Movie machinations by Vincente Minnelli

Film
A crazy-good pairing of movies, both which pull the audience behind the camera and into the world of film creativity, will close UCLA’s Kirk Douglas: A Centennial Celebration. Both flicks are biting fun, tongue-in-cheek. Both are directed by Vincente Minnelli. Both star Kirk Douglas. TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN (1962) concerns the wild-and-crazy scene filming ...

Kirk Douglas, the actor and the man

Film
A guest writer on the blog, Shannon Kelley, Head of Public Programs for the UCLA Film & Television Archive, contributes this appreciation of actor Kirk Douglas. The Archive is mid-stream in a comprehensive Douglas retrospective that runs through September. KIRK DOUGLAS: A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, commemorates the career and the life of the great Hollywood star, ...

Kirk! UCLA Film Archive kicks off sweeping centenary celebration

Film · Visual arts
Would not dream of missing Friday’s opening night — or viewing many of the 25 film titles featured therein — of UCLA Film & Television Archive’s centenary retrospective for actor Kirk Douglas (b. 1916). In his 60-year career he appeared in 90 movies, so claims Wikipedia. The massive movie star still lives among us. Kirk ...

Specter of Nijinsky haunts Republic Pictures’ “Specter of the Rose”

Dance · Film
The photo captures the marvelous opening scene of “Specter of the Rose,” a ballet movie from 1946 and a precious artifact of high-Hollywood dance-schmaltz. Dame Judith Anderson, seated at left, knitting, plays “Madam La Sylph,” the ballet mistress whom Ben Hecht, in his at-once overheated and acerbic screenplay, refers to as “the remains of a ...

“An Evening with George Chakiris” passes beautifully @ UCLA Film & Television Archive

Dance · Film
Prior to a screening of French director Jacques Demy’s auteur-masterpiece, “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort,” in which the dancer-actor-singer appears prominently, UCLA Film & Television Archive honored George Chakiris with clips from his many appearances on television variety shows and an interview that touched on both his singing and his dancing career. The full-evening event took ...

Russ recalls Rusty Tamblyn, child star of GUN CRAZY @ UCLA Film & Television Archive

Film
“I never owned one and could care less about guns,” said the gentle-spirited Russ Tamblyn before a sold-out house at the Billy Wilder Theater on Friday night. The conversation with Shannon Kelley, Director of Public Programs for the UCLA Film & Television Archive, followed a screening of cult-classic, GUN CRAZY (Monogram Pictures, 1950). Tamblyn, then ...

Jack Cole’s magic for Mitzi Gaynor on view in rare screening of “The I Don’t Care Girl” by UCLA Film & Television Archive August 4. Gaynor to appear in-person. 7

Dance · Film
I am very pleased to announce my participation in a truly wonderful celebration of dance on film at the Billy Wilder Theater In Westwood on Saturday August 4, 2012. It’s sponsored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. On that night, as a community, we will view the rare and out-of-circulation Twentieth Century Fox movie ...

Remembering Marilyn

Film
A sad memorial looms this year, the 50th anniversary of the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe, who died of an overdose to barbiturates in August 1962. I recently enjoyed two well made documentaries about Monroe. The Legend of Marilyn Monroe  1966, 16 format, b/w, 53 min, dir Terry Sanders Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lee ...