Showbiz History: DGA's prophecies, In Old Chicago's run, and Beckinsale's franchise
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 at 10:00AM 9 random things that happened on this day, January 6th, in showbiz history
1938 In Old Chicago released in movie theaters. The 20th Century Fox Tyrone Power and Alice Faye drama was big at the box office and at the Oscars... its relevant at the moment because it competed for the 1937 Oscars even though it was released in January of 1938 (with no qualifying run in '37). Why? Well, that year had a longer than the calendar year eligibility period which is what we're going through right now again. Films released through February 2021 will be eligible for the Oscars honoring the films of 2020 this time around. We prefer the clean lines of the calendar year but you can't always (or even often) get what you want.
1943 Hitler's Children, an American propaganda film is released, depicting the brutalities of the Hitler Youth. Bonita Granville co-starred...
1961 The Marriage Go-Round starring Susan Hayward, James Mason, and Julie Newmar hits movie theaters.
1974 the John Wayne neo-noir McQ opens in Seattle (where it takes place) before its limited release in other markets in February. Similarities to Dirty Harry, a role that Wayne had turned down, were noticed.
1975 the longest running syndicated game show Wheel of Fortune premieres
1993 Nancy Kerrigan is attacked outside a Detroit ice rank. I Tonya recently revisited this scandal that took up enormous amounts of media and Olympic coverage time in 1993.
2005 The DGA nominates Scorsese (The Aviator), Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Payne (Sideways), Hackford (Ray), and Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) for Best Director. Oscar later doesn't totally agree -- replacing Forster with Mike Leigh (Vera Drake) BUT this year is a perfect example of the once-commonly-discussed-but-soon-to-be-forgotten-stat (especially given all the rule changes and the expanded lineup) that the DGA choices each year were the best predictor, not for the parallel Best Director Oscar list, but for the five-wide Best Picture list. Directors that did strong work that year that awards bodies were a bit too dense or stuffy to notice? (sigh) Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine), Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill Vol 2), Richard Linklater (Before Sunset), Zhang Yimou (Hero and House of Flying Daggers both released in the US in 2004), and Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 2) among them.
2017 Underworld: Blood Wars opens, the last in the vampire vs werewolves franchise. They've threatened to continue it but the long-time headliner Kate Beckinsale has stated that they'll have to do it without her.
2019 The 76th Golden Globe Awards are held with Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody emerging as the film winners and The Americans and The Kominksy Method winning for television. The Oscars co-sign both movie enthusiasms (with 7 Oscar wins between them 🤮 ) but the Emmys don't agree with either tv champ.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 40th to the reliably watchable and underrated Belgian star Jérémie Renier, pictured here (twice over) in the very raunchy François Ozon thriller Double Lover
Other celebrities with birthdays today: The always wonderful Cara Seymour (who so kindly guest starred here at TFE some years back), Oscar winner Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter), Oscar winning composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), Tom Mix (Destry Rides Again), Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters), Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth, Little Women), Norman Reedus (Mimic, The Walking Dead), Courtney Eaton (Mad Max Fury Road), Genevieve O'Reilly (Rogue One), Sylvia Sims (The Queen), Frankie Sivero (Goodfellas, The Godfather Part II), Director Edoardo Ponti (son of Sophia Loren), the late director John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood), TV star Nigella Lawson, the late director Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr Ripley), and Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean)
Reader Comments (9)
Jérémie Renier is Belgian, not French ;-)
I liked In Old Chicago well enough but never thought it was so sensational that it deserved all the award love it received. Alice Brady's Oscar was definitely a mea culpa for her loss for her much more interesting work in the previous year's My Man Godfrey. The plan had been for Jean Harlow to be lent to 20th from MGM for the picture but her sudden death led to Alice Faye being cast and though she had been a popular before the film's success made her the queen of the lot.
I recently saw Hitler's Children for the first time and while it is obviously designed as propaganda it is effective and disturbing.
Susan Hayward and James Mason are huge favorites of mine and I love Julie Newmar but The Marriage-Go-Round is only a middling comedy. It's not bad but the pacing is off, more a fault of the direction than the players.
McQ is a decent action flick though there are heavy echoes of Dirty Harry. The Duke's other police flick Brannigan was a better fit for him and benefited from location shooting in London as well as Richard Attenborough and Judy Geeson backing him up.
Sylvia Syms isn't really well-known in the States but she has an impressively long (65 years) career in England and is still going.
I swear that the first time I watch the gif of Jérémie Renier I saw the hand of the dressed one slizing over the shoulder of the shirtless one but the left hand simply disapear in an apparently mistake of the digital effect.
"Double Lover" is so good and has one very surprising sex scene
Vera Drake should have been up for Best Picture also and Imelda should have won Best Actress.
@markgordonuk, I can't agree more with you. The cinematography by Dick Pope also was deserving of a nomination.
Correction... it was 1994, not 1993.
Rinko Kikuchi for the the win in Babel (although Adriana Barraza is also excellent).
I will check out the British Sylvia Syms' films. I had her confused with the American saloon singer Sylvia Syms who also acted occasionally.
Before Anthony Minghella became a household name by having directed The English Patient, he did two wonderful chamber film pieces that I like very much: Truly, Madly, Deeply (w/ Alan Rickman & Juliet Stevenson) and Mr Wonderful (w/ Annabella Sciorra & Matt Dillon).
Sylvia Syms was the bomb in Victim yo. Have we discussed that film here yet?