Merle Oberon on TCM
Merle Oberon, who’ll have her "Summer Under the Stars" day on Tuesday, Aug. 25, is one of those actresses I’d say unjustly suffered (and continue to suffer) from the Marion Davies Syndrome.
As I wrote in my Jennifer Jones on TCM post, I believe that many film critics and historians dismiss actresses such as Marion Davies (whose film career was a direct result of her relationship with William Randolph Hearst), Norma Shearer (MGM’s second-in-command Irving Thalberg), and Jennifer Jones (producer David O. Selznick) because they had powerful backers.
The fact that Davies and Jones could quite possibly have become even bigger stars had their sponsors been less controlling and more discerning, and that Shearer would probably have reached superstardom [...]
by Andre Soares | August 20, 2009
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Tags: A Song to Remember, Classic Movies, Merle Oberon, Summer Under the Stars, The Dark Angel, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Turner Classic Movies, Wuthering Heights
Hollywood’s Greatest Year in New York City
Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (top); Bette Davis, Geraldine Fitzgerald in Dark Victory (middle); Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights (bottom)
Gone with the Wind, the 1939 Best Picture winner, will kick off the New York presentation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ latest screening series, "Hollywood’s Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939," on Saturday, June 20, at 12:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Theater in New York City. Turner Classic Movies host and film historian Robert Osborne will host the event.
"Hollywood’s Greatest Year" will continue through mid-October, showcasing all 10 Best Picture nominees from 1939. Screenings will take place on Monday at 7:30 p.m., [...]
by Andre Soares | June 10, 2009
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Tags: Academy Awards, Academy Theater, Bette Davis, Buck Rogers, Buster Crabbe, Clark Gable, Classic Movies, Constance Moore, Dark Victory, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Hollywood’s Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939, Laurence Olivier, Love Affair, Merle Oberon, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, New York Screenings, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Oscar 1939, Oscar Movies, Robert Osborne, Stagecoach, TCM, The Wizard of Oz, Turner Classic Movies, Vivien Leigh, Wuthering Heights
WUTHERING HEIGHTS Screening
The 1939 Best Picture nominee Wuthering Heights, directed by William Wyler, and starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, will be the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Hollywood’s Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939.” The Wuthering Heights screening will take place on Monday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Starting at 7 p.m., the feature will be preceded by the fourth chapter of the 1939 serial Buck Rogers, starring Buster Crabbe and Constance Moore, and the animated short The Pointer, starring Mickey Mouse and Pluto.
According to Samuel Goldwyn biographer A. Scott Berg, Wuthering Heights was the producer’s favorite among his films. [...]
by Andre Soares | June 3, 2009
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Tags: A. Scott Berg, Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Alfred Newman, Ben Hecht, Buck Rogers, Buster Crabbe, Charles MacArthur, Charlotte Brontë, Classic Movies, Constance Moore, David Copperfield, David Niven, David O. Selznick, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Emily Brontë, Flora Robson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gone with the Wind, Gregg Toland, Greta Garbo, James Basevi, Jane Eyre, John Gilbert, Laurence Olivier, Little Women, Los Angeles Screenings, Merle Oberon, Mickey Mouse, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Myron Selznick, Oscar 1939, Pluto, Queen Christina, Robert Newton, Samuel Goldwyn, Sylvia Sidney, The Pointer, Vivien Leigh, William Wyler, Wuthering Heights
Best Films – 1939
The Rules of the Game by Jean Renoir
FILM
Gone with the Wind
d: Victor Fleming; scr: Sidney Howard
Le Jour se lève / Daybreak
d: Marcel Carné; scr: Jacques Viot, Jacques Prévert
Midnight
d: Mitchell Leisen; scr: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
d: Frank Capra; scr: Sidney Buchman
Ninotchka
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch
The Old Maid
d: Edmund Goulding; scr: Casey Robinson
The Rains Came
d: Clarence Brown; scr: Philip Dunne, Julien Josephson
La Règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game
d: Jean Renoir; scr: Jean Renoir, Carl Koch
The Roaring Twenties
d: Raoul Walsh; scr: Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Robert Rossen
The Women
d: George Cukor; scr: Anita Loos, Jane Murfin
Wuthering Heights
d: William Wyler; scr: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
CHECK [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
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Tags: Arletty, Best Films, Cedric Hardwicke, Classic Movies, Claude Rains, Claudette Colbert, Ernst Lubitsch, Gone with the Wind, Greta Garbo, Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, Olivia de Havilland, Richard Barthelmess, The Rules of the Game, Vivien Leigh
