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In 1983 Argentina, under the harsh military dictatorship during the Dirty War, Kiss of the Spider Woman unfolds its story within a prison cell. The setting operates as a stark representation of societal control and human endurance. Luis Molina, a gay window dresser imprisoned for public indecency, shares his cell with Valentin Arregui Paz, a Marxist revolutionary tortured for opposing the regime. Their shared confinement becomes a space where different worldviews clash and eventually merge.

Molina’s imaginative narratives emerge as a survival strategy, deeply connected to Latin American interpretations of classic Hollywood cinema. His fixation on Ingrid Luna, a fictional screen actress representing cinematic archetypes, transcends simple distraction. These stories reveal how global cultural elements are transformed through local perspectives to create complex personal identities. Director Bill Condon weaves a narrative that shifts between harsh prison reality and vivid cinematic dreams, showing how storytelling becomes a form of psychological resistance.

There can be no question the Broadway musicals of John Kander and Fred Ebb have been charmed when it comes to movie adaptations. Bob Fosse’s 1972 film reinvention of Cabaret won eight Oscars. Director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon’s cinematic interpretation of Chicago in 2002 is still the last musical to win the Best Picture Oscar. Both made the musical format work, even for those who hate movie musicals, by integrating the songs so they don’t collide with the narrative but seamlessly fit in with it.

It’s nice to report that the stunning new film adaptation of their 1993 Tony-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman joins Cabaret and Chicago as a master class in how to find the cinematic soul of...

Going into the season 33 premiere of “Dancing with the Stars,” actress Chandler Kinney ranked fourth in our predictions for the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy. But she came out of the episode ranked first on the judges’ leaderboard with a tango that set the benchmark for the rest of the contestants this season. Does that make her the new front-runner to win the whole thing?

The 24-year-old Kinney is known for her performances in “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” and the Disney Channel film series “Zombies,” among other TV appearances. But make no mistake — girl’s a ringer. She started dancing at age three and studied a variety of styles at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy before a fateful Gap commercial shifted her trajectory towards acting, so with “DWTS” she wanted to find out what would have happened in her life and career if she had kept dancing.

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Peggy Moffitt, the iconic ’60s model who was also a contract player at Paramount and who appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, died at her Beverly Hills home on Saturday from complications of dementia. Her son, Christopher Claxton, confirmed the news to the New York Times. She was 86.

Moffitt’s wide-ranging influence can be traced to the persona she created, often in collaboration with others. Her gamine, modern look was a construct made up of her signature pale skin, harlequin eye makeup, five-point Vidal Sassoon haircut and a sense of humor, all of which she never abandoned.

She had a cultural moment when, in 1964, she posed in a topless swimsuit from designer Rudi Gernreich. The controversial look referenced a schoolboy’s shorts, with thin suspenders rising in a “V” between the cleavage, but nothing else above the waistline. The resulting image, which ran in publications across the world, was condemned...

The rumors were true: Lady Gaga, who was spotted in Paris this week, did perform at the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

After peeking out from a cluster of pink and white feathers, the singer gave a jazzy rendition of “Mon Truc En Plumes (My Life in Feathers),” a 1965 song by Zizi Jeanmarie.

Renée Marcelle “Zizi” Jeanmaire was a French ballet dancer, actress and singer who found fame after playing the title role in the 1949 London ballet “Carmen.” She went on to appear in several Hollywood films, including the 1957 musical comedy “Folies-Bergère” and 1961’s “Black Tights” along with Cyd Charisse and Moira Shearer.

Watch the performance below:

pic.twitter.com/irDGzUEzs9

— v (@ViralThingz) July 26, 2024

Gaga was seen in social media videos Monday waving to fans outside her car in Paris, and photographed earlier performing on the steps leading down to the famed Seine river.

French President Emmanuel Macron could not confirm or deny if another star,...

DS9's "Meridian" was a Star Trek take on Brigadoon, but faced budget and production challenges. Ira Steven Behr called himself a "moron" for pitching the episode idea based on Brigadoon. Despite its reputation, "Meridian" had strong character moments, especially for Terry Farrell and Avery Brooks.

One episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was so poorly received among the production team that Ira Steven Behr called himself a "moron" for even considering the story idea. DS9 season 3, episode 8, "Meridian" was pitched as "Star Trek does Brigadoon" in reference to the Gene Kelly movie musical. In Brigadoon, Tommy Albright (Kelly) stumbles into a Scottish village that only appears once every 200 years, where he falls in love with Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse). Directed by Jonathan Frakes, DS9's "Meridian", the USS Defiant discovers a planet that only appears every 60 years.

In Star Trek: DS9's version of Brigadoon, Lt. Jadzia Dax...

Armando Silvestre, a busy actor in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema who appeared with Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine in Two Mules for Sister Sara, with Yul Brynner in Kings of the Sun and with Burt Lancaster in The Scalphunters, has died. He was 98.

Silvestre died June 2 in Coronado, California, a representative from the Aztlan Mortuary in nearby La Mesa told The Hollywood Reporter.

The powerfully built Silvestre made scores of films in Mexico, among them Here Comes Martin Corona (1952), Rossana (1953), Story of a Mink Coat (1955) with Silvia Pinal, La Sombra Vengadora (1956), The Miracle Roses (1960), Neutrón Contra el Dr. Caronte (1963), La Choca (1974) and Faith, Hope and Charity (1974).

He excelled in Westerns and action adventure movies early in his career en route to compiling more than 200 credits on IMDb.

Armando Silvestre Carrascosa was born in San Diego on Jan. 28, 1926, and raised in Tijuana. His younger brother was Eduardo Silvestre, winner of the Mr.

Janis Paige, who racked up more than 100 film, TV and stage credits over six decades including The Pajama Game, Silk Stockings and Santa Barbara, died June 2 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Her friend Stuart Lambert told The Associated Press about Paige’s death.

During her long career, Paige toured with Bob Hope and danced onscreen with Fred Astaire, along with originating the Babe Williams role in The Pajama Game on Broadway in 1954. That same year she headlined It’s Always Jan, a CBS sitcom about the problems of single-parenthood during which she usually sang a song. It lasted a single season.

Born Donna Mae Tjaden on September 16, 1922, in Tacoma, Wa, she began singing in talent shows at a tender age and moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school.

Paige made her Broadway debut in 1951 opposite Jackie Cooper in the mystery comedy Remains to Be Seen but...

Janis Paige, the ebullient redhead who starred in the original Broadway production of The Pajama Game and in such Hollywood musicals as Silk Stockings and Romance on the High Seas, has died. She was 101.

Paige, who was discovered in the 1940s while performing at the legendary Hollywood Canteen, died Sunday of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her friend Stuart Lampert announced.

Paige starred on her own network sitcom, playing a widowed nightclub singer struggling to raise her 10-year-old daughter, on the 1955-56 CBS series It’s Always Jan, and she had recurring roles as Dick van Patten’s free-spirited sister on ABC’s Eight Is Enough and as a hospital administrator on CBS’ Trapper John, M.D.

The actress also turned in two memorable guest-starring stints in 1976, playing an attractive diner waitress named Denise who tempts Archie (Carroll O’Connor) to cheat on Edith (Jean Stapleton) on All in the Family...

Texas-born actor Glen Powell takes obvious pride in his Lone Star State roots, and still spends significant time at his family’s ranch outside Austin. It must be a particular thrill then to be inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame — an annual honor that recognizes the best film talent associated with the state. IndieWire here exclusively announces Powell is now joining the hall of fame’s ranks.

You don’t have to be born in Texas to receive the honor, but you need to have made an impact there.

And what an impact Powell has made in recent years, practically stealing the show out from under Tom Cruise and Miles Teller in “Top Gun: Maverick,” helping bring back the rom-com with “Anyone But You,” and appearing in multiple films by his friend Richard Linklater. It’s at Netflix’s Austin premiere of Linklater’s latest, “Hit Man,” that...

Photo: ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’

The opening voiceover that kicks off ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ ponders the inherent social function and the ineffable form of radical self-expression and communal communication that is singularly cultivated by the artform of dance. The omnipotent narrator’s high-minded investigation of the ancient query “What is dance and why is it so powerful?” persists in these voiceover passages throughout the movie, alongside a steadily delivered stream of dry-witted plot management. While this anthropological analysis of the nature of dance may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the ‘Magic Mike’ franchise, every entry in this provocative trilogy has, above all else, endeavored to depict the human body (specifically the male form) as a living, breathing, work of art on screen. Despite the unavoidable predictability that comes with being the third movie in a trilogy, in its best moments,...

Dashing, magnetic superstar Ricardo Montalbán got his start in the 1940s, appearing in numerous notable hit films in his native Mexico, playing a variety of roles in romantic dramas, historical comedies, and other swashbuckling adventures. His natural dazzle and ineffable "it" qualities caught the eye of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1947, and he shot the English-language film "Fiesta" with Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse, and Mary Astor. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Montalbán became incredibly busy, starring in romances, dramas, and an enormous amount of American TV, including one-shot TV movies and multiple notable hit shows. He was in "Dr. Kildare," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Gunsmoke," "Hawaii Five-o," and, of course, "Star Trek," playing the charismatic tyrant Khan Noonien Singh. 

A new generation of Montalbán fans was born with the debut of "Fantasy Island" in 1978. On "Fantasy Island," Montalbán played the mysterious Mr. Roarke, the manager of Devil's Island, a remote, hard-to-get-to tropical paradise...

“Deep Dive” is an in-depth podcast and video essay series featuring interviews with the stars and creative team behind an exceptional piece of filmmaking. For this edition, the IndieWire Crafts and Special Projects team partnered with Warner Bros. to take a closer look at “Barbie” with director and co-writer Greta Gerwig and nine members of her creative team who breathed life into the iconic Mattel doll.

The tagline “Barbie is everything” turns out to be pretty apt. “Barbie” contains within it multiple kinds of high-concept comedy, musicals, action sequences, mother-daughter stories, and a liminal void wherein Barbie (Margot Robbie) can meet her maker, Ruth Handler (Rhea Pearlman), and elect to transcend toyhood to become a human woman. All in less than two hours!

That “Barbie” contains so much and accomplishes so much — stylistically, tonally, and emotionally — is a huge credit to co-writer and director Greta Gerwig and her creative team,...

Marty Krofft, the savvy businessman who partnered with his older brother Sid to amass an entertainment empire fueled by such mind-blowing kids TV shows as The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost, died Saturday. He was 86.

Eight years younger than Sid, Marty Krofft died Saturday in Los Angeles of kidney failure, his family announced.

“There’s nobody better on this planet,” Sid said of his brother in a 2000 interview for the Archive of American Television website. “I get a dream, and Marty gets it done.”

The pair already were well-known theatrical puppeteers when they were recruited in 1968 to design the costumes for the live-action portion of NBC’s The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.

Their four furry animal characters (Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky), members of a rock band, were an instant hit on the Saturday morning show, which ran from Sept. 7, 1968, to Sept. 5, 1970 (and in...

There are so many big sells for the 1955 musical It’s Always Fair Weather. Firstly, the golden pairing of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen is the key factor. The musical maestros behind such great heavy hitters such as Singing in the Rain (1952) and On the Town (1949) return for another outing, promising an exquisite smorgasbord of dancing and colour.

The other interest in this musical is that it is an MGM musical. That means all the scintillating scenes of the spectrum on the screen. A nouvelle advancement here is It’s Always Fair Weather is shot in CinemaScope and, instead of Technicolor, it is filmed in brilliant Eastmancolor.

Plus, seeing the original 1955 print, as the filmmakers intended, thanks to the BFI Film on Film festival made It’s Always Fair Weather a must-see outing.

So, one heads into It’s Always Fair Weather with all this in mind and comes away with one name – Dolores Gray…...

In 1939, Judy Garland went over the rainbow, and the world would never be the same again. Garland, who'd first gained major fame singing, dancing, and acting alongside Mickey Rooney, was suddenly catapulted to superstardom. From her roots in vaudeville, Garland had been performing her whole life, and she eventually became one of the world's most beloved stars. Her singing voice is completely unmatched, and it was backed up with intensity, passion, and unparalleled charm. Though her personal history is not without difficulty -- and Rene Zellweger won an Oscar for portraying part of that history in "Judy" -- Garland is largely remembered as one of Hollywood's most beloved actresses.

Looking through Garland's career, it was her latter years that offered opportunities for rich experimentation. Though she still appeared in musicals, after her MGM contract expired, she boldly took risks, such as starring in an animated feature and an epic courtroom drama.

70 years after its original release, the influence of musical juggernaut "Singin' in the Rain" is immeasurable. A Hollywood satire filled to the brim with show-stopping musical numbers from Nacio Herb Brown with lyrics by Arthur Freed, its DNA is present in the likes of modern movie musicals like "La La Land," and its whimsical, love-struck title song still gets airplay in Pnc Park in star Gene Kelly's hometown anytime the Pittsburgh Pirates catch a rain delay.

For all of its extravagance and pomp, the story of a trio of showbiz performers grappling with the advent of "talkies" in Hollywood had a modest reception upon its original 1952 release, and would collect just a handful of awards in its day. Over the decades, though, the movie (which was co-directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen) grew in reputation, and by 1989, the Library of Congress recognized its "cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance," preserving...

Exclusive: Nigel Lythgoe, a 12-time Emmy nominee and co-creator and executive producer of So You Think You Can Dance, has signed with A3 Artists Agency for representation. Lythgoe also served as executive producer of Pop Idol and TV juggernaut, American Idol.

In addition to co-creating and executive producing So You Think You Can Dance, Lythgoe served as a judge on the series for 16 seasons. He also created the 2009 competition Superstars of Dance.

Lythgoe spearheaded and produced Idol Gives Back, which raised more than 170 Million for an array of worthy causes in 2007. It received the Governors Award, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ highest honor. Lythgoe was named on Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honors List in 2015 and awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his work in Education, Charity and the Arts. In 2021, Lythgoe was honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and received his star...

Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, creators of the new Showtime series The Man Who Fell to Earth, talk to hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante about the movies that inspired them.

Show Notes:

Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Amistad (1997)

Love Actually (2003)

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

Blazing Saddles (1974) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s Blazing Saddles Thanksgiving

Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Bad News Bears (1976) – Jessica Bendinger’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Bambi (1942)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis trailer commentary

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Boy Friend (1971) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Yellow Submarine (1968) – George Hickenlooper...

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Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Announces The Beloved Classic

Singin’ In The Rain To Be Released On 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™

Acclaimed as one of the greatest Musical films of all time,

will Be Available For The First Time In 4K Resolution With High Dynamic Range (Hdr)

Burbank, CA, – To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 1952 acclaimed and beloved film, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced today that Singin’ In The Rain will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital on April 26.

Singin’ In The Rain is widely considered to be one of the greatest musical films in cinematic history. The musical romantic comedy was directed by choreographed by Gene Kelly (On the Town) and Stanley Donen (On the Town) and stars Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchel and Cyd Charisse.

The film was written by Adolph Green and...

Burbank, CA – To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 1952 acclaimed and beloved film, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced today that Singin’ in the Rain will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital on April 26.

Singin’ in the Rain is widely considered to be one of the greatest musical films in cinematic history. The musical romantic comedy was directed by choreographed by Gene Kelly (On the Town) and Stanley Donen (On the Town) and stars Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchel and Cyd Charisse.

The film was written by Adolph Green and Betty Comden and produced by Arthur Freed. The music is by Nacio Herb Brown and the lyrics are by Arthur Freed.

O’Connor won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green won the Writers Guild of America Award for their screenplay, while...

Everything old is new again. Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed remake of “West Side Story” has garnered seven Oscar nominations. That haul is impressive but pales next to that of the 1961 original which reaped a whopping 11 bids. Not surprisingly, it was the big winner at the 34th annual Oscars. These took place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on April 9, 1962 with Bob Hope hosting.

The Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins adaptation of the Leonard Bernstein–Stephen Sondheim landmark Broadway musical waltzed away with 10 wins including Best Picture, Director (shared for the first time) and for supporting players Rita Moreno and George Chakiris.

Robbins also received an honorary Oscar that night for his “brilliant achievement in the art of choreography on film.” Ironically, Robbins had received his walking papers from his directing duties 45 days into production. Wise told me in a 2002 L.A. Times interview that the production was behind schedule and over-budget.

This colorful gangland drama was made by a studio in transition, in the middle of a crippling musician’s strike. Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse were MGM’s last contract stars; her costumes and dance numbers are wildly anachronistic for the period setting and she refused to take direction from Nicholas Ray, whose career was coming apart at the seams. Yet the maverick director must have done something right, as the show has remained a favorite of audiences and critics. Co-starring Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland and Corey Allen. The Wac’S remastered Blu-ray is a beauty.

Party Girl

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith, Claire Kelly, Corey Allen, David Opatoshu, Barbara Lang, Myrna Hansen, Betty Utey.

Cinematography: Robert Bronner

Art Director: John McSweeney Jr.

Original Music: Jeff Alexander

Written...

“Stick close to me puss. You’re bringing me good luck.”

1958. American actor Robert Taylor with Cyd Charisse on the set of Party Girl, a film by Nicholas Ray.

Cyd Charisse in Nicholas Ray’s Party Girl (1958) will be available on Blu-ray November 30th from Warner Archive

When maverick director Nicholas Ray turns his talents to a gangster movie, a familiar genre becomes startling and new. Under the auspices of long-time M-g-m musical producer Joe Pasternak, and with the added gloss of the CinemaScope widescreen and Metrocolor, the auteur created a cult classic. Set in 1930s Chicago, Party Girl follows a bum-legged mouthpiece for the mob (Robert Taylor) and a gorgeous, wised-up vamp (Cyd Charisse) who fall in love, try to go straight… and head straight for trouble. Ray deepens the drama and heightens the violence with filmmaking artistry that has given Party Girl cult status: a screen painted in sinister ebony and blood red,...

Years in the making! The glory of MGM on parade! Enough studio resources to film twenty pictures were expended on this paean to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. It’s really Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Technicolor valentine to itself, showing off the studio’s enormous stable of musical talent, along with various of its comic performers. Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer’s notion of ‘something for everyone’ results in weird stack of grandiose musical numbers and mostly weak comedy. The biggest draw is the incredible color cinematography that peeks through in three or four jaw-droppingly elaborate musical spectacles. The picture is a workout to find the artistic limits of the Technicolor system.

Ziegfeld Follies

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...

Veronica Falcon has had quite the 2021 — and we’re only halfway through it. This year alone the actress has created eye-catching characters in the Paramount+ series “Why Women Kill” and HBO’s “Perry Mason,” as well as made a very brief appearance in Disney’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” But while Falcon is getting audiences’ attention now, fans of hers have already been supportive, whether that’s for her numerous respected performances in her native Mexico or as the villainous mother/drug queenpin Camila Vargas on “Queen of the South.”

Falcon is a unique presence in this industry, and her journey is reflective of that. Falcon and her family were drawn to classic film stars like Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, and Liza Minnelli. It was Minnelli who Falcon was especially struck by, but because the actress didn’t see herself as a strong dancer or singer, Falcon initially turned to choreographing.

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You don’t have to be obsessed with nostalgia to appreciate the aesthetic of a vintage movie poster — but it definitely helps. Vintage movie posters are multi-functional as far as gift giving goes. They’re perfect for movie lovers, they’re collectible, and they add a bit of character to any room. Whether you’re shopping for a gift for your home or office, or buying a present for someone else, we gathered up a short list of Old Hollywood movie posters to purchase online.

The round up of posters feature Marilyn Monroe, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Ed Begley Sr., and other unforgettable faces from Hollywood’s Golden Age. High quality...

Let’s be real: Navigating the list of Oscar nominees represents a challenge this year, so I was intrigued by one filmmaker’s winning formula. “The key is to mix and match,” he advised. “I watch the characters trudge across Nomadland, then turn to Fred Astaire dancing in Top Hat. I move from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom to Easter Parade.” The objective: “It’s the real vs. the unreal; I need them back-to-back to appreciate them. Or survive them.”

His explanation may seem glib, but it reflects the escape mechanism adopted by some film devotees in coping with the isolation of the lockdown year – a re-excavation of Hollywood glitz. The current slate of nominees vividly reflects the themes of the moment — race, caste, sexual politics, immigration. It also embodies the angst-ridden mood of Hollywood.

All of which would have puzzled Fred Astaire. In his movie Funny Face, when Astaire...

The Oscar-winning star portrayed rival gang leaders in the stage and screen versions of the classic musical. He remembers dancing with Marilyn Monroe, playing Dracula and his role as a trombone

“I don’t think I was good enough,” confesses George Chakiris. “I was too nervous.” Zooming from Los Angeles, the 86-year-old star is not appraising his Oscar-winning role in West Side Story or his stints as a chorus dancer in golden age musicals with Marilyn Monroe and Cyd Charisse. He is recalling appearing alongside Compo, Clegg and Foggy in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine. What sort of country-lane hijinks did that involve? “I was a movie director or something. I don’t remember … Isn’t that awful?”

Not really – it was 25 years ago and he has pretty much retired. But IMDb lists Chakiris as playing a bank manager in the forthcoming movie Not to Forget. He...

India Adams, the Hollywood "secret singer" who performed in MGM musicals for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon and for Joan Crawford in Torch Song, has died. She was 93.

Adams died Saturday at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles after a short illness, a family spokesman announced. She was still performing as recently as last year.

In the classic The Band Wagon (1953), it was really Adams, not Charisse as ballerina Gabrielle Gerard, who is heard singing "New Sun in the Sky" and "That's Entertainment," the latter performed with Fred Astaire, Oscar Levant, Jack Buchanan ...

India Adams, the Hollywood "secret singer" who performed in MGM musicals for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon and for Joan Crawford in Torch Song, has died. She was 93.

Adams died Saturday at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles after a short illness, a family spokesman announced. She was still performing as recently as last year.

In the classic The Band Wagon (1953), it was really Adams, not Charisse as ballerina Gabrielle Gerard, who is heard singing "New Sun in the Sky" and "That's Entertainment," the latter performed with Fred Astaire, Oscar Levant, Jack Buchanan ...

This remake of Warners’ 1924 John Barrymore feature gives us Elizabeth Taylor in the Mary Astor role, Stewart Granger as the fashion dandy of the Restoration Period, and a scene-stealing Peter Ustinov as a lonely, needy Prince of Wales. The history is still weak, but it at least doesn’t turn Brummell into a typical swashbuckler. Compensating are English actors that can get any script up on its feet, and Liz Taylor’s blue-violet eyes. And the Oswald Morris cinematography improves greatly on the MGM house style.

Beau Brummell

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, James Hayter, Rosemary Harris, Paul Rogers, Noel Willman, Peter Dyneley, Peter Bull, Finlay Currie, David Peel.

Cinematography: Oswald Morris

Film Editor: Frank Clarke

Art Direction: Alfred Junge

Original Music: Richard Addinsell

Written by Karl Tunberg from...

This remake of Warners’ 1924 John Barrymore feature gives us Elizabeth Taylor in the Mary Astor role, Stewart Granger as the fashion dandy of the Restoration Period, and a scene-stealing Peter Ustinov as a lonely, needy Prince of Wales. The history is still weak, but it at least doesn’t turn Brummell into a typical swashbuckler. Compensating are English actors that can get any script up on its feet, and Liz Taylor’s blue-violet eyes. And the Oswald Morris cinematography improves greatly on the MGM house style.

Beau Brummell

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, James Hayter, Rosemary Harris, Paul Rogers, Noel Willman, Peter Dyneley, Peter Bull, Finlay Currie, David Peel.

Cinematography: Oswald Morris

Film Editor: Frank Clarke

Art Direction: Alfred Junge

Original Music: Richard Addinsell

Written by Karl Tunberg from...

Ann Roth on her backstory for dressing Jude Law’s Dickie Greenleaf in Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley: “I knew where he went to prep school and I knew that his father, who was an international guy, had assorted New York Saville Row clothes.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the third part of my series of conversations with Ann Roth, we discuss one of her first jobs in the “movie business”, which was working with costume designer Irene Sharaff on Vincente Minnelli’s Brigadoon, starring Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse. Sharaff, a five-time Oscar winner had wanted Ann Roth to come to California.

Gene Kelly and Van Johnson in Vincente Minnelli’s Brigadoon - costumes by Irene Sharaff

The Civil War era costumes by Plunkett in Victor Fleming’s Gone With The Wind under David O Selznick and Ann Roth’s (BAFTA...

BroadwayHD dives into the new decade with a collection of awe-inspiring and bold productions this month. Leading the roster is the 1954 classic film Brigadoon, starring Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly, which comes to the platform on January 1. Six-time Tony Award-nominated production of Red, starring Tony Nominee Alfred Molina and Harry Potter film star Alfred Enoch, will be available starting January 9. Donmar Warehouse's contemporary and innovative all-female production of Shakespeare's Henry IV makes its way to the platform on January 16, while Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny joins on January 23. Finally, one of the greatest successes of the National Ballet of Norway, the stunning ballet Hedda Gabler, will be available on January 30.

No host, no problem. One of the biggest questions surrounding the 2019 Oscars was how exactly the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science were going to open the awards ceremony without a host. Now we have our answer: Queen.

As first teased back at the start of February, iconic rock band Queen kicked off the show by singing “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions” with frontman Adam Lambert. The Queen and Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. A giant projection of Freddie Mercury appeared on the screen at the back of the stage as the medley came to its conclusion. After Queen took the stage, the Academy aired a supercut that brought together the year in film in 2018, from nominees to non-nominees.

The first group of presenters was Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph. “There is no host tonight. There...

Stanley Donen, the deft director of such iconic movie musicals as Singin’ In the Rain, Funny Face, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Charade who helped define Hollywood’s golden age, has died at age 94. The news was confirmed this morning by his son to the Chicago Tribune.

Donen remarkably never won an Oscar for his work, but was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Motion Picture Academy in 1998, “in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation.” He sang “Cheek to Cheek” with his statuette during his acceptance speech.

Born in Columbia, Sc, Donan was a Broadway dancer and choreographer when he met Gene Kelly while dancing in the chorus of Pal Joey. He eventually moved to Hollywood to dance in MGM musicals, and when he was 19 Kelly got the studio to lend Donen to Columbia Pictures so they could co-choreograph Cover Girl.

Despite having been a noted choreographer and song-and-dance man in his youth while even having his own troupe bearing his name, Nigel Lythgoe, 69, apparently doesn’t like to trip the light fantastic himself these days.

While attending a tribute to Beatles drummer Ringo Starr last week in Los Angeles, the British producer and director of such TV talent competition shows as “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance” told Fox News that he isn’t a great dancer himself.

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“I’m really scared to dance nowadays,” the judge on “So You Think You Can Dance,” which completed its 15th season in September. “These kids are fantastic. They out-dance me doing ‘Pants on the Ground’ from ‘American Idol,’ if you believe it.”

That hasn’t stopped him from occasionally getting into the act sometimes on the dance show.

Chicago – Day Five of the 54th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) on Sunday, October 14th, 2018, is a day to introduce yourself to a new side of Melissa McCarthy in “Can You Forgive Me?, to make a date with “Watergate,” the remarkable four hour documentary about that American history, to hop on “The Band Wagon” and to remember a magazine-era icon, Chicago’s own Art Paul.

’Can You Ever Forgive Me’ on Day Fiveof the 54th Chicago International Film Festival

Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival/Fox Searchlight Pictures

Events A Chicago-centric vibe will be in the house on Sunday, as Ciff celebrates Windy City’s own Art Paul, one of the most influential graphic designers of the late 20th Century. The new documentary of his life, “Art Paul of Playboy: The Man Behind the Bunny” explains it all, as Art Paul was the man – in collaboration with Hugh Hefner – who...

All hail legendary song-and-dance man Gene Kelly on the 106th anniversary of his birth on August 23. In the history of American film, there were unarguably two great male dancers — Fred Astaire and Kelly. Astaire’s style was romantic and sophisticated, with long lines and elegant movement. Kelly’s style was more athletic — a guy’s guy, if you will — with a scrappy style that set him apart from other dancers of his era.

Kelly appeared to be able to do it all. He could dance, sing, and act in his films, ultimately choreographing and directing them as well. In the course of his nearly four decades on film, he starred in such classics as “An American in Paris” and “Anchors Aweigh,” as well as starring and co-directing the great musicals “On the Town” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”

For his work, Kelly earned two Golden Globe nominations — one for Best...

The Colossus of Rhodes

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1961 / 2:35 / Street Date June 26, 2018

Starring Rory Calhoun, Lea Massari, Georges Marchal

Cinematography by Antonio Ballesteros

Directed by Sergio Leone

Fred Astaire once said of an undulating Cyd Charisse, “She came at me in sections.” So does the star of Sergio Leone’s The Colossus of Rhodes, a 300 foot titan whose sky-scraping vertical stance is at extreme odds with Leone’s widescreen frame. Save for some long shots, one of The Seven Wonders of the World is reduced to a slide show of disconnected body parts. Such are the giant-sized headaches of epic movie-making.

Even before an earthquake would wreak havoc on the community and topple the Colossus in 226 BC, Rhodes was a city in turmoil. Darios, a Brylcreemed military hero and would-be romeo has just dropped anchor but in lieu of a warrior’s welcome, he’s immediately ensnared in a two-pronged...

A quick Jet-set ride takes us to Rome of 1962, which for a couple of years was the movie capital of the world. Washed-up actor Kirk Douglas reinvents himself amid the vipers of his past — an abusive director (Edward G. Robinson), a medusa-like ex-wife (Cyd Charisse) and a parade of show-biz creeps that want him to fail and grovel. But wait — redemption springs eternal through the love of a simple innocent unspoiled Italiana with no agenda of her own (Daliah Lavi). Will Douglas be reborn? Director Vincente Minnelli tries his hardest to get MGM in on the Italian art-movie gold rush.

2 Weeks in Another Town

Blu-ray

The Warner Archive Collection

1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date June 19, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, Daliah Lavi, Claire Trevor, Rosanna Schiaffino, James Gregory, Joanna Roos, George Macready, Mino Doro, Stefan Schnabel, Vito Scotti, Leslie Uggams.

Mubi's retrospective For Ever Godard is showing from November 12, 2017 - January 16, 2018 in the United States.Jean-Luc Godard is a difficult filmmaker to pin down because while his thematic concerns as an artist have remained more or less consistent over the last seven decades, his form is ever-shifting. His filmography is impossible to view in a vacuum, as his work strives to reflect on the constantly evolving cinema culture that surrounds it: Godard always works with the newest filmmaking technologies available, and his films have become increasingly abstracted and opaque as the wider culture of moving images has become increasingly fragmented. Rather than working to maintain an illusion of diegetic truth, Godard’s work as always foreground its status as a manufactured product—of technology, of an industry, of on-set conditions and of an individual’s imagination. Mubi’S Godard retrospective exemplifies the depth and range of Godard’s career as...

Balletic, stylized and rather aloof, MGM’s biggest musical for 1954 still has what musical lovers crave — good dancing, beautiful melodies and unabashed romantic sentiments. Savant has a bad tendency to fixate on the inconsistencies of its fantasy concept — in which God places an ideal Scottish village outside the limits of Time itself.

Brigadoon

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1954 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date September 26, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart, Barry Jones, Albert Sharpe, Virginia Bosler, Jimmy Thompson.

Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg

Art Direction: Preston Ames, Cedric Gibbons

Film Editor: Albert Akst

Original Music: Frederick Loewe

Screenplay, book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Produced by Arthur Freed

Directed by Vincente Minnelli

MGM underwent some severe cutbacks in 1953; most of its contract players were dropped including the majority of its proud roster of stars. The studio would have to survive in a new kind of Hollywood,...

Many of MGM’s productions were scraping bottom in 1958, yet the studio found one more acceptable western vehicle for their last big star still on contract. Only-slightly corrupt marshal Robert Taylor edges toward a showdown with the thoroughly corrupt Richard Widmark in an economy item given impressive locations and the sound direction of John Sturges.

The Law and Jake Wade

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark, Patricia Owens, Robert Middleton, Henry Silva, DeForest Kelley, Henry Silva, Burt Douglas, Eddie Firestone.

Cinematography: Robert Surtees

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Written by William Bowers from a novel by Marvin H. Albert

Produced by William B. Hawks

Directed by John Sturges

As the 1950s wore down, MGM was finding it more difficult to properly use its last remaining big-ticket stars on the steady payroll, Cyd Charisse and Robert Taylor. Cyd...

Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.

The 1940s-60s is widely considered to be a Golden Age of movie musicals. With dynamic stars like Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Shirley Jones, Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire lighting up the big screen time and time again, the years that followed the second World War undoubtedly brought us some of our most beloved classics.In 2002, a blockbuster called Chicago proved that the movie musical could be not only a commercial and critical success, but cool again. Since then, the world has seen a resurgence in a genre that was long-considered dead, bringing an American tradition back to the forefront of popular culture.This holiday season, the movie musical is back in full force with the critically-acclaimed La La Land, featuring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. With the arrival of perhaps the best movie musical in decades, we're bringing you an in-depth timeline of the past ten years in movie musicals.

When MGM was almost a ghost town, the Arthur Freed unit hit one last 'special' factory musical out of the park with this strangely melancholy ode to faded ambitions. Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd put in great, memorable work, while the glorious Dolores Gray is practically a living Tex Avery cartoon. And it's designed in wide, wide CinemaScope. It's Always Fair Weather Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date November, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray, Michael Kidd Cinematography Robert Bronner Art Direction Cedric Gibbons, Arthur Lonergan Film Editor Adrienne Fazan Original Music André Previn Written by Betty Comden & Adolph Green Produced by Arthur Freed, Roger Edens Directed & Choreographed by Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Back in the late 1980s, I first became aware of the future of home video when Criterion introduced...

It's in glorious Technicolor Metrocolor, CinemaScope and StereoPhonic Sound! Fred Astaire's final MGM musical gives him Cyd Charisse and a Cole Porter score, plus some nice Hermes Pan choreography. The script and Rouben Mamoulian's direction aren't the best, but the combined magic of the musical and dancing talent saves the day. Silk Stockings Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1957 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Jules Munshin, Joseph Buloff, Wim Sonneveld Cinematography Robert Bronner Art Direction Randall Duell, William A. Horning Film Editor Harold F. Kress Original Music Cole Porter Written by Abe Burrows, Leonard Gershe, George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Leonard Spigelgass Produced by Arthur Freed Directed by Rouben Mamoulian

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

On the Town?  The Pajama Game?  Damn Yankees?   The Warner Archive Collection's next musical up for the...

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers... 

Easter Parade has becomea perrenial holiday favorite. Inevitably, the lighthearted musical appears on TCM Easter Sunday marathons, sandwiched between Ben Hur (1959) and King of Kings (1961). However, despite the annual dominance of this Judy Garland/Irving Berlin musical, the movie nearly stopped before it began. A combination of bad luck, souring relationships, and weak ankles nearly prevented the production from getting off the ground. Fans of the film have one person to thank for its resurrection: Fred Astaire.

The Movie: Easter Parade (1948)

The Songwriter: Irving Berlin (music & lyrics)

The Players: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ann Miller, Peter Lawford, directed by Charles Walters

The Story: The production of Easter Parade was plagued from the start. Though Irving Berlin enthusiastically agreed to expand upon his hit Holiday Inn for a new Judy Garland vehicle, the rest of the cast and crew was harder to secure.