Robert Osborne, Alec Baldwin to Host TCM’s 2010 “The Essentials”

Two-time Emmy winner Alec Baldwin will be returning for a second season as co-host of Turner Classic Movies‘ "The Essentials," joining forces with TCM host Robert Osborne to present a new slate of must-see movies every Saturday at 5 p.m. (PT).
The 10th season of "The Essentials" will kick off in March 2010 with Elia Kazan’s 1951 version of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Oscar nominee Marlon Brando and Oscar winners Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. If you haven’t seen it, yet, you must. If you have, it’s one of those movies that can be watched again and again.
As per the TCM press release, the season will also feature four [...]

Karl Malden

Karl Malden, Tyrone Power in Diplomatic Courier (1952)

Karl Malden, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, died "of natural causes" at his Brentwood home earlier today. He was 97.
In addition to his film work — which includes dozens of features from 1940 to the late 1980s — Malden starred opposite Michael Douglas in the popular 1970s television cop series The Streets of San Francisco, and was a spokesman for American Express. Additionally, he served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989-92.
The son of Central European immigrants, the Chicago-born (March 22, 1912) Malden began his film career in a small role in the 1940 [...]

Christopher Plummer Interview at TCM

Christopher Plummer, whose autobiography In Spite of Myself has just come out, was interviewed by Jeff Stafford for the Turner Classic Movies website. Below is a brief snippet:
TCM: With you being such a classically trained actor, I was curious about your opinion of "The Method" and Marlon Brando’s impact on the theatre world with A Streetcar Named Desire.
CP: Listen, to me "The Method" is usually totally misunderstood. It doesn’t mean that you have to mumble and not be heard. It means that you use it when you’re in deep trouble, when you can’t bring your imagination to work then you try and have a sense memory of your own that can help and [...]

Elia Kazan’s Oscar Nominated Actors

Elia Kazan
24 Acting Nominations
(s) supporting category
(*) Academy Award winner
Elia Kazan: Top Oscar Directors for Actors
 
1945
James Dunn (s) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*
(Additionally, Peggy Ann Garner won a special "juvenile" Oscar for her 1945 performances, including A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
 
1947

Gregory Peck Gentleman’s Agreement
Dorothy McGuire Gentleman’s Agreement
Celeste Holm (s) Gentleman’s Agreement *
Anne Revere (s) Gentleman’s Agreement
 
1949

Lily white Fox star Jeanne Crain was nominated for an Oscar for trying (and failing) to pass for a light-skinned "black" (read: mixed ancestry) girl trying to pass for a lily white girl. Fellow nominee Ethel Waters comforts Crain: "You cayn’t act, but you’re darned purty." (Actually, Crain could be excellent. Check out Henry King’s nostalgic Margie.)

Jeanne Crain Pinky (co-directed with John Ford)
Ethel Barrymore [...]

Elia Kazan: Top Oscar Directors for Actors

Elia Kazan is best remembered today for two things: His association with Marlon Brando during the first half of the 1950s, and the fact that he claimed to be unrepentant about naming names, and ruining careers and lives during the Red-baiting hysteria of the post-World War II years.
Kazan’s 19 feature films are wildly uneven — for every great A Streetcar Named Desire there is a dreadful America, America, plus everything in between. Yet, probably because of his Broadway training, Kazan was definitely an outstanding actors’ director.
Tough-guy Brando, irritating mannerisms and all, remains the best-remembered Kazan star, even though the director coaxed superb performances from a wide range of players, ranging from child actress Peggy Ann Garner, who [...]

Best Films – 1951

Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire
FILM
Ace in the Hole / The Big Carnival
d: Billy Wilder; scr: Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman
The African Queen
d: John Huston; scr: James Agee
L’Auberge rouge / The Red Inn
d: Claude Autant-Lara; scr: Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost
The Day the Earth Stood Still
d: Robert Wise; scr: Edmund H. North
The Man in the White Suit
d: Alexander Mackendrick; scr: Roger Macdougall, John Dighton, Alexander Mackendrick
Miracolo a Milano / Miracle in Milan
d: Vittorio De Sica; scr: Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Mario Chiari, Adolfo Franci
People Will Talk
d, scr: Joseph [...]