"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.
Any excuse to talk about What a Way to Go! is a good excuse. But the centennial of Ted Haworth is an especially excellent excuse. He was nominated for six Oscars, starting with Marty in 1955. He won for 1957’s Sayonara. Highlights from the rest of his career include Some Like It Hot, The Beguiled, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
But none of those movies could hold a candle to the astonishing level of creativity on display in What a Way to Go! The epic 1964 comedy of love and loss stars Shirley MacLaine as Louisa May Foster, a many-time widow and heiress. Each husband, with one particularly tragic exception, begins the marriage as a near-pauper who wants nothing but love. But their passion inevitably leads them...
Any excuse to talk about What a Way to Go! is a good excuse. But the centennial of Ted Haworth is an especially excellent excuse. He was nominated for six Oscars, starting with Marty in 1955. He won for 1957’s Sayonara. Highlights from the rest of his career include Some Like It Hot, The Beguiled, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
But none of those movies could hold a candle to the astonishing level of creativity on display in What a Way to Go! The epic 1964 comedy of love and loss stars Shirley MacLaine as Louisa May Foster, a many-time widow and heiress. Each husband, with one particularly tragic exception, begins the marriage as a near-pauper who wants nothing but love. But their passion inevitably leads them...
- 9/25/2017
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmExperience
What a Way to Go!
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1964 / Color B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Robert Cummings, Dick Van Dyke, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Fifi D’Orsay, Maurice Marsac, Lenny Kent, Marjorie Bennett, Army Archerd, Barbara Bouchet, Tom Conway, Peter Duchin, Douglass Dumbrille, Pamelyn Ferdin, Teri Garr, Queenie Leonard.
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Film Editor: Marjorie Fowler
Original Music: Nelson Riddle
Written by: Betty Comden, Adolph Green story by Gwen Davis
Produced by: Arthur P. Jacobs
Directed by: J. Lee Thompson
Want to know what the producer of Planet of the Apes was up to, before that milestone movie? Arthur P. Jacobs was an agent for big stars before he became a producer, which positioned him well for his first show for 20th Fox, What a Way to Go!
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1964 / Color B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Robert Cummings, Dick Van Dyke, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Fifi D’Orsay, Maurice Marsac, Lenny Kent, Marjorie Bennett, Army Archerd, Barbara Bouchet, Tom Conway, Peter Duchin, Douglass Dumbrille, Pamelyn Ferdin, Teri Garr, Queenie Leonard.
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Film Editor: Marjorie Fowler
Original Music: Nelson Riddle
Written by: Betty Comden, Adolph Green story by Gwen Davis
Produced by: Arthur P. Jacobs
Directed by: J. Lee Thompson
Want to know what the producer of Planet of the Apes was up to, before that milestone movie? Arthur P. Jacobs was an agent for big stars before he became a producer, which positioned him well for his first show for 20th Fox, What a Way to Go!
- 1/31/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Marvel's Agents of Shield: Channel 4, 8pm
Agents of Shield returns to UK television after its mid-season break in the Us.
The evil centipede group have taken Coulson as their hostage, and are interrogating him about his mysterious survival in a bleak and creepy desert wasteland. As Coulson learns some vital information regarding his survival, a member of his team may have to pay the ultimate price for this knowledge.
Unknowingly, the team are planning a full-scale mission for Coulson, but Skye ends up having to take action alone.
Jonathan Creek: BBC One, 9pm
The series five finale airs tonight and Jonathan is drawn into the kidnapping case of a government minister's wife. The case takes an interesting turn as Jonathan follows a lead to his eccentric cleaner, played by Josie Lawrence.
Polly also suffers from jealously after she sees Jonathan greeting an old female friend rather too warmly for her liking.
Agents of Shield returns to UK television after its mid-season break in the Us.
The evil centipede group have taken Coulson as their hostage, and are interrogating him about his mysterious survival in a bleak and creepy desert wasteland. As Coulson learns some vital information regarding his survival, a member of his team may have to pay the ultimate price for this knowledge.
Unknowingly, the team are planning a full-scale mission for Coulson, but Skye ends up having to take action alone.
Jonathan Creek: BBC One, 9pm
The series five finale airs tonight and Jonathan is drawn into the kidnapping case of a government minister's wife. The case takes an interesting turn as Jonathan follows a lead to his eccentric cleaner, played by Josie Lawrence.
Polly also suffers from jealously after she sees Jonathan greeting an old female friend rather too warmly for her liking.
- 3/14/2014
- Digital Spy
Eight months after HBO picked up Tell Me You Love Me for a second year, the TV series hasn't returned. Now, apparently, it never will. What happened?
The sexually-explicit drama debuted on September 9, 2007 and revolves around three couples, each with their own set of intimacy problems. They seek help from Dr. May Foster (Jane Alexander), an analyst with relationship issues of her own. The series' ensemble cast includes Michelle Borth, Tim DeKay, Luke Kirby, Adam Scott, David Selby, Katharine Towne, Sonya Walger, and Ally Walker. The tenth episode aired on November 10, 2007.
The ratings for the show's first season weren't great but HBO renewed Tell Me for another season after just four episodes had aired. Despite the renewal, the show didn't return to production. Now, it appears that the reason for the stall was that creator/executive producer Cynthia Mort couldn't figure out what should come next.
In a written statement,...
The sexually-explicit drama debuted on September 9, 2007 and revolves around three couples, each with their own set of intimacy problems. They seek help from Dr. May Foster (Jane Alexander), an analyst with relationship issues of her own. The series' ensemble cast includes Michelle Borth, Tim DeKay, Luke Kirby, Adam Scott, David Selby, Katharine Towne, Sonya Walger, and Ally Walker. The tenth episode aired on November 10, 2007.
The ratings for the show's first season weren't great but HBO renewed Tell Me for another season after just four episodes had aired. Despite the renewal, the show didn't return to production. Now, it appears that the reason for the stall was that creator/executive producer Cynthia Mort couldn't figure out what should come next.
In a written statement,...
- 7/29/2008
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
Between Dr. Drew Pinsky on VH1's reality hit "Celebrity Rehab" and the fictional Dr. Paul Weston on Hbo's highly addictive "In Treatment," we're awash in TV therapists .
"These shows are a way of people getting back in touch with the soul, and the audience wants that," Baylor College psychiatry professor Glen Gabbard, author of “Psychiatry and the Cinema,” told Broadcasting & Cable.
But TV’s fascination with the therapist’s couch is nothing new. Here’s a highly subjective look at a few of the fictional tube shrinks — past and present — who have captured my imagination.
Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) of HBO’s “The Sopranos” (1999-2007)
Nobody knew more about New Jersey’s top mobster, Tony Soprano (except perhaps the FBI agents who kept tabs on him). But toward the end of the series, she began to wonder how much she’d helped the mobster, who first visited after suffering a panic attack.
"These shows are a way of people getting back in touch with the soul, and the audience wants that," Baylor College psychiatry professor Glen Gabbard, author of “Psychiatry and the Cinema,” told Broadcasting & Cable.
But TV’s fascination with the therapist’s couch is nothing new. Here’s a highly subjective look at a few of the fictional tube shrinks — past and present — who have captured my imagination.
Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) of HBO’s “The Sopranos” (1999-2007)
Nobody knew more about New Jersey’s top mobster, Tony Soprano (except perhaps the FBI agents who kept tabs on him). But toward the end of the series, she began to wonder how much she’d helped the mobster, who first visited after suffering a panic attack.
- 3/7/2008
- by Tempo
- The Watcher
Film Review: 'The Thin Red Line' 'The Thin Red Line' / "There's only a thin red line between the sane and the mad." -- An old Midwestern saying.
It's a safe bet that more than just shell-shocked critics will take the time to see this remarkable film twice -- at least twice.
How big a hit Fox has depends on the fickle public's word-of-mouth, with many hurdles to overcome in the marketing. But its big, brooding, warlike nature -- asking the big questions and not finding easy answers -- May Foster the rare confluence of reality and art that makes "The Thin Red Line" an uncannily timed movie phenomenon.
After a 20-year-absence, enigmatic filmmaker Terrence Malick ("Days of Heaven") has realized a 10-year dream project -- based on the 1962 novel by James Jones -- and delivered a breathtaking cinematic experience, one very different than this year's other celebrated World War II film. Indeed, those expecting "Saving Private Ryan" will be surprised by the unconventional structure, sometimes slow pacing and heavy use of voice-overs but not by the bloody battles, which are graphic and complex enough to rival those in Steven Spielberg's award-winning hit.
There's no easy way to encapsulate the nearly three-hour plot and do right by every striking scene or memorable character. Likewise, the themes and Malick's directorial choices will be subject to much debate, more so than in any film this year. "2001: A Space Odyssey" was a mystery to many, and so will be "The Thin Red Line", but its reputation could soar over time.
Filmed previously in 1964 with Keir Dullea and Jack Warden, in a much abbreviated version, "The Thin Red Line" is the story of C-for-Charlie Company, U.S. infantrymen fighting the Japanese in the crucial campaign on the island of Guadalcanal in August 1942. Jones' brilliant novel follows several dozen characters through the landing, marching, fighting and "off-lining" of these GIs, with many dying in a series of clashes on the windy hills of the island's interior.
Malick immediately puts his stamp on the material with a nearly dialogue-free 10-minute opening sequence that introduces AWOL Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel) living in "paradise" with Melanesian villagers. The themes of showing how the fighting affects nature and how nature affects the soldiers are likewise introduced by first seeing this calm before the chaos.
A self-assured loner who misses his comrades and rejoins the war, Witt goes on to survive the horrific battles in the film's central section and continues to ponder the nature of man and war -- at one point a dead Japanese face, half-buried in the jungle muck, stares at him and talks as if it has already returned to the earth.
While there are Tolstoyian ambitions here, Malick is so unconcerned with routine drama and the battle scenes are so visceral that the film never feels unduly egg-headed, although some are bound to find it too pretentious, too demanding, too long, just too damn elegiac. The next-to-last argument could made, but it's not a serious flaw.
As for the rest of the film's superb cast, with one or two exceptions, there aren't enough superlatives to do justice to the work on display. 1st Sgt. Welsh (Sean Penn) is a humorless cynic that like all his fellows gets the "white-eyed" look of terror in combat. Pvt. Bell (Ben Chaplin) dreams of his wife back home, with Malick cutting to his sensual memories in one gambit that's somewhat overworked.
Capt. Staros (Elias Koteas) is the lawyer-turned-worried warrior who commands the men against entrenched Japanese positions and, in his bravest act, defies his superior, Lt. Col. Tall (Nick Nolte). A mad dog one minute and a decisive leader the next, Tall is one of Nolte's greatest roles, and his performance is tremendous. In a one-sided exchange with battle-tested Capt. Gaff (John Cusack) and when he relieves Staros of his command, Tall personifies the impersonal, savage thought processes that destroy or forever mark the average soldier.
Many more characters and performers stand out, particularly gung-ho Pfc. Doll (Dash Mihok), ill-fated Sgt. Keck (Woody Harrelson) and devastated-by-the-slaughter Sgt. McCron (John Savage). Used in reserve but effectively are John Travolta as a regal brigadier general -- in scenes with Tall on the tense troop transport before the soldiers make their unopposed amphibious landing -- and Adrien Brody as company clerk Cpl. Fife. George Clooney's brief moments as the new company captain near the conclusion is the one instance of the all-star approach coming up short.
Shot mainly in the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland, Australia, "The Thin Red Line" is a visual knockout -- from cutaways to indigenous animals and vegetation to the grimy, numbed faces of the survivors -- with John Toll's cinematography surpassing his Oscar-winning work on "Legends of the Fall". Likewise, the soundtrack is a marvel of craftsmanship, mixing the booms of bombs exploding and wind moving through the grass with works by Gabriel Faure, Charles Ives, Arvo Part and Hans Zimmer's meaty score.
THE THIN RED LINE
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
Phoenix Pictures in association
with George Stevens Jr.
A Geisler-Roberdeau production
Writer-director: Terrence Malick
Producers: Robert Michael Geisler, John Roberdeau, Grant Hill
Executive producer: George Stevens Jr.
Director of photography: John Toll
Production designer: Jack Fisk
Editors: Billy Weber, Leslie Jones
Costume designer: Margot Wilson
Music: Hans Zimmer
Casting: Dianne Crittenden
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pvt. Witt: Jim Caviezel
1st Sgt. Welsh: Sean Penn
Pvt. Bell: Ben Chaplin
Capt. Staros: Elias Koteas
Lt. Col. Tall: Nick Nolte
Pfc. Doll: Dash Mihok
Capt. Gaff: John Cusack
Sgt. Keck: Woody Harrelson
Sgt. McCron: John Savage
Running time -- 170 minutes
MPAA Rating: R...
How big a hit Fox has depends on the fickle public's word-of-mouth, with many hurdles to overcome in the marketing. But its big, brooding, warlike nature -- asking the big questions and not finding easy answers -- May Foster the rare confluence of reality and art that makes "The Thin Red Line" an uncannily timed movie phenomenon.
After a 20-year-absence, enigmatic filmmaker Terrence Malick ("Days of Heaven") has realized a 10-year dream project -- based on the 1962 novel by James Jones -- and delivered a breathtaking cinematic experience, one very different than this year's other celebrated World War II film. Indeed, those expecting "Saving Private Ryan" will be surprised by the unconventional structure, sometimes slow pacing and heavy use of voice-overs but not by the bloody battles, which are graphic and complex enough to rival those in Steven Spielberg's award-winning hit.
There's no easy way to encapsulate the nearly three-hour plot and do right by every striking scene or memorable character. Likewise, the themes and Malick's directorial choices will be subject to much debate, more so than in any film this year. "2001: A Space Odyssey" was a mystery to many, and so will be "The Thin Red Line", but its reputation could soar over time.
Filmed previously in 1964 with Keir Dullea and Jack Warden, in a much abbreviated version, "The Thin Red Line" is the story of C-for-Charlie Company, U.S. infantrymen fighting the Japanese in the crucial campaign on the island of Guadalcanal in August 1942. Jones' brilliant novel follows several dozen characters through the landing, marching, fighting and "off-lining" of these GIs, with many dying in a series of clashes on the windy hills of the island's interior.
Malick immediately puts his stamp on the material with a nearly dialogue-free 10-minute opening sequence that introduces AWOL Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel) living in "paradise" with Melanesian villagers. The themes of showing how the fighting affects nature and how nature affects the soldiers are likewise introduced by first seeing this calm before the chaos.
A self-assured loner who misses his comrades and rejoins the war, Witt goes on to survive the horrific battles in the film's central section and continues to ponder the nature of man and war -- at one point a dead Japanese face, half-buried in the jungle muck, stares at him and talks as if it has already returned to the earth.
While there are Tolstoyian ambitions here, Malick is so unconcerned with routine drama and the battle scenes are so visceral that the film never feels unduly egg-headed, although some are bound to find it too pretentious, too demanding, too long, just too damn elegiac. The next-to-last argument could made, but it's not a serious flaw.
As for the rest of the film's superb cast, with one or two exceptions, there aren't enough superlatives to do justice to the work on display. 1st Sgt. Welsh (Sean Penn) is a humorless cynic that like all his fellows gets the "white-eyed" look of terror in combat. Pvt. Bell (Ben Chaplin) dreams of his wife back home, with Malick cutting to his sensual memories in one gambit that's somewhat overworked.
Capt. Staros (Elias Koteas) is the lawyer-turned-worried warrior who commands the men against entrenched Japanese positions and, in his bravest act, defies his superior, Lt. Col. Tall (Nick Nolte). A mad dog one minute and a decisive leader the next, Tall is one of Nolte's greatest roles, and his performance is tremendous. In a one-sided exchange with battle-tested Capt. Gaff (John Cusack) and when he relieves Staros of his command, Tall personifies the impersonal, savage thought processes that destroy or forever mark the average soldier.
Many more characters and performers stand out, particularly gung-ho Pfc. Doll (Dash Mihok), ill-fated Sgt. Keck (Woody Harrelson) and devastated-by-the-slaughter Sgt. McCron (John Savage). Used in reserve but effectively are John Travolta as a regal brigadier general -- in scenes with Tall on the tense troop transport before the soldiers make their unopposed amphibious landing -- and Adrien Brody as company clerk Cpl. Fife. George Clooney's brief moments as the new company captain near the conclusion is the one instance of the all-star approach coming up short.
Shot mainly in the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland, Australia, "The Thin Red Line" is a visual knockout -- from cutaways to indigenous animals and vegetation to the grimy, numbed faces of the survivors -- with John Toll's cinematography surpassing his Oscar-winning work on "Legends of the Fall". Likewise, the soundtrack is a marvel of craftsmanship, mixing the booms of bombs exploding and wind moving through the grass with works by Gabriel Faure, Charles Ives, Arvo Part and Hans Zimmer's meaty score.
THE THIN RED LINE
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
Phoenix Pictures in association
with George Stevens Jr.
A Geisler-Roberdeau production
Writer-director: Terrence Malick
Producers: Robert Michael Geisler, John Roberdeau, Grant Hill
Executive producer: George Stevens Jr.
Director of photography: John Toll
Production designer: Jack Fisk
Editors: Billy Weber, Leslie Jones
Costume designer: Margot Wilson
Music: Hans Zimmer
Casting: Dianne Crittenden
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pvt. Witt: Jim Caviezel
1st Sgt. Welsh: Sean Penn
Pvt. Bell: Ben Chaplin
Capt. Staros: Elias Koteas
Lt. Col. Tall: Nick Nolte
Pfc. Doll: Dash Mihok
Capt. Gaff: John Cusack
Sgt. Keck: Woody Harrelson
Sgt. McCron: John Savage
Running time -- 170 minutes
MPAA Rating: R...
- 12/21/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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