This madcap musical from 1935 about an American dance star visiting London swirls effortlessly back into cinemas, with classic songs from Irving Berlin
Like a Shakespearean marriage comedy with a spoonful of Feydeau farce, this madcap musical from 1935, from screenwriters Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and director Mark Sandrich, saunters back for a re-release. It features Fred Astaire as Jerry, the American dance star visiting London, a city seen in almost surreally weird back projections – and Astaire incidentally does an intentionally terrible Cockney accent when he pretends to be a hansom cab driver. (It is one of the rare times he does not appear in faultless evening dress.) Irving Berlin’s classic songs Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails are great, and Astaire swirls on a forward-tilting gyroscopic axis with his spindly arms and legs effortlessly orbiting him like Saturn’s moons.
Playing opposite him – and of course,...
Like a Shakespearean marriage comedy with a spoonful of Feydeau farce, this madcap musical from 1935, from screenwriters Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and director Mark Sandrich, saunters back for a re-release. It features Fred Astaire as Jerry, the American dance star visiting London, a city seen in almost surreally weird back projections – and Astaire incidentally does an intentionally terrible Cockney accent when he pretends to be a hansom cab driver. (It is one of the rare times he does not appear in faultless evening dress.) Irving Berlin’s classic songs Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails are great, and Astaire swirls on a forward-tilting gyroscopic axis with his spindly arms and legs effortlessly orbiting him like Saturn’s moons.
Playing opposite him – and of course,...
- 4/5/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
If a single WW2 Hollywood war epic can sum up the complexity of homefront morale-building, this one is it. Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake enlist as Army nurses and are plunged into the disastrous opening onslaught in the Philippines. Adroit screenwriting and direction use the clichés of Hollywood glamour to give mom & dad back home a dramatic idea of what it might be like for a company of nurses in a failing war zone. Great studio effects show the rough retreats and casualties, while George Reeves and Sonny Tufts serve as reassuring sentimental diversions. And a squad of ‘unglamorous’ actresses get to play strong, patriotic roles. It’s an entertaining winner.
So Proudly We Hail
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 126 min. / Street Date September 13, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Reeves, Barbara Britton, Walter Abel, Sonny Tufts, Mary Servoss,...
So Proudly We Hail
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 126 min. / Street Date September 13, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Reeves, Barbara Britton, Walter Abel, Sonny Tufts, Mary Servoss,...
- 9/10/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jay Sandrich, the prolific Emmy-winning TV director who was an instrumental player in such series as “The Cosby Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” died Sept. 22 in Los Angeles, CAA confirmed. He was 89.
Sandrich was beloved in the creative community and was considered a mentor to a generation of TV directors, notably James Burrows. Sandrich had a major influence on TV comedy as the director of pilots for “Soap,” “The Golden Girls,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Empty Nest,” “Night Court” and “A Different World.” His career began on the set of “I Love Lucy” and stretched through “Two and a Half a Men.”
His father, Mark Sandrich, was a famed movie director of musicals such as “Holiday Inn” and “Top Hat.”
Jay Sandrich earned five Emmys for directing throughout his career, including two for “The Cosby Show” in 1985 and 1986, plus two for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1971 and...
Sandrich was beloved in the creative community and was considered a mentor to a generation of TV directors, notably James Burrows. Sandrich had a major influence on TV comedy as the director of pilots for “Soap,” “The Golden Girls,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Empty Nest,” “Night Court” and “A Different World.” His career began on the set of “I Love Lucy” and stretched through “Two and a Half a Men.”
His father, Mark Sandrich, was a famed movie director of musicals such as “Holiday Inn” and “Top Hat.”
Jay Sandrich earned five Emmys for directing throughout his career, including two for “The Cosby Show” in 1985 and 1986, plus two for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1971 and...
- 9/23/2021
- by Jordan Moreau and Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Jay Sandrich, the Emmy-winning TV director who was behind such iconic comedies as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, Wkrp in Cincinnati and Soap among others, has died. He was 89.
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
The news was confirmed Thursday by his former agency CAA.
Sandrich directed two thirds of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the groundbreaking series that ran on CBS from 1970-1977. He won two Emmys for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy for the series, in 1971 and 1973. He won two more for directing the equally groundbreaking The Cosby Show back to back in 1985 and 1986.
In all, Sandrich was nominated for 11 Emmys, winning a Daytime one in 1984 in Outstanding Individual Achievement in Religious Programming – Direction for Insight.
He also won three DGA Awards during his career. He was named to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2020.
On the movie side,...
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
The news was confirmed Thursday by his former agency CAA.
Sandrich directed two thirds of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the groundbreaking series that ran on CBS from 1970-1977. He won two Emmys for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy for the series, in 1971 and 1973. He won two more for directing the equally groundbreaking The Cosby Show back to back in 1985 and 1986.
In all, Sandrich was nominated for 11 Emmys, winning a Daytime one in 1984 in Outstanding Individual Achievement in Religious Programming – Direction for Insight.
He also won three DGA Awards during his career. He was named to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2020.
On the movie side,...
- 9/23/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Jay Sandrich, the top-notch sitcom director who was a regular on The Mary Tyler Moore, The Cosby Show and Soap and on the scene for some of the biggest moments in the history of television comedy, has died. He was 89.
Sandrich died Wednesday in Los Angeles, CAA announced.
A 10-time Emmy nominee and five-time winner, Sandrich landed his first job in Hollywood as a second assistant director on I Love Lucy. He later worked on Make Room for Daddy and The Dick Van Dyke Show; directed the pilot episodes of The Bob Newhart Show, Wkrp in Cincinnati and Benson; and produced for The Andy Griffith Show and Get Smart.
His father was Mark Sandrich, the director of five Fred Astaire-Ginger ...
Sandrich died Wednesday in Los Angeles, CAA announced.
A 10-time Emmy nominee and five-time winner, Sandrich landed his first job in Hollywood as a second assistant director on I Love Lucy. He later worked on Make Room for Daddy and The Dick Van Dyke Show; directed the pilot episodes of The Bob Newhart Show, Wkrp in Cincinnati and Benson; and produced for The Andy Griffith Show and Get Smart.
His father was Mark Sandrich, the director of five Fred Astaire-Ginger ...
- 9/23/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
A great Christmas movie will not only make the grade for the test of time, but it can become a beloved part of a person’s life. Ask 15 people which is their favorite holiday film, and you may get 15 different titles. Our photo gallery focuses on the 15 titles we believe are the best of all time. Scroll through the gallery, read our descriptions, and debate with us the order, ranked best to worst, and which ones you think are missing.
Our list is led off by the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring James Stewart, a film that was deemed a box office bomb when it was first released. It was the relentless airings on television over the past few decades that made it a favorite for many families. Stewart is also featured in the lesser-known but still wonderful “The Shop Around the Corner.” While that movie is uplifting,...
Our list is led off by the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring James Stewart, a film that was deemed a box office bomb when it was first released. It was the relentless airings on television over the past few decades that made it a favorite for many families. Stewart is also featured in the lesser-known but still wonderful “The Shop Around the Corner.” While that movie is uplifting,...
- 12/24/2018
- by Tom O'Brien and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Emma Stone shines with Ryan Gosling in Damien Chazelle's La La Land Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Take the opening number from Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles De Rochefort mixed with Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and copy to Los Angeles. Put girls in traffic light-colored dresses that vaguely resemble those from Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town. Add an introspective song, channeling Claudine Longet, from Blake Edwards' The Party - plus an elephant and mix in some Esther Williams underwater fun. Make a melody sound like the one given by Michel Legrand to Michel Piccoli's M Dame. Borrow from Fred Astaire: Sand Under Shoes in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat, A Fine Romance of George Stevens' Swing Time, and the lift in Charles Walters' The Belle Of New York. From Kelly: Seine dance, paintings coming to life, studio setting and It's Always Fair Weather - without the war.
Take the opening number from Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles De Rochefort mixed with Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and copy to Los Angeles. Put girls in traffic light-colored dresses that vaguely resemble those from Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town. Add an introspective song, channeling Claudine Longet, from Blake Edwards' The Party - plus an elephant and mix in some Esther Williams underwater fun. Make a melody sound like the one given by Michel Legrand to Michel Piccoli's M Dame. Borrow from Fred Astaire: Sand Under Shoes in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat, A Fine Romance of George Stevens' Swing Time, and the lift in Charles Walters' The Belle Of New York. From Kelly: Seine dance, paintings coming to life, studio setting and It's Always Fair Weather - without the war.
- 2/26/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Veteran’s Day is November 11. While we all try to escape from the most exasperating Presidential Campaign in our history let me pay tribute to the Men and Women who have served in the military to insure we keep our electoral process and our freedoms.
Having served in the Navy four years (there he goes again!) I have a keen interest in any movie about the military, especially the sea service. I did serve during peace time so had no experience with combat but still spent most of my tour of duty at sea on an aircraft carrier, the USS Amerca CV66. Among other jobs I ran the ship’s television station for almost two years. Movies have always been important to me and so providing a few hours of entertainment every day when we were at sea was just about the best job I could have had.
The author...
Having served in the Navy four years (there he goes again!) I have a keen interest in any movie about the military, especially the sea service. I did serve during peace time so had no experience with combat but still spent most of my tour of duty at sea on an aircraft carrier, the USS Amerca CV66. Among other jobs I ran the ship’s television station for almost two years. Movies have always been important to me and so providing a few hours of entertainment every day when we were at sea was just about the best job I could have had.
The author...
- 11/11/2016
- by Sam Moffitt
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“It kind of freed me from a lot of criticisms people have from my other films,” Whit Stillman told us at Sundance earlier this year, speaking about adapting Jane Austen‘s epistolary novel Lady Susan, which became Love & Friendship. “Things can work really well and not be entirely realistic and often they can be better than realism. We love the old James Bond films. They weren’t realistic, but they’re delightful. And the great 30s films. The Awful Truth with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. It’s not realistic; it’s just perfect.”
To celebrate Stillman’s latest feature becoming his most successful yet at the box office, we’re highlighting his 10 favorite films, from a ballot submitted for the most recent Sight & Sound poll. Along with the aforementioned Leo McCarey classic, he includes romantic touchstones from Preston Sturges, Ernst Lubitsh, and François Truffaut. As for his favorite Alfred Hitchcock, he fittingly picks perhaps one of the best scripts he directed, and one not mentioned often enough.
We’ve covered many directors’ favorites, but this is one that perhaps best reflects the style and tone of an artist’s filmography. Check it out below, followed by our discussion of his latest film, if you missed it.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli)
The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich)
Howards End (James Ivory)
Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut)
Stranger than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
Wagon Master (John Ford)
See more directors’ favorite films.
To celebrate Stillman’s latest feature becoming his most successful yet at the box office, we’re highlighting his 10 favorite films, from a ballot submitted for the most recent Sight & Sound poll. Along with the aforementioned Leo McCarey classic, he includes romantic touchstones from Preston Sturges, Ernst Lubitsh, and François Truffaut. As for his favorite Alfred Hitchcock, he fittingly picks perhaps one of the best scripts he directed, and one not mentioned often enough.
We’ve covered many directors’ favorites, but this is one that perhaps best reflects the style and tone of an artist’s filmography. Check it out below, followed by our discussion of his latest film, if you missed it.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli)
The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich)
Howards End (James Ivory)
Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut)
Stranger than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
Wagon Master (John Ford)
See more directors’ favorite films.
- 6/13/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
For a man who created forward-thinking, boundary-pushing cinema embraced by small, devoted sects of cinephiles, Andrzej Żuławski‘s Sight & Sound list of favorite films is, in so many words, surprisingly traditional. Few would look upon it and say it contains a single bad film on it, but those who’ve experienced his work might expect something other than Amarcord; maybe, in its place, an underground Eastern European horror film that’s gained no real cachet since the Soviet Union’s collapse.
That isn’t to suggest something inexplicable, however. The Gold Rush‘s fall-down comedy could be detected in some of Possession‘s more emphatic moments of physical exhaustion, and, while we’re at it, visual connections between On the Silver Globe and 2001‘s horror-ish stretches aren’t so out-of-bounds. So while this selection may not open your eyes once more to cinema’s many reaches, one might use it...
That isn’t to suggest something inexplicable, however. The Gold Rush‘s fall-down comedy could be detected in some of Possession‘s more emphatic moments of physical exhaustion, and, while we’re at it, visual connections between On the Silver Globe and 2001‘s horror-ish stretches aren’t so out-of-bounds. So while this selection may not open your eyes once more to cinema’s many reaches, one might use it...
- 3/7/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
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
Martha Stewart: Actress / Singer in Fox movies apparently not dead despite two-year-old reports to the contrary (Photo: Martha Stewart and Perry Como in 'Doll Face') According to various online reports, including Variety's, actress and singer Martha Stewart, a pretty blonde featured in supporting roles in a handful of 20th Century Fox movies of the '40s, died at age 89 of "natural causes" in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on February 25, 2012. Needless to say, that was not the same Martha Stewart hawking "delicious foods" and whatever else on American television. But quite possibly, the Martha Stewart who died in February 2012 -- if any -- was not the Martha Stewart of old Fox movies either. And that's why I'm republishing this (former) obit, originally posted more than two and a half years ago: March 11, 2012. Earlier today, a commenter wrote to Alt Film Guide, claiming that the Martha Stewart featured in Doll Face, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now,...
- 11/11/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Claudette Colbert movies on Turner Classic Movies: From ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’ to TCM premiere ‘Skylark’ (photo: Claudette Colbert and Maurice Chevalier in ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’) Claudette Colbert, the studio era’s perky, independent-minded — and French-born — "all-American" girlfriend (and later all-American wife and mother), is Turner Classic Movies’ star of the day today, August 18, 2014, as TCM continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. Colbert, a surprise Best Actress Academy Award winner for Frank Capra’s 1934 comedy It Happened One Night, was one Paramount’s biggest box office draws for more than decade and Hollywood’s top-paid female star of 1938, with reported earnings of $426,944 — or about $7.21 million in 2014 dollars. (See also: TCM’s Claudette Colbert day in 2011.) Right now, TCM is showing Ernst Lubitsch’s light (but ultimately bittersweet) romantic comedy-musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), a Best Picture Academy Award nominee starring Maurice Chevalier as a French-accented Central European lieutenant in...
- 8/19/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
As we continue on, I need to once again clarify that if this list was “Joshua Gaul’s 50 Favorite Movie Musicals,” it’d be a quite a different list. But, if my tastes determined what is definitive, I’d be asking you all to consider Aladdin as a brilliant piece of filmmaking and wax nostalgic about my love for Batteries Not Included and Flight of the Navigator (not for the musicals list, of course). Much to my dismay, my tastes are not universal. I’d like to think my research methods are.
courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk
30. Annie (1982)
Directed by John Huston
Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)
Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...
courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk
30. Annie (1982)
Directed by John Huston
Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)
Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...
- 5/12/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
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
Our daily countdown continues with the 13th out of 30 in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 180-171.
180) Pan’S Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo Del Toro Spain/Mexico
179) Them (1954) Gordon Douglas USA
178) Hannah & Her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen USA
177) Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Alfonso Cuaron USA/British
176) Wings Of Desire (1988) Wim Wenders Germany/ France
175) The Sting (1973) George Roy Hill USA
174) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Michael Curtiz USA
173) Wild Strawberries (1969) Ingmar Bergman Sweden
172) Top Hat (1935) Mark Sandrich USA
171) The Wild Bunch (1969) Sam Peckinpah USA
Numbers 170-161 coming next.
film cultureClassicslist300...
180) Pan’S Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo Del Toro Spain/Mexico
179) Them (1954) Gordon Douglas USA
178) Hannah & Her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen USA
177) Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Alfonso Cuaron USA/British
176) Wings Of Desire (1988) Wim Wenders Germany/ France
175) The Sting (1973) George Roy Hill USA
174) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Michael Curtiz USA
173) Wild Strawberries (1969) Ingmar Bergman Sweden
172) Top Hat (1935) Mark Sandrich USA
171) The Wild Bunch (1969) Sam Peckinpah USA
Numbers 170-161 coming next.
film cultureClassicslist300...
- 1/14/2013
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Rob Young)
- Cinelinx
Brazil Movie Director’s Cut screening at the Academy’s Film-to-Film Festival The original director’s cut of Terry Gilliam’s controversial Brazil, Mark Sandrich’s Oscar-winning short So This Is Harris (Sandrich was the director of several Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals), and Herk Harvey’s cult classic Carnival of Souls are a few of the features and shorts to be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Film-to-Film Festival,” which runs September 27-29 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills and the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. (Photo: Terry Gilliam’s Brazil movie.) [Full list of Film-to-Film Festival movies.] The information [...]...
- 9/21/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In celebration of its recent film preservation efforts, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will launch the first-ever .Film-to-Film. Festival, which will run September 27 through September 29, in the Academy.s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills and the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. A year ago the Academy Film Archive launched an ambitious effort called .Project Film-to-Film,. aimed at preserving as many films on film as possible over a two-year period. The initiative.s main goal is to take advantage of the current, but threatened, availability of film stock to create new prints of a diverse range of motion pictures, encompassing the whole history of the art form.
More than 390 new prints have already been created from the best available film elements, covering significant narrative features and documentaries, as well as experimental, animated and short film titles. The wide variety of titles range from .Navajo,. the only film...
More than 390 new prints have already been created from the best available film elements, covering significant narrative features and documentaries, as well as experimental, animated and short film titles. The wide variety of titles range from .Navajo,. the only film...
- 9/19/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ralph Bellamy on TCM: Sunrise At Campobello, The Awful Truth Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Carefree (1938) A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else. Dir: Mark Sandrich. Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy. Bw-83 mins. 7:30 Am The Secret Six (1931) A secret society funds the investigation of a bootlegging gang. Dir: George Hill. Cast: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown. Bw-84 mins. 9:00 Am Headline Shooter (1933) A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot. Dir: Otto Brower. Cast: William Gargan, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy. Bw-61 mins. 10:15 Am Picture Snatcher (1933) An ex-con brings his crooked ways to a job as a news photographer. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis. Bw-77 mins. 11:45 Am The Wedding Night (1935) A married author falls for the beautiful farm girl...
- 8/14/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Claudette Colbert, John Litel, Paulette Goddard in Mark Sandrich's So Proudly We Hail! (third from the right) Claudette Colbert/James Robert Parish Q&A Pt.2: Since You Went Away, Cecil B. DeMille Movies, Midnight With her film stardom behind her, Claudette Colbert returned to the stage. What was that like for her? Did she miss Hollywood, or was she content with being back on Broadway? Colbert had always adored performing on the stage and wisely decided to return to Broadway where she knew her age would not rule out starring vehicles. The relocation to Manhattan (while her husband Dr. Joel Pressman remained in Los Angeles) suited her strong desire to participate in the chic New York social scene, and to enjoy life in the metropolis where she had grown up. In New York — out of the Hollywood media glare — she was much freer to live life on her own terms.
- 8/12/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
by Todd Decker (University of California Press) So much has been written about the incomparable Fred Astaire, one might properly wonder what is left to say. In this scholarly book, music professor Decker answers that question with cogent analyses of Astaire’s work and, just as important, draws on primary source materials to better understand how many of his most inventive dance numbers for film and television came about. By scouring Rko, MGM and Paramount production files, as well as the papers of such collaborators as director Mark Sandrich, lyricist Johnny Mercer, songwriter Irving Berlin, and MGM’s musical jack-of-all-trades Roger Edens,…...
- 8/4/2011
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Hayao Miyazaki, Gregory Peck, King Vidor, Ingmar Bergman: Packard Campus January 2011 Thursday, January 6 (7:30 p.m.) The Gay Divorcee (Rko, 1934) An unhappily married woman mistakes a suitor for the gigolo hired to end her marriage. Musical, comedy, romance. Directed by Mark Sandrich. With Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes and Eric Blore. Black & White, 107 min. Friday, January 7 (7:30 p.m.) Tron (Disney, 1982) A computer genius falls into the game he's designed and has to fight an evil intelligence he accidentally created. Science Fiction, action, adventure. Directed by Steven Lisberger. With Jeff Bridges, David Warner and Bruce Boxleitner. Color, 96 min. Rated PG. Saturday, January 8 (2:00 p.m.) My Neighbor Totoro (Toho,1988) When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby. Animation, family adventure, fantasy. Directed by Hayao [...]...
- 1/8/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“I wanted to be a dancer,” says Fred Astaire, wheezing out a tune on a harmonica with his gangly frame draped casually over a medical couch. “Till I was psychologized.” Astaire plays doctor—a shrink, of all things—in Mark Sandrich’s Carefree (1953), a little-known screwball comedy gem as antic and goofy as Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby (1938) with dance. And what dance! Accompanied by an Irving Berlin score, Astaire and Rogers are at the top of their game in the tale of a therapist (Astaire) who must find the root of the commitment phobia that plagues his new patient (Rogers). “She’s probably just another pampered, maladjusted female,” opines Astaire into his doctor’s recorder, prescribing her a good spanking. Until he meets her, that...
- 9/1/2010
- by Livia Bloom
- Filmmaker Magazine_Web Exclusives
In 1935, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made cinema history with their most successful film partnership, Top Hat. However, it wasn’t Astaire’s headgear that got people talking; it was Rogers’ ostrich feather dress worn in the Oscar-nominated song ‘Cheek to Cheek’.
The fact remains that this is quite possibly the most memorable, beautiful and romantic musical number ever captured on film, and Rogers’ dress contributes to this greatly.
Whenever Astaire and Rogers dance, they are making love without undressing, without even kissing in the majority of their films; “they is angels” remarks unfairly condemned criminal Kofi as he fulfils his dying wish of watching the lovers perform ‘Cheek to Cheek’ in the film The Green Mile (1999).
In this scene, Rogers certainly does look like an angel in her now-famous dress, accessorised only by a glass panel-style bracelet (costume jewellery in enamel or glass was very fashionable in the 1930s...
The fact remains that this is quite possibly the most memorable, beautiful and romantic musical number ever captured on film, and Rogers’ dress contributes to this greatly.
Whenever Astaire and Rogers dance, they are making love without undressing, without even kissing in the majority of their films; “they is angels” remarks unfairly condemned criminal Kofi as he fulfils his dying wish of watching the lovers perform ‘Cheek to Cheek’ in the film The Green Mile (1999).
In this scene, Rogers certainly does look like an angel in her now-famous dress, accessorised only by a glass panel-style bracelet (costume jewellery in enamel or glass was very fashionable in the 1930s...
- 8/11/2010
- by Sarah H
- Clothes on Film
I have been accused of having a short memory when it comes to the movies, and that my appreciation for the songs, and scenes 'we' love have occasionally been a little narrow in scope. But today I'm going to remedy that situation, because, one of my favorite movie songs of all time isn't from the 80's or the 90's. No, this time I'm going all the way back to 1935 and Irving Berlin's Cheek to Cheek from the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical screwball comedy, Top Hat.
Directed by Mark Sandrich, the comedy starred Astaire as an American dancer who travels to London to star in a stage show, and when he lands across the pond falls for Rogers after a meet-cute in their hotel. The film has all the trademarks of screwball romance, and after a case of mistaken identity, plenty of slamming doors, and mind-boggling footwork, the...
Directed by Mark Sandrich, the comedy starred Astaire as an American dancer who travels to London to star in a stage show, and when he lands across the pond falls for Rogers after a meet-cute in their hotel. The film has all the trademarks of screwball romance, and after a case of mistaken identity, plenty of slamming doors, and mind-boggling footwork, the...
- 5/18/2010
- by Jessica Barnes
- Cinematical
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, Judy Garland-James Mason version of A Star Is Born (1954), among other features. Present at the A Star Is Born screening was Lorna Luft, Garland’s daughter with Sid Luft. Among the other film personalities attending the various screenings were Betty Garrett, one of the stars of the Gene Kelly-Stanley Donen musical On the [...]...
- 4/24/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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