Stars: Anna Neagle, Trevor Howard, Marius Goring, Peter Ustinov, Bernard Lee, Alfred Schieske, Gilles Quéant, Marianne Walla, Fritz Wendhausen | Written by Warren Chetham Strode | Directed by Herbert Wilcox
World Wars are won on many fronts, and not only the ones that include battle. The war that was raged by the intelligence agencies is one that was secret during the war, but after we got to see the bravery normal people put to push the allied forces to success. This included women who worked in enemy territory as spies. One of the famous ones was the story of Odette.
When the call is made for holiday photographs from France to be sent to the intelligence agencies, Odette (Anna Neagle), a French woman living in France provides some. When the Special Operations Executive contact her, she decides to help them by being flown into Occupied France where she fought for the French resistance.
World Wars are won on many fronts, and not only the ones that include battle. The war that was raged by the intelligence agencies is one that was secret during the war, but after we got to see the bravery normal people put to push the allied forces to success. This included women who worked in enemy territory as spies. One of the famous ones was the story of Odette.
When the call is made for holiday photographs from France to be sent to the intelligence agencies, Odette (Anna Neagle), a French woman living in France provides some. When the Special Operations Executive contact her, she decides to help them by being flown into Occupied France where she fought for the French resistance.
- 7/9/2019
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
The best cinematography of 2018 has come in black and white. It’s come in vibrant color. It’s come as photochemical reaction and as streams of ones and zeroes. It’s crossed genres and approaches, from horror and satire to costume porn and blockbuster action. It’s taken us from the hearth to the moon and into the souls of artists and lovers.
This annual column, a 12th edition, is a personal reflection on the year in single cinematic images. Thematic import, technical prowess and of course good old fashioned subjective affinity figure into determining the list, which would probably change if you asked me tomorrow. But if you’re asking me today, these are the 10 best shots of the year.
Spoiler Warning: It goes without saying that a granular assessment of filmmaking such as this will deal quite liberally in information that might be deemed a spoiler. Some of...
This annual column, a 12th edition, is a personal reflection on the year in single cinematic images. Thematic import, technical prowess and of course good old fashioned subjective affinity figure into determining the list, which would probably change if you asked me tomorrow. But if you’re asking me today, these are the 10 best shots of the year.
Spoiler Warning: It goes without saying that a granular assessment of filmmaking such as this will deal quite liberally in information that might be deemed a spoiler. Some of...
- 12/19/2018
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Variety Film + TV
Among Martin Scorsese’s directing projects-in-progress are a new television show (“The Caesars”), plus films based on an Oklahoma murder mystery (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and the life of the 26th U.S. president (“Teddy”). He will also soon reunite with actors who delivered their most-acclaimed performances opposite his lens: “Casino” veteran Sharon Stone will star in a Scorsese film that’s still under wraps, while Robert De Niro’s ninth collaboration with the director — Netflix’s “The Irishman” — will be the priciest film of Scorsese’s career (reported budget: $140 million).
Still, the Oscar winner (“The Departed”) has set aside spare time for his signature cause: film preservation.
In his hometown next month, MoMA will host the second-half of its exhibition, “Martin Scorsese Presents Republic Rediscovered: New Restorations from Paramount Pictures.” The defunct studio Republic Pictures churned out 3,000 films and series, all of which are now property of Paramount.
Still, the Oscar winner (“The Departed”) has set aside spare time for his signature cause: film preservation.
In his hometown next month, MoMA will host the second-half of its exhibition, “Martin Scorsese Presents Republic Rediscovered: New Restorations from Paramount Pictures.” The defunct studio Republic Pictures churned out 3,000 films and series, all of which are now property of Paramount.
- 7/10/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Part I: The Lawrence Bureau
T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) ranks among the 20th Century’s oddest heroes. This short, smart, and mischievous British soldier helped organize the Arab Revolt against Turkey, a secondary front of the First World War. He became Emir Feisal’s trusted ally, painfully conscious that the Allies wouldn’t honor promises of independence. After the Paris Peace Conference, Lawrence retreated into the Royal Air Force and Tank Corps as a private soldier, T.E. Shaw.
Lawrence lived a curious double life, befriending both private soldiers and notables like Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw. He wrote memoirs and translated Homer while repairing boats and seaplanes. His intellect, warmth, and puckish humor masked internal torment – guilt for failing to secure Arab freedom, regret for two brothers killed in the war, shame over an incident where Turkish soldiers sexually assaulted him.
In his autobiography Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence...
T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) ranks among the 20th Century’s oddest heroes. This short, smart, and mischievous British soldier helped organize the Arab Revolt against Turkey, a secondary front of the First World War. He became Emir Feisal’s trusted ally, painfully conscious that the Allies wouldn’t honor promises of independence. After the Paris Peace Conference, Lawrence retreated into the Royal Air Force and Tank Corps as a private soldier, T.E. Shaw.
Lawrence lived a curious double life, befriending both private soldiers and notables like Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw. He wrote memoirs and translated Homer while repairing boats and seaplanes. His intellect, warmth, and puckish humor masked internal torment – guilt for failing to secure Arab freedom, regret for two brothers killed in the war, shame over an incident where Turkish soldiers sexually assaulted him.
In his autobiography Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence...
- 2/17/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Best British movies of all time? (Image: a young Michael Caine in 'Get Carter') Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster (see photo above), was selected as the United Kingdom's very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges' 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller? What a difference ten years make. On Total Film's 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine's Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be? Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we're talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film's 2004 list was the result of a 25-critic consensus,...
- 10/12/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Oldest person in movies? (Photo: Manoel de Oliveira) Following the recent passing of 1931 Dracula actress Carla Laemmle at age 104, there is one less movie centenarian still around. So, in mid-June 2014, who is the oldest person in movies? Manoel de Oliveira Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira will turn 106 next December 11; he’s surely the oldest person — at least the oldest well-known person — in movies today. De Oliveira’s film credits include the autobiographical docudrama Memories and Confessions / Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (1982), with de Oliveira as himself, and reportedly to be screened publicly only after his death; The Cannibals / Os Canibais (1988); The Convent / O Convento (1995); Porto of My Childhood / Porto da Minha Infância (2001); The Fifth Empire / O Quinto Império - Ontem Como Hoje (2004); and, currently in production, O Velho do Restelo ("The Old Man of Restelo"). Among the international stars who have been directed by de Oliveira are Catherine Deneuve, Pilar López de Ayala,...
- 6/17/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cinematographer on the first Star Wars film who worked with the Boulting Brothers, Hitchcock and Polanski
The British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who has died aged 99, was best known for his camerawork on the first Star Wars movie (1977). Though its special effects and set designs somewhat stole his thunder, it was Taylor who set the visual tone of George Lucas's six-part space opera.
"I wanted to give it a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre," Taylor declared. "I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus … I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean … But George [Lucas] saw it differently … For example, he asked to set up one shot on the robots with a 300mm camera lens and the sand and sky of the Tunisian desert just meshed together. I told him it wouldn't work,...
The British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who has died aged 99, was best known for his camerawork on the first Star Wars movie (1977). Though its special effects and set designs somewhat stole his thunder, it was Taylor who set the visual tone of George Lucas's six-part space opera.
"I wanted to give it a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre," Taylor declared. "I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus … I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean … But George [Lucas] saw it differently … For example, he asked to set up one shot on the robots with a 300mm camera lens and the sand and sky of the Tunisian desert just meshed together. I told him it wouldn't work,...
- 8/25/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Paul Henreid: Actor was ‘dependable’ leading man to Hollywood actresses Paul Henreid, best known as the man who wins Ingrid Bergman’s body but not her heart in Casablanca, is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. TCM will be showing a couple of dozen movies featuring Henreid, who, though never a top star, was a "dependable" — i.e., unexciting but available — leading man to a number of top Hollywood actresses of the ’40s, among them Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland, Eleanor Parker, Joan Bennett, and Katharine Hepburn. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of Paul Henreid movies to be shown on Turner Classic Movies in July consists of Warner Bros. productions that are frequently broadcast all year long, no matter who is TCM’s Star of the Month. Just as unfortunately, TCM will not present any of Henreid’s little-seen supporting performances of the ’30s, e.
- 7/3/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
- 5/27/2012
- Shadowlocked
Orson Welles, Ruth Warrick, Citizen Kane Orson Welles on TCM: The Third Man, The Lady From Shanghai Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Tartars (1961) A barbarian army attacks Viking settlements along the Russian steppes. Dir: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Victor Mature, Orson Welles, Folco Lulli. C-83 mins, Letterbox Format 7:30 Am Tomorrow Is Forever (1946) A scarred veteran presumed dead returns home to find his wife remarried. Dir: Irving Pichel. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent. Bw-104 mins. 9:30 Am Moby Dick (1956) Epic adaptation of Herman Melville's classic about a vengeful sea captain out to catch the whale that maimed him. Dir: John Huston. Cast: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn. C-115 mins, Letterbox Format 11:30 Am The V.I.P.S (1963) Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials. Dir: Anthony Asquith. Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan.
- 8/8/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, The Lady from Shanghai Orson Welles' career as an actor was both fruitful and frustrating. From Citizen Kane (1941) to Someone to Love (1987), Welles appeared — mostly in supporting roles — in about 70 features made in various parts of the world. There was one brilliant performance in one brilliant film, Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, but the rest of what I've seen has been either forgettable or memorable for the wrong reasons. Subtlety is a quality with which Welles the Actor was totally unfamiliar. Whether or not you admire Orson Welles' work in front of the camera, Welles fans are being treated to 13 films featuring Welles as both leading man and supporting player, all day Monday, August 8, on Turner Classic Movies. The only TCM premiere in this "Summer Under the Stars" Orson Welles Day is the 1952 British-made crime drama Trent's Last Case, directed by veteran Herbert Wilcox,...
- 8/8/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Like most British dramas about the monarchy, The King's Speech skates over the less savoury aspects of royal history
The King's Speech is another addition to the royal family's filmography, a vast body of work that has played an underappreciated but insidious role in maintaining support for the monarchy.
The royal family – always the worst judges of their own self-interest – initially discouraged the production of dramatisations of themselves by making their displeasure known to those censors who vigorously policed stage and screen. In 1937 the lord chamberlain even issued a formal ban on the portrayal of sovereigns on the stage until a century after their accession. This was undoubtedly meant to prevent dramatists writing about the recently abdicated Edward VIII. It did, however, mean that depictions of Queen Victoria could be shown on stage for the first time, as she came to the throne in 1837. Prior to that, even harmless dramas...
The King's Speech is another addition to the royal family's filmography, a vast body of work that has played an underappreciated but insidious role in maintaining support for the monarchy.
The royal family – always the worst judges of their own self-interest – initially discouraged the production of dramatisations of themselves by making their displeasure known to those censors who vigorously policed stage and screen. In 1937 the lord chamberlain even issued a formal ban on the portrayal of sovereigns on the stage until a century after their accession. This was undoubtedly meant to prevent dramatists writing about the recently abdicated Edward VIII. It did, however, mean that depictions of Queen Victoria could be shown on stage for the first time, as she came to the throne in 1837. Prior to that, even harmless dramas...
- 1/11/2011
- by Steven Fielding
- The Guardian - Film News
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