We love Hollywood ballet
‘Normal’ ballet is so boring: Petipa, Balanchine, Tudor, Robbins, Ratmansky. Those guys never put girls in pointe shoes on pianos. We prefer fancy, Hollywood-style ballet, like this photo from KING OF JAZZ (1930) made at Universal Pictures and featuring dancing by Russell Markert dancers (Markert, who, not surprisingly, founded the Rockettes, is listed as the ...
The son rises again: Universal Pictures producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. canon @ MoMA
Our friends in the film department at The Museum of Modern Art are launching a truly groundbreaking and fascinating retrospective that highlights a decade of distinguished moviemaking at Universal Pictures, the Hollywood film factory often wrongly valued primarily as a purveyor of horror fodder. Writes Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries, 1928–1937 film curator Dave Kehr: ...
TCM Fest: Angela Lansbury brings wit, hauteur, menace to ‘The Manchurian Candidate’
In 1961 Angela Lansbury was playing the mother of rising star Warren Beatty in All Fall Down, an intense family drama adapted by playwright William Inge from the novel by James Leo Herlihy. In that film she seemed thoroughly convincing as the overbearing mother to Beatty, even though she was only 11 years older than ...
TCM Fest: Stacy Keach recalls his fighting form for ‘Fat City’ 1
“I was a hero that day,” Stacy Keach told a TCM festival crowd Sunday afternoon. He was talking about the time, on the movie set of “Doc” in Almeria, Spain, when the legendary filmmaker John Huston paid him a visit, hoping he would star in his next feature, Fat City. There may be no conventional ...
Dark doings under SoCal sun in “Private Property” at TCM Fest
The Big Sleep and Horse Feathers are among the treasured favorites unspooling in spiffed-up restorations at the TCM Classic Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday night in Hollywood. But it’s not all starry A-listers on this year’s lineup. The vintage-film faithful will have a chance to discover an obscure and deeply weird independent film from ...
LACMA’s purchase of movie poster collection a boon to Los Angeles, says Michael Govan 2
Joyful news as the artistic merits of the marketing of movies during the High Hollywood era gets strong validation with the addition of an important movie-poster collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, announced on Saturday April 16 the acquisition of the Mike Kaplan ...
Want to be a movie star? Line up here.
Mar
31
2016
A super interesting evening upcoming at the Academy that examines a critical backstage process in film making — casting. Acclaimed casting directors Lynn Stalmaster, Juliet Taylor and Mike Fenton will sit down with the governors of the Academy’s Casting Directors Branch to discuss the evolution of their profession and the essential role the casting director ...
Fred of our dreams
From our friends at Julien’s Auctions, a pair of black-and-white silver gelatin prints of Fred Astaire taken by Andre de Dienes circa 1938. Both hand printed by de Dienes on double-weight paper and stamped by the photographer on verso. Sold at auction March 28, 2016.
Pre-tax pleasure: ‘Starring George Chakiris’ April 14
We’re fans and we’re friends. That’s why we are so pleased that Turner Classic Movies is showcasing the creative output of actor/dancer/singer George Chakiris, whose triple-threat talent and smoldering good looks were made for the movies. Though a huge teen heartthrob in the sixties, Chakiris was often cast as a dark figure, famously in WEST ...
This diamond ring … needs you 2
From Shirley Temple, to you, with love. Price tag $35-45 mil The Shirley Temple Blue Diamond ring is seeking a new owner. Weighing an impressive 9.54 carats, the charming cushion-cut Fancy Blue Diamond ring was purchased by the child star’s father George Temple for $7,210 in 1940 as the film The Blue Bird was completed. Just in ...