William Wyler

‘The Letter’ 1940, with Bette Davis. ‘The Letter’ 1940 movie: Bette Davis superb in masterful studio era production Directed by William Wyler and adapted by Howard Koch from W. Somerset Maugham’s 1927 play, The Letter is one of the very…

The Best Years of Our Lives: Blockbuster with Teresa Wright, Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Michael Hall. Teresa Wright: Missing out on ‘Duel in the Sun,’ but scoring with ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ (See previous post: “Hitchcock Heroine:…

Teresa Wright. Teresa Wright: Actress made Oscar history Teresa Wright, best remembered for her Oscar-winning performance in the World War II melodrama Mrs. Miniver and for her deceptively fragile, small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery-drama Shadow of a Doubt, died…

James Garner. James Garner movies: ‘Grand Prix’ & ‘Victor Victoria’ among TCM highlights James Garner, whose film and television career spanned more than five decades, died of “natural causes” at age 86 on July 19 in the Los Angeles suburb…

William Wyler was one of the greatest film directors Hollywood – or any other film industry – has ever produced. Today, Wyler lacks the following of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Frank Capra, or even Howard Hawks most likely because, unlike…

The Hands That Bilked America: To not choose the revolutionary Citizen Kane as the Best Motion Picture of 1941 is to commit an unforgivable act of cinematic sacrilege. Courageously (or perhaps madly), I dare to choose another film: William Wyler’s…

Friendly Persuasion with Dorothy McGuire, Gary Cooper, and Anthony Perkins. William Wyler’s rural-19th-century-set, coming-of-age family drama Friendly Persuasion (1956) has several elements in common with Clarence Brown’s rural-19th-century-set, period coming-of-age family drama The Yearling (1946) – notably the fact that…

Funny Girl movie: Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice and Omar Sharif in William Wyler’s 1968 blockbuster. A restored print of Funny Girl (1968), Barbra Streisand’s film debut, will reignite the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Monday Nights with Oscar”…

Olivia de Havilland films: William Wyler’s The Heiress with Montgomery Clift. Twelve Olivia de Havilland movies will be presented on Turner Classic Movies on Friday, Aug. 27, as part of TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” series. (See Olivia de Havilland…

‘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…

Psychological movies: Movies on the Mind since Sigmund Freud “I don’t believe it’s possible to graphically represent the abstract nature of our thinking in a respectable form,” said Sigmund Freud. Whether Freud was right or wrong is debatable, though his…

Academy Award winner John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath, with Henry Fonda and Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winner Jane Darwell Oscar Quiz: Test your knowledge of Academy Award history 1 - Which film director has elicited the largest number…