Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #584: Lucille Ball
Born August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York to a telephone lineman and his wife, Lucille Ball’s father died of scarlet fever at the age of 27 when she was 3. With her mother working several jobs to make ends meet, she and her brother Fred (1915-2007) were raised by their paternal grandparents until her…
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The DVD Report #761
New This Week The Hawaiian Film Critics named Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho Best Film of 2021. The British thriller in which a contemporary 18-year-old fashion student is able to mysteriously enter the 1960s and return to the present each morning is a one-of-a-kind experience. With its swirling camerawork, soundtrack filled with 60s pop…
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Oscar Profile #583: Robert Krasker
Born August 21, 1913 in Alexandria, Egypt, his birth registered in Perth, Australia, where he was raised by his Australian parents, Robert Krasker studied photography in Paris and Dresden in his youth, briefly working for Paramount in their Dresden studio before moving to London in 1932 where he was hired by Alexander Korda’s London Films…
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The DVD Report #760
New This Week Australia’s Imprint label has released a Blu-ray of Paramount’s 1954 classic The Country Girl on a region-free Blu-ray. Like How Green Was My Valley, which has suffered fools for decades who denigrate it for daring to win the Oscar over Citizen Kane, generations of Judy Garland fans have dismissed Grace Kelly’s Best…
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Oscar Profile #582: Karl Struss
Born November 30, 1886 in New York, N.Y., Karl Struss was taken out of high school by his father after an illness to work in his factory, the Seybel & Strauss wire bonnet factory. Having developed an interest in photography, Struss was given an exhibition of his work by Alfred Stieglitz in 1910. He studied…
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The DVD Report #759
New This Week Ridley Scott has been extremely upset with Disney for the mishandling of the theatrical release of The Last Duel, one of the films Disney inherited from 20th Century-Fox in its acquisition of the studio. He should be. This underseen film is a much better one than most of the tripe being promulgated…
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Oscar Profile #581: Rita Moreno
Born December 11, 1931 in Humacao, Puerto Rico, Rosa Dolores Alverio Marcano, known to the world by her stage name of Rita Moreno, was the daughter of a 17-year-old seamstress and her farmer husband. When she was 4, her mother moved with her to New York, leaving her younger son behind with her faithless husband.…
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The DVD Report #758
New This Week Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Universal, is the latest film from the prolific writer-director whose first screenplay was for Sydney Pollack’s 1974 film The Yakuza. That was two years prior to his achieving screen immortality with his screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Schrader followed…
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Oscar Profile #580: George Segal
Born February 13, 1934 New York, New York, George Segal (Jr.) was raised in Great Neck, Long Island, New York by his father, a malt and hop agent, and his wife. Interested in acting since seeing Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire when he was nine, he moved back to Manhattan with his mother…
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The DVD Report #757
New This Week No Time to Die, the 25th official James Bond film, is one of the best of the series that began in 1962. In full disclosure, I have never been a big fan of the series. Although I’ve seen all the films, I only remember bits and pieces about most of them. There…
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Oscar Profile #579: Nicole Kidman
Born June 20, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Nicole Kidman was raised in a suburb of Sydney, Australia by her Australian parents who were visiting Hawaii on educational visas at the time of her birth. Young Kidman’s first love was ballet, but she soon gravitated toward drama and made her film debut in the 1983 Australian…
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The DVD Report #756
New This Week Kino Lorber ends the year with a slew of new releases including Broken Lullaby, Because of You, The Midnight Story, and Mass Appeal. Ernest Lubitsch’s 1932 film Broken Lullaby was the third teaming of Phillips Holmes and Nancy Carroll. Carroll had been nominated for an Oscar for their first pairing in 1930’s…
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Oscar Profile #578: Yuletide Oscars
Many films have memorable Christmas scenes, but few are so intricately connected to the holiday that they wouldn’t be as memorable as they are without those scenes. The first film with a significant emphasis on Christmas to capture Oscar’s attention was George Cukor’s 1933 version of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the first of four…
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The DVD Report #755
New This Week One of the best films of 2020 was Regina King’s One Night in Miami…, previously only available via streaming on Amazon Prime. Available now on Blu-ray thanks to the Criterion Collection, this wonderful film can and likely will reach a wider audience. A fictionalized tale of a get-together by four African American…
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Oscar Profile #577: Steven Spielberg
Born December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to a concert pianist/restaurateur mother and electrical engineer father, he grew up in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and Saratoga, California. His early fascination with home movies led to his career as one the most successful and influential filmmakers in the history of the movies. His career…
