Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #182: Martin Ritt
Born March 2, 1914 in New York, N.Y., Martin Ritt attended Elon College in North Carolina and St. John’s University in New York. He became an actor in the mid-1930s, making his Broadway debut in Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy in 1937. The play, which starred Frances Farmer, Luther Adler, Morris Carnovsky and Roman Bohnen in…
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The DVD Report #356
New This Week One of last year’s most eagerly anticipated films, John Wells’ film of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize winning August: Osage County met with mixed reviews at last September’s Toronto Film Festival from which it never really recovered. Part of the problem was the film’s marketing as a dark comedy which it is not.…
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Oscar Profile #181: Eva Marie Saint
Born July 4, 1924 in Newark, New Jersey, Eva Marie Saint’s acting career began in the early days of television. An NBC page, she first appeared on live TV programs in 1946 which have been preserved on kinescope in the Library of Congress. Cast as the only female in the original 1947 Broadway production of…
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The DVD Report #355
New This Week Just in time for the new FX series of the same name, the Coen Brothers’ 1996 classic, Fargo has been given a spiffy new Blu-ray release. The riotously funny black comedy features an Oscar winning screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen as well as an Oscar winning performance by Joel’s wife, Frances…
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Oscar Profile #180: Doris Day
Born April 3, 1924 in Cincinnati, Ohio to William Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master, and his wife Alma, a housewife, Doris Kappelhoff was the third of three children and the only girl. Her parents separated when she was ten and she lived thereafter with her mother. Intent on becoming a professional dancer, young…
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The DVD Report #354
New This Week Martin Scorsese deserves respect as one of the premier film preservationists of our time. As a film-maker himself he has had one of the longest and most successful careers of any of his contemporaries except perhaps Steven Spielberg, but if Spielberg’s limitation is, as some would say, that he pulls his punches,…
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Oscar Profile #179: Amy Adams
Born August 20, 1974, Amy Lou Adams was the fourth of seven children born in Vicenzo, Vineto, Italy to a Mormon family while her father, a U.S. serviceman, was stationed there. Settling in Castle Rock, Colorado, the family would leave the Church after her parents’ divorce in 1985, but the church’s basic “do under others”…
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The DVD Report #353
New This Week Forty years ago a film about an elaborate sting that took place four decades earlier called The Sting was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won seven. This year another film about an elaborate sting that takes place four decades earlier called American Hustle was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won…
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Oscar Profile #178: The Sherman Brothers
Robert B. Sherman, born December 19, 1925 and Richard M. Sherman, born June 12, 1928 were the only children of composer Al Sherman (1897-1973) and his wife Rosa. Writing music most of their lives, they had their first hit that year with the song “Tall Paul” sung by Mouseketeer Annette Funicello which led to Walt…
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The DVD Report #352
New This Week Every year there are films that early on seemed to be surefire Oscar contenders that come up empty-handed when all is said and done. Two of 2013’s biggest disappointments on the awards circuit were Inside Llewyn Davis and The Book Thief, both of which are newly released on Blu-ray and standard DVD.…
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Oscar Profile #177: Agatha Christie
Born September 15, 1890 in Devon, England, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her books have sold more than 4 billion copies worldwide. Her works rank third after those of The Bible and William Shakespeare as the most widely published books of all time. Her best-selling novel is And Then There Were…
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The DVD Report #351
New This Week The quality of films released theatrically in 2013 was stronger than usual, but release patterns were as bad as they have been for years, stuffing most of the must-see films into the last three months of the year. Oscar season, which runs from the major film festival dates in Toronto and Venice…
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Oscar Profile #176: Mickey Rooney
Born Ninian Joseph (Joe) Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920, the son of vaudevillians, the actor would make his stage debut at 17 months and his first film at 5 as Mickey McGuire. Last seen under that name in 1934, Mickey Rooney would continue to be one of the screen’s busiest and most popular child…
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The DVD Report #350
New This Week What can one say about Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity that hasn’t already been said? The film, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won seven, was by far the most commercially successful good film released last year. It’s certainly a technical marvel even if the director didn’t set out to make it…
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Oscar Profile #175: Kim Novak
Never in serious contention for an Oscar, Kim Novak was nevertheless a formidable screen presence from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s and makes her seventh Oscar appearance at this Sunday’s awards. Born Marilyn Novak on February 13, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois to onetime schoolteachers Joseph and Blanche Novak, young Marilyn was herself a difficult…
