Every once in a while a movie studio would ruin what might have been a masterpiece — and Preston Sturges’ last-released Paramount comedy suffered exactly that. “Triumph Over Pain” was supposed to be something new, a daring blend of comedy and tragedy. Studio politics intervened and tried to turn it into a straight comedy. Disc producer Constantine Nasr oversees two extras that explain what happened in full detail; it’s a fascinating story of a brillant and successful writer-director at odds with his studio bosses. Joel McCrea, Betty Field and William Demarest star — and the show is still entertaining despite its problems.
The Great Moment
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1944 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Great without Glory, Immortal Secret, Morton the Magnificent, Triumph over Pain / Street Date February 1, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Julius Tannen, Edwin Maxwell, Porter Hall, Franklin Pangborn,...
The Great Moment
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1944 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Great without Glory, Immortal Secret, Morton the Magnificent, Triumph over Pain / Street Date February 1, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Julius Tannen, Edwin Maxwell, Porter Hall, Franklin Pangborn,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Los Angeles, Feb 26: Writer F Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic novel The Great Gatsby is set to be made into an animated feature film.
The adaptation will be helmed by William Joyce, Oscar winner in 2012 in the Best Short Film (Animated) category for his film, The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Writer Brian Selznick is also associated with The Great Gatsby project. An official announcement on the cast is yet to be made.
Joyce said, "Gatsby continues to cast a powerful spell over readers unlike any other book in American letters. Much of the power of Gatsby comes from the enchantment of Fitzgerald's prose. He created a vivid dreamscape that, to some degree, has eluded filmmakers since the silent era."
He added, "The previous film versions were constrained by live action, but innovative animation could finally realize the elusive quality of the novel."
Joyce will direct the animated feature,...
The adaptation will be helmed by William Joyce, Oscar winner in 2012 in the Best Short Film (Animated) category for his film, The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Writer Brian Selznick is also associated with The Great Gatsby project. An official announcement on the cast is yet to be made.
Joyce said, "Gatsby continues to cast a powerful spell over readers unlike any other book in American letters. Much of the power of Gatsby comes from the enchantment of Fitzgerald's prose. He created a vivid dreamscape that, to some degree, has eluded filmmakers since the silent era."
He added, "The previous film versions were constrained by live action, but innovative animation could finally realize the elusive quality of the novel."
Joyce will direct the animated feature,...
- 2/26/2021
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
The book was raw & dirty, and did you read what that girl did with that guy on page 167? Racking up a stack of Oscar nominations, Peyton Place became one of the big hits of its year, launched the careers of several young actors, and proved that Hollywood could pasteurize most any so-called un-filmable book. Lana Turner is the nominal star but the leading actress is Diane Varsi, in her film debut.
Peyton Place
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 157 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Philips, Terry Moore, Russ Tamblyn, Betty Field, David Nelson, Leon Ames, Mildred Dunnock.
Cinematography William Mellor
Art Direction Jack Martin Smith, Lyle R. Wheeler
Film Editor David Bretherton
Original Music Franz Waxman
Written by John Michael Hayes from the book by Grace Metalious
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Mark Robson
What’s this,...
Peyton Place
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 157 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Philips, Terry Moore, Russ Tamblyn, Betty Field, David Nelson, Leon Ames, Mildred Dunnock.
Cinematography William Mellor
Art Direction Jack Martin Smith, Lyle R. Wheeler
Film Editor David Bretherton
Original Music Franz Waxman
Written by John Michael Hayes from the book by Grace Metalious
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Mark Robson
What’s this,...
- 3/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As a supplement to our Recommended Discs weekly feature, Peter Labuza regularly highlights notable recent home-video releases with expanded reviews. See this week’s selections below.
After a decade of the Dust Bowl destroying crops while rich land owners exploited every little farmer there was, making a film that naively bought into the American dream would seem foolish for any filmmaker. But Jean Renoir could only see hope in the plains, having fled his home to exchange the dreams of Fascism for the dreams of celluloid. While Renoir struggled in Hollywood during the war period, his break came as he went north to Millerton Lake to make The Southerner in 1945. The resulting film follows doe-eyed Zachary Scott, exuding his common-day presence, as Sam Tucker. Tucker, gullible for the promises that hard work means a better life, moves his family from a proto-Days of Heaven cotton-picking existence to a farm of one’s own,...
After a decade of the Dust Bowl destroying crops while rich land owners exploited every little farmer there was, making a film that naively bought into the American dream would seem foolish for any filmmaker. But Jean Renoir could only see hope in the plains, having fled his home to exchange the dreams of Fascism for the dreams of celluloid. While Renoir struggled in Hollywood during the war period, his break came as he went north to Millerton Lake to make The Southerner in 1945. The resulting film follows doe-eyed Zachary Scott, exuding his common-day presence, as Sam Tucker. Tucker, gullible for the promises that hard work means a better life, moves his family from a proto-Days of Heaven cotton-picking existence to a farm of one’s own,...
- 3/24/2016
- by Peter Labuza
- The Film Stage
Looking to discover a top-quality film that honors lasting values? Jean Renoir gives Zachary Scott and Betty Field as Texas sharecroppers trying to survive a rough first year. It's beautifully written by Hugo Butler, with given realistic, earthy touches not found in Hollywood pix. And the transfer is a new UCLA restoration. With two impressive short subjects in equal good quality. The Southerner Blu-ray Kino Classics 1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date February 9, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Field, Beulah Bondi, Carol Naish, Norman Lloyd, Zachary Scott, Percy Kilbride, Charles Kemper, Blanche Yurka, Estelle Taylor, Paul Harvey, Noreen Nash, Nestor Paiva, Almira Sessions. Cinematography Lucien Andriot Film Editor Gregg C. Tallas Production Designer Eugène Lourié Assistant Director Robert Aldrich Original Music Werner Janssen Written by Hugo Butler, Jean Renoir from a novel by George Sessions Perry Produced by Robert Hakim, David L. Loew Directed by Jean Renoir...
- 1/26/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson on the Oscars' Red Carpet Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson at the Academy Awards Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson are seen above arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The 95-year-old Wallach had received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2010. See also: "Doris Day Inexplicably Snubbed by Academy," "Maureen O'Hara Honorary Oscar," "Honorary Oscars: Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo Among Rare Women Recipients," and "Hayao Miyazaki Getting Honorary Oscar." Delayed film debut The Actors Studio-trained Eli Wallach was to have made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1953 blockbuster From Here to Eternity. Ultimately, however, Frank Sinatra – then a has-been following a string of box office duds – was cast for a pittance, getting beaten to a pulp by a pre-stardom Ernest Borgnine. For his bloodied efforts, Sinatra went on...
- 4/24/2015
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Dear Adam,
I want to quibble with you on a point you made about an art installation in the Forum Expanded section. Discussing the simple but strangely transfixing Je proclame la destruction, you wrote to me of the order of its two shots, of first the radical speaker coming to the microphone and then the young student hero pushing through the crowd. But this installation was on loop—couldn't it be the other way around, that the hero enters, we see an empty stage, and then the radical steps up to declare destruction? I don't recall Robert Bresson's original film (from which these two shots are taken) enough to know the order, but one of the shifting pleasures of this installation was how sometimes one shot seemed to precede the other, only for the continual repetition to shift that sense of time and causality.
Dear Adam,
I want to quibble with you on a point you made about an art installation in the Forum Expanded section. Discussing the simple but strangely transfixing Je proclame la destruction, you wrote to me of the order of its two shots, of first the radical speaker coming to the microphone and then the young student hero pushing through the crowd. But this installation was on loop—couldn't it be the other way around, that the hero enters, we see an empty stage, and then the radical steps up to declare destruction? I don't recall Robert Bresson's original film (from which these two shots are taken) enough to know the order, but one of the shifting pleasures of this installation was how sometimes one shot seemed to precede the other, only for the continual repetition to shift that sense of time and causality.
- 2/16/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Dear Danny,
Ah, yes, the plague of "not getting it" is one that afflicts all of us festival-goers on occasion, but I admire your willingness to write on Peter Kern's peculiar film as well as Jiang Wen's totally gonzo farce (which you were nevertheless able to appreciate more than myself). As you and I both know, "getting it" isn't completely necessary and doesn't always get in the way of enjoyment and appreciation. Being a relaxed and open-minded viewer doesn't always make one an expert, but hopefully it prepares them for being responsive, a quality we should all aspire to whether we find ourselves in or outside of our wheelhouses.
In my previous letter, I teased at an incredible viewing experience I had, and indeed it may be one my all-time favourite screenings. Let me start off by describing what is my new favourite place to sit and watch a...
Ah, yes, the plague of "not getting it" is one that afflicts all of us festival-goers on occasion, but I admire your willingness to write on Peter Kern's peculiar film as well as Jiang Wen's totally gonzo farce (which you were nevertheless able to appreciate more than myself). As you and I both know, "getting it" isn't completely necessary and doesn't always get in the way of enjoyment and appreciation. Being a relaxed and open-minded viewer doesn't always make one an expert, but hopefully it prepares them for being responsive, a quality we should all aspire to whether we find ourselves in or outside of our wheelhouses.
In my previous letter, I teased at an incredible viewing experience I had, and indeed it may be one my all-time favourite screenings. Let me start off by describing what is my new favourite place to sit and watch a...
- 2/16/2015
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Joan Lorring, 1945 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee, dead at 88: One of the earliest surviving Academy Award nominees in the acting categories, Lorring was best known for holding her own against Bette Davis in ‘The Corn Is Green’ (photo: Joan Lorring in ‘Three Strangers’) Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee Joan Lorring, who stole the 1945 film version of The Corn Is Green from none other than Warner Bros. reigning queen Bette Davis, died Friday, May 30, 2014, in the New York City suburb of Sleepy Hollow. So far, online obits haven’t mentioned the cause of death. Lorring, one of the earliest surviving Oscar nominees in the acting categories, was 88. Directed by Irving Rapper, who had also handled one of Bette Davis’ biggest hits, the 1942 sudsy soap opera Now, Voyager, Warners’ The Corn Is Green was a decent if uninspired film version of Emlyn Williams’ semi-autobiographical 1938 hit play about an English schoolteacher,...
- 6/1/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
William Holden movies: ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ William Holden is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured actor today, August 21, 2013. Throughout the day, TCM has been showing several William Holden movies made at Columbia, though his work at Paramount (e.g., I Wanted Wings, Dear Ruth, Streets of Laredo, Dear Wife) remains mostly off-limits. Right now, TCM is presenting David Lean’s 1957 Best Picture Academy Award winner and all-around blockbuster The Bridge on the River Kwai, the Anglo-American production that turned Lean into filmdom’s brainier Cecil B. DeMille. Until then a director of mostly small-scale dramas, Lean (quite literally) widened the scope of his movies with the widescreen-formatted Southeast Asian-set World War II drama, which clocks in at 161 minutes. Even though William Holden was The Bridge on the River Kwai‘s big box-office draw, the film actually belongs to Alec Guinness’ Pow British commander and to...
- 8/22/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Lana Turner movies: Scandal and more scandal Lana Turner is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, Saturday, August 10, 2013. I’m a little — or rather, a lot — late in the game posting this article, but there are still three Lana Turner movies left. You can see Turner get herself embroiled in scandal right now, in Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), both the director and the star’s biggest box-office hit. More scandal follows in Mark Robson’s Peyton Place (1957), the movie that earned Lana Turner her one and only Academy Award nomination. And wrapping things up is George Sidney’s lively The Three Musketeers (1948), with Turner as the ruthless, heartless, remorseless — but quite elegant — Lady de Winter. Based on Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of John M. Stahl’s 1934 melodrama about mother love, class disparities, racism, and good cooking, Imitation of Life was shown on...
- 8/11/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The latest film version of The Great Gatsby is currently the talk of the film industry, having just debuted Stateside and opened the Cannes Film Festival this week. Based on F Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, the story showcases everything from seduction and money to buried secrets among the elite society in the Roaring '20s.
We take a look back at the five Gatsby screen adaptations in time for the release of Baz Luhrmann's new Leonardo DiCaprio-led film.
1926
This is the only Gatsby film to have been made in Fitzgerald's lifetime and the only silent interpretation of the story. Directed by Herbert Brenon and released by Paramount Pictures, this is a true example of a "lost film" with the below trailer the only evidence of its existence. According to Anne Margaret Daniel in the Huffington Post, the film was not appreciated by the author and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald,...
We take a look back at the five Gatsby screen adaptations in time for the release of Baz Luhrmann's new Leonardo DiCaprio-led film.
1926
This is the only Gatsby film to have been made in Fitzgerald's lifetime and the only silent interpretation of the story. Directed by Herbert Brenon and released by Paramount Pictures, this is a true example of a "lost film" with the below trailer the only evidence of its existence. According to Anne Margaret Daniel in the Huffington Post, the film was not appreciated by the author and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald,...
- 5/17/2013
- Digital Spy
Baz Luhrmann's new version is the latest attempt to adapt a book notoriously hard to bring to the screen
I'm writing this a few days before the UK premiere of Baz Luhrmann's new film of The Great Gatsby – at which stage the broad consensus seems to be that the novel can't be filmed. Aside from a few midway-convincing theories about the impossibility of matching the beauty of Fitzgerald's line-by-line writing, most of this agreement is based on the fact that all previous attempts to bring the book to life have emerged stillborn.
Sadly, the very first effort, a 1926 silent movie directed by Herbert Brenon, is almost entirely lost. Or perhaps, not so sadly. When F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald went to see the film in Los Angeles, they walked out. Zelda wrote to her son Scottie: "We saw 'The Great Gatsby' in the movies. It's Rotten and awful and terrible and we left.
I'm writing this a few days before the UK premiere of Baz Luhrmann's new film of The Great Gatsby – at which stage the broad consensus seems to be that the novel can't be filmed. Aside from a few midway-convincing theories about the impossibility of matching the beauty of Fitzgerald's line-by-line writing, most of this agreement is based on the fact that all previous attempts to bring the book to life have emerged stillborn.
Sadly, the very first effort, a 1926 silent movie directed by Herbert Brenon, is almost entirely lost. Or perhaps, not so sadly. When F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald went to see the film in Los Angeles, they walked out. Zelda wrote to her son Scottie: "We saw 'The Great Gatsby' in the movies. It's Rotten and awful and terrible and we left.
- 5/14/2013
- by Sam Jordison
- The Guardian - Film News
Leonardo DiCaprio The Great Gatsby movie box office: DiCaprio’s second biggest opening ever — but trailing Titanic in ticket sales The Great Gatsby movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel earned $50.08m at the North American box office this past weekend, including $3.25 million from late Thursday night showings, according to weekend box-office actuals found at Box Office Mojo. Despite mostly poor reviews — The Great Gatsby has a 32% approval rating and 5.6/10 average among Rotten Tomatoes‘ top critics — the Baz Luhrmann-directed take on the love story between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jay Gatsby and Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan far surpassed the expectations of both distributor Warner Bros. and box-office pundits. In fact, The Great Gatsby trailed only Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 3, which collected $72.52 million at the domestic box office this past weekend. (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby.) Partly thanks to 3D surcharges and a strong female contingent of ticket-buyers,...
- 5/14/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
There have been plenty of failed F Scott Fitzgerald adaptations already. Besides, who needs films based on 20s literature when their themes resonate through so much film and TV anyway?
Given the track record that film-makers of some distinction have had adapting F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, you may understand my reluctance to see Baz Luhrmann's new version. I shall need another two deep readings of the book to armour myself completely against the grievances I expect the movie will do to it.
I think Gatsby is the Great American Novel, even though it slipped out of fashion and out of print for decades (like Moby Dick and lots of Faulkner), and even though its author, no matter his achievement, is somehow assuredly not the Great American Novelist. The Great American Novel never makes for the Great American Movie. The latter rarely derives from the former. The...
Given the track record that film-makers of some distinction have had adapting F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, you may understand my reluctance to see Baz Luhrmann's new version. I shall need another two deep readings of the book to armour myself completely against the grievances I expect the movie will do to it.
I think Gatsby is the Great American Novel, even though it slipped out of fashion and out of print for decades (like Moby Dick and lots of Faulkner), and even though its author, no matter his achievement, is somehow assuredly not the Great American Novelist. The Great American Novel never makes for the Great American Movie. The latter rarely derives from the former. The...
- 5/13/2013
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
Leonardo DiCaprio The Great Gatsby movie weekend box office: DiCaprio’s second biggest opening ever? (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby, with Carey Mulligan) Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1920s novel. A risky move? Well, if so, it has clearly paid off. Although The Great Gatsby will not top the North American box office this weekend, it’ll land in a remarkably (and surprisingly) strong second slot. (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby movie adaptation, with Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan.) Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 3 will easily lead the domestic box-office charge with approximately $65-70m, after plummeting 71% on Friday, compared to the previous week. True, opening-day Friday also included the box-office take from Thursday late night showings, but, for comparison’s sake, The Avengers was down 64% during that same time frame.
- 5/12/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
The Great Gatsby 2013 movie box office: Way overperforming? (Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby) The Great Gatsby 2013 movie adaptation directed by Baz Luhrmann, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan will not top the North American box office this weekend. That’s the not-so-good news. But then again, no one was expecting The Great Gatsby to soar past Robert Downey Jr’s special-effects-laden Iron Man 3. True, both movies are in 3D, but … maybe if Jay Gatsby’s hair gel were capable of blowing up all of New England or something, then it’d have had a chance. (Updated The Great Gatsby weekend box office estimate.) Now, the (really) good news: The Great Gatsby, with the assistance of 3D surcharges and a large percentage of female ticket-buyers, may open north of $50m at 3,525 North American locations, according to early, rough estimates found at Deadline.com. As per Deadline’s "sources,...
- 5/11/2013
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
Director Baz Luhrmann hails 'great honour' for his 3D film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan
Baz Luhrmann's much-anticipated 3D take on The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald's romantic tale of the gilded jazz age, is to open the Cannes film festival.
The fourth adaptation of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel to hit the big screen stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role of Jay Gatsby, Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire as his wide-eyed confidant Nick Carraway and Britain's Carey Mulligan as manipulative socialite Daisy Buchanan. The drama, Luhrmann's follow-up to the poorly-received Australia, will open the 66th Festival de Cannes out-of-competition on 15 May.
"It is a great honour for all those who have worked on The Great Gatsby to open the Cannes film festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film,...
Baz Luhrmann's much-anticipated 3D take on The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald's romantic tale of the gilded jazz age, is to open the Cannes film festival.
The fourth adaptation of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel to hit the big screen stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role of Jay Gatsby, Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire as his wide-eyed confidant Nick Carraway and Britain's Carey Mulligan as manipulative socialite Daisy Buchanan. The drama, Luhrmann's follow-up to the poorly-received Australia, will open the 66th Festival de Cannes out-of-competition on 15 May.
"It is a great honour for all those who have worked on The Great Gatsby to open the Cannes film festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film,...
- 3/12/2013
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
By Lee Pfeiffer
Joshua Logan's 1955 screen adaptation of William Inge's Broadway sensation Picnic has been released on Blu-ray by the excellent Twilight Time label as a 3,000 unit limited edition. The play helped boost Paul Newman to stardom but amazingly he was excluded from the film version, along with most of his fellow cast members. Inge's play presented an unusually frank examination of repressed sexual frustration in a small Kansas town. That tension boils over with the arrival of Hal Carter (William Holden), a charismatic drifter whose arrival in town sets off a combustible tinderbox of emotions among the residents. Hal is a magnet for women of all ages, but he sets his sites on Madge (Kim Novak), a vulnerable teenager from a broken home who is looking for a white knight to deliver her from the boredom of her small town life. Hal fills the void but brings...
Joshua Logan's 1955 screen adaptation of William Inge's Broadway sensation Picnic has been released on Blu-ray by the excellent Twilight Time label as a 3,000 unit limited edition. The play helped boost Paul Newman to stardom but amazingly he was excluded from the film version, along with most of his fellow cast members. Inge's play presented an unusually frank examination of repressed sexual frustration in a small Kansas town. That tension boils over with the arrival of Hal Carter (William Holden), a charismatic drifter whose arrival in town sets off a combustible tinderbox of emotions among the residents. Hal is a magnet for women of all ages, but he sets his sites on Madge (Kim Novak), a vulnerable teenager from a broken home who is looking for a white knight to deliver her from the boredom of her small town life. Hal fills the void but brings...
- 1/22/2012
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, The Great Gatsby In Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (co-written with Craig Pearce), Leonardo DiCaprio (he of Titanic, The Aviator, and Inception) plays the title role of the very rich party animal Jay Gatsby, who has an adulterous affair with the married Daisy Buchanan (An Education and Shame's Carey Mulligan), whose husband, Tom (Animal Kingdom and Warrior's Joel Edgerton), also happens to be having an affair with another woman, Myrtle (Confessions of a Shopaholic and Wedding Crashers' Isla Fisher). As the story's narrator, Nick Carraway, Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire tries to keep all the different affairs straight, so to speak. The previous big-screen Gatsbys were Warner Baxter in 1926, Alan Ladd in 1949, and Robert Redford in 1974. The previous big-screen Daisys were Lois Wilson, Betty Field, and Mia Farrow. Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby opens on December...
- 1/5/2012
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, The Great Gatsby The first official The Great Gatsby pictures became available online a few days ago. Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, and Isla Fisher star in this latest big-screen version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous novel. Moulin Rouge's Baz Luhrmann, who became major world news after injuring his head a week or so ago, directs. Set shortly after the end of World War I, The Great Gatsby is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway (Maguire), a returning war veteran who becomes part of the upper-class universe of Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio). There have been (at least) three previous The Great Gatsby adaptations for the big screen. A 1926 silent version is now lost. Only the trailer remains. Directed by future Oscar nominee Herbert Brenon, the silent starred future Oscar winner Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby and Lois Wilson...
- 12/31/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Bollywood star 'refused remuneration' for Hollywood debut in Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming F Scott Fitzgerald adaptation
India's best-known actor, Amitabh Bachchan, is to take an unpaid role in Baz Luhrmann's retelling of F Scott Fitzgerald's classic tale of the gilded jazz age, The Great Gatsby.
The Bollywood legend revealed on his blog that he had "refused any remuneration" for his portrayal of shady businessman Meyer Wolfsheim in the new film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as the shallow-but-alluring Daisy Buchanan. Bachchan said he had agreed to join the cast – in his Hollywood debut – as a favour to Luhrmann.
"Baz Luhrmann, during his private visit to India last year, had dropped by my office to meet me and presented me with some paintings of a prominent painter who was accompanying him," Bachchan wrote. "He called last month...
India's best-known actor, Amitabh Bachchan, is to take an unpaid role in Baz Luhrmann's retelling of F Scott Fitzgerald's classic tale of the gilded jazz age, The Great Gatsby.
The Bollywood legend revealed on his blog that he had "refused any remuneration" for his portrayal of shady businessman Meyer Wolfsheim in the new film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as the shallow-but-alluring Daisy Buchanan. Bachchan said he had agreed to join the cast – in his Hollywood debut – as a favour to Luhrmann.
"Baz Luhrmann, during his private visit to India last year, had dropped by my office to meet me and presented me with some paintings of a prominent painter who was accompanying him," Bachchan wrote. "He called last month...
- 9/12/2011
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
James Stewart remains one of the most beloved film actors in Hollywood history. Well, at least in the United States, where Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are considered the apex of studio-era filmmaking. Stewart's shy, naive, wholesome, aw-shucksy boy-next-door (later man-next-door) manner continues to endear him to millions whose idea of shyness, naiveté, wholesomeness, and boy-next-doorishness has nothing to do with mine. In fact, I wonder if anyone anywhere, whether in the United States or elsewhere, has ever lived next door to a "boy" who acted, sounded, romanced, and punched — lest we confuse shyness with softness — like Stewart. I'm glad I haven't. Today, Turner Classic Movies has been presenting several James Stewart movies as part of its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. Right now, TCM is showing John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), considered by many the director's best post-The Searchers effort.
- 8/14/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins, Lionel Barrymore as Billy Bones in Victor Fleming's Treasure Island Jackie Cooper Dies: Youngest Best Actor Oscar Nominee, Skippy, The Champ A series of programmers followed, among them Two Bright Boys (1939), once again pairing up Jackie Cooper with Freddie Bartholomew — who by then was sliding fast as well — and What a Life (1939), with Betty Field. In the latter release, Cooper played Henry Aldrich, a role he would incarnate once again in Life with Henry (1941) before Jimmy Lydon took over. Cooper's film career was interrupted during World War II. When he returned in the late 1940s, he found jobs scarce, appearing in only three minor features. Two of those, Kilroy Was Here (1947) and French Leave (1948), co-starred another former child star named Jackie, Charles Chaplin's little pal in The Kid, Jackie Coogan — who also happened to be Robert Coogan's older brother. [...]...
- 5/5/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Woody Strode in John Ford‘s Sergeant Rutledge I’m not at all familiar with Woody Strode‘s film career. I believe that most people aren’t either. And that is an excellent reason to check out Turner Classic Movies‘ Woody Strode Day this Thursday, August 5, as part of TCM’s "Summer Under the Stars" series. I’ve seen only two of TCM’s twelve movies featuring Strode: John Ford‘s swan song, the much-panned 7 Women (1966), and Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). I actually enjoyed 7 Women, which features a great cast including Anne Bancroft (replacing ailing Patricia Neal), Margaret Leighton, Betty Field, Mildred Dunnock, Anna Lee and Flora Robson. The widely revered Once Upon a Time in the West has never been one of my favorite Westerns, but it does have my all-time favorite movie theme music, courtesy of the masterful Ennio Morricone. And I...
- 8/5/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It has been a rough two weeks for the entertainment business when it comes to the passing of major celebrity names as Karl Malden has passed away at the age of 97. Malden died in his sleep about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, his manager Bud Ross tells CNN. Malden won an Oscar for his performance alongside Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and was also nominated for another one of his performances opposite Brando in On the Waterfront in 1955. Only five years ago at the 2004 Screen Actors Guild Awards he was recognized with a Life Achievement Award and has long been recognized as a Hollywood icon. My personal experience with his movies has been relatively limited considering the overal breadth of his career but I have seen him in films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, Baby Doll, How the West Was Won, The Cincinnati Kid, Patton...
- 7/2/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, long considered one of the greatest of American novels, has never had a definitive big-screen treatment. Neither the 1949 Alan Ladd/Betty Field version nor the 1974 Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version is particularly well regarded, and to even attempt an adaptation of such a beloved classic is fraught with peril.
Naturally, that means Baz Luhrmann wants to take a stab at it. Nikke Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting "exclusive" inside information that Luhrmann -- whose Australia is currently struggling to make back its bloated budget -- will make The Great Gatsby for Twentieth Century Fox as his next project. Finke says the Aussie director is looking for cast members now.
I love this book and would love to see a film version that captures it -- but honestly, I don't see Baz Luhrmann doing that. His loose, frenetic, slapsticky style (which is great in the right context,...
Naturally, that means Baz Luhrmann wants to take a stab at it. Nikke Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting "exclusive" inside information that Luhrmann -- whose Australia is currently struggling to make back its bloated budget -- will make The Great Gatsby for Twentieth Century Fox as his next project. Finke says the Aussie director is looking for cast members now.
I love this book and would love to see a film version that captures it -- but honestly, I don't see Baz Luhrmann doing that. His loose, frenetic, slapsticky style (which is great in the right context,...
- 12/18/2008
- by Eric D. Snider
- Cinematical
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