The first half of the 20th century is often referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood. But this distinction overlooks the abusive conditions forced upon actors of all ages. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were given large amounts of drugs to keep up with their intense shooting schedule when they were still children. Both actors had historic careers in the industry, but they were also damaged by these experiences in heartbreaking ways.
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were MGM’s premier child stars (L-r): American actors Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland hug and look at the camera with surprised expressions, in a promotional portrait for director George B. Seitz’s film, ‘Love Finds Andy Hardy.’ | Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Rooney appeared in his first film role at 6 in the short film Not to be Trusted. He soon rose to prominence. Rooney’s early big roles include the titular...
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were MGM’s premier child stars (L-r): American actors Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland hug and look at the camera with surprised expressions, in a promotional portrait for director George B. Seitz’s film, ‘Love Finds Andy Hardy.’ | Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Rooney appeared in his first film role at 6 in the short film Not to be Trusted. He soon rose to prominence. Rooney’s early big roles include the titular...
- 3/26/2023
- by Sam Hines
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Michael Mann’s films turn on the fulcrum of historical upheaval. Sometimes that upheaval is imminent; sometimes it has already happened. In either case his characters are precision-tuned to reflect it, existing within an exact moment in time that violently disrupts their worldview and forces them to reconsider their very methods of being. Personal ideals are often overshadowed by realpolitik—cold, clinical systems that rely on dehumanization to function.
The Last of the Mohicans, adapted from James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel of the same name, stands among the purest distillations of Mann’s narrative rigor. Though an aesthetic departure—his signature glittering skylines and rain-slicked city streets are replaced with the verdant wilderness of colonial Albany—the film is every bit as concerned, if not more so, with the cosmic ebb and flow of change, the individuals swept up in it. Its fluctuating scope is laid bare in its two opening intertitles: “1757. The American colonies.
The Last of the Mohicans, adapted from James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel of the same name, stands among the purest distillations of Mann’s narrative rigor. Though an aesthetic departure—his signature glittering skylines and rain-slicked city streets are replaced with the verdant wilderness of colonial Albany—the film is every bit as concerned, if not more so, with the cosmic ebb and flow of change, the individuals swept up in it. Its fluctuating scope is laid bare in its two opening intertitles: “1757. The American colonies.
- 9/22/2022
- by Cole Kronman
- The Film Stage
"The Last of the Mohicans" is a potboiler written by James Fenimore Cooper and published in 1826. It tells the tale of Natty Bumppo, a white man raised by Native Americans who goes on rollicking adventures across the frontier. "The Last of the Mohicans" is book two of a five-part series, like if "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" was spectacularly boring and also required reading for American students. Yet it has been adapted to film and television many times. George B. Seitz directed a version in 1936. Michael Mann, legendary director of "Heat" and "Miami Vice," directed his own version...
The post Michael Mann Had to Get Creative When Adapting The Last of the Mohicans appeared first on /Film.
The post Michael Mann Had to Get Creative When Adapting The Last of the Mohicans appeared first on /Film.
- 4/23/2022
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
A new documentary about “Frankenstein” actor Boris Karloff is in the works.
Voltage Films is currently in production on the feature documentary “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster.” Co-produced and co-written by Ron MacCloskey and Thomas Hamilton with Hamilton directing and Tracy Jenkins producing, the film offers a fascinating portrait of Karloff, examining his illustrious 60-year career in the entertainment industry and his enduring legacy as one of the icons of 20th century popular culture.
The film follows on from the acclaimed 2010 biography “Boris Karloff: More Than A Monster,” written by Karloff’s official biographer Stephen Jacobs, who serves as the film’s historical consultant.
MacCloskey dedicated 23 years to the project, travelling the world to conduct extensive research. Since 2018, the team has filmed 50 interviews in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and London. Contributors include Peter Bogdanovich, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Plummer, John Landis, Roger Corman and Kevin Brownlow.
The...
Voltage Films is currently in production on the feature documentary “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster.” Co-produced and co-written by Ron MacCloskey and Thomas Hamilton with Hamilton directing and Tracy Jenkins producing, the film offers a fascinating portrait of Karloff, examining his illustrious 60-year career in the entertainment industry and his enduring legacy as one of the icons of 20th century popular culture.
The film follows on from the acclaimed 2010 biography “Boris Karloff: More Than A Monster,” written by Karloff’s official biographer Stephen Jacobs, who serves as the film’s historical consultant.
MacCloskey dedicated 23 years to the project, travelling the world to conduct extensive research. Since 2018, the team has filmed 50 interviews in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and London. Contributors include Peter Bogdanovich, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Plummer, John Landis, Roger Corman and Kevin Brownlow.
The...
- 1/22/2021
- by Lynsey Ford
- Variety Film + TV
Cary Joji Fukunaga and “Watchmen” director Nicole Kassell are teaming up to bring “The Last of the Mohicans” to TV, Variety has learned.
The prospective series, based on the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper, hails from Paramount TV, Anonymous Content and Fukanaga’s Parliament of Owls. Fukanaga is currently under an overall deal at Paramount TV.
“The clash of civilizations during the Seven Years War, which frames the story of ‘Last of the Mohicans,’ has been a long-time passion of mine. It was a world war before the term even existed. The opportunity to recreate the story’s strong-willed and free-thinking characters, with talents including Nick Osborne and Nicole Kassell, is incredibly exciting to me. Together with Paramount TV and Anonymous Content, we have the chance to revive the forgotten ancestors that define American identity today,” Fukanaga said.
Written by Fukunaga and Nicholas Osborne and directed by Kassell, the series...
The prospective series, based on the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper, hails from Paramount TV, Anonymous Content and Fukanaga’s Parliament of Owls. Fukanaga is currently under an overall deal at Paramount TV.
“The clash of civilizations during the Seven Years War, which frames the story of ‘Last of the Mohicans,’ has been a long-time passion of mine. It was a world war before the term even existed. The opportunity to recreate the story’s strong-willed and free-thinking characters, with talents including Nick Osborne and Nicole Kassell, is incredibly exciting to me. Together with Paramount TV and Anonymous Content, we have the chance to revive the forgotten ancestors that define American identity today,” Fukanaga said.
Written by Fukunaga and Nicholas Osborne and directed by Kassell, the series...
- 4/11/2019
- by Will Thorne
- Variety Film + TV
(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...
- 7/5/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...
Today's clip is a plea for the importance of audio preservation. Unlike last week's short, which survives as only 3 minutes of grainy footage of Judy Garland singing to a statue, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante has been remastered and restored several times since its 1940 release. However, Judy completists who watch the movie may be surprised at what a musical it's not. That's because two songs are missing from the film. The Movie: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (MGM, 1940)
The Songwriters: Benny Davis, Milton Ager, and Lester Stanley
The Players: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone, Ann Rutherford, directed by George B. Seitz
The Story: Judy Garland only sings two songs in the entirety of her second Andy Hardy film. Unlike most Mickey/Judy pairings, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante does not follow the "let's put on a show" plotline. Instead, the film...
Today's clip is a plea for the importance of audio preservation. Unlike last week's short, which survives as only 3 minutes of grainy footage of Judy Garland singing to a statue, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante has been remastered and restored several times since its 1940 release. However, Judy completists who watch the movie may be surprised at what a musical it's not. That's because two songs are missing from the film. The Movie: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (MGM, 1940)
The Songwriters: Benny Davis, Milton Ager, and Lester Stanley
The Players: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone, Ann Rutherford, directed by George B. Seitz
The Story: Judy Garland only sings two songs in the entirety of her second Andy Hardy film. Unlike most Mickey/Judy pairings, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante does not follow the "let's put on a show" plotline. Instead, the film...
- 3/23/2016
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...
At age 16, Judy Garland already had six pictures and three years as a studio contract player under her belt. Judy's seventh picture would reteam her with Mickey Rooney for her first in many guest appearances in the wildly popular Andy Hardy series. Judy was worked hard - rumors of how hard include studio "medication" and rigid diets - and over the course of her MGM career she would average 3 pictures per year. The result was studio stardom at the expense of self. But incredibly, she never showed it when she sang.
The Movie: Love Finds Andy Hardy (MGM 1938)
The Songwriter: Roger Edens
The Players: Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Lana Turner, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden directed by George B. Seitz
The Story: Young Judy was on a roll, but her biggest smashes were still to come. After the success of Thoroughbreds Don't Cry,...
At age 16, Judy Garland already had six pictures and three years as a studio contract player under her belt. Judy's seventh picture would reteam her with Mickey Rooney for her first in many guest appearances in the wildly popular Andy Hardy series. Judy was worked hard - rumors of how hard include studio "medication" and rigid diets - and over the course of her MGM career she would average 3 pictures per year. The result was studio stardom at the expense of self. But incredibly, she never showed it when she sang.
The Movie: Love Finds Andy Hardy (MGM 1938)
The Songwriter: Roger Edens
The Players: Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Lana Turner, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden directed by George B. Seitz
The Story: Young Judy was on a roll, but her biggest smashes were still to come. After the success of Thoroughbreds Don't Cry,...
- 2/17/2016
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...
- 8/26/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney dead at 93: Four-time Oscar nominee, frequent Judy Garland co-star may have had the longest film career ever (photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940) Mickey Rooney, four-time Academy Award nominee and one of the biggest domestic box-office draws during the studio era, died of "natural causes" on Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of North Hollywood. The Brooklyn-born Rooney (as Joseph Yule Jr., on September 23, 1920) had reportedly been in ill health for some time. He was 93. Besides his countless movies, and numerous television and stage appearances, Mickey Rooney was also known for his stormy private life, which featured boozing and gambling, some widely publicized family infighting (including his testifying in Congress in 2011 about elder abuse), his filing for bankruptcy in 1962 after having earned a reported $12 million (and then going bankrupt again in 1996), his eight marriages — including those to actresses Ava Gardner, Martha Vickers, and Barbara Ann Thomason...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...
- 8/13/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Several shorts directed by film pioneer Georges Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley in Martin Scorsese's well-received Hugo, will be featured throughout January 2012 at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Edison Theater in Fremont, Calif. The Méliès screenings will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 21, and 28. On Jan. 7, the Edison Theater will show Méliès' 1910 short The Doctor's Secret prior to the main feature, the William S. Hart 1916 classic Western Hell's Hinges, which also features Clara Williams (excellent in the highly recommended The Italian) and Louise Glaum, a film vamp who four years later would star in Sex. Musical accompaniment by Frederick Hodges. On Jan. 21, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum will celebrate "seven years of showing great films" with a screening of future two-time Oscar winner Lewis Milestone's 1928 The Garden of Eden. The romantic comedy stars one of the great beauties of the silent era, Corinne Griffith,...
- 1/2/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of favorite films. This month we get not ten, but 15 and styled in a countdown manner from David Robert Mitchell, the filmmaker behind The Myth of the American Sleepover. This is what he said about the task at hand. "My Top Fifteen Favorite Movies at the Moment (7/10/2011). Breaking this down to 10 movies sucks. It's impossible. I'm cheating and including 15. This list is still missing so many things that are important to me and the order is a jumbled mess. Oh well. Here's my top 15 at this moment in time. Tomorrow it might be a bit different. My number 32 film might just be my number 5." 15. L'Eclisse - Michelangelo Antonioni (1962) "Monica Vitti has...
- 7/13/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Impressive retrospective of Judy Garland.s films will feature 31 titles including a presentation of seldom seen short films and rarities as well as a special .sing-along. screening of The Wizard Of Oz.
On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.
With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...
On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.
With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...
- 6/10/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Kathryn Grayson on TCM Schedule and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Seven Sweethearts (1942) A father insists that his seven daughters marry in order, from eldest to youngest. Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin, S.Z. Sakall. Dir: Frank Borzage. Bw-98 mins. 4:48 Am Short Film: We Must Have Music (1941) Bw-11 mins. 5:00 Am Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary (1941) On the verge of graduation, a high-school boy decides he needs a social secretary. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Kathryn Grayson. Dir: George B. Seitz. Bw-101 mins. 7:00 Am Two Sisters From Boston (1946) Two girls with Broadway aspirations find work in a Bowery saloon. Cast: June Allyson, Kathryn Grayson, Jimmy Durante. Dir: Henry Koster. Bw-112 mins. 9:00 Am Anchors Aweigh (1945) A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star. Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson. Dir: George Sidney. C-139 mins. 11:30 [...]...
- 8/10/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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