Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile: Thanksgiving at the Movies
Holidays have been celebrated in films since their inception. There have been films about virtually all of them. 1942’s Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire is in fact a celebration of all of the U.S. holidays. We have had films that celebrate those we honor on their birthdays – George Washington (1942’s George Washington Slept Here with…
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Home Viewing with Peter #960
Now streaming on Netflix, Train Dreams is based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist of the same name which was originally published as a short story in the author’s 2002 collection, The Paris Review. Adapted for the screen by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing) and directed by Bentley, the…
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Oscar Profile: Carroll Baker
Born May 28, 1931 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania to a travelling salesman and his wife, Carroll Baker studied at Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg where her classmates included Marilyn Monroe, Shelley Winters, Rod Steiger, and James Dean. Baker began acting in TV commercials in 1951, which led to small roles in TV dramas. She made her…
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Home Viewing with Peter #959
One Battle After Another, the year’s best reviewed film thus far and the presumed frontrunner for this year’s Best Picture Oscar, is now available for rental or purchase digitally from Prime Video and other sources two months ahead of its streaming and video releases. While Paul Thomas Anderson is likely to win his first Oscar…
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Oscar Profile: Greer Garson Revisited
Born September 29, 1904 in London, England, the daughter of a Scottish father and Irish mother, Greer Garson was educated at King’s College, London and the University of Grenoble in France. Intent on becoming a teacher, she instead went to work in an advertising agency and did some acting on the side, eventually turning to…
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Home Viewing with Peter #958
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is now streaming on Netflix. Given just a three-week run in theatres where this majestic film should rightfully be seen, it is nevertheless now available for all who have a subscription to Netflix to see. From the director of The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and Nightmare Alley…
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Oscar Profile: Dorothy McGuire Revisited
Born June 14, 1918 in Omaha, Nebraska, Dorothy McGuire was one of three actresses who came to prominence in the original Broadway production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Both she and Teresa Wright had been original star Martha Scott’s understudy, with McGuire eventually replacing Scott when she went to Hollywood. Several Broadway roles later, she was…
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Home Viewing with Peter #957
Denmark’s Excalibur Media has released an all-region Blu-ray of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1999 film, Tea with Mussolini with English packaging, a long overdue upgrade of the director’s biographical film starring Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, and Lily Tomlin. While the film is based on Zeffirelli’s own experiences growing up in Florence, names have been…
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Oscar Profile: Joan Plowright
Born October 28, 1929 in North Lincolnshire, England, the daughter of a journalist and playwright and his wife, Joan Plowright attended the Old Vic Theatre School after grade school. On stage from 1948, Plowright married first husband, actor Roger Gage, in 1953. She made her film debut in an uncredited role in 1956’s Moby Dick…
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Home Viewing with Peter #956
Netflix is now streaming one of the year’s most eagerly awaited films. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good one. The idea behind A House of Dynamite may be thoughtful and well-meaning but the execution of it is awful. Films about accidental nuclear bomb launches are nothing new. In 1964, there were two, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr.…
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Oscar Profile: Julie Christie Revisited
Born April 14, 1941 in Assam, India, the daughter of an English tea planter and his Welsh painter wife, Julie Christie was sent to a boarding school in England at the age of 6. By 16, she had moved to France and soon thereafter returned to England and the British stage. By twenty, she had…
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Home Viewing with Peter #955
Warner Bros. has released Zach Creggers’ Weapons on 4K UHD as well as on standard Blu-ray. The intriguing 2025 horror movie is both original and derivative of classic horror films of the 1960s fromVillage of the Damned to Rosemary’s Baby, the former in the setup of the film and the latter in its most talked…
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Oscar Profile: Diane Keaton
Born January 5, 1946 in Los Angeles, California to an amateur photographer mother and a civil engineer and real estate broker father, Diane Hall was the eldest of four children. After graduating from Santa Ana High School in 1963, she attended Santa Ana and Orange Coast colleges studying acting before moving to New York where…
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Home Viewing with Peter #954
Alliance Entertainment has released Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck on 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray. Arguably the best film made from a Stephen King story, this one is not a horror movie but a look at a life in which horrible things happen to a good man and those around him, a sort of…
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Oscar Profile: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Born July 10, 1977 in London, England to a Nigerian born doctor and his pharmacist wife, Chiwetel Ejiofor is the middle of three children. His older sister is a doctor, and his younger sister is a CNN correspondent. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding, he and his…
