Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #628: Nancy Olson Revisited
Born July 14, 1928 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Henry Olson, a physician, and his wife, Evelyn, Nancy Olson was discovered on stage at UCLA which she transferred to in 1948. Nicknamed Wholesome Olson, the peaches-and-cream blonde was given a walk-on in 1948’s Portrait of Jennie and then given a contract by Paramount. Olson made her…
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Home Viewing with Peter #806
Warner Archive has finally released John Huston’s 1964 film of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana on Blu-ray. Williams’ 1961 play was his last successful original Broadway production. Although many of his plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Sweet Bird of Youth, are still…
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Oscar Profile #627: Sigourney Weaver
Born October 8, 1949 in New York, New York, Susan Alexandra Weaver is the daughter of pioneer TV producer Sylvester (Pat) Weaver (1913-2002)and his wife, actress Elizabeth Inglis (1913-2007). Raised by nannies and maids, she estimated that she lived with her family in 30 homes by the time she was 12. By the age of…
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Home Viewing with Peter #805
Florence Pugh’s two high profile films of 2022, The Wonder and Don’t Worry Darling, are both available for streaming now. The Wonder, which is the better of the two, is streaming on Netflix while Don’t Worry Darling is streaming on HBO Max and is also available for purchase on DVD and Blu-ray. The Wonder is…
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Oscr Profile #626: Edmund Gwenn
Born September 26, 1877 in London, England, Edmund John Kellaway was the eldest son of a British civil servant who expected his son to follow in his footsteps. However, young Kellaway had a mind of his own and was determined to become an actor against his father’s wishes. Changing his name to Edmund Gwenn, he…
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Home Viewing with Peter #804
The official start of the holiday season in the U.S. begins on Thanksgiving Day, which is just two days away. Holiday movies, almost all of them dealing with the lead-up to Christmas Day, have already been appearing with regularity on the Hallmark Channel and the various streaming services. You can spend your holiday viewing time…
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Oscar Profile #625: Burl Ives
Born June 14, 1909 in Hunt City, Illinois, Burl Ives was one of seven siblings born tp a farming family. A prolific singer all his life, Ives first sang in public for a soldiers’ reunion when he was age 4. In high school, he learned the banjo and played fullback, intending to become a football…
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Home Viewing with Peter #803
The Crown: Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix. The popular behind-the-scenes examination of Britain’s royal family during the reign of Elizabeth II (1952-2022) began in 2016, running for two years before taking a break for one, returning with different actors for two more, then taking another year off before returning yet again with a…
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Oscar Profile #624: Terry Moore
Born January 7, 1929 in Glendale, California, Helen Luella Koford grew up in a Mormon family. She worked as a child model before making her film debut in 1940. Either unbilled or billed under various names during her first eight years in films, her early appearances were in such films as The Howards of Virginia,…
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Home Viewing with Peter #802
Edward Berger’s German remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, now in theatres, is simultaneously streaming on Netflix where I viewed it. Although it is well made, it is unlikely to have the impact of Lewis Milestone’s Oscar-winning 1930 version of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, which follows a group of seven recent high school…
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Oscar Profile #623: Marisa Pavan
Born June 19, 1932 in Sardinia, Italy, Maria Luisa Pierangeli and her fraternal twin sister, Anna Maria Pierangeli would both become stars in the 1950s. Anna became an actress first, discovered by Vittorio De Sica for 1950’s Tomorrow Is Too Late for which she won an Italian Syndicate of Journalists award for Best Newcomer, after…
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Home Viewing with Peter #801
We’ve come to that time of year when the subscription streaming services start showing more of the kind of content that we signed up for in the first place – high quality films and series that either have or will go on to receive awards recognition at the Oscars, Globes, Emmys, and the like. Streaming…
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Oscar Profile #622: Irwin Shaw
Born February 27, 1913 in the Borough of the Bronx in New York, New York, Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff and his younger brother, David, were the sons of Russian-Jewish immigrants who changed their last name to Shaw when they entered college. He wrote several scripts for radio dramas in the 1930s, writing his first screenplay in…
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The DVD Report #800
I haven’t been keeping tabs on the number of DVD reports I’ve filed in the last fifteen years and seven months, but lo and behold, this is the 800th edition. When I started this weekly column in April 2007, DVDs had been on the market for ten years while Blu-rays, which had been available for…
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Oscar Profile #621: Franz Planer
Born March 29, 1894, Franz Planer was born into a wealthy family in Karlsbad, Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic. The Planer family was very influential, owning large tracts of farmland, businesses, libraries, and shops, including several properties in and around Vienna, some of which were stolen by several low-ranking officers for their own…
