A nitrate print of William A. Wellman’s 1936, early Technicolor marvel, A Star is Born screens on April 30th at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY in advance of the Nitrate Picture Show. After the film I’ll be having a discussion with William Wellman Jr. about the film, his father, and his new comprehensive biography of his father, “Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel.”Stay tuned for more Nitrate Picture Festival coverage; allowing of course, that we manage to survive the weekend without being enveloped ourselves by beautiful nitrate flames.***Wellman’s 1936 take on Hollywood and one woman’s rise alongside one man’s fall isn’t as glamorous as its 1954 successor, instead finding its footing amidst the humble beginnings of its protagonist—a ground that it stands for the full length of the picture, despite rapidly changing sets and social classes. Janet Gaynor’s Esther Blodgett may eventually...
- 4/29/2015
- by gina telaroli
- MUBI
Wallace Beery: Best Actor Academy Award winner and Best Actor Academy Award runner-up in the same year (photo: Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery in ‘The Champ’) (See previous post: “Wallace Beery Movies: Anomalous Hollywood Star.”) In the Academy’s 1931-32 season, Wallace Beery took home the Best Actor Academy Award — I mean, one of them. In the King Vidor-directed melodrama The Champ (1931), Beery plays a down-on-his-luck boxer and caring Dad to tearduct-challenged Jackie Cooper, while veteran Irene Rich is Beery’s cool former wife and Cooper’s mother. Will daddy and son remain together forever and ever? Audiences the world over were drowned in tears — theirs and Jackie Cooper’s. Now, regarding Wallace Beery’s Best Actor Academy Award, he was actually a runner-up: Fredric March, initially announced as the sole winner for his performance in Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, turned out to have...
- 8/17/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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