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Bette Davis movies: TCM schedule on August 14 (photo: Bette Davis in ‘Dangerous,’ with Franchot Tone) See previous post: “Bette Davis Eyes: They’re Watching You Tonight.” 3:00 Am Parachute Jumper (1933). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Harold Huber, Leo Carrillo, Thomas E. Jackson, Lyle Talbot, Leon Ames, Stanley Blystone, Reginald Barlow, George Chandler, Walter Brennan, Pat O’Malley, Paul Panzer, Nat Pendleton, Dewey Robinson, Tom Wilson, Sheila Terry. Bw-72 mins. 4:30 Am The Girl From 10th Avenue (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Ian Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Phillip Reed, Katharine Alexander, Helen Jerome Eddy, Bill Elliott, Edward McWade, André Cheron, Wedgwood Nowell, John Quillan, Mary Treen. Bw-69 mins. 6:00 Am Dangerous (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Dick Foran, Walter Walker, Richard Carle, George Irving, Pierre Watkin, Douglas Wood,...

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

47 year old Former WWF Tag Team Champion Mark Canterbury (aka Henry O. Godwin) has been hospitalised and is in intensive care after a car crash yesterday (Tuesday). The incident happened in Lindside, West Virginia and although details are vague, it has been reported that Cantebury’s car came off a cliff, puncturing two of his lungs and leaving him with thirteen broken ribs and also a broken leg.

He was since flown to an intensive care unit but there is no further update on his current condition.

Canterbury, who wrestled with Dennis Knight (then Tex Slazenger) for WCW in the early 90′s under the name Shanghai Pierce, is best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation. He joined the company in mid-1994 and went by the ring name Henry Orpheus Godwin and at the time of outlandish wrestlers like Doink The Clown and Papa Shango, was given the...

From the AP via Yahoo: Justice Dept. won't support Jack Johnson pardon

The Justice Department is refusing to back a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

In a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the department's pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers, told Rep. Peter King that the Justice Department's general policy is not to process posthumous pardon requests. In cases like Johnson's, given the time that has passed and the historical record that would need to be scoured, the department's resources for pardon requests are best used on behalf of people "who can truly benefit" from them, Rodgers wrote.

The letter was in response to one that King, R-n.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had sent to President Barack Obama in October urging a pardon. In that letter,...

Chicago – Welcome back to the Round-Up, a safety net to catch the DVD titles that fell off the mainstream tightrope. The titles this week have virtually nothing in common other than coming in two waves from two studios - a pair of classics from Paramount’s Centennial Collection and a trio of indie films from the great Magnolia Pictures.

All five titles were released on May 19th, 2009.

“Centennial Collection #8: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”

Photo credit: Paramount Synopsis: “”This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Behind the camera? John Ford, a director whose name is synonymous with “Westerns.” Gathered in front of it? An ideal cast – James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin. Now presented on two discs, with all-new special features, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance rides into town as classic entry in the Paramount Centennial Collection.

Director Wayne Wang, best known for his adaptation of Amy Tan’s celebrated novel The Joy Luck Club, has kept himself at the forefront of Asian-oriented filmmakers even while making a variety of crowd-pleasing commercial films (Maid in Manhattan, Last Holiday). This collection of two of his latest films, both low-budget works shot on HD, is a great way to get acquainted with a unique filmmaker of considerable skill. Although the films vary in quality of both filmmaking and performance, there is no denying both pose interesting questions about Chinese or general Asian identity and their place in and outside of China.

The stronger of the two films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a meticulous study of character. In the film, an aging Mr. Shi travels to America to visit his daughter Yilan, recently estranged form her husband. Mr. Shi is played by Henry O, until now relegated...

Director Wayne Wang, best known for his adaptation of Amy Tan’s celebrated novel The Joy Luck Club, has kept himself at the forefront of Asian-oriented filmmakers even while making a variety of crowd-pleasing commercial films (Maid in Manhattan, Last Holiday). This collection of two of his latest films, both low-budget works shot on HD, is a great way to get acquainted with a unique filmmaker of considerable skill. Although the films vary in quality of both filmmaking and performance, there is no denying both pose interesting questions about Chinese or general Asian identity and their place in and outside of China.

The stronger of the two films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a meticulous study of character. In the film, an aging Mr. Shi travels to America to visit his daughter Yilan, recently estranged form her husband. Mr. Shi is played by Henry O, until now relegated...

Faye Yu And Henry O In Director Wayne Wang'S A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers. Courtesy Magnolia Pictures. Wayne Wang's work has always been about a balance of contrasts, whether it be Chinese and American, classical and experimental, or independent and Hollywood. Wang was born in Hong Kong in 1949 and moved to the U.S. in his late teens to study film and television at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He made his directorial debut in 1975 with A Man, a Woman, and a Killer (on which he is co-credited alongside Rick Schmidt) but it was his sophomore effort, Chan is Missing (1982), an intimate and realistic portayal of Chinese Americans, that brought him to prominence. He continued to depict immigrants and first...

In essence, Wayne Wang's <i>A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers </i>consists of a single critical conversation. But the participants have been putting it off their whole lives, and it takes some building up to. So most of the film consists of empty exchanges and long, quiet pauses; as days pass, they fail to express themselves, and the tension gradually builds, until speaking finally becomes easier than silence. The wait is sometimes keen, sometimes dull. But just as it often happens in real life, once everything finally comes to the surface, it feels anticlimactic. Henry O stars as a Chinese widower visiting his only child, American immigrant and recent divorcée Faye Yu. He's a self-confessed bad father with no understanding of her relationship, her American life, or her adult personality; she's a quiet, withdrawn woman with no interest in baring her soul to her long-estranged dad. So he cooks and.

By Aaron Hillis

Since the '90s, Hong Kong-born filmmaker Wayne Wang has directed large-scale Hollywood productions like "The Joy Luck Club" and "Maid in Manhattan," though his richest films have really been his smaller projects, like "Smoke" and its companion work, "Blue in the Face." Going back to the earliest days of his career, Wang was at his most personal and independent with films like 1982's "Chan is Missing" and 1985's "Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart," and it's these stories of the immigrant experience that Wang felt obliged to return to, having moved to America as a teenager.

Winner of four awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival, including best film, Wang's distinctly modest delight "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" is the first of his two films adapted by author Yiyun Li from her own collection of Chinese-American-themed stories. (The second is "The Princess of Nebraska,...

Producer Uwe Boll and Brightlight Pictures recently released the movie trailer from the upcoming DVD release of “They Wait” by director Ernie Barbarash and starring Jaime King (Sin City 2, Fanboys), Terry Chen, Pei-pei Cheng and Henry O. Synopsis: A couple returns to North America for a family funeral, having lived in Shanghai, China for the previous six years. Soon after they arrive, their son Jamie begins to see ghosts and suffer possession by one of the living dead, and it all ties in with the Chinese festival of Ghost Month, when the doors of hell supposedly open and angry spirits are given the chance to terrorize the living. Stay tuned to Toxic Shock TV for the latest “They Wait” movie [...]...

San Sebastian, Spain -- Wayne Wang's U.S. film A Thousand Years of Good Prayers won the Golden Shell at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival, official jury chair Paul Auster said Saturday.

Henry O. took the best actor honor for his portrayal in Prayers, which centers on a Chinese widower who visits his recently divorced only daughter in the U.S. Blanca Portillo picked up the actress prize for her role in Gracia Querejeta's 7 Billiards Tables, from Spain.

Nick Broomfield won best director for his U.K. docudrama The Battle for Haditha, about the war landscape in Iraq.

The 18-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf saw her directorial debut, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Iran-France) -- which centers on a 6-year-old girl's efforts to learn the alphabet in Afghanistan -- take the special jury prize. The jury said the "first feature by a extremely young director impressed the jury with its exquisite cinematography and the remarkable performance by the child actress Nikbakht Noruz."

The jury called Shame "a promising debut by a filmmaker whom we hope will go on to create important works in the future."

Makhmalbaf also won the newly created Other Look Award, sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola, which supports the film that best depicts the "female universe" by acquiring Spanish broadcast rights.

Toronto International Film Festival

TORONTO -- One of two new small-scale films from Wayne Wang (both based on stories by Yiyun Li), A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is modest but moving, a finely observed portrait of a father/daughter relationship that will resonate deeply for many viewers. The scale may limit its pull in the art house arena somewhat, but Chinese-Americans and viewers from other immigrant communities will appreciate its themes.

The story of a man who doesn't know his daughter at all, Prayers showcases an affecting performance by Henry O as Mr. Shi, who has just arrived in Spokane from China to see daughter Yilan for the first time in 12 years. The two greet each other stiffly when he emerges from the airport gates, and Yilan clearly has little idea what to do with him; heading out to work on his first day in town, she suggests that he should "take it easy" and might want to walk to the park.

Shi has higher hopes than that, taking constant notes in order to improve his English and shopping for what he needs to cook in Yilan's underequipped kitchen. For the next few nights, they will see each other only at dinner, where he makes much more food than the two can eat.

Though Shi is eager to make up for lost time (he innocently snoops around her apartment during the day, looking for insight), his daughter spends less and less time at home. Shi (whose wife died of cancer) makes friends at the park with an Iranian woman, and we come to get the point that, if rejecting one's parents is common in many cultures, it's doubly so for immigrants hoping to assimilate in a new environment. Shi and Madam, as he calls her, have amusingly piecemeal conversations in which three languages are spoken but only one understood.

Until the film's end, when some causes of family tension are finally brought to the surface, this is about all that happens. Wang's empathy for Mr. Shi, and O's dignified persistence in what appears to be a doomed effort to connect, draw us in and keep us from becoming bored. (An 83-minute running time helps in that respect.)

At one point, Yilan repeats a friend's idea that people would be better at raising children if they could somehow be grandparents before becoming parents. She doesn't seem to see the obvious corollary, that we are often far more forgiving of our grandparents' perceived faults than of our parents'. "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" waits patiently for her to piece it together.

A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS

No Distributor

North by Northwest

Credits:

Director: Wayne Wang

Writer: Yiyun Li

Based on the short story by Yiyun Li

Producers: Yukie Kito, Rich Cowan, Wayne Wang

Executive producers: Yasushi Kotani, Taizo Son, Jooick Lee

Director of photography: Patrick Lindenmaier

Production designer: Vincent De Felice

Music: Lesley Barber

Co-producer:

Costume designer: Lisa Caryl

Editor: Deirdre Slevin

Cast:

Yilan: Faye Yu

Mr. Shi: Henry O

Madam: Vida Ghahremani

Boris: Pasha Lychnikoff

Running time -- 83 minutes

No MPAA rating...