Author: Peter J Patrick
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The DVD Report #418
New This Week South Africa’s Neill Blomkamp hit the big time with 2009’s epic science fiction film, District 9 which took in more than $115 million at the U.S. box office alone and went on to receive four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and one for writer-director Blompkamp and co-writer Terrri Tatcehll for Best Adapted…
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Oscar Profile #240: Flora Robson
Born March 28, 1902 in South Shields, Durham, United Kingdom, Flora McKenzie Robson first appeared on stage at the age of five. Educated at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she augmented her budding acting career as a factory welfare officer until the stage provided more steady employment. In residence at the Old Vic from…
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The DVD Report #417
New This Week Warner Bros.’ The Golden Year: 5 Classic Films from 1939 gives us four new-to-Blu-ray releases, Dark Victory, Dodge City, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Ninotchka, and yet another release of Gone With the Wind. Dark Victory was a huge hit when released in April 1939. Bette Davis considered it one of…
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Oscar Profile #239: Laurence Olivier
Born May 22, 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, England, Laurence Olivier was the son of a High Anglican priest who became an actor at the age of ten at his father’s urging. After graduating from acting school in the late 1920s, he appeared in numerous productions, achieving his first major success in Private Lives in 1930,…
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The DVD Report #416
New This Week There’s cause for joy for lovers of movie musicals on Blu-ray this week as Sony releases the 4K- Mastered Director’s Cut of 1972’s 1776 featuring restored musical cuts from previous releases. While I contemplate the “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men” who “Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve”, I can’t help but think of the fifteen…
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Oscar Profile #238: Clint Eastwood
Born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, California to a factory worker mother and a steelworker father, Clinton Eastwood Jr. attended Los Angeles City College but dropped out before graduating. Drafted into the U.S. Army, he served as lifeguard at Fort Ord on the Monterey Peninsula where he was discovered by Universal. On screen in…
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The DVD Report #415
New This Week At some point, home DVD and Blu-ray releases may cease altogether with broadcast television and streaming the only way to bring movies into the home. That may be fine for the average consumer but not for collectors. Availability will then be totally at the whim of the copyright holder and licensee. Already…
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Oscar Profile #237: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Born July 23, 1967 in Fairport, New York, a suburb of Rochester, Philip Seymour Hoffman was the son of a lawyer, now a judge, and her first husband, a Xerox employee. Educated at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he graduated with a B.F.A. degree in Drama in 1989. By 1991 he was acting in…
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The DVD Report #414
New This Week A wise man once said that the best war movies are anti-war movies. Nine years ago Clint Eastwood made two of the very best. Flags of Our Fathers was a film about the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Letters from Iwo Jima told the story of the battle for…
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Oscar Profile #236: Harry Stradling Sr.
Born in Newark, New Jersey on September 1, 1901, Harry Stradling was the nephew of Mary Pickford’s cinematographer, Walter Stradling. He came to Hollywood upon graduating high school in 1918 to apprentice under his uncle, but his uncle died suddenly on July 4, 1918 leaving him to seek work through his uncle’s connections. Known throughout…
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The DVD Report #413
New This Week Like Susan Hayward, Paul Newman and Geraldine Page before her, Julianne Moore had so many Oscar nominations over such a long period of time that it seemed inevitable she would finally take home an Oscar last January. Hayward was on her fifth nomination when she won for I Want to Live!, Newman…
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Oscar Profile #235: Dame May Whitty
Born 150 years ago on June 19, 1865 in Liverpool, England to a Liverpool newspaper editor and his wife, Mary Louise Whitty would become known to the world as the actress May Whitty from 1881 and Dame May Whitty from 1918 to her death thirty years later. An immediate success on stage, Whitty married actor-director…
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The DVD Report #412
New This Week Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner was nominated for four 2014 Oscars for its Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design and Score. BAFTA nominated it for four awards as well, substituting Make-up and Hair for Score. Neither body nominated Timothy Spall for his portrayal of J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), England’s greatest landscape painter. Spall did start…
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Oscar Profile #234: Raymond Massey
Born August 30, 1896 in Toronto, Canada, Raymond Massey was the son of an American mother and a wealthy Canadian father, the owner of the Massey-Harris Tractor Company. His older brother was Vincent Massey who became the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada from 1952 to 1959. He often said that American audiences thought he…
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The DVD Report #411
New This Week Numerous TV programs over the years have featured Paddington Bear who first appeared in a book by Michael Bond in 1958. Twenty-five books later he appears on screen in 2014’s Paddington. An early Oscar favorite, the film opened in London in November 2014 and received BAFTA nominations for Best British Film and…
