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Ted Donaldson, who starred as Bud Anderson on the original radio version of Father Knows Best and as Neely Nolan in the beloved family drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the first feature directed by Elia Kazan, has died. He was 89.

Donaldson died Wednesday of complications from a fall in his Echo Park apartment in January, his friend Thomas Bruno told The Hollywood Reporter.

In his big-screen debut, Donaldson portrayed a boy who gets his pet caterpillar Curly to dance when he plays “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on the harmonica in the comedy fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant and Janet Blair.

He also starred as Danny Mitchell in eight B-movies from Columbia Pictures that revolved around a German shepherd named Rusty. The first one, Adventures of Rusty (1945), featured Ace the Wonder Dog.

An only child, Donaldson was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 20, 1933. His father was...

It’s time for a new episode of our Revisited video series, and in this one we’re looking back at one of the horror films Jamie Lee Curtis starred in immediately after the success of Halloween: the 1980 slasher Prom Night (which can be viewed on Amazon Prime at This Link). To find out all about Prom Night, check out the video embedded above.

Directed by Paul Lynch from a screenplay by William Gray (who was working from a story by Robert Guza Jr.), Prom Night has the following synopsis: This slasher movie follows a relentless killer who is out to avenge the death of a young girl who died after being bullied and teased by four of her classmates. Now high-school students, the guilt-ridden kids have kept their involvement a secret, but when they start being murdered, one by one, it’s clear that someone knows the truth. Also...

John Carpenter changed horror movie history in 1978 with the release of "Halloween." With it, the pale-faced, seemingly immortal, babysitter killer better known as Michael Myers became an iconic villain and "Halloween" became one of the most successful slasher franchises of all time. Not bad for a film with a budget of 325,000. After the successful release of "Halloween," John Carpenter and his producing partner, Debra Hill, were hot commodities in Hollywood, and Avco Embassy Pictures offered the pair a two picture deal — the first of which would become "The Fog," and the second of which would eventually lead to "Escape From New York."

"The Fog" and an adaptation of Charles Berlitz and William F. Moore's 1979 novel "The Philadelphia Story: Project Invisibility," was supposed to be the young director's next hits. After the successful release of "The Fog," Carpenter hit a very large snag with "The Philadelphia Story: Project Invisibility." In...

Producer-director Michael Curtiz’s femme fatale noir has a lot going for it — high production values, VistaVision, and new film talent in Tom Tryon, Carol Ohmart, Elaine Stritch & Jody Lawrance. Excellent location shooting and a Nat King Cole song provide authentic Los Angeles atmosphere. But the storyline is ten years out of date. The advertising promoted Ms. Ohmart as a new ’50s sex symbol. She may have caught fire, but the show didn’t.

The Scarlet Hour

Region free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #152

1956 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date August 31, 2022 / Available from Amazon Au / 39.95; / Available from Viavision / 39.95

Starring: Carol Ohmart, Tom Tryon, Jody Lawrance, James Gregory, Elaine Stritch, E.G. Marshall, Edward Binns, David Lewis, Billy Gray, Jacques Aubuchon, Scott Marlowe, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Richard Deacon, Benson Fong, Theron Jackson, Almira Sessions.

Cinematography: Lionel Lindon

Costumes: Edith Head

Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen

Film Editor: Everett Douglas

Original Music: Leith Stevens...

Right now, in this galaxy… featuring Lloyd Kaufman, Brad Simpson, Gilbert Hernandez, Grant Moninger and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mondo Keazunt (1955)

The Human Tornado (1976)

Gigot (1962)

The Hustler (1961)

How to Commit Marriage (1969)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Touch of Evil (1958)

The Last Man On Earth (1963)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Omega Man (1971)

I Am Legend (2007)

Panic In Year Zero! (1962)

Dogtooth (2009)

The Entity (1983)

Shelf Life (1993)

The Killers (1964)

The Next Voice You Hear… (1950)

Donovan’s Brain (1953)

Talk About A Stranger (1952)

Julius Caesar (1950)

They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

The Jerk (1979)

Kings Row (1942)

Santa Fe Trail (1940

Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (19468)

Point Blank (1967)

House of Wax (1953)

Black Shampoo (1976)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Return To Oz (1985)

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Psycho (1960)

Two Evil Eyes (1990)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three...

If there was one TV show in the 1950s that really conveyed the idea of the family sitcom, it would have to be Father Knows Best, which starred Robert Young as Jim Anderson, Jane Wyatt as his wife, Margaret; Lauren Chapin as youngest child, Kathy (aka "Kitten"); Billy Gray as son James ("Bud"), and Elinor Donahue as the oldest, Betty ("Princess"). It was wholesome without being cloying, and still remains a wonderful reminder of a bygone era. It's also something that Elinor herself is, in a way, rediscovering for the first time since she started shooting the show nearly 65 years ago. "Father Knows Best," Elinor says in an exclusive interview from her California home, "is on at 6:00 in the morning here, and they run two episodes a day. A friend of mine was saying how much she enjoys it, and she's younger than me by a good 20 years. The...

Lady Gaga sure knows how to treat her Monsters.

The 31-year-old singer broke sad news to fans in Canada on Monday, announcing in a Twitter post that she would not perform her scheduled show in Montreal due to health issues.

“I couldn’t be more devastated that I am unable to perform tonight,” she wrote. “I sing this entire show live, and pride myself in giving it all, but when I sang in the rain at Citi Field I got sick and have been pushing through. I am so sorry to anyone who had their heart set on seeing me tonight.

She may sing about being caught in a “Bad Romance,” but Lady Gaga appears to be happy as can be with boyfriend Christian Carino — even admitting she was “in love” with her CAA agent beau while performing at New York’s Citi Field recently.

The 31-year-old singer — who is in the middle of her Joanne World Tour – took the stage on Aug. 29 amid heavy rainfall, plowing her way through hits like “Born This Way,” “Poker Face,” “Telephone,” “Just Dance,” “The Edge of Glory,” and more.

Though she told fans she was ready for the downpour (“I’m from New York,...

By Todd Garbarini

The Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a fun-filled weekend of six science fiction classics from Friday, April 15th to Sunday, April 17th. Several cast members from the films are scheduled to appear in person at respective screenings, so read on for more information:

From the press release:

Anniversary Classics Sci-Fi Weekend

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: www.laemmle.com/ac.

Re-visit the Golden Age of the Science Fiction Film as Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents Sci-fi Weekend, a festival of six classic films April 15-17 at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

It was dawn of the Atomic Age and the Cold War, as Communist and nuclear war paranoia swept onto the nation’s movie screens to both terrify and entertain the American public. All the favorite icons are here: Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet,...

“By the light of the silvery moon, I want to spoon! / To my honey, I’ll croon love’s tune / Honey moon, keep a shining in June! / Your silvery beams will bring love’s dreams / We’ll be cuddling soon, by the silvery moon”

By The Light Of The Silvery Moon Screens Saturday November 8th at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, Mo) at 10:30am.

By The Light Of The Silvery Moon is a sequel to On Moonlight Bay and features Doris Day and Gordon MacRae returning as sweethearts in the early 1900s who get to croon some pretty wonderful songs of that period. It’s strictly family stuff, nostalgic and as prettily pictured as a postcard of an Americana that never really existed except in Hollywood’s imagination and Norman Rockwell paintings.

The story takes place just after the end of the first World War...

David Posamentier and Geoff Moore have been writing together for about ten years. Each has an impressive resume of films they’ve been a part of in some way. Posamentier worked for writer/director Zach Braff on Garden State. Moore has worked on such films as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and I Love You Phillip Morris. Having worked so long writing and developing projects for others, it seemed inevitable that they would eventually decide to direct themselves. Which is precisely what they have done with the dark comedy Better Living Through Chemistry.

The film tells the story of small-town pharmacist Doug Varney (Sam Rockwell) who’s conventional and boring life is turned upside down when he meets the alluring Elizabeth Roberts (Olivia Wilde). As the pair begins a drug-fueled affair, Doug undergoes a transformation that may ultimately lead him down the path to a better life.

Posamentier and Moore...

Photo Credit: Bill Gray / Samuel Goldwyn Films

Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell star in the brand new trailer for Better Living Through Chemistry.

A small town pharmacist’s uneventful life is turned inside out when a chance encounter with a lonely trophy wife turns into a walk on the wild side in the murderously funny dark comedy.

Doug Varney (Sam Rockwell) is the model of suburban respectability—until the night he delivers a prescription to the home of Elizabeth Roberts (Olivia Wilde). Gorgeous, seductive and multiply addicted, Elizabeth eagerly introduces Doug to extra-large martinis, uninhibited bedroom behavior and the illicit pleasures of the pharmacopoeia he has access to in his store.

Disregarded for years by everyone from his domineering wife Kara (Michelle Monaghan) and troubled son Ethan (Harrison Holzer), to the goldbricking employees at the drugstore he bought from his insufferable father-in-law (Ken Howard), Doug surprises himself by embarking on...

Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...

Country music stars and fans joined together to urge prayers for Randy Travis on Thursday after he underwent brain surgery following a stroke at a Texas hospital. Travis remained in critical condition Thursday after surgery to relieve pressure on his brain Wednesday night, publicist Kirt Webster said. The 54-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer had been improving while being treated for heart failure caused by a viral infection when he had the stroke. Nancy Jones, the widow of Travis's lifelong hero George Jones, paid a visit to Travis on Thursday. Stars including Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum and Martina McBride and the...

Nashville, Tenn. -- Country music stars and fans joined together to urge prayers for Randy Travis overnight as he recovered from brain surgery following a stroke at a Texas hospital.

Travis remained in critical condition after surgery Wednesday night to relieve pressure on his brain, publicist Kirt Webster said. The 54-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer had been improving while being treated for heart failure caused by a viral infection when he had the stroke.

Steady concern for Travis, a popular and pivotal figure in country music, turned to active support as stars like Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum and Martina McBride and the Grand Ole Opry used Twitter to join Webster's call for prayers. Hundreds of users reached out using the hashtag PrayforRandy.

"We're all pulling for you Randy," Brad Paisley said via Twitter.

The setback occurred hours after doctors said Travis was showing signs of improvement since the start of...

Update: The Associated Press reports that Randy Travis remains in critical condition following surgery. Earlier today, Travis' publicist told Et: "As a complication of his congestive heart failure, Mr. Randy Travis has suffered a stroke and is currently undergoing surgery to relieve pressure on his brain."

The doctors treating critically ill Randy Travis spoke out for the first time Wednesday about the country star's condition and revealed that he was in congestive heart failure due to a viral respiratory illness that put him in the hospital on Sunday.

Travis remains in critical condition in a Dallas, TX hospital. Earlier, Drs. William Gray and Michael Mack of the Baylor Health Care System released a video, saying, "[Travis'] condition has stabilized and he has shown signs of improvement" while being treated for viral cardiomyopathy.

A statement released Tuesday by the singer's publicity company also revealed that Travis had undergone placement of an Impella peripheral left ventricular assist device to help...

Randy Travis has encountered another setback. The 54-year-old country singer suffered a stroke, a complication of his congestive heart failure, and needed surgery Wednesday to relieve pressure on his brain, according to his publicist. "He is in critical condition," the rep said. "We will have updates as they become available. His family and friends here with him at the hospital request your prayers and support." Dr. William Gray, director of cardiovascular services at Baylor Medical Center at McKinney, Texas, where Travis was admitted Sunday night, said in a statement released earlier today that the artist had been "in excellent health" before he developed a viral...

Good news, country fans. Randy Travis appears to be on the rebound—though he's not out of the woods yet. In a video released by the country star's publicist and posted online by his Texas hospital, his heart doctors announced that Travis is slowly on the mend after being admitted to the emergency room of Baylor Medical Center at McKinney in critical condition on Sunday. Dr. William Gray, director of cardiovascular services at the hospital, which lies just north of Dallas, confirmed in his statement what his rep previously revealed—that the 54-year-old crooner had been diagnosed with a viral cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens the heart muscle and could be fatal if left...

Nashville, Tenn. — Country music star Randy Travis is showing signs of improvement but remains in critical condition with congestive heart failure because of a viral illness, doctors said Wednesday.

Drs. William Gray and Michael Mack of the Baylor Health Care System described Travis' condition and hospitalization in a video statement.

"His condition has stabilized, and he has shown signs of improvement," Mack said in the video. "On behalf of his Mr. Travis' family, friends and associates, we would like to express our extreme gratitude for the overwhelming affection and support that Mr. Travis has received."

The 54-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer was in good health until three weeks before he was hospitalized, when he contracted a viral upper respiratory infection, Gray said.

The viral illness led to a weakened heart muscle that eventually worsened into heart failure.

Travis was admitted to Baylor Medical Center McKinney near his home in Tioga...

While Randy Travis remains hospitalized in critical condition with congestive heart failure, the country singer is showing signs of improvement, his doctors said Wednesday. In a joint video statement, doctors William Gray and Michael Mack of the Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System provided an update on Travis, with Mack saying his "condition has stabilized and he has shown signs of improvement." The 54-year-old Travis was admitted to a Texas hospital on Sunday for congestive heart failure and viral cardiomyopathy -- a condition caused by an infection in the heart. Photos: Stars Behaving Badly: The Best Mugshots of 2013 (So

read more...

Heart patient Randy Travis is on the mend. "His condition has stabilized and he has shown signs of improvement," Dr. Michael Mack, one of the singer's physicians, said in a videotaped statement released Wednesday. The country singer, 53, has been hospitalized since Sunday, having been admitted to the Baylor Medical Center in McKinney, Tex., with "presumptive cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure," according to his other physician, Dr. William Gray. Travis had been in "excellent health" until three weeks ago when he developed a viral respiratory illness, said Gray. On Tuesday, Travis continued to be in critical condition following a heart procedure.

Today, video was released from Randy Travis' physicians. http://media.baylorhealth.com/ Transcript: ((Dr. William Gray)) I.m Dr. William Gray, the Director of cardiovascular services at Baylor Medical Center at McKinney, Texas. Mr. Randy Travis was admitted through an emergency department to Baylor Medical Center at McKinney on Sunday, July 7. He had been in previously excellent health until three weeks prior when he developed a viral upper respiratory illness. He was admitted at Baylor McKinney with a presumptive cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. At McKinney, he was stabilized and subsequently sent to The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano for a higher level of specialized care in the care of Dr. Michael Mack. ((Dr. Michael Mack)) My name is Michael Mack, the director of...

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Written by Edmund H. North

Directed by Robert Wise

U.S.A., 1951

Whether rightly or wrongly, Man has been declared as the superior being on planet Earth. The scope of their cognitive skills, their ability to emote in countless ways, the complexity of their intellect, such factors have led humans to dominate, so to speak, other forms of life as well as organize itself in vast, regimented societies with hundreds of customs and rules. For all its demonstrations of intelligence and capacity for reason and love, Man has also proven time and time again to be an inherently violent and infuriatingly stubborn creature, incapable of finding common ground with neighbors and therefore resorting to battle and, sadly, killing in order to resolve differences. This fatal flaw in mankind’s psyche is the thrusting force that brings a potentially benevolent or deadly alien visitor to Earth in the 1951 science-fiction classic,...

There will be a number of stars from popular retro TV series attending the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia convention in Maryland on September 22-24. Among those appearing: Davy Jones of The Monkees, Patty Duke, Karen Valentine, Billy Gray, Lauren Chapin and Tony Dow. There will also be screenings of classic and cult movies, memorabilia on sale and panel discussions. For more click here...

This is the last of my lists of the best films of 2010, and the hardest to name. Call it the Best Art Films. I can't precisely define an Art Film, but I knew I was seeing one when I saw these. I could also call them Adult Films, if that term hadn't been devalued by the porn industry. These are films based on the close observation of behavior. They are not mechanical constructions of infinitesimal thrills. They depend on intelligence and empathy to be appreciated.

They also require acting of a precision not necessary in many mass entertainments. They require directors with a clear idea of complex purposes. They require subtleties of lighting and sound that create a self-contained world. Most of all, they require sympathy. The directors care for their characters, and ask us to see them as individuals, not genre emblems. That requires us to see ourselves as individual viewers,...

The family sitcom, Father Knows Best, ran for six seasons and 203 episodes, from 1954 until 1960.

The show is one of the few to have successfully switched networks, moving from CBS to NBC and then back to CBS. In its last season on NBC, it was tied for 23rd place on the list of top-rated shows. After the move back to CBS, it tied for 13th for the 1958-59 season and then, in its final season, became even more popular and tied for sixth. That would be like ending The Mentalist today.

In 1977, Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, and Lauren Chapin reunited for two CBS TV movies, The Father Knows Best Reunion and Father Knows Best: Home For Christmas. If the movies had performed better, it's believed that a new series would have followed. For whatever reason, it...

Developer: Airtight Games Publisher: Capcom Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Capcom’s sci-fi take on The Rocketeer loses altitude fast Dark Void has all the trappings of an absolute mega-blockbuster title. The game’s storyline piles on intrigue, following cargo pilot William Gray, whose plane crashes in the Bermuda Triangle. From there he crosses into a parallel universe called the Void, which you’d swear was the mystical Paradise Falls from Pixar’s Up, save for the malevolent robotic cult stirring up mischief. Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary wrote the game’s phenomenal score, and one of the videogame industry’s most talented voiceover actors, Nolan...

The family sitcom has been a staple of our television viewing habits for the past fifty years, with beloved shows like Leave It To Beaver, The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show, and Full House. Yet this genre might not have existed without the granddaddy of them all, Father Knows Best. After a few other unsuccessful tries, Fox is now set to bring the Anderson family back, this time on the big screen.

Father Knows Best first debuted on NBC Radio in 1949. Robert Young stars as a conservative Midwestern father, Jim Anderson, who gently but firmly rules the roost in a much simpler time. After five successful years on the radio, the show moved to television on CBS in October 1954. Robert Young stayed on, and was joined by Jane Wyatt as wife and mother Margaret, with Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, and Lauren Chapin as Betty ("Princess"), James Jr. ("Bud"), and Kathy ("Kitten") respectively.

New Regency and 20th Century Fox will turn the classic TV series "Father Knows Best" into a big screen film. Chad and Dara Creasey will be writing the script and Gary Foster will produce. The film would tell of a father with modern-day parenting methods that displease his traditional father, who comes to shack up with the family, causing clashes over who knows best. "Father Knows Best" started on NBC radio way back in 1949 and later moved to TV in 1954 where it ran until 1960. The series won six Primetime Emmy Awards and starred Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Billy Gray, Elinor Donahue and Lauren Chapin.    ...

With the abysmal remake just hitting theaters, it only seems obvious 20th Century Fox has dipped into their vaults to release on Blu-ray the 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thankfully, even though it's almost without question the studio's motives were more profit-driven than they were anything else, that does not make this Blu-ray any less stunning. Hands down, this might just be one of the very best Blu-ray releases I've had the pleasure to watch this year. The science fiction epic, directed by Robert Wise (whose eclectic career includes classics like The Sand Pebbles, The Haunting, Somebody Up There Likes Me and West Side Story), with a screenplay by Edmund H. North (In a Lonely Place) and based upon a short story by author Harry Bates, is easily one of the all-time greats. It's story of an alien being, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), coming to warn the human...

Chicago – Fifty-seven years after the original cautionary tale became a sci-fi classic, director Scott Derrickson and stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly are returning to the big screen with a remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.

Never a studio to let a cross-marketing possibility pass it by, Fox has released the original classic on Blu-Ray in a special edition packed with informative and interesting special features. The jury may still be out on the critical and commercial success of the remake, but this special edition proves that the original still has dramatic power and an important place in film history.

To fully appreciate the significance of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, one must place it in the context of when it was released. The tension of the nuclear world of the late ’40s and early ’50s led to a society of fear and paranoia. As made clear in the excellent special feature,...

The very best science fiction comments on today’s problems wrapped around a provocative story involving characters and situations that people can relate to. They are also snapshots of moments in time and The Day the Earth Stood Still is a wonderful look at America between the end of World War II and the Cold War that gripped the world for decades.

There are few genre films of this era that hold up today and if you have never seen it, this two-disc commemorative set, on sale today, is well worth your attention.

The film is loosely based on a Harry Bates short story but thoroughly rewritten by Edward North and directed with a documentary and film noir feel by Robert Wise. The tale of first contact is nothing new, but it’s all in the telling. In this case, the film and its characters take matters very seriously. Wise...