I suffered through all of Mourning Becomes Electra last night, wondering how in heck anyone could have thought that Rosalind Russell was the Oscar front-runner back in 1947.  Her performance contains absolutely nothing to remind us why we love Roz.  Never has she been so fidgety and effortful and pinched, clearly straining to prove herself [...]

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While writing my Vivien Leigh chapter for Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors, I re-watched A Yank at Oxford (1938), Leigh’s first American film (though it was filmed in England).  In it she plays a frisky (and married) flirt, subordinate to leading lady Maureen O’Sullivan though both actresses play second fiddle to Robert Taylor; this formulaic comedy-drama [...]

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What a fantastic festival in PA, starting with the most perfect fall weekend in ages.  The Friday night opening gala was gala indeed.  Under a tent on the grounds of Milford’s glorious Hotel Fauchere, and on an unseasonably comfortable evening, the party was as elegant as the food was delicious.  Plus we had our honored [...]

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Tony Curtis died this week at 85, and I can’t say that he was ever one of my favorites, nor did I find him particularly good-looking.  But he did have a very impressive run in the late 1950s, a trio of performances that got him out of his pretty-boy rut and proved he had genuine talent, even [...]

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