John Tartaglia
When his dreams of being a flamenco dancer or a cocktail waitress didn't pan out (hoop earrings are a bitch!), John Tartaglia settled on being a freelance idiot. This chosen path took him many places but, sadly, none that can be revealed here. He later wrote about theater and television for the Burlington County Times. John loves Joni Mitchell (with the fervor of an Elvis fan, but minus the velvet paintings), Stephen Sondheim, and sunshine on a cloudy day. Some of his favorite films are Splendor In The Grass, Ordinary People, Go, What's Up, Doc?, and The Purple Rose Of Cairo. John has worked at Movies Unlimited since 1984.
John's Posts
John Tartaglia | Staff Notes
If you are looking to improve your chances in the office Oscar pool, you now have the chance to see some very clever and creative shorts. (And they don't belong to Senator Scott Brown!) The Academy Award nominees for Best Short Film, Animated and Best Short Film, Live Action are currently playing in select theatres around the country. I recently saw the five nominees in each and was blown away. Now a category I was never really interested in will become a "must see" each year.
John Tartaglia | Staff Notes
gleek (noun): a person obsessed with the TV show Glee
Golden Globe, People's Choice and Screen Actor's Guild winner Glee was first introduced last May on Fox after the American Idol finale and quickly created major buzz. Part soap opera (dual pregnancies and dual love triangles figured big in the first part of the season), part Broadway karaoke, and all parts exuberant fun, Glee along with ABC’s wry Modern Family became the “must watch” of the 2009/2010 TV season. Set at Lima, Ohio’s William McKinley High School, the show tells the story of teen misfits trying to find their place in their school and the world while participating in a show choir named New Directions.
George D. Allen, Irv Slifkin and John Tartaglia | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
MovieFanFare's mysterious columnist Dr. Strangefilm makes a spectral appearance in Ghouly Irv's spooky domicile to discuss some oddly uncanny classics, and finally, Movie Irv welcomes a guest critic from the Movies Unlimited staff to compare notes on picks for the s-c-a-r-i-e-s-t movies of all time. (Don't let those credits at the end of Segment III fool you...stay tuned for Segment IV!) Happy Halloween!
George D. Allen, Irv Slifkin and John Tartaglia | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
While Groovy Irv chills out, Ghouly Irv steps in to recommend some swingin' and psychedelic fright flicks. Hold on to your hats (not to mention your head) while Ghouly Irv runs it all down in the second installment of the Movie Buzz Halloween podcast:
George D. Allen, Irv Slifkin and John Tartaglia | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
Look what great movies Ghouly Irv has dug up from under the tombstone! Enjoy the first part of our special Halloween podcast...just make sure you keep the lights on!
George D. Allen, Irv Slifkin and John Tartaglia | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
Don’t miss a minute of this month’s Movie Buzz podcast, as Movie Irv gives you three recommendations for entertaining movies that flew under the radar; answers your questions about The Road and other upcoming theatrical and home video releases; offers some strong opinions about Hollywood’s love affair with remakes; and meets up with “Groovy Irv” to talk about the Woodstock anniversary sets and other far-out DVDs.
John Tartaglia | Staff Notes
Valley Of The Dolls was first a best-selling novel, then it became a box office smash, but the film version of Jacqueline Susann’s show-biz saga might be most famous for its dialogue being delivered with such unknowing campiness. Not since The Oscar with Stephen Boyd had so much emoting gone into something so deliciously bad. Barbara Parkins got top billing in the film after becoming famous on the nighttime soap Peyton Place. She wanted the meaty part of the doomed megastar Neely O'Hara (the role went to Patty Duke) and Parkins ended up as Anne Welles, the “good” girl from New England. Check out the extras on the DVD and you can see her Neely screen test. It’s god-awful and so much fun to watch! Dolls also starred the beautiful Sharon Tate as Jennifer, the girl with no talent, “just a body”. Susan Hayward replaced Judy Garland as Helen Lawson, a grande dame of the theater. Garland was supposedly fired for missing rehearsals and maybe this was one time the old adage "better late than never" does not apply. Parkins reveals on the DVD extras that she felt Garland was scared the Lawson role (fading star, growing older) was going to somehow mirror her own career. It was rumored that Susann based the Neely O'Hara character on Garland.
John Tartaglia | Staff Notes
These days made-for-TV movies on network and basic cable channels are relegated to the Lifetime network (television for women… and gay men) and mostly continue the practice of the “women in jeopardy” genre, often with "fatal" or "deadly" in the title. But the TV movie and mini-series were staples of network programming in the '60s and '70s, and they didn't just exist to provide work for Barbara Eden, Barbara Feldon, or Karen Valentine. They attracted movie stars (Bing Crosby in Dr. Cook’s Garden, Bette Davis in Madame Sin) and also let the small screen favorites of the day flex their acting chops in different kinds of roles (Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery in A Case Of Rape and The Legend of Lizzie Borden or Andy Griffith in Savages). Sometimes they were pilots for potential series (Kojak was spawned from The Marcus-Nelson Murders and Peter Falk’s detective Columbo came from Prescription: Murder). And sometimes they were just a fun ride (think Connie Stevens in Call Her Mom or Clint Walker battling an alien-controlled bulldozer in Killdozer).
George D. Allen, Irv Slifkin and John Tartaglia | Movie Buzz, Movie Buzz Podcast
This time out, "Movie Irv" has reviews of Sugar, Tyson, and Alien Trespass, plus a "groovy" tribute to Hal Ashby, lots of news about sci-fi and horror DVD releases, and more. Not to mention costume changes and props. Enjoy!
John Tartaglia | Staff Notes
Although it has recently been brought back to life (ironically) by the vampire saga True Blood, and maybe by the too-soon-to-tell Hung, HBO has lost a lot of cache since its days of The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Sex And The City. Big Love has never gotten the big love it has deserved (Emmy nomination for Chloe Sevigny!) and Entourage seems stale. The It’s Not TV It’s HBO network passed on the AMC hit Mad Men and decided not to even show 12 Miles of Bad Road, starring Lily Tomlin and Mary Kay Place and executive produced by the team behind Designing Women.
John Tartaglia | Staff Notes
On the red carpet for his new film Public Enemies, Johnny Depp confirmed that the long planned big screen adaptation of the Gothic ‘60s soap opera Dark Shadows is going to happen with director Tim Burton at the helm. Depp will play Barnabas Collins, the tortured vampire of Collinwood. Anyone of a certain age (old!) remembers running home after school to catch the ghoul-filled 4 o’clock ABC show, Originally conceived as a suspense drama starring ‘30’ s and 40’s beauty siren Joan Bennett, the sudser was floundering in the ratings until executive producer Dan Curtis decided to go for broke and add a supernatural element. Jonathan Frid was cast as Barnabas Collins, a reluctant bloodsucker, and suddenly Curtis had the hottest show in daytime. The show spawned a fanatical following (myself included) and became a merchandiser’s dream. There were Dark Shadows cards, games, dolls, LP’s, books, a comic strip, fangs and endless magazine coverage especially ones geared to the teen market like 16, Tiger Beat and Flip. Later the show added David Selby as Quentin Collins, a werewolf, and it found itself with another teen heartthrob. (Frid, a middle-aged Shakespearean actor who had once shared a stage with Katharine Hepburn, was the most unlikely of sex symbols, but housewives couldn’t get enough of him).
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