Passages

[bufordsharkley]

Hudsucker? Did I miss that scene? Or are you thinking Skyscraper?

Quick scene while Norville is in the barbershop-- Smith is mentioned as tabloid fodder, as Norville's perceived romantic interest, "Zaza." (I believe that's how the credits spelled it.)

...She smiles and gives a quick wave. A few years later, it would be stunt casting. In 1994, it was probably just hiring the right model for the scene.

[tryavna]

It's always sad when a clown dies....

[Kirkinson]

Tuesday:

We are saddened to announce the passing of Frankie Laine, musician, father, husband and friend. He died at 9:15 this morning from cardiovascular disease at age 93 in San Diego, surrounded by his loved ones.

L.A. Times Obituary. Every time I hear his voice now I think of the story Mel Brooks told in his Blazing Saddles commentary about how Laine didn't know the film was a comedy when he recorded the theme song. John Morris was going to tell him, but Laine's singing was so emotional that Brooks said it would turn out better if they just let him go with it.

[colinr0380]

Ian Richardson has died.

[Matt]

Ian Richardson has died.

Richardson was such a fixture of prestige British television productions aired on PBS in the US; it was never a surprise to see him, but always welcome nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed him as the "model" for Sherlock Holmes in Murder Rooms.

[colinr0380]

I particularly enjoyed him as the "model" for Sherlock Holmes in Murder Rooms.

He was excellent in that, one of the few Sherlock Holmes-style series on television that I've watched and completely enjoyed. I haven't seen his 'Francis Urquhart trilogy', but I did hear it was excellent up until the point that the political back-stabbing became literal murders, which sort of reduced the credibility! (Surely politicians can hire hit-men to do their dirty work for them instead of getting their hands dirty!)

I also haven't seen Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but in a strange coincidence just received the DVD of it that I'd ordered.

Interesting how he was in both Brazil and Dark City!

The more I think of it, the more I feel it was perhaps a good way to go - able to work until the last, no long protracted illness to suffer through.

I like the quote from The Independent's obituary:

Of his first Hollywood picture, B*A*P*S (1997), he recalled:

"I wasn't so much directed as tolerated. I was in a film, a total disaster, called Black American Princess, in which I played Martin Landau's English butler. There was one scene in the butler's pantry. I said "Look, I really think I should be doing something butler-ish." They said, "Such as?" I said "Well, this could be the day for polishing the silver." And, do you know, they didn't know what I was talking about? Eventually they found some knives and forks and a duster...."

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From the Los Angeles Times:

Peter Ellenshaw, 93; Oscar-winning special effects artist for Disney
By Dennis McLellan, Times Staff Writer

February 15, 2007

Peter Ellenshaw, an Academy Award-winning special effects artist who worked on Disney classics such as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" and "Mary Poppins," for which he won his Oscar, has died. He was 93.

Ellenshaw, who also was a renowned sea and landscape artist, died of age-related complications Monday at his home in Santa Barbara, said his son, Harrison.

The British-born Ellenshaw's more than 30-year association with Walt Disney Studios began in 1947 when he was hired in London to do matte paintings for Disney's first live-action film, "Treasure Island" (1950).

In 1953, he was brought to California to work on "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," for which he created several matte paintings of Capt. Nemo's secret island base of Vulcania.

He went on to do matte paintings and other special effects for more than 30 other Disney films, including "The AbsentMinded Professor," "Pollyanna," "Swiss Family Robinson," "The Happiest Millionaire," "The Love Bug" and "The Black Hole." He also did matte paintings for Disney TV fare, such as "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," "Zorro" and "Texas John Slaughter."

"He's one of the titans of visual effects in an era before people took visual special effects for granted," film critic and historian Leonard Maltin told The Times on Wednesday.

Unlike the digital special effects of today, Maltin explained, "a matte painter literally painted on panes of glass that, when suspended properly in front of the camera or double-exposed, give a perfect illusion.

"So when you see London Harbor full of tall-masted schooners in 'Treasure Island,' that's an Ellenshaw painting. When Mary Poppins sails over the rooftops of London, that's an Ellenshaw painting. And when Davy Crocket rides down the path to Washington, that's an Ellenshaw painting."

Ellenshaw also contributed to the design of several rides at Disneyland and painted the first map of the Magic Kingdom, which appeared on early postcards and souvenir booklets at the Anaheim theme park.

"Peter was a Disney legend in every sense of the word and played a vital role in the creation of many of the studio's greatest live-action films from the very beginning," Roy E. Disney, former vice chairman of the Walt Disney Co., said in a statement. "He was a brilliant and innovative visual effects pioneer who was able to consistently please my Uncle Walt and push the boundaries of the medium to fantastic new heights."

Born in London on May 24, 1913, Ellenshaw moved to Essex, England, with his parents and two sisters during World War I, when he was 3. He later recalled seeing German zeppelins in the sky.

"My mother put us under the kitchen table while they were overhead and gave us pencils and paper to draw with," he recalled in a 1980 interview with The Times. "After the age of 4, I learned to draw airplanes; in fact, that got me interested in art."

His father died while Ellenshaw was still young and his mother married a gardener who worked on an estate. To help support the family, Ellenshaw dropped out of school at 14 and spent the next six years working on cars in a garage while continuing to paint.

By then living in the small town of Oxbridge, near the London film studios, he became friends with renowned matte artist Walter Percy Day, who eventually offered him a job. From 1935 to 1941, Ellenshaw worked as an uncredited assistant matte artist on a dozen films, including "The Thief of Bagdad" and "Major Barbara."

Ellenshaw served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and then worked as a matte artist on "Black Narcissus," "Stairway to Heaven," "Quo Vadis" and other films.

After doing special effects and the production design on the 1974 Disney adventure-fantasy "The Island at the Top of the World" — for which he shared an Oscar nomination for best art direction — Ellenshaw and his wife moved to Ireland, where he painted landscapes for a couple of years before returning to California.

From then on, he did only occasional film work, including the 1979 Disney space adventure "The Black Hole," for which he shared an Oscar nomination for best visual effects.

Ellenshaw, who also shared an Oscar nomination for art direction for the 1971 film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," came out of retirement for the last time to do matte paintings for the 1990 film "Dick Tracy."

Bobbie, Ellenshaw's wife of 58 years, died in 2000. In addition to his son Harrison, who is a visual effects artist, Ellenshaw is survived by his daughter, Lynda Ellenshaw Thompson, a visual effects producer, and two grandchildren.

[dx23]

1940s actress Janet Blair dies at 85

By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - Janet Blair, the vivacious actress who appeared in several 1940s musicals and comedies, then turned to television and stars like Sid Caesar and Henry Fonda, has died. She was 85.

Blair died Monday from complications of pneumonia at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, her children Amanda and Andrew Mayo said.

"She was just a lot of fun and all about life," Amanda Mayo said. "She was an incredible talent and actress. They just don't make them like her anymore."

Blair was singing with Hal Kemp's band at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles in 1941 when she was spotted by a talent scout from Columbia Pictures shortly before Kemp was killed in a traffic accident. She had landed an audition with the bandleader at age 18 through a family friend.

When the musicians decided to disband after Kemp's death, Blair signed a contract with Columbia for $100 a week and changed careers.

She would languish in B pictures until Rosalind Russell recommended her for the title role in the comedy "My Sister Eileen."

She won praise from critics for the role as Russell's beautiful but trouble-prone sister, and her roles quickly improved.

She appeared opposite George Raft in the gangster movie "Broadway" and co-starred with Cary Grant and a dancing caterpillar in the 1944 comedy-fantasy "Once Upon a Time." She was the love interest in "The Fabulous Dorseys," starring bandleaders Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey and appeared opposite Red Skelton in the 1946 sleeper hit "The Fuller Brush Man."

She also co-starred with Don Ameche and Jack Oakie in "Something to Shout About," which featured a Cole Porter score that included the song "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to."

But after the 1948 swashbuckler "The Black Arrow," Columbia dropped her and she turned her back on Hollywood, moving on to the theater and to television.

"I gave up Hollywood and I gave up pictures because I was always getting parts where I'd be the girl who says, `Oh, Red!' in a Skelton movie," she explained. "All I got were princess parts. A girl gets tired of being a princess all of the time."

Instead, she took on the Mary Martin role in the touring version of "South Pacific," clocking more than 1,200 performances in three years.

"And I never missed a performance," she noted proudly.

During the tour, she also got married to second husband, producer-director Nick Mayo, and they became parents of Amanda and Andrew.

From the late `40s through the mid-`50s she appeared in such Golden Age of Television shows as the "Ford Theatre," "Philco TV Playhouse," "Lux Video Theatre" and "U.S. Steel Hour."

She returned to movies in 1957, starring opposite Skelton again, in "Public Pigeon No. 1."

She made only a handful of films after that, including Walt Disney's "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band" opposite Walter Brennan and Buddy Ebsen in 1968.

She joined television's "Caesar's Hour" in 1956 when Sid Caesar was seeking a replacement for co-star Nanette Fabray. She left after just one season, complaining she was "not given the opportunity I had been led to believe I'd get."

She returned to series television in 1971 as Fonda's wife in "The Smith Family."

Born Martha Janet Lafferty in 1921 in Altoona, Pa., Blair attended public schools and sang in the church choir. She would later take the name of a Pennsylvania county in christening herself Janet Blair.

She is survived by her two children.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

[colinr0380]

According to this thread at DVD Maniacs, Bruce Bennett has died.

[Matt]

John Inman

[Matt]

And not precisely movie-related, but there would have been no Matrix without him: Jean Baudrillard.

[PhilipS]

There is a rumour that Betty Hutton might have died. Will confirm if I hear anything.

Edit: Now confirmed.

[kinjitsu]

Betty Hutton, Film Star of '40s and '50s, Dies at 86

By RICHARD SEVERO

Betty Hutton, a singer and actress celebrated as a blond bombshell of Hollywood musicals and comedies in the 1940s and 50s, died Sunday night at her home in Palm Springs, Calif., her executor announced today. She was 86.

The cause was complications of colon cancer, the executor, Carl Bruno, told The Associated Press. He said the announcement of her death had been withheld until after her funeral today, at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, Calif.

Ms. Hutton, a brassy, energetic performer with a voice that could sound like a fire alarm, had the lead role in the 1950 film version of Irving Berlin's “Annie Get Your Gunâ€

[colinr0380]

Gareth Hunt, best known for his role in The New Avengers, has died.

[dx23]

Stuart Rosenberg passed away.

'Amityville' director Rosenberg dies 55 minutes ago

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Stuart Rosenberg, a prolific director of series television and theatrical films who partnered with Paul Newman on the widely popular prison drama "Cool Hand Luke" and several other movies, has died at 79.

Rosenberg, who also directed "The Amityville Horror," died of a heart attack Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills, according to his son, Benjamin.

Rosenberg's first film was "Cool Hand Luke," the 1967 drama starring Newman as an inmate on a chain gang who becomes an unlikely hero.

"He was as good as anybody I ever worked with," Newman said in a statement.

"Cool Hand Luke" was nominated for four Academy Awards, with George Kennedy taking home a statute for best supporting actor. The film also spawned the famous line delivered by Strother Martin as a guard captain: "What we've got here is failure to communicate."

Rosenberg was nominated for a Directors' Guild Award for the film, but lost to Mike Nichols, who made "The Graduate" the same year.

After "Cool Hand Luke," Rosenberg directed Jack Lemmon and French actress Catherine Deneuve in "The April Fools." He worked with Newman again on "WUSA," "Pocket Money," and "The Drowning Pool."

Rosenberg also directed Robert Redford in the 1980 prison film "Brubaker" and Mickey Rourke in 1984's "The Pope of Greenwich Village." "Amityville Horror" in 1979 was probably his most financially successful film; it has inspired seven sequels to date.

His last film was "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" in 1991.

Rosenberg had started out by directing episodes of television series in the 1950s, starting with "Decoy," which starred Beverly Garland as a New York City policewoman.

He collected more than 300 TV directing credits for such dramatic series' as "The Untouchables," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone," and won an Emmy Award in 1963 for an episode of "The Defenders."

Rosenberg is survived by his wife, Margot, and son Benjamin, an assistant editor who worked with his father on many of his later films.

[kinjitsu]

From Criterion:

Eiji Funakoshi 1923-2006

Japanese actor Eiji Funakoshi, whose career in movies and television spanned thirty years, died March 17 of a cerebral infarction. His credits included The Loyal 47 Ronin, An Actor's Revenge, and The Outcast, but Funakoshi was perhaps best known for playing the leading role of Tamura in Kon Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain. He was 84 years old.

In Honor of Two Great French Women

On Wednesday, March 14, the courageous French Resistance freedom fighter and history teacher Lucie Aubrac died. The subject of a biographical film by director Claude Berri, as well as the inspiration for the character of Mathilde, played by Simone Signoret, in Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows, Aubrac was 94 years old. Also this week, Nicole Stéphane, who shocked and delighted audiences with her unforgettable performance in Melville's 1950 film Les enfants terribles, passed away at age 83.

[colinr0380]

According to the DVD Maniacs forum, and imdb the "director" of Last House On Dead End Street, Roger Watkins died on 6th March. I didn't think much of the film, and am not sure that there would ever have been a great film there even if distributors hadn't mangled it (although I can safely say it is the best film I've ever seen that has a housewife put on blackface and go downstairs to get whipped by a midget in front of her assembled party guests!) However the work that the DVD label Barrel did on the film gave the film its best presentation possible, and luckily gave Watkins a chance to reclaim his film from the 'Victor Janos' pseudonym and put to rest many of the rumours that had surrounded the film in his commentary.

It was a shame that when Tartan released Dead End Street in Britain they dropped the commentary that Watkins did with Chas Balun, as I found it to be one of the most entertaining of all that I've heard! At least Watkins was able to receive some recognition for his work while he was around. It was also fascinating, and quite sad, to listen to the radio and tv programmes from the time featuring the enthusiastic Watkins trying to promote his vision of his film as 'The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell' vs the modern, candid commentary over the end result. There is also a 'fly on the wall' documentary about Watkins included on the second disc called '05-23-88' that is worth watching, even if the picture quality is very poor.

Don't get me wrong, I don't consider Last House on Dead End Street a 'lost classic', but I do think that Barrel's DVD (along with the attached booklet with interviews by David Kerekes) of the film is probably one of the best examples of how important the format is for preserving stories - all the more important for telling an unconventional story different from tales of filmmakers succeeding against the odds, but instead one of relative failure and obscurity.

[colinr0380]

From a post at the Mobius board, which has a link to the Variety article, Freddie Francis has died.

[Lino]

Great, great loss. One of the true master cinematographers in the world. Love this man's work to bits.

[Cinephrenic]

Along with Terrence Fisher, he was among the icons of Hammer Studio's horror output. R.I.P.

[kinjitsu]

Cinematographer Francis dies at 89

Filmmaker won Oscars for 'Sons and Lovers,' 'Glory'

By ADAM DAWTREY

LONDON -- Freddie Francis, the legendary British cinematographer who won Academy Awards for "Sons and Lovers" in 1961 and "Glory" in 1989, died March 17 in west London. He was 89 years old.

Although he received his greatest acclaim as a cinematographer, with numerous nominations and prizes for his work on films such as "The Straight Story," "Elephant Man," "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Cape Fear," he also had a successful career as a director of horror movies in the 1960s and 1970s for cult British studios Hammer and Amicus.

Francis was born Dec. 22, 1917 in Islington, London. Starting out as a stills photographer, he entered the film business as a clapper boy, camera loader and focus puller. After the Second World War, when he gained experienced with army film units, he worked as a camera operator on classic British films including "The Elusive Pimpernel," "The Small Back Room," "Gone to Earth," "Tales of Hoffmann," "Beat the Devil" and "Moby Dick."

He made his debut as a cinematographer with "A Hill in Korea" in 1956, moving on to shoot the new wave of realist working-class dramas, such as "Room at the Top" and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning."

He stopped working as a cinematographer in the mid-60s when his directing career started to take off with genre pics such as "Nightmare," "Hysteria," "The Evil of Frankenstein" and "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave." He returned to cinematography in 1980 with David Lynch's "The Elephant Man," working subsequently with Lynch on "Dune" in 1984 and "Straight Story" in 1999, his last ever movie. His last film as a director was "The Dark Tower" in 1986.

He won the lifetime achievement award from the British Society of Cinematographers in 1997, and the International Award from the American Society of Cinematographers in 1998. He was nominated for four BAFTAs but never won.

He had just completed his autobiography, co-written by Tony Dalton, when he fell ill with a stroke late in 2006.

He is survived by his first wife Gladys and their son Kevin Francis, a film producer, and by his second wife Pamela Mann and their children Susanna and Gareth.

[Forrest Taft]

Producer William Panzer recently passed, in an ice skating accident. Best known/hated for his never-ending involvement with the Highlander franchise, he was also the last producer to ever hire Peckinpah to direct a film; THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND.

[tavernier]

So long Larry "Bud" Melman.

[Gordon]

Freddie Francis was one of the few masters of all formats: black and white, color, scope.

"The Innocents is without question my favourite film. I photographed it for Jack Clayton
and because of our close relationship, I had a major input into the movie and was able to put many innovative
touches in - such as the filters." (From this 2003 interview)



- One of the many striking set-ups in Sons and Lovers.


As I said recently, The Innocents is one of the few films shot with anamorphic lenses that achieves magnificent deep-focus shots as well as stunning lighting throughout. Thanks for the movies, Freddie!

__________

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Herman Stein, music composer for science-fiction, horror films, dies at 91
The Associated Press
Published: March 24, 2007

LOS ANGELES: Herman Stein, a composer whose music for "It Came From Outer Space," "Creature from the Black Lagoon," and "The Incredible Shrinking Man" helped define the dramatic soundtrack of 1950s science fiction and horror movies, has died. He was 91.

Stein died of congestive heart failure at his Los Angeles home on March 15, his record producer, David Schecter, said Friday.

As a staff composer at Universal Studios, Stein collaborated with Henry Mancini and others to create music for nearly 200 movies and shorts, though he did not get credit for all of his work because of the studio's tendency to give solo credit to a project's music supervisor.

"It was an unwritten rule at Universal that if he wrote less than 80 percent of the score, then his name would not be credited in the picture," Schecter said. "Herman had few credits to his name."

Nonetheless, Stein has been recognized for writing or co-writing music for an array of movies, from Westerns to comedies to dramas. They include Roger Corman's civil rights drama "The Intruder" and Douglas Sirk's comedy "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?" His other notable horror film compositions include "Tarantula" and "King Kong vs. Godzilla."

He also composed music for such television shows as "Gunsmoke," "Lost in Space," and "Daniel Boone."

Born in Philadelphia in 1915, Stein was a child prodigy and began playing the piano at three. In his teens he was performing professionally in bars and restaurants, and taught himself the art of orchestration.

During the 1930s and '40s, he wrote and arranged music for radio programs and jazz-style big bands. After serving in the military during World War II, he moved to Los Angeles in 1948 and found work as an arranger and then as a composer for Universal.

Stein's wife Anita, a violist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for many years, died in 2001.