Author: Peter J Patrick
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Home Viewing with Peter #953
The Sound of Music has been released on 4K Ultra HD by Disney which now controls the 20th Century-Fox catalogue. The film of course looks and sounds better than it ever has in the format. Officially called the film’s 60th Anniversary edition, it is being released six months past its 60th anniversary which occurred in…
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Oscar Profile: Sydney Pollack
Born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, Sydney Pollack was the son of a former boxer turned pharmacist and his wife, an alcoholic who died when he was 16. Pollack moved to New York after graduating from high school in 1952 From 1952-1954 he studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse. He then served two years…
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Home Viewing with Peter #952
The Italian 4Kult has released Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon on 4K UHD, having previously released the film on Blu-ray in 2024. The release is remarkable in that the film, a co-production of Apple TV and Paramount, is the first and so far, only film controlled by the streaming giant to have been…
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Oscar Profile: Susan Hayward Revisited
Born Edythe Marrener, the daughter of a transportation worker, in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, N.Y. on June 30, 1917, the future Susan Hayward went to the movies a lot as a child to escape the boredom of her poor surroundings. A stunning beauty even as a child, she became a photographer’s model as a…
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Home Viewing with Peter #951
Kino Lorber has released 1947’s Dear Ruth and 1934’s Father Brown, Detective on Blu-ray. Both were Paramount films which became the ownership of Universal in 1948. Dear Ruth was a very popular Broadway comedy about a G.I. who falls in love with a girl through her letters to him. Unbeknownst to him, the girl, and…
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Oscar Profile: Robert Redford Revisited
Born August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California, (Charles) Robert Redford (Jr.) began his acting career in 1959. First on Broadway with a minor role in Tall Story, Redford had an uncredited role in the 1960 film version. His first major role was in the 1960 TV version of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards (Jr.) In numerous…
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Home Viewing with Peter #950
Last week I focused on Hollywood films released in the period from 1941 through 1947 which covered World War II and its immediate aftermath. This week, I’m concentrating on another seven-year period, 1960 through 1966, the years in which there was a definite crack in the Production Code that had ruled Hollywood since mid-1934, leading…
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Oscar Profile: Elia Kazan Revisited
Born in Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, to Greek parents in 1909, Elia Kazan emigrated with his parents to America as a child. An actor before he became a director, he was a co-founder of the Group Theatre in 1932 and the founder of the Actor’s Studio in 1947. As an actor he was best known…
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Home Viewing with Peter #949
This has been an underwhelming year thus far for new films and TV programming with no truly outstanding home video releases to recommend other than the occasional upgrade of a previously released film. The fall film festivals have unearthed several films worth anticipating in theatres later this year such as Hamnet and Bugonia and TV…
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Oscar Profile: Gregory Peck Revisited
Born April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, (Eldred) Gregory Peck was raised by his grandmother after his parents divorced when he was five. Sent to a Catholic military school by his father, after the death of his grandmother, he later enrolled as a pre-med student at U.C.-Berkeley but caught the acting bug. After graduation…
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Home Viewing with Peter #948
Warner Archive has released a rare for them Blu-ray of a classic film that had never been on DVD in the U.S., John Ford’s last film, 1966’s 7 Women. 7 Women may not be one of Ford’s masterworks but it is a fascinating film. Set in an American mission in 1935 China, the film is…
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Oscar Profile: Charles Laughton Revisited
Born July 1, 1899 in Yorkshire, England, young Charles Laughton followed his father into the hotel management business, but in his late twenties enrolled as a student in London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) where he excelled. Soon appearing on the London stage, he was the first actor to play Agatha Christie’s Hercule…
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Home Viewing with Peter #947
The Criterion Collection has released a beautifully restored version of Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine on 4K UHD. A seminal film of Italian neorealism filmed just after the end of World War II, Shoeshine was released in Italy in 1946 a year after Rome, Open City which had been a huge hit. However, with American films…
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Oscar Profile: Vittorio De Sica Revisited
Born July 7, 1901 in Lazio, Italy, Vittorio De Sica grew up in Sicily where his first job was as an office clerk in support of his poor family. Drawn to acting, he made his film debut as the title character as a boy in The Clemenceau Affair in 1917. He did not make another film for…
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Home Viewing with Peter #946
Film Masters Archive Collection has released a restored Blu-ray of John Cromwell’s 1938 film, Algiers staring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. The film is a scene-for-scene remake of Julien Duvivier’s 1937 French film, Pepe le Moko which MGM’s Louis B. Mayer and independent producer Walter Wanger had a bidding war over for the U.S. rights,…
