From A Streetcar Named Desire to Gone With the Wind, Vivien Leigh captivated audiences with her iconic performances in classic movies. Known for her talent and beauty, Leigh's personal struggles and reputation often overshadowed her professional achievements. Despite complications behind the scenes, Leigh's filmography remains a testament to her remarkable talent and star quality.
Vivien Leigh is an icon of old Hollywood, and her best movies earned her a series of awards and millions of admirers. Leigh was born in India while it was under British colonial rule, and she began her career as an actor on stage. Soon after making her break into film, she began an affair with Laurence Olivier, and the two later divorced their spouses to be with one another. Although she was famous for her relationship with Olivier, she was just as professionally well-respected as he was. She won two Oscars and plenty of other...
Vivien Leigh is an icon of old Hollywood, and her best movies earned her a series of awards and millions of admirers. Leigh was born in India while it was under British colonial rule, and she began her career as an actor on stage. Soon after making her break into film, she began an affair with Laurence Olivier, and the two later divorced their spouses to be with one another. Although she was famous for her relationship with Olivier, she was just as professionally well-respected as he was. She won two Oscars and plenty of other...
- 3/10/2024
- by Ben Protheroe
- ScreenRant.com
Action movies aren't often major awards contenders, but there are some that have been nominated for Best Picture. Between thrilling chase sequences, explosive set-pieces, and incredible fight choreography, action movies have been a cornerstone of Hollywood cinema and perfect escapism for decades. However, when it comes to the Academy Awards, these releases go unfairly overlooked and find themselves on the outside looking in. As difficult as many action movie scenes are to pull off, the Academy gives preferential treatment to dramas and character-driven narratives, whether it's fair or not.
Though there are tons of action-filled movies that have been nominated for Best Picture, those are predominantly fantasy films and war epics, not straight action movies. The Academy has had a historical bias toward certain genres since its inception, as there have been only six horror movies nominated for Best Picture, too. However, a select few action movies have been nominated for Best Picture,...
Though there are tons of action-filled movies that have been nominated for Best Picture, those are predominantly fantasy films and war epics, not straight action movies. The Academy has had a historical bias toward certain genres since its inception, as there have been only six horror movies nominated for Best Picture, too. However, a select few action movies have been nominated for Best Picture,...
- 9/14/2023
- by Stephen Barker
- ScreenRant.com
Earlier this week, IndieWire exclusively debuted a video of Steven Spielberg sharing his inaugural picks as an advisor to TCM: five films he chose from the beloved network’s September 2023 lineup. Now his fellow advisors Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson have gotten in on the action too. Watch the video of Scorsese recommending one of TCM’s September titles above: it’s about Arthur Crabtree’s “Madonna of the Seven Moons,” a melodrama produced by Gainsborough Pictures in 1945.
Gainsborough Pictures was a U.K. studio renowned for a series of highly-charged melodramas in the 1940s built around actors like James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, and Dennis Price. None of the films are connected plot-wise, but they do share many of the same creatives in front and behind the camera as well as a similar mood.
In the video above, Scorsese says of “Madonna of the Seven Moons,” which airs September 20 at 2:00pm Et,...
Gainsborough Pictures was a U.K. studio renowned for a series of highly-charged melodramas in the 1940s built around actors like James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, and Dennis Price. None of the films are connected plot-wise, but they do share many of the same creatives in front and behind the camera as well as a similar mood.
In the video above, Scorsese says of “Madonna of the Seven Moons,” which airs September 20 at 2:00pm Et,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Betta St. John, who portrayed the lovely island girl Liat in the original Broadway production of South Pacific and starred as a princess alongside Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the MGM romantic comedy Dream Wife, has died. She was 93.
St. John died June 23 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Brighton, England, her son, TV producer Roger Grant, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The California native played one of the survivors of an airline crash, who is chased by a crocodile in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) — the first Tarzan film in 15 years and the first one in color — and then returned for Tarzan the Magnificent (1960). Both films starred Gordon Scott as the King of the Jungle.
St. John also starred with Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth and Robert Taylor in All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953); with Victor Mature, Piper Laurie and Vincent Price in the 3-D adventure Dangerous...
St. John died June 23 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Brighton, England, her son, TV producer Roger Grant, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The California native played one of the survivors of an airline crash, who is chased by a crocodile in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) — the first Tarzan film in 15 years and the first one in color — and then returned for Tarzan the Magnificent (1960). Both films starred Gordon Scott as the King of the Jungle.
St. John also starred with Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth and Robert Taylor in All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953); with Victor Mature, Piper Laurie and Vincent Price in the 3-D adventure Dangerous...
- 7/7/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on the way, there has never been a better time to revisit the movies that shaped the Indiana Jones franchise and the hits that were influenced by Indy. Indiana Jones is up there with James Bond and Superman as one of cinema’s most enduringly popular heroes. Harrison Ford’s beleaguered everyman first charmed audiences in the rip-roaring adventure Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. That joint effort from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas became a blockbuster hit upon release.
Since then, Indiana Jones has starred in four more movies. The latest of these, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, will soon see Ford’s aging archaeologist team up with his goddaughter on another fast-paced adventure. However, finding movies that compare can be challenging for viewers who have already re-watched Indy’s adventures ad nauseam. Fortunately, the Indiana...
Since then, Indiana Jones has starred in four more movies. The latest of these, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, will soon see Ford’s aging archaeologist team up with his goddaughter on another fast-paced adventure. However, finding movies that compare can be challenging for viewers who have already re-watched Indy’s adventures ad nauseam. Fortunately, the Indiana...
- 5/31/2023
- by Cathal Gunning
- ScreenRant.com
To mark the release of Saraband for Dead Lovers on 13th March, we’ve been given Blu-ray copies to give away to 2 winners.
In 1682, the sixteen-year-old Sophie Dorothea (Joan Greenwood) is unhappily married by arrangement to Prince George Louis of Hanover (Peter Bull), an aristocrat destined to inherit the British crown. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the desolate new Queen finds no solace in her life at court until she falls for a dashing Swedish mercenary, Count Konigsmark (Stewart Granger).
Having hatched a plot to flee England together, the couple’s scheme is discovered by the jealous Countess Platen (Flora Robson), Konigsmark’s previous lover, spelling disaster for the young lovers.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The Small Print
Open to UK residents only The competition will close 16th March 2023 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries...
In 1682, the sixteen-year-old Sophie Dorothea (Joan Greenwood) is unhappily married by arrangement to Prince George Louis of Hanover (Peter Bull), an aristocrat destined to inherit the British crown. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the desolate new Queen finds no solace in her life at court until she falls for a dashing Swedish mercenary, Count Konigsmark (Stewart Granger).
Having hatched a plot to flee England together, the couple’s scheme is discovered by the jealous Countess Platen (Flora Robson), Konigsmark’s previous lover, spelling disaster for the young lovers.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The Small Print
Open to UK residents only The competition will close 16th March 2023 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries...
- 3/6/2023
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Gunsmoke was one of the most popular television shows ever to hit the air. The network, CBS, knew what it had on its hands after its 1955 premiere and milked it for 20 seasons before suddenly canceling it in 1975. The Western genre later died off, as its wave of popularity never quite returned to form. Here’s a list of five other vintage television shows to dig into if Gunsmoke was your jam.
L-r: Milburn Stone as Doc Adams, James Arness as Matt Dillon, Amanda Blake as Kitty Russell, and Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen | CBS via Getty Images ‘Bonanza’ (1959-1973) L-r: Dan Blocker as Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright, Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright, Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright, and Michael Landon as Joseph ‘Little Joe’ Cartwright | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Bonanza first hit the air in 1959, a few years after Gunsmoke first established its legs among Western shows. The story follows...
L-r: Milburn Stone as Doc Adams, James Arness as Matt Dillon, Amanda Blake as Kitty Russell, and Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen | CBS via Getty Images ‘Bonanza’ (1959-1973) L-r: Dan Blocker as Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright, Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright, Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright, and Michael Landon as Joseph ‘Little Joe’ Cartwright | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Bonanza first hit the air in 1959, a few years after Gunsmoke first established its legs among Western shows. The story follows...
- 2/28/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Veteran actor and frequent scene stealer Bruce Davison joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite films.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Extra School (2017)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Willard (1971) – Joe Dante’s review, Lee Broughton’s Blu-ray review
Fortune And Men’s Eyes (1971)
Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Longtime Companion (1989)
Last Summer (1969) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Short Eyes (1977)
The Manor (2021)
Ulzana’s Raid (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review and All-Region Blu-ray review
King Solomon’s Mines (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)
Them! (1954) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary
Tarantula (1955) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Spartacus (1960) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Ben-Hur (1959) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Psycho (1960) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Extra School (2017)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Willard (1971) – Joe Dante’s review, Lee Broughton’s Blu-ray review
Fortune And Men’s Eyes (1971)
Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Longtime Companion (1989)
Last Summer (1969) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Short Eyes (1977)
The Manor (2021)
Ulzana’s Raid (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review and All-Region Blu-ray review
King Solomon’s Mines (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)
Them! (1954) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary
Tarantula (1955) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Spartacus (1960) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Ben-Hur (1959) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Psycho (1960) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Maverick director Robert Aldrich’s one foray into grand-scale epic filmmaking is returned to crystal clarity in this fine import disc, a restoration from original Italian film elements. Stewart Granger’s Lot allies his Hebrew tribe with the notorious cities of evil, and almost loses his soul to Anouk Aimée’s wicked Queen Bera. Pier Angeli is the slave who becomes Lot’s wife, and Rossana Podestà is the daughter taken by Stanley Baker’s rapacious prince. Second unit director Sergio Leone whips up a terrific battle scene (maybe), Ken Adam provides the spectacular sets and Miklós Rózsa the powerful music score. And yes, the explosive finish involves hellfire, brimstone and the Biblical Pillar of Salt.
Sodom and Gomorrah
Explosive Media
All-region Blu-ray
1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 154 and 117 min. / Street Date December 9, 2021 / Available from Amazon.de /
Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), Anouk Aimée, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia,...
Sodom and Gomorrah
Explosive Media
All-region Blu-ray
1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 154 and 117 min. / Street Date December 9, 2021 / Available from Amazon.de /
Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), Anouk Aimée, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia,...
- 1/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Munich-based Koch Films has struck a deal with Studiocanal Germany to take over the distributor’s entire sales and logistics activities for all physical home entertainment activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Studiocanal’s extensive portfolio comprises new releases, series and classic catalog titles such as Francis Ford Coppola’s newly restored 1983 teen drama “The Outsiders” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” as well as works by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Margarethe von Trotta.
The agreement pools Studiocanal and Koch Films’ strengths and bolsters their market position in the home entertainment sector over the long term, the companies said.
Studiocanal’s Arthaus label includes such recently restored films as Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”; Ousmane Sembène’s 1968 Senegalese classic “Mandabi”; and Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko” as well as German titles like Reinhard Hauff’s 1975 drama “The Brutalization of Franz Blum,” featuring Jürgen Prochnow...
Studiocanal’s extensive portfolio comprises new releases, series and classic catalog titles such as Francis Ford Coppola’s newly restored 1983 teen drama “The Outsiders” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” as well as works by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Margarethe von Trotta.
The agreement pools Studiocanal and Koch Films’ strengths and bolsters their market position in the home entertainment sector over the long term, the companies said.
Studiocanal’s Arthaus label includes such recently restored films as Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”; Ousmane Sembène’s 1968 Senegalese classic “Mandabi”; and Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko” as well as German titles like Reinhard Hauff’s 1975 drama “The Brutalization of Franz Blum,” featuring Jürgen Prochnow...
- 10/8/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***There are some films where, lacking access to one's own personal cinematheque, one has to speculate. For example, some of Fox's fifties films, shot in CinemaScope as all movies at that studio had to be, have never been made available in widescreen formats. Richard Fleischer was one the directors who adapted zestfully to that format, so it's a crying shame that Crack in the Mirror (1960) seems to exist only in blurry, 4:3 TV recordings. His other Orson Welles film, Compulsion (1959), is a cracker.Anatole Litvak's...
- 8/20/2020
- MUBI
Lust-filled treachery in the steaming tropics! He dared to love a cannibal empress! Taglines like that suggest that it wasn’t easy to sell Carol Reed’s phenomenally good adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s classic, a tale of human self-degradation and malevolence in the tropics. Long difficult to see, it’s finally here to dazzle a generation that might appreciate its superb performances. Forget Lord Jim and Colonel Kurtz. Trevor Howard’s back-stabbing Peter Willems shows us the price of total betrayal: permanent banishment from humanity.
Outcast of the Islands
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat / 100 93 min. / Street Date April 29, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley, Wendy Hiller, Aissa, George Coulouris, Tamine, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Peter Illing, Betty Ann Davies, Frederick Valk, A.V. Bramble, Marne Maitland, James Kenney, Annabel Morley.
Cinematography: Edward Scaife, John Wilcox
Production Design: Vincent Korda
Second Unit Director: Guy Hamilton...
Outcast of the Islands
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat / 100 93 min. / Street Date April 29, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley, Wendy Hiller, Aissa, George Coulouris, Tamine, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Peter Illing, Betty Ann Davies, Frederick Valk, A.V. Bramble, Marne Maitland, James Kenney, Annabel Morley.
Cinematography: Edward Scaife, John Wilcox
Production Design: Vincent Korda
Second Unit Director: Guy Hamilton...
- 4/18/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
” The trouble with most men of superior intellect is their pride. And a proud man can be just as foolish as a fool. “
Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor in Beau Brummell (1954) is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here
“A bit ornate. Fussy, sir,” Captain “Beau” Brummell (Stewart Granger) complains to the designer of his regiment’s uniform…who just happens to be the Prince of Wales (Peter Ustinov). It’s an unlikely beginning to a great friendship, one that leads swordsman and dandy Brummell into lofty circles, royal intrigue and the arms of lovely Lady Patricia (Elizabeth Taylor). Filled with zest and style, highlighted by opulent costumes and glorious color photography, Beau Brummell is a treat for fans of historical epics. Granger (Scaramouche) is dashing, Taylor is ravishing, but Ustinov and Robert Morley almost steal the show as the future George IV of England and his mad papa,...
Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor in Beau Brummell (1954) is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here
“A bit ornate. Fussy, sir,” Captain “Beau” Brummell (Stewart Granger) complains to the designer of his regiment’s uniform…who just happens to be the Prince of Wales (Peter Ustinov). It’s an unlikely beginning to a great friendship, one that leads swordsman and dandy Brummell into lofty circles, royal intrigue and the arms of lovely Lady Patricia (Elizabeth Taylor). Filled with zest and style, highlighted by opulent costumes and glorious color photography, Beau Brummell is a treat for fans of historical epics. Granger (Scaramouche) is dashing, Taylor is ravishing, but Ustinov and Robert Morley almost steal the show as the future George IV of England and his mad papa,...
- 3/18/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This remake of Warners’ 1924 John Barrymore feature gives us Elizabeth Taylor in the Mary Astor role, Stewart Granger as the fashion dandy of the Restoration Period, and a scene-stealing Peter Ustinov as a lonely, needy Prince of Wales. The history is still weak, but it at least doesn’t turn Brummell into a typical swashbuckler. Compensating are English actors that can get any script up on its feet, and Liz Taylor’s blue-violet eyes. And the Oswald Morris cinematography improves greatly on the MGM house style.
Beau Brummell
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, James Hayter, Rosemary Harris, Paul Rogers, Noel Willman, Peter Dyneley, Peter Bull, Finlay Currie, David Peel.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Film Editor: Frank Clarke
Art Direction: Alfred Junge
Original Music: Richard Addinsell
Written by Karl Tunberg from...
Beau Brummell
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, James Hayter, Rosemary Harris, Paul Rogers, Noel Willman, Peter Dyneley, Peter Bull, Finlay Currie, David Peel.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Film Editor: Frank Clarke
Art Direction: Alfred Junge
Original Music: Richard Addinsell
Written by Karl Tunberg from...
- 3/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This remake of Warners’ 1924 John Barrymore feature gives us Elizabeth Taylor in the Mary Astor role, Stewart Granger as the fashion dandy of the Restoration Period, and a scene-stealing Peter Ustinov as a lonely, needy Prince of Wales. The history is still weak, but it at least doesn’t turn Brummell into a typical swashbuckler. Compensating are English actors that can get any script up on its feet, and Liz Taylor’s blue-violet eyes. And the Oswald Morris cinematography improves greatly on the MGM house style.
Beau Brummell
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, James Hayter, Rosemary Harris, Paul Rogers, Noel Willman, Peter Dyneley, Peter Bull, Finlay Currie, David Peel.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Film Editor: Frank Clarke
Art Direction: Alfred Junge
Original Music: Richard Addinsell
Written by Karl Tunberg from...
Beau Brummell
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, James Hayter, Rosemary Harris, Paul Rogers, Noel Willman, Peter Dyneley, Peter Bull, Finlay Currie, David Peel.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Film Editor: Frank Clarke
Art Direction: Alfred Junge
Original Music: Richard Addinsell
Written by Karl Tunberg from...
- 3/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Great news for fans of director Fritz Lang. His 1955 western Moonfleet is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive
Adventure and intrigue await all ye who venture into the small and sinister village of Moonfleet on the windswept moors of Dorsetshire. Particularly as directed by master-of-menace Fritz Lang, this colorful tale of a young boy’s experiences among some really bad companions enthralls in the tradition of Kidnapped and Treasure Island. Here, young John Mohune (Jon Whiteley) arrives at his ancestral estate, now owned by the dashing, and mysterious Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger). Out of love for the boy’s mother, but against his better judgment, Fox grudgingly allows John to stay. He soon becomes attached to the boy, but his devotion is tested when John discovers a hidden smugglers’ lair beneath the village graveyard and learns a shocking secret that could cost both him and Fox their lives.
Fritz Lang...
Adventure and intrigue await all ye who venture into the small and sinister village of Moonfleet on the windswept moors of Dorsetshire. Particularly as directed by master-of-menace Fritz Lang, this colorful tale of a young boy’s experiences among some really bad companions enthralls in the tradition of Kidnapped and Treasure Island. Here, young John Mohune (Jon Whiteley) arrives at his ancestral estate, now owned by the dashing, and mysterious Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger). Out of love for the boy’s mother, but against his better judgment, Fox grudgingly allows John to stay. He soon becomes attached to the boy, but his devotion is tested when John discovers a hidden smugglers’ lair beneath the village graveyard and learns a shocking secret that could cost both him and Fox their lives.
Fritz Lang...
- 8/20/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It’s Fritz Lang versus CinemaScope, for the first and last time. The format suited to snakes and funerals effectively hamstrings the great filmmaker’s expressive camera direction, yet the movie is one of the best of MGM’s last-gasp ’50s costume dramas. Corrupt smuggler Stewart Granger is redeemed by the faith of a young boy who believes in him; in this story the words “He’s my friend” take on a big significance. Come see director Lang struggle to adapt the wide-wide screen to accommodate his brand of real cinema.
Moonfleet
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date August 13, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jon Whiteley, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood, Viveca Lindfors, Liliane Montevecchi, Melville Cooper, Sean McClory, Alan Napier, John Hoyt, Donna Corcoran, Jack Elam, Dan Seymour, Ian Wolfe.
Cinematography: Robert H. Planck
Film Editor: Albert Akst
Original Music: Miklos Rozsa
Written by Jan Lustig,...
Moonfleet
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date August 13, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jon Whiteley, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood, Viveca Lindfors, Liliane Montevecchi, Melville Cooper, Sean McClory, Alan Napier, John Hoyt, Donna Corcoran, Jack Elam, Dan Seymour, Ian Wolfe.
Cinematography: Robert H. Planck
Film Editor: Albert Akst
Original Music: Miklos Rozsa
Written by Jan Lustig,...
- 8/17/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“A Star Is Born” has always been a great talent vehicle, including the new Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga version, which Warner Bros. opened Oct. 5. Previous versions showcased big-name talent, but there’s also a stellar lineup of people who almost made the film but didn’t, including Cary Grant, Cher, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Beyoncé Knowles and, behind the cameras, Mike Nichols, Quincy Jones and Clint Eastwood.
The new film is officially the fourth version, but it’s sort of the fifth. In 1932, Rko made “What Price Hollywood?” about an L.A. waitress who becomes a movie star while her alcoholic mentor declines. In the July 19, 1932, review, Variety shrugged, “It’s a fan magazine interpretation of Hollywood.” Five years later, Selznick Intl. Pictures’ “A Star Is Born” had so many similarities that Rko considered suing.
Each version added an innovation: Technicolor in 1937, musical numbers for the 1954 Judy Garland film,...
The new film is officially the fourth version, but it’s sort of the fifth. In 1932, Rko made “What Price Hollywood?” about an L.A. waitress who becomes a movie star while her alcoholic mentor declines. In the July 19, 1932, review, Variety shrugged, “It’s a fan magazine interpretation of Hollywood.” Five years later, Selznick Intl. Pictures’ “A Star Is Born” had so many similarities that Rko considered suing.
Each version added an innovation: Technicolor in 1937, musical numbers for the 1954 Judy Garland film,...
- 1/18/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Grace Kelly would’ve celebrated her 89th birthday on November 12, 2018. The Oscar-winning actress made just a handful of movies before transforming from a Hollywood princess into a real life one following her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back in the photo gallery above of all 11 of her films, ranked worst to best.
Kelly got her start performing onstage and in television before being drafted by Hollywood to appear in Henry Hathaway‘s ripped-from-the-headlines nail-biter “Fourteen Hours” (1951) when she was just 22-years-old. The next year found her starring as the concerned wife to an imperiled town marshal (Gary Cooper) in the landmark western “High Noon” (1952).
She got her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for John Ford‘s adventure yarn “Mogambo” (1953), playing one of two love interests (along with Ava Gardner) to big game hunter Clark Gable. The next year,...
Kelly got her start performing onstage and in television before being drafted by Hollywood to appear in Henry Hathaway‘s ripped-from-the-headlines nail-biter “Fourteen Hours” (1951) when she was just 22-years-old. The next year found her starring as the concerned wife to an imperiled town marshal (Gary Cooper) in the landmark western “High Noon” (1952).
She got her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for John Ford‘s adventure yarn “Mogambo” (1953), playing one of two love interests (along with Ava Gardner) to big game hunter Clark Gable. The next year,...
- 11/12/2018
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Deborah Kerr would’ve celebrated her 97th birthday on September 30, 2018. With six Oscar bids to her name, the Scottish-born thespian is one of the most celebrated performers of all time. However, she never actually won one of those little gold statuettes, giving her the dubious distinction of tying Thelma Ritter and Glenn Close as the most nominated actress without a victory. Still, she must’ve done something right to rack up all that Academy recognition. In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1921, Kerr got her start on the London stage before appearing in her first film when she was just 20-years-old: “Major Barbara” (1941). She had her big break two years later in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger‘s epic “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943). Kerr reunited with the filmmaking duo for “Black Narcissus...
Born in 1921, Kerr got her start on the London stage before appearing in her first film when she was just 20-years-old: “Major Barbara” (1941). She had her big break two years later in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger‘s epic “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943). Kerr reunited with the filmmaking duo for “Black Narcissus...
- 9/30/2018
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger shine in Richard Brooks’ engaging drama about the grim slaughter of the Buffalo — a fairly appalling historical episode. A disclaimer is required to explain why we’re seeing real animals killed on screen… which in this case would seem justified by the film’s ecological theme.
The Last Hunt
Blu-Ray
The Warner Archive Collection
1956 / Color / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date August 21, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget, Russ Tamblyn, Constance Ford, Joe De Santis.
Cinematography: Russell Harlan
Film Editor: Ben Lewis
Original Music: Daniele Amphitheatrof
From a novella by Milton Lott
Produced by Dore Schary
Written and Directed by Richard Brooks
This rather good western adds another notch to the theme of ‘the end of the West,’ preceding films by Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah and introducing an ecological theme not dissimilar to that of Romain Gary and John Huston...
The Last Hunt
Blu-Ray
The Warner Archive Collection
1956 / Color / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date August 21, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget, Russ Tamblyn, Constance Ford, Joe De Santis.
Cinematography: Russell Harlan
Film Editor: Ben Lewis
Original Music: Daniele Amphitheatrof
From a novella by Milton Lott
Produced by Dore Schary
Written and Directed by Richard Brooks
This rather good western adds another notch to the theme of ‘the end of the West,’ preceding films by Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah and introducing an ecological theme not dissimilar to that of Romain Gary and John Huston...
- 8/18/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Could this be retitled “Dial ‘F’ for Fog?” Jean Simmon’s greedy maid blackmails her employer Stewart Granger with proof that he murdered his wife, kicking off a criminal ‘deadlock’ in a London household. The cold-fish schemer Granger ponders his next murderous move while Simmons enjoys playing the lady of the house — having dared to leapfrog two social classes, she hopes that her victim will respond with kindness, not homicide. This gothic domestic murder tale should be required reading for marriage counselors.
Footsteps in the Fog
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1955 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date July 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Bill Travers, Belinda Lee, Ronald Squire, Finlay Currie, William Hartnell, Percy Marmont, Margery Rhodes, Barry Keegan, Victor Maddern, Erik Chitty.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Alan Osbiston
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by Dorothy Reid, Lenore Coffee, adapted by Arthur Pierson from a short...
Footsteps in the Fog
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1955 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date July 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Bill Travers, Belinda Lee, Ronald Squire, Finlay Currie, William Hartnell, Percy Marmont, Margery Rhodes, Barry Keegan, Victor Maddern, Erik Chitty.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Alan Osbiston
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by Dorothy Reid, Lenore Coffee, adapted by Arthur Pierson from a short...
- 7/31/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
There’s a heapin’-helpin’ of palace intrigue in this 1952 swashbuckler starring underrated action hero Stewart Granger (the role was a gift from MGM for his bang-up job in King Solomon’s Mines made two years earlier). Though it lacks the Boy’s Life adventurism of King Solomon, the movie is still brightly colored fun, shot by Charles Rosher (The Yearling, Show Boat). The lucky Granger is supported by two beauties who took full advantage of Rosher’s Technicolor mastery, flaming-haired Eleanor Parker and a radiant Janet Leigh.
- 8/28/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies' July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the finest performers of the studio era. On Thursday night, TCM presented five Colman star vehicles that should be popping up again in the not-too-distant future: A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, Kismet, Lucky Partners, and My Life with Caroline. The first two movies are among not only Colman's best, but also among Hollywood's best during its so-called Golden Age. Based on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Jack Conway's Academy Award-nominated A Tale of Two Cities (1936) is a rare Hollywood production indeed: it manages to effectively condense its sprawling source, it boasts first-rate production values, and it features a phenomenal central performance. Ah, it also shows its star without his trademark mustache – about as famous at the time as Clark Gable's. Perhaps...
- 7/21/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Director James Gray’s Nyff closer The Lost City of Z is a visually stunning film. Shot in 35mm on location in Columbia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, it lovingly renders the English landscape and Amazonian jungle alike. You can feel the humid heat of the Amazon, the cool breeze of the countryside, the rush of wind over the sea, the stillness of the jungle river. Periods of silence punctuate scenes of a raft journey upriver, the battlefields of World War I, struggles through uncharted territory, as men blend into the oppressive flora or battle with a raging river. The cinematography of The Lost City of Z is sublime, moving, and terrifyingly beautiful.
It’s a shame then that the rest of the film doesn’t justify its own beauty. The Lost City of Z falls into the trap of being just as romantic as its rather deluded central character,...
It’s a shame then that the rest of the film doesn’t justify its own beauty. The Lost City of Z falls into the trap of being just as romantic as its rather deluded central character,...
- 10/15/2016
- by Lauren Humphries-Brooks
- We Got This Covered
The already-incredible line-up for the 2016 New York Film Festival just got even more promising. Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk will hold its world premiere at the festival on October 14th, the NY Times confirmed today. The adaptation of Ben Fountain‘s Iraq War novel, with a script by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), follows a teenage soldier who survives a battle in Iraq and then is brought home for a victory lap before returning.
Lee has shot the film at 120 frames per second in 4K and native 3D, giving it unprecedented clarity for a feature film, which also means the screening will be held in a relatively small 300-seat theater at AMC Lincoln Square, one of the few with the technology to present it that way. While it’s expected that this Lincoln Square theater will play the film when it arrives in theaters, it may be...
Lee has shot the film at 120 frames per second in 4K and native 3D, giving it unprecedented clarity for a feature film, which also means the screening will be held in a relatively small 300-seat theater at AMC Lincoln Square, one of the few with the technology to present it that way. While it’s expected that this Lincoln Square theater will play the film when it arrives in theaters, it may be...
- 8/22/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
As is always the case with Tarantino films, the “The Hateful Eight” is an original film that bears heavy influence from other movies. Below you'll find eleven wintery and/or weird westerns, that will put you in the mood for Tarantino's film. Some are direct influences on Tarantino's new movie, while others are simply great or unique examples of westerns done with an unusual flair, or with a frigid air thanks to winter settings. Read More: Quentin Tarantino Reveals 'Hateful Eight' Score Features Unused Music By Ennio Morricone From John Carpenter's 'The Thing' “The Wild North” (1952) Stewart Granger, looking like the original owner of the chin and hair coif that now belong to Bruce Campbell, adopts an exaggerated French-Canadian accent to star as trapper Jules Vincent. In town to get drunk, Jules gets into a fight with a local side of beef while talking to a native woman at a bar.
- 12/14/2015
- by Russ Fischer
- The Playlist
"Thor" star Chris Hemsworth is looking to add another iconic character to his resume as the Australian actor is reportedly circling a new adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's pulp adventure character Allan Quatermain.
The news comes from The Tracking Board which says Barnett Brettler ("20 Mississippi") has penned a new spec script which is drumming up interest in the iconic character who first appeared in the 1885 novel "King Solomon's Mines" and went on to star in fourteen novels through 1927.
The character is a British big game hunter and marksman who spent most of his years in South Africa during the colonial era. He was a chief inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones and has been played by several different actors over the years - most notably in two 1980s Cannon Films starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone. Stewart Granger, Patrick Swayze and Sean Connery have also played him on screen.
The news comes from The Tracking Board which says Barnett Brettler ("20 Mississippi") has penned a new spec script which is drumming up interest in the iconic character who first appeared in the 1885 novel "King Solomon's Mines" and went on to star in fourteen novels through 1927.
The character is a British big game hunter and marksman who spent most of his years in South Africa during the colonial era. He was a chief inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones and has been played by several different actors over the years - most notably in two 1980s Cannon Films starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone. Stewart Granger, Patrick Swayze and Sean Connery have also played him on screen.
- 11/19/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...
- 11/8/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures.
About the films:
During the 1940s, realism reigned in British cinema—but not at Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, which had been around since the twenties, found new success with a series of pleasurably preposterous costume melodramas. Audiences ate up these overheated films, which featured a stable of charismatic stars, including James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Phyllis Calvert. Though the movies were immensely profitable in wartime and immediately after, Gainsborough did not outlive the decade. This set brings together a trio of the studio’s most popular films from this era—florid, visceral tales of secret identities, multiple personalities, and romantic betrayals.
About the films:
During the 1940s, realism reigned in British cinema—but not at Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, which had been around since the twenties, found new success with a series of pleasurably preposterous costume melodramas. Audiences ate up these overheated films, which featured a stable of charismatic stars, including James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Phyllis Calvert. Though the movies were immensely profitable in wartime and immediately after, Gainsborough did not outlive the decade. This set brings together a trio of the studio’s most popular films from this era—florid, visceral tales of secret identities, multiple personalities, and romantic betrayals.
- 8/19/2015
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...
- 6/29/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cary Grant films on TCM: Gender-bending 'I Was a Male War Bride' (photo: Cary Grant not gay at all in 'I Was a Male War Bride') More Cary Grant films will be shown tonight, as Turner Classic Movies continues with its Star of the Month presentations. On TCM right now is the World War II action-drama Destination Tokyo (1943), in which Grant finds himself aboard a U.S. submarine, alongside John Garfield, Dane Clark, Robert Hutton, and Tom Tully, among others. The directorial debut of screenwriter Delmer Daves (The Petrified Forest, Love Affair) -- who, in the following decade, would direct a series of classy Westerns, e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree -- Destination Tokyo is pure flag-waving propaganda, plodding its way through the dangerous waters of Hollywood war-movie stereotypes and speechifying banalities. The film's key point of interest, in fact, is Grant himself -- not because he's any good,...
- 12/16/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Warning; this post is long... if you watch all the links, you'll have an hour of entertainment.
When I was 10, my school screened a 16 mm print of the The Mark of Zorro - 1940 version, starring the dashing Tyrone Power. The clash of steel, the dynamic yet graceful athleticism of the hero as he righted wrongs, attracted me, as it did many boys of my age... I wanna do that. Luckily my next school offered fencing lessons from an instructor at the nearby Sandhurst Military Academy, and my inner Basil Rathbone was set free to ultimately Captain the school team. I saw every sword fighting movie I could and still do. Yet the only duel I have ever filmed had to be shot in 3 hours... The history of the genre could fill many volumes, but here is a short introduction to Sword Cinema.
La physician reverts to childhood - La filmmaker never left…...
When I was 10, my school screened a 16 mm print of the The Mark of Zorro - 1940 version, starring the dashing Tyrone Power. The clash of steel, the dynamic yet graceful athleticism of the hero as he righted wrongs, attracted me, as it did many boys of my age... I wanna do that. Luckily my next school offered fencing lessons from an instructor at the nearby Sandhurst Military Academy, and my inner Basil Rathbone was set free to ultimately Captain the school team. I saw every sword fighting movie I could and still do. Yet the only duel I have ever filmed had to be shot in 3 hours... The history of the genre could fill many volumes, but here is a short introduction to Sword Cinema.
La physician reverts to childhood - La filmmaker never left…...
- 8/2/2014
- by Brian Trenchard-Smith
- Trailers from Hell
Anne Marie here with some sad news. Hollywood beauty Eleanor Parker passed away early this week at age 91. Though Parker is best known for her iconic turn as the Countess in The Sound Of Music, she actually had a long and diverse career that included war films, B movies, swashbucklers, film noir, and three Best Actress nominations.
Eleanor Parker started as a bit player at Warner Brothers in the 1940s. At first, she bumped around in B movies and film noir, such as Between Two Worlds. But from the start she was willing to take risks. In 1946, she starred in a remake of the infamous Bette Davis vehicle Of Human Bondage opposite Paul Henreid. Both the film and her performance continue to garner mixed reviews, but no one could accuse her of taking the easy road.
The 1950s saw Eleanor Parker's star rise rapidly. In 1952, she starred in the...
Eleanor Parker started as a bit player at Warner Brothers in the 1940s. At first, she bumped around in B movies and film noir, such as Between Two Worlds. But from the start she was willing to take risks. In 1946, she starred in a remake of the infamous Bette Davis vehicle Of Human Bondage opposite Paul Henreid. Both the film and her performance continue to garner mixed reviews, but no one could accuse her of taking the easy road.
The 1950s saw Eleanor Parker's star rise rapidly. In 1952, she starred in the...
- 12/11/2013
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Versatile actor best known for her roles in The Sound of Music and Of Human Bondage
In the Hollywood of the 1940s and 50s, when typecasting was an essential constituent of stardom, Eleanor Parker, who has died aged 91, never gained the recognition she deserved, because she refused to be pigeonholed. "It means I've been successful in creating the characters that I've portrayed – that I'm not just a personality who is seen in a variety of roles." Dana Andrews, her co-star in Madison Avenue (1962), called her "the least heralded great actress".
The 1957 film Lizzie is almost a reflection of her career. Parker plays three separate and distinct characters harboured inside one woman – the shy, self-effacing Elizabeth; the wanton, raunchy Lizzie; and the "normal" Beth – and switches brilliantly from one to the other. Parker was always able to be convincing in these three sorts of characters. She was naive as the girl...
In the Hollywood of the 1940s and 50s, when typecasting was an essential constituent of stardom, Eleanor Parker, who has died aged 91, never gained the recognition she deserved, because she refused to be pigeonholed. "It means I've been successful in creating the characters that I've portrayed – that I'm not just a personality who is seen in a variety of roles." Dana Andrews, her co-star in Madison Avenue (1962), called her "the least heralded great actress".
The 1957 film Lizzie is almost a reflection of her career. Parker plays three separate and distinct characters harboured inside one woman – the shy, self-effacing Elizabeth; the wanton, raunchy Lizzie; and the "normal" Beth – and switches brilliantly from one to the other. Parker was always able to be convincing in these three sorts of characters. She was naive as the girl...
- 12/11/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Rossana Podestà dead at 79: ‘Helen of Troy’ actress later featured in sword-and-sandal spectacles, risqué sex comedies (photo: Jacques Sernas and Rossana Podestà in ‘Helen of Troy’) Rossana Podestà, the sensual star of the 1955 epic Helen of Troy and other sword-and-sandal European productions of the ’50s and ’60s — in addition to a handful of risqué sex comedies of the ’70s — died earlier today, December 10, 2013, in Rome according to several Italian news outlets. Podestà was 79. She was born Carla Dora Podestà on August 20, 1934, in, depending on the source, either Zlitan or Tripoli, in Libya, at the time an Italian colony. According to the IMDb, the renamed Rossana Podestà began her film career in 1950, when she was featured in a small role in Dezsö Ákos Hamza’s Strano appuntamento ("Strange Appointment"). However, according to online reports, she was actually discovered by director Léonide Moguy, who cast her in a small role in...
- 12/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jessica Herndon, AP Film Writer
Los Angeles (AP) - Eleanor Parker, who was nominated for Academy Awards three times for her portrayals of strong-willed women and played a scheming baroness in "The Sound of Music," has died at 91.
Family friend Richard Gale said Parker died Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia. "She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs," Gale added.
Parker was nominated for Oscars in 1950, 1951 and 1955, but then saw her career begin to wane in the early 1960s. Her last memorable role came in 1965's "The Sound of Music," in which she played the scheming baroness who loses Christopher Plummer to Julie Andrews.
"Eleanor Parker was and is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known," said Plummer in a statement. "Both as a person and as a beauty. I hardly believe the sad news...
Los Angeles (AP) - Eleanor Parker, who was nominated for Academy Awards three times for her portrayals of strong-willed women and played a scheming baroness in "The Sound of Music," has died at 91.
Family friend Richard Gale said Parker died Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia. "She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs," Gale added.
Parker was nominated for Oscars in 1950, 1951 and 1955, but then saw her career begin to wane in the early 1960s. Her last memorable role came in 1965's "The Sound of Music," in which she played the scheming baroness who loses Christopher Plummer to Julie Andrews.
"Eleanor Parker was and is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known," said Plummer in a statement. "Both as a person and as a beauty. I hardly believe the sad news...
- 12/9/2013
- by The Associated Press
- Moviefone
Jean Kent: British film star and ‘Last of the Gainsborough Girls’ dead at 92 (photo: actress Jean Kent in ‘Madonna of the Seven Moons’) News outlets and tabloids — little difference these days — have been milking every little drop from the unexpected and violent death of The Fast and the Furious franchise actor Paul Walker, and his friend and business partner Roger Rodas this past Saturday, November 30, 2013. Unfortunately — and unsurprisingly — apart from a handful of British publications, the death of another film performer on that same day went mostly underreported. If you’re not "in" at this very moment, you may as well have never existed. Jean Kent, best known for her roles as scheming villainesses in British films of the 1940s and Gainsborough Pictures’ last surviving top star, died on November 30 at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, England. The previous day, she had suffered a fall at her...
- 12/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Popular stalwart of film classics such as The Browning Version and Fanny By Gaslight
Jean Kent, the fiery, sexy, red-haired bad girl of British movies in the 1940s, who has died aged 92, was a fine actor, and clearly enjoyed life, her work and – while it lasted – her cinema fame. While never a top star, she gained a considerable following, and from the 1960s appeared regularly on television. Her film breakthrough came as a result of stage work: after the revue Apple Sauce, starring Vera Lynn and Max Miller, reached the London Palladium in 1941, she was offered a long-term contract, and the first of her Gainsborough Pictures appearances came in It's That Man Again (1943), with another wartime entertainer, the radio comic Tommy Handley.
It took another four films for her to make her first real mark as Lucy, the friend of Phyllis Calvert in the title role of the melodrama Fanny By Gaslight,...
Jean Kent, the fiery, sexy, red-haired bad girl of British movies in the 1940s, who has died aged 92, was a fine actor, and clearly enjoyed life, her work and – while it lasted – her cinema fame. While never a top star, she gained a considerable following, and from the 1960s appeared regularly on television. Her film breakthrough came as a result of stage work: after the revue Apple Sauce, starring Vera Lynn and Max Miller, reached the London Palladium in 1941, she was offered a long-term contract, and the first of her Gainsborough Pictures appearances came in It's That Man Again (1943), with another wartime entertainer, the radio comic Tommy Handley.
It took another four films for her to make her first real mark as Lucy, the friend of Phyllis Calvert in the title role of the melodrama Fanny By Gaslight,...
- 12/2/2013
- by Sheila Whitaker
- The Guardian - Film News
Dutch Colonialism and its long-lasting consequences are the topics of the documentary ’Empire’ at the Redcat (photo: ’Empire: The Unintended Consequences of Dutch Colonialism’) Mixing personal narratives, investigative journalism, video art, and split/multiple screens, Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill’s transmedia documentary Empire: The Unintended Consequences of Dutch Colonialism — the lengthy title gives you a pretty good idea of what the film is about — will have its West Coast Premiere on Monday, November 11, 2013, at 8:30 p.m. at downtown Los Angeles’ Redcat. Both Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill are expected to attend the screening. Previously shown at the 2013 New York Film Festival, Empire: The Unintended Consequences of Dutch Colonialism was filmed in more than half a dozen countries over the course of three years. According to the Redcat press release, the Dutch-American filmmakers (Jongsma is Dutch; O’Neill is American) "traveled 140,000 kilometers through Asia, Africa, Oceania and...
- 10/15/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Actor who played many major Shakespearean roles on the stage
Few actors played as many major Shakespearean roles as did Paul Rogers, a largely forgotten and seriously underrated performer, who has died aged 96. It was as though he was barnacled in those parts, undertaken at the Old Vic in the 1950s, by the time he played his most famous role, the vicious paterfamilias Max in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the Aldwych theatre in 1965 (and filmed in 1973).
Staunch, stolid and thuggish, with eyes that drilled through any opposition, Rogers's Max was a grumpy old block of granite, hewn on an epic scale, despite the flat cap and plimsolls – horribly real. Peter Hall's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company was monumental; everything was grey, chill and cheerless in John Bury's design, set off firstly by a piquant bowl of green apples and then by the savage acting.
The Homecoming...
Few actors played as many major Shakespearean roles as did Paul Rogers, a largely forgotten and seriously underrated performer, who has died aged 96. It was as though he was barnacled in those parts, undertaken at the Old Vic in the 1950s, by the time he played his most famous role, the vicious paterfamilias Max in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the Aldwych theatre in 1965 (and filmed in 1973).
Staunch, stolid and thuggish, with eyes that drilled through any opposition, Rogers's Max was a grumpy old block of granite, hewn on an epic scale, despite the flat cap and plimsolls – horribly real. Peter Hall's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company was monumental; everything was grey, chill and cheerless in John Bury's design, set off firstly by a piquant bowl of green apples and then by the savage acting.
The Homecoming...
- 10/15/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Ann Blyth movies: TCM schedule on August 16, 2013 (photo: ‘Our Very Own’ stars Ann Blyth and Farley Granger) See previous post: "Ann Blyth Today: Light Singing and Heavy Drama on TCM." 3:00 Am One Minute To Zero (1952). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Ann Blyth, William Talman. Bw-106 mins. 5:00 Am All The Brothers Were Valiant (1953). Director: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth. C-95 mins. 6:45 Am The King’S Thief (1955). Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Cast: Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven. C-79 mins. Letterbox Format. 8:15 Am Rose Marie (1954). Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Fernando Lamas. C-104 mins. Letterbox Format. 10:00 Am The Great Caruso (1951). Director: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Mario Lanza, Ann Blyth, Dorothy Kirsten, Jarmila Novotna, Richard Hageman, Carl Benton Reid, Eduard Franz, Ludwig Donath, Alan Napier, Pál Jávor, Carl Milletaire, Shepard Menken, Vincent Renno, Nestor Paiva, Peter Price, Mario Siletti, Angela Clarke,...
- 8/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ramon Novarro: Silent movie star proves he can talk and sing (See previous post: "Ramon Novarro: Mexican-Born Actor Was First Latin American Hollywood Superstar.") On Ramon Novarro Day, Turner Classic Movies’ first Novarro movie is Rex Ingram’s The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), a stately version of Edward Rose’s play, itself based on Anthony Hope’s 1897 novel: in the Central European kingdom of Ruritania, a traveling Englishman takes the place of the kidnapped local king-to-be-crowned. A pre-Judge Hardy Lewis Stone has the double role, while Novarro plays the scheming Rupert of Hentzau. (Photo: Ramon Novarro ca. 1922.) Despite his stage training, Stone is as interesting to watch as a beach pebble; Novarro, for his part, has a good time hamming it up in his first major break — courtesy of director Rex Ingram, then looking for a replacement for Rudolph Valentino, with whom he’d had a serious falling out...
- 8/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Eleanor Parker today: Beautiful as ever in Scaramouche, Interrupted Melody Eleanor Parker, who turns 91 in ten days (June 26, 2013), can be seen at her most radiantly beautiful in several films Turner Classic Movies is showing this evening and tomorrow morning as part of their Star of the Month Eleanor Parker "tribute." Among them are the classic Scaramouche, the politically delicate Above and Beyond, and the biopic Interrupted Melody, which earned Parker her third and final Best Actress Academy Award nomination. (Photo: publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in Scaramouche.) The best of the lot is probably George Sidney’s balletic Scaramouche (1952), in which Eleanor Parker plays one of Stewart Granger’s love interests — the other one is Janet Leigh. A loose remake of Rex Ingram’s 1923 blockbuster, the George Sidney version features plenty of humor, romance, and adventure; vibrant colors (cinematography by Charles Rosher); an elaborately staged climactic swordfight; and tough dudes...
- 6/18/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Blacklisted screenwriter and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The screenwriter Fay Kanin, who has died aged 95, was the only female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in its 86-year history (apart from Bette Davis, who resigned after two months in 1941). She served as president from 1979 to 1983, for the maximum of four consecutive one-year terms. Kanin, who committed herself to the preservation of early Hollywood movies, was first elected president by a board consisting of 34 men and one woman.
"I'm a big feminist," she declared at the time that her play Goodbye, My Fancy opened on Broadway in 1948. "I've put into my play my feeling that women should never back away from life." The serious comedy, with Madeleine Carroll as a powerful congresswoman revisiting her alma mater to receive an honorary degree, ran for more than a year and was made into a 1951 film starring Joan Crawford.
The screenwriter Fay Kanin, who has died aged 95, was the only female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in its 86-year history (apart from Bette Davis, who resigned after two months in 1941). She served as president from 1979 to 1983, for the maximum of four consecutive one-year terms. Kanin, who committed herself to the preservation of early Hollywood movies, was first elected president by a board consisting of 34 men and one woman.
"I'm a big feminist," she declared at the time that her play Goodbye, My Fancy opened on Broadway in 1948. "I've put into my play my feeling that women should never back away from life." The serious comedy, with Madeleine Carroll as a powerful congresswoman revisiting her alma mater to receive an honorary degree, ran for more than a year and was made into a 1951 film starring Joan Crawford.
- 4/1/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
By Allen Gardner
Killer Joe (Lionsgate) William Friedkin’s film of Tracy Letts’ off-Broadway hit about a family of Texas trailer park cretins (Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon) who hire a cop-cum-hitman (Matthew McConaughey) to take out their troublesome mother, then foolishly cross him, is a stinging satire, given double-barreled audacity by Friedkin’s sure, and fearless, directorial hand. Earning its Nc-17 rating in spades, “Killer Joe” reminds us that daring, frank material like this is why movies exist in the first place. McConaughey gives the performance of his career, hopefully redefined after this. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes; Commentary by Friendkin; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.
The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros.) Christopher Nolan’s coda to his “Batman” trilogy finds Christian Bale returning as a brooding Bruce Wayne/Caped Crusader, this time faced with a hulking villain (Tom Hardy) with respiratory...
Killer Joe (Lionsgate) William Friedkin’s film of Tracy Letts’ off-Broadway hit about a family of Texas trailer park cretins (Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon) who hire a cop-cum-hitman (Matthew McConaughey) to take out their troublesome mother, then foolishly cross him, is a stinging satire, given double-barreled audacity by Friedkin’s sure, and fearless, directorial hand. Earning its Nc-17 rating in spades, “Killer Joe” reminds us that daring, frank material like this is why movies exist in the first place. McConaughey gives the performance of his career, hopefully redefined after this. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes; Commentary by Friendkin; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.
The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros.) Christopher Nolan’s coda to his “Batman” trilogy finds Christian Bale returning as a brooding Bruce Wayne/Caped Crusader, this time faced with a hulking villain (Tom Hardy) with respiratory...
- 1/8/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Star-studded action movies don’t get much more studded with stars than 1978′s The Wild Geese. Filmed, controversially at the time, in South Africa the film finds big screen legends Richard Harris, Richard Burton, and Sir Roger Moore playing mercenaries recruited by Stewart Granger’s sinister merchant banker to rescue the imprisoned president of an central African state. Does all go to plan? It very much does not — and in a manner which involves some of the most thrilling action sequences of the era.
Tomorrow, Severin Films is releasing the Andrew McLaglen-directed film in an extras-packed Blu-ray/DVD set...
Tomorrow, Severin Films is releasing the Andrew McLaglen-directed film in an extras-packed Blu-ray/DVD set...
- 12/10/2012
- by Clark Collis
- EW - Inside Movies
"Morals among mercenaries, who’d think we’d ever see the day."
If you’re going to see The Wild Geese (1978), you’re going to want to read this set-up first since things are very quickly explained. Sir Edward Matheson (Stewart Granger) is in negotiations over rights to copper mines with Mboya (Thomas Baptiste) the leader of the (fictional) nation of Zimbala. He’s giving Matheson some trouble. In order to counter this trouble, Matheson has brought in the aging mercenary Col. Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton) to bring some sound and fury into Zimbala. He is to rescue the fabled former president of Zimbala, Limbani (Winston Ntshona), who was coup’d upon and is held (and thought to be dead). Faulkner needs the help of two other ancient reivers. Capt. Rafer Janders (Richard Harris), he’s the brains, and Lt. Shawn Flynn (Roger Moore), he’s a friend and can fly planes.
If you’re going to see The Wild Geese (1978), you’re going to want to read this set-up first since things are very quickly explained. Sir Edward Matheson (Stewart Granger) is in negotiations over rights to copper mines with Mboya (Thomas Baptiste) the leader of the (fictional) nation of Zimbala. He’s giving Matheson some trouble. In order to counter this trouble, Matheson has brought in the aging mercenary Col. Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton) to bring some sound and fury into Zimbala. He is to rescue the fabled former president of Zimbala, Limbani (Winston Ntshona), who was coup’d upon and is held (and thought to be dead). Faulkner needs the help of two other ancient reivers. Capt. Rafer Janders (Richard Harris), he’s the brains, and Lt. Shawn Flynn (Roger Moore), he’s a friend and can fly planes.
- 12/7/2012
- by Jason Ratigan
- JustPressPlay.net
The Wild Geese
Stars: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Krüger, Stewart Granger | Written by Reginald Rose | Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Before we had The Expendables with its big explosions, 100% testosterone fuelled aggression and witty one liners there were the more subtle action films, that had their fair share of action, had the big stars but also had heart, something that The Expendables often fails at. The Wild Geese is a film very much like The Expendables, it collected a group of mercenaries together who were the best at what they do and gave them a mission, the difference was that the biggest stars in this one were British and they knew they were the best. When a British company seeks to overthrow a dictator in Central Africa they decide that they need a group of mercenaries for a mission to save an opposition leader who can destabilise...
Stars: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Krüger, Stewart Granger | Written by Reginald Rose | Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Before we had The Expendables with its big explosions, 100% testosterone fuelled aggression and witty one liners there were the more subtle action films, that had their fair share of action, had the big stars but also had heart, something that The Expendables often fails at. The Wild Geese is a film very much like The Expendables, it collected a group of mercenaries together who were the best at what they do and gave them a mission, the difference was that the biggest stars in this one were British and they knew they were the best. When a British company seeks to overthrow a dictator in Central Africa they decide that they need a group of mercenaries for a mission to save an opposition leader who can destabilise...
- 10/9/2012
- by Pzomb
- Nerdly
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