A LADY TO LOVE – Edward G. Robinson, Vilma Banky
A Lady to Love (1930)
Direction: Victor Sjöström
Screenplay: Sidney Howard; based on his play They Knew What They Wanted
Cast: Vilma Banky, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ames, Richard Carle, Lloyd Ingraham, Anderson Lawler
Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ames, Vilma Banky in A Lady to Love
Edward G. Robinson was only 37 years old when he gave this hammy, scene-stealing, over-the-top performance as Tony, a middle-aged Italian grape grower in Napa Valley, California, in Victor Sjöström’s A Lady to Love. Robinson is loud, peripatetic, hyperkinetic, and his accent sometimes sounds a bit too much like Chico Marx’s. But it all works. It’s believable and true, even if not always sympathetic.
When Tony notices a pretty blonde waitress, Lena (Vilma Banky), at a [...]
by Danny Fortune | July 21, 2009
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Tags: A Lady to Love, Classic Movies, Edward G. Robinson, Film Reviews, Pre-Code Hollywood, Robert Ames, Sidney Howard, Victor Sjöström, Vilma Banky
Best Films – 1936
Sacha Guitry in The Story of a Cheat
FILM
Follow the Fleet
d: Mark Sandrich; scr: Dwight Taylor
Fury
d: Fritz Lang; scr: Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang
Libeled Lady
d: Jack Conway; scr: Maurine Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, George Oppenheimer
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
My Man Godfrey
d: Gregory La Cava; scr: Morrie Ryskind, Eric Hatch
Le Roman d’un tricheur / The Story of a Cheat
d, scr: Sacha Guitry
Show Boat
d: James Whale; scr: Oscar Hammerstein II
Theodora Goes Wild
d: Richard Boleslawsky; scr: Sidney Buchman
These Three
d: William Wyler; scr: Lillian Hellman
Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton in Dodsworth
CHECK THESE OUT
César
d, scr: Marcel Pagnol
Club de femmes
d, scr: Jacques Deval
Desire
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Edwin Justus Mayer, Waldemar Young, Samuel Hoffenstein
Dodsworth
d: William [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
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Tags: A Day in the Country, A Woman Rebels, Alice Brady, Allan Scott, Anthony Adverse, Archie Mayo, Arthur Treacher, Bartlett Cormack, Basil Rathbone, Bert Glennon, Best Films, Carole Lombard, Catherine Doucet, Cecil B. DeMille, César, Charles Chaplin, Charles Kenyon, Classic Movies, Claude Rains, Claude Renoir, Club de femmes, Delmer Daves, Desire, Dodsworth, Dorothy Fields, Double or Nothing, Douglas Dumbrille, Dwight Taylor, Edwin Justus Mayer, Elizabeth Risdon, Eric Hatch, Eugene Pallette, Follow the Fleet, Frank Borzage, Frank Capra, Fred Jackman, Fritz Lang, Fury, Gale Sondergaard, Gary Cooper, George Cukor, George J. Folsey, George Oppenheimer, George Stevens, Ginger Rogers, Gregg Toland, Gregory La Cava, H. B. Warner, Harold Lamb, Harold Rosson, Harriet Hilliard, Hattie McDaniel, Herbert Stothart, Howard Emmett Rogers, Howard Lindsay, Irene Dunne, Irving Berlin, Jack Conway, Jacques Deval, James Whale, Jean Arthur, Jean Bourgoin, Jean Renoir, Jerome Kern, John Barrymore, Joseph Kosma, Le Roman d'un tricheur, Leslie Howard, Libeled Lady, Lillian Hellman, Love Before Breakfast, Luise Rainer, Lynn Riggs, Marcel Pagnol, Marguerite Moreno, Mark Sandrich, Maurine Watkins, Melvyn Douglas, Miriam Hopkins, Mischa Auer, Modern Times, Morrie Ryskind, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, My Man Godfrey, Norma Shearer, Oliver T. Marsh, Oscar Hammerstein II, Partie de campagne, Paulette Goddard, Raimu, Ray June, Richard Boleslawsky, Robert de Grasse, Robert Riskin, Romeo and Juliet, Roy Mack, Rudolph Maté, Ruth Chatterton, Sacha Guitry, Samuel Hoffenstein, Show Boat, Sidney Buchman, Sidney Howard, Sol Polito, Spring Byington, Stowaway, Swing Time, Sylvia Sidney, Talbot Jennings, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Garden of Allah, The Great Ziegfeld, The Petrified Forest, The Plainsman, The Prisoner of Shark Island, The Story of a Cheat, Theodora Goes Wild, These Three, Tony Gaudio, W. Howard Greene, Waldemar Young, Walter Huston, William H. Daniels, William Powell, William Wyler
Heath Ledger’s Potential Posthumous Oscar
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
With Heath Ledger in mind, Scott Feinberg remembers the various posthumous Oscar nominations and wins — 53 individuals for a total of 70 nominations and 13 wins, as per Feinberg’s count — in his Los Angeles Times blog:
"As you may recall, the announcement of last year’s Oscar nominations was quickly overshadowed by the tragic news that broke later that same day: Heath Ledger, the actor best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005), had been found dead of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 28. It’s a terrible shame that Ledger will not be alive on nomination day this year, because his name [...]
by Andre Soares | January 6, 2009
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Tags: 2009 Oscar, Academy Awards, Film Awards, Gerald C. Duffy, Heath Ledger, James Dean, Jeanne Eagels, Peter Finch, Ralph Richardson, Sidney Howard, Spencer Tracy
Marie Dressler IV: DINNER AT 8, THE LATE CHRISTOPHER BEAN
Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow in Dinner at 8
Marie Dressler III: Wallace Beery, Polly Moran Comedies
Some reviewers have complained that Marie Dressler didn’t act. They say she overacted. What do you think?
Writing about her as an actress was tough, because there is no one remotely like her anymore. If you watch her performances today, you can see that she was a true-blue ham. And I can see how that would bother people, but for me it’s an essential part of her charm. If I settle into a Marie Dressler picture, I know I won’t get naturalism by today’s standards. Neither will I get fart jokes, horny frat boys, or mean-spirited mockery. Instead, Marie offered character-driven humor.
She played the charwoman [...]
by Andre Soares | February 23, 2008
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Tags: Classic Movies, Dinner at 8, George Cukor, Interviews, Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, Matthew Kennedy, Sidney Howard, The Late Christopher Bean