Don’t do it Vittorio! The Italian master’s last neorealist project was done ‘in collaboration’ with American producer David O. Selznick, who proceeded to crowbar his way into every directorial decision. The resulting ‘creative differences’ spoiled Signor De Sica’s Italian version, but that wasn’t enough. Selznick put it through a sausage machine for the American release, which is almost half an hour shorter. Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift are excellent in both versions, but De Sica’s is far superior — and studying the differences tells why the first demand of powerful directors is to retain final cut. The presentation offers both full films, plus the short subject Selznick added to bring his version up to minimal feature length.
Terminal Station & Indiscretion of an American Wife
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1953 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 89 + 72 min. / Street Date March 31, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift,...
Terminal Station & Indiscretion of an American Wife
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1953 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 89 + 72 min. / Street Date March 31, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift,...
- 4/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Montgomery Clift would’ve celebrated his 98th birthday on October 17, 2018. The iconic actor gave only a small number of onscreen performances before his untimely death in 1966 at the age of 45. Yet several of those titles remain classics. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
A product of the Actor’s Studio, where he studied under Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan, Clift had a successful Broadway career before moving to Hollywood. Among his notable stage credits was the role of Henry in Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Skin of Our Teeth.” Like James Dean and Marlon Brando, he was one of the original method actors, calling upon past memories and experiences to inform his performances.
He came to the attention of movie audiences in 1948 with a pair of releases: Howard Hawks‘ western “Red River” and Fred Zinnemann‘s WWII drama “The Search.
A product of the Actor’s Studio, where he studied under Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan, Clift had a successful Broadway career before moving to Hollywood. Among his notable stage credits was the role of Henry in Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Skin of Our Teeth.” Like James Dean and Marlon Brando, he was one of the original method actors, calling upon past memories and experiences to inform his performances.
He came to the attention of movie audiences in 1948 with a pair of releases: Howard Hawks‘ western “Red River” and Fred Zinnemann‘s WWII drama “The Search.
- 10/17/2018
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
David O. Selznick’s marvelous romantic fantasy ode to Jennifer Jones was almost wholly unappreciated back in 1948. It’s one of those peculiar pictures that either melts one’s heart or doesn’t. Backed by a music score adapted from Debussy, just one breathy “Oh Eben . . . “ will turn average romantics into mush.
Portrait of Jennie
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1948 / B&W w/ Color Insert / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date October 24, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe.
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Production Designers: J. MacMillan Johnson, Joseph B. Platt
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, also adapting themes from Claude Debussy; Bernard Herrmann
Written by Leonardo Bercovici, Peter Berneis, Paul Osborn, from the novella by Robert Nathan
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by William Dieterle
Once upon a time David O. Selznick’s Portrait of Jennie was an...
Portrait of Jennie
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1948 / B&W w/ Color Insert / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date October 24, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe.
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Production Designers: J. MacMillan Johnson, Joseph B. Platt
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, also adapting themes from Claude Debussy; Bernard Herrmann
Written by Leonardo Bercovici, Peter Berneis, Paul Osborn, from the novella by Robert Nathan
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by William Dieterle
Once upon a time David O. Selznick’s Portrait of Jennie was an...
- 10/10/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This remake of a pre-Code classic adds amazing European locations, glorious Technicolor and entire armies on the move, yet doesn’t improve on the original. Producer David O. Selznick secured Rock Hudson to play opposite Jennifer Jones, but the chemistry is lacking. Why did the man spend twenty years trying to top Gone With the Wind?
A Farewell to Arms
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 152 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Rock Hudson, Vittorio De Sica, Mercedes McCambridge, Elaine Stritch.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris, Piero Portalupi
Production Designer: Alfred Junge
Art Direction: Mario Garbuglia
Film Editors: John M. Foley, Gerard J. Wilson
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Ben Hecht from a play by Laurence Stallings from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by Charles Vidor
What happens when a major Hollywood producer thinks he has all the answers?...
A Farewell to Arms
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 152 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Rock Hudson, Vittorio De Sica, Mercedes McCambridge, Elaine Stritch.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris, Piero Portalupi
Production Designer: Alfred Junge
Art Direction: Mario Garbuglia
Film Editors: John M. Foley, Gerard J. Wilson
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Ben Hecht from a play by Laurence Stallings from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by Charles Vidor
What happens when a major Hollywood producer thinks he has all the answers?...
- 4/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It had been so long since I last saw Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves—the last time being long before I started to become involved with movie posters—that I had forgotten that Antonio Ricci’s job at the start of the film, the job he so desperately needs a bicycle for, is pasting up movie posters.Researching De Sica posters to coincide with the current month-long restrospective at New York’s Film Forum I discovered that De Sica’s most famous film centers—as does the Shawshank Redemption, coincidentally—on a poster of Rita Hayworth. I had hoped that it would be a poster by Anselmo Ballester, who painted Hayworth gloriously many times, but the signature on the top right of the poster is clearly that of one T. Corbella. Tito Corbella (1885-1966) was an artist known for his sensuous portraits of Italian divas since the 1910s. Dave Kehr...
- 9/19/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Ah, "neorealism," the fifty cent word movie critics and cinema writers like toss around as they clean their monocles and put their film knowledge on display. But for the rest of us, what does "neorealism" actually mean and to what does it refer to? Well, instead of hitting the books and trying to decipher the authentic description of the kind of movies to which "neorealism" applies, here's a handy video essay that does a good job of highlighting what kind of cinema the word implies. This five-minute video essay from the BFI takes Vittorio De Sica's heartbreaker "Terminal Station" starring Montgomery Clift and Jennifer Jones, and compares it to the version American audiences saw at the time with producer David O. Selznick's butchered and much shorter version (titled "Indiscretion Of An American Housewife"). As you're watching, you'll see that one of the key differences between the master filmmaker's...
- 7/29/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
I can't even begin to stress how much I love this following video created by kogonada for Sight & Sound magazine in which he takes on the question "What is neorealismc" by comparing Vittorio De Sica's Terminal Station and David O. Selznick's Indiscretion of an American Wife, which some may describe as the same film, but as this video points out, they most certainly are not. Released in Italy in 1953 as Terminal Station at 90 minutes in length, producer David O. Selznick cut it down to 63 minutes before releasing it as Indiscretion of an American Wife in 1954. Starring Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift, the story focuses on a married American woman attempting to break off an affair with a young Italian before leaving Rome by train. The focus of the piece by kogonada are primarily the "in-between moments" and how Selznick's cut seems to insist "time and place are more...
- 6/20/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
If you’ve hunted around for movie bargains, you’ve probably seen some of Mill Creek Entertainment’s 50-Movie Packs on DVD. Apart from other great releases by Mill Creek, these packs are phenomenal boons to cinephiles looking to collect older titles.
There are three new packs available, and I want to not only let you in on a discount code, but I have one of the packs available for you to win.
I know a lot of people may be quick to overlook these packs, and not every movie included stands out as a major value, but there are some great titles in each of them, and fans of the genres will be pleasantly surprised by what they get out of the deal. I have to admit that there is something about seeing a 50-movie pack, especially when it doesn’t cost a couple of hundred dollars, or more,...
There are three new packs available, and I want to not only let you in on a discount code, but I have one of the packs available for you to win.
I know a lot of people may be quick to overlook these packs, and not every movie included stands out as a major value, but there are some great titles in each of them, and fans of the genres will be pleasantly surprised by what they get out of the deal. I have to admit that there is something about seeing a 50-movie pack, especially when it doesn’t cost a couple of hundred dollars, or more,...
- 5/10/2012
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
So, kinda bummed out by the depressing soundtrack for "The Avengers" that was unveiled yesterday? Well, these upcoming releases should make that alt-rock mess a distant memory as the scores for Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond," Vittorio De Sica's "Terminal Station" and Martin Ritt's "The Black Orchid" are all getting fresh reissues.
First up, Mondo -- who are also bringing the soundtrack to "Drive" on vinyl later this year -- are dipping back into early '80s horror, set to release Fabio Frizzi's score for "The Beyond." One of the famed director's biggest hits, the film starts with the murder of an artist in 1927 Louisiana, whose demise results in the seven doors of death being opened up to the living. And yeah, it gets pretty freaky from there. Frizzi was a regular collaborator with Fulci, and his work here is considered one of the best '80s horror had to offer.
First up, Mondo -- who are also bringing the soundtrack to "Drive" on vinyl later this year -- are dipping back into early '80s horror, set to release Fabio Frizzi's score for "The Beyond." One of the famed director's biggest hits, the film starts with the murder of an artist in 1927 Louisiana, whose demise results in the seven doors of death being opened up to the living. And yeah, it gets pretty freaky from there. Frizzi was a regular collaborator with Fulci, and his work here is considered one of the best '80s horror had to offer.
- 3/29/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Hollywood star who won an Oscar for her role as a saintly peasant girl in the 1943 film The Song of Bernardette
On the day of her 25th birthday, 2 March 1944, a fresh-faced, hitherto unknown performer stepped on to the stage of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in Los Angeles, to receive her best actress Oscar for her performance in the title role of The Song of Bernadette. It was officially the debut of Jennifer Jones, who has died aged 90. She had appeared four years earlier under her real name of Phyllis Isley, but only in a Dick Tracy serial and a B-western. (Actually, she had been born Phylis, but had added an "l".)
Ingrid Bergman, nominated for her performance in For Whom the Bell Tolls, said of The Song of Bernadette: "I cried all the way through, because Jennifer was so moving and because I realised I had lost the award." Jones,...
On the day of her 25th birthday, 2 March 1944, a fresh-faced, hitherto unknown performer stepped on to the stage of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in Los Angeles, to receive her best actress Oscar for her performance in the title role of The Song of Bernadette. It was officially the debut of Jennifer Jones, who has died aged 90. She had appeared four years earlier under her real name of Phyllis Isley, but only in a Dick Tracy serial and a B-western. (Actually, she had been born Phylis, but had added an "l".)
Ingrid Bergman, nominated for her performance in For Whom the Bell Tolls, said of The Song of Bernadette: "I cried all the way through, because Jennifer was so moving and because I realised I had lost the award." Jones,...
- 12/20/2009
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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