The Lansbury-Harvey relationship (see preceding entry) reminded me of a couple of other strange Hollywood castings.
Paul Newman was three years younger than Jo Van Fleet, who played his mother, in Cool Hand Luke.
Anne Bancroft was 36 when she played the “older” woman to Dustin Hoffman’s 30 in The Graduate.
NewMexiKen watched the original Manchurian Candidate the other evening — twice. The 1962 film with Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury holds up well to a careful watching (I hadn’t seen it since it was first run in 1962). It was made even more interesting by the second viewing with Producer/Director John Frankenheimer’s voice-over commentary.
Lansbury was 36 when she played 34-year-old Harvey’s mother in the film. For that alone she deserved the Academy Award nomination she got.
NewMexiKen’s neighborhood high school, La Cueva, defeated Clovis 40-0 yesterday to win the New Mexico Class 5A Football Championship.
For the second year in a row.
Undefeated (13-0) both years.
By the way, NewMexiKen has not seen the film Friday Night Lights, but the book by H. G. Bissinger, first published in 1990, is simply outstanding.
“The Polar Express” is a grave and disappointing failure, as much of imagination as of technology. Turning a book that takes a few minutes to read into a feature-length film presented a significant hurdle that the filmmakers were not able to clear.
…Still, from the looks of “The Polar Express” it’s clear that, together with Mr. Zemeckis, this talented gang has on some fundamental level lost touch with the human aspect of film. Certainly they aren’t alone in the race to build marvelous new worlds from digital artifacts. But there’s something depressing and perhaps instructive about how in the attempt to create a new, never-before-seen tale about the wonderment of imagination these filmmakers have collectively lost sight of their own.
— Manohla Dargis in The New York Times
Well now that NewMexiKen has actually seen The Incredibles I can say it’s entertaining, amusing, well-written and awesome visually. But a near great film — I think not. To me a great film is one you can watch time-and-again. I don’t think The Incredibles would hold up to that. It’s like Spiderman II — great fun for ages 6-60, well-worth seeing on a big screen, and what’s being released next weekend?
The buzz on the internets is that The Incredibles, the new film from Pixar/Disney, is wonderful. Not just a great animated film, but a great film.
Seems it’s about time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences comes up with an Oscar category for Best Performance by an Actor (and Actress) in a Voice-Over Role.
a bunch of characters. Character-actors, that is.
Doris Roberts is 75. She’s Raymond’s mom.
Loretta Swit is 67. She’s Major Houlihan.
Not known for TV but rather for the movies is Ralph Macchio. The Karate Kid is 43 today.
Art Carney was born on this date in 1918. He’s most famous for playing Ed Norton opposite Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden but he won the Oscar for Best Actor for Harry and Tonto. Carney died last year.
Martin Balsam was born on this date in 1914. Balsam was also a character actor. NewMexiKen’s favorite Balsam roles: Juror #1 in 12 Angry Men, Henry Mendez in Hombre, Mr. Green in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and his Oscar-winning Arnold Burns (Best Supporting Actor) in A Thousand Clowns. Balsam died in 1996.
Much to my surprise (I’d read none of the reviews), NewMexiKen really enjoyed the film Shall We Dance with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez. A romantic comedy with all the bells and whistles, it was amusing, entertaining and, of course, romantic.
And, if it’s a hit, it would be a good time to invest in Arthur Murray Dance Studios stock.
… of Janet Gaynor. Ms. Gaynor was born on this date in 1906. In 1929, she won the very first Oscar for Best Actress, winning for Seventh Heaven, Sunrise and Street Angel. (The only time the award was based on multiple roles.) She was also nominated for best actress for A Star is Born.
… of Carole Lombard. Oscar nominee Lombard (she received a nomination for best actress for My Man Godfrey) was born in 1908.
… of Charlton Heston. Moses is 80 today. Heston won the best actor Oscar for Ben-Hur (1959).
… of Susan Sarandon. The five-time nominee for best actress (she won for Dead Man Walking) is 58 today.
Bill Murray is 54 today. Nominated for an Oscar for Lost in Translation, NewMexiKen still thinks Murray’s best effort was as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day.
A.O. Scott asks some questions in his generally favorable review of Cellular:
All of this happens before you have time to ask how a science teacher can afford a brand-new Porsche Cayenne and a Brentwood mansion with live-in help, or why, on a day when school is in session, this particular science teacher is not at work. (You may also wonder why none of your science teachers looked or dressed like Ms. Basinger, but never mind.) But to pose such questions — and others that arise during the diverting, implausible 89 minutes of “Cellular,” which opens today nationwide — is to miss the point and spoil the fun.
is 64 today.
Quentin Tarantino has a blog.
Macaulay Culkin is 24 today.
Until last August NewMexiKen was unaware there had been a 1997 remake of the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men, a movie which tells the story of jury deliberations in a murder trial. The original is superb. Directed by Sidney Lumet (Network, Serpico, The Pawnbroker) and starring Henry Fonda as the protagonist, it is well written, exceptionally well acted, and a film worth seeing again and again.
Reginald Rose’s screenplay remains remarkably intact 40 years later in the 1997 version. Produced for the cable network Showtime, the film was directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) and stars Academy Award winners Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. It is a surprisingly fine film in its own right, made even more compelling by comparisons with its predecessor.
|
1957 |
1997 |
|
| Juror #1 | Martin Balsam | Courtney Vance |
| Juror #2 | John Fiedler | Ossie Davis |
| Juror #3 | Lee J. Cobb | George C. Scott |
| Juror #4 | E.G. Marshall | Armin Mueller-Stahl |
| Juror #5 | Jack Klugman | Dorian Harewood |
| Juror #6 | Edward Binns | James Gandolfini |
| Juror #7 | Jack Warden | Tony Danza |
| Juror #8 | Henry Fonda | Jack Lemmon |
| Juror #9 | Joseph Sweeney | Hume Cronyn |
| Juror #10 | Ed Begley, Sr. | Mykelti Williamson |
| Juror #11 | George Voskovec | Edward James Olmos |
| Juror #12 | Robert Webber | William L. Petersen |
is 84 today. Ms. Winters has won two Oscars, both for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She won in 1960 for The Diary of Anne Frank and again in 1966 for A Patch of Blue. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 1952 for A Place in the Sun and nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1973 for The Poseidon Adventure. Shelley Winters was so effective in The Poseidon Adventure that NewMexiKen actually thought she (the actress) had died (as she does in the film).
is 67 today. Redford won the Best Director Oscar for Ordinary People (1981), and was nominated for that award again for Quiz Show (1995). He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for The Sting (1974).
is 44 today. Penn has been nominated four times for the Best Actor Oscar, winning this year for Mystic River.
is 61 today. De Niro has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar five times, winning for Raging Bull in 1981. He also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Do you know the role and film? Do you know who also won an Oscar for playing the same character?
Update: Garth has ably supplied the correct answers in Comments, so make your guesses before you click.
Said to be Clint’s favorites (from 10 to 1):
Gentle Giant (1967)
Backdraft (1991)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963)
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
Cocoon (1985)
Parenthood (1989)
The Red Pony (1973)
Apollo 13 (1995)
The man has been a motion picture star for four decades!
NewMexiKen is number one at Google for Ron Howard’s brother, namely Clint Howard.
NewMexiKen had this entry June 17:
Ron Howard’s brother
Ron Howard’s brother, Clint Howard, has an Internet variety show, The Clint Howard Variety Show. It’s available in Quick Time and Windows Media. It has its moments.
And this April 20:
Ron Howard’s little brother…
Clint is 45 today. He has appeared in many of his brother’s films — Cocoon and Apollo 13 come to mind, but most will remember Clint Howard as the 8-year-old kid in the TV series Gentle Ben. (Dennis Weaver was the dad.) Howard was also the voice of Roo in the Disney Winnie the Pooh films.
was born on this date in 1899. The director was nominated for an Academy Award six times (five as director, once for best picture), but never won. The best director nominations were for Rebecca, Life Boat, Spellbound, Rear Window and Psycho.
CNN did a nice retrospective on Hitchcock on his 100th birthday five years ago. It includes a list of his “ten best” films.
10. “Strangers on a Train” (1951)
9. “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934, 1956)
8. “To Catch a Thief” (1955)
7. “Dial M for Murder” (1954)
6. “The 39 Steps” (1935)
5. “North by Northwest” (1959)
4. “The Birds” (1963)
3. “Psycho” (1960)
2. “Vertigo” (1958)
1. “Rear Window” (1954)
Jill, official oldest daughter of NewMexiKen, reports that Shrek 2 is a couple of weeks away from becoming the number three all-time domestic grosser. Here’s the top ten with box office receipts (in millions):
Titanic $600.8
Star Wars $461.0
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial $435.0
Shrek 2 $432.5
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace $431.1
Spider-Man $403.7
LOTR: The Return of the King $377.0
The Passion of the Christ $370.3
Jurassic Park $357.1
Spider-Man 2 $344.4
Four of the ten were released in the last eight months.
premiered on this date in 1942. Is there a sadder movie ever than this Disney classic?
Roger Ebert wrote an excellent review when Bambi was released yet again in 1988. He starts generally positive:
In the annals of the great heartbreaking moments in the movies, the death of Bambi’s mother ranks right up there with the chaining of Dumbo’s mother and the moment when E. T. seems certainly dead. These are movie moments that provide a rite of passage for children of a certain age: You send them in as kids, and they come out as sadder and wiser preteenagers.
And there are other moments in the movie almost as momentous. “Bambi” exists alone in the Disney canon. It is not an adventure and not a “cartoon,” but an animated feature that describes with surprising seriousness the birth and growth of a young deer. Everybody remembers the cute early moments when Bambi can’t find his footing and keeps tripping over his own shadow. Those scenes are among the most charming the Disney animators ever drew.
But then he questions the whole effort:
Hey, I don’t want to sound like an alarmist here, but if you really stop to think about it, “Bambi” is a parable of sexism, nihilism and despair, portraying absentee fathers and passive mothers in a world of death and violence. I know the movie’s a perennial clasic, seen by every generation, remembered long after other movies have been forgotten. But I am not sure it’s a good experience for children – especially young and impressionable ones.
His is an excellent, thoughtful brief review.