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Hollywood history is no stranger to the talented child actor. But out of all the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed youngsters who have lit up the screen over the decades, River Phoenix is a clear standout. A preternaturally old soul, Phoenix brought maturity and profound vulnerability to all of his roles, making every film he appears in significantly richer for his presence. As a child actor, he seemed destined for great things, and as he aged into his early 20s, he was poised to meet every expectation audiences had placed on his shoulders.

But then, suddenly, he was gone. Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993, when he was just 23 years old. Although he left behind the tragedy of so much potential left unfulfilled, he also gave audiences a filmography full of interesting and measured performances to enjoy. Here's his entire catalog, ranked from worst to best, based on critical consensus and our own personal impressions.

Edgar Lansbury, the Tony-winning producer and younger brother of famed actress Angela Lansbury who guided the Broadway and big-screen versions of The Subject Was Roses and Godspell, has died. He was 94.

He died Thursday at his home in Manhattan, his son David Lansbury told The Hollywood Reporter.

Lansbury also produced the popular 1974-75 Broadway revival of Gypsy that starred his sister in a Tony-winning turn and worked on other films including The Wild Party (1975), directed by James Ivory.

Angela Lansbury, winner of five Tony Awards and star of Murder, She Wrote, died on Oct. 11, 2022, at age 96. His twin brother, TV producer Bruce Lansbury, died in February 2017 at age 87.

Lansbury’s first Broadway production, the intense family drama The Subject Was Roses, opened in 1964, ran for two years, and won a Pulitzer Prize and the Tony for best play. Written by Frank Gilroy and directed by Ulu Grosbard, it starred Martin Sheen...

Cillian Murphy and writer, director, and producer Christopher Nolan on the set of ‘Oppenheimer’ (Photo © Universal Pictures)

Since Cillian Murphy just became the first Irish-born actor to win the Best Actor Oscar, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a list of the most notable Irish actors who have been honored by the Academy with either Oscar gold or a nomination.

1. Cillian Murphy

Murphy has played non-Irish roles so often and so well that some people may not realize or remember that he is Irish. His best Irish films include Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. And as noted above, he is the first Irish-born actor to take home an Academy Award in the Best Actor category.

Vicky Krieps and Daniel Day-Lewis in writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’ (Photo by Laurie Sparham / Focus Features)

2. Daniel Day-Lewis

Day-Lewis...

Rose Gregorio, who received a Tony nomination for her performance as the browbeaten daughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald’s declining old woman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Shadow Box, has died. She was 97.

Gregorio died Aug. 17 of natural causes in her Greenwich Village home, her nephew Robert Grosbard told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gregorio was married to Belgium-born stage and film director Ulu Grosbard from 1965 until his death in 2012, and she appeared for him as the ex-wife of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971); as a local madam in True Confessions (1981); and as the mother of Treat Williams’ character in The Deep End of the Ocean (1999).

On television, she had a recurring role on NBC’s ER as Nurse Carol Hathaway’s (Julianna Margulies) mom from 1996-99.

Gregorio also landed a Drama Desk nom and a Clarence Derwent...

A new episode of The Arrow in the Head Show has just been released, and in this one hosts John “The Arrow” Fallon and Lance Vlcek are talking about Poltergeist – but not the Tobe Hooper / Steven Spielberg classic from 1982. The Poltergeist movie they’re focusing on in this episode is the 1986 sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side (watch it Here), the one with the creepy reverend and the tequila worm. To find out what they had to say about it, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by Brian Gibson from a screenplay written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, Poltergeist II has the following synopsis: The Freelings have escaped their haunted house, which is now being studied by paranormal investigators, including shaman Taylor. When Taylor realizes that the Beast, masquerading as the Reverend Kane, knows where young Carol Anne Freeling now lives, he goes to warn the family that...

There are precious few cinematic romances that can hold a candle to Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund in 1942's "Casablanca." It's a relationship that rekindles after heartbreak and is filled to the brim with complications far beyond the usual romantic drama scope. When Ilsa re-enters Rick's life, he's a bit bitter after being left flat with little more than a Dear John letter. He resents being hurt and has lived his life determined to wall off his emotions so that never happens again. 

To further complicate things, Ilsa happens to be traveling with her husband, a resistance leader named Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid), who was believed to have been killed by the Nazis but is very much alive and still fighting the good fight. But Rick and Ilsa's love is deep and real and the two can't help but fall back to their old emotions around each other, even as...

Got something you’d like to ask the flugelhorn-tooting forensic scientist and all-round star of stage and screen? Send it our way and we’ll put it to her

You might think of her as forensic scientist Eve Lockhart from BBC series Waking the Dead, or as Queen Selyse Baratheon in Game of Thrones, but Tara Fitzgerald is a long-termer when it comes to film. Her first big role was in Peter Chelsom’s 1991 nightclub comedy Hear My Song, after which she went on to a couple of roles opposite Hugh Grant: Sirens in 1994 and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain in 1995. In between the two she was in A Man of No Importance with Albert Finney. Then came the flugelhorn-tooting Brassed Off, and the Czech war film Dark Blue World. More recently she played Miriam in Ridley Scott’s biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.

This very traditional chamber murder mystery starring David Farrar and Geraldine Fitzgerald has been beautifully restored by Studiocanal and bears the original U.K. title The Late Edwina Black. When the sickly wife Edwina dies in bed the bitter housekeeper accuses the husband and another very attractive servant; all the Scotland Yard Inspector need do is stir the pot, and paranoid suspicions take over. Is Edwina’s spirit still present in the house? The housekeeper thinks she communicates through a wind chime by the window . . .

Obsessed

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1951 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date February 28, 2023 / The Late Edwina Black / Available from / 29.99

Starring: David Farrar, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Roland Culver, Jean Cadell, Mary Merrall, Harcourt Williams, Charles Heslop, Ronald Adam.

Cinematography: Stephen Dade

Art Direction: George Provis

Costume Designer: Elizabeth Haffenden

Film Editor: Douglas Myers

Original Music: Allan Gray

Screenplay by Charles Frank, David Evans from the play by William Dinner, William Morum...

Ted Donaldson, who starred as Bud Anderson on the original radio version of Father Knows Best and as Neely Nolan in the beloved family drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the first feature directed by Elia Kazan, has died. He was 89.

Donaldson died Wednesday of complications from a fall in his Echo Park apartment in January, his friend Thomas Bruno told The Hollywood Reporter.

In his big-screen debut, Donaldson portrayed a boy who gets his pet caterpillar Curly to dance when he plays “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on the harmonica in the comedy fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant and Janet Blair.

He also starred as Danny Mitchell in eight B-movies from Columbia Pictures that revolved around a German shepherd named Rusty. The first one, Adventures of Rusty (1945), featured Ace the Wonder Dog.

An only child, Donaldson was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 20, 1933. His father was...

Now that’s dedication in marriage: Paul Newman’s first directed feature film is a drama showcase for his spouse Joanne Woodward, one likely to garner critical attention. A small-town teacher deals with boredom, isolation, repression, and dwindling hope; the carefully measured conflicts allow good input from actors Kate Harrington, Estelle Parsons, and James Olson as the lover with the right approach at just the right time. It’s a picture of sensitive emotions: is Rachel Cameron really becoming a spinster? Does she have any choice in the matter? Middle age does tend to sneak up on a person . . .

Rachel, Rachel

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1968 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Available at Wac-Amazon / Street Date September 6, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: Joanne Woodward, James Olson, Kate Harrington, Estelle Parsons, Donald Moffat, Frank Corsaro, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Bernard Barrow, Nell Potts.

Cinematography: Gayne Rescher

Art Director: Robert Gundlach

Film Editor: Dede Allen

Original Music: Jerome Moross...

By Sam Moffitt

Night Will Fall 2014 Directed by Andre’ Singer, Written by Lynette Singer Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and Jasper Britton

The Pawnbroker 1964 Directed by Sidney Lumet Written by Norton S Fine and David Friedkin from a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, Starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters and Jaime Sanchez

I met a Holocaust survivor, very recently. I was in a discount store, standing in line pay for my purchases. In front of me was an older gentleman, wearing a cap that looked like a military veteran’s cap. I enjoy talking with other veterans and thanking them for their service. I always want to hear what other veterans have done in service to our country.

“Is that a military cap you’re wearing?” “No, but I survived World War Two.” He said this with a German accent so my next question, “Were you in Germany and survived the air raids?...

“Let It Be” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg couldn’t be happier with Peter Jackson’s “Get Back,” the three-part, nearly eight-hour miniseries made up of outtakes from his original Beatles documentary, which arrived on Disney Plus two weeks ago to much fanfare.

Now 81, living in Hudson, NY, with his wife and three dogs, and mostly painting, Lindsay-Hogg is hoping Apple Corps will make good on its promise to re-release “in some form” his oft-misunderstood original, which had always been seen in light of the Beatles’ acrimonious split just before it finally came out in 1970.

“For years I’ve been agitating with Apple to re-release ‘Let It Be,’” says Lindsay-Hogg. “It’s been about to happen for the past 20 years. I’m very fond of the people there, but all the internal foolishness got in the way.”

While in London three years ago, Lindsay-Hogg met with Apple Corps’ director of production, Jonathan Clyde,...

Hollywood acknowledges the existence of America’s proto- C.I.A. intelligence agency with this espionage tale of Yanks working with the resistance in occupied France. It’s basic cloak ‘n’ dagger action, with intrepid Alan Ladd and the daring Geraldine Fitzgerald risking life and limb to plant plastic explosive bombs. The details are fairly interesting: Ladd outwits the Gestapo by working with a turncoat inside their ranks. The outcome is grimly realistic, even if that old Paramount glamour is part of the package. The writer-producer is Richard Maibaum, who would later write almost thirty years’ worth of franchise James Bond 007 adventures.

O.S.S.

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date August 10, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Alan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, John Hoyt, Gloria Saunders, Richard Webb, Richard Benedict, Harold Vermilyea, Don Beddoe, Onslow Stevens, Gavin Muir, Egon Brecher, Joseph Crehan, Bobby Driscoll, Julia Dean,...

Bill C. Davis, whose 1981 Broadway hit play Mass Appeal was adapted for a 1984 feature film starring Jack Lemmon and Željko Ivanek, died Feb. 26 following a brief illness, his family announced. He was 69.

Born in Ellenville, NY, and raised in the state’s Hudson Valley, Davis attended Catholic schools and, after graduating from Poughkeepsie’s Marist College, worked at a residential community for developmentally disabled and emotionally disturbed adults in Rhinebeck, NY. He wrote Mass Appeal, about the conflicting personalities of a stern, conservative priest and a younger, rebellious seminarian, during his time in Rhinebeck.

The play originally was produced Off Broadway in 1980 at the Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Milo O’Shea and Eric Roberts and directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald. Mass Appeal moved to Broadway the following year, with Michael O’Keefe taking over for Roberts.

The Broadway production earned Tony Award nominations for O’Shea and Fitzgerald.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve...

Bill C. Davis, who wrote the Broadway two-hander Mass Appeal, then adapted the drama for the film version that starred Jack Lemmon, died Friday in Torrington, Connecticut, after a brief illness, a publicist announced. He was 69.

Mass Appeal, directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald, played at the Manhattan Theatre Club before moving to the Booth Theater on Broadway in 1981. Starring Milo O’Shea as Father Tim Farley and Caddyshack’s Michael O’Keefe as young seminarian Mark Dolson, it ran for more than 200 performances through May 1982.

“By letting his characters grow and change, Mr. Davis has written a play ...

Bill C. Davis, who wrote the Broadway two-hander Mass Appeal, then adapted the drama for the film version that starred Jack Lemmon, died Friday in Torrington, Connecticut, after a brief illness, a publicist announced. He was 69.

Mass Appeal, directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald, played at the Manhattan Theatre Club before moving to the Booth Theater on Broadway in 1981. Starring Milo O’Shea as Father Tim Farley and Caddyshack’s Michael O’Keefe as young seminarian Mark Dolson, it ran for more than 200 performances through May 1982.

“By letting his characters grow and change, Mr. Davis has written a play ...

So Evil My Love

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1948 / 1.33:1 / 112 min.

Starring Ray Milland, Ann Todd, Geraldine Fitzgerald

Cinematography by Mutz Greenbaum

Directed by Lewis Allen

In 1944 Ray Milland starred in The Uninvited, the story of an orphan plagued by the vengeful spirit of her mother. The film remains a shivery classic of familial strife but contrary to its inhospitable title, Milland never looked so at home. But then the actor had always appeared haunted. Even in his comedies—and he made a lot them—Milland delivered his lines like a condemned man, as if he understood the tragic implications of a pratfall. There was an advantage to his angst—in It Happens Every Spring, one of the most lighthearted farces of the 40’s, Milland’s sourpuss keeps the movie from being so frothy that it floats away. Savvy directors tapped into that grave quality more than once; he was a...

1970: ABC aired the final episode of The Best of Everything.

1984: All My Children's Tad was celebrated at his bachelor party.

1996: Days of our Lives' Sami and Austin married.

1998: One Life to Live's Bo grieved his son, Drew."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1967: On Dark Shadows, while Willie Loomis remained in a coma, Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) attempted to hypnotize David Collins (David Henesy) to stop his prying into Barnabas' (Jonathan Frid) affairs.

1970: ABC aired the final episode of The Best of Everything,...

All-American race car mania is alive and well in this excellent Jeff Bridges movie, a true biographical story researched by Tom Wolfe. Junior Johnson needs a future beyond running moonshine for his father, and finds it climbing the rungs of success in the stock car racing game. This may be the most satisfying saga of its kind, and it helped prove that Bridges was a star.

The Last American Hero

Region ? Blu-ray See Below

Explosive Media

1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 28, 2019 / Der letzte Held Amerikas / Available at Amazon.de

11.92 Euros Starring: Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gary Busey, Art Lund, Ed Lauter.

Cinematography: George Silano

Art Director: Lawrence G. Paull

Film Editors: Robbe Roberts, Tom Rolfe

Original Music: Charles Fox

Written by William Roberts from stories by Tom Wolfe

Produced by John Cutts, William Roberts

Directed by Lamont Johnson

Catching up with older Jeff Bridges movies is never a bad idea,...

Michael Moriarty has long stood on the precipice of the mainstream; teetering, looking in, a toe here, but always bringing his unique Moriarty-ness to every project. Never one to shy away from speaking his mind, he brings the same fearlessness to his art, often resulting in performances just left (and sometimes further) of center. So it goes for another genre jaunt, Blood Link (1982), in which he plays formerly conjoined twins who collide in a mélange of murder and deception, giallo style.

This German-Italian-u.S. co-production premiered in the U.K. in October, with a rollout Stateside in November; oddly, it didn’t debut in Italy until ’86 and Germany in ’87. Perhaps the distributors didn’t have enough faith in their product, or they found its old fashioned story to be out of step with modern slashers. A man chasing himself is a hard sell, after all.

But honestly I thought the...

1965: As the World Turns spin-off Our Private World premiered.

1985: Days or our Lives' John rescued Marlena.

1992: Another World's Donna and John shared a kiss.

2004: The Young and the Restless' Kevin flatlined."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1948: On This is Nora Drake, Bob had disappeared from the hospital, and Nora knew that she was the cause of Bob's unhappiness. Peggy found him in the park, took him to his room and got him a prescription.

1948: On Claudia, Claudia (Patricia Ryan) and David...

1970: A World Apart and The Best of Everything premiered on ABC.

Another World spinoff Somerset premiered on NBC.

Dark Shadows' Maggie found a mysterious note."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1970: Daytime soap opera A World Apart premiered on ABC. The show was created by Katherine L. Phillips, Irna Phillips' daughter, and combined Irna's own life story with examples of the generation gap. Susan Sarandon and Matthew Cowles were siblings Patrice and Chris Kahlman, adopted children of soap opera writer Better Kahlman (played by...

1970: ABC aired the final episode of The Best of Everything.

1984: All My Children's Tad was celebrated at his bachelor

party. 1996: Days of our Lives' Sami and Austin married.

1998: One Life to Live's Bo grieved his son, Drew."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1967: On Dark Shadows, while Willie Loomis remained in a coma, Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) attempted to hypnotize David Collins (David Henesy) to stop his prying into Barnabas' (Jonathan Frid) affairs.

1970: ABC aired the final episode of The Best of Everything, a short-lived ABC daytime soap opera that had only...

1965: As the World Turns spin-off Our Private World premiered.

1985: Days or our Lives' John rescued Marlena.

1992: Another World's Donna and John shared a kiss.

2004: The Young and the Restless' Kevin flatlined."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1948: On This is Nora Drake, Bob had disappeared from the hospital, and Nora knew that she was the cause of Bob's unhappiness. Peggy found him in the park,...

1970: A World Apart and The Best of Everything premiered on ABC.

Another World spinoff Somerset premiered on NBC.

Dark Shadows' Maggie found a mysterious note."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1970: Daytime soap opera A World Apart premiered on ABC. The show was created by Katherine L. Phillips, Irna Phillips' daughter, and combined Irna's own life story with examples of the generation gap. Susan Sarandon...

Turner Classic Movies has released three Alan Ladd titles in a set titled "Alan Ladd: The 1940s Collection". Here is the official press release:

Handsome leading man Alan Ladd found success in the 1940s and ‘50s, first as the tough guy in several films noir co-starring Veronica Lake and then as the stoic hero in Westerns such as Shane (1953). Turner Classic Movies and Universal are proud to present this three-film collection that showcases Ladd’s talents in a range of genres from thriller to adventure, as well as the work of such directors as Irving Pichel and Frank Tuttle, and writers the likes of Richard Maibaum and Seton I. Miller. Lucky Jordan (1942) Directed by Frank Tuttle (who also directed Ladd’s breakthrough film This Gun for Hire the same year), Lucky Jordan stars Ladd as a racketeer who gets drafted into the Us Army and will do anything to...

Merle Oberon movies: Mysterious star of British and American cinema. Merle Oberon on TCM: Donning men's clothes in 'A Song to Remember,' fighting hiccups in 'That Uncertain Feeling' Merle Oberon is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of March 2016. The good news: the exquisite (and mysterious) Oberon, whose ancestry has been a matter of conjecture for decades, makes any movie worth a look. The bad news: TCM isn't offering any Oberon premieres despite the fact that a number of the actress' films – e.g., Temptation, Night in Paradise, Pardon My French, Interval – can be tough to find. This evening, March 18, TCM will be showing six Merle Oberon movies released during the first half of the 1940s. Never a top box office draw in the United States, Oberon was an important international star all the same, having worked with many of the top actors and filmmakers of the studio era.

Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...

Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai at the Oscars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai on the Academy Awards' Red Carpet Pictured above are Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Two years ago, an Anglo-Indian-American co-production, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire became not only one of the season's biggest sleeper hits, but also the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner. Dev Patel and Freida Pinto starred. Curiously, some have complained that Slumdog Millionaire was just a less interesting rehash of higher-quality Bollywood musicals and dramas that have received relatively little play outside South Asian communities around the globe. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai movies The son of Indian cinema legend Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan has been featured in nearly 50 films. Among them are: Dhoom (2004). Director: Sanjay Gadhvi. Cast: Abhishek Bachchan. Uday Chopra. John Abraham. Esha Deol.

Teresa Wright and Matt Damon in 'The Rainmaker' Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright vs. Samuel Goldwyn: Nasty Falling Out.") "I'd rather have luck than brains!" Teresa Wright was quoted as saying in the early 1950s. That's understandable, considering her post-Samuel Goldwyn choice of movie roles, some of which may have seemed promising on paper.[1] Wright was Marlon Brando's first Hollywood leading lady, but that didn't help her to bounce back following the very public spat with her former boss. After all, The Men was released before Elia Kazan's film version of A Streetcar Named Desire turned Brando into a major international star. Chances are that good film offers were scarce. After Wright's brief 1950 comeback, for the third time in less than a decade she would be gone from the big screen for more than a year.

Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...

This time on The Forgotten, we've made the film under discussion available to watch, for free, below.

1948 was one of the great years of British film, with Powell & Pressburger, David Lean and others on top form. Terence Fisher, later to make his name at Hammer (Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, etc.) was only just beginning his career, but he began it well: soon he would co-direct the gripping Hitchcockian yarn So Long at the Fair (1950), but before that came 40-minute short subject To the Public Danger, a thriller revolving around drunk driving.

As four characters meet in an English roadhouse and begin the kind of inebriate evening people fresh from WWII seemed to take in their strides, recklessness and arrogance leads towards inevitable doom, with the boozing accompanied by bullying, seduction, class prejudice, cowardice, paranoia and a slew of other unattractive qualities. The result is not so much mounting tension as an oppressive,...

Audrey Long, actress in B film noirs and Westerns, and widow of author Leslie Charteris, dead at 92 (photo: Audrey Long publicity shot ca. late '40s) Actress Audrey Long, a leading lady in mostly B crime dramas and Westerns of the '40s and early '50s, and the widow of The Saint creator Leslie Charteris, died "after a long illness" on September 19, 2014, in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. Long was 92. Her death was first reported by Ian Dickerson on the website LeslieCharteris.com. Born on April 14 (some sources claim April 12), 1922, in Orlando, Florida, Audrey Long was the daughter of an English-born Episcopal minister, who later became a U.S. Navy Chaplain. Her early years were spent moving about North America, in addition to some time in Honolulu. According to Dickerson's Audrey Long tribute on the Leslie Charteris site, following acting lessons with coach Dorothea Johnson, whose pupils had also included...

Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...

Joan Lorring, 1945 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee, dead at 88: One of the earliest surviving Academy Award nominees in the acting categories, Lorring was best known for holding her own against Bette Davis in ‘The Corn Is Green’ (photo: Joan Lorring in ‘Three Strangers’) Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee Joan Lorring, who stole the 1945 film version of The Corn Is Green from none other than Warner Bros. reigning queen Bette Davis, died Friday, May 30, 2014, in the New York City suburb of Sleepy Hollow. So far, online obits haven’t mentioned the cause of death. Lorring, one of the earliest surviving Oscar nominees in the acting categories, was 88. Directed by Irving Rapper, who had also handled one of Bette Davis’ biggest hits, the 1942 sudsy soap opera Now, Voyager, Warners’ The Corn Is Green was a decent if uninspired film version of Emlyn Williams’ semi-autobiographical 1938 hit play about an English schoolteacher,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 22, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Rod Steiger is The Pawnbroker.

Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront) earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in the classic 1964 drama The Pawnbroker, directed by the great Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Network).

Steiger plays Sol Nazerman, a survivor of a WWII Nazi death camp where his wife, parents and children were murdered. His soul robbed of hope, he takes refuge in misery and a bitter condemnation of humanity while managing a Harlem pawnshop subjected to an endless parade of prostitutes, pimps and thieves.

The film co-stars Geraldine Fitzgerald (Wuthering Heights), Brock Peters (To Kill a Mockingbird), Raymond St. Jacques (Cotton Comes to Harlem) and.Jamie Sanchez (The Wild Bunch).

Shot in gorgeous black-and-white by respected cinematographer Boris Kaufman (On the Waterfront) and featuring a memorably evocative trumpet score by Quincy Jones, The Pawnbroker is making its Blu-ray...

This year, a record three African American women are likely to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars -- Oprah Winfrey ("The Butler"), Lupita Nyongo ("12 Years a Slave") and Octavia Spencer ("Fruitvale Station").  and Spencer won this award two years ago for "The Help." She was the fifth African American to take home this trophy.  The first was Hattie McDaniel who won in 1939 for her scene-stealing performance as Mammy in Best Picture champ "Gone With the Wind." She edged out co-star Olivia de Havilland as well as  Geraldine Fitzgerald ("Wuthering Heights"), Edna May Oliver ("Drums Along the Mohawk") and Maria Ouspens...

The release of Ron Howard’s Rush, one of the most anticipated (not to say mega-hyped) films of the year, inevitably begs comparisons to some of the great car-themed movies of the past.

“Rush.” Photo by Jaap Buitendijk

© 2013 – Universal Pictures.

It seems that automobiles have played key roles in films of every genre, from drama to horror to comedy to documentary. In some, like American Graffiti, Rebel without a Cause, and Bonnie and Clyde, the vehicles primarily help set the tone of the era in which the stories are set. In other films the cars themselves are the story. The animated Cars comes to mind, along with the Love Bug series, Christine, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And then there are films in which the cars have taken their place alongside the human stars as film icons in their own right. James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, for instance, as...

Hattie McDaniel: Best Supporting Actress Oscar competition and missing Academy Award plaque (See previous post: “Hattie McDaniel Oscar Speech.”) Besides Hattie McDaniel for Gone with the Wind, the 1939 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominees were Geraldine Fitzgerald for Wuthering Heights, Edna May Oliver for Drums Along the Mohawk, Maria Ouspenskaya for Love Affair, and Olivia de Havilland for Gone with the Wind. It should be noted that de Havilland, who, according to some, was not at all happy at having lost the Oscar, had much more screen time than Hattie McDaniel. In fact, de Havilland had lobbied David O. Selznick to list her as a lead actress, alongside Vivien Leigh. Selznick, however, balked, fearing that de Havilland might steal away votes from her fellow Gone with the Wind player. In the next decade, Olivia de Havilland would receive four more Academy Award nominations, all in the Best Actress category, including...

Bette Davis movies: TCM schedule on August 14 (photo: Bette Davis in ‘Dangerous,’ with Franchot Tone) See previous post: “Bette Davis Eyes: They’re Watching You Tonight.” 3:00 Am Parachute Jumper (1933). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Harold Huber, Leo Carrillo, Thomas E. Jackson, Lyle Talbot, Leon Ames, Stanley Blystone, Reginald Barlow, George Chandler, Walter Brennan, Pat O’Malley, Paul Panzer, Nat Pendleton, Dewey Robinson, Tom Wilson, Sheila Terry. Bw-72 mins. 4:30 Am The Girl From 10th Avenue (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Ian Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Phillip Reed, Katharine Alexander, Helen Jerome Eddy, Bill Elliott, Edward McWade, André Cheron, Wedgwood Nowell, John Quillan, Mary Treen. Bw-69 mins. 6:00 Am Dangerous (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Dick Foran, Walter Walker, Richard Carle, George Irving, Pierre Watkin, Douglas Wood,...

Bette Davis’ eyes keep ‘Watch on the Rhine’ Bette Davis’ eyes are watching everything and everyone on Turner Classic Movies this evening, as TCM continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" film series: today, August 14, 2013, belongs to two-time Oscar winner Bette Davis’ eyes, cigarettes, and clipped tones. Right now, TCM is showing the Herman Shumlin-directed Watch on the Rhine (1943), an earnest — too much so, in fact — melodrama featuring Nazis, anti-Nazis, and lofty political speeches. (See “Bette Davis Movies: TCM schedule.”) As a prestigious and timely Warner Bros. release, Watch on the Rhine was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award and earned Paul Lukas the year’s Best Actor Oscar. Bette Davis has a subordinate role and — for once during her years as Warners’ Reigning Queen — subordinate billing as well. As so often happens when Davis tried to play a sympathetic character, she’s not very good; Lukas, however,...

London, July 19: Orson Welles, who was a known womaniser, lived a life that was dotted with affairs with various women.

The legendary actor/director's first love was actress Virginia Nicolson and the couple eloped in 1934 when they were 19, the Daily Express revealed.

While Nicolson was pregnant with the couple's child, Welles began affairs with actresses Geraldine Fitzgerald and Dolores del Rio.

After divorce from Nicolson in 1940, Welles married Rita Hayworth in 1943; that marriage resulted in divorce in 1948 after his extra-marital affairs plagued the relationship.

Soon after, Welles impregnated Italian.

Irish stage and screen character actor who appeared in Barbarella, The Verdict and the BBC's 1969 sitcom Me Mammy

For a performer of such fame and versatility, the distinguished Irish character actor Milo O'Shea, who has died aged 86, is not associated with any role in particular, or indeed any clutch of them. He was chiefly associated with his own expressive dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, outstanding mimetic talents and distinctive Dublin brogue.

His impish presence irradiated countless fine movies – including Joseph Strick's Ulysses (1967), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982) – and many top-drawer American television series, from Cheers, The Golden Girls and Frasier, right through to The West Wing (2003-04), in which he played the chief justice Roy Ashland.

He had settled in New York in 1976 with his second wife, Kitty Sullivan, in order to be equidistant from his own main bases of operation, Hollywood and London. The...

Unmade Classics: Part 1 of 2:

The film industry is a place for ideas but not all those ideas will reach the big screen. Many projects are announced each year and most of them will reach the pre-production stage but many will go no further. Only about half of the films announced will ever be completed. For various reasons, many intended movies will just fade away. Some may die during the script writing stage, while other will actually begin production before the whims of fortune cause the demise of the project. Here is Part One of a list of 25 tantalizing unmade films that could have been classics.

The Adventures of Flash Gordon: In the mid-1970s, George Lucas was enjoying critical success from his American Graffiti films. Being a life-long science fiction fan, he was planning to make a big-Budget film version of Flash Gordon. He had many ideas for...

The film industry is a place for ideas but not all those ideas will reach the big screen. Many projects are announced each year and most of them will reach the pre-production stage but many will go no further. On average, only half of the films announced will ever be completed. For various reasons, many intended movies will just fade away. Some may die during the script writing stage, while other will actually begin production before the whims of fortune cause the demise of the project. Here is Part One of a list of 25 tantalizing unmade films that could have been classics.

The Adventures of Flash Gordon: In the mid-1970s, George Lucas was enjoying critical success from his American Graffiti films. Being a life-long science fiction fan, he was planning to make a big-Budget film version of Flash Gordon. He had many ideas for the film but he...

It has been a year since Sidney Lumet passed away on April 9, 2011. Here is our retrospective on the legendary filmmaker to honor his memory. Originally published April 15, 2011.

Almost a week after the fact, we, like everyone that loves film, are still mourning the passing of the great American master Sidney Lumet, one of the true titans of cinema.

Lumet was never fancy. He never needed to be, as a master of blocking, economic camera movements and framing that empowered the emotion and or exact punctuation of a particular scene. First and foremost, as you’ve likely heard ad nauseum -- but hell, it’s true -- Lumet was a storyteller, and one that preferred his beloved New York to soundstages (though let's not romanticize it too much, he did his fair share of work on studio film sets too as most TV journeyman and early studio filmmakers did).

His directing career stretched well over 50 years,...

Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Dodsworth William Wyler: Record-Setting Oscar Director for Actors Pt.1 Ah, William Wyler also happens to be the director with the most Academy Award nominations: twelve in all. For the record, those are: Dodsworth, 1936; Wuthering Heights, 1939; The Letter, 1940; The Little Foxes, 1941; Mrs. Miniver, 1942; The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946; The Heiress, 1949; Detective Story, 1951; Roman Holiday, 1953; Friendly Persuasion, 1956; Ben-Hur, 1959; and The Collector, 1965. He won the Best Director Oscar for three films — none of which is among his best: Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur. Considering the changes that have taken place in the American film industry following the demise of the studio system, barring a miracle Wyler will remain the Oscars' top director for actors for as long as there are Oscars. (See full list below.) William Wyler died of a heart attack in July 1981 in Los Angeles. William Wyler-directed movies: thirty-six acting nominations; fourteen wins.

They have a right to be pissed.

It's the most important morning of the year. Hollywood is temporarily jolted from its stupor for a ten-minute rollercoaster of natural highs and shattered dreams. Nothing but ... shattered dreams.

It's those shattered dreams that immediately become the focus after the Oscar nominations are announced. With only five slots per category, deserving actors are excluded, and that's when the fun begins, as the discussion about the "snubs" commences.

That was especially true this year, as a flurry of serious contenders were nowhere to be found. Charlize Theron, Tilda Swinton, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Albert Brooks were the names most bandied about, along with Andy Serkis (and they should really either nominate him, or give him a special Oscar for his unique contributions to film.)

Of course, Oscar has a history of overlooking interesting and memorable performances. Let's take a look at a few notable Oscar omissions.

What do you get when you cross Southern Hillbillies and fast cars? You get The Last American Hero, a film about Nascar and demolition derbies but little else. Released today on DVD for the first time, check out our review below…

Elroy ‘Junior’ Jackson (Jeff Bridges) is a kid full of attitude who helps his bootlegger father transport their homemade booze. When Junior crashes into a police blockade, they arrest his father who is looking at a lengthy prison stretch. Junior must raise some fast cash to get him released and hits the demolition derby circuit. His natural skill behind the wheel sees him swiftly move on to stock car racing where he meets a promoter (Ned Beatty) and finally gets the chance to make it big on the famous Nascar circuit…

It’s quite easy to see why The Last American Hero hasn’t been previously released on DVD...