Wednesday, December 31, 2014

I hate cats!

Best Trailer of the End of the Year : Mad Max: Fury Road

In Memoriam : Louise Rainer (1910-2014)

Louise Rainer was the first person to win back-to-back Academy Awards for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 and The Good Earth in 1937.

She was given a supporting part in the musical biography, The Great Ziegfeld, where, despite limited appearances, her emotion-filled acting quality so impressed audiences that she was awarded her first Oscar as Best Actress.

For her next role, producer Irving Thalberg was convinced, despite the studio's disagreement, that she would also be able to play the part of a poor uncomely Chinese farm wife in The Good Earth (1937), based on Pearl Buck's novel about hardship in China. The subdued character role was such a dramatic contrast to her previous, vivacious character, that she was given her second Academy Award for Best Actress.

Yet by winning two consecutive Oscars, she later noted, nothing worse could have happened to her, as audience expectations from then on would be too high to fulfill. After a string of unimportant movie parts, MGM and Rainer became disappointed, leading her to end a brief three-year career in films, soon returning to Europe. Adding to her rapid decline, some feel, was the poor career advice given her by then husband, playwright Clifford Odets, along with the unexpected death, at age 37, of her producer, Irving Thalberg, whom she greatly admired. Some film historians consider her the "most extreme case of an Oscar victim in Hollywood mythology"

driveAway

MissBetteDavis

crow of the day

the safer way

Buster!

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Xmas present I got :-)

Niv (with Barbara Stanwyck)

Can you imagine being wonderfully overpaid for dressing up and playing games? David Niven

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

I, Claudius : The Epic That Never Was (1965)

The abandoned project of "I Claudius" (1937) was being produced by Alexander Korda, directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Charles Laughton (as Claudius), Emlyn Williams (as Caligula), Flora Robson (as Livia), and Merle Oberon (as Messalina), but it was dogged by ill circumstances, culminating in a car accident involving Oberon, which caused filming to be ended before completion.

A further attempt to rescue the footage by incorporating it into The Denham Studio Mystery, a proposed sequel to The Arsenal Stadium Mystery also fell through.

Laughton based his interpretation of Claudius on King Edward VIII and his abdication speech. Other speaking parts included Claudius's servant Narcissus, Claudius's doctor, Senators Sentius and Asiaticus, and soldiers Cassius and Lupus. 

 The BBC used the existing footage in a 70-minute documentary The Epic That Never Was (1965), hosted by Dirk Bogarde.

 

crow of the day

Bing Crosby Double Christmas Double Bill : Bells of St Mary's (1945), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) trailer

theMachine

Ursula Andress and Sean Connery on the set of Dr.No, 1962

What I want for Christmas

ChristmasTree

rulesOFlife

The Lion and the Lamb by Phatpuppyart

Gahan Wilson for Playboy magazine

Dan DeCarlo

MissBetteDavis

Buster!Claus

Reindeer Games

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash — Giacomo Balla

Saul Bass poster for THE HUMAN FACTOR (Otto Preminger, USA, 1980)

Monday, December 22, 2014

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Saturday Noir Masterpiece Bill : Kiss me deadly. 1955

signOFtheTimes

Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis

On the night Frank Sinatra won his Oscar, Jerry Lewis tackled him backstage and yelled out, “I’m so proud of you, I’m going to kiss you on the mouth!” Sinatra replied “No, no, don’t kiss me on the mouth!”.

The Lazy Rule

Vivien Leigh taking a break from filming Gone With the Wind

Indigo Leaves by Natalie Ryan

rulesOFlife

Xmas'coming

cafuné