Oldest Extant Feature 100th Anniversary— L'Inferno (1911)

At long last, the oldest complete extant feature film turns 100 today (it's first screening), Italy's L'Inferno.  The films general release in Italy and France came in the ensuing weeks.  This terrific adaptation of Dante's Inferno is easily one of the best silents of it's era.  It's available on DVD, an excerpt below.

100th Anniversary of Edison's "A Christmas Carol" -- Released December 23, 1910

Pretty wild to see films reaching their 100th... next year will be the first opportunity to see features hitting their centennial (starting with L'Inferno [1911]).  Tangerine Dream: Inferno
This version of A Christmas Carol is not the first... and there is a three-and-a-half-minute 1901 UK version called Scrooge, Or Marley's Ghost on You Tube (see below).  Both are pretty good.  The 1910 version has the added interest of featuring Charles Ogle as Bob Cratchit-- Ogle played Frankenstein's monster in Edison's March 1910 film.

Centennials 2010

As the years go by, the number of interesting centennials in the world of movies is on the rise, with all of the great studio players and film directors of the 1930s-50s reaching their 100th. Below is a list of some of the most notable (and a few other related ones). As always, revival houses and museums often base film festivals around centennials— would be cool to see a David Niven, Akira Kurosawa, or Gloria Stuart series.


Centennials '10:

January 12: Luise Rainer, actress
February 3: Robert Earl Jones, actor (d. 2006)
February 27: Joan Bennett, actress (d. 1990)
March 1: David Niven, actor (d. 1983) (photo, above)
March 8: Claire Trevor, actress (d. 2000)
March 23: Akira Kurosawa, director (d. 1998) (photo, above)
March 24: Richard Conte, actor (d. 1975)
March 28: Jimmie Dodd, actor (d. 1964)
April 23: Simone Simon, actress (d. 2005)
April 24: Albert Zugsmith, producer (d. 1993)
May 3: Norman Corwin, writer
May 6: Mary Loos, writer (d. 2004)
May 15: Constance Cummings, actress (d. 2005)
May 23: Scatman Crothers, actor (d. 1986)
June 3: Paulette Goddard, actress (d. 1990)
June 10: Robert Cummings, actor (d. 1990)
June 11: Carmine Coppola, composer (d. 1991)
June 11: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, underwater explorer-documentarian (d. 1997)
June 13: Mary Wickes, actress (d. 1995)
June 14: William H. Reynolds, editor (d. 1997)
June 29: Frank Loesser, songwriter-composer (d. 1969)
July 4: Gloria Stuart, actress
July 10: Bert Granet, producer (d.2002)
July 12: William Hanna, producer (d. 2001)
July 17: Barbara O'Neil, actress (d. 1980)
August 4: Anita Page, actress (d. 2008)
August 8: Sylvia Sidney, actress (d. 1999)
August 12: Jane Wyatt, actress (d. 2006)
August 15: Signe Hasso, actress (d. 2002)
August 16: Mae Clarke, actress (d. 1992)
September 3: Kitty Carlisle Hart, actress (d. 2007)
September 14: Jack Hawkins, actor (d. 1973)
September 19: Jesse Lasky, Jr., screenwriter (d. 1988)
September 29: Virginia Bruce, actress (d. 1982)
November 14: Rosemary DeCamp, actress (d. 2001)
December 4: Alex North, composer (d. 1991)
December 5: Abraham Polonsky, writer-director (d. 1999)
December 13: Van Heflin, actor (d. 1971)
December 13: Lillian Roth, actress (d. 1980)
December 20: Cary Odell, art director (d. 1988)
December 31: Roy Rowland, film director (d. 1995)

Centennials 2009

As the years go by, the number of interesting centennials in the world of movies is on the rise, with all of the great studio players and film directors of the 1930s-50s reaching their 100th. Below is a list of some of the most notable (and a few other related ones), several of which will find themselves as blog entries from me this year. As always, revival houses and museums often base film festivals around centennials— would be cool to see a Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius & Philip Epstein, Elia Kazan, or Robert Ryan series.

Jan 1: Dana Andrews
Jan 3: Victor Borge
Jan 14: Joseph Losey
Jan 22: Ann Sothern
Jan 24: Ann Todd
Feb 3: Dorothy Spencer
Feb 9: Carmen Miranda
Feb 11: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feb 16: Hugh Beaumont
April 5: Albert R. Broccoli
April 20: George Tomasini
April 29: Tom Ewell
May 4: Howard Da Silva
May 15: James Mason
May 16: Margaret Sullavan
May 26: Richard Maibaum
May 27: Dolores Hope (still alive)
May 30: Benny Goodman
June 20: Errol Flynn [photo, above]
June 22: Buddy Adler
June 22: Mike Todd
June 26: Wolfgang Reitherman
June 28: Eric Ambler
July 4: Robert Burks
July 14: Annabella
July 26: Vivian Vance
August 18: Marcel Carne
August 22: Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein
August 25: Ruby Keeler
August 25: Michael Rennie
September 7: Elia Kazan
September 13: Herbert Berghof
September 22: Allan Lane
September 28: Al Capp
October 10: Robert F. Boyle (still alive)
October 20: Carla Laemmle (still alive)
November 11: Robert Ryan
November 13: Gunnar Bjornstrand
November 18: Johnny Mercer
November 26: Frances Dee
November 27: James Agee
December 7: Arch Oboler
December 9: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
December 10: Hermes Pan
December 12: Karen Morley

D. W. Griffith's Screen Debut- "The Adventures of Dollie" Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary

Griffith's first film as a director was released today in 1908. This short film can be seen on YouTube. It's not much, but has enough drama to get you through a viewing based on its historical significance (mute the score that's been attached though).

Ian Fleming Centenary

James Bond creator Ian Fleming would have been 100 years old today. His fictional character is certainly one of the most famous in the world. To celebrate the occasion, the Fleming estate commissioned Sebastian (Charlotte Gray) Faulks to write a new Bond novel, which is out now, Devil May Care. I flipped through it and it looks interesting (although I think the book itself is lacking a bit in presentation).






I have read all of Fleming's Bond novels and I have several favorites: Casino Royale (a terrific "first" novel which can be read in one sitting), Live and Let Die(one of his most descriptive), Moonraker (a great book of which none was used for the movie), From Russia With Love (faithfully adapted into one of the best 007 movies of the series, if not the best), and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (perhaps the best of Fleming's novels).

James Stewart Centenary

James Stewart would have been 100 years old today. Stewart was one of the screen's greatest natural actors. Little in the way of scandal entered his life (an affair with Grace Kelly has always been speculated-- hard to judge anyone on that though, if it were true!).

His most well-known roles are his performances for Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock— and these are possibly his best. He was overlooked for an Oscar for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, so they gave it to him the next year for The Philadelphia Story (this make-up Oscar tradition began with Bette Davis' win for Dangerous following her slight for Of Human Bondage). And Mr. Smith is a tour de force for Stewart ("I guess this is just another lost cause Mr. Payne.") topped only by It's A Wonderful Life (the post WWII maturity having sunk into Stewart). The war years gave Stewart the depth to make the Anthony Mann westerns in the 1950s.

His four Hitchcocks— Rope, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo— represent a tremendous range. Would it not been for Stewart, Hitchcock's Vertigo might not be vying for Sight and Sound's #1 slot... the upsetting of Citizen Kane is on the horizon for 2012.

When I came to Los Angeles, Stewart was still alive and he was #1 on my list to see in person-- it never happened. I went to see An American Tail: Fievel Goes West specifically because it was Stewart's first movie "role" in years. When it turned out to be his swan song, it became my only Stewart movie seen theatrically.

Like Orson Welles is inextricably attached to those "sell no wine before its time" ads in his last years, Stewart was all about those poems he read on Carson in the '80s. Here's one from YouTube, the one about his dog (if you know any of them it's this one):



Someone also posted his What's My Line? appearance (of course the panel gets it in two minutes):

Bette Davis Centenary

Bette Davis would have been 100 today. And she'd probably still have been working. And she certainly would have had a zinger about turning 100 to say to the press. Her famous quote "old age ain't for sissies," will have to do.

When Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989, the subsequent announcement of her death had the justified weight of a "big star" passing. It was almost surprising since, despite her old age and health problems, she seemed unstoppable. I had only just gotten into classic films when she died but I remember the press coverage well.

And at the movie theater where I saw ever single new movie that came (they only had two screens!), a poster soon went up for Wicked Stepmother. This was Bette Davis' swan song. An unfortunate one, said the critics. Despite the appearance of the poster at the theater though, the movie never came. So I never saw a Bette Davis film theatrically in the time of its release.

Bette Davis had an interesting career. Her "comeback" (although she was only just past 40) in All About Eve remains her most enduring work. But there are so many other great performances and films: Of Human Bondage (1934), The Petrified Forest (1936), Jezebel (1938), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), and maybe my favorite Bette Davis film Now, Voyager (1942).

There are a few stinker vehicles, including some of her most famous films, like Dark Victory (1939). Dark Victory is about a headstrong socialite who won’t accept that she’s ill and a laugh-out-loud sequence occurs early on when Davis' character, in denial, goes bounding off, telling everyone she doesn’t need a doctor and then tumbles down the stairs! And it goes from on from there...

Davis said that she should have been the first actress to have won three Oscars, with a win for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? I agree with her. She should have won. It's particularly disappointing in retrospect since it was really the last notable performance of her career (Anne Bancroft, who did win, should've won later for The Graduate).

Bette Davis is buried at Forest Lawn, and as she'd wanted, her tombstone reads, "She did it the hard way."

Sir David Lean Centenary

Director David Lean was born 100 years ago today. Lean's name has become synonymous with the epic (moreso than even Cecil B. DeMille nowadays) and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is easily considered one of the greatest films of the 20th century and possibly the most deserving winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture.


I first became aware of David Lean when he was given the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1990. Lean had returned to filmmaking with A PASSAGE TO INDIA in 1984 and LAWRENCE received a complete restoration in 1988. Watching the AFI special, I was amazed at the movies David Lean had made. I had only been watching classic films for a few years, but hadn't come across Lean yet and clearly, here was a director I had to get to know. (The photo above is one of my favorites: Lean on location for BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER with actors Nigel Patrick and Ann Todd.)

Lean's early films are highlighted by the Dickens' adaptations of GREAT EXPECTATIONS (a film school staple) and OLIVER TWIST and the delightful BLITHE SPIRIT. Among these early films, is my favorite David Lean movie: BRIEF ENCOUNTER. It's perfectly constructed with an unforgettable central performance by Celia Johnson (Lean, Johnson, and Trevor Howard are on set in photo). And I guess there is just something about the idea that any great romance can't last.

Lean's '50s films gradually get more ambitious. SUMMERTIME is a particular favorite of mine from this period. I'm partial to Kate Hepburn, so the film holds up to repeat viewings perhaps more for me than it might some others.

I accept LAWRENCE OF ARABIA as Lean's supreme achievement, although I find THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI much more exciting on an entertainment level. Lean was devastated with the reception of 1970s RYAN'S DAUGHTER, but, although it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, it was just too intimate a story for the epic treatment, and I agree with the critics that it was a misfire.

In 1990, the talk was about Lean's upcoming film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's NOSTROMO. Robert Bolt was onboard as screenwriter and (I later read) Guy Williams was hired as back-up director in case Lean (in his 80s and diagnosed with throat cancer) wasn't able to finish the film. Just as I followed any mention of a new Stanley Kubrick film from about this time to his eventual delivery of EYES WIDE SHUT in 1999, I followed each lead on NOSTROMO— except it turned out to be a lost cause. I remember seeing David Lean's picture in the top right corner box of the USA TODAY and rushing up to it to see if it was more news of NOSTROMO only to see, to my dismay, that it was for Lean's obituary (in April 1991).

So I never got to see a David Lean film theatrically at the time of its initial release. But I did see the restored LAWRENCE when it made the rounds. And I also have a fun memory of going to a revival of THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. The screening was running late and I found myself, with my friends, whistling the "Colonel Bogey March." Before long the whole audience joined in, until the film began to roll!

Centennials 2008

As the years go by, the number of interesting centennials in the world of movies is on the rise, with all of the great studio players and film directors of the 1930s-50s reaching their 100th. Below is a list of some of the most notable, several of which will find themselves as blog entries from me this year. As always, revival houses and museums often base film festivals around centennials— I'm particulalry looking forward to the inevitable Bette Davis, James Stewart, Ian Fleming, and David Lean ones.



Centennials '08:

Jan. 10: Bernard Lee
Jan. 16: Ethel Merman
Feb. 1: George Pal
Feb. 22: John Mills
Feb. 26: Tex Avery
Mar. 7: Anna Magnani
Mar. 13: Paul Stewart ("I tell you about Rosebud.")
Mar. 16: Robert Rossen
Mar. 17: Brigitte Helm
Mar. 20: Michael Redgrave
Mar. 25: David Lean
Apr. 2: Buddy Ebsen
Apr. 5: Bette Davis
Apr. 28: Carl Laemmle, Jr.
Apr. 28: Oskar Schindler
May 6: Lucien Ballard
May 20: James Stewart
May 26: Robert Morley
May 28: Ian Fleming
May 30: Mel Blanc
May 31: Don Ameche
Jun. 23: Erik Barnouw
Jul. 1: Peg Entwhistle
Jul. 12: Milton Berle
Jul. 19: Lupe Velez
Aug. 9: A. I. Bezzerides
Aug. 30: Fred MacMurray
Sep. 4: Edward Dmytryk
Oct. 5: Joshua Logan
Oct. 6: Carole Lombard
Nov. 18: Imogene Coca
Nov. 28: Carl Levi-Strauss
Dec. 11: Manoel de Oliveira (still alive)
Dec 28: Lew Ayres