“I’m what they call a straight shooter. If you say to me, ‘How am I?,’ I don’t say, ‘Oh, I’m fine, thank you.’ I tell you how I am, whether you want to hear it or not.” Discussing everything from California’s air quality index to toothbrushing technique proves to be perfect icebreaker for this particular straight shooter, actress Nancy Olson Livingston, the last living star of Billy Wilder’s storied Hollywood fable “Sunset Boulevard.”
Such a range of topics is fitting for the conversation at hand, about the memoir the Oscar nominee has written: “A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood and the Age of Glamour.” Livingston, now approaching 95, is not one to hold back or hide her opinions; she’s equally candid about her own life as she is about politics and the environment.
Her frankness gives insight into why Billy Wilder cast her,...
Such a range of topics is fitting for the conversation at hand, about the memoir the Oscar nominee has written: “A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood and the Age of Glamour.” Livingston, now approaching 95, is not one to hold back or hide her opinions; she’s equally candid about her own life as she is about politics and the environment.
Her frankness gives insight into why Billy Wilder cast her,...
- 4/17/2023
- by Michael Kogge
- Indiewire
Director Sidney J. Furie discusses his favorite films he’s watched and re-watched during quarantine with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Dr. Blood’s Coffin (1961)
The Ipcress File (1965) – Howard Rodman’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Appaloosa (1966)
The Naked Runner (1967)
Lady Sings The Blues (1972)
The Entity (1982) – Luca Gaudagnino’s trailer commentary
The Boys in Company C (1978)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Apartment (1960) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
A Place In The Sun (1951) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Out Of Africa (1985)
The Last Picture Show (1971) – Mark Pellington’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Annie Hall (1977)
The Bad And The Beautiful (1952)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
The Tender Bar...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Dr. Blood’s Coffin (1961)
The Ipcress File (1965) – Howard Rodman’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Appaloosa (1966)
The Naked Runner (1967)
Lady Sings The Blues (1972)
The Entity (1982) – Luca Gaudagnino’s trailer commentary
The Boys in Company C (1978)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Apartment (1960) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
A Place In The Sun (1951) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Out Of Africa (1985)
The Last Picture Show (1971) – Mark Pellington’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Annie Hall (1977)
The Bad And The Beautiful (1952)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
The Tender Bar...
- 2/15/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
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By Doug Oswald
An all star cast features in the adaptation of Leon Uris’ “Battle Cry,” available on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection. The granddaddy of contemporary WWII melodramas like “The Winds of War” and “Band of Brothers,” “Battle Cry” was one of the first big dramatic war stories which followed multiple characters through boot camp, romance, heartbreak, the battlefield, death and homecoming. One of my favorite movies in this genre is Otto Preminger’s “In Harms Way” from 1965 which teamed John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. “Battle Cry” was first a best selling novel released in 1953 and quickly adapted to the big screen. Some people criticize these types of military themed melodramas as being light on action and heavy on romance, but there’s certainly a place for both.
“Battle Cry” begins with the narrator setting the stage. It’s...
By Doug Oswald
An all star cast features in the adaptation of Leon Uris’ “Battle Cry,” available on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection. The granddaddy of contemporary WWII melodramas like “The Winds of War” and “Band of Brothers,” “Battle Cry” was one of the first big dramatic war stories which followed multiple characters through boot camp, romance, heartbreak, the battlefield, death and homecoming. One of my favorite movies in this genre is Otto Preminger’s “In Harms Way” from 1965 which teamed John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. “Battle Cry” was first a best selling novel released in 1953 and quickly adapted to the big screen. Some people criticize these types of military themed melodramas as being light on action and heavy on romance, but there’s certainly a place for both.
“Battle Cry” begins with the narrator setting the stage. It’s...
- 8/26/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
"I have lived a very long time, as you know, and I have never experienced anything like this," Nancy Olson, the actress best known for her work in the Hollywood classic Sunset Blvd., says of the coronavirus crisis which has forced us to speak by telephone even though we live just minutes from each other in the Beverly Hills area. "There's uncertainty every single day!" But pandemic be damned, a movie only turns 70 once, and rarely with any of its stars around to celebrate the anniversary, so Olson, who is 91 and Sunset's last survivor,...
- 4/20/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
"I have lived a very long time, as you know, and I have never experienced anything like this," Nancy Olson, the actress best known for her work in the Hollywood classic Sunset Blvd., says of the novel coronavirus crisis, which has forced us to speak by telephone even though we live just minutes from each other in the Beverly Hills area. "There's uncertainty every single day!" But pandemic be damned, a movie only turns 70 once, and rarely with any of its stars around to celebrate the occasion, so Olson, who is 91 and Sunset's last ...
- 4/20/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Marriage Story” looks like the only Oscar contender this season with a plausible shot at earning nominations in all four acting races, in large part because it’s one of the few films in the conversation with male and female co-leads. Only 15 other movies have accomplished that feat, which would make “Marriage” the 16th. But it’s even more impressive when you consider that it has only happened twice in the last 37 years.
According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, “Marriage Story” is a reasonably safe bet for Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson as an actress filing for divorce), Best Actor (Adam Driver as her husband fighting to retain custody of their son) and Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern as Johansson’s lawyer). That leaves Best Supporting Actor, where Alan Alda is a contender for playing Driver’s kindly but out-of-his-depth attorney, but he’s an underdog according to...
According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, “Marriage Story” is a reasonably safe bet for Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson as an actress filing for divorce), Best Actor (Adam Driver as her husband fighting to retain custody of their son) and Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern as Johansson’s lawyer). That leaves Best Supporting Actor, where Alan Alda is a contender for playing Driver’s kindly but out-of-his-depth attorney, but he’s an underdog according to...
- 12/18/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
by Nathaniel R
It seems like we've been losing lots of Classic Hollywood people in the past year so we wanted to wish Nancy Olson of Sunset Blvd a very happy and healthy 91st birthday today. She's the last surviving member of that stone cold classic which netted her an Oscar nomination when she was just 22. Olson was such a success in Sunset Blvd that she went on to be paired with co-star William Holden in a few more pictures. Olson has long since retired, her last significant acting gig being in the shortlived primetime soap opera "Paper Dolls" in the 1980s.
Olson's birthday, paired with Olivia de Havilland's incredible 103rd birthday earlier this month (wow) got us thinking about who is still with us from all time classics pre-1960s because there aren't a lot of them *sniffle*. So after the jump, a quick perusal of some gigantic...
It seems like we've been losing lots of Classic Hollywood people in the past year so we wanted to wish Nancy Olson of Sunset Blvd a very happy and healthy 91st birthday today. She's the last surviving member of that stone cold classic which netted her an Oscar nomination when she was just 22. Olson was such a success in Sunset Blvd that she went on to be paired with co-star William Holden in a few more pictures. Olson has long since retired, her last significant acting gig being in the shortlived primetime soap opera "Paper Dolls" in the 1980s.
Olson's birthday, paired with Olivia de Havilland's incredible 103rd birthday earlier this month (wow) got us thinking about who is still with us from all time classics pre-1960s because there aren't a lot of them *sniffle*. So after the jump, a quick perusal of some gigantic...
- 7/14/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!”
Cast aside by an industry that no longer sees her as youthful or desirable, a once-glamorous movie star plots an unlikely comeback in Billy Wilder’s darkly mesmerizing Sunset Boulevard – a movie that remains as mysterious, compelling and surprisingly relevant today as when it was released nearly 70 years ago.
On Sunday, May 13, and Wednesday, May 16, the TCM Big Screen Classics series from Fathom Events presents this haunting look at the dark side of fame, starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. Named one of the greatest American films ever made by the American Film Institute, Sunset Boulevard will be presented with newly produced commentary by TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz, which will play before and after each screening.
Fearless, innovative and unafraid to indict the very industry that made it, Sunset Boulevard is presented in a digitally restored...
Cast aside by an industry that no longer sees her as youthful or desirable, a once-glamorous movie star plots an unlikely comeback in Billy Wilder’s darkly mesmerizing Sunset Boulevard – a movie that remains as mysterious, compelling and surprisingly relevant today as when it was released nearly 70 years ago.
On Sunday, May 13, and Wednesday, May 16, the TCM Big Screen Classics series from Fathom Events presents this haunting look at the dark side of fame, starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. Named one of the greatest American films ever made by the American Film Institute, Sunset Boulevard will be presented with newly produced commentary by TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz, which will play before and after each screening.
Fearless, innovative and unafraid to indict the very industry that made it, Sunset Boulevard is presented in a digitally restored...
- 4/18/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Move over James Jones — Leon Uris clobbers the big screen with a sprawling adaptation of his WW2 combat novel, loaded down with roles for promising young actors. This is the one where twice as much time is spent on love affairs than fighting. War may be hell, but if Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, Dorothy Malone and Allyn McLerie are going to be there for comfort, sign me up.
Battle Cry
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 148 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone, Anne Francis, William Campbell, Fess Parker, Justus E. McQueen (L.Q. Jones), Perry Lopez, Jonas Applegarth, Tommy Cook, Felix Noriego, Susan Morrow, Carleton Young, Rhys Williams, Allyn Ann McLerie, Gregory Walcott, Frank Ferguson, Sarah Selby, Willis Bouchey, Victor Milian.
Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Film Editor: William H. Zeigler
Original Music: Max Steiner...
Battle Cry
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 148 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone, Anne Francis, William Campbell, Fess Parker, Justus E. McQueen (L.Q. Jones), Perry Lopez, Jonas Applegarth, Tommy Cook, Felix Noriego, Susan Morrow, Carleton Young, Rhys Williams, Allyn Ann McLerie, Gregory Walcott, Frank Ferguson, Sarah Selby, Willis Bouchey, Victor Milian.
Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Film Editor: William H. Zeigler
Original Music: Max Steiner...
- 11/7/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
David O. Selznick’s marvelous romantic fantasy ode to Jennifer Jones was almost wholly unappreciated back in 1948. It’s one of those peculiar pictures that either melts one’s heart or doesn’t. Backed by a music score adapted from Debussy, just one breathy “Oh Eben . . . “ will turn average romantics into mush.
Portrait of Jennie
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1948 / B&W w/ Color Insert / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date October 24, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe.
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Production Designers: J. MacMillan Johnson, Joseph B. Platt
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, also adapting themes from Claude Debussy; Bernard Herrmann
Written by Leonardo Bercovici, Peter Berneis, Paul Osborn, from the novella by Robert Nathan
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by William Dieterle
Once upon a time David O. Selznick’s Portrait of Jennie was an...
Portrait of Jennie
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1948 / B&W w/ Color Insert / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date October 24, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe.
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Production Designers: J. MacMillan Johnson, Joseph B. Platt
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, also adapting themes from Claude Debussy; Bernard Herrmann
Written by Leonardo Bercovici, Peter Berneis, Paul Osborn, from the novella by Robert Nathan
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by William Dieterle
Once upon a time David O. Selznick’s Portrait of Jennie was an...
- 10/10/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'Making Love': Groundbreaking romantic gay drama returns to the big screen As part of its Anniversary Classics series, Laemmle Theaters will be presenting Arthur Hiller's groundbreaking 1982 romantic drama Making Love, the first U.S. movie distributed by a major studio that focused on a romantic gay relationship. Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and Kate Jackson star. The 35th Anniversary Screening of Making Love will be held on Saturday, June 24 – it's Gay Pride month, after all – at 7:30 p.m. at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The movie will be followed by a Q&A session with Harry Hamlin, screenwriter Barry Sandler, and author A. Scott Berg, who wrote the “story” on which the film is based. 'Making Love' & What lies beneath In this 20th Century Fox release – Sherry Lansing was the studio head at the time – Michael Ontkean plays a...
- 6/24/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Randolph Scott fights to let the railroad go through in this old-fashioned rip-snorting action adventure movie, the kind where shooting bad guys means never having to say you're sorry. Jane Wyatt gets top billing but the big burner on this prairie is newcomer Nancy Olson, who puts more sex appeal into her homegrown heroine than all of her later roles combined. Canadian Pacific Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1949 / Color /1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / Street Date August 9, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Randolph Scott, Jane Wyatt, J. Carrol Nash, Victor Jory, Nancy Olson, Robert Barrat, Walter Sande, Don Haggerty, Grandon Rhodes, John Hamilton, George Chandler, Holmes Herbert, Norman Jewison, Chief Yowlachie. Cinematography Fred Jackman, Jr., Film Editor Philip Martin Art Direction Ernst Fegeé Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin Written by Jack DeWitt, Kenneth Gamet story by Jack DeWitt Produced by Nat Holt Directed by Edwin L. Marin Reviewed by Glenn Erickson All Randolph Scott movies aren't created equal,...
- 9/25/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Dean Jones: Actor in Disney movies. Dean Jones dead at 84: Actor in Disney movies 'The Love Bug,' 'That Darn Cat!' Dean Jones, best known for playing befuddled heroes in 1960s Walt Disney movies such as That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, died of complications from Parkinson's disease on Tue., Sept. 1, '15, in Los Angeles. Jones (born on Jan. 25, 1931, in Decatur, Alabama) was 84. Dean Jones movies Dean Jones began his Hollywood career in the mid-'50s, when he was featured in bit parts – at times uncredited – in a handful of films at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In 2009 interview for Christianity Today, Jones recalled playing his first scene (in These Wilder Years) with veteran James Cagney, who told him “Walk to your mark and remember your lines” – supposedly a lesson he would take to heart. At MGM, bit player Jones would also be featured in Robert Wise's...
- 9/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Long before the lurid "E! True Hollywood Story" series, there was "Sunset Boulevard" -- maybe the darkest, most cynical movie ever made about what Hollywood is really like.
Released 65 years ago this week (on August 10, 1950), director Billy Wilder's classic explored fame from the perspective of those who had it and lost it (like Gloria Swanson and her "waxwork" friends, playing lightly fictionalized versions of themselves) and those who never quite made it, like the struggling young screenwriter (William Holden) and the failed actress-turned-script reader played by Nancy Olson.
Even if you haven't seen "Sunset Boulevard," you may feel like you have, whether because of the popular Andrew Lloyd Webber musical it spawned, the movies that copied it (particularly "American Beauty," with its narration from beyond the grave), and the countless parodies of Swanson's final "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" scene. In honor of the film's anniversary,...
Released 65 years ago this week (on August 10, 1950), director Billy Wilder's classic explored fame from the perspective of those who had it and lost it (like Gloria Swanson and her "waxwork" friends, playing lightly fictionalized versions of themselves) and those who never quite made it, like the struggling young screenwriter (William Holden) and the failed actress-turned-script reader played by Nancy Olson.
Even if you haven't seen "Sunset Boulevard," you may feel like you have, whether because of the popular Andrew Lloyd Webber musical it spawned, the movies that copied it (particularly "American Beauty," with its narration from beyond the grave), and the countless parodies of Swanson's final "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" scene. In honor of the film's anniversary,...
- 8/10/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Theodore Bikel. Theodore Bikel dead at 91: Oscar-nominated actor and folk singer best known for stage musicals 'The Sound of Music,' 'Fiddler on the Roof' Folk singer, social and union activist, and stage, film, and television actor Theodore Bikel, best remembered for starring in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and, throughout the U.S., in Fiddler on the Roof, died Monday morning (July 20, '15) of "natural causes" at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Austrian-born Bikel – as Theodore Meir Bikel on May 2, 1924, in Vienna, to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European parents – was 91. Fled Hitler Thanks to his well-connected Zionist father, six months after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 ("they were greeted with jubilation by the local populace," he would recall in 2012), the 14-year-old Bikel and his family fled to Palestine, at the time a British protectorate. While there, the teenager began acting on stage,...
- 7/23/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Union Station
Written by Sydney Boehm
Directed by Rudolph Matté
U.S.A., 1950
When Joyce Williecomb (Nancy Olson), humble assistant to wealthy businessman Henry Muchison (Herbert Heyes), takes the train to Chicago, little does she know that the next few days will prove to be the greatest test of patience and nerves she has ever known. Shortly after the train departs for its destination, it is halted in order for two suspicious looking gentlemen to embark. Convinced something is amiss, Joyce, upon arriving in Chicago, immediately alerts the security at Union Station of the two mystery men, sending railroad police detective William Calhoun (William Holden) into action. Much to Joyce’s surprise and horror, it turns out that targets have in fact kidnapped her employer’s blind daughter, Lorna (Allene Roberts), to whom she had said goodbye mere hours ago. Now demanding a ransom, a game of cat and mouse...
Written by Sydney Boehm
Directed by Rudolph Matté
U.S.A., 1950
When Joyce Williecomb (Nancy Olson), humble assistant to wealthy businessman Henry Muchison (Herbert Heyes), takes the train to Chicago, little does she know that the next few days will prove to be the greatest test of patience and nerves she has ever known. Shortly after the train departs for its destination, it is halted in order for two suspicious looking gentlemen to embark. Convinced something is amiss, Joyce, upon arriving in Chicago, immediately alerts the security at Union Station of the two mystery men, sending railroad police detective William Calhoun (William Holden) into action. Much to Joyce’s surprise and horror, it turns out that targets have in fact kidnapped her employer’s blind daughter, Lorna (Allene Roberts), to whom she had said goodbye mere hours ago. Now demanding a ransom, a game of cat and mouse...
- 2/13/2015
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Way We Were' tonight on Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. (See TCM's Robert Redford film schedule below. See also: "On TCM: Robert Redford Movies.") 'The Great Gatsby': Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby Released by Paramount Pictures, the 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby had prestige oozing from just about every cinematic pore. The film was based on what some consider the greatest American novel ever written. Francis Ford Coppola, whose directing credits included the blockbuster The Godfather, and who, that same year, was responsible for both The Godfather Part II and The Conversation, penned the adaptation. Multiple Tony winner David Merrick (Becket,...
- 1/21/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Way We Were' tonight on Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. (See TCM's Robert Redford film schedule below. See also: "On TCM: Robert Redford Movies.") 'Out of Africa' Out of Africa (1985) is an unusual Robert Redford star vehicle in that the film's actual lead isn't Redford, but Meryl Streep -- at the time seen as sort of a Bette Davis-Alec Guinness mix: like Davis, Streep received a whole bunch of Academy Award nominations within the span of a few years: from 1978-1985, she was shortlisted for no less than six movies.* Like Guinness, Streep could transform...
- 1/21/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Joan Lorring, 1945 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee, dead at 88: One of the earliest surviving Academy Award nominees in the acting categories, Lorring was best known for holding her own against Bette Davis in ‘The Corn Is Green’ (photo: Joan Lorring in ‘Three Strangers’) Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee Joan Lorring, who stole the 1945 film version of The Corn Is Green from none other than Warner Bros. reigning queen Bette Davis, died Friday, May 30, 2014, in the New York City suburb of Sleepy Hollow. So far, online obits haven’t mentioned the cause of death. Lorring, one of the earliest surviving Oscar nominees in the acting categories, was 88. Directed by Irving Rapper, who had also handled one of Bette Davis’ biggest hits, the 1942 sudsy soap opera Now, Voyager, Warners’ The Corn Is Green was a decent if uninspired film version of Emlyn Williams’ semi-autobiographical 1938 hit play about an English schoolteacher,...
- 6/1/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Shirley Mitchell, the actress who played Marion Strong, Lucy Ricardo's friend on the classic TV show "I Love Lucy," has passed away at the age of 94.
Mitchell, who was thought to be the last living adult cast member from Lucille Ball's iconic CBS sitcom, died on Monday (Nov. 11) of heart failure in her Westwood condo, her sister-in-law, "Sunset Blvd." actress Nancy Olson, tells THR.
Mitchell joined the cast of "I Love Lucy" for the 1953-54 season, appearing in three episodes. Marion, known for her cackling laugh, faces frank opinions in one episode, "Lucy Tells the Truth."
"Marion, stop cackling," Lucy tells her. "I've been waiting 10 years for you to lay that egg!"
The character, which was originally played by Margie Liszt in the show's second season, set Lucy and Ricky up on their first date.
Born in 1919, Mitchell began her career as a radio star, becoming good friends with...
Mitchell, who was thought to be the last living adult cast member from Lucille Ball's iconic CBS sitcom, died on Monday (Nov. 11) of heart failure in her Westwood condo, her sister-in-law, "Sunset Blvd." actress Nancy Olson, tells THR.
Mitchell joined the cast of "I Love Lucy" for the 1953-54 season, appearing in three episodes. Marion, known for her cackling laugh, faces frank opinions in one episode, "Lucy Tells the Truth."
"Marion, stop cackling," Lucy tells her. "I've been waiting 10 years for you to lay that egg!"
The character, which was originally played by Margie Liszt in the show's second season, set Lucy and Ricky up on their first date.
Born in 1919, Mitchell began her career as a radio star, becoming good friends with...
- 11/15/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
It's hard to believe that the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League is all gone. Shirley Mitchell, who played Lucy and Ethel's gossipy friend Marion Strong on I Love Lucy, has died. She was 94 and is believed to be the last surviving adult cast member from the classic 1950s sitcom. (Doris Singleton, who played Carolyn Appleby, just died last year.) The actress' sister-in-law, fellow thesp Nancy Olson, told The Hollywood Reporter that Mitchell died Monday of heart failure at her home in Westwood. Though Mitchell actually only appeared in three episodes of I Love Lucy (replacing the original Marion, Margie Liszt), she truly played a key role even in absentia: During a fight with...
- 11/14/2013
- E! Online
Shirley Mitchell, the comic actress who played Marion Strong, Lucy Ricardo's friend with the cackling laugh on the TV classic I Love Lucy, has died. She was 94. Mitchell, who was believed to be the last surviving adult castmember from the legendary CBS sitcom, died Nov. 11 of heart failure at her condominium in Westwood, her sister-in-law, the Oscar-nominated Sunset Blvd. actress Nancy Olson, told The Hollywood Reporter. Mitchell was the widow of Jay Livingston, the pop composer and lyricist who collaborated with Ray Evans on the Academy Award-winning songs “Mona Lisa” (performed by Nat King
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- 11/13/2013
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Her laugh will live on. Shirley Mitchell, best known as Lucy Ricardo's cackling friend on I Love Lucy, has died at the age of 94, her sister-in-law Nancy Olson told The Hollywood Reporter on Nov. 13. Believed to be the last surviving cast member of the legendary sitcom, Mitchell passed away of heart failure at her condo in Westwood, Calif., Olson said. (Olson herself is an Oscar-nominated actress who starred in Sunset Blvd.) Mitchell joined the cast of I Love Lucy during the third season, which ran from [...]...
- 11/13/2013
- Us Weekly
William Holden movies: ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ William Holden is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured actor today, August 21, 2013. Throughout the day, TCM has been showing several William Holden movies made at Columbia, though his work at Paramount (e.g., I Wanted Wings, Dear Ruth, Streets of Laredo, Dear Wife) remains mostly off-limits. Right now, TCM is presenting David Lean’s 1957 Best Picture Academy Award winner and all-around blockbuster The Bridge on the River Kwai, the Anglo-American production that turned Lean into filmdom’s brainier Cecil B. DeMille. Until then a director of mostly small-scale dramas, Lean (quite literally) widened the scope of his movies with the widescreen-formatted Southeast Asian-set World War II drama, which clocks in at 161 minutes. Even though William Holden was The Bridge on the River Kwai‘s big box-office draw, the film actually belongs to Alec Guinness’ Pow British commander and to...
- 8/22/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Sunset Boulevard (Also known as Sunset Blvd)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Charles Bracket and Billy Wilder
U.S.A., 1950
In cinema, as in life, the past informs and shapes the present, which in turn does the same for the future. One cannot concentrate too much on the present or risk losing sight on the changing times. One cannot always be looking ahead, otherwise they may fail in the ‘now.’ Staying firmly planted in the past means missing out on both the present and the future and perhaps not even comprehending either. At the risk of coming across as a little too metaphysical and putting too intellectual a slant on this article, everything in time and space functions as a whole, like a continuous evolutionary process. The unwillingness to accept this either leaves people in a bad mood (dislike of change, unwillingness to accept the past) or, particularly for...
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Charles Bracket and Billy Wilder
U.S.A., 1950
In cinema, as in life, the past informs and shapes the present, which in turn does the same for the future. One cannot concentrate too much on the present or risk losing sight on the changing times. One cannot always be looking ahead, otherwise they may fail in the ‘now.’ Staying firmly planted in the past means missing out on both the present and the future and perhaps not even comprehending either. At the risk of coming across as a little too metaphysical and putting too intellectual a slant on this article, everything in time and space functions as a whole, like a continuous evolutionary process. The unwillingness to accept this either leaves people in a bad mood (dislike of change, unwillingness to accept the past) or, particularly for...
- 12/28/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – With her chin pointed high, eyes bulging, teeth gleaming and hands contorting as if performing a Transylvanian spell, screen actress Norma Desmond insists that she’s ready for her close-up. She descends her staircase and becomes fully engulfed in the gray haze of her delusions in one of the greatest and most unforgettable final scenes in cinema history.
This moment, like so many in Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece, “Sunset Boulevard,” achieves a miraculous balancing act. It is darkly funny, deeply sad and richly unsettling. The same could be said of Gloria Swanson’s Oscar-nominated performance as Desmond, the aging icon of the silent era who dwells in a mansion fit for Miss Havisham and is doted upon by a solemn enabler named Max (Erich von Stroheim), who has dedicated his life to protecting his beloved diva from the world that has forgotten her. Not only did von Stroheim direct...
This moment, like so many in Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece, “Sunset Boulevard,” achieves a miraculous balancing act. It is darkly funny, deeply sad and richly unsettling. The same could be said of Gloria Swanson’s Oscar-nominated performance as Desmond, the aging icon of the silent era who dwells in a mansion fit for Miss Havisham and is doted upon by a solemn enabler named Max (Erich von Stroheim), who has dedicated his life to protecting his beloved diva from the world that has forgotten her. Not only did von Stroheim direct...
- 11/12/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Last month, we asked EW.com readers to help Paramount select the cover image for the new Sunset Boulevard Blu-ray. Director Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic about a haunting silent-era movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who hungers for a great comeback arrives on Blu-ray for the first time on Nov. 6, and 59 percent of voters opted for the red version of an original movie poster, with Desmond lurking over hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) and his new girlfriend (Nancy Olson).
For my money, Sunset Boulevard remains the greatest Hollywood movie about itself ever made, a warped fun-house mirror of the...
For my money, Sunset Boulevard remains the greatest Hollywood movie about itself ever made, a warped fun-house mirror of the...
- 8/13/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Sixty-two years after its initial release, Sunset Boulevard is ready for another close-up. Billy Wilder’s 1950 film about an aging, addled silent-film star has been restored and is coming to Blu-ray for the first time on Nov. 6.
Sunset Boulevard, which won three Oscars and has been named one of the best films of the 20th century by AFI, was one of the first movies to treat the Hollywood dream factory with bitterness and cynicism. It’s the tale of hack writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) — we first meet him floating lifelessly in a swimming pool — whose luck goes from bad...
Sunset Boulevard, which won three Oscars and has been named one of the best films of the 20th century by AFI, was one of the first movies to treat the Hollywood dream factory with bitterness and cynicism. It’s the tale of hack writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) — we first meet him floating lifelessly in a swimming pool — whose luck goes from bad...
- 7/20/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Anne Francis on TCM: Forbidden Planet, Brainstorm, A Lion Is In The Streets Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Summer Holiday (1948) Musical remake of Ah, Wilderness!, about a small-town boy's struggles with growing up. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Gloria DeHaven, Walter Huston, Frank Morgan, Jackie Jenkins, Marilyn Maxwell, Agnes Moorehead. C-93 mins. 7:45 Am So Young So Bad (1950) A crusading psychiatrist tries to help troubled reform school girls. Dir: Bernard Vorhaus. Cast: Paul Henreid, Catherine McLeod, Cecil Clovelly, Anne Jackson, Rita Moreno. Bw-91 mins. 9:30 Am Battle Cry (1955) A group of Marines eagerly await deployment during World War II. Dir: Raoul Walsh. Cast: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Dorothy Malone, Nancy Olson, Tab Hunter, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, William Campbell. C-148 mins, Letterbox Format. 12:00 Pm Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.
- 8/29/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It was hard to believe it was 11 am on a Thursday morning – there was Sidney Poitier, James Darrin, Nancy Olson Livingston, Felicia Farr Lemon, Sally Kellerman, Jimmy Smitts, Marsha Hunt, Tony Danza and that was just the audience. They and 1,200 others packed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater on Wilshire in Beverly Hills to honor former Academy President and Oscar-winning actor Gregory Peck as his Hollywood Legends Forever Stamp was unveiled. The U.S. Post Office, the Academy and the Peck family went to great lengths to organize the event. M.C. Sharon Stone introduced the honor guard; then Natalie Mains, of Dixie Chicks fame, sang the National Anthem. Clips from some of Peck’s best known works – The Gunfighter, Roman ...
- 4/29/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of the biggest and most luscious of film noirs, set in Hollywood among the decaying splendor of days gone by. It's a cynical celebration of the grand old days of movies, as well as an implication that they may not have been so grand after all. It was one of the first movies to take on filmmaking as anything other than a novelty or a profession (Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels was arguably the first.) The movie deals with some unsettlingly dark material, but Wilder treats it with just the right hint of black humor, but also lightens it up with images of "normal life," i.e. scenes with a pretty girl (Nancy Olson). It's an enduringly popular movie, and fairly easy to see at revival houses. Paramount released it on DVD in 2002 and again in 2008.
What It's About
Joe Gillis (William Holden...
What It's About
Joe Gillis (William Holden...
- 7/29/2010
- by Jeffrey M. Anderson
- Cinematical
There seems to be no exhausting the raw eyeball pleasure to be had from old-fashioned handmade (or semi-handmade, or whatever) animation, and we may be well living through a pop renaissance of it.
The eruptions below the Pixar/Dreamworks budget tier have been spectacular and international, beginning perhaps with 2003's "The Triplets of Belleville," learning from Miyazaki, Oshii, Aardman and the Quays, moving on to Kim Moon-saeng's "Sky Blue," machinima, "The Corpse Bride," "A Scanner Darkly," "Persepolis," "Coraline," "Waltz with Bashir," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Mary & Max," "Sita Sings the Blues," "Fear(s) in the Dark," "The Secret of Kells," and now the Belgian nonpareil "A Town Called Panic."
The variety of toolboxes and styles at work seem limitless (the seductive but uniform look of pure 3D computer animation is getting tiresome just as other approaches proliferate), but it's the personal engagement that makes most of the films sing.
Many of...
The eruptions below the Pixar/Dreamworks budget tier have been spectacular and international, beginning perhaps with 2003's "The Triplets of Belleville," learning from Miyazaki, Oshii, Aardman and the Quays, moving on to Kim Moon-saeng's "Sky Blue," machinima, "The Corpse Bride," "A Scanner Darkly," "Persepolis," "Coraline," "Waltz with Bashir," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Mary & Max," "Sita Sings the Blues," "Fear(s) in the Dark," "The Secret of Kells," and now the Belgian nonpareil "A Town Called Panic."
The variety of toolboxes and styles at work seem limitless (the seductive but uniform look of pure 3D computer animation is getting tiresome just as other approaches proliferate), but it's the personal engagement that makes most of the films sing.
Many of...
- 7/20/2010
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Alan W. Livingston has passed away at age 91. Never heard of him? Neither had we - but any baby boomer owes him a great debt for a multifaceted career that played a vital role in how popular culture was defined in the last half of the twentieth century. Check out this list of credentials, as published in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Alan W. Livingston, who created the character of Bozo the Clown and signed the Beatles to a contract at Capitol Records during a long and multifaceted show business career, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Livingston, who was married to actresses Betty Hutton and Nancy Olson, also produced NBC's "Bonanza"; wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie; signed and paired Frank Sinatra with bandleader Nelson Riddle during a low point in Sinatra's career; and served as president of the...
"Alan W. Livingston, who created the character of Bozo the Clown and signed the Beatles to a contract at Capitol Records during a long and multifaceted show business career, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Livingston, who was married to actresses Betty Hutton and Nancy Olson, also produced NBC's "Bonanza"; wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie; signed and paired Frank Sinatra with bandleader Nelson Riddle during a low point in Sinatra's career; and served as president of the...
- 3/16/2009
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Alan W. Livingston, who created the character of Bozo the Clown and signed the Beatles to a contract at Capitol Records during a long and multifaceted show business career, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Livingston, who was married to actresses Betty Hutton and Nancy Olson, also produced NBC's "Bonanza"; wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie; signed and paired Frank Sinatra with bandleader Nelson Riddle during a low point in Sinatra's career; and served as president of the entertainment group at 20th Century Fox.
Livingston started out by writing children's albums at Capitol and created Bozo in 1946 for a popular series of storytelling record albums and illustrative read-along book sets.
As he moved up at Capitol, Livingston got a reluctant Sinatra to agree to a session with Riddle in 1953. The pair produced the classics "I've Got the World...
Livingston, who was married to actresses Betty Hutton and Nancy Olson, also produced NBC's "Bonanza"; wrote the 1951 pop hit "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" for Mel Blanc's Tweety Pie; signed and paired Frank Sinatra with bandleader Nelson Riddle during a low point in Sinatra's career; and served as president of the entertainment group at 20th Century Fox.
Livingston started out by writing children's albums at Capitol and created Bozo in 1946 for a popular series of storytelling record albums and illustrative read-along book sets.
As he moved up at Capitol, Livingston got a reluctant Sinatra to agree to a session with Riddle in 1953. The pair produced the classics "I've Got the World...
- 3/13/2009
- by By Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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