Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #569: Raoul Walsh
Born March 11, 1887, Albert Edward Walsh was the son of noted tailor Thomas W. Walsh, who made his reputation designing the uniforms for Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. He grew up in a mansion on New York’s Riverside Drive, where his parents entertained noted dignitaries from Roosevelt to John Barrymore. It was inevitable that Walsh,…
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The DVD Report #746
New This Week VCI Entertainment has released a 4K restoration of Angel on My Shoulder in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. This is significant as the 1946 classic has long been confined to public domain hell giving the impression that this was a shoddily made B-film, not the major production it was. The restoration brings it…
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Oscar Profile #568: W.S. Van Dyke
Born March 21, 1889 in San Diego, California, Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II was the son of a superior court judge who died the day his son was born. His mother, actress Laura Winston, returned to her former career, taking him with her. They traveled up and down the west coast and into the Midwest.…
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The DVD Report #745
New This Week The Criterion Collection has released state-of-the-art restorations of Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned on Blu-ray. Released in 1986, Mona Lisa was the breakthrough film of writer-director Jordan who two years earlier had scored a cult hit with The Company of Wolves. His future successes would include The Crying…
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Oscar Profile #567: Meg Tilly
Born February 14, 1960 in Long Beach, California, Margaret Elizabeth Chan, known professionally as Meg Tilly, is the daughter of a Chinese American father and a mother of Irish and Finnish extraction. She is the younger sister of producer Steve Tilly and actress Jennifer Tilly. Her parents divorced she was three and her mother moved…
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The DVD Report #744
New This Week Warner Archive has released Blu-ray upgrades of The Naked Spur, The Window, and Santa Fe Trail. The Naked Spur was the third of eight collaborations between James Stewart and director Anthony Mann, five of which were westerns. Winchester ‘73 and Bend of the River came before, The Far Country and The Man…
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Oscar Profile #566: Deanna Durbin
Born December 4, 1921 in Winnipeg, Canada, Edna Mae Durbin moved to California with her British born parents as an infant. Singing from the age of one and professionally from the age of ten, she made her film debut as Deanna Durbin at 14 in the 1936 MGM short film, Every Sunday co-starring Judy Garland.…
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The DVD Report #743
New This Week This coming Sunday, September 26, 2021, will be the 71st time Tony voters bestow their award for Best Musical presented on Broadway for the theatrical season for which they are casting their votes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of Broadway theatres for the 2020-2021 season, this year’s awards are…
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Oscar Profile #563: Advise & Consent
Last week I profiled five female stars of Auntie Mame. This week the accent is on the male stars of Otto Preminger’s 1962 political drama, Advise & Consent. Based on Allen Drury’s 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Advise & Consent, the film’s narrative is about the Senate investigation into the nomination of the President’s candidate for…
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The DVD Report #742
New This Week Universal has released a no-frills Blu-ray edition of State of the Union, Frank Capra’s 1948 film from the Howard Lindsay-Russell Crouse Pulitzer Prize-winning play of 1945. Set in the early days of the Truman presidency, the play was about the Republican Party’s search for a viable candidate to run against Truman in…
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Oscar Profile #563: The Cast of Auntie Mame
Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, and Rosalind Russell were known as the three saints of Hollywood, all of them huge stars and active in charitable works throughout their stardom and beyond. The film careers of all three had dried up by the mid-1950s, Dunne having made her last film in 1952, Young in 1953, and Russell…
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The DVD Report #741
New This Week Beasts of No Nation makes its home video debut on a Criterion Edition Blu-ray and standard DVD six years after its Netflix streaming and limited U.S. theatrical run. Making a film of Nigerian-American writer Uzodinma Iweala’s best-selling 2005 novel was a passion project for director Cary Joji Fukunaga. The director of 2009’s…
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Oscar Profile #563: Cast of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
I’m trying something new this week. Instead focusing on the careers of individual contributors to film, I’m taking a look at some of the principal performers in a particular film. I’m not sure how many films I will cover, or how often, but I have enough to keep this going for several weeks, if not…
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The DVD Report #740
New This Week 1967’s Thoroughly Modern Millie gave Julie Andrews her third smash-hit musical role after Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Looking rather shabby in previous VHS and DVD releases, Kino Lorber’s brand-new Blu-ray from Universal’s 4K restoration finally does the film justice on home video. The story from writer Richard Morris, best…
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Oscar Profile #562: William Bendix
Born January 14, 1906 in New York, New York, William Bendix was a descendant of composer Mendelssohn. His uncle was composer and violinist Max Bennett. Is father, Oscar, played in a band. As a teenager, he was a bat boy for the New York Yankees and was befriended by Babe Ruth who he later played…
