News

The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.

Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988

An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...

In 1939, Judy Garland went over the rainbow, and the world would never be the same again. Garland, who'd first gained major fame singing, dancing, and acting alongside Mickey Rooney, was suddenly catapulted to superstardom. From her roots in vaudeville, Garland had been performing her whole life, and she eventually became one of the world's most beloved stars. Her singing voice is completely unmatched, and it was backed up with intensity, passion, and unparalleled charm. Though her personal history is not without difficulty -- and Rene Zellweger won an Oscar for portraying part of that history in "Judy" -- Garland is largely remembered as one of Hollywood's most beloved actresses.

Looking through Garland's career, it was her latter years that offered opportunities for rich experimentation. Though she still appeared in musicals, after her MGM contract expired, she boldly took risks, such as starring in an animated feature and an epic courtroom drama.

This June on HBO and HBO Max will play host to a new season of “Westworld,” a new adaptation of “Father of the Bride” and much more.

The big new Warner Bros. release on HBO and HBO Max this month is “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which actually debuted on the HBO Max streaming service on May 30. The third film in the Wizarding World prequel franchise first hit theaters in April, and is now available to stream in 4K.

There’s also the updated version of “Father of the Bride” premiering on June 16, while a pair of noteworthy documentaries are coming on the early side this month: “The Janes” premieres June 8 and follows unlikely outlaws in pre-Roe v. Wade America who defied state legislation that banned abortion, while “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” debuts on June 9.

As for original series, the fourth season of “Westworld” premieres on June...

With its list of new releases for June 2022, HBO Max is joining in what should be a TV summer to remember.

Not content to let Netflix’s Stranger Things or Prime Video’s The Boys to dominate the summer TV landscape, HBO is coming through with a new season of one of its big hits. Westworld season 4 is set to premiere June 26 on both HBO and HBO Max. What will this season of the increasingly confusing sci-fi drama be about? Per HBO’s synopsis it will be “A dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth.” So you know, only that.

Irma Vep is the only other Max Original of note this month. Based on a 1996 cult classic of the same name, this limited series stars Alicia Vikander as a disillusioned movie star looking to remake the early 20th century French silent film serial Les Vampires.

It’s...

Broadway’s legendary Angela Lansbury will receive the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, the Tony Awards Administration Committee announced today.

“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “From her groundbreaking role in Mame to her iconic performances in Deuce and Sweeney Todd, and most recently, in the revival of A Little Night Music, Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso, followed by A Taste of Honey (1960), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and, winning her first Tony, Mame (1966). She also won Tonys for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974) and Sweeney Todd (1979).

After a 24-year hiatus, she returned to Broadway in Deuce (2007), followed by...

Angela Lansbury will be honored for her lifetime achievements at the 2022 Tony Awards.

The actress, who has won five Tonys over her 75-year career, will be receiving the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “From her groundbreaking role in ‘Mame; to her iconic performances in ‘Deuce’ and ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and most recently, in the revival of ‘A Little Night Music,’ Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957, when she starred in “Hotel Paradiso.” She won her first Tony less than a decade later for her 1966 performance in “Mame.” She also won Tonys for “Dear World...

Sometimes it’s like they read your mind—or just notice upcoming releases as you do. Whatever the case, I’m thrilled that the release of Terence Davies’ Benediction played (I assume!) some part in a full retro on the Criterion Channel this June, sad as I know that package will make me and anybody else who comes within ten feet of it. It’s among a handful of career retrospectives: they’ve also set a 12-film Judy Garland series populated by Berkeley and Minnelli, ten from Ulrike Ottinger, and four by Billy Wilder. But maybe their most adventurous idea in some time is a huge microbudget collection ranging from Ulmer’s Detour to Joel Potrykus’ Buzzard, fellow success stories—Nolan, Linklater, Jarmusch, Jia Zhangke—spread about.

Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...

After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.

Metrograph

Tsai Ming-liang’s masterpiece Goodbye, Dragon Inn has been restored and begins a run, while also streaming on their site. “Holidays at Metrograph” has a delectable selection: Eyes Wide Shut, Carol, Phantom Thread, Elle, and Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan.

Film Forum

Newly restored, Powell & Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going! is now playing, while The Harvey Girls and a 16mm print of Lady Windermere’s Fan screen this Sunday.

Roxy Cinema

A prints of Speed Racer screens on Sunday.

IFC Center

Peas in a pod? A Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka are available for a double feature,...

7 random things that happened on this day, March 13th, in history...

Olivia's first Oscar

1947 The 19th Academy Awards are held honoring the best films of 1946. The Best Years of Our Lives triumphs and remains one of the greatest decisions the Academy ever made in Best Picture. Meanwhile Fredric March picks up his second Best Actor Oscar (for the same film) and Olivia de Havilland picks up the first of her two Best Actress Oscars (for To Each His Own). "On the Atcheson Topeka and the Santa Fe" from the Judy Garland musical The Harvey Girls wins Best Song... ...

Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering info can be found Here

Vittles, songs and dance are amply ladled out when Judy Garland headlines The Harvey Girls, a joyous musical slice of Americana celebrating the restaurants that brought extra helpings of civilization to Old West rail passengers. Highlights include Garland holding saloon patrons at jittery gunpoint to retrieve stolen beefsteaks, Ray Bolger’s loose-limbed comic hoofing, Virginia O’Brien’s sure-shot comic timing, Angela Lansbury’s stylish wickedness as a saloon singer and the “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” romp (which nabbed the 1946 Best Song Academy Award®) that’s “deservedly famous, one of the most triumphant sequences in screen-musical history”. All aboard!

Special Features:

Feature-length audio commentary by Director George SidneyThree deleted musical sequences: March of the Doagies, March of the Doagies (reprise), My IntuitionScoring stage sessions (audio only) featuring pre-recordings...

On Aug. 11, 1943, Variety carried a story beginning “Angela Lansbury, 17-year-old English girl, is the colony’s latest Cinderella.” The story said she had gone from an unknown to movie star in only four days.

Since then, Lansbury has forged a career that defies all logic. She received supporting-actress Oscar nominations twice in her first two years of work. At age 41, she became a musical-comedy star with “Mame.” She became a TV star with “Murder, She Wrote” at age 59, an age when most actresses can’t find work. In the show’s 12-year run, she was one of the TV industry’s most powerful women. Maybe her biggest accomplishment: Though powerful women were sometimes maligned, it was thought you needed to be heartless to survive in showbiz, Lansbury has created a 77-year career and nobody has a bad word to say about her.

Lansbury, who turns 95 Friday, is best known for...

This great, unheralded western is divorced from the usual concerns of law and order and gunslinger protocol. As in most every film by Jacques Tourneur, we feel a strong empathy for characters that behave like real people working out real problems. The Oregon Territory is pioneered by imperfect people — opportunists, knaves and hopeful dreamers — all rich in personality. Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward lead a large cast in a tale with just as much conflict and violence as the next western, but with an integrity one can feel. The icing on the cake is the presence of ‘troubadour’ Hoagy Carmichael and his beautiful music.

Canyon Passage

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine, Victor Cutler, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, James Cardwell,...

Tony Sokol Jul 8, 2019

The official trailer for the upcoming Judy film shows Renée Zellweger in what might be her next Oscar nominated role.

The first official trailer for the upcoming biopic Judy looks like it might pull an Academy Award for Renée Zellweger, who channels the The Wizard Of Oz star at the close of her career.

"Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland arrives in Swinging London to perform a five-week sold-out run at The Talk of the Town," reads the official synopsis. "It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown. As she prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of love seem undimmed as she embarks on a whirlwind romance with Mickey Deans,...

“You’ll know before the dance is through that you’re in love with her and she’s in love with you.”

That lyric is from the very first Best Song Oscar winner, “The Continental,” from the 1934 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical, “The Gay Divorcee.” It’s a celebration of the power of dance to ignite the flames of desire.

Now “Shallow,” a more clear-eyed view on matters of the heart (“Ain’t it hard keeping it so hardcore?”) from “A Star Is Born” is part of that Academy Award tradition. But the fact is, such honored love songs are becoming a rarity.

It used to be that romantic tunes regularly caught Oscar’s ear. Occasionally, a song of yearning like 1939’s “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz,” “When You Wish Upon a Star” from 1940’s “Pinocchio” and “White Christmas” from 1942’s “Holiday Inn” broke through. There...

This article marks Part 21 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the winners.

The 1994 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Look What Love Has Done” from “Junior”

“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from “The Lion King”

“Circle of Life” from “The Lion King”

“Hakuna Matata” from “The Lion King”

“Make Up Your Mind” from “The Paper”

Won: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from “The Lion King”

Should’ve won: “Circle of Life” from “The Lion King”

If there is any year in which a single film could and should have filled out the entire Best Original Song category at the Oscars, it is 1994.

Kudos to voters for nominating “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “Circle of Life...

This article marks Part 17 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the winners.

The 1984 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” from “Against All Odds”

“Footloose” from “Footloose”

“Let’s Hear It for the Boy” from “Footloose”

“Ghostbusters” from “Ghostbusters”

“I Just Called to Say I Love You” from “The Woman in Red”

Won: “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from “The Woman in Red”

Should’ve won: “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” from “Against All Odds”

Stevie Wonder‘s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” is a sweet, charmingly corny trifle, easily the most notable thing from Gene Wilder‘s midlife...

This article marks Part 12 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the winners.

The 1973 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“(You’re So) Nice to Be Around” from “Cinderella Liberty”

“Live and Let Die” from “Live and Let Die”

“Love,” from “Robin Hood”

“All That Love Went to Waste” from “A Touch of Class”

“The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”

Won and should’ve won: “The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”

The title song from “The Way We Were,” composed by the brilliant, Egot-winning Marvin Hamlisch, alongside Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is a dreamy, haunting, immensely moving piece, performed splendidly by the incomparable Barbra Streisand. The film’s leading lady strikes just the right notes here,...

This article marks Part 9 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1964 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Dear Heart” from “Dear Heart”

“Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte” from “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte”

“Chim Chim Cher-ee” from “Mary Poppins”

“My Kind of Town” from “Robin and the 7 Hoods”

“Where Love Has Gone” from “Where Love Has Gone”

Won: “Chim Chim Cher-ee” from “Mary Poppins”

Should’ve won: “Dear Heart” from “Dear Heart”

1964 is one of the more aggravating years at the Oscars, that time “My Fair Lady” crushed the brilliant likes of “Becket” and “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” across the board. Rex Harrison defeated Richard Burton,...

This article marks Part 6 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1954 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“The High and the Mighty” from “The High and the Mighty”

“The Man That Got Away” from “A Star Is Born”

“Hold My Hand” from “Susan Slept Here”

“Three Coins in the Fountain” from “Three Coins in the Fountain”

“Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” from “White Christmas”

Won: “Three Coins in the Fountain” from “Three Coins in the Fountain”

Should’ve won: “The Man That Got Away” from “A Star Is Born”

Sure, the 1954 Oscar ceremony could have gone a lot worse. “On the Waterfront” and leading man Marlon Brando could have, for instance, fallen...

This article marks Part 4 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1946 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” from “Blue Skies”

“Ole Buttermilk Sky” from “Canyon Passage”

“All Through the Day” from “Centennial Summer”

“I Can’t Begin to Tell You” from “The Dolly Sisters”

“On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”

Won and should’ve won: “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from “The Harvey Girls”

1946 marks a very obscure and awfully modest year in Best Original Song. There’s not really a rotten apple in the bunch, but there’s also nothing to get terribly head over heels about.

In her 74 years in show business, Dame Angela Lansbury has become a legend in film, theater and television. She has been nominated for three Academy Awards and was bestowed with an honorary Oscar in 2013. In addition, she has won two Golden Globe Awards for her film work, as well as two additional nominations. She has also won five Tony Awards (from seven nominations) for her work in the theatre. It has been quite a career. She is one of the few performers equally known for all three entertainment genres, and for that effort she was recognized with a Kennedy Center Honors in 2000.

SEEEmmys 2018 exclusive: PBS ‘Masterpiece’ categories for ‘Little Women,’ ‘The Child in Time’ and more

Yet the only major award to have eluded Dame Angela is the Emmy. Famously, she has been nominated 18 times for the golden statue and yet has never won the golden statue. All of her...

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

Believe it or not, 1946 actually represented a change of pace in Judy Garland's career. Judy only had three credits to her name that year: one starring role (The Harvey Girls), one cameo delayed by reshoots (Ziegfeld Follies), and one appearance in a biopic (Till The Clouds Roll By). In fact, this change of pace was a conscious choice on the part of Mr. & Mrs. Minnelli. If Judy looks like she's glowing a bit more than usual under those arclights, that's because Judy Garland was pregnant.

 

 

The Movie: Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)

The Songwriter: Jerome Kern (music), Buddy G. DeSylva (lyrics)

The Players: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, Van Heflin, June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, directed by Richard Whorf & Vincente Minnelli 

The Story: Till The Clouds Roll By is a Jerome Kern biopic, which (in the true MGM style) fabricates...

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

Our time travelling comes to an end this week with a movie that was filmed before The Harvey Girls but, due to expensive reshoots, wasn't released until months later. Ziegfeld Follies (not to be confused with Ziegfeld Girl) is a plotless series of excuses for MGM to throw its considerable stable of talent into a series of comic and musical sketches tailor made to show off the stars - and the studio - at their finest.

 

The Movie: Ziegfeld Follies (1946)

The Songwriters: Kay Thompson (lyrics), Roger Edens (music)

The Players: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, William Powell, Esther Williams, directed by Vincente Minnelli 

The Story: According to rumor, originally this enjoyable little slip of a number was designed for Greer Garson. However, when Garson backed out, it became a number about Garson, lampooning her accent, image, and Oscar-bait dramatic roles.

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

Though we last left Judy Garland in 1944 crooning from a trolley and cementing a (troubled) place in Hollywood history, this week we must catapult two years into the future to rejoin our musical heroine. The reason has to do with the odd nature of the Studio System in general and this series in specific. Judy Garland actually shot two movies between 1944 and 1945, but because one was delayed due to reshoots (therefore getting bumped to next week) and the other was a straight drama (therefore not fitting a series focused on musical numbers), we must travel through the end of WW2 and the beginning of Judy Garland's marriage to Vincente Minnelli. Thus, in 1946 we arrive in... the Old West? 

 

The Movie: The Harvey Girls (1946)

The Songwriters: Johnny Mercer (lyrics), Harry Warren (music)

The Players: Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury, Ray Bolger,...

Last year HitFix threw down a 21-question quiz for Oscar fanatics, and this year we're at it again. Join us for an ultimate Oscar test featuring three tiers of difficulty: hard, harder, and hardest. Get out a notepad! The answers are on the next page. (Please note that the term "actor" can mean a man or a woman, and that any listed year refers to the time of the movie's release, not the year of the ceremony.) Hard 1. What's the highest-grossing of this year's eight Best Picture nominees? 2. Jennifer Jason Leigh just received her first Oscar nomination for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Only two performances in Quentin Tarantino's filmography have earned Academy Awards. Who performed those roles? 3. Which of this year's Best Picture nominees stars a character named Joy? 4. Who's the only person in history to win both an acting Oscar and a songwriting Oscar? 5. Name one...

After 40 years, the British-born actress who conquered Hollywood and starred in TV's Murder, She Wrote is back on the West End stage. As she approaches her 90s, she's in her theatrical prime

In the play Blithe Spirit, the wildly eccentric and chaotic clairvoyant Madame Arcati, Noël Coward's most colourful creation, announces that "time is the reef upon which all our frail mystic ships are wrecked".

No aphorism has ever applied less than this does to the actress now about to don the headscarves and bangles to play Arcati in the West End at the age of 88. Dame Angela Lansbury, ennobled earlier this month, has defied the laws of nature by becoming more theatrically prolific as her years have advanced. In 2007, she was Tony award-nominated for her role in a new Terrence McNally play, Deuce, on Broadway; in 2010, she was nominated again for a revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music; and then,...

Quentin Tarantino ‘The Hateful Eight’ screenplay leak Quentin Tarantino will no longer be making the Western The Hateful Eight. Why not? Well, Tarantino claims he sent out the film’s screenplay to a group of six people, one of whom allegedly showed it to his agent, who then showed it to other agents, who then began calling Tarantino’s agent Mike Simpson, asking him to cast their clients in the film. (Photo: The Hateful Eight screenwriter Quentin Tarantino.) “I’m very, very depressed,” Tarantino was quoted as saying at Deadline.com, which first broke The Hateful Eight Screenplay Leak story on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. “I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today.” Now, before they begin flailing and wailing, Quentin Tarantino fans should be...

Top box office movies of 2013: If you make original, quality films… (photo: Sandra Bullock has two movies among the top 15 box office hits of 2013; Bullock is seen here in ‘The Heat,’ with Melissa McCarthy) (See previous post: “2013 Box Office Record? History is Remade If a Few ‘Minor Details’ Ignored.”) As further evidence that moviegoers want original, quality entertainment, below you’ll find a list of the top 15 movies at the domestic box office in 2013 — nine of which are sequels or reboots (ten if you include Oz the Great and Powerful), and more than half of which are 3D releases. Disney and Warner Bros. were the two top studios in 2013. Disney has five movies among the top 15; Warners has three. With the exception of the sleeper blockbuster Gravity, which, however dumbed down, targeted a more mature audience, every single one of the titles below were aimed either at teenagers/very,...

Musicals have been tap dancing their way into moviegoers' hearts since the invention of cinema sound itself. From Oliver! to Singin' in the Rain, here are the Guardian and Observer critics' picks of the 10 best

• Top 10 documentaries

• Top 10 movie adaptations

• Top 10 animated movies

• Top 10 silent movies

• Top 10 sports movies

• Top 10 film noir

• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s

10. Oliver!

Historically, the British musical has been intertwined with British music, drawing on music hall in the 1940s and the pop charts in the 50s – low-budget films of provincial interest and nothing to trouble the bosses at MGM. In the late 60s, however, the genre enjoyed a brief, high-profile heyday, and between Tommy Steele in Half a Sixpence (1967) and Richard Attenborough's star-studded Oh! What A Lovely War (1969) came the biggest of them all: Oliver! (1968), Carol Reed's adaptation of Lionel Bart's 1960 stage hit and the recipient of six Academy awards.

Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...

Today, it seems audiences know "Bye Bye Birdie" only from the prominent mention of it on "Mad Men," when the Sterling Cooper agency tried to copy Ann-Margret's minimalist opening number for a diet soda commercial. But when the movie musical premiered 50 years ago (on April 4, 1963), it was a huge smash. It made an instant star out of the Swedish-born actress, as well as boosting the fame of co-stars Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde. Based on the Broadway hit musical, "Bye Bye Birdie" was seen as a trenchant pop cultural satire at the time. Everyone knows that Conrad Birdie, the hip-swiveling rocker who is drafted into the Army, and who stages a publicity stunt on the Ed Sullivan show by agreeing to kiss a teen fan before reporting for duty, is inspired by Elvis Presley, who had to put his career on hold in 1958 when he was drafted. But...

By Todd Garbarini

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

Bye Bye Birdie (1963) is an exuberant, squeaky clean musical comedy from Columbia Pictures that is based upon the 1960 Broadway musical of the same name. It is also extremely dated by today’s standards and flat-out corny at times. Overall, however, it is a fun ride that sports a good number of memorable musical interludes, the title song easily giving the viewer a severe case of earworm. Director George Sidney was no stranger to musicals as he was also responsible for Ziegfeld Follies (1945), The Harvey Girls (1946), Holiday in Mexico (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Showboat (1951) and Scaramouche (1952). Here, he brings to the screen the story of Kim MacAfee (twenty-two year-old Ann-Margret in her breakout performance) as a high school girl who becomes the envy of her peers when she is given the opportunity to kiss teen rock idol Conrad Birdie on the...

MGM meant musicals for more than a decade after the second world war. David Thomson looks at a time when a little cheer at the movies was appreciated – and wonders if the same couldn't be said now

There had been musicals before. In the 1930s, as soon as sound permitted, Warner Brothers developed what we call the Busby Berkeley pictures: they were black and white, and often aware of the harsh Depression times, but a choreographic lather of girls and fluid, orgasmic forms where the camera was itching to plunge into the centre of the "big O" – think of Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933 or 42nd Street. They had aerial shots of waves and whirlpools of chorus girls, opening and closing their legs in time with our desire. A few years later, at Rko Pictures, the Astaire-Rogers films came into being – where the gravity, beauty, and exhilaration of the...

Silly me. I had the greatest time at the Judy Garland festival at Lincoln Center this week and the movie I didn't write about Presenting Lily Mars was probably my favorite viewing experience. Rent it! Judy was just so funny in it, it was really charming and I liked her chemistry with Van Heflin (I confess I had to look him up since Shane had slipped my mind and I'd never seen his Best Supporting Actor Oscar performance for Johnny Eager (1941). Have any of you seen that one? Is it worth checking out?

But enough about Lily Mars... on to Judy in another incarnation. The Lincoln Center portion of the festival ends tomorrow though the celebration continues at the Paley Center for Television (since Judy did a lot of variety work on TV in the 50s). The last two films I caught were period musicals and here's the first of them.

The Lincoln Center and the Paley Center here in NYC have joined forces to celebrate the all-singing all-dancing legend that is Judy Garland! 

Shout 'Hallelujah', c'mon get happy!"

Once upon a time she was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Few celebrities have ever earned their PR self-mythologizing titles the way Judy G did. There's just no beating her for musical pleasure and cathartic heartbreak. And as if her sensational singing and dancing weren't enough, she was a fine actress, too!

I missed the first week of the celebration being in Michigan but I'll see what I can catch for the remainder of the summer program which ends August 9th. If you're not in New York City, you can always follow along at home as best you can with an impromptu DVD festival.

 

Still to come in the festival are...

Young Judy:

Everybody Sing (1938), For Me and My Gal (1942), Presenting Lily Mars...

Impressive retrospective of Judy Garland.s films will feature 31 titles including a presentation of seldom seen short films and rarities as well as a special .sing-along. screening of The Wizard Of Oz.

On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.

With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...

Visiting the UK in tribute to her Labour leader grandfather, the Murder, She Wrote star reveals hope of capping her Hollywood career by appearing on the West End stage her mother once performed on

One of Britain's brightest and most durable stars of stage and screen, Angela Lansbury, is hoping to round off her Hollywood and Broadway career with a theatrical run on the West End stage where her mother performed.

"I really would love to play the Theatre Royal Haymarket, because that is where my mother played," she said. "It nearly happened last year, and if that venue could be guaranteed I would come. I only want someone to make the offer."

Lansbury, 85, is due to return to her native Britain next week to celebrate the life of her grandfather, George Lansbury, a founder of the Labour party. On the eve of her visit, she talked to the Observer about her English heritage,...

One of the stranger items of note this year, if you're into this sort of thing, has been the rise of Blake Lively. To those who merely observe, it's no different than the dawn of any other interchangeable big breasted blonde starlet. Those come around with the frequency of #22 buses and are rarely lasting.

But this particular star-forming has been interesting. TV girls, let alone those of the primetime soap genre, don't have the best track record with the transition to big screen success. Where some (Michelle Williams) have found critical success, others have either striven for popularity over acclaim, or simply didn't have the skills to ascend past their television status.

But Blake Lively is not only in the company of the small-screeners who've reached for the brass rail of film. She's in that elite club where the crash and burn is just as swift and harsh, but even...

Jose here.

There are few things I enjoy more than "discovering" a new performance by an artist I adore. Such was the case last night when I screened The Harvey Girls for the very first time. I have always known Judy was adorable and could sing like nobody on the planet has since her. What I loved to see this time was her marvelous entrance performing the Oscar winning song "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe".

The whole town seems to know what's coming in the petite package and they all come to greet her in the kind of musical extravaganza only Arthur Freed delivered.

When they sing:

Do yuh hear that whistle down the line?

I figure that it's engine number forty nine,

She's the only one that'll sound that way.

You can't tell whether they're talking about the locomotive or Judy...

Was anyone better at singing on...

No 85 Judy Garland (1922-69)

She narrowly missed being "born in a trunk" on tour because her vaudevillian parents had gone off the road to manage a cinema with music hall acts in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. From taking the stage at the age of two, she remained in showbusiness up to her sudden death at 47 of an accidental drug overdose combined with illiberal use of alcohol while fulfilling nightclub engagements in London.

When she was four, her father had to relocate to Pennsylvania after importuning young male members of his staff. After working in a second-rate singing act with her older sisters and changing her name from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, she was taken to Hollywood at the age of 13 by her fiercely ambitious mother (whom she later called "the real Wicked Witch of the West").

The biggest studio in town, MGM, added her to its roster of juvenile performers raised on the premises,...

On The Cinephilic Pleasures Of...Murder, She Wrote: Those among you who read my blog cloesly, and with any regularity, have by now discovered that My Lovely Wife and I are completely, well, gaga over Angela Lansbury. I think she's totes hot in Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and especially The Harvey Girls. And My Lovely Wife loves...Murder, She Wrote. That's right, the long-running (1984 to 1996!) TV series created by Richard Levinson and William Link, who were also the fathers of television crime fighters Columbo and Mannix, TV crime drama's fastest parallel-parker. And I'll tell you what: I love Murder, She Wrote, too, and if you have a problem with that you can say it to my face and I won't much care.

Last week we had tickets to go see Lansbury, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, in a Broadway production directed by Trevor Nunn.

Distinguished film actor, five-time Tony Award winner, star of "Murder, She Wrote" (the longest-running detective drama in television history), and currently co-starring in "A Little Night Music" on Broadway, Angela Lansbury is now also the honorary chairwoman of Career Transition for Dancers. With offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the organization provides counseling, scholarships, workshops, and resource centers—all free of charge—to help dancers establish themselves in new careers when dancing is no longer an option.But why would Lansbury, a performer known largely as an actor and a singer, commit herself to an organization designed specifically to serve dancers? "Because when one is playing a leading role in a musical production on Broadway, the folks you are most in touch with are the dancers," says Lansbury, who has performed such roles in nine Broadway or Broadway-bound musicals, including "Anyone Can Whistle" (1964), "Mame" (1966 and 1983), "Gypsy" (1974), and "Sweeney Todd...

Veteran actress Rose Marie and musician Michael Feinstein at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presentation of "A Centennial Tribute to Johnny Mercer" on Thursday, November 5. Michael Feinstein hosted the evening. The Savannah-born Johnny Mercer is credited for the lyrics of more than 1,700 songs, including the Oscar-winning "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (The Harvey Girls, 1946), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (Here Comes the Groom, 1951), "Moon River" (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961), and "Days of Wine and Roses" (Days of Wine and Roses, 1962). Barry Humphries, probably best known as Dame Edna, and Rose Marie Michael Feinstein Photos: Greg Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Feinstein's At Loews Regency, the nightclub proclaimed "Best of New York" by New York Magazine and "an invaluable New York institution" by The New York Post, will continue its star-studded Fall 2009 season with the return engagement of Mary Cleere Haran from October 29 – 31 and November 5 – 7. The world premiere of her new show celebrating the Johnny Mercer centennial will feature famous standards such as “Day In Day Out,” “Out Of This World,” and “The Days of Wine and Roses,” in addition to lesser known gems such as “It’s A Great Big World” from The Harvey Girls and “That Old Music Master,” with music by Hoagy Carmichael.

Feinstein's At Loews Regency, the nightclub proclaimed "Best of New York" by New York Magazine and "an invaluable New York institution" by The New York Post, will continue its star-studded Fall 2009 season with the return engagement of Mary Cleere Haran from October 29 – 31 and November 5 – 7. The world premiere of her new show celebrating the Johnny Mercer centennial will feature famous standards such as “Day In Day Out,” “Out Of This World,” and “The Days of Wine and Roses,” in addition to lesser known gems such as “It’s A Great Big World” from The Harvey Girls and “That Old Music Master,” with music by Hoagy Carmichael.

Feinstein's At Loews Regency, the nightclub proclaimed "Best of New York" by New York Magazine and "an invaluable New York institution" by The New York Post, will continue its star-studded Fall 2009 season with the return engagement of Mary Cleere Haran from October 29 – 31 and November 5 – 7. The world premiere of her new show celebrating the Johnny Mercer centennial will feature famous standards such as “Day In Day Out,” “Out Of This World,” and “The Days of Wine and Roses,” in addition to lesser known gems such as “It’s A Great Big World” from The Harvey Girls and “That Old Music Master,” with music by Hoagy Carmichael.

Former Disney star Virginia Davis-mcghee has died, aged 90.

Davis-McGhee, who became Walt Disney’s first film star at the age of four, died on 15 August at her home in Corona, California.

She won over audiences as the curly-haired star of a series of short silent films in the 1920s called Alice in Cartoonland - eight years before the network's iconic Mickey Mouse character took over as Disney's most celebrated star.

She went on to film Alice’s Wonderland, playing a young girl who falls into a dream world similar to the original story of

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - and made more than 12 Alice films by 1924.

Three other child actresses succeeded her in the role after Davis-McGhee dropped out over a pay dispute. However, she continued to act, playing small film roles for other studios, including parts in 1946's The Harvey Girls and 1941 movie Week-End in Havana. She also voiced some supporting characters in Pinocchio.

Davis-McGhee is survived by her daughters Margaret Sufke and Laurieanne Zandbergen - by her late husband Robert McGhee - and three grandchildren.

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

It was her uncredited turn opposite Astaire in "Ziegfeld Follies" in 1946 that won her a seven-year contract with MGM. Her moves with Astaire in Vincent Minnelli's "Band Wagon" were often described as "heavenly."

One of the greatest female dancers in the heyday of the Hollywood musical, she starred in such big-screen extravaganzas as "Brigadoon" (1954) and as a young Vicki Carr in "The Silencers" (1966). While she strutted her considerable stuff on the screen, her singing was invariably dubbed.

Though she didn't often spend much time on the screen, her scenes made dramatic impact. Outfitted in the most splendid costumes, she wowed...

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

It was her uncredited turn opposite Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies in 1946 that won her a seven-year contract with MGM. Her moves with Astaire in Vincent Minnelli's Band Wagon were often described as "heavenly."

One of the greatest female dancers in the heyday of the Hollywood musical, she starred in such big-screen extravaganzas as Brigadoon (1954) and as a young Vicki Carr in The Silencers (1966). While she strutted her considerable stuff on the screen, her singing was invariably dubbed.

Though she didn't often spend much time on the screen, her scenes made dramatic impact. Outfitted in the most splendid costumes, she wowed audiences with her dance moves in such 1940s entertainments as The Harvey Girls, Three Wise Fools, Till the Clouds Roll By, Fiesta, The Unfinished Dance, Words and Music and The Kissing Bandit. Her final dancing turns were in the '50s in such films as Brigadoon, It's Always Fair Weather, Invitation to the Dance and Silk Stockings, a musical remake of Ninotchka that reteamed her with Astaire.

PARK CITY -- Films about misfit kids trying to escape the oppression of their small town are practically a cottage industry. Director Steve Berra, a skateboarding champion making his feature debut, tries to pump new life into the genre by pushing the alienation of his characters to an extreme. While The Good Life is stylistically ambitious and heartfelt, it feels more forced than authentic. But quirkiness of the film could find it an audience on cable outlets.

Berra's characters exist in a kind of mythical version of Lincoln, Nebraska, where people appear out of nowhere and say things like, "You don't know you know me." There are two sides to this town: the mass of fevered college football fans and the few alienated souls who don't have a clue. Berra brings two of the unlikely lost souls together.

The lead character is named Jason Prayer (Mark Webber), lest you miss what kind of state his life is in. He works pumping gas, trying to get by and support his mother, but the defining fact of his life is that he has no body hair, the result of an immune system malfunction. Although he wears a wig, he is a man set apart by his condition.

Jason's one pleasure in life is working at the Capitol theater, one of the last of the dying breed of neighborhood movie houses. While helping his friend Gus Harry Dean Stanton) show old movies such as The Harvey Girls, in walks Frances (Zooey Deschanel) like a shady character out of a film noir, who claims she was a childhood singer. The details of her life also bear a striking resemblance to those of Garland's. Frances and Jason are, of course, soul mates, destined to ride into the sunset together.

At this point, Berra could have cued The Animals singing I Got to Get Out of this Place, but he prefers more mournful strings and piano. Jason's life is a barrage of insults and defeats, the latest being the death of his despised father, who left his son with the message "Life is suffering and no one will ever love you." No wonder he's lost.

It's hard to know what to believe about Francis' stories of suicide, drugs and hospitization. Deschanel's big-hearted performance -- including a lovely rendition of On the Sunnyside of the Street -- makes the character appealing, if not quite convincing. What's clear is that she is a desperate character trying to cut her surprisingly close ties to the football culture in the worst way.

True to form, things go from bad to worse before they get better. The electricity is shut off at Jason's house, he gets beat up by the local thug and his beloved father figure Gus is losing his memory and barely recognizes him.

While it is impossible not to be moved by suffering like this, circumstances often seem more contrived than real. The Capitol theater, for instance, runs a repertory program that would make a New York movie house proud for an audience of two people night after night. And Jason's working class family comes off as the kind of one-dimensional people who exist only in movies, especially his over-the-top brother-in-law (Donal Logue).

Technically, The Good Life is an impressive first film for Berra. Patrice Lucien Cochet's photography suggests the magical atmosphere and gritty reality the director was apparently shooting for. And Gord Wilding's dead-on production design makes it clear why these people want out.

The Good Life

FarFalla Films

Credits: Director: Steve Berra; Writer: Berra; Producers: Lance Sloane, Patrick Markey, Devin Sloane; Executive Producer: Bill Paxton; Director of Photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet; Production Designer: Gord Wilding; Music: Joel Peterson, Don Davis; Costume Designer: Darena Snowe; Editor: Sean Hubbert.

Cast: Jason Prayer: Mark Webber; Frances: Zooey Deschanel; Gus: Harry Dean Stanton; Robbie: Bill Paxton; Tad: Chris Klein; Andrew: Patrick Fugit; Dana: Drea de Matteo; Frank Jones: Bruce McGill; Daryll: Donal Logue; Diane: Deborah Rush; Fred: Michael Baxter.

No MPAA rating, running time: 106 minutes.