Emmy Category Review: Guest Actor in a Comedy

By Juan Carlos Ojano

Three men from Saturday Night Live, a “regular” guest actor in a Comedy Series frontrunner, a lead in an anthology series episode, and a comedy veteran receiving a posthumous nomination. These are the men nominated in this category. SNL has had at least two nominees in this category since 2013, peaking last year with four of the seven slots. Their last winner was in 2017. Meanwhile, performances from Comedy Series have bagged the last two wins. 

Let’s consider each nominee...

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Shelley Winters @ 100: Bloody Mama (1970)

We're celebrating the centennial of Shelley Winters. Here's Cláudio Alves…

In October 1966, less than six months after her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar win, Shelley Winters appeared in two episodes of the Batman TV show. Winters once again played a villainous mother. Unlike most Batman villains though, Winters' Ma Parker wasn't based on a comic book character but a historical figure. Kate Barker, commonly known as Ma Barker, was the matriarch of a criminal family who terrorized Arizona during the first decades of the 20th century. Boisterous, vicious, merciless, and bad to the bone, this monster mother was, in many ways, a perfect role for Shelley Winters in this period of her career.

It's no wonder then, that four years after the Batman episodes had aired, Winters returned to the iconic part. This time, however, there were no euphemisms or layers of superhero camp between the actress and the character. Roger Corman's Bloody Mama is a biopic of Ma Barker that, more or less, follows the historical narrative. That being said, if you think this is any sort of stuffy Oscar baity prestige picture, you are terribly mistaken...

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Showbiz History: Maureen O'Hara, Bruce Lee, The Wizard of Oz...

7 things that happened today in showbiz history...

1920 CENTENNIAL Maureen O'Hara, inarguably Ireland's biggest 20th century female movie star, was born in Dublin. She went on to a career filled with numerous classics -- many of which we've written about here at TFE. We *finally* have another Irish female star of her magnitude (probably) in Saoirse Ronan provided she doesn't burn out early (which we don't think she will)...

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The beauty of Robert Elswit's cinema

by Cláudio Alves

Our odyssey through the 2005 Best Cinematography Oscar nominees is reaching its end. After Dion Beebe, Rodrigo Prieto, and Wally Pfister, we've arrived at the filmography of Robert Elswit.

Mostly known for his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Elswit is a master craftsman whose control of the camera is virtually unparalleled. Whether in choreographed motion or stately stillness, his images sing with meaning and ravishing beauty. More specifically, he's got a penchant for expressive dolly shots, wide-angle lenses, and shoots sunlight in ways that make it bleed white while his shadows, especially at night, glow in hues of blue and even purple. Usually, when you see Elswits name on the credits, you can expect a handsome movie regardless of the rest of the project's quality.

Here are 10 highlights from Robert Elswit's filmography…

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Shelley Winters @ 100: A Patch of Blue (1965)

We're celebrating the centennial of Shelley Winters. Here's Nathaniel...

Int. Nathaniel's apartment. Two best friends are bored, realizing it's another "exciting" COVID summer night of what will we eat for dinner / watch on TV?. Nathaniel presents a few movie options (inevitably related to whatever TFE projects are in development). His friend's choice surprises him, "I think I'm really in a Shelley Winters mood." Nathaniel wonders for a split-second what a 'Winters mood' is before realizing he already knows... and approves! Up goes the movie and within seconds they glance at each other. "Shelley is going hard!" Nathaniel proclaims, half-stunned. He really shouldn't be. Going hard is, after all, a Winters mood and specialty.

Still and all, performances that begin at the pitch the Oscar winner risks for her introductory scene in A Patch of Blue rarely have anywhere go to thereafter...

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