The Academy Awards grew up at the 16th annual ceremony March 2, 1944. Since the first Oscar ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Blossom Room in 1929, the Academy Awards were small banquet ceremonies for La La Land movers and shakers. But that all changed 80 years ago. World War II was in its third year and movies meant more than ever to war-weary audiences.
So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.
So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.
- 1/23/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Quick, silly and lent weight only by the costume department’s copious wigs and furs, “The Crime Is Mine” finds tireless French auteur François Ozon in the playful period pastiche mode of “Potiche” and “8 Women.” It’s a film less about any frenetic onscreen shenanigans as it is about its own mood board of sartorial and cinematic reference points — Jean Renoir, Billy Wilder, some vintage Chanel — and as such it slips down as fizzily and forgettably as a bottle of off-brand sparkling wine. This story of an aspiring stage star standing trial for a top impresario’s murder (and making the most of her moment in the tabloid flashbulbs) may be based on a nearly 90-year-old play, but for those versed more in Hollywood and Broadway than in French theater, Ozon’s adaptation resembles a kind of diva fanfic: What if Roxie Hart went up against Norma Desmond, except in rollicking 1930s Paris?...
- 12/24/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
It’s not every day that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson team up. But IndieWire has learned they will today: The three directors have scheduled an emergency call with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav about the layoffs of Turner Classic Movies’ top brass.
The network laid off much of its leadership yesterday, including executive VP and general manager Pola Changnon; senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships Genevieve McGillicuddy, who also served as the director of the annual TCM Film Festival; and VP of studio production Anne Wilson.
These people were responsible for everything from curating lineups, to shooting intros and outros, and for creating original shows, documentaries, and video essays that serve as major contributions to American cultural history.
Scorsese has often said he has Turner Classic Movies on...
The network laid off much of its leadership yesterday, including executive VP and general manager Pola Changnon; senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships Genevieve McGillicuddy, who also served as the director of the annual TCM Film Festival; and VP of studio production Anne Wilson.
These people were responsible for everything from curating lineups, to shooting intros and outros, and for creating original shows, documentaries, and video essays that serve as major contributions to American cultural history.
Scorsese has often said he has Turner Classic Movies on...
- 6/21/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
The Lone Ranger is an American Western drama that aired on television from 1949 until 1957. It starred Clayton Moore in the starring role, who was temporarily replaced by John Hart, as well as Jay Silverheels starring in the supporting role of Tonto. Here’s a list of five other television shows to watch if The Lone Ranger had you hooked to your screen.
L-r: Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto | Getty Images ‘The Rifleman’ (1958-1963) L-r: Chuck Connors as Lucas and Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain | ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
The Rifleman follows the various adventures of a Wild West rancher Lucas McCain played by Chuck Connors, who travels with his son, Mark McCain, and a rapid-fire Winchester file in hand. Johnny Crawford starred as his son in what became one of the first primetime television shows to display a single parent raising a child.
L-r: Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto | Getty Images ‘The Rifleman’ (1958-1963) L-r: Chuck Connors as Lucas and Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain | ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
The Rifleman follows the various adventures of a Wild West rancher Lucas McCain played by Chuck Connors, who travels with his son, Mark McCain, and a rapid-fire Winchester file in hand. Johnny Crawford starred as his son in what became one of the first primetime television shows to display a single parent raising a child.
- 3/28/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
What was the movie Steven Spielberg saw as a child that inspired him to become one of the most successful, influential, and acclaimed filmmakers? According to his semi-autobiographical new film “The Fabelmans,” his cinematic alter-ego Sammy becomes obsessed with movies after his parents take him to the see Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 circus epic “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
“The Greatest Show on Earth,” which not only won the Oscar for Best Picture and story, was the box office champ of the year earning 14 million domestically and 36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set under the big top at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Films in Review declared “Mr. DeMille is so accomplished a showman that one is astonished he did not just photograph a circus performance without the synthetic story he injected here. After all, the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus is a wonder in itself.
“The Greatest Show on Earth,” which not only won the Oscar for Best Picture and story, was the box office champ of the year earning 14 million domestically and 36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set under the big top at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Films in Review declared “Mr. DeMille is so accomplished a showman that one is astonished he did not just photograph a circus performance without the synthetic story he injected here. After all, the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus is a wonder in itself.
- 1/18/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
MGM’s old-fashioned Irving Berlin musical has superior songs and powerful performances, especially that of Betty Hutton. She gets plenty loud and rambunctious, but it fits the ‘big’ Annie Oakley character. And the talented, under-appreciated Howard Keel really fires up the screen with her in songs like ‘Anything You Can Do.’ The Wac disc contains plenty of George Feltenstein- rescued unused audio material, plus footage … depressing footage … of Judy Garland’s attempt in the leading role. Yep, the show may be PC minefield begging for a Cancel Culture intervention, but if it goes we’ll have to put most of Hollywood film history in a landfill.
Annie Get Your Gun
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1950 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 107 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date April 10, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish, Edward Arnold, Keenan Wynn, Benay Venuta, Clinton Sundberg, Mae Clarke, John Mylong, Chief Yowlachie, Evelyn Beresford.
Annie Get Your Gun
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1950 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 107 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date April 10, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish, Edward Arnold, Keenan Wynn, Benay Venuta, Clinton Sundberg, Mae Clarke, John Mylong, Chief Yowlachie, Evelyn Beresford.
- 4/20/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Academy Awards celebrated its 25th anniversary on March 19, 1953 by being telecast for the first time in its history. Bob Hope hosted the celebration for NBC at the Rko Pantages Theater in Hollywood while Conrad Nagel had the Mc duties at the NBC International Theatre in New York. And the show captured the largest single TV audience at the time.
The Best Picture nominees were Fred Zinnemann’s thrilling Western “High Noon,” MGM’s lavish epic “Ivanhoe,” John Huston’s dazzling biopic on Toulouse Lautrec “Moulin Rouge,” John Ford’s warm hug of an Irish romantic comedy “The Quiet Man” and Cecil B. DeMille’s penultimate film as a director, “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
The surprise winner was “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which was the box office champ of the year earning $14 million domestically and $36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set...
The Best Picture nominees were Fred Zinnemann’s thrilling Western “High Noon,” MGM’s lavish epic “Ivanhoe,” John Huston’s dazzling biopic on Toulouse Lautrec “Moulin Rouge,” John Ford’s warm hug of an Irish romantic comedy “The Quiet Man” and Cecil B. DeMille’s penultimate film as a director, “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
The surprise winner was “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which was the box office champ of the year earning $14 million domestically and $36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set...
- 4/6/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
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“Big Top Soap Opera”
By Raymond Benson
One of the more controversial Best Picture Oscar winners is Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. The movie is often cited in pundits’ lists of “Worst Best Picture Oscar Winners,” mainly because many film buffs believe that there were more deserving nominees that year. The win for Greatest Show was perhaps somewhat of an overdue honor for DeMille, who had been working in Hollywood since the 1910s, was a hugely successful and popular director, and he had never won a Best Picture Academy Award. In this case, then, why didn’t he win Best Director (John Ford did for The Quiet Man)?
Controversy aside, The Greatest Show on Earth is still spectacular entertainment and worth 2-1/2 hours of a viewer’s time, especially with Paramount Present’s new Blu-ray restoration that looks absolutely gorgeous.
“Big Top Soap Opera”
By Raymond Benson
One of the more controversial Best Picture Oscar winners is Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. The movie is often cited in pundits’ lists of “Worst Best Picture Oscar Winners,” mainly because many film buffs believe that there were more deserving nominees that year. The win for Greatest Show was perhaps somewhat of an overdue honor for DeMille, who had been working in Hollywood since the 1910s, was a hugely successful and popular director, and he had never won a Best Picture Academy Award. In this case, then, why didn’t he win Best Director (John Ford did for The Quiet Man)?
Controversy aside, The Greatest Show on Earth is still spectacular entertainment and worth 2-1/2 hours of a viewer’s time, especially with Paramount Present’s new Blu-ray restoration that looks absolutely gorgeous.
- 3/22/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
6 random things that happened on this day, February 12th, in showbiz history...
1949 Annie Gets Your Gun starring Ethel Merman closes on Broadway after a nearly three year run. The troubled film adaptation directed by George Sidney (a replacement for Busby Berkeley who was fired) and starring Betty Hutton (a replacement for Judy Garland who was fired) arrives the following year.
1959 The Black Orchid starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn opens in theaters. Sophia Loren had won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival the previous summer...
1949 Annie Gets Your Gun starring Ethel Merman closes on Broadway after a nearly three year run. The troubled film adaptation directed by George Sidney (a replacement for Busby Berkeley who was fired) and starring Betty Hutton (a replacement for Judy Garland who was fired) arrives the following year.
1959 The Black Orchid starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn opens in theaters. Sophia Loren had won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival the previous summer...
- 2/12/2021
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Philip J. Smith, who as the longtime chairman of Broadway’s Shubert Organization was one of the most influential and powerful forces in American theater, died today in New York City of complications of Covid-19. He was 89.
Smith’s death was confirmed by daughters Linda Phillips and Jennifer Stein. Smith retired from his position as chairman and co-ceo in June and had most recently held the title of Chairman Emeritus.
“We have lost a giant of the American Theatre and a most beloved member of our Shubert Organization family,” said Robert E. Wankel, who succeeded Smith as the chairman and CEO. “Over his 63-year career, Phil Smith influenced every aspect of the professional theatre and earned the respect and admiration of everyone from the stage doormen to the greatest performers and creative talents of our time. He was devoted to his work, his friends, his colleagues and above all, his family.
Smith’s death was confirmed by daughters Linda Phillips and Jennifer Stein. Smith retired from his position as chairman and co-ceo in June and had most recently held the title of Chairman Emeritus.
“We have lost a giant of the American Theatre and a most beloved member of our Shubert Organization family,” said Robert E. Wankel, who succeeded Smith as the chairman and CEO. “Over his 63-year career, Phil Smith influenced every aspect of the professional theatre and earned the respect and admiration of everyone from the stage doormen to the greatest performers and creative talents of our time. He was devoted to his work, his friends, his colleagues and above all, his family.
- 1/15/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Birds of Prey (And the Fabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), with Margot Robbie reprising her role as Gotham’s “mafia princess.” The film is in theaters February 7th.
The trailer is set to a cover of Björk’s 1995 rendition of “It’s Oh So Quiet,” which itself was a cover of Betty Hutton’s classic showtune from 1951. The clip shows Harley wreaking havoc all over the city, but when she learns that Gotham villain Roman Sionis and his sidekick Zsasz have...
The trailer is set to a cover of Björk’s 1995 rendition of “It’s Oh So Quiet,” which itself was a cover of Betty Hutton’s classic showtune from 1951. The clip shows Harley wreaking havoc all over the city, but when she learns that Gotham villain Roman Sionis and his sidekick Zsasz have...
- 1/9/2020
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
A new cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 crime drama “The Cotton Club” is set to hit theaters this fall following a bow at the 2019 New York Film Festival. “The Cotton Club” stars Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne and Nicolas Cage and is set in 1930s Harlem at the legendary jazz venue from which it takes its name. For the initial release, Coppola bent to outside concerns that he edit the film to focus solely on Gere’s character Dixie Dwyer. The Director’s Cut will presumably hew closer to the filmmaker’s original intent, which was to focus just as much on the character played by Gregory Hines, a dancer named Delbert “Sandman” Williams.
The official synopsis for the re-release reads: “In this lavish, 1930s-era drama, Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
The official synopsis for the re-release reads: “In this lavish, 1930s-era drama, Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
- 9/12/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Tuesday.
This week’s question: What’s your favorite dance sequence on TV ever?
Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall), Rolling Stone
Look, there are surely more emotionally moving options than the one I’ve chosen. Mac’s interpretive dance about his sexuality from the last “It’s Always Sunny” finale was among the most remarkable and unexpected moments of recent TV. The year before, “Better Things” wonderfully concluded its season with Sam, her mom, and two of her daughters recreating the video from Christine and the Queens’ “Tilted” as a birthday present for Max. Anyone who votes for Sasha’s “Istanbul/Constantinople” dance from “Bunheads” here is absolutely right to do so — a great piece of choreography that was also revelatory about a character designed to be tough to love. There’s Pete and Trudy...
This week’s question: What’s your favorite dance sequence on TV ever?
Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall), Rolling Stone
Look, there are surely more emotionally moving options than the one I’ve chosen. Mac’s interpretive dance about his sexuality from the last “It’s Always Sunny” finale was among the most remarkable and unexpected moments of recent TV. The year before, “Better Things” wonderfully concluded its season with Sam, her mom, and two of her daughters recreating the video from Christine and the Queens’ “Tilted” as a birthday present for Max. Anyone who votes for Sasha’s “Istanbul/Constantinople” dance from “Bunheads” here is absolutely right to do so — a great piece of choreography that was also revelatory about a character designed to be tough to love. There’s Pete and Trudy...
- 8/28/2019
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
Doris Day, one of Hollywood’s most popular stars of the 1950s and ’60s who was Oscar-nommed for “Pillow Talk” and starred in her own TV show, has died. She was 97.
The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed the legendary actress-singer died on Monday at her Carmel Valley, Calif. home.
Though she was marketed as a wholesome girl-next-door type, the comedies for which she was most well-known were actually sexy and daring for their time, and her personal life was tumultuous, with four marriages and a notorious lawsuit.
The vivacious blonde, who also had a successful singing career, teamed with Rock Hudson in “Pillow Talk” and other lighthearted romantic comedies including “Lover Come Back” and “Send Me No Flowers.” Her other significant screen roles included Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956), co-starring James Stewart and featuring Day’s Oscar-winning song “Que Sera Sera; and “The Pajama Game” (1957), based on the Broadway musical.
The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed the legendary actress-singer died on Monday at her Carmel Valley, Calif. home.
Though she was marketed as a wholesome girl-next-door type, the comedies for which she was most well-known were actually sexy and daring for their time, and her personal life was tumultuous, with four marriages and a notorious lawsuit.
The vivacious blonde, who also had a successful singing career, teamed with Rock Hudson in “Pillow Talk” and other lighthearted romantic comedies including “Lover Come Back” and “Send Me No Flowers.” Her other significant screen roles included Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956), co-starring James Stewart and featuring Day’s Oscar-winning song “Que Sera Sera; and “The Pajama Game” (1957), based on the Broadway musical.
- 5/13/2019
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Maury Laws, who as musical director for Rankin-Bass productions supervised the scoring of such animated TV classics as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “The Hobbit,” died March 28 in Appleton, Wisc. He was 95.
Laws’ greatest achievement in TV was arranging and conducting all of the music for the 1964 stop-motion animation version of “Rudolph,” which featured new songs by original “Rudolph” songwriter Johnny Marks. Laws’ warm orchestral settings for such songs as “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “There’s Always Tomorrow” and the title tune helped to make the hour-long show a holiday season perennial.
The success of “Rudolph” led to a series of animated specials by the Rankin-Bass company. Laws worked with Fred Astaire on “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (1970), Danny Kaye on “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” (1971), Angela Lansbury on “The First Christmas” (1975) and Judy Collins on “The Wind in the Willows” (1987), often writing the songs with lyricist and...
Laws’ greatest achievement in TV was arranging and conducting all of the music for the 1964 stop-motion animation version of “Rudolph,” which featured new songs by original “Rudolph” songwriter Johnny Marks. Laws’ warm orchestral settings for such songs as “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “There’s Always Tomorrow” and the title tune helped to make the hour-long show a holiday season perennial.
The success of “Rudolph” led to a series of animated specials by the Rankin-Bass company. Laws worked with Fred Astaire on “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (1970), Danny Kaye on “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” (1971), Angela Lansbury on “The First Christmas” (1975) and Judy Collins on “The Wind in the Willows” (1987), often writing the songs with lyricist and...
- 4/1/2019
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
In one month, audiences are going to be able to find out what happened to Eve and Villanelle. In literal and metaphorical ways, Season 2 of “Killing Eve” picks up right where the beloved debut season left off.
Both women are tending to their respective wounds (Villanelle’s distinctly more literal than Eve’s), but as the trailer below shows, it takes a lot to keep an international assassin down.
This new glimpse at what’s to come is light on actual plot details (as all the best trailers are), but it does offer a few more clues to just how varied Villanelle’s (Jodie Comer) efforts are going to be as she embarks on another global hit spree.
There’s a car chase, an armored team raid, and one gigantic scoop of candy: seems as if Eve (Sandra Oh), Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), and the rest of the agents on Villanelle...
Both women are tending to their respective wounds (Villanelle’s distinctly more literal than Eve’s), but as the trailer below shows, it takes a lot to keep an international assassin down.
This new glimpse at what’s to come is light on actual plot details (as all the best trailers are), but it does offer a few more clues to just how varied Villanelle’s (Jodie Comer) efforts are going to be as she embarks on another global hit spree.
There’s a car chase, an armored team raid, and one gigantic scoop of candy: seems as if Eve (Sandra Oh), Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), and the rest of the agents on Villanelle...
- 3/8/2019
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Blithely thumbing his nose at the Hays office, Preston Sturges’s wartime farce concerns a virginal young woman who goes a little too far in her support for the troops – the fact that her name, Trudy Kockenlocker, is not the movie’s most outrageous element should tell you all you need to know. Starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton at the top of their games and the explosively funny William Demarest as Trudy’s pratfall-prone pop.
The post The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 11/5/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Charlton Heston would’ve celebrated his 95th birthday on October 4, 2018. Born in 1923, the actor became a household name with leading roles in action adventures and biblical epics. But his credits extended past those two well-worn genres. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
After serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII, Heston made his professional movie acting debut with the film noir “Dark City” (1950). His big breakthrough came just two years later with Cecil B. DeMille‘s big top soap opera “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952), in which he played the circus manager. Though an audience favorite in its time, the film often ranks among the all-time worst Oscar winners for Best Picture.
Heston later reunited with DeMille to play the Old Testament prophet Moses in “The Ten Commandments” (1956), which brought him a Golden Globe nomination.
After serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII, Heston made his professional movie acting debut with the film noir “Dark City” (1950). His big breakthrough came just two years later with Cecil B. DeMille‘s big top soap opera “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952), in which he played the circus manager. Though an audience favorite in its time, the film often ranks among the all-time worst Oscar winners for Best Picture.
Heston later reunited with DeMille to play the Old Testament prophet Moses in “The Ten Commandments” (1956), which brought him a Golden Globe nomination.
- 10/4/2018
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
This article marks Part 4 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.
The 1946 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:
“You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” from “Blue Skies”
“Ole Buttermilk Sky” from “Canyon Passage”
“All Through the Day” from “Centennial Summer”
“I Can’t Begin to Tell You” from “The Dolly Sisters”
“On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”
Won and should’ve won: “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”
1946 marks a very obscure and awfully modest year in Best Original Song. There’s not really a rotten apple in the bunch, but there’s also nothing to get terribly head over heels about.
The 1946 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:
“You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” from “Blue Skies”
“Ole Buttermilk Sky” from “Canyon Passage”
“All Through the Day” from “Centennial Summer”
“I Can’t Begin to Tell You” from “The Dolly Sisters”
“On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”
Won and should’ve won: “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”
1946 marks a very obscure and awfully modest year in Best Original Song. There’s not really a rotten apple in the bunch, but there’s also nothing to get terribly head over heels about.
- 8/6/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
Part of the Jerry Lewis tribute A Mubi Jerrython. Writer, director, star of stage, screen and television, humanitarian, producer, and total filmmaker—Jerry Lewis was all of the above. For the first six years of his career he was also a professional lip syncher. At age twelve, desperate to follow his parents on stage, Jerry began developing a “record act.” A staple on the lower rungs of the Borscht Belt, burlesque, vaudeville, and nightclubs, record acts (a.k.a. dummy acts) were cheap and easy: they consisted of a performer or performers miming away to recordings. Always considered pretty corny, they were the poor stepchildren on the theatrical bills, but there were plenty of budding comics who broke into show business that way. Jerry Van Dyke was another newbie who started his career doing record acts, and much later Andy Kaufman would put his own spin on it mouthing only...
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
Chicago – One of the truest aphorisms ever uttered is that “you can take a person out of a small town, but you can’t take the small town out of them.” Veteran novelist, TV/film writer and now director Adriana Trigiani took that eternal truth and created a film tribute to her heritage in “Big Stone Gap” (2015). Loyola University in Chicago will have a special screening of the film, with an appearance by Ms. Trigiani afterward (via Skype), on Monday, February 8th, 2016 (details below).
Adriana Trigiani celebrated her Italian roots and Appalachian background first in the “Big Stone Gap” series of novels, which began in 2000, and currently is on its fourth book. This was after she had a successful career in television writing, working on “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” and “City Kids” (for ABC/Jim Henson productions). Besides the Big Stone Gap book series, she has also authored...
Adriana Trigiani celebrated her Italian roots and Appalachian background first in the “Big Stone Gap” series of novels, which began in 2000, and currently is on its fourth book. This was after she had a successful career in television writing, working on “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” and “City Kids” (for ABC/Jim Henson productions). Besides the Big Stone Gap book series, she has also authored...
- 2/7/2016
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Maureen O'Hara: Queen of Technicolor. Maureen O'Hara movies: TCM tribute Veteran actress and Honorary Oscar recipient Maureen O'Hara, who died at age 95 on Oct. 24, '15, in Boise, Idaho, will be remembered by Turner Classic Movies with a 24-hour film tribute on Friday, Nov. 20. At one point known as “The Queen of Technicolor” – alongside “Eastern” star Maria Montez – the red-headed O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons on Aug. 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, County Dublin) was featured in more than 50 movies from 1938 to 1971 – in addition to one brief 1991 comeback (Chris Columbus' Only the Lonely). Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne Setting any hint of modesty aside, Maureen O'Hara wrote in her 2004 autobiography (with John Nicoletti), 'Tis Herself, that “I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne.” Wayne, for his part, once said (as quoted in 'Tis Herself): There's only one woman who has been my friend over the...
- 10/29/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Coleen Gray in 'The Sleeping City' with Richard Conte. Coleen Gray after Fox: B Westerns and films noirs (See previous post: “Coleen Gray Actress: From Red River to Film Noir 'Good Girls'.”) Regarding the demise of her Fox career (the year after her divorce from Rod Amateau), Coleen Gray would recall for Confessions of a Scream Queen author Matt Beckoff: I thought that was the end of the world and that I was a total failure. I was a mass of insecurity and depended on agents. … Whether it was an 'A' picture or a 'B' picture didn't bother me. It could be a Western movie, a sci-fi film. A job was a job. You did the best with the script that you had. Fox had dropped Gray at a time of dramatic upheavals in the American film industry: fast-dwindling box office receipts as a result of competition from television,...
- 10/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Fred Astaire ca. 1935. Fred Astaire movies: Dancing in the dark, on the ceiling on TCM Aug. 5, '15, is Fred Astaire Day on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its “Summer Under the Stars” series. Just don't expect any rare Astaire movies, as the actor-singer-dancer's star vehicles – mostly Rko or MGM productions – have been TCM staples since the early days of the cable channel in the mid-'90s. True, Fred Astaire was also featured in smaller, lesser-known fare like Byron Chudnow's The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and Yves Boisset's The Purple Taxi / Un taxi mauve (1977), but neither one can be found on the TCM schedule. (See TCM's Fred Astaire movie schedule further below.) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals Some fans never tire of watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together. With these particular fans in mind, TCM is showing – for the nth time – nine Astaire-Rogers musicals of the '30s,...
- 8/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
For the sixth consecutive year, thousands of movie lovers from around the globe descended upon Hollywood for the TCM Classic Film Festival. The 2015 festival took take place Thursday, March 26 – Sunday, March 29, 2015 and no matter your favorite genre, attendees were treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events and more.
Friday night’s screening of Apollo 13 was definitely one of the most exciting events of the festival. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Ron Howard’s impressive telling of the nearly doomed mission of the 3 astronauts aboard Apollo 13 looked as spectacular as the first time audiences saw it 20 years ago.
Host and long-time Nasa enthusiast Alex Trebek was on hand to introduce the film, as well as introduce fans in attendance to the real Captain Jim Lovell (played in the film by Tom Hanks). Also joining them on...
Friday night’s screening of Apollo 13 was definitely one of the most exciting events of the festival. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Ron Howard’s impressive telling of the nearly doomed mission of the 3 astronauts aboard Apollo 13 looked as spectacular as the first time audiences saw it 20 years ago.
Host and long-time Nasa enthusiast Alex Trebek was on hand to introduce the film, as well as introduce fans in attendance to the real Captain Jim Lovell (played in the film by Tom Hanks). Also joining them on...
- 3/30/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock heroine (image: Joseph Cotten about to strangle Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt') (See preceding article: "Teresa Wright Movies: Actress Made Oscar History.") After scoring with The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and The Pride of the Yankees, Teresa Wright was loaned to Universal – once initial choices Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland became unavailable – to play the small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. (Check out video below: Teresa Wright reminiscing about the making of Shadow of a Doubt.) Co-written by Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town had provided Wright with her first chance on Broadway and who had suggested her to Hitchcock; Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss author Sally Benson; and Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, Shadow of a Doubt was based on "Uncle Charlie," a story outline by Gordon McDonell – itself based on actual events.
- 3/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Lizabeth Scott dead at 92: Film noir star of the '40s and '50s Lizabeth Scott, a Paramount star in the 1940s usually cast as film noir heroines, died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 31, 2015, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Scott, born (as Emma Matzo) on Sept. 29, 1922, was 92. (See also: Lizabeth Scott photo at recent The Strange Love of Martha Ivers screening.) Among the two dozen film featuring Lizabeth Scott – whose hair-style and husky line delivery were clearly inspired by Paramount's own Veronica Lake (along with Warner Bros.' Lauren Bacall) – were the following: John Farrow's You Came Along (1945), with Robert Cummings. Lewis Milestone's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Kirk Douglas. Desert Fury (1947), with Burt Lancaster. Dead Reckoning (1947), with Humphrey Bogart. Pitfall (1948), with Dick Powell. Dark City (1950), with Charlton Heston. The Racket (1951), with Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum.
- 2/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
San Francisco Silent Film Festival – Silent Autumn 2014: From The Great War to Charles Chaplin and Pearl White (image: Charles Chaplin in 'A Film Johnnie') Imagine, if you will, that you can go back one hundred years in time, when people were enjoying a new and pervasive art form: motion pictures. In 1914, the movies had already been around for a while, in peep shows, nickelodeons, and small screening rooms. But now movie theaters were springing up in every community large and small, where families could flock together and watch flickering images in comfort, with live musical accompaniment. On September 20, such was the experience provided by the 2014 San Francisco Silent Film Festival – Silent Autumn: "A Night at the Cinema in 1914." For a history buff like me, this was second best to getting into a time machine. True, the programs consisted mostly of films from the British Film Institute, but the variety content of newsreels,...
- 10/10/2014
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...
- 9/4/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Katie Finneran, the two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway and TV star, makes her nightclub debut at 54 Below from May 28 to 31 with the show It Might Be You - A Funny Lady's Search for Home. Endearing, brilliantly funny and always entertaining, she gives us a peek into the life of a performer juggling Hollywood, Broadway and starting a family. Singing an eclectic array of songs and sharing extraordinary backstage stories, Katie takes us on a comical and poignant pilgrimage to her greatest destination yet home. Expect to hear songs ranging from Stephen Sondheimto Ingrid Michaelson, with homages to Betty Hutton and Julie Andrews in between. The evening will be directed by Katie's longtime pal, Broadway's Andrea Burns The Nance, In the Heights and will feature musical direction bySteve Marzullo.
- 5/30/2014
- by Stephen Sorokoff
- BroadwayWorld.com
Katie Finneran, the two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway and TV star, will make her nightclub debut at 54 Below from May 28 to 31 with the show It Might Be You - A Funny Lady's Search for Home. Endearing, brilliantly funny and always entertaining, she gives us a peek into the life of a performer juggling Hollywood, Broadway and starting a family. Singing an eclectic array of songs and sharing extraordinary backstage stories, Katie takes us on a comical and poignant pilgrimage to her greatest destination yet home. Expect to hear songs ranging from Stephen Sondheim to Ingrid Michaelson, with homages to Betty Hutton and Julie Andrews in between. The evening will be directed by Katie's longtime pal, Broadway's Andrea Burns The Nance, In the Heights and will feature musical direction by Steve Marzullo.
- 5/27/2014
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
Katie Finneran, the two time Tony Award winning Broadway and TV star, will make her nightclub debut at 54 Below from May 28 to 31 with the show 'It Might Be You - A Funny Lady's Search for Home.' Endearing, brilliantly funny and always entertaining, she gives us a peek into the life of a performer juggling Hollywood, Broadway, and starting a family. Singing an eclectic array of songs and sharing extraordinary backstage stories, Katie takes us on a comical and poignant pilgrimage to her greatest destination yet Home. Expect to hear songs ranging from Stephen Sondheim to Ingrid Michaelson, with homages to Betty Hutton and Julie Andrews in between. The evening will be directed by Katie's longtime pal, Broadway's Andrea Burns and will features Musical Direction by Steve Marzullo.
- 3/27/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Netflix Instant is a wonderland of new treasures and old favorites. Here are five titles you’ll want to scoop up during, say, a particularly chilly Tuesday night.
Sunset Boulevard
For me, the creepiest thing about Sunset Boulevard isn’t Norma Desmond’s clownish, Dee Snider-like expressions or William Holden‘s descent into some seriously gray gardens. It’s that the characters in the film make such casual references to other movie stars of the time — Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, and Betty Hutton all come up — that you feel like you’re listening to modern-day showbiz types in a 1950 movie. These people sound like tamer Nikki Finkes. It’s weird! I’m not used to people in old movies sounding real and current. What if Grace Kelly just turned to the camera in Rear Window and deadpanned, “I don’t find Hannah sympathetic on Girls“? It’s like that!
Sunset Boulevard
For me, the creepiest thing about Sunset Boulevard isn’t Norma Desmond’s clownish, Dee Snider-like expressions or William Holden‘s descent into some seriously gray gardens. It’s that the characters in the film make such casual references to other movie stars of the time — Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, and Betty Hutton all come up — that you feel like you’re listening to modern-day showbiz types in a 1950 movie. These people sound like tamer Nikki Finkes. It’s weird! I’m not used to people in old movies sounding real and current. What if Grace Kelly just turned to the camera in Rear Window and deadpanned, “I don’t find Hannah sympathetic on Girls“? It’s like that!
- 2/4/2014
- by Louis Virtel
- The Backlot
Quentin Tarantino ‘The Hateful Eight’ screenplay leak Quentin Tarantino will no longer be making the Western The Hateful Eight. Why not? Well, Tarantino claims he sent out the film’s screenplay to a group of six people, one of whom allegedly showed it to his agent, who then showed it to other agents, who then began calling Tarantino’s agent Mike Simpson, asking him to cast their clients in the film. (Photo: The Hateful Eight screenwriter Quentin Tarantino.) “I’m very, very depressed,” Tarantino was quoted as saying at Deadline.com, which first broke The Hateful Eight Screenplay Leak story on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. “I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today.” Now, before they begin flailing and wailing, Quentin Tarantino fans should be...
- 1/24/2014
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...
- 8/1/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The time: More than a decade ago — 2002, to be specific — and it was Big Band Week on American Idol. Ugh, this week is going to suck, I said to myself, letting my distaste for the genre shine through. And I would have been correct in my assumption — had it not been for Kelly Clarkson’s rousing, fun-filled, and totally punchy performance of Betty Hutton’s “Stuff Like That There.” That was the first time I remember thinking, with 100 percent conviction, that Kelly Clarkson could sing anything — and it would be far from the last.
Fast forward to today, when I...
Fast forward to today, when I...
- 7/2/2013
- by Sandra Gonzalez
- EW.com - PopWatch
Anne Marie here to talk about the latest movie musical news. It’s official: Cameron Diaz will be the Miss Hannigan to Quvenzhané Wallis’s Little Orphan Annie in Will Smith’s Annie remake. Sandra Bullock turned it down so Diaz joins a brassy line of comediennes who've played this role including Dorothy Loudon, Betty Hutton, Carol Burnett, Nell Carter, Kathy Bates, Katie Finneran and most recently Jane Lynch in her Broadway musical debut.
Miss Hannigan History (Partial): Carol Burnett (82); Nell Carter (97); Kathy Bates (99); Cameron Diaz (14)
Accusations of stunt casting have already echoed through Hollywood and Broadway, but how true are they?
While the decision to cast an otherwise musically-untested star like Diaz (Her singing in The Mask was dubbed) may smack a bit of stunt casting, Diaz certainly has the comedic background to fulfill the terrifying-but-hilarious shoes of the booze-soaked orphanage matron. Cameron Diaz has shown all throughout...
Miss Hannigan History (Partial): Carol Burnett (82); Nell Carter (97); Kathy Bates (99); Cameron Diaz (14)
Accusations of stunt casting have already echoed through Hollywood and Broadway, but how true are they?
While the decision to cast an otherwise musically-untested star like Diaz (Her singing in The Mask was dubbed) may smack a bit of stunt casting, Diaz certainly has the comedic background to fulfill the terrifying-but-hilarious shoes of the booze-soaked orphanage matron. Cameron Diaz has shown all throughout...
- 6/29/2013
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Betty Hutton: Personal nadir (image: Betty Hutton interview on the PBS show American Masters) [See previous post: "Betty Hutton: Annie Get Your Gun, Dancing with Fred Astaire."] The year 1967 was Betty Hutton’s personal nadir: her mother died in a fire, she filed for bankruptcy, and her fourth marriage came to an end. Besides the aforementioned Charles O’Curran, Hutton’s husbands were camera manufacturer Theodore S. Briskin, Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston, and jazz trumpet player Pete Candoli. Repeating a line similar to Rita Hayworth’s complaint that her many husbands went to bed with Gilda but woke up with Rita, Hutton once said, "My husbands all fell in love with Betty Hutton. None of them fell in love with me." Following a partial recovery in the early ’70s, she landed a gig performing Annie Get Your Gun at a dinner theater outside of Boston. One night, she collapsed onstage. "I don’t want to go into how I got here,...
- 6/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Betty Hutton: Annie Get Your Gun and dancing with Fred Astaire (Photo: Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun) [See previous post: "Betty Hutton Movies: 'It Had to Be You.'"] Betty Hutton’s career would reach its peak in 1950: Top billed, she danced with Fred Astaire in Norman Z. McLeod’s aptly titled Let’s Dance. Though not a great movie, the pairing with Astaire signaled prestige; the Rko-turned-mgm star was certainly more well-regarded than the likes of Sonny Tufts, John Lund, Don DeFore, or Macdonald Carey. That same year, Betty Hutton replaced a problematic Judy Garland in MGM’s George Sidney-directed film version of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun. Of note: On Broadway, the role of Annie Oakley had been played by none other than Hutton’s Panama Hattie nemesis, Ethel Merman. Annie Get Your Gun was to be one of MGM’s biggest productions of the year. Hutton was even featured on the cover of Time magazine,...
- 6/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Betty Hutton movies (photo: Betty Hutton in The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, with Eddie Bracken) [See previous post: "Betty Hutton Bio: The Blonde Bombshell."] Buddy DeSylva did as promised. Betty Hutton was given a key supporting role in Victor Schertzinger’s 1942 musical comedy The Fleet’s In, starring Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, and Eddie Bracken. “Her facial grimaces, body twists and man-pummeling gymnastics take wonderfully to the screen,” enthused Pm magazine. (Hutton would have a cameo, as Hetty Button, in the 1952 remake Sailor Beware, starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Corinne Calvet.) The following year, Betty Hutton landed the second female lead in Happy Go Lucky (1943), singing Jimmy McHugh and Frank Loesser’s "Murder, He Says," and stealing the show from fellow Broadway import Mary Martin and former Warner Bros. crooner Dick Powell. She also got co-star billing opposite Bob Hope in Sidney Lanfield’s musical comedy Let’s Face It. Additionally, Paramount’s hugely successful all-star war-effort...
- 6/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Betty Hutton bio: The Blonde Bombshell Energetic, electric, exuberant, effusive, brassy, spunky, hyper, manic — these are all qualities that could (and most likely have been) used to describe Betty Hutton, a top 1940s Paramount star also known as "The Blonde Bombshell," "The Blonde Blitz," and/or "The Incendiary Blonde." (Photo: Betty Hutton ca. 1945-1950.) Throughout the years, Betty Hutton’s fiery blondeness entertained some, while turning off others and leaving others yet exhausted. She seemed to be perennially in hyperkinetic mode, whether playing 1910s film serial heroine Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline or fretting about (possibly) being pregnant — without knowing which of several happy sailors is the baby’s father — in Preston Sturges’ The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. But she "wasn’t all just a zany comedian," as Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne recently remarked. "The thing about Betty Hutton was she could also sing a song and break your heart,...
- 6/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
My good Sun-Times pal from the 1970s at the Chicago Sun-Times, Cynthia Dagnal, wrote me today:
"A friend in London sent me this, obituary from the London indpendent and I was stunned to see that Jeni Le Gon attended the same Southside dancing school in Chicago that I did. It was probably the most reputable one on that side of the "color line," and not very far from my house. So I studied with the younger "protégés" of Mary Bruce, and all those cute pics of me in little but Expensive tutus and whatnot that I sometimes use on my blogs are reminders of those days! I took tap, jazz and ballet as a wee one, and loved to walk around en pointe all day long in those danged--and also expensive--toe shoes!"
Le Gon (born in Georgia Aug. 24,1916; died December 7, 2012) was the first African-American women to sign with a major studio,...
"A friend in London sent me this, obituary from the London indpendent and I was stunned to see that Jeni Le Gon attended the same Southside dancing school in Chicago that I did. It was probably the most reputable one on that side of the "color line," and not very far from my house. So I studied with the younger "protégés" of Mary Bruce, and all those cute pics of me in little but Expensive tutus and whatnot that I sometimes use on my blogs are reminders of those days! I took tap, jazz and ballet as a wee one, and loved to walk around en pointe all day long in those danged--and also expensive--toe shoes!"
Le Gon (born in Georgia Aug. 24,1916; died December 7, 2012) was the first African-American women to sign with a major studio,...
- 1/25/2013
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Musical romance in which Fred Astaire pairs up with Betty Hutton as a former vaudeville team who reunite when she becomes a war widow. Amidst the song-and-dance numbers, the plot revolves around Betty's efforts to keep her young son away from the clutches of her horribly snobby mother-in-law (Lucile Watson). Though Fred had turned 50, the twinkle never fades and the 'Piano Dance' alone proves there was life after Ginger.
- 11/20/2012
- Sky Movies
Paramount Pictures has plans to bring The Ringling Brothers to the screen as a fanciful family adventure. Deadline says that the studio has brought aboard the writing duo of David Stem and David Weiss ( The Smurfs ) to provide a fictional narrative based on the seven brothers that started the famous circus. Though the new film is described as being the vein of Night at the Museum , Paramount famously brought the Ringling Bros. to the screen in the 1952 Best Picture winner, The Greatest Show on Earth . Also a fictional take, that film employed the full Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and featured a cast that included Betty Hutton, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde and more.
- 4/23/2012
- Comingsoon.net
Howard Keel on TCM Pt.2: Rose Marie, Pagan Love Song, Callaway Went Thataway Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Desperate Search (1953) A man fights to find his children after their plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. Dir: Joseph Lewis. Cast: Howard Keel, Jane Greer, Patricia Medina. Bw-71 mins. 7:15 Am Fast Company (1953) The heiress to a racing stable uncovers underhanded dealings. Dir: John Sturges. Cast: Howard Keel, Polly Bergen, Marjorie Main. Bw-68 mins. 8:30 Am Kismet (1955) In this Arabian Nights musical "king of the beggars" infiltrates high society when his daughter is wooed by a handsome prince. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. Cast: Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Dolores Gray. C-113 mins, Letterbox Format. 10:30 Am Rose Marie (1954) A trapper's daughter is torn between the Mountie who wants to civilize her and a dashing prospector. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Fernando Lamas, Bert Lahr, Marjorie Main.
- 8/30/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jane Powell, Howard Keel, and fellow Seven Brides for Seven Brothers cast members Howard Keel, best remembered for MGM musicals such as Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, is Turner Classic Movies' next-to-last "Summer Under the Stars" star. On Tuesday, August 30, TCM will be presenting 14 Howard Keel movies, including one TCM premiere — Charles Crichton's British crime drama Floods of Fear. (TCM had initially announced another premiere, the 1948 British drama The Small Voice, starring Valerie Hobson and James Donald; instead, as per its website TCM will be showing — once again — the 1951 comedy Three Guys Named Mike, starring Jane Wyman.) [Howard Keel Movie Schedule.] Tall, baritone-voiced, and handsome, Howard Keel could at times be a quite effective actor, whether in comedies (Callaway Went Thataway, when not singing in Annie Get Your Gun, Calamity Jane and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) or in dramas (the Western Ride, Vaquero!, when not singing...
- 8/30/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Chances are you know Ana Gasteyer from her six years on "Saturday Night Live," or maybe from her Broadway runs in shows ranging from "Wicked" to "The Rocky Horror Show." She also co-stars in ABC's new comedy "Suburgatory" this fall.
And, as audiences in Los Angeles can see this weekend, she's also a nightclub singer. Gasteyer will perform her act "Elegant Songs from a Handsome Woman" Thursday through Saturday (Aug. 11-13) at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. (Go to UprightCabaret.com for details.)
"I have two personalities, which many television people don't know, I guess," she told Zap2it Wednesday after making an appearance on the Ktla Morning Show. "I mean, you kind of know I sing from 'Saturday Night Live,' because I did a lot of sing-y characters. ... I started as a singer, and I dropped out -- I kind of flunked out of music school.
And, as audiences in Los Angeles can see this weekend, she's also a nightclub singer. Gasteyer will perform her act "Elegant Songs from a Handsome Woman" Thursday through Saturday (Aug. 11-13) at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. (Go to UprightCabaret.com for details.)
"I have two personalities, which many television people don't know, I guess," she told Zap2it Wednesday after making an appearance on the Ktla Morning Show. "I mean, you kind of know I sing from 'Saturday Night Live,' because I did a lot of sing-y characters. ... I started as a singer, and I dropped out -- I kind of flunked out of music school.
- 8/10/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
I was saddened to learn this morning that Betty Garrett, the great star of stage, screen, and TV, passed away yesterday at the age of 94 after suffering an aortic aneurysm.
Garrett was one of those rare people — like, say, Jack Valenti — who happened to be a witness to and/or participant in a remarkably high number of historic events of the 20th century. She was a member of Orson Welles’s famed Mercury Theatre company, and was with him on the night that he shook up America with his infamous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” (1938); she was Frank Sinatra’s leading lady in two of the earliest great M-g-m musical-comedies, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1949) and “On the Town” (1949); her career was greatly hurt by the Hollywood Red Scare after her husband, the Oscar nominated actor Larry Parks, refused to name names before the House Committee...
Garrett was one of those rare people — like, say, Jack Valenti — who happened to be a witness to and/or participant in a remarkably high number of historic events of the 20th century. She was a member of Orson Welles’s famed Mercury Theatre company, and was with him on the night that he shook up America with his infamous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” (1938); she was Frank Sinatra’s leading lady in two of the earliest great M-g-m musical-comedies, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1949) and “On the Town” (1949); her career was greatly hurt by the Hollywood Red Scare after her husband, the Oscar nominated actor Larry Parks, refused to name names before the House Committee...
- 2/13/2011
- by Scott Feinberg
- Scott Feinberg
Silent movie era child star Marie Osborne Yeats has died just six days after celebrating her 99th birthday. The actress and Hollywood costume supervisor, nicknamed Baby Marie Osborne, became the youngest leading lady in Tinseltown when she starred in films like "Little Mary Sunshine".
Yeats died at her home in San Clemente, California on November 11. She played a boy in her first film when director Henry King needed a kid for his 1915 movie "The Maid of The Wind". He discovered her at the age of three.
Impressed with his find, King went on to shape her career, writing 'Little Mary Sunshine" just for her. Her success launched a range of Baby Marie dolls, but her career was short-lived - her final starring role came in 1919 in the comedy "Miss Gingersnap".
She returned to Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s and occasionally worked as a stand-in actress for Ginger Rogers,...
Yeats died at her home in San Clemente, California on November 11. She played a boy in her first film when director Henry King needed a kid for his 1915 movie "The Maid of The Wind". He discovered her at the age of three.
Impressed with his find, King went on to shape her career, writing 'Little Mary Sunshine" just for her. Her success launched a range of Baby Marie dolls, but her career was short-lived - her final starring role came in 1919 in the comedy "Miss Gingersnap".
She returned to Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s and occasionally worked as a stand-in actress for Ginger Rogers,...
- 11/19/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Silent movie era child star Marie Osborne Yeats has died just six days after celebrating her 99th birthday.
The actress and Hollywood costume supervisor, nicknamed Baby Marie Osborne, became the youngest leading lady in Tinseltown when she starred in films like Little Mary Sunshine.
Yeats died at her home in San Clemente, California on 11 November.
She played a boy in her first film when director Henry King needed a kid for his 1915 movie The Maid of The Wind. He discovered her at the age of three.
Impressed with his find, King went on to shape her career, writing Little Mary Sunshine just for her.
Her success launched a range of Baby Marie dolls, but her career was short-lived - her final starring role came in 1919 in the comedy Miss Gingersnap.
She returned to Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s and occasionally worked as a stand-in actress for Ginger Rogers, Deanna Durbin and Betty Hutton.
But she found her true calling in the 1950s when she took a job as a costumer and worked on films like Spartacus, The Way We Were and Mame.
She also supervised Elizabeth Taylor's wardrobe in Cleopatra.
The actress and Hollywood costume supervisor, nicknamed Baby Marie Osborne, became the youngest leading lady in Tinseltown when she starred in films like Little Mary Sunshine.
Yeats died at her home in San Clemente, California on 11 November.
She played a boy in her first film when director Henry King needed a kid for his 1915 movie The Maid of The Wind. He discovered her at the age of three.
Impressed with his find, King went on to shape her career, writing Little Mary Sunshine just for her.
Her success launched a range of Baby Marie dolls, but her career was short-lived - her final starring role came in 1919 in the comedy Miss Gingersnap.
She returned to Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s and occasionally worked as a stand-in actress for Ginger Rogers, Deanna Durbin and Betty Hutton.
But she found her true calling in the 1950s when she took a job as a costumer and worked on films like Spartacus, The Way We Were and Mame.
She also supervised Elizabeth Taylor's wardrobe in Cleopatra.
- 11/18/2010
- WENN
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