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FILM/TV @ TCOTS

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06 June 2009, 1800 hours
DAVID CARRADINE, R.I.P.

As of this posting, we don't know if it was a suicide, a perverse sexual adventure gone wrong, or a murder.  Whatever it turns out to be, Mr. Carradine should be remembered as a fine actor who had that certain something that made you watch whatever he was in even if the show was God-awful.

As S.T. Karnick wrote:

The circumstances of his death, however, should not be allowed to overshadow his accomplishments as an actor.

As the son of actor John Carradine, David Carradine both benefited from his Hollywood family connection and rebelled against the industry that employed him. He appeared in a few very good movies, such as Bound for Glory and The Long Riders, and many, many very poor ones. He played a wide variety of roles, with numerous appearances as villains, some of which were quite memorable, even in some very bad films.

What he’ll be most remembered for, however, is probably the TV series Kung Fu. The show ran from 1972 through 1975, and it reflected a big change in American attitudes. Set in the Old West, Kung Fufeatured Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk, a serene and peaceful practitioner of Eastern religion and Chinese martial arts transplanted to the United States. Kung Fu included only a couple of minutes of physical action scenes per episode, concentrating most of the time on interesting angles on personal relationships.

In that regard, however, the show was actually quite traditional. Many excellent Western TV series tended to concentrate on personal stories instead of mere action, notably classics such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Have Gun, Will Travel.What Carradine and the show’s writers brought to the genre was a post-Vietnam attitude of weariness toward conflict, a yearning for peace that manifested in an oddly Christian way: a simple refusal to seek revenge for wrongs done to oneself.

Please take the time to click here and read the full posting.

Over at Big Hollywood, John Nolte weighs in:

Whatever it was, I hope he’s found peace.

And I hope that in life he found some peace in knowing he had achieved artistic immortality playing Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby’s 1976 “Bound for Glory,” one of the finest bio-pics ever produced, thanks mainly to Carradine’s Oscar-worthy performance. (He did win a Golden Globe.)

At 147 minutes, “Bound for Glory” must’ve looked awfully difficult to pull off on paper. Essentially, it’s a character study covering just a few years in the life of a complicated, difficult, and frequently unlikable man. Thanks to Ashby’s direction, the best of his career, and Haskell Wexler’sOscar-winning cinematography, “Glory” hits in all the places an actor can’t, but this is also the kind of film where the central performance can make or break, and Carradine makes it, and then some.

I have not seen Bound For Glory, but I recall him fondly on Kung Fu, his sense of humor about that role, his enjoyable performance in Kill Bill and as the host of Wild West Tech [where he took over the hosting duties for his equally talented brother, Robert (see The Duellists)].

R.I.P.

FIVE STAR FINAL
Five Star Final is a pre-Code melodramatic indictment of newspapermen who exploit ordinary citizens and their lives to increase circulation.  An eighteen-year-old case of a woman shooting her lover and being acquitted by a jury is resurrected, not because any new evidence has come to light, but simply because of the sensationalism and implied sordidness of it all will sell more papers.  The story is found to be even more juicer when it is discovered that the woman has married, become a respectable middle-class wife, and raised a daughter who is about to be married to the son of a wealthy businessman.  The publisher of the newspaper that is the focus of the film wants to tack a moral lesson on to the story as a coda so his readers will not feel soiled after having indulged themselves in enjoying the reading of the story.  This situation can only end in sorrow and it does.  The movie deftly avoids preachiness, which is the destroyer of satisfaction and enjoyment in all of the arts.  A good deal of credit for this goes to Edward G. Robinson who plays the Editor of the paper.  His acting skills overcome any potential landmines in the scripted dialogue and he offers us a portrayal of the inherently good egg who has momentarily lost his way and forgotten his morality.  Being pre-Code, things are mentioned and shown that just a few short years later would be banned from films for the next thirty years.  But the movie is not offensive in any way.  In this age where shows like TMZ and where shows like Today, which once sought to be respectable, now, at the drop of a hat, gladly dredge up the most sordid and sensational muck on an hourly basis, Five Star Final still resonates as a warning to the media as to what damage then can do when they abandon self-restraint and a sense of moral obligation to their audience.

27 September 2008
PAUL NEWMAN, 1925-2008
UPDATED [04 OCT. 2008]: See below.
UPDATED [29 SEPT. 2008]: See below.

John Nolte's [aka Dirty Harry] tribute is near-perfect.  Some highlights:

Paul Newman, legendary actor, businessman, and race car driver died at his farmhouse near Westport, Connecticut, after a long battle with cancer.

Even for a movie star he was uncommonly handsome and charismatic. And yet, somehow, Paul Newman defied the odds. He was a good man.

And...
Like most leading men, Newman wasn’t a versatile actor. His genius wasn’t his range, it was the limitless depths he could achieve within his range — the emotional places he could plumb.

And...
But for all his legendary screen performances and awards, nothing was more impressive than Paul Newman the man. Before it became chic, when it could hurt a star’s career, Newman was out there in the early 1960s with Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, and Rev. Martin Luther King marching for civil rights. A lifelong liberal, Newman, unlike too many of today’s stars, didn‘t trash the other side. Instead, he was a proponent, an advocate, and — more importantly — one who put his money where his mouth was.

Using his passion for cooking, in 1982 Newman created “Newman’s Own,” a wildly successful venture that, from sales of salad dressings, pasta sauce, and other food items, has reportedly netted upwards of $200 million for charity. As if that didn’t keep him busy enough, in 1988 Newman opened The Hole In The Wall Camp (named after Butch Cassidy’s “gang”) for seriously ill children.

The most legendary thing about Newman, however, was his marriage of fifty years to Joanne Woodward, an Academy Award winning actress in her own right. Once asked how he managed to stay faithful, Newman replied, “Why go out for hamburger, when you got steak at home.” It says a lot about man who talks about his wife in such ways. It also says a lot that of the five times Newman stepped behind the camera as a feature director, three of them involved plum roles for his wife.

Newman’s legacy will always be there for new generations to discover in revival houses and on DVD. His charitable legacy will also live on. Unfortunately, what is lost forever is the kind of movie star Paul Newman was — the kind who understood that being larger than life meant never crossing the line into the dark heart of celebrity; that it was possible to be politically active without insulting your fans; that living in rural Connecticut as opposed to Beverly Hills was how to keep your perspective.

A loving father, faithful husband, World War II veteran and philanthropist who gave away a vast fortune, being one of the all-time great screen legends was only part of who Paul Newman was. It‘s the rare circumstance where after their passing we mourn the loss of the man more than the star.

Please take the time to click here and read the full tribute.  Also, check out his website where he has set up a thread of Top 5 Paul Newman Moments.

I was going to write one, but Mr. Nolte captures exactly what I think.  I would only add: He was one of the good guys.

The Wall Street Journal has set up a tribute page on Paul Newman that has photos and video clips.  Please click here.

UPDATE [29 SEPT. 2008]:  The Times Of London has published a wonderful and insightful obit.  Please click here to read it.

UPDATED [04 OCT.2008]: 
Joe Morgenstern [The Wall Street Journal]: 'Paul Newman gave growing old a good name, after staying young for so long that he had started to seem immortal. He was a serious actor, as well as one of Hollywood's last superstars -- he gave hard work a good name too -- but what defined him, old or young, was his smile. Sometimes it was a jaunty kid's smile on the preposterously handsome face of a grown man; sometimes a genial version of a wise-guy smile, tinctured with traces of self-irony to let us know he didn't think he was wise at all. Most times he smiled as if the sun had just come out and he was basking in it.'

Mark Steyn: 'There were two Paul Newmans: He was a star on screen - one of the last real movie stars, a man who, despite himself, brought glamor to every role. Off screen, he was a rather doctrinaire leftie - a lot of celebrities are, of course, at least when mouthing off at awards ceremonies. Newman didn't do a lot of talking the talk, not in public, but he walked the walk in ways few politically-minded celebs do.'

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06 September 2008
METEOR
Directed by: Ronald Neame
Released: 19 October 1979
Cast: 

      Sean Connery as Dr. Paul Bradley
      Natalie Wood as Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya
      Karl Malden as Harry Sherwood
      Brian Keith as Dr. Alexei Dubov
      Martin Landau as Major General Adlon
      Trevor Howard as Sir Michael Hughes
      Richard Dysart as Secretary of Defense
      Henry Fonda as The President

DVD Release: I won't tempt you

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. [with much thanks to Lester Bangs for the inspiration]

14 August 2008
ATLAS SHRUGGED
Movie Plans May Move Forward Again and Belvedere Muses

I've been hearing for quite a while now that Angelina Jolie is in consideration to play Dagney Taggart in a projected film version of Atlas Shrugged.  Rachel Lucas reports that Brad Pitt may be in line to portray John Galt.  Under the title Well This Is Just Wrong, she offered a few choice comments:

There have been brief, cold moments in my life when I found Brad Pitt to be moderately attractive, in that same sort of way I find cauliflower attractive. It’s pretty but really what purpose does it serve? But never have I been less than appalled at Pitt’s acting performances and the fact that he gets paid to deliver them. Paid! To do what he does! That is wrong!

If you can tell me with a straight face that you can watch Brad Pitt speak without hearing inside your head a stream of “duuuhhhh heh heh duhhh”, then you, Sir, have already died and gone to hell. I don’t even know what that means but I feel strongly enough about it to mention hell.

Anyway. So I was just reading over at The Corner that Mr. Bradley Pitt and Angelina Jolie are going to star in a movie version of Atlas Shrugs [sic]. As in, Pitt as Galt. Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse.

If we're talking just looks, Pitt would make an excellent Galt.  He fits the description fairly well.  However, any production of Ayn Rand's melodramatic novel requires actors who can take her dialogue and not make it seem campy and/or silly.  Melodrama is very difficult to pull off.  It is, by its nature, hyper-realistic and thus easily prone come off as foolish.  If you have have ever heard someone acting Shakespeare pre-Olivier, then you know bad it can get.

A delicate balancing act will be required to pull off an interpretation of Atlas: you've got to maintain the melodramatic intensity without turning off an audience that is used to realism.

I think Jolie is a great choice for Dagney; she has the acting chops to pull it off.  Pitt, however, is another story.  He's not much of an actor and lacks what even less technically proficient stars such as John Wayne and Jimmy Cagney have been able to use to excuse their lack of chops: presence.  No...a much better choice would be Russell Crowe.  He showed how well he can deal with melodrama in L.A. Confidential. 

As you can see, it will take actors with a certain kind of talent to pull off a production of Atlas Shrugged.  I humbly offer a few more casting ideas:

This Is Bob Belvedere Speaking...

Francisco d'Anconia: Andy Garcia [Tom Selleck has the look, but not the chops]

Hank Reardon: Bruce Willis [Chuck Heston would have been perfect]

Ragnar Danneskjold: Thomas Jane [Rutger Hauer is, alas, too old]

James Taggart [weasley brother of Dagney]: Brad Pitt

I'll have somemore casting suggestions as time goes on.  Please come back and look for updates.

02 July 2008
DEEP BLUE SEA
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Released: 28 July 1999
Cast:
      Samuel L. Jackson as Russell Franklin

      Thomas Jane as Carter Blake

      Saffron Burrows as Dr. Susan McCallister

      LL Cool J as Sherman 'Preacher' Dudley

      Michael Rapaport as Tom "Scoggs" Scoggins

      Stellan Skarsgård as Jim Whitlock

      Jacqueline McKenzie as Janice Higgins

      Aida Turturro as Brenda Kerns

DVD Release: 07 December 1999

Mrs. Belvedere wanted to see a "good summer movie".  I was allowed to choose between Jaws and Deep Blue Sea.  We had seen the latter first about seven years ago.  At the time, I was not impressed and would not have subsequently recommended it as a "good summer movie"; it just did not seem to have the right stuff.  I chose it, however, because I was willing to give it a second chance.  I am almost always willing to give a Samuel L. Jackson film another go if I was not impressed by the first viewing.  I root for the guy; he's one of the few actors in movies these days who’s truly a "star" in the tradition of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Clint Eastwood, et al.  He's not the greatest actor in the world but he, like the stars just mentioned, has presence: that ability to compel you watch when he's in a scene and enjoy "being around" whatever character he plays.  After my second viewing of Deep Blue Sea, I am now willing to say it is a well-done B movie and is, most definitely, a good summer movies.

It follows the traditional rules for this kind of film: spend the first act establishing the personalities of the main characters and clue us in on the motive that will usually drive one character to set in motion the catastrophe to come [Example: In Airport, the bomber is driven by desperately wanting to provide for his family after his screw-ups have left them near-destitute].  The key to a successful film operating in this genre is not too spend too much time doing this.  The audience wants the personal information [it needs it in order to like and hate various characters], but it wants more for the film to "get on with it".  Once the main motive is established and we've got an idea who these people are, its time for the bad things to begin happening.  Deep Blue Sea gets this right.  And once things get moving, the movie keeps moving.  Lulls in the action are good, but too many of these kinds of films have too much let-up.  This film is smart in that it lets most of the quiet-amidst-the-storm scenes tale place by following the story of the isolated cook played by LL Cool J.  Like Jackson, but not as strongly, he has presence and a good sense of comedic timing.  These scenes are never too long and a few involve him in some edge-of-your-seat action. 

What you cannot expect of these films is that they stay fully in the real world [even Jaws has a moment].  But they have to stay close enough, I think, for us to still be able to identify with the characters as real people.  It’s a delicate balance and Deep Blue Sea gets it pretty right. 

These kind of films need at least one totally unexpected surprise that will knock you for a loop.  This one has got it and it is unique.

Another thing that Deep Blue Sea gets correct is who survives.  We want the right people to survive—none of the bad or annoying ones should.  We're fully aware that at least one of the sympathetic characters will have to die.  Admit it, that's part of thrill we get out of one of these films: we want to feel a little sadness along with the exhilaration and fear produced by the struggle to stay alive and of the satisfaction of justice meted out [bad and/or annoying guys getting killed].  However, it is important to we viewers being satisfied that only the ones we like survive.  Good must triumph in some way.

These kinds of movies need a good cast to overcome what are often B-level dialogue.  Once again Deep Blue Sea gets it right.  Up-and-coming [in 1999] actors [Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J] are placed alongside good character actors [Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård], and, as mentioned, we are graced with the presence of Mr. Jackson.  In the film, Mr. Jane shows all the potential of being the next, great action movie star ala Bruce Willis—don’t know why that never came about.  And as I indicated above, LL Cool J has got potential.  Mr. Rapaport is, as ever, consistently good [check out the underrated film Copland].  Mr. Skarsgård is a consummate pro, always a pleasure to watch in anything [they should give him more starring roles].

Unfortunately, solid B movies like Deep Blue Sea are rare these days.


                                                  —30— 

11 June 2008
FIVE
Directed/Written by: Arch Oboler
Released: 25 April 1951
Cast:
      William Phipps as Michael
      Susan Douglas as Roseanne
      Charles Lampkin as Charles
      Earl Lee as Oliver
      James Anderson as Eric
DVD Release: None yet [I have not found any evidence that it was ever released on video]


Recently, Turner Classic Movies screened a night of apocalyptic movies.  This is a sub-genre of the Doomsday film that encompasses several types of stories that follow survivors in the aftermath of nuclear war or a mysterious incurable plague or some sort of catastrophic disaster.  It has enjoyed a certain popularity since the unsettling atomic age began in 1945.  Some of the most famous examples include: On The Beach, Day Of The Triffids, The Last Man On Earth [remade in 1971 as The Omega Man; remade in 2007 as I Am Legend], Mad Max, The Day After, 28 Days Later.

FIVE, released in 1951, fits into this category.  In his comments before the screening, Robert Osbourne of TCM claims that this was the first film to depict life after an atomic exchange.  The movie revolves around two people who join together a few weeks after the devastation and the three others who come into their new world.  Of the initial two, one is pregnant, the other a man who has traveled from the East Coast in search of others [he has found none].  They hole up in a house in the hills [designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, owned by the director—this is not a high budget film,].  Two others show up in a Jeep one day: an old elderly bank teller and the black porter from the bank.  The final survivor is rescued when he washes ashore the day the others travel to the beach.  [For a plot summary, click here]

The film deals with racism, being faithful to one's husband even though he may be dead, and, I think most importantly, the clash between strategic [big-picture, long-term] thinking and tactical [short-term, satisfying the urges of the moment] thinking.  The tactical thinker, Eric, sees no reason to plan long-term and seems insensible to the potential danger of taking foolish risks in such a situation.  Michael believes in being cautious; he has heard enough of this thing called radiation and it's consequences to make him hesitate to undertake any adventures back into the cities and risk what little they have.

It has all the hallmarks of a first effort in a new genre: the presentation has not been fully developed; the way to proceed has not been refined.  Also, many of the effects of an atomic attack were not understood and this is quite obvious.  The treatment of radiation and how its poison works on humans is very out-of-date and, therefore, unreal.  However, for a first attempt, it does a good job and makes marking out time for the film worth the effort.  The mood of isolation and loneliness that such a situation would bring on is well-documented as is the hesitation to trust other survivors' motives.  According to Osbourne, this film was a labor of love for the director.  He made it with a small budget and many of the scenes appear to have been shot with inferior lenses.

I take pleasure in these kinds of films because they call you to wonder what you would do when faced with the situation as portrayed and also for the fact that they have the potential to provide, in the extreme situation being presented, a look into the nature of man.  I have found that even some of the lesser films of this genre, can deliver on this.  While On The Beach is a great film in so many ways [handsomely made, beautifully filmed, well-acted], The Last Man On Earth is not; it was crudely shot, and crudely dubbed with some fairly horrible acting thrown in [not Vincent Price—he's superb].  Yet, it is one of the best of the type for it shows us a man who we would recognize and, therefore, with whom we can empathize.

                                                             —30—

30 April 2008
BIOPICS OF JOHN ADAMS


During the recent first run of episodes of the HBO miniseries John Adams, one read and heard a number of complaints along this line: I wanted to show the series to my children/class, but some of the episodes contained either too much gore or unnecessary nudity or uncomfortable situations.  References were made to the tarring and feathering scene [hot tar poured on a body and full-frontal male nudity of the victim], the scene of intercourse between John and Abigail in France [fully clothed but rather steamy], and the scene depicting Nabby's breast removal surgery [her bare breast I shown], among others.


Many were surprised that Tom Hanks chose to include these scenes.  They had assumed that he would want to be able to show the series in classrooms and also for families to be able to watch it together—or, at least, they hoped good old virtuous Tom thought this way.  Perhaps he intended it as an adult film or, perhaps, he does not think the scenes, as they we filmed, are unsuitable for children [he is a leading member of the Hollywood Establishment after all].  I have not read or heard him comment either way.


I would encourage parents to forgo screening this series because there is another one that portrays Adams and his family much more accurately.  It also has the advantage of not having adult-only scenes as described above. 


The Adams Chronicles is now out on DVD.  Produced in the mid-seventies, it covers four generations of the family, starting with John.  There are a total of 13 episodes.  The first six cover John, four cover John Quincy, and the last three cover Charles Francis and his sons Henry and Charles Francis.


The six hours given to John Adams give you a better measure of the man than the over ten hours provided in the HBO series.  The late George Grizzard gives a very nuanced performance that shows both the good and bad sides of him and how together they formed the great man.  The Chronicles does not contain the great CGI and cinematography provided by Hanks and company.  It was shot on videotape by a public television station on a small budget, but it captures the man and his family very well and the lack of effects lets you concentrate on the people being depicted.  The Chronicles also has the advantage of not having Paul Giamatti.  While Laura Linney is magnificent as Abigail, Mr. Giamatti  does not remind one of the Adams one finds in the major biographies or that emanates from the pages of his writings.  His Adams is merely the character of Miles in Sideways transported to the 18th Century.  Whereas Adams could be annoying at times, Giamatti's portrayal is annoying the vast majority of the time.  He is a very good actor when given a character to portray that fits his temperament and style.  That is not the case here [recall John Wayne as Genghis Khan or Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson].


Mr. Grizzard on the other hand shows us a well-rounded man.  At first, we see a young man quite full of himself who, while never losing that fault, evolves into a great champion of the rights of free men, a devoted husband, and a humbler creature.  When the series was made, the trend in Adams history did not include great emphasis on the extraordinary relationship he had with Abigail so, although we are shown how utterly devoted to, and dependent on, each other they were, it is not a main focus of the episodes [the two ladies cast as Abigail are quite good].  To understand that, one can turn to the filmed version of the Broadway musical 1776.  Through the dialogue and songs they sing to each other, you will glimpse the depth of their affection for each other [reading their letters is a wonderful experience as well].  William Daniels, who has a history of playing members of the family [John in 1776, John Quincy in The Adams Chronicles, and Sam in The Bastard], shows us Adams in his 41st year with all his bravado and bluster and compassion and warmth.  The late Virginia Vestoff is as magnificent in her depiction of Abigail as is Miss Linney.


1776 is a great companion to The Chronicles.  Before you view it you need to know two things: (1) that it is not quite historically accurate in its portrayal of the events surrounding the creation of The Declaration of Independence and (2) it does however accurately capture what the main Founders [Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Abigail] were like.  A good deal of the dialogue is taken from the writings of the protagonists and it is very witty.  Some of the humor, though, is not suited for children under, say, ten or twelve.

THE GHOUL
[1933]
The first British horror film with sound, it stars Boris Karloff as Professor Morlant.  He is an expert on Ancient Egypt who has become obsessed with reaching the 'gates of paradise' when he dies.  To accomplish this, he insists that his loyal servant Laing bandage a jewel in his hand that the professor stole from a tomb in Egypt.  He warns that if his wishes are not followed, he will rise from the dead, seek revenge, and recover the sacred jewel.  You can see where this is going.  If you like the kind of horror films Hollywood made in the 1930's, I think you will enjoy this one.  It has the same feel, but, unlike his American counterparts, Director T. Hayes Hunter is more restrained.  Karloff turns in his usual quality performance giving the right levels of fanaticism and intelligence to his Professor Morlant [great name—up there with Dr. Morbius; by the way: the gentleman who plays Laing, Ernest Thesiger, played Dr. Pretorius—another wonderful name—in Bride of Frankenstein].  A very good performance is also turned in by Ralph Richardson in a secondary role.

NIGHT NURSE
[1931]
A pre-Code William Wellman film that stars Barbara Stanwyck, it starts off as an urban melodrama, but evolves into a gritty crime drama of the kind that Warner Brothers did so well.  Miss Stanwyck's character is tough, sassy, but has a heart.—its the kind of role that brings out the best in her.  She uses her charms to get into nursing school and makes friends with another broad, Joan Blondell.  They make some mischief and break rules, but she takes her job seriously.  When they graduate, they go to work taking care of a socialite's two kids.  Stanwyck suspects that the kids are being starved and battles a corrupt doctor, the mother, and a hard-ass and dangerous chauffeur played by very young Clark Gable [man, them ears were big].  She'll do anything to save the children and she's helped out by a good-hearted mobster who seems to have a sense of honor.  If you like the old Warner Brother's crime dramas, you'll like this one.  Since it's pre-Code, you also get to enjoy Stanwyck and Blondell in their lingerie.

GET CARTER
[original version]
The plot: London hitman John Carter's brother dies in mysterious circumstances up in Newcastle. He [Michael Caine] decides to go home and find out what happened. He is warned by his London boss not to do so but goes anyway. No one in his hometown wants to discuss it. The hitman investigates, is told to leave before he gets hurt, continues to investigate, is pursued by other hitmen, beds some women, discovers his niece was used in a porn film, that his brother found out and was killed before he could go to the police, and eventually enacts vengeance on all of those involved using a mixture of violence and cunning. After he dispatches the last person involved in his brother's death, he is shot dead.  Great potential in that. Could have been a classic noir of the British variety. Sadly, the story never takes off. Incidents happen without explanation and you never are given any reason to sympathize with Caine's character. The movie never achieves a rhythm, never hits a stride. It kind of just lays there despite some fine acting performances. It deserves a proper remake with a better script; forget the 2000 remake with Stallone. It needs British actors in grimy British settings.

SEA OF LOVE
New York Detective Al Pacino on the trail of a serial killer.  He's got a messed-up, lonely personal life and has been on the job too long.  The two halves of his life intersect as he pursues what appears to be a female killer; trouble is, he's falling for the main suspect.  Pacino brings his raffish charm and solid chops to the role.  Ellen Barkin does what she does best: portray a tough broad whose outer strength hides a kind heart.  She's not a beauty but, man, does she ooze erotic steam.  John Goodman turns in a solid performance as Pacino's partner.  He provides some comic relief and sanity, but even he gets drawn into Pacino's downward spiral.  A well-done police procedural and murder mystery. 

THE FIRST DEADLY SIN
Frank Sinatra as a no-nonsense Irish-American New York cop on the trail of someone who may be a serial killer.  He's near retirement and his wife [Fay Dunaway] is ill.  A bit slow moving and it plays like a TV episode.  Strictly for fans of Sinatra who enjoy seeing him play hard-boiled cops or P.I.'s [like me].  Only available, for some reason, in a full screen version.

THE DUCHESS OF DUKE STREET
Seasons 1 & 2
By one of the men that brought us Upstairs Downstairs, this is the fictional story of a poor London gal who, through hard work and determination, becomes one of the most celebrated chefs and hotel owners during the early part of the 20th Century.  Well written, all of the characters come off as real, well-rounded; even the sympathetic ones annoy you sometimes.  Based on the life of Rosa Lewis and played with gusto by Gemma Jones.

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Law & Order Reflects Real Life
[e Journal USA]
An Interview with criminal lawyer Richard Sweren: 'It's popular because it tells a self-contained story in 45 minutes. You didn't have to watch the one before, or watch it for a year or five years - you can just get right into it. You don't need any previous knowledge of the show when you turn it on. We try to choose interesting crimes, and people are fascinated by crime, by cops and robbers. Crime is something that translates to any language.'
[tip of the fedora to Michael J. Ryan]

History as Entertainment
[National Review Online]
Matt Patterson: 'Is it possible to make good entertainment out of good scholarship? This is the question that History, formerly and more aptly named the History Channel, embodies. For the lover of history, the channel perplexes and pleases, infuriates and educates, entertains and, yes, vulgarizes. The question: Is History good for the public's legendarily abysmal historical literacy? Or does it bear some responsibility for that lamentable state of affairs? Shows like The Presidents and Engineering an Empire, and documentaries like The Link (about the recent and purported "missing link" primate fossil named Ida), are all first-rate. The problem is that these shows swim in a sea of ahistoric and unhistorical programming. We're not talking just about Ice Road Truckers, a fairly compelling and well-done reality show, but also dreadful series like UFO Files and MonsterQuest, as well as endless documentaries on Nostradamus, Atlantis, the coming apocalypse, and all manner of pseudo-science.'

Scarlett O'Hara on set
[The Times Of London]
Paula Marantz Cohen reviewing: 'In Frankly, My Dear: “Gone with the Wind” revisited, Molly Haskell, the author of From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of women in the movies (1974), turns her attention to one of the dubious classics of Hollywood cinema: GWTW, as the film is known by its many fans. Three individuals, Haskell explains, were central to the film’s making and enduring popularity: Margaret Mitchell, the author of the bestselling novel, David O. Selznick, the wunderkind producer, who put the novel on the screen, and Vivien Leigh, the then little-known British actress, was chosen for the leading role over numerous American stars. It was the “deep-down tension in Mitchell, Selznick, and Leigh between vulgarity and refinement” that, according to Haskell, made the film work.'

The Gangster as Rock Star
[The American Spectator]
James Bowman: 'There are a number of ways to classify Michael Mann's -- or Johnny Depp's -- Public Enemies, the most obvious of which is as the latest in that classic American genre, the Gangster Film. But this paean to the Depression-era bank robber and murderer, John Dillinger, lacks one thing that, I think, is indispensable to a good Gangster Film, which is a moral backdrop. Mr. Depp, after having invented the cool pirate, is now hard at work trying to do the same for the cool gangster -- the gangster, that is, as rock-star -- in a cinematic and cultural environment well prepared for him by the romantic and balletic but amoral violence of Quentin Tarantino, decades worth of denigration of civil authority going back to Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the pseudo-profundities of The Dark Knight (2008), insisting on the moral equivalence of law-enforcers and law-breakers. Heath Ledger's Joker in the last named picture is the real prototype of Mr. Depp's John Dillinger, not the historical character of that name. But Public Enemies goes even further than The Dark Knight in glamorizing evil.'

The Toxic Philosophy Behind 'Quirky' Film(s)
[The American Culture]
S.T. Karnick: 'In his excellent review of the new film Away We Go, critic R. J. MacReady extensively outlines the ideas and attitudes conveyed by the film, which seems on the surface to be quite light and appealingly "quirky," as the modern critical praiseword has it. MacReady is spot-on in intuiting that there is something going on in Away We Go that's more than just a fond, heartwarming look at two people trying to find their way in a cold and indifferent world. There is. Throughout his critique, MacReady captures the little secret behind some of these seemingly raffish, charming, shaggy-dog tales. They have a message, and it is a toxic one.'

Ed McMahon, R.I.P.
[The Los Angeles Times]
Dennis McLellan: 'Ed McMahon, a television pioneer who warmed "The Tonight Show" couch for nearly 30 years as Johnny Carson's jovial sidekick and announcer, died early Tuesday. He was 86. At one point in the early 1980s, he reportedly was the spokesman for no fewer than 37 banks around the country. And for years he served as the spokesman for American Family Publishers' national sweepstakes, famously informing Americans that "You may already have won $10 million!" More recently, McMahon turned up in commercials for FreeCreditReport.com that poked fun at his financial woes. And he appeared with MC Hammer in a Cash4Gold commercial that aired during the 2009 Super Bowl. But McMahon will be best remembered as the prototypal late-night talk-show announcer and second banana, who enthusiastically boomed out in his rolling baritone the familiar words, "And now, heeeeere's Johnny!" As Carson's loyal, quick-to-laugh sidekick and comic foil, McMahon had so many catchphrases he could have done a medley of them in his nightclub act. And as a sign of his effect on pop culture, McMahon was the inspiration for Jeffrey Tambor's late-night talk-show sidekick Hank ("Hey, now!") Kingsley on Garry Shandling's 1990s sitcom "The Larry Sanders Show." When Carson died in 2005 at 79, McMahon described his longtime friend and colleague as being "like a brother to me."'

Karl Malden, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'He had a bulbous nose (the product of two football accidents in youth) which, on screen, denied him romantic or leading parts. So he specialised in playing villains and losers, often with psychological hang-ups. His best work was done for the director Elia Kazan, whom he met before the war when they were both involved in the Group Theatre production of Clifford Odets's play Golden Boy. Kazan recognised Malden's strengths and in 1947 cast him as Mitch in his Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. It earned him a prestigious theatrical award and, when Kazan filmed the play four years later, Malden reprised the role, winning an Oscar as best supporting actor. Malden's work in Baby Doll was even more distinguished. Kazan spotted the actor's largely untapped gift for comedy and encouraged him to turn the character of Archie Lee Meighan, cuckolded by a not-so-child-like bride who spends all day in a crib, into a figure of fun and pathos. Kazan's film and Malden's performance emphasised the grotesque humour often overlooked in Tennessee Williams adaptations. The mid-1950s were Malden's best years, embracing not only On the Waterfront and Baby Doll, but Fear Strikes Out (1957), a harrowing biopic of the baseball player Jim Piersall (Anthony Perkins), whose confidence was sapped by his father's driving ambition. His film cameo as General Omar Bradley in Patton (1970) marked a brief return to form, but through much of that decade he was best known for his work in the long-running TV police series The Streets of San Francisco (1972-77). In 1984 he won an Emmy for his supporting role in the television film Fatal Vision.'

Fred Travalena, R.I.P.
[The Los Angeles Times]
Dennis McLellan: 'Fred Travalena, the master impressionist and singer whose broad repertoire of voices ranged from Jack Nicholson to Sammy Davis Jr. to Bugs Bunny, has died. He was 66. Dubbed "The Man of a Thousand Faces" and "Mr. Everybody," Travalena emerged on the national stage as an impressionist in the early 1970s. Over the next three decades, he was a headliner in Las Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City, performed in concerts across the country, appeared on "The Tonight Show" and other talk shows and starred in his own specials, such as "The Many Faces of Fred Travalena" and "Comedy in the Oval Office." The boyish-faced entertainer is said to have had a repertoire of more than 360 celebrity, political and cartoon-character voices, including Clint Eastwood, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Johnny Mathis, Bruce Springsteen and Luciano Pavarotti. Travalena's talent for vocal mimicry led to a side career dubbing in clean dialogue to replace offensive words in feature films bound for airing on television -- including Pesci in "Casino," De Niro in "Brazil" and Sean Connery in "Just Cause."'

Viewing a TV Death in four acts
[National Post]
Robert Fulford: 'Most episodic shows tell two stories simultaneously. One deals with fictional characters. The other is the narrative's slow evolution under the pressure of desperate producers and harried writers. The second story demonstrates that the history of a TV series, like the history of a nation or an art movement, falls into four periods -- primitive, classic, baroque and decadent.'
[tip of the fedora to Arts & Letters Daily]

In Tyson's Corner
[The American Spectator]
James Bowman: 'Mike Tyson is no dummy, you know. He uses long and old-fashioned words like "skullduggery" -- which he uses to mean something like "head games" -- and he knows a lot about the history of boxing, which is the area of human endeavor to which he has made his great contribution and which, in return, has made him famous enough to be the subject of a film documentary, Tyson, by James Toback. Mr. Toback, himself a graduate of Harvard College, told an interviewer last year that Mr. Tyson was also a deep reader....'

The 'Rain' Makers
[New York Post]
Jennifer Shaw reviewing Singin' in the Rain The Making of an American Masterpiece by Earl J. Hess and Pratibha A. Dabholkar: '"Singin" in the Rain" is a movie that's got legs, but in Cyd Charisse's case, the camera revealed too much. So much, in fact, that the film had to be doctored with some white paint around the starlet's thighs. It was 1952 and getting past the censors was just one challenge MGM faced in racing the musical comedy out to the big screen, according to this book.'

The Soup: Mmm-Mmm Good
[Big Hollywood]
Guy Benson: 'Is your TiVo programmed to record such timeless TV classics as: The Hills, America’s Next Top Model, For the Love of Ray-J, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, Rock of Love, Charm School, Daisy of Love, Bad Girls Club, The Tyra Banks Show, I Love Money 2,  The Real World, Dancing With the Stars, The Celebrity Apprentice, From G’s to Gents, The Girls of Hedsor Hall, Judge Judy, or the fourth hour of the Today Show? Neither is mine. Fortunately Joel McHale & Co. monitor all of these fine programs-and countless others-on my behalf, identify their most absurd moments, then mock them mercilessly in an easy-to-swallow half hour of weekly television fun.  Welcome to The Soup, which airs Friday nights at 10pm ET on E!'

Sam Cohn, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Although in his heyday his near-mythical powers as a dealmaker inspired regular profiles, Cohn always remained something of an enigma. For all his quirks (he ate paper and refused to return phone calls), he approached his work with an unusual degree of cerebral focus. His peremptory, bullish (some said bullying) manner masked a ready sense of humour, articulated by a laugh once likened to a can of beer being popped open. A stumpy, elusive and diffident figure, Cohn was an ardent New Yorker and (unusually for agents in the film business) seldom travelled to Los Angeles for work. Famous for his macho, staccato style, he was crowned by one Hollywood commentator as the archetype of "New York Rude". In the words of the veteran Variety columnist Peter Bart, "he suffered fools badly, to put it mildly". Yet in person, Cohn belied the stereotypical sharp-suited power broker, dressing in baggy old sweaters and frayed, shiny trousers that scarcely reached his ankles. Disliking the inevitable buckles on his new Gucci loafers, he would invariably slice them off with a razor blade. An industry joke suggested that his tombstone should read: "Here lies Sam Cohn. He'll get back to you."'

Thrilla in Manilla
[Front Page Magazine]
David Forsmark reviewing the film: 'On issues ranging from Hurricane Katrina and Iraq to Election 2000, HBO's documentaries aren't exactly known for toeing anything resembling a conservative line. But the cable network’s latest offering, a film by British director John Dower, Thrilla in Manila, strikes a knockout blow to the graven image of the Left’s greatest sports icon, Muhammed Ali. How thoroughly does Thrilla in Manila take Ali down? How about this line: "Ali was the mouthpiece for a religious group that had the same beliefs as the white supremacist Klu Klux Klan." Biff! Bam! Boom! What makes this even sweeter is the fact that the voice of HBO sports is Bryant Gumbel, the leftist shill who infamously labeled Joe Frazier "the white man’s champion." Ali has been all but canonized these days, but Thrilla reminds us this plaster saint was once one of the most divisive men in America — and deservedly so.'

Star Trek 2.0
[National Review Online]
Jonah Goldberg reviewing: 'So J. J. Abrams has reimagined (“rebooted” is the popular term) the Star Trek franchise by starting over with a whole new cast playing James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Spock, and Sulu — now with twice the macho gayness. The movie purports to tell the story of how Kirk and Spock became friends and how Kirk became captain of the Enterprise. In order to placate the fan base, Abrams uses a time-travel gimmick that preserves the original Trek universe somewhat. Actually, let me just dispense with the people who only want to know if they should see it. The answer is, Yes. It’s an enjoyable, good sci-fi action movie. The cast is surprisingly good — particularly Karl Urban, who plays McCoy. It helps to have passing familiarity with the TV show, but it’s far from required. Indeed, in a sense, less is more — because the more you know about the Trek canon, the more likely it is you’ll have problems with the movie.'

Leftist Politics Killed the Hollywood Drama
[Big Hollywood]
S.T. Karnick: 'The reality is that Hollywood's theatrical film wing has largely forgotten how to do good dramas, and the central problem is the ever-greater politicization of Tinseltown in recent years. Comedies, action movies, and other genre films have been largely free of the incursion of left-wing politics, due both to their genre expectations and the audiences to which they're pitched, especially the young, who are less energized by politics. And those films are doing very well. Dramas, on the other hand, aimed as they are at more mature audiences, have been thoroughly overtaken by progressive politics.'

Why are Christian Movies So Bad?
[Big Hollywood]
Dallis Jenkins: '...when Christians make up over half the population, why are faith-based films still relegated to the low-budget, straight to DVD world? The seemingly obvious answer would be that there are few Christians in Hollywood, both at the studio and creative level, but even that would raise the question of why. I think I know the reason(s), although it's a bit embarrassing because I happen to be a Christian evangelical. But we must face the truth, and as Dr. Phil so eloquently and charmingly puts it, "You can't change what you don't acknowledge." The fact is, Christian movies have been pretty bad for a few decades. Yes, Hollywood had largely ignored the Christian market, but it's not like there have been good examples for Hollywood to learn from. And now that Hollywood is actively seeking faith-based material, there's still a lack of quality scripts and filmmakers available, with a few exceptions, and among the films that are being made in this genre, there are still more crappy ones than good ones.'

Home Sapiens, Get Lost
[National Review Online]
Wesley J. Smith: 'Here and abroad, environmentalism itself seems to be evolving from a movement dedicated to conserving resources, preserving pristine areas, and protecting endangered species into an anti-humanistic ideology that increasingly disdains humankind as a scourge that literally threatens the existence of “the planet.” Deep Ecologists push radical depopulation, perhaps to as few as 500 million people worldwide, as the best medicine to cure the human infection and again permit nature — as opposed to us — to flourish. It is tempting to roll one’s eyes and dismiss Deep Ecology’s anti-humanism as merely the kook fringe being the kook fringe. Alas, as in a Michael Crichton novel, the values of Deep Ecology have escaped the hothouse where they were expected to remain confined and invaded the popular culture, to the point where Hollywood has promoted the movement’s anti-human beliefs in major motion pictures.'

Ken Annakin, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Annakin dabbled in many genres, from action comedies and family fare to crime drama and swashbuckling romance. His career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s — when he started making wartime documentaries in London — and ending in 2002 with a feature film about Genghis Khan. His career peaked in the 1960s with large-scale adventure films. In all he directed nearly 50 pictures. In one of his best-known, The Longest Day, Annakin — with Andrew Marton and Bernhard Wicki — was one of three credited directors. Three years later his work on The Longest Day put Annakin in line to direct another war film, Battle of the Bulge, when the studio’s original choice for director, Richard Fleischer, turned down the job. Meanwhile, Annakin had shot The Fast Lady (1963) and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), the screenplay for which (co-written with Jack Davies) earned him an Academy Award nomination, and the similarly-titled action comedy Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969). His best-loved film was probably Swiss Family Robinson, one of a series of “family adventures” Annakin made for Walt Disney starting in the 1950s.'

Outrageous Celebs Not Worthy of Outrage
[Big Hollywood]
Dave Konig: 'Now, take every single interview with every single actor you have ever heard on radio, saw on television, or read in the learned journals of People or Us or Tiger Beat. How many times in your life have you ever walked away saying (for example): “Wow, I knew Tony Danza was a delightful and engaging television personality, but I had no idea he was so smart! Clearly, much smarter than I could ever hope to be! Who’s the boss? You, super smart Tony Danza, that’s who!” No offense to Tony Danza (who I’ve interviewed, and he is a very nice man, and no dummy either), but my guess would be that hasn’t happened too many times in your life. Maybe that’s why when people in show business say outrageous, stupid things, other people in show business don’t get as outraged as people who aren’t in show business do. Because people in show business know, deep down in our hearts, we’re no rocket scientists. When the rest of the country is outraged because of something Bill Maher said last night on TV, we sharp show business types are just rolling our eyes thinking: didn’t he use that very same dumb crack last week at Carolines as a pick up line with the cocktail waitress?'

Douglas Fairbanks the fraud
[The Times Of London]
Note by Belvedere: This is a good sketch of his life by Frederic Raphael, but I do not agree with all of his conclusions.

Alien Trespass
[The American Spectator]
James Bowman: 'If movies were just for fun -- as, admittedly, an awful lot of people think they are, Alien Trespass, directed by R.W. Goodwin to a script by James Swift and Steven P. Fisher, would be a barrel of monkeys. Yet somehow the movie has turned out to be a spectacular flopperoo. Almost no one has been to see it. Already, two-plus weeks after its opening, it is gone from the only place it was still playing near me after its first, disastrous week. You'll be lucky -- so to speak -- if you can find it anywhere before it comes out on DVD. There would hardly be any point in reviewing it now, but for the fact that it provides an illustrative example of what is wrong with the prevailing mode or style of movie-making in Hollywood at the moment, which is what is often called, in spite of the confusing nature of the term, postmodern.'

Marilyn Chambers, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Marilyn Chambers, who has died aged 56, traded her wholesome image as an all-American pin-up girl for notoriety as a porn star when she appeared in the sexually-explicit film Behind the Green Door in 1972. An attractive young woman who had begun her career as a mainstream actress, Marilyn Chambers first found fame as the smiling blonde cuddling a laughing, nappy-clad baby on a popular brand of soap powder. When she then appeared in an adult film featuring hard-core inter-racial sex, Procter & Gamble, whose products were claimed to be "100% pure," quickly pulled the boxes from the shelves.'

Memo to Hollywood: There's Money Sitting On the Table
[Big Hollywood]
Kurt Schlichter: 'There is good money sitting on the table waiting to be picked up by the filmmaker who dares to buck the Hollywood tide and make a film about the War on Terror that shows the struggle for what it is, a struggle of good versus evil with clear heroes - us - and clear villains - al Qaeda, the Taliban and all the rest of that sordid crew of thugs.  Americans understand this instinctively.  They will embrace films that do as well. Simplistic?  No.  See, the American public - the ones you want to buy tickets to your movies - understands that our enemies are evil.  The public also understands that our service members are on the side of good.  And they have thoroughly rejected every film that could not face up to this very basic truth.  That’s why Redacted, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah and all the rest gather dust in the Blockbuster remainder bin.'

Jane Bryan, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Jane Bryan, who died on April 8, aged 90, was dubbed "The Almost Star" during her fleeting Hollywood career in the late 1930s, but her more enduring foothold on fame derived from her friendship with Ronald Reagan, whom she helped propel into public office and eventually to the American presidency. Jane Bryan's performance in her most notable picture, The Old Maid (1939), so impressed its star Bette Davis that Davis joked: "I had to hide her face in a pillow to stop her stealing my scenes". Once, as Jane Bryan arrived at a Hollywood party, Noël Coward stopped her and declared: "I believe you are the best young actress in America", to which she retorted: "And one day I'll be the best actress in America." Although her fanciful prediction was never fulfilled Jane Bryan was briefly one of Warner Brothers' greatest assets. In 1939 another Warner contract player, Ronald Reagan, introduced Jane Bryan to his friend Justin Dart, the wealthy son of an Illinois shirt salesman who had made his first million dollars during Prohibition by cornering the market in bourbon and selling it as "prescription whiskey". Shy and self-effacing (unlike her blunt-speaking new admirer) Jane Bryan married Justin Dart before the year was out, Dart eventually becoming president of the failing Rexall Drugs company, which he revived and built into Dart-Kraft Inc., the food and consumer products conglomerate.'

He Worked in This Town Again
[The Wall Street Journal]
John Meroney: 'In Kirk Douglas's new one-man stage play, "Before I Forget," he entertains audiences with the story of how he "broke" the blacklist. In 1960, he used his influence as the executive producer and star of the movie "Spartacus" to give known communist writer Dalton Trumbo on-screen credit for the script. It is regarded as a watershed moment in the movie business -- the first time that an artist who was blacklisted by Hollywood for his communist associations was rescued from the shadows. But as noteworthy as Mr. Douglas's action was, the first time a blacklistee was openly brought back into the Hollywood fold actually came almost a decade earlier with the rehabilitation of 42-year-old director and former communist Edward Dmytryk. A young Ronald Reagan, of all people, was substantially responsible.'

The Sultan of Suave
[The Wall Street Journal]
Dave Shiflett: 'Fred Astaire was definitely an odd bird, at least by Hollywood standards. He despised publicity, appears to have been a fierce monogamist, was a regular churchgoer and decidedly Republican in his politics. He wasn't tall or dark or handsome in the manner of a typical leading man; Astaire was about 5-foot-7 but looked taller because he was so slim -- 135 pounds. And in his un-Hollywood way, Astaire never went to seed as so many stars do, leaving their fans tsk-tsking over how far they've let themselves go. He never developed a paunch ("What is a calorie anyway?" he once asked jazz critic Benny Green), always dressed impeccably and remained a graceful dancer late in life. Yet for all his anti-movie-star qualities, Astaire was the quintessence of Hollywood glamour in movies such as "Top Hat" (1935), "Holiday Inn" (1942) and "Silk Stockings" (1957).'

With 'Atlas Shrugged', Hollywood may have its first anti-bailout movie
[Risky Biz]
Steven Zeitchik: 'Hollywood could soon be going Objectivist. After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand’s capitalism-minded “Atlas Shrugged” is taking new steps toward the big screen — with one of the film world’s most prominent money men potentially at its center. Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago. “This couldn’t be more timely,” said Karen Baldwin, who along with husband Howard is producing, with film industry consultant John Logigian advising on the project. “It’s uncanny what Rand was able to predict — about the only things she didn’t anticipate are cell phones and the Internet.” Baldwin may be on to something -- love it or hate it, "Shrugged" is seeing a resurgence, with book sales spiking as debates rage in Washington and around the country about the government's role in a faltering free-market economy.'
[tip of the fedora to the Drudge Report]

Extra! Hebrew Hollywood Hottie Risks Life for U.S. Troops
[Big Hollywood]
Robert Avrech: 'In 1918, Theda Bara  was one of three great stars in Hollywood. Leading in popularity and box office appeal was Mary Pickford. Charlie Chaplin came second. And not far behind these two giants of the silver screen, Theda Bara. She was the hottest sex symbol to hit the motion picture screen since, well, since the flickers started flickering. Bara was, the Vamp, the sexually insatiable woman, the lethal seductress who sucks the life out of a man, then abandons him, leaving only chaos and destruction in her wake. This was, of course, a carefully created image.'

Maurice Jarre, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Maurice Jarre, the French film composer, who died on March 29 aged 84, was best known for his award-winning scores for David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India. Jarre wrote mainly for orchestras, but began to use synthesisers in the 1980s – to striking and sometimes eerie effect in films such as Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Fatal Attraction (1987) and No Way Out (1987). Other credits include Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969): John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975); Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum (1979) and Circle of Deceit (1981); and Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society (1989), for which he won a further Bafta.'

'Apocalypse' writer: Most scripts today 'are garbage'
[CNN.com]
Thom Patterson: 'You know that line in "Dirty Harry" in which Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan describes the power of the .44 Magnum? John Milius wrote that line. Remember the line in "Jaws" when Robert Shaw, playing the shark hunter, talks about his buddies being eaten alive by sharks during World War II? That was Milius. How about the line in "Apocalypse Now," when Robert Duvall, playing a surf-loving Army colonel, says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"? Milius again. And he hasn't lost his bold way with dialogue -- including his own. For example, here's Milius on stopping murderous drug traffickers in Mexico: "We need to go down there, kill them all, flatten the place with bulldozers so when you wake up in the morning, there's nothing there," he said in a phone interview. "I do believe if you have a military, you use it."'
[tip of the fedora to Cinema Retro]

'Rio Bravo' Still Popular and Hip at 50
[The Wall Street Journal]
Allen Barra: 'It wasn't nominated for any Academy Awards. It was scarcely taken seriously by the critics on its release, and it's never made into the American Film Institute's top 100. But Howard Hawks's "Rio Bravo," which had its premiere half a century ago this month, may be the most popular cult film ever made. The phrase "cult favorite" conjures up images of wobbly hand-held camera shots and little-known actors. But "Rio Bravo" was shot in glorious Technicolor and starred perhaps the most popular star in movie history. Most cult films are too hip to be popular, and most big hits are too popular to be hip. But "Rio Bravo" is that rarest of films -- both popular and hip.'

Our Clueless Critics
[Pajamas Media]
Andrew Klavan: 'It must be difficult to be a mainstream journalist. The world is so full of mysteries. Why do crime rates go down when more people own guns? Why do HIV-infection rates go up when you distribute free condoms? Why does tax revenue decrease when you raise tax rates? And hey, why do people keep saying there’s a liberal bias in the news? To the mainstream media, it’s all just one big riddle. And as it is on the front page, so it is in the arts section.'

Quality Of Stardom
[The Weekly Standard]
John Podhoretz: 'Performers are exhibitionists by nature, but it was the particular genius of the Hollywood machine that it controlled and limited the nature of that exhibitionism. The collapse of those controls has changed the nature of stardom in the United States, because now the key to stardom isn't the limitation of exhibitionism but the unleashing of it.'

Ron Silver, R.I.P.
[New York Post]
David Li: 'Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died Sunday morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post. "Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create. Silver might be best known for playing legal scholar Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune," about the successful appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for putting his socialite wife into a permanent coma.'
In Memoriam
[Pajamas Media]
Roger L. Simon: 'We had a close relationship that came from a strange confluence of events. Perhaps the best movie that either of us worked on was the same one. – Enemies, A Love Story. But that wasn’t the real reason – it was politics. We had stayed friends after Enemies, as movie folks sometimes do when they have worked on something together that was successful, critically or commercially. We discussed other projects, but our relationship was fairly superficial then and gradually we drifted apart during the nineties. Then 9/11 came and Ron and I were thrown together once again. We were 9/11 Democrats. We talked on the phone about our journey and the alienation we were feeling from some our friends, but we didn’t come face-to-face until the Republican Convention of 2004. I was a blogger there and feeling rather weird – an old leftie gone right – but there was Ron, far more out than I was, speaking to the entire convention. And he was brilliant. The man could speak in public as well as almost any politician and he had more intellectual background than almost all of them too. He swept the convention audience off their feet.'

No Country for Good Men
[National Review Online]
Thomas S. Hibbs: 'The new Italian film Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone, is an unflinching and unromantic look at the story of the Camorra — the crime syndicate, operative in Naples and Caserta, that is responsible for more murders than the IRA or Cosa Nostra. Based on the bestselling novel by Roberto Saviano, who remains under police protection, Gomorrah traces the influence of the mob through a number of different lives, careers, and professions. Toward the end of the film, one character says to another, “You’re more dead than alive.” That’s true of everyone in Gomorrah, a film that offers a gritty, documentary-like portrayal of encroaching death — the death of innocence, friendship, and human aspiration.'

Blake Edwards Looks Back
[The Wall Street Journal]
David Mermelstein: 'Blake Edwards, the celebrated Hollywood writer, director and producer best known for his "Pink Panther" films, hasn't had a new film in theaters for 18 years, but both he and his oeuvre are very much alive. Though Mr. Edwards, now 86, had no active involvement in the recently released "Pink Panther 2" starring Steve Martin, he co-created the film's main character, the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau, some 45 year ago. ...Mr. Edwards, whose first work included uncredited parts in war films during the 1940s, maintains that nothing consciously pulled him toward filmmaking, but he grew up in Hollywood with strong ties to the industry. His father was a studio production manager, and his grandfather directed more than 20 Theda Bara pictures. The real draw, however, lay elsewhere. "I was essentially a very lonely kid," Mr. Edwards said in late January from the light-filled living room of the house he shares with Julie Andrews, his wife and muse of 40 years come November. "I found surcease in going to the local Saturday afternoon films, where I latched on to the great comics of the day: Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. They made me laugh. They gave me a kind of companionship during what was a very unhappy, strenuous, depressing childhood."'

South Park Goes Where SNL Refuses
[Big Hollywood]
Alexander Marlow: 'I consider myself one of America’s foremost “South Park” scholars and if I had to sum up the reason I love the show, it would be this: it spares no one.  Take last season’s “About Last Night…” episode about Obama’s electoral victory–Obama, Palin, McCain, McCain supporters, and Obamaites are all evenly trashed.  In South Park, satire trumps politics.  Since 1997, “South Park” has been America’s safest bet for the splendid fusion of irreverence and insight. They took up that mantle from “Saturday Night Live,” which now offers us neither. While Wednesday has been “South Park” night for as long as I can remember, last Saturday night was spent in the usual way: not watching SNL.'

The Kitchen Refuge
[The Wall Street Journal]
Dorothy Rabinowitz: 'It required the late election race to make the appeal of the Food Network clear, at least for me -- though, as its steadily enlarging audience shows, its charms have worked their effect on others for a good bit longer. That effect has been, for many, a kind traditionally ascribed to charms -- powers that can protect, soothe and beguile. Nothing on television in that rancorous, long and hysterical election season, fascinating as it was, offered anything equal to the beguilement of those Food Network shows, daytime and prime time, weekdays and weekends. And nothing on now offers as much insulation from nonstop tides of disaster reporting. On the Food Network, which launched in 1993, you'll hear no grimness, no details of the stimulus package -- the only pork mentioned is the kind being fried, baked, char-broiled before your eyes. Nothing about the fantastic budget, the unmistakable emissions of class war now emanating from Washington, nothing about the newly worsening stock-market plunge and job-loss levels. Not for nothing is it enjoying its highest ratings ever.'

Review of Citizen Kane
[FredCamper.com]
Erich von Stroheim [from 1941]: 'This is perhaps the first criticism of a film ever written by a film-maker who coincidentally also in his time — like Orson Welles — played the "Holy Trinity." In our case "Trinity" means that the functions of the Writer, Director, and Star are combined in one person. The man executing these three functions in any case has a gigantic job on his hands which can only be fully appreciated by someone who actually has attempted the same. In fact, Orson Welles went me one better as he was also the Producer. And the Producer Welles permitted without grumbling the Director Welles to execute what the Writer Welles had planned to do. And Director Welles allowed the Actor Welles to do as he pleased. As the man who plays the "Super. Trinity" earns the applause practically alone — provided the finished product is a worthy one — so must he solely take the blame should one or more of his endeavors not have functioned properly.'

Standing Athwart History, Yelling 'Hold it!'
[National Review Online]
Leo Grin: '70 years on, John Ford's Stagecoach is an enduring masterpiece. “When they ask me what I consider is my best picture,” Ford once growled, “I often say Stagecoach, if I answer at all, because it usually shuts them up without an argument.” In that he wasn’t alone. Orson Welles screened Stagecoach endlessly for inspiration while making Citizen Kane (1941), considering it “classically perfect.” Today’s film critics may cite Kane as the greatest movie of all time, but Welles himself always preferred “the old masters. By which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” Modern filmmakers also revere the film: The famous under-the-truck stunt in Raiders of the Lost Ark was pulled directly from Stagecoach’s even more harrowing under-the-coach scene. And the next time you’re laughing at Ralphie Parker shooting up imaginary bad guys in A Christmas Story, pay attention to the rousing music playing under the scene — that’s the main theme from Stagecoach, offered up in deft homage to one of the great Hollywood westerns.'

History isn't just about bodice-ripping, you know
[The London Spectator]
Kate Williams: '‘Utterly gorgeous’, declares the advertising for the new film The Young Victoria. Queen Victoria ruled a quarter of the world’s souls, and saw the world change immeasurably during her 64-year reign. As a biographer of Victoria’s young life, I relished the film’s investigation of the power struggles of her marriage with Albert and her battle for self-determination. But the review quoted might refer to a dress, not a film about the life of our longest-reigning monarch. We are obsessed with the minutiae of modern politics, speculating endlessly on who said what at Granita, and relishing the replay of the fall of the Iron Lady in Margaret on BBC2. And yet when it comes to history, producers tend to emphasise romance, seemingly concerned that audiences have little interest in the political struggles and in-fighting of the past.'

Not Without My Islamist Dictatorship!
[Contentions]
Jonathan Tobin: 'It seems an “official delegation of Hollywood actors and filmmakers met with their Iranian counterparts in Tehran over the weekend, the first such visit to a country that banned American movies 30 years ago.” The delegation...was not there to appeal for freedom for writers and other artists imprisoned by the Islamist police state. Nor was it there to protest the persecution of Bahais or the country’s funding of terrorist groups, its program to developed nuclear weapons, or its threats to wipe the State of Israel off the map. No, these “cultural ambassadors” were there to make nice with the Iranian film-industry and maybe, as a bonus, help kick-start talks between the countries. But there is a problem. It seems the Iranians aren’t grateful for the American liberal/left’s opposition to tough measures to oppose their rogue regime. No, they are still too angry over the depiction of their glorious Islamic republic in Hollywood films over the years. So what are the Iranians upset about? The 1991 film “Not Without My Daughter,”.... ...They’re also mad about the hit action/adventure film “300″....'

An Appreciation Of 1776
[Big Hollywood]
Stage Right: 'March 16 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Broadway opening of “1776.”  Written by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone, it went on to run for 1,217 performances.  It’s hard to believe that forty years ago it was still popular to write an unabashedly patriotic musical that openly celebrated American Exceptionalism and painted the founding fathers not just as humans but as the intellectual and moral giants that they were.  Because the 1972 film version is tantamount to a filmed version of the play rather than a Hollywood re-interpretation, its original intent and form is easily accessible to today’s audience.'

Shirley Jean Rickert, R.I.P.
[Los Angeles Times]
Dennis McLellan: 'Shirley Jean Rickert, a former child actress who was the cute little blond with the spit curls in "Our Gang" comedies in the early 1930s and later became a long-haired burlesque stripper known as Gilda and Her Crowning Glory, has died. She was 82.'

Is There Intelligent Life on Television?
[Claremont Review Of Books]
Paul A. Cantor: 'I am not insisting that the general artistic level of television has risen; only that, like any mature medium, it has reached the point where it can serve as the vehicle for some true artists to express themselves. Even so, for those who have not been watching television lately and may be understandably skeptical of my claim, I need to explain what has changed in the medium to make it more sophisticated than it used to be, at least in its best cases.'

James Bowman Reviews The Film Valkyrie
[JamesBowman.net]
'My first impression of Valkyrie — starring, as everyone knows, Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg — is how unexpectedly not-awful it was. It was not only the presence in it of Mr Cruise which led me to expect it to be awful, though that would have been enough by itself, but also its troubled production history, including a suspicious reluctance of the producers to release it for some months after it was completed. Unfortunately, not-awful isn’t the same as good. Or even not bad. Wisely, I think, the writer and the director, Christopher McQuarrie and Bryan Singer respectively, avoid anything that might suggest depth or thoughtfulness. Instead, they make a straightforward, tick-tock action thriller out of it, like an episode of 24. Will the plot to kill Hitler and so to stop the appalling carnage of the Second World War in mid-1944 succeed? It must be exciting for the large part of the intended audience who, so the film-makers appear to be betting, don’t know the answer to that question already.'

This Doctor Makes 'House' Calls
[The Wall Street Journal]
Joanne Kaufman: 'The young woman coughed up blood and passed out on a recent episode of Fox's hit medical drama "House." The symptoms initially suggested leukemia or perhaps Von Willebrand disease, a coagulation abnormality. On second, third and fourth thought, perhaps it was a pancreatic tumor or a Picornavirus or Splenic Lymphoma. Finally -- right on schedule -- the brilliant, splenetic title character played by Hugh Laurie correctly diagnosed the problem as a congenital heart defect. Patient treated successfully with surgery. Roll credits. Chalk up another victory for Dr. House -- and, while we're at it, another victory for the "House" doctor. That would be Harvard-trained internist David Foster, the resident medical consultant and a producer-writer for the Emmy Award-winning drama, which just aired its 100th episode.'

Makes Dems Laugh
[Powerline]
Paul Mirengoff: 'PBS is airing a new program called "Make Em Laugh," a six-part documentary history of a century or so of American comedy. There's plenty to like about the program, especially the film clips of so many great comics. Unfortunately, PBS feels compelled roughly every 15 minutes to have someone, typically not a top comedian, tell us that comedians "are our truth-tellers," or words to that effect.'

Inching Closer
[Big Hollywood]
Debbie Schlussel: 'With "[1] Taken" debuting at the box office today, we're inching closer to the melting of the post-9/11 "Thou Must Whitewash Islam" commandment. Since 9/11, Hollywood is taken with the politically correct idea that they're not allowed to portray Muslims as terrorists, or when they do, it's to glorify the terrorists and justify their behavior-that America deserves it and made them do it. Or-a la "24″-that Muslim terrorists are always working for the American White man. Instead, Hollywood, post-9/11, made terrorists and hijackers, everyone BUT Muslims.'
Review: Taken
[Big Hollywood]
John Nolte: 'When the lights dim on one of these action thrillers my question is always the same: Is this "300" or "The Kingdom?" Is this what it promises to be, a rousing, exciting, intelligent crowd pleaser true to its themes to the end like "300," or is this "The Kingdom," a hundred minutes of dishonest set up all designed to manipulate an emotional investment from you so that the closing, left wing, Big Hollywood sucker punch puts you on your knees? I bring you glad tidings. Like a gritty, avenge grinder Charles Bronson might've made around, oh, 1973, "Taken" is about as satisfying an action thriller as you're likely to see all year. What a sad thing to have to say in January.'

Clint Eastwood's Libertarian-Conservative Vision
[FrontPageMagazine]
David Swindle: 'With all the productions made by Hollywood's leftist actors and filmmakers, it's often easy to overlook Conservatives in the industry. With the widespread release of "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood's first acted film in four years, the public will receive a bold reminder of a filmmaker who has managed to both act and direct in films with conservative themes for 40 years.'
Gran Torino
[The American Spectator]
James Bowman: 'Back in 1989 Clint Eastwood starred in Pink Cadillac, supposedly a screwball comedy though I wouldn't know. Like an overwhelming majority of movie-goers, I didn't see it. Now Mr. Eastwood is back, this time as director as well as star, and he's got a much bigger success with Gran Torino. But even though there are lots of jokes in it -- most of them racial slurs transformed into comedy by passing through the gums of the lovable but now very old Clint Eastwood -- it's not supposed to be a funny movie. If only it were! Instead, like most of the later Eastwood -- since, say, Pink Cadillac -- it sinks under the weight of its own moral portentousness.'

Sinise's 'George Wallace' makes DVD debut
[The Washington Times]
Sonny Bunch: 'The three-hour docudrama examines a 20-year period of Mr. Wallace's life, starting with his gubernatorial loss in 1958 and tracking his transformation from Southern populist into fire-breathing segregationist and divisive presidential candidate. John Frankenheimer directed the movie, giving a fair -- almost too fair -- airing of Mr. Wallace's opportunistic racism and subsequent repudiation of segregation after the 1972 attempt on his life. Along the way, the audience gets a look at the political sensibilities informing Mr. Wallace's retrograde policies -- the advisers suggesting he take a harder line against federally mandated integration, his need to win at the cost of alienating black voters, his personal ambivalence toward racism. It's a surprisingly nuanced look at an oft-vilified politician.'
DVD Review: George Wallace
[Big Hollywood]
John Nolte: 'Produced for television in 1997 and just released on DVD, director John Frankenheimer's three-hour docudrama on the adult life of Alabama governor George Wallace (Gary Sinise), plays like a quality theatrical film, and not just because of impressive production values. A winner of multiple awards, including 2 Golden Globes and 3 Emmys, "George Wallace" is a welcome throwback to the classic biopics of old.'

Boycott Greg Gutfeld's 'Red Eye'
[The Washington Times]
Andrew Breitbart: '"Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld" on the Fox News Channel must be boycotted or taken off the air. Its sexist, misogynist, homophobic, racist, speciesist and self-hating host must be maimed, lynched and/or killed. If not, someone might be offended. And that cannot happen - especially now that President Obama is poised to make everything really great. Two years into its late, late, late-night (or early, early morning - depending on your biological clock) cable news run, "Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld" has solidified itself as television's most reliably absurdist, unpredictable and laugh-provoking news hour. Show regulars Bill Schulz, a liberal; Andy Levy, a libertarian; and Mr. Gutfeld, a conservative, ensure that the show's point of view isn't rigged. That means, unlike all other cable news shows, participants aren't pitted to hate one another for disagreeing over farm bills, sex dolls and first-family fist bumps. It's also the go-to show for the rigid and the joyless - those poor wonks at watchdog blogs whose only way of income is creating a universe of make-believe offensiveness.'

10 Cinematic Cliches That Must Die
10 More Cinematic Cliches That Must Die
[Big Hollywood]
James Hudnall: 'As a writer and consumer of entertainment, I really hate clichés and stereotypes. They’re only useful for misdirection, making readers believe the story is going a certain way so you can fool them. But Hollywood keeps trotting out the following lame tropes over and over again. It’s about time they were called on the carpet for this stupidity. These stereotypes are not only offensive; they’re overused to the point where they must be retired for good. If you really care about not offending people, Hollywood, stop offending me and the legions of people who are sick of this drivel.'

Why 'The Prisoner' Endures
[The Wall Street Journal]
John Fund: 'Most of the people attending the Sundance Film Festival here weren't even born when the cult TV series "The Prisoner" first aired in Britain and the U.S. more than 40 years ago. But Sundance's celebration of independent filmmaking was filled with people who mourned the death last week of Patrick McGoohan, the 80-year-old actor who both created and starred in the quirky story of Prisoner Number Six, a spy trying to escape a remote seaside "village" where everyone is known only by a number and where he is told that "by hook or by crook" the reasons for his sudden resignation as an agent will be extracted from him. No wonder Mr. McGoohan will be missed -- he was a truly independent artist.'

The 'War On Terror' Films You've Been Waiting For
[Big Hollywood]
John Nolte: 'What is or isn’t showing up at your local Cineplex shouldn’t frustrate you. Everything you want from Hollywood has already been produced, and done so with smarter scripts, better special effects, real movie stars, and reasonable runtimes. If you’re hungry for heroes and self-sacrifice and the ennobling of the human spirit and to see evil confronted by good, you need not wait for Big Hollywood see the light.'

Be Seeing You: Patrick McGoohan, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Patrick McGoohan, who died on January 13 aged 80, starred in two of the most memorable British television series of the 1960s, Danger Man and The Prisoner. McGoohan detested publicity, once observing: "I abhor the word star. It makes the hair on the back of my neck want to curl up."'

Ricardo Montalban, R.I.P.
[The New York Times]
'Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's ''Fantasy Island,'' died Wednesday morning at his home, a city councilman said. He was 88. ''What you saw on the screen and on television and on talk shows, this very courtly, modest, dignified individual, that's exactly who he was,'' said Montalban's longtime friend and publicist David Brokaw.'
Ricardo Montalban
[The Corner]
Mark Steyn: 'He was one of a select group of actors who could redeem almost any nonsense. My memory of the Dynasty spin-off, The Colbys, is that he was cast as a guy called "Zach Powers" but played him as his usual Latin charmer anyway. I loved the way, romancing Stephanie Beacham's Sable Colby, he used to call her "Sabella", purring over every syllable. As far as I know, she's the only character in the history of primetime TV to be fought over by two National Review readers (aside from her old flame Ricardo, her husband on the show was Charlton Heston).'

Living Legend Kim Novak: Star and Survivor
[wowOwow]
Liz Smith: 'If Elizabeth Taylor conjured spoilt privilege (and later, indulgence) and Marilyn Monroe was a singing/dancing Technicolor confection, a humorous (if increasingly bruised) fantasy – Kim Novak was a creature of twilight hours; breaking dawn or sunset. She was, for all her voluptuous invitation, elusive, a woman no man could really know, even if he “knew” her, in the biblical sense.'

Female Actors
[Big Hollywood]
Veritas Obviam: 'Explain to me why we can’t say ‘actress’ anymore? “She’s such a brave actor” Doesn’t ‘actress’ MEAN an actor of the female gender? And isn’t ‘actress’ infinitely more elegant than ‘female actor’? Who starts this nonsense?'

A Million Stories To Tell
[Big Hollywood]
Andrew Breitbart: 'Big Hollywood is not a “celebrity” gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots. Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope. Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion’s share of Big Hollywood’s contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle.'

Thomas Hibbs Reviews The Film VALKYRIE
[National Review Online]
'While virtually unknown in the U.S., Stauffenberg remains a celebrated figure in Germany, with numerous biographical treatments of the hero’s life having appeared. Germans have been deeply skeptical about the Valkyrie project — nervous about Cruise’s devotion to Scientology — and even resisted letting certain historical settings to be used during its filming. But Valkyrie is only incidentally harmed by Cruise’s presence. It is an entertaining thriller, with gripping plot twists and many solid performances.'

The Outrage Game
[Culture11]
Kyle Smith: 'It's an adolescent of 12 now, South Park, but it's a curiosity of the medical profession - a nominally young patient with osteoporosis, parchment skin, and crumbling kidneys. Shock value, it turns out, ages like a banana. We're talking about the first show in television history that was forced to halt the practice of featuring the violent death of a child in every episode because the idea had grown stale. Like Playboy (and People) magazine, South Park is a victim of its own success. Possibly no show in TV history made such advances in vulgarity, but people don't offend as easily as they used to.'

Majel Barrett Roddenberry: the voice of Star Trek, R.I.P.
[The London Daily Telegraph]
'Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, was literally the voice of Star Trek. For more than 40 years she provided the voice of the Starship Enterprise, on television and in the films, including the new one due out next year. She also played several characters, did much to promote her husband’s legacy, regularly attended fan conventions and was affectionately known as “The First Lady of Star Trek”.'

Future Man
[Culture11]
Peter Suderman: 'The traditional rap against Keanu Reeves is that he's a dull-eyed cardboard stand-up with the brains and personality of a department store mannequin. And it's true that his line readings are so flat they make one question the existence of a third dimension, and his eyes have all the sparkle and life of blocks of coal. His inscrutability is legendary, like the final digit of pi, or the rules governing Senate procedure. Watching him, the question that always comes to mind is not what's going on inside his head, but whether anything is at all. He's the actor's equivalent of a black hole, a distant and mysterious cinematic negative space. Normally, in a top-tier movie star, these qualities would be cause for critical scorn. But listening to him calmly deliver one goofily cryptic line after another as the alien messenger Klaatu in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I couldn't help but wonder if Reeves's studied lack of affect does not have some unexpected benefits, or even a higher purpose.'

The Way We'll Watch
[The Wall Street Journal]
Sarah McBride: 'Hollywood studios and tech companies are rolling out a host of innovations that will change the way we experience films at home and in theaters. They've already begun to serve up DVDs that let you chat with other people who are watching the same movie. They're also sprucing up theaters with crystal-clear screens and amenities like cozier seats and restaurant-quality food. Coming soon: kiosks that can burn a copy of a movie while you wait, from a library of thousands of titles. The industry is also working on ways to easily send movies from gadget to gadget -- so you might download a movie on your iPhone and stream it onto your TV. Down the road, expect new ways to easily store digital movies online, so you can access them from any computer, anytime. We might also get theaters filled with dozens of speakers.'

Beverly Garland, R.I.P.
[Los Angeles Times]
'Beverly Garland, whose long and varied acting career ranged from B-movie cult stardom in the 1950s portraying gutsy characters in movies such as "Not of This Earth" and "It Conquered the World" to playing Fred MacMurray's wife on the sitcom "My Three Sons," has died. She was 82. Garland, who also was an involved owner of her namesake hotel in North Hollywood, died Friday after a long illness at her Hollywood Hills home, said son-in-law Packy Smith. In a career that spanned more than 50 years and began with a supporting role in the 1950 film noir classic "D.O.A.," Garland appeared in about 40 films and scores of television shows.'

A Film Career Pulled Into Focus
[The Wall Street Journal]
Peter Bogdanovich: 'Michael Sragow's "Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master" is certainly among the best film-director biographies ever published. Mr. Sragow captures the man, a life and an era that is, as the title of Fleming's most famous film put it, "gone with the wind."'

Frost/Nixon’s Self-Congratulatory Revisionism
[National Review Online]
Fred Schwarz: 'The supposedly historic, earth-shaking Frost/Nixon interviews fizzled at the time. In return for his $600,000 appearance fee, Nixon “admitted” what had already been proven; dodged or rationalized inconvenient facts; acknowledged errors but denied committing any crimes; and ended with a show of contrition and a play for sympathy. Little or no new information was uncovered, and nobody who had followed Nixon’s career was surprised in the least by his manipulations and evasions. The consensus was that the whole thing wound up an overblown bore.'

The Ghosts of 'Studio One'
[The Wall Street Journal]
Terry Teachout: 'Quite a lot of early TV was filmed for archival purposes, but only a handful of these films, known as "kinescopes," have made it onto DVD. Now Koch Vision, working in tandem with the Archive of American Television, has released a six-disc set called "Studio One Anthology" that contains kinescopes of 17 "Studio One" plays (actually, 16 plays and an opera, Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Medium") that were telecast between 1948 and 1956. None has been shown on TV since originally airing on CBS, and this is the first time that any of the plays have been transferred to DVD. They offer a startlingly vivid glimpse of what commercial TV was like in its precocious, promising childhood.'

Edie Adams, R.I.P
[The Times Of London]
'Edie Adams enjoyed a successful career on stage and screen, appearing regularly on US television in the 1950s with her first husband, the comedian Ernie Kovacs, and winning a Tony award for her performance in the Broadway musical comedy L’il Abner in 1957. A sexy chanteuse, with some resemblance to Marilyn Monroe and a full appreciation of all that entailed — including the potential for irony and comedy — Adams also appeared in numerous films.'

James Bowman Reviews The Film BLINDNESS
[JamesBowman.net]
'I’m sorry to say that the sublime comedy of this moment of self-delusion and what ought to have been — but of course isn’t — a swan-song or dying hymn to the liberal gospel of feeling was not intended, either by the author or the film-makers. This is a great pity, because that black humor is the only thing in the movie that could possibly have saved it from its own, terminal compassion. For behind this film there lurks that most characteristic feature of all the features of the progressive, liberal worldview, namely a fear — or is it, perhaps, a hope? — that "reality," which is to say the moral model we all have to live with, is of goodness rendered helpless before the irresistible force of evil.'

Axis of Evil
[The Smart Set]
Morgan Meis: 'One fine day in the mid-'50s, the eminent British actor Charles Laughton and the brilliant (if doomed) American critic James Agee put their minds together with the aim of adapting David Grubb's novel The Night of the Hunter into a screenplay. Agee was drunk. He couldn't put together a coherent screenplay.  But he had the mood right — Southern Gothic — and Laughton slapped that Agee madness together with a noir look and German Expressionist approach.'

One Writer, 1,000 Movies to Watch
[The Wall Street Journal]
Jeffrey Trachtenberg interviews critic David Thomson: 'The cover photo of London-born David Thomson's upcoming movie book "Have You Seen…?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films" is particularly apt. It shows Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, about to dispense a badly needed favor in a scene from 1972's "The Godfather." Although he has written more than a dozen titles about Hollywood, he is best known as the author of 1975's "Biographical Dictionary of Film," which has been updated three times. This new book, which goes on sale later this month and reviews 1,000 must-see movies, is being promoted as a companion volume.'
The Reel Thing
[The Atlantic]
Benjamin Schwarz on the same book: '“Have You Seen …?”—a by turns astringent and gushy appraisal of 1,000 movies made from 1895 to 2007—is, for better and worse, something of a muddle. Whereas the lyrical and bullying, ardent and Olympian, minutely detailed and defiantly impressionistic Dictionary, with its closely packed, tightly printed, double-columned pages, aims toward the comprehensive, this work discriminates in what it includes and what it doesn’t—but does so using several different and somewhat contradictory criteria.'

5 Myths About Those Tinseltown Liberals
[The Washington Post]
Andrew Klavan: 'Hollywood moviemakers, in other words, have been telling lies -- loudly, constantly and almost always in support of a left-wing point of view. And these lies are most prolific and tenacious when the Hollywood left is lying about itself. Here's a list of their most egregious whoppers.'

The Joy of the Esemble
[The Wall Street Journal]
'Traditional star power is in steep decline, but there is hope at the movies. Joe Morgenstern on the pleasures of ensemble films, which emphasize the connections between actors over individual virtuosity.'

Me Cheeta: The Autobiography
[The Sunday Times Of London]
Lynne Truss reviewing film's most famous monkey's book: 'Nowadays, Cheeta lives in Palm Springs with a companion, Dan, who gives him insulin injections and generally protects his existence. While other stars have died on the scrapheap (including Johnny), Cheeta has lived on. He paints pictures; he writes books; he rehearses his Oscar acceptance speech; he continues to insist that he never had sex with Dolores del Rio. Me Cheeta is a terrific book; the only thing one could possibly lament is the absence of a comma in the title. Vivid, funny and clever, it will subtly change for ever the way we think not only about Hollywood (and actors' memoirs) but also about our very species.'

Martian Chronicles
[The New Criterion]
James Bowman reviewing Niall Ferguson's PBS documentary: 'Nothing if not intellectually ambitious, Professor Ferguson’s one-man show, "The War of the World," took not only the one formerly known as "the good war" but also the bad war that came before it and the ambiguous war that came after it and slotted all three, plus an assortment of other conflicts amounting (he says) to about a hundred resulting between them (he says) in 20 millions of dead, into one unified theory of 20th century conflict. And you’ll never guess what it is, what all that killing turns out to have been about — though, of course there are no prizes for guessing that we simple-minded, one-dimensional nostalgists turn out to be wrong once again. Professor Ferguson has discovered that all these wars were really about racism and race hatred — on the part of Britain and the U.S. as well that of such familiar monsters as Hitler, Stalin, Tojo and Slobodan Miloševiæ.'

The Lost Country
[Culture11]
Rod Dreher: 'But my older Catholic friend’s line hangs in the air: “The Sixties came from somewhere.” And that’s why “Mad Men” is so fascinating: it chronicles the turning point in our culture, when the Fifties gave way to the Sixties (as Philip Larkin told us, “Sexual intercourse began/In nineteen sixty-three…”). It focuses on a time when people became aware that the old social customs and forms had been hollowed out, and were on the verge of collapsing from their own dead weight. Had American culture been as solid at its core as it seemed on the outside, the Sixties’ rebellion wouldn’t have and couldn’t have happened. “Mad Men” is a chronicle of a revolution foretold. Conservatives, though, appreciate the fullness of “Mad Men”’s American tragedy, because we know what’s really coming next. It’s not the promised land, but rather a wasteland, a desert of dislocation and despair in which we’ve been wandering for over 40 years.'

Accidental heroes of Hollywood
[The Times Of London]
Christopher Bray: 'One of the virtues of Robert B. Ray’s marvellous The ABCs of Classic Hollywood is its grasp of the parts that hazard and happenstance play in even the most controlled filmmaking arena. At first glance the book might be another introduction to the works of four directors who came of age during the golden age of the popular cinema. But Ray knows that movies are far too slippery and protean to be governed by even the most inflated of egos. Though he never quotes Orson Welles’s definition of film directors as men whose job it is “to preside over accidents”, something of that spirit infuses his book.'

Dirty Harry Reviews AN AMERICAN CAROL
[Dirty Harry's Place]
'I do not believe that it is up to conservative audiences to make conservative films and filmmakers successful. What I believe is that it’s up to conservative filmmakers to make films we want to see. Just being “conservative” isn’t enough. We’re not cattle. We expect quality for our buck. Whether liberal or conservative, a film cynically produced is still a film cynically produced regardless of which side of the political aisle it emanates from.  Deliver the goods and we’ll come. Zucker delivers … and then some. You’ll love this film. This one’s for us and damn if it doesn’t feel good for a change to be delivering punches instead of sitting there taking them.'

One Writer, 1,000 Movies to Watch
[The Wall Street Journal]
Jeffrey Trachtenberg interviews critic David Thomson: 'The cover photo of London-born David Thomson's upcoming movie book "Have You Seen…?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films" is particularly apt. It shows Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, about to dispense a badly needed favor in a scene from 1972's "The Godfather." Although he has written more than a dozen titles about Hollywood, he is best known as the author of 1975's "Biographical Dictionary of Film," which has been updated three times. This new book, which goes on sale later this month and reviews 1,000 must-see movies, is being promoted as a companion volume.'

Make-Up And Make Believe: Max Faxtor
[The New Yorker]
John Updike, reviewing the latest book about him: 'For Douglas Fairbanks’s sweaty exertions, Max invented “the first perspiration-proof body make-up” and then “devised the reverse—cinematic sweat—by simply combining equal parts of water with mineral oil.” For M-G-M’s production of “Ben-Hur,” he and his staff conjured up more than six hundred gallons of light-olive makeup to match the army of pale local extras to the darker extras already filmed in Italy. He conquered the persistent problem of lip pomade’s melting under the hot studio lights by firmly pressing two thumbprints onto the actress’s upper lip and then one thumbprint on her lower lip, thus single-handedly creating the sensational new look of “bee-stung” lips. For Joan Crawford, he created “the smear.”'

Always settle scores at noon and other lessons learned at the movies
[National Post]
Robert Fulford: 'The great thing about Paris is that you can always see the Eiffel Tower from your room, whether you're an artist in a tiny garret or a millionaire in a first-class hotel. Just look out the window and there it is. We who have spent much of our lives at the movies know this to be a fact, having seen it demonstrated on many occasions. That's a perfect example of Movie Wisdom, the information we absorb inadvertently while sitting in the dark. We may go to the movies to enjoy the actors and the stories but the experience also enlarges our view of the world.'

Review Of Pacino and DeNiro
[Dirty Harry's Place]
Dirty Harry: 'Righteous Kill isn’t great. Far from it. For a thriller it completely lacks suspense and an overall story arc, but De Niro and Pacino play off each other well. While both still heavily rely on what’s passed for acting these last ten years, they also, blessedly, dial it down. Which means that even though the performances remain phoned in-lazy, both are muted enough to allow you to enjoy their natural screen presence — which is no small thing.'

Mad TV: The Stealthy Pleasures of Mad Men
[Culture11]
Kyle Smith: 'A year and a half into AMC's Mad Men, I've become fascinated by the Draper Wince. As played by Jon Hamm, Madison Avenue creative maestro Don Draper has a way of lowering his brow and squeezing his cheek muscles to create a look that can say, "I hurt," or "You're an idiot," or "There's more to this that I can't talk about," or maybe just "The smoke from these Luckys is raking my pupils." Do we like Don? Should we? The answers aren't clear, and that's one of the pleasures of this stealthily compelling show. So far, he's had three affairs, fired a secretary for something that was his fault, tried to fire a colleague for pitching a good idea to a client, and ordered his loving, long-lost brother never to contact him again. Oh, and Don Draper is the name of a dead lieutenant whose identity the former Pvt. Dick Whitman stole during a Korean War battle.'

Film Actress Anita Page, R.I.P.
[The Times Of London]
'Anita Page was unusual in several ways, not least because having achieved stardom she then took a 60-year career break. Her name appears in few of the principal Hollywood history books, but for a short while at the end of the silent era and in the early days of the talkies she was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, a rival to Greta Garbo and to Joan Crawford — with whom she appeared in several films and whom she loathed.'
Robert Avrech's Tribute to Anita Page
[Seraphic Secret]
Several great, high-quality pictures included.

In Living Black-and-White
[City Journal]
Stefan Kanfer: 'The old classics retain a vitality and beauty that color can't provide'.

U.S. short on tough guy actors
[Variety]
Anne Thompson: 'Where have the manly movie stars gone? Not so long ago, Hollywood's male stars were men's men. Think John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart and Steve McQueen. Over the decades, that generation has given way to the likes of Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Brendan Fraser and Tom Cruise. Casting the titular tough-guy New York hero of his upcoming adaptation of "The Spirit," Frank Miller also had trouble finding the right actor. Hollywood is great at producing male actors, but sucks at producing men," says Miller. "I found them all too much like boys."'

Don LaFontaine, voice of the Hollywood film trailer, dies
[The Times Of London]
'Endlessly impersonated and parodied, his pronouncements became part of film folk law: many have passed into cliché. He and his collaborators coined the phrase: “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no way out”. Then there was: “A one-man army”, or “one man, one destiny” and most ubiquitous of all, his oft-used opener: “In a world where . . ." .'

Trailers for 'An American Carol'
[tip of the fedora to Dirty Harry]
There are a bunch of them in this clip; enjoy....

Dirty Harry Reviews 'Traitor'
[Dirty Harry's Place]
'Morally retarded. There’s just no other way to describe liberal Hollywood’s latest sure-to-flop, excremental exercise in bad filmmaking and moral equivalence....  Worse than morally retarded, Traitor is boring. Gun to your head boring. Please Allah kill me now boring. Shoulda’ stayed a bill collector boring. But that’s what happens when your movie refuses to take a side…the audience won’t either, and then we lose interest as we pray for the sweet release of death. '

The Night James Brown Saved Boston
[The Wall Street Journal]
Ethan Smith: 'The documentary argues that the night after the 1968 assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the city's decision to allow Mr. Brown to perform in a planned concert at Boston Garden -- and, more critically, to televise it -- kept riots from erupting in Roxbury and other African-American sections in the greater Boston area.'

David Zucker Commits Hollywood Treason
[Pajamas Media]
John Nolte [Dirty Harry]: '“Passioning” is what happens when the leftist Hollywood establishment, using whatever power available, demean, dismiss, diminish, and defame those they consider an ideological apostate. In 2004 it was Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ; today it’s director David Zucker and An American Carol.'

The DVD player — a hateful example of bad design
[The London Spectator]
The Wiki Man, Rory Sutherland, in a justifiable rant.

HANOI HILTON on DVD
[Dirty Harry's Place]
Word from one of Dirty Harry's readers that, finally, the film will be coming out on DVD.  However, it will not be released until after the election.  Harry had this to say: "Naturally, the release date is timed for right after the election. After all, money-driven Hollywood isn’t about to make money off a film whose release might remind people of McCain’s heroism."  If you plan on ordering, please link to Amazon from Harry's site here; it helps him maintain his great site.  While you're there, check out the other titles in his Library of conservative films.

On The Set Of David Zucker's "An American Carol"
[The Weekly Standard]
Stephen Hayes hangs out with the cast and crew:
   Snippet 1: When he heard Rosie O'Donnell claim that "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have a separation of church and state," he knew he had several minutes of material. In the film, a rotund comedian named Rosie O'Connell makes an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor to promote her documentary, The Truth About Radical Christians. O'Reilly shows a clip, which opens with a pair of priests walking through an airport--as seen from pre-hijacking surveillance video--before boarding the airplane. Once onboard, they storm the cockpit using crucifixes as their weapon of choice. Next the documentary looks at the growing phenomenon of nuns as suicide bombers, seeking 72 virgins in heaven. A dramatization shows two nuns, strapped with explosives, board a bus to the cries of the other passengers. "Oh, no! Not the Christians!" O'Connell's work ends with a warning about new threats and the particular menace of the "Episcopal suppository bomber." 
   Snippet 2: "I can't stand Keith Olbermann," says [actor Robert ]Davi. "Jesus Christ, I want to slap that guy."

NOTE: Film critic James Bowman is presenting a series called Isn't It Romantic: Romance At The Movies, 1934-1989 for the next eight weeks at the Ethics & Public Policy Center.  Before each film, he will be making a few remarks that then are posted on his website; I will post links here.  For any one interested in film, Mr. Bowman is the best critic of our modern age.
Lecture #1: It Happened One Night  [17 June 2008]
Lecture #2: The Shop Around The Corner [25 June 2008]
Lecture #3: The Philadelphia Story [02 July 2008]
Lecture #4: Brief Encounter [09 July 2008]
Lecture #5: An Affair To Remember [16 July 2008]
Lecture #6: The Apartment [23 July 2008]
Lecture #7: Annie Hall [30 July 2008]
Lecture #8: When Harry Met Sally [06 August 2008]

Hollywood's Conservative Underground
[The Washington Times]
"A group of politically conservative and centrist Hollywood figures organized by actor Gary Sinise and others has been meeting quietly in restaurants and private homes, forming a loose-knit network of entertainers who share common beliefs like supporting U.S. troops and traditional American values."

Interview With Robert Davi: Part 1, Part 2
[Dirty Harry's Place]
Actor Davi has directed his first film, The Dukes
DAVI: Different companies laying off, laying off, laying off… What do these people do? How does America reinvent who they are? So the message of the film is about — and not through thievery — banding together. And in the end, no matter what you do, you may not do it on the scale you once did, but if you can survive and share and bring light to the world, that’s the most important aspect of it.

Blacklist Then And Now
[The Washington Times]
Andrew Breitbart: '"There is no such thing as a blacklist anymore," George Clooney declared in 2005....  One eternally optimistic showman who has endured the Red Scare as well as the current Hollywood political disorder (let's not call it the "b-word" and upset Rosemary Clooney's nephew) is actor-raconteur - and my father-in-law - Orson Bean....  Orson was the young, hot comic on "The Ed Sullivan Show" when Mr. Sullivan told him he could no longer perform on the show owing to his 1956 outing in the anti-Commie newsletter, Red Channels. Today, Orson is a conservative Republican and once again on the wrong side of the censors. Timing is everything.'

'Airplane' Director Eyes Michael Moore
[Politico.com]
David Zucker's latest film [due out in the Fall] will be An American Carol: "Another “Carol” scene takes place inside a portable toilet stall, where [lead character and documentary filmaker Michael] Malone is repeatedly slapped around by real-life Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, accompanied by the spirits of former President John F. Kennedy and World War II icon Gen. George Patton."

Why DIE HARD Works
[Script Secrets]
Screenwriter William C. Martell dissects the script for Die Hard and shows why it has become "a benchmark for action films".  [tip of the fedora to Joe Weldon]

Mr. Spielberg, tear down this wall
[The Washington Times]
Andrew Breibart: "The litany of negative consequences to the ideological rigidity of modern Hollywood is virtually limitless. The lack of tension between competing ideas has made the arts increasingly tedious and rendered the celebrities woefully uninteresting."

Interview with the Legendary John Milius
[Tom's Games (tip of the fedora to Dirty Harry)]
MILIUS: My wife is convinced I was a Kamikaze pilot.
TG: Maybe you were a Samurai in another life.
MILIUS: She was also convinced that I rode with Cortez!

The Right Fluff: A Guy's Guide To Chick Flicks
[Vanity Fair]
"Tracing its heritage—Joan Crawford begat Barbra Streisand begat Meg Ryan begat Reese Witherspoon—the author provides a rundown of the chick flick’s essential elements."

Hollywood''s Hero Deficit
[The American]
James Bowman: "American movies have forgotten how to portray heroism, while a large part of their disappearing audience still wants to see celluloid heroes. I mean real heroes, unqualified heroes, not those who have dominated American cinema over the past 30 years and who can be classified as one of three types: the whistle-blower hero, the victim hero, and the cartoon or superhero."

The Iraq War Movie: Military Hopes to Shape Genre
[Los Angeles Times]
"There's a war going on, and Army Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale has a mission. It's his job to help decide which movies should get Army help."

NOTE: Last year, Mr. Bowman presented a series called The American Movie Hero at the Ethics & Public Policy Center.  Before each film, he make remarks that were posted on his website; here are the links:
Lecture #1: Sergeant York.
Lecture #2: The Sand Of Iwo Jima.
Lecture #3: High Noon.
Lecture #4: The Searchers.
Lecture #5: The Big Sleep.
Lecture #6: A Fistful Of Dollars.
Lecture #7: Bullitt.
Lecture #8: Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

In Italy, a Voice Has Been Stilled, Leaving Hollywood Stars Speechless
[The Wall Street Journal]
When Claudio Capone died of a stroke a week ago, actors John Travolta, Don Johnson and Ronn Moss all lost their voice -- in Italian.

Ian McKellen to lead in ITV's The Prisoner remake
[The Guardian]
"ITV1 has confirmed that Sir Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel will star in the network's reinvention of the 1960s thriller, The Prisoner, to be broadcast next year."

THE REAL POLITICAL MESSAGE OF "HIGH NOON"
Kyle Smith
[Pajamas Media]
"...in a trick of history, or perhaps a lesson that subtle metaphors can fade, High Noon today seems like a conservative work."

CYD CHARISSE, R.I.P
[AP via The Wall Street Journal]
"Her flawless beauty and jet-black hair contributed to an aura of perfection that Mr. Astaire described in his 1959 memoir, 'Steps in Time,' as 'beautiful dynamite.'"

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