Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #197: Lana Turner
Born February 8, 1921 in Wallace, Idaho, Julia Jean “Lana” Turner was the daughter of teenage parents John (1903-1930) and Mildred (1904-1982) Turner. Her father, originally a coal miner from Montgomery, Alabama had by the time of his death at 27 become a con man who was murdered on the streets of San Francisco where…
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The DVD Report #371
New This Week Agatha Christie’s international stage success, Witness for the Prosecution is expanded and improved upon by Billy Wilder in his 1957 adaptation of Christie’s deliciously twisty murder mystery. As explained to Volker Schlondorff by Wilder in an excellent 1982 interview that is included as extra on Kino Lorber’s magnificent new Blu-ray upgrade of…
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Oscar Profile #196: Lasse Hallstrom
Born June 2, 1946 in Stockholm, Sweden to a dentist father and a famous writer mother, Lars Sven (Lasse) Hallstrom’s maternal grandfather was Sweden’s finance minister from 1926-28 and again from 1930-33. Having studied music in Stockholm, the future award-winning film director learned his craft making music videos for ABBA in the 1970s. His first…
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The DVD Report #370
New This Week From the 1930s through the early 1960s, film distribution was different than it is now. Instead of major films opening in wide release, all major films, not just a select few, would have limited initial releases followed by wide distribution in neighborhood theatres. In New York City, neighborhood theatres were primarily owned…
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Oscar Profile #195: Tom Courtenay
Born February 25, 1937 in East Yorkshire, England to a ship painter and his wife, Thomas Daniel (Tom) Courtenay overcame his humble beginnings to become one of England’s most promising actors of the 1960s along with contemporaries Albert Finney and Alan Bates. While Finney and Bates continued to excel on film, Courtenay spent most of…
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The DVD Report #369
New This Week A number of films previously released on DVD have been given recent Blu-ray upgrades. Among them is The Time Machine, George Pal’s legendary science fiction film from H.G. Wells’ novel. Filmed numerous times and copied too many others to count, this is the definitive version of Wells’ visionary masterpiece set in 1900…
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Oscar Profile #194: Judy Davis
Born April 23, 1955 in Perth, Australia, Judy Davis had a strict Catholic upbringing – she was educated at Loreto Convent; the Western Australian Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts. Forbidden to watch television as a child, she has certainly made up for it by starring in numerous landmark television productions…
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The DVD Report #368
New This Week Broadway musicals made from hit movies are nothing new. Some of Broadway’s greatest hits came from such movies, many of which had their origins as straight plays or novels. The twice filmed Liliom became Carousel; Charley’s Aunt became Where’s Charley? and Anna and the King of Siam became The King and I…
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Oscar Profile #193: Leon Shamroy
Born July 16, 1901 in New York, N.Y., Leon Tolstoy Shamroy was the son of a Russian immigrant father and an American mother. Educated at Columbia University, Shamroy worked as a draftsman and engineer. Dissatisfied with the lack of money in his chosen field, he migrated to California and went to work at Fox labs.…
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The DVD Report #367
New This Week The British rock invasion that began with the Beatles fifty years ago was immortalized in the 1964 film, A Hard Day’s Night in which the Beatles self-satirize themselves while at the same time advancing their legend. Filmed on a six week schedule beginning just a month after the group’s legendary appearance on…
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Oscar Profile #192: Marjorie Rambeau
Born July 15, 1889 in San Francisco, California, Marjorie Rambeau was a precocious child who moved with her mother to Nome, Alaska after her parents separated. Put on stage by her mother to entertain the locals singing and playing the banjo in saloons and music halls, she was forced to dress as a boy to…
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The DVD Report #366
New This Week Animated features are generally not my favorite type of film. I am more drawn away from films with “movie” in the title than drawn to them. The word in the English language I find most abhorrent is “awesome”. These are three reasons why The Lego Movie shouldn’t work for me, but surprisingly…
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Oscar Profile#191: Anne Baxter
Born May 7, 1923 in Michigan City, Indiana but raised in New York City, Anne Baxter was the daughter of a Seagrams Distillery executive and his wife, the daughter of world-renown architect Frank Lloyd Wright. She was determined to become an actress after seeing Helen Hayes on stage in Mary of Scotland when she was…
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The DVD Report #365
New This Week Not new to DVD, but of renewed interest because of last week’s Tony Awards, Small Town Girl was one of the first films released by Warner Archive when it began releasing hard to find films five years ago. Hugh Jackman opened the Tonys by hopping for four minutes along Manhattan’s 53rd St.,…
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Oscar Profile #190: Charles Lang
Born March 27, 1902 in Bluff, Utah, Charles Bryant Lang, Jr. was one of the great cinematographers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Tied with Leon Shamroy for the most Oscar nominations for cinematography (18), he was an expert in the use of chiaroscuro (strong contrasts between light and shade) in creating moods for every genre from…
