Billy Wilder always more or less disowned his one real musical, which leaves the enthusiast with a choice: keep re-watching the classic Wilder films, of which there are many, or probe into the obscure, disreputable corners of the great man's oeuvre?The year was 1948. Wilder had been involved with the war effort. Lost Weekend had belatedly come out in 1945 and won an Oscar for Ray Milland. And while the rest of Hollywood was churning out movies that developed the film noir genre Wilder had helped launch with Double Indemnity, he made a Bing Crosby musical set in Austria. He claimed it was offered to him, but the script is credited to Wilder and Charles Brackett, so he can't distance himself that easily."On a December night, some forty-odd years ago, His Majesty Franz Joseph the First, Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia,...
- 9/27/2017
- MUBI
The biggest, most lavish hook-up between Hollywood and the Pentagon was this Anthony Mann-James Stewart collaboration, a morale & recruiting cheer for America's intercontinental bombing air force, the service that kept the peace by holding up our side of the balance of fear. Strategic Air Command Blu-ray Olive Films 1955 / Color / 1:66 widescreen (VistaVision) / 112 min. / Street Date October 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sullivan, Alex Nicol, Bruce Bennett, Jay C. Flippen, James Millican, James Bell, Rosemary DeCamp, Harry Morgan, William Hudson, Strother Martin, House Peters Jr. Cinematography William Daniels Film Editor Eda Warren Original Music Victor Young Written by Valentine Davies, Beirne Lay, Jr. Produced by Samuel J. Briskin Directed by Anthony Mann
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1950s America was spending its enormous military budget on a fantastic array of advanced weapons technology, the most expensive of which was...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1950s America was spending its enormous military budget on a fantastic array of advanced weapons technology, the most expensive of which was...
- 10/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Billy Wilder movies, Johnny Carson interviews tonight on TCM Billy Wilder is Turner Classic Movies’ Director of the Evening tonight, July 8, 2013. But before Wilder Evening begins, TCM will be presenting a series of brief interviews from The Tonight Show, back in the old Johnny Carson days — or rather, nights. The Carson interviewees this evening are Doris Day, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis, Chevy Chase, and Steve Martin. (See also: Doris Day today.) (Photo: Billy Wilder.) As for Billy Wilder, TCM will be showing the following: Some Like It Hot (1959), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Spirit of St. Louis (1958), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Of course, all of those have been shown before and are widely available. Some Like It Hot vs. The Major and the Minor: Subversive and subversiver Some Like It Hot is perhaps Billy Wilder’s best-known film. This broad comedy featuring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis...
- 7/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Stage and screen actor John Kerr died February 2, at age 81, from heart failure, according to the Associated Press. Kerr starred in the movies "South Pacific," and "The Pit and the Pendulum." One role Kerr did not play was Charles Lindbergh, as he turned down the role in "The Spirit of St. Louis," due to his lack of respect for Lindbergh's early support of the Nazi regime. The role eventually went to James Stewart.
His best known work was on the stage, though, as a prep school student, bullied after being suspected as a homosexual, in the 1953 Broadway production, "Tea and Sympathy." The role won Kerr a Tony Award in 1954, and he went on to reprise the role in a film version of the play in 1956.
Having attended Harvard, and UCLA Law School, Kerr also played a district attorney in the 1960s on TV's "Peyton Place." When he retired from show business,...
His best known work was on the stage, though, as a prep school student, bullied after being suspected as a homosexual, in the 1953 Broadway production, "Tea and Sympathy." The role won Kerr a Tony Award in 1954, and he went on to reprise the role in a film version of the play in 1956.
Having attended Harvard, and UCLA Law School, Kerr also played a district attorney in the 1960s on TV's "Peyton Place." When he retired from show business,...
- 2/12/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Kerr in the 1958 box-office blockbuster musical South Pacific (seen above with love interest France Nuyen) and his (few) other post-Tea and Sympathy efforts [Please check out the previous article: "The Two Kerrs in the stage and film versions of Tea and Sympathy."] Director Curtis Bernhardt's Gaby (1956) was a generally disliked remake of Waterloo Bridge, with Kerr and leading lady Leslie Caron in the old Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh roles (1940 movie version -- and even older Douglass Montgomery and Mae Clarke roles in the 1931 film version). Jeffrey Hayden's The Vintage (1957), starring Kerr and Mel Ferrer absurdly cast as Italian brothers, also failed to generate much box-office or critical interest. MGM leading lady Pier Angeli played Ferrer's love interest in the film, while the more mature and married French star Michèle Morgan (a plot element similar to that found in Tea and Sympathy) is Kerr's object of desire. (Pictured above: South Pacific cast members John Kerr and France Nuyen embracing.) Also in the mid-'50s, John Kerr...
- 2/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted tonight to present Honorary Awards to stunt performer Hal Needham, documentarian D. A. Pennebaker and arts advocate George Stevens, Jr., and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to philanthropist Jeffrey Katzenberg. All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 4th Annual Governors Awards dinner on Saturday, December 1, at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®.
Hal Needham is a legendary stunt performer and coordinator who has worked on more than 300 feature films including “The Spirit of St. Louis,” “How the West Was Won,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Little Big Man” and “Chinatown.” A pioneer in improving stunt technology and safety procedures, Needham also co-founded Stunts Unlimited, and is known for mentoring young stunt performers. In 1986, the Academy presented Needham with a Scientific and Engineering Award for the design and development of the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane,...
Hal Needham is a legendary stunt performer and coordinator who has worked on more than 300 feature films including “The Spirit of St. Louis,” “How the West Was Won,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Little Big Man” and “Chinatown.” A pioneer in improving stunt technology and safety procedures, Needham also co-founded Stunts Unlimited, and is known for mentoring young stunt performers. In 1986, the Academy presented Needham with a Scientific and Engineering Award for the design and development of the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane,...
- 9/6/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Stuntman Hal Needham boasts in his autobiography that he “broke 56 bones, my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth.”
Those are the trophies from a life spent falling off horses, crashing cars, and plummeting from buildings for the sake of the movies. Now he can add a less painful one to the list — an honorary Academy Award.
Needham, 81, is one of four Hollywood figures selected late Wednesday to receive an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the upcoming Governors Awards, joining documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, American Film Institute founder George Stevens,...
Those are the trophies from a life spent falling off horses, crashing cars, and plummeting from buildings for the sake of the movies. Now he can add a less painful one to the list — an honorary Academy Award.
Needham, 81, is one of four Hollywood figures selected late Wednesday to receive an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the upcoming Governors Awards, joining documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, American Film Institute founder George Stevens,...
- 9/6/2012
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW - Inside Movies
Beverly Hills, CA – The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted tonight to present Honorary Awards to stunt performer Hal Needham, documentarian D. A. Pennebaker and arts advocate George Stevens, Jr., and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to philanthropist Jeffrey Katzenberg. All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 4th Annual Governors Awards dinner on Saturday, December 1, at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®. Hal Needham is a legendary stunt performer and coordinator who has worked on more than 300 feature films including “The Spirit of St. Louis,” “How the West Was Won,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Little Big Man” and “Chinatown.” A pioneer in improving stunt technology and safety procedures, Needham also co-founded Stunts Unlimited, and is known for mentoring young stunt performers. In 1986, the Academy presented Needham with a Scientific and Engineering Award for the design and development of the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane,...
- 9/6/2012
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline Hollywood
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors voted Wednesday night to present honorary awards to stunt performer Hal Needham, documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and arts advocate George Stevens Jr. and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to philanthropist Jeffrey Katzenberg. Stunt performer and coordinator Needham has worked on more than 30 films, including The Spirit of St. Louis, How the West Was Won, Blazing Saddles, Little Big Man and Chinatown. The co-founder of Stunts Unlimited and a mentor to young stunt performers, he earned the Academy's Scientific and Engineering Award in 1986 for the design and
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- 9/6/2012
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films being made available by Netflix for instant streaming. Important Note: There may be some films that do not become available on the specified dates. This is merely a report of the most accurate release dates I can find, but is not directly confirmed by Netflix themselves.
American: The Bill Hicks Story (2010)
Streaming Available: 06/29/2011
Synopsis: Since his tragic death from cancer at age 32, comedian Bill Hicks’s legend and stature have only grown, and this unique documentary tells his story, blending live footage, interviews and animation to fill in the details of a life cut short. A comic’s comic and unflagging critic of hypocrisy and cultural emptiness, Hicks was one of a kind, a Lenny Bruce for the late 20th century,...
American: The Bill Hicks Story (2010)
Streaming Available: 06/29/2011
Synopsis: Since his tragic death from cancer at age 32, comedian Bill Hicks’s legend and stature have only grown, and this unique documentary tells his story, blending live footage, interviews and animation to fill in the details of a life cut short. A comic’s comic and unflagging critic of hypocrisy and cultural emptiness, Hicks was one of a kind, a Lenny Bruce for the late 20th century,...
- 6/28/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
From aerial bravery in Wwi to Tom Cruise in an F-14 Tomcat, Mark lists his top ten all-time favourite flying movies…
This is a personal list, and as such, won't please everyone. I accept that, but I wanted to look at the films that have best represented flying for me over the years.
I've also excluded helicopters in exchange for a festival of fixed wings. But as a person who loves aircraft and flying of all kinds, these are the ones that made me feel the need. The need for speed...
The Dam Busters (1955)
Gosh, what a place to start. For the most part, the film's an historically accurate retelling of the ultimate daring-do of WWII. Richard Todd plays the unflappable Guy Gibson, who lead the amazing 617 Squadron on their secret mission against the dams of the Ruhr valley.
Using the Barnes Wallis (played by Michael Redgrave) utterly inspired bouncing bomb,...
This is a personal list, and as such, won't please everyone. I accept that, but I wanted to look at the films that have best represented flying for me over the years.
I've also excluded helicopters in exchange for a festival of fixed wings. But as a person who loves aircraft and flying of all kinds, these are the ones that made me feel the need. The need for speed...
The Dam Busters (1955)
Gosh, what a place to start. For the most part, the film's an historically accurate retelling of the ultimate daring-do of WWII. Richard Todd plays the unflappable Guy Gibson, who lead the amazing 617 Squadron on their secret mission against the dams of the Ruhr valley.
Using the Barnes Wallis (played by Michael Redgrave) utterly inspired bouncing bomb,...
- 6/21/2011
- Den of Geek
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