… was born 84 years ago today. We know her as Judy Garland. She was just under 5-feet tall and the need for weight-control lead her to drugs, which controlled much of her adult life. She died of a barbiturate overdose at age 47.
Ms. Garland was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for A Star is Born (1955) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Judgment at Nuremberg (1962). She won a special “Juvenile Oscar” for The Wizard of Oz (1940).
“In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”
… is 72 today. He debuted in the Disney Silly Symphony cartoon “The Wise Little Hen” on this date in 1934. (Donald Duck is one of three Disney characters with an “official” birthday. The others are Mickey and Minnie, who debuted on November 18, 1928.)
Donald Duck actually appeared in more theatrical cartoons than Mickey Mouse — 128. Donald’s middle name is Fauntleroy.
Q: Why does Donald Duck wear a towel when getting out of the shower when he usually doesn’t even wear pants?
A: Donald puts a towel when he gets out of the shower to dry off! When he gets out of the shower he’s pretty wet and doesn’t want to drip water all over the bathroom floor.
Seriously, Donald Duck was created as a human-like character. He reacts to many situations the same way that a man would. Since a man would normally wrap a towel around his waist when stepping out of the shower, so does Donald.
Q: What are the names of Donald Duck’s nephews? Who was their mother?
A: Donald’s nephews are Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They made their debut in the Donald Duck Sunday comic page on October 17, 1937, and first appeared on film in “Donald’s Nephews” in 1938. Huey wears red, Dewey wears blue, and Louie wears green.Their mother was Donald’s sister, Dumbella Duck.
Tuesday Evening, May 23. NewMexiKen is looking at an Oscar — and a Golden Globe. They’re sitting on the mantle above the fireplace at the Lonesome Dove Inn in Archer City, Texas. That’s novelist, essayist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry’s hometown of Archer City — the real town from The Last Picture Show.
The Oscar I’m looking at is McMurtry’s for co-writing the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain — with Diana Ossana, based on the story by E. Annie Proulx. McMurtry has left the award to the safekeeping of Mary Webb, operator of the Lonesome Dove Inn. It fits nicely with the theme of her Bed and Breakfast — the Terms of Endearment Room, the Cadillac Jack room, Hud’s Library, and so on, all named for McMurtry works. (Lonsome Dove was McMurtry’s Pulitizer Prize-winning novel.)
In addition to the Inn, Archer City features McMurtry’s bookstore Booked Up. Actually it features Booked Ups 1 through 4 with several hundred thousand used books, including many rare and collectible volumes. The stores occupy four separate buildings near the town square — Booked Up 1 was once the Ford dealer.
Archer City appears much as it did in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show. A town of about 1,800, there is still just the one stoplight. When NewMexiKen tried to wait this evening to let cars continue before I sauntered across at that, the only controlled intersection, I was encouraged by a driver to go ahead. And after crossing I was told to “Have a nice eve-nin.”
I was having a nice evening. It was a gorgeous, warm star-filled night, perfect for a walk in a storybook place.
Girl #1: So the entire time i’m watching this movie, I’m like, what is the Holy Grail? They never explain what it is. And I’m thinking it’s probably like, some kind of trophy or something…? Like maybe a fashion trophy…? Or something…?
Girl #2: Uh huh.
Girl #1: Yeah but no, it turns it out it actually has to do with like, Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene or something.
Girl #2: So it was like… Jesus’s trophy?
–H&M dressing room, 5th Ave
Saw the trailer for Cars, the new Pixar film, yesterday. It stars the voices of Paul Newman, Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy. (Also Cheech Marin, George Carlin and, of course, John Ratzenberger.)
Let’s see — Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars.
Not a whole lot of female characters and no female leads unless you count Mrs. Incredible.
Bonnie Hunt does seem to be a featured voice in Cars.
Just noticing.
Tedious.
Emily, official younger daughter of NewMexiKen, provides a consumer report on video rental:
Recently, I switched from Netflix to Blockbuster. I’m probably the only one dumb enough to try this switch, but the once-a-week in-store rentals was very attractive.
I thought I’d write to tell you how much better Netflix is. …
With Blockbuster, it took 5-6 days each time I mailed in a video. That’s versus 3 with Netflix. And, in the two months I was with Blockbuster, I didn’t receive the movie at the top of my queue more than once or twice. In fact, once they even sent me Disc 2 of a TV series.
Anyway, just thought I’d share my experience so none of the rest of you goes through the same annoyances!
The New York Times A.O. Scott isn’t thrilled with the thriller in his review of The Da Vinci Code. His conclusion:
But of course, movies of that ilk rarely deal with issues like the divinity of Christ or the search for the Holy Grail. In the cinema, such matters are best left to Monty Python. In any case, Mr. Howard and Mr. Goldsman handle the supposedly provocative material in Mr. Brown’s book with kid gloves, settling on an utterly safe set of conclusions about faith and its history, presented with the usual dull sententiousness. So I certainly can’t support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say I’m recommending you go see it.
Orson Welles was born on this date in 1915. To many who grew up with television, Welles was simply the larger-than-life spokesman for Paul Masson Wines — “We will sell no wine before its time.” But at age 23 Welles had scared thousands of Americans with his realistic radio production of War of the Worlds. At 25 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in what many consider the best film ever made, Citizen Kane. For that film alone, he was nominated for the Oscar for best actor, best director, best original screenplay and best picture (he won, with Herman Mankiewicz, for screenplay). Welles was nominated for the best picture Oscar again the following year — The Magnificent Ambersons.
The New York Times has this to say about Welles when he died in 1985:
Despite the feeling of many that his career – which evoked almost constant controversy over its 50 years – was one of largely unfulfilled promise, Welles eventually won the respect of his colleagues. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Film Institute in 1975, and last year the Directors Guild of America gave him its highest honor, the D. W. Griffith Award.
His unorthodox casting and staging for the theater gave new meaning to the classics and to contemporary works. As the ”Wonder Boy” of Broadway in the 1930’s, he set the stage on its ear with a ”Julius Caesar” set in Fascist Italy, an all-black ”Macbeth” and his presentation of Marc Blitzstein’s ”Cradle Will Rock.” His Mercury Theater of the Air set new standards for radio drama, and in one performance panicked thousands across the nation.
In film, his innovations in deep-focus technology and his use of theater esthetics – long takes without close-ups, making the viewer’s eye search the screen as if it were a stage – created a new vocabulary for the cinema.
… of Jerry Seinfeld. He’s 52.
… of three-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner Daniel Day-Lewis. He’s 49.
… of three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer. She’s 48.
… of Jan Brady. Eve Plumb is 48.
… of one-time Oscar nominee (Pulp Fiction) Uma Thurman. She’s 36.
Edward Kennedy Ellington, that is, Duke Ellington, was born in Washington, D.C., on this date in 1899. The PBS web site for JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns sums up Ellington succinctly.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the most prolific composer of the twentieth century in terms of both number of compositions and variety of forms. His development was one of the most spectacular in the history of music, underscored by more than fifty years of sustained achievement as an artist and an entertainer. He is considered by many to be America’s greatest composer, bandleader, and recording artist.
The extent of Ellington’s innovations helped to redefine the various forms in which he worked. He synthesized many of the elements of American music — the minstrel song, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley tunes, the blues, and American appropriations of the European music tradition — into a consistent style with which, though technically complex, has a directness and a simplicity of expression largely absent from the purported art music of the twentieth century. Ellington’s first great achievements came in the three-minute song form, and he later wrote music for all kinds of settings: the ballroom, the comedy stage, the nightclub, the movie house, the theater, the concert hall, and the cathedral. His blues writing resulted in new conceptions of form, harmony, and melody, and he became the master of the romantic ballad and created numerous works that featured the great soloists in his jazz orchestra.
The Red Hot Jazz Archive has a number of Ellington recordings on line [RealAudio files].
And William Randolph Hearst was born on this date in 1863. Many think we know Hearst because we know Charles Foster Kane. Was Hearst the model for Charles Foster Kane? Read what Orson Welles had to say in 1975 (first posted by NewMexiKen two years ago).
Walter Lantz was born on this date in 1899. Lantz was the creator of such animated characters as Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Wally Walrus and the greatest cartoon character of them all, Woody Woodpecker. Lantz was nominated for the Academy Award 10 times. He received the Academy’s Life-Time Achievement Award in 1979.
Click on the image above to visit lantz.toonzone.net for audio and video clips and lots of other goodies.
“Clark is the sort of guy that if you say, ‘Hiya, Clark, how are you?’ he’s stuck for an answer.”
Ava Gardner referring to Clark Gable, quoted by Peter Bogdanovich in his wonderful review of the new Gardner biography by Lee Server.
… is 69 today.
Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times, eight times for best actor in a leading role and four times for best actor in a supporting role. He won for best actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976) and As Good As It Gets (1998). He won for best supporting actor for Terms of Endearment (1984). Nicholson has been nominated for an Oscar for films made in the 60s (Easy Rider), 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s (About Schmidt).
The best actress Oscar went to a co-star each time Nicholson won — Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment and Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets.
According to IMDB, Nicholson “was raised believing his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his older sister. The truth was revealed to him years later when a Time magazine researcher uncovered the truth while preparing a story on the star.”
The Da Vinci Code involves a thrilling murder investigation that unearths a secret that could change the course of history. The film opens May 19th worldwide
The quest, which began April 17th requires skill, intellect, and perseverance. Over a span of 24 days ending May 11th, you will encounter unique challenges. These daily puzzles will pull you deeper into the world of The Da Vinci Code. Answer all 24 puzzles correctly for a chance to win untold riches.
Only the worthy will prevail.
Thanks to Emily for the pointer.
ESPN’s Bill Simmons has a Curious Guy exchange with “screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien, or as [he likes] to call them, ‘The Guys Who Wrote Rounders.'” Link is to the second of two-parts, the part that deals primarily with the movie.
By 1956, Grace Kelly was calling it quits after a movie-acting career of only five years—but what a career it was. Her 11 films included the 1952 classic High Noon, the 1956 musical High Society, and the Alfred Hitchcock-directed masterpieces Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief. She had won an Oscar for her role in 1954’s The Country Girl—and all this before her twenty-seventh birthday. She was already Hollywood royalty, to be sure. But on April 19, 1956—50 years ago today—she became a true princess: Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco.
Continue reading about America’s Own Princess from American Heritage.
Annie Proulx is really, really upset that Brokeback Mountain didn’t win more Oscars.
NewMexiKen has been watching Lady and the Tramp — and watching it and watching it and watching it. I’m certain we’ve seen the scene with the Siamese cats (Si and Am) at least a dozen times.
And, you know what? After 50+ years, it’s pretty darn good. It has some typical Disney pathos and a touch of anxiety for the little ones a few times (when mean dogs enter the picture), but considerably less than in the Disney animations of Grimm fairy tales. And much less of the singing and nonsense that I didn’t like in Disney films when I was five-years-old — and still don’t.
If you’ve got young ‘uns to entertain (under 5 especially), I recommend Lady and the Tramp. It’s good.
And a word about Verna Felton, the character actress who was a voice in many Disney animations — a matriarchical elephant in Dumbo, the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp. I recognized her voice and did a little research. As I remembered, Ms. Felton played with Harry Morgan in an early fifties show, December Bride — and its 1960 spinoff Pete and Gladys. She died in 1966, but Morgan kept Felton’s photo on Sherman Potter’s desk on the M*A*S*H set to portray Mrs. Potter. Nice.
“[T]he last time a film was named best picture without an editing nomination was the 1981 ceremony, when “Ordinary People” won.”
Crash had an editing nomination (it won the editing Oscar, in fact). Brokeback Mountain did not have an editing nomination.
Source: The Envelope.com
From the Los Angeles Times‘ The Envelope.com, a report on how Crash campaigned and won. An excerpt:
Much of the morning-after punditry and blog logic has centered on whether members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had trouble giving “Brokeback Mountain” a best picture nod because of its gay love theme. Another theory: Like a cinematic John Edwards, “Brokeback” peaked too early and its Oscar buzz dissipated.
In fact, the key to the success of “Crash” was that the film itself — and the carefully orchestrated promotional campaign undertaken by its distributor, Lionsgate — appealed to the academy’s largest voting bloc: actors. With 22% of the voting members, the acting contingent is nearly three times as big as the next-largest group, producers.
It was actors — specifically, those in Los Angeles — who were targeted to deliver votes. And judging by the upset, deliver they did.
“But many members [of the Academy] did not see why a story that was essentially a tale of two men cheating on their wives — albeit with each other — should be chosen to represent Hollywood’s best effort of the year.”
Four films won three Oscars each tonight: Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Memoirs of a Geisha and King Kong.
“Some gals are gathering over here to make catty comments during the Oscars and bat their eyelashes at Jon Stewart. … In my experience there’s no mercy in this game. This is the chick Super Bowl.”
“I didn’t see any of the movies nominated for Best Picture. This is because I’m the parent of a 6-year-old, which means I see only those movies where the plot involves cute but lovable animals who talk in the voices of famous celebrities ….”