Not since Casablanca won the Best Picture Oscar on March 2, 1944, a mere 65 years ago, has the Academy nominated ten films in its top category.  Last week’s announcement of Oscar’s return to ten Best Picture contenders has aroused much discussion, which must have been the overall intention, actually getting people to talk about [...]

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Earlier this week (June 22nd) marked the 40th anniversary of Judy Garland’s death at age 47.  She has been gone nearly as long as she lived, yet I guess such things don’t much matter when you’re immortal.  I have written about the great Garland in two previous books.  Her dazzling performance in The Pirate (1948) was [...]

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This weekend (June 20th) marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Errol Flynn, the sound era’s master swashbuckler and the definitive Robin Hood in the 1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood, a wondrous and ageless film, the quintessential Hollywood adventure. Flynn, irresistibly dashing and handsome, was perfectly matched to the role, an ideal [...]

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June 19th marks the 90th birthday of Louis Jourdan.  I can’t imagine that Jourdan has ever been anyone’s favorite actor or biggest film-star crush, but I do think he was a better actor than most people realize.  A later generation probably knows him only for his role in the James Bond franchise, memorably uttering the [...]

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This exceptional and beautifully shot L.A. film noir was inventively crafted by Otto Preminger, making it one of the director’s finest achievements.  Fascinating for its flawed relationships, unsympathetic characters, and shocking violence, Angel Face stars a just-right Robert Mitchum as an ambulance driver with a blond girlfriend (Mona Freeman) and a dream of opening his own garage [...]

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