Grace Kelly on TCM
Stating the obvious: most people take great pleasure in idealizing their idols — which is why idols are idols.
Whether we’re talking of gods, saints, prophets, or pop stars, the process is pretty much the same: flaws are expunged, deeds that never took place are turned into (at times miraculous) facts, the Pantheon of the Immortals becomes their abode following their earthly demise. (In some extreme cases — assorted gods, Elvis — the idol in question doesn’t die, period.)
Grace Kelly, Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month, is one of the lofty ones now dwelling in the aforementioned Pantheon. True, the flesh-and-bood Philadelphia-born (Nov. 12, 1929) woman (nee Grace Patricia Kelly) may have been quite different [...]
by Andre Soares | November 5, 2009
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Classic Movies, Dial M for Murder, George Seaton, Grace Kelly, Rear Window, The Country Girl, Turner Classic Movies
A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR d: Anthony Asquith
A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)
Direction: Anthony Asquith
Screenplay: Anthony Asquith; from a story by Herbert Price
Cast: Norah Baring, Uno Henning, Hans Schlettow
Uno Henning in A Cottage on Dartmoor
Very little in a career overview of filmmaker Anthony Asquith prepares a viewer for the brilliant thriller A Cottage on Dartmoor, released by Kino, which he both wrote (from a story by Herbert Price) and directed. Asquith’s wonderful but straightforward adaptations of Pygmalion (1938) and The Browning Version (1951) — and, to a lesser extent, The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) and Libel (1959) — do not really speak to the dynamics of this 1929 film.
The director fully embraces the tale of obsessive love in terms of silent [...]
by Doug Johnson | October 30, 2009
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Tags: A Cottage on Dartmoor, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Asquith, Classic Movies, DVDs, Film Reviews, Hans Schlettow, Norah Baring, Silent Films, Uno Henning
AFI FEST 2009: SOMETHING’S GONNA LIVE, NORTH BY NORTHWEST
Cary Grant in North by Northwest
Among the highlights of AFI FEST 2009 is the Nov. 2 screening of AFI Conservatory Alumnus Daniel Raim’s documentary Something’s Gonna Live, which profiles several behind-the-scenes Hollywood veterans — most of whom have already passed away — including production designers Robert Boyle (who turned 100 this past Oct. 10), Henry Bumstead (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sting), Harold Michelson (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Mommie Dearest, Dick Tracy), and Albert Nozaki (When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, The Ten Commandments), in addition to cinematographers Conrad L. Hall (In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Road to Perdition) and Haskell Wexler (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, In the Heat of [...]
by Andre Soares | October 26, 2009
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Tags: AFI FEST, AFI FEST 2009, Alfred Hitchcock, Conrad L. Hall, Daniel Raim, Eva Marie Saint, Film Festivals, Harold Michelson, Haskell Wexler, Henry Bumstead, Los Angeles Screenings, Martin Landau, North by Northwest, Robert Boyle, Something's Gonna Live
Jack Cardiff
Cinematographer and director Jack Cardiff, one of the early masters of color cinematography, has died. He was 94.
Cardiff’s work as a cinematographer was quite eclectic, ranging from his partnership with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in the British-made Black Narcissus (1945) and The Red Shoes (1948) to prestigious international productions such as John Huston’s The African Queen (1951) and King Vidor’s War and Peace (1956), and to low-brow commercial fare such as Conan the Destroyer (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
I’ve never watched Conan or Rambo, but I have watched more than 20 of Cardiff’s 60 or so features, and I can testify that whether working in art-house or commercial fare, Cardiff’s cinematography was invariably one [...]
by Andre Soares | April 22, 2009
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Tags: A Matter of Life and Death, Alfred Hitchcock, Annabella, Ava Gardner, Black Narcissus, Caesar and Cleopatra, Cinematographers, Classic Movies, Conan the Destroyer, Death on the Nile, Emeric Pressburger, Errol Flynn, Fanny, Girl on the Motorcycle, Harold D. Schuster, Henry Fonda, Jack Cardiff, John Huston, King Vidor, Laurence Olivier, Michael Powell, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Ray Rennahan, Robert Donat, Rod Taylor, Sean O'Casey, Sons and Lovers, The African Queen, The Barefoot Contessa, The Black Rose, The Dance of Shiva, The Long Ships, The Red Shoes, The Vikings, The Wicked Lady, Trevor Howard, Tyrone Power, Under Capricorn, Vivien Leigh, War and Peace, Wings of the Morning, Young Cassidy
Great Directors Series on Turner Classic Movies
Jeanne Moreau, Henri Serre, Oskar Werner in François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim
In June, Turner Classic Movies‘ month-long series "Great Directors" will be celebrating the efforts of 52 films directors, from past and present, from Hollywood and overseas (though, as to be expected, mostly Hollywood).
Among TCM’s "greats" are, inevitably, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Steven Spielberg, and John Ford, but also Jacques Tourneur, Mervyn LeRoy, and Budd Boetticher.
Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Carol Reed, and Ingmar Bergman are four of the non-Hollywood filmmakers who have been included in the series.
Each weekday of the "Great Directors" series will feature two directors — one during the day; the other at night. The daytime lineup includes Victor Fleming (June [...]
by Andre Soares | April 21, 2009
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Budd Boeticher, Cecil B. DeMille, Classic Movies, David Lean, Federico Fellini, Frank Capra, Fritz Lang, George Cukor, Great Directors, Howard Hawks, Jacques Tourneur, John Ford, Leo McCarey, Mervyn LeRoy, Michael Curtiz, Orson Welles, Otto Preminger, Steven Spielberg, Victor Fleming, Vincente Minnelli, William Wyler, Woody Allen
Best Films – 1940
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
FILM
The Blue Bird
d: Walter Lang; scr: Ernest Pascal
The Grapes of Wrath
d: John Ford; scr: Nunnally Johnson
Kitty Foyle
d: Sam Wood; scr: Dalton Trumbo
The Letter
d: William Wyler; scr: Howard Koch
The Mark of Zorro
d: Rouben Mamoulian; scr: John Tainton Foote, Garrett Fort, Bess Meredyth
Pinocchio
d: Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen; scr: Ted Sears, Otto Englander and others
Pride and Prejudice
d: Robert Z. Leonard; scr: Aldous Huxley, Jane Murfin
Rebecca
d: Alfred Hitchcock; scr: Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison
Waterloo Bridge
d: Mervyn LeRoy; scr: S.N. Behrman, Hans Rameau, George Froeschel
Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday
CHECK THESE OUT
Busman’s Honeymoon / Haunted Honeymoon
d: Arthur B. Woods; scr: Monckton Hoffe, Angus MacPhail, Harold Goldman
His Girl Friday
d: Howard Hawks; scr: Charles Lederer
The Long Voyage Home
d: John [...]
by Andre Soares | April 4, 2009
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Tags: Aldous Huxley, Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Newman, Anita Loos, Basil Rathbone, Bella Spewack, Bess Meredyth, Best Films, Bette Davis, Busman's Honeymoon, Cary Grant, Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Chaplin, Charles Lederer, Classic Movies, Constance Cummings, Edna May Oliver, Ernest Haller, Florence Bates, Frieda Inescort, George Barnes, Ginger Rogers, Greer Garson, Henry Fonda, Herbert Marshall, Herbert Stothart, His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks, Howard Koch, Irene Dunne, Irving Pichel, Jack Oakie, James Stephenson, Jane Darwell, Jane Murfin, Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Joan Harrison, Joel McCrea, John Ford, Judith Anderson, Karl Freund, Kitty Foyle, Laurence Olivier, Leo McCarey, Marjorie Main, Mary Boland, Max Steiner, Melville Cooper, Mervyn LeRoy, Micheline Presle, Nunnally Johnson, Pinocchio, Pride and Prejudice, Ray Rennahan, Rebecca, Robert E. Sherwood, Robert Montgomery, Robert Z. Leonard, Rosalind Russell, Rouben Mamoulian, Roy Webb, Sam Spewack, Sam Wood, Susan and God, The Blue Bird, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, The Man I Married, The Mark of Zorro, The Philadelphia Story, Tyrone Power, Virginia City, Vivien Leigh, Walter Lang, Waterloo Bridge, William Wyler
Best Films – 1938
Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold in You Can’t Take It with You
FILM
The Adventures of Robin Hood
d: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley; scr: Seton I. Miller, Norman Reilly Raine
Bringing Up Baby
d: Howard Hawks; scr: Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde
Dramatic School
d: Robert B. Sinclair; scr: Ernest Vajda, Mary McCall Jr.
L’Etrange Monsieur Victor
d: Jean Grémillon; scr: Albert Valentin, Charles Spaak, Marcel Achard
Four Daughters
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Lenore J. Coffee, Julius J. Epstein
If I Were King
d: Frank Lloyd; scr: Preston Sturges
The Lady Vanishes
d: Alfred Hitchcock; scr: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder
Marie Antoinette
d: W. S. Van Dyke; scr: Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart, Ernest Vajda
Vivacious Lady
d: George Stevens; scr: P. J. Wolfson, Ernest Pagano
You Can’t Take It with You
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
[...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
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Tags: A Night in May, Abem Finkel, Akim Tamiroff, Albert Valentin, Alfred Hitchcock, Anatole Litvak, Basil Radford, Basil Rathbone, Best Films, Bette Davis, Beulah Bondi, Billy Wilder, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Bringing Up Baby, Cameron Rogers, Cary Grant, Charles Brackett, Charles Coburn, Charles Spaak, Classic Movies, Claude Rains, Claudette Colbert, Claudine West, Clements Ripley, Dame May Whitty, Dmitri Tiomkin, Donald Ogden Stewart, Dramatic School, Dudley Nichols, Edmund Goulding, Edward Arnold, Eine Nacht in Mai, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernest Haller, Ernest Pagano, Ernest Vajda, Ernst Lubitsch, Errol Flynn, Fay Bainter, Four Daughters, Frank Capra, Frank Launder, Frank Lloyd, Franz Waxman, Gale Sondergaard, Gary Cooper, Georg Jacoby, George Stevens, Ginger Rogers, Gladys George, Hagar Wilde, Hans Fritz Beckmann, Harry Stradling, Herbert Stothart, Howard Hawks, If I Were King, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Jean Grémillon, Jezebel, John Huston, Joseph Ruttenberg, Joseph Schildkraut, Julien Duvivier, Julius J. Epstein, Katharine Hepburn, L'Etrange Monsieur Victor, Le Quais des brumes, Lenore J. Coffee, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, Luise Rainer, Madeleine Rénaud, Marcel Achard, Margaret Lockwood, Marie Antoinette, Marika Rökk, Mary Forbes, Mary McCall Jr., Max Steiner, May Robson, Michael Curtiz, Michael Redgrave, Michèle Morgan, Milton Krims, Norma Shearer, Norman Reilly Raine, Of Human Hearts, Oliver T. Marsh, P. J. Wolfson, Paul Lukas, Peverell Marley, Port of Shadows, Preston Sturges, Pygmalion, Raimu, Robert B. Sinclair, Robert Morley, Robert Riskin, Ronald Colman, Rudolph Maté, Samuel Hoffenstein, Seton I. Miller, Sidney Gilliat, Sol Polito, Spawn of the North, Spring Byington, Suez, Sweethearts, The Adventures of Marco Polo, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Citadel, The Great Waltz, The Lady Vanishes, The Sisters, Three Comrades, Tony Gaudio, Una O'Connor, Vivacious Lady, W. Howard Greene, W. S. Van Dyke, Walter Reisch, Wendy Hiller, White Banners, William H. Daniels, William Keighley, William Wyler, Willy Clever, You Can't Take It with You
Oscar 2008: Robert Boyle to Receive Honorary Oscar
Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest
Production designer Robert Boyle, 98, a veteran with nearly 100 highly eclectic film credits — ranging from Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954) to Portnoy’s Complaint (1972) — will receive an Honorary Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2008, "in recognition of one of cinema’s great careers in art direction."
Boyle, the subject of the 2000 Oscar-nominated documentary short The Man on Lincoln’s Nose, has earned four Academy Award nominations in the art direction category: North by Northwest (1959), Gaily, Gaily (1969), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and The Shootist (1976).
In addition to North by Northwest, he collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on several other projects. [...]
by Andre Soares | December 12, 2007
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Tags: 2008 Oscar, Academy Awards, Alfred Hitchcock, Art Directors, Classic Movies, Film Awards, Honorary Oscar, North by Northwest, Robert Boyle, The Man on Lincoln's Nose
Ivor Novello Remembered
"No Cardiff-born screen actor has ever been remotely as popular at the British box office as Ivor Novello," says author Dave Berry (Wales and Cinema: The First 100 Years) in the article "Novello Could Have Been a Hollywood Star."
A leading star on the London stage, Ivor Novello was brought to Hollywood by D. W. Griffith for the leading romantic role in the 1923 drama The White Rose, starring one of Griffith’s favorites, Mae Marsh. Unfortunately, things didn’t go too well between the Father of the American Cinema and his Welsh import even though The White Rose is one of the best — possibly the best — Griffith film of the 1920s.
Among Novello’s best-known British vehicles are The Rat [...]
by Andre Soares | December 5, 2005
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Bobby Andrews, Classic Movies, D. W. Griffith, Dave Berry, Gay Interest, Ivor Novello, Silent Films, The Lodger, The White Rose
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh, whose shower scene in Psycho has become part of cinema’s pop iconography, died yesterday, Oct. 3, at her home in Beverly Hills. She was 77. In the past year, Leigh had been suffering from vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels.
Though best remembered as the greedy (and unlucky) office worker who gets stabbed a zillion times in the shower in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), a role for which she received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination, Leigh had a remarkable career that spanned more than five decades.
Remarkable indeed, considering that after being discovered by former MGM Queen Norma Shearer while at a ski resort in the late 1940s, Leigh (born Jeanette Helen Morrison [...]
by Andre Soares | October 4, 2004
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Bye Bye Birdie, Classic Movies, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate, There Really Was a Hollywood, Tony Curtis, Touch of Evil
Best Films – 1944
John Hodiak, Tallulah Bankhead in Lifeboat
FILM
I Bambini ci guardano / The Children Are Watching Us
d: Vittorio De Sica; scr: Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Giulio Viola, Adolfo Franci, Margherita Maglione, Gherardo Gherardi
Crime by Night
d: William Clemens; scr: Joel Malone, Richard Weil
Dragon Seed
d: Harold S. Bucquet, Jack Conway; scr: Jane Murfin, Marguerite Roberts
Laura
d: Otto Preminger; scr: Jay Dratter, Samuel Hoffenstein, Betty Reinhardt
Lifeboat
d: Alfred Hitchcock; scr: Jo Swerling
Mr. Skeffington
d: Vincent Sherman; scr: Julius J. Epstein, Phillip G. Epstein
This Happy Breed
d: David Lean; scr: Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Ronald Neame
The Uninvited
d: Lewis Allen; scr: Dodie Smith
Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker, Joseph Cotten in Since You Went Away
CHECK THESE OUT
Arsenic and Old Lace
d: Frank Capra; scr: Julius J. Epstein, Phillip G. Epstein
Home in [...]
by Andre Soares | August 31, 2004
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Tags: Adolfo Franci, Alfred Hitchcock, Alison Leggart, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Arsenic and Old Lace, Barry Fitzgerald, Best Films, Bette Davis, Betty Reinhardt, Carmen Miranda, Celia Johnson, Cesare Giulio Viola, Cesare Zavattini, Claire Trevor, Classic Movies, Claude Rains, Claudette Colbert, Crime by Night, Dame May Whitty, David Lean, David Raksin, Dodie Smith, Double Indemnity, Dragon Seed, Edward G. Robinson, Emilio Fernandez, Ernest Haller, Faye Emerson, Francisco Dominguez, Gabriel Figueroa, Gary Cooper, Gaslight, Gene Tierney, George Barnes, George J. Folsey, Gherardo Gherardi, Going My Way, Henry Daniell, Henry Hathaway, Home in Indiana, I Bambini ci guardano, Irving Brecher, Jane Eyre, Jane Murfin, Jay Dratter, Jean Adair, Jeanne Crain, Jerome Cowan, Jo Swerling, John Cromwell, Joseph LaShelle, Joseph Ruttenberg, Josephine Hull, Judy Garland, Julius J. Epstein, Laird Cregar, Laura, Lee Garmes, Leon Ames, Lewis Allen, Lifeboat, Lucien Ballard, Maria Candelaria, Marjorie Main, Meet Me in St. Louis, Mr. Skeffington, Mrs. Parkington, Murder My Sweet, Otto Preminger, Peter Lorre, Phantom Lady, Phillip G. Epstein, Portrait of Maria, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Renzo Rossellini, Robert Siodmak, Samuel Hoffenstein, Since You Went Away, Something for the Boys, Stanley Cortez, Tallulah Bankhead, The Children Are Watching Us, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Lodger, The Suspect, The Uninvited, The White Cliffs of Dover, This Happy Breed, Victor Young, Vincent Sherman, Vincente Minnelli, Vittorio De Sica, Vivian Blaine, Walter Slezak, Winston Miller
