Category: Cinema Snacks

What A Character! 2019 – Day 3

Subsequent to Day 1 over at Outspoken and Freckled, and Day 2 at Once Upon A Screen, I am presenting Day 3 of our annual tribute to the names below the title, those scene-stealing supporting players who add immeasurably to our favorite films.

First up, Gary Pratt takes a good look — literally — at Donald Pleasance, particularly as half of a beautiful friendship in The Great Escape in a guest post on Outspoken and Freckled.

Lesley at Second Sight Cinema looks at late-blooming Charles Coburn, who nonetheless became “as indispensable to the movies as he had been to the American stage for nearly four decades.”

Aurora at Once Upon A Screen… profiles another late bloomer, the inimitable Majorie Main, whose “physical look, her mannerisms, dry wit, and that voice! all made a package that was not easy to forget.”

To be continued with more character actors to come…

This post is part of the What A Character! 2019 Blogathon.

Announcing the What A Character! 2019 Blogathon

It’s hard to believe we’ve been hosting this blogathon for eight years now! But perhaps it isn’t that shocking — after all, discussing those scene-stealing character actors is a crowd-pleasing pastime amongst cinephiles.

Year after year, it’s an event we all look forward to. Wise-cracking Eve Arden, nurturing Louise Beavers, sassy Thelma Ritter, double-take pro Edward Everett Horton, tart-tongued Edna May Oliver, gravelly-voiced Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, fatherly Charles Coburn, frazzled Franklin Pangborn, bullfrog voiced, barrel-chested Eugene Pallette, cigar-chomping Ned Sparks… these and so many more lovable character actors are who we look forward to seeing as our dearest ole chums. Couldn’t we all use a trusted sidekick? All the details after the jump.

Continue reading “Announcing the What A Character! 2019 Blogathon” →

THE GENTLEMEN looks decent

STX dropped the trailer for Guy Ritchie’s upcoming film, The Gentlemen, earlier today. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Henry Golding, Charlie Hunnam, and the almost unrecognizable Hugh Grant, who sounds as unlike himself as he can get. Seriously, I watched the trailer at least twice because I couldn’t believe it was him. This trailer represents a dollop of hope for those like myself who’ve been awaiting another RockNRolla, which I consider to be the apotheosis (so far) of the director’s patented crime/comedy hybrid. (RnR is now a shocking 11 years old, having been released in 2008.) The plot seems to be classic Ritchie (paraphrasing the synopsis): McConaughey is a pot kingpin who wants out. The others plot, scheme, bribe and blackmail in order to take over his piece of the action before he’s ready to leave. Will The Gentlemen measure up? We’ll all find out on January 24, 2020. Check out the trailer and pix below. PS: Looks like the film was formerly known as “Toff Guys,” which I prefer to the final title, but I understand that might not have translated on this side of the pond.

  • CR204348.ARW
  • Toff_Guys_Day_24_173.ARW
  • Toff_Guys_D3_0336.ARW
  • Toff_guys_Day_36_0040.ARW
  • Toff_guys_Day_31_0210.ARW

Oscar Musings

We made it. As I type this, the 91st Academy Awards ceremony is happening. The Academy has a lot of work to do before the 92nd. There are three four tasks that, if completed, would save this august organization and revive its beleaguered ceremony…all is revealed after the jump.

The Oscars have always had their controversies and backstories. Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Joan Crawford (accepting for Anne Bancroft), and Maximillian Schell at the 1963 ceremony, held at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
Continue reading “Oscar Musings” →

31 Days of Oscar 2019 – Day 3

While this year’s Academy Awards ceremony is officially host-less, the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon has three! Kellee of Outspoken & Freckled, Aurora of Once Upon A Screen, and I, here at Paula’s Cinema Club have been celebrating the Oscars themselves and TCM”s tribute to same for the past seven years!

It’s almost a wrap on the third and final day, as I continue to collect the knowledge and opinions of our astute bloggers:

First up, Amanda at Old Hollywood Films focuses on Five Times the Academy Got It Right. Her picks include one of my favorites, George Sanders’ win for All About Eve; click for the rest.

Linda at Backstory: New Looks at Classic Films examines the life and career of “strikingly successful art director” Ward Ihnen.

Pale Writer analyzes Nat King Cole’s Best Song win for “Mona Lisa.”

Lê at Crítica Retrô reviews pre-sound films’ Oscar legacy in Golden Silence: Silent Films at the Oscars.

In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood recounts Olivia de Havilland’s second Oscar win for The Heiress.

Check back throughout the day for additional 31 Days posts!

Announcing the 31 Days of Oscar 2019 Blogathon!

Update

Day 1 posts are here.

From the time Douglas Fairbanks, then President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hosted the first Awards dinner party for about 250 people on May 16, 1929, to this year’s host-free Oscars ceremony ninety years later, this iconic celebration honoring Hollywood’s finest continues to be just as spectacular and as riddled with both excellence and contentions as the films and filmmakers they honor.

February 23rd, 1939. Serial Oscar winner Bette Davis holding her Oscar for Jezebel as she talks to the film’s director, William Wyler. 11th Academy Awards, Los Angeles.
(Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

If you take a look back at the many Oscar moments in these past 90 years of Oscars ceremonies, you’ll find numerous surprises, disappointments and controversies, which continue to spark debate to this day. That’s where we come in. For the seventh consecutive year, I am once again joining forces with Aurora of Once Upon A Screen aka @CitizenScreen and Kellee of Outspoken and Freckled aka @IrishJayhawk66 to bring you the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon. We hope you’ll consider joining us to make this the best and brightest Oscar blogging event yet.

Continue reading “Announcing the 31 Days of Oscar 2019 Blogathon!” →

Day 3 of the 2018 What A Character! Blogathon

‘Tis the season to recognize the names below the title, as our yearly recognition of those supporting players whose faces you know (but names you might not) concludes today.

Check out Day 1 by Kellee at Outspoken and Freckled and Day 2 at Aurora‘s blog Once Upon a Screen. All the nitty-gritty blogathon details are in the Announcement post. Thanks to my partners in cinematic tribute for making this such a fun project and to Turner Classic Movies for the blogathon title and inspiration. And now on with the show…

Continue reading “Day 3 of the 2018 What A Character! Blogathon” →

Announcing the SEVENTH Annual What A Character! Blogathon – Dec. 14-16, 2018

9th August 1933: Jean Harlow (1911 - 1937) is Hollywood sex goddess Lola Burns and Frank Morgan (1890 - 1949) is her father, Pop Burns, in 'Bombshell', (aka 'Blonde Bombshell') directed by Victor Fleming. Mary Forbes (1883 - 1974) plays Mrs Middleton.
Frank Morgan and June Brewster are just two of the superb character actors in BOMBSHELL (1933). Image via Doctor Macro

When you re-watch your favorite films, what keeps you coming back for more? A great story with sharp writing? No doubt. Beautiful costumes, swanky set designs, and stunning cinematography? Most assuredly. But the performances are key to any movie. While we all look forward to the popular leading actors, it is the stand-out, scene-stealing supporting actors that feel like “home.”

Wise-cracking Eve Arden, nurturing Louise Beavers, sassy Thelma Ritter, double-take pro Edward Everett Horton, tart-tongued Edna May Oliver, gravelly-voiced Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, fatherly Charles Coburn, frazzled Franklin Pangborn, bullfrog-voiced, barrel-chested Eugene Pallette, cigar-chomping Ned Sparks… these and so many more lovable character actors are who we look forward to seeing as our dearest old chums. We all could use a trusted sidekick.

stagecoach-1939a-700w
John Ford’s STAGECOACH (1939) was rife with talented characters.

For the 7th consecutive year, we as the blogathon hosting trio of Aurora of Once Upon A Screen and @CitizenScreen, Kellee of Outspoken & Freckled and @IrishJayhawk66, and myself, Paula of Paula’s Cinema Club and @Paula_Guthat invite you to join us for the WHAT A CHARACTER! BLOGATHON 2018, December 14, 15, 16, as we pay tribute to the brilliance of the supporting players.

Continue reading “Announcing the SEVENTH Annual What A Character! Blogathon – Dec. 14-16, 2018” →

Curse of the Demon (1957) gifs

With a ton of alternate titles and a couple different versions (U.S. and U.K.), this film based on the short story “Casting the Runes” by M.R. James is both genuinely creepy and a fitting part of Turner Classic Movies’ tribute to Peggy Cummins, who passed away on December 29, 2017 at the age of 92. If you haven’t seen it, or even if you have, you ought to, plus it’s the TCM Party tonight at 9:45 p.m. Eastern with guest host Jim Phoel aka @DraconicVerses.

It’s got some really gorgeous black-and-white cinematography by Edward Scaife (who also shot The Third Man) under the direction of dollar-from-a-dime maestro Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie). I made some apparently oversized gifs from it (too big for tumblr) and I’m parking ’em here. More gifs after the jump…

curse of the demon plane

Continue reading “Curse of the Demon (1957) gifs” →