Here’s a short and somewhat curious excerpt from what appears to be a television program about Marilyn Monroe made shortly after her death. It features interviews with two of her directors–Jean Negulesco (who directed her in ‘How To Marry A Millionaire’) and George Cukor (who directed her in ‘Lets Make
Early next month (exact date to be determined soon) a documentary I’ve been working on over a rather embarrassingly long time-span about the actor Burt Young will finally make its debut. Titled ‘A Film About The Actor Known As Burt Young’, the doc is an examination of–and tribute to–the marvelously
I could never remember the name of the ‘The Inn Of the Sixth Happiness’ when I was a kid. I liked the movie but referred to it by several different variations when noting to somebody that it was soon to be on TV. ‘The Sixth Inn of Happiness’, ‘The Happy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCkk6iAZxIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEDTuampIMg Decades may pass, styles of filmmaking may change, but the architecture of the Hollywood premiere/awards show remains the same. The stars get out of cars, stand on ‘the carpet’ to be admired and photographed, then go inside. That’s about it. Yesterday I posted the 1953 version of a premiere.
This past Saturday we screened ‘House Of Wax’ (1953) at the Directors Guild theater on West 57th street. I did the historical context intro and briefly discussed (i.e. jammed through) a mini-history of 3-D filmmaking. Some often cite ‘House Of Wax’ as the first 3-D movie released at the dawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9UEu1qJRo To my intense frustration, some self-important copyright upholder has removed all traces of the musical numbers from The Marx Brothers maiden cinematic effort ‘The Cocoanuts’ (1929) from the wilds of YouTube. Why? Why why why? Is it an Irving Berlin estate kind of thing? (Possibly). A DVD reissue kind
The generally accepted word on the Marx Brothers films is that they constitute a clear case of downhillism, with the first five Paramount films being their supreme achievements, the first MGM (‘A Night At The Opera’) being the most successful yet also signifying the beginning of the end, and a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0syJQgFSzI4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUTWLNBl2k “The Sandpiper” (1965) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is best known today for its theme song, Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster’s immortal ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’. The film has generally been dismissed as weak-tea soap opera with pretentious thematic references to the bird the film is
Here’s a funny little reel of outtakes from ‘The Patsy’, a 1964 Jerry Lewis vehicle starring and directed by Buddy Love–er, Jerry. This film, along with ‘The Bellboy’, ‘The Errand Boy’ and ‘The Ladies Man’ mark for me the peak of Jerry’s solo career as a comic and director. After
Yesterday I wrote about my fascination with lost films–movies of the 20s and 30s that have vanished into the ether seemingly with no explanation. The truth is that most movies of the time were considered largely disposable after their initial run in theaters and little effort was made to preserve