Author: Peter J Patrick
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The DVD Report #679
New This Week The Cameraman was both Buster Keaton’s next-to-last silent film and his last overall great film. Keaton reached the height of his popularity with 1924’s Sherlock, Jr., 1926’s The General, and 1928’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., which were produced independently with the help of his brother-in-law, powerful producer Joseph M. Schenk, who sold Keaton’s…
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Oscar Profile #502: Overlooked Leading Actors
In 1996, when Julie Andrews was the only actor nominated for the Broadway version of Victor/Victoria, she withdraw her nomination with the comment, “I have searched my conscience and my heart and find that I cannot accept this nomination, and prefer instead to stand with the egregiously overlooked.” As I have been saying, Julie and…
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The DVD Report #678
New This Week American Madness is the last of Frank Capra’s classic Columbia Studios comedies of the 1930s to be released on Blu-ray, this one from Sony. Its original DVD release was part of a 2006 package that also included It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can’t Take It with You,…
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Oscar Profile #501: Overlooked Leading Actresses
In 1996, when Julie Andrews was the only actor nominated for the Broadway version of Victor/Victoria, she withdraw her nomination with the comment, “I have searched my conscience and my heart and find that I cannot accept this nomination, and prefer instead to stand with the egregiously overlooked.” As I have been saying, Julie and…
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The DVD Report #677
New This Week It Started with Eve is the jewel in the crown of Kino Lorber’s Deanna Durbin Collection I containing the first three of nine planned Blu-ray upgrades of the 1938 Oscar winner’s classic films. Durbin first came to attention at the age of 14 in the 1936 short Every Sunday with Judy Garland.…
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Oscar Profile #500 – Overlooked Supporting Actors
In 1996, when Julie Andrews was the only actor nominated for the Broadway version of Victor/Victoria, she withdrew her nomination with the comment, “I have searched my conscience and my heart and find that I cannot accept this nomination, and prefer instead to stand with the egregiously overlooked.” As I said last week, Julie and…
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The DVD Report #676
New This Week The Love of Jeanne Ney, one of G.W. Pabst’s earliest films, was an international success for Germany’s UFA Studios. Released in Germany in December 1927 and the U.S. in July 1928, the film’s style was heavily influenced by that of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Frtiz Lang’s Metropolis, as well as Russian director…
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Oscar Profile #499: Overlooked Supporting Actresses
In 1996, when Julie Andrews was the only actor nominated for the Broadway version of Victor/Victoria, she withdraw her nomination with the comment, “I have searched my conscience and my heart and find that I cannot accept this nomination, and prefer instead to stand with the egregiously overlooked.” Well, Julie, you and they are in…
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The DVD Report #675
New This Week A Midnight Clear has finally been given a U.S. Blu-ray release by Shout Select. The anti-war film directed by former actor Keith Gordon (Dressed to Kill) has been a cult favorite ever since its debut in April 1992. Taken from the novel by William Wharton (Birdy, Dad) with a screenplay by Wharton…
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Oscar Profile #498: James Garner
Born April 7, 1928 in Norman, Oklahoma to a carpet layer and his wife, James Scott Bumgarner and his older brothers were sent to live with relatives after his mother’s death in 1933. They were reunited with their father after his second marriage the following year. He would remarry several more times, the last to…
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The DVD Report #674
New This Week Dance, Girl Dance, the best-known of Dorothy Arzner’s sixteen films, has been given a Criterion Collection Blu-ray release from a new, 4K digital transfer. Arzner was a founding member of the Directors Guild of America and the only female director during Hollywood’s Golden Age from the 1920s-1940s. She made Dance, Girl, Dance…
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Oscar Profile #497: Chris Cooper
Born July 9, 1951 in Kansas City, Missouri, Christopher Walton (Chris) Cooper was the son of a cattleman and internist who served as a doctor in the U.S. Air Force, and his wife, a homemaker. Raised in Texas, where his parents were from, Cooper was educated at the University of Missouri school of drama. Cooper…
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The DVD Report #673
New This Week Thunder on the Hill, Douglas Sirk’s 1951 film, was the director’s first for Universal, the studio where he would make such classics as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life over the next eight years. He was the perfect choice for this female-driven murder mystery based on a successful…
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Oscar Profile #496: Gale Sondergaard
Born February 15, 1899 in Litchfield, Minnesota, Edith Holm Sondergaard, known professionally as Gale Sondergaard, was the daughter of socially conscious Danish immigrants. Her parents were progressives. As a child she marched with her mother, who was a suffragette. Educated at the University of Minnesota, she then studied with the Minneapolis School of Dramatic Arts…
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The DVD Report #672
New This Week A Thousand Clowns was an unlikely contender for Best Picture at the 1965 Oscars, yet there it was nominated over such stronger possibilities as A Patch of Blue, The Collector, and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, along with Darling, Doctor Zhivago, and Ship of Fools, all of which were destined…
