Oh, Terence Morgan, you look so good in tights. You know that’s the reason you got fan mail from teenage girls after playing Laertes in “Hamlet”. Terence Morgan is one of those actors that most people in the U.S. don’t know, or only barely remember as Sir Francis Drake in the 1960s television show. There…
No one ever knows how to write something like this. Wait, let me take that back: Some people can write what they feel, sincerely and beautifully, even if it’s a difficult thing to do. Larry Gelbart was one of those people. Sadly, we lost Larry today, age 81, from cancer. Immensely talented and one of…
Many, many years ago, Kay Francis was the star of the month on TCM. I tell this story often, so I give my advance apologies to those who have heard me yammer about this before. TCM was new to our cable package at the time Kay was star of the month, so I assume this…
This post originally appeared on Film For the Soul during Ibetolis’ amazing Counting Down the Zeroes series, a celebration of films from the 2000s. The year of 2003 was a terrific one, so much so that it was difficult to decide which film I wanted to do for the year. Eventually deciding on a list…
“Fog Over Frisco” (1934) – Bette Davis is Arlene, hard-partying step-sister to Val (Margaret Livingston. Again. Sigh.) Arlene is also girlfriend to rich dude Spenser Carlton played by blog fave Lyle Talbot. Arlene hangs around wild bars that are owned and run by gangsters, and even though Val goes with her, she doesn’t realize the…
A wacky find from my archives: An old mid-1990s TCM warning that a movie they were showing had been edited for content.
I was once again charmed with the opportunity to participate in StinkyLulu’s excellent Supporting Actress Smackdown series, and this year was a great one: 1992. Don’t remember it off the top of your head? Two words: Marisa Tomei. You have to go read the comments and reviews on StinkyLulu’s post! This is one of the…
Paul Muni is Johnny Ramirez, a poor Latino living in L.A. who has just earned his law degree by spending 5 years in night school. His first real case comes when an elderly neighbor is hit by a drunk driver, the exceptionally racist and spoiled Dale Ewell (Margaret Lindsay) and her boyfriend lawyer, who was…
Housewife (1934): Bill Reynolds (George Brent) and wife Nan (Ann Dvorak) are happily married but struggling financially and quite frustrated with everyday irritations. Nan tries to get Bill to apply for better jobs because she’s disappointed that he is such a milquetoast, and of course this attitude strains their marriage further. Bill’s new, highly-paid supervisor…
Ibetolis at Film for the Soul is more than just a gifted blogger with an ambitious project, he is also the model of patience. As part of the Counting Down the Zeroes series, I was fortunate enough to again participate with a post about “Gosford Park” (2001), which originally appeared at Film for the Soul.…