The moment Elvis Presley stepped in front of the camera for his second appearance on "The Milton Berle Show" in 1956, there was no doubt that this young man was destined for more than pop music superstardom. Much more.
Conversationally, he was downright adorable with his boyish good looks and aw-shucks Southern shyness, but once the music kicked in he was transformed into a hunk of burning lust. That gyrating pelvis and run-riot voice spurred sexual awakenings in living rooms across the country (in full view of outraged parents). To teenagers, Elvis belted out a call to rebellion. To parents, he was a pompadoured incubus. To Hollywood, he was singing, swaggering box-office gold.
Between 1956 and 1972, Elvis starred in 31 features and two concert films. There were lulls (particularly when his popularity faded prior to his 1968 comeback special), but for the most part Elvis reliably packed 'em in. According to producer Hal B. Wallis...
Conversationally, he was downright adorable with his boyish good looks and aw-shucks Southern shyness, but once the music kicked in he was transformed into a hunk of burning lust. That gyrating pelvis and run-riot voice spurred sexual awakenings in living rooms across the country (in full view of outraged parents). To teenagers, Elvis belted out a call to rebellion. To parents, he was a pompadoured incubus. To Hollywood, he was singing, swaggering box-office gold.
Between 1956 and 1972, Elvis starred in 31 features and two concert films. There were lulls (particularly when his popularity faded prior to his 1968 comeback special), but for the most part Elvis reliably packed 'em in. According to producer Hal B. Wallis...
- 1/20/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Off Broadway’s historic, if long financially beleaguered, Cherry Lane Theatre has been purchased by The Whale and Everything Everywhere All at Once film studio A24.
The 179-seat mainstage venue, located on one of the most picturesque side streets of Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, is a central part of Off Broadway history, founded as a playhouse in 1923 and eventually providing a home space for such major theatrical figures as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Eugene Ionesco, LeRoi Jones, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet.
Recent years have seen the small, tucked-away venue hitting one financial brick wall after another, most recently when executive director Angelina Fiordellisi agreed to sell the theater to the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation for $11 million in 2021. According to The New York Times, that deal fell through over the selling price.
A deed...
The 179-seat mainstage venue, located on one of the most picturesque side streets of Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, is a central part of Off Broadway history, founded as a playhouse in 1923 and eventually providing a home space for such major theatrical figures as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Eugene Ionesco, LeRoi Jones, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet.
Recent years have seen the small, tucked-away venue hitting one financial brick wall after another, most recently when executive director Angelina Fiordellisi agreed to sell the theater to the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation for $11 million in 2021. According to The New York Times, that deal fell through over the selling price.
A deed...
- 3/3/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
For the season 5 season finale, Writer/Director/Producer Adam McKay returns to the podcast to discuss movies from his favorite year of cinema… 1987.
The Movies That Made Me will return with Season 6 in January. Happy Holidays! Thank you for listening!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Tin Men (1987)
Billy Jack (1971)
The Menu (2022)
Boyz N The Hood (1991) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Menace II Society (1991)
Straight Out Of Brooklyn (1991)
Do The Right Thing (1989) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
School Daze (1988)
The Swarm (1978) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Squeeze (1987)
Squeeze Play (1979) – Lloyd Kaufman’s trailer commentary
Diner (1982)
Robocop (1987) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews
The Evil Dead (1983) – Fede Alvarez’s trailer commentary
Evil Dead II (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Alex Kirschenbaum’s review
Broadcast News (1987)
Raising Arizona (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – John Landis’s...
The Movies That Made Me will return with Season 6 in January. Happy Holidays! Thank you for listening!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Tin Men (1987)
Billy Jack (1971)
The Menu (2022)
Boyz N The Hood (1991) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Menace II Society (1991)
Straight Out Of Brooklyn (1991)
Do The Right Thing (1989) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
School Daze (1988)
The Swarm (1978) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Squeeze (1987)
Squeeze Play (1979) – Lloyd Kaufman’s trailer commentary
Diner (1982)
Robocop (1987) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews
The Evil Dead (1983) – Fede Alvarez’s trailer commentary
Evil Dead II (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Alex Kirschenbaum’s review
Broadcast News (1987)
Raising Arizona (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – John Landis’s...
- 12/20/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Had author Philip Van Doren Stern not self-published his short story, "The Greatest Gift," and sent it out to his friends and family as his Christmas card, we may never have got "It's a Wonderful Life." The irony is not lost considering the story's plot.
The author spent months trying to hunt down a publisher willing to take a chance on his story about a man encountering a guardian angel that shows him what the world would have been like if he'd never been born. That's when he took the route to publish 200 copies of the story to send out to his loved ones.
His daughter Marguerite Stern Robinson recalled (via Independent) being in the third grade and delivering a few of the cards off to her teachers and friends. Back then, her father explained to her the importance of the story: "My father, who was himself from a mixed religious background,...
The author spent months trying to hunt down a publisher willing to take a chance on his story about a man encountering a guardian angel that shows him what the world would have been like if he'd never been born. That's when he took the route to publish 200 copies of the story to send out to his loved ones.
His daughter Marguerite Stern Robinson recalled (via Independent) being in the third grade and delivering a few of the cards off to her teachers and friends. Back then, her father explained to her the importance of the story: "My father, who was himself from a mixed religious background,...
- 11/28/2022
- by Sarah Musnicky
- Slash Film
Retro-active: The Best From The Cinema Retro Archives
In honor of the esteemed actor Nehemiah Persoff, who recently passed away at age 102, we are running this interview originally conducted with Mr. Persoff in 2010 by the late writer Herb Shadrak.
Nehemiah Persoff: From Jerusalem to Hollywood and Beyond
By Herb Shadrak
Born in Jerusalem in 1919, Nehemiah Persoff went on to become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood. His face is familiar to millions of boomers across North America from his numerous guest appearances on just about every TV series that aired from the 1950s through the 1990s. Persoff’s name may have been unfamiliar to many of these TV viewers, but his face was instantly recognizable. Filmspot.com describes Persoff as a short, dark and stocky-framed actor who specialized in playing ethnic-type villains, although he frequently essayed sympathetic roles as well.. (Witness his heartbreaking moments with Maria Schell in Voyage of the Damned.
In honor of the esteemed actor Nehemiah Persoff, who recently passed away at age 102, we are running this interview originally conducted with Mr. Persoff in 2010 by the late writer Herb Shadrak.
Nehemiah Persoff: From Jerusalem to Hollywood and Beyond
By Herb Shadrak
Born in Jerusalem in 1919, Nehemiah Persoff went on to become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood. His face is familiar to millions of boomers across North America from his numerous guest appearances on just about every TV series that aired from the 1950s through the 1990s. Persoff’s name may have been unfamiliar to many of these TV viewers, but his face was instantly recognizable. Filmspot.com describes Persoff as a short, dark and stocky-framed actor who specialized in playing ethnic-type villains, although he frequently essayed sympathetic roles as well.. (Witness his heartbreaking moments with Maria Schell in Voyage of the Damned.
- 4/13/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Johnny Brown, the actor, comedian and singer best known for his role as superintendent Nathan Bookman on the popular 70s sitcom “Good Times,” died Wednesday. He was 84 years old.
Brown’s death was confirmed by his daughter, Broadway actress Sharon Catherine Brown, through a post shared on her Instagram. No further details on Brown’s death are available at this time.
“He was literally snatched out of our lives. It’s not real for us yet,” Sharon Catherine Brown wrote. “So there will be more to say but not now. Dad was the absolute best. We love him so very much.”
Prior to his sitcom stardom, Brown was a seasoned entertainment veteran, regularly performing in nightclub acts with his future wife, June Russell. Early in his career he dabbled in recording music, releasing the single “Walkin’, Talkin’, Kissin’ Doll” for Columbia Records in 1961 and “You’re Too Much in Love...
Brown’s death was confirmed by his daughter, Broadway actress Sharon Catherine Brown, through a post shared on her Instagram. No further details on Brown’s death are available at this time.
“He was literally snatched out of our lives. It’s not real for us yet,” Sharon Catherine Brown wrote. “So there will be more to say but not now. Dad was the absolute best. We love him so very much.”
Prior to his sitcom stardom, Brown was a seasoned entertainment veteran, regularly performing in nightclub acts with his future wife, June Russell. Early in his career he dabbled in recording music, releasing the single “Walkin’, Talkin’, Kissin’ Doll” for Columbia Records in 1961 and “You’re Too Much in Love...
- 3/5/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
“It’s strange, but some movies present themselves almost entirely in your head.”—Joel Coen
“I’ll show you a life of the mind!”—Charlie Meadows, a.k.a. Karl Mundt, a.k.a. “Madman” Mundt
Everyone knows about the telegram. It’s an apocryphal Hollywood story, with the actual letter lost to time. But its recipient Ben Hecht quotes it in his memoir, A Child of the Century. The famed journalist, novelist and playwright was toiling away in New York when he received a missive straight from Babylon, courtesy...
“I’ll show you a life of the mind!”—Charlie Meadows, a.k.a. Karl Mundt, a.k.a. “Madman” Mundt
Everyone knows about the telegram. It’s an apocryphal Hollywood story, with the actual letter lost to time. But its recipient Ben Hecht quotes it in his memoir, A Child of the Century. The famed journalist, novelist and playwright was toiling away in New York when he received a missive straight from Babylon, courtesy...
- 8/21/2021
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Devo’s Gerald Casale joins us for a discussion of the movies that made Devo!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Akran (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Village Of The Damned (1960)
Children Of The Damned (1964)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Rocky (1976)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
No Time For Sergeants (1958)
Network (1976)
JFK (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Gremlins (1984)
I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Other Notable Items
Paul McCartney
Slash
Willie Nelson
Devo
Elliot Roberts
Lorne Michaels
Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )
Michael O’Donoghue
The Muppets
Neil Young
Walter Williams
Mr. Bill
Richard Myers
George Kuchar
Mike Kuchar
John F.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Akran (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Village Of The Damned (1960)
Children Of The Damned (1964)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Rocky (1976)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
No Time For Sergeants (1958)
Network (1976)
JFK (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Gremlins (1984)
I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Other Notable Items
Paul McCartney
Slash
Willie Nelson
Devo
Elliot Roberts
Lorne Michaels
Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )
Michael O’Donoghue
The Muppets
Neil Young
Walter Williams
Mr. Bill
Richard Myers
George Kuchar
Mike Kuchar
John F.
- 12/22/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Make way for the parade! Featuring Brian Trenchard-Smith, Eli Roth, Katt Shea, Thomas Jane, our very own Don Barrett and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.
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
Screams of a Winter Night (1979)
Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game Of Death (1975)
I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)
The Rhythm Section (2020)
Atomic Blonde (2017)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Funeral In Berlin (1966)
Extraction (2020)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
The Mermaid (2016)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Singin’ In The Rain (1953)
Nightcrawler (2014)
I Think We’re Alone Now (2008)
Ghetto Freaks a.k.a. Sign of Aquarius (1970)
Hostel (2005)
Cabin Fever (2002)
Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)
The Movie Orgy (1968)
Gremlins (1984)
The Goonies (1985)
Hell of the Living Dead a.k.a. Night of the Zombies (1980)
Troll 2 (1990)
In The Land Of The Cannibals a.k.a. Land of...
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
Screams of a Winter Night (1979)
Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game Of Death (1975)
I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)
The Rhythm Section (2020)
Atomic Blonde (2017)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Funeral In Berlin (1966)
Extraction (2020)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
The Mermaid (2016)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Singin’ In The Rain (1953)
Nightcrawler (2014)
I Think We’re Alone Now (2008)
Ghetto Freaks a.k.a. Sign of Aquarius (1970)
Hostel (2005)
Cabin Fever (2002)
Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)
The Movie Orgy (1968)
Gremlins (1984)
The Goonies (1985)
Hell of the Living Dead a.k.a. Night of the Zombies (1980)
Troll 2 (1990)
In The Land Of The Cannibals a.k.a. Land of...
- 5/8/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Mark Ruffalo is having a hard time connecting.
Not professionally, nor on a personal level. Instead he’s struggling with perhaps the most urgent aspect of the way we live now — his Wi-Fi service.
It’s the afternoon of March 16, and the actor known for his work in everything from “The Avengers” to indie hits like “The Kids Are All Right” is roughly two-thirds of the way through a lengthy Variety interview conducted via Zoom video conference. At his home in rural Sullivan County, a patch of upstate New York that lies halfway between Poughkeepsie and Scranton, Pa., the spotty connection keeps cutting him off mid-sentence.
After the fourth dropout, no one would have begrudged Ruffalo, 52, if he asked to finish the conversation on a less-chaotic day. On this momentous Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is taking a historic 2,997-point dive. In Albany, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has...
Not professionally, nor on a personal level. Instead he’s struggling with perhaps the most urgent aspect of the way we live now — his Wi-Fi service.
It’s the afternoon of March 16, and the actor known for his work in everything from “The Avengers” to indie hits like “The Kids Are All Right” is roughly two-thirds of the way through a lengthy Variety interview conducted via Zoom video conference. At his home in rural Sullivan County, a patch of upstate New York that lies halfway between Poughkeepsie and Scranton, Pa., the spotty connection keeps cutting him off mid-sentence.
After the fourth dropout, no one would have begrudged Ruffalo, 52, if he asked to finish the conversation on a less-chaotic day. On this momentous Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is taking a historic 2,997-point dive. In Albany, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has...
- 4/15/2020
- by Cynthia Littleton and Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The Oscar
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1966/ 1:66:1 / 120 min.
Starring Stephen Boyd, Tony Bennett, Elke Sommer
Written by Harlan Ellison
Directed by Russell Rouse
Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success is a great movie with two career-best performances from Burt Lancaster as a malignant gossip columnist named J. J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis as press agent Sidney Falco – “a real louse.” The third star of the show is surely the screenplay by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets – a lyrical pastiche of streetwise slang that sizzles like “a pocketful of firecrackers.”
Hunsecker – What’s this boy got that Susie likes?
Falco – Integrity – acute, like indigestion.
Hunsecker – I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.
And so on. Mackendrick’s Broadway melodrama is a tale of bright lights and the big city so some hyperbole is expected. But Lehman and Odets were performing...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1966/ 1:66:1 / 120 min.
Starring Stephen Boyd, Tony Bennett, Elke Sommer
Written by Harlan Ellison
Directed by Russell Rouse
Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success is a great movie with two career-best performances from Burt Lancaster as a malignant gossip columnist named J. J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis as press agent Sidney Falco – “a real louse.” The third star of the show is surely the screenplay by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets – a lyrical pastiche of streetwise slang that sizzles like “a pocketful of firecrackers.”
Hunsecker – What’s this boy got that Susie likes?
Falco – Integrity – acute, like indigestion.
Hunsecker – I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.
And so on. Mackendrick’s Broadway melodrama is a tale of bright lights and the big city so some hyperbole is expected. But Lehman and Odets were performing...
- 1/25/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Elvis fans laud this high-end drama, an attempt by the superstar to lock into a mainstream acting career. Presley has fine dramatic support, especially from his three leading ladies, but the requirement that an Elvis movie be all things to all people — especially marketers — really takes its toll. It’s a soap where almost nothing is believable, except to true believers for whom Presley can do no wrong.
Wild in the Country
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen 1:37 academy / 114 min. / Street Date August 20, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins, Rafer Johnson, John Ireland, Gary Lockwood, William Mims, Raymond Greenleaf, Christina Crawford, Pat Buttram, Doreen Lang, Alan Napier, Jason Robards Sr..
Cinematography: William C. Mellor
Editor : Dorothy Spencer
Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins
Written by Clifford Odets from a novel by J. R. Salamanca
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Philip Dunne...
Wild in the Country
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen 1:37 academy / 114 min. / Street Date August 20, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins, Rafer Johnson, John Ireland, Gary Lockwood, William Mims, Raymond Greenleaf, Christina Crawford, Pat Buttram, Doreen Lang, Alan Napier, Jason Robards Sr..
Cinematography: William C. Mellor
Editor : Dorothy Spencer
Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins
Written by Clifford Odets from a novel by J. R. Salamanca
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Philip Dunne...
- 8/20/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Burt Lancaster in Frank and Eleanor Perry's The Swimmer (1968), based upon the John Cheever short story. Courtesy of Film Forum.For decades, film critics and academics interested in the classical Hollywood cinema have been dutifully studying the canonized big stars—Cary Grant, Garbo, the Hepburns, Bogart and Bacall, Dietrich and Crawford and Monroe—while downplaying one of the most highly varied and fascinating careers of any studio actor: Burt Lancaster. Now, New York’s Film Forum is giving us a great excuse to revisit this actor’s towering body of work—emphasis on “body.” From big-name classics like Louis Malle’s Atlantic City (1980) and John Frankenheimer’s Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) to little-known masterpieces like Carol Reed’s Trapeze (1956) and Luchino Visconti’s late decadent chamber drama Conversation Piece (1974), a meaty, healthy range of Burt is on display for the next four weeks, between July 19 to August 15.Serious film talk...
- 7/23/2019
- MUBI
Former Another World star David Hedison died Thursday in Los Angeles, a family spokeswoman announced. He was 92.
Born Al David Hedison on May 20, 1927, in Providence, Rhode Island, Hedison discovered the theater while attending Brown University and studied in New York under Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse and with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio.
He worked alongside Uta Hagen and Michael Redgrave in-off Broadway productions by Clifford Odets and Christopher Fry, among others, and made his big-screen debut in the World War II naval drama The Enemy Below (1957), starring Robert Mitchum.
After starring in the original The Fly and Son of Robin Hood in 1958, he signed a contract at Twentieth Century Fox, changing his stage name to David Hedison.
From 1964-68, Hedison's character Captain Lee Crane worked aboard the Seaview under the command of Adm. Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart) on 110 episodes of ABC's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Born Al David Hedison on May 20, 1927, in Providence, Rhode Island, Hedison discovered the theater while attending Brown University and studied in New York under Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse and with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio.
He worked alongside Uta Hagen and Michael Redgrave in-off Broadway productions by Clifford Odets and Christopher Fry, among others, and made his big-screen debut in the World War II naval drama The Enemy Below (1957), starring Robert Mitchum.
After starring in the original The Fly and Son of Robin Hood in 1958, he signed a contract at Twentieth Century Fox, changing his stage name to David Hedison.
From 1964-68, Hedison's character Captain Lee Crane worked aboard the Seaview under the command of Adm. Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart) on 110 episodes of ABC's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
- 7/22/2019
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
David Hedison, a film, television, and theater actor known for his role as Captain Lee Crane in the sci-fi adventure television series “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and as the crazed scientist turned human insect in the first iteration of the film “The Fly,” died on July 18. He was 92, and the family said in a statement that he “died peacefully” with his daughters at his side.
“Even in our deep sadness, we are comforted by the memory of our wonderful father. He loved us all dearly and expressed that love every day. He was adored by so many, all of whom benefited from his warm and generous heart. Our dad brought joy and humor wherever he went and did so with great style,” said the family in a statement.
David Hedison, born Al Hedison, was from Providence, R.I. and studied at Brown University where he grew fond of the theater,...
“Even in our deep sadness, we are comforted by the memory of our wonderful father. He loved us all dearly and expressed that love every day. He was adored by so many, all of whom benefited from his warm and generous heart. Our dad brought joy and humor wherever he went and did so with great style,” said the family in a statement.
David Hedison, born Al Hedison, was from Providence, R.I. and studied at Brown University where he grew fond of the theater,...
- 7/22/2019
- by Mackenzie Nichols
- Variety Film + TV
There have been at least four major “King Kong” movies — and another, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” is due early next year. And yet when fans of all ages think of the girl in the palm of the ape’s hand, they think not of Jessica Lange or Naomi Watts, but of the actress who first embodied her in 1933.
As we speak, New York’s popular indie house Film Forum is filling the next two weeks with movies that starred Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow who tamed the giant ape. Also featured are movies written by Wray’s husband, Academy Award winner Robert Riskin. The program is done in conjunction with a new memoir by Victoria Riskin, the couples’ daughter and former president of the Writers Guild of America West.
“They were an early Hollywood power couple, each with a lasting legacy,” TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz said. “Wray is more easily identifiable,...
As we speak, New York’s popular indie house Film Forum is filling the next two weeks with movies that starred Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow who tamed the giant ape. Also featured are movies written by Wray’s husband, Academy Award winner Robert Riskin. The program is done in conjunction with a new memoir by Victoria Riskin, the couples’ daughter and former president of the Writers Guild of America West.
“They were an early Hollywood power couple, each with a lasting legacy,” TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz said. “Wray is more easily identifiable,...
- 3/26/2019
- by Mary Murphy and Michele Willens
- The Wrap
By John M. Whalen
In 1988 Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”, “The Poseidon Adventure”) got fed up with what he called “the eel pit of Hollywood,” and moved to Thailand to start a new life. According to the La Times, he’d grown tired of the power plays, the egos, the hypocrisy and the dictum that homage must be paid to the box office. He left and never came back.
Hollywood has always had its dark side-- just read “Hollywood Babylon.” Silliphant’s “eel pit” was never a more apt description than when, a few years later in 2015, the film industry was rocked by WikiLeaks release of some really nasty Sony emails that gave a glimpse into what powerful producers and studio execs really thought of some of their stars. Scott Rudin called Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat.” Clint Culpepper called Kevin Hart “a whore,...
In 1988 Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”, “The Poseidon Adventure”) got fed up with what he called “the eel pit of Hollywood,” and moved to Thailand to start a new life. According to the La Times, he’d grown tired of the power plays, the egos, the hypocrisy and the dictum that homage must be paid to the box office. He left and never came back.
Hollywood has always had its dark side-- just read “Hollywood Babylon.” Silliphant’s “eel pit” was never a more apt description than when, a few years later in 2015, the film industry was rocked by WikiLeaks release of some really nasty Sony emails that gave a glimpse into what powerful producers and studio execs really thought of some of their stars. Scott Rudin called Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat.” Clint Culpepper called Kevin Hart “a whore,...
- 12/15/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Kate Winslet is on fire in Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel, playing Ginny, an unhappily married waitress living near the boardwalk on Brooklyn's Coney Island circa 1950. This broken dreamer is pushing 40 and reaching the limits of her patience with Humpty (a solidly affecting Jim Belushi), the carousel-operator she married to provide a semblance of security for her pre-teen, budding-pyromaniac son Richie (Jack Gore), a budding pyromaniac. The Wonder Wheel outside their window spins in circles – just like Ginny, who drinks too much and lashes out at anyone who doesn't like it.
- 11/30/2017
- Rollingstone.com
What seemed too raw for 1955 still packs a punch, as Robert Aldrich takes a meat cleaver to the power politics of the old studio system. Monstrous studio head Rod Steiger has just the leverage he needs to blackmail frazzled star Jack Palance into signing the big contract. But will Hollywood corruption destroy them all?
The Big Knife
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date September 5, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen,
Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton, Nick Dennis.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Art Direction: William Glasgow
Film Editor: Michael Luciano
Original Music: Frank De Vol
Adapted by James Poe from the play by Clifford Odets
Produced and Directed by Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich’s 1940s film apprenticeship was largely spent as an assistant director for strong, creative filmmakers that wanted to do good personal work free of the constraints of the big studios.
The Big Knife
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date September 5, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen,
Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton, Nick Dennis.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Art Direction: William Glasgow
Film Editor: Michael Luciano
Original Music: Frank De Vol
Adapted by James Poe from the play by Clifford Odets
Produced and Directed by Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich’s 1940s film apprenticeship was largely spent as an assistant director for strong, creative filmmakers that wanted to do good personal work free of the constraints of the big studios.
- 9/26/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Big Knife (1955) will be available on Blu-ray + DVD September 5th From Arrow Video
Mere months after delivering one of the definitive examples of film noir with Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich brought a noir flavor to Hollywood with his classic adaptation of Clifford Odets’ stage play, The Big Knife.
Charles Castle, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, looks like he has it all. But his marriage is falling apart and his wife is threatening to leave him if he renews his contract. Studio boss Stanley Shriner Hoff isn’t taking the news too well, and he’ll do anything he can to get his man to sign on the dotted line – even if means exposing dark secrets…
Winner of the Silver Lion at the 1955 Venice Film Festival, The Big Knife also boasts a remarkable cast list including Jack Palance (Shane) as Castle and Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront) as Hoff,...
Mere months after delivering one of the definitive examples of film noir with Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich brought a noir flavor to Hollywood with his classic adaptation of Clifford Odets’ stage play, The Big Knife.
Charles Castle, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, looks like he has it all. But his marriage is falling apart and his wife is threatening to leave him if he renews his contract. Studio boss Stanley Shriner Hoff isn’t taking the news too well, and he’ll do anything he can to get his man to sign on the dotted line – even if means exposing dark secrets…
Winner of the Silver Lion at the 1955 Venice Film Festival, The Big Knife also boasts a remarkable cast list including Jack Palance (Shane) as Castle and Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront) as Hoff,...
- 8/25/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Morgan Freeman – Academy Award winning actor, producer, voice actor and activist – has been named the 54th recipient of SAG-aftra's highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.
Freeman will be presented the performers union’s top accolade at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards,which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018 at 8 p.m. (Et), 7 p.m. (Ct), 6 p.m. (Mt) and 5 p.m. (Pt). Given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” the SAG Life Achievement Award will join Freeman’s exceptional catalog of preeminent industry and public honors, which includes a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Academy Award, HFPA’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, seven Image Awards, a Silver Berlin Bear, several Obies, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Freeman will be presented the performers union’s top accolade at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards,which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018 at 8 p.m. (Et), 7 p.m. (Ct), 6 p.m. (Mt) and 5 p.m. (Pt). Given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” the SAG Life Achievement Award will join Freeman’s exceptional catalog of preeminent industry and public honors, which includes a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Academy Award, HFPA’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, seven Image Awards, a Silver Berlin Bear, several Obies, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 8/24/2017
- Look to the Stars
Mark Ruffalo has joined the cast of this spring’s Broadway revival of the Arthur Miller drama “The Price.” The “Avengers” star is stepping in for John Turturro, who had to withdraw from the production due to his filming schedule on “Going Places,” on which he is serving as writer, director and star — reprising his role from the Coen brothers’ “The Big Lebowski” as the Latin American bowler Jesus Quintana. Ruffalo, a Tony nominee in 2006 for an acclaimed revival of Clifford Odets’ “Awake and Sing!” will play opposite Tony Shalhoub, Jessica Hecht and Danny DeVito in the “The Price.” Also Read:.
- 1/5/2017
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Chicago – The horror genre in film is always looking for a shot in the old fear factor, and the new release “Don’t Breathe” delivers that injection (heh-heh). The second film by director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead”) features character actor favorite Stephen Lang – he prefers “Slang.” The film opens nationwide on August 26th.
Director Alvarez – he also co-wrote the story with Rodo Sayagues – creates an atmosphere of dread by pitting three twentysomething burglars (Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto) against a blind war veteran (Slang) on an abandoned street in Detroit. You would have thought that the threesome would remember that a vet would know how to robbery-proof a home, but no! There are more twists and turns than a pretzel, and the film is a satisfying scare fest.
Stephen Lang Brushes by Dylan Minnette in ‘Don’t Breathe,’ Directed by Fede Alvarez
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Stephen Lang is a total actor,...
Director Alvarez – he also co-wrote the story with Rodo Sayagues – creates an atmosphere of dread by pitting three twentysomething burglars (Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto) against a blind war veteran (Slang) on an abandoned street in Detroit. You would have thought that the threesome would remember that a vet would know how to robbery-proof a home, but no! There are more twists and turns than a pretzel, and the film is a satisfying scare fest.
Stephen Lang Brushes by Dylan Minnette in ‘Don’t Breathe,’ Directed by Fede Alvarez
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Stephen Lang is a total actor,...
- 8/26/2016
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...
1040 King Duncan is killed in battle and King Macbeth succeeds him. Shakespeare fictionalizes everything later for Macbeth. So many theatrical productions and movies follow. Out damn spot!
1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics end. This is the Olympic year when gorgeous Buster Crabbe became a gold medalist (pictured left). Hollywood then snatched him right up for movie serials and action adventure franchises including Tarzan The Fearless
1945 Japan surrenders during Ww II (the six year war will last only two more weeks.) but movie makers all over the world have never stopped telling the war's infinite stories. On that same day Steve Martin is born in Waco Texas. It only takes him another 68 years to get the Oscar he totally deserved
1946 Two actor birthdays: Blacksploitation actor Antonio Fargas who became "Huggybear" on TV's popular Starksy & Hutch and Susan Saint James TV of McMillan & Wife...
1040 King Duncan is killed in battle and King Macbeth succeeds him. Shakespeare fictionalizes everything later for Macbeth. So many theatrical productions and movies follow. Out damn spot!
1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics end. This is the Olympic year when gorgeous Buster Crabbe became a gold medalist (pictured left). Hollywood then snatched him right up for movie serials and action adventure franchises including Tarzan The Fearless
1945 Japan surrenders during Ww II (the six year war will last only two more weeks.) but movie makers all over the world have never stopped telling the war's infinite stories. On that same day Steve Martin is born in Waco Texas. It only takes him another 68 years to get the Oscar he totally deserved
1946 Two actor birthdays: Blacksploitation actor Antonio Fargas who became "Huggybear" on TV's popular Starksy & Hutch and Susan Saint James TV of McMillan & Wife...
- 8/14/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The director-centric 1970s were a time for pushing the boundaries of 'acceptable' film content, but John Byrum's witty and profane period piece about a Hollywood porn director was a step too far. Richard Dreyfuss leads a cast of utterly fearless actors in a witty and intelligent dissection of movieland decadence. Inserts Region A Blu-ray Twilight Time 1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date June 14, 2016 / (Nc-17) / Available from Twilight Time Movies Store29.95 Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, Veronica Cartwright, Bob Hoskins, Stephen Davies. Cinematography Denys N. Coop Art Direction John Clark Costumes Shirley Russell Produced by Davina Belling, Clive Parsons Written and Directed by John Byrum
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
At least in Los Angeles, the theatrical showings of John Byrum's remarkable Inserts came and went (cough) so fast that nobody had time to be outraged. The reviews made it sound like sordid trash that could only attract men in plastic raincoats.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
At least in Los Angeles, the theatrical showings of John Byrum's remarkable Inserts came and went (cough) so fast that nobody had time to be outraged. The reviews made it sound like sordid trash that could only attract men in plastic raincoats.
- 7/8/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been… ? | Jean-Luc Godard
The closing half of that title is “… a member of the Communist party?”, a question that could have presaged the end of your career and possibly your liberty in 1950s Hollywood. Now we can eat brunch over it, safe in the knowledge that a McCarthy-style witch hunt could never happen again – could it? In advance of Trumbo, a Bryan Cranston-led biopic on the Hollywood Ten writer (out 5 Feb), this season revisits those bad old days each Sunday this month. Proceedings begin tomorrow with sci-fi allegory Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and continues with Clifford Odets’s lid-lifting Hollywood drama The Big Knife (Odets was one of those who cooperated with the committee) and Woody Allen-starring satire The Front (featuring cast and crew who actually were blacklisted), culminating in Spartacus, the film that literally restored Dalton Trumbo’s name.
The closing half of that title is “… a member of the Communist party?”, a question that could have presaged the end of your career and possibly your liberty in 1950s Hollywood. Now we can eat brunch over it, safe in the knowledge that a McCarthy-style witch hunt could never happen again – could it? In advance of Trumbo, a Bryan Cranston-led biopic on the Hollywood Ten writer (out 5 Feb), this season revisits those bad old days each Sunday this month. Proceedings begin tomorrow with sci-fi allegory Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and continues with Clifford Odets’s lid-lifting Hollywood drama The Big Knife (Odets was one of those who cooperated with the committee) and Woody Allen-starring satire The Front (featuring cast and crew who actually were blacklisted), culminating in Spartacus, the film that literally restored Dalton Trumbo’s name.
- 1/2/2016
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Lee Strasberg Theatre amp Film Institute Lstfi with The Lee Strasberg Creative Center in collaboration with Nyu Tisch School of the Arts' Undergraduate Department of Drama will present two new works by playwrights, Crystal Skillman and Steve Diubaldo, this year's recipients of The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission, today, December 3, through December5 and December10-12 at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre in New York City. A gala will follow the December 5 and 12 performances.
- 12/3/2015
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Lee Strasberg Theatre amp Film Institute Lstfi with The Lee Strasberg Creative Center in collaboration with Nyu Tisch School of the Arts' Undergraduate Department of Drama will present two new works by playwrights, Crystal Skillman and Steve Diubaldo, this year's recipients of The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission, December 3-5 and 10-12 at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre in New York City. A gala will follow the December 5 and 12 performances.
- 8/22/2015
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
'Humoresque': Joan Crawford and John Garfield. 'Humoresque' 1946: Saved by Joan Crawford Directed by Jean Negulesco from a screenplay by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold (loosely based on a Fannie Hurst short story), Humoresque always frustrates me because its first 25 minutes are excruciatingly boring – until Joan Crawford finally makes her appearance during a party scene. Crawford plays Helen Wright, a rich society lush in love with a tough-guy violin player, Paul Boray (John Garfield), who happens to be in love with his music. Fine support is offered by Paul's parents, played by Ruth Nelson and the fabulous chameleon-like J. Carroll Naish. Oscar Levant is the sarcastic, wisecracking piano player, who plays his part to the verge of annoyance. (Spoilers ahead.) Something wrong with that woman The Humoresque scenes between Paul and his mother are particularly intriguing, as the mother conveys her objections to Helen by lamenting, "There's something wrong with a woman like that!
- 7/27/2015
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Director John Frankenheimer.
I'm often asked which, out of the over 600 interviews I've logged with Hollywood's finest, is my favorite. It's not a tough answer: John Frankenheimer.
We instantly clicked the day we met at his home in Benedict Canyon, and spent most of the afternoon talking in his den. A friendship of sorts developed over the years, with visits to his office for screenings of the old Kinescopes he directed for shows like "Playhouse 90" during his salad days in live television during the 1950s.
We hadn't spoken for nearly a year in mid-2002 when the phone rang. It was John, who spoke in what can only be described as a "stentorian bark," like a general. "Alex!" he exclaimed. "John Frankenheimer." He could sense something was amiss with me. It was. My screenwriting career had stalled. My marriage was progressing to divorce. I had hit bottom. John knew that...
I'm often asked which, out of the over 600 interviews I've logged with Hollywood's finest, is my favorite. It's not a tough answer: John Frankenheimer.
We instantly clicked the day we met at his home in Benedict Canyon, and spent most of the afternoon talking in his den. A friendship of sorts developed over the years, with visits to his office for screenings of the old Kinescopes he directed for shows like "Playhouse 90" during his salad days in live television during the 1950s.
We hadn't spoken for nearly a year in mid-2002 when the phone rang. It was John, who spoke in what can only be described as a "stentorian bark," like a general. "Alex!" he exclaimed. "John Frankenheimer." He could sense something was amiss with me. It was. My screenwriting career had stalled. My marriage was progressing to divorce. I had hit bottom. John knew that...
- 7/6/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Jeff Donnell, Sam Levene, Joe Frisco, Barbara Nichols, Emile Meyer, Edith Atwater | Written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman | Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
When it comes to Arrow and the releases they output I’ll always be a fan of the Arrow Video line because of my love of everything cult and horror. A close second though has to be their Arrow Academy range, whereas the name suggest they give more of an education based on films from the past which deserve our attention just as much as any modern movie does. Sweet Smell of Success is the latest release and gives an insight into one of the more unique Hollywood movies not only of its times in the fifties, but still remains just as good today.
When J.J. Hensecker (Burt Lancaster) a powerful New York newspaper columnist decides to come...
When it comes to Arrow and the releases they output I’ll always be a fan of the Arrow Video line because of my love of everything cult and horror. A close second though has to be their Arrow Academy range, whereas the name suggest they give more of an education based on films from the past which deserve our attention just as much as any modern movie does. Sweet Smell of Success is the latest release and gives an insight into one of the more unique Hollywood movies not only of its times in the fifties, but still remains just as good today.
When J.J. Hensecker (Burt Lancaster) a powerful New York newspaper columnist decides to come...
- 3/30/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
Teresa Wright and Matt Damon in 'The Rainmaker' Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright vs. Samuel Goldwyn: Nasty Falling Out.") "I'd rather have luck than brains!" Teresa Wright was quoted as saying in the early 1950s. That's understandable, considering her post-Samuel Goldwyn choice of movie roles, some of which may have seemed promising on paper.[1] Wright was Marlon Brando's first Hollywood leading lady, but that didn't help her to bounce back following the very public spat with her former boss. After all, The Men was released before Elia Kazan's film version of A Streetcar Named Desire turned Brando into a major international star. Chances are that good film offers were scarce. After Wright's brief 1950 comeback, for the third time in less than a decade she would be gone from the big screen for more than a year.
- 3/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Leonard Nimoy, the much-loved actor and long-time Star Trek lead, has died in Los Angeles. He was 83. According to The New York Times, his wife Susan Bay Nimoy, who confirmed his death, attributed the cause to chronic pulmonary disease. Nimoy himself had attributed his ill-health to a long-ceased smoking habit.As the internet will be swift to note, Leonard Nimoy lived long and prospered. Born in Boston to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Nimoy acted in neighbourhood theatre from the age of eight, later scoring his first major role in an amateur production of a Clifford Odets play aged 17. Fuelled by his experiences on the stage and encouraged by his grandfather, Nimoy revisited the craft in his twenties after a three-year stint in the Us Army and a short spell at college. Moving to La, he was soon teaching the craft in Hollywood and paying the rent with small roles TV shows and movies,...
- 2/27/2015
- EmpireOnline
Oscar 2015 winners (photo: Chris Pratt during Oscar 2015 rehearsals) The complete list of Oscar 2015 winners and nominees can be found below. See also: Oscar 2015 presenters and performers. Now, a little Oscar 2015 trivia. If you know a bit about the history of the Academy Awards, you'll have noticed several little curiosities about this year's nominations. For instance, there are quite a few first-time nominees in the acting and directing categories. In fact, nine of the nominated actors and three of the nominated directors are Oscar newcomers. Here's the list in the acting categories: Eddie Redmayne. Michael Keaton. Steve Carell. Benedict Cumberbatch. Felicity Jones. Rosamund Pike. J.K. Simmons. Emma Stone. Patricia Arquette. The three directors are: Morten Tyldum. Richard Linklater. Wes Anderson. Oscar 2015 comebacks Oscar 2015 also marks the Academy Awards' "comeback" of several performers and directors last nominated years ago. Marion Cotillard and Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress Oscars for, respectively, Olivier Dahan...
- 2/22/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
A rare revival of Rocket to the Moon, the 1938 play by Clifford Odets Awake And Sing, Golden Boy, starring Ned Eisenberg, starts performances tonight at the Theatre at St. Clement's. Directed by Obie and Lucille Lortel Award winner Dan Wackerman Counsellor-at-Law, Rocket to the Moon will play a limited engagement, opening Monday, February 23rd. Eisenberg graciously sat down and spoke with BroadwayWorld about taking on the role of Ben Stark in this seldom-performed Odets piece, working with Wackerman, and more...
- 2/10/2015
- by Sally Henry
- BroadwayWorld.com
A rare revival of Rocket to the Moon, the 1938 play by Clifford Odets Awake and Sing, Golden Boy will soonplay Theatre at St. Clement's. Directed by Obie and Lucille Lortel Award winner Dan Wackerman Counsellor-at-Law, Rocket to the Moon will play a limited engagement beginning February 10th at Theatre at St. Clement's 423 West 46th Street. Opening night is Monday, February 23rd. Check out photos of the cast below...
- 2/3/2015
- by Jennifer Broski
- BroadwayWorld.com
By Scott Feinberg
The Hollywood Reporter
I interviewed Luise Rainer in London in 2009, back when she was only 99 years old. Rainer, the first person ever to win two acting Oscars — which happened to come in back-to-back years, for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and for The Good Earth (1937), and just a couple of years before her Hollywood career was over — died Tuesday at 104, less than two weeks shy of her 105th birthday. So this seems as good a time as any to reflect on what she meant to Hollywood and to me.
Rainer, a German-born Austrian, was a true legend, not only one of the last connections to 1930s Hollywood — a real Golden Age of movies — but also a pupil of Max Reinhardt, a wife of Clifford Odets, a competitor of Greta Garbo, a target of Louis B. Mayer, an inspiration to many other great actors who followed (countless numbers of whom...
The Hollywood Reporter
I interviewed Luise Rainer in London in 2009, back when she was only 99 years old. Rainer, the first person ever to win two acting Oscars — which happened to come in back-to-back years, for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and for The Good Earth (1937), and just a couple of years before her Hollywood career was over — died Tuesday at 104, less than two weeks shy of her 105th birthday. So this seems as good a time as any to reflect on what she meant to Hollywood and to me.
Rainer, a German-born Austrian, was a true legend, not only one of the last connections to 1930s Hollywood — a real Golden Age of movies — but also a pupil of Max Reinhardt, a wife of Clifford Odets, a competitor of Greta Garbo, a target of Louis B. Mayer, an inspiration to many other great actors who followed (countless numbers of whom...
- 12/31/2014
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Luise Rainer, a star of cinema's golden era who won back-to-back Oscars but then walked away from a glittering Hollywood career, has died. She was 104.
Rainer, whose roles ranged from the 1930s German stage to television's "The Love Boat," died Tuesday at her home in London from pneumonia, said her only daughter, Francesca Knittel-Bowyer.
"She was bigger than life and can charm the birds out of the trees," Knittel-Bowyer said. "If you saw her, you'd never forget her."
The big-eyed, apple-cheeked Rainer gained Hollywood immortality by becoming the first person to win an acting Academy Award in consecutive years, taking the best actress prize for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 in and The Good Earth in 1937.
It's a feat since achieved by only four other actors.
Those trophies marked the peak of Rainer's career, which declined so rapidly that many considered her an early victim of "the curse of the Oscars.
Rainer, whose roles ranged from the 1930s German stage to television's "The Love Boat," died Tuesday at her home in London from pneumonia, said her only daughter, Francesca Knittel-Bowyer.
"She was bigger than life and can charm the birds out of the trees," Knittel-Bowyer said. "If you saw her, you'd never forget her."
The big-eyed, apple-cheeked Rainer gained Hollywood immortality by becoming the first person to win an acting Academy Award in consecutive years, taking the best actress prize for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 in and The Good Earth in 1937.
It's a feat since achieved by only four other actors.
Those trophies marked the peak of Rainer's career, which declined so rapidly that many considered her an early victim of "the curse of the Oscars.
- 12/30/2014
- by Cineplex.com and contributors
- Cineplex
Luise Rainer, the first person to win back-to-back Academy Awards, died on Tuesday of pneumonia. She was 104.
Rainer took home the top actress trophies in 1936 and 1937 for her roles on “The Great Ziegfeld” and “The Good Earth,” respectively. Only four other actors have since match the feat.
Also Read: Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2014 (Photos)
Rainer closed out her brief Hollywood film career with “Hostages” in 1943, and spent most of her later life in England. She made the occasional film and TV appearances, including on a 1984 episode of “The Love Boat.” One of her last film roles was in 1998 Fyodor Dostoyevsky adaptation “The Gambler.
Rainer took home the top actress trophies in 1936 and 1937 for her roles on “The Great Ziegfeld” and “The Good Earth,” respectively. Only four other actors have since match the feat.
Also Read: Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2014 (Photos)
Rainer closed out her brief Hollywood film career with “Hostages” in 1943, and spent most of her later life in England. She made the occasional film and TV appearances, including on a 1984 episode of “The Love Boat.” One of her last film roles was in 1998 Fyodor Dostoyevsky adaptation “The Gambler.
- 12/30/2014
- by Tony Maglio
- The Wrap
Luise Rainer, a star of cinema's golden era who won back-to-back Oscars but then walked away from a glittering Hollywood career, has died. She was 104. Rainer, whose roles ranged from the 1930s German stage to television's The Love Boat, died Tuesday at her home in London from pneumonia, said her only daughter, Francesca Knittel-Bowyer. "She was bigger than life and can charm the birds out of the trees," Knittel-Bowyer said. "If you saw her, you'd never forget her." The big-eyed, apple-cheeked Rainer gained Hollywood immortality by becoming the first person to win an acting Academy Award in consecutive years, taking...
- 12/30/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...
- 11/5/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Exclusive, Updated At 6:06 p.m. with comments about Spotlight at end: You might call August, 2014 a full-circle month for Mark Ruffalo. His performance as Ned Weeks in Ryan Murphy‘s HBO version of The Normal Heart earned one of that film’s astonishing 16 Emmy nominations, with the winners to be announced on Aug. 25. He’s eager to catch the Broadway revival of the 1996 stage play that launched his career, Kenneth Lonergan‘s This Is Our Youth, which begins on the 18th with Michael Cera and Kieran Culkin.
Writing about his work in Lonergan’s You Can Count On Me, the New York Times’ Stephen Holden said, “Mr. Ruffalo’s star-making performance deserves to be added to the list of charismatic, grownup lost boys that includes the Marlon Brando of A Streetcar Named Desire and the Jack Nicholson of Easy Rider.”
Yet this is the same guy who plays the Hulk in the Avengers franchise.
Writing about his work in Lonergan’s You Can Count On Me, the New York Times’ Stephen Holden said, “Mr. Ruffalo’s star-making performance deserves to be added to the list of charismatic, grownup lost boys that includes the Marlon Brando of A Streetcar Named Desire and the Jack Nicholson of Easy Rider.”
Yet this is the same guy who plays the Hulk in the Avengers franchise.
- 8/11/2014
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
Drew Barrymore half-sister Jessica Barrymore found dead near San Diego (photo: Jessica Barrymore) Drew Barrymore’s half-sister Jessica Barrymore was found dead in her car early Tuesday, July 29, 2014, in National City, located between San Diego and Chula Vista in Southern California. Jessica Barrymore (née Brahma [Jessica] Blyth Barrymore) would have turned 48 on Thursday, July 31. According to a witness, Jessica Barrymore, who worked at a Petco store, was found reclined in the driver’s seat, with a drink between her legs. White pills were seen scattered on the passenger seat. Despite online rags reporting either that Drew Barrymore’s half-sister committed suicide or died from a drug overdose, the official cause of death hasn’t been announced. As per the Los Angeles Times, an autopsy will be performed in the next few days. In a statement published in the gossip magazine People, Drew Barrymore, 39, said she had "only met her [sister Jessica] briefly." Their father was John Drew Barrymore,...
- 7/31/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
A quarter-century ago, Kevin Costner hit a double-play, following up "Bull Durham" with "Field of Dreams" and becoming king of the sports movie. Twenty-five years later, as "Field of Dreams" marks its 25th anniversary (it was released on April 21, 1989), Costner is back with "Draft Day." The movie's about football, not baseball, and Costner's character plays in the executive suite, not on the field, but his mere presence still offers a reminder of great sports movies past.
And after all, isn't nostalgia a key element of sports movies? "Field of Dreams" makes this explicit -- we long for the sports heroes of our childhood, for a supposed long-gone golden age of our preferred sport, as a way of connecting with our past and bridging the generational divide that separates us as adults from our parents. Sports movies offer more than just the drama of winners and losers, or the journey from dream to achievement,...
And after all, isn't nostalgia a key element of sports movies? "Field of Dreams" makes this explicit -- we long for the sports heroes of our childhood, for a supposed long-gone golden age of our preferred sport, as a way of connecting with our past and bridging the generational divide that separates us as adults from our parents. Sports movies offer more than just the drama of winners and losers, or the journey from dream to achievement,...
- 4/20/2014
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Sweet Smell of Success
Written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets
Directed Alexander Mackendrick
USA, 1957
For press agents and important newspaper columnists in the 1950s, Manhattan is the heart of the jungle. With stories floating out and about from Broadway, the visits of senators or even the domain of midlevel musical artists, the Big Apple is the hubbub of gossip and breathtaking opinion pieces, a virtual goldmine for press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) and widely read columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). The latter’s every written word forms public opinion like that of few other writers, a power he relishes, a power that inflates his already considerable ego. The former is the sewer rat who digs up any bit of information he can on just about anything that sells a newspaper…and a whole lot of gossip can sell a newspaper. His latest assignment, decreed by his dictatorial ally J.
Written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets
Directed Alexander Mackendrick
USA, 1957
For press agents and important newspaper columnists in the 1950s, Manhattan is the heart of the jungle. With stories floating out and about from Broadway, the visits of senators or even the domain of midlevel musical artists, the Big Apple is the hubbub of gossip and breathtaking opinion pieces, a virtual goldmine for press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) and widely read columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). The latter’s every written word forms public opinion like that of few other writers, a power he relishes, a power that inflates his already considerable ego. The former is the sewer rat who digs up any bit of information he can on just about anything that sells a newspaper…and a whole lot of gossip can sell a newspaper. His latest assignment, decreed by his dictatorial ally J.
- 4/4/2014
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Representing the Stella Adler Studio of Acting is a great honor and responsibility. Stella Adler along with the other members of the Group Theater revolutionized the American Theater scene. Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Bobby Lewis, Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets, Sanford Meisner, Lee J. Cobb, these names are legends to drama students and theater history buffs. And when one looks at the legacy they left behind through successive generations of students- Marlon Brando, Elaine Stritch, Warren Beatty, Estelle Parsons, Robert Deniro, James Dean, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, the list goes on and on, one begins to get a sense of the impact the Group Theater has had, not only in America, but the world.
- 12/23/2013
- by Guest Blogger: Michael Milligan
- BroadwayWorld.com
Actor Martin Shaw talks about working with Polanski, the dumbing-down of his profession, and the death of his fellow Professional Lewis Collins
How did you become interested in acting?
It started at school. I didn't have a healthy attitude towards education: it took me a long time to work out that I was there for me, not for my teachers. There were only two teachers I could really respond to – one taught English, the other drama. When we were doing Shakespeare, it seemed crystal-clear.
What was your big breakthrough?
In 1968, I appeared at the Royal Court in the first major revival of Look Back in Anger (1). Then I starred in several other plays there. Roman Polanski saw one and offered me the role of Banquo in his film of Macbeth. Everything took off from there.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
I've grown a few grey hairs – well, a...
How did you become interested in acting?
It started at school. I didn't have a healthy attitude towards education: it took me a long time to work out that I was there for me, not for my teachers. There were only two teachers I could really respond to – one taught English, the other drama. When we were doing Shakespeare, it seemed crystal-clear.
What was your big breakthrough?
In 1968, I appeared at the Royal Court in the first major revival of Look Back in Anger (1). Then I starred in several other plays there. Roman Polanski saw one and offered me the role of Banquo in his film of Macbeth. Everything took off from there.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
I've grown a few grey hairs – well, a...
- 12/4/2013
- by Laura Barnett
- The Guardian - Film News
Emilia Clarke is the star of Game of Thrones who wants to appear in Ibsen. Now she's appearing alongside Jude Law in one of the best films of the year. She talks to Emma John about Dom Hemingway, Dothraki rituals, and the pitfalls of Hollywood dating
See more photos from The Observer's exclusive shoot with Emilia Clarke
June 2013: the internet announces the engagement of Emilia Clarke, 26, actor known for her role in HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, to James Franco, film star, director, writer, thinker. Text messages fly in from Clarke's friends, some of whom she hasn't spoken to since she was about four years old. "I had my aunt from America calling me up and being like" – Clarke slips into a brassy East Coast accent – "'Where's the ring?'"
She lets out a peal of laughter so gleeful you can almost hear the exclamation marks. She had...
See more photos from The Observer's exclusive shoot with Emilia Clarke
June 2013: the internet announces the engagement of Emilia Clarke, 26, actor known for her role in HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, to James Franco, film star, director, writer, thinker. Text messages fly in from Clarke's friends, some of whom she hasn't spoken to since she was about four years old. "I had my aunt from America calling me up and being like" – Clarke slips into a brassy East Coast accent – "'Where's the ring?'"
She lets out a peal of laughter so gleeful you can almost hear the exclamation marks. She had...
- 10/27/2013
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
The director of Broken will suceed Nicholas Hytner from April 2015.
The National Theatre has appointed Rufus Norris to succeed Nicholas Hytner as director of the National Theatre with effect from April 2015.
John Makinson, Chairman of the National Theatre, said: “In setting out to find a new Director for the National Theatre, the Board looked for an individual with a creative reputation that would command the respect and support of British theatre, and with the generosity of spirit that has characterised Nick Hytner’s period as Director. Rufus Norris has both those qualities in abundance. He is an exciting choice, someone who will build on the National Theatre’s present reputation as one of the most admired and innovative performing arts organisations in the world. We are fortunate that he has chosen to join us.
“I should like to thank all my Board colleagues, and in particular my fellow members of the Succession Committee, for the energy...
The National Theatre has appointed Rufus Norris to succeed Nicholas Hytner as director of the National Theatre with effect from April 2015.
John Makinson, Chairman of the National Theatre, said: “In setting out to find a new Director for the National Theatre, the Board looked for an individual with a creative reputation that would command the respect and support of British theatre, and with the generosity of spirit that has characterised Nick Hytner’s period as Director. Rufus Norris has both those qualities in abundance. He is an exciting choice, someone who will build on the National Theatre’s present reputation as one of the most admired and innovative performing arts organisations in the world. We are fortunate that he has chosen to join us.
“I should like to thank all my Board colleagues, and in particular my fellow members of the Succession Committee, for the energy...
- 10/15/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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