Alternative Film Guide

The Iraq War documentaries presenting the point of view of U.S. soldiers, The War Tapes (above) and The Ground Truth, will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Spring 2008 "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, May 28, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
Patricia Foulkrod, [...]

Eleven students from eight US colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. The winners will take part in a week of industry-related activities and social events, culminating in the awards ceremony on June 7 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater [...]

The Gang’s All Here (1943)
Direction: Busby Berkeley. Screenplay: Walter Bullock; from a story by Nancy Wintner, George Root Jr., and Tom Bridges. Cast: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, James Ellison, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton, Sheila Ryan, Eugene Pallette, Tony De Marco, Bando da Lua
 

 
From the moment The Gang’s All Here opens [...]

The Kid (1921)
Direction and Screenplay: Charles Chaplin. Cast: Charles Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance, Carl Miller
 

 
Although I have never been much of a Charles Chaplin fan, The Kid is one sweet picture. In fact, it is the only Chaplin vehicle I would want to see over again.
The story, also penned by Chaplin, is simple: a [...]

Laura Bialis‘ well-received documentary Refusenik chronicles the thirty-year grassroots movement to free Soviet Jews. (Read Ella Taylor’s positive — if sobering — review in The Village Voice.)
Refusenik is told through the eyes of the activists, among them those then living in the Soviet Union — some of whom were punished for their efforts. Much [...]

The Great Gabbo (1929)
Direction: James Cruze. Screenplay: Story by Ben Hecht; Continuity and Dialogue by Hugh Herbert. Cast: Erich von Stroheim, Betty Compson, Donald Douglas, Marjorie Kane
 
The Great Gabbo is one terrific early talkie. Sure, the film is old and creaky, while its technical aspects are cheap and primitive. But the story, the music, and [...]

Curtis Hanson’s 1997 Best Picture nominee L.A. Confidential will be the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The neo-noir crime drama will be screened on Monday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, cast member [...]

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Direction: Fred Niblo. Directorial Associates: Alfred L. Raboch and B. Reeves Eason (and Christy Cabanne, uncredited). Screenplay: Carey Wilson and Bess Meredyth, based on June Mathis’s adaptation of General Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel. Titles: Katherine Hilliker and H. H. Caldwell. Cast: Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy, Francis X. Bushman, Betty [...]

The Penalty (1920)
Direction: Wallace Worsley. Screenplay: Charles Kenyon and Philip Lonergan; from Gouverneur Morris’ novel. Cast: Lon Chaney, Kenneth Harlan, Ethel Grey Terry, Doris Pawn, Charles Clary, Jim Mason, Milton Ross, Claire Adams
 

 
Lon Chaney was more than just an actor. He was a magician. Like a chameleon, he could morph into a character.
In the gruesome [...]

Dan Callahan takes a look at Gloria Grahame’s life and career in a lengthy article at Brights Lights:
"Grahame lives on the edges of most of her films, too disturbing an image, too turbulent a consciousness to ever really play a lead role. She could look severe, even plain, when she wasn’t overly made up for [...]

Paul Valley on Harrison Ford in The Independent:
"On his politics he is more public. A lifelong Democrat, he publicly condemned the invasion of Iraq, calling for ‘regime change’ in the United States. He has also criticised his own industry for the violence of much of its output and has called for greater gun control in [...]

My Little Chickadee (1940)
Direction: Edward Cline. Screenplay: Mae West, W. C. Fields. Cast: Mae West, W. C. Fields, Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran, Ruth Donnelly, Margaret Hamilton, Donald Meek, Jackie Searl
 

 
Mae West and W.C. Fields. The teaming of these two comedy titans in My Little Chickadee must not have been very easy, but director Edward [...]

 
Although it gets off to a slow start, Go West Young Man is one of Mae West’s better Post-Code efforts for Paramount. Directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Mae West herself (from Lawrence Riley’s play), Go West Young Man stars West (get it?) as temperamental film star Mavis Arden, who is at odds with [...]

The Straddler offers a lengthy essay on Ridley Scott’s American Gangster:
"American Gangster illuminates in its failure. Earnest and workmanlike in its effort to earn a place among the venerated films in its genre, it does not succeed. A better than average film in terms of the average film — a "B" perhaps; three out of [...]

A Warner Bros. digital restoration of the 1938 rousing adventure classic The Adventures of Robin Hood will be screened on Sunday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The program will also feature a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film.
Presented by [...]

Sparrows (1926)
Direction: William Beaudine. Screenplay: C. Gardner Sullivan (adaptation); George Marion Jr. (titles); from a story by Winifred Dunn. Cast: Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Spec O’Donnell, Billy Butts
 

 
Molly is the role Mary Pickford was born to play. In Sparrows, Molly is the oldest among the ten orphans being kept as slaves [...]

Wednesday, May 8, highlights on Turner Classic Movies:
John Frankenheimer’s speed-racing epic, Grand Prix, boasts an all-star cast, split screens, lots of noise, and one excellent performance, courtesy of the always reliable Eva Marie Saint.
Bachelor Mother (right) was a minor disappointment, but Charles Coburn is outstanding as the patriarch who doesn’t care if his son (David [...]

Ron Howard’s 1995 Best Picture nominee Apollo 13 was screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ ongoing "Great To Be Nominated" series on Monday, May 5, 2008, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Photos: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the images to enlarge them.

Pictured: (standing, left to right) [...]

Deliver Us from Evil, Dear Talula, and Two Hands will be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Spring 2008 "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Amy Berg’s 2006 Academy Award-nominated documentary feature Deliver Us from Evil [...]

Strait-Jacket (1964)
Direction: William Castle. Screenplay: Robert Bloch. Cast: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson, Howard St. John, John Anthony Hayes, Rochelle Hudson, George Kennedy
 

 
"From the director of Homicidal, the author of Psycho, and the co-star of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" reads the by-line for producer-director William Castle’s thriller Strait-Jacket. Although I’ve seen [...]

Viva (2008)
Direction and Screenplay: Anna Biller. Cast: Anna Biller, Jared Sanford, Chad England, Bridget Brno, Marcus DeAnda, John Klemantaski, Paolo Davanzo, Barry Morse
 

 
Anna Biller has been labeled the next John Waters. This is not true. John Waters has his own distinctively trashy and marvelous style, which is far different from Biller’s lush and extravagant filmmaking. [...]

Joel and Ethan Coen’s quirky — and very violent — Fargo will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The pitch-black comedy, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, will screen on Monday, May 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s [...]

Celebrating Bette Davis‘ centennial, the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting the series "Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Essential Bette Davis," which began on May 1, with the unveiling of a new US Postal Service stamp in the presence of Turner Classic Movies host Robert
Osborne and Davis’ personal [...]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in association with the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, presented "A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis" on Thursday, May 1, 2008, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The event, hosted by film historian and Turner Classic Movies presenter Robert [...]

Producer William Castle, Mia Farrow, Robert Evans on the set of Rosemary’s Baby.
 
"An Academy Salute to Robert Evans" will feature a 40th anniversary screening of (a brand new print of) Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, and an onstage "conversation" with all-powerful Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone (he of the Tom Cruise spat), film director Brett Ratner, Velvet [...]