Author: Peter J Patrick
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Home Viewing with Peter #907
Shout Select has released a 4K Ultra HD restoration of Oliver Stone’s 1989 Vietnam War film, Born on the Fourth of July. Nominated for 8 Oscars and winner of two for Best Director and Best Film Editing, the film with a screenplay by Ron Kovic and Stone, is based on Kovic’s 1976 autobiography originally scheduled…
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Oscar Profile: Teresa Wright Revisited
Born October 27, 1918, (Muriel) Teresa Wright became interested in acting after seeing Helen Hayes in Broadway’s Victoria Regina in 1936. Following her high school graduation in 1938 she was on Broadway herself as understudy to Martha Scott and Dorothy McGuire in Our Town. She took over the lead when Scott went to Hollywood to make the film…
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Home Viewing with Peter #906
1955’s The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell and 1956’s The Proud and Profane are two of the lesser-known war movies from the 1950s newly released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. Directed by Otto Preminger, Warner Bros.’ The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, set in the post-Worl World I years, was nowhere near the success of the studio’s…
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Oscar Profile: Thelma Ritter Revisited
Born February 14, 1902 in Brooklyn, New York, Thelma Ritter was a hard-working, albeit obscure stage and radio actress whose movie breakthrough came in her first film, in an unbilled bit role in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street. Her portrayal of a mother who is sent to Gimbels by Macy’s Santa made such an impression on…
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Home Viewing with Peter #905
The Wizard of Oz has probably seen more home video releases than any other film. The new release, called The Wizard of Oz: 85th Anniversary Theater Edition (4K UHD + BD + DIG/Steelbook) [Blu-ray] retails for $75 but is currently on sale at Amazon for $68 vs the 2019 stand-alone 4K Blu-ray which retails for…
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Oscar Profile: James Stewart Revisited
Born May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, James Stewart was the son of a hardware store owner and his wife. He was educated at a local prep school where he was an athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion), and sometime actor. In 1929, he went to Princeton University where he studied architecture and…
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Home Viewing with Peter #904
Josh Margolin’s Thelma is based on an episode in the life of his now-103-year-old grandmother, Thelma Post, when she was 93. Thelma was the widow of director Ted Post (Hang ‘em High, Magnum Force). She’s played in the film by June Squibb who made her Broadway debut as one of the strippers in the original…
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Oscar Profile: Michael Curtiz Revisited
Born December 24, 1896 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary), Mano Kaminer was born into a Jewish family with two brothers and a sister. His father was a carpenter, his mother an opera singer. A born actor and director, he built a theater in the basement of his house when he was 8, performing in plays…
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Home Viewing with Peter #903
The Criterion Collection released a DVD of G.W. Pabst’s 1929 classic Pandora’s Box in 2006. Three years later a 2K restoration of the film was made by the George Eastman House financed by Hugh Hefner. That restoration is the source of Criterion’s new Blu-ray edition which includes all the extras from the DVD release. The…
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Oscar Profile: Paul Osborn
Born September 4, 1901 in Evansville, Indiana to a Baptist minister and his wife, Paul Osborn graduated from the University of Michigan where he later taught English. He also studied drama and playwriting at Yale University before making his Broadway debut in 1928 with his play, Hotbed. Osborn achieved great success with 1930’s The Vinegar…
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Home Viewing with Peter #902
The Criterion Collection has released a 4K UHD Special Editon of Val Lewton’s I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim, two of the horror meister’s classic films from 1943. Producer Lewton, a longtime story editor for David O. Selznick, was hired to head RKO’s new horror unit in 1942 where he turned out…
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Oscar Profile: Howard Hawks Revisited
Born May 30, 1896 in Goshen, Indiana, Howard Winchester Hawks was the eldest of five children of one of the Midwest’s wealthiest families. The family moved to Pasadena, California due to his mother’s poor health after the birth of her fifth child in 1906. Hawks attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York studying mechanical engineering…
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Home Viewing with Peter #901
Warner Archive has released three newly restored dramas from the 1940s on Blu-ray, of which one is a genuine classic while the other two are interesting footnotes on the era. The classic is 1948’s I Remember Mama. Based on the 1943 novel, Mama’s Bank Account, which takes place between 1908 and 1910 is not, as…
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Oscar Profile: Maggie Smith Revisited
Born December 28, 1934 in Essex, England, Maggie Smith made her stage debut in 1952, her TV debut in 1955 and her screen debut in 1958. She was the recipient of seven BAFTAs, two Oscars, two Golden Globes, four Emmys and a Tony. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1990. Although…
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Home Viewing with Peter #900
That Hamilton Woman, now streaming on Max, was Winston Churchill’s favorite film and it’s easy to see why. The stirring 1941 drama of the scandalous affair of Emma Lady Hamilton and Horatio Lord Nelson set against the backdrop of late 18th-early 19th English history is a film that never gets old thanks primarily to the…
