Rebecca 1940: Joan Fontaine as the “successor” and Judith Anderson as the creepy lesbian housekeeper, madly in love with her deceased mistress. 'Rebecca' 1940: Alfred Hitchcock Best Picture Oscar winner back on Brazilian screens Based on Daphne Du Maurier's 1938 novel, Alfred Hitchcock's first Hollywood movie, Rebecca (1940), has briefly […]

'Nicholas and Alexandra' 1971 movie with Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman. 'Nicholas and Alexandra' movie review: Opulent 1971 spectacle lacks emotional core Nicholas and Alexandra is surely one of the most sumptuous film productions ever made. Production designer John Box's elaborate sets, Yvonne Blake's equally elaborate costumes, Richard Rodney Bennett's […]

Renée Asherson in Henry V (1944), with Laurence Olivier. 'Henry V' movie (1944) actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed Shakespearean classic Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as […]

Vivien Leigh biography, movies, and photo exhibit among centenary celebrations (image: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier as Emma Hamilton and Lord Nelson in 'That Hamilton Woman') [See previous post: “Vivien Leigh Turns 100: Centenary of One of the Greatest Movie Stars.”] From November 30, 2013, to July 20, 2014, London's […]

Vivien Leigh: Legendary 'Gone with the Wind' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire' star would have turned 100 today Vivien Leigh was perhaps the greatest film star that hardly ever was. What I mean is that following her starring role in the 1939 Civil War blockbuster Gone with the Wind, Leigh […]

Hollywood has been running out of ideas since the time filmmakers started making movies in Hollywood. Even the first “official” feature film made in Hollywood proper, Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel's 1914 Western The Squaw Man, wasn't an original story. DeMille and Apfel's Western was based on Edwin Milton […]

Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier, My Week with Marilyn Once upon a time, Kenneth Branagh was hailed as the new Laurence Olivier. Back in early 1990, Branagh was nominated for two Academy Awards for directing and starring in Henry V, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play that back in early […]

Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Hamlet Star of the Month Jean Simmons is back on Turner Classic Movies this Tuesday evening, with five more films. Like last week, these are all from Simmons' British period: Trio, featuring three stories by W. Somerset Maugham; the thriller So Long at the Fair; Adam […]

Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man The deadliest sin a good-guy-vs.-bad-guy movie can commit is to – unintentionally – have us root for the evildoer. That is exactly what director John Schlesinger (Darling; Midnight Cowboy; Sunday, Bloody Sunday) and screenwriter William Goldman (adapting his own novel, reportedly with some help from Robert […]

Biggest Oscar Snubs #9a: List of Non-Nominated Directors - From William A. Wellman to Joe Wright The directors listed in the previous post – and I could add several other names to the roster – are those whose films received multiple Oscar nods, including Best Picture, but they (the directors […]

Jean Simmons, the beautiful actress who was nominated for Oscars for her work in Hamlet (1948) and The Happy Ending (1969), died of lung cancer on Friday night (Jan. 22) at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. The London-born actress would have turned 81 on Jan. 31. Simmons' film debut […]

'Wuthering Heights' with Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier as star-crossed lovers Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff: Independent mogul Samuel Goldwyn's favorite among his movies. 'Wuthering Heights': 'Hollywood's Greatest Year' continues with Samuel Goldwyn's favorite among his films The 1939 Best Picture Oscar nominee Wuthering Heights – directed by William Wyler, and […]