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Comb through the Oscar nominations this year and you’ll find that there records being broken left, right, and center while more records could be matched or broken at the ceremony this coming Sunday on March 10.

One of those such records concerns the Best Original Screenplay category, in which the nominees are “Anatomy of a Fall” (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari), “The Holdovers” (David Hemingson), “Maestro” (Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer), “May December” (Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik), and “Past Lives” (Celine Song).

It’s “Maestro” co-scribe Singer we’re looking at here for his work in penning the Netflix biopic. This is his second nomination. His first bid came in 2016, when he won this very category, Best Original Screenplay, alongside director Tom McCarthy for “Spotlight.” It’s interesting that Singer now has two nominations in the same category, both of which came for co-writing a script based on a...

This show has everything going for it, in fact, it has Too much going for it: tragic drama, silly comedy, bland heart-tugs and saucy romance. Everybody’s working across purposes, with ‘stunt’ guest star Bobby Darin preening for awards attention. Angie Dickinson, Tony Curtis and Eddie Albert are terrific but are acting in different movies; and Gregory Peck seems out of his depth altogether. Does it keep our attention? You bet. Does it work? I’m not so sure.

Captain Newman, M.D.

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1963 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date January 5, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Bobby Darin, Eddie Albert, Robert Duvall, Bethel Leslie, Dick Sargent, James Gregory, Larry Storch, Jane Withers, Vito Scotti, Gregory Walcott, Ann Doran, Martin West, David Winters.

Cinematography: Russell Metty

Film Editor: Alma Macrorie

Music: Frank Skinner

Written by Richard L. Breen, Phoebe & Henry Ephron from...

Join Joe Friday and Frank Smith as they make a case against the rotten gangland crooks that moiderized Dub Taylor with a shotgun, point blank! See detectives loiter about while smart remarks and Big music stings provide the excitement! The big-screen version of the hit TV show has a surfeit of guest crooks, unhappy women, and a script that wants to grant cops the right to harass and wiretap whoever they wish without restraint. Jack Webb’s ‘interesting’ ideas of script, performance and direction are really… interesting. The Joe Friday-fest comes with an informative commentary by Toby Roan, laying down plenty of Dragnet and Jack Webb history I didn’t know, not ‘just the facts.’

Dragnet

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:75 widescreen + 1:37 unmatted / 88 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Victor Perrin, Dub Taylor,...

If you like Billy Wilder but haven’t seen everything he’s done, this is the film for you, a sparkling but typically sharp-tongued comedy-drama set in the last place expected in 1948 — bombed-out Berlin, rumored to be awash in corruption. Jean Arthur is the Iowa congresswoman out to clean up the town, and Marlene Dietrich a war survivor with a highly suspect past. Underrated John Lund is the Romeo with Captain’s stripes, brushing up on his (click) umlaut. And Millard Mitchell, of all people, steals the movie. Great cabaret songs by Friedrich Hollander, and an A-class commentary by Joseph McBride.

A Foreign Affair

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 116 min. / Street Date August 6, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell, Peter von Zerneck, Stanley Prager.

Cinematography: Charles Lang

Original Music: Friedrich Hollander

Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Richard L. Breen; adaptation Robert Harari,...

It's ring-a-ding time, with producer-star Frank Sinatra and his cooperative director Gordon Douglas doing a variation on the hipster detective saga. The two Tony Rome pictures are lively and fun and chock-ful of borderline offensive content, like smash-zooms into women's rear ends. Tony Rome & Lady in Cement Blu-ray Twilight Time 1967, 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110 and 93 min. / Street Date September 8, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Richard Conte; Tony Rome: Jill St. John, Sue Lyon, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland, Lloyd Bochner, Robert J. Wilke, Virginia Vincent, Joan Shawlee, Lloyd Gough, Rocky Graziano, Elisabeth Fraser, Shecky Greene, Jeanne Cooper, Joe E. Ross, Tiffany Bolling, Deanna Lund. Lady in Cement: Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Paul Mungar, Richard Deacon, Joe E. Lewis, Bunny Yeager. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Original Music Billy May, Hugo Montenegro; song by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra Written by Richard L. Breen...

'Sunset Blvd.': Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. The Charles Brackett Diaries: Gay Rumors quashed, troubled Billy Wilder partnership discussed in Q&A with Anthony Slide See previous post: “Charles Brackett Diaries: Politics and Gossip During the Studio Era.” First of all, how did you become involved in this Charles Brackett project? And what did your editorial job entail? I discovered the diaries about six years ago when I was asked by Brackett's grandson, Jim Moore, to place a financial value on them during the process of his donating them to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was clear to me that these diaries had not only considerable financial worth, but also, and perhaps more importantly, they were primary resources in the study of Hollywood history. Happily, Charles Brackett's family (who own the copyright) gave permission for me to edit the diaries,...

Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...

Niagara

Written by Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch

Directed by Henry Hathaway

USA, 1953

Marilyn Monroe’s legacy in popular culture and film varies greatly depending on whom one asks. For some, her photo shoots and the unforgettably attractive looks advertised through them meant she was, and for some, still is, the epitome of sex appeal. For others, her roles in films like Some Like It Hot or The Seven Year Itch painted her image as a great leading lady in romantic comedies and, in the case of the former, somewhat of a ditsy dame. Digging a little bit deeper will reveal another version of Monroe standing in stark contrast to these two. One of her earliest films was John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle from 1950, a riveting heist thriller, in which she played a wealthy middle-aged man’s plaything. Three years later, she was one of the...

Courtney Stodden has joined a host of stars in the 'Celebrity Big Brother' house. The busty blonde, who shot to fame when she wed 53-year-old 'Green Mile' actor Doug Hutchison at the age of just 16, is starring in the latest series of the Channel 5 show hosted by Emma Willis. Other celebrities who entered the house on Thursday night (22.08.13) include Bruce Jones and Vicky Entwistle, best known for playing Les and Janice Battersby in 'Coronation Street', Five singer Abz Love (real name Richard Breen, 'Loose Women' panellist Carol McGiffin and football pundit Ronald 'Ron' Atkinson. Reality TV stars including 'Geordie...

The Film

We all know the story. Big boat leaves England with lots of important people aboard. Somehow none of the 2,224 passengers see the mountainous block of ice floating in the ocean- boat collides with said ice- chaos ensues- band plays on- a tragic footnote in world history and the inspiration for countless Hollywood film adaptations is born.

Long before Leonardo DiCaprio painted Kate Winslet in the nude, director Jean Negulesco brought to life the story of the doomed luxury liner in 1953. While modern technology allowed for James Cameron to produce what is considered the gold standard in Titanic films (Titanic, 1997), Negulesco was still able to craft an engaging watch around the well known narrative.

What truly struck me is how similar this film feels in comparison to Cameron’s. Yes, I realize the basis of the story is the same once Titanic meets its icy destiny, but Negulesco manages...

Of all the characters Dan Ackroyd played on Saturday Night Live back when the show was actually funny and clever, my favorite was a guy named Leonard Pinth-Garnell, a tuxedoed teevee critic who hosted segments called, alternatively, Bad Playhouse, Bad Cinema, Bad Ballet, and so on. Whereas the premise was obvious, the ambiance was brilliant. Pinth-Garnell was an über-snob, the kind who pontificate with their noses so high up in the air you’d think they’d drown in a light drizzle.

Needless to say, damn near everybody who ever applied letters to opinions has a bit of Leonard Pinth-Garnell in him, her, or it. Some of us try to keep him locked up in a dark corner of our brainpans, but he keeps on popping up on our shoulder like the devil that torments Donald Duck, or, more to my point, Tom Hulce in Animal House.

Then the Internet...

Marlene Dietrich on TCM: Shanghai Express, The Scarlet Empress, The Devil Is A Woman Raoul Walsh's unpretentious Manpower (1941) is a surprisingly entertaining drama about a love triangle featuring good-time gal Marlene Dietrich and unlikely partners Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. As an ex-Nazi chanteuse/black marketer (photo), Dietrich nearly steals the show in Billy Wilder's post-war Berlin-set A Foreign Affair (1948); I say nearly because Jean Arthur is Dietrich's equal as the goody-goody American congresswoman who learns that goody-goodiness may take you far at work (at least in the movies) but not in life. In the hands of someone like Ernst Lubitsch, A Foreign Affair would have been a humorously romantic masterpiece, cleverly and subtly interweaving the personal, the social, and the political. As it is, the comedy works great whenever Arthur and Dietrich are on-screen; else, A Foreign Affair suffers from Wilder's heavy hand; lapses in judgment in Wilder,...