Howard Keel Centennial: "Day of the Triffids"

We conclude (probably) our Howard Keel Centennial celebration with one of the actors last pictures before retirement (though he returned in the 1980s via "Dallas" stardom). Here's Deborah Lipp...

When Nathaniel announced a celebration of Howard Keel’s centennial, I had my pick of Keel movies. Perhaps counter-intuitively, I lept at the chance to write about my beloved The Day of the Triffids (1963). Once committed, I had a moment of fear. Here is a movie I have loved almost my entire life; a movie played over and over on local television in the pre-cable days of my youth. I have probably not seen Triffids since graduating from high school—what if it doesn’t hold up?

I need not have worried but if you want to argue that Triffids is a terrible movie, there is plenty of evidence...

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Posterized: Regina Hall, finally a star

by Nathaniel R

With the new comedy Little opening today in theaters and last year's beloved indie Support the Girls still fresh in the memory, let's talk Regina Hall.

The talented 48 year-old actress has been kicking around in the movies and (occasionally) on television for 20 years now, but it's only very recently that she's come into full stardom. Or, to put it another way, it's only very recently that Hollywood has realized that she's a star. Usually with slow-burn stardom, the charisma and talent were there all along but it takes a big hit movie, or a breakthrough signature part, or the cumulation of multiple moderate hits for that too happen. 

It's a little of all of those with Regina Hall who spent the first decade of her career mostly well-down the hiearchical cast lists of ensemble comedies and then finally began to crack leading roles. 

How many of her films have you seen? (I've included her two biggest television roles as well). Let's look at all the posters after the jump...

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Stage Door: Hillary and Clinton

We're seeing a lot of theater in the run up to the Tonys. Here's new contributor J.B.

For the last twenty years or so, and probably longer, well-crafted stories about women in politics told on stage or screen have frequently been described with words like “timely” or “vital.”  These stories, in many cases, are ones we haven’t heard before, and to the extent we as a society want our art to imitate life (and indeed, vice versa), they are, now more than ever, ones we need to hear.

It is for this reason that Hillary and Clinton, a well-crafted story about the quintessential woman in American politics now playing at the John Golden Theater in New York, feels like such an anomaly. The play, written by Lucas Hnath and directed by Joe Mantello (his SEVENTH production on Broadway in just the last three years), takes place in a hotel room during the thick of the 2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary and offers an imagined glimpse into what exactly the titular characters (played by Tony-winners Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow, respectively) may have been thinking, feeling, and communicating to each other at that precise place and time in history...

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"The Rise of Skywalker" Teases

The first teaser for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is upon us. Though it promises the "end" of a saga, we already know that the Star Wars universe is ever-expanding with prequel and sidebar movies, and soon streaming scripted series. Nevertheless JJ Abrams second Star Wars film (after The Force Awakens) does intend to be, at least for now, the conclusion of the main Star Wars storyline, the one involving clone wars, Jedi massacres, various Skywalkers and Solos, the Rebel Alliance and Death Stars, the threats of Darths (multiple) and the evil genius of Emperor Palpatine (UH-OH but he died in Return of the Jedi... Why is Ian McDiarmid doing that unforgettable cackling of his at the end of this teaser?!?)

We'll save a proper Yes No Maybe So for a full trailer but does this teaser whet your appetite for more or are you all franchised out and feeling nothing anymore?

Howard Keel Centennial: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

We're celebrating music man Howard Keel's centennial this week. Here's Lynn Lee...

In many ways, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) marked the peak of Keel’s MGM career, coming after his breakout role in Annie, Get Your Gun and his star turns in Showboat and the less-successful but still-classic Kiss Me, Kate!  Keel’s film career would fade in the years that followed, although he continued to enjoy success on the stage and in later life would find TV fame with his role on “Dallas.”  It was Seven Brides, though, that captured Keel in his screen prime as an appealing and charismatic musical actor who managed to make a problematic character (to say the least) surprisingly compelling.

Full disclosure: Seven Brides was one of my favorite movies growing up, and remains one of my all-time favorite musicals.  As a young child I loved it even more than West Side Story and The Sound of Music because it felt like a happier movie than the other two...

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