Author: Peter J Patrick
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Profile: Beulah Bondi Revisited
Born in 1888, Beulah Bondi was a seasoned stage actress who made her film debut at 43, reprising her Broadway role as the neighborhood gossip in 1931’s Street Scene. After playing several other mean-spirited characters she moved up considerably on the likability scale as Rachel Jackson, Andrew Jackson’s pipe-smoking wife in 1936’s The Gorgeous Hussy, for which…
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Home Viewing with Peter #899
All of Us Strangers, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Ladykillers are among the latest films receiving 4K UHD releases. All of Us Strangers is receiving its first U.S. home video release from the Criterion Collection in the format. Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed film is a ghost story based on Japanese writer Taichi Yamada’s 1987…
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Oscar Profile: Jo Van Fleet
Born December 29, 1915 in Oakland, California, Catherine Josephine Van Fleet, known professionally as Jo Van Fleet, was the daughter of a railroad worker and his wife. Her father died in 1919, after which Jo, her older sister, and her mother moved in with her mother’s parents. The budding actress was attracted to the stage…
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Home Viewing with Peter #898
Civil War, now streaming on Max, is a dystopian action-adventure film set in a near-future U.S. Directed by Alex Garland (Never Let Me Go, Ex Machina), the highly anticipated film is a major disappointment. The biggest problem with the film is that it takes no point of view. It presents both sides of the conflict…
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Oscar Profile: James Earl Jones Revisited
Born January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi to actor Robert Earl Jones and his wife, James Earl Jones suffered from a childhood stutter that he studied dramatics to overcome. Writing and reading poetry in class helped him overcome the disability that he had all his life despite his reputation as the possessor of one of…
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Home Viewing with Peter #897
Sweeney Todd AKA Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the most performed Stephen Sondheim musical after West Side Story for which Sondheim wrote the lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s music. The 2007 DreamWorks film of Sweeny Todd, originally released by Warner Bros., has been newly upgraded to 4KUHD by Paramount, its current owner.…
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Oscar Profile: Olivia Colman
Born January 30, 1974 in Norfolk, England, Sarah Caroline Colman, known professionally as Olivia Colman, is the daughter of a nurse mother and chartered surveyor father. Privately schooled, Colman’s first acting assignment was in a school production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She made her professional acting debut in 2000 in the British…
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Home Viewing with Peter #896
Albert Brooks’ 1996 film, Mother, now on 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray from Criterion is, if not a masterpiece, the closest thing to one the comedian-actor-writer-director has yet to come up with. Born Albert Einstein in 1947, he changed his name for obvious reasons. His father, who collapsed and died at a Friar’s Roast for…
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Oscar Profile: Ralph Nelson
Born August 12, 1916 in Long Island City, New York, Ralph Nelson had a troubled childhood. A judge once described him as “potentially the most juvenile criminal in New York.” His life turned around after a high school teacher got him interested in acting. Nelson won an oratory award sponsored by the New York Times…
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Home Viewing with Peter #895
Every four years in the U.S. we have a presidential election. This is one of those years, which makes it the perfect time to look back at the history of American presidents on film. For our purposes, we will only go as far back as the beginning of the sound era. The first film of…
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Oscar Profile: Gena Rowlands
Born June 19, 1930 in Madison, Wisconsin to a state legislator and his painter wife, Virginia Cathryn (Gena) Rowlands moved with her family to Washington, D.C. in 1939 when her father became a member of the Department of Agriculture. They moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1942. Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin from 1947-1950 and…
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Home Viewing with Peter #894
Of all the film restorations that happen every year, VCI’s Bu-ray release of 1930’s The Bat Whispers is this year’s most impressive find. Based on The Circular Staircase, the first novel of Mary Roberts Rinehart, known as the American Agatha Christie, first published in 1908, the work was a whopping success as a book, play,…
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Oscar Profile: Norma Shearer
Born August 10, 1902 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, (Edith) Norma Shearer was the third child of Andrew, a successful contractor, and Edith, a minor actress, Shearer. Older brother Douglas Shearer (1899-1971) became the head of the MGM sound department who won seven Oscars. Older sister Athole Shearer (1900-1985) was married to Howard Hawks from 1928-1940…
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Home Viewing with Peter #893
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was established in 1927 but didn’t start handing out its annual awards until 1929 when its first awards were supposed to be for films released in Los Angeles between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928. I’ll explain what I mean by “supposed to be” but first,…
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Oscar Profile: Tay Garnett
Born June 13, 1894 in Santa Ana, California, William Taylor Garnett, known professionally as Tay Garnett, was one of the most prolific writer-directors of films and TV dramas from 1920 through 1975. Although he was never nominated for an Oscar, Garnett worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, directing a couple of them…
