75th Anniversary: The 1945 Oscars Revisited

by Baby Clyde

Bob Hope and the 1945 winners

The war was over and finally Hollywood could get around to more important matters like giving Joan Crawford an Oscar.

It had been a pared down ceremony for the preceding few years with tuxes and ballgowns discouraged. Even the statuette itself had been made from plaster rather than gold plated bronze but at the 18th Academy Awards, which took place at Graumann’s Chinese Theatre 75 years ago today, the glamour was back and there was no one more glamorous in town than 20 year veteran Joan. She skipped the ceremony...

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Today in Oscar History: Mrs Miniver, Shape of Water, John Garfield

On this day, March 4th, in Oscar history only...

1937 The 9th Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1936. Historical epic Anthony Adverse wins the most Oscars (4) but showbiz biopic The Great Ziegfeld takes Best Picture. Some interesting things about this Oscar year: This was the first ceremony with the Supporting acting categories; My Man Godfrey became the first film nominated in all four acting categories and it remains the only film to achieve that without a parallel Best Picture nomination; The Story of Louis Pasteur earned the very weird now impossible distinction of being named both "Best Original Story" AND "Best Adaptation"... the "Best Original Screenplay" category was not yet invented and it did not technically replace "Best Story" as they ran parallel for the first 16 years of Best Original Screenplay...

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Spellbound @ 75 and the cinema of Salvador Dalí

by Cláudio Alves

Alfred Hitchcock's third and final film for producer David O. Selznick was released 75 years ago. During a time when psychoanalysis was gaining popularity and notoriety, Hollywood was quick to cash in on the phenomenon. They created psychobabble Pablum like Spellbound and its view on dreams are both too literal and ephemeral. It's a message picture in the costume of a radical polemic, devoid of authentic psychic unrest even though Selznick brought his own therapist to act as an advisor. All in all, it's rather mediocre with some blindingly bright highlights... 

For starters, this was Hitch's first collaboration with Ingrid Bergman, a partnership that would bear majestic fruit one year later with Notorious. She's not nearly as good in Spellbound, but there's an interesting tension between her and a profoundly miscast Gregory Peck. The two even had an affair on the set of the movie. Then, we have the score by Miklós Rózsa, an experiment in the use of Theremin for soundtracks that proved influential on the development of horror movie sonority. Finally, one can't talk about Spellbound without mentioning the surrealist sequence in the middle of its runtime. It was devised by none other than Salvador Dalí…

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Showbiz History: Bob Hope, Ava Gardner, and Herbie the Love Bug

7 random things that happened on this day, December 24th, in showbiz history

1936 The Jungle Princess starring Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland opens in movie theaters. How about that tagline?

"You savage, untamed she-devil -- I adore you!"

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The Furniture: Ellen Revolts Against the Upholstery in Leave Her to Heaven

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on the images for magnified detail)

This week marks the 75th anniversary of Leave Her to Heaven, a technicolor noir blockbuster with set decoration so opulent, you will find yourself shouting at the upholstery.

It has other virtues, of course: Gene Tierney’s wickedly genre-shifting performance, Leon Shamroy’s shadow-wielding cinematography, Vincent Price’s height, etc. But the last time I watched it, I couldn’t take my eyes off the sets. The film takes place in a fever-dream of post-war prosperity before the fact, an endless parade of over-decorated vacation homes.

Frankly, it should have won the Oscar for Best Art Direction - Interior Decoration, Color...

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