Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile: Katharine Hepburn Revisited
Born in May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, Katharine (Houghton) Hepburn was the daughter of a prominent Connecticut doctor and a noted suffragette. The liberally raised tomboy attended Bryn Mawr College where she decided to become an actress, appearing in many of their productions. Hepburn had a brief stage career before breaking through in the…
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Home Viewing with Peter #868
Kino Lorber has released 1945’s Blood on the Sun on Blu-ray. Made by James Cagney’s production company, the film about a reporter’s efforts to expose Japanese Prime Minister Baron Gi-ichi Tanaka’s militarist strategic plan for world domination prepared for Emperor Hirohito in 1929, was the actor’s most successful film between his Oscar winning performance in…
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Oscar Profile: Rosalind Russell Revisited
Born June 4, 1907, the middle of seven children to a successful Connecticut lawyer and his wife, Rosalind Russell was named after the S.S. Rosalind, a ship on which her parents had a memorable cruise and not the Shakespeare character as is commonly thought. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan,…
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Home Viewing with Peter #867
Kino Lorber has released a 4K UHD edition of Fritz Lang’s 1945 film Scarlet Street that is worth seeking out. Released on Christmas Day 1945 in Baltimore, Maryland, Lang’s film noir masterpiece was banned by the New York, Milwaukee, and Atlanta censors for being “licentious, profane, obscure, and contrary to the good order of the…
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Oscar Profile: Robert De Niro
Born August 17, 1943 in New York, New York, Robert De Niro Jr. is the only child of painters Virginia and Robert De Niro, Sr. Although he has an Italian name and is, along with Al Pacino, the screen’s most prolific of actors playing Italian-American men, De Niro is only 25% Italian, his father having…
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Home Viewing with Peter #866
Criterion has released Dee Rees’Mudbound on Blu-ray, making the 2017 Netflix film finally available to home video collectors. Nominated for four Oscars including Best Adapted Screenplay (Rees and Virgil Williams), Cinematography (Rachel Morrison), Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), and Original Song (“Mighty River” co-written by Blige), the film won numerous awards for its ensemble cast…
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Oscar Profile: Alexander Payne
Born February 10, 1961in Omaha, Nebraska, Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos, known professionally as Alexander Payne, is the son of the owners of Omaha’s legendary Virginia Café, a popular restaurant founded by his paternal grandfather. He is the youngest of three brothers. Payne was educated at the prestigious Brownell-Talbot Elementary School, Lewis and Clark Junior High, Creighton…
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Home Viewing with Peter #865
Anatomy of a Fall is now available on pay-per-view prior to its streaming debut on Hulu. Nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Actress, Directing, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing, Anatomy of a Fall is a French film in which the lead is played by a German actress whose character’s language of choice is English.…
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Oscar Profile: Norman Jewison
Born July 21, 1926 in Toronto, Canada, to convenience store and post office manager Percy Jewison and his wife, Dorothy, Norman Jewison displayed an aptitude for performing at an early age. After serving in the Canadian Navy during World War II, Jewison travelled to the American South where he encountered segregation, an experience that would…
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Home Viewing with Peter #864
Having caught up with most, if not all, the contenders for this this year’s Oscars available for streaming on the various platforms, I decided to watch a film on Netflix that had been a minor contender for Oscar consideration two years ago. Michael Lembeck’s Queen Bees did manage a nomination for an AARP Movies for…
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Oscar Profile: John Sayles
Born September 28, 1950 in Schenectady, New York to Mary and Donald Sayles, a teacher and school administrator respectively, John Sayles attended Williams College with future collaborators, Gordon Clapp, Donald Strathairn, and Maggie Renzi, his longtime partner. After graduating in 1972, he moved to Boston where he worked at several blue-collar jobs while writing short…
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Home Viewing with Peter #863
Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray of Douglas Sirk’s 1952 musical comedy, Has Anybody Seen My Gal, a rare departure from the master of 1950s melodrama. Sirk, who began as a director in Germany in 1934, was forced to leave the country in 1937 when his first wife and mother of his only child denounced…
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Oscar Profile: Walter Scharf
Born August 1, 1910 in New York, New York to Yiddish comedy star, Bessie Zwerling, Walter Scharf was as much a show business baby as George M. Cohan. He started playing music at an early age, helping his uncle play the piano in theaters for silent films. At 17, he became one of the orchestrators…
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Home Viewing with Peter #862
Three box office hits from the 1990s have been newly released in spectacular looking 4K UHD editions, all three of them being successful follow-ups to the even the bigger hits of their stars – Kevin Costner, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, and Leonardo DiCaprio. 1991’s JFK was the passion project of director Oliver Stone fresh on…
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Oscar Profile: Tom Wilkinson
Born February 5, 1948 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, Tom Wilkinson was the son of urban farmers, Marjorie and Thomas Wilkinson. Economic hardships forced the family to move to Canada for five years when Wilkinson was 11. Upon their return to England, he attended the University of Kent, graduating with a degree in English and…
