#rko comedy

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

"I suppose you think I've changed, too." 당신도 내가 변했다고 생각하겠지? "Not anymore than could be expected. I suppose every man when he grows old begins to lose prideness on personal appearance." 더 이상 변할 것도 없어요. 모든 남자들은 나이가 들면서 겉모습에 대한 자신감을 잃어버리는 거 아닐까요?

-Edgar Kennedy & Vivien Oakland in Beaux and Errors (1938)

[hellostarrynightblr]

Ginger Rogers in Swing Time (1936) dir. George Stevens

[schlock-luster-video]

On November 14, 1940, You'll Find Out premiered in New York City.

Here's a new portrait of Bela Lugosi!

[boscofuller]

[from1837to1945]

Paul Maxey in RKO short comedies

Borrowed Blonde (1947)

In Room 303 (1947)

Dad Always Pays (1949)

[jomaporpalcineclasico]

BOLA DE FUEGO (HOWARD HAWKS, 1941) es una genialidad, una obra maestra de la SCREWBALL COMEDY en la que encontramos a un GARY COOPER en un inusual papel de erudito que trabaja, junto con siete colegas más, en la elaboración de una ENCICLOPEDIA. Al darse cuenta de que su aislamiento y su dedicación extrema les han privado de conocer mejor el lenguaje de la calle, el profesor BERTRAM POTTS decide investigar in situ las expresiones y la forma de hablar populares, encontrando en su camino a SUGARPUSS O´SHEA (BARBARA STANWICK, nominada al OSCAR por esta fabulosa interpretación), cantante de un club nocturno que consigue llamar la atención del buen profesor por sus variopintas explosiones lingüísticas y su irresistible atractivo. Pero ella es además la novia del peligroso gangster JOE LILAC (DANA ANDREWS), y este no está dispuesto a perder a la mujer que puede librarle de la cárcel. ¿Ganará el conocimiento? ¿Ganará el amor? ¿Ganará el mafioso? Descubre esta divertidísima película escrita por el inigualable BILLY WILDER. ^^^Link de YouTube en la bio^^^ #comedy #rko #barbara #balloffire #boladefuego #garycooper #barbarastanwick #billywilder #howardhawks #classic #cinematic #oscars #enciclopedia #teacher #newyork #newjersey #screwballcomedy #jerryleelewis #greatballsoffire #jerrylewis #enciclopedia #wisdom #professor #doctor #drumboogie #oscars #1941 #femmefatale #gangster #goldenageofhollywood https://www.instagram.com/p/CpVzSUSMEHu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dweemeister]

August 7, 2023

By Maureen Lee Lenker

(Entertainment Weekly) — We'll always have Paris, but for a time, it seemed as if we might not always have Turner Classic Movies.

Since 1994, TCM has aired films, uncut and commercial-free, 24 hours a day, all enhanced by monthly themed and curated programming, hosted introductions and conclusions (known as outros), conversations with filmmakers and talent, and original content. In its nearly 30 years of existence, the network has expanded beyond its already estimable remit as a cable network-meets-film-school, with fan events including a film festival and cruise.

The brand also plays a key role in global film preservation efforts. Restorations of bigger studio titles are typically done by the studios themselves, but TCM is more often than not the showcase for such work — both on air and at the annual film festival. TCM won a Peabody Award in 2008 for its "commitment to film preservation and restoration." 

In 2023 alone, TCM partnered with the Film Foundation and the studio to restore 10 classics for the Warner Bros. 100th anniversary, including 1932's One Way Passage, 1941's The Strawberry Blonde, 1959's Rio Bravo, and 1955's East of Eden, all of which screened at the film festival and aired on the network. Last year, TCM celebrated its expanded partnership with the Film Foundation with the premiere of a 4K restoration of the Elizabeth Taylor/James Dean/Rock Hudson epic Giant at the 2022 festival. (Going even further back, in 2007, TCM tracked down the rights to six "lost" RKO films, including William Powell comedy Double Harness and Ginger Rogers rom-com Rafter Romance, not seen in over 50 years).

But on June 20, all of that seemed to be in peril as news broke that the entire executive leadership team of TCM (most of whom boasted 20-plus years of experience with the network) were being laid off alongside other members of the staff. The latest round of layoffs, which network staff tell EW they were blindsided by, are part of Warner Bros. Discovery's continuing attempts to cut costs across the studio.

Some backtracking from the executives at WBD is alright (especially in terms of staff rehires and bringing back the TCMFF Director), but they cut away at something that wasn't broken to begin with!

[barkingbonzo]

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. She worked in a varied range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.

Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while at Bryn Mawr College. Favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in film brought her international fame, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for her third film, Morning Glory (1933), but this was followed by a series of commercial failures culminating in the critically lauded box office failure Bringing Up Baby (1938). Hepburn masterminded her comeback, buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on the condition that she be the star. That comedy film was a box office success and landed her a third Academy Award nomination. In the 1940s, she was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her career focused on an alliance with Spencer Tracy. The screen partnership spanned 26 years and produced nine films.

Hepburn challenged herself in the latter half of her life as she tackled Shakespearean stage productions and a range of literary roles. She found a niche playing mature, independent, and sometimes unmarried women such as in The African Queen (1951), a persona the public embraced. Hepburn received three more Academy Awards for her performances in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981). In the 1970s, she began appearing in television films, which later became her focus. She made her final screen appearance at the age of 87. After a period of inactivity and ill health, Hepburn died in 2003 at the age of 96

[byneddiedingo]

Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951)

Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Tim Holt, Charles McGraw, Marjorie Reynolds, Raymond Burr, Leslye Banning, Jim Backus, Philip Van Zandt, John Mylong, Carleton G. Young. Screenplay: Frank Fenton, Jack Leonard. Cinematography: Harry J. Wild. Production design: J. McMillan Johnson. Film editing: Frederic Knudtson, Eda Warren. Music: Leigh Harline. 

His Kind of Woman starts out as a tough-talking film noir and ends up as a knockabout action comedy. The credit or blame for that belongs to Howard Hughes, the RKO studio head and executive producer, who waited until John Farrow had finished the movie and then had Richard Fleischer re-shoot it, even recasting the villain, originally played by Lee Van Cleef, with Raymond Burr. The New York Times reviewer hated it, partly because of the shift in tone, but most people like it. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell were never going to outdo Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in dialogue like "They tell me you killed Ferraro. How did it feel?" "He didn't say." But they're good enough at it that they give the movie a core that the flurry of oddball characters and the loony setup for the plot needs. Vincent Price is wonderful as an Errol Flynnish movie star who spouts tags from Shakespeare as he joins Mitchum in taking on the bad guys. Hughes made sure that Russell's gowns, designed by Howard Greer, were as revealing as possible, and Mitchum spends a lot of the film without his shirt, looking a little thick in the waist to contemporary viewers used to gym-toned physiques. The end product probably wasn't worth the money Hughes lost on it, but it's still fun.  

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Flirting in the Park (1933)

[jisforjudi2]

Barbara and Bill made a movie together? I just finished reading the chapter about Barbara Hale in The RKO Girls and I saw this still picture (in black and white) from their movie Slim Carter

[schlock-luster-video]

On February 15, 1951, Walk Softly, Stranger debuted in Italy.

[boscofuller]

[film-classics]

Rosalind Russell - The Miracle Woman

Catherine Rosalind Russell (born in Waterbury, Connecticut on June 4, 1907) was an American actress known for playing sassy, wisecracking women in 1930s and '40s comedies. Despite going through postpartum depression, the deaths of her siblings, breast cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis, she thrived as a charismatic actress on film and the stage, earning the nickname "The Miracle Woman.”

Raised in a strict Irish-American, Catholic family. She attended  Rosemont College and Marymount College, before graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, unbeknownst to her parents who believed she was studying to be a speech teacher.

Against parental objections, she began her career as a fashion model and took acting jobs in upstate New York, Connecticut, and Boston before eventually appearing in Broadway.

In 1933, Russell went to Los Angeles, where she was hired as a contract player for Universal Studios but did not appear in a movie. Unhappy at Universal, she moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she broke through in the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks.

She took a break after giving birth from her career, but made a comeback with RKO Pictures and then with Columbia Pictures. She continued to appear in critically acclaimed movies and Broadway shows through the mid-1960s, including the title role of the long-running stage comedy Auntie Mame (based on a Patrick Dennis novel) as well as the 1958 film version.

After years of battling breast cancer and even getting a double mastectomy, she died at her home in Beverly Hills, California at 69 years of age. Months after her death, she was honored by her acting colleagues with the “Interlude With Rosalind Russell” at the Shubert Theater in Broadway.

Legacy:

Nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and Auntie Mame (1958)

Won all five of her Golden Globe Award for Best Actress nominations: Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), Auntie Mame (1958), A Majority of One (1961), and Gypsy (1962)

Won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Wonderful Town and was nominated for the 1957 for Best Actress in a Play for Auntie Mame

Nominated for the 1959 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress

Won the Golden Apple Award in 1942 for Most Cooperative Actress

Awarded the Look Magazine Award for Film Achievement Award in 1947

Covered Time magazine in 1953

Was the namesake of the Rosalind Russell State Theater in her hometown in 1955

Wrote the story for the film The Unguarded Moment (1956) and adapted the novel, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, into the screenplay for Mrs. Pollifax-Spy in 1971, under the pen name C.A. McKnight

Won the Golden Laurel for Top Female Comedy Performance for Auntie Mame (1958) and was nominated five more times

Presented with a medallion by the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1962

Honored for her distinguished service by the UCLA in 1964

Named the Woman of the Year by Hasty Pudding Theatricals, a student society at Harvard University, in 1964

Is the recipient of the Floyd B. Odlum Award by the Arthritis Foundation in 1971

Appointed by Congress to serve on the National Commission on Arthritis and Related Musculoskeletal Diseases during the 1970s

Received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1972

Appeared in John Springer's "Legendary Ladies" series at The Town Hall in 1973

Awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973 by the Academy for her extensive charity work

Presented her with the National Artist Award in 1974 by the American National Theater and Academy

Awarded the Life Achievement Award in 1975 by the Screen Actors Guild Awards

Hosted by First Lady Betty Ford at the White House in 1976

Honored with the Rosalind Russell Week in 1977 by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley

Co-authored her autobiography, Life Is a Banquet, in 1977

Is the namesake of the Rosalind Russell Medical Research Center for Arthritis  at the University of California, San Francisco, created by a Congress grant in 1979

Inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2005

Ranked #28 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in 2006 for His Girl Friday (1940)

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for July 2008

Inducted in the Online Film and Television Association Film Hall of Fame in 2014

Was the subject of a 2016 exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum in her hometown

Honored by the Berlin Film Festival‘s 27-movie tribute in 2022

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1700 block of Vine Street for motion picture

[broadwaydivastournament]

Movie Musical Divas Tournament: Round 1

Ethel Waters (1896-1977): On with the Show (1929) - herself | Cabin in the Sky (1943) - Petunia Jackson

"ethel waters rose to fame on the vaudeville circuit and became a celebrated entertainer with a huge influence on popular music. she introduced and popularized "stormy weather" and other songs. she starred in many broadway musicals including cabin in the sky, which was adapted into a film by vincente minnelli with ethel reprising her role." - anonymous

Irene Dunne (1898-1990): Leathernecking (1930) - Delphine Witherspoon | Sweet Adeline (1934) - Adeline Schmidt | Roberta (1935) - Stephanie | Show Boat (1936) - Magnolia Hawks | High Wide and Handsome (1937) - Sally Watterson

"not only was she a screwball comedy icon and a fine dramatic actress and so so beautiful, irene dunne had an angelically gorgeous singing voice and should have been in more musicals. she wanted to become an opera singer, but when that didn't work out she went into broadway musicals and then film acting. i literally cry every time when she sings "smoke gets in your eyes" in roberta (where she's billed above fred and ginger, who rko was still figuring out what to do with). she also notably starred in the 1936 version of show boat." - anonymous

This is Round 1 of the Movie Musical Divas tournament. Additional polls in this round may be found by searching #mmround1, or by clicking the link below. Add your propaganda and support by reblogging this post.

ADDITIONAL PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

Ethel Waters:

Photos and video submitted by: anonymous

Irene Dunne:

Photos and video submitted by: anonymous