Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #554: Richard Day
Born May 9, 1896, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to Patience Day and architect Robert Scott, Richard Day developed a spinal curvature that prevented him from attending school and was instead home-schooled. He never graduated high school or pursued higher education. Day was a Captain in the Canadian Army stationed in London during World War…
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The DVD Report #731
New This Week Paramount has been busy now that they have stepped up their Blu-ray release game between Paramount Presents, Paramount regular Blu-ray, and licensing to Australia’s Imprint and other outside companies. Finally making its Blu-ray debut, thanks to Paramount Presents, is Frank Perry’s 1981 film Mommie Dearest, a blockbuster in its day. The film…
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Oscar Profile #553: Robert Duvall
Born January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California, Robert Duvall was the son of an amateur actress and a U.S. Navy rear admiral. His lineage traces back to Martha Washington and Robert E. Lee. His father expected him to attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but he chose acting instead. Studying at New York’s Neighborhood…
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The DVD Report #730
New This Week Absurdly promoted as the “greatest production since the birth of motion pictures,” Ziegfeld Follies was the first box-office hit of 1946. Its shameless promotion seems especially ridiculous in a year which would give us such truly great films as The Best Years of Our Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, Notorious, The Razor’s…
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Oscar Profile #552: Walter Lang
Born August 10, 1896, in Memphis, Tennessee, Walter Lang entered the film business as a young man when he got a job in a production company, working his way up to assistant director and then director. His first film as director was 1925’s The Red Kimono. He worked steadily even though he temporarily quit the…
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The DVD Report #729
New This Week Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s penultimate film, There Was a Crooked Man…, had the misfortune of coming at the end of a cycle of astute, wryly observed modern gangster films and westerns. It was very much in the mode of Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, True Grit,…
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Oscar Profile #551: Joe Pasternak
Born September 19, 1901, in a town in Austria-Hungary that is now part of Romania, József Paszternák, known professionally as Joe Pasternak, was one of eleven children of a town clerk. He emigrated to the US as a teenager in 1920 and stayed with an uncle in Philadelphia. He had a variety of jobs while…
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The DVD Report #728
New This Week Paramount Pictures was founded on May 8, 1912, making it the second oldest U.S. film studio still in existence. Universal, which was founded eight days earlier on April 30, 1912, is the oldest. Paramount won the first Oscar for Best Picture, 1927’s Wings, two years ahead of Universal’s first Oscar for 1930’s…
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Oscar Profile #550: George Seaton
Born April 17, 1911, in South Bend, Indiana, George Stenius grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Determined to become an actor he joined a stock company rather than continue his education at Yale. In addition to his stage work, he voiced The Lone Ranger from its inception on Detroit Radio in 1933. He invented the Lone…
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The DVD Report #727
New This Week Doug Liman’s Chaos Walking was filmed in 2017 with reshoots taking place in 2019 and an eventual release in January 2021. Critics and audiences familiar with the series of novels it was based on were not kind. Not having read them, I found it a decent dystopian adventure, a genre I don’t…
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Oscar Profile #549: Edmund Goulding
Born March 20, 1891 in Feltham, England, Edmund Goulding was the son of a butcher who objected to his son’s early acting and writing ambitions, wanting him to keep working in his butcher shop. It wasn’t until World War I, that he got his chance to escape his oppressive homelife by joining the Army. Wounded…
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The DVD Report #726
New This Week Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung grew up on a small farm in rural Arkansas before attending Yale, where he majored in Ecology. Intent on Medical School, he turned to filmmaking instead in his senior year. He studied film at the University of Utah, earning his MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in 2004. His…
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Oscar Profile #548: Carey Mulligan
Born May 28, 1985 in London, England, Carey (Hannah) Mulligan is the second child and only daughter of hotel manager Stephen Mulligan and his wife, university lecturer Nano (nee Booth). The family moved to Germany when she was three when her father was transferred there. Her early education was at the international school in Dusseldorf…
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The DVD Report #725
New This Week The Mauritanian first captured year-end 2020 awards attention with nominations for Best Film, Director (Kevin Macdonald), and Actor (Tahar Rahim) from the London Film Critics Circle. Both Rahim and Jodie Foster were nominated for Golden Globes for their performances. Foster even managed to pull off a surprise win, a feat she duplicated…
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Oscar Profile #548: Olympia Dukakis Revisited
Born June 20, 1931 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Olympia Dukakis was the daughter of Greek immigrants. She was a first cousin of 1988 Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (born 1933). Dukakis majored in physical therapy at Boston University, graduating with a BA. She practiced as a therapist during the polio epidemic, later returning to Boston University where…
