University action fails to address racism of ‘The Birth of a Nation’

Film
Bette Davis and Lillian Gish in The Whales Of August (1987) Ed note: The following is an excerpt from a long interview with film marketing strategist/producer-director Mike Kaplan, a friend of artsmeme, concerning the removal of the name of Lillian and Dorothy Gish from a screening auditorium at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The ...

You ‘Bette’r believe it! Ms. Davis @ Larry Edmunds Bookshop

Film
We received this missive this morning from Jeff Mantor, who runs the Hollywood history hot spot at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard, aka Larry Edmunds Bookshop. Writes Jeff: On February 15, 1988 the legend, the one & only Bette Davis did a book signing at B. Dalton on Hollywood Blvd. For you book historians, this site was ...

Whatever happened to Robert Aldrich? FEUD’s pattern of distortion 2

Film
by 
Breaking news: On May 6, 2018, the California Supreme Court received a petition to review the California appeals court decision to dismiss Olivia de Havilland’s lawsuit against television network FX and Ryan Murphy which reversed her original legal win that she had grounds to pursue her fight against how she was depicted in FEUD. The ...

Marilyn to have succeeded Bette in ‘Of Human Bondage’?

Film
“She said she’d settled the suit with Fox. They had fired her from Something’s Got to Give. She’d be restarting production in about a month. And she had signed with MGM to remake “Of Human Bondage” to be directed by Henry Hathaway.” The words above were spoken by Jane Russell, apropos a conversation with her ...

‘Delicate and sensitive’ film, ‘The Whales of August,’ in 30th anniversary screening

Dance · Film
Film producer and marketing executive Mike Kaplan is a friend of arts·meme. This super nice guy is the leading collector of a massive trove of superlative movie musical posters; more to the point, Kaplan’s collection zeroes in on the art of dance as captured in artful movie posters. We like that.  Kaplan published a companion ...

“Baby Jane” never better than at poolside screening, TCM Fest

Film
The highlight of our first day of this, our eighth TCM Turner Classic Film Festival, was hands down WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1964) screened poolside of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. We so enjoyed viewing the Gothic horror movie so smartly directed by Robert Aldrich and graced by the outre performance of Bette Davis and ...

Busby Berkeley brings it to Bette Davis in ‘Fashions of 1934’

Dance · Film
A great dance movie starring Bette Davis. Who knew? Apparently Film Forum director of repertory programming, Bruce Goldstein, did. He programmed FASHIONS OF 1934, smart and smashing in a 35mm print and preserved by Library of Congress, as part of Film Forum’s recent nine-day Busby Berkeley festival. It’s a really good movie, well acted and ...

Happy birthday, Barrie Chase! 1

Dance · Film
Wishing a wonderful birthday to a leggy lady, the great Hollywood dancer Barrie Chase. She not only graced Fred Astaire as his final partner, she brought her own strong, vixen presence as a solo dancer (on view in the video, dancing to “The Girl from Ipanema”) to millions of American television viewers in the 1960s. ...

Stephen Farber’s TCM Fest 2015 movie round-up

Film
by 
I interviewed Ann-Margret at an Academy screening of Bye Bye Birdie three years ago, so it was great to see her again at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, where she introduced a screening of The Cincinnati Kid. The film’s original director, Sam Peckinpah, cast her in the movie, though Peckinpah was replaced by Norman ...

“You’re no spring chicken,” Bette Davis told Gena Rowlands in 1979 5

Film
So incredible, Wednesday evening, to see the great Gena Rowlands in person, interviewed by film critic Steven Farber after a screening of her historic tour de force performance in “A Woman Under the Influence.” As part of a long conversation, Rowlands spoke with great warmth about her memories of Bette Davis, with whom she co-starred ...