarities as well as a special .sing-along. screening of The Wizard Of Oz.
On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.
With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...
On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.
With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...
- 6/10/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Zsa Zsa Gabor, 93, is back at Los Angeles' Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center to have part of her leg amputated, according to various reports. Gabor, who broke her hip in July and was read her last rites the following month, has been readmitted at the UCLA Medical Center for surgery. She has been in and out of the hospital since falling out of bed while watching the television show Jeopardy. Gabor's film appearances include the MGM musical Lovely to Look At (1952), Charles Walters' romantic drama Lili (1953), Orson Welles' crime thriller Touch of Evil (1958), and Bert I. Gordon's cult classic Picture Mommy Dead (1966).
- 1/3/2011
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
No 77: Grace Kelly 1929-82
Born in Philadelphia, the beautiful daughter of a model and a self-made Irish-American multi-millionaire who won gold medals as an Olympic oarsman, Kelly was Hollywood's ice queen of the McCarthy era, a cold war figure of upper-middle-class Catholic rectitude. One uncle was the vaudeville star Walter Kelly, another the Pulitzer-winning playwright, George Kelly, and she determined on an acting career while at college. In the late 40s and early 50s she worked as a model and on live New York TV. She entered the movies playing a minor role in Fourteen Hours in 1951, just after the banishment of Ingrid Bergman, the Hitchcock blonde who preceded her, and she retired in 1956, the year Bergman returned in triumph.
She grew up in a world of cafe society where show people, media folk, the nouveau-riches and other conspicuous consumers mingle, and she didn't leave it when, in a carefully engineered marriage,...
Born in Philadelphia, the beautiful daughter of a model and a self-made Irish-American multi-millionaire who won gold medals as an Olympic oarsman, Kelly was Hollywood's ice queen of the McCarthy era, a cold war figure of upper-middle-class Catholic rectitude. One uncle was the vaudeville star Walter Kelly, another the Pulitzer-winning playwright, George Kelly, and she determined on an acting career while at college. In the late 40s and early 50s she worked as a model and on live New York TV. She entered the movies playing a minor role in Fourteen Hours in 1951, just after the banishment of Ingrid Bergman, the Hitchcock blonde who preceded her, and she retired in 1956, the year Bergman returned in triumph.
She grew up in a world of cafe society where show people, media folk, the nouveau-riches and other conspicuous consumers mingle, and she didn't leave it when, in a carefully engineered marriage,...
- 12/13/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra in High Society Turner Classic Movies‘ Grace Kelly series comes to a close with a screening of the actress’ last three films: Alfred Hitchcock’s comedy-adventure To Catch a Thief (1955), co-starring Cary Grant; Charles Walters‘ musical High Society (1956), a remake of The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Kelly as the woman between Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby; and Charles Vidor’s romantic drama The Swan (1956), in which Kelly has to make up her mind between plebeian Louis Jourdan or blue-blooded Alec Guinness. I wouldn’t call any of those three films a masterpiece, but both To Catch a Thief and The Swan have their own particular charms. In the former, Grace Kelly is at her most relaxed as [...]...
- 11/24/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
TCM has put out some great vintage film collections in the last few years. The collections usually have a fair collection of winners and so-so contenders who need the better films to make them palatable and Esther Williams: Volume 2 is no exception. However, to the volume’s credit, it has a better ratio than most sets with 4 good to great films supporting 2 mediocre ones. The set could very well help reel in some younger viewers as the films in this volume have a surprisingly modern feel to them all. This one maybe good, but it might still qualify as “for collectors only”.
Thrill of a Romance (1945)
Directed by Richard Thorpe and written by Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman.
Co-starring Van Johnson and Henry Travers.
Summary: Two lovebirds get swept up in a whirlwind romance; one a girl looking for love and one a celebrated veteran, the two find their...
Thrill of a Romance (1945)
Directed by Richard Thorpe and written by Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman.
Co-starring Van Johnson and Henry Travers.
Summary: Two lovebirds get swept up in a whirlwind romance; one a girl looking for love and one a celebrated veteran, the two find their...
- 10/8/2009
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
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