cinema reflections
Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient George Clooney in The Monuments Men, with Matt Damon. Produced and written by Good Night, and Good Luck. collaborators George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and directed by Clooney, The Monuments Men is a World War II drama loosely based on Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter's non-fiction book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt […]
Mickey Rooney ca. 1940 Mickey Rooney dead at 93: Four-time Oscar nominee & frequent Judy Garland co-star may have had the longest film career ever Mickey Rooney, four-time Academy Award nominee and one of the biggest domestic box office draws during the studio era, died of “natural causes” on Sunday, April 6, '14, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of North Hollywood. The […]
Mickey Rooney movies on TCM: Music and murder (image: Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland ca. 1940) Mickey Rooney is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, August 13, 2013. According to the IMDb, Mickey Rooney, who turns 93 next September 23, has been featured in more than 250 movies – in shorts and features, in Hollywood and international productions, in cameos and starring […]
Deanna Durbin in 'I'll Be Yours.' Deanna Durbin dies at 91: One of the top stars of Hollywood's studio era According to Hollywood lore, teen star Deanna Durbin saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy in the mid-'30s, when her movies earned the Great Depression-hit studio some much-needed millions. The story may seem like an exaggeration, but in fact future Universal players such as Bud Abbott and […]
'Oz the Great and Powerful' with James Franco and Michelle Williams. James Franco 'Oz the Great and Powerful': Below expectations, but one of biggest March openings ever March 11, '13, update: Starring James Franco as the magician who becomes The Wizard of Oz, Sam Raimi's $200m+-budgeted Oz the Great and Powerful grossed $79.11 million at 3,912 North American locations this past weekend according to box […]
Jodie Foster: 2012 Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient Jodie Foster will be the next Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced – by way of Foster's Panic Room co-star Kristen Stewart and Simon Baker. A two-time Golden Globe winner, Jodie Foster will be honored at the 2013 Golden Globes ceremony next January 13. But wait! Isn't Jodie Foster – who'll […]
Meet Me in St. Louis with Margaret O'Brien, Judy Garland Hugh Martin, best known for co-composing with Ralph Blane “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” sung by Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli's 1944 classic Meet Me in St. Louis, died on March 10 '11 in Encinitas, Calif. He was 96. According to The Guardian's Hugh Martin obit, in addition to Garland, others who have performed […]
Judy Garland as Dorothy in Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz So, Robert Zemeckis, the guy who brought you Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump, What Lies Beneath, The Polar Express, and Beowulf, will not direct a remake of the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. A Deadline report tying Zemeckis to a potential Oz remake caused a […]
Margaret O'Brien in Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis, with Judy Garland. For Turner Classic Movies' Margaret O'Brien Day on Sunday, Aug. 15 '10, TCM will present the television premiere of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Joke. But then again, I don't think they've shown Meet Me in St. Louis in at least two weeks, which almost makes the Sunday showing of the […]
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (top); Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat (upper middle); Steve Sekely's Day of the Triffids (lower middle); Jack La Rue (right) in No Orchids for Miss Blandish (bottom) Screened last night at the TCM Classic Film Festival, currently taking place at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, was a new restoration of the George Cukor-directed, […]
Kristen Stewart: Oscar presence to boost TV ratings? Kristen Stewart & Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner & Miley Cyrus: Oscar presenters Kristen Stewart, Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner, and Miley Cyrus have been added to the roster of presenters at the 2010 Oscar ceremony. This will be Efron and Cyrus' second appearance at the Academy Awards. Stewart and Lautner will be making their Oscar ceremony debut. Kristen […]
Judy Garland in A Star Is Born In his blog, film reviewer Richard Roeper says the following: “When it comes to announcing the Oscar nominees, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences continues to cling to is Old World ways. They race through the lists at 5:30 a.m. PST, in order to get live coverage on the morning talk shows. “That's just stupid.” Roeper […]
“… Far and away the biggest-grossing movie with a female as its sole main player, which is certainly a challenge to conventional Hollywood assumptions (men can star alone, while women need a co-star of either sex).” That's Sandra Bullock in the 2009 football drama The Blind Side, right? Wrong. Film commentator Stuart Byron was referring to Goldie Hawn in the 1980 army comedy Private Benjamin […]
Christmas cheer: Love Finds Andy Hardy with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. George B. Seitz's Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) reunited Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937) co-stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; unlike their first pairing, this slice of what's often referred to as “Americana” was a major box office hit for MGM, especially, as to be expected, in the U.S. Garland, it should be noted, […]
Lollipop Guild member Jerry Maren, Judy Garland's son Joey Luft Judy Garland's son Joey Luft, Garland's grandchildren Jesse and Vanessa Richards, Lollipop Guild member Jerry Maren, and Emerald City manicurist Dorothy Barrett were present at the “Hollywood's Greatest Year” screening of The Wizard of Oz presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday, August 3, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in […]
Judy Garland vehicles are a Turner Classic Movies staple, so the “Summer Under the Stars” day – Thursday, Aug. 6 – dedicated to the star of The Wizard of Oz and A Star Is Born brings nothing new. Yet, those who have never watched or who don't mind watching yet again and again some of Judy Garland's classics and not-so-classics might want to check out […]
Starring Judy Garland and directed by Victor Fleming, the 1939 Best Picture nominee The Wizard of Oz will be screened, digitally from a new 4K restoration, as the final feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' series “Hollywood's Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939” on Monday, August 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. […]
Brigitte Bardot: Douglas Kirkland's pictures. One of the best-known subjects of celebrity (and later film set) photographer Douglas Kirkland was the iconic French star Brigitte Bardot. Long before she became associated with animal rights activism and xenophobic far-right views, Bardot was known as the sex kittenish anti-heroine in classics and near-classics like Roger Vadim's …And God Created Woman, Claude Autant-Lara's Love Is My Profession, Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt, and […]
'The Wizard of Oz' Dorothy Missing Ruby Slippers Via the ABC News blog The Blotter: Anna Schecter reports that the case of the missing ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz may be coming to a close. The ruby slippers were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum (website) in Grand Rapids, Minn., (that's Garland's hometown) in August 2005. The thief is […]
Robert Hays in Airplane! 'Airplane!' movie cast at Academy screening The 1980 Airplane! movie writers/directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, and actor Robert Hays will be among those attending the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' screening of the juvenile comedy at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 19, 2006, at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Academy Governor and producer […]