On what would be his 100th birthday, Marlon Brando remains synonymous not with acting, but great acting — even if this ranked list of all his performances represents what may be the most wildly uneven filmography for any talent of his caliber. But that’s the power of Brando: A handful of his performances are so great and influential they shook up the art of acting forever. Even among his lesser performances, there’s compelling work deserving of rediscovery.
In order to best exemplify what made him such a singular onscreen presence, we ranked all 39 of his films (and one TV appearance), reflecting a spectrum as wide as the man’s broad shoulders. Based on the quality of Brando’s performances rather than the overall films themselves, there are some placements that may surprise you; for example, as great as Brando is in “The Godfather,” it’s still just the fourth-best...
In order to best exemplify what made him such a singular onscreen presence, we ranked all 39 of his films (and one TV appearance), reflecting a spectrum as wide as the man’s broad shoulders. Based on the quality of Brando’s performances rather than the overall films themselves, there are some placements that may surprise you; for example, as great as Brando is in “The Godfather,” it’s still just the fourth-best...
- 4/3/2024
- by Wilson Chapman and Noel Murray
- Indiewire
Everyone remembers their first time. That is the first time they saw Marlon Brando.
For the late Mike Nichols, seeing Brando on Broadway in 1947 in his seminal turn as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” was the catalyst that lead to his career in the arts which saw him become a rare Egot winner. The teenage Nichols and his then girlfriend’s mother were given tickets for the second night of the Elia Kazan-directed production. “There had never been anything like it, I know that by now,” Nichols recalled in a 2010 L.A. Times interview. It was, to this day, the only thing onstage that I had ever seen that was 100% real and 100% poetic. Lucy and I weren’t exactly theater buffs, but we couldn’t get up at the intermission. We were just so stunned. Your heart was pounding. It was a major experience.”
Susan L.
For the late Mike Nichols, seeing Brando on Broadway in 1947 in his seminal turn as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” was the catalyst that lead to his career in the arts which saw him become a rare Egot winner. The teenage Nichols and his then girlfriend’s mother were given tickets for the second night of the Elia Kazan-directed production. “There had never been anything like it, I know that by now,” Nichols recalled in a 2010 L.A. Times interview. It was, to this day, the only thing onstage that I had ever seen that was 100% real and 100% poetic. Lucy and I weren’t exactly theater buffs, but we couldn’t get up at the intermission. We were just so stunned. Your heart was pounding. It was a major experience.”
Susan L.
- 4/2/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
As one of the most renowned actresses in the industry, Scarlett Johansson is not a stranger to Red Carpets. But her appearance at 2006’s Golden Globe Red Carpet has been highly controversial due to a viral mysterious clip. The internet was flooded with conspiracy theories after the mysterious video footage showed a woman disappearing behind Johansson.
Scarlett Johansson in Asteroid City
Finally, after many conspiracies and chatter, the video was debunked by the Avengers actress when she went to Jimmy Fallon’s talk show in 2023. Surprisingly, the real story behind the creepy video turned out to be hilarious. The audience went into a laugh riot when Scarlett Johansson clarified about the footage and revealed who the mysterious woman was.
Who was behind Scarlett Johansson in 2006’s viral video?
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
When Scarlett Johansson appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, the host did not hesitate to...
Scarlett Johansson in Asteroid City
Finally, after many conspiracies and chatter, the video was debunked by the Avengers actress when she went to Jimmy Fallon’s talk show in 2023. Surprisingly, the real story behind the creepy video turned out to be hilarious. The audience went into a laugh riot when Scarlett Johansson clarified about the footage and revealed who the mysterious woman was.
Who was behind Scarlett Johansson in 2006’s viral video?
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
When Scarlett Johansson appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, the host did not hesitate to...
- 3/30/2024
- by Subham Mandal
- FandomWire
Showtime’s “Fellow Travelers” depicts a sweeping, complex romance across the ages in one of the most acclaimed pieces of television this year. Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey are the couple in question and both men are at the top of their game here.
Bomer has always been a commanding performer, capturing viewers’ attention every moment he’s on-screen. As the closeted Hawk Fuller, he delivers a performance of vulnerability and restraint. Critics agree, it’s some of his best work.
Ben Travers (Indie Wire) observed: “Bomer and Bailey deserve all the credit coming their way for building such palpable chemistry…. Bomer’s stoic restraint proves his strongest attribute. Hawk, quite literally, is cleaner cut than a Kennedy (Bobby makes a brief appearance), and Bomer wears his classic Wasp exterior like a slightly too-snug Halloween costume. He can smile for the cameras, but there’s something tugging at the corners,...
Bomer has always been a commanding performer, capturing viewers’ attention every moment he’s on-screen. As the closeted Hawk Fuller, he delivers a performance of vulnerability and restraint. Critics agree, it’s some of his best work.
Ben Travers (Indie Wire) observed: “Bomer and Bailey deserve all the credit coming their way for building such palpable chemistry…. Bomer’s stoic restraint proves his strongest attribute. Hawk, quite literally, is cleaner cut than a Kennedy (Bobby makes a brief appearance), and Bomer wears his classic Wasp exterior like a slightly too-snug Halloween costume. He can smile for the cameras, but there’s something tugging at the corners,...
- 3/27/2024
- by Jacob Sarkisian
- Gold Derby
One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?
Capote was...
- 3/19/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Ryan Gosling was honored by the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Saturday night, and used his speech to reflect on his long journey to becoming Ken.
Receiving the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at a dinner in Santa Barbara, Gosling mused how “up until this point, I’ve only ever thought about just how much cinema had done for me, I had never really thought about what I’ve done for cinema.”
He recalled how in third grade he had a swearing problem (joking, “I didn’t think it was a problem but my teachers did and I just thought they were being a bunch of uptight mother— wait.”) and struggled in school, until one of his teachers planned weekly visits to the library and made a deal that for every book the actor read he could rent a movie from the library’s collection.
The movies “were...
Receiving the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at a dinner in Santa Barbara, Gosling mused how “up until this point, I’ve only ever thought about just how much cinema had done for me, I had never really thought about what I’ve done for cinema.”
He recalled how in third grade he had a swearing problem (joking, “I didn’t think it was a problem but my teachers did and I just thought they were being a bunch of uptight mother— wait.”) and struggled in school, until one of his teachers planned weekly visits to the library and made a deal that for every book the actor read he could rent a movie from the library’s collection.
The movies “were...
- 1/14/2024
- by Kirsten Chuba
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's easy to forget that "M*A*S*H" was actually a period piece. The acclaimed sitcom was filmed in the '70s and borrowed liberally from compassionate discussions surrounding the Vietnam War, but it took place two decades earlier, in 1950s Korea. Despite anachronistic '70s mustaches, a timeline that reimagined the relatively short Korean War as near-endless, and the occasional not-retro-enough prop, the show still worked hard to bring a fairly accurate vision of the 1950s to life.
Sometimes, that meant referencing movies that were made in the 1930s and '40s, like "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Good Earth." In other instances, though, the series got ahead of itself, name-dropping movies that hadn't been released yet. The show's masterpiece series finale, the feature-length concluding story "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," apparently almost included a reference that straddled the line between anachronism and timeliness. According to The Hollywood Reporter's 35th-anniversary spotlight on the finale,...
Sometimes, that meant referencing movies that were made in the 1930s and '40s, like "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Good Earth." In other instances, though, the series got ahead of itself, name-dropping movies that hadn't been released yet. The show's masterpiece series finale, the feature-length concluding story "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," apparently almost included a reference that straddled the line between anachronism and timeliness. According to The Hollywood Reporter's 35th-anniversary spotlight on the finale,...
- 1/8/2024
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
If it seems like Lily Gladstone is winning Best Actress prizes for her acclaimed performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon” multiple times per week, that’s because it’s true. Since the New York Film Critics Circle announced Gladstone as the group’s Best Actress prizewinner on November 30, the 37-year-old star has been awarded Best Actress by the National Board of Review, Boston Society of Film Critics, and Chicago Film Critics Association, and earned Best Actress nominations from the Golden Globe Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards.
“It feels like a lot,” Gladstone tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview when asked about her early success during awards season. “It’s really exciting. It’s been a little bit rapid-fire this last week, so I kind of have been joking that I get this news and I intellectualize it and I know it’s going to be waiting down...
“It feels like a lot,” Gladstone tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview when asked about her early success during awards season. “It’s really exciting. It’s been a little bit rapid-fire this last week, so I kind of have been joking that I get this news and I intellectualize it and I know it’s going to be waiting down...
- 12/14/2023
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
‘Shane’ celebrates 70th anniversary with Academy Museum screening and Christopher Nolan conversation
There are many films that have quotable last lines such as “After all, tomorrow is another day” from “Gone with the Wind.” And who can forget Humphrey Bogart telling Claude Rains: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” But the beloved 1953 George Stevens’ Western “Shane” perhaps has one of the most endearing and emotional final lines. Young Joey (Brandon De Wilde) wants his idol, the former gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd), to stay with his family. But the wounded hero continues to ride off.
“Shane………come back,” Joey cries out.
Be prepared to bring you handkerchiefs to the Academy Museum’s 70th anniversary screening Dec 10 at the David Geffen Theatre. Ladd, in his strongest performance, plays a world-weary gunslinger who wants to hang up his six-shooter. He ends up working for an honest, struggling rancher Joe, (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and young son...
“Shane………come back,” Joey cries out.
Be prepared to bring you handkerchiefs to the Academy Museum’s 70th anniversary screening Dec 10 at the David Geffen Theatre. Ladd, in his strongest performance, plays a world-weary gunslinger who wants to hang up his six-shooter. He ends up working for an honest, struggling rancher Joe, (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and young son...
- 12/7/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
"From Here to Eternity" is the 1953 Oscar winning feature, directed by Fred Zinnemann, based on the 1951 novel by James Jones, following three US Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on 'Pearl Harbor', December 7, 1941, with the film selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant":
"...in Hawaii in the months preceding the Japanese attack on 'Pearl Harbor', 'Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt' (Clift) reports for his new assignment as an infantryman. At his previous Post, Prewitt was a bugler and his unit's top boxer. But after a man died in the ring, Prewitt wants nothing to do with the sport.
"Trouble is, his new company commander, 'Captain Dana Holmes' (Philip Ober) has a championship boxing team and Prewitt's refusal to...
"...in Hawaii in the months preceding the Japanese attack on 'Pearl Harbor', 'Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt' (Clift) reports for his new assignment as an infantryman. At his previous Post, Prewitt was a bugler and his unit's top boxer. But after a man died in the ring, Prewitt wants nothing to do with the sport.
"Trouble is, his new company commander, 'Captain Dana Holmes' (Philip Ober) has a championship boxing team and Prewitt's refusal to...
- 12/7/2023
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
The Hollywood biographical drama — or biopic, to use the word that always makes it sound like a dental instrument — is enjoying its mega-moment. “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic about the father of the atomic bomb, proved that a story-of-a-life movie could be as big and coruscating as the cosmos; not so incidentally, it’s garnered Nolan the most ecstatic reviews of his career. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” has also won audiences and acclaim. In telling the story of Priscilla Presley, who met Elvis when she was 14 and spent six years married to a slowly dissolving mirage, the film takes us through the looking glass of pop-music fame. In Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” the lives of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, become a rapturous study in love, sexuality, bigotry, creativity and the mysteries of marriage. And “Ferrari,” Michael Mann’s upcoming drama about the Italian automaker, is a...
- 11/30/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Adapted from Larry McMurtry’s bittersweet 1966 novel of the same name by McMurtry and director Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show delineates the quiet, desperate lives of the citizens of Anarene, Texas, from November 1951 to October 1952. The film is a pure Janus-headed product of the New Hollywood. Bogdanovich pours the new wine of sexual frankness available to filmmakers after the inauguration of the MPAA ratings system into old bottles borrowed from the cellars of classic Hollywood cinema, namely those older films’ expressive visual grammar and obliquely suggestive dialogue.
As an erstwhile film critic and historian, Bogdanovich drew formal and technical inspiration from his years spent programming films from Hollywood’s Golden Age at MoMA. He also solicited advice from houseguest Orson Welles when it came to shooting the film in black and white, and employing long, unbroken takes rather than break up important scenes. As Welles reportedly put it:...
As an erstwhile film critic and historian, Bogdanovich drew formal and technical inspiration from his years spent programming films from Hollywood’s Golden Age at MoMA. He also solicited advice from houseguest Orson Welles when it came to shooting the film in black and white, and employing long, unbroken takes rather than break up important scenes. As Welles reportedly put it:...
- 11/15/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
On the heels of the wonderful 2019 The Two Popes, in which Anthony Hopkins starred as Pope Benedict XVI in an imagined conversation with Jonathan Pryce’s future Pope Francis, Hopkins is once again involved in the same kind of cinematic historical fictional meeting as founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, who is engaged in a private debate with The Chronicles of Narnia author and theologian C.S. Lewis (played by Matthew Goode) on the existence of God. As with The Two Popes, there is no proof whatsoever that any meeting ever took place, but it clearly provides lots of material to wrap your head around. That is exactly what Mark St. Germain did in creating his 2009 play Freud’s Last Session, which was built on the 1967 Harvard lectures of Dr. Armond M. Nicholi Jr in his presentation “The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life.
- 10/28/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
After a dearth of new releases worth discussing in the few months since Barbenheimer, it’s been refreshing to see the response to Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon as it enters a wide release. While we’ll have our own extensive discussion coming soon on The Film Stage Show, the director himself has now provided some welcome homework as he’s highlighted six key films to watch that influenced the making of his David Grann adaptation.
Courtesy of TCM and Letterboxd, the director has joined the latter platform and provided nearly 60 companion films that he studied in preparation for making all of his features. While that entire list is well worth checking out, particularly the accompanying notes the director has provided, we’re keying in on the influences for Killers of the Flower Moon. Find the list below, including where to watch each film, as well as Scorsese’s full commentary.
Courtesy of TCM and Letterboxd, the director has joined the latter platform and provided nearly 60 companion films that he studied in preparation for making all of his features. While that entire list is well worth checking out, particularly the accompanying notes the director has provided, we’re keying in on the influences for Killers of the Flower Moon. Find the list below, including where to watch each film, as well as Scorsese’s full commentary.
- 10/27/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Martin Scorsese now has a Letterboxd profile, and he took the opportunity to list companion films for every movie he’s ever made on the social media platform for cinephiles.
“I love the idea of putting different films together into one program. I grew up seeing double features, programs in repertory houses, evenings of avant-garde films in storefront theatres,” he wrote on his Companion Films page. “You always learn something, see something in a new light, because every movie is in conversation with every other movie. The greater difference between the pictures, the better.”
For his latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon” adapted from David Grann’s best-selling book, Scorses suggested it be paired with “The Heiress” (1949), “The Last of the Line” (1914), “The Lady of the Dugout” (1918), “Blood on the Moon” (1948), “Red River” (1948) and “Wild River” (1960).
For “Goodfellas” (1990), Scorsese listed “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960) and “Jules and Jim” (1962).
The full list contains almost 60 films.
“I love the idea of putting different films together into one program. I grew up seeing double features, programs in repertory houses, evenings of avant-garde films in storefront theatres,” he wrote on his Companion Films page. “You always learn something, see something in a new light, because every movie is in conversation with every other movie. The greater difference between the pictures, the better.”
For his latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon” adapted from David Grann’s best-selling book, Scorses suggested it be paired with “The Heiress” (1949), “The Last of the Line” (1914), “The Lady of the Dugout” (1918), “Blood on the Moon” (1948), “Red River” (1948) and “Wild River” (1960).
For “Goodfellas” (1990), Scorsese listed “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960) and “Jules and Jim” (1962).
The full list contains almost 60 films.
- 10/26/2023
- by Dessi Gomez
- The Wrap
Judy Balaban, the daughter of a longtime studio mogul who dated Montgomery Clift and Merv Griffin, married Tony Franciosa and served as one of Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids at her wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, has died. She was 91.
Balaban died Thursday night in a hospital in Los Angeles, her friend, author and documentary filmmaker Cari Beauchamp, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Balaban was a champion for civil rights, serving on the board of directors for the ACLU of Southern California for decades.
In a 2010 piece for Vanity Fair that she and Beauchamp co-wrote, Balaban described using LSD (then legal) as a form of therapy in the early 1960s when her good friends Cary Grant and his third wife, Betsy Drake, were using it, too.
“What I had with Cary and Betsy was a kind of soul-baringness that the culture didn’t start to deal with until years later,” she says in the story.
Balaban died Thursday night in a hospital in Los Angeles, her friend, author and documentary filmmaker Cari Beauchamp, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Balaban was a champion for civil rights, serving on the board of directors for the ACLU of Southern California for decades.
In a 2010 piece for Vanity Fair that she and Beauchamp co-wrote, Balaban described using LSD (then legal) as a form of therapy in the early 1960s when her good friends Cary Grant and his third wife, Betsy Drake, were using it, too.
“What I had with Cary and Betsy was a kind of soul-baringness that the culture didn’t start to deal with until years later,” she says in the story.
- 10/20/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's hard to believe it's been 70 years since Fred Zinneman's "From Here to Eternity" came out. Not that we were all there of course, but time has been really kind to the all-star, Best Picture-winning drama. Unlike many of the rah-rah war films emerging from America during and post-World War II, "From Here to Eternity" argues not that war is hell — since most of the movie takes place during peace time — but that men, even in the army, are subconsciously determined to make life hell whether there's a war on or not.
Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Sinatra star as soldiers stationed in Hawaii immediately prior to World War II, whose stubborn pride and barely contained insecurities lead directly to many avoidable tragedies. Clift plays Private Prewitt, a formerly promising boxer who refuses to box again after accidentally blinding a fellow soldier, and endures criminal abuse just because...
Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Sinatra star as soldiers stationed in Hawaii immediately prior to World War II, whose stubborn pride and barely contained insecurities lead directly to many avoidable tragedies. Clift plays Private Prewitt, a formerly promising boxer who refuses to box again after accidentally blinding a fellow soldier, and endures criminal abuse just because...
- 8/6/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Nine years ago, Cortney Palm and Hutch Dano starred in Zombeavers, a horror comedy that got a good amount of attention because – as the title gives away – it happened to be about zombie beavers. Now Palm and Dano have reunited for the horror film As Certain as Death, which will be receiving a VOD release in the United States on July 11th. The trailer for the film can be seen in the embed above.
The feature directorial debut of Dano, who also wrote the script, As Certain as Death has the following synopsis: Desperate to help her addict boyfriend Richard, Kayla enlists the help of her sister and friends to stage an intervention, but the first step is finding Richard. Kayla documents their search for Richard among the allies and homeless encampments of Los Angeles, finally succeeding in finding him high in an alley. With the additional help of two friends,...
The feature directorial debut of Dano, who also wrote the script, As Certain as Death has the following synopsis: Desperate to help her addict boyfriend Richard, Kayla enlists the help of her sister and friends to stage an intervention, but the first step is finding Richard. Kayla documents their search for Richard among the allies and homeless encampments of Los Angeles, finally succeeding in finding him high in an alley. With the additional help of two friends,...
- 6/28/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Wes Anderson has explored many distinctive milieus over the years, from the fictional Zubrowska of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” to the bottom of the sea in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and “Isle of Dogs.” However, “Asteroid City” may be Anderson’s most personal backdrop yet, as its chief subject is storytelling itself.
A playful meta narrative that defies simple categorization, “Asteroid City” functions as three movies in one: It’s the colorful story of a Junior Stargazers convention in a midwestern desert town circa 1955, but it’s also a 1950s TV play called “Asteroid City,” and on top of that, a behind-the-scenes look at a troubled playwright (Edward Norton) working on the aforementioned play. There’s an alien played by Jeff Goldblum, but also Jeff Goldblum playing an alien. Got all that?
In addition to being a movie about acting, “Asteroid City” is an acting showcase. Anderson regular...
A playful meta narrative that defies simple categorization, “Asteroid City” functions as three movies in one: It’s the colorful story of a Junior Stargazers convention in a midwestern desert town circa 1955, but it’s also a 1950s TV play called “Asteroid City,” and on top of that, a behind-the-scenes look at a troubled playwright (Edward Norton) working on the aforementioned play. There’s an alien played by Jeff Goldblum, but also Jeff Goldblum playing an alien. Got all that?
In addition to being a movie about acting, “Asteroid City” is an acting showcase. Anderson regular...
- 6/15/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Hollywood star Robert De Niro, who plays the father to comedian-actor Sebastian Maniscalco in the film ‘About My Father’, has shared that the film’s story has a personal element from Sebastian’s experience.
Talking about the film and his reel life son, Robert De Niro told Ians: “I knew Sebastian, of course. Not well, but I have worked with him a little bit; had seen a couple of his shows, and worked on the ‘Irishman’ with him. So, we had a reading and then after that, I pretty much was like ‘let’s do it – just had to find the time and when to do it’.”
He further spoke about the script, as he shared: “I liked it, and saw that the script had a personal element from Sebastian’s experience, obviously. And, after getting to know Laura Terruso a little bit, I realised her background; she was from Brooklyn,...
Talking about the film and his reel life son, Robert De Niro told Ians: “I knew Sebastian, of course. Not well, but I have worked with him a little bit; had seen a couple of his shows, and worked on the ‘Irishman’ with him. So, we had a reading and then after that, I pretty much was like ‘let’s do it – just had to find the time and when to do it’.”
He further spoke about the script, as he shared: “I liked it, and saw that the script had a personal element from Sebastian’s experience, obviously. And, after getting to know Laura Terruso a little bit, I realised her background; she was from Brooklyn,...
- 5/25/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Owen Teague is busy. So much so that even the rising young actor still hasn’t seen his latest film “Eileen” (Neon), co-starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie, which premiered at Sundance in January.
“How is the movie?,” he asked on a recent Zoom call with IndieWire. That’s because he was down in Australia for six months playing Cornelius, the horse-riding chimpanzee lead in the upcoming sequel, “The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”.
Ever since he first moved to California from Florida at age 18, ditching NYU in order to shoot a movie with Gary Oldman (“Mary”) in Alabama, he has lived out of a suitcase. “I was just working. I actually live under a rock and that has gotten worse as time has gone on. I live under a larger rock now than I did two years ago,” he said.
He is proud of his other Sundance feature,...
“How is the movie?,” he asked on a recent Zoom call with IndieWire. That’s because he was down in Australia for six months playing Cornelius, the horse-riding chimpanzee lead in the upcoming sequel, “The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”.
Ever since he first moved to California from Florida at age 18, ditching NYU in order to shoot a movie with Gary Oldman (“Mary”) in Alabama, he has lived out of a suitcase. “I was just working. I actually live under a rock and that has gotten worse as time has gone on. I live under a larger rock now than I did two years ago,” he said.
He is proud of his other Sundance feature,...
- 5/23/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
“Method acting” long ago lost its meaning.
Instead, it’s become a catchall to describe an intense commitment to getting it right on stage or screen. It’s an all-out approach that sees performers pack and shed pounds, feast on live cockroaches or raw bison, extract teeth or eschew showers, and remain in character between takes. Those are just a few examples of the extremes to which Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Shia Labeouf, Charlize Theron, Daniel Day-Lewis and their ilk push themselves in the service of their art. For their suffering, they receive Oscars and Emmys, along with a ton of media coverage — just look at the scores of pieces documenting the gonzo things Jared Leto has done each time one of his movies get released.
The payoff can be electrifying performances that blur the lines between character and actor. But it’s an approach...
Instead, it’s become a catchall to describe an intense commitment to getting it right on stage or screen. It’s an all-out approach that sees performers pack and shed pounds, feast on live cockroaches or raw bison, extract teeth or eschew showers, and remain in character between takes. Those are just a few examples of the extremes to which Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Shia Labeouf, Charlize Theron, Daniel Day-Lewis and their ilk push themselves in the service of their art. For their suffering, they receive Oscars and Emmys, along with a ton of media coverage — just look at the scores of pieces documenting the gonzo things Jared Leto has done each time one of his movies get released.
The payoff can be electrifying performances that blur the lines between character and actor. But it’s an approach...
- 4/6/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Movie star John Wayne himself saw a major turning point in his career when Red River came about. He played Thomas Dunson, who was significantly older than the actor’s real-life age. Nevertheless, Wayne delivered a powerful performance in Red River, claiming it to be the first time he considered himself a “real actor.” While filming, the Western film star went on an awful bear-hunting trip that especially soured his co-star, Montgomery Clift.
‘Red River’ actor John Wayne went on a bear-hunting trip L-r: Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth and John Wayne as Thomas Dunson | John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images
Todd McCarthy’s Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood explored some of the most memorable moments while filming Red River alongside major stars, such as Wayne and Clift. Director Howard Hawks’ son, David, shared his favorite memory when it came to a bear-hunting trip that he took alongside the two lead actors.
‘Red River’ actor John Wayne went on a bear-hunting trip L-r: Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth and John Wayne as Thomas Dunson | John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images
Todd McCarthy’s Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood explored some of the most memorable moments while filming Red River alongside major stars, such as Wayne and Clift. Director Howard Hawks’ son, David, shared his favorite memory when it came to a bear-hunting trip that he took alongside the two lead actors.
- 4/2/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The 1962 film, The Misfits, is a western drama by director John Huston and screenwriter Arthur Miller. The movie starred Miller’s wife, Marilyn Monroe, and two big male actors of the time, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. Sadly, the film was marred with tragedy.
What is ‘The Misfits’ about?
The Misfits depicts Monroe’s Roslyn Taber, a beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber in the midst of a divorce. She ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland, played by Gable, and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli, played by Eli Wallach.
The two men become smitten with Roslyn and the three decide to move into Guido’s still-under-construction desert home together. When ex-rodeo star Perce Howland arrives, played by Montgomery Clift, the four start a business capturing wild horses.
The Misfits was lauded by critics and fans for the writing and cast performances even if it wasn’t a major hit when it was first released.
What is ‘The Misfits’ about?
The Misfits depicts Monroe’s Roslyn Taber, a beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber in the midst of a divorce. She ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland, played by Gable, and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli, played by Eli Wallach.
The two men become smitten with Roslyn and the three decide to move into Guido’s still-under-construction desert home together. When ex-rodeo star Perce Howland arrives, played by Montgomery Clift, the four start a business capturing wild horses.
The Misfits was lauded by critics and fans for the writing and cast performances even if it wasn’t a major hit when it was first released.
- 3/30/2023
- by Angela Ward
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
John Wayne and Montgomery Clift were both monumental actors that had a true impact on Hollywood and the field of cinema. However, they had contrasting images and represented an entirely different type of movie star. It played out wonderfully on the silver screen in Red River, but one of the most surprising behind-the-scenes facts is that they were each paid the same amount in a “startling” sum for a newcomer.
John Wayne and Montgomery Clift faced off in ‘Red River’ L-r: John Wayne as Thomas Dunson and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth | United Artists/Getty Images
Howard Hawks’ Red River hit theaters in 1948, putting Wayne and Clift against one another with their opposing characters. The story follows a stubborn Texas cattle ranch owner named Thomas Dunson (Wayne). He takes his job quite seriously, and has the help of his trailhand (Walter Brennan) and his protégé, Matt Garth (Clift), who Dunson...
John Wayne and Montgomery Clift faced off in ‘Red River’ L-r: John Wayne as Thomas Dunson and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth | United Artists/Getty Images
Howard Hawks’ Red River hit theaters in 1948, putting Wayne and Clift against one another with their opposing characters. The story follows a stubborn Texas cattle ranch owner named Thomas Dunson (Wayne). He takes his job quite seriously, and has the help of his trailhand (Walter Brennan) and his protégé, Matt Garth (Clift), who Dunson...
- 3/30/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Ryan Gosling has made a large number of fans over the years thanks to his critically acclaimed performances. At one point, he’d even gotten acting veteran Day-Lewis to take notice of him, who sung Gosling’s praises.
Daniel Day-Lewis once named his favorite actors Daniel Day-Lewis | Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Day-Lewis is an actor that many look up to, both audiences and film stars alike. But the three-time Oscar-winner has a list of actors he’s always admired himself. In a resurfaced interview with Port (via Contact Music), the actor shared that he was in the midst of making such a list. But rattling off his favorite performers was a task that was harder than he thought it would be.
“I’m gathering all these things to me like a crazy hoarder, arms around them, fingers clasped, sweeping them towards me, penning them under the roof of this...
Daniel Day-Lewis once named his favorite actors Daniel Day-Lewis | Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Day-Lewis is an actor that many look up to, both audiences and film stars alike. But the three-time Oscar-winner has a list of actors he’s always admired himself. In a resurfaced interview with Port (via Contact Music), the actor shared that he was in the midst of making such a list. But rattling off his favorite performers was a task that was harder than he thought it would be.
“I’m gathering all these things to me like a crazy hoarder, arms around them, fingers clasped, sweeping them towards me, penning them under the roof of this...
- 3/26/2023
- by Antonio Stallings
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The end was in sight for John Wayne when he took the part of aging gunfighter J.B. Books in Don Siegel's 1976 Western "The Shootist." He was only 69, but the quintessential American movie star hadn't been nice to his body. Decades of drinking and smoking had taken their toll. He'd lost a lung and a couple of ribs to cancer in the 1960s, but had evidently been in remission since. Still, his energy was flagging. He'd struggled throughout the filming of "Rooster Coburn," and was being asked to literally hop back on a horse in the elevated altitude of Carson City, Nevada. He had not been diagnosed with a return of the cancer that would kill him three years later, but The Duke looked a deathly shadow of his former, swaggering self.
Culturally, there was a sense that people should celebrate Wayne while he was still around (for those willing...
Culturally, there was a sense that people should celebrate Wayne while he was still around (for those willing...
- 3/18/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Tom Sizemore, who faced legal troubles and drug addiction amid a career that saw him star as Sgt. Mike Horvath in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and portray cops, crooks and psychopaths with the best of them, died Friday. He was 61.
Sizemore died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, his rep Charles Lago announced. The actor had suffered a stroke and brain aneurysm at his Los Angeles home in the early hours of Feb. 18, and with doctors saying there was “no further hope,” family members made an end-of-life decision.
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of my big brother Tom,” Paul Sizemore said in a statement. “He was larger than life. He has influenced my life more than anyone I know. He was talented, loving, giving and could keep you entertained endlessly with his wit and storytelling ability. I am devastated he is gone and will miss him...
Sizemore died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, his rep Charles Lago announced. The actor had suffered a stroke and brain aneurysm at his Los Angeles home in the early hours of Feb. 18, and with doctors saying there was “no further hope,” family members made an end-of-life decision.
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of my big brother Tom,” Paul Sizemore said in a statement. “He was larger than life. He has influenced my life more than anyone I know. He was talented, loving, giving and could keep you entertained endlessly with his wit and storytelling ability. I am devastated he is gone and will miss him...
- 3/4/2023
- by Abbey White and Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This expensive production was dismissed as a flop, and literary critics scorned it for diluting the famed novel by Theodore Dreiser. But it plays well now: William Wyler gives star Laurence Olivier what may be his best film acting role ever. Jennifer Jones’ title part suffers from script changes that censor and sentimentalize Dreiser’s intentions, but the film remains a shattering tragedy. Eddie Albert co-stars in one of his first dramatic roles; this encoding includes a scene dropped from the original release.
Carrie (1952)
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #200
1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 121, 118 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / Aud 34.95
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy, Charles Halton, William Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline de Witt, Don Beddoe, Royal Dano, Margaret Field.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson
Costume Design: Edith Head
Film Editor: Robert Swink...
Carrie (1952)
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #200
1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 121, 118 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / Aud 34.95
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy, Charles Halton, William Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline de Witt, Don Beddoe, Royal Dano, Margaret Field.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson
Costume Design: Edith Head
Film Editor: Robert Swink...
- 2/18/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Movie star John Wayne and Montgomery Clift were an unlikely pair for Red River, but their casting certainly worked out for the best. The young actor certainly had a lot to learn from the veteran whom he was performing alongside. Wayne once explained how he taught Clift how to fight to make Red River work as well as possible.
‘Red River’ pit John Wayne and Montgomery Clift against each other L-r: John Wayne as Thomas Dunson and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth | Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Red River follows the stubborn Thomas Dunson (Wayne), who works on a successful Texas cattle ranch. He has the support of a loyal train hand named Groot (Walter Brennan) and his protége, Matt Garth (Clift). Thomas brought the latter in as a boy after he became an orphan.
However, things between Thomas and Matt turn sour after the Civil War when they...
‘Red River’ pit John Wayne and Montgomery Clift against each other L-r: John Wayne as Thomas Dunson and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth | Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Red River follows the stubborn Thomas Dunson (Wayne), who works on a successful Texas cattle ranch. He has the support of a loyal train hand named Groot (Walter Brennan) and his protége, Matt Garth (Clift). Thomas brought the latter in as a boy after he became an orphan.
However, things between Thomas and Matt turn sour after the Civil War when they...
- 2/18/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Actor John Wayne starred in a wide assortment of movies primarily rooted in the Western and war genres. He had a signature walk and a slow, booming voice that commanded moviegoers’ attention. However, only nine of Wayne’s movies were selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” They select 25 film each year for this high honor. However, the Wayne films that made the cut aren’t all the obvious picks.
‘The Big Trail’ (1930) L-r: John Wayne as Breck Coleman and Marguerite Churchill as Ruth Cameron | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail follows Breck Coleman (Wayne), as he leads an adventure with hundreds of settlers seeking to travel from the Mississippi River out West for greater opportunities. However, there are many potentially fatal dangers along the way.
The 1930 feature marked the actor’s first leading role,...
‘The Big Trail’ (1930) L-r: John Wayne as Breck Coleman and Marguerite Churchill as Ruth Cameron | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail follows Breck Coleman (Wayne), as he leads an adventure with hundreds of settlers seeking to travel from the Mississippi River out West for greater opportunities. However, there are many potentially fatal dangers along the way.
The 1930 feature marked the actor’s first leading role,...
- 2/17/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Actor John Wayne was very particular regarding the movies he starred in and the ones he admired. He came from a generation when films targeted the whole family with certain political morals rather than having separate entertainment intended for different age groups. There were two classic 1959 movies that Wayne called “too disgusting even for discussion,” largely because of their sense of morals and values.
John Wayne believed that movies should be appropriate for families John Wayne | Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Wayne primarily starred in Western and war movies throughout his career. Audiences knew exactly the type of film they were paying for when it came to his projects before ever sitting in a theater chair. Wayne advanced what it meant to “fight dirty” in Hollywood, allowing his characters to actually fight back against the antagonists. However, these scenes still avoided violent realism, allowing them to remain...
John Wayne believed that movies should be appropriate for families John Wayne | Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Wayne primarily starred in Western and war movies throughout his career. Audiences knew exactly the type of film they were paying for when it came to his projects before ever sitting in a theater chair. Wayne advanced what it meant to “fight dirty” in Hollywood, allowing his characters to actually fight back against the antagonists. However, these scenes still avoided violent realism, allowing them to remain...
- 2/12/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The cliche "everyone's gotta start somewhere" is meant to be reassuring. In showbiz, however, getting that start requires a bit of good fortune in and of itself. Whether you're working in the mailroom at CAA or bopping from set to set as a background player, you've likely used a connection or two to get yourself in the figurative ballpark. Maybe your college buddy knew a guy at an agency. Perhaps you were bartending at a popular industry watering hole. Getting noticed is often a fluke. Taking the next step is a winning lottery ticket.
Take Clint Eastwood for example. He wasn't a natural-born genius like Montgomery Clift or Marlon Brando. He was a handsome, young, 6'4" swimming instructor at Ford Ord in Northern California when, according to his biographer Patrick McGilligan, he met a connected photographer named Chuck Hill. When Eastwood relocated to Los Angeles, Hill convinced his friend to...
Take Clint Eastwood for example. He wasn't a natural-born genius like Montgomery Clift or Marlon Brando. He was a handsome, young, 6'4" swimming instructor at Ford Ord in Northern California when, according to his biographer Patrick McGilligan, he met a connected photographer named Chuck Hill. When Eastwood relocated to Los Angeles, Hill convinced his friend to...
- 2/6/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Arnold Schulman, Screenwriter on ‘Goodbye, Columbus’ and ‘Love With the Proper Stranger,’ Dies at 97
Arnold Schulman, who landed Oscar nominations for his screenplays for Love With the Proper Stranger and Goodbye, Columbus and found success with several incarnations of his Broadway hit A Hole in the Head, has died. He was 97.
Schulman died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, his son, Peter Schulman, told The Hollywood Reporter.
In two late-career triumphs, Schulman was recruited by Francis Ford Coppola to write the biopic Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), and he scored an Emmy nomination and a Humanitas Prize in 1994 for his teleplay for HBO’s And the Band Played On, an adaptation of Randy Shilts’ nonfiction book about the onset of AIDS.
An original member of the Actors Studio, Schulman in the 1950s worked alongside the likes of James Dean and Paul Newman on live television. In 1962, he quit as the original screenwriter on the never-completed Marilyn Monroe movie Something’s Got to Give,...
Schulman died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, his son, Peter Schulman, told The Hollywood Reporter.
In two late-career triumphs, Schulman was recruited by Francis Ford Coppola to write the biopic Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), and he scored an Emmy nomination and a Humanitas Prize in 1994 for his teleplay for HBO’s And the Band Played On, an adaptation of Randy Shilts’ nonfiction book about the onset of AIDS.
An original member of the Actors Studio, Schulman in the 1950s worked alongside the likes of James Dean and Paul Newman on live television. In 1962, he quit as the original screenwriter on the never-completed Marilyn Monroe movie Something’s Got to Give,...
- 2/6/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mickey Rourke was on the verge of two breakthrough performances when he nearly landed the straight-man lead in one of the most influential comedies of the 1980s.
It would've been another curveball in a life filled with them. The Schenectady-born Rourke grew up in Miami, where the athletic young man discovered an affinity for the Sweet Science. He showed promise as a boxer throughout his youth, but his career was derailed by two concussions. Rourke picked himself up off the canvas, hung up his gloves, and moved to New York City, where he gained acceptance to the prestigious Actors Studio with his first audition.
The talent was there, and so, god help us, were the looks. Rourke wasn't handsome. He was hot. He had the hunky bearing of Marlon Brando and the piercing eyes of Paul Newman. He was primed to be the biggest star of the next decade and beyond,...
It would've been another curveball in a life filled with them. The Schenectady-born Rourke grew up in Miami, where the athletic young man discovered an affinity for the Sweet Science. He showed promise as a boxer throughout his youth, but his career was derailed by two concussions. Rourke picked himself up off the canvas, hung up his gloves, and moved to New York City, where he gained acceptance to the prestigious Actors Studio with his first audition.
The talent was there, and so, god help us, were the looks. Rourke wasn't handsome. He was hot. He had the hunky bearing of Marlon Brando and the piercing eyes of Paul Newman. He was primed to be the biggest star of the next decade and beyond,...
- 1/14/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Quentin Tarantino didn't always want to be a filmmaker. Not exclusively at least.
For a time, he harbored dreams of being an actor. As a teenager, he performed in plays with the Torrance Community Theater, and, as is the case with most creative folk, when the acting bug bites you, around the time you get your first ovation (no matter how small the part), it bites hard.
At the outset of the 1980s, Tarantino kept his options open and joined an acting school of note in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The company's proximity to the Hollywood dream factory no doubt titillated the burgeoning entertainer, but short of having a natural affinity for the craft like, say, Montgomery Clift, Meryl Streep, and Mickey Rourke, it takes a great deal of dedication and loads of scene study to hone your ability. You have to fail, more than once, and...
For a time, he harbored dreams of being an actor. As a teenager, he performed in plays with the Torrance Community Theater, and, as is the case with most creative folk, when the acting bug bites you, around the time you get your first ovation (no matter how small the part), it bites hard.
At the outset of the 1980s, Tarantino kept his options open and joined an acting school of note in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The company's proximity to the Hollywood dream factory no doubt titillated the burgeoning entertainer, but short of having a natural affinity for the craft like, say, Montgomery Clift, Meryl Streep, and Mickey Rourke, it takes a great deal of dedication and loads of scene study to hone your ability. You have to fail, more than once, and...
- 1/10/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
John Wayne might've been an ornery cuss. He might've made the worst film of his career in support of the Vietnam War at a moment when it was clear to anyone with two eyes and a conscience that the conflict was a moral and logistical sinkhole. He was a racist.
But he never wrote a single movie he performed in, and, from everything I've read about him, tailored movies to fit his persona -- i.e. what he thought audiences expected from him as a movie star. "The Green Berets" is an outlier. For the most part, Wayne understood that he couldn't play infallible heroes. He had to bleed. He had to lose a fistfight or two, or at least take some serious lumps en route to a hard-won victory. On rare occasions, he had to die. Regardless of where the film was headed, when he stepped in front of a camera,...
But he never wrote a single movie he performed in, and, from everything I've read about him, tailored movies to fit his persona -- i.e. what he thought audiences expected from him as a movie star. "The Green Berets" is an outlier. For the most part, Wayne understood that he couldn't play infallible heroes. He had to bleed. He had to lose a fistfight or two, or at least take some serious lumps en route to a hard-won victory. On rare occasions, he had to die. Regardless of where the film was headed, when he stepped in front of a camera,...
- 1/5/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
By 1948, Howard Hawks had made just about every type of film over his then 22-year career when he decided to take on the most American of movie genres: the Western. Though he'd made plenty of films about rough and/or ruthless men, the closest he'd come to making a true oater was with 1934's "Barbary Coast," which plays like more of a period crime film set in mid-1850s San Francisco. "Red River," written by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee (based on Chase's serialized novel "The Chisholm Trail"), would be the real deal.
And it almost fell apart before Hawks shot a frame of film.
While the story about Tom Dunson, a determined rancher who turns into a horse-riding Captain Ahab during a harrowing cattle drive from Texas to Missouri, was crammed with action and intrigue, it proved tonally problematic for Hawks' star. Gary Cooper had made several films with...
And it almost fell apart before Hawks shot a frame of film.
While the story about Tom Dunson, a determined rancher who turns into a horse-riding Captain Ahab during a harrowing cattle drive from Texas to Missouri, was crammed with action and intrigue, it proved tonally problematic for Hawks' star. Gary Cooper had made several films with...
- 1/3/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Western films have been a staple of American cinema for practically as long as movies have been made.
Movies in the Western genre are set in the American West, typically between the 1850s to the end of the 19th century. While it has been a stable genre — no pun intended! — it has also been the starting ground for several hybrid genres like Western comedies, Western musicals and horror Westerns.
No other genre’s history goes back quite as far as that of Westerns. According to documentarian David Gregory, “It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of all films made before 1960 were Westerns.”
Although the category reached its greatest popularity in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, with several becoming cult classics, films continued to be made even through droughts for Westerns in the late ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Actors have also made their name starring in Western films,...
Movies in the Western genre are set in the American West, typically between the 1850s to the end of the 19th century. While it has been a stable genre — no pun intended! — it has also been the starting ground for several hybrid genres like Western comedies, Western musicals and horror Westerns.
No other genre’s history goes back quite as far as that of Westerns. According to documentarian David Gregory, “It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of all films made before 1960 were Westerns.”
Although the category reached its greatest popularity in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, with several becoming cult classics, films continued to be made even through droughts for Westerns in the late ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Actors have also made their name starring in Western films,...
- 1/1/2023
- by Carly Thomas
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
John Wayne had cemented his status as one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood when he encountered his first major challenges as an actor in Howard Hawks' "Red River." While playing a hard-case cattle driver like Thomas Dunson was right in the Duke's macho wheelhouse, the character's age and Ahab-like obsessiveness called for him to step outside of his swaggering, heroic persona. He had to look old and be not just ornery, but downright unlikeable.
It's the kind of role Wayne would only take on as a collaboration with a director he respected as more than an overseer. Hawks was a versatile master of the visual medium. He could do screwball comedy, gangster flicks, war movies, film noir, and Westerns, bringing a rare intelligence to each without turning them into joyless, awards-courting prestige pictures. The biggest stars of the day were eager to work with Hawks, so it was...
It's the kind of role Wayne would only take on as a collaboration with a director he respected as more than an overseer. Hawks was a versatile master of the visual medium. He could do screwball comedy, gangster flicks, war movies, film noir, and Westerns, bringing a rare intelligence to each without turning them into joyless, awards-courting prestige pictures. The biggest stars of the day were eager to work with Hawks, so it was...
- 12/29/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
One of the great pleasures of yesteryear filmmaking was Hollywood's unshakable belief in the power of movie stars. This was especially true in the 1960s when Baby Boomers came of age and clamored for films that reflected their rambunctious, rock-and-roll taste. The studios, run by aging/dying moguls, were caught flat-footed. To stay afloat, they leaned on old favorites and newcomers who cut a classically dashing figure. Method acting might've been all the rage, but viewed on a big, flickering screen, process practitioners like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Warren Beatty looked the matinee-idol part.
Clint Eastwood was a breed apart. He was familiar to U.S. moviegoers due to his portrayal of Rowdy Yates on the CBS TV Western "Rawhide," but that familiarity cut both ways. His lean build, chiseled facial features, and labored emoting belonged to a different era. It wasn't until he teamed up with Sergio Leone...
Clint Eastwood was a breed apart. He was familiar to U.S. moviegoers due to his portrayal of Rowdy Yates on the CBS TV Western "Rawhide," but that familiarity cut both ways. His lean build, chiseled facial features, and labored emoting belonged to a different era. It wasn't until he teamed up with Sergio Leone...
- 12/28/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
10 years after his breakout performance in John Ford's "Stagecoach," John Wayne found himself the object of some critical derision due to his insistence on giving his audience exactly what they wanted. On one hand, who could blame him? As long as people kept lining up to see him play strong, stolid heroes, why invite box office trouble by going against type, especially when two of the finest directors on the planet, Ford and Howard Hawks, were keen to continue cashing in on his popularity?
It was a pretty nifty arrangement for Wayne, who could work small, yet striking variations on his swaggering persona with two trusted, talented collaborators. He respected these men, and was therefore open to suggestions he might've shot down had they been offered by a studio hack. But even with Ford and Hawks, there were lines the Duke was unwilling to cross. Hawks learned this for...
It was a pretty nifty arrangement for Wayne, who could work small, yet striking variations on his swaggering persona with two trusted, talented collaborators. He respected these men, and was therefore open to suggestions he might've shot down had they been offered by a studio hack. But even with Ford and Hawks, there were lines the Duke was unwilling to cross. Hawks learned this for...
- 12/22/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
"The Misfits" would be Marilyn Monroe's final film. The 1961 modern-day psychological Western was ravaged by her physical troubles on-set and the collapse of Monroe's marriage to the movie's screenwriter, Arthur Miller. And the emotional devastation of the movie's plot was reflected by what went on during its making, as Miller, director John Huston, and co-star Eli Wallach hatched a plan to rewrite the movie. The resulting adjustments would have had major consequences, changing the plot to raise Wallach's heroic profile and diminish Monroe's.
Wallach was an old friend of Monroe's from the Actors Studio in New York. According to Les Harding's "They Knew Marilyn Monroe," he credited the actress with getting him cast in "The Misfits," but by the time the movie was being made, something in their friendship had shifted. Beyond the rewrites, he used the movie to execute a couple of practical jokes on her,...
Wallach was an old friend of Monroe's from the Actors Studio in New York. According to Les Harding's "They Knew Marilyn Monroe," he credited the actress with getting him cast in "The Misfits," but by the time the movie was being made, something in their friendship had shifted. Beyond the rewrites, he used the movie to execute a couple of practical jokes on her,...
- 12/18/2022
- by Anthony Crislip
- Slash Film
If you were packaging a film in 2004, you couldn't have rounded up a colder trio of artists than Shane Black, Val Kilmer, and Robert Downey Jr. Black had been struggling to reinvent himself as a writer after gaining notoriety as one of Hollywood's spec script kings; as a result, he hadn't sold a screenplay since 1996's "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (which New Line purchased for a then-record 4 million). Val Kilmer was the whole damn package: a movie star with method acting chops. There was a moment when he was compared to the revered likes of Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Then came the flops and tales of rotten on-set behavior. Despite terrific performances in James Cox's "Wonderland" and David Mamet's "Spartan," Kilmer's public wasn't showing up.
And then there was Downey Jr. The son of legendary indie filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. had been on the cusp of stardom...
And then there was Downey Jr. The son of legendary indie filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. had been on the cusp of stardom...
- 12/10/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
"From Here to Eternity" is the 1953 Oscar winning feature, directed by Fred Zinnemann, based on the 1951 novel by James Jones, following three US Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on 'Pearl Harbor', December 7, 1941, with the film selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant":
"...in Hawaii in the months preceding the Japanese attack on 'Pearl Harbor', 'Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt' (Clift) reports for his new assignment as an infantryman. At his previous Post, Prewitt was a bugler and his unit's top boxer. But after a man died in the ring, Prewitt wants nothing to do with the sport.
"Trouble is, his new company commander, 'Captain Dana Holmes' (Philip Ober) has a championship boxing team and Prewitt's refusal to...
"...in Hawaii in the months preceding the Japanese attack on 'Pearl Harbor', 'Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt' (Clift) reports for his new assignment as an infantryman. At his previous Post, Prewitt was a bugler and his unit's top boxer. But after a man died in the ring, Prewitt wants nothing to do with the sport.
"Trouble is, his new company commander, 'Captain Dana Holmes' (Philip Ober) has a championship boxing team and Prewitt's refusal to...
- 12/7/2022
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
When someone makes the misguided assertion that John Wayne had no range or, worse, was actually a bad actor, you can be sure they've never seen "The Searchers," "Red River" or "True Grit." They most certainly haven't seen "She Wore a Red Ribbon," the conclusion to John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy" which boasts what might very well be the finest performance of The Duke's career.
To be fair, Ford, Wayne's most trusted collaborator, wasn't entirely sold on Wayne's potential beyond his star power until he saw Howard Hawks' "Red River" in 1948. Upon seeing Hawks' Western, Ford reportedly exclaimed, "I didn't know the big son of a b**** could act." While it's worth noting that Ford had a penchant for razzing his frequent leading man, Wayne's portrayal of rancher Thomas Dunson is surprisingly shaded. Dunson is a hard, unyielding man at the outset, but an arduous cattle drive compounded by...
To be fair, Ford, Wayne's most trusted collaborator, wasn't entirely sold on Wayne's potential beyond his star power until he saw Howard Hawks' "Red River" in 1948. Upon seeing Hawks' Western, Ford reportedly exclaimed, "I didn't know the big son of a b**** could act." While it's worth noting that Ford had a penchant for razzing his frequent leading man, Wayne's portrayal of rancher Thomas Dunson is surprisingly shaded. Dunson is a hard, unyielding man at the outset, but an arduous cattle drive compounded by...
- 11/29/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
It's possible that the list of motion picture artists who haven't won competitive Academy Awards might be more prestigious than those who have. Legends such as Stanley Kubrick, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Montgomery Clift, and Yasujirō Ozu were snubbed throughout their brilliant careers. So when John Wayne, perhaps the most consistently popular star of his generation, attended the Oscars ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on the evening of April 7, 1970, he wasn't exactly hopeful.
There were numerous reasons for Wayne's pessimism. At the age of 61, he was up against three of the hottest young actors in Hollywood and a celebrated thespian who'd been denied five times previously (Richard Burton for "Anne of a Thousand Days"). Wayne was also coming off arguably the worst film he'd ever make in "The Green Berets," which earned critical opprobrium for being both lousy and ludicrously supportive of the Vietnam War.
But Wayne had rebounded splendidly with "True Grit,...
There were numerous reasons for Wayne's pessimism. At the age of 61, he was up against three of the hottest young actors in Hollywood and a celebrated thespian who'd been denied five times previously (Richard Burton for "Anne of a Thousand Days"). Wayne was also coming off arguably the worst film he'd ever make in "The Green Berets," which earned critical opprobrium for being both lousy and ludicrously supportive of the Vietnam War.
But Wayne had rebounded splendidly with "True Grit,...
- 11/28/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Mickey Kuhn, the last surviving credited cast member of the 1939 film classic Gone With The Wind, died Sunday at a hospice facility in Naples, Fl. He was 90.
His death was announced in a Facebook post by friend George Terrell.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story James Winburn Dies: Prolific 'Halloween' Stuntman Was 85 Related Story Jean-Marie Straub Dies: Radical French Filmmaker Of Straub-Huillet Duo Was 89
A prolific child actor of the 1930s and ’40s, Kuhn is best remembered for his role as Gone with the Wind‘s Beau Wilkes, the son of Ashley and Melanie Wilkes. In his most memorable scene, Kuhn tearfully reacts to Melanie’s death by asking his father: “Where is my mother going away to? And why can’t I go along, please?”
De Havilland’s death in 2020 left Kuhn as the film’s last surviving credited cast member.
His death was announced in a Facebook post by friend George Terrell.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story James Winburn Dies: Prolific 'Halloween' Stuntman Was 85 Related Story Jean-Marie Straub Dies: Radical French Filmmaker Of Straub-Huillet Duo Was 89
A prolific child actor of the 1930s and ’40s, Kuhn is best remembered for his role as Gone with the Wind‘s Beau Wilkes, the son of Ashley and Melanie Wilkes. In his most memorable scene, Kuhn tearfully reacts to Melanie’s death by asking his father: “Where is my mother going away to? And why can’t I go along, please?”
De Havilland’s death in 2020 left Kuhn as the film’s last surviving credited cast member.
- 11/22/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Mickey Kuhn, the busy child actor of the 1930s and ’40s who played Beau Wilkes, the son of Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard’s characters, in Gone With the Wind, has died. He was 90.
Kuhn died Sunday in a hospice facility in Naples, Florida, his wife, Barbara, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was in excellent health until recently, she said.
Kuhn also portrayed the ward of a famous movie cop in Dick Tracy (1945) and younger versions of Kirk Douglas and Montgomery Clift in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and John Wayne’s Red River (1948), respectively.
And in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Kuhn reunited with Gwtw actress Vivien Leigh to appear as a sailor who gives Blanche DuBois directions. (Was he Leigh’s good luck charm? She won her two best actress Oscars with him in the cast.)
Kuhn was 6 when...
Mickey Kuhn, the busy child actor of the 1930s and ’40s who played Beau Wilkes, the son of Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard’s characters, in Gone With the Wind, has died. He was 90.
Kuhn died Sunday in a hospice facility in Naples, Florida, his wife, Barbara, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was in excellent health until recently, she said.
Kuhn also portrayed the ward of a famous movie cop in Dick Tracy (1945) and younger versions of Kirk Douglas and Montgomery Clift in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and John Wayne’s Red River (1948), respectively.
And in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Kuhn reunited with Gwtw actress Vivien Leigh to appear as a sailor who gives Blanche DuBois directions. (Was he Leigh’s good luck charm? She won her two best actress Oscars with him in the cast.)
Kuhn was 6 when...
- 11/21/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bill Treusch, an esteemed New York-based talent manager, died at the age of 80 following a long illness on Tuesday in New York City.
Through Treusch’s career, he was instrumental in finding and guiding the careers of Sissy Spacek, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo, Christopher Walken, Tom Hulce, Diane Keaton, Eric Roberts, Tom Berenger, Peter Weller, Viggo Mortensen, Carol Kane and Sandy Dennis among many other notable actors.
Treusch began his professional career as an autograph collector, then became the personal assistant to Montgomery Clift, who was a theatrical talent agent with Dudley Field Malone. Most notably, Treusch joined the casting office of Marion Dougherty where he worked with Juliet Taylor, Wallis Nicita and Gretchen Rennell as an assistant.
Dougherty noted Treusch’s great eye for talent and reassigned him to a position where his management career then flourished. This story was chronicled in the 2012 documentary “Casting By” from director Tom Donahue.
Through Treusch’s career, he was instrumental in finding and guiding the careers of Sissy Spacek, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo, Christopher Walken, Tom Hulce, Diane Keaton, Eric Roberts, Tom Berenger, Peter Weller, Viggo Mortensen, Carol Kane and Sandy Dennis among many other notable actors.
Treusch began his professional career as an autograph collector, then became the personal assistant to Montgomery Clift, who was a theatrical talent agent with Dudley Field Malone. Most notably, Treusch joined the casting office of Marion Dougherty where he worked with Juliet Taylor, Wallis Nicita and Gretchen Rennell as an assistant.
Dougherty noted Treusch’s great eye for talent and reassigned him to a position where his management career then flourished. This story was chronicled in the 2012 documentary “Casting By” from director Tom Donahue.
- 11/16/2022
- by EJ Panaligan
- Variety Film + TV
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