Those who fought in World War II are considered the Greatest Generation. And executive producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman paid homage to these young men who risked life and limb during the global conflict in their award-winning 2001 HBO series “Band of Brothers” and 2010’s “The Pacific.” And now they’ve taken to the not-so-friendly skies in their latest World War II series, Apple TV +’s “Masters of the Air.”
Created by John Shiban and John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” is based on the 2007 book: “Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany,” the series starring Austin Butler focuses on the 8th Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group stationed in England. It was known as the “Bloody Hundredth” because of the high causalty rate.
Watching the series, one can’t help but remember the numerous bombardier films produced by Hollywood...
Created by John Shiban and John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” is based on the 2007 book: “Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany,” the series starring Austin Butler focuses on the 8th Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group stationed in England. It was known as the “Bloody Hundredth” because of the high causalty rate.
Watching the series, one can’t help but remember the numerous bombardier films produced by Hollywood...
- 2/5/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Noreen Nash, a starlet of the 1940s and ’50s who appeared in such notable films as The Southerner, Giant and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, has died. She was 99.
Nash died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills, her oldest son, Lee Siegel Jr., told The Hollywood Reporter.
Nash worked on about two dozen features during her two-decade career, including several “B” pictures like Phantom From Space (1953), where she portrayed an abducted scientist in a movie shot at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
The blue-eyed, dark-haired Nash also starred as the wife of an owner of a Palm Springs tennis club on the CBS summer replacement series The Charles Farrell Show — it stood in for I Love Lucy in 1956 — and appeared on episodes of Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show, My Little Margie, Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.
Nash played the...
Nash died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills, her oldest son, Lee Siegel Jr., told The Hollywood Reporter.
Nash worked on about two dozen features during her two-decade career, including several “B” pictures like Phantom From Space (1953), where she portrayed an abducted scientist in a movie shot at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
The blue-eyed, dark-haired Nash also starred as the wife of an owner of a Palm Springs tennis club on the CBS summer replacement series The Charles Farrell Show — it stood in for I Love Lucy in 1956 — and appeared on episodes of Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show, My Little Margie, Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.
Nash played the...
- 6/8/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
You can tell it’s film noir — even the cabin cruiser has Venetian blinds. Ernest Hemingway’s favorite film adaptation of his work is this uncompromised story of a good man taking a criminal course on the high seas. John Garfield is again ‘one man alone’ against the system, and the moral quicksand all but swallows up Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter and Wallace Ford.
The Breaking Point
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 889
1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung, Peter Brocco, John Doucette.
Cinematography: Ted D. McCord
Film Editor: Alan Crosland Jr.
Original Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner
Written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Michael Curtiz
After...
The Breaking Point
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 889
1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung, Peter Brocco, John Doucette.
Cinematography: Ted D. McCord
Film Editor: Alan Crosland Jr.
Original Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner
Written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Michael Curtiz
After...
- 7/22/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hal Roach looks on as technicians install Vitaphone equipment in his studio screening room, ca. 1928. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) 'A Century of Sound': Q&A with former UCLA Preservation Officer Robert Gitt about the evolution of film sound technology Long before multi-track Dolby stereo and digital sound technology, there were the Kinetophone and the Vitaphone systems – not to mention organ and piano players at movie houses. Much of that is discussed in A Century of Sound, which chronicles the evolution of film sound from the late 19th century to the mid-1970s. A Century of Sound has been split into two parts, with a third installment currently in the planning stages. They are: Vol. 1, “The Beginning, 1876-1932,” which came out on DVD in 2007. Vol. 2, “The Sound of Movies: 1933-1975,” which came out on Blu-ray in 2015. The third installment will bring the presentation into the 21st century.
- 1/26/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“Dalton Trumbo was an American patriot, but his defense of our freedom of speech made him a traitor in some people’s eyes,” director Jay Roach says. “One of the great questions that the film asks is how we as a country got to a place where it seemed right to send someone like Trumbo to jail and prevent him from writing.”
In never before seen interviews with Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Nikola Trumbo and Diane Lane, watch the new featurette about the legendary and infamous screenwriter from Trumbo.
In the 1940s, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is one of the highest paid screenwriters in the world, penning movie classics including the Oscar-nominated Kitty Foyle and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
A fixture on the Hollywood social scene, and a political activist supporting labor unions, equal pay and civil rights, Trumbo and his colleagues are subpoenaed to testify in front of the...
In never before seen interviews with Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Nikola Trumbo and Diane Lane, watch the new featurette about the legendary and infamous screenwriter from Trumbo.
In the 1940s, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is one of the highest paid screenwriters in the world, penning movie classics including the Oscar-nominated Kitty Foyle and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
A fixture on the Hollywood social scene, and a political activist supporting labor unions, equal pay and civil rights, Trumbo and his colleagues are subpoenaed to testify in front of the...
- 10/21/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Toronto – The damage the House Un-American Activities committee wrought between 1938 and 1975 was unconscionable. As the Cold War heated up thousands of innocent citizens were accused of being members of or sympathetic to the Communist Party and this committee was responsible for much of the hysteria. The witch-hunt hit Hollywood hard and after a number of hearings prompted the infamous blacklist, an unofficial designation that denied work to anyone in the industry with suspected communist ties. There was one man who is credited as bringing the blacklist down, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and his story is chronicled in Jay Roach’s new biopic “Trumbo.” Something tells us if Trumbo were alive today he might pass along some script notes to Roach and writer John McNamara. In theory, “Trumbo” is an incredible true story that should be prime fodder for a great movie. Before the blacklist, Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was one of the...
- 9/17/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
Robert Walker: Actor in MGM films of the '40s. Robert Walker: Actor who conveyed boy-next-door charms, psychoses At least on screen, I've always found the underrated actor Robert Walker to be everything his fellow – and more famous – MGM contract player James Stewart only pretended to be: shy, amiable, naive. The one thing that made Walker look less like an idealized “Average Joe” than Stewart was that the former did not have a vacuous look. Walker's intelligence shone clearly through his bright (in black and white) grey eyes. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” programming, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating today, Aug. 9, '15, to Robert Walker, who was featured in 20 films between 1943 and his untimely death at age 32 in 1951. Time Warner (via Ted Turner) owns the pre-1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library (and almost got to buy the studio outright in 2009), so most of Walker's movies have...
- 8/9/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'The Beginning or the End' 1947 with Robert Walker and Tom Drake. Hiroshima bombing 70th anniversary: Six movies dealing with the A-bomb terror Seventy years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Ultimately, anywhere between 70,000 and 140,000 people died – in addition to dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and most other living beings in that part of the world. Three days later, America dropped a second atomic bomb, this time over Nagasaki. Human deaths in this other city totaled anywhere between 40,000-80,000. For obvious reasons, the evisceration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been a quasi-taboo in American films. After all, in the last 75 years Hollywood's World War II movies, from John Farrow's Wake Island (1942) and Mervyn LeRoy's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) to Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001), almost invariably have presented a clear-cut vision...
- 8/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston will play blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Jay Roach's indie drama "Trumbo" at Groundswell Productions.
Trumbo was a high in-demand screenwriter with films like "Kitty Foyle," "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, "Roman Holiday," "Spartacus," "Exodus" and "Papillon".
He was also a member of the U.S. Communist Party USA and refused to give information to McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities. He became part of 'Hollywood 10', a group of screenwriters blacklisted by the studios.
John McNamara penned the Trumbo script based on Bruce Cook's 1977 book. Michael London will produce and shooting will begin next year.
Source: THR...
Trumbo was a high in-demand screenwriter with films like "Kitty Foyle," "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, "Roman Holiday," "Spartacus," "Exodus" and "Papillon".
He was also a member of the U.S. Communist Party USA and refused to give information to McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities. He became part of 'Hollywood 10', a group of screenwriters blacklisted by the studios.
John McNamara penned the Trumbo script based on Bruce Cook's 1977 book. Michael London will produce and shooting will begin next year.
Source: THR...
- 9/19/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Before you read this column today, go watch Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride or A Guy Named Joe, or Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, or Bad Day At Black Rock, or Adam’s Rib, or Judgment At Nuremberg, or Inherit The Wind.
Katherine Hepburn said to Spencer Tracy “you were, really, the greatest movie actor. I say this because I believe it and I’ve heard so many people of standing in our business say it – from Olivier to Lee Strasberg, David Lean, name it. You could do it, and you could do it with that glorious simplicity, that directness.” Elizabeth Taylor said, “His acting seemed almost effortless, it seemed almost as if he wasn’t doing anything, and yet he was doing everything. It came so subtly out of his eyes, every muscle in his face…” Richard Widmark said “It’s what every actor tries to strive for – to make it so simple,...
Katherine Hepburn said to Spencer Tracy “you were, really, the greatest movie actor. I say this because I believe it and I’ve heard so many people of standing in our business say it – from Olivier to Lee Strasberg, David Lean, name it. You could do it, and you could do it with that glorious simplicity, that directness.” Elizabeth Taylor said, “His acting seemed almost effortless, it seemed almost as if he wasn’t doing anything, and yet he was doing everything. It came so subtly out of his eyes, every muscle in his face…” Richard Widmark said “It’s what every actor tries to strive for – to make it so simple,...
- 4/29/2013
- by Mindy Newell
- Comicmix.com
Hollywood actor known for playing wholesome wives and Ma Kent in Superman
Although Phyllis Thaxter, who has died aged 92, had a successful career in films throughout the 1940s and 50s, many will remember her for her last movie role, in Superman (1978). It was the small but key part of Ma Kent, the childless farmer's wife who adopts a foundling baby and names him Clark. Together with her husband (Glenn Ford) – both made intentionally to resemble the couple in Grant Wood's American Gothic painting – they bring up the abnormally physically gifted boy until he's ready to fly off "to fight for truth, justice and the American way".
At one stage, she tells him: "We Kents don't like show-offs, ain't that so? A body's got to be humble even if he knows that he's better'n his neighbours." A fragile beauty, Thaxter was never a show-off, but made an impact in a gentle way,...
Although Phyllis Thaxter, who has died aged 92, had a successful career in films throughout the 1940s and 50s, many will remember her for her last movie role, in Superman (1978). It was the small but key part of Ma Kent, the childless farmer's wife who adopts a foundling baby and names him Clark. Together with her husband (Glenn Ford) – both made intentionally to resemble the couple in Grant Wood's American Gothic painting – they bring up the abnormally physically gifted boy until he's ready to fly off "to fight for truth, justice and the American way".
At one stage, she tells him: "We Kents don't like show-offs, ain't that so? A body's got to be humble even if he knows that he's better'n his neighbours." A fragile beauty, Thaxter was never a show-off, but made an impact in a gentle way,...
- 8/17/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Superman actress Phyllis Thaxter has died at the age of 90. Thaxter, who passed away in her Florida home following a long battle with Alzheimer's, is best known for her role playing Clark Kent's mother in Richard Donner's 1978 film. The actress was also recognised for her parts in Bewitched, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Act of Violence, and worked on Broadway earlier in her career. "She was one of the most beautiful and patrician icons of the (more)...
- 8/16/2012
- by By Mark Langshaw
- Digital Spy
Phyllis Thaxter, who played Superman's mother in the 1978 blockbuster starring Christopher Reeve, has died at age 90.
According to her daughter, actress Skye Aubrey, Thaxter passed away Tuesday (Aug. 14) at her Florida home after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Thaxter's debuted on the big screen in the 1944 wartime flick "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" as a contract actress for MGM, where her other notable films include "Bewitched," "Week-End at the Waldorf," 1947's "The Sea of Grass" with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn and "Act of Violence."
She then signed with Warner Brothers, appearing alongside John Garfield and Patricia Neal in "The Breaking Point" (1950); her other credits for the studio include "Springfield Rifle" (1952) with Gary Cooper, "Jim Thorpe -- All-American" (1951), with Burt Lancaster and "She's Working Her Way Through College" (1952) with Ronald Reagan.
Although Thaxter's big-screen career was derailed when she contracted polio in 1952, but she found regular work on television on such series as "Lux Video Theatre,...
According to her daughter, actress Skye Aubrey, Thaxter passed away Tuesday (Aug. 14) at her Florida home after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Thaxter's debuted on the big screen in the 1944 wartime flick "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" as a contract actress for MGM, where her other notable films include "Bewitched," "Week-End at the Waldorf," 1947's "The Sea of Grass" with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn and "Act of Violence."
She then signed with Warner Brothers, appearing alongside John Garfield and Patricia Neal in "The Breaking Point" (1950); her other credits for the studio include "Springfield Rifle" (1952) with Gary Cooper, "Jim Thorpe -- All-American" (1951), with Burt Lancaster and "She's Working Her Way Through College" (1952) with Ronald Reagan.
Although Thaxter's big-screen career was derailed when she contracted polio in 1952, but she found regular work on television on such series as "Lux Video Theatre,...
- 8/16/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
The Hollywood Reporter confirms the sad news that Phyllis Thaxter died on Tuesday at her in Florida after what they describe as, "a long bout with Alzheimer's." The actress will be best known to comic book fans for playing Ma Kent in Richard Donner's Superman over 30 years ago. "She was one of the most beautiful and patrician icons of the golden age of movies, TV and theater," veteran movie critic Rex Reed told the site. Thaxter was also known for roles in the likes of Bewitched, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Act of Violence.
- 8/15/2012
- ComicBookMovie.com
Memorial Day 2011 is here and while we should all take time to thank a veteran and active servicemen and women, it also means for us TVphiles - lots of good programming. So either settle in with some popcorn or make sure your DVR is ready to go.
There are movie marathons. Syfy is busting out its greatest hits in the giant monster oeuvre on Friday, followed by "Star Trek" movies all weekend. TCM and AMC are showing nothing but military movies, including classics like "All Quiet on the Western Front," "From Here to Eternity" and "Patton."
If marathons are your thing, you've got everything from "Firefly" and "Doctor Who" to "House Hunters" and "How It's Made." And if you're a sports fan, while the NBA playoffs are on hiatus, you can still watch a ton of baseball, the 2011 French Open or the annual Memorial Day race the Indianapolis 500.
Zap2it...
There are movie marathons. Syfy is busting out its greatest hits in the giant monster oeuvre on Friday, followed by "Star Trek" movies all weekend. TCM and AMC are showing nothing but military movies, including classics like "All Quiet on the Western Front," "From Here to Eternity" and "Patton."
If marathons are your thing, you've got everything from "Firefly" and "Doctor Who" to "House Hunters" and "How It's Made." And if you're a sports fan, while the NBA playoffs are on hiatus, you can still watch a ton of baseball, the 2011 French Open or the annual Memorial Day race the Indianapolis 500.
Zap2it...
- 5/27/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:4
War is a nation’s ultimate commitment of blood and treasure. As such, the stories a people tells about its wars – and don’t tell – and the ways it remembers its wars – or chooses to forget them – tells us much about the kind of people they consider themselves to be at different times in their history, as well as the kind of people they really were…and are.
For most of the 20th century, the war film was a Hollywood staple. From one era to the next, war movies documented the nation’s conflicts, reflected the national consciousness on particular combats as well as on thinking going far beyond any one, particular war. They’ve been propagandistic and revisionist,...
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:4
War is a nation’s ultimate commitment of blood and treasure. As such, the stories a people tells about its wars – and don’t tell – and the ways it remembers its wars – or chooses to forget them – tells us much about the kind of people they consider themselves to be at different times in their history, as well as the kind of people they really were…and are.
For most of the 20th century, the war film was a Hollywood staple. From one era to the next, war movies documented the nation’s conflicts, reflected the national consciousness on particular combats as well as on thinking going far beyond any one, particular war. They’ve been propagandistic and revisionist,...
- 5/22/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Van Johnson, the freckled, red-haired heartthrob of the ‘40s, who attempted to shake his boy-next-door image during the ‘50s in a slew of films, died Friday at 92, of natural causes, in Nyack, New York.
- 12/14/2008
- IMDb News
Hollywood veteran Van Johnson has died at the age of 92.
The actor - who rose to fame in the 1940s - died of natural causes at a New York assisted living center on Friday.
Johnson became known for his all-American charm on screen in the 1940s and 50s, which earned him the nickname "the non-singing Sinatra".
His silver screen credits include A Guy Named Joe, The Caine Mutiny and 30 Seconds over Tokyo.
Johnson returned to his theatrical roots in the 1960s, with a role in Damn Yankees and a stint in The Music Man on London's West End.
His television credits also include The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and McMillan + Wife.
In the 1980s, Johnson appeared on Broadway in Jerry Herman musical La Cage aux Folles, which he followed up with a small role in Woody Allen's 1985 movie The Purple Rose of Cairo.
He is survived by a daughter, Schuyler, from his late ex-wife Eve Lynn Abbott Wynn.
The actor - who rose to fame in the 1940s - died of natural causes at a New York assisted living center on Friday.
Johnson became known for his all-American charm on screen in the 1940s and 50s, which earned him the nickname "the non-singing Sinatra".
His silver screen credits include A Guy Named Joe, The Caine Mutiny and 30 Seconds over Tokyo.
Johnson returned to his theatrical roots in the 1960s, with a role in Damn Yankees and a stint in The Music Man on London's West End.
His television credits also include The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and McMillan + Wife.
In the 1980s, Johnson appeared on Broadway in Jerry Herman musical La Cage aux Folles, which he followed up with a small role in Woody Allen's 1985 movie The Purple Rose of Cairo.
He is survived by a daughter, Schuyler, from his late ex-wife Eve Lynn Abbott Wynn.
- 12/12/2008
- WENN
Trumbo, a documentary about blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, has been picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment.
The Peter Askin documentary, which premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be released theatrically in the spring. Goldwyn and Red Envelope jointly acquired the movie, with Goldwyn taking the lead on theatrical and Red Envelope spearheading home video. The two also bought U.S. television rights.
Trumbo examines the story of the scribe, who penned such 1940s movies as Kitty Foyle and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo before being called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee as part of the Hollywood Ten. He eventually was blacklisted and spent nearly a year in jail.
Trumbo continued writing during the blacklist, with so-called "front" names being credited. He was ultimately -- and sometimes posthumously -- credited with some of the most successful films of the mid-20th century, including Roman Holiday, The Brave One, Exodus and Spartacus.
The movie tells the story of the writer's life and his blacklist experience through the recollections of others as well as his own letters; among the actors featured are Brian Dennehy, Joan Allen and Nathan Lane.
The Peter Askin documentary, which premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be released theatrically in the spring. Goldwyn and Red Envelope jointly acquired the movie, with Goldwyn taking the lead on theatrical and Red Envelope spearheading home video. The two also bought U.S. television rights.
Trumbo examines the story of the scribe, who penned such 1940s movies as Kitty Foyle and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo before being called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee as part of the Hollywood Ten. He eventually was blacklisted and spent nearly a year in jail.
Trumbo continued writing during the blacklist, with so-called "front" names being credited. He was ultimately -- and sometimes posthumously -- credited with some of the most successful films of the mid-20th century, including Roman Holiday, The Brave One, Exodus and Spartacus.
The movie tells the story of the writer's life and his blacklist experience through the recollections of others as well as his own letters; among the actors featured are Brian Dennehy, Joan Allen and Nathan Lane.
- 12/7/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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