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When veteran documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor met Celine Dion via Zoom in winter 2021 about the prospect of doing a documentary chronicling Dion’s life and career, she had no idea where this would ultimately take both the subject and the director. In fact, Taylor confessed she wasn’t really a fan, not familiar with Dion’s personal story, her celebrated career selling over 250 million albums, or anything else about her. She only knew a few of the hit songs. But they bonded anyway. Taylor had done many Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated movies about everything from Boy Scouts to trees to deafness to polio, but nothing in this realm, and it certainly has turned into a film it did not start out to be, and that neither expected, but now will be shared with the world.

Hollywood is full of the movies, many made in the 1940s and ’50s, of major musical...

Lashana Lynch became the first woman to own the 007 title in the 2021 James Bond tentpole “No Time to Die,” but it turns out a plan to make James Bond a woman was actually pitched over 60 years prior. In Nicholas Shakespeare’s upcoming biography of Bond author Ian Fleming, titled “Ian Fleming: The Complete Man,” it’s confirmed that producer Gregory Ratoff floated the idea of casting Susan Hayward in a film adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel “Casino Royale.”

Shakespeare writes in the biography (via IndieWire): “Since the mid-1950s, many well-known actors had been approached [to play Bond]. Gregory Ratoff had the arresting idea of having Bond played by a woman, Susan Hayward. Ian had entertained several possibilities, from Richard Burton (‘I think that Richard Burton would be by far the best James Bond’), to James Stewart (‘I wouldn’t at all mind him as Bond if he can slightly...

Yes, a female James Bond has been over a half-century in the making.

Before Lashana Lynch briefly donned the 007 title in “No Time to Die,” the film adaptation of “Dr. No,” a woman was in talks to lead the franchise 50 years prior.

In Nicholas Shakespeare’s upcoming biography of Bond author Ian Fleming, titled “Ian Fleming: The Complete Man,” it’s revealed that original “Casino Royale” producer Gregory Ratoff had imagined a woman in the titular lead role. In fact, Oscar-winning actress Susan Hayward was in Ratoff’s mind to take the part.

Prior to “Casino Royale,” the two Bond films had floundered with “Thunderball” and “Casino Royale” receiving poor reviews, hence the proposed gender-swap.

Shakespeare writes in the biography, “Since the mid-1950s, many well-known actors had been approached. Gregory Ratoff had the arresting idea of having Bond played by a woman, Susan Hayward. Ian had entertained several possibilities,...

As the director and producer of both “House of Gucci” and “The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott is poised to score big when the 2022 Oscar nominations are announced three months from now. Reaping double Best Picture or Best Director bids would make the 83-year-old the first to pull off either feat since Steven Soderbergh did so in 2001. Even if he ends up being left out of both lineups, he could still make history if academy voters decide to recognize the work of his two leading ladies. If Jodie Comer (“The Last Duel”) and Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) are both chosen to compete for Best Actress, Scott will become the fifth person to direct female leads from different films to nominations in a single year.

The first of these rare occurrences dates back to the third Oscars ceremony in 1930 when Nancy Carroll (“The Devil’s Holiday”) and Gloria Swanson (“The Trespasser...

Last year we watched as Renee Zellweger followed the yellow brick road all the way to the Wizard of Oscar as Judy Garland in “Judy.” Can lightning (or a tornado) strike two years in a row? That’s surely the hope of Andra Day, looking like a strong Best Actress Oscar contender for her title role in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Like Garland, Holiday rose to stardom in the late 1930s. She also had multiple marriages, faced financial woes and struggled with drugs and alcohol. The question is: can the role in this Hulu release deliver the Oscar to Day?

Before making a decision, keep in mind that the academy has a long history of recognizing actresses for portraying other actresses or entertainers. And the more drama, trauma and tragedy the better. Even raging and hysterical divas are welcome. Let’s look back at some prime and primadonna examples from Oscar’s history.

With a screen time total of 18 minutes and 36 seconds, Laura Dern’s 2020 Best Supporting Actress-winning performance in “Marriage Story” was noted for its brevity. However, it ranks as the 24th shortest to ever win in the Oscar category, proving the academy’s particular and everlasting fondness for smaller supporting female roles. Here is a look at the 10 winners with the least amount of screen time. (And here’s the equivalent list for Best Supporting Actor.)

10. Jo Van Fleet (“East of Eden”)

15 minutes, 4 seconds (12.82% of the film)

After a decade of stage acting, Tony winner Jo Van Fleet earned an Oscar for her film debut as child abandoner and brothel operator Kate Ames. Many of the votes she received were likely in honor of her body of work in 1955, since she also had roles in two other Oscar-nominated films that year (“I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “The Rose Tattoo”). Her few scenes in “East of Eden,...

Joyce Ann Flint, who designed dresses for Esther Williams and other MGM stars in the 1950s, died Wednesday of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, her son Michael announced. She was 83.

At MGM, Flint apprenticed under two-time Oscar winner (and 10-time nominee) Helen Rose, known for her work on such films as The Bad and the Beautiful and I'll Cry Tomorrow.

Flint was the head of Flint Realty for nearly 50 years and helped launch of the Professional Fiduciary Association of California, an organization of court-appointed conservators.

She was a descendent of Pio Pico, the last Spanish ...

Joyce Ann Flint, who designed dresses for Esther Williams and other MGM stars in the 1950s, died Wednesday of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, her son Michael announced. She was 83.

At MGM, Flint apprenticed under two-time Oscar winner (and 10-time nominee) Helen Rose, known for her work on such films as The Bad and the Beautiful and I'll Cry Tomorrow.

Flint was the head of Flint Realty for nearly 50 years and helped launch of the Professional Fiduciary Association of California, an organization of court-appointed conservators.

She was a descendent of Pio Pico, the last Spanish ...

(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have been, according to the available evidence, heterosexual. (Valentino's supposed affair with fellow “Latin Lover” Ramon Novarro has no basis in reality.) The female cast is also impressive: Veteran Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi) as stage and screen star Alla Nazimova, ex-The Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips as Valentino wife and Nazimova protégée Natacha Rambova, Felicity Kendal as screenwriter/producer June Mathis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), and Carol Kane – lately of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame. Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) is notable as one of the greatest musicals ever made. As a 1930s Cabaret presenter – and the Spirit of Germany – Joel Grey was the year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner. Liza Minnelli...

Susan Hayward Centennial Week

by Timothy Brayton

Yesterday, Eric did an extraordinary job of tackling Susan Hayward's performance in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), which I think a lot of us might agree was her all-time best performance. Today, I'd like to offer up what I consider to be her most Susan Haywardiest performance: as the good girl-turned-wretched alcoholic in 1949's My Foolish Heart, the film that netted Hayward the second of her five Oscar nominations.

It's a story tailored with laser focus on letting the lead actress show off Everything with a capital "E"...

Susan Hayward Centennial Week

"this story was filmed on location... inside a woman's soul!"

-I'll Cry Tomorrow's tagline.

by Eric Blume

I’ll Cry Tomorrow, a biopic of singer Lillian Roth, won Susan Hayward the fourth of her five Oscar nominations, in 1955. The film starts with a young Lillian and her stage mother, played by Jo Van Fleet. Ten minutes in, though, Hayward gets a true star entrance belting out “Sing You Sinners” in a lengthy number with only four cuts.

It’s a fun introduction, partially because you try to place yourself in 1955, when part of the excitement (one guesses) was hearing Hayward sing for the first time, and it’s quite a boisterous number. Then Hayward was known mostly as a tragedienne (Hollywood star variety), it must have been a blast for audiences to see Hayward let loose (Hollywood star style) in a big production number...

'The Merry Widow' with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Minna Gombell under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Ernst Lubitsch movies: 'The Merry Widow,' 'Ninotchka' (See previous post: “Ernst Lubitsch Best Films: Passé Subtle 'Touch' in Age of Sledgehammer Filmmaking.”) Initially a project for Ramon Novarro – who for quite some time aspired to become an opera singer and who had a pleasant singing voice – The Merry Widow ultimately starred Maurice Chevalier, the hammiest film performer this side of Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler – the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, “hammy” isn't my idea of effective film acting. For that reason, I usually find Chevalier a major handicap to his movies, especially during the early talkie era; he upsets their dramatic (or comedic) balance much like Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Jerry Lewis in anything (excepting Scorsese's The King of Comedy...

Susan Hayward. Susan Hayward movies: TCM Star of the Month Fiery redhead Susan Hayward it Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in Sept. 2015. The five-time Best Actress Oscar nominee – like Ida Lupino, a would-be Bette Davis that only sporadically landed roles to match the verve of her thespian prowess – was initially a minor Warner Bros. contract player who went on to become a Paramount second lead in the early '40s, a Universal leading lady in the late '40s, and a 20th Century Fox star in the early '50s. TCM will be presenting only three Susan Hayward premieres, all from her Fox era. Unfortunately, her Paramount and Universal work – e.g., Among the Living, Sis Hopkins, And Now Tomorrow, The Saxon Charm – which remains mostly unavailable (in quality prints), will remain unavailable this month. Highlights of the evening include: Adam Had Four Sons (1941), a sentimental but surprisingly...

From red-carpet thrillers to insider accounts, the Guardian's film critic hands out his gongs to the best Oscars literature out there

Partly because Academy Award madness is almost upon us, partly because like all former PhD students I love a good reading list, and partly out of sheer nerdiness, I have compiled an arbitrary list of the top 10 Oscar-related books. This has involved the incidental pleasure of hanging out in the Humanities One reading room of the British Library, and also in the library of the excellent and under-appreciated Cinema Museum in Kennington, south London.

1) Robert Osborne – 80 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards (2009)

A hefty, celebratory, coffee-table slab of a book, packed with stats and pictures like a book about sport. Very much the approved, authorised version.

2) Mason Wiley and Damien Bona – Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards (1977)

Notionally "unofficial" but in...

Actors on Actors looks at screen moments when stars are name-checked... by other stars! It's very meta. Since we're multi-tasking today trying to catch up, it's also a Tuesday Top Ten! In this episode, a scene from My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

Julia Roberts: I have big plans for dancing. Just give me 30-35 years."

Rupert Everett [the voice on that ginormous cel phone]: The misery. The exquisite tragedy. The Susan Hayward of it all!"The umimpeachably witty Mr. Everett (aided by that film's wonderful screenplay from Ronald Bass) is, of course, referring to the grand high priestess of exclamatory drama, Miss "I Want to Live!" Herself. It's not just those curtain-chewing performances, the desperate women she played or the trashy films but the gleefully histrionic taglines, too.

For no reason other than that I plan to live my life with exclamation points this week...

10 Best Taglines from Susan Hayward Films (We really should do like...

Jose here.

Today is the anniversary of Susan Hayward's birth (she would've turned 93). Browsing through her filmography it struck me how conflicted I am regarding her acting. Despite her extreme beauty (what did they feed these women back then?) I find her acting slightly hammy sometimes and rather inexpressive on different occasions.

Hayward was nominated for five Best Actress Oscars and perhaps the reason for my slight discontent with her is that in a way, she created the "easy way to an Oscar nod". Let's take a look at the characters that got her Oscar's attention and the reasons why AMPAS couldn't resist to nominate her:

1946 Angelica 'Angie'/'Angel' Evans Conway in Smash-Up, The Story of a Woman

Angelica is a club singer who marries a rising performer, gives up her career and becomes an alcoholic. The plot is loosely based on the life of Dixie Lee, Bing Crosby's first wife.

Eddie Albert, the versatile actor forever associated with the classic TV comedy Green Acres, died Thursday of pneumonia at his home in California; he was 99. Although he made his screen debut in 1938 and appeared in a number of films, Albert's film career took off considerably after his service in World War II, and in the 50s he embarked on a career that consisted primarily of acclaimed supporting roles in a variety of films, usually as the sidekick to the star. He was the photographer who tagged along with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (a role which earned him an Oscar nomination), played a cowardly army officer in Attack!, and provided comic relief as Ali Hakim in Oklahoma; other notable films in the 50s included I'll Cry Tomorrow, The Teahouse of the August Moon, and The Sun Also Rises. In 1965, though, Albert ascended to leading man status as the hero of the sitcom Green Acres, in which he played a New York attorney who yearned for the country life, and dragged his glamorous wife (Eva Gabor) to the tiny, eccentric town of Hooterville. His duet with Gabor of the show's title song was enough to earn him a place in pop culture history, but Albert continued to work practically non-stop after the show ended in 1971. As he aged, Albert also played more menacing, morally questionable characters, and earned a second Oscar nomination for The Heartbreak Kid, playing Cybill Shepherd's intimidating father. Though a number of the films and TV shows he appeared in were decidedly B-level, Albert always brought a sense of class and grace to his parts, whether they were dramatic or comedic. Albert is survived by his son, actor Edward Albert, a daughter, and two granddaughters. --Prepared by IMDb staff...