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Andhadhun Movie Review (2018): One Piano, many mysteries!

Ayushmann Khurrana and Radhika Apte in Andhadhun (Credit: Screenshot/Viacom 18 Motion Pictures)

Introduction

Sriram Raghavan directed the thriller movie Andhadhun, which was released on October 5, 2018. A crime thriller tone and a suspenseful, mysterious theme. The flick provides simple enjoyment. Like the trailer, the film looks good on screen, and it keeps the audience riveted to their seats until the end. Andhadhun, which is based on the 2010 French short film L'Accordeur (The Piano Tuner), has become so successful that it was made known by Director Sriram Raghavan the “father of suspense thriller movies.”Andhadhun cast Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan, Manav Vij, Ashwini Kalsekar, and Zakir Hussain in the key parts.

Plot

Andhadhun's movie tells the intriguing tale of a blind man who earns money by playing the piano. One day, while performing at Franco Bar, he meets a well-known actor. Subsequently, he graciously accepts an invitation to perform privately at the actor's home for his wedding anniversary. However, upon his arrival, he unexpectedly witnesses something that completely alters his life. But does the boy truly have blindness, or is he merely pretending? Furthermore, could he be in danger, and if so, how will he manage to escape? Moreover, why was a rabbit used in the story? To uncover all these mysteries, you need to watch the film.

Is Andhadhun based on a real story?

No, It's a fiction film.

Is Andhadhun hit or flop?

It is a super hit.

Is Andhadhun on Netflix?

Yes, It's on Netflix and Jio Cinema. You can stream Andhadhun by renting or purchasing on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, and YouTube.

Which Bollywood movie man pretends to be blind?

Andhadhun

Is Andhadhun 2 coming?

No, there was no plan for Andhadhun 2.

Is Andhadhun worth watching?

Yes, "Andhadhun" is universally regarded as worth watching, with acclaim for its compelling storyline, unexpected turns, outstanding performances by the actors (especially Tabu), and suspenseful atmosphere that keeps you guessing until the very end, making it a must-see for thriller fans.

Characters and Acting

In the role of Akash, Ayushmann Khurrana has delivered an amazing, vibrant, and outstanding performance. Without a doubt, this is the hardest role he has ever had in his career. Furthermore, he has put a lot of effort into playing the part of a blind person, even though it is not an easy one. By putting his whole self into the role, he has performed admirably and exceeded expectations. For this role, he won the National Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actor (Critics). Only after eight years of his film career has he accomplished such a remarkable feat. His shoulders bear the weight of the entire film. It's incredible how fresh and innovative his acting has become. He has demonstrated that if you give him a role, he will play it honestly by taking on a different kind of role. Although Tabu's performance in the role of Simi was quite different, it seems that she has portrayed similar roles in other movies. Nevertheless, she fully supported the development of this new role, showcasing her versatility. Furthermore, no one can match her level of experience as an artist, which adds depth to her performance. On the other hand, whatever part Radhika Apte played as Sophie, she did it brilliantly by experimenting with something different. Even though her role was relatively small, she performed exceptionally well. Similarly, Manav Vij, Ashwini Kelsekar, and Anil Dhawan—who made a friendly appearance on screen after a long absence—also performed admirably in their supporting roles. Moreover, Zakir Hussain provided valuable assistance in advancing the narrative, making the storyline even more compelling.

Direction

There is no need to introduce Andhadhun Director Sriram Raghavan. Even though Ek Haseena Thi (2004) was his debut movie, he is regarded as the master of suspense thrillers. Following this, whether it's Johnny Gaddar (2007), Agent Vinod (2012) and Badlapur (2015). He has directed all the films, some of which have been critical and commercial successes, we expected this one to be no different, and he completely met our expectations. His directing style is distinct from that of other directors in the motion picture business. In every department, his strength is evident. This movie has the potential to win numerous honors at this year's major film festivals, including the IIFA, Filmfare, National, and Screen Awards. He is an expert at filming movies and getting the characters to act; these skills are all part of his directing craft.

Story, Screenplay, and Dialogue

Sriram Raghavan has put in a lot of effort in this area, and Pooja Ladha Surti, who has been his partner since his debut movie, has also done a fantastic job in this film. In addition to Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, and Hemant M. Rao all contributed greatly to the writing of the story screenplay and dialogues, and I have not found any errors in it. The screenplay has been written with many layers. Pooja Ladha Surti is the editor. The superb editing of Surti is a feature of all of Sriram Raghavan's films. From start to finish, the movie moves swiftly. You are never bored by it, and you are unaware of its conclusion.

Music

The music of Amit Trivedi is excellent. Three or four of the songs are exceptional. He has composed incredibly catchy music, such as Naina Da Kya Kasoor, Laila Laila, Woh Ladki, and the mesmerizing tracks in Andhadhun Songs Parts 1, 2, and 3. Moreover, each composition enhances the narrative and keeps the audience engaged. Additionally, the variety in his music showcases his versatility as a composer.

Background Score

The film would not have been what it is now if the background score had been poor. As it is now made, the background score makes you feel something different while you watch the film. The largest USP is that Daniel B George has produced a unique type of background score.

Cinematography

The cinematography is expertly done by K U Mohanan. He did a great job bringing the story and the director's inventiveness to the screen. This cinematography is simply stunning.

Lyrics

Jaideep Sahni's lyrics are excellent as well.

Production Design

Snigdha Pankaj and Anita Donald's production design is excellent and exudes a positive vibe.

Sound Design

The sound design of Madhu Apsara, Ajay Kumar P B is unique, and when watching the film, you will hear crystal-clear sound in your ears. Whatever the circumstances in the film, seeing it demonstrates that such great sound is feasible.

Costume Design

Anita Shroff Adajania's clothing design is tailored to the tone and concept of the film, and all of the actors' dresses have been done differently and uniquely.

Action

Parvez Fazal Khan did not have much scope for action.

Viewpoint

You have to watch it. It gets less the more times you watch it. You can view it repeatedly.

Climax

The climax is expertly constructed. This is the first time we've seen a movie climax like this in a long time. Such a climax can also be found in his 2004 film Ek Haseena Thi.

Rating

8.5/10

Flaws

There is some clarity in the movie at the end. After the lift, what happens to Manav Vij? Furthermore, it's unclear if Akash is blind or if he's just pretending that way.

Filmfare Awards

The film received 11 nominations for the 64th Filmfare Awards, including Best Director, Best Film, Best Film (Critics), Best Actor, Best Actor (Critics), Best Actress, Best Actress (Critics), Best Screenplay, Best Background Score, Best Sound Design and Best Editing. And managed to win 5 awards. Best Actor (Critics), Best Film (Critics), Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Background Score.

National Awards

3 National Awards were successfully obtained. Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Hindi Film, and Best Actor, Ayushmann Khurrana. It ranks as the fourth-highest-earning Indian film of 2018. Additionally, it has been produced in 3 Indian regional languages. Bhramma (2021) Malayalam, Andhagan (2024) Andhadhun Tamil, and Maestro (2021) Telugu

Film Festival

Presented at the Indonesian Bandung Film Festival. Andhadhun full movie download dailymotion?You can watch Andhadhun, but it's not the complete movie it's 1.55 hours, but the real movie time is 2.17 hours.Andhadhun movie watch online hotstar?No, Andhadhun is not available on Disney+ Hotstar.Andhadhun movie download in telegram?NoAndhadhun full movie YouTube?You can rent or purchase Andhadhun on YouTube. Andhadhun movie download filmyzilla mp4moviez?A Piracy website, do not watch it over there. It gets you in trouble.Andhadhun Netflix?Yes, You can watch it on Netflix.Andhadhun a remake of which movie?2010 French short film L'Accordeur (The Piano Tuner)Andhadhun movie OTT?Yes, it is available to watch on OTT platforms.Andhadhun full movie?You can watch it on OTT Platforms.Andhadhun OTT?Yes, it is available to watch on OTT platforms. Cast of Andhadhun: Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte, Tabu, Anil Dhawan, Manav Vij, Ashwini Kelsekar, and Zakir Hussain CBFC-U/A Movie time: 2h18m Genre: Suspense Crime Drama Backdrop: Pune Release: 5 October 2018 Director: Sriram Raghavan, Producers: Kewal Garg, Sudhanshu Vats, Sanjay Routray, Ajit Andhare, Ashok Vasodia, Gaurav Nanda Sound Design: Madhu Apsara, Ajay Kumar P B, Costume Design: Anita Shroff Adajania, Music: Amit Trivedi Background Score: Daniel B George, Production Design: Snigdha Pankaj, Anita Donald, Editor: Pooja Ladha Surti Cinematography: K U Mohanan, Choreography: Vijay Ganguly, Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni, Guest Composers: Raftaar, Girish Nakod Story Screenplay & Dialogues: Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemant M Rao, Action: Parvez Fazal Khan Read the full article

[maacwanowrie]

What Can VFX Be Used For?

Movies and other forms of media could not produce the required effects without VFX. What would happen if Harry Potter were to be viewed without any special effects? The movie would appear typical. If you are an artist and wish to see your work on a big screen, Visual Effects aka VFX courses in Pune is a good career option for you. 

 Here are some things that visual effects can improve.

 Location

There are many movies that are made in the US yet have tales that take place somewhere else in the world. Filmmakers choose to do this because they want to conserve resources and money. A film team must be sent to a different site for a few shots, which is both prohibitively expensive and logistically problematic.

 Filmmakers may now use VFX to create images that feature well-known locations to help viewers understand where the scenario is taking place.

 Set

It takes a lot of effort, money, and time to build an entire set. The crew can construct the crucial set elements that the actor will interact with rather of having to construct the entire set, leaving the rest to VFX. The crew won't have to search for a big space for the set, which will save them time and money.

 The visual effects artist must first have a good understanding of the environment in order to identify the elements that are simpler to construct in reality and those that should be added after post-production. The fundamental guideline is that anything that performers will walk on, touch, cast shadows on, or reflect in needs to be built.

 Vehicles

In TV shows, advertisements, and motion pictures, it's fairly popular to create VFX for moving cars. Typically, green screen windows are used to film actors in vehicles like cars, trains, and planes; they are removed for VFX production. The driver of a car on the street must concentrate on acting rather than operating the vehicle. Film studios must also obtain a permission if they want to film on a public street because it needs to be blocked off to pedestrians and other vehicles. The production houses will save time by using VFX because this requires a lot of labour.

 Climate 

It's challenging to shoot in the rain, snow, day, or night because it necessitates renting lighting or paying actors and crew overtime. Additionally, there will be a decline in production quality. Shooting in clear conditions and then adding rain, snow, or other effects in post-production is the ideal option.

 Fire

Since no member of the film crew or actor wants to get hurt, setting the set on fire is extremely risky. Nobody wants to jeopardise their safety in order to make the shot. For fire sequences, visual effects are necessary because of this. Faster, less expensive, and most importantly, safer.

[dweemeister]

Jungle Book (1942)

For a few years in the early 1940s, a young actor of Indian descent was a household name among American moviegoers. His name was Sabu Dastagir (better known as simply “Sabu”), and he debuted in Robert Flaherty’s The Elephant Boy (1937). Sabu’s performance in The Elephant Boy was enough to convince Hungarian-British producer Alexander Korda to have the young Indian actor star in the 1940 remake of The Thief of Bagdad and, two years later, Jungle Book. Sabu did find film work after his two most iconic motion pictures, but these opportunities proved harder to find in the United States than in Britain. Almost eighty years later, Sabu remains only one of a handful of actors of South Asian descent to achieve even the briefest Hollywood stardom.

As an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, this is a Korda brothers’ production – eldest brother Alexander produces, middle brother Zoltan directs, and youngest brother Vincent is the art director. Many readers’ point of reference to Kipling’s work is most likely Disney’s animated musical from 1967. Compared to the Disney animated feature, the Korda Jungle Book, distributed by United Artists, is more interested in Mowgli’s interactions with humans, rather than the animals of the jungle. In a time when Technicolor was still relatively new, this Jungle Book contains some of the best use of color in an early 1940s movie. Beyond than the eye-catching palette and then-innovative visual effects, this Jungle Book loses its way anytime Sabu or the wildlife are not on-screen. The original source material, a reflection of Kipling’s imperialist and racist attitudes, also transfers some of those values to this screen adaptation (not related to the plot but in a similarly concerning development, Sabu is the only actor of South Asian descent in a cast almost entirely donning brownface).

In the prologue, an elderly Indian man named Buldeo (Joseph Calleia) regales his fellow villagers and anyone else in the area with tales of the past. When a British woman stop to listen, Buldeo begins the story of Mowgli and how the young boy, raised by wolves and a product of the jungle, came to reintegrate into human society. Unlike Disney’s two Jungle Book adaptations, the Korda Jungle Book cares more for Mowgli’s relationships with humans as opposed to that of the jungle animals. The tiger Shere Khan and the snake Kaa (voiced acted by Mel Blanc) garner plenty of screentime in the film’s closing scenes. But fans of Mowgli’s closest friends – the bear Baloo and the black panther Bagheera – might be disappointed, as they only have glorified cameos. In place of this focus on animals, this film spends ample time on Mowgli’s developing relationships with his mother Messua (Rosemary DeCamp), Buldeo, and Buldeo’s daughter Mahala (Patricia O’Rourke).

The exotified rural India that appears in Jungle Book overshadows most everything about this adaptation, including Sabu’s starring role. That Zoltan Korda, United Artists, and London Films felt no need to cast any other actors of South Asian descent for Jungle Book exemplifies the casual racism that permeates the narrative. The all-white cast playing noble half-savages or passive women is off-putting, fracturing one’s ability to feel as if the events on-screen are not taking place somewhere in sunny Southern California.

Jungle Book’s Indian setting came together at Lake Sherwood near Thousand Oaks, California and what is now known as Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood, which was then (and still remains) an independent production lot that hosts shoots for various television and cinematic works. Flown onto the sets were hundreds of fauna rented from local farms and zoos and tons of foliage (natural and synthetic), making the jungle scenes – despite the noticeable background or matte painting at times – feel vast and enclosing. And even though it is difficult to distinguish which scenes were shot indoors or outdoors, the amount of water, however improbably still it is in some parts, appearing in the film assists in immersing the audience into this dense environment. For all of the human settlements – in ruins or otherwise – production designers Vincent Korda and Julia Heron (1943’s Hangmen Also Die!, set decorator on 1960’s Spartacus) are not appealing to any sense of cultural understanding appropriateness. Yet the scope of their village and abandoned temple sets are tremendous, with an assist from the incredible matte paintings.

Cinematographers Lee Garmes (1933’s Shanghai Express, 1944’s Since You Went Away) and W. Howard Greene (1937’s A Star is Born, 1951’s When Worlds Collide) use of highly-saturated Technicolor features eye-catching images perfect for this unrealistic reality. Even in the darkest parts of the jungle, the explosion of emerald greens, cool blues, and other earthy colors feels anything but mute, a fantastical version of a rainforest brought to life. The jungle, despite the obvious artificialities in some of the foliage and fauna, almost becomes a character in the Korda Jungle Book. Other artificialities are a shade more convincing, most notably some of the effects required to capture animal movements. Using footage of both mechanical and actual animals alike, Garmes and Greene do their best to hide some strings and wires pulling along stunning mechanical snakes or to allow Bagheera and Shere Khan’s animal actors appear as if they are interacting with the events in the film. For the most dangerous animals that this production features, the black panther and tiger that played Bagheera and Shere Khan, respectively, were separated from the cameras by a glass barrier. This is immaculate visual effects footage, perhaps the film’s saving grace.

Contrast this with Laurence Stallings’ (1925’s The Big Parade, 1949’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) clunker of a screenplay. An inordinate amount of the dialogue is expository and declarative, and too many supporting characters speak in formalities with nary a shred of humor. Jungle Book’s narrative thus feels too formulaic, uptight, and unimaginative. When anyone other than Mowgli or the animals are on-screen, the film is a slog. Kipling’s literary influence on the film might not be apparent in how the humans speak, but it certainly comes through in the most perilous sequences in this movie – and that includes a scene of a forest fire that has to raise questions about animal endangerment on-set at a time with almost no laws against animal mistreatment on film shoots. The Kordas’ Jungle Book works best if seen as an extravagant picture book, but one wishes for Sabu, in a decent performance chockfull of glee, to talk a tad more to the animals.

Hungarian-American composer Miklós Rózsa (1940’s The Thief of Bagdad, 1959’s Ben-Hur) scores perhaps his best body of work owing to elements outside Western classical music. Rózsa’s score to Jungle Book is bolstered by the composer’s detailed research into Hindu music’s chord progressions and modes. His compositions and the orchestration come as close as possible to capturing the harmonic developments of Hindu music as one can while using a Western orchestra. Thus, one can imagine that the music for Jungle Book might be difficult for Indian and non-Indian audiences to appreciate. But as a harmonically complex take on Mowgli’s adventures in the jungle and among humans, this is a bold sound – occupying a space between the melodic demands and orchestration of the West and the wide-ranging tempo and virtuosic harmonic swirls found in classical Hindu music.

The closest analogue to the Kordas’ Jungle Book in this era of Hollywood history must have been the Tarzan series (1932-1948) starring Johnny Weissmuller as the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. That, however, is a fraught comparison to make. The Weissmuller Tarzan films were modestly-budgeted and its numerous sequels relied on increasingly laughable contrivances. The Kordas’ Jungle Book is an expensive motion picture leaning on its special effects wizardry while its narrative scarcely makes much of an impression. The premise of Weissmuller and Sabu’s legacies are upon a particular set of roles. By choice, Weissmuller took the roles of jungle-dwelling strongmen. The major Hollywood studios typecasted Sabu – against his wishes – as the urchin, usually a jungle-dweller, from an exotic Asian locale.

This Jungle Book is, for an older generation, a foundational film of their childhood (although I reject any attempts to label this as a children’s film) and an unmitigated technical achievement. In numerous ways, it is also a prime example of how Hollywood viewed Asian influences and actors of Asian descent for decades to come.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[silent-era-of-cinema]

Ida Estelle Taylor (May 20, 1894 – April 15, 1958) was an American actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist. With "dark-brown, almost black hair and brown eyes," she was regarded as one of the most beautiful silent film stars of the 1920s.

After her stage debut in 1919, Taylor began appearing in small roles in World and Vitagraph films. She achieved her first notable success with While New York Sleeps (1920), in which she played three different roles, including a "vamp." She was a contract player of Fox Film Corporation and, later, Paramount Pictures, but for the majority of her career she freelanced. She became famous and was commended by critics for her portrayals of historical women in important films: Miriam in The Ten Commandments (1923), Mary, Queen of Scots in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924), and Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (1926).

Although she made a successful transition to sound films, she retired from film acting in 1932 and decided to focus entirely on her singing career. She was also active in animal welfare before her death from cancer in 1958. She was posthumously honored in 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the motion pictures category.

Ida Estelle Taylor was born on May 20, 1894 in Wilmington, Delaware. Her father, Harry D. Taylor (born 1871), was born in Harrington, Delaware. Her mother, Ida LaBertha "Bertha" Barrett (November 29, 1874 – August 25, 1965), was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and later worked as a freelance makeup artist. The Taylors had another daughter, Helen (May 19, 1898 – December 22, 1990), who also became an actress. According to the 1900 census, the family lived in a rented house at 805 Washington Street in Wilmington. In 1903, Ida LaBertha was granted a divorce from Harry on the ground of nonsupport; the following year, she married a cooper named Fred T. Krech.[9] Ida LaBertha's third husband was Harry J. Boylan, a vaudevillian.

Taylor was raised by her maternal grandparents, Charles Christopher Barrett and Ida Lauber Barrett. Charles Barrett ran a piano store in Wilmington, and Taylor studied piano. Her childhood ambition was to become a stage actress, but her grandparents initially disapproved of her theatrical aspirations. When she was ten years old she sang the role of "Buttercup" in a benefit performance of the opera H.M.S. Pinafore in Wilmington. She attended high school but dropped out because she refused to apologize after a troublesome classmate caused her to spill ink from her inkwell on the floor. In 1911, she married bank cashier Kenneth M. Peacock. The couple remained together for five years until Taylor decided to become an actress. She soon found work as an artists' model, posing for Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn, Leslie Thrasher, and other painters and illustrators.

In April 1918, Taylor moved to New York City to study acting at the Sargent Dramatic School. She worked as a hat model for a wholesale millinery store to earn money for her tuition and living expenses. At Sargent Dramatic School, she wrote and performed one-act plays, studied voice inflection and diction, and was noticed by a singing teacher named Mr. Samoiloff who thought her voice was suitable for opera. Samoiloff gave Taylor singing lessons on a contingent basis and, within several months, recommended her to theatrical manager Henry Wilson Savage for a part in the musical Lady Billy. She auditioned for Savage and he offered her work as an understudy to the actress who had the second role in the musical. At the same time, playwright George V. Hobart offered her a role as a "comedy vamp" in his play Come-On, Charlie, and Taylor, who had no experience in stage musicals, preferred the non-musical role and accepted Hobart's offer.

Taylor made her Broadway stage début in George V. Hobart's Come-On, Charlie, which opened on April 8, 1919 at 48th Street Theatre in New York City. The story was about a shoe clerk who has a dream in which he inherits one million dollars and must make another million within six months. It was not a great success and closed after sixteen weeks. Taylor, the only person in the play who wore red beads, was praised by a New York City critic who wrote, "The only point of interest in the show was the girl with the red beads." During the play's run, producer Adolph Klauber saw Taylor's performance and said to the play's leading actress Aimee Lee Dennis: "You know, I think Miss Taylor should go into motion pictures. That's where her greatest future lies. Her dark eyes would screen excellently." Dennis told Taylor what Klauber said, and Taylor began looking for work in films. With the help of J. Gordon Edwards, she got a small role in the film A Broadway Saint (1919). She was hired by the Vitagraph Company for a role with Corinne Griffith in The Tower of Jewels (1920), and also played William Farnum's leading lady in The Adventurer (1920) for the Fox Film Corporation.

One of Taylor's early successes was in 1920 in Fox's While New York Sleeps with Marc McDermott. Charles Brabin directed the film, and Taylor and McDermott play three sets of characters in different time periods. This film was lost for decades, but has been recently discovered and screened at a film festival in Los Angeles. Her next film for Fox, Blind Wives (1920), was based on Edward Knoblock's play My Lady's Dress and reteamed her with director Brabin and co-star McDermott. William Fox then sent her to Fox Film's Hollywood studios to play a supporting role in a Tom Mix film. Just before she boarded the train for Hollywood, Brabin gave her some advice: "Don't think of supporting Mix in that play. Don't play in program pictures. Never play anything but specials. Mr. Fox is about to put on Monte Cristo. You should play the part of Mercedes. Concentrate on that role and when you get to Los Angeles, see that you play it."

Taylor traveled with her mother, her canary bird, and her bull terrier, Winkle. She was excited about playing Mercedes and reread Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo on the train. When she arrived in Hollywood, she reported to Fox Studios and introduced herself to director Emmett J. Flynn, who gave her a copy of the script, but warned her that he already had another actress in mind for the role. Flynn offered her another part in the film, but she insisted on playing Mercedes and after much conversation was cast in the role. John Gilbert played Edmond Dantès in the film, which was eventually titled Monte Cristo (1922). Taylor later said that she, "saw then that he [Gilbert] had every requisite of a splendid actor." The New York Herald critic wrote, "Miss Taylor was as effective in the revenge section of the film as she was in the first or love part of the screened play. Here is a class of face that can stand a close-up without becoming a mere speechless automaton."

Fox also cast her as Gilda Fontaine, a "vamp", in the 1922 remake of the 1915 Fox production A Fool There Was, the film that made Theda Bara a star. Robert E. Sherwood of Life magazine gave it a mixed review and observed: "Times and movies have changed materially since then [1915]. The vamp gave way to the baby vamp some years back, and the latter has now been superseded by the flapper. It was therefore a questionable move on Mr. Fox's part to produce a revised version of A Fool There Was in this advanced age." She played a Russian princess in the film Bavu (1923), a Universal Pictures production with Wallace Beery as the villain and Forrest Stanley as her leading ma

One of her most memorable roles is that of Miriam, the sister of Moses (portrayed by Theodore Roberts), in the biblical prologue of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923), one of the most successful films of the silent era. Her performance in the DeMille film was considered a great acting achievement. Taylor's younger sister, Helen, was hired by Sid Grauman to play Miriam in the Egyptian Theatre's onstage prologue to the film.

Despite being ill with arthritis, she won the supporting role of Mary, Queen of Scots in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924), starring Mary Pickford. "I've since wondered if my long illness did not, in some measure at least, make for realism in registering the suffering of the unhappy and tormented Scotch queen," she told a reporter in 1926.

She played Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (1926), Warner Bros.' first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack. The film also starred John Barrymore, Mary Astor and Warner Oland. Variety praised her characterization of Lucrezia: "The complete surprise is the performance of Estelle Taylor as Lucretia [sic] Borgia. Her Lucretia is a fine piece of work. She makes it sardonic in treatment, conveying precisely the woman Lucretia is presumed to have been."

She was to have co-starred in a film with Rudolph Valentino, but he died just before production was to begin. One of her last silent films was New York (1927), featuring Ricardo Cortez and Lois Wilson.

In 1928, she and husband Dempsey starred in a Broadway play titled The Big Fight, loosely based around Dempsey's boxing popularity, which ran for 31 performances at the Majestic Theatre.

She made a successful transition to sound films or "talkies." Her first sound film was the comical sketch Pusher in the Face (1929).

Notable sound films in which she appeared include Street Scene (1931), with Sylvia Sidney; the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning Cimarron (1931), with Richard Dix and Irene Dunne; and Call Her Savage (1932), with Clara Bow.

Taylor returned to films in 1944 with a small part in the Jean Renoir drama The Southerner (released in 1945), playing what journalist Erskine Johnson described as "a bar fly with a roving eye. There's a big brawl and she starts throwing beer bottles." Johnson was delighted with Taylor's reappearance in the film industry: "[Interviewing] Estelle was a pleasant surprise. The lady is as beautiful and as vivacious as ever, with the curves still in the right places." The Southerner was her last film.

Taylor married three times, but never had children. In 1911 at aged 17, she married a bank cashier named Kenneth Malcolm Peacock, the son of a prominent Wilmington businessman. They lived together for five years and then separated so she could pursue her acting career in New York. Taylor later claimed the marriage was annulled. In August 1924, the press mentioned Taylor's engagement to boxer and world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey. In September, Peacock announced he would sue Taylor for divorce on the ground of desertion. He denied he would name Dempsey as co-respondent, saying "If she wants to marry Dempsey, it is all right with me." Taylor was granted a divorce from Peacock on January 9, 1925.

Taylor and Dempsey were married on February 7, 1925 at First Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. They lived in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Her marriage to Dempsey ended in divorce in 1931.

Her third husband was theatrical producer Paul Small. Of her last husband and their marriage, she said: "We have been friends and Paul has managed my stage career for five years, so it seemed logical that marriage should work out for us, but I'm afraid I'll have to say that the reason it has not worked out is incompatibility."

In her later years, Taylor devoted her free time to her pets and was known for her work as an animal rights activist. "Whenever the subject of compulsory rabies inoculation or vivisection came up," wrote the United Press, "Miss Taylor was always in the fore to lead the battle against the measure." She was the president and founder of the California Pet Owners' Protective League, an organization that focused on finding homes for pets to prevent them from going to local animal shelters. In 1953, Taylor was appointed to the Los Angeles City Animal Regulation Commission, which she served as vice president.

Taylor died of cancer at her home in Los Angeles on April 15, 1958, at the age of 63. The Los Angeles City Council adjourned that same day "out of respect to her memory." Ex-husband Jack Dempsey said, "I'm very sorry to hear of her death. I didn't know she was that ill. We hadn't seen each other for about 10 years. She was a wonderful person." Her funeral was held on April 17 in Pierce Bros. Hollywood Chapel. She was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, then known as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery.

She was survived by her mother, Ida "Bertha" Barrett Boylan; her sister, Helen Taylor Clark; and a niece, Frances Iblings. She left an estate of more than $10,000, most of it to her family and $200 for the care and maintenance of her three dogs, which she left to her friend Ella Mae Abrams.

Taylor was known for her dark features and for the sensuality she brought to the films in which she appeared. Journalist Erskine Johnson considered her "the screen's No. 1 oomph girl of the 20s." For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Estelle Taylor was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.

[one-tired-tech]

Double Song of the Day:

So I was insanely busy yesterday, and didn’t manage to post, so I’ll do two today:

Rent

From the Motion Picture cast of “Rent”

And

“Being Alive”

By Stephen Sondheim

I’m choosing Rent, as it kinda pertains to the situation I’m in right now. I’m a broke theatre artist that’s struggling, yet still loving what I do. I’m choosing “Being Alive” because of a conversation that I had with a friend recently.

[hakka84]

Compared to Marvel, he didn’t use CGI at all. And that’s how sad the state of art has come to.

At least Lucas did fly Hayden and Natalie to Italy to film the “lake retreat” scene, and while in Italy they also shoot the following picnic scene. He did fly cast and crew to Tunisia for any(but one?) Tatooine scene. He did fly Hayden and Natalie in Spain for the Coruscant arrival/plaza. scene. He did pay to shot in the Reggia di Caserta. (I’m sure there are other locations but I do remember Italians the most). Most outdoor scenes were actually shot on real location and some indoors as well (the bar where Obi meet his alien friend? I recall it really exist, and it’s the one where Lucas shot Graffiti?). He paid flight accommodations to the SFX crew to go film a volcano (again in Italy if I remember right?) - footage they would use to make Mustafar’s lava. He did pay a costume department to churn out dozens of spectacular dresses for Natalie (and other minor characters). He did pay to get Hayden his own Vader suit. He did pay some makeup artist to paint Ahmed Best’s arms and build him a Jar Jar mask and had him wear the (more than one) costume you see in the final movie. He did pay to get dozens of extras to have costume and prosthetic to play aliens in every scene set in a public place.

Marvel would’ve put Hayden in a CGI-dotted-suit and moved on to pre-production of another movie, while SFX people created from nothing the CGI Vader suit. Marvel would’ve had Ian McDiarmid shot with dots on his face for SFX to transform him in the transfigured Emperor in post-production. Marvel would put a green handle in the hands of the jedi-actor and turn it into a jedi saber in post-production. (I still can’t move forward that prop-shaped-like-a-gun in Samuel L. Jackson rebuilt in CGI as a proper gun, sorry!)

I know, back at the time the Motion Capture tech was new and too expensive to be used as extensively as now. But I’m not sure Lucawould’ve gone Motion Capture for Anakin/Vader or Jar Jar instead of having Hayden and Ahmed fitted into proper, real costumes.

I mean, at this point Marvel production would probably have their actors shoot in studio a scene meant to be shot in a existing place - be it a house, a museum, a building, a square, a street. If Samuel Wilson needed to go visit the MOMA for rasons, they’d place the actor in a green set and then recreate around him the MOMA instead of, you know, rent the MOMA and go film in it during the night like any other movie production does. If Marvel Studios were green-lighted a movie on some Marvel version of an historical person (they do exist in the Marvel Universe) they would recreate everything through CGI: they wouldn’t be those looser that actually go and get permission to film in the actual places where that real person lived nor they would bother with costume departments to make historically accurate costumes. Naah, that’s money wasted that can instead go into stock holders’ pockets. They would (under)pay SFX artist to do everything in post-production, while the poor actors tried to make a sense of the bits of script handled them (because they cannot be given full scripts, else the world would implode!) and tried to picture themselves in that historical palace that they aren’t going to see, not even as a matte painting.

Marvel movies have completely eliminated the concept of practical effects from the movie-watching public’s consciousness

[captaineasygame1us]

If you've never heard of the term "Movie", it's an art form

If you've never heard of the term "Movie", it's an art form, a sub-industry of pre-existing industries, and a medium for expressing stories, ideas, and even feelings. Movies are generally produced for profit and entertainment, and have various sub-types, such as animated films and live-action dramas. You've probably watched a movie, or rented a movie on Netflix, but what exactly is a Movie?  "เลิฟยูโคกอีเกิ้ง"

Film is a medium used to express stories, ideas and even feelings

Film has long been a popular form of art, being used as a way to convey stories, ideas, and even feelings. Despite its universality, however, film can also be a flawed medium. Film often fails to represent realistic scenes, and there is no way to compare film's representations of a scene to the real thing. Instead, film is a form of representation and a representation of the story is a mistake, Arnheim argues.

It is generally produced for entertainment and profit

Films are produced for a variety of reasons, including profit and entertainment. The initial market for films is motion picture theaters. After the film has been released, it is available on DVD, video cassette, or laserdisc for purchase or rental. In some cases, it is sold to pay-per-view (PPV) services, television networks, and basic non-pay cable services. The profits generated by films may extend many years after release.

It is a visual story-telling device

Often, the visual story-telling device is used to convey complex thoughts without the use of dialogue. Many filmmakers believe that the most powerful scenes are written with this rule in mind. For example, the famous Psycho sequence revolves around the idea of journey home. It's easy for an audience to relate to the situation because it involves a common experience. A visual story-telling device works best when the audience can relate to the event.

It has a theme

A literary work has a central theme and one or more minor themes. A central theme is the message a writer intends to convey, while a minor theme is a subtext or idea that is less important. A novel, for example, can focus on the subject of fate through the dreams of its characters. It can also explore the idea that following your heart is the best way to achieve fulfillment. In this case, the theme would be the importance of pursuing one's dreams, regardless of the cost.

It is filmed on location

It is a common misconception that films are shot on location. However, they are not. Films that take place on location are often mistaken for real life locations. The location is prepared artistically and needs certain infrastructure, including lounges for cast and crew, make-up areas, parking areas, and electricity. Locations can also need portable toilets, catering vehicles, and built-in kitchens. These facilities are provided by the film studio.

It is edited

The word "edit" refers to anything that has been amended or corrected. Editing is often a process whereby a book or video is shortened or censored. Before it is published, a book or film is edited by copy editors. Copy editors review and edit the text for consistency, clarity, and factual accuracy. Raw film footage is often edited before broadcasting on the nightly news or for radio play. Editors also edit raw film footage for television or radio play.

[thefilmsnob]

Glen Coco’s Top 10 Films of 2021

Consistent with the chaotic times in which we find ourselves, the film landscape has become a complete mess. Release dates are tentative, films premier at home the same day as in theaters (or four months later) and the particular streaming service where they arrive is anyone’s guess. But, amidst the logistical tumult, filmmakers continue to craft some great motion pictures. I don’t like preambles as much as I used to, so I’ll just get on with my top 10 films of 2021...after the runners-up and the standard bonus track...there’s always a bonus track.

RUNNERS-UP

-C’mon C’mon

-CODA

-Don’t Look Up

-Licorice Pizza

-A Quiet Place Part II (Full Review)

#10b. (Bonus Track) Nightmare Alley

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Willem Dafoe 

Missing out on the official Top 10 list for departing from the astonishing carnival setting too soon and dragging a bit in the second act, Nightmare Alley still deserves mentioning for its impeccable production design. Even when writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s scripts fall short, he makes up for it with stunning visual storytelling, exemplified here with richly detailed and colourful images of a 1930s carnival, contradicted later in the film by gorgeous art deco designs of city buildings. With a brilliant cast led by Bradley Cooper, del Toro maintains a disturbingly eerie atmosphere throughout despite eschewing his signature fantasy elements, producing a chilling, if imperfect, film noir that takes the viewer through dark corridors (figurative and literal) while examining the worst impulses of human nature.

#10. Tick, Tick... Boom!

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Starring: Andrew Garfield

If conquering Broadway while also acting in and composing music for films wasn’t enough, Lin-Manuel Miranda has now made Tick, Tick... Boom! and you’d never guess it was his directorial debut. The film stars Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, the playwright and composer of the smash hit Rent who sadly died the night before its off-Broadway premier. The film jumps back and forth between 1992, in which Larson performs the titular rock monologue that Miranda uses as a storytelling device, and 1990, in which the exhausted artist prepares for the workshop of his passion project Superbia, works at a diner, tries to maintain a relationship and strives desperately to be successful before turning 30. The movie’s seemingly unending action involving constant movement between time periods and within space, with no shortage of singing and dancing, might feel a tad busy, yet it perfectly captures that relentless creativity, passion and even frustration of the ‘starving artist’. Garfield is nothing if not a passionate performer and he sells every moment of both Larson’s mental anguish as well as elation with every fiber of his being. This is truly a whirlwind of a film.

#9. The Power of the Dog

Director: Jane Campion

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee

The great Jane Campion’s latest film is a western, to be sure, but instead of celebrating the genre’s classic traits, she scrutinizes them while shrewdly subverting the genre in the process. By telling a story about a miserable ranch owner who torments his brother’s new wife and her effeminate son, she critiques the idea of toxic masculinity and its harmful effects on, not just the targets of this behaviour, but the toxic individual himself. This film is a masterclass in subtlety, with a script that reveals its complex characters, their motivations and the various, often shocking, plot developments without spelling it out for the audience. A smart viewer will understand how, for example, a character’s repressed homosexuality can lead to isolation, jealousy, resentment and ultimately the exacerbation of toxic behaviour. This psychological thriller is set amidst Ari Wegner’s gorgeous shots of the New Zealand countryside filling in for 1920s Montana and the brilliant Jonny Greenwood’s appropriately disturbing score that compliments a character dynamic already brimming with tension.

#8. The Last Duel

Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck

Let’s just get this out of the way: casting famous American actors as French knights using quasi-British accents is an odd choice but nowhere near unprecedented. Yes, it sounds strange at first, but you’ll quickly forget it as you’re swept away in the engrossing social commentary set during the middle ages. Yet, even if this is a time long passed, the themes are sadly still relevant as we’re given three different perspectives of what may or may not be the rape of a young woman. We see some events multiple times, but it never feels monotonous and some parts are different enough that we reevaluate how we feel about the situation and characters, one of whom shifts from a man of honour to a dirt bag right before our eyes. Accents aside, the acting is superb and includes a surprising turn from Affleck who’s a riot as the corrupt and debaucherous Pierre d’Alencon. Ridley Scott’s been inconsistent for a while, but he knows how to put a great historical epic on screen which he does here with grandiose sets and costumes, not to mention the titular last duel forming the film’s climax which is expertly staged and unapologetically brutal.

#7. King Richard

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring: Will Smith, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Aunjanue Ellis

Will Smith has been in so many mediocre films that you might forget he’s a great actor. He gives possibly his best performance to date in King Richard as the father and coach of the young girls who will become two of the greatest tennis players ever: Venus and Serena Williams. With the help of director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer Zach Baylin, Smith vanishes into this character who he portrays as a complex human being, by turns an honourable, nurturing father and a stubborn, sometimes selfish, old man. But, that’s what elevates what could’ve been a cookie-cutter biopic to an insightful character study and a great example of what a sports movie can achieve with powerful performances, excellent pacing and honest dialogue that doesn’t pander. Some have criticized the film for focusing on the male behind two female athletes’ success, but if it means providing a rare layered and positive portrayal of an African-American father then it’s a sound compromise. That said, the film doesn’t forget about the sisters nor their incredibly supportive mother, all played by excellent actors who make us root for this family whose members consistently excel despite so much working against them.

#6. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Director: Jon Watts

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Marisa Tomei

On paper, this film might seem like gimmicky fan service, but to believe that would be to underestimate Marvel Studios. Even if you’re wary of the corporate franchise film model, you have to give credit to this company; No Way Home is the 27th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet it’s still wildly entertaining, surprising and charming while continuing to connect to the other films in the franchise. Equally impressive is how a movie with so many characters and twists (no spoilers!) can maintain such a high level of coherence and a strong focus on character. In fact, despite all the moving pieces, this is actually one of the more poignant films in the series with huge emotional stakes. Director Jon Watts and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers handle some very emotional scenes with tact, allowing them room to breath and time to sink in. They also show a willingness to take risks, a rare practice in this genre. Altogether, the film offers a perfect opportunity to get cozy, pig out on popcorn and escape reality for a few hours. Lord knows we could all use that!

#5. The Card Counter

Director: Paul Schrader

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe

Paul Schrader’s 2018 masterpiece First Reformed was overlooked by both audiences and awards voters and the same is true for The Card Counter. The writer-director excels at telling stories about deeply flawed and tortured men (Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver; Ethan Hawke in First Reformed) and he does so again with the exceptional Oscar Isaac who gives such a measured, disciplined performance, not just at times when he’s quiet and withdrawn but also during intense moments when he becomes a scary force of nature. Due to his controversial military past, a young man seeks his help with a plan to torture and kill a former army major who was known for his horrific interrogation methods. These are shown in flashbacks that feel more like nightmares; we view the acts through ultra-wide ‘fish eye’ lenses and hear pounding heavy metal music. As usual, Schrader peals back the layers of the story gradually and amps up the tension to an almost unbearable level. But, most importantly, he earns our complete investment in Isaac’s character and whether he’ll maintain his current situation as a successful gambler, sparing himself and the boy from a life of violence, or be an accomplice to a brutal act of revenge.

#4. Dune

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Stellan Skarsgard, Josh Brolin  

Leave it to Denis Villeneuve, named director of the decade by the Hollywood Critics Association, to take a novel that many have called unfilmable--the awful ‘80s adaptation strengthening that argument--and make his version an aw-inspiring spectacle and indeed one of the best films of 2021. Unlike the original that loses you with a data dump in the first five minutes, the new version introduces you to this world and all its elements gradually and with a variety of strategic methods. It also helps that a handful of some of the greatest actors in Hollywood have assembled to lend their talent and credibility to this project with the prodigious Timothee Chalamet in the lead role. Most impressive, however, are the wondrous visuals; despite working with a seemingly baron dessert setting, Villeneuve brings it to life with gargantuan space ships, labyrinthine structures, giant deadly sand worms and various factions of people with elaborate weapons and armour. Thankfully, the wide shots and lingering camera allow us to marvel at these images instead of taking them for granted. Dune is a prime example of what a blockbuster epic can be when craft and imagination take precedence. *Note: Could’ve used more sand worm.

(Full Review)

#3. The Tragedy of Macbeth

Director: Joel Coen

Starring: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand

William Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted countless times but rarely are they so striking and brimming with creativity. This is Joel Coen’s first film without his longtime collaborator and brother Ethan and he eschews their trademark dark humour while maintaining his mastery of the craft, making one pitch perfect decision after another. The most obvious one is casting Denzel Washington in the lead role, a subversive choice but the right one. The actor, who the New York Times critics named the best of the 21st century, works his magic, changing convincingly from a loyal and weary soldier to a murderous, power-hungry madman due to the ramblings of three witches and the coaxing of his conniving wife played by the peerless Frances McDormand. Coen shot this gem entirely on a sound stage with the final product at once feeling like a theater production yet utterly cinematic. This is done with the help of cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, exploiting shadow, fog effects and black & white gloriously, enhancing the story’s suspenseful, occasionally nightmarish atmosphere. These elements combined with very simple yet effective angular stone sets produce a sort of otherworldly feel appropriate for this supernatural tale. 

#2. West Side Story

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez

Often when we think of someone like Steven Spielberg, an institution in film for decades, we take them for granted, forgetting how great they really are. I was not excited to see West Side Story, the second film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Maybe it’s because I saw another New York-based musical In the Heights earlier in the year or because the film lacks big names or because the idea of dance-fighting confuses me. Whatever the reason, it was quickly forgotten as I was being taken away by the true spectacle that Spielberg put on screen. Believe it or not, this is his first musical, yet he takes an otherwise chaotic series of events and dance numbers and makes it all completely comprehensible. The love story’s charming and the performances are great, but what he does with the routines is pure visual poetry, completely vibrant and full of energy. Even static, dialogue-heavy scenes are filmed with a sharpness that gives the movie a fantastical quality. The film’s highlight is a beautifully choreographed scene set at a dance in a gymnasium, involving virtually the whole cast plus extras. It starts with a continuous steadicam shot that seamlessly transitions to a cable cam shot as the gym doors open that brings us up into the air, providing a birds’ eye view of the the action before plunging us back down into the sea of dancers. It’s a wonder to behold. 

#1. Spencer

Director: Pablo Larrain

Starring: Kristen Stewart

It’s appropriate that the late Princess Diana, née Spencer, is played by Kristen Stewart. Both women are shy, beautiful, talented, anxious, liked by many, ridiculed by many more, in the news for the wrong reasons. But if you’re expecting a standard biopic about this complex figure or stringent historical accuracy, look elsewhere. Pablo Larrain’s transcendent work of mostly fiction is too ambitious, unique and mesmerizing for the typical formulaic, decades-spanning account. Instead, it’s set over three days beginning on Christmas Eve at the Queen’s Sandringham estate during a turbulent point in Diana’s marriage. We’re shown how isolated and anxious she felt at the time, stuck in a remote house with cold, unloving in-laws, her only friend the Royal Dresser, Maggie, played by Sally Hawkins. We’re given an intimate look inside the tortured mind of Diana whose experiences are so surreal at times that it’s hard to discern between hallucination and reality in this psychological thriller that’s arguably a horror story; with the brilliant Jonny Greenwood’s sinister score, it definitely sounds like one. At the center of the horror is Kristen Stewart, giving the best performance of her underrated career, capturing Diana’s distinct mannerisms and vocal traits while easily gaining our sympathy. Perhaps the most satisfying part of the film is its final sequence, a deeply moving denouement that allows Diana to break free and enjoy a sense of liberation, a happy ending gifted to Diana the character but one that Diana the human being sadly never received.

[assistloading840]

King Kong 2005

King Kong 2005

King Kong 2005 Chocolate

Peter Jackson’s remake of 2005 made use of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI), previsualisation, and new techniques for motion capture. Whilst the stone wall and ship are real, most of the sets are computer generated with the live actors super imposed into the scenes (Tyler 2012).

In this iteration, Kong closely resembles and acts according to a super-sized 25 foot tall Silverback Gorilla. Rather than rely on a humanoid appearance, Kong has more capabilities in displaying emotions. Jackson describes his character as very lonely, probably 100 to 120 years old, and having lived a very brutal life (Urban Cine File 2005).

CGI has used to make films such as Jurassic Park and Men In Black visually richer and more exciting (Jones and Oliff 2007). This digital effect is used extensively throughout the third version of Kong and is an example of going beyond its original purpose of assisting the directors to visualise the imaginary (Manovich 2001), such as King Kong and the dinosaurs, to replacing real world sets such as the jungle scenes, and ocean storm scenes. However, this use of CGI gives Jackson greater artistic control over the narrative.

Currently you are able to watch 'King Kong' streaming on Peacock, Peacock Premium for free with ads or buy it as download on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Redbox, AMC on Demand, DIRECTV. It is also possible to rent 'King Kong' on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft. King Kong is a 2005 American kaiju film produced by Universal Pictures, and a remake of the 1933 film of the same name. 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Appearances 3.1 Monsters 3.2 Vehicles 3.3 Races 4 Release 5 Trivia The film opens in New York City, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. Having lost her job as a vaudeville actress, Ann Darrow is hired by troubled filmmaker Carl Denham to be an actress. The last time the giant ape appeared on the big screen was in Peter Jackson's 2005 adventure King Kong, starring Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, and Jack Black. King Kong is a 2005 epic monster adventure film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson.A second remake of the 1933 film of the same title, the film stars Andy Serkis, Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody.

CGI both enables change and forces it, where it pits spectacle against narrative, with overt CGI potentially suspending the narrative (Mak 2003).

Another technology used was that of previsualisation which replaced storyboarding and allowed Jackson to visualise each scene with the help of a few animators. Afterward, the actors followed the animated guides. Christian Rivers argues that “(The previsualisation) gives everyone a good bedrock for the sequences that are going to be in the film” (King Kong – Peter Jackson’s Production Diaries 2005).

In Jackson’s Lord of The Rings, Gollum’s large eyes were modelled (and enlarged) on Andy Serkis’ acting which “ensured the audience’s empathy with and sympathy for the Smeagol personality” (Claydon 2005, p.4). In a similar fashion, Kong’s expressions are modelled on Serkis’ acting to elicit a wide variety of emotions that draw compassion from the audience, such as in ‘Kong’s Interactions with Ann’ scene (below). Some writers indicate that motion capture is the most effective way to make a computer-generated performance seem real (McClean 2007).

However human emotions would not transfer well onto that of a CGI gorilla and so a new system was created that would figure out the muscular and emotional correspondence between a human and a gorilla’s face to allow Serkis’ expressions on Kong (Urban Cine File, 2005). This narrative-led improvement of special effects supports the argument of Shilo T. McClean that narrative continues to drive the use of CGI and not the other way around (McClean 2007).

Jackson also wanted a more natural Kong that built on the knowledge people now have of these animals. Serkis sums up the differing requirements for a Gorilla in 2005 over 1933 after researching for his role: “People know a lot more about the gorilla than they did in Cooper’s time so he wouldn’t eat the flesh of the dinosaur, because gorillas are vegetarian – people know that” (Urban Cine File 2005, p.1).

King Kong (2005) is the 4th highest grossing movie ever made by Universal Pictures (Wikipedia 2011b).The film won 3 Academy Awards for Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing with commentators praising the CGI and the acting. Entertainment Weekly placed Kong as its favourite CGI character ever:

“Never before has an animated character looked so reach-out-and-touch-him real — and expressed so much without saying a word. Rage, tenderness, confusion, fear… all cross the beast’s face at various points of Jackson’s epic, making us adore and worry for him right along with his beloved Ann Darrow.” (Entertainment Weekly 2007, p.10).

Serkis and Naomi Watts (Ann) also drew praise from the New York Times with Serkis “redefining screen acting for the digital age”, and Watts who “incarnates the glamour and emotional directness of classical Hollywood” (Scott 2005, p.1). Criticisms usually centred on the live actors super imposition on the CGI looking awkward (Tyler 2012, p.1) as the CGI and live action is “pushed to a point where the seams begin to show” (Scott 2005, p.1) as well as the over use of CGI which can be distancing “In drawing attention to the realism of the technology, the technology itself becomes more visible and the cinematic apparatus more, rather than less, evident” (Claydon 2005, p.3). Also moments of visually overwhelming CGI can distract the audience from concentrating on the main plot and force them instead to concentrate on having their senses audio-visually stimulated (Mak 2003). Tyler (2012, p.1) notes the change in focus of the 2005 version over its predecessors: “Now more than a sympathetic monster movie, Kong has become a deeply emotional, sometimes tortured film”.

Director

Peter Jackson

Studio(s)

Wingnut Films (Universal)

Film/Program Grade: B

Video Grade: B+

Audio Grade: A+

Extras Grade: A

Review

(The film portion of this review is by Tim Salmons. The 4K A/V portion is by Bill Hunt.)

Soon after The Lord of the Rings trilogy garnered Peter Jackson a reputation as one of today’s biggest and most successful directors, with a string of award wins, he set out to remake his all-time favorite film: the incomparable King Kong (1933). Almost 72 years after that legendary stop-motion fantasy film touched audiences all over the world, Jackson’s 2005 remake stormed the box office and brought in a sizable profit, making double its budget back in the U.S. alone. However, the film wasn’t without its criticisms and it left a minority of audience members feeling unfulfilled. Now, some 12 years after its initial release (and following multiple home video editions, including a recent Ultimate Edition Blu-ray upgrade – reviewed here), the Ultimate Edition of the film arrives on 4K Ultra HD.

The 2005 remake of Kong has an interesting history. After he made The Frighteners for Universal in 1996, the studio was interested in doing another movie with Jackson and offered him the chance to remake Creature from the Black Lagoon. He turned this down, but was interested in remaking King Kong, which Universal also felt was worth pursuing. Soon thereafter, a script was written and pre-production was underway. Around that same time, Universal was attempting to remake many of its other monster movie properties too, most notably The Mummy with director Stephen Sommers. But with other big budget monster remakes (like Godzilla and Mighty Joe Young) in the works from other studios, Universal suddenly got cold feet about Kong and pulled the plug on it. With the success of Lord of the Rings, however, the studio resurrected the project and put Jackson back in the driver’s seat.

Jackson’s Kong is not a perfect film, but it’s solid nonetheless, with much to like. Kong himself is a very well-realized special effect, but some of the other CGI (not to mention the amount of screen time given to the movie’s lesser characters) is problematical. Scenes sometimes go on far longer than necessary, hammering the point home and then driving it in with extra nails. Regardless of its unevenness, however, King Kong is still well-crafted and offers some wonderful performances, as well as fun action sequences. It doesn’t quite reach the level of popcorn entertainment that one might be hoping for, at least not the kind that Kong: Skull Island delivers (see our review here), but it does offer plenty of moments that make the ride worth taking. At the same time, it pays respect to the original film in a way that makes you forgive most of its shortcomings.

King Kong (2005) was shot on Super 35 film and finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate. That source has been upsampled and given a new HDR10 color grade. Both the theatrical and extended versions of the film are presented here on Ultra HD in their original 2.39:1 theatrical aspect ratio; you’re asked to choose which version you wish to watch when the disc begins playing. Give its 2K source, fine detail and texturing aren’t up to the level of other titles in native 4K on this format, but there is a noticeable improvement in both areas over the Blu-ray edition. Grain levels are nicely even, though the nature and vintage of its visual effects means that the film often lacks the natural immersion you get in other 4K titles, leaving the image instead with a slightly digital appearance. But this is the nature of the beast – the film has always looked this way. The High Dynamic Range improvements are, however, spectacular. Not only does HDR lend itself to added subtlety in the Depression-era New York City sequences, once the film reaches its island setting the colors are incredibly lush and vibrant, with a level of accuracy and saturation that’s both vivid and far more nuanced than the Blu-ray. Blacks are much deeper and the highlights gleam in a way that isn’t exactly natural but is perfectly fitting for such fantastical material.

In terms of audio, the Blu-ray’s lossless DTS-HD Master Audio mix was already terrific but it’s been upgraded on the 4K disc to object-based DTS:X. It’s an amazing presentation, with strong dynamics, aggressive panning activity, extremely deep low end, fully-enveloping ambience, powerful score reproduction, and crystal-clear dialogue. The DTS:X also opens up the soundstage a bit, making the mix a bit more spacious and natural sounding – it’s a slightly more immersive experience. Additional audio options on the 4K disc include English DTS Headphone:X (which simulates theater-like surround sound over a regular pair of headphones), as well as standard 5.1 DTS mixes in French, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese. Available subtitles include English SDH, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese.

In terms of special features, the actual 4K disc includes just one, which is the extended version audio commentary with Jackson and producer Philippa Boyens. But the real coup here is that the 4K package also contains the 2-disc Blu-ray Ultimate Edition, which incorporates almost everything from every previous release of the film on both DVD and Blu-ray, including the web Production Diaries that were released in a deluxe DVD set prior to the film’s theatrical release. It should be noted though that the Diary featuring original composer Howard Shore, which was pulled from the Kong is King website, has still not been included (it can be found by other means if you’re so inclined). There is also no new material on this set. But since there’s so much of it, let’s go over it with a fine-toothed comb...

The first Blu-ray offers the option to watch either the theatrical or extended version of the film in 1080p HD. Special features include the same audio commentary, a Picture-in-Picture mode (which features condensed versions of many of the interviews and behind-the-scenes footage found on the second Blu-ray), The Art Galleries (which also play along with the main feature), and a set of standard Universal BD options: My Scenes, U-Control, BD-Live, and a User Guide.

King Kong 2005

The second Blu-ray is a Bonus Features disc featuring extensive material in mostly SD quality. It should be noted that there are subtitle options in English SDH, French, and German in case you need them. There’s the original 2006 disc introductions by Peter Jackson from both the Special Edition and Extended Edition DVD releases, as well as the long-form Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong eight-part documentary (The Origins of King Kong, Pre-Production Part 1: The Return of Kong, Pre-Production Part 2: Countdown to Filming, The Venture Journey, Return to Skull Island, New York, New Zealand, Bringing Kong to Life Part 1: Design and Research, and Bringing Kong to Life Part 2: Performance and Animation).

King Kong 2005 Chocolate

Also included on this disc are the aforementioned Production Diaries, viewable by date or location with the original 2006 introduction by Peter Jackson. They include Peter’s Welcome, The Diner Set, Rough Seas on Land, Filming Inside the Venture, Denham’s Camera, Plane Spotting, Storms on the Venture, Animal Droppings, Dump Tanks, Dump Tanks Part 2, Skull Island Preview, Lumpy’s Galley Tour, Clapper Boards, Previsualization, Skull Island Rocks, Skull Island Shoot, Gandalf the Spy, The Swamp Set, Peter’s Kong Collection, Is Jack Black 5’4”?, Creating Skull Island, Location Logistics, International Press Junket, The On-Set Art Department, The Missing Production Diary (previously an Easter egg), Cameras, Journey of a Roll of Film, Creating New York in New Zealand, A Day at the Zoo (also previously an Easter egg), Shooting at the Civic Theatre, Concept Art, Happy Holidays!, New Year’s Message from Peter, Shooting Begins in New York, New York Extras, Vintage Vehicles, New York Set Dressing, Sewers and Steam, Lighting Continuity, Times Square Becomes Herald Square, Adrien the Stunt Driver, A Day in the Life of Peter, Skull Island Miniatures, Naomi in Kong’s Hand, Hair and Makeup, Global Partner Summit, Second Unit, Sound Recording, Helldiver Airplanes, Filming Winds Down, The Kong Sequels, Costume Design, Unit Photography, Andy’s Revenge on the DVD Team, Peter Calls in Help, and The Last Day.

Next on this disc are the Post-Production Diaries, also viewable by date or location. They include Welcome to Post Production, The Miniature Venture, Kong Performance Capture, Creating Sound Effects, A Visit to the Editorial Department, Peter Answers Your Questions Part 1, The Miniatures Second Unit, Building a Miniature, WETA Digital Overview, Creating the Teaser Trailer, Sound Design, Shooting Additional Elements, Preparing for Pick-Up Shooting, Pick-Ups: The Cast Returns, Pick-Ups: The Venture Extras, Pick-Ups: Continuity, Pick-Ups: The Wrap, Alternative Dialogue Recording, Detailing the Miniatures, The Unsung Heroes of Rotoscoping, Foley Recording, Digital Doubles, Digital Color Grading, Bringing Kong to Life: Motion Editing, Bringing Kong to Life: Animation, Filming the Miniatures, Kong Visits New Zealand, Mixing Dialogue, Music, and Effects, The Mixing Board, The Music of Kong Part 1, The Music of Kong Part 2, Delivering the Film, Peter Answers Your Questions Part 2, The World Premiere, and The New Zealand Premiere.

Following up all of that material are 16 Deleted and Extended Scenes with optional introductions by Peter Jackson (Preston Shows Ann Her Cabin, How a Man Dies, Jack Has Doubts About Ann, Ann Chooses an Outfit, Hayes Confronts Englehorn, Preston Finds the Map, Dancing a Jig, The Rest of the Venture Voyage, Lumpy and His Cabbage, “Scream for Your Life, Ann”, The Venture Escapes (Original Version), Hayes’ Story, A Sailor’s Bad Luck, Original Insect Pit Opening, Kong Chases Jack’s Cab, and Kong Versus the Army); The Eighth Blunder of the World gag reel; The Making of a Shot: The T-Rex Fight featurette; the Skull Island: A Natural History mockumentary; the Kong’s New York, 1933 featurette; A Night in Vaudeville footage; the King Kong Homage featurette; a set of Pre-Visualization Animatics with optional music cues (Arrival at Skull Island, Bronto Stampede, T-Rex Fight, Empire State Building “Pre-Viz” Only, and Empire State Building Battle “Pre-Viz” with Final Film Comparison); Conceptual Design Video Galleries (The 1996 King Kong, The Venture, Skull Island, New York, Kong); The Present short film; the WETA Collectibles featurette; and a set of trailers (teaser trailer, theatrical trailer, and Cinemedia trailer). Finally, there’s a paper insert with a Digital HD copy code. The only extras missing from all of the previous DVD and Blu-ray releases are the 1996 and 2005 scripts for the film in PDF form, which were accessible via DVD-ROM.

Calling this the Ultimate Edition of Peter Jackson’s King Kong is an accurate statement. Chances are high that many 4K fans will retire their previous Blu-ray and DVD versions, as this new edition delivers the film in the highest possible quality and consolidates everything that’s come before very well. While some may wish to hang onto the Production Diaries DVD box set for its excellent swag and packaging, if you’re looking for a single version of this movie to own on disc… this is it. It should be obvious by now, but the King Kong: Ultimate Edition comes highly recommended. Now, if only we could get this kind of treatment for some of Jackson’s other big budget films, for which the extras are spread out over multiple releases. We’re looking at you Warner Bros.

- Tim Salmons (with Bill Hunt)

Tags

2005, 4K, action adventure, Adrien Brody, Andrew Lesnie, Andy Serkis, Bill Hunt, Bob Burns, Colin Hanks, DTS:X, Edgar Wallace, Evan Parke, Extended Edition, feature film, Fran Walsh, HDR10, High Dynamic Range, Jack Black, James Newton Howard, Jamie Bell, Kathy Burns, King Kong: Ultimate Edition, Kyle Chandler, Merian C Cooper, Naomi Watts, Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, review, The Digital Bits, Theatrical Cut, Thomas Kretschmann, Tim Salmons, Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, Universal, Wingnut Films

[officialotakudome]

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Spirit Untamed Dated On Home Media

Universal has dated Spirit Untamed on home media:

Universal City, California, August 10, 2021 – Join pals Lucky, Abigail and Prue in SPIRIT UNTAMED, an epic journey brimming with family, friendship and adventure that you can watch over-and-over. The all-new film is yours to own for the first time on Digital August 17, 2021 and on Blu-ray™ and DVD August 31, 2021 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation. This release is jam-packed with more than an hour of bonus content, including deleted scenes, multiple at-home activities, including how to make your own “campfire” indoors, cast interviews, sing-alongs, and much more!

SPIRIT UNTAMED is a story of adventure, family and friendship. Free-spirited Lucky Prescott moves to Miradero to join her estranged father. She is decidedly unimpressed with the sleepy town until she discovers a unique tie to her late mother who was a fearless horse-riding stunt performer. She quickly forms a bond with a wild mustang named Spirit and makes two new pals who love horses as much as she does. When a heartless wrangler plans to capture Spirit and his herd, Lucky and her friends set off on an epic journey to rescue the horse who has given her an unbreakable connection to her mother’s legacy.

SPIRIT UNTAMED stars Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold),  Marsai Martin (Little), Mckenna Grace (Captain Marvel), Walton Goggins (“Justified”), Andre Braugher (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), Eiza González (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw), with Julianne Moore (Kingsman: The Golden Circle)  and Jake Gyllenhaal (Spider-Man: Far From Home). The adventure is directed by Elaine Bogan (“Trolhunters: Tales of Arcadia”) and co-directed by Ennio Torresan (The Boss Baby). The film is produced by Karen Foster (How to Train Your Dragon) and the film’s score and original song “Fearless” is by composer Amie Doherty (Marooned).

BONUS FEATURES ON BLU-RAYTM, DVD and digital:

DELETED / EXTENDED SCENES

FINDING YOUR SPIRIT: Meet the cast and filmmakers behind SPIRIT UNTAMED and discover how they brought this incredible story to life. Find out how this film fits into the overall Spirit story and learn the secrets behind the animation process.

BEHIND THE VOICES – THE CAST: It’s always fun to see the people behind the voices. In this series of short featurettes, we not only meet the cast but we discover what characteristics they share with their on-screen personas and how they inhabit them.

COWGIRLS RULE: This featurette goes into more detail about the female-focused story and explains why it’s not just a “girls like ponies” movie.

DRAWING SPIRIT – SPIRIT UNTAMED: A unique look and chance to learn from one of the talented artists how they bring the characters, both human and equine, to life.

CREATE YOUR OWN INDOOR ‘CAMPFIRE:’ Using crepe paper and LED lights, build your very own campfire at home!

HOW TO UKELELE: Discover how to create your very own ukulele at home. Then, learn some simple chords so you can impress your friends and family around the campfire.

SNACK TIME – S’MORES: During their adventure, Lucky and her friends enjoy a campfire snack that we all know, and love-s’mores! This tasty “how to” feature will teach viewers to safely make their own traditional toasted treats along with a selection of not so traditional recipes.

ABIGAIL’S HAND SHADOW SECRETS: Ever wish you could tell stories using hand shadows, just like Abigail? Well now you can! With the help of a hand shadow master, a simple lamp and an old sheet, anyone can learn how to create cool creatures with nothing but your two hands.

HOW TO ZOETROPE: Lucky Prescott discovers her mother’s horse-riding talent when she finds a zoetrope at her father’s house. This “how to” video teaches fans of the film how to build their own and bring it to life using the drawings they learn in the “drawing spirit” feature.

SING-ALONGS: Watch these fun lyric videos featuring songs from the film and sing-along around your own ‘campfire’.

FEATURE COMMENTARY: Commentary with director Elaine Bogan, co-director Ennio Torresan, and producer Karen Foster.

SPIRIT UNTAMED will be available on Blu-rayTM, DVD and Digital.

Blu-rayTM unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.

Digital lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can buy or rent the film.

MOVIES ANYWHERE is the digital app that simplifies and enhances the digital movie collection and viewing experience by allowing consumers to access their favorite digital movies in one place when purchased or redeemed through participating digital retailers. Consumers can also redeem digital copy codes found in eligible Blu-rayTM and DVD disc packages from participating studios and stream or download them through Movies Anywhere. MOVIES ANYWHERE is only available in the United States. For more information, visit https://moviesanywhere.com.

For artwork, please log onto our website at www.uphepublicity.com. Website: https://www.uphe.com/movies/spirit-untamed-the-movie Trailer: https://uni.pictures/SpiritUntamedTrailer Facebook: @DreamWorksSpirit Instagram: @dreamworksspirit Hashtag: #SpiritUntamed #DreamWorksSpirit

FILMMAKERS: Directed By: Elaine Bogan Co-Director: Ennio Torresan, Jr. Produced By:  Karen Foster, p.g.a. Screenplay By: Aury Wallington and Kristin Hahn Score By: Amie Doherty

TECHNICAL INFORMATION BLU-RAY™: Street Date: August 31, 2021 Selection Number: 1946213879 (US) / 1946214649 (CDN) Layers: BD 50 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 2.39:1 Widescreen Rating: PG for some adventure action Languages/Subtitles: English, French Canadian, Latin American Spanish Sound: English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Run Time: 01:27:33

TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD: Street Date: August 31, 2021 Selection Number: 1946213878 (US) / 1946214648 (CDN) Layers: DVD 9 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 2.39:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Rating: PG for some adventure action Languages/Subtitles: English, French Canadian, Latin American Spanish Sound: English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Run Time: 01:27:39

ABOUT UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (UPHE – www.uphe.com) is a unit of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG). UFEG produces, acquires, markets and distributes filmed entertainment worldwide in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television and other distribution platforms, as well as consumer products, interactive gaming and live entertainment. The global division includes Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Brand Development, Fandango, DreamWorks Animation Film and Television.  UFEG is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience.  NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

ABOUT DREAMWORKS ANIMATION: DreamWorks Animation (DWA), a division of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, within NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, is a global family entertainment company with feature film and television brands. The company’s deep portfolio of intellectual property is supported by a robust, worldwide consumer products practice, which includes licensing, and location-based entertainment venues around the world.  DWA’s feature film heritage includes many of the world’s most beloved characters and franchises, including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Trolls and The Boss Baby, and have amassed more than $15 billion in global box office receipts.  DreamWorks Animation’s television business has quickly become one of the world’s leading producers of high-quality, animated family programming, reaching consumers in more than 190 countries. Creating a diverse array of original content in a variety of formats and delivering deep, fully immersive worlds served up with compelling characters, the prolific studio has garnered 31 Emmy awards since inception in 2013.

[papermoonloveslucy]

CHARITY REVUE

March 11, 1949

“Charity Revue” (aka “Red Cross Benefit Revue”) is episode #34 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on March 11, 1949 on the CBS radio network.

Synopsis ~ Mr. Atterbury asks George to work up a song and dance routine for the local Red Cross Charity Review. At the same time Liz’s women’s club recruits her to perform. 

Note: This program was used as a basis for the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Benefit” (ILL S1;E13) filmed on November 30, 1951 and first aired on January 7, 1952.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury, George’s Boss) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

This is Gordon’s first appearance as Rudolph Atterbury, a role previous played by Hans Conried. 

Bea Benadaret does not appear in this episode. 

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST 

Gloria Blondell (Miss Marilyn Williams) was born to theatrical parents in New York City in 1910. She is the younger sister of Joan Blondell, also an actress. On radio, she did 26 episodes of seven different series. Blondell saw most of her work in the 1940s as the voice of Disney’s ‘Daisy Duck’ for Disney, doing six short films as Donald’s girlfriend. Blondell’s only screen collaboration with Lucille Ball was in “The Anniversary Present” (ILL S2;E3) in 1952, playing the Ricardo’s upstairs neighbor Grace Foster. 

Giving the character the first name of Marilyn is no doubt meant to remind listeners of up-and-coming sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. 

Gerald Mohr (Gerald Mohr) played psychiatrist Henry Molin, who masquerades as Ricky’s old friend Chuck Stewart in “The Inferiority Complex” (ILL S2;E18 ~ February 2, 1953), his only appearance on "I Love Lucy”. In return, Lucy and Desi appeared on his show “Sunday Showcase” that same year. He also made an appearance on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and Phil Harris” (TLS S6;E20 ~ February 5, 1968).

Mohr uses his own name for this appearance. 

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers this morning, George is still upstairs getting dressed. Liz is in the kitchen, talking to Katie the Maid.”

Liz tells Katie that she’s excited for the upcoming Red Cross benefit. She is planning to do an act with George representing her club. The only detail is that she hasn’t told him about it yet!  

The Red Cross is a humanitarian organization founded in 1863 to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. American Red Cross posters were a favorite of the Desilu set decorators on “I Love Lucy”. They can be glimpsed in the subway during “Lucy and the Loving Cup” (ILL S6;E12), on the walls of the rented hall in “Ricky Has Labor Pains” (S2;E14), in the butcher shop in “The Freezer” (S1;E29), and on the Westport train station in “Lucy Misses the Mertzes” (S6;E17).  

Liz goes into the dining room and sweet-talks George, covering him with kisses. He is immediately suspicious. Liz tells him that a woman in her club is doing an act with her husband for the Red Cross revue. George laughs and says the man will make a fool of himself - until Liz tells him that the man is him!

GEORGE: “You know if there’s one thing I hate more than that club of yours is amateur theatrics!” 

Liz reminds him that he had the lead in his college musical and he was a big hit. She sings a few notes of “Boola Boola” to remind him. 

"Boola Boola" is a football song of Yale University. The song was composed in 1900 and is generally attributed to Allan M. Hirsh, Yale Class of 1901. The song immediately caught on, soon being played by John Philip Sousa. It sold more sheet music in the first half of 1901 than any other song in the country, and became indelibly associated with Yale athletics. Is George a Yale man?

George is still reluctant, but Liz tries to convince him.

LIZ: “Jolson made a comeback. How about you?” 

Al Jolson (1886-1950) was a Lithuanian-born singer, actor, and comedian. Unabashedly billed as the World’s Greatest Entertainer, Jolson was the most successful musical comedy star on Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s. He was also a major radio star and the most popular solo recording artist of the 1920s, his biggest hits being “Sonny Boy”, “April Showers,” and “Swanee.” He inaugurated sound motion pictures with The Jazz Singer (1927) and made a series of musical films. He enjoyed a spectacular career comeback in the years before his death, largely due to the film biographies The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949). Jolson’s use of blackface, dating from his early years in minstrel shows, made him a controversial figure.

George refuses to give in. 

At the bank, Mr. Atterbury calls George into his office. He tells George he should work up a song and dance routine with his wife to represent the bank in the Red Cross Revue. George says he can’t do it, but Mr. Atterbury threatens to demote him if he refuses. George admits defeat and reluctantly agrees. 

Back at home, Liz hangs up the phone after telling her club the she won’t be doing the act after all. George comes home cheerfully singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business”. 

“There’s No Business Like Show Business” is a song from Irving Berlin’s 1949 Broadway hit Annie Get Your Gun. It was introduced by Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley. In “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL S3;E11), Lucy Ricardo and the Mertzes burst into an rendition of the song as an impromptu audition for a Broadway producer. The song would also be quoted (not sung) by Lucy Ricardo in “Baby Pictures” (ILL S3;E5) and “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman To Sing” (TLS S2;E18).  Merman and the cast of “The Lucy Show” perform it in “Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show” (TLS S2;E19 ~ February 10, 1964).

GEORGE: “Hiya, Liz!” LIZ: “Hiya, Bing.” GEORGE: “How do the old pipes sound?” LIZ: “Like they could use a little Drano.”

Liz is referring to singer, actor and comedian Bing Crosby, one of the biggest media stars of the 1940s. On “I Love Lucy” a Hollywood-bound Ricky called Crosby a bum - but dressed like him all the same. In “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957) Susie MacNamara tries to convince Lucy to become a Bing Crosby fan instead Rudy Vallee. Crosby’s name was mentioned on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” The Drackett Company first launched the Drano product in 1923. Its purpose was to clear clogged pipes (not the human sort). Drano was originally produced in crystallized form.

Liz is surprised that George has suddenly changed his ‘tune’ and now wants to do the Revue with Liz as the star. He even has a song picked out for them. He sits at the piano and begins to play and sing “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”. 

"Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" is a 1934 song with words and music by James F. Hanley. It was introduced in the Broadway revue Thumbs Up! The most notable recordings were made by Judy Garland, who recorded it numerous times, including in the 1938 film Listen, Darling in 1939. It later became a standard number in her concerts and TV shows.

Liz only has to sing one word “Zing!” After a few choruses, she stops the rehearsal, unhappy with her small part. 

On television, the song was “Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear” with Lucy only allowed to sing the word “Auf”! 

George agrees to find another opening song. They start to work on their comedy patter. While rehearsing the jokes, Liz realizes that George is telling all the jokes while she is the straight man not saying anything funny. 

LIZ: “I’m Liz Cooper, not Harpo Marx!” 

Harpo Marx (born Adolph Marx) was the second of five performing brothers. Harpo was so named because of his musical talent on the Harp, but he also never spoke in his comedy. In 1922, he and his brothers left vaudeville to perform on Broadway, and soon landed in Hollywood making movies together throughout the 1930s and 40s. Lucille Ball starred with the Marx Brothers in Room Service (1938) and Harpo famously guest-starred on “I Love Lucy” in 1955. 

GEORGE: “What would Amos be without Andy? What would Lum be without Abner?” 

Amos 'n' Andy is a radio and television sitcom set in Harlem. The original radio show, which ran from 1928 to 1960, was created, written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden (Amos) and Charles Correll (Andy). When the show moved to television, black actors took over the roles of Amos (Alvin Childress) and Andy (Spencer Williams). Lum and Abner was a radio comedy created by and starring Chester Lauck (as Abner Peabody) and Norris Goff (as Lum Edwards) that aired from 1931 to 1954. Modeled on life in a small town in Arkansas, the show proved immensely popular. 

Liz says that since they are representing her club, she needs to have the larger role. George confesses that Mr. Atterbury wants him to represent the bank. Liz says the act is off. George says he find one of the girls at the bank to be his partner. Liz assumes the ‘girls’ at the bank are old fuddy duddies! Next day, Miss Marilyn Williams (Gloria Blondell) arrives to rehearse. Her fuddy isn’t duddy at all! Liz tells Miss Williams that George left on a trip to South America. Just then, George bounds in and says he only went to put the car in the garage. 

LIZ: “I always get confused. Our car is a Reo.” 

Liz is punning on the homophones Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Reo (the make of automobile). Reo (sometimes seen REO) was founded by Ransom E. Olds in August 1904. Reo manufactured automobiles from 1905 to 1936, including the famous Reo Speed-Wagon, an ancestor of the pickup truck, which gave its name to the 1970s rock and roll group REO Speedwagon. Although World War II truck orders enabled it to make something of a comeback, the company remained unstable in the postwar era. In 1975, they filed for bankruptcy.

Miss Williams and George go into the den and close the door to rehearse while Liz and Katie listen on the landing just outside, peeking through the transom. They hear carefree laughter from the room. George and Miss Williams are rehearsing a love scene when Liz bursts in offering them a snack. Miss Williams says that Liz is acting jealous. Liz calls her an ‘older woman’. 

MISS WILLIAMS: “You don’t have to get nasty with me, Liz Cooper. I’m not going to steal your son away.” LIZ: “My son! Listen here, you poor man’s Marjorie Main!” MISS WILLIAMS: “You start anything and I’ll black your eyes to match your hair!” LIZ: “My hair is red.” MISS WILLIAMS: “I’m talking about the roots!” 

Marjorie Main (1890-1975) was then a 49 year-old character actress who earned a 1948 Oscar nomination for The Egg and I. In 1954 she was a supporting player in Lucy and Desi’s The Long, Long Trailer (1953). 

Next day, Liz has invited over a handsome man (Gerald Mohr) to rehearse a ‘passionate love scene with her’. It turns out that George and Gerald were fraternity brothers! George decides to sit by and watch Liz and Gerald rehearse. 

The scene is similar to Mohr’s appearance as a psychiatrist on “I Love Lucy,” where he flatters Lucy and inadvertently makes Ricky jealous as part of his ‘treatment’.  

George tries to distract Gerald by asking about former fraternity brothers. George and Gerald think the love scene will get a million laughs, which makes Liz dissolve into tears. 

The night of the Red Cross show, Liz tells Katie she’s going to be George’s partner no matter what!  George is on right after Evelyn and Her Magic Kazoo. Liz tells Miss Williams that George wants to see her in his dressing room - then locks her in!  

On an early episode of “I Love Lucy,” a jealous Lucy also locked her husband’s performance partner away - in a storage closet - so that she could take her place. Much later, an envious Lucy locked Tallulah Bankhead in a backstage bathroom so she could steal the spotlight during the Westport PTA show. 

Liz tells George Miss Williams couldn’t make it and she will talk her place. They go onstage. The music connecting the jokes is "When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose".

"When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose" was written in 1914 by Jack Mahoney and Percy Wenrich. At the time of broadcast (1949) it had been heard in sixteen films, including the 1942 film For Me And My Gal starring Judy Garland and 1949′s Chicken Every Sunday starring William Frawley (Fred Mertz). On “My Favorite Husband” it will also be heard in “Liz Writes A Song” (January 27, 1950). 

This time, however, Liz has stolen all of George’s punch lines!  

GEORGE: “A tramp came up to me and said he hadn’t had a bite in days.” LIZ: “What’d you do? Bite him?”

GEORGE: “Did you hear about the big fire at the shoe factory?” LIZ: “I’ll bet some heal started it!” GEORGE (hushed to Liz): “You’re supposed to say ‘Who stated it’.” LIZ (loudly): “Two hundred souls were lost!” 

George tries to outsmart Liz with a joke she’s never heard.

GEORGE: “I know a girl so dumb she thinks a football coach has four wheels!”  LIZ: “How many wheels does it have?” 

These are the same jokes that will be used in the television version “The Benefit” (ILL S1;E13) although the interlocutory music was changed to “We’ll Build A Bungalow”. The Arnazes loved the material so much that they started doing the "Songs and Witty Sayings" routine at various industry functions and charity events including the televised "Dinner with the President" event on November 25, 1953. The material was even part of the unreleased “I Love Lucy” movie. 

End of Episode

[silent-era-of-cinema]

Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.

A specialist in melodrama, her most famous film was Smilin’ Through (1922), but she also scored artistic triumphs teamed with director Frank Borzage in Secrets (1924) and The Lady (1925). Her younger sister Constance Talmadge was also a movie star. Talmadge married millionaire film producer Joseph M. Schenck and they successfully created their own production company. After reaching fame in the film studios on the East Coast, she moved to Hollywood in 1922.

Talmadge was one of the most elegant and glamorous film stars of the Roaring '20s. However, by the end of the silent film era, her popularity with audiences had waned. After her two talkies proved disappointing at the box office, she retired a very wealthy woman.

According to her birth certificate, Talmadge was born on May 2, 1894, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Although it has been widely reported she was born in Niagara Falls, New York, after achieving stardom, she admitted that she and her mother provided the more scenic setting of Niagara Falls to fan magazines to be more romantic. Talmadge was the eldest daughter of Fred Talmadge, an unemployed chronic alcoholic, and Margaret "Peg" Talmadge, a witty and indomitable woman. She had two younger sisters, Natalie and Constance, both of whom also became actresses.

The girls' childhoods were marked by poverty. One Christmas morning, Fred Talmadge left the house to buy food, and never came back, leaving his wife to raise their three daughters. Peg took in laundry, sold cosmetics, taught painting classes, and rented out rooms, raising her daughters in Brooklyn, New York.

After telling her mother about a classmate from Erasmus Hall High School who modeled for popular illustrated song slides (which were often shown before the one-reeler in movie theaters so the audience could sing along), Mrs. Talmadge decided to locate the photographer. She arranged an interview for her daughter, who after an initial rejection, was soon hired. When they went to the theater to see her debut, Peg resolved to get her into motion pictures.

Norma Talmadge was the eldest of the three daughters and the first pushed by their mother to look for a career as a film actress.[9] Mother and daughter traveled to the Vitagraph Studios in Flatbush, New York, just a streetcar ride from her home.[7] They managed to get past the studio gates and in to see the casting director, who promptly threw them out. However, scenario editor Beta Breuil, attracted by Talmadge's beauty, arranged a small part for her as a young girl who is kissed under a photographer's cloth in The Household Pest (1909).

Thanks to Breuill's continued patronage, between 1911 and 1912, Talmadge played bit parts in over 100 films. She eventually earned a spot in the stock company at $25 per week and got a steady stream of work. Her first role as a contract actress was 1911's Neighboring Kingdom, with comedian John Bunny. Her first real success came with Vitagraph's three-reel adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities (1911), in which she played the small role of the unnamed seamstress who accompanies Sidney Carton to the guillotine. With help from the studio's major star, Maurice Costello, the star of A Tale of Two Cities, Talmadge's acting improved and she continued to play roles from leads to extras, gaining experience and public exposure in a variety of characters—from a colored mammy to a clumsy waitress to a reckless young modern, she began attracting both public and critical notice. By 1913, she was Vitagraph's most promising young actress. That same year, she was assigned to Van Dyke Brooke's acting unit, and throughout 1913 and 1914, appeared in more films, frequently with Antonio Moreno as her leading man.

In 1915, Talmadge got her big break, starring in Vitagraph's prestigious feature film The Battle Cry of Peace, an anti-German propagandist drama, but ambitious Peg saw that her daughter's potential could carry them further, and got a two-year contract with National Pictures Company for eight features at $400 per week. Talmadge's last film for Vitagraph was The Crown Prince's Double. In the summer of 1915, she left Vitagraph. In the five years she had been with Vitagraph, she made over 250 films.

In August, the Talmadges left for California, where Norma's first role was in Captivating Mary Carstairs. The whole enterprise was a fiasco; the sets and costumes were cheap and the studio itself lacked adequate backing. The film was a flop, and the small new studio shut down after the release of Mary Carstairs. The demise of National Pictures Company left the family stranded in California after only one picture. Deciding it was smarter to aim high, they went to the Triangle Film Corporation, where D. W. Griffith was supervising productions. On the strength of The Battle Cry, Talmadge got a contract with Griffith's Fine Arts Company. For eight months, she starred in seven features for Triangle, including the comedy The Social Secretary (1916), a comedy written by Anita Loos and directed by John Emerson, that gave her an opportunity to disguise her beauty as a girl trying to avoid the unwelcome attentions of her male employers.

When the contract ran out, the Talmadges returned to New York. At a party, Talmadge met Broadway and film producer Joseph M. Schenck, a wealthy exhibitor who wanted to produce his own films. Immediately taken by Talmadge both personally and professionally, Schenck proposed marriage and a production studio. Two months later, on October 20, 1916, they were married. Talmadge called her much older husband "Daddy". He supervised, controlled, and nurtured her career in alliance with her mother.

In 1917, the couple formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, which became a lucrative enterprise. Schenck vowed he would make his wife the greatest star of all, and one to be remembered always. The best stories, most opulent costumes, grandest sets, talented casts, and distinguished directors, along with spectacular publicity, would be hers. Before long, women around the world wanted to be the romantic Norma Talmadge and flocked to her extravagant movies filmed on the East Coast.

Schenck soon had a stable of stars operating in his studio in New York, with the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation making dramas on the ground floor, the Constance Talmadge Film Corporation making sophisticated comedies on the second floor, and the comic unit with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle on the top floor, with Natalie Talmadge acting as secretary and taking occasional small roles in her sisters' films. Arbuckle brought in his nephew Al St. John and vaudeville star Buster Keaton. When Schenck decided it was financially advantageous to rent Arbuckle to Paramount Pictures for feature films, Keaton took over the comedy unit and was soon brought into the Talmadge family fold, at least for a time through an unhappy arranged marriage to Natalie Talmadge.

Talmadge's first film for her studio, the now lost Panthea, (1917) was directed by Allan Dwan with assistants Erich von Stroheim and Arthur Rosson. The film was a dramatic tour de force for her in a story set in Russia of a woman who sacrifices herself to help her husband. The film was a hit, turning Talmadge into a sensation and established her as a first-rate dramatic actress.

Talmadge's acting ability improved rapidly during this period. She made four to six films a year in New York between 1917 and 1921. Under Schenck's personal supervision, other films followed, including Poppy (1917), in which, she was paired with Eugene O'Brien. The teaming was such a hit, they made 10 more films together, including The Moth, and The Secret of the Storm Country, a sequel to Tess of the Storm Country (1914), starring Mary Pickford.

In 1918, she reteamed with Sidney Franklin, who directed The Safety Curtain, Her Only Way, Forbidden City, The Heart of Wetona, and 1919's The Probation Wife. These films have small-scale settings and familiar actors appearing from one film to the next. An advantage of the East Coast locale was access to the country's best high-fashion designers, such as Madame Francis and Lucile. Between 1919 and 1920, Talmadge's name appeared on a regular monthly fashion advice column for Photoplay magazine; her publicist was Beulah Livingstone.

Throughout the 1920s, Talmadge continued to triumph in films such as 1920's Yes or No, The Branded Woman, Passion Flower (1921), and The Sign on the Door (1921). The next year, she had the most popular film of her entire career, Smilin' Through (1922) directed by Sidney Franklin. One of the greatest screen romances of the silent film era, it was remade twice, in 1932 with Norma Shearer, and in 1941 with Jeanette MacDonald.

After Smilin' Through, Schenck closed the New York studios and Norma and Constance moved to Hollywood to join Keaton and Natalie. Talmadge's Hollywood films were different from her New York films. Bigger and glossier, they were fewer but more varied, often with period or exotic settings. She teamed with cinematographer Tony Gaudio and some of Hollywood's finest costume designers for a more glamorous image. She also worked with top-flight directors such as Frank Lloyd, Clarence Brown, and Frank Borzage. With help from films directed by her first husband Joseph M. Schenck, she became one of the highest-paid actresses of the 1920s.

In 1923, a poll of picture exhibitors named Norma Talmadge the number-one box office star. She was earning $10,000 a week, and receiving as many as 3,000 letters weekly from her fans. Her film Secrets (1924), directed by Frank Borzage, marked the pinnacle of her career, with her giving her best performance and receiving the best reviews. In 1924, Schenck had moved over to head United Artists, but Talmadge still had a distribution contract with First National. She continued to make successful films such as The Lady (1925) directed by Frank Borzage and the romantic comedy Kiki (1926) directed by Clarence Brown, remade later by Mary Pickford as a sound film in 1931.

One of the at least nine theories of the origin of the tradition for celebrities to stamp a hand in Hollywood involves Talmadge. According to it, in 1927, she accidentally stepped into wet concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Talmadge's last film for First National was Camille (1926), an adaptation of a novel by Alexandre Dumas the younger later remade by Greta Garbo. During filming, Talmadge fell in love with leading man Gilbert Roland. She asked Schenck for a divorce, but he was not ready to grant it. Despite his personal feelings, he was not going to break up a moneymaking team and continued casting Roland in Talmadge's next three films released by United Artists. Talmadge and Schenck separated, though he continued producing her films. He was now president of the prestigious but theater-poor United Artists Corporation, and the rest of Talmadge's films were released for that company. UA's distribution problems, however, began to erode her popularity. Her first films for this studio, The Dove (1927) and The Woman Disputed (1928), were box-office failures and ended up being her last silent movies.

By the time Woman Disputed (1928) was released, the talking film revolution had begun, and Talmadge began taking voice lessons in preparation. She worked diligently with voice coaches for over a year so she could make her sound debut. Her first talkie, New York Nights (1929), showed that she could speak and act acceptably in talkies. While her performance was considered to be good, the film was not. Talmadge next took on the role of Madame du Barry in the 1930 film Du Barry, Woman of Passion. With incompetent direction and Talmadge's inexperience at a role requiring very demanding vocal acting, the film was a failure, in spite of the elaborate sets by William Cameron Menzies.

On March 29, 1928, at the bungalow of Mary Pickford, United Artists brought together Talmadge, Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, Dolores del Río, and D. W. Griffith to speak on the radio show The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove that Griffith could meet the challenge of talking movies.

Talmadge's sister Constance sent her a telegram with this advice: "Quit pressing your luck, baby. The critics can't knock those trust funds Mama set up for us". As time passed, it became increasingly clear that the public was no longer interested in its old favorites, and Talmadge was seen as an icon of the past. Talmadge had been increasingly bored with filmmaking before the talkie challenge came along, and this setback seems to have discouraged her from further attempts.

She still had two more films left on her United Artists contract. In late 1930, Samuel Goldwyn announced he had bought the film rights to Zoë Akins' comedy play The Greeks Had a Word for It for her. She reportedly did some stage rehearsals for it in New York, but within a few months, she asked to be released from her contract. She never again appeared on screen. (Goldwyn eventually made the film version of The Greeks Had a Word for It under the title The Greeks Had a Word for Them in 1932.)

Upon leaving the movie world, Norma Talmadge rid herself of all the duties and responsibilities of stardom. She told eager fans who were pressing her for an autograph as she left a restaurant, "Get away, dears. I don't need you anymore and you don't need me."

Some time before late 1932, Talmadge decided against marrying Gilbert Roland, as he was 11 years her junior and she feared he would eventually leave her. Mother Peg fell ill, and died in September 1925. In late 1932, Talmadge began seeing her ex-husband Joseph Schenck's poker friend, comedian George Jessel. In April 1934, Schenck, from whom she had been separated for seven years, finally granted Talmadge her divorce, and nine days later, she married Jessel. Schenck continued to do what he could for Norma and her sisters, acting as a financial adviser and guiding her business affairs.

Talmadge's last professional works consisted of appearances on Jessel's radio program, which was sagging in the ratings. The program soon ended, and the marriage did not last; the couple divorced in 1939. Schenck's business acumen and her mother's watchful ambition for her daughters had resulted in a huge fortune for Talmadge, and she never wanted for money. Restless since the end of her filmmaking days, Talmadge traveled, often shuttling between her houses, entertaining, and visiting with her sisters. In 1946, she married Dr. Carvel James, a Beverly Hills physician.

In her later years, Talmadge, who had never been comfortable with the burdens of public celebrity, became reclusive. Increasingly crippled by painful arthritis and reported to be dependent on painkilling drugs, she moved to the warm climate of Las Vegas for her final years. According to Anita Loos' memories of Talmadge, the drug addiction came first which caused arthritis and was the basis of Norma's interest in her physician husband. In 1956, she was voted by her peers as one of the top five female stars of the pre-1925 era, but was too ill to travel to Rochester, New York, to accept her award.

After suffering a series of strokes in 1957, Talmadge died of pneumonia on Christmas Eve of that year. At the time of her death, her estate was valued at more than US$1,000,000 ($9,180,462 in 2020). She is interred with Constance and Natalie in their own niche in the Abbey of the Psalms in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Norma Talmadge has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.

Talmadge Street in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles is named in honor of the silent screen star. Also, the community of Talmadge, San Diego is named for her and her sisters, and one of the community's streets is named Norma in her honor.

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Ida Estelle Taylor (May 20, 1894 – April 15, 1958) was an American actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist. With "dark-brown, almost black hair and brown eyes," she was regarded as one of the most beautiful silent film stars of the 1920s.

After her stage debut in 1919, Taylor began appearing in small roles in World and Vitagraph films. She achieved her first notable success with While New York Sleeps (1920), in which she played three different roles, including a "vamp." She was a contract player of Fox Film Corporation and, later, Paramount Pictures, but for the most part of her career she freelanced. She became famous and was commended by critics for her portrayals of historical women in important films: Miriam in The Ten Commandments (1923), Mary, Queen of Scots in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924), and Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (1926).

Although she made a successful transition to sound films, she retired from film acting in 1932 and decided to focus entirely on her singing career. She was also active in animal welfare before her death from cancer in 1958. She was posthumously honored in 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the motion pictures category.

Ida Estelle Taylor was born on May 20, 1894 in Wilmington, Delaware. Her father, Harry D. Taylor (born 1871), was born in Harrington, Delaware.[8] Her mother, Ida LaBertha "Bertha" Barrett (November 29, 1874 – August 25, 1965), was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and later worked as a freelance makeup artist. The Taylors had another daughter, Helen (May 19, 1898 – December 22, 1990), who also became an actress. According to the 1900 census, the family lived in a rented house at 805 Washington Street in Wilmington In 1903, Ida LaBertha was granted a divorce from Harry on the ground of nonsupport; the following year, she married a cooper named Fred T. Krech. Ida LaBertha's third husband was Harry J. Boylan, a vaudevillian.

Taylor was raised by her maternal grandparents, Charles Christopher Barrett and Ida Lauber Barrett. Charles Barrett ran a piano store in Wilmington, and Taylor studied piano. Her childhood ambition was to become a stage actress, but her grandparents initially disapproved of her theatrical aspirations. When she was ten years old she sang the role of "Buttercup" in a benefit performance of the opera H.M.S. Pinafore in Wilmington. She attended high school[6] but dropped out because she refused to apologize after a troublesome classmate caused her to spill ink from her inkwell on the floor. In 1911, she married bank cashier Kenneth M. Peacock. The couple remained together for five years until Taylor decided to become an actress. She soon found work as an artists' model, posing for Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn, Leslie Thrasher, and other painters and illustrators.

In April 1918, Taylor moved to New York City to study acting at the Sargent Dramatic School. She worked as a hat model for a wholesale millinery store to earn money for her tuition and living expenses. At Sargent Dramatic School, she wrote and performed one-act plays, studied voice inflection and diction, and was noticed by a singing teacher named Mr. Samoiloff who thought her voice was suitable for opera. Samoiloff gave Taylor singing lessons on a contingent basis and, within several months, recommended her to theatrical manager Henry Wilson Savage for a part in the musical Lady Billy. She auditioned for Savage and he offered her work as an understudy to the actress who had the second role in the musical. At the same time, playwright George V. Hobart offered her a role as a "comedy vamp" in his play Come-On, Charlie, and Taylor, who had no experience in stage musicals, preferred the non-musical role and accepted Hobart's offer.

Taylor made her Broadway stage début in George V. Hobart's Come-On, Charlie, which opened on April 8, 1919 at 48th Street Theatre in New York City. The story was about a shoe clerk who has a dream in which he inherits one million dollars and must make another million within six months. It was not a great success and closed after sixteen weeks. Taylor, the only person in the play who wore red beads, was praised by a New York City critic who wrote, "The only point of interest in the show was the girl with the red beads." During the play's run, producer Adolph Klauber saw Taylor's performance and said to the play's leading actress Aimee Lee Dennis: "You know, I think Miss Taylor should go into motion pictures. That's where her greatest future lies. Her dark eyes would screen excellently." Dennis told Taylor what Klauber said, and Taylor began looking for work in films. With the help of J. Gordon Edwards, she got a small role in the film A Broadway Saint (1919).nShe was hired by the Vitagraph Company for a role with Corinne Griffith in The Tower of Jewels (1920), and also played William Farnum's leading lady in The Adventurer (1920) for the Fox Film Corporation.

One of Taylor's early successes was in 1920 in Fox's While New York Sleeps with Marc McDermott. Charles Brabin directed the film, and Taylor and McDermott play three sets of characters in different time periods. This film was lost for decades, but has been recently discovered and screened at a film festival in Los Angeles. Her next film for Fox, Blind Wives (1920), was based on Edward Knoblock's play My Lady's Dress and reteamed her with director Brabin and co-star McDermott. William Fox then sent her to Fox Film's Hollywood studios to play a supporting role in a Tom Mix film. Just before she boarded the train for Hollywood, Brabin gave her some advice: "Don't think of supporting Mix in that play. Don't play in program pictures. Never play anything but specials. Mr. Fox is about to put on Monte Cristo. You should play the part of Mercedes. Concentrate on that role and when you get to Los Angeles, see that you play it."

Taylor traveled with her mother, her canary bird, and her bull terrier, Winkle. She was excited about playing Mercedes and reread Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo on the train. When she arrived in Hollywood, she reported to the Fox studios and introduced herself to director Emmett J. Flynn, who gave her a copy of the script but warned her that he already had another actress in mind for the role. Flynn offered her another part in the film, but she insisted on playing Mercedes and after much conversation was cast in the role. John Gilbert played Edmond Dantès in the film, which was eventually titled Monte Cristo (1922). Taylor later said that she "saw then that he [Gilbert] had every requisite of a splendid actor." The New York Herald critic wrote "Miss Taylor was as effective in the revenge section of the film as she was in the first or love part of the screened play. Here is a class of face that can stand a close-up without becoming a mere speechless automaton."

Fox also cast her as Gilda Fontaine, a "vamp", in the 1922 remake of the 1915 Fox production A Fool There Was, the film that made Theda Bara a star. Robert E. Sherwood of Life magazine gave it a mixed review and observed: "Times and movies have changed materially since then [1915]. The vamp gave way to the baby vamp some years back, and the latter has now been superseded by the flapper. It was therefore a questionable move on Mr. Fox's part to produce a revised version of A Fool There Was in this advanced age." She played a Russian princess in the film Bavu (1923), a Universal Pictures production with Wallace Beery as the villain and Forrest Stanley as her leading man.

One of her most memorable roles is that of Miriam, the sister of Moses (portrayed by Theodore Roberts), in the biblical prologue of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923), one of the most successful films of the silent era. Her performance in the DeMille film was considered a great acting achievement. Taylor's younger sister, Helen, was hired by Sid Grauman to play Miriam in the Egyptian Theatre's onstage prologue to the film.

Despite being ill with arthritis, she won the supporting role of Mary, Queen of Scots in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924), starring Mary Pickford. "I've since wondered if my long illness did not, in some measure at least, make for realism in registering the suffering of the unhappy and tormented Scotch queen," she told a reporter in 1926.

She played Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (1926), Warner Bros.' first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack. The film also starred John Barrymore, Mary Astor and Warner Oland. Variety praised her characterization of Lucrezia: "The complete surprise is the performance of Estelle Taylor as Lucretia [sic] Borgia. Her Lucretia is a fine piece of work. She makes it sardonic in treatment, conveying precisely the woman Lucretia is presumed to have been."

She was to have co-starred in a film with Rudolph Valentino, but he died just before production was to begin. One of her last silent films was New York (1927), featuring Ricardo Cortez and Lois Wilson.

In 1928, she and husband Dempsey starred in a Broadway play titled The Big Fight, loosely based around Dempsey's boxing popularity, which ran for 31 performances at the Majestic Theatre.

She made a successful transition to sound films or "talkies." Her first sound film was the comical sketch Pusher in the Face (1929).

Notable sound films in which she appeared include Street Scene (1931), with Sylvia Sidney; the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning Cimarron (1931), with Richard Dix and Irene Dunne; and Call Her Savage (1932), with Clara Bow.

Taylor returned to films in 1944 with a small part in the Jean Renoir drama The Southerner (released in 1945), playing what journalist Erskine Johnson described as "a bar fly with a roving eye. There's a big brawl and she starts throwing beer bottles." Johnson was delighted with Taylor's reappearance in the film industry: "[Interviewing] Estelle was a pleasant surprise. The lady is as beautiful and as vivacious as ever, with the curves still in the right places." The Southerner was her last film.

Taylor married three times, but never had children. In 1911 at aged 17, she married a bank cashier named Kenneth Malcolm Peacock, the son of a prominent Wilmington businessman. They lived together for five years and then separated so she could pursue her acting career in New York. Taylor later claimed the marriage was annulled. In August 1924, the press mentioned Taylor's engagement to boxer and world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.[36] In September, Peacock announced he would sue Taylor for divorce on the ground of desertion. He denied he would name Dempsey as co-respondent, saying "If she wants to marry Dempsey, it is all right with me." Taylor was granted a divorce from Peacock on January 9, 1925.

Taylor and Dempsey were married on February 7, 1925 at First Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. They lived in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Her marriage to Dempsey ended in divorce in 1931.

Her third husband was theatrical producer Paul Small. Of her last husband and their marriage, she said: "We have been friends and Paul has managed my stage career for five years, so it seemed logical that marriage should work out for us, but I'm afraid I'll have to say that the reason it has not worked out is incompatibility."

In her later years, Taylor devoted her free time to her pets and was known for her work as an animal rights activist. "Whenever the subject of compulsory rabies inoculation or vivisection came up," wrote the United Press, "Miss Taylor was always in the fore to lead the battle against the measure." She was the president and founder of the California Pet Owners' Protective League, an organization that focused on finding homes for pets to prevent them from going to local animal shelters. In 1953, Taylor was appointed to the Los Angeles City Animal Regulation Commission, which she served as vice president.

Taylor died of cancer at her home in Los Angeles on April 15, 1958, at the age of 63. The Los Angeles City Council adjourned that same day "out of respect to her memory." Ex-husband Jack Dempsey said, "I'm very sorry to hear of her death. I didn't know she was that ill. We hadn't seen each other for about 10 years. She was a wonderful person." Her funeral was held on April 17 in Pierce Bros. Hollywood Chapel. She was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, then known as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery.

She was survived by her mother, Ida "Bertha" Barrett Boylan; her sister, Helen Taylor Clark; and a niece, Frances Iblings. She left an estate of more than $10,000, most of it to her family and $200 for the care and maintenance of her three dogs, which she left to friend Ella Mae Abrams.

Taylor was known for her dark features and for the sensuality she brought to the films in which she appeared. Journalist Erskine Johnson considered her "the screen's No. 1 oomph girl of the 20s." For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Estelle Taylor was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.

[yesthatssadirichardslove]

Netflix establishes $100 million virus relief fund 

LOS ANGELES

Netflix said Friday it is establishing a $100 million relief fund for workers in the worldwide creative community affected by the coronavirus-caused halt of most film and television production.

“This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief creative officer, said in a statement.

The majority of the fund will support hard-hit crews on Netflix's own productions around the world, Sarandos said, and will supplement the two weeks of pay the company already agreed to pay the cast and crew on suspended productions.

Electricians, carpenters and drivers, who largely are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis, are among the hundreds of thousands in the entertainment industry without jobs, he said.

More than 120,000 jobs have been lost by members of IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees that represents cinematographers, editors, production designers and others, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The publication cited correspondence to members from the International Cinematographers Guild and Motion Picture Editors Guild.

In an effort to support the broader film and television industry, $15 million of the Netflix fund will be distributed to “third parties and nonprofits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base,” according to Sarandos' statement.

In the U.S. and Canada, Netflix said it will donate $1 million each to the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the United States, and $1 million between the Fondation des Artistes and the AFC, formerly known as the Actors' Fund of Canada.

Elsewhere, including Europe, Latin America and Asia, Netflix is coordinating with industry organizations to create similar relief efforts, Sarandos said, with announcements planned next week on funding those efforts.

“What’s happening is unprecedented,” he said. “We are only as strong as the people we work with and Netflix is fortunate to be able to help those hardest hit in our industry through this challenging time.”

Efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus have left the entertainment industry reeling, with the suspension of most productions, closures of movie theaters and Broadway plays and concert postponements. With many people housebound by choice or government restrictions, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have been a bright spot for the industry as well as consumers.

In an effort to keep its pipeline from shutting entirely, Netflix squeezed the last days of production out of its drama series “The Crown,” which was concluding its season-four taping this week in London.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

When the performers union SAG-AFTRA announced earlier this week that its foundation was creating the virus fund, actor and guild President Courtney B. Vance said there had already been a “major spike” in applications and requests for help from its members.

“I am strongly asking leaders and members of the entertainment industry to donate to the foundation so that performers and their families will be given the critical support they need,” Vance said in a statement Monday. The fund will help members cover expenses including rent, mortgage, utilities and medical bills, the guild said.

[yessadirichards]

Netflix establishes $100 million virus relief fund     LOS ANGELES

Netflix said Friday it is establishing a $100 million relief fund for workers in the worldwide creative community affected by the coronavirus-caused halt of most film and television production.

“This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief creative officer, said in a statement.

The majority of the fund will support hard-hit crews on Netflix's own productions around the world, Sarandos said, and will supplement the two weeks of pay the company already agreed to pay the cast and crew on suspended productions.

Electricians, carpenters and drivers, who largely are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis, are among the hundreds of thousands in the entertainment industry without jobs, he said.

More than 120,000 jobs have been lost by members of IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees that represents cinematographers, editors, production designers and others, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The publication cited correspondence to members from the International Cinematographers Guild and Motion Picture Editors Guild.

In an effort to support the broader film and television industry, $15 million of the Netflix fund will be distributed to “third parties and nonprofits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base,” according to Sarandos' statement.

In the U.S. and Canada, Netflix said it will donate $1 million each to the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the United States, and $1 million between the Fondation des Artistes and the AFC, formerly known as the Actors' Fund of Canada.

Elsewhere, including Europe, Latin America and Asia, Netflix is coordinating with industry organizations to create similar relief efforts, Sarandos said, with announcements planned next week on funding those efforts.

“What’s happening is unprecedented,” he said. “We are only as strong as the people we work with and Netflix is fortunate to be able to help those hardest hit in our industry through this challenging time.”

Efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus have left the entertainment industry reeling, with the suspension of most productions, closures of movie theaters and Broadway plays and concert postponements. With many people housebound by choice or government restrictions, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have been a bright spot for the industry as well as consumers.

In an effort to keep its pipeline from shutting entirely, Netflix squeezed the last days of production out of its drama series “The Crown,” which was concluding its season-four taping this week in London.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

When the performers union SAG-AFTRA announced earlier this week that its foundation was creating the virus fund, actor and guild President Courtney B. Vance said there had already been a “major spike” in applications and requests for help from its members.

“I am strongly asking leaders and members of the entertainment industry to donate to the foundation so that performers and their families will be given the critical support they need,” Vance said in a statement Monday. The fund will help members cover expenses including rent, mortgage, utilities and medical bills, the guild said.