Michael Llewelyn Davies dressed up as Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie’s favorite Llewelyn Davies boy, Michael was the most important source of inspiration for Peter Pan, “the boy who wouldn’t grow up.” The play came out when he was 4; the novel Peter and Wendy when…
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Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland ends on a sentimental note: Barrie (Johnny Depp) reminds the orphaned Peter (Freddie Highmore) that the power of imagination can be stronger than death. Real life, however, had a less inspirational finale for all involved. Directed…
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Magnificent Obsession book by Anthony Slide. Whereas Lloyd C. Douglas’ 1929 Magnificent Obsession book dealt with a playboy’s urge to restore the eyesight of the woman he had accidentally blinded, Anthony Slide’s latest explores the lives and times of movie buffs. Now, are Twilight, The…
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Valentino with Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips. Ken Russell’s 1977 Rudolph Valentino biopic Valentino is based on the dubious 1966 bio (“Was he a great lover – or a sham?”) penned by Chaw Mank and Brad Steiger. A coal miner’s son and self-proclaimed psychic, Mank…
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Jimmy Edwards. Best known for his radio and television work – Take It from Here in the former medium; Whack-O! in the latter – British comedian Jimmy Edwards was seen, mostly in small parts, in about a dozen features from the late 1940s to the…
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Crime novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. While her husband is away during World War II, housewife Lucia Holley – the sort of “Everywoman” who looks great in a two-piece bathing suit – does whatever it takes to protect the feeling of “normality”…
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(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell’s Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have…
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Turner Classic Movies’ 2017 Gay Pride film series comes to a close this evening and tomorrow morning, Thursday–Friday, June 29–30, with the presentation of seven movies, hosted by TV interviewer Dave Karger and author William J. Mann, whose books include Wisecracker: The Life and Times…
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‘Making Love’: Groundbreaking romantic gay drama returns to the big screen As part of its Anniversary Classics series, Laemmle Theaters will be presenting Arthur Hiller’s groundbreaking 1982 romantic drama Making Love, the first U.S. movie distributed by a major studio that focused on a romantic…
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More ‘Gay Hollywood’ movies: Montgomery Clift & Anthony Perkins On the day a U.S. appeals court lifted an injunction that blocked a Mississippi “religious freedom” law – i.e., giving Christian extremists the right to discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people, etc. – not to…
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Cannes Film Festival winners: The Square with Claes Bang. “Gobsmackingly weird” Cannes Film Festival favorite may have a tough time landing a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination. As an aside, Ruben Östlund’s comedy-drama is totally unrelated to Jehane Noujaim’s 2013 Oscar-nominated political documentary…
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Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift,…
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Considering everything that’s been happening on the planet in the last several months, you’d have thought we’re already in November or December – of 2117. But no. It’s only June. 2017. And in some parts of the world, that’s the month of brides, fathers, graduates,…
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Boom! movie with Elizabeth Taylor: Critically panned box office disaster featuring memorable headwear and situations. ‘Boom!’ movie: Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton critical & box office bomb reappraised as ‘cult classic’ fare If you’ve never seen Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s 1968 vanity production Boom!,…
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2016 movies Things to Come (pictured) and Elle have earned French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert her – surprisingly – very first National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award. 2016 Movies: Isabelle Huppert & ‘Moonlight’ among National Society of Film Critics’ top picks Earlier today…
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Star Trek: Beyond with Chris Pine as Captain Kirk: Will movie franchise reboot achieve “escape velocity”? ‘Star Trek: Beyond’ review: Movie franchise needs to boldly go where J.J. Abrams has never gone before We’re never told what “beyond” refers to in Star Trek: Beyond, the…