Irving Thalberg: Creating the Hollywood Studio System, 1920–1936
The career of legendary production executive Irving Thalberg – Hollywood’s "Boy Wonder" of the 1920s and early 1930s – will be explored in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ new exhibition, "Irving Thalberg: Creating the Hollywood Studio System, 1920–1936," opening on Thursday, September 17, in the Academy’s Fourth Floor Gallery in Beverly Hills.
"Irving Thalberg: Creating the Hollywood Studio System, 1920–1936" is guest curated by historian and Thalberg biographer Mark Vieira, whose Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg and the Rise of M-G-M was profiled in the Alternative Film Guide several months ago and whose Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince is due out in early November. Admission is free.
Lon Chaney, [...]
by Andre Soares | September 9, 2009
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Tags: Classic Movies, Hollywood Dreams Made Real, Irving Thalberg, Irving Thalberg: Creating the Hollywood Studio System, Jean Harlow, Los Angeles Screenings, Louis B. Mayer, Mark Vieira, MGM, Norma Shearer
Best Films – 1933
Greta Garbo in Queen Christina
FILM
Baby Face
d: Alfred E. Green; scr: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola
The Barbarian
d: Sam Wood; scr: Anita Loos, Elmer Harris
Dinner at 8
d: George Cukor; scr: Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Donald Ogden Stewart
Gold Diggers of 1933
d: Mervyn LeRoy; scr: Erwin Gelsey, James Seymour, David Boehm, Ben Markson
I’m No Angel
d: Wesley Ruggles; scr: Mae West
The Kennel Murder Case
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Robert Presnell, Robert N. Lee, Peter Milne
King Kong
d: Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper; scr: James Ashmore Creelman, Ruth Rose
The Mystery of the Wax Museum
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Don Mullaly, Carl Erickson
Queen Christina
d: Rouben Mamoulian; scr: H. M. Harwood, S. N. Behrman
Nils Asther, Barbara Stanwyck in The Bitter Tea of [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
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Tags: Alfred E. Green, Aline MacMahon, Baby Face, Barbara Stanwyck, Best Films, Blood Money, Classic Movies, Constance Bennett, Dinner at 8, Elmer Harris, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Frances Dee, Fredric March, George Cukor, Gold Diggers of 1933, Greta Garbo, Hilda Vaughn, I'm No Angel, Jean Harlow, King Kong, Ladies They Talk About, Lady for a Day, Lionel Atwill, Mae Clarke, Marion Davies, Mary Boland, Merian C. Cooper, Michael Curtiz, Myrna Loy, Peg o' My Heart, Queen Christina, Ramon Novarro, Robert Montgomery, Rouben Mamoulian, Ruth Chatterton, The Barbarian, The Eagle and the Hawk, The Kennel Murder Case, The Mystery of the Wax Museum, Warren William, Wesley Ruggles
HOLLYWOOD DREAMS MADE REAL: IRVING THALBERG AND THE RISE OF M-G-M – Q&A with Mark Vieira
Author and photographer Mark A. Vieira (right), who’s been a friend for a number of years, has recently written no less than two books on Irving G. Thalberg, the young MGM mogul whose high-quality productions earned him both a reputation as Hollywood’s "Boy Wonder" and a special place in Oscar history as the name attached to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Memorial Award given to “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.” Thalberg even inspired a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, the unfinished The Last Tycoon.
Now, Mark’s two books may cover the same ground in terms of subject matter, but they’re radically different in terms of approach to same:
Hollywood [...]
by Andre Soares | February 12, 2009
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Tags: Books, Clark Gable, Classic Movies, Erich von Stroheim, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Hurrell, Greed, Greta Garbo, Harry N. Abrams, Hollywood Dreams Made Real, Interviews, Irving G. Thalberg Award, Irving Thalberg, Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Mark Vieira, Norma Shearer, Producers, Rasputin and the Empress, The Good Earth, The Last Tycoon, The Merry Widow, University of California Press
THE AVIATOR Screening
Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Best Picture nominee The Aviator is the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The handsome but vapid Howard Hughes biopic will be screened on Monday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, cast members Alec Baldwin, Jacob Davich, J.C. Mackenzie, and Amy Sloan, production sound mixer Petur Hliddal, special effects supervisor R. Bruce Steinheimer, and miniature effects supervisor Matthew Gratzner will take part in a discussion about the film.
The US$100-million-plus The Aviator wasn’t quite the hoped-for critical and box-office hit, though the biopic won numerous accolades and did good business thanks to the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio [...]
by Andre Soares | July 24, 2008
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Tags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Adam Scott, Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, Ava Gardner, Biopic, Cate Blanchett, Danny Huston, Dante Ferretti, Edward Herrmann, Errol Flynn, Film Awards, Films on Filmmaking, Gwen Stefani, Howard Hughes, Ian Holm, Jacob Davich, Jean Harlow, John C. Reilly, John Logan, Jude Law, Kate Beckinsale, Katharine Hepburn, Kelli Garner, Leonardo DiCaprio, Los Angeles Screenings, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Ralph Owen Brewster, Sandy Powell, Stanley DeSantis, The Aviator, Thelma Schoonmaker, Willem Dafoe
THE AVIATOR Notes: Howard Hughes’ Hollywood
Tommy Lee Jones plays Howard Hughes (above, lower photo) in the TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977); Jason Robards plays the old and haggard Hughes in Melvin and Howard (1980), for which he received an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor; George Peppard plays a fictionalized Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964); and Robert Ryan plays another Hughes clone in Caught (1949).
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Initially, Michael Mann was going to direct The Aviator, but ended up co-producing it instead. Two of Mann’s recent biopics, The Insider (1999) and Ali (2001) were major box-office disappointments.
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Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow were reportedly scheduled to play Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner, respectively. (Some reports have Paltrow as Hepburn, and Kidman as [...]
by Andre Soares | December 16, 2004
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Tags: Classic Movies, Howard Hughes, Irvin Willat, Jean Harlow, Jean Peters, Katharine Hepburn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Terry Moore, The Aviator, The Carpetbaggers
