Eight 1950s Oscar Nominated (Male) Actors Left

Today came the news that Tony Curtis and Joe Mantell died, Best Actor nominee 1958 and Best Supporting Actor nominee 1955, respectively. This leaves just eight (male) actors left among 1950s Oscar nominees, as follows— Best Actor nominees (three): Ernest Borgnine [the last male '50s Oscar winner; photo], Kirk Douglas, and Sidney Poitier. Best Supporting Actor nominees: Don Murray, Mickey Rooney, Russ Tamblyn, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Vaughn. Surprising how few remain.

New "At the Movies": The Return of Roger Ebert

Good News!  At the Movies is back.  The piece of the pilot that's available online (below) is very encouraging.  If you get Ebert's annual, you see that he's extremely well-informed as to what movie fans spend their time doing/thinking, in addition to the latest in moviemaking techniques.  That's suggested in this new program which combines various features to the usual movie reviewing.



My only question is why isn't Ebert using the computerized voice that matches his own (as he demonstrated on Oprah) and instead has that Stephen Hawking-like "voice."

Show starts in January... I'll be watching!

Four Surviving Cast Members (Speaking Parts) Remain From "Gone With the Wind"

With the passing of Cammie King at the age of 76, just four cast members with speaking parts are left from the all-time classic Hollywood epic Gone With the Wind (according to all available sources online).  As "Bonnie Blue Butler," she was Scarlett and Rhett's daughter.  She first appears at 187 minutes into the film [1 hour 19 min into DVD 2] Cammie King obit at pressdemocrat.

Although in previous blog entries, I noted Mary Anderson as living (per her IMDb and Wikipedia pages), it seems less and less likely that she is alive.  No one is actually claiming she is and when genarians.com didn't list her on their comprehensive living people born in 1920 list, I decided to drop my own claim herein.)

The surviving actors are as follows:

Alicia Rhett (b. 2/1/15) as "India Wilkes."  She is the young daughter from the Twelve Oaks Plantation.  She can be seen at 18 minutes into the film (using the 4-disc Collector's Edition DVD version of the movie as a guide).



Olivia de Havilland (b. 7/1/16) as "Melanie Hamilton."  De Havilland was fourth billed and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind.   She's first seen at 19 minutes into the film.



Ann Rutherford (b. 11/2/20) as "Carreen O'Hara."  She is the youngest sister of Scarlett.  She is first seen at 14 minutes into the film.




Mickey Kuhn (b. 9/21/32) as "Beau Wilkes."  Playing Ashley and Melanie's son, he appears toward the very end of the film (216 minutes into the approximately 223 minute film [1 hour 48 min into DVD 2])


Among the non-speaking parts is cast member Patrick Curtis who appeared at a screening of GWTW at the Motion Picture Academy last year— he played Beau Wilkes as a baby (and was therefore born c. 1938-39).

2011 Leonard Maltin Guide: Actors and Directors Index Adds

With the new Maltin Guide comes the addition of new names to the star/director index (and axing of others). Last year 21 people were cut and 12 added.  Oddly, this year, no one was cut and there were but 3 additions (all new Oscar nominees)!  I have no idea what this means.  It sounds as if the editors have just thrown in the towel on the index though, knowing the power of such searches online— at this point between smart phones and WiFi I guess the theory is: who really looks at the index.  But in a way it starts to relegate the book itself to a shelf ornament.  This was the first time that I really started to think that the print Maltin may be heading the way of the dodo bird.  Cutting them some slack though— maybe, just maybe, they didn't need to do much in the way of changes because of the wholesale work done last year.  Here are the few "graduates" of the class of 2009/10.

New "Faces" added to the Leonard Maltin Guide 2011 Index:

STARS—

Colin Firth

Woody Harrelson

DIRECTORS—

Kathryn Bigelow

2011 Leonard Maltin Guide Is Out!

Every year I greatly anticipate Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. His capsule reviews and ratings set the standard for how a film will be seen by future generations.   As I've reported each year, the last several Maltin Guides have been VERY sparing in giving out the **** rating— practically unattainable for new releases, last year I noticed but three films were **** rated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, and Slumdog Millionaire; this year I didn't spot ANY **** additions!



Here's how my top ten 2009 stacked up against the Maltin Guide's ratings:

Inglourious Basterds (d. Quentin Tarantino) (** 1/2) [my #1, rest alpha]
Capitalism: A Love Story (d. Michael Moore) (***)
District 9 (d. Neill Blomkamp) (*** 1/2)
The Hurt Locker (d. Kathryn Bigelow) (*** 1/2)
I Love You, Man (d. John Hamburg) (** 1/2)
Julie & Julia (d. Nora Ephron) (***)
Nine (d. Rob Marshall) (***)
Paranormal Activity (d. Oren Peli) (***)
Up (d. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson) (*** 1/2)
World’s Greatest Dad (d. Bobcat Golthwait) (***)

Best of the Year So Far: Midyear 2010

Several years back I realized that I had trouble diferentiating between the movies I liked and the movies I loved from the early part of the year. Roger Ebert has always suggested that this was true of the Academy and why the Oscars have such "short attention span." He recommended a midyear ballot to go along with the end-of-the-year ballot combining both to create the nominations list.

For me, I decided a top 5 usually works. I wait until July 15, since the first few weeks of January are generally a wash for new releases, and so 7/15 is a little closer to the mid-point. This year, although I had many "nominees" for the top 5, I found it very easy to pick the top 5.

I have thirteen "nominees" for my top 5 this year— just two at the top, i.e. "must see" (Exit and Youth). This years nominees (films I'd seen by 7/15 that made my "must see" and "recommended" categories) include: Alice in Wonderland, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Get Him to the Greek, The Ghost Writer, How to Train Your Dragon, Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass, MacGruber, A Prophet, The Runaways, Toy Story 3, Valentine's Day, and Youth in Revolt.

My top 5 2010 so far (listed alphabetically):
Exit Through the Gift Shop
The Ghost Writer
The Runaways
Kick-Ass
Youth in Revolt

Connery Returns to the Big Screen in Animated Feature

Nice to see Sean Connery in his first feature film in seven years— the animated feature Sir Billi.  Although the comments posted by fans on You Tube (on the trailer clip) are a little harsh, I can see it being at least modestly successful.  My only issue is that Connery, just shy of 80, may not be in another movie.  This has always annoyed me about major stars... like when James Stewart chose to end his career with An American Tail 2 and Paul Newman's swan song turned out to be Cars.  Although in both of these cases (as well as the Connery movie) they were all spins on these actors personas, I think any legendary personality should at least chose some high profile supporting part to retire on.  Below, an embed of the Sir Billi trailer and Connery being interviewed about taking the part.