Alan Robert Murray, a two-time Oscar winner and sound editor who has worked on films such as “American Sniper,” “Joker” and “Letters From Iwo Jima,” has died. He was 66.
Murray’s passing was confirmed by his family via Kim Waugh, an executive with Warner Bros. Sound, where Murray has been based since 1979. His family said he died Wednesday. His cause of death was not mentioned.
“I, along with my Warner Bros. family grieve the loss of our dear friend Alan. His contribution to film sound is unrivaled. He will live in our hearts forever,” Waugh told TheWrap.
Murray was a frequent collaborator with Clint Eastwood and won his Oscars for two Eastwood films, “American Sniper” and “Letters From Iwo Jima.” In all, he would collaborate with Eastwood on 32 films, as well as worked as an editor on several more starring Eastwood.
Murray shares both of his Oscars with another frequent collaborator,...
Murray’s passing was confirmed by his family via Kim Waugh, an executive with Warner Bros. Sound, where Murray has been based since 1979. His family said he died Wednesday. His cause of death was not mentioned.
“I, along with my Warner Bros. family grieve the loss of our dear friend Alan. His contribution to film sound is unrivaled. He will live in our hearts forever,” Waugh told TheWrap.
Murray was a frequent collaborator with Clint Eastwood and won his Oscars for two Eastwood films, “American Sniper” and “Letters From Iwo Jima.” In all, he would collaborate with Eastwood on 32 films, as well as worked as an editor on several more starring Eastwood.
Murray shares both of his Oscars with another frequent collaborator,...
- 2/25/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Should we expect hordes of allegorical aliens and zombies – or a soothing succession of romcoms and musicals? Cinema history offers some clues
The screenwriter William Goldman cautioned against making predictions in the movie business with the line: “Nobody knows anything.” That said, there is one thing we do know: global events leave their mark on cinema – and things don’t get much bigger than a worldwide pandemic. And not always in the ways you’d expect. So, if we’re looking for clues about films that will be released in the years to come, is cinema history any help?
The pandemic is the biggest global crisis since the second world war, and, if we look back to the cinema of that era, one trend in particular stands out: the arrival of film noir. Classics of the genre, such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and The Killers, were dark,...
The screenwriter William Goldman cautioned against making predictions in the movie business with the line: “Nobody knows anything.” That said, there is one thing we do know: global events leave their mark on cinema – and things don’t get much bigger than a worldwide pandemic. And not always in the ways you’d expect. So, if we’re looking for clues about films that will be released in the years to come, is cinema history any help?
The pandemic is the biggest global crisis since the second world war, and, if we look back to the cinema of that era, one trend in particular stands out: the arrival of film noir. Classics of the genre, such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and The Killers, were dark,...
- 2/24/2021
- by Rachael Swindale
- The Guardian - Film News
Bruce Springsteen’s career has always been intertwined with his love of the movies, from noir thrillers like “The Postman Always Rings Twice” to dramas following tough-talking American anti-heroes like “Two-Lane Blacktop.” The Boss’ affection for ’70s gems and ’40s classics hasn’t kept him from crafting original songs for contemporary movies either, including his Oscar-winning title track “Philadelphia,” and other lauded compositions for “Dead Man Walking” and “The Wrestler.”
Springsteen has even headlined a few of his own films, including documentaries like “Bruce Springsteen: In His Own Words,” “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town,” and “The Ties That Bind,” along with a recent Netflix special chronicling his history-making turn on Broadway. Later this month, Springsteen moves into the director’s chair himself, when he and frequent collaborator Thom Zimny debut their “Western Stars” at the Toronto International Film Festival.
First, however, there’s Gurinder Chadha...
Springsteen has even headlined a few of his own films, including documentaries like “Bruce Springsteen: In His Own Words,” “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town,” and “The Ties That Bind,” along with a recent Netflix special chronicling his history-making turn on Broadway. Later this month, Springsteen moves into the director’s chair himself, when he and frequent collaborator Thom Zimny debut their “Western Stars” at the Toronto International Film Festival.
First, however, there’s Gurinder Chadha...
- 8/6/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
'The Magnificent Ambersons': Directed by Orson Welles, and starring Tim Holt (pictured), Dolores Costello (in the background), Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead, this Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Booth Tarkington's novel earned Ricardo Cortez's brother Stanley Cortez an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. He lost to Joseph Ruttenberg for William Wyler's blockbuster 'Mrs. Miniver.' Two years later, Cortez – along with Lee Garmes – would win Oscar statuettes for their evocative black-and-white work on John Cromwell's homefront drama 'Since You Went Away,' starring Ricardo Cortez's 'Torch Singer' leading lady, Claudette Colbert. In all, Stanley Cortez would receive cinematography credit in more than 80 films, ranging from B fare such as 'The Lady in the Morgue' and the 1940 'Margie' to Fritz Lang's 'Secret Beyond the Door,' Charles Laughton's 'The Night of the Hunter,' and Nunnally Johnson's 'The Three Faces...
- 7/8/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Edgar G. Ulmer movies on TCM: 'The Black Cat' & 'Detour' Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 Star of the Month is Audrey Hepburn, but Edgar G. Ulmer is its film personality of the evening on June 6. TCM will be presenting seven Ulmer movies from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, including his two best-known efforts: The Black Cat (1934) and Detour (1945). The Black Cat was released shortly before the officialization of the Christian-inspired Production Code, which would castrate American filmmaking – with a few clever exceptions – for the next quarter of a century. Hence, audiences in spring 1934 were able to witness satanism in action, in addition to other bizarre happenings in an art deco mansion located in an isolated area of Hungary. Sporting a David Bowie hairdo, Boris Karloff is at his sinister best in The Black Cat (“Do you hear that, Vitus? The phone is dead. Even the phone is dead”), ailurophobic (a.
- 6/7/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
All set for Raving Iran Photo: Stuart Crawford
The queue outside the Gft was looking decidedly stylish on day five of the Glasgow Film Festival, and it emerged that some people have started dressing up for the Dangerous Dames strand, in this case inspired by Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. It was an impressive effort for a Sunday morning, when many people who had been enjoying late night films on Saturday were only just crawling out of bed, but there were people there who had been to those films too. One of the striking things about this year’s festival is the number of ordinary punters who report that they have already seen ten or 20 or even 30 films, planning their days so they can take in as much as possible.
Rachel Lambert Photo: Glasgow Film Fetsival
Sunday was a great day for small indie films. Director Rachel Lambert...
The queue outside the Gft was looking decidedly stylish on day five of the Glasgow Film Festival, and it emerged that some people have started dressing up for the Dangerous Dames strand, in this case inspired by Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. It was an impressive effort for a Sunday morning, when many people who had been enjoying late night films on Saturday were only just crawling out of bed, but there were people there who had been to those films too. One of the striking things about this year’s festival is the number of ordinary punters who report that they have already seen ten or 20 or even 30 films, planning their days so they can take in as much as possible.
Rachel Lambert Photo: Glasgow Film Fetsival
Sunday was a great day for small indie films. Director Rachel Lambert...
- 2/21/2017
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Dana Andrews movies: Film noir actor excelled in both major and minor crime dramas. Dana Andrews movies: First-rate film noir actor excelled in both classics & minor fare One of the best-looking and most underrated actors of the studio era, Dana Andrews was a first-rate film noir/crime thriller star. Oftentimes dismissed as no more than a “dependable” or “reliable” leading man, in truth Andrews brought to life complex characters that never quite fit into the mold of Hollywood's standardized heroes – or rather, antiheroes. Unlike the cynical, tough-talking, and (albeit at times self-delusionally) self-confident characters played by the likes of Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and, however lazily, Robert Mitchum, Andrews created portrayals of tortured men at odds with their social standing, their sense of ethics, and even their romantic yearnings. Not infrequently, there was only a very fine line separating his (anti)heroes from most movie villains.
- 1/22/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had made a stop near the Twentieth Street entrance ten days earlier, but the crowd this day was much larger. Thousands, mostly excited women wearing ankle-length dresses and waving felt pennants lined up hoping for a glimpse, or perhaps...
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had made a stop near the Twentieth Street entrance ten days earlier, but the crowd this day was much larger. Thousands, mostly excited women wearing ankle-length dresses and waving felt pennants lined up hoping for a glimpse, or perhaps...
- 9/28/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.
- 9/20/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Because we're having fun with this little feature we'll continue. On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
1881 Ahead of her time Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. She doesn't get a biopic because Hollywood is only interested in "Great Man" biopics
1916 Happy Centennial to author Harold Robbins who penned 25 best-sellers some of which became famous movies like The Carpetbaggers (1964), the Elvis flick King Creole (1958), and the notorious Pia Zadora Razzie winner The Lonely Lady (1983)
Rope (1949) and Swoon (1992) - two great movies inspired by the Leopold & Loeb case
1924 Chicago college students Leopold & Loeb murder a teenage boy in a "thrill killing." Their crime inspires the story of the gay deviants in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1949), the Cannes Best Actor winning Compulsion (1958) and is recreated in the New Queer Cinema classic Swoon (1992)
1926 Kay Kendall of Les Girls (1957) fame is born
1952 Two time Oscar nominee John Garfield (best...
1881 Ahead of her time Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. She doesn't get a biopic because Hollywood is only interested in "Great Man" biopics
1916 Happy Centennial to author Harold Robbins who penned 25 best-sellers some of which became famous movies like The Carpetbaggers (1964), the Elvis flick King Creole (1958), and the notorious Pia Zadora Razzie winner The Lonely Lady (1983)
Rope (1949) and Swoon (1992) - two great movies inspired by the Leopold & Loeb case
1924 Chicago college students Leopold & Loeb murder a teenage boy in a "thrill killing." Their crime inspires the story of the gay deviants in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1949), the Cannes Best Actor winning Compulsion (1958) and is recreated in the New Queer Cinema classic Swoon (1992)
1926 Kay Kendall of Les Girls (1957) fame is born
1952 Two time Oscar nominee John Garfield (best...
- 5/21/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...
- 12/18/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Force of Evil
Written by Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfert
Directed by Abraham Polonsky
U.S.A., 1948
Joe Morse (John Garfield) finds himself in a professionally precarious, if certainly lucrative, position. As one of New York’s top lawyers, he represents Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts), the city’s top dog in the racket numbers game. His plush office and impressive wealth are due to impressive commissions earned via Tucker, the latter whom, through Joe’s tireless efforts, has established himself as legitimately as possible. One of the smaller ‘banks’ that is soon to come under Tucker’s reign following the 4th of July rigged horse race is that belonging to Joe’s estranged brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez). The big race passes, leaving Manhattan’s smaller rackets broke, consequently forcing them to comply and join Tucker. Joe strives to sweeten the deal as much as possible for Leo, but differences of...
Written by Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfert
Directed by Abraham Polonsky
U.S.A., 1948
Joe Morse (John Garfield) finds himself in a professionally precarious, if certainly lucrative, position. As one of New York’s top lawyers, he represents Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts), the city’s top dog in the racket numbers game. His plush office and impressive wealth are due to impressive commissions earned via Tucker, the latter whom, through Joe’s tireless efforts, has established himself as legitimately as possible. One of the smaller ‘banks’ that is soon to come under Tucker’s reign following the 4th of July rigged horse race is that belonging to Joe’s estranged brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez). The big race passes, leaving Manhattan’s smaller rackets broke, consequently forcing them to comply and join Tucker. Joe strives to sweeten the deal as much as possible for Leo, but differences of...
- 4/3/2015
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
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
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium beginning at 7pm as part of this year’s St. Louis Intenational FIlm Festival. The program will consist a rare 35mm screening of the 1913 epic Ivanhoe starring King Baggot with live music accompaniment by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Ivanhoe will be followed by an illustrated lecture on the life and films of King Baggot presented by Tom Stockman, editor here at We Are Movie Geeks. After that will screen the influential silent western Tumbleweeds (1925), considered to be one of King Baggot’s finest achievements as a director. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace.
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had...
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had...
- 11/14/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium beginning at 7pm as part of this year’s St. Louis Intenational FIlm Festival. The program will consist a rare 35mm screening of the 1913 epic Ivanhoe starring King Baggot with live music accompaniment by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Ivanhoe will be followed by an illustrated lecture on the life and films of King Baggot presented by Tom Stockman, editor here at We Are Movie Geeks. After that will screen the influential silent western Tumbleweeds (1925), considered to be one of King Baggot’s finest achievements as a director. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace.
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...
- 11/6/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Top box office movies of 2013: If you make original, quality films… (photo: Sandra Bullock has two movies among the top 15 box office hits of 2013; Bullock is seen here in ‘The Heat,’ with Melissa McCarthy) (See previous post: “2013 Box Office Record? History is Remade If a Few ‘Minor Details’ Ignored.”) As further evidence that moviegoers want original, quality entertainment, below you’ll find a list of the top 15 movies at the domestic box office in 2013 — nine of which are sequels or reboots (ten if you include Oz the Great and Powerful), and more than half of which are 3D releases. Disney and Warner Bros. were the two top studios in 2013. Disney has five movies among the top 15; Warners has three. With the exception of the sleeper blockbuster Gravity, which, however dumbed down, targeted a more mature audience, every single one of the titles below were aimed either at teenagers/very,...
- 12/31/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
Audrey Totter, the radio actress who became a silver screen star by playing femme fatales in 1940s film noir including Lady in the Lake has died. Totter's daughter, Mea Lane, tells the Los Angeles Times that her mother died Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 95 and had recently suffered a stroke. Totter was under contract with MGM starting in 1944. After landing a small part in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Totter went on to a series of roles as tough talking blondes. Her breakthrough came with Lady in the Lake, the 1947 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe detective tale.
- 12/16/2013
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
Stylish film noir star known for her role in Lady in the Lake
I was kissed by Audrey Totter. At least, I share that experience with anybody who has seen Lady in the Lake (1947), when Totter plants her lips on the subjective camera, the surrogate for Robert Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. The film, directed by Montgomery, and based on the Raymond Chandler novel, was shot so that the whole story is seen literally through Marlowe's eyes.
The role of the gold-digging tigress magazine editor Adrienne Fromsett, who hires the private eye to find the missing wife of her publisher, was a breakthrough for Totter, who has died aged 95. Previously, she had been in a dozen movies, her hair colour and accent varying so much from film to film that she dubbed herself "the feminine Lon Chaney of the MGM lot".
Montgomery chose Totter for the part because of her versatility as a radio actor.
I was kissed by Audrey Totter. At least, I share that experience with anybody who has seen Lady in the Lake (1947), when Totter plants her lips on the subjective camera, the surrogate for Robert Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. The film, directed by Montgomery, and based on the Raymond Chandler novel, was shot so that the whole story is seen literally through Marlowe's eyes.
The role of the gold-digging tigress magazine editor Adrienne Fromsett, who hires the private eye to find the missing wife of her publisher, was a breakthrough for Totter, who has died aged 95. Previously, she had been in a dozen movies, her hair colour and accent varying so much from film to film that she dubbed herself "the feminine Lon Chaney of the MGM lot".
Montgomery chose Totter for the part because of her versatility as a radio actor.
- 12/16/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Los Angeles (AP) - Audrey Totter, the radio actress who became a silver screen star by playing femme fatales in 1940s film noir including "Lady in the Lake," has died.
Totter's daughter, Mea Lane, tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/JrDjQZ) her mother died Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 95 and had recently had a stroke.
Totter was under contract with MGM starting in 1944. After landing a small part in "The Postman Always Rings Twice," Totter went on to a series of roles as tough-talking blondes.
Her breakthrough came with "Lady in the Lake," the 1947 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe detective tale. She also appeared in the thriller "The Unsuspected" and the boxing drama "The Set-Up."
After retiring to raise a family, Totter later resurfaced on television.
___
Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com...
Totter's daughter, Mea Lane, tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/JrDjQZ) her mother died Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 95 and had recently had a stroke.
Totter was under contract with MGM starting in 1944. After landing a small part in "The Postman Always Rings Twice," Totter went on to a series of roles as tough-talking blondes.
Her breakthrough came with "Lady in the Lake," the 1947 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe detective tale. She also appeared in the thriller "The Unsuspected" and the boxing drama "The Set-Up."
After retiring to raise a family, Totter later resurfaced on television.
___
Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com...
- 12/16/2013
- by The Associated Press
- Moviefone
Femme fatale Audrey Totter: Film noir actress and MGM leading lady dead at 95 (photo: Audrey Totter ca. 1947) Audrey Totter, film noir femme fatale and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player best remembered for the mystery crime drama Lady in the Lake and, at Rko, the hard-hitting boxing drama The Set-Up, died after suffering a stroke and congestive heart failure on Thursday, December 12, 2013, at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles County. Reportedly a resident at the Motion Picture and Television Home in Woodland Hills, Audrey Totter would have turned 96 on Dec. 20. Born in Joliet, Illinois, Audrey Totter began her show business career on radio. She landed an MGM contract in the mid-’40s, playing bit roles in several of the studio’s productions, e.g., the Clark Gable-Greer Garson pairing Adventure (1945), the Hedy Lamarr-Robert Walker-June Allyson threesome Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), and, as an adventurous hitchhiker riding with John Garfield,...
- 12/15/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Lana Turner movies: Scandal and more scandal Lana Turner is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, Saturday, August 10, 2013. I’m a little — or rather, a lot — late in the game posting this article, but there are still three Lana Turner movies left. You can see Turner get herself embroiled in scandal right now, in Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), both the director and the star’s biggest box-office hit. More scandal follows in Mark Robson’s Peyton Place (1957), the movie that earned Lana Turner her one and only Academy Award nomination. And wrapping things up is George Sidney’s lively The Three Musketeers (1948), with Turner as the ruthless, heartless, remorseless — but quite elegant — Lady de Winter. Based on Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of John M. Stahl’s 1934 melodrama about mother love, class disparities, racism, and good cooking, Imitation of Life was shown on...
- 8/11/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Fred MacMurray movies: ‘Double Indemnity,’ ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ Fred MacMurray is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" today, Thursday, August 7, 2013. Although perhaps best remembered as the insufferable All-American Dad on the long-running TV show My Three Sons and in several highly popular Disney movies from 1959 to 1967, e.g., The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Boy Voyage!, MacMurray was immeasurably more interesting as the All-American Jerk. (Photo: Fred MacMurray ca. 1940.) Someone once wrote that Fred MacMurray would have been an ideal choice to star in a biopic of disgraced Republican president Richard Nixon. Who knows, the (coincidentally Republican) MacMurray might have given Anthony Hopkins a run for his Best Actor Academy Award nomination. After all, MacMurray’s most admired movie performances are those in which he plays a scheming, conniving asshole: Billy Wilder’s classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), in which he’s seduced by Barbara Stanwyck, and Wilder...
- 8/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Given how fond we are of our anti-heroes, it's a wonder that John Garfield doesn't loom larger in our moviegoing memory. We love our Sean Penns and Ryan Goslings, our Al Pacinos and Robert De Niros, our James Deans and Marlon Brandos and Montgomery Clifts. But Garfield (who was born 100 years ago this week, on March 4, 1913) was there before all of them. The star of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Body and Soul" was Hollywood's first Method actor -- and its first rebel. He wasn't Hollywood's first gangster -- fellow Warner Bros. stars Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart beat him to the punch -- but he may have been the most authentic, and the one with the most sexual edge. Garfield's filmography has a life-imitates-art-imitates-life quality to it. Many of his roles seemed to echo the juvenile-delinquent New York street kid and ex-boxer that...
- 3/4/2013
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
- 5/27/2012
- Shadowlocked
Plus: Pool, as played in 60s Chicago; How many witch-trials were there? Has a non-human ever been elected?
Why is The Postman Always Rings Twice so called? The title seems to have no relevance to the story.
James M Cain suggested the term "postman" was not meant to be taken literally. Rather, the title refers to fate or justice eventually catching up with the perpetrator of a crime, even if they were not punished for the original offence. In Cain's novel (spoilers ahoy) protagonist Frank Chambers helps his lover Cora to kill her husband, but due to machinationsand double-crossing in the courtroom both walk free. However, Cora is later accidentally killed in a car crash and Frank, the driver, is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The "postman" whose ring was missed on the first occasion, has "rung" again, and everyone hears his second ring.
In the 1946 film...
Why is The Postman Always Rings Twice so called? The title seems to have no relevance to the story.
James M Cain suggested the term "postman" was not meant to be taken literally. Rather, the title refers to fate or justice eventually catching up with the perpetrator of a crime, even if they were not punished for the original offence. In Cain's novel (spoilers ahoy) protagonist Frank Chambers helps his lover Cora to kill her husband, but due to machinationsand double-crossing in the courtroom both walk free. However, Cora is later accidentally killed in a car crash and Frank, the driver, is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The "postman" whose ring was missed on the first occasion, has "rung" again, and everyone hears his second ring.
In the 1946 film...
- 5/23/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
The 14th Annual Festival of Film Noir kicks off at the Egyptian and Aero Theaters in Los Angeles, see, and the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby gets things started. (If you haven't heard, there's a modern update of Fitzgerald's classic coming this winter with Baz Luhrman's version starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.) Other prominent films being showcased during the festival include The Maltese Falcon, the Sterling Hayden/Frank Sinatra suspenser Suddenly, Anthony Mann's T-Men and Strange Impression, a new 35mm print of Three Strangers starring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, as well as Lana Turner and John Garfield in perennial favorite The Postman Always Rings Twice. Many of the films, like Gatsby and the newly restored Gary Cooper-starrer City...
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- 4/18/2012
- by affiliates@fandango.com
- Fandango
Michelle Williams’s Oscar nomination means one more month of my least favorite activity: thinking about Marilyn Monroe. Are we done yet? The whole point of My Week With Marilyn was to validate your great aunt’s boring perception of Norma Jean – that she took great photos, was sometimes a screen gem, and confused pills for meals. I get it. Here are five screen legends with lesser-explored stories worthier of a biopic.
5. Montgomery Clift
Nearly a decade ago, Colin Farrell was in talks to star in a biopic of the gifted and visibly tragic actor who made A Place in the Sun’s insane melodrama sort of believable, From Here to Eternity a classic, and Judgment at Nuremberg the slightest bit awkward. (Was that slurring at the witness stand part of his role or everyday life?) Clift is captivating as a screen presence and as a subject, and I’d...
5. Montgomery Clift
Nearly a decade ago, Colin Farrell was in talks to star in a biopic of the gifted and visibly tragic actor who made A Place in the Sun’s insane melodrama sort of believable, From Here to Eternity a classic, and Judgment at Nuremberg the slightest bit awkward. (Was that slurring at the witness stand part of his role or everyday life?) Clift is captivating as a screen presence and as a subject, and I’d...
- 1/26/2012
- by virtel
- The Backlot
John Garfield on TCM: Humoresque, Four Daughters, We Were Strangers Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Four Daughters (1938) A small-town family's peaceful life is shattered when one daughter falls for a rebellious musician. Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Priscilla Lane, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield. Bw-90 mins. 7:45 Am Blackwell's Island (1939) A reporter gets himself sent to prison to expose a mobster. Dir: William McGann. Cast: John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell. Bw-71 mins. 9:00 Am They Made Me A Criminal (1939) A young boxer flees to farming country when he thinks he's killed an opponent in the ring. Dir: Busby Berkeley. Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson. Bw-92 mins. 10:45 Am Dangerously They Live (1942) A doctor tries to rescue a young innocent from Nazi agents. Dir: Robert Florey. Cast: John Garfield, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey. Bw-77 mins. 12:15 Pm Pride Of The Marines (1945) A blinded...
- 8/4/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Start your engines up and beat the traffic in our Grease-lightning race through Hollywood's car chase hotspot
Anyone who's seen a Hollywood car chase over the last 30 years will recognise the 51-mile structure that runs from San Fernando Valley through to Long Beach. While most action films will set a high-speed pursuit in a congested city – swerving and screeching around rush-hour traffic – the La river is the go-to location for directors seeking a less metropolitan buzz. A one-on-one drag race perhaps? Or a battle between warring alien robots?
The river's dystopian expanse allows cinematographers to get creative and infuse the action with swooping aerial shots to accompany the spectacle of an automobile revving up its slanted walls. It's been featured in almost too many films, TV shows and music videos to count, but here are my favourite and most memorable La river races:
1) The river was renamed "Thunder Road" for Randal Kleiser's Grease,...
Anyone who's seen a Hollywood car chase over the last 30 years will recognise the 51-mile structure that runs from San Fernando Valley through to Long Beach. While most action films will set a high-speed pursuit in a congested city – swerving and screeching around rush-hour traffic – the La river is the go-to location for directors seeking a less metropolitan buzz. A one-on-one drag race perhaps? Or a battle between warring alien robots?
The river's dystopian expanse allows cinematographers to get creative and infuse the action with swooping aerial shots to accompany the spectacle of an automobile revving up its slanted walls. It's been featured in almost too many films, TV shows and music videos to count, but here are my favourite and most memorable La river races:
1) The river was renamed "Thunder Road" for Randal Kleiser's Grease,...
- 8/3/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the most popular sex scenes of all time is the kitchen scene from the 1981 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice. But many people find the more implicit parts of the 1946 version to be sexier. These people include the earlier film’s female lead, Lana Turner, who wrote in her autobiography, “[The makers of the 1981 film] didn’t have to worry about the censors. I’d had to project a rather intense sexual presence, but always with my clothes on. I was amused to read that [NY Times film critic] Vincent Canby considered the remake a pale, rather sexless imitation of my version.” Yes, a film with neither nudity nor simulated lovemaking can be quite sexy, likely sexier than an explicit remake, for innuendo and other teasing maneuvers around either the Hays Code or the MPAA ...
- 2/19/2009
- by Christopher Campbell
- Spout
Sharon Stone is furious Catherine Zeta-Jones will play Lana Turner in a new biopic, because she was the screen legend's first choice. The Postman Always Rings Twice actress met Stone before she died of throat cancer in 1995 and Stone reveals Turner wanted her to star in a movie celebrating her life. The film will look at eight-times married Turner's tumultuous marriage to gangster Johnny Stompanato, to be played by Keanu Reeves, who was killed in 1958 by her daughter Crane. Stone says, "I met Lana in her final years and liked her a great deal. She was every inch the movie star and we got along really well. She said if there was a film to be made on her life, then I was her choice. Lana's life is one of the more interesting of the Hollywood greats. Lana really rocked."...
- 8/31/2005
- WENN
Hume Cronyn, the veteran character actor of stage, screen and television who often co-starred with his wife, the late Jessica Tandy, has died at his Connecticut home of complications from prostate cancer; he was 91. Well-known for his roles in recent films such as Cocoon and Marvin's Room, Cronyn made his acting debut onstage in 1931, playing a paperboy; three years later, he made his first appearance on Broadway in Hippers' Holiday, marking the beginning of an illustrious and versatile stage career which culminated in a 1964 Tony award for playing Polonius opposite Richard Burton's Hamlet. Cronyn began his film career in 1943 with a scene-stealing turn as a neighbor addicted to gruesome detective stories in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. A year later, he appeared in Hitchcock's Lifeboat and also received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the World War II drama The Seventh Cross. Notable roles also included Phantom of the Opera, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cleopatra, The Parallax View and There Was a Crooked Man. Cronyn frequently worked with his wife, Jessica Tandy, to whom he was married from 1942 until her death in 1994, appearing with her onstage in Foxfire and The Gin Game as well as in the Cocoon films; he won an Emmy opposite her in the TV film To Dance With the White Dog. A writer as well as an actor, he co-wrote Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, Rope and the Jane Fonda TV film The Dollmaker. He is survived by his second wife, Susan Cooper, and his and Tandy's three children. --Prepared by IMDb staff...
- 6/16/2003
- WENN
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