The episode of "The Twilight Zone" called "Once Upon a Time" is one of the show's attempts at comedy and, by most viewers' gauges, didn't really work. "Once Upon a Time" starred the silent film superstar and immortal filmmaker Buster Keaton as a sad sack janitor named Woodrow Mulligan living in a small middle-American town called Harmony in 1890. Mulligan hates the fancy-pants modern inventions like bicycles and resents that livestock roam the street. The 1890 sequences were filmed in the style of a silent movie with no dialogue, plinking piano music, and intertitles. Mulligan works for a mad scientist who has invented a time-travel helmet that can bring its wearer into the year 1961, but only for 30 minutes. Mulligan, desperate to see his hometown grown up, gives it a shot.
In the year 1961, now filmed with sound, Mulligan meets Rollo (Stanley Adams) a scientist who feels nostalgia for a simpler time, a...
In the year 1961, now filmed with sound, Mulligan meets Rollo (Stanley Adams) a scientist who feels nostalgia for a simpler time, a...
- 1/14/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Along with being one of the finest shows in the history of television, the original run of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" could function as a laboratory for advancements in visual effects. The often fantastical nature of the series, and Serling's desire to push the envelope of the still-developing medium's potential, was something of a creative sandbox for directors. As such, the show attracted not just aspiring young filmmakers like Richard Donner, Jack Smight, and Richard C. Sarafian, but established masters on the level of Jacques Tourneur, Don Siegel, and Norman Z. McLeod.
Douglas Heyes was more of a journeyman director when entered "The Twilight Zone." His experience and skill were highly valuable to Serling, who assigned him a total of nine episodes – the second most over the show's five seasons next to John Brahm's 12. Heyes' most celebrated episode is probably "Eye of the Beholder," the creepy tale...
Douglas Heyes was more of a journeyman director when entered "The Twilight Zone." His experience and skill were highly valuable to Serling, who assigned him a total of nine episodes – the second most over the show's five seasons next to John Brahm's 12. Heyes' most celebrated episode is probably "Eye of the Beholder," the creepy tale...
- 11/19/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
In film history, the anthology genre is the most challenging. Episodic films often have several directors and screenwriters which gives them an inconsistent tone and quality. But the genre’s pitfalls haven’t stopped such filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa (“Dreams”), the Coens (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”); Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (“New York Stories”); and Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg (“Twilight Zone: The Movie”).
Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...
Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...
- 10/30/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Paleface
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1948 / 91 min.
Starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell
Cinematography by Ray Rennahan
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
In 1934 Al Christie directed Going Spanish, a 19 minute farce billed as “An Educational Musical Comedy.” The movie is notable only for the film debut of Bob Hope whose wisecracks about the movie’s incompetence provoked Christie to cancel the comedian’s contract. Another filmmaker made his mark with the irascible producer too—Norman Z. McLeod got his feet wet working as title cartoonist for a series of silent films known as Christie’s Comedies. Pretty soon McLeod would be dealing with funny men in the flesh; W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Danny Kaye and Hope himself. He would direct—and with those particular artists, “manage” might be a more appropriate term—some of the greatest comedies to emerge from the studio system.
McLeod’s technique, a hands-off approach that was the opposite of showy,...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1948 / 91 min.
Starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell
Cinematography by Ray Rennahan
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
In 1934 Al Christie directed Going Spanish, a 19 minute farce billed as “An Educational Musical Comedy.” The movie is notable only for the film debut of Bob Hope whose wisecracks about the movie’s incompetence provoked Christie to cancel the comedian’s contract. Another filmmaker made his mark with the irascible producer too—Norman Z. McLeod got his feet wet working as title cartoonist for a series of silent films known as Christie’s Comedies. Pretty soon McLeod would be dealing with funny men in the flesh; W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Danny Kaye and Hope himself. He would direct—and with those particular artists, “manage” might be a more appropriate term—some of the greatest comedies to emerge from the studio system.
McLeod’s technique, a hands-off approach that was the opposite of showy,...
- 9/5/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Bob Hope’S 10 Gallon Hats”
By Raymond Benson
Sometimes a little Bob Hope goes a long way. There’s no denying that Hope was one of the more popular comic stars of the 1940s and 50s. His star began to wane in the 60s, and then most of the Baby Boomer generation knew him as perhaps the greatest host that the Academy Awards ceremony ever had.
During Hope’s most active years, he made many solo pictures that were truly funny. He was also established as Bing Crosby’s partner in the massively successful “Road to…” movies, which arguably launched Hope’s career as a leading or co-leading man in 1940. When the scripts and direction were good, then Hope’s solo films were superb. That was not always the case.
The Paleface (1948) was co-written by Frank Tashlin (with Edmund Hartmann), who would also...
“Bob Hope’S 10 Gallon Hats”
By Raymond Benson
Sometimes a little Bob Hope goes a long way. There’s no denying that Hope was one of the more popular comic stars of the 1940s and 50s. His star began to wane in the 60s, and then most of the Baby Boomer generation knew him as perhaps the greatest host that the Academy Awards ceremony ever had.
During Hope’s most active years, he made many solo pictures that were truly funny. He was also established as Bing Crosby’s partner in the massively successful “Road to…” movies, which arguably launched Hope’s career as a leading or co-leading man in 1940. When the scripts and direction were good, then Hope’s solo films were superb. That was not always the case.
The Paleface (1948) was co-written by Frank Tashlin (with Edmund Hartmann), who would also...
- 8/15/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Alice in Wonderland
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.
Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper
Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.
Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper
Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both...
- 6/6/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
"Wtf Value"
By Raymond Benson
Only serious film history aficionados and perhaps viewers of Turner Classic Movies will be aware that there was once a live-action version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland adapted by Hollywood in the early pre-code years. It was released in 1933 by Paramount and directed by Norman Z. McLeod, the guy who had helmed the Marx Brothers’ comedies Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). McLeod would go on to make such titles as It’s a Gift (1934), Topper (1937), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and The Paleface (1948).
The production of Alice in 1933 boasts a screenplay by none other than heavyweights Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the man behind Things to Come and a production designer whose hands were all over Hollywood and British productions over the next two decades. The script also borrows heavily from the popular and then-current stage production written by Eva La Gallienne and Florida Friebus,...
By Raymond Benson
Only serious film history aficionados and perhaps viewers of Turner Classic Movies will be aware that there was once a live-action version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland adapted by Hollywood in the early pre-code years. It was released in 1933 by Paramount and directed by Norman Z. McLeod, the guy who had helmed the Marx Brothers’ comedies Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). McLeod would go on to make such titles as It’s a Gift (1934), Topper (1937), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and The Paleface (1948).
The production of Alice in 1933 boasts a screenplay by none other than heavyweights Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the man behind Things to Come and a production designer whose hands were all over Hollywood and British productions over the next two decades. The script also borrows heavily from the popular and then-current stage production written by Eva La Gallienne and Florida Friebus,...
- 5/18/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It's been said of L. Frank Baum, perhaps not quite fairly, that everything he ever did involving the fantasy kingdom of Oz was a huge success, and everything he did without it was a calamitous disaster. Certainly he made a bit of money late in life as the producer of Oz-themed silent movies, before he died and his son bankrupted the company, showing that only one Baum had the magic touch.The first Oz short of 1910, Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz is actually the closest, plot-wise, to the familiar 1939 version, and it has a cool cast, including nine-year-old Bebe Daniels as Dorothy and future director Norman Z. McLeod as the Scarecrow. But Baum really hit his stride as a mogul four years later, with the release of three feature films, in the year when features had only just started appearing in America. And His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz,...
- 2/28/2018
- MUBI
They’re non-corporeal cut-ups, rich ghosts on the town with nothing better to do than spice up the love life of Roland Young’s harried, henpecked bank president. Hal Roach’s screwball hit did good things for everybody concerned, especially star Cary Grant and bit player Arthur Lake. But the show’s nostalgic heart is Billie Burke, of the tinkly-glass voice. Also starring platinum blonde Constance Bennett, Alan Mowbray and Eugene Pallette.
Topper
Blu-ray
Vci
1937 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Street Date October, 2017 / 20.99
Starring: Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray, Eugene Pallette, Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper, Virginia Sale, Theodore von Eltz, J. Farrell MacDonald, Elaine Shepard, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Lana Turner, Russell Wade, Claire Windsor.
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Film Editor: William Terhune
Art Director: William Stevens
Original Music: Marvin Hatley
Written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch, Eddie Moran from a novel by Thorne Smith...
Topper
Blu-ray
Vci
1937 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Street Date October, 2017 / 20.99
Starring: Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray, Eugene Pallette, Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper, Virginia Sale, Theodore von Eltz, J. Farrell MacDonald, Elaine Shepard, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Lana Turner, Russell Wade, Claire Windsor.
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Film Editor: William Terhune
Art Director: William Stevens
Original Music: Marvin Hatley
Written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch, Eddie Moran from a novel by Thorne Smith...
- 10/17/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
You pick up a lot of baggage when you live to be 100, a sentiment confirmed by the long, long movie career of Bob Hope. His unofficial status as the preeminent entertainer of the 20th century is open to debate but he was without a doubt that era’s most conspicuous comedian. Marlon Brando’s infamous dismissal, “He’ll go to the opening of a market to receive an award”, was mean-spirited but it had the sting of truth; for over eighty years Hope was everywhere, for better or worse.
Living up to his nickname, “Rapid Robert”, the 31-year old Hope shot out of the gate in 1934 with a series of quick-on-their feet comic shorts revolving around his unique presence as a leading man and comical sidekick rolled into one. It wasn’t long before he was starring in pleasantly prosaic musicals like The Big Broadcast of 1938 and handsomely mounted...
Living up to his nickname, “Rapid Robert”, the 31-year old Hope shot out of the gate in 1934 with a series of quick-on-their feet comic shorts revolving around his unique presence as a leading man and comical sidekick rolled into one. It wasn’t long before he was starring in pleasantly prosaic musicals like The Big Broadcast of 1938 and handsomely mounted...
- 8/15/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
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
Above: 1960s French stock poster for Marx Brothers revivals.This weekend New York’s Film Forum begins a week-long series entitled The Marx Brothers & The Golden Age of Vaudeville which is as good an excuse as any to look at the representation of the greatest sibling comedy team in cinema through movie posters. It has long been a tradition in movie poster illustration to render comedy stars as caricatures—often with oversized heads on small bodies—and Groucho, Harpo and Chico were a caricaturist’s dream. (Zeppo, the straight man, less so, but he left the act after Duck Soup in 1933, and re-release posters for the films he appeared in tend to ignore him, as in the Belgian Duck Soup and the Danish Horse Feathers below). With their distinctive props—Groucho’s oversized greasepaint mustache and cigar, Harpo’s curly blonde wig and Chico’s Alpine hat—the threesome could...
- 9/23/2016
- MUBI
Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...
- 8/26/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Groucho Marx in 'Duck Soup.' Groucho Marx movies: 'Duck Soup,' 'The Story of Mankind' and romancing Margaret Dumont on TCM Grouch Marx, the bespectacled, (painted) mustached, cigar-chomping Marx brother, is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 14, '15. Marx Brothers fans will be delighted, as TCM is presenting no less than 11 of their comedies, in addition to a brotherly reunion in the 1957 all-star fantasy The Story of Mankind. Non-Marx Brothers fans should be delighted as well – as long as they're fans of Kay Francis, Thelma Todd, Ann Miller, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Allan Jones, affectionate, long-tongued giraffes, and/or that great, scene-stealing dowager, Margaret Dumont. Right now, TCM is showing Robert Florey and Joseph Santley's The Cocoanuts (1929), an early talkie notable as the first movie featuring the four Marx Brothers – Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo. Based on their hit Broadway...
- 8/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rex Ingram in 'The Thief of Bagdad' 1940 with tiny Sabu. Actor Rex Ingram movies on TCM: Early black film performer in 'Cabin in the Sky,' 'Anna Lucasta' It's somewhat unusual for two well-known film celebrities, whether past or present, to share the same name.* One such rarity is – or rather, are – the two movie people known as Rex Ingram;† one an Irish-born white director, the other an Illinois-born black actor. Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” continues today, Aug. 11, '15, with a day dedicated to the latter. Right now, TCM is showing Cabin in the Sky (1943), an all-black musical adaptation of the Faust tale that is notable as the first full-fledged feature film directed by another Illinois-born movie person, Vincente Minnelli. Also worth mentioning, the movie marked Lena Horne's first important appearance in a mainstream motion picture.§ A financial disappointment on the...
- 8/12/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cary Grant movies: 'An Affair to Remember' does justice to its title (photo: Cary Grant ca. late 1940s) Cary Grant excelled at playing Cary Grant. This evening, fans of the charming, sophisticated, debonair actor -- not to be confused with the Bristol-born Archibald Leach -- can rejoice, as no less than eight Cary Grant movies are being shown on Turner Classic Movies, including a handful of his most successful and best-remembered star vehicles from the late '30s to the late '50s. (See also: "Cary Grant Classic Movies" and "Cary Grant and Randolph Scott: Gay Lovers?") The evening begins with what may well be Cary Grant's best-known film, An Affair to Remember. This 1957 romantic comedy-melodrama is unusual in that it's an even more successful remake of a previous critical and box-office hit -- the Academy Award-nominated 1939 release Love Affair -- and that it was directed...
- 12/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Three significant early Paramount comedies make an appearance in our Great Global Search, Horse Feathers and Monkey Business starring the Marx Brothers and It’s A Gift with W.C. Fields. Groucho and company are nothing less than essential but in the grand scheme of things, Fields’ dysfunctional family portrait stands apart from its contemporaries as one of the greatest comedies of all time.
The plot line is merely a thread; Harold Bissonette, an embattled New Jersey grocer makes plans to move his reluctant family to a recently purchased orange grove in California. The action is bare-bones as well, detailing the mundane daily regimen of poor Harold, at home, at work and even in bed; nearly fifteen minutes of the film’s 68 minute running time focuses on the persecuted shopkeeper simply trying to fall asleep.
Fields generally worked within one of two personas, the scheming, bellicose carnival barker or the put-upon...
The plot line is merely a thread; Harold Bissonette, an embattled New Jersey grocer makes plans to move his reluctant family to a recently purchased orange grove in California. The action is bare-bones as well, detailing the mundane daily regimen of poor Harold, at home, at work and even in bed; nearly fifteen minutes of the film’s 68 minute running time focuses on the persecuted shopkeeper simply trying to fall asleep.
Fields generally worked within one of two personas, the scheming, bellicose carnival barker or the put-upon...
- 3/29/2014
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
★★☆☆☆Ben Stiller directs and stars in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), this festive season's family-friendly dramedy. Based on a short story by James Thurber - already adapted for the big screen by Norman Z. McLeod back in 1947 - this romanticised wish fulfilment adventure attempts to reconfigure the idealist spirit and creativity of Thurber's prose and synchronise it to today's disenfranchised generation. Yet the original story's denotation of an ineffectual individual who spends time fantasising about imagined heroism to escape the banalities of the real world feels redundant in Stiller's cloyingly pedestrian take.
- 12/26/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Betty Hutton: Annie Get Your Gun and dancing with Fred Astaire (Photo: Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun) [See previous post: "Betty Hutton Movies: 'It Had to Be You.'"] Betty Hutton’s career would reach its peak in 1950: Top billed, she danced with Fred Astaire in Norman Z. McLeod’s aptly titled Let’s Dance. Though not a great movie, the pairing with Astaire signaled prestige; the Rko-turned-mgm star was certainly more well-regarded than the likes of Sonny Tufts, John Lund, Don DeFore, or Macdonald Carey. That same year, Betty Hutton replaced a problematic Judy Garland in MGM’s George Sidney-directed film version of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun. Of note: On Broadway, the role of Annie Oakley had been played by none other than Hutton’s Panama Hattie nemesis, Ethel Merman. Annie Get Your Gun was to be one of MGM’s biggest productions of the year. Hutton was even featured on the cover of Time magazine,...
- 6/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We all know that the issue of marriage equality is quite divisive, generating various sorts of responses and stances. Gay marriage is now official in places as diverse as Canada, Argentina, Australia, Mexico City, and Washington State, but it's all but unthinkable (at least for the time being) in places such as China, Nigeria, Iran, Texas, and Arkansas. Brad Pitt's mother and Angelina Jolie's father (that's Oscar-winning actor and Midnight Cowboy star Jon Voight) are totally against it, while Clint Eastwood doesn't give a damn about who gets hitched to whom. Unlike the Dirty Harry star, a former MGM contract player in the '40s -- that's Marsha Hunt (please see more info about her dozens of films further down) and a political activist in the last several decades, does very much care. (Pictured above: Hunt and documentarian Roger C. Memos, currently working on a project about the blacklisted actress.
- 3/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Director Robert Altman.
Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...
Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...
- 2/15/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Algiers Hedy Lamarr can be seen later this month on Turner Classic Movies: I Take This Woman (1940) will be shown on Saturday, April 28, and The Conspirators (1944) on Monday, April 30. I Take This Woman was a troubled production that took so long to make — W.S. Van Dyke replaced Frank Borzage who had replaced original director Josef von Sternberg — that punsters called it "I Retake This Woman." Spencer Tracy co-stars as a doctor who marries European refugee Lamarr. Jean Negulesco’s The Conspirators has several elements in common with Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, including an "exotic" World War II setting (in this case, Lisbon), conflicting loyalties, male lead Paul Henreid, and supporting players Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Curiously, at one point Lamarr had been considered for the Casablanca role that eventually went to Ingrid Bergman. Neither I Take This Woman nor The Conspirators did much for Hedy Lamarr’s Hollywood career.
- 4/24/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Two more names have been added to the cast of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Kathryn Hahn and Josh Charles (photo) will be joining actor-director Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, and Shirley MacLaine in the 20th Century Fox production. Hahn is to play Stiller's sister in the movie. Charles will play Wiig's ex-husband. Among Kathryn Hahn's movies are two box-office bombs starring Paul Rudd, Wanderlust and My Idiot Brother. Hahn also had roles in the Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio drama Revolutionary Road, the Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and in Robert Shaye's family drama The Last Mimzy. Among Josh Charles' movie credits are Peter Weir's Oscar-nominated Dead Poets Society, Pie in the Sky, S.W.A.T., and Weakness. On television, Charles is a The Good Wife regular. Based on a story by James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty...
- 4/5/2012
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
See Video - Clips from the top ten movies banned in Ireland Read more: The worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies Ireland had a long history of banning films, but even some in recent time caught the attention of the censor. Here are the top ten movies to be banned: 1. Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) Stanley Kubrick's famous "Clockwork Orange" was banned in Ireland until 2000. Adapted from Anthony Burgess' best-selling novel the movie tells the story of Alex and his gang of violent 'droogs' who kill tramps and rape women. The movie became infamous for inciting copycat behavior. This was thought to be the reason that Stanley Kubrick withdrew the movie in Britain. However, after his death his wife Christiane revealed that he pulled the film because his family had received death threats. 2. From Dusk Till Dawn (Robert Rodriguez, 1996) This movie starring George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and Salma Hayek...
- 8/8/2011
- IrishCentral
See Video - Clips from the top ten movies banned in Ireland Read more: The worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies Ireland had a long history of banning films, but even some in recent time caught the attention of the censor. Here are the top ten movies to be banned: 1. Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) Stanley Kubrick's famous "Clockwork Orange" was banned in Ireland until 2000. Adapted from Anthony Burgess' best-selling novel the movie tells the story of Alex and his gang of violent 'droogs' who kill tramps and rape women. The movie became infamous for inciting copycat behavior. This was thought to be the reason that Stanley Kubrick withdrew the movie in Britain. However, after his death his wife Christiane revealed that he pulled the film because his family had received death threats. 2. From Dusk Till Dawn (Robert Rodriguez, 1996) This movie starring George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and Salma Hayek...
- 2/8/2011
- IrishCentral
The Hollywood Reporter has the list of this year's selections for the National Film Registry. Selected by the Library of Congress, these "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant will be preserved forever to ensure their availability for future generations of cineastes.
The roster this year runs the gamut, from early silents (like 1906's actuality "A Trip Down Market Street") to the avant-garde (like Larry's Jordan's 1969 collage film "Our Lady of the Sphere") to mainstream blockbusters (like disco hallmark "Saturday Night Fever"). Interestingly, there's quite a few contributions this year from major filmmakers who've recently passed away, from directors Irvin Kershner ("The Empire Strikes Back") and Blake Edwards ("The Pink Panther") to actor Leslie Nielsen ("Airplane!").
Here's the full list of the newly inducted members of the National Film Registry. All links will take you to their IMDb page (if you're interested in more detailed descriptions of all the films, you...
The roster this year runs the gamut, from early silents (like 1906's actuality "A Trip Down Market Street") to the avant-garde (like Larry's Jordan's 1969 collage film "Our Lady of the Sphere") to mainstream blockbusters (like disco hallmark "Saturday Night Fever"). Interestingly, there's quite a few contributions this year from major filmmakers who've recently passed away, from directors Irvin Kershner ("The Empire Strikes Back") and Blake Edwards ("The Pink Panther") to actor Leslie Nielsen ("Airplane!").
Here's the full list of the newly inducted members of the National Film Registry. All links will take you to their IMDb page (if you're interested in more detailed descriptions of all the films, you...
- 12/28/2010
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
Groucho Marx, Thelma Todd in Norman Z. McLeod‘s Monkey Business Thelma Todd on TCM: The Maltese Falcon Schedule (Pt) and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Broadminded (1931) A rejected suitor leaves town and gets mixed up in an international chase. Cast: Joe E. Brown, Ona Munson, Bela Lugosi. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Bw-72 mins. 4:15 Am Son Of A Sailor (1933) A lovesick fool bumbles into espionage and finds a stolen plane. Cast: Joe E. Brown, Jean Muir, Thelma Todd. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Bw-73 mins. 5:30 Am Real McCoy, The (1930) Charlie pretends to be a hillbilly to impress country girl Thelma Todd in hopes of making her his girlfriend. Cast: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd Dir: Warren Doane Bw-21 mins. 6:00 Am Short Film: Whispering Whoopee (1930) Charley hires three "party girls" to help him land a business deal. Cast: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd Dir: James W. Horne Bw-21 mins. 6:30 [...]...
- 8/30/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We decided to start our little research of immortal young lady Alice in Wonderland, that still, after exactly 145 years, has a power to inspire directors all over the world.
You all guess that the main reason for this certainly is the latest, Tim Burton’s new incarnation of this story.
But let’s start from a beginning. We were all young, we all liked fairy-tales (well, some of us still do), and enjoyed so many characters, we all had our special heroes. Then, what’s so magical about this story, when it still manages to stay on the top of the list?
Ok, we all know the facts, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is written by the English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who used a pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The story tells what happens to a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world which is populated...
You all guess that the main reason for this certainly is the latest, Tim Burton’s new incarnation of this story.
But let’s start from a beginning. We were all young, we all liked fairy-tales (well, some of us still do), and enjoyed so many characters, we all had our special heroes. Then, what’s so magical about this story, when it still manages to stay on the top of the list?
Ok, we all know the facts, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is written by the English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who used a pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The story tells what happens to a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world which is populated...
- 3/13/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
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