Hope For the Summer Movie Season: "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is a Surprise Hit

At this blog we're fond of remembering when summertime meant interesting movies. Back in the p.b. days (pre-blockbuster) you could enter your local four-plex and see The Candidate, The Bad News Bears, Chinatown, and of course, the one that started it all--Jaws. Nowadays summer releases have explosions, superheroes, car chases, assassins...just about everything except plot and characterizaton. So imagine everyone's surprise when a film about British pensioners living in India becomes a smash hit.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has grossed over $100 million internationally. In the U.S., it has been in the top 10 releases for more than three weeks--playing in under 400 screens. It's per-screen average keeps picking up, and word-of-mouth is turning this little comedy into a juggernaut.

Of course, the film's pedigree is exceptional. Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), and Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey)  star as a group of retired Brits who decide to stretch their pensions by moving to a newly-renovated hotel in India. Once they get there, they find that the travel brochures have stretched the truth: the hotel is closer to a hovel. But, stiff upper lips and all, they make a go of it, and discover love in the process.

Director John Madden previously helmed the Oscar-winner Shakespeare In Love, for which Dench won her supporting Oscar.  The film is garnering strong word-of-mouth: the perfect film for those of us over 40 looking for something besides Snow White, Ironman, and the rest of them.

In Appreciation: The Great Gatsby (1974)

With all of the attention focused on the first trailer for December's upcoming remake of The Great Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguirs stars), I thought it was time to re-evaluate the 1974 film version which starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.

The film itself has some legendary stories behind it. It is the third remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic tale of love between the flighty Daisy Buchanan and mysterious bootlegger Jay Gatsby. Producer Robert Evans bought the rights so that his wife Ali MacGraw could star; when they divorced, a worldwide casting effort was launched. Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby) won the role of Daisy. Among those considered were Cybill Shepherd, Candice Bergen, and Natalie Wood.

Francis Coppola was credited with the screenplay, which he was working on while simultaneously prepping The Godfather. He replaced Truman Capote, whose screenplay was considered a disappointment.

The film's beauty and 1920s authenticity resulted in two Oscar wins for Best Costume Design and Best Music. And although it grossed $26,000,000 on a budget of $6,500,000, the film was considered a disapoointment. Looking at it again, it is exceedingly well-acted, especially from Bruce Dern and Sam Waterston, but Redford and Farrow failed to generate any real romantic sparks. Still, it's a good version of a classic tale.

To view the new trailer for The Great Gatsby:

To purchase the 1974 version of Gatsby on DVD, click here:

In Appreciation: The Big Heat (1953)

Recently released on DVD, and chosen by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011, The Big Heat is a classic, tough-minded little film with a lot on its mind.  Written by a former crime reporter, and directed by Fritz Lang, The Big Heat sticks in your mind long after you've watched it.

Glenn Ford gave one of his best performances as honest cop Dave Bannion, who tries to take on his city's crime syndicate.  His higher-ups, however, are in the crooks' back pocket.  They attempt to dissuade Dave to drop his investigation.  When he doesn't, his car gets blown up, his wife gets killed in the explosion....and the case is closed.

Bannion goes crazy, and will stop at nothing to take down mob boss Mike Lagana, and if thats means using Lagana's girl (Gloria Grahame) to get closer, so be it.  The psychosis really begins to fly when Lagana gets a little too jealous.

Gloria Grahame won a well-deserved Oscar as Stone's girlfriend, Debby Marsh.  Stone's right-hand man (Lee Marvin, terrific in another villainous turn) punishes Debby for getting too close to the cops by throwing hot coffee in her face.  Scarred for life, Debby clings closer than ever to the hoenst cop.  In a wonderful twist, Bannion is shown to be no angel--he's simply using her to acheive his end.

Tough characters in a taut, relentless film.  The Big Heat is truly memorable.

For more on purchasing The Big Heat on Blu-Ray:

Amazon Debuts "Never Before on DVD" Store

Looking for the underrated Bless The Beasts and the Children?  Can't find a copy of the Hammer horror film Die! Die! My Darling?  Amazon is about to make things easier.  In collaboration with the major studios, the webtailer is going to stock over 2,000 specialty titles--that will only get made when you order them.

The store, entitled "Never Before on DVD" is new, but the idea, DVD-on-demand, has been around for a few years, most successfully with the Warner Archive series.

Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., Universal Fox, MGM and Lionsgate will participate.  "The Never Before on DVD store is a great place for fans to discover thousands of films and television series they've been waiting for on DVD," said Brad Beale, director of digital video content acquisition for Amazon.

To order Bless the Beasts and the Children on DVD, click here:

Lights! Camera! Post Office! Four Classic Film Directors Honored With Stamps

John Ford, Billy Wilder, John Huston, and Frank Capra will be honored with their own stamps featuring images from their classic films, the U.S. Postal Service announced this week.


The collection of four stamps is being billed as The Great Film Directors-First Class Forever stamps.

The background for the John Ford stamp is from the classic western The Searchers; Capra's stamp features a scene from It Happened One Night; Huston's stamp features the unforgettable The Maltese Falcon; and Wilder's stamp has classic images from Some Like It Hot.


The Great Film Director stamps are being issued as Forever stamps in self-adhesive strips of 20 (five stamps per design).


Classic Directors to Be Honored With Stamps:
http://news.yahoo.com/classic-directors-honored-stamps-021708056.html


For more information about The Maltese Falcon or Some Like It Hot on Blu-Ray:

Oscar Winner Colin Firth To Play Noel Coward in New Film Bio

Academy Award-winner Colin Firth will star as the legendary actor/singer/writer Noel Coward in an upcoming film titled Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Firth will portray the often flamboyant entertainer in a film that follows Coward's two week-stint as a Las Vegas headliner in 1955. 

The Desert Inn, desperate after Liberace cancelled a booking, offered the job to the unlikely Coward.  Coward, who wrote the play "Private Lives," took the job because he owed taxes to the British government.   The show became an instant hit, a Vegas legend, and added more lustre to Coward's already legendary career.

Firth is coming off an Oscar for The King's Speech, as well as a nomination for A Single Man.  He appeared last year in the spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and is scheduled to star in a remake of the classic heist film Gambit later this year.

Here's a clip from the 1968 musical Star!, with Julie Andrews as Gertrude Lawrence and Oscar-nominated Daniel Massey portraying Coward:

For more on the film Star! on DVD:

Actress Lily Rabe Cast as Mary Pickford in Upcoming Film

Broadway actress Lily Rabe (The Merchant of Venice) has been cast as legendary screen star Mary Pickford in an upcoming film bio.  Shooting on the film begins in early 2013.  The film is based on Eileen Whitfield's biography "Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood."

Rabe, a talented stage actress, has an impressive pedigree.  Her father is playwright David Rabe; her mother was the talented Jill Clayburgh.

The subject is tailor-made for a fascinating glimpse into the beginnings of Hollywood.  Nicknamed "America' s Sweetheart," Pickford became one of the biggest stars in the silent era.  She was even more interesting off-screen: together with Charlie Chaplin, director D.W. Griffith, and Douglas Fairbanks, she co-founded United Artists studio.

Think of the casting fun for this film.  Aside from Griffith, Chaplin, and Fairbanks, there are meaty roles for two other actresses: Charlotte Hennessy, Pickford's mother and manager, and her collaborator, legendary screenwriter Frances Marion.

For more info on the book Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood, click here:

In Appreciation: Written on the Wind (1956)

Between 1950 and 1959, Douglas Sirk made over 20 films for Universal.  Despite box-office successes (such as Imitation of Life, 1959), Sirk was ignored by critics and accused of cranking out "women's pictures." But Sirk's films became appreciated years later as sly satires and criticisms of American families, female sexuality, and turbulent relationships.  Written on the Wind (1956) might look like high camp, but it has plenty to say about sex, family, and power.  It foreshadowed Dallas and Dynasty by 20 years.

The Hadleys, an oil-rich Texas family whose wealth is so great that the town itself is named after them.  With great power comes great responsibility--but you won't find any of that in the Hadleys.  The family's patriarch (Robert Keith) is trying to hold everything together while his alcoholic playboy son (Robert Stack) and his nymphomaniac daughter (Dorothy Malone) run amuck like spoiled brats.

Happiness seems to appear in the form of Rock Hudson, a close family friend, who works for the Hadleys and bails Stack and Malone out of their many troubles. But when Lauren Bacall comes into Stack's life, and Malone's character gets the hots for Hudson, stability flies out the window.

Raging alcoholism?  Check.  Impotence?  Check?  Unchecked sexual behavior?  Check.  Star-crossed love?  Check and check again.  Written on the Wind packs more undiluted adult behavior than even Peyton Place. 

But Sirk took a lot of chances with this film. Sexual frustration fuels every character's motivations in the film.  And the characters we are supposed to love--Bacall and Hudson--come off as ignorant of other's needs.  The supporting characters--Malone and Stack--are what we're supposed to watch. 

In interviews, Robert Stack was always surprised that Hudson took what was essentially a supporting role.  But Hudson and Sirk worked eight times together; the actor trusted the director.  Their collaborations resulted in classics like Magnificent Obsession. 

Malone was stuck in a series of "B" movies when she found out she was up for the film.  She died her hair platinum blonde and walked into her audition in a short skirt, swaying her hips.  She looked at Douglas Sirk and perched herself on his desk, hiking her skirt up as far as convention allowed.  Malone wound up winning the Oscar for Supporting Actress for her powerhouse performance.

Written on the Wind was so successful that Sirk reunited Hudson, Stack, and Malone the following year for The Tarnished Angels.

For more on Written on the Wind on DVD, click on the following:

In Appreciation: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

With the New York City Center's Encores revival of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (starring Smash alumnus Megan Hilty) opening this week, I thought it was time to take a look at the hit 1953 musical, starring the one-and-only Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as Lorelei and Dorothy, the two most beloved golddiggers in the world.


Set in the Roaring Twenties, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows the madcap adventures of  Lorelei Lee, as she sets sail for Europe with her best friend Dorothy Shaw. As Dorothy puts it, the gold-digging Lorelei is “the only girl in the world who can stand on a stage with a spotlight in her eye and still see a diamond inside a man’s pocket.”

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes made a star of Carol Channing on Broadway and later cemented Marilyn Monroe’s status as an American film icon and sex symbol.  Directed by Howard Hawks, the musical was such a hit that both Monroe and Russell were asked to put their handprints in cement at Grauman's Chnese Theater.  Hawks was a one-of-a-kind director: able to work in any genre.  Among his films are Bringing Up Baby, To Have And Have Not, Sergeant York, The Thing, and Rio Bravo--all of them classics.


 “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is the crown jewel in the score that sparkles with songs like “Bye, Bye, Baby,” and “A Little Girl from Little Rock."  Jane Russell sings, "Anybody Here For Love" with a group of half-naked team Olympic team members performing their "workout."  The number still stands as one of the sexiest showstoppers ever filmed.

The film was a huge critical and commercial success, ending up as the sixth top moneymaker of 1953. The fifth was another Monroe hit, How To Marry A Millionaire. Together, both films cemented Monroe's image as a sex symbol for generations to come.


For more info on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on DVD, click on the pic:

Ten Movies From The Year: 1963

So many choices: 1963 was an important year in cinema. It was the beginning of the end of the studio regimes, yet the blockbusters were bigger than ever.  Foreign films once again rose to prominence. And new stars emerged (Albert Finney, Richard Harris) while old-timers like Spencer Tracy still burned brightly:


1.  It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World--The top grossing film of the year. Every known comic was packed into this laugh riot, about the greedy chase for a satchel of stolen cash.  Loosely remade years later as Rat Race.


2. The Birds--Another unsettling Hitchcock masterpiece. One of the films I saw as a kid that still gives me the creeps. The unassuming town of Bodego Bay is under siege from birds of all kinds.  Hitchcock hinted that the birds' rampage were punishment for the failings of the main characters. Absolutely terrifying special effects.

3. 8 1/2--Frederico Fellini's masterpiece about a director (Marcello Mastroianni, as the director's alter ego) suffering from "director's block" and the women ini his life who are leaving him equally conflicted.  Later remade as the musical Nine.


4.  From Russia With Love--The second James Bond film is probably the one most rooted in Cold War reality. Look for Robert Shaw as a vicious blonde killer.

5.  Hud--A modern American masterpiece. Paul Newman played the title role, an amoral man who ruins everything he touches. Oscars to Patricia Neal as the middle-aged housekeeper who is demoralized by Hud's brutishness, and to Melvyn Douglas as Hud's dispproving father.


6.  The Pink Panther--The first in the series, and maybe still the best. Clumsy Inpsector Clouseau (Peter Sellers)  is after a notorious jewel thief. Robert Wagner and David Niven add to the fun.


7.  The Leopard--A prince tries to preserve his family and class status during the tumultuous social upheavals of Sicily in the 1860s. Luchino Visconti's Italian film is noteworthy for its use of a true star: Burt Lancaster.


8.  Tom Jones--The lusty, bawdy main character launched Albert Finney to stardom. Oscar for Best Picture.


9.  Shock Corridor--The best "B" film of the year. Hellbent on winning a Pulitzer Prize, a journalist goes undercover and checks himself into a mental institution.

10.  Charade--Stanley Donen directed two radiant stars, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, in this light-hearted thriller set in Paris.




For more info on The Birds on DVD, click on the pic:

Reel Facts: The Answers to Film Quiz #1

Skip this post if you don't want to know, but here are the questions and the solutions to our first quiz:

1. Who was the first actress to win three Oscars in three different decades?
     You might have answered Katherine Hepburn or Meryl Streep, but Ingrid Bergman did it first: Gaslight (1944); her comeback in Anastasia (1956); and a crowning Oscar for Supporting Actress in Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

2. In the classic comedy Bringing Up Baby, both Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are looking for Baby. Who is Baby?
     Baby is Hepburn's pet leopard.

3. “A scavenger hunt is just like a treasure hunt, except in a treasure hunt you find something of value, and in a scavenger hunt, you find things you don't want and the one who wins gets a prize, only there really isn't any prize. It's just the honor of winning because all the money goes to charity, if there's any money left over, but there never is.” Who said it, and from what 1930s film does it come from?
     A classic line, spoken by a classic dame: Carole Lombard said it in My Man Godfrey.

4. Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, and Paul Newman all rejected the same famous detective role. Which one?
     Believe it or not, they were all in the running to play Dirty Harry.

5. “A love caught in the fire of revolution”was the tagline for what epic 1960s movie?
     Doctor Zhivago

6. What two actors have won Oscars for playing the same character?
     Marlon Brando won the Oscar for playing Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Two years later, Robert DeNiro won a Supporting Oscar for playing a young Vito Corleone, in flashbacks, in The Godfather Part II.

7. In what film does Elizabeth Taylor admit the following: “Oh Mama, face it. I was the slut of all time.”
    Butterfield 8

8. What 1960s film has Barbara Stanwyck playing a lesbian madam in love with one of the new girls?
    The very racy (at the time) A Walk on the Wild Side.

In Appreciation: Bette Davis Interviewed by Dick Cavett

I stumbled across this priceless interview that Dick Cavett conducted with the legendary Bette Davis.

Ms. Davis was always a "broad" or a "dame" in the classic sense of the word. Not a stunning beauty, but a captivating, driven women who could play pool with the men and smack another woman in the face just because she needed it.  In this interview dating back to 1972, Ms. Davis is very open and honest about her relationship with Hollywood:


On her relationship with Warner Bros.: "I finished 18 years at Warners. Built a lot of soundstages there. Never got a letter of goodbye. Ended up on the back lot with the soundman...and a producer having drinks until dawn. That's how I left the Warner lot."


On what mattered the most at the job: "Actors are sucker for a good part. And just (to hear someone) saying: 'You did a good job, Bette.' Never, never never."


On her fights with the studio: "I never fought for money until many years later--I fought for parts!"


To see this rare interview with the one-of-a-kind Ms. Davis:

To purchase one of Bette Davis' most memorable films, All About Eve on Blu-Ray, click here:

"Wings," The First Oscar Winner, Set For Theatrical Re-release

Wings, the 1st Academy Award winner for Best Picture,  and a landmark in dramatic storytelling, will be shown on May 2 and May 16 in special screenings at Cinemark Theatres.

             

Released in 1927, Wings has been fully restored by Paramount Pictures, which announced the limited theatrical run in Cinemark Theaters on Tuesday.

             

Wings chronicles the effects of war through the story of two men who go off to battle in World War I and the woman they both leave behind. Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen star in the film, which also features Gary Cooper in one of his first movie roles.

The epic was groundbreaking in scope. At the time it was produced, the film cost the then-unheard-of sum of $2 million.

Director William Wyler had one of his first hits with Wings. His career spanned nearly 40 years, and includes such classics as the original A Star Is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), Lady of Burlesque (1943), and Battleground (1949).

On Wednesday, May 16, approximately 50 additional Cinemark Theatres will present a showing. Each location will offer two show times daily, at 2 and 7 p.m.

             

A full list of participating Cinemark locations, advance ticket purchases and show time information can be found at www.cinemark.com.

The Memorable Quotes: The 1930s

It's the perfect combination: star power combined with classic writing, mixed in with the right amount of direction. The perfect storm combines to make a memorable moment, and a film quote that lives on for the ages.


"Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side. And don't be stingy baby."
          --Greta Garbo's first on-screen words, in Anna Christie (1930)


"Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."
          --the final lines of King Kong (1933)


"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in there I'll never know."
          --Groucho Marx, as Captain Spaulding, Animal Crackers (1930)


"I never drink...wine."
          --Bela Lugosi, explaining his unusual manners, Dracula (1931)


"Goodness what beautiful diamonds!"
"Goodness had nothing to do with it."
         --Mae West, explaining how a girl gets what she wants, in Night After Night (1932) (It was West's film debut, and the studio wanted her so badly she was allowed to write her own dialogue.)

"The calla lillies are in bloom again."
          --The line that every Katherine Hepburn impersonator used, from Stage Door (1937)


"Sawyer, you're going to go out there a youngster. But you're going to come back a star!"
          --And the understudy becomes a star, in 42nd Street (1933)

"I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!"
          --One of many classic lines from Gone With The Wind (1939)


"I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb."
          --Claudette Colbert teaches Clark Gable how to hitchhike, in It Happened One Night (1934)

And more to come.....

For more info on one of our favorite comedies, Animal Crackers, in DVD, click on this link: