guest-blogs | FanFare Friends
Guest blogger Fred Burdsall writes:
I told you about The Brainiac and The Deadly Mantis from my childhood. Now, I’ll tell you about my favorite movie. The one movie that started my absolute love of horror and sci-fi… The Ridley Scott masterpiece… Alien.
By the time I finally got around to seeing it at the movies it was already on its last legs and playing down the street for a dollar. (Does anyone else remember the days of neighborhood theaters?) My friend Brian asked me if I had seen it yet and when I said no he told me, “I’ll meet you there because you HAVE to see this.” (A personal pet peeve is people telling me what I have to see, because it usually sucks). So with my dollar in hand I went in and was told I should sit in the front row of a fairly empty theater, but he refused to tell me why. This turned out to be the best dollar I EVER spent.
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Dr. Strangefilm | From The Files Of Dr. Strangefilm...
In the late 1940s and early '50s the United States was under attack. Not by tanks or planes, but by a much more insidious enemy, one that worked its way across America, from large cities to small hamlets. Its mission was to infiltrate all aspects of society--home, school, tavern, and even church--and slowly gain control of the will of the people before they were aware of the danger. This invasion didn't go without notice, however, and Hollywood set out to warn the populace of this new menace, even as some claimed that the filmmakers themselves had a hand in its spread.
The menace I'm talking about was, of course, television. What, did you think I meant Communism? Well, I can see, in re-reading the previous paragraph, how one might have come to that conclusion. But while Red Scare-era Tinseltown did try to reveal the perils of global Marxist domination--and appease Washington--through such efforts as My Son John, I Was a Communist for the F.B.I., and the future case file Invasion U.S.A. (no, not the Chuck Norris one), the movie moguls saw the rise of TV as a bigger threat, at least to their pocketbooks. Fortunately, today's case is a perfect example of cinematic synchronicity, because the two terrors of the McCarthy era became one in the form of...the Twonky!
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Gary Cahall | Staff Notes
Those of us who consider ourselves die-hard movie fans (not to be confused with fans of the Die Hard movies) might like to think that we'd do anything to meet our screen heroes. That bar was raised considerably in 2008's Slumdog Millionaire, when title protagonist Jamal remembers how, as a boy growing up in impoverished Mumbai, he once escaped from a locked outhouse by diving down into and wading through piles of...well, what they build outhouses for, so that he could see and get the autograph of Bollywood film star Amitabh Bachchan. That, dear readers, is dedication, and while Bachchan didn't play himself in Slumdog, it gave American audiences a glimpse of the fervent devotion the actor known as "the Big B" has built up in his native India, across South Asia, and around the world in his 40-plus-year body of work. Everywhere, that is, except here.
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Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, TV Tip Sheet
Soapy Sales
A favorite for its 1981-1990 run on CBS, Falcon Crest was a nighttime sudser bubbling with colorful characters, duplicitous behavior and big-time movie and TV stars. Jane Wyman is the nasty owner of a Northern California winery and matriarch of a family that includes affable nephew Robert Foxworth and lazy playboy grandson Lorenzo Lamas. Abby Dalton, William R. Moses, and Susan Sullivan also star in this series created by Earl Hamner, Jr. of The Waltons fame; guest appearances during the show’s first season include Lana Turner and Dana Andrews. All 18 episodes from the debut season can be found on Falcon Crest: The Complete First Season.
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Chris Cummins | New Releases This Week
This week's new releases include critically acclaimed favories, riveting documentaries on topics ranging from capitalism to the legendary siblings who changed the way movies were made, unoriginal comedic shenanigans from John Travolta and Robin Williams, and a one-season TV wonder finally making its DVD debut.
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
Yes, it's common knowledge that Lee Daniels' acclaimed drama is an incredibly well-acted, emotionally involving tour-de-force. But can we all agree that the lengthy title is a bit much? Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey's phony mustache star.
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guest-blogs | Guest Contributors
Guest blogger Bill Wren writes:
I rewatched for the nth time (I’ve lost track) Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby (1938). Apart from being great fun each time I watch it, this time was a bit different having read Marc Eliot’s book, Cary Grant: A Biography and having previously watched Cary Grant: A Class Apart (a documentary on the second disc of the two-disc special edition DVD).
Here’s why this is interesting: Seeing Bringing Up Baby, at least as I do, you would think Cary Grant is in full command of what he’s doing — the ever skillful and brilliant, Cary. However, what you find out is that that is anything but the case.
Grant had had huge success with the previous year’s The Awful Truth (1937). However, he never took credit for its success because he had no idea how he had done it. He felt it was a fluke. He had been extremely anxious over his character, not sure how to play him, copying many mannerisms and stances of his then director, Leo McCarey.
Following closely on The Awful Truth, he was worried again about how to play his character in Bringing Up Baby and, compounding this, “… he was afraid to make a movie that was too stylistically similar in which his performance would not be as good.” (From Eliot’s biography of Cary Grant, p. 178.)
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Jay Steinberg | Movie Buzz
March 10, 1910: D.W. Griffith launches the Hollywood film industry with In Old California, the first film to be made in the new municipality.
March 10, 1922: Hollywood hires former postmaster general Will H. Hays to oversee "moral and artistic standards in motion picture production."
March 11, 1931: The German director of Nosferatu and Sunrise, F.W. Murnau, 42, is killed in a car accident on the Santa Barbara Highway.
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George D. Allen and Irv Slifkin | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
He raised comic fans' hackles by casting Michael Keaton as Batman; tinkered with cinematic legend by revisiting the Planet of the Apes; and split audiences and critics by daring to reinvent Roald Dahl's beloved book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp in the role of Willy Wonka. Now, Tim Burton has brought Depp back into the fold for this visually wild cinematic take on Lewis Carroll's classic, Alice in Wonderland. How does the director fare with this latest reimagining of a literary icon? Let's check in with Movie Irv:
Gary Cahall | Staff Notes
In last week's opening part of my tour of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland--or, at least, the myriad movie depictions of it--I introduced you to silent Alice in Wonderland shorts and features; Walt Disney's '20s Alice in Cartoonland series and his eventually abandoned plans for a similar live-action/animated film with silent screen icon Mary Pickford; Paramount's star-crammed (Cary Grant in a turtle suit?) but unsuccessful 1933 comedy; and producer Lou Bunin's offbeat 1949 adaptation that mixed live actors with stop-motion puppets, but whose distribution met with legal problems due to none other than Disney himself. Now, settle back with a little more tea...or, if you have none, a little less tea...and let's continue our journey through the looking glass.
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Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
Yes, it’s time once again for the Academy Awards. The Oscars will hold their 82nd annual event on Sunday, March 7, and one can’t help but wonder what amazing film or performance won’t get the recognition it deserves. After all, throughout Oscar history, it has happened many times. Too often, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has bestowed their golden trophy upon someone who perhaps did not quite deserve the honor over one of their fellow nominees. A few such examples will be illustrated here. Now, in the interest of narrowing down many of the illustrious Academy’s various snubs over the years, I will concentrate solely on acting categories. Additionally, only roles that were actually nominated for the award will have a case made for them.
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guest-blogs | FanFare Friends
Guest blogger Brian (aka Classicfilmboy) writes:
I recently fixed a gaping hole in my classic film education. Gilda, one of Rita Hayworth's best movies, is infamous for her simulated strip-tease to "Put the Blame on Mame" and is considered one of the sexiest musical numbers put on film during the 1940s.
But I had never seen this movie until recently. While it lived up to its notoriety, what struck me was how Hayworth owns this character. In short, this actress had talent beyond her breathtaking looks. And her chemistry with co-star Glenn Ford is so hot it nearly ignited the TV.
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