Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #465: Alexander Knox
Born January 16, 1907 in Ontario, Canada to a Presbyterian minister and his wife, Alexander Knox was educated at the University of Western Ontario where he studied English literature and also dabbled in acting, his first stage role being in the title role of a university production of Hamlet. Upon graduation in 1929, he moved…
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The DVD Report #641
New This Week Spider-Man: Far from Home picks up where Avengers: Endgame leaves off, so it would be a good idea to see that megahit, or at least be aware of the events it chronicles, before you see the latest film showcasing Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man. Of the many Marvel and DC superheroes out there,…
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Oscar Profile #464: Joseph Schildkraut
Born March 22, 1896 in Vienna, Austria, Joseph Schildkraut was the son of famed stage actor Rudolph Schildkraut and his wife. On stage in Hamburg and later, Berlin with his father from the age of 6, he studied the piano and violin, graduating from Berlin’s Royal Academy of Music in 1911. The family moved to…
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The DVD Report #640
New This Week Yesterday is Danny Boyle’s latest attempt at duplicating the success of Slumdog Millionaire. With a better script from Richard Curtis (Love Actually) he might have succeeded but the film is just too cute for its own good. Newcomer Himesh Patel is excellent as seemingly the only living person who remembers the Beatles.…
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Oscar Profile #463: The Early Academy Awards (Revised)
The first Academy Awards for the fiscal year 1927/28 were held in May 1929. Films under consideration were supposed to be limited to films that opened in Los Angeles between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928 but the Academy’s reminder list included films that although they were still in theatres on August 1, 1927,…
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The DVD Report #639
New This Week Going My Way is one of the last of the more than 90 Oscar-winning best pictures to receive a Blu-ray release. Russell Dyball, who provides the commentary on the Shout Select release, hopes that this fact will increase the film’s standing which has eroded considerably since the film’s phenomenal 1944 release. Despite…
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Oscar Profile #462: Philip Dunne
Born February 11, 1908, Philip Ives Dunne was the son of syndicated columnist and humorist Finley Peter Dunne and champion golfer Margaret Ives Abbott Dunne who had been the first ever female gold medalist at the 1900 Olympics when golf was an Olympic sport. Her mother was novelist Mary Ives Abbott. Both Dunne and his…
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The DVD Report #638
New This Week Aladdin, Disney’s latest live-action version of one of its animated classics to hit the home video market, is a film I wasn’t expecting much from given its mostly negative reviews but was instead pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it. Most of the negative reviews of the film come from comparing…
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Oscar Profile #461: Don Murray
Born July 31, 1929 in Hollywood, California, Don Murray was the son of Broradway dance director and stage manager, Dennis Murray and his wife Ethel, a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer, Raised in the New York City suburbs, Murray graduated from East Rockaway High School in 1947 and then studied at the American Academy of Dramatic…
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The DVD Report #637
New This Week Day of the Outlaw is one of those films that owes its legend to home video. Barely released in 1959 in New York, it was dumped directly into neighborhood theatres as the second half of a double bill with Robert Aldrich’s Ten Seconds to Hell, a post-World War II thriller that was…
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Oscar Profile #460: Kirk Douglas
Born December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, Issur Danielovitch Demsky was the son of Russian emigrants who legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas in 1941 before serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. Douglas’ father was the local ragman. He grew up in abject poverty with his six sisters. He would…
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The DVD Report #636
New This Week Rocketman, the film about the early-to-middle-aged life of Elton John, was written by Lee Hall who wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot and the book and lyrics for Billy Elliot the Musical for which John wrote the music. It was directed by Dexter Fletcher who took over the direction of Bohemian…
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Oscar Profile #459: Shirley Knight
Born July 5, 1936 in Goessel, Kansas, Shirley Knight was the daughter of an oil executive and his wife. At the age of 14, she wrote a short story which was published in a national magazine. She later attended Phillips University and Wichita State University and trained in acting with Erwin Piscator, Lee Strasberg, and…
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The DVD Report #635
New This Week Magnificent Obsession, from Lloyd C. Douglas’ best-selling novel, was a huge hit for Universal when the studio first made it in 1935 as a vehicle for Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor, directed by John M. Stahl. It became an even bigger hit in 1954 when Universal remade it as a vehicle for…
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Oscar Profile #458: Michael Redgrave
Born March 20, 1908 in Bristol, England, Michael Redgrave was the son of actors Roy Redgrave and Margaret Scudamore, the first generation of the Redgrave acting dynasty. The elder Redgrave, who had been a star in silent films, left his wife and child behind to pursue acting opportunities in Australia when Michael was two. He…
