William Wyler’s Dead End made its screen debut on Aug. 27, 1937. The film adaptation of Sidney Kingsley’s Broadway play starred Sylvia Sidney and Joel McCrea, and featured Humphrey Bogart in third billing. But the movie was stolen from them all by a gang of upstart juvenile delinquents, who nicked audience attention like a fancy watch mugged off a clueless rich brat.
Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabe Dell, Bobby Jordan, Bernard Punsly, and Leo Gorcey were the original teen menaces who terrorized theatergoers when the play opened on Oct. 28, 1935. Directed by the playwright, Dead End ran for 684 performances, and is still the longest-running play in the Belasco Theater’s history. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw it three times.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Dead End isn’t the greatest gangster movie of all time. It followed the classic era of the genre; it was produced by Samuel Goldwyn for MGM studios,...
Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabe Dell, Bobby Jordan, Bernard Punsly, and Leo Gorcey were the original teen menaces who terrorized theatergoers when the play opened on Oct. 28, 1935. Directed by the playwright, Dead End ran for 684 performances, and is still the longest-running play in the Belasco Theater’s history. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw it three times.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Dead End isn’t the greatest gangster movie of all time. It followed the classic era of the genre; it was produced by Samuel Goldwyn for MGM studios,...
- 12/28/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
The lasting horror of war is the blight it leaves on the lives of those left behind. Early sound pictures tried to deal with the guilt and pain of WW1, and the great Ernst Lubitsch took time out from romantic comedies and musicals for this very grim rumination on lies and responsibility. A French soldier decides to contact the family of a German he killed in the trenches; with no clear purpose or plan, he’s apt to make things worse for everybody. Lionel Barrymore and Nancy Carroll are wonderful, but you’ll choke up in the scenes with the German mother, played by Louise Carter. The film is best known for its opening montage, in which Lubitsch openly attacks the hypocrisy of militarist patriotism. It’s an exceedingly effective, non-hysterical piece of anti-war filmmaking.
Broken Lullaby
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 76 min. / The Man I Killed / Street...
Broken Lullaby
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 76 min. / The Man I Killed / Street...
- 3/29/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Core pre-Code excellence! This movie delivers sexy situations while nailing small town intolerance and hypocrisy. When push comes to shove, the slighted and slandered Nancy Carroll makes daring, socially unacceptable choices that would never be allowed after the Production Code was enforced. Gorgeous Carroll is a vivacious blend of Clara Bow and Claudette Colbert. She must choose between slick playboy Cary Grant and hunky geologist Randolph Scott. What she really needs is a bus ticket out of her Town Without Pity. The picture is funny, well observed and well written. And it has Grady Sutton — ooh!
Hot Saturday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 73 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods, Lilian Bond, William Collier Sr., Jane Darwell, Stanley Smith, Rita La Roy, Rose Coghlan, Oscar Apfel, Jessie Arnold, Grady Sutton, Marjorie Main, .
Cinematography: Arthur L. Todd
Original...
Hot Saturday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 73 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods, Lilian Bond, William Collier Sr., Jane Darwell, Stanley Smith, Rita La Roy, Rose Coghlan, Oscar Apfel, Jessie Arnold, Grady Sutton, Marjorie Main, .
Cinematography: Arthur L. Todd
Original...
- 9/28/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Yearling
Blu ray
Warner Archive
1946 / 1.33:1 / 128 min.
Starring Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr.
Cinematography by Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith
Directed by Clarence Brown
Based on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s 1938 novel, The Yearling revels in the solitary adventures of Jody Baxter, a boy whose untamed nature is reflected in his Deep South stomping grounds, Florida’s “Big Scrub.” Director Clarence Brown and a raft of MGM’s finest cinematographers cruised the backwaters and swamplands to capture the sensual pleasures of the child’s primeval playground and in some respects those Technicolor vistas are the real star of the film.
Jody is played by Claude Jarman Jr. and Gregory Peck is his homesteading father Penny, an adjudicator of boyhood problems great and small—he’s a roughhewn work in progress for the more citified Atticus Finch. “Hulking” was Rawlings’s own description of Jody’s mother Orry—a force...
Blu ray
Warner Archive
1946 / 1.33:1 / 128 min.
Starring Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr.
Cinematography by Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith
Directed by Clarence Brown
Based on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s 1938 novel, The Yearling revels in the solitary adventures of Jody Baxter, a boy whose untamed nature is reflected in his Deep South stomping grounds, Florida’s “Big Scrub.” Director Clarence Brown and a raft of MGM’s finest cinematographers cruised the backwaters and swamplands to capture the sensual pleasures of the child’s primeval playground and in some respects those Technicolor vistas are the real star of the film.
Jody is played by Claude Jarman Jr. and Gregory Peck is his homesteading father Penny, an adjudicator of boyhood problems great and small—he’s a roughhewn work in progress for the more citified Atticus Finch. “Hulking” was Rawlings’s own description of Jody’s mother Orry—a force...
- 6/1/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Today marks the birthday of Fred MacMurray. Writer Joe Elliott provides a fitting tribute to the late actor.
By Joe Elliott
Classic Hollywood actor Fred MacMurray is probably best remembered today as the easy-going father in the popular, long-running 1960s family sit-com “My Three Sons.” As the head of the growing Douglas clan, the pipe-smoking, sweater-clad MacMurray each week dispensed his gentle blend of wisdom and humor to the delight of American television audiences. One might have thought this was the kind of role MacMurray had always played. Not so, a fact that was first brought home to me by my mother. I recall as a kid hearing her say she didn’t much care for him. Not like Fred MacMurray??? “But why?” I asked. “Because of the jerks he played in the movies,” she told me. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered what she meant. As many CinemaRetro readers will know,...
By Joe Elliott
Classic Hollywood actor Fred MacMurray is probably best remembered today as the easy-going father in the popular, long-running 1960s family sit-com “My Three Sons.” As the head of the growing Douglas clan, the pipe-smoking, sweater-clad MacMurray each week dispensed his gentle blend of wisdom and humor to the delight of American television audiences. One might have thought this was the kind of role MacMurray had always played. Not so, a fact that was first brought home to me by my mother. I recall as a kid hearing her say she didn’t much care for him. Not like Fred MacMurray??? “But why?” I asked. “Because of the jerks he played in the movies,” she told me. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered what she meant. As many CinemaRetro readers will know,...
- 11/5/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
72 Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
By Tim McGlynn
$70,000 is hidden somewhere on the Fleagle family farm and everyone wants to find it. Kino-Lorber has released a Blu-ray of the madcap comedy Murder, He Says from Paramount in 1945 wherein a wild cast of crazies will do just about anything to find the loot.
Fred MacMurray plays pollster Pete Marshall who is searching the highways and byways of rural Arkansas looking for a fellow employee of his company, Trotter Polls. After he gets lost on a dark road one night he meets the Fleagle family led by the whip-snapping matriarch Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson (Marjorie Main). Aided by her twin sons Mert and Bert (Peter Whitney), Mamie believes that Pete knows where the booty from a bank holdup that their sister, Bonnie Fleagle (Barbara Pepper), hid on the grounds before she landed in the slammer. Add in Elany (Jean Heather...
By Tim McGlynn
$70,000 is hidden somewhere on the Fleagle family farm and everyone wants to find it. Kino-Lorber has released a Blu-ray of the madcap comedy Murder, He Says from Paramount in 1945 wherein a wild cast of crazies will do just about anything to find the loot.
Fred MacMurray plays pollster Pete Marshall who is searching the highways and byways of rural Arkansas looking for a fellow employee of his company, Trotter Polls. After he gets lost on a dark road one night he meets the Fleagle family led by the whip-snapping matriarch Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson (Marjorie Main). Aided by her twin sons Mert and Bert (Peter Whitney), Mamie believes that Pete knows where the booty from a bank holdup that their sister, Bonnie Fleagle (Barbara Pepper), hid on the grounds before she landed in the slammer. Add in Elany (Jean Heather...
- 9/14/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Lori Nelson, the 1950s starlet who was kidnapped by an amphibious monster in Revenge of the Creature and portrayed Barbara Stanwyck’s younger daughter in Douglas Sirk’s All I Desire, has died. She was 87.
Nelson had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and died Sunday at her home in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, her daughter Jennifer Mann said.
In Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952) and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), Nelson played Rosie Kettle, one of the daughters of the characters played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride in the Universal series of films.
Nelson also made her mark in I Died a Thousand Times (1955), a remake of the Humphrey Bogart classic High Sierra in which she portrayed the club-footed love interest of Jack Palance’s crook; Pardners (1956), working opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their penultimate film together...
Nelson had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and died Sunday at her home in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, her daughter Jennifer Mann said.
In Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952) and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), Nelson played Rosie Kettle, one of the daughters of the characters played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride in the Universal series of films.
Nelson also made her mark in I Died a Thousand Times (1955), a remake of the Humphrey Bogart classic High Sierra in which she portrayed the club-footed love interest of Jack Palance’s crook; Pardners (1956), working opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their penultimate film together...
- 8/24/2020
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One Smackdown done, eight (gulp) more to go in our double-sized season! This thursday (May 28th) we're talking 1947. To maximize your enjoyment of these special events we recommend watching the films in question before the event and voting. To vote email us your ballot by May 27th with "1947" in the subject line and each performance ranked from 1 (weak) to 5 (perfect) hearts. Only vote on the performances you've seen but you still have time to see them all; there's only 4 movies this time around.
Ethel Barrymore in The Paradine Case - stream for free on Vimeo or YouTube Gloria Grahame in Crossfire - just $1.99/$6.99 to rent/buy on Amazon Celeste Holm And Anne Revere in Gentleman's Agreement - rent on Amazon/iTunes Marjorie Main in The Egg and I -rent on Amazon/iTunes
And Icymi -- Meet The Panel
Pssst. 2002 is our next Smackdown and that's coming quickly on June 16th...
Ethel Barrymore in The Paradine Case - stream for free on Vimeo or YouTube Gloria Grahame in Crossfire - just $1.99/$6.99 to rent/buy on Amazon Celeste Holm And Anne Revere in Gentleman's Agreement - rent on Amazon/iTunes Marjorie Main in The Egg and I -rent on Amazon/iTunes
And Icymi -- Meet The Panel
Pssst. 2002 is our next Smackdown and that's coming quickly on June 16th...
- 5/22/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Murder, He Says
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1945 / 1.33:1 / 94 min.
Starring Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Peter Whitney
Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl
Directed by George Marshall
The Snopes family were a collection of Southern-fried scoundrels introduced by William Faulkner in 1940’s The Hamlet. Over the course of three novels and several short stories, the clan proved themselves capable of just about any atrocity. They were so comically loathsome they could have been kissing cousins to Mamie, Mert and Bert: the Fleagle family – a slapstick version of the Snopes. Even the local sheriff is terrified of the Fleagles and a greenhorn census taker from the big city is about to find out why.
Fred MacMurray plays Pete Marshall, the eager beaver field man for the Trotter Poll who’s searching for a missing colleague last seen headed toward the Fleagle house, way, way out in the woods (where presumably no one can hear...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1945 / 1.33:1 / 94 min.
Starring Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Peter Whitney
Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl
Directed by George Marshall
The Snopes family were a collection of Southern-fried scoundrels introduced by William Faulkner in 1940’s The Hamlet. Over the course of three novels and several short stories, the clan proved themselves capable of just about any atrocity. They were so comically loathsome they could have been kissing cousins to Mamie, Mert and Bert: the Fleagle family – a slapstick version of the Snopes. Even the local sheriff is terrified of the Fleagles and a greenhorn census taker from the big city is about to find out why.
Fred MacMurray plays Pete Marshall, the eager beaver field man for the Trotter Poll who’s searching for a missing colleague last seen headed toward the Fleagle house, way, way out in the woods (where presumably no one can hear...
- 3/28/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- 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
This may be the year for new cinephile converts to the cult of appreciation for the great Ernst Lubitsch. One of his last pictures but his first in color is this Production Code-defying tale of a serial philanderer and his relationship with the woman of his dreams, his wife. It’s stylized as a series of birthdays, and our hero is judged not by St. Peter but at the gates of Hades, by the fallen angel himself.
Heaven Can Wait
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 291
1943 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 112 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 21, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Laird Cregar, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Eugene Pallette, Signe Hasso, Louis Calhern
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Art Direction James Basevi, Leland Fuller
Film Editor Dorothy Spencer
Original Music Alfred Newman
Written by Samson Raphaelson from a play by Leslie Bush-Fekete
Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Wait one second,...
Heaven Can Wait
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 291
1943 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 112 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 21, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Laird Cregar, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Eugene Pallette, Signe Hasso, Louis Calhern
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Art Direction James Basevi, Leland Fuller
Film Editor Dorothy Spencer
Original Music Alfred Newman
Written by Samson Raphaelson from a play by Leslie Bush-Fekete
Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Wait one second,...
- 8/7/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The following is a slightly re-edited version of a piece that ran during the early days of my blog, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, posted on April 3, 2007, in which I took some time to acknowledge one of my favorite movie stars, the inimitable force of nature known as Patsy Kelly. Eleven years ago Netflix was yet to become the powerhouse force in streaming home entertainment that it now incarnates; it was still a strictly DVD-by-mail service that allowed as many as three DVDs at once to sit on your shelf for as long as you wanted, until such time as you said “I’ve never gonna watch these” and decided to send the back for three others in your ridiculously long queue. (The normalization of the word “queue” may have been Netflix’s great contribution to American culture during this time.) In those days, Netflix also allowed you...
- 5/31/2018
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
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
Considering everything that's been happening on the planet in the last several months, you'd have thought we're already in November or December – of 2117. But no. It's only June. 2017. And in some parts of the world, that's the month of brides, fathers, graduates, gays, and climate change denial. Beginning this evening, Thursday, June 1, Turner Classic Movies will be focusing on one of these June groups: Lgbt people, specifically those in the American film industry. Following the presentation of about 10 movies featuring Frank Morgan, who would have turned 127 years old today, TCM will set its cinematic sights on the likes of William Haines, James Whale, George Cukor, Mitchell Leisen, Dorothy Arzner, Patsy Kelly, and Ramon Novarro. In addition to, whether or not intentionally, Claudette Colbert, Colin Clive, Katharine Hepburn, Douglass Montgomery (a.k.a. Kent Douglass), Marjorie Main, and Billie Burke, among others. But this is ridiculous! Why should TCM present a...
- 6/2/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.
- 9/20/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...
Though we last left Judy Garland in 1944 crooning from a trolley and cementing a (troubled) place in Hollywood history, this week we must catapult two years into the future to rejoin our musical heroine. The reason has to do with the odd nature of the Studio System in general and this series in specific. Judy Garland actually shot two movies between 1944 and 1945, but because one was delayed due to reshoots (therefore getting bumped to next week) and the other was a straight drama (therefore not fitting a series focused on musical numbers), we must travel through the end of WW2 and the beginning of Judy Garland's marriage to Vincente Minnelli. Thus, in 1946 we arrive in... the Old West?
The Movie: The Harvey Girls (1946)
The Songwriters: Johnny Mercer (lyrics), Harry Warren (music)
The Players: Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury, Ray Bolger,...
Though we last left Judy Garland in 1944 crooning from a trolley and cementing a (troubled) place in Hollywood history, this week we must catapult two years into the future to rejoin our musical heroine. The reason has to do with the odd nature of the Studio System in general and this series in specific. Judy Garland actually shot two movies between 1944 and 1945, but because one was delayed due to reshoots (therefore getting bumped to next week) and the other was a straight drama (therefore not fitting a series focused on musical numbers), we must travel through the end of WW2 and the beginning of Judy Garland's marriage to Vincente Minnelli. Thus, in 1946 we arrive in... the Old West?
The Movie: The Harvey Girls (1946)
The Songwriters: Johnny Mercer (lyrics), Harry Warren (music)
The Players: Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury, Ray Bolger,...
- 6/1/2016
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
'The Merry Widow' with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Minna Gombell under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Ernst Lubitsch movies: 'The Merry Widow,' 'Ninotchka' (See previous post: “Ernst Lubitsch Best Films: Passé Subtle 'Touch' in Age of Sledgehammer Filmmaking.”) Initially a project for Ramon Novarro – who for quite some time aspired to become an opera singer and who had a pleasant singing voice – The Merry Widow ultimately starred Maurice Chevalier, the hammiest film performer this side of Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler – the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, “hammy” isn't my idea of effective film acting. For that reason, I usually find Chevalier a major handicap to his movies, especially during the early talkie era; he upsets their dramatic (or comedic) balance much like Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Jerry Lewis in anything (excepting Scorsese's The King of Comedy...
- 1/31/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marjorie Lord actress ca. early 1950s. Actress Marjorie Lord dead at 97: Best remembered for TV series 'Make Room for Daddy' Stage, film, and television actress Marjorie Lord, best remembered as Danny Thomas' second wife in Make Room for Daddy, died Nov. 28, '15, at her home in Beverly Hills. Lord (born Marjorie Wollenberg on July 26, 1918, in San Francisco) was 97. Marjorie Lord movies After moving with her family to New York, Marjorie Lord made her Broadway debut at age 17 in Zoe Akins' Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The Old Maid (1935). Lord replaced Margaret Anderson in the role of Tina, played by Jane Bryan – as Bette Davis' out-of-wedlock daughter – in Warner Bros.' 1939 movie version directed by Edmund Goulding. Hollywood offers ensued, resulting in film appearances in a string of low-budget movies in the late 1930s and throughout much of the 1940s, initially (and...
- 12/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Norma Shearer films Note: This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Turner Classic Movies' Norma Shearer month comes to a close this evening, Nov. 24, '15, with the presentation of the last six films of Shearer's two-decade-plus career. Two of these are remarkably good; one is schizophrenic, a confused mix of high comedy and low drama; while the other three aren't the greatest. Yet all six are worth a look even if only because of Norma Shearer herself – though, really, they all have more to offer than just their top star. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the no-expense-spared Marie Antoinette (1938) – $2.9 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that time – stars the Canadian-born Queen of MGM as the Austrian-born Queen of France. This was Shearer's first film in two years (following Romeo and Juliet) and her first release following husband Irving G.
- 11/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Norma Shearer films Note: This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Turner Classic Movies' Norma Shearer month comes to a close this evening, Nov. 24, '15, with the presentation of the last six films of Shearer's two-decade-plus career. Two of these are remarkably good; one is schizophrenic, a confused mix of high comedy and low drama; while the other three aren't the greatest. Yet all six are worth a look even if only because of Norma Shearer herself – though, really, they all have more to offer than just their top star. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the no-expense-spared Marie Antoinette (1938) – $2.9 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that time – stars the Canadian-born Queen of MGM as the Austrian-born Queen of France. This was Shearer's first film in two years (following Romeo and Juliet) and her first release following husband Irving G.
- 11/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In honor of Halloween, I once again have a special essay-article up, and this time I can name the contributor. Randall William Cook rates special celebrity status around DVD Savant despite being a friend from way, way back. I hope he's writing a book about his career, because his Hollywood experiences range far afield, from UCLA film school, to acting and directing film and TV, to doing special make-ups, animation direction, front-rank stop motion direction, and second unit direction on big features. Heavily into digital work since the 1990s, Randy supervised character animation and sequence direction for the three Lord of the Rings movies, netting him an amazing three Oscars, three years straight. And he's still the same guy from college -- a new Harryhausen or Welles disc comes out, and he wants to know all about it. Oh, and Cook is a fine writer as well -- as I think this thoughtful piece shows.
- 10/23/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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
'The Audition' poster with Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. Martin Scorsese short 'The Audition' pulled from Venice Film Festival No major international film festival is worth its mainstream U.S. media salt unless there's at least one screening featuring the latest work of a major Hollywood name. The Venice Film Festival is surely no exception, especially as it's the year's final internationally renowned European movie fest, held shortly before the fall – i.e., awards – movie season begins. Well, one work by a top Hollywood name will no longer be available at Venice: The Audition, a short film directed by and featuring veteran Martin Scorsese, has been pulled out. "We have just been informed by the production that due to unexpected technical problems the film could not be here in time," festival organizers said in a statement earlier today, Sat., Aug. 29, '15. According to The Hollywood Reporter,...
- 8/30/2015
- by Anna Robinson
- 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
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
Adolphe Menjou movies today (This article is currently being revised.) Despite countless stories to the contrary, numerous silent film performers managed to survive the coming of sound. Adolphe Menjou, however, is a special case in that he not only remained a leading man in the early sound era, but smoothly made the transition to top supporting player in mid-decade, a position he would continue to hold for the quarter of a century. Menjou is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Day today, Aug. 3, as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" 2015 series. Right now, TCM is showing William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born, the "original" version of the story about a small-town girl (Janet Gaynor) who becomes a Hollywood star, while her husband (Fredric March) boozes his way into oblivion. In typical Hollywood originality (not that things are any different elsewhere), this 1937 version of the story – produced by...
- 8/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...
- 3/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium beginning at 7pm as part of this year’s St. Louis Intenational FIlm Festival. The program will consist a rare 35mm screening of the 1913 epic Ivanhoe starring King Baggot with live music accompaniment by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Ivanhoe will be followed by an illustrated lecture on the life and films of King Baggot presented by Tom Stockman, editor here at We Are Movie Geeks. After that will screen the influential silent western Tumbleweeds (1925), considered to be one of King Baggot’s finest achievements as a director. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace.
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...
- 11/6/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...
- 9/4/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Episode 22 of 52 of Anne Marie's chronological look at Katharine Hepburn's career.
In which Katharine Hepburn’s terrible fashion sense almost kills her.
I'll admit my bias up front: this movie is a sore spot for me. For probably understandable reasons, I'm not big on movies about tomboys named Ann who are accused of being frumpy. Undercurrent is a noir-esque melodrama directed by Vincente Minnelli, a director best known for the Technicolor musicals starring his sometime wife Judy Garland and/or Gene Kelly. Minnelli did spread out in genre on occasion, with great films The Bad And The Beautiful and not-so-great films, like Undercurrent. Our heroine in Undercurrent is a plain woman named Ann (Kate) who is unexpectedly wooed by a tall dark and handsome scientist (Robert Taylor). After a whirlwind romance ending in marriage, Ann begins searching into her husband’s troubled past. She uncovers an empty house, a paranoid ex-lover,...
In which Katharine Hepburn’s terrible fashion sense almost kills her.
I'll admit my bias up front: this movie is a sore spot for me. For probably understandable reasons, I'm not big on movies about tomboys named Ann who are accused of being frumpy. Undercurrent is a noir-esque melodrama directed by Vincente Minnelli, a director best known for the Technicolor musicals starring his sometime wife Judy Garland and/or Gene Kelly. Minnelli did spread out in genre on occasion, with great films The Bad And The Beautiful and not-so-great films, like Undercurrent. Our heroine in Undercurrent is a plain woman named Ann (Kate) who is unexpectedly wooed by a tall dark and handsome scientist (Robert Taylor). After a whirlwind romance ending in marriage, Ann begins searching into her husband’s troubled past. She uncovers an empty house, a paranoid ex-lover,...
- 5/28/2014
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Wallace Beery from Pancho Villa to Long John Silver: TCM schedule (Pt) on August 17, 2013 (photo: Fay Wray, Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa in ‘Viva Villa!’) See previous post: “Wallace Beery: Best Actor Oscar Winner — and Runner-Up.” 3:00 Am The Last Of The Mohicans (1920). Director: Maurice Tourneur. Cast: Barbara Bedford, Albert Roscoe, Wallace Beery, Lillian Hall, Henry Woodward, James Gordon, George Hackathorne, Nelson McDowell, Harry Lorraine, Theodore Lorch, Jack McDonald, Sydney Deane, Boris Karloff. Bw-76 mins. 4:30 Am The Big House (1930). Director: George W. Hill. Cast: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, Leila Hyams, George F. Marion, J.C. Nugent, DeWitt Jennings, Matthew Betz, Claire McDowell, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Tom Wilson, Eddie Foyer, Roscoe Ates, Fletcher Norton, Noah Beery Jr, Chris-Pin Martin, Eddie Lambert, Harry Wilson. Bw-87 mins. 6:00 Am Bad Man Of Brimstone (1937). Director: J. Walter Ruben. Cast: Wallace Beery, Virginia Bruce, Dennis O’Keefe. Bw-89 mins.
- 8/17/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Fred MacMurray movies: ‘Double Indemnity,’ ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ Fred MacMurray is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" today, Thursday, August 7, 2013. Although perhaps best remembered as the insufferable All-American Dad on the long-running TV show My Three Sons and in several highly popular Disney movies from 1959 to 1967, e.g., The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Boy Voyage!, MacMurray was immeasurably more interesting as the All-American Jerk. (Photo: Fred MacMurray ca. 1940.) Someone once wrote that Fred MacMurray would have been an ideal choice to star in a biopic of disgraced Republican president Richard Nixon. Who knows, the (coincidentally Republican) MacMurray might have given Anthony Hopkins a run for his Best Actor Academy Award nomination. After all, MacMurray’s most admired movie performances are those in which he plays a scheming, conniving asshole: Billy Wilder’s classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), in which he’s seduced by Barbara Stanwyck, and Wilder...
- 8/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mary Boland movies: Scene-stealing actress has her ‘Summer Under the Stars’ day on TCM Turner Classic Movies will dedicate the next 24 hours, Sunday, August 4, 2013, not to Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Esther Williams, or Bette Davis — TCM’s frequent Warner Bros., MGM, and/or Rko stars — but to the marvelous scene-stealer Mary Boland. A stage actress who was featured in a handful of movies in the 1910s, Boland came into her own as a stellar film supporting player in the early ’30s, initially at Paramount and later at most other Hollywood studios. First, the bad news: TCM’s "Summer Under the Stars" Mary Boland Day will feature only two movies from Boland’s Paramount period: the 1935 Best Picture Academy Award nominee Ruggles of Red Gap, which TCM has shown before, and one TCM premiere. So, no rarities like Secrets of a Secretary, Mama Loves Papa, Melody in Spring,...
- 8/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
After his first, and very popular, top ten for Blogomatic3000 on virus outbreaks in the movies, author and critic Kim Newman is back once again with and all-new Top 10 inspired by the eminent release of the awesome comedy horror Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, which hits stores next week…
The clever joke at the heart of the witty horror comedy Tucker and Dale vs Evil is that college kids who go camping in the backwoods have seen so many movies about degenerate, inbred killer hillbillies they’re terrified even of basically sweet-natured, if ill-groomed folks like the eponymous duo played by Tyler Lebine and Alan Tudyk. In truth, the American cinema hasn’t been especially enlightened in its depiction of the rural poor of the Appalachians and other mountainous backwoods regions, but it hasn’t presented quite as overwhelmingly negative a vision as you might think.
Here’s a run-down...
The clever joke at the heart of the witty horror comedy Tucker and Dale vs Evil is that college kids who go camping in the backwoods have seen so many movies about degenerate, inbred killer hillbillies they’re terrified even of basically sweet-natured, if ill-groomed folks like the eponymous duo played by Tyler Lebine and Alan Tudyk. In truth, the American cinema hasn’t been especially enlightened in its depiction of the rural poor of the Appalachians and other mountainous backwoods regions, but it hasn’t presented quite as overwhelmingly negative a vision as you might think.
Here’s a run-down...
- 9/23/2011
- by Phil
- Nerdly
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
Lucille Ball, Easy to Wed Lucille Ball Centennial on TCM: Stage Door, Best Foot Forward Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Du Barry Was A Lady (1943) A night club employee dreams he's Louis Xv, and the star he idolizes is his lady love. Dir: Roy Del Ruth. Cast: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly. C-101 mins. 8:00 Am Panama Lady (1939) An oil man forces a cabaret singer to work for him after she tries to rob him. Dir: Jack Hively. Cast: Lucille Ball, Allan Lane, Steffi Duna. Bw-65 mins. 9:30 Am Without Love (1945) A World War II housing shortage inspires a widow to propose a marriage of convenience with an inventor. Dir: Harold S. Bucquet. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball. Bw-111 mins. 11:30 Am Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) An inept secretary goes to work for a bogus real estate firm thinking it's for real.
- 8/6/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
To honor the passing of the great songwriter Hugh Martin Friday at 96 years of age, a repost of a review of one of my 100 favorite movies, a member of my personal canon. (If you joined us after 2008 you can pretend it's a new essay!) Imagine giving the world such perfectly crafted enduring gifts as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Trolley Song". R.I.P. Mr. Martin.
Meet Me in St. Louis "The Blossoming of Judy Garland"
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Directed by Vincente Minnelli; Written by Irving Brecher and Fred F Finklehoffe from the novel "5135 Kensington" by Sally Benson; Starring Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Margaret O'Brien, Lucille Bremer, Harry Davenport, June Lockhart, Tom Drake and Marjorie Main; Production & Distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM); Released 11/28/1944
It's Summer 1903 in Missouri and the Smith family are buzzing about the World's Fair coming to their town the following spring. Teenage...
Meet Me in St. Louis "The Blossoming of Judy Garland"
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Directed by Vincente Minnelli; Written by Irving Brecher and Fred F Finklehoffe from the novel "5135 Kensington" by Sally Benson; Starring Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Margaret O'Brien, Lucille Bremer, Harry Davenport, June Lockhart, Tom Drake and Marjorie Main; Production & Distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM); Released 11/28/1944
It's Summer 1903 in Missouri and the Smith family are buzzing about the World's Fair coming to their town the following spring. Teenage...
- 3/14/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Seven-time Emmy Award Winner Ed Anser Reprises Granny Goodness Role In Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
Seven-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (Up) reprises his Superman: The Animated Series/Justice League role as Granny Goodness in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, the ninth entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movies coming September 28, 2010 from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video.
Granny Goodness is the primary henchwoman for the evil lord Darkseid, ruler of the distant planet Apokolips and a cruel, ominous being even more powerful than Superman. Asner first voiced the role for four episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, and returned to those evil female roots for two episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
Asner’s storied career boasts seven Emmy Awards – three supporting actor honors for his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, two...
Seven-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (Up) reprises his Superman: The Animated Series/Justice League role as Granny Goodness in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, the ninth entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movies coming September 28, 2010 from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video.
Granny Goodness is the primary henchwoman for the evil lord Darkseid, ruler of the distant planet Apokolips and a cruel, ominous being even more powerful than Superman. Asner first voiced the role for four episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, and returned to those evil female roots for two episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
Asner’s storied career boasts seven Emmy Awards – three supporting actor honors for his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, two...
- 8/26/2010
- by THE LEGION fan network
- Legions of Gotham
Long Beach, CA—Musical Theatre West opens its 57th season with Meet Me In St. Louis, the stage adaptation of the beloved Judy Garland classic. Previews of this production begin on October 30th and opens October 31, 2009 and runs through November 15, 2009 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.
Meet Me In St. Louis is a rare treasure in musical theatre and is based on the heartwarming 1944 MGM film starring Judy Garland. This show harkens back to a simpler, sepia-tinted time as the story follows the Smith family at the 1904 World's Fair. We see how their love and respect for each other is tempered with the genuine humor that can only be generated by such a close family. According to Mtw producers, Meet Me In St. Louis is "perfect for the entire family!" This production with lavish costumes and Victorian sets also includes classic musical numbers, "The Boy Next Door,...
Meet Me In St. Louis is a rare treasure in musical theatre and is based on the heartwarming 1944 MGM film starring Judy Garland. This show harkens back to a simpler, sepia-tinted time as the story follows the Smith family at the 1904 World's Fair. We see how their love and respect for each other is tempered with the genuine humor that can only be generated by such a close family. According to Mtw producers, Meet Me In St. Louis is "perfect for the entire family!" This production with lavish costumes and Victorian sets also includes classic musical numbers, "The Boy Next Door,...
- 10/31/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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