Jack Warner had been shouldering in on credit from one of his studio’s top producers. At least that’s what Hal Wallis may have told you after the 1944 Academy Awards when Jack Warner accepted the Casablanca Oscar that some felt should have been palmed by Wallis, the Warner Bros. film’s producer. But who should accept the best picture award? Today it’s the producers, but during Hollywood’s Golden Age it was sometimes the producer, sometimes the studio chief.
Wallis had been with the company for many years, first joining the studio in 1923, their first year of incorporation. Soon, Wallis was managing essential Warner films such as Little Caesar (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1937), Dark Victory (1939), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and, of course, Casablanca (1942). Despite being released in late 1942, Casablanca didn’t go into wide release until early 1943 and wasn’t...
Wallis had been with the company for many years, first joining the studio in 1923, their first year of incorporation. Soon, Wallis was managing essential Warner films such as Little Caesar (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1937), Dark Victory (1939), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and, of course, Casablanca (1942). Despite being released in late 1942, Casablanca didn’t go into wide release until early 1943 and wasn’t...
- 3/7/2024
- by Chris Yogerst
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Academy Awards grew up at the 16th annual ceremony March 2, 1944. Since the first Oscar ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Blossom Room in 1929, the Academy Awards were small banquet ceremonies for La La Land movers and shakers. But that all changed 80 years ago. World War II was in its third year and movies meant more than ever to war-weary audiences.
So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.
So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.
- 1/23/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Put your pencils down, and pass your ballots to the front. The nominations voting period for the 96th Academy Awards is now closed. The latest influences on the race came from the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, where Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” topped both groups. However, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” has shown considerable strength, and films such as Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” and Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” are picking up momentum.
Variety spoke with dozens of voters from all of the Academy’s branches, asking what films and performances were resonating with members and their acquaintances.
Here are eight things I’ve learned from discussions with AMPAS members.
AMPAS could see a record-breaking showing in best picture for female directors.
The Producers Guild of America nominated three movies directed by women: “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie” and “Past Lives.
Variety spoke with dozens of voters from all of the Academy’s branches, asking what films and performances were resonating with members and their acquaintances.
Here are eight things I’ve learned from discussions with AMPAS members.
AMPAS could see a record-breaking showing in best picture for female directors.
The Producers Guild of America nominated three movies directed by women: “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie” and “Past Lives.
- 1/17/2024
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Fritz Lang’s first American picture is a searing social statement out of message-averse Hollywood. It’s also a cinematic landmark, packed with innovative visual concepts. Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy have great appeal as lovers torn apart by vigilante violence, and Tracy’s very Langian hero pulls off a ‘return from the dead’ to serve as an avenging angel. It’s one of the talkies’ earliest direct attacks on America’s plague of lynching, a liberal assault that even the Production Code couldn’t stop — the show took the ‘social issue drama’ to new heights, even as Fritz Lang didn’t find favor with the Hollywood studio system. Also starring Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot and Walter Brennan. CineSavant presents the evidence of MGM tampering at the conclusion, that changes the film’s message and meaning.
Fury
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1936 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 92 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 9, 2021 / 21.99
Starring Sylvia Sidney,...
Fury
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1936 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 92 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 9, 2021 / 21.99
Starring Sylvia Sidney,...
- 11/21/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
William Wellman, known for “adult” westerns like The Ox-Bow Incident, continues in that mode with an Old West fable based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Gregory Peck and Richard Widmark are outlaws who find sanctuary in a ghost town ruled by Anne Baxter and her prospecting grandfather. Sumptuous black and white cinematography by Joseph MacDonald who specialized in film noir.
The post Yellow Sky appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Yellow Sky appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 7/5/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) turns 90 this weekend. When the film first came out, a theater in Times Square showed it nonstop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The movie marks the true beginning of gangster movies as a genre. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar may have hit theaters first, but The Public Enemy set the pattern, and James Cagney nailed the patter. Not just the street talk either; he also understood its machine gun delivery. His Tommy Powers is just a hoodlum, never a boss. He is a button man at best, even if he insisted his suits have six buttons.
The Public Enemy character wasn’t even as high up the ladder as Paul Sorvino’s caporegime Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. But Cagney secured the turf Edward G. Robinson’s Rico Bandello took a bullet to claim in Little Caesar, and for the...
The Public Enemy character wasn’t even as high up the ladder as Paul Sorvino’s caporegime Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. But Cagney secured the turf Edward G. Robinson’s Rico Bandello took a bullet to claim in Little Caesar, and for the...
- 4/23/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Paul Greengrass’ western drama “New of the World” starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel is gaining traction during this pandemic awards season despite the fact that sagebrush sagas often get short shrift at the Oscars. Only three traditional Westerns — 1931’s “Cimarron,” 1990’s “Dances with Wolves” and 1992’s “Unforgiven” — and one contemporary Western (2007’s “No Country for Old Men”) have won the Best Picture Oscar.
Among the oaters to be nominated for the top prize at the Academy Awards: John Ford’s 1939 “Stagecoach,” William A. Wellman’s 1943 “The Ox-Bow Incident,” Fred Zinnemann’s 1952’s “High Noon” (Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor), George Stevens’ 1953 “Shane”; 1960’s “The Alamo;” 1962’s “How the West Was Won”; and George Roy Hill’s 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
But some of the most acclaimed, treasure and influential Westerns have been all but ignored. Here’s a look at some of the...
Among the oaters to be nominated for the top prize at the Academy Awards: John Ford’s 1939 “Stagecoach,” William A. Wellman’s 1943 “The Ox-Bow Incident,” Fred Zinnemann’s 1952’s “High Noon” (Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor), George Stevens’ 1953 “Shane”; 1960’s “The Alamo;” 1962’s “How the West Was Won”; and George Roy Hill’s 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
But some of the most acclaimed, treasure and influential Westerns have been all but ignored. Here’s a look at some of the...
- 1/12/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Our 100th Guest! Comedy icon Martin Short joins us to discuss a few of the movies that made him.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Innerspace (1987)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
On The Waterfront (1954)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Terms Of Endearment (1983)
Moby Dick (1956)
The Exorcist (1973)
King Kong (1933)
A History Of Violence (2005)
A Song To Remember (1945)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Oscar (1966)
Sleeper (1973)
Bananas (1971)
City Lights (1931)
September (1987)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Kiss Me Stupid (1964)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
The Bad And The Beautiful (1953)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Graduate (1967)
Klute (1971)
Blow-Up (1966)
Blow Out (1981)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Godfather Part III (1990)
Burn! (1970)
Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967)
Grease 2 (1982)
The Conversation (1974)
Back To The Future (1985)
Other Notable Items
Saturday Night Live TV...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Innerspace (1987)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
On The Waterfront (1954)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Terms Of Endearment (1983)
Moby Dick (1956)
The Exorcist (1973)
King Kong (1933)
A History Of Violence (2005)
A Song To Remember (1945)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Oscar (1966)
Sleeper (1973)
Bananas (1971)
City Lights (1931)
September (1987)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Kiss Me Stupid (1964)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
The Bad And The Beautiful (1953)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Graduate (1967)
Klute (1971)
Blow-Up (1966)
Blow Out (1981)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Godfather Part III (1990)
Burn! (1970)
Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967)
Grease 2 (1982)
The Conversation (1974)
Back To The Future (1985)
Other Notable Items
Saturday Night Live TV...
- 8/25/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: The Great Train RobberyThe western has been around since nearly the advent of cinema. Some of Thomas Edison’s earliest films incorporated standard conventions of the genre, established in preceding works of popular fiction, and other key tropes were solidified in Edwin S. Porter’s pioneering The Great Train Robbery (1903). Primarily originating on the East Coast, American motion picture production soon made its general migration west where the geographic consequences only amplified the form, enticing the likes of producers and directors including Thomas Ince and Cecil B. DeMille. The western swiftly flourished as an exuberant, manifold survey of idealized, often exaggerated themes concerning heroism, progress, and the myth of the American dream. The genre became a beloved compendium of cultural dichotomies, iconic symbols, locations, and character types, evincing countless variations alongside the tried and true.
- 7/21/2020
- MUBI
The Oscar winning co-writer and producer of Brokeback Mountain takes us on a cinematic journey through her life, and talks about the pleasures of writing with Larry McMurtry and Joe Bonnano, and what Ken Kesey’s favorite movie was.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Good Night, And Good Luck (2005)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Red River (1948)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Hud (1963)
Piranha (1978)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
They Drive By Night (1940)
Kings Row (1942)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
The Grapes of Wrath (1942)
Buffalo Bill (1944)
Laura (1944)
Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)
The Day of the Triffids (1963)
Moby Dick (1956)
Village of the Damned (1960)
Written on the Wind (1956)
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Brazil (1985)
Lost In La Mancha (2002)
The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys (1996)
The Fisher King (1991)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
A History of Violence...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Good Night, And Good Luck (2005)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Red River (1948)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Hud (1963)
Piranha (1978)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
They Drive By Night (1940)
Kings Row (1942)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
The Grapes of Wrath (1942)
Buffalo Bill (1944)
Laura (1944)
Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)
The Day of the Triffids (1963)
Moby Dick (1956)
Village of the Damned (1960)
Written on the Wind (1956)
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Brazil (1985)
Lost In La Mancha (2002)
The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys (1996)
The Fisher King (1991)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
A History of Violence...
- 6/23/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Right now, in this galaxy… featuring Lloyd Kaufman, Brad Simpson, Gilbert Hernandez, Grant Moninger and Blaire Bercy.
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Mondo Keazunt (1955)
The Human Tornado (1976)
Gigot (1962)
The Hustler (1961)
How to Commit Marriage (1969)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Last Man On Earth (1963)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
I Am Legend (2007)
Panic In Year Zero! (1962)
Dogtooth (2009)
The Entity (1983)
Shelf Life (1993)
The Killers (1964)
The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
Donovan’s Brain (1953)
Talk About A Stranger (1952)
Julius Caesar (1950)
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Jerk (1979)
Kings Row (1942)
Santa Fe Trail (1940
Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (19468)
Point Blank (1967)
House of Wax (1953)
Black Shampoo (1976)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Return To Oz (1985)
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
The Anderson Tapes (1971)
Psycho (1960)
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three...
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Mondo Keazunt (1955)
The Human Tornado (1976)
Gigot (1962)
The Hustler (1961)
How to Commit Marriage (1969)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Last Man On Earth (1963)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
I Am Legend (2007)
Panic In Year Zero! (1962)
Dogtooth (2009)
The Entity (1983)
Shelf Life (1993)
The Killers (1964)
The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)
Donovan’s Brain (1953)
Talk About A Stranger (1952)
Julius Caesar (1950)
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The Jerk (1979)
Kings Row (1942)
Santa Fe Trail (1940
Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (19468)
Point Blank (1967)
House of Wax (1953)
Black Shampoo (1976)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Return To Oz (1985)
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
The Anderson Tapes (1971)
Psycho (1960)
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three...
- 5/15/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
As the first wave of ‘adult’ westerns began to fade, 1959 gave us a burst of genuinely adult stories about the famed lawless towns of the frontier. Henry Fonda is at his moody best in a replay of his earlier Wyatt Earp, de-mythologized as just one more self-oriented opportunist in a land where even lawmen have an angle to play. But Fonda’s gun skills are impressive, and his deadly Clay Blaisedell is halfway to becoming the soulless ‘Frank’ from Once Upon a Time in The West. Edward Dmytryk almost rights his capsized directing career, and Robert Alan Aurthur’s screenplay delivers both an intense drama, & great gunslinging action.
Warlock
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1959 / Colo / 2:35 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, Richard Arlen, DeForest Kelley, Frank Gorshin, Vaughn Taylor, Don Beddoe, Whit Bissell,...
Warlock
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1959 / Colo / 2:35 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, Richard Arlen, DeForest Kelley, Frank Gorshin, Vaughn Taylor, Don Beddoe, Whit Bissell,...
- 6/1/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Now that one of Hollywood’s great studios, 20th Century Fox, has merged into another named Disney, let’s reflect, as a form of final tribute to a proud former stand-alone major, on one of Fox’s great legacies: its Oscars. Its track record with the Academy is far better than the studio that just swallowed it up.
Since 1937, when the fabled Pico Boulevard studio got its first-ever Best Picture nomination for In Old Chicago (a movie that also won Alice Brady only the second Best Supporting Actress Oscar ever given), there have been a remarkable 78 Best Picture nominations overall (by my count) and 12 wins beginning with the studio’s first Best Picture triumph in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley, a decision that still causes controversy even today since that venerable John Ford classic beat Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, considered now by many to be the greatest movie of all time.
Since 1937, when the fabled Pico Boulevard studio got its first-ever Best Picture nomination for In Old Chicago (a movie that also won Alice Brady only the second Best Supporting Actress Oscar ever given), there have been a remarkable 78 Best Picture nominations overall (by my count) and 12 wins beginning with the studio’s first Best Picture triumph in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley, a decision that still causes controversy even today since that venerable John Ford classic beat Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, considered now by many to be the greatest movie of all time.
- 3/20/2019
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
So much time, so few movies to see. Scratch that. Reverse it.
Running a little later than usual this year, the 2018 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival gets under way this coming Thursday, screening approximately 88 films and special programs over the course of the festival’s three-and-a-half days, beginning Thursday evening, and no doubt about it, this year’s schedule, no less than any other year, will lay out a banquet for classic film buffs, casual film fans and harder-core cinephiles looking for the opportunity to see long-time favorites as well as rare and unusual treats on the big screen. I’ve attended every festival since its inaugural run back in 2010, and since then if I have not reined in my enthusiasm for the festival and being given the opportunity to attend it every year, then I have at least managed to lasso my verbiage. That first year I wrote about...
Running a little later than usual this year, the 2018 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival gets under way this coming Thursday, screening approximately 88 films and special programs over the course of the festival’s three-and-a-half days, beginning Thursday evening, and no doubt about it, this year’s schedule, no less than any other year, will lay out a banquet for classic film buffs, casual film fans and harder-core cinephiles looking for the opportunity to see long-time favorites as well as rare and unusual treats on the big screen. I’ve attended every festival since its inaugural run back in 2010, and since then if I have not reined in my enthusiasm for the festival and being given the opportunity to attend it every year, then I have at least managed to lasso my verbiage. That first year I wrote about...
- 4/23/2018
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Decades before Hollywood got serious about the need for diversity, Anthony Quinn was diversity. This month marks the birthday of the Mexico-born, L.A.-raised actor who played Bedouins, Native Americans, Soviets — and even Mexicans and Americans in his 60-year career. He was the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar, for his supporting performance in “Viva Zapata!” (1952) and won another as French painter Gaugin in “Lust for Life” (1956). His two trademark performances were in “Zorba the Greek” (another Oscar nom) and as an Italian circus strongman in Fellini’s “La Strada.”
Antonio Rodolfo Oaxaca Quinn was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, on April 21, 1915, and began acting in 1936. His rise in Hollywood is especially remarkable considering the times. From 1929-36, the U.S.’ “Mexican Repatriation” program sent those of Mexican descent south of the border (even though many were U.S. citizens) out of fear they were taking jobs from whites. In...
Antonio Rodolfo Oaxaca Quinn was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, on April 21, 1915, and began acting in 1936. His rise in Hollywood is especially remarkable considering the times. From 1929-36, the U.S.’ “Mexican Repatriation” program sent those of Mexican descent south of the border (even though many were U.S. citizens) out of fear they were taking jobs from whites. In...
- 4/6/2018
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
To read The National Review’s “Politically Incorrect Guide Memorial Day Movies” is one of those moments where you seriously wonder if conservatism in the Trump Era isn’t just one big episode of “Punk’d.” Written by Arthur Herman, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, the list was an attempt to highlight war movies for conservatives to watch on Memorial Day – many of which are fantastic – but are bizarrely packaged and advertised as movies that will piss off liberals.
Read More: ‘Dunkirk’ Trailer: Christopher Nolan Says It’s ‘Not a War Film,’ But It Still Looks Unbearably Intense
“These movies portray serving one’s country in uniform as something to be revered and respected, not dismissed,” boasts the Twitter promo for the piece. Its marketing is a straw-man argument, so it’s first important to establish a few matters of fact.
During the Vietnam War, there was liberal...
Read More: ‘Dunkirk’ Trailer: Christopher Nolan Says It’s ‘Not a War Film,’ But It Still Looks Unbearably Intense
“These movies portray serving one’s country in uniform as something to be revered and respected, not dismissed,” boasts the Twitter promo for the piece. Its marketing is a straw-man argument, so it’s first important to establish a few matters of fact.
During the Vietnam War, there was liberal...
- 5/29/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Ten years ago I attended the Lone Pine Film Festival for the first time. It was the 17th annual celebration in 2006 of a festival dedicated to the heritage of movies (mostly westerns, but plenty of other genres as well) shot in or near the town of Lone Pine, California, located on the outer edges of the Mojave Desert and nestled up against the Eastern Sierra Mountains in the shadow of the magnificent Mt. Whitney. The multitude of films that could and have been celebrated there were most often shot at least partially in the Alabama Hills just outside of town, a spectacular array of geological beauty that springs out of the landscape like some sort of extra-planetary exhibit, a visitation of natural and very unusual formations that have lent themselves to the imaginations of filmmakers here ever since near the dawn of the Hollywood filmmaking industry.
In writing about the...
In writing about the...
- 10/23/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Savant uncovers the true, hidden ending to this Fritz Lang masterpiece. The moral outrage of Lang's searing attack on lynch terror hasn't dimmed a bit -- with his first American picture the director nails one of our primary social evils. MGM imposed some re-cutting and re-shooting, but it's still the most emotionally powerful film on the subject. Fury DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1936 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date August 2, 2016, 2016 / available through the WB Shop / 17.99 Starring Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, George Walcott, Arthur Stone, Morgan Wallace, George Chandler, Roger Gray, Edwin Maxwell, Howard C. Hickman, Jonathan Hale, Leila Bennett, Esther Dale, Helen Flint. Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg Film Editor Frank Sullivan Original Music Franz Waxman Written by Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang story by Norman Krasna Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Just...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Just...
- 10/1/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Leave it to director William Wellman to direct the most compelling social justice movie of the 1940s. Taken from a bestselling novel, it's a wrenching examination of the workings of a natural American phenomenon, the Lynch Mob. The Ox-Bow Incident Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 75 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Harry Morgan, Jane Darwell, Matt Briggs, Harry Davenport, Frank Conroy, Marc Lawrence Cinematography Arthur Miller Art Direction James Basevi, Richard Day Film Editor Allen McNeil Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge Written and Produced by Lamar Trotti from a novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark Directed by William A. Wellman
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the first scene of this grim feature, Henry Fonda stumbles out of a saloon street and throws up in the street. Apparently that was the reaction shared...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the first scene of this grim feature, Henry Fonda stumbles out of a saloon street and throws up in the street. Apparently that was the reaction shared...
- 8/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In this episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the weeks of, July 5th and July 12th 2016.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
News Arrow Academy: October Titles Arrow Video: October Titles Scream Factory: Carrie, Child’s Play Olive Films: Olive Signature Kino Lorber: Hangover Square, The Undying Monster Warner Archive: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Man in the Wilderness (http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=19331) Mill Creek: Miami Vice & Knight Rider, + Hammer Double Features Hammer Horror – 8 Film Collection Flicker Alley: New Cinerama Titles Links to Amazon
7/5
Absolution The Adderall Diaries Blood and Black Lace Boy & the World The In-Laws Only Yesterday Suture Swinging Cheerleaders Taking of Pelham One Two Three
7/12
Belladonna Of Sadness Carnival of Souls Everybody Wants Some Van Gogh Green Room Invisible Invaders Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang Lego...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
News Arrow Academy: October Titles Arrow Video: October Titles Scream Factory: Carrie, Child’s Play Olive Films: Olive Signature Kino Lorber: Hangover Square, The Undying Monster Warner Archive: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Man in the Wilderness (http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=19331) Mill Creek: Miami Vice & Knight Rider, + Hammer Double Features Hammer Horror – 8 Film Collection Flicker Alley: New Cinerama Titles Links to Amazon
7/5
Absolution The Adderall Diaries Blood and Black Lace Boy & the World The In-Laws Only Yesterday Suture Swinging Cheerleaders Taking of Pelham One Two Three
7/12
Belladonna Of Sadness Carnival of Souls Everybody Wants Some Van Gogh Green Room Invisible Invaders Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang Lego...
- 7/13/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
This noir hits with the force of a blast furnace -- Cy Endfield's wrenching tale of social neglect and injustice will tie your stomach in knots. Sound like fun? An unemployed man turns to crime and reaps a whirlwind of disproportionate retribution. It's surely the most powerful of all filmic accusations thrown at the American status quo. Try and Get Me! Blu-ray Olive Films 1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / The Sound of Fury / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson, Lloyd Bridges, Katherine Locke, Adele Jergens, Art Smith, Renzo Cesana, Irene Vernon, Cliff Clark, Donald Smelick, Joe E. Ross. Cinematography Guy Roe Production Design Perry Ferguson Film Editor George Amy Original Music Hugo Friedhofer Written by Jo Pagano from his novel The Condemned Produced by Robert Stillman Directed by Cyril Endfield
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Socially conscious 'issue' movies are not all made equal.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Socially conscious 'issue' movies are not all made equal.
- 4/15/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In this episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for Tuesday, April 12th 2016.
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Follow-Up Star Wars: Rogue One trailer / Rebels News Arrow Video: The Swinging Cheerleaders, Crimes of Passion, Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection, + Blood and Black Lace (Us only) & Satan’s Blade (UK Only). Arrow Academy: Effi Briest, Fox and His Friends, The Ox-Bow Incident Criterion: McCabe & Mrs. Miller Kino Lorber: One Million Years B.C., Cry of the City Shout Factory: Death Wish II (w/ Unrated cut) Twilight Time: July & August Line-up and Sale Mill Creek: 2 William Castle Double Features Universal: Black Dog Links to Amazon A Prayer for the Dying Bride of Re-Animator Chato’s Land Cutter’s Way Destroyer / Edge of Sanity Heroes Reborn: Event Series In the French Style It Follows Julia Justice League...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Star Wars: Rogue One trailer / Rebels News Arrow Video: The Swinging Cheerleaders, Crimes of Passion, Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection, + Blood and Black Lace (Us only) & Satan’s Blade (UK Only). Arrow Academy: Effi Briest, Fox and His Friends, The Ox-Bow Incident Criterion: McCabe & Mrs. Miller Kino Lorber: One Million Years B.C., Cry of the City Shout Factory: Death Wish II (w/ Unrated cut) Twilight Time: July & August Line-up and Sale Mill Creek: 2 William Castle Double Features Universal: Black Dog Links to Amazon A Prayer for the Dying Bride of Re-Animator Chato’s Land Cutter’s Way Destroyer / Edge of Sanity Heroes Reborn: Event Series In the French Style It Follows Julia Justice League...
- 4/13/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.
Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.
As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.
57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)
Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...
Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.
As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.
57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)
Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...
- 5/26/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
"Dance, dance, feel it all around you Dance, dance, dance, Never thought love had a rainbow on it See the girl dance See the girl dance."- Neil Young, "Dance, Dance, Dance"***When I watched Katy Perry’s recent Super Bowl performance I got very excited. There was a lot of shrieking. So much so that my roommate, who had been diligently watching screeners of important art films one floor below, came up to see what was happening. A friend who was over to watch the game, who I often go to repertory movies with, later told another friend he had never seen me so excited. The third friend watching it with us, she’s a writer, was also excited. In her excitement she sent all of her twitter friends a picture. In my own excitement I sent yet a fourth friend a text message. ******My text message may have been sent off haphazardly,...
- 5/11/2015
- by gina telaroli
- MUBI
Throughout the summer, an admin on the r/movies subreddit has been leading Reddit users in a poll of the best movies from every year for the last 100 years called 100 Years of Yearly Cinema. The poll concluded three days ago, and the list of every movie from 1914 to 2013 has been published today.
Users were asked to nominate films from a given year and up-vote their favorite nominees. The full list includes the outright winner along with the first two runners-up from each year. The list is mostly a predictable assortment of IMDb favorites and certified classics, but a few surprise gems have also risen to the top of the crust, including the early experimental documentary Man With a Movie Camera in 1929, Abel Gance’s J’Accuse! in 1919, the Fred Astaire film Top Hat over Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps in 1935, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing over John Ford’s...
Users were asked to nominate films from a given year and up-vote their favorite nominees. The full list includes the outright winner along with the first two runners-up from each year. The list is mostly a predictable assortment of IMDb favorites and certified classics, but a few surprise gems have also risen to the top of the crust, including the early experimental documentary Man With a Movie Camera in 1929, Abel Gance’s J’Accuse! in 1919, the Fred Astaire film Top Hat over Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps in 1935, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing over John Ford’s...
- 9/2/2014
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
If you could only pick ten movies to represent the entire history of American cinema, which would you choose? This was the challenge undertaken by The Guardian’s chief film critic Robbie Collin, who may have made the first list to feature both Batman and Gene Kelly tap dancing through Paris. Indiewire’s Max O’Connell created his own list in response, and a few of us here at Fsr wanted to play along, too. The goal was to create a list of ten movies that summed up over a century of American film and then explain only one of our choices (which means it’s up to you to ask Adam Charles why he picked Face/Off). Leave your own list in the comments section so we can endlessly debate and appreciate. The impossibility is part of the fun. Harold Lloyd’s Stunts to Michael Bay’s Explosions Safety Last! (1923) His Girl Friday...
- 8/6/2014
- by FSR Staff
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Veteran character actor Jon Gries is best known for his gut-busting portrayal of Uncle Rico, he of the orange van and dashed dreams of high school football glory, in the 2004 cult gem Napoleon Dynamite. Jon Gries is also recognizable as Roger Linus on Lost, but the actor has been kicking around in Hollywood for decades, ever since he appeared in 1969 at age 11 opposite Charlton Heston in Will Penny, a western directed by his father Tom Gries. Some of Jon’s other films include Monster Squad (1978), Get Shorty (1995), and Taken (2008). Jon is also an accomplished musician, having composed songs for the films Twin Falls Idaho (1999) and The Big Empty (2003). In 2010, after directing several music videos, Jon tried his hand at directing a feature and the result was the acclaimed redneck road comedy Pickin’ & Grinning’.
(http://pickinandgrinninmovie.com/ )
Now Jon has teamed up with writer Derek Walker for Another Man’S Gun,...
(http://pickinandgrinninmovie.com/ )
Now Jon has teamed up with writer Derek Walker for Another Man’S Gun,...
- 12/12/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Film Forum's 2012 William Wellman retrospective brought new and much-needed critical attention to a director best remembered today for a small handful of the 80 or so films he made between 1920 and 1958, including Wings (1927), The Public Enemy (1931), A Star is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). Despite the relatively strong reputations of those films, Wellman has often been overlooked in critical discussions of Hollywood auteurs. In fact, a collection of essays that grew out of the retrospective, William A. Wellman: A Dossier, edited by Gina Telaroli and David Phelps, is the closest thing to a book-length study of Wellman currently available. After reading through much of the Dossier, I was encouraged to give Wellman a serious look myself, and this formal analysis is a small effort to continue the momentum of Telaroli's and Phelps's work.
Made just a few months apart and packaged conveniently on the same disc of TCM’s Forbidden Hollywood Collection,...
Made just a few months apart and packaged conveniently on the same disc of TCM’s Forbidden Hollywood Collection,...
- 7/29/2013
- by Darren Hughes
- MUBI
DVD Review: 'Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick' on the Life of William Wellman a Welcome Bio-Doc (Clips)
Kino Lorber’s upcoming DVD release of “Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick,” about the life of director William Wellman, is welcome for a couple of reasons. One: In the Great Filmography of American cinema, Wellman, much like Howard Hawks, is a bit like Zelig. He’s everywhere. He made perhaps The archetypal gangster picture, “Public Enemy” (1931), which not only introduced James Cagney to the screen but planted the concept of the anti-hero in a war- and Depression-weary American psyche. He made the ur-screwball comedy “Nothing Sacred” (1937) with Carole Lombard and Frederic March; he made the highly idealistic Foreign Legion adventure “Beau Geste” (1939 version). He twisted the western into politically volatile morality play with “The Ox-Bow Incident” (1943). He directed Barbara Stanwyck five times including in “Lady in Burlesque” (1943) and he made what many consider the definitive World War II film, “The Story of G.I. Joe.” Oh yeah: He won a screenplay Oscar for writing.
- 6/10/2013
- by John Anderson
- Thompson on Hollywood
There's one segment during the Oscars where nominees can come in dead even. Such is the case for the annual In Memoriam tribute, which honors Hollywood's recently deceased. According to the New York Times, giving everyone who has had an effect on the movie industry their due can be trying -- and, like the rest of the show, requires a great deal of campaigning. The Academy is charged with choosing a few dozen peers from roughly 500 candidates. This past year saw the passing of plenty of movie giants -- rom-com virtuoso Nora Ephron, composer Marvin Hamlisch, director Tony Scott -- so the competition for the remaining 30-odd spots is, so to speak, fierce. But, like anything in Tinsletown, it's all about who you know. Those who stayed out of the limelight are less likely to be included, but, for example, publicist Lois Smith, who represented A-listers like Meryl Streep and Robert Redford,...
- 2/8/2013
- by Jessie Heyman
- Moviefone
Twentieth Century Fox marked the silver anniversary of its blockbuster Die Hard movie franchise with a ceremony on the historic studio backlot, during which a massive mural depicting the film’s iconic hero John McClane was unveiled in front of Stage 8.
Bruce Willis, who has essayed McClane in all five Die Hard pictures, including the latest installment, A Good Day To Die Hard, attended the ceremony, along with his co-star Jai Courtney, who portrays McClane’s son Jack in the new film, and its director, John Moore.
John Moore, Jai Courtney, Bruce Willis, Yulia Snigir, Rasha Bukvic
The festivities included a reception on the 21st floor of the Fox Plaza, which Die Hard fans will recognize as “Nakatomi Plaza” – ground zero for the non-stop action of the landmark original film.
Commented Bruce Willis: “One of the most exciting things about playing McClane is that he’s definitely not a superhero.
Bruce Willis, who has essayed McClane in all five Die Hard pictures, including the latest installment, A Good Day To Die Hard, attended the ceremony, along with his co-star Jai Courtney, who portrays McClane’s son Jack in the new film, and its director, John Moore.
John Moore, Jai Courtney, Bruce Willis, Yulia Snigir, Rasha Bukvic
The festivities included a reception on the 21st floor of the Fox Plaza, which Die Hard fans will recognize as “Nakatomi Plaza” – ground zero for the non-stop action of the landmark original film.
Commented Bruce Willis: “One of the most exciting things about playing McClane is that he’s definitely not a superhero.
- 2/1/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Since the 85th Academy Awards nominations were announced, Lincoln has emerged as the tentative frontrunner among a plurality of headline writers, bloggers, and oddsmakers. This was fueled in large part by the fact that Steven Spielberg’s Civil War epic garnered 12 nominations, the most of any film. But does receiving the most nominations really mean that a movie is most likely to win Best Picture? The short answer is yes – 2/3 of the time. But for movie buffs and math nerds, here is the longer answer. Over the 84 years of Oscars, the movie that received the most nominations (including ties for first place) among the Best Picture nominees went on to take the top prize in 56 years, exactly 2/3 of the time. The higher a movie ranks in nominations among its Best Picture competitors, the more likely it is to win: 85% of winners came in the top two in nominations, and 93% of...
- 1/20/2013
- by bzblogger@hollywoodnews.com (Ben Zauzmer)
- Hollywoodnews.com
The “adult” Western – as it would come to be called – was a long time coming. A Hollywood staple since the days of The Great Train Robbery (1903), the Western offered spectacle and action set against the uniquely American milieu of the Old West – a historical period which, at the dawn of the motion picture industry, was still fresh in the nation’s memory. What the genre rarely offered was dramatic substance.
Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...
Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...
- 1/4/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
"If you want to send a message," legendary Hollywood mogul Sam Goldwyn once sagely noted, "call Western Union." Not that vintage Hollywood movies didn't have all kinds of social agendas, whether they were about fighting racism ("The Defiant Ones") or mob justice ("The Ox-Bow Incident") or anti-Semitism ("Gentlemen's Agreement") or war ("All Quiet on the Western Front"). The trick has always been to disguise the heartworm pill of your message with the tasty bologna of drama or satire or whatever else people actually want to see. (John Waters devilishly parodied racial-understanding...
- 12/28/2012
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Failure of The Master to wow box office has critics bemoaning the state of the industry, but Tom Shone thinks things are fine
There's been a lot of death-of-film talk recently, as there often is when the first leaves of fall bid their first, golden adieus. "I'm made crazy by the way the business structure of movies is now constricting the art of movies," fumed David Denby in The New Republic after a summer which steamrolled one action blockbuster after another into a single strip of blurry, brazen fury.
In the same magazine, David Thomson also found himself haunted by thoughts of cinema's imminent demise, after careful examination of the Sight & Sound top 10 had revealed not a single film released after 1968. "If they are not quite dead, the cinema and the movies sink deeper than ever into their preoccupation with dying," he wrote, his one caveat the result of having...
There's been a lot of death-of-film talk recently, as there often is when the first leaves of fall bid their first, golden adieus. "I'm made crazy by the way the business structure of movies is now constricting the art of movies," fumed David Denby in The New Republic after a summer which steamrolled one action blockbuster after another into a single strip of blurry, brazen fury.
In the same magazine, David Thomson also found himself haunted by thoughts of cinema's imminent demise, after careful examination of the Sight & Sound top 10 had revealed not a single film released after 1968. "If they are not quite dead, the cinema and the movies sink deeper than ever into their preoccupation with dying," he wrote, his one caveat the result of having...
- 10/26/2012
- by Tom Shone
- The Guardian - Film News
Now this is an all-over-the-board kind of podcast as Laremy and I argue senselessly over The Great Gatsby and Django Unchained for some reason and then can't seem to see eye-to-eye in a Prometheus sequel discussion before finally settling down to discuss the just-released Forbes list of Top Ten Highest Paid Actresses. From there it's all roses with Over/Unders, a new Good Comments, your questions, new DVD and Blu-rays, The Amazing Spider-Man is discussed along with a bunch of other nonsense. Hopefully you'll be entertained... hopefully. As always, I have broken down this episode on a minute-by-minute basis if you would like to skip ahead and below I have featured the information on how to download the podcast, find us on iTunes or merely just listen in your browser. 00:00-5:15 - Introduction 5:16-7:42 - Laremy suggests some books for G-Man 7:43-9:28 - The...
- 6/19/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Next year will mark the 70th anniversary of the 1943 Best Picture Oscar winner, Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Conrad Veidt. Not only is Casablanca still regarded as one of the greatest American movies ever made, it features one of the most beloved romantic songs ever written ("As Time Goes By"), and one of the most-quoted, iconic movie lines of all-time ("Play it again, Sam"). To be named Best Picture of 1943, Casablanca had to overcome some formidable competition. The other nominees that year were: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, and Watch on the Rhine. But despite the accolades, there are some gaps in this movie's pedigree. For one, "As Time Goes By" not only didn't win the Academy Award for Best Song,...
- 4/20/2012
- by David Macaray
- Moviefone
Similar images, similar dialog, similar actors and similar sets! Part of our on-going series, Similar Images.
The opening of William A. Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), screenplay by Lamar Trotti from Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel; cinematography by Arthur C. Miller; art direction by James Basevi and Richard Day:
The second scene of William A. Wellman's Yellow Sky (1948), screenplay by Lamar Trotti from a story by W.R. Burnett; cinematography by Joe MacDonald; art diretion by Albert Hogsett and Lyle Wheeler:...
The opening of William A. Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), screenplay by Lamar Trotti from Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel; cinematography by Arthur C. Miller; art direction by James Basevi and Richard Day:
The second scene of William A. Wellman's Yellow Sky (1948), screenplay by Lamar Trotti from a story by W.R. Burnett; cinematography by Joe MacDonald; art diretion by Albert Hogsett and Lyle Wheeler:...
- 3/24/2012
- MUBI
Mohammad Reza Moini and Mohammad Rasoulof
at La Cinémathèque française last September
"To be quite honest, I don't know what the current status of my sentence is," Mohammad Rasoulof tells Scott Lucas in an interview for EAWorldView. "For example, in the end, my friend Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced to six years in prison last year, only spent two months in jail. My own sentence has been reduced to one year, but for the time being I am still being issued with visas so I can attend festivals like Cannes and the Iffr. I have no idea what will happen next…. Iran is like an alcoholic father. You can't change your father, but I can see him hurting himself, myself and others. But I still love him."
More reading. David Lynch is "a religious or spiritual artist in the same loosely categoric sense that one might apply the term to William Blake or Tarkovsky,...
at La Cinémathèque française last September
"To be quite honest, I don't know what the current status of my sentence is," Mohammad Rasoulof tells Scott Lucas in an interview for EAWorldView. "For example, in the end, my friend Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced to six years in prison last year, only spent two months in jail. My own sentence has been reduced to one year, but for the time being I am still being issued with visas so I can attend festivals like Cannes and the Iffr. I have no idea what will happen next…. Iran is like an alcoholic father. You can't change your father, but I can see him hurting himself, myself and others. But I still love him."
More reading. David Lynch is "a religious or spiritual artist in the same loosely categoric sense that one might apply the term to William Blake or Tarkovsky,...
- 2/11/2012
- MUBI
We take a look back at some of the names in entertainment whose spotlights faded out this year. Granted, this is only a small number of people who passed, but to all those mentioned below and to the seemingly countless other lives lost this year, we thank them for the memories and may they rest in peace. Harry Morgan (April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011; age 96) – Morgan was best known for his portrayal of Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H and Officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet. Morgan appeared in more than 100 films over his career which began in the 1942 movie To the Shores of Tripoli. Other notable big screen credits include The Ox-Bow Incident, High Noon, The Glenn Miller Story as well as a cameo in the 1987 film version of Dragnet. Morgan died peacefully...
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- 12/29/2011
- by affiliates@fandango.com
- Fandango
In October of 2010, Sound on Sight asked me to do my first commemorative piece on the passing of filmmaker Arthur Penn. I suspect I was asked because I was the only one writing for the site old enough to have seen Penn’s films in theaters. Whatever the reason, it was an unexpectedly rewarding if expectedly bittersweet experience which led to a series of equally rewarding but bittersweet experiences writing on the passing of other filmdom notables.
I say rewarding because it gave me a nostalgic-flavored chance to revisit certain work and the people behind it; a revisiting which often brought back the nearly-forgotten youthful excitement that went with an eye-opening, a discovery, the thrill of the new. Writing them has also been bittersweet because each of these pieces is a formal acknowledgment that something precious is gone. A talent may be perhaps preserved forever on celluloid, but the filmography...
I say rewarding because it gave me a nostalgic-flavored chance to revisit certain work and the people behind it; a revisiting which often brought back the nearly-forgotten youthful excitement that went with an eye-opening, a discovery, the thrill of the new. Writing them has also been bittersweet because each of these pieces is a formal acknowledgment that something precious is gone. A talent may be perhaps preserved forever on celluloid, but the filmography...
- 12/24/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Actor best known as the warm and authoritative Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H
The actor Harry Morgan, who has died aged 96, was best known as Colonel Sherman T Potter, commander of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in M*A*S*H, the wonderfully witty and sharp television series set in an army camp during the Korean war. He played Potter, an expert surgeon and a father figure in the camp, from 1978 until 1983.
Those who knew Morgan from films alone might have been surprised by his warm and authoritative performance as Potter. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, as a supporting actor, he played runtish bad guys and worms that seldom turned. He gradually began to reveal a more likable side, as a musician buddy of Glenn Miller (James Stewart) in The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and in the typically bland 50s TV sitcom December Bride (1954-58). Later, he played...
The actor Harry Morgan, who has died aged 96, was best known as Colonel Sherman T Potter, commander of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in M*A*S*H, the wonderfully witty and sharp television series set in an army camp during the Korean war. He played Potter, an expert surgeon and a father figure in the camp, from 1978 until 1983.
Those who knew Morgan from films alone might have been surprised by his warm and authoritative performance as Potter. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, as a supporting actor, he played runtish bad guys and worms that seldom turned. He gradually began to reveal a more likable side, as a musician buddy of Glenn Miller (James Stewart) in The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and in the typically bland 50s TV sitcom December Bride (1954-58). Later, he played...
- 12/9/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
"Harry Morgan, the prolific character actor best known for playing the acerbic but kindly Colonel Potter in the long-running television series M*A*S*H, died on Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles," reports Michael Pollak in the New York Times. "In more than 100 movies, Mr Morgan played Western bad guys, characters with names like Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs…. In The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), which starred Henry Fonda, he was praised for his portrayal of a drifter caught up in a lynching in a Western town…. He went on to appear in All My Sons (1948), based on the Arthur Miller play, with Edward G Robinson and Burt Lancaster; The Big Clock (1948), in which he played a silent, menacing bodyguard to Charles Laughton; Yellow Sky (1949), with Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter; and the critically praised western High Noon (1952), with Gary Cooper. Among...
- 12/8/2011
- MUBI
Harry Morgan, the actor best known for his role as the well-respected, sometimes irascible Colonel Sherman T. Potter in the long-running series "M*A*S*H", died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96.
He was born Harry Bratsberg on April 10, 1915 in Detroit, Michigan, to Henry and Anna Bratsberg, where his father worked for war hero and car designer Eddie Rickenbacker. The family soon moved to Muskegon, Michigan, where Harry, hoping to be a lawyer, became heavily involved debate and speech classes; his junior year in high school he won a debate championship at the University of Michigan. He attended the University of Chicago for a few years, before leaving school and finding employment with an office equipment maker who eventually sent him to Washington D.C. It was during his time in Washington D.C. that Harry got his start on the stage, joining the Civic Theater in Ben Hecht’s "Front Page". Eventually, he moved on to a Mt. Kisco summer stock theater company, where he met and acted regularly with actress Frances Farmer. Ms. Farmer had quite an impact of his life; she promoted his career by involving him to acting classes with Elia Kazan, and also introduced him to her University of Washington classmate Eileen Detchon. He married Detchon in 1940 and they would have four children, sons Christopher, Charles, Paul and Daniel. Harry's stage career continued to grow, as he joined New York's Group Theater, whose members included Kazan, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. When Hollywood agent Charlie Feldman saw him perform on Broadway, he signed the young actor and had him quickly under studio contract with Twentieth Century Fox, where he changed his name to Henry Morgan.
Harry and Eileen made the move to Hollywood in the early 1942 and his first billed appearance (as Henry Morgan) came that year in To the Shores of Tripoli. To avoid confusion with a popular comedian of the time, another name change soon followed, and he became Harry Morgan. Morgan’s film career prospered, and in the next 5 decades he appeared in many now-legendary dramatic films, including The Ox-Bow Incident, All My Sons, Madame Bovary, High Noon, The Glenn Miller Story, Inherit the Wind, Cimarron, How the West Was Won, Frankie and Johnny, The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Shootist.
While building this impressive film resume, Morgan was simultaneously working regularly in radio and television, with brief roles in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Cavalcade of America" and "The Twentieth Century Fox Hour" before landing the role of comedic neighbor Pete Porter in "December Bride", which eventually lead to the spin-off series "Pete and Gladys". In 1963, his TV career took a turn toward more serious projects, as part of the ensemble in "The Richard Boone Show" and an iconic role as Officer Bill Gannon in 1967’s "Dragnet". The series, and his performance in it, was not only a precursor to modern police and detective series, but would also inform the 1987 film Dragnet, a comedic reimagination of the show starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks; Morgan appeared in this film as Captain Bill Gannon.
Despite decades spent working in film and TV, it would be his work in the TV series "M*A*S*H" that made him instantly recognizable around the world. After a memorable, Emmy-nominated guest turn as loony Major General Steele at the beginning of the third season in 1974, Morgan was invited back to join the cast a year later as Colonel Sherman T. Potter, the late-career Army man sent to run the eccentric medical unit after the loss of their previous commanding officer. Morgan's nuanced performance as dedicated leader and surgeon with an unwavering sense of right and wrong combined with a father-like protectiveness of his staff, allowed Potter to grow organically through the long run of the series. The small touches he brought to the role – Potter's paintings were done by Morgan himself, and the picture of Mildred Potter on Potter’s desk was actually Morgan's wife Eileen – only added to the authentic humanity of his portrayal, and in 1980 Morgan won an Emmy for his performance. After the series came to an end in 1983, Morgan continued the role in the short-lived spin-off "AfterMASH".
After the death of his wife Eileen in 1985, he kept himself busy making guest appearances in series such as "The Love Boat" and took a regular role in the single season run of "Blacke's Magic". In December of 1986, he married Barbara Bushman, the granddaughter of silent film star Francis X. Bushman. His work as a TV guest star continued through the late 1990s in "The Simpsons," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "Grace Under Fire", and his final movie work included Family Plan and the short film Crosswalk.
He is survived by Barbara, his sons Christopher, Charles and Paul, and grandchildren Spencer, Rosemary and Jeremy.
He was preceded in death by his first wife Eileen in 1985 and his son Daniel in 1989.
He was born Harry Bratsberg on April 10, 1915 in Detroit, Michigan, to Henry and Anna Bratsberg, where his father worked for war hero and car designer Eddie Rickenbacker. The family soon moved to Muskegon, Michigan, where Harry, hoping to be a lawyer, became heavily involved debate and speech classes; his junior year in high school he won a debate championship at the University of Michigan. He attended the University of Chicago for a few years, before leaving school and finding employment with an office equipment maker who eventually sent him to Washington D.C. It was during his time in Washington D.C. that Harry got his start on the stage, joining the Civic Theater in Ben Hecht’s "Front Page". Eventually, he moved on to a Mt. Kisco summer stock theater company, where he met and acted regularly with actress Frances Farmer. Ms. Farmer had quite an impact of his life; she promoted his career by involving him to acting classes with Elia Kazan, and also introduced him to her University of Washington classmate Eileen Detchon. He married Detchon in 1940 and they would have four children, sons Christopher, Charles, Paul and Daniel. Harry's stage career continued to grow, as he joined New York's Group Theater, whose members included Kazan, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. When Hollywood agent Charlie Feldman saw him perform on Broadway, he signed the young actor and had him quickly under studio contract with Twentieth Century Fox, where he changed his name to Henry Morgan.
Harry and Eileen made the move to Hollywood in the early 1942 and his first billed appearance (as Henry Morgan) came that year in To the Shores of Tripoli. To avoid confusion with a popular comedian of the time, another name change soon followed, and he became Harry Morgan. Morgan’s film career prospered, and in the next 5 decades he appeared in many now-legendary dramatic films, including The Ox-Bow Incident, All My Sons, Madame Bovary, High Noon, The Glenn Miller Story, Inherit the Wind, Cimarron, How the West Was Won, Frankie and Johnny, The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Shootist.
While building this impressive film resume, Morgan was simultaneously working regularly in radio and television, with brief roles in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Cavalcade of America" and "The Twentieth Century Fox Hour" before landing the role of comedic neighbor Pete Porter in "December Bride", which eventually lead to the spin-off series "Pete and Gladys". In 1963, his TV career took a turn toward more serious projects, as part of the ensemble in "The Richard Boone Show" and an iconic role as Officer Bill Gannon in 1967’s "Dragnet". The series, and his performance in it, was not only a precursor to modern police and detective series, but would also inform the 1987 film Dragnet, a comedic reimagination of the show starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks; Morgan appeared in this film as Captain Bill Gannon.
Despite decades spent working in film and TV, it would be his work in the TV series "M*A*S*H" that made him instantly recognizable around the world. After a memorable, Emmy-nominated guest turn as loony Major General Steele at the beginning of the third season in 1974, Morgan was invited back to join the cast a year later as Colonel Sherman T. Potter, the late-career Army man sent to run the eccentric medical unit after the loss of their previous commanding officer. Morgan's nuanced performance as dedicated leader and surgeon with an unwavering sense of right and wrong combined with a father-like protectiveness of his staff, allowed Potter to grow organically through the long run of the series. The small touches he brought to the role – Potter's paintings were done by Morgan himself, and the picture of Mildred Potter on Potter’s desk was actually Morgan's wife Eileen – only added to the authentic humanity of his portrayal, and in 1980 Morgan won an Emmy for his performance. After the series came to an end in 1983, Morgan continued the role in the short-lived spin-off "AfterMASH".
After the death of his wife Eileen in 1985, he kept himself busy making guest appearances in series such as "The Love Boat" and took a regular role in the single season run of "Blacke's Magic". In December of 1986, he married Barbara Bushman, the granddaughter of silent film star Francis X. Bushman. His work as a TV guest star continued through the late 1990s in "The Simpsons," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "Grace Under Fire", and his final movie work included Family Plan and the short film Crosswalk.
He is survived by Barbara, his sons Christopher, Charles and Paul, and grandchildren Spencer, Rosemary and Jeremy.
He was preceded in death by his first wife Eileen in 1985 and his son Daniel in 1989.
- 12/7/2011
- by Heather Campbell
- IMDb News
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated recently on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and he has asked me to write a regular monthly movie-related column. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I will be posting all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks. This month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1946.
Motion picture audiences may be curious who this odd-looking new horror star by...
Motion picture audiences may be curious who this odd-looking new horror star by...
- 6/15/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier.
Bertrand Tavernier: Taking Rabbits Out Of Hats
By Alex Simon
Bertrand Tavernier was bitten by the cinema bug at a tender age, falling in love with a diverse slate of films and filmmakers like Jean Renoir, Fritz Lang and Buster Keaton. Born in Lyon in 1941, Tavernier abandoned his law studies to write for the now-legendary French cinema magazine Cahiers du Cinema, which also launched auteurs like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Making his directing debut with The Clockmaker of Saint-Paul in 1974, Tavernier’s career has been a prolific one, with 35 films to his credit, and dozens of awards, including the Best Director prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for A Sunday in the Country.
Tavernier’s latest film is the sweeping epic The Princess of Montpensier, an adaptation of a 1662 novel which was published anonymously, but later credited to French noblewoman Madame de La Fayette. Set...
Bertrand Tavernier: Taking Rabbits Out Of Hats
By Alex Simon
Bertrand Tavernier was bitten by the cinema bug at a tender age, falling in love with a diverse slate of films and filmmakers like Jean Renoir, Fritz Lang and Buster Keaton. Born in Lyon in 1941, Tavernier abandoned his law studies to write for the now-legendary French cinema magazine Cahiers du Cinema, which also launched auteurs like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Making his directing debut with The Clockmaker of Saint-Paul in 1974, Tavernier’s career has been a prolific one, with 35 films to his credit, and dozens of awards, including the Best Director prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for A Sunday in the Country.
Tavernier’s latest film is the sweeping epic The Princess of Montpensier, an adaptation of a 1662 novel which was published anonymously, but later credited to French noblewoman Madame de La Fayette. Set...
- 4/14/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
"We're not lost, we're just finding our way." I've heard nothing but good things about Kelly Reichardt's Oregon Trail western Meek's Cutoff, which premiered at Venice last year and has gone on to do well at other festivals. Michelle Williams stars as one member of a multi-family wagon train that is led into the wilderness by co-called frontier expert Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood). Check out the trailer for the film after the break. Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Will Patton and Shirley Henderson also appear in the film, which seems to have a spare, tense tone and shades of films as different from one another as The Ox-Bow Incident and Picnic at Hanging Rock, as well as of many '70s Westerns that prized atmosphere over violence, such as The Hired Hand. This looks like great stuff. Apple [1] has the trailer in HD. Oscilloscope releases the film on April 8. The...
- 2/26/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
Inception The week's obvious top choice for purchase is Christopher Nolan's latest crowd-pleaser. I actually have the "Extraction Mode" from the Blu-ray release playing as I write this up, but haven't yet had a chance to take a look at the second disc. However, I am particularly interested in the 44-minute long "Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious" featurette on the second disc. This feature explores dream research and I would think in conjunction with the film would be rather intriguing.
I can tell you the image is exceptional and the DTS-hd soundtrack is equally up to task and should prove impressive on the right systems. If there's a 2010 film made for Blu-ray it's this one. I should have a full review soon. Cronos (Criterion Collection) This one I am almost done with my review already. I had never...
Inception The week's obvious top choice for purchase is Christopher Nolan's latest crowd-pleaser. I actually have the "Extraction Mode" from the Blu-ray release playing as I write this up, but haven't yet had a chance to take a look at the second disc. However, I am particularly interested in the 44-minute long "Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious" featurette on the second disc. This feature explores dream research and I would think in conjunction with the film would be rather intriguing.
I can tell you the image is exceptional and the DTS-hd soundtrack is equally up to task and should prove impressive on the right systems. If there's a 2010 film made for Blu-ray it's this one. I should have a full review soon. Cronos (Criterion Collection) This one I am almost done with my review already. I had never...
- 12/7/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Iranian-American moviemaker Cyrus Nowrasteh has brought his experience of TV documentaries to bear on the true story of an Iranian woman, Soraya M, framed as an adulterer by her husband in the early years of Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran and stoned to death by her fellow villagers. Her elderly father is compelled by the town's mayor and a corrupt mullah to cast the first stone.
James Caviezel (chosen, no doubt, because he had the title role in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ) plays the Franco-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, on whose book the film is based, but the chief role is taken by the magnificent Shohreh Aghdashloo as the conscience of the village. This widow puts her life on the line to tell him about the legal murder of her niece under sharia in the hope he will bring the news to the world.
The craven community is persuasively created,...
James Caviezel (chosen, no doubt, because he had the title role in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ) plays the Franco-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, on whose book the film is based, but the chief role is taken by the magnificent Shohreh Aghdashloo as the conscience of the village. This widow puts her life on the line to tell him about the legal murder of her niece under sharia in the hope he will bring the news to the world.
The craven community is persuasively created,...
- 10/16/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The fun part of Western Wednesdays is discovering little gems like Rio Conchos that were lost in the shuffle of giants like John Wayne. Lacking any big stars or cult iconography like Django’s coffin, they just sit on Netflix waiting for someone to dig them up.
Rio Conchos is a slow burn of a movie, more of a Western noir than a real shoot ‘em up. Everyone has an agenda, no one can be trusted, and you’re just not sure who is going to screw it all up and make off like a bandit. It also starts off rather typical with the usual trope of “There’s been a raid, a bunch of rifles are missing, and they’re going to wind up in the hands of Apaches!”
Naturally, a disparate bunch of men are assigned the task of tracking down the rifles — a bitter ex-Confederate (Richard Boone...
Rio Conchos is a slow burn of a movie, more of a Western noir than a real shoot ‘em up. Everyone has an agenda, no one can be trusted, and you’re just not sure who is going to screw it all up and make off like a bandit. It also starts off rather typical with the usual trope of “There’s been a raid, a bunch of rifles are missing, and they’re going to wind up in the hands of Apaches!”
Naturally, a disparate bunch of men are assigned the task of tracking down the rifles — a bitter ex-Confederate (Richard Boone...
- 3/24/2010
- by Elisabeth Rappe
- The Flickcast
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