Disney’s live-action version of “Snow White” is coming the theaters this Friday and the advance word on the production is not positive. Perhaps this is a good time to recall another live-action version of “Snow White” that fell very far short of the 1937 animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” – the 1961 big-budget mess known as “Snow White and the Three Stooges.”
Continue reading
No one ever accused the Three Stooges of being ecologically focused, but their 1952 short “Listen, Judge” offers a brilliant example of recycling old material to create a new and vibrant comedy explosion.
Continue reading
During the 1940s and 1950s, the most unlikely figure to emerge in the American art scene was Anna Mary Robertson Moses. The widow of a farmer in upstate New York, she began painting at the age of 78 because arthritis made it difficult for her to pursue needlework. Going by the moniker of Grandma Moses and coming to the medium without formal training, she created an extraordinary output of lively and invigorating paintings that recalled her rural world in the second half of the 19th century. Although her work was identified by the vaguely condescending category of folk art, her invigorating use of color and the surprising complexity of her subject matter captivated Americans – even Presidents Truman and Eisenhower celebrated her artistic achievements.
Continue reading
The 1956 “Dance with Me, Henry” is a strange and dreary film that ended the on-screen teamwork of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Working within the tight confines of a low budget – the team had parted ways with their longtime studio Universal Pictures and wound up with independent producer Bob Goldstein – the duo eschewed the elaborate knockabout of their typical output in favor of a more situational comedy setting.
Continue reading
Ahead of Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, let’s take a few minutes to consider some of the unlikeliest nominations and winners in the history of cinema’s most prestigious prize.
Who Saw This Coming? Few people expected Hal Mohr to win the 1935 Best Cinematography Oscar for “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” – if only because he wasn’t nominated. In the mid-1930s, the Academy changed its rules to allow write-in votes to go alongside the ballot nominees, but after write-in candidate Mohr won his award the rules were rewritten to prevent another write-in winner.
Continue reading
Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Miami was a racially segregated city and Black visitors were not welcome in the fancy local hotels. The Hampton House Motel and Villas, originally opened in 1954 as the Booker Terrace Motel, was the most prominent lodging establishment that provided Black guests with accommodations.
Continue reading
In retrospect, it’s a shame that “Help!” wasn’t presented as a one-hour TV special rather than as a 92-minute feature film. In trying to one-up the lightning-in-a-bottle success of “A Hard Day’s Night,” director Richard Lester and his mop-topped stars reaffirmed the axiom that bigger is not always better by creating a large-scale romp that only occasionally percolates with hilarity but eventually wears out its welcome long before the closing credits.
Continue reading