Actor and singer Tab Hunter, whose blond all-American good looks made him a matinee idol and poster boy for Eisenhower-era optimism, has died. He was 86. Just three days shy of his 87th birthday, the 1950s heartthrob was stricken Sunday at his home in Santa Barbara and went into cardiac arrest...
Bugs Bunny and Friends Well, he ain’t exactly the Easter Bunny, but the wise-crackin’ Warner Bros. trickster and his pals will welcome the arrival of spring on the big screen with a slate of mid-20th century animated gems, including “Easter Yeggs,” “Baseball Bugs,” “Tortoise Wins by a Hare” and...
Laemmle Anniversary Classics The 1982 musical-romantic-comedy Victor/Victoria was the best film collaboration between director Blake Edwards and wife, actress Julie Andrews. As a down-on-her-luck singer in 1930s Paris, Andrews’ Victoria transforms into “Victor,” who becomes the toast of the cabaret...
Los Angeles Plays Itself Cal Arts professor and filmmaker Thom Andersen’s 2003 film essay about the myriad uses of the City of Angels as both location and character in everything from “Rebel Without a Cause” to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “The Big Sleep” to “L.A. Confidential” is a must-see...
It was a role Susan Sarandon was in some ways destined to play: the tempestuous Bette Davis. Welcome to the latest edition of the Classic Hollywood newsletter. I’m Scott Sandell, and this week we’ve got our eye on the story behind Sarandon’s Emmy-nominated turn in “Feud: Bette and Joan.” Producer-writer-director...
One hundred years ago, the United States entered World War I, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, and Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin were among those who ruled the silent silver screen. On Aug. 6, 1917, Robert Charles Duran Mitchum was born, the son of an Irish-Scottish railroad worker and...
It was the ’80s, so the films of 1987 naturally had big stars, big hair and big soundtracks. The year’s most popular movie, however improbably, was a remake of a French comedy, “Three Men and a Baby,” starring Steve Guttenberg, Tom Selleck and Ted Danson, and directed by Leonard Nimoy. It beat...
Actor Robert Mitchum broke into Hollywood doing Hopalong Cassidy westerns in the early 1940s. He moved up quickly, appearing in war pictures such as “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” and “The Story G.I. Joe,” earning an Oscar nomination for the latter, his sole acknowledgment by the academy. Neither...
“Now here’s something we hope you’ll really like!” “Santie Claus, why? Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?” “My name is Talky Tina, and I’m going to kill you.” By invoking just a few words, you can hear the voice — or rather, the voices — of June Foray. Welcome to the latest edition of...
On Aug. 6, 100 years ago, Robert Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Conn., though he once claimed he didn’t have a hometown. Humble beginnings led to several trips west, at least one in a boxcar, before he found stardom in Hollywood as one of its most iconic mid-century leading men. The actor, who...
A friend and I were standing on a corner waiting for the light to change, talking about the FX series “Feud.” “Isn’t it great,” he said, “how much it winds up on Joan Crawford’s side?” Yes, but no, I started to reply, but before I could we crossed and the conversation turned away. I wondered if...
It's a time when television is all the rage, when what's being done on the small screen is the envy of Hollywood. It's a time like today, only it's not. That time was the 1950s, when anthology shows like “Playhouse 90,” “Studio One,” “The Elgin Hour” and “Goodyear Television Playhouse” ran original...