Remembering Great Stars Lost This Year - Video

From Turner Classic Movies:

Our way of honoring those great actors, actresses & filmmakers who've made our lives richer with their talent & imagination. We'll always remember you.

Once again, this year has seen the loss of beloved actors whom TCM was unable to honor with a full programming tribute. So we are taking this opportunity to show a key film from the career of each of the following splendid performers.

Dashing Louis Jourdan, born in 1921, died on Valentine's Day after more than 50 years as a film actor, though he is probably best remembered for the romantic leading-man image epitomized in Gigi (1958). Sultry Lizabeth Scott, born in 1922, was a leading light of film noir and gave her definitive performance as a femme fatale in Too Late for Tears (1949). Versatile Theodore Bikel, born in 1924, was an accomplished musician as well as a skilled actor who won an Oscar® nomination for his role in The Defiant Ones (1958), playing a sympathetic but determined Southern sheriff. Winsome Coleen Gray, born in 1922, often shone as the "good girl" in films noir including Kansas City Confidential (1952), in which she is the love interest of beleaguered ex-con John Payne. Voluptuous Anita Ekberg, born in 1931, enjoyed her first star part in Back from Eternity (1956), playing a sexy showgirl stranded in a South American jungle inhabited by headhunters! Sophisticated Betsy Drake, born in 1923, was a model before starring alongside Cary Grant in her film debut in the romantic comedy Every Girl Should Be Married (1948); she became his third wife the following year.

Remembering The Great Ones Who Left Us - Video

The Woman Who Defined 'Movie Star'

Here are just a couple of paragraphs from Frank Miller's beautiful tribute to Elizabeth Taylor for Turner Classic Movies.

There may be other contenders for the honor, but if you want the definitive picture to put next to the phrase "movie star" in the dictionary, there's only one person who truly fills the bill -- Elizabeth Taylor. One of the last of the great studio stars, Taylor encompasses all of the glamour and all of the contradictions of stardom. A beautiful child who never went through an awkward phase, she grew up to become one of the most desired women in Hollywood. Even as she matured as an actress of surprising depth, she was generating headlines that made her the focus of unbridled idolatry and unreasoning hatred.

In her 79 years, she has dazzled audiences with her talents for acting and living large, and inspired them with her refusal to give in to heartache or illness. Like every great star she has re-invented herself as needed, ranging from child beauty to budding actress to fallen woman to diva to respected leader in the fight against AIDS. Through it all, the studio manipulations, the broken marriages, and the constant headlines, her greatest accomplishment is simply being her own woman.

Click here to read the entire tribute. It's worth reading!

Elizabeth Taylor Movie Marathon, April 10 On TCM

Turner Classic Movies will remember the life and career of two-time Academy Award®-winning actress and beloved humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, April 10.

The 24-hour memorial tribute, which is set to begin at 6 a.m. (ET/PT), will include both of Taylor's Oscar®-winning performances, with Butterfield 8 (1960) at 8 p.m. (ET) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) at 10 p.m. (ET).

TCM's tribute will also feature Taylor in such memorable films as the family classics Lassie Come Home (1943) and National Velvet (1944); the delightful comedies Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951); the historical epic Ivanhoe (1952); and the powerful dramas Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). Also included is the spy drama Conspirator (1949), with Taylor in her first adult role.

The following is a complete schedule of TCM's April 10 memorial tribute to Elizabeth Taylor (all times Eastern):
6 a.m. - Lassie Come Home (1943), with Roddy McDowall and Edmund Gwenn; directed by Fred M. Wilcox.
7:30 a.m. - National Velvet (1944), with Mickey Rooney, Anne Revere and Angela Lansbury; directed by Clarence Brown.
10 a.m. - Conspirator (1952), with Robert Taylor and Robert Flemyng; directed by Victor Saville.
11:30 a.m. - Father of the Bride (1950), with Spencer Tracy, Billie Burke, Joan Bennett and Don Taylor; directed by Vincente Minnelli.
1:15 a.m. - Father's Little Dividend (1951), with Spencer Tracy, Billie Burke, Joan Bennett and Don Taylor; directed by Vincente Minnelli.
2:45 p.m. - Raintree County (1957), with Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint, Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor and Agnes Moorehead; directed by Edward Dmytryk.
6 p.m. - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), with Paul Newman and Burl Ives; directed by Richard Brooks.
8 p.m. - Butterfield 8 (1960), with Laurence Harvey and Eddie Fisher; directed by Daniel Mann.
10 p.m. - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), with Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis; directed by Mike Nichols.
12:30 a.m. - Giant (1956), with James Dean and Rock Hudson; directed by George Stevens.
4 a.m. - Ivanhoe (1952), with Robert Taylor and Joan Fontaine; directed by Richard Thorpe.

In addition to TCM's on-air tribute to Taylor, the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood will feature a special 60th anniversary screening of her brilliant performance opposite Montgomery Clift in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951). The TCM Classic Film Festival takes place April 28-May 1.

Don't Miss TCM's 'Moguls & Movie Stars'

Turner Classic Movies is telling the epic story of American filmmaking in a seven-part documentary series airing Mondays at 8 p.m. (ET).
The series began on November 1, so there are still five more weeks to go -- plenty of time for you to begin enjoying it.
The true story behind the making of the American movie industry has as many ups and downs, twists and turns as the latest big-budget thriller, not to mention a cast of characters worthy of a shelf full of Oscars.  Turner Classic Movies (TCM) documents the epic story of the people, power and periods that formed the Hollywood dynasty. This definitive, ambitious documentary series is narrated by two-time Emmy winner and 2009 Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer (The Last Station). It is produced by TCM in association with Bill Haber’s Ostar Productions.
Tune in tonight!

Remembering Patricia Neal

Turner Classic Movies  remembers the two-time Oscar nominee for Best Actress Patricia Neal in an five-film salute on Monday, Sept. 13th that includes:
8:00 PM Private Screenings: Patricia Neal
9:00 PM The Fountainhead
11:00 PM The Subject Was Roses (Best Actress nomination).
1:00 AM A Face in the Crowd
3:15 AM In Harm's Way
Patricia Neal (who died on August 8 at age 84) was always one of my favorite actresses.
Patricia Neal was authentic. I liked her husky-voiced demeanor and her smokey southern accent. I liked the worldliness that she brought to her roles. I particularly liked her in The Subject Was Roses and in Hud. Along with the great Simone Signoret, Patricia Neal portrayed women of a certain age and a certain level of (for lack of a better word) experience.
You always got the impression that Patricia Neal's characters were damned hard to fool.
And Patricia Neal was immensely durable in real life as well. She survived a serious stroke and a very messy and very public marital breakup and divorce to emerge stronger, more admirable and altogether inspiring.
Patricia Neal was a huge star both on Broadway and in Hollywood.
You'll want to watch Turner Classic Movies next Monday for this worthy salute to a fine actress and a great lady.

Why I Won't Watch The Oscars

I won't be watching the annual Oscar telecast tonight and I suspect I won't be alone.
The audience for Hollywood's annual egofest has been falling for years and every gimmick that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences imposes in an attempt to spike the ratings seems to fail.
By the way, does Barabara Walters still do her annual pre-show interviews of Oscar contenders or somesuch? Well, if she does I won't be watching that either.
Walters had become a caricature of herself and she's now reduced to interviewing the likes of Lady Gaga. She should have retired ages ago.
Anyway, the Oscacast makes for an interminably long evening of celebrities reading from cue cards, bad commercials and over-extended movies clips from films you never wanted to see in the first place. Even the red carpet show beforehand has become a bore as the Hollywood crowd parades around with dozens of handlers and PR flacks in tow.
So few of today's stars exhibit the true presence and discipline of the predecessors. Now, everyone's either going into or coming out of rehab. Indeed, we know far too much about these supposed luminaries than we ever wanted to know.
There's no mystique to stardom anymore, no real allure.
And then there are this year's hosts: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Baldwin is just another bloated, bitchy, blotchy liberal bloviator. And, though Martin is admittedly talented, I have no interest in him whatsoever. He's a decent comedian and an OK actor who also tries to be an auteur. But as a "star," he just doesn't make it.
It must be a nightmare to handle all these people.
I feel sorry for anyone who works this show.
Now that the big studios and the powerful movie moguls are all gone there's no one to control this crowd.
The actors are in charge now and that means the inmates have truly taken over the asylum.
It's sorta like watching the 1950s classic "The Snake Pit."
But hey, the movie was better than this inflated story.
And most movies of the 30s, 40s, and 50s were better than the movies of today.
Which is just another reason why I'll skip the Oscarcast and probably watch Turner Classic Movies instead.
Hooray for Hollywood!

John Ford's 'Hurricaine'

Recently I watched director John Ford's 1936 film The Hurricaine on Turner Classic Movies.
This big, sweeping film was the forerunner of the modern-day disaster movie.
It's an incredible achievement especially when you consider that there were no computer-generated special effects in 1936.
This black and white epic stars Dorothy Lamour (in a sarong, of course), C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, John Hall, John Carradine and Thomas Mitchell (who garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance). The film is replete with dreadful south sea island stereotypes and since it contains sparse dialogue it is defined by its long and repetitive action sequences. In this respect it is greatly influenced by the silent era.
According to Life Magazine, special effects wizard James Basevi was given a budget of $400,000 to create his effects. He spent $150,000 to build a native village with a lagoon 200 yards long, and then spent $250,000 destroying it.
Actual outdoor shots were filmed on the islands but the native village set that the actors inhabited was constructed on two-and-a-half acres of United Artists' back lot.
Doubles were not used for Mary Astor and Dorothy Lamour when they were lashed to a tree during the hurricane. In her autobiography, Astor said that the sand and water whipping their faces sometimes left pinpricks of blood on their cheeks.
This film has stunning black and white photography and the love scenes with Hall and Lamour are remarkably sultry and daringly revealing.
This is one you'll want to catch if you're at all interested in the history of the movies and/or special effects -- or if you simply enjoy watching beautiful bodies in an exotic island setting.
BTW: You'll have to wait and wait for the hurricaine. But it's worth the wait!

Mesmerizingly Cool

Kim Novak.

The very name of this legendary Hollywood star conjures up visions of ethereal beauty.

The story goes that Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn was searching for another starlet to replace the difficult Rita Hayworth when he signed Novak (that is her real name) to a six month contract. The studio wanted to make Novak its version of Marilyn Monroe.

But there was only one MM.

And that was just as well because Novak defined a new type - the cool, sensual, detached, mid-century blonde.

Novak debuted as Lona McLane in Pushover (1954) opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Cary. Though her role was not the best, her beauty caught the attention of fans and critics alike. She then played the femme fatale role as Janis in Phffft! (1954) opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Novak's reviews were good. People were eager to see the new star, and she received an enormous amount of fan mail.
After playing Madge Owens in Picnic (1955) opposite William Holden, Novak won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer and for World Film Favorite. She was also nominated for the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. She played Molly in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) opposite Frank Sinatra on loan-out to United Artists. The movie was a big hit. She was paired with Sinatra again for Pal Joey (1957), which also starred Rita Hayworth. She also starred in Jeanne Eagels (1957) with Jeff Chandler. Her popularity became such that she made the cover of the July 29, 1957 issue of Time Magazine.

In 1958, Novak starred in Hitchcock's classic thriller Vertigo opposite James Stewart. Hitchcock had intended his latest blonde protegee Vera Miles to star in the film but Miles' pregnancy and, later several production delays, prevented Hitchcock from realizing his intention. Instead, Novak played the dual roles of the elegant, troubled blonde Madeleine Elster and the earthy shopgirl, brunette Judy Barton. Today, the film is considered a masterpiece of romantic suspense, and Novak's turn is possibly the most admired of her career.

The other night I watched Novak, Stewart, Lemmon and Elsa Lanchester in Bell, Book and candle, a delightful tale of witchery set in 1950s Manhattan. On Turner Classic Movies, Novak and Stewart remain great together along with Ernie Kovacs in a juicy supporting role.

In 1995, Novak was ranked among the 100 sexiest stars in film history.

In a New York Times tribute Stanley Fish has said: Novak was "something that has gone out of fashion and even become suspect in an era of feminist strictures: she was the object of a voyeuristic male gaze."

As TCM host Robert Osborne observed, one look at Novak and he’s lost.

And so are we all -- mesmerized by this legendary beauty and accomplished actress and star.

Remember The Night

After arriving home from a glorious, traditional seven fishes Christmas Eve dinner I caught a wonderful old Christmas flick on TV last night: Barbara Stawyck and Fred MacMurray in Remember The Night (1940) from Paramount with an original screenplay by the great Preston Sturges.

Just before Christmas, Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is caught shoplifting. It is her third offense. She is prosecuted by John Sargent (MacMurray). He gets the trial postponed because it is hard to get a conviction at Christmastime. But he feels sorry for her and arranges for her bail, and ends up taking her home to his mother for Christmas. Surrounded by a loving family (in stark contrast to Lee's own family background) they fall in love. This creates a new problem: how do they handle the upcoming trial?

Nobody did Christmas like the great old Hollywood studios.

The studios knew how to use sentimentality, great stories, fine sets, and wonderful casts to create an old-home Christmas spirit tinged with pathos.

This movie also features fine character actors Bealah Bondi and Sterling Holloway.

Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and 1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great films, including The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Our Town (1940) and Penny Serenade (1941). Highly respected as a first-tier character actress, Bondi won two Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations, for The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) and Of Human Hearts (1938), and an Emmy Award in 1976 for her turn in the television program "The Waltons" (1972).

Sterling Holloway was known for his amusing appearance and distinctive voice. His long career led from dozens of highly enjoyable onscreen performances to world-wide familiarity as the voice of numerous Walt Disney animated films.His bushy reddish-blond hair and trademark near-falsetto voice made him a natural for sound pictures, and he acted in scores of talkies, although he had made his picture debut in silents. His physical image and voice relegated him almost exclusively to comic roles, but in 1945, director Lewis Milestone cast him more or less against type in the classic war film A Walk in the Sun (1945), where Holloway's portrayal of a reluctant soldier was quite notable. He played frequently on television, becoming familiar to baby-boomers in a recurring role as Uncle Oscar on "Adventures of Superman" (1952), and later in television series of his own. His later work as the voice of numerous characters in Disney cartoons brought him new audiences and many fans, especially for his voicing of beloved Winnie the Pooh. He died in 1992.

Thank goodness for Turner Class Movies!

Stanwyck Still Shines

In the pantheon of Hollywood's greats, Barbara Stanwyck's star still shines bright.

Earlier this week Turner Classic Movies dedicated an entire day to Stanwyck's films in a glorious tribute to a star who was supremely classy, refreshingly human and unquestionably dedicated to her profession.

On TCM I watched The File On Thelma Jordan a 1950 film starring Stanwyck and Wendel Corey. Stanwyck plays a woman who seduces an assistant district attorney and pulls him into a web of theft and murder. The great thing about Stanwyck was that she could play a myriad of roles and she had a fine touch with both comedy and drama. And it almost didn't matter who she was paired with. She was a trooper who could equal or best the biggest co-star. At the same time she was a wonderful ensemble player who always seemed to enjoy the support and respect of her colleagues on the set.

Like many of the great woman stars of her era Barbara Stanwyck dedicated the better part of her life to the movies. As a strong, independent woman and an accomplished professional, she was way ahead of her time. She used her smarts, her talent, her instincts and her charm to get to the top and she knew how to stay there. And she did it all while remaining very much a lady.

One things for sure: They'll be showing Stanwyck's films as long as people are watching movies. Next time you get the chance, catch one.

BTW: You can watch The File On Thelma Jordan online by clicking here.

Unmatched!

Has there been any star before or since who has matched Lillian Gish?
I doubt it.
In D. W. Griffith's 1919 film Broken Blossoms Lillian Gish plays an abused daughter who lives in the slums of London with her father who's a renegade and a thug. To get away from her father, she (quite accidentally) takes up with a young Chinese merchant who teaches her the true meaning of love and tenderness.
Lillian Gish was 23 years old when she made this movie and she continued to work in motion pictures for another 68 years!
I watched this film last night as Turner Classic Movies featured an evening of Asian images in film. Several of the films (including this one) were from the silent era.
You cannot understand the movies until and unless you study the silents. This is where the language of film was written This is where techniques were developed. This is where and how actors learned to act for the camera. This is where the closeup was born.
All of the elements of film storytelling that we now take for granted were invented and developed during the silent era.
And, working with Griffith, Lillian Gish helped to write the language, develop the techniques and refine the movements, the gestures and, above all the look that would define what it means to be a movie star.
It was hard work - gruelling work that left little room for the sort of egos that get in the way of things nowadays..
Griffith and Gish understood the hard work of their infant business even if they didn't know that they were giving us a new art form.
Where would we be today without them?

BetteFest!

On Saturday (4/5) in honor of the Centennial of Bette Davis' birth Turner Classic Movies will present a Davis film retrospective as follows:

11:00 AM- The Bride Came C.O.D (1941)
12:45 PM - The Letter (1940)
2:30 PM- The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
4:30 PM - Now, Voyager (1942)
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2005) TCM original documentary

8:00 PM- All About Eve (1950)
10:30 PM - Jezebel (1938)
12:30 AM - Dark Victory (1939)
2:30 AM - Dangerous (1935)
4:00 AM - Pocketful Of Miracles (1961)

Tune up your video recorder and get ready for this BetteFest!

Crawford TCM Alert

Tomorrow (Sunday 3/23) beginning at 8 PM Turner Classic Movies TCM) will present a 13-film tribute to Joan Crawford in honor of the 100th anniversary of her birth.
This extraordinary 24-hour movie retrospective will begin with the original TCM documentary, Joan Crawford, the Ultimate Movie Star, narrated by Angelica Huston.
Then the program moves into Crawford's Oscar-winning 1945 performance as Mildred Pierce (9:30 PM). This is followed by Torch Song (1953), a 1962 Crawford biographical short, Spring Fever (a 1927 silent film), Grand Hotel (1932), Wild and Woolly (a 1931 short), Dancing Lady (1933), Dancing On The Ceiling (a 1937 short), Sadie McKee (1934), The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937), A Woman's Face (1941), They All Kissed The Bride (1942), Humoresque (1946), Harriet Craig (1950) and finally at 7:44 PM on Monday, Trader Hound (a 1931 short).
You may want to keep one or more video recorders going to capture this all night/all day Crawford festival. Certainly, Mildred Pierce, Grand Hotel, The Woman, A Woman's Face, Humoresque and Harriet Craig are not-to-be-missed. And certainly Dancing Lady is noteworthy because it is one of those Very Special Films that teams Crawford with one of her favorite costars, Clark Gable.