Monday, October 31, 2005

Dead or Alive?




They're still alive!!!!

Here are some picture of those who turn 85 or more this year . Among them there' re



Oscar winner Luise Rainer (95), ) Karl Malden (93), Jane Wyman (91), Olivia De’havilland (89), Joan Fontaine(88),Red Buttons (88), Jack Palance(88),Jennifer Jones(86),Celeste Holm (86) Mickey Rooney(85)

Oscar Nominees: Gloria Stuart (95), Kirk Dauglas (88)


Also there’s oscar winer’s husband Carlo Ponti (92, AKA Mr. Sopia Lauren) Oscar Nominee ‘s husband, Fasion designer Oleg Cassini (92 AKA.Mr. Gene Tierney) Mel Ferrer (88 AKA Mr. Audrey Hepburn) and some who never nominate like Director Vincent Sherman (99), Huge star of silent films Anita Page (95), Singer Frankie Lane (92), Tony Martin (92), Wine Maker Robert Mondavi (92), Fitness Guru Jack Lalanne, Mr.President Gerald Ford (92), and his wife Betty (88) Glen Ford (89) Van Johnson (89), Zsa Zsa Gabor, June Allyson (88), Maurleen O’ hara(86)
See the complete list at "Dead or Alive? - People Alive Over 85"

Saturday, October 29, 2005

More More Moorehead


October almost over and I only review one movie from our star of the month . Here 's some more movie I really like that feature our star of the month Ms. Agnes Moorehead

Agnes Moorehead came to Hollywood from New York with Orson Welles to appear as Charles Foster Kane's mother in CITIZEN KANE (1941), her first of 60+ film roles.The film was nominated for nine Oscars in 1941 including Best Picture. Although it never won but it 'd said to be the best american movie ever made (AFI 100 best movie of all time No.1)

The film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel, JANE EYRE (1944) which starred Joan Fontaine as the title character and Welles as Rochester. Moorehead played young Jane's guardian Mrs. Reed, and the film also featured several of the 1940's rising child stars including Peggy Ann Garner, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien.

DARK PASSAGE (1947) which also featured Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Moorehead played villainess Madge Rapf in this film-noir thriller, and had a famous exit through a plate glass window.

Moorehead played Aggie McDonald, aunt of Jane Wyman's Belinda in Warner Bros.' drama about a deaf-dumb girl who shoots her rapist and goes on trial for murder in JOHNNY BELINDA (1948). Moorehead's performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination, one of twelve nominations the film received. Incidentally, this was the first of five films on which Moorehead and Wyman collaborated.


ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is a classic Douglas Sirk melodrama with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, that was the inspiration for Todd Haynes's FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002).

Note from Jay : When it was released, All That Heaven Allows was not well received by most critics, who saw only a romantic melodrama in it. Unfortunadely, some depreciate the film even today, because it is melodramatic, "soap opera like", they say. I was stunned by the beautiful restoration of the film. It's a virtual feast for the eyes with that glorious Technicolor

From Robert Aldrich's murder-thriller, HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964) in which Moorehead earned her fourth and final Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Velma, suspected murderess Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis)'s faithful servant. Also featuring Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten, this movie received seven Oscar nominations in 1964, but did not take any statuettes home.

Friday, October 28, 2005

three faces of Dutch

Hitchcock go Queer tonight at TCM


'Strangers On a Train' is the one great Hitchcock movie that seems to get lost among the others of his filmmaking career. Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, (The Talented Mr. Ripley). Highsmith apparently invented the genre of the serial killer homosexual, with Bruno's fascination for Guy seemingly not limited to conscripting him to murder his father The homoerotic character, not only explicit in Walker's Bruno, but also throughout the action as a strong concurrent subtext.... Oh sure, it's no more than subtext (it's 1951 after all) but the psychosis of the queer character moves fluidly between the surface action and the implication of his relationship with Haines.

Along with Rebecca, Strangers on a Train is perhaps my favorite film of director Alfred Hitchcock. An extraordinarily tense film, twisted and delightfully playful in its delivery, you forget yourself for the entire running time.The film moves fast and the climax aboard a runaway merry go round provides the perfect ending to one great film.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

AFI's 100 YEARS OF FILM SCORES

American Film Institute (AFI) revealed the top 25 film scores of all time in The Big Picture--AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, A jury of over 500 film artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians selected John Williams' iconic score from the classic film STAR WARS as the most memorable film score of all time. John Williams is additionally noteworthy as the most represented composer on the list with three scores making the top 25.

Spanning a century of film music and counting down from 25 to number one throughout the evening, Principal Conductor John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed excerpts from each of the winning scores, many of them accompanied by favorite movie scenes shown on the Bowl's big video screens. While television broadcasts have announced the previous eight installments of AFI's 100 Years... series,









Rounding off the top 10 were film scores ranging in theme from sweeping epics to westerns, including: GONE WITH THE WIND (#2), composer Max Steiner; LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (#3), composer Maurice Jarre; PSYCHO (#4), composer Bernard Herrmann; THE GODFATHER (#5), composer Nino Rota; JAWS (#6), composer John Williams; LAURA (#7), composer David Raksin; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (#8), composer Elmer Bernstein; CHINATOWN (#9) composer Jerry Goldsmith; and HIGH NOON (#10), composer Dimitri Tiomkin. (Jay's Pick ; GWTW,Laura, M7)

Hung Up Bow at No.20

According to Billboard
"The Hot 100's top debut is a big one for Madonna, as "Hung Up" bows at No. 20. It's her 51st chart entry and the sixth Madonna song to debut in the top 20."Congratulation !!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

leave her to next month


I watch" leave her to heaven" second time tonight with audio comentary. I decide to have Gene Tierney as a star of the month next month. With a review of “razor edge” and of course “ laura”

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again


In fact last night I saw Rebecca again for the 4th times. I always feel that Rebecca has something different than other Hitch film. Even director once said “ Rebecca is not really a Hitchcock film." Indeed, the a theory really goes to pieces with regard to any film where David O. Selznick was the producer, as the case with this picture. While there is some of the trademark Hitchcock suspense, the film owes much more to producer Selznick than to its director. In the end, it's probably just as well that Selznick had control of the film; it becomes clear that, while not really a Hitchcock picture,Yet his artistry still manages to come through (the cinematography, especially at Manderley, is full of shadows). The end result is certainly superior to what the director had wanted. Afine and chilling romance with a twisted of suspense that holds up nicely. Great performance by Joan Fontaine . Olivier was also good . (and very cute.. very gay)

Monday, October 24, 2005

Hithcockweek start today



TCM tribute 39 films of the great Alfred Hitchcock start from today 5.00 pm with 1974 documentary simply call "Hitchcock"
Too bad they missing one of my favorite "Dial 'M' for Murder" but here is my top five list.

5 .Rear Window (1954)
A photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apartment building. James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr.


4. Rope! (1948)
Two wealthy young men try to commit the perfect crime by murdering a friend. James Stewart, Farley Granger, John Dall.(Friday 10/28/2005 12:30 AM)



3. Vertigo (1958) A detective falls for the mysterious woman he's been hired to tail. James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes (Monday 10/24/2005 09:00 PM)



2. Rebecca (1940)
A young bride is terrorized by the memories of her husband's glamorous first wife. Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson. (Tuesday 10/25/2005 12:00 AM)


1. Strangers On A Train (1951)
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly. Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman. (Friday 10/28/2005 10:30 PM)


(All time is ET)

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Should we dress up this year??


May be you guys can help

Free Vote Caster from Bravenet.com





Tab Hunter in Gay.com !!!



Not in a chat room . An exclusive interview, gay movie star Tab Hunter talks about his relationships with Anthony Perkins and Rudolf Nureyev, among others. I've just finished about 75 % of his memoir, "Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star," I 'll let you guys know how it's like ...

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Guilty Pleasure



Well I’m not talking about Barbra Streisand new cd. I’m actually talking about one of the worst film I ever seen from one of the great female personality of all time. Miss Joan Crawford.

Straitjacket is a non-stop thrill ride of unintentional hilarity, cheap effects, and a conclusion so ridiculous that it’s impossible to call a movie. Crawford, at the time of filming a was 60 years of age, asks us to believe that she’s 29, that is before she takes an axe to her cheating husband and his cheap lover. She then returns to the fold after two decades in a mental hospital, and then asks us to believe that she’s still only 49.

In a movie full of great moments, such as Granny Crawford shamelessly flirting with her daughter boyfriend--a young man at least 35 years her junior (oops!!) or when she comes clean about her past to the bitchy mother of her daughter’s boyfriend: “It was an asylum! And it was twenty years of hell! It was HELL!”

But the best part is when I learn that the role of Joan’s doctor was played by the then V.P. of Pepsi Cola, who was cast because Ms. Joan ruled the set with an iron fist (and wanted publicity for her late husband's company). As a result he gave the most memorable, wooden performance. (I guess it should call Raspberry worthy performance)

A whole movie is really fucked up. My sister keeps complaining every 35 second but we end up had a great time. I keep talk about this movie all day. Two Thumps up

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Tab Hunter Confidential


“ What you saw is what you got and what you didn't see was none of your business” Tab Hunter

How delightfully that 1950s beefcake Tab Hunter calls his new memoir Tab Hunter Confidential , after the tabloid that pretty much took down his career by printing stories on his homosexuality (true) and his dog beating (false).

...As Hunter, now 74, describes his life in Hollywood during the mid-20th century, he has a lot in common with his tabloid progeny: from the manufactured image (he grew up with the decidedly less sexy moniker Arthur Gelien) to the manufactured dates (Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood are fine companions — for heterosexuals) to the manufactured articles designed by publicists and studios to keep their clients in the limelight.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Planet X: New Member of our Solar System


This artist's concept shows the planet catalogued as 2003UB313 at the lonely outer fringes of our solar system. Our Sun can be seen in the distance. The new planet, which is yet to be formally named, is at least as big as Pluto and about three times farther away from the Sun than Pluto. It is very cold and dark. The planet was discovered by the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, Calif., on Jan. 8, 2005.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Star of the month Movie pick




Magnificient Ambersons, The (1942)

Much controversy surrounds this film and the creative control fights between director Orson Welles and the studio. The last time I saw this on TCM, it looks like the studio succeeded in making it less than Mr. Welles had intended. Still worth watching though. Four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and for Agnes Moorehead (Supporting Actress). Added to the National Film Registry in 1991. It's the story of the titled 'rich' family, through the years of rise and fall at the end of the 19th century, based on Booth Tarkington's novel. In addition to Moorehead, the cast includes Joseph Cotten (of course), Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, and Ray Collins among others.

courtesy @ www.reelclassic.com