Anthony Franciosa
Actor Anthony Franciosa died of a massive stroke this past Friday, Jan. 20, at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 77.
Franciosa’s film career began late — but auspiciously — in 1957. The 32-year-old actor (born in New York City on Oct. 28, 1925) had key roles in Robert Wise’s This Could Be the Night, George Cukor’s Wild Is the Wind, Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd, and Fred Zinnemann’s A Hatful of Rain, in which he recreated his well-regarded Broadway role.
For his somewhat mechanical performance — stage mannerisms were much in evidence — Franciosa received his one and only best actor Academy Award nomination.
Yet, major stardom proved elusive. Although he was [...]
by Andre Soares | January 22, 2006
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: A Hatful of Rain, A Period of Adjustment, Anthony Franciosa, Classic Movies, Fred Zinnemann, Rita Hayworth, Shelley Winters, The Long Hot Summer, The Story onf Page one, Wild Is the Wind
A HATFUL OF RAIN – Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray
A Hatful of Rain (1957)
Direction: Fred Zinnemann
Screenplay: Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes, Carl Foreman (originally uncredited); from Gazzo’s play
Cast: Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan, Henry Silva
Based on a play by Michael V. Gazzo, A Hatful of Rain is an interesting attempt at injecting "adult" subject matters — in this case, the evils of drug addiction — into Hollywood movies. "Interesting," however, does not mean either successful or compelling.
Despite real, unromantic New York locations and Joseph MacDonald’s beautifully realistic black-and-white camera work, this Fred Zinnemann-directed melodrama feels anachronistically stagy because of the overall artificiality of the dialogue and the hammy theatricality of the performances — with Eva Marie Saint as the sole naturalistic exception.
Somewhat revolutionary [...]
by Andre Soares | October 24, 2004
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: A Hatful of Rain, Anthony Franciosa, Classic Movies, Don Murray, Eva Marie Saint, Film Reviews, Fred Zinnemann, Lloyd Nolan, Michael V. Gazzo, Oscar 1957, Oscar Movies
