Cad, bounder, dastard... look those words up in an old casting directory and you'll probably find a picture of George Sanders. Albert Lewin's best movie is a class-act period piece with terrific acting from Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Ann Dvorak, John Carradine, Warren William and many more, and a powerful '40s picture that most people haven't discovered, now handsomely restored. The Private Affairs of Bel Ami Blu-ray Olive Films 1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 112 min. / Street Date May 24, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Ann Dvorak, John Carradine, Warren William, Susan Douglas, Albert Bassermann, Frances Dee, Marie Wilson, Katherine Emery, Richard Fraser. Cinematography Russell Metty Film Editor Joseph Albrecht Original Music Darius Milhaud Assistant Director Robert Aldrich Production Design Gordon Wiles Written by from the novel by Guy de Maupassant Produced by David L. Loew Written Directed by Albert Lewin
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 5/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Robert Walker: Actor in MGM films of the '40s. Robert Walker: Actor who conveyed boy-next-door charms, psychoses At least on screen, I've always found the underrated actor Robert Walker to be everything his fellow – and more famous – MGM contract player James Stewart only pretended to be: shy, amiable, naive. The one thing that made Walker look less like an idealized “Average Joe” than Stewart was that the former did not have a vacuous look. Walker's intelligence shone clearly through his bright (in black and white) grey eyes. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” programming, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating today, Aug. 9, '15, to Robert Walker, who was featured in 20 films between 1943 and his untimely death at age 32 in 1951. Time Warner (via Ted Turner) owns the pre-1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library (and almost got to buy the studio outright in 2009), so most of Walker's movies have...
- 8/9/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Foreign Correspondent
Written by Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
USA, 1940
As if his British films weren’t evidence enough of his talent, Alfred Hitchcock made quite the impression when he came to Hollywood in 1940. His first picture in the states, Rebecca, was nominated for Best Picture at the 1941 Academy Awards. So was his second, Foreign Correspondent, also released in 1940. While Rebecca would ultimately win, many – then and now – consider the achievement as belonging more to producer David O. Selznick than to the director. This is not without some justification. Though Rebecca bears more than a few notably Hitchcockian touches, between the two features, Foreign Correspondent looks and feels more appropriately like Hitchcock’s previous and later works. The Criterion Collection, recently very kind to Hitchcock on Blu-ray, now gives this latter feature a suitably well-rounded treatment, with a documentary on the film’s visual effects, an...
Written by Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
USA, 1940
As if his British films weren’t evidence enough of his talent, Alfred Hitchcock made quite the impression when he came to Hollywood in 1940. His first picture in the states, Rebecca, was nominated for Best Picture at the 1941 Academy Awards. So was his second, Foreign Correspondent, also released in 1940. While Rebecca would ultimately win, many – then and now – consider the achievement as belonging more to producer David O. Selznick than to the director. This is not without some justification. Though Rebecca bears more than a few notably Hitchcockian touches, between the two features, Foreign Correspondent looks and feels more appropriately like Hitchcock’s previous and later works. The Criterion Collection, recently very kind to Hitchcock on Blu-ray, now gives this latter feature a suitably well-rounded treatment, with a documentary on the film’s visual effects, an...
- 2/21/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
The Method actor and acting coach on improvisation, her role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the dearth of intelligent plays on Broadway
She honks, she growls, she gurgles; she flings out her arms, mock-faints, jumps up to illustrate a point. Uta Hagen off stage is as vital and intelligent a woman as, in her extraordinary performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", she is a vital and intelligent actress.
"Shuddup!" she bellows at the sedate walls of her Kensington hotel room. This to show how she can seemingly run her voice ragged as Mr Albee's Martha and yet keep it intact. "See? I was pushing down on the vocal cords and spreading them apart. That's all right. But listen to this. Shuddup! That was pushing sideways - straining them."
People who have watched Miss Hagen go through "Woolf's" three and a half hours of everything from wisecrack to...
She honks, she growls, she gurgles; she flings out her arms, mock-faints, jumps up to illustrate a point. Uta Hagen off stage is as vital and intelligent a woman as, in her extraordinary performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", she is a vital and intelligent actress.
"Shuddup!" she bellows at the sedate walls of her Kensington hotel room. This to show how she can seemingly run her voice ragged as Mr Albee's Martha and yet keep it intact. "See? I was pushing down on the vocal cords and spreading them apart. That's all right. But listen to this. Shuddup! That was pushing sideways - straining them."
People who have watched Miss Hagen go through "Woolf's" three and a half hours of everything from wisecrack to...
- 2/19/2014
- The Guardian - Film News
Criterion adds another illustrious Alfred Hitchcock title to the collection this month with Foreign Correspondent, which followed hot on the heels of Rebecca in 1940, the beginning of the director’s American period. Though not a perfect film, it does register as one of his most unfairly overlooked films, even as it shows various signs of outside tampering as a film belonging very much to the period in which it was made. Though suffering from the effect of too many cooks in the writing kitchen, it’s a title as filled with plot twists as it is wit, as well as Hitchcock’s signature elaborate set pieces.
Opening with a dedication to the bravery of those foreign correspondents and others that risk their lives in war time, we enter into the realm of a Us newsroom where frustration is running high at the lack of actual coverage worthy news filtering in from the correspondents.
Opening with a dedication to the bravery of those foreign correspondents and others that risk their lives in war time, we enter into the realm of a Us newsroom where frustration is running high at the lack of actual coverage worthy news filtering in from the correspondents.
- 2/18/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Hitchcock’s War Face
By Raymond Benson
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film Foreign Correspondent is often underrated or forgotten when it comes to lists of the director’s “best” films. In fact, it was nominated for an Oscar Best Picture the same year as Rebecca (which won), and, personally, I think it’s the better movie. It’s certainly more of a “Hitchcock film” than Rebecca, as it is one of those cross-country espionage adventure-thrillers along the lines of The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North by Northwest.
It was the director’s second Hollywood movie. Although Hitchcock was contracted to David O. Selznick (who produced Rebecca), Hitch’s deal allowed Selznick to “farm out” the director to other studios and producers, for a piece of Hitchcock’s salary, of course. In this case, Foreign Correspondent was produced by Walter Wanger (who had also produced John Ford’s Stagecoach). It’s interesting that...
By Raymond Benson
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film Foreign Correspondent is often underrated or forgotten when it comes to lists of the director’s “best” films. In fact, it was nominated for an Oscar Best Picture the same year as Rebecca (which won), and, personally, I think it’s the better movie. It’s certainly more of a “Hitchcock film” than Rebecca, as it is one of those cross-country espionage adventure-thrillers along the lines of The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North by Northwest.
It was the director’s second Hollywood movie. Although Hitchcock was contracted to David O. Selznick (who produced Rebecca), Hitch’s deal allowed Selznick to “farm out” the director to other studios and producers, for a piece of Hitchcock’s salary, of course. In this case, Foreign Correspondent was produced by Walter Wanger (who had also produced John Ford’s Stagecoach). It’s interesting that...
- 2/15/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Best Supporting Actor Oscar Predictions 2014 (photo: Jared Leto in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’) As explained in our previous Oscar 2014 predictions post, this year’s Academy Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories initially looked impossible to predict. For Best Supporting Actor, Jared Leto was the front-runner for his performance as a transsexual with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club, and Michael Fassbender was another strong possibility for his evil planter in 12 Years a Slave — but who else? (See also: "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actress: Meryl Streep Possibly to Break Another Record," "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actor: Robert Redford Possible Near-Record," "Best Supporting Actress 2014 Oscar Predictions: Jennifer Lawrence and/or Scarlett Johansson to Make Oscar History?" and "Oscar Predictions 2014: Best Picture, Best Director.") A couple of weeks ago, the SAG Award nominations helped to clarify things some, but, just as in the Best Supporting Actress category, there remains quite...
- 1/8/2014
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Alfred Hitchcock silent movies added to Unesco UK Memory of the World Register (photo: Ivor Novello in The Lodger) The nine Alfred Hitchcock-directed silent films recently restored by the British Film Institute have been added to the Unesco UK Memory of the World Register, "a list of documentary heritage which holds cultural significance specific to the UK." The nine Hitchcock movies are the following: The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Ring (1927), Downhill / When Boys Leave Home (1927), The Lodger (1927), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), The Farmer’s Wife (1928), The Manxman (1929), and Blackmail (1929) — also released as a talkie, Britain’s first. Only one Hitchcock-directed silent remains lost, The Mountain Eagle / Fear o’ God (1926). Most of those movies have little in common with the suspense thrillers Hitchcock would crank out in Britain and later in Hollywood from the early ’30s on. But a handful of his silents already featured elements and themes that would recur in...
- 7/18/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Loves of Pharaoh: Ernst Lubitsch early historical epic (photo: Emil Jannings [center] in The Loves of Pharaoh) Ernst Lubitsch’s The Loves of Pharaoh (1922) exists only in a truncated version, with some stills and title cards inserted into the lost footage. Lubitsch’s early epic was screened at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The film tells the familiar story of the lustful, evil King Amenes (Emil Jannings), Pharaoh of Egypt, and his unrequited love for the Greek slave girl Theonis (Dagny Servaes), who loves the gallant Ramphis (Harry Liedtke), who, for his part, is being kept prisoner in a rock quarry. Pharaoh Amenes makes Theonis his Queen, but she manages to avoid getting in bed with him. Then those pesky Ethiopians want their Queen / Slave for their own and invade Egypt. Needless to say, Ramphis escapes to claim Theonis. The Loves of Pharaoh‘s tale of treachery and...
- 6/4/2013
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Flix Picks [1] is a new semi-regular feature that explores the depths of my Netflix queue and allows me the chance to catch up with some older films that I’ve not yet seen. You can count me as one of the many cinephiles in the Alfred Hitchcock fan club. I’ve seen a wide array of his films, although mainly the more well-known titles. So, in an attempt to widen my knowledge on the Master of Suspense, I recently caught up with Foreign Correspondent, a slightly less talked-about film in his canon. As usual, thanks to my handy-dandy Netflix account, it was an easy find. Set during the days leading up to WWII, Foreign Correspondent tells the story of Johnny Jones, a crime reporter who’s editor assigns him to Europe after becoming fed up with vague reports from other correspondents. Despite a lack of experience in foreign affairs, Johnny...
- 10/28/2010
- by Aaron
- FilmJunk
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