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If you tune into award shows often enough, the language surrounding them begins to sound like something out of a football game. Actors campaign throughout the "season," often scoring wins in the lead-up to the Oscars that put them in a better or worse position for the big trophy. Commentators dissect performances and explain the odds of each participant. There are dark horses, contenders, fan favorites, and comeback stories. When the night of the Academy Awards finally arrives, that, too, feels like a sort of sport. You can win or lose narrowly (often thanks to a split vote), or in a clear landslide -- or, rarest of all, you can tie.

There have only been six ties in Oscar history, though you'd be forgiven for swearing there were more of them. Moments like the "Moonlight" and "La La Land" Best Picture screw-up of 2016, or years in which several titles each...

At the Academy Awards in 1929, Charles Reisner's "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" was nominated for Best Picture. "Revue" is a relative obscurity to modern audiences — even less well-known than that year's Best Picture winner "The Broadway Melody" — and it may even baffle certain viewers. True to its title, "The Hollywood Revue" is a collection of musical numbers, comedic sketches, and dramatic scenes, all played out "live" on a theater stage. A curtain closes and opens in between each number, and two emcees — Jack Benny and Conrad Nagel — introduce each vignette.

Such filmed stage performances may look a little odd to the modern eye, but they were common throughout the '20s and '30s. Few audiences had access to high-end live theater, and Hollywood was happy to step in to provide. Studios would distribute such revues as, essentially, a Broadway substitute, allowing distant viewers to experience the theater events...

Jimmy Kimmel is hosting 2024 Oscars for his 4th time. As an experienced and proven host, he's navigated live mishaps in past ceremonies. The diverse lineup of star presenters includes past Oscar winners, Best Actors/Actresses, and stars from upcoming films. The 96th Academy Awards airs March 10, 2024. Watch on ABC at 7 pm Est/4 pm Pst.

The 2024 Oscars are airing on Sunday, March 10th, so here is a breakdown of who is hosting and presenting during the ceremony. The first-ever Academy Awards were held on May 16, 1929, and were hosted by William deMille & Douglas Fairbanks, founding members of the Academy. Since then, there have been more than 60 people who have hosted the Oscars.

In 1957, the animated character Donald Duck even served as a co-host of the awards, working alongside David Niven, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, and Rosalind Russell. Throughout the 96-year history, there have only been a few instances when the Academy Awards went without a host,...

Jimmy Kimmel Live! has proven to be one of the staples of late night TV, with the show more than 3,500 episodes and 20 seasons deep. With this sort of run, Kimmel currently stands as the longest-running late night talk show host. But as it turns out, he almost got out earlier this year, saying he had plans to retire from his namesake program.

Speaking on the first episode of the podcast Strike Force Five – in which he and other notably late night talk show hosts details the goings-on of the continued WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes – Jimmy Kimmel said, “I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started…And now, I realize, Oh yeah, it’s kind of nice to work.” Still, he added, “I was serious, I was very, very serious.” Kimmel really must have been considering the move since he signed a three-year contract extension just last year.

Clint Eastwood was attached to direct a remake of "A Star is Born" in 2011, but the project ultimately fell through due to various obstacles. Bradley Cooper initially turned down the opportunity to star in "A Star is Born" when Eastwood was attached as director, but later changed his mind and ended up directing and starring in the film. Eastwood's version of "A Star is Born" never happened due to Beyoncé's pregnancy and his commitments to another movie project. The film eventually found success with Cooper as the director and Lady Gaga as the lead.

Clint Eastwood has made some truly memorable movies in his career as a filmmaker, and he almost directed a remake of a classic drama movie, just a couple of years before it became an Oscar-winning movie… without him. Clint Eastwood is one of the most respected actors and directors in film history, and as both actor and filmmaker,...

“I want you to promise to keep this a secret, from everyone,” says Edward C. Burke, a mysterious professor played by mythic master of the macabre, Lon Chaney Sr. The line is a warning to a mourning daughter in the surviving screenplay for London After Midnight; it’s also part of the eeriest horror movies of the silent era. Unfortunately though, director Tod Browning’s 1927 classic has become one of the most inadvertently well-kept secrets of Hollywood, even as it remains one of the most influential works in horror movie history. If only we could see it.

While the film has been lost to time, the ghastly image of Chaney’s vampire in the film has lingered in the pop culture imagination, influencing everything from the earliest Hollywood Dracula film of 1931, which was originally supposed to star Chaney until his death in 1930, to seemingly this year’s recent Renfield reimagining at the same studio.

When you think of actors like Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, you think of their titanic starring roles that came at the peak of their powers. For Davis, it might well be something like the southern melodrama "Jezebel" or 1950's "All About Eve," the movie that revived her career by letting her embrace her age, her pettiness, and her acid tongue. For Bogart, it would be any of his many roles in film noir, a cinematic movement through the '40s and '50s of which he still registers as the face and the voice.

Digging through their respective careers, one can find early roles that show none of what would make the actors legendary. While technically impressive, these performances lack the vitality, electricity, and movie star charisma that both performers would come to master. And in the early '30s, with the industry in tumult and the Great Depression at its most suffocating,...

Oscar is 95 this year, meaning he’s been around longer than most of us. And many people assume the look of the award, his nickname and the structure of the annual voting … just kinda happened.

However, Bruce Davis details the thought and innovations behind these things in his authoritative new book, “The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” (Brandeis University Press).

Davis, who was AMPAS’ executive director for 20 years, dispels a lot of Oscar lore. No, neither Bette Davis nor the Academy’s Margaret Herrick came up with the nickname Oscar. No, Mexican actor Emilio Fernandez was not the model. Cedric Gibbons didn’t sketch out the design on the tablecloth at the Biltmore.

Davis also points out, “Contrary to widespread opinion, the Academy’s knight is neither naked nor bald.” Oscar is wearing a thong-like strap and has close-cropped hair.

The year 1953 surely left even the most devoted Oscar fans scratching their heads. One of the biggest upsets ever for Best Picture, some shocking snubs and all major awards going to different films led to some baffling anomalies at the 25th Academy Awards ceremony on March 19, 1953. This was also the year that the film industry finally capitulated to its rival source of entertainment, television, and for the first time broadcast the lavish ceremony live for viewers at home – so perhaps they wanted to dazzle and stun. Let’s flashback to the Oscars from 70 years ago.

With the cameras switching back and forth between Bob Hope hosting in Los Angeles and Conrad Nagel hosting in New York, the event attracted the largest single television audience to date in that medium’s young history. Five films were nominated for Best Picture, including the expected winner “High Noon,” plus “The Quiet Man,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Ivanhoe.

What was the movie Steven Spielberg saw as a child that inspired him to become one of the most successful, influential, and acclaimed filmmakers? According to his semi-autobiographical new film “The Fabelmans,” his cinematic alter-ego Sammy becomes obsessed with movies after his parents take him to the see Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 circus epic “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

“The Greatest Show on Earth,” which not only won the Oscar for Best Picture and story, was the box office champ of the year earning 14 million domestically and 36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set under the big top at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Films in Review declared “Mr. DeMille is so accomplished a showman that one is astonished he did not just photograph a circus performance without the synthetic story he injected here. After all, the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus is a wonder in itself.

The silent horror film London After Midnight, which starred the legendary Lon Chaney (father of the also legendary Wolf Man star Lon Chaney Jr.) did very well when it was released in 1927, earning over a million dollars at the box office on a budget of 151,666.14. But that didn’t help the film when it came time for it to be preserved. Every known existing print of London After Midnight was destroyed, with the last copy going up in the flames in the 1965 MGM vault fire. For almost fifty years, genre fans have been wondering what it would be like to watch London After Midnight. And now film historian Daniel Titley has written an entire book dedicated to movie. Titled London After Midnight: The Lost Film, this book was released on December 28th and has quickly become a bestseller. You can pick up a copy at This Link.

London After Midnight:...

The Academy Awards has undergone quite a few structural changes in recent years. In 2019, after Kevin Hart backed out of the role, the ceremony went on without a host for the first time in 30 years. The show remained host-less for the next two years, bringing its dry run to an end in 2022 with a trio of hosts that featured Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, and Amy Schumer helming a more than eventful night. But for 2023, the Oscars are going back to the basics, tapping Jimmy Kimmel to host the ceremony for the third time.

Jimmy Kimmel will return as host of the 95th Oscars in 2023, it has been revealed.

Kimmel returns after five years away to host for the third time.

The late-night star previously hosted the 2017 and 2018 telecasts.

The announcement was made by Glen Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, who will serve as showrunners and executive producers for the star-studded event.

“We’re super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage. We know he will be funny and ready for anything!” said Weiss and Kirshner in a statement.

“Jimmy is the perfect host to help us recognize the incredible artists and films of our 95th Oscars,” added Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang.

“His love of movies, live TV expertise and ability to connect with our global audiences will create an unforgettable experience for our millions of viewers worldwide.”

“Being invited to host the Oscars for...

Guess who’s back. Jimmy Kimmel will host the 2023 Oscar ceremony, executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner announced Monday morning.

The 95th Academy Awards, to be held on Sunday, March 12, will mark Kimmel’s third time hosting. He previously presided over the telecasts in 2017 and 2018, the former of which featured Envelopegate, when “La La Land” was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner instead of “Moonlight.”

“We’re super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage. We know he will be funny and ready for anything!” Weiss and Kirshner said in a statement.

“Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap. Either way, I am grateful to the academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no,” said Kimmel.

See 2023 Oscars: The state of the race

Following Kimmel’s second...

New images from the forthcoming season of The Crown have been released, including scenes depicting Princess Diana on holiday with her young sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

The popular Netflix series follows the events of the British royal family during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Following on from season four, which tracked the courtship and early marriage of King Charles III and Diana, season five will cover the demise of their relationship throughout the Nineties.

This season will feature a change of cast as the characters age. Elizabeth Debicki will play the former Princess of Wales for seasons five and six, succeeding Emma Corrin. Meanwhile, Dominic West now stars as Charles, taking over from Josh O’Connor.

Ahead of the new episodes, set to launch on Netflix in November, some first-look pictures of the characters have been released.

One of the stills depicts Charles, Diana and their young sons...

New images from the forthcoming season of The Crown have been released, including scenes depicting Princess Diana on holiday with her young sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

The popular Netflix series follows the events of the British royal family during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Following on from season four, which tracked the courtship and early marriage of King Charles III and Diana, season five will cover the demise of their relationship throughout the Nineties.

This season will feature a change of cast as the characters age. Elizabeth Debicki will play the former Princess of Wales for seasons five and six, succeeding Emma Corrin. Meanwhile, Dominic West now stars as Charles, taking over from Josh O’Connor.

Ahead of the new episodes, set to launch on Netflix in November, some first-look pictures of the characters have been released.

One of the stills depicts Charles, Diana and their young sons...

Conrad Nagel, the handsome matinee idol and co-founder of the Academy Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was the host of the fifth annual Academy Awards on Nov. 18, 1932. The evening marked Nagel’s second stint at Oscars host; the then-academy prez had hosted the festivities two years earlier. He turned on the charm in his sophomore outing at the glamorous banquet at the Fiesta Room of the Ambassador Hotel honoring films released between Aug. 1, 1931 and July 31, 1932. (Nagel would later co-host the first televised Oscars with Bob Hope in 1953.)

Eight films vied for Best Picture: John Ford’s medical drama “Arrowsmith”; Frank Borzage’s marital drama “Bad Girl”; Mervyn LeRoy’s examination of tabloid journalism “Five Star Final,” Edmund Goulding’s stylish drama “Grand Hotel”; Ernst Lubitsch’s pre-Code musical comedies “One Hour with You” and “The Smiling Lieutenant”; and Josef von Sternberg’s luscious pre-Code melodrama “Shanghai Express,” starring his muse Marlene Dietrich.

Retro-active: The Best From The Cinema Retro Archives

Review – Naked City: The Complete Series

Rlj Entertainment / 6,063 minutes

By Harvey F. Chartrand

Naked City was like no other TV series before or since – Michel Moriarty, star of Law and Order, once told this reviewer.

Inspired by Jules Dassin's 1948 film of the same name, Naked City centers on the detectives of the NYPD’s 65th Precinct, but the criminals and New York City itself often played as prominent a role in the dramas as the series regulars. Like the film it was based on, Naked City (1958- 1963) was shot almost entirely on location. The first season ran as a half-hour show under the title The Naked City, starring James Franciscus and John McIntire playing, respectively, Detective Jimmy Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon—the same roles essayed by Don Taylor and Barry Fitzgerald in the film.

The Naked City also starred Harry Bellaver as Det.

The Academy Awards celebrated its 25th anniversary on March 19, 1953 by being telecast for the first time in its history. Bob Hope hosted the celebration for NBC at the Rko Pantages Theater in Hollywood while Conrad Nagel had the Mc duties at the NBC International Theatre in New York. And the show captured the largest single TV audience at the time.

The Best Picture nominees were Fred Zinnemann’s thrilling Western “High Noon,” MGM’s lavish epic “Ivanhoe,” John Huston’s dazzling biopic on Toulouse Lautrec “Moulin Rouge,” John Ford’s warm hug of an Irish romantic comedy “The Quiet Man” and Cecil B. DeMille’s penultimate film as a director, “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

The surprise winner was “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which was the box office champ of the year earning $14 million domestically and $36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set...

Ron Howard and comedy site Funny or Die have teamed up on a pitch for the Motion Picture Television Fund.

The six-minute video, which dropped online on Wednesday, is titled “Ron Howard Digs Up a Very Strange Voicemail His Agent Left Him in 1983.” The clip delves into the development of Howard’s comedy “Splash” following the success of “Night Shift,” which starred Michael Keaton, Henry Winkler and Shelley Long.

“If you’re there, please pick up because it cannot wait. Shelley Long has passed on ‘Splash,” the agent tells Howard. “Shelley felt that Lowell and Babaloo’s take was too funny. She wanted the mermaid to be more of the sea monster that she was in the origin story.”

The agent also tells Howard that Richard Gere and Armand Assante have passed on the male lead and tells him that an actress named Daryl Hannah — “The body of a goddess...

On the last day of February, county officials in suburban Seattle went public with the news that the Life Care Center had become the center of an outbreak of the coronavirus disease.

That disclosure began setting off alarms at America’s elder care facilities, due to residents being at heightened risk because of their age and close living conditions. That included the renowned Motion Picture & Television Fund’s campus in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, home to 250 entertainment industry veterans and retirees.

Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of the MPTF for the past decade, announced on March 6 that the nursing facility and retirement community would be quarantined starting on March 9. That meant that gatherings were eliminated, and new policies were put in place to keep contact between staffers and residents to a minimum. In addition, the MPTF instituted daily temperature checks for employees coming on to campus. Staff...

Update — Two male residents at the Motion Picture Television Fund’s skilled nursing facility in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills have died of complications from Covid-19.

The first death occurred on Monday and the second took place on Tuesday, according to Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Beitcher identified one of the victims as John Breier, 64, a longtime member of Iatse Local 174.

Both had compromised immune systems. The first victim, who was 81, died at West Hills Hospital. Breier had been living with multiple sclerosis for the past 25 years. Beitcher said the two had been in Mptf’s long-term care unit for many years.

Beitcher also said Tuesday that four staffers had tested positive for the virus and were self-isolating. He also said that six other patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 are receiving care in the facilities’ isolation unit.

The Mptf reported...

Six additional elderly residents at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s skilled nursing facility in suburban Los Angeles have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to seven.

The Mptf reported the first case on Tuesday. About 250 entertainment industry retirees live on the Mptf’s Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills, Calif. All seven are residents of either the Mary Pickford House long-term care facility or Harry’s Haven, its Alzheimer’s unit.

A spokesperson for the Mptf said Friday that all seven are in stable condition. The first resident who tested positive was taken to West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles.

None of the facility’s staff and caregivers have tested positive for the coronavirus. The facilities have been on lockdown since March 6. The Mptf has restricted visits from family members and banned communal gatherings, including residential meals and movie screenings. All individuals entering the campus are scanned thermally on a daily basis.

Leapin’ Lizards! The original cavemen vs. dinosaurs saga is a winner — if viewer involvement trumps visual effects, it’s got a narrow lead over the Hammer/Harryhausen remake. Victor Mature, Carole Landis and Lon Chaney Jr. all made career hay out of their weeks spent running in loincloths, out in the desert. And Vci’s new disc is a terrific UCLA Archive restoration.

One Million B.C.

Blu-ray

Vci

1940 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 80 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 /

Starring: Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney Jr., Conrad Nagel, John Hubbard, Nigel De Brulier, Mamo Clark, Jean Porter, Inez Palange, Edgar Edwards, Jacqueline Dalya, Mary Gale Fisher.

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine

Film Editor: Ray Snyder

Original Music: Werner R. Heymann

Visual Effects: Roy Seawright, Jack Shaw, Frank Young

Written by Mickell Novack, George Baker, Joseph Frickert

Produced and Directed by Hal Roach

In the late 1930s fantasy and science fiction movies were few and far between,...

Desert Nights with John Gilbert and Mary Nolan: Enjoyable Sahara-set adventure – which happened to be Gilbert's last silent film – dares to ask the age-old philosophical question, “Is there honor among thieves?” John Gilbert late silent adventure 'Desert Nights' asks a question for the ages: Is there honor among thieves? The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release Desert Nights arrived in theaters at the tail end of the silent era. By 1929, audiences wanted lots of singing and dancing – talkies! And they might have been impatient to hear John Gilbert's speaking voice. I can't tell whether sound would have improved it or not, but Desert Nights has a lot of title cards filled with dialogue. Directed by the prolific William Nigh,[1] the film tells the story of diamond thieves who get stranded in the Sahara and almost die of thirst. (At first, Desert Nights' was appropriately titled Thirst.) Cinematographer James Wong Howe perfectly captures the hot, dry...

Norma Shearer: The Boss' wife was cast in 'The Divorcee.' Norma Shearer movies on TCM: Early talkies and Best Actress Oscar Note: This Norma Shearer article is currently being revised and expanded. Please Check back later. Norma Shearer, one of the top stars in Hollywood history and known as the Queen of MGM back in the 1930s, is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of Nov. 2015. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that even though its parent company, Time Warner, owns most of Shearer's movies, TCM isn't airing any premieres. So, if you were expecting to check out a very young Norma Shearer in The Devil's Circus, Upstage, or After Midnight, you're out of luck. (I've seen all three; they're all worth a look.) It's a crime that, music score or no, restored print or no, TCM/Time Warner don't make available for viewing the...

A bit of breaking news for you folks. It’s been announced that Chris Rock will be the host of the Oscars. Yes, the comedian/actor has been selected to lead the 88th Academy Awards telecast, marking the second time that Rock has been given this prestigious job. Not everyone wants to do it more than once, or accepts it when offered, so this now puts him into a small club of returning hosts. I didn’t include him in my recent speculation about how could get the gig, so it just goes to show how unpredictable things can be. It’s his job now, so let’s discuss that for a little bit… First up, for comparison’s sake, here’s the other folks who are in Rock’s club of hosting the Academy Awards at least twice: Bob Hope (19 times) Billy Crystal (9 times) Johnny Carson (5 times) Whoopi Goldberg...

Greta Garbo movie 'The Kiss.' Greta Garbo movies on TCM Greta Garbo, a rarity among silent era movie stars, is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” performer today, Aug. 26, '15. Now, why would Garbo be considered a silent era rarity? Well, certainly not because she easily made the transition to sound, remaining a major star for another decade. Think Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Fay Wray, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Warner Baxter, Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, etc. And so much for all the stories about actors with foreign accents being unable to maintain their Hollywood stardom following the advent of sound motion pictures. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, Garbo was no major exception to the supposed rule. Mexican Ramon Novarro, another MGM star, also made an easy transition to sound, and so did fellow Mexicans Lupe Velez and Dolores del Rio, in addition to the very British...

Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...

Katharine Hepburn movies. Katharine Hepburn movies: Woman in drag, in love, in danger In case you're suffering from insomnia, you might want to spend your night and early morning watching Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" series. Four-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn is TCM's star today, Aug. 7, '15. (See TCM's Katharine Hepburn movie schedule further below.) Whether you find Hepburn's voice as melodious as a singing nightingale or as grating as nails on a chalkboard, you may want to check out the 1933 version of Little Women. Directed by George Cukor, this cozy – and more than a bit schmaltzy – version of Louisa May Alcott's novel was a major box office success, helping to solidify Hepburn's Hollywood stardom the year after her film debut opposite John Barrymore and David Manners in Cukor's A Bill of Divorcement. They don't make 'em like they used to Also, the 1933 Little Women...

In January 1927, Louis B. Mayer was playing a casual game of solitaire with actor Conrad Nagel and a few others, when Nagel tossed out an idea: that the various branches of the film business should team up to form a new organization, designed to help everybody in the industry. “Why don’t you get together, then, and try it out?” said Mayer. Days later, the MGM chief invited some 36 industry members to dinner, and that evening they formed the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an institution that formally came into being in May 1927, when it

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Neil Patrick Harris to host Oscar 2015 ceremony Stage, film, and television actor Neil Patrick Harris will host the 2015 Oscars, aka the 87th Academy Awards ceremony, Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today, October 15, 2014. This will be Neil Patrick Harris' first time hosting the show, which in the United States will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 22. As quoted in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences press release, Zadan and Meron are "thrilled" to have Harris host their show, adding that "we have known him his entire adult life" and "to work with him on the Oscars is the perfect storm." As to be expected, Harris' statement reads that “it is truly an honor and a thrill" to be invited to host the 2015 Academy Awards ceremony Now, Neil Patrick Harris is an experienced awards-show host. His credits in the field include hosting the 61st and 65th Primetime Emmy Awards,...

Women presidents at the Academy: Cheryl Boone Isaacs is only the third one (photo: Angelina Jolie, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Brad Pitt) (See previous post: "Honorary Award Non-Winners: Too Late for Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich.") Wrapping up this four-part "Honorary Oscars Bypass Women" article, let it be noted that in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 85-year history there have been only two women presidents: two-time Oscar-winning actress Bette Davis (for two months in 1941, before the Dangerous and Jezebel star was forced to resign) and screenwriter Fay Kanin (1979-1983), whose best-known screen credit is the 1958 Doris Day-Clark Gable comedy Teacher's Pet. Additionally, following some top-level restructuring in April 2011, the Academy created the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, with the CEO post currently held by a woman, former Film Independent executive director and sometime actress Dawn Hudson. The COO post is held...

All That Heaven Allows

Directed by Douglas Sirk

Written by Peg Fenwick

USA, 1955

If ever there was a movie to reap the visual benefits of a Criterion Collection Blu-ray digital restoration, it is Douglas Sirk’s 1955 film, All That Heaven Allows. This lushly photographed work is Sirk’s most scathing and insightful commentary on subversive Hollywood cinema and the sociocultural norms it sought to challenge. With venerable cinematographer Russell Metty behind the camera, the film is radiant with rich, pulsating color, giving visual vibrancy to lives of complacency and routine. It was Sirk’s follow-up to his successful Magnificent Obsession from the year before, which has similar themes and tones and was another gorgeous melodrama. Universal kept what worked, bringing back Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman, and Metty. In many ways though, it’s All That Heaven Allows that stands as the defining work of Sirk’s career, the greatest of...

Sixty years ago, in 1953, the red carpet was unfolded, the envelopes were opened under the gleam of the Hollywood spotlight and a legacy was born that only continues to become more glamorous. It was the first televised version of the Academy Awards.

As one might imagine, things were a bit different back then. Despite being the first telecast, it was the 25th time the Academy handed out its little gold men. Whereas today's ceremony is held exclusively in Hollywood, the 25th annual Academy Awards were conducted simultaneously at Hollywood's Rko Pantages Theatre and at New York City's now-nonexistent NBC International Theatre.

Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" swept Best Picture out from under the heavily favored "High Noon," which managed to collect Best Actor for Gary Cooper. Shirley Booth nabbed Best Actress for her performance in "Come Back, Little Sheba." The night's other big winner was "The Bad and the Beautiful,...

They've tried everything. One host. Two hosts. Four hosts. 32 hosts. Comic hosts. Serious-thespian hosts. Hollywood-legend hosts. Young hosts. Old hosts. Hip hosts. Square hosts. Singing-and-dancing hosts. Every year, it seems, the Academy Awards goes back to the drawing board to figure out what sort of emcee will keep the show lively, attract viewers (especially younger viewers) and keep them from flipping channels during the slow parts. It's a thankless gig; no wonder Billy Crystal, who's done it eight times, decided to sit out for eight years before agreeing to return to host this year's Academy Awards on Sunday night. The job requires a difficult and rare set of skills: a host must entertain both the Hollywood big-shots in the auditorium and regular folks at home. They can poke fun at the huge egos in the room, but can't deflate them with too much snark, and they can't be too inside-baseball.

Frederica Sagor Maas, a Hollywood screenwriter in the 1920s, died January 5 at the Country Villa nursing facility in La Mesa, in the San Diego metropolitan area. She was 111. The daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants, she was born Frederica Alexandrina Sagor on July 6, 1900, in New York City. According to her autobiography, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood, she studied journalism at Columbia University, but quit before graduation to work as an assistant story editor at Universal Pictures' New York office. While at Universal, she kept herself busy going to star-studded premieres and parties, and — as found in her book — having the studio buy the rights to Rex Beach's novel The Goose Woman, thus giving a solid boost to the careers of actresses Louise Dresser and Constance Bennett, and of future five-time Oscar-nominated director Clarence Brown. Sagor left Universal when film executive Al Lichtman and future...

Joan Blondell on TCM: Dames, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Reckless Hour (1931) A young innocent almost ruins her life for the love of an unfeeling cad. Dir: John Francis Dillon. Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Conrad Nagel, H. B. Warner. Bw-71 mins. 7:15 Am Big City Blues (1932) A country boy finds love and heartache in New York City. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Jobyna Howland. Bw-63 mins. 8:30 Am Central Park (1932) Small-town kids out to make it in the big city inadvertently get mixed up with gangsters. Dir: John G. Adolfi. Cast: Joan Blondell, Wallace Ford, Guy Kibbee. Bw-58 mins. 9:30 Am Lawyer Man (1933) Success corrupts a smooth-talking lawyer. Dir: William Dieterle. Cast: William Powell, Joan Blondell, David Landau. Bw-68 mins. 10:45 Am Traveling Saleslady (1935) A toothpaste tycoon's daughter joins his rival to teach him a lesson. Dir: Ray Enright.

As news breaks that MGM has risen out of bankruptcy, this writer would like to take a moment and remember when this studio first entered the news, with its formation being the result of a corporate merger on Wall Street over eighty years ago. Following this merge, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would be the dominant motion picture studio in Hollywood, from the end of the silent film era through World War II.

The man behind the merger was Marcus Loew, the owner of a large theater chain known as Loew’s Theatres. Wanting to provide a steady supply of films for his theaters, he had purchased both Metro Pictures Corporation and Goldwyn Pictures. However, both of these companies lacked leadership, and Loew was unable to spare his longtime assistant, Nicholas Schenck, as he was needed in New York City to oversee the theater chain. The answer came to Loew when his visited the...

The Marines Are Coming (1934) Direction: David Howard Screenplay: James Gruen; from Colbert Clark and John Rathmell’s story Cast: William Haines, Esther Ralston, Conrad Nagel, Armida, Edgar Kennedy, Hale Hamilton The Marines Are Coming was a last-minute substitution for the 1936 version of M’Liss, starring Anne Shirley, which was originally scheduled but didn’t arrive in time for Cinesation 2009. William Haines‘ last film, The Marines Are Coming follows Haines’ usual formula: a cocky, womanizing soldier (Haines) vies with his superior officer (Conrad Nagel) for the hand of beautiful girl (Esther Ralston). Inevitably, Haines’ character later proves his worth when he saves his fellow American officers from a band of Mexican bandits. Though hardly a good film, The Marines Are Coming [...]...